Kevin Hart — The Unstoppable Combination of Positivity and Relentless Improvement | Transcription

Note: This transcription is split and grouped by topics and subtopics. You can navigate through the Table of Contents on the left. It's interactive. All paragraphs are timed to the original video. Click on the time (e.g., 01:53) to jump to the specific portion of the video.

Introduction

Intro (00:00)

Kevin, welcome to the show. Yes, sir. Thank you, man. Thanks for having me. I thought we would start with a quote from a mutual friend.

Kevin'S Life Experiences And Personal Growth

Kevin’s mother and her positive influence (00:19)

I won't mention his name unless you want to mention it, but I asked him about you, And he said you were the person he would most like to be like and coming from him. That is very strong praise, he knows a lot of people and he suggested that I learn more about your mother. And I have done a whole lot of homework, and I feel like she was a very powerful influence in your life. And I'd love to just hear you describe your mother and your relationship with her. If we could. Cool. Cool who's a friend? Do I get to know who the friend was? Oh, there's this Neil? Oh, Neil, okay, yes. My mother, I mean, God, where do you want me to start about my mom? I mean, that's my reason for the way that I move at the level that I move and how I move. I think I can just sum it up for you in a nice nutshell to where it's not the longest run-on sentence that you've ever heard. Just one of the most determined and strong-willed individuals to ever walk to earth, and she was someone that just wanted to always improve. Something content with just being complacent in a position because this is the position that I'm given or that I have was always searching for the next step. So whether it was an education, whether it was, you know, in health, whether it was in family, it was always trying to figure out how to improve when most would be okay with just being okay. You know, we didn't live a lavish lifestyle. We didn't come from money. You know, we were poor. You know, we had enough to eat and she put clothes on my back, but you know, that's about it. We didn't live an astronomical life. You know, in the extra money that she did have, she poured into extra curricular activities for me. So our priority was her kids and his show, you know, where some mistakes were made, fixes were immediately figured out and implemented on the next child. So it's a, it's a woman that I have so much respect for and admire, but she's basically the, the definition of my mindset. It comes from my own. And I was spending a lot of time exploring your mindset. I've followed you for a long time, but I wanted to dig into your books and your writing. Obviously a lot of what you've done in terms of interviews. And in the back of your book, I can't make this up.

Reconciling with his father (03:31)

Subtitled life lessons. There's a beautiful little chapter called the blueprint. And I want to just read a paragraph from that and give people a taste because I think it speaks to what we're discussing. It says life is like a pack of cards. There are 52 cards in the deck, but only four of them are aces. The goal of life is to make your way through a crowded deck where the odds are stacked against you and draw an ace. Looking back over decades covered in this book, I've picked out eight qualities that put me in a position to draw aces. These characteristics won't work alone. Like a recipe they only create success when combined together and just the right amount. So I'm just going to list them real quick. And then I want to dig into one. You have persistence, patience, class, commitment, learning, passion centered, competitiveness, positivity, and discomfort. I want to talk about positivity or hear you talk about positivity because for instance, I was reading a piece in Variety that seemed to be to indicate that you are a master of managing energy and avoiding energy leaks. And for instance, the decision to allow your children to get to know their grandfather, your father, the quote that stuck out to me was it takes too much time and energy to keep hate alive. And for those people who don't know, I mean, your father was an addict. You've spoken about him publicly before a contentious relationship. How have you developed that positivity? Was that mostly from your mom? How do you think about that? Well, when you come from the bottom and you work your way up to the place that some people refer to as the top, I mean, what do I have to be angry about? What do I have to really bitch and complain about and harp on? I really do come from nothing. I'm a part of a very small percentage. And understanding that and knowing that, the things that are supposed to act as triggers, the things that are supposed to be life changing, threatening, altering are just lessons. It's just education. It's stories for lack of a better word. You got an amazing story under your belt. And I don't choose to stay in one particular paragraph of my story. It's a long story. And the life is as long as, of course, we are all given the chance for it to be. Because that's something that we have no control. We only try to enhance the opportunity of longevity or success. We don't have no control. Walk outside of something could happen. Boom. And that's it. So I just have a realistic approach and understanding to that. I come from nothing. I got something. I'm appreciative of my something. I don't look at this something as if I'm supposed to have it because that's not how it works. I'm very fortunate. Bless to it. It could all go away. If it didn't, I had to start all over again. That's life. I don't harp on it. I don't bitch and complain about the things that I can't change. And the things that you can change. Why spend time bitching if you're going to change it? Yeah. You know what I mean? So when you when you look at, for example, relationship with me and my father, did my father fuck up? Yeah. My father get himself clean and straight. Yeah. Does my father feel bad about something and stuff that he did? Yeah. Could you still be angry at the lack of parenting that was done or the time that was spent? Yeah. But why? It doesn't it doesn't change it. It doesn't change anything that happened. It doesn't it doesn't make it right. You know what I mean? Like you don't that anger that you're that you're giving off into that is not going to change these things. So that's energy that I feel like I can put into something else. That's energy that I feel like I can get a lot more use out of that energy that would have been negative by finding a way to say, you know what I do forgive you and I mean that and that life now hopefully is better for us. If it's not, I know that it's not because of me. I don't like putting myself in a position to easily be affected. You know, I think life is too short. It's too short. And if you just spend time being affected all the fucking time, those are tough days, man. If you're bothered all the time, there's a lot of shit to be bothered about today. You can be bothered by a lot of shit. If you're the person that's really bothered, then how pleasant are you to be around? Yeah. If there's just so much anger and so much negative energy, I just choose the opposite direct and approach. And I mean, that doesn't make me perfect. I'm nowhere near perfect. I don't fuck up. I don't do stupid shit and I'm apologizing if I can be, you know, those apologies can be accepted and great. It's fantastic. If they can't, well, I can't do anything about that. I can't put any more energy into the things that I've tried to do or make right. If you choose to still feel a certain way, God bless you, I'm going to keep living. That's my attitude.

Kevin’s car accident and the self-talk that helped him recover (09:35)

And it seems like you've practiced this consistently over time. And then when you run into something like the catastrophic car accident you had not terribly long ago, could you speak to not being able to put on your socks and what your self talk was like? I mean, what are you saying to yourself in your own head when you're experiencing something like that? Well, you truly realize that you're not in control. Like right now, I said that to you because I really understand that. But there was a moment where I lost sight of reality, you kind of feel like you are. You're not a control, but you kind of feel like you are. I can make this happen. I'll do this. I'll do this easy. I'll get it done. I got it. I'll do it. I'm all I'm at it. I'm working hard. I'm going to do it. I, I, I, I, everything is I, and you get lost in that. You know, you really do get lost in that. And for me, that car accident was much more than any and everybody can see. For me, that car accident, it was a reason to sit down and really process what's around me. And by what's around me, the things that only mattered. And that was my, my wife and my kids. You know, all the things that I put the significant value and tremendous amount of, I'm going to call them, you put the things that come with success on a pedestal for a minute, the things that you feel you need and the things that you feel you have to have, right? But when life hits you with a real curve ball and you're in that room with four walls, none of that stuff that you thought was important or that you thought you needed is ever bought up in conversation. When it comes to life, when it comes to health, when it comes to like, you know, an emotional support, none of it's materialistic. It's all person to person. And when it was my wife and my brother and my kids, we were just in this hospital room that gave me a different, a different look and insight into life. So it made me shoulder shrug negative shit even more. I already had no tolerance or patience for negativity. I already was a guy that never feeded into, to the world of nonsense and I, I, it's something I pride myself for. But then at this, it was even more. I don't have time to be upset. If I am upset, I'm going to figure out what I can do to make this better. I don't have time to, to do that. It's not, it's not valuable. One of the things that most fascinates me about you and this is shown up over and over again and in what I've read in preparation for this, also what I see is that you have say is one of the aces, so to speak, you have discomfort, right?

The importance of discomfort and appreciating what you have (12:42)

Never being complacent. If you want to get far in life, you never get too comfortable. Don't stop. Don't rest. Don't be satisfied. So, you know, I've heard that when, when you hit these various pinnacles of success in different areas, that one of the first questions you ask is, "Okay, what's next? Where do we go from here?" And, and yet, for instance, Neil told me that I asked him, I said, "Do you think that he is genuinely happy?" And he said, "He is." I go, "Well, from what I can tell, he's a genuinely happy guy." And in my experience of interviewing high performers, those two don't always go together. You find people who are never able to appreciate what's in front of them or to rest for a moment because they're constantly focused on what's in the future, what's next. How do you combine those in the sense of appreciating what you have, but still deliberately building in discomfort or not getting too comfortable and looking forward? How do you think about that? Well, you got B-A-N-A-A, right? So, you got, before accident, after accident, before accident, the engine, the engine ran. That engine is still running. I can't sit up here and act as if it's not. I'm just an ambitious person. And I'm in love, I'm in love with understanding the definition of history, right? What fascinates me is when you watch something from the past that's attached to an individual or a person and a monumental moment in history. That's fascinating. This man walked on the moon on this date, such a such regular guy who wouldn't be there to snuck was the first man to ever walk on the moon. And for years after his life is over, it's a discussion. It's a discussion, it's information that people need to know. That's fascinating to me. Right now, we're in a pandemic. Our world has been hit with a catastrophic stomach punch that's put us all in a position where the economy is dropped and we have been put on quarantine, huh? And we're home for how long? And now it's going to be this long. This is history. This moment in time, we'll be talked about in 30 to 40 years as one of the worst things to hit the globe when COVID and X, Y and Z and check it's history. So my hard work in my craft and my hard work is from me playing the game in my head of, are you going to be a conversation attached to history? How long will the work that you put in be a discussion? Are people on a one day look back and say things about the things that you did? And if they do, what would it be? I like not knowing it, but I like knowing that I put a lot of shit in that conversation. I like knowing that you're going to have a lot of shit to talk about whether you like it or not, because I'm in love with just doing that. I'm in love with the resume. I'm in love with the boxes that can be checked off. I'm in love with the thought of success and more importantly, the benefit that comes from hard work. I'm in love with being a testament to the conversation has preached to so many that some don't necessarily know if it's true. I'm a product of truth. I'm a product of hard work pays off. I like that. I like the fact that that was instilled in me and I didn't get it, but now I do get it and it's thank you mind at the highest level. I like the fact that my kids get to see me operate and that I get to talk and communicate with them and whether they do it like I do or not, it's embedded in them. It'll kick in somewhere. In something, it'll kick in whether they like it or not. It's embedded in you. My joy definitely comes from being able to see the benefits of my work and being able to create a story that can possibly be talked about years after I'm here. That's for me, that's a happy place. If in we're not decide to not do it anymore, I'm happy with that decision. After my accident, it did make me say, let's be conscious of your family. Let's make sure that we put the time and energy into this that measures the time and energy that I'm putting into that. This should never outweigh that. There's a moment where I was guilty of that and the accident made me realize that. Kevin, you make sure that if you go on that of a thousand percent over here, you don't come back at 900. You better match that thousand on both sides and that's what I'm much more conscious. I've always been a great family guy, a great dad minus my fucking bumps in the road. I'm just stupidity, but I'm a good dad. That's never going to be compromised. Never. Never going to fucking be compromised.

How Kevin found his drive (18:48)

It seems like you have done an excellent consistent job of cultivating your physical vehicle for giving 100 percent in many areas of your life. Has that always been the case? When did that start for you? I would say, I would say for me, I don't understand how you do something halfway. I did that through high school and doing that, I saw the instant consequence. There was a moment where after high school where my friends went on and they started going to college and I was the guy that didn't even know that we applied. I didn't know that I was applying to college when I job. I thought we was playing all this time. Where were you all going? What was the joke to me? It was never a joke to anybody else. I was the only one that the joke was being played on. When I thought we were hooking in our cutting class, well, I thought we all weren't going to work. I thought we all were getting by and just fucking off opportunities. Oh, it's just me. Oh, you all been doing your work this whole time. Oh, fuck. Wow. University of, University of, University of, I was the only jackass that was going to community college. That's not to take a shot of anybody that's going to community college because those colleges are available for a reason. I was the only jackass that didn't have a plan because I thought that was the cool thing to do. So I saw it not working hard, got me. I didn't take my SAT. I did advocate dabbing, going down, guessing at it because I thought that's what we all were doing because we were hooking class to go. I was the only dickhead that did it the other way. So that joke was on me. That to me, that was an eye opener, man. Well, if I'm going to do something, I should never do it halfway. And that means that if I do want to do it, I shouldn't do it. If I'm not going to do it to show what I can do with the best of my business, the why am I doing it? If you ask me to come work out with you, if you're not come work out and I push to work out, why do I go work out? If you ask me to come see a movie and I go to sleep, and soon as I get in there, well, why do I go to the movie? Why don't I just say I want to stay home? If you ask me to go and get up early with you so we can go look at these, these apartments or housing complexes and I get down there and what's got a negative attitude, what the fuck did I go? What I've learned and how I operate is that you're in so much control of yourself, that it's ridiculous. And sometimes it's easy to put out excuses for yourself that makes sense to you. We all know the fucking truth. We all know if we're giving 100% every night, we all know. You tell me go outside and pick up the dog shit. My wife tell me every morning, I don't want to go out there and pick the dog shit. But I get up and do it. If I go out there and I take two steps and I'm like, man, it's too early. I'll do this shit later. Then that means that I'm fucking, I'm already he compromising an action that I said I was going to do that I'm not. If I say I'm going to do something I'm going to do it. If I don't say it, don't expect it from me. I never put my foot in my mouth. But why do you expect me to go do that? I never said I would do that. That's the one power that I have. That's the one thing that can never be taken from me. What I say I'm going to do, I do. And if I do do something that puts me in a position to be scolded because my actions weren't correct, then I got to stand up and I got to say that too. Hey, I said I was going to do X, Y, Z. I didn't do it. I got to wear that hat. Hit me with the stupid stick or the dummy hat scold me whatever you got to do. I fucked up. I out loud said that I would do and I did it. For that I'm wrong. That's the difference. That's what I'm okay with. I'm okay with standing and shitting smelling it if I have to. I try my best to avoid it, but I'm not perfect. So there's ever a moment where that happens and it has to happen. I'm on it. But as I've gotten older, my words become more of my bond. Hey, Kevin, I want you to come talk to these kids. Man, look, there's a group of kids. Hey, I can't do that. Not because of the kids. I'm tired. Let's find another time where I can. There's a time back in the day. Kevin talked to me. Yeah, I figured that you can't get me on the phone. Well, why do I say I can do it? I've learned from that. I don't I don't play those games. So if I say you're going to get me, you're going to get 100% of me. If I don't feel like I can, then I'm not going to say it. Do you have do you have other ways of saying no that you use as default language or anything like that?

Saying no so you can say yes to better opportunities (24:04)

Because people see what you do, right? I mean, you have so much in the air and you're you're getting so much done, but they don't see the thousands of things that you say no to. I can say right now, I am I am so honest right now. I'm so honest that it is it's so it's ridiculous. Right? Like right now, I am I am no. Kevin is absolutely not no. I'm 40 years old. What I got time to be around Bushford. No, why I just don't want to do that. I just I don't want to do that. I shouldn't have to explain why I don't want to do something. I shouldn't have to explain. That's a that's a thing that people have to overcome. There's a portion of life that you go through where you feel guilty for saying that you don't want to do certain things. That's not fair because when you do want to do things, the celebrations and the happy times, but you're allowed to not want to do. You're allowed the option to say no. You say no for things that work for you and good for you. You can be saying no to opportunity for all I know. You're allowed the option to say no and to not want to participate or not want to do. That's your choice and anything. I know that and I make sure that I use my nose wisely. There's a lot of yeses. So when there is a no, understand that. For example, I love my fans. I love my fans. Take pictures of fans all the time. Go back and forth with fans all the time. Make myself available before Red Carpets after Carpets. Move the premieres, not move the premieres. I'm out and about. See them. Stop. Talk. Pictures. Videos. But if I'm with my kids. No. Kevin. I said no. I shouldn't have to explain to you. I'm with my family. I shouldn't have to do that. I'm entitled to no. That's why you got two options. You got yes and no. You thought maybe an internet share choice. I'm is a yes or no. So as you get older, you start to see that a little more clear and I joke around about it. But it's so true. You haven't noticed how directing on as old people are. Yeah, for sure. Have you ever noticed an old person does not waste time? No. Yeah, I do it. No, get your ass up. Whatever it is, it's it's it's direct because they don't have the time. They don't have the time to to play those games. I don't either. I don't I don't play those games anymore. One thing that you seem very good at is long term investments and thinking and what I I'll give a few examples of that. If you if you look at the path of Kevin, which which I've done to get ready for this conversation, and I noticed these seemingly little things like for instance, you go from community college to as I understand it's selling shoes, open mics, eventually you're you're hitting the road and touring, gathering email addresses, right? You have people putting cards on tables. You're sowing the seeds of tremendous things later. And what I'd love to hear you maybe discuss a little bit is how do you choose your opportunities so that there steps up and not steps sideways or steps backwards because you have a lot thrown at you. How do you think about that strategically or how do you think about it at all? Well, I think when you're talking about opportunities in general, the the best part about opportunities are figuring out what makes them an amazing opportunity for you, right? And you know, I think you're extremely lucky if you're doing something you love, you know, if you're doing something that may not necessarily be your passion, but it's a job, the trick is to find out how to make this thing become a bigger thing for you so that you're able to go and do what you want to do.

How to step up rather than sideways or backwards (28:16)

How do we use the things in life that are thrown at as stepstones or baby pathways to the to the ultimate road, right? So for me, I have a great my tunnel vision is ridiculous. So if life was like, if you could compare it to let's call it, let's call it like a Indy 500, you know, when these guys in race cars, when they're racing in cars, they're never looking right in front of them. They're they're way up in the road. Before they make a turn, they're looking at the turn after that turn to decide how to handle this turn so that when they come out that turn, they're on the straightaway already as a how they're going to come out. You have to have vision that's in front that's at least set as a goal as a destination where you're trying to get. And once you get there, you can reassess the opportunities that I have were ones that were wanted back when I want to be a stand up comedian. Now that I'm standing comedian, I want to make sure that I'm telling jokes that can allow me to travel to globe one day. I want to make everybody laugh. If I can make everybody laugh, I will travel to globe. If I get the opportunity to travel to globe, that gives me the opportunity to start on that journey of making the world laugh. Opportunity one is getting to a position to perform outside of the US. That would be massive. Let me get what's my first opportunity doing something that's considered international. Where is it? Where does this exist? My first time going to Canada, I didn't know what to expect because I'm a guy from North Philadelphia. What language do they speak? What's going to happen? What's going to happen when I'm here? I just landed in fucking Canada. Oh my god. Hi, how are you? I'm looking for this hotel. Why are you yelling, sir? Space English. Okay. Whoa. I performed at Canada. People left. Is it like this everywhere? I go to London. Holy fuck. I'm in London for the first time. Oh my god. People speak English. What if I can make? I'm making people laugh in London. Oh my god. The opportunity that I was talking about is now happening. It's a reality. Man, what doors can comedy open up? What if comedy got me to act in? Eddie Murphy was a comedian. He started acting. How do you do it? What if I got in there? Oh my god. It got me the opportunity to act. Oh my god. Now that I'm acting, what if I can figure out an opportunity to create? Oh my god. Create it. Show me that you can write. Oh my god. What if writing creates more opportunities? Holy fuck. That's how you produce. Now I'm producing. Oh my god. What if I can't die right? Oh shit. Then you look all the way back behind you. It all started off with the goal of doing comedy. But the opportunities kept getting bigger because you kept looking past the first opportunity at what the what if was. That doesn't mean that you're not respecting the things you're doing. It just means that you're realizing why you should do this well. That's what I do. So my title vision is ridiculous. Yeah. I'm always down the street no matter what. Have you ever played Monopoly? And there's a person that you play with and they'll get like, you know, they'll get the worst property on the game.

Kevin’s Monopoly strategy (32:32)

And people go, why the fuck are you buying that? You got Baltic, Evan, mad at the frame? Yeah, I did. It's the cheapest one, but I'm going to put all of my houses and then flip those in the hotels. And it's cheaper. I now have money left. And hopefully for making money on this, I can go and get some of the nicer stuff. I can go and get the maybe the boardwalks or maybe the venturas or, you know, maybe maybe some of the other more expensive, but I want to get my money right first because I don't have enough. And then you got the people that go right and go buy boardwalk and then they're stuck with $200 a $300 after and trying to figure out how to get houses, but they can't really afford the thing they bought because they didn't have a plan. There's other people that put a plan together that they're trying to execute that can get them to the place that they want to be. I'm the guy with a plan. And whether I get there or not, I'm executing something that I'm vetting out. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's it's I'm vetting it out and I'm trying my best to get there by checking all these boxes and building an amazing team around me of people that are more than qualified to help me on this journey. So it doesn't become a Kevin did a thing. It becomes a we did a thing. And then before you know, you change lives and now you're able to have a major impact, not just with laughter, not just by providing content, but now you're providing jobs, opportunities. Now you're providing, you know, many providing dreams, hope there's a it's a bigger story to it. It's a bigger story is a bigger understanding. So I definitely want to talk about stories and storytelling. But before we get there, we were talking, you were talking about this macro planning vetting and looking at opportunities. I'd love to look at the micro for a second. What what does say the first 90 minutes of your day look like?

The first 90 minutes of Kevin’s day look like (34:35)

Are there any components or routines that are particularly important to you in the first hour or two of your day? Nine minutes of my day. Hour or two, if there's anything that is a constant for you. There's no I mean, the one thing that never changes is my my workout. I mean, I'm up six. I mean, well, since we've been in quarantine, I've been working on seven a.m. every day. But before this, if I'm like, I don't I'm working. I'm up at five, you know, in the gym and very consistent about that. I don't I don't I don't sway with that. You know, it's how I start any and every day. And I'm just heavily into taking care of me. Got a lot of people that depend on me. There are a lot of people that that that I feel need me and also that I need and return. But I can't be the best version of myself if I'm not taking care of myself. What are what are some of the in your mind? Because you've exercised a long time and very consistently.

The unbeatable exercises anyone can do (35:40)

So you have had a chance to test a lot. What are some of the the best bang for the buck exercises if you could only kind of take a handful with you? Are do any come to mind? Nothing means pushups. That's us. I don't care whether you got a gym or not. That's the core. It can't be that ever with stories and storytelling. I mean, what what strikes me is your student of history.

Kevin’s favorite storytellers (36:04)

You're looking at what can become stories that are told decades, maybe a hundred years after they happen. And you are in some respects, it strikes me making your mark with an incredible gift and honed talent of storytelling when I when I watch you perform. What makes a good storyteller? Are there any particular people you consider good storytellers? I mean, whether it's I know you've cited the Bible, there is there are certain stories that are more compelling than others and certain storytellers. Are there any storytellers who stand out to you? I mean, minus what what's going on in the personal life of this individual, you know, Cosby is one of the probably one of the best storytellers within a profession of comedy. Like I said, make sure to separate from, you know, this stuff. Eddie Murphy, amazing storyteller. Dave Schampelle, an amazing storyteller. I mean, you're looking at people that have very unique styles and approaches to the craft of storytelling. Those are my favorites. And I'm gonna tell you who else is one of the best or was one of the best at storytelling. Bernie Mac. Bernie Mac. Bernie Mac. Bernie Mac could tell a story. And I mean, you know, I love it. I love the idea of telling a story. I love the idea of, you know, grabbing someone's attention and holding that attention and a person going on levels with you until the end. And at the end of it, getting an amazing payoff to where it's like, oh my god, I didn't even see that coming. That's crazy. Like, I, there's something special about that. I've always been a fan of it, you know, and it's a craft and a talent that I try my best to hone and work on. I want to talk about the decision. So this is an audible original, the decision and the subtitles overcoming today's BS for tomorrow's success.

Kevin’s new book is for these times (38:21)

It seems like this had been in the works for a very long time. And then the launch got accelerated because there are certain things that you can't do right now with COVID and quarantine. But there are things that you can do, like utilize audio. Could you speak to why you decided to push this forward now and why you did it in the first place? Well, I said, I said basically, you know, right now, I think the crazy thing within the times that you're realizing the need behind content, you know, like you, you see what people gravitate towards when times are tough, like, you know, you, there's an escape that comes with good content. You're able to get lost in something good. Like, I remember when his first hit in Ozark and came over and the season was available. And I was like, I'm gonna watch Ozark. And I sat and I watched Ozark and for that time, I just enjoyed a good show. A good show was enough. It was enough for me and it motivated me. And after watching it, I was like, I got to get up and I got to write. I got to write. I got to create. I got to write. And watching that show made me do that. Now, of course, this is my profession. This is what I do. So it's where I can grab energy from. But there's content all around that can amplify a person's mood. There's different types of content that's good for whomever. You know what I mean? It's a lot that you can go out and grab or read or see that it's just a lot. So I told my team, I was like, this is a perfect time just for me to release the decision. And the reason why is because it's not just informative, but it's mental fitness. And when when our mental is getting tugged on, just having information can be key. Just information. My way of thinking isn't the right way for everybody. I don't claim that. I don't stay on that. It's not my way out of the highway. I'm just giving you an option. I'm just sharing wholeheartedly what has helped me in life and what has helped get me to this place. And how my thinking and thought process had played a major part. And I want to give you guys this information. You may gravitate towards it. You may not, but I'm going to give it to you in a way that nobody else can. I'm giving it to you with personality. I'm giving it to you with real life situations attached that you can look up and see. And I'm giving it to you from a guy's perspective that has results. So it's not as if there aren't any results in my way of thinking and in my way of decision making. You see what the results are, which is why I feel like the information is valuable. You know guys, I like this. There's chapters on positivity. There's chapters on negativity. There's chapters on cowboy and up. There's chapters on shoulder struggling. There's chapters on things that we overlooked that are so small that I've made big. You know, shoulder shrug. Shoulder shrug is a motherfucker, man. The ability to shrug your shoulders. It can mean so many things. Shrubbing your shoulders can mean, I don't care. It can mean, I don't know. Or it can mean, oh well, it is what it is. That ability to shoulder shrug. That's a major, that's a major thing. Because that's also the ability to move on. That's also the ability to go, well, I guess I got to keep going. A shoulder shrug, that's what it is. It can be taken as nonchalant. It can be taken as passes. It can be taken as so many different things. But not times out of a 10 after shoulder shrug, you're going to keep going. And these are the things that I've broken down in this audible original. It's me giving you just a different way of seeing things. A different insight. And your memoir, I mean, if we describe it as that, I can't make this up, was extremely popular on audio.

Key Insights From Kevin'S New Book

The unique offerings in Kevin’s books (43:22)

And is the way to think about this new audible original? I think the subtitle describes it well. The overcoming today's BS for tomorrow's success. A more prescriptive description of your kind of tools and principles. It's sort of a distilled collection of your tools and tactics. Is that one way to think about it? If people are wondering how it contrasts to, I can't make this up. I can say for me, what I really, really love is when you look at my first book, "Life Lessons," right? I really broke down my life in great detail. I just gave the stories of where I've come from and how I got to here. And major success, people loved it. They love the honesty that came with it. And I just love the stories. They love hearing about my father, my mother, my brother. They just love the overall story. And this one, I wanted to go a step further because what I realized was I'm privy to a lot of information and I'm privy to a lot of different environments. And I've been a sponge and I've soaked up so much information. Outside of my wife and kids and some of my closest friends, am I just taking this information with me? What I found is for me right now, if I were just to go and take all the information that I had and just keep it and put it in my pocket, that's selfish. That's extremely fucking selfish to not share. To not share any of this, I look at this very selfish on my part. So I said, I want to share. I want to give information. But this information is to really help you understand how to maneuver in the BS that we all go through. And there's people that really struggle with a lot of the BS that we go through. There's a real struggle that comes with thought process, with decision making, with, do I make it right? Do I make it left? There's a real struggle that goes with that. And it just comes from lack of knowledge or from thinking that you're alone and that nobody else is the way you are and things like you think. I mean, I can go down a list of things. When you're able to open up and talk about things that most people don't in such an honest way, it acts as a bonus. There's a piece in there where I'm talking about social media. And how social media has been such a gift and a curse, I've been on the side of the gift. I've been on the side of the gift. It allowed me to connect and touch base with my fans and whether I never thought that I would be able to. And then there's this dark side to it that's where it is headed. And that dark side just seems like it's negative. But it only seems that way because there's something in us as people to be attracted to the negative. We're attracted to bullshit for some reason. If there's a story about a man that saved a kid and at the same time, a story gets posted about a woman that cut her husband's dick off. You're going to forget about the man that saved the kid. Everybody's running to the story about the woman that cut her husband's dick off. Nobody can answer that question of why. You can't tell me why, but it's true. It's what we gravitate towards is people. So that's why the internet seems like a hub for negativity. The news is on every night. There's always a good story on the news, but you can't tell me what it is, but you can tell me about all the people that got shot. You can tell me about the story that got robbed. You can't tell me the good story. You can't highlight the things of good is because the volume is turned down. And that's because we choose not to turn it up. So it's not until you realize that, hey, you know what? I'm looking at this thing, man. There's a lot of negative comments on here. Well, how many of the positive ones did you actually see? Right. Did you get that same attention? These are things that I'm given and it all go back to the decision. There's a decision that I'm making to speak on or to amplify what can be perceived as bullshit or negativity. I'm making the decision not to give the same energy and effort to the thing of positive. There, but I'm making a decision to not realize it or see it. I have tons, tons of this and it's audible original. Cowboying up. You make the decision to sit and bitch about what you can't change. We talked about earlier. That's a decision or you can make the decision to say, you know what? I'm a cowboy up. Cowboy up is a term. It's a term that anybody can use. And cowboy up just means I'm gonna strap on my boobs and I'm gonna get back to work. That's it. That work can mean anything. It can mean life, it can mean family, it can mean humanitarian work, whatever that thing is. I'm not gonna let the problems weigh me down to where I stop doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm gonna make the decision to continue and keep going. The decision, as you mentioned, audible original. Yes.

Conclusion

Parting thoughts (49:42)

Releasing May 21st, overcoming today's BS for tomorrow's success. I've been fascinated in the process of getting to know you through research for this conversation and I'm excited to see it come out and listen to it, I suppose more accurately. And people can find you, of course, you're not hard to find on Instagram @kevinheart4real, the number four on Facebook. That's heart Kevin and then on Twitter, same as Instagram @kevinheart4real. Kevin, is there anything else you would like to share before we wrap up? Any words of wisdom, favorite quotes, things you live your life by, anything else? You know what? I'll say right now, I think the biggest and best thing is just to get people to understand that, you know, look, these times are extremely tough for us all, but there's always sunshine behind the cloud. This is just a very dark cloud. We'll get through it, we'll get out of it. And, you know, when we do, let's be better than we were when we went in, you know? And what I think is really dope that I was able to see and that I was able to hold on to and gravitate towards is how so much money has been raised to solve and help for world hunger, but it took a pandemic and it shouldn't have to be because of a pandemic that we're all conscious of the needs of others. It's something that should be more of a priority. And when you see these hundreds of millions of dollars that have been raised, you know, within the two-month period of time, you know, just kind of raises the question of why is this so far a few and in between. Yeah. You shouldn't take a pandemic to make us all aware. Let's open our eyes and start to just once again, look beneath the debris and let's get to these other real things that come out of this that we can hold on to and make other people be responsible for in the future. You know, think about, you know what, somebody said that really made me go wow, we're solving world hunger and, you know, raising hundreds of millions of dollars, but for Flint, Michigan, clean water has been a problem for how many years. And that's how many million dollar fix. Time to cowboy up. Let's look on the bright side, man. This has been a great conversation, dude. Great conversation. Yeah. Thanks so much. And Allah, I'll certainly put all these links also in the show notes for people at Tim.blog/podcast. And Kevin, real pleasure to connect. Thanks for taking the time. Amen. Thank you. I appreciate you. Anytime. You too. All right. All right. Be safe. Bye bye. Bye. You you you