Episode 7: Family with Irish Cash and The Holly Doll of Capital Ink Tattoo

We all have jobs. We all have families. We all have way too much stuff to do and not enough time to do it all. Unfortunately, a lot of times we tend to push things off to make time for the things we think we need to do. Sometimes in the end though, we find that we've given up the things that really matter in order to make time for more work, or work-related tasks. In the meantime, our kids are raising themselves and we forget just how awesome our partners are.

This week, we sat down with Holly Doll and Irish Cash, an awesome couple who incorporate their family into everything they do. Holly, a professional body piercer, and Irish, a professional tattoo artist, run and operate one of Sacramento's most successful and well-known tattoo shops, Capital Ink Tattoo. They work together every day of the week, up to 10 hours a day. And what's even more awesome? They bring their kids with them!

Check out this week's episode as Holly and Irish discuss how important family is to their business and life goals, and how they manage to balance work and family in order to live a life that is meaningful to them.

Listen to Episode 7 here!

Nick Bearden Interview

We're currently fudging with our format for the Bromagination Podcast. The first five episode have followed a pretty basic format of a little mini-lesson type of thing as well as a guest interview. We have decided to try something new moving forward. I'm not sure if we're going to do multiple episodes each week or if we're gonna alternate our lesson conversations with interviews on a weekly basis. Either way, we're switching stuff up with the podcast. As such, I've decided to break up the way I'm presenting the content of the week in two separate posts. The last post was about the mini-lesson and this one is to tell you all about our guest this week.

And yes! We had a VERY special guest this week. Nick Bearden from the amazing Jamestown Revival.

For those of you who don't know Jamestown Revival, I suggest you check them out. I would try to describe them to you but I don't think I could really do them any justice. Check out this sick video:

Nick was such a badass to have on the show. I first met Nick when I was just a little guy. In sixth grade, my buddy and I tried out for the talent show playing Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box. We didn't get into the show, but we went anyway. The headlining act was the Ms. Ashby band, with Nick as the drummer (his first instrument).

Since then, Nick has gone on to do some pretty amazing things with Jamestown. In his interview, he tells a captivating story of how he threw it all away to pursue his musical passion and how all the little things came together to bring him to this point in his life. It was an honor to have him on our show. Check him out here!

What the Hell is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness has been getting a lot of press lately. This week, while standing in line at the grocery store, I looked over and saw a magazine with a girl sitting in lotus position with the heading "Mindfulness" in big letters across the front. As someone who has been studying Buddhism, meditation, and mindfulness for about 14 years, it was exciting to me to see something like this in the grocery store. What was even more exciting was the fact that it was not a stand alone obscure magazine in a health food store. It was a special edition of Time magazine!

While mindfulness has been a practice in many eastern cultures and religions for thousands of years, in the west it seems to have been ignored and even condemned in some places. People like Alan Watts and Ram Dass are two names that come to mind when I think of pioneers, but their approaches were based on their experience with religion and turned a lot of people who are devout in their own religions off to the ideas of mindfulness.

For hundreds of years, Zen Buddhists have been preaching the benefits of mindfulness and sharing the techniques for creating a stress free life, but perhaps the person who deserves credit for bringing these practices into the mainstream is Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts. Kabat-Zinn, a student of Zen philosophy and founder of the Cambridge Zen Center, recognized the benefits of mindfulness in regards to stress and health and in 1979 created the Stress Reduction Center at the University of Massachusetts. He realized waaaaay back then that there were some serious benefits to this mindfulness, and if anyone can demonstrate its value, I feel like a Professor of Medicine at a prestigious school is probably just the guy.

Slowly but surely, mindfulness practice is making its way into the consciousness of the general public.  It has become painfully obvious that mindfulness is beneficial to everyone in the world. Advances in science are proving that it's not just some mystical bullshit. Bodies actually heal from meditation. People actually become more happy from practicing mindfulness.

In our fifth installment of The Bromagination Podcast, we discuss mindfulness as a benefit and a way to start eliminating the useless stress in your life in order to make room for the stuff you actually enjoy. We'll be sharing with you some techniques to get you started as well as some techniques to help you continue to practice mindfulness in your daily lives. We'll be diving deep into the subject and we're hoping you get as much out of our mindfulness episode as you will from practicing mindfulness.

Episode 2 - Gaining the Confidence to Get Creative

Call me paranoid, but I feel that there are forces at work designed to keep us from branching out. I know I'm not the only one to think that. Hell, even the writers at Disney feel that creativity is being squashed out. In the Disney/Pixar movie, A Bugs Life, Flick is an inventive young ant whose creativity sometimes gets him into trouble. The rest of the ants all roll their eyes at his attempts to be useful to the colony. In the end, however, Flick overcomes adversity, and the other members of the colony finally accept him.

I think that's kind of a bummer.

If you think about it, all the greatest achievements over the last several hundred years have originated in the mind of some super nerd who decided they weren't gonna let their inhibitions stop them from becoming great. From Leonardo Da Vinci to Steve Jobs, these greats weren't your typical sword carrying, football jersey-clad meatheads. While meatheads have their place in history (thanks for getting us to the Renaissance, boys!) and a place in the world (I make my living as an electrical construction worker), we now live in an era where the ones who are making the greatest changes aren't necessarily the ones who grew up to be captain of the football team.

I'm bringing this up because in my experience, artists, inventors, and creators are not normally outgoing, boisterous, alpha-male types. In terms of personality, they're more like introverts. So what happens when a person creates something amazing and wants to share it with the world, but lacks the confidence necessary to do so? There is only one way: face and overcome your fear.

In this weeks podcast, we have mini-lesson about developing creative confidence. That is, overcoming any hangups you might have about breaking into a new hobby or picking back up an old one. Brian offers a terrific peace of advice for this, Ask yourself what's the worst thing that could possibly happen?

When you really mull it over in your head, you'll realize that the very worst thing that could happen is that someone might laugh at you. Or maybe if you share your desire with someone, they may give you negative feedback or criticize you for being a "dreamer."

But ask yourself another question. What is the best thing that could possibly happen? What if your passion takes off and you're able to quit your job and do what you absolutely love for a living?

In this weeks episode, we interviewed Michael Patrick from www.PatrickArts.com. At 30, Michael did this exact thing. He took a leap of faith and started down a whole new path. Click the link in the top right corner to listen to Episode 2 of the Bromagination Podcast and hear Michael discuss his journey.

Episode 2 Links

TED Talk with David Kelly: How to Build Your Confidence

Bishop Briggs

Michael Patrick & Patrick Arts

Scratch Art Supplies

Scratch-Art

Scratch-art scratch sticks

New in 2017 - The Bromagination Podcast is Now Streaming!

    You've been patiently waiting, and for your reward, we have fulfilled our promise to you and yesterday we uploaded the very first episode of the Bromagination Podcast. Check it out here!

    As a way to let our listeners know more about us, we each prepared a little personal essay/narrative. We wanted to let our listeners to get to know us on a more personal level.

    Because we don't intend to follow the same format for the duration of the show, we also gave a sick breakdown of what you listeners can expect from us in the future. One of the features will be book recommendations. This weeks pick was The 4-Hour Workweek by the great Tim Ferriss. If you've never read it, YOU MUST! You can pick it up here:

    In upcoming posts and episodes, we'll also have a music feature. In this particular weekly segment, Brian will be giving the low down on upcoming shows, new bands, and new music. You'll get his unique perspective which will inspire you to branch out from the mainstream and explore totally different realms. 

    Episode 2 will be live next Monday, January 9th, 2017 at 6 PM Pacific Standard Time. 

PEACE!!

The Birth of Bromagination

Around four months ago, Brian and I were working as electricians at the same data center here in Sacramento. Our futures at the company were unclear as there had been several layoffs the previous year and it didn't seem as though there was much left to build. Things were slow and often our bosses would give us a look that meant "make yourself scarce," knowing that we were out of work to do.

Although we had worked for the same company, Brian and I worked on different crews and rarely worked together on projects. In fact, it wan't until my last three months at the company that him and I were assigned to a big project together in which we were able to work side-by-side. Because we all sensed that the end (of our careers at the data center) was near, we often discussed what we would do if we got laid off.

Brian was discussing with me how he was putting in efforts to make a completely mobile rig for his music setup (keyboard, amp, etc) that would allow him to travel anywhere and make music. He was telling me how he dreamed of hiking to majestic locations to write, perform, and record songs inspired by the locations themselves. His talks reminded me of a book I had read called Vagabonding, by Rolf Potts which I had learned of through another book called The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss. In Vagabonding, Potts describes just how easy and affordable it is to travel the world.

At some point during these months, Brian added me to his Google Play account which allowed me access to all the music I could ever want. I had never opened Google Music and when I did I saw there was an entire section for podcasts. I was an avid podcast listener when they first became popular, but had somehow forgot how great they were. I began looking through them and when I looked at the Top Chart category, there was Tim Ferriss! I scrolled through his podcast episodes and as I looked, sure enough there was a two-part episode with none other than Rolf Potts. Excitedly, I forwarded Brian the link.

A few days later, Brian had downloaded the audio book for The 4-Hour Workweek and was super pumped about it. It fueled our conversations for weeks to come.

In our premier episode, we will discuss the catalyst - the event that spawned the idea that is Bromagination. You'll get to know a little about us as people, what we hope you the listener will get from the podcast, and why we feel Bromagination should be shared with everyone.

So mark your calendar. On January 2, 2017, we'll be uploading the premier of The Bromagination Podcast!