Latest / Jess Ask / Birmingham Built Me: LaDarrius Hutcherson on Therapy, Identity, and Purpose | EP137

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Birmingham Built Me: LaDarrius Hutcherson on Therapy, Identity, and Purpose | EP137 · Jess Ask

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Yo, it's your girl Jessica and Smith and you already
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: know that you've entered the safe space for influencers to decompress,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: have fun and just ask God for another day. Do
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you already know what it is? And then you know
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: it's about to get real, So be sure to show
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: your girl the love and like coming subscribe God.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: For another day.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Hey, hey, I know we could be another way.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Yo. Yo, yo, it's your girl Jessica as Smith and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you have entered the safe space where we decompress, have
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: fun and guess what, just as long on y'all, y'all, y'all, y'all. Girl,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: let me tell yourself I'm cute today.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you told your mom and them that,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: but she looks good. But I look better when I'm
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: with my desert Ra DELI rate rate just hay. Girl. Hey,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: hey girl, I just love you. You do look good today,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: by thank you. I'm trying to you know, the Lord
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: had told me that he's building the wife. Yeah, okay,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to be present. I'm trying to think.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I love that for you because you actually said it,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Because you know I'll be getting on your folk about
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: that's just because you got a man now, But even
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: before then, I understand that you are the thing before
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the thing, right, so he said, he who finds a wife,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that means you are already in the essence and the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: being of that thing. And so I'm just excited to
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: see you actually embrace this season of becoming and being
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: because it's it's cool. Man. Becoming and being is such
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a strong statement, especially with the guests that we have today,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: does because the definition of becoming being execution, just embodying,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: like being that one. Yeah okay, being that guy. Yeah okay,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Like being that guy is the responsibility of it, the mantle,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: the weightiness. It's just admirable when you can be around
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: people that are they just get what it means to
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: be kingdom driven to the kingdom focused, but not in
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the church walls. Like I just really admire people that
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: got the oil and know how to use the oil
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: in the marketplace. Absolutely, this guy here, Desiree, I'm really
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: excited about, y'all. I'm surprised, Like I'm honestly surprised because y'all,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just lone me. It's just loan being.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: He be he major, he is out here doing some
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: amazing things. We are known as his cousins. He makes
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: us feel like family. He makes sure that we know
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: about the good food. He's out here speaking on these
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: TED talks. I mean like, I'm just trying to catch up,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: all right. But I'm glad that we were able to
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: catch up long enough to have him on the platform.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: So I introduce and present I knew friend, aka, I
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: beg cousin. But Darius, I just said, what's up? Oh?
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: He tells me directly. I want you to catch that.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: He told me directly, Hey cousin, Okay, how you doing, Love,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited for you to be here.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: I'm doing great. I'm so happy to be here.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, I'm yes, I'm super excited. And I was nervous.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you that I was nervous because you
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: know how some people I think it's there's a persona
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: right once you get to a certain space. You don't
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: know how people that are in these higher spaces like
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: you that we perceive will receive you, right. And so
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I'm super excited that I've been able. I've had two
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: encounters with you and they were beautiful. I have to well,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: well three three, three three, what we will tell. I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: know I've seen you some. We saw each other at
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the Brandy Monica concert, so that is technical right, that
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: is three. And you were just so you were open.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: You were nice. Not to say I thought you were mean,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: but you just never know how people will receive you
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: or come up with you. And so I'm just so
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: grateful that you you gave just ask a yes. So
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: thank you, Thank you, cousin, Thank you, cousin. You you
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: are a busy man.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah you. First of all, before we get into that,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I just want to say that it's your spirit for me.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: It's always it's gonna always be the spirit for me.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: It's always going to be what I feel from people
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: when I meet them, and I and I get such
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: a comfortable feeling from you because I don't know, I
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: think people think. Just as much as people progress and
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: they get to these levels or whatever, you still are
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: always guessing and wondering how people perceive you as well.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: You know, so just as much as you felt that
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: way about me, I felt the same.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Really, Yeah, that is that's a prizing. I'm like, well,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I'm glad that that homp is over with because we
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: like switching up. So how do you think people perceive you?
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I think that people perceive me. Uh. I think it's
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: like two. I feel like it's like two different worlds.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: I feel like there's some people who do perceive me
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: as that family person, you know, like part of that
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: family or whatever. And then I think that some people
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: who truly feel like I'm a monster, like I'm just hard, unapproachable,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: hard to reach hard to, you know. But none of
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: those things, you know.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Or do you think that's that come from? Though, like
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: that part that people think, Well, I could.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Be a little mouthy, you know, I can, I could
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: cut back a little bit, just a little, you know,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: and people know that I got I'm not I'm not
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: I'm not goneously now you know what I'm saying. I'm
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: going to say how I feel. And so you know,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: sometimes people probably like, what do I say something to
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: or do I is it? Is it okay to say
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not like a firecrack. I'm not just
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: gonna go left on you for the reason. I gotta
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: have good reason for that. But and also too, I
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: think it's just like you said, the persona of an
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: influencer and someone who you see doing doing all these
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: things or whatever, But I don't feel that way, you know,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I don't feel that the way people see it. Yeah,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I still feel the same way that I've always felt,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: but I know that the world looks at people when
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: they get to a certain status differently or whatever.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: So I can feel you on it because I've been
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: told and I'm like me out of all people, Desier Ray,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I've been told that like they don't know if they
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: can approach me or if I'm weirded out. I actually
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: like when people approach me because that means that, like,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: especially being a podcast, I don't know who's seeing my podcast.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I don't y'all, y'all don't even like coming or subscribe,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: y'all be watching. So it's like it helps me stay
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: motivated to continue to do and I just love the
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: love on people. So I wonder, like, have you ever
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: been approached like sideways to where it made you feel
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: comfortable or like do you normally just have good interactions
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: when people approach you? So I think.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I feel like people are so taken back when they
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: approach me in like a negative way because they, like,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know, they assume people that again of a
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: certain status are supposed to react a certain way, but
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna always make you feel like you just
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: in incompetent, you know what, in a sense, because like
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: I've had people come up to be like, man, you
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: know you ain't really like that or whatever. I said, Well,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: is it your taste buzz or is my is it mine?
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Or man, you be eating out that food? I said, uh,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: you don't eat every day. So things like that, and
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: so people just don't know what to say to me.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: I feel like, oh, well, I guess you got a point.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I told that. I'm I'm assuming that clap that come
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: from the.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: North Absolutely, it comes from the North side, and it's
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: so quick, it's so and sometimes I'm like, oh god,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: why did I say that?
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: So sometimes it come out faster than my come out
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: of my mouth, faster than my brain can process.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, uh so. One of the things I love
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: about you is that you rep Burningham for sure, like
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you gonna I'm now with the sides said I love you,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I love you, but west Side it is the best side.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: And I know I have some of your folks agree
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: with me on that, but I love the people from
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the north. My best friend from North y'all cool, y'all cool.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Her name is Stacy Dulls. She's a little bit older. Yeah,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: so but y'all love. What is it? Carver? Carver, Carver.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Some people say like Carver, they say it hard, but Carver,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: he says, Carver, don't say. Don't say that by the school. So,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: growing up in that element, how did you know? Did
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: you always have that I guess popularity vibe about you,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: like just growing up in that area, like, oh, I'm
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: well known? Or was this content creator's count to creation
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: something introducing to you into quote unquote popularity or being
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: well known?
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: You asked this question. That's so crazy. I loved it.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Was just talking to somebody before I got here about
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: that same question because I did something else before I
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: got here, and they were saying, oh my god, I
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: did you know. I did some research on you. I said,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: you was missing senior in your high school. You was SGA,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: you was doing all these things or whatever. And so
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: she said, so, you know, strangerer to like, you know,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: being well received or whatever. And I was like, you
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: know what, I never thought about that, but actually no,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: I'm not. You know, before I became an influencer, I
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: was always kind of influential in a sense, not to
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: this magnitude. But I feel like I had different errors
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: of my life. So there was a time where I
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: was I had a graphic design design business or whatever,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: and people knew me for that at one point, but
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: then people also knew me for dressing, and people knew like,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: you know, style and things like that. And but no,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I'm no strangers to people being to people receiving me. Well,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: you know, again, I can't say that I'm not because
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: this type of popularity is way.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Different from like a high school you know, I can't.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Even really compare it too. It's like a parent of
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: apples and oranges. But I feel like those moments prepared
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: me for now more than anything, because people always kind
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: of took a liking to me or whatever. And my
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: uncle told me very young, like you're a people magnet,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: you know, people cling to you. I have an older
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: sister who's kind of similar, like we just thrive off
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: of or people thrive off of us. We bring the
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: energy to the room some of thing. And so no,
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: it's not stranger. I'm not like some of the influencers
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: who got popularity and they don't really.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Know how to come from. But I think that's interesting
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: too because just being one hundred like you could have
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: been President SGA and so it's still a lame like
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, but that might not have
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: been your story. Like but like what you're saying, like
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: people gravitating to you. That's a gift that's annointing. In
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: one of the things, ooh you said this and I'll
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: never forget it. It shook my strungle so good. So one
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of the places I first met you was and my
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: dog shout out to Levi Joseph Levins. He has a podcast,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: It's the Way We Live. And you said something that
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: was so profound. You said, my life has prepared me
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: for this. Can we talk about about that, because I
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: think some people think it's just like overnight or done
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: quickly or nothing. There's no preparation for something like this.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: But what does what do you mean when you say
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: my life prepared me for this? What I'm doing now?
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: You know? I think you know for me, I have
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: had a lot of obstacles throughout my life, and a
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: lot of those obstacles were things that really had nothing
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: to do with me. It had everything to do with
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: the environment and the circumstances that I was facing at
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: that particular time in my life. But dealing with those
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: issues taught me resilience. It taught me a level of
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: understanding in a way that I don't know if I
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: had gone through that that I would understand like what
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: all of this is about? Because for a long time
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: I used to think about what is my purpose in life?
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Like what am I here to do? And you know,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: when you're going through those things in your circumstances, when
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: it's unfortunate for you, you don't understand it in that moment.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: But when I answered that question and I said that,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: it was me reflecting all my life and understanding that
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: everything that I had gone through up until this point
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: literally prepared me for now, whether or not I knew
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: it or not at that time, because I didn't know,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: you know, and then you know, recently I was able
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: to just put so much of all of that into
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: perspective and just really say, you know, what, I needed
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: to go through this. I needed to have this happen
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: to me. I needed to be able to endure this
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: because if I did not, when things come up, even
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: in the influencer world, I'm able to like handle it
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: like a champ, you know, because being not done that.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: You know, this is not new to me, and so
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: I think adversity when you're going through it growing up,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: it seems like your world is just shattering, like it's
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: like everything is just going wrong. But it's beautiful because
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: it makes for a shield that life otherwise probably wouldn't
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: have gave me. Yeah, if I had a silver spoon
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: in my mouth, I probably wouldn't be able to be
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: okay with no's and l's and what some people will
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: perceive as failure. But I don't see it as failure.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: I see it as a either a misopportunity but a
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: lesson at the same time, you know, So it just
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: made me so much more resilience.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you think about your life, what do you
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: think is the most defining moment that prepared you to
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: be in this space of impactful influence.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I think the thing for me probably was just I
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: think when when I was growing up, I always I
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: made really really good grades. So my family was so
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: proud of me in that sense. You know, my dad,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: he would tell it to anybody who would listen, you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: how proud of me he was or whatever. So I
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: think For me, it's just I'm so used to being
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: known for something. I'm so used to being known for doing,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: for specializing in something like I told you I was doing.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I hadographic design business, L had designs for like two
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: three years, and I you know, I was getting into
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: like fashion or whatever. So for me, it's just like
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I've had so many different error. Yeah, that's trained me
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: in a sense for like right now. Yeah that makes sense.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. But I'm also curious is when
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: you say that you're multi faceted, because this is something
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: desirat and I always talk about multi fact being multi
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: fasted can be frustrated, Yeah, because like you said, what
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: is my purpose? What is my one thing? What is
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: my design? And it's like, how were you able to
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: push past that frustration? It actually find like what what
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: kicked in for you to be able to say, oh,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: this is me, but this also can be me. And
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I can also like how did you learn how to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: embrace that?
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Oh that's a great question. You know. Along this journey
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: of me trying to self discovery, I realized that I
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: am here for people. Like everything that I have done
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: up until throughout my life, it's always been the like
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: the result of it has always has always been to
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: help people and be a servant in a sense, you know.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: And so I think those things just really you know,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: prepared me for this. But like you said, being multi
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: fast as it can be frustrated because especially when you
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: are in that that world of trying to figure out
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: what's your purpose, You're like, okay, well you want have
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: ten different directions or whatever. But what I what happened
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: was I just I really honestly like godle and just
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: did what was natural for me and authentic, and that
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: was picking up my camera and recording and showing my
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: true personality or whatever, like I did in every other aspect,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: even when I was doing graphic design, when I was
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: working with my clients, and I'm like, no, you don't
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: need to do that, you need to do that, you
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: need to just being authentically ladarious. Yeah, I think that's
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: what really helped me kind of just get to this
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: point now because it all kind of just went exactly
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: the way I was supposed to.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because you said
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: you're being authentically ladarious. Some of us don't maybe know
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: what they mean because now you have social media there
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: are social media personas. There are things like that. So
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: my curiosity for you is who what's the difference between
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Ladarius and ill Hood? Like, cause we know I Hood,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: we ill Hip cousin, But what about Ladarius, Like what
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: is the difference? Like what are some of the fears
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: that we that we don't get to see that Ladarius
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: might experience that he has to push through to present Illhood.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's a good one. I love that. So Ladarius
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: is the businessman. Ladarius is the person where when it's
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: time to negotiate a contract, Ladarius is there. Illhead is
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: a personality, Ladarius is I. I graduated from Jacksonville State
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: University in twenty fourteen with a business degree. I went
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: back and got my master's in twenty nine twenty seventeen,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: graduated in twenty nineteen with my master's, started working on
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: my doctorate in business. In twenty twenty one. Influencer came along,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: so it kind of went away. But I'm very proficient
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: in marketing, business, kind of every aspect of business. I'm
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: very proficient there because I have the degrees to say so,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: and I really love any all things business, marketing and
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: all those things. And for a long time, I was like,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: why if I can market other people's companies, I can
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: market myself, you know. And so when it comes to Ladarius,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: he's the one that's the brains. And granted I'm not
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: trying to make it sound like it's crazy, but el
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: Hut is almost like not a caricature, but it's like
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: a different version of me, you know. It's it's the personality.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Ehod is gonna be relaxed, laid back, chilling. El Hook
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: gotta be up and prepared to be that the personality
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: or whatever. So the biggest difference is just that, like
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Elhood is the talent, I'm showing up and I'm getting
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: the work done. I don't care what I got going
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: on outside of whatever it is that I need to do.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: That's for that's hilarious, Yeah, for him to handle when
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: I come in into the building or whatever I gotta do.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: That's el Hood showing up, you know, because that's the
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: brand that I build. But I love the I love
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: the uniqueness of it because I'm able to like run
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: this thing, you know, and handle the business the way
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: I need to handle it, but still show up as
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: myself as el Hood.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: But they both think they Okay, no, but I think
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: this is the same person. But I also know because
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I got Jessica is Smith and just ask, and I
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: know for me I need it's certain things that I
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: need from Jessica to show up. As just ask, I
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: wonder what does Ladarius needs? Okay to be able to
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: show up.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: I think Ladarius brings that north side with him because
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: I was Ladarius before Lhead was the period. So that's
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: what I trying to That's what I always try to
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: tell people. Ladarius is right here, but he's he's this close,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: He's not too far away. Yeah, you know what I'm saying,
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: don't get it twisted.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: So when I need that confidence that boost remembering you
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: know where I come from, and just really because I
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: come from a life a rough environment, but it was
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: so natural for me somethime I can handle any any
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: scenario or in a situation. So sometimes when al Hut
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: is thinking why am I here or not feeling confidence,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: I'm like, you know, you el.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Hut experienced stuff like that, like not feeling confident and
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: not you know, because I'm just I need people to
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: understand it because well, it's an assumption, like you can
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: always turn it on and always do da da da da,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and not never experience any doubt about yourself.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: No, you know, let me tell you so I am.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: I would consider myself to be a very comfortable person
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: within myself, but I have things that are environments that
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: I have to be put in that can kind of
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: make me feel a little bit uneasy, not necessarily a
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: negative way, but it may be a new environment. For instance,
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: this past year, this past like five and October was
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: classic and so this particular Classic week was super different
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: from me because I got invited to so many of
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: these amazing events for the first time through these amazing
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: companies Alabama Powerspire, South Trust, Bang like all these different
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: notable places around the city that were having these very
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: elite events with some of the most influential people in
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: the city. And so for me that was a little
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: intimidating because I had never been in that space of
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: that capacity, and in most cases those events that I
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: went to, they didn't have a plus one, So it
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: was all about me walking into those rooms by myself.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: And I don't have a room. I don't have a
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: problem with going into any room, but that was a
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: different type of room for me because these are the
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: movies and shakers, the people that watched me and see
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: what I'm doing. But you know, they're in these positions
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: of power and things like that or whatever. So I
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: definitely belonged because they would invited me to come, So
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: I was supposed to be there, but I was just
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: really I was a little kind of like nervous about
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: the situation or whatever. So I get those moments or whatever,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: but I handled like a child, walked in like I've
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: belonged that they didn't know by the time I got there.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: But that's that's hl Darious pushing that room. Yeah, and
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: like do you know where you come from? Yeah, you're
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: supposed to be here. You don't. You don't hold your
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: head down. You you walk in, you held your hair.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: How you get in there, get it done, work the room,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: do what you gotta do, shake hands, and that's what
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: we're gonna do. And we did it.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Man, That's that's so powerful. I think people need to
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: hear that and notice that because as you elevate, there's
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: still more room for elevation. Like people see you got
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: people that's looking behind it's like, oh my god, you're
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: doing this, but then you looking ahead of you and
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh, but I'm not there yet. I'm not
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: there yet, And so you're basically saying I manage it
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: by using the confidence and the roughness of there's like, hey,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: wake up, boy, like you gotta you, gotta gether el
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: hud need to show up. That's who they want, So
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: get it together. I'm pushing you. I love that so much.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I'm also curious because I know people are watching outside
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of Birmingham. We have some beautiful people watching from Dallas.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: That's consistent Georgia, Tennessee. Like we just have a lot
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: of people and some people just don't understand Birmingham. So
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: when I when you say where I come from that
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: it was a unique experience. Could you could you give
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: us a picture of what your experience like growing up
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in the North side of Birmingham. What does that look like?
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Okay, so north side of Birmingham. I'm I grew up
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: in North Birmingham. That's why I spent the largest chunk
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: of my thirty four years at So that's why I
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: consider that because when I was born, I technically didn't
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: live in North Birmingham. I moved there when I was
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: like four, but memory wise and the most memories. It's
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: what I got from the Birmingham. I mean, I went
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: to school, elementary and middle high school there, so that's where
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: to me, that's where I'm from. And so of course
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: I'm from Birmingham, but he grew up there, and so
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: North Birmingham it was a very like middle I guess
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: lower middle class neighborhood wasn't the worst, you know, but
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: it was just a lot of inconsistencies and the living environment.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: You know, parents just were trying to make ends meet.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Sometimes the ends didn't quite meet, and so that means
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: we moved a lot. Like we stayed in the same
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: community in North Birmingham, but we'd go it would be
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: different streets that we live or whatever. And as a child,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: I didn't quite understand that, but they always managed to
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: make away. But No, Birmingham was, like I said, that
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: wasn't the worst community within the North Side, but I
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: went to these schools, like I had an amazing elementary
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: school experience. But then I went to Hudson Middle School,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: which was in Collegeville, like in the center of College View.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: And if anybody's familiar with college Ville, I you not.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: You know, they have like the projects there and you know,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: it's a you know, crimes and different things that's going
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: on now or whatever. So I was in middle school
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: right in the heart of that. Yeah, and then you know,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: going to high school. You were in high school with
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: people from Vice Hill and Norwood and all these just
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: different communities that are kind of rough, and people tend
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: to express their emotions through fighting or through whatever the
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: case may be, and so you have to adapt to that.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: So that's what kind of gave me that little grit,
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: you know, because it's like fight or flight, and I
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: wasn't like, you know, because I wouldn't I want gonna
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: be able to go home and tell my dad and
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: that I didn't. I didn't defend myself. Yeah, they don't
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: want they they weren't hearing that, absolutely not, So I
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: was gonna have to. I was always on the defense
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: or whatever. So rough, neighborhood rough, But uh, I got
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: so much pride. I got so much pride for it though,
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Like I just still love it so much. It's like
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: I endure it and I got through it. You know.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Is that is that what motivated you? Like being from
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: there motivated you to come back because I heard you
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: say you went to JFSU, which is in Jacksonville, Alabama,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and I know people around the time because we're about
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the same age. So around the time we were growing up,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I remember Birmingham still having a lot of room to grow.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: And there's a drastic difference, I would say, there's a
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: great healthy difference now in the way we're moving and
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: it's a lot of more people staying versus leaving. What
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: was your decision to like stay and just like really
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: work and grow where you were where you were from
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: instead of moving on and trying to be bigger and
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: better somewhere else.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that. I just it's a love and
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: admiration that I have in my family. You know, my
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: family is very tight, and when I say family on
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: specifically talking about my mom's side, because that's a family
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: that I'm the closest too, and so we're very tight
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: and close or whatever. So I I couldn't quite fathom
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: leaving them. So that was one thing that kind of
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: kept me anchored. And then at the time, you know,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: when I graduated college, my grandma was still living and
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: so I just love my family. I love being around
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: my family, and I didn't really have a desire, you know,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: how sometimes people have a desire to leave. That just
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: was never in my heart. It really wasn't. And once
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I started started really again trying to discover my purpose,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: it just kept leading me here. It kept it kept
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: being here in some to some capacity, because even before
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: I was an influencer, I was doing the Toy Drive.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: I was doing all these things within the community very
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: low level, not on again, not on the level that
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: it is now, but all the things that I do
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: now as far as like especially in the community, I
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: was doing it, but on on a very like lor
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: like a lower level. But yeah, no.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm glad you even brought that last part
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: up because it goes back to what you said, like
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: everything that you've done has prepared you for this moment.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Even thinking about because you recently just did the Toy
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Drive for who did you partner with that? Why I'm
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: to say, like, oh, I was doing the Toy Drive,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: so I'm familiar with it. So the Lord didn't allow
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: you to be ignorant to you. So you was able
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to have the language. You kind of had an understanding,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: but it was scalable, like what you were doing already,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: it just went to another scale. And I think that
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: some people just think that it's like, oh, I just
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: came out the wword. No, baby, I got receipts. I
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: got receipts. No. I'm really enjoying this conversation. One of
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the things I am curious about. You posted something not
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: too long ago. I think it was around your birthday.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: It's not bad. It's not bad.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: It's not bad.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: I think it was good. And I'm curious to see
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: here like you elaborate on this because you mentioned that
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: you know what you were saying, you're thanking you about,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: you know, turning thirty three, four thirty four, thirty four,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and you live with Okay, I really want to be
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: I want to be more transparent. I want to be
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to show y'all more of my journey,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: so my content might.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Look a little different.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: What have we been missing that you haven't been sharing?
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: And what does transparency look like for you in this season?
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: You know, I think for me, I think just being
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: a little bit more vulnerable. You know, I am a
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: very controlled person in a sense, and so just when
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: I say, when I say transparent, I think they've watched
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: enough interviews about me. I say, I've told my life
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: story pretty much, not to its full extent. But I've
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: told snippets about my life or whatever. But I'm talking
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: about more so on my turns. You know, I'm going
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: to give you our transparency the way I want to
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: give you the transparency, not necessarily in an interview, maybe
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: through my content, doing more like Dare in the Life
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: type videos and just maybe talking to the camera more
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: and doing like Q and A style videos and stuff
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: like that, just giving them a little bit of another
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: layer into my life.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: What is that layer, though, Like, what does that layer
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: look like? I know you said or he ain't doing,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: he ain't saying. Is your interviews the transparency, but like,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: what does that layer look like? Because I know there's
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: levels to transparency.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: It may be something about like how I feel about
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: just my life right now, just what's going on in
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: my life, what the things that I'm working on. Just
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: I'm just such a person that I work on something
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: and I pop out with it or whatever. But even
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: just showing them the process of working through that just
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: me sometimes me waking up in the morning like yeah,
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: I'm over this, Like about my mental about therapy. It's
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: just so many things that I don't necessarily share in
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: full detail, you know. And it's not because it's I
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: don't want to share it just because that wasn't what
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: me where me and my audience was. But after turning
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: thirty four and just sitting them back and reflect, I'm like, wow,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: this is like these are like my people, you know,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: they they really root for me and advocate for me
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: or whatever, so I can give them a little bit more.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: No, that's that's so good. And I always I've seen
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: you several times on your own platform talk about I
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: think you've raisy like sitting on the lady couch or
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: we are pro like we love therapy. I love my
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: shout out to my therapist, shout out to mind because
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: some folks will be just in some trouble.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I know, the letter be so drained. When I leave
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: bru She's like, this man is insannd bruh.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: How did you How long have you been going to
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: therapy over am?
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: I almost two years?
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Mmm. What's the biggest difference that you see in yourself
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: from not going to therapy to being someone that's actively
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: going to therapy.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I'm way more patient, I'm way more and I'm also
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: way more gracious. I show myself more grace, and I'm
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: more understanding of my upbringing, you know, and the things
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: that happened in my upbringing. It helped me to compartmentalize
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: things in a sense because I was grouping everything together,
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: but I had to The thing I love about therapist
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: that we were able to kind of like tackle one
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: thing at a time, and it helped me really kind
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: of see through all these different things that I had
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: in my mind that I proceed it to be, but
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: she really kind of helped me just talk through it
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: and just get a better understanding, like piece by piece
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: of my life as opposed to just grouping it all together,
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: like oh my god, my life was sold out. La
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: da dah. You know, it's like no, it was this,
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: this thing happened to you, but look at what it
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: did here, you know, and then look at this that
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: happened that worked out for over here, you know. So
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: I was able to really just start putting everything together
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: and making it make sense.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I think that's that is I can agree with that,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: like just being able to compartmentalize things instead of just
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: grouping everything together. So I've been going to my therapist
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: now it's going on two years, and I always find
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: myself going to therapy about a man. Oh god, it's
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: always it's always introduced with a man. But then now
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I think this time is different because now I am
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: over the whole situation with the man, and now I'm
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: dealing with me. That's I'm dealing with me, and dealing
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: with me, dealing with yourself.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Hit different, hit different, And that's what I tell people.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: One thing about a therapist is the things that you
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: think about at night when you're at home by yourself.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: You have to face though.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I just got chilled, like facing you, what has been
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the what has been the most surprising thing that you've
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: been able to unveild?
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: I thought, you know what. I used to literally tell
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: myself in my mind that I'm a great person, and
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: I am, but I didn't realize that I was flawed
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: in certain areas, you know, because I didn't know that
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: I was so cold sometimes, you know, and I shut down. Well,
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: I used to shut down. And I remember specifically, like
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: an instance in like twenty twenty one, I had a
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: issue with some friends or whatever. And to be honest
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: with you, yes, no, the issue was not my fault.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: But I think that had I said something communicated we
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: could have resolved it a lot quicker. I let it
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: go on for like months because I'm stubborn. I was not,
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: I am, but I was stubborn in that way to
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: where all I had to do was say something or whatever.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: So I verbalized myself. I talked through things with people
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: that I love and care about because that's what it it.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: It means that much to me now. And yeah, so
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: I was very kind of like, okay, whatever. I like,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: in an instant quick, I'm like, okay, I'm done. But now,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: when it's worth it and I care about it enough,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: I wanna work it out and I wanna talk through it,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: you know. But beforehand, I was.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Just like whatever, what do you think? That came from.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: Definitely my upbringing, for sure. I used to like when
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: me and my dad used to have issues or whatever,
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: we wouldn't talk for days in the house, you know.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: And so that became away for me to like, that's
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: how I'm That's how I'm supposed to communicate, you know.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: I'm we have a disagreement, we just go about our
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: ways and we don't talk for a minute. But that's not effected. Yeah,
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: and it creates so much unnecessary, like tension, and it
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: leaves so much room for interpretation because you don't know
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: what I'm feeling. I don't know what you're feeling, and
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: all alone, we probably both feel in the same way.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: We don't even want to be in this space for real.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: We really want to talk it through and talk it out.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: But instead of being like putting my pride to the
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: side and just saying, Okay, you know what, I didn't
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: like when you did that. To be honest with you,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: I don't like the way you said. I don't like
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: da da la lah. I could have, honestly, a lot
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: of situations in my life I probably could have been
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: had resolved a long time ago if I had been
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: in therapy. But now that I am, and now I
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: understand that that was an issue of mine that probably
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: was the biggest thing for me outside of just trying
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: to unpack my upbringing in my life and things like that.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: But outside of that, that was one thing for me
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: that I feel like was if I had to continue
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: all it would be a detriment to me as I'm
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: you know, getting more successful or whatever. I can't conduct
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: myself like that or even have that mindset have to
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: think because I have what I do is a relationship base. Yeah,
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: and so I have to be able to develop relationships.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: And somebody asks me the other day, why are you
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: still in therapy? I will continue to be in therapy
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: as long as I'm in this because I continue to
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: be a new relationships. So there's new characters in the
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: story all the time.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that's so good. And I think that
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: you're witnessing that and knowing that that's what that's wisdom
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: because knowing that you're in a business of relationship bild,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: relationship networking, being influential, it's important for one that you're saying,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: but to know knowing that you're not repeating cycle and
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: punishing new people for something that you that they don't
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: even know about. They have no clue. Have you ever
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: found yourself punishing a new person for something they don't
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: didn't even know about.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: Probably so, especially after dealing with certain especially more so
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: within like friendships, I would say than anything, because again,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: as much as people gravitate to me, as far as
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: like following me on social media, people have I've always
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: been able to maintain and build friendships over my life.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: I've never had a problem with a friend that's why
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: I tell people all the time, I've never been you
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: are what on toy story? You got a friend of me?
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: That's upscreen, That's always been me. So But as I
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: got older and I dealt with so many so much
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: like what I see is like disloyalty was disloyal to me.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: I used to kind of shut myself off a tad
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: bit to people because I felt like everybody don't everybody
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: shouldn't have access to me.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Listen, I learned that the hard way. Like you're talking
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: so good right now, because your energy is so important,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: like you have to really protect it and be around
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: people that are willing to protect your energy. There's a way.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: What's that? What's that thing that coach that he was
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: talking about.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Something something?
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: It's not darrens. It's start with a D. But basically
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: the whole concept is we're able to know about one
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty people, but five five are only needed
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: for us to feel like relevance and make us feel
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: like whole and all that stuff like that. And I
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: was the person that was like, oh my gosh, I
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: want one hundred and fifty people to you know, like me,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: but then not understanding that it was different personalities and
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: dealing with that, but then also bringing something different out
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: of myself. And now I'm draining. Now I'm I'm not
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: being mindful and managing my space and the circumference well
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: enough to be able to do this. And I think
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: that that's why you're so successful with what you do,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: because what I hear is that you're able to be friendly,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: you able to be a friend. But say, hey, this
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: is the capacity I have. That's all I got.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: I ain't got.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: One of the things I love, and I see it
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: on social media, like you you're very it seems like
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: you're very supportive of your friends. Your friends are very
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: supportive of you. How do you how do you keep
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: that balance of saying, hey, I can do this, but
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: this week I need it for me because you're you're
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: always like you said, I had some before, I got
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: something after this, Like how do you maintain all of this,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: like your schedule now being in such high demand.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Well, one thing that I am learning to do is
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: I'm learning to show up for those who show up
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: for me. So I think now that I am more
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: busy if I know that you show up for me
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: all the time, and I know you just beat that
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: for me, I don't care what you got going on,
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do the same for you. It's becoming more
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: and more of a thing for me to decline and
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: not go and not be a part of things because
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, you, when it's not being reciprocal, you know,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: it's just I'm not going to I'm not gonna dream.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Not.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Once upon a time, before I was al hood who
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: I am today, I used to I can go to five.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: I would try to make the five events a day,
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: you know. But that was before my schedule. What's the
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: way it is now. But now, if if you are
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: not showing up for me in that way, I'm not
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be able to either because I feel
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: like I'm already being I already got a lot of
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: things going on. So I'm really just putting my energy
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: where it's being received and reciprocated or whatever. But if
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: you show up for me, I'm gonna show up for you.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Don't care what I got going on. I'm a schedule
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: it in there. It's gonna be you know, it's gonna
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: be scheduled in there. Yeah, I'm gonna make it.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: And I think that's fair though, because it's like you
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: having to reevaluate those relationships and learn. And it's not
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: even a tip for tech thing. I think some people
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: might think it's like a tip of things, Like for me,
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: it's out of the.
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: Side, out of my mind.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: For man, who yeah, right, you over that agree?
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, I mean it's like a if I have
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: not talked to you, you have not come to anything
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: I've invited you to. You have not supported me in
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: months and months and months and months. Why am I
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: breaking my neck to come when you decide that you
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: want to do something?
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: No?
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: No, And I think people hold me to such a
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: different standard within friendships already, not because I am who
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: I am and I and I'm feeling that and learning
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: that even more, the rules that people have set in
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: place for me are not the same for the other
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: friends people want me to if I if I don't
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: show up, if I'm not a part of something, it's
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: just like magnified times ten or it's just like it's
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: so noticeable because I'm who I am. Yeah, and it's
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: like who I showed up to everything else? If we're
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: gonna everything's gonna be okay. Yeah, it's it's a special
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: guess appearance. Confused the show is not the show is
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: still going to go home yea without me. I don't understand.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Have you seen yourself getting frustrated in that area to
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: where the expectations are not there? I do.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: I think that people I don't understand. And the thing
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: about it is for me, I love my friends that
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: don't understanding know what I have going on. I literally
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: have so many friends that are so so gracious and
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: they're like, I know you got a lot going on,
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: you know it is, We're gonna talk when we talk
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: with you know, you on your hustle, you on your
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: grind right now, you are working towards something, you know,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: And they don't give me any flag about it at all.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: But then that's why people are like, I ain't talk
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: to you and it And I'm like, do you know
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: how many things I be having to get done in
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: one day?
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying? And how drained sometimes I
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: could be if I go to an event. I got like,
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: if I'm going to an event, it probably it'srobably gonna
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: take me like three or four days to recover from it.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: Because I'm speaking to people, I'm hugging people, I am
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: being drained. You know, and I'm like, ye'all, I don't understand,
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: and you know how this is. Yeah, it's really like taxing.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: And so I have to go to events, I have
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: to do these things which I love to do. Yeah,
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: but I also have to replenish myself. Yeah, and so
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: sometimes I don't have time to talk on the phone.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: I don't have time to maybe come to any I
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: don't have time to text or I don't have time
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: to do that all day. Yeah, when we get together,
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: we get together, we have grown adult Yeah, it's not kindergarten.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Play time.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: Came out. We're grown adults. It's not kindergarten. Okay, no,
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: but that's that's so understandable and I think that I
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: can relate to that as well. You need people friends
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: that honor us on your life.
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you need.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Friends that's praying for you and not praying on you.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: And and even right now, and I try my best,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: but I am who I am, even right now, I
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: pray like just the supernatural covering over you because people
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: like the en and by be out to like try
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: to play you amongst your circle, like to really even
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: use people that you would have never thought and not
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: saying that this happened, but I've seen it happen with
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: others to where it's like, but hold up, why are
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: you switching up now? Like I'm still saying, I'm just
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: elevating in this space. And so my prayer for you
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: is that like your covering is still intact, and then
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: they grow and they're able to grow and elevate with you,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: and those that aren't will dismiss themselves. You don't even
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: have to go north side of Burningham because that take
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of energy too to just even even go there.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: And so my curiosity is you talk about your success,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: and we talked about you know, and not even because
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: people can go on your page and see, you know,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: you're doing collapse befowd like come on, dude, Like to me,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: that's like dag, I'm trying to get there. I'm trying
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: to get some sponsorships, you know what I'm saying, Like
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: you're doing a dog on thing. And so my curiosity
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: is is like when does Ladair or and or elhout
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: deem himself accomplished? What does an accomplished lidarious look like?
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know because it's hard for me to answer
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: that question because the thing about me is that I'm
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: just so forward thinking. I'm aways i could be in
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: the middle of one project and I'm thinking about the
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: next one and the one after that. I'm just so
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: forward thinking. And I also try to do my best
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: at being innovative and coming up with new concepts and
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: new ideas and things that I have never even heard
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: of before. I'm not saying I'm the first person to
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: do it, but I try to think about things that
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: will shift the culture and move things forward or whatever.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: So success to me is, I guess continue being able
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: to continue to just do that, you know, being able
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: to be in a space where I'm able to have
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: people that believe in me enough to allow me the
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: space to do that, like even a dream. It's this
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: is like a dream come true year to me because
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: I got to work with like McDonald's and not just
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: work with them, but they allow me to create a
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: freedom to do with what's authentic to me, you know.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: And so as long as I'm able to continue to
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: be in those type of spaces, I think that that's
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: success for me always. And it's just a constant reminder
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: that you can, you can have these opportunities, and you
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: can you can work with these large companies or whatever.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: But I don't have to jeopardize my integrity because that's
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: what I always lead with. I'm like, I don't want
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: to do I don't If I'm going to do a commercial,
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: y'all gotta pay youll millions of dollars to bring your
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: camera crew and put it on TV. But as far
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: as my audience is concerned, I'm gonna give them what
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: they love from me. And so if we can't meet
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: in the middle, then it's not gonna work for me.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: But you're not gonna have me on here like I'm
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: selling something or whatever. I like it to feel genuine
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: and authentic to what people love from me. Yeah, And
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: so I've been blessed enough to be able to work
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: with companies who understand that and who love what I
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: do for the local community. And they they see me
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: in a way that we feel like you fit our
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: brand enough for you to insert your brand and our And.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: I loved it because I think there's a fear that
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: people will lose out if they.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: Oh I be I always if it's something that doesn't
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: feel right for me. I mean, I would never ever
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: like disclose it. But it's been so many opportunities that
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: I had come to me that I just said absolutely
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: no too, because it was just the acts and the
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: the deliverables and things like that was just far beyond
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: what I felt like was what I was. I felt
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: like I was way more worth, way more than and
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: so it had to be some no, some nose that
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: really hurt me. Like I'm like, oh my, I would
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: have really loved to do that. I would love to
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: be a part of that or whatever. But one thing
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: I know for sure is that God don't play by me.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: And so even if I feel like I lost something
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: in that moment, he always coming around with something better
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: and showed me like, you ain't missing miss nothing that
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: wasn't for you. It wasn't for you.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: You ain't missing nothing. No, like I think you think
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: you said no to that, you trusted me in this?
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: How much more exactly, Liz. I love the scripture where
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: it talks about if he dresses the lilies and he
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: feeds the birds. I know what I'm saying the wrong
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: right now, Mathew, how much more would he deal with you?
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: And then watch this in that same in that same chapter,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: it talks about let your yes be yes and your
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: no be no, and God has to honor that. Like
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: he has to it's in his DNA to honor honor
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: when you give a straightforward yes and a straightforward no,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: and it's on his behalf because obviously what you bringing
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: the Lord up. It's healthy to assume that that's I mean,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: you ain't wearing that cross for no reason. That's who
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: your lifeline is.
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: Like I, like I talked about on the Way We
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: Live podcast, when I was going through a dark season
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: in my life, that's all it was me and God.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: It was just us, you know, and it built my
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: faith and it made me understand. It gave me a
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: different type of relationship with God. And unfortunately sometimes it
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: takes those moments for us to really understand, like what
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: what all of this is for? And was what all
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: this what all this is about? You know? And it's
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: far bigger than than us, you know. And I learned that,
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: and so yes, that's that's one of the things that
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: I hold near and did to me my relationship with
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: God because it's so personal and I value it and
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: I love it because even now I reflect back on
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: the times that things weren't so good, I'm like, thank you.
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: I just randomly, just you know, because it's it's he's
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: been so good for me, so good.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a good father, he's a good friend. You
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: learn them in different seasons. I was talking to chantau Collette.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: She's a social media influencer as well. She's been here,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: and she told us she was like she asked the Lord,
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: she said, show me how good it can get, and
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: literally the Lord blew her mind. And I really feel
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: like the Lord is doing it for you, like showing
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: you how good it can get. Because coming from the
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: north side of Burmingham, coming from real spaces, from my understanding,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: and remember your your parents are divorced, and coming from
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: things that were supposed to take you out, and for
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: him to still keep you tells me that not only
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: are you chosen, you're you're needed, Like you're needed for
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: such a time as this, like your d n A
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: is a must in this land, like in this specific time.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: And so I want to say that I'm proud of you.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: Just go with all rip. But before I even even
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: close us out, I can't close us out because my
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: dog is an author now, like he been saying, he said, oh,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: I need to write a book, and you wouldn't messed
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: around and wrote this book. Congratulations, Oh my goodness, what
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: are you most excited about with this? With this announcement
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: of the book.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: I think the thing that I'm most excited about is,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: like we talked about earlier, transparency, and that was that
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: when I made that video about transparency, that that was
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: already in the works, and so I knew that that
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: was going to be a thing that I was going
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: to be able to release in my thirty fourth year
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: of life. And so I'm excited for people to really
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: get a different perspective of me and really get to
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: hear my not my fourth thought, but it's it's more
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: of a it's more of a memorial reflection type of
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: thing or whatever. But it's so many different nuggets in
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: that that I feel like people are gonna walk away
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: with and feel inspired and feel a sense of like.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Hope.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And like you know, no matter where you start,
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: it doesn't it doesn't matter where you start, and it
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: it also doesn't matter where you start, but it doesn't
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: matter the things that happened in between that time either. Ultimately,
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: everything is for a reason. And so like we talked about,
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: been talking about all day today and like you quote
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: it earlier. My life prepared me for this, and so
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: people get to see how my life prepared me for this.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: And and very easy read. It's very easy to keep
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: up with, very entertaining, and just a great, a great
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: love loader to Birmingham.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Hm. Oh my goodness, look your life. I felt the
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: old God on that your life is a love letter
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: to Burningham. Absolutely wow, that is that is so beautiful
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: and so unique. And I'm excited because with the topics
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: that we spoke on today, they're in the book and
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: I think I'm ready to just see the details, to
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: see the level of transparency, because people need to know
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: that you're bigger than just the content creator that you
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: you are. You're not just this one dimensional type person
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: that people because people will try to box you in
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: just because they don't have the capacity to be more
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: right right, And so I think this you being an author,
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: it's so exciting, it is, it's so exciting. One of
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: my goals is to go ahead and watch my book
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: game by the year thirty four too, So I'm gonna
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: be I'm hoping. I'm hoping to be right right along
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: along with you. There's alaray, you've been over there just
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: listening sins, what would I would love to hear your thoughts.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing that I got from this
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: conversation and just kind of listening to your journey is
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: that just be yourself, like be your authentic self. And
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: I do believe, like you know, life happens. Things happen,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: We go through situations and things like that, and sometimes
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: we put on identities that God didn't necessarily intend for
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: us to have. And so the beauty of being able
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: to step into a space of therapy and then or
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: have like people around you that can hold a mirror
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: up to your face to be like, hey, you're better
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: than this is that those moments begin to rip off
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: those fake identities and that you can truly then begin
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: to walk in the authentic person that God had already
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: designed you to be, like He had already created you
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: to be like an influencer, you know what I'm saying.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: And so my thing is just be you because people
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: gonna say what they gonna say anyway, you know, all the regardless.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: So I loved, loved hearing about your story and your journey,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: and I'm really looking forward to diving a little bit
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: deeper into your into your book, yeah dogme author to
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: yeah yeah. I was like, Lord, you're putting on me
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: around a whole bunch of author No way, no way.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: I was supposed to be one thing.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: Even when I say that word, I'm like, is it weird? Yes,
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: it is weird because it's like, what, you know, I think,
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel like I don't know everybody's dreams,
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: but I feel like it's so many people's dream to
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: become an author, to tell their story, to be able
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: to have something to live out here in the world,
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: even far beyond you being here physically, you know. And
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: so I'm like, I think just that it makes me
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: so proud. Because somebody asks me why now, I'm like,
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: when when, you know, because my story is going to
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: continue to unfold and that gives me more things to
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: be able to write about in the future. But this
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: is not like a period, This is just a so,
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: you know, I want to do other things. I want
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: to you know. So I think I think I would
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: love to hear your story. I think yours would be beautiful,
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: you know. And everyone has a very unique story to tell,
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: you know. Because that same person was like, welly about
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: I got a story. I'm like exactly, so everybody should
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: write a book.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: I love your comeback, comeback stur classic. I need I'm like,
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: let me call your real quick. I need to come
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: back to this because I'm a little slow to it. Okay,
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: I'm like no, but I love this. So I've asked
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: so some of my favorite people from Birmingham. They have
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: been here, Like I love my city too, and I
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: love the influence here, Floss, the mag Brittany. Uh, They've
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: been here and I've only asked influences from Birmingham. This
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: is a specific question because I want you to be
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: able to come back and say, oh I said this
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: or whatever. So five years from now, what do you
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: want to Where do you want to be? What do
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: you want to say? Speak to you the five years
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: from now? I guess thirty nine you're old Ladarius? Where
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: is he? Yes?
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: Beautiful? So I want to I want TV for sure,
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: I want I know what I want to do with TV,
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: but I don't want to say I want but TV. Yeah, okay.
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: I want to have some several established businesses in Birmingham. Definitely,
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: of course a restaurant, got gotta have that, to more books,
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: but overall, I just want to be able to have
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: made such an impact in Birmingham where then it gave
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: me the key to the city, and you know, has
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: just really I really just and then you know, if
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: they want to give me a little street name that's trying.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: To down let's be specific, won't some.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: Downtown I'm fine with that too, But just continuing to
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: elevate myself, my brand and make it far beyond Birmingham
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: and far beyond just social media, you know. And I'm
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: I am, you know, I'm I'm. It's piece by piece
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: by piece by piece I got. I got a really
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: good influencer friend. Shout out to Funmi for.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Go ahead.
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: I love for me. She gave me some advice very
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: early on in my influencer journey and it sticks with
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: me to this day. I don't even know if she
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: remember or not, but she told me, you know, she
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: was just telling me that she loved my brand and
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: what I had going on. And mind you, this is
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: a very well established lady influencer, and but she was like,
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: with what you have, just you know, take your followers
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: like this. They have to because of what you built
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: here in your hometown, in your city. You have to
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: gradually let them grow with you. So don't don't go
• 59:59
  Speaker 2: from Birmingham's New York. Yeah, don't go from Birmingham to LA.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: Don't take them that fast. Yeah, go from Birmingham to Alan,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: to Tennessee to Florida to you know what I'm saying,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 2: and let them grow with you or whatever. And that's
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: good what I've been doing and that's what I plan
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: to do.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: So I love that advice. That's a that's some that's
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: some good wisdom, because sometimes we go too fast and
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: then we end up believing people that were supposed to
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: be connected with us because we wanted to go to
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: that's that's that's good. I'm gonna take that was her name?
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: You to give me her like Instagram before you leave
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: listen this. I've enjoyed this conversation. I've really enjoyed you
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: being here, and I just want to give you an
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: open door to come back.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: I don't want to give you open door to come back,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: because I know there is more and I feel like
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: this is just the beginning of just asking ill hood
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: and even Jessica I love it so Traditionally on just
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: as the podcast, we allow our get to have the
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: final word, like we've talked about a lot. We've talked
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: about your journey. But if you've come on, come here
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: with anything on your heart, like you want to share anything,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: encouraging words. If they didn't hear anything else, what would
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: you want them to leave with? And you can just
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: talk to your camera over then I.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: Would just want to say, you know, be okay with
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: where you are, Be okay with your journey. Allow yourself
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: to embrace the journey while you're in it, because I
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 2: really wish that I had had the opportunity to really
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: take in those moments, you know, growing up. But now
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: that I'm able to reflect back, I'm like I actually
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: had some. It was a beautiful It's a beautiful time,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: you know, even even through those hard seasons. So give
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: yourself grace and understand that everything happens exactly the way
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: they're supposed to, and you are exactly where you're supposed
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: to be, and it's all God's tim and he already
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: had all of this worked out and ordained for our
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: life before we even got here. So give yourself grace
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: and understand that your purpose is on the way.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: M I love that, Yeah, I just love how you speak.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: You just our good language. I love people with just
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: good language. It's just doing something TV, y'all. I have
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoyed myself. I've learned a lot more, you know,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: it's just been good. It's always good to speak to
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: the person that you see on social media. You might
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: have a thought, but you get to dig deeper. And
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: I love that this has been a safe space for
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: so many influencers to tell their told story because we
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: believe here that we overcome by the blood of the
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: Lamb and the word of testimony. And I believe that
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: somebody has overcome themselves throughout this, throughout this particular conversation,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: that they've been given permission to be themselves. And so
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for theirs. I'm so grateful for you.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: There's a ray, and I'm so grateful for you. Okay,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for tuning in, and remember until
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: next week. Until next time, remember life could be much
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: more simple if you just ask thank you for tuning
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: in to this week's episode. Since you've made it this far,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: you might as well connect with us on all social
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: media platforms at the Jessica S. Smith. I know I
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: won't see you back until next week, but until then,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: remember to love always yourself and always say.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: Thank God for one another day.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: Hey, Hey, I know we could be another way. Hey,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: pray thank God for another day. Hey Hey, I'm just
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: thankfu for another day. Hey Hey another day? Oh, another
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: day wise, another day to get it right, another day
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: to rise up, another day living, another day.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: We love ones.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: I always remember hold it down for a ball one, Yeah,