#33: Hazier Rios - Educating the Future Generation, Emotional Communication, and Improving Little by Little - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
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J.R. (00:00):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another fun
episode of 1000 Gurus with me.
Your host, jr Yonacruz.
So today's guest is Hazir Rios.
Hazir Rios, or Hazi, holds a BAin Psychology from UCI, where
he served as president of ActiveMinds, a student-led
organization promoting mentalhealth awareness.
He's delivered a TED Talk onimproving your life, traveled to

(00:20):
four continents and continuesto inspire students as a
dedicated educator.
Outside of the classroom, hazirmakes music and rock climbs,
balancing creativity and thechallenge in all areas of life.
His ultimate goal is to earn aPhD in clinical psychology and
to help the people around theworld navigate their lives with
clarity, compassion andresilience.
So, as with most episodes, thiswas so much fun because we got

(00:42):
to catch up after not havingseen each other since about 2018
.
Hazir's journey of pursuingdifferent fields, like music,
education and psychology, hasbeen fascinating to watch from
afar, and so I was glad to havehim on the show to share his
insights.
I find that teachers tend to besome of my favorite guests on
the show, because they typicallyhave done a lot of reflection
and they communicate their ideasreally well, and Hi is no

(01:04):
exception.
We chat about his post-gradcareer journey that led him to
working with his mother and theneventually as a teacher to high
school students.
We also talk about emotionalcommunication, mindset
psychology, his TEDx talk and alot more.
It was a great conversation andhopefully we'll be able to have

(01:25):
a follow-up episode to tackleall the things we didn't get to
this time around.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoy this episode with
Javier Rios.
Hello everyone and welcome backto 1000 Gurus.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome my guest, javier Rios.

Hazier (01:35):
Hello everyone.
Yes, hello, hello, thanks forhaving me.
Yeah, really a pleasure to beon.

J.R. (01:41):
Yeah, thanks for being here.
I know it's been like a whilesince we've connected.
I think obviously pre-pandemicright, yeah definitely Cool.
So the audience already knowswhat you're all about based on
your bio.
Let me just go into how I knowyou.
So we met when through UCI themutual team that were on Irmo

(02:08):
and I think I was on council,and then you have these like
young teacher adventure videos.
You have like motivational,inspirational type of videos,
which I think is amazing.
I'm all about that, obviously.
And then I checked out yoursoundcloud.
I think you've put out likepretty dope music as well and I
like to.
I gravitate towards those sortof people like us, like we kind
of do different things and it'slike, but it's all cohesive in a
sense, right, a reflection ofourself.
And you also enjoy traveling.
I saw some travel photos andvideos too.
Any other clarifications onwhat you're up to, what you're
all about, you want to add inthere?

Hazier (02:29):
that was pretty good.
Yeah, and on top of that, I'mon a journey right now to
eventually attain my phd inclinical psychology or
educational psychology, so to bedetermined.
But yeah, I plan on signing amaster's program this fall nice.

J.R. (02:43):
Congrats, man man.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
That'll be super fun for you.
All right.
So warm-up question we did talkabout this.
Where does the name Boonkeecome from?
So that's like your username onSoundCloud and everything.
So where did that come from?

Hazier (02:55):
Yeah, so it's a little bit of a funny story.
In tats he was really famouslike 2017, 2018, okay, for the
wrong reasons, though.
Yeah, yeah, like he would likerob stores, and I did not like

(03:17):
this guy at all and he wouldyell boom gang every time he did
it.
And this guy he ended up goingon like interviews.
You know, he's like for lack ofbetter terms he was something
called clout chasing.
He was just chasing fame, right, and trying to get viral
moments to spark his musiccareer, and over time, he just
kept getting deeper and deeperinto the hole of chasing fame

(03:40):
and he started doing a lot ofdrugs.
And there was this interview Iwatched where he literally
passed it on the interview andI'm like, oh man, like I do not
want to be like this guy, like Idon't know, you can't redeem
someone like that.
And then fast forward.
I don't hear from this guy forlike a year, like just radio
silence.
And then I remember like, oh,whatever that guy's up to, and

(04:01):
randomly a video drops.
He's like, hey, guys, I've beengone for a while, but now I've
been eight months clean, Ihaven't done drugs and I'm
actually going to turn my lifeto God.
And this is after he went tojail and everything, and I'm
like this guy's like turning hislife around, fast forward to
today.
He's actually really intoreligion and really into trying
to show people that you canchange for the better, and he

(04:21):
goes by Holy Gabbana now, or isit John Gabbana?
But he goes by Holy Gabbana andI just respected that so much
because it showed me as like ayoung teenager to a young adult,
that it doesn't matter how fargone someone might seem, they're
still redeemable in some sense.
And that inspired me to likekind of replicate that.

(04:42):
And the name Boonki if you sayBoonking really fast, like
boonking, boonking, it soundslike boonkey.
And then I came up with a termcalled boonkey season and that
means it's comeback season, likeit's never too late to turn
your life around, and I have tothank him for that, because
that's where the idea first camefrom.
What I believed oh, you knowwhat people can be redeemable,

(05:03):
no matter how much you mightthink they're not, and I thought
it was really beautiful,honestly, because it was someone
that I despised.
He's someone that I canactually kind of look up to now
too.

J.R. (05:12):
I thought that was wonderful.
That's a great story.
I've never heard of that, butthat's pretty crazy.
Are you like spiritual oranything at all?

Hazier (05:19):
Not incredibly spiritual or anything I do find myself
believing in like higher power,but nothing too organized, yeah,
nothing so nice.

J.R. (05:27):
I kind of yeah cool I only bring that up because it
reminds me of this.
I forgot where this topic was,but someone was saying how to be
a messenger of, let's say, agood idea or morals or
principles, or just to be anexample.
You have to be this idea ofperfect right.
And then I guess, to relate itto, like biblical references,

(05:47):
all the people who Jesus madehis like disciples, and also
their stuff, like they're alldeeply flawed people who messed
up a lot.
But you know, what I learnedfrom my pastor in my church is
that that's the whole point isthat it's not the perfect person
to give the perfect message.
It's to show that everyone'sflawed, everyone makes mistakes,
but everyone is mostlyredeemable and they can be more

(06:09):
of an inspiration based on theirstory and that's the people
that God uses.
And so, at a higher level, it'skind of that same idea which is
like, yeah, you can be, we allmake mistakes, we all mess up,
but I think you know that ideaof your biggest pain is also
your biggest ministry, meaninglike what you help people with
the most.
I fully believe that.
I think what's important is notfocusing on the mess up, but

(06:30):
it's like how can we use ourmess ups to help other?

Hazier (06:32):
people Exactly.
Yeah, wow, no, that, that wasbeautifully said.

J.R. (06:35):
Yeah.

Hazier (06:35):
I think it's great that, like your pastor, spreads that
message as well, and I think Imean it's.
You said it's biblical, it'sbiblical.

J.R. (06:42):
Yeah, so that's basically what it's based off of.
Yeah, yeah, I like that story.
It was really good, okay, firsttopic, so, as usually with all
my guests, is kind of like yourorigin story path to UCI,
because we both went there andthen psychology.
So where did you grow up?
Who or what were your maininfluences, to kind of connect
the dots to where you are today?

Hazier (07:01):
Let's see.
Well, I grew up partially ormostly San Diego, but partially
also in Mexico.
I was born here or in San Diego, but then I was raised in
Mexico.
So when I, when we came back tolive in San Diego again, I
didn't speak in English.
So that was a huge.

J.R. (07:16):
Wait, like so.
You were born here, but thenyou were essentially just raised
there until.

Hazier (07:19):
Yeah, until like I was like eight years old.
So I came back for second gradein elementary school and it was
tough because at the time likethere wasn't too much DLI
programs.
It was.
I was huge minority that nottoo many Mexicans in Chula Vista
yet but it was a reallyeyeopening experience to like
language barrier and like how Idon't fit in.
But one of my biggestinfluences in my life, for sure,

(07:41):
growing up, has always been mymother.
Yeah, my mother has been withme thick and thin.
We've moved a lot around to notjust san diego, like throughout
san diego and then throughoutmexico too, and she's been my
rock ever since and I don'tthink I'd be the person that I
am today without her.

J.R. (07:58):
So I know you mentioned before that you also work with
your mom yeah, yeah so what isthat?
Could you elaborate on that?
Like what capacity?

Hazier (08:06):
After, after pandemic, and I graduated, at the time I
didn't have a job and I we werejust going through the motion.
I was expecting to get intoschool by the time.
I didn't get it, but I wasexpecting that.
But, like, in the meantime Iwent through this post-grad
depression and there was a pointwhere I realized I need to
somehow turn my life around.

(08:27):
I can maybe get into that later.
But after I made thatrealization, I realized, you
know what, maybe I should workwith my mother because that's
something she always wanted meto do.
And I always said no, she ownsa hair salon, she owns a hair
salon and she always just wantedme to do like reception or
maybe help with scheduling.
But then me, I'm like salonsare not really my thing.

(08:49):
But then something in me, I'mjust you know what, I'm going to
try something new.
Let me work with you.
And it's one of the bestdecisions I've ever made in my
life, because that experiencealone made me truly realize the
person that I've always lookedup to and I've always wanted to
get back to.
I felt like I was making agenuine, direct impact on that.

(09:12):
I was helping her with thisbusiness that is her pride and
joy and for the first time in mylife I genuinely felt proud of
myself to help her as her son,you know.
So that was a very monumentalmoment.
I was just receptionist and nowI know more about hair than I
could have possibly imagined.
Yeah, yeah, like balayages,keratin treatments that's
probably like what is that Right?

(09:33):
But I learned a lot and I endedup helping like managerial side
too over time.
It wasn't something that wasjust given to me instantly, but
I really learned the ins andouts of the business and sharing
ideas with my mother about thebusiness.
It was just, it was a blast andI didn't know I was missing
that my entire life, with herespecially.

J.R. (09:52):
That's pretty dope.
I think that's a specialexperience.
I've had a similar thing wheremy mom and I got into
entrepreneurship very closely.

Hazier (09:59):
And it was again.

J.R. (10:00):
I reiterate that experience, and I was talking to
my girlfriend about this last,literally literally last night.
But in that same sort of likeside hustle entrepreneurship
thing, my, so my parents havebeen divorced since I was two
right, and because of we gotinto like entrepreneurship, my
dad ended up also working withme and so it was like my dad and
my mom in the same room weirdexperience, but it was so cool

(10:21):
because it's like I get to workwith people who had the biggest
influence on me.
We're building towardssomething, working towards
something, I'm assuming.
It was so cool because it'slike I get to work with people
who had the biggest influence onme.

Hazier (10:27):
We're building towards something, working towards
something.

J.R. (10:28):
I'm assuming it was all cordial yeah, exactly, and now
they're super chill, but alsothey're like proud of me because
it's like we're doing somethingtogether so like I love that as
well.
I think if people, sometimesfamily dynamics are kind of
challenging, but if people havethe opportunity to like work
with their family and kind of.
You know, family time is soshort and limited.
They say that study of once yougraduate high school, that's 90
of all the time you'll spendwith your folks.

(10:48):
But so that's why after yougraduate, after you turn 18, you
should spend as much time asyou can with them now, because
then you settle in, maybe youstart families with other people
and it's just holidays stufflike that yeah, it gets tough.

Hazier (11:00):
Yeah, well, and my well, quick question for you did you
have that moment where it's likefor me, like I want to graduate
, for my mom, because I want tomake her proud, but then when I
did it.
Yeah, I know I made her proud,but I didn't feel amazing about
it as I did until I startedworking with her.
Did you have a similarexperience or?

J.R. (11:16):
I don't know if it's similar, because my parents are
always just like do what youwant I think you know like just
be happy and stuff like that,and my parents always had their
own sort of working jobs untilwe started doing more
entrepreneurship stuff but but Itotally get that.
It's like as opposed to doingsomething for them but doing
something with them is reallydifferent I get that, so now I
want to take it back reallyquick.
So could you connect the dotsof you growing up?

(11:39):
in chula vista, chula vista, andthen all the way to uI.
In psychology, what were theinflection points that made you
want to eventually go to UCI?
But then also psychology, I see.

Hazier (11:49):
So let's see.
Well, psychology in particular,that one's an interesting one
because, well, growing up again,with the language barrier and
how people treated me and thenhow I viewed other people At the
end of the day, I found it sointeresting that I was raised
completely differently than themajority of my friends that I
met eventually.
But we all share very similarexperiences when it comes to

(12:11):
dealing with certain emotions.
It's like we all experienceheartbreak, betrayal, grief, joy
, happiness.
What makes us human?
Exactly what makes us human?
And I wanted to understand like, yeah, why do we share this?
Or like, how does this processeven happen?
How do we fall in love?
What does love even mean?
And that was as a kid, but Ididn't really understand, like
wait, where does that come from?

(12:32):
I knew it came from the brain.
So initially I was applying toevery school under a
neuroscience major or a biologymajor to get into neuroscience
because I knew it had to do withthe brain.
I didn't know about psychologyat the time and I remember I
heard about it my senior year ofhigh school and they were
offering it and I'm like I'mbooked, I can't take the class I
would love to, but maybe I'lltake it to college.

(12:53):
I go to college at UCI and Iliterally only went to UCI
because one of my closestfriends at the time told me, out
of all the schools you got in,I, out of all the schools you
got in, I think you like thisone the most.
And this person knew me likereally well.
So I'm like, yeah, I'll takeyour word for it.
And I just signed up for UCIand I love the school too.
It's a gorgeous campus.
When I visited, I made a greatdecision to go there, but I took
my first psychology class as anelective, along with, like,

(13:16):
biology and chemistry.
I had never been morefascinated in a classroom just
based on the material itself.
What was the material?
So I learned why peopleexperience depression and what
it means to experiencedepression, what are symptoms of
it and how you can actuallydeal with it.
I was like I've never heard ofthis before, you know, and it's

(13:39):
weird because nowadays it'sreally easy to look up any
symptoms and how to deal with it.
People have there's greatchannels on YouTube like
Psych2Go.
I don't know if you've heard ofthem, but that really kind of
take you step by step throughthe process of hey, this is what
it looks like and here's whatit could look like for you.
But before I didn't have accessto that, youtube wasn't that

(13:59):
huge.
It was big but not that huge.
And while it was just such aneye-opener experience for me
because I always had anxiety andI guess I had depression at the
time and I didn't even know itand it was just an eye-opener to
see a full classroom of peoplelearning the same thing, taking
it in and it's like wow, this issomething that we could

(14:20):
actually work on.
I thought I was just a weirdkid for feeling this way, you
know.
So it felt to be a part ofsomething bigger and I felt like
I fit in for once in terms of,like, my own emotions I see.

J.R. (14:32):
So you really resonated with that first class and it all
just clicked into place.
So now we talked about this offcamera.
But you're, you said you are.
You got into a master's programthis fall, right, correct.
So where's the future lead, orwhat do you expect to be doing,
let's say, in the next five, tenyears?

Hazier (14:48):
Well, five, ten years, probably more school.
Yeah because the master'sprogram would be two years or a
year and a half and then,following that, I would be
entering a PhD program whereminimum it's five with a max of
seven years.
So definitely more schooling.
But after that I ideally seemyself teaching at universities,
doing more research into therealm of psychology, because,

(15:11):
how we mentioned before,psychology is fairly new when
you compare it to most subjectslike math or biology.
I mean, we've been talkingabout anatomy for many, many
years compared to psychology,and the world is constantly
shifting.
A lot for humans, like in termsof social aspect, in terms of
technology.
Yeah, technology is movingfaster than it's ever moved in

(15:32):
the history of mankind.
Like it's, it's a lot to takein and we're going to need
people that dedicate their livesto discovering.
Okay, how do we handle all ofthis new information?
Okay, here's how we can do it.
I want to be part of that teamthat goes in there and tries to
figure out okay, how can we makethis sustainable for ourselves?
Really, how can we take ininformation?

(15:52):
One of the things that I wouldlove to do is, if I can improve
humanity's relationships withone another and themselves, then
I made it in life and I'm notgoing to say I'm going to change
the world, Change the world.
Yeah, yeah but as long as I'mimproving human relationships,
whether that means with otherpeople or themselves, then I did
it.
That's, I guess, what you wouldsay is my end goal with that

(16:15):
too.

J.R. (16:16):
I love it.
So now, perfect transition.
So now you've been in educationfor a while now, yes, and now
we're moving over to the nexttopic, which is being a younger
educator, building community,and then, eventually, your TED
Talk.
Let's start off with the firstvideo, solomon, if you don't
mind throwing this up.
Okay, young Teacher Adventuresby Hazi.

Hazier (16:36):
Young Teacher Adventures .
So I was teaching the other day, regular day, and I had a
student say hey, you all have atest this Friday and it's
Wednesday, and one of thestudents goes Really chat,
really, huh, chat.

J.R. (16:51):
Chat.

Hazier (16:52):
I love the memes.
I'm not streaming.
You're not streaming.
Why are you saying chatGenerations, young Teacher
Adventures?
Why are you saying chatgenerations so?

J.R. (17:06):
it's so funny because so I have a young, younger brother
who is like a third year incollege and I have a baby
brother who is going into highschool next year.
He's always like, oh, we're socooked, we're cooked, you know
like everything, all the lingothat you know about, yep, and so
I related to that a lot.
I was like, yep, yeah, that'smy little brother exactly.

Hazier (17:24):
Yeah, no, learning all the lingo, you'd think because
I'm a bit on the younger sidecompared to like most of my
colleagues I would.
I'm like I'm gonna pick up oneverything.
No, cooked.
I learned from them too chat.
That was genuinely so true.
I'm like why are you sayingchat to me like I guess a twitch
thing, but like why?

J.R. (17:41):
are they saying it in real life?
Yeah, there's.
No, we're not streaming.

Hazier (17:45):
Yeah, we're not streaming, but literally almost
everyone says that now too I'llbe out and about, and my friends
say it too.
I'm like what's happening?

J.R. (17:53):
you know, yeah, but it's cool.

Hazier (17:54):
You know that's just how it goes.
But then it really showed.
Wow, yeah, I guess I'm.
I really am the next generation, like above now, yeah, I'm the
youngest.

J.R. (18:02):
I feel like, because, like I mentioned, dancing on a ucla
team, it's like skibity, theysay slay because it's dance
stuff and so there's all thesethings and I'm just like I'm
hearing it and I'm like if Ihear a reference that I don't
know, three times I'm like, oh,this is a thing, or it's a trend
, or it's a video sort of thing,but it's always a fun
experience.
You're like what's going?
What is this language?
Yeah, we're speaking the samelanguage, but we're also not.

Hazier (18:25):
Exactly yeah, and I really did not think I would
feel out of touch with the youth.

J.R. (18:31):
Like I'm young, though.
What are you talking aboutExactly?
So how did you so?
How do you get into teaching?
And then, what did you teach?
And all that stuff?

Hazier (18:38):
So I got into it.
It was a bit random, but wehave a family friend who is a
middle school teacher and shesuggested that I should look
into it because there's ateacher shortage because of
pandemic.
So I decided, ok, yeah, I'll doit.
And they were increasing thepay for that year because they
really needed other teachers.
So I signed up initially justto be a daily sub.

(19:00):
So I was just going to do itliterally once a week.
While I work at this at my mom'shair salon, I was like yeah
we'll figure it out and I'mgoing to ease into it because
I'm like I kind of don't want todo it because working with
teenagers sounds like anightmare, right, and so I'm
going into this.
Okay, I'm going to sign up forAP calculus class.
They're just going to work.
It'll be super chill.
I'll do my thing, right, and Iget there an hour and a half

(19:22):
early because I wanted to belike like putting a good
impression for my first teachingexperience.
And then the secretary's like,oh, you're early because it was
a midday assignment, you'rereally early.
I'm like, oh yeah, I justwanted to ask for advice because
my first time doing this.
And she's like well, actually,do you think it's someone in the
class right now?
And I'm like, what, excuse me,this is what you get for coming

(19:45):
early exactly, exactly.
I'm being punished for trying todo the right thing, right, but
no.
And then I'm like, oh, I'mabout to say no, but I'm like
what class is it?
What class?
yeah she goes, oh, it's dance.
And I'm like, oh, dance.
And I was like, okay, I'vedanced for like eight years.
At this point I've actuallytaught classes.
I have a background in ballet,lyrical jazz, contemporary hip

(20:07):
hop.
And then she goes no way, we'reactually looking for a dance
teacher right now.
I was like, no way, yeah.
And even the principal came inand she's like wait, you can
actually teach dance.
I'm like, well, well, yeah, ifyou'd like me to.
But wait, is this full-time?
What's going on?
Like it's a lot and they needto teach right now too.

(20:28):
And yeah, oh, one thing afteranother.
Essentially we decided likeit's a short-term position.
So we did.
I was with him for about threemonths until they found like a
permanent position and thatchanged the trajectory of what I
thought I wanted to do with mycareer, because before I wasn't
really looking into teaching.
It wasn't until all thisteaching experience happened,
because after that three monththen they saw me, oh, this guy

(20:50):
can actually do like temporaryteaching.
So then I had another class forsix months in English, and then
I had another class, or Itaught summer school, which was
government and economics, andthen I had another class, or I
taught summer school, which wasgovernment and economics.
And then I had another classthat was another six months, and
no, this was a four year, thiswas eight months, so a full
school year.
And that was sociology andworld history.

(21:11):
Yeah, and that was a ton of funtoo.
Then after that it was biology,and then it was sociology and
government.

J.R. (21:20):
Okay, wait.
So how do you go into teachingthose different subjects?
Oh yeah, you know what I mean,like psychology, uci.

Hazier (21:26):
Yeah.

J.R. (21:27):
How do you go into teaching all those different
things?

Hazier (21:28):
So what helped a lot was , I mean, in college I did take
courses in all of these, butwhat truly helped is the fact
that I took AP classes in highschool, like AP Gov.
I'm like I could probably teachgovernment again.
I just need to like relearneverything.
But to me, they ask me if I'mcomfortable to do it and it's
like, as long as you know thesecore concepts, try your best.

(21:50):
And they're not expecting toomuch because I'm not a permanent
position, so they're not like,hey, you need to be like top
level.
But I mean, in my opinion, Igave it my Like.
I genuinely gave this positionmy all, because I told myself
I'm here, I might as well try myabsolute best at this, even
though I know I'm not going todo this forever, at least high
school teaching, I want to giveit my all and try to make this

(22:12):
as best of an experience formyself and for everyone in the
classroom as well.
And, yeah, it's genuinely beenone of the best jobs I've ever
had in my entire life.
I like it, yeah.

J.R. (22:22):
So two questions and these were probably a little loaded,
and or this is one thing wecould probably go on hours for
but biggest challenges of beinga high school teacher.
And then two biggest takeawaysor lessons that you've learned
as you reflect on your three anda half-ish or so years of
experience.

Hazier (22:37):
I see so takeaways of experience.
I see so takeaways challenges.
So with the challenges, I wouldsay at first it was classroom
management, because I'm younger,so they're like oh, this guy's
going to let us do whatever wewant.
Yeah, and I was, I guess, achill teacher at the time too,
but I've learned over time tolike really put my foot down,
like hey, like I want you guysto actually learn and navigating

(23:00):
.
That was so tough because Ihate being like mean.
But what I did instead is Italked to them like as if they
were like how I would talk to anadult.
Like hey, I know this might notbe that interesting, but I
promise you like I'm going totry to make this as interesting
as possible, do your absolutebest and let's work together to
make this a good educationalenvironment for all of us.

(23:22):
And I always tried tyingeverything we learned to the
real world and that literallyclicked for majority of the
students every single time.
Like wait, do they not teachyou this way in your other
classes?
They're like nope, and thatsurprised me.
But I get it, because it's nottechnically part of the core

(23:44):
curriculum to constantly try totie everything, and it's a lot
of work to do that too, yeah,like making it relevant to the
real world Exactly Like theyshould care about it Exactly and
it's hard to make them careunless you try to find, because
luckily I was younger.
I, luckily I was younger, Iunderstood more pop culture
references or movies or music,and I tie that in.
Or maybe whatever is going on,especially in government.

(24:04):
There was so much to talk aboutat the time too.
Trust.
This is very relevant, Exactly,yeah.
So that was the easiest one totie in, along with sociology,
but the ones that were a bitmore challenging was like
English and biology.
But once I got around to thoseit was, I wouldn't say, walk in
the park, but definitely waymore manageable than the
beginning.
Second challenge, and probablythe most pressing one, was

(24:28):
coming up with all this extratime to try to grade everything
at home, to prepare at home.
It was like I don't have thistime and I'm like I feel like I
don't have any time for myselfanymore.
My life became school and Iwasn't even any time for myself
anymore.
My life became school and Iwasn't even a permanent teacher.
You know, that's the part thatreally blew my mind from the
whole thing.
And then, but so this onesemester, I told myself this

(24:52):
whole semester I'm not takingany of the work home, I'm going
to do it all here and I'm goingto lock in and do it all during
school hours, and I fell behindmore than you could possibly
imagine.
No, it was so rough and Inoticed it affected my
relationship with the studentstoo, Because something I would
do and this is me like I wentabove and beyond.

(25:14):
But I don't regret it Is I.
For the English class I made ita goal to sit one-on-one with
every student and just to get toknow them.
So I'd ask them three questionslike how's school, How's life
outside of school and what's onething you're looking forward to
in life.
And you'd be so surprised howmuch students would share.

(25:35):
Sometimes some students didn'tshare and I never.
I didn't pry, I just wanted toget to know them at least on a
basic level, and it improved thelearning environment by tenfold
when I did that and butunfortunately that was when I
took homework with me when Ididn't do that it was 10 times
harder because I still trieddoing that as well.

(25:56):
I could only do maybe half theclass if I was lucky, so that
that became the two biggestchallenges because obviously it
affects classroom management.
But I needed to have some sortof a life at home again.
But at the time I didn't mindthis job becoming like
everything to me.
At the time it was genuinely sofun and I guess that goes into

(26:17):
my takeaway too with thestudents.
I mean, I went into this jobthinking man, teenagers don't
like them, right, and most olderadults don't, because they're
reckless, they don't know whatthey're doing with their lives.
And while maybe those twothings may be true, their
brilliance is also true theirtalent, their motivation, their

(26:38):
compassion.
And it really broke my heartlike learning how many students
nowadays just feel like sohopeless.
At such a young age too.
I would tell some students ohno, you're doing amazing, I'm
proud of you, You've come a longway.
And seeing like the light intheir eyes when I'd say that,
and then some people they justcrush it off like instantly.

(26:58):
But I'm like wait, do they nothear this?
Are they not as hopeful as Ithought they would be about
their futures?
And that really was a wake-upcall for me.
And just seeing, I wonder howit is for them on a daily basis
at the school if no one evertold them that, or if I wasn't
around to tell them that,Because some students told me.

J.R. (27:17):
And the fact that, like only two students told me yeah,
I've students told me and thefact that like only two students
told me yeah I've never hadsomeone tell me that before I'm
like oh my gosh, they stillteach you many, right yeah,
exactly, and the fact that theytold me that.

Hazier (27:30):
So that tells me like there's even more students that
are just the like, the soundmajority, and it broke my heart.
And these kids need more hopein their lives.
And us, as educators, it'salmost part of our jobs to give
them that hope too, becausewe're here to teach them about
the world.
At the end of the day, yeah,I'll teach you math and science

(27:51):
and English, but hey, I want youto succeed in life.
Should be all of us aseducators, our end goal with
each student that we have.
And I learned this when I wentto summer school.
It was extra pay because it'ssummer school, so I did it.
I was like I'm going to get theworst kids in, manageable, I'm
going to get the dude that yellsat the teacher, that throws

(28:13):
stuff at me or something.
And I found the completeopposite.
It was all the quietest kidsyou've ever imagined.
Why do you think that is so?
My understanding of it is theylack the most attention in class
because they're the quiet kids.
So, for instance, like therambunctious kid that like maybe
he yells in class or swearswhatever, the teacher pays
attention to them a lot morethan the person that's like and

(28:37):
for lack of better words, likesuffering in silence every
single kid for both of my summerschool classes silent.
It wasn't until closer to theend of summer school session
like a bit more lively because Idid exercises for them to talk
to each other, but for the mostpart I was shook.
Everything I thought about,like what determines a failing
student, just was flipped on itshead.
It was like oh, we're notpaying attention to our students

(29:00):
enough because they knew theirstuff.
Once I had to do a lot ofone-on-one, but once I really
talked to them and really guidedthem, they got it like that.
But it was like wow.
But I don't blame teachers too.
The ratio is wow yeah you knowuphill battle it is.
I mean for me alone I had.
The most I had was around maybe150 students, something like

(29:22):
that, 140 and that.
That that's a lot for me, but Istill try to do my best.
But I can't imagine like withespecially teachers that are
older.
That's a lot of like youngpeople to manage a lot of energy
, gotta go home socially trained.
I didn't want to talk to toanyone so that's why I don't
necessarily blame the teachers.

(29:43):
It's more of maybe we need abetter system like
organizational at least.
But yeah, our kids do need abit more attention on the just
emotional front too and hope.

J.R. (29:56):
That segues great into our next section, but really quick,
I want to show your TED Talkphoto.
My second guest has ever had aTEDx talk, which is fantastic.
I'll link to it in the shownotes so they can check it out.
I loved it.
Little by little, thank you.
You kind of touched upon it inyour story, but I think that's
very impactful.
It's like the idea of tacklinga large thing.
You just kind of do it piece bypiece Exactly and I you just

(30:18):
kind of do it piece by pieceexactly, and I think that's very
good for especially yourstudents.
We have to move on to the nextsection now, but so this next
topic is on social relationships, emotional well-being and
getting human experience.
So you put that in like thetopics.
So could you elaborate on thisidea of more, this idea of
personal human experience?
What do you mean by?

Hazier (30:36):
that?
Yeah.
So with personal humanexperience, it's just focusing
more on the individualexperience, like, not so much
like your friends orrelationships loving one another
.
What does your life look likeon a day-to-day basis?
How do you talk to yourself?
What is your self-talk?
And most of us have aself-monologue every day.
What is that saying to youevery day?

(30:57):
Or?
a mental script, exactly Like amental script.
What is that saying?
Every day, how do you viewyourself, how do you react to
things all the time?
Because for the most part, Idon't think I've had an
experience in any classroom atleast in high school, where we
touched on that where it's like,hey, how do you approach
situations on your own?

(31:17):
How do you look at your life?
Because we all have suchdifferent perspectives.
We come from completelydifferent backgrounds, even if
we're culturally similar.
Our parents raised us probablycompletely differently.
Maybe some of us only had onemom and one dad, or we had both
parents, and maybe they collided.
Maybe they had the greatestlove of their life, maybe we had
siblings or not.

(31:38):
Everyone has their own personalexperience when it comes to
their views on the world.
So my idea is I think we needto focus on that a little bit in
some aspect at a younger stagein life, so we can have a better
understanding of how to take inour environment, because we
always focus on like, make sureyou get the right friends or, oh

(32:00):
, make sure you marry the rightperson.
It's always of connecting withothers.
What about connecting withyourself?

J.R. (32:05):
a little bit External versus internal.

Hazier (32:07):
Exactly yeah, and it would be great if there's some
way we can incorporate that intoour curriculum in like high
school stage.
Maybe elementary might be tooearly or maybe middle school,
but definitely a high schoolstage would be a good stage to
really explore that in moredetail for everyone, because
that can make or break you.

J.R. (32:27):
Right.
So we talked about this alittle bit off camera, but If
you were to, you were talkingabout the educational system and
how we can improve it.
Obviously, there's a lot ofroom for improvement and growth.
If you could, in an ideal world, create that, what are some
highlights or key changes do youfeel like would make the most
impact?

Hazier (32:44):
An entire class on just communication.
What kind of communication so,for instance?
Well, one public speaking, Ithink, is one of the best things
you can do.
So, for instance, I've told mystudents and they hate me for
this, but I've told my studentsEnglish is probably one of the
best classes you'll ever take,because that's the closest we'll
get to communications in a highschool level, because one
presentations, but two, I just Iwould love to see students

(33:08):
practice emotional talk as well,like, how do you convey your
emotions to another person?
Let's take, let's say somethingbothers you, right?
How do you approach, like, aconflict resolution with someone
else when it comes to, hey,this about you annoys me, okay.
How do you approach thateffectively?
I only learned this when I wasin college.
I took a whole class on socialrelationships and how you should

(33:29):
approach certain situations,and I was also a peer educator.
So that was all about, okay,mental well-being and this is
how you express yourself in aneffective and respectful manner.
We're losing that a lot becauseit's not touched upon at an
earlier stage in life, and Ibelieve that would just have
tremendous value on people'srelationship with not only other

(33:50):
people but themselves too.
Let me give you an example.
So you know, when you write anessay, you have to write an
intro as to like this is whatthe essay is pretty much going
to be about.
That's how most people shouldgo into conflict resolutions
with anyone.
So let's say, for instance, likeme and my girlfriend, let's say
I'm always late to things, andshe gets really annoyed by it.

(34:10):
She'll go up to me like, if shedoesn't preface anything, she
goes hey, this really annoyed me.
I just am constantly baffled bythe fact that you're always
late and you make me feel stupidand it's like that's more of
like a hostile environmentversus if she was to preface.
Like, hey, I'm only going tosay this because I want our

(34:31):
relationship to improve for bothof us and I just want to
understand you a little bitbetter.
I want a relationship toimprove for both of us and I
just want to understand you alittle bit better.
And can I just want to behonest, like it kind of annoys
me that you're consistently lateand it hurts and it really
irritates me.
That at least opens the door tothe possibility of it being more
of a conflict resolution,rather than oh, she's attacking

(34:53):
me Because at least it opens thedoor.
I'm not saying guaranteed, hey,preface everything and people
would understand you.
No, but at least it opens thedoor to just a civil discussions
.
Oh wait, yeah, she does love me.
She's only doing this for thebetterment of our relationship.
That prefacing.
It sounds so simple, but it'slike the most effective thing

(35:13):
you can do when it comes toconflict resolution.
It doesn't even have to beromantic.
It can be your friends, yourfamily, if you talk to yourself
a little bit.

J.R. (35:24):
That could also really help.
I do it all the time.
I ask myself like wait, prefaceto myself Hazi, yeah, we need
to do this, exactly.
No, yeah, exactly, and it helpsa lot.

Hazier (35:29):
It helps a lot.
The words you say on a dailybasis, especially to yourself.
On a daily basis, especially toyourself, eventually create
that reality for you.

J.R. (35:36):
Yeah, I like that.
I think my next question islike this idea of emotional
well-being.

Hazier (35:43):
We're kind of talking about that.

J.R. (35:44):
But what do you think people get wrong about their own
emotional well-being?

Hazier (35:48):
What I've seen, kind of two things.
One, people don't give enoughpatience and time to emotions
compared to other things.
So, for instance, let's say youwant to get six-pack abs, right
, you do a thousand sit-upstoday, you're not going to have
a six-pack tomorrow.
That's just not how it worksright.
You might see a differencebecause a thousand's a lot, but
you're not going to have theshape that you ideally want.

(36:10):
It takes time and consistency.
The same thing with emotions,and I've seen this with my
students too, because I've hadclasses where we discussed hey,
here's some little things youcan do in your life to improve
mental well-being.
And I had one student tell meyeah, I tried the journaling
option and it doesn't work.
I still feel the same.
I'm like it's been three days.
You know, it's been only threedays.

J.R. (36:32):
You don't have abs yet.
Exactly Right.
Yeah, exactly, but it's beenonly three days.

Hazier (36:33):
You don't have abs yet Exactly, it's because you can't
see it.
It's all about how you feel.
You can't see the progress.
Trust me, there's progress inthere.
Let's say you did 100 sit-ups.
There's progress there, but youjust can't see it yet.
I believe people need to giveemotional well-being that same
patience.
Also, the difference is too,it's not one size fits all.

(36:58):
Again, going back to the abexample, like you can do sit-ups
and you'll probably get thereeventually.
But let's say you do thejournaling thing for a while.
That might not work for you.
Maybe you need to just gooutside more.
Maybe talk to your family more,connect with them more, maybe
meditate, sit there in yourthoughts and just think and just
you know, be worry-free for afew seconds, a few minutes.
And there's so many options andI really I've told myself and my

(37:21):
students time and time again ifyou would give someone else the
grace and the patience and theoptions to try to change your
lives, especially someone youlove, you'd be like, hey, I'm
going to do everything I can tohelp you to get out of this rut.
Why don't you give yourselfthat same treatment?
That changed everything for meand hopefully it changed a lot

(37:42):
for my students.
But oh, and the second thingtoo when it comes to like
emotional well-being and whenpeople think emotional control,
they think like all right, yougot to be a robot.
You just can't react toanything Like no, not
necessarily.
Think like all right, you got tobe a robot, you just can't
react to anything Like no, notnecessarily.
It's just, there's appropriatetimes to be sad, there's
appropriate times to not make itworse either.
To me, emotional control is yes, I'm sad, yes, whatever I'm

(38:04):
going through is really intense,like, maybe, loss of life,
betrayal, whatever it may be,heartbreak of some sort.
I'm going to do everything inmy power to not make this worse
for myself, because a lot ofpeople will turn to drugs,
downward spiral, downward spiral, and it's tough, and that comes
with not having enoughemotional well-being, enough
emotional control.

(38:25):
That's more of what we mean, aswhen we say you should have
good emotional control, becausethere's a time and place to cry
it out and be sad, but, man, doyour absolute best to fight for
yourself too.

J.R. (38:36):
It reminds me a lot of Inside Out.
Grab one and two, both greatmovies and what I similar.
I guess the big takeaway for meis that our emotions are there
for a reason and for a lot ofpeople who try to robot their
way through life it kind ofsuppresses those things and
they're there to help us and toyour point understanding,

(39:01):
controlling it whatever,processing it, giving it the
time to breathe and then movingon to solve the problem.
But also what you're saying,you know fight for yourself.
Don't go into that downwardspiral.
Don't let anxiety or whoever,take over yeah, so I like that.

Hazier (39:09):
And well, last thing, to touch on that too, it's like
also the one I mentioned, thepatience too.
It's like like almost neverending.
It's like if you want to keepthe abs, you got to keep working
out.
And it's the same thing withemotions.
People think, oh, I feel better, now I can stop.
Stop, yeah, it's a lifelongprocess.

J.R. (39:23):
Exactly, it's consistency, lifelong but it's what makes it
fun too.
Yeah, it's an added value totalk about this.
Similar again is what do youthink are the biggest challenges
in navigating socialrelationships?
So similar vein, and then maybe, what advice do you have for
people to navigate and orimprove these social
relationships?

Hazier (39:45):
Let's see navigating social relationships.
Well, I mentioned it earlier,1000% has to be communication
and how we communicate ourselvesto others, like how we present
how we feel about someone toanother person.
Communication how we presenthow we feel about someone to
another person.

J.R. (39:56):
Like communication, how we present how we feel about
someone to another person.

Hazier (40:00):
No, no, how we feel about ourselves to them.

J.R. (40:02):
Oh, to them.

Hazier (40:02):
Yeah, yeah, sorry about that, yeah, and so let me think
here.
So, for instance, there's beentimes in marriages where they
feel like, oh, we fell out oflove.
The spark is gone.
It's like, well, love can be afeeling, but love is also a
commitment, it's a choice, it'san effort, right, and it's
talking through like, okay,let's be honest with each other,

(40:25):
we're losing the spark.
What can we do to reignite it?
Well, we haven't gone on a datein like six months.
Perfect, let's try that.
And it's like people mislabellove too much as just a feeling,
just passion, just the spark.
No, it's so much more than that, and I to me, that's what makes
at least human love one of themost beautiful experiences in

(40:47):
life.
Because, yeah, you can lose itand it's scary, it's terrifying
to lose love, but I think thefact that you could potentially
lose it makes it all the morevaluable yeah exactly so.
When people approach love always, just don't assume it's based
on the feeling, work at it.
It's, at the end of the day, Imean I don't want to say treat

(41:10):
it like work, but it is work.
It requires effort, it requireseffort and it's that whole like
fight for yourself.
If you're a downward spiral,fight for your love man, both of
you.
It's a two-way street.
If one person's notreciprocating, then explore
other options or something,other ways to deal with that.
But at the end of the day, withmost marriages that at least
have been studied, it's becausethey don't talk about their love

(41:33):
anymore, because then itbecomes about the kids, about
their car, about their career,about other things other than
external.
Yeah, because we get reallycomfortable.
Even I mean, I've been in myrelationship for a few years now
but even I've gotten toocomfortable and it's pretty
fresh.
But it's like, oh wait, yeah,maybe we should go on dates more
often, let's explore new worldstogether more often and let's

(41:55):
keep this thing alive together,you and me.
And that's the beauty of whatlove should be and that's
communication, like having thatuncomfortable conversation like
honestly, we got to do something, you know, and it's so hard and
it's so so hard.
And last thing I'll touch onthat segues into it is how a lot
of my students they findtalking about emotions cringy

(42:17):
and that's like another way ofsaying it's just uncomfortable
for them.
They don't want to do it andit's like I get it because
you've never really done itbefore, especially in like a
controlled setting.
But at the end of the day, it'ssomething that I believe
everyone should just attemptdoing sooner rather than later.
I believe everyone should justattempt doing sooner rather than
later.
Take that chance with having anice conversation with your

(42:40):
parents and hopefully it goeswell.
At least you try it and thedoor is open.
But every single time and thishas helped me a lot every single
time I always tell myselfchances are it can work out, but
it can always not, becausehumans are incredibly
unpredictable.
You could be extremely perfect,like in terms of what you say,
how you do it, how you executeit, maybe how you present your

(43:01):
emotions to someone.
It's perfect on paper, but theperson can still be like nope, I
don't accept you, it's likedang, but that's how humans are.
We're incredibly unpredictablebecause of our feelings, I would
say people, and people shouldbe very patient with themselves
when it comes to socialrelationships and relationships
with themselves I love it.

J.R. (43:23):
Now I can see why you were so good at your ted talk.

Hazier (43:26):
This is such a wealth of information.

J.R. (43:28):
I loved every single point .

Hazier (43:29):
I'm not going to add anything to that.
Oh, appreciate it thank youguys.

J.R. (43:32):
Listen to this again, rewind it.
That was I mean.
The rest of it was too, but yougot your money's worth, cool,
all right.
Thanks, let's transition torapid fire.
You ready, all right?
So rapid fire questions.
You can take as much time asyou need within 15 minutes.
Yeah, gotcha.

Hazier (43:55):
First question.
I have two.
Is that okay?
Okay?
Number one is, as I mentionedbefore, it is never too late to
turn your life around.
I've met people in their 80sthat have been drug-free for six
years and now they dedicatetheir lives to teaching others
people much younger than them,to stay drug-free as well at
like rehab centers.
It's absolutely amazing to see.
And then, obviously, with theboom gang experience, gabana,
but with my own students, I have17 year olds telling me mr elis

(44:19):
, now it's, it's too late for me, I don't think I can be
successful I'm like you're 17,yeah, like it's not too late.
You know it's not too late.
Yeah, sure you didn't startstudying hard when you were five
.
Sure, start now.
Yeah, right, start right nowand see where life takes you,
because it's.
I've had friends that theygraduate 2.7, go to community
college and then they transferinto, like UC Berkeley Whoa,

(44:41):
right, anyway.
The second one is life is assimple as you want it to be.
This one carries a bit morecontext, but it's because you
can let someone critiquing youor making fun of you affect you
for the rest of your day, restof your week.
Or critiquing you or making funof you affect you for the rest

(45:02):
of your day, rest of your week.
Or you could take that and belike okay, I'll move on, because
a lot of us take in negativityso intensely, especially me.
I'm guilty of that too.
I'm working on that.
So if I get 10 compliments aday, one person says something
negative sticks with you, right.
But instead of making thatcomplicate my life, oh, let me
simplify it.
Or let's say I want to get goodat doing music.
That's complicated.
Oh, let me get good at it andsimplify it.
That's that way.

(45:22):
Or my relationship, oh, itmight be complicated.
Well, let's simplify it byeffectively communicating with
each other, so we're on the samepage about things.
Life is as simple as you wantit to be.

J.R. (45:31):
I like it.

Hazier (45:32):
Next question what is one of the hardest challenges
you faced and what did you learnfrom it?
Oh, let's see Rapid fire.
Huh, I'd say, believing inmyself.
I, for so many years of my life, was incredibly hard on myself.
I would do a performance likefor dance, for example, and my

(45:53):
friends would be like, wow, thatwas really good, like you're
really good.
I would do a performance likefor dance, for example, and my
friends would be like, wow, thatwas really good, like you're
really good.
I would be like, thanks, but no, I would tell them that.
I would be like, no, you'reactually wrong, exactly.
And, looking back, I kind oftook away from their excitement
too, from their experience.
It's like, oh man, I kind ofruined all those moments when
people told me good job, and Iruined it for myself especially,

(46:22):
and even I've been in instanceswhere I just didn't believe in
myself and it like held me backfrom so many opportunities in
life or ruin friendships becauseI'm like, oh no, I suck, I'm a
terrible person, I'm not a goodenough friend for you, I need to
leave like it was really bad.
Me being against myself is if Iwere to have a regret.
I don't have regrets because Ilove the person I am today, but
if I were to have one, it wouldbe.

J.R. (46:42):
I should have believed myself sooner rather than later,
hey, but it's never too late,exactly okay, well, I guess, in
the same vein, if you could giveyour younger self advice, what
would it be now?

Hazier (46:52):
believe in yourself yeah , yeah and, at the end of the no
one will come to save youexcept yourself.
Because I was surrounded bywonderful people that would try
to help me all the time, likeyou should go for this job
opportunity.
Oh, you should take this class,you should do this.
And I'm like, no, I'm not goodenough.
Like, at the end of the day,like everyone can try to lift me

(47:12):
up, but if I'm holding myselfdown, I'm the biggest weight.
So I genuinely believe inyourself.

J.R. (47:20):
If you could redo one thing, what would you do
differently?
And I know you said no regrets,but as a thought experiment,
maybe something in teaching ifyou could go back if you could
redo something, what would youredo?

Hazier (47:31):
I think I would try to incorporate.
I started doing it in like mylater half of my teaching career
is.
I started having like TED Talksin class.
So when there was time I wouldwrite on the board like topics
that I knew about, or I'd belike what's a topic you think I
can talk about?
And that was so fun for thestudents.
I'm like I should have done thisearlier, because then it made

(47:53):
them more engaged to doeverything we were learning.
They're like I should have donethis earlier, because then it
made them more engaged to doeverything we were learning.
They're like, wait, this guykind of knows this stuff and I
made it fun and interesting forthem.
And it was so fun hearing theirthoughts too, because it wasn't
just one-sided.
I'd be like, and has anyoneexperienced something like this?
And then they would share theirstory related to the topic.
Oh, it was such a blast.
That was such a blast.

J.R. (48:12):
Yeah, what new belief, behavior or habit has improved
your life in the last few years?

Hazier (48:18):
let's say I would say, reminding myself that there are
things outside of my control andthat there's things in my
control, as long as I'm gettingthe things in my control.
I worry a lot less abouteverything else now, because
before man, I was worrying aboutevery little thing, every
little thing that was out of mycontrol and it played into the

(48:41):
whole.
Like see, you're not goodenough because you can't control
everything.
Like it was tough.
But reminding myself every dayyou know what.
I'm just gonna focus on what Ican do right now.
Everything else, like it is,like it is what it is right.
Yeah, but as long as I focus onwhat I can do, I'm proud of
myself.
I'm happy with the person I am,because I'm consistently

(49:03):
working on the things that I cando.

J.R. (49:05):
I love it.
All right, this is a two-part,each side of the coin question.
But if you knew you wouldn'tfail, what would you be doing
now?
And if you knew you wouldabsolutely fail?
What would you be doing now?
And if you knew you wouldabsolutely fail, what would you
do anyway?

Hazier (49:18):
Wow, I love this question.
If I knew I couldn't fail, well, I would be a musician, doctor
of psychology yeah, I would dothat.
And my genuine dream if I justcouldn't fail at it is I'd go on
like a tour of doing concertsand also doing public speaking.

J.R. (49:39):
I love it, I'm a psychologist.

Hazier (49:40):
yeah, but I could do both.
But it's like realistically, Idon't know, I don't know.
I'm telling myself I could doboth.

J.R. (49:46):
You never know right.
Little by little man.
Little by little, that's right.

Hazier (49:51):
Yeah, I gotta take my own advice really.

J.R. (49:54):
Yeah.
So if you knew you wouldabsolutely fail, what would you
be doing anyway?

Hazier (49:58):
Psychology and speaking about it with students, people
that have a whole life ahead ofthem.
I would try to help them, nomatter what.
Even if I fail, well, I'm stilldoing what I love, and if
there's just a chance I canimprove just one person's life
in the room, that's the world tome, yeah.

J.R. (50:16):
I like it All right.
What is one thing that you'vebeen pondering deeply, or what
is your favorite hot take youthink people wouldn't agree with
?

Hazier (50:25):
My favorite hot take?
People or something I've beenpondering deeply, or favorite
hot take.

J.R. (50:28):
Yeah.

Hazier (50:33):
That's a really that's a tough one.
Wow, A hot take if you don'thave one.

J.R. (50:37):
You should be something you've been thinking about,
something I've been thinkingabout.

Hazier (50:40):
Well, just people's opinions, like mainstream
opinions on things, not I don'twant to use the word mainstream,
but it's just general opinionstowards art nowadays, like
especially movies and tv showsand music, and just art like
paintings like I've seen waymore negativity around it than I
ever have in my entire life.
Like I believe, if people founda way to express their own art,

(51:03):
I don't think we should callthat like terrible, we should be
like oh, I don't agree withthat, I just don't rock with it,
but it's cool.
Like I don't think we should beknocking on people's art so
harshly Because, at the end ofthe day, majority of art isn't
necessarily offensive either.
It's just they try their best.
Exactly, it's just anexpression.
They try their best to conveythis message.

(51:25):
And I think we're being way tooharsh, especially on newer
people pursuing art.
Oh my gosh, I've seen peoplejust get ripped into.
I'm like this is their firsttime posting anything.

J.R. (51:37):
Like it's tough man and this is the majority of the time
it's people who don't createthemselves.
Exactly Right.

Hazier (51:42):
Exactly that's the part that irks me so much, and yeah,
and so the hot take part is Idon't think every person with a
phone needs to post theiropinion necessarily.

J.R. (51:52):
Yeah, I like it.
I opinion necessarily.
Yeah, I like it.
I like it, especially if it'sso negative.
Nice, yeah, okay, what is oneof the best or most worthwhile
investments you've made ineither time?
Money, energy, et cetera.

Hazier (52:02):
Wait, can I say one more hot, take, go ahead.
We should ban phones in school.

J.R. (52:09):
I mean I like it.

Hazier (52:09):
I'm trying to ban phone for myself Okay great, yeah,
it's kind of hard, but I want todo it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause that'ssuch a distractor, but best
investment.
Yeah, so this changed my life.
So there was a period where Ifeel like I've hit rock bottom
multiple times.
I feel like that's all of us,yeah, yeah, but I felt like I
hit that period.
I remember I was on the floorscrolling through TikTok for
seven hours straight and I waslike I need to fix my life.

(52:30):
You are yeah yeah, yeah, oh gosh, yeah, yeah, oh gosh.
But at the end of the day Idecided you know what?
I'm going to walk outside everyday for at least 10 minutes.
10 minutes turned into 20 to 30, an hour into 10,000 steps a
day Changed my entire life.
I got my life together.
I started talking to my familymore.

(52:50):
That's when I started workingfor my mom.
I started working on myself,exercising more, because I was
20 pounds underweight too, andto me, I just wasn't proud of
that.
I felt really unhealthy.
I was getting sick a lot, Iwasn't sleeping well, I was
waking up but anyway, and justwalking outside.
No music, just walking, justbeing present, exactly, and just
thinking.
And then I would take breaks onthis bench with a decent view

(53:13):
and I'm like and then I startedwalking with, like the old man,
walk the hands behind your back.
Yeah, and I'm like I understandwhy they do this now, like, wow
, it had such such a dramaticimpact on me.
It changed my life foreverWalking outside every day.

J.R. (53:28):
I like it, I recommend it, I do the same.
10,000 steps has changed mylife, like in small ways, but
also it's like the little thingsbut also the big things.

Hazier (53:36):
So I recommend it Exactly.
Last rapid, yeah, exactly.

J.R. (53:39):
Little by little, right Little by little.
Last question, for rapid firefavorite books, movies, videos,
articles, media, et cetera thatyou share the most, any sort of
media that you're like besidesyour ted talk, I know, oh, yeah,
because it's great, yeah, dothat.

Hazier (53:59):
But to me it's always because, like it depends, like,
oh, I know you like this, so youshould watch this.
All right, super random, I saidwatch anime I love anime.

J.R. (54:05):
Okay, okay, no, I mean same.
My last few episodes are all inanime.
Yeah, top rec.

Hazier (54:10):
Oh god, oh god, okay, if you're new hunter hunter.
My personal favorite has beenre-ero, season two, because of
the exploration of the psycheand the character development
Boom there, it's rapid fire.

J.R. (54:21):
I love it.
Rezero's on my list.
Yeah, okay, cool, we have cometo the end, hazi, so this ending
question.
So I like to end with gratitudeShout out to my mom.

Hazier (54:36):
I just called her you.
What are you grateful for?
I'm, wow, Well one.
I'm grateful for thisexperience.
It's been phenomenal.
I think you're doing a greatjob and I think you're changing
the world little by little withthis.
Honestly, Thanks, man, and I'mjust really grateful for the
life I have right now.
There's moments where I thinkmy life kind of sucks, but I'm
like no, it doesn't really yeahno-transcript.

(55:17):
But man, it's just good to sitback and be grateful and just
trust the process.
Trust the process, I like it.

J.R. (55:25):
So, on that note, final ask from the audience or final
takeaways you'd like them tohave.
Should I look at the camera?
Go for it.

Hazier (55:32):
Right there, guys, please, please, please.
The last person you should evergive up on is yourself.
Absolutely yeah, and just tryto live a life with love, with
good intentions, and don't stoplearning.
Do not stop learning.
Watch more than 1,000 gurus.
You'll learn a lot.

J.R. (55:49):
Thank, you, sir.
I don't plug my podcast often,but thank you for that.
Like, subscribe, share, comment, whatever.
If this added value, let meknow.
All right, last question, hazzy, where can we find you if
people want to see what you'reup to, connect, et cetera?

Hazier (56:01):
Yeah.
So I got Instagram TikTok, sohazyer, yep, right there, and
then TikTok is just 33.
On top of that, I stream too onmy alter ego account, boomkey
33.
And then I also wait.
Is that it?
I think that's it right, that'sit SoundCloud.
Oh, my SoundCloud.
Yeah, boomkey on Spotify aswell.
Spotify, apple music on allstreaming platforms.

(56:22):
I make music on there.
Yeah, it's really fun.

J.R. (56:24):
Perfect, yeah, and I'll link to it in the episodes.
Thank you so much for beinghere.

Hazier (56:31):
Thank you, man, I really appreciate it.

J.R. (56:32):
Thanks for stopping by.
I know we have a lot we couldprobably cover perhaps a part
two if it's in the cards, but Ireally appreciate you being here
yeah, no, thank you so much forhaving me.
I would love to be back yeah,nice, alright, so my final sign
off for the audience.
Thank you guys for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Reminder to

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#33: Hazier Rios - Educating the Future Generation, Emotional Communication, and Improving Little by Little

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#33: Hazier Rios - Educating the Future Generation, Emotional Communication, and Improving Little by Little