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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 New York Daily doos, a timeless Stoic

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Speaker 1: philosophy remix for the hip hop generation. Now, with that

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Speaker 1: in mind, let's get things started with your daily shot

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Speaker 1: of inspiration. Now today we are going to be focusing

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Speaker 1: around the stoic idea of focusing on what you can control,

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Speaker 1: but more specifically being assertive in your life and doing

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Speaker 1: it with intention. Right. And one of the lyrics that

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Speaker 1: came to mind for me as I was prepping this,

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Speaker 1: it comes from from Biggie and the song Sky's the Limit, right,

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Speaker 1: and and he says, stay far from timid, only make

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Speaker 1: moves when your heart is in it, and live the

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Speaker 1: phrase skies the limit. I think he's saying so many

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Speaker 1: important things in just these few lines, right, Like he's

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Speaker 1: talking about strategically asking for what you want, right, you know,

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Speaker 1: and and also you know, closed mouths don't get fed right,

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Speaker 1: be assertive and also you know at the end, Sky's

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Speaker 1: the limit, like recognizing that there's endless opportunities out there

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Speaker 1: for you. And I want to kind of also hone

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Speaker 1: in on the line that he says, only make moves

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Speaker 1: when your heart is in it right. Because I also

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Speaker 1: think that we are living in a time period where

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Speaker 1: people are caught up in hustle culture. They are caught

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Speaker 1: up and putting on a good show for social media,

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Speaker 1: and they are just working and accepting opportunities and doing

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Speaker 1: random things just for the sake of looking busy so

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Speaker 1: they can kind of show off, you know, and say

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Speaker 1: booked and busy. Right. But if you're actually trying to

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Speaker 1: play the long game in whatever facet of life that

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Speaker 1: you are trying to exist in, be it your career,

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Speaker 1: your goals, your personal life, right, it doesn't work in

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Speaker 1: your favor to say yes to everything right, because a

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Speaker 1: yes to one thing means a know for something else.

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Speaker 1: We only have but so many hours in a day, right,

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Speaker 1: And that's why I love when he talks about only

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Speaker 1: make moves when your heart is in it right. That's

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Speaker 1: the intentional part that we're talking about today. You know,

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Speaker 1: you don't just make moves or just do something just

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Speaker 1: to be able to say you did it right. That

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Speaker 1: doesn't actually help you out in the long run. It's

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Speaker 1: actually counterproductive if you're just randomly chasing after things with

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Speaker 1: no rhyme or reason, no plan, and they're not really

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Speaker 1: things that you actually want, right, You're just collecting random

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Speaker 1: accomplishments that you know don't actually add up to anything.

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Speaker 1: And this reminds me of of a stoke quote I

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Speaker 1: was reading from Epictetus, right, and he says, first tell

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Speaker 1: yourself what kind of person you want to be, then

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Speaker 1: do what you have to do. For in nearly every pursuit,

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Speaker 1: we see this to be the case. Those in athletic pursuit,

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Speaker 1: first choose the sport they want and then do the work.

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Speaker 1: And Epictetus is talking about being intentional, you know, be

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Speaker 1: clear on what it is that you want. You know,

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Speaker 1: you reverse engineer the thing that you want. You start

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Speaker 1: from the day that you would potentially get it, and

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Speaker 1: then go and reverse what are all the steps that

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Speaker 1: would take you to this end goal that you have

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Speaker 1: in mind. That's that intention talking about. In an athlete, right,

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Speaker 1: they first have to declare what sport it is that

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Speaker 1: they want, then they can start working towards it. You know,

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Speaker 1: if you are somebody who is um you know, for

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Speaker 1: the sake of sports, you're you're playing a bunch of

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Speaker 1: different sports and you're spread thin with your time and

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Speaker 1: you're just learning tidbits of this one, tidbits of that

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Speaker 1: other one. Yeah, maybe you're going to be able to

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Speaker 1: you know, have been able to play a bunch of

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Speaker 1: different games and had a bunch of different experiences, which

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Speaker 1: all have their value, but you will never actually master

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Speaker 1: any one of those sports because you are not putting

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Speaker 1: in the time that is necessary, and in fact, you

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Speaker 1: don't have the time that is necessary because you are

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Speaker 1: spreading yourself too thin by saying yes to everything. Right,

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Speaker 1: Like again, you have to be clear on what it

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Speaker 1: is that you want and then be unafraid to do

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Speaker 1: the work to get it right. And I think for me,

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Speaker 1: I relate to this, and this comes around the time

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Speaker 1: of the pandemic, and I've kind of mentioned, you know

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Speaker 1: how this was a huge turning point for me, you know,

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Speaker 1: but I recognize that I wanted to do more than

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Speaker 1: just entertainment culture right, and I wanted to have a

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Speaker 1: bigger impact than just talking about pop culture. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to transition into being socially active, to speaking about things

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Speaker 1: that actually matter, And for me, I wanted to have

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Speaker 1: a a TV show, you know, that spoke about those things.

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Speaker 1: Once I set that goal of I'm going to host

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Speaker 1: a television show, a late night style show. I then

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Speaker 1: had a reverse engineer it. So I had to take

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Speaker 1: time to educate myself on what is going on in

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Speaker 1: the world and read books and watch documentaries and learn,

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Speaker 1: you know, the the essentials around political topics that I'm

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Speaker 1: going to be talking about, you know, social justice topics

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Speaker 1: that I wanted to speak about. Right, I had to

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Speaker 1: take myself to school and really be educated so that

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Speaker 1: I could be someone that would be seen as credible

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Speaker 1: in speaking in the space that I wanted, in this case,

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Speaker 1: a television show, you know, and I vocalized, you know,

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Speaker 1: outwardly to myself as well as anybody that would listen,

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Speaker 1: that this is what I wanted. And as a result,

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Speaker 1: I also tapped into every resource that I had with

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Speaker 1: the exact intention that I wanted to have a television show.

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Speaker 1: Right and for me, I had basically no contacts and

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Speaker 1: television except for one right before the pandemic, I had

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Speaker 1: done in interview where a television station named LATV, a

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Speaker 1: Latin television station, had done a piece on me and

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Speaker 1: my career up to that point. That was my first

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Speaker 1: time meeting really anybody in any sort of television setting.

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Speaker 1: Pandemic happens. I'm having this idea of this is where

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Speaker 1: I want my career to go. These are things I

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Speaker 1: want to talk about. I remember that connection that I had,

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Speaker 1: That's a resource that I had, the person that I

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Speaker 1: met at that television network. From there, I reverse engineered it.

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Speaker 1: How do I meet more people? How do I meet

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Speaker 1: the people who are in charge. Everybody's sitting at home

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Speaker 1: on social media, They're doing different things. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: go in and follow every single person that works at

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Speaker 1: that television station so that they're now going to see

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Speaker 1: everything that I'm doing on Instagram. And that's what I did.

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Speaker 1: And I've mentioned that I did the Instagram live every

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Speaker 1: single day. But then after that, I said, how can

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Speaker 1: I take this further? YouTube is a great opportunity, but

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Speaker 1: I want to have a channel that has a built

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Speaker 1: an audience. I tapped into my Breakfast Club network right

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Speaker 1: my connections there and the digital team allowed me to

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Speaker 1: put my own show on the Breakfast Club YouTube channel. Again,

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Speaker 1: that was a moment for me to showcase what I

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Speaker 1: was capable of doing, and through all of that showcasing

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Speaker 1: my work, being unafraid to tap into the resources that

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Speaker 1: I was creating Via that these people on social media

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Speaker 1: and trying to build those relationships. Eventually I did get

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Speaker 1: that opportunity to land that TV show, right, But again,

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Speaker 1: it took me set that intention, me saying no to

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Speaker 1: anything that wasn't in line with that goal. And it

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Speaker 1: was me, like Biggie says, staying far from timid. I

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Speaker 1: couldn't be afraid to express this goal even if people

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Speaker 1: laughed at me. You know that I wanted to host

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Speaker 1: my own television show. I had to be very assertive

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Speaker 1: and adamant that this is something that would happen. And

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Speaker 1: eventually it did. That that opportunity came because I was

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Speaker 1: unafraid to speak up and put myself out there to

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Speaker 1: make it happen. Now we've heard from Biggie, we have

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Speaker 1: heard from Epictetus. I've given you a bit of my story.

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Speaker 1: Now let's talk about how you can make it your

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Speaker 1: mantra for today. Well, first let's take a quick break

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

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Speaker 1: heard the words of Biggie, we have heard from Epictetus.

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Speaker 1: I've given you some insight ins how this applies to

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Speaker 1: my life. The stoic idea of focusing on what you

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Speaker 1: can control, but more specifically being assertive in the things

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Speaker 1: that you want and doing everything with intention. Now, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about how you can make this your monstra for

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Speaker 1: it today. Now, First and foremost, the keyword here is assertive.

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Speaker 1: You have to be assertive in declaring what you want

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Speaker 1: and asking for what you want. Right Again, closed mouths

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Speaker 1: do not get fed. But you also have to be

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Speaker 1: intentional with only doing things that you really want to do,

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Speaker 1: not just doing any random thing, because you can. When

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Speaker 1: you say yes to something, you're also saying no to

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Speaker 1: something else. There are only but so many hours. We

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Speaker 1: only have but so much energy, but so much time

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Speaker 1: here each and every day. We cannot do everything. So

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Speaker 1: you have to as Epicteita says, you know, to recap

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Speaker 1: you have to declare who is the person that I

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Speaker 1: want to be? And then from there you reverse engineer right.

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Speaker 1: And then, as Bagie says, you have to stay far

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Speaker 1: from timid. You have to be assertive. You have to

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Speaker 1: be politely aggressive. You have to let people know this

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Speaker 1: is what I want. Right. You cannot let them overlook you.

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Speaker 1: You can't assume that they're going to know what you're doing.

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Speaker 1: You have to make it very clear. This is what

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Speaker 1: I want, this is what I do, and this is

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Speaker 1: why I think I'm deserving of it. Right and again

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Speaker 1: the line that I love from him only make moves

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Speaker 1: when your heart is in it. Right. That's that's setting

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Speaker 1: an intention, making sure that the things you are doing

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Speaker 1: are you know, things that you love or have some

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Speaker 1: meaning behind it, and are a part of the greater

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Speaker 1: idea that you have for yourself, the greater goal. Right

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Speaker 1: and again, for me, you know, there's a million and

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Speaker 1: one things I could have done during that time in

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Speaker 1: the pandemic, and you know it was a tough time,

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Speaker 1: but there's also random opportunities popping up as far as

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Speaker 1: hosting things or trying to get more hours at the

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Speaker 1: radio station. But I said, no, my big goal is

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Speaker 1: getting on TV. I'm going to devote all the free

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Speaker 1: time that I have towards this one goal. And that's

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Speaker 1: why it paid off. All of my time was spent

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Speaker 1: with intention. I declared who I wanted to be, what

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Speaker 1: I wanted to do, and I lived accordingly to that.

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Speaker 1: And that's what you need to do if you want

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Speaker 1: to achieve something in this life. Right, you have to

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Speaker 1: be assertive, you have to speak up, you have to

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Speaker 1: declare what it is that you want, and then you

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Speaker 1: have to be intentional with how you plan on get there. Now,

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Speaker 1: with that said, thank you so much for checking out

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Speaker 1: the Street Stoke Podcast. Do your best to apply these

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Speaker 1: concepts that we discussed into your everyday life and I

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Speaker 1: will catch you next time. The Street Stoke Podcast is

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Speaker 1: a production of Ihearts Michael Tura Podcast Network