J.R.: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of One Thousand Gurus with me your host J.R. Yonocruz. 

So today's guest is Herbie De Guzman.

Herbie is a former dance director for 220 Veteran DJ in the San Diego Club scene. Former audio and media studio engineer for SeaWorld San Diego. Audio mixer for Universal Studios Theme Park, and now also part of the production team for Seafood City's Late Night Madness.

So this was another fantastic episode. We are back in the studio this time with another dancer turned DJ on the show. Though Herbie has been in the dance and DJ scene for a long time now.

It's always nice to bring someone onto the show who I vibe so well with.

And I think when we first met, it was clear that we had instant chemistry. Probably because we have similar backgrounds and influences. We had so much to talk about that we didn't get into. But some of the topics that we covered in this recording were his upbringing, starting towards a career in kinesiology slash physical therapy before stopping to pursue a career in audio.

He started the art of DJing as a way to keep the vibes going for dancing, and then eventually learned [00:01:00] the technical aspect of audio engineering to make sure the sound quality was good.

We also cover topics of aging family, dealing with loss, his recent breakup this past year, and what he's learned on the path to finding happiness and filling up his own cup so that he can pour into others.

I'm super excited to have him back on the show eventually for a part two, but I love this episode and hopefully you will too.

So without further ado, please enjoy this episode with Herbie de Guzman. 

Hello and welcome back to One Thousand Gurus. Herbie, welcome to the show. 

Herbie: Thanks for having me. This is gonna be fun. This is my first podcast. 

J.R.: Nice. Always fun. I was gonna say, yeah, thanks for being here. I really appreciate it. Thanks for jumping on pretty fast as well. I think it was funny because I just was listening to my friend Rani's episode and he was the first guy in my podcast, also Filipino, and I was like, yeah, I need to have like for my first episode, like a good friend of mine that we have good rapport.

So it's just easy and it's just a conversation 'cause it's gonna be the worst [00:02:00] episode, but at least it'll be fun. 

Herbie: The pilot. Yeah, 

J.R.: Exactly. 

Herbie: You're just figuring everything out and just see what's gonna happen. 

J.R.: Yeah, exactly. And so this is like your first like sort of podcast recording, right? 

Herbie: Yeah. Never been on a podcast. Performed on stage, but I was like, okay, this is almost a performance on a different platform, so mm-hmm This is gonna be fun.

I'm just thinking of it like that. 'cause I've never done a podcast and I think I was like telling you. What do I need to do for these? Do I need a rehearsal? Is there, 

J.R.: is there a mark? Yeah. Do we 

Herbie: do I do you have to go to a class? Something like that. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: Dancer brain. 

J.R.: Yeah. But it's cool because you're, you also work in audio.

You're obviously a dancer and you sing, so it's not like the elements are super unfamiliar, right? 

Herbie: Oh, yeah. 

J.R.: Just combining all of them and it's just a different format. 

Herbie: Even walking in, I was like, oh, okay. I know these microphones. I think I need to be a little bit closer. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: My production background just admired everything that you guys probably cannot see, but I'm just like, oh, I like this.

I like, I like how the cabling is just [00:03:00] organized. Yeah. I like how this is connected. Look at that room. You know, it's the, the audio nerd in me that kind of just appreciated the, the moment of being here. 

J.R.: Yeah. Solomon is beaming because this is all of his hard work. 

Herbie: Yes, I am. 

J.R.: Nice. We like it. Yeah. Feel free to throw on more praise.

Cool. All right, so we'll go into how I know you. So we met through Yerson, who has been on the podcast several times. One of my close friends, we went up to a karaoke night and it just so happened that Yerson, who is Peruvian, invited three Filipino guys to go. 

Herbie: Just so happened, 

J.R.: just so happened to be three Filipino guys to go to karaoke.

I'm like, yen, this is a little racist, because why did you and Blessie was there also Filipino? And so I'm like, Yerson, what? What's going on here? And he's like, no, I swear this is just a nce. Mm-hmm. You, you just thought, who sings Filipinos? 

Herbie: I know, I, it's funny 'cause on both ends it's just like. We all sing pretty well.

Mm-hmm. Well enough to just enjoy karaoke. Exactly. For the most part. Yeah. But we also just so happen to be Filipino. So it's like the, is this stereotype [00:04:00] or is it just facts? 

J.R.: Is yeah. Is it just true or stereotype? Porque no los dos. Yeah. But yeah, so that was a lot of fun. And then you invited us to one of your DJ events, which is cool.

Super fun. And what we're looking forward to going to more of them we'll go into it, but like the, the Seafood City Late Night Madness events. Right. So That's cool. So yeah, what are some, what else Are you up to? Like any clarifications or what's like the recent happenings with you? 

Herbie: Recent happenings, I mean, I'm new to, well not so new to la but at the same time too, I was in San Diego, that's where I was born.

So LA is so big that I think you can just continue exploring for years and sometimes like cities where. I didn't even know you can cross a city in like five minutes, where there, it's almost just like a bunch of squares around here and I'm like, oh, I'm in Carson now I'm in Cerritos. Now I'm in Artesia.

And then, oh, okay, it's a few minutes away. Now I'm in Torrance. Everything is so big, but also there's so much to go [00:05:00] around. So that's just me learning the city up here. Doing what everyone's trying to survive in life that we all do. But at the same time too, coming back to dance, I think we'll probably get into that a little bit more.

We're, we're a little, I don't wanna say old, but we're a little seasoned. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm.

Herbie: You've been in the extra 

J.R.: seasoned, 

Herbie: You've been seasoned in the kitchen. I would say a lot more. I've been out of the kitchen coming back into it, so I've kind of just appreciated. And that's kind of like the the current stuff that's happening is just appreciating dance once again.

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Herbie: After so long. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and I would've already read your bio at this point in the recording, but we have very similar dance journeys. Like we both danced in college on like comp teams, and then now we're both doing like K-pop dancing sort of stuff. So there's a lot of similar similarities there, aside from ethnicity.

Let's see. Yeah. Any other clarifications from there? Oh, actually, when did you move up to la? I don't know if you mentioned that. 

Herbie: Maybe two and a half years ago. Okay. I think my f 

J.R.: recent, 

Herbie: my first year [00:06:00] was literally just trying to scope out the city. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Herbie: Seeing how traffic, there's so much traffic up here.

J.R.: What 

Herbie: compared to LA 

J.R.: traffic. 

Herbie: Yeah. 

J.R.: No 

Herbie: such thing compared to San Diego. There's traffic everywhere in any city, but it's a different beast of traffic. And if you have to go to the 1 0 1, 1 10. That's a totally different beast amongst the beasts of traffic. So even that first year, I was just like, okay, let me just figure out how traffic works and know how to play almost GTA five if there's a six coming out.

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: Ever. But in real life because there's so much there's so much swerving that you gotta learn and you almost have to know how to Tokyo adrift just in regular day traffic. So my skills have improved. 

J.R.: There you go. 

Herbie: Just, just my time here. So. Yeah, give it about two and a half years first year just learning how to drive in la 

J.R.: Yeah, just survive.

If you survive long enough, then your skills will definitely improve just by passively going through traffic. I was gonna say, like, Paul, what are [00:07:00] the worst cities to drive in, in terms of traffic and or building your character? My, my sister who used to drive for Uber, she she's been to LA and she mostly does NorCal like San Francisco, which is like a beast, but she was like, New York City is like 10 depths of hell worse than any other place, which I believe.

I've never, I've only taken like subway and like taxis and stuff like that. But yeah, I can see that LA's still obviously notorious, right? 

Herbie: But I, I think I would die if I was in New York and had to drive. That's the city where I have to just Uber, I'm gonna save up. I don't know so much money just knowing that, let me just Uber because I don't if, if. Look at the camera at this one. If you are in New York and you're driving props to you, more power to you, because I can only imagine the stress that you go into. I hope you, you live many more years. Yeah. Just from the stress on that alone. 

J.R.: Yeah. Either that or they just get used to the high blood pressure and that's normal now.

Herbie: Yeah. It's like being Filipino when you have high blood pressure and you just live with it. 

J.R.: Yeah. Just living with it. [00:08:00] Yeah. I feel that. Okay, cool. Any other clarifications? Otherwise we can go into main topics. 

Herbie: Oh yeah. Let's get it, let's get into it. 

J.R.: Sweet. Okay. As we always start off where did you grow up and what were your biggest influences?

Herbie: So I grew up in San Diego, like I said earlier like 

J.R.: born and raised. 

Herbie: Born and raised, San Diego, Meira Mesa. So Meira Mesa in comparison to up here in la It's basically like a Carson or maybe Cerritos, just a bunch of Filipinos in, in that city. There's a seafood city. 

J.R.: Yeah, 

Herbie: of course. So that's the 

J.R.: Filipino area.

Herbie: Yeah, so Mayor Mesa is a super Filipino, almost one of the smaller cities in San Diego. So everyone kind of gets to know each other sooner or later, especially if you go to the high school. You'll know everyone your first month. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: Just being there. A lot of my influences really was just my family growing up Filipino.

Not to add on more to the stereotypes, but it's too late. It's, yeah it's too late. We're already there. We already opened up [00:09:00] Pandora's Filipino box of goodness. Mm-hmm. But a lot of my influence really started off with my folks. I think just as a blank slate, you kind of just wanna receive what your, what mom and dad have.

So learning my own culture, even though I was born here, I was still trying to like, okay, what's it like to be Filipino in the homeland? And I would kind of like open myself to that. So I think that's what influenced just my personal character through our own culture. And then from there, kind of just seeing like, oh, what does my mom and dad like to do?

My dad usually like to sing karaoke and not to fill the stereotype, but it passed on to me as well too. So these just influences that might be stereotypical, but also I think just cultural facts. Filipinos enjoy imbued onto me and how I grew up, and I think that kind of just like influenced me to who I am today.

J.R.: A few questions. One what did your parents do for work? And then two, what did you mean [00:10:00] by or I guess, what are some of the hallmark staples of Filipino culture that you're referencing.

Herbie: So my dad very hands-on guy. He used to work for Sony, like back then. They had a plant here in San Diego where they would actually manufacture the TVs.

So he was like a, I don't know what the title, but some technician that like worked in the manufacturing plant there. Just really good at hands-on things as a technician. My mom was a school teacher in the Philippines. She was a teacher there for 20 years. Then came over here and then also taught school for about 20 years.

So she's just been in that teaching life throughout. So that was kind of their occupation. And then yeah, I mean, just culturally, what, basically what stereotype can I 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah. 

Herbie: Can I pick and choose from? 

J.R.: Because you mentioned you were like, oh, I wanna know my Filipino roots, heritage culture. And so through that exploration, I'm just curious what did you find are the pillars of the culture that you were just trying to look for?

Herbie: Oh, you know, what I [00:11:00] remember is some core memories. So aside from my parents, my uncle also worked for Filipino Airlines. And one of the benefits is like, when it's empty seats and free season, things of that sort, he was able to like hop on board as well as bring his family so dope. So usually like Christmas time or when it's just like summer and there's like open seats, he would bring the entire family.

J.R.: Wow. 

Herbie: So during just more 

J.R.: peak seasons. 

Herbie: You know, when there's just like those weird pockets of Yeah, yeah. Those pockets. So I would see them almost every year. 

J.R.: Dang. 

Herbie: And I think I was blessed to have that at a young age. I know not everyone is able to have those types of benefits, but it started off with the language because speaking English in the house, you know, cool.

And then when they came over and Filipinos are very playful. I was the youngest just growing up. Even amongst my cousins, I just so happened to be the, or in, in K-pop turns the mnet just growing up and you [00:12:00] know, they always like mess with you. So I had this competitive edge to like, what are you guys saying?

And that's how I slowly learned Tagalog is just trying to decipher, wanna say, because I wanted to know. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah. 

Herbie: Are you guys, what are you guys talking about? Me? You know, 'cause I'd hear my name and then like, Tagalog. Yeah. And I'm just like, all right, I need to figure this out. So each year became a growing step of learning the language.

And it started just from there, just learning the language. And it's benefited me because you go to any Filipino party and the aunties and uncles love you because you know how to speak the language. You know, not to compare, but they do compare. And that's, yeah. That's sometimes tough because I'm just like, that's not their fault.

If, if, you know, they Filipinos and Asians like always comparing kids, you know, it's, it's just a thing. 

J.R.: Yeah. It's 

Herbie: part of the 

J.R.: culture. 

Herbie: Yeah. It's one of those things, but I'm like, oh, I got the brighter end of it. 'Cause I can speak and they always compare [00:13:00] me. Like, they'll say something like.

And then I'm just like, yeah. I mean, I wanted to learn. And then culturally that helped to make me more curious about, okay, so this is the language. Okay, what else do we do? So there's like dances. My mom and dad showed me like folk dances, things of that sort. So even from a young age, I was just curious.

And oh, another great point is actually karaoke is what sustain my Tagalog. 

J.R.: Oh, okay. That makes sense. Yeah, 

Herbie: Because my dad would sing karaoke, but you know, you, it's so hard to keep a language if it's not consistent. Mm-hmm. The one thing that was consistent was my dad singing Tagalog. So I think that was the benefit to sustain it.

When my uncle wasn't here from the Philippines, I was able to just like sing karaoke with my dad. And then that kind of just like kept on going for the years. So that's a little touch on the culture to get back to the question. And it kind of just [00:14:00] expanded like more of what the culture is, how can I explore more from a young age, and then just taking it step by step year by year.

J.R.: Mm. Okay. I think that might explain a lot of, 'cause the future questions are related to, obviously we're gonna talk about like, dance, music, DJing, and so I guess that that connects the dots of why you have been drawn to these sort of fields. 'cause it's kind of in your culture, your DNA or whatever, right.

It's like in our, in our upbringing and then your connection to the language, it's kind of like how people learn Korean because they wanna sing k-pop songs. And so for you it's okay, well now I'm like sustaining my Tagalog because I'm like, you know, listening and learning and singing in Tagalog.

Herbie: Exactly. And some people like wanna learn Korean so they can understand what the K-Dramas are. 

J.R.: Oh yeah, of course. 

Herbie: Without having to read subtitles. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: Like when I watched anything Korean. I'm eating and I'm like, I need I can't eat because if I look down to eat, then I don't know what's happening.

J.R.: Yeah, exactly. Have you seen those like meme videos where it's like [00:15:00] you're watching anime and you're eating and you're watching, you look down all and it's like, oh, hello. Like, it, 

Herbie: it translate like Japanese to English, to English Japanese back and forth. I was like, oh, they're right. That's, that's a good meme.

Yeah, that's a good one. That's relatable to us. 

J.R.: Yeah, exactly. So it's funny because now I'll segue into the next question, because when I asked what your parents did, my brain is like, okay, well what, what does, what does your dad do? Like military or like what, like work as a like post office or something, because those are stereotypical roles.

But you mentioned that you started you know, towards medical field kinesiology, if I'm not getting that wrong. And then you pivot into an audio career. Could you walk us through the main inflection points or pivots that led you to have that like sort of path? 

Herbie: Yeah, so I think like any Asian, not even just Filipino family coming from a, from a different country, bringing over your family, you want the best for your kids, you know, and medical is one of the [00:16:00] quickest routes to, to get there.

So I think we all understand that, whether it's first generation, second, third in 

J.R.: terms of like financial stability, 

Herbie: financial stability, maybe even status because that might open up more doors for sure. Just in general. And e even talking, you know, like, hey, my, my son, my daughter is a doctor. A step pride of just, and I understand it from both ends where your parents just wanna be proud of you.

And there is, it's such a, you know, push and pull of like making your parents proud, but also trying to do things for yourself so that you know you can live for your own life, not just someone else. But I went into kinesiology, so that's physical therapy for people who don't know that subject, mostly all the Filipinos and Asians will probably understand what that is.

You know, and I, I was just going through the reins. I knew the importance of education because my mom was a teacher, but really it was a, it was just like a tough road. I think like just formal school [00:17:00] was just so black and white for me that it was tough to just like, I, okay, I, at the end of this test, cool, there's another test next week.

Okay. There's nothing there's no immediate result or reward that I was able to see. And I did that, you know, throughout my entire life. But just knowing that school is important, so still, like kids stay in school, that's something that I, even, even with my concept of like education, stay in school all the way until, until you can make adult decisions. 'cause that's, I think that's still a very important part of education. And then not until I got to that point of like, all right, am I doing kinesiology? Because I need to just follow what my parents were saying. And I was, and it was like mid physiology class where I was taking all of this stuff and I could just be like, I am not happy here.

There's some people I was looking left and right. I'm like, oh, I think they're made for this. I don't [00:18:00] know if I'm made for this. I didn't know that the body had this many things in it. I thought the body was just like, you know, here's a couple things. And then there's some people that I even talk to that goes into deeper medical.

I was like, I didn't know you had, you know, like the depths of DNA and things of that sort. So I give much respect and all the flowers to the people who've gone through the medical field. But I made that pivot because it was just, I felt I was in the wrong place. And from there, that's when I shifted and I was like, all right, let me just try something different.

I really like audio stuff. I don't know what exactly, but something audio related that seems interesting to me. And that was just my pivot point, you know? 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. Okay. Wait, so you were going to college for kinesiology did you finish or was it like mid college? Like Nope. And then you just kind of 

Herbie: Yeah, mid college.

Okay. Mid college didn't finish the, the [00:19:00] degree. And I was also supporting my parents as well too. Single child. Yeah, single only child. And they're, you know, they're from the Philippines, so it's not like they were here and built up. Like, wealth from their parents kind of deal. So I was the only child to help support them throughout the time as well too.

So that was also just like adult decisions I had to make. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: In order to just make life happen. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So then you basically just started working, I'm, I assume. 

Herbie: Mm-hmm. 

J.R.: And then how did you, could you connect the dots to, so you mentioned SeaWorld and Universal Studios, and then also the Late Night Madness Productions.

How did you find your way into there from the spirit of, okay, well, if I'm listening to you and I'm curious about this whole audio career, right? Could you walk us through your journey to where you are now? 

Herbie: Yeah. So I still remember this till this day. I randomly was just looking for, I, I, I don't even know what platform it was, but like, when you're looking for jobs, whatever website that [00:20:00] was I just typed in audio and see what would come up.

And then there was a job at C World. So the levels are like a one, A two, A three. Okay. A three is like stage hand. A two is audio assist, a one is audio engineer, and they were hiring for an A three. And 

J.R.: that's the lowest. 

Herbie: That's the lowest. You're basically doing grant work. You're, you're pushing crates and boxes of audio gear props, you know, so and so forth.

But I was like hungry to just like, oh, wait, let me figure this out. And I didn't necessarily have a audio background because obviously from medical I was like, what? What's a way where I can just learn but also get paid? So. School, you don't get paid until you get the job afterwards. So this was my way of gaining education at the same time getting a paycheck at the end of every two weeks.

So I went for the job. I did actually have a little DJ background, 'cause I already kind of started within that [00:21:00] timeframe of of turnaround. And I used all my dj, I was just making up stuff of how much audio I knew from like the DJ world into like audio. I was like, oh, I, I know this about music, you know, but this was all just self-taught, kind of, kind of, kind of things.

And then they brought me in interview and I didn't know they were gonna have an audio test. 

J.R.: Oh 

Herbie: yes. So they said, where they just wanna see where you're at, you know, for all the candidates. This was a room full of, you know, like a good number of people. I said alright, well here, here goes nothing.

So I went in test on, you know, test on the desk and I was just going through the questions. I'm like, oh, you know, I'm just gonna give it my best shot. I have no idea what, I'm just going to good college try. And then corner of my eye, I see one guy just get the test and then he went up to the the manager's like, oh, this is too much.

And then walked out and I'm like, [00:22:00] oh my gosh, what did I get myself into? So I still remember that moment and at the end of it, I failed the entire test, but they still saw the I guess like the the hunger. I had, you know, some kind of familiarity because I was a dj 'cause, and I think I kind of stood out because everyone's like in school for audio or in school for film, something of that sort.

And then I'm like, oh, a DJ. So that's the only thing I knew about that. And then they probably just needed bodies too to push stuff. And I was like, I'm so open to that. Got the job. Fast forward a little bit and. I found an A1 there at SeaWorld and he was like the smartest guy. So this is where I kind of acknowledge traditional learning versus almost apprenticeship.

'cause I just told the dude his name was Mark. I was like, Hey just fill me with knowledge. Like I don't know, just whatever it is. And he was such a smart guy. It's, [00:23:00] he would talk about audio almost in the scientific level where I'm like, this is all over my head, but just keep, I'll figure it out later.

Mm-hmm. Just, just keep, keep pouring and then I'll make use of it. So that's really what my origin story started going into. Audio worked my way up. A three, a two, A one became full-time there. And yeah, just. Shifted that here to LA now. So I'm at Universal Studios. My experience just carried over.

So that's kind of like how it started and where I am currently today. 

J.R.: Yeah. What's the work like, or the day-to-day when you do work at SeaWorld or Universal? Like what do you doing? 

Herbie: So dependent on where they have us I'll tell you SeaWorld, I had more hands on things because there was like video, there was also lighting.

And when they didn't have someone for that, I was like the guy who was just open to Yeah. I was like, oh they don't have a camera person. I'll do it. So I [00:24:00] learned a lot of my background just being open. Some people, like I'm an audio person, they just stay in that lane. 

J.R.: Gotcha. You were learning a lot more production stuff, like gen in general?

Herbie: Yeah, just at the very start I was super hungry to just learn. So, I was able to just pick up anything and everything that they threw at me because I was like, Hey, I'm new to this, but if you guys are willing to teach me. I'll do it. And they did. So I learned a lot of lighting, I learned a lot of increased audio.

Learning how to mix for bands. So every once in a while they'd have like a band a couple singers, things, all of that. Know how to mix them live. And then there's also like studio work, so anything media related. So kind of just like this podcast, like how do you edit it properly? What are the formats you know, so on and so forth.

So anything, at least at SeaWorld, I was just open to do that. They would let me do. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Herbie: And then Universal Universal's a little different. They have like more shows, or at least one show. Water World's the big one where you'll see if you get I don't know if you guys like [00:25:00] ever go to universal recently. Waterworld is the big like show. Show. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: And then there's like a bunch of other. Audio related things. I'm trying to think of what I can say without revealing behind the scenes 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: Things, but there's just like, 

J.R.: so you're involved in the productions of those, like things that they host?

Herbie: Yeah. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: So anything from like the Halloween stuff. Gotcha. The shows that happen throughout the year. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: And we are there for specific projects throughout the year. And yeah. And I also work a corporate job or not corporate job, but like a corporate meeting space, just setting up av. So I'm almost working three jobs if you, if I think about 

J.R.: it.

Oh, okay. So it's like a different sort of role. 

Herbie: Yeah. So like, 

J.R.: but they're all auto related 

Herbie: pretty much. 

J.R.: Okay. Yeah. Nice. 

Herbie: Yes. A lot of audio up here in LA 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. Well,

Herbie: I can just say that. 

J.R.: Yeah, of course. Yeah, that, that is what we're known for is a show business.

Let's see. So I guess before we pivot, I just wanted to ask if there's anything [00:26:00] from this topic. Advice, lessons learned, et cetera, for pursuing your audio career.

If you were to give your younger self advice or something, or someone who's coming up behind you. 

Herbie: If you can take extracurricular classes. So I think I was so focused on the medical field that I only did medical things.

If you're in college and you even have an inkling of like, oh, I want to do this.

I think just taking a audio class where just knowing definitions, I'll give you guys, I'll give you guys like a big clue. Every audio test, know what a graphic and parametric EQ is that's on every audio test. 

J.R.: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what those are. 

Herbie: Yeah. Like, you know what those are, but that's like, but just knowing.

Like those definitions. I didn't know those things. Like terminology, terminology, basic 

J.R.: foundational, 

Herbie: yeah, just basic school type things that would've helped, I think, to smooth out the process. So I would even tell my younger self Hey, just take a class. You don't have to take a degree. But at [00:27:00] the same time too, just know these things so you can smooth out the journey.

J.R.: So like, dive into the foundational stuff at the very beginning, at the very least, and then that'll set you up. 

Herbie: That's like dance as well too. 

J.R.: What? That's 

Herbie: crazy. 

J.R.: Okay, well that's a good segue. Now, dance and DJing, I suppose. Kind of similar topic, but I wanna jump off with this quote, which you said, I priest recommended me back into dancing and singing as a form of finding fulfillment because he knew I was Filipino.

That is a quote. So would you like to explain or elaborate on that? 

Herbie: Yeah. I'm gonna give a shout out. Shout out to father John. Father John Hopkins. So he actually said that I 2025, I think it's such meme worthy. I was watching one of your. Former episodes as well too, but 2025 was a tough year.

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: For many people. And I was included in that in that year. So I was going through some things and that's where this priest I was getting a lot of like spiritual direction moving forward in life. And he's a priest who is so [00:28:00] familiar with the world and he kind of just like, he's traveled just like the world and he kind of knew Filipinos as well too in our culture.

And he, and at that moment, that's where that quote came from because he like was asking me, what are some things that like, just make you happy. I told him like, I like to well I used to dance. I really like dancing and I kind of like to sing like maybe karaoke. And I kid you not, it was just like, oh yeah, you're Filipino.

It's in your, it's in your DNA. And I was like, okay, well I got the sign off. I guess I'm gonna be dancing. It's 

J.R.: a holy sign off. It was from a 

Herbie: brief, it's a holy sign off. So I'm like, all right, I guess I'm gonna be dancing. So if you guys see me in like dance classes and in karaoke all the time, there's a origin story right there.

There's spiritual 

J.R.: guidance. 

Herbie: The spiritual guidance. It's not just me dancing and singing. But yeah, that's where it started. Oh, 

J.R.: I see, I see. So I guess if it's different, how is your sort of DJ life separate or different or unique [00:29:00] from, let's say, just audio in general? 'cause I know you, you do that for like work and stuff like that, but is there a divide that you wanna emphasize for DJing?

Like your DJing life? 

Herbie: Yeah, so it's interesting 'cause DJing is more on the creative aspect. I would say audio is more on the, engineering side of making things sound good? 

J.R.: Okay. 

Herbie: So I actually, so I started DJing first. I think the timeline is dance dj, then audio in, in that order. I started in audio because DJs sounded really bad, not because of the music they were mixing, but a DJ quote is like, if you're not redlining you, you're not headlining, redlining, headlining, something like that.

But DJs would just turn up everything low mids highs gain, all these things because they just want to be louder to, you know, to please the crowd and loudness. And then in my ears, I was just like, do you not know how distorted everything sounds [00:30:00] right now? Because you just want things to be louder.

And that actually pushed me to learn audio engineering because I came across so many DJs who were. Pretty decent creatively, but just making the room sound good. That was almost foreign to them, or at least the ones who weren't interested in the audio aspect of things. So that's how I transitioned also to audio where I'm just like, I wanna be a good dj, but I also wanna sound good and know the 

J.R.: quality of the sound.

Herbie: Quality of the sound, right. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: So important because most people think oh, I like a lot of bass. No, you don't want a lot of bass. You want a full sound. So what does a full sound mean? It's balancing out the different spectrums within, like the EQ of the house. So that's how you kind of re you, you think like it's just a lot of bass.

No, it's just like a full full sound within what you're hearing as a guest. And that's the pivot I have of DJ World Audio World. 

J.R.: Mm. I like that you're combining these sort of separate disciplines or focuses mm-hmm. [00:31:00] And to make a better product. I guess my next question is, so you mentioned like residencies and gas lamp district and meeting other artists and whatnot.

How did you, or I guess maybe a better question is how do you approach being a good dj? So, I know you just mentioned the sound quality sort of experience, but, and you also mentioned that creative side of it. What do you think makes a good dj? Or like what type of DJ do you aspire to be? 

Herbie: Dang, this is, you know what, this is such an open-ended question that there's so many DJ podcasts that just go into greater detail and I can't refute any or, 'cause I kind of agree with, there's so many things like what makes a good DJ 

J.R.: bring us into your world?

Herbie: What I can say for me, because especially up here in LA, there's even more DJs compared to San Diego 'cause there's just more population. But what I always wanted to do, DJing was tie it back into dance. Get [00:32:00] people dancing. 'cause I danced first. The reason why I got into DJing is I wanted music to flow.

'cause at the time back in our day, we had a thing called the iPod Classic. What? And you would have to hit next. Nowadays we got Spotify and there's like a mix function. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Technology, man. 

Herbie: Technology 

J.R.: live in the future. 

Herbie: I know we're, we're in the Jetsons era. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: But back then, like I wanted our freestyle circles and just like dancing to just continue without having that break because it cuts down the energy.

So that's almost the foundation of like, how I kind of got curious about DJing. One of my buddies on on my dance team his name is Mikey shout out to Mikey. He kind of got me into the curiosity of DJing. I thought it was too hard because there's things called BPM and you have to match it in order to song to flow.

And I was. So I gotta do math. I hate math. I didn't get that Asian gene. 

J.R.: [00:33:00] Yeah. 

Herbie: But then, yeah I kind of got into, I kind of got into it more of just like, oh, okay, so this is what what it's like. And I appreciated DJs who did the same thing of how I purely started DJing is to get people to dance.

I think like for me, only I mean, what's a successful DJ to me is like having a dance floor able to dance. 

So whether you're a headlining DJ or someone who's a bedroom dj, I think you're successful if you can get the dance floor to move, even if you don't have dancers on the dance floor. But people are almost just like, 

J.R.: so to physically vibe with what you're doing, 

Herbie: physically, vibe with what you're doing, knowing what music is going to hit.

For that crowd, because you can have the same playlist, new crowd, and it could be a totally different, you know, vibe. So now you have to know how to okay, whip up a different set. But I think a successful DJ just knows how to [00:34:00] please the audience, but you can please yourself as a dj. I'm playing only my music.

You do that at home. But if you're DJing for public, you're doing this not just for yourself, but also for the crowd who's there to watch you. I think that's success for a dj. And I think that can span from any genre, any age, any starter or veteran status. 

J.R.: Okay. Yeah, I like that because it's, you're saying it the real main focus is really just to connect with the crowd, play something that they vibe with, they resonate with, depending on where you are the type of people and et cetera, and kind of reading the room and adapting and using your skillset to connect with them. But essentially, no matter how you do it, the main goal is to like, make the crowd happy.

To make the vibes immaculate. Right? 

Herbie: Oh, yeah. 

J.R.: The dance floor to, to move, like you said, right? 

Herbie: Yeah. Just get people moving. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Herbie: Mm-hmm. Because that's, you know, and that's my take on it. Yeah. You know, aside from that also just gaining the respect that other DJs, I [00:35:00] mean, you can, now's a whole different generation of social media and how that, you know, how that moves, who's going to DJ in a venue.

But I think those, that's the purest form for me. Also, getting the respect of your peers, you know, other DJs. 'cause I can say a lot of DJs respect me and I respect other DJs because of the skill sets that we're learning, whether it's used, you know, like scratching. Whether you use scratching or not, it's a skill set to still be good to learn.

Same thing with dancing, learn a foundational part of dancing, whether you use it for performance or not, it's still good to have. And I think there's a lot of respect gained from new dancers. Seasoned dancers when you just do the things that you need to do. 

J.R.: I like that. Kinda like if you wanna learn about a culture, try learning the language, right?

Herbie: Mm-hmm. 

J.R.: It's like going back to that. All right. I know there's a lot more we could dig into this topic, but I do wanna pivot because I like this next one as well, so we can always get back to it if there's a part two in the cards and [00:36:00] whatnot.

But so the topic three is grief, loss, breakups, et cetera.

So the first question I want to jump off with is you mentioned a lot of loss in your family recently, and then like aging parents, family health problems, et cetera. And I think this is a universal experience, right? As we get older we'll experience the same things. And you mentioned, and I'm quoting this like current generation, slowly turning into the next generation to hold the family mantle and basically be like the new heads of family.

Do you have any jumping off thoughts for those topics? 

Herbie: Yeah, I think in the last couple of years, COVID was also tough for everybody. You know, shout out to anyone who's lost someone and had to deal with that grief. We're all going to go through that one way or another. I think that was also just like a common ground that some people lost, some people didn't.

But it was one of those moments where it was for me, clear of our mortality and at least in my generation of me being like the, one of the younger cousins [00:37:00] and looking up to my other cousins, seeing them almost be the older ones. Their parents passed away many years ago and me kind of just like, oh, you know, I'm so grateful that my, my parents are still alive.

If people lost their mom or dad at a young age, it's very tough. And then for those who are, you know, dealing with that maybe more currently, you know, I think about these things because time is not promised. And this was, I think, maybe a good mis maybe even 10 years in the making that I started to have conversations with my folks about death.

And it was something where I told my mom, I was like, mom I wanna learn how to cook your sigal. It started off like that food, because I know there's gonna be one day when you're not gonna be here. And I wanna remember you by being able to have this on a winter night. So it started like just very casually like that.

[00:38:00] And then up in it, it's been years that we talk about this, you know, not like a sit down formal, but we would just like, toss out these little, like, Hey, you know, I know that we're both or like, we're all mortal. So even till today we talk about when their time passes and how I'm going to honor them just because of the food she's taught me to cook.

And I, and even now I'm like, I cook better than my folks because 

J.R.: Nice. 

Herbie: Once they taught me that, now they just make me do everything for Thanksgiving. 

J.R.: You're getting those experience points. 

Herbie: It's the experience points, but they're like, oh yeah, that's why we had a kid. So that you can do all the work, kind 

of, 

J.R.: this is why we had you so you could do this stuff.

Herbie: I know. 

J.R.: Nice. 

Herbie: Do you have the same thing too? I feel like there's a lot of moments as we're transitioning from kids to adults, we're just like, oh, this is why our parents are just making us do stuff. 

J.R.: Yeah. I think that's the universal experience. 

Herbie: Yeah. 

J.R.: Yeah, no I totally agree with that, and I vibe with that.

There was a similar, not necessarily the same, but there's this [00:39:00] video I saw on Instagram and so with the whole thing with like, parents, right? 

Herbie: Mm-hmm. 

J.R.: Where it was P-O-P-O-V, your mom is showing you a funny Instagram video. I don't know if you've seen this. Right? And so like the, you can see the mom off screen, her arms coming into the frame.

Mm-hmm. And she's like, oh, son, look at this. Right? And he's like, mom, what is this? And he's looking, he's like, what? I don't understand, like, what is this? And he's like, annoyed at her for showing him like a. Quote unquote, like a dumb video. Right? And then he like looks to the right, the camera turns and he sees like a little boy version of himself.

And then his mom like old, like younger, right? And then the boy's holding up like a little drawing. And then the mom's like, oh, that's so great. I love it so much. And she's like, hugs the boy. And then she like smiles and looks over at him and then he's looking at the vision of his younger self and his mom.

And he starts crying and he's like, and then he said, looks back at his mom currently. And then he's like, oh my God, this is so funny. Ha ha ha. And so the whole idea of it, if I explained it well enough, is that like he's saying, yeah you know, we can disregard our parents, but then when you look back, when you were a kid, [00:40:00] they cherished everything that you did.

And so it's like paying back your folks or treating them with the same sort of kindness because you know, they didn't need to laugh at your jokes or they didn't need to appreciate like your art drawing, right? 

Herbie: Big circle of life. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: Circle of life, man. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. And so, and then, so this video was like really viral and all the comments were like, oh my God, I wish I would have reacted to like my dad's videos when he sent me like these funny things on Facebook, but now he can't send me anymore and I really wish I would have. Mm. And so all the comments were like that, and it was like, this isn't the best video you sent. Exactly. And so I was like, oh. And some of 'em were like, great, now I'm crying at work, or something like that.

But it's like a universal experience, you know? 

Herbie: It'd be like that. Like you, you're just trying to kill five minutes of time and then all of a sudden, like a heart wrenching meme makes you like, think and you're just like, oh no, I need to get back out on the floor or whatever I'm doing. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So I love that video. I'll link it in our, in the show notes, but I think it just was a reminder of you know, cherishing your parents and we have this theme of like, mortality and not taking those times for granted because there will be a time where you don't [00:41:00] have that moment to laugh at a dumb video they think is funny and you don't think is funny.

You might as well still, you know, like engage because they engaged with you when you're a kid. So, yeah. 

Herbie: And one thing too for, especially for your audience is, it might be such a tough topic to talk about, but I encourage everyone, I tell my friends this too, like, who are more so shy from the factors?

Like, start talking to your parents if they're, if you're blessed to have them start talking about death. You know, not in a morbid way, but in a way to appreciate and honor them, right? Because like JR said, like we don't know how much time we have and you don't want that time to appreciate them when they're gone already.

Because right now it's, we're abundant to have the seconds, the minutes to be with our folks and tell them how much we love them versus when they've passed. And then we have to say, I love you to them in that moment. 

Yeah, I like that. Okay. I think we covered the next few questions. So now I want to go to breakups if you're [00:42:00] down.

So you mentioned, 

I mean, you know, we're just touching on just the easy topics right 

J.R.: now. Yeah. Super easy. So I know you mentioned moving to LA and from SD because of a relationship and then kind of testing the waters and the relationship, the values, goals, morals, et cetera, to see if there are alignments.

Long story short didn't work out, but do you have any thoughts or ideas or wanna walk us through what you've learned or that sort of experience? 

Herbie: Yeah, so I'm gonna talk generally because not about the relationship. Yeah. Because I think it's nothing that's relevant. Yeah. It's also like, I think un unfair to have one side of the coin without the other because we both still have love and respect for each other.

And I think that was one of the points that I was thinking about reflecting upon this is just like, what is true love? True love is like willing the best for the other, so I really wanna get this right. But yeah, I moved up here to LA to, you know, make a life with her. And just like many relationships, like that's life.

Life is going to show [00:43:00] you sharp turns that you didn't expect. Maybe you've planned for things. 

J.R.: Question. So she was in LA from LA or 

Herbie: she's Yeah, she's from la I was in San Diego. 

J.R.: Gotcha. 

Herbie: Made, makes sense to not have a two hour drive versus, you know, yeah. 

J.R.: Long distance, right? Yeah, 

Herbie: long distance. But I'll focus on like the positives of the outcome of things, what I've learned, because that's tying back into that priest moment.

I was like leading towards spiritual direction during that time of okay not knowing and that's why I started dancing, all that stuff. But a few points is just seeing. Where our paths were going. I think it becomes a lot more real when you become serious with your relationship of like, okay, how are we going to make this a forever relationship work?

Some people could just be in a very long honeymoon stage. Some people can just kind of ride the flow. But there's always going to be a point whether people get married or not. It's going to be a [00:44:00] point of just like, all right, are we going to make our situation work? You know, so whatever people have there for their relationship, this is kind of just what I went through.

And then from there it's knowing that, okay, I'm doing things a certain way. She's doing things a different way. What is also my family background? What is her family background? What is the things that we enjoy separate together? What are all these values? Because now I'm speaking about my relationship is like.

It's not one is right or wrong, but it's just like, is this going to fit together? And if it doesn't fit together, that's where it has to come to a moment of, if it's not fitting together, we both need to work together in order to make things fit. But if not, then going back to what I said earlier, like love, true love is willing the best for the other and mutually having that tough decision of just like, there's gonna be heartbreak, [00:45:00] but I really love you enough to let you go.

And I think that's such, it's such a kdr, almost very Asian Chinese film kdr, you know, kind of trope. But it is one of those things. And that was what I was going through 2025 last year and jumping into dance and jumping into karaoke because that's what filled my cup. 

J.R.: Yeah, no, definitely. I think that's a kind of a necessity, right?

To jump into the things that you enjoy, especially at the tail end of a breakup to like kind of. Recenter who you are as you change your identity from someone who is in a relationship to a single person. Because every change of identity hurts. For that sort of reason.

Though I will say, I guess a weird caveat I never really touched on with people on this show about relationships is I think it does take a certain strength to move on from a relationship in a healthy way.

Right? Yeah. Not a toxic way, but because it's so easy to be complacent to just like familiarity and to stay in a relationship that's not good for both parties. But I think, like you said, if you [00:46:00] really care about someone being able to move forward, like separate from them is a tough decision that it's not easy to make, but I think if it's the right one, it's the good thing to do.

Herbie: Yeah. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: I always think of the Chinese films and just k-drama each time. Mm-hmm. Like even as I was reflecting upon this, like the self-sacrifice of maybe what they want, what you want, but it is such a hard decision sometimes. I think it's harder to leave someone you love versus ave relationship that goes up in fires and fury. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: Because you can just like, I'm done with this. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: But I think the hardest ones are the ones where there's just like ending with love. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Herbie: Such a weird little, 

J.R.: yeah. No, because I think the reason why I want to bring that up is 'cause to juxtapose it with a lot of this ego centered decision making, which is like, I just want what I want, or I want to make this work.

Or you're staying in this sort of bad relationship because of ego as opposed to, because you care about the other person is different. Obviously everyone's situation's different. 

Herbie: Oh yeah, yeah, 

J.R.: Okay. If you're fine with that, I know we have, of course we could talk for [00:47:00] hours, but let's go to rapid fire.

Herbie: We could probably talk for hours, 

J.R.: but Yeah. I, we didn't get through this in a pre-recording, but were there any specific rapid fire questions you want to touch on? Otherwise, it's gonna be Omakase Chef's Choice and I'm just gonna go through it. 

Herbie: I'm here for the chef. 

J.R.: Sweet. Okay. First one billboard question.

If you could put up a sign for millions of people to see, what would it say? Non-commercial metaphorical. 

Herbie: Fill your cup so your cup overflows and you can pour into others. 

J.R.: Nice. And make a mess. 

Herbie: And make a mess. Just, 

J.R.: just kidding. What is one of the hardest challenges you face and what did you learn from it?

Herbie: I think this last relationship wow. 2025. Such a meme year of just everyone going through something. But I think, yeah, just going through a relationship, moving out from San Diego to la figuring out life and then seeing that it didn't work and then refiguring life. I think that was a hard challenge, especially because I was so foreign to everything.

And then now it was one of the hardest but best [00:48:00] things that happened to me because it showed my own grit. Especially like hop, you know, I have my whole safety net in San Diego. 

J.R.: Yeah. You're outside your comfort zone, so you're growing. 

Herbie: Yeah. So here I'm. I gotta make friends. And I made so many friends just in this last year 

J.R.: at the ripe old age of 21, right 

Herbie: At the ripe old age.

You're 21. I'm just 20. I'm almost there. That's right. I can't buy alcohol yet. That's 

J.R.: True. Yeah. Definitely self-inflicted wound. Do you have a story about something that's gone wrong and you can't blame anyone else? 'cause it's your own fault? 

Herbie: So, I mean, we touched on grief, but there was like another moment where one of my mentors passed away.

His name is Vince. And he passed away in like a tragic way. But in that moment I wouldn't call it a self-inflicted wound, but it did hurt because there was, there, we kind of like grew up where in the DJ scene and he was helping me. And then he knew how to mix. He didn't know how to scratch. I [00:49:00] learned how to scratch and he saw me kind of just put in so much work on learning this foundation.

I remember the one phone call, he was just like, Hey bro I've been seeing you like grinding, just like learning how to scratch from the start. You're getting really good. And I remember that phone call and from there I just thought Hey dude, yeah, I'll teach you how to scratch. He was my mentor.

So now I'm like, dude, the student has now become the, the teacher. And then I thought I had all the time in the world, a couple, I think two or three months passed. He passed away and that was the one regret that I wish I just taught him how to scratch. It seems so like simple. But that's the one thing that I still reflect on.

And I wouldn't call it a self-inflicted wound, but it's like a wound where I thought I had time. 

J.R.: More like regret than self-inflicted wound. Gotcha. Makes sense.

If you could give your younger self advice or best words of wisdom that has impacted you the most. 

Herbie: Take those audio classes, what you said earlier.[00:50:00] 

J.R.: Nice. That's good. 

Herbie: Yeah. 

J.R.: In the last few years, what new belief, behavior or habit has improved your life?

Herbie: I would say fill your cup. I think that's what I've been riding on since last year. Focus on filling your cup, because even if you wanna give or care for others, you cannot do it if your cup is empty. 

J.R.: What is filling your cup? Like how would you define that? 

Herbie: So actually just dancing and singing.

So sounds so basic. Maybe even when I say it out loud, 

J.R.: what does that mean for someone else? 

Herbie: For someone else? Like 

J.R.: if you're telling someone else, fill up your cup, they're like, what does that mean? 

Herbie: We do the day-to-day things, but what are the, what's the one thing that just makes you happy, joyful?

Finding the light at the end of the tunnel. Life is always going to throw darkness. Life is going to throw challenges, but what are the things that get you to that next step? For me, it was dancing. For me, it was singing, you know, it's like I had a tough day, but I could like freestyle in my room and I would feel so much [00:51:00] better.

And from there my cup was filled. For someone else, it could be just like maybe cooking a nice dinner for themselves. Maybe it's reflecting on a spiritual book. Maybe it's just like 10 things that positive people do like those types of self-reflecting books, but everyone's different on how they fill their cup.

I think that's also part of the journey of what actually fills your cup. Finding 

J.R.: that, right? 

Herbie: Yeah. Finding that things if you don't know what fills your cup. I think that's the first part. First part. 

J.R.: Yeah, exactly. I got, I get you. So it's connect with and do things that energize you, make you happy, make you feel joyful.

Plug yourself in, charge your battery. 

Herbie: Mm-hmm. 

J.R.: And that'll set you up for the next thing. Yeah. 

Herbie: And maybe even to add on is just like in the multiple steps of things, like what fills your emotions your body physically, like being healthy. What fills your social cup, what fills, you know, your spiritual cup, whatever faith, religion that you have.

J.R.: Different areas. 

Herbie: Different areas. So not just like maybe a literal one cup but even taking in multiple steps of what cup needs to be [00:52:00] filled. Maybe even. 

J.R.: Yeah. I like that because it's, you know, the general areas of like your fitness, your finances, your career, your relationships, your spirituality, et cetera, like the basics.

Fill those up, make sure those are full, as full as you can. And if you focus on that, you'll, your car, your engine will run better, right? 

Herbie: Yeah. 

J.R.: How do you define success?

Herbie: I always valued having really great people around me. I was always shy. Some people may not think I'm shy. But I think when you have just good friends, like a tribe, community person that came into mind is like Manny to be Filipino again. Racist, 

J.R.: kidding, racist. So Filipino, 

Herbie: I'm profiling 

J.R.: this guy is referencing the goat, the goat, the Filipino goat.

Herbie: And what I was thinking about actually is it's not because of the titles he's had in boxing or like the money he's made, but what he did back in the Philippines of just like building communities, homes, things like that. What he did with 

J.R.: his success, 

Herbie: what he did with his success, and [00:53:00] then even just how he lived his life, like going up to those challenges like he had people, friends, family, you know, like his best friend was like part of his team. I think that that's like true value, at least for me, is just having people like that money is gonna be the necessity of life. If you have more cool, you can provide things, but I think having friends who really love and will stay there for you, it's, it, you can't necessarily buy true friendship.

I mean, you might buy friendship in a, in a superficial way, but I think yeah, people are just so valuable. 

J.R.: What is something that separates the younger version of you from the current version of you?

Herbie: Age and energy.

J.R.: So you're doing math now? 

Herbie: Yeah. Well, I thought about like my younger self. I used to just whatever I'm doing, so whether it was dance or school or things like that, I [00:54:00] would just, you kind of just spray and pray that something would happen. I think the current self now aims for the target and then shoots versus my former self.

I, I, and I see it so much being in, you probably see it too and the K-pop scene where like we're around like all these younger dancers, they just have so much energy 

J.R.: mm-hmm. 

Herbie: And 

J.R.: energy. Who is she? 

Herbie: Who is she, what's energy? And then I could see myself sometimes in that where, oh, look at all that energy for days where you actually don't need all that energy.

You could just aim a little bit better and then hit the target. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: So that can go in all sorts of directions, whether it's dance or just life or what you're doing day to day. 

J.R.: That makes sense. So more precise with your energy. 

Herbie: Mm-hmm. 

J.R.: What is something you've been pondering recently or something you often think about deeply?

Herbie: All the people that I've recently met in la, how are things going to connect with everyone that's come into my circle? So I've met some de new [00:55:00] DJs, some new dancers and just everyone connected in those worlds. And I've just been thinking about, because you know, this is just me coming in from San Diego to LA. And I've been kind of trying to mold like my dance and DJing world and I'm just curious of just like how everyone is going to just come together in the future.

I don't know what that is, but that's something that I've always been like thinking about these past few months of, oh, I just met some great people. I wonder when they're gonna meet this other group. Great people. 

J.R.: Oh, I see. 

Herbie: I wonder if something's gonna come fruitful for them. Like, okay, you have a podcast.

I wonder if the next guest is someone that I can offer on this podcast. So just intertwining things I've been curious to see. I don't know what the result is, but I feel like something, this is gonna happen. 

J.R.: Favorite hot take or something you think most people won't agree with?

Herbie: Hmm. What will people not agree with? [00:56:00] Or 

J.R.: Something that you think is true, but maybe most mainstream people might not believe it? 

Herbie: I don't know. What's a what's, oh gosh, I haven't thought, I haven't thought about this one. What's a hot take? 

J.R.: We can pass. 

Herbie: I wanna say something at least. Pineapples don't go on pizza.

I, I don't know if that's even a, a hot take. 

J.R.: I think my last guest just said they like pineapples and pizza. Oh, for real. That was the hot take. Oh. 

Herbie: So funny that, okay, so now you can maybe clip those together. Yeah. There you the verses. 

J.R.: Yeah. My podcast is so controversial. 

Herbie: Controversial pineapples.

J.R.: Favorite recent purchase in the $50 to $100 range that has impacted your life the most in the last six months or so? 

Herbie: Liquid vitamins. 

J.R.: Oh yeah. 

Herbie: So we all have like regular pill vitamins. My roommate talked about liquid vitamins where they kind of hit faster. And I've been using them like vitamin B complex, after work when I'm like tired. Yeah. It's like an eight hour day or, 

J.R.: Oh, this for energy. 

Herbie: For Yeah, for energy. Because [00:57:00] you're old. 

J.R.: You set yourself up. 

Herbie: I don't, that's so that was a self-inflicted wound. Going back to the last question. But no, it's, it's, it's true. I was like, I'm trying to, I'm trying to hang around like these youthful dancer kids. Um. 

J.R.: Have you tried sleep? 

Herbie: It depends on if I drank too much coffee the day before. So this is how I balance everything. Sorry, a liquid vitamin. 

J.R.: Yeah. Sorry. Do you recommend a specific type or brand or whatever, or just ingesting your energy, 

Herbie: Whatever is on Amazon Prime. And especially when it's Prime day.

J.R.: Do you know what it's called? Or like. 

Herbie: I have it somewhere, but Okay. It, that's fine. Yeah. Somewhere on Amazon. Just look on Amazon and general, you'll see whatever's the highest rated something for something like that. Go for that. But it's actually helped me right after work.

I'll take a couple drops of B complex. I actually have enough energy to take a dance class or two, so that's actually how I, by 

Wow at your 

J.R.: age, that's crazy. Wow. I that's Jesus material. That's Jesus water, man. Cool. Last question. Any favorite books, [00:58:00] movies, videos, articles, or any media that you share or recommend the most?

Herbie: A couple books that I read personally. The, this last year book called Un Offendable by Brand Hansen. I'd recommend that to anyone just you know, in the world there's a lot of things you can get offended by, so this is a way to kind of take a lighter things. There's a touch on like a Christian approach to it, but it's actually very practical.

This one's for the guys, The Men We Need also by brand Hansen.

It's kind of just like, in this society, like what is masculinity? What is, what's a healthy way of going about that. Also for relationship like that, now that we kind of talked about my story, like that was something that I was reflecting upon.

So those two books really helped me last year.

Movies, I wrote down a list of 'em because if you guys haven't been able to tell by 

J.R.: Wow. I 

Herbie: like by, by the merch.

J.R.: I like your sweater, man. For audio only listeners, he's wearing a one piece sweater. This says one piece cafe, which I approve of. 

Herbie: One piece. 

J.R.: One Thousand gurus always approves of one piece merch.

Herbie: Yeah. So one piece live [00:59:00] action JR is a deeper fan, but like I, I started with the live action. So it's pretty good. It's, it's good. Super solid. So I would say isn't season 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: Two coming out. 

J.R.: It's either out or coming out, something like that. 

Herbie: Coming out like real. Yeah. 

J.R.: Probably. See, I'll watch it eventually.

I'm not in a rush. 

Herbie: You're not. 

J.R.: I know what happens, 

Herbie: you know, you know the lore. 

J.R.: I know what happens, 

Herbie: But you know, the actual, 

J.R.: It'll be great. Great. I'm looking forward to, I love, sorry, tangent. I love all the media that comes out with the live action cast. People are always in the comments like, dude, these are like the actual characters pulled into reality.

And I love that because they're dynamic, their vibe, their personalities are so amazing. It makes diehard one piece fans like myself, so happy to see that they actors like really embody the characters and they're really genuine and they like love each other as friends and they're like, dynamic and vibes are so super fun.

It's so great to see that. It warms my heart. 

Herbie: Yeah. It was so weird because I was like, wait, how did they cast even off? Off? Off the show, just behind the scenes. I was like, this is way [01:00:00] too exact of how they are. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Herbie: I don't even know one piece like that, but this is way too, 

J.R.: no, it's way 

Herbie: too good.

J.R.: It's one of the only like enemy live actions that have had so much success. And I say it's because or I've seen people say it's because the people who are involved in the production of season one were fans, whereas mm-hmm. In other live actions, it's just, they're just people doing an anime live action.

But in this one it's you can tell the showrunners, the producers, the actors, they're all love. They love the spirit of it. And that's why it becomes a good product. And I think that's probably a takeaway, right? 

Herbie: Yeah. Yeah. When you have a group of people who just love 

J.R.: Yeah, exactly 

Herbie: what the goal is, 

J.R.: they want to bring the spirit of it into this medium.

Herbie: Perfect. Okay. Perfect world. 

J.R.: Cool. Is that it? 

Herbie: I listed other things that I just remembered from Netflix. Fallout. I like Fallout. Alice in borderlands. Sweet home. Young Sun Creature. Business proposal. I was like I had to put some Korean stuff in here because I was just like, you know, we're here with JR.

So both of us are Jesus. 

J.R.: I dunno, 

Herbie: what 

J.R.: about me 

Herbie: making career? The [01:01:00] Kpop, the K-pop master. So I'm learning from this guy, or I will be learning from this guy. 

J.R.: Okay, man. Cool. All right, well let's wrap up. I don't wanna go too much over time, so we'll go into ending questions.

So gratitude Herbie, what are you grateful for?

Shout out to my mom taught me this. 

Herbie: Especially for this last year, trials and hardships.

Trials and hardships really mold you and they molded me this last year. I don't think we should stray away from them. We should look forward to how we're growing within those moments because at the end of it, you'll look back and be able to say, I did it.

J.R.: Love it. Any final ask from the audience or any final takeaways you'd like them to have from this conversation? 

Herbie: Keep watching One Thousand gurus follow all the platforms. Follow me on IG isolator beats. I'm not on social media as, as often. I'm, I just like being the guy who's just within everyone else in this world of social media, and I just like being friends with everyone.

J.R.: Nice. Cool. Well, that answers my next [01:02:00] question, which is where can people find you? So if they wanna check you out or see what you're up to. Just Instagram? 

Herbie: Yeah, pretty much Instagram for right now. And then you'll see more future things. Whatever I'm doing, whether it's dance, DJ related some type of event production you'll see stories and reels for the most part.

J.R.: Cool. All right. Thank you again, Herbie so much. I appreciate it. This was a great conversation. I know we have a lot more to talk about, so part two, very likely in the cards.

So I will do my final sign off.

Thank you already for plugging. You heard it from him. You should follow One Thousand Gurus.

Like follow, subscribe, share five stars on every platform that you're listening to this to. Reminder to always be kind to other people, especially yourself.

And remember that you can always learn something from someone if you take the time to listen. So thank you guys for being here.