Hey everybody what's going on Rob Cestrino back here with another survivor 44 postseason interview and here we are back with somebody who I'm sure you're thrilled to hear from.

He is the moment my pillow guy it's Carson Garrett Carson are you.

Rob I am so excited to be talking to you I am a huge fan of RHAP listen to so much survivor academy before I went on the show.

I literally had an MP right I thought it helped a lot I literally had an MP3 player with recordings of the the episodes that I wanted to listen to while being at Honduras for the game like I'm so I'm so excited to be talking to you.

Well I'm thrilled to be talking to you to Carson and so I'm really excited that we got the chance to do this and so would love to hear all about your experience but this last month I'm sure this whole experience has to have been such a whirlwind for you.

Yeah oh my gosh I mean I just thought about that other day like how much has happened in the last year and I'm like I'm still in all like there's been so much going on.

I have all these new friends and I'm like I'm even like my like my job has changed like oh my gosh it's been so insane how how much has gone through so yeah I'm I'm I'm still shot.

I know that we're here to talk about your survivor experience and we don't have all the time in the world but what was your life like pre survivor.

Yeah I feel like I mean that's like a completely different person I mean I was so studious I never took any breaks like pretty much every single day seven days a week I was working on school projects research and so to bend about so much time to survivor and prepping for it and it was so it was life changing like in so many different ways and I really had to adapt I mean I was not used to spending so much time thinking about something else other than that.

I was not talking about something else other than school and and work and like and even my career and so to take make that huge transition has been really it was really tough and it's still kind of is to get back to find that happy medium in that sense.

Okay so so much has been documented about your prep for survivor and what you did before you went out there.

How did you decide because I knew you did so much but how did you prioritize what you were going to work on before you went out there?

Yeah I mean I remember when I got into the casting process my cousin told me he said you know Carson you're not even kind of close to getting on the show yet this is just when I applied but like you should go ahead and start preparing and at first I was like yeah and so but when I got the call it was a okay I need to start getting ready for this even if I don't get on and I know the odds for against me but like I felt in my heart I knew that I I really knew that I was going to be on it I don't know why I had that feeling and I'm usually not someone who puts me in the middle of the game.

Not someone who puts a lot of confidence in things that are have a low probability of happening but it was really like following my gut in that sense and I know a lot of people are like oh do you leave with your gut or your your mind for me it's a mixture and so that was one of the instances where I'm like I'm fully you know embracing it all and I went into like the January but like about four months of her filming fully ready to prepare for the show and so I remember I started with a reddit host of like of how I was going to do it.

Of how to prepare and I remember PG law on their writing some stuff and I started from there she was and and I remember seeing something from cast read this book called how to win friends and influence people and I took a personality test that I gave to myself and I looked at my results and my worst category was social and like relationship stuff all the things like having a conversation with someone and naturally I I was super shy and very introverted and still am to an extent

but I really was like I have to get out of my comfort zone I'm going to be getting out of my comfort zone anyways to do the show and so I really apply myself and so I was reading all of these social and mixed books of how to better myself at relationships I just having a conversation with someone and my biggest takeaway was just how to be a good listener that was literally the title of one of the books I read and and also in the how to win friends and influence people book Dale Carnegie talks about yeah you know the

biggest softspeople overlook is to listen is to people is to make people feel heard and it's it's really interesting fact that you can have a full conversation with someone where you're not even speaking but just listening to them and the craziest thing is that they're going to feel more connected to you

even if you don't even talk about yourself or even anything but if you listen to them they're going to feel more connected to you because you understand them and so that was something that I really led with in my preparation in that sense and and so I feel like I really like I really changed how I have conversations with people how I interact with people and I think that really helped me especially because I was coming into the show so terrified because I'm with all these people that are just so much more experienced and amazing in a lot of different ways than me and older and so

I had to I really that was something I really changed it all myself and then also the physical aspect yes I gained 30 pounds it was terrible I literally had to go part time in school because I would be so full all the time but I couldn't even like do work I was like that exhausted tired I would go and like have conversations with people that I didn't know and try to like practice that I don't so messed up and I would oh my gosh and I wanted those books when I got to Pandora said all that's all those prep books

and so I um I would write out like all of the my notes and stuff in my Pandora said journal and review them every day and the craziest thing is like you know at Pandora said you're sitting before you start thinking you're at your own table and I had all my books but I had them in a backpack so I would take out a blue book but we didn't know as I painted all my books blue so it looks as though I'm reading the same book every day and obviously it wouldn't be a good look to read the book to be reading

the book in front of people how to manipulate you know that's not really the title of the book but I mean that's what people would get from that so I anyway so it looks as though I'm just reading this blue book I you know and I mean I had even you know because a lot of people like okay one jacket and put the jacket on all the books

that's a great idea I mean I remember Vosie talking about doing like writing out or like turning out the the David Vosie rules for survivor and so I thought about doing that I just wrote them out but

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