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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:02 Ryan Holiday? Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. Well, on Thursdays, we not only read the daily meditation, but we answer some questions from listeners and fellow Stoics who are trying to apply this philosophy, just as you are. Some of these come from my talks. Some of these come from Zoom sessions that we do with Daily Stoic Life members or as part of the challenges. Some of them are from interactions I have on the street when there happened to be someone there recording. But thank you for listening, and we hope this is of use to you.
0:45 Ryan Holiday? If you had the world enough and time. Look, maybe if things were different, maybe then you could afford to get in pointless arguments with strangers. Maybe then you could afford to think that things would always go your way. Maybe then you could follow every urge and impulse. Maybe you could put off getting better, put off making better choices until tomorrow. But the thing is, things are the way they are. Life is short, fortune is unpredictable. Consequences are real. If you had the world enough and time, perhaps you could afford to be irresponsible. You could be lazy, you could be entitled. You could give yourself over to your passions. You do not. "Death hangs over you," Marx really said.
1:30 Ryan Holiday? "Fortune behaves exactly as she pleases," Seneca said. Tomorrow is not promised. Nothing is certain. Nothing can be taken for granted. Nothing is worth choosing more than the right thing, not later, but now.
1:54 Ryan Holiday? Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another Thursday episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. I'm actually in the morning. I'm heading out to do a talk in Houston where I throw on the little mic, do my chat, and then answer questions. And I try to record those and bring those to you because, you know, it's one thing to just sort of talk at you about Stoicism, but I try to, I wish it could be more of a back and forth. We could chat a bit more. I could answer your questions. And I try to do that when I get in front of groups. It's one of my favorite things to do. I was in Arizona a couple of months back. I gave this talk to Live Nation, and I was talking about music and Stoicism, talking about my favorite band, Iron Maiden, among many other things. I think you will like
2:37 Ryan Holiday? this little snippet of that conversation. We had a, like, I think, a 60-minute Q and A there, something pretty substantial. So I had broken up into parts, and it was really fun. And I think you're going to enjoy it. And thanks to Live Nation for having me out to talk Stoicism and music.
2:59 Speaker 01 Hi. I'm here in the tour marketing department. I'm also an author of Bring Out the Boss and You, a guide for entrepreneurs. And, thank you. Question for you. What do you, or where do you find your motivation to keep going when you have like long workdays and you feel like your to-do list is never ending, or it's just created by other people? What do you find your, you know, your inspiration and your motivation to kind of keep going?
3:29 Ryan Holiday? I, there's a great writing rule that someone told me. They said, just two crappy pages a day. That's all you have to do. And so I talk about sort of boiling it down to its essence. It's like, what are the, what is like the least amount you can do to call it a win? And so I have that, and that kind of creates momentum for me. So it's like, I just try to make a positive contribution to the work every day. And almost always, I do a lot more than that. But it creates like a minimum for me that allows me to sort of never have that fully taken away. Even if travel was crazy, I'm stuck at the airport, I can, I can do one thing, right? Or, you know, my kids are sick, I can figure out how to do one thing. I, I try to sort of narrow it down.
4:13 Ryan Holiday? But I, I do try to, you've got to protect whatever that main thing is. I said, you know, it's, it's kind of interesting, you write books and then people want you to speak or consult or advise or then they invite you to stuff. It's all, it's all wonderful, but it's really important that you, if you know why you're doing your thing and what like, what that non-negotiable is for me. I have just had to be very clear, like the reward for succeeding as an author cannot be that I don't get to write. Like, the whole point is writing. That's the thing that I control, that I like, um, that, that inspires me and fulfills me. So I, I just have to protect that thing.
4:54 Ryan Holiday? And if you don't, it can become very easy to just be flooded with or, or, you know, overwhelmed with all the potential distractions and opportunities that are, that are out there.
5:08 Speaker 02 I did do a plant. Is Ryan Erickson in the room? Oh, we need a fun one. Or did he drink too much?
5:14 Ryan Holiday? Yeah, none of your questions are fun.
5:16 Speaker 02 Okay. Um, no, we're, I want to talk about Iron Maiden.
5:19 Ryan Holiday? Okay. Oh, uh, well, I have many, but, um, probably the Clairvoyant. Yeah, probably that. Or, uh, yeah, maybe Ace is High. So, so there's like long Iron Maiden songs and short Iron Maiden songs. But I, I could, I could talk way too long. I probably shouldn't.
5:37 Speaker 02 Yeah, but I want to know, we have this thing called Big Looks, right? We're trying to launch a tour out there. We're trying to get, you know, markets to respond to it. So what would your idea for a big look for Iron Maiden be? You know, beyond the, I got to do my digital placement, I got to work with these radio partners. Well, not radio partners, because they don't get that mainstream, um, airplay. But what would your big look be for Iron Maiden if you had to put on your marketing brain?
6:00 Ryan Holiday? Ooh, I don't know. That's hard.
6:02 Speaker 02 We fly an airplane and like land it in the middle of a main street or something?
6:07 Ryan Holiday? Yeah, I mean, I think, I think like, obviously, uh, you know, there's.
6:13 Ryan Holiday? There's fans and there's super fans. And Iron Maiden's super fan stuff is not like, I remember I went to one and they had like a VIP thing. I went to it and it was kind of like, it was like, here's a bag of, you know, schwag that was not great.
6:27 Speaker 02 Yeah.
6:28 Ryan Holiday? And I think comedians do this well with like meet and greets before show. I think their next level stuff hasn't been that much. Maybe they don't have like, it's not like a super corporate band that typically gets that stuff. But I did, I did find like, like it wasn't, there wasn't like, if you wanted to do more, there wasn't that many opportunities to do more.
6:52 Speaker 02 Yeah.
6:52 Ryan Holiday? And the jet is the cool thing.
6:55 Speaker 02 Yeah.
6:55 Ryan Holiday? I'd like to fly, I'd like to.
6:57 Speaker 02 Yeah, that or just like unveiling the next Eddie.
7:00 Ryan Holiday? Yeah.
7:00 Speaker 02 We know it's gonna be new, like what's it look like? Nobody sees the artwork and then we just like make a statue of it somewhere.
7:06 Ryan Holiday? Yeah.
7:06 Speaker 02 There you go, Ryan, next time.
7:08 Ryan Holiday? Yeah, I don't think that like, there should be like one like in the hallway of the thing that you take pictures with and stuff, you know?
7:15 Speaker 02 We have like the backstage artwork, so we get that, but yeah, facing there needs to be something fun.
7:20 Ryan Holiday? It's inflatable now, right?
7:21 Speaker 02 Yeah.
7:22 Ryan Holiday? Yeah.
7:23 Speaker 02 So.
7:24 Ryan Holiday? Sorry.
7:24 Speaker 02 It's okay. We nerded out on Iron Maiden.
7:28 Speaker 03 Hello.
7:28 Ryan Holiday? Hi.
7:30 Speaker 03 Name is Deanna. I have a question, which is, you know, we're in a business of supporting, helping build up, amplify artists' personal expression.
7:41 Ryan Holiday? Mm-hmm.
7:41 Speaker 03 I'm curious if you have any thoughts or insights or guidance on how to maintain personal, like our own self-expression while dealing with ego at the same time? Because, you know, we are in the business of amplifying other people's.
7:59 Ryan Holiday? What do you mean by personal expression?
8:02 Speaker 03 Oh, that's a good question. I guess your own, just your, your expression of your own individuality.
8:10 Speaker 02 Like your identity, the identity of St. Trudy, the identity.
8:13 Ryan Holiday? Of you?
8:15 Speaker 03 Of you as a, yeah, you as a human, as an individual human, your personal expression while supporting, amplifying and building up.
8:23 Ryan Holiday? Yeah, I mean, this is why I think it's so wonderful to have hobbies that challenge and inspire you, that that's the sort of canvas that you have. And I think part of the reason sometimes maybe people get a little egotistical and stuff is that it's like work is the only place that they get sort of filled up or validation or get to sort of express those things. And to have things that you're learning, that there's fruits of that labor. But you know, I think, you know, work is always going to be ups and downs, right? Because sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes people are assholes, sometimes, you know. And so if you have something apart from that, where you're getting wins, like, that are totally based on you and your effort, I think that's
9:06 Ryan Holiday? just so important and such a good, safe harbor that allows you to then, you know, ride out the other stuff.
9:15 Speaker 02 Yeah, I feel like I've had connections with everybody in this room, not because I tell them what my favorite artist is, it's because it's like, hey, we harvested 63 beets today, you know, in our garden. And then people remembered that.
9:27 Ryan Holiday? Sure.
9:27 Speaker 02 And it's the hobby components. Maybe we all ask each other, what are your hobbies in the next year, instead of what shows you're excited for? Because we get all that stimulation all the time from our friends and family and strangers when you tell them what you do.
9:41 Ryan Holiday? Well, it's easy to be all about business and all about work, but it's not sustainable.
9:44 Speaker 02 Right.
9:44 Ryan Holiday? And so you need that.
9:45 Speaker 02 And it's easy to be consumed in our position, because our jobs are really fucking cool.
9:49 Ryan Holiday? Yeah. And look, if your people are burning out or quitting, or, you know, it's not worth it, like, that's expensive, too. And so it feels like, oh, hey, like, why am I encouraging all these extracurricular activities? Well, they're not really, they might be extracurricular, but they have benefits back towards the business and that helps with retention and it helps with sustainability and all these other things.
10:10 Speaker 02 Definitely.
10:12 Speaker 04 Thank you so much for being here.
10:13 Ryan Holiday? Of course.
10:13 Speaker 04 This is awesome. I just want to ask, who markets your books? And how do you feel about what they do?
10:20 Ryan Holiday? I mean, I'm sure my publisher would say that they do. But I do.
10:27 Ryan Holiday? And that's one of the things that I found. So I wrote this book, The Daily Stoic, in 2016. And you know, if it had been a traditionally published book, that would have been the end of it. I would have written a book, it would come out, and it would do what it does. It's one page a day of Stoic philosophy. But the whole reason I wrote it, and the whole plan when I wrote it, was that it was gonna become like a universe or an ecosystem after I finished. And so, every single day, for the subsequent seven, now eight years, I've done the, an email version of it every day. So I've written, you know, I guess this is seven other books that I've given away for free, piece by piece, over the, you know, on a daily basis since then.
11:12 Ryan Holiday? And that is what's, you know, that started with a few thousand people when I announced it. And, you know, it's almost 800,000 people every day that get that email. So, that's what sells the books, right? Is the fact that I put out so much work. And then, you know, there's Instagram content every day, and TikTok content every day, and YouTube content every day. So, yeah, there's a podcast version of it every day. So it's really by just giving away so much stuff. And then some of it is, then the people who are really into that buy the books when they come out. That's really what's created sort of the flywheel that drives all the stuff. And to have the, like, when it comes time to say, hey, I have a new book, or I'm doing these events, do you wanna come?
11:55 Ryan Holiday? Or we have these products, or merch, or whatever. It's not like, I'm like, what's an excuse to tell people that I have this? Like, I said, like, I've said, like, so basically, Daily Stoic creates inventory in that, like, there's an email that goes out every day with a spot in it, and that inventory moves inventory, right? And so the ability to have an ongoing conversation with the fans makes a lot of marketing, you know, not necessary, because it itself is a form of permission marketing. So that's really what drives the books at this point. And then word of mouth, which is what all things are driven by at the end of the day.
12:37 Speaker 02 Looks like we have time for one more question.
12:40 Speaker 05 Hi. Dan, my name is... So, like you said, we all have different forms of practicing stillness and finding ways of acceptance with egos. How would you recommend, though, as far as any strategies to keep in mind as a team, bringing our practices together to strengthen our teams, strengthen our work internally with other departments, or, you know, working externally with media partners and clients?
13:05 Ryan Holiday? Yeah, I mean, there's a reason companies do offsites, is you get out, you do stuff together and connections, relationships develop that allow you to do this stuff better. But I think, you know, understanding each person as an individual with strengths and weaknesses, what they're... Like, if you think about what great sports teams do, they know this person needs this to be successful, and this person needs this to be successful, and they treat them as that individual. And, look, the idea of taking someone like Kyrie Irving, who's just basically destroyed every team he's ever been on, the impulse there is a good one, which is true in sports, which is an athlete who was not successful on one team or in one organization with the
13:47 Ryan Holiday? right resources, with the right relationships and connections can be successful. And that's what happens when you create a good culture and, you know, the leaders invest in and cultivate those things. So, I think, understanding what makes each of these people tick and what they need, and then being clear about what you need and what you expect is, I think, what creates an environment that facilitates or, you know, brings out the best in people.
14:16 Speaker 05 Awesome. All right, guys.
14:18 Ryan Holiday? Thank you.
14:19 Speaker 05 I think that's it. Thank you so much, Ryan.
14:21 Ryan Holiday? Thank you.
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