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Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, I am Dramas And this is the Street

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Speaker 1: Stoic Podcast, bringing you your daily dose of timeless stoic

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Speaker 1: philosophy remix for the hip hop generation. We are combining

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Speaker 1: ancient philosophy with lyrics and quotes from some of the

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Speaker 1: greatest to ever grace a microphone. And with that in mind,

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Speaker 1: let's get things started with your daily shot of inspiration. Now.

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Speaker 1: Today we're gonna be concentrating on the stoic idea of

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Speaker 1: focusing on what you can control. And this is probably

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Speaker 1: one of the most you know, foundational man ideas of stoicism,

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Speaker 1: and I think probably one of the things that helps

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Speaker 1: us combat unhappiness, probably in the strongest way, the idea

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Speaker 1: of really just kind of staying in your lane. And

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Speaker 1: today we're doing a throwback from Brand Nubian from the

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Speaker 1: track Love Me or Leave Me Alone, and in it

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Speaker 1: they say, quote, I'm gonna do my own thing, being

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Speaker 1: on my own king, and it's up to you to follow.

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Speaker 1: There's so many powerful kind of messages in just those

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Speaker 1: three lines right there, and you know he's talking about

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Speaker 1: the idea that that he can't control who's going to

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Speaker 1: follow him, right, but what he can control is the

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Speaker 1: work that he decides to put in Right, He's deciding

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Speaker 1: that it was up to him to create what he wanted, right,

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Speaker 1: calling himself a king, declaring that he is in fact

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Speaker 1: the one in charge, right, the one with the power

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Speaker 1: in his hands. And I believe that, you know, real,

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Speaker 1: real power it comes from you know, choosing not to

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Speaker 1: dwell on the the outcome. Right. Like even jay Z

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Speaker 1: echoed the same sentiment, you know, uh saying either love

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Speaker 1: me or leave me alone in public service announcement. Right,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure borrowing from this song right here, and it

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Speaker 1: relates perfectly, you know, to a quote from one of

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Speaker 1: the stoics, Epictitious, and he says, the chief task in

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Speaker 1: life is simply this to identify and separate matters so

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Speaker 1: that I can say clearly to myself, which are externals

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Speaker 1: not under my control and which have to do with

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Speaker 1: the choices I actually control. Right Again, what what he's

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Speaker 1: saying here that his goal is, the thing that he

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Speaker 1: focuses on each and every day is separating the things

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Speaker 1: that are in fact in his control and the ones

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Speaker 1: that are involving external sources you know, be at people

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Speaker 1: or you know, fate in the universe, whatever, it might be,

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Speaker 1: and and recognizing that those are not things that he

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Speaker 1: needs to occupy his time focusing on all these people

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Speaker 1: are from two different worlds, right, you know, Grand new

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Speaker 1: B and jay Z and then obviously Epictitius, you know,

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Speaker 1: who's an old, dead white guy from hundreds of years ago. Right,

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Speaker 1: different worlds and different time periods, yet both are utilizing

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Speaker 1: that same exact mindset, right, This idea of focusing on

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Speaker 1: what you can control in the power that comes with that.

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Speaker 1: You know, that is a timeless concept because at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, it is exhausting, right trying to

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Speaker 1: get others to see things the way that you do,

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Speaker 1: or trying to get others to appreciate your work. Right,

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Speaker 1: And the more that you make others your focus, or

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Speaker 1: you know, the more that you spend time trying to

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Speaker 1: impress people or fit in with the status quo or

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Speaker 1: recreate what's already popular, that's less time that you put

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Speaker 1: into yourself and growing at your craft and growing what

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Speaker 1: you naturally are gifted at and what you're naturally drawn to.

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Speaker 1: Right now, we've heard from Grand new Being, I gave

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Speaker 1: you a little jay Z Barb. We've talked about Epictetus

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Speaker 1: now I want to talk about how I relate to this, right,

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Speaker 1: Because like for me, I was always you know, trying

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Speaker 1: to make everyone everyone loved me. I was you know,

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Speaker 1: shrinking myself down in in social groups because I wanted

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Speaker 1: to be liked by that group of people. I was

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Speaker 1: hiding bits of myself, holding back bits of myself because

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Speaker 1: I was scared that they wouldn't appreciate me or accept

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Speaker 1: me as is right. And in my creative work, you know,

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Speaker 1: I I sacrificed my authenticity and the things that I

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Speaker 1: was naturally passionate about by watering down my projects or

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Speaker 1: or watering down my voice in hopes that it would

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Speaker 1: make more people support what I was doing. Right, Like,

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Speaker 1: when I was heavily producing music, I I would shame

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Speaker 1: myself for not being good at making you know, the

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Speaker 1: things that were popular on the radio, and and the

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Speaker 1: fact that I wasn't naturally gifted at at creating these

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Speaker 1: you know, catchy sort of pop hooks or catchy melodies, right,

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Speaker 1: and I ended up wasting a lot of time trying

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Speaker 1: to sort of recreate those sounds that I heard that

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Speaker 1: were popular on the radio, you know. And and ironically,

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Speaker 1: there were things that I had little interest in actually

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Speaker 1: making but it was all in an effort to be

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Speaker 1: appreciated by the masses. And once again, what I was

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Speaker 1: doing was I was ignoring the things that I was

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Speaker 1: naturally gifted at, right, all for the hopes of being

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Speaker 1: accepted by the masses. Even branching off of that, when

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Speaker 1: I began to get into radio, I made it a

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Speaker 1: goal of getting on the biggest, you know, pop radio

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Speaker 1: station in the country. The fact that if I was

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Speaker 1: on this radio station that everybody had heard of, they

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Speaker 1: would undeniably be able to view me as successful, right

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Speaker 1: so that I, you know, I would would chase after

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Speaker 1: being in front of the biggest crowd. That was all

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Speaker 1: a part of this sort of obsession that I had,

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Speaker 1: and I was willing to do that and put my

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Speaker 1: effort into this, even if it meant, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: talking about things that I had little interest in, right

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Speaker 1: and playing music that I had little interest in. And

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Speaker 1: then even when I ended up getting that gig, I

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Speaker 1: achieved that goal to end up on that radio station.

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Speaker 1: You know, there were of course still people who didn't

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Speaker 1: believe in my talent or had something to say or

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Speaker 1: hate it in some sort of way and viewed me

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Speaker 1: as somebody who hadn't really achieved anything, you know, And

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Speaker 1: it made me realize that I had wasted a lot

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Speaker 1: of time and a lot of energy doing things that

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Speaker 1: made me miserable as he means, to try and control

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Speaker 1: the opinions that others had of me. Right, And I

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Speaker 1: did this rather than just doing what I enjoyed and

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Speaker 1: embracing whatever love or hate I got, you know, and

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Speaker 1: I had to learn to to be a okay with

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Speaker 1: the fact that I was not in control of that

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Speaker 1: reaction that others would have of me, good or bad. Right,

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Speaker 1: the only thing I could, in fact control was the

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Speaker 1: equality of whatever I was working on. And once I

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Speaker 1: began to kind of really hone in on that, and

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Speaker 1: I chose to just focus on what came natural to

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Speaker 1: me and embrace the things that I was gifted at

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Speaker 1: and find comfort and be okay with my shortcomings. You know.

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Speaker 1: That's what I began to truly find an audience. You know,

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Speaker 1: by by focusing on so many external things, you are

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Speaker 1: taking yourself away from the things that you are naturally

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Speaker 1: drawn to, and the things that you are naturally drawn

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Speaker 1: to are always going to come across as authentic to others,

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Speaker 1: and that is what usually makes people drawn to following

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Speaker 1: somebody or supporting what they do. And the irony is

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Speaker 1: that you're you're searching for this acceptance and this love

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Speaker 1: and this adoration from people, and all you would have

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Speaker 1: to do is just double down on your true authentic self.

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Speaker 1: But instead you are trying to reach the masses. You

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Speaker 1: are trying to recreate what's popular, what is well liked

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Speaker 1: by others, and you are working against this whole idea

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Speaker 1: of actually building uh you know, a following around what

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Speaker 1: it is that you're trying to do, because again, you're

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Speaker 1: not showcasing something that people can latch onto, right. Your

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Speaker 1: authenticity is something that is going to attract the right

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Speaker 1: people to you. And I think that is a good

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Speaker 1: kind of place to take a pause and move into

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Speaker 1: this idea of how you can make it your mantra

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Speaker 1: for today. But first let's take a quick break and

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Speaker 1: then we'll be right back. All right, So we've heard

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Speaker 1: from Man brand new Being, we have heard from jay Z.

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Speaker 1: I've given you one of the stoics epicteious. Now let's

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Speaker 1: talk about how you can make it your mantra for today. Now,

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Speaker 1: I think first and foremost we have to have a

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Speaker 1: bit of a mindset shift as a culture, right, you know.

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Speaker 1: And I'll use sort of business and the music industry

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Speaker 1: as an example to kind of showcase my point. This applies,

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Speaker 1: by the way, to anybody who is a creative or

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Speaker 1: or just people who are are having a problem showing

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Speaker 1: up as themselves because they're scared that that people may

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Speaker 1: not like them. Right. All of this, you know, applies

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Speaker 1: to whatever it is that you're doing in life now.

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Speaker 1: The writer Kevin Kelly has this concept where he talks

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Speaker 1: about how an artist, a creative, a content creator only

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Speaker 1: truly needs a thousand true fans to create a sustainable

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Speaker 1: career for themselves, right. And this goes against the the

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Speaker 1: sort of principle that we're all taught in society where

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Speaker 1: we're checking each other's uh, you know, follower accounts, and

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Speaker 1: that's how you're judging if you're gonna listen to somebody,

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Speaker 1: or you're gonna follow them, or you're gonna support what

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Speaker 1: they do. Right. But the reality is, you know, having

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Speaker 1: a thousand of rabid fans that consume and purchase and

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Speaker 1: support every single thing that you do is all that

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Speaker 1: you need. Right. Kevin Kelly talks about how you know,

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Speaker 1: if you had a thousand people who spent a hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars a year with you, that would be a hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year that you would be making. Right.

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Speaker 1: And again it goes against the this this principle that

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Speaker 1: we think we need to have, you know, the largest following,

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Speaker 1: and we need to make everybody of us and all

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Speaker 1: of the above, And the reality is no, you just

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Speaker 1: need a dedicated group of people that truly support you

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Speaker 1: and truly stand by you. Right. So that should take

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Speaker 1: off some of that burden of feeling like you can't

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Speaker 1: show up as yourself because it's not what is currently

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Speaker 1: popular or you know, is popular in certain social circles. Again,

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Speaker 1: you don't need the numbers, right, And you look at

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Speaker 1: a rapper like Tech nine and his company Strange Music,

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Speaker 1: like Tech nine is somebody who made the Forbes list

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Speaker 1: of hip hop cash Kings, right, and he's a artist

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Speaker 1: who gets zero radio play or commercial support. Yet he's

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Speaker 1: on the list with people like Jay Z right as

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Speaker 1: far as money that he's made from music, And that's

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Speaker 1: because he has built a dedicated following by being true

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Speaker 1: to himself and by being true to himself, a lot

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Speaker 1: of other people felt seen. Right the fact that he

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Speaker 1: decided to not go the commercial route and recreate what

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Speaker 1: was popular on the radio, but instead create what came

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Speaker 1: naturally to him, he naturally found this rabid audience who

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Speaker 1: finally felt like they had somebody who saw them right,

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Speaker 1: who didn't follow commercial you know, music or commercial hip

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Speaker 1: hop in this case, they finally felt like they had

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Speaker 1: a voice. And all that came from Tech nine just

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Speaker 1: focusing on what he was interested in, the music that

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Speaker 1: came naturally to him, and putting all of his time

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Speaker 1: and effort into that, you know. And the point of

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Speaker 1: all of these examples is that we need to value

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Speaker 1: quality over quantity. Right, Like one loyal friend who was

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Speaker 1: always there for you, who supports you no matter what

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Speaker 1: and and lifts you up when you're down, and it's

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Speaker 1: always you know, there on the other end of a

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Speaker 1: phone call like that, that one friend is better than

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Speaker 1: ten fake friends who talk ship behind your back. Right,

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Speaker 1: It's about showing our authentic selves and embracing those that

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Speaker 1: find themselves drawn to us as a result, regardless that

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Speaker 1: the number is large or small. Again, it's all about

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Speaker 1: us being able to show up as our authentic selves

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Speaker 1: because that's the only thing that we are in control of.

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Speaker 1: We cannot control what others think of us. Right. You

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Speaker 1: are not for everyone, and that is okay. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: mean that you are you know, um, any less valuable,

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Speaker 1: nor does it mean that you have any less power.

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Speaker 1: You know, we all have the potential to quote be

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Speaker 1: our own king, you know, to pull this full circle.

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Speaker 1: But what that means is focusing on the things that

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Speaker 1: you are in control of and not wasting your time

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Speaker 1: or energy on anything else. Now, with that said, thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for checking out the streets Stoic podcasts.

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Speaker 1: Do your best to apply these concepts we've discussed into

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Speaker 1: your everyday life, and I'll catch you all next time.

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Speaker 1: The Street Stoke podcast is a production of My Hearts

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Speaker 1: Michael podcast Network