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This podcast was born from a belief that meaningful growth doesn’t happen overnight. The things that really matter—in life, business, art, relationships—often take time, patience, and unseen investment. And yet, we live in a culture that constantly pulls us toward immediacy: fast food, AI, and overnight success stories.
But the reality is:
Anything truly worth building usually takes time. Success doesn't arrive in an instant.
We take the time to ask our amazing guests, what are the things that are worth putting in the time and investing in, even if we don’t see results for a long time?
0. Intro - audio_mixdown_- Loudness
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Bamboo Method, investing in the unseen. They say good things come to those who wait. But in today's convenience driven world, we live in a culture that constantly pulls us towards immediacy. With fast food, two day shipping and overnight success stories, it seems more difficult than ever to stick it out and wait.
But the reality is that anything worth building usually takes time. Success doesn't come in an instant. So we're here to ask what a. The things worth putting in the time and investing in, even if we don't see results for a long time. Oftentimes we will feature a guest on the show, someone we admire, and someone who exemplifies the Bamboo method.
Also, we will have episodes that are just Sam and I talking at today's one of those episodes. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Bamboo Method, investing in the Unseen. I am Sam Steingraber, one of the hosts for today's episode, and I'm sitting here with Wade Zemy, the other host. Who will [00:01:00] also play the role often as a producer.
So you won't always see him in the chair. Sometimes he'll be in a different chair. Yep. Different chair, same microphone. Um, he'll still have things to say and he's just gonna make sure that everything goes smoothly also. But today we get to talk together. Yeah, we do. It's gonna be fun. I'm excited about this new journey.
Me too. Yeah. So, um, what are we doing here, Sam? What are we doing? Oh my goodness. What are we doing here? Well, I'm excited. We've been talking about this for. Close to a year. Yeah. I don't know when the first conversation year at this point. Probably, I don't know when the first idea of starting a podcast came about, but, um, and the idea of starting a business together and at the beginning of all that was a conversation around Bamboo.
Yeah. And the, uh, we almost called our business Bamboos Studios. Yeah. We almost went Bamboo Studios with business just because of the, the idea behind it. And that is the motivation behind all these conversations. Yeah. I mean, investing in the unseen is something we talk about a lot. Yeah. Do you wanna dive into the bamboo [00:02:00] analogy and kind of where that inspiration came from?
Yeah. So I'm no bamboo expert, so we'll just put that out there right away. Neither one of us are bamboo experts. Same stein. Yeah. Not a bamboo expert. Don't, don't get lost in the, um, agricultural, or what do you call that, uh, that field of study. Um, apparently it's grass. I'm not a, i, I'm not a grass enthusiast either, you know, that I might have said tree, so you, that I think a lot of people would.
Uh, but, um, as, as, as would I, but in my little bit of study I've discovered it's grass and I'm not an expert beyond that. There is a species of bamboo, Chinese, bamboo that has the properties of delayed sprouting, uh, up to years. So you're gonna be watering and watering, watering and nothing pops up. You don't even see it for years, sometimes four or five years.
And the idea of that comes back to the reality of just so much in life that we have these things that we need to nurture and nurture water, if you will, invest in, you can use all these different types of words, but [00:03:00] put energy and resource to words. For a long time, consistently before we see any results, see any fruit, see any outcome, return on investment.
Again, there's all kinds of words that you can put towards that personal, professionally, and we live in a world that is continuing to push us towards. What can you get results in today, tomorrow? Make money now, make money fast, whatever. It would be a two day ship. Being fast food microwaves. When I water the seed.
I wanna see that sprouting up tomorrow. Absolutely. As soon as possible. It's human nature, right? Yeah. We don't even need culture to tell us. Yeah. I wanna see results today. I'm gonna go to the gym and I better have a six pack tomorrow, and if I don't, I'm gonna go take the pill that gives me one, or I'm gonna get the machine that just like heats up my abs and gives me a six pack in a week.
Yep. What can I do that's gonna give results? Right away. And it's so easy to ask the question, um, or have the thought, if I don't get results when I want 'em, or as quick as I want 'em, is it worth it? Yeah. And so we're gonna ask that question. What are the things that are worth [00:04:00] pursuing over a long time, long period of time, knowing that we may not see what we wanna see for a long time.
Mm-hmm. Maybe we'll never see it. What, what am I doing that is going to be impactful for my kids, for the next generation, for people that. You know, I may never see the fruit. Yeah. And even for myself, five years from now, I mean, it's, it's hard to anticipate that. Yep. And, um, and in part of that question, what are the things worth investing in?
Also asking the questions of, um, how do we know those are the right things to invest in? How do we know those roots are growing? How do we know that that work every single day? Is creating those roots to get our bamboo later. Yeah. Yeah. How do you know you're watering a bamboo seed and not just the ground?
Yeah, yeah, sure. Um, I'll do my best not to just like, uh, use that analogy, analogy to death. But, um, yeah, we're known to just. We go a little too deep on analogies and never come back up for air. Yeah. Try to bring ourselves back to what's actually what we're actually talking about. Yeah. [00:05:00] Um, how do you know, how do you decipher, but also how do you continue to invest in those types of things?
Yeah. 'cause it can be discouraging when you don't see discouraging and grow. How do you not give up what you know? And so what's really cool and what I'm excited about is that this is not gonna be a Sam and Wade podcast. Podcast as much as my emphasis there. A POD podcast. Is there gonna be a Salmon Wade podcast?
Yeah. That's for the best. Yeah. And I'm excited to have conversations with people who we can learn from, who have discovered what are the things worth investing in. Mm-hmm. And I think a lot of people are gonna have different insight on that and nuggets of value that I know that I'm gonna gain from. And I'm excited about that Definitely.
But hopefully those of you who wanna listen to it can find some great value out of figuring out how to live a life that is. Value in the long term, not just seeking the short term, but is gonna produce results. Mm-hmm. Over the course of time. So Wade, what is that gonna look like? If someone is like, I want to engage with that, what can they expect?
Yeah, so Bamboo Method is always gonna be a video podcast. [00:06:00] Uh, we'll have audio options as well if you maybe like to drive and listen to things. But we'll always have a video option. We're gonna have a short episode, hoping to be 20 to 30 minutes, a little more bite sized, more edited, more honed in on the topic, and then we'll also have a long version.
So we're gonna have a lot of different guests. Um, some weeks we'll be just you and I, but mostly we're gonna be diving into people that we want to emulate, people that we feel like. They know something about investing in the future, uh, playing the long game. Um, and so those conversations are gonna be long 'cause they are awesome people, and those conversations take well over an hour.
So we're gonna have, uh, the full episode in one location, full, you know, hour, 90 minutes. And then we'll also have the short episode, just the bite size, the nuggets, the valuable pieces, um, that, that'll be a separate fe as well. Heck yeah. What do they do now? Well, you're gonna have to subscribe to the Bamboo Method Podcast wherever you listen to your podcast and, uh, get excited.
I think it's gonna be [00:07:00] fun. Thank you. And if you know anyone over the course of the period that you're listening to this, if you, there is anyone that you want to hear from yeah. You'd like to be a guest on our podcast, feel free to send us a message and. Make any suggestions for a guests that you'd like to hear from?
Yeah. See you soon. See you soon. Hear you soon. Ah, you'll see us soon here. See. See us soon. See us soon. Something good to be seen. Good to be seen. Smell. Yell later. Yell later. Or inky.
Thanks for listening to the. Bamboo method, investing in the unseen. Remember, anything worth building usually takes time. And here's a sneak peek from the next episode with Ted Kim and my sister, um, very bright woman, uh, 10 years ago, uh, sat down with me and said, you know what? I'll tell it to you straight.
I said, okay, shoot. If you really wanted to direct feature films, you would've done it already. Hmm. [00:08:00] And I was surprised. Yeah. And taken aback. But it was true. Yeah. I mean, if it's, if there's something that you love, you would've done it. Yeah. You know, you have your whole life to do it. And so I spent, uh, way too many years and decades kind of fighting against something, which, um, I couldn't see through Sure.
Until, you know, much later.