Jay Boykin (00:01.619)
Well, what is up everyone? I wanna welcome you to Just Human. And in this podcast, we explore what it means to live, to lead and to love fully as human beings. I'm your host, Jay Boykin. So glad that you're here. And in this space, we really believe that when you strip away all of the labels and all of the things that can divide us,
that what we really have is the ability to lean into our shared humanity. And so let's take a breath. We're going to dive right into it. I want to welcome to just human someone that I met in a very unusual way. And we're going to get into that in a moment, but Thibaut Edwards, how you doing my man?
Thibaud Edwards (00:54.668)
for having me this is this is fun I appreciate it I like the intro of the very unusual way it really was
Jay Boykin (01:00.863)
It really, really was. So, you know, I'm gonna start this off and then I'm gonna turn it over to you because you and I, prior to a few weeks ago, we did not know each other. We had never spoken to each other. And so describe to my listeners how that first interaction went down.
Thibaud Edwards (01:27.467)
Ha
was on a peculiar journey to get myself out of a comfort zone where I basically approached strangers on the internet and asked them to have a 10 minute phone call with me about absolutely nothing in particular, just meeting somebody new and Jay was one of those people. I came across his Instagram account and...
was like, okay, let me reach out and see if he'd be willing to hop on a 10 minute call. And yeah, that's kind of how it happened. man, it's been great. It is funny when you say that, like, I would not, we would not have known each other. And before that, we just didn't, we didn't know each other. Now it feels like, well, of course I know Jay. Like, yeah, we had a great conversation. it's just a...
Jay Boykin (02:21.727)
We really, yeah, we really did. And I have to share with all of you that when that message popped up on my Instagram account, so we all get those. No matter what your social media platform of choice is, we all occasionally get those random messages. And it's typically someone who's trying to figure out a way to hack us.
or someone who is trying to figure out a way to get in our wallet. But the thing that was so funny to me is that Thibaut approached this in a very humorous way. He made a comment about, I'm not trying to sell you essential oils, which really made me laugh out loud because
You know, my wife loves essential oils. We've got them all over the house. And so I said, you know what? I'm going to, I'm going to go ahead and respond to this and see where it goes. So, I'm really glad that we did. And so T-bo you sort of challenged yourself with this meeting 100 people in 100 days. Tell my listeners what inspired you to do that.
Thibaud Edwards (03:41.94)
So I had kind of gotten into this space for several years really where I was just I didn't I avoided communicating with people I avoided I definitely avoided the phone the phone was a big one where like absolutely not because on the phone I Couldn't get I could get a read on people I didn't know if I I still had their attention or not and I was I was I got really insecure about that
And I started to just avoid interactions, even if they came my way organically, I would avoid them. I'm the guy walking around like, if I see people, I'll put my headphones in and basically wear a shirt that says, talk to me. That was it. And so was like, this is not good. It's not good for me personally. It's not good for me professionally. Like I've got to get out of this space. And I had tried things here and there, but nothing really stuck. Nothing was very, nothing was stuck.
So I was like, okay, you I gotta do something. And I literally woke up one morning at two in the morning and I said, a hundred people, a hundred days. And I was like, yeah, that's brilliant. Absolutely. And then I went back to sleep and then woke up later that morning and I said, heck no, no.
ridiculous. I'm not talking to 100 people in 100 days. Like how do I even get them? You know and so I was you know went back and forth and I was like now this really feels like something I have to do. Like I have to talk to 100 people in 100 days. I know it seems weird but I had to do it and and I was like you know what stop overthinking it because that's another thing that I needed to get over so I was like and just jump into it and and I did I think this was like a few days before February 1st and I was like that's
February 1st will be my start date. Makes it easy for me to count the days and that's it. And I just started to reach out to people and I kept track of it on Instagram more as a way of keeping myself accountable. And I just started. Day one, I had no plan ahead of time. I didn't try to line anybody up. I was like, all right, day one, I'm gonna start reaching out to people and tell people how it's going. And it took me six days before I got my first call.
Thibaud Edwards (05:48.844)
But then it just started rolling and I was excited about it honestly.
Jay Boykin (05:55.229)
Wow. So you said that it took you six days to line up your first call. So describe to people what that process was like and what your mindset was as you're, you know, I'm assuming that you're just like you did with me. You're just reaching out to people randomly on socials and asking them if they're willing to connect. So talk about that first six days. And did you get in a place where you thought,
Thibaud Edwards (06:01.037)
Yeah.
Jay Boykin (06:24.263)
Okay, this might be a bad idea.
Thibaud Edwards (06:26.126)
Funnily enough, did think that only the first day.
because it was, so like everything was very kind of instinctive with this. It was the opposite of how I typically operated. Like typically operated with a plan, I come in prepared, like I've got everything lined up and here I was like, no, I'm throwing myself in the deep end and we'll see what happens. And so the first day and I had in my mind, I was like, okay, a hundred people, a hundred days and
to have at least a 10 minute phone call. That was just like a number that popped in my head. At least a 10 minute phone call with them. And then I realized I was like, wait, I'm gonna try to have a 10 minute phone call in a day and age where you have to text your best friend before you call them. I'm gonna try to get a hundred strangers to let me talk to them on the phone and to get their numbers. That was the other thing too.
give me your number, are you serious? That feels like such an imposition. And at that point I was like, boy, what am I doing? But I was like, you know what, I'm already committed, let's do it. And then it was just, you know, the first couple calls were referrals and I started to like reach out to people and I realized, okay, I'm gonna have to up my.
expectation on how many people I need to reach out to to get these calls. So I was like, okay, that's when I started to reach out to 20 to 30 to 40 people a day. And then, you know, because I was like, oh, let me reach out to like five or six and see you. I'm like, oh, no, no, no,
Thibaud Edwards (08:01.006)
it's not gonna work, I need to kind of increase that number. yeah, then I started to reach out to a lot more people and then calls, people started responding. The biggest issue was just that they weren't seeing my messages because they ended up in the requested folder in Instagram and not everybody checks that. So I was like, okay, I'm fighting against those numbers. But of the people that saw them, the majority of them responded positively and were willing to get on a call, which I was surprised by.
Jay Boykin (08:30.963)
That is amazing. So Thibaut, you said something at the beginning that I wanna go back to a little bit, where you said that you were finding yourself in this place where you were avoiding talking to people. I'm curious, is that something that you found happening over a period of time? Like did that happen during the pandemic, post pandemic, or was it based on the nature of
what you do, because I know that this really resonated with me because I prior to starting my own business, I worked primarily from home. Now I work 100 % from home. And it can be very easy to get yourself in a place where talking to other people can be a challenge. So was this something that that you were always struggling with? Or was there something that was sort of
causing you to be in that place.
Thibaud Edwards (09:32.158)
Okay, so I know exactly where this started. I've had businesses since I was 15 years old. I've been an entrepreneur and they weren't, most of them were not successful. But I was just, I knew that's what I was. I was trying to make it work. And I had it through high school and college. I had businesses. And I got in my head that I had to be a certain place. And...
In speaking to people, I started to get less and less comfortable because I felt like I wasn't where I needed to be. I felt like I wasn't as successful as I needed to be. So I started to feel like I needed to hide stuff and present in a way that wasn't the reality at the time. And that made me more and more uncomfortable. So I was like, you know what? I'll just...
come out of my hiding place once I'm successful enough. And that was kind of the genesis of like kind of becoming a recluse, so to speak, where I was just not willing to be out there. Because also I was scared of the inner dialogue that came in whenever I would speak to people and I'd be like, you should have said this, or you didn't say the right thing, or a successful entrepreneur would have said this, and you would have converted this person, or you would have whatever it was.
And that type of dialogue started to make me less and less desiring to communicate with people. And then it just became a comfort zone. So it wasn't so much that, like, I wouldn't say I'm a full introvert, but I'm definitely not a full extrovert. But I just started getting really comfortable on the introvert side. Having a business, as you know, you can be at home. don't need to be around that many people.
And that just became my new comfort zone. And it was for a long time. I knew it was something that wasn't good for me. I knew there was something missing. But I just wasn't really willing to overcome it at the time. And that's where it was almost like a point of desperation for me when this idea came where I was just like, I have got to get out of this. This is not good.
Thibaud Edwards (11:55.192)
This is not good for me in any aspect of my life. So that was kind of the genesis of it. So yeah, by the time the pandemic came, that was almost like, it was like, yeah, I mean, didn't do anything to me. I was already in that mode for a while.
Jay Boykin (12:07.943)
Right. You were in your comfort zone at that point in time.
Thibaud Edwards (12:10.446)
Exactly, I'm like, everybody's joining me now. Cool.
Jay Boykin (12:14.835)
Yeah, now I'm curious. I'm asking you a question that's a little bit off script, but I want to lean in on this thread a little bit more. So home life for you. You've got family there. You live in North Carolina. So tell people about home life for you. Are you married? Children?
Thibaud Edwards (12:22.147)
Yeah.
Thibaud Edwards (12:36.686)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm married. I've been with my wife for like 17 years now. We've been married for seven. I have two kids. I got a five-year-old and a six-month-old. And yeah, mean, like, home, my home life is structured as I wanted it to be, really.
dreamed of it being like I get to hang out with my kids I get to I don't have to like do a lot of decision-making when it comes to can I make this event or can I do this with my kid or not I can kind of be flexible which is something that I like and and I can split my time and spend the summers in France where I'm from
originally. yeah, that's kind of the home life. I've got my gym at home. I've got everything. it's highly conducive to the lifestyle of like kind of just being kind of in a cave by myself. Which that part is fine. I enjoy that part. yeah, without the other element of connection, it kind of is not the greatest.
Jay Boykin (13:51.039)
So let me ask you this. I know how this was for me. I, as I was working from home primarily, also married, I would find myself when my wife would come home, my wife is also an entrepreneur, has her own business, and she's out of the house more than she's in the house, but.
I would find myself almost being like that super excited puppy when she would walk in the door. It's like, you know, Hey, hey, hey, how you doing? Tell me about today. Let's talk. Let's talk. And, but it was very controlled because it was, it felt like it was that person who was my safe person. So I'm curious, you know, were you finding it to be that way with your wife and with your kids where all of your energies were focused?
in that short, that's very small little circle of people.
Thibaud Edwards (14:54.19)
So yeah, it's interesting because in my case, my wife and I work together and we've worked together for a long time. So we have an interesting dynamic where we actually have to put a little bit more focus on connecting just as husband and wife. Because I think because we see each other all the time, it's almost like, okay, yeah, well.
we're with each other all the time. And then we realize, okay, how much time do we spend not business related, not kids related, not that much. We each have our own offices in the house, we cross each other during the day, we see each other all the time, but it's like, how much time do we actually spend together? So that's something that we've had to kind of look at. But in terms of like my kind of energy,
Social energy being focused on them. Yeah, pretty much I mean there's there wasn't you know, I play basketball twice a week So I got a group of guys that that we get together and it's kind of a closed gym type thing We play basketball so that that was an outlet for some of it But that stays very isolated to that like it doesn't really go and go anywhere else You know, I used to joke that before this challenge like if I texted my friend
on a Sunday, the following week he would still be number one or two on my texts. So it really was focused mainly on my family. And again, was like, that was very comfortable to me. So it was a thing where it was like, this challenge exposed how much I actually needed something that I kind of knew I needed.
Jay Boykin (16:25.15)
Wow.
Thibaud Edwards (16:47.008)
Like I didn't know to what degree I needed that connection outside of that. You know, I kind of knew it. I'm like, yeah, I feel like this is necessary for me. But man, going through the channel and speaking to all these different people has really, really opened my eyes in terms of how much this mattered to me and how much I actually enjoy.
speaking to people way more than I convinced myself that I did.
Jay Boykin (17:18.525)
You know, TiVo, it's really interesting because, you know, since you and I had that conversation and I believe that we were on the phone for, you know, 30, 40 minutes. It was a great conversation. You asked for 10 and you got way more than you bargained for there. but I'm glad that we connected and then I started following you on socials and you know, looking at the person that I see
there, you know, you just don't strike me as that person who was in that reclusive place and that mindset. it's great that you challenged yourself in this way, because I really do believe that we live in a society where it is very easy for us to be reclusive and not necessarily reach out for
connections with new people and other human beings. So I'm very glad that you did that. I'm curious, so how did the responses that you got from people, did you see those begin to change over time as you got deeper into the 100 days or did...
Did most of the interaction sort of start out the same way and then have, you know, they would just go deeper at that point.
Thibaud Edwards (18:55.086)
So this is another thing that really took me by surprise is, you know, I joke that my pitch from a business standpoint is just a horrible pitch. It says nothing about what I'm offering the person. It's just saying, Hey, I'm doing this challenge. I promise you, I'm not trying to sell you anything. Are you all for a 10 minute phone call? And
In a sense, it was like the perfect horrible pitch because I could not have expressed what people were going to get out of it from me. And I was honestly shocked at the number of people who had a positive response, but more than the positive response, like it was almost like they were saying I did them a favor.
And I was shocked by that because I'm like, I'm asking you for a favor, right? I'm asking you to join my... And from the get, I think one of my...
When you say we ended up on the phone for, I think, yeah, good 40, 45 minutes, I didn't want to say this publicly during the challenge because I didn't want to make people think that I was trying to get a more of their time because I really wasn't. I was trying to be respectful of people and like, hey, listen, I asked for 10. I can stop now if you want. But I think out of 100, think...
At least yeah, 98 of the calls lasted at least 30 minutes or more Just organically just just organically from the get like people were willing one call I sat there and Guy was just talking like he was just talking telling me, you know about his life or whatever. It was almost like I Talked to another person, you know, she had mentioned that she was she wasn't very good at
Jay Boykin (20:28.574)
Wow.
Thibaud Edwards (20:51.062)
Small talk because she was neurodivergent, And I was like, you know, that brings up a fascinating thing to me that we hadn't had a lot of small talk throughout these hundred calls. Like it dove pretty deep, pretty quickly, which again, I was surprised. It was almost like there was such a relief that the call wasn't a sales call. It wasn't trying to get anything out of them that they were like, yeah, let's talk. And I mean,
I got some stories, some life stories, some family stories, some just sharing that really shocked me from the beginning. Like there was no kind of crescendo in them. It was from the beginning, jumped right in, first few calls, like it was just, it felt very organic and natural.
Jay Boykin (21:42.175)
That's really beautiful. So Thibaut, you mentioned that you like to play basketball. You've got a great picture behind you of basketball. And I'm assuming that you did not go 100 for 100 from the free throw line. You talked about you set a rule for yourself that you wanted at least 10 minutes for it to count.
Thibaud Edwards (21:47.476)
Yeah.
Thibaud Edwards (21:53.931)
Yeah.
Thibaud Edwards (22:02.99)
Yeah
Thibaud Edwards (22:09.112)
Mm-hmm.
Jay Boykin (22:09.811)
did you have any that just fell off the rails immediately or were the vast majority of them just great conversations?
Thibaud Edwards (22:20.078)
Honestly, the vast majority of them were great conversations. There were two or three that were less comfortable, let's say. They didn't end poorly, but there were some that just like, it just wasn't, what's that? A little bit, a little bit, like it just wasn't, it was almost like they were there, they were expecting just to answer questions.
Jay Boykin (22:37.951)
pulling teeth. Felt like pulling teeth.
Thibaud Edwards (22:50.094)
And it wasn't that wasn't necessarily the goal. The goal was just to have a conversation. And then there was one in particular that like, I think they were just stuck in the networking type of thing that I do not like, where it feels like the person isn't really talking to you, they're talking through you to get to whatever other person you may know that could help them.
And it felt very, very networky, kind of, yeah, basically that's it. Just looking through you, you know, not talking to you, not listening, not, you know, that kind of thing. So that was like, that was one of them that really stood out of that. Other than that, maybe three or four of them were a little less fluid. But I think one of the reasons that the majority of them, looking back,
time it surprised me but one of the reasons that that they were as fluid as they were was because of the concept and the fact that if you're willing to jump into this weird journey that somebody's going in where they're just trying to meet a hundred random people you're probably in a certain mindset that is like all right let's do it and you're willing to jump in you know
Whereas, you I think if you weren't at that mindset, you probably wouldn't have, you probably wouldn't have joined, you know, and I had a couple, I had, I was also surprised about that. I only had like a few people say no who saw the message. And I think.
you know, three or four of them were just like very nice, like, this is a cool idea, but you know, not for me or I'm busy right now, I'm sorry or that kind of thing. No worries. There were a couple of them that were a little bit more contentious and they were kind of fun to play with. But, know, one wanted to charge me a dollar for every second that I wasted of his time. So I thought that one was kind of funny.
Jay Boykin (24:48.425)
Hahaha
Thibaud Edwards (24:57.994)
But yeah, and even that, you know, like that type of response would have really stressed me before, honestly. It would have, because it would have tapped into some insecurity that I had, like, wasn't worth anybody's time, or I wasn't successful enough, or whatever it was. And the funny thing about this challenge, the fact that it was so, it just felt like something that I had to do, that it was almost given to me.
Jay Boykin (25:05.203)
Yeah.
Thibaud Edwards (25:27.48)
that none of that bothered me. Like it was like, okay, cool. Well, you're not the one. I'll move on to the next person. And it didn't, like, yeah, none of it really affected me at all. It was more just kind of like, this is fun. I'll talk about this on my update, but that was it. I didn't lose any sleep over it. Didn't really give it too much thought. And I felt like that was another sign that I was just in the lane that I had to be in because it just kind of...
slid right off my back like none of it bothered me so yeah it was it was it was surprisingly organic it was surprisingly like natural like i said i didn't want to say it before but i mean i had conversations that were an hour and a half hour 45 minutes with people i'd never met before it just yeah yeah it was it was it was shocking honestly to me especially coming from where because you say okay you see you see me on my socials and you're like i'm surprised that you have have have
Jay Boykin (26:10.985)
That's amazing.
Thibaud Edwards (26:22.24)
issue of being a recluse. But I think social media is kind of like the introvert's dream in a sense, because you can do things that typically extroverts do, but you can do it.
in your home just with your phone and you could be talking to a whole bunch of people but really there's not a whole bunch of people there and like you know you know I follow this one guy he does basketball content he was saying he's always kind of been a loner and all of that and he's got tons of followers and I'm like that's interesting yeah you can be a loner just you and your camera and talk to hundreds of thousands and millions of people and so you know I'm I
comfortable on camera, but speaking to people, it wasn't so much that I was uncomfortable once I was in the conversation, but just bridging that little gap of initiating or even accepting a conversation was the point of resistance.
Jay Boykin (27:23.911)
You know, it's, it's interesting, Thibaut, and I told you this when you and I spoke that first time that I was working on some notes for my book and I had written on my whiteboard in thinking about how we approach life and how we approach other people.
And I wrote down transactional interactions versus relationships. And, you know, I, I thought that it was so interesting that the, the same day that I wrote that down, that you reached out to me and said, Hey, I don't want to sell you essential oils. And so you wanted to have this non transactional
interaction. And I think that you said something earlier that's 100 % right. think that there's a lot of people out there that are really hungry for that. Many of us are so used to either being on the hunter side with our businesses, our careers where we've got to go out, we've got a network, we've got to find that next connection that could lead us to the next payday.
or we're used to being the hunted where someone is looking to get to that transaction through us. And so I really think that what you did is extremely beautiful. And I hope that there's other people that may challenge themselves to do something similar to what you did, almost like the...
the cold plunge or the, you know, what's that challenge where people are pouring water over their heads. They know the ice bucket challenge. feel like maybe you're going to start something that could be a big deal where more people will challenge themselves to go out, whether it's via social media or in real life and meet people and look for those non transactional connections.
Thibaud Edwards (29:23.263)
the ice bucket, yeah.
Thibaud Edwards (29:48.002)
Yeah, yeah, no, mean, you know, I think, I think one of the things that we often do, and I've done it too, when we see people do certain things, we reclassify them in our heads as that person.
And so like, you know, we see somebody become successful in an arena and you're like, well, you're just a successful person or you're just that type person. And when they're trying to tell you like, no, I wasn't, I just overcame something to, and you're like, yeah, but I can tell you're kind of that person. And it's like,
It's interesting because it's kind of our way of resisting inspiration in the sense like we could be inspired by the story and be like, yeah, you know what? Yeah, let me, let me, why not? Why couldn't I do that? But instead we're like, no, no, no, no, well, that's that type of person. But when I tell you like, I had somebody who ended up.
being a friend who was trying to connect with me for basically years on and off. And I was just like pushing it away, pushing it away, pushing it away, ended up investing in his business later on, which is funny. like, just, I avoided this type of interaction at all costs. So to then to be going through this, if you had shown me this challenge a year ago,
I would have been like, that's good for them. But that's not me, for sure. So yeah, I if it resonated, I've had several people that I've spoken to that were like, you know what, I want to do something like this. Because again, I think it did resonate. It did kind of strike a chord. I don't think I would have been able to get 100 people in 100 days had it not struck a chord with a.
Thibaud Edwards (31:38.414)
decent number of people, know, even I've had calls that didn't go through or that they ended up getting busy or whatever, but they were still very interested in the in the concept. So yeah, I think it could it could inspire some some willingness to connect on a different level because I feel like there is that.
dichotomy where it's either this aggressive networking or you just kind of like sit by yourself and don't really interact so much. You know, the interaction is left to people who are uber like extroverts and you know all of that. Whereas I think no, it's a lot easier to connect one-on-one I find.
just have a conversation. I've spoken to so many people that were introverts that said, this is me getting out of my comfort zone. And the conversation was like, would never have known that they were introverts. Just because it kind of gets you out of your shell, you know?
Jay Boykin (32:39.261)
Yeah. Yeah. No, that's great. So, so listeners here on just human, whether you are watching on YouTube, thank you so much for being here. please consider hitting that subscribe button, like the video, definitely share this with others that you think might resonate with the story. If you're listening on your favorite podcast provider, again, thank you for being here. Drop some comments and let me know what you think.
T-Bo, you know, it's interesting. I had a recent interview with someone who is a combat Marine, former law enforcement officer, and now he is an ultra marathon runner. And so he's running these 100 plus mile races. And he said something during that interview where he talked about being comfortable.
with discomfort. And you that aligns very much with something that I've said before where no one grows in a place where they are comfortable. And what I'm hearing from your story is that you did have to get comfortable with discomfort. You had to get outside of your normal comfort zone
in order to do this, in order to challenge yourself and to grow from that. What's your perspective on how that discomfort and being more comfortable in that uncomfortable place helped you to get through this challenge?
Thibaud Edwards (34:26.83)
So there were multiple things I had to overcome for this challenge that I did not like. I did not like speaking to people. That was a big one. Okay. I did not like appointments. I hated appointments. They stressed me. I'd be like, oh God, I'm like thinking about them two hours. Okay. All right. In an hour and 45. Okay. Now in an hour and a half. And I'm like.
Okay, don't forget it, don't forget it. Like that would stress me. And I did not like speaking on the phone. So there were so many things that I had to kind of get over in terms of my comfort. I will say that when, and this is, I have a hard time saying this because it sounds like something that I would have heard and almost rolled in my eyes to, but when you're on a path,
that is aligned with where you're supposed to be, what you're supposed to do, overcoming these things can sometimes be a lot easier than you would think. I was surprised that how, I hate to say effortless because it was a lot of work, but the overcoming of the...
the fears was so much easier than I expected. Once I committed to really the biggest portion was the before. Before February 1st, before I started was am I going to commit to this or not? Once I committed to like, I'm gonna do this, it was a lot easier. Before it was like, man, like a hundred.
people, man, I don't want to talk to one person on the phone today. Like, I don't want to make one phone call today. And I'm going to try, I'm going to work hard to get 100. That just feels so opposite of what I want to do. But once I, once I was just like, okay, no, you know what? This, this is it. This once I committed to it, overcoming that discomfort was a lot easier for me.
Thibaud Edwards (36:43.496)
And it wasn't that it was like, it wasn't that it wasn't, there wasn't some discomfort, but it was just so much easier because I had already committed, like I'm doing this. I'm on this, I'm on this train. I mean, like I'm not getting off so well, you know? And I think that that really helped getting that mindset ahead of time kind of helped get over that discomfort that I had. But it is true that like, yeah, I mean, between that and not doing that, not.
be a lot easier. So there was a discomfort that I had to get comfortable in, but honestly the calls themselves helped me do that because I was getting so much from it. Like I'd feel good after each call and that was just like okay yeah all right cool then whatever discomfort I feel in the rest of the stuff you know like and right before I call somebody you know I might be like how's this one gonna go I don't know and that
Jay Boykin (37:12.639)
Sure.
Thibaud Edwards (37:40.266)
something that somebody told me once fear gets replaced when curiosity comes in and curiosity is when like I wonder how this call is going to go like I'm kind of excited to find out that replaces fear because also the big thing about this challenge is
It was my challenge, but it wasn't about me. So it wasn't about me presenting to somebody. wasn't about me. It was about me finding out about somebody else. And so I was just talking to people. wasn't trying to impress them. wasn't trying to, there was nothing, it wasn't me focused. And that reduced a lot of the discomfort as well.
So I think there's a lot that goes into overcoming this discomfort is releasing some of the barriers that makes it feel that uncomfortable.
Jay Boykin (38:36.499)
You know, T-Bo, you said something super insightful that I want to lean in on a little bit. So you talked about curiosity and I really believe that in this world that we live in, that it seems easier than ever to look for ways
to, as Kendrick Lamar would say, they not like us, and to look for ways not to engage with people. I love what you said about approaching things with curiosity. And so you went into these conversations just being curious to learn about someone, not to promote yourself, but you were wanting to...
be curious and learn about other people. What is your take on how would our world be if more of us approached our days and our interactions with people with that curiosity as opposed to again that transactional approach to life?
Thibaud Edwards (39:58.958)
So much, so much better. The transactional, it's, I get it. Like, listen, if you need a job in the next three weeks, like, you don't have time to just chat with people. You need to get a job, right? You need a network to get a job. I get that. But there's a lot of times where we could just look to connect and find out. Because here's the interesting thing.
The person that I spoke to that was stuck in the transactional type of networking space, the only way that I would do something for that person is if it perfectly aligned with my personal interests. But the other people that I spoke to where we just connected, and I've done it, if something came up that I noticed and I'm like, that would really help that person, I would go out of my way a little bit to make sure that I connected them with that.
just because we connected without anything for me. So I feel like, you know, the things we get out of this type of connection are people looking out for us a lot more because then it makes them happy to help you out. Then it's like, oh yeah, I'm looking for, oh yeah, I remember we had a great conversation. Like if I had a great conversation with somebody and they're looking for somebody and I met somebody that...
Mike, yeah, absolutely. Listen, you gotta talk to this person. He's really cool. Yeah, like, and it would be, it would be effortless for me to do. But if our, if our interaction was very, you know, transactional, then not, not so much. And in regards to like society in general, if we approached it more from a relationship standpoint, I think.
Social media is, I love it, it's a great thing, but it definitely has its two sides to it where there were some people where when I saw their socials before the call, I was like, boy.
Thibaud Edwards (42:00.77)
let me see how this is going to go because maybe they had some political things and whether I agreed with it or not was not the point. It was just like, is the whole call gonna be them trying to convince me of this thing? And then we have a call and it's nothing like that. Like we connect, it's like vibing, it's just absolutely great. And I realized that sometimes the image that we portray, even though we're not intending to, is sometimes more aggressive and more,
divisive than we even intended to be. But when you actually talk to the person, it's like, that's a real person. Right. That's a real person with more in common with me than not. And I think, again, social media can distort that sometimes. You see somebody posting one comment or another comment, doesn't matter what side it's on, and you feel like that's their whole personality because it's their personality on social.
Jay Boykin (42:57.524)
Right.
Thibaud Edwards (43:00.022)
and then you see them in person and you speak to them and you're like, you're a pretty cool dude. Like, okay, that, you know, so I think it would change a lot if we could, but I get the difficulty.
Jay Boykin (43:05.342)
Yeah.
Jay Boykin (43:13.599)
It really is. And you know what you said there was it was so good. It's we live in a country where we are, you know, we've got our free speech. We've got a lot of freedoms that sometimes we take for granted way too often. But here's the beauty of it. Because of the
diversity of the country that we live in. And I know that that word can be taboo today, but I believe that that's part of what makes this country so great is that we've got people with different backgrounds and different perspectives and different worldviews. And it's okay for us to not agree on everything.
I'm sure that if you and I continue this conversation and get to know each other even more, we'll probably find that there's some things that we don't agree on, but that doesn't mean that we have to hate each other. It's okay for us to agree to disagree. And, here's the other thing that has struck me recently is that it's about perceptions and, and understanding that
you can view the world one way and through the conversation that you and I have, I can understand how you can see your world, the world in that way. Doesn't necessarily mean I have to do a complete shift in my mindset, but if I can take one step towards you in curiosity,
in compassion, in empathy, how much better are all of our interactions gonna be? So I just love the way that you talked about that, Thibaut, and I know that this challenge, I really do hope that it inspires other people. It doesn't have to be 100 in 100, even if you decide that you're just gonna go out and meet 10 people.
Jay Boykin (45:39.205)
in the next month, do what Tebow said, commit to it and go do it.
Thibaud Edwards (45:46.286)
Yeah, no, 100 % I was gonna say you were mentioning, you were mentioning the, know, kind of like just connecting with somebody and not coming at it from a kind of an aggressive standpoint. And I noticed something with people that are staunchly against each other.
is they tend to be very, very similar, but just with different views. And they're trying to approach it, know, like in politics, you talk about the left and the right, and it's like...
You're the same people with different directions. know, same tactics, same thought processes, same arguments, same everything. And that's why it's so difficult for you to come together is because you're kind of the same people. You're, know, two angry people with different, with opposing things that you're angry about. And it's very difficult for you to come together. And unfortunately, in a space where the
Jay Boykin (46:25.928)
Right.
Thibaud Edwards (46:52.296)
are the loudest noises, we assume, and this is what bothers me the most, what makes me not even want to say a stance, and I think this is a lot of people.
they don't even want to express their stances on anything because the moment you say something, you're categorized as one of the sides. One of the, you know, thing that can't associate with anybody else and all that. And that's frustrating because I think the majority of the people aren't that. And having spoken to people who I know just after, you know, seeing them and following them, I'm like, okay, yeah, you guys probably would be on opposite sides on things.
Jay Boykin (47:13.555)
Yes.
Thibaud Edwards (47:33.79)
Like you wouldn't have gotten that from the conversation, you know, you wouldn't have registered that from the conversation I got their lives and I mean People all I mean, I I don't say all around the world but a lot of different places mostly in the US But you know, it got Canada Bali UK Germany You know Australia like a lot of different places that I've spoken to different backgrounds Egypt and
It's just fascinating to see how many similarities there are, especially in the people that wouldn't agree with each other. It's just fascinating to see.
Jay Boykin (48:14.717)
Yeah. So T-Bo let's, I wanna ask you a few hopefully fun questions. You started getting into it a little bit there. So how many individuals did you connect with from outside of the United States?
Thibaud Edwards (48:33.134)
I should have come prepared with those numbers. I don't know. would probably I'd have to estimate I have my sheet, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go over to it now. I would estimate Probably about 20. Yeah
Jay Boykin (48:47.007)
Okay, okay, that's awesome. Who was the most unexpected person that you met with and why?
Thibaud Edwards (48:58.168)
So it had to do with a point in my journey that I spoke with this person, but it was Nick, Nick Cozier, I think I'm saying his name right. He's a weatherman and he does, he like dances and does different things on social media. And he has like 3 million followers on social media, like 8 million on TikTok or something like that. And the reason that it was surprising for me was because I was just reaching out to whole.
whole bunch of people. I reached out to, during this entire journey, easily, I'm underestimating at 1,500. And so I was just reaching out to people and he responded and he was like, hey, I just happened to check my folder. Yeah, I'm in, we had a great conversation. And there's two things with that, was one that surprised me and it was that,
It didn't really matter that he had so many followers or whatever. mean, that's famous nowadays. Social is famous. So it's like, okay, so he's famous. But it didn't really matter. It didn't affect the conversation. We just connected. But also it registered to me that like, just ask.
Like just ask, you know, like you you you I could have made the assumption that I don't know anybody over this is first of all, it's never going to check their their their Instagram messages or They're going to be you know, feel like they're too important for me. It's funny the people that that felt like they were super important Had way fewer followers were way fewer like where it didn't have the businesses or whatever I've spoken to multi millionaires and they were just
Cool, chill, you know? it was, so I think that the reason that one was so fascinating for me was it was earlier on in the journey and it was just like, wow, yeah, you can really reach out to a lot of people and just say, hey, yeah, I mean, do wanna chat? I mean, that seems like a crazy idea to me at least, that like, okay, yeah, this person, you know, you're.
Thibaud Edwards (51:09.358)
you're you're you got all these followers you're doing all these things you got this this this forward-facing job you're a really cool guy and you're just like hey yeah let's do it you know um and that was that was kind of surprising to me from that from that perspective
Jay Boykin (51:25.523)
You know, as a, as someone like yourself, who's an athlete, a basketball fan, I know that you'll resonate and you've heard this before. You miss 100 % of the shots that you don't take. And the answer is always no, if you don't ask the question. so taking that first step and getting outside of your comfort zone and reaching out, that's, that's probably the hardest part. And you'd probably be surprised at the number of people that,
Thibaud Edwards (51:36.302)
100 %
Thibaud Edwards (51:42.029)
Mm-hmm.
Jay Boykin (51:55.039)
would be willing to do that. And so I'm curious, Thibaut, as we get ready to wrap this up. This time has flown by so quickly. I really appreciate your time. So I was, I think, person 89 or 90 in your challenge. You're now finished with your challenge. What's next? What are you doing next?
Thibaud Edwards (52:05.24)
Really good.
Thibaud Edwards (52:21.006)
Boy yeah, so well right now I'm doing a 10-day recap because a lot of people ask me You know even people that I was on the calls with they wanted to know like what what what are you what are you gonna get from all of this like what? what Yeah, are you gonna gain from all this they were curious and they wanted to kind of follow up with me So was like, know what after the hundred-day challenge I'm gonna put out ten days ten things that I've ten takeaways that I've gotten from the hundred-day challenge So I'm in the middle of that right now
My next challenge is gonna be a little bit more business related, relating to my digital marketing company because this one was great, but it was a personal challenge. It took a lot of time. I also have to work and I have family and all that kind of stuff. So it did take a lot of time and a lot of effort. So this next challenge is gonna be a little bit more business related. I'm just gonna be trying to build a following on my verse on my.
business page and see how that goes and document that along the way for those who are interested. But yeah, so that's I think that's what I'm going to be. But I've kind of gotten addicted to the 100 day format now. I love it. Like I like committing to something because I think the biggest thing is time moves forward regardless. And we all know that. But, you know, everybody's had that experience where you're like, where did that entire month go?
But when you're doing something every single day, a specific task every single day, that month might have disappeared in your mind, but you did something for 30 or 31 or whatever, you know, number of days in that month that compiled. that...
really enjoy that format. I think as an entrepreneur, as a serial entrepreneur, I like moving on to different things. And so the 100 day format really works for me. Like I'm going to challenge myself, OK, can I get this account to get a 10,000 followers in 100 days? Cool. Let's try to do it and let's document it. Let's share. We're going to do everything we possibly can, post as many times as we can, see what works, what doesn't, all that kind of stuff, and then share it. Because I like the feedback too, when people like,
Thibaud Edwards (54:28.754)
that's interesting or that I wonder if this will work or whatever. And then, and then yeah, move, move on. So I think one of the things that I've taken is that I will be doing hundred day challenges for myself because I absolutely love them.
Jay Boykin (54:44.041)
That's fantastic. Well, T-Bo, hope to, I really want to stay connected. You know, we had this random connection a few weeks ago, but I want to be intentional about staying connected. want to continue to follow your journey. I definitely am looking forward to as a business owner myself, I'm looking forward to learning some of the insights that you gain from your next challenge, but
I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day. I'm really appreciative of the fact that you challenged yourself and that I was one of the people that was fortunate enough to end up on your radar screen and for us to have this opportunity to have this conversation and hopefully to build a relationship going forward.
Thibaud Edwards (55:34.67)
Absolutely. Listen, I appreciate it. Like I said, I'm always shocked when people are like, I really appreciate it being one of your coms. Like, I appreciate it, y'all. I think 100 people. It was tough to get. So man, I appreciate it. And I definitely want to stay connected. I I appreciate the opportunity to be on here with you. I mean, this has been fun. Hopefully, I didn't talk too much. I definitely enjoyed it. And I really did. I appreciate it.
Jay Boykin (56:02.367)
Yeah, no, you were great. And so again, for everyone listening, thank you so much for taking time out of your day. I hope that you enjoyed this conversation that we had with Thibaut Edwards, with his 100 people in 100 day challenge. I just want to leave you with this. As we approach our days, as we approach our world, as we approach
our relationships. Think about it from a just human perspective. Lean in with curiosity and get to know someone that may be outside of your normal circle over the next couple of days and see where that takes you. You might just meet an unexpected new friend. So again, thank you so much and we will talk to you soon on the next episode of Just Human.
Thibaud Edwards (57:01.954)
Thank you.
