Latest / DA CREW Podcast / DA CREW PODCAST SEASON 1_ EPISODE #181_ HOST LATONYA MICHELLE LITTLEJOHN
Transcript
- 0:49At Wings of Transformation Publishing. We are committed to helping our authors reach their
- 0:54goals and pursue their dreams of becoming published authors. We work closely with each
- 0:59author to ensure a successful publishing experience, and we are dedicated to helping them
- 1:04tell their stories in the most meaningful and impactful ways. We look forward to
- 1:10putting you on the path to writing your book. Aspiring Authors Magazine is a
- 1:19founding sponsor for doc cru podcasts. Get featured inside the magazine and allow your
- 1:26voice to be heard around the world. Aspiring Authors Magazine is an international magazine
- 1:30founded in May of twenty twenty by Queen Angela. Get featured, Hey,
- 1:38and welcome to the Trough Podcast. We are the hottest podcast rocking right now.
- 1:45We are currently looking for six amazing hosts to join our family for season
- 1:51two that will keep off February the first, twenty twenty four. If you're
- 1:57looking for opportunity to allow your one, your perspective, and your brand to
- 2:01be heard around the world and sing around the world, then join Dug Group
- 2:07Podcast three two. What is going Down? That Patty to No One's Again
- 2:24Not to Night? Every second Monday and for a Friday of each monthing this
- 2:30that you don't want to miss. Everybody them, Hey, everybody, Hey,
- 3:31everybody. I want to thank you all for tuning in to the last
- 3:38episode of Delay but not denied the podcast on tonight. This is episode one
- 3:46eight one for the Crew podcast. Tonight. I have our phenomenal leader,
- 3:55Mss Queen Angela, and we will be talking tonight and just having a conversation.
- 4:05I also before I start, I want to say thank you for all
- 4:10of the people who've been on my show, who wanted to be on my
- 4:14show, who's made my show what it is today, I thank you.
- 4:17I think the ones who brought me out of Michelle. I could not have
- 4:24done this without you. Today is my mom's birthday. She would have been
- 4:30sixty three today, So I would like to take a moment to wish my
- 4:35mother, Margaret Marie Kennedy, a very happy, heavenly sixty third birthday.
- 4:43Mommy. I love you, I miss you. So tonight is for you
- 4:47as well. Again Tonight, we're coming close to the end. There's twenty
- 4:59four hours left and this year, So anything that you have put off until
- 5:09tomorrow, get it done, get it done. Don't don't take it into
- 5:14twenty twenty four, if you can help it. Without going to any further,
- 5:19I would like to go to God in prayer, Heavenly Father, I
- 5:23come to you tonight, thanking you for this opportunity, blessing your name,
- 5:28Father God, and just showering you with love and just heartfelt gratitude for what
- 5:39you have allowed us to do as a team and for me individually. Lord,
- 5:46I ask you that you carry us into twenty twenty four even stronger than
- 5:53we left in twenty twenty three. And I just want to say thank you.
- 5:59And you know we're nothing without you, Father God. So with that
- 6:03being said, I thank you. I bless your name in Jesus name.
- 6:06I pray without further Ado, Miss Angela, come talk to me. Amen,
- 6:16Amen, Amen, how you doing? I'm good? How are you
- 6:20tonight? Well? I can't complain. I tell you I could never complain.
- 6:28It could be worse, right, I'm sure somebody else is going through
- 6:32something worse than what I'm going through. No, anytime we wake up on
- 6:38this side, any time we get another chance, absolutely stop saying a second
- 6:44chance, because you know that second chance was that second chance, right?
- 6:48But then he gave us another chance because all of us had third, four,
- 6:53fifth, six, ten, twenty thirty, one hundred a thousand chances,
- 7:00so he keep giving us another chance to get it right. So I
- 7:04have another chance. You know, I got to see another day that was
- 7:08not promised me. You know, every day I've learned, and I have
- 7:14to give a shout out to my Negros Rimeros, because she is truly someone
- 7:18that has taught me what gratitude is and taking the little things and appreciating them.
- 7:29The rising of the sun is setting of the same, you know,
- 7:31and just different things that sometimes we take for granted that a lot of people
- 7:38wish they had the opportunity to enjoy. Lord, I just learned to begin
- 7:44to appreciate those things around me and to realize the things that I had around
- 7:50me. You know, sometimes God places these gifts on the inside of us,
- 7:56and we don't utilize these gifts right, and they can be helping so
- 8:00many people. Well, the things that we think are minute, or the
- 8:05things that we think are little, or the things that we think that don't
- 8:07matter sometimes can change mellions of lives if we just step out on faith.
- 8:13And I thank God for the upbringing that I've had and the belief system that
- 8:18he instilled in those that he allowed to be My disciples, because that is
- 8:24our jobs as people. And we have to understand that regardless of what religion
- 8:30you choose to follow, what religion you choose to take upon, or whatever
- 8:35you want to call it. You know, we got names to everything,
- 8:39but at the end of the day, it all go back to one God.
- 8:43You know, he allow all of this, He allowed all these different
- 8:46religions. And if we go back to our Bible, and we truly understand
- 8:50that he had to do that. He had to break it up because when
- 8:54everybody is truly on one accord, and everybody is truly sink and everybody,
- 9:00and those that truly know the Bible know this, that they were building the
- 9:05temple, and the temple was getting so high, they was getting so close,
- 9:07and they was getting so close that he had to begin. He had
- 9:11to break up the languages. So when people get they panics in the ward
- 9:18about the different religions that want to fight and argue. I can't argue about
- 9:24religion belief systems, you know, And it goes back to I remember this
- 9:30lady, and she's a woman of the cloth. I don't call names,
- 9:35but she said this and it was profound and I shared all the time.
- 9:41But when your mama put you in that carrier, she placed you in that
- 9:46carrier. You sit there, and then as you begin to grow, you
- 9:48moved up to your high chair, and then you moved up to your little
- 9:52chair, and then you moved up to the next chair, and then you
- 9:54moved to the next chair. And then when you start walking, you walked
- 9:58up to the chair. You just sit down. You didn't question that chair,
- 10:01just like you didn't putting you in those chairs. But everything else.
- 10:07So we'll walk up to a plane and we'll get on a plane, and
- 10:15we'll drive these cars across bridges, and we'll do all these different things that
- 10:20we are doing by faith. We're doing by faith that is faith, but
- 10:26we won't activate that same faith. And things that we do for God,
- 10:31things that we do for the Kingdom, because everything that we do, whether
- 10:35we want to accept it or not, everything that we do is for the
- 10:39kingdom at the end of the days, for the kingdom. It's for the
- 10:43building of the kingdom, because that's why we all place here. We all
- 10:48have a route back to the Father absolutely, and how we get there is
- 10:54upon us. Because guess what. You can change your route, you can
- 10:58change the detoys, you can change the rape. But with everything that we
- 11:01do that's out of the wheell, know that there's a consequence. But if
- 11:05you stay on the straight and narrow, it can be a whole lot easier.
- 11:09And I learned that alone the way on this journey. But it took
- 11:13me some time. Like I'm finna be forty nine, it took me some
- 11:16time. But God is good and he will extend his grace and his mercy
- 11:24to allow you to get back on track, and he think enough of you
- 11:28to bring you out of that darkness because some of us we be deeping our
- 11:33sind that we forget about all this stuff that's going on around us, and
- 11:37we need no consume, and we allow consumption to take over us. Because
- 11:43let me tell you something, I was there. I was that person and
- 11:45say I just have to be transparent because it's what Nobody was transparent with me.
- 11:50So I stayed in that dark place. But see, when you can
- 11:54be transparent with somebody else and you can tell the truth and you can be
- 11:56honest with yourself, then it helps other people to hear, It helps other
- 12:01people to move past. Yeah, I be depressed still to this day.
- 12:07I've been in I've sit I've laid on many of coaches. I've had psychologists,
- 12:13I've had psychiatrists. I've had therapists after therapists after therapists. But I
- 12:20have to make a determination that say I'm gonna keep going when I realized that
- 12:26I'm going through something. And then you have to be able to recognize stuff
- 12:28too, and you have to want to change, you have to want to
- 12:33past, you have to want to say, Okay, I'm gonna take hold
- 12:35of this. I know I got this issue, I know I'm dealing with
- 12:39this. Then okay, let me deal with this, let me get through
- 12:43this. Let me surround my people myself with people that have been through this
- 12:48or going through this, and I can call upon these people and see,
- 12:52that's what we got to do. We got to get back to that village.
- 12:56I see a lot of I've gotten away from that village mentality because guess
- 13:00what, we've been hurt. We've been hurt by family, we've been hurt
- 13:03by close friends. We've just been hurt, and we built up that while
- 13:07and we don't want to let people in because guess what, people continue to
- 13:11do the same thing people continue, The people continue to throw their problem off
- 13:16of But you just have to continue to move by faith and believe and ask
- 13:24for discernment so that He will show you when somebody is acting out of order,
- 13:30because he will not allow his child to be food. That's one thing
- 13:33he will not do. And I've learned this on this journey. And you
- 13:39know, that's just just something that you know, I just I don't know.
- 13:43I don't know why I went in like that, but God told you
- 13:46to. We just have to sometimes we just have to humble ourselves and understand
- 13:52that. You know, this is a journey that we got to go through.
- 13:56You know, we can read the Bible. Yeah, it was given
- 14:01to us as a blueprint, but guess what they didn't have. They didn't
- 14:03have a God, they didn't have that. All they had was experiences and
- 14:11in Jesus leading them. But guess what you not Jesus, So your experience
- 14:16is gonna be different. I'm not Joseph, I'm not married, I'm not
- 14:20Serah. Even though we have their blueprint, we have what they went,
- 14:24what they've done, but I'm a different breath and those coming after me are
- 14:30a different breed. I mean everybody has evolved, and as people evolved,
- 14:35we have to understand that life evolves too, and we have to we have
- 14:41to grasp different ways to work with people and understand people and meet people where
- 14:48they are and share life experiences. Because guess what, what worked thousands and
- 14:54thousands and thousands of years ago, they not working right, may not work
- 15:01now. So we have to go with what's gonna work now because we're living
- 15:05in the now, and that's where a lot of what's happening now overseas is
- 15:13happening. The way it is happening. People think that it's happening because of
- 15:16one reason, is happening because of one reason. No, it's happening because
- 15:20people disobe back in the Bible day, and now that stuff is coming to
- 15:26past. You know, everything that we sow, we shall reap, whether
- 15:31it's your children's children, children's children, it's coming back. Absolutely. These
- 15:37people were doing this mass conservation. You think you getting away, You not.
- 15:41Everything that you're doing is gonna come back to bite you. Whether it's
- 15:46your great great grandchildren or your great great grand they are going to suffer.
- 15:50And I had that conversation with somebody like we may not feel what that karma
- 15:56is directly, but we'll definitely know it indirectly because I mean, God gonna
- 16:03spend the block. I mean, He's not gonna allow you to go but
- 16:07so far before he pulls you back and you know, and put you in
- 16:15your place, because I mean, you can only step out of line so
- 16:18many times before that whipcrack. So right, But I wanted to bring you
- 16:25on tonight to give you your flowers. You have created a safe space for
- 16:37a lot of different people from all different walks of life, from different age
- 16:47groups, different tax brackets, and we all have the same goal in mind
- 16:53and it's just to go further. And none of this would be possible without
- 17:00you, And so I wanted to take this moment to just say thank you,
- 17:08to tell you that we love you, we honor you, and you
- 17:14know, the Queen of collaboration. You have opened doors that some of us
- 17:25haven't even thought about entering. Like you know, everybody knows that I followed
- 17:30Trevita into the podcast world, but it was you that gave me the training
- 17:37to get me to where I am today. Here. I am never thought
- 17:45that this is something that I've stuck to and stuck it out like I never
- 17:51finished anything. I never see anything through. I procrastinate. I'm really bad
- 17:56at it, and you know that's my cross to beat. But you saw
- 18:02something in me and it made me want to show up. I show up
- 18:07for everybody when I can, and even though I got the flu at this
- 18:11very moment, I showed up tonight. This is my last show for twenty
- 18:18twenty three, and I can only see bigger and better things happening for twenty
- 18:25twenty four. So I wanted to start this conversation with asking you where do
- 18:33you see the Crew podcast going in twenty twenty four? What direction do you
- 18:40see? What's your vision for the crew? Well, as a visionary,
- 18:49of course, my vision is very humongous. I just don't see it as
- 18:55a podcast. I see us venturing into been doing television, doing red carpet
- 19:03events. I'm definitely pushing the crew out there coming up next season. Because
- 19:15everyone knows that I do this expo that I've been doing for about four years.
- 19:19I started in twenty and sixteen twenty seventeen, but during COVID I had
- 19:26to stop because of COVID. But we're gonna get back out there. We're
- 19:30gonna get back on the road, those that follow aa l a C,
- 19:37which is the African American author LYZCA awareness campaign. I do a Chasing Your
- 19:41Dream Book tour in Expo where I bring in individuals that do workshops. They
- 19:51facilitate workshops, we do breakout sessions. I bring in authors, business owners,
- 19:56so I bring in about thirty hour, about fifteen business We have speakers
- 20:06that do the breakout shops. Like I say, this year, I want
- 20:10to include the Crew podcast, to host the red carpet area, to do
- 20:14the interviews, to go right around and give the authors and the business owners
- 20:19an extra opportunity for exposure, and y'all can cover the event and then only
- 20:26that the magazine. Now I have the magazine. I didn't have the magazine
- 20:30before the magazine thing came out in twenty twenty. So we're celebrating four years
- 20:37next year. And and all this happened on COVID. I dropped this in
- 20:41my spirit to be able to do these things to share around the world.
- 20:49Doing the lockdown because a lot of people they were unsure of what they were
- 20:55gonna do. So I really racked my brain and just came up with a
- 21:00lot of stuff to you know, help the people that were in my circle.
- 21:03You know, I can only think about those that were connected to me,
- 21:08and I came up with these different things and that's that's, that's what
- 21:15we did. But now we're getting back out there. Like I said,
- 21:18we're gonna be hitting the cities, sitting on different states. We have ten
- 21:22stops. We're gonna started Murder Beach April sixth. We're headed to Texas.
- 21:26We're headed to Illinois, New York, Tennessee, Alabama, Savannah, North
- 21:36Carolina, Spartanburg, Charleston. Hopefully we can end on somebody's ship on cruise
- 21:45or in Murder Beach. But those are my desires. We have some ambassadors
- 21:52that's helping me, and I'm still putting a plea out there. If you
- 21:57are in a state and you would like to be a state ambassador, simply
- 22:03if you know, you know different places, venues in your state, you
- 22:07know different connections, you know different things that could help me. Because I'm
- 22:11not in your state. I'm in Mertin Beach. But I need to get
- 22:17these locations booked. I need to get these venues solidified so that we can
- 22:23get them packed out, get the community involved. I am also trying to
- 22:30make sure that I connect with the news stations. I'm reaching out to those
- 22:34news stations back in Anderson in Greenville that I worked with when I lived in
- 22:41Anderson and see if they can help me connect with those different ones and those
- 22:45different states that I'm trying to reach out to. I'm pulling out all hats.
- 22:52I'm getting back to the basics. I'm getting back to you know how
- 22:55I got here, you know those things that God allows me to do to
- 23:00get me where I am today. So I'm sticking to it, you know,
- 23:04and I'm trying to show other people how to do it too. So
- 23:08we're doing workshops at these events. So we're gonna have branding workshops so people
- 23:14can learn how to brand their business, learn how to do other stuff.
- 23:19If you are an author, you can do so much more besides talk about
- 23:23selling your book. You can do so much more. You can create a
- 23:29coaching program, you can create a speaking platform, you can create merchandise around
- 23:34your book. You can create so much. So we're gonna have a branding
- 23:40workshop, We're gonna have a marketing workshop. Of course, we're going to
- 23:44be doing podcasting because guess what you are listening to the newly Enshrine Class of
- 23:52twenty twenty three International Internet Radio Hall of Fame Broadcasting Inductee. I'm excited about
- 24:00that, not only that I won Host of the Year over on wbn N.
- 24:07I'm telling you, I'm going to be celebrating four years over on that
- 24:10networks, and I'm excited about that. I'm telling you, somebody believed in
- 24:18me. Somebody gave me a chance. So I have no choice but to
- 24:23believe in others and to give others a chance. Because guess what if I
- 24:30had a gave up a long time ago and said forget this, throw in
- 24:34the towels, I wouldn't be sick right here. But it's just something about
- 24:38that will and the will y'all. He's given us power. And I tell
- 24:42people these words that you know, we take for granted that we throw around
- 24:48like. He kept giving me this word, kept giving me his word,
- 24:52and I was like, okay, power and then he broke it down to
- 24:55me. He said, I have positioned you the pee, position you to
- 25:00be an overcomer. Oh you overcome everything that you've been through. Yeah,
- 25:06it all came at you. It was part of the plan. Jeremih twenty
- 25:10nine to eleven will not return to and board. He said. It was
- 25:12not to harm you, huh, wouldn't harm you, But it was to
- 25:17prosper you. It was to help provide you with hope in the future.
- 25:23See, if you didn't go through nothing, you couldn't hope for nothing.
- 25:29So you had to go through. So you overcame that. But guess what
- 25:33you didn't complain. You was a willing vessel. You stood there. You
- 25:38let them talk about you, you let them call your names, you let
- 25:42them do darts at you, You let them do everything to you. But
- 25:48they never helped you. They never gave you a help and hand that never
- 25:52pushed you. They never wanted to see you succeed. But you stood.
- 25:57You didn't give up. You said willing. He said. Guess what,
- 26:03he said, I've given you the tools to educate. He said. No,
- 26:07it ain't about degrees, he said, and I showed you it wasn't
- 26:11about degrees, he said. I allowed you to go back thirty years later
- 26:17to get your degree. You did, but you had to go through.
- 26:22You had to let other people see that wouldn't bout a degree. It was
- 26:26about the titles, about all that. But you're in a vessel to educate
- 26:37and power and encourage others to not give up that will and the will that
- 26:44will not let you quit. It's called resilience, and that's power. And
- 26:49when people understand the power that's on the inside of them Genesis two and seven,
- 26:56will not return to him board. He said, he breathed a breath
- 26:59of life, life into you. Mm hm. So part of him is
- 27:02out of you. It look it ain't you gonna wake you up. But
- 27:10all you got to do is you you have to move out your way right
- 27:15and let him in, Invite him in, welcome him in, give him
- 27:21a place to dwell, give them a place to be, and he'll be
- 27:26just what he said he will be. And people gotta understand that. And
- 27:32until they do, they're gonna continue to go in the same circles. And
- 27:36then they gonna want know why nothing want right? I promise nothing that is
- 27:40doing this and why nothing know? Everybody want to know books? How you
- 27:47do this, how you do that? How you do this? How?
- 27:52It ain't by my strength because guess what, I have no poblem right,
- 27:56but he dropped things in my spirit and I have to move on. Like
- 28:00all these books right here, I did I did these this year, all
- 28:04these right here, I did these this year. I did a calendar and
- 28:11I got another one on the way. But I did this. I made
- 28:15this calendar from Stratch. I just sit here one day and designed it.
- 28:22You know. I ask people if they wanted to be a part of it,
- 28:25and you know, I put people in it. You know. But
- 28:30all these books, he dropped in my spirit, and I did it.
- 28:34And I look on Amazon. Amazon said I got eighty seven books. My
- 28:40goal is to have a hundred by the turn, by the time I turned
- 28:44fifty. So we're gonna see. I'm gonna sit down one day. I'm
- 28:47gonna sit down one day and I'm gonna figure out exactly how many books I
- 28:49really got, Like when I turned fifty nine, I mean on forty nine
- 28:56and then I got a whole year of the the right. But I do
- 29:02believe I'm on I'll get the hundred. But I like, I just like
- 29:08everybody helping, like doing stuff. Like we got a book that's dropping tomorrow,
- 29:14m the third book to this series here. It is a poetry book
- 29:22that is bringing awareness to black mental health. Like it's titles suddenly Hurt inside,
- 29:27Hurt no More. You know, people like how you coming up with
- 29:30that? Like I dropped it in my spirit, like so many people hurt
- 29:34in silence, and they don't want to talk about it. They want to
- 29:37hold it inside and they don't want to say nothing about it. You know,
- 29:41I don't think that it's that they want to hold it inside. We're
- 29:45in a generation of where we can't talk to everybody because everybody don't care.
- 29:53And then you know, you have your group of people that can't wait to
- 29:59run and tell what what you're going through. So it's not so much that
- 30:04they want to keep it inside, but it's a safe place to keep it
- 30:10bottled up because at the end of the day, you're not gonna use it
- 30:14against you, You get what I'm saying like that, But it's so many
- 30:18opportunities we we we have. We're living in an age right now where there's
- 30:26so many opportunities where there's no there's no more time for making like we're living
- 30:34in an air where you can go anywhere and find somebody, Like now you
- 30:41can pick up your phone down nine eight eight and somebody on the line to
- 30:45sit there and listen to you and not say nothing. If that's what you
- 30:48want. You know that they're they're there to help you, you know,
- 30:53and that that's what I'm trying to do through out of what do you know,
- 31:00to share with people because let people know that, hey, you,
- 31:03you are not alone, you know. And when this book dropped tomorrow,
- 31:07people want to understand. You know, it's forty of us inside of this
- 31:11book. You know, we come from different walks of life. You got
- 31:17seven men, and five of those men are incarcerated, you know, and
- 31:23they're sharing in poetry. You got two ladies from Legos, Nigeria, all
- 31:30the way from Africa, you know, sharing poetry. You know their perspective,
- 31:36you know, and we're talking about love from a place of being hurt
- 31:40because you got a school teacher one of the ladies from Africa. She's a
- 31:45school teacher and she's battled with depression, you know, so she understands on
- 31:52so many different levels what this black mental health is really all about, you
- 31:57know. And people think that, you know, just no, it's not
- 32:02just an American thing either. And we're not just focused on what's happening here
- 32:07in America. We focused on what's happening around the world. Because we are
- 32:12an international magazine, we're an international podcast. We are we We are focused
- 32:19on what's happening around the globe and that's what we do. You know.
- 32:22We are here to make an impact. We're here to be the change that
- 32:29we want to see around this world, you know, And we're leading by
- 32:32example. We're not sitting back and waiting for something to fall out this guy,
- 32:37right, It's never gonna fall out this guy right. So you know,
- 32:44like so, being that you are the woman that you are, you've
- 32:50shared your story with us many times on many different shows. How do you
- 33:00find the strength to keep going? Like you know, you've you've shared in
- 33:05Domestic Violence Month that you were shot at point blank range with a sod Off
- 33:12shotgun. And I mean, yes, God, God spared your life.
- 33:17But what is it within yourself that keeps you from not just sitting in that
- 33:27depressive state and blaming yourself for not seeing signs before and just being able to
- 33:36walk away and being who you are today? Well, I had to own
- 33:47up to the fact that, you know, in every situation, we all
- 33:52have a part, right, we all play apart, And I did play
- 33:57a part. I was more so than I was more so the person that
- 34:04thought I could fix on mm hmmm, that that was me. I my
- 34:10my my problem was called what they call codependency. That that that was me,
- 34:16thought that I could change something that I couldn't change, not realizing that
- 34:23the signs were there. And then in the place where pride was still there
- 34:29too. You know, I'm back in my hometown. While I said I
- 34:34will never be I'm dealing with uh A lot a lot of stuff that I
- 34:44said I wouldn't be dealing with, you know, And I was in that
- 34:49dark place. And for us to say that we'll never do this, because
- 34:53I'm telling you, if you had known me before domestic violence and before I
- 35:00through all this, you would have never thought I would be that person in
- 35:02that place. Like nobody thought that that happened to me. Like when a
- 35:07lot of people saw this on the news. And people were seeing this on
- 35:10the news, they was like, no, not now she went on like
- 35:15that's somebody else that was yeah, But yeah, that was me. I
- 35:19was in a dark place. But even afterwards, I had to realize that
- 35:30this was not what I wanted and I had to walk away because and being
- 35:38transparent and being honest may trigger some people, but just trigger on it.
- 35:45I went back. Even after all of this, you know I was married,
- 35:51this was my husband, and I gave him we were gonna work it
- 35:54out. After a while, I was like, no, I can't do
- 36:01this. I packed up what I could and I left. I went to
- 36:07Atlanta and I never looked back. And that was twenty eighteen. I walked
- 36:16away for good and said this is this and this is that, and I
- 36:20never looked back. And I think my turnaround really came in two thousand and
- 36:32seventeen. Really in the back of my mind, I was planning, like
- 36:42the getaway. I was planning on leaving, but I didn't know how,
- 36:51you know, and then how they'll wheel you back in and make everything seem
- 36:58like it's gonna be oy and you know this is gonna happen, and everything
- 37:01going great for a while, and then then they go. They they show
- 37:07themselves again. But if we understand, and we truly when people show you
- 37:14who they are, you gotta believe them. That's who they are, that's
- 37:17who they are. They not changing, it's not going back, it's not
- 37:22they can't take it back. Once they reveal to you who they are,
- 37:25that's who they are. You gotta take it for what it is, and
- 37:30you have to make those decisions. So I choose now to sit back and
- 37:36watch people and monitor people, and to really take people for who they are.
- 37:40If they show me who they are, like you show me other than
- 37:45like you don't told me you this way, and then you show me something
- 37:49else, then I'm believing what you show me, right, and how you
- 37:52done told me no whin out the window as speak louder than words, exactly,
- 37:59and when you start seeing me less than you should know, right,
- 38:06That's what it is. Twenty twenty four for me is gonna be a whole
- 38:08lot different. Like a lot of people have wrote my coattail, a lot
- 38:13of people have a lot of people to just being honest, to just being
- 38:17real, a lot of people have they have thought that they have used me,
- 38:22and they picked my brains and they've done all kind of stuff, but
- 38:27they've only been able to do what God would allow me to do. I
- 38:32was just being obedient. But a lot of stuff is changing in twenty twenty
- 38:37four, Like a lot of people, I'm walking away from a lot of
- 38:43people that truly mean me no good, like they have ill intentions and they
- 38:50have truly shown themselves like they show themselves daily, Like if you just watch
- 38:55people, They will reveal to you exactly who they are and you won't even
- 39:00have to say nothing if you just sit and just listen and observe sometimes and
- 39:07then sometimes if you just just watch their pages, like you don't even have
- 39:10to have no conversation with people sometimes sometimes you just watch their actions because actions
- 39:15are always speaking. They speak loud, and people don't understand it. But
- 39:21yeah, I think they do. I think that they just don't everybody.
- 39:28Yeah, yeah, I think that they think that if you don't speak on
- 39:32it, then the other person don't know or whatever. But you know,
- 39:39you can you can only well I'll say this, people can only do to
- 39:45you what you allow them to do, and how long you allow them to
- 39:51do it is totally up to you. And so you know, with that
- 39:55being said, you know, I've had a conversation where my twenty twenty four
- 40:00will not look anything remotely close to what this year and years has has looked
- 40:09like. It won't. I mean, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty taught
- 40:15me something, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three,
- 40:19saying twenty twm twent four insight wonna be sae and all and I do believe
- 40:23that God allows you to keep learning the same lesson until you get it.
- 40:29Yeah, Like you know, I I've had a conversation with a friend and
- 40:36we were talking about how if God is trying to take you away from something
- 40:42and you choose to ignore it and stay in the situation thinking that you can
- 40:47change a person, He's gonna allow that person to do you harm until you
- 40:54decide to say, Okay, I hear you. If it's truly time for
- 41:00me to go, then it's my time to go. And I mean,
- 41:05he doesn't. I feel like God doesn't create a situation to harm you himself.
- 41:12But because people were given free will. In that free will, they
- 41:16do what they want to do. And you know, sometimes you just have
- 41:22you happen to be in the way at that moment, so you know,
- 41:28it changes you for how you look at people, and it makes it harder
- 41:35on friendships and relationships of any type moving forward, because you don't want to
- 41:43take that prior hurt, whether it be church hurt, family hurt, friendship
- 41:49hurt. You don't want to take that into new situations. You don't want
- 41:55to bleed on people that didn't cut you at the end end of the day
- 42:00right. So my last question for you is being that you were able to
- 42:08come out of a dark place and and not look back. What recommendations do
- 42:15you have for someone who is trying to pull themselves out of darkness but can't
- 42:23seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But first thing,
- 42:30I tell them that they need to wake up and remind themselves that they
- 42:36are loved. They need to talk to themselves on a daily basis out like
- 42:39you got to speak life to yourself. You have that power. He's giving
- 42:44you that power. Proverbs eighteen twenty one Tis says that we have the power
- 42:47in the tongue to speak life or death. So we can speak life over
- 42:51ourselves. We get up in the morning and look ourselves in the mirror,
- 42:54look at our souls, look at it, look in your eyes in that
- 42:59mirror, and to yourself. And then not only just speak to yourselves,
- 43:04act upon that thing that you speak to yourself. We got to learn how
- 43:09to love on ourselves and how to build ourselves up and understand that this is
- 43:19who we are. He's given us gifts, and he's given us talents.
- 43:22He's given us a passion. So find that passion that's on the inside of
- 43:24you, that purpose that he's given you. Jerem My twenty nine to eleven
- 43:28is not gonna return to him. Boy, He's given us all a purpose.
- 43:30There's a reason that we're here. We're not here by accident. Place
- 43:36will be a podcaster. He's placed you here to be a podcaster or a
- 43:39journalist writing for the newspaper, on somebody TV show, or whatever the case
- 43:47is. He's placed you here for that purpose for the kingdom. So you
- 43:51find whatever your passion is. If your passion is helping people write books,
- 43:54if your passion is is sharing affirmations, your passion is, you know,
- 44:00just being in encourage or whatever. Your passion is that thing that drives you,
- 44:05that thing that wakes you up in the morning, the things that give
- 44:07you life, the things that make you want to do more. People ask
- 44:13me, how do you do what you do? Because that will and the
- 44:16will, that power that he's given me. He's given me a power to
- 44:22be a leader. He's given me a power to be a collaborator. Whoever
- 44:24spoke that over my life they did something, I mean, they did that.
- 44:29They spoke that over my life, and I had to live up to
- 44:31that, so I have no choice. So now I have to live up
- 44:36to that name. So now I had to get out and start collaborating.
- 44:40I had to get out and start meeting people, Like I don't meet a
- 44:44stranger, right, How can I meet a stranger when I'm on a mission
- 44:50to bring people together, Like it's my job to bring people together, for
- 44:54people to understand that there's a reason why they're here. It's not by accident,
- 45:00Like you didn't get dropped out of the sky, like he placed you
- 45:02here, Like literally, he placed you here for a reason. He didn't.
- 45:08He didn't drop you down like you. You you here because he needed
- 45:15you on tasks. He needed you doing what he needed you to do.
- 45:22So that that that's why. So we just have to understand that. And
- 45:28I'm excited about this journey because I get the opportunity to take the gifts and
- 45:34the talents that he's given me. Because some some he's given one talent,
- 45:37some he's given two, some he's given three, and these some he's given
- 45:39a lot of talents to But we have the opportunity to you know, our
- 45:44socialds. So He's just happened to give us the opportunity to utilize them through
- 45:49the Cool podcast and through the magazine and through now the Chasing Your Dream book
- 45:55too. We have the opportunity to take those skills that He's given us as
- 46:00broadcasters, as journalists, as individuals that's diving into the lives of others.
- 46:07We have a passion for sharing other stories because we believe that others have a
- 46:10story, and by sharing these stories, then we have the opportunity to bring
- 46:16about change and to give people the opportunity to hear the change that other people
- 46:22have been experiencing in their lives and how their lives can change if they desire
- 46:27that change, and if they're willing to do the work, because your work
- 46:30comes with that. Like I was sharing with Chara, Charita had posted something
- 46:36on Facebook the other day about overcoming something throughout the week or something or something
- 46:44of that nature, and I posted about really having about what depression this week.
- 46:52December is really a trying time for me because it's my mom's birthday.
- 46:58My mom's birthday December the fourth, and then I got two cousins that was
- 47:01born on her birthday, so they're still hit celebrating their birthday. So they
- 47:07get to celebrate their birthday and my mom's not here, and then so many
- 47:12of my cousin's birthdays in December. Then my favorite cousin, he was like
- 47:15my best friend, my brother, like he was really really close. He
- 47:20lived in Atlanta. He passed away October two years ago. I dedicated that
- 47:24book So for Metamores, So for Metamorphous, on that poetry book to him.
- 47:32It was released on his birthday. But December sometimes very hard for me.
- 47:38So I was kind of depressed, and like I was telling Treda in
- 47:45that post, you know, I had to cry a little bit. I
- 47:51had to let it out and then I released, and then I took a
- 47:55nap, and then I got up and got at it again. You know,
- 48:00that's what we have to do. Sometime we just have to release.
- 48:02Sometime we just have to let it out. Sometime it just need to come
- 48:07out. And sometimes, you know, I don't know what the stigma is
- 48:10with black people, but therapy helps get you a therapist. Talk to your
- 48:17therapist. You know, Like I deal with depression and anxiety, and the
- 48:25month of December is hard for me as well. As you know, I'm
- 48:30adopted. My birth mother, her birthday is today. She's no longer here.
- 48:37My adoptive mother. Her birthday was December nineteenth, my adoptive family their
- 48:45wedding anniversary is tomorrow, and my adoptive father is no longer here. So
- 48:51I mean, you know, I get it. And I went through about
- 48:57of crying yes today and it just when you have all of these things bottled
- 49:06up inside of you, you have to release it or to kill you.
- 49:10I mean, that's that's the end, point blank period. So you have
- 49:16to get it out, whether it be writing, singing, what I mean,
- 49:23whatever it is that you do. Because like I, I never knew
- 49:28what my purpose was. I wrote a book thinking okay, well that's my
- 49:32purpose. That wasn't my purpose. You know, I've done a lot of
- 49:37different things and try to do things that other people were doing, thinking okay,
- 49:43if it worked for them, it may work for me. But this
- 49:46this was different. Everybody has their own podcast within the crew, and you
- 49:59know, out out to everybody. I mean, miss Alma Live Again,
- 50:04She's she's teaching you how to navigate life after going through something traumatic. You
- 50:10know, Trevita, believe in the journey. You gotta believe in the journey
- 50:20ahead of you, no matter what it looks like. You gotta believe what
- 50:23that is and trust her progress process. Let's chat with Nat. She's talking
- 50:30to you, She's telling you what's on her plate. And I mean we
- 50:36we all go through things s see book galling friends. If you got a
- 50:44book that you won't reviewed by all means, get it patriced. She got
- 50:49you and the mama of our crew, Miss black Diamond, like you know,
- 50:57we all bring something different to the like. You know, it's it,
- 51:02you know, a shameless plug. It's not too late to get some
- 51:07candles, some bedroom candles from Mss Black Diamond. You know, support these
- 51:13black beautiful people that are giving you a portion of their lives throughout these podcasts,
- 51:23creating a platform for you to have a safe space to speak. My
- 51:30platform delayed but not denied. You know, what is delayed for you today
- 51:36is not necessarily being denied upon you. So just because it doesn't happen today
- 51:42doesn't mean that it's not going to you. Just have you just have to
- 51:46stay the course. And you know, I open my platform to different people
- 51:52for different reasons because everybody's situation is not the same. Everybody won't you know,
- 51:59everybody won't travel the same road. But the end goal is to walk
- 52:07amongst the Kingdom of God, and you know, whatever we can do as
- 52:15a family to get to that point, you know, I'm here for it.
- 52:19Like you know, I love all of y'all more than you could possibly
- 52:25even imagine. And I'm grateful for you because you came into my life at
- 52:30a time where my life was in shambles. I mean, I'm still putting
- 52:36the pieces back together. It's a work in progress. But you know,
- 52:43anything worth having is worth fighting for. So right now I'm fighting for me.
- 52:49So you know, I thank you for just being not only the queen
- 52:57of collaborations, but the big sister that some of us don't have. You
- 53:02You are ear to everybody like and and nothing that is said to you goes
- 53:08anywhere. And you know that that says a lot about who you are and
- 53:14your character as a woman, you know, because women are chatty. We
- 53:17we we don't always get along, you know, in certain situations, but
- 53:23we got the right group of people to come together and you know, we
- 53:30pray for one another. We we got the little group chat and we hop
- 53:35in there and it's not always about the podcast. And that's beautiful that we
- 53:39can communicate beyond the confines of the podcast, and so I thank you for
- 53:46that, right. So is there anything that you would like to say before
- 53:54we head out of here. Well, I just think for the opportunity to
- 54:00be able to do the things that I do, I'm not always been in
- 54:05this place, and I'm just thankful that he thought enough of me to bring
- 54:10me out of that dark place into the marvelous light that I may be a
- 54:15beacon of light to somebody that may be in that dark place and to be
- 54:19able to spread hope. And I try to do that through love and by
- 54:24leading and by educating, empowering and encouraging others. So I just try to
- 54:32be a voice. And again I just erriage everyone to make sure that they
- 54:38are following the Coup podcast. They connected to the cool podcast A A L.
- 54:45A C Chasing your Dream Books to y'all, we're gonna be on the
- 54:49road, so stay connected to what we got going on. It's amazing hosts.
- 54:55I cannot leave out of here without giving a plug out to the amazing
- 55:00hosts. Season two we'll kick off February the first, y'all, we all
- 55:07be live right here on the Crew podcast eight pm Eastern Center Time, Live
- 55:13every single night eight pm Easter Center time start in February to first. Y'all
- 55:17gonna have an opportunity to meet some amazing people from February to first to December
- 55:22thirty first, twenty twenty four. So market calendar, set your alarms,
- 55:27do whatever you gotta do to be in the building, to be in the
- 55:30virtual arena so that you can be up close and personal with these amazing people
- 55:37from around the world. Y'all, we're taking that trip around the globe.
- 55:42We're gonna be stopping in different cities. We're gonna get back to that village
- 55:46and get back to that community mentality. So y'all make sure y'all are following
- 55:52us. I appreciate y'all, and guess what. The Queen loves you.
- 55:55I love you from the bottom of my heart. And guess what. It's
- 55:59absolutely that to do nothing nothing. And you know, also, if you
- 56:06would like to join the Crew podcast as a host, we still have room.
- 56:15One hundred and ninety nine dollars. Gets you in, It gets you
- 56:17training. We have my interviews. You can piggyback off anybody talk, ask
- 56:24questions. We're all here. What one doesn't know the other does, so
- 56:30you know we're here we're here. We're a family, we love each other,
- 56:35We're here to see each other grow and just expand our horizons. And
- 56:45you know, before we leave, I would just like to say again thank
- 56:49you for a marvelous first season of Delayed but Not Denied the podcast. This
- 56:57has been one heck of a ride that I do all over again, one
- 57:04hundred times over. I've enjoyed myself. I love the people. I love
- 57:09hearing people's different perspectives on life and things that they deal with. So this
- 57:20is a family and we would love to have you. And if you would
- 57:24like to be a part or please reach out to Miss Angela, the Queen
- 57:29of Collaborations herself, and let her help you. Let her get you started,
- 57:34and we will be back on tomorrow night where we will have everybody and
- 57:42we're gonna take two twenty twenty three out with the bang, So you don't
- 57:47want to miss at eight pm Eastern Standard time, be here, don't don't
- 57:53meet us here, beat us here. So you know that's all I got.
- 58:00I love you all. I'm grateful for you guys, and I'll see
- 58:04you tomorrow night. The book A Song for Soupora, written by David Harris,
- 58:12is a powerful historical fiction centering around the life and character of Moses's future
- 58:16wife, Zupporah before they met. Book author David Harris brings the reader into
- 58:22the relationship between Moses and Zuppora, which was gradual and lush. The story
- 58:27unfolds beautifully when Moses finally acts Upporah to marry him