True success doesn’t come from chasing outside approval or obsessing over things you can’t influence. When you master your Circle Of Control, you build an unshakeable foundation that keeps you grounded through every high and low in business. Host Jeffrey Saad sits down with filmmaker Connor of Forward Films, the creative visionary who spent years capturing culinary stories behind the lens. Together, they break down why real passion acts as your safety net during grueling career trials and why trusting your gut matters more than relying on tech shortcuts. You’ll discover how prioritizing genuine human connection and personal principles turns creative friction into long-term leverage. If you’re ready to stop serving your business and start making your business serve you, this conversation will reframe how you navigate your daily grind.
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The Man Behind The Camera
Welcome. It’s good to have you as always. I’m grateful. I’ll always start off with The Reduction. Please go to Amazon and pre-order The Reduction. It comes out November 11th, 2026. I am super proud of it. I am super excited. Many amazing people were part of it. Check it out. I’d love to hear your thoughts. It’s cool to have Connor here because he is the man who has always been on the other side of the camera. He’s filmed all my food stuff you see on Instagram. We’ve done projects together. We met on a set where we were both hired. I was talented. He was the camera crew. I love this man. It is so good to have you here.
Thank you. I appreciate it. It’s strange to think and look back on all that time. You always want all those journeys to keep moving and take on different shapes and forms. It’s cool to be in this one.
Why Protecting Your Energy Beats Chasing Outside Wins
You remind me of what’s possible because you’re half my age, but you’re right there with me or ahead of me, and your ability to evolve. You’re always looking for how to be better and how to be better for your clients, which I love about you. In talking about the circle of control, that’s one of the premises in the reduction. It’s storytelling. You’re like, “Don’t do it.” It’s creating your personal constitution.
I’m always fascinated by the circle of control because it is such a big win if people can stay in their circle of control. Meaning, you don’t put energy or focus on things that are outside that circle of control because you can’t affect them, but you do affect yourself and everyone around you negatively because it creates weight in your life.
With your business, you have a company called Foreword Films with your brother Andrew, who I love as well. Ian, and the whole crew. What has it been like for you, being a young entrepreneur getting into this? First of all, talk about your background a little bit. How did you get into this? Where did it start? Where is it at? How has the circle of control, knowing the concept, been a part of that journey?
The first thing I’ll say is the thing that makes me feel the most successful and the most fortunate is how much you do learn along that way. Everyone will say that it’s a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck. Some people will say it’s hard work and a lot of luck. Depending on your mindset, both of those things can be true. For Andrew and I, when we got started, the mentality was there’s a seed here that is worth nurturing and seeing it through. If by some stroke of the right combination of hard work and luck, it becomes this thing, then great. If it doesn’t, then we’ll hopefully be able to share the experience of trying it.
I love the way you said that. Off camera, before we got started, you had said, which you and I both resonate with big time, it’s about the journey. You were smart enough right out of the gate to realize what you said about the seed. Whatever combination of luck and hard work it is, it’s the journey that’s going to make this worthwhile.
The Critical Difference Between Passion And Infatuation
It’s when you are passionate about something. I don’t mean passionate about something like, “I love this.” You can love a lot of things that you’re not passionate about. There’s a very clear line that you have to draw in the sand between those two things. I love food. I love movies. I love sex. I love all these sorts of things. With the thing that you love and the thing that you’re passionate about, the reason why there’s a difference there is because the passion needs to be there, whether the love is there or not. Those are not my words. It’s someone else’s words, but I’m going to share them with you.
They’re yours now. For me, that’s an important point. I don’t pretend to ever be a genius. I’ve created The Personal Constitution and some stuff, but everything’s been said or done before. The difference, and that’s what I love about you, is about making the words live in your muscle. When it becomes about who you are, then it is yours.
The delineation also is that you can fall in and out of these things that you like, you love, you have an infatuation with, or you have an interest in. When you have true passion in something, and you are fully invested in it, or you are fully committed to it, then it serves as your safety net, in a way. I’ll give you an example. This happened to a friend of mine. You’re very passionate about music. That’s a popular passion for people, especially in Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York.
She has a lot of passion for music. Having passion doesn’t automatically guarantee that you’re going to make a career out of it or you’re going to become successful in it, but if you have the passion for it, and you have true passion, then it’s going to be there for you no matter what. On your best days and when you’re playing to an arena of 50,000 people, you’re going to have that passion. On your worst days, when you got kicked in the nuts by some record label, or someone stole your song, or you got kicked out of your band or whatever, the passion still has to be there. It needs to be even stronger in those moments.
Passion is not contingent.
It should be there all the time. When things are great, you should be grateful and have that feeling of like, “I’m so happy I have this.” When things are crappy, you should be like, “Now I’ve got to double down because things are not good.” It’s very easy for people who don’t have the passion to chuck it when things are bad. In reality, your passion needs to be even stronger for you in those times, because if it is, it’s what’s going to help lift you up out of them. When you’re back on a high note again, too, it’s going to help you settle and be aware of the place that you’re at.
Pouring energy into things outside your control only drains your momentum. Focus on what you can influence and protect your peace. Share on XGoing back to your original question, with any young entrepreneur’s journey, that needs to be a non-negotiable at the beginning. You are 100% going to have good times where you’re going to feel like nobody can touch you, and you’re 100% going to have bad times where you feel like you’ve jumped into a hole that is going to be impossible to crawl out of. Every single time you climb up, it gets a little bit deeper and a little bit further away.
The one thing that I have learned in the last couple of years, and I am sure Andrew would share the sentiment with me, is that the only thing that’s going to be able to get you out of that is that passion because you know you’re going after something much more. You’re doing it not based on the result of getting out of the holeF.
You can always find another way to make money. You can be a waiter. There are a million things you can do, but you’re doing it because of that.
That’s your passion. You’ve got to double down on it. It’s been an amazing journey. The way that we got lucky was we never necessarily had to become part of a system. You have the Hollywood system, the commercial system, and all these kinds of different systems that exist. There are corporate systems. We got lucky in the sense that we were able to tap into a lot of the different systems and infiltrate each one on our own. We were able to do what we were meant to do in that system, take what we wanted to take from that system, and then jump into another one. In that way, we never became specialists.
Give an example of that. That’s powerful for somebody out there who wants to do what you’re doing or any business because it all applies. One quick side note, too, that I think is interesting is my wife’s passion. Nadia is always my gauge because she’s like, “I’m so sick of all this talk of passion. Not everyone has a passion.” My love, I love you, but part of it may be because you don’t have one. That’s okay.
Gaining Real Drive By Doubling Down On Natural Skill
What it made me think of, too, is the better you get at something, the more passionate you get about it. If you’re naturally a good mathematician, chances are, when you start seeing the results you’re getting with that, you’ll get passionate. It’s interesting. For people who feel less than because they haven’t found their passion, find your skill. If you’re doing what you’re naturally inclined to do or good at, it’s probably going to become a passion. It’s hard not to excel at something and then not find joy in it because you are making money, and you are being acknowledged, then you do feel worth.
I agree. Naturally, when you do feel that initial emotion of being good at something, or maybe you’re a little bit more inclined at this than somebody else is, as humans, we naturally float to that because it gives us this great feeling. It gives us this feeling of confidence. You’re not going to be eight years old and feeling like you’re successful, but whatever that atmosphere is, you’re going to feel that. That’s a great place to start. Eventually, over time, you continue to check in with that feeling and be like, “Is it still giving me something here? I’ll keep going with it.” Are you starting to feel like, “If all the chips were down, I would chuck this in a heartbeat,” then let’s find the next thing.
There it is. That’s a great statement. If all the chips are down, are you still in? That’s what you should be doing.
That goes hand-in-hand with relationships as well. Our trajectory or our come-up story that has been so integral is the relationships. When you’re on this solopreneur or small business journey, it’s very common to feel like you’re on this island out there and the rest of the world has assimilated into a system.
It goes back to your point about all these different systems that you tapped into. What are some examples that you can think of how you did that?
One person I talked to put it well. When you’re in entertainment, media, creative industries, or whatever like that, there are all these different cycles that are all spinning at the same time. It’s almost like you’re running through them. You get through 2 or 3, and then on the 3rd one, you get pulled up into the cycle for a little bit and hang out in that cycle. Don’t fight your way out of it. Hang out there for a second. It might feel very overwhelming. It might feel like you’re upside down underwater and you’re getting contorted with it, but stick with it for a second. Is there something that you can learn or pull from this?
When did you feel that way? What’s an example?
The first time was very clear, but it was also the culminating moment that helped Andrew and I realize we wanted to start our own thing, too. There’s something poetic in there about how the first real challenge or the first real time you feel overwhelmed happens to be the most important time. It happens to be the time in the whole trajectory. We were working on a television show in Montana.
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We’re both young, very inexperienced, and excited, but also showing up every day, not knowing what the day is going to bring. You do that every day for six weeks. By the third week, you’re starting to be like, “This is starting to get a little bit mentally draining because I still don’t even feel like I’ve got the hang of this yet.” Every single day is new. Every single day is learning. Every single day is full of mistakes, too. You can say what you want about, “I learned from my mistakes. I’m always happy to scrub.” You’ve scrubbed enough times. You want to stop.
You’re like, “I learned enough. Thank you.”
I’m like, “I’ll go back to what I know for a little bit.” Getting in that cycle or getting in that system a little bit was great. We learned so much, and it was very formative for us, especially looking back. We’re coming up on our ten-year anniversary, which is exciting. It’s one of those things where the hardest challenges and the most pressure situations also can create the best results, too.
That was one system that we got into early on. We always thought we would maybe stay there and stay in television. The show we were working on was reality. We weren’t necessarily passionate about reality, but I was 22. I wasn’t passionate about anything. I was like, “I’m making money. Great. Here we go. I’m having an experience.” That’s what the passion was.
That was an experience that taught us that even though we didn’t have everything we needed for this, we were still able to make it out alive. We were still able to make it out in one piece with new lessons along the way. I almost think about it as you’re charging up. You go into a scenario, and what you gain from it makes you taller in a way.
Part of the reason you felt like you showed up and knew what you were doing is because I know you. You have super high standards. What I love about you is you could have lowered those standards to feel better about the results you were getting, but instead, you kept the standard. Yes or no?
Yes and no. There’s always the little bend that you have to have in any scenario. We were talking about the five-minute mile earlier. You’ve got to bend in some ways because sometimes the expectations that you have should only be expectations. They’re there to help guide you and help be a thing. An expectation can be a very damaging thing, too, because it’s unrealistic for a multitude of reasons. I don’t care what anybody says. I don’t know a single person who is hell-bent on failure for their entire life. It doesn’t matter how much you’re learning. You have to find something.
Can't find your passion? Master your natural skills first. Competence creates momentum, and momentum breeds genuine fulfillment. Share on XI love the quote, “At some point, you don’t get back on the horse when it only has three legs.” Getting up isn’t a good thing.
You go find a new horse. There’s a lot of value in the other thing that you and I talk about all the time, which is that you’re modeling the journey and not the result. If there’s anything that’s easier said than done, it’s that. Every single time you get to the end of that journey and the result is so fleeting, even if it’s what you want, it can be so gone onto the next thing. For any journey or anything that’s worth achieving in the end, typically, the journey is pretty long.
Well said. That’s such a powerful message. You have to love the journey because the only way to have it probably work out is it’s a long journey. That’s why if you’re not passionate about it, if you’re not into it, and you’re only doing it for the pot of gold, you’re never going to enjoy that rainbow.
Some people are built in a way where they can bounce back and move on to the next thing. Good for you. Some people ultimately get stuck there. That’s a tough place to be. I’m not going to say that having a passion can save your life, but at the same time, if you distill that back and start to think about the world that we live in now, everything is at our fingertips. Everything is readily available for us at all times. Everything is special, so nothing is special. We wonder why people are in such bad shape mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Why Your Lived Experience Beats Any Digital Shortcut
Everyone’s always asking these questions. I’m not going to pretend like I know all the answers and everything, but I know for a fact that anytime I’ve been down in that place, the things that I’m passionate about and the things that I’ve learned in this ten-year journey are always the first things I lean on to take me back up. I’m not going on ChatGPT like, “I’m feeling bummed out. What should I do?”
To me, that is an ultimate circle of control moment. You’re not reaching out to chat about some magical thing. Correct me if I’m misrepresenting the recap, but you’re saying, “I’m going to lean on my own experiences and compare myself against myself to get back to a good place to get to the next level, not what everybody else is doing or what ChatGPT would recommend,” which can be good, too. I like that idea. Does that resonate?
When you apply that same principle to your business, your creative project, or whatever the thing is that you’re doing, the same principles apply in that regard. It’s not going to be a scenario where you can jump on the computer and ask some random prompt what to do. You fall back on those same experiences. With time and with learning those lessons and being open and willing to learn those lessons, you develop that sixth sense or that gut instinct that we were talking about earlier. For most folks, anytime they go against their gut, I bet that it doesn’t work out.
There’s more in your stomach than in your brain and spine. The gut has the highest concentration for you to make those decisions. When they say a gut feeling, it’s based on our biology. One of the real estate offices said to me years ago, “That’s not some random thing. That gut has been developed from all your life’s experiences.” It’s not something you ignore or go, “I’ve got to think my way out of this because my gut can’t be right.”
That’s mind-body connection at its finest right there. We’re at this interesting breaking point between a lot of younger entrepreneurs who have this technology background on the scene and people who are a couple of generations older than me and a couple of generations younger than you who have realized that there’s a little bit of a re-shift or a reframe that needs to happen. We’re smart people. We are not necessarily always intelligent, but we are smart. We know when we’re being marketed to. We know when we’re being AI-ed at. We figured this stuff out. In the ‘60s when TV came on, and they were selling cigarettes on TV, we were like, “Cool.”
We weren’t that smart. It was new. Isn’t that fascinating, though, the human condition? I know that Brad Pitt is being paid to promote that cologne, and yet I will still end up buying it. It is mind-blowing. We’re like, “Somehow, I’ll be Brad Pitt if I’m smelling like that.” It’s wild.
It’s crazy. In the same way that we were preconditioned, whether it was advertisements or whatever it is we were being sold to, this new AI thing. I don’t like talking about that much because I don’t know that much.
None of us do. The ones who do don’t want to talk about it.
You get an Instagram ad on your phone. You’re not sitting there engaged in the story. You’re like, “I’m getting sold dog food right now.” You get it. It’s the same with AI. When you’re being interacted with in that way, we’re going to figure out eventually that this is not a thing. This may be a little bit bold to say, but there will be a time when something in technology is going to fail you at some point. Technology is imperfect. Everything. We are all imperfect. A lot of people think that technology has this perfection thing to it. These mics could fail at this moment.
Is your point with all this that that’s why you’re reflecting back on your own experiences and tapping into your internal AI, or am I getting it wrong? Is that your point with that?
They will never fail, honestly. I strongly believe that.
Your experiences?
The experiences. At the end of the day, not to get too morbid, but everything in your life can fade very fast.
That’s why you’ve got to love every day because you might be gone tomorrow, even with people with longevity. I’m not judging anybody. If you want to live to 120, you can, but you might get hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow. I also found it intriguing what you said. A great song that has a place in your life can affect you and bring you to a place. Maybe you get a shot of bourbon at a clothing store, and they have the right music on. In a lot of ways, that’s what AI is doing. It’s reflecting back to you, “Connor, being the expert, you are in film,” and then you’re giving what it says weight because it made you feel seen and understood.
Think about every political ad. It’s like, “Hey, Sherman Oaks resident,” all of a sudden, you’re like, “That’s me.” Our streets are very bad. We need to pay more money in taxes.” It’s all about the human spirit and the human condition. In high school, I remember learning about ethos, pathos, and logos. The pathos part was always the thing that I always got a little bit more connected to. That’s humans sharing emotion with each other. We’re evoking pathos as the response. I remember always understanding that that’s the most important part you can have because without the sharing of emotions or the connection that we’re sharing, we become these linear people.
Connection is the number one thing, always.
That’s what brings dimension, atmosphere, and all the things. This is going way back to the first question you asked. When Andrew and I found our passion for storytelling, the core of that was the pathos. It was like, “How are we connecting emotionally? How are we sharing connections? How are we evoking and pulling connection out of somebody else?”
Don't trade your lived experience for an algorithm. Your gut instinct is built on years of lessons that tech can't replicate. Share on XYou’re masters.
Thank you.
That’s what I always appreciate. We’re doing cooking videos in my kitchen, or we’re working on other projects together. Somehow, for you, it wasn’t just about the light and the sound. It was about what’s going on in there and what you have to bring to this. That’s a great skill to have. For you to have it at such a young age is brilliant because it is what separates you.
I appreciate that. I’ll throw a quick shot your way, too. The way that you taught us how to cook had a lot of that infused in it. In my opinion, storytelling, filmmaking, and cooking are the exact same path but in different places. It’s like you’re on I-5 going North and I’m on I-5 going South. They’re constantly passing each other. At the end of the day, the story is what is important. How you got there and how you told it is going to change. Think about how many different ways you know how to cook a steak.
It’s such an honor to have you. You are officially the first guest in this new studio that you did the lighting for. I loved it. You’re like, “Give me a ladder. I’m going to put this lighting up.” I’m like, “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go check on the curry.” I’m searing the steak and reducing the coconut milk, and you’re doing the lighting. It was beautiful.
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It’s cool. The way you get to the story is important, but at the end of the day, the story itself is still the thing. Everything else around is tools, processes, or things like that. That will all fade away, or it will all change. I tell a lot of younger people this, not that I feel like I’m in a place to tell young people anything. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a $100,000 camera or a phone. If your story sucks, then no one’s going to care. Everything else is fleeting.
That’s so elevated of you. In real estate, it’s one of the reasons my wife and I do well. I always tell other agents, and unfortunately, not always new agents, but people that have been in the business forever. A story is better than a spreadsheet. We don’t go into a listing presentation with all the comps, trying to sell them a spreadsheet. It’s about the story, like, “Why do you love your house? What were the best moments you’ve had in this house?” That’s what you’re representing. You’re representing what somebody is going to feel and experience here. You’re not representing 3,400 square feet. That doesn’t matter, to your point.
All that fades away.
You still need all those data points. You still need to be aware of that because that’s part of the process, but if that’s your focus, you’re dead.
I was telling my buddy, who’s a Muay Thai instructor. We were having a similar conversation. He didn’t quite get it at first, and then I was looking at him a little bit. I was like, “Do you walk right into a fight and try to throw a spinning back kick?” Hwa like, “You would never do that.” I was like, “Exactly, because that’s a tool being a part of it.”
If you go into something and your reasoning behind it is, “It needs to be fancy or it needs to look this way. It needs to sound this way,” it’s like, “Let’s get past all of the stuff. Let’s get to the heart here. What is the goal? What are we trying to achieve? What’s the objective?” You then start to put together the pieces that are going to help you get there. You don’t say, “I’ve got this great tool. Let’s see if I can put it to use.” Right tool for the right job.
That’s the business side of what we do when it comes to storytelling. I’m not going to sit there and say that what we do is the right thing for you. I want to be confident in presenting what we do and how we do it. If it’s the right fit, 100%, let’s go for it. That is a very hard thing to do as a younger business owner or entrepreneur, but it is something that every single business owner or entrepreneur needs to work at over time because that is where the relationships hold on.
If you go into a relationship and say, “We’re going to meet every single one of your expectations because we can do whatever it is that you want.” You do that once. The next time, you say, “We can meet all those expectations. Also, have you considered this?” I’m sure it’s the same thing in real estate, too. You’re constantly trying to bring those two things into balance. Once you do, that’s where you win.
I’m not afraid. I always call it a hammer wrapped in velvet. Empathy, but strong. If I tell you you’re going to get that price, I’m doing you a disservice. A new agent or an agent that wants the business will be like, “You got it. We’ll get you $5 million.” You’re doing them a disservice. Disservice is telling them they’re going to get exactly what they want. Surreal service is telling them what’s likely and what’s the best strategy to get where they want to go.
I want to touch on that quickly because that type of mentality in business is not something that you can do on day one. It might not even be something you can do on day 800 and everything like that. Now, more than ever, in the world that we live in, being bold and being brave is something that is a responsibility for all of us. There’s a way that you can do that. There’s a way that you can do that that’s not putting on your bulletproof vest and going out into the streets. There’s a way you can be bold and be brave. Matthew McConaughey has this great bite about the difference between a nice guy and a good man.
He’s epic. I love him. Greenlights is one of my tattoos.
There’s a difference. This is all paralleling the business journey, too. A nice guy is someone who gets along and doesn’t cause a lot of trouble. Maybe they do disagree with some things, but it’s not worth the hassle of getting into it and everything like that. There’s a place and time to be that. At the end of the day, we all should aspire to be good men, but I also mean good people in general. That’s someone who doesn’t falter when things get tough. That’s someone who leans on their experiences, insights, wisdom, lessons, and passion. That’s someone who stands up for what they believe in.
Selfishly, that’s where the Personal Constitution came from. I did that for myself many years ago, and it saved me. It’s exactly what you said. When I have this personal constitution that guides how I’m going to make decisions, it’s easy to be a good human, or at least to be my version of a good human because I’ve laid it out. I’m like, “This is how I’m going to live my life.” The constitution always guides me even if I’m doing something different because it’s the throughline. It’s the underlying operating system of how I make decisions. It’s based on being a good human.
That’s clearly something that you’ve learned that’s taken you and gotten you to where you are. Something that I had during my upbringing was the idea of principles. When you have strong principles that you are confident in, decisions become easy.
That’s the whole idea about Personal Constitution. You don’t have to renegotiate with yourself every time. That’s why I read my constitution every day, because it comes as an instant reaction. I’ll be like, “My constitutional thing says to do the right thing. That doesn’t sound like the right thing. It’s for money.”
That’s something that we all have to work at. We have to adopt a bit of an athletic mindset to that in creating consistency, working at it every single day, and getting better at it. Another great thing I saw was a conversation. It was Gary Vee and Grant Cardone, maybe. It was a competition between who worked more, which is hilarious to me. They’re both very successful people, thinking about what you got up here. Why does who works matters more? Who gets more done? Who is able to work less and still achieve more?
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It’s getting the savory bits. I’d be shocked if anybody isn’t suffering from this. It’s like, “I got to do more. I got to work harder. Honey, I’m going to miss the kids’ game this weekend. We’re not going on our date because I’m staying late tonight.” If you decide that you’re only going to work twenty hours a week, how good do you have to be?
You’ve got to make the most every single hour.
It’s not like, “I’ll show up 24/7.” You’re a puppet. You’re pathetic. It’s like, “I’ll show up exactly for these three hours,” but look out. You’ll get a better result, and you’ll get it in three hours.
I get to enjoy and have experiences outside of this time, too.
That’s the entire idea behind The Reduction. I’m walking the walk. That’s why I’m proud to be talking about this because it’s not an idea. It’s my reality. I schedule my family first. I always have. I schedule my fun first. I will time block surfing, being with my wife, and being with my kids when they are young, especially soccer games.
Whatever time is left over, I’ll work. You’ve got to be good. As we’ve been talking about even off-camera, who do you want to work with? If you’re only going to give it so much time and you want to be excellent, you don’t want to be diluted by a bunch of bad clients. When I say bad, those are people that aren’t a fit.
Over time, you start to notice those red flags. You go back in your gut a little bit and say, “Is this five-hour commitment going to be the best five hours that I can give to this person or the best five hours that I can take?” No one has that answer on day one. No one has it even on day 1,000. The goal is always keeping that top of mind and always making sure that you’re getting to a place where the business or the thing is serving you. We all start serving the thing.
If it’s serving you, I’ll put money on it that it’s serving your clients because they go hand-in-hand. In wrapping up, selfishly, because I’m obsessed with all this stuff in the circle of control, as honest as you can comfortably be, what is the thing that you are proud of keeping in your circle of control? What’s the thing you still struggle with?
For example, as funny as it sounds, the one thing left on my checklist outside the circle of control is driving. I’ve got the rest so under control. For whatever reason, when I do fail, it’s when I’m driving. I realized that I’m the problem because not everyone else can be an idiot. I get that. How about you? What’s the thing you’re so proud of keeping in the circle? If you don’t have it, you don’t have it. What’s the thing that you’ve got to get there?
The thing that I think I still have to get there, even though I’ve tried to take a lot of steps in mitigating this, is the comparison. The comparison to other people in your industry, the comparison to other companies, and the comparison to even other people in other relationships and things like that. That’s something that I still struggle with. The hard part is, I don’t even think it’s based on some of the typical problems behind that, like insecurity. Let’s say it’s other mental things, or not making enough money. It’s none of that at all.
I’ve never been typically loud and want to be out there in the spotlight type of person. Maybe it’s the season that we’re in our world where that’s very common. The idea of being in that comparison mindset also becomes common for that reason, too. Not relying on social media and being off of some of those places. You can say that you try to focus on your own journey as much as you want. There’s always going to be people knocking and being like, “What’s that guy doing over there?”
I appreciate your transparency and honesty, but that’s also why it can’t be about, “I’m going to stay off social media.” It’s got to be about fixing the core. Michelle Obama was the first one I heard say it, and I’m sure she took a version of somebody else’s. The only person she ever compares to is her former self. Once you do that, then you can be on social media or anywhere because your principles and your constitution are, “I will only compare to who I want to be and where I’ve been.” That’s it.
All those other outside sources start to not matter.
The second we have to be blind to avoid the sun, we can’t even walk down the street. We’ve got to find a way to say no. How about the thing you’ve done well at that you’re proud of?
Relationships are the thing that I’m the most proud of. I’m a passionate person in general. I always want to believe that I’m the most passionate about storytelling, my wife, my family, and things like that. I am very passionate about those things. The reason that I’m passionate about those things is because I value relationships as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, I can go into my corner sometimes, hang out there for a few days, and not want to talk to anybody.
When you say relationships, do you mean, in reference to the circle of control, that you don’t try to control them? How does the circle of control affect relationships?
Stop wearing 80-hour workweeks like a badge of honor. Constrain your hours, schedule what matters first, and demand real focus. Share on XRelationships are always my driving factor. We have only so many cups that we’re able to fill every single day. I’ve always heard the metaphor that you fill your cup first, and then you have room to go fill everybody else’s. Having those relationships, contributing to those relationships, and nurturing and developing those fills my cup internally. It’s directly in my control. It’s in all of our control. It’s more in our control now than it has ever been.
I understand that people’s personalities are different and everything like that. At the end of the day, there have been so many times that I have failed, but my relationships were there. They did not fail. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t always trust yourself. You still always want to bet on yourself. Betting on yourself is a million times easier when you know you’ve also got the relationships that are there behind you as well.
You filled all those cups, brother.
We’re coming up on ten years. We’ve got an event.
I’ll be there.
It’s sending out the invites and remembering all these people from all these different circles.
How many you’ve touched.
How they’ve touched us back, too, and how they’ve impacted us. We are here to serve others, and by serving others, we inherently serve ourselves. That’s the other part about our business that has been so fulfilling and has honestly probably been what made it last for ten years. Anytime that we serve somebody else, it always comes back to us.
I’ve seen it.
It’s been a lot of fun. Your mentorship, your insights, and your advice over the years, both in the kitchen, outside the kitchen, and in business, have been integral in that. Honestly, it’s a dream come true to be sharing this table with you. I appreciate it. Thank you.
You’re amazing.
Thank you.
I can’t wait to do another one of these in another ten years when he’s through the roof.
I can’t wait to be back here for your next guest, maybe adding some more lights in here and dialing in your setup. We’ll have the cutaway camera over to the computer, and I’m fact-checking. Thanks. I appreciate it.
Cheers.
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About Connor Buss
Connor Buss is a creative director and storyteller from Annapolis, MD. He first came to Los Angeles to work in marketing for Red Bull, and has since built an independent production company with his brother Andrew called FOREWORD. They have recently celebrated their tenth year in business. Connor believes stories can change the world, and the experiences we have in the past can drive us to influence the future.