 All right, so we're live on Facebook and YouTube with the legendary Nick Sparks. Well, I'll take legendary, sure. So yeah, Nick's just got off the stage, just grabbed them for a, we've got about what, 10 minutes maybe? We'll see how we go. Let's get through as many questions as possible. A lot of awesome questions and a lot of lovely comments on YouTube. Let's scroll from here and see what we've got. That's the name of the guy on stage, please. So yeah, he answered that one. So yeah, Nick thinks really deeply before answering the questions. Absolutely. There's some heavy questions or some deep questions out there. Let's see if there's one of them missed. Are they coming? Do you hear David? He's coming up soon. So anyway, I've got a question, Nick. I didn't manage to get the whole speech because I was out doing other things. Yeah. But something you said at the end, they're really a nerve of me. And it was like the point you felt like you were really trying to hammer it home that everyone has the potential to just be happy in life. And I strongly believe that a lot of people underestimate their own potential in numerous areas, like definitely myself, including that. I was wondering if you could expand on that and why that felt like it was so important to you to get that message across to the audience today. I think we all do that to a certain extent. We all, everyone has their self-limiting beliefs, the stories that they tell themselves, their own blind spots, the things that they do to keep themselves emotionally safe for feeling comfortable or in a safe space, but that are still really limiting the potential life that they have to live. And just from working with so many guys that doubted what they could achieve, before I worked with the guy to ask him what his goals were, and sometimes they were just downright sad. The goals you're setting are so low, you can't even think that you deserve or have the ability to achieve so much more than that. But again, I've never yet to work with a guy that couldn't have it all, that could not be in the top echelons of socializing or dating or however you want to conceive that. And so whether it's in dating or whether it's all the other areas in life, I think that we all have this tendency to impose these limits on ourselves. Why specifically do you think that is? Is the one main cause of that? Oh, that's an easy one. That's just human nature. That's just our brains are kind of pre-wired for safety, for keeping us alive. And so when left to its kind of own devices when allowed to run on for too long, like I addressed several points in my speech when we're just stewing in the brain, a lot of that stuff can be a little too much preventative measures. It can be a little too overarching. And yes, it'll definitely do its job of keeping us safe, but at what cost? I think I'd liken it to the classic dilemma that people are facing, the kind of dichotomy between security and privacy. Whereas we want to feel more secure so we're not open to terrorist attacks or whatever. But to have more security, we have to give up a certain level of privacy. Now, where is the line at? Where's the point where you say, okay, well, I'm not giving up any more of my privacy, and I don't care if I feel more secure or not because of it. I think it's the same kind of thing where, yes, we want to keep ourselves safe. But at the same time, how much of that safety are we sacrificing for how much we're achieving and enjoying our lives? Like, how much are we going to like willing to settle with mediocrity just for safety sake, just for comfort sake? And so we all have this kind of predisposition to want to feel secure, and want to feel safe, and want to feel taken care of. But then that just kind of can run away from us sometimes and with left to its own devices can control us instead of us using it. And then we'll create all these self-limiting beliefs, all these kind of not-so-solid beliefs that just kind of keep us in that same place. And another point you made is, although a lot of guys want to talk about tactics, what you said at the end of your speech was, what it's really about is connecting with people. We're all human beings at the end of the day. And once you realize that, it's like you see the matrix. It's a skill. It's, you know, being in that right brain, being creative and spontaneous, empathetic, present, just connecting with people. I mean, that's a skill in its own right. And if it's not something you're used to doing, yeah, it's going to be weaker. Yeah, you won't be as good at it. That's why you practice. But whenever you're going into conversations, like trying to figure out, what should I say? What should I do? You're not working that muscle. You're working the opposite. You're reinforcing the opposite of those, you know, being present, being creative, being spontaneous, making real emotional connections with people. Like either you're focusing on that skill and developing that and every interaction you have, or you're reinforcing this being in your head, trying to figure out every interaction you have. So you're either, yeah, you're either getting stronger with it or not. But yeah, it's going to be a skill that's going to take time to develop and get really good at like anything else. Absolutely, yeah. So question there from the YouTube comments. So when it comes to building social circles, say, and in your town or building already existing social circles, what's the most effective way of doing that? Sure. This is a good question. And one that I had to address in my own life relatively recently, when I moved from New York to Austin about two years ago now. So this is something I have a lot of recent experience with. And I talked about this in my speech and I applied it to college students, but even as I said there, it's applicable to everyone. The first thing you do is just the way to start building a social circle is to join social circles that are already formed. So get out there and you're not in college anymore. Meetup groups are everywhere. There's one that I started going to that just goes to different food trucks around Austin. And I kept going there because the people were awesome. They were super friendly. They were super welcoming. They were just great people. And now I have a bunch of friends just through that group. And it's awesome. But there's going to be groups out there, classes, clubs for dancing. Dancing is another thing I've gotten into where the two-stepping scene in Austin has got its own community and its own people that are always going to the different events. And I meet a bunch of people through that. So whatever groups you're a part of, I like nerdy board gaming. I go to groups for that. I like hiking. There's always people looking to hike or camp, playing music, whatever it is that you're possibly into. There are groups and there are social circles already formed around doing these. Go join them. Go apply everything that I talk about in my book. Go join everything that I talk about communicating presently and connecting emotionally with people. Apply it in those groups and you're going to start making friends. And then once you start making more friends through that, then you can start hosting events of yourself. Then it becomes kind of your social circle where you can pick the people that you connected with. But most out of these different groups and say, hey, I'm going out this night. Hey, we're going to this show. Hey, we want to go to this laser tag or there's escape the room type of thing, like whatever it is. You start to be the one that's making these things happen. And at first, a lot of people won't follow along. Like when you first start having events, don't be surprised if one or two people show up. But then the more you get kind of used to doing this and the more you continue to build your social circle with more people. And people get used to you being a person that throws events, more and more people are going to start showing up to it. And you're going to start to have like a group of friends now for real. But man, get involved. Get some activities. I play kickball too. So my best friends in Austin got to know them just from playing kickball with them. So get involved.