September 11, 2025 • 42 mins
So many of us mistake silence, delay, or resistance as failure — but what if those “dips” are actually divine preparation? Hazel and Quiy unpack what it means to stay obedient without clarity, why writing and intention-setting matter, and how to keep moving when fear and self-doubt show up.
🎙️ In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How to know when a setback is setting you up for purpose
- Why the valley comes before the mountaintop
- The role of divine timing in seasons of waiting
- How writing builds clarity and momentum when you feel stuck
💡 Listen if you’ve been:
- Wondering why your progress feels slow
- Questioning if you’re on the right path
- Battling self-doubt or silence in a waiting season
👉 If this resonated, don’t miss these episodes:
- Ep. 74: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
- Ep. 78: Breaking Through Self-Doubt
- Ep. 80: This Is Where Growth Happens
🎧 Listen now — your next chapter is already unfolding.
Fit, Healthy & Happy PodcastWelcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
WEDDING MAYHEM!!A fun pact show of wedding planning, Wedding Stories, tips, advice and hilarious dilemma's
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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Check me out online! I want to hear from you!!! Listen, Rate & Review, Share & Subscribe (Follow)!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
this massive high, to like this dip, because that
(00:02):
didn't just take a dip in thefinances, that took a dip in the
morale, that takes a dip in themomentum, it takes a dip.
We oftentimes just look at itone dimensional, but life is 3D,
you know, and so anything thatyou do not just you're, not just
a 3D person, the lessons,everything is three dimensional.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
So when you're doing something, don't just look at
this one thing that it affected.
It affected something else inyour life, whether you see it
right away or not.
Welcome to it's the HumanExperience Podcast Hosted by
Hazel Brown, a healthcare leader, wife, mom and career coach.
(00:39):
If you're big on authenticity,personal development,
perseverance and transparency,you're in the right place.
Get ready to be uplifted,inspired and empowered as you
become fearless in pursuit ofthe life you desire and deserve.
Go ahead and subscribe.
You don't want to miss out onthese transparent stories and
(01:00):
discussions that reveal highs,lows, aha moments and nuggets
that'll help you to grow andglow.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Hey, hey, hey.
You are now tuned in to theit's the Human Experience
podcast.
I'm your host, hazel Brown.
Today we have Kai.
We are going to be going intoall of the things when it comes
to personal development, bettingon yourself, the journey and
just making sure we take upspace.
Kai, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It's a pleasure, Hazel.
Thanks for having me.
I'm super excited.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, absolutely Listen.
We're going to jump right intothe podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So who is Kai?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Oh man, that's a loaded question, right,
Especially all the years ofdevelopment and things like that
.
I feel like it changes likeevery three or four years, but
right now, in this season, kaiis a community driven
storyteller and brand builder,and so I just found myself in a
space where I'm super passionateabout delving into the stories
of individuals, whether theyhave a business, whether they
(01:53):
have a personal brand, andhelping their story shine, you
know, through all that fog,through all that cloud, all that
haze.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Nice.
How did you get to that space?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
It's been a long journey.
So I've been a videographer.
I started out as a videographer, I should say, eight years ago,
right out of college.
I picked up a camera solelybefore the interest of doing a
podcast.
I had my first podcast.
It was an Instagram-onlypodcast called Talented Tuesdays
back in 2016.
And I started it based off of ashow from a frat brother of
(02:25):
mine called woke Wednesdays, andhe put me on.
So shout out, hurston Right.
And um, I'm like, yeah, that'spretty cool, I want to do that.
I want to interview a bunch ofcreatives.
And next thing, I know, like Ihad this camera and I'm like I'm
only using it once a week.
What else can I do with it?
And at the time I was living inMiami, Florida.
So I'm like, yo, it's all thisbeauty around here, I just want
to capture things.
I started doing photography,learned that did not like
(02:47):
photography as much.
I like, you know, capturingmoments and not necessarily a
singular moment.
Uh, and so that's when Istarted doing videography and I
was working at a university, um,and I was 22 years old, so I
blended in.
Well, uh, you know, build somegood relationship with the
students.
And next thing, I know Iblended in well, you know, built
some good relationship with thestudents.
And next thing, I know I'mshooting music videos.
So from like 2017 to about 2020, I'm shooting a lot of music
(03:10):
videos for a lot of differentartists from Miami and then in
the Atlanta space.
Then I transitioned to weddings.
I started doing weddings,getting booked for those, and
then I got more deep intopodcast production, where I had
my own podcast but it was audioonly.
(03:32):
And then I got my first client,harley, initiated podcast and
started producing for them.
And that's when I got into thespace of storytelling podcast,
documentaries, short films,trailers, and that's kind of
like where my journey hastranscended now.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I love it.
What I hear in your journey isbeing willing to just put
yourself out there and seeingwhat I can do with what I have
in my hand and then, from there,figuring out what works for you
.
Like I heard you say one timefrom Miami, I went to Berry
University.
I grew up in South Florida, butI heard you say that I started
taking photography.
I started doing photography Iwouldn't say taking it Right and
(04:09):
then you started recognizingthat you want to go deeper.
You want to be able to capturemore of the process and more of
the things that flow, instead ofjust like the still moments and
it sounds like.
Then you went deeper and you'relike I want to be a part of
like the weddings and thecritical life moments.
And then you went deeper andyou're like I want to do
podcasting because I get to hearmore of the story and capture
it.
So I love that.
Not only are you going atdifferent levels and you're
growing within your craft, butyou're also able to see, through
(04:31):
the journey, what you're goodat and take what you love and
you're good at.
And people need to be able toget to a space where you're
doing what makes sense and fromsomebody on the outside looking
in, they'll hear what you'redoing and they'll say man, kai's
over there doing that.
I want to jump straight to that.
But they won't understand allthe background and all the tools
that you've developed over theyears to get you to do so well
(04:52):
in what you do.
I love that.
You captured kind of how ithappened linearly, but when you
talk deeply in terms of how thatactually happens, it really
looks different.
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, and you got to start by doing.
Like, naturally, our brainswork best by doing, and a lot of
times we talk about doingthings and we say, oh, I wish I
could do this.
And we start doing all theplanning and at some point you
have to stop planning and youjust have to start executing,
because you're not going to haveeverything figured out.
Naturally, our brains, as alike a survival mechanism, we
(05:23):
want to think about the thingsthat will go wrong, so that we
can kind of have a solution forthe problem ahead of time, when
that problem may not even existin real life.
So you have to do it and that'show you really learn, and I'm
just so thankful that that was apart of my journey, that I was
really submissive to and justdoing the thing instead of
saying, well, the camera'sexpensive, what if I don't make
(05:44):
any money back on the camera?
Or you know, what if peopledon't like my music videos?
Or what if people don't like myweddings?
Like just doing it and justseeing what happens after that.
The aha moment was that my life, or my creative life, has
always resulted back to thestories and learning that the
stories are what actuallyresonate with the audience.
(06:05):
You know we can I have abusiness podcast.
The podcast that I was, youknow, wasn't necessarily
business, it was likerelationships and then other
podcasts of different industriesand niches.
But at the end of the day,those stories are what bring
them together to connect withthe audience.
That's intended for that show.
I started to notice that thatwas a trend because when I
started doing music videos I waslike different.
(06:26):
You know, I I never wanted tofocus on, let's just make a
flashy music video.
I'm sitting down with theartists and I listened to the
song with them and I'm trying topick apart like what were you
going through when you made thissong?
Like what message were youtrying to convey?
And like what story can we tell?
So my music videos oftentimeswere like short films and even
(06:46):
when it was like a, a song thatwasn't about nothing, oftentimes
I either found myself notwanting to work with that artist
or trying to make something outof nothing.
Right, like, oh, the story isabout nothing, but this video is
going to be about something.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
You know, like we're going to make it about something
regardless, it's going to tella story, Right?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So just I think that was God planted that seed on me
earlier on, just saying like hey, storytelling, focus on the
stories, focus on the people,focus on the resonations, focus
on the community building.
And just doing these thingslater on Now I'm like that's why
I was doing that 2017, 2018,2019.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think what you just shared just really brings up
how it's in the doing thatclarity comes.
I think sometimes people getstill for clarity, which is
important, but they don'trecognize that within the doing,
that within itself helpsprovide you the downloads and
the clarity that you need tofigure out what you should do
more of and what you should doless of.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
It's just like water, right?
If water was still, it gets allmuddied up and bacteria starts
to grow.
But water has to flow through astream.
It has to flow through thoserocks.
That's how you purify the water, and so that's how it gets more
clear and you get that clarity.
So life is just like water youhave to be moving.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, so we're going to dive into some questions,
right?
How do you measure growth inyour own life, like, especially
when you're feeling like nothingis progressing?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Growth is.
It's messy Right, and wheneverI get to a point in my life
where I feel super uncomfortable, to me that's like OK, you're.
You're uncomfortable becauseyou're shedding off an old layer
and you're getting ready togrow into a new one.
So that's, that's the firstsign of growth.
The second one is when youstart to have done something
(08:34):
over and over again, and eachtime it gets easier because you
were intentional and you'recreating processes and systems
for it, which is again why it'sso important to do, because as
you're doing it, you're doing itbetter.
Each time it's like OK, this is, I didn't have this email
sequence before.
Now I can set up this emailsequence, so now I can spend
less time responding to emails.
(08:55):
I can just hit the schedule andthen things are flowing the way
that I need them to flow, orwhatever that may look like.
Processes and systems, I think,are a huge part of growth and
development as well.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
What makes me good is that I understand the back ends
of things and it's like wow,like I was growing all along
when it felt like it was slow,but now I have the tools that I
need to be successful in this.
So it's like a big reminderthat growth doesn't always look
the way we think it should look,but we're still growing.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I was looking at this meme.
It was a bunch of like pebblesthat were rolling down a hill,
and along that hill there was aditch, and so you can imagine
these pebbles rolling down thishill and they're falling into
this ditch.
Right, that's all the failure.
And then eventually, thosepebbles start to fill that ditch
to where, finally, one pebblesbreak through, and then that's
where the success comes.
And so, again it's though it'sthe the law of averages.
(09:45):
You have to just keep doing andeventually, like you said, it's
going to break through to wherenow it's just easy and it just
flows, and now you can just rolldown this hill effortlessly.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Any human being that you see there are dips before
that next uphill of success anda lot of people give up in that
down thinking it's not for them,and we don't recognize that we
are getting prepared for ournext level, to your point.
We're shedding some of thatskin and that's how you know
you're doing the right thing,because you're still the same
person.
You still have the same muscle,the same strength.
(10:14):
In fact, you've grown, soyou're definitely going to be
prepared for that next level, soyou just have to trust it.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
And that down is like it's necessary, because a lot
of people will will associatethe down with only failure or
will associate the down withlike bad.
But the down can also resemblea phase where you're going
through some type of process orlearning.
It has to go down.
If you're learning somethingnew, it has to go down because
you're starting from ground zero.
Right, it's just like a baby,like they're.
They're developing, they'redeveloping and they're crawling.
And then there's this huge highbecause now they're really
(10:51):
comfortable with crawling.
But once they put their feetflat and they try to stand up,
it goes down because now they'relearning a new process.
The crawling never wentanywhere.
They can still crawl.
If they went back to crawling,you're just going to see this
big spike up.
But where are we really goingfrom there?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Like we have to learn how to take that next step and
in that next step, we're goingto have to go down to the
basement, you know, to learn andget back into the lab.
I think on episode 77 or 78, Italk a lot about how, as humans,
we try to skip crawling and wetry to go straight to walking.
And how can we hold ourselves upin terms of our bearings If we
never learned how to crawl, likewhen we fall, we wouldn't know
(11:28):
how to crawl on the ground.
We'd be flat on our face.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You know that our hands need to go first.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
So, so good.
When you feel overwhelmed byyour goals and the weight of,
like, the expectations, like,how do you change your approach
to stay aligned to your truepurpose?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, usually when I get overwhelmed is because I'm
moving too fast, and so that'sthat's the moment we talked
about being still.
That's the moment where you haveto kind of lock in and be still
and receive the downloads,because sometimes we'll receive
a download and we'll startmoving and we move faster than
that download was expected forus to go.
So we just need to slow down alittle bit, and oftentimes for
(12:06):
me it just looks like, you know,taking a week, taking a few
days where I'm not doing certainthings and I'm doing different
activities, like, ok, this isgoing to be the week where I go
out of town and I might go for acouple of hikes, or I'll be out
in nature, or I'll spend sometime with some family that I
haven't seen in a long time.
I may spend a few days notworking and just calling some
(12:28):
people I haven't spoken to in along time, reading a book that I
might need a reminder on, orreading a new book, and then
always, always, always, spendingtime with my family at home my
wife and my son is always goingto be a great reset for me to
restart.
Reset when I'm feelingoverwhelmed, because that's my
opportunity to not talk aboutbusiness, not worry about
(12:48):
business, and it's the perfectreason to say no.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I love that, like you're sharing how that journey
has helped you recognize whereyour priorities lie and what
really grounds you.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I'm always checking in the background, but the
foreground is forever my family.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
In the same way you would watch your child grow and
not rush for them to walk,though you're excited when they
do give yourself that same graceand understand that it's just a
part of the journey.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That's a great point.
You definitely don't want towhen you try to rush yourself,
because a lot of times we'llrush our growth when you try to
rush your own growth.
That's usually when those minorsetbacks turn into big setbacks
.
Perfect example one of myclients that I was working with.
I first started working withthem as a sales rep for one of
(13:35):
their products, which was a realestate product, and they were
just super excited because wewere making some big progress,
making some really good money,and it it was easy to see like
this is what we need to do.
This is the next level we needto take.
We need to start hiring morepeople, and I remember us hiring
like five, five people at onetime and I was like, man you
sure we want to hire five, maybejust like one other person or a
(13:58):
second person.
And we went and hired five andwithin three months, because
those, like four of the five,wasn't making any money for
themselves or for the business,they were probably out of there
within like three, five months,three to five months.
And so now we went from thismassive high to like this dip,
because that didn't just take adip in the finances, that took a
(14:20):
dip in the morale that takes adip, in the momentum it takes a
dip.
We oftentimes just look at itone dimensional, but life is 3dD
, you know, and so anything thatyou do not just you're not just
a 3D person, the lessons,everything is three dimensional.
So when you're doing something,don't just look at this one
thing, that it affected.
It affected something else inyour life, whether you see it
(14:41):
right away or not.
You just have to kind of lookand be cognizant, like, ok, what
else is this going to affect?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Because it most likely affected two to three
other things in your life.
Yeah, many times we're ready togo to the next, without even
sitting in what just happened,what we need to pull away from
that, and then celebrating someof those good successes too is
also important, and I pointedout because a lot of us don't.
We're just like OK, check,we're done.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And you know they say success, love speed, but that's
not literally what they meantwhen they say you should move
fast.
When they say success, lovespeed, we're talking about the
decision making process, becauseoftentimes we're just sitting
here dwelling in our thoughtsand we don't make any decisions,
and sometimes you just need tomake that decision to go.
Not necessarily move super fast, like oh, I need to hire this
(15:26):
person, hire that person, dothis, fire this.
Not necessarily move super fast, like oh, I need to hire this
person, hire that person, dothis, fire this.
Like move at a steady pace, butmove quickly and intentionally.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, like you don't need any more information.
You got everything that youneed.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
It's time to execute.
It's time to execute, yeahabsolutely All right.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Awesome.
What's one moment where yourealized that the person holding
you back wasn't the worldaround you, but it was you.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Perfect example Uh, 2020, uh, when I made the
decision to bring my podcast tothe video world, to YouTube, um,
and actually not even 2020, itwas 2022.
Um, 2018,.
I started my podcast based offof as a book review, and it was
very like limited limited minded, because I had just released a
(16:12):
book as a self-published author.
I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna starta podcast just to talk about
the book, not knowing the powerof what I had and what I was
trying to build.
And so that was one example.
But the second example was justbecause I wanted everything to
be easy.
It was easier to pull out mylaptop and a microphone and
record.
It was easy to kind of go offthe whim and talk about this
topic for 20 minutes.
(16:32):
It was easy to not have anyguests.
It was easy to not have to domuch editing.
It was easy to do all thesethings until I've realized that,
yes, these are easy, but it'scausing me more hardship in the
long run.
Once I got on YouTube in 2022 ofFebruary, everything started to
change.
(16:52):
The quality of guests that Istarted to have started changing
.
The monetization piece kickedin, not just from a YouTube
perspective, but we starteddeveloping products for both the
guests and for our audience.
We started to get morerecognition outside of YouTube.
I started running in people whowere starting to familiarize my
face from clips or from longform videos.
The impact was much bigger.
(17:13):
Um, and just based on myaudience, I didn't know like the
audience I was looking for.
Not too many of them werelistening to podcasts, they were
watching this information, andso I was holding myself back
that whole time for those fouryears, just wanting to do what
was easy.
And going back to what I saidagain earlier is like I knew
growth came when things gotdifficult, when I started to get
(17:37):
uncomfortable.
That's when growth was startingto kick in.
But if you don't have anydiscomfort, if you feel
uncomfortable all the time,there's no growth, because
you're not shedding anything.
You're just kind of sittingthere embellishing and, like
you're the, the, the old headsthat we talk about, that always
come back to the college or totheir high school to relive
(17:59):
their glory days and thenthey'll be there for homecomings
all the way through like 10, 11o'clock, because deep down
inside they really don't want togo back to the reality in which
they're running from.
You know they look for that oneto two times a year to relive
those moments where they hadthat huge success.
Quote, unquote, right.
But then we try to shy awayfrom addressing the reality in
(18:23):
which we are, that we've allowedourselves to be comfortable for
way too long.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
We have to make decisions with the information
that we get along the journey toreally help us up level.
I love that For someone whofeels like they're lost on their
way.
What advice do you have forthem to get back on path?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Go to God Like that's always going to be your North
Star, right?
It's like center yourself, havethose conversations and when we
say go to God, a lot of timesthat can be confusing for some
people who don't have a priorrelationship to God.
But going to God looks like yougoing within yourself, because
God is in all of us.
(19:03):
And so you have to look at yourlife and you have to look at
what's worked, what hasn'tworked, what moves me, what
triggers me.
If I had to wake up everysingle day and do the same thing
with a smile on my face, whatdoes that look like?
And God will start showing usand revealing those answers.
And we just have to be real andhonest with ourselves.
(19:24):
If you have to, if you'refeeling lost, take a few days.
This is not a one-day thing.
This is not a overnight process.
This is going to be a process.
But take a few days.
Put yourself in an environmentyou're not used to.
I like to always put myself innature, because nature is also
of god.
So I like to go on hikes, Ilike to go for long walks, um in
(19:44):
an area that I'm not familiarwith, and just look at the
things around me and it's sointeresting.
Next thing, you know, you juststart having these wandering
thoughts Like what if I was todo that?
I should try that.
You know I really enjoy doing X, y, z.
Those are the downloads thatwe're looking for.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's so good that you say that,because I remember earlier this
year I went to a wellnesscenter in Las Vegas Desert
Wellness Center.
Shout out for them.
Within that experience, theyhad like a 3D type experience
that you put on these glasses.
I forgot the actual name for it, I really don't remember what
(20:24):
it's called, but I'll say thisit really fast tracks your
ability to relax and for me,that's important because in
order for me to relax on aday-to-day basis, it is it's
going out in nature, turning onmy gospel music, lighting a
candle or something to thateffect.
Able to quickly visualize myself.
(20:47):
It was 15 minutes laying downin water and people were coming
up to the water watching me andI'm like, what does this mean?
And then the next moment I wassitting in a chair just
listening to birds chirp, andthen the next moment I was
looking at the mountains aroundme and it was kind of a reminder
these are the things thatprovide peace, these are the
(21:08):
things that you actually enjoyin real life.
You need to do more of that.
You don't need to necessarilycome in for a session to have an
animated version of that happen, but it's like a reminder that
these are the things that makeyou feel whole.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Definitely you got to put yourself in those
environments that make you feelwhole again.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It's definitely, that's definitely the key to all
of this and trying to removestress as much as possible,
because stress is another factorthat keeps us in this constant
state of fight or flight, andwhen you're thinking about fight
or flight, you're not thinkingabout thriving.
Yeah you're not thinking aboutthe things that you enjoy.
You're thinking about thethings you need to do, the
things you have to do, not thethings that you want to do that
(21:50):
fill your cup.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, what's one thing that you wish that you
would have learned earlier.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
That's a great question.
One thing I wish I would havelearned earlier was the
revolution of digital age thatwe're in and how to captivate
audiences.
Um, I would have started muchsooner than, you know, 2022.
You know, even though I waslike doing music videos and
(22:17):
stuff like that, I really didn'tfully understand the power of
digital content and theevergreen power that it has.
Like, once you put it out, itis there and it is constantly
attracting the audience.
And so therefore, if youunderstand, is constantly out
there, constantly attracting anaudience.
(22:38):
Now, there has to be some typeof intention, because if we're
not intentional, then we'reputting stuff out there and it's
like uncooked spaghetti it'sjust falling right off.
You know, it's not stickinginto any wall.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, I think what comes up for me is like how do
you decide how to drown outexternal noise, Whether it be
that people are saying, oh mygosh, Kyle, you're so great you
could be doing X, Y, Z, or oh mygosh, Kyle, you're doing way
too much Like.
How do you center yourself tobe able to recognize like no,
(23:09):
this is my pace, this is whatI'm supposed to be doing, and
know the discernment over yourlife as it relates to when to
run the ball and when to walkthe ball.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, I think for me, this hot take is you drown out
all external noise and you soakup data.
Data is the information we'rereally looking for and sometimes
it can confuse us.
Like external noise can kind ofsound like data, but it's not.
Even if that external noise iscelebratory and it's like
praising you, like you don'twant to bring in those praises
(23:41):
and start to embellish on themand give them value more than
they are, because at the end ofthe day, even if people are
proud of you, you still have agoal in mind.
And, yeah, I appreciate thatpraise, I appreciate I feel
celebrated.
Thank you for that.
But I still have a mission.
You know, I still have apurpose.
I haven't impacted the peoplethat I want to impact yet, so I
appreciate it.
And then also the same thingwith the negative noise.
(24:03):
You know, I realize that Ihaven't done X, y, z yet, but
this is still my mission.
I haven't done that yet becausethis is the mission has got
that.
God is telling me to move onright now.
So I think us learning andhaving that muscle of drowning
(24:24):
out all external noise andrealizing that the internal
noise is our divine noise.
It is certain cases I will saywe'll know exactly when God is
using other people to getthrough to us, because when they
say something, it triggers yourinner voice again.
You know, it's not necessarilylike noise.
You're not only receiving youknow this download but you're
receiving something.
And now you're also givingsomething in exchange.
(24:45):
That's when you know that it'scoming from God.
But if it's just like you, justlike overwhelmed by that, that
you know that it's coming fromGod, but if it's just like, ah,
you just like overwhelmed bythat, that's not, that's not
coming from God.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
You explain that so well.
You really did, because there'sso many times you'll hear that
noise and I'm heavy on God couldtalk to me.
He doesn't need to sendsomebody to talk to me.
Well, at the same token, thereare times where people come to
me with things and it'd be verymuch a reflection of what I'm
going through.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And it's like God.
Why did you?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
send them to me.
I don't know how to fix this,but it's also awareness for you
to come out of where you areLike don't stay there, like you
don't belong there, and I thinkwithin that space it makes you
recognize like when you arecomfortable, because, to your
point, sometimes people perceiveyou as being further along on
the journey, but you know whathe called you to, so you're
nowhere near the destinationthat he has you going, and so
(25:33):
you have to be able tounderstand when you're not
moving at the speed you'resupposed to be moving, because
why is he sending people thatlook at you to guide them in
this certain area if it's notexpected and already in his will
for you to be that person?
And so it's interesting to yourpoint because it moves something
within you and you're like allright, god, I see what you're
doing.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, god, god is going to.
God is going to talk to youregardless.
He's going to use people, he'sgoing to use situations, he's
going to use things, whatever hecan use around him.
You know, because sometimes wehard hit it when we're not
looking within ourselves.
There's no other way really forhim to talk to us.
So he has to start gettingcreative and sometimes God and
(26:16):
God and the devil have a veryinteresting relationship and
sometimes I feel like, becausehe's still got a hold on the
devil too and he'll even use thedevil to teach you a lesson, to
bring you back to him.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, yeah.
What has been the strangestthing in terms of, like being
able to have that awareness andwhether you should be doing a
thing, like a situation or atime where you thought maybe you
had discernment and God sentyou someone, something or
whatever the case may be to do,and then it was very clear that
you shouldn't be doing thatthing shouldn't be doing that
(26:54):
thing.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Um, weddings, perfect example.
I told myself after the thirdtime, finally, that I'm not
doing another wedding.
Um, because the pool is toodrastic.
I had multiple situations where, um, I did a wedding and my
hard drive failed out of nowhere, like just the whole memory
card was a dud.
Another time that, after Icaptured the, I went to a
(27:14):
wedding.
I forgot the memory cards.
Like I had no memory card, Ihad to go buy a memory card from
the photographer afterrealizing there was no place
that I could buy memory cardsremotely close to the shooting
area.
And after I was done that thatshoot, guess what happened?
That memory card failed becauseit was coming from a can.
(27:35):
I don't want to get technical,but it's two different compact
uh computers so they you know itwas down to, you know
malfunction.
And so I looked at thisreflection as I'm getting ready
to have this call with the brideto tell her like, hey, yeah,
got a great video for you, butthe bad news is I didn't get the
video of you walking down theaisle.
I didn't get the video of yourof the groom dancing with the
(27:58):
mom like key moments Right andhaving that conversation with
her.
That was a moment that God wasalso talking to me, like this
not what you're supposed to bedoing, right, like it's great
that you want to help people anyway you can, but you're also
here to niche down.
That's the.
That's really the reason why weniche down is because it keeps
(28:21):
us centered and keep us focusedon the path we're supposed to be
going on, because it's a lot ofdifferent ways to skin a cat,
meaning you can be doing, youcan be walking this path that
God has you on a thousanddifferent ways, but it's one way
that is going to give you theleast resistance, and so that's
why we have to niche down, sothat we have the least
resistance possible, because theleast resistance, the less
(28:41):
stress you can bring on foryourself.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, but how do you know the difference between
whether or not and I saydifference but discern whether
or not you're giving up tooquickly or if it's just not for
you?
And the reason I asked thatquestion?
Because a lot of peoplestruggle with that right.
I've had situations where I wassupposed to do a thing and I
could feel it strongly in myspirit that I should not do it.
But at some point I thought Ishould and so I'm committed to
(29:05):
it.
But you feel it clear that youshouldn't and as a result of
being willing to keep movingforward, I have a whole headache
, not a normal headache, just aheadache like girl.
I told you not to do this.
I don't care what youoriginally thought, but you're
not supposed to do this thing.
So you've been directed to doweddings.
You're doing it.
Clearly you're doing great atit because you're getting booked
.
And now these instances arehappening and at some point you
(29:28):
have to determine that it's atrend to recognize that, hey,
this is bigger than me, justforgetting it.
Like, how did you discern thatI'm not giving up?
This is really what God istelling me not to do?
Because I feel like that'swhere people get stuck.
It's like it's one thing topivot and it's fine to do it,
and it's another thing to giveup.
So how do you differentiatewhen you're leaving it Cause
(29:51):
it's no longer for you versusyou're fearful of making it
happen to get to the next level?
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Right and I feel like .
So I'm gonna say this you haveto give up.
And I'm saying it because wehave to relinquish the power of
words Like we yes, words havepower, but we have to relinquish
the power it words like we yes,words have power, but we have
to relinquish the power it hason us because, at the end of the
day, whether you want to sayyou gave up or you, you're
pivoting.
It is what it is and it's okaybecause we just have to realize
(30:20):
we're not supposed to be doingit.
And for me, that discernmentcame with the amount of
restraint and and and and likewhen it gets so hard, and like
it shouldn't be this hard,because I noticed when things,
when you have a failure and youcan learn from that failure,
versus something that ishappening to you on ongoing and
(30:44):
you can't do anything to to stopit.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Like, if I failed in videography for something, like
for the podcast, I messed up insomething, I can create a system
to avoid me messing up that wayagain with the weddings.
It was like, okay, I'll createa system to avoid me messing up
again, but then it will happenin a whole different way and
you'll start getting these,these feelings, and you start
entering that, that flightversus flight phase again.
(31:10):
And then just the conversationsagain.
We just have to be cognizant ofthe conversations we're having,
because when God is talking tous, he's really talking to us.
and the conversation that I washaving with the bride when you
got to break that news also yougot to do good business because
I could have been that person tolike, not say anything, deliver
her a bad product and thenblock her you know yeah that's
(31:33):
not me, that's not be being theperson that god called me to be
yeah gotta have the toughconversations, because in those
tough conversations is when it'srevealed to you whether to
pivot or, if this was just alesson, to keep going like you
learn something.
Still do the weddings, but hey,this is what we need to do
differently.
That conversation made it clearto me like no, that's not what
(31:54):
you're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, it sounds like you still had to be a finisher
so that you can actually get thedownloads and get the clarity
in terms of you still got tofinish.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, you don't just.
You don't just shut down andball up into a corner.
You are, you're intentionally,you're actively thinking about
what's going to happen next.
Okay, like, ok, this is what Igot to do.
Next, I got to give this ladythis product.
I got to have this call withher.
It's going to be a tough call,but I got to have it because, at
the end of the day, my brand ison the line For sure.
(32:24):
You know.
So you got to be a finisher.
You don't just tuck your tailand turn the other way.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
Something else that came up isthat when it's hard in flesh and
hard in spirit, there are twodifferent things.
When it's hard in spirit, youknow it's not for you.
When it's hard in flesh, that'sneither here or there, and so I
think for me, on my journey,I've recognized that when it's
hard in real life and otherpeople are looking at you like
(32:49):
how are you just pushing throughthis, but it's peaceful in
spirit, and when it's notpeaceful in spirit, that's when
you know that maybe it's not foryou.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Exactly, that's a.
That's exactly because thespirit is that energy, that that
that keeps you moving, thatkeeps that flesh, is the battery
that keeps that flesh moving.
So things can be hard for theflesh.
We were meant.
You know that's what the fleshwas meant for.
It's a shell.
It's supposed to protect ourenergy, you know.
So we'll take on a lot of thatphysical stress.
But that spiritual stress we'renot meant to take that on,
(33:23):
especially not for too long,like heartbreak and all that
stuff.
Like we're meant to heal, heal,deal with that, address it and
move on as soon as possible.
Because that spiritual stressis, is, we're not meant for that
.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, okay, this was such a great conversation.
Where can the listeners findyou online?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
oh, they can find me.
I am pretty googleable, so, kaisaunders, you type in my name,
you can find me.
My instagram handle iskaispeaks.
That's q-u-i-yspeaks.
Um, currently have a fewprojects.
Uh, we're working on a fewdocumentaries.
Super excited about thedocumentary highlighting, uh,
one of my uh favorite coffeebrands cafe.
(34:02):
We will be highlighting theirjourney, uh, to how they, you
know, got started in business,to where they are now.
Uh, in the huge campaign withthe mount vernon school.
As a creative director for adocumentary for their campaign,
let's's Do this to benefit theirathletic campaign.
So you can find all that on mywebsite at kaispeakscom, and
then also just search my nameand love to have a chat with
(34:23):
anybody who's interested.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Yeah, awesome.
If you can have any superpower,what would that superpower be?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
If I could have any superpower, the superpower would
be to look at a person and knowtheir fears.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
What would you do with that?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I would know how to speak to them, based on their
fears, and give them the powerand the comfort to move past
that fear.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I'm going to ask you one last question.
We all face setbacks.
What do you do to stay true toyourself during moments when it
feels like everything is fallingapart?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I go right into writing.
I write poems, I write, I justjournal.
I think writing is a goodexercise because when you put
pen to paper you're putting yourthoughts and you're setting
your intentions.
Um, and fun fact, I got thename.
(35:20):
Kai speaks is my stage namebecause of the poetry.
I used to do a lot of spokenword in Miami and one of the
guys said man, that boy's beencalled him Kai speaks.
I just introduced myself as Kaiand he gave me that name and
that has stuck because I reallydo believe in the power of the
tongue.
And so when I talked earlierabout, you know, not giving
(35:41):
words power over you, you ownthat power and you use that
power to deliver with the wordsthat you create and set those
intentions for yourself.
And the best way to set thatintention is by taking those
words and putting them to a pageand really spelling out your
life and manifesting the lifethat you want to create for
yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Nice.
It's funny.
When I was looking you up I sawthat he was from Philadelphia,
pennsylvania.
I was like, when Kai comes on,we're going to sing.
Now this is a story.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah, the Fresh Prince man, I get that all the
time and it's so crazy.
Right and not to go down thatrabbit hole because I love my
city.
My city has made me a part ofwho I am, a very um, small part
of who I am, but at to the sameextent.
You know, I had to get out ofthat environment and this is to
(36:31):
the people who are feeling likethey're stuck in an environment
and we wear these environmentson our sleeve like we die hard.
I got Philadelphia tatted on mychest because of how much of a
die.
And now, if you ask me, at 15,16, 17, 18 years old, I would
have never left Philadelphia.
But at 22, I left that city andI never turned back because I
(36:52):
realized that also ourenvironments keep us in that
stage of flight and flightversus fight and that's not a
healthy phase to be in, ongoingbecause you're giving us, you
put yourself in a constant,constant stage of stress, and I
just hope that my family can getout of that.
I just hope that my loved onescan get out of that environment
(37:13):
and George is always going to behome for anyone that I'm close
to and love to come on down herewith me.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
I've lived in so many different cities.
I lived in North Carolina forthree years, I told you, vegas
for five years.
I lived in Tampa for threeyears and lots of other cities
like Pensacola, tallahassee,everywhere else in between
Orlando, and for me it'simportant to live in different
places because I want to see howI can grow anywhere and being
able to come into a new city andthrive.
(37:41):
it really fuels me from theperspective of I can go anywhere
and survive.
And those are things that I tryto instill in my children too,
because so many times we'restuck to where we grew up and we
feel like we can't evolve inthat space.
Then we're limited to thinkingthat because we can't evolve in
that space, then we're limitedto thinking that because we
can't evolve in where we're usedto, we can't do it anywhere
else.
And it's so important thatpeople realize that it doesn't
(38:03):
matter where you go.
If something is within you,you're able to birth it and God
will provide the people, theresources, the things.
You just got to believe.
And if you're in an environmentto where you don't believe you
to your point, you got to getout of it.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Exactly the military.
Kids to me have always been themost dynamic growing up because
they just had experiences fromall the different cities and
countries that they lived in andwhen I was younger it was
definitely something I was.
So embrace that Because if youjust think about it in that
environment you're looking atthe same people You're, you're
(38:39):
getting the same habits andeverything trickles down.
It's like the.
It's like a colony of ants.
The colony of ants is going tobehave like the colony and when
you're in an environment theybehave the same and when you
move to a different environmentthey behave a different way and
sometimes that's good or bad.
You know, we just got to figureout what's going to be the
environment for us to be able tothrive and sometimes it looks
(39:00):
like being intentional stayinghere for five years.
Sometimes it may look likeuprooting your family and like
this is going to be the newplace and staying here for the
rest of our lives.
I don't intend to be in Georgiafor the rest of my life.
My next time that I plan onmoving will be out the country,
you know, hopefully somewhere inAfrica and just getting
grounded, you know, with myroots there.
(39:21):
But definitely I encourageanyone, especially at the age of
18 to 22,.
Move away from home and moveout of the city to give yourself
that.
That's why college is such agood opportunity as well, to
just put yourself in a differentenvironment I love that, just
like.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Put yourself out there, bet on yourself at every
stage of your life, butespecially early on, because
once you start building up thatfear, it becomes a little harder
to do it.
But know that you could do itat any time, I love it.
You gotta sing the song with me, though I'll sing the song with
you All, right.
You got to start, all right.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Dun, dun, dun dun dun In West Philadelphia born and
raised In the playground where Ispend most of my days Chilling
out, maxing, relaxing, all cool.
I'm shooting some people alloutside of school.
Couple of guys said we're up tono good.
Started making trouble in myneighborhood.
I got one little fight.
My mom got scared, said youscared, what's your idea?
I'm getting better.
I was before I can.
(40:14):
When it came near the licenseplate said fresh in the dice in
the mirror Philadelphia throughand through.
Like I said I love my city.
But you know you just got to dowhat you got to do.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yeah, absolutely Okay .
It was so nice having you inthe podcast listeners.
Make sure you go and you followKai one more time.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Where can Make sure y'all tap in with me at Kai
Speaks on Instagram KaiSpeakscomand then Kai Saunders on Google
, If you're just trying to findout where I'm plugged in and
what I have going on.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Awesome.
Thanks again.
So much for being on thepodcast.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Dropping all the gems , the transparency.
I hope that you're taking allthe nuggets, all the gems away
from this conversation andyou're taking it to bet on
yourself and realize that, justlike Kai, just like our other
guests, you can do it too.
You were chosen to, so go allout, bet on yourself and make it
happen for you.
We are rooting for you.
this massive high, to like this dip, because that
(00:02):
didn't just take a dip in thefinances, that took a dip in the
morale, that takes a dip in themomentum, it takes a dip.
We oftentimes just look at itone dimensional, but life is 3D,
you know, and so anything thatyou do not just you're, not just
a 3D person, the lessons,everything is three dimensional.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
So when you're doing something, don't just look at
this one thing that it affected.
It affected something else inyour life, whether you see it
right away or not.
Welcome to it's the HumanExperience Podcast Hosted by
Hazel Brown, a healthcare leader, wife, mom and career coach.
(00:39):
If you're big on authenticity,personal development,
perseverance and transparency,you're in the right place.
Get ready to be uplifted,inspired and empowered as you
become fearless in pursuit ofthe life you desire and deserve.
Go ahead and subscribe.
You don't want to miss out onthese transparent stories and
(01:00):
discussions that reveal highs,lows, aha moments and nuggets
that'll help you to grow andglow.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Hey, hey, hey.
You are now tuned in to theit's the Human Experience
podcast.
I'm your host, hazel Brown.
Today we have Kai.
We are going to be going intoall of the things when it comes
to personal development, bettingon yourself, the journey and
just making sure we take upspace.
Kai, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It's a pleasure, Hazel.
Thanks for having me.
I'm super excited.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, absolutely Listen.
We're going to jump right intothe podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
So who is Kai?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Oh man, that's a loaded question, right,
Especially all the years ofdevelopment and things like that
.
I feel like it changes likeevery three or four years, but
right now, in this season, kaiis a community driven
storyteller and brand builder,and so I just found myself in a
space where I'm super passionateabout delving into the stories
of individuals, whether theyhave a business, whether they
(01:53):
have a personal brand, andhelping their story shine, you
know, through all that fog,through all that cloud, all that
haze.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Nice.
How did you get to that space?
Speaker 1 (02:02):
It's been a long journey.
So I've been a videographer.
I started out as a videographer, I should say, eight years ago,
right out of college.
I picked up a camera solelybefore the interest of doing a
podcast.
I had my first podcast.
It was an Instagram-onlypodcast called Talented Tuesdays
back in 2016.
And I started it based off of ashow from a frat brother of
(02:25):
mine called woke Wednesdays, andhe put me on.
So shout out, hurston Right.
And um, I'm like, yeah, that'spretty cool, I want to do that.
I want to interview a bunch ofcreatives.
And next thing, I know, like Ihad this camera and I'm like I'm
only using it once a week.
What else can I do with it?
And at the time I was living inMiami, Florida.
So I'm like, yo, it's all thisbeauty around here, I just want
to capture things.
I started doing photography,learned that did not like
(02:47):
photography as much.
I like, you know, capturingmoments and not necessarily a
singular moment.
Uh, and so that's when Istarted doing videography and I
was working at a university, um,and I was 22 years old, so I
blended in.
Well, uh, you know, build somegood relationship with the
students.
And next thing, I know Iblended in well, you know, built
some good relationship with thestudents.
And next thing, I know I'mshooting music videos.
So from like 2017 to about 2020, I'm shooting a lot of music
(03:10):
videos for a lot of differentartists from Miami and then in
the Atlanta space.
Then I transitioned to weddings.
I started doing weddings,getting booked for those, and
then I got more deep intopodcast production, where I had
my own podcast but it was audioonly.
(03:32):
And then I got my first client,harley, initiated podcast and
started producing for them.
And that's when I got into thespace of storytelling podcast,
documentaries, short films,trailers, and that's kind of
like where my journey hastranscended now.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I love it.
What I hear in your journey isbeing willing to just put
yourself out there and seeingwhat I can do with what I have
in my hand and then, from there,figuring out what works for you
.
Like I heard you say one timefrom Miami, I went to Berry
University.
I grew up in South Florida, butI heard you say that I started
taking photography.
I started doing photography Iwouldn't say taking it Right and
(04:09):
then you started recognizingthat you want to go deeper.
You want to be able to capturemore of the process and more of
the things that flow, instead ofjust like the still moments and
it sounds like.
Then you went deeper and you'relike I want to be a part of
like the weddings and thecritical life moments.
And then you went deeper andyou're like I want to do
podcasting because I get to hearmore of the story and capture
it.
So I love that.
Not only are you going atdifferent levels and you're
growing within your craft, butyou're also able to see, through
(04:31):
the journey, what you're goodat and take what you love and
you're good at.
And people need to be able toget to a space where you're
doing what makes sense and fromsomebody on the outside looking
in, they'll hear what you'redoing and they'll say man, kai's
over there doing that.
I want to jump straight to that.
But they won't understand allthe background and all the tools
that you've developed over theyears to get you to do so well
(04:52):
in what you do.
I love that.
You captured kind of how ithappened linearly, but when you
talk deeply in terms of how thatactually happens, it really
looks different.
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah, and you got to start by doing.
Like, naturally, our brainswork best by doing, and a lot of
times we talk about doingthings and we say, oh, I wish I
could do this.
And we start doing all theplanning and at some point you
have to stop planning and youjust have to start executing,
because you're not going to haveeverything figured out.
Naturally, our brains, as alike a survival mechanism, we
(05:23):
want to think about the thingsthat will go wrong, so that we
can kind of have a solution forthe problem ahead of time, when
that problem may not even existin real life.
So you have to do it and that'show you really learn, and I'm
just so thankful that that was apart of my journey, that I was
really submissive to and justdoing the thing instead of
saying, well, the camera'sexpensive, what if I don't make
(05:44):
any money back on the camera?
Or you know, what if peopledon't like my music videos?
Or what if people don't like myweddings?
Like just doing it and justseeing what happens after that.
The aha moment was that my life, or my creative life, has
always resulted back to thestories and learning that the
stories are what actuallyresonate with the audience.
(06:05):
You know we can I have abusiness podcast.
The podcast that I was, youknow, wasn't necessarily
business, it was likerelationships and then other
podcasts of different industriesand niches.
But at the end of the day,those stories are what bring
them together to connect withthe audience.
That's intended for that show.
I started to notice that thatwas a trend because when I
started doing music videos I waslike different.
(06:26):
You know, I I never wanted tofocus on, let's just make a
flashy music video.
I'm sitting down with theartists and I listened to the
song with them and I'm trying topick apart like what were you
going through when you made thissong?
Like what message were youtrying to convey?
And like what story can we tell?
So my music videos oftentimeswere like short films and even
(06:46):
when it was like a, a song thatwasn't about nothing, oftentimes
I either found myself notwanting to work with that artist
or trying to make something outof nothing.
Right, like, oh, the story isabout nothing, but this video is
going to be about something.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
You know, like we're going to make it about something
regardless, it's going to tella story, Right?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So just I think that was God planted that seed on me
earlier on, just saying like hey, storytelling, focus on the
stories, focus on the people,focus on the resonations, focus
on the community building.
And just doing these thingslater on Now I'm like that's why
I was doing that 2017, 2018,2019.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I think what you just shared just really brings up
how it's in the doing thatclarity comes.
I think sometimes people getstill for clarity, which is
important, but they don'trecognize that within the doing,
that within itself helpsprovide you the downloads and
the clarity that you need tofigure out what you should do
more of and what you should doless of.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
It's just like water, right?
If water was still, it gets allmuddied up and bacteria starts
to grow.
But water has to flow through astream.
It has to flow through thoserocks.
That's how you purify the water, and so that's how it gets more
clear and you get that clarity.
So life is just like water youhave to be moving.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, so we're going to dive into some questions,
right?
How do you measure growth inyour own life, like, especially
when you're feeling like nothingis progressing?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Growth is.
It's messy Right, and wheneverI get to a point in my life
where I feel super uncomfortable, to me that's like OK, you're.
You're uncomfortable becauseyou're shedding off an old layer
and you're getting ready togrow into a new one.
So that's, that's the firstsign of growth.
The second one is when youstart to have done something
(08:34):
over and over again, and eachtime it gets easier because you
were intentional and you'recreating processes and systems
for it, which is again why it'sso important to do, because as
you're doing it, you're doing itbetter.
Each time it's like OK, this is, I didn't have this email
sequence before.
Now I can set up this emailsequence, so now I can spend
less time responding to emails.
(08:55):
I can just hit the schedule andthen things are flowing the way
that I need them to flow, orwhatever that may look like.
Processes and systems, I think,are a huge part of growth and
development as well.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
What makes me good is that I understand the back ends
of things and it's like wow,like I was growing all along
when it felt like it was slow,but now I have the tools that I
need to be successful in this.
So it's like a big reminderthat growth doesn't always look
the way we think it should look,but we're still growing.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I was looking at this meme.
It was a bunch of like pebblesthat were rolling down a hill,
and along that hill there was aditch, and so you can imagine
these pebbles rolling down thishill and they're falling into
this ditch.
Right, that's all the failure.
And then eventually, thosepebbles start to fill that ditch
to where, finally, one pebblesbreak through, and then that's
where the success comes.
And so, again it's though it'sthe the law of averages.
(09:45):
You have to just keep doing andeventually, like you said, it's
going to break through to wherenow it's just easy and it just
flows, and now you can just rolldown this hill effortlessly.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Any human being that you see there are dips before
that next uphill of success anda lot of people give up in that
down thinking it's not for them,and we don't recognize that we
are getting prepared for ournext level, to your point.
We're shedding some of thatskin and that's how you know
you're doing the right thing,because you're still the same
person.
You still have the same muscle,the same strength.
(10:14):
In fact, you've grown, soyou're definitely going to be
prepared for that next level, soyou just have to trust it.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
And that down is like it's necessary, because a lot
of people will will associatethe down with only failure or
will associate the down withlike bad.
But the down can also resemblea phase where you're going
through some type of process orlearning.
It has to go down.
If you're learning somethingnew, it has to go down because
you're starting from ground zero.
Right, it's just like a baby,like they're.
They're developing, they'redeveloping and they're crawling.
And then there's this huge highbecause now they're really
(10:51):
comfortable with crawling.
But once they put their feetflat and they try to stand up,
it goes down because now they'relearning a new process.
The crawling never wentanywhere.
They can still crawl.
If they went back to crawling,you're just going to see this
big spike up.
But where are we really goingfrom there?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Like we have to learn how to take that next step and
in that next step, we're goingto have to go down to the
basement, you know, to learn andget back into the lab.
I think on episode 77 or 78, Italk a lot about how, as humans,
we try to skip crawling and wetry to go straight to walking.
And how can we hold ourselves upin terms of our bearings If we
never learned how to crawl, likewhen we fall, we wouldn't know
(11:28):
how to crawl on the ground.
We'd be flat on our face.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
You know that our hands need to go first.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
So, so good.
When you feel overwhelmed byyour goals and the weight of,
like, the expectations, like,how do you change your approach
to stay aligned to your truepurpose?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, usually when I get overwhelmed is because I'm
moving too fast, and so that'sthat's the moment we talked
about being still.
That's the moment where you haveto kind of lock in and be still
and receive the downloads,because sometimes we'll receive
a download and we'll startmoving and we move faster than
that download was expected forus to go.
So we just need to slow down alittle bit, and oftentimes for
(12:06):
me it just looks like, you know,taking a week, taking a few
days where I'm not doing certainthings and I'm doing different
activities, like, ok, this isgoing to be the week where I go
out of town and I might go for acouple of hikes, or I'll be out
in nature, or I'll spend sometime with some family that I
haven't seen in a long time.
I may spend a few days notworking and just calling some
(12:28):
people I haven't spoken to in along time, reading a book that I
might need a reminder on, orreading a new book, and then
always, always, always, spendingtime with my family at home my
wife and my son is always goingto be a great reset for me to
restart.
Reset when I'm feelingoverwhelmed, because that's my
opportunity to not talk aboutbusiness, not worry about
(12:48):
business, and it's the perfectreason to say no.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I love that, like you're sharing how that journey
has helped you recognize whereyour priorities lie and what
really grounds you.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
I'm always checking in the background, but the
foreground is forever my family.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
In the same way you would watch your child grow and
not rush for them to walk,though you're excited when they
do give yourself that same graceand understand that it's just a
part of the journey.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
That's a great point.
You definitely don't want towhen you try to rush yourself,
because a lot of times we'llrush our growth when you try to
rush your own growth.
That's usually when those minorsetbacks turn into big setbacks
.
Perfect example one of myclients that I was working with.
I first started working withthem as a sales rep for one of
(13:35):
their products, which was a realestate product, and they were
just super excited because wewere making some big progress,
making some really good money,and it it was easy to see like
this is what we need to do.
This is the next level we needto take.
We need to start hiring morepeople, and I remember us hiring
like five, five people at onetime and I was like, man you
sure we want to hire five, maybejust like one other person or a
(13:58):
second person.
And we went and hired five andwithin three months, because
those, like four of the five,wasn't making any money for
themselves or for the business,they were probably out of there
within like three, five months,three to five months.
And so now we went from thismassive high to like this dip,
because that didn't just take adip in the finances, that took a
(14:20):
dip in the morale that takes adip, in the momentum it takes a
dip.
We oftentimes just look at itone dimensional, but life is 3dD
, you know, and so anything thatyou do not just you're not just
a 3D person, the lessons,everything is three dimensional.
So when you're doing something,don't just look at this one
thing, that it affected.
It affected something else inyour life, whether you see it
(14:41):
right away or not.
You just have to kind of lookand be cognizant, like, ok, what
else is this going to affect?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Because it most likely affected two to three
other things in your life.
Yeah, many times we're ready togo to the next, without even
sitting in what just happened,what we need to pull away from
that, and then celebrating someof those good successes too is
also important, and I pointedout because a lot of us don't.
We're just like OK, check,we're done.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And you know they say success, love speed, but that's
not literally what they meantwhen they say you should move
fast.
When they say success, lovespeed, we're talking about the
decision making process, becauseoftentimes we're just sitting
here dwelling in our thoughtsand we don't make any decisions,
and sometimes you just need tomake that decision to go.
Not necessarily move super fast, like oh, I need to hire this
(15:26):
person, hire that person, dothis, fire this.
Not necessarily move super fast, like oh, I need to hire this
person, hire that person, dothis, fire this.
Like move at a steady pace, butmove quickly and intentionally.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Yeah, like you don't need any more information.
You got everything that youneed.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
It's time to execute.
It's time to execute, yeahabsolutely All right.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Awesome.
What's one moment where yourealized that the person holding
you back wasn't the worldaround you, but it was you.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Perfect example Uh, 2020, uh, when I made the
decision to bring my podcast tothe video world, to YouTube, um,
and actually not even 2020, itwas 2022.
Um, 2018,.
I started my podcast based offof as a book review, and it was
very like limited limited minded, because I had just released a
(16:12):
book as a self-published author.
I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna starta podcast just to talk about
the book, not knowing the powerof what I had and what I was
trying to build.
And so that was one example.
But the second example was justbecause I wanted everything to
be easy.
It was easier to pull out mylaptop and a microphone and
record.
It was easy to kind of go offthe whim and talk about this
topic for 20 minutes.
(16:32):
It was easy to not have anyguests.
It was easy to not have to domuch editing.
It was easy to do all thesethings until I've realized that,
yes, these are easy, but it'scausing me more hardship in the
long run.
Once I got on YouTube in 2022 ofFebruary, everything started to
change.
(16:52):
The quality of guests that Istarted to have started changing
.
The monetization piece kickedin, not just from a YouTube
perspective, but we starteddeveloping products for both the
guests and for our audience.
We started to get morerecognition outside of YouTube.
I started running in people whowere starting to familiarize my
face from clips or from longform videos.
The impact was much bigger.
(17:13):
Um, and just based on myaudience, I didn't know like the
audience I was looking for.
Not too many of them werelistening to podcasts, they were
watching this information, andso I was holding myself back
that whole time for those fouryears, just wanting to do what
was easy.
And going back to what I saidagain earlier is like I knew
growth came when things gotdifficult, when I started to get
(17:37):
uncomfortable.
That's when growth was startingto kick in.
But if you don't have anydiscomfort, if you feel
uncomfortable all the time,there's no growth, because
you're not shedding anything.
You're just kind of sittingthere embellishing and, like
you're the, the, the old headsthat we talk about, that always
come back to the college or totheir high school to relive
(17:59):
their glory days and thenthey'll be there for homecomings
all the way through like 10, 11o'clock, because deep down
inside they really don't want togo back to the reality in which
they're running from.
You know they look for that oneto two times a year to relive
those moments where they hadthat huge success.
Quote, unquote, right.
But then we try to shy awayfrom addressing the reality in
(18:23):
which we are, that we've allowedourselves to be comfortable for
way too long.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
We have to make decisions with the information
that we get along the journey toreally help us up level.
I love that For someone whofeels like they're lost on their
way.
What advice do you have forthem to get back on path?
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Go to God Like that's always going to be your North
Star, right?
It's like center yourself, havethose conversations and when we
say go to God, a lot of timesthat can be confusing for some
people who don't have a priorrelationship to God.
But going to God looks like yougoing within yourself, because
God is in all of us.
(19:03):
And so you have to look at yourlife and you have to look at
what's worked, what hasn'tworked, what moves me, what
triggers me.
If I had to wake up everysingle day and do the same thing
with a smile on my face, whatdoes that look like?
And God will start showing usand revealing those answers.
And we just have to be real andhonest with ourselves.
(19:24):
If you have to, if you'refeeling lost, take a few days.
This is not a one-day thing.
This is not a overnight process.
This is going to be a process.
But take a few days.
Put yourself in an environmentyou're not used to.
I like to always put myself innature, because nature is also
of god.
So I like to go on hikes, Ilike to go for long walks, um in
(19:44):
an area that I'm not familiarwith, and just look at the
things around me and it's sointeresting.
Next thing, you know, you juststart having these wandering
thoughts Like what if I was todo that?
I should try that.
You know I really enjoy doing X, y, z.
Those are the downloads thatwe're looking for.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's so good that you say that,because I remember earlier this
year I went to a wellnesscenter in Las Vegas Desert
Wellness Center.
Shout out for them.
Within that experience, theyhad like a 3D type experience
that you put on these glasses.
I forgot the actual name for it, I really don't remember what
(20:24):
it's called, but I'll say thisit really fast tracks your
ability to relax and for me,that's important because in
order for me to relax on aday-to-day basis, it is it's
going out in nature, turning onmy gospel music, lighting a
candle or something to thateffect.
Able to quickly visualize myself.
(20:47):
It was 15 minutes laying downin water and people were coming
up to the water watching me andI'm like, what does this mean?
And then the next moment I wassitting in a chair just
listening to birds chirp, andthen the next moment I was
looking at the mountains aroundme and it was kind of a reminder
these are the things thatprovide peace, these are the
(21:08):
things that you actually enjoyin real life.
You need to do more of that.
You don't need to necessarilycome in for a session to have an
animated version of that happen, but it's like a reminder that
these are the things that makeyou feel whole.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Definitely you got to put yourself in those
environments that make you feelwhole again.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
It's definitely, that's definitely the key to all
of this and trying to removestress as much as possible,
because stress is another factorthat keeps us in this constant
state of fight or flight, andwhen you're thinking about fight
or flight, you're not thinkingabout thriving.
Yeah you're not thinking aboutthe things that you enjoy.
You're thinking about thethings you need to do, the
things you have to do, not thethings that you want to do that
(21:50):
fill your cup.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, what's one thing that you wish that you
would have learned earlier.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
That's a great question.
One thing I wish I would havelearned earlier was the
revolution of digital age thatwe're in and how to captivate
audiences.
Um, I would have started muchsooner than, you know, 2022.
You know, even though I waslike doing music videos and
(22:17):
stuff like that, I really didn'tfully understand the power of
digital content and theevergreen power that it has.
Like, once you put it out, itis there and it is constantly
attracting the audience.
And so therefore, if youunderstand, is constantly out
there, constantly attracting anaudience.
(22:38):
Now, there has to be some typeof intention, because if we're
not intentional, then we'reputting stuff out there and it's
like uncooked spaghetti it'sjust falling right off.
You know, it's not stickinginto any wall.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, I think what comes up for me is like how do
you decide how to drown outexternal noise, Whether it be
that people are saying, oh mygosh, Kyle, you're so great you
could be doing X, Y, Z, or oh mygosh, Kyle, you're doing way
too much Like.
How do you center yourself tobe able to recognize like no,
(23:09):
this is my pace, this is whatI'm supposed to be doing, and
know the discernment over yourlife as it relates to when to
run the ball and when to walkthe ball.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah, I think for me, this hot take is you drown out
all external noise and you soakup data.
Data is the information we'rereally looking for and sometimes
it can confuse us.
Like external noise can kind ofsound like data, but it's not.
Even if that external noise iscelebratory and it's like
praising you, like you don'twant to bring in those praises
(23:41):
and start to embellish on themand give them value more than
they are, because at the end ofthe day, even if people are
proud of you, you still have agoal in mind.
And, yeah, I appreciate thatpraise, I appreciate I feel
celebrated.
Thank you for that.
But I still have a mission.
You know, I still have apurpose.
I haven't impacted the peoplethat I want to impact yet, so I
appreciate it.
And then also the same thingwith the negative noise.
(24:03):
You know, I realize that Ihaven't done X, y, z yet, but
this is still my mission.
I haven't done that yet becausethis is the mission has got
that.
God is telling me to move onright now.
So I think us learning andhaving that muscle of drowning
(24:24):
out all external noise andrealizing that the internal
noise is our divine noise.
It is certain cases I will saywe'll know exactly when God is
using other people to getthrough to us, because when they
say something, it triggers yourinner voice again.
You know, it's not necessarilylike noise.
You're not only receiving youknow this download but you're
receiving something.
And now you're also givingsomething in exchange.
(24:45):
That's when you know that it'scoming from God.
But if it's just like you, justlike overwhelmed by that, that
you know that it's coming fromGod, but if it's just like, ah,
you just like overwhelmed bythat, that's not, that's not
coming from God.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
You explain that so well.
You really did, because there'sso many times you'll hear that
noise and I'm heavy on God couldtalk to me.
He doesn't need to sendsomebody to talk to me.
Well, at the same token, thereare times where people come to
me with things and it'd be verymuch a reflection of what I'm
going through.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And it's like God.
Why did you?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
send them to me.
I don't know how to fix this,but it's also awareness for you
to come out of where you areLike don't stay there, like you
don't belong there, and I thinkwithin that space it makes you
recognize like when you arecomfortable, because, to your
point, sometimes people perceiveyou as being further along on
the journey, but you know whathe called you to, so you're
nowhere near the destinationthat he has you going, and so
(25:33):
you have to be able tounderstand when you're not
moving at the speed you'resupposed to be moving, because
why is he sending people thatlook at you to guide them in
this certain area if it's notexpected and already in his will
for you to be that person?
And so it's interesting to yourpoint because it moves something
within you and you're like allright, god, I see what you're
doing.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, god, god is going to.
God is going to talk to youregardless.
He's going to use people, he'sgoing to use situations, he's
going to use things, whatever hecan use around him.
You know, because sometimes wehard hit it when we're not
looking within ourselves.
There's no other way really forhim to talk to us.
So he has to start gettingcreative and sometimes God and
(26:16):
God and the devil have a veryinteresting relationship and
sometimes I feel like, becausehe's still got a hold on the
devil too and he'll even use thedevil to teach you a lesson, to
bring you back to him.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, yeah.
What has been the strangestthing in terms of, like being
able to have that awareness andwhether you should be doing a
thing, like a situation or atime where you thought maybe you
had discernment and God sentyou someone, something or
whatever the case may be to do,and then it was very clear that
you shouldn't be doing thatthing shouldn't be doing that
(26:54):
thing.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Um, weddings, perfect example.
I told myself after the thirdtime, finally, that I'm not
doing another wedding.
Um, because the pool is toodrastic.
I had multiple situations where, um, I did a wedding and my
hard drive failed out of nowhere, like just the whole memory
card was a dud.
Another time that, after Icaptured the, I went to a
(27:14):
wedding.
I forgot the memory cards.
Like I had no memory card, Ihad to go buy a memory card from
the photographer afterrealizing there was no place
that I could buy memory cardsremotely close to the shooting
area.
And after I was done that thatshoot, guess what happened?
That memory card failed becauseit was coming from a can.
(27:35):
I don't want to get technical,but it's two different compact
uh computers so they you know itwas down to, you know
malfunction.
And so I looked at thisreflection as I'm getting ready
to have this call with the brideto tell her like, hey, yeah,
got a great video for you, butthe bad news is I didn't get the
video of you walking down theaisle.
I didn't get the video of yourof the groom dancing with the
(27:58):
mom like key moments Right andhaving that conversation with
her.
That was a moment that God wasalso talking to me, like this
not what you're supposed to bedoing, right, like it's great
that you want to help people anyway you can, but you're also
here to niche down.
That's the.
That's really the reason why weniche down is because it keeps
(28:21):
us centered and keep us focusedon the path we're supposed to be
going on, because it's a lot ofdifferent ways to skin a cat,
meaning you can be doing, youcan be walking this path that
God has you on a thousanddifferent ways, but it's one way
that is going to give you theleast resistance, and so that's
why we have to niche down, sothat we have the least
resistance possible, because theleast resistance, the less
(28:41):
stress you can bring on foryourself.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, but how do you know the difference between
whether or not and I saydifference but discern whether
or not you're giving up tooquickly or if it's just not for
you?
And the reason I asked thatquestion?
Because a lot of peoplestruggle with that right.
I've had situations where I wassupposed to do a thing and I
could feel it strongly in myspirit that I should not do it.
But at some point I thought Ishould and so I'm committed to
(29:05):
it.
But you feel it clear that youshouldn't and as a result of
being willing to keep movingforward, I have a whole headache
, not a normal headache, just aheadache like girl.
I told you not to do this.
I don't care what youoriginally thought, but you're
not supposed to do this thing.
So you've been directed to doweddings.
You're doing it.
Clearly you're doing great atit because you're getting booked
.
And now these instances arehappening and at some point you
(29:28):
have to determine that it's atrend to recognize that, hey,
this is bigger than me, justforgetting it.
Like, how did you discern thatI'm not giving up?
This is really what God istelling me not to do?
Because I feel like that'swhere people get stuck.
It's like it's one thing topivot and it's fine to do it,
and it's another thing to giveup.
So how do you differentiatewhen you're leaving it Cause
(29:51):
it's no longer for you versusyou're fearful of making it
happen to get to the next level?
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Right and I feel like .
So I'm gonna say this you haveto give up.
And I'm saying it because wehave to relinquish the power of
words Like we yes, words havepower, but we have to relinquish
the power it words like we yes,words have power, but we have
to relinquish the power it hason us because, at the end of the
day, whether you want to sayyou gave up or you, you're
pivoting.
It is what it is and it's okaybecause we just have to realize
(30:20):
we're not supposed to be doingit.
And for me, that discernmentcame with the amount of
restraint and and and and likewhen it gets so hard, and like
it shouldn't be this hard,because I noticed when things,
when you have a failure and youcan learn from that failure,
versus something that ishappening to you on ongoing and
(30:44):
you can't do anything to to stopit.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Like, if I failed in videography for something, like
for the podcast, I messed up insomething, I can create a system
to avoid me messing up that wayagain with the weddings.
It was like, okay, I'll createa system to avoid me messing up
again, but then it will happenin a whole different way and
you'll start getting these,these feelings, and you start
entering that, that flightversus flight phase again.
(31:10):
And then just the conversationsagain.
We just have to be cognizant ofthe conversations we're having,
because when God is talking tous, he's really talking to us.
and the conversation that I washaving with the bride when you
got to break that news also yougot to do good business because
I could have been that person tolike, not say anything, deliver
her a bad product and thenblock her you know yeah that's
(31:33):
not me, that's not be being theperson that god called me to be
yeah gotta have the toughconversations, because in those
tough conversations is when it'srevealed to you whether to
pivot or, if this was just alesson, to keep going like you
learn something.
Still do the weddings, but hey,this is what we need to do
differently.
That conversation made it clearto me like no, that's not what
(31:54):
you're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, it sounds like you still had to be a finisher
so that you can actually get thedownloads and get the clarity
in terms of you still got tofinish.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, you don't just.
You don't just shut down andball up into a corner.
You are, you're intentionally,you're actively thinking about
what's going to happen next.
Okay, like, ok, this is what Igot to do.
Next, I got to give this ladythis product.
I got to have this call withher.
It's going to be a tough call,but I got to have it because, at
the end of the day, my brand ison the line For sure.
(32:24):
You know.
So you got to be a finisher.
You don't just tuck your tailand turn the other way.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
Something else that came up isthat when it's hard in flesh and
hard in spirit, there are twodifferent things.
When it's hard in spirit, youknow it's not for you.
When it's hard in flesh, that'sneither here or there, and so I
think for me, on my journey,I've recognized that when it's
hard in real life and otherpeople are looking at you like
(32:49):
how are you just pushing throughthis, but it's peaceful in
spirit, and when it's notpeaceful in spirit, that's when
you know that maybe it's not foryou.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Exactly, that's a.
That's exactly because thespirit is that energy, that that
that keeps you moving, thatkeeps that flesh, is the battery
that keeps that flesh moving.
So things can be hard for theflesh.
We were meant.
You know that's what the fleshwas meant for.
It's a shell.
It's supposed to protect ourenergy, you know.
So we'll take on a lot of thatphysical stress.
But that spiritual stress we'renot meant to take that on,
(33:23):
especially not for too long,like heartbreak and all that
stuff.
Like we're meant to heal, heal,deal with that, address it and
move on as soon as possible.
Because that spiritual stressis, is, we're not meant for that
.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, okay, this was such a great conversation.
Where can the listeners findyou online?
Speaker 1 (33:41):
oh, they can find me.
I am pretty googleable, so, kaisaunders, you type in my name,
you can find me.
My instagram handle iskaispeaks.
That's q-u-i-yspeaks.
Um, currently have a fewprojects.
Uh, we're working on a fewdocumentaries.
Super excited about thedocumentary highlighting, uh,
one of my uh favorite coffeebrands cafe.
(34:02):
We will be highlighting theirjourney, uh, to how they, you
know, got started in business,to where they are now.
Uh, in the huge campaign withthe mount vernon school.
As a creative director for adocumentary for their campaign,
let's's Do this to benefit theirathletic campaign.
So you can find all that on mywebsite at kaispeakscom, and
then also just search my nameand love to have a chat with
(34:23):
anybody who's interested.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Yeah, awesome.
If you can have any superpower,what would that superpower be?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
If I could have any superpower, the superpower would
be to look at a person and knowtheir fears.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
What would you do with that?
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I would know how to speak to them, based on their
fears, and give them the powerand the comfort to move past
that fear.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I'm going to ask you one last question.
We all face setbacks.
What do you do to stay true toyourself during moments when it
feels like everything is fallingapart?
Speaker 1 (34:59):
I go right into writing.
I write poems, I write, I justjournal.
I think writing is a goodexercise because when you put
pen to paper you're putting yourthoughts and you're setting
your intentions.
Um, and fun fact, I got thename.
(35:20):
Kai speaks is my stage namebecause of the poetry.
I used to do a lot of spokenword in Miami and one of the
guys said man, that boy's beencalled him Kai speaks.
I just introduced myself as Kaiand he gave me that name and
that has stuck because I reallydo believe in the power of the
tongue.
And so when I talked earlierabout, you know, not giving
(35:41):
words power over you, you ownthat power and you use that
power to deliver with the wordsthat you create and set those
intentions for yourself.
And the best way to set thatintention is by taking those
words and putting them to a pageand really spelling out your
life and manifesting the lifethat you want to create for
yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Nice.
It's funny.
When I was looking you up I sawthat he was from Philadelphia,
pennsylvania.
I was like, when Kai comes on,we're going to sing.
Now this is a story.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah, the Fresh Prince man, I get that all the
time and it's so crazy.
Right and not to go down thatrabbit hole because I love my
city.
My city has made me a part ofwho I am, a very um, small part
of who I am, but at to the sameextent.
You know, I had to get out ofthat environment and this is to
(36:31):
the people who are feeling likethey're stuck in an environment
and we wear these environmentson our sleeve like we die hard.
I got Philadelphia tatted on mychest because of how much of a
die.
And now, if you ask me, at 15,16, 17, 18 years old, I would
have never left Philadelphia.
But at 22, I left that city andI never turned back because I
(36:52):
realized that also ourenvironments keep us in that
stage of flight and flightversus fight and that's not a
healthy phase to be in, ongoingbecause you're giving us, you
put yourself in a constant,constant stage of stress, and I
just hope that my family can getout of that.
I just hope that my loved onescan get out of that environment
(37:13):
and George is always going to behome for anyone that I'm close
to and love to come on down herewith me.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
I've lived in so many different cities.
I lived in North Carolina forthree years, I told you, vegas
for five years.
I lived in Tampa for threeyears and lots of other cities
like Pensacola, tallahassee,everywhere else in between
Orlando, and for me it'simportant to live in different
places because I want to see howI can grow anywhere and being
able to come into a new city andthrive.
(37:41):
it really fuels me from theperspective of I can go anywhere
and survive.
And those are things that I tryto instill in my children too,
because so many times we'restuck to where we grew up and we
feel like we can't evolve inthat space.
Then we're limited to thinkingthat because we can't evolve in
that space, then we're limitedto thinking that because we
can't evolve in where we're usedto, we can't do it anywhere
else.
And it's so important thatpeople realize that it doesn't
(38:03):
matter where you go.
If something is within you,you're able to birth it and God
will provide the people, theresources, the things.
You just got to believe.
And if you're in an environmentto where you don't believe you
to your point, you got to getout of it.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Exactly the military.
Kids to me have always been themost dynamic growing up because
they just had experiences fromall the different cities and
countries that they lived in andwhen I was younger it was
definitely something I was.
So embrace that Because if youjust think about it in that
environment you're looking atthe same people You're, you're
(38:39):
getting the same habits andeverything trickles down.
It's like the.
It's like a colony of ants.
The colony of ants is going tobehave like the colony and when
you're in an environment theybehave the same and when you
move to a different environmentthey behave a different way and
sometimes that's good or bad.
You know, we just got to figureout what's going to be the
environment for us to be able tothrive and sometimes it looks
(39:00):
like being intentional stayinghere for five years.
Sometimes it may look likeuprooting your family and like
this is going to be the newplace and staying here for the
rest of our lives.
I don't intend to be in Georgiafor the rest of my life.
My next time that I plan onmoving will be out the country,
you know, hopefully somewhere inAfrica and just getting
grounded, you know, with myroots there.
(39:21):
But definitely I encourageanyone, especially at the age of
18 to 22,.
Move away from home and moveout of the city to give yourself
that.
That's why college is such agood opportunity as well, to
just put yourself in a differentenvironment I love that, just
like.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Put yourself out there, bet on yourself at every
stage of your life, butespecially early on, because
once you start building up thatfear, it becomes a little harder
to do it.
But know that you could do itat any time, I love it.
You gotta sing the song with me, though I'll sing the song with
you All, right.
You got to start, all right.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Dun, dun, dun dun dun In West Philadelphia born and
raised In the playground where Ispend most of my days Chilling
out, maxing, relaxing, all cool.
I'm shooting some people alloutside of school.
Couple of guys said we're up tono good.
Started making trouble in myneighborhood.
I got one little fight.
My mom got scared, said youscared, what's your idea?
I'm getting better.
I was before I can.
(40:14):
When it came near the licenseplate said fresh in the dice in
the mirror Philadelphia throughand through.
Like I said I love my city.
But you know you just got to dowhat you got to do.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yeah, absolutely Okay .
It was so nice having you inthe podcast listeners.
Make sure you go and you followKai one more time.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Where can Make sure y'all tap in with me at Kai
Speaks on Instagram KaiSpeakscomand then Kai Saunders on Google
, If you're just trying to findout where I'm plugged in and
what I have going on.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Awesome.
Thanks again.
So much for being on thepodcast.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Dropping all the gems , the transparency.
I hope that you're taking allthe nuggets, all the gems away
from this conversation andyou're taking it to bet on
yourself and realize that, justlike Kai, just like our other
guests, you can do it too.
You were chosen to, so go allout, bet on yourself and make it
happen for you.
We are rooting for you.
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