Thomas Umstattd Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Thomas Umstattd
Thomas Umstattd is todays guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast interview.
He is a man who states that he is a Christ Follower, CEO of Author Media, Professional Speaker, Podcaster, WordPress Lover, Marketer, Political Trouble Maker, & Homeschool Graduate.
Which means that the conversations today can literally go anywhere, and he will have an opinion on it….so what shall I start with first…religion or politics?
Well let’s start with the fact that since building his first website at the age of thirteen, our guest has been fascinated with communication whether its in the written word or by presenting his message in award winning presentations across America.
He believes in connecting with people across the globe, and so it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see that the early party of his career led heavily towards directing people on the political campaign trail.
How The Dots Joined Up For Thomas
For several years Thomas Umstattd assisted political hopefuls to run their campaign at grass roots level by recruiting, training and organising volunteers to knock on doors and convince those voters that they met, that their boss was the way forward.
But it was when he took this love of influencing and communicating, and combined it with his love of wordpress and website building that his career really started gaining speed.
And in 2008 he created Umstattd Media focusing on social media consulting, web design, and helping authors and businesses get the most out of the web.
This later changed to Castle Media Group and the rest as they is history.
So what it is it about communication that really lights him up inside, and helps him explode the potential opportunities all around him?
And does he have any design to go full circle and bring his skills back into the political environment?
Well let’s bring onto the show to start joining up dots, as we discuss the words of Steve Jobs in todays podcast, with the one and only Thomas Umstattd Jr.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Thomas Umstattd such as:
How his Dad always told him that success is a poor teacher, and that there are only certain lesson that failure can teach.
How he hopes that he never loses his curiosity in life, as he can see so many teens losing their way in life as they lose the curiosity that subsequently can help find the passion that they are seeking!
The reasons why he is so inspired with the life of Benjamin Franklin, and also the words of Death bed Thomas!
His memories of being a child and hiding from the police who were anti the local home-schooling regime favoured by parents!
And lastly……
The surprise he felt to find a bog post on courtship going viral on the internet, and the opportunities that this is now bringing his way!
How To Connect With Thomas Umstattd
Return To The Top Of Thomas Umstattd
If you enjoyed this episode of Thomas Umstattd then why not listen to some of our favourite podcast episodes such as David Baggett, Ted Yoder, Sean Swarner or the amazing Alfie Best
Or if you prefer just pop over to our podcast archive for thousands of amazing episodes to choose from.
Audio Transcription Of Thomas Umstattd Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:26]
Yes, hello there once again and welcome to Join Up Dots. It’s David Ralph, you wouldn’t expect anyone else and we’ve got another mighty guest on the show, Episode 192 really flying along and the big 200 is coming up just around the corner. Well, let’s introduce you to him because he is a man who states that he is a Christ follower, a co author media, professional speaker podcaster WordPress lover marketeer political troublemaker, and homeschool graduate, which means that the conversations today can literally go anywhere, and he will have enough opinion on it. So what should I start with religion or politics? Well, let’s start with the fact that since building his first website at the age of 13, our guest has been fascinated with communication, whether it’s in the written word or by presenting his message in award winning presentations across America. He believes in connecting with people across the globe, and so it wasn’t too much of a surprise to see that the early part of his career led heavily towards directing people on the political campaign trail for several years, he assisted political hopefuls to run their campaign at grassroot level by recruiting, training, and organising volunteers to knock on doors, and convince those voters that they met that their boss was the way forward. But it was when he took this love of influencing and communicating and combined it with his love of WordPress and website building. But his career really started gaining pace. And in 2008, he created a stat media focused on social media consulting, web design, and helping authors and businesses get the most out of the web, this life a change to cancel Media Group and the rest, as they say, is history. So what is it about communication? It really lights him up inside and helps him explode the potential opportunities all around him? And does he have any designed to go full circle and bring these skills back into the political environment? Well, let’s find out as we bring on to the show to start Join Up Dots, the one and only Thomas Umstattd. How are you, Thomas?
Thomas Umstattd [2:22]
I’m doing well. Thanks for having me on the show. David
David Ralph [2:24]
Its great to have you here. We were chatting just beforehand. And you are in Austin, Texas, I imagine. It is glorious sunshine, probably 90 degrees at the moment, and everything is good in your life.
Thomas Umstattd [2:36]
Yeah, it’s actually a little overcast today, which is a bit unusual for Austin. But it’s it’s a beautiful day as usual. And we we appreciate the shade as much as we appreciate the sun around here.
David Ralph [2:47]
Do you get fed up with the sunshine? Do you do sort of open your curtains in the morning? Oh, god, it’s another sunny day. Because in the United Kingdom, we love talking about the weather. That’s one of our big things. football and weather. We like the fact that you don’t know what you’re going to get between nine o’clock and 11 o’clock, let alone for days on end. So do you get fed up with it?
Thomas Umstattd [3:07]
Some people do complain about the sun, especially in the summer, it will get hot and stay hot and it’s just sunny day after day. And people who’ve travelled the world is kind of shake their heads and like you don’t realise what you’re complaining about. A lot of people who’d love to have this kind of sun all the all the time.
David Ralph [3:23]
So can I ask you a question with all that sun? Why do you look so powerful on your skype a picture? Where’s? Where is the suntan?
Thomas Umstattd [3:34]
Yeah, I don’t tan very well, I mostly just burn. So I try to try to limit the amount of sun that I get. So I don’t, I’m not pink all the time? Well, you’re doing
David Ralph [3:42]
doing a good job. It amazes me Actually, I speak to so many sort of entrepreneurs. And they base their life around following the sun. So they all start off in, say, New York or Detroit or somewhere. And they end up in San Diego and California and Florida. And by go from a place that has no sun and they end up in front of a computer. But they close the curtains because they can’t see the screen and they get no sun. And it seems bizarre to take yourself from a place where probably productivity is easier to replace, which is like paradise and then torture yourself by not seeing anyway.
Thomas Umstattd [4:17]
Yeah, that’s the irony of being in tech, especially in a lot of developers will have what I call developer hours, they wake up at four or five in the afternoon. And then they code online. And they even if they live in a sunny place, they’re missing out most of it. And because of that they basically live in a different time zone than what they actually live in.
David Ralph [4:37]
So So if we take you back in time, which I like to do on Join Up Dots is the theme of the show. What What was the young Thomas OpenStack Jr. say I’ve been practising your name now. So I’m going to say it in its Borland over time, what was the young kind of Thomas doing in the in Austin, Texas when he was a young child.
Thomas Umstattd [4:56]
So growing up, Austin was just its first tech boom, and a lot of my friends, dads were in engineering and computers, and my dad was a bit of a computer nerd himself. So remember, as a kid, he brought home this green screen computer with das on it. And it had any had some games on floppy discs. But to figure out how to play the games, I had to learn how to interface with das as a seven, eight year old child. So I started to learn computers, basically as a way of learning how to play the computer games, because we didn’t have a Nintendo or anything like that. And so I don’t think my parents planned it this way. But, you know, as the computers broke, I was highly motivated to get them working against that I could go back to playing those games. And, you know, one thing led to another and then I started wanting to upgrade my computers. And then I got curious about this new thing called the internet that you could build websites on, which was really fascinating for me, as a young teenager. And so this was before the days of Facebook or MySpace, if you wanted a place on the web, you had to build it yourself. And so, you know, learning HTML and front page back in the day, that was my first journey into the web and just kind of adding one thing on to another. And that’s what got me started on this path that I’m still on.
David Ralph [6:09]
Did you think he’s it’s easier to be where you are now, because you really learn the nuts and bolts of it. Because I imagine a lot of the kids, I say kids loosely, basically anybody younger than me is a kid now. And they kind of come in and they can press this button. And they can do that. And there’s a lot of sort of shortcuts, I uploaded loads of things up on my computer recently on my Join Up Dots side, which I didn’t know how to do. And people have said, Oh, you just download this plugin, and you click this. And you click that, and he does it. So I think okay, that’s fine. Brilliant. And he’s done the job for me, but I don’t know what it’s actually done. So the fact that you really did go to the nuts and bolts of computer programming, as that helped you, or is there no difference? Really.
Thomas Umstattd [6:52]
It has, and for probably one primary reason. When I first got started, there was no Google, there was in fact, most search engines to didn’t really work very well, Yahoo. And the early days didn’t find what you’re looking for. It’s why Google exploded. So who does it really? Do? i? Yeah, I haven’t really used it in a long time. But and there’s a reason because I’m not super excited with the results that I get. But to fix a problem, you had to just try stuff. And so learning trial and error and learning how to strategically troubleshoot problems, and you know, which things to test first to see if they’re broken, so that you can kind of keep cutting the number of things that are possible in half. That approach I wouldn’t have learned at such a young age, if I had had Google with all the answers right there, I could just type in an error and find the answer to it. And that’s been very helpful now, because one of the things I found is that the higher you get in business, in the, you know, more cutting edge you get with technology, there are no more you get to the point where you’re out in front of the case studies, or the case studies on what you’re doing haven’t been written yet. And so it’s kind of back to that trial and error where, you know, need, you don’t know it’s going to work and you try something and it fails. And you know, you become the case study kind of the lesson for other people in some ways. And so that was really helpful.
David Ralph [8:08]
Do you have lots of things that come up and you go, Oh, I used to know how to do this, but I’ve kind of moved on now.
Thomas Umstattd [8:15]
Yes, basically, anything with Windows I was one of my younger brothers was trying to get his computer work. He’s done a lot of stuff with Windows. And I was like, Wow, I’ve really forgotten how windows works. Because I I converted I had a spiritual experience and converted to the Macintosh cult about eight years ago. And you know, so my last Windows operating system was Windows XP. And so suddenly, I’m not all of these windows, things that used to just be right on the top of my head have faded a bit into the past.
David Ralph [8:44]
I like Windows 98. And that’s, that’s the last one that I think did exactly what it should. And then everything else seemed to get more complicated as far as I can see.
Thomas Umstattd [8:56]
Yeah, it’s there. They’re rolling it back. Now I hear the next version, Windows is going to be less windows II than the current version. We’ll see. We’ll see how that goes.
David Ralph [9:04]
Well, I record on I think it’s windows eight. Is that the most up to date? One maybe? I don’t know. And there’s no buttons on it at all. You have to sort of go to corners, and hopefully things do stuff. What’s the point in that? It’s like buying a car where you can’t find the steering wheel? Is this stupid, they should have everything as big buttons and when you know how to use it.
Thomas Umstattd [9:27]
That’s right. That was the whole point of a graphics interface is that there’s buttons and icons to click on. I think they’re going to get back to the buttons. Those of you listening in the future Don’t worry, it’ll get better.
David Ralph [9:37]
It will be and you’ll look at me as Thomas as some miserable old men. And no one that I died out and the new breed come through that did you have you know, I’m going to touch on your history again. But do you remember what games that you used to play when you was a kid the ones that really excited you the ones that you might have a big cartridge and you just slammed it into the back of computer and bang it was working?
Thomas Umstattd [10:03]
Well, I don’t know if it being it was working very often half half of the fun of the game was getting it working. Because I didn’t have very good technology. But the couple of the ones I really enjoyed keen Commander Keen was a great series keen for I must have played that, you know, dozens of times, there was an old das game called bomb 32 that was in colour, which was very exciting. And you had these little tanks and they would get to do trajectory and try to shoot these bombs over hills to land on their computer Can you can you beat palm so keen actually had Pong inside of it. So Pong was a little bit before my time you get enough sunlight
David Ralph [10:41]
to handle must have touched your nerve. I can feel it.
Thomas Umstattd [10:45]
But yeah, so I played it inside of keen. And I was like, wow, this is like really old school because the there was a big transition in games. The early games were like the arcade games were more like a puzzle, like Pong. And then everything shifted with Zelda. for Nintendo, which was a storey first with a game kind of built into the storey. And if you can kind of mark that point in history, there’s the pre Zelda games in the post Zelda games.
David Ralph [11:10]
What where where did the sort of desire to communicate come from, because you’re obviously hugely passionate about computers. And with the greatest respect, the majority of computer people I know, can’t string two words together. And they kind of sit at their desks with headphones on, and they just kind of just are in their own little world, but you seem to have two feet in both camps, you you’re equally good at communicating and equally good at building computer programmes.
Thomas Umstattd [11:40]
In some ways I see a computer is just an extension of people. So if it’s a static computer, it’s an extension of the developers and designers that created the computer and social media just see it as like a window on to other people or the web, really. So I have a kind of unusual view of technology as something that can connect people. And I tried to just see the people on the other side of the computer in my head. Even though I’m when I’m looking at maybe code or a web page, I realised that, you know, computers didn’t create themselves. At some point, there was all computer errors or human errors, like we can’t truly blame the computer, we may not know what of the 10,000 people who built, you know, or contributed to the machine were using is at fault for the bug that we’re seeing. But ultimately, you know, it’s just humans on the other side of it, you just maybe have to go back in time a bit to see them all. But but you can still Express you
David Ralph [12:34]
can still have a conversation, you can string six or seven words together extremely well. And that’s, that’s that’s a different tree, isn’t it?
Thomas Umstattd [12:43]
It is it. It took practice. It’s something I had to learn. The way I learned computers, though, I didn’t take any classes, I would just talk to my friends dads with at a party and I would just get them talking. And I would take buzzwords, I learned, you know, one conversation and take it into the next conversation. I just asked questions about it. Because engineers and computer type people often very rarely have someone interested in their field, most people’s eyes glaze over. And so I may not have understood everything they were talking about, I may have only understood 20%. But I was curious. And so I would just sit and listen. And you know, these not social folks would be happy to talk to me for 30 minutes, 45 minutes at a party talking about what they were building and what they were inventing. And that’s how I learned. So I learned computers in a very kind of communicative way, which I think is part of the reason why I approach it a little bit differently. It wasn’t a classroom, there was no homework. It’s one of the benefits of homeschooling is it it’s sometimes it’s very non standard and how you learn things.
David Ralph [13:42]
Well that homeschooling, this is a subject I’m fascinated about because we don’t have that over in the United Kingdom. If kids are expelled, then they stay at home. But otherwise, you just go to school. And it I think it was on episode maybe 36 or something. But somebody said, Oh, yes, I was scored at home. And I What? What? How do you do that? So you get up every morning and your mom or your dad teaches you? Is that how it happened with you.
Thomas Umstattd [14:08]
So that’s that’s how it happens. In theory, that’s not actually how it happens in the real world. So homeschooling in the real world often ends up being printed parents supervised education, not necessarily taught education. So in elementary school, it’s very much kind of parents teaching you spelling and math and whatnot. But the goal in homeschooling in elementary school is to teach you how to learn. And then they supervise your learning in middle school and in high school. And so by the time I was in high school, my mom would just give me a textbook and basically say, learn it, you know, it ended up being a very, the most valuable thing I learned in schooling is how to learn because now in technology, you know, what I learned in college is already out of date, a lot of it, you know, those technologies we’re not using anymore. And the other misnomer is that homeschoolers are at home all the time. So
David Ralph [14:58]
it was more time.
Thomas Umstattd [15:00]
Right? So there’s a lot of least here in Texas, we have a lot of CO ops where it started off as a homeschool parent, let’s say it’s very passionate about math or science would teach a class about math or science to a bunch of other homeschool students in the community. And then what’s happened in recent years is there’s become an industry popping up where people now do that professionally. So I my a lot of my high school teachers were actually college professors that on the side would teach homeschool Co Op classes. And since they were being paid directly by the parents, it was very inexpensive for us and a lot more money for them, then what they got for that equivalent amount of time working for the university. And so we’re able to cut out all of the administration of a school school system and give parents choices, not just on what they teach at home and what they get teachers, but also exactly what teachers, they have several to match up students and teachers for the best possible fit. And so it was very flexible, and yet I had a lot of access to really excellent training in high school.
David Ralph [16:02]
And it does it give you a desire to learn or is it because, you know, to be honest, the education system, when you’re in it, you can’t wait to get out of it. And it’s just like a conveyor belt that you go through to come out the other end. And I’m very fascinated how so many of the successful guys and the ladies that speak to me, pretty much say, you know, it was complete waste of time. For me, I learned more from being out of school than I did at school. And if school was going to be recreated, it should be life skills, and not education. As such, it should teach you things that you need in the real world. Do you feel that you’ve got a kind of hybrid of the two, doing homeschooling?
Thomas Umstattd [16:42]
I did, and my parents were I’m very thankful that they allowed me to be curiosity driven through a lot of my schooling. And so if I was curious about something, they would enable that. So they bought a lot of I’ve they bought me a lot of dummies books on various computer subjects. I asked them to us like I really want networking for dummies and figure out how to connect these computers to each other. And that curiosity, every child is born curious, you know, when you go to kindergarten, it’s like, okay, class, we’re going to be learning about butterflies, everyone’s excited to learn about butterflies. But something happens in that process for most people where that curiosity is stamped out of them. And that didn’t happen for me. So I listened to, you know, 40 or 50 podcasts I listened, or I subscribed to that many podcasts I listened to, you know, 50 or 60 audiobooks every year, a lot of which are nonfiction on all kinds of topics. Because that curiosity, if you doesn’t get killed, it just grows into this fire. And it’s one of the primary driving forces in my life now is I’m curious about a lot of different things. The the challenge of that is that it makes it hard to focus because I have a lot of interests that are not necessarily compatible. And so I have to choose, what interest to pursue and what interests not to pursue. And that’s something I’m actually this season trying to figure out, you know, what to do with the rest of my life, in terms of what interests to pursue next.
David Ralph [18:06]
It Well, that’s fascinating, but you’ve got the opportunity to be able to do that, because most people haven’t got the awareness of what their curiosity can bring them and how to earn money from it. So the arbiters sort of say, I want to go into an area that actually interests me and is a new area. And I think I can be successful whether you must be a rare breed Thomas.
Thomas Umstattd [18:29]
I think that there are more people who are curious than you might think. But we have a culture where people who aren’t curious feel like they have to keep it to themselves. It’s a it’s a culture where people were called nerds in school. And so they feel like they have to hide that element of them. And in some of you listening, that may be your experience, you’re really very passionate and curious person, but you feel like the community around you does not approve of that. They want you to conform to this kind of go to the factory and create the widgets kind of lifestyle. And I just want to encourage you to embrace that curiosity, you know, buy that biography of that person, you’re curious about, you know, change from the channel about sports, to the channel about history. And you may find that as you feed that flame that once existed when you’re a child that it will spring back up. And that that’s something that can change in your life. You’re not like stuck, it’s not like it’s a it’s died, where you’ll never be curious again. No, absolutely.
David Ralph [19:24]
And my listeners Oh, so curious. It’s I’m true to kind of weird things that they email me about questions, and, and why did I say certain things and stuff, you gotta be very careful with what you’re saying these kind of things, because people pick up on him. But it’s brilliant, that actually focusing in on this content and coming to it time and time again, to find that kind of inspiration, that the thing that really jumped out at me, and it’s a theme that runs through and so it wasn’t a surprise that you said it was that you feel about the Curiosity is stamped out of us. And somewhere along the line from being small children to going out into the world and earn our income, we lose back that core essence of who we are.
Unknown Speaker [20:06]
Is there any
David Ralph [20:06]
way that we can fight back on back? Or do you think that is naturally how life is people are so so on a path or gotta get a job, gotta get education, gotta get back, but they forget who they actually are in the first place?
Thomas Umstattd [20:23]
That’s an interesting question. And I think that one of the side effects of that system is that it makes the curiosity and the getting a job puts them at odds with each other, when in reality, I think that they should be best friends, you know, the thing that you’re passionate about the thing that you’re curious about, if you’re really curious on a topic, and you start studying that topic, the inevitable outcome is that you’re going to be an expert on that topic. And so depending now, some topics are more lucrative than others. But let’s say it’s even sports, you’re really into football, and you keep up with the Premier League or American football, keep up with the NFL, there are jobs where you can be, you know, professional football commentator, or we’re a blogger that’s responding and covering a team very specifically. And so in terms of the school system, and how to fix it, I really don’t know, because I didn’t grow up in that school system. And there’s so many things that are different between homeschooling and public schooling or private schooling that I wouldn’t even know where to get started. I do know that money’s not I don’t feel it. The money’s the answer. Because we had no money every time I’ve been to a real quote, unquote, real school, I’m just shocked at how nice the facilities are. Because, you know, for our co Ops, we were in a Sunday school classroom at some church, and we had just nothing in the way of materials or resources or fancy facilities. And yet, despite that, I was very happy with the education that I received.
David Ralph [21:42]
I think it’s interesting because you sound a hugely positive person, you know, and it’s not a surprise that you’ve gone into different areas and you you’ve allowed your influence and your curiosity to come out. Well, when when you sort of went into this or politics, business and the beginning of your career. Was that natural curiosity again? Or have you always had an old head on your shoulders? Where were you when you were talking to these mums and dads about coding and stuff? Were you somebody that was more aware of your age about what needed to be done.
Thomas Umstattd [22:15]
So again, this goes back to the homeschooling when I first got started, homeschooling was only semi legal in the United States and in Texas, and they were still working out the laws. And so I remember as a very young child hiding from the police, we had cover storeys if we were in a question about our schooling, it was not something that was embraced by the mainstream. And so a lot of people, especially young people don’t experience laws. Very often they don’t have encounters with the government. They don’t pay taxes, and so they don’t care very much. Whereas our entire way of life was at risk. Every time the Texas legislature was in session, we had powerful lobby groups that wanted to destroy homeschooling that were threatened by threatened by our very existence. And so I remember as a young child going to the Capitol and lobbying on behalf of homeschooling so that we could continue doing what we are doing because I was having this great experience. And I didn’t want the government to shut that down. And so you’ll find amongst the older homeschoolers kind of my generation up that our participation rates in government and politics are much, much higher than your kind of typical person because we we saw what it was like, and we saw, you know, some states put these very heavy regulations and other states had a lot of freedom. And nowadays, the debates kind of over there’s not a strong anti homeschooling campaign saying that homeschoolers aren’t getting a good education or something like that, because the academic community, especially universities, finds that being homeschooled is one of the highest predictors of success and college because that learning how to learn and that learning to be self disciplined to learn that we almost have to get and homeschooling is great preparation for college when you don’t have someone looking over your shoulder all the time.
David Ralph [24:05]
So the political vibe, though, was it something that you was always interested in? Or was it just to sort of go against the system that was trying to stop what you thought was good?
Thomas Umstattd [24:15]
it? To be perfectly honest, I started listening to rush limbaugh when I was like seven years old. So I remember, you may not know where somebody is, he’s a radio personality. He’s an entertainer, but he talks a lot about politics. And I remember running into my parents room as like, it’s Friday. And I was all excited because he had this sound effect of people applauding and being excited. And I thought that those were real people say wasn’t old enough to really understand that. I can
David Ralph [24:39]
do the same the it’s all a sham.
Thomas Umstattd [24:45]
Yeah, so I hate to break it to you if any of you listening are seven years old. But that that was not not real applause. But it was.
David Ralph [24:51]
That’s what that was. Honestly, that was, I have a crowd I record in front of a live audience.
Thomas Umstattd [25:00]
Yeah, would you really could do actually, it’s a live show, you could bet again, you can hear them as it would be on the internet. But you
David Ralph [25:06]
got me, you got me. You’re too clever.
Thomas Umstattd [25:08]
Sorry, sorry. So, but that’s where it started. And that was where the seed was planted. And one of the things that my parents really believed in was internships, getting internships and learning on the job. And I’ll tell you, if, for those of you who are young, political internships are some of the best because a lot of political campaigns don’t have very big budgets, which means that they may not have any paid staff. And what that means is that an intern can have a lot of responsibility, far more responsibility and a political campaign, then that same person could get, say, in a corporation or for nonprofit. And so that experience early helps open the doors to other experiences, you’re not getting paid. And it can be heartbreaking when you pour your sweat and tears into a campaign that that fails, you know, because it’s in here in the States, it’s winner takes all so you either win or you lose, there’s no like what we won some seats, and we lost others. And so I remember, I worked all semester, I took a semester off of school, and high school and went moved 400 miles away from my family and worked entire semester on a congressional campaign. And we lost by like 2000 votes, missed the runoff. And it was just heartbreaking. I’d spent that whole time trying for something and it failed. But I learned so much. And it opened up so many doors afterwards that I would do it again in a heartbeat even I don’t know if I tell myself that I would lose the
talk to my past, though. But I would do it again, if
David Ralph [26:38]
I could but but do not get paid. If you don’t win, do you do get get paid if you do win? Or is it just volunteer.
Thomas Umstattd [26:45]
So typically, if you have a paid position, it’s paid one way or the other, oftentimes, there’s some sort of winning bonus, where you where you get a little bit of extra money. The folks who really get the money are the consultants and the press. So, you know, campaign might spend $100,000 on TV ads, and $20,000 on staff. And so there’s, in all of that money is spent on the answers is gone. So, politics in the United States is a really big business for some people, which kind of makes me sad. And one of the things I realised is that the more you care, the less you get paid. So the folks who make the most money are the hired guns, who don’t really care about the issues. They’re just working for whoever pays them. And that was never me, I really cared about policy and getting not just good ideas, but good people behind those good ideas. And it wasn’t about the money for me. And so I realised that I needed to find my money somewhere else that as a passion. Politics was great, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing it as a business. And will at that age
David Ralph [27:49]
of your life. What were you most in love with? Were you still dabbling in computers and stuff? Or were you looking at this as your your path?
Thomas Umstattd [28:00]
I don’t think I could have told I think it would depend on what day you asked me. So some days, I was very passionate about video games, some days is very passion about Speech and Debate or websites. Other days, I was very passionate about business. And that problem of being passionate and too many things has I haven’t gotten over that yet. So like a lot of people are like, man, there’s just one thing I want to do. And if I don’t do that thing, my life is going to be, you know, failure, I’ll be disappointed with my life. And for me, it’s like, there’s just 50 things I want to do. Like, I gotta pick which of those 50 I want to pursue. And I’ve been very encouraged by the life of Benjamin Franklin, cuz he was a author. He was a printer. He was a businessman. He was a scientist, he was a diplomat, and he was a political leader. I and his secret was, he didn’t do any of those things at the same time. So he finished his business, he hired a manager to run his Corporation, and he went into semi retirement and just dabbled in science. And that’s all they did was science. And that was focus. And so he’s doing all these things with electricity and making these big discoveries. And then when that season of his life came to an end, and then he he went to France, and he was a full time diplomat, and he wasn’t able to run his company here in the United States, because he’s in France, and they didn’t have cell phones or Telegraph’s in those days. And so he he fully embraced the season that he was in. And that’s been encouraging to me, since I am passionate about multiple things that saying no to say politics, in this season of my life doesn’t mean that I’m saying no to politics forever, and that there may come a different season where I’m doing something different in the future. And it could be that in 20 years, I’m doing something that I never would have guessed. And it’s not even a passion right now. But the passion grows over time. And now I’m doing something entirely new.
David Ralph [29:45]
I find that inspiring, I really do the fact that you can say yes, I’m going to put all my efforts into something. And then when I not just get fed up with it, but when I feel like I’m done, I can move into something else. I was hearing an interview, you know, the comedian Eddie Izzard, English comedian,
Thomas Umstattd [30:01]
I don’t think so. He’s He’s
David Ralph [30:03]
quite well known in America, you’ll you’ll you’ll recognise him, you’d recognise him. And he basically, when he was a young child, he planned out his life. And he said, the first five years, I’m going to be doing this and the first next seven years, I’m going to do this. And it wasn’t just kind of, I’m going to be working in a job, he sort of really aimed for the stars. And he’s now on his last part of being an actor. So he went from being a comedian, to an actor. And now once he finishes back, he’s going into politics. And he already knows he’s got like, four years to go with being an actor, and being he’s into politics, and that that’s what he’s plans are. And I found that fascinating that such an early age, you can have such foresight, but not only, that’s what he wants to do, but he can actually go ahead and achieve it in each of those areas.
Thomas Umstattd [30:51]
Yeah, you’re, you’re laying the foundation for your life, as a young person, and what is built on top of that foundation can change and little bit of foresight can help you know, some things not to put in that foundation. So, you know, if you want to go into politics, you need to do your best to try to avoid any, you know, criminal activity. You know, people should feel uncomfortable voting for, you know, folks with a criminal record doesn’t mean that people can be redeemed or something like that. But you know, you you’re starting now building your future. And, I mean, I gotta, you gotta respect somebody has that much planning, that’s not me, I tend to be more by the seat of my pants. But even in that I kind of have a general direction of some of the things I know, that I’m passionate about. And so I know, like, politics, for instance, it it’s such a passion of mine, that I keep getting pulled back, and not necessarily in ways that make me any money, but you know, I’ll see a need or a cause. And I’ll just jump in on that. And maybe for two weeks, or, or maybe serve on the board or something for an organisation, but it’s, it’s hard to quit completely.
David Ralph [31:58]
so to speak, Gigi, you need to have a passion for the subject, or is it be the risk that you like taking, you know, going into politics and politics and doing those kind of things, it’s not a done deal that you’re going to win at the end of it? Is that what you kind of like the challenge or more that you’re actually trying to make things better for people?
Thomas Umstattd [32:21]
I think it’s a little bit of both. In terms of challenge, you can get that better, and a lot of other areas like sports. So for me, it’s very much the cause, my generation, we want to make the world a better place. And we want to change the world. And so that’s very much a part of it. But your passion in something can grow success. And a thing can make you more passionate about it. If you think of the things that you’re passionate about. Now, it’s probably you had some early successes, either as a child or when you first started doing that thing. And that passion feeds on itself. And the true test of a passion is not in how it starts. It’s how it handles adversity. You. So when it starts raining on the fire, does the fire go out? Or does the fire keep burning, and in terms of like what to do with your life, I’m talking with young people, it’s like, you gotta follow your passions, but you can’t just look at that, you know, if you have five or six passions, you want to also look at what you’re skilled at. And because that place where your passions and skills overlaps, it’s much better, you know, I may be very passionate about basketball, but I just don’t have the skills to do that in any more than a hobby. But passions and skills alone aren’t enough, I encourage people to also look at the needs of others, you know, so you can’t just be looking at yourself, you have to also take into account the world around you. And if you can find that sweet spot where you’re doing something you’re passionate about, and you’re skilled at it, and other people need that thing and are willing to pay for it. That’s that sweet spot or that hedgehog principle, as it says in the book Good to Great, which, you know, he’s talking about it for corporations, but I think it’s very much true for individuals as well. And finding that is hard, you know, so maybe you’re passionate about something, and you know, there’s just a need for it. But you don’t have the skills. Well, I have some good news. There are institutions that will give you skills, you can go to university or buy books and listen to podcasts, you can get the skills that you need. So it’s not like you’re stuck in one of those circles, you can grow and adapt as you move forward in your life.
David Ralph [34:17]
Absolutely. And that’s what it is, is about moving forward but taking a risk. And I’m going to tell you the first one about our speeches that I like to play on the show, because it really emphasises what we’re talking about. This is Jim Carrey,
Jim Carrey [34:28]
my father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
David Ralph [34:55]
Now, I love that more. Every time I hear it. It really touches me inside me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m doing what I’m doing now, and which is a complete departure from what I was doing before. But just that fact I it’s like, I want to get that message out to the world, Thomas.
Thomas Umstattd [35:12]
Yeah, because it can be really disappointing. You hear the storeys of people who are on their deathbed, and they spent their whole life building something or searching for something and they realised that they really didn’t want to be there. And they’re really unhappy. And, you know, one of those things that it’s important to think about, and I try to remind myself from time to time is, you know, what would deathbed Thomas, tell present a Thomas Oh, your cheer one person only? Well, it could be really good. You know what, it’s a way of getting perspective of what is eternal, you know, what is really lasting. And because that can help kind of present a Thomas make better decisions. And so, but one of the things that is really clear, if you think through that is that people are a lot more important, kind of in the long term. investing in people and your relationships with people. That’s not something to be sacrificed for some sort of short term financial gain or political gain. That can be a very toxic way to live your life, but in the middle of the game. It’s very tempting, you’re like, man, if I just burn this one bridge, I’ll have this short term gain. And I want to do that so much like No, don’t do it. Because you may regret it. later on down the road.
David Ralph [36:27]
I was writing down a death bed at Thomas bear. And that’s a fantastic phrase, it’s gonna it’s going to keep on coming back to me. But it’s true, what you’re saying, you know, I know I sort of jumped on it. But it’s true. If you look at where you want your life to end up, if you’re laying on a bed, thinking, Well, that was a rubbish, right? vain, you probably haven’t made the right choices, or at least you haven’t given it a go somewhere. And I think for many years, I would have ended up like death bed Thomas, in a kind of room somewhere thinking, if I only I’ve given it a go. And now at least I will go I tried my best. And I think that’s a pretty good place to be.
Thomas Umstattd [37:07]
That’s right. And, you know, there’s some things that I’ve done in my life that I regret. But a lot, most of those things are not the failures that I’ve had. Because, especially recently, some of the failures in my life have really come back to bless me or have led to successes that I would have never anticipated. And it’s, it’s the things it’s the things you tend to regret are often it’s the risks you don’t take, or the things that you could have done and didn’t it’s very rarely the things that you did do and you wish, you’d have done it differently or it failed. And because ultimately, our end the ends can’t justify the means because our end is all the same. We’re all going all going to die. And I know that sounds negative, but it’s just how life is and death is a natural part of life. And so the only thing that really matters, long term is how you live that life, you know, what are you doing with those needs, with the choices that you’re given? You know, and as a, as a Christian, you know, I have a kind of a realisation, that I’m accountable to God for those things. But even if you don’t have a faith that you are a part of, you know, you’re still accountable to your future self, in a sense, you know, you are going to reap what you sow, what goes around comes around. And so living your life with that kind of perspective, zoomed out just a little bit from the day to day, I think can really help give your decisions context and help you make better decisions, which will then lead to better results.
David Ralph [38:34]
Well, when you’ve had the successes, but have come back from failures, have you kind of sat back and put your hands behind your head and gone this is this is amazing. Or do you think that basically, because you’re trying so many things, by the law of averages, those kind of things occur.
Thomas Umstattd [38:53]
It, it is amazing, because it’s never the things that that are successful is what I would expect it to be successful. So like, for instance, I recently wrote a blog post that went viral. And it was inspired on a period of my life that was most painful period of my life, ever it was I went through a very difficult courtship, and it failed. And it caused me to ask a lot of questions about the nature of courtship and the system as homeschoolers that we’ve created. Because in some ways, homeschooling in America has less than academic approach. It’s more of like a minority group with our own norms. And, you know, very, we have a lot of very interesting customs. And one of those is the way that we date we don’t date we have this system called courtship. And I started to ask a lot of hard questions about it. And I finally posted those to my blog, some of the concerns I had about the system. And, you know, it just spread all over the internet. And I would have never guessed that such a painful season in my life would lead to such a viral spread later. And if you’d have asked me at the time, you know, are you willing to do it if you know there’s going to be a blog post at the end of the rainbow? No way. But in hindsight, I’m like, Well, I’m glad I went through that.
David Ralph [40:04]
It’s funny on the timeline that Join Up Dots timeline, so many people will look at a big.in their life and say those those words, you just said, but God, it was a rubbish time, or wish I hadn’t gone through it. But actually, yeah, I got a lot of from it, you know, I wouldn’t want to go through it again. But I’m glad I did. Because it’s moved me on to the next point. And I know that blog post you’re talking about because I do amount of virtual stalking to get ready to do these shows. And when I was typing in your name, if you type in Thomas and Ben, you m you I forget Thomas umbrella, or Thomas. And if you get Thomas Olmsted, then best courtship thing is literally on every single page, it’s more than viable, isn’t it?
Thomas Umstattd [40:47]
Yes, it got nearly a million page views in three weeks. And it’s now since the side of Charles cotton far more than a million page views. And this was for a site that was just my personal blog that I hardly ever posted to the months before I wrote this post, I had 2000 pitches. So it was, you know, it wasn’t that I had this big platform of all these people that wanted to read my blog, it was just this one post resonated with a lot of people who had a similar journey, and had similar concerns or who violently and viciously disagreed with me. So I’ve had dozens and dozens and dozens of blog posts attacking me personally and attacking that post, which is, again, you know, God working all things together for good. Those negative posts are what caused my blog post to rank so well on Google because they all linked to the post with the word courtship somewhere in the link. And so in trying to hurt my article by, you know, here are the 10 reasons why Thomas is wrong. Somebody did a seven part blog post refuting my article, but every one of those posts linked to my post helping the rank and get out to more folks. So there’s a silver lining for every cloud. And I know that sounds very trite. But it it’s important to remember that because it was painful. When I mean my mom was in tears at one point reading her friends criticising her son on Facebook, it was a very difficult season. But it was it was an exciting one as well, because I’d never done anything that caught the kind of mainstream attention before. That’s why you’re so pale. Isn’t it a whole season you hid behind your sofa with your curtains drawn?
Yeah, it was
it. I mean, in joining the curtains, we really did do that was growing up as homeschoolers, we were afraid because little again, but you courage is not the absence of fear. And I knew I was going to get attacked. boldness is the absence of fear. If you’re bold, you are not feeling fear, you just do something. But courage is being scared out of your mind and doing doing it anyway. And whether it’s starting a business or asking somebody out on a date, the most important things in life are scary. You know, writing a book is scary. putting out a blog post is scary. It’s overcoming that fear is, like I say it’s the key to success, but it’s critical for success. And there’s a great book called The War of Art, by press field, I believe is the author. And he talks about this fear as the resistance. And Seth Godin talking about that book says, you can actually use that fear as your ally because you’re a fear afraid of or the resistance is for the things that are often the most beneficial for you. And so that fear, you can turn it on its head and use it almost as a guiding light and you figure out what am I most afraid of? And then you do that thing. If you do that, if you live your life, that way, you’re going to be on a crazy adventure. And you’re going to get a lot farther in life than if you do the opposite, which is what it what am I afraid of? I’m going to do anything but that thing, because that one thing you’re afraid of is often the very next step to your ultimate success.
David Ralph [43:53]
Yeah, no, I agree with that totally. And I’m in an environment now, that is really uncomfortable on a daily basis, and I will go to bed some nights and some nights I go to bed thinking, This is amazing. I’m invincible, everything’s going great. And then I wake up the next morning, go, Oh, my God, I’ve got to do this thing today. And I’m terrified a lot of the time, I will hold my hands up. And I will say on the mic. A lot of what you hear with me talking is actually me getting over a fear of somehow. But as I do it, I now realise, but it is, as I call, it’s my body’s compass, it’s showing me the way to a future that should be better. Because every time I overcome that fear, I’ve actually grown. And when I realised most of the time, it wasn’t scary Anyway, it was just something that will kind of seem scary in my head. But you just keep on going keep on going keep on going. And now I’m not quite there, but I’m almost there. But I look forward to the scary bit where I kind of go, oh, there we go. That’s another way I’m gonna go back by now.
Thomas Umstattd [44:53]
That’s, that’s so great. And if you think about it, think about the things that were really scary for you five and 10 years ago, you know, the idea of those things. Now, it’s often not scary at all. Like it’s it’s almost you almost laugh at your past self for being so afraid of that thing, because once you overcome it, you truly do overcome it. I mean, some things may always be scary. And if you’re afraid of heights, you may always get a kind of pitter patter when you’re at the edge of a tall building. But even something like that, the more you embrace it, the less power over you it has.
David Ralph [45:22]
So So what kind of scares you because you are, you know, the owner of your own company, that must have been pretty scary actually launching bad and going into it into the unknown. You stand up in front of, you know, huge audiences and you speak and that’s quite scary as well. So can you remember times when you almost thought no, I can’t do this? Or has it just been such small fears that you’ve just overcome them quite easily?
Thomas Umstattd [45:47]
Well, those times have no I can’t do this happens almost daily. So sometimes I’m very confident. But my, my journey has been very much like yours. You know, there are nights, you know, just even in the last few weeks where I had a hard time sleeping, I was so afraid. And I remember there was a moment when I was growing up. My dad is an accountant. And accountants occasionally have run ins with organised crime, you know, a lot of folks who work with the FBI or accountants and he had, we never really got the details. But, you know, at one point, he came home and he’s like, everybody locked the doors. And he was, you know, there was just this sense of fear that he had. And apparently he had, you know, gotten on the wrong side of somebody who had a tangible form of power, something like that. And I remember after a couple of days, he was like, All right, I’m deciding not to be afraid anymore. And he didn’t allow that fear to rule his life. And he just made a conscious decision, I’m not going to allow the boogeyman for lack of a more specific word, to to rule me. And I think that’s that’s critical we have in its in its quintessentially American not to say that it’s not American, but it’s a value that we put in our music. So we say it’s a the land of the free and the home of the brave, and to be free, you have to be brave. And I’m not just talking about free and unlike a political sense, but free in terms of your business. You know, if you want to be free from your boss, you have to be brave, you know, those things go hand in hand, it’s like breathing in and breathing out. And that that courage, courage is a value that all people share. There’s no nation in the world, no country that values cowardice. It’s like, we are a nation of cowards. No one says that, like we can have, it’s it. It’s one of the few universal attributes that everyone can admire. And you can admire courage even in an enemy. And there are many instances throughout history where a warrior is given Mercy by a very ruthless leader, because they admire their courage and battle or what have you. And so I have to have that constant reminder, you know, and fear something I have to battle with on a daily basis. And to answer your question, fear of failure, feel fear of financial failures, you know, so I’ve had a lot of kind of visible successes, you know, I’m running this company, and you know, these various things, but none of those successes yet have led to financial success. And this is one of the things that can be a bit discouraging, you look at people and they look so successful, but you’re not necessarily seeing the whole storey, you know, people who look at me on stage, they’re like, oh, wow, he’s knows all these things. What they don’t know is that I live in a two bedroom apartment with my sister, and I have a, you know, leaky trunk in my car and mould everywhere, and I can’t afford to replace it, because I haven’t had that financial success yet. And, you know, just to be, you know, super transparent for your, all your 10s of thousands of listeners. And so you have to be okay with that. And it’s something I deal with, you know, people judging me or, you know, kind of the cat getting out of the bag that he really doesn’t know what he’s talking about, you know, all of those things are things you have to have to constantly deal with. And each victory makes the next victory easier. And each defeat is an opportunity to try again, you know, it’s not like, it’s wants to for all, you know, I think, God that I’m not living in a generation, like what my grandparents went through, you know, fighting World War Two, and especially in England, you know, what you’ll have to go through and World War Two, or someone is literally dropping bombs on you every single day. I mean, that I just couldn’t imagine that, you know, that’s a totally different kind of fear to overcome. And that historical perspective, I find to be very helpful as well. It’s like, you know, really business failure compared to what other generations have gone through. It’s not a big deal. No, I
David Ralph [49:25]
agree with that, when when I started this being super transparent as well, I was frightened of starting it, even though I knew it was something I wanted to do. And then when it started to really go nut balls, and the audience bigger started flying up, I actually was more scared when I was creating something, but I couldn’t quite keep control up somehow. And Benny is sort of right after a while, and then I’ve gone to a next scary level. And it just keeps going up going up going up. And I just have to keep on thinking to myself, just do what they liked in the first place. And keep on trying to do it. Because once you head starts spinning off into different directions, you really do lose control of that kind of that that that fear compass, that points the direction, he just keeps on spinning around spinning around, you get nowhere.
Thomas Umstattd [50:12]
That’s exactly right. And, you know, just embracing it. I know, that’s not what you want to hear. But my co host on my podcast, he he was very afraid of heights and skydiving. And so he purposely went skydiving because he was afraid of it. And I’m not ready to jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane. But I admire that kind of courage even on something as would seem so silly as that. But again, that fear compass only works if you’re not afraid of trivial things, you have to get past the fears of the trivial things, at least in part, before the fear compass really starts guiding you on the right path. And not saying that jumping out of a plane as soon as the right path, but there may be a new right path as you build that courage muscle in yourself.
David Ralph [50:56]
I don’t get the point in jumping out of aeroplanes, I’ll be honest, I’ve been thousands of planes, they’ve all landed. And I think by law of averages, if it’s going to crash, you’re not going to get a chance to jump out anyway. So I see no point in it, just wait until the plane lands and step out.
Thomas Umstattd [51:11]
Yeah, I hear you, I hear you.
David Ralph [51:13]
There we go. There we go. So what I want to do is just before I put you on the Sermon on the Mount, I do want to play the words of Steve Jobs, because this is the theme of the show. And you’ve had a kind of squarely career getting to where you are today. So I want to see if these words have resonance to you. So this is Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs [51:29]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [52:04]
So what do you think about those words?
Thomas Umstattd [52:07]
If I were to talk to, I think he’s right on the money. And it’s so true, as I was listening to that, that that’s exactly how it’s been. And I remember when I was in high school, I was like, I will not do technology. once I graduate from college, the whole point of college is to get out of technology and just do business. And, you know, of course, I’m still in technology, I didn’t see how the dots would connect. So yeah, it’s I think that’s really, really solid advice. And it’s, it’s, it’s a freeing advice, it gives hope. Because when when you’re in a difficult season, you know, say you’re going through a business failure, or you know, a relationship is falling apart, all you can see is the pain. It’s like that one, the dot that you are in is so overwhelming, that you can’t see beyond it and your world gets very small. And so remembering that you’re not how you are now is not how you will always be is a very freeing concept and it something that we need constant reminders of its. And I think that’s why your shows so popular is that it’s a daily reminder. And a lot of folks are very appreciative of that. Because you can remember and then you forget, and then you remember, and then you forget, and that perspective is priceless.
David Ralph [53:16]
So So do you have a big.in your life when you when you look back, do you kind of go? Yeah, that was really well, I started becoming who I am now.
Thomas Umstattd [53:27]
I went through 2008 was a very painful year for me, I had a very, very painful courtship breakup, my grandfather died, I had a business fail. I, in graduating from school, my friends all left the town that I was living in at the time, and my dad had a heart attack was kind of like, in a six month period is like Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And it was because of that season that, you know, I’m I pivoted and started, what is now the company that I’m still running, I eventually move back to Austin and started making some changes. But that was kind of a pivot point in my life that made me start to ask a lot of deep questions and, you know, lead, you know, six years later to, you know, successful blog posts and possibly a book, a lot of folks are requesting that I write a book on the blog posts kind of to expand it. And I didn’t see it at the time. So I was like, this is just so painful. I couldn’t see beyond it. But in hindsight, I could see, you know, God doing a work in me and character being developed and realising who I am, as my dad says success as a poor teacher. And there are some lessons that only failure can teach. And so since that year, I’ve been reading a lot of books on failure, trying to learn from failure, because I don’t want to go through the suffering and not learn the lesson. That’s like the most tragic things like I’m going to go through this suffering, I want to learn the lesson that this suffering has to teach. And so that’s that’s the path that I’m on?
David Ralph [54:57]
Well, I think you are going to do amazingly well because I just meaning that you have got a deep belief in what’s right, and the way to do it as well. And it just comes across big time on the conversation today. And I’m going to do something now Thomas that I’d never done before, this is the end of the show. And this is the Sermon on the mic, when I would normally send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. But I’m not going to do that. Today, I’m going to go and ask deathbed Thomas to go back in time, because I’d be fascinated to see even if he could get off the bed. First of all, so I’m going to play the theme tune. And I’m going to send him back in time to have a one on one with his younger self. And he can choose any age, he could even choose you. This is how open on being tonight. So this is up and this is the Sermon on the mic.
Thomas Umstattd [56:04]
So hello, 2008 Thomas, this is deathbed Thomas. And I know that things are really tough for you right now this is a painful season. And I’m not going to lie to you that it’s going to get better all at once. Because they’re your life’s going to have a lot of ups and downs in the future. But I want to encourage you not to give up. Things are going to be tough at times, and I know they’re tough now. But the hardest seasons have the biggest lessons to teach. It’s the droughts, that caused the roots of a tree to go deeper and further to encourage you to do something would be to seek out partners in your life. And you can’t walk this road alone. And I know that after a failed relationship, you’re very bitter. But that is not the way to live the rest of your life and you’re going to need partners, especially in business, you don’t have all the answers you think you do. Right now you think you know how to run a business. But you’re going to need folks who can who have strengths where you have weaknesses. And don’t go through life alone. Invest in your family, invest in your relationship with God. That’s not just something that happens. You have to make a point to spend time with God and love him and allow yourself to be loved by him. And finally, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Because you’re not going to find perfection, but there’s a lot of good things in store for you if you’re willing to embrace them.
David Ralph [57:33]
Thomas I’m absolutely delighted that Thomas Armstead deathbed Thomas sounded so healthy he he’s doing all right. He’s he’s fighting fear.
Thomas Umstattd [57:44]
Yeah, hopefully, deathbed. Thomas won’t come around anytime soon.
David Ralph [57:47]
No, absolutely a long time. So how can our audience connect with you, Thomas.
Thomas Umstattd [57:52]
So you can find I have a podcast novel marketing podcast, it’s a podcast on not marketing, just do a search for novel Mark getting in the iTunes Store. If you want to read the post on courtship, just google the word courtship, it should rank in the top first page of Google. And then our other blogs on author media. That’s my company blog. And we talk a lot about how to get published and kind of how publishing works. If you have a book in you, we have a lot of free resources there to help get that book out into the world,
David Ralph [58:21]
we will have all the links on the show notes. And if you can’t remember how to spell Thomas’s name, just like Thomas, I’m brother. And then I promise, his name will be number two happened every single time for a whole week, Thomas and brothers the way forward. Thomas, thank you so much for spending time with us today joining those dots. And please come back again, when you have more dots to join up. Because I do believe that by joining those dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Thomas, thank you so much.
Thomas Umstattd [58:47]
Thank you, David. And this is great.
Outro [58:50]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every single successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life, head over to Join Up Dots.com to download this amazing guide for free. And we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
David Ralph [59:16]
Yes, hello there. You know, during the show, I was looking through the iTunes reviews and everyone’s left. Oh, I’ve had some amazing ones. Well, every single one is amazing. They’re all five star. Why will they not be five star? Because it’s a five star show. But I haven’t seen one from you. Is it something I’ve said? Is it is it me? Please tell me Is it me? Well, if it’s just an oversight, please make amends by going over to iTunes and looking for Join Up Dots with David Ralph. And if you could find a few moments to leave a five star rating and review our would be absolutely amazing. And it will really push my show further up the rankings and make it more of a show but I want to deliver to you on a daily basis. So if you could do that, thank you so much and I think you want I might even come and mow your lawn is Sunday.
