Human Interaction And AI: Shā Sparks On Coaching, Business, And Purpose

Today, I sit down with Shā Sparks for a reunion episode after recently reconnecting at Military Creator Con. Ms. Sparks is an author, coach, speaker, and podcaster, who helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs and business owners connect deeper with their mission while learning how to use artificial intelligence without losing human interaction. In this conversation, Ms. Sparks shares how her work has shifted from turning trauma into treasure toward helping business owners identify blind spots, build systems, and use AI as a practical tool instead of something to fear.

Ms. Sparks explains how she helps clients create AI clones, agents, custom GPTs, and business documents that reflect who they are, what they believe, and how they operate. We discuss how AI can help entrepreneurs notice procrastination, distraction, self-doubt, and patterns that quietly hold them back. I also break down the importance of discipline, accountability, time management, real rest, and taking breaks away from digital distractions in a world where entrepreneurs are constantly pulled in multiple directions.

We also get into Ms. Sparks’s journey as an author and podcaster. She shares the story behind her first book, How To Get Your Voice Back, the role faith played in her writing process, and how losing her parents helped shape her desire to preserve people’s stories through podcasting. Ms. Sparks discusses the importance of legacy, audience connection, and creating conversations that serve the listener, while I reflect on my own podcasting journey, reaching 300 episodes, building cadence, avoiding burnout, and choosing quality over chasing numbers.

Toward the end of the episode, we talk about public speaking, live audiences, creator conferences, and the growing opportunities for podcasters, veterans, entrepreneurs, and purpose-driven voices to step onto new stages. Ms. Sparks also shares who should reach out to her for coaching, including small business owners, creators, and entrepreneurs who are ready to use AI for accountability, strategy, and business growth while staying rooted in purpose and human connection.

https://www.shasparks.com/

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*Couple O' Nukes LLC and Mr. Whiskey are not licensed medical entities, nor do they take responsibility for any advice or information put forth by guests. Take all advice at your own risk.

Transcript

 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode, a couple of nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and today is a reunion with Sha Sparks. She was on the podcast quite a while ago, and when she was, we talked about turning trauma into treasure. She is an author, a coach, a speaker, and we are gonna get into an amazing time. She and I actually just reconnected at Military Creator Con. If you don't know what that is, I've done a lot of content about it, and it was an amazing first year conference for military creators. Their spouses, their supporting partners and sponsors. Great. It was a great time and I'm sure Ms. Barks will tell us a little bit about her perspective, but I got to speak, do comedy, and I think it was amazing. The connection was. Double what I felt at other conferences because you had the creator connection and then the military connection. It was one of the most inviting, welcoming, and community focused events I've been to. And again, that was just the first year. So excited for The dates for next year are already up. You can already get. You know, looking at that. So excited to see everyone there. I'm sure you'll be there again next year as well, Ms. Sparks. So, you know, I've mentioned a lot here. I'd love for you to tell us a little bit about yourself and of, of course, what I just mentioned there as well. Oh yeah. Well, yes. And first of all, you, you crushed the stage when you had your thank you, your co comedy debut, so congratulations. Yeah. So, gosh, about me. So I am a. Certified Fearless Living coach, master practitioner in N-L-P-M-E-R, hypnosis and Reiki and I bring the, hi, as I like to call it, the human interaction to the ai. I'm an AI coach as well. Mm-hmm. I have been a speaking and coaching and all of that books and the, gosh, I don't even know how, almost nine years now in my podcast, eight years. And so just being able to like. Come full circle on so many different things. One, military creator con, and then two, to see, you know, how far you've come as well in the last few years. I think we've known each other three years now, and to just see how everything shifts. So, yeah, we can dive into military creator con. We can talk about anything that you want. I'm not really focusing more on the, the trauma and the treasure, although I still do that at some. For me right now, it's primarily helping business owners. Connect to their purpose and connect to their business with ai. So there's a lot to unpack there. I really like, hi. You're the first person I've heard say that. I don't know if you invented that. You better get a trademark if you did. You know, I, I need to, yes, but I, I love that. Hi, human interaction. 'cause we keep talking about artificial intelligence and, and all that. And I think we have lost a lot of human connection through that. I've done a lot of good episodes about how it's shaping family dinner dynamics, friendship dynamics, how it's changing. Sportsmanship in children. So lots of great psychological studies that are just coming out because we're kind of living it. You know, we are the first, all these different generations. We're kind of the first of our group to experience this and, and see that unfold. And I want to go to, you know, you talked about shifting from trauma into treasure, into more, you know, business individuals, human interaction. What kind of inspired that shift in your work? Hmm. You know, I, I think it was, I don't know if it's me or I don't know if it's, they say you attract who you are. And so I don't know if my customer base just shifted. But I noticed that I was just meeting more. Instead of people who had been through trauma, I was meeting more business owners who were really looking into, you know, finding the blind spot, the pattern that was stopping them in their business, which I can see is also stopping 'em in their personal life. And so it really shifted into that. And then I've been using AI for. Last couple years, just kind of dabbling in it here and there and then got real serious in the last year with it and then decided, you know what? I need to like lean into this and really help because there's so many people who are like fearful of, of ai. And I'm like, but I. I like, I can help you, I can walk you through it. I'm not going to do it for you, but I can show you that it's not as a thing to be scared about or to have any fear around it. It is a tool to use for your business, just like any other tool you would use, whether that's with your you know, graphic design or your marketing, anything else, your CRM system. And so just being able to really dive into that realm has been. So rewarding. 'cause business owners are my, are are me, right? So to be able to help them is, I love that. It is a great example of sometimes we don't find our calling. Our calling comes right to us. You know, I, I think you talked about that and that's really amazing because sometimes it does happen that way, you know, and one thing I've talked about before as well is we've had some interviews on this podcast where we're talking about like. What defines an expert and because a lot of people who are podcasters, for example, they don't feel like a podcast expert because they're not one of those big names. They're not this huge company. But I had a guy on my show who, what they broke down to him, which he broke down to me and the audience, was everyone kept coming to him with questions about podcasting, and he knew all the answers, and they had all these questions That, to him, seemed very. Basic knowledge and they always said, well, you've become an expert then, you know? Mm-hmm. When you can teach people to do what you do and you know the answers and you can streamline what they're doing and help them avoid a lot of mistakes and perform well, then you know, you kind of become an expert. So sometimes we don't feel like. We're that qualified and then we realized that we've put in a lot more hours than we think. You know, even for you, for example, like you said, it's been years of, of using ai and even if you didn't fully go into it until a certain point in time, you still were using it a lot. You know, and they say there's, and everyone has different books and studies on how many hours it's required to become good at something. But you know, it is something that a lot of us are using now in our everyday life. But also something, as you mentioned, that people. Or afraid of, or, you know, don't understand properly. And I'd love to get into, you talk about at some point you got serious with ai. What does that look like? Is this you're building your own or you're creating certain systems with it? Other than just asking it questions, what does that seriousness look like? Yeah, all the things I really just stepped into, I'm, I'm not an expert, so I'm not gonna use that word, even claim that word. Especially in this world. Any other world I might be like, yeah. I could say I am a podcast expert. I don't know if I would, but, you know, I could go under that tile, be okay with it. But with ai it's constantly evolving. Yeah. And so as soon as you say you're an expert, you're outdated. I feel like in this world, 'cause it, it's constantly moving, right? Right. It's constantly updating. So for me, when I said I went, I got serious about it was really leaning into and learning like what can you do for me? What, how can I use this for my business? And I, I think I well, one of our, one of my friends, so I have a community as well, and one of my friends who's in my community, he said, you know, you can build a clone, you can build your own agent, things like that. And I was like, okay, well, what is that? And so instead of going to him, I would lean into. My ai, which I called Chatty Cathy, that's who I was using chat GPT at the time. And I'm like, tell me what this is. Tell me what an agent is. Tell me what a clone is. What does this do for me? And all it really is, is just systems and documents set up so that your AI knows you. Better than you know yourself. And the reason to do that is so it can help you see where those blind spots, it can kind of show you where you don't want to do things, do certain things. And so then as I started to build my business and got several clients, I mean, I've. I don't even know how many, 10, 15 now clients where I work with them on a weekly basis, I, I kind of use that system. Like we build out a clone, we go through different procedures, whether that's operating or marketing strategy, depending on what it is that they're looking for in their business. But at the same time, because we built it out. They're, they're clone. And when I say built it out, it's literally I ask them questions, they fill it in and or they give me the answers. I fill it in and send it to 'em. And we create a a, a, just a downloadable file. We call it a markdown file, but because that's text that's specific to ai, but you can use it as a word. Right. Or A PDF. So however you can to describe what it is that you do and who you are and what you represent. It will also then notice when you start to go off, like start to procrastinate or you start to drift, or you start to go doubt yourself. Mm-hmm. And then that way I can kind of call you back. And that's the thing that I'm learning with my clients is probably the best human interaction. I can describe is because we're noticing those types of things are so imperative in building out an AI agent and building out your AI clone is to really make sure that you're adding all of these key aspects about yourself that you might not tell anyone about. But when you tell your ai, at least your AI will kind of understand how to call you out when a coach isn't there. Hmm. I agree. You know, I was just on a podcast earlier today talking about discipline and accountability being two pivotal building blocks of everything we do. You know, every, every conversation. We listen to every book we read, everything that we take in, we have to implement, and you can't implement it without discipline and strategy, especially for a long period of time. This goes for fitness, for business, for everything you're doing, and I think having accountability is one of the greatest things you can do. Because I think procrastination and laziness are huge and more than ever before distraction. We live in the most distracting time period there has ever been, in my opinion, with social media, with the news, with everything going on left and right. And then of course, you know as well as I, that. As entrepreneurs, especially, we get into so many projects at once, you know, we kind of, well, we, we, we never relax, you know, no pun intended. We wear a lot of hats and so, you know, it ends up being where sometimes. They're not bad distractions, but they calls us to not manage our time properly. Mm. And I think that's one of the most important things, which is plotting out time and scheduling that, and that's something that you could definitely have AI help you with, which I want to get into. You talk about finding blind spots and do you have an example of maybe something AI call in your personal life that you were like, wow, I wouldn't have seen that or thought of that, and that has really benefited you? Yeah, absolutely. So I. Well you, so you said something a little bit ago that made me think of it, that we wear a lot of hats and that we tend to be get distracted easily. So when you tell your ai, when I told my ai like all the different hats I was doing, all the things I was creating and making and all of that. Then saying, here's where I get distracted. It asked me a question back of, are you distracted because you're bored? Or are you distracted because you you don't love what you're doing? Hmm. And then the procrastination part is are you actually just being distract or are you procrastinating again, are because you're bored. If you don't love what you're doing, and then it asked me something like, uh uh, do you need a break? So a lot of times we reach for those things, like you said, the social media. Or your phone or whatever. It's because our brain has been working for so long and it just needs a mental reset. And so, I didn't realize how much I was needing that reset over and over again because I was reaching for my phone so much. And one of the things that helped me through this. Was I decided to create a time block system for my Calen and integrate it into my Google calendar. And you can tell it that and you can get, have, ask it instructions on how to create that. And it'll tell you word for word. And you say, this is when I begin my day and this is what my day looks like and this is what I would like it to look like. And this is when it end it. And here's all the things in between. And, i, and then I said, okay, and tell me step by step on how to literally upload this to my system. So it creates a downloadable file, and then you upload it into, you import it, export it, import it into your Google calendar or your iOS calendar. Now here's what's amazing about that. I have several calendars for several different things, right? It's already overwhelming. But then I open that and I'm like, oh my God, what'd I just do? I mean, I freaked out so bad 'cause I was like, I can't do that. No, no, no. I don't wanna see all that. I thought I wanted to see all that. And now that I've seen it, I'm like, I don't like that. I don't wanna see it. So I then went back and was like, this is what I need. I want off. I deleted what I wanted off and I kept. The things that helped me reset, like, a walk in the afternoon and things like that. Now I do. I always do it. No, but at least it gets me seeing it and going, okay, I've built that in for a reason because I know in the afternoon I get sleepy, I get tired. I need that reset. So get out with some fresh air. Always helps. For sure. I actually always express gratitude for my dog because she is my accountability partner and she forces me to take breaks in those resets because she has to go outside. Yeah. And so I actually walk her and I, I find that to be great because I think one of the issues is so many of us are seeking a break from our work. Most of which is digital by going onto our phone digitally. Right. And so a lot of us aren't giving our eyes breaks. We're not giving our brain that processing information break compared to, like you said, going for a walk outside, whether you have a dog or not. Maybe you walk your cat on a leash. I know people who do that. I saw a man walking a bunny on a leash in Japan. Oh. Yes, he had a bunny on a leash. It was just like hopping along, like, okay, so whatever you gotta walk or if you have a bird that flies outside, whatever you gotta do. Yeah. Even if it's just yourself, I think it's good and you don't have to walk, even if it's just sitting outside, they say, you know, looking out at trees in the distance or nature can really reset your eyes, which is a huge part of, nowadays we have a lot of eyestrain. And again, processing that information because even though going on social media and looking at pictures and you know, online. Jokes and videos seems like it's not information. You're still processing all these different colors, all these different words, all these different things. And I think that a lot of us aren't taking real breaks. You know, we're, we're, we think we're taking a break. And so I think it's important to block that into your schedule. If you don't have, in my case, I have my dog. We don't have a set schedule. It's like. A, after every meeting I go walk or before every meeting I go walker. So it's kind of a fluid schedule which I think is important as well. But if you wanna block it off each day, I think that's really great too, because consistency is important and so many of us are kind of just staying up to whatever time, waking up at whatever time. We're kind of living it day by day, and. You know, you can do that for a while, but the long-term health effects are terrible as we've seen, and so many people are just staying up, you know, all night to like 2:00 AM working or on their phones, and then waking up a few hours later. And we're seeing a lot of burnout. We're seeing a lot of people with their productivity going down. We're seeing a lot of bad effects in terms of critical thinking skills and everything because of inundation and so much inundation. And so. I think that's really important. Now, we also mentioned authorship and podcasting, so I'd love to talk a little bit about that on your end. Sure. Sure. I started I think I, if I remember right, I, because it's been, feels like it's been so long ago, so many books and episodes, right. I wrote my first book first out of a funny, so I'd, so long story. Long story longer. I started writing down chapters of what I thought would be my book years ago and just really looked at it from a story. So before I did any of this coaching stuff, I was a hairstylist that had a salon and was sharing with my, my clients a story about something and they would be like, so like. Engaged and listening to me and they would say, wow, that was such a great story. And then I would always share in that story about something that I learned about myself. 'cause I know it applies to so many other people and it's just not what I learned. They can apply it to themselves too. And so I would go home and then kind of write that story down so that I was like, I was gathering all the lessons, kind of what I've learned. And as I was doing that one day, I just felt like, and I'm a spiritual person as well, and I just felt like God said, this is not your first book. And at the time I was just like, okay, time to put it down. And so I stopped writing and I think it was like. Probably within six months maybe. My mom was going through a lot of issues, health issues, and ended up getting diagnosed with terminal cancer. And so I'm glad I put the book away because then I was able to focus fully on her and still work on my business and take care of her. I drove four hours every other weekend to do whatever she needed, taking care of her. And I did that for 14 months until she passed away. And then it was after she passed away, I think a whole nother year. I just felt like, again, God was saying to me, today's the day you need to go grab your laptop and go to a coffee shop and start writing. But he didn't say my book. He said, start writing for your website, for your coaching. Because I was, at the time, hired a coach to help me with my coaching business. And what is it like, how do, what do I do? Who, what kind of coach am I? And so he's like, oh, you need to write, you know, your script or whatever, your copy for your website. And I was like, well, isn't that why I hired you? Because I'm not, I, I couldn't, at the time, couldn't really even see who I was. Right. And so I grabbed my laptop, went to a coffee shop, I opened my Google Doc that he had sent me that I was working on, and the internet wasn't working wherever I was sitting. And it was outside. It was beautiful day. I mean, the weather was perfect to trees, gorgeous. And I was like, I don't wanna go inside because this view is fantastic. And so I said, well, I'll just open a Word document. And see what happens. And so it was literally like, okay, God, what do you want me to write? And then six hours later I sit back and I'm like, I think I just wrote a book. Hmm. And it was still shocking to me that that all happened, but it was something that, you know, he had, it was a, it was a thing I did because I was going through a bootcamp for speakers as well, and I wanted to be able to present something. When I speak, like even if it was just, you know, people buying the book in the back of the room type of thing. And so it's a, just a little book. It's on the How to Get Your Voice back is what I called it. And it's the six, it's kind of a journal prompt journal, a journal, prompt book. It was a six steps to, I can't even remember the subtitle now, but to basically shift your brain from negative to positive. Wow. And for anyone listening, not watching Sha Sparks is still definitely a hairstylist. 'cause she has killer hair, by the way, everyone, like I, I always know it's you because no one has hair like you. Like you have such a distinguished style. And you know, you've kept that as long as I've known you, you've probably had it longer than I've known you. So, for anyone not watching, you gotta look her up. She's got. I don't even know how you do it. The blended hair. It, it is just so unique. I think a lot of people, when they dye their hair, they just like throw one color in there and you've got, you got artwork. So, so yeah. Thank still at it. And yeah, I think it's amazing how that happens sometimes. It's interesting, I've had a couple people that I've interviewed or that I work with who were like, yeah, I wrote a book and then guys said, don't publish that one yet. I'm gonna do a different one first. Yeah. And it was like, what? You should have told me that before I wrote that one. You know? I know, but sometimes, you know, what, what I like to say is God knows like when it's best released, you know, because like it can perform well anytime it's released. I'm sure for, for any one of y'all who are writing a book. But there is just like a, a better timing and so leading into that and I think that's amazing. And we, I wanna talk about podcasting as well because, you know, you've been podcasting a long time. I. Just hit 300 episodes just the other day. So, you know, and I'm sure you know, as I know from having 300 episodes now, it's a lot of work. Yes. When you become a podcaster, you somehow also become a marketer, an email manager, a social media guru. You, you become a, there's a lot of different functions. Yeah. Especially now that there's AI help, but I'm, I'm sure when you started it was a lot of, like, you're doing all this stuff on your own. It is a lot of work. So can you tell us a little bit about your podcasting time? Yeah, for sure. So, I'll take you back to many years ago I dated a, a guy who had a podcast and I was like, you do, that's fascinating. Like, tell me more about it. And he was like, it's just me and my buddy sitting around the dining room table talking about science fiction movies. And I was like, what? And he is like, yeah. And I was like, well that sounds dumb. Of course, you know, of course. That was my take on it. Clearly we didn't last, but and the re so then I listened to it and it was dumb in my opinion because they all spoke at the same time. Mm. And that is, as a podcaster, that is like one of the things that I teach over and over again. Like, do not over speak your, your co-host or your guest, right? You are doing a disservice to the, the, the audience. And even though you think, well, I'm not. Concerned about them. Well, they're concerned about themselves, so they don't wanna listen to that. Right, right. Yeah. So for me, that was like a big no-no. So I guess that was a red flag from the beginning, but but it intrigued me. And I actually ended up taking a, a, like a two day class at the local community college there in Kansas City where I lived at the time. And I learned how to edit on audacity. And so we had to literally edit all of it all the time. When it was just a sound wave. Exactly. There was no transcript. Exactly. There was no D script. Nothing Exactly. All sound wave. I used to use audacity too. It's not easy. And you're, listen, I listened to episodes probably a hundred times. Not probably, but you know, many, many, many times to through it. Oh yeah. And very slowly. And I would go back and cut out the, all the ums and all the, all the things. And I was like, this is. A nightmare, but I did it because I'll tell you about the inspiration. So, so I had went out with him and then that ended, and then my dad got diagnosed with cancer. And then, so two years after my mom passed away, my dad got diagnosed with his first cancer and six months before he passed away, which was two later, two years later, after my mom, he shared the story how he was drafted to Korea during the Vietnam War. Up until then. I'm in my forties at this point. Up until then, I had no idea he was drafted. I thought my whole life he had en enlisted. He never talked about it, never once talked about it. So the fact that he shared that story with me was huge. And then of course we don't know when we're going. And so after he passed away, I was like, ah, I wish I had recorded that. And that was one of the many reasons I started my podcast. 'cause I realized how our voice, those lessons that we learn along the way is our legacy. And I thought, okay, so I gotta start a podcast because it's important to me to share people's legacy. It's impar, it's important to me to create things, content, that it's not about just the family of my guests, but the generation, the next person. We can all learn something from everybody's experience. And so I decided I was just gonna do it and I had had held onto this name. This title, which I didn't know what the title was, which is funny 'cause I held onto the title of my book, how to Get Your Voice Back for Years too. And I held onto the power of investing in people for years and I. When I decided to do the podcast, I'm like, well, that's what's me called Power of investing in People. And so I interviewed all of my entrepreneur friends who I knew their trauma stories. Like I knew that they had gone through some major life moments, life defining moments that they never talked about. And I'm like, but that's where the good stuff is. Like, let's talk about that. Like how did you invest in yourself and that overflowed onto your family life and business? And so they were more than happy to share their story with me in my, in my podcast. And that's where I began. And then one of those, so that was my first season, which I think I did 25. Episodes in a matter of a few months every week as you do, right. And then I was grieving my dad going, working and you know, I had the salon and then I was in a coaching program as well. So it was a lot. And one of the guests I had on there was a veteran, and he had started, he became sober and he was a first responder. After he was in the national, was it the National Guard? Something like that. And he was actually helping the recovery of the Oklahoma City bombing and had become a firefighter then after that. And he was obviously dealing with PTSD, became an alcoholic, has now become. Sober and he started a nonprofit to help other veterans and first responders to be sober. And I was like I love that. I mean, I'm sober too. So I love that, that conversation. And so when that aired, there was a couple of his friends that reached out to me that said, I wanna be on your show. One of them, you know, Travis Johnson. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. And he like, that was 20. 19. So, wow. Yeah, six, seven years ago, like crazy how time flies. And my podcast started eight years ago, and then it just grew and it changed and it, it shifted and, you know, I went from recording all the time to once a week to twice a week. And then as time has gone on, it's like, okay, then I, I've kind of slowed back down again. But at one point. Four years ago, I had launched another podcast with three other women and we were called Underwire to Uplift and Support Women Everywhere, and we were a weekly show, and then it got picked up by an online network and we were doing a live show interacting with a Telegram audience. While we were doing the live show video and audio, and we had to learn how to not talk over each other. So we had a rundown on kind of like, things we were gonna talk about. We had different segments and stuff, but it was so great because of the interaction with the audience. We knew as podcasters, you know, you have, I like to say, when you have a, a podcast and you, you are the host and you have a guest. That's two people, but you have to take in consideration the third, which is the audience. And so when you do a live show, when you have that interaction, you are then feeling the energy from them, but you're also getting like the direction on where you want it to go. And for me, that is why what creating a Good podcast is about is adding that layer of the audience to your, to, to how to how you create it. If you forget about your audience, then you're doing a disservice to your listeners, to your audience in general, your followers, when you have them in mind. You start to create things that are going to benefit them, you start to create things on calling them out. Like one of the things that I always say that I do is, is I will say, oh, most I'll ask a question like Mr. Whiskey. So, so most of my audience is either entrepreneurs. They're transitioning from entrepreneurship or employee to entrepreneurship or from military to civilian life. So what advice, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'm calling them out so that they are recognized. And then let's pretend that someone is you know, listening to a podcast in the car, and then there's going along, listening to it. And then at some point they blank out and they're starting to think about other things because they're, you know, whatever. It's not entertaining enough, right? Well by calling them out, you're then reengaging their brain back into going, oh, I need to really listen to this 'cause that, that's exactly who I am. So those are the couple of many lessons I've learned in having, having a podcast. You mentioned cadence, which I think is really important. You know, I remember there was a day I recorded back to back episodes, I think for almost 10 hours straight, and I was burnt out. Yes. Each episode got shorter and shorter. The, the last person was like, that's it. And I mean, it was like 49 minutes and she was like, that's it, we should go longer. And I was like, listen, I've been recording for 10 hours and every episode was an hour and a half. Yours was a little bit shorter, but like, I gotta go to bed or something like, right. I have a headache. 'cause I've been sitting here recording all day talking, listening. I've been wearing a hat all day. I started to get a headache. You know, like there's a, there's a lot of factors that play into, but finding your cadence is so important. You know, a lot of people feel the pressure to be weekly or to be biweekly or whatever it may be, but I think, you know, finding your cadence is really important because it is about quality. Over quantity. You know, a lot of us are misled by numbers. You know, I've met people who are bragging. I've, I've got, you know, a thousand podcast episodes. Oh yeah. They're each five minutes long. You know, meanwhile, you've got someone who's, Hey, I've got a hundred episodes, but they're all 60 minutes and they're, you know, impactful conversations. And that's not to disregard anyone who has five minute podcasts, 15 minute podcasts, right. But sometimes we just pump out as much as we can because we think those numbers will. Get the attraction of sponsors or moral audience or whatever it is. And I think it's important to remember that what we do, that actual content and equality is more important than the numbers. And when I first started it was like, I need to get to a hundred episodes. Even if I throw in a few filler episodes, I was like, I want to hit that a hundred. And after a hundred I, I, like, I stopped counting. Like I didn't even, yeah. Like I celebrated the other day 300. But you know, it was just like I happened to look. At my podcast online and I was like, oh wow, we're at 299. That means tomorrow's episode is 300. You know, like I, I stopped because even with downloads, I used to check every 30 minutes exactly. And I was told I was obsessive. But every 30 minutes I would go back and see who had listened. Where did they listen? Like I was on a rotation. And some people check daily, some people check once a week. Some people don't check at all. And I've slowly stopped caring every day. You know, people listen to the show. That's all that matters. And what I always say is. I know that God's gonna take the episodes to the right person at the right time, and that's more important than taking it to a hundred or a thousand people who don't receive it. You know? And a, a great example is we always say, would you rather have 10 clients who pay a lot of money, or a hundred clients who don't pay? Right. You know? Right. You want people who are engaging with it, who are taking something away from it. So I think when you talk about advice for podcasters, that's, that's a huge thing. You know, like people. Chase had numbers so much in every facet from the downloads to number of episodes, you know, and right now my cadence is every other day, so you wanna talk about busy, you know? Mm-hmm. I've been off track because I've been traveling a lot and you know, I didn't get to prerecord as much as I wanted. But I think one of the beautiful things about podcasting is the flexibility. Like when I went to Japan, I had recorded a bunch of episodes ahead of time, spaced them out. I even know some people who. In January and February, they record all their episodes for the whole year. You know? Yeah. So you can do that. Or if you wanna be, I like to have fresh conversations, especially if you're doing anything that is time sensitive or more political, whatever your, your show is about. But I remember, you know, what you're talking about. When I first started my podcast, it was just a couple of nukes, no pun intended. You know, BSing we were talking about mental health, suicide prevention and stuff, but there was also a lot more of just that. Conversation happening and we had set up a system like, if you wanna talk, raise your hand or something so we're not talking over each other. Mm-hmm. Because we were in person, so we're like, we gotta set up a system so we're not all talking over each other. And this was before I was even doing social media clips and now it's like, hey. I'm trying to make a social media clip of what this person is saying, but we've got two people talking over it and you know, you're trying to make captions and the captions aren't lining up. Now you gotta do them manually, which takes forever. So I think there's a lot of stuff that goes into it. Now you've mentioned, we talked about podcasting, authorship coaching. What is the future looking like for you? Where are you right now expanding into and continuing to grow, and what do you think the future's gonna look like? Yeah, so I love that. Question. Thank you for asking for me. I think I really wanna do more speaking. Or training. I love you know, doing workshops. I love helping people. I love being in, in motivating and inspiring people as well. So I think there's, I have some frameworks of keynote speeches put together for, you know, bringing the ai, the human interaction to the ai. And how do you utilize that? I was actually just an AI summit. Three day summit for the last over the weekend. And they were talking like every single speaker they had talked about making sure we don't forget that human interaction. And I'm like, this is crazy. They literally are taking stuff outta my speech. How did they, but clearly it's a thing, right? Like we gotta have to remember that. And they, even this one particular speaker even gave prompts like how to interact with your children at dinner. And I'm like, wow. So they're like actually having you set up for a script for your to how to talk to your kids, like whatever, that's fine. But the fact that they're actually doing it, I was like, well, hopefully they do it and hopefully they'll, you know, put the phones down and they don't just pick it up and read from that. But for me it's more about the training, more about. The audience. I love live audiences like we were at military Creator Con and being able to interview you while we were in the hallway and it went out live on their Facebook and their YouTube feed was, was amazing. So, hopefully more of that in the future for me. For sure I'm in that same boat because speaking on stage, you know, I think that is beautiful. When I've, you know, been in the works with talking to different high schools and colleges about, for me, the most important thing is a, a lot of what I do is intervention, but I think a lot of what I want to do more of is prevention. You know, like we talk, we call it suicide prevention in it. But most of it. Is intervention that I get asked about. And a lot of what I do with addiction recovery, it's recovery, it's intervention, and I wanna focus more on speaking to the youth to have prevention, to Yeah. You know, this is where it all starts. Not just the suicide and the depression, the anxiety and the addictions, but targeted violence domestic violence, sexual abuse, a lot of it's is all stems back to mental health. And mental health really stems to. Two facets, which is one, the, the childhood, the pr, the on the parental side with your family life. But the other side is school, you know, with bowling and cyber bowling. And so obviously that's a very hard group to break into and, and, and talk to teenagers, anyone who's ever tried to do that, you know. But I think that's really important. So. Speaking, you know, we have podcasting and authorship as one platform and speaking is a whole new platform. So I, I completely agree with you. And the energy is different, you know, like you said, it's you and me in this conversation and the person listening right now. Yes, we're talking about you in the car, but also the person, you know, when you're on stage and you're seeing people. You know, live, they're live reactions. You're feeling the energy and, and they're asking questions. Yeah. It is so different. And so that is something I look forward to and I, I hope to see you on stage more as well. And I think for anyone who wants to get into speaking, be encouraged. I know someone once said. It's a very small speaking world, and sure, you might run into the same people a lot, but you know, I was doing research and there are thousands of conferences across the country every day. Oh yeah. For, for the most niche things too, for bus drivers, for dentists. I've, I've seen multiple dental hygiene, you know, summits. Oh yeah. I've seen even den Dental podcast or summits, you know? Right. So there, there are some crazy niche things out there that you can get into. And I always say now, more than ever, if you feel like you are. Part of an interest that is very outcasted or small. I guarantee you, online it's building a momentum a lot more than you think In person. We're seeing more. I would've, when I first. Got outta the military. I would've never thought there was podcasting conferences. And I've spoken at multiple now. You know, I never would've thought that there was military conferences for let alone military creators. But there are, and we've seen some amazing tracks at the, so I encourage you, if, if you think that there's not a platform for you to speak on outside of podcasting or authorship, there is, you just have to go look at it. Now, Ms. Sparks, as we wrap up the episode here, I want to get into. We've mentioned coaching a few times, but who should really reach out to you? Who would be best fit to work with you and benefit the most from that? Yeah, great question. So, I do two, two things right now. I have a community, it's a, it's a membership mastermind, an inner circle for purpose-driven creators and entrepreneurs that we meet once a week on Zoom. And it is re we celebrate each other's wins. We are a safe place to ask for help when needed. So if you have a challenge, you can always bring that and we will mastermind the, the answer for you, the solution. And then we ask what you're committed to, to doing, what are you committed to making in the next week. And so we have that accountability piece that you, you had mentioned before. And I found when I was going through networking events myself. That was what was lacking. And so I created my own community to do that. So you can find more information out on the makers machine.com website. And then coaching for me, if you are again, a purpose-driven entrepreneur or an entrepreneur, small business owner who is like, you know, I am a little intimidated by ai. I've been dabbling with it, but I don't really know how to utilize it to its fullest. And whether I know how to utilize to its fullest yet or not but I can definitely point you in the right direction and coach you through how to create your clone, how to create you know, agents to set you up. How to create your custom GPTs to really help you hold yourself accountable. So even when you don't have a coach there kicking you in the pants every week, you have you can do it yourself. For sure, and we're gonna have your website link below for people to check out where they can find your books to find the podcast. And then of course, the coaching is really important for whoever wants to benefit from that. And then we'll be on the lookout for you on stage throughout the year. I know I'll probably see you at Military Career Con coming up, if not absolutely. Podcast or Podcast boomer or whatever. Like I said, there's so many events that we've bumped into each other at and a lot of different people, so. I'm sure we'll be seeing you again. It's always a pleasure to talk to you and catch up and see what you're doing, and I think that's one of the most beautiful things about podcasting especially, is getting to meet someone who's been on your show in person. And for the most part, I have yet to really run into someone who wasn't who they seem to be, you know? Mm-hmm. In, in any industry, you're gonna find some fake people of course, but so far I've been very fortunate that the kind of people who want a guest on my show and vice versa they show up as they are. And, and when I've met them in person, it's been like, like we've always known each other because they were exactly who they were. And I, I think that's one of the best parts is like meeting someone who's been on your show or read your book and something and just that excitement and energy. So I look forward to the next time I see you in person. And I thank you for your time today. Well, thank you. And, and I would like to say something before you hang up for sure. I think we met in 23 and you were at the, we, well we did a military creator con, but it was very brief. I think it was like maybe half a day. It was just me and Sean Douglas bouncing back and forth to each other and just to see how far in these three years Mr. Whiskey is, is amazing. You are not only have been an inspiration before, you hit record the first time, but you've continued to be an inspiration every time. You are not only sharing such amazing wisdom, but you are stepping outta your comfort zone. You're trying new things, you're putting yourself out there. The comedian thing was absolutely mind blowing. Amazing because you were courageous. And so I just wanna commend you on all the work that you are doing, not only for your business, but for yourself and now, for your, your new family. So, congratulations. Thank you so much. That means a lot. And I think it really goes to show, like I just started a podcast to kind of just have conversation with some people and it's turned into something unexpected. So I highly encourage everyone listening. You know, you never know where, what you're trying to do and what you're passionate about is gonna take you. And if you do wanna step outside of your comfort zone, go go do some standup comedy. 'cause that was like the most. Like, I, I rather sing and I can't sing. I'd rather sing or let's like, give a speech on demand than have to do standup comedy because, you know, you know, if, if you say a joke and no one laughs you feel that. Trust me, I, I've been there. Yeah. And it is a terrible feeling. And then when you kind of throw in a joke and everyone laughs, that's the best feeling though. So it, it comes and goes. But thank you so much for your time. Yeah. I took improv classes for a year, so I get it. Yeah. Oh yeah. So, so you have a joke for us now then. I do not. Okay. You gotta, I'm, I'll give a dad joke. I gotta go back to class. I'll give you a dad joke actually. All right. So what does the ocean say to the beach? I know what you're gonna say. Nothing. It just waves. Oh. Oh, you got me. I thought you were gonna say, I thought you were gonna say, I'll see you later. Ah, that's a good one. Yeah. No, it just waves. You said nothing. It just waves. That's good. That's good. All right, well, we'll end with that. Save us some bad Dad jokes. Send in, right. If you're listening and you wanna send one in, go ahead. All mine are just making fun of blonde, so I won't share any, but, but Ms. Barks, maybe another time. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you.