Latest / Inspiring Stories / Living the Motto of Connect Create Contribute with Robin Nathaniel
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the picture of the radiant.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Rat.
- 0:28Speaker 3: You readything to me? Oh well, well say, oh well.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Not a bad stop.
- 1:09Speaker 3: I just need.
- 1:14Speaker 2: Solidly smashion. Sol is a dead.
- 1:32Speaker 3: Events.
- 1:38Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back everybody. Our next guest of Robin Nathaniel.
- 1:44He has he's a ten X speaker and has a
- 1:47really cool story about resilience and creativity. And he's beginning
- 1:56his career as a musician and his artistic roots are
- 2:01laid in a unique foundation for his journey. This experience
- 2:07in music, with its emphasis on connection and storytelling, naturally
- 2:13paved the way for his transition into a professional world
- 2:18of social media. In living by the motto connect, Create, contribute,
- 2:27he aims to inspire a wave of positive transformation. So
- 2:33why don't we see what Robin's message, his art, and
- 2:41his work is truly about, and how we can connect
- 2:46with him as he creates and contributes to our lives.
- 3:22All right, Robin, welcome to the show. So thank you
- 3:27former musician or still a musician?
- 3:30Speaker 4: You never formed would say, I would say former, Michael,
- 3:34but I keep you know, I get these like random
- 3:36back phone calls from certain artists and friends that are
- 3:40like I just had a friend call me like, hey,
- 3:41I need to join this album.
- 3:42Speaker 5: My i'my dust off the pin and write something for you.
- 3:46Speaker 1: So yeah, exactly right. Hey, I used to performance on
- 3:53stage myself and it's like way way back in the day,
- 3:57and then next thing I know, I found myself performance
- 4:00on a different stage for God and that it's like
- 4:06still playing the same notes, just for a different reason. Right.
- 4:10So it's it's you never fully walk away from it,
- 4:14but you're playing for different reasons, right. So yeah, yeah,
- 4:19So you're also a ten X speaker.
- 4:22Speaker 5: I am.
- 4:22Speaker 1: I am.
- 4:23Speaker 4: I gave my TEDx talk in twenty twenty four. It
- 4:27was a dream of mine and a goal of mine
- 4:29to land on the ted X stage and and I
- 4:32got to do that in twenty twenty four. So I'm
- 4:34really excited about everything that's happened since then, and also
- 4:38about helping people who want to land on this on
- 4:41the stage as well.
- 4:42Speaker 5: I try to help as well. Yeah.
- 4:44Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's get to it one. What does what
- 4:50does it mean to you? And how it has resilience
- 4:54top your you keep moving forward because you've transitioned into
- 4:58other things and beyond music and everything.
- 5:03Speaker 5: Yep.
- 5:03Speaker 4: I think in my journey resilience was a characteristic that
- 5:10I really wasn't familiar with, to be honest, I had
- 5:14gone through so much and it's almost like when you're
- 5:18getting like you're in the rain and you don't have
- 5:20an umbrella and it's like just beating on you.
- 5:23Speaker 5: You get accustomed to it.
- 5:24Speaker 4: You know you're gonna get wet, and when you get
- 5:26to where where your destination is, then you're dry off then.
- 5:29And that's kind of how it was moving through life
- 5:31through my journey. I lost my mother in my senior
- 5:36year of high school, so it was obviously as a
- 5:39young man. That's a critical turning point for any young adult,
- 5:43but for me and my mom, our story was so unique.
- 5:46Speaker 5: That we were super tight.
- 5:49Speaker 4: Like I literally like slept in the bed with my
- 5:52mom until I was fifteen, sixteen years old, Like I
- 5:54loved her like that was the love of my life.
- 5:56And that winter of nineteen ninety four, the winter before
- 6:04she passed away, we had a huge argument Michael, in
- 6:09a complete bangout I hate you, I'm walking away, I
- 6:12never want to talk to you again, and we stopped speaking.
- 6:15Speaker 5: So when she passed away the following April, we.
- 6:17Speaker 4: Had never reconciled and I carried that with me right
- 6:22into adulthood, not understanding resilience or that I was like
- 6:25pushing through. And then the tragedies kept mounting. In two thousand,
- 6:32I lost my oldest brother, Christopher Nathaniel, God bless his soul.
- 6:36Speaker 5: He was a young man. He was younger when he
- 6:39passed away than I am right now. You know. He
- 6:42was a young man.
- 6:42Speaker 4: Active, playing basketball, bunch of kids, living his best life.
- 6:46Had a brain aneurysm and was in the hospital for
- 6:49a couple of days and he never came back home.
- 6:53And then fast forward my oldest brother, my next brother,
- 6:58Kevin Nathaniel, passed away in two thous was in the
- 7:00twenty four My Apologies twenty twenty one, and he passed
- 7:04away of a heart condition. So, like all of these
- 7:07things were mounting, and at one point, especially when Kevin
- 7:12passed away, it gave me like this realization that life
- 7:17was so precious, but also that I was blessed that
- 7:21God kept me around and allowed me to be here,
- 7:25not just for myself to be here for my family,
- 7:27but my poor father who lost his ex wife and
- 7:30two of his children the word like their unspeakable pains
- 7:36and losing a child like I don't wish that on
- 7:38my I wouldn't wish that on my worst of enemies,
- 7:41you know. So for my father being here to support
- 7:44him and seeing how he's operated in life now moving
- 7:47into his eighties, he's in his later state, later age,
- 7:50you know, that kind of clicked for me to understand
- 7:55that resilience was a part of my story the whole while.
- 7:58But while I was walking in this rainstorm with no umbrella,
- 8:02I didn't realize that I had a raincoat on. And honestly,
- 8:06I know that that raincoat was provided to me by
- 8:08God and that that has given me a lot of
- 8:11peace throughout my journey.
- 8:13Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, there.
- 8:17Speaker 5: I had.
- 8:17Speaker 1: That is one heck of a story, you know, And
- 8:24there's gotta be a lot of prayer and everything. And
- 8:27we don't usually go into God in this particular h podcast,
- 8:31but hey, you know what it it is part of
- 8:36part of a part of our series of podcasts. Right
- 8:39did we actually have a faith podcast? So I'm just
- 8:44gonna say, it's like, no, God was with you the
- 8:45whole way. You at some point you you asked God
- 8:51hold my hand, you know, at some point?
- 8:54Speaker 5: Right?
- 8:55Speaker 4: So yeah, and I think there was a part to
- 8:59Michael for me in that that I rejected my faith
- 9:03because I grew up in the church, right like my
- 9:05God bless my step mom. She she took me to
- 9:09church when I was in middle school and she had
- 9:12just been married to my dad a couple of years.
- 9:14She had me singing in the choir, She had me
- 9:16going to like Bible studies, she had me going to
- 9:19Bible Sunday school, and I would drag my feet kind
- 9:23of like shrug my shoulders. But if it wasn't for
- 9:25her giving me that foundation, I wouldn't, you know, be
- 9:28where I am in life today.
- 9:29Speaker 5: So for that, I'll always give her gratitude.
- 9:32Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that that foundation. We all we all
- 9:36need that, right, you know, otherwise it's like you really
- 9:41do have literally had the rug pulled out from under
- 9:44you and you just fall right. So so that's one
- 9:50heck of an experience. And how has it guided your
- 9:54your life? Now?
- 9:57Speaker 5: Yeah?
- 9:58Speaker 4: You know, I always lead with being a family man,
- 10:01like it's so important to me. And you know, the
- 10:05funny thing is, you know, me and my wife we
- 10:07actually worked at the same company before we started dating.
- 10:11So we were at this company together and the role
- 10:15that I had was like a leader in a nonprofit
- 10:18organization with a focus on youth development. So my son
- 10:21at the time, he must have been I want to say,
- 10:23he must have been like five or six years old.
- 10:26He was in a program, so like I'm engaging with him,
- 10:29giving him some coaching or whatever. And she said the
- 10:33moment that she knew that she was interested in me
- 10:36is when she saw me interact with my child and
- 10:39how I spoke to him, how I interacted with him,
- 10:41and me and him literally just had a walk in
- 10:44the park. He's got a big tournament coming up, so
- 10:47he's like there's this whole like, you know, motivation piece,
- 10:51doubts about himself, but also overconfidence and just trying to
- 10:54keep that balance. And I'm just trying to teach him,
- 10:57you know, son, don't get too hot, don't get too oh,
- 11:00you know. When things go right, no need to overdo
- 11:03it with the celebration, and if things go wrong, focus
- 11:05on the next play. So for me, the resilience piece
- 11:09and what I've been through, I believe it was me
- 11:12being primed to be a father and a husband, and
- 11:15I fall short daily.
- 11:17Speaker 5: Michael, Like I make mistakes. I'm not you know, I'm
- 11:20just I'm I'm in the mud with everyone else.
- 11:23Speaker 4: However, my intention with correcting my shortcomings or learning from them,
- 11:30i should say, and making sure that I applied the
- 11:32lessons that I've kind of thrown into this, you know,
- 11:36huge duffel bag of knowledge over the years. I try
- 11:39to hand those over to my children daily. So that's
- 11:42what my walk was today. Like I didn't want to
- 11:45walk to exercise and go into ninety degree weather. I
- 11:47wanted to spend a quick thirty forty minutes with my
- 11:50son to just connect with him on a really intimate
- 11:54level before he went into this big game that he.
- 11:57Speaker 1: Has, right, right, So yeah, that's it's important. Like we
- 12:03can't be too big, and we should never feel too small.
- 12:07You know. It's because you feel too small, you just
- 12:13feel like you're not never going to get anywhere, you know.
- 12:17Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think that sometimes for children. And that's
- 12:20this is why I'm so grateful to be to be
- 12:22his dad, right, Like I tell him, like, I'm I'm
- 12:25honored to be your dad, you know what I mean,
- 12:26I'm honored that I get to parent you.
- 12:29Speaker 3: Uh.
- 12:29Speaker 4: And no knock to my dad, right, no knock to him.
- 12:32I'm not gonna do any shade. I talked about him
- 12:34a little earlier. He did a great job. Grateful for him,
- 12:36but he wasn't equipped with the knowledge education to like
- 12:42raise a kid like We had a rough time my
- 12:46probably kindergarten year right on up to fifth or sixth grades.
- 12:49Sixth grade, we were living in rooms. We were renting
- 12:54rooms in New York City. At times we lived in
- 12:56basement apartments. If you if you know in New York City,
- 12:59there's these really tall, big buildings, six twelve story buildings,
- 13:03and on the bottom they're like people who are poor
- 13:05who live there, and they live in rooms that don't
- 13:09even have running water in the room. You have to
- 13:11walk outside of this basement room to go to the bathroom.
- 13:14There's not even a shower there. And I lived like
- 13:17that and didn't realize that I was, you know, in poverty.
- 13:20Didn't realize that we were poor. And again it's not
- 13:23to me, it's not for me to knock my dad,
- 13:25but to bring it back to resilience that for me
- 13:28to endure that and understand at the time that that
- 13:31was just my life. But now reflecting back to see
- 13:35what my kids are like and the you know, they
- 13:39live a privileged life in a lot of ways, you
- 13:41know what I mean, And I want to make sure
- 13:43that they never have to experience that kind of struggle. So,
- 13:48although it was not an ideal upbringing, I believe every
- 13:52moment of my experience contributed to the fabric of who
- 13:55I am as a man.
- 13:57Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean some of some of those moments,
- 14:02no matter how how we should be grateful for all
- 14:07of them, right.
- 14:09Speaker 5: Yep, it's hard.
- 14:10Speaker 4: It's hard when you're in it, right, And I think
- 14:13that's what I've had to learn over the years. It's
- 14:15just and even again, I always talk about imperfection because
- 14:18I embrace my imperfection when I have those moments when
- 14:22I'm like down, like oh, man, like I forgot to
- 14:26fill up, I forgot to take the trash out. It's
- 14:29like first world problems man, Like it's okay, you're gonna
- 14:33you're gonna survive, Robin, Like you'll be okay.
- 14:36Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, like, uh, I have I have
- 14:42experienced like oh, I don't know where my next meal
- 14:46is gonna come from. Right, So having done that, and
- 14:53it's like oh, all right, well, you know, I need
- 14:57to find a couple of extra dollars for some gas
- 15:00of putting the car. You know what if I don't
- 15:02take the car, I can still get there. There's transit,
- 15:05There's there's a shoe leather express.
- 15:08Speaker 5: I can still get this shoe leather you know what
- 15:14I mean. It's like the important things are.
- 15:17Speaker 1: We all have We both have our health, and it's
- 15:21like and that's the that's the important things. It's like,
- 15:24you know, not having enough gas to drive down the street,
- 15:28Oh gee wow, I think I can survive that.
- 15:33Speaker 5: And you have a.
- 15:34Speaker 4: Car right and right, it might it might not have
- 15:39gas in it, but I got one.
- 15:41Speaker 1: You know, if I got one right, it's like, yeah,
- 15:46we could get into more more of the politics, because
- 15:50there's all There was something I saw one time on
- 15:53social media where it said that there's always somebody has
- 15:57something less right.
- 16:00Speaker 5: That's good, so careful for.
- 16:02Speaker 1: What we do have. So you're you're you've taken all
- 16:08the all these experiences and you're trying to build them
- 16:12into what appears to be like a coaching process and
- 16:16you're trying to help people live better. So let's talk
- 16:19about that for a second.
- 16:21Speaker 5: Yep.
- 16:22Speaker 4: So, so the term coach, right, I'll start by saying
- 16:26there was a part of my career where I really
- 16:28embraced that idea concept and title, you know. And at
- 16:34the time, I was actually coaching musicians on how to
- 16:38grow on social media, to grow their brand and be
- 16:41intentional to build an audience online. So I was doing
- 16:45that for a while and it was a profitable business.
- 16:48When my brother Kevin passed away, I realized that I
- 16:51was pouring all of my energy into this thing that
- 16:54wasn't bringing me joy anymore. It was actually becoming a
- 16:58bit of a drag because I guess my audience, the musicians,
- 17:02especially rappers and producers, they weren't the biggest spenders. And
- 17:06I realized after my brother passed that I was like,
- 17:10more than anything, I found myself just doing like sales
- 17:13calls the whole time instead of actually serving and helping people.
- 17:17So at that point I closed the faucet on the
- 17:21idea of me being a coach. I said, like, I
- 17:23don't want to do that anymore. I just want to
- 17:26serve and I don't care how much money that thing made.
- 17:31Right now, I need to look at my time, and
- 17:33because my brother has two young daughters, you know, like
- 17:37I want to make sure that right now, in this moment,
- 17:39that I'm intentional about my time.
- 17:40Speaker 5: So I did what I call a joy audit.
- 17:43Speaker 4: There's another version of it out there called the Life
- 17:46Audit by a woman, and i'm reading her book now.
- 17:49Speaker 5: I can't think of her name.
- 17:50Speaker 4: But my concept of the joy audit was just me
- 17:53trying to audit my time to figure out where am
- 17:55I pouring my joy?
- 17:57Speaker 5: And something remarkable happened. Michael.
- 18:00Speaker 4: I was while I was doing this exercise over the
- 18:02course of a couple of days, I was trying to
- 18:05find a way to simplify it because it had become
- 18:08really a schedule. At five o'clock, you wake up. At
- 18:11five fifteen, you brush your teeth. I five thirty, you
- 18:13make a sandwich. It was just like it was pretty
- 18:15much a block schedule. So I wanted to find a
- 18:18way to make it simple. And as I was making
- 18:21a sandwich one morning and getting ready for work, it
- 18:24hit me and I said, I'm creating. I'm creating this sandwich.
- 18:29I'm not making a sandwich. I'm actually having a form
- 18:33of artistic expression by creating something right right, So create, right, connect,
- 18:41and contribute is what I came up with, these three
- 18:43pillars to really.
- 18:45Speaker 5: Simplify my joy audit.
- 18:46Speaker 4: So if I was doing something and it didn't check
- 18:50one of those boxes, it was out. It was getting
- 18:52cut out. If it was a person, place, or thing,
- 18:55it was done. And that helped me to get where
- 18:59I am now.
- 19:00Speaker 5: Where not.
- 19:01Speaker 4: I'm not coaching now, I'm just serving mission driven organizations.
- 19:05I'm serving nonprofit organizations. I'm serving for profits that have
- 19:09missions and purpose. So my work is very much, Hey,
- 19:13how can I help the people who are trying to
- 19:16make an impact? And how can I amplify their reach
- 19:19and and stretch their message across the world?
- 19:23Speaker 1: Right right? With a bunch of friends, we were we
- 19:28were we're all talking and we were discussing our idea
- 19:33of success, and we all came up with the one
- 19:36thing that our idea of success is who did we
- 19:41impact today? It wasn't about the dollars and cents, it
- 19:48was who do we impact today?
- 19:50Speaker 5: Mm hmm that's good.
- 19:55Speaker 1: So, yeah, how is this making? Because because I knew that,
- 19:58I thought that's a you were kind of getting at
- 20:01with the the connect uh connect, contribute and create, wasn't it?
- 20:08Speaker 5: Yes, sir?
- 20:08Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I thought that's what you were getting at.
- 20:13So it's so, how are you impacting people with with
- 20:16what you're doing.
- 20:18Speaker 5: Yep. So there's a lot of ways. I'll start by saying.
- 20:23Speaker 4: That there's a book by Rick Warren. I think it's
- 20:28called Find Your Purpose or something like that, and my
- 20:31and my wife got it from me a couple of
- 20:33years ago, and it helped me to kind of clarify,
- 20:36you know, what I was doing and really like, I'm
- 20:40doing the work of a higher power. So whatever people
- 20:43believe in, if they're atheist, whatever it is, they might
- 20:46believe in their family, you know, their their family code,
- 20:50whatever it is that your purpose is. I realized that
- 20:53my purpose wasn't so much Hey how can I like
- 20:55teach people about social media?
- 20:57Speaker 5: Hey? How can I make music?
- 20:58Speaker 4: It was like, no, how can I be an instrument
- 21:02for the highest power? Like can I operate in a
- 21:05space where my service is defined by the work that I'm.
- 21:09Speaker 5: Doing for a higher power?
- 21:10Speaker 4: And with that, how I've been able to help people
- 21:13is really through my ability to you know, help them
- 21:18optimize their social media and that's my passion. That's where
- 21:22I do my day work with local government, that's what
- 21:25my agency is all about. And even for my personal
- 21:29brand as well as my I have a Sports Network
- 21:33that I that I do NBA content, even that that
- 21:37was you know, created during this time of you know,
- 21:42healing of my brother's passing. When I close the faucet
- 21:45on my coaching business, I open up my my facet
- 21:49of creativity. And that is another way that I serve
- 21:52people through shared interest, creating community through shared interest. So
- 21:57that's just a few ways that I believe I'm being
- 22:01called to serve people. And the biggest one that I'm
- 22:05really excited about.
- 22:08Speaker 5: I've been putting.
- 22:09Speaker 4: Off volunteering at my local church and there was a
- 22:13call about two years ago from our leader that hey,
- 22:16we need guys for elementary school.
- 22:19Speaker 3: Guys.
- 22:21Speaker 4: We need you because we don't have any guys there,
- 22:23any adult males. They're being led by teenagers. They're being
- 22:26led by women, which is fine, but for young men
- 22:31sometimes it works better for kids to have a man
- 22:35leading their group. So I put it off for two years, Michael,
- 22:38I ignored it, and finally I just woke up one
- 22:41morning and I was like, I gotta stop playing myself
- 22:44because I have experience in youth development. I have a son,
- 22:49and if they're kids that need me to show up
- 22:51every Sunday morning to lead their Bible class.
- 22:54Speaker 5: Then so be it.
- 22:55Speaker 4: And that's my latest contribution again, but this is for
- 22:59me doing it as an active service, operating for high power.
- 23:05Speaker 1: There you go, that's and that's really what it's all about, right, yeah, yep, so,
- 23:13but sometimes sometimes it takes us a little while to
- 23:16come around to Okay, yeah, I guess I gotta do this.
- 23:21I guess I should listen to you're.
- 23:25Speaker 5: In my head. That was total.
- 23:26Speaker 4: I was like, God, I gotta do And honestly, again,
- 23:30I was being selfish.
- 23:32Speaker 5: I was being worldly.
- 23:33Speaker 4: I was thinking about my time, my time, but really
- 23:38is it my time? It's not my time, you know,
- 23:41it's you know, I'm here operating for the future of
- 23:48you know, all of God's children, but especially mine. So
- 23:52what kind of example do I look like for my
- 23:54son if I'm sitting here every Sunday going and coming
- 23:58receiving but not get given. And he he knows that
- 24:02they need volunteers and my son. I made my son
- 24:04volunteer with me the first time. Michael, my my like
- 24:07test run. I was like, you're coming with me to
- 24:08see because I also want to just say, just plant
- 24:12seeds early. You know, there's no telling how long I'm
- 24:14gonna have the privilege of being here with him in
- 24:17person to lead him and love him. But while I'm here,
- 24:22I'm dropping seeds and breadcrumbs for him to just lead
- 24:25him down his path.
- 24:27Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
- 24:29Speaker 1: Yeah, that's important. Important you say that, because everybody's got
- 24:33to find their own path, right.
- 24:35Speaker 5: Exactly, Everyone's got their own path.
- 24:38Speaker 1: Yeah. So to only creativity part, what is it the
- 24:50that that you personally are creating that keeps you fueled?
- 24:57Speaker 4: Right back to that joy audit, I realized that I was,
- 25:02you know, you know how they make these like stack sandwiches,
- 25:06like big macs, or like triple deck of sandwiches.
- 25:09Speaker 5: I realized that I.
- 25:10Speaker 4: Had like a quadruple deck of creativity, and inside of that,
- 25:15there was no space for my marriage, There was no
- 25:19space for my kids. It had gotten the creativity bucket
- 25:24had overflown, like overgrown.
- 25:26Speaker 5: It was too much, right, it was overflowing, it was
- 25:29too much.
- 25:30Speaker 4: So what I did recently was I trim back and
- 25:33I created seasons for my creativity.
- 25:37Speaker 5: So currently the things that I'm working on are two podcasts.
- 25:41Speaker 4: One is called land the Talk, where I interview people
- 25:45who are subject matter experts in their space. Also I
- 25:49interview a bunch of speakers and then I do solo
- 25:53episodes where I teach about social media marketing things like that.
- 25:57So it's really designed for leaders and public speakers. That's
- 26:02the audience that we're serving. But that project I'm doing
- 26:08on a seasonal basis now when I was doing a
- 26:11year round play. So now it'll restart in January and
- 26:15then it'll end probably in about June. The second creative
- 26:19project I'm working on I spoke about it earlier is
- 26:22my fantasy basketball channel. It's called the Believe In Fantasy
- 26:24Basketball Channel. It's a part of a podcast network called
- 26:27the Believe Network. Really proud of that, been doing it
- 26:30for five years. It was created when I was going
- 26:33through that situation with my brother, and the show is
- 26:35dedicated to him. I sometimes feel Michael like he's with
- 26:39me when we're cracking jokes and laughing on the podcast.
- 26:41I feel like he's sitting right here next to me,
- 26:43because he was a bit of a comedian and it
- 26:46warms my heart that we can still keep that going.
- 26:49Before he passed away, while on his deathbed, we were
- 26:52planning his launch.
- 26:54Speaker 5: Of his gaming channel. He was going to do a
- 26:58gaming channel and.
- 27:02Speaker 4: He dreamed of being like a YouTuber and we were
- 27:05like planning it, talking about it. I created a logo
- 27:09for him and everything, and.
- 27:12Speaker 5: While he was in the hospital me not know.
- 27:14Speaker 4: I didn't know my brother was gonna die, but I
- 27:16secretly went off and started this podcast about I want
- 27:20to say, two weeks before he passed away. He never
- 27:22got to hear about it, see it. So every time
- 27:26I do it, it's for him, you know. So that's
- 27:28my second creative.
- 27:31Speaker 5: Venture.
- 27:32Speaker 4: And then the other part of it is just like
- 27:35being a dad is a a creativity for me too,
- 27:38Like sometimes just the thing, especially with my seven year old.
- 27:41Speaker 5: I have a seven year old daughter. I haven't spoken
- 27:43about her yet, but she is a pistol. She's like,
- 27:49she's so fun.
- 27:50Speaker 4: She does cheerleading, soccer, dance, she just got a music class, tennis,
- 27:56so she's trying all of the things and just being
- 27:58her dad, I have to be creative.
- 28:00Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It was something that that I
- 28:07was I always like being creative with with with my kids.
- 28:10Speaker 5: You know.
- 28:10Speaker 1: That was one of the highlights of the day. Doing
- 28:15something that even though with something something silly is uh
- 28:20uh telling reading a couple of lines out of the
- 28:23book and then creating a whole new story about that
- 28:26set of characters, you know. Yeah, so yeah.
- 28:32Speaker 4: It's beautiful and you just got to pour into it
- 28:34because especially you know, as you know, Michael, the time
- 28:38goes by so fast, like they're they're in your arms
- 28:42one day and they're off to college the next, you know.
- 28:44And I think for my little girl, she's she's like me,
- 28:50just way more outspoken than I ever was at that age.
- 28:53But she will make up anything about like she would
- 28:56make a game up with anything like a piece of paper,
- 29:00like a cap, she'll like turn it into a village,
- 29:03a castle. So that level of creativity I just try
- 29:07to pour into her.
- 29:08Speaker 5: But also I'm being inspired as well.
- 29:11Speaker 1: Yeah there you go, there you go, right, Yeah, so
- 29:16your your service to her is actually feeding some of
- 29:20the things that you need yourself, right.
- 29:22Speaker 4: So absolutely, And that's with my kids when we talk
- 29:25about create, connect, and contribute. I'm getting to do all
- 29:30three with them in a way, you know what I mean.
- 29:31So it's like, depending on the day, you know, I
- 29:34could be doing all three. So there's a lot of
- 29:36overlap with those pillars.
- 29:38Speaker 1: Yeah. So all right, so how are you using this
- 29:43whole process to connect with. If we talked a little
- 29:47bit about your volunteering at the church and what other
- 29:50ways are you connecting with people, because I mean these
- 29:53are your pillars in you know, so so how else
- 29:58are you connecting?
- 30:00Speaker 5: Yup?
- 30:01Speaker 4: So you know, I recently wrote a book called Social
- 30:04Media Sync, a Framework for Intentional Human Connection in.
- 30:08Speaker 5: The AI Era.
- 30:10Speaker 4: My work, Michael over the last year has been deeply
- 30:16rooted in human connection and what does that look like
- 30:19specifically online? So a lot of my human connections I'm
- 30:24trying to foster those in the digital space because this
- 30:29limitless reach to impact people, and I think that sometimes
- 30:32folks can't really wrap their head around it where we
- 30:35were twenty thirty years ago to where we are today.
- 30:38Speaker 5: We can literally like.
- 30:40Speaker 4: Have our commercial on television right now. Right If I
- 30:44had like two hundred bucks and I was like, I
- 30:47want my ad or my message to show up on
- 30:51someone's TV in New Brunswick, New Jersey, I could do that.
- 30:57So I think that a part of my mission when
- 31:00it comes to connecting with folks is making sure that
- 31:03we're prioritizing human connection where there is a way that
- 31:09in this current climate of AI driven content, some would
- 31:16say AI sludge right, that we have the opportunity to
- 31:21refine our messages and lean into our humanity, and with
- 31:26that we can build authentic and real connections. The person
- 31:30that you met online might turn into a potential partner.
- 31:34That person that you meet online might turn into a
- 31:37potential client. Bigger than that, the person you meet online
- 31:41might actually become a real life, in person friend or supporter.
- 31:45So that's where I really try to focus in on
- 31:49my connections right now because of the nature of my work.
- 31:52Speaker 1: Right right l there's a lot of talk about AI
- 31:57of course and everything, and it's it's I've even heard
- 32:07some some comments like AI is going to lead to
- 32:10the to the surface of the Antichrist whatever. Okay, fine,
- 32:16I don't think the AI in of itself as all
- 32:19that can't It's up to the person, the human being
- 32:26behind the AI that's that's going to do whatever it's
- 32:30going to do. But what I have seen is on
- 32:35social media that one of our global leaders is using
- 32:42AI driven content to tell untruths or to to it's
- 32:51a So how do you feel about using AI? What
- 32:55what sort of limitations should we be looking to use
- 32:58it in in our own messages so that we are
- 33:00always delivering our true and authentic message.
- 33:05Speaker 4: I love this question. This is a this is gonna
- 33:07be a clip. This is so good, Michael. So, I
- 33:11can't speak to our leaders, right, and I can't speak
- 33:14to people who weaponize AI. Like any other digital tool,
- 33:21this can be weaponized, right. So for years there's been
- 33:25propaganda in cartoons written. You get scam texts every day.
- 33:31People are going to weaponize anything that's out there. AI
- 33:34is just the biggest, biggest target right now because it's
- 33:37new and also it's so powerful, right. So the difference
- 33:41between doing a cartoon on AI versus hand drawing it
- 33:45is that your output can be increased, like at a
- 33:49high level, you could increase your output by one hundred
- 33:52times using a.
- 33:53Speaker 5: Tool like AI. So I'll start with that.
- 33:55Speaker 4: How can we make sure that we maintain our authentic
- 34:00I'll share a quick story. So recently from my fantasy
- 34:04basketball channel, we started leveraging the use of AI influencers.
- 34:10For folks who don't know, AI influencers are pretty much
- 34:14computer generated people who are like the face of brands
- 34:19and organizations where we have influencers on TikTok, for example,
- 34:24who get paid to sell tooth pass and you know,
- 34:27and and promote restaurants the same way. Now with the
- 34:32you know, the rise of AI, we actually have the
- 34:35technology to create digital versions of people, original people that
- 34:40don't exist, or sometimes people that are inspired.
- 34:44Speaker 5: They are also clones.
- 34:45Speaker 4: I could clone myself if I wanted to, So we
- 34:47have that technology now. So I am testing a bunch
- 34:51of stuff for our new season, which starts up really soon.
- 34:54Speaker 5: And one of them is this AI influencer. Her name
- 34:57is Tanya.
- 34:58Speaker 4: So Tanya is literally like on our channel saying things
- 35:01like hey, like make sure you sign up, Hey, you
- 35:05know which player do you like? And we got a
- 35:08response from a person in the space who we really respect,
- 35:12and she was like that, She asks, can't we do
- 35:18something else?
- 35:19Speaker 5: Like can't you promote in another way?
- 35:22Speaker 4: And my you know response to her was we're testing
- 35:25a lot of stuff right now and we'll see how.
- 35:28Speaker 5: It goes and we'll go from there.
- 35:30Speaker 4: And her angle was, I believe it's going to compromise
- 35:36your authenticity, which is a valid point, right because my
- 35:40brand is now being promoted by a computer. So my
- 35:46response to her was, we'll see how the community, you know,
- 35:49feels about it, But thank you for your input. Always
- 35:52show gratitude for the input we did. We ask people
- 35:56in our discoord server, which has a few thousand people,
- 35:59what did they think think about Tanya? And everybody seems
- 36:01to like her. They're like, oh my gosh, like she's
- 36:03so funny, Like it's cool. I love that you're trying
- 36:06new stuff. So we're always gonna have people that don't
- 36:10like something, and you're always gonna have people that like something,
- 36:14and you might have some people in the middle.
- 36:16Speaker 5: Right, what I would say to you is, as.
- 36:19Speaker 6: Long as you are rooted in your morals, your values,
- 36:23as long as I don't have Tanya going out here
- 36:26talking crazy, you know, disrespecting people, or you lying or
- 36:31making stuff up telling them that they're gonna win five
- 36:33million dollars when I know it's not true.
- 36:35Speaker 5: As long as she's in line with my values and she's.
- 36:38Speaker 4: An extension of me, it's I would equate it to
- 36:42using a tool like email.
- 36:44Speaker 5: When I write an email.
- 36:45Speaker 4: I'm sending it and I just use the tool to
- 36:47deliver my message. If we can shift our mindset around
- 36:52it as opposed to like this thing that is gonna
- 36:54hurt us, as opposed to this tool that can potentially
- 36:58allow a new audience member or new person to receive
- 37:03our content because that's their preferred method.
- 37:05Speaker 5: Or medium, then it'll totally shift the game.
- 37:08Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Agree, we can't allow the AI
- 37:14to eliminate our humanity, you know.
- 37:17Speaker 4: Yeah, And when she talks the first video, I didn't
- 37:20say Tanya was AI, but because that person reached out
- 37:26to me, I was like, that's right. So in the
- 37:28next video, Michael, Tanya's first line was, Oh, I'm sorry,
- 37:33did I forget to introduce myself. My name is Tanya,
- 37:36the official AI influencer for Believing Fantasy. You know, I
- 37:40only have three changes of clothes, so don't judge me.
- 37:43And I made some jokes. The same lady responded in
- 37:46the comments, Oh, I like what you did here with
- 37:49that one that made it pretty funny.
- 37:50Speaker 5: This is not bad.
- 37:51Speaker 4: So the point is is that it's okay to listen
- 37:55to your audience to say, like you know what, let's
- 37:57be more transparent so we can lean into our authenticity
- 38:00so our true voice makes it through.
- 38:03Speaker 1: Right. I agree. I like that we in our own
- 38:12business with editing and things like that, we use AI
- 38:16to clean things up, you know, you know, make things
- 38:21sound clearer, so or look clearer.
- 38:24Speaker 4: So yeah, yep, And people have Alexa and you know
- 38:29the different apps that they have that they're talking to
- 38:31Siri on their phone. I think what for creative specifically
- 38:37for writers, photographers, filmmakers, there's some of them feel threatened
- 38:45by the tool, believing that the tool can somehow replace them.
- 38:49And what I would challenge folks to do is ask yourself,
- 38:52where do you value yourself? Like, I know, there is
- 38:56no computer that can replace me. There's no computer that
- 39:01can replace me. Like it might mimic me, it might try,
- 39:04but I am a one of one and you are too, right.
- 39:07So it's like with that, we have to really take
- 39:11stock of our value before we consider that some tool
- 39:15can replace the value that you bring to the table.
- 39:18The key is learn the tool and leverage it to
- 39:21just make you better.
- 39:23Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know that's exactly it. So okay, because
- 39:29we're sharting around our time, It's like we get going
- 39:32on things and then next thing you know, oh, the
- 39:34clock's taken down. If you had the opportunity to use
- 39:41your message to create a better world, what would that
- 39:46world look like and how would your message do that?
- 39:52Speaker 4: It's something that I tell my children all the time
- 39:55it is to just lead with gratitude, lead with I
- 40:00think in this world, especially like I'm a New York
- 40:03City kid, I'm born to raise in New York, it
- 40:06could be such a volatile environment. You know, people are
- 40:09moving fast, You're not moving fast enough. Get out of
- 40:12their way.
- 40:12Speaker 5: Let me beat my horn.
- 40:13Speaker 4: And it's like I think, like you know, in this
- 40:16nation right now, a little kindness would go a long way.
- 40:21So I think that's what I would want that world
- 40:24to look like, a world where we all prioritized gratitude.
- 40:29You can't say thank you enough, like it's okay to
- 40:32say thank you.
- 40:33Speaker 5: For the smallest things in the largest things. Kindness is
- 40:36something that you can't overdose on, right.
- 40:40Speaker 4: And also I think the last piece would just be respect,
- 40:43respect for each other, especially for our our immediate family,
- 40:48because I think sometimes in the you know, in life
- 40:52and just the day to day, sometimes we lose sight
- 40:54on that. I'm guilty of that. Where sometimes I might
- 40:57talk crazy to my fifteen year old. He doesn't just
- 41:00that he deserves the same respect that I would give
- 41:02a police officer, you know what I mean. And when
- 41:05I have an important message to relate to him, I
- 41:07can package it in a way where it can be
- 41:09respectful yet stern. So those are the things, respect, gratitude,
- 41:13and kindness.
- 41:14Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna grandstand for a second here on
- 41:20this one because you you brought it up right, you know,
- 41:23in our current political status and everything, because believe it
- 41:28or not, what's happening in Washington, d c. Effects Ottawa, Ontario,
- 41:35and you know, because we're neighbors. Our countries are neighbors, right,
- 41:41So instead of bashing the the other side so often
- 41:48that I think what we need to do is offer
- 41:50the offer each side that kindness, you know, and things
- 41:57will start to come around, you know.
- 42:00Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree, I agree.
- 42:02Speaker 4: I think that right now in this country, like there's
- 42:06a bigger divide than I've ever seen. I've never seen
- 42:10the country like this, and you know, I'm in my
- 42:12mid for my late forties and I've never seen the
- 42:16country the way it is.
- 42:18Speaker 5: So I agree with you, Michael.
- 42:20Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So best for use to get a
- 42:24hold of you and work with you.
- 42:26Speaker 4: Yes, So I like to leave with giving a gift.
- 42:30So I have a gift for your audience if they
- 42:32visit Landthtalk dot dot com.
- 42:36Speaker 5: Land The Talk dot com.
- 42:38Speaker 4: I'm giving away what we call our Social Media Sink
- 42:41bundle includes two free ebooks about social media social media marketing,
- 42:45as well as a.
- 42:47Speaker 5: Preview to my book Social Media Sink.
- 42:50Speaker 4: It will include the forward as well as the introduction
- 42:53and the first chapter. And if you want to get
- 42:56in contact with me, once you sign up at landotalk
- 42:58dot com, if you respond to the first email you
- 43:01get once on the list, I'll respond to it. I
- 43:03answer all of my emails. Just reach out to me
- 43:05if you have any questions or if you want to
- 43:07connect further.
- 43:09Speaker 1: All right, all right, thank you, Thank you Robin, and
- 43:12thank you everybody for listening, and we'll see you next time.
- 43:16Speaker 5: Thanks.
- 43:17Speaker 1: Thanks, help us.
- 44:02Speaker 2: A reason to.
- 44:10Speaker 3: Sit me up. Cattle Job Wall shows we Can't Drift
- 44:20Wait so she got to.
- 45:40Speaker 1: The show has been produced by Depictions Media. Please contact
- 45:45us at Depictions dot media for more information.