 Ray lays out that we're losing these community places because they're not money makers. They're there to help the people in the community connect and build. So we are losing these places, but they still exist. But the idea is never going to go away. So you may take out the dive bars, but the members of the community are still going to have to find a way to connect with each other, and they will. What's up, everybody? And welcome to the show today. We drop great content each and every week, and we want to make sure that you guys get notified. And in order to do that, you're going to have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. And if you haven't really posted your passions or hobbies on social media, because maybe you're concerned about judgment from your friends in that past city you lived in, it's important for you to start highlighting that social media presence and your personality online. Because as I said, once you meet people in real life, the natural thing for all of us to do is to reach for that technology. And there is a concept that you introduced me to, Johnny, that I want to talk about next, this idea of a third place, because we've written some blog articles about it. We talked about it on the show years ago, and it's such a powerful concept and idea. And I just don't think enough people in our audience are even aware of it. And I'll go ahead and I'll lay it out. So Ray Oldenberg wrote a book called The Great Good Plays. And this book basically tells the tale of society and civilization. And that no matter what culture we may be living in, there is a community-based place where everybody can go, meet, gather, discuss what's going on, and connect. So that, again, investing with other people in the community, you are now gonna want to help build your community up. And in America, The Great Good Place he was using was the corner dive bar. In France, it's the cafe. In Italy, it was the cafe. In Ireland or England, it was the corner pub. And if you go to England, if you're in one of those areas, there's always, there's going to be the corner pub where everybody goes and everyone discusses. And it's everybody's place. It's not your place. It's not Jim's place. It's our place. And if it's our place, it needs to be great for all of us. Ray lays out that we're losing these community places because they're not money makers. They are there, they're there to help the people in the community connect and build. So we are losing these places, but they still exist. But the idea is never going to go away. So you may take out the dive bars, but the members of the community are still going to have to find a way to connect with each other, and they will. Churches are also a place where people get together and connect and invest in one another and what is going on. So it's the requirements for a good third place is a place where the primary function is to connect, to talk, conversation, and that everyone is equal in this place. So Jim the milkman and Mike the lawyer, when they enter, they are members of the community. That is all. And both have the opportunity to say whatever it is that they want. And it's also part of it that I'm able to call bullshit on anyone. So everyone is just equal and the best ideas win. And it's a place where we can lay out our arguments, connect, invest in each other in the community, and build. And the other thing that they have that makes a great good place is that there are parlor games so that there is something to do, but it also forces you to connect, talk, and meet and connect with the other people. So your first place is your home. Yes. It's where you're gonna spend most of your time. And we've also realized that this is even more important now because of what COVID had done to our home. Due to our home. Well, it collapsed the first and the second place for many of us. The second place was your work. You would go into the office ideally, you'd sit around the water cooler. There was a level of socialization that COVID, as we found over the last couple of years, has removed from our lives. Of course, we've tried to do it virtually with Zoom and everything else, but we've talked about Zoom fatigue on the show in the past. So now we're seeing your first place, your home, and your second place work collapsed on each other. So that third place is even more important. And when I think of a third place, I don't think of it necessarily as a location that has to be a specific four walls and a roof. For me, over the pandemic, my third place became the golf course and a four-sum that I had built on the golf course. We would play various golf courses because in LA it was easy to get outdoors. It was easy to socialize in that manner. Same thing. Everyone was equal. Everyone had an opportunity to share. And of course, there were parlor games in golf. We were actually engaged in an activity that united all of us, and we were able to have those common interests. And that's why we've been such huge fans of meetup.com because meetup.com is the easiest way for you to find a third place for you based on your passions. And these could be the Beach Volleyball Court. I have friends in Manhattan who are huge into beach volleyball when it warms up. Their third place is Beach Volleyball. I've also had clients tell me that their third place is a rock climbing gym, bouldering. We did it when we were in Europe. So it doesn't have to be drinking. It doesn't have to have four walls and a roof because COVID has also kept that from many of us. But the most important thing that you pointed out, Johnny, that I want to highlight is the lack of a hierarchical structure. Yes. That everyone is equal and everyone is given equal airtime because of that. We drop great content each and every week and we want to make sure that you guys get notified. And in order to do that, you're going to have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. That's also a trap. So a lot of places recognize that their customers will pay for attention. And if you're paying for attention, a hierarchical structure gets set together. And now it's like, well, listen, since I want all the attention of the opposite sex or the same sex in this room, I'm going to pay you to make sure that I'm propped up to get that. And that defeats the third place. So when you're looking for a third place, a place where you're going to be paid for attention or where there's a hierarchical structure, that's fine if you're getting, if that's helping you with your mission that we're going to talk about later. But most importantly that you're, there is some sort of engagement where everyone is on the same playing field. And that the only thing that there is to do is the talk. And I want to also stress, so there's a knowledge I want to use here as well. When I was younger and I used to go to rehearsal, part of the reason we would go to rehearsal is just jam. And we would see what would come out of those jams. And if certain jams would take place, maybe they would soon turn into a song structure and you would build off of that. You want to see what ideas come out of that. As I have gotten older and I got more pressed for time, there was less jamming going on. It was, I'm going to get in the studio, rehearse for the show and then I'm out. And so the creative juices and energy that would happen with four or five people collaborating and jamming is lost. And we're now in a place where our attention is being pulled into so many different places. Even in a Zoom meeting, you're in, you're out and you've talked about what you needed to talk about when you were gone. There was no connection. There was no discussing how you feel about things. There was no talking about, here's what happened. What is your take? What is your perspective? What is going on? We've lost that. We've lost the jamming. We've lost the talking. And I think you make a really good point about this jamming aspect as well is that when you went to one of those jam sessions, you were doing something that you loved, right? It wasn't solely to meet people. It was also to incorporate something that gives you joy and pleasure. And for me, for example, when I was looking for the third place, when I finally got that concept after relying on my home and my work colleagues for most of my previous career, my third place became places that were workshops, that had speakers, that had things to try out and do together, develop together, debate together, have conversations together. And after I found those event series and those locations where those things were happening, so sometimes that was a dedicated location and they had different events, sometimes it was the same event that happened every month or every two months with different locations and what kind of followed both. Once I found those and I realized how much pleasure it gives me to be there and meet like like-minded people that are interested in the same things that I can learn from, that I can network with, that give me opportunities to build my social circle as well as my professional circle, like I subscribe to these events to a point where sometimes I was helping to run them. Like there was this one NGO here in Vienna where I had moved that was talking about sustainability in the world as well as self-development and I just loved that. And after attending a couple of their events, I told them, hey, I could be your speaker coach. Like I'm a professional speaker coach. How about all the speakers that you have, I'm kind of coming to the team and I'm gonna help you coach them so they give their best performance out there. And they love the idea. And at the end, I was part of a team of like 20 people with my dedicated air quotes job in there. I would attend every event. And maybe I was utilizing one of those traps actually because I did put myself a little bit into the spotlight because I was one of the teams, right? My name tag had like team member on top. So I was actually playing the game. And that really helped me like make all of the connections that I think 80% of the social and business connections that I have in my life right now are because of these event series that I found. And I was just having this conversation on an X Factor call with one of our members, Suleiman. And he's trying to be healthier. And of course, trying to figure out a third place that involves being healthy. And I shared with him joining a run club is a great way. He's passionate about running, but he often runs with headphones in alone. And it's not necessarily that you're gonna chat while you're running, but typically before and after a run club, you then hang out and socialize together. So what I'd love for you to do is make a list of two, three passions, hobbies, pursuits that you just enjoy, that you love doing, even if right now you do them alone. And then go to meetup.com, search in Google, your city, plus that exact thing that you love doing. And you're gonna find it listed on Yelp reviews. You're gonna find run clubs. You're gonna find bouldering gyms. And it's gonna be an excellent opportunity for you to find that third place for yourself. I don't want the listeners to walk away from this thinking, oh, well, I'm not religious. I don't drink. Oh man, I don't know how I'm gonna find this third place because that's really going about it the wrong way.