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Speaker 1: Take a deep breath in through your nose. Holds it.

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Speaker 2: Now, release slowly again deep in, helle.

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Speaker 3: Hold release, repeating internally to yourself as you connect to

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Speaker 3: my voice.

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Speaker 4: I am deeply well. I am deeply well. I am deeply.

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Speaker 2: I'm Debbie Brown and this is the Deeply Well Podcast.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Deeply Well, a soft place to land on

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Speaker 2: your journey. A podcast for those that are curious, creative,

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Speaker 2: and ready to expand in higher consciousness and self care.

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Speaker 1: I'm Debbie Brown.

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Speaker 2: This is where we heal, this is where we transform.

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Speaker 2: All month long, we have been diving into the inner

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Speaker 2: workings of self and creativity. How to summon the sacred,

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Speaker 2: how to invoke the muse, and how to get so

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Speaker 2: clear in your own channel and connection to the divine

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Speaker 2: that you're able to really lock into your life's work

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Speaker 2: with balance, with ease, with purpose, with strength. This episode,

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Speaker 2: I am so excited to share this incredibly special person

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Speaker 2: with you, who takes up space in the world literally

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Speaker 2: answering the call to everything that I just listed. In

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Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, at just fourteen years old, Willie

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Speaker 2: Green founded We the Urban. He founded it from his

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Speaker 2: bedroom in North Carolina, and what began as an online

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Speaker 2: community celebrating fashion and art, notably championing black creativity. Soon

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Speaker 2: became Tumblr's first blog to transform into a nationally syndicated

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Speaker 2: print magazine. Evolving with time, Willie shifted towards a more vulnerable, authentic,

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Speaker 2: emotionally intelligent content strategy, offering daily, introspective and inspirational messages,

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Speaker 2: often stemming from his own real time, real life experiences.

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Speaker 2: These resonated worldwide, particularly during twenty twenty, as We the

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Speaker 2: Urban emerged as a sanctuary for millions seeking comfort and

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Speaker 2: healing through life's challenges. We the Urban is now one

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Speaker 2: of the biggest mental health platforms on social media from

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Speaker 2: marginalized voices today, with over one billion impressions across Instagram.

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Speaker 2: Over the years, We the Urban stands as one of

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Speaker 2: social media's largest destinations for empowerment, guiding the world towards

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Speaker 2: self discovery and resilience under Willie's leadership as founder, writer,

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Speaker 2: and designer.

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Speaker 1: Willie's reaction posts for the post election were.

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Speaker 2: Some of the most viewed posts on Instagram with over

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Speaker 2: one hundred million impressions and engagement, and The New York

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Speaker 2: Times highlighted this following its release on October eighth, twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty four, Willie's debut book, Not Sure Who Needs to

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Speaker 2: Hear This but quickly became a national bestseller, appearing on

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Speaker 2: USA Today, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble bestseller lists. This

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Speaker 2: milestone marks just the beginning of a transformative journey for

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Speaker 2: We the Urban, with an exciting future on the horizon,

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Speaker 2: soon to expand into calendars, affirmation card decks, journals, and

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Speaker 2: other self care products. We the Urban is on track

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Speaker 2: to cement itself as an innovative powerhouse in the self

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Speaker 2: care space, blending both digital and physical products to inspire

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Speaker 2: and uplift. Today, with over one billion impressions on Instagram,

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Speaker 2: We the Urban stands as one of social media's largest

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Speaker 2: and most influential platforms for empowerment, guiding a global communit

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Speaker 2: unity towards self discovery and emotional resilience under Willy Green's

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Speaker 2: visionary leadership.

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Speaker 1: Willie, Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 5: Wow, thank you for having me. I feel so honored

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Speaker 5: to be on this platform. I've seen your work before,

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Speaker 5: and I'm just glad to be in a safe space

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Speaker 5: as I'm popping out for the first time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes you got to pop out and OK that Okay,

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Speaker 1: I mean Wow.

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Speaker 2: Wow, how does it feel hearing all of that out loud?

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Speaker 5: It's wild, It's really wild because there's just been so

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Speaker 5: much solitude and just like keeping my head down, simplifying

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Speaker 5: my life. So aside from like my small group of

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Speaker 5: friends and my family, I'm relatively alone with my dog

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Speaker 5: creating a lot. So it's kind of hard to see

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Speaker 5: or feel that impact, and it's something I'm still grappling with,

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Speaker 5: the just the magnitude and how everything has grown. But yeah,

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Speaker 5: I feel so grateful and I see it now as

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Speaker 5: a gift. And I know that now when you understand

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Speaker 5: your gift, you kind of have a responsibility to live

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Speaker 5: up to it, to respect it. So even though it's

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Speaker 5: a lot, I'm up for the challenge.

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Speaker 1: Can we talk about that a lotness?

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Speaker 5: Please? Please? Because the overwhelming nature of it all.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it's so interesting because I think something I've observed

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Speaker 2: is are when you are designed to be a lighthouse

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Speaker 2: for others, right, which is such a sacred post.

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Speaker 1: It's such a sacred birthright. And we're all here.

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Speaker 2: For various reasons, but not everybody is here to be

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Speaker 2: the lighthouse, right, And so when you do occupy that

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Speaker 2: space and bring so much freedom to people's hearts.

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Speaker 1: There is also this feeling of maybe parentship that you have,

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Speaker 1: you know, over.

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Speaker 2: The collective, and this expectation sometimes of you to be

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Speaker 2: kind of the all knowing, the all scene and the

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Speaker 2: always available, And people can't always necessarily understand because when

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Speaker 2: your work is invocative to the feeling, it's hard to

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Speaker 2: think of the.

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Speaker 1: Practicality for the creator. But how is that.

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Speaker 2: Balance of really being a called to serve but then

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Speaker 2: being someone who is worthy of your own human experience too?

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Speaker 5: Wow? Well, thank you so much for that level of consciousness.

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Speaker 5: I don't think I've ever in my life I've been

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Speaker 5: asked a question like this, Because there is, and as

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Speaker 5: the platform grows and my career gets bigger, there is this.

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Speaker 5: I do feel that all of that, this needing to

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Speaker 5: say the perfect thing, or understanding how people perceive me

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Speaker 5: and have me on this certain pedestal, and really I

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Speaker 5: am just like everyone else, just trying to figure it out.

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Speaker 5: And it doesn't feel like a burden. It actually like,

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Speaker 5: especially as time has gone by since twenty twenty, which

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Speaker 5: was the whole resurgence of We the Urban, they've actually,

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Speaker 5: like my audience and community have actually sort of saved

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Speaker 5: me in a way because I have bipolar and I

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Speaker 5: go through my own mental struggles and sometimes it's hard

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Speaker 5: for me to find center. And I realized that, like

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Speaker 5: showing up for them is my center. So if I'm

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Speaker 5: ever lost, it's like create and show up for your people.

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Speaker 5: And I think about my audience so much. It is

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Speaker 5: a genuine love. And it's also kind of weird because

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Speaker 5: I don't know who I Yeah, you know, they're here

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Speaker 5: for we the urban and not like me and my presence,

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Speaker 5: which is why it's also so cool to now be

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Speaker 5: trying to bridge that gap. But it's something I've learned

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Speaker 5: that is it's a blessing. And it's like I figured

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Speaker 5: out that when you have a big microphone and a

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Speaker 5: big platform, you might as well say something liberating, say

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Speaker 5: something that will help someone, say something productive because there's

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Speaker 5: so much noise on the Internet. And I realized that

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Speaker 5: a part of my mession is sort of like cutting

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Speaker 5: through the bs that we scroll by thousands of times

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Speaker 5: a day. So I'm grateful. It's not easy, and you know,

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Speaker 5: I've seen it show up in my personal relationships as well,

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Speaker 5: and it's kind of different like meeting new people or

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Speaker 5: even going on dates because there's just this relationship that

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Speaker 5: they've built with me based off of what they see

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Speaker 5: on Instagram and you know, aside from the reality of me. Yeah,

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Speaker 5: but all in all, I feel so lucky to have

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Speaker 5: a platform and people to show.

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Speaker 2: Up for Oh, thank you for pulling back these layers

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Speaker 2: because I have more to say here, but there's other

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Speaker 2: places that now I'm like.

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Speaker 1: We have a path forward. We got to talk about

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Speaker 1: let's go, let's.

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Speaker 2: Go you know something something that we talked about, and

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Speaker 2: thank you for sharing your consent off camera with me to.

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Speaker 1: Kind of go into this space.

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Speaker 2: But you know, operating with this big mission and then

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Speaker 2: also having that diagnosis, how has your life kind of

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Speaker 2: expanded or flowed being able to kind of understand how

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Speaker 2: you're wired and designed better?

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Speaker 5: Wow, Well, my journey to figuring out like what was

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Speaker 5: going on in my brain and all of the chemical

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Speaker 5: imbalances was really long, really long, and we either rb it, Like,

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Speaker 5: getting to this place has been really long. This is

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Speaker 5: my life's work that I started at thirteen and I'm

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Speaker 5: thirty and now finally doing podcasts and doing all these things.

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Speaker 5: And a lot of those first like ten years was

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Speaker 5: me wondering like what is going on? And I realized

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Speaker 5: that I was experiencing so many different symptoms like the

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Speaker 5: first one maybe around like twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen. It

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Speaker 5: was just I went through this season of why can't

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Speaker 5: Why does it take superhuman strength to just get out

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Speaker 5: of the bed and do the basics of taking care

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Speaker 5: of myself? Why do I have all these ideas? Then

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Speaker 5: I sit down to do it and I lose focus

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Speaker 5: in like two seconds and I can't complete a full task,

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Speaker 5: or like why do I feel like really sad for

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Speaker 5: really prolonged amounts of time or fall into negative thought spirals?

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Speaker 5: So I think around eighteen I went to like I

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Speaker 5: was such a novice. I was looking for a psychiatrist.

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Speaker 5: But I went to a therapist and didn't understand why

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Speaker 5: she couldn't give me a diagnosis. And then I finally

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Speaker 5: found a psychiatrist and explained to them my symptoms. And

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Speaker 5: I remember something that is stuck with me since that

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Speaker 5: time was I walked in and I sat down, and

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Speaker 5: before we even discussed like any of my symptoms or anything,

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Speaker 5: she told me, I know, whatever you're going through is

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Speaker 5: real because I have never seen a young black man

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Speaker 5: come in my office in like all of her years,

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Speaker 5: and that clicked in me because this is also right

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Speaker 5: before the Me Too movement, which fostered also a conversation

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Speaker 5: about mental health and just a whole new paradigm on

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Speaker 5: the Internet. So I was kind of thugging it out,

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Speaker 5: and I was put on the wrong medications. I was

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Speaker 5: misdiagnosed with add or eighty eight. And sometimes it's a

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Speaker 5: process and a really long process, and I understand why

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Speaker 5: people either give up or don't want to try, because

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Speaker 5: I was put on the wrong medications. I was put

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Speaker 5: on things that like actually made what I was going

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Speaker 5: through much worse. So the final thing they or medication

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Speaker 5: they put me on was adderall And anyone with bipolar

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Speaker 5: knows that adderall, like all it does is induce a

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Speaker 5: manic state, so and it makes it hard for you

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Speaker 5: to really just be grounded and understand what is going on.

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Speaker 5: So I went through a nine month rampage, like acting

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Speaker 5: on impulse, doing like reckless things like excessive partying and

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Speaker 5: just excess excess and not working, not feeling creatively in

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Speaker 5: tune with myself, and I hit a wall. I hit

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Speaker 5: a wall, and that was the like the day I

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Speaker 5: decided to like end. That was the exact day that

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Speaker 5: I googled bipolar spirit or something told me, and at

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Speaker 5: that time, Google had like this image that basically showed

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Speaker 5: what the two sides of bipolar like, sometimes you're really up,

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Speaker 5: sometimes you're really down. And I saw and read and

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Speaker 5: was just like, thank God, finally it has been years.

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Speaker 5: It has been years, and we are here now that

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Speaker 5: I understand now that now that I have the tools

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Speaker 5: and the information, I can fix this. So I finally

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Speaker 5: And it took some time to figure out like what

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Speaker 5: medications helped with or were the most effective for me,

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Speaker 5: and it changed everything. It changed everything. I finally had

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Speaker 5: the fortitude and the focus and discipline to do what

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Speaker 5: I needed to do in my life to get to

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Speaker 5: this point. And that took moving to La with a

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Speaker 5: dollar and a dream with my best friend at the time,

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Speaker 5: and really trying to cultivate a work ethic. And so

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Speaker 5: the journey to figure out what was going on was

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Speaker 5: a long time. The journey to stabilize. Once I found

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Speaker 5: a foundation, it was like the catalyst to all of this.

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Speaker 5: And now I've realized that, like taking care of my

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Speaker 5: mental health is a part of my job, so it's

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Speaker 5: a lot of work, but it's also really rewarding and

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Speaker 5: a very like even reciprocal healing experience, because even though

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Speaker 5: they can't see me, it does something to you when

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Speaker 5: you get hundreds and thousands of comments and messages of

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Speaker 5: people like I'm going through it too. I feel it too.

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Speaker 5: There's something really healing in it for me. So it's

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Speaker 5: been an interesting journey and it's ever evolving. I found

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Speaker 5: out a year ago that I had OCD, which I

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Speaker 5: didn't know manifested as thoughts and like racing thoughts, and

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Speaker 5: you know if you go through I went through a

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Speaker 5: breakup and I couldn't understand why, like months later, even

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Speaker 5: when I wasn't thinking about this person or the situation,

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Speaker 5: I was like, it was just always there. And now

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Speaker 5: I'm figuring that out. So it's something I'm also open

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Speaker 5: to learning more. It's a journey, but a rewarding one.

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Speaker 2: There's so much and I know those listening right now,

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Speaker 2: this is going into so many different chambers and compartments

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Speaker 2: for who needs it.

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Speaker 1: There's so much. There's just so much to what you said.

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Speaker 2: One I'm so grateful to hear you describe the process

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Speaker 2: to getting your best fit right, like if you are

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Speaker 2: finding if you're on the path of saying I'm realizing

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Speaker 2: that there is something going on that I want to

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Speaker 2: investigate and seek support for that even in the seeking support,

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Speaker 2: you may not get it right the first time, because

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Speaker 2: I think sometimes that can be so crushing. You know,

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Speaker 2: if you feel like you're going into a medical doctor

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Speaker 2: and you want to be seen and helped.

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Speaker 1: There is this process of discovery.

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Speaker 2: That sometimes does really have to take place because it

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Speaker 2: can feel so defeating if you get the wrong meds

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Speaker 2: or if you're getting the wrong diagnosis, and then it's like, Okay,

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Speaker 2: now I want to remove myself completely because y'all can't

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Speaker 2: keep doing this with me. I can't keep being laid

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Speaker 2: bare or being this vulnerable and open and not.

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Speaker 1: Get what I need. But to be able to have

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Speaker 1: the fortitude to sit.

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Speaker 2: Kind of at the bottom of the ocean with that

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Speaker 2: process and like find find the right road. And then

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Speaker 2: also something I'm hearing in what you're saying, which I'm

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Speaker 2: so curious about, is when you do find out right

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Speaker 2: because I think myself and my own journey I had

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Speaker 2: a similar experience, but with my chronic pain and autoimmune

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Speaker 2: and being able to be believed being able to find

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Speaker 2: what it is that's wrong. It just takes so much time,

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Speaker 2: and you're explaining to every new person you meet, and

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Speaker 2: it's like, at least for me, I'm trying to be

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Speaker 2: like such a good steward of myself. So I'm like, okay,

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Speaker 2: well here's my trauma list and these are this, and

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Speaker 2: so this is what happened.

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Speaker 1: And I learned this yere and you know, like you're just.

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Speaker 2: You're trying to be so like astute showing up for yourself.

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Speaker 2: So it's just that in general is just so powerful.

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Speaker 2: And I know so many people listening have been coming

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Speaker 2: to new understandings of what they may have thought was

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Speaker 2: like a deficiency in them or a brokenness in them,

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Speaker 2: or something that people didn't understand about them.

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Speaker 1: And then you find that very often these are our.

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Speaker 5: Powers, our superpowers. Yeah, yes, I'm so glad you said that.

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Speaker 2: And coming into that space of understanding that like this

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Speaker 2: isn't about what is wrong with me. This is about

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Speaker 2: like what is actually a gift about me. I just

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Speaker 2: need to find the right levels for it or the

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Speaker 2: way to support it in.

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Speaker 1: The way it needs to be cared for. How is

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Speaker 1: that unfolded?

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Speaker 5: For you. Yeah, I realized a really long time ago

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Speaker 5: that everything I had been experiencing, the mania, the depression,

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Speaker 5: and luckily I had more of a mouth form. There's

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Speaker 5: many different types of bipolar and intensities. But I was

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Speaker 5: a really young teenager thirteen fourteen on Tumblr, but I

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Speaker 5: was posting like ten times a day. I was editing

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Speaker 5: a magazine and commissioning photoshoots from like the bathroom in

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Speaker 5: school in high school, and wow, I would wake up

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Speaker 5: at seven am and then at school, get home at three,

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Speaker 5: and then I go to bed at like four after

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Speaker 5: working that entire time. And maybe that's not the most healthy.

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Speaker 5: And I didn't know like why I could like do that,

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Speaker 5: but I realized, like, oh, that was the bipolar. You

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Speaker 5: were in like a little bit of a hypomanic state

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Speaker 5: while you were doing all of that. That's why we're

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Speaker 5: like doing super super human superhuman things. And SURET has

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Speaker 5: its pitfalls, but clearly it had its advantages as well.

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Speaker 5: And even with the OCD, I realized, maybe that's why

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Speaker 5: I'll never have Maybe that's why I'll never have like wait,

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Speaker 5: what am I? What word am I searching for? Not

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Speaker 5: a difficient deficiency? That is why I'll always have something

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Speaker 5: to talk about. I realized that I put out ten slides,

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Speaker 5: ten different thoughts a day, and to do that for

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Speaker 5: years and years, I'm like, oh, no, wonder it's because

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Speaker 5: my mind goes really fast and it thinks a lot

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Speaker 5: and comes to a lot of conclusions, and it's always

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Speaker 5: dissecting things. So it's another part of the genius of

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Speaker 5: the work. So I think with it with introspection and

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Speaker 5: a treatment plan which is beyond medication. There's it's a lifestyle. Really,

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Speaker 5: I think anyone could see how it actually benefits them.

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Speaker 3: Deeply well.

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Speaker 2: To be alive right now and to understand that, like

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Speaker 2: none of us have to be the same, you know,

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Speaker 2: like just none of us have to be the same

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Speaker 2: about anything for any reason. It is about utilizing how

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Speaker 2: we are designed to be with our creativity, to be

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Speaker 2: with our work. But it's always in service. It's always

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Speaker 2: in service to the greater good. And I think I

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Speaker 2: love to study great masters of different times, that includes

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Speaker 2: like teachers to philosophers to painters.

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Speaker 5: Do you all the time?

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, utterly, like just.

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Speaker 2: Leave me home all day and like let me study

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Speaker 2: and research things. But you know, and you've probably found

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Speaker 2: this in your studies. Like the thing to me that

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Speaker 2: is always so remarkable is so many of our greats

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Speaker 2: had been these ticks about them or these things that

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Speaker 2: made them them. And it makes perfect sense. You have

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Speaker 2: to be that disconnected from the zeitgeist, like that disconnected

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Speaker 2: from the collective of whatever time, to make the work

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Speaker 2: that stands the test of time, to make the work

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Speaker 2: that changes things and creates those paradigm shifts. But when

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Speaker 2: you think about, you know, even so many of the

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Speaker 2: great profits of our time throughout history seem to have

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Speaker 2: suffered from nervous system disorders. When you read certain scriptures,

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Speaker 2: when you read certain passages or books or recordings of

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Speaker 2: you know, they speak to the nervous energy that was present,

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Speaker 2: or the anxiety that was present. And the more I've

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Speaker 2: been on my own path, I realized, well, of course

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Speaker 2: they were anxious. Of course their nervous systems were dysregulated.

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Speaker 2: They were bringing truth to the earth in a time

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Speaker 2: when people didn't necessarily want that truth right. And it's

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Speaker 2: like same thing with our great painters. You think of

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Speaker 2: how then Go was tortured right, and what it took

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Speaker 2: to get that art out, and all of our great

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Speaker 2: writers when you really look at what people have written,

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Speaker 2: the James Baldwins, Nikki Giovanni, the Maya Nisnan, Yeah, the

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Speaker 2: Maya Angelous. There is the undercurrent of pain, there is

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Speaker 2: the undercurrent of exhaustion with humanity, and there's the undercurrent

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Speaker 2: of exhaustion in the physical body, or in the mind

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Speaker 2: or in the heart. And so it's yeah, it's just

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Speaker 2: it's really powerful for you to describe your journey, because

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Speaker 2: this is really the journey of light, This is the

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Speaker 2: journey of the Creator.

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Speaker 5: Thank you, Thank you for saying that. I do the same.

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Speaker 5: I research a lot and I found the same that

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Speaker 5: a lot of our greatest minds, greatest inventors, people that

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Speaker 5: have changed society, they experienced a lot. I remember reading

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Speaker 5: about Maya Angelo for the first time, and she went

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Speaker 5: through a really traumatic experience as a child, and I

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Speaker 5: think no one believed her or she spoke out and

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Speaker 5: it led to someone's just a very sad situation, but

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Speaker 5: it made her mute herself for five years, and somewhere

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Speaker 5: in like somewhere in her and having that era of solitude,

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Speaker 5: she found her voice and that voice ended up changing.

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Speaker 5: That voice she muted ended up changing the world and

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Speaker 5: I also think of Nina Simone, who also was one

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Speaker 5: of the first people, and her documentary on Netflix is amazing.

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Speaker 5: But I learned that she had bipolar as well, and

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Speaker 5: she was like the sound of the civil rights movement.

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Speaker 5: And then the more I think of these people, the

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Speaker 5: more I think of identity and being a black queer

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Speaker 5: creator and just even how I'm stepping out now is

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Speaker 5: just sort of rebelling against what's happened to me and

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Speaker 5: my community, and oftentimes we are. If we look at history,

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Speaker 5: the most influential in many different ways. We think of

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Speaker 5: Francis Thomas or Thompson I believe it is her name,

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Speaker 5: a formerly enslaved black trans woman who was the first

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Speaker 5: trans woman to testify in Congress, I believe from Memphis,

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Speaker 5: and that testimony led to a bigger conversation around civil rights,

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Speaker 5: which eventually led to the Fourteenth Amendment situation, which literally

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Speaker 5: gave us protections and freedom that this race has never

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Speaker 5: seen before. We see Rustin who was like the brain

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Speaker 5: and the engine behind the MLK movement. We see Martha P.

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Speaker 5: Johnson who pride that is her that is because a

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Speaker 5: black trans woman, and there's been this erasure of them

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Speaker 5: and I think it's a shame, and I I don't

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Speaker 5: want to be a part of that. There's something powerful

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Speaker 5: and all of these millions of people all over the

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Speaker 5: world knowing that they're ingesting meaning and getting inspired by

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Speaker 5: and reading life through the lens of a black, queer person.

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Speaker 5: I now see the power and stepping out. So when

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Speaker 5: I do things like this, it's more it's not vanity.

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Speaker 5: It's I think of all the people like me that

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Speaker 5: are going to see this and be like, hey, actually

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Speaker 5: look at the possibilities. I could be there too. So totally,

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Speaker 5: I think there's so much in history we can learn from.

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Speaker 5: Its valuable. I wasn't ready to do a history lesson.

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Speaker 3: No more.

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Speaker 2: No, it's so good, and I just like something I'm

402
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 2: feeling grateful for this conversation is I think it is

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Speaker 2: so important. We're talking about this a little bit before

404
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 2: the show, where I struggle with this idea of having

405
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 2: to feed people thoughts and content all day because I

406
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:13,359
Speaker 2: live in the nuance, like I just love settling into

407
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 2: the undercurrents right and everything that you're describing right now.

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Speaker 2: The reason that I know it's being felt so powerfully

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00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 2: by everyone listening is because it's such a layered view,

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00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,920
Speaker 2: like you're giving the complexity and the nuance of how

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00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 2: all these understandings come together. And it's so many things

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00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:36,200
Speaker 2: at once, you know, But yes, it's something I've been

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Speaker 2: I'm so curious your thoughts on this, really. You know,

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Speaker 2: It's like in human history, we are constantly swinging to

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Speaker 2: extreme ends.

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Speaker 1: With the pendulum, right.

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Speaker 2: So it's like every time we make advancements, it feels

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Speaker 2: good and we think things are changing, and then that

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00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,439
Speaker 2: thing will swing back so far and it turns out

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Speaker 2: we're only making.

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Speaker 1: Like or mental steps.

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Speaker 2: And I feel that because we have, especially since kind

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Speaker 2: of the onset of the Me Too movement, we have

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00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:14,199
Speaker 2: been making so many conscious strides as a species, like

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00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:18,280
Speaker 2: in our evolution forward, right, like, we have been putting

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Speaker 2: under the microscope misogyny and the understanding of patriarchy and

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00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 2: feminism and abuses and abuses of power. Then after that

428
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,199
Speaker 2: we're like quickly moving through this curriculum as people, right Like,

429
00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:31,720
Speaker 2: then we're.

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Speaker 1: Being thrust into having global.

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00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,159
Speaker 2: Eyes on systemic racism and how it permeates the world.

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Speaker 2: Then we're finally having global eyes on the queer community

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Speaker 2: on the lbed.

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Speaker 1: Excuse me, I want to say this absolutely correctly.

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Speaker 2: LGBTQ plus, the LGBTQ plus community, the trans community.

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00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,360
Speaker 1: It is like it's been.

437
00:28:56,280 --> 00:29:00,120
Speaker 2: So powerful, and then it also to me feels like

438
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, now things are swinging backwards, and

439
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 2: it's like, how do we hold space for that right

440
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 2: for the progress and then sometimes what feels like a

441
00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 2: failing that begins to happen in our consciousness.

442
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:22,719
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I feel that so much. And you know,

443
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 5: I know there's a full wide range of political spectrum

444
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 5: and beliefs in the world and in this country, but

445
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 5: I don't think that there's anything wrong about standing up

446
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 5: for people's humanity, like basic humanity, basic respect of their truth.

447
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 5: That's where I lie on the political spectrum, and I

448
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 5: think I've used my platform and been very vocal more

449
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 5: so in the past, and now I'm getting back into

450
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 5: it as I see the world is needing that kind

451
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 5: of reassurance and comfort and maybe just a nudge of

452
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 5: fortitude for them to keep going and to see things

453
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 5: in a different way, because there is an ebb and

454
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 5: a flow back and and forth, and it almost reminds

455
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 5: me of my own diagnosis up and the down nature

456
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 5: of it. And I know that there's a way to

457
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:24,760
Speaker 5: exist through it and to find sanctuary in it. And

458
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:28,000
Speaker 5: we have countless examples of this through history as well.

459
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:33,320
Speaker 5: Of nothing is permanent, and sometimes sometimes there really is

460
00:30:33,560 --> 00:30:36,040
Speaker 5: like no reason to believe, and you've got to hold

461
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 5: on to blind faith and maybe a little bit of

462
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 5: delusion and just believing and better and more, even if

463
00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,120
Speaker 5: it doesn't feel like it, because if we all let

464
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 5: go of that, then you know what's next, How bad

465
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,560
Speaker 5: will it get? Like someone has to still believe, and

466
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 5: it can be hard, especially for black people. You know,

467
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,920
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty, the George Floyd situation and all of

468
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:07,520
Speaker 5: the police brutality that was on the news and hyper

469
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:11,200
Speaker 5: magnified because we were all stuck on screens for two

470
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 5: three years, and we saw this uprising of protests and

471
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:24,840
Speaker 5: the Black squares and all these companies implementing DEI policies.

472
00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 5: And it's years later now we see companies stripping all

473
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 5: the DEI. We see how much that was just performative

474
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:39,680
Speaker 5: and not real, And it feels like a slap in

475
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:42,280
Speaker 5: the face this many years later to see this and

476
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 5: to see the direction of our country, and the only

477
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:51,560
Speaker 5: thing I know to do is to figure out how

478
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,760
Speaker 5: to put my mind in a place that's productive, because

479
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,760
Speaker 5: sitting around in a dark place forever is not going

480
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 5: to change anything. It's not going to belize anybody.

481
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so true and it's so deep, and I

482
00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 2: think where I've landed with life is that I just

483
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 2: accept darkness as a part of it.

484
00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 1: You know, it's a part of being here.

485
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying we have to endure or be abused,

486
00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 2: but that is part of what this human experience is.

487
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 2: And no one that has ever lived has ever got

488
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 2: it right, you know, truly, there has.

489
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 1: Never been peace on earth ever.

490
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 2: So it's like not even looking to that as the ideal,

491
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 2: but looking at for me, it's like human dignity as

492
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 2: the ideal, you know, just decency, integrity as the ideal

493
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 2: to whatever extent you can muster it, whether you're in

494
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 2: darkness or light.

495
00:32:47,120 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I feel that it's an ebb and

496
00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:57,000
Speaker 5: a flow and the yang of it all. And what's

497
00:32:57,040 --> 00:33:00,000
Speaker 5: beautiful is that we get to choose our perspective on it.

498
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:04,040
Speaker 1: We get to choose.

499
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:09,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, your work really focuses on enlightenment, inspiration,

500
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:13,720
Speaker 2: and empowerment. When did these concepts of self care and

501
00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 2: well being really start to come to your life, and

502
00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 2: specifically to the.

503
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 1: Tone of we.

504
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 2: The urban is so incredibly direct, purposeful, yet deeply compassionate.

505
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 2: It's a soft landing. I think when your eyes land

506
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,760
Speaker 2: on your page, like when they land on even the

507
00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 2: pages of your book, even the diffusion and the colors,

508
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,520
Speaker 2: I'm like, Oh, he's regulating my nervousness, and how kind

509
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:40,800
Speaker 2: of you.

510
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you.

511
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 5: For saying that.

512
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 1: Yeah.

513
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 5: Yeah, It's something that started really like in twenty twenty

514
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 5: when the world flipped upside down. It was the apocalypse

515
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 5: that I was living in Hollywood, which is already just

516
00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 5: a very chaotic energy, and being stuck there, and then

517
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 5: I was in a wild living situation. So it got

518
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:09,759
Speaker 5: to a point where I was like, all right, I

519
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 5: don't know what to do with all of these feelings,

520
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 5: so I'm just going to put them out there and

521
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,040
Speaker 5: try to help people. And somewhere in all of this,

522
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 5: like mental health conversation, I realized like, oh, I need

523
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 5: to take care of myself. I can't show up for

524
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 5: others if I'm not making taking care of myself a priority.

525
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:32,759
Speaker 5: I can't pour from an empty cup because I've done that,

526
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:34,799
Speaker 5: and I know the consequences of.

527
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 2: That well, especially coming from like a fashion background, coming

528
00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 2: from like a really cultural orientated background, and coming into

529
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:48,239
Speaker 2: creating things that are really about like emotional intelligence, Like

530
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 2: how did you decide that that could exist in the

531
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:53,240
Speaker 2: world you had created?

532
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 5: Yeah, I realized well number one, you know, And if

533
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:02,359
Speaker 5: people scroll back years, they'll see how the writing has

534
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:07,280
Speaker 5: improved and the insight has gotten deeper as I've learned

535
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:11,279
Speaker 5: more in my journey and been through therapy finally, and

536
00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:15,719
Speaker 5: obviously just continuing to keep taking care of myself a

537
00:35:15,760 --> 00:35:19,480
Speaker 5: priority and processing what I'm going through. But I have

538
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:26,879
Speaker 5: this policy of always ending everything with productivity, something purposeful.

539
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:31,600
Speaker 5: So it's like, yes, I might comment on the despair,

540
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,120
Speaker 5: I might tell you a little bit about yourself, I

541
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 5: may honor the dark things that you're experiencing, but I'll

542
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:42,799
Speaker 5: always give you something productive at the end. And maybe

543
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 5: that's because I need it too. I need a compass

544
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:49,839
Speaker 5: and I didn't have one, so I decided to make it.

545
00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 5: And somewhere through like all of this consistent writing, that

546
00:35:55,440 --> 00:36:01,080
Speaker 5: whole process and intention just grew and grew, and I'm

547
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:04,360
Speaker 5: always taking an information in my life and a lot

548
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,160
Speaker 5: from therapy when I tell you, there's some of the

549
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,799
Speaker 5: best things I've ever written and have had the most engagement,

550
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:16,640
Speaker 5: where like musings right after a therapy session. So and

551
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:20,000
Speaker 5: I'm interested in I don't know why. I've always had

552
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:22,960
Speaker 5: a big ambition, even since a little kid. I was

553
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 5: just like I want to do something. I want to

554
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 5: be big, I want to change the world. Am I

555
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 5: a singer? Am I a photographer?

556
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 1: Like?

557
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 5: Where is my lane? And I think it's so cool

558
00:36:33,239 --> 00:36:37,560
Speaker 5: that I when I leaned into the purest authentic expression

559
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:43,960
Speaker 5: of myself, I got there and it's all like really dope,

560
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 5: Like it's helping people. It's really really helping people. So

561
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:52,239
Speaker 5: I've learned just through experience and through the writing, and

562
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:56,600
Speaker 5: also seeing how important this topic and niche is on

563
00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 5: the internet because there's so much you know, there's like

564
00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:04,840
Speaker 5: this culture on the internet of like who can say

565
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:10,000
Speaker 5: the most funniest disrespectful thing about somebody? Who? Like who

566
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:12,160
Speaker 5: is the one we're going to dog pile on today

567
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:14,200
Speaker 5: because they made a human mistake?

568
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 1: Right?

569
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:19,239
Speaker 5: Like what negativity? Can I indulgence to like not think

570
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 5: about my own issues? And then it's a lot on

571
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 5: the internet is people projecting. There's a lot of negativity

572
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 5: because they're dealing with a lot in their lives and

573
00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 5: they need somewhere to just like get it off and

574
00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:36,560
Speaker 5: through all of that noise, there has to be something productive,

575
00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 5: something helping people's mental health. So I think that's where

576
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:45,320
Speaker 5: I found purpose, and just hearing people's stories about certain quotes,

577
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:49,480
Speaker 5: seeing how people live with them day to day and

578
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:53,160
Speaker 5: prioritize them and their health and share them with people.

579
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 5: So it's just it's too valuable of an angle to

580
00:37:56,840 --> 00:38:02,840
Speaker 5: not lean into.

581
00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: Deeply.

582
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 2: Well, the Internet tries to forget things really fast. But

583
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:16,280
Speaker 2: it's been interesting watching people who were kind of terrorizing

584
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:20,880
Speaker 2: people online like find the Light right, and now it's.

585
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,920
Speaker 1: Like people that I think used to be like.

586
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,799
Speaker 2: Like read culture one oh one, where you know, like

587
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:31,000
Speaker 2: the content they made was about tearing down whoever.

588
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:31,400
Speaker 1: Was in the news.

589
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:35,440
Speaker 2: I've been seeing so many people make these shifts into

590
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,040
Speaker 2: like I want a soft life, where like we need

591
00:38:38,080 --> 00:38:40,759
Speaker 2: to treat each other better, and you know, for I

592
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:43,160
Speaker 2: think for the people that that is their real kind

593
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,919
Speaker 2: of genuine, authentic experience that they might have come through

594
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 2: through a lot of self reflection. It's like welcome, I'm

595
00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:52,880
Speaker 2: so glad you're here, Thank you, finally thank you for

596
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 2: coming to the light. And then there's others that you're like,

597
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,440
Speaker 2: oh and and this is the pivot because that's no

598
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,400
Speaker 2: longer on brand, right, like it's on brand to be

599
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:06,240
Speaker 2: positive or it's on brand too. Yeah, and it's interesting.

600
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:10,640
Speaker 2: But I think no matter what in the sea of expression,

601
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:13,120
Speaker 2: people will always find what their heart is meant to

602
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:17,279
Speaker 2: find or what resonates you know. Yeah, but it's it's

603
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:20,760
Speaker 2: been really interesting, I think even just watching the digital

604
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 2: unfolding about the way the way that we hold space

605
00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:27,040
Speaker 2: for each other now, like the kind of comments that

606
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,440
Speaker 2: are left now. I remember when I first put myself

607
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 2: on the internet. I'm older than you, so it was

608
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:34,720
Speaker 2: you know, I was just a baby. But I remember

609
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:38,480
Speaker 2: one of the first times I put like an interview

610
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:39,480
Speaker 2: of mine on the internet.

611
00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: It was the night Barack Obama got elected.

612
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 2: And it was YouTube and there was no there was

613
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:46,920
Speaker 2: no Instagram at the time or anything like that.

614
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:50,960
Speaker 1: Twitter had just started. Yeah, it was like MySpace and YouTube.

615
00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:54,000
Speaker 2: And I remember, like I was, I was so proud

616
00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:56,920
Speaker 2: of this interview as on some music video set and

617
00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,360
Speaker 2: it was beautifully done.

618
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:02,759
Speaker 1: And and I go on YouTube.

619
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:08,040
Speaker 2: And one hundred percent of the comments were males telling

620
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:09,719
Speaker 2: me that they wanted to like beat me in the

621
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:11,720
Speaker 2: face with a rock and like put me in a trunk,

622
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:15,200
Speaker 2: like literally that, and I remember, like that had such

623
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:17,480
Speaker 2: an effect on me. Then I'm so sorry. That was

624
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:21,239
Speaker 2: a very heavy description. I did not mean to throw

625
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:23,440
Speaker 2: that out there, but I say it with such ease

626
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 2: and casualness because I'm safe, fine and happy. And this

627
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:29,960
Speaker 2: was fifteen years ago, but I remember like the effect

628
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 2: that that had on me because at the time I

629
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:34,879
Speaker 2: was on the radio, but I also ran the community show,

630
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:39,719
Speaker 2: and I was trying to make broadcasting content that was

631
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:43,120
Speaker 2: more like my idols, mister Rogers and LeVar Burton and

632
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:48,040
Speaker 2: you know, some of those great teachers of kindness. And

633
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:50,359
Speaker 2: then you're doing these things that you're proud of and

634
00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:54,520
Speaker 2: people are like wishing death on you in really horrible ways.

635
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:57,920
Speaker 2: And that's just how so much of the internet landscape

636
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:00,920
Speaker 2: looked back then. Like even if you saw something beautiful,

637
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 2: the responses and the comments with like invokes sometimes the

638
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:05,640
Speaker 2: worst and the human spirit.

639
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:07,120
Speaker 1: So even being.

640
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:13,560
Speaker 2: Able to digitally watch our collective progression and how we

641
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:17,880
Speaker 2: feel about ourselves and what we think is okay to

642
00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:21,279
Speaker 2: throw on to other people It's been interesting watching that

643
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 2: shift in consciousness too, you know.

644
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:26,960
Speaker 1: Not just in what people are creating, but how people.

645
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:31,360
Speaker 2: Will let themselves receive the creations of others exactly.

646
00:41:31,760 --> 00:41:34,480
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, I'm sorry you experienced that. Thank you,

647
00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:38,680
Speaker 5: And unfortunately I can relate. Yeah, I just got a

648
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:41,359
Speaker 5: death threat like two days ago in my email. I've

649
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:45,720
Speaker 5: heard people call for me to be flogged and start

650
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:49,080
Speaker 5: like crazy things and I'm just like, all I do

651
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:51,120
Speaker 5: is put out positive. Are you okay?

652
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:56,400
Speaker 1: But yeah, you're like, I'm helping you heal, You were welcome, You're.

653
00:41:56,280 --> 00:42:00,480
Speaker 5: Well, like what did I do? And Yeah, it's something

654
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:07,000
Speaker 5: that has been something that's been really challenging because especially

655
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:09,040
Speaker 5: when it comes to political things. I just did a

656
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:14,000
Speaker 5: post that went viral on election day and it had

657
00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 5: a very clear point of view, and there's obviously that

658
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 5: group that doesn't agree, and it is a lot to

659
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 5: read vile in those vile things you've ever seen about

660
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 5: yourself or towards you. And that is why I am

661
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:34,480
Speaker 5: such a champion for seeing your digital space as your home,

662
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:39,239
Speaker 5: your digital home and protecting it as such. So if

663
00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:43,239
Speaker 5: you were to see my blocklist, you could scroll for hours.

664
00:42:44,040 --> 00:42:47,560
Speaker 5: Block block block follow unfollow.

665
00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:49,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, you lose the right exactly.

666
00:42:50,239 --> 00:42:53,960
Speaker 5: Yeah. So that's how I've found some sort of piece and.

667
00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:58,400
Speaker 2: Totally Yeah, I would love to hear Willie about some

668
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:03,680
Speaker 2: of your creative process and your self care. How do

669
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:06,240
Speaker 2: you kind of nurture the gift?

670
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,880
Speaker 5: Yeah, I got to keep the vessel clear.

671
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:12,080
Speaker 2: Yeah.

672
00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,839
Speaker 5: So step one is like, are you getting enough water?

673
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:20,440
Speaker 5: What kind of are you eating? Nutritious foods? Like, let's

674
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:24,520
Speaker 5: think about your brain health. What supplements are you taking

675
00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 5: your glutithio because you're getting a little older.

676
00:43:28,120 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 2: Okay, all of that, all of that I just got

677
00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:34,040
Speaker 2: my little shot might be twelve.

678
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:37,840
Speaker 5: Okay today, you get it. You get it. So it's

679
00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:40,440
Speaker 5: like figuring out how to be as clear as possible.

680
00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:40,919
Speaker 2: Yeah.

681
00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:44,800
Speaker 5: I go on like this same three mile walk every

682
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 5: single day, well most days, and it's where I get

683
00:43:47,719 --> 00:43:50,160
Speaker 5: to just like and I don't take my phone, just

684
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,560
Speaker 5: have my little Apple watch in my music, and it's

685
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 5: where I get to like get it all out and

686
00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:58,960
Speaker 5: think and process. People probably think people walking by I

687
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 5: probably think I've been saying because I like talk to

688
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:04,800
Speaker 5: myself out loud and I really just try to get

689
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:09,920
Speaker 5: all of anything clogging the source in the vessel just away,

690
00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 5: and then I'm someone that like, I don't know why,

691
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 5: I'm like a night owl person. Most of the things

692
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:20,320
Speaker 5: I write are in real time, like the night before,

693
00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:26,719
Speaker 5: and I kind of wait sometimes until that feeling of, oh,

694
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:28,759
Speaker 5: I got to write, I have something to say. Just

695
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:34,960
Speaker 5: honoring that creative nudge has been really helpful and enacting

696
00:44:35,000 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 5: discipline in it a certain level of work ethic, which

697
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 5: is interesting as an artist when you want to flow

698
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:47,799
Speaker 5: and you want to honor your process. However that unfolds.

699
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:50,719
Speaker 5: But when you're also trying to make something on a

700
00:44:50,719 --> 00:44:55,360
Speaker 5: commercial scale or turn your art into a lucrative business,

701
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,000
Speaker 5: it's like this weird balance of all, right, I have

702
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 5: fifty thousand email and deadlines and I got to write.

703
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,040
Speaker 5: All I want to do is lay on my couch,

704
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:10,880
Speaker 5: which is also productive sometimes, so I'm trying to figure

705
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 5: out that balance. But I also do find reward and

706
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 5: pushing through, and I find reward and compartmentalization, which isn't

707
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:23,799
Speaker 5: always healthy, but in some ways and in certain instances

708
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:28,240
Speaker 5: it is because I also I feel everything. I feel

709
00:45:28,280 --> 00:45:33,160
Speaker 5: everything intensely, every kind of emotion, but anyone experiences I feel,

710
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:37,680
Speaker 5: it's like the one hundredth degree. So that can also

711
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:40,720
Speaker 5: be a little you can make like a really rocky

712
00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:45,279
Speaker 5: foundation in creating. But my process is really simple. I

713
00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 5: walk around my house. I have music playing a lot

714
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:56,520
Speaker 5: of Cleo soul and beautiful chorus affirmation really okay, because

715
00:45:56,560 --> 00:45:59,440
Speaker 5: we might be you get it, you get it creche.

716
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:01,880
Speaker 1: I will walk around my house and that's what I

717
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:02,359
Speaker 1: listen to.

718
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 5: Yeah, really I understand. Yeah, it's very helpful. It helps

719
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:11,400
Speaker 5: me think. Because there's not too many complex lyrics or

720
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:16,560
Speaker 5: drums or anything, I can really get inspired. And I

721
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:19,560
Speaker 5: write everything on my notes app on my computer or on

722
00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 5: my phone. If something appears throughout the day, I'll make

723
00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:25,680
Speaker 5: sure to like write it down and refer to it later.

724
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:29,680
Speaker 5: And sometimes I'm not gonna lie. I have a little

725
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:35,320
Speaker 5: herbal refreshments or a gummy or something, yes, and I

726
00:46:35,520 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 5: just write exactly. And there's also this thing about being

727
00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:45,960
Speaker 5: in tune, like trying to be in tune with what

728
00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:50,359
Speaker 5: people like, what masses of people might be feeling. So

729
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:54,680
Speaker 5: I'm looking at holidays, I'm looking at weather, I'm looking

730
00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 5: at just political climate, socio political climate, things that are

731
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:03,200
Speaker 5: happening world. And so you know, around this time, a

732
00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:07,839
Speaker 5: lot of people experience seasonal depression and I've swinged all

733
00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:10,840
Speaker 5: the way down. So having that in mind, I'm like,

734
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:12,840
Speaker 5: all right, I should talk about this thing and I

735
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,520
Speaker 5: should uplift them in this way. Or you know, a

736
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:17,520
Speaker 5: lot of people start thinking about their loved ones that

737
00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 5: aren't here anymore during the holiday season. So that's something

738
00:47:21,680 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 5: else I know to lean into. And then there's sometimes

739
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 5: where I just don't have it, where I don't have it,

740
00:47:27,680 --> 00:47:30,720
Speaker 5: and I think it's a great reminder to every artist

741
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,239
Speaker 5: who posts their stuff on the internet that it is

742
00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 5: okay to repost your work. We scroll by so many things. Yes,

743
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:41,040
Speaker 5: we want to see it again, and the way algorithms

744
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:43,799
Speaker 5: and everything work, most people that follow you don't see

745
00:47:43,840 --> 00:47:47,080
Speaker 5: it the first time anyway. So that's helped me in

746
00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:49,680
Speaker 5: my process as well of being like, you know what,

747
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:52,799
Speaker 5: I'm going to run this neck from a few years ago.

748
00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,839
Speaker 2: Well, and two quotes mean different things, so us at

749
00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:57,160
Speaker 2: different points in our lives.

750
00:47:57,520 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 1: You know.

751
00:47:57,760 --> 00:47:59,960
Speaker 2: It's like, I think some of the quotes or something

752
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:02,239
Speaker 2: that I've read that have meant something to me when

753
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:06,080
Speaker 2: I see it again with new experiences that have happened,

754
00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:09,880
Speaker 2: or maybe different kind of deeper healing that has taken

755
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:12,760
Speaker 2: place within me. I take it to mean something entirely

756
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:14,640
Speaker 2: different when I set eyes on it again.

757
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:16,360
Speaker 1: So it's it's like, yeah.

758
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:19,840
Speaker 2: Those those kind of universal truths, they can evolve with

759
00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:22,080
Speaker 2: your life in so many different seasons.

760
00:48:22,719 --> 00:48:26,960
Speaker 5: Exactly. Yeah, it's and it's something I do as well,

761
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:31,360
Speaker 5: like the fresh eyes is because when I do repost

762
00:48:31,440 --> 00:48:35,600
Speaker 5: old clothes, I'm usually jigging them up and adding some

763
00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:38,840
Speaker 5: sauce and the new insight and the more mature aspect,

764
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:41,600
Speaker 5: and some of those things are the ones that people

765
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:44,640
Speaker 5: share the most. So I think the Internet has this

766
00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:47,840
Speaker 5: confuse that we just have to produce, produce, produce, produce,

767
00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:51,719
Speaker 5: and that's something we created. Is just it loses its

768
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:55,040
Speaker 5: value once people aren't engaging with it on the Internet.

769
00:48:55,560 --> 00:48:58,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really important to be saying this out loud.

770
00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:01,160
Speaker 2: I think it's really really important to be saying this

771
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:04,440
Speaker 2: out loud because people have also anyone listening. Can I

772
00:49:04,480 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 2: just say directly to you, you have a right to

773
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:10,640
Speaker 2: prioritize your real human life like you have a right

774
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:15,040
Speaker 2: and honestly a duty to actually prioritize your human experience

775
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:19,719
Speaker 2: above your digital experience. It's why we're here, and I

776
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:23,400
Speaker 2: think so many of us are disregarding our humanity for these.

777
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:25,920
Speaker 1: Kind of sim.

778
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:29,880
Speaker 2: Realities of who we think we are in a post

779
00:49:30,200 --> 00:49:32,600
Speaker 2: or based on the perception of another person.

780
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:35,240
Speaker 1: And it's just so important.

781
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:39,760
Speaker 2: To keep both feet in your real life and world

782
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:41,799
Speaker 2: is so important.

783
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:44,000
Speaker 5: Thank you for that word.

784
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:49,920
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm curious, Willie. And then I actually have.

785
00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:51,920
Speaker 2: Some homework that I would like for you to give

786
00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:55,640
Speaker 2: the audience. At this point in your life, in this

787
00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:59,120
Speaker 2: moment where the level of integration that you're at where

788
00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:02,520
Speaker 2: you've arrived, especially in the kind of harmony and balance

789
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:08,359
Speaker 2: you've found for your unique path, body, mind's heart. What

790
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:11,960
Speaker 2: kind of space does faith and creativity take up in

791
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:12,520
Speaker 2: your life?

792
00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:13,799
Speaker 1: How do those.

793
00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:20,840
Speaker 2: Two essences of existence kind of show themselves in your world?

794
00:50:22,280 --> 00:50:26,799
Speaker 5: Wow, I've never been asked this, and I don't think

795
00:50:26,840 --> 00:50:31,560
Speaker 5: I've considered it, but thinking about it, I think, well,

796
00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:37,240
Speaker 5: number one, blind faith is what got me here. And

797
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:41,040
Speaker 5: like I said earlier, sometimes there have been seasons in

798
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:43,719
Speaker 5: my life where no one's believed in my vision, where

799
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 5: I hardly believed in my vision, but there is a

800
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:49,440
Speaker 5: piece of me that was just like just hold on,

801
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 5: like you might be it might be around the corner

802
00:50:52,760 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 5: you might almost be there and not even know it.

803
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:59,880
Speaker 5: So hold on to that faith. And faith is not

804
00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 5: it's not always some pretty glossy divine experience. Sometimes it

805
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 5: is really messy and really scary, but always worth it.

806
00:51:12,280 --> 00:51:16,360
Speaker 5: So having the ability to keep that faith, and also

807
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:21,719
Speaker 5: my evolving journey with religion and God and what I

808
00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:26,560
Speaker 5: see as source and sort of removing religion out of

809
00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:30,919
Speaker 5: the equation and seeing the world and my purpose why

810
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:35,920
Speaker 5: I'm here differently, it's definitely helped me be more open

811
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:40,360
Speaker 5: and more creative and access new parts of my brain

812
00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:46,200
Speaker 5: that may have been blocked before due to indoctrinated beliefs

813
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:49,560
Speaker 5: that weren't mine. So I have faith. I have faith

814
00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,120
Speaker 5: in myself. I have faith in the future. I have

815
00:51:52,239 --> 00:51:58,360
Speaker 5: faith and progress. And I also have built faith in

816
00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:03,440
Speaker 5: my confidence and ability to achieve greatness and bring a

817
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:06,800
Speaker 5: vision to greatness. You have to have faith.

818
00:52:07,640 --> 00:52:09,080
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm mm hmmm.

819
00:52:11,080 --> 00:52:14,120
Speaker 2: I feel like in my life, I always say for myself,

820
00:52:14,200 --> 00:52:17,040
Speaker 2: I got to keep like a little oven inside burning

821
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:17,800
Speaker 2: for myself.

822
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:19,680
Speaker 5: I love that, you know.

823
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 1: That's how that feels in my body.

824
00:52:21,719 --> 00:52:25,560
Speaker 2: It's like that little oven And sometimes the kindling comes

825
00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:28,239
Speaker 2: down a little low, and then sometimes it is like

826
00:52:28,320 --> 00:52:32,640
Speaker 2: this raging flame, but tending that fire, feeding that flame.

827
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:36,040
Speaker 5: Yes, I feel that I'm gonna start thinking of it

828
00:52:36,080 --> 00:52:38,680
Speaker 5: as that too. It's a beautiful imagery.

829
00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:39,839
Speaker 1: Thank you.

830
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:42,360
Speaker 2: I would love to ask now, at the end of

831
00:52:42,400 --> 00:52:46,000
Speaker 2: every episode, I give our honored guests.

832
00:52:47,160 --> 00:52:49,960
Speaker 1: This ask of providing.

833
00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:53,719
Speaker 2: Homework for the listening audience, something to help integrate everything

834
00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:57,560
Speaker 2: that was heard and felt from this conversation. And sometimes

835
00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:01,400
Speaker 2: that looks like a maybe an query or a journalinge

836
00:53:01,480 --> 00:53:05,680
Speaker 2: prompt or a breath or a quote, a thought starter,

837
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:09,640
Speaker 2: a practice of some sort. But what can you share

838
00:53:09,640 --> 00:53:12,400
Speaker 2: with our audience that they can use to spend time

839
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:13,640
Speaker 2: with after they hear this?

840
00:53:14,719 --> 00:53:19,480
Speaker 5: Wow? Okay, Well, I want everyone to pull out their

841
00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:23,520
Speaker 5: journal or their notes app or however they get their

842
00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:30,920
Speaker 5: writing out, and I want them to start with, in

843
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:36,239
Speaker 5: this next season of my life, I'm going to improve.

844
00:53:36,600 --> 00:53:39,600
Speaker 5: And then I want you to write ten different things.

845
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:43,320
Speaker 5: They can be affirmations, they could be things about your relationships,

846
00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:46,719
Speaker 5: your habits. Write out ten things that you need to

847
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:50,279
Speaker 5: improve on and stick it on your fridge or make

848
00:53:50,320 --> 00:53:53,480
Speaker 5: it your wallpaper, on your phone. Figure out a way

849
00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:55,759
Speaker 5: for it to be in your subconscious even if you're

850
00:53:55,800 --> 00:54:00,839
Speaker 5: not looking at it directly and see what happens, see

851
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:01,719
Speaker 5: what happens after.

852
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:04,319
Speaker 1: I love that.

853
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:08,319
Speaker 2: I love that that's where your work is.

854
00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:10,399
Speaker 5: Yes, get out of that pen.

855
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:15,759
Speaker 2: Willie Green, thank you so much for joining us on

856
00:54:15,800 --> 00:54:17,040
Speaker 2: this episode.

857
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:19,560
Speaker 1: Your book is in stores now.

858
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,080
Speaker 2: I know everyone can see it right behind him. I'm

859
00:54:22,080 --> 00:54:25,600
Speaker 2: not sure who needs to hear this, but thank you

860
00:54:25,680 --> 00:54:27,520
Speaker 2: for all the work you do in the world. Thank

861
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:29,600
Speaker 2: you for me the Urban, thank you for this book,

862
00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:30,600
Speaker 2: and just thank you.

863
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:31,520
Speaker 1: For your existence.

864
00:54:32,239 --> 00:54:35,400
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you so much for sharing your platform.

865
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:38,880
Speaker 5: And this is my favorite interview I've ever done period.

866
00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:43,200
Speaker 5: I love that we talked about real things. So I

867
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:45,080
Speaker 5: appreciate you so.

868
00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:49,520
Speaker 1: Greatful, my friend. We will be back next week. No,

869
00:54:49,520 --> 00:54:50,040
Speaker 1: I'm mist stay.

870
00:54:56,880 --> 00:55:00,680
Speaker 2: The content presented on Deeply Well serves solely for educational

871
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:04,480
Speaker 2: and informational purposes. It should not be considered a replacement

872
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:08,560
Speaker 2: for personalized medical or mental health guidance and does not

873
00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:13,640
Speaker 2: constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, it is advisable

874
00:55:13,719 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 2: to consult with your healthcare provider or health team for

875
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Speaker 2: any specific concerns or questions that you may have. Connect

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Speaker 2: with me on social at Debbie Brown that's Twitter and Instagram,

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Speaker 2: or you can go to my website Debbie Brown dot

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Speaker 2: com and if you're listening to the show on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 2: don't forget, Please rate, review, and subscribe and send this

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Speaker 2: episode to a friend. Deeply Well is a production of

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Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and The Black Effect Network. It's produced by Jacqueis Thomas,

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Speaker 2: Samantha Timmins, and me Debbie Brown. The Beautiful Soundbath You

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Speaker 2: heard That's by Jarrelen Glass from Crystal Cadence. For more

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Speaker 2: listen to your favorite shows.