When Molly Blakely of Molly B's Cookies talks about sticking it out, you know it's not just sugar-coating the hard truths of life. Her tales of tenacity have us ruminating on the Chewbacca family's mantra—'never give up, never lose'—and how this steadfast attitude is baked into every facet of our lives. You'll hear heartfelt anecdotes that prove resilience isn't just for overcoming childhood bullies or bad days at the office; it's a legacy we pass down, infusing our daily choices with the power to triumph over life's half-baked challenges.
Our dialogue takes an earnest turn as we chew over the reality that the road less traveled is often littered with skepticism and setbacks. A nugget of wisdom from a mentor lays out the stark choice we face every day—to settle into mediocrity or to stand tall in the pursuit of our goals. This episode is more than a pep talk; it's an invitation to join a lineage of unwavering leaders and experts who recognize that failure isn't in the loss, but in the forfeit. Let’s embrace that second wind and press on because, as we discover together, the sweetest victories often require the most determination.
When Molly Blakely of Molly B's Cookies talks about sticking it out, you know it's not just sugar-coating the hard truths of life. Her tales of tenacity have us ruminating on the Chewbacca family's mantra—'never give up, never lose'—and how this steadfast attitude is baked into every facet of our lives. You'll hear heartfelt anecdotes that prove resilience isn't just for overcoming childhood bullies or bad days at the office; it's a legacy we pass down, infusing our daily choices with the power to triumph over life's half-baked challenges.
Our dialogue takes an earnest turn as we chew over the reality that the road less traveled is often littered with skepticism and setbacks. A nugget of wisdom from a mentor lays out the stark choice we face every day—to settle into mediocrity or to stand tall in the pursuit of our goals. This episode is more than a pep talk; it's an invitation to join a lineage of unwavering leaders and experts who recognize that failure isn't in the loss, but in the forfeit. Let’s embrace that second wind and press on because, as we discover together, the sweetest victories often require the most determination.
Welcome back to Stand. You're with Kelly and Josiah Chewbacca today. We just had a great discussion with Molly Blakely of Molly B's Cookies. You can find her at mollyb'scom.
Speaker 2:
I was really B-Z, b-z.
Speaker 1:
B-Z. Thank you, josiah. I was really inspired by how Molly was talking about perseverance and not giving up, and it reminded me of a conversation that you and I were having earlier this week about how important it is, as a family value of ours, to never give up. Remember that conversation.
Speaker 2:
That one I do remember. Yes conversation.
Speaker 1:
That one I do remember, yes. Well then, I'm glad that more than one of us is not having memory issues anymore. So I remember a conversation kind of centered around one of your friends, sort of wanting, wanting to kind of feel out how, what the process was to become a member of our family, like how do you get adopted into the Chewbacca family? And you were running through family values. So tell us that story yeah.
Speaker 2:
So I was talking with one of my friends. He's 17 but he's younger than me, so I'm going to turn 18 before he does. We'll just give him a shout out. His name's Josh Pack. He's a great guy. So I was joking around about how I was gonna adopt him and his younger brother, david david's like 13 and they're just, we're friends, we're all, we're all in the friend group, they're great guys.
Speaker 2:
And I was like I'm gonna turn 18, I'm gonna adopt you guys and you're gonna be chabacas. And I said but you know, being being a chabaca is more than a name. And I told them you know, when you're being a Chewbacca is more than a name. And I told them you know, when you're Chewbacca, you're, you become two things. You got to have two core, integral values. I told them number one is Chewbacca is never give up. Number two is Chewbacca is never lose. And so I explained to them Chewbacca is never give up. That's pretty simple and easy. I remember when I was like three and I told you like I wanted to give up or I was gonna quit, something like, and it was something super stupid. It was like I was like playing like lego batman on the wii and like couldn't figure out one of the levels, and so I was like I quit as in, like I'm gonna go do something else now, I'm gonna come back and try and figure this level out later.
Speaker 1:
And you were like no, jabaka's never quit the only mom ever who says you have to play video games.
Speaker 2:
Yeah right, like no, jabaka's never give up. And for some, for me, for some reason, that just really stuck with me and I just remember you really hammered that into denali and I just growing up throughout like our whole childhood, like jabaka's never give up, jabaka's never give up, jabaka's never quit, quits not in your vocabulary. You don't get to quit, keep going at it, keep it. So. Like there's this uh, I don't know if you know this meme, but there's this meme where you're talking to me like I don't know what a meme is.
Speaker 1:
No, I don't know.
Speaker 2:
No, I don't know if you know this meme oh, thank you it's a it's. This guy goes never back down, never what. You ever heard that? No yeah, I see, you know that meme so yeah, so the guy goes never back down, never what.
Speaker 2:
And the team goes never give up. And so it's like you know, the team like doesn't want to do it. But then the one guy's just like super intense, never back down, never why. And I'm like and that's 100% me, because, like for me, like it's not a joke, like for me, like I go to my friends and I'm like y'all never back down, never won. They're like that's not even funny, bro, and I'm like no, say it, like never give up. So I told them listen, you can't give up, chewbacca's, don't give up, chewbacca's, don't quit. It's that value of perseverance and resilience and I would say it's the thing that's made me most successful thus far. Easily is just learning how to not give up, because you know, like they don't give, they don't give phds to the smartest students.
Speaker 1:
They give them to the most stubborn it's like, can you sit in your seat? And stubbornness. Exactly actually the same value. It's the same size of two sides, the same coin.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's right yeah, and then chewbacca's never lose. I told them like, look, your mindset's got to be you know, we don't. We don't always win. So I don't want people to hear me wrong Chewbacca's don't always win, but we never lose, because winning isn't always up to you. It's not always your choice to win, but you are the only person who can choose to lose.
Speaker 1:
That's a mindset. Losing is a choice, that's a good point.
Speaker 2:
Losing is, quite frankly, I gave up. I didn't stick with it, I didn't put my best in, I lost. There's something wrong with me. This one's on me. Winning is listen. The other person was just better and I just got to improve, or hey like.
Speaker 1:
I ran out of time. I ran out of time.
Speaker 2:
Things didn't shake out the way I thought they would. That's totally fine, but you don't ever lose and it's like I remember like playing soccer growing up as a kid and I remember like the most embarrassing thing was because we lost almost every single soccer game, regardless of which team I was on right and almost every single game you know. Soccer coaches can be so mean, sometimes it's funny, but they would come up to be, come up to us and be like y'all, that team was hot trash, they did not win.
Speaker 2:
Y'all lost, y'all lost that game. That team didn't win, you guys lost. And so it's this difference between not losing it's not the same thing as always winning. You can't always win, but you can never lose. You can choose to not lose, exactly.
Speaker 1:
I like your sports metaphor because that's where I learned it. So I grew up playing competitive softball and at one point was on our team that led Alaska to nationals for softball. I think I was 11 and your grandma would often give me feedback, and she was a tough coach. Like you said, soccer coaches aren't always nice. Grandma wasn't always nice, but she was a good coach and she would give me feedback just along those lines that that team didn't win, you lost, which isn't a reflection on how the score came out. It's a reflection on how you played the game.
Speaker 1:
So, you can come up short on score, but play a winning game Like you. You left it all on the field.
Speaker 1:
You played your heart out, you played your best, but they outplayed you, which means that you just played up. So she would intentionally put me on the field with players that were a lot better than me, so that I would have to play up. And so I often, you know, got outscored, got outpitched. Somebody would outbat me, but I would. My skills would get better and better so that when I then played with the girls my age, I was much better than them, because I was always in a situation, if you will, where I was being outplayed but I wasn't losing because I would just remember what she was coaching me.
Speaker 1:
She's like I'm intentionally putting you in way above your level. Don't let the score or how, how the count is coming out, get into your head. It's a mindset and instead remember that you're here to play up, like you're here to increase your level. Then, when you get into your own league level, you're going to be much better because you've been hitting balls that are being pitched faster, people are throwing faster, people are running faster, so you have to play at that level. It's a mindset shift, right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you only lose when you give up. I would say, if I were to put a definition on it for our audience up, I would say, if I were to put a definition on it for our audience, I would say losing is the act of willingly and intentionally seeding victory. It's allowing the other person to win, giving it over in order to not lose. It's just that, that. Stick with it, you know I'm not going to give up.
Speaker 2:
I'm going to keep playing. I mean it's happened to me before. I mean we were doing. We were doing a event in this building that we're in with the studio right now, where I was on a team and we had to do this like super intense, like two hour long scavenger hunt, relay race thing, and about halfway through it looked like our team wasn't going to make. It, looked like we weren't going to win. We had messed up and all the other guys on my team wanted to quit and give up and I said no never give up.
Speaker 2:
I said never back down, never what. And and and guess who ended up winning that?
Speaker 1:
another team. No, our team ended up winning.
Speaker 2:
We ended up winning because we didn't concede the victory. So it's a lot of people, I think, will try to really shame you for being persevering. A lot of people will tell you you know it's over, give up. What are you doing? You're foolish, you can't win, you're being stupid. And they will really come after you and I would say that's just part of that's just part of that mental game. Part of that mental game is you know, even if they're right, you know, even if they're right, I I don't care, because I know if I give up, if I concede defeat, if I let the other people win, then I definitely lose.
Speaker 2:
But, as long as I hang in there, there's even the slightest chance that I might win. Then I'll take that.
Speaker 1:
I had a mentor tell me something similar early in my career which I thought was really valuable and helped shape this mentality.
Speaker 1:
He had said yeah, part of the victory in finishing well, so finishing your career well, finishing your performance well, any job, anything is just choosing to not quit.
Speaker 1:
If you look around at any career field, whether it doesn't matter what it is, you see this major dip off in people in the middle age sector of their career. And he said it's because people just choose to opt out, they choose to quit, and so we see a falling off of subject matter experts and industry leaders, mentors, people who can lead and pave the way, because people quit and they opt out. And he said the only person who can make that choice fundamentally is you and the people who choice fundamentally is you and the people who, if you go and you ask really successful people, the champions, the people who make the biggest difference, have the biggest influence. They'll say exactly what Molly said, exactly what you're saying I just chose to not quit. It's just a daily choice to not give in to discouragement, to despair, to the cacophony of mediocrity around you, saying come, be like us, keep your head down and it's said to continue to persevere and blaze forward. Now I'll tell you it also comes with a weakness, which is you never quit.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that sucks yeah.
Speaker 1:
And so we can pick up that discussion on the other side of the break. But this is, I think, a huge part of what it means to stand and we wanted to encourage our audience with that today. You're listening to Stand. You're on the show today with Kelly and Josiah Chewbacca, who's heading off to college and hit us up at standshoworg while you're on the break. Make sure to hit subscribe. Become one of our standouts. We'd love to have you join us and we'll see you on the other side of this break.