Jesse LeBeau | Nov 22, 2024

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Jesse, welcome aboard to the show. So happy to have you with us today. [00:00:04] Speaker B: Good to be on board. How are you doing? [00:00:06] Speaker A: Wonderful. I am so excited to talk to you because, you know, as a parent myself with three kids, you know, in this teenager zone, there's a few things that I just don't know what the right answer is. And I'll jump right into the first one. I have this conflict between. You want to make your children stronger and expose them to challenges and kind of push them. But on the other hand, you want to give them this, like, safe environment where, you know, you're not hurting them emotionally in any way. What's your take on this? How do we balance those two? [00:00:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a delicate balance, isn't it? A tightrope. How old are your kids? [00:00:50] Speaker A: So got 12, 10 and 5. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Okay. So spread out a little bit. You're dealing with a little bit of preteen coming on. And so I feel like it's one of these things with a lot of parents, and I think this just comes naturally to most people, is you want them to have a better life or an easier life than you had. And that's why you work hard and you do all the things that you do so that you can provide for them in that way. The trouble with that is a lot of what makes you great in what you do is the adversities and the challenges that you went through. And if you don't, it's like lifting weights, right? If you go and you lift weights, you're actually tearing down the muscle and it builds back stronger. So you're helping your children develop their character, their resilience and their grit, and that comes through them actually doing difficult things. So it is within the parameters of your judgment, obviously, as a parent. And your 12 year old or your 10 year old might be totally different what you do with them than your 5 year old based on their personality, what they're into. And I know that my background is basketball. I was just so into basketball growing up. I just was dribbling a ball all around. Just a crazy guy into basketball. And what you find is when you have teammates, you might have a teammate where you need to yell at him and punch him in the chest before the game to get him fired up so that he plays his very best. And that's what works for him. Where another teammate, you could barely raise your voice because if you do, he'll completely shut down. So it isn't a one size fits all. And that's what makes it challenging for you as A parent, because it's not just like, oh, here's what you should do in this exact situation. Because it depends also on the kid and how they respond. But. [00:02:44] Speaker A: Oh, my God, go ahead. You know, I had, I had my first two kids and I'm like, I got this. You know, they're both gifted and talented. You know, everything's fine. Like, I, as a parent, I am pretty awesome. I got my shit together. This third one, walk in the park. [00:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:04] Speaker A: This is how you feel. You know, you're in a slap in the face. It's coming. A punch in the gut. It's coming soon. My third, he basically got kick out, kicked out of two daycares. And I'm like, clearly I don't know what I'm doing. And what worked for, you know, you know, thing one and thing two does not work for thing three. We've got to acknowledge this. We've got to acknowledge that kids are different from each other. I think that's such an important point. I appreciate that. [00:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, that's a fun one. I, as a thing three, myself, the baby in the family, I, I know I got away with a whole lot more than my older brother and sister did because my parents were tired, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Oh, my God, he's not gonna die. If he falls, he's gonna be okay. You know, he'll heal and everything's not the end of the world. And so they're more relaxed. And I don't know if I got kicked out of any preschools or anything like that, but it sounds like you got a feisty one on your hands. [00:04:04] Speaker A: I'll tell you something, I was the feisty one. I was think three. I was incredibly independent and feisty. And I'm thinking like this, this, this, this, this son that I love to death is here to punish me for what I did to my parents growing up. Like, this is, this is payback time. [00:04:20] Speaker B: It's hard to get mad because you're like, oh, this is me. I know exactly where that came from. [00:04:25] Speaker A: This is, this is a clone of me. So how can I, how can I be upset? My, my mother in law, she says to me, so we, we, we, we left, we left the kids, all three of them in Lithuania, where she lives, and we went to Italy to do like a road trip, just myself and the wife. And we come back and my lover, my lover, my mother in law says to. No, no, my mother in law, that's Freudian. I mean, the research can go into that. She basically says with a Heavy Russian accent. She says to me, you guys are very strong. And she says it while looking at my youngest son, thinking it's a compliment. But we know what she's talking about. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Reading between the lines a little bit. Wait, so you're. You're Lithuanian and your wife is Russian? [00:05:13] Speaker A: No, she. So. So it's a Russian accent. Because everybody in ex Soviet Union has this kind of Russian accent. And everybody kind of speaks Russian, obviously, but a lot of them won't admit it because there's this animosity, if you don't know, between the ex Soviet Union countries and then what we call Mother Russia. Right. So actual Russia today. So there's a lot of animosity there. So even though they have the accent, they speak the language, don't necessarily like each other. [00:05:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:05:42] Speaker A: So I gotta ask you. Okay. Yeah. Going down this path and journey of like, we want to. You know, many of our children are so lucky to live these shielded lives. But you said something so important. It's our adversity that made us the people that we are today. Now, I don't want my kids to be on the street like I was, but I want them to get the sense that they can accomplish difficult or what they might think is impossible things. How can, how do. How do we do that as parents? [00:06:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So you have to let them fail within reason. Like you said, being out on the street is probably a little too far and not the right choice for you as a parent, 5 year old or your 10 year old or your 12 year old. But if they don't learn to fail. Because the hardest thing a kid knows is the hardest thing that they know. So sometimes we'll have kids that. [00:06:36] Speaker A: Hold on, that's. That's so important. I mean. Yeah, you said it as if it's like, oh, everybody's gonna. What does that mean? The hardest thing that they know is the hardest thing that they know because that completely changes the psychology of the child turning into an adult and what they can do. So you have to talk about this for a second. [00:06:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So the things that you experienced, like everything else is kind of a cakewalk after that. I know for things that I've dealt with in my life, with stress and with pressure and the losing of life of loved ones and that kind of thing. When these other problems come up with money and finances and these different things, it's like, okay, it's an inconvenience, but I've been through so much tougher that I can get through any of these things with Ease. [00:07:19] Speaker A: And so perspective isn't it? [00:07:21] Speaker B: Right, it's that perspective. And you've earned basically that belief in yourself and that confidence of like, I'm somebody that can get through difficult things. And guess what? This isn't very motivational speaker of me, which is normally what I'm doing. But bad things are going to happen to you in your life. It's just inevitable. It's a matter of when. And anybody can have a great attitude when everything is going your way, but what do you do when the chips are down and the ball doesn't bounce your way? So to the hardest thing you know, is the hardest thing you know, I mean, we'll have kids that come to us and they're ready to be emancipated or they're self harming and hurting themselves because their parents took away their iPhone or their social media account. And you laugh. And I feel the same way. I've had to work on myself with empathy because I'm like, oh my gosh, the heart. Because the joke is, oh, the hardest thing the kids today know is like slow wifi and you know, things like that, like, oh, the wi fi was slow, the temperature wasn't perfect in the car on the way to school. Like that's a real adversity. They haven't had to do all those things. And the only people we can blame is ourself as the adults that are parenting them and helping them. And it's that tough balance. How much do you let it be easy and create this awesome life for them that you worked hard for? [00:08:40] Speaker A: It's like it's a thin, thin line, right? So on the one. Okay, so I'll give you an example. I am forcing my daughter, and she hates my guts for it, to read a book called Thinking Fast and Slow. Daniel Kunelman. Ama Stravorsky. It's like the fathers of social psychology, right? She's 10. She's 10 reading like university grade literature. And I'm saying, look, Emma, you can do this. I know that you can do this. And my point here in this exercise that I need you to know that you can do this. And that whatever you think your limits are and whatever you think you know you can't do in the future, you will come back to this moment and you will remember that you did it. And it was this funny, funny coincidence that. And this is the craziest story ever. One of her friends parents said, hey, we're taking the daughter to Disney World and can Emma come with? And they paid for the whole thing. We tried to pay them back. They wouldn't take the money. And coincidentally this coincides with the book. And I'm like, Emma, if you don't, you know, because I test her at the end of the week and I'm like, if you don't pass the test, you don't do what you need to do, you're going to be grounded. Now. I didn't mean that you're not going to go to Disney World. That would be, you know, too much. But she got it in her head that she's not going to go to Disney World. So suddenly had she this huge unintended incentive design with this task that I was trying to really make her a smarter. But more than that, know that she can do things that she, she might think are impossible. And she did 10 chapters in two weeks of this book, which incredibly difficult. And she passed the test. [00:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:27] Speaker A: What. You know, so, so to me that point is like, you know, and my wife, at some stage she was like, well, this is, this is college grade. Like, can she do this? And I was like, I think she can. So even adults, we weren't sure what her limits were. She kicked it out of the park. She knocked it out of the park. She did it. Right. So but on the other hand, yeah, we did get to tears, we did get to anger. She did get to like, this is, oh, this is university. Like, what are you expecting from a 10 year old? Both from her and from my wife. So I'm like, at some stage I was like, oh, like I'm going out on the limb here. Is this the right thing to do? [00:11:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh man, I love that. I love that story. And you're illustrating something that I talk with parents all the time about. And it's three words. Raise the bar. Yes. And the crazy thing is when you raise the bar, that's, that's a high bar. College level as a 10 year old. The founding fathers of the psychology. Right. And it's the kids surprise you more often than not when you raise the bar. And I deal with kids all the time. And as the person who comes in as a coach or a mentor, I'm seeing a different side of them. And mom and dad see, and it's so easy with mom and dad to have the whiny side, the, it's too hard, the complaining side. [00:11:52] Speaker A: Oh, this is, this is amazing. Right? Children behave differently in different environments. Like you think the child you have at home, that's what they know. [00:12:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:12:01] Speaker A: First of all, this is mind boggling. When I first Figured this out. I was like, oh, hold on. Because this shines a spotlight on parents who are doing something wrong. Like, why is the child behaving differently with the. With the teacher or the sports coach? And sure, there's also an environmental issue. Right. But break this down to us, because this just made me mad. [00:12:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it is the truth. And a lot of times you're thinking, as the parent, oh, they're not going to be a good communicator with adults or a good teammate or participating in class. And sometimes that can be the case, don't get me wrong. But a lot of times it's the opposite. And they present their very best side and are trying and making an effort with those outside people. It's just how I'm the same way. I have amazing mom and dad, and to this day, as an adult, they kind of drive me a little bit crazy because they're my mom and dad, and I spent so much time around them, and I know their tics and mannerisms and what drives each other crazy. And so with your own family, I'll give you an example. We'll have a call like this and be talking with a kid, and it'll be so great, and we'll have all this great stuff, and then they'll go to mom and dad and be like, oh, it was so hard. It was so painful, so scary. And I just. I tell the parent, I'm like, you know, they were absolutely awesome. They were funny, they were charismatic, they were vulnerable. And you have to not reinforce this behavior at home, because they know when they do that, they get out of having to go to school, they get out of having to do homework and do anything outside of their comfort zone. So, yeah, you're not alone in that. Don't think that you're crazy. That's kind of a thing. And it's only probably going to escalate as they get into the teen years, that the three of them. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So we. Okay, this is borderline cancer. Cancel culture zone. But I tell my kids that I don't care about their schooling. And in fact, it usually comes up when we have to take a road trip or have to very lucky to take, like, a road trip or go somewhere. And I'm like, look, they're going to learn more in getting exposed to this culture, to seeing these people, to talking to them, to doing whatever activity that we're doing, than going and spending, you know, five hours in a closed class and just. And just learning and studying and doing their thing. Here's how my kids respond. They're upset with me that they're losing school. [00:14:24] Speaker B: Wow. [00:14:25] Speaker A: And the, like, the most powerful thing that I think you can know if your child is doing well at school is just by doing that test. [00:14:34] Speaker B: Do they want to be there? [00:14:36] Speaker A: Do they? Exactly. [00:14:37] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. [00:14:38] Speaker A: So exactly. You. Exactly. Right. So if they're like faking, you know, being sick and you're like, okay, no problem, you don't have to go to school, and they're like. And they jump on it. It's like, oh, that, yeah, yeah, I'm really sick, blah, blah, blah. But you know, they're not sick. That's a red flag. [00:14:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:55] Speaker A: If they don't want to go to school, that's a red flag. And then to me, it's a question of, okay, like, you're not sick. What's really going on? Like, why don't you want to go to school? And I've seen that. I saw like last year my kid was in this situation and I could see he was not. And then a year later, it was like he loved school. So I'm like, okay, there's, there's a, there's something going on there. It's bullying, it's a teacher. It's something there that you need to figure out. And they won't tell you, obviously, so you need a notice in order to figure it out. [00:15:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you feel like your kids in, you know, 10 and 12, 5 doesn't really fit in this question, but are they into the social aspect? Do they like having the friends that they have in their classroom or are they like, it sounds like the 10 year old is super accelerated with learning, but how does that kind of. [00:15:49] Speaker A: Here's, here's like they're all kind of similar in this aspect, but the 5 year old is definitely on the extreme edge of the spectrum. You will start conversations with, with people he doesn't know, like strangers in Costco. They'll be like, it's like the queen, like, hello, hello, how are you? How are you doing today? And I'm like, I look at him and I'm like, I like this level of social skills is something that I don't have that I would like. I don't feel comfortable doing that, you know, and it's just delightful. It's. It's something really unique and special. [00:16:22] Speaker B: That youthful exuberance. I had a guy always used to say youthful exuberance. You're. Yeah. They have that just innocence about them. And that's the thing that breaks my heart about the devices and the Phones and all those things. Like, I remember we used to have teammates that would come from Africa for basketball and they had that same thing. It's like they still had that innocence that hadn't been kind of stolen from them. And I feel like that gets taken away from kids young, younger and younger because of these different things. But you made me think of something earlier and I kind of wanted to emphasize the point. That's awesome that you did with making the 10 year old do the lessons there with having that goal at the end. I, for 10 years traveling around, speaking and I started to, after I get done doing these little motivational talks, the kids will line up afterwards and want to share with me because I get pretty vulnerable sharing the things that I struggled with. Right. And I started to hear the same thing over and over again, no matter where I went. And that thing was that they're struggling with their mental health. And that wasn't just from the kids. It was from the teachers, the parents, the principals, over and over again. And it was before the pandemic came around and you started to hear it kind of as a buzzword all the time. And so finally, you know, after hearing this in the big cities or when we're out in the rural country areas, we looked into it and we're like, all right, we got to figure this out. Clearly there's a big problem here. And from all of the research, all the data, all the experts, everything we could find, we saw that if we could improve confidence, it made an impact positively in almost every other area of a kid's life. So that was the big light bulb moment for us of like, all right, we're going to put together a program that we can help kids build confidence. But the tricky thing about it is you can't give a kid confidence. You can't pass it on in your genetics or in your talking. You can't compliment them and tell them how beautiful and smart they are. They have to earn it by accomplishing small things. And I heard a guy say it the other way and I thought it was really well put of every time you get a small win, you accomplish something. You get another piece of paper and you're stacking up that undeniable proof so you know that you deserve and you've earned that self belief in yourself. And it doesn't matter what people out in the world say or trolls are saying about you on Internet, you know who you are, you know what you're capable of and you have that stack of proof to back it up. And so I think that's exactly what you did with your kiddo. There is, hey, this is a hard thing. And maybe there was a little funny side motivation that you didn't know what's going on, but it showed. Wow, I raised that bar. Boom. And now that self belief is there. And then it will make such a huge impact. And you can always refer to that to your other kids as well. Of like, remember that time I did something like this? You could do anything if you're, if your brother, your sister could do this. [00:19:16] Speaker A: There's no I set them all to up to fail. The bigger one is learning a security book. Like, you know, it's fine, they all know that it's coming or, you know, it's not a problem. Here's my. I mean the positive aspect of the spectrum is wonderful. I think it's easier to do. I caught my wife, my wife criticizing me. She said, you're bullying the child. And my answer was yes, absolutely, Absolutely. I want them to know how to deal with negative feedback. I want them to know how to deal with, you know, difficult situations. I want them to learn how to use humor, to learn how to use deflection. I want them to know how to deal with it. And I rather they go through this clearly negative behavior with me where I can give them a hug, tell them I love them, but still, and then teach them what are the tools. How do you, how do you deal with bullies, then them learn how to do this outside of the protected environment. So I think there's also a space and I don't know, maybe this is contrarian, maybe this is going too far, but I feel that there's a space to say, look, there's shit's gonna happen out there. You rather experience this with me and I'll teach you how to deal with it. Even if it feels like, you know, I, your father, are the bully right. [00:20:26] Speaker B: Now, man, I love it. And of course we aren't saying go and bully your kids and that's not what you're doing. It's within the framework of love and looking out for their best interests. But you're being realistic that the world is tough and cruel and mean and we're big here in America on kindness. I go and speak nonstop kindness campaigns and I love kindness. And I encourage every single person to be as kind as possible, not just for the other people, but for yourself. Like be kind to yourself, but at the same time, equally. The other side of the coin that doesn't get talked about as much resilience is Toughness, grit, resilience. Because we can go and we can feel good and have a talk about kindness. And then you go out into the parking lot and people are fighting, just trying to get out of the parking spaces and flipping each other off and saying mean, awful things. And you have to be prepared to be able to handle that and meet it with kindness without also being a doormat. But so many kids in most of the. [00:21:28] Speaker A: This is. Okay, so you've really identified three, like, you know, points on this triangle. And the one is kindness, the other is grit or resilience, and the other is submissiveness and being a doormat. In my opinion, these three elements are inexplicably, you know, connected. And, you know, I think that's where you're going with this. I need you to explain the dynamics between the two and how easy it is to fall into these traps. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And I can speak from personal experience. I'm a recovering doormat. And I remember someone said that to me. It was a dear friend who, who passed away and he's like, hey, you're letting this college roommate situation absolutely steal your peace because you're trying to be the nice person and you're being a doormat right now. And you have to have a little bit of backbone and stand up for yourself. And that was such a huge, I never forgot it. It's such a huge learning lesson for me as a young 20 year old to be like, okay, sometimes you have to like, put your foot down and say, this isn't okay. And I'm big on that when it comes to how people treat you and respect you and communicate with you. And that's to your point of dealing with bullying. And a lot of kids, they don't know the difference between playful banter where you're giving each other a hard time because they didn't have a dad like you who was able to push their buttons a little bit and able to joke around and have a good time in sports. That's how we communicated is you're making fun of your teammates all the time, but you're doing it from a place of love. And that's how you show that I actually like you. But if someone doesn't come from that world, they're like, why is this person being mean? And they can't handle it. And there's is a little bit of a learning curve if those two worlds are going to coexist. But standing up for yourself, being kind is so important. But then also being tough and being able to get through things because that's something that we really have an epidemic going on in our world of kids that go off to college and they're back before Thanksgiving break and don't finish out the school year because they can't handle someone who just even has a different viewpoint on the world than them. Which, guess what, if anyone has all the same viewpoints of you on the world, one of you isn't thinking or is probably trying to date the other person and pretending. So, you know, it's just these unrealistic things where we can't handle these things and life is tough and it's difficult and it's confusing. But kindness, great. But you gotta have that grit and resilience on the other side. Because out in the world, it's a tough place, it's competitive. [00:24:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So there's this. I think there's an ambiguity or a conflict between resolving conflict through kindness and through setting borders. And I'll give a very short story. My son was being bullied. I told him, give the. Give the bully a compliment every day. He was very young, he was only 8 years old. And I explained how to give a good compliment. And you know, cut. Short story long. Long story short, three months later, I find out that his bully and he are now friends. Right? So he was able to. [00:24:42] Speaker B: You found out what? [00:24:43] Speaker A: His bully and him became friends. Right. I now I tell that story just to showcase it. I got criticism on that story, saying, look, you know, that doesn't always work. Now I agree. So the reason that that worked is because they were incredibly young and I knew that there's no way that a year old child is being an asshole. Like that would be outrageous. But the problem is that, you know, 20, 30 year olds, yeah, they can be assholes. And kindness might not work. So you need to set borders. [00:25:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, man. The bullying thing is such a complex issue and people have so many different views and issues on it. There's a great video, if anyone's listening and watching this right now, that they can check out by a guy named Brooks Gibbs, who is a, is an awesome speaker. And his big platform was talking about bullying. And he will pull up a kid in front of the entire school and he goes, I want you to bully me. And he gives them a microphone. And you could say whatever you want, you know, within reason, don't cuss, or things like that. But tell me, I'm, you know, whatever. You know me, you don't like my shirt? You think I look stupid, My face is fat. And the kids go in on him. And he just reacts the first time and he, you see him get mad. No, I'm not. You are. Da, da, da, da. And it just escalates, escalates, escalates. Then he goes, all right, you got me that time. Let's try it again and see if you can get me. And on the second time, I think you know where this is going. He just. You're probably right. I am, I am short and I'm not very smart, but I really like your shoes and starts complimenting them and it totally diffuses the situation. So I love that. I've seen that work for so many people. But in other scenarios, when it's something that's endangering your physical safety or more extreme, if you can handle it on yourself by yourself, I think that's the best place to start. And then you got to get an adult involved if it, if it escalates and those types of things. But yeah, I love that. Dude, you're doing a lot of great stuff. I think you're doing really well there. [00:26:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I think parenting is the art of, you know, doing the right thing and fucking up. And you're going between the two probably on a daily basis. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Well, in Lithuania, you guys have to take a test before you can have kids, right? You have to pass a parenting test. Isn't that right? [00:27:09] Speaker A: Maybe, maybe that's somewhere else I'm. Or it's new. I'm not familiar with that. [00:27:13] Speaker B: I'm messing with you. It's just like you don't. There's no, you gotta get a fight to get a driver's license. You got to take a test to do anything else. You got it? But the most important thing, we all agree, like every person that's messed up, it's like, well, let me tell you about their childhood and their dad was an alcoholic or beat them or whatever. Thing is, it's like, how do we not have some better systems in place? All it takes is, you know, just, just making them. [00:27:36] Speaker A: Jesse, I have one last question to you. [00:27:38] Speaker B: Yeah? [00:27:38] Speaker A: Yeah. If you had to go back, and this is a difficult question, but I think you're going to do well. If you had to go back to 20 year old Jesse, or earlier even, what would your advice be to him? [00:27:50] Speaker B: This one might be more specific just to me, but it would be to enjoy the journey. And I've been told that so many times by so many successful people that have millions and millions of dollars and cool, successful lives and relationships. And I always go, yeah, but that's easy for you. To say, because you've made it and you're a multimillionaire and have all the awesome things that I'm working really hard for. And so as someone who's very ambitious and a perfectionist and a workaholic, I oftentimes sacrifice living in the moment for the future. So that would probably be the thing, because you look back and probably some of the best years of my life were 12 year old year playing little league, all star baseball. Like, those are the best times of your life that no amount of money will ever get back, or any amount of awards or accolades or success. So my platform is attitude is everything is what I normally talk about. But I think if I was giving it directly to me, I had the attitude thing dialed in fairly good because my dad pushed it on me. But I would say, hey, make the most out of every day and squeeze every ounce of joy that you can out of it. [00:29:03] Speaker A: Jesse, that's absolutely delightful. I appreciate you. I'll give you one last story before we go. [00:29:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:08] Speaker A: My son put together a ballot, right? Elections and all that. He put together a ballot for father, mother, vice father, vice mother. And I was like, okay, I'm game. I'll. I'm willing to be elected out of my role. However, when you get all my privileges, do you also get all my responsibilities? Like, do you have to go to work? Do you have to. And he was like, no, no, no. We only get the privileges, not the responsibilities. I did get voted out. My. My wife still is still mom, so. But, but, but, yeah, they did not agree to take on my responsibilities. That's why I'm doing this here today and not my son. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So they not only did they vote you out, they replaced you with themselves. [00:29:52] Speaker A: Yes, they replaced me with themselves, but I still need to do all the hard work. They just get all my privileges, and now I also have their responsibilities. So I was like, so basically, you want a dictatorship and you're rewriting all the laws now that you're elected. Got it. [00:30:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I like the. I like these guys. This is a. They got some good ideas. We're gonna have to jam after this. [00:30:13] Speaker A: There you go. Jesse, thank you so much. I appreciate you for coming on the show today. [00:30:17] Speaker B: Thank you, man. This was fun.