August 4, 2024 • 38 mins
Join me as I cruise through Orlando, Apopka, and Ocoee, sharing insights on preparing for Tropical Storm Debbie. In this episode, I reflect on the importance of staying safe during weather events and recount my personal journey of adapting to Florida's unique climate over the past 17 years.
Along the ride, I delve into the lessons learned from my career in customer service and insurance, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of being true to oneself in a world that often demands conformity. Discover the significance of self-acceptance and the value of perseverance as I share my experiences of overcoming doubts and embracing my authentic self.
Whether you're bracing for a storm or facing life's daily hurdles, this episode offers a blend of practical advice and heartfelt encouragement. Tune in and find out why it's okay to be "too much" and how to turn your unique traits into your greatest strengths.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:45):
What's going on, y'all? It is another episode in my car, so I apologize for the sound.
I'm riding around today. I went to go get something to eat.
So, you know, I figured, hey, why not take a ride around the city while I'm doing it?
Sometimes I get inspiration to do an episode.
I don't really like sitting at my desk too long at my house.
(01:09):
Really, I just wanted to do an episode to get in my car, so there's that.
So it is Sunday as I'm recording this.
And right now it is mostly cloudy, overcast here in the great city of Orlando
slash Apopka slash Ocoee.
And we're gearing up for a weather event,
(01:34):
whether it be a lot of rain and wind or whether it be a lot of wind, no rain,
but we're gearing up for a weather event
that is going to impact central florida at
least for the next you know day day
and a half or so as the tropical storm
debbie passes through and i kind of wanted to make this episode about that and
(01:55):
how prepared or non-prepared or not prepared some people are when these things
happen so you know needless to say everybody who you know make sure you stay safe
adhere to the evacuation warnings if there are any and let's not use this as a time for us to,
(02:16):
act a dang fool you know a lot of us do what do you call it hurricane parties
and stuff like that and you know ain't nothing wrong with a hurricane party
every now and then you know i'm saying ain't nothing wrong with it let me see
i give me one second y'all want to do something i need to change.
Change my, let's see, you know.
(02:37):
I'm trying to change something in my settings here.
Night mode, show notifications.
Because I'm afraid when this goes dark, sometimes it stops and I have to keep
telling it to display in brightness.
Of the minute. I put it on never, at least for now. All right.
So I'm sorry if that was any issue while I was doing that, but yeah.
(03:01):
So don't use this as an opportunity to act a dang fool.
Go and adhere to what the city is telling you. The state is telling you.
If they're telling you to evacuate, please do so.
We don't need any unnecessary fatalities to happen. been?
So I've been in Florida for 17 years or 18 years. I moved here in 2006 from California.
(03:25):
And I will say when it comes to the weather events, when it comes to hurricanes,
the tropical storms, Florida is always a unique situation simply because at
some point, you know, if a hurricane is coming to our area, you know,
going to the Gulf, a good portion of Florida is going to be affected, whether it be,
you know, being a part of the eye of the storm or, you know,
(03:48):
torrential rains for the most part.
And, you know, because we go through an abundance of these warnings,
a lot of us really just kind of, you know, like we're indifferent about it.
We don't go and do the preparation that we need to do.
And this year I decided I was going to be different. You know what I'm saying?
I was like, you know what?
We're going to need water. So I started at the beginning of maybe April,
(04:12):
like weekly, you know, I was doing ordering through to Walmart,
you know, getting a gift, you know, every week for about five weeks ordering a case of water.
It's me, Carlos, and his niece, you know, getting a case of water.
You know, we do have water from previous years, you know, I mean,
water is water is water, you know, I mean, it's not, unless it's open,
(04:36):
it's not gonna, you know, perish or anything.
So, and even when it's open, And as long as it's secured, it should be fine, I should say.
So needless to say, I wanted to make sure that I get ahead of the rush because
every single time this happens and a weather event happens.
Over to Florida, you know, at the very least, we may be affected by the electricity,
(05:00):
which is, you know, more the reason why you want to get perishable items and
water, you know, so your food and your refrigerator,
you know, might not go, you know, go bad, you know, so you can have things that are able to be used.
And more often than not, we wait to the last minute, myself included,
wait until the last minute and like, okay, I need to go to Publix.
(05:25):
I need to go to my local market and buy all the water and, you know, get all the things.
And when you go down the water aisle, there is no water.
There is not a gallon of water.
There's not, you know, anything that we can do to get water.
And now you're concerned.
Now you got to go old fashioned And fill your tub up with water,
(05:47):
which, you know, a lot of people don't like drinking tap water,
you know, simply because of the, you know, toxins and things that are in there,
you know, the additives, you
know, when water is treated, they don't want to go through all of that.
Yeah. So, you know, and you can't boil water if you ain't got electricity.
So, you know, you got to go back to the primal times of, you know,
(06:08):
you know, putting a stick in a rubbing the stick, two sticks together,
creating, you know, a fire that way and then boiling it.
But who wants to do that in this technology world? So, yeah, it always happens.
And I decided this year I'm not going to do that. 2024, I'm not doing that because
you just never really know. No, things happen so quick and so fast sometimes,
(06:30):
you know, with these weather storms.
You know, they were talking about the last update that I got that she may turn
into a she may turn into a hurricane. And I say she because it's a Debbie.
You know, her name is Debbie. I don't know what her pronouns are, their pronouns are.
So, you know, it's it might be wrong of me to assume that that's what she wants to be called.
(06:50):
But with limited information, it is what it is. And I kid, guys, I kid, I kid.
So yeah we we need to
you know go out there if you can if you haven't gotten your stuff already i
hope that you have and this is just the sign of you know something to start
you know typically the first one is is always you know like a intro into oh oh oh intro into sorry.
(07:15):
Into something bigger something more potentially happening and i just don't
want nobody to get caught, they've vanished now.
Some of that means going to go get water, getting perishable items,
which I probably should have done more in terms of perishable items,
you know, peanut butter and stuff like that, just to have on hand. But...
The times that I've been here in Florida, in the areas that I've lived in,
(07:37):
I'm in Central Florida. And I'll tell you, we're pretty unique.
And I'll explain why in a moment. But I'm here in Central Florida.
And, you know, the times that I've been able to, the times we've had,
you know, weather events, I have been able to, I've only had like,
I think in 2017, I don't, I don't remember. It may have been Maria. I don't remember.
(07:58):
The one that really affected Puerto Rico pretty bad. we were out of power for maybe 12 hours.
You know, we usually get by unscathed a lot of times when it comes to,
you know, the emergency of it all.
You know, at the end of the day, we have, you know, torrential rains.
There was one year where a limbs from the tree fell, you know, right in my backyard.
(08:24):
And, you know, that was interesting, but it wasn't anything that,
you know, needed to be considered as, you know, an emergency.
So, you know, I mean, it was fine.
So it's difficult for me to, you know, kind of, you know, it's difficult for
me to have that level of concern considering I haven't had to.
(08:46):
And you never want to be in a position where you should have,
could have, would have, and this is the time that you need it,
you know, because, you know, things go typically when When you're not ready,
those things go downhill pretty fast.
And it just becomes an experience that, you know, is not anything anybody enjoys dealing with.
(09:08):
So you got to do it. That is, I mean, Florida has its perks.
And the perks of living in Florida is that we have, you know,
pretty much good weather for most of the time that we're here.
Year we're here we have mild winters or you know freaking fall literally does
(09:29):
not exist in the state of florida.
And, you know, yearly around this time, hurricanes and things will start to come.
And, you know, we realize that being a Floridian, you know, it has its perks,
but it also has its downsides because our insurance goes sky high.
I just read something about Citizen talking about our, you know,
(09:52):
insurance rates. I have Citizen.
Citizens really is kind of like a, so like a last resort because a lot of insurance
companies won't insure here because it's, you know, way too expensive.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's hopped on its own. But winters, falls don't exist in the state of Florida.
You know, we have pretty good weather. So, you know, the downside of it sometimes
(10:13):
is having these hurricanes or tropical storms that will impact us in some way,
shape, or form that are coming up the Gulf.
You know, we may have a little bit more leeway from the other ones,
depending on where they come from and what they have to hit before they hit us.
That may turn out differently for us. But, you know, if it's in the Gulf,
it's going to affect some part of Florida, if not all of it at some point.
(10:37):
So, you know, it is a little windy, windy.
It's probably maybe 10, 15 miles, maybe not even that, that much,
but it's enough for you to go outside and feel the wind.
It's not cool wind either. So if you think you're going to go outside and get
a breeze, you know, it's going to be a hot breeze if anything, you know.
(10:58):
And, you know, it's fine, man. I mean, other places have snow and stuff like that.
And, yeah, I can't do snow and I have no intentions of doing snow. It's not my thing.
I don't have fun dealing with it. You know, cold is not, you know,
not the best for me. It is.
(11:19):
Yeah, it's not the best for me. And I don't enjoy cold, you know, being outside.
So, but yeah, you can tell. And I'm just riding around now.
I'm actually interested to see what the stores look like. I'm pretty sure people
done got what they needed to get.
I don't know. I don't feel like the urgency was there as much this year,
but, you know, I've also been in my own bubble. So I don't really know.
(11:43):
But yes, we, you know, we took some time to prepare earlier.
So that's not one thing that we have to check off the list. I don't have to
get Carlos to go to the store. I don't have to go to the store.
It's just going to be ready when it happens.
It's definitely going to be, you know, considerable amount of rain.
That's going to be the case for sure. But we don't know when and where it's going to start.
(12:03):
And, you know, I, at this point, the only thing you can do is just wait for,
you know, wait for it to happen.
So, but yeah, you know, I've, I've heard of hurricane parties.
I've never actually seen one take place.
I've never been invited to one. I have been at work when hurricanes have happened
and being sent home from work because, you know, you live, if you be out on
(12:28):
the road for too, too long, eventually, you know, you're going to get caught out there.
And, you know, what better place to be caught out there? Because they typically
will have curfews and stuff like that, that, you know, will shut down the city quite early.
And some, you know, I don't think grocery stores close or maybe they do. I'm not quite sure.
(12:48):
But, you know, some of the local things that are necessary, sometimes they do
close and, you know, they're recommended to close early.
I remember last year I had to go get my.
I don't know if it was last year or a couple of years ago. I don't remember.
But I had to get my suit pressed because I had a wedding, I think, in the coming weeks.
(13:09):
And I wanted to get it back as soon as possible and end up having to work out
with the guys. I was like, can you do this today?
And, you know, he was able to get it squared away. and I was able to get it
before he closed his feet closed, I wouldn't have been able to have it ready from when I needed it.
So, but we usually stay home.
In previous years, Carlos has been sent home early. You know,
(13:30):
in previous years, Carlos have been, you know,
given the next day off, you know, to make sure he's not out in the elements
because Universal is going to close because it also affects them too.
So me mostly working from home, if my internet is up, I'm going to be able to, you know.
(13:50):
But the downside, unfortunately, is where I work, it's not like a company type of situation.
You know what I'm saying? They're like, all right, you got vacation,
so you need to use it. So that sucks a little bit.
But, you know, it is what it is. My job has other perks that makes that not so much of an issue.
You but yeah right now
(14:13):
getting all the tornado warnings getting all the things in
regards to whether i wanted to
go get my car washed but it's like why you know what i'm saying it about to
be it may not it very well may not rain but at this point it's like okay what
we've had a couple rainy days uh this week actually quite a bit you know where
(14:36):
it has been torrential rains but if you live in Florida,
you know, it's going anywhere from two to four, maybe five, it's going to rain
like it's the Armageddon.
And then it'd be like, what just happened?
You know, it dries on or what? Cause it's so hot, but you know, I like living here.
(14:57):
I like living here and not trying to attend.
Well, I guess that's too many times out of 10, but often the people that happen to be the ones.
That, you know, are effective or fatalities are the ones that are coming from
out of state who underestimate the seriousness of the weather, you know?
(15:21):
Then don't do that. Don't do it.
Don't do it to yourself. Prepare. Don't go out there on the water.
Don't do that. Don't go out there swimming.
Don't go out there trying to catch no wave. No. No, that is God.
And God will quickly teach you, hey, I'm not to be played with. So, you know.
(15:43):
Yeah that's pretty much it man that's all
that's going on here i also wanted to talk about something else as well i'm
gonna take you guys on a journey so be patient with the story there's a lot
of different levels to it but i want to make sure you guys understand completely my point okay well.
(16:04):
You guys know that i've told y'all many you know kind of my career and you know
what i've done what I didn't do and, you know, kind of the decisions that I
made over my career. Right.
And, you know, I've been lucky to, you know, have some very interesting and
fun jobs and meet some really cool people.
(16:25):
But the most part, you know, I never really felt like I was able to be myself.
And, you know, being a black person,
being a gay person, you had a lot of microaggressions that happened,
you know, that happened at your expense and, you know, people giving you compliments
that were underhanded and,
(16:47):
you know, saying things to gaslight you and your experience.
And that's made it difficult for me to be able to be a part of corporate America
just simply because of those reasons. And then throughout my life,
I've been told that I'm too much, too extra.
You think you know it all. Who do you think you are?
(17:10):
Why are you the authority on this? And sit down somewhere.
That's been my whole ass life often, you know, to the point where it makes me
think like, damn, is it me?
Like, am I really the problem? Boom, you know, and it wasn't until like recently
where intellectualism and just, you know, being acknowledging like trends and
(17:30):
stuff of like things that have happened that,
you know, people have imprinted on you that really had nothing to do with you
and everything to do with their own insecurity. Right.
Strength from that, knowing that, Hey, not most often, if somebody's telling
me I'm being too much is because they're not doing enough.
So I've had to kind of reconcile with that and acknowledge that to be the case
(17:57):
and just, you know, just kind of settle with it and reconcile my,
my grievances with just knowing that that's going to be the case most often.
So you go to, you do different things and, you know, you do a lot of different things good, not great.
So you become a jack of all trades, master of none.
(18:18):
And, you know, jack of all trades, master of none is not a, not a compliment,
at least in my area of the world.
That's just people saying you do a lot of things, but you ain't great at none of them.
And, you know, I don't necessarily agree with that. I feel like I'm a chameleon in certain ways.
I can do many different things if you give me the tools to be able to do it successfully.
(18:39):
So what are you getting at, Reggie? I'll tell you.
So rarely in life do you get an opportunity to see that the decisions you make are good or bad.
I mean, you get the confirmation, oh, this is a horrible decision right away.
You know what I'm saying? Because things don't go your way or better yet, you just don't like it.
(19:03):
You're finding yourself involved in a whole bunch of turmoil with reconciling
with your decision that you made, you find it all pretty early on, but rarely do you get.
The, you know, the acknowledgement that, hey, you did make the right choice.
So sales is, you know, sales and customer service has been my,
(19:26):
like, focus for a number of years.
I thrive in customer service simply because I can understand and put myself,
they call it empathy, put myself in other people's shoes.
Very good. I can see what it's like to be a customer who wasn't able to pay their bill.
Why? Because I've experienced it. Also, because, you know, I can,
(19:50):
it doesn't take much to put myself in that shoe.
You know, I can sympathize with the person, you know, having to pay,
you know, three times the, you know, their insurance because they got,
you know, 15 accidents or, you know, they need their cell phone and it was cut
off because they couldn't pay it.
You just many various different things among me, among my experience in the
(20:15):
jobs that I've done in the past.
But I've been in an insurance space for six years.
I started literally from the ground up. I started as a sales rep,
got a promotion within that.
From that, I transitioned to another position that gave me another set of insight,
another set of eyes on a different experience.
(20:36):
Experience moved from that, wanted to get into the claims aspect of it,
did the claims customer service,
got to understand and experience what it was like to be someone who took in,
you know, the situations like, you know, when people get into accidents on the
first person they would talk to.
And as of recently, I've become a claims adjuster. And the reason why I made
(20:56):
the choice to become a claims adjuster was a couple of different reasons.
Number one, that was the intent from the beginning. I got it from a friend who
had done it and it gave me the idea because I don't have a degree.
I don't have a full on degree. Okay.
So, you know, just certificates of completion and stuff like that for,
you know, radio and television and things that I've done in the past.
(21:17):
But I don't have a bachelor's degree. I don't have a master's degree.
And college really wasn't my forte.
Able to have a, what do you call it? Being able to have claims adjusted license
was another way for me to show like, Hey, I have this certification and doing
something, you know, that is going to be tangible.
(21:38):
So if I don't stay with the company that I'm at, I can go somewhere else.
And that would be a valuable trait, you know what I'm saying?
That they would be able to, to pay for and continue to move on with.
So that was kind of the reason.
And April of this year, I made that transition.
So prior to me moving into the position,
I listened to a lot of people who were, you know, they, you know,
(22:01):
had good intentions, but they told me that, you know, I need to,
you know, consider it, you know, it's, it didn't work for them and they didn't
like it. And they just had a really tough time.
And, you know, they explained to me that, Hey, if you're not a organized person,
when it comes to timelines and making sure that you keep in contact with customers
and stuff like that, it's going to be difficult.
(22:23):
And I don't have any other framework to, to work in other than,
you know, the customer service experience that I had, you know,
with, you know, being the customer claims,
customer service rep, you know, as opposed to, you know, the other parts of
insurance that I've, you know, been involved, involved in.
So I really kind of let what they say, because they'd been there before.
(22:46):
And these are people who have been in a position, but decided to come back to
the position that I was in because the position that I was in,
it was like a precursor position.
So I say, I say that to say, you know, I let a lot of them kind of bend my ear
in, you know, telling me that, you know, it's going to be tough and, you know, might, uh,
you know, you might not like it and this is why, and so on and so forth.
(23:10):
So when I took over, when I took on the position or made the transition.
You go through training. Training made it seem pretty easy.
I was going through that and I was like, okay, this seems easy.
I don't really understand what the issue is about it yet, but who knows?
The shoe's going to drop. So after we get done with training,
(23:33):
then we go into a phase of like, you know, you get claims, but you get one a
day and then it changes from one a day to two a day.
And then it just continues until you get your full claim set,
which is about 40 exposures or claims or whatever you want to call it,
which may include two here, six there, three here, four there, so on and so forth.
(23:57):
So, you know, every I think we would stay in a ramp period for a couple of weeks,
a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks.
And I'm almost like fully ramped at this point.
So, you know, I'm doing it and I'm doing OK. I'm talking to my supervisor, you know, coaches.
That's one good thing I can say. You know, my job does a very good job of making
sure that you have all the resources you need to be as successful as you can
(24:20):
be. and they do it quite well.
I love the way that the training is set up and the, you know,
the whole process has been great.
So that said, we continue, you know, and I'm going through the process and the trainings.
I'm like talking to my, you know, coach and telling them about things that I
don't necessarily get and what I'm concerned about and, you know,
(24:42):
things of that nature, just keeping an open dialogue.
Cause I know I'm ultimately going to be responsible for or the things that I
come in contact with in my own understanding, if I don't ask,
you know, that's going to be a problem.
So, you know, whatever, I start to feel comfortable and still in the back of
my mind thinking that things are going to, you know, the shoe is going to drop,
but it doesn't, it doesn't drop.
(25:03):
You know, I do get an abundance of claims. There are days where I'm like,
Oh my God, I'm kind of tired.
Just of like, you know, you feel like you're scatterbrained and you want to
make it, you know, every touch matter.
So you only handle it once. So that.
My very first like full month of being on the floor is what we call it, or taking live claims.
(25:28):
I got a few awards and I was just like, oh wow. I was not expecting it, but I did.
So, you know, okay. That's some confirmation.
I had conversations with my supervisor and I'm like, man, I wonder if I'm doing
good. I need to, I need to let her know. I need to talk to her.
And you know, she was like, yeah, you're doing great. You know, no news is good news.
(25:48):
And trust me, the manager I am, I'm going to tell you the truth.
If you aren't doing great, I will let you know. And I don't have any problems
with telling you that. That gave me comfort.
So, you know, continue. Until recently, recently we had our meeting, if you will.
(26:08):
Where we recognize the, you know, the employees over different categories,
who has the best this, who has the best ass, who has the best ass.
And then at the end of it, we also had some quarterly awards that we were giving out too.
So I'm thinking that my name is going to be called again.
You can call it arrogant or cocky or whatever, but I expected my name to be
(26:32):
called just simply because, hey, I know that I've been doing great work.
I just assumed that I would be.
So we went through the whole thing and I didn't get called. And I'm like, what is It's happening.
She told me I was doing good. And I'm just cursing myself out in my head,
saying, Reggie, you got to do better.
You need to find out what it takes to get there and how you can be number one and go from there.
(26:56):
So then they get to the part where they're recognizing the...
Quarterly awards. And they call the first person's name, blah,
blah, blah. Congrats to her.
And then they, you know, start talking about the other person.
One of the things that I remember my supervisor saying, because it's each supervisor
that presents, you know, the award.
(27:16):
My supervisor said, I'm not going to say how long this person has been with
us, because if I do, they'll automatically know.
And that kind of stuck out to
me. And I was like, oh, okay, that might not be me. It could be anybody.
You know, at this point, it has been everybody. body. It ain't been me.
And, you know, I'm a little embarrassed.
I don't want to, you know, be celebrating. And reality is, you know, you didn't land.
So we continue and, you know, she's saying some more attributes,
(27:41):
attributes, attributes, attributes.
Sorry, I was laughing at how I said that word. It was horrible.
They tell more about the other, the person that, you know, that they're talking
about. And I'm like, okay, great.
You know, then they talk about a specific situation that was similar to something I had did weeks before.
I had this interaction with the supervisor, and the supervisor overheard something
I said, and they were like, oh, you did that great.
(28:04):
And I was like, oh, just make sure you tell my supervisor so-and-so. And so, you know, great.
So I'm like, maybe me. And then they called my name, and I was like, oh my God.
I was completely lost for words. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do.
I was just shocked. I started to tear up. I actually cried because,
you know, I recognize that in this skin that I'm in, I often get told.
(28:29):
Too extra, too much, too this, too that, too black, too big,
too feminine, too masculine, thinks too much.
My being is synonymous with too much.
So this is the first job that I can truly say, you know, without any hesitation,
(28:56):
that I have been celebrated for being who I am.
I'm just a quirky, silly, observational guy who really just enjoys having fun
and is extremely awkward.
Shout out to Issa Rae, who made me feel seen when she came out with Awkward
(29:18):
Black Girl. Even though I'm not a Black girl, that awkwardness was exactly the person that I am.
She made it possible for me to lean into that.
And as I've gotten older, the more I lean into it, then the more it's not a
personality issue. It's not a personality quirk.
It's just a part of who I am. And being that way is okay.
(29:42):
So the moral of the story is, is be you. you ignore those folks who are out
there trying to tell you that you ain't enough because it's them. That's not enough.
And they don't know how to be enough. And they see you and they make you make
them question who and what they are and what they need to do better.
So they're going to do whatever they can to diminish who you are.
(30:07):
So yeah, don't listen to those people. It's, it's easier said than done. I will say it is.
You know, the most difficult thing, because there's going to be a lot of people
coming at you at all at the same time, talking about how you too much.
And you're going to start to listen to those folks and you're going to see confirmation
(30:27):
in their reasoning for why they say you too extra.
And things are going to be difficult for you because you're going to be listening to what they say.
And then also, you know, finding, you know, finding yourself believing it because
things don't turn out the way that you want them to.
Ignore that shit man ignore it
because it's not the truth you are great
(30:50):
you are the best at what you
do and you know some people just need
to catch up and you are who you're supposed to be it's all right to be extra
and you know people can say whatever they want to say you know i think at the
core of it all when they say sticks and stones may break my bones but words
(31:10):
will never hurt me Words don't, they can hurt,
but words don't kill you like sticks and stones can.
Words can make you have self-doubt, but once you find the power within yourself,
those words don't matter no more.
And that's the bottom line. So be you and be good at it.
(31:33):
That's all I got. That's my time, y'all. Y'all can find me on social media.
If you want to find me on TikTok, it is Reggie's Expressions.
So R-E-G-G-E-E-S Expressions, all one word.
If you want to find me on Instagram, it is R underscore L underscore Socorro Garner.
And that's spelled A-R-E underscore E-L underscore Socorro Garner.
(31:59):
S-O-C-O-R-R-O-G-A-R-N-E-R.
And then you can find me at R-L Socorro Garner on Facebook, spelled exactly like how I spelled it.
I'll catch you guys on the flip side. Thank you so much for listening.
We'll catch y'all in a couple of weeks. Bye guys.
(32:20):
Music.
Music.
(00:45):
What's going on, y'all? It is another episode in my car, so I apologize for the sound.
I'm riding around today. I went to go get something to eat.
So, you know, I figured, hey, why not take a ride around the city while I'm doing it?
Sometimes I get inspiration to do an episode.
I don't really like sitting at my desk too long at my house.
(01:09):
Really, I just wanted to do an episode to get in my car, so there's that.
So it is Sunday as I'm recording this.
And right now it is mostly cloudy, overcast here in the great city of Orlando
slash Apopka slash Ocoee.
And we're gearing up for a weather event,
(01:34):
whether it be a lot of rain and wind or whether it be a lot of wind, no rain,
but we're gearing up for a weather event
that is going to impact central florida at
least for the next you know day day
and a half or so as the tropical storm
debbie passes through and i kind of wanted to make this episode about that and
(01:55):
how prepared or non-prepared or not prepared some people are when these things
happen so you know needless to say everybody who you know make sure you stay safe
adhere to the evacuation warnings if there are any and let's not use this as a time for us to,
(02:16):
act a dang fool you know a lot of us do what do you call it hurricane parties
and stuff like that and you know ain't nothing wrong with a hurricane party
every now and then you know i'm saying ain't nothing wrong with it let me see
i give me one second y'all want to do something i need to change.
Change my, let's see, you know.
(02:37):
I'm trying to change something in my settings here.
Night mode, show notifications.
Because I'm afraid when this goes dark, sometimes it stops and I have to keep
telling it to display in brightness.
Of the minute. I put it on never, at least for now. All right.
So I'm sorry if that was any issue while I was doing that, but yeah.
(03:01):
So don't use this as an opportunity to act a dang fool.
Go and adhere to what the city is telling you. The state is telling you.
If they're telling you to evacuate, please do so.
We don't need any unnecessary fatalities to happen. been?
So I've been in Florida for 17 years or 18 years. I moved here in 2006 from California.
(03:25):
And I will say when it comes to the weather events, when it comes to hurricanes,
the tropical storms, Florida is always a unique situation simply because at
some point, you know, if a hurricane is coming to our area, you know,
going to the Gulf, a good portion of Florida is going to be affected, whether it be,
you know, being a part of the eye of the storm or, you know,
(03:48):
torrential rains for the most part.
And, you know, because we go through an abundance of these warnings,
a lot of us really just kind of, you know, like we're indifferent about it.
We don't go and do the preparation that we need to do.
And this year I decided I was going to be different. You know what I'm saying?
I was like, you know what?
We're going to need water. So I started at the beginning of maybe April,
(04:12):
like weekly, you know, I was doing ordering through to Walmart,
you know, getting a gift, you know, every week for about five weeks ordering a case of water.
It's me, Carlos, and his niece, you know, getting a case of water.
You know, we do have water from previous years, you know, I mean,
water is water is water, you know, I mean, it's not, unless it's open,
(04:36):
it's not gonna, you know, perish or anything.
So, and even when it's open, And as long as it's secured, it should be fine, I should say.
So needless to say, I wanted to make sure that I get ahead of the rush because
every single time this happens and a weather event happens.
Over to Florida, you know, at the very least, we may be affected by the electricity,
(05:00):
which is, you know, more the reason why you want to get perishable items and
water, you know, so your food and your refrigerator,
you know, might not go, you know, go bad, you know, so you can have things that are able to be used.
And more often than not, we wait to the last minute, myself included,
wait until the last minute and like, okay, I need to go to Publix.
(05:25):
I need to go to my local market and buy all the water and, you know, get all the things.
And when you go down the water aisle, there is no water.
There is not a gallon of water.
There's not, you know, anything that we can do to get water.
And now you're concerned.
Now you got to go old fashioned And fill your tub up with water,
(05:47):
which, you know, a lot of people don't like drinking tap water,
you know, simply because of the, you know, toxins and things that are in there,
you know, the additives, you
know, when water is treated, they don't want to go through all of that.
Yeah. So, you know, and you can't boil water if you ain't got electricity.
So, you know, you got to go back to the primal times of, you know,
(06:08):
you know, putting a stick in a rubbing the stick, two sticks together,
creating, you know, a fire that way and then boiling it.
But who wants to do that in this technology world? So, yeah, it always happens.
And I decided this year I'm not going to do that. 2024, I'm not doing that because
you just never really know. No, things happen so quick and so fast sometimes,
(06:30):
you know, with these weather storms.
You know, they were talking about the last update that I got that she may turn
into a she may turn into a hurricane. And I say she because it's a Debbie.
You know, her name is Debbie. I don't know what her pronouns are, their pronouns are.
So, you know, it's it might be wrong of me to assume that that's what she wants to be called.
(06:50):
But with limited information, it is what it is. And I kid, guys, I kid, I kid.
So yeah we we need to
you know go out there if you can if you haven't gotten your stuff already i
hope that you have and this is just the sign of you know something to start
you know typically the first one is is always you know like a intro into oh oh oh intro into sorry.
(07:15):
Into something bigger something more potentially happening and i just don't
want nobody to get caught, they've vanished now.
Some of that means going to go get water, getting perishable items,
which I probably should have done more in terms of perishable items,
you know, peanut butter and stuff like that, just to have on hand. But...
The times that I've been here in Florida, in the areas that I've lived in,
(07:37):
I'm in Central Florida. And I'll tell you, we're pretty unique.
And I'll explain why in a moment. But I'm here in Central Florida.
And, you know, the times that I've been able to, the times we've had,
you know, weather events, I have been able to, I've only had like,
I think in 2017, I don't, I don't remember. It may have been Maria. I don't remember.
(07:58):
The one that really affected Puerto Rico pretty bad. we were out of power for maybe 12 hours.
You know, we usually get by unscathed a lot of times when it comes to,
you know, the emergency of it all.
You know, at the end of the day, we have, you know, torrential rains.
There was one year where a limbs from the tree fell, you know, right in my backyard.
(08:24):
And, you know, that was interesting, but it wasn't anything that,
you know, needed to be considered as, you know, an emergency.
So, you know, I mean, it was fine.
So it's difficult for me to, you know, kind of, you know, it's difficult for
me to have that level of concern considering I haven't had to.
(08:46):
And you never want to be in a position where you should have,
could have, would have, and this is the time that you need it,
you know, because, you know, things go typically when When you're not ready,
those things go downhill pretty fast.
And it just becomes an experience that, you know, is not anything anybody enjoys dealing with.
(09:08):
So you got to do it. That is, I mean, Florida has its perks.
And the perks of living in Florida is that we have, you know,
pretty much good weather for most of the time that we're here.
Year we're here we have mild winters or you know freaking fall literally does
(09:29):
not exist in the state of florida.
And, you know, yearly around this time, hurricanes and things will start to come.
And, you know, we realize that being a Floridian, you know, it has its perks,
but it also has its downsides because our insurance goes sky high.
I just read something about Citizen talking about our, you know,
(09:52):
insurance rates. I have Citizen.
Citizens really is kind of like a, so like a last resort because a lot of insurance
companies won't insure here because it's, you know, way too expensive.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's hopped on its own. But winters, falls don't exist in the state of Florida.
You know, we have pretty good weather. So, you know, the downside of it sometimes
(10:13):
is having these hurricanes or tropical storms that will impact us in some way,
shape, or form that are coming up the Gulf.
You know, we may have a little bit more leeway from the other ones,
depending on where they come from and what they have to hit before they hit us.
That may turn out differently for us. But, you know, if it's in the Gulf,
it's going to affect some part of Florida, if not all of it at some point.
(10:37):
So, you know, it is a little windy, windy.
It's probably maybe 10, 15 miles, maybe not even that, that much,
but it's enough for you to go outside and feel the wind.
It's not cool wind either. So if you think you're going to go outside and get
a breeze, you know, it's going to be a hot breeze if anything, you know.
(10:58):
And, you know, it's fine, man. I mean, other places have snow and stuff like that.
And, yeah, I can't do snow and I have no intentions of doing snow. It's not my thing.
I don't have fun dealing with it. You know, cold is not, you know,
not the best for me. It is.
(11:19):
Yeah, it's not the best for me. And I don't enjoy cold, you know, being outside.
So, but yeah, you can tell. And I'm just riding around now.
I'm actually interested to see what the stores look like. I'm pretty sure people
done got what they needed to get.
I don't know. I don't feel like the urgency was there as much this year,
but, you know, I've also been in my own bubble. So I don't really know.
(11:43):
But yes, we, you know, we took some time to prepare earlier.
So that's not one thing that we have to check off the list. I don't have to
get Carlos to go to the store. I don't have to go to the store.
It's just going to be ready when it happens.
It's definitely going to be, you know, considerable amount of rain.
That's going to be the case for sure. But we don't know when and where it's going to start.
(12:03):
And, you know, I, at this point, the only thing you can do is just wait for,
you know, wait for it to happen.
So, but yeah, you know, I've, I've heard of hurricane parties.
I've never actually seen one take place.
I've never been invited to one. I have been at work when hurricanes have happened
and being sent home from work because, you know, you live, if you be out on
(12:28):
the road for too, too long, eventually, you know, you're going to get caught out there.
And, you know, what better place to be caught out there? Because they typically
will have curfews and stuff like that, that, you know, will shut down the city quite early.
And some, you know, I don't think grocery stores close or maybe they do. I'm not quite sure.
(12:48):
But, you know, some of the local things that are necessary, sometimes they do
close and, you know, they're recommended to close early.
I remember last year I had to go get my.
I don't know if it was last year or a couple of years ago. I don't remember.
But I had to get my suit pressed because I had a wedding, I think, in the coming weeks.
(13:09):
And I wanted to get it back as soon as possible and end up having to work out
with the guys. I was like, can you do this today?
And, you know, he was able to get it squared away. and I was able to get it
before he closed his feet closed, I wouldn't have been able to have it ready from when I needed it.
So, but we usually stay home.
In previous years, Carlos has been sent home early. You know,
(13:30):
in previous years, Carlos have been, you know,
given the next day off, you know, to make sure he's not out in the elements
because Universal is going to close because it also affects them too.
So me mostly working from home, if my internet is up, I'm going to be able to, you know.
(13:50):
But the downside, unfortunately, is where I work, it's not like a company type of situation.
You know what I'm saying? They're like, all right, you got vacation,
so you need to use it. So that sucks a little bit.
But, you know, it is what it is. My job has other perks that makes that not so much of an issue.
You but yeah right now
(14:13):
getting all the tornado warnings getting all the things in
regards to whether i wanted to
go get my car washed but it's like why you know what i'm saying it about to
be it may not it very well may not rain but at this point it's like okay what
we've had a couple rainy days uh this week actually quite a bit you know where
(14:36):
it has been torrential rains but if you live in Florida,
you know, it's going anywhere from two to four, maybe five, it's going to rain
like it's the Armageddon.
And then it'd be like, what just happened?
You know, it dries on or what? Cause it's so hot, but you know, I like living here.
(14:57):
I like living here and not trying to attend.
Well, I guess that's too many times out of 10, but often the people that happen to be the ones.
That, you know, are effective or fatalities are the ones that are coming from
out of state who underestimate the seriousness of the weather, you know?
(15:21):
Then don't do that. Don't do it.
Don't do it to yourself. Prepare. Don't go out there on the water.
Don't do that. Don't go out there swimming.
Don't go out there trying to catch no wave. No. No, that is God.
And God will quickly teach you, hey, I'm not to be played with. So, you know.
(15:43):
Yeah that's pretty much it man that's all
that's going on here i also wanted to talk about something else as well i'm
gonna take you guys on a journey so be patient with the story there's a lot
of different levels to it but i want to make sure you guys understand completely my point okay well.
(16:04):
You guys know that i've told y'all many you know kind of my career and you know
what i've done what I didn't do and, you know, kind of the decisions that I
made over my career. Right.
And, you know, I've been lucky to, you know, have some very interesting and
fun jobs and meet some really cool people.
(16:25):
But the most part, you know, I never really felt like I was able to be myself.
And, you know, being a black person,
being a gay person, you had a lot of microaggressions that happened,
you know, that happened at your expense and, you know, people giving you compliments
that were underhanded and,
(16:47):
you know, saying things to gaslight you and your experience.
And that's made it difficult for me to be able to be a part of corporate America
just simply because of those reasons. And then throughout my life,
I've been told that I'm too much, too extra.
You think you know it all. Who do you think you are?
(17:10):
Why are you the authority on this? And sit down somewhere.
That's been my whole ass life often, you know, to the point where it makes me
think like, damn, is it me?
Like, am I really the problem? Boom, you know, and it wasn't until like recently
where intellectualism and just, you know, being acknowledging like trends and
(17:30):
stuff of like things that have happened that,
you know, people have imprinted on you that really had nothing to do with you
and everything to do with their own insecurity. Right.
Strength from that, knowing that, Hey, not most often, if somebody's telling
me I'm being too much is because they're not doing enough.
So I've had to kind of reconcile with that and acknowledge that to be the case
(17:57):
and just, you know, just kind of settle with it and reconcile my,
my grievances with just knowing that that's going to be the case most often.
So you go to, you do different things and, you know, you do a lot of different things good, not great.
So you become a jack of all trades, master of none.
(18:18):
And, you know, jack of all trades, master of none is not a, not a compliment,
at least in my area of the world.
That's just people saying you do a lot of things, but you ain't great at none of them.
And, you know, I don't necessarily agree with that. I feel like I'm a chameleon in certain ways.
I can do many different things if you give me the tools to be able to do it successfully.
(18:39):
So what are you getting at, Reggie? I'll tell you.
So rarely in life do you get an opportunity to see that the decisions you make are good or bad.
I mean, you get the confirmation, oh, this is a horrible decision right away.
You know what I'm saying? Because things don't go your way or better yet, you just don't like it.
(19:03):
You're finding yourself involved in a whole bunch of turmoil with reconciling
with your decision that you made, you find it all pretty early on, but rarely do you get.
The, you know, the acknowledgement that, hey, you did make the right choice.
So sales is, you know, sales and customer service has been my,
(19:26):
like, focus for a number of years.
I thrive in customer service simply because I can understand and put myself,
they call it empathy, put myself in other people's shoes.
Very good. I can see what it's like to be a customer who wasn't able to pay their bill.
Why? Because I've experienced it. Also, because, you know, I can,
(19:50):
it doesn't take much to put myself in that shoe.
You know, I can sympathize with the person, you know, having to pay,
you know, three times the, you know, their insurance because they got,
you know, 15 accidents or, you know, they need their cell phone and it was cut
off because they couldn't pay it.
You just many various different things among me, among my experience in the
(20:15):
jobs that I've done in the past.
But I've been in an insurance space for six years.
I started literally from the ground up. I started as a sales rep,
got a promotion within that.
From that, I transitioned to another position that gave me another set of insight,
another set of eyes on a different experience.
(20:36):
Experience moved from that, wanted to get into the claims aspect of it,
did the claims customer service,
got to understand and experience what it was like to be someone who took in,
you know, the situations like, you know, when people get into accidents on the
first person they would talk to.
And as of recently, I've become a claims adjuster. And the reason why I made
(20:56):
the choice to become a claims adjuster was a couple of different reasons.
Number one, that was the intent from the beginning. I got it from a friend who
had done it and it gave me the idea because I don't have a degree.
I don't have a full on degree. Okay.
So, you know, just certificates of completion and stuff like that for,
you know, radio and television and things that I've done in the past.
(21:17):
But I don't have a bachelor's degree. I don't have a master's degree.
And college really wasn't my forte.
Able to have a, what do you call it? Being able to have claims adjusted license
was another way for me to show like, Hey, I have this certification and doing
something, you know, that is going to be tangible.
(21:38):
So if I don't stay with the company that I'm at, I can go somewhere else.
And that would be a valuable trait, you know what I'm saying?
That they would be able to, to pay for and continue to move on with.
So that was kind of the reason.
And April of this year, I made that transition.
So prior to me moving into the position,
I listened to a lot of people who were, you know, they, you know,
(22:01):
had good intentions, but they told me that, you know, I need to,
you know, consider it, you know, it's, it didn't work for them and they didn't
like it. And they just had a really tough time.
And, you know, they explained to me that, Hey, if you're not a organized person,
when it comes to timelines and making sure that you keep in contact with customers
and stuff like that, it's going to be difficult.
(22:23):
And I don't have any other framework to, to work in other than,
you know, the customer service experience that I had, you know,
with, you know, being the customer claims,
customer service rep, you know, as opposed to, you know, the other parts of
insurance that I've, you know, been involved, involved in.
So I really kind of let what they say, because they'd been there before.
(22:46):
And these are people who have been in a position, but decided to come back to
the position that I was in because the position that I was in,
it was like a precursor position.
So I say, I say that to say, you know, I let a lot of them kind of bend my ear
in, you know, telling me that, you know, it's going to be tough and, you know, might, uh,
you know, you might not like it and this is why, and so on and so forth.
(23:10):
So when I took over, when I took on the position or made the transition.
You go through training. Training made it seem pretty easy.
I was going through that and I was like, okay, this seems easy.
I don't really understand what the issue is about it yet, but who knows?
The shoe's going to drop. So after we get done with training,
(23:33):
then we go into a phase of like, you know, you get claims, but you get one a
day and then it changes from one a day to two a day.
And then it just continues until you get your full claim set,
which is about 40 exposures or claims or whatever you want to call it,
which may include two here, six there, three here, four there, so on and so forth.
(23:57):
So, you know, every I think we would stay in a ramp period for a couple of weeks,
a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks.
And I'm almost like fully ramped at this point.
So, you know, I'm doing it and I'm doing OK. I'm talking to my supervisor, you know, coaches.
That's one good thing I can say. You know, my job does a very good job of making
sure that you have all the resources you need to be as successful as you can
(24:20):
be. and they do it quite well.
I love the way that the training is set up and the, you know,
the whole process has been great.
So that said, we continue, you know, and I'm going through the process and the trainings.
I'm like talking to my, you know, coach and telling them about things that I
don't necessarily get and what I'm concerned about and, you know,
(24:42):
things of that nature, just keeping an open dialogue.
Cause I know I'm ultimately going to be responsible for or the things that I
come in contact with in my own understanding, if I don't ask,
you know, that's going to be a problem.
So, you know, whatever, I start to feel comfortable and still in the back of
my mind thinking that things are going to, you know, the shoe is going to drop,
but it doesn't, it doesn't drop.
(25:03):
You know, I do get an abundance of claims. There are days where I'm like,
Oh my God, I'm kind of tired.
Just of like, you know, you feel like you're scatterbrained and you want to
make it, you know, every touch matter.
So you only handle it once. So that.
My very first like full month of being on the floor is what we call it, or taking live claims.
(25:28):
I got a few awards and I was just like, oh wow. I was not expecting it, but I did.
So, you know, okay. That's some confirmation.
I had conversations with my supervisor and I'm like, man, I wonder if I'm doing
good. I need to, I need to let her know. I need to talk to her.
And you know, she was like, yeah, you're doing great. You know, no news is good news.
(25:48):
And trust me, the manager I am, I'm going to tell you the truth.
If you aren't doing great, I will let you know. And I don't have any problems
with telling you that. That gave me comfort.
So, you know, continue. Until recently, recently we had our meeting, if you will.
(26:08):
Where we recognize the, you know, the employees over different categories,
who has the best this, who has the best ass, who has the best ass.
And then at the end of it, we also had some quarterly awards that we were giving out too.
So I'm thinking that my name is going to be called again.
You can call it arrogant or cocky or whatever, but I expected my name to be
(26:32):
called just simply because, hey, I know that I've been doing great work.
I just assumed that I would be.
So we went through the whole thing and I didn't get called. And I'm like, what is It's happening.
She told me I was doing good. And I'm just cursing myself out in my head,
saying, Reggie, you got to do better.
You need to find out what it takes to get there and how you can be number one and go from there.
(26:56):
So then they get to the part where they're recognizing the...
Quarterly awards. And they call the first person's name, blah,
blah, blah. Congrats to her.
And then they, you know, start talking about the other person.
One of the things that I remember my supervisor saying, because it's each supervisor
that presents, you know, the award.
(27:16):
My supervisor said, I'm not going to say how long this person has been with
us, because if I do, they'll automatically know.
And that kind of stuck out to
me. And I was like, oh, okay, that might not be me. It could be anybody.
You know, at this point, it has been everybody. body. It ain't been me.
And, you know, I'm a little embarrassed.
I don't want to, you know, be celebrating. And reality is, you know, you didn't land.
So we continue and, you know, she's saying some more attributes,
(27:41):
attributes, attributes, attributes.
Sorry, I was laughing at how I said that word. It was horrible.
They tell more about the other, the person that, you know, that they're talking
about. And I'm like, okay, great.
You know, then they talk about a specific situation that was similar to something I had did weeks before.
I had this interaction with the supervisor, and the supervisor overheard something
I said, and they were like, oh, you did that great.
(28:04):
And I was like, oh, just make sure you tell my supervisor so-and-so. And so, you know, great.
So I'm like, maybe me. And then they called my name, and I was like, oh my God.
I was completely lost for words. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do.
I was just shocked. I started to tear up. I actually cried because,
you know, I recognize that in this skin that I'm in, I often get told.
(28:29):
Too extra, too much, too this, too that, too black, too big,
too feminine, too masculine, thinks too much.
My being is synonymous with too much.
So this is the first job that I can truly say, you know, without any hesitation,
(28:56):
that I have been celebrated for being who I am.
I'm just a quirky, silly, observational guy who really just enjoys having fun
and is extremely awkward.
Shout out to Issa Rae, who made me feel seen when she came out with Awkward
(29:18):
Black Girl. Even though I'm not a Black girl, that awkwardness was exactly the person that I am.
She made it possible for me to lean into that.
And as I've gotten older, the more I lean into it, then the more it's not a
personality issue. It's not a personality quirk.
It's just a part of who I am. And being that way is okay.
(29:42):
So the moral of the story is, is be you. you ignore those folks who are out
there trying to tell you that you ain't enough because it's them. That's not enough.
And they don't know how to be enough. And they see you and they make you make
them question who and what they are and what they need to do better.
So they're going to do whatever they can to diminish who you are.
(30:07):
So yeah, don't listen to those people. It's, it's easier said than done. I will say it is.
You know, the most difficult thing, because there's going to be a lot of people
coming at you at all at the same time, talking about how you too much.
And you're going to start to listen to those folks and you're going to see confirmation
(30:27):
in their reasoning for why they say you too extra.
And things are going to be difficult for you because you're going to be listening to what they say.
And then also, you know, finding, you know, finding yourself believing it because
things don't turn out the way that you want them to.
Ignore that shit man ignore it
because it's not the truth you are great
(30:50):
you are the best at what you
do and you know some people just need
to catch up and you are who you're supposed to be it's all right to be extra
and you know people can say whatever they want to say you know i think at the
core of it all when they say sticks and stones may break my bones but words
(31:10):
will never hurt me Words don't, they can hurt,
but words don't kill you like sticks and stones can.
Words can make you have self-doubt, but once you find the power within yourself,
those words don't matter no more.
And that's the bottom line. So be you and be good at it.
(31:33):
That's all I got. That's my time, y'all. Y'all can find me on social media.
If you want to find me on TikTok, it is Reggie's Expressions.
So R-E-G-G-E-E-S Expressions, all one word.
If you want to find me on Instagram, it is R underscore L underscore Socorro Garner.
And that's spelled A-R-E underscore E-L underscore Socorro Garner.
(31:59):
S-O-C-O-R-R-O-G-A-R-N-E-R.
And then you can find me at R-L Socorro Garner on Facebook, spelled exactly like how I spelled it.
I'll catch you guys on the flip side. Thank you so much for listening.
We'll catch y'all in a couple of weeks. Bye guys.
(32:20):
Music.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.