Getting Back Up with Heath Armstrong // EP204

Heath Armstrong is a creative writer and the co-founder of Rage Create. He is the creator of "The Sweet Ass Journal to Develop your Happiness Muscle in 100 Days," "Sweet-Ass Affirmations: The World's First R-Rated Motivational Card Deck," and the host of the "Never Stop Peaking" podcast.

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people, podcast, cards, affirmation, deck, run, book, year, life, money, big, journal, world, created, kickstarter, sat, called, graham hancock, interview, bit

SPEAKERS

Wordslinger Announcer, Kevin Tumlinson, Heath Armstrong

Kevin Tumlinson  00:00

Hey, welcome back slingers. This week we're talking to Heath Armstrong. He's going to tell us all about going from face down pants down alcoholic to author and entrepreneur. So you're going to want to stick around for that. Coming up next. Hey, how you doing on money. I know it's a touchy subject, but I got some that may help you out. See I'm using an app called acorns. It helps me manage some investing, put some money back, get a little interest. It's kind of nice to watch my money grow. So I want to share that with you. Go to Kevin Tumlinson comm slash acorns. And you'll get some free money. See you there.

Wordslinger Announcer  00:46

It's the Wordslinger Podcast, where story matters. Build your brand. Write your book. Redefine who you are. It's all about this story here. What's yours? Now... here's the guy who invented pants optional... Kevin Tumlinson! The Wordslinger!

Kevin Tumlinson  01:10

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the very first words linger podcast episode of 2020. We're in the roaring 20s. We made it. We made it out of the arts in teens and into the 20s. Now I don't want to hear any of this guff about the decade doesn't start until 20. You know, what is it? 20 2021 or whatever, it's ridiculous. Come on. It's 2020 we're in the 20s. Alright, so keep your comments to yourself. I hope everybody had a wonderful holiday season and a wonderful new year. I want to start by this is my this is I've announced this on social media and a couple places. But I wanted to put something here kind of like a memorial my dad passed away on the last day of the year on New Year's Eve. And you know, he had dealt with lung cancer. He had been ill for a while. The thing about it is I when he adopted me and my brother so that I get my Tumlinson name from this man Cecil Tumlinson. He adopted me when I was four years old. And they stayed together until I was 14. So 10 years. We when we parted ways, you know, he sat with me, I was the last one to leave home. Last one to my mom, my brother went to my grandparents home, which was just across the lake, a blocker blocker so away, cross the pastor from where we lived, honestly. They had gone I was going to ride my bike over season. sat me down and said, I know we never got along. Those words shattered me because I had no idea that we hadn't gotten along. But as it turned out, we had, you know, in his opinion, and in a lot of people's opinion, we had very little in common. And maybe it's because of that, that for the next 30 some odd years, we were estranged, we had barely any contact, no, no real phone calls, no visits. There was a lot that happened in there. That created hurt and created division and kept us from having a relationship with each other. And then just before Christmas, a couple of days before Christmas. He and I had a chance to sit and chat in his hospital room. at the VA hospital because he was a he was a veteran. Served proudly in Vietnam and We had a chance to talk, we had a chance to say what we needed to say. He was being very honest there at the end. He was always an honest man, actually. But I had a chance to tell him that there was nothing to apologize for nothing. No grudges held. No. You know, I'm not gonna say no regrets because I do regret that we didn't have a relationship for all those years. So anyway, that's it. And I don't mean to bum you out, but there's a point. And I wanted to make it before we get into the interview. Because the interview is a little tongue in cheek. Should should perk you up. But I wanted to say I wanted to say this because I wanted to make this statement. Whatever is keeping you from that someone in your life that you loved once, maybe you still love them, but you're not communicating. Maybe they're holding a grudge against you. Maybe you're holding a grudge against them. Do everything you can to make that relationship right. And I mean, everything, go all the way. Don't wait for someone to meet you halfway. Sometimes they can't. Sometimes they're just not able to. So, this is your opportunity. This is the one, this is the one you get, go out, connect, say you love them. Do whatever you gotta do. If they reject you, they reject you. If they yell at you hate you curse your name, that's fine. You know, it may hurt. But But the point here is Don't miss the opportunity to say to them what you need to say to them because it can all end anytime. And with that,

Kevin Tumlinson  06:00

Again, I am not I'm sad at the loss of my of my dad and I am a little regretful. But I also feel incredibly blessed that I had the opportunity to say goodbye to make things clear make things square as I put it in the social post. And when he went we were good. So okay, now let's hop in let's let's let's turn things up a little bit go upbeat. And he if you're listening, I apologize for introducing your video or your podcast quite this way. But I hope you understand but I had the chance to chat with Heath. This was way back in June actually. So I'm glad I'm getting to to run this now. had a chance to chat with Heath about everything he's worked on. He's the co founder of rage create. He has the never stopped peaking podcast. He's you know he's got all these great cool things going on. We're going to talk about a lot of this. So this was a fun interview. And he is a very inspirational guy. So I hope you take something inspirational from this and run right into 2020, the roaring 20s. Feeling fully inspired, feeling educated and entertained, informed all the things that are part of my little mantra. And without further ado, let's jump in and hear what he has to say about how he went from as he puts it up, face down pants down alcoholic, to author an entrepreneur. So stick around the other side. Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning into another word slinger podcast interview. I know we get the whole solo show now, but I actually kind of dig the interviews because it gives me a chance to talk to people like our guest today, Heath Armstrong. He is a creative writer and he's the co founder of rage create. He's the creator of the sweet ass journal to develop your happiness muscle in 100 days. Everyone needs to develop that muscle man. So welcome to the show. Thanks for thanks for being on.

Heath Armstrong  08:10

Thanks, man. I appreciate it. It's fun to see you and interact with you.

Kevin Tumlinson  08:14

You too. You got a whole podcast thing going yourself with the never never stopped picking podcast picking you AK not p never have.

Heath Armstrong  08:25

You can have a very

Heath Armstrong  08:28

pick up on that. Sometimes we were like, what does that what does that necessarily value like? Yeah,

Kevin Tumlinson  08:32

it does drive things in a different direction. Like and now let's start the never stop peeking podcast. It's like this voyeuristic podcast where I just I'm quietly whispering in the bushes outside of people.

Heath Armstrong  08:47

So many things in life though man like personal optimization. I'm a mind strength junkie and I like to do mountaineering and rock climbing and stuff and I realized from you know, being an ex alcoholic and working in the concrete industry, for So many years that when I started figuring out that just developing your, your habits that are around your happiness that really is the foundation for everything else, and it is kind of a game to just never stop thinking like, keep going up, you know, and just write love it and live it.

Kevin Tumlinson  09:16

So we were having a conversation just before this call about because this this is something comes up a lot you you've heard this I know, because you you studied some of the same folks I do. But this idea that, you know, it's not the goal, it's not achieving your goal that leads to success. It's that journey to achieving the goal. That's why so many people get to, like they say, I want to you know, I want to start this business and I want to make $10 million, and then when they hit that they become depressed. Man, yeah, yeah, exactly. So you are, like I said, you're studying a lot of same folks I am. So you're kind of tell me a little bit about this. Swedish journal and the stuff that's associated with that what's, what's going on there?

Heath Armstrong  10:05

Yeah, the Swedish journal is it's kind of an interesting situation. And even there's a lot of honorary quarter influences in that too, which we had a pretty show. Yeah, she's she was a big staple for me early on. Yeah, so like 2011 I was working and I and I worked in a concrete construction industry for a long time. And I basically to not take this massive long story to make it really long because I can easily do that. I woke up I had a rock bottom moment where I woke up facedown in my garage floor with my pants actually down a little bit, a bloody nose, a bottle of liquor in my hand, and it just, I didn't have the strength to get up to go to the front yard where my car was still parked, and it was still running. And I had no recollection of the past like, I don't even know 2430 hours. And I pulled myself inside and in like, I realized that if I didn't make changes that something drastic was going to happen. In a couple years before that 2000 in at the end of 2008, early 2009 ish. I had met this guy on a plane who was being extradited from Rwanda, which you should talk to you in your showcases amazing. By the way, I'm still really good friends with him. He was imprisoned in Rwanda for four months for finding for jet fighting for gender equality. His name is Jared and Gaza, his amazing podcast called noetic. And Jared just asked me that this one question that changed my thought process before the rock bottom moments and it was kind of like why I started teetering down to this depression state because I knew it wasn't in alignment with it. He just said, like, Where are you going? And I was like, Oh, I'm going to like interview to work on this oil rig or in the golf or something. And he was like, Oh, yeah, you love that. And I was like, No, I mean, this guy was covered in tattoos. As because he'd been, you know, who, who knows what he had been through in this prison in Rwanda. And he scared me like he's scared my everything about me was scared of this guy. He was like, Well, why are you doing it? You know, and he's sent me a copy of his father's book. His father ends up being Dan Miller, who is a huge podcaster Yeah, dude, it's so it's such a small world weird thing.

Kevin Tumlinson  12:10

Yeah,

Heath Armstrong  12:11

yeah, his father ends up being Dan Miller since me no more Mondays back. When he puts that out. I start thinking like, oh my god every single Friday I'm like, I'm so happy. And then on Monday, I feel like I want to jump off a bridge because I and then I just start wishing my time away trying to get Saturday to come here. I'm like, I'm wishing way my weeks and wishing when my life with my family and my friends. This is insane. And I and I became very depressed because I knew I couldn't, I wasn't able to figure out how to stop myself from doing it. And then I had the rock bottom moment, and then through to about 2014. three more years after that of struggling with alcoholism. I had another really bad rock bottom moment very similar to the one in 2011. But over those years, I kept getting these flashes backup Jared and what he was telling me and then I had I just had an A experience where I like, came out of the rock bottom moment was like, I'm just going to reach out and ask for help. And I did that to a girl named Amber. Amber Ludwig, who is now amber Ville Howard. She runs, no guts, no glory enterprises does a lot of like book marketing and stuff. She's amazing. She just like called me and he was like, changed my mindset on everything. She was like, dude, people do care, like you can make changes. Here's what you need to do. And she introduced me to two people. Another small world thing. She introduced me to a guy named Hal Elrod, who wrote the miracle

Kevin Tumlinson  13:31

Miracle Morning.

Heath Armstrong  13:33

And of course, that's how I found Andre. And she introduced me to a guy named Paul can produce to run a big podcast called the app guy, which I don't think he does anymore. Paul took me under his wing and taught me how to podcast and start interviewing people so that I could figure out what they were doing to become successful and then apply it to my life and then make a transition myself. So I started doing that through my old podcast, which was called the entreprenuer. Now and it was kind of branded wrong, but it was the artsy now show and through that system of interviews, I was just like, pulling in all this information from mean people like amber and Andre Andre was on that show, like how was on that show, there was a lot of people that I was learning these like, just these daily routines, you know, like these very simple things that revolve around happiness and gratitude. Yeah, paying attention to things that matter. What is it? What kind of effect is having a gift have on you scientifically? And just like, how does it make you feel, you know, in this system became a series where I had like these six different journals laying around basically. And I was just like, filling them all out every day and tracking and making all this progress where I eventually was able to quit my job and I created an e commerce business where I did. I had a six figure month within four months of starting that which was insane. And, and that was all Amazon, like kind of resale based. Yeah. And I was able to leave my job but then I went back to the system of journals because my, my black lab actually went down in the basement, peed all over them. And I was like, Oh, I can't use it anymore. And Mike, at the time was like, you know that that means that you should just put them into a system that other people can use. And I was like, Well, why would anyone want to do that? And then I realized, like, wow, maybe that is something people could use. And so I just made this very simple mosaic style journal that walks people through 100 days of, of, you know, sustaining these habits that are revolved around happiness. And it includes all sorts of things that you've probably hit on this show several times.

Kevin Tumlinson  15:32

What you're telling me right now is that anybody who has used your stuff and had some had some breakthrough moment has dog p to think.

Heath Armstrong  15:44

Yes, I may actually made the dedication of the journal to Arlo because of his moments. I remember specifically, a dog never went in the house and I had to look at it. Like, this is a universal sign because yeah, I gotta do something with this. Now. I'm not gonna Create six new ones and just going to put it into one system. And it's been brilliant. It's been cool seeing, you know, people, people contacting tag me every single day between that and the affirmation deck about how it's helping them. And it's not rocket science stuff. It's all very simple stuff about setting a vision over 100 days, like Andre taught me, and in doing two things per day to move towards it. Wow, wrapping that all in a big hug of things that develop your happiness at the same time. So right. It's right. Very, very direct. You know what I mean?

Kevin Tumlinson  16:31

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, this is the kind of stuff so that I mean, I had already been looking into a lot of this before I met Andre. I'm in and I met her at a conference and she, she basically out of that conference, she decided to build the whole prosperity for writers thing that she was doing. And I immediately signed up to be a part of that, you know, I mean, I was already kind of that was already a mindset thing for me. Anyway, but I'm like this opportunity to hang out with a bunch of writers who are working on their mindset. This is this is brilliant, like I did. She was great. She's been a great influence.

Heath Armstrong  17:10

So direct and authentic. It makes all the difference in the world and in a marketing world where it's hard to find it, you know? Yeah. And yeah, she did a lot of things just like pointed me in directions that I am forever grateful for and she's a beast to watch, just like, push how she pushes this content out. And it's amazing. It's always good. And it's always it's always kind of like, easy, you know, it's, it's quick and easy and applicable to any situation. So nice.

Kevin Tumlinson  17:38

Excellent. So what about the deck? It's an affirmation deck. How does that work? Yeah, so I randomly do one out or what?

Heath Armstrong  17:47

In a way, there's there's so many different ways you can use them and I'm actually learning a lot from the people that act by them. You know, we did a Kickstarter to launch that project, but the premise was, I am a little bit unfiltered and I've used affirmation decks out there before, but they're very just, you know, whoo, whoo. Like they're very, you know, I'm a butterfly and everything's happy. And that's cool. But in reality, like I worked in, in construction and Kentucky forever and like I my purpose on this earth is to help activate other people to understand that they have more power than they think and then allow them to move into that. And I was looking at like the people around me like, you know, I couldn't give them this affirmation deck over here because they're going to be like, the, like, this is this is, this is right. This doesn't work. And then I as I was learning how to find my voice through a lot of honorees teachings, I realized like there really were not any affirmation cards out there that just had like, a lot of wit, and a little bit of profanity and sassiness. And just like real authentic lifestyle stuff in it. And so I decided to create like a deck of cards where basically the front is an affirmation in the back is kind of like this big burst of motivation on that same subject. Try to get somebody hiney and gear a little bit more, because I really do think that we're built with all of the motivation we ever need when we're born. And we have these layers that are stacked upon us from, you know, marketing or whatever we get involved with, that just kind of makes us think a certain way. But really, we don't need any more motivation, what we need is just to break our habit of hesitation. So then I was like, Well, how do I make somebody think differently in just a couple seconds? Like how do I, how do I help them make a decision quicker to move towards, you know, to get in alignment with that intuition and move towards that person that they should be becoming, as opposed to procrastinating and, you know, getting beat down by the resistance Gremlins in and falling down a rabbit hole of conformity that doesn't get them in alignment with that. And so I started I was like, I have all these different ideas from putting affirmations on toilet paper and all these other areas that you're not likely to see them so that it's just like kind of like an O reminder like oh, I have to use the red All that's a reminder. But the first step for me was to put them in a deck of cards that people could kind of like hide everywhere, handouts. And it's been a fantastic it's been the coolest project ever do because like, I'm just getting tagged constantly with these cards and they're so different from other affirmation cards that people were like really gravitating to them and sharing and, and it's opened up like a whole world of opportunity. And when we were able to go and make a cool video for it, which was the first video type of thing I've ever been involved with, which I have with so I was asking about your camera earlier because I'm like really interested in

Kevin Tumlinson  20:35

I have a camera. So there's two things I'm obsessed with and spend a ton of money on cameras and keyboards, and I have 100 of each in every description

Heath Armstrong  20:45

so so you're the guy,

Kevin Tumlinson  20:47

they're very important to me

Heath Armstrong  20:51

trying to try to get through your your walls, so I

Kevin Tumlinson  20:53

do it man. Maybe we should build a I gave me an inspiration. Now for A an affirmation Cards Against Humanity kind of gain

Heath Armstrong  21:06

a game. Yeah, you can pull it together. Dude, there's I've been trying to figure out like mood maps to use of my cards and stuff because there are ways to do it. But there's a couple different audiences that are gravitating towards it. And one of them is actually like the taro audience, like they're using this kind of like an intuitive way to draw cards and variants and I've seen some really weird synchronistic things happen with people who draw these cards too. So it's just like there's something that's dialed into it that's beyond me man. And you

Kevin Tumlinson  21:36

know, I just I have this philosophy that you know, there I'm a big believer in there being a power greater than us out there and that we are able to tap into that and I feel like when you go look as that's seeking you will find you know, knock on the door be open to you scriptural kind of thing, but it's when you start applying the this this concept of like, law of attraction, that going that direction, when you start looking for answers, you know, they'll come to you that synchronicity idea. So I think that's that, to me. That's how that works. Like me, you've created something. Yeah. So okay, I want to talk about the practical aspects though, what you did there because you created this this card deck, like, what was the, how did you? How did this come about? Like, did you go find someone who makes this sort of thing and, like, I'm always interested in the mechanics of that, that sort of thing.

Heath Armstrong  22:30

So the deck was interesting. I was sitting in Portland, with my, my friend who I did a lot of online Amazon stuff with and I was like, Man, you know, you know, reselling sports and outdoor gear and stuff is cool, but like, I really like writing and the journal had been out at this time, and I was starting to see the effects that I could actually have on people to make better versions of their lives and I fell in love with and I was like, I've always wanted to make an affirmation deck that's just like, you know, real, it's real stuff that I can actually apply. things and, and he was like, well, let's just do it right now. I was like, he's like, let's just like, write some stuff out. And I was like, and that's, that's all it ever is right? It's like action, you can have all the want. But until you take action, you're never going to connect those dots. So as soon as you take action, you're affirming to the universe, that you really care about it. And then all these things start trickling into your life to help you bring it to, to reality if you notice them, and if you stay true to them, because there's always going to be distractions and Gremlins that try to stop you too. But we sketched out the first 20 of the cards, the front sayings, basically on a piece of paper. I still have it. actually think I posted it on the Kickstarter. When we did the Kickstarter last year. Yeah, because I went to the Philippines and I had a lot of my team members are in the Philippines and I sat with them and we created this whole plan and it was cool to go through those old versions and yeah, we sketched it out, had no idea how to manufacture anything, had no idea how to make Or to sell decks have no idea how to do a Kickstarter. But just like anything else, you just start kind of reaching out and telling people what you want to do and asking them about, about it. Like, I was always the person before that was scared to say, hey, this guy did a successful Kickstarter, why would you want to talk to me, you know, but then very quickly through podcasting that people really do want to talk to you, they really do want to share like when someone comes to me, I really do want to share creative solutions with them and, and I'm not looking for anything in return, you know. And so yeah, I started interviewing people that had done Kickstarter to figure that stuff out, started putting the team together around it. And then I just continued writing these cards and it was actually pretty tough because when I start two months after I started, my I was like, all in like ready to go and then I basically April 13 2017, I woke up and Amazon froze my account for an expired credit card, but it took me a month to figure out I lost like all of the money I had built up I was 23. And I had to lay off all these employees, the same exact day, my dog, the love of my life died from an unexpected tumor. And my grandfather died. And I had to fly to Ohio. So I'm like in this position where I was just like, I don't know what's going on, like, everything's just gone that I just spent, you know, I just left my job a year ago and finally got to this point, and now what am I going to do? And but it actually ended up being the best thing ever, man because all of that emotion, it went straight into my creativity, like I could have used that, to go back to drinking or to like, go back to doing something that was completely unproductive or spread negativity throughout the world. But I did it. I went and I sat down. I've just felt that pain and those feelings, and I put each one of those experiences into a card. Yeah. And then that card really turned into what it is. And then over that next, you know 2000 so that was 2017 2018 was actually when I went to the Philippines and put the team together. It takes time to do these things and watch the kickstart I found a manufacturer just by asking, and I don't know, some random person just like heard me talking, I think and then tipped me off on somebody that they knew who made cards like playing cards in that funny hair manufacturer.

Kevin Tumlinson  26:16

Yeah, it all it all just true random person.

Heath Armstrong  26:19

Yeah. Would you say I know somebody who makes playing cards like, right? It is, no one's going to come to you and just tell you something, you have to ask questions. You have to tell the universe what you want. And so I did all that we ran the Kickstarter, not really, you know, I'm good at marketing, but I'm not the best to marketing and right. I never really know how things are going to go but I pushed the best that I had. And we were able to raise 10 grand, get about 2000 decks printed and kickstart that thing, man and it's just like, ever since then. The battle has been trying to learn how to actually build a real brand out and I sell them really well on Amazon because people are like searching For affirmation cards we rank on the first page if you type affirmations,

Kevin Tumlinson  27:03

right, cool,

Heath Armstrong  27:04

but, but other than that, like trying to run it through like funnels outside and on our own website, it's very, very hard. And I'm still still in the middle of that. And I kind of look at it, you know, I want to reach as many people as possible because I know that if they hold these cards, it's going to change their mindset. If they hide these around their place, they're going to have a bad day, and then they're going to pick one up and be like, Oh, you're right, like, let me switch my motivation back to the positive side. And it makes a big difference. It creates a giant spider web of positivity. It's not necessarily about the money to me, but at the same time, you know, money is an energy right? We can do more of it more amazing things if we have it. And so I don't sit I don't sit and think like, Oh, I don't need money or I don't want money like money doesn't mean anything because that's not true either. I really do bring in the law of attraction for abundance in that number one abundance experience in life. I believe is the greatest thing that you can have abundance of number two, definitely monetary gain, because well, it leads to everything else. Yeah, it empowers you to be able to have those experiences or to, you know, to have all those things that you did. It's an energy.

28:15

Yeah,

Heath Armstrong  28:16

yeah. If you're, if you're a big hearted philanthropist who likes to do things to change the world, and money allows you to do that on a bigger scale. If you're an asshole who likes to read your diesel truck spilling out of strip club parking lots, you know, it's just going to allow you to buy a nicer truck to rev and peel out of more expensive strip clubs like that or strip clubs.

Kevin Tumlinson  28:35

Yeah. Yeah, it's called cash flow, right? That's good. I had never actually thought of it that way. So you've, you've enlightened me in this in this conversation. So now, wait till I tell my wife that she's gonna blow her freakin mind. And then I'm going to say cash flow which is going to be like

Heath Armstrong  28:58

I'm gonna have to go back and mon like modify it so I can put that on the end. There you go.

Kevin Tumlinson  29:02

There you go. That's my gift to you man.

Heath Armstrong  29:05

was interesting, like that type of thing. Just using these these like life things bringing them into an affirmation it does make it just changed the way you think about it like, yeah, people in Kentucky, it was like, how do you bridge the gap? And there's nothing wrong with being in Kentucky. It was just, I was in eastern Kentucky. And it's very hard to bring this type of industry into it. It was like how do you? How do you tell someone that this affirmation actually works? Like you have to bring some kind of like humor into it that's in their language, right? I figured out how to do that. And then I started seeing and being like, Oh, that was really funny. Well, now what does that actually mean?

Kevin Tumlinson  29:40

No, that reminds me of that's, you know, that reminds me of because I've had I had someone on the show years ago who was talking about of all things trend, translations, right. And she was talking about localization, which is this idea of, you know, you're not just translating something. into a different language, you want to make sure it fits the region that that books going to be in like it, whatever the colloquialisms are that sort of thing. That's what that kind of reminds me of is your you are, you're localizing this information to fit that specific region, that group of people, because wherever we are, man, it changes how we perceive the world around us. Because the, you know, the industry, they're all that stuff.

Heath Armstrong  30:28

And just like, there's so many people out there that use affirmations and understand, but then there's a lot more people that don't, because they think it's just kind of like the secret stuff. Like it doesn't really work. But when you do it in the language that we've been able to do it, it opens this up, it opens the world of affirmations up to everybody. Yeah. And it's cool. It's a really cool thing. I think that we're going to see a lot more of that. I mean, you kind of already do with people you like get on Amazon, it's like every word has, or every book has some kind of profane word in it right? And it doesn't necessarily Meaning that it's going to be helpful or valuable. But we've been able to do a little bit of mixing that in with really good witty humor that makes people think deeply and I think that it's been cool. It's, it's fun. I like doing fantastic,

Kevin Tumlinson  31:12

man. I like I like that you are that you seem so focused on building something that's that's actually going to be have a positive impact on the world around you. You know, I'm a big fan of that.

Heath Armstrong  31:27

Why else you know, Why else do we come to this amazing space called Earth?

Kevin Tumlinson  31:32

Yeah, man, because I know. I know I'm guilty of falling into that trap of you know, it's all about how much how much is how much stuff do I have when I kick it? You know, how much how big is my bank account when I fall over one day and did I win? And who cares?

Heath Armstrong  31:51

I had a big I had a big struggle with that for a long time. And then I when I left Kentucky and quit my job, I sold everything that I had. I used to have a four bedroom I had five fish tanks five TVs like and I and I moved into basically what fit into my car and ever since then it's been like remarkable a lot more focused but then you its heat on adaptation again like you get in that position and you still start running into similar problems, right wasn't it? No, I did. Like I went down to and I did some plant medicine ceremonies and some Iowa ska stuff that just completely shifted my perspective on everything when it comes to materials. Yeah. And not necessarily that materials or good are good or bad, but they are just like money, right? They are just tools it's so doesn't necessarily matter. What you have. It's more about

Kevin Tumlinson  32:41

does it have

Heath Armstrong  32:46

value and does it contribute to what your library of 6000 books that all are right in alignment with who you want to be and it's amazing, but you can have a library 6000 books that are talking about like you know how to milk a donkey Wings or something, and it was good.Heath Armstrong  33:08

All right, but I couldn't think of anything.

Kevin Tumlinson  33:12

Yeah, I knew it was going somewhere fun. Yes. And that's, you know, I'm going to I'm going to roll I'm going to try to loop this back to because you know, the audience is mostly writers. And I think that where this comes is like we start this career. Generally, I think people, a lot of people get into writing and publishing thinking they're going to be the next Stephen King or the next john Grisham or something, they're going to own a castle, you know, an important castle in Florida, like, like Tony Robbins or something like that, you know. And I don't think that that's impossible by any means. I think that it's entirely possible to have that kind of life, but I feel like that's not that's the way you get there isn't by saying I'm going to write until I'm rich. It's more about How much value are you bringing to the world with what you're creating? And then that value gets reciprocated is the way I that's the way it's worked for me anyway.

Heath Armstrong  34:10

100% man, like you're dead on, I didn't have to add anything to it. Like it's really just if you follow your highest purpose and your highest excitement, like I think, I think that money will follow. You know, it's like, if you're doing what you're here to do if you're doing what's in alignment with you, that doesn't cause you misery and stress, like your body and your mind tell you if you're not in alignment. Yeah, when you're out doing things that you love you don't feel like you're sick you know, you don't feel like you're suffering and there's a reason for that because your body works with you and your gut works with you it's it's just like most of us only we get stuck in our head and our heart There's like this this caught it's like Junior High prom between the two of them right where their heads like I don't know, baby, I'm worried in the hearts like, Just trust me honey in the heads like, I can't I just there's too much stuff going on in the hearts like oh, it'll all be beautiful. But like at the whole time you're your gut is in the corner like smoking a cigar and it's like you guys would shut the hell up. I'll show you where the treasure map is and forget about that intuition. Like, if it excites you and you truly love it, then follow it and that that, you know, the monetary stuff. If you are open to receiving it will come into your life between people, networking opportunities, all that good stuff.

Kevin Tumlinson  35:25

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Okay, I want to ask you about your your podcast because I was kind of scanning through your some of the episodes. You've got some on your site. You guys are really great. You have some interesting guests. Tell me how that got started. I know you talked a little bit about this already. But But tell me specifically about never stop peeking.

Heath Armstrong  35:49

Yeah, Jerry, you should listen to Jared episode. If you do this guy, you should have him on your show for sure.

Kevin Tumlinson  35:56

Do you know anybody you want to throw my way

Heath Armstrong  35:58

so I'll talk actually Maybe I should ask this after the show he do you know chase Reeves

36:05

not physical

Heath Armstrong  36:07

internet marketing stuff at fizzle? Well, okay, I'll he lives with a guy named chase who's also brilliant. They're both kind of amazing that you should talk to you but never stopped peeking, dude. So I did the first podcast and I kind of explained how that got started before. And then I, I got away from it because I needed to focus on on writing and building some things out and I wanted to rebrand the way that I was going to do my, my stuff, right. And I love podcasting. And it was really hard for me to figure out how to like to make it sustainable. And I learned how to do a lot of systemising because of the first one, right but I decided that when I shut that first one down, and if I came back and I launched a new one that it was going to be just like higher consciousness type of conversations that I really, really want to be in with not necessarily like a particular subject, but all of it is very inspirational, but it goes really, really deep. And it was an area of my life that I felt like I was missing because I'm not always around people that I can have super deep conversations with. Right. And it was, it was a way for me to kind of put that into the world and, and start trying some different things out. So there's a lot of really deep, long conversations on there, they go up two to three hours sometimes. But there's also great nuggets at the beginnings of me just like ranting and motivational stuff. Kinda like the same material that's in my cards, and then a lot of music stuff that I do in collaboration. So it is about personal optimization in the higher consciousness of the mind. But we do get into a lot of talks with psychedelics and habit forming and just anything that you can do to keep yourself in alignment with your higher self. So it's not nearly as big as my old show, because I don't market it as much in an apple really changed a lot of stuff since I launched the last one. Yeah, but It's very cool. It's like, it's kind of like just a warming amazing thing to have in a great place to come and talk to people. So,

Kevin Tumlinson  38:08

yeah, that's, that's a lot of that is the same reason I started this show. So I started the show mostly give me Excuse tucket you know, guys like you are on array or, you know, authors I really dig and follows. And there's a lot to be gained from having those conversations and sharing them with other people is just kind of a bonus

Heath Armstrong  38:30

is, you know, every single every time anything that I can do touch with somebody, and it helps them in a positive way just makes me so happy. But at the same time, it's like, we're getting that from everybody else to like, I don't know how many of you have your episodes that listen to and just been like, ah, like there's a nugget right there. Right and it's a cool, it's a cool thing to have on both ends, like being somebody who does one but also just being an audience member who loves podcasts as well and all the writings and share from it and media in general, but yeah, yeah, it's a good it's a good game to be playing.

Kevin Tumlinson  39:06

It is a good game. And one I play a lot.

39:11

All right, good.

Kevin Tumlinson  39:13

So we are at time, unfortunately, because I've enjoyed the hell out of this chat. But why don't you tell people where they can find you and never stopped peaking and all the good stuff that you're doing?

Heath Armstrong  39:25

Yeah, my personal hub is just Heath Armstrong calm. Heath is spelled like Heath Ledger, the legend. And rage create calm is where we have the decks. And then if you want to watch the promo video for it, it's actually pretty funny. I'm proud of it. I didn't age at@rage.com. And yeah, and never stopped peakins on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, just search my name or search never stop thinking it should show up. It's like a space back around. Yeah, my Instagram basically is my only social place. I'm on Facebook. But I'm at Heath fist pumps and we also have a rage account that's really bad right now but I'm revamping it so

Kevin Tumlinson  40:09

i have i've been peeling away from Facebook and Twitter and things like that. I just it's it's also negative now man I just can't do it anymore.

Heath Armstrong  40:19

It is but I have like I'm a huge Graham Hancock fan.

Kevin Tumlinson  40:24

Yeah, yeah, no. I don't know. You might even be able to see him I've got like four of his books back on that show. Yeah,

Heath Armstrong  40:33

I got to meet him like on his book tour ago jealous. I talked to him a little bit about I actually got talked to him for a while. But then I also run a Graham Hancock fan page on Instagram and like that's really what I get excited.

Heath Armstrong  40:49

jumped on there and we're starting it out and like it's going pretty good.

Kevin Tumlinson  40:52

I wish we had talked about that before show cuz then we could have talked about Graham Hancock and all the fingerprints of the gods and all that stuff. Yeah.

Heath Armstrong  41:00

Another episode I guess another show and talk about it if you want because it's a nice little

41:04

while phone call Come on your show. I'll be that. Man,

Heath Armstrong  41:08

my buddies he helps run the account with me because he's really into it too. I mean, everybody should be guy's a legend.

Kevin Tumlinson  41:15

You should you should pay attention to Graham Hancock. I've said this for years. half my books are probably based on things I've read and Graham Hancock. Yeah.

Heath Armstrong  41:27

It's, it's the realest of the real man, you know? So good. I agree. Some

Kevin Tumlinson  41:32

people don't agree, but I agree. I agree. All right, man. We're gonna go and wrap it up. Thank you so much for being on the show. Man. I do. I'm 100% genuinely happy that you reached out.

Heath Armstrong  41:46

Dude, I love making these connections. So I appreciate

Kevin Tumlinson  41:48

me too. All right, you stick around for a second everybody else. You're probably hearing the groovy bridge music you may dance and place it well. And if you stick around here to have some some short, sweet nugget of wisdom After the break so we'll see you on the other side hey you're looking for a jump on your own indie author career but kind of confused about where to start I got the place for you check out draft to digital that's where you're going to be able to convert your manuscript distributed worldwide online and get help the whole way from the best author support there is trust me on this one. So go check out drafted digital at drafted digital.com slash word slinger. Hey, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Heath Armstrong had a great time chatting with what a What a great way to start a new year. And I don't know what your plans are for the for 2020 Are you saying those I like to set goals just like everybody else. I posted the other day on my blog, which is the written world blog on my website at Kevin Thompson calm. I posted about how I don't do resolutions how I do. Instead I like to do commitments. And I know it sounds like a maybe it sounds like a semantic kind of difference. But what I do is decide, this is what I'm gonna commit to this year. My word for the year, by the way is commitment. commitment is something we tend to shy away from it tend to be a little bit afraid of, but I wanted to encourage people to, you know, the resolution thing, it's like, you know, we stack too many things on top of each other, right? We were going to resolve I'm going to lose weight this year, I'm gonna lose, I don't lose 50 pounds, I'm going to go to the gym every day I'm going to you know, write a book in you know, 10 days or whatever. We tend to over stack all that stuff. commitment, though, is something you you can prove commitment you show by doing it actually doing it. So instead of talking about it, I encourage you not to talk about this, this thing that you want to do, but instead, use that energy go out and start doing it. So if you're going to write a book this year, if you haven't already, if you're gonna write a book in a month, or 10 days, or whatever your time frame is, don't tell me when you're going to do it. Just go do it. Start now don't wait, and then knock it out. And then tell everybody, look what I did. Because the energy comes from, you know, that statement comes from, if you say, look what I'm going to do. You've spent the currency, okay? you've you've blown your wad. you've, you've used up all the energy that could help motivate you. But if you show people what you did, you get to reclaim that energy and then use it on the next project. So don't talk to people about your goals. You can talk to some people, there are some people who can encourage you and help you but for the most part, You really shouldn't tell people your goals. Just go out and commit to them and do them and then show them the commitment. Even if you haven't accomplished the goal yet, but you're you're you can demonstrably show the commitment that will help motivate and energize you. So, that is my parting advice and wisdom for this episode of the word slinger podcast.

Kevin Tumlinson  45:22

Some real quick stuff. Check out I just did like earlier today. 9am. Today precisely. I did a premiere on YouTube, only four people showed up, but that's okay. And I was one of them. That's okay, too. But it was the premiere for the video version of my written world podcast, which you can find when you go to written world.us doesn't matter what part of the world you're from. He's got a written world.us it'll take you to right now. It probably takes you to my homepage, Kevin Thompson calm. But if you look around on the menu or scroll down the page, you'll find The podcast, several audio episodes are already up, got a new one releasing next week. This is the first video version. And I'm going to go back and do videos for each of them as I go, I'm getting a grip on how to how to handle video and that sort of thing. I want to do more of that, including for this show. So be on the lookout things are coming, things are changing. So go check out written world.us. And if you can, if you don't mind, go to YouTube. Search for me find my channel. This is the easiest way I found so far. I'll try to put a link in the show notes of this episode. But go subscribe to me on YouTube. I'm trying to hit 1000 subscribers. There's also the word slinger podcast channel, which you can also subscribe to since you are a listener. I'm going to be starting starting that up again. I fell behind I know I didn't quite fall behind it sort of again. ending it because it just was so much extra work, but I'm going to, I'm getting systems in place to make this easier. So but if you will go and subscribe at least to get the Kevin Tumlinson YouTube channel. It will help me out a lot and tell other folks about it. I'm gonna start posting all kinds of stuff on that channel. I've already started and I think it's going to grow as we go. And I can't wait to see what turns of it. So help me reach my thousand subscriber first benchmark so that I can start doing things like monetizing and using some of the other features, putting links in the videos and things like that. So that will help me out a lot and I really appreciate it. You can find practically everything I'm talking about if you go to Kevin Tumlinson calm or word slinger podcast, com or written world.us we got a whole slew of them now and stay tuned in the future. Roland Dinsdale and I are still working on the launch of indie author blueprint com There's a lot of URLs for you to remember. Get some, I got some big amazing stuff coming this year and so just get ready you're going to hear a whole lot of URLs. God bless you take care of yourself. I'll be have I'll be having a wonderful new year so far and I'm my very best for you. I wish you the best pray for the best for you. Over 2020 and beyond. healthy, happy, safe year, and can't wait to I can't wait to see what comes out. Can't wait to see what we discovered. Take care

  

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