July 16, 2025 • 49 mins
Do you ever feel like you want to make a jump into a new career, new friendships, new relationship and/or travel to new places yet FEAR stops you? In this episode I teach you the importance of creating a plan and JUMPING into all of the things that you desire. Everything you dream is waiting for you!
LISTEN as I share a couple of personal stories of me jumping and succeeding.
The purpose is to support men and women while giving them the tools and space to heal emotionally, psychologically and physiologically.
Go ahead LISTEN, WATCH & SHARE!
Follow IG: https://instagram.com/awisebrown?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
Mental Health is a Lifestyle Podcast with Andrea Wise-Brown, is where we discuss practical strategies for managing mental health and wellbeing. Thank you for listening to this episode of Mental Health is a Lifestyle Podcast. We hope you found these practical tips helpful and encourage you to continue prioritizing your mental health and wellness.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, please email us at mhialpodcast@gmail.com.
See you next time!
Find Andrea: awisebrown.com
Follow The Podcast At @mentalhealthisalifestylepod Mhialpodcast@gmail.com I want to know your opinions…….
In addition; if you have any questions that you want answered on the podcast send your request to mhialpodcast@gmail.com or inbox me @mentalhealthisalifestylepod
Remember, Mental health is a Lifestyle!®️😘
LISTEN as I share a couple of personal stories of me jumping and succeeding.
The purpose is to support men and women while giving them the tools and space to heal emotionally, psychologically and physiologically.
Go ahead LISTEN, WATCH & SHARE!
Follow IG: https://instagram.com/awisebrown?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
Mental Health is a Lifestyle Podcast with Andrea Wise-Brown, is where we discuss practical strategies for managing mental health and wellbeing. Thank you for listening to this episode of Mental Health is a Lifestyle Podcast. We hope you found these practical tips helpful and encourage you to continue prioritizing your mental health and wellness.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, please email us at mhialpodcast@gmail.com.
See you next time!
Find Andrea: awisebrown.com
Follow The Podcast At @mentalhealthisalifestylepod Mhialpodcast@gmail.com I want to know your opinions…….
In addition; if you have any questions that you want answered on the podcast send your request to mhialpodcast@gmail.com or inbox me @mentalhealthisalifestylepod
Remember, Mental health is a Lifestyle!®️😘
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mental Health Is a lifestyle podcast. It's not a
substitute for a relationship with your mental health professional. Hey, family,
welcome back to another episode of the Mental Health is
a lifestyle podcast with your girl Andrea wise Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Old Family, I missed you. I missed you.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
So last last week, what we did was we did
a rewind of narcissism. We rewinded narcissism because there was
a lot of people who were talking about narcissists and
narcissism and you know, putting those labels on people again, and.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So I just kind of do what's in my spirit.
So that kind of came up for me. So I
was like, Okay, you.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Know what, we're gonna rewind. So we rewind and we
put narcissism out there. But this week, family, this week,
I'm hoping that this week really moves you because what's
on my spirit this week as I talk to you,
And this is not an interview, this is your girl
by herself here. But this week I want to talk
(01:19):
about fear. I want to really encourage you to push
through fear.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
To push through fear.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now, fear, you know, is a natural response to certain things,
maybe situations or items where that can be dangerous, or
let's just say that we've learned that are dangerous.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So it would make.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Sense to be fearful to put your hand in the
mouth of a tiger, Okay, would be it would be silly.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay for you not to be fearful of that.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
But the fear that I'm talking about today is the
fear of following your dreams. Is the fear of the
fear that's holding you back from doing the things that
you really want to do, from seeing the things that
you really want to see, from going to places that
you really want to go. So I'm talking about that fear.
(02:25):
We're gonna bust through that fear today. So let me
just say this, if it were a phobia, like a
teak of phobia, and a teak of phobia is the
fear it's an intense fear of failure, Okay, an intense
(02:47):
fear of failure surrounding and really trying to avoid certain situations.
So that's what that is, and that is a disorder,
and any type of regular fear can turn into a disorder.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Okay. So as I'm speaking of a tiki phobia.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Then that I want you to go to your therapist
I want you to find a therapist. You go to
a therapist, and you work through phobias, okay, and I
will tell you for a tikophobia, it's about two to
five percent of the population.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Who suffers from that.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, all right, But aside from that, okay, I'm just
talking about the regular fear that you allow to stop you.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
From following your dreams. I really want.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
To talk to you about that because what I want
to encourage you to do is to jump anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So although you're fearful, as long.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
As things make sense, as long as the jump is rational,
and I'll give you some examples of some rational jumps today,
I am encouraging you to jump because what I know
for sure is God is always always supporting your good
(04:13):
He's always supporting your good.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Jump.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And really, what is failure? Like, let's look at that.
What is failure?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
So it's something that I try and yet it doesn't
work out, but yet and still I'm still living, I'm
still moving around, I still pretty much have all of
my needs and I still can attempt to do something else?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
What is failure?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
What so what like really really really how debilitating is failure?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Do we really fail when something does work, it's you know,
like it's failure a bad thing. I'm going to say,
Andrea is gonna say failure is not a bad thing,
because what failure does is it just teaches you and
tells you that what that way didn't work and we
better try another way. We need to try another way.
(05:21):
So I'm also going to say push through. We're gonna
jump through our fears, and we're also gonna jump over failure.
Except failure because it could happen, and then there's a probability.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That it doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
But even if it does, it's only setting you up
or positioning you to go a little bit higher or
maybe go a little bit differently. Hmm. So embrace it.
Embrace failure. Hey, I'm embracing failure like that's just what
it is.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Failure. Who failure? What I'm like, just come on, come on,
come on.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And take this ride with me, failure, come ride with me,
because I'm going after everything I believe God.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Has promised me.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's what I want y'all to say, because that's how
I feel I'm going after. Let me tell y'all something,
you don't know how long we are living here? In
this world, in the world that we're in that's here
on earth.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
We don't know. We don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Our days are numbered, but God knows the number. We
don't know the number. So but what I do know
is we ain't gonna live here for the rest on
and for eternity. There you go. Now, that's for truth,
that's for sure. And I know y'all know that too.
So since our days are numbered, sh then let's do
this thing. I want to get everything out of every
(06:51):
number while we're here, out of every single year that
we are here on this earth. I am encouraging you
to get everything that you can get, try everything that
you can try, and please try to achieve everything that
you desire. Don't leave nothing on the table. I'm not
leaving nothing on the table. You got me not check
(07:16):
this out Andrea. She doesn't want what's yours. But what
Andrea wants is what's hers. I want what's mine, and
I'm going to get it. And I'm here today to
encourage you to do the same thing. You hear what
I'm saying, Okay, all right? And God is always conspiring
(07:37):
for your goods, so you have to trust that.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
But it looks like a jump like it looks like
a jump.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So listen, So let me just start off with I
want to start off with, let me just see a
few of my jumps. I just want to give you guys,
and let me just let y'all know that I ain't
finished jumping yet.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So I know that I told you y'all about my
south By Southwest story. That was a jump, you know,
when I was like mceing, Natty, that was a jump, honey, Okay, yes,
And I told y'all, I said, hell yes, and I
did that, and.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And I believe in my heart that God set me
up for that through people that I love, that for
something else, like something else is coming, something else is coming.
So Andrea is still jumping. That's why I'm here to
encourage you, because I want you to do the same.
Don't let fear hold you back. And don't ever think
that Andrea, which is me, let me stop speaking in
the third person.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Don't ever think that.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I don't get afraid, or I don't get butterflies in
my stomach, or you know, I don't get those negative thoughts,
you know, or my trauma sometimes doesn't speak to me,
which makes my anxiety rise, Like can I do it?
I don't know, because all of those things do happen
to me. But guess what I do.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I jump anyway.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I make my decision to go forward, I commit to it,
and I jump anyway. And I don't have one regret.
Do y'all hear me? I don't have any regrets for
any of the times that I jumped. So let me
I'll start off by saying, many of you know I
(09:20):
used to own a hair salon some years ago, so
it was a long time ago. I used to own
a hair salon and that was you know, that was
my way of income. That was something that I've learned.
I am a licensed cosmetologist and I still keep my
(09:40):
license up.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I do not do hair anymore, you know, Like I'm a.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Licensed a cosmetologist, so like skin and hair and nails,
I don't do any of that. However, since it's one
of my gifts, one of my talents, and y'all know,
I will tell y'all that we have many gifts that
God has given us. I just never know when I
might need it again, so I'm always renewing my license. Okay,
(10:06):
that's just to let you know. It's a little caveat
little side information just to let y'all know. However, you know,
I used to have a hair salon years ago. And
as I had my hair salon and I would serve
my clientele, those were my clients who were also my family,
you hear me, my family and the women who worked
at my salon with me, those are my family too.
(10:29):
So but as we were doing that and working and
slaying hair out handy streets, okay, in the streets of
New Jersey, all of a sudden, there was something that
came up in my stomach as to me.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Not really living my true purpose.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
And so I really was going on a journey of
trying to figure out what my purpose was, like, what
is my purpose on this earth? Why am I here?
Because I want whatever it is that I'm doing to
fill me up. I was really good at doing hair.
I was really good at it, really dope at that.
I'm very creative. However, I didn't like it anymore, Like
(11:07):
I just didn't like it. You know how you get
up and you go to a job every day and
you just don't like it.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
It doesn't feel good to your spirit, it doesn't feed
your spirit.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And this was the thing. I loved my family. Then
I loved the women that I service. I loved the
women who worked with me.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Loved them. So we would have a good time, you
know what I mean. We'd have a good time.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
We even used to have I think I like charted
a bus one time and we had like a bus
ride to the casino, you know, with the clients. There
was a time that I think we was even uh,
I ain't even gonna say we, I'm gonna say I.
I was even selling purses, and like there was a
lot of stuff. We would have parties. We would have
card parties, okay at the salon and then maybe at
(11:50):
some of the different clients. And they may not want
me to say they names, but the.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Clients like houses, we'd have parties. Oh my go.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
We had so much fun together. And I was more
tied to having that fun than I was really you know,
feeling lit up and feeling and resonance. When I was
doing hair. It was easy for me to do, but
it didn't feel purposeful. So AnyWho, when I found out
what my purpose was, which it really was to inspire
(12:21):
and to empower, it was to inspire and empower to
help people get from wherever they were to wherever it
is that they wanted to be, Okay, to get from
wherever they were, and they are here today to wherever it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Is that you want to be.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
And the reason why I went to mental health route
to get in there was because you know, I could
sit up here and I can motivate you all day.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
People do it and they can speak it and speak it.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
But then sometimes you could motivate someone and give them
all of the words, but then they're stuck. They can't
move forward. So that's why I went. I said, wait,
hold on, I have to learn why.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Do people get stuck?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So I went to school face my fear. M, that's
the first fear, because I didn't think I was smart
enough to go to school. I did not think I
was smart enough to go to college. Oh oh, that's
so good. So that was why I tried to skirt
around going to college, okay, and just taking whatever ability
(13:23):
I had creatively, and I got my licen, my cosmetology license,
and then you know, ended up opening the salon after
work in a couple of places. And that's a strategy.
I could tell anybody who wants to know how to
do that. But okay, so I did. I pushed through
fear there because you know, when I was noticing that
I need to you know.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
It's empowerment.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I have to empower people and I have to lift
people up, and and you know, then my thing was,
you know, I would always be giving advice because I
was always just that type of person that people would
always come to and ask me for advice. So you know,
at the time, I'm telling you I had high school education. Okay,
I'm just giving advice. This is this is the guy
in me. Okay, just giving advice. But then I would
(14:06):
see how people would get stuck and I couldn't understand
why they would get stuck. So I was like, okay,
I need to go and learn all about the brain
and human behavior so that I can figure out why
they get stuck and then help them to get over
those bumps and those barriers to get them unstuck.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
So then I had to who, girl, You're gonna have
to go to school, all right. You are going to
have to face a fear that you have that was
rooted inside of me. And it was rooted inside of
me from I want to I think it was a
it was a first grade class I think it was
my first grade teacher.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I overheard him and another teacher.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Talking about they were talking about their students and they
were talking about testing, and I can remember there was
some kind of comment that he said. And i'll say
his name because I don't even know if he's still living,
but my teacher's name was me Renolds.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Never forget. He was so cool. He was the coolest teacher.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
But I heard mister Reynolds talking to this other teacher
and as they were talking, they were saying, and we
were in the same grade, but they were saying something
about he said something about his class and that his
class wasn't as smart as the other class, or they
didn't achieve I guess the scores weren't as high as
the other class. So I have heard this, and then
(15:23):
I realized my little self was like, oh, shoot, you
in his class, you in mister Rentals class.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You you ain't that smart.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
You were not that smart. So I kind of carried
that with me. So that was shame that.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
I carried with me of oh, you're not that smart.
Oh you're not that smart.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Although on my report cards, and this was even after
mister Reynolds class, I go to different schools, and I
always scored really high on my test and I studied
well and I always got good grades.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I was always on an honor roll.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
However, that seed that was planted in me years ago
said you weren't.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That smart, right, And that was in my brain as
it was developing as a child. So that's why you
have to.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Be extremely careful what you say around your children, you understand,
because it can affect them for the rest of their lives.
So this was a seed that was planning you not
that smart. Girl. You ain't that smart, Okay, all right,
So any who carried it forward, I'm bringing y'all back
to where we are. So now I'm like, oh gosh,
all right, So how you gonna go and learn about
(16:34):
this brand? You're gonna have to go to college, cyst,
because when you applied to college when you graduated from
school at seventeen, you graduated a year early because you
wasn't that smart.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
No, that wasn't it. You're smart, but you graduated early.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And when you attempted to go to a school, the
first school that you applied to denied you. So that
further confirmed girl, you ain't that smart. So that's when
I started, you know, going doing the hair. Okay, So
then after doing the hair and getting my license the cosmetology,
doing all of those things, and then I get my
own salont So here we go, y'all.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I hope y'all tracking right. A girl is not that smart.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It's smart enough to know that when she has a gift,
ain't nobody gonna pimp her for that gift for so long.
So what she did was and this is Andrea again,
me talking to third person, and I just stopped doing that.
So what I did instead was I said, there's no
way in the world that somebody else is going to
keep making most of the money off of me, and
(17:35):
I just get the diddly damns. So I would get
the lower percentage, right, the even percentage. I'm thumping and
I'm working, and I'm getting even percentage. And wasn't tracking,
not for me. So that's when I started realizing and
understanding the business, understanding what it means, meant to even
have client tele understand what it meant to have overhead
understand you know, I'm understanding all of these things. And
(17:58):
then I said to myself, what you are going to
do is you're gonna open up your own spot. So
this was after I had probably gone to maybe two
or three different hair salons and work for them, and
that was only probably in a two year time span.
And I'm going to say that at that time, I
may have been nineteen years old.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Okay, so I was young.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
But any who, I realized I was like, nope, you're
gonna get your own salon and let me tell y'all something.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, because I could stay on this story.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
So as I'm like searching for salons and I'm working
over time, you know what I'm saying. I'm working on days,
working hard, okay, as an entrepreneur, on days that are
not the normal days that you take clients, all right,
but I'm just working.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I'm working.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I'm trying to, you know, make this money and make
this money, make this money, and I'm trying to put
together in my head. I've never done construction before, but
it was my dream. The dream was I was gonna
have a salon. I never bought a salon before. I
never bought a place before. I had my own apartment
and have my own car, but I didn't have as
salt line. However, the dream. All I saw was the dream,
(19:03):
and I knew the talent that I had. And if
I never ever ever know how to bet on anybody else,
I know how to bet on myself. And I want
y'all to get that. I hope somebody out there is
receiving that. Bet on yourself. You know what your gifts are,
you know how hard you could work, you know what
you are going to put out in this world. You
(19:25):
know what you are capable of. And so let me
tell y'all something for me. I'm going to repeat this.
If I can't bet on nobody else, I know I
can bet on myself. And that was how I was feeling.
So I let the dream perceive me. And then I
start doing the work every day. So I was working
with clients. I would even work on Sundays, I would
(19:46):
work whatever day. I would work late in the evening.
But I was just trying to build that money. I
was trying to build that money. And so now, and
this is another thing. If you have a dream or
something that you want, what you desire desires you. What
you desire desires you, So once you believe it, you
accept and believe that this is what you want, this
(20:09):
is what I want. That's acceptance. And then you believe
that it's out there, You're gonna find it. It's gonna
be so easy, as my friend Susy would say, easy world,
it's going to be so easy for it to come
to you. It just is because now you're going to
meet it, and God already has it there for you.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
It's like, what do is it behind? One? Two, three
or four? But when you sitting behind fear of no,
I can't do this. No, this said this.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
No, my family system says this. No, the generations before
me said no. Nobody else ever opened the door.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
No. No, you sitting there, you don't even know what's
out there waiting for.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
You, what you desire, desires you. So now I'm on
a quest and I just start driving around. I start
driving around in the area not too far from where
I worked, where I was working at that time, trying
to find a salone. Okay, what does this look like?
I didn't understand square footage before I actually got my place.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
What does this look like? Oh? What, where's the place where?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
And so then all of a sudden, you know, as
I'm driving down these major streets not too far from
where I was, where I was working at because it
wasn't too far from where I lived. So as I'm
looking right, this is the area. Because I'm also thinking
about my clientele. So if they come to me, they
love what I do, but they come to me here,
then okay, I need to look in this surrounding area
(21:35):
because then the probability of them coming to me there
is going to be pretty high. Any of who I
found this space, and I literally ooh, I'm gonna put
a picture up right here to show y'all what the
space looked like. I'm gonna show y'all this because I
think it means something to show this to you. Okay,
(22:05):
all right, so now y'all see what that place looks like.
So I found this place, so I contacted the landlord,
and after I contacted the landlord, I ask, you know,
how much.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Is the rent? You know, what's the square footage? Can
you walk me through?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And come to find out that this place had been
a hair salon some years before. Okay, So for me,
the girl that thought she wasn't smart, I mean, now
I know hell is smart, but but but before right,
that was a smart girl. Okay, let me ask this. Okay,
it's a hair salon, so to me, that meant that
it would make more sense to go in instead of
(22:40):
trying to rebuild and create something that's never been to
recreating something that was already there.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Y'all hear what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So any who, this had been a salon, and I
guess a failed salon, and that's okay, because.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I'm sure they onto whatever their next thing was.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So I go and I'm like, you know what, let
me see how much the rent is so I know,
I know how much money I make now, so this
is the deal. I have enough room for some more
stations that I can hire people to work for me.
But my thing is, what did I tell y'all before?
If I can't bet on nobody else, I know I can.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Bet on me.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So my thing was, if with my clientele itself, I
can pay my own bills here and my bills at
home at my place, then this is going to be
the place for me.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So that meant that anybody else who.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Worked there, that was gonna be gravy on top okay,
gravy on top of it. If y'all eat beef, gravy on
top of the steak, gravy on top of the chicken.
If it's me or shrimp. You feel what I'm saying.
That was gonna be graving icing on the cake if
you eat cake, okay, with a little bit of ice
and all right.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So then I'm like, okay, but can you do this
on your own? Yes? Andrea, you know the numbers, this
is what you've been doing. You can do this on
your own.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And this is what's so interesting family that even though
they're gonna be people in your lives, if you're trying
to follow your dreams, so you're thinking about doing something
that maybe you've been fearful about, and hopefully I have
to hearing this, you go, you know what, I might
just jump.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
They are gonna be.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
People in your lives, in your family, close to you,
who love you, but because God didn't give them the vision,
when they see it, they're gonna be like hell no.
So I can remember a few people that I took.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
To the place.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I was like, listen, I got this idea. This is
gonna be amazing. I'm gonna open up my own slom. Oh,
you're gonna open up your own slum. You want to
see where it's at. Yeah, I was very proud. I'm like, oh, okay,
come on, because like the landlord like gave me some
time to kind of go look at the place or whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
So I would take them by there to see it,
and they.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Was looking like, I don't think so, you know, like, mmmm,
you don't think you should look someplace else?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Mmm.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
But y'all know what, there was nothing in my body
at that time that told me to listen to whatever
it was that they were saying. Neither did it tell
me that they didn't love me, because I'm sure they
loved me and they cared about me, but they didn't
get the download that I got, so they couldn't see
(25:17):
what I saw. They couldn't they don't dream what I dreamed.
I knew what I was doing, and so I did it.
So AnyWho I jumped, I jumped, and then things just
started to fall into place.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
I was working out with.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
A trainer at the time, and just so happens, I'm
talking to her while we're training at the gym early
in the morning. I'm like, girl, I just signed the
least for this place, and I need to find a contractor.
Her brother was a contractor, so he gave me like
a deal that was just like unbelievable. Now, don't get
me wrong, honey, he was dragging his feet, he was
(25:54):
playing games.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Shot.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I think he even was sleeping there. Okay, some of
those nights when he was pulling it together. And he
did make my dad line. But he did renew my place.
I went with him and we bought all of the
materials and everything. And in addition to that, and this
is one thing, you know what, you know, you know
what I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I'm gonna get a.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Shout out to my mama because I love my mama.
And anybody around who knows me, if you know me,
know me. You know my mama Big Red. And even
though you know sometimes I get Big Red a hard time,
one thing I will say about her, one thing I
will tell you about her is she has always told
me anything that I say that I want to do
(26:38):
and I could do, she always say, go ahead and
do it, girl. I know you can do it, girl.
Go ahead and do it, girl. And Big Red will
start looking for stuff on her own because she always
got a friend. She always got a friend of a
friend or somebody that know a.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Friend that's gonna do this sleeper.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I'm like, ma, but that's one thing that that woman
has always she has given me a great self esteem
in regards to me following my dreams, in regards.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
To how I see myself in life. So big Red.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
If you listening, y'all, y'all know she sometimes she can't
work the stuff work away. If you listen, I'm shouting
out to you, my love, I love you so much.
And you have always always told me that I can
be everything that I want to be. They always set
me up for those things. So big Red. Okay, My
mama was like when I told her I was opening
(27:31):
the salona, she said, okay, so this wee can ready
to do. We get ready to go. She used to
look in the newspaper. We get ready to go and
go to these salons that are selling different you know, furniture.
They selling furniture, and it's in the newspaper. And I'm like,
in the newspaper because me, I'm going around looking for
brand news stuff. Right, I'm out here looking at these
(27:51):
new places and I'm seeing the prices of it. And
then I'm still, you know, thugging it out, like working,
trying to make money so I can kind of fill
this place up.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
And so my mom was like, guess what she called me?
One day?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
She said, I found a place. I found a place.
I found this guy. It it was a nice town,
a nice part of town, okay, y'all. And she was like,
this man he has a salon and in the bottom
of his house and he's selling everything. She said, I
saw it in the paper, and I called him and
I made an appointment, and I'm gonna meet you there.
So Big Red and I we go to this man's
(28:22):
place and go down and we looking and it was nice.
Like when I tell y'all, this stuff was practically new,
and it was the color of the stuff, and said,
this is the thing, right. Although I had the dream
of me having my own me, working my own show,
nobody else owning me, that was the dream. The color
(28:43):
of the place, None of that stuff mattered to me
at the time, did not matter. It was more about
me having autonomy, me, you know, being in control, me
leading my life, me earning, me, exploring, me being creative. Yeah,
and nobody else pimped me. That's all I a said,
because that was my feeling. And so yeah, because me
(29:04):
can nobody else get from me, let'st I give it
to him. So I need all of that because this
is my creative energy. So we go to this place.
The stuff was brand spanking new, almost it appeared to
be brand spanking new, and your girl.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I had the money because I was working, working, working,
so I paid him the money.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
My mom, I think at that time she must've you know, what,
it escapes me. How we got the stuff from there
to the place. It escapes me, however, but we got
the stuff from there to the place, and so that
was my furniture. There. My point in telling y'all all
of these little things that was to give my mom
a shout out. But also my point was, is what
(29:46):
you desire desires you y'all hear what I'm saying. I mean,
this stuff happened less than sixty days, Like with less
than the sixty days, like this thing came to fuition.
I don't think it took longer than sixty days.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Now I'm thinking about the guy I ain't even gonna
say his name, but my contractor, who I think was
sleeping there, okay, overnight, just because he ain't had no
place to sleep, because I think at the time there
was something going on with him and his wife and
he was cheating and all this kind of stuff. And
so she would put him out, so he would worked
at my place and then he'd just be sleeping there
for this And then.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
When I would come there and be looking like why
do this same thing? Why does it?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
He'd be like yeah because I and he would never
really want to be honest. But my trainer was his sister,
so she'd be like, girl, this is what happened.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
But AnyWho, all that.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Came together, and that was a dream that I had
that came to Fuish and I had that salon for
eleven years, and the women who came to that salon,
they just they came and we created just a loving
space for all of us, and even the women my
family who worked with me, like, we created a loving space.
(30:55):
And I'm thinking about yeah, so I don't know if
they want to be named, so I won't name them.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
But AnyWho, So that was that was.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Amazing, and that was me also pushing through fear to
bring my dreams.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
To Fuition and I did it.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And I did it for eleven years, but I did
it until I got to a place where I was like, ooh,
I'm dreaming something else, Like something else is coming up,
something else is coming up.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
And this was the whole thing about.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Me, you know, being this empowerment speaker, this motivator, but
yet going to school so that I can also become credentialed,
so that I could get hirer too, learning about the
brain and human behavior. Go to school, so I had
to face my fear there, which I did. And this
is so interesting, y'all. So do y'all know that I
(31:43):
graduated from the same school, from the same school who
denied me when I was seventeen years old, The same
school that I felt like that denial was reaffirmed me
what I heard from that teacher, mister Reynolds when I
(32:03):
was in I think it was the first grade. Whether
that denial for me got me so then I'd be
asking myself, guys, if you stuck in fear, what's the
story you're telling yourself, what's the story that you're telling yourself?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
It is that story even true? Because I am smart.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
However, when I got denied from that school, that triggered
that childhood trauma, that thought, that thing that changed my brain,
and it affirmed because nobody could help me process that,
so it further affirmed like, oh, you must not be
that smart. But AnyWho, So I reapplied to that program.
I go back and I reapplied to that same program.
(32:43):
And since I was older, y'all tracking I got, they
just let me in. Please come in, We want you
to come in. Because now there was a different door
that was open. So you talk about failure doesn't mean
it's over. It just means there's a different door. So
(33:03):
it's obvious that I needed to be an entrepreneur. It's
obvious that I needed to learn business. It's obvious that
I needed to connect to those women you understand and
create family.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
It is obvious that now I needed.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
To take all of that to move on to the
next level, to where else God, what else God has
for me? And so me using all of that, something
inside of me said, you keep.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Your pulled to this program. You a pull to this school.
Apply again.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
And then when I applied again, honey, there was another
door and it was called it was something like the
adult program. And I think at that time I was
I don't know, twenty six or twenty seven, something like that.
So I still had the salon. Now I'm still working
at the salon. Still had the salon when I decided
to go back to school. So I don't know if
I was twenty four or twenty five or something like
that at that time, and I applied, And when I applied,
(33:57):
there was another door. It was like adult program. You know,
you know, route or whatever. You could take the same glasses.
But you're just older than all the other younger people
have been the glass. Okay, that was a challenge within itself.
But you know, your girl always tries to keep it together.
So the kids, they didn't know I was that much older,
okay with any who, So I yes, I went to
(34:18):
the program, graduated the program.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Magna Culotti.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Who told that girl she wasn't smart. Some she' done
overheard somewhere.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
So I am telling you guys that ooh, to jump,
That's what I'm telling you. To jump, but to be cognizant,
to try to sit and think, and a therapist can
help you process these things. What is the story that
you're telling yourself that's holding you back? What is the
story that's keeping you stuck from going after your dreams,
(34:54):
from jumping, from going to places that you want to
go If you want to travel the world, you know,
from me meeting people who.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
You want to meet. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
For New careers, new jobs, you know, new friends, new relationships.
What is the story that you're telling yourself? Go back,
because usually it's a lie and it's somebody else's trauma
just because and you know what this is.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
No, I ain't even try to be careful about what
I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I'm not necessarily stepping on mister Reynolds's neck because it
was his private conversation and I don't know what he
was talking about. Maybe his class didn't, you know, score
as high as the other class, but that didn't mean
I mean, you know, you got all kinds of ratios
in the class. That didn't mean that your girl was
one of the students that was pulling it down.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
You got me.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
But I heard it and I interpreted it in a
different way. You know, that little girl, that little girl
that wanted to be affirmed right, wanted to feel confident.
I interpreted it in an the way and then carry
that until thank God, life showed.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Me that that was a lie, and me pushing.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Through my fears and jumping told me that that was
a lie. And so no regrets. Had an amazing time
with my salon and the women there as a businesswoman.
First stop, Okay, to then, you know, going to school,
being accepted, graduating magna cum lottie, you know, moving to Texas,
(36:30):
getting my master's degree, opening up my practice. Okay, and
then back then, you know, I could only imagine. I
used to love to see Oprah all the time on Oprah.
I used to watch We used to watch Oprah every
day four pm. You know, if your appointment was around
fall five, you was gonna watch Oprah.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Okay. And so my thing was to always like own
an Oprah. And you know, and so.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Now I'm just gonna say, as I've as I've moved
up in life, moved around. You know, one day I
an email from a producer on the Oprah Winfrey Network
about me working doing therapy work on a show. I
did that, you know, I do these spots on TV
and radio, which I've always dreamed of doing. Didn't do
(37:14):
anything but follow my dream. I need y'all to get that.
I didn't call anybody. I didn't say, hey, could you
put me on it. I didn't do any of that.
It just came to me. One came then another. Once
you do well, you bet on yourself, then another thing
comes in. And what you dream of, what you desire, desires.
(37:34):
You y'all hear me, So jump, Go after your dream.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Jump.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Do not allow your fears or that story that you're
telling yourself to stop you. You jump, and if you
need a therapist to help you through it, then you jump.
So you know, I had so many other stories to
tell y'all a day, but that's what came up for me.
(38:02):
And I just believe in you know, everything happens the
way it's supposed to. Everything that comes up it's supposed
to come up. Every interaction is an interaction that was
supposed to occur.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
And so the.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Story that I gave you all the day, I didn't
even plan on giving y'all that story, but okay, that's
what God gave me. And hopefully that inspires somebody out
there to jump. You know, there was as I end,
I just want to tell you all about this other thing.
I got so many other stories about my entrepreneurship and
how I bring stuff to fuition, and I will add
(38:36):
those stories in. I will add those stories in later,
but I want to tell you all about this this
thing that I had wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
It was on my bucket list.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
So one time, a long time ago, I saw a Beyonce,
it's some kind of you know, everybody loves Beyonce, and
I really, I really used to love Beyonce. And so
some years ago I saw Beyonce on a yacht, not
personally on the yacht, it was like television or whatever.
And so years ago I saw her on the yacht
(39:07):
and I saw her jump, literally just jump in the ocean,
jump and then she floated, and then she swam and
she went under and she came up and she looked
so free. So for me personally, if you were to say, Andrea,
can you swim, I'm gonna say no, Auntya, Andrea cannot swim.
(39:31):
Although I have taken swim lessons before, and the swim
lesson that I took before I did graduate, I got
a certificate from the program because at the end it
was probably like a week a week's program or two
weeks program, and the goal was to get your certificate
was to swim from one side of the pool to
the other. And this was without feeling the bottom, right,
(39:52):
so you don't feel the bottom you go from one
side to the other. Now, on the last day, did
I make it from one side of the pool to
the other. I absolutely did. But did it feel almost
like death trying to get there? It absolutely did. Did
I hit my toe now so hard on the gravel
(40:15):
the side of the pool when I finally got there
because I literally was swimming, so I was swimming for
my life that my dad on toenail came off my
oh my big toe. Okay, so that mean you know
it take a long time for that to grow back.
Literally came off my toe, okay, because I was trying
to hold on for dear life.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
But I got my certificate. But if you were to.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Say, Andrea, can you swim, No, I can't swim because
for me, swimming is being able to stop in the
middle and to master you know, uh, treadwater. That's what
it's called treading water. Could not master treading water. Could
not master treading water. Still have not master treading water.
(40:59):
Now that I'm saying this to y'all, I'm gonna take
me some swim lessons because I'm pushing through off fee
I'm jumping. But AnyWho, so that's why I can't jump,
because I cannot tread water.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
However, I did get a certificate.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
So when I see Beyonce in this ocean jumping in
I said to myself, Oh my god, I wish I
could do that. Like, I just wish I could jump
in the ocean and just feel so free and just
swim to the side and just get back up on
the yacht again and then say who wants to jump
(41:34):
with me? And then jump again. So that was all
my bucket lists of things to do. Okay, So let
me just tell y'all that I think it was two
years ago. Two years ago, I want to say. We
were in Blize, I think it was Belize, and we
(41:56):
were on a yacht and I decided. I was like,
you know what, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it.
I think I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Right, So I did.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Didn't come to my head at first because I thought
we were just on a yacht and we were just
having a good time with friends.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Because we did.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
We had a blast these I was with friends that
I had just met, and I was having an amazing time.
And at that time, you know, at that time my
husband said to me, he goes, you said that you
wanna jump, You wanna get on a yacht and you
want to jump, and this is on your bucket list,
so you know you're gonna do it. You're gonna do it.
(42:41):
And I was like, I wasn't even thinking that. But
then when he went off with his friends and I
was there by myself, not by myself, but I was
with other women who I met I was having a
good time with. I said to myself, Andrea, it's time
to jump. So I go and I find the people.
You know, they clean the boat. They they kept the
boat clean. Uh, they were cooking, preparing the food. You know,
(43:05):
we swimming with sharks. They would jumping and help people
swim with sharks. So I said, okay, Andrea, and this
is what I do, y'all. This is what I always
tell everybody. And I mean this. The smartest person in
the room is not necessarily the most intelligent, but it
is the one who knows what she needs, so what
he needs and finds out a way.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
To go and get it and goes to get it.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
So I was on my smart girl thing. I said, Okay,
this is what we're getting ready to do. I said,
this is what we're getting ready to do. You going
to ask for the help that you need. So I
go over and I find the woman and she was
like pulling up stuff. I said, she looked like she
know how to swim. So I said, listen, this is
on my bucket list. I've never I don't know how
(43:52):
to swim, but I want to. I want to jump
in the ocean. I want to jump in the oh.
She said, you want to jump? You want to choose asking.
You want to jump in the oh? I said, yes,
I want to jump in the ocean.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
She said.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
I said, I'm gonna take care of you, but will
you support me? Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
She said.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
She started pulling off her clothes, putting on her swim trunks. Whatever,
she jumps in the water. So then I tell other
women that I'm with. I'm like, y'all, guess what I'm
about to do. Because some of them they were afraid
of the water too. I said, y'all, I'm afraid. I
do not know how to swim, but I'm about to
face my fear and jump in that ocean.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
I said.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
They looking at me like, huh what I said, y'all
don't want to do it. This is my first time
doing it. We can do it together, beyoncey jump. They
looking like us beyond the same. I'm like, okay, no problem.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
She just met them. It's fine.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
I'm just letting you know, y'all, this is what I'm
gonna do. I'm nervous, I'm scared, but I lived there.
I'm gonna do it. So the woman who jumps in,
she gets I want to say, a raft, but she
didn't get a raft. But she gets the whole floaty thing.
Then I had to put the vest on. She gets
another best we had about two or three vest on
(45:02):
and a floaty thing that she had in there. She
tells the other guy they they because they already had
the yacht. You know, I guess anchored. She tells the
other guy, come come on, help. She wants to swim.
If you gon these wims, she's gonna jump in, I said.
He jumps in, so he's.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Like, all right, I got over here. She said, I
got you right here. Come on, come on, beautiful Laddy.
She said.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I'm like, oh, I'm scared that. Somebody else on the
boat was like, give me your phone. I'm gonna record you.
I'm gonna record you. Then you know, all your your
trauma come up, your insecurities come up. So I'm like,
well when you record me, because look, you know, I
don't want them to.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Record the whole body.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
But I'm a wound when you caught me from the
waist up. Now I'm gonna jump in the whole ocean, y'all.
But I'm telling when you record me, make sure you
record me from the waist up. You know what I'm saying,
because I want good memories when I look back. You know,
I don't want to be judging and criticizing myself. AnyWho
they did and ever he record the whole thing, and
I'm grateful, so AnyWho, y'all.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
I got to the end, and I was scared. I
was so scared.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
I was so scared. But I had already set up everything,
like I set up everything to ensure my safety.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Like on this day.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
First of all, I said, God got a plan for you, sis,
so he don't want you to die today. Okay, I'm
gonna check that off the list. I ain't ying today.
And if I go too deep or come up or whatever,
I got all the people here to support me. I
got her here, him there. I keep saying a raft,
but I got like a floaty thing here.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
I got about sixteen on me. Like I created a plan,
go back to my business. I created a plan. I
create a structure for me to jump jump into my dream.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
So I get to the end, y'all, and the girls
in back of me, they looking like, you gonna do this,
and I'm like, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it, Sis,
I'm gonna do it, Sis, And I jumped. Well, I'm
gonna tell y'all truth. Even when I jumped, I went
lower down in that ocean than I I thought I
was gonna go.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Now, Dad, I'm gonna be all the way y'all know,
I'm always gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
I went weird, damn Oki Doki, and I did not
feel about him.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
I went damn. But then I start doing.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Like this, and I came back up to the top
and I said, oh my.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
God, I'm living like I'm living. And I freaking did it.
I freaking did it.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
And then after that, which makes me so happy, the
woman after me that was afraid to swim, she was like,
I think I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
I said, come on, says and do it. She jumped the.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Other woman in the back of her, who was super
more afraid than it. She said, I said, come on, Sis.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Then she did it.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
When you jump, you inspire and encourage other people to jump.
You never know who's watching you.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
Come on, y'all.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
So I jumped. Then I started kind of floating away
to current. Have me floating to wated and I start
fighting again like I did, remember that lesson long time ago.
I was fighting like hell, trying to get back to
the yacht, get back to the boat.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
But I got back and I had support because they
was there.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
They like you good, relax, helping me, pulling me. I
had all them floaties on, got back up on the yacht.
And now I can sit here and say.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
I did that. I jumped. So I would ask you.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
What do you need to jump? Where do you need
to jump? Where in your life are you afraid to jump? Jump?
Is it a new career? What's the dream? Is finding
new friends? Is it moving to a new city, state,
new relationships? Do you want to go to a new
travel to a new country. I am telling you.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Jump. God is always there to support you.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
All right, family. That is another episode of the Mental
Health Is a lifestyle podcast by your girl Andrea wise Brown.
I will see you on the next episode. I love you,
don't be a friend.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Jump jump from beer
The Mental Health Is a lifestyle podcast. It's not a
substitute for a relationship with your mental health professional. Hey, family,
welcome back to another episode of the Mental Health is
a lifestyle podcast with your girl Andrea wise Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Old Family, I missed you. I missed you.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
So last last week, what we did was we did
a rewind of narcissism. We rewinded narcissism because there was
a lot of people who were talking about narcissists and
narcissism and you know, putting those labels on people again, and.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So I just kind of do what's in my spirit.
So that kind of came up for me. So I
was like, Okay, you.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Know what, we're gonna rewind. So we rewind and we
put narcissism out there. But this week, family, this week,
I'm hoping that this week really moves you because what's
on my spirit this week as I talk to you,
And this is not an interview, this is your girl
by herself here. But this week I want to talk
(01:19):
about fear. I want to really encourage you to push
through fear.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
To push through fear.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Now, fear, you know, is a natural response to certain things,
maybe situations or items where that can be dangerous, or
let's just say that we've learned that are dangerous.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So it would make.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Sense to be fearful to put your hand in the
mouth of a tiger, Okay, would be it would be silly.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay for you not to be fearful of that.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
But the fear that I'm talking about today is the
fear of following your dreams. Is the fear of the
fear that's holding you back from doing the things that
you really want to do, from seeing the things that
you really want to see, from going to places that
you really want to go. So I'm talking about that fear.
(02:25):
We're gonna bust through that fear today. So let me
just say this, if it were a phobia, like a
teak of phobia, and a teak of phobia is the
fear it's an intense fear of failure, Okay, an intense
(02:47):
fear of failure surrounding and really trying to avoid certain situations.
So that's what that is, and that is a disorder,
and any type of regular fear can turn into a disorder.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Okay. So as I'm speaking of a tiki phobia.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Then that I want you to go to your therapist
I want you to find a therapist. You go to
a therapist, and you work through phobias, okay, and I
will tell you for a tikophobia, it's about two to
five percent of the population.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Who suffers from that.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, all right, But aside from that, okay, I'm just
talking about the regular fear that you allow to stop you.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
From following your dreams. I really want.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
To talk to you about that because what I want
to encourage you to do is to jump anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So although you're fearful, as long.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
As things make sense, as long as the jump is rational,
and I'll give you some examples of some rational jumps today,
I am encouraging you to jump because what I know
for sure is God is always always supporting your good
(04:13):
He's always supporting your good.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Jump.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And really, what is failure? Like, let's look at that.
What is failure?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
So it's something that I try and yet it doesn't
work out, but yet and still I'm still living, I'm
still moving around, I still pretty much have all of
my needs and I still can attempt to do something else?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
What is failure?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
What so what like really really really how debilitating is failure?
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Do we really fail when something does work, it's you know,
like it's failure a bad thing. I'm going to say,
Andrea is gonna say failure is not a bad thing,
because what failure does is it just teaches you and
tells you that what that way didn't work and we
better try another way. We need to try another way.
(05:21):
So I'm also going to say push through. We're gonna
jump through our fears, and we're also gonna jump over failure.
Except failure because it could happen, and then there's a probability.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That it doesn't happen.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
But even if it does, it's only setting you up
or positioning you to go a little bit higher or
maybe go a little bit differently. Hmm. So embrace it.
Embrace failure. Hey, I'm embracing failure like that's just what
it is.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Failure. Who failure? What I'm like, just come on, come on,
come on.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And take this ride with me, failure, come ride with me,
because I'm going after everything I believe God.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Has promised me.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
That's what I want y'all to say, because that's how
I feel I'm going after. Let me tell y'all something,
you don't know how long we are living here? In
this world, in the world that we're in that's here
on earth.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
We don't know. We don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Our days are numbered, but God knows the number. We
don't know the number. So but what I do know
is we ain't gonna live here for the rest on
and for eternity. There you go. Now, that's for truth,
that's for sure. And I know y'all know that too.
So since our days are numbered, sh then let's do
this thing. I want to get everything out of every
(06:51):
number while we're here, out of every single year that
we are here on this earth. I am encouraging you
to get everything that you can get, try everything that
you can try, and please try to achieve everything that
you desire. Don't leave nothing on the table. I'm not
leaving nothing on the table. You got me not check
(07:16):
this out Andrea. She doesn't want what's yours. But what
Andrea wants is what's hers. I want what's mine, and
I'm going to get it. And I'm here today to
encourage you to do the same thing. You hear what
I'm saying, Okay, all right? And God is always conspiring
(07:37):
for your goods, so you have to trust that.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
But it looks like a jump like it looks like
a jump.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
So listen, So let me just start off with I
want to start off with, let me just see a
few of my jumps. I just want to give you guys,
and let me just let y'all know that I ain't
finished jumping yet.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So I know that I told you y'all about my
south By Southwest story. That was a jump, you know,
when I was like mceing, Natty, that was a jump, honey, Okay, yes,
And I told y'all, I said, hell yes, and I
did that, and.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And I believe in my heart that God set me
up for that through people that I love, that for
something else, like something else is coming, something else is coming.
So Andrea is still jumping. That's why I'm here to
encourage you, because I want you to do the same.
Don't let fear hold you back. And don't ever think
that Andrea, which is me, let me stop speaking in
the third person.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Don't ever think that.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
I don't get afraid, or I don't get butterflies in
my stomach, or you know, I don't get those negative thoughts,
you know, or my trauma sometimes doesn't speak to me,
which makes my anxiety rise, Like can I do it?
I don't know, because all of those things do happen
to me. But guess what I do.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
I jump anyway.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I make my decision to go forward, I commit to it,
and I jump anyway. And I don't have one regret.
Do y'all hear me? I don't have any regrets for
any of the times that I jumped. So let me
I'll start off by saying, many of you know I
(09:20):
used to own a hair salon some years ago, so
it was a long time ago. I used to own
a hair salon and that was you know, that was
my way of income. That was something that I've learned.
I am a licensed cosmetologist and I still keep my
(09:40):
license up.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I do not do hair anymore, you know, Like I'm a.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Licensed a cosmetologist, so like skin and hair and nails,
I don't do any of that. However, since it's one
of my gifts, one of my talents, and y'all know,
I will tell y'all that we have many gifts that
God has given us. I just never know when I
might need it again, so I'm always renewing my license. Okay,
(10:06):
that's just to let you know. It's a little caveat
little side information just to let y'all know. However, you know,
I used to have a hair salon years ago. And
as I had my hair salon and I would serve
my clientele, those were my clients who were also my family,
you hear me, my family and the women who worked
at my salon with me, those are my family too.
(10:29):
So but as we were doing that and working and
slaying hair out handy streets, okay, in the streets of
New Jersey, all of a sudden, there was something that
came up in my stomach as to me.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Not really living my true purpose.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
And so I really was going on a journey of
trying to figure out what my purpose was, like, what
is my purpose on this earth? Why am I here?
Because I want whatever it is that I'm doing to
fill me up. I was really good at doing hair.
I was really good at it, really dope at that.
I'm very creative. However, I didn't like it anymore, Like
(11:07):
I just didn't like it. You know how you get
up and you go to a job every day and
you just don't like it.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
It doesn't feel good to your spirit, it doesn't feed
your spirit.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And this was the thing. I loved my family. Then
I loved the women that I service. I loved the
women who worked with me.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Loved them. So we would have a good time, you
know what I mean. We'd have a good time.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
We even used to have I think I like charted
a bus one time and we had like a bus
ride to the casino, you know, with the clients. There
was a time that I think we was even uh,
I ain't even gonna say we, I'm gonna say I.
I was even selling purses, and like there was a
lot of stuff. We would have parties. We would have
card parties, okay at the salon and then maybe at
(11:50):
some of the different clients. And they may not want
me to say they names, but the.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Clients like houses, we'd have parties. Oh my go.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
We had so much fun together. And I was more
tied to having that fun than I was really you know,
feeling lit up and feeling and resonance. When I was
doing hair. It was easy for me to do, but
it didn't feel purposeful. So AnyWho, when I found out
what my purpose was, which it really was to inspire
(12:21):
and to empower, it was to inspire and empower to
help people get from wherever they were to wherever it
is that they wanted to be, Okay, to get from
wherever they were, and they are here today to wherever it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Is that you want to be.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
And the reason why I went to mental health route
to get in there was because you know, I could
sit up here and I can motivate you all day.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
People do it and they can speak it and speak it.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
But then sometimes you could motivate someone and give them
all of the words, but then they're stuck. They can't
move forward. So that's why I went. I said, wait,
hold on, I have to learn why.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Do people get stuck?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So I went to school face my fear. M, that's
the first fear, because I didn't think I was smart
enough to go to school. I did not think I
was smart enough to go to college. Oh oh, that's
so good. So that was why I tried to skirt
around going to college, okay, and just taking whatever ability
(13:23):
I had creatively, and I got my licen, my cosmetology license,
and then you know, ended up opening the salon after
work in a couple of places. And that's a strategy.
I could tell anybody who wants to know how to
do that. But okay, so I did. I pushed through
fear there because you know, when I was noticing that
I need to you know.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
It's empowerment.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I have to empower people and I have to lift
people up, and and you know, then my thing was,
you know, I would always be giving advice because I
was always just that type of person that people would
always come to and ask me for advice. So you know,
at the time, I'm telling you I had high school education. Okay,
I'm just giving advice. This is this is the guy
in me. Okay, just giving advice. But then I would
(14:06):
see how people would get stuck and I couldn't understand
why they would get stuck. So I was like, okay,
I need to go and learn all about the brain
and human behavior so that I can figure out why
they get stuck and then help them to get over
those bumps and those barriers to get them unstuck.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
So then I had to who, girl, You're gonna have
to go to school, all right. You are going to
have to face a fear that you have that was
rooted inside of me. And it was rooted inside of
me from I want to I think it was a
it was a first grade class I think it was
my first grade teacher.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I overheard him and another teacher.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Talking about they were talking about their students and they
were talking about testing, and I can remember there was
some kind of comment that he said. And i'll say
his name because I don't even know if he's still living,
but my teacher's name was me Renolds.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Never forget. He was so cool. He was the coolest teacher.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
But I heard mister Reynolds talking to this other teacher
and as they were talking, they were saying, and we
were in the same grade, but they were saying something
about he said something about his class and that his
class wasn't as smart as the other class, or they
didn't achieve I guess the scores weren't as high as
the other class. So I have heard this, and then
(15:23):
I realized my little self was like, oh, shoot, you
in his class, you in mister Rentals class.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You you ain't that smart.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
You were not that smart. So I kind of carried
that with me. So that was shame that.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
I carried with me of oh, you're not that smart.
Oh you're not that smart.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Although on my report cards, and this was even after
mister Reynolds class, I go to different schools, and I
always scored really high on my test and I studied
well and I always got good grades.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I was always on an honor roll.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
However, that seed that was planted in me years ago
said you weren't.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That smart, right, And that was in my brain as
it was developing as a child. So that's why you
have to.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Be extremely careful what you say around your children, you understand,
because it can affect them for the rest of their lives.
So this was a seed that was planning you not
that smart. Girl. You ain't that smart, Okay, all right,
So any who carried it forward, I'm bringing y'all back
to where we are. So now I'm like, oh gosh,
all right, So how you gonna go and learn about
(16:34):
this brand? You're gonna have to go to college, cyst,
because when you applied to college when you graduated from
school at seventeen, you graduated a year early because you
wasn't that smart.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
No, that wasn't it. You're smart, but you graduated early.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
And when you attempted to go to a school, the
first school that you applied to denied you. So that
further confirmed girl, you ain't that smart. So that's when
I started, you know, going doing the hair. Okay, So
then after doing the hair and getting my license the cosmetology,
doing all of those things, and then I get my
own salont So here we go, y'all.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I hope y'all tracking right. A girl is not that smart.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It's smart enough to know that when she has a gift,
ain't nobody gonna pimp her for that gift for so long.
So what she did was and this is Andrea again,
me talking to third person, and I just stopped doing that.
So what I did instead was I said, there's no
way in the world that somebody else is going to
keep making most of the money off of me, and
(17:35):
I just get the diddly damns. So I would get
the lower percentage, right, the even percentage. I'm thumping and
I'm working, and I'm getting even percentage. And wasn't tracking,
not for me. So that's when I started realizing and
understanding the business, understanding what it means, meant to even
have client tele understand what it meant to have overhead
understand you know, I'm understanding all of these things. And
(17:58):
then I said to myself, what you are going to
do is you're gonna open up your own spot. So
this was after I had probably gone to maybe two
or three different hair salons and work for them, and
that was only probably in a two year time span.
And I'm going to say that at that time, I
may have been nineteen years old.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Okay, so I was young.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
But any who, I realized I was like, nope, you're
gonna get your own salon and let me tell y'all something.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, because I could stay on this story.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
So as I'm like searching for salons and I'm working
over time, you know what I'm saying. I'm working on days,
working hard, okay, as an entrepreneur, on days that are
not the normal days that you take clients, all right,
but I'm just working.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I'm working.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I'm trying to, you know, make this money and make
this money, make this money, and I'm trying to put
together in my head. I've never done construction before, but
it was my dream. The dream was I was gonna
have a salon. I never bought a salon before. I
never bought a place before. I had my own apartment
and have my own car, but I didn't have as
salt line. However, the dream. All I saw was the dream,
(19:03):
and I knew the talent that I had. And if
I never ever ever know how to bet on anybody else,
I know how to bet on myself. And I want
y'all to get that. I hope somebody out there is
receiving that. Bet on yourself. You know what your gifts are,
you know how hard you could work, you know what
you are going to put out in this world. You
(19:25):
know what you are capable of. And so let me
tell y'all something for me. I'm going to repeat this.
If I can't bet on nobody else, I know I
can bet on myself. And that was how I was feeling.
So I let the dream perceive me. And then I
start doing the work every day. So I was working
with clients. I would even work on Sundays, I would
(19:46):
work whatever day. I would work late in the evening.
But I was just trying to build that money. I
was trying to build that money. And so now, and
this is another thing. If you have a dream or
something that you want, what you desire desires you. What
you desire desires you, So once you believe it, you
accept and believe that this is what you want, this
(20:09):
is what I want. That's acceptance. And then you believe
that it's out there, You're gonna find it. It's gonna
be so easy, as my friend Susy would say, easy world,
it's going to be so easy for it to come
to you. It just is because now you're going to
meet it, and God already has it there for you.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
It's like, what do is it behind? One? Two, three
or four? But when you sitting behind fear of no,
I can't do this. No, this said this.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
No, my family system says this. No, the generations before
me said no. Nobody else ever opened the door.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
No. No, you sitting there, you don't even know what's
out there waiting for.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
You, what you desire, desires you. So now I'm on
a quest and I just start driving around. I start
driving around in the area not too far from where
I worked, where I was working at that time, trying
to find a salone. Okay, what does this look like?
I didn't understand square footage before I actually got my place.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
What does this look like? Oh? What, where's the place where?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
And so then all of a sudden, you know, as
I'm driving down these major streets not too far from
where I was, where I was working at because it
wasn't too far from where I lived. So as I'm
looking right, this is the area. Because I'm also thinking
about my clientele. So if they come to me, they
love what I do, but they come to me here,
then okay, I need to look in this surrounding area
(21:35):
because then the probability of them coming to me there
is going to be pretty high. Any of who I
found this space, and I literally ooh, I'm gonna put
a picture up right here to show y'all what the
space looked like. I'm gonna show y'all this because I
think it means something to show this to you. Okay,
(22:05):
all right, so now y'all see what that place looks like.
So I found this place, so I contacted the landlord,
and after I contacted the landlord, I ask, you know,
how much.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Is the rent? You know, what's the square footage? Can
you walk me through?
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And come to find out that this place had been
a hair salon some years before. Okay, So for me,
the girl that thought she wasn't smart, I mean, now
I know hell is smart, but but but before right,
that was a smart girl. Okay, let me ask this. Okay,
it's a hair salon, so to me, that meant that
it would make more sense to go in instead of
(22:40):
trying to rebuild and create something that's never been to
recreating something that was already there.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Y'all hear what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So any who, this had been a salon, and I
guess a failed salon, and that's okay, because.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I'm sure they onto whatever their next thing was.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
So I go and I'm like, you know what, let
me see how much the rent is so I know,
I know how much money I make now, so this
is the deal. I have enough room for some more
stations that I can hire people to work for me.
But my thing is, what did I tell y'all before?
If I can't bet on nobody else, I know I can.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Bet on me.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
So my thing was, if with my clientele itself, I
can pay my own bills here and my bills at
home at my place, then this is going to be
the place for me.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So that meant that anybody else who.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Worked there, that was gonna be gravy on top okay,
gravy on top of it. If y'all eat beef, gravy on
top of the steak, gravy on top of the chicken.
If it's me or shrimp. You feel what I'm saying.
That was gonna be graving icing on the cake if
you eat cake, okay, with a little bit of ice
and all right.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So then I'm like, okay, but can you do this
on your own? Yes? Andrea, you know the numbers, this
is what you've been doing. You can do this on
your own.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And this is what's so interesting family that even though
they're gonna be people in your lives, if you're trying
to follow your dreams, so you're thinking about doing something
that maybe you've been fearful about, and hopefully I have
to hearing this, you go, you know what, I might
just jump.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
They are gonna be.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
People in your lives, in your family, close to you,
who love you, but because God didn't give them the vision,
when they see it, they're gonna be like hell no.
So I can remember a few people that I took.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
To the place.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I was like, listen, I got this idea. This is
gonna be amazing. I'm gonna open up my own slom. Oh,
you're gonna open up your own slum. You want to
see where it's at. Yeah, I was very proud. I'm like, oh, okay,
come on, because like the landlord like gave me some
time to kind of go look at the place or whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
So I would take them by there to see it,
and they.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Was looking like, I don't think so, you know, like, mmmm,
you don't think you should look someplace else?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Mmm.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
But y'all know what, there was nothing in my body
at that time that told me to listen to whatever
it was that they were saying. Neither did it tell
me that they didn't love me, because I'm sure they
loved me and they cared about me, but they didn't
get the download that I got, so they couldn't see
(25:17):
what I saw. They couldn't they don't dream what I dreamed.
I knew what I was doing, and so I did it.
So AnyWho I jumped, I jumped, and then things just
started to fall into place.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
I was working out with.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
A trainer at the time, and just so happens, I'm
talking to her while we're training at the gym early
in the morning. I'm like, girl, I just signed the
least for this place, and I need to find a contractor.
Her brother was a contractor, so he gave me like
a deal that was just like unbelievable. Now, don't get
me wrong, honey, he was dragging his feet, he was
(25:54):
playing games.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Shot.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I think he even was sleeping there. Okay, some of
those nights when he was pulling it together. And he
did make my dad line. But he did renew my place.
I went with him and we bought all of the
materials and everything. And in addition to that, and this
is one thing, you know what, you know, you know
what I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I'm gonna get a.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Shout out to my mama because I love my mama.
And anybody around who knows me, if you know me,
know me. You know my mama Big Red. And even
though you know sometimes I get Big Red a hard time,
one thing I will say about her, one thing I
will tell you about her is she has always told
me anything that I say that I want to do
(26:38):
and I could do, she always say, go ahead and
do it, girl. I know you can do it, girl.
Go ahead and do it, girl. And Big Red will
start looking for stuff on her own because she always
got a friend. She always got a friend of a
friend or somebody that know a.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Friend that's gonna do this sleeper.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I'm like, ma, but that's one thing that that woman
has always she has given me a great self esteem
in regards to me following my dreams, in regards.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
To how I see myself in life. So big Red.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
If you listening, y'all, y'all know she sometimes she can't
work the stuff work away. If you listen, I'm shouting
out to you, my love, I love you so much.
And you have always always told me that I can
be everything that I want to be. They always set
me up for those things. So big Red. Okay, My
mama was like when I told her I was opening
(27:31):
the salona, she said, okay, so this wee can ready
to do. We get ready to go. She used to
look in the newspaper. We get ready to go and
go to these salons that are selling different you know, furniture.
They selling furniture, and it's in the newspaper. And I'm like,
in the newspaper because me, I'm going around looking for
brand news stuff. Right, I'm out here looking at these
(27:51):
new places and I'm seeing the prices of it. And
then I'm still, you know, thugging it out, like working,
trying to make money so I can kind of fill
this place up.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
And so my mom was like, guess what she called me?
One day?
Speaker 1 (28:01):
She said, I found a place. I found a place.
I found this guy. It it was a nice town,
a nice part of town, okay, y'all. And she was like,
this man he has a salon and in the bottom
of his house and he's selling everything. She said, I
saw it in the paper, and I called him and
I made an appointment, and I'm gonna meet you there.
So Big Red and I we go to this man's
(28:22):
place and go down and we looking and it was nice.
Like when I tell y'all, this stuff was practically new,
and it was the color of the stuff, and said,
this is the thing, right. Although I had the dream
of me having my own me, working my own show,
nobody else owning me, that was the dream. The color
(28:43):
of the place, None of that stuff mattered to me
at the time, did not matter. It was more about
me having autonomy, me, you know, being in control, me
leading my life, me earning, me, exploring, me being creative. Yeah,
and nobody else pimped me. That's all I a said,
because that was my feeling. And so yeah, because me
(29:04):
can nobody else get from me, let'st I give it
to him. So I need all of that because this
is my creative energy. So we go to this place.
The stuff was brand spanking new, almost it appeared to
be brand spanking new, and your girl.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I had the money because I was working, working, working,
so I paid him the money.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
My mom, I think at that time she must've you know, what,
it escapes me. How we got the stuff from there
to the place. It escapes me, however, but we got
the stuff from there to the place, and so that
was my furniture. There. My point in telling y'all all
of these little things that was to give my mom
a shout out. But also my point was, is what
(29:46):
you desire desires you y'all hear what I'm saying. I mean,
this stuff happened less than sixty days, Like with less
than the sixty days, like this thing came to fuition.
I don't think it took longer than sixty days.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Now I'm thinking about the guy I ain't even gonna
say his name, but my contractor, who I think was
sleeping there, okay, overnight, just because he ain't had no
place to sleep, because I think at the time there
was something going on with him and his wife and
he was cheating and all this kind of stuff. And
so she would put him out, so he would worked
at my place and then he'd just be sleeping there
for this And then.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
When I would come there and be looking like why
do this same thing? Why does it?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
He'd be like yeah because I and he would never
really want to be honest. But my trainer was his sister,
so she'd be like, girl, this is what happened.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
But AnyWho, all that.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Came together, and that was a dream that I had
that came to Fuish and I had that salon for
eleven years, and the women who came to that salon,
they just they came and we created just a loving
space for all of us, and even the women my
family who worked with me, like, we created a loving space.
(30:55):
And I'm thinking about yeah, so I don't know if
they want to be named, so I won't name them.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
But AnyWho, So that was that was.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Amazing, and that was me also pushing through fear to
bring my dreams.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
To Fuition and I did it.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And I did it for eleven years, but I did
it until I got to a place where I was like, ooh,
I'm dreaming something else, Like something else is coming up,
something else is coming up.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
And this was the whole thing about.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Me, you know, being this empowerment speaker, this motivator, but
yet going to school so that I can also become credentialed,
so that I could get hirer too, learning about the
brain and human behavior. Go to school, so I had
to face my fear there, which I did. And this
is so interesting, y'all. So do y'all know that I
(31:43):
graduated from the same school, from the same school who
denied me when I was seventeen years old, The same
school that I felt like that denial was reaffirmed me
what I heard from that teacher, mister Reynolds when I
(32:03):
was in I think it was the first grade. Whether
that denial for me got me so then I'd be
asking myself, guys, if you stuck in fear, what's the
story you're telling yourself, what's the story that you're telling yourself?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
It is that story even true? Because I am smart.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
However, when I got denied from that school, that triggered
that childhood trauma, that thought, that thing that changed my brain,
and it affirmed because nobody could help me process that,
so it further affirmed like, oh, you must not be
that smart. But AnyWho, So I reapplied to that program.
I go back and I reapplied to that same program.
(32:43):
And since I was older, y'all tracking I got, they
just let me in. Please come in, We want you
to come in. Because now there was a different door
that was open. So you talk about failure doesn't mean
it's over. It just means there's a different door. So
(33:03):
it's obvious that I needed to be an entrepreneur. It's
obvious that I needed to learn business. It's obvious that
I needed to connect to those women you understand and
create family.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
It is obvious that now I needed.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
To take all of that to move on to the
next level, to where else God, what else God has
for me? And so me using all of that, something
inside of me said, you keep.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Your pulled to this program. You a pull to this school.
Apply again.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
And then when I applied again, honey, there was another
door and it was called it was something like the
adult program. And I think at that time I was
I don't know, twenty six or twenty seven, something like that.
So I still had the salon. Now I'm still working
at the salon. Still had the salon when I decided
to go back to school. So I don't know if
I was twenty four or twenty five or something like
that at that time, and I applied, And when I applied,
(33:57):
there was another door. It was like adult program. You know,
you know, route or whatever. You could take the same glasses.
But you're just older than all the other younger people
have been the glass. Okay, that was a challenge within itself.
But you know, your girl always tries to keep it together.
So the kids, they didn't know I was that much older,
okay with any who, So I yes, I went to
(34:18):
the program, graduated the program.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Magna Culotti.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Who told that girl she wasn't smart. Some she' done
overheard somewhere.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
So I am telling you guys that ooh, to jump,
That's what I'm telling you. To jump, but to be cognizant,
to try to sit and think, and a therapist can
help you process these things. What is the story that
you're telling yourself that's holding you back? What is the
story that's keeping you stuck from going after your dreams,
(34:54):
from jumping, from going to places that you want to
go If you want to travel the world, you know,
from me meeting people who.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
You want to meet. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
For New careers, new jobs, you know, new friends, new relationships.
What is the story that you're telling yourself? Go back,
because usually it's a lie and it's somebody else's trauma
just because and you know what this is.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
No, I ain't even try to be careful about what
I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I'm not necessarily stepping on mister Reynolds's neck because it
was his private conversation and I don't know what he
was talking about. Maybe his class didn't, you know, score
as high as the other class, but that didn't mean
I mean, you know, you got all kinds of ratios
in the class. That didn't mean that your girl was
one of the students that was pulling it down.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
You got me.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
But I heard it and I interpreted it in a
different way. You know, that little girl, that little girl
that wanted to be affirmed right, wanted to feel confident.
I interpreted it in an the way and then carry
that until thank God, life showed.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Me that that was a lie, and me pushing.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Through my fears and jumping told me that that was
a lie. And so no regrets. Had an amazing time
with my salon and the women there as a businesswoman.
First stop, Okay, to then, you know, going to school,
being accepted, graduating magna cum lottie, you know, moving to Texas,
(36:30):
getting my master's degree, opening up my practice. Okay, and
then back then, you know, I could only imagine. I
used to love to see Oprah all the time on Oprah.
I used to watch We used to watch Oprah every
day four pm. You know, if your appointment was around
fall five, you was gonna watch Oprah.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Okay. And so my thing was to always like own
an Oprah. And you know, and so.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Now I'm just gonna say, as I've as I've moved
up in life, moved around. You know, one day I
an email from a producer on the Oprah Winfrey Network
about me working doing therapy work on a show. I
did that, you know, I do these spots on TV
and radio, which I've always dreamed of doing. Didn't do
(37:14):
anything but follow my dream. I need y'all to get that.
I didn't call anybody. I didn't say, hey, could you
put me on it. I didn't do any of that.
It just came to me. One came then another. Once
you do well, you bet on yourself, then another thing
comes in. And what you dream of, what you desire, desires.
(37:34):
You y'all hear me, So jump, Go after your dream.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Jump.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Do not allow your fears or that story that you're
telling yourself to stop you. You jump, and if you
need a therapist to help you through it, then you jump.
So you know, I had so many other stories to
tell y'all a day, but that's what came up for me.
(38:02):
And I just believe in you know, everything happens the
way it's supposed to. Everything that comes up it's supposed
to come up. Every interaction is an interaction that was
supposed to occur.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
And so the.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Story that I gave you all the day, I didn't
even plan on giving y'all that story, but okay, that's
what God gave me. And hopefully that inspires somebody out
there to jump. You know, there was as I end,
I just want to tell you all about this other thing.
I got so many other stories about my entrepreneurship and
how I bring stuff to fuition, and I will add
(38:36):
those stories in. I will add those stories in later,
but I want to tell you all about this this
thing that I had wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
It was on my bucket list.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
So one time, a long time ago, I saw a Beyonce,
it's some kind of you know, everybody loves Beyonce, and
I really, I really used to love Beyonce. And so
some years ago I saw Beyonce on a yacht, not
personally on the yacht, it was like television or whatever.
And so years ago I saw her on the yacht
(39:07):
and I saw her jump, literally just jump in the ocean,
jump and then she floated, and then she swam and
she went under and she came up and she looked
so free. So for me personally, if you were to say, Andrea,
can you swim, I'm gonna say no, Auntya, Andrea cannot swim.
(39:31):
Although I have taken swim lessons before, and the swim
lesson that I took before I did graduate, I got
a certificate from the program because at the end it
was probably like a week a week's program or two
weeks program, and the goal was to get your certificate
was to swim from one side of the pool to
the other. And this was without feeling the bottom, right,
(39:52):
so you don't feel the bottom you go from one
side to the other. Now, on the last day, did
I make it from one side of the pool to
the other. I absolutely did. But did it feel almost
like death trying to get there? It absolutely did. Did
I hit my toe now so hard on the gravel
(40:15):
the side of the pool when I finally got there
because I literally was swimming, so I was swimming for
my life that my dad on toenail came off my
oh my big toe. Okay, so that mean you know
it take a long time for that to grow back.
Literally came off my toe, okay, because I was trying
to hold on for dear life.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
But I got my certificate. But if you were to.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Say, Andrea, can you swim, No, I can't swim because
for me, swimming is being able to stop in the
middle and to master you know, uh, treadwater. That's what
it's called treading water. Could not master treading water. Could
not master treading water. Still have not master treading water.
(40:59):
Now that I'm saying this to y'all, I'm gonna take
me some swim lessons because I'm pushing through off fee
I'm jumping. But AnyWho, so that's why I can't jump,
because I cannot tread water.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
However, I did get a certificate.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
So when I see Beyonce in this ocean jumping in
I said to myself, Oh my god, I wish I
could do that. Like, I just wish I could jump
in the ocean and just feel so free and just
swim to the side and just get back up on
the yacht again and then say who wants to jump
(41:34):
with me? And then jump again. So that was all
my bucket lists of things to do. Okay, So let
me just tell y'all that I think it was two
years ago. Two years ago, I want to say. We
were in Blize, I think it was Belize, and we
(41:56):
were on a yacht and I decided. I was like,
you know what, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it.
I think I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Right, So I did.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Didn't come to my head at first because I thought
we were just on a yacht and we were just
having a good time with friends.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Because we did.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
We had a blast these I was with friends that
I had just met, and I was having an amazing time.
And at that time, you know, at that time my
husband said to me, he goes, you said that you
wanna jump, You wanna get on a yacht and you
want to jump, and this is on your bucket list,
so you know you're gonna do it. You're gonna do it.
(42:41):
And I was like, I wasn't even thinking that. But
then when he went off with his friends and I
was there by myself, not by myself, but I was
with other women who I met I was having a
good time with. I said to myself, Andrea, it's time
to jump. So I go and I find the people.
You know, they clean the boat. They they kept the
boat clean. Uh, they were cooking, preparing the food. You know,
(43:05):
we swimming with sharks. They would jumping and help people
swim with sharks. So I said, okay, Andrea, and this
is what I do, y'all. This is what I always
tell everybody. And I mean this. The smartest person in
the room is not necessarily the most intelligent, but it
is the one who knows what she needs, so what
he needs and finds out a way.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
To go and get it and goes to get it.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
So I was on my smart girl thing. I said, Okay,
this is what we're getting ready to do. I said,
this is what we're getting ready to do. You going
to ask for the help that you need. So I
go over and I find the woman and she was
like pulling up stuff. I said, she looked like she
know how to swim. So I said, listen, this is
on my bucket list. I've never I don't know how
(43:52):
to swim, but I want to. I want to jump
in the ocean. I want to jump in the oh.
She said, you want to jump? You want to choose asking.
You want to jump in the oh? I said, yes,
I want to jump in the ocean.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
She said.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
I said, I'm gonna take care of you, but will
you support me? Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
She said.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
She started pulling off her clothes, putting on her swim trunks. Whatever,
she jumps in the water. So then I tell other
women that I'm with. I'm like, y'all, guess what I'm
about to do. Because some of them they were afraid
of the water too. I said, y'all, I'm afraid. I
do not know how to swim, but I'm about to
face my fear and jump in that ocean.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
I said.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
They looking at me like, huh what I said, y'all
don't want to do it. This is my first time
doing it. We can do it together, beyoncey jump. They
looking like us beyond the same. I'm like, okay, no problem.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
She just met them. It's fine.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
I'm just letting you know, y'all, this is what I'm
gonna do. I'm nervous, I'm scared, but I lived there.
I'm gonna do it. So the woman who jumps in,
she gets I want to say, a raft, but she
didn't get a raft. But she gets the whole floaty thing.
Then I had to put the vest on. She gets
another best we had about two or three vest on
(45:02):
and a floaty thing that she had in there. She
tells the other guy they they because they already had
the yacht. You know, I guess anchored. She tells the
other guy, come come on, help. She wants to swim.
If you gon these wims, she's gonna jump in, I said.
He jumps in, so he's.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
Like, all right, I got over here. She said, I
got you right here. Come on, come on, beautiful Laddy.
She said.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I'm like, oh, I'm scared that. Somebody else on the
boat was like, give me your phone. I'm gonna record you.
I'm gonna record you. Then you know, all your your
trauma come up, your insecurities come up. So I'm like,
well when you record me, because look, you know, I
don't want them to.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Record the whole body.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
But I'm a wound when you caught me from the
waist up. Now I'm gonna jump in the whole ocean, y'all.
But I'm telling when you record me, make sure you
record me from the waist up. You know what I'm saying,
because I want good memories when I look back. You know,
I don't want to be judging and criticizing myself. AnyWho
they did and ever he record the whole thing, and
I'm grateful, so AnyWho, y'all.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
I got to the end, and I was scared. I
was so scared.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
I was so scared. But I had already set up everything,
like I set up everything to ensure my safety.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
Like on this day.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
First of all, I said, God got a plan for you, sis,
so he don't want you to die today. Okay, I'm
gonna check that off the list. I ain't ying today.
And if I go too deep or come up or whatever,
I got all the people here to support me. I
got her here, him there. I keep saying a raft,
but I got like a floaty thing here.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
I got about sixteen on me. Like I created a plan,
go back to my business. I created a plan. I
create a structure for me to jump jump into my dream.
Speaker 1 (46:43):
So I get to the end, y'all, and the girls
in back of me, they looking like, you gonna do this,
and I'm like, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it, Sis,
I'm gonna do it, Sis, And I jumped. Well, I'm
gonna tell y'all truth. Even when I jumped, I went
lower down in that ocean than I I thought I
was gonna go.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Now, Dad, I'm gonna be all the way y'all know,
I'm always gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
I went weird, damn Oki Doki, and I did not
feel about him.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
I went damn. But then I start doing.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Like this, and I came back up to the top
and I said, oh my.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
God, I'm living like I'm living. And I freaking did it.
I freaking did it.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
And then after that, which makes me so happy, the
woman after me that was afraid to swim, she was like,
I think I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
I said, come on, says and do it. She jumped the.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Other woman in the back of her, who was super
more afraid than it. She said, I said, come on, Sis.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Then she did it.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
When you jump, you inspire and encourage other people to jump.
You never know who's watching you.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
Come on, y'all.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
So I jumped. Then I started kind of floating away
to current. Have me floating to wated and I start
fighting again like I did, remember that lesson long time ago.
I was fighting like hell, trying to get back to
the yacht, get back to the boat.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
But I got back and I had support because they
was there.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
They like you good, relax, helping me, pulling me. I
had all them floaties on, got back up on the yacht.
And now I can sit here and say.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
I did that. I jumped. So I would ask you.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
What do you need to jump? Where do you need
to jump? Where in your life are you afraid to jump? Jump?
Is it a new career? What's the dream? Is finding
new friends? Is it moving to a new city, state,
new relationships? Do you want to go to a new
travel to a new country. I am telling you.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Jump. God is always there to support you.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
All right, family. That is another episode of the Mental
Health Is a lifestyle podcast by your girl Andrea wise Brown.
I will see you on the next episode. I love you,
don't be a friend.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Jump jump from beer
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