Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Crafting Community
331 Plays3 years ago
After moving to the Midwest from Louisiana, Stephen Smith knew something was missing…backyard BBQs. There just weren’t very many. And sure, the food at that type of thing was always good, but it’s the intentional community, the people, and the vibe of gathering that he missed. But how do you re-create that in the Midwest? The same way you do in the South, a party and a whole mess of crawfish. And thus, Cajun Fest Iowa was born, not only in service of the backyard BBQ vibe but also of a variety of local charities totalling over $100k in donations from the festival to date.
This week on the show we talk to Stephen about what it takes to grow a community event like his from 100 to 1,500 attendees over the course of a few years and why it's more important to know where you’re going than how exactly to get there. Plus, guerilla marketing, holding firm to your values so that your progress means something, and achieving a work life blend (vs. balance).
Find out more at https://www.cajunfestiowa.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Uncommon Life Project
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit. Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
A life worth celebrating and savoring. Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey.
Steven Smith's Journey to Passion
00:00:35
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Life Project, where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey, and the Aaron Kramer. The one and only Aaron Kramer. Holy cow. We're here. We're rocking out. We have a guest today, Steven Smith. He's great. Amazing. We just had a conversation before we jumped on the record, which we normally do, but I'm really excited to jump into this guy.
00:00:56
Speaker
Cajun fest is kind of his jam his passion. He was doing something military guy Traveled the world realized that like he had a passion for Cajun food starts the Cajun fest and what I want to I guess quickly Just encourage other people is like he had a passion and he did something about it He was intentional and he acted on it and I know there's some listeners out there that have some ideas and
00:01:19
Speaker
all you need to do is act on those things. So I hope this is encouraging. I hope that like this whole podcast, you can just hear the enthusiasm and passion that he gets to have every day. Wakes up, loves what he does. So Steven Smith, welcome to the show my man. Thanks very much. Both of you. I'm doing well. Yourself. Yeah.
00:01:36
Speaker
I was excited to have you on. For our listeners, I know Steven. He's a personal friend of mine. And there isn't too many people out there that say they have a bigger heart than Steven. So Steven loves helping people. Far too kind. Thanks, man. Far too kind. Far too kind. OK, you're married. Yep. What's your wife's name? JC. JC. OK. And you met? South Dakota of all places. Which there's not a lot of people or good things that happen at South Dakota. So you just took one of them out. And they're living in Iowa now, right? Yep.
00:02:03
Speaker
Nice. Okay, so give us a little bit of a background. What were you doing? And I would say more of the common path. And when were you like, all right, I'm gonna jump this ship and I'm gonna do the uncommon route. So tell us your background.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, so honestly, I moved here from Louisiana to work for one of our Fortune 500s here in Des Moines, doing the things that you should be doing in that pathway. A job that really aligned with my skill set, my education, good pay, all those things. I'm not a corporate guy, I find out. At the end of the day, I find out that that's not where I get my joy and my energy. A lot of cool stuff, a lot of great learning lessons, I gotta see a lot. But at the end of the day, not the thing that's probably gonna keep me satisfied when I wake up at 40.
00:02:43
Speaker
So for me, it was finding out where else do I get that passion from. And honestly, it was a jump for me because there was no necessarily safety net waiting for me. I didn't have a lot of things lined up per se. I just knew that there's got to be more to this. Were you married at the time of JC? Yeah. OK, good. Yep. So was she working?
00:03:02
Speaker
She was yeah, okay. Yeah, she's a social worker. So bigger heart than me once her heart and more patients certainly cuz I don't I don't have that So you come home from work at the fortune 500 not to name any names principle and then And then you say hey babe like
00:03:21
Speaker
I'm not feeling it. What was her initial response? Because here's what I'd say. There is a common theme of people that we have on this podcast and I have a feeling she'll say the same thing. So go ahead. The answer was support. So you don't have that emotional support. There's no chance, right? Right. Right. Yeah. And that's exactly right. If your spouse isn't going to support you on your uncommon journey, don't do it. Yeah. 100%. 100%. So JC says, babe, I love you. I'm here for you.
00:03:46
Speaker
Do it. You wouldn't be the same if you didn't have that fire, so please keep that fire burning bright, whatever it takes. Right. We got this kind of thing. So she says you got this. Yep. I'm here for you. We got this. Yeah. Ah, dude, let's go. Keep going. Sorry. No, not at all.
Cajun Fest: Community and Culture
00:04:00
Speaker
So, you know, started a company that I work with now. I was doing that for a year and still working in that company, small software firm.
00:04:09
Speaker
But simultaneously, that's where the whole Cajun Fest thing kicked off. So honestly, ever since I left principle in my family's career military, I've been the only one to kind of take this entrepreneurial path out there on yourself, nonlinear path. And it's been a lot of fun, man.
00:04:26
Speaker
Okay, so you go for it. You go for it, you say, listen, what was it about Cajun food that made you passionate? Obviously Louisiana, that's like the heart of Cajun, but like when you first tasted Cajun, tell us about that experience.
00:04:39
Speaker
So, I mean, as much as I love the flavors and the spices and the atmosphere that is Louisiana, New Orleans, all the things you think about, it was more about the atmosphere and who you're doing it with. So the South is very communal based. Yeah. You know, one of the things that kind of spawned Cajun Fest was the idea of, man, I don't see enough neighborhood barbecues here in Iowa. It's true. I would love to do one of those, but
00:05:03
Speaker
For me, in my brain, the only thing I knew at the time, moving from Louisiana, was our community barbecues, our neighborhood block parties, are crawfish boils. So, man, I haven't really seen any of those things. I've heard of Bacon Fest. I've heard of, I mean, I've heard of all these different things. But, man, what if we did that, but occasion experience and got everybody around the same table, poured it out in a big table that everyone eats from the same thing. It was more of that community piece. So it was more of the atmosphere than the food itself, although obviously both are fantastic.
00:05:32
Speaker
Dude, strap yourself in. I feel like we have two things happening here. We have your uncommon path of your career, and then you also have this passion project of yours, right? It kind of is like, we've got to talk about both. Okay, so you jump off into this kind of like software gig, okay? And that's kind of fueling your fire, and then you have this passion of shrimp bowls, or Cajun, whatever you want to call it, crawfish boil.
00:05:56
Speaker
So, where was your wife in that? Obviously, she's from South Dakota, so she doesn't really know anything about Cajun other than you like the Cajun. Yeah. Well, God bless. She followed me to grad school in Louisiana, so exposed to Mardi Gras and all the things that it takes to be a Louisiana.
00:06:12
Speaker
go Tigers and all that stuff. So it was an easier jump to know that spice and that flavor. Yeah. She takes a big role in helping out with this Cajun fest. Tell me about it. Cause there's, there's support there and there's also like grinding. Yeah. I mean, I feel like, cause I get the pleasure of sitting on the board this last year and
00:06:31
Speaker
seeing those two work together is amazing. And it's like most what people think, she's like go, go, go, and you know, Steven has the point fingers, I didn't even just need that, but they're two partners that, I mean, they're shoulder to shoulder. Shoulder to shoulder, they're in the fire, doing the deal, and you see why it's gotten as big as it is, because you guys are a pal. Ying and yang, man, right? Yeah. It's always those ying and yangs that work out so dang well. Yeah, so it's awesome to watch you guys do that. First year, what was that? First year that you did the Cajun Fest.
00:06:59
Speaker
First year was 100 people, mostly old co-workers and employees at that company, getting together at, I think, Sailorville Lake at a public park. OK. It was. The thought was we bought a bunch of crawfish and said, hey, come one, come all. No charge. If you want to, here's a big gallon bucket. Throw some cash in. Whatever profits we make, we'll throw to a local charity. So early on. What year was that? Oh, shoot.
00:07:27
Speaker
We're in our fifth year now, minus one for COVID. So spend the math on that. Sure. Okay. That sounds right. All right. So we had that early philanthropic push too. I mean, the vision and the goal was not only the community side of the barbecue feel,
00:07:42
Speaker
but also like the Robin Hood effect of sending that money back. We all have decent jobs. We're all doing happy and well. This was more about, you know, the full ecosystem of being a community, you know, giving it from those who can and giving it back to those who can't. And that was kind of the idea.
00:07:58
Speaker
Nice. So how did you pick the charity? What charity did you pick? Is that the charity you do now? Yeah. So a lot of questions. No, rapid fire. I'm in, man. So the first year was Youth Emergency Services and Shelters and Shelters and Services. Yes. Yes. I've been there. Yeah. Played Knockout. Played Knockout there. Have you ever played Knockout there? I have not. Most intense Knockout game you'll ever play. What's Knockout? That was my first job out of college. Oh, yeah. In the gym. One after the other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry.
00:08:23
Speaker
So now we knew people from there, youth was so important to us because again without sounding super cheesy every time I say it, obviously it is the future and that's the sustainability of our state and our nation. So started with them, worked with them through the ellipsis after they came ellipsis. Last year we actually did two organizations.
00:08:43
Speaker
We did iJack, which is primarily focused on the gap between getting kids to graduate from high school and the next step, whatever that looks like. There is that big gap and iJack fills it in incredibly. The other one was St. Vincent of DePaul. So they do some really cool, before this we talked about intention. They're very intentional in the way that they give back to the community. So it's self-sustaining, not always necessarily giving, but self-sustaining.
00:09:11
Speaker
And this year we're still considering who our primary beneficiaries will be this year. It's cool that you kind of like rotate I see one that's like always the one but I like that thought of rotating it and yeah having a process through that So to date it's been five years ish. How much do you know how much you've given to charity since? Yeah, so in terms of like all the sponsorships that we've helped raise We're a little over north of a hundred grand. Holy buckets Batgirl so
00:09:40
Speaker
just a passion turns out to empowering others, giving people community, which I think is super important, but then also intention of giving to a charity and you're starting to see impact to do that. Like hang on. So what's the future of Cajun Fest? Cause I'm Molly and this is great. Uh, I mean, honestly, if I had to think about vision, uh, there's of course, you know, revenue goals, you gotta grow a business. Yeah. There are giving goals. You gotta keep true to your North star and your compass.
00:10:08
Speaker
But then when it comes to actually aspirational goals, I think it's twofold. One is, no doubt about it, I want to be in downtown Des Moines with Mardi Gras floats growing down the street as if it's the St. Patty's Day parade times 10. I want the half year Mardi Gras downtown. I want 100,000 people. I want throwing beads. I want the whole nine years.
00:10:28
Speaker
But the second one is we want to take it on the road. I mean, so many things are cool, but you have to travel to that spot once we could make this a self-sustaining charitable function that, you know, works in and gives back to the community, which is founded. Yeah. So we want to take this idea and make it as big and sustainable as we can here and then take that on the road. Man, think about this for a second.
Vision for Cajun Fest Expansion
00:10:50
Speaker
You've given over a hundred thousand dollars to charity on a passion.
00:10:54
Speaker
Yeah. Isn't that crazy when you take a step back and like, look, I mean, that's to me is mind boggling. A lot of people, man. A lot of people takes a tribe, takes a village. Right. So tell me about the board that you have, how many people are on it, that kind of thing. Cause that's super helpful to keep your true north true. If there's any variants, you can have people bounce ideas off of where are we going? But I love your vision by the way, just to say that. Talk about your board.
00:11:20
Speaker
I think there's 10 of us now. It really started from a core group of friends who were talking about this idea of a Louisiana crawfish here in Iowa, some of which were Iowa natives, some of which were Louisiana natives. And now it's slightly grown as we've gotten bigger and need more of a village to friends and family like Aaron, as well as people that have skill sets that we just don't. I mean, honestly, none of us are event managers. We're not
00:11:45
Speaker
We're not festival throwers. We're learning as we go. Right. The division's big enough. She probably needs some expertise. We need some extra firepower. Yeah, it's been good. How many people were at your last Cajun Fest? A little north of 1,500. OK. There you go. It was crazy. It was fun. Oh, I bet. Me being like, so I went to the very first one. 100 people. 100 people. Oh, you were at the first one? This is the very first one. How did you find out about that? Steven told me. OK. So he's like, hey, come on. I was like, OK. When we came out, I think it was towards the end.
00:12:14
Speaker
that we got made it out there. And I was like, oh, this is cool. And I'm not, I don't like crawfish. Like it's not my thing, like cracking things open and eating it. Uh, so I didn't have any of the crawfish at the time, but then I unfortunately, I don't know like what happened. I was like, I feel like a bad friend cause then I didn't make it to any of the other ones until this last year. Okay. But the beauty of the inside of the silver lining of doing that, I was like, Oh my gosh, look at how this is a difference. Yeah. Like I saw like the,
00:12:41
Speaker
It was just amazing. This is so many people, diverse amount of people. And I was like, amazing. Everyone's super friendly. Community feel, man. Yeah, it was a community feel like here. I'm like serving food to people.
00:12:54
Speaker
People just talking to you like playing jokes because apparently some people think I look like JJ Watts or like some random guy or tricking his wife. I wish that Mr. Incredible from the uh, yeah, we get that too. So I was like It was just a lot of fun. Yeah, a lot of people like good people out there Having a blast and everyone just talking to everybody
00:13:13
Speaker
So how do you advertise this? Like how would people know other than this podcast? Cause we know there's so many listeners. I get it. So basically just triple that. Yeah. Well, that's not true for the right. We've done, uh, I mean, cause of our size, uh, and our resources, we've done a lot of awesome gorilla marketing. So, uh, from the traditional flyers around town and coffee shops and libraries to pimping out other events and doing things like that.
00:13:39
Speaker
And of course, getting the opportunities to be on things like this. And we've had awesome relationships with like Channel 5, who's done some good things for us. But yeah, I mean, we've had to be nimble. And I think that's, I don't say part of the success, we can't lose. I think once you get to a certain size, you kind of toss the baby out the bathwater and completely revamp it. Do something new and hey, evolve for sure. But don't forget about the little things that made you kill the giants now that you're starting to get big yourself. Yeah. I mean, like you didn't just say like, there's like, you know, I'm biased.
00:14:08
Speaker
But this last year, we, I mean, we had an amazing turnout. We were up against some really big events. Yeah. Yeah. It was a principal charity classic, beer fest and pizza fest. Yeah. And 1500 people came. Yeah. How do you like me now? Yeah. So I mean, it shows you the community that you're getting to, like the people choose that over those ginormous, uh,
00:14:31
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, we were fortunate for that. I think, again, and not a question that I thought we'd cover, but our model's different. And that was something that was really scary for us.
00:14:47
Speaker
in traditional festivals and things like this, you pay for a ticket, then you go in and then you buy tickets for everything you do after that. And that didn't really feel like the spirit of the community barbecue, right? So for us, eliminate friction.
00:15:02
Speaker
We get you a ticket and once you're in, eat as much as you want, all you want. We have gumbo, beignets for the kids, we have all these different things. Eat as much as you want because you're welcome here no matter what. And we have to of course account for that and that leaves some revenue on the table potentially that leaves some well worth it, well worth the experience. So we're unique in that sense. But again, to your point, I think we capture a certain demographic because of the
00:15:28
Speaker
We don't zig just to zag when everyone else is doing it to do it, but intention, back to that word again, I think really matters. How much does it cost now? 40 bucks. 40 bucks per person. 40 bucks per person. Different for kids? 13 and under for free. Okay, bring your kids. When is it 2023? I think we're at June 17th, which is a Saturday now between some of the bigger events, between Art Fest and Wine Fest and things like that, so honestly found a great weekend, and we're taking it downtown.
00:15:57
Speaker
Are you? It's getting closer to the mothership. It's our first step, exactly. It's our first step, man. Yeah, I'm excited. Have you ever been to Cole's Common? Right by Fong's and Ricochet, a big area at the water fountains? Yep. That's where we're going this year. We're really close. Yeah, I'm excited, man. That'll just bring people in just because of the location. And it's farmer's market that day, too. Oh, get out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get out right now.
00:16:18
Speaker
We got to get people to go to the farmer's market. Just bring them on over. Bring them on over. Funnel. Funnel them. What time does it start? 11 to 7. Perfect. I'm just thinking. I'm going to want the crawfish or the beignets to get the right kind of smells to get you back over. Yeah, right. Brilliant. I mean, perfect. Because then at 7, when we close down, people just go to the bars. Yeah. I mean, perfect, right? Yeah.
00:16:40
Speaker
Just keep going. I mean, we had Confluence made us our own beer this year. Yeah. Which was really good. That's good. Best refresh. That was awesome. Yeah. It was a good beer. Yeah. We've been lucky. We found, you know, we're an LLC, not a 501c3. Yep. So that's, you know, adds different challenges. Of course. And when you're in a philanthropic space, that's a different way to play. Uncommon. Very uncommon.
00:17:01
Speaker
But we've been lucky that our sponsors and our partners exactly what we're trying to do. Of course, we're transparent with our money and things like that, but buying this vision the same way that the community members do. So we've been super fortunate. Steven, that's amazing. Yeah, very lucky. All right. I want to go back to your profession at this point.
00:17:18
Speaker
Has it been the same ever since? Yeah. The Fortune 500 company? Yeah, growing the software, yeah. Software. And you're owner of that, right? Yeah, I'm part owner of it. Part owner. Yeah. Okay, so tell us about how that's adapted and evolved as you've been kind of pouring your passion. And how did you balance it too? Because I feel like there's a lot of people who are like, but tell me how is he balancing it? Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:38
Speaker
Well, on a very high-level philosophical answer to that question, there's a difference between where a lot of people have to feel like a work-life balance, like it's a seesaw, versus a work-life blend. I'm doing this now, I'm going to leave here and go to my gym and swim for an hour, and then I'm going to go home and maybe work into the night, if that works for me that day.
Balancing Work and Passion
00:17:59
Speaker
So for me, to compartmentalize is hard, but when you're passionate about things and they kind of just flow through you. Don't feel like work. Yeah, exactly. So it's never seemed terribly hard to be honest with you, especially maybe your question. When you're an entrepreneur or a parent, you always dang near feel guilty about doing anything else that's not the immediate
00:18:17
Speaker
what I immediately see as the light at the end of the tunnel or whatnot. But for us, been very lucky, have a great team. The software company has grown. Hiring our first people in San Francisco and feeling like we're growing for real. And the balance has been more of a blend. Good. Yeah, yeah. JC's still doing the deal. Still doing the social work, man. Oh, bless her heart. Just resolute. She's consistent. She's the rock.
00:18:44
Speaker
Ah, I don't know, let's go. What else do we need to talk about? What do you think the biggest challenge that you had to overcome, either in your professional life or Cajun Fest, that you had to like, oh boy, that's gonna knock us off a little bit, knock us back, but we even got better. Can you think of one?
00:19:01
Speaker
I mean, when you're first starting off on anything, anything that is in retrospect small feels huge. Right. Right. And how do you not take those emotional lumps and losses, especially when you're having trouble maybe making ends meet or when you're having, you know, P&L issues or cash flow issues.
00:19:19
Speaker
That's a very scary time and that's when most people get tried and fall down or fall off. I do believe with the right to port, you can get through that fear. So although I don't have a particular answer for either off the top of my head because we've had so many challenges, of course you will especially with
00:19:36
Speaker
you know, pandemics, financial stuff.
Entrepreneurial Challenges and Support
00:19:40
Speaker
But it's just usually the fear of the unknown and having things that are small seem so big at the time. Yeah. I remember this school, I just happened to be, we're out for a beer, Steven.
00:19:54
Speaker
We were both there, and it kind of happened around the same time for us, where we're both like, hey, we both made it. Oh, wow. And it's fun to have that journey with somebody, because when you're an entrepreneur and you're doing anything, it's just like those times, like you shared stories about buying presents for JC, and it's like, you just heartbreaks. You're like, oh, man, I did this startup, and we're not quite there yet, because it's a journey. And so there's those hardships there of,
00:20:21
Speaker
Like, that's why your spouse has to be so tied in because they don't care. Like, here, your heart's broken, but they don't care because they know like they're there with you through the hardships. And it was just fun. I still remember they were like having a beard. I cried that day. I know. Yeah. I remember. We had a beard and we hugged and we're like, we both made it. We did it. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Because there's always this future of unknown. You don't know. You don't know if it's going to go well or not.
00:20:45
Speaker
And that's the part of this whole uncommon journey that I get excited about. It's like it might not be successful in the eyes of the world, but in the experience that you're gonna obtain, it's gonna be very successful. Now, it's also fun to have true success financially in seeing success and gains, but it is interesting when you take a look back and see what you've learned and experienced and see who you are now,
00:21:10
Speaker
man what a therapeutic thing to be like we've we've come through a lot yeah and we have more things that we get to go through and the experience that we had in the past is going to allow us to navigate those even better best days are ahead of us let's go you know yeah because that's the fun thing with steven like i mean your background is psychology so you're one of my friends that i feel like every time we sit down i leave him like i think my IQ went up with the point
00:21:31
Speaker
Yeah, buddy. But it's fun, because there's not very many people that really pay attention. Look back and look at the growth that you've done and overhead to overcome. But you are one of those friends. We get to look back and look at those and recognize those hardships so we can grow from them. But then what it really does is, and you're the man that really shows how to do it, is be so appreciative of what you've been blessed with. You talked about your struggles.
00:21:59
Speaker
you know, should you have gone in the military? Like your dad and your grandpa were extremely successful there, but you're like, I don't know, maybe I should take a different path. You know, and he didn't like, but you, you had to like work through that. Cause there was a kind of a struggle there, especially when, um, things get hard in the business. You're like, did I make the right decision? Right. You know, my, my Peter Penn-ness, you know, yeah. Leave me to stray. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So it's, it's really cool to watch that whole thing play. And to see that you have a thriving marriage throughout it. Yeah. Um,
00:22:29
Speaker
man, I can't even tell you for the listeners that maybe just be hearing cause Steven's so awesome. I get it. But the power of a supportive wife is better than any money ever, ever. Like you can pretty much conquer everything. This is my stupid saying.
00:22:45
Speaker
If my wife is with me and the whole world is against me, I'll go conquer the world. If my wife is against me, but the whole world's with me, my world's upside down. That's kind of what I say. I like it. And so that's a true testament to what you're doing and super exciting. So let me ask you this because I, one thing that we talked about before this podcast, I want to do with this podcast is help people
00:23:07
Speaker
pursue what they're excited about and what they're, and go impact other
Encouragement to Pursue Passion
00:23:12
Speaker
people. You've done that really, really well. So I think this carries some weight. What would you say to those people that are like, they might be on the bridge. They kind of know what would take to jump off the bridge. They're too scared to like go invest in themselves. What advice would you give them to like, Hey, get up on this bridge and let your parachute fly. Oh man.
00:23:34
Speaker
You were kind about saying something about what keeps you motivated and what gets you to jump off that thing. I wouldn't have thought of it had you not said it, but I watched a speech that The Rock of all people gave. Dwayne Johnson. If all your people don't know what Aaron looks like, he's huge.
00:23:54
Speaker
And The Rock talks about how in tough times, and I'm not sure if I should do this, or if that jump is too big, am I risking too much? Is the opportunity to embarrass myself too great? I go back and remind myself, and he goes through his whole story, and I think his production company's called like $7, because he got cut from the football team in Canada, doesn't have a job, doesn't have a savings account, opens his wall, and has seven bucks. That's it, yeah. Never not forget those seven bucks again. So he says, any time that I have a moment where I'm afraid of jumping off,
00:24:23
Speaker
I have to remind myself of that time or those times where it was really bad. Because again, and really bad doesn't mean you only have seven bucks. For me, at my old company, it was not fulfilled, right? And those are the things that sneak up on you in the end, not the immediate pains and pleasures, right? Yeah. Because if you wake up in the morning, like let's just ask this to Stephen for the listeners. You try to answer this question. Stephen wakes up in the morning and he loves his life. Yes or no? The answer is yes. Okay. So if he loves his life,
00:24:54
Speaker
like, he doesn't work a day in his life. And so how much is in your 401k account? I don't know, like, I mean, okay, maybe it's important, maybe it isn't, but like, it doesn't seem as important if you're thriving and loving your life, impacting people, giving them a community, giving them an avenue to be able to have a
00:25:14
Speaker
Cajun fest, you know, and like really impact other people. It doesn't matter how much money is in your bank account or in your 401k and matters how many people are you impacting and how much you get to love your life today. Yeah. And if you love your life today, you don't want anything like you don't work a day in your life. You don't have to worry about masking this big amount of wealth in your 401k because at some point I get a retire. Well, for you, it's like, I don't feel like I work.
00:25:37
Speaker
I never wondered if this is working. Yeah. Yeah. So what's retirement look like for you? Like, uh, doing it at a bigger level and having a sweet parade and Mardi Gras beats, which is never bad. I feel like sometimes, uh, without getting cheesy on y'all in this whole law of attraction, cheesy law of attraction, right? Like for me, uh, it's always helped to keep the focus in the vision on what does the end game feel like?
00:26:04
Speaker
but not necessarily was it look like i can keep focused on what is it feel like to get whatever it is that's in my mind without defining it. That's when i let go and things are attracted to me if i'm trying to script the next step every single time i put my ego in front of the way i'm everything's gonna bother me too much i'm gonna focus on what i don't have right now or the path that didn't get taken.
00:26:25
Speaker
and I'm gonna lose the actual right path along the way. So once you let go, it's paradoxically when it seems to come to you, right? Let me give you a different perspective. Let's see this. Bridezillas. If you focus on all the things that need to go right, you will be a Bridezilla. If you focus on being intentional and being present, you'll have the best day of your life. That's what you're saying, right? In a different way. So what great wisdom. Steven, this has been awesome. Yeah, same, man. Same.
00:26:51
Speaker
I couldn't be more of a fan. I'm going to Cajun Fest with the whole family. We're rocking it out. Uh, 2023, thank you for being on the show. And for the listeners out there, I think the coolest thing about this is your passion can impact other people and give them something that they were seeking out that they never knew that they needed for you. It was community around Cajun food.
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's a vehicle. It's the means to an end. Yes. And you got to do it with your best friend, JC, along the side. And y'all, apparently. Congratulations on your success. And man, I can't wait to hear how it goes. I can't wait to see you in your element at the Cajun Fest in 2023. Out of breath, I'm sure, and frazzled, but we'll see. It's all good. It's all good. It's so much fun.
00:27:36
Speaker
Thanks for being on the show. You've been listening to The Uncommon Life Project. I've been your host, Philip Ramsey. The Aaron Kramer. Until next time, go be in common. Thanks for listening. That's all for this episode of The Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.