Dr. Robert Nielsen discusses the growth and success of North Dakota State’s counseling program over the years.
Dr. Nielsen was a major factor in the department’s growth and accolades. He was considered a pioneer and trailblazer in the industry and now has awards named in his honor.
Dr. Nielsen was also part of the 1964 National Championship Football Team at Concordia College, MN. He also started the Bottineau High School hockey program and was the faculty advisor for NDSU’s club hockey program where they won seven National Championships in eight years.
Dr. Nielsen also goes into detail about workplace stress and how to manage it properly. He also talks about his working retirement and professional balance.
Jason Spiess
... Welcome to the Crude Life podcast because when you're making money, sometimes life can just be crude. Hey folks, my name is Jason Space. I'm an award winning multimedia journalist and talk show host. And on today's episode, I interview Dr Bob Nielsen, we talk about working in retirement, workplace, stress balancing your life. Excellent interview, an exclusive interview with Dr Bob Nielsen in just a moment.
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Dr. Robert Nielsen
My name is Bob Nielsen and I am a licensed clinical counselor in North Dakota and a uh certified counselor supervisor in both Minnesota and North Dakota. Uh And I had uh worked at N DS U as a counselor educator and coordinated the counselor education program there for many years. I just retired after 42 years of work at N Ds U as a counselor educator and currently have a business clinical business of my own Nielsen counseling. I had been doing that for the last couple of years. ...
Jason Spiess
All right. So you get you, you were at NDSU for how long? 42 years? 42 years. And my understanding is the program or you or both won awards through those 42
Dr. Robert Nielsen
years? Well, the program was accredited uh by Cake, which is the National Accreditation for Council Education Programs and the last time we had the accreditation team come in, they were uh going through our program with the Fine Tooth comb for uh three days. There were three people uh from the Cake Repp organization doing that. And when they uh completed, we had met all of the standards necessary and they indicated that a really good Councilor Education Program usually missed
about 8-10, maybe 12 of those standards. And we didn't miss any. They actually indicated that we have probably one of the very best small council education programs in the United States. So I was very proud of that as the coordinator of that program.
Jason Spiess
And um obviously that um did wonders for N Ds U and their image in the program,
Dr. Robert Nielsen
right? Well, it's one of those small programs at N Ds U that is really uh exceptional and a lot of people don't even know about many of those small programs that are um such as polymer and coding, for instance, uh one of the best in the world. And a lot of people don't know that at
Jason Spiess
N Ds U. Yes, polymer and coding. So you got counseling, polymer coding, AG
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Yeah, pharmacy. I mean, there's a number of programs there that are really uh exceptional. All right.
Jason Spiess
Now, I also heard your um recognized in uh certain small towns USA because of your hockey experience. What's that? Now, talk, talk to me about your hockey background.
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Well, I um I grew up in Cloquet, Minnesota and I played hockey and, uh, football there. I went to Concordia College for my, uh, bachelor's degree and I played, uh, football and hockey there also. I, I was, uh, part of the national championship football team in 1964. So you tell my age, um, and I was a captain and player coach actually for the, um, hockey team at, uh, Concordia, um, at India, I started the program, the, the high school hockey
program in North Dakota and there were only eight teams at the time. So they had eight teams in the uh state tournament. So we were one of the eight teams in the state tournament
Jason Spiess
he got in by
Dr. Robert Nielsen
default, we did. That's absolutely true. Uh And then at N DS U, uh we started a club team and, and Dave Morville was uh instrumental as a coach and I was the faculty advisor and in the first eight years that I was faculty advisor, we did win in seven national championships at N Ds
Jason Spiess
U. So N Ds U has seven national championships. Hockey, club hockey. That's funny. Uh OK. So you, you mentioned your uh year, so you, you brought up your age and you mentioned player coach, I kind of wrote that down quickly. And then uh your N Ds U, you, you were a pioneer really um with that program, you, you brought it to new areas with the, with the
Council Education. So you were a Trailblazer in there. The reason I'm writing those things down is because you, you're retired now, you're, you're past retirement age,
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Correent? I am 70
Jason Spiess
three. OK. So you're past retire. Is it 65? 62? 67? It depends on your health care. Depends on your health care policy. I
Dr. Robert Nielsen
could have retired many years before I did. I didn't because I really love the work I was doing and I was still doing a good job.
Jason Spiess
So, so I, I'm writing this stuff down because you, you, you, um, like a lot of people, you work in retirement but you, you're not greeting at Walmart or, you know, bagging groceries, you know, ST stressless jobs, but
Dr. Robert Nielsen
I really honor those jobs.
Jason Spiess
Well, you, you do one of those, you're a ranger. Yeah, you, you're a ranger at a golf course because you like to golf and you get a
Dr. Robert Nielsen
discount. I am. I'm a ranger at Wildflower, uh golf course in Minnesota. A really beautiful, uh, course has, uh, the local, right on the coffee cups we have before
Jason Spiess
us. That's right here at the uh palace Palace and one of the many, uh, one of the lakes, one of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota where, that's where we're actually doing the interview right now, uh with Doctor Bob Nielsen and we're transitioning uh into a retirement portion where he's actually working. He has his, uh kind of a social. Um, you know what I, I'll get some discounts on golf. It's my hobby job, which again is like bagging groceries or Greeting at Walmart is the kind of the
iconic one which really means stress free. You know, it's, it's a way to socialize. You get, you don't have a lot of stress, but you're continuing with your counseling, small business. Now, I wrote down player coach, I wrote down, uh, trailblazing because it seems like you always had that wiring done to where, uh, it was always gonna be in your future. Anyways, you're gonna continue to do what you loved. And so you are doing a small business of counseling now.
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Yes, I am. And I'm very, uh happy with how that goes. I kind of go by one of the, uh, philosophies that I have and that is if the job is worth doing is worth doing right. And, uh, uh I'm, uh quite successful in my private work. Have a good reputation. So I, I do have, uh, a lot of referrals from, uh, individuals in our community, professional individuals such as physicians, uh, who have, um, uh, patients who they have prescribed
anti anxiety medication and then they refer them to me to get them off those anti anxiety medications through the process of counseling. And it's been uh very effective,
Jason Spiess
You know, that's actually, um, a new science that I'm by new 10, 15 years old. I guess that I, I haven't revisited, but I know in nursing homes. They were having, uh, people engage with people early experiencing dementia to try to combat the, the medication. So, it's interesting how they're trying to rewire the brain if you will. It is in order to get away from the, the crutch of medication.
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Yes. And actually how we think does actually determine how we feel. That's the cognitive behavioral process. And we also have to act on the new positive thinking that, uh hopefully it's taking over some of the uh old negative
Jason Spiess
thinking and an easy way to, I guess example would be I get to or I have to just simple things like that is kind of the rewiring of your outlook in your
Dr. Robert Nielsen
brain. Yeah, I get to, I use it, uh I want to, um, changing, I, I, I want to do this instead of I have to do this. I wanna do this interview. I mean, I don't have to do this interview, right. But I wanna do the interview with me, puts a positive slant on it and I
Jason Spiess
get to, oh, there you are. I want to know, I guess I don't need to but I get to, you
Dr. Robert Nielsen
get to because you've made, uh, the inroads into it in order to be able to get to do it.
Jason Spiess
Yeah, there's, you know, and there are a lot of uh interviews I get to do and I say that because, you know, one of the, one of the things I've been very fortunate is I've been able to interview heavyweights in, in industries, you know, and I look at yourself here, Doctor Bob Nielsen and the things you've done have been very monumental throughout your career.
You've got some excellent landmarks. Um, talk to me about your current business now because you have this wealth of knowledge. You know, you don't need to do what you're doing. You don't need to, you, you, you, you, you're at the retirement age, you like to do it is your drive that you're a workaholic or that you like to, uh, change
Dr. Robert Nielsen
people. Well, it's certainly not that I'm a workaholic at this stage in my life. I, um, I only see 4 to 6 clients. I mean, that's not like workaholism. It's, uh really a challenge and it has a very fruitful rewards for me. Talk about egoism or altruism, right? I, I'm not necessarily altruistic, I'm not just giving of my services, but I really benefit a lot from giving up my services and that's the egoistic part of it.
So I, I might be a egoistic altruist or altruistic, egoist. But, uh, everybody I think really needs to feel as though, um, they're doing a service in order to feel good. I think they, and have a very positive feeling about that. At least healthy people have that need. And, uh, it, it gives me a really good way of meeting that need for me because there's nothing better than for me to have a client come back or meet me in Walmart or some place, you know, and, and say, oh, hey, Doctor Bob, I
wanna tell you the things that, uh, we talked about two years ago, I'm living by. As a matter of fact, I had one just not too long ago who are grabbed me. And, uh, you remember me? Well, yeah, I remember, I can't remember your name. I'm sorry, They told me the, the name and they said one of the things you said is something that stuck with me. And, uh, it has made a difference in my life. And I said, well, what was that? I'm really kind of curious.
He said, said that you can't unscramble eggs. And I said, OK, what does that mean to you? Then he said, well, when I come to things that are a mess, I realize that it's a mess and I need to accept that more and I can't change it because it's not changeable and, uh, in accepting it and then moving on, it's just giving me a new life. And I thought, hm, just little things like that sometimes makes such a huge difference. Can
Jason Spiess
and eggs can and scrambled eggs. Well, that, that brings up a, a good transition to the importance of counseling or workplace stress if you will. Um, and that's actually one of the main reasons why I'm glad that, that you agreed to do this interview because one thing we like to, to really highlight is in economic development, there is such a critical need for a work life, personal life, stress life balance. Otherwise the whole system falls
Dr. Robert Nielsen
apart. Well, the stress gets high.
Jason Spiess
Yeah. Well, and then, and then eventually what happens with stress, it fractures and cracks and breaks. So you, you can have a good run for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years. But when you base things on stress and you can't find that balance. Well, look at the Roman Empire that, that was, that was very stressful at times and it cracked and then you take a look at, you know, like a lot of uh I don't know, India, for example, they, they, they've worked very hard on the balance of things and they
seem to be doing ok over the long period of time, you know, versus things collapsing and cracking. So, um first off before we get into the importance of counseling and work, do you guys talk about that? As far as when you're selling a tire, you can kick it, you can feel it.
It's a tangible object when you're selling counseling, how it's intangible, how, you know, it's this unscrambling eggs has a good value to that gentleman, but to someone else that has no value. So how do you sell the intangible of the importance of destressing and
Dr. Robert Nielsen
counseling? Well, one of the uh things that I continue to do is a workshop from time to time when, uh, organizations will contact me and hire me to, to do them, uh, like the family, uh, service system hired me a while back, uh, not that long ago. And I start out by indicating that, uh, stress management is probably the, well, I, I, I believe it is the most important thing for people to learn and they wonder about that because of their jobs.
They think the things that they have on their job are more important and, and I, I don't necessarily believe that because if they don't manage their stresses properly, the things on their job, like you said, are gonna crack things, uh, get too high stress. We don't operate very well on high stress was really called distress. Um, it's where we make mistakes.
Um, it's almost like we take our eyeballs and pop them out of our head and turn them around and we're playing this little record in our brain, uh, about all the negative things that have gone on and the stress gets so high. It's like the bucket is so full of water that when you get a little bit more on it, it overflows when you overflow the bucket.
That's like the mistakes you make. Uh, or, um, you have accidents. I did a farm, uh, uh, workshop and it was kind of interesting milk producers. Frankly. They came in and, uh, it was in the morning and they still had boots on and, and all that kind of stuff, which was good. But just before I went on they had a farm accident, um, individual showing pictures of some pretty gruesome farm accidents. And I couldn't help but think that those accidents were occurring because they were
concerned about other things that they weren't doing right at that moment and they lost track of, um, some machinery or something and, and had, uh, really some horrendous accidents and the, um, session I had after that really went well because there are all kinds of questions that I love them, uh, to get from the audience has become very interactive.
Jason Spiess
So like the, the, the price of corn has got their, their mind going and the simple automated task that they've done mundanely for the last 1000 days, they took their eye off the ball one time. That's all it takes. That's all it takes. I agree with that.
Dr. Robert Nielsen
And that's why, you know, I make the point that, uh, managing the stresses and be able to disengage in order to engage disengage in the things that are in the background in your head that are quote worrisome. And I have a, uh, a definition of that also. But if we're concerned with those things that we would call worry when we're doing the things that you're just talking about.
And for one instant, uh, kind of lose track of what's going on. You, you see it for people in auto accidents all the time. Um, they're thinking about an argument they might have had with their spouse driving down the road and they go through a stop sign and have an accident because their eyeballs are focusing on their accident, not on the road.
Jason Spiess
So when we talk about stress in a, in a workplace and, um, a lot of it is passive aggressive stress in a workplace. Well, everybody's got to go through the happiness machine and, you know, be nice and, and that sort of thing, there's a certain expectation of, um, um, demeanor and, uh, and hap, I call it the happiness machine. Uh, where, you know, how's your day? Oh, it's fantastic. Maybe it's, maybe you're not having a good day but you say that. So it's, it percolates, it percolates
and that sort of thing. Um, do people, is it harder for people to, um, have these conversations in workplaces through your clients that you've seen over times? Is it increasing? Decreasing? Do you not have an opinion on it? Meaning can you pull, pull your boss aside and say I screwed up? Can you pull your boss aside without the fear of getting fired or making more stress in your, in your job? Does that make sense? Yeah, I
Dr. Robert Nielsen
think it does. And some people are pretty good at that and others are very, um, poor at, uh, at that. The ones that are not good at that are also then telling themselves some things that are negative they're saying that my boss isn't gonna understand or my boss is gonna be angry with me or, you know, it's gonna have AAA bad uh view of what it is that I'm doing.
Uh I don't want them to know that. Uh And that's unfortunate because uh that causes more stress and they're hiding things that um they're carrying around with them instead of being able to get them out. Um natural repair mechanisms actually talking uh in an emotional way uh about the things that are going on in one's life. Maybe they can't do that with their boss.
It might be that the boss is somebody that uh would be very critical of them and they have figured that out, but they should have somebody that they can do that with. Uh a trusted friend is sometimes pretty good. Although in many cases, uh a good counselor is probably the best because it's so confidential.
Jason Spiess
Well, and that was the next thing I want to bring up is that um counseling is now being covered by insurances, isn't it by some? So, talk to me about that because it wasn't always that way. I mean, that's quite a statement by health care providers to say we value preventative medicine like in this way.
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Well, yeah, and it hasn't always been that way and I'm not so sure that um the insurance agents agencies uh really like that. Although I think they're finding that is extremely valuable. Do that because the preventative does really make a big difference. People don't end up in the hospital for various different things. I mean, stress is really the killer of today but uh you know, they end up in a hospital for a heart attack or a stroke or maybe even cancer that, that might not have
been the issue if they had been able to manage their stresses. So the insurance agent uh uh companies are, are, are on board with that. And I just say with North Dakota, um must be about 20 years ago. Now, a number of, uh, people including myself who were instrumental actually in getting third party pay mandated by the legislature of North Dakota.
So that the insurance companies uh were forced actually to pay, um, credentialed counselors with a license, uh to get third party pay and AAA pretty good. Uh, Uh, I mean, it's right now it's over $180 an hour. OK.
Jason Spiess
I'm being very dumb here and I'm not trying to be political, but when, when I look at, I, I believe stress is the number one killer, right? I think so. I mean, I believe that's documented, that is the number one killer stress and
Dr. Robert Nielsen
it doesn't show up on the death certificate.
Jason Spiess
No, it doesn't. But as far as doctors are concerned is I believe that that is a actually documented somewhere, um, which is
Dr. Robert Nielsen
documented in a much research, right?
Jason Spiess
With, with, with many physicians and that sort of thing. So when you're talking about ways to destress people, I have a hard time um um understanding where the resistance comes with covering it under insurance. It was kind of like, um when the debate was for health clubs, you know, I, I thought it was a great idea to actually have a, a reduction of your premiums.
If you could prove you could go to a health club five days a week, that sort of thing to prove that you were kind of engaging in some healthy activities uh going above and beyond type of a thing. But within your industry, what was the pushback? What was the pushback against destressing people to make them healthier
Dr. Robert Nielsen
overall? Well, um the insurance companies are basically set up for medical concerns and physical medical concerns for physicians and uh reactive. Exactly.
Jason Spiess
You, you cut, you get
Dr. Robert Nielsen
stitches. Yeah. Ok. Yeah. Um and there was a um philosophy I think by the insurance companies that um clinical counselors, clinical social workers, addiction counselors. Um we're doing a job that uh wasn't gonna pay off for them to insure frankly. Now, like I said earlier, they, I think most of the insurance companies have recognized that since it been mandated. Um there probably are a lot less individuals who are running up big hospital or medical bills um that would have been
there in the past. So I think there are more coming on board now are still not 100%, but I think they're recognizing the benefits of good counseling services. And, and so it means that the individuals that are providing, those have to have good backgrounds and good reputations.
Jason Spiess
Do you get, um, you know, we've been talking about the importance of Coin Slane and the health benefits. Do you have any companies that pay for somebody's counseling? Because they look at it as they might be a more productive employee. Does that ever come up in
Dr. Robert Nielsen
the, in the past or employee assistant programs is really what it's called? And, uh, there's a program. Ok. Yeah, it's a program for many companies, uh, are enrolled in that and, and they have certain providers, uh, like, for instance, in North Dakota, or let's say Fargo, um, the Village is uh, very big on uh, the employee assistance programs.
The thing about that there are certain regulations and rules that each of the different, uh, employees have. Um, like how many sessions will an individual, um, be able to have under that program? Uh, and things like that. Dollar
Jason Spiess
cap, that sort of thing? Yeah. Ok. Um, paralysis of analysis. Uh, you got any advice for people on how to get, uh, unstuck in their
Dr. Robert Nielsen
life? Well, first of all, I think that some of those counselors might have paralysis of analysis because I think there are certain counselors that really look at analyzing their clients or patients and then start working with the analysis rather than with the person and that becomes kind of a negative thing. The diagnosis for instance, is really meant to give the individual the, the professional a way of looking at a uh uncertain condition.
Uh And uh having a background in how that certain condition may be able to be alleviated or at least help move away from that. Um But if they focused on just that diagnosis, they're really doing a disservice to their client. Um The, the, the foundation of any good counseling is the relationship between the counselor and the client. It's not the diagnosis.
Jason Spiess
How about if somebody's uh um stuck in their job if they came to you and said, you know what my, my marriage is ok, but my job is just, I'm creatively not there. It doesn't inspire me anymore. What do you tell them?
Dr. Robert Nielsen
I, I really don't tell them anything. I ask them uh to, to talk with me more about it. And like I said earlier, um the health benefits of counseling is that individual needs to use their natural repair mechanisms and talking about how they feel is one of the best ways of using, I mean, they have the um opportunity and the uh ability in most cases to do that many times we have to um get underneath some things. Like for instance, anger, I'm really angry at my boss. Well, um anger is to me a
secondary emotion and there's something else underneath that and we have to get to whatever it is underneath that. Maybe it's, uh, a lack of security in the job or maybe its, uh, and they're concerned about their boss fire number, you know, things like that. Um, we have to get below to be able to give them an opportunity to talk about their real feelings that are being covered up. Anger covers up a lot of really more deep seated feelings and I
Jason Spiess
think personally, anger is an offshoot of fear. Yeah, like you've got two emotions, love and fear and everything is an offshoot of that. That's, that's how I kind of look
Dr. Robert Nielsen
at philosophy and I don't disagree. Yeah.
Jason Spiess
And I'm not saying it's right or anything, but that's just kind of how I've, uh uh over my years, I've kind of when you boil it down, right? Because that's what you try to do. You, you, you always try to find the root of the problem. You always try to, you know, boil it down and I found that pretty much everything starts there, you know, and, and for me, you know,
Dr. Robert Nielsen
but, uh and that's a lot of fear. Um, fear comes from a lot of different directions. It can be coming from in some externals. But, you know, when you come right down to it, we're our own worst enemy. And the fear that we have is something that's really more internal. Uh and that's like I said, uh earlier, worry for instance, is worry is sort of a fear of what's gonna happen in the future and worries just something that we do about, something that we don't do anything else about at that
time and just, uh, um, kind of reverberates through our system and it heightens the anxiety to the point where the person really does have difficulty maintaining, um, their healthy attitude toward anything in life.
Jason Spiess
All right. So you, you're, um, kind of quasi retired and you're also a professional counselor? Doctor Bob Nielsen. Are you looking for any new business? Do you? I mean, I know you guys are pretty, pretty controlled. I mean, your schedules are you, do you do it on purpose?
You know, it's kind of like a fitness instructor. You can only do so many hours in a day. A massage person can only massage so many, uh, people because their hands can only take so much in a day. Your guys' mind, you can probably tack tackle so many problems in a day.
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Well, and there again, we get to the philosophy that I have, if we need to be able to disengage in order to engage, we need to be able to disengage in some very emotional, uh, concerns that we have in our office with, with a client, that person leaves and then maybe a half an hour later another client comes in, we better be ready for the other client and completely disengaged from the first one.
And it doesn't mean we, I don't care about that first client. It doesn't mean that at all. It just means that we're not dealing with that client anymore and we need to get it out of our head in order to get into our head, what's going on with the client that we're actually working with. Uh, and, uh, you said you ask if I'm looking for more business.
Well, I mean, I'm always open, uh, for referrals. However, Like I said, I only see 4-6 clients. That's pretty limited. I'm very fortunate to have, you know, the opportunity to only see that many because it gives me a chance to really be able to get to know the few I have. Um, but on the other hand, they usually do quite well and they aren't, uh, in to see me for too many sessions.
So if I have a client and within 4-8 sessions, they're ready to be on their own. Um, then I have another opening. So I always have openings coming up. Uh, right now I, I don't, but I probably would in another two weeks to a month, I probably would again, you know, talk about North Dakota. I look at it this way. You talked about being stuck. Here's an individual who's out with their car and they take, they're not hunting, ok?
And they take a dirt road and they get, uh, into an area where the dirt road um, got a little too muddy and they get their car stuck. Ok? They're spinning their wheels like crazy. Ok. That's like a person who's got high stress. Ok. And they tell themselves, oh, I can get out, I can get out and this, um, ok, big Stiger tractor comes by and the guy gets out because, you know, North Dakota, Minnesota.
Nice and says, hey, uh, do you want me to give you a pull? And they say no, no, no, I'll get it. No, no, I'll get it. All they need is to get a pole. You know, all they need is a little help. Uh, along the line, get the stayer, hook them up, pull them out and they're on their own again. Ok. Well, that's kind of like counseling. You, you can get a little pull and get out and you're on your own again. That's why I don't see clients over a long period of time very often.
I hope I can look at myself as a tractor and I hope that they're saying, yeah, you know, hook on, uh, and you know what? They gotta put it in gear too. They can't just sit there. They gotta, you know, we're pulling all backwards, they gotta have it in reverse and go back to where they were and then start over in a different, in a different
Jason Spiess
way. And sometimes when you don't have a Steiger tractor around, you need three buddies to push you There you go. You know, I mean, hey, just to add to your story a little bit, that,
Dr. Robert Nielsen
that's a good analogy.
Jason Spiess
Well, yeah, because sometimes you might not have the big powerful thing around. So you need three average things to just kind of push you along and that sort of thing. I don't know because I can work life's a journey type of a thing. So, why not?
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Well, the only thing I have to say about that is my bias and that is that even three um, buddies are, may not be able to pull you out where the could. That's
Jason Spiess
what I mean. It's, it's, you know, that's uh so any final thoughts, anything we missed, anything you might want to reiterate, uh be sure you plug your business again and that sort of thing. So I, I always give guests the, the final, the final thrill. So,
Dr. Robert Nielsen
well, Nielsen counseling does operate on Wells Fargo um in, in, in an office that is very comfortable. It's very confidential. Um And uh yeah, I, I'm glad we had the interview, but mainly just because I hope others benefit from just listening. Um, but if somebody needs to contact me, the best way is just through a telephone call. And uh, do you want me to give that number? Sure
Jason Spiess
if you want? I
Dr. Robert Nielsen
mean, go ahead. Sure. Um It's seven oh 13614176 and it's Doctor Robert C Nielsen. I go by Doctor Bob man because my students at N DS U kind of took that up and some of my clients are thinking that's kind of fun. So,
Jason Spiess
and, um, I guess we'll end the interview on, uh, how big was the northern you caught the other night?
Dr. Robert Nielsen
Oh, I live on lake, uh, out of Pelican rapids, Minnesota and I, I, uh, baiting for bass, which means I'm pulling a, uh, a lure across the surface of the water that's kind of buzzing along and looking for some large mouth or small mouth bass. And I get, uh, a pretty good hit close to the boat. It's a really big splash and takes off on me and a few, well, 15 minutes later I finally land in northern.
That is the biggest one I've caught. And since I've lived in, uh, uh, the lake I lived on the lake, it was almost, uh, £20 and that, it's not as big as the one I have on the wall. But I got that up in the boundary waters in Minnesota, Canada. And that's almost twice as big as that.
Jason Spiess
but 20 lbs. And that was from the, the biggest one. You caught it on your lake. That's
Dr. Robert Nielsen
The biggest one. I caught it on this lake. Yeah. OK. And I was just, uh, 40,
Jason Spiess
40 inches, £2020. And you were just trying to catch a small mouth or large mouth to pass the time. Well,
Dr. Robert Nielsen
and that's what I'm saying. Uh You did also the balance. We have to have things that are, are fun, uh, freedom, fun belonging. Um, you know, they're, they're all very important to us. Um, and you gotta have fun things to do in your life. Um You get that time to disengage from the other things and engage in things you're gonna really focus on and concentrate on when you're throwing a bachelor, you gotta be concentrating on, you know, where you're gonna hit, uh, and how, how to pull it in.
And once you get a fish on the line, you know, you're not thinking about for me. I'm not thinking about my clients and I'm thinking about what to do in order to get them in the net. That's the way that goes. All right. Thank you, sir. You're welcome as that's fine.
Jason Spiess
And that was Doctor Bob Nielsen with Nielsen counseling to listen to this podcast or other podcasts. Please visit our website, the crude life dot com. That's the crude life dot com. And when you're there, be sure to sign up for our weekly crude Life newsletter. We're also on social media, check us out on Facebook facebook dot com slash crude life, Facebook dot com slash the Crude life, of course, or other Twitter youtube, all of our social media available at our website, the crude
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Jason Spiess
And that's it for this episode. My name is Jason Space. Till next time. Be happy. And remember sometimes life can just be crude. We'll see you next time.
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The Crude Life Podcast: Dr. Nielsen Talks Workplace Stress, Hockey and Retirement