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Audio digitally transcribed by Descript

Introduction: [00:00:00] Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns: [00:00:10] And it's a beautiful day. I'm just here with a friend Russ, another Russ. Russ in stereo. I love it. Good morning, Russ. How you doing?

Russ Hedge: [00:00:21] Oh, I am so good. Russ. I am just blessed to be on the #PirateBroadcast this morning because #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree and I'm all about that.

Russ Johns: [00:00:31] Amen to that. I mentioned that, the thing about it is, I don't know. I think this is 420 episodes and I've been doing this for awhile and I don't know about a year ago. It hasn't even been that long. Maybe six months ago. I saw a post that I had created six years ago. And that's what it said, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. And I've been saying that for awhile now. Hopefully it'll catch on.

Russ Hedge: [00:01:02] I think you have that down, I think because that is naturally you, which is you're just an amazing encourager and a positive force. And I just appreciate you so much because we need more kindness. We need more smiles.

Russ Johns: [00:01:18] And I think that's why we get along, Russ, is because you're exactly the same way, brother from another mother. And the reality is as much as we could be down on life and, and I'm not saying every day is perfect. I heard you on your show the other day, I was like, every day is not perfect. However, you can look at it and it's just a perspective you have to make adjustments along the way.

Russ Hedge: [00:01:42] Yeah, your life is not based on your circumstances and on what other people say or do. It's your perspective, your attitude, your choice. And, I once heard about this book called Befuddled Live the Life You Choose, and I'm all about living the life you choose, because it's up to us. It doesn't mean crummy things don't happen. It doesn't mean that life does not have challenges. We both know that you have to deal with struggles and challenges along the way, but you get to choose your attitude. You get to choose your perspective and how you look at things and you get to ultimately choose your joy level and what your life is all about.

Russ Johns: [00:02:21] How do you approach the decision to let things go? You personally.

Russ Hedge: [00:02:27] I'm blessed with actually a great personality. God gave me a personality where things just roll off me pretty quick. I am a person. I want people to think highly of me, and I want to be a blessing and encouragement for people, but, when it really boils down to it, I don't really care what people think. And I don't mean that in a negative way.  I know what I'm saying all about. I am confident and strong in my own purpose of my own self. And so I just move along then if other people don't like me or don't like what I'm doing. As long as I feel that I'm doing the right thing and I'm fulfilling my purpose in life, then I just go along. So things that hit me, sometimes they'll sting a little, but they roll off pretty quick. And I just learned to realize that what they say  does not determine who I am, does not determine, my life, so I just choose to move forward.

Russ Johns: [00:03:20] It's you walk in a room and says, I hope somebody likes me and you walk in a room and say, I hope I like someone. Big difference. Big difference.

Russ Hedge: [00:03:28] Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I'm all about making things happen. So I'm going to get out there and I like people to like me. Sure. I do. I'm going to go out there and make people like me because I'm just going to be, I'm just going to be fun and goofy and who doesn't like fun and goofy. Most people are going to be attracted to that. So let's be fun and goofy. Let's be kind, let's bless other people. And most of it's going to come back positive to you.

Russ Johns: [00:03:53] And the other thing, let me go a slightly different direction on that. And sometimes you're working with clients or you might have a client or something that just doesn't quite, they're not jelling a hundred percent and sometimes you have to let things like that go, or you have to remove things from your life that are not encouraging your joy, and I'm sure everybody has this circumstance where they have to decide, it's this is really not working out for me. I want to let this, I want to let this go. And I'm not sure how I'll figure it out, but I'll figure it out. Have you ever had those circumstances where you had to let something go and it's okay,  a project or something in your life.

Russ Hedge: [00:04:39] Yeah, I think we all have. I think that there's sometimes you got to remove toxic people from your life, toxic situations from your life that drag you down. And you can do all you can to bless and help people and try to lift them up. And I'm all about that. But there comes a point when some people aren't going to let you do that. Some situations you're not able to do that. And there's times you just have to let things go and that can be really hard. It can be hard because I am a let's make it better. I want to fix things, that's really a guy thing would we're fixers. I want to fix that and make it better. And if I can't, part of me feels like I failed because I wasn't able to make it better. But then I stepped back and I think, no, this is not anything that I'm doing. It's not anything about me. I've got to let this go. And that happens from time to time. And I think it makes us better to be able to choose those circumstances, or we just let go.

Russ Johns: [00:05:34] It does allow us to, to decide. And I like what you said about you have to surround yourself with positive people and productive people and people that you really understand and appreciate, and also people that appreciate you. So you're out there all the time. You're doing work. In fact, you got meetings and things that are going on a regular basis now and as things open up and get a little more active, I'm sure you'll be out there banging on doors and talking to people and doing events and things like that. You mentioned that you recently live-streamed an event that took place. You want to talk about that?

Russ Hedge: [00:06:13] Yeah, it was so much fun. Russ, I learn every day. So first of all, I started learning from you and other people that I watched what you were doing and things that were out there. And I've learned so much and part of this hole live streaming that I've been able to be part of it has been phenomenal and I've learned there's so much opportunity. And I had a client who has been a sponsor and a regular supporter of the live show I have with D Scott. The experience live with Russ and Scott on Wednesday, so they'd been a regular sponsor and supporter. And I worked with their team and so they were doing a great event, a community event called red dates with Keller Williams, all around the world. And each community, each team in their community helps and reaches out to their community. So there was a gal with a Hochkins lymphoma. a young gal, 12 year old girl and her family that were struggling and she wanted a tree fort, a tree house in her backyard. So their team went in, they cleaned it up and they built this tree house for her. And it was kinda like one of those home improvement shows where they do the unveiling and move that truck. And so anyway, I got a live stream during the process and then live stream at the end of the day. Got to do a couple of things I hadn't done before, so I had to figure it out and it was a ton of fun and it makes me feel accomplished that I was able to do it. But what was really great is the client said to me, wow, that's amazing. You are definitely my go-to person when I need some more of this kind of stuff, because that was incredible. And I was just figuring it out as I went, but it was nice to get some of that, from them, some love from them because it helped me think, wow, there is so much possibility and opportunity with these things. I want to reach out and help more people do things like this.

Russ Johns: [00:08:00] Yeah. It's amazing. And this is the analogy that I use all the time is, you're just like when you go to the grocery store, there's somebody in front of you, there's somebody behind you. And if you know, a little bit more than the person behind you, you can help them create something or do something and it's very valuable to continue learning every single day. I've watched you, you've been doing that since you started. Since we first met you just continue to learn and grow and expand it. And I've been fortunate enough to be able to be on the show and have some great conversations. I just think it's amazing what we can do these days.

Russ Hedge: [00:08:40] You're a blessing, you really are. And what I love is I love the community online. I love my community here, but I love the community online that has been so helpful and blessing other people and helping them, like you said. The people behind there lifting them up and helping them along. And I can't even tell you the number of people that have spoken into my life and helped me with this whole process. And it's been a real blessing because I have grown a lot and I have a long ways to go. Every day I try new things and I love to do fun stuff. I like to get groups of people, like I have a couple of shows coming up where I'm getting a few more people together and sometimes I'll do it spontaneously my Russ real show, this kind of wanders, the other shows are consistent, but that one kind of moves. I sometimes will get a group of people on and we just have so much fun and I'm able to connect people from around the world that didn't know each other and they get to know each other while we're doing the show and having fun. And so I just try new things and and try to be a blessing, with what I'm doing.

Russ Johns: [00:09:42] That's awesome. Marcia  says, Russ, what a great attitude and a way to deal with life. God doesn't make any junk.

Russ Hedge: [00:09:50] Amen. Marcia. That's right. That's right.

Russ Johns: [00:09:53] So says happy Friday. #PirateBroadcast and then DVA mechanics are here. It looks like from Twitch. We got some somebody from Twitch today.

Russ Hedge: [00:10:02] Hey, that's awesome.

Russ Johns: [00:10:04] This whole. Community, Marcia was on the show earlier and Taylor was on the show, a friend of Marcia's and introductions. And I know that you see this as well. We're just, all of these connections are just amazing and I'm just blown away every day by the people I get to meet and talk to and hang out with, and you're in that group because I don't always have the opportunity to catch your show and you probably don't always have the opportunity to catch my show. That's okay. We don't have to do that. But when we get to hang out together, it's always a great opportunity to get caught up and see what we're doing and share those experiences.  I know that like Marcia, she's doing some great work and she actually did this and I don't know if you saw this or not, but the #PirateSyndicate.

Russ Hedge: [00:10:55] Oh yeah.

Russ Johns: [00:10:56] She makes these copper... she's been able to go and get certified on a copper being able to kill germs, 99.7% or something like that. Stay Well Copper, but those are the kinds of things that are so amazing to me to be able to just share. It's great work. It's doing stuff that is out there and put putting things together, like when you release your book, so when's your next book coming?

Russ Hedge: [00:11:24] I am actually just releasing here probably next week. My companion workbook that goes with Befuddled Live, the life you choose. And I'm really excited about that. It's going to release on a, just an ebook form on Amazon for now. People also can get a PDF from me, but yeah, I'm really excited about that. And then I'll start working on the next one.  We were talking about learning and growing and as I'm building my content for all the stuff that I'm doing, as that takes a lot of time. And I'm the kind of person that likes to run a hundred miles an hour because I love to move and it energizes me getting around people. I love this, but getting in person with people, really right with them in person and doing things really energizes my life. So I've been having to reign myself back and say, you need these few hours to work on this content to do this or that. And but it's been great. And I've been building that and the workbook will be cool. I've got a whole new project called purpose to profit. And I've got a Facebook group. Anybody wants to join that. I've got a workshop that I'm doing, and I'm going to put that online as well. I've been doing an in person, but I'm going to put that online and it is. We're scaling everything back to what is your purpose in life? I You individually and then your business and what you're doing because without purpose there is there really, you don't have life without purpose, but you definitely cannot be driven and productive. And without being productive, you can't be profitable in your business. So you can go from realizing what your true purpose is to be in much more profitable. And all you're doing, sometimes that profit is money. And sometimes that profit is not money. Sometimes their profit is in a better life and a better life for you or other people. Yeah, I'm really excited about that.

Russ Johns: [00:13:10] Your state of mind is valuable. It's priceless.

Russ Hedge: [00:13:13] Yeah. Oh my goodness. Can't put a price on that for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Russ Johns: [00:13:18] You know what? A thought just occurred to me is you should probably do an audio book of your befuddled book.

Russ Hedge: [00:13:25] Yes. I have my my voiceover friend, Melissa, who does for my podcast. She does all the pre and post voice. She's great. And I was going to, and they have, I was going to work with her. I'm going to do the reading of the book. That's what takes some time, but she's going to do some little introductions and things on my audio book as well. And I'm hoping that maybe the summer I can get to that because I would like to put out an audio book on that as well.

Russ Johns: [00:13:51] Yeah. I really enjoy listening to audio books when I go out to ride a bike or something, and it's nice to be able to consume content that way. Cause I'm always learning.

Russ Hedge: [00:13:59] When I was walking this morning, I was listening to something. Usually I like peace and quiet, but I was actually listening to something this morning as I was walking along. So audio is great.

Russ Johns: [00:14:10] Yeah. So what do you do for relaxation, Russ?

Russ Hedge: [00:14:15] I like to start my day with a breath of fresh air and a deep breath and a nice walk. And I know every morning I have a morning routine that gets me going and that helps relax me a lot. Getting out and walking, spending time with my family is the primary thing activity that I love. My family is musical. I love music. I always have went to Oregon state on a music scholarship years ago and been in worship ministry for years. So I love music that really relaxes me as well, but really getting out in the fresh air, walking. When I grew up, I loved camping. I grew up actually my parents had five acres of woods. And all around them, just forest and all around us was everybody else with forest. So I grew up running and climbing trees and exploring. And so getting out in nature, taking a walk, spending time with my family, listen to some good music. Those are my relaxation points.

Russ Johns: [00:15:14] Yeah. Since my birthday I've been creating a track a day on my iPad.  It's cool creating a little side project for my own little project and I'm a fan of music. I love listening to music. I love creating, love evolving music and stuff like that.

Russ Hedge: [00:15:32] Musician, I know that you in the past have been involved in that because you and I have talked about that. We have so much in common, but I am blessed with children who have taken it to the next level and are really active in that. In fact my son, the mastering company that he works for down in Pasadena, we were just down there visiting them. They've done some big artists. The dad years ago, did all of Neil diamond stuff. So you and I would remember that. And they just recently mastered Justin Bieber's Worship album that just dropped a couple of weeks ago. So whether you're fans of those people or not, they're big names and  the owner of that's up for a Grammy, like every year. So it's been a blessing to Connor, my son, to be able to be around that. And plus it's a regular job in music. Music jobs are hard.

Russ Johns: [00:16:21] That's a tough one to find. I know it has to be so exciting to realize that you get to play a part in some amazing music that goes out the door.

Russ Hedge: [00:16:33] Yeah, it is a blessing. My daughter has a beautiful voice. My wife. Just looking at my family and the things that they've done, and it's really interesting because you've seen this,  life's a journey, right? And as we go along all the little pieces God is putting them together. And so when I was in early music ministry, my wife started in a trio and they started recording and putting out CDs and traveling. And then my son, when he came, when he grew up, he wanted to do that. So he started a band and he was blessed because we had all the connections. And they were able to record starting in junior high, they were 10, 11, and 12 their band. And they were able to record CDs and travel and do those things because we had already been through that process. And so when he grew up and went into college and he and my daughter both. They were like pros in recording goes up because they had done it for years. And so they had learned the whole process and it is a blessing to see them see the thousands and thousands of people that they reach with the music they do. It's a blessing.

Russ Johns: [00:17:40] That's amazing. And it's just like live streaming. You don't know where it's going to land. You don't know which audience or which person that you're going to touch along the way. That is just like you said, you have to do it for yourself. You have to do it for the purpose that you're here for and putting it out there and making sure that you're encouraging people along the way.

Russ Hedge: [00:18:03] Yeah. And today authenticity is a big word, and I think that if you authentically are living. Your life, the life you choose and not living somebody else's life, you and you're filled with purpose, you can do amazing things. You can do amazing things. You just have to step forward, get started and live your life. And it's just, there's too many people I think out there I joke that they're befuddled, but there's too many people out there living somebody else's life too. There's too many people out there living what people think they should be. What people say they should be or just doing things that they think they have to do. And that's what kind of life is that? What kind of life is that live? The life you choose, get out there. Bless people make a difference, right?

Russ Johns: [00:18:47] Make a matter. Yeah, I think you matter. And I've been guilty of the same thing, Russ,  think that this life is supposed to be structured in a certain way and media and marketing, and I'll tell us, Oh, you have to have this product in order to be happy and you can't be happy unless you have this product here. Let me show you how you can buy this product. And the reality is that. Like you said, we have to live our own life and we have to be be the person that we were meant to be. So unfortunately, some people can find that like yourself.

Russ Hedge: [00:19:19] Yeah. And I think that's what my why in life is. Is to help other people, I want to inspire and encourage others to live a purpose-driven life of significance. That is my why. Everything that I do revolves around trying to bless others, find their purpose. Find their significance, their place in life, not my place, not somebody else's place, their own place. And I might give in my book, I might give examples of things I've done, but I'm not telling other people to do exactly what I do. I'm telling them these are things you can do to make life better. These are things you can do to make a difference in your life. And I have a couple of stories in my book struggles I've gone through, I had a horrific car accident after my freshman year in college, almost died. And I learned how precious life is and how important it is to live every day with purpose. I've had struggles all through my college years at Oregon state. I was pretty lost. I went from having a great family, great parents, everything was great. I went to college. Was supposedly living the life of a good kid, but I was totally lost. I was off track. I was doing things I shouldn't do. I was living a bad life and I was able to come around through finding God and my beautiful wife who got me back on the right track was able to refine my purpose and so we all have to go through different journeys at different levels that makes us who we are.

Russ Johns: [00:20:44] And I think if you try to follow someone else's roadmap, it doesn't always fit.  And we all have to go through our own bruises along the way, in order to get the experience we need to put things into perspective for ourselves.

Russ Hedge: [00:20:59] A good example of that real quick is when I speak in front of people, I've told people I've done it and had people try to tell me what to say and never works. Never works.  Trying to tell me jokes to use, never works. I have to be me and do my own thing, and my goofiness is usually funny enough. So I just do my go ahead. I'm sorry.

Russ Johns: [00:21:20] No  it struck a chord because I wanted to find out what your thoughts are on leaving a legacy. Finding your path and your journey in your purpose is one piece of the puzzle. I think, leaving a legacy is something that people need to start thinking about and how are they going to leave this world and what impact they're going to be? Because with the content that we're creating, the information we're leaving, the support that we're providing all of these things lead up to evidence that we were here.  So it's really amazing to think we have an opportunity, the first time in history, really to leave a legacy and put something out there. Your book is one example. You think about that and how do you think about that?

Russ Hedge: [00:22:07] Yeah. My biggest legacy I want to leave is with my family, my children, the people that I'm able to influence and touch personally and if I can make them better and their life better and they can do like we were talking about my kids doing amazing things in music and watching that and thinking God gave me a little teeny small part of that. I would say it's mostly my beautiful wife. She gets most of the credit, after God. But it's just been great. And then, yeah, I love the fact that we can leave all this content through live streaming through podcasting, this book. There's my book, but funnel live the life you choose it. It is a slice of me. It's me. And I wrote it right off the bat with encouragement from friends. And I think, D Scott Smith, my good friend, my co-host on the experience, he encouraged me to write the book. He's the one that really got me started and it is just a slice of me. And, I may not be the world's greatest writer, I may not sell a million books, but I have a slice of me that I can utilize and all this stuff I'm doing because when it comes from your heart, you can utilize that to bless other people. And I want to encourage people and bless them. And I hope the book does, and it's available on Amazon by the way.

Russ Johns: [00:23:20] I love that. And if you haven't followed Russ, go follow him. So go connect with him. You're on LinkedIn. You're on all of all the social platforms, so it's not difficult to find you.

Russ Hedge: [00:23:33] No,russhedge.com has got everything. All my social media links, all my email, my phone number, text me, call me.

Russ Johns: [00:23:42] Link to Amazon?

Russ Hedge: [00:23:44] Yeah, it has all of that. Yes. You can get my book. Absolutely. You can you can link to my shows, my podcast, my live show, all that stuff is at russhedge.com so that is the easiest way. Plus you can also set a scheduled time, just like, I think you can, with you Russ, you can schedule time to actually talk with me and  zoom with me.  I love to connect with people. So go on there, connect with me. I also do an email blast, encouraging email every day which I just try to encourage people as well. You can get on that list as well.

Russ Johns: [00:24:15] I'm on your list. I'm on your list. I receive your stuff. Marcia says I love audio books and podcasts to listen to when I'm out walking. It's the most enjoyable way to make exercise go quickly. It's true. I love it. I love it. Russ, this has been another amazing episode of encouragement and a little bit of positive, a great way to wrap the week up and move forward. So you got any big plans over the weekend?

Russ Hedge: [00:24:41] No, I think I'm going to spend time with my family. I have one event that I'm going to, it's just online. I'm going to help out with a little bit tomorrow just to be encouraging. I'm actually a cheerleader for a local nonprofit, just helping them out a little bit, but yeah, just trying to be positive and they're trying to drive some engagement online. And so yeah, besides that, spend time with my beautiful family, have a wonderful church service on Sunday and yeah, there you go.

Russ Johns: [00:25:07] Fantastic.  I get to hang out with Marcia and Howard Kaufman tomorrow. We got a Founder's Guild here in Phoenix that we're going to go attend and hopefully meet some amazing people, social distancing of course. But of course, it's one of those ideas that I really enjoy making connections and understanding what other people are doing and put things into perspective for life. And, it just feeds the soul to be able to help and encourage others. And for myself, it's always enjoyable to meet a new friend and making new friends.

Russ Hedge: [00:25:42] Well, you know what, Russ, as I said, I love connecting and making friends and connecting, not just contacting people and trying to get advantage from them. I love connecting. You have become a great friend. We have never met in person, but we will sometime soon. And you are a great friend and I really appreciate you.

Russ Johns: [00:26:01] Likewise, Russ, it's always a pleasure. Thank you so much. Go out there and encourage, share a little kindness because #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and you #enjoytheday. Take care, everyone.

Russ Hedge: [00:26:17] Bye-bye.

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