Latest / Kickin’ It With KeKe: Life, Love, & MINDSET / Episode #165 w/Ericka Floyd

Transcript

Episode #165 w/Ericka Floyd · Kickin’ It With KeKe: Life, Love, & MINDSET

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to Kicking In with Kiki. Kicking it you ki
0:08
Speaker 1: Ki kicking it the ki ki.
0:15
Speaker 2: For little personality, switching up the storyline on God. We
0:19
Speaker 2: making this story and hooks rise one day at a time.
0:24
Speaker 3: Much problems to the side, enjoy yourself, free your mind,
0:31
Speaker 3: chickin it we ki keep.
0:40
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Kicking It with Kiki, Life,
0:43
Speaker 2: love and mindset, where mindset meets movement, healing meets action,
0:48
Speaker 2: and conversations create transformation. I am your host, Kiki Chanel,
0:53
Speaker 2: awarded winning author, lifestyle blogger, and owner of nineteen lifestyle
0:57
Speaker 2: magazine Around here. Y'all already know how we do. We
1:01
Speaker 2: talk about life, love, mindset and everything in between. So
1:05
Speaker 2: make sure that you pull up a chair, grab something
1:08
Speaker 2: to drink, because we're kicking it. I am joined with
1:12
Speaker 2: a very special yesterday, and you guys know i'd like
1:15
Speaker 2: to do. I like to give my guests the opportunity
1:17
Speaker 2: he'll tell you who they are. So I'm going to
1:20
Speaker 2: turn it over to miss Erica Floyd and she's going
1:23
Speaker 2: to tell you guys who she is. Hi, Erica, thank
1:26
Speaker 2: you for coming to Kicking with me today.
1:29
Speaker 3: Thank you. So I am a spoken word artist, poet.
1:37
Speaker 3: I've been writing on a regular basis since twenty twenty.
1:43
Speaker 3: I am a United States Air Force veteran of many
1:47
Speaker 3: many years ago. I have four grown children, ages nineteen
1:55
Speaker 3: soon to be twenty five, thirty one, and thirty three.
1:59
Speaker 3: I am a tranch plant from Brooklyn, New York, now
2:02
Speaker 3: living in South Carolina and I OLH. And I am
2:07
Speaker 3: newly published published my first baby, my first book in January.
2:12
Speaker 3: It is titled Pennees for My Thoughts move it's here
2:17
Speaker 3: for a moment and that is well, you can't really
2:20
Speaker 3: see it on this background, but it's title Pennies for
2:23
Speaker 3: My Thoughts and it is available on Amazon. But if
2:27
Speaker 3: you decide to order a book from me after viewing
2:31
Speaker 3: this podcast, please reach out to me in DMS. I
2:34
Speaker 3: will provide the IG whenever the appropriate time Miss Kiki
2:38
Speaker 3: decides to give me, I'll go ahead and give you
2:40
Speaker 3: the IG. And I cannot think of another thing besides
2:45
Speaker 3: the fact that I've been living in South Carolina since
2:48
Speaker 3: two thousand and two. I left New York in nineteen
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Speaker 3: seventy nine when I was a teenager, and then joined
2:55
Speaker 3: the service.
2:57
Speaker 2: In eighty eight.
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Speaker 3: Is when I started basic training. I only to three
3:01
Speaker 3: years in because I was married. I was married to
3:07
Speaker 3: another Air Force veteran once upon a time, and I
3:13
Speaker 3: have been divorced now since twenty fourteen. And that's the
3:16
Speaker 3: only thing I can think of to say. It's kind
3:19
Speaker 3: of hard to talk about yourself.
3:21
Speaker 4: And that's the reason why I like my guests to
3:25
Speaker 4: do it, because it lets you, you know, plug yourself,
3:29
Speaker 4: you be proud of yourself by like dang, I forgot
3:32
Speaker 4: I did that. So that's the whole reason why I
3:35
Speaker 4: let you, guys tell the audience who you are.
3:37
Speaker 2: But again, thank you for coming to kicking with me.
3:39
Speaker 2: That was an amazing introduction of yourself. You have done
3:42
Speaker 2: a lot. Thank you for your service. I do appreciate that.
3:45
Speaker 2: We appreciate you. My youngest sister is an army bet
3:50
Speaker 2: so yes, yes, so I love I love that. So
3:54
Speaker 2: we're going to get into the mindset moment. Okay, Well
3:58
Speaker 2: we talk about mindset that shapes how we experience life
4:01
Speaker 2: and love. Okay, okay, So the first question is what
4:05
Speaker 2: mindset shift changed the way you approach life?
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Speaker 3: Hmmm, I guess I would have to say. When I
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Speaker 3: lost custody of my children after the divorce, a lot
4:22
Speaker 3: went into that. But of course, bottom line is I'm
4:27
Speaker 3: going to feel that that it was unjust because I
4:34
Speaker 3: had divorce due to domestic violence and I got to
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Speaker 3: have custody of them in the beginning of the divorce,
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Speaker 3: but then two years later lost custody of the two
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Speaker 3: younger children, and so being a person of faith, and
4:49
Speaker 3: the fact that I had the church interceding on my
4:52
Speaker 3: behalf in prayer, close family and friends interceding in prayer,
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Speaker 3: and I just couldn't understand it. You it's times like
5:01
Speaker 3: this where you questioned God and You're like, why is
5:05
Speaker 3: this happening? I'm thinking I did everything correct. Why this?
5:11
Speaker 3: Because I had experienced three miscarriages and once upon a
5:19
Speaker 3: time before I had the four children, and so for
5:22
Speaker 3: something that I had begged for, wondering if I would
5:25
Speaker 3: ever become a mother, to have that taken away, you know,
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Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, God, I don't understand what's going on.
5:33
Speaker 3: And so it finally dawned on me. I guess you
5:36
Speaker 3: can say I had an epiphany and thought, well, perhaps
5:41
Speaker 3: there's something I'm supposed to do. And because of the
5:45
Speaker 3: type a mother and wife that I was at the time,
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Speaker 3: I poured everything into the family. I feel it was
5:53
Speaker 3: all about them, and it was like, Okay, who is
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Speaker 3: Erika besides wife and mother? And then once I got
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Speaker 3: divorced and lost the children, I'm like, okay, so now
6:03
Speaker 3: I don't have children to take care of, So what
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Speaker 3: is it that there's something that I'm supposed to do
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Speaker 3: that having to care for my children would have hindered?
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Speaker 3: So that this must be a reason, because just like
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Speaker 3: if you are a person of faith and you're familiar
6:20
Speaker 3: with Joseph, you know that Joseph had to go through trials.
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Speaker 3: His brothers got rid of him, and he got arrested
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Speaker 3: for something he didn't do. So then I guess he
6:32
Speaker 3: had to learn about injustice or whatever up close and
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Speaker 3: personal in order to go into his destiny to be
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Speaker 3: able to rule and lead eventually once he finally reached
6:44
Speaker 3: what his vision was. So unfortunately, I wish I had
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Speaker 3: the vision to know exactly I'm supposed to go, because
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Speaker 3: I didn't dream about anything in particular as far as
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Speaker 3: what I'm supposed to be doing. Yet I have enough
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Speaker 3: faith in me at least must acceed to know that
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Speaker 3: there is a reason. You know, God's plan is something
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Speaker 3: we're never going to really comprehend, possibly until it's close
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Speaker 3: to our end. So that's what I had to come
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Speaker 3: to terms with. There is something I'm supposed to do that,
7:20
Speaker 3: because if the children were with me, it would have
7:22
Speaker 3: hindered me and probably kept me from doing that.
7:26
Speaker 5: Right.
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Speaker 3: So that was the shift. I guess.
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Speaker 2: I love that. That was amazing shift, because, like you said,
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Speaker 2: we questioned God. Sometimes we blame God. Sometimes we get
7:35
Speaker 2: so angry that He is telling us I have more
7:38
Speaker 2: for you to do, and we miss it. We miss
7:41
Speaker 2: out on a part of our purpose because we're so
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Speaker 2: closed off to anger or resentment or you know, whatever
7:50
Speaker 2: it is that has us distracted at the time. So
7:53
Speaker 2: I'm glad that you found out who Erica was or is.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that'sge it.
8:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still so I love that. I love that. Yeah, Wow,
8:07
Speaker 2: that's amazing. So I want to talk about life and poetry.
8:11
Speaker 2: How has your personal life journey shape the way you
8:14
Speaker 2: write poetry and can you recall a moment where writing
8:19
Speaker 2: help you survive or make sense of life.
8:23
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if I'm going to answer that in
8:25
Speaker 3: the correct order. I'm going to try, and you can
8:27
Speaker 3: always steer me back to the right direction. Well as
8:33
Speaker 3: far it's shaping. I guess it's more loss. It's always
8:38
Speaker 3: more loss or anything. How do you put it where
8:43
Speaker 3: you experience strong emotions, I guess. And so I had
8:52
Speaker 3: lost my mother. I shouldn't say I lost her because
8:54
Speaker 3: I know where she is, but basically she transitioned in
8:58
Speaker 3: twenty twenty, about a week or two before the pandemic.
9:04
Speaker 3: And what I have said in one of my poems,
9:07
Speaker 3: which I is not in the book, but I felt
9:12
Speaker 3: like twenty twenty. It's ironic that I lost her in
9:14
Speaker 3: twenty twenty and decided to start writing on more of
9:19
Speaker 3: a regular basis because twenty twenty is supposed to be
9:23
Speaker 3: perfect vision, and I typically my character as far as
9:32
Speaker 3: introvert or extrovert. I love people, but I never wanted
9:37
Speaker 3: to be the center or focus in front of a
9:40
Speaker 3: group of people. Okay, and for me to be doing
9:44
Speaker 3: what I'm doing now is nothing but God. I don't
9:47
Speaker 3: care what nobody says. That is my faith. God does
9:52
Speaker 3: things that are just unheard of or unbelievable, and you
9:57
Speaker 3: get blessings the same, you know, and you get a
9:59
Speaker 3: blessing from say, somebody that you would have never fathomed.
10:02
Speaker 3: It's got to be an act of God that used
10:05
Speaker 3: him as a vessel to assist. But rewinding back, I
10:09
Speaker 3: just felt like even though my mother was seventy five
10:12
Speaker 3: when she left us, I was like, she had so
10:15
Speaker 3: much potential to do so many things in life and
10:18
Speaker 3: didn't get the opportunity to do it. And my thing was,
10:22
Speaker 3: I got tired of being afraid to do things, you know,
10:28
Speaker 3: especially things that are positive that doesn't mean any harm
10:34
Speaker 3: to anyone. So a friend of mine who is a
10:37
Speaker 3: fellow poet, happened to advertise on faceboo because that was
10:43
Speaker 3: my only social media at the time that he was
10:46
Speaker 3: going to be doing open midday open mic five days
10:50
Speaker 3: a week on Instagram and I didn't have Instagram, so
10:54
Speaker 3: I enlisted my then thirteen year old son put me
10:58
Speaker 3: on Instagram, and he looked at me like like you, oh,
11:03
Speaker 3: why you gotta be on Instagram? Like that's our thing,
11:06
Speaker 3: you know, like moms. But he did what I asked, blessing,
11:12
Speaker 3: and he even had an issue. Would be after about
11:14
Speaker 3: a month or so, he's like, how do you have
11:16
Speaker 3: more followers than I do? And I said, it's because
11:21
Speaker 3: I'm involved in poetry. I follow the poets. I'm learning
11:24
Speaker 3: how to follow people and they follow me back, right,
11:28
Speaker 3: but needless to say, to try to fast forward the
11:33
Speaker 3: person that founded ain't right tried, which, by the way,
11:37
Speaker 3: I'm one of the midday open mic hosts. I forgot
11:40
Speaker 3: to mention that I do this on Thursdays between one
11:43
Speaker 3: and two pm, since I'm available at that time. Currently,
11:49
Speaker 3: that person who is Moody Black, who is an award
11:53
Speaker 3: winning poet himself, I would send him. I sent him
11:57
Speaker 3: a few poems I d M him and he's like Erica.
12:01
Speaker 3: He said, you need to come on the show and share.
12:04
Speaker 3: And I said, I will never ever ever come on live,
12:09
Speaker 3: you know, silly me. God's laughing, he's falling out laughing
12:13
Speaker 3: right now because I said never. And then come June,
12:17
Speaker 3: because it was April when I got on IG. And
12:19
Speaker 3: then come June, after watching so many live poetry segments,
12:25
Speaker 3: you know, and I'm writing in the background, and I said,
12:28
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and bite the bullet.
12:30
Speaker 3: And I was almost sick to my stomach, nervous, but
12:34
Speaker 3: I finally came on and the host at the time,
12:37
Speaker 3: she said, you can write. She said you need to
12:42
Speaker 3: keep doing this. And so anytime there was a live
12:45
Speaker 3: with another poet that I was following, and I would
12:48
Speaker 3: make myself again get on the live and they tell
12:53
Speaker 3: me the same thing. They said, you need to keep
12:55
Speaker 3: doing this to try to get used to it because
12:57
Speaker 3: you can actually write. That was the beginning of that.
13:01
Speaker 3: It was basically I was in fear facing mode even
13:04
Speaker 3: on this podcast. This was making me nervous because, like
13:07
Speaker 3: I said, I'm a virgin to pop podcast. But you know,
13:11
Speaker 3: you clear that up. I'll no longer be a virgin
13:14
Speaker 3: after today. And I love it because I said, you
13:17
Speaker 3: know what, I'm trying to kind of like bucket list
13:20
Speaker 3: or whatever you want to call it. You know, don't
13:23
Speaker 3: turn down opportunities. I have turned down too many opportunities
13:28
Speaker 3: in past because I was too shy, too scared to
13:32
Speaker 3: get in front of people, right. So I was like,
13:35
Speaker 3: that's got to stop. And especially now that I am
13:38
Speaker 3: a senior at sixty almost sixty one years old, you know,
13:43
Speaker 3: we are not guaranteed the next moment. Yeah, so I'm like,
13:48
Speaker 3: I'm trying to seize every opportunity. So that's where I'm
13:54
Speaker 3: at right now.
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Speaker 2: I love that you said yes to yourself. Yeah, and God,
14:01
Speaker 2: on that screen, it looks amazing on you. Just want
14:04
Speaker 2: to let you know this, this will not be your
14:08
Speaker 2: last podcast. Just want to let you know that you're
14:12
Speaker 2: going to open. So say yes to yourself, show up
14:15
Speaker 2: for yourself, and let the people get a taste of
14:17
Speaker 2: who you are.
14:18
Speaker 3: I appreciate that, Thank you absolutely so.
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Speaker 2: In your experience, how does poetry reveal the difference between
14:26
Speaker 2: real love and the version of love that sometimes we
14:29
Speaker 2: convince ourselves to accept.
14:33
Speaker 3: How does poetry can you rephrase that?
14:38
Speaker 2: How does poetry help us determine whether it's real or
14:42
Speaker 2: not when it comes to love?
14:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, now that one right there? In all honesty, I'm
14:51
Speaker 3: not sure. I mean in the beginning, of course, when
14:55
Speaker 3: you first embark on poetry, well, particularly high school, Well
15:00
Speaker 3: from me, you know that how do I love the
15:02
Speaker 3: let me count the ways? It's very very romantic, you know,
15:06
Speaker 3: fairy tale, but we know the reality. And since I
15:12
Speaker 3: am in spoken word, I mean there's a lot of
15:16
Speaker 3: blood and tears left on the stage, so to speak.
15:20
Speaker 3: You are speaking from experience, You speaking from the heart
15:26
Speaker 3: in terms of what you're going through at that moment.
15:29
Speaker 3: And if you're real gifted with your ink, you have
15:33
Speaker 3: a beautiful way, colorful way to put it where it
15:39
Speaker 3: just sounds so great your tragedy, you know what I'm saying.
15:43
Speaker 3: So and you get people in tuned, especially if your
15:47
Speaker 3: delivery is not like monotone. So no, because I've been
15:53
Speaker 3: through you know, if I lived this long, I've been
15:54
Speaker 3: through some things. Yes, And it's just therapeutic. There's a
15:59
Speaker 3: nat in here. It's just very therapeutic to be able
16:03
Speaker 3: to just write your thoughts down in a different way.
16:09
Speaker 3: It doesn't necessarily have to be direct, it doesn't have
16:12
Speaker 3: to necessarily be pointing fingers at a particular person. I
16:15
Speaker 3: cannot believe this gnat now decides that wants there's a
16:18
Speaker 3: gnat now wants to mess with me while I'm on
16:21
Speaker 3: this podcast. I hope you guys are getting the kick
16:24
Speaker 3: out of my little bit of distress here about the gnat.
16:27
Speaker 3: But any case, sometimes glove can be just like the net.
16:35
Speaker 3: That that so yeah, that That's the only thing I
16:42
Speaker 3: can say in regards to that, you think, because before
16:48
Speaker 3: you it starts writing poetry. Well, my initial introduction to
16:54
Speaker 3: it was okay, oh how beautiful, how romantic, and this
16:58
Speaker 3: that and the third. But then when you get into
17:00
Speaker 3: the spoken word aspect of it, sharing your experience hearing
17:03
Speaker 3: other people. You realize no, let me bring you back
17:08
Speaker 3: to reality. Yes, like soul to soul, back to life,
17:15
Speaker 3: back to reality. And that is a.
17:19
Speaker 2: Great segue into my next segment, which is called the
17:23
Speaker 2: reality check, Right okay, because growth sounds good, but we
17:30
Speaker 2: know that it is not comfortable. M And you just
17:34
Speaker 2: talked about some of your reality of being too shy
17:39
Speaker 2: and saying no and all the things. So how has
17:42
Speaker 2: your life shifted by showing up and being in those
17:47
Speaker 2: rooms and giving yourself the opportunity to experience where the
17:52
Speaker 2: stage can actually take you.
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Speaker 3: It was free. I can't because you know, you hold
18:00
Speaker 3: yourself in bondage when you're saying no, especially know the
18:04
Speaker 3: things that is positive. It's not like unless the person
18:07
Speaker 3: is crazy. No one's going to literally murder you just
18:12
Speaker 3: because you got on stage. You just it's either they
18:15
Speaker 3: like you or they don't like you, and they can
18:18
Speaker 3: choose not to listen, walk out, do whatever.
18:21
Speaker 2: You know.
18:22
Speaker 3: It's not life or death in terms of you performing.
18:26
Speaker 3: But it was a freeing thing because it had held
18:29
Speaker 3: me in bondage for a long time.
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Speaker 2: The fear, you know, and I think that you know,
18:36
Speaker 2: I'm a woman of fath too. So God does not
18:38
Speaker 2: give us the spirit of fear right, So we have
18:41
Speaker 2: to stop saying I'm afraid and just try it. Because
18:47
Speaker 2: have you ever talk yourself out of something without even trying?
18:51
Speaker 3: Oh many times in past? Absolutely?
18:54
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was always wanting to be behind the scenes,
18:57
Speaker 2: but then God said, no, you are a leader, come forth. Yeah,
19:01
Speaker 2: And now I love meeting people like yourself. I love interviews.
19:08
Speaker 2: I love sharing people's stories that we never would have
19:12
Speaker 2: heard otherwise. And I love that you talk about how
19:15
Speaker 2: twenty twenty transformed, you know, and put you on the
19:18
Speaker 2: stage and that you, Hey, this is something that I
19:21
Speaker 2: really need to take seriously because so many other people
19:24
Speaker 2: are seeing what I know that's there. But it's like
19:29
Speaker 2: same thing with me. I started my podcast going live
19:32
Speaker 2: on IG on Monday Night in twenty twenty after experiencing
19:37
Speaker 2: a loss of my nineteen bonus child. Nineteen year old
19:40
Speaker 2: bonus child she passed away in twenty twenty, and we
19:43
Speaker 2: had a conversation about podcasts. She said, you'll be great
19:46
Speaker 2: at it. You should do it. So it helped me
19:49
Speaker 2: to stop putting off what you can do today till
19:53
Speaker 2: tomorrow because it's not promised, you know, She's like, yeah,
19:58
Speaker 2: whole life ahead of her. Little did we know our
20:01
Speaker 2: time was gonna be sharp?
20:03
Speaker 3: Wow with her. Yes, that's amazing. And it was twenty
20:07
Speaker 3: twenty as well.
20:09
Speaker 2: April. That is like when COVID hit. That's when it
20:13
Speaker 2: all happened. It was to the point where you know,
20:15
Speaker 2: we couldn't even have a full funeral service, like it
20:18
Speaker 2: had to be limited amount of people and things like that.
20:20
Speaker 2: So that was a challenge. And she is like a
20:25
Speaker 2: bright light. She keeps me motivated because I too has
20:29
Speaker 2: gone through the part where why don't people show up?
20:32
Speaker 2: And we have to understand that sometimes people just not
20:34
Speaker 2: gonna show up because they just don't get it. They
20:37
Speaker 2: just not gonna like you. And it's okay, show up
20:39
Speaker 2: for yourself and your vibe will attract your tribe.
20:45
Speaker 3: There you go, your vibe will attract your tribe. I
20:51
Speaker 3: like that.
20:52
Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, this is an uncomfortable truth people need to
20:58
Speaker 2: hear about personal growth.
21:02
Speaker 3: An uncomfortable truth about personal growth.
21:08
Speaker 2: Hmmm, because this is the reality check go A have
21:12
Speaker 2: a given.
21:12
Speaker 3: To them personal growth. It is, as I've been saying,
21:19
Speaker 3: the only thing I can think of is just facing
21:21
Speaker 3: things that you are afraid of. It's the only thing
21:25
Speaker 3: I can think of to say, because there's an uncertainty
21:29
Speaker 3: there if you're going to succeed or you're gonna fail.
21:32
Speaker 3: And I know for me personally, I don't want to fail.
21:36
Speaker 3: It is very uncomfortable for me. I don't like to
21:40
Speaker 3: be criticized. I want to feel that I'm competent in
21:45
Speaker 3: everything that I set my mind to, because it really
21:51
Speaker 3: hurts my feelings. I don't like to let anyone down,
21:54
Speaker 3: and especially now myself in situations. But but I although
22:03
Speaker 3: this may be irrelevant, I don't know, but I tend
22:08
Speaker 3: to when I tell you I'm going to do something,
22:13
Speaker 3: my follow through is pretty strong, and it always bothers
22:17
Speaker 3: me if I can't do what I said I'm going
22:19
Speaker 3: to do, so I have to have a legitimate reason,
22:23
Speaker 3: and I will come to you rather than you have
22:26
Speaker 3: to search for me to say, well, you said you
22:28
Speaker 3: was going to do this. So it's very important to
22:32
Speaker 3: me that people have follow through. Don't tell me something
22:36
Speaker 3: and then don't do it, that's a problem, and so
22:40
Speaker 3: I don't want to be that person either. So I
22:42
Speaker 3: make sure that I am someone you can count on,
22:45
Speaker 3: someone that's going to be competent in what I say
22:50
Speaker 3: I'm going to do. And yeah, that's the only thing
22:57
Speaker 3: about growth. Yeah, it's going to be for you to grow,
23:00
Speaker 3: You're gonna have growing pains. It's going to be uncomfortable, period,
23:04
Speaker 3: point blank. That's all I can say about that. And
23:07
Speaker 3: this was uncomfortable having that. I mean I literally had
23:12
Speaker 3: I felt like I was going to have an anxiety
23:13
Speaker 3: attack when I first got on the Instagram. Yeah, I
23:16
Speaker 3: mean the butterflies were strong heard pumping everything. And then
23:23
Speaker 3: when the hosts at that time for that midday open mic,
23:27
Speaker 3: which is called Ain't Right Tribe because I'm part of
23:29
Speaker 3: that tribe. That's why it was interesting what you said
23:34
Speaker 3: and she said you can write and to get that
23:38
Speaker 3: recognition from other poets to be like, you know, I
23:41
Speaker 3: enjoyed that piece. You know, there may have been a
23:43
Speaker 3: bar here, which is normally an accident because I'm normally
23:46
Speaker 3: not you know, bar heavy, and my pieces, I'm straight
23:49
Speaker 3: up for the most part, I'm not a black chakra,
23:54
Speaker 3: you know. But you know, it's it's just comforting when
24:00
Speaker 3: poets will give you your props, you know, absolutely, Yeah,
24:05
Speaker 3: I'm still validated to be in this community, and.
24:09
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful thing when you find your people. Yeah yeah, yeah,
24:15
Speaker 2: go where you're celebrated, not tolerated. I'll tell anybody that, oh.
24:19
Speaker 3: God, you just dropping all kinds of gems and I
24:22
Speaker 3: can't steal from you.
24:25
Speaker 5: Well, that one is about mine because I've heard it before,
24:27
Speaker 5: but it's que volume. So I always say that because
24:32
Speaker 5: more people need to understand that just because somebody is in.
24:36
Speaker 2: Your corner does not mean that they're in your corner.
24:40
Speaker 3: Yeah.
24:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, So let's bring it home to the action step,
24:44
Speaker 2: because mindset without action doesn't create change. And I want
24:48
Speaker 2: to ask this question. Do you believe poetry can heal
24:55
Speaker 2: a broken heart? Or does it simply give language to
24:59
Speaker 2: the pain or maybe both.
25:06
Speaker 3: That's a great question. It definitely gives language to the pain.
25:17
Speaker 3: I have a lot of language in certain cases. As
25:23
Speaker 3: far as heal the broken heart, I guess it depends
25:26
Speaker 3: on what comes out in the translation of the peace
25:30
Speaker 3: or the language to give you that epiphany or whatever.
25:35
Speaker 3: Because I know for me personally, as far as my
25:38
Speaker 3: relationship with God on my walk in my faith, you know,
25:43
Speaker 3: I pray for discernment all the time, and I've written
25:46
Speaker 3: about one of the main things gifts that I want
25:51
Speaker 3: is discernment because I'm at a certain age and I'm
25:54
Speaker 3: not trying to repeat errors and I need you to
25:59
Speaker 3: show me. I'm trying to follow you so I don't
26:02
Speaker 3: get myself in a mess and then begging you to
26:05
Speaker 3: get me out when I did not listen or heed
26:08
Speaker 3: to the voice that was trying to tell me or
26:11
Speaker 3: signal to me, Yo, Erica, this is not it. You
26:16
Speaker 3: may want to back out of this, you know what
26:18
Speaker 3: I'm saying, And I'm like, nah, you know, just give
26:21
Speaker 3: it time, or give them time and they'll come around
26:24
Speaker 3: and this that and the third or could it be
26:26
Speaker 3: the devil that's trying to sabotage my happiness? And so
26:29
Speaker 3: there's a back and forth for to and fro here
26:31
Speaker 3: going on with principalities and powers and high places. You're wrestling,
26:36
Speaker 3: so you know that thing. So I guess so as
26:41
Speaker 3: a form of therapy, perhaps it can, because I do
26:44
Speaker 3: believe the poetry it can be therapeutic for those that
26:47
Speaker 3: can't afford to get counseling, you know, write it out,
26:51
Speaker 3: let it out because you need that release. So I
26:54
Speaker 3: guess the answer would be, yeah, it's possible that it can.
26:58
Speaker 3: I guess it just depends on your mental state and
27:00
Speaker 3: what you are able to receive and heed too, and
27:06
Speaker 3: and and replicate each day. Kind of like physical therapy
27:10
Speaker 3: or whatever. You know, it's mental therapy. I love that.
27:13
Speaker 2: Mental therapy. Come on, snap, love it, Yes, mental therapy.
27:19
Speaker 2: Let me write that down. You're stealing from me, but
27:21
Speaker 2: I'm stealing from you too. I love it. I love it.
27:25
Speaker 2: So go ahead and tell people about the book again.
27:28
Speaker 2: Go ahead and let us know where you hang out
27:30
Speaker 2: on these instagram I know you're on Instagram, and I
27:33
Speaker 2: know you on Facebook because you mentioned those two, But
27:35
Speaker 2: tell us where else you hang out. If you have
27:37
Speaker 2: a website and all the things, go ahead and plug
27:39
Speaker 2: it up.
27:40
Speaker 3: Well the website, unfortunately I don't have ready and well
27:43
Speaker 3: I don't have a regular website, but I am on Amazon.
27:48
Speaker 3: But as I said before, I would prefer if you,
27:51
Speaker 3: if someone would be interested in purchasing my book, that
27:54
Speaker 3: they purchase it from me directly, because I had copies here.
28:00
Speaker 3: But the title of the book, which unfortunately I still
28:03
Speaker 3: don't have. I'm not savvy on zooms in podcasts because
28:10
Speaker 3: the background is distorting the book. But it is titled
28:16
Speaker 3: pen Ease for my thoughts, Ease e a se So
28:21
Speaker 3: it's a play on a saying on a quote, and
28:25
Speaker 3: it's just basically what it says, depending on what I
28:28
Speaker 3: was thinking about at the time, is what I wrote about.
28:31
Speaker 3: So it's no particular genre of poetry. I am on
28:37
Speaker 3: ain't write tribe on IG one to two pm Eastern
28:42
Speaker 3: Standard time on Thursdays. I will be one of the
28:48
Speaker 3: poets performing in Atlanta October sixteenth at the BPC Poetry Festival.
28:57
Speaker 3: And here in Greenville I am supposed to be the
29:02
Speaker 3: feature poet on August ninth, and there the open mic
29:09
Speaker 3: event starts at seven point thirty. They typically will have
29:13
Speaker 3: maybe three or four poets do open mic and then
29:16
Speaker 3: they'll present the feature will which will be me at
29:19
Speaker 3: that time. And it's also to help promote my book
29:25
Speaker 3: book sales, and I'm trying to get I'm not sure
29:28
Speaker 3: if it's defind you know, definite or not. I'm trying
29:33
Speaker 3: to go to the poetry festival, not to perform, just
29:36
Speaker 3: to go to experience it. In New York at Governors Island,
29:39
Speaker 3: I believe that's the weekend of the seventeenth and eighteenth
29:43
Speaker 3: of July of July. Yeah, those are the only things
29:47
Speaker 3: I can think of right now, because I'm already here
29:50
Speaker 3: with you. So this is done.
29:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's your I do handle b k.
29:57
Speaker 3: L y n n D A h s E. It's
30:04
Speaker 3: pronounced Brooklyn in the house. Yeah, so it's b k
30:11
Speaker 3: l y n n D A h s E.
30:17
Speaker 2: Got it, I got it, I got it. And then
30:24
Speaker 2: on Facebook is just your name.
30:26
Speaker 3: Or just my name Erica Floyd with the C and
30:29
Speaker 3: the K.
30:31
Speaker 2: All right, nice, nice, And it's so funny because my
30:35
Speaker 2: baby sister, the one that I told you that served
30:37
Speaker 2: in the military as well, her name is Erica. Oh
30:40
Speaker 2: snap the K in there. But yeah, so the kindreds feuds.
30:46
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, absolutely, so much coincidence flying.
30:52
Speaker 2: Around here, I know, but I wanted to share this
30:55
Speaker 2: with you before we get off, because Erica is a
31:00
Speaker 2: featured poet in the new edition of nineteen Lifestyle Magazine.
31:06
Speaker 2: Issue number ten is dedicated to poetry, and here she is.
31:12
Speaker 3: I love it, and I appreciate you guys so much
31:17
Speaker 3: for accepting me.
31:18
Speaker 2: Really absolutely listen your expression. It just gives me chills.
31:25
Speaker 2: And I was like, yes, this is it, this is it.
31:28
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it. But thank you for
31:30
Speaker 2: being an asset to our publication. We are in our
31:33
Speaker 2: second year and we just love meeting amazing individuals like
31:38
Speaker 2: yourself to help and come make us who we are becoming,
31:43
Speaker 2: because they said the first three three to five years
31:46
Speaker 2: in magazines are crucial whether you're going to have longevity
31:50
Speaker 2: or not. And we have been loving to ride thus far.
31:54
Speaker 2: So thank you for being amongst the pages of nineteen
31:58
Speaker 2: lifestyle magazine. Mis ma'am. Final question of the evening, uh h.
32:07
Speaker 2: If you had to write a poem today that captures
32:11
Speaker 2: your current season of life, love and mindset, what would
32:17
Speaker 2: the title be and what would it say about where
32:20
Speaker 2: you are right now? And take a moment.
32:26
Speaker 3: Well, the title's already been taken by Michelle Obama because
32:34
Speaker 3: I'm still kind of becoming so to speak. I guess discovery.
32:42
Speaker 3: Oh I like that because I'm still I still playfully
32:47
Speaker 3: say to people, I'm not sure what I want to
32:50
Speaker 3: do when I grow up, what I want to be.
32:54
Speaker 3: So I'm discovering things about myself every day, and I
33:02
Speaker 3: have less tolerance for things that I used to put
33:07
Speaker 3: up with. And I have mentioned before I'm sure to
33:11
Speaker 3: different audiences that now I understand the insanity or maybe
33:20
Speaker 3: that's a strong word in regards to my grandmother, made
33:23
Speaker 3: she rest in peace and my mother bet but definitely
33:27
Speaker 3: my grandmother because she would speak her mind for as
33:32
Speaker 3: long as I known her. And I said, now that
33:34
Speaker 3: I'm at this age, I understand what it means to
33:37
Speaker 3: have less filter as git older. Even though I used diplomacy,
33:43
Speaker 3: I tried to not hurt anyone's feelings. But I'm gonna
33:46
Speaker 3: tell you straight up, instead of keeping things bottled up
33:49
Speaker 3: inside where I'm gonna end up giving myself an ulcer,
33:53
Speaker 3: I'm gonna let you know because it's enough for that
33:58
Speaker 3: of worrying about, you know, or putting someone else's feelings,
34:02
Speaker 3: giving them priority over mind.
34:05
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I love that, Oh discovery, you should write a poem,
34:11
Speaker 2: call you gotta do it?
34:12
Speaker 3: Now knew you what was going I am writing it down.
34:19
Speaker 3: I am writing it down. Although I think I probably
34:21
Speaker 3: hinted on those things in some of my other pieces,
34:25
Speaker 3: but I will give it some thought. Absolutely, I really
34:28
Speaker 3: enjoyed this. These questions were something else. Catch You really
34:37
Speaker 3: really gonna put me to the test today, Okay, lady.
34:41
Speaker 2: That's why I don't send out the questions because I
34:44
Speaker 2: like for the answers to be authentic. Yeah, that's sort
34:48
Speaker 2: of rehearsed because had I sent questions and sometimes the
34:51
Speaker 2: questions don't come to me until I need you.
34:55
Speaker 3: And that's perfectly fine. It's part of my growth, the
35:00
Speaker 3: yes saying so eh.
35:03
Speaker 2: And now now that you have broken your virginity for
35:08
Speaker 2: podcasts with Kicking at Wikiki, all right, I'm the exclusive.
35:12
Speaker 2: I'm the first.
35:13
Speaker 3: Okay, yes you are.
35:15
Speaker 2: How do you feel?
35:18
Speaker 3: I feel better now that we're getting towards the end.
35:21
Speaker 3: I see the light, Tylar.
35:26
Speaker 2: But you guys have been listening to another episode of
35:29
Speaker 2: Kicking at Wikiki Life, love and mindset. I have been
35:33
Speaker 2: joined with miss Erica Floyd and she has been amazing. Uh.
35:37
Speaker 2: Thank you guys for tuning in. If this conversation resonated
35:41
Speaker 2: with you, make sure that you like, subscribe, share with
35:44
Speaker 2: the friends, and remember your story has power, your voice
35:48
Speaker 2: has purpose, and your mindset can change everything. Give yourself
35:52
Speaker 2: permission to say yes to yourself without being I'm awhelmed,
36:01
Speaker 2: are second guessing yourself? We already have enough of that,
36:04
Speaker 2: so allow yourself to stay yes. Yes, ma'am.
36:08
Speaker 3: No, I was saying that part. Oh, so you did
36:12
Speaker 3: not need me to read that piece that was published.
36:16
Speaker 2: You can go ahead, listen, let's do that. Let's do that. Okay,
36:20
Speaker 2: to the stage, miss Erica Floyd.
36:25
Speaker 3: Okay. So it's titled melancholy Moods. Melancholy moods mandated me
36:31
Speaker 3: motionless to meaningful memories, mercilessly mourning matriarchs and memoriam that
36:40
Speaker 3: have moved to their mansions many months ago, making me
36:46
Speaker 3: mindful of my mortality each morning, midday, and moon that
36:53
Speaker 3: materializes never motionless, meticulous in its movement, me myself mistakenly
37:02
Speaker 3: meandering minutes, aware that moments won't miraculously multipy O well minus. Meanwhile,
37:12
Speaker 3: remembering marsh was my maiden Monica, mulling over the misguided
37:18
Speaker 3: missteps in matrimony, the misery of miscarriages that were too many,
37:25
Speaker 3: meditative murmurings to my Messiah motivated me to maintain my
37:31
Speaker 3: mental ultimately mesmerized by the miraculous metamorphosis of motherhood made
37:39
Speaker 3: the misery more meaningful, grateful the mission was manifested for
37:48
Speaker 3: minions worth millions to me. Yet no more mohicans Mosyan
37:53
Speaker 3: through my middle passage, menstruation met its mind, and meanwhile,
38:02
Speaker 3: menopause is masterfully messing up my mojo. Poems I love that.
38:16
Speaker 2: When I read that you should, I was like a
38:18
Speaker 2: cat that had got his canary. I really was, because
38:22
Speaker 2: I was like, yes, ma'am.
38:26
Speaker 3: Yes, that tells it all.
38:28
Speaker 2: Thank you, I love it. I love it, And thank
38:31
Speaker 2: you again for coming to kicking with me today. It
38:33
Speaker 2: has been absolute pleasure to have you here. Any final words, yes, ma'am.
38:40
Speaker 2: Any final words that you would like to leave with
38:42
Speaker 2: the listeners today, not.
38:44
Speaker 3: That I can think of at this moment, just to
38:48
Speaker 3: you know, if you can, if you have the luxury
38:54
Speaker 3: of time in making decisions, because we have to make
38:58
Speaker 3: decisions every every day, is there are decisions, there are choices.
39:05
Speaker 3: If you have the luxury of time to just take
39:07
Speaker 3: the time and think about certain things that are going
39:11
Speaker 3: to affect you and other people, do that, ask for discernments,
39:18
Speaker 3: Really focus on discernment, because I'm telling you, when you
39:21
Speaker 3: take the time to think before you act, you know
39:29
Speaker 3: that in itself, it is a blessing to be able
39:32
Speaker 3: to think about it, because I'm telling you, there are
39:35
Speaker 3: always consequences to the wrong thing, and you can't and
39:41
Speaker 3: more often than that, you can't go back and undo.
39:46
Speaker 3: So please, please, please, If nothing else, you pray for discernment.
39:51
Speaker 3: You pray that you get a warning in your spirit,
39:56
Speaker 3: in your soul, in your head to you know, guide
40:00
Speaker 3: you correctly, guide you in the path that you need
40:03
Speaker 3: to take in trying to choose whatever it is that
40:07
Speaker 3: you need to choose to do. Because we have decisions.
40:11
Speaker 3: We are bombarded with decisions every day. That's life.
40:16
Speaker 6: Yeah and yeah, and normally I end with love you,
40:23
Speaker 6: with the love of Christ, peace and hair grease my people.
40:28
Speaker 3: How at you later.
40:32
Speaker 2: And we are out. Thank you again for tuning in
40:35
Speaker 2: to another episode of Kicking It Withiki Purple
40:38
Speaker 3: Hub Slada, Yes, yes, thank you.