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Episode 18 Why Don't You Do It Tomorrow? A conversation with Jeremy Cowart image

Episode 18 Why Don't You Do It Tomorrow? A conversation with Jeremy Cowart

E18 ยท One Great Question
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Jeremy Cowart is one of the most celebrated photographers and creative minds alive. He's also genuinely terrified about where AI is headed. And that tension, being all in on something that scares you, turns out to be one of the most honest things you'll hear a creative say out loud in 2026.

In this episode, Jeremy and I dig into what it means to be an artist in the age of artificial intelligence, why EQ is becoming the most valuable skill on the planet as IQ gets cheaper by the minute, and how Jeremy built a tool called Humathy that starts with one simple question. How are you really? What happened next was thousands of people ugly crying, screenshotting it, sending it to their Bible studies and community groups, and a 96-year-old woman saying it was the best gift she'd ever been given.

Jeremy also shares the question his friend Jimmy asked him 25 years ago that changed everything. Five words. Why don't you do it tomorrow? He quit his job the next day and hasn't looked back since.

So here's what I want to leave you with. There's a question sitting somewhere in the back of your mind right now, something you've been circling, something you keep almost doing. What if somebody who loved you leaned across the table and asked you, why don't you just do it tomorrow? What would your answer be?

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Transcript

Introduction to Jeremy Cowart

00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of One Great Question. i am incredibly excited because one of my favorite artists on the planet is with us today. i literally own an NFT. I don't know if those are things anymore, but I own one, and it's great.
00:00:15
Speaker
was beautiful. And I came across Jeremy in different versions of him as an artist, as a photographer, as a digital artist, as ah a full um you know medium artist. and ah But the funniest thing I think about my interactions with Jeremy Cowart is that I was a fanboy before we were friends.
00:00:38
Speaker
In so much that when I had a band and we signed to a teeny tiny label in Nashville back in like 2005, think it was. I had been searching all over the internet because you know as a musician, you wanna capture the long hair and the emotion and all the vibes. And I was like, I know who the guy is.
00:00:55
Speaker
His name's Jeremy Cowart and his pictures are beautiful and this is a guy I want. and ah And long story short, we didn't get to work with Jeremy, but the first time I meet him in person is, I mean, probably 10 years later.
00:01:08
Speaker
not with that label anymore. I'd gone out on my own as a musician and a mutual friend of ours, Jeff Goines, was having this event called the Tribe Conference, and I was the musical guest, and Jeremy was the keynote.
00:01:20
Speaker
And just before we both go out, Jeremy and I get to connect backstage. I'm like, Jeremy, I i tried to get you to like you know shoot our our our cover art for our album. And your assistant at the time, I think, very kindly left us out of the room because like, oh you sweet boys, you can't afford this. And Jeremy just very kindly said, I would have 100% shot that. And I think in that moment, I was just like, oh, I just had wished the stars had aligned, but I'm glad we were here now because the next thing that happened,
00:01:48
Speaker
is not only did I respect Jeremy as this artist and photographer, he goes out and crushes one of the best keynotes I've ever heard called I'm Possible.

Jeremy's Childhood Dreams vs. Reality

00:02:00
Speaker
And then I'm supposed to follow it to a room full of people who've just both been like gutted and elated for the last 25 minutes. And then I'm supposed to go out with an acoustic guitar and try and Ed Sheeran this thing. And I basically just told the audience, i was like, there's no way for me to follow what just happened. So I'm going to play a Tom Petty cover while you guys put yourself back together and then I'll start my section. the And so with that, I'd love to welcome to the show ah Jeremy Coward.
00:02:28
Speaker
Thanks, Ben. It's good to be here. That is hilarious. ah i didn't know i didn't know that. I remember meeting, but that's a really funny story.
00:02:39
Speaker
I mean, and I'm sure, Jeremy, with all of the people, because you live in a town full of artists there in Franklin, I'm sure there are lots of people who've had that experience with you. It's like, oh, I don't want to follow Jeremy.
00:02:51
Speaker
like i don't I don't want my art next to his. I don't want have to follow the keynote. I mean, it's just been such an impressive thing. So I'd love to jump off with our first question, which is if the eight year old version of Jeremy was looking at you today, sitting right next to you in the chair and he's kind of like, hold on, we're doing what and what

Artistic Journey and Career Highlights

00:03:09
Speaker
what? Because you're a man of almost infinite talents and almost even more projects. Every time we are together, you've got a thing that you're driving and is almost like a one of the one and at the forefront, kind of that futurist vibe. um
00:03:22
Speaker
What is the thing that your eight-year-old version of you would go like, hold on, we get to do what? What would they be most stoked about that's that's happening in your world right now? Yeah, um I think just all of it. Like, i was so insecure and hard on myself. I thought I was stupid, literally. i was just ADD in hindsight. But yeah, the fact that I'm...
00:03:46
Speaker
I mean, ah everything we're doing now is in the future. Social media is such a bizarre concept. AI is a bizarre concept. And I work in both. And the fact that I'm just making art and chasing ideas for a living is insane.
00:04:01
Speaker
and so, yeah, I think the whole picture would below my eight-year-old self's mind. Oh, yeah, man. And so, you know, for somebody who might not be familiar with your work, would you mind kind of giving us a little recap of, you know, what what's the a snapshot of the last 20 years of Jeremy Cowart's work been in the world?
00:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, and or I would say probably an artist that chases squirrels for a living. You know, like I just have idea after idea after idea. summer are bad, some are good, some are mad, you know, but i just always have ideas. And I'm always trying to bring them to life. Most evolve around photography, and that's been my day job.
00:04:45
Speaker
um But, yeah, I just got to bring all the things to life. Yeah, man. And, you know, I have known this because being around your work for a while, photographing inside music spaces, like what what were some of the ones where you're like, i I can't believe I'm here on set with this person or I can't believe I'm on tour out with this person. Where is that kind of pinch me moment where you're like, oh, my gosh, the eight year old version of me is stoked by today?
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah, ah I went didn't to listen to much music at eight, although there was some Christian music and I figured I was a big michael Michael W. Smith fan, eight years old, and it's weird that he's a a friend of mine now. He just walked in my studio the other day.
00:05:28
Speaker
um So, yeah, probably that. But, I mean, there have been, you know, eight-year-old me didn't know who Taylor Swift was. She wasn't even born yet. um But, yeah, there's there's people like that that has just been presidents, U.S. presidents and the Pope, you know, like. Yeah. Which presidents have you gotten to to photograph? You know, is...
00:05:51
Speaker
documented, ah not hired to, but I was there for Obama's first day of his presidency and got to like just walk everywhere around where he was with my camera and just shoot away.
00:06:05
Speaker
crazy. Wow. And you you mentioned a pope. Is there ah a future project there or is that a past project? both. um i got to I got hired to kind of document his journey to the U.S., s the last boat, and then I'm doing another project with the current boat at the end of May, beginning of June, I'll be going over to do a project with 40 kids from 40 countries and we'll be collaborating a little bit with the Pope. I see how that's a wild one. Yeah. there's wild Absolutely wild. And you went on tour. i was trying to remember this the other day. Was it, was it Brittany?
00:06:46
Speaker
Sadly. Yes. ah we not we don't talk about this we don't talk about eto yeah we don't talk about bruno got it bruno's code for britney Yeah, I went literally directly from the Chris Tomlin tour to the Britney Spears tour. Same, same. That's the same thing. Tomlin and Spears, same.
00:07:10
Speaker
I mean, especially the costumes. They were the same. Tomlin hauled the most gay. Chris has got a smaller frame. I bet he could fit into some of that stuff. Yeah, yeah the bras. I mean, it got really weird for sure. Yeah, Chris is going to really love this podcast. Be like, those two idiots. What are they talking about?
00:07:27
Speaker
there go um And so I think one of the the most um fascinating things about your journey is what you were talking about before earlier, right? Is like you can be an idea factory and literally your studio right now sits in a place called The Factory.
00:07:42
Speaker
But I think there are few people who I've come across and I've had the fortune of you know coaching lots of executives and founders and entrepreneurs who can get things as far down the line as you get them.
00:07:53
Speaker
like It's like, oh, I had an idea and I talked to six friends

Creative Process and Challenges

00:07:56
Speaker
about it. And then 12 years later, they're like, hey, whatever happened to that idea? And they're like, I don't remember what you're talking about. You have taken things from an idea to what would the benefit be? What would the facts or the process be to, hey, what would be the caution to actual implementation? This thing sees the light of day.
00:08:12
Speaker
And is that to you what feels like success is like taking the idea and actually watching it no matter if it lives for a thousand years or for a thousand seconds, but actually getting to see it in the world is, is that the marker for success for you when it comes to ideating?
00:08:26
Speaker
It's good question. I don't know that I ever i think about the success out of it. I just feel like I have this like responsibility to get it out there. Um,
00:08:41
Speaker
And it's hard though, because there's such a there's such a downside to the way my mind works. um The downside is the fact, it's like i have the idea, i build it, I ship it. um It's there and it's out there, but as soon as it's out there, I'm bored.
00:08:59
Speaker
And then move on to the next one. And I don't water the plant. Just the plant gets created. I'm like, oh, goodbye. um And so that's where I really struggle. And I think it's it's ah it's a different form of ADD. There's like the day-to-day ADD that I also have. um But career ADD is such a thing for me where it's like, I think I'm going to build an AI platform. I built it. It's done. It's shipped.
00:09:28
Speaker
Now I'm going to go back and work on a talk. And now going to go back and work on a photo project, you know. And there's more way more downside to that than there is upside. Yeah.
00:09:41
Speaker
It's interesting. That reminds me of the phrase, you know, um ah what what is it? How does it exactly go? It's the master of none phrase, right? Yeah. It's like of all trades, master of none.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah. Do you know the second half of that phrase? I forget. But better yet than a master of Hmm. h And so isn't it interesting that the phrase itself, we use the first half to kind of go like, oh, you shouldn't generalize. But I was i was actually reading an article two days ago about this idea that the future but belongs to generalists, people who can have a flavor in in a couple of different spaces. And I wonder, like you said, you know the the idea of your brain being fascinatingly wired to get from zero to one.
00:10:26
Speaker
And then where are the other brains or the people around you to take it from one to ten? Because you're then going, it's not so much like obviously in our culture, we'll like ADHD or ADD or squirrel brain. It's like we minimize that ability because other people don't operate at that speed or with that kind of ferocity of choice.
00:10:45
Speaker
But I'm looking at that like a superpower. And obviously every superpower has a kryptonite. So we have to protect you or the idea from that kryptonite, which is going from one to 10. But the superpower is pulling out of the ether and going from zero to one.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yep. And so what thing are you currently pulling out of the ether that has you the most excited that's in front of you that you're currently taking it from zero to one? Yeah, well, ah gosh, two months ago, a little over two months ago, i got laser focused, I mean, obsessively around the clock every waking moment from the moment I woke up till 2 a.m. every single line building in the eye.
00:11:29
Speaker
ah So like many right now, it's like a full-on movement of people building in Claude. And so I discovered Claude. And being an idea guy, it felt like, um you know, my whole career with ideas, it's like between you and the destination is a forest.
00:11:48
Speaker
It's like you have the idea and you see the destination, but you're like, oh my gosh, I've got to fund designers and funding and legal and time and all these things to make it come to life.
00:12:00
Speaker
And now like AI is made it where it's removed the forest. Now it's like, oh wait, I could just go build the thing and do the design, do the legal, do the, you know. And of course, you know, a lot lot of people would say and rightfully would say,
00:12:18
Speaker
Well, that's removing jobs and like, yeah, that's the truth. I mean, AI going to destroy most all jobs. um But in my case, like I could never afford legal for what I'm doing. can never afford a lawyer. I can never even hire a full-on graphic design team or all these things. But AI has enabled me an idea person to execute across the board to where now I can just literally build this thing is and I built three platforms all different products different platforms built three of them across about two months um and but now I'm like the the but the part of the forest that still exists is finding your audience like scaling it and that's where I feel
00:13:07
Speaker
little bit frozen. i mean, even though I have a ah decent social media following, that doesn't mean it's the right audience, if that makes sense. Like one of my products is a very corporate company product. My followers are not corporate companies. And so I'm like, how do I go and find these clients for this product that I know it can help?
00:13:31
Speaker
every company earth but i don't know how to go find them you know um but it's been wow i've learned more in the past two months and i've learned in a long time but now i've just feel frozen again because i'm like oh i gotta to go find the audiences for these for these products Yeah.
00:13:50
Speaker
And when you've had success before, um what do you think was was that ability to like get an audience around photography, get an audience around speaking?
00:14:03
Speaker
Did you find that that was a there was a key person in the network who kind of introduced you to their people? Or was it more you just keep on one foot in front of the other and it was slow organic growth? What what do you find is more of your experience around that?
00:14:18
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, in the past, it's, I feel like everything I've done is luck. um You know, my talk went viral. I just put it out there. No, no promotion of it, no whatever. It just went viral. um ah Same with kind of everything. I never really knew what I'm doing. Never have a plan. I just kind of do and see what happens and it's just harder these days as you know like social media is a completely different ball game uh the algorithms are different like now none of us see each other's content like i don't even see your content i don't see
00:14:56
Speaker
I only see content that Instagram wants to feed me. You know, like I don't see anybody that I'm following. And it's sad, like that we don't actually see each other's content. And so it's just a much harder game to play and to get your content out there.
00:15:14
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yeah, I do wonder about that. I jumped the other day onto Facebook and I saw at the bottom of the feed, there was a thing that just said friends. And I was like, oh, you mean like the whole point, like people I've connected with who I you know went to high school or college or knew in my 20s. And so I clicked on it and the feed is so badly designed that it's like posts from my friends from six months ago. And I'm like, surely my friends are posting in the last two days.
00:15:40
Speaker
And surely I should be able to scroll for half an hour just on the last couple days. Because I mean, it's these aren't followers. I've got, you know, a couple thousand friends that I've, you know, been in real life with.
00:15:50
Speaker
yeah And I was like, that feels intentional. It feels like they're going, you don't actually want to stay on this feed. We want to say that we're here for community, but actually just go to the general news feed or the whatever the other feed is called on the Facebook app and then scroll over there because that's where we can advertise to you. So we're going to make this intentionally clunky and feel like it's from 2006. Yeah.
00:16:11
Speaker
yeah but You'll just navigate back to where you're used to. Yeah. yeah man it's uh it's sad it's weird like i have two hundred and Last time I checked, I don't know, 230,000 followers on x And when I post on the X, 0% engagement. I mean, it's like entirely useless.
00:16:37
Speaker
And remember back in the day, you know, where I would i always get tons of engagement on Twitter. um And it's like, I don't really know what they're all trying to do, but it all feels,
00:16:51
Speaker
A little bit useless. um Granted, it's the only tools we still really have to get our get our message out

AI's Impact on Creativity and Society

00:16:59
Speaker
there. But yeah, it's ah it's a mess. boom As you were surrounded by artists and entrepreneurs and founders in your world, what is the thing that gives you the most hope going forward? What are you like, okay, this is all a bit of a mess. You've got you know lovely young children who are you know doing wonderful things out in the world. So obviously you've got hopes and dreams wrapped around them. And Your you know wife runs a a thriving business on her side of things as well. Like where are the things you're looking going, okay, that's that's failing. It's not what it used to be. These are the things that seem to be thriving or the next edge that I can like place a little bit of excitement towards.
00:17:41
Speaker
So the thing I'm really hopeful and excited about, um which is odd to say, is AI. But I'm only excited for the short term. I'm terrified of the long term. I think the long term is really scary. um And that might sound weird. Why embrace something that is bad in long term?
00:18:05
Speaker
it's like, I think if you don't embrace it, you're screwed. It's like, it's almost like being refusing to join the internet back in the day. It's like, you don't have a choice. Like it's here, it's everywhere. Like, and even if you're resisting it, you're still using it because every business you interact with is using it. So whether you like it or not, like you're using AI. Um,
00:18:29
Speaker
You're in a wetsuit, but you're already in the ocean. Yeah, exactly. um So it's changing everything for me. I mean, I use it all day, every day. um And I'm excited for what it can mean for people. But ah but i'm like I'm trying to get my son to learn all so he can start using it. Because I'm like, dude, no matter what,
00:18:54
Speaker
degree you get and graduate with nothing will be as valuable as you knowing how to change any business's business with using AI so um yeah I would say in a strange way it's got me at least temporarily hopeful even though mean, it's just terrible what it's like, Disney, you know, just fired a thousand people, thousand artists, Jack at X or Jack at, what's he run now? um
00:19:27
Speaker
You know, his company, I think fired 4,000 people out of 10,000 people. um And this is just the beginning, the very tip of the iceberg. Cause now that I've learned super in depth how to build with AI,
00:19:42
Speaker
It's like you learn a language. Once you learn the language, it's like you see so much clearer. Because now when I literally walk through my building, the factory, I can look at any business and understand how ai will remove information.
00:19:58
Speaker
all of the employees um movie theater restaurants like whatever it is like oh crap like they're in trouble um then people say well the physical jobs are gonna be okay until robots come in like two years three years which that all sounds so weird and futuristic but it's coming like it's already happening um And when these AI, when these robots have clod and all this, they have stuff installed. I mean, already ai is, sorry, robots are performing surgery because they have perfect, you know, the hands don't shake, perfect memory, no memory loss, no mistakes.
00:20:41
Speaker
And so doctors are already being replaced by robotic can. So if a doctor can be replaced, Literally any physical task can be replaced. Carpentry, electricians, like you name it. And so, man, it's just like, it's really hard to be hopeful. um I agree with, you know, Sam Altman, Elon Musk. I'm not a fan of these billionaires, but I do think they're Right. When they say like, we're going to have to figure out some kind of universal income or something, because we're all going to lose our purpose. If, if there's no jobs and there's no work, then what do we do? You know? Um, and I hate to be an alarmist, but again, I'm just now that i'm on the other side of understanding these tools in depth, I'm like, Oh man, I'm
00:21:36
Speaker
And then, and Tropic has a new model called mythos that on if you've been reading about that, but it's supposed to be like, you know, 10 times with their current model is and their current models already insane.
00:21:47
Speaker
Just yesterday, they, they released their legal version where now it's like artery placing lawyers. Like, I don't know, man, it's crazy. Yeah. It's, it's interesting in this conversation. Cause I liken it to, as you said before,
00:22:04
Speaker
It's running things already, so we can either run from it or we can understand it. I don't know necessarily anybody ah other than a few people in my circles who are recklessly running towards it, you know, kind of the the robot overlords kind of idea yeah that they're like, yeah, let me sign up for that.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah. And I think what it has led me to though is a lot of introspection around business and leadership, because that's obviously the place that I live the most as an executive coach. And for our company, at least the place that we've landed is, it's EQ in the age of AI.
00:22:41
Speaker
What does it look like to raise your emotional intelligence in an age age of artificial intelligence? Because AI is now making IQ cheaper by the minute.
00:22:52
Speaker
And it's making EQ more expensive by the second. And so I was even on a conversation, called yesterday with a publisher and they, you know, we're talking about my new book and in the conversation, they're like, have you started talking to kids about this?
00:23:09
Speaker
Have you started talking to like high schoolers and college students? Have you started talking about this with parents as they raise kids? I was like, Nope. you know My joke has always been two things I won't coach is how to be a better husband or how to be a better parent because I'm like, I'm i'm in the midst of those things. I'm just trying to do it well myself. I'm not in know in this world trying to be a guru.
00:23:29
Speaker
But you know they brought up a good point. It's like this idea of, but we all need tools. We need the frameworks on how to raise our emotional intelligence because like you said, finding purpose is a practice of soft skills. This is an emotional intelligence thing. Like, why do I exist? Why does the work matter? Why do I matter?
00:23:47
Speaker
um And so in these spaces, the place that I liken it to is kind of like um Pandora's box is open now. And so what do you do now that there's just chaos in the world and now that this is happening?
00:23:59
Speaker
And I at least think the only thing I can do is what is within arm's reach. Like what can i actually reach out into, you know, whether it's my my spouse or my kids or my family, my network, who can I encourage and bring that hope to? And it's like, you know, the things that will still exist regardless of there's robots or not, I will need a sense of purpose.
00:24:20
Speaker
Okay. How do we develop tools for that? I will still need to have an understanding of, well, what's expected of me now around that purpose? Okay, well, that's an expectation setting framework.
00:24:31
Speaker
I'll need to be able to solve conflict. me and Jeremy are friends. If I don't call him back or don't show up on time or I'm not, you know, being a good friend, well, it's going to create tension. Well, if we both built the muscle of having a hard conversation. And so it's all of these skills of being human in the age of or anything that feels inhumane or subhuman or artificial or

Fostering Empathy with Humathy

00:24:54
Speaker
robotic. And I think there's a beauty for artists like you to you know, wave a flag and say, hey I'm not trying to be an alarmist, but this is
00:25:02
Speaker
I look at the world differently. i look at it with either wider perspective or a myopic perspective, whether I'm going macro or micro, I'm going to see it differently. And I think that's the great purpose of artists in the same way it was jesters, you know, during the middle ages going, anybody else said this, they'd be, you know, have their head cut off, but we literally hire a person to make fun of what we're doing so that through satire, the the veil can be pulled back a little bit.
00:25:30
Speaker
And I think it's the point of artists like yours. and you know, I don't know that I would call myself a thought leader, but I'm more of a question asker of going, how do we raise our emotional intelligence in the middle of all of this artificial intelligence?
00:25:43
Speaker
Because the artificial intelligence isn't going away, but I do feel like our humanity and our EQ, our ability to ask bigger questions is going away. And so in the same way that you are raising the flag of like, hey, what does artificial intelligence mean? I'm asking the question or raising the flag of what does it look like to be more human? What does it look like to ask better questions? What does it look like to develop our ability as humans?
00:26:08
Speaker
Are you aware of the, have you seen the latest tool I just launched called Humathy? No, tell me about it. Everything you're saying is like what I just built. um well That's why I'm laughing. or You keep saying emotional intelligence.
00:26:23
Speaker
It's exactly what I just built. um Victor, wish I could share my screen with you. umm And I just built this tool. It's funny because I started with one tool.
00:26:36
Speaker
And it all started because I was meeting with some buddies. We're comparing what tools we're using. And I was just like, that's really helpful to know what my buddy Greg is using because I trust Greg. And so I was like, I'm going to jump into Clot and figure out this first tool and how to like for the whole creative industry to compare tools.
00:26:56
Speaker
And so ah jumped in and I called it Oceai, ocean. because it's so fast and it's so big. and yeah And um when people are drawing, but if we're in a boat, we can sail together and there's all these in-depth analogies. Anyway, I built that tool and that led to this other tool that led to a third tool. Anyway,
00:27:23
Speaker
So Humathy has been a domain name that I've owned for years, so combining human and empathy. And so it became this very simple website where you go and on the homepage, it just says, how are you really?
00:27:39
Speaker
Like, how are you really doing as a human? And then there's 10 more questions that it asks. In fact, I can ah read those to you right now. um Yeah, you know me, I love a good question.
00:27:54
Speaker
Yeah, and ah so how are you really is the first one. um And then what's been weighing on you lately is the second one. So people answer that.
00:28:07
Speaker
What are you pretending is okay that isn't? a Third, what do you think about when you're alone at night? And there's a reason for all of these. What are you afraid might never happen in your life?
00:28:20
Speaker
um What are you quietly proud of? What do you wish people understood about you? What are your honest thoughts about AI, where it's headed?
00:28:31
Speaker
um oh One, ah global leadership. What does the world need most right now? um And lastly, then you just answer some demographics, your birth, your gender, what do you do for a living, all that stuff.
00:28:47
Speaker
Anyway, so on the other side of that, once you're inside humanity, you get this information, deep dive page into your entire life. your brain, your world, your emotions, your heart, who you really are. And so I launched it, and I started getting the most insane feedback from people ugly crying, sending it to their families and community groups and Bible studies and lots lots and lots and lots of tears.
00:29:18
Speaker
I've screenshotted of it. So I have like this endless feedback from people just crying uh had a 96 year old uh woman do and she said this is the best gift i've been given my entire life um so then uh you can also understand how we're doing collectively as humanity there's a literal global dashboard i'm looking at right now and i can actually tell you the top questions that men are asking the top five or the top 10 that women are asking gen z gen x millennials boomers so just to give you an idea of how powerful this is this is what the top five things that women are asking right now um when did us stop being a person and start being a function in other people's lives
00:30:12
Speaker
Good. ah Is the exhaustion I feel a sign I'm doing too much or a sign I'm doing the wrong things entirely? Why do I feel invisible even in rooms full of people who say they love me?
00:30:29
Speaker
mean, and then what would I feel like to want something for myself without immediately justifying it? Lastly, am I healing or have I just gotten very good at surviving?
00:30:43
Speaker
Amen. and then you're um you're a man my age. we're We're close in age. So here's what men are asking. Have I earned the respect I carry or am I performing a version myself I no longer believe in?
00:30:59
Speaker
what Why does success feel like it's happening around me but not inside me? um Is the way I provide for people the same as actually being present for them?
00:31:11
Speaker
If I stopped being useful, would anyone stay? And then what what would I build if I wasn't afraid of wasting the attempt?
00:31:23
Speaker
well Love that one. Bro. And are these questions coming from users are they being generated for the users? the tu No, neither.
00:31:34
Speaker
The tool I built... is synthesizing all of the input. And so we can all go basically feel less alone.
00:31:47
Speaker
We can all go see, oh wow, like this is human. Like this is all of us. um And it's and i try to I'm trying to make it more inspiring too and hopeful because I literally have something on here called what what inspires us And right now on the page, the single most common theme across every profile, the people, not people as an abstraction, specific ones. um And child becoming something, a friend's relentless optimism, a parent who made it past something hard.
00:32:24
Speaker
Nature comes second, just as personally, not the outdoors, but a specific shore, a specific season turning. than faith, art, music, the moment something was made exactly right.
00:32:38
Speaker
What the data keeps saying is that inspiration doesn't announce itself. It arrives in the shape of someone one you love, something you're watching grow, or a moment that didn't ask permission to move you. Okay.
00:32:52
Speaker
right bro that's insane so this is all inside human these you get access to this the global dashboard and like the tight you see the top emotions we're all experiencing in a way um That's what i was saying earlier. Like I build these tools and I'm like, this this is the most yeah insane thing ever. And now how do I scale this? I've got 2000 people that are crying and freaking out about this. How do I get this

The Power of Meaningful Questions

00:33:22
Speaker
to millions? You know? Yeah.
00:33:24
Speaker
It's crazy. Well, to that question for the people listening now, how do they go find Humathy? Yeah. It's just humathy.com. Yeah. yeah Just like it sounds. H-U-M-A-T-H-Y.
00:33:38
Speaker
Amazing. Amazing. So wrapping up with, you know, the, the podcast is literally called one great question and you didn't give us one, you gave us 10. Um, if you were to look back at, you know, whether it's the last year or the last decade or the last, you know, a couple of decades, what's a question you remember somebody asking and it changing the course of either your thinking or your life itself?
00:34:07
Speaker
Hmm.
00:34:09
Speaker
Good question.
00:34:14
Speaker
Probably like my friend Jimmy, Jimmy me a bag when I was like, told him i wanted to quit my job and just go start working for myself you know he's like why don't you do it tomorrow literally tomorrow and i didn't i quit my job the next day and i've worked for myself ever since that moment 20 what you think a little bit 25 years ago.
00:34:42
Speaker
Come on. Like right during the season. I was spring 25 years ago. Where he's like, why don't you do it tomorrow? And I did. Yeah. It's crazy. Well, Jeremy, you are absolutely proof that one great question can change everything.
00:34:58
Speaker
And not only in that story, but all the questions and all the ideas that are now living in the world because you brought them to life. And I just want to say thanks, man. Thanks for the work you're doing. i know it's incredibly hard. There's never been a time in the world where it's easy to be an artist. And so that's why I always have such incredible respect for you guys. As somebody who did it for a couple of years as a musician,
00:35:20
Speaker
For somebody who has been doing it for 25 years, it just has ah so much of my respect and admiration and also compassion because I know you're taking a beating all the time to remain soft and approachable and open to bringing good things to life through your creativity. And so both as a friend and as a fan, i want to say thanks for all the good work.
00:35:43
Speaker
means a lot, man. Ditto. Thank you for all you're doing as well, helping me and some of the others with your leadership. So it means a lot. Yeah, brother. Well, I appreciate you. And I will make sure and link himathy.com in the show notes so people can go check it out and follow more of Jeremy's work online. And let's resist the tide of not being human and asking better questions and seeing good out in the world. So thanks for being here, man. I really appreciate it.
00:36:10
Speaker
Of course. Thanks for having me. right, brother. Cheers.