March 19, 2025 • 49 mins
Success isn’t built in the spotlight—it’s forged in the quiet, uncelebrated grind. In this episode, we dive into the reality of doing the work day in and day out with no immediate results. Kevin Hart talks about how the hardest part of success is showing up every day, even when it feels like nothing is happening. But that’s the price of greatness—patience, discipline, and trust in the process. Because when the moment finally comes, the euphoria of achievement will always outweigh the pain it took to get there. Are you willing to put in the work when no one is watching?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, let me talk about talk. Here we go.
He said he lived life as a gringo, where you
questioned where you fit in every time you mingle, and
they say you do this with none of that, my
Rapit is really man, this life as a dingo. Yes, hello,
and welcome to another episode of life as a Gringo.
I am dramas of horse and Man. I am coming
(00:29):
to you live from my kitchen here in Puerto Rico.
Very excited. Apologies that the podcast is a little bit late.
I was traveling yesterday and was tying a bunch of
loose ends, and I also just kind of had like
this feeling that I wanted to do the podcast from here.
(00:52):
I kind of felt like I would be inspired to
have a different discussion maybe than the we've talked about
in the past, or just like a reaffirmation of things
we've talked about that I think are incredibly important. And shocker,
I was right. So I'm happy I waited. But I'm here.
I'm doing a run of DJ gigs Friday through Sunday
(01:15):
with my buddy from New Jersey, DJ Mcreagan, a fellow
Puerto Rican and yeah, we're just out here and then
from there no show next week. By the way, I'll
be on the road in Miami, and from there I
won't be able to do a podcast. I'll be running
around a crazy person. So no shows next week, just
a heads up. But yet today I wanted to talk.
(01:40):
I guess I've got a couple of things I'm just
reflecting on these past like four years or so. And
I also have this like Kevin Hart SoundBite stuck in
my ahead, and he basically talks about he talks about
(02:07):
like the thing that I'm not Now these are my words,
the thing that separates people from those who are, the
thing that separates those who are able to make their
dreams come true and those who don't. And this is
my sort of interpretation of it, or that's how I
would sort of synthesize I guess the meaning behind it.
(02:29):
But essentially he was talking about the idea that when
you're crafting your dream life, you're trying to make your
goals come true, all these different things, you're essentially working
every day, or the way you make it happen is
you work every day. You show up every single day
(02:51):
with little to no results, and you just keep putting
in the work until eventually something happens and you just
keeping and repeating that process over and over again. And
he talks about how that's the most difficult thing to
do is to get up every morning, you know, basically
flip open your laptop, start going to work on those ideas,
(03:13):
opening your notebook, jotting down things, whatever it might be. Like,
the most difficult thing to do is to do that
every single day while seeing no results. And I think,
for me, what sort of uh, what sort of like
I think resonated or why it kind of hit me
(03:36):
like a ton of bricks today being here is this
little like tour that I'm doing right now, this run
of DJ gigs is the culmination for this moment that
I'm having. Even these last two weeks, I have like
(03:59):
I just signed an original song, my first original song
in four years, and then now I'm doing my first
touring gigs in ah Man, my first like real out
of state gigs since twenty nineteen, which is fucking crazy.
(04:19):
I do want to get emotional, but this moment, these
things that are sort of beginning to unfold for me
right now are the result of basically from December of
last year to now March, and obviously it's been basically
(04:42):
longer than that. But like what I would say is,
from December of last year until now has been a
very focused on a very particular goal as far as
like DJing and djaying and music. And now after months
of like working on that with little to no sort
(05:06):
of affirmation or little to know reaffirming that I'm on
the right path or little to no results, now months later,
I'm finally beginning to see the results come to sort
of pay off. And that is something I want to
(05:34):
remind people of, like you listening to this, because I
think it's so easy to get discouraged, and like I
get discouraged on a fucking weekly, if not daily basis,
you know, And then I'm reminded, right then these sort
of moments hit me, and I'm reminded of like, oh shit,
Like it's not that things aren't working out for you,
it's not that they're not meant to be. It's just like, unfortunately,
(05:56):
things take time. Unfortunately, greatness time. That's why so many
people aren't living their dream life or aren't living up
to their capability, Because to live up to your capability
to create the greatest version of yourself takes a tremendous
amount of work, a tremendous amount of patience and effort,
(06:18):
and most people are not willing to put in the
work or be patient enough to let the results sort
of yield themselves. Right, it's the idea of thinking grow rich.
The very famous sort of self help book the story
of the man who bought property with the plan of
digging for gold. Right, this is during the gold rush,
and he's digging and digging and doesn't hit gold and
(06:41):
just decides to give up, sells the entire property and
literally it's I don'tmember how many feet, it's like one
foot or ten feet from gold. Like the next owner
just digs one foot or ten feet and they strike
upon one of the largest gold they call my thing veins,
gold veins that the world had ever seen before. But
(07:02):
this man, it would have been that previous owners had
he had just kept going and just kept his process,
you know, and kept the faith, which is the most
difficult thing to do when you're seeing little to no results.
So I just kind of want to, I guess, provide
anybody with a pick me up for that, I mean,
particularly man in our community. It's crazy because it's like
(07:25):
I can remember doing this stuff. And like my parents,
who are of the generation of like college and you know,
are are very much traditional people in terms of career
and things like that. Like I can remember what it
was like to essentially be doing this process without anybody's
(07:50):
support whatsoever. Like not even my parents even now as
an adult, they sort of get it and they've I
think proof of concept has happened enough times that they
sometimes they almost the ones. Like ironically now, the relationship
we have is they're the ones picking me up when
I'm feeling like I can't go on or I'm feeling
like I should just give up. They're the ones reminding
(08:11):
me of all that I've accomplished, and like they're the
ones actually believing in me now, which is wild, but
like you know, I didn't have that forever, and it's
just a yeah, I don't know, I just want to.
Like I feel like there are some of you listening
to this that have dreams that go beyond the scope
of those around you, and people around you aren't gonna
(08:32):
be fathom what you're talking about until you make it happen,
and that is an incredibly alienating and lonely process. And
then there's also those of you who maybe do have
a great support system around you, but you're finding trouble
believing in yourself. And I wanted to just kind of
speak to that, to whatever side of the sort of
(08:55):
asle you fall on, or whatever emotion it is that
you're struggling with. Like, I know that I'm the guy
who can speak to whatever situation it is, because for
whatever reason, God has not made my path an incredibly
easy one. And I get emotionally saying that, but I
think anybody who would look and it doesn't mean I'm
(09:16):
not blessed, doesn't mean that I haven't had some lucky breaks,
But you know, this has been a long, incredibly long path,
and quite frankly, there are a few people that I
know who have struggled the way that I have for
as long as I have, or have gone through the
level of obstacles to make simple things happen. And so
(09:41):
I feel confident in say, whatever you're going through, I
can speak to it to a degree and sort of
hopefully give you a little bit of to pick me
up you need to keep on pushing. So I've talked
a lot in this little intro thing here. This will
basically be like one long knehant that segment, and you're
probably gonna hear like maybe the rosters in the back around.
(10:01):
There's a lot going on out here, which is why
I love staying out here rather than in a hotel
the entire time. But yeah, just a warning, but yeah,
this is just like a conversation amongst friends here. So
we'll do that for hour. Me hint the segment. All right,
(10:26):
So I want to kind of start with the the
Kevin Hart quote. Okay, let's talk a bit about that.
The idea essentially right him talking about the hardest thing
is you getting up every single day, putting in work
and seeing zero results, but still just continuing on and
(10:49):
on and how that's the most difficult thing to do,
but it's the basis of making anything happen. And I
kind of instantly repeat that sort of thought in my
head to remind myself I'm not alone, because I feel
that so fucking much. I was talking to my parents
about this the other day and I was just basically
(11:09):
like venting to them a little bit, and I was
just like, you know, what's incredibly difficult about what I do, Right,
It's this idea in this industry, It's like you. Basically
you only eat what you kill, you know, and that
(11:31):
is exciting but also incredibly fucking like anxiety inducing because
there's no guarantees, right, and the hardest part is in
a normal job, I know, I'm going to clock in,
I'm gonna get my same check for the most part,
you know, every two weeks or whatever, like, regardless if
I've had a good day at work or not had
(11:52):
a good day, I'm still collecting a check. You know,
I can guarantee that, like I'm seeing the results, like
and if that week sucked, at least I can see
the results in terms of some sort of like payment
that correlates directly to that time. Whereas now with you
know what I do. You know, my routine is essentially
(12:14):
I get up at six am, you know, from like
six to six thirty, I'm kind of like decompressing, and
six thirty I start my day, and basically from six
thirty until roughly nine o'clock at night, I'm working. And
granted it's things that I truly enjoy doing, but a
(12:37):
lot of that work there is no direct paycheck correlated
to it. A lot of that work is in hopes
of it yielding a result that I want right So,
like even where we are right now, right I talk
to you about I just signed an original record, in
(12:58):
my first record in four years. I'm really excited about that.
I got to play my dream venue like once again,
Webster Hall in New York City. At this time it
was a Latin party and that was just like an
incredible feeling to be able to do that. And then
now back on the road playing my first add of
(13:19):
State shows since before the fucking pandemic, Like I think
my last add of State show was in Vegas at
the end of twenty nineteen, So it's crazy. I'm in
Puerto Rico having some time to relax, but I'm gonna
be playing three shows out here. Then I'm flying out
(13:40):
to Miami to play another couple of shows and be
a part of a music conference out there. So while
I'm on the road for two weeks here right now
is how has this been created? Like I started the
show by saying, basically, I kind of decided to go
all in November of last year back into like music
and DJing and that kind of thing. So from there,
(14:04):
I've begun to produce again and do all these things
you know again as a producer. I'm in my studio,
I'm making music. I don't know if it's going to
turn into anything, but I'm spending six hours a day
working on this, you know, in this particular track. To
sort of bring it across the finish line, I felt
like I needed to have a collaborator. So basically, like produced,
(14:27):
I said, good sixty to seventy percent of the song,
I set closer to seventy and then I sent it
out to a younger producer that I knew that did
that same kind of style that I was like, you
know what, I have been in the game for a minute.
Let me sort of like collab with somebody who's on this,
and like it'll kind of help me sharpen my skills
once again. And that's what we did. And even that
(14:49):
process weeks and weeks of back and forth. Then we
did a session in person. We had gotten feedback from
a label. It originally had a sample. We can't clear
the sample, and now we have to figure out a
way around that get it resung and replayed. And it
was old SASA Records, So as I pay the ass,
you know, it's Significet a band and the singers and
it's like not an easy thing to do process, and
(15:10):
then finally we do that, they approve it. Then it's
contract negotiation time that it's waiting for them to answer something.
Then they finally send it and I have to wait
for everybody to sign it. And now everybody signed it.
Now we have to wait for the release date, which
is gonna be months away, right, So it's like all
of this work before a direct return. And we could
argue that the direct return is getting it signed, which
(15:32):
is amazing, but you're talking about basically four months of
free work in order to get it signed. And that's
the nature of the industry. I'm not complaining. I'm not
making it seem like this is like unique to fucking
me or something like that. And then now I'm in
Puerto Rico about to play some shows. This is months
of researching promoters, DJs, going through my role, the decks
(15:55):
of people I've met from coming out here the last
couple of years, because I knew I just wanted to
get out here, start playing some shows and tap into
the scene, and I in my gut, in my heart,
the way I sort of view everything is like to me,
Puerto Rico is the gateway to the rest of the world. Right,
it's it's to me this incredible, bubbling, creative scene that
(16:18):
somehow the rest of the world is paying attention to,
even though it's a small little island in the Caribbean,
and bad Bunnies proof of that, right. So then it's
months or of doing that research and then you know,
hitting people up and back and forth and coordinating and operations. Finally, yep, okay,
it's working out right where where we're booking dates now,
(16:39):
you know. And then and then it's coordinating travel. I
have another DJing bringing with me and we're coordinating, like
I'm the one leading this, so I have to go
back and forth. The Webster Hall show that I mentioned
literally I was supposed to be playing like four. I
was considered for four to five gigs before this or
was this was the fifth gig that finally hit. I
(17:00):
had an O one book to January, like, I canceled
last minute, and I was getting considered for a couple
more like. So these are emails back and forth research
and then finally now again November to March. Because I
don't want to get boring with the details. If you're
not in an entertainment industry, nerd like myself. But it's
months and months of the legwork of just opening my laptop,
(17:22):
looking things up, researching, going back and forth with my
best friend ch hat GBT, emailing shit, getting you know,
my rep to email people right, being proactive and all
that stuff for us to yield like the month I'm
having right now, and then now like again as I
had planned in my head, because this is the other
(17:43):
portion of it. You have to have a plan. You
can't blindly just be doing shit. So like for me,
I knew we're gonna rattle off a legendary New York
City venue, We're gonna get some music out there, I'm
gonna do a tour, and this is like my coming
out party that sort of re announces like, oh, Dramas
is back, you know, back doing this whole thing right,
(18:05):
And then from there, as I had planned, as I
had hoped all since all of a sudden, social media
people are starting to like hit me up again from
like other gigs, like other DJ homies from you know,
other states and cities. Other promoters are seeing it and
they're like, oh yo, we got we got to have
you now in our home place. And that that's been
the plan. But again, I've had to work from November
(18:28):
to March essentially for free, with no real like wins
like you have to you know, I have to create
these little fucking wins right along the way, like getting
an email response, even if it's a no, that's a win, right,
All these little things I have to do in my
head and finally to start yielding results. And I wish
(18:50):
I could tell you, like, because I've done this, I've
been here before, I wish I could tell you it
gets easier. It doesn't. You get just as frustrated, maybe
even more frustrated because you feel like you've earned a
quicker response times for the fucking case. Maybe right, But
it's like, this is what it takes to win. And
in this moment, I'm sitting here, I'm in the kitchen
(19:12):
of my house in Puerto Rico, right, I'm recording a
fucking podcast. I'm about to go play shows in two days.
It's you're the rooster, He's co signing. I'm about to
play shows in two days in Puerto Rico. Like, if
(19:33):
you are hitting up that they're excited about coming to
see me play, you hear I hope you hear us
And just as creep up laughing by myself. Wow boy. Oh. Anyway, So,
but like I'm sitting here and uh, I'm like just reflecting.
(19:58):
I'm like, I mean, I'm in a moment of extreme
joy right now. I'm overcome with joy. Is I guess
what I'm getting at and what I'm trying to remind myself.
(20:20):
And I'm trying to be hyper present. I was at
the airport yesterday and I was like, grabbed a beer
before my flight, and I just like made it a
point to sit down and I was like, get very present.
I like enjoyed the beer like I've never enjoyed a
beer before. And I just reminded myself, like, this is
the months of you pounding away with little to no
(20:42):
affirmation that you're on the right path, but just believing
in yourself and believing in your vision and sticking to
it and honoring your word and honoring all that you
said you were going to do. This is the the
culmination of it, right, and take it in, taking the
joy of these moments and use them as fuel for
(21:05):
the inevitable difficult lulls along the way. Right. And I
guess to sort of surmise this thought before we take
a quick break. I guess what I'm taking away from
it all is life is full of boundless and incredible joy,
(21:31):
incredible moments of just relief and beauty. But there are
sacrifices and difficult things that need to be done in
order to create those moments, right And I think oftentimes
(21:51):
we forget that, or we assume that it's just harder
for us, or whatever the case may be. And I
think in those difficult moments that we're building, we sort
of have to remind ourself of the fact that these
reps we're putting in right now, while they may be
(22:14):
going unrewarded, are going to yield us the life we're
hoping for, and that the harder we work, the more
often those happy moments will occur. Right Because right now
I have this great experience, it's going to exist for
the next two weeks essentially, and then it's sort of
back to work, you know, back to capitalizing on sort
(22:39):
of all of the growth or connections I made via
these few months of work. But the idea is, if
ineverly you keep putting in enough work, enough of that
relentless dedication to what you're doing, you'll have to put
in less and less of those hours moving forward, because
in my case, let's say I've already established myself as
(23:00):
a touring DJ once again, that I won't have to
be doing outreach, but instead the legwork that I did
from November till let's say the end of this year
will then make me a name that is constantly on
the lips of people who are booking shows, and they'll
be reaching out to me rather than me having to
reach out to them, and that means I'll have more
(23:22):
moments of joy like I'm having now and less of
the lull of the hard work, essentially, if that makes sense.
So I will table that thought. I got a bunch
more I kind of want to think about in terms
of hopefully inspiring some people out there. So we'll take
a quick break here and then we'll be right back.
(23:44):
All right, We are back, And I feel like I
talked about myself a lot in the last one. Okay,
I don't know if it inspires connects to people. I'm
also like, you know, you know, like hindsight is twenty right,
and you sort of like you put roast colored glasses
(24:06):
on past experiences that maybe weren't as great as you
remember them. To be. But because distance is gone and
maybe you've had some negative experiences since, then you begin
to sort of maybe I don't want to say idolized,
but like you overvalue, like even like past relationships. Sometimes
maybe you're going through a breakup, a downturn, you're having
like a lonely day, and you're like, huh, I wonder
(24:27):
what that person is doing whatever the fucking case. Maybe right,
and that's not what you know. I'm not. I don't know.
I'm not confessing that my past life was any better.
I'm I don't know where I was going with that
train of thought topically, honest with you, I just sort
of like I just started reflecting on on on past things.
(24:49):
I guess I was trying to what I was trying
to get to wash So I'm not used to this,
which like noise, also is like a rooster and then
there's like a dog barking off in the distance. I
do love my little socck control studio. We'll say that,
but but I guess what I'm what I'm getting at is,
(25:09):
uh is I'm reflecting on like these last four years
basically three to four years that I've been self employed
without a doubt, might be the most difficult years of
my entire life. And it's not all just because of career,
(25:33):
but the career aspect is has been and is on
a regular basis incredibly trying and taxing emotionally, financially, mentally, physically,
like in every way possible. Right, There really is this
level of dedication and sacrifice in order to continue to
(25:57):
stay in business for yourself and and also doing so
through a creative project or a passionate you know, a
subject matter or a job that you're passionate about, career
that you're passionate about. It's just trying on a fucking
daily basis, right, but even still right, And this is
(26:22):
where I was getting with the hindsight thing, where there's
there's most definitely the times that I've been very down
and depressed and like been like, oh man, what the
fuck that I like, fuck up my entire life? This
isn't working out, blah blah blah. In those moments, I've
glamorized or looked through past moments with rose colored glasses
(26:48):
and most definitely been like, Huh, I wonder if I
made some of these the wrong choice in certain areas
of life. But what I cannot say, is last night
when I got when I got in here, uh, when
I got in here last night to the house, and
I'm kind of like, you know, setting me in and
(27:09):
putting my stuff away, and you know, I hadn't been
here in a little bit, so just getting things in order.
I was reminded of like, oh, yeah, it was all
worth it. And particularly this morning, I was hitting my
bouncil about our Puerto Rican sweetbread. We have it here,
fucking amazing, and I was like just setting up my
(27:32):
equipment through the podcast as well, and I was like
reminded again. I was like, dude, you would never have
been able to do this if you were still punching
the clock regularly, you would have had that request off.
It would have been a whole fucking thing. There's no
way you would have gotten two weeks back to back,
right you would. It would have been a whole process, right.
(27:56):
And and even beyond that, it's like, there's no way
I would have gone to Puerto Rico. I think I've
been ten times in the last two years. Maybe there's
no way in hell I would have been able to
do that if I was working in some of my
past jobs. Right, So I think what I'm trying to
(28:18):
get at is we have these these voices in our heads,
the one that pops up when we're down, when we're depressed,
when shit isn't working out the way that we hoped
it would, and it starts making us question everything that
we're doing. And then the flip side of that, you
have the voice when you're in a good mood, when
you're happy, you're celebrating right, when things feel right, when
(28:41):
somebody finally responds to that email, when you get the
podcast download, when you get that great piece of positive feedback,
that affirmation that you're doing something well, and then you
have that voice in your head that is reflecting on like, oh,
it's all worth it, right, Those little things make it
all worth it. And I think I think I'm trying
to remind myself and hopefully in turn reminding anybody else
(29:05):
listening to this. That's the voice that you need to
be listening to, and the one that you need to
keep reminding yourself of in the moments where it's great,
the way you feel, the way that you view the world,
the lens with which you view the world, that's what
you should be chasing and what you should be listening
to because, of course, when things aren't working and we're
(29:27):
down and we've had a setback, we've had a failure,
things didn't work out the way we hoped it would,
of course we're going to find excuses somebody to blame,
blame ourselves, make ourselves feel bad. But that's not a
real reflection of this thing called life, right, or the
possibilities that's out there for this thing called life. That's
us going into sort of this immediate protection and safety mode, right,
(29:51):
that's our bodies like safety response. It's no different than
like you touch something hot and you like your body,
your hand automatically just retracts like quickly without even having
to think about it, right, And that's like you're safety
mechanism in your brain that knows, oh wow, pain, let
me get away from it. And that's what oftentimes is
(30:14):
happening in those moments where we're feeling down, where like
we're putting in the work and nobody's fucking responding and
nothing is happening, nothing is working right, and you know,
and everything sucks, right, and we're just fucking mad at
the world. Our boss sucks everything, you know, like nothing's working,
Like the safety mechanism in our head is like, Okay,
(30:37):
how do we get to the safest route possible to like,
you know, not have to deal with this level of
disappointment and heartbreak? Right, But the reality is that sort
of middle ground level, that safe mode of not dealing
with the level of a heartbreak or disappointment. It's like
the happy results are capped. Yeah, maybe you have a
(31:00):
blanket as far as some sort of security, which I
think is necessary in some sort of form, But on
the flip side of that, it can't compare to the
euphoria that you feel when you are in line with
your purpose, walking your path and doing the things that
you want to do. And that's what that's what we
(31:20):
have to to sort of keep in mind. Like I think,
in this life we've been we've been trained, we've been
conditioned to constantly revert back to that safe space, and
even though it's not the one that makes us truly
(31:42):
happy or fulfilled, at least it like checks one or
two of the boxes, right. And I think the thing
that is that you could say is frustrating from the
outside looking in is how difficult it is to truly
be happy and fulfilled in this life. And that's a reality.
In order to be happy and fulfilled in this life,
(32:08):
it takes an incredible amount of sacrifice and hard work
and disappointment and heartbreak, and that admittingly feels counterintuitive to like,
like is this kind of like what the fuck? Why
is why is it so happy? I mean, it's so
hard just to be happy? Right, Why is it so
difficult just to find fucking happiness? You know? And I
(32:31):
don't have an answer to that. I just know that, unfortunately,
that is the process, that is the real thing, right,
Just like for many people, you know, you have to
date a few ogres before you find your prints or whatever. Right,
that's just what it is, the way that life is
designed for whatever reason, your level of happiness is going
(32:51):
to be in direct relation to the level of hard work,
sacrifice and dedication that you put in. And there's no
way or around them. There's no get happy, you know
quick scheme, there's no get rich quick scheme. You know
that that is, you know, morally sounds It's all correlated
(33:11):
to the amount of work that you're putting in and
the level of sacrifice that you're willing to to make
each and every day. And again, that's what separates the
people who get to have these moments that I'm having
(33:32):
right now, right on a regular basis, like those people
who are living it regularly, is because they sacrifice regularly
and eventually, as I gave you the example of like
what happens with my DJ bookings, eventually they sacrifice enough
that it threw them in a pathway for enough results
to find them. That the sacrifices had to happen less
(33:52):
and less doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all, but
it happens less and less. And I guess, you know,
Boors sort of summarize everything we talked about. I guess
the last thing I would say is like, I think
this world is truly limitless. The only limitation is the
one that we placed upon ourselves. And if our life
is not what we want it to be, it's a
(34:13):
direct reflection of ourselves and what we are or aren't doing,
and we have to look ourselves in the mirror and
really say, what else can I be doing? What should
I be doing? Who do I need to be in
order to create that sort of idealized version of life?
And I'll end it on kind of something I've recently done,
(34:34):
but I think again, just reaffirm this mindset or put
it in a bit of a different space for me,
we will take one more quick break and then we'll
have our conclusions to all right, So kind of I
(34:57):
think summarizing although we've been talking about I think I
have a story because I ended on right before the break.
Talking about our life is a reflection of the way
that we view ourselves and the work that we are
or aren't doing, and the way that we see ourselves
essentially the way that we don't see ourselves, depending on
(35:17):
your situation. And I recently was getting a bit frustrated
in certain partnerships or certain structures that I have set
up right, and I didn't love how much I found
(35:42):
myself having to rely on like outside companies or people
in order to get certain things done or to move forward.
And to be completely honest, it's not as much of
a reflection on the people I'm partner with. It's more
me like for me consistently, I guess I'm driven by
(36:05):
wanting more and more freedom in my situations, particularly career wise,
and you know, eventually I outgrow a certain thing and
then I look for the next sort of level of
freedom to make myself happy. And I guess I was
feeling a bit of those growing pains where I was
hitting my ceiling as far as like what I was
(36:27):
willing to accept or how I felt like I wasn't
getting the guarantees that I wanted right and the only
way to do that, So the next level would really
just be like I need to go all in on
myself and stop using a middle person in to be
(36:50):
like the blanket for these partnerships or whatever it might be.
So what I kind of just did of is last
couple of weeks. And again I'm telling you this stuff
because I think, as I always say, don't take it
at face value. What I tell you doesn't mean literally
copy and paste what I did. I mean you can
(37:13):
insert and take out certain things that do or don't
apply for you and make the story or the message
apply in whatever context need be, right. So what I'm
getting at is for me, I was like, Okay, well,
I need to then be like directly in business with
(37:34):
certain brands or companies and not have a middle person,
you know, and I need to proactively be creating roles
that maybe don't exist right but and that are tailored
just for what I do. So I just started reaching
out to brands and organizations that I really like, that
(37:57):
I actually support, that I use on a regular basis,
And I just started blindly emailing people from the company
that were in positions that I thought aligned with my
skill set or what I do as a creator, and
just started basically blindly pitching like, Hey, this is who
I am, this is what I do. I really love
(38:19):
the brand. I would love to try to figure out
a way that we can work together in some sort
of way. I'm open. Please let me know if there
are any opportunities you think that would be a good
fit with campaigns you guys are running or whatever it
might be. And this might not sound revolutionary to anybody,
(38:41):
but I feel like most of us sort of overlook
that easy process, or most of us overlook the thing
right in front of us. I know, for me, I
was sort of under a lot of like the idea
of like, oh, I'm just keep doing my social media
shit and people will find me. And yeah, some have
and I've seen it work for other people. But also
(39:05):
again in terms of like the results I want I
have to put in the work, I should have been
blindly emailing people and just seeing if anybody was interested
in working with me in some sort of capacity, right,
Rather than wait for the opportunity to come to me,
I'm going to go out and get it. And again
it's the thankless work every day, opening laptop and doing research,
(39:27):
crafting an email, blah blah blah, and ninety percent of
the time not getting a response. But like I've always said,
you only need that one yes, right, And so I
mean it's not a yes yet, but one of like
a higher ups at one of these brands did respond
to me, put me in touch with somebody else, and
(39:48):
now we're going to have a meeting about potentially working
with them. And it's a brand or an organization that
I really want to work with. Like I don't want
to say too many things because I don't want to,
you know, put their business out there. But it's like
right in line with where I am at this point
in my life. And that only came as a result
(40:10):
of me just saying, Okay, you want more freedom, you
want to be in control, you want to work with
very specific brands. Then you have to create those very
specific opportunities rather than waiting for one of them to
find you, right, And you have to put in the
legwork of finding these people, of pitching them, putting yourself
out there and seeing what the hell happens, and that
(40:33):
again has yielded to I don't know what's gonna happen,
but I have a meeting coming up that I'm very
excited about. But again it's like life is, I'm creating life.
I'm fucking painting the life that I want and I
wish I hope this goes through, so I could tell
you what the brand is, but if God willing, if
it does, you're gonna be like, of course, that's a
(40:55):
fucking organization that you were meant to be working with
right now, Like when I tell you it would be.
So I'm not trying to pump up too much because
zos and the opportunities, you never know what's gonna happen.
But if it's meant to be, if it, if my
gut is correct, this would literally be like you know,
so would literally propel me. And I haven't talk about money,
(41:16):
wi it just lifestyle and what I do wise would
propel me into being in a place that I want
to spend more and more time. And I'll leave it
at that. But again, like we're going to reflect back
on if and when that happens, we're gonna be like,
it was you doing the thankless work, the fucking blind emails,
(41:41):
that and and everything else that came before it that
led to you being somebody that they saw. And we're like,
there's no nothing we're currently fucking like, uh, you know,
we're currently scouting for, or or currently hiring for, or
currently like partnering for, but like, we need to work
with this guy. We're going to create something that makes
(42:03):
sense for him. It's too too much in line with
what we do. But again, it's creating the life you
want rather than waiting for life to yield you something. Right,
And I think I'm making this much more fucking complicated.
(42:24):
Our analogy would be like, rather than like going on
LinkedIn dot com and looking for like your dream job,
right and going on there and just be like, oh,
that's that job sounds Actually I could do that. That's cool, right,
But it's not like I'm not passionate about but like
I kind of like the company and I think I
can fit there. Right. It's it's rather than like having
those feelings and the flip side of it actually saying
(42:49):
you know what, I don't see a job that I'm
in love with. I'm going to email a company that
I want to work with, and I'm going to pitch
them on creating a job that is tailored to exactly
what I want to do at this point in my life. Like,
think about if both those shops were on the table,
what your life would look like. On the one side,
(43:09):
the standard cookie cutter job that they created that was
meant for anybody and it checked some of your boxes
and you could be somewhat happy there and it's a
safe bet. Or the other job that didn't exist and
literally is being made just for you. Imagine which one
is going to make you happier and more fulfilled for
(43:31):
the time being. And Like, what I'm saying to you
is that opportunity crafted specifically for you is out there.
You just have to have the guts to go out
there and either a pitch yourself as that, but b
before that, do the legwork necessary to make yourself into
somebody who has the resume and the skill set needed
(43:55):
in order for a company to say we have to
have that person as part of our brand in some way,
shape or form, Like, I don't care if that's not
what we're hiring for. Figure it out. We're bringing them
in like that's possible, that exists in this world, but
you have to do all the fucking hard work that
it takes in order for that to get created. You
(44:17):
have to be the creator first and foremost, along with
you know, the universe and God. But you have to
first put in that legwork to start painting that picture,
and then eventually things will fall in place. And I
hope that fucking made sense. Yeah, I hope that made sense.
(44:37):
And I almost feel bad like leaving the thay because
I'm not sure if that made sense. But I think
it's like you're like the architect too, but you have
to figure it out. Like anything you want is out there,
you just have to get creative and figure out a
real like pathway to getting there and to getting it right.
Just like I said about when I started with these
DJ bookings, I said, I'm gonna I gotta get a
(45:00):
the original track signed, I got to play a big
time venue in New York City, and I have to
self book a respectable out of state tour and then
from there, I know that that will be a springboard
into all the other opportunities that I want. And that's
what's yielding as a DJ, that's what's happening. And then again,
all the work I've been putting in for years as
(45:20):
a creator, community work and different things then made me
somebody who can say, Hey, that brand over there, I
align with them. I know I can bring value. I'm
going to email them about creating something for me. Right.
I see that they're doing other things, but it's not
really you know, other jobs or other opportunities they're putting
(45:41):
out there, but it's not really what I want to do.
But I'm not going to let it end there. I
believe in this brand, this organization, and I believe that
I have value. Let me see if I can get
them to create something for me. And again, it's not
always going to work, but when it does, that euphoria
you feel will trump every other bed moment. Right, just
like that euphoria I felt as I'm stuffing myself with
(46:03):
a loaf of fucking bond. So about I'm sitting here
in the kitchen record about to record the podcast. That
euphoria I'm feeling and felt in that moment far surpassed
all of the depression and low moments that I felt.
You know, while six in the morning, blindly emailing and
being in the studio for hours on end making music
(46:24):
that I didn't know if anybody was ever going to hear,
like not knowing what was next, like the wind, the
fucking a, the making it happen. The moment when you're
literally living in alignment with your greater purpose and what
you really want out of this life, those moments will
(46:45):
wash away all of the negative bullshit. And the goal
then is how do I keep doubling down so that
moment of euphoria lasts longer and longer, or we have
less and less interruptions between those moments of euphoria. And
I think that's like the goal we should all be
chasing in life is how do we keep giving ourselves
(47:05):
more and more of these moments of joy, of fulfillment,
of euphoria. How do we sort of recreate that ransom
repeat over and over again so that our life is
made up of a majority of times of euphoria rather than,
like you know, on the flip side of it, like
how people take vacations, you know, once or twice a year,
that's your your one release. You know. The idea should
(47:26):
be the other way around, where we inevite will go
through shit, we'll have moments, we'll have days, whatever it
might be. But for the most part, each day is
fill with joy and fulfillment. That's the fucking goal. And remember,
in order to get there, you have to put in
the grunt work each and every day, the thankless fucking work.
Right that doesn't make sense to anybody but yourself. Your
(47:46):
parents tell you you're crazy, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your sister,
your brother, your cousins, your fucking neighbor across the street,
I'll tell you you're crazy. You have to block it
out with the knowledge that this grunt work, this thankless
fucking work, each and every day, will eventually yield the
results you're looking for. And you just have to keep
that process over and over and over again and use
(48:08):
those moments of fulfillment, those moments of joy, those moments
of euphoria, as the fuel that keeps you pushing when
you're feeling down, when you're having one of those dark
days that we all go through throughout the course of
chasing our dreams in this life. I hope that fucking
made sense. I know that I feel super energized right
now and happy. I feel selfish, and even saying that
(48:29):
if you're standing there like what the fuck? That was
a waste of an hour of my life. I apologize,
but I feel like you know, so go after it,
go get it. I love y'all so much, Thank you
for listening. I'll catch you tomorrow with a brand new
episode for Thursday trends. Remember no shows next week. I'll
be too much on the road at that point where
I won't have a chance to record like I am
(48:50):
today and tomorrow. But yeah, I will talk to y'all tomorrow,
so then stay safe. Waste life. Azigrino is a production
of the Macothura podcast Network and iHeartRadio.
All right, let me talk about talk. Here we go.
He said he lived life as a gringo, where you
questioned where you fit in every time you mingle, and
they say you do this with none of that, my
Rapit is really man, this life as a dingo. Yes, hello,
and welcome to another episode of life as a Gringo.
I am dramas of horse and Man. I am coming
(00:29):
to you live from my kitchen here in Puerto Rico.
Very excited. Apologies that the podcast is a little bit late.
I was traveling yesterday and was tying a bunch of
loose ends, and I also just kind of had like
this feeling that I wanted to do the podcast from here.
(00:52):
I kind of felt like I would be inspired to
have a different discussion maybe than the we've talked about
in the past, or just like a reaffirmation of things
we've talked about that I think are incredibly important. And shocker,
I was right. So I'm happy I waited. But I'm here.
I'm doing a run of DJ gigs Friday through Sunday
(01:15):
with my buddy from New Jersey, DJ Mcreagan, a fellow
Puerto Rican and yeah, we're just out here and then
from there no show next week. By the way, I'll
be on the road in Miami, and from there I
won't be able to do a podcast. I'll be running
around a crazy person. So no shows next week, just
a heads up. But yet today I wanted to talk.
(01:40):
I guess I've got a couple of things I'm just
reflecting on these past like four years or so. And
I also have this like Kevin Hart SoundBite stuck in
my ahead, and he basically talks about he talks about
(02:07):
like the thing that I'm not Now these are my words,
the thing that separates people from those who are, the
thing that separates those who are able to make their
dreams come true and those who don't. And this is
my sort of interpretation of it, or that's how I
would sort of synthesize I guess the meaning behind it.
(02:29):
But essentially he was talking about the idea that when
you're crafting your dream life, you're trying to make your
goals come true, all these different things, you're essentially working
every day, or the way you make it happen is
you work every day. You show up every single day
(02:51):
with little to no results, and you just keep putting
in the work until eventually something happens and you just
keeping and repeating that process over and over again. And
he talks about how that's the most difficult thing to
do is to get up every morning, you know, basically
flip open your laptop, start going to work on those ideas,
(03:13):
opening your notebook, jotting down things, whatever it might be. Like,
the most difficult thing to do is to do that
every single day while seeing no results. And I think,
for me, what sort of uh, what sort of like
I think resonated or why it kind of hit me
(03:36):
like a ton of bricks today being here is this
little like tour that I'm doing right now, this run
of DJ gigs is the culmination for this moment that
I'm having. Even these last two weeks, I have like
(03:59):
I just signed an original song, my first original song
in four years, and then now I'm doing my first
touring gigs in ah Man, my first like real out
of state gigs since twenty nineteen, which is fucking crazy.
(04:19):
I do want to get emotional, but this moment, these
things that are sort of beginning to unfold for me
right now are the result of basically from December of
last year to now March, and obviously it's been basically
(04:42):
longer than that. But like what I would say is,
from December of last year until now has been a
very focused on a very particular goal as far as
like DJing and djaying and music. And now after months
of like working on that with little to no sort
(05:06):
of affirmation or little to know reaffirming that I'm on
the right path or little to no results, now months later,
I'm finally beginning to see the results come to sort
of pay off. And that is something I want to
(05:34):
remind people of, like you listening to this, because I
think it's so easy to get discouraged, and like I
get discouraged on a fucking weekly, if not daily basis,
you know, And then I'm reminded, right then these sort
of moments hit me, and I'm reminded of like, oh shit,
Like it's not that things aren't working out for you,
it's not that they're not meant to be. It's just like, unfortunately,
(05:56):
things take time. Unfortunately, greatness time. That's why so many
people aren't living their dream life or aren't living up
to their capability, Because to live up to your capability
to create the greatest version of yourself takes a tremendous
amount of work, a tremendous amount of patience and effort,
(06:18):
and most people are not willing to put in the
work or be patient enough to let the results sort
of yield themselves. Right, it's the idea of thinking grow rich.
The very famous sort of self help book the story
of the man who bought property with the plan of
digging for gold. Right, this is during the gold rush,
and he's digging and digging and doesn't hit gold and
(06:41):
just decides to give up, sells the entire property and
literally it's I don'tmember how many feet, it's like one
foot or ten feet from gold. Like the next owner
just digs one foot or ten feet and they strike
upon one of the largest gold they call my thing veins,
gold veins that the world had ever seen before. But
(07:02):
this man, it would have been that previous owners had
he had just kept going and just kept his process,
you know, and kept the faith, which is the most
difficult thing to do when you're seeing little to no results.
So I just kind of want to, I guess, provide
anybody with a pick me up for that, I mean,
particularly man in our community. It's crazy because it's like
(07:25):
I can remember doing this stuff. And like my parents,
who are of the generation of like college and you know,
are are very much traditional people in terms of career
and things like that. Like I can remember what it
was like to essentially be doing this process without anybody's
(07:50):
support whatsoever. Like not even my parents even now as
an adult, they sort of get it and they've I
think proof of concept has happened enough times that they
sometimes they almost the ones. Like ironically now, the relationship
we have is they're the ones picking me up when
I'm feeling like I can't go on or I'm feeling
like I should just give up. They're the ones reminding
(08:11):
me of all that I've accomplished, and like they're the
ones actually believing in me now, which is wild, but
like you know, I didn't have that forever, and it's
just a yeah, I don't know, I just want to.
Like I feel like there are some of you listening
to this that have dreams that go beyond the scope
of those around you, and people around you aren't gonna
(08:32):
be fathom what you're talking about until you make it happen,
and that is an incredibly alienating and lonely process. And
then there's also those of you who maybe do have
a great support system around you, but you're finding trouble
believing in yourself. And I wanted to just kind of
speak to that, to whatever side of the sort of
(08:55):
asle you fall on, or whatever emotion it is that
you're struggling with. Like, I know that I'm the guy
who can speak to whatever situation it is, because for
whatever reason, God has not made my path an incredibly
easy one. And I get emotionally saying that, but I
think anybody who would look and it doesn't mean I'm
(09:16):
not blessed, doesn't mean that I haven't had some lucky breaks,
But you know, this has been a long, incredibly long path,
and quite frankly, there are a few people that I
know who have struggled the way that I have for
as long as I have, or have gone through the
level of obstacles to make simple things happen. And so
(09:41):
I feel confident in say, whatever you're going through, I
can speak to it to a degree and sort of
hopefully give you a little bit of to pick me
up you need to keep on pushing. So I've talked
a lot in this little intro thing here. This will
basically be like one long knehant that segment, and you're
probably gonna hear like maybe the rosters in the back around.
(10:01):
There's a lot going on out here, which is why
I love staying out here rather than in a hotel
the entire time. But yeah, just a warning, but yeah,
this is just like a conversation amongst friends here. So
we'll do that for hour. Me hint the segment. All right,
(10:26):
So I want to kind of start with the the
Kevin Hart quote. Okay, let's talk a bit about that.
The idea essentially right him talking about the hardest thing
is you getting up every single day, putting in work
and seeing zero results, but still just continuing on and
(10:49):
on and how that's the most difficult thing to do,
but it's the basis of making anything happen. And I
kind of instantly repeat that sort of thought in my
head to remind myself I'm not alone, because I feel
that so fucking much. I was talking to my parents
about this the other day and I was just basically
(11:09):
like venting to them a little bit, and I was
just like, you know, what's incredibly difficult about what I do, Right,
It's this idea in this industry, It's like you. Basically
you only eat what you kill, you know, and that
(11:31):
is exciting but also incredibly fucking like anxiety inducing because
there's no guarantees, right, and the hardest part is in
a normal job, I know, I'm going to clock in,
I'm gonna get my same check for the most part,
you know, every two weeks or whatever, like, regardless if
I've had a good day at work or not had
(11:52):
a good day, I'm still collecting a check. You know,
I can guarantee that, like I'm seeing the results, like
and if that week sucked, at least I can see
the results in terms of some sort of like payment
that correlates directly to that time. Whereas now with you
know what I do. You know, my routine is essentially
(12:14):
I get up at six am, you know, from like
six to six thirty, I'm kind of like decompressing, and
six thirty I start my day, and basically from six
thirty until roughly nine o'clock at night, I'm working. And
granted it's things that I truly enjoy doing, but a
(12:37):
lot of that work there is no direct paycheck correlated
to it. A lot of that work is in hopes
of it yielding a result that I want right So,
like even where we are right now, right I talk
to you about I just signed an original record, in
(12:58):
my first record in four years. I'm really excited about that.
I got to play my dream venue like once again,
Webster Hall in New York City. At this time it
was a Latin party and that was just like an
incredible feeling to be able to do that. And then
now back on the road playing my first add of
(13:19):
State shows since before the fucking pandemic, Like I think
my last add of State show was in Vegas at
the end of twenty nineteen, So it's crazy. I'm in
Puerto Rico having some time to relax, but I'm gonna
be playing three shows out here. Then I'm flying out
(13:40):
to Miami to play another couple of shows and be
a part of a music conference out there. So while
I'm on the road for two weeks here right now
is how has this been created? Like I started the
show by saying, basically, I kind of decided to go
all in November of last year back into like music
and DJing and that kind of thing. So from there,
(14:04):
I've begun to produce again and do all these things
you know again as a producer. I'm in my studio,
I'm making music. I don't know if it's going to
turn into anything, but I'm spending six hours a day
working on this, you know, in this particular track. To
sort of bring it across the finish line, I felt
like I needed to have a collaborator. So basically, like produced,
(14:27):
I said, good sixty to seventy percent of the song,
I set closer to seventy and then I sent it
out to a younger producer that I knew that did
that same kind of style that I was like, you
know what, I have been in the game for a minute.
Let me sort of like collab with somebody who's on this,
and like it'll kind of help me sharpen my skills
once again. And that's what we did. And even that
(14:49):
process weeks and weeks of back and forth. Then we
did a session in person. We had gotten feedback from
a label. It originally had a sample. We can't clear
the sample, and now we have to figure out a
way around that get it resung and replayed. And it
was old SASA Records, So as I pay the ass,
you know, it's Significet a band and the singers and
it's like not an easy thing to do process, and
(15:10):
then finally we do that, they approve it. Then it's
contract negotiation time that it's waiting for them to answer something.
Then they finally send it and I have to wait
for everybody to sign it. And now everybody signed it.
Now we have to wait for the release date, which
is gonna be months away, right, So it's like all
of this work before a direct return. And we could
argue that the direct return is getting it signed, which
(15:32):
is amazing, but you're talking about basically four months of
free work in order to get it signed. And that's
the nature of the industry. I'm not complaining. I'm not
making it seem like this is like unique to fucking
me or something like that. And then now I'm in
Puerto Rico about to play some shows. This is months
of researching promoters, DJs, going through my role, the decks
(15:55):
of people I've met from coming out here the last
couple of years, because I knew I just wanted to
get out here, start playing some shows and tap into
the scene, and I in my gut, in my heart,
the way I sort of view everything is like to me,
Puerto Rico is the gateway to the rest of the world. Right,
it's it's to me this incredible, bubbling, creative scene that
(16:18):
somehow the rest of the world is paying attention to,
even though it's a small little island in the Caribbean,
and bad Bunnies proof of that, right. So then it's
months or of doing that research and then you know,
hitting people up and back and forth and coordinating and operations. Finally, yep, okay,
it's working out right where where we're booking dates now,
(16:39):
you know. And then and then it's coordinating travel. I
have another DJing bringing with me and we're coordinating, like
I'm the one leading this, so I have to go
back and forth. The Webster Hall show that I mentioned
literally I was supposed to be playing like four. I
was considered for four to five gigs before this or
was this was the fifth gig that finally hit. I
(17:00):
had an O one book to January, like, I canceled
last minute, and I was getting considered for a couple
more like. So these are emails back and forth research
and then finally now again November to March. Because I
don't want to get boring with the details. If you're
not in an entertainment industry, nerd like myself. But it's
months and months of the legwork of just opening my laptop,
(17:22):
looking things up, researching, going back and forth with my
best friend ch hat GBT, emailing shit, getting you know,
my rep to email people right, being proactive and all
that stuff for us to yield like the month I'm
having right now, and then now like again as I
had planned in my head, because this is the other
(17:43):
portion of it. You have to have a plan. You
can't blindly just be doing shit. So like for me,
I knew we're gonna rattle off a legendary New York
City venue, We're gonna get some music out there, I'm
gonna do a tour, and this is like my coming
out party that sort of re announces like, oh, Dramas
is back, you know, back doing this whole thing right,
(18:05):
And then from there, as I had planned, as I
had hoped all since all of a sudden, social media
people are starting to like hit me up again from
like other gigs, like other DJ homies from you know,
other states and cities. Other promoters are seeing it and
they're like, oh yo, we got we got to have
you now in our home place. And that that's been
the plan. But again, I've had to work from November
(18:28):
to March essentially for free, with no real like wins
like you have to you know, I have to create
these little fucking wins right along the way, like getting
an email response, even if it's a no, that's a win, right,
All these little things I have to do in my
head and finally to start yielding results. And I wish
(18:50):
I could tell you, like, because I've done this, I've
been here before, I wish I could tell you it
gets easier. It doesn't. You get just as frustrated, maybe
even more frustrated because you feel like you've earned a
quicker response times for the fucking case. Maybe right, But
it's like, this is what it takes to win. And
in this moment, I'm sitting here, I'm in the kitchen
(19:12):
of my house in Puerto Rico, right, I'm recording a
fucking podcast. I'm about to go play shows in two days.
It's you're the rooster, He's co signing. I'm about to
play shows in two days in Puerto Rico. Like, if
(19:33):
you are hitting up that they're excited about coming to
see me play, you hear I hope you hear us
And just as creep up laughing by myself. Wow boy. Oh. Anyway, So,
but like I'm sitting here and uh, I'm like just reflecting.
(19:58):
I'm like, I mean, I'm in a moment of extreme
joy right now. I'm overcome with joy. Is I guess
what I'm getting at and what I'm trying to remind myself.
(20:20):
And I'm trying to be hyper present. I was at
the airport yesterday and I was like, grabbed a beer
before my flight, and I just like made it a
point to sit down and I was like, get very present.
I like enjoyed the beer like I've never enjoyed a
beer before. And I just reminded myself, like, this is
the months of you pounding away with little to no
(20:42):
affirmation that you're on the right path, but just believing
in yourself and believing in your vision and sticking to
it and honoring your word and honoring all that you
said you were going to do. This is the the
culmination of it, right, and take it in, taking the
joy of these moments and use them as fuel for
(21:05):
the inevitable difficult lulls along the way. Right. And I
guess to sort of surmise this thought before we take
a quick break. I guess what I'm taking away from
it all is life is full of boundless and incredible joy,
(21:31):
incredible moments of just relief and beauty. But there are
sacrifices and difficult things that need to be done in
order to create those moments, right And I think oftentimes
(21:51):
we forget that, or we assume that it's just harder
for us, or whatever the case may be. And I
think in those difficult moments that we're building, we sort
of have to remind ourself of the fact that these
reps we're putting in right now, while they may be
(22:14):
going unrewarded, are going to yield us the life we're
hoping for, and that the harder we work, the more
often those happy moments will occur. Right Because right now
I have this great experience, it's going to exist for
the next two weeks essentially, and then it's sort of
back to work, you know, back to capitalizing on sort
(22:39):
of all of the growth or connections I made via
these few months of work. But the idea is, if
ineverly you keep putting in enough work, enough of that
relentless dedication to what you're doing, you'll have to put
in less and less of those hours moving forward, because
in my case, let's say I've already established myself as
(23:00):
a touring DJ once again, that I won't have to
be doing outreach, but instead the legwork that I did
from November till let's say the end of this year
will then make me a name that is constantly on
the lips of people who are booking shows, and they'll
be reaching out to me rather than me having to
reach out to them, and that means I'll have more
(23:22):
moments of joy like I'm having now and less of
the lull of the hard work, essentially, if that makes sense.
So I will table that thought. I got a bunch
more I kind of want to think about in terms
of hopefully inspiring some people out there. So we'll take
a quick break here and then we'll be right back.
(23:44):
All right, We are back, And I feel like I
talked about myself a lot in the last one. Okay,
I don't know if it inspires connects to people. I'm
also like, you know, you know, like hindsight is twenty right,
and you sort of like you put roast colored glasses
(24:06):
on past experiences that maybe weren't as great as you
remember them. To be. But because distance is gone and
maybe you've had some negative experiences since, then you begin
to sort of maybe I don't want to say idolized,
but like you overvalue, like even like past relationships. Sometimes
maybe you're going through a breakup, a downturn, you're having
like a lonely day, and you're like, huh, I wonder
(24:27):
what that person is doing whatever the fucking case. Maybe right,
and that's not what you know. I'm not. I don't know.
I'm not confessing that my past life was any better.
I'm I don't know where I was going with that
train of thought topically, honest with you, I just sort
of like I just started reflecting on on on past things.
(24:49):
I guess I was trying to what I was trying
to get to wash So I'm not used to this,
which like noise, also is like a rooster and then
there's like a dog barking off in the distance. I
do love my little socck control studio. We'll say that,
but but I guess what I'm what I'm getting at is,
(25:09):
uh is I'm reflecting on like these last four years
basically three to four years that I've been self employed
without a doubt, might be the most difficult years of
my entire life. And it's not all just because of career,
(25:33):
but the career aspect is has been and is on
a regular basis incredibly trying and taxing emotionally, financially, mentally, physically,
like in every way possible. Right, There really is this
level of dedication and sacrifice in order to continue to
(25:57):
stay in business for yourself and and also doing so
through a creative project or a passionate you know, a
subject matter or a job that you're passionate about, career
that you're passionate about. It's just trying on a fucking
daily basis, right, but even still right, And this is
(26:22):
where I was getting with the hindsight thing, where there's
there's most definitely the times that I've been very down
and depressed and like been like, oh man, what the
fuck that I like, fuck up my entire life? This
isn't working out, blah blah blah. In those moments, I've
glamorized or looked through past moments with rose colored glasses
(26:48):
and most definitely been like, Huh, I wonder if I
made some of these the wrong choice in certain areas
of life. But what I cannot say, is last night
when I got when I got in here, uh, when
I got in here last night to the house, and
I'm kind of like, you know, setting me in and
(27:09):
putting my stuff away, and you know, I hadn't been
here in a little bit, so just getting things in order.
I was reminded of like, oh, yeah, it was all
worth it. And particularly this morning, I was hitting my
bouncil about our Puerto Rican sweetbread. We have it here,
fucking amazing, and I was like just setting up my
(27:32):
equipment through the podcast as well, and I was like
reminded again. I was like, dude, you would never have
been able to do this if you were still punching
the clock regularly, you would have had that request off.
It would have been a whole fucking thing. There's no
way you would have gotten two weeks back to back,
right you would. It would have been a whole process, right.
(27:56):
And and even beyond that, it's like, there's no way
I would have gone to Puerto Rico. I think I've
been ten times in the last two years. Maybe there's
no way in hell I would have been able to
do that if I was working in some of my
past jobs. Right, So I think what I'm trying to
(28:18):
get at is we have these these voices in our heads,
the one that pops up when we're down, when we're depressed,
when shit isn't working out the way that we hoped
it would, and it starts making us question everything that
we're doing. And then the flip side of that, you
have the voice when you're in a good mood, when
you're happy, you're celebrating right, when things feel right, when
(28:41):
somebody finally responds to that email, when you get the
podcast download, when you get that great piece of positive feedback,
that affirmation that you're doing something well, and then you
have that voice in your head that is reflecting on like, oh,
it's all worth it, right, Those little things make it
all worth it. And I think I think I'm trying
to remind myself and hopefully in turn reminding anybody else
(29:05):
listening to this. That's the voice that you need to
be listening to, and the one that you need to
keep reminding yourself of in the moments where it's great,
the way you feel, the way that you view the world,
the lens with which you view the world, that's what
you should be chasing and what you should be listening
to because, of course, when things aren't working and we're
(29:27):
down and we've had a setback, we've had a failure,
things didn't work out the way we hoped it would,
of course we're going to find excuses somebody to blame,
blame ourselves, make ourselves feel bad. But that's not a
real reflection of this thing called life, right, or the
possibilities that's out there for this thing called life. That's
us going into sort of this immediate protection and safety mode, right,
(29:51):
that's our bodies like safety response. It's no different than
like you touch something hot and you like your body,
your hand automatically just retracts like quickly without even having
to think about it, right, And that's like you're safety
mechanism in your brain that knows, oh wow, pain, let
me get away from it. And that's what oftentimes is
(30:14):
happening in those moments where we're feeling down, where like
we're putting in the work and nobody's fucking responding and
nothing is happening, nothing is working right, and you know,
and everything sucks, right, and we're just fucking mad at
the world. Our boss sucks everything, you know, like nothing's working,
Like the safety mechanism in our head is like, Okay,
(30:37):
how do we get to the safest route possible to like,
you know, not have to deal with this level of
disappointment and heartbreak? Right, But the reality is that sort
of middle ground level, that safe mode of not dealing
with the level of a heartbreak or disappointment. It's like
the happy results are capped. Yeah, maybe you have a
(31:00):
blanket as far as some sort of security, which I
think is necessary in some sort of form, But on
the flip side of that, it can't compare to the
euphoria that you feel when you are in line with
your purpose, walking your path and doing the things that
you want to do. And that's what that's what we
(31:20):
have to to sort of keep in mind. Like I think,
in this life we've been we've been trained, we've been
conditioned to constantly revert back to that safe space, and
even though it's not the one that makes us truly
(31:42):
happy or fulfilled, at least it like checks one or
two of the boxes, right. And I think the thing
that is that you could say is frustrating from the
outside looking in is how difficult it is to truly
be happy and fulfilled in this life. And that's a reality.
In order to be happy and fulfilled in this life,
(32:08):
it takes an incredible amount of sacrifice and hard work
and disappointment and heartbreak, and that admittingly feels counterintuitive to like,
like is this kind of like what the fuck? Why
is why is it so happy? I mean, it's so
hard just to be happy? Right, Why is it so
difficult just to find fucking happiness? You know? And I
(32:31):
don't have an answer to that. I just know that, unfortunately,
that is the process, that is the real thing, right,
Just like for many people, you know, you have to
date a few ogres before you find your prints or whatever. Right,
that's just what it is, the way that life is
designed for whatever reason, your level of happiness is going
(32:51):
to be in direct relation to the level of hard work,
sacrifice and dedication that you put in. And there's no
way or around them. There's no get happy, you know
quick scheme, there's no get rich quick scheme. You know
that that is, you know, morally sounds It's all correlated
(33:11):
to the amount of work that you're putting in and
the level of sacrifice that you're willing to to make
each and every day. And again, that's what separates the
people who get to have these moments that I'm having
(33:32):
right now, right on a regular basis, like those people
who are living it regularly, is because they sacrifice regularly
and eventually, as I gave you the example of like
what happens with my DJ bookings, eventually they sacrifice enough
that it threw them in a pathway for enough results
to find them. That the sacrifices had to happen less
(33:52):
and less doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all, but
it happens less and less. And I guess, you know,
Boors sort of summarize everything we talked about. I guess
the last thing I would say is like, I think
this world is truly limitless. The only limitation is the
one that we placed upon ourselves. And if our life
is not what we want it to be, it's a
(34:13):
direct reflection of ourselves and what we are or aren't doing,
and we have to look ourselves in the mirror and
really say, what else can I be doing? What should
I be doing? Who do I need to be in
order to create that sort of idealized version of life?
And I'll end it on kind of something I've recently done,
(34:34):
but I think again, just reaffirm this mindset or put
it in a bit of a different space for me,
we will take one more quick break and then we'll
have our conclusions to all right, So kind of I
(34:57):
think summarizing although we've been talking about I think I
have a story because I ended on right before the break.
Talking about our life is a reflection of the way
that we view ourselves and the work that we are
or aren't doing, and the way that we see ourselves
essentially the way that we don't see ourselves, depending on
(35:17):
your situation. And I recently was getting a bit frustrated
in certain partnerships or certain structures that I have set
up right, and I didn't love how much I found
(35:42):
myself having to rely on like outside companies or people
in order to get certain things done or to move forward.
And to be completely honest, it's not as much of
a reflection on the people I'm partner with. It's more
me like for me consistently, I guess I'm driven by
(36:05):
wanting more and more freedom in my situations, particularly career wise,
and you know, eventually I outgrow a certain thing and
then I look for the next sort of level of
freedom to make myself happy. And I guess I was
feeling a bit of those growing pains where I was
hitting my ceiling as far as like what I was
(36:27):
willing to accept or how I felt like I wasn't
getting the guarantees that I wanted right and the only
way to do that, So the next level would really
just be like I need to go all in on
myself and stop using a middle person in to be
(36:50):
like the blanket for these partnerships or whatever it might be.
So what I kind of just did of is last
couple of weeks. And again I'm telling you this stuff
because I think, as I always say, don't take it
at face value. What I tell you doesn't mean literally
copy and paste what I did. I mean you can
(37:13):
insert and take out certain things that do or don't
apply for you and make the story or the message
apply in whatever context need be, right. So what I'm
getting at is for me, I was like, Okay, well,
I need to then be like directly in business with
(37:34):
certain brands or companies and not have a middle person,
you know, and I need to proactively be creating roles
that maybe don't exist right but and that are tailored
just for what I do. So I just started reaching
out to brands and organizations that I really like, that
(37:57):
I actually support, that I use on a regular basis,
And I just started blindly emailing people from the company
that were in positions that I thought aligned with my
skill set or what I do as a creator, and
just started basically blindly pitching like, Hey, this is who
I am, this is what I do. I really love
(38:19):
the brand. I would love to try to figure out
a way that we can work together in some sort
of way. I'm open. Please let me know if there
are any opportunities you think that would be a good
fit with campaigns you guys are running or whatever it
might be. And this might not sound revolutionary to anybody,
(38:41):
but I feel like most of us sort of overlook
that easy process, or most of us overlook the thing
right in front of us. I know, for me, I
was sort of under a lot of like the idea
of like, oh, I'm just keep doing my social media
shit and people will find me. And yeah, some have
and I've seen it work for other people. But also
(39:05):
again in terms of like the results I want I
have to put in the work, I should have been
blindly emailing people and just seeing if anybody was interested
in working with me in some sort of capacity, right,
Rather than wait for the opportunity to come to me,
I'm going to go out and get it. And again
it's the thankless work every day, opening laptop and doing research,
(39:27):
crafting an email, blah blah blah, and ninety percent of
the time not getting a response. But like I've always said,
you only need that one yes, right, And so I
mean it's not a yes yet, but one of like
a higher ups at one of these brands did respond
to me, put me in touch with somebody else, and
(39:48):
now we're going to have a meeting about potentially working
with them. And it's a brand or an organization that
I really want to work with. Like I don't want
to say too many things because I don't want to,
you know, put their business out there. But it's like
right in line with where I am at this point
in my life. And that only came as a result
(40:10):
of me just saying, Okay, you want more freedom, you
want to be in control, you want to work with
very specific brands. Then you have to create those very
specific opportunities rather than waiting for one of them to
find you, right, And you have to put in the
legwork of finding these people, of pitching them, putting yourself
out there and seeing what the hell happens, and that
(40:33):
again has yielded to I don't know what's gonna happen,
but I have a meeting coming up that I'm very
excited about. But again it's like life is, I'm creating life.
I'm fucking painting the life that I want and I
wish I hope this goes through, so I could tell
you what the brand is, but if God willing, if
it does, you're gonna be like, of course, that's a
(40:55):
fucking organization that you were meant to be working with
right now, Like when I tell you it would be.
So I'm not trying to pump up too much because
zos and the opportunities, you never know what's gonna happen.
But if it's meant to be, if it, if my
gut is correct, this would literally be like you know,
so would literally propel me. And I haven't talk about money,
(41:16):
wi it just lifestyle and what I do wise would
propel me into being in a place that I want
to spend more and more time. And I'll leave it
at that. But again, like we're going to reflect back
on if and when that happens, we're gonna be like,
it was you doing the thankless work, the fucking blind emails,
(41:41):
that and and everything else that came before it that
led to you being somebody that they saw. And we're like,
there's no nothing we're currently fucking like, uh, you know,
we're currently scouting for, or or currently hiring for, or
currently like partnering for, but like, we need to work
with this guy. We're going to create something that makes
(42:03):
sense for him. It's too too much in line with
what we do. But again, it's creating the life you
want rather than waiting for life to yield you something. Right,
And I think I'm making this much more fucking complicated.
(42:24):
Our analogy would be like, rather than like going on
LinkedIn dot com and looking for like your dream job,
right and going on there and just be like, oh,
that's that job sounds Actually I could do that. That's cool, right,
But it's not like I'm not passionate about but like
I kind of like the company and I think I
can fit there. Right. It's it's rather than like having
those feelings and the flip side of it actually saying
(42:49):
you know what, I don't see a job that I'm
in love with. I'm going to email a company that
I want to work with, and I'm going to pitch
them on creating a job that is tailored to exactly
what I want to do at this point in my life. Like,
think about if both those shops were on the table,
what your life would look like. On the one side,
(43:09):
the standard cookie cutter job that they created that was
meant for anybody and it checked some of your boxes
and you could be somewhat happy there and it's a
safe bet. Or the other job that didn't exist and
literally is being made just for you. Imagine which one
is going to make you happier and more fulfilled for
(43:31):
the time being. And Like, what I'm saying to you
is that opportunity crafted specifically for you is out there.
You just have to have the guts to go out
there and either a pitch yourself as that, but b
before that, do the legwork necessary to make yourself into
somebody who has the resume and the skill set needed
(43:55):
in order for a company to say we have to
have that person as part of our brand in some way,
shape or form, Like, I don't care if that's not
what we're hiring for. Figure it out. We're bringing them
in like that's possible, that exists in this world, but
you have to do all the fucking hard work that
it takes in order for that to get created. You
(44:17):
have to be the creator first and foremost, along with
you know, the universe and God. But you have to
first put in that legwork to start painting that picture,
and then eventually things will fall in place. And I
hope that fucking made sense. Yeah, I hope that made sense.
(44:37):
And I almost feel bad like leaving the thay because
I'm not sure if that made sense. But I think
it's like you're like the architect too, but you have
to figure it out. Like anything you want is out there,
you just have to get creative and figure out a
real like pathway to getting there and to getting it right.
Just like I said about when I started with these
DJ bookings, I said, I'm gonna I gotta get a
(45:00):
the original track signed, I got to play a big
time venue in New York City, and I have to
self book a respectable out of state tour and then
from there, I know that that will be a springboard
into all the other opportunities that I want. And that's
what's yielding as a DJ, that's what's happening. And then again,
all the work I've been putting in for years as
(45:20):
a creator, community work and different things then made me
somebody who can say, Hey, that brand over there, I
align with them. I know I can bring value. I'm
going to email them about creating something for me. Right.
I see that they're doing other things, but it's not
really you know, other jobs or other opportunities they're putting
(45:41):
out there, but it's not really what I want to do.
But I'm not going to let it end there. I
believe in this brand, this organization, and I believe that
I have value. Let me see if I can get
them to create something for me. And again, it's not
always going to work, but when it does, that euphoria
you feel will trump every other bed moment. Right, just
like that euphoria I felt as I'm stuffing myself with
(46:03):
a loaf of fucking bond. So about I'm sitting here
in the kitchen record about to record the podcast. That
euphoria I'm feeling and felt in that moment far surpassed
all of the depression and low moments that I felt.
You know, while six in the morning, blindly emailing and
being in the studio for hours on end making music
(46:24):
that I didn't know if anybody was ever going to hear,
like not knowing what was next, like the wind, the
fucking a, the making it happen. The moment when you're
literally living in alignment with your greater purpose and what
you really want out of this life, those moments will
(46:45):
wash away all of the negative bullshit. And the goal
then is how do I keep doubling down so that
moment of euphoria lasts longer and longer, or we have
less and less interruptions between those moments of euphoria. And
I think that's like the goal we should all be
chasing in life is how do we keep giving ourselves
(47:05):
more and more of these moments of joy, of fulfillment,
of euphoria. How do we sort of recreate that ransom
repeat over and over again so that our life is
made up of a majority of times of euphoria rather than,
like you know, on the flip side of it, like
how people take vacations, you know, once or twice a year,
that's your your one release. You know. The idea should
(47:26):
be the other way around, where we inevite will go
through shit, we'll have moments, we'll have days, whatever it
might be. But for the most part, each day is
fill with joy and fulfillment. That's the fucking goal. And remember,
in order to get there, you have to put in
the grunt work each and every day, the thankless fucking work.
Right that doesn't make sense to anybody but yourself. Your
(47:46):
parents tell you you're crazy, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your sister,
your brother, your cousins, your fucking neighbor across the street,
I'll tell you you're crazy. You have to block it
out with the knowledge that this grunt work, this thankless
fucking work, each and every day, will eventually yield the
results you're looking for. And you just have to keep
that process over and over and over again and use
(48:08):
those moments of fulfillment, those moments of joy, those moments
of euphoria, as the fuel that keeps you pushing when
you're feeling down, when you're having one of those dark
days that we all go through throughout the course of
chasing our dreams in this life. I hope that fucking
made sense. I know that I feel super energized right
now and happy. I feel selfish, and even saying that
(48:29):
if you're standing there like what the fuck? That was
a waste of an hour of my life. I apologize,
but I feel like you know, so go after it,
go get it. I love y'all so much, Thank you
for listening. I'll catch you tomorrow with a brand new
episode for Thursday trends. Remember no shows next week. I'll
be too much on the road at that point where
I won't have a chance to record like I am
(48:50):
today and tomorrow. But yeah, I will talk to y'all tomorrow,
so then stay safe. Waste life. Azigrino is a production
of the Macothura podcast Network and iHeartRadio.
Host
DJ Dramos
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Dateline NBC
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