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Yo, yo, yo. What's up? What's up? Good morning. Good evening. Good night. Good afternoon.
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Thanks for watching in. Be sure to turn notifications on whatever platform you're
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Take a moment to be present and recognize that it is now.
right now. Whether your right now is working, running, exercising, cleaning, laying down,
flying, driving, be grateful we're alive. Failure can be frightening. However, as Winston Churchill
reminds us, success is all about going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
This is I Will Not Lose podcast, where we set out to prove everything is learned from failure,
and we must persevere and recognize it as one step closer to success. I'm your host,
Tony Ortiz. Let's jump right in. I feel good, man. I was going to make a filler episode,
just reach into my bag of unfinished episodes and pull something out and just wing it for 20 minutes.
But I love you guys too much. And I decided this may be somebody's first episode. So I don't want
somebody jumping in on a filler episode. So I was going to do that, but I decided to scrap the
episode and go to sleep. And somewhere between dreaming and waking, I realized how much easier
podcasting is off sleep. And this week's topic just hit me. So we're going to talk about sleep.
You know what it is. Do you know why it's important? You know that it really is like
the glue that holds everything together. It's one of the main things with mental health. You look
at sleep deprivation and all sorts of other things start to fall out of line. So yeah, the week's
topic just hit me. I think it's important for overall health and well-being and it deserves
being talked about. So that's what we're going to dive in. So I like to practice what I preach,
But sometimes this podcast turns into kind of an antidote for myself to remind myself.
So I was doing good for about a year.
I've always struggled with sleep and consistent sleep throughout my life.
But I have had periods to compare to where I was getting really good sleep.
And February was probably the first time in about a year I had consistent sleep schedule.
and was getting a decent amount of sleep every night for a good year, going to bed around the
same time, waking up around the same time. And then I threw some things in that disturbed that
schedule and I got off to a crazy February. So I knew what I had set myself up for, but I was
working on a documentary and this was a massive production with a lot of people involved. So by
the time everything got to editing, you know, um, we had a short amount of time, so we were able to
get everything done, but it was at a cost of sleep really, if I'm being honest. Um, and when I say I
knew what I'm signing myself up for. Um, I know what it takes to hit a deadline. And I knew that
it was going to be about two weeks of misery. And then the final product was going to get out.
There would be people that never knew what went into it. As long as they say, you know,
the show must go on. I'm a firm believer in that. So we were able to hit the deadline,
but it did teach me some things about myself and different things that I need to change in order to
be successful. So kind of the story learned from failure in this, I'll be sharing some of my own
personal experiences of failure with sleep, as well as some successes that I found, some tips
and tricks to get better sleep and I'll try to drive just how important it is for overall health
and well-being. So after we hit the deadline, the deadline was February 13th. We got everything
submitted over on February 14th and then it aired a few days later for the remainder of Black History
Month. Was it March 7th? I think it just finished airing. It aired a little bit in through
March as well. But that week I decided to fly to Atlanta, uh, really just for a change of pace
and had an opportunity. My wife had a hotel out there, so it was a, uh, didn't have to worry
about lodging. So I spent a few days there, um, did bring my laptop. So I was able to work and
did get some good work done, but overall took a day to relax. Went to the National Center for
Civil and Human Rights. I believe I'm getting the title right, but that's in Atlanta, Georgia.
That was an absolutely mind-blowing experience. I may do a whole podcast about that, but one of
the biggest things I took from it was the freedom of speech that not everybody has it. And so being
able to put out a podcast from a place of love, from a place of, you know, wanting everybody to
succeed and hoping that they can take something from this, this is a privilege to be able to
put content out, you know? And so I don't take my words lightly. I never really have, but I did add
a whole new weight to what I do, why I do it, who I do it for. So getting sleep over the next
couple of days forced me to make some changes in my life that I'll go into the next couple of days.
So when I first flew down, the first day or so was pretty rough because I didn't actually arrive
in Atlanta until around one. So I probably got off the airport, got to the hotel, maybe around
three. Now, I slept on the flight. I slept in the airport. So I got a decent amount of sleep,
but it was rocky. It was over different periods of time. One of the ways sleep works is you go
into cycles. So when you get a short amount of sleep, you don't get all the way through.
And not to get into it, but that's part of the reason when you go back to sleep after you wake
up, you start a whole new sleep cycle. That's why it's so difficult to be rested and energetic. So
having a consistent start and wake time, sleep and awake time is definitely some advice. We can
get into that with some of the tips. But after that first day, I got a good night in a nice bed
in a hotel. For me, sleeping in was like 8 or 9 a.m., so I think I was up at like 8 versus 5.30
or 6.30, which I'm doing now. So that was nice. I was able to be on a different schedule than my
normal schedule. So just kind of going with the flow, seeing different sites, just being,
just taking things in. It's amazing how much more fruitful your waking hours can be when you have
good sleep. I mean, everything is just off. So when I am not sleeping, there's negative
consequences. I mean, beyond just feeling tired and exhausted, there's no focus. There's a
difficulty in concentrating. So I like to tell myself if I'm going to stay up late working on
a project, I'm pretty much sacrificing some focus for the next day. If I lose sleep, then the next
day is going to be less productive. So did I really get more done? I take tons of breaks in
my work, be it a 20 minute break or, you know, walking away from something for an hour or
walking away from something for a day and just revisiting it after you sleep.
That's always been a part, even if I didn't acknowledge it, that's always been a real
part of my routine.
So as I put pen to paper and actually journal this stuff, it's like, wow, you know, that
really makes a ton of sense.
So it's not worth the tradeoff to lose sleep or stay up. I mean, if something is due, I get it. But there's all sorts of productivity techniques to not let something be looming and overwhelming to the point where you have, you know, everything is urgent and important.
everything has to be done right away. Everything has to be done. That's a difficult position to be
in. But so what steps did I take to improve my sleep schedule? Setting a consistent bedtime.
This one was pretty big for me. So I'll usually go to bed when I'm tired, which might be around
8.30 or 9 p.m. I'll start to lay down. I might be in bed by 9.30. If I find myself working and
it's around nine 30, 10, that's when I'll start to start like a, a bedtime routine. If I'm not
already exhausted and ready for bed, like if I spent my whole day creating or concentrating or
moving from place to place, you know, um, I'll usually be pretty tired, but if I have to create
of relaxing pre-sleep routine, I'll do that. It might be throwing in my earbuds and putting on
like binaural beats or something. There's all sorts of, you can do some research, theta waves,
beta waves, delta waves, different tones that you can listen to. And you put that in with some
noise isolating headphones and lay down, uh, don't look at any screens. Um, they, there's a big study
on, um, essentially not looking at blue light before bed. So your cell phone, your laptop,
the TV screen, um, I'm not the greatest culprit of this. I think we leave a TV on in sleep mode,
but you'd really want no light at all. And the blue light, it keeps you awake. It
messes with your brain. I'm not going to go a ton. Let's just say it's bad for you.
Maybe I'll plug something or put in the description more about blue light, but this
is mostly about sleep. And I'm just telling you, avoid screens for a good hour before you go to
bed. Uh, these glasses that I'm wearing now are actually blue blockers. So I stare at screens a
lot and my focus after staring at a screen, wearing these versus not wearing these, uh,
the mental fatigue is just completely, uh, completely insane. You can turn your screen
blue light off. Um, and it kind of looks real yellowy. I know a lot of people work with that.
they work with low blue light mode on. I personally don't just because I'm working
with colors and video. The yellow tint really screws up what I do for work. So
as a remedy, I wear these to these blue blockers to help combat that. So if I am going through
something or I just I don't like to get into checking emails, but if I'm doing something
mindless, like scrolling Reddit and I'm still awake, I'll wear these blue blockers while I'm
scrolling. But another big thing that I did was I switched to four days. So my main contract that I
act as a, uh, I work nine to five at, I went from working five days there to four days. So I'm going
to be off Fridays, mainly as a move for work life balance, just being able to have some personal
time, get some things done, work on some some different stuff. I'll go into how I spent last
Friday and a little bit after we finish up on this sleep stuff. But getting back to having full
sleep. Oh, it's night and day. I mean, when you get your sleep schedule on track for the past
year, I was able to, uh, manage all my deadlines, start a podcast. Um, I did take a break for a
while from social media. So I didn't feel that need to go through that at night. Uh, that constant
need, like that feeling of missing out when you're like lonely and you want to see what other people
are doing. Or maybe you just look to social media for distractions, see what other people are saying
and get in the conversation. But I did take a long break from that last year. I'm slightly back on
social now. I'm slightly active on it. It doesn't take up a ton of my time. But the increased energy
level. Um, it's amazing going to bed at eight and waking up at four 30 or five. I mean, you're still
getting your, uh, I'm good on about six and a half hours of sleep. So when I'm actually laying
down, I know I'm going to be to bed in the next half an hour. I'll set an alarm for six and a
half or seven hours out and, um, wake up then and start my day early, start, uh, doing my morning
routine, make coffee, walk the dog, uh, get showered, get dressed. Um, and then once everything's
together, I have some time to create journal for the podcast, uh, catch up on emails, do some
things like that, and then be downtown at 8 a.m. Having that schedule allowed me to really
concentrate the three or four hours of free time that you have every day towards growing things,
towards putting things together. And honestly, one of the things that I'm going to get back into
is gaming more. Um, I like to play strategy games and it's nice for my mind. It's great for,
you know, just taking a half an hour out, but it used to be something I did a lot more consistently.
And I definitely think it helped with my decision-making and overall mental health. So
even just being part of narrative, enjoying other people's content, uh, and diving into
The Last of Us lately. It's a video game turned HBO hit series. So taking time to
do things that aren't necessarily focused on creation, it gives me more time and more
focus time when I'm actually creating to be more productive during that time.
So overall, improved mood. You just smile more. You're sociable. You're not
in a terrible mood in the morning like everybody wants to break stuff when they wake up that's
because you didn't go to bed till three and you have to get up for work or school or whatever it
has to to be so i've i've said this and i claim this and i'll stand by this the increased
productivity is worth the trade-off so you miss two hours of sleep i'm sure there's some sort of
objective value you could put, you could quantify how much productivity you lost, but I can just
tell you it's not worth the trade-off. Get good sleep, produce well. If you're struggling with
sleep because of something that's not, I mean, there's all sorts of things like avoiding alcohol,
avoiding nicotine, caffeine, all this sort of stuff you could do before sleeping, but sometimes
there is insomnia or something that you have to deal with, or as a result of a medication,
you're having a hard time sleeping. That's definitely real. There are lines you can reach
out to. There's just people available 24-7 that you can just talk to because you might start to
go a little nuts. If you are sleep deprived for a day or two, all sorts of terrible things can
start happening. And a lot of times when there are cases and somebody has a crisis called on
them or something, there's sleep deprivation, like not enough. I'm not going to I forget who
the quote is by, but it's a great quote that not enough attention is paid to the lack of sleep or
sleep deprivation when it comes to mental health. So in other words, you could be sleep deprived
and they could misdiagnose you for having some sort of mental ailment. So it just throws all
your chemistry off when you don't sleep um when you go to sleep drunk you don't actually finish
all the sleep cycles you don't go into rem sleep so you're not actually doing the healing part
so you could sleep you could pass out sleep 10 hours you really didn't get much sleep so
that's one thing to avoid doing and even on weekends have your consistent sleep schedule
Like just because it's Friday or Saturday night and you go to bed at 830, 930, 1030, you don't have to stay up till one or two, you know, that might throw you off and then you might have trouble getting to bed the next night.
So prioritize sleep over all else.
It's one thing I try to do.
I've gotten at least the last week or so I've been pretty good, actually really good.
I've even taken naps during the day.
So I'm pretty caught up on sleep.
I'm glad I didn't wing the podcast yesterday and we can put together some concise thought
because if you're a first time listener, thank you for listening.
Make sure you subscribe and follow.
If you're coming back, I love you guys. Thank you for tuning in. I had Johnny Melendez. I mentioned
him in the first podcast as a childhood friend. I know him since kindergarten. And these are
actually his mics. He donated them when I said I was wanting to start a podcast. And I've since
bought some, but he hasn't taken them back. So he, uh, he hadn't tuned in for a little bit,
at least not in season two. So I was showing him what the podcast looks like. And he was actually
in the studio seeing, uh, the stuff we added to it. So it was really cool Friday, uh, taking some
time and he actually brought over SM7B, which is a really nice mic. It's a Shure mic. Um,
and it's great for vocals it's like the ultimate podcasting mic but we started uh dropping some
bars man we we were rapping uh he set up the studio right over there uh right on a little
desk he just had the whole thing in his backpack pulled out the interface the chords uh xlr cables
and set up a little studio and put something together so uh i'm sure we'll put that out
just some hobbyist stuff, having fun. But this was the first time in, I'd have to say 11 or 12
years that I, uh, was in the studio doing this. So just the process of writing, um, having fun,
it was funny. I dated myself. Um, I was like, do you need me to print your lyrics? He's like,
we have smartphones. Like, what are you talking about? I'm like, oh man, that's right. Uh, so
i'm going back to 2000s and the way we made music then so it was insane but we also did a i'll
probably drop it as some bonus content we've recorded a quick episode just trying out the
three camera angles and having some different guests and then my son came through so jayden
was here kind of producing he was working some of the cameras so we just had fun creating putting
some stuff together. Just, uh, it was really reminiscent of my twenties, just creating,
being in front of a mic, the power of recording. So that was, uh, that was really pretty cool.
So we're going to start to land the plane here in a second. I just have to go on a quick rant.
Uh, tipping culture is absolutely out of control. Um, some places you go, the minimum you can tip
is 20%. It just asks you, do you want to tip 2025? Now normally standard, at least the way I know it
20% is if somebody does good, if you give them 20%, that's like they did excellent. So
if you give them more than that, that's like absolutely wow. I typically give more than that.
If the bill's less than $20, I'll tip 50%, but usually around 25, 30%. Even if you did somewhat
bad, just because I know how, at least in our economy, people rely on tips. But when I go to
Panera and I get my own cup and I do the self-serve and it asks me if I want to tip the team. It's
like, I haven't even seen the team. I don't, nobody, I mean, if they held the door and greeted
me, I could see. So I guess the option is there. Or maybe if you make food, I guess if you order
food, then you can serve, you can tip the cooks. So it makes sense while it's there. But I would
just think in the programming, if you dine in and you self-serve and you're just grabbing a cup,
what are you tipping for? Um, it makes an all sorts of awkward conversation when, um, you know,
I'm cool with tipping at Starbucks. Even if I get it, the drinks are expensive. That has nothing to
do with it. If somebody is making your drink, that's a skill and you can go to different
Starbucks and they make your drink different. So your Starbucks, your local one that you go to,
that the person greets you every day, knows your drink and makes it drop them a tip when they're
like the, the screen is going to ask you a question and they turn their head away. And it's
like, I don't know. It's just, it's a, it's, it's weird. So it's not even just the fact that people
are asking for tips. It's the fact that it's like, I don't know, it's, it's weird. You don't have
control over how much you say you want to give. Um, sometimes there's asked for a tip when tip
is already included on it. So it's pretty nuts. But that being said, I'm going to throw the QR
code up there. If you want to throw your boy a tip for putting the podcast together every week,
we're throwing together a digital tip jar. So it's linked through PayPal. You can go ahead and do it.
Also, if you go to to the designer dot com slash links, there's a link to the donate button.
Um, it's really just anything as small as buying me a coffee.
You could tip a dollar.
You can tip, uh, towards putting together equipment towards making the show better.
Um, I have a list of all sorts of things that your donation goes towards kind of like a
mini sponsorship.
So we're making that available.
Um, shameless plug.
Other than that, this is, I will not lose podcasts, stories of success, learn from failure
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as always thank you for listening