All Episodes

September 30, 2025 49 mins

Welcome back to the Hello Spring podcast! In this exciting Season Two premiere, host Stephen Jody Works returns after a four-year hiatus to share his journey of self-discovery and creativity. Dive into candid conversations about the creator industry, personal growth, and the joy of reconnecting with passions like reading and content creation. Join Stephen as he reflects on past experiences, explores new insights, and sets the stage for a season filled with inspiring guests and cozy chats. Tune in for a heartfelt episode that celebrates authenticity and the power of community.

Listen to Hello Spring here: https://fanlink.tv/hsp

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/springsims/

twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/springsims

gaming youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/springsims1

twitter: https://twitter.com/springsims


Want to help spread the news about the Hello Spring podcast? Please give us a 5-star review and tell your friends to subscribe. You can listen to this podcast directly on ⁠YouTube⁠, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Hey everyone, welcome or welcomeback to the Hello Spring
podcast. If you're new here, hi, my name
is Steven Jody Works. I'm an award-winning content
creator, actor, small business owner and an ADHD person who
loves the color yellow. And this is Hello Spring for
Season 2 and honestly, it feels so crazy to literally say those
words out of my mouth because I haven't recorded an episode in

(00:31):
four years since 2021. There's 20 episodes that you can
all listen back to with a lot ofamazing guests.
Was great insight, knowledge, and overall good comfort that
season 2 was pretty much the exact same, but yet there's a
better structure, better questions, and overall same
delulu Ness that we all know andlove, which is kind of exciting

(00:52):
because I really missed making this podcast and I love to yap.
I feel like I went to the schoolof Yapology.
I have my doctorate in the yapology in this and it's just
great. I like to yap, I love to talk
and I love being able to just talk about whatever I want and

(01:13):
talk to other guests about theirbackground, their knowledge,
their insight about the creator industry, gaming, acting,
Hollywood, all the things. And I think it all boils down to
1 singular thing that I want to start doing things that I want
to do rather than doing things that people want me to do, if

(01:34):
that makes sense. I've always been this type of
person that has been a yes man people pleaser and I, I didn't
realize that until I became like2526 years old.
My frontier lobe was developing and I was actually realizing
that I was putting so much on myplate that I needed to start

(01:57):
just saying no. Saying no to like opportunities,
hosting, traveling, and even like myself.
Saying no to myself was like a huge thing that I had to work on
because I am my own worst critic.
We are self critical of ourselves.
And I look at myself and I, I say to myself like, why am I

(02:19):
doing this? How am I going to do it?
No one's going to watch, no one's going to listen.
But I think I had to take time for myself to realize that as
long as I'm having fun, that is all that matters.
And I never really went into making content to make money or
make fame or do whatever. And by all means, I am not
famous. I am not rich.
I am just a regular, simple person who loves making content

(02:43):
and yapping about literally anything.
That. All these cool opportunities
were because the people that watch my content and support my
content and my parents and the people around me love what I do.
And so I think having that general like support and comfort
kept me going all these years and making content since I was

(03:04):
14 and now I'm 29 is so surreal.And I'm just glad that I'm able
to do this as like my full time job and make whatever I want
however I want. Whether it's live streaming for
three hours every single day, ormaking pre recorded content and
uploading every once in a blue moon, or even vlogging or
hosting or acting. They're all creative fields that

(03:28):
I enjoy. And I've always been a creative
person since I was very young. And I didn't realize that, like,
making content online was an actual job until I realized that
it was very sustainable for me. And I actually kind of liked it,
and I still do. And none of it ever really feels
like work for me. I think when I realized that

(03:50):
when I was making Sims videos, Iwas just wanting to show,
showcase all of my work that I've done, whether it's making
machinimas like little short films in The Sims 2 or The Sims
3 or Sims 4, and being able to upload it to the Internet for
other people to see. I was like blown out the water.

(04:10):
And when podcasting kind of camearound and became more
normalized, I found like anotherAve. to be creative and another
way to story tell. And with this and with this
podcast of having 20 episodes, I've learned a lot in those past
20 episodes from the feedback that I've gotten from the Apple

(04:31):
podcast reviews, Discord, YouTube, Twitch, my overall
friend group. They've given me so much
feedback and I've taken all of that and I took it all in,
consumed it, and I was overwhelming myself too much
with all of that. So I took some time, wrote down
some notes, how I wanted to structure it better and how I

(04:52):
wanted to make this podcast not only sustainable, I wanted to
make it very tangible for for meto just have out there into the
Internet. Because the Internet is forever.
Nothing ever is going away. Never, no things ever get
deleted. Realistically, it's always
somewhere out there. And I went to have this podcast

(05:12):
where people were able to relateto it and have something to
listen to the background, whether it's, you know, on their
commute to work or school, working on a creative project,
or just wanting to have something to listen in the
morning, afternoon, or even winding down for the night time.
And I kind of like the words that Hello Spring represents

(05:33):
positivity, kindness and love and community.
And I've always been like that. I've always been a a person that
is giving back to the community that has supported me all these
years. And this podcast is like another
format of that, if that makes sense.
And I think with me living in the Midwest for 20 years in

(05:55):
Illinois, I think I've grown to understand the sense of
community in the sense of family, where I've had my show
choir family in high school, I had my choir family, my musical
family. And then when I graduate from
high school, I really got into the idea of really tapping into
the YouTube side. I became a event coordinator for

(06:18):
my school. For four years.
I did choir in college, I did newspaper yearbook.
I've done a lot of things that were all centered around
community because all these things are showcasing the
community, whether it's musical based or it's editorial based or
it's just like singing people inyour day-to-day life.

(06:41):
And now that I'm 29 years old, soon to be 30 in the twenty 26th
of February, I realize that it'sdefinitely more exciting to just
find that little pocket of joy that you can revel in and take
it piece by piece and just enjoythat and not do too much.

(07:01):
But in all my years, but in all my years of making content
online for the past several years, but I realized in all my
years of making content online, I really enjoyed the idea of
working with my dream brands like EAI have been playing The
Sims for literally 25 years. 25 years of my life has been

(07:23):
revolved around The Sims, and The Sims is all about playing
with life. It's a life simulation game,
essentially. It's a sandbox game where you
can make houses, create characters, tell stories, and
just build the world that you want to build.
It's so diverse, so open, and there's so many ways to really
tap into your creative side. As long as you're keeping an

(07:43):
open mind and think outside of the box, you can do anything in
The Sims. And but it's all that to say,
The Sims is another way of beingcreative where you can make
movies, audio, whatever it mightbe.
There's always something that you could do in The Sims.
I think to say all of that, if it wasn't for The Sims, I would

(08:03):
not be where I am today. I wouldn't be the creator,
YouTube live streamer, podcasterthat I am today if it wasn't for
The Sims. It was another way, another Ave.
for me to be creative, whether it was making short films, voice
overs, little houses that I wantto make and kind of just be
myself. It was a way to escape from

(08:24):
reality for me at first, until Ireally kind of took a deeper
meaning to it, that The Sims is like my safe haven, a place
where I can create anything without boundaries and limits
and do whatever I want. If I want to make a short film
that wasn't being shown on the big screen or write a book based
off of my Sims characters, I could do all of that.

(08:47):
And to say the least is that if you want to create something
that's not being shown out thereinto the real world, use The
Sims as a way of doing that and then upload it to YouTube for
the world to see. Promote it, showcase it, do
whatever you want to do. But for today's episode to kind
of bring it back to the beginning, I wanted to just kind

(09:09):
of take a step back and like chat with you all, have like
this nice safe space to talk about book reading, why I'm
starting my podcast again, and just really kind of get into the
nitty gritty of all things that I'm thinking.
And my brain is always thinking of something, which is a scary,
scary thing. But.

(09:30):
I don't know about you, but but I don't know about you, but
lately I have been really enjoying reading as of lately of
this year in 2025, because when I was younger in like elementary
school and middle school, I usedto like devour books.
Like generally like I could not go a week without reading and
finishing a book. But as of lately, as I got older

(09:51):
in like junior high, high schooleven and even college, I feel
like along those lines, there was something that was missing
some that change where I like I just stopped completely.
I didn't enjoy it. Life was getting crazy.
I was getting very busy with my day-to-day life of like show
choir, choir, magicals, musicalsand then later in my life

(10:12):
travelling YouTube. Twitch that I never really had
time to read, and I always felt like reading was a form of like
productivity rather than like pleasure.
Because I want to read for pleasure, read for fun, and not
having to read because I have todo something with it.
And in school I had to read books.
That I either enjoyed or didn't enjoy and had to write a report

(10:35):
for it. That now that I am no longer in
school and doing things for myself and working for myself, I
am now associating reading as a form of pleasure, excitement,
and just overall just like nice.Where if I want to write
something like write a little book, report, a little summary
that I'm of a book that I'm reading or listening to, then I

(10:58):
can do it like I'm not being forced to do it for a grade
anymore. I can do it when I want to, how
I want to and then kind of go from there.
And I would love to, I would love to know from you all like
what are some books that you have been reading or listening
to as of lately, this past year?And why have you been reading

(11:18):
those? Was it because of the author,
the synopsis, how many pages there were?
Let me know what you're reading because what I've been reading
as of lately is a lot of books. My TBR list is lengthy.
It's kind of insane on how my TBR list is that large.

(11:38):
I get a lot of like book recommendations from like TikTok
or YouTube or even my friends orjust you all of like messaging
me on like Twitch or Instagram about books that I should read.
And I'm like, oh, OK. And I didn't realize like I
actually enjoy a lot of like mystery, suspense, thriller
books. I think 'cause I grew up

(11:59):
watching a lot of those type of movies, like thriller, horror,
murder mystery type TV shows andmovies.
And even like music has like another form of way of like
understanding the book even more.
Because sometimes people make playlists based off of the book
that they're reading. And I didn't realize that music
could really make a huge difference in book reading, at

(12:21):
least for me, whether there's lyrics or no lyrics.
And even like making playlists for the characters in the book,
it really makes a huge difference.
And I'm not there yet of making a playlist for a book, but I
feel like I should once I kind of really tap into it, then I
can really, kind of go really deep into it.

(12:43):
And the book that I just finished a couple of months ago
was called Don't Let Her Stay byNicola Sanders.
And to be fully honest, I did not know if I was going to
actually enjoy this book or not just because even though I knew
this genre, which is like a thriller, mystery, murder type
of book, I didn't know if I was going to enjoy it because book
length in in chapters and pages kind of determined me from book

(13:05):
reading. Because if it's too long, I'm
like, I'll never finish it. But this book was like under 400
pages. And I actually kind of like that
length because I know that I canread a certain amount of
chapters a day or a certain amount of pages a day and not be
too overwhelmed with the content.
But knowing like it's a thriller, psychological thriller
book, suspense, mystery, I'm like I must read until the very

(13:30):
end. And it took me a while to read
it because I am a slow reader and trying to relearn the joy of
reading this year and I've been liking it.
And if you want to get this book, definitely check it out.
It's really great. I have a Goodreads account that
I will link in the show notes below.
But essentially this book synopsis is that someone lives
in your house that once you deadbut no one believes you.

(13:52):
It's kind of like. You know the boy who cried wolf
type of situation and honestly sometimes you think to yourself
am I going crazy and is is someone going to believe me if I
tell them the truth or not? And the scare to name Joanne,
She's like this happy go lucky person has his husband named
Richard, beautiful daughter named Evie has this beautiful
house And life could not be evenbetter.

(14:15):
But until her husband Richard's 20 year old daughter Chloe turns
up, she hasn't spoken to her father since he married Joanne
like 2 years ago. A lot has happened in Chloe's
life, Richard's life and Joanne's life.
But Chloe wants to make peace with Joanne and Richard.
She is going to move into the house for a couple of weeks to
help Joanne with a new baby. And things sound perfect, of

(14:38):
course, but when things happen to make Joanne feel like she's
losing her mind, she begins to wonder if Chloe's really here to
help or has Joanne had made a tear, or if Joanne made a
terrible or if Joanne made a terrible mistake of letting
Chloe move in. And is it too late for her to
acts her to move out? And it's like, it's creepy, but

(15:00):
yet so captivating. It makes you want to understand
what happened chapter by chapter.
And that's why I like Don't Let Her Say by Nicola Sanders.
But I will say when it comes like the thriller and horror, I
never really associated that stuff to be like a thing that I
would enjoy for the long haul. My very first ever scary movies,

(15:21):
scary anything was dead silent. I don't know what possessed me
to watch that movie, but it was me and my cousin who watched
this movie in the basement in the very dark hours of the
night. Might I have you?
We don't watch horror movies that much.
I was nine years old. And so I'm watching this movie,

(15:45):
OK? It's creepy.
It's dark. It's like suspenseful and all
that. And then it gets more creepier
minute by minute. And I'm like, what are we
watching? And then the rhyme comes out
into this movie and it's like this crazy old lady named Mary
Shaw, She had no children, only dolls.
If you see her in your dreams, make sure you never, ever

(16:06):
scream. And I'm like that, right?
There was like, no me Gusta. I don't got time for that.
So I had to dash, close all themdoors, lock them doors and
stayed in my room the entire night.
Had that light on. It was creepy.
I don't think I've ever been scared of a scary movie until I

(16:27):
watched that movie for the firsttime.
But now that I'm older and as I got older, I was never really
scared because I feel like scarymovies are not scary anymore.
They can be like jump scary, like catch you off guard type of
moment but they're not scary, atleast for me.
I have a very thick skin so but I just don't get scared anymore,

(16:48):
which is nice but I don't go to a haunted house.
If I went to a haunted house andI get spooked, someone's getting
punched in the face. We don't have time for that, No
no no, so don't catch me off guard and you'll be fine.
But what I'm trying to say is that I really love suspense and
the thriller type books that really make me think and ask so

(17:08):
many questions I didn't think I would have read.
Don't let her stay and go chapter by chapter and highlight
so many context clues it's not even funny.
The amount of things I highlighted on my Kindle was
downright crazy. Every chapter I highlighted
something typed in a crazy little question like what do you
mean she's lying? What do you mean she's going to

(17:29):
the store? Who is this lady?
Where are you going? Why is it this and that?
It was a whole thing that I did and I'm really understand that I
I really like reading. I really enjoy reading and I
have to say reading feels like no pressure.
I don't really have a reading goal.
I'm just doing it for vibes, seeing what happens and it just

(17:52):
feels like I'm flipping a light switch back on in my brain and
it just feels good. And I started like doing this
thing called mood reading where I'm creating like cozy rituals
around like my reading time, making sure I'm giving myself
permission to not finish a book that didn't bring me joy.
And then slowly remembered why Iloved to read in the 1st place.

(18:14):
Because I think if I always havelike this mindset, this goal
that I need to finish this book and then go to another one and
then another one and another oneand another one that I'm craving
like this pressure for myself. And I don't want to do that
anymore. And that goes the same.
And that goes the same way with content creating that I don't
want to make videos just for making videos.

(18:36):
And if they keep making videos to, to make videos to upload
online, then why am I doing it? I think at the end of the day, I
want to have reading and contentcreation form itself together
and bring it back to where it started for me when I was 14.
Joy, joy and joy. Nothing but joy.

(18:57):
I may not have a million followers or $1,000,000 or this
big old houses, all these fancy cars and planes and all these
opportunities. I'm happy what I'm doing and if
it wasn't for you all, I wouldn't be here today.
And I'm so heavily grateful and so appreciative that I just get
to play The Sims and play video games and talk about what I love

(19:20):
and be fully honest and transparent about the things
that I'm doing. That's not who I am, and that's
who I will never, ever be. I'm staying true to myself, my
core, my everything, and you allare my everything.
Hashtag Ariana Grande my everything.
Love that album anyway. But to all about to say is that

(19:41):
with content creation I want to make it happy and make it fun
and also at the same time I wantto have it where I'm making
content whether it's podcasting,reading.
Videos live stream where it doesn't feel like pressure to
eat. Iterate what I was saying
before. Now the next book I want to talk
about is a book that was recommended to me by my friend

(20:02):
Ocean Sims. It's called The Cost of Knowing
by Brittany Morris and to be fully honest, I didn't really
know if I was going to like thisbook or not.
But since my friend recommended to me, I added to my TBR list
and I always take recommendations because I never
know what it's about until someone tells me.
Now this book is about a black teen who has the power to see

(20:24):
into the future, whose life turned upside down when he
foresees his younger brother's imminent death.
And it's crazy that right there drew me in.
It's a why a contemporary fantasy fiction book.
And for me, I'm reading it through Audible.
So I'm having like an like an e-book instead of like a
physical book. And I want to talk about this

(20:46):
right now because physical books, ebooks and audio books
for me all play different roles.If I want to get a physical
book, I'll get a physical book. But nine times out of 10, I will
get an ebook because I'm able totake it with me on a device on
my Kindle or my phone or my iPad.
I'm able to take it with me. And then audiobooks, I love

(21:09):
listening to something because then I know I can hear the
inflections in someone's voice. Or if I can get like a, a good
surrounding of like what's happening in that chapter or
what's the character thinking? Because when I'm reading
something, I see the words and I'm a visual learner and a
visual reader, but I just don't understand the context, the full

(21:33):
surrounding context, if that makes sense.
And so listening to audiobooks for me has really allowed me to
tap into books more. And I really enjoy audiobooks.
And a lot of people, I feel feellike audiobooks are not a sense
of reading because you're listening to it and not like
reading it, if that makes sense.And for me, how I see it, audio

(21:55):
books are reading, it's just a different format.
So is ebooks, that's a differentformat as well.
And so everyone has their general preference.
And I'm pretty much all over theplace on how I consume content,
reading or listening. And I find, like when I find
different genres on Goodreads orTikTok or Instagram, I'm always

(22:17):
like getting people's opinion onthe book, adding it to my TBR
list, considering of what they said when I'm reading, but using
my own inner thoughts of like how I'm going to enjoy this
book. And so I kind of play around
with the idea that books are meant to be pleasure instead of
pressure. And what I love about the Cost

(22:39):
of knowing is that it's about the 16 year old named Alex Rufus
who's just trying his best. And he's trying to be the best
employee, the best boyfriend, the best protector, his brother.
And everything comes up short with him.
And he tries so hard to be the best of the best.
And putting that pressure on himreally just makes it scary
because any time that he touchesan object or a person, he can

(23:02):
see its future. And so when he touches A scoop,
he has a vision of him using it as a scoop of ice cream.
And then when he touches his car, he sees it from years from
now totaled and. Underwater.
If he touches his girlfriend Tyler, he sees them as a
permanence of breaking up, and he's terrified of that.

(23:23):
And he feels like these visions are like a curse, distracting
him, making him anxious and able.
And he feels like these visions are like a curse distracting
him, making him anxious and unable to live his ordinary
life. And but when he sees a photo.
But when he touches a photo thatgives him a vision of his
brother's imminent death and everything changes.

(23:44):
But when he touches a photo of his brother, but when he touches
a photo that gives him the vision of his brother's imminent
death, he kind of spirals and everything changes.
It's a race against time, death and circumstances, and him and
his Isaiah just must grapple with their past, present and
future. And he feels like these.

(24:04):
And he feels like these visions are like a curse that's
distracting him, making him anxious and unable to live his
ordinary life. That when he touches a photo
that gives him a vision of his brother's imminent death,
everything basically changes andhe spirals.
He's racing against time, death and circumstances.
That him and his brother Isaiah must grapple with their past and

(24:24):
their future and what it means to be a young black man in
America in the present. For me to read all of that, I'm
like, I truly understand sometimes, to be like fully
honest, sometimes I feel like I can see into the future or into
the past. I know there are times where
people don't remember their dreams or sometimes their

(24:47):
nightmares. But for me, when I was in high
school, for some odd, weird reason, I could see into the
future. I mean, I am, I'm not no Raven
Baxter. I know, you know, that's so
Raven, but sometimes I feel likeI can just predict what's
happening or I'm having like, weird deja vu.
And it's so. Scary.

(25:07):
Like I'm going through life seeing these moments happen that
they've already happened before and I don't do anything to
prevent it. I just feel.
I just sit there staring at it and like I'm not doing anything.
Why is this happening? I don't understand.
And so I feel like Alex sometimes where I'm like seeing

(25:32):
into the future and having a vision.
When I'm sleeping and when I wake up, I remember all these
things. And when I'm going through life
just waiting for things to happen, nothing happens.
But I'm realizing those dreams are like months, maybe years in
advance. That's not happening until it
happens. I had a dream that I got on the

(25:53):
Forbes 30 Under 30 list for the gaming category, and I remember
seeing that. And then I would love for that
to be real if it's real exciting.
We'll see hopefully in a couple of months.
But also the other thing too is that I had a dream that I won an
award for something. It could have been for ATV show,

(26:16):
a movie, some type of animated project.
I don't know what it was. For all I know I was in the
front row and they called my name and I won the award for
something and I don't know what it was for, but I'm kind of
excited. And who knows?
It could be next year, it could be in 10 years.
But I know it was something and that's all that matters to me.

(26:38):
But to all that to say, the costof knowing is so interesting and
so in depth that I highly recommend it.
It's less than 400 pages and youcan get it on like your Kindle
or a physical book or whatever it might be.
It's just a good book. And this author actually wrote
the Marvel Spider Man, Miles Morales Wings of Fury book.

(26:59):
And I didn't know it until I looked up the author and like, I
love Miles Morales, I love Spider Man.
And so I'm looking forward to reading more books from that
author. And then I find, like each book
that I read, I learn something new about myself.
And I'm always like either shocked or surprised.

(27:20):
And I'm like, am I going to cry?Am I going to be happy?
Am I going to be sad? I never really know until I
actually read the whole thing. And time and time again, I'll
read the books back cover to know if I'm going to like it.
And sometimes I read the last chapter.
Of the book. Before I read the first chapter
of the book, it's a weird concept of how I do things like

(27:43):
was my my my little ritual rulesthat I do because like, if I
read the last chapter, I'll knowwhat happened, but then I kind
of want to understand what actually happened in the
previous chapters that led up tothat point.
And so I've done it recently with don't let her stay.
I know what happens. And the ending of that book is
downright crazy. I haven't read the cost of

(28:05):
knowing, but when I read it, I'mgoing to read the back cover and
I know I'm going to love it. And personally, I think you all
should definitely try that yourself if you would love to.
But the next book that I do recommend that is a must read is
another like mystery thriller book and it's called the
retirement plan. It's not the movie, the

(28:27):
retirement plan was Nicholas Cage.
It's not what that is, but it's the retirement plan made by Sue
Heisenberg. And I found this through
Goodreads because of other genres that I've read in the
past that are like similar vibes.
But basically, it's about these three middle-aged best friends
turn to murder in order to collect their husband's life

(28:47):
insurance policies, but they're unaware that their husbands have
a devious plan of their own in this dark, darkly funny debut.
And I'm like, hold on, I just watched this new film of the
Thursday Murder Club on Netflix and I'm like, wait a minute,
yes. And there's a podcast out there,

(29:08):
Name and there's a podcast out there made by Aaron Mankey.
It's the Lore Podcast, and I love that podcast.
More than anything, it was the first podcast I ever listened to
and I was hooked from the very beginning.
And I think mystery really drawspeople in.
It draws me and definitely for sure.
But the retirement plan is aboutthese three wives wanting a new

(29:31):
life and their husbands are in the way.
I'm going to read you the synopsis of the spoken kind of
gives you my inner thoughts later.
But essentially it reads after 30 years of friendship, Pam
dreams of her perfect retirementwith Nancy.
It's to Lisa, Marlene and their husbands.
Until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that
goes terribly wrong and their dreams of beast and their dreams

(29:54):
of beachfront condos in a sunny,carefree retirement vanish.
The golden years of a looking the golden years are looking as
dreary as their marriages. But when one husband dies in a
freak accident, the other three women are shocked to see his
widow rebound with a huge life insurance payout and a new life
in Florida. In the aftermath, the women

(30:16):
discovered their husbands have an identical 7 figure life
insurance policies. A new dream forms and this time
it involves a hitman. Meanwhile, their husbands have a
secret retirement plan of their own.
So when things begin to go away,they fear of their own scheme
may backfire with a deadly consequences.

(30:36):
The husbands scramble to stay alive.
The husbands scramble to stay alive.
But they may not be fast enough to out maneuver their wives.
But what follows is a high stakes tale of cat and mouse.
Both laugh out loud, funny and unbearably tense while
ultimately a big hearted look atmarriage, friendship, and middle
age. Now that is iconic.

(30:59):
That right there is what got me hooked.
I think reading books in generalhave their pros and cons.
They're either really interesting or really boring.
But I think when I'm like going down the the rabbit hole of all
these books that I'm like telling you all about is that

(31:20):
the books have to be good. The books have to have a middle
or a beginning, middle and end. But the middle has to really
draw me in to like keep going forward.
And like I said before is that Idon't want to have like a set
schedule, a set goal to finish abook at a certain time, at a

(31:42):
certain pace. Because I think if I give myself
a goal and I don't achieve that goal, I kind of feel sad and
down and unaccomplished about life.
So having no reading goal and just pure vibes and picking up a
book when I want to, how I want to and for how long is my own
time and how I want to do it. And I think like that makes me

(32:05):
want to go back into just doing things how I want to do it, with
videos, recording everyday life.But I want to talk about rituals
because vibes definitely truly matter.
Especially for me. It's like a big cup of tea, a
soft blanket, and reading under warm lights.
Whether it's in my bedroom, my office, in a nice little coffee

(32:28):
house, a library or whatever might be.
And the way that I've been keeping track of all of my books
and all the things that I've been reading is using like
Notion and Goodreads. And I find like Goodreads is
like a really good platform to use to track everything and
leave reviews. But then Notion, on the other
hand, is like an open-ended platform that I could also use

(32:51):
to keep track of my books that I'm reading, the TV shows that
I'm watching, the movies that I'm watching when they come out,
how I'm rating them, and also a really great content planner.
I think with these rituals that I'm building for myself, I
needed structure. And structure always boiled down

(33:13):
on how I want to structure my life.
And when I was in 8th grade, I literally planned out my entire
life until the age of 30. And I'm not even 30 yet.
I'm only 29. I'll be 30 in like a couple of
months but regardless I planned up my entire life because I am a
full on planner. When I have a plan for myself I

(33:34):
feel OK. And I was like saying I don't
need goals or whatever but I like to achieve goals on my own
time and not feel like rushed tocomplete them.
Like for example buy a house by 30.
It may not happen but it's on there.
I can change it however I want. It's not set in stone.
I said I wanted to be on 4/30 under 30 before I'm 30 because

(33:56):
we have to be under 30 to get onthe list.
But you know, if it happens, cool.
If it doesn't happen, that's OK.At least I did something about
it and talked about and applied for it.
But then the other thing too about it is that when you have
something that you can look at that is tangible and you have
short term goals and long form goals, then you can kind of mix

(34:20):
them around, change them each day if you want to.
They're not concrete, they don'thave to be set in stone.
You just build it as you go. And every single day we're
always thinking of new goals, new ways to achieve something
greater in life, trying to out be our next video, how to change
the algorithm to like us more. And lo and behold, we can only

(34:43):
control what is in front of us. We can't control other people,
we can't control platforms, we can't control anything but
ourselves. And I think thinking all of
that, I realized that I can onlycontrol myself.
I can't control how videos perform.
I can't control who listens to my podcast, who doesn't listen

(35:03):
to my podcast. I got to do things for me.
And that's why I'm starting thispodcast again, because this
podcast is not only for me to just gap about literally
nonsense. It's about making this podcast
for myself, but also for you all, but something that you can
take with you throughout your day, throughout your week,

(35:25):
throughout your year and, and think about things how you want
to do it. I don't know if that makes any
sense, but essentially restarting this podcast is kind
of like feeling the same. I stopped for a while because
not because I didn't love podcasting.
It was because I was putting toomuch pressure on myself to make
it perfect. Because when I started back in
2021, I talked to other friends,I talked to other people and I

(35:49):
listen to other podcasts. I'm like, if they can do it, so
can I, I might as well try and see what happens.
And to be fully honest, I went into it head on not knowing how
to actually do it. Like I love to talk.
I thought my live streams can betranslated into podcasting,
which it could, but that wasn't the case.

(36:10):
Because I think the idea that I wanted to make it so picture
perfect, it, it, it resulted into me trying to be the best of
the best and trying to outdo myself each and every episode
with a guest or with the questions or whatever it might
be. And I think with me being, I'm

(36:34):
going to say a quote, UN quote, former people pleaser, I was
trying to please the people thatwere listening to have them like
saying, Oh my gosh, look at thisepisode, listen to this episode.
It's all really cool things. And honestly, I'm really glad
that I did all those episodes with all those amazing people.

(36:54):
And they're all my friends. And I'm so grateful and so
appreciative that they accepted the invite to be on my podcast.
So they did not have to whatsoever.
But the fact that they did was really nice and I learned
something from them and you all learned something from those
episodes too. And I will have to say though,
some of the people are returningback to the podcast.

(37:17):
They think you all really like, especially some new people.
And there's going to be a lot ofreally good insights.
I'm not joking. I've already batch recorded 10
episodes in advance. One because I'm I'm going to be
very busy for the next several months and I'm like, let me just
plan ahead and then get it all edited and then schedule it for

(37:40):
every other week because it's not going to be a weekly
podcast. It's going to be a bi weekly
podcast. So every other Tuesday there
will be an episode of the Hell Spring podcast for season 2.
And I planned out for quarter 10of planned out 30.
And I don't know, I've never been this excited about

(38:00):
podcasting ever in my life. And since I'm on the topic of
books and, and since I was talking about books earlier, I
was going through my book collection that I had in my
office and I found this book called Make Noise, a creator's
guide to podcasting and great audio and storytelling.
And I don't know where I got this book from.

(38:21):
I don't know, I don't think I bought it at a library or
whatever. I think I got it for a class
that I was taking in university,like an audio engineering class.
And I think that's why I got it,but I literally could not
remember exactly why. But I'm glad that I have this
because now I'm in like a new season of my life where I'm

(38:42):
doing things that I want to do and how I want to do it.
And reading this book is saving me so much trouble and so much
stress from like doing anything.So having this book is going to
be so helpful for me later in the next coming episodes that
you'll listen to. We're definitely going to be
having a nard villain on the podcast, Ocean Sims, Danielle

(39:05):
Builds, Kimberly Crandall and a few other people on the podcast
that I know you're all going to definitely love and even more in
the next couple of months. But now that I'm like doing this
podcast, I'm showing up and sharing things that light me up,
that bring me joy, whether it's a book or life moments, cozy
routines or conversations with creative people that I admire.

(39:30):
And honestly, this is like my little way of reconnecting with
my inner self. Like child, like me.
I was doing it. Literally anything and
everything to be seen, be out there, be in the world.
And now that I'm like older, I'mdoing things that bring me joy,
putting myself in situations andgroups and rooms that bring me

(39:53):
joy rather than like, I want to be in this group because I want
to get something out of it, you know, And I never go into these
situations now of wanting something.
I never expect anything back to me.
I can never accept. I never, I never expect somebody
to give me something. Ever.

(40:13):
Now when I was younger I thoughtlike if I did something nice I
expect something back. But that was when I was in high
school. High school ruined me.
But as I got out of high school I realized like I just want to
give back. No matter how much time or how
much effort it takes me, I just want to do it and expect

(40:35):
nothing. And now that I have this
platform, thanks to you all, I get to do so many amazing
things. And I want to continue do
amazing things. And I take every opportunity
that comes my way that allows meto give back, whether it's doing
a charity fundraiser, donating the charity, helping someone in
need, or shining light on someone new.

(40:57):
And I've done so many things on YouTube.
I did the same this showcase so many years ago.
If you remember that little series I did on my main YouTube
channel to send the showcase where I was highlighting a
different simmer. Basically I think for 25 days
leading up to Christmas and every five days I highlighted, I
highlighted 2 simmers and I remember I highlighted so many

(41:20):
different people that I personally did not know.
But I found so many genuine, kind and creative creators back
then that still make content till this day.
And I did an episode with DoctorAshley in season 1 who was a
part of that SIM to showcase. And way back then, she only did
a lot of base game builds in TheSims 4 and she only had base

(41:43):
game on a Mac laptop, Mac computer.
And lo and behold, several yearslater, so many things has has
come her way. She's done so many amazing and
creative things and I'm just so happy for her and what she's
doing. And now she's like doing great
stuff in the world. But I just remember the bare

(42:03):
beginnings of a lot of people that I've talked to or watched,
like my friend Ocean Sims. I remember the the very
beginnings of of that Channel. So cool, so grand, so great and
doing so many great things. I always mention whenever I talk
to Ocean, dear old Charlie Anne,the Charlie Anne series.
Oh, I don't know what it is, butsomething about like somebody's

(42:26):
first video is what you rememberthe most.
At least for me it does. I remember Charlie Ann.
I remember the city living let'splay with those 3 roommates,
those three friends and I remember everything.
I remember my friend, that Sims first video.
I remember Stefo Sims first video.
And even if those videos are like private or unlisted, I
still remember those because it was like a core memory and I do

(42:48):
remember a lot of things time and time again.
But then I do be forgetful half of the time.
But lo and behold, everything that I'm doing it now in my life
leading up to this point in the past four years is I'm finding
little ways to reconnect with myinner child.
And this podcast for Season 2 isreconnecting with my inner

(43:10):
child, talking about books, connections, love and
creativity. And so to be fully honest, to
keep moving forward is that withthis, acting comes into play.
Acting has been one of those things I've always wanted to do
growing up watching TV. I'm like, I want to be on Disney
Channel. I want to be a Nickelodeon star.

(43:32):
I mean, now that we know what that industry was with
documentaries coming out, I'm like, oh, I'm glad I wasn't a
child actor. But I did love those movies and
those TV shows because those TV's and movies like raised me
of who I am today, whether it's like being a dancer or music or

(43:53):
acting and storytelling and likebeing able to see myself on
screen as a black male in America on screen was so
inspiring. And my favorite actor of all
time is Denzel Washington. He's a black male in America,
has done so many things in the world in movies and TV and in

(44:14):
society and the industry. He's done so much and he's so
inspiring that one day I would love to work with him or just
talk to him, to be fully honest.But I find like acting is like
another form of storytelling, and I use The Sims as my Ave.
for storytelling. And since I was in Chicago Fire
for that one episode, that was so exciting.

(44:35):
Thanks to my agent at Baron Entertainment for giving me the
opportunity, my acting coach Kimberly Crandall for coaching
me for through my entire acting career and my manager Albert I
at AE Talent, phenomenal people.And I just I feel like whenever
I get a chance to audition for something, I get so excited to

(44:57):
really tap into the characters mindset, the character's psyche
of understanding, like who they are, where they are, what
they're doing, how they got there and like what's the end
result? And it's so fun.
It's so much fun to like figure out like the balance between the
character and like who they're talking to or what situation
they're in. And for me, I want to be in

(45:19):
front of the camera and also behind the camera.
I said before that being on The Sims Spark, I felt like in that
scenario it was reality TV, it was a gaming competition show,
and I loved it. I loved the idea of all of that.
But that situation was a lot. So I'd rather be behind the
camera in that scenario, but I also want to be in the front of

(45:41):
the camera 'cause now I feel a lot better with my life and I'm
bouncing so many different things in the best way possible.
But to kind of go forward with all of this, what I've been
learning about myself is remembering the why.
The reason why I'm doing this and the why is because I want to

(46:03):
and because I love it. And something that I've been
doing for the past couple of years, since 2021 and ending
season 1 of my podcasts, is thatI've been reading quotes and
understanding more about them, especially when quotes are
related to my birth month of February.
And I found this one a couple ofweeks ago on Instagram and it's
basically February. The wild heart.

(46:26):
You feel deeply, love freely andnever try to shrink yourself to
fit expectations. You make people feel alive just
by being near you. You remind others that softness
and freedom can coexist, that love can be electric and safe at
the same time. And personally, it's basically
if your birth month was a green flag.

(46:47):
And for me, I feel like being a Pisces, I am so heavily
creative. I'm so emotional.
I can cry about literally anything.
I mean, I could look at a bananaand just cry because when it
looks good. And two, potassium is great.
I love fruits. But I think personally, I I get

(47:07):
so heavily attached with my emotions and I'm not afraid to
cry. I'm not afraid to scream.
I'm not afraid to be myself. And I think that's like a huge
green flag. Like if you change yourself to
please other people, then who are you?
Like fully ask yourself, who areyou as a person period.
But I think the way I want to wrap this whole episode off is

(47:31):
like, just be yourself, be kind to yourself.
You are worth living, you are worth loving, and you are just
100% worth it. And if you could take anything
from this podcast episode, let me know in the comments below on
YouTube, the Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast and
coming forward with these, this podcast for season 2 is that

(47:55):
there will be solo chats that will have like this some bonus
episodes, more book talk becauseI love reading and definitely a
lot of cozy guest conversations,whether they're in the creator
space or not, if they're a smallbusiness owner and actor,
actress, dancer, any form of creative in the industry or in

(48:15):
industries in general. I will have on these episodes
for sure. And there will be a lot more
coming soon in the next several weeks that you will be able to
listen to. But to all that to say, that's
where I am right now. I'm falling back in love with
reading, finding joy in little rituals and continuing to grow
in my acting, hosting and of course, in The Sims community.

(48:37):
As a simmer at heart, I will never quit this game.
The Sims 4 is 11 years old and Istill been playing it since day
one, but bringing back this podcast feels like the perfect
way to tie in everything together to share stories,
reflect on things that I'm enjoying, and hopefully create a
cozy space for you all to slow down and feel inspired too.

(48:57):
But I love to hear from you all.Like what books or life updates
that have brought you joy lately?
Definitely let me know in the comments below.
Reach out on Instagram, send me a message wherever I'm at.
I'm spring Sims on literally every single platform.
But thank you all so much for listening to me yap for who
knows how long because honestly,I could yap for days.

(49:20):
But to all this day, I hope you all enjoyed today's episode, the
first episode of Hello Spring ofseason 2.
Make sure you go ahead and like,comment and subscribe.
Turn on the notification bell wherever you listen to your
podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, Audible or
wherever you listen to your podcast.
And I will hear and see you all next time.

(49:41):
Bye.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.