Striking a Balance: Sharing Stories, Setting Boundaries and Seeking the Unseen with Carlos Whittaker
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Meet Carlos Whittaker, our guest on today's podcast episode; his charisma and wit, coupled with his riveting stories, make him a must-listen. Nashville's version of Mr. Rogers, Carlos, brings an incredibly unique perspective to the table, discussing the delicate act of balancing privacy while still sharing engaging content on social media. He takes us on a journey through his life, from his viral videos to his adventures in beekeeping and birdwatching, offering a peek into his intriguing world.
Carlos doesn't just stop at sharing his experiences; he also provides invaluable insights into ethical considerations, the importance of setting boundaries, and the ongoing need to reevaluate our methods of sharing stories. He enlightens us on his process of deciding what stories to share and reveals the often overlooked ethical aspects of sharing personal stories. Carlos' powerful narrative about seeking out the unseen and marginalized in society and his mission to bring them dignity is nothing short of inspiring.
To wrap up our enlightening conversation, we dive into the power of moments and the significance of being a positive presence in others' lives. Carlos explores how he uses his voice to help others feel seen and loved. He also addresses the challenges of protecting our children on social media, the joy he finds amidst the trials and tribulations, and the secrets to keeping that joy alive. This episode is a treasure trove of insightful conversations, inspiring stories, and practical wisdom that you will not want to miss!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loswhit | @loswhit
Website: https://www.carloswhittaker.com/
Podcast (Human Hope): https://pod.link/1249486443
Books: https://amzn.to/3QazXVShttps://amzn.to/3QazXVS
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/chrisandsara
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisandsara_ | @chrisandsara_
Website: https://www.chrisandsara.com
Call or text us a question or comment: +1 (423) 825-9572
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Get inspired by world travelers Chris and Sara with "What No One Tells You," their conversational podcast. Each episode is a fun chat with friends sharing personal experiences, insider tips, and riveting stories. The show is elevated by amazing guests from Youtubers, ultra marathoners, bloggers, and adventurers who bring their unique energy and perspectives to the table. With Chris and Sara, you're sure to feel a part of the group, ready to embark on a new adventure. Explore the world one story at a time and join the conversation today.
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Hey y'all! We're Chris + Sara (or as you know us, Let’s Be Us), a husband and wife digital nomad travel duo currently working and traveling full time with our pup, Kramer. We've always dreamed of traveling full time, and in May of 2018 we took the leap and made it happen! Today we're balancing work and fun everywhere between the Pacific and Atlantic. From hiking and cycling to tacos and coffee, we're trying to see and experience as much of this world as we can! While our home is currently on wheels in our DIY Sprinter van, our travels take us all around the world.Be sure to hit subscribe here on Youtube and follow along on Instagram for more daily fun! Oh, and be sure to say hi while you're here. :)
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NOTE: There were 3 speakers identified in this transcript. Speaker separation errors can arise when multiple speakers speak simultaneously.
0:00:00 - Chris
I am wearing a very nice and festive shirt. This is my favorite shirt Happy shirt.
0:00:05 - Sara
Chris got this shirt in Mexico.
0:00:07 - Chris
It's a pink panther, it's yellow, it's very bright. Typically I wear all black, but today I'm feeling very joyful and spontaneous.
0:00:16 - Sara
Pink panther went to Hawaii. Speaking of joyful, today's guest is very joyful and I feel like that's the best word to describe him because he's very fun, very charismatic. He's very contagious. If you don't know who he is, his name is Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker. He is Lo Swid on Instagram. He's huge on Instagram. That is where he shares the most random and sometimes epic but oftentimes it's a bird who's backyard kind of moments of life and so engaging.
0:00:39 - Chris
You're watching it and you're like why am I watching this bird? Or why am I watching this guy farm bees? And you just keep watching. And then you find out that he knows so many interesting people or he meets so many interesting people, but they're just normal everyday people.
0:00:56 - Sara
Yes, he shares life and he's a great storyteller. He's a podcast or author, speaker, musician I think that's just about everything. I'm sure he's way more than that, but that's how people know him. He is just this joyful, full of life and hope kind of person who just has so much wisdom to share, so much hope to share with us and today's conversation. We talk about social media and limiting social media, but also sharing on social media, trying to find that balance Sharing on social media when you have kids, or traveling when you have kids and instilling these values in your kids. Now, because he's in a season of life that we are not in, where he has kids who are in high school, in college and beyond now, and their kids grew up with social media.
0:01:35 - Chris
It's just so fascinating. One of his very first videos went viral about his kids, and this was before YouTube. Was only four months old and he ended up on every morning talk show in America, so he knows a thing about going viral and how to handle that with your family.
0:01:52 - Sara
Yeah, and we talk a little bit about Chris's dubbed him, you know, mr Rogers. Like he is like Nashville's version of Mr Rogers, genuinely Like. I mean he just everybody's a friend and people refer to him as their friend even if they've never met in person because he just he's so good at sharing and making life relatable. So I don't want to give away any more of the episode. So this is our conversation with Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker.
0:02:13 - Chris
Oh, but before we go, not to beg, but we really just have a request If you could just review the show like leave a nice iTunes review, that would be amazing.
0:02:25 - Sara
Leave it honest, you don't have to convince them to leave it nice. Well, they can still be nice, yeah, ok, anyway, let's just get to it. Hello, hello.
0:02:39 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Hello, my friends. You don't look like you're in a, a vehicle. I don't even know what to call the thing you live in.
0:02:49 - Sara
I just said vehicle. We think trucks sounds cooler than RV.
0:02:54 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Oh truck, you don't look like you're in a truck.
0:02:56 - Chris
Our new truck is like it's just sketchy enough to where people start pulling their kids a little closer in.
0:03:03 - Sara
You know, it definitely gives off creepy, creepy little things, a little bit, a little bit. I love it, we love it.
0:03:08 - Chris
Carlos Whittaker Whittaker, I can't even say your name correctly, because you say it in a way that you say it to your audience and I sound very white when I say it. So can you just go ahead and say your name, or you would introduce yourself.
0:03:22 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Sure, but before I do that, I do want to say that for some reason, chris, you have like one of my favorite voices, or the accent Accent is the wrong word Like just the way you talk is is like I love it, so I can't even describe what it is. So I actually really appreciate the way you say my name, you know. So you know. Can you just say it again before I say it?
0:03:46 - Chris
Carlos Whittaker Whittaker.
0:03:47 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Okay, I, just, I appreciate it, lo sweat, lo sweat. Yeah, yeah, I was like I sound like Owen Wilson does maybe that yeah, it's just, it's just like you're just like everyone's buddy is kind of kind of kind of like what it feels like. It sounds like you're everyone's buddy. My full name is Carlos Whittaker Whittaker and we go with the get it. But no, I kind of like it when Chris Owen says it, you know.
0:04:13 - Sara
Chris Owen. What a cool name that's so much cooler than Sara Bethany.
0:04:21 - Chris
So, Carlos Whittaker Whittaker, we're so happy that you're here and we go back a long ways, like we've been friends for a long time, and I feel like I I mean for people who don't know you you're an author, you're a speaker, you were a recording musician at one point, you, I feel like your life is just so completely random, like you're a bird watcher you're, you know, a flyfisher, yeah.
0:04:47 - Sara
So yeah, I mean you can give us a beekeeper keeping now to oh yeah, yeah, she does have a little homestead up there.
0:04:55 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
I want to come see it too close to my bees or they'll, they'll come out and get you, oh gosh.
0:05:00 - Sara
Oh my nightmare.
0:05:02 - Chris
So if you were to give us an elevator pitch on who you are and what you do, like the quick 30 seconds, like what would that be?
0:05:09 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
I feel, like Chris and Sara, that I've been trying to I've probably paid $10,000 for somebody to help me try to figure out what this 30 second elevator pitch is, because I just don't know. You know, like, like, it's like, what is it? What is it that I, that I do? You know, I think when I take a real big step backwards and I look at the people that maybe are impacted by what it is I'm doing on a on any given day, it's like I'm a, I'm a, I'm a word giver to people that may be looking for words, I get that more than anything. Oh, my gosh, thank you for saying that. I've been trying to.
That's exactly how I feel, and I've been trying to come up with a way to say it, but I haven't been able to say it, and so, whether that be in like difficult conversations, whether that be in like a way to show somebody that they love them, whether it be, you know, like it's, it's just, it's like I just try to help people navigate life, and that's why I show all facets of my life right.
Not, I'm not just like the business guy and I'm going to help you in this niche area, trying to get whatever it's, it's the entire spectrum. I show my life so that people don't feel alone and people feel like, wow, there's somebody that that is struggling, like I am, and look at how he's navigating it. So maybe I'm going to give it a shot. Like that there's somebody that has found some success, maybe I'm going to give it tried to find success in the way that he's found success there. And so, like I just love to share my entire life, whether it be through books, telling stories, whether it be on stages, whether it be on Instagram. Probably most of the time, 90% of my time, I'm telling stories on Instagram. I'm a storyteller that's trying to help people tell their stories better, I guess you know, and maybe live their stories better.
0:06:55 - Sara
So I love that.
0:06:56 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
How's that for an elevator pitch? Does that get elevator pitch? I'm going to.
0:06:59 - Sara
That was good. I'm trying to say where it's direction to go here.
0:07:01 - Chris
Yeah, you've got so many things happening Like you're you're this, like here's Carlos Whittaker Whittaker, and then you just, you know, yeah, and we, we admire that very, very much because we oftentimes we get like pigeonholed in a niche.
You know, and I'm sure you have too it's like but I'm more than just a beekeeper, I'm more than just a speaker, I'm more than this. And then you know more than just a traveler or whatever, and so like with that, like how, how is it that you're able to tell stories about the most like mundane things? Because we would look at our normal life, like we get back to Chattanooga, tennessee, we love it here, it's, it's great, but like it's normal, yeah, and so we don't want to document that. We're just like, oh, we're just going to Trader Joe's today, oh, we're just doing this. But you, on the other hand, I mean, you're traveling a lot, yeah, you go to these cool places, and then you come back home to Nashville and you're still documenting, right, like about a blue J, you know, in your backyard and people, like thousands of people, are watching about yeah, you do it in an interesting way.
0:08:11 - Sara
It's not just like look at this blue J. You know, like you tell the story from slide to slide on Instagram.
0:08:16 - Chris
It's so good. So how, like? How do you do that, like, how do you make every part of your life seem interesting? I I.
0:08:26 - Sara
Is your life more interesting than ours?
0:08:27 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
No, no, no, no no, no, no, no, because it's not like like I'll. I do tell people this a lot. I, what I try to do is, in every story I tell, I try to find something that everybody can root for, whether that be the blue J, whether that be the me trying to change the muffler in my truck, whether that, like, I always try to find who is the thing or what is the thing in the story that everyone needs to root for it, and I make it all about that thing right. Whether it could be the butterfly that you know that I found in my front yard and we're trying to rescue the butterfly, and then the butterfly flies away, and then the neighbor's dog I'm filming. It is like chasing the butterfly, and then you know, and then, and then of course, I use, I use music to like you know, I mean that is my version of manipulating emotions Like I will use music to the T, right, like I am, like I score everything you know I really do, like it could be, you're right, like the most mundane thing, and I'm on Soundstripe trying to find the exact cinematic you know score for this moment of me, whatever it may be. And so, yeah, you know, I just I find something for everybody to root for and I like to.
I think people they've grown accustomed to me sharing everything that you know. I feel like I am trying to not be just a highlight reel on my Instagram of all the coolest things that I've done. People are going to if they're going to follow me, they're going to have to get the you know, the boring stuff to me Mo and Margras, whatever it is and I think people are just used to that now and so what that's done is it's created a intimacy between those that follow me and myself. That's probably you're not going to get if you're just following people that are just showing highlight reels, right? So if, if you're following somebody and I follow a lot of those people where it's just the glorious things in their life, that's really fun to watch and it's cool, but I don't feel close to them.
But the people I feel close to right, like, like we. You know, when you, when you go back and you look at Casey Neistat's first vlogs and he was doing it every single day yeah, he was making the mundane seem. You know, he was scoring the mundane he was doing, doing all the things, and suddenly I felt when I, when I finally met him, I was like I'm meeting my friend Casey, right, because he's my friend. So I feel like that's what's happened, because people will introduce me as I mean I'll legitimately go to a conference and somebody else, they'll get a book signed and they'll turn to their friend and go this is my friend Carlos Whittaker Whittaker. And they literally say my friend Carlos Whittaker Whittaker.
0:11:06 - Sara
I love that.
0:11:08 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
And so, and they don't even think twice, they don't. I don't correct them because I've never met them in my entire life, but they are like this is my friend. Why am I their friend? Because they've seen the good, the boring, the exciting, the bad, all the pieces that you would normally see with a friend, and so I think that's why it works. You know, I think that's why it works.
0:11:27 - Sara
I love that, that they can call you their friend. But that kind of raises a different question though Where's the boundary for you? I mean, how much do you share and not share? Because I know that, like you said, you share everything. But from a mental health side of things, where do you draw that line? Because I feel like that's something we're always struggling with. It's like how much do we share, how much do we not? And deciding what to keep private. How do you decide that?
0:11:48 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Yeah, well, I mean, I, they think I share everything you know, like like they, but the truth is I don't, right, so like they're like. This is my best friend, Carlos Whittaker Whittaker. I know everything about his life. I know that his parents are, his dad has dementia and I know that he bought the house across the street to move his parents into and I know all these amazing things that are happening. But that's what I choose to share, right, like they're still only getting five minutes, maybe 10 on some days of my life and so, yeah, so there are.
There are things that you know, as my kids have gotten older, I don't share near as much about my kids as I used to. That's a conversation that I have with people all the time. It's like I actually wish I probably would have shared less when they were younger. You know, and those are conversations I have with my kids now, like you know, I've had to look at my kids in the eye and be like, hey, listen, I'm sorry that I shared that part of you know when you were seven or whatever. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done that. Would you like me to delete it?
You know, like there's just conversations that I think we need to be having constantly just looking at the ethics of what we're sharing, looking at the ethics of how we're sharing other people's stories. You know I've made a, I've raised a lot of money on my Instagram for people in need, and the way I share their stories now when I ask for money, is different than the way I shared it two years ago when I started asking for money. So, like I think we just have to constantly evaluate what is it we're sharing? Why are we sharing it? And yet, like there are things that you shouldn't be sharing. You know there are things that I will never share. You know we were my daughter's getting married in May and they it was so funny because they hired a photographer and I was like so who's gonna take, who's gonna do video? And like, clear as day my daughter looks at me. She's like we're not hiring videographer, like you're just gonna you know you're gonna have your phone, like you're just gonna do what you always do.
And I looked at her and I was like I was like hey, hey babe, I am not going to be instastorying your wedding Like I want to be your dad, like I just want to be the right and so like I have to make decisions and draw lines in the sand that look like no, I'm not just gonna live stream your wedding to 300,000 people, you know Well, that's where her brain went, though she's like dad's got it.
She's like dad's got it, and I was like, oh my gosh. So I talked to my wife. She's like and Heather was even like, well, yeah, I mean like you'll be taking videos. I was like I do not want to take one video that day. So, again, it's his people's expectations. You have to draw online, you have to know where it is. You want to experience the moment instead of capturing the moment. And I'm having to have more and more of those conversations with myself and other people.
0:14:29 - Sara
Oh, we get that and we're always so we don't have the kids. We don't have kids to always have to think about. You know how it affects their lives.
0:14:34 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
I mean, are you asking Kramer like, are you looking him in the eyes and being like you know, we just fully exploit him, that is one person we would exploit all day long.
0:14:43 - Sara
Yeah, he knows he's a why half our audience is here, but always seem to like reevaluate how we're sharing something and making sure that we're giving people dignity, and that's always the way we come back to it, Like when you ask for money how are you giving them dignity? How are you? Sharing their story and I've definitely seen the progression of how you, you know, first started out and how you're doing it now and how you find ways to, you know, show them as human, which isn't, I mean, human.
hope is sort of same idea. So I mean I don't really know what my question is in that, but I just I really love the reminder of having to constantly reevaluate it.
0:15:15 - Chris
And for context, like for people who have no idea who you are. I mean, one major thing that you have gained a lot of attention for is finding these random people or strangers and you've been raising money for them. Like you're walking through the Atlanta airport and you strike up a conversation with the pianist and you get to know his story and then you raise an ungodly amount of money.
0:15:42 - Sara
Not for your, but not in a way that it's exploiting them or giving praise to yourself, like there's a really fine line and you've done a great job balancing that line.
0:15:51 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Well, and here's the thing is, like you can tell when someone's crossed the line right Like you can. There are accounts that are, you know, honestly, like I call them, like like giving porn is what.
I do Like they're exploiting homeless people there, like you know, and then there's no relationship afterwards. And so, like I'm like every single person we've raised money for, I make sure that's why I don't do it Like it hasn't become just like a raise money and give it away account. There are accounts that that's their full purpose. But I want to maintain relationship with every single person that we've impacted and I want to check in on them. And you know, I did it for a bunch of Waffle House employees and I still go visit Stacy at the Mount Juliet. She's the manager and whenever I'm in town I go check in on her. Like how's it going? And you know, I just want to make sure that we're constantly giving them dignity and making sure that they're, you know, human. And here's the thing too, like I've had to.
I've had to even change the way, the way that I do give money to even strangers, right, like one thing that I've had to learn is like when we raised money at the Atlanta airport for these workers who I'm still in relationship with all of them, but when I raised all the money I think we raised like $120,000 for the three of them I was like, hey, so do you have a Venmo, and none of them had Venmo.
None of them had Cash App. None of them had a smartphone enough to like smart enough to even download Venmo or Cash App. None of them had a checking account. They would just take their checks from the Atlanta airport walk to a check casting place and then suddenly I started realizing, wow, there's like systems that keep them from even being able to get the money that I've raised for them, and then how do I make sure that they take the money and they use it for something that they say they want to use it for? So I had to find them like financial coaches, and there's just way more than I think. I think we just have to be thinking way bigger when we do these things and we share these stories in order to give people the dignity that they deserve. And so, yeah, it's been a process, it's been a growing thing and I love it. I love doing it, but I want to make sure that I do it well.
0:18:00 - Sara
I think there's no perfect way to do it. I mean, we can look back at some of the stories that we've shared and I'm like, oh, it's so cringy and I'm like I should have done this differently. I didn't treat them, but we're always learning and growing from that and I think that's the best you can do. Yeah.
0:18:10 - Chris
Well, and so you on your platform and everything that you do. I feel like you are a weird Mr Rogers.
0:18:22 - Sara
Yes, we have called you that actually.
0:18:27 - Chris
You're just like a good neighbor, but it doesn't feel like you're doing that for your sake. It's just genuinely who you are as a person and it's really interesting being able to travel. Let's just ask this you travel all the time. How do you talk to these people? How do you even find somebody to be a good neighbor to?
0:18:53 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Yeah, that's a great quote. I love the Mr Rogers thing because people have said that to me. They're like you're the Mr Rogers for grown ups.
0:19:01 - Sara
I need a card again.
0:19:02 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
And actually I'm halfway through editing a reel on five things adults can learn from the Mr Rogers Neighborhood Show. So you're that on it guys.
0:19:11 - Chris
I love it. We're cutting edge, you're cutting edge.
0:19:14 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
You're cutting a bleeding edge. You know, I think as I travel, I'm looking for the people that are either invisible and you can see them all around you. They're either invisible or they've been knocked down and people are just walking over them, kind of deal. So that's what I look for every single day. I'm like who needs to be seen today. That's how I found the piano guy. Right, I hear him playing the piano, I turn over to him. He's got $15 in his tip jar and 99% of the people around him are looking at their phone and I was like this guy's giving me a concert of a lifetime and he's invisible. And so I'm just constantly looking on the way.
My flight two days ago from Portland here I am in line, I pay for all the TSAAs, the clears. I try to make that experience as minimal as possible, but painful is possible. And so why is it painful? Because we've got to wait in line. Everyone's grumpy and everyone in between. Whoever you are as a traveler and your gate is just in the way. They're just in the way of you getting to where you want to go. So who is that? Those are the TSA agents. They're in the way that. They're not shiny, happy people. They weren't hired to make you feel good about life. They weren't hired to be your Mr Rogers at 6 AM. And so I see them and I just think they probably I can't even fathom the amount of pain and gruff and attitude they get all day.
So every single TSA agent, I say their name, officer, whatever, santos, thank you so much Like I look him in the eyes. I say their name. I'm telling you, nine out of 10 times when I say their name, they kind of look at me like and they just smile. You know, and who knows what just saying their name will do. And so you know I'm like they're. They're invisible to people. People just want to get by them.
Who are the invisible people? That's why when I raise money for the food court workers in Atlanta, everyone's, you know, eating their food, they're coming around. No one's saying thank you, you know. So I'm just looking for people that need to be seen and I see them and you don't have to raise a hundred and thirty thousand dollars, right, just say that, say their name and and watch something shift in there in their day, watch some dignity, maybe come back up. Like somebody said, if they have their first name, say that. Thank you, amber, for whatever it is. You know it, wendy's my milkshake. I say their name and there's just some dignity that rises up. So you're right, like there's something intrinsically in me that Just wants to see people that are unseen. It's probably because I felt unseen for a very long time and and I've had people see me and so, yeah, you know I, I love to do that. I.
0:22:02 - Sara
Love that. That's such an easy way to connect with somebody and remind them that they are seen. It's just their first name. Most people are wearing that name tag yes you're right, I can think of times, and people have done that to me too. They're like thank you, Sara, like if I have a name tag. I'm like wow, they called me by name right, there's something really special about that. I'm great like, easy, free like, and we may not always have money to give to somebody, but you can take a second and say their name.
0:22:22 - Chris
Absolutely special.
0:22:24 - Sara
I love that.
0:22:25 - Chris
I think I know where it started for you. Okay, this, this whole cause. It was at Disneyland and it was when you were Eeyore.
0:22:34 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Yes, that was it. That was it. And people, people, let me tell you the Actually. So hold on. According to my my work papers, at Disneyland I was a friend of Eeyore FYI, like. I wasn't Eeyore. I was a friend of Eeyore, which is oh, I thought you were Eeyore. Well, I Was a friend of Eeyore, which is what you're supposed to say when you are Inside of a very hot costume. So so for kids, for kids, for little boys and girls that are listening to the podcast right now Carlos Whittaker Whittaker was a friend of Eeyore.
And so when I, when I was the friend of Eeyore I don't want to get sued by the Disney Company I am here's, this is funny, because this is actually. This is actually really funny. So this was out of college, maybe, this was like 98 or something like that. I'm working at Disneyland, you know, and I I'm fully expecting to be a friend of Tigger, right, I'm like this is like I've got energy, like I do the audition and and I can't even believe like I made it through the audition and I get hired and Then they cast me as Eeyore, as a friend of your, and I'm so depressed. I'm like this is horrible. So when I'm in like, when I'm in like poo town or whatever it was, poo town- I'm hanging out with with poo and Tigger.
Can I tell you the lines of people that were in line and kids to see poo, and then the lines of people. Well, all three of us would be out. There would be poo, tigger and me that would be there for Tigger. And I'm telling you, it was like only the depressed kids that were, like you know, coming and Getting in line with me and it was barely even them, you know, and and I, there was like three people in line for me and like a hundred in line for them and I just didn't feel seen. So, chris, you're absolutely right. You know what my time is. Eeyore is the thing that made me want to see invisible donkeys.
0:24:33 - Sara
They're roasting in that Roasting and for nothing.
0:24:38 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Nobody wanted to. You know, they would always come to me when the line for poo or Tigger was too long.
0:24:42 - Chris
So yeah, it wasn't like you had to get in character, you were already like living the moment.
0:24:50 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
I was already hunchbacked, I was already like crying, it was just miserable.
0:24:56 - Sara
How long did you do that I?
0:24:58 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
did it for four months and I got in trouble the first week because I had a supervisor come to me with a like little autograph book, like a kid's autograph book, and they go, is this you? And I looked and I was like, yeah, that's the way I signed it and I didn't spell your with two ease, only spilled it with one for an entire week. So I was ruining kids, like just ruining, ruining kids.
0:25:23 - Chris
That's probably going for a lot of money now.
0:25:26 - Sara
Yeah, it's a rare money.
0:25:30 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
So listen, if you were a kid in the, you know, late 90s and you went to Disneyland and got your book signed by you, or just see if it was one E, and that would have been me.
0:25:43 - Chris
So, yeah, I man, what, Carlos Whittaker Whittaker? We can go anywhere in this conversation because, like, your life lends itself to that way. But I feel like we've we've talked about like, seeing people and being intentional with people who feel invisible and like, but what keeps you going like? Why? Why? Why do you feel so motivated to, to be this contagious personality of you know, or being positive, or showing like, like, why like? Why do you do it?
0:26:12 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
I just, I see so many invisible people every day on my, in my DMs, on my phone, people that just don't feel seen. And I Know I can't see everybody and I know I know that that that's gonna be impossible, but what I've seen is the power of community to see people is so much greater than the power of seeing somebody alone. And so, when I can, I can pull out my phone and help somebody feel seen that has felt invisible for a long time. It is, it is addicting, like it is something that I think we were created as humans To have a great addiction to is rescuing.
I I say in my last book that Humans have a reflex of rescue. You know, like we think that we, that we don't have a reflex of rescue, but if you dig down deep enough, like it's literally there inside of all of us, we look at you know society right now, and you you think about just the polarization and the disconnect and the division that we see. And you know I'll tell people all the time when people say we're more divided than we've ever been, you know, and I'm like no, no, we're not. Like I know you, you just read the history books. Okay, like we're not more divided than we've ever been. We just have more access to other people's opinions than we've ever had before. So it feels like we're more divided, but we're actually not.
So if that's the truth, then how is it and this is something that I do love to do how is it that we can see people that are actually nothing like us, that are vehemently opposed to the way that we look at the world, people that dehumanize other people? How can we see them? Because there's a reason they're dehumanizing other people, probably because they've been dehumanized themselves, and so, just trying to get people to look through this lens that every single person it could be the quietest, shyest person that you can imagine needs to be seen. But also, can I tell you something like the amount of CEOs and very well-off People that have millions of followers, maybe even influencers, maybe even influencers they actually need to be seen too, you know, and so, like everybody, has this innate desire to be seen, and so that's what keeps me going. What keeps me going is knowing that the work's never gonna be done. I'm gonna continue to have to Not only see people myself, but teach people how to see people, and and again, it's, it's, it's fun.
0:28:26 - Sara
I like that. So you've talked a lot about how you bring value to other people's life and also how you continue to be inspired to Share about their lives. But let's jump back Way way first. Book Carlos Whittaker Whittaker moment. Maker. Yeah can we just talk a little about that and making moments out of life?
0:28:41 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Yeah.
0:28:41 - Sara
I have to be anything crazy, just share. I mean, you've got how many books now? Four, five.
0:28:46 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
I'm working on the, on the fifth. I'm working on the fifth and actually I just finished the six, but it's a kids book. So I've got a kids book coming out in March. So yeah lots of books.
0:28:57 - Sara
I got lots of books, yeah okay, so let's go back to the beginning, because I feel like, especially your first three books, they kind of like lean one into the next, the next. So let's start with the moment maker, because I think that's when we first Really found you was your book. I remember actually Chris buying it for us, yeah, a long time ago, but just it always sits with us as far as like making moments out of things that, yeah, may not be what, what, it may not be Instagram-worthy or may not see sure.
Could you just talk a little bit about like how that started?
0:29:25 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
yeah, what that looks like. I love that because that that book came out, I feel like before Instagram. It was. It was hey, you know, you can make moments without having to post it. You know, like it, like it's amazing. But you know, I think for I think for me, you know, moment maker, um, what was it? What was it? Oh, yeah, it was. You can live your life or your life will live you, and I remember I heard that from, I think, a pastor Matt Chandler maybe said it and I was like, oh my gosh, that's that's it. You can. Either there's so many people that are letting their life live them and not in charge of the moments of their lives, or you can. You can be in charge of it and start creating moments. And so, you know, that book Really came from when my kids were really little, and Heather is the she's the one, my wife, she's the one that, even to this day, is the one that is planning these crazy trips that we are going on, that.
Anything you ever see cool that I do on my it's literally anything that you see. It is not me, it was not my idea. I did not want to hike through the jungle to find of a, of an ape at you know the top of the mountain and feed it Peanuts, like that. No, that wasn't, that was my wife's idea. So she is the moment maker and I think that it's. What's been cool Is it's really dripped down into my kids. And so to watch my kids become young adults now and Become little mini moment makers, you know they're living their lives, they're not wasting any opportunity.
I mean, here's the thing like we all have an expiration date. You know, I know this is depressing to talk about, but we, we don't know when it is. We all want to imagine that it's gonna be more 97 and you know, and it's like, oh, we're gonna fall asleep, you know, whatever. No, like we don't know, and so like, if you're listening to this right now, I just get fired up like you've got an opportunity to really Impact somebody or just create moments, just to make your life Feel like an exhale. You know, and yeah, so you know, I love that book, I love talking about it, I loved, you know, giving people.
That was 2014, I think, which is crazy. I'm giving people reason to To wake up every day and to just kind of charge out the door and you know, and make moments. And again, the moments don't have to be these crazy hike through the jungle moments like every single day. If you're you know I tell people all the time if you're a stay-at-home mom or stay-at-home dad and you've got, you know, just kids running around constantly and you're thinking what in the world, like I don't have any time to, oh my gosh, you have so many moments that you can make with them.
You know you have so many things you can do and so, yeah, you know, the the moment-making thing probably was the catalyst for For a lot of the things that I'm doing now. I'm just I'm just making them in different ways.
0:32:08 - Sara
Yeah, so one common theme it keeps coming back in a lot of our episodes lately is that point of entry and for a lot of like you know, there's that theme of travel in most of our episodes, where People a lot of times think it has to be something crazy big to make it an experience you know has to be Instagram worthy but, that moment make our idea of just start with where you're at, like there's always that opportunity to have that memorable moment.
0:32:29 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Oh my gosh.
That's the point of entry and I love that reoccurring well, and what I love about that is when you know we have if you look at my Instagram highlights Well, we've been all over the planet and just even in the last 12 months, right Like Rwanda, in France, out the France and all these places. And so people like, yeah, you guys just travel everywhere. Well, you know what? Like that was not the case up until Five years ago when I finally, in my mid 40s, had enough money to take my kids on vacations overseas. So you know what we would do, like we would take trips that were 45 minutes away from our house in Riverside California. Like that was our point of entry for travel. We would.
We used to play this game where we would roll a dice and and the dice was whatever the dice would land on if it was 15, we would drive 15 miles. If it was 43, we would drive 43 miles and then we would have the kids stick their hand in the jar and I said north, south, east or west, and they would pull it out and we would drive 43 miles east. And we were. So we were broke, but we were so excited about, okay, we're going east, where we would end up. We would never know it could be a strip mall in the middle of Palm Desert. You know, like, like, and it's like this is where we were meant to be here and we just have so much fun, right. And so I just tell people like I love that, Sara, like the point of entry is so small, like you don't have to have this huge point of entry. No, wherever you're at, you can start doing it now.
0:33:51 - Sara
I love that and I love that you're doing it with kids. I mean, that's one thing that Chris I, we can't really speak to at all. It's just because we don't have kids. Sure, we a lot of people who do listen to us do have kids.
Yeah, I think that you guys are doing it from even you know strict budget all the way up. Yeah, you have the money to go to the south of France now. Yeah, finding that point of entry, no matter where you're at, and then taking the kids along for the ride is Helping them make memories in their lives early on, not missing those opportunities. It's just so cool. And your kids? You know, I don't think I've ever actually met your kids, but they seem like really cool solid kids.
0:34:21 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
You know, they, they, they are the one, the one caveat, not caveat. The one Warning I would heed parents with having your kids be travelers when they're young again, be travelers, whether it be 45 minutes or whatever, and putting that that adventurous spirits into them is. Just know that when they turn 18, they're gonna keep Going and they're gonna leave you and they're going to. My daughter's moved, moved to France for a few months and you know so. They were there at the beginning of this year. They moved there from January to March, I think, and it was the first time we'd all been apart from each other. But they're like, no, this is what you've instilled in us. And so they saved their money, got an Airbnb and traveled Europe. For you know, and so it's just, it's been so cool to watch, watch what's caught rather than taught, you know, and and that's really what's happened with our kids. So, yeah, you know, kids are watching. Take, drag them around that is so cool I love that.
0:35:13 - Chris
That is really cool. So the more, the more that you travel and the more that you Are Successful, do you feel has it become harder for you to share about your successful moments, because it can be kind of unrelatable yeah?
0:35:28 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
people the starting point I, I do. I do kind of feel that because I've always been, you know, I mean Chris. Chris has helped me for a lot of years in in my bootstrapping solopreneur life, right, like it's just been me and Chris and and it's like, chris, can you, you know, I'm like filming fitness videos on my, on my Webcam, on my laptop, you know doing burpees, and Chris is like, hey, bro, can I help you with these?
0:35:57 - Chris
things like.
0:35:59 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Fitness courses, like that, and and so I've been like the bootstrap solopreneur guy, right, and everyone's is super relatable, relatable and and yeah, to be honest, like you know, I've got like full management team now and like I've got people doing things for me and it does feel I want to Constantly make sure that I keep remaining, you know, a man of the people. And actually this has been a point of contention In my in my career. To be honest with you is that I am so much, I so much don't want to lose that that I probably have turned down a lot of money or opportunity because I'm like that's just, it's just unrelatable and I just I just I don't know if I can do that and so so, yeah, you know, like it's actually even affected, I probably could be living in a different house and I, you know, am right now, had I just sold out the wrong word, because there's a lot of people that make that choice and they do it. But I just won't like you, like there's just there's never been an instagram ad on my on my instagram. I just I try to Just keep that. That's the purest place I can be right. And so, like, I've had so many opportunities to make a whole lot of money and I'm just like I'm just not going to do it like I like they're going to sniff that a mile away and I just I spent too long Building trust with this platform and the reason why I can raise so much money Is because I'm completely transparent in every dollar that's given and no, nobody's seeing me buy new cars and you know all these things, and so like I feel like I've worked so hard to build this, this trust, that I just don't want to screw it up, and so it has been.
Not that I'm not going to buy a new truck okay, so not that that stuff's not going to happen but I am very careful To make sure that I, that that the trust is still there and that I'm making decisions Honestly for this community that I've built, and to make sure that that's at the forefront, because the you know my insta familiar. They're the ones that booked me for the speaking events. They're the ones that you know like I know that that I do get income from them. You know they buy my books, like all these things, but there's just some things that that I won't do Yet and and I and I haven't done and so I'm can't remember necessarily the origin of that question, but just making sure that I stay as much as I can as relatable to them, you know yeah, that's a hard balance and we're not quite.
0:38:26 - Sara
we're definitely not quite to where you're at, but we definitely feel that pool of like people you're, I don't know that standard of what's relatable is always going to change for different people and having to learn that because we both grew up on like real type budget things and so anything it just you know, balancing how that is perceived by the world is hard.
0:38:42 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
but today is your life.
0:38:44 - Sara
Finding that balance is really hard, yeah, but yeah, man, okay, what else do you want to do with this conversation? Because we don't want to take up too much time here, I know, I know, what do you have? I mean I always have questions, but I mean, I definitely like I really would love to lean into like the whole family side of things, just because you do have that and we haven't. I don't think we've really talked to any families on this podcast.
No no so you refer to it as your insta-familia. You know your Instagram, which my Spanish accent is terrible, but Insta-familia. I cannot speak Spanish for the life of me, try as I might, but let's talk about your. Is it okay if we talk about your family, or how much?
0:39:15 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
do you share?
0:39:16 - Sara
Okay, because I'm always interested in. Like you know, you have social media. You're huge on social media, you're sharing it. How do your kids feel about how you instilled boundaries in them? Because your kids grew up in the generation of social media like we were on the cusp of it. We got at more, you know, high school, college kind of thing.
0:39:31 - Chris
I mean, one of your very first videos went viral, right? I mean, this is before like viral was a viral thing.
0:39:38 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
YouTube was four months old when this thing went viral on YouTube, that's insane.
0:39:41 - Sara
Oh my gosh, which video was it?
0:39:43 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Single ladies, devastation that's right.
0:39:49 - Chris
And most people listening they probably remember or seeing that video and then have totally forgotten about it right now.
0:39:55 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
they're remembering it now, yeah yeah, yeah, I mean, you know it has been a, it's been a journey with, with my kids. Like I said, I've stopped sharing as much. Especially when they got into, like, the tween years, I was like you know what like like this is. This is their life, you know. And so I would ask them, hey, can I, can I, can I share this or can I? And honestly, 80 percent of time it was no, no, dad, like don't, don't want you to share that. And they've also seen the you know you, we talked about moment maker, but there's a next book called kill the spider, where it talks about my life falling apart, and a lot of that was because my identity was placed in other people's values and opinions of who I was, whether it be on social media or my blog back then, whatever it was. And so they've seen the dangers also of believing your own height. They've seen the dangers. They've seen they've not only seen it, they've lived through their father having to find healing because of, because of social media. And so I, I I think that, as far as parenting, one of the things we decided to do early on that I tell parents all the time, especially with social media and things like that is to make sure that you know your kids. You can't tell your kids to do something that you're not doing yourself. Like like you can't like the the times I would be like get off your phone to like so, hailin, say, on a while, I'm like literally just scrolling. You know it's like. Can you imagine you know? Like like, don't drink while I'm just taking shots of vodka, like right in front of them. You know it's like. We have to remember that you know, and and also that it's not, it's not about them not using it. If you're going to parent them, actually have them use it, but teach them how to use it responsibly, teach them how to use it well. And they've also seen that they've seen the good that's come like my kids are. You know, every time I do a giving blitz, man, they're. They're like all, all of them at home They've since a couple of them or one say I was moved out and whatever but like, if they do a giving blitz, they all end up in my living room like, ok, dad, where you at now, like what's it? What's it at now? Like they've seen the good that comes from it as well. And so you know what.
I actually have a podcast episode. Maybe I can find it and you guys can link it. But I have a podcast episode where because that video of single ladies devastation went viral when Lissai was like two years old right, he's crying because I told him he can't be a single lady and you know it goes viral when he's seeing Beyonce's old single ladies. Well, you know what? I literally looked at him on during this podcast with tears in my eyes and said you know, buddy, I didn't, I didn't ask you what you, what you thought about me posting that, and I can imagine maybe that was embarrassing and I let him unpack yeah, he really didn't like that.
That everyone that talked to him was like, hey, that's a single lady, that's a little single, you know, like. And so, like I literally, with tears in my eyes, like apologize to him on my podcast and he forgave me, and those are things where we need to think about his parents Now, like what are some things that you shared about your kids that maybe you need to delete, maybe you need to apologize to them for, and it doesn't have to be a big thing. You know, and allowed them to feel like, wow, like again, this is back to being seen. My parents actually see me, they've seen me for. So I've had to have difficult conversations because of social media, because it's funny now, though, that he's, you know, 16, 17, and the girls have found that video, you know, and he's like, hey, yeah, you can share that video, because they're like, they think it's the coolest thing ever, you know.
0:43:36 - Chris
So you know, just okay, I'm like no, put it back on, you know.
0:43:38 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
But, yeah, you know, I just think that you just have to do it on purpose. If you're not doing it on purpose with your kids, you're gonna accidentally wound them, and so you know you're gonna do that already. So go ahead and purposely protect them, purposely, let them feel seen, and I think that's really we're living in the wild west when it comes. All this is brand new. Like the rules are being written as we're, you know, as we're living these social media lives. So just try to do it with as much integrity as possible, as much humanization as possible, not only for people that you're telling stories about that you're not related to, but, you know, for your kids as well. So, you know, I look at my kids now and I Lasai still doesn't have Instagram. The girls do, but they're very. They don't share. They definitely there's a generational gap here where they don't share like I share, like they're like dad. Yeah, 40 slides a day is definitely a 50 year old problem. Like that is that's what 40s and 50s do you know like they're like if they share something. It's so weird.
We were just in Montana for like seven days fly fishing. You know it was the most epic. I'm like sharing everything, posting. They like Sianna maybe posted one seven second video of like water flowing under her waiters with no sound, and that was it. It was just like seven seconds, no sound, and with like a little emoji in the corner. I was like what, what was that? Like literally, I was like, hey, babe, like I think you accidentally posted something with no sound, like on you. She's like oh no, I did that on purpose. I was like you did so anyway.
You know, they do things differently than we do, but I guess I guess at the very bottom of this ladder I'm climbing down to try to get to a point. It's make sure that their identity isn't isn't being manipulated by social media, whether that's by you or by them. Make sure that their identity is not rooted in that.
0:45:33 - Sara
That's good. Yeah, we see, and, like I said, we can't speak to a person because we don't have kids, so, like we tried to like look too closely at it, but we do see everything, especially in the travel industry just parents using kids and that kind of thing. It's honestly, it's hard to see sometimes.
0:45:49 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
And like exploiting our dog.
0:45:50 - Chris
I'm kidding.
0:45:51 - Sara
You know what I mean. It's like it's just it's hard to see sometimes, but I know that just from like we're on the outside, like I don't know your kids but I, they all have a strong identity. It seems like outside of social media.
0:46:01 - Chris
And I think that's something's been done right. So yeah, and you speak about the like Wild West and I. Is there a point in your life where you will put down the phone and like, walk off into the sunset and never exist online?
0:46:18 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
I love this question. I love because I it's, it's. I love this question because I actually think about this question every week, like that is Me too.
I'm like is this, this, this may be it Like like this, this I especially when I don't, you know if I take three or four days off, you know, and I'm not and I haven't shared anything and I'm like maybe it can be five days, maybe it can be seven.
But then I look on my calendar and management team has like I have social social calendars now and it's like nope, today you're posting about the and I'm like, oh my gosh. You know, yes, I hope there, I hope there is going to be a day that that happens, and I hope when it happens, I I enjoy when it happens Right now. There's desires for it every once in a while, but I also really still enjoy sharing, and so I I just don't ever want to not enjoy sharing. And you know, here's a little sneak peek for your listeners. I'm starting to give some sneak peeks to this, that that my publisher is not necessarily asking me to give sneak peeks yet, but my next book and I think I told you, chris, what I did for my next book maybe not, no, no no.
Oh, okay. So so last year in late July, I put up a post saying hey guys, I'm going to take a little break from social media. I'm not going to be around, and I'd never done this before. So I was like I'm going to take like four weeks off or whatever. Well, I didn't reappear for like 11 weeks and during during those 11 weeks, I did an experiment on myself that I'm writing a memoir about, and I went to Dr Daniel Amen. He's a neuroscientist in LA and I had him scan my brain the day before I went offline and I had him scan my brain at at seven hours a day on my phone. That's how, about how much I was spending creating content and editing and posting and doing all the things. And then I left his office and my best friend, brian, drove me three and a half hours into the high desert of Southern California and I got out of his car and he took my phone, my Apple Watch, my laptop, my iPad, and he dropped me off at a Benedictine monastery for three weeks and I lived with these monks and I never saw a single screen. So so not only was I off social media, like I didn't look at a screen, like it was 23 hours a day of silence. It was the most miserable first four days of my entire life and then it became the greatest two and a half weeks of my entire life. And so I lived the monastic, this Benedictine monastic life, because I wanted to see, I wanted to be reminded like what was life like before? All these things were in our hand and just the beauty of existing and living and noticing and conversations, where nothing ever vibrated in my pocket or my wrist to take my attention, even if I didn't look at it. If you feel it, you're, you're taken away. So I wanted to remember and recall what it was like to live before this stuff happened. And here's the kicker After I left the monastery after a few weeks, heather picked me up, drove me to LAX and I got in.
I got on a plane with a paper boarding pass because I still didn't have a phone, and I flew to Cleveland, ohio, and my friend Leanne picked me up and then drove me two hours to Mount Hope, ohio, which is a small four way stop Amish community, and she dropped me off at the Martin sheep farm and I lived for another three weeks with the Amish, fully in, with no technology, lived with them for three weeks. If a sheep were to walk in my basement right now, I could share that thing in three minutes flat, like I've got. I got life skills. I didn't know I'd have right, but so now I'm. Now I'm like seven weeks right With no technology at all, like no screens, haven't seen a screen, don't know what's happening on planet earth, don't know what's happening anywhere except for what's around me.
Right, I feel like that's what we were created. That's one of the things I'm writing about. We were only created to know what's in our community, like around this, and really care for that. Then I moved home for another three weeks after that with no screens. My family still did Netflix and all the other things, but I was like, well, anyone could do this in a monastery or with the Amish, but could I do this in real life? So I lived at home for three more weeks.
Then I ended up flying back after my entire experience 11 weeks or so to Dr Amen's clinic and he rescanned my brain and he read it, all the things, and so I'm writing that's my next book that's coming out next September is exactly, chris, what you said putting my phone down and walking off into the wild blue yonder and it was the most healing, incredible, you know, weeks of my life. And here's the thing spoiler alert I'm not like some digital minimalist now, like I'm not like back to oh, Carlos Whittaker Whittaker gave it up and he's on his phone an hour a day. No, I'm back to seven. But here's the thing what the book is gonna help people with is what I did was I was reminded of all the things that we've stopped doing because of it and I've just added those things back into my life and now it's so much fuller right.
Things like noticing, things, like savoring, things like moving at three miles an hour, things like the table the average length of an American meal has gone from 60 minutes in like the 60s to 12 minutes Like we don't even sit around the table anymore Like all of these things that I was reminded of. So that's what the book is gonna be these reminders of getting lost, things that are very human, that we don't do anymore, and I'm excited about it. So there you go. There's a little sneak peek.
0:51:50 - Sara
I'm so excited about that. I'm excited about that you know, we took a cross country road trip this past winter and I shut my phone off total for six weeks. But I sat in the car and the dead of winter there and back across the country with social media and I looked like a sociopath. I was like go back.
0:52:05 - Chris
I thought she was something was wrong. She would just stare out the window. I'm like is everything okay, Sara? I stared all the way across Kansas. I stared. I loved it.
0:52:13 - Sara
I'm like you. It's such a weird balance, cause I feel like Chris and I are both like introvert, extrovert, where we have those moments of like I'm just gonna leave it all, I'm gonna move to Montana, this is it. But then we also really love that side of social media that allows us to connect with people, cause we're such people, people.
0:52:26 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Absolutely.
0:52:27 - Sara
But it's that weird balance. But, man, I'm excited about that book.
0:52:29 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Do you have a name for it yet a title I don't, I don't, but here I did take, I did take two Sony cameras and I self documented the whole thing. So it's gonna end up being we're gonna enter it, I've got a producer working on it right now film festivals we're gonna do the whole thing, so Wow awesome, so excited, very cool.
0:52:46 - Sara
Carlos Whittaker Whittaker, thank you so much. I feel like that's such a great place to wrap it up. Well, or do you have one more?
0:52:51 - Chris
question Well, if people wanna follow you, if you have one last thing to say, like, let's just go out with a high note. So, if you have one last thing to say and like where can people follow you and learn more about you?
0:53:01 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Yeah, you know. I think that though you can follow me, you know low sweat on Instagram L-O-S-W-H-I-T. Instagram, same thing on Twitter, but it's like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde if you follow me on one or the other. So just know, I'm really, I'm really sarcastic and angry on Twitter and super happy and Mr Rogers on Instagram. You know, and this is actually something that I just this week, I just kinda had a big realization that may be helpful for somebody.
You know, there's a lot of people that are going through a lot of rough things, you know, these days, and everybody, everybody's going through something. And so for me, my dad, my dad's going through, you know, the later stages of dementia. I just bought the house across the street for me to move them into and, and something you know, people are always like, you know, Carlos Whittaker Whittaker is so difficult, is so hard, he's forgotten everything, he's forgotten who I am, all these things. But one thing that I wanna leave your listeners with is especially for the, for those listeners that maybe have forgotten what joy feels like and maybe they're just struggling, they're in a a pretty dark place of depression, all these things, and they're feeling like they'll never find it again.
One thing that I learned through some dementia specialists that I've spoken to that is so true is my dad has forgotten everything. But you know what he hasn't forgotten? He can still laugh. Like I can still make him laugh. Like I'll tell him a joke, I'll tickle him, like literally, like like go on it and he'll die laughing. And I'm like, oh my gosh, he has not forgotten joy. That is actually something intrinsically inside of us that we will never forget. So for those listeners that are listening right now and may be thinking to themselves, gosh, man, like I don't know, like I don't know if it's in me anymore, I promise you it is still in there. You just have to dig a little, maybe, to find it. And so just a reminder to them or to anybody that you know that's going through something hard that joy is still there. If it's in my dad and I can still pull it out of him, then I promise you you haven't forgotten it either.
0:55:02 - Sara
So good, oh, man Carlos Whittaker Whittaker, thank you so much. We're going to link everything in the description so people can find you. Follow along and see what's next.
0:55:11 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
You guys are the best.
0:55:12 - Sara
Good talking to you.
0:55:13 - Carlos Whittaker Whittaker Whittaker
Yep, you too.
0:55:14 - Sara
Thanks for listening to what no one tells you with Kristen Sara, you have a comment or question that you want answered on the air? Be sure to send us a message to hello at christenSaracom, or you can call or text our phone number at 423-825-9572. Thanks for listening.
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