Good morning, good morning.
I’m writing this while i sip an iced latte and munch on a breakfast burrito from Erehwon.
The most LA shit ever.
Last night was fun.
I was at my friend Adam Horwitz’s house. Adam is the founder of Utopia and a good friend of mine for the past few years.
We had a pumpkin carving night.
Honestly quite wholesome compared to all the other LA Halloween shenanigans.
I had a bunch of friends in town. Went out to dinner with my buddy Tim — Tim Luong.
And we had a really fun, funny conversation.
My friend Tim is a business guy.
He’s been in the world of building internet businesses for the last decade. And he does very, very well.
Like he makes over seven figures every single month.
You can check him out. Tim Luong. You’ll find him if you just look him up on whatever. ChatGPT, for all I care.
Tim is very much a business guy. He has the knowledge of an Alex Hormozi type, but he’s got swag.
Like, Alex Hormozi got no swag. Tim got swag.
Tim is like an artist. If you met Tim, you’d honestly think he was a streamer. He’s got drip.
We were talking about this last night. I’ve been talking to him about this for years because he really wants to be more of a content creator. And I see him as a streamer.
Tim was telling me he has this concept where he’s thinking about having two identities online.
He was asking me questions about what I think about his brand. As someone who’s had a brand for a long, long time, I have experience with this that Tim doesn’t.
Tim’s business is mainly run on ads, so he doesn’t have as much branding experience as I do.
We’re talking about it, and he tells me this name. This alias.
Like how there’s IShowSpeed and other streamers with aliases. You know, the FaZe Clan — all those guys have names.
Tim Luong, as much as I love Tim, is not the swaggiest name. It’s more of a business guy name. It’s hard to spell. Doesn’t roll off the tongue that well.
He comes up with this new name.
And I swear, it felt like a scene in a movie where the character reveals his new identity.
He said it.
I was like, “Dude. That is IT. That is so cool.”
We started talking about some of my other friends who have aliases.
Like my homie Rapta.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know my homie Rapta. He’s an artist. Extremely talented musician.
His real name is Matthew, but he goes by Rapta.
So my first point today is this:
You can just reinvent yourself.
You can literally choose a new identity. And you can just… do that.
You can choose a new name. You can choose new character traits.
You can literally play with it.
Life is a game. You are the main character. And you can invent and design that character however you want.
That’s my message for today.
I hope these emails have been resonating. If you’re enjoying them, please shoot me a message on Instagram. I read and respond to 99% of messages.
Go out there and reinvent yourself.
Now, the next topic I want to get into is something I tried yesterday.
I watched this video from a Harvard psychologist (or something along those lines).
The guy was saying it’s important to be bored more often.
Because even when we get to a traffic light in the car, we can’t bear sitting there for 15 seconds without picking up our phone.
That’s led to us just not being bored anymore.
And if you think about growing up as a kid - depending on how old you are reading this - most of us didn’t really have phones to look at. We were bored pretty often. Bored in class. Bored after school. Just having nothing to really do.
Especially if you’re a kid like me who didn’t have video games and stuff.
So I watched that video.
And then I decided that for the next day, I was going to be bored a lot more often.
This was actually an assignment I had given myself and a lot of other people through the original first week of Tribe Accelerator.
I would tell people: don’t consume anything. Don’t listen to the radio. Don’t listen to music. Don’t read any books. Don’t consume at all.
So I got in the car and went to the gym. It’s like a 20-minute drive because I left during rush hour.
I got in the car and I had nothing to do. I was just sitting there.
And lo and behold, like the Harvard psychologist explained, your brain switches from the default consumption mode to a more subconsciously activated mode.
Your brain starts sending you ideas. Sending you messages. Popping out things based on whatever you’ve been working on prior.
Point being: in the car, I got hit with all these messages. Idea after idea.
And it only took a 20-25 minute car ride. That’s all it took of not looking at my phone to just get slapped with a bunch of ideas.
Then I show up to the gym.
And this is where it gets a little bit more metaphysical. Spiritually different. Energetically different.
There’s an Erewhon right next to the gym. I had some food. I ate it without being on my phone. Just really enjoyed the food.
That was what I noticed. I really enjoyed the food more than maybe when I’m in consumption mode. Like listening to stuff and texting people.
I was just actually present and enjoying the food.
Then I went into the gym.
Time for a full on no headphone workout. Do u know how abnormal that concept is in 2025?
The gym was packed. There were a ton of people there. Everyone wearing headphones. Except for 1 other person…
I’m in the middle of my first warm-up set. I look to my right.
And I see one of my favorite rappers of basically all time.
NLE Choppa. No headphones.
I see him. He has a bodyguard next to him. And one of his friends or someone who works for him is live streaming his workout.
Choppa’s real name is Bryson. But let’s call him Choppa in this email. It’s better for the story.
So Choppa is working out, but he’s talking into the camera. Motivating the people watching the stream. Just nonstop talking. Motivating. In between sets. Dude is on a diff frequency. Like floating fr.
And I love his music.
He has this album called From Dark to Light, which I resonate with on a deep, deep level. A lot of the artistic concept is how I view the 8AM album.
It’s a transmutation of energy from dark to light.
I listened to that album a lot in 2020. Particularly the songs “Bryson” — if you listen to that song, it’s so good. And “Picture Me Grapin” is just a vibe.
Anyway, I go up to the security guard.
Out of respect, I don’t want to interrupt his video or his workout.
I say, “Hey, you mind if I say something to him?”
Security guard’s like, “Oh, he’s working out right now. But you could talk to him later.”
I was like, “Alright, yeah, no worries.”
I just release the need to talk to him. Whatever.
Go finish my workout.
Then I go into the locker room.
I’m sitting there getting my things. I grab my duffel bag from the locker, put on the bench and open it.
In my duffel bag, I have a bunch of books. I always carry a bunch of books wherever I’m going.
One of the ones on top is The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch.
This guy next to me looks down. He’s about 40 years old. In very good shape. Cauliflower ear. A fighter? Tough looking guy. Pr crazy aura. He’s getting his stuff into his locker and everything.
He looks down, sees the book, and starts asking me about it.
He says, “You know, I’ve seen this book. I’ve been recommended it. Do you like this book?”
I’m like, “Oh yeah, I’ve read it so many times. It’s amazing. It’s like the secret to life.”
And he says to me:
“I know the secret to life. It’s really that we’re in a matrix and there’s no such thing as time.”
Now, keep in mind.
This whole thing is stemming from the fact that I always wear headphones in the gym. I’m always focused on my lift & my audiobook or whatever.
And on the one day that I’m not wearing headphones - because when I’m wearing headphones, I never talk to people - this guy starts talking to me.
And I see my favorite rapper also not wearing headphones.
And now this guy’s telling me there’s no such thing as time. 😆
I’m just like, “Oh my God, this is hilarious.”
So he ends up telling me he had a near-death experience.
And that he basically became a mentalist after.
(A mentalist is someone who has extreme mental acuity, and uses hypnosis to tap into a sixth sense of sorts. After a near death experience people can develop this faculty as they have a foot in the spiritual realm.)
He tells me he has clients in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia. Like sheiks and stuff like that.
And he also works with a lot of celebrities in LA - Justin Bieber and a bunch of other people.
I looked him up later. It all looks true. He’s got pictures with Bieber and everything.
He tells me he had this near-death experience. Became a mentalist. People ask him for advice.
And yeah, that’s it. I just happened to meet him. He asked for my number.
That was my experience not being on my phone for just a little bit.
I told him, “You know, it’s funny you’re talking to me and telling me these things. And I also met one of my favorite artists.”
And he says:
“It’s because you’re in the receptive mode.”
So these are my messages for today:
Be in the receptive mode.
Redesign yourself.
Life is a game. You can choose to be the main character.
Stop consuming. Start receiving.
Peace and blessings.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Arlin
P.S. Seriously, try it. Leave your phone in the car. Go for a walk. See what happens. Then tell me about it.
