Mastering the Art of Growth: Insights from Kenyatta Griggs

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, friends.
Welcome, and welcome back toNosy af.
I'm your host, Stephanie Graham.
Today's guest is barber,author and filmmaker Kenyatta Griggs.
And I gotta tell yousomething, on top of all of the work
that Kenyatta does, one of myfavorite things he does is run his
Instagram account, Hip HopMotivator on this Instagram.

(00:20):
It is where I'm constantlydiscovering new ideas, perspectives
and people through his posts.
And it's really one of thereasons why I continue to be such
a longtime fan.
And when I think about leavingInstagram, I'm like, then I'll have
to leave Hip Hop Motivator.
Kenyatta is the founder of HipHop Motivation, a personal development

(00:40):
platform that merges hip hopculture with mindset mastery.
His books Think and Ball OutCulture Vultures and My Barber's
Hand Stink offer game ongrowth, creativity and ownership
in a way that feels bothaccessible and real.
He's someone who's built onlayer upon layer upon layer of creative
work shaped by experience,driven by intention.

(01:03):
And I am super excited toshare his story with you.
So after my theme song, let'sget into our conversation with Miyata
Griggs.
Gotta get up, get up tell thewhole world you a winner, winner
Vision of a God with a missionin the cause what you doing, how
you doing, what you doing andwho you are Flex yourself and press

(01:25):
yourself yourself Checkyourself, don't work yourself if
you know me then you know thatI be knowing what's up.
Hey, Stephanie Graham is Nosy Kenyatta.
Welcome to Nosy af.
Hello.
Pleasure to be here.
Last time we talked, you putme on to the book the Game of Life
and how we know it, how toplay it and how to play it.

(01:46):
Oh my God.
How to play it.
Right?
It's so intense.
Absolutely.
One of my favorite books Igot, I was, I got hit to that book
through LL Cool J, the rapper,you know, working on set with him
years ago.
And he told me about the Gameof Life and how to Play it by Florence

(02:06):
Scavo Shin.
And I'm gonna tell you, it's alittle small book, but the book is
so.
There's so much information inthat one little book that, that was,
that was another book thatkind of like rearranged and shifted
my.
My journey, if I can say,yeah, shifting my journey a little
bit after I read it.

(02:27):
And then what was funny isafter I read the book for one time,
I went back to LL on setbecause it was like a one day read
for me.
And I was like, yeah, man, Iread the book.
It was dope and this and that.
He started asking me questions.
And I'm sitting here and I'mlike, damn, this is L Cool J asking
me questions about a book thathe recommended to me.
But he was asking questionsthat, you know, I really couldn't

(02:48):
answer at the time.
And so when I went back, hetold me to go back and read about
two or three times and thencome back and then we'll discuss
it.
Because, you know, LL isreally into, like self help motivation,
things that people don't knowabout him.
He's like, very, very knowledgeable.
So when I went back to him,like after I say maybe my third read,

(03:09):
that's when we were able tobuild on it, you know.
And he always told me that'sone thing he shared with me is that.
And I always knew this from,you know, just growing up studying
stuff.
And, you know, I used to winspelling bees when I was a child.
And my mother always said thatrepetition is the key to success.
You know, the more you dosomething, more you go over something,

(03:30):
the better you become and themore relaxed you feel.
And, you know, what he wassharing also was that, you know,
you want, you don't want.
You want it to become a partof your life and a part of your everyday
movement.
So if you want that to happen,you have to sometimes go back over
things and sometimes you don'tleave a paragraph or a sentence until
you really get it becausecomprehensive comprehension is key.

(03:53):
Yeah, well, the audiobook, ittotally can be a part of your everyday
life because it's only like athree hour audio.
Like, that's like a morning.
Yeah.
And the part that's really astruggle for me, that I thought maybe
you could help me with sinceyou put me onto the book, was about
the subconscious has no senseof humor.

(04:16):
No humor.
And I could not believe thatwhen she said that because you always
hear people, like, make jokes.
Well, yeah, I mean, you know,you definitely become.
Once you start becoming awarethat the subconscious mind is the
feminine aspect of ourselvesand whatever we.
Whatever seed we plant, whicha seed is what every thought is a
form of a seed.
And so when you're plantingthese seeds, there is room you can

(04:40):
abort the seed that youactually plant and the subconscious
won't give birth to it.
But you want to be verycautious of what seeds you're planting
and what you're saying andwhat you're thinking about yourself
and others.
Because a lot of times, youknow, and a lot of times when we
think Things about otherpeople, unless that person's thinking
the same thing, it won'treally have any significance to them,

(05:01):
you know, and so that's why.
But also the negative thoughtswe think of others and say they don't
think that about themselves,that becomes a part of our reality.
So we have to be very carefulwith what we project out there into
the universe because thesubconscious mind does not have a
sense of humor.
She believes whatever youbelieve about yourself.
And it's a, it's very.

(05:21):
She just reflects whatever yougive her, you know, because even
in mathematics, the man ismasculine principle, which is male,
the male principle is the sun,and the feminine principle is the
moon, and the moon reflectsthe sun.
In mathematics, you know,that's what we're taught.
And so what that means is thatwhen it comes to, even on the physical
base, on the physical level, awoman usually reflects whatever her

(05:47):
man is projecting towards her,you know.
And so because men, I believethat men control the temperature
of the household, while women,you know, they reflect, they give
back what you give to them.
If you're giving it bs,they'll give you back bs, you know,
so it's very, it's very, it'svery, you know, so you can't really
play with that, you know, asthey say, don't play with women,

(06:08):
you know, on the physicallevel, the subconscious mind even
more so you don't want to playwith her, you know, and that's for
men and women because we bothhave the masculine feminine principle
within ourselves.
You know, left brain, right brain.
Yeah, it's definitely like, yikes.
Yeah.
You know, we all play and wesay different things and you know,

(06:29):
we could be like, you know, wecan, we can say different negative
things towards ourselves orthink different things about ourselves,
like, oh, here I go again, orI'm not doing this right and this
and that.
But you want to get out of thehabit of that because you don't want
anything to compromise yourconfidence and your self esteem,
you know, any more than thethings that have already been done
to you through your formative years.

(06:49):
And that's really where wehave to, you know, from the formative
years.
We have to.
In order to get past thosethings, each human being has to commit
to putting forth and inputtingcertain inputs of information to
bring them forth and bringthem beyond whatever they were taught
by their mothers or father orwhoever their caregiver was.
So it's very, very, it'sintensive work, you know, but the

(07:11):
subconscious mind is not to beplayed with, you know, and she was
right.
You know, like we play.
All people play.
It's not that you think, oh,I'm a rabbit and all of a sudden
you become a rabbit.
What it is, you have to justbe aware, you know, what you're saying
about yourself in those silentmoments, you know, when you're chilling
and no one's around.
And you know, after a while,you know, you'll commit to making

(07:35):
sure you're planting the rightseeds within the subconscious womb.
Because the subconscious is awomb, you know, and that's, that's
what, that's really what it is.
It's a womb.
And so, you know, we have tojust be aware of that.
We have to make sure whateverwe're putting out there we want,
we.
It's something that we trulydesire, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Because it, it comes back.

(07:56):
Doesn't mean it automaticallycomes back right off, but it definitely
comes back over time, one formor another.
Our worries, our fears, youknow, because fear is a powerful,
a powerful frequency, youknow, as well as love.
Love is a powerful frequency.
You know, the heart chakra is everything.
And so where the heart, wherethe heart lies is how we feel about
a thing.
And the feeling is whatreceives and gives the blessings.

(08:19):
You know, that's why they tellyou don't do anything unless your
heart is in it.
Because the heart chakra isthe strongest frequency.
I would say that is above themental frequencies.
The crown.
Yeah.
Because that's the crossroadof everyone's life is the heart frequency.
The heart chakra.
It's deep and it's intense,like you said.

(08:40):
Yeah.
So I know that you had, youknow, you got started, you know,
in your work through being a barber.
And I'm just curious, like,could you walk us through, like,
how that started?
Yeah, well, I would think,like just, well, my formative years,

(09:04):
I had a great time growing up.
I have two parents that werevery open to me expressing myself
and coming to them if I neededto and saying whatever it is.
Fortunately, I wasn't around.
Abuse, you know, any form of fashion.
And then I have aunts.
My mother has nine.

(09:24):
Well, she has nine siblings.
And so out of those ninesiblings, there's school teachers,
there's child psychiatrists.
So there were people that werecommitted to the overall well being
of the children, you know, andfrom a young child, you know, my
mom went through her own upsand downs, like we all do.
And we all have our owndysfunction and we come from it.
But the one thing that didn'tstop me from developing myself and

(09:49):
Becoming and just knowing thatI could do whatever it is I felt
I wanted to do was the factthat, you know, there wasn't a lot
of yelling and a lot of, youknow, telling me what I'm not and
who I am and, oh, you're justlike your father.
You're just like your mother.
And all this stuff that a lotof people unfortunately go through.
I just really was just taughtat a young age that the sky is not

(10:14):
the limit.
You can go beyond the sky.
You can go into the outerrealms of the.
Of space and really, you know,put forth whatever it is you want
to do.
And the barbering thing came from.
My mother wasn't able to giveme money every week to get my hair
cut.
And I'm one of those peoplethat I like to.
I like to look a certain way.

(10:35):
I wanted, you know, to be.
I was.
I was, you know, clean cut,dressed a certain way.
So that was a big deal for me,because in the 90s, that was very
important for a young man tolook a certain way.
Like today.
It's funny, I know old peoplealways say, oh, it's not like we
was back in.
In the day because mygrandfather used to diss us because
they used to wear suits andslacks to school.
But in the 90s, you know, howyou looked in your hairstyle and

(10:59):
what you wore was veryimportant because that was like the
fashion boom.
You know, all the Jordans werereally coming out there, and the
Jabot and the Polo and theNike, and, you know, everything was,
like, really official.
You had to look a certain way.
And so because she couldn'tget any money every week, it turned
into a thing where, you know,I was down and out about that.
My aunt picked up on it, my old.

(11:22):
My mom's oldest sister, myAunt Betty, who was a school teacher,
and she was just hearing thedialogue between me and my mother,
and she asked me to go to thestore with her.
And so I went to the storewith her.
I really didn't want to gobecause my Aunt Betty was one of
those people that would walkdown every aisle.
Oh, my gosh.
She would go down every aisle,and it would take forever, you know,

(11:42):
and that's.
That's.
That's death to a child.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
You know, and so she.
She took me to the storecalled Service Merchandise.
We went in, and she wasshopping, and then we went in the
section where they had hairclippers, and she asked me, what
clippers does my barber use tocut my hair?
And I wasn't really interestedin, you know, anything going on.

(12:05):
I was just kind of pushing thebasket while she was shopping or
whatever.
And I said.
And I looked and I said, Ithink it's those.
And just some purple, and itwas like some burgundy and black
Osters, they call them.
And I thought she was buyingsome clippers from Uncle Phil, which
is, you know, her husband.
And I still wasn't getting the.

(12:25):
Getting nothing from her thatshe was buying some clippers for
me.
And so she got the clippers.
The guy came in, unlocked theglass, old school style, gave her
the clippers, went.
Went to the register, paid foritems, including the clippers.
We get to the car, she handsme the clippers, and she said, here.
And I looked at the bag, andI'm like, what am I doing with this?

(12:47):
I know she ain't trying to getme to get in here and cut my own
hair.
She was like.
She was like, here.
Every young man should learnhow to groom themselves.
And she said it just like that.
I was like, I don't know howto hear.
She said, you better learn.
I was like, okay.
And it's still sitting in my lap.
The clippers, like,professional clippers.
I think she spent.
She spent like $120 on those clippers.

(13:09):
Wow.
And she.
She.
She loved.
We left the store, she pulledup to my barbershop, where I got
my haircut.
She handed me $20, which wason Slauson, like a few blocks up
from Crenshaw, handed me $20and told me to, you know, get my
hair cut and walk home afterwards.
And so.
And I was like, wow.

(13:29):
So when I got back to thehouse after getting my hair cut,
she.
The clippers were sitting onmy bed.
And, you know, she told me,like, every time I get a haircut,
pay attention to what thebarber's doing.
And she knows I do anyway.
And I started cutting my hair.
I started going around thephase that my barber would give me,
and come to find out I had theskill and the gift to do it because

(13:51):
artists, I knew how to draw.
And so from there on, I justdeveloped a certain amount of independence
about myself, you know, so.
And that's really.
To me, I feel like that's likesort of my point of reference to
why I stay with theindependence and just letting it
hang all out and just doingwhat I need to do based on, you know,

(14:14):
what does it mean unless youtry, you want to put forth some effort
towards whatever it is you'redoing, even if it is a mistake.
Because when I first startedcutting my Hair.
There were a lot of linepushbacks, there were a lot of bad
haircuts.
There were a lot of mistakes.
Not too many because I wantedto look a certain way.
But when I didn't payattention, how I need to pay attention,

(14:34):
it was always a mistake happened.
So, you know, I kind ofcorrelated that and connected that
to life as I became an adultis that everything is based on the
care you put into it and thefocus you get if you focus on it.
Even with a mistake, thatmistake is something that can help
you as you begin to developand grow within that business or
whatever you're doing.

(14:56):
And so that was really likethe, the, the, the point of reference
I could use to say why I went independent.
And then from there that's thesame way I filmed my movie the Secret
to Ballin and wrote my books.
My first book was a bookcalled Thinking Ball out, which was
an audiobook.
Yep, I love it.
Yeah, I wrote that.

(15:17):
And at the time, I didn't knowhow to write a book.
I knew how to storytell.
I knew how to write because Iwas into writing and reading.
I did a lot of reading growingup, again, because we had school
teacher aunties and I playedDungeons and Dragons, which is a
so called nerd game in thecircle of, you know, some, some young

(15:39):
white children, a lot of whitekids about Dungeons and Dragons.
But I played that so muchgrowing up because my cousin, he
was, he was hella into that.
And so we played that likeevery damn, damn near every day in
the summers.
And so because of that,Dungeons and Dragons is a game of
fantasy.
So you have to use yourimagination a lot of times and you

(16:02):
have to really be on cue withwhat you put focus on certain attributes
that you want to focus on tohelp you get through the journey.
And so from doing that, youknow, learning how to cut my own
hair, then I became good at it.
And, you know, all my boys anddifferent people would just come
to me for haircuts.
All through high school, Ijust felt like there was no limit

(16:27):
to what can be done.
If I could teach myself how tocut my own hair, if I could, you
know, you know, do all thesedifferent things.
I kind of connected that tolife, saying that, you know, in life,
it's like a haircut, you know,you have to get rid of the things
you don't want in order to seewhat you do want.
And so that's really why, youknow, cutting hair was a blessing

(16:47):
to me, meeting so many greatpeople, entertainers.
But the ideas kept flowingbecause I was deeply into motivation
as well as hip hop.
And so the day I came up withthe title Hip Hop Motivation, Mm.
It was like one of the slowestdays I ever had in the shop on Crenshaw.

(17:08):
You know, we didn't have toomany slow days, but this was a Friday,
the day after my 29th birthday.
I came up with the concept forthe project I wanted to write called
Think and Grow.
Thinking Ball out, which wasfrom one of my favorite books, Think
and Grow Rich.
And I was writing it.
I was.
My pen was flowing, you know,and, you know, I came with the idea

(17:30):
and what to do and what Iwanted to do with the company.
And I still have the notebook,and I look at it from time to time,
and I'm like, wow, this is amazing.
And that I want to write books.
I wanted to help people, youknow, give forth information, every.
You know, research things, learn.
As I learn, I begin tocirculate that back to people.
Whoever's on the frequency oflearning and needs that information.

(17:53):
And from there, it was just.
It was.
It was crazy because I was.
I was.
I was feeling so up and alivewhen I was writing, and I was like,
yeah, this is.
This is what I'm gonna do.
I'll put this together.
And then I got a phone callfrom Method man from Wu Tang Clan
to come cut his hair.
So he called me.
You know, we had our dialogue.

(18:14):
I told him, I'll come.
I'll come through once I pickmy children up from school.
I picked him up from theschool bus.
My daughter was looking crazy.
So I dropped him off.
I was gonna take them with meto cut his hair.
And the last time I had cutmeth before that day, he called me,
which was June 24, and he waslike, you know, could I hook his

(18:35):
ipod up for me?
Because I had all the music,all types of hip hop on my computer.
So I stopped by my crib, whereI was staying at the time, to get
my computer, and somebody cameout of nowhere and just started shooting,
right?
Wow.
They just started, like,letting off.
So this guy, out of nowhere,he hit me like, six times.

(18:55):
I got hit in my liver, my lung.
Wow.
Across my spine.
You know, it was pretty bad.
And I was laying face down,and, you know, I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't really talk and project.
The cops came up and harassedme when I was laying there in that
position.
When they finally came up.
What?
Yeah, yeah, it was a Hispaniccop and a white copy.

(19:18):
The Hispanic cop walked up andsaid, what you do deserve this.
And he was smiling as my facewas pressed.
On the contrary, I could seehim walking up.
He was like, what did you doto deserve this?
I was like, nothing.
Please help me.
Help me, I can't breathe.
He said, oh, you must have did something.
What?
And then the white cop, he waslike, you know, his foot, his boot

(19:39):
was in the puddle of my blood.
Cause I remember he was rightby my face.
And I was looking and kind oflooking up at him, trying to see
what's going on.
And he was like, what's your name?
I was like, can y'all help me?
Please help me.
You know, I can't projectbecause I can't breathe.
And he told me he couldn'tunderstand my name.
If he doesn't, if I don't tellhim my name, he can't get me any

(20:02):
help.
But at that moment, I heardthe ambulance blaring.
Thank God.
Yeah, I blacked out, came back.
It was.
And then in the ambulance, itwas just even.
It was even an iller situationbecause no one in the ambulance,
you know, they had me on thegurney, they put me in the truck

(20:22):
and is it called a truck or avan, whatever, the medical ambulance.
Ambulance, yeah, the ambulanceis a better way of saying it.
And I had to hold myself up onthe gurney to stop from flipping
over.
And as I'm looking around,nobody's paying attention to me.
The mask is coming off myface, you know, and I kind of, I

(20:43):
kind of connected it to, youknow, a typical, probably attitude
and personality trait that alot of people have in Los Angeles
or in any inner city,especially la, thinking everybody's
a gang banger or, you know,you did something to deserve whatever
you're going through.
And, you know, I was trying toget help, you know, and then.
And the good thing about it isthat I arrived at the hospital on

(21:04):
time.
Lot of life changingsituations because I spent that was
the most I've ever sat still,you know, and in quiet.
And I couldn't do nothingabout it because I've always been
a hustler and had my own shop,you know, on Crenshaw.
I owned the shop since I was21 years old.
So I was used to hustling andmoving around constantly and I had

(21:27):
to sit still and take a lookat everything.
And that stillness is where Ilearned that, you know, everything
grows from the stillness.
It's not so much of thehustle, it's more or less when you
sit still and you get quietand you pay attention, you know,
because every human beingwants to move around and do, do,
do, do, do.
I gotta do this, I gotta do that.
But what they forget is thatstillness is how things grow.

(21:51):
The same way we grew in thestillness of our mother's wombs.
And so when you sit still, youmeditate, you get quiet, you know,
silence things, silence yourself.
Turn the phone off, turn thetelevision off.
Anything that's bringing youaway from yourself.
It's really how you get intune with yourself, to change yourself,
you know, and to rearrangethings in your life that may not

(22:11):
be great for you at the time,you know.
And so that.
That was what I learned inthat situation.
You know, took a while to healand go through things.
And of course, Meth waswondering where the hell I was at,
you know, and he's on thinkingball out too, kind of reenacting
the scene that when he calledme for a haircut and just, you know,

(22:32):
it was.
It was just an eye opener.
And then I kept moving forwardfrom the hospital on to, you know,
develop hip hop motivation,you know, having different people
on my team and just differentthings going on.
Things, Things change becauseteams change, people change.
And.
But I wouldn't change onething about anything that's happened

(22:53):
to me in the process of whereI'm at today.
But you didn't do.
When you said that you thinkabout, like, things changing, you
didn't do anything wrong.
No, no, it wasn't anything somuch wrong.
But, you know, I know thatthings don't happen to us, they happen
for us, you know, and at thattime, I didn't really have any form

(23:13):
of that.
I would say I didn't reallyhave any message to bring forth other
than the fact of themotivation I've learned and the things
I've read over the years.
But there was really no truetestimony that I had before that
I would say where I reallyexperienced something that was a

(23:35):
real painful situation, notonly physically but spiritually and
mentally.
Because in the hospital, Ibegan to question who would do this
to me?
Why did I get done like this?
You know, I've never shot anyone.
I've never went up to someoneto stab them or hurt them or did
anything like that.
But, yeah, you know, again,things don't happen to us, they happen
for us.
And so because those thingshappen, that thing happened to me

(23:58):
among other things.
You know, we all go throughthings throughout life, you know,
like losing someone is ahappening, you know, you know, not
having the money that youexpected to have, not doing anything,
you know, within your careerthat you might have Expected.
But these things are happeningto you.
It's trying.
It's something else isemerging from you when you're going

(24:20):
through anything.
That's true.
Yeah.
When people get out of yourlife, it's on purpose, you know,
because everything.
We're in a frequency universe,you know, the people that are meant
to be around you and thepeople that you will meet and connect
with is based on a frequency.
It's not based on, oh, I justwant you to do that now.
It's frequency relationshipsand frequency.

(24:41):
It's not, I'll make you likeme or you make me like you.
It's like we connect.
A peaceful union.
We just, we're on the samepage as some people call being on
the same page.
And that's what frequency is.
So it's the law of vibration.
But these things help me comeforward and still helping me.
Because even when I look backover these things, I hadn't even

(25:01):
talked about that one thing Ijust talked to you about in years
and I'm looking at like, wow,that was.
That was deep.
Yeah.
That happened in 2004, by theway, so.
Oh, wow.
How many years?
That's 20 years.
20 years.
20 years ago.
June 29th, 24th of this year.
Wow.
And then Thinking Ball outcame out.
What's funny is I should havedid a 20 year thing for.

(25:23):
But I'll do it at the top ofthe year.
But Thinking Ball out came out.
I finished Thinking Ball outin November, I think it was.
Yeah, yeah.
And Thinking Ball out is.
It's certainly available onApple music.
I've heard it.
I don't know if it's onSpotify, but I'm sure it is.
Yeah, yeah, I think it is.
I have to check.
I'll look, I'll look and I'llput it in the show notes for those.

(25:45):
Because I like the approachfor Thinking Ball out because I mean,
it's like your voice, it'slike hip hop, bass.
It's like, you know, I feellike it's very relatable.
My favorite story in there iswhen you spoke about one of your
clients, the parent who camein and how she always like pretty
much lets her kid figure outwhat he wants.

(26:07):
Oh, that's on.
That's.
That's the Secret to Ballin,which is similar to Ball Out.
So the Secret of Ballin.
You talking about a chapter called.
I think that if I don'tmistaken, that chapter's Unique,
Creative.
No, the Choice is Yours.
Yes, Choice is Yours, where I talk.
About how there was this ladythat used to bring her son to me.
And I just loved.
I liked her parenting style.

(26:27):
Yeah.
Cause I'm a student.
I'm a student of everythingaround me and I pay attention without
judgment, you know, and shejust had a dope parenting style.
And I had a son.
You know, my son was little atthe time.
He's 29, 29 today.
But you know, at the time hewas like probably 3, 4.
And I just was payingattention to how she would always

(26:48):
allow him to make decisions.
And if she had to step in, shestepped in.
She would let him figure outwhat he wanted on his head and how
he wanted to do it.
And, you know, and she saidthat she would do the same thing,
what he puts on his body, youknow, making sure he was good.
But she.
That trust that she had forher son is something I could relate

(27:08):
to because that's also a pointof reference for me on why I was
able to step up and do certainthings throughout my life is because
my mother had that same formof independence, that independent
mindset to where she.
She allowed me to.
To make my mistakes.
She allowed me to make a decision.
And if it was a decision thatshe saw that she.

(27:30):
I really needed help with orsomething she need to step in with,
you know, she would step in,but other than that, she would let
me make choices, you know, andchoices is everything.
I think that's our God givengift, you know, for us to make choices
for ourselves.
And it starts at childhood,you know, and of course our parents
have to help us and guide us.

(27:51):
But I just loved her parenting style.
It was dope.
It was dope.
Yeah, that was cool.
And yeah, my apologies.
I was getting the ball in.
The ball in it.
Oh, no, it's.
Yeah, it's in the same.
It's in the same.
It's in the same family.
So.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.
It's cool.
Like with your, with your documentary.
How did you even, like workingwith meth?

(28:13):
Like, how do you.
How did you start working withcelebrities and like, you know, such
hip hop legends?
It's so cool.
Well, again, it came from,like, just cutting hair in the industry.
It started off with.
Before I got into cuttingpeople in the industry.
It just really came from mehoning my skills as a barber, you
know, because, you know, it'ssafe to say that, you know, we all

(28:36):
know with hairstyles andbarbering, especially with black
people, you know, hair is everything.
And so when we see people ontelevision or the rappers and different
people, these people want tolook good.
They got to look.
Right.
So they actually sometimesappoint a barber, a beautician that
can give them that look thatthey're trying to achieve.
And so I spent many yearsdeveloping my craft, you know, developing

(28:59):
my skills and not knowing itat the time.
I did a lot of free haircuts.
It used to drive my mom crazysometimes when I was in high school.
But I feel like everyone needsto and has to go through an apprentice
stage in development todevelop their skills.
You know, not everybody's somoney conscious and wants to get

(29:19):
paid for everything, butthere's times where you could do
more work.
If you don't get paid, you cando more work.
You can develop yourself whenyou don't get paid, because then
you can go in and say, hey,can I just film this?
And I'll give it to you andlet me edit.
Let me do, you know, whateverit may be if you're a filmmaker or
if you're, you know, whateverit is.
Yeah.
You know, and so I felt.

(29:39):
I feel like that was a bigpart of why I was able to get into
the industry and continuedoing people for many, many years.
Over 30 years now, because Ideveloped my skills beforehand.
Now if I didn't have theskills, it's damn hard to really
keep a client in thebarbershop is what.
Especially in the.
In the entertainment industry,because people have to look a certain

(30:02):
way, you know, continuity, andyou have to make sure that the line
is straight, it's not crooked.
It's, you know, thateverything's on point.
You know, there's not really alot of room for error in the.
In the hair game.
Shout out to all my barbersand beauticians.
We all know it's like drawingall day with a.
It's drawing all day with no eraser.
We don't have room for errortoo much.
Yeah.

(30:22):
Because nobody wants theirhead messing, especially not no black
person.
Yeah, it's a lot of, you know,it's very anxiety inducing.
It's making me like, oh, my God.
You know, but.
But over time, you know, youget used to it because you know that
this is just what you have to do.
You have to see the stylebefore you even start.
Yeah.
You know, I say that on one ofmy projects, the same project you're

(30:43):
talking about on a chaptercalled Thinking of a Master Plan.
It's like you have to seewhere you're going before you even
start.
Yeah.
You know, somebody.
That's why the consultation isthe most important aspect of doing
hair.
You know, giving someone whatthey giving them the.
Knowing what they want to seeand what they're trying to achieve.
And you know where you're going.

(31:03):
It's easy to arrive there onceyou know where you're going, you
know, so, you know, and it'sfunny because there was the book
that I read years ago, thisguy named Walter Russell, he had
a part in his book where he.
He was a sculptor.
He was really good at sculpting.
You can.
You can look it up online.
He was a.
He had a book called the.
The Secrets in Secret Scienceor no, the Divine Iliad.

(31:27):
Okay.
And he said one of, you know,he found out, like, he just connected
his.
His passion for doing sculptures.
Sculptures to life and sayingthat, you know, in order to achieve
anything in life, you have tofirst remove the things that are
unwanted in order to get towhere it is and to achieve whatever
it is you're trying to achieve.
And it's the same with cutting hair.

(31:48):
You know, if I'm.
If someone comes with an afroand they want a short haircut, wavelength,
I have to remove the unwantedto achieve the wanted.
And he said that was such abig deal to him when he really connected
that to his life skills anddoing things.
And he became well known ineverything he put his heart into

(32:09):
because he understood that principle.
You have to do away with somethings in order to achieve things.
If you want to lose weight,you can't eat a certain thing in
order to achieve a certainhealthy look that you're trying to
achieve or have a healthylifestyle, you know, and so it's
the same principle as above,so below.
Everything is connected.

(32:30):
Yeah, yeah.
Cause, you know, I thinkabout, like with your barbering career
and then like, of course weboth, like, I work on sets, you work
on sets.
I think about, like, thecustomer service and people work,
you know, and I'm curious,like, how working with different
people in barbering, how thatmight inform your documentary where

(32:51):
you were talking to a bunch ofdifferent people.
It was the.
It was.
It was basically what you just said.
It's like the customer service.
But the main thing that a lotof people overlook is the.
Is the relationships.
You know, those connections,those are very important.
You know, it's easier.
It's easier to connect withpeople when you build rapport with

(33:11):
them.
You know, if you're a likableperson and not to be self.
Not to be.
Not to be a people pleaser,but to be a person that respects
people first and foremost.
You know, respect brings forthrespect a lot of times, you know,
and I just, I know that, Iknow now that it really came from
my relationships with peopleand people having a trust in me that

(33:35):
I wouldn't misuse whateverthey were bringing me into if I was
asking them to do a certainthing for me.
They knew I wasn't settingthem up to get robbed.
Yeah, yeah.
You know, whatever it may be.
But you know, I have greatfriends in the industry to this day,
you know, and it's not becauseI'm getting something from them or
they're getting something fromme so much, you know, like Red man
is a good friend of mine andMethod man still and Damon Dash and,

(33:59):
you know, and I kept theserelationships up and I'm proud of
these relationships becausefor the most part it's.
Because it's not a, it's not aneedy relationship, you know, I'm
actually a friend to these guys.
It's not like a.
I'm your friend because youDamon Dash or I'm cool with you because
you Red man or, you know, orlike Jennings, who I was always been
cool with and you know, FlowRider, that's another one of my partners,

(34:23):
you know, it was, it was moreor less like based on we connect
because we brothers, you know,saying I have respect for you.
I'm not coming in your housetrying to steal from you.
You know, I'm not, you know,coming over here, you know, telling
your business when I seesomething in your house that you
know, people don't know about.
I'm over here telling yourbusiness to people and trying to

(34:45):
make a mockery of whateveryou're going through.
You know, it's just havingrespect, man, but, but respect, it's,
it all begins to me with self respect.
You know, you go into thegame, any game you're going into,
you gotta have first half self respect.
Because a lot of times peopleoverlook self respect and they just
looking at the money, youknow, you don't want to just be money
motivated.
Money's very important becauseyou need it.

(35:07):
It's just as important as oxygen.
But the first thing you haveto do is stand on some principles.
Have to have morals andstandards, you know.
Cause people will test youtoo, you know.
There was times when I used tobe like in the beginning when Rockefeller
was still together.
I remember like, you know, Iwould go to the house to cut hair
and I would see likemedallions here and there, chains.
I remember one time I saw likethis diamond encrusted gold.

(35:31):
It may have been platinum or something.
Wow.
I saw it on the ground.
I'm looking like, you know,like no one's noticing it.
No one's paying attention to it.
And I remember telling Biggs,which is Dane's partner, and I was
like, yo, I picked it up andhanded to him, and he was, oh, shoot.
But it was so little to whereit could have went missing.

(35:52):
Yeah.
If I was a thief.
Yeah, someone else was a thief.
Or, you know, not to say that he.
They were testing me.
But these things will happen.
People having their moneyaround when they bring you in their
house or they bring you to their.
In their trailer, you know, onset, you know, and all these things
matter.
It's like having principles,morals and standards, you know, what

(36:13):
you stand for, you know, and Ithink that's really what made it
easier for me to pull peoplein to participate in my project,
the Secret to Ballin, youknow, and I'm actually doing.
I'm actually doing.
I'm creating a book around theSecret of Ballin right now.
And the audio, because thatwas more of a case study.

(36:34):
Okay.
You know, the movie itself wasfilmed with one camera.
It was all in house editingand color corrections and sound work.
And, you know, we had allthese different pieces that added
to the puzzle.
And, you know, I wouldn'tchange anything about it.
You know, the people we workedwith, like, you know, from the guy

(36:55):
that filmed it, my guy Sean,who filmed it, coordinators and producers
Michelle and Carolyn and JohnRobinson and this guy named id, who
did a lot of music and Frostand, you know, Vang Laputi, this
full crew producer as well, that.
That did some of the music forus, and just bringing people together

(37:16):
to put forth a.
Put together a project.
To me, at the end of it, itwasn't so much of an ego thing, but
it said a lot about myleadership skills, you know, and
so now more than anythingelse, the book the Secret of Balling
is going to be based on howthese things came together.
And it's really how I carry myself.

(37:38):
And, you know, because, youknow, people pay attention to how
you carry yourself.
You know, if you're asking forhelp or you're asking for, you know,
people to be involved insomething, they're paying attention,
you know.
Yeah.
And you don't want to slip up.
You know, I'm not.
I'm not a drinker.
I don't smoke, you know, andpeace to anyone that does any of
those things.
But I take everything I doserious when it comes to business,

(37:59):
you know, and, you know, Ihave my fun, but I don't take my.
I don't I don't play with myrelationships to say.
It's a better way of sayingit, you know, like, I ain't just
bringing people to Dame'shouse and popping up and doing stuff.
And, you know, and it'sinteresting because I've been, I've
sometimes I've been in thedeep hood, like in Los Angeles, and

(38:20):
because my friends in theindustry have such a trust for me,
they'll come to my house,they'll come wherever I'm at, and
they know they're okay, theyknow they're good.
Somebody like a red man, youknow, I put my life on my line, on
the line for my brothers tomake sure they good wherever I'm
at.
That's how I feel.
Yeah.
You know, and so, because Ihave that respect for myself and

(38:41):
I stand on some standards,some principles, you know, I know
that that's a big reason whythings began to flourish for me and
continue to flourish because,you know, I have, I have some connects,
I got some great connections,but the most important connection
I have is I have a connectionto the universe through understanding
natural law.
Yeah.

(39:02):
Yeah.
If, if I was, if I was a youngKenyatta in 2024, wanting to start
to build relationships, whatwould be, what would you think would
be like?
What's step one to building relationships?
Step one, again, it would beself development.
You know, what, what, what amI offering?

(39:23):
What, what can I offer toconnect with people, you know, working
on whatever it is I'm offeringto the, to the, to the, to the grand
scheme of things, you know,what's, what is my service and what
do I provide?
I will really pay attentionmore than anything else, the service.
If I would have did that whenI was younger, things would have

(39:43):
went a lot faster, but I don'tknow so much if I would do it, do
it any different.
Because I needed all that, allthat apprentice stuff.
I needed those years of apprenticeship.
Yeah.
Getting my skill, honing myskills, doing things.
So if I'm cutting hair,someone's a, someone's a film student.
You have to have years offilming and years of editing for
nothing.

(40:05):
You know, if you're trying todo a podcast.
That's why I'm actually in ahigh appreciation of all the podcast
people and everyone out herestepping out, doing it.
Because when Dame and I weredoing it, it wasn't, it wasn't like
it is today.
People actually getting paidwhile they sitting up talking now,
like super chats and, youknow, we wasn't, didn't have all
that, you Know, we didn'treally even know how to monetize
back then.

(40:25):
Yeah, yeah.
You know, and then we were theones like sitting on camera, being
seen where a lot of peopleweren't being seen back then.
They had like a picture up andyou would hear the voice like a radio
show.
And, you know, it's likewhatever you're doing and you can
continue to do it, you know,that development is the first thing.
Whatever service you'reproviding, you want to develop that

(40:46):
service, you know, because themarket, the marketplace is all about
service.
You know, that's true.
That's true.
Most, a lot of people putmoney before service, but that's
foolishness.
That's putting a cart beforethe horse.
When service is what bringsforth money and brings forth connections
and different people that, youknow, from all walks of life.
And just being a barber.

(41:07):
Yeah.
For me, developing my skillsand being good enough to get certain
real estate agents in my chairand even certain gang bangers, certain
hood people, certain drugdealers that, you know, was in the
know about something.
Certain pimps I cut over theyears, you know, and the good thing
about me is that I don't haveheavy judgment towards anything in
anyone's path.

(41:27):
Yeah.
You know, because I understandthat life path is what we're here
to find out our lessons on,you know what I'm saying?
Because again, things don'thappen to you, they happen for you.
Yeah.
You know, I've had someinsightful conversations with gang
bangers.
I've had some insightfulconversations with pimps.
I've had some beautifulconversations with doctors, lawyers,

(41:49):
preschool teachers, highschool teachers.
And so when you're open to theinformation, it's going to come,
you know, because I'm a firmbeliever that when the student is
ready, the teachers appear.
And the teachers sometimes areyounger than you.
Your greatest teacher might bea five year old like my little daughter,
who, you know, has taught meso much in the last five years being

(42:10):
a single parent.
You know, being a singleparent right now, after going through
getting shot, after goingthrough doing these movies and books
and seeing all the things I'veseen, being flown all over the world
to cut hair, from London toJamaica to Hawaii and all these different
places and all the states, youknow, cutting hair for concerts and

(42:33):
doing different things, beinga father to my two youngest children
day to day, is the most I'velearned about life that I've ever
learned.
If you packaged all thosethings up, I just told you, nothing
compares to being a single parent.
Nothing compares to being a, AReal conscious parent.
Yeah.
And actually taking what I'velearned from being a parent, the

(42:54):
patience it takes, the empathyit takes.
And it, it just actually, itactually had me one day where I sat
after getting them to sleepand I sat in tears because I was
like, wow, this is what life is.
This is how you develop a thing.
This is how you grow throughpatience, empathy with yourself.
I'm saying because we, we getinto a box where we, we compare ourselves

(43:19):
to others and we try to bethis and we want that and we.
Oh, I gotta, I gotta hurry up,I gotta make.
No, no, no, no, no.
Slow down.
Sit still and have someempathy for yourself, you know, because
with a child, it's the sameyou, you still are that same child.
You know, the eyes don't grow,the vision grows, your body grew,

(43:41):
but your eyes are still thesame eyeballs you had in your head
when you was.
A little kid, which is wild.
That's so weird.
So the funny thing is thatwhen we begin to slow things down
and have empathy forourselves, you know, like we have
to have empathy for our children.
If you're in a relationship,you must have empathy for the, the
new relationship you havebecause no one comes in knowing everything

(44:02):
about you.
Yeah.
And if you get upset becausesomeone did something that kind of
violates something that youmay not have discussed and some of
your rules and yourboundaries, that's foolishness.
How can you get.
How could I get upset with a 5year old?
She's supposed to perfectlyknow how to cross the street right
now.
Unless I've shown her and she knows.
But even then it still takes time.

(44:24):
We're talking about someonethat's only been walking maybe four
years like most children.
Yeah.
So, you know, empathy comesinto play and it comes in.
And it should more thananything else come, Come into play,
continue to come into playwith us as adults.
Yeah, but we're too hard on ourselves.
Absolutely.
We too hard on ourselves, wegive up.

(44:46):
You know, you didn't gain, youknow, like when people like again,
like I'm on this workoutthing, you know, we didn't.
You didn't gain weight fromeating one cookie.
You didn't gain it from evenone cup of ice cream or one hamburger.
Over time, time, time, time,time, Things expand, things grow.
Yeah, but it's going to takethe same amount of time and patience

(45:08):
the same way.
The opposite way.
To take it off, to take it offis going to take the same amount
of time.
So you must be patient withyourself and have empathy.
But here's the One, the lastkey out of those three things.
So we got empathy, patience.
But the last one is the most important.
Consistency.
Children need consistency asyou need consistency with yourself

(45:30):
as an adult within your relationship.
Consistency is the lifebloodpeople have.
Trust is developed through consistency.
Yeah.
You have to sometimes showyour children as well as showing
yourself that there's nothingmore important than your overall
well being.
It's very important to say no.

(45:52):
Say no to some thingssometimes to say no to some friends
that, you know, bring youforth, bring you down or bring you
to a certain energy space.
And sometimes it's familymembers where you don't need to go
and where you don't need to be.
No.
It's so valuable, so important.
Yeah.
You know, understanding thelaws of reward and punishment, which

(46:12):
is the law of cause andeffect, which is the, the most important
law to me that is the law of laws.
Cause and effect.
There is a reason why things happen.
Yeah.
But you have to understand inorder to bring forth a new effect
in your life is what you seeon a day to day basis is you have
to perform and bring forth anew cause.

(46:34):
And you can do that at anygiven moment.
But it takes again, empathy,patience and consistency.
And that's the premise of mybook, Conscious Father.
Yeah.
And I'm connecting it torelationships because, you know,
the relationship thing is realbig right now, you know, and all
this alpha male and alphafemale and balloon popping and all

(46:58):
this stuff.
But what people don'tunderstand is that.
They'Re balloon popping forlike senior citizens now.
Have you seen this?
Beautiful.
I love.
It's entertaining me.
I love it.
Oh, I love it.
It's so good.
It's just.
You gotta.
But you have to understandthat the formative years and how
we grew up, each person, theformative years is the most important

(47:19):
time of your life.
Yeah.
As if you, you're not acomputer nerd, but you should know
this one thing about a computer.
The most important part to thecomputer is the format hits formative
years hence for a computer.
The format, you know, becausethe operating system comes from the
things we were taught and sawas children.

(47:39):
Because children don't do whatthey're told.
Nine times out of 10, usuallythey do what they see.
They pay attention.
They're watching.
You know, I have five littlegirls, you know, and one thing I
can say in comparison to mylittle boys, my two sons, little
girls pay attention in adifferent kind of way than little

(48:00):
boys do.
Little girls pay attention todaddy, they're watching stuff.
They're watching.
They're paying attention.
I remember one time I was at alight, and it was a girl, she had
a big old booty shaped like crazy.
I'm in the car, I had four ofmy daughters with me.
This is before my youngestdaughter was born.
And I'm sitting at the light,and I'm kind of like.
I don't even wanna, like, makeit gross and be looking all at the

(48:22):
lady, But I look in the rearview and all of them in the backseat
were looking at me, trying tosee what I was gonna do.
And they were little girls.
They were probably like six.
I'm like, this is crazy.
But they pay.
But little girls, you're awoman and, you know, women pay attention
a little different than men.
Yeah, yeah.
We can pay attention if weneed to and we want to, but women

(48:43):
pay attention because, youknow, and one of the reasons I think
that little girls payattention as women do is because
women's strength is not physical.
So they have to pay attentionto how to win at things without it
being such a physical.
Without it being a physical battle.
They have to win at thingsmentally and emotionally, you know,

(49:05):
and especially emotionally,because that's the women.
That's a woman's field.
That's a.
That's.
That's your playing groundwhen a man gets emotional.
We can't win against women in emotion.
You'll serve us every time.
You'll beat us every time.
It'd be like Mike Tyson reallyfighting that white dude.
He just fought like he wasable to let those hands go.
It had been over early.

(49:26):
Quick.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, you know, but being afather, a single father at this moment
in my life, which I did not expect.
And at first I was fightingwith it.
Fighting with it.
Oh, I hated it.
Yeah.
I literally hated it.
Because I've been a person tomove around and do things and go.

(49:46):
And it changed my money.
It changed my ability to gosomewhere just because I wanted to
go somewhere.
Because all the kids were withtheir mother or they're with whoever.
I can just go over here.
Well, now I have to considerthem first.
Yeah.
More than anything else.
Like something that mostsingle mothers have went through.
Yeah.
So anytime I say this to them,they like, hey, we've been going

(50:07):
through that.
Yeah.
Like, they're like.
And like most people comingfrom single parent households, you
know that mama had to sacrifice.
Yeah.
Sometimes she couldn't go out.
Sometimes if she did, she hadto get someone on deck and put somebody
in.
In place to make sure you're.
You're.
That you guys were good or whoever.
And so, you know.
But now, once I began toaccept being a single parent, everything

(50:33):
became easier because Istarted changing the dialogue of
how I saw things, you know,how I express what was going on.
Because at first, to do this,I got to do this.
Man, I gotta go over here, man.
I got.
Man, I can't go over herebecause I gotta do this.
I have to do that.
And then I changed my dialogue.

(50:53):
I talked to my mother one dayand she said, well, nothing will
change until you make it,accept it as your new normal.
And I'm like, you know, I wassitting there, I was listening.
Cause my mom is like.
Is like a Damon Dash with lifeskills and shit.
You know, you hear Dame saysomething you like, yeah, that's
real smart.
That's sharp.
My mom is the same exact way,but when it come to life stuff, she

(51:14):
don't know much aboutbusiness, but with life, oh, shit.
You'll be sitting there like,woo, that's deep.
But that's what I grew up with.
And she said that to me.
And I was like.
She said, what you gonna do?
You complain about it, butwhat are you gonna do about it?
Yeah, she said, there's options.
Turn them over to child welfare.
Nope, that's not an option.
Yeah, well, guess what?

(51:35):
What you gonna do?
Step up, be a man, do what yougotta do.
But nothing changed until Ichanged the dialogue and how I looked
at it.
Once I did that, instead ofsaying, I have to do this, I have
to do that, I began to say, Iget to.
I get the privilege.
I get to see my children go tosleep at night.

(51:57):
I get to give my little girl abath and no one's tampering with
her.
I get to know that she's safeand he's safe in here.
Sleep.
Change the dialogue, Changehow you look at a thing begins to
change.
And then the power, the poweris in the shift.
Yeah.
And that's when everythingchanged for me.
And I, you know, I wouldn'thave no other way at this point.

(52:19):
You've put me on to so manypeople through your Instagram, Like,
I don't ever, like, reallyknow who the folks are.
And like, I.
I like look in the comments tosee if somebody, like, says, oh,
that's a great talk by Dr.
Whoever.
But it made me think, like,these could be like, they look like
a desktop calendar.
Like, it's like each day I go.
I go there for, like my hiphop motivation, you know?

(52:41):
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
So it's like just like, really Quick.
Do you watch, you must watch aton of content.
At one time.
I did.
But what happens with me nowis sometimes, sometimes things find
me okay.
You know, I can be, you know,in the morning when I'm getting,
getting my children, gettingmyself ready and my children ready

(53:03):
because I wake up everymorning about like 4:45, 5:00.
They gotta be at school by 8,but I like to get dressed before
them.
I put, I put something onYouTube and I just let it roll and
I hear something that sparksand then I put a little bookmark
on it and I come back aroundto it and listen to it, make sure
it's the right frequency andenergy that I want to put forth and

(53:26):
I put it up.
You know, sometimes it'scomedy, you know.
Yeah, no, I'm alwaysappreciative when you, when you're
letting us laugh that day forour motivation or, you know, like,
I'm like, wow, you must havelike watch like sermons all day to
like be able to pick these clips.
And actually a lot of times,like when I'm on the treadmill, I
take a walk.
I do, yeah, I'm listening, Ilisten to a lot of audio, you know,

(53:50):
I don't really listen to a lotof music as much maybe every now
and then when I'm in the car,every now and then.
But I'm really deep and big on information.
So, you know, I'm listening toa lot of body Kamid, a lot of, you
know, whoever is coming forthwith something.
Like, I've really been biginto a lot of the psychiatrists now,
child psychiatrists.

(54:11):
I like to listen to a lot ofthat stuff because again, I know
that the formative years arethe most important parts and times
of all of our lives.
For better or for worse.
It's the most important.
You keep looking at yourteenage years, you want to.
The most important is from 0to 12 and it's really 0 to 5, 0 to
7.

(54:31):
That's the most important timeof our lives.
Whatever was going on in.
Take a look at it, payattention to it.
There's a reason why you have.
You might have anxiety levelsout the roof when you're in a relationship.
Your anxiety, your anxietycomes from the formative years.
That's why it's very importantfor people to know what they're doing

(54:51):
before they even have children.
You know, mama jumping off,going right back to work, which a
lot of parents have to do alot of times.
But that builds a certainamount of anxiety in the child because
a child can't decipher whenmommy or daddy's coming back.
A child.
You tell a child you're goingto work, they don't know what that

(55:11):
means.
They don't care nothing aboutno money.
Yeah.
What the hell does that meanto a child?
A child want what they want.
You know what I'm saying?
We all born into thisnarcissism called childhood.
When we little babies, that's narcissism.
Right.
Right in front of your face.
You want to know what narcissist?
Narcissist is from 0 to 5,they want what they want, they gonna

(55:32):
have it.
They don't care, and theygonna tell you what's going on.
That is the most honest andopen time of all of our lives.
And that time, a lot of timesgets shut down by our caregivers
through yelling, hitting.
Yeah, you know, so true.
Or seeing.
Or seeing.
Seeing hilly.
Hitting and yelling amongst,you know, the, The.

(55:53):
The parents, you know, and wehave to be very careful and mindful
of what we.
What we introduce our children to.
But the most important thing,we can re.
Raise ourselves.
Once we start getting into theformative years of ourselves, you
can re upload new informationto yourself to make yourself a totally
different situation, giveyourself a whole different journey.

(56:14):
But you got to take a look atthose formative years, and it's painful
because that's the dark side.
A lot of that stuff is thedark stuff.
That loneliness, that yelling,that hitting, that you ain't this
and the drug.
You know, you might have had adrug addict parent or alcoholic parent
or a parent that was, youknow, just depressed the whole time
they were raising you, and youdidn't know it.
Because we come from people.

(56:36):
You know, everyone has someform of dysfunction, and we come
from people that they justnever understood and knew how to
get beyond these certainmental things that they need.
That they need help on.
They didn't understand,especially with black people.
So is Conscious Father.
Who's the audience for that?
Could I read it?
Conscious Father is for anyonebeing really.

(56:57):
I'm thinking about changingthe name to Conscious Parent.
But I'm a conscious father.
Sure.
Because I want it to be moreor less.
It's not so much for peoplethat have children, though.
Right.
That's why I was saying, like,I don't have kids.
But it seems like Consciousparent is.
Reparenting yourself becauseat this moment, you blaming your
mother or father or whoeveryour caregivers were.
Even if you were raised infoster care, when you're an adult

(57:21):
and you're blaming the Peoplethat raised you that didn't know
how to raise you is foolishness.
If you had, like, forinstance, sometimes I look at my
son, right?
My son, like, who I said is 29years old, I think he about to turn
30.
I'm get me mixed up.
You look 30.
That's so wild.
Yeah.
Thank you, I appreciate it.

(57:42):
Yeah.
He turns, he's, he's, he'sabout to turn 30, if I'm not mistaken,
next year.
Okay.
I was 19 years old.
I was 18 two days later.
No, I was, I just turned 19.
Two days later he was born.
When I look at it now, I'mthinking like, and his mother was
19.
I'm looking like, damn, like a19 year old.

(58:05):
Like, I'm just learning reallyhow to be a parent at 48 years old.
19.
Yeah.
But we did a good job.
We did the best we could.
But I'm like, if he's mad atus or mad at me for not being a certain
kind of parent, it's foolishness.
Yeah.
You're like, I was mad because we.
Only perform and do what we'velearned and what we know.

(58:28):
This is all of our parents.
Some parents are abusive.
Yeah.
Some parents are depressedbecause the other parent ain't there
because there's no one comingto help.
There's no one coming to bailthem out.
Yeah.
So this is why we have to takea look at these things.
And with conscious parent,conscious parenting is really us
reparenting ourselves,learning how to be a great parent.

(58:50):
Learning, learning how to be,especially for men, within a relationship.
Parenting and manhood is oneof the same.
In a relationship, a good manwithin a relationship is like a good
parent.
She's not your child.
But it's like being a good parent.
You gotta have poise.

(59:11):
You gotta have again,patience, empathy and consistency.
You have to set boundaries.
There have to be rules.
If you don't have boundarieswithin your, within your relationship,
it's doom.
It's already done because youhave to have room.
You have to have your likesand dislikes.
This is what I want, this iswhat I expect to see.
This who I expect, how Iexpect to be treated.

(59:32):
And if this changes or this iscompromise, then we can't be together.
And it's going to hurt me tonot be with you because I actually
like you.
But I like myself enough.
More.
I like myself more.
To not be treated a certain way.
I can't stand for be treated acertain one.
This is where boundaries, howyou develop your boundaries.

(59:52):
But with children, you got tohave Rules.
If you don't have rules with children.
Oh, you should know how that goes.
Because it's on and popping.
Not those people.
If you ain't.
If you don't have.
If you don't have parents totell you and to guide you.
Oh, man.
I know too many people likethat right here in Los Angeles.
Not gonna name them, but I know.

(01:00:14):
And their life is not healthyright now as adult males and females.
That I know, because they wereable to do what the hell they wanted
to do as children.
Yeah.
And that doesn't work well inthe work in the workforce.
It doesn't work well infriendships, in relationships, because

(01:00:35):
there has to be rules, therehave to be boundaries.
There has to be some form ofreciprocal respect that has to take
place.
Yeah.
Have to be taught.
And that's where our parentscome in, our caregivers.
Yeah.
But in this case, consciousparent will help a lot of people
just get back in tune withthose formative years and input new

(01:00:56):
information up into thismental computer up here.
Because computer and brain.
The brain.
The computer was made in thelikeness and image of the brain.
And I'm really pumped up aboutthat project as well as all my projects,
but this project, because Iknow that, you know, getting back
in alignment with.
With your true nature and yourtrue self, you know, and.

(01:01:19):
And healing some of thosewounds, you know, letting go, you
know, you might not forget,but you want to let go.
You want to.
You know, you keep blaming you.
Blaming your parents for stuffhappening to you and you in your
30s at this point, like, theydid the best they could, what they
had.
What's your excuse?

(01:01:40):
You've been parenting yourselfsince you was.
Since.
Since you was 18, let's say,since from time you was 18 or 12,
let's say, because, you know,you know, 12 for a lot of people,
but 18.
And now you still blamingMommy and Daddy or who wasn't there
and what did.
Who did what.
That's foolishness.
Dang.
No.
What happened to Miss Betty?

(01:02:01):
What happened to Auntie Betty?
She passed away was like threeyears ago.
Okay.
That was such a big deal whenshe passed away because she was the
matriarch of the family.
She was the oldest sister,school teacher.
She was the first person Ialso seen go independent herself
because she was being aschoolteacher for years.
She stopped and went into daycare.
She opened up her own daycare.

(01:02:22):
And that was the first time Iseen someone go independent.
This was way before she boughtme the clippers.
And, you know, after shepassed away, that's really when we
began to understand who shewas to the family, she was more.
She was here to give usinformation and let us see how this
thing works called life, youknow what I'm saying?
She was such a giver.

(01:02:42):
I mean, most of the time whenmy mom didn't have nowhere to go,
we stayed with mom and Bettyand her kids.
She never complained.
You know, she never made usfeel like we was just visiting.
Sleeping on the floor, youknow, made us feel like we wasn't
supposed to be there.
She just was.
You know, that's herextraordinary lady.
And my Uncle Phil as well, youknow, he was a white dude, you know

(01:03:05):
what I'm saying?
And that's my cousin SanjayMalaka, and Don's father.
And he was just such abeautiful person because they never
made us feel like they didn'twant us there.
Yeah.
And if they had food, we had food.
If we didn't have money atChristmas, we had Christmas, you
know what I'm saying?
Those kind of people.
Yeah.
You know, and terribly missthose people because, you know, when

(01:03:29):
those type of people passaway, you know, it's.
Those are the loud funerals.
Those are the people that, youknow, people really miss those people,
and they still think aboutthose people.
And they.
And they.
And they.
And they have conversationsabout different stories they have
with these people.
And that's something that allof us have to look at.
Like, who are we.

(01:03:50):
Who are we projectingourselves to be out here in the world?
Like, when we interact withpeople, will people miss you?
Yeah.
What would they say about youwhen you gone?
You know?
Oh, you was just all about yourself.
You was just all about whatyou wanted to do.
You just wanted to get yourprojects on, so you.
So you neglected certainfamily members or certain people
that came to you for help.
You know, what would they sayabout you?

(01:04:10):
Yeah, because, you know, inthis life, we don't just learn by
ourselves.
We learn through other peopleas well.
Yeah.
You know, so it's alsoimportant to write your own obituary
before you leave here and say,this is how I want to be remembered.
This is what I wanted to say.
This is how I want to be seen.
I want to be this type of person.
I want to be a giver.
I want to be respectful.
I want to be.
Boom.
This is.

(01:04:31):
You know, that's a goodstarting place.
You know, I had an AuntieBetty as well.
Oh, you did?
Okay.
Yeah.
And she taught me.
I remember one time mygrandma's house was like the house
for all the parties.
And I was an only child.
I'm an only child.
But, like, I was, like, thefirst grandkid.
So, like, I'm down in thebasement at the adult party, and

(01:04:54):
someone had this random lady there.
I don't know if she was.
She was obviously somebody'sdate, but she had this really beautiful
bracelet on.
And my aunt's like, I loveyour bracelet.
And Lee's like, oh, thank you.
She's like, how much for it?
Oh, yeah.
And like, I was just like alittle kid, like.
And the lady also was stunned.

(01:05:14):
And my aunt's like, can I giveyou 60 bucks for it?
And that lady sold her bracelet.
Wow.
And I ain't put it on and justcontinued on with the night and then
wore it forever.
And it was even a picture.
Like, when she passed, therewas a picture of her dancing, wearing
this bracelet.
And I'm just like, you know what?

(01:05:34):
When you see something, you,like, make an offer.
Yeah.
Right then and there.
Those memories etched in stone.
How old were you?
No, man, I had to been, like, seven.
Just, like, sitting, you know, like.
Yeah, sitting on the bar,like, you know, watching her until
it's time for me to goupstairs, of course.

(01:05:56):
But, yeah, I was just like.
That was.
I'll never forget it.
Cause I'm like, wow.
That lady would have beenlike, oh, that's very nice.
But, you know, like, myhusband bought this or something.
She's like, okay.
And took it.
Yeah, Here, take it.
She was like, take it.
Yeah.
But, you know, this, you know,your conscious parent project as
we speak about, like,relationships and formative years.

(01:06:16):
It almost feels like it's theprequel to all your projects.
Like, it, like, lays thefoundation of, you know, you're thinking,
ball out.
Then you, like, go into, like,the secret of balling.
Because now you've gottenyour, you know, your tools, your
toolkit, you know, and youmight see what other people's toolkits
are, how that might work.

(01:06:38):
And, you know, and then evenculture vultures is in that, because
then you can sort of, like,establish, like, through these toolkits,
like, who's allowed and who'snot, you know, it's sort of cool,
right?
Oh, I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Culture vultures was anotherone of those things that was more
like.
It wasn't so much on how tomake money.
It was more about, like,seeing someone's journey.

(01:07:00):
Yeah.
You know, I just wanted topresent Dane's journey.
That's what's.
What's so funny now, you know,with everybody kind of getting at
him a Little bit.
Talking about he going throughthis and going through that.
I have faith in Dane, youknow, because Dane, that's really
how that book was written.
That book was written.
Shit.
He was on a lower level thanhe is right now, but that book was

(01:07:21):
written during that time.
And that in those quietmoments, because, you know, the entrepreneur
is sort of one of those things.
It's like.
It's like something in you.
It's innate.
It's in you.
It's in your heart.
You know, if you have heartand you have an ability to keep going
no matter what, which iscalled resolve.
I mean, something's gonna come up.

(01:07:41):
Something's gonna happen foryou eventually, you know, but we
all gonna go through ups anddowns, you know, because the pendulum
swing is active in all things.
There'll be times you'll havemoney and times you won't have money.
You know, there'll be timesyou'll be up, times you'll be down.
But the name of the game is tostay focused on keeping a balance
of emotions going even in thebad times, even in the good times.

(01:08:04):
Don't get overly excited anddon't get overly depressed and just
don't get all upset becausesomething's not going the way you
want it to go.
And the reason I have faith inDame is because I stayed around him
enough to see that no matterwhat was happening, even what's going
on right now with 50 Cent,when I just talked to him the other
day, it's not phasing him.

(01:08:25):
His teeth falling out of hismouth don't faze him.
That's a happening.
Yeah.
You know, and it's sort oflike the happening that our.
That our elders used to say.
If you ever heard an elder saykeep on living.
Yeah.
If you ever heard an elder saythat, that's really what that is.
That.
That is.
That is the direct.
That is the foundation of thependulum swing.
Keep on living.

(01:08:45):
You will experience it.
Just like Dame said in theculture vultures in the Aaliyah chapter,
he said, the thing with deathis we either die before someone we
love passes or we.
We're going to experience it.
We're going to experience loss.
Yeah.
You either die before someoneyou love passes or someone you love
will pass.
Yeah.
And when you begin to look atit, you're like, damn, you're going

(01:09:06):
to experience it or you're notgoing to experience it.
Yeah.
Keep on living.
And so that's why I like histeeth falling out.
Different stuff going on in business.
And he's promoting you Know his.
His network and doingdifferent things.
I got faith in my brother, youknow what I'm saying?
Because I know one thing forsure is that that book stands on

(01:09:28):
principle.
Yeah.
You read it, and you reallypay attention to what's being said.
It wasn't about making money.
Yeah.
See, the foolish person didn'tlook at, oh, I'm getting the book
because he gonna teach us howto get money now.
He gonna teach you.
He gonna teach you how tostand on principle.
Yeah.
You know, and you can't let no one.
You can't let no one pull youoff into something you don't want
to do.
You know, you got to stand onyour morals and standards.

(01:09:50):
You got to stand on it.
Stand on your square.
Yeah.
You know, and he's not perfect.
I'm not perfect.
You're not perfect.
But at the same time, youknow, it's something that's in your
heart.
If it's in your heart, man,it's nothing you can't accomplish.
Wow.
Well, look at that.
You just gave us so much.

(01:10:11):
Was the.
Hey, did you draw the COVID ofCulture Vultures?
What'd you say?
The COVID of Culture Vultures.
Is that.
Did you draw that?
No, Rocky drew that.
Danes.
Oh, Rocky.
Okay.
Oh, okay, okay, cool.
Cause I didn't know, like, if you.
If you drew.
Yeah.
She was messing around oneday, and we was like, oh, yeah, let's
make that the COVID of the book.
It wasn't even.
I don't even think it was.

(01:10:31):
It wasn't even finished.
She was just messing around,and we was like, bingo.
Like, it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, you know, I have faithin you.
You know, I don't know if itmeans it.
I.
Thank you, but.
Yeah, I think it's just, like,I keep, you know, playing, like,
calling you Dr.
Yada, you know, because I justfeel like you have so much wisdom
and you have so many greatideas, and you really do.

(01:10:54):
Seriously.
Like, I'm going to putobviously your Instagram in.
In the show notes and everything.
What I feel like, you know,from this party girl from the suburbs
turned artists and, you know,I just really learn so much from
you.
And you know what else, too?

(01:11:14):
I feel like I don't reallyknow, and maybe you might, but, you
know, like, how people,they'll say this.
Like, they'll.
When you, like, mention, like,mathematics and stuff like that.
There's that whole, like,hotep Grand Rising Queen group, but
you're not that.
But I feel like they come intoyour world and they just ruin everything,

(01:11:36):
so they need to stay out.
Right.
It's a piece of all thosethings within me though.
But the difference with me, Ithink what you're saying is like
I don't really have so muchjudgment and so much like I look
at all of us as one and thesame, you know, So I don't really
look at like because you know,a thing you're not, you know, you're

(01:11:57):
not capable of learning oryou're, you're beneath me.
I don't look at it like that.
You know, I look at it morelike we're all different forms and
different pieces of the mosthigh that are here for a purpose
and here for a reason, youknow, and so that's why that's where
my respect, that's where myrespect for people comes from.
Understanding that the Godelement is within all of us.

(01:12:17):
Yeah, it's within you, notwithout you.
So once I understood that,which I did in my teenage years,
that's when respect reallycame online.
I've always had it, but that'swhen it really came online, you know,
was then when I understoodthat each of us has the God frequency.
Yeah, yeah.
And I love the likemotivational speaking part.

(01:12:40):
Like I love that you like hiphop motivation.
Like you're our motivational speaker.
You know, I hope that otherlike young folks will follow in their
footsteps.
Is like this is like anotherthing you need.
The encourager is very important.
Oh yeah, definitely.
I mean, you know, like, likeagain like I'm just getting, getting
back into the swing of thingslike before.
Like I said, the last fiveyears have been so insightful.

(01:13:02):
I've been working on consciousfather but the first thing I had
to really get under wraps isbeing a father altogether.
Yeah.
You know, a day to day single dad.
And it took me some timebecause it was, you know, it had,
it had its rough patchesbecause I had to adjust the change
my whole life.
You know, I had to like changethings around and you know, intercept

(01:13:25):
it.
Yeah.
You know, and you know, soit's a lot of things that I learned
over the last five years thattotally changed me.
I'm a totally different personthan the person that was sitting
on the couch with Dane right now.
You know, I feel like myinsight is different, my respect
for people and just myunderstanding of the formative years

(01:13:45):
is different, you know, and sothat actually brings forth more respect
and understanding when peopledo things, you know.
And you know, my heart goesout to anyone that grew up in a household
in situations where, you know,just unfortunate because when you're
a child, you really can't stop.
What child can stop an adultfrom doing the thing to them?

(01:14:06):
Yeah.
You know, and people beingmolested and raped and robbed and
hit and beat.
And it's just, you know, it's unfortunate.
And so my thing is that if Ican bring forth some information
to help people heal thesedifferent pieces and parts of themselves,
even if they didn't go throughanything, you know, then I'm doing

(01:14:26):
what I'm here to do.
Yeah.
You know, so, you know, aslong as I can do it.
Today, my, my kids, mychildren's book, My Barber's Hand
Stink is available.
It's the second edition.
There were some mistakes inthe first edition and some things
I had to shift and changearound, but this second edition is,

(01:14:48):
to me is perfect.
You know, there's no typos,there's no, you know, misreads.
And then there's also someactivities in the back of the book
for children.
And so, yeah, it's up now onAmazon and I'm excited about it because,
you know, I know that, youknow, again, dealing with the formative
years.
The formative years is wherewe learn the most first important

(01:15:12):
thing that we must all learnis how to take care of ourselves.
Yeah.
From washing our hands,washing our face, brushing our teeth,
wiping ourselves, using the bathroom.
All these things are important.
But it's so funny that weoverlooked something that we all
had to go through in order tobe where we are at today.
Because you don't need mommyto come in the bathroom with you.

(01:15:34):
Bathroom with you right now asan adult.
And where did that come from?
Consistency, empathy, patience.
But some people, you know, andwe all know some people didn't get
taught.
They had to learn throughtrial and error.
Yeah.
You know, but, you know, butthat's okay because again, you can
re parent yourself.

(01:15:54):
You can always re parent yourself.
What made you write MyBarber's Hand Stink?
Well, that came from just meunderstanding, like how important
hygiene is.
That's our first form ofexpression and first form of self
care, you know, because selfcare, without that being implemented

(01:16:17):
as a child, everything elsebecomes folly.
Because the first thing youhave to learn how to do is take care
of yourself.
Yeah.
And so the formative years iswhere all that stuff comes up.
If you, if you think back, youhad to learn how to brush your teeth.
Oh.
And you know, mommy can brushthem for you for a minute and daddy.
But sometimes they gotta handyou that toothbrush when you get

(01:16:37):
to a certain level, let you doyour thing, hand you that wash rag
let you and watch you do itand then say, okay after you finish,
because you didn't probablywash yourself.
Right.
I'm gonna come back after youand do it until you get to the level
where you can do it yourself.
But hygiene, and you know,hygiene is the first form of self
care.
Yeah.
And I'm all about, you know,self care on all levels from childhood

(01:17:03):
to adulthood.
But I know that self care ishow you become caring of others.
Yeah.
You know, you begin to care about.
If you care about yourself.
You can't give someonesomething you're not giving yourself.
Yes.
And that's why a lot of times,you know, it'd be the little dirty
kid at the school.
You don't know what he'sstruggling with, going through.
They be the bullies usually.
A lot of times they be theones committing.

(01:17:24):
Car Committing harm to othersbecause they not being taught, they
don't understand.
The first care is self care.
If I care about me, I can careabout you.
If I don't love myself, it'sfoolishness to get into a relationship
with someone that doesn't holdthemselves in high esteem.
And you should know that beinga woman, If a man don't like himself

(01:17:45):
or he feels a certain wayabout himself, and you can tell through
how he treats himself.
Is he smoking himself?
Drugging himself?
Is he over sexing himself?
What's he doing?
Is he not cleaning up after himself?
He's not making sure hisclothes is on point?
If he's not doing that stuff,then, you know, you might have to
reconsider.
Yeah.
Because how you treat yourselfis how you instinctively treat others.

(01:18:07):
That is really, really true.
Absolutely.
That is really, really true.
Yeah.
And that's why the ch.
That's why the formative years.
The most important thing weteach our children and young children,
as we've learned, we don'tremember it, but if your mom was
in this room.
My mom was in the room, my dad.
It's obvious.
Yeah.
The first thing you have toteach a child is how to maintain

(01:18:28):
themselves.
Yes.
Not cook for themselves, washthemselves, wash your hands, wipe
yourself, use the bathroom.
Potty training was the first.
Yup, yup.
It's the first.
We didn't, we didn't get to.
We didn't get to kindergarten.
Begin using the bathroom on ourselves.
You know, hey, you had to learn.

(01:18:48):
That's why they tell you whenyou take a kid to preschool, does
she.
Is she potty trained?
Is he potty trained?
They want to make sure becausethey got to get him.
They Got to get that child in order.
If you ain't had the time todo it, they gonna get him in shape.
And it sometimes takes crying,oh, I want to get off the toilet.
Don't sit there.
You know, you gotta go throughthe ups and downs of it.
But again, the formative yearsis where all these things that we

(01:19:12):
do as adults comes from.
Because when you.
When you teach a child, youteach them for the future.
Not today.
I am so glad to have you onrecord saying this, because I have
a friend who loves this coach.
It's some coach that shelistens to.
But the lady's hair alwayslooks so crazy.

(01:19:33):
And I'm just like, if shedoesn't have enough time to even
get her hair together to,like, talk to you, like, why are
you listening to her?
And she's always like, oh,Stephanie, you're just too hard.
It's really not that big of a deal.
You need to get over.
I'm like, no, she looks a mess.
She looks a mess.
And then, you know.

(01:19:54):
Yeah, she just looks a mess.
And I'm like, you cannot befollowing this lady.
What?
I'm like, that's the first thing.
See, it's not just me.
You just said it.
You just said it.
That's why.
That's why.
Then I have a class that we.
I'm gonna start up in a minutecalled Speak Out Loud.
Where we talking about frequency.
Because frequency is how yougroom yourself, how you take care
of yourself.

(01:20:14):
Bathing yourself, you know,like I say on the Secret of the Ball,
and I say, bathing yourself isalso praising the Lord.
You know, when you do yournails, that's praising the Lord.
Yup.
Get a pedicure.
That's praising the Lord.
You know, you're actuallytaking care of what you've been given.
Yeah.
If you only got three fingerson one hand, them three fingers gotta
be manicured.
And pedicure, you gotta get onthe joints.

(01:20:35):
And that's a form of praisingthe Lord.
You just.
You're just being grateful forwhat you've been given.
That's another form of beinggrateful for what you've been given.
Yes.
Because if you don't take careof it, what they say, if you don't
use it, you lose it.
Yup, yup.
And I feel like even downsouth, you know, they would be like,
I come from, like, probablywhite, like, neighborhood, but, like,

(01:20:57):
ladies would be like, thehigher the hair, you know, the closer
to God.
And it's like, yeah, but evenif their hair was like all like crazy
curls and stuff.
But it would be like on pointand it's like, yes, you can trust
this lady, you know.
Well, that's the first step.
That's the first step to, youknow, adding to esteem, you know,
and that's why I learned justpeople coming to the barbershop over

(01:21:18):
the years, it's rare thatsomeone doesn't feel good after getting
a good haircut.
Yeah, they get a bad haircut,they can feel bad, but someone comes
and get their hair done, theyusually feel a lot better, even if
they're feeling down or depressed.
You know, it's like, it'sconnected also to going to the gym,
taking a walk.
If you don't have money forthe gym and you're able to walk,
walk.
If you're able to do a lightjaw draw, you're able to do some

(01:21:41):
push ups or some dips orwhatever you can do, do it, you know.
But the name of the game isjust using whatever it is that's
at your disposal in front of you.
Yeah.
And you can start today.
You know, you start payingattention to when you're washing
your hands, when you'rewashing your face.
Next time you take a bath oryou take a shower, sitting there
and really take care of yourself.
You know, it sounds freaky, itsounds weird, but it's the truth.

(01:22:04):
Yeah, you're taking care ofwhat you've been given.
Yeah, I'm taking care of, I'mwashing and taking care of what God
has given me to bring forthand to continue on as long as I'm
here to continue on.
Your body is a temple.
The temple.
Yeah.
Take care of it.
That's it.
Oh my gosh.
It's so simple, guys.

(01:22:25):
Not, not you listeners.
The food, we eat differentthings, you know, we know about the
food.
The closer we are to nature,the better.
Yeah.
You know, fruits andvegetables, grain, you know, we all
know that we like a lot andpeople like junk.
But the closer you stay tonature, the better it is for your
body temple.
You know, I had, when I wasworking on the last show I was working

(01:22:46):
on, we had such crazy hours.
I was getting home so late andlike I would start to just forget
eating, you know, Then I wouldmeet with the nutritionist because
I'm like, I really didn't needto meet me with the nutritionist
because it's like I need to eat.
But like, still I went, youknow, to her and she's like, treat
your meal like it is aconversation with God.
Yeah.

(01:23:06):
You know, she's like, youwould never miss that.
Like, you need to eat.
Like.
And it really, like, shifted,you know, instead of being like,
oh, whatever, whatever.
She's like, no, no, no.
Treat it like a relationshipwith God.
And it really changed.
It made me, like, really takenotice of, like, what I was gonna
cook.
It made me plate what I wasgonna make it.

(01:23:27):
Nice, sit down.
And it, like, really just changed.
It versus just like stoppingat, you know, fast food joint, just
grabbing a quick fry and justtrying to have something in my stomach
before I went to bed.
It was like, yeah, preparation.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You have to.
Yeah.
And then a lot of that stufftoo, is.
It's all like, preparation.
It's.
It's just, you know, that'swhy people do meal preps.

(01:23:49):
Yeah.
You know, it's the same thingwhen you have like an early morning,
you know, this being, workingon sets, you have an early morning,
you have to be somewhere about5am it doesn't make sense to get
up at 4 and press your clothesand look for clothes.
What you gonna wear?
You know, we all know thepreparation should be at night.
Yeah.
Having stuff already ready.
So take your shower, yourbath, whatever you gonna do, get
dressed, brush your teeth andbe able to put your clothes on and

(01:24:11):
walk out the house if you haveto do that.
Yeah.
So it's the same with eating.
It's the same.
You know, it's the same.
And it's the same again inconscious parents.
The same with taking care of children.
It's preparation.
Having things done to make themorning easier.
Having things done at nightbefore makes it easier in the morning.
Yeah.

(01:24:31):
Then you're not rushing, like,where's your shoes at?
Where you.
You have all that stuff setout ready to go.
I love it.
You're not looking for shoes.
You're not looking under thecouch or under the bed.
No, it's already set there.
Yep, it's already set there.
Already ready.
Lunch is already made.
Lunch is already made.
Yeah.
When you stay ready, you neverhave to get ready, Right?
Preparation.
Yeah.

(01:24:52):
Preparation.
I love it.
Well, barber, author,filmmaker, father, philosopher, our
motivational speaker.
Appreciate you having me beingon Nosy af.
This really means a lot to me.
I've been following you for along time.
You've done so much that Iforgot that I started watching you

(01:25:13):
and dame on YouTube, like,that's how much stuff.
That was like, a long time ago.
So I feel like as you bringthis stuff up, it's like, wow.
Nice.
Yeah.
What a conversation.
Wow.
From conscious parenting topersonal growth and the power of
stillness to the grind of entrepreneurship.

(01:25:33):
Kenyatta shared so manypowerful insights, he was dropping
gems.
Am I right?
Remember, repetition buildsmastery, choices shape your path,
and it's never too late toreparent yourself or rewrite your
story.
I already know you're snappingyour fingers to that like yes, yes,
yes, yes.
I've added links to all ofKenyatta's projects in the show notes

(01:25:57):
you to check out.
So who knows, maybe I'll evensee you in the comments on his Instagram.
Thank you so much for tuningin, friends.
Take care of yourself, pourinto your people and keep growing.
This has been another episodeof Nosy af.
I'm your host Stephanie Graham.
What did you think abouttoday's conversation?

(01:26:18):
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Head over to the Nosy AFwebsite for all the show notes related
to this episode.
You can also find me onInstagram at Stephanie Graham, what
would you know?
Or online@miss graham.comwhere you can sign up for my newsletter
where I share exclusiveupdates about my studio practice
as well as this podcast.
Until next time, y'all staycurious and take care.

(01:26:41):
Bye.
Sa.

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