Hello everybody, welcome to this edition of Sun Leaders. We are in fact here with one of our Sun authors, I am Eric Nutting, business owner of The Growth Coach of St. Petersburg, Florida. And now we’re recording from the Connect St. Pete Studios, a brand new coworking space in the heart of the EDGE District. So we’re very excited to be here. We’re very excited to have our guest with us today, Mr. James Bake.

And we have one of our Sun Readers and Sun Leaders here with us, Adam Peters. So first thing I want to do is get some quick introductions out of the way. Just tell us quickly who you are, what you do, and what you want people to know about you. Adam, I’m gonna start with you. My name is Adam Peters.

I have a business called Mind Map Renovations. I help people build positive mindsets and build positive culture. And I’m here because I’m a big fan of James. I think what he does is really special. He’s a very kindhearted person as well, and he’s just a good person to learn from.

Awesome. All right, well, thank you for being here and contributing. James, I’m a big fan of yours too. You are an awesome human being. But just quickly, how do you want people to know you?

Go ahead and introduce yourself. I think just calling me an awesome human being is just enough. I don’t know if I need more of an introduction to that, so thank you both. I appreciate that. But in all reality, I’m a, I do a lot.

I’m a multifaceted person like most millennials, I guess, out there. But I operate and own a few businesses. So what I do is I help businesses grow, and it’s usually kind of like a business coach, but I’m actually in there executing. So I work with a couple different brands helping them execute on a day-to-day basis so that they can do what they do best. Awesome.

Okay, so there’s so many different directions to go here, right? But the first thing I heard was millennial. Do you identify as a millennial? No, but I heard this actually the other day. It’s like, uh, millennials or people of our age- I just turned 40, so I’ll celebrate that.

I like it. Um, but I, I have- I do a lot. Like, it’s kind of interesting. I always- and as I meet other people of my age, they- we all kind of have this thing where we do a lot of things. Like, not only do I have my own businesses that I run, but I, I work with other companies and run their businesses.

I, you know, own properties, I manage them, I do it myself. I, you know, volunteer. I’m the president of our own culture, and I have like a thousand other little hobbies that I do every single day. It’s kind of fun. So that, that like, I don’t know, ADD brain, uh, millennial thing is kind of like- I’ve started to like just own it and love it.

I love ownership. I was over here like nodding. Yep, yep, yep. We know. I will also be 40 this year.

So we’re in the same age ring around the tree. And I agree. Millennials, I think maybe we have access to a lot of things like we know about a lot of things, therefore we can do a lot of things. I don’t know, but I’m here for it. And why shouldn’t you?

Because information’s coming at you guys so fast. You have to process it. Not like it’s not coming at all of us so fast. But you’re kind of the creators of this in a way, right? It went through like floppy disk and then hard drives and then, I’m just kidding on that one.

So yeah, that, you’re right. Like we, I think there’s a, that’s a good thing to say there is like we’ve kind of grown up into the point where we kind of saw things go fast and so we move fast with it, which is kind of nice. I think you had, what do you call that? Compounding interest. Well, we’ve seen that like happen through technology and through information and almost everything else.

The other thing that you mentioned is something that I find a lot when I meet entrepreneurs, and you mentioned ADHD. Is it- do you really identify as such? I think a bit more like a superpower. Yes, um, for- I, I identify it as yes, uh, that I, I might have it. Um, I think there’s more superpower.

I think there’s, there’s definitely some, some pros and cons with it, but definitely something that I, I’ve identified with. Well, I wanna focus on all the pros and the superpowers of it. What are the superpowers? Oh, the superpowers I think is like being able to bounce between one idea and another pretty seamlessly or connecting the dots. I think, you know, when we talk about a lot of leaders, they need to be able to connect dots.

Like you, like especially in business, you have to be able to like problem solve and see how things go. And so we can, I think with neurodivergence, you can absorb a lot of information and find uncommon connections to solve problems. Or make things work. So I think that’s a kind of a beautiful superpower of it. And then I think the other one is kind of being able to self-regulate.

I’m so surprised I meet so many people that I think are a little more neurodivergent than they think they are, but they already have like a built-in technique or mechanism that they’re doing to self-regulate and they might not even know it. So sometimes it’s just like taking a moment to recognize that. So I think there’s like two superpowers right there. I love that. Do you think it is in any way, shape, or form generational connected to this idea of being a millennial, or are the two independent completely?

I don’t know. That’s interesting. I never really gave too much thought, so maybe, but I also think probably not. I don’t know. It’s not a good answer, but I haven’t really given it too much thought if it has anything to do with being a millennial or that’s just like a stereotype that we apply to ourselves.

Hmm. Okay. Adam, thoughts on that? You know, I think that the economies of scale, neurodivergence is a spectrum and there are more people on the planet than there ever have been. So I think just because of that, we tend to see more neurodivergence.

And I think you’ll find more neurodivergent entrepreneurs because, because of the stimulus that can be either easy to connect or really difficult to tolerate. I think entrepreneurs like the freedom of choosing like what they’re gonna work on, when they’re gonna work on it versus. Being an employed person who has to show up a certain time, do certain tasks that don’t resonate with them. And so I think entrepreneur, that space is rife with people that are just a little different, like to see things differently. They take things in, they, they’re good pattern recognizers.

They have a lot of interest and I can relate to that. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t describe myself as ADHD because I have a, a really great ability to focus and, and be disciplined in a way that I found other folks on the spectrum have a hard time doing. So I, I feel lucky that I have that because I can be kind of like the pro, uh, the, the other side of the pro, the cons. Um, but yeah, like I love leaning into the superpower because if you can’t change it, just go with it. Yeah.

Just lean into the things that you can’t change. Yeah. I, you know, I’m not a millennial. I don’t even know what I am. I’m 20 years older than both of you, so whatever that is.

You’re the cool uncle, uh, of this generation. I think so. Cool Uncle Eric, I like that.

But I, I am such an optimist. I believe everybody has a superpower. I honestly do. I just don’t think people necessarily have a chance to get in touch with it, explore it. I want to think everybody has a superpower.

I think every human being is. I actually, I actually like that thought. Yeah. How much fun would it be to sit down and like figure out what your superpower is? I would love that.

That’s a great, that’s a great name. We should workshop that. We should workshop that. Yeah. So speaking of the next book, we should talk about this book.

Now, James, is this the only book you’ve written thus far? Uh, under my own name. Yes. Okay. Gotcha.

Well, we’re gonna talk about this one under your own name then. Big Wins: From Napkin to Reality, Turning Small Ideas into Big Wins by master author, expert human being, James Baig. So tell us why you wrote the book. Well, uh, there, I guess there’s lots of things that I can say. It’s like, um, I wrote the book because I felt like it was needed as I was going through the kind of the process myself of documenting how I kind of launch new products or new businesses.

I was talking to a number of people in different masterminds and different groups, and I saw that there was like a, a gap or a miss of how to do it. I was trying to explain it to others, so I was- I found myself outlining it one day, and, um, I actually decided to take a challenge. I took an online course where it was like, write a book in 90 days. I’m like, this sounds like fun. The course was garbage, but I still committed to the fact that I, I wanted to learn how to write a book and have a book done.

So I took my outline that I put together for like a talk I was doing and I turned it into the book. So that was kind of the why behind it. Again, I was in masterminds, I was teaching, coaching a little bit in these groups, helping other entrepreneurs and small business startups like get over the hump of starting a business and get over the hump of their own mind. Now I’m kind of finding their own superpowers and I just committed to doing it. Okay.

How long did it take to write? A little more than 90 days. I would say like 120 days. So the biggest thing wasn’t about like the writing wasn’t too hard. I think it was me getting out of my own head of thinking that I’m an author or a writer.

And I still don’t identify it as well. Like I do a lot of, after I’ve done the book, I actually sat back and I’m like, okay, I’ve created dozens of products for other people. I’ve created guided journals. I’ve been hired to ghostwrite journals for like, different authors to go be a companion to their products. So I’ve done a lot of this before, but it’s always under somebody else’s name.

And so me coming to my set, uh, coming up with my own thing was kind of hard. So I think the hardest part of the 120 days plus was like getting over my own head and just forcing myself to do it. And then the editing process was rough. So I hired 3 different, um, beta readers, um, and editors to go through it. Um, and I rewrote a lot of it.

Multiple times and, uh, just kind of stuck with the process. So, okay. That’s pretty efficient in my- yeah, I thought so. It’s only, it’s only 10,000 words. So I committed to like something that was, I thought, achievable.

Well, it’s a, it’s great. You ran a workshop for us, two workshops for us actually, as Sun Readers with concepts based on the book, right? And your thought process is this isn’t necessarily a book to sit and read in a corner. It’s a book to interact. It should be like a guided book.

Yeah, I think the big thing about like kind of framing the book a little bit is it isn’t about having great ideas, it’s about what happens between having the ideas and actually doing something with it. So it’s not about just reading it and learning it. You can go to YouTube University, do that kind of stuff. I want people to actually apply it because I think most people already have really good ideas. The real bottleneck is that self-doubt, that overwhelm, and waiting for the clarity.

So like, the progress that comes, um, doesn’t come from confidence, right? Confidence comes from progress. And so that’s where I want people to remember. So the napkin idea is just enough to get started and kind of move forward. I love that.

And you’re really a poster child for it because you just spoke about self-doubt in the thought process of being an author and starting a book. So you really coach yourself and talk yourself through the process. Yeah. And I think that’s something I repeat over and over in the book. It’s not about having the perfect plan.

It’s about taking the, or having the courage to take the next steps. And like self-doubt isn’t a sign that you’re underqualified. It’s a sign that you care, right? It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s not that most people fail, it’s they stall, right? They, they don’t overcome self-doubt.

And then take action. They take action while doubting themselves. And I think that’s something I really learned through the process and I kind of embraced the process and I think I still learn and embrace it every single day. Let me check in with Adam. Adam, how much do you deal with self-doubt, if ever?

I, I probably less than your average person only because I’ve worked on it so much. I, and that’s been a lot of how I build my positive narratives is by looking for the silver lining or giving myself grace or giving myself pep talks. But it still absolutely creeps in. And I love, James, that your book is 10,000 words because that really plays into the whole small steps, big wins type thing. You don’t have- it doesn’t have to be some big thesis or, uh, series of things that you have to do.

It truly is about the little bite-sized stuff. And I had the pleasure of going through your workshop, which had your concepts in action, and it helped me immensely to pick a thing, work towards the thing, and have the accountability piece of it as well with the people that went through this is, is with me. And as a result, I was able to do something that was uncomfortable for me that I, that I would have self-doubt about when it comes to like looking for sponsorships and partnerships with this big event that I’m trying to build. And it was incredibly helpful to just take a step back, look at it in bite-sized ways, and then embrace the help that others can give you through just checking in and sharing the small wins along the way. And, uh, yeah, it’s the perfect size and it is so practical.

Yeah, I agree completely. And I thought the workshop was exceptional. Um, especially when the power went out right beforehand. So we had to do it candlelight. Yay!

Wait, do you remember this? Like, I think I had a whole like visual presentation to go through because we’re going to do like some guided exercises. I needed the visuals and the power went out minutes beforehand. And we just, the topic was humility, right? As a leader.

And I think that was great, like showing how we have to pivot, pick up and pivot. And so I’m, I’m so happy that you thought it was good because we just kind of won it, uh, at that time. But well, in this show you don’t need the fancy visuals, right? Like it all works with just the concept. But wait a minute, I think one of the- thank you- one of the things I think that you just talked about was really, really interesting is you talk about kind of the self-talk that you have, like that you’re boosting yourself up, you’re looking for the silver linings.

I would love to know more about that. Like, what do you, how do you, how do you do that? Yeah. You know, it started by recognizing the negative voice that was talking to me or like telling me like I’m dumb or I could have done that differently. And in the very beginning, it was kind of just taking that pause and be like, oh, bro, It’s okay.

And like giving myself a name, like giving my brain like, hey friend, hey bro, like we’re, we’re friends, like let’s not fight. And just interrupting it in the beginning and getting a little curious about what it was trying to do for me. Are you like, are you, are you protecting me? Are you nervous? Are you worried about something?

Like what’s, what is the reason for this negative self-talk? And lots of self-discovery, lots digging deep into the point where I was able to honor my lived experience and say, oh, you’re really nervous about this because that time that we failed or that time that we felt less than, and we’re different now and we have a lot more resources and we have friends that are helping us and like, it’s gonna be good. And then doing that enough just built in the transform the critic into an ally. Somebody that I genuinely believe that all negative thoughts have positive intent. I genuinely believe that.

And by approaching the negative thoughts in that way, I was able to coach it into becoming more of an advocate. Like, this is the way that you can really help me. This is not helping me anymore. This is. I really like that.

I think in the book I call it Negative Nancy, which is everybody, uh, is a very common phrase, but it, it drifts in every, every once in a while. And it, it, you know, sometimes gets louder than, uh, the, your normal voice. And so it’s, I love that you had these tactics or these techniques to kind of help calm it down a little bit and just remind it like, hey, we’ve been here before. We could do this. Yeah, I’ve done hard things before.

Yeah, self-talk is a really underrated thing when it- especially when it’s conscious. When it’s subconscious and you’re just kind of like getting that, ooh, what’s, what’s that monster rearing its ugly head in there? But when you have the conscious self-talk and you’re controlling a little bit more about that while also again honoring your lived experience, because if you just try to tell yourself, bro, it’s not a problem, that’s setting yourself up for failure too. Yeah. So you, you have to be able to look at your past with a clear head, which is scary for a lot of folks because sometimes there’s a lot of scary things in your past, but it’s worth doing, especially if you’re in a safe place now, that’s the time to do it.

Yeah, I agree with that. One of the things I’ve been working on, and I think this is kind of interesting for other entrepreneurs and leaders, is this concept of expanded capacity. So Uh, so often, you know, we have to wear a lot of hats, right? You’re juggling lots of things. And as a business owner, like, shit just happens, right?

Like, you can’t control it. As a parent or homeowner, like, uh, shit happens and you just kind of have to figure it out. And, you know, you can complain about it, that’s one thing, or you can kind of, um, figure it out. And I think one of these we talked about in the previous podcast that we didn’t get to- it didn’t really record, but we were talking about everything’s figureoutable. And I think afterwards I really stuck with this idea of expanded capacity.

And I was kind of thinking like you go to the gym and you’re lifting some weights, you’re gonna start off with like 10 pounds and then you’re gonna upgrade to 20 pounds and you’re gonna go to 50 pounds and you know, wherever else. Not a personal trainer, but that’s what you do. You like have expanded capacity. I’m, I’m a yogi. I’ve practiced yoga for years.

I have my yoga teacher certificate. I worked for yoga studio. Um, and that’s kind of things like we taught people is start where you can, start where you begin and breathe into it. And you’re gonna expand your, your range of what you can be doing. And so like kind of what you’re talking about is like giving yourself that positive reinforcement of reminding yourself like, remember where we were before, now we’ll get where we’re at, we can go farther.

And, and I think it also reminds me of a book that I, I might have read, mentioned to you, Eric, is, um, The Gap and the Gain. One of my favorite books on this topic, the whole, again, this is like why I wrote a 10,000-word book, not a 300-page book that basically tells you the same concept. Great book, read it all if you like, but you can read the first like 50 pages and get the concept. It’s, you know, when we set goals, we set a, you start at point A and your goal is point B, but we end up usually in the middle. And most of us look at what happened from the middle to point B where we want our goal, that, that gap or that gap where we missed, we kind of, we failed, quote unquote.

But we didn’t. If you look at where we started and where we ended up, that’s the gain and that’s what we should be celebrating. We should be looking back like, look where we were back there. Look at that. That was so far away and we actually made some progress.

So I think, you know, as you’re talking here, it really makes me think about this like expanded capacity kind of thought process. Maybe that’s another book, maybe it’s another thing that I’ll do in the future, but really reminds me that we are capable of growth and, you know, when things get tough or when things get hard or when that shit happens, taking a moment and remembering that we’ve grown so far and we can go even farther. Yeah, it’s a little bit of a play on adaptation, which is the superpower of the human species, is our ability to adapt over time based on our circumstances and environment and many, many, many factors. And so when we are afraid and we don’t progress, that kills our adaptation. It, it really reduces that superpower that we have.

But when you go a step further than’s comfortable, now you’ve adapted and now you’ve increased your capacity to adapt further because you’ve created that proof to your brain that it’s possible to survive that one more uncomfortable step and one more, one more. And the people that like to explore how far they can go in life have my undying admiration because That’s- why would we waste that as human beings? It is an amazing superpower. Why don’t we spend our whole lives seeing how far we can go in the areas that we want to go? Here we go again, talking about our superpowers.

I think in this could be a workshop because we’re sitting down talking about celebrating that superpowers. You come out of the gate in your book saying the power of a simple idea. Talk to that a little bit. So I think, you know, Like I said before, everybody has ideas. I think everybody has good ideas.

And I think the difference between an idea and a good idea is execution of it. And sometimes a simple idea is the easiest to execute on. And we don’t need to make things complicated. I use example, like look at a successful business. I’ll use this as like, I’m working with someone right now and we’re working on a new product and I keep getting feedback that they want to add more bells and whistles.

I’m like, okay, but why? What’s the purpose? Is it solving the original problem that we we set out to solve? Yes? Okay, good.

Will these new bells and whistles like add to it? Maybe, but is it necessary? And so it’s always remember like sometimes like always wanting to be better or do more or kind of be different in what we’re creating kind of sometimes gets in the way and it’s sometimes an excuse to not start. Like it’s having that perfect plan, right? So having like a simple, I’m gonna do X, I’m gonna launch X, and then phase 2 is gonna be, I’m gonna add XYZ onto it, or I’m gonna add, you know, fuzzy dice onto my thing.

It’s starting simple and then expanding from there. So, okay. Well, everybody loves fuzzy dice. I like fuzzy dice. It’s kind of a weird analogy.

I don’t know why I just said that, but you know, here we are. It’s Friday, so let’s talk about some fuzzy dices. We should talk a little bit about game creation, shouldn’t we? Ooh, I love game creation. This is a big, this is a big passion of yours.

You’ve created games, right? Talk to us about that. I’m creating one right now. Okay. So why, why is this a passion of yours?

Talk about that first. I actually really like the product development process because, and I guess I can say product development can fit in a lot of different things. Like, it could be a game, it could be an app, it could be a tool of some sort. But I like the process. So one of the things that I’ve always done is, um, kind of like, what’s the problem I want to solve?

And like, how can I do something really simple that’s going to help other people? And so a lot of times there’s solutions to problems that other people have done that could be productized, right? And that’s kind of fun to like figure out and learn like what’s a better way to do it. I think that’s kind of part of my like millennial ADHD kind of superpower brain is like seeing how people solve problems and like, okay, can I turn this into something that then others can use to solve problems as well? Like, can I help them overcome a problem or challenge?

So I really like that aspect of it. And so I like to create really simple things that like, you know, you’re like, oh, that’s, that’s actually a really simple tool, but it’s helped me so much. So I like the product development process and then seeing it actually come to life is, is kind of beautiful. So, um, I’m working on a new game right now. I’m really excited about this one.

Um, it, it’s funny cuz like we talk a little about like failing a little bit. I, I think I mentioned we were just talking about and kind of self-doubt. Like I’ve, I’ve, I’ve created some games, but I’ve never created a double date game for couples. And so I actually hired a, um, game designer to help with this product a couple months ago. And unfortunately, whatever circumstances happened, they weren’t able to deliver what they, they promised.

And so I have a deadline that I have to, uh, uh, accomplish. And I’ve done enough of this. So I’m kind of like, I’ve been doing a lot of research. I’ve been looking at other games, kind of like looking at game mechanics, looking at like what works and what doesn’t work. I go to Amazon a lot.

I look at reviews of what other people are talking about. I go to forums and listen to like, like just how are people explaining the game or how are they talking about it? What pros or cons are they having? And then I try to make it better. So I’m, this is kind of like, this one is a, it’s a real, it’s a game for couples, um, to have double date night.

And the idea is a little around like sneaking your vegetables. So it’s not relationship therapy. It’s like, we don’t want it to be therapy-based cuz that’s kind of no fun if you’re having a double date, but we don’t want it to be like a drinking game. We don’t want it to be like sloppy and silly and, and kind of like a lot of those like do or drinks, other games like that are kind of they make fun of each other. I want this to be more cooperative and collaborative, um, and then sneak in a little bit of those like compliments and, and ways to like build relationships, maybe poke fun a little bit, but a playful, joyful way that’s not kind of harmful in the relationships.

So as you can see, like the whole process is I’m kind of thinking about like, what are the different elements of the game that actually makes me really excited? And then kind of putting it together and seeing it all fit is a lot of fun. and all games aren’t created equal. All of your creations aren’t created equal. Some probably come easier, some are more difficult, right?

Mm-hmm. How many games do you think you’ve created thus far? Oh, 30. Oh, holy cow. Yeah.

That’s crazy. Simplest one, my favorite one I made, uh, this was from Paired. It’s a, it’s a set of dice and it’s the, the whole thing. And my partner and I actually were, were kind of had this thing where, you know, come home from work and you kind of like get in a rut where you’re complaining about the day or something’s like just kind of getting this rut of things. And we wanted to like be intentional about how we changed that.

That conversation. So we both work from home and when we come to the dining room table and we like, how was your day? We can’t complain about work, we can’t complain about things, we have to like kind of shift it. So what we’ve started doing is asking each other different questions. And so the idea with the dice is it’s a set of 4 dice and each side there’s a question or an action or something you can do that kind of resembles how was your day, but different.

So it’s like act out your day in 60 seconds or what’s 3 words that describe your day or like, What’d you miss about me today? So it kind of like changes up the vibe a little bit and creates that like barrier from closing the door of like, okay, my day’s done from work and now I’m moving into something else. So that was a very simple product that, you know, simple is in terms of like it’s 16 prompts. It’s a package that has instructions on it. Not that difficult, not that like complex, but it’s one of our best sellers on the site right now.

So. I’m really excited about that. We actually sold out once. We sold out the first batch. We actually bought a lot and they sold out pretty quickly and then I just bought more.

So I’m really, really thrilled about that. Now you say you sold out on the site, so you have a site where people can visit and tell people about that. Yeah. So most, most of the work I do is like with other, other businesses. So it’s not my brand.

So this is from Paired. The site’s called shop.paired.com and we have a bunch of different products for couples. Paired is an app that helps couples get closer together. So really awesome company doing really great things. They have a couple million users over every single month using it daily.

It’s pretty amazing. It’s a simple, simple thing. We’re just getting people to have conversations. And so what we’re doing is we’re creating physical products to kind of take that experience offline. Audio is the future and your business should be a part of it.

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Amazing. Adam, do you have any questions about game creation? Anything along those lines? Uh, only to say that I totally geeked out when I found out that James worked on the best-selling conversation card game, because I tormented so many people when I found out about those. I was like, let’s play a game.

It’s gonna be really fun. And a lot of people were very hesitant at first because there is a little bit of a hesitancy to open up in our current day and age, but once we started, Uh, it was a game, literal game changer. People really kind of enjoyed hearing about others talk about this. Again, it’s so simple. It’s such a simple concept.

Yeah. And now there’s dozens of them. So you have Best Self started with like, um, you know, it was a journal, uh, company that did 90-day journal, goal setting journal. And then we morphed into this, um, idea that again, a problem that people are having is like, uh, people are great like setting goals for their business, but then they struggle with like networking or their personal relationships or their romantic relationships. So then we started creating tools to help in those settings.

And like you said, that you probably talking about the Icebreaker or maybe even the Intimacy Decks. Like the simple, the presences is, is it’s just conversation starters, deeper meaningful conversation starters that aren’t like yes or no answers. They’re very open-ended, but also they’re thought-provoking and they’re not all very deep. So like you ha- you have to like with that kind of thing, you’re doing, you know, 150 questions. You have to have a really good balance of like some soft questions that you’re just kind of getting the feelers wet or the, kind of the, the, the, the juices flowing, I guess.

And then you can have some deeper questions that might, you know, really sink in. You’re like, all right, I have to think about this a little bit and I have to get vulnerable about this. But you had all those, I guess, icebreaker, social lubrication questions that are gonna help you get there. So there’s all that mechanics in the product that while it seems really simple, it’s, there’s an art to it, right? A little bit of a science.

That clearly goes into it and it takes the burden off of me, right? As someone who’s trying to get to know someone and it’s I’m not asking you this, the card’s asking you this. So, oh yeah, that’s one of my favorite excuses. That, and that was one of my favorite things, especially like the intimacy decks or the, the more sex-forward decks, is a lot of people had questions in their relationship or wanted to bring up topics that they didn’t feel comfortable asking, but when the game asked it, it took that away from it. It gave it more, again, like you said, I’m not asking the question, the card is asking the question, so what’s your answer?

You know, it’s, it’s a very playful way, but Now you look at it, like I think that’s, that was one of the, the first out there. There’s Table Talk, there’s We’re Not Really Strangers, but I think does an amazing job of this concept. There’s Tails, which is another one’s really good. And you think about how many conversations we have in a given day or a given month. These, these tools, you, that it, there’s not, the space can’t really get crowded because you’re gonna use them over and over and over.

I think I have like 12 decks of cards and I use them constantly because I’m going to networking events or I’m meeting up with friends and we’re always talking, we’re always having conversations.

Sessions. So, you know, just, you know, pulling out more cards and talking about it and buying another deck and then using that deck later, it is, it is kind of magical. Very, very cool. I love that. Um, we should have a conversation card deck game at Connect St. Pete sometime.

That’d be great. We definitely do want to have some form of game night here that, that happens regularly, so we should do that. Should put it on the calendar. I’m gonna think of like, honestly, like even just mixing up the, the intros, you know, when everybody does their 30-second pitch, maybe it’s you just pull pull up a card and they have to talk about their business in a different way. It’s a great idea.

I, I found like I was part of a couple of the network group and we did the same thing over and over and over and it kind of got repetitive, which was fine, but I wanted to know more or deeper. And so I think like that would be a really great way to just look at the business in a different light and it might help spark a connection, right? It might, it might, uh, I don’t know, just trying, just trying a different view on it where I’m like, oh, I didn’t, I didn’t understand it that way. And when you said it this way, All right, I know someone to connect you with, or I might be able to use your service. Right.

I think those answers are way more memorable too than like name, rank, serial number, which is what we tend to do at networking events. And so when I hear someone’s story, that’s going to stick in my head way longer than the fact that they’re a fractional accountant, you know? Uh, but, and now I am more likely to like make a personal connection with them. And then when the time is right, maybe we’ll do business. And I think that’s kind of the hope and the dream of all networking events, but this makes it stickier.

Yeah. Right. I’m going to take us back, back to the book for a second because chapter 6 talks about the power of a strong support system, which is something I firmly believe in. Tell them why this is in the book and how it helped you and what you want people to know about it. Yeah, I, I think this is, uh, we’re, we go to layers with this one.

We can go. Deep, deep layers of this one. So I think a strong support system sometimes starts with yourself, but also it’s your, you know, I think you go in different situations, it could be your like, um, um, your, your chosen family, and it could also be the people you surround yourself to, to move forward. I think as an entrepreneur, it’s super hard, it’s lonely, um, and you, you know, a lot of times like you’re doing everything yourself. So having that support system that you can, you know, talk to or you can rely on, or you can just get out of the with, super important.

One of my favorite things, I, I learned this from, um, someone, uh, years ago, this concept of love and shove. And I think, um, I might have mentioned in the book, um, the idea is love is understanding why someone’s stuck and showing empathy and being there supportive, but the shove is helping them move anyways, like helping keep them going. Most people don’t really procrastinate because they’re confused or incapable. They procrastinate because they care. They like, they see multiple outcomes.

They’re emotionally invested. The stakes feel really real. Their brains are telling them, let’s protect ourselves by waiting. And that love is, you know, from a friend or support group, it’s, I see you, this is heavy. It makes sense that you’re feeling like this in your head.

But the shove is, but what if we did it right now? What if we did it together? Like, what’s the best that could happen? And Not today, not tomorrow, not another plan, not a promise, not another when we’re like ready. It’s just starting now and getting that little bit of shove, that little cheerleader moment.

That’s really important. You need people to support you for that. You need people to challenge you. And that’s where I think growth really happens when encouragement meets some sort of accountability. So that’s why it’s in the book, because I think having that support system is super, super helpful in that capacity.

Like I said, we could talk about it from like chosen family, we could talk about our work family, but also just like Getting real feedback from people of like what problems they’re facing as you’re building your business and like, how can my business like solve that problem? Or like even asking, like having a good support group system that’s like willing to tell you like, that’s crap, James. Like, it’s not gonna work. What else can we do? And like talking it through with you.

Mm-hmm. That’s, that’s the most valuable relationships I’ve ever had. Yeah. You mentioned something in there just quickly. What if, and I love the power of what if, and I think Adam, you participated in something last night that talk about that.

But when I work with people, the what if is usually leading us down a negative thing and fear thing. Like, what if it goes bad? And I always say, well, if we reversed it, what if it turns out to be the most brilliant thing you ever participated in? And the thought process of love and shove and pushing people out to experience something that could be incredible, I think is really a loving thing to do. And I think it’s a powerful thing to do.

Adam, what can you tell us about this what if sort of thing that you, you experienced yesterday? Yeah, Eric, I thought about that immediately as soon as James said, what if? Because we were at a workshop last night called Gather and Grow, and they’re using this what if up model. So you have a kind of a think tank in, in this workshop where you as an entrepreneur say, this is who I am, this is who I serve, this is what I want to do. And then your think tank group will ask clarifying questions about what it is, you know, and kind of get the lay of the land.

And then once the questions are over, everyone takes a round robin of saying, well, what if, and you provide an idea or a solution or a brainstorming thing, and it’s a, in a positive way, like, what if you do this? Uh, and then that person who’s receiving that just receives it. No responses, no, you know, I tried that, or like, this is, you know, I’m worried that this wouldn’t work. It’s just receiving. And then once you feel like you have, uh, 1, 2, 3 things that resonate with you, You, uh, say, I’m good.

And then at the end of the night, we recorded the one thing that we wanted to do that based on the suggestions, and it was recorded and there’s a follow-up step. So to your, to your model too, James, of accountability and having that touchpoint later, it’s the same kind of model where, okay, you got this, these wonderful gifts from people. Now go do the gift. It’s love and shove, you know, I, I’m doing this because I care about you and I want, and I love that, by the way. I’m gonna, that gives me a lot of permission because sometimes I feel like I’m being a little too pushy with my friends who have dreams that I want them to accomplish, but now, um, it’s a love and shove situation, right?

Yeah. I, I, I, okay. I love this example. And I think one of the, like, I’ve been in situations like this where you had those kind of groups where the what if up, I think that’s a wonderful concept. I, I think where would make it a little better is like have a comment cards where people can write it down.

Cause you forget, you get overwhelmed with it. And I think where is these, so these masterminds, you are overwhelmed with the fear of asking for feedback, right? And then getting feedback and like how to process it and people just write it down and give you the card afterwards. They might speak it all out, but then you have the card to take with you. I think that’d be a magical thing.

So I think maybe next time, uh, uh, uh, Salidas, we can have a feedback session like that. Yeah. But you made a good point. All the good. But it was really interesting cuz you kind of heard how other people riffed on other people’s what-ifs.

So it kind of holds and builds. I love that. Yeah. That’s where I think growth happens. It’s that encouragement meets accountability, and that’s the power of networking groups and coaches and accountability partners that just, you know, balance each other.

Yeah. And it’s not like we all did the same stuff either. So you’re getting different fresh perspectives based on people’s other lived experience, and it’s the power of the collective power of having a strong support system. Right. Let’s just look at accountability for a quick jiffy.

James, would you say that you have accountability partners, one specific accountability partner? Who do you rely on to move you forward, to keep you kind of, you know, on the tracks that you’ve created for yourself? Ooh, this is a good question. I- this is a superpower of mine. I can kind of keep myself motivated.

But then there’s times when like that battery drains and I need other people. So I like finding volunteering can be a little bit draining and where my accountability is kind of the people that the organization serves, right? Like not saying it’s draining, it’s actually really great, but there’s a lot happening and we’re all volunteers and you have our full-time jobs and we have other commitments. And so When I, you know, getting back to expanded capacity, it’s like when I think like, okay, there’s, there’s a lot to do in front of me, but I have all those other commitments that I have to do for other things. It’s thinking like, okay, if I get these done, it’ll actually serve and help other people.

So I use it as kind of an accountability for myself, but also I have friends. I have coworkers that I work with that I partner with. I have some good, really good friends here in town that I’ve met over time. We meet for coffee, we go through things, we talk. Sometimes we just do like body doubling and that’s one of my favorite things is where we sit down and we’re working.

Like I was on a Zoom call with someone for like 3 hours yesterday and we were both working on something separately and kind of like mumbling out loud and every once in a while we would just like stop and have a quick chat because like you lose that fluid talk sometimes. And then we would just go back into what we were working on. And it’s kind of fun. I use that a lot from like, but I need accountability. I need to get through things.

I’m like, hey, do you sometimes just wanna You want to co-work and we’ll just co-work our own things and just kind of be in the same room and kind of keep each other accountable. Otherwise we might get up and like go fold laundry, which is also really important. But, you know, that’s, that’s interesting to me because again, looking at kind of the, the, the age that you gentlemen are, I’ve got 5 kids. They’re younger than you guys by, I guess my oldest is, but, but that’s how they work too. And that’s sometimes how they date.

They’ll watch movies when they’re in separate spaces. They’ll like do homework together if they can’t be in the same space. But that’s the- so, and I think it’s just that power of knowing that somebody’s there almost in a safe space when you can’t be physically in the, in the same area. I think that’s kind of a nice thing. I, I never would’ve thought about doing it, but we used to have phones and have phone conversations forever.

So maybe it’s the same sort of thing. But maybe I think it’s not like the older technology. I think knowing that someone else is there is kind of a nice, nice to think about. Like we, we lived through COVID and we lived through a lot of other things. Like just knowing someone’s like, um, a phone call away is, is pretty helpful.

Or just like, uh, willing to be there. That- so you’re- you, you said something I thought was really interesting, kind of like, um, the younger generation fading with a body double. That’s kind of fascinating. I don’t really know much about this, but I’ve also not been in the dating scene for like 15+ years. So curious.

Adam, do you have experience with this? Do you go on dates with- like, first dates? Can I ask? I’m sorry. Oh, I- during COVID I had this idea, and I actually bought the domain for it and have since given it up, called My Date Flix, where you watch a movie remotely together and like about it, or like you can, maybe there’s a voice where you can talk.

Um, because during COVID we couldn’t really be together and I thought that’d be a fun idea. I, so my, you didn’t, you didn’t enjoy like syncing up the, the TV shows or the movies at the same time? Like ready? Well, I did that. I always wanted to, I wanted to like make it easier because it was always like, okay, 1, 2, 3, go.

And then like someone would put ahead or behind. But, um, but yeah, I grew up at the time when the internet was getting really big and I was also a little bit more socially awkward. So I made a lot of friends online and they were my lifeline to share what was on my heart or on my mind or my anxieties or my complaints. Um, we had shared interests around Star Wars and sci-fi and writing, and we could do those things remotely. So I became very comfortable making connections virtually, and I think it’s only amplified as technology has become more integrated into our lives.

And younger generations aren’t driving as early. I’ve noticed that trend. So to get in your car and meet your friend, you just do FaceTime or get on your laptop and do some sort of virtual version of it. Why aren’t they driving as early? Is it too expensive?

What’s going on? I, I, it’s really conjecture. I have no idea what the reason is, but I’ve got like a cousin that doesn’t want to drive. I think he’s 19. My niece is 17.

Do you have kids? We should bring your kids on here to ask these questions. This is fun. No, no, you’re good. I just, I, I think it’s a combination of like, what’s the point?

Because we have technology that gets me what I want and like my parents will drive me around. I think parents are way more engaged with their kids than they were back when we were younger. And it’s like our, like you wanna go somewhere, you can drive yourself and, uh, or you can get a ride or you just won’t go. Uh, so I think that there’s a little bit of not as much of a need for it. And then yeah, cars are expensive, insurance ex is expensive.

It’s also scary. Have you ever driven in Florida lately? Like, yeah, man, my generation is like, as soon as you could get the- as soon as you could, you’d get a car or borrow your parents’ and you would go driving for as long as you possibly could with the windows down and the music blaring. Yep, that’s what we did. We’ll do that anymore.

You do? Okay, you did? I did. Well, that’s, that’s what I did. As soon as I could get my temps, I was like- even before my temps, I remember like like, uh, probably I shouldn’t say it out loud in public, but like when I was- we would go on like, uh, road trips, go camping, and I was like, you know, 14.

My dad’s like, okay, take it, take the wheel, you know, in the backwoods of- oh yeah, like younger than that I was on my dad’s steering the wheel in the backwoods of Florida. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And like, you know, we were excited to get in the car and go and get our license as quick as possible. I remember chopping at the bit that Yeah, I, I, I’ve, I’ve heard of, I know they wait that long. Yeah.

Oh, so much gas was, let’s go. How much was gas back in, uh, 20 years ago? It was like $1.50 when I started driving. I remember like, this is like a, this is aging me again. We now, I feel really old and shouldn’t bring this up, but, um, there used to be a radio station called 98.3 and I remember they did a gas drive where the gas was 98.

Dollar or 98 cents, 98.3 cents or something like that. And that was like a big deal ’cause they’re saving, we’re saving money. And now I’m sitting here like, I wish gas was 93 cents, 98 cents. That’d be amazing. Oh my gosh.

Weird, weird memories that you think about. Like, I don’t know why that came up the other day, but I think I was just like, again, superpowers. Well, I wanna talk about two more things. Yeah. The power of storytelling in your book.

I think that’s an interesting- it’s a need, right? It’s a marketing need. Power of storytelling is to talk about business and your brand, but we can tell, like, just in our life, we can tell a positive story or a negative story, right? Well, so Adam did a really good job of talking about this, and I think this is really important and something I don’t do enough that I see the value of is kind of rehearsing that story a little bit beforehand or kind of creating those, identifying and creating those stories. And I think that’s really, really important.

Like when you are in like certain situations or you’re networking situations, having those like go-to stories that you can pull from is, is really important. I think it’s, it’s, it, one, it helps reduce some of the mental taxation that you have when you’re in those situations. Um, but it also helps you boost your confidence. It helps you, um, kind of make the most use of your time when you’re in them. So I think storytelling is, is really, really important.

I think one of the things that I’ve started doing is kind of like documenting my story. And some of these prompt tools that, like, you know, there’s journals out there, there’s Legacy prompt things that I’ve used in the past from like documenting, like, and writing, like, okay, what are some situations I’ve gone through, or like in business, or in, in other things I’m doing, and writing it out so It’s kind of in my head, like a story, and it can kind of come out quickly. So I think that’s really important. Same with like your business, right? You need to talk about like who you serve, what you serve, what you do, and how it benefits them.

And having those like quick things ready to go helps. But I think that’s, it’s really important from a storytelling perspective, this kind of having that, I don’t know, like a catalog of stories you can pull from. That’s one thing. Um, Adam, I’d love to know what your thoughts are too here, cuz you, I see all these books in the background, so you are definitely a, a, a collector of stories, it looks like. Oh, I love, love, love, love stories.

And The Moth has a, um, card game for storytelling as well if you’re interested in checking that out. But I think you, you really highlighted the best part of stories, which is it lightens the cognitive load because our brains have evolved to intake oral histories Writing is relatively new in books and print is relatively new to the human brain. For a very long time, we had to just remember things and we tended to remember them through stories, beginning, middle, and end, moral of the story. There’s a whole reason why we’re telling you this story. And so that is so sticky as a business owner, as anybody that just wants to be memorable.

If you have a bank of stories that you can pull from easily and tell them well and succinctly, people will remember you. I went to a really great pitch workshop that Score puts on at the Greenhouse in St. Petersburg, and he really hammered home how you’re not doing an elevator pitch, you’re telling a story. And that’s why oftentimes when I am in networking settings and they’re like, okay, tell us what about what you do, I will start with once upon a time, which primes the brain to say, this is a story. I was a miserable person and now I’m not. And that’s what I want to help other people to do.

So it’s a very short story, but- being grateful anchors to. Okay. So our time is just about winding down and we obviously, the three of us can talk for a long time and maybe we should do this again. But what I want to focus on that we haven’t talked about is the other work you do, the fractional work you do and how you want people to know you, who you want to help, how they can contact you. I want to kind of talk about all of that.

Who are you looking for to interact with in the world? Well, I think, you know, so fun. There’s so many things. Again, I could talk about- we actually, there’s a networking group the other day we were talking about this is coming to knowing what you’re talking in different situations and what you want to serve in that group. And so I think here we’re with this group, I kind of want to talk about my current role as the president of the nonprofit called Out Art and Culture.

Um, we’re the only LGBTQ+, uh, nonprofit in Pinellas County that focuses on art and humanities. Uh, we host a lot of really great events, uh, one called Read Out, which is coming up in the first week of February, and then Art Out, which is, um, in June, um, this year. And the whole idea of what we’re trying to do is we are trying to amplify the voices of, uh, LGBTQ artists, authors, and storytellers to, to kind of get their their names out there. And you, here at ConnectSAP, we’re really, really fortunate about having the columns where we are displaying artwork for two really amazing artists. I’m looking at it every single month.

Inspiring. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s amazing. And so that little thing right there just kind of makes me really happy.

And again, as I was talking about before, that’s my motivation why some of the things I do is like, if I can make that connection, I can get over some awkward uncomfortableness asking, then guess what? We now have a really amazing space that we can showcase some really talented artists on. So I think if anything right now, I think that’s where my focus is, is kind of seeing where we can be more involved in the community, where some of the needs are of the community. I think one of the things I’ve really seen it, especially with Readout, which is our literacy event, or literacy event, gotta be careful of that, our book festival, we’re bringing in about 50 authors and storytellers from all over. Or bring them here to Florida, which is really amazing.

So bringing queer authors into Florida when, you know, Florida did book banning and other terrible, horrible things, um, to, to silence voices, it’s kind of an amazing thing that we can be doing. And, and we’re gonna have about 120 people there, plus all the authors and their guests and their friends, and it’s gonna be amazing. And I see that and how we are making an impact on those lives and also the community. but also like, what else can we be helping with? So that’s where I think here, this conversation you’re asking is, um, you know, love to connect, love to talk about like, what are some things that we could help with?

Like, you know, we had this connection with these really amazing authors, you know, if there’s a storytime or, uh, can we like help bring books to, um, a community that needs them? Can we introduce authors, um, in a sense to get more exposure to the author, but also, um, open up the community to their work and/or artists as well. So that’s where I would love to kind of put my ask if I could. So, so much there. First of all, Readout, correct?

I have that. When does that happen? Uh, February 6th, 7th, and 8th. It’s like right in front of- it’s coming up. It’s coming up.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Where’s it gonna be? It’s gonna be at the Hickman Theater in Gulfport.

Okay, super. 50 authors. Yep. Is it a ticketed event? How can people participate?

Yes, it’s a ticketed event. So if you wanna come, you have to buy tickets. You can buy them at the door on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, or you can go to outartandcultures.org and you can buy tickets there. I hope we get this. I don’t think we’re gonna get this published.

We might not. But if there’s other events, like if, you know, let’s just, let’s make it more evergreen, ’cause here’s the evergreen ask is, If you’re an artist or if you know an artist, we have Art Out coming in June and we’re going to be doing our call of artists starting in February, March. So if you know someone that’s an artist or you’re an artist yourself and you want to submit your work, yeah, come out, come over to our website at oartsandculture.org and apply. It’s amazing. It’s important.

We should not be silenced, right? Yeah. No such thing as a banning. Where are we? Do you think we should, if there are fairies, we should be- Oh, I would say that there, it’s, it’s there.

Shouldn’t be, but it’s there. So. And does it not feel that we’re headed maybe in the wrong direction sometimes with what’s going on currently? Oh, that’s a big, that’s a big, that’s a whole other podcast. I’m going to get into it.

Yeah. I, Personally, this is what’s motivating me to be kind of in this role and to help do what we’re doing is to make sure that people don’t give up hope, right? Don’t- we want them to feel seen and heard and to get their voices out there as much as possible because they’re talented. Like, really, I think one of my favorite things that I can remember when I first started in the organization is we went to Pride at Gulfport and we started it was Gofford Park and we were there promoting Art Out, which was in October of last year, and getting people to sign up to submit their art. And so often we were talking to people like, oh, I’m not an artist, I’m not an artist.

And their friends or their family were next to them like, what are you talking about? And they’d pull out their phone and they’d show pictures like, look at what you did the other day. You made this for me. You’re an artist. And that lack of confidence that we saw like kind of motivated me like, okay, we need to be that cheerleader.

We need to be that support system where we’re encouraging people to like submit their work and showcase it. So if we can create that space, again, we’ve been talking a lot about safe spaces where people feel comfortable showing their work and then others are coming to see it. I think that’s like, that helps right some of the wrongs that are happening in the world right now. I appreciate that. And I thank you for your work on that.

It’s another sort of version of Love and Shove in a way. But the important part of that is people need to feel safe to be who they are and they need to feel safe to create. Yeah. That’s what we are, right? As humans, we need to- What’s that?

I’m sorry, Hank. I was just saying sometimes art is an outlet when we don’t feel safe. Right. Absolutely. And then I suppose it’s up to the artist to decide how they want to share it and who they want to share it with.

But the important component of this is we want them to feel safe to share it. 100%. That’s exactly what it is. And it’s up to them if they want to share it or not, but we shouldn’t tell them, no, you can’t share this. Exactly.

That’s not, that’s not right. And we should never tell somebody that they can’t be who they want to be. That’s unacceptable, in my opinion. Oh, Uncle Eric, this is the best.

Cool. You know, I think of this now through a father’s lens and I’d be so- it’s making me kind of tear up right now. If I thought anybody was editing my children in any way, shape, or form, that’s unacceptable. Uh-huh. I just don’t, I don’t, I don’t see space.

Well, we appreciate you. We definitely appreciate you, Art. Yeah. Thanks. And your kids probably appreciate that too.

That’s like good call, Dad moments. They will, they will, will, they will. There’s a delay on all that. But my stump speech on all this, Eric, is that I, like James, am a big fan of working towards what we want to see in the world versus working against what we don’t want. And when we work against what we don’t want, we’re wasting a bunch of time and energy, and there’s no payoff at the end of that other than just status quo.

So I’m all about working towards the vision that we want to see the world become. And if enough of us do that, I think it makes a big difference. I hope so. I hope you’re right. I’m optimistic.

The challenge is people can make an argument always that that’s what they’re doing, right? Yeah. But I wish people would be mindful of when it’s causing harm to others and when it’s not. Well, this is where we get our chosen family, right? We get to hopefully pick and we get to be exposed by people that are, they’re rooting for us every day.

Right, right, right. Agreed. All right. So we have reached roughly about an hour, and I want to make sure that both of you have a chance for final thoughts. Adam, do you have any final thoughts, any questions you want to ask James or anything you want to share on what we’ve talked about today?

I just really enjoyed this conversation. I thought I’d be more of an observer, less of a participant. So I appreciate the inclusion here. It’s just really fun to talk with folks who are go-getters, who wanna contribute, make a positive impact in the world. Jane’s one of those people.

Eric, you’re one of those people. So it’s just such a pleasure to be part of this community here in St. Petersburg. Well, thanks for being here. I’ve enjoyed this so much. I think we should do, the three of us should hop on a, a podcast again.

Gee, yeah, let’s do it. This is about you being a Sun author in our Sun Readers group. and we appreciate your contribution so much. You led us through two workshops and shared your gift and your book with us. The book again is Big Wins: From Napkin to Reality, Turning Small Ideas into Big Wins by author James Bake.

James, any final thoughts you want to share? No, I’ll just echo what Adam said. I’m, it’s been a pleasure to be here. It’s been a pleasure to be part of this community. And, you know, I think, you know, coming from Detroit and, and moving to St. Pete, it’s been amazing.

To be part of just this community and how welcoming and open it is and just be part of these conversations. I love this. And so I think, you know, I’m always open for more conversations. So people could find me at my website at jacebaik.com or find me on LinkedIn or, you know, someone in town probably knows me. They can three-way text us and go grab coffee.

It’d be fantastic. So we just have conversations like this all day. I love it. That’d be great. What a great way to spend the day.

I would love that. All right, Sun listeners out there, my name is Eric Nunning. I appreciate you being with us today. We are the Sun Leaders Community recording here from Connect St. Pete and the studios at Connect St. Pete. So be healthy, be happy until we speak next time.