June 24, 2025 • 13 mins
In a world that worships busyness, Kenny Mac reminds us: being busy isn’t the same as making progress. Kenny unpacks how our culture — especially in communities of color and immigrant families — taught us that a packed schedule means success. But what if that’s just a fast track to burnout and emptiness?
Together, we explore:
-The difference between busyness and true productivity
-Why slowing down can actually speed up your growth. How to align daily actions with real goals and a clear why
-The hidden cost of hustle culture and social media’s fake highlight reels
- Why saying no is a superpower for peace and progress
- Simple mindset shifts to choose clarity over chaos
This episode is your permission slip to replace overwhelm with intentionality — and to find freedom in focusing on what truly matters. Listen in, reflect, and reclaim your time, energy, and purpose.
Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this conversation with someone who needs to hear: less really is more.
#CultureRaisesUs #KennyMac #ProductivityMindset #HustleCulture #ClarityOverChaos
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kenny Mack is back in the building, and you know,
we were definitely, I could say, raised in this era
where being busy was viewed as a badge of honor. Right.
It often ended up, though, with a level of exhaustion
and not necessarily progression. And I think somewhere along the way,
busyness became like this currency, like the busy you are,
(00:24):
the more important you've seen. And I don't know, why
do we equate a pack schedule with value?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Bro, No no clue, man, I think you know, well,
not no clue. I think I have a lot of clues.
It's the way we were raised, especially if you are
from a community of color, especially if you're from an
immigrant community. I feel like that that concept of like, yo,
you always got to be working, You always got to
be working, You always got to be working is there.
(00:53):
But then there's the question for me, which is, like,
you know, it's are you busy or are you actually productive?
Are you making progress? Right? I think the first introduction
I had to that was when I moved out here
to LA from New York. I felt like I slowed
(01:15):
down fifty percent, but I was still fifty percent ahead
of everything else that was going on right, because spress
a big state. Like we're just like moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving,
And it's like, but why why do you need to
go to ten different meetings in the course of a day.
Why do you need to? You know? And what I
realized when I came out here was and not saying
(01:38):
that like people in LA are more efficient than people
in New York, but it was the people who were
having like I'm gonna have this one meeting today and
it's going to equate to everything I need now you like, yeah,
like I don't need value. Proposition is through the roof, right,
and you know, it is something to do that. Busyness
(02:00):
is something to be said about. Like the focus as
well too, you know, because you're doing so many different
things at one time. You know, it becomes the concept
of you know, are you mastering one thing or you
just average at everything? Right? Like, but yeah, I I
(02:23):
always am. I personally am always dealing with it. Where
the whole concept of showing yourself grace as well too.
Yeah that's right. Yeah, I will have absolutely nothing going
on and be like yo, like let me just sit
down or have a nap, and if I try to
have an I still pop up like there has to
be something else that I have to do. You know,
it's so ingrained in you and that's just the busyness
(02:44):
of it all.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
But that that's what it is. I think a big
thing that you just said right there is you we
have to we had to deprogram ourselves from the programming
of thinking that midday rest or mid day whatever, or
not being busy all throughout the day is not going
to be looked at as being productive, where now we're
learning it's a super part of being productive. You need
(03:10):
those moments. SOO, I would ask you, what are some
core values you think anchors someone in making true progress
rather than just staying busy.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I think it's a focus. I think it's honing in on,
you know, taking the time to make a plan and
to hit objectives and get something done. You know. I
recently was in a meeting where was talking to somebody
(03:40):
asking them that very question, like, well, yo, what are
the goals? What are the objectives? And it was like
this whole world wind of commentary mm hm, but never
got that answer. Nope, no, right, I'm just like okay, so,
but then you're shooting for nothing, right, like you're just
kind of all over the place, but trying to get
focused and get something done. So I think I think
(04:05):
that's like a big thing in it is is you're
not You can't be productive if you don't have that goal.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
You know what, I your why. If you don't have
a why, it all comes back to a why. And
if you don't know your why, you will constantly lose
your weight. But if you know your why, you will
continue to stay in your right road and path. You know.
I also look at you know, culture influences what we
see as worthwhile progress. Right. Some prioritize financial gains, others,
(04:41):
you know, value family freedom or artistic expression.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I'll call it.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
How do cultural narratives around success affect what people consider
real progress? For you?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Man? I think those narratives around success when you're like,
it's also goals and also purpose right, Like again the
why right, So like when you say financial, there could
be goals and find out, hey, I want to do
(05:15):
this so I could buy a house or I want
to do that, but some people just like I just
want money, right, And you know what we're finding now,
there was a great clip from Drink Champs that I
saw with will Smith, and he was talking about how
people talk about when you hit rock bottom, and he
(05:35):
was like, I can also equate that to the high
cliff because the people that get rock bottom it's like, well,
you have nowhere else to go. Now you can start
to rebuild yourself. But then he was like, you can
have everything, you can have, all the money, you can have,
all this you can have, you know, all the sex,
da no, all of this stuff, and you get to
a point and it's still not san and you and
(06:00):
then you fall off this cliff, right and and he
was like that cliff and rock bottom are the same thing.
And so that narrative around what success is the things,
the cars, the da da da. You know, it's not
unless you are okay with the inner piece or you
(06:23):
can identify what your innervice is or what gives you
that you're just hustling. You just and again it goes
back to you just busy. You're just busy trying to
make more money. You're just busy trying to do this thing.
You're just busy trying to do that. And it's because
you think by doing that, you're gonna fill this void
that you have inside, and that void can be filled
(06:44):
by you. You don't you know what I'm.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Saying, and that's why you just you just nailed it
like it's this is a personal exercise. This is a
very singular personal exercise, because if you allow the world
to do the exercise for you, you are never going to
be in a place of true comfort and stability in
(07:10):
terms of you know what it is you have or
don't have. You're constantly going to be chasing something that
is never going to fulfill you because you haven't done
the inner work. And I look at social media and
hustle culture have amplified the pressure I think to always
be grinding right. People often compare there behind the scenes
(07:31):
to someone else's highlight reel, which is so unrealistic. With
that being said, how has social media influenced the way
we blur the lines between progress and performative busyness? Because
I'll call it is performative.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, I think right before I answer that question to
a tidbit that I'll give you is there's this book
that a friend of mine had me read called The
Mind Magic, and it's all about the power of manifestation
and all of that. But it starts off with the
author who's this, you know, very successful neurologist, and him
(08:08):
talking about a moment where he hit rock bottom and
he had the mansions, the cars that da da da
da da da da and he lost all of it
and how it meant how he had been doing that
since he was a kid, like doing everything that he
had to do to get to go to the middle schools,
d D D D da da and then he was like
sitting in this one moment like I have all of this.
(08:29):
I'm still not happy, right, But it's a book that
I would definitely recommend folks check out as far as
it pertains to social media. Man, the thing that people
have to remember about social media is it's fake. It's
just straight up, and you know it is. It is
(08:54):
this whole concept around clickbait. I saw this thing the
other day and it made me sick to my stuff.
Like it was this woman talking about negative commentary is
now driving likes on social and she was teaching people
how to do it so that they could achieve that.
(09:19):
So she's literally teaching people how to speak and negatively
to garner awareness and capture an audience.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It's backwards.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
It's disgusting.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I mean, like that right, there is the epitome of
how off and not aligned in purpose and just this
opportunity of living that we are that becomes the thing
to chase. And that's what it is. It's a chase.
It's a chase, and we're not doing the deep work.
(09:55):
And I think in a world that at times rewards
hustle and output, how do we align our actions with
values like intentionality, balance or fulfillment? How do we like
how well?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I mean, I think the first thing is the art
of saying no, right, like cutting things out. If I'm
gonna use somebody as a reference right now, that's a
friend of ours who is successful, and he mastered that
in order to do this is Jerry, right, Jerry Lorenzo,
Like he has said no to so many you know
(10:31):
what I'm saying, like things throughout the growth of what
fear of God became. And it was just because he
had the singular focus on what this thing was, right
and I mean, great opportunities, great thing like I know
other people like, oh, I brought him this deal and
he said no to it, and da da da da da.
But it was just it was just that and to me,
that art of saying no and a lot of people
(10:52):
who are successful to me, meaning not just the things
and the stuff and the whatever, but just like chill, happy,
inner peace, like they're just like yo, like I'm not
I gotta say no to that.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And that's really I mean for me, that's the new
currency is being at peace and finding your joy throughout
all things. Now that doesn't mean you know, you're not
gonna get you know, shaken or knocked off your stand
for a little bit based off of adversity that you're
dealing with or trials and tribulations, because we all have had.
(11:27):
Nobody gets to surpass that and not get to deal
with that that comes with this gig of life. But
by being able to always default to this inner place
of joy and peace, I mean, that's one of that's
the currency for me that has so much more value
on any of the things we are literally talking about.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And you don't need to be busy to attain it, no.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
No, So I suggest my suggestion this week for people
is like, you know, try replacing I'm busy with something
more honest, like say I'm prioritizing X or I've chosen
to focus on why, right, and let's start valuing this
(12:16):
notion of clarity over chaos.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I totally agree with that. I
think you know it's even too. It's like instead of
sometimes to get to progress, we have to slow down.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
But you see how you see how oft that might
be for people. For progress, you need to slow down.
You remember the other thing that you know, we would
say a lot and I remember, you know, in the
number of meetings, less is more, Ye, less is more.
I'll never forget when Apple was in its and it
still is in its heyday, but there was a time,
(12:53):
you know, even in meetings at Nike, where we'd look
at the Apple model and how intentional they were with
making les us to do more like their merchandising and
their assortment was so tight. And goes back to a
point that you mentioned earlier about the value that they
put in that one meeting. You said that one meeting
that dude they put you just have one meeting, but
(13:15):
the value out of it is it's the same thing,
less is more. Sometimes you need to slow down to progress. Yep, ye,
So I thank you for these gems. These are some
goodies that I hope people can walk away with as
we even just walked away with some that can help with,
you know, eliminating this notion of thinking you need to
be busy and figure out what it is that truly
(13:36):
makes progress and what that looks like for you exactly
gay gay, Thank you,
Kenny Mack is back in the building, and you know,
we were definitely, I could say, raised in this era
where being busy was viewed as a badge of honor. Right.
It often ended up, though, with a level of exhaustion
and not necessarily progression. And I think somewhere along the way,
busyness became like this currency, like the busy you are,
(00:24):
the more important you've seen. And I don't know, why
do we equate a pack schedule with value?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Bro, No no clue, man, I think you know, well,
not no clue. I think I have a lot of clues.
It's the way we were raised, especially if you are
from a community of color, especially if you're from an
immigrant community. I feel like that that concept of like, yo,
you always got to be working, You always got to
be working, You always got to be working is there.
(00:53):
But then there's the question for me, which is, like,
you know, it's are you busy or are you actually productive?
Are you making progress? Right? I think the first introduction
I had to that was when I moved out here
to LA from New York. I felt like I slowed
(01:15):
down fifty percent, but I was still fifty percent ahead
of everything else that was going on right, because spress
a big state. Like we're just like moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving,
And it's like, but why why do you need to
go to ten different meetings in the course of a day.
Why do you need to? You know? And what I
realized when I came out here was and not saying
(01:38):
that like people in LA are more efficient than people
in New York, but it was the people who were
having like I'm gonna have this one meeting today and
it's going to equate to everything I need now you like, yeah,
like I don't need value. Proposition is through the roof, right,
and you know, it is something to do that. Busyness
(02:00):
is something to be said about. Like the focus as
well too, you know, because you're doing so many different
things at one time. You know, it becomes the concept
of you know, are you mastering one thing or you
just average at everything? Right? Like, but yeah, I I
(02:23):
always am. I personally am always dealing with it. Where
the whole concept of showing yourself grace as well too.
Yeah that's right. Yeah, I will have absolutely nothing going
on and be like yo, like let me just sit
down or have a nap, and if I try to
have an I still pop up like there has to
be something else that I have to do. You know,
it's so ingrained in you and that's just the busyness
(02:44):
of it all.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
But that that's what it is. I think a big
thing that you just said right there is you we
have to we had to deprogram ourselves from the programming
of thinking that midday rest or mid day whatever, or
not being busy all throughout the day is not going
to be looked at as being productive, where now we're
learning it's a super part of being productive. You need
(03:10):
those moments. SOO, I would ask you, what are some
core values you think anchors someone in making true progress
rather than just staying busy.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I think it's a focus. I think it's honing in on,
you know, taking the time to make a plan and
to hit objectives and get something done. You know. I
recently was in a meeting where was talking to somebody
(03:40):
asking them that very question, like, well, yo, what are
the goals? What are the objectives? And it was like
this whole world wind of commentary mm hm, but never
got that answer. Nope, no, right, I'm just like okay, so,
but then you're shooting for nothing, right, like you're just
kind of all over the place, but trying to get
focused and get something done. So I think I think
(04:05):
that's like a big thing in it is is you're
not You can't be productive if you don't have that goal.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
You know what, I your why. If you don't have
a why, it all comes back to a why. And
if you don't know your why, you will constantly lose
your weight. But if you know your why, you will
continue to stay in your right road and path. You know.
I also look at you know, culture influences what we
see as worthwhile progress. Right. Some prioritize financial gains, others,
(04:41):
you know, value family freedom or artistic expression.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I'll call it.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
How do cultural narratives around success affect what people consider
real progress? For you?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Man? I think those narratives around success when you're like,
it's also goals and also purpose right, Like again the
why right, So like when you say financial, there could
be goals and find out, hey, I want to do
(05:15):
this so I could buy a house or I want
to do that, but some people just like I just
want money, right, And you know what we're finding now,
there was a great clip from Drink Champs that I
saw with will Smith, and he was talking about how
people talk about when you hit rock bottom, and he
(05:35):
was like, I can also equate that to the high
cliff because the people that get rock bottom it's like, well,
you have nowhere else to go. Now you can start
to rebuild yourself. But then he was like, you can
have everything, you can have, all the money, you can have,
all this you can have, you know, all the sex,
da no, all of this stuff, and you get to
a point and it's still not san and you and
(06:00):
then you fall off this cliff, right and and he
was like that cliff and rock bottom are the same thing.
And so that narrative around what success is the things,
the cars, the da da da. You know, it's not
unless you are okay with the inner piece or you
(06:23):
can identify what your innervice is or what gives you
that you're just hustling. You just and again it goes
back to you just busy. You're just busy trying to
make more money. You're just busy trying to do this thing.
You're just busy trying to do that. And it's because
you think by doing that, you're gonna fill this void
that you have inside, and that void can be filled
(06:44):
by you. You don't you know what I'm.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Saying, and that's why you just you just nailed it
like it's this is a personal exercise. This is a
very singular personal exercise, because if you allow the world
to do the exercise for you, you are never going to
be in a place of true comfort and stability in
(07:10):
terms of you know what it is you have or
don't have. You're constantly going to be chasing something that
is never going to fulfill you because you haven't done
the inner work. And I look at social media and
hustle culture have amplified the pressure I think to always
be grinding right. People often compare there behind the scenes
(07:31):
to someone else's highlight reel, which is so unrealistic. With
that being said, how has social media influenced the way
we blur the lines between progress and performative busyness? Because
I'll call it is performative.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, I think right before I answer that question to
a tidbit that I'll give you is there's this book
that a friend of mine had me read called The
Mind Magic, and it's all about the power of manifestation
and all of that. But it starts off with the
author who's this, you know, very successful neurologist, and him
(08:08):
talking about a moment where he hit rock bottom and
he had the mansions, the cars that da da da
da da da da and he lost all of it
and how it meant how he had been doing that
since he was a kid, like doing everything that he
had to do to get to go to the middle schools,
d D D D da da and then he was like
sitting in this one moment like I have all of this.
(08:29):
I'm still not happy, right, But it's a book that
I would definitely recommend folks check out as far as
it pertains to social media. Man, the thing that people
have to remember about social media is it's fake. It's
just straight up, and you know it is. It is
(08:54):
this whole concept around clickbait. I saw this thing the
other day and it made me sick to my stuff.
Like it was this woman talking about negative commentary is
now driving likes on social and she was teaching people
how to do it so that they could achieve that.
(09:19):
So she's literally teaching people how to speak and negatively
to garner awareness and capture an audience.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It's backwards.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
It's disgusting.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I mean, like that right, there is the epitome of
how off and not aligned in purpose and just this
opportunity of living that we are that becomes the thing
to chase. And that's what it is. It's a chase.
It's a chase, and we're not doing the deep work.
(09:55):
And I think in a world that at times rewards
hustle and output, how do we align our actions with
values like intentionality, balance or fulfillment? How do we like
how well?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I mean, I think the first thing is the art
of saying no, right, like cutting things out. If I'm
gonna use somebody as a reference right now, that's a
friend of ours who is successful, and he mastered that
in order to do this is Jerry, right, Jerry Lorenzo,
Like he has said no to so many you know
(10:31):
what I'm saying, like things throughout the growth of what
fear of God became. And it was just because he
had the singular focus on what this thing was, right
and I mean, great opportunities, great thing like I know
other people like, oh, I brought him this deal and
he said no to it, and da da da da da.
But it was just it was just that and to me,
that art of saying no and a lot of people
(10:52):
who are successful to me, meaning not just the things
and the stuff and the whatever, but just like chill, happy,
inner peace, like they're just like yo, like I'm not
I gotta say no to that.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
And that's really I mean for me, that's the new
currency is being at peace and finding your joy throughout
all things. Now that doesn't mean you know, you're not
gonna get you know, shaken or knocked off your stand
for a little bit based off of adversity that you're
dealing with or trials and tribulations, because we all have had.
(11:27):
Nobody gets to surpass that and not get to deal
with that that comes with this gig of life. But
by being able to always default to this inner place
of joy and peace, I mean, that's one of that's
the currency for me that has so much more value
on any of the things we are literally talking about.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
And you don't need to be busy to attain it, no.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
No, So I suggest my suggestion this week for people
is like, you know, try replacing I'm busy with something
more honest, like say I'm prioritizing X or I've chosen
to focus on why, right, and let's start valuing this
(12:16):
notion of clarity over chaos.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, one hundred percent. I totally agree with that. I
think you know it's even too. It's like instead of
sometimes to get to progress, we have to slow down.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
But you see how you see how oft that might
be for people. For progress, you need to slow down.
You remember the other thing that you know, we would
say a lot and I remember, you know, in the
number of meetings, less is more, Ye, less is more.
I'll never forget when Apple was in its and it
still is in its heyday, but there was a time,
(12:53):
you know, even in meetings at Nike, where we'd look
at the Apple model and how intentional they were with
making les us to do more like their merchandising and
their assortment was so tight. And goes back to a
point that you mentioned earlier about the value that they
put in that one meeting. You said that one meeting
that dude they put you just have one meeting, but
(13:15):
the value out of it is it's the same thing,
less is more. Sometimes you need to slow down to progress. Yep, ye,
So I thank you for these gems. These are some
goodies that I hope people can walk away with as
we even just walked away with some that can help with,
you know, eliminating this notion of thinking you need to
be busy and figure out what it is that truly
(13:36):
makes progress and what that looks like for you exactly
gay gay, Thank you,
Host
Astor Chamber
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