June 8, 2025 • 60 mins
In this powerful episode of Finding Your Niche with Neish, we sit down with Marz Bishop—a dynamic messenger of God, motivational speaker, and founder of L.I.F.E: Life’s Institute for Experience. Born from a childhood of hardship and the ongoing battle with sickle cell anemia, Bishop’s life story is one of pain, purpose, and preparation. He shares how his personal battles have shaped his bold perspective on life and death, why he’s completely at peace with his mortality, and how he uses every challenge as a stepping stone toward his calling. Through his organization, Bishop empowers others to see life’s trials as divine training for something greater. This episode is a raw, faith-filled journey of transformation, where we explore how your greatest wounds can become your greatest witness.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we're back for another amazing episode of Finding Your
Niche with Niche. I am really excited because, for one,
this is my first audio version of the podcast. I
uh don't usually do this, cause y'all know me. I'm
all about the aesthetics, all about the visibility. If you've
seen me, you've seen my face, duh. But we're doing
(00:21):
the audio version today and that's okay. And I'm really
excited about this audio version because I'm gonna talk to
somebody who has an incredible story, an incredible message. He
is an author, he is a facilitator. He is not
a speaker, but a messenger, and we're gonna talk about
that a little bit more. He's here to help you
(00:43):
learn about how to really navigate through life's adversities, but
not only just navigate through them, thrive through them, how
to actually manage the stress that you experience day to day.
I'm excited to have him on the show today in
this audio version of Finding Your Niche with Niche. Welcome
to the show, mister one and only, Mars Bishop.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, thank you, Niche. You may me sound like I'm
so phenomenal with that introduction. Oh my gosh, it sounds fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You are phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I mean to a degree I am, but you know
you took it to a next level.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, I'm excited, and we're gonna talk about next level
and later in this episode. Okay, but I want to
dive in, so I want to start off with asking you.
I like to ask all my guests this for this
audio version that I'm starting, because it's always interesting to
just find out. You know, you get to learn a
lot about people through what they eat. Okay, Okay, So
what did you have for breakfast today?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Today? I had a everything bagel toasted with cream cheese.
I love bagels, the rice, coffee, the mushroom coffee. So
I'm really big on, you know, taking my health more seriously, Yes,
especially within not I don't want to say this season
because that sounds so cliche, you know what I mean.
(01:55):
But really, because of what I've been through, I'm put
myself in a different space because I'm working out. I
work out three times, four times a week. We'll houp
at two o'clock in the morning, you know what I'm saying.
In the gym by three out by five. So I
want to make sure that my workout and my meal
they go together.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Is that humble brag or huh a humble brag?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
The whole working out like how you're mentioning like just
like slight like, oh I work out three times a week.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
No, it's it's just you know what I'm saying. Like
I said, I don't want to sound cliche.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I don't want to make this sound like Okay, everybody's
in the gym, everybody's doing this. You know what I'm saying,
Like as we start to peel back the layers, you
don't understand why I'm in the gym the way that
I'm in the gym.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, well let's just rewind for a second. Okay, why
are you What is mushroom coffee and why are you
having it?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Mushroom coffee? Is mushroom coffee? I thought it was gonna
be kind of nasty, but it's actually what it does
is it takes away the inflammation okay within your stomach
and the bloating okay. And it also it's almost like
a natural laxative.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Oh you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
And it gives you more clarity, gives you more energy.
So it doesn't. It doesn't do what regular coffee does
just have caffeine. Though it does have caffeine. Okay, it's
not as I don't want to. I don't know how
to say, like maybe as heavy or as harsh as
regular coffee, because it's it's designed to be more holistic
(03:27):
of a healer. So that's why I started drinking.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
It more importantly, what does it taste like?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It tastes good, I mean, make it like a regular
cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Okay, we're gonna talk about this to you guys. Hear
how he's saying coffee and I'm saying coffee. We're gonna
talk about that in a second. Okay. But so I
like mushrooms. A lot of people don't like mushrooms. Okay,
so when you're saying mushroom coffee, what is this experience?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Like?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Okay, what is that?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
How did you get introduced to that? Why does it happening?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Here's the crazy thing. I don't like mushrooms, right, really,
I don't you know how everybody has this thing about
portobello mushrooms and put mushrooms on my steak or put
mushrooms mushrooms. No, I don't like mushrooms. So it actually
took me a minute to really gay or understand the
concept the mushroom caffe. But it has like three different
(04:21):
types of mushrooms in it, and it has the mushroom
that is in it. It's called turkey tail, and that's
the one that focuses on the gut health, and it
focuses on you know, like making sure that you can
cleanse yourself in such a way without being so I
don't know how to say, like I guess nasty about it,
(04:46):
but it helps you to release yourself, you know what
I'm saying. And it helps you with the like I said,
the inflammation and the bloating of the stomach.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So do you drink it every day?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I drink drink it morning, noon, and night.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Really you have coffee at night?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
My mom does that. She says it relaxes her.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
That part really a part, yeah, because it's it's not
like I said, it's not like the folgers or you
know what I'm saying, like a coffee that would keep
you up and keep you No, it actually has benefits
in helping you sleep and things of that nature. So
it's really good.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yes, Okay, so back to you saying coffee.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
All right, So you're from upstate.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I'm from Long Island, Long.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Island, Okay, that's you know what, you're actually my first
Long Island person. I don't think, yeah, I don't think
I know anyone else from Long Island.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
That's like the unofficial sixth Borough.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Okay. So if there's one thing I need to know
about somebody who's from who's from Long Island? What is
that thing?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What is that thing? I mean, basically, we're still part
of New York City period. Okay, that's it because it's
like literally ten to fifteen minutes from Queens. You know
what I'm saying. Everybody who comes from the city comes
to Long Island. They want to get their house in
Long Island to get away from the city, you know
(06:10):
what I mean. So that's why I say we the
unofficial sixth Borough.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So, so is that part of the culture, like the
people from New York and ill consider you guys from
New York.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
No, they'll yeah, because they'll say the island.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Okay, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So you got the city, you got the boroughs, and
then you got the island. But everybody comes to the island.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Okay, what do they come to the island for?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
To get away from the chaos of the city.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Okay, okay, I get it.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So that's more of like your suburbs rule.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Right, Okay. So it's just like if you was to
go to Mariotta, Douglasville County to get out of the city,
out of the city.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
It's the same. It's the same thing. It's just over
the water.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's just basically Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Okay, I love that. Okay, So what was it like
growing up in Long Island?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
To be honest with you, I didn't had the opportunity
to grow up in Long Island because my story started
in a chaotic way to where my mother had to leave.
We had to leave New York, you know what I'm saying.
So she went into the military to get away from
the abuse that she was encountering. You know what, I believe.
(07:19):
I was five when she went into the military.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh wow, what branch?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
She went to the Air Force.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Okay's in the Air Force. Well, he was active duty
for ten years now, Air Force Guard.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Okay, yeah, she she she retired from the military.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, So I did my whole you know what I'm saying,
twenty years in the military or whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, So you guys moved to Long
Island just briefly.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, she my mother is actually from Long Island.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Oh, she's from there.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Her and my father they both went to high school
together in Long Island Westbury, Okay exactly, So they went
to Westbury High School. Okay, So my mother grew up there,
but you know, after my sister was born, the relationship changed,
so it became more toxic, it became more abusive, and
(08:08):
my mother had to go into the military because my
pop stabbed her.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
WHOA.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, so I don't know if he was ready to
get it right now, but we can.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Oh my god, were you there?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Like I wasn't there to see it, my uncle. The
crazy thing is is like, as I was growing up,
I remember sitting in my mother's room one time and
I had seen this mark on her like it's on
her it's on her side, like in her back. And
I was like, mine, what is that scar? And she
was like, well, actually, dad, And I was like, well,
I'm supposed to ask him. So, you know, the more
(08:42):
that I like started talking to other family members and
things of that nature. And my uncle, who is like
my favorite uncle, he actually told me what happened because
he told me that, you know what I'm saying, he
was gonna actually stab my my father's sister. Yeah, it's
it's crazy. This this my story is it's crazy. That's
(09:04):
why I said it started in chaos.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Oh my goodness, my.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Story started in paying chaos.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So what was I guess if you could fast forward, like,
why did he stab your mom?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
That part I'm gonna not reveal. Okay, some things, you
know what I'm saying, Yeah, to stay in the closet.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I'm full transparent, Yeah, but certain things got to stay
in the closet.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Okay, then okay, if you can't answer that, can you
answer what was the biggest takeaway I guess from you
learning from your mom her experience of what she got,
you know, when she got stabbed, and how that actually
translated through the entire family and the narrative behind it.
What was the biggest takeaway from that experience that you
think your family took Well.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The biggest experience that I think that I took from
it was really trust. There is no trust you know
what I mean, even with blood, even with blood, because
they're the one to do you the first because they
have so much access to you, you know what I'm saying.
So when you're with them, you kind of put your
guard down. You're not as on edge. Yeah, you know
what I mean. So it taught me, like really, and
(10:13):
it's a monstrous tattoo that I have on my arms
called you know, trust nobody.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And you still have that philosophy today.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Very much, so really very much.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I mean we're cool, we're cool, but I trust to
an extent, you know what I mean. Yeah, I know
not to give my all, but I know not to
put my guards down one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Do you think that's healthy?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I think it's it's got me to where I am,
whether it's healthy or not. You know what I'm saying.
What in life really is healthy?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
You feel me.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
But see that's you know, if you live your life
that way, that makes me feel like nobody has one
hundred access to you because you live life like you
just said, like you live life, you know, you live
authentic where people have there's a certain level of accessibility
that you give people. So how do you have relationships
(11:05):
that are vulnerable that have transparency when you still like
in the back of your mind sleep sleep.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
All right. That's that's a really good question, because that's
a question that I ask myself. You know what I'm saying.
In regards to all my relationships that I've had, it's
been a question that I've gone through as far as commitment, right, Like,
you know what I'm saying, Like, I have no problem
being in a relationship, but I understand that some of
(11:36):
the things that I've gone through has been a barrier
or obstacle for me to fully commit. Yeah, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah, Because I mean, well, trust is like one of
the cornerstones of a successful relationship. And if you're saying,
I trust you, but I got to sleep, you know,
that's really hard to be able to like commit, you know,
to be in a really long term commitment to somebody
who they can't say I have one hundred percent trust
you unequivocally.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I mean I can't. I won't say that, you know
what I'm saying, But I understand where you're coming from.
I understand where you're coming from. But see the way,
the reason why I have to the reason why I
do is because I have such a a giving heart. Okay,
you know what I mean, And my heart has been
taking advantage of plenty of times, and you know, it
just put me in a sense of like, Okay, it's
(12:24):
not saying like I won't trust you, but until you
earn access to it, it's not gonna be accessible to you.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So what So what is the experience like if somebody's
in a relationship with you until they have access, Like what,
how are they? How are you towards them?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh, I'm I'm I'm I'm mean.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Okay, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I'm me. I don't change, I'm not like guarded, I
won't talk to you. No, I'm going to embrace you. You
know what I'm saying, Like we're gonna joke. We're going
to because I understand like that's a connecting factor. So
I'm going to until I feel like a hundred percent
like Okay, I know I can trust you. I'm still
gonna be mean. It's just I'm not gonna give you
certain access to parts of me. Okay, does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes? So what would be the deciding factor to when
you would do that? Is it a time thing?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Is a time thing? It's more so an energy thing, like, Okay,
you know what I'm saying, I have to know that
you're committed as if you're asking for my commitment one
hundred percent, I have to know that I have your
commitment one hundred percent, you know what I mean. And
that's gonna make me put That's gonna allow me to
put down those walls and go one hundred percent in,
you know what I mean, Like I think so much more.
(13:34):
It was a commitment problem that I had before I
began my evolvment involving as an individual, you know what
I mean, because I was in so many different facets
of life, going through different stages. Yeah, so different stages
of life is what made me keep such a hold on,
like you know, trust and not give up myself open
(13:55):
because of what I learned in different environments.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, speaking of different environments, different ages, and going through
different stages of life for anybody who's listening right now.
I actually met Mars at a conference called Unstoppable You,
and he did an incredible speaking experience, really telling his story,
unpacking what he's gone through. And one of the things
(14:17):
that really resonated with me during his talk was he
started talking about the concept of waking up every day
wanting to die. And it was very penetrable because you know,
you don't hear people you hear you know, you hear stories,
you see news stories and stuff like that, but you
don't hear people being very outspoken about the idea of
(14:40):
death and wanting to not be here. It gets kind
of this taboo topic, taboo subject. So when you were
so like vocal about death and I mean, we're laughing now,
but about you not being here, you know, it made
me really curious to this different stages that you're referring to,
these different seasons in life. What was it, you know,
(15:01):
in what age were you first waking up? How old
were you when you were like, I don't want to
be here anymore, God, please take me. And why were
you saying that?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You want to really know the answer to that, Yes,
my first encounter was between five and eight years old.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
At five and eight years old, you were realizing that
you didn't want to be alive that young. Yes, yes,
conceptual you were able to conceptualize I don't want to
be alive.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Mind because of Okay, let's be honest. I grew up.
I was born with sickle cell anemia. Okay, right, So
people don't even understand what that is, you know what
I mean. And that was one of the reasons why
I ask people in the conference tell me what sickle
cell is. I don't want to hear it's a blood disorder,
you know what I'm saying, because you can't even fathom
(15:49):
the fact of a blood disorder, you know what I mean.
But in regards to the blood disorder, you're missing all
the pain, all the challenges that come with it, you
know what I'm saying. Yeah, So I've been in the
hospital my entire life, all the way up until I
was about i'd say, fifteen, sixteen years old.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So do you with sickle cell anemia? Do you have
to be born with it? Or can you get it?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Like that's the only way you get it when you're born.
You have to be born with it. But here's the thing.
You have to have two parents that have to have
the trade right. So mother and father both have to have.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
The trade right, so they cannot carry it.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
No, they can either have sickle cell the full disorder,
or they can have the trade. If either one of
your parents have the trade, one of your kids is
gonna come out if not all your kids with sickle
cell anemia. I'm the only one on both sides of
the family, mom's side and pop side that has it.
(16:46):
My older sister she doesn't have it. My younger sister
she doesn't have it because we don't even have My
younger sister has a different dad. Right, So me and
my older sister we have the same fathers. Yeah, right,
so she only got the trade. I am thenominally out
the family. Wow, because I have the whole thing. So
when you're growing up and you're constantly in pain, and
(17:07):
you like I used to wake up with very bad migraines, right,
I mean migraines that people wouldn't even be able to concept.
And I'm not talking about like your regular like you
know handah, yeah, I'm talking regards to when I would
wake up. It would be like somebody taking a hammer
and banging me in the back of my head, which
(17:29):
would make me not be able to see. Right, Not
just that, not just the headaches. But then that sickle
cell has a thing that's called a cute chest syndrome.
A cute chest syndrome is when it shuts down your
chest in your back, you can't breathe. Now you have
everything in your body is run by the blood, so
everything in your body shuts down everything. So when you're
(17:52):
going through this amount of pain and you don't understand why,
the only thing you want to do is die because
it feels like, damn, I'm already going through all these challenges.
Now he mo husans, go ahead and just finish the job.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Wow. So wow, Okay, So for people who you know
are very novice to this or ignorant to sickle cell,
like you said, there are a lot of people who
have a lot of misconceptions about it. When you were
I guess how old were you when you were like,
I have sickle cell anemia. This is why I feel
this way. When were you able to actually connect the dots.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Basically, Like I said, five years old is when my
mother found out because I had to go. I had
an emergency I had to be It was an emergency
blood transfusion that I had to have on Mother's Day.
So my very first encounter with death was on Mother's
Day at the age of five years old. Right, So
that's when a doctor came and he told her. He
was like, you know, your son had sickle cell anemia.
(18:50):
And she was like, well, what does that even mean? Yeah,
she didn't know that she was a trade carrier. So
at that point in time, that's when it was like
from there on, once I really found out what it
was I was going through, that's when it was like, okay,
you know, like that's when I had to embrace the
fact of like, I don't want to be here.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Now with the pain. Is it progressive or is it
like do you know like it's gonna be one of
them days like it's coming on? Or is it just
like sudden It's like you wake up and it's like spam.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Now, See, when I was young, it was I had
no control over it, okay, right, it just whenever it
wanted to take over, it took over. But since I lately,
I'll be honest with you, I haven't been hospitalized in
the last fifteen fifteen years. Wowieation tell you that?
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Is it because of the mushroom coffee?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
No, it's because of the fact that, really I don't
know what it is. To be honest with you, I'm
just gonna I'm gonna attribute it to the blessings of God.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, you know what I'm.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Saying, The covering of God yeah, but I have not
been hospitalized within the last fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Answer this question for me.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So I had somebody in my family who has sickle
cell Amie, And you know our culture, and I'm not
trying to make a joke of this. And you can
tell me, you know, if you have had this experience
or why this happens. But my I think she's my cousin. Yeah,
I think she would be my cousin. She was eating
(20:25):
her hair. You've never heard of people with sickleson nimia
eating hair to get like more iron.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
She was literally pulling out her hair. Come closer. She
was literally pulling out her hair and she was eating it, yeah,
to get like I don't know what I'm hearing, but
I hear something. Okay, she was pulling out her hair
and eating it. Because they say, like, your hair has
a lot of iron. So is that a thing with
(20:55):
sickle cell like you need iron?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, because you have to look at it when you Okay,
sickle cell is is a deficiency for the red blood cell.
Right now, when you look at what the red blood
cell carries, it carries the oxygen and it carries the iron.
That's what the hemoglobin is. What is a hemoglobin is
your red blood cell? Oh right, So with the hemoglone
(21:22):
with it carries the oxygen, it carries the iron to
the body. Right, So that is that is the main
thing that basically runs the whole body, really red blood cells.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Oh wow. And so when you have sickle cell anemia,
you have a deficiency of red blood cell.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
The deficiency of red blood cells because they break down
along their journey.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Oh so they don't make it to where they're where
they need to go.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
No, they'll make it to where they need to go.
But the thing is is that when they break down,
they break down into a sickle shape. Oh right. So
now when they start to get to like a smaller vein,
if they become compacted, that's where you start to get
the trouble and you start to get the pain from
because it has not pushed through that that vein. Wow
(22:06):
does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So what they really do is like for me.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
So the cells themselves become disabled.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Very much so okay, very much so wow. And then
what they also gave me when I was younger was
called what is that that follic acid and folic acid
folic acid. Okay, that's supposed to be like something that
helps with the iron and stuff like that, or you
(22:34):
can you can actually go get iron pills.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Okay, yeah, so I've done that.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah. So it helps with the iron and then it
increases the blood, right, so the iron is gonna make
the hemoglobe and count go higher.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Okay, so it kind of helps to compensate.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Right basically.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Okay, And so when you're experiencing this excruciating pain, what's
the duration of the pain. Is it lasting like five minutes?
Is it lasting all day?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
What is it's lasting until it puts you in the hospital?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Oh my god, So you're just out here at five, six, seven,
eight years old living life with this pain.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I live life in pain every day even today. You
won't know it because I won't tell you.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
That's how I'm I'm acclimated to pain. I'm acclimated to pain.
Every day I wake up, I'm in pain and you
won't know it.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
How have you resolved, I guess, with God, with yourself,
with your parents and the traits the anatomy. How have
you resolved living a life of fulfillment with a life
that is embedded with pain.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, I think you just said the number one thing
because it took me a long time to really embrace God. Right,
So when you're when you say, you know what I'm saying.
When I be like, okay, God please kill me, to me,
you didn't exist.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Because he didn't kill you.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
No, because you gave me something that I didn't.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Ask for, oh like an unfair.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Like unfair advantage. You know what I'm saying. I'm watching
my sister, I'm watching everybody else have this life that
they don't go through what I go through. Yeah, so
why am I the only one that goes through it? Right?
So it took me a long time to embrace that
fact of it.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And once I embraced that fact, and once I really
really started to grow spiritually and give me a relationship
with God, that is how I learned to resolve my issue.
You know what I'm saying. That gave me the power
to be able to speak about it.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yes, you know what I mean. Yeah. So it was
there an isolated moment or an isolated day or event
that made you have that realization, the day where you
actually came to the moment where you had to confront
the idea of like, actually, God, there's been a few.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I'll give you a couple real quick. The first one
was when I had my first stroke at the age
of twenty two. Right, I felt like like Jacob did
in the Bible, like when he touched him, but he
didn't kill him. And he said that, you know, I
fought with God and he he like, didn't kill me. Okay,
(25:19):
So that was one. Okay, he spared my life on
that one.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
The second one was I went to jail for a
short stint first degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, larceny.
You protected me while I was in there, and I
asked you when I made my first covenant God, if
you get me out this situation, I'll never go back
to living the where I was living before. That was
(25:43):
number two and number three was my second stroke at
the age of thirty two.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Ten years later.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Ten years later. Wow, so you you covered me. My
first one I was about twenty twenty seven, twenty eight
I got when I was in prison. Thirty two. I
have my second stroke and you still allow me to
be here. So you have me here for a reason. Yeah,
tell let me find out what this reason is.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Wow. Okay, So for people who don't. This is an
audio podcast, so you guys can't see Mars right now.
But one of the amazing things that he impacted in
his story was losing mobility in the entire left side
of his body. This is because of sickle cell anemia.
This is where is this because of something else?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It's because of the stroke. But here's the thing about
the stroke. I never went to the doctor when I
have my first stroke.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Wait what, I'm sorry what.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I never went to the doctor when I have my
first one?
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Where is this a thing?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Where who has a stroke and doesn't go to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I told you I was. I literally was trying to
kill myself. And this is when I was in California.
I was in Los Angeles, California. I was in Inglewood
when that I was leaving Inglewood because we had we
was in the studio the night before. We were drinking,
we were smoking. At what I was doing. I was
walking down one oh four crossing over Krisshaw the last
(27:12):
fifteen minutes of that bus ride. That's when everything changed
for me.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
This was daytime or night time.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
This was in the daytime. Wow, And I went I
was in school at that time. I was taking medical assistant. Right,
I went to school and I talked to my professors
and I was like, hey, this just happened, you know
what I'm saying. I talked them the symptoms of what
I went through, and they told me, you know, like
you had a transit get skimmic attack. And I was like, well,
what is that? And he was like, it's literally a stroke.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
And at this is your first stroke.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
My first stroke at twenty two, at twenty.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Two, and that's when you lost mobility in your body.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I didn't lose mobility in my body until after my
daughter was born, when I was twenty five.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
But you were also on the bus or when when
you lost what was the situation when out first? Take
me to that day?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
All right, so let me see if I could walk
you through it. Okay, I'm getting up. I'm walking down
this beautiful, beautiful sunshine right and I'm in the bottoms
of Inglewood. Okay, now we all know what Inglewood is.
We all know that the games play every day every day.
So I'm just I'm just hoping that I can get
(28:24):
to the to the bus so I can go to school.
So I'm worried about the enemy, but I wasn't worried
about the enemy. Ooh, you know what I mean. So
when I'm got on the bus, okay, from everything that
I did the night before, I wasn't worried about you know,
thinking that I didn't even know a stroke was particicle
set to be honest with you, So the last fifteen minutes,
my fingers go numb, my lips start tingling, the blurry
(28:46):
on the bus.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
But before that, you felt regular.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Felt everything was good. Everything was good.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
But so you're on the bus and do you start
feeling like, okay, well that's weird.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah, like what my fingce is it growing?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Is?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Is?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
It?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Crazy thing? It went from my fingers to my lip
to my eyes. I didn't feel anything else but those
three symptoms.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
So in that moment, are you having a stroke.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
At that moment, I'm actually going through a stroke.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yes, but you don't know do you know that?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I didn't know that, So what are you thinking is happening?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
At that moment? I was like, damn, I don't want
to die, you know what I mean? So that was
to die at that point, yeah, because I didn't know
what was going on, and that was the only time
when I really felt like I don't want to die.
You ever heard what I was saying, that you don't
know how much you want to die into you almost die.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
That was powerful when you said that that, like, you know,
because people were like, oh, I hate it hear you know,
but it's like when you're about to die, then you
realize like.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait right. So when
I got to when I got to my my stop,
when I got to the end of Crenshaw, I got
off the bus and I had to walk from Crenshaw
to I had an apartment that was off of Wilshire
That sure is the main highway like Pea Street, so
I had to walk down Wilshire when I got off
(30:11):
the bus, my arm on my leg, well more so
on my leg at that time, it did like this
crazy thing, and I didn't think that it would be
without have now yeah you know what I'm saying, Like,
I started limping in and I was like, well, that's awkward.
But afterwards everything went back to its regular motion. Really,
(30:32):
everything went back to his regular motion, which is why
I didn't go to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So later on that day, after I got to school,
I went back to Englewood. Yeah, I went back to
smoking and drinking.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
So wait, so between you getting off of the bus
and going in, like your body was functioning regular, back
to regular.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Regular, and I had that that short, brief moment where
it it I had a glitch where my leg and
my arm like really did something that kind of made
me like be like, oh, that's awkward. Yeah, but by
the time I got to my apartment, everything was right.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
So you're just was like, oh, that was just weird.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yeah, it just caught me off. That's why when I
went to school and I talked to you know, the professors,
and I told them what was going on, That's when
they told me what it was. Wow, I did not
know that. You know what I'm saying, Oh I need
to go see a doctor.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah I didn't.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I did it wasn't thinking about that, so really I
didn't care.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Interesting, So, okay, what was the moment where you realized, wow,
I officially can no longer use the left side of
my body? Like when did that happen?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
When I went back to New York?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
So what's the timeframe?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So my stroke happened at twenty two and was it
nineteen ninety seven, ninety seven, ninety six, and ninety seven,
I went back to New York. No, I went back
to California. I'm sorry, I went back to a lot.
That's because my mother were stationed in Alaska for a minute.
And when I got off the bus, I went and
I called my mother and I told her what was
(32:07):
going on, and like a couple of months later, six
months later, she was like, you need to come back
and get checked out. So I went to Alaska and
I got you know what I'm saying, They did a
little piss poor exam, and really they couldn't do nothing
about it because it's what happened. Yeah, So after I
left there and went back to New I went to
(32:27):
New York. After leaving Alaska, I went to New York
my daughter. I met my daughter's mother, and my daughter
was born like when I was twenty when I turned
twenty five, my daughter was born. Right. So when she
started to walk in like she started walking and using
(32:47):
her arms, I found out that she was left handed.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Oh wow, I.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Didn't really lose my left arm. I know where it's at. Yeah,
she has it.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
So that's when it was like, okay, you know, like
all you know.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
So is this something that like if you had been
had a little bit more urgency when it first happened,
is it something that could have been prevented? Or is
it something that you feel now is like it's inevitable.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
I think it would. If I would have been taking
care of myself the way that I should have, it
probably could have been inevitable. I mean, it probably could
have been taken care of or prevented, you know what
I mean. But like I said, I got tired of
being in pain, so it just was like it doesn't matter,
Like right now it still don't matter.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
The only reason I really take care of myself now
is because my daughter and we have such a phenomenal relationship.
Yeah that I want to be able to meet my grandkids,
you know what I'm saying. But I don't want. No,
I don't want to live a life till like seventy
eighty years old.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
You don't know, I don't want to be that old?
Why Because I just don't, Why though, Mars, because I
just don't. Okay, what age do you want to live
to be?
Speaker 2 (34:01):
S I'm good with sixty five?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
How old are you right now?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
I am forty nine.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Oh my gosh, that's that's like, that's not far.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
I understand this.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
What in the world? Okay, hold on a second, cause
we were about to talk about this. Do you remember
the last thing that you did with your left arm,
the very last time you used your left arm.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
The last time I used my left arm my daughter
was born. Mkay, and I held my daughter with your
left arm, with my left arm. Wow, that was the
That was the last thing that I can remember that
I did with my left arm.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Interesting, So talk to me a little bit about life
right when you can only use how did you have
to navigate like this new idea of Like, Wow, I
would you consider yourself disabled? Is that a thing? Or no? No?
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Because my mind is fully functioning.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Okay, so I don't.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Feel myself being disabled at all. You know what I'm saying.
I might have a challenge, but as long as my
mind can you know what I'm saying, focus on how
to get past that?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
You know what I mean. It's like, am I truly disabled?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah? Yeah? Now what was the reaction like for you? Like,
how did you I guess, transition from you yourself having
this personal experience to now the people around you are
witnessing and having to understand and work with you, do
(35:25):
life with you with this new found insight of you
having no no mobility on the left side of your body.
What was that like in learning and seeing like how
people treated you differently with this new.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
It wasn't It wasn't as big a transition as you
may think it was, you know what I'm saying. The
only one that really kind of bothered me a little
bit was my mother and she had said something one
time and she was like, you know, I gave birth
to a healthy, a healthy baby, and I'm like, what
part of me is not healthy?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:58):
You know what I'm saying. So that really kind of
bought me a little bit. But as far as like
it was me having to embrace it more so than
anybody elsenybody else.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeh know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
I had a home, I have a friend now. He
asked me just a few weeks ago, he was like,
what is the biggest thing that you had to learn
to adjust to with losing your arm? Yeah, it's embracing
the fact that it even happened.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah, because every day you're reminded that it happened.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Every day. You know what I'm saying. So it's like, okay, well,
you have to learn how to truly embrace who you are.
You know what I'm saying, Despite all your flaws and
all whatever wrong you have, you have to learn to
embrace it. And that's the biggest part of resilience, you
know what I'm saying, Because resilience is you being able
(36:48):
to get through the misfortunes and adversities of life.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
I love that. Speaking of resilience, they're also an author
which I really like. You have credible organization called Life
l I f E.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
And that stands for the Learning Institute for Experience.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
And how did you come up with that? Because I
love that acronym. Really, I was looking at it earlier
and I was just like, wow, Like that is literally
what life is.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
What's crazy? Okay. I used to work for Children's Health
Care of Atlanta, right, and I used to sub lease
my apartment to I DO And we were texting one
day and he had said something I don't remember what
it was that he said, and I said, that's just life, bro,
it's the Learning Institute for Experience.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
You just said it like that off your tongue just
rolled off. Your tongue like that.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
That's how I know it was God, whoa because it
just came so naturally and it was just like, that's life.
The Learning Institute for Experience.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
And when I said it, you know how you can
certain things and it catches. Yes, Yes, it caught wow,
and I was just like wow. So when people ask me,
they're like, well, you know, how did you come up
with that? And it's to the fact where I got
that revolution, that revelation at the conference because somebody asked me.
(38:11):
She was like, well, what is this life? And I
went home and I thought about it, and God was like,
I gave you life. You know what I'm saying, Like,
as much as you fought about what you didn't have, yeah,
now I've given you life. So now you get to
take all the lessons that you learned from your experiences
(38:32):
and you get to share with other individuals, you know
what I'm saying. And the institute is us. We're the
Institute for Experience. So every day we go through whatever
whatever life presents, Life is an experience and you are
the institute that's going through it. You're learning from every experience. Yes,
So that is life. The Learning Institute for Experience.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Okay, and then I think that's incredible, And you wrote
this book.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
The fighter is in you.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
The fighting you are you willing to accept the challenge.
What's the challenge.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
The challenge is life, but the challenge is in you.
So whatever it is that you're striving to accomplish, that
is the battle that you're fighting. But you're also fighting
through life because life will come and take your life
and go on to the next individual. Life don't care.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
It doesn't care, not at all. Wow. Okay, I'm going
to pick a chapter.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
From this book, okay, and I want you to.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Unpack it a little bit, just to give everybody a
sneak peek. Okay, oh okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna pin
that one because I might want to do that one.
I see, all these titles are really good.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Actually this book was written by God.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Really it was.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
I commend people who write books because it's like such
a daunting task. Like you go into it like I'm going
to write a book, and then when you start writing,
you're like, oh, no, it is because anybody who's like
gets on the other side of it. I'm like about
down because it's not I hear it from what I hear.
It's not an easy It's not.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
It's not because you gotta make sure. Basically, everything has
to be it has to coincide, Everything has to be formulated,
you know, from the titles to the way that you
put it together, to every it's just it is a process.
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
I like that with each chapter you have a quote.
I'm a big quote person, so I really like that.
I'm trying to do. Okay, some torn between three chapters
right now, which one do I want to do? Okay,
(40:37):
I'm gonna do all right, I'm gonna do six. Round
six is with stand the Blows. The quote is by
Jack Dempsey. It says a champion is someone who gets
up when he can't. I unpacked up for me a
little bit with the book, you know, withstanding the extra
(41:00):
blows that come to you, that that we endure in life, like,
how do you actually continue to fight?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Well, basically, I mean it's just like you said. You
know what I'm saying, you got to withstand the blow.
So when you look at boxing, that book is written
off the analogy of boxing.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
I love boxing, by the way.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Right, So I'm a south fall really Okay, So you're
out there knocking that I wouldn't go that far, okay,
but with standing blows, I mean just like for me,
for example, I've had two strokes. I was born with
sickle cell anemia. I grew up in the house of
domestic lines. Right now, here's the caveat on top of
(41:39):
what I didn't tell you. I'm a product or rate
really right, So that's a blow, every one of.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Them, Oh my god, one of them.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Right. But God gives you something that is already inside you,
which is called intrinsic ability. Okay, right, So then therefore
you can't be equipped already to be able to withstand
the blows. So when you look at a boxer, a
boxer is training for those blows. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
They're not training to not get hit, that's so good.
They're training to get hit exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
You know what I'm saying. Because you figure you're gonna
get hit with a jab, left hook, uppercut, whatever it is,
you're gonna get hit with something. But like that quote said,
a champion can get back up, yeah right. So if
you don't get back up, ultimately life knocks you out, yes, right.
(42:31):
So when you are pursuing whatever it is that you want, right,
you're gonna have some type of challenge. You're gonna have
life is gonna throw your blow because it's not gonna
be easy.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Right, So when you want to be an entrepreneur, if
you have a nine to five, if you have whatever
it is, you're gonna get some type of blow. You're
gonna get some type of challenge. So with standing the
blows means that you just take them. You learn how
to you know what I'm saying, like kind of either
duck them, slip them, or block them, you know, so
that way you can move on to the next to
(43:02):
the next challenge, or to the next round.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah, And I think what's interesting about what you're saying
and using this metaphor of boxing, you know, so obviously
some blows are harder than others.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Exactly out of the.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Situations that you have been through, I guess what blow
has been has taken you the longest to withstand? Really really.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Not having my left arm mm hmmm, that's it. That's
the only one because I bowther that every day. Yeah,
it's a it's a constant reminder every day of a limitation.
You know what I'm saying, Which is the biggest blow
if you didn't.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Have your daughter, and you have this situation that you
have right now, not you know, having your left arm.
Would you want to be alive today? I know you
said earlier? Would you say sixty five? Sixty nine?
Speaker 2 (43:55):
I wouldn't and that and see that it scares her
because my daughter knows how I feel. I'm not one
who sugar coata hides, and I've already explained how I
feel about everything.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
I guess I'm having a hard time because I'm having
I'm not your daughter, so I can only imagine, like
how she anybody else who knows you and loves you,
I'm not understanding, Like are you wanting to die because
you're in pain? Are you wanting to die because you can't?
You just are unhappy with this circumstance, Like what is this?
Striving factory?
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Just embraced it. Death is the inevitable, there's no dodging.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
But why are you putting a number on? Like I've
never heard anybody say yeah, I don't mind dying at
sixty five? Why are you doing that.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Because I don't want to be old? Why because I
don't want to be old with pain? I don't I
don't want to carry this any longer.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Okay, that does make sense. Okay, So.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Right now, with you saying that and having that understanding,
with that concept and that idea, you are still in
pain every day every single day I wake up and
you're just living life?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
What am I supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (45:08):
But you don't want to be old with the pain.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
But I'm not going to give up either.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
But you also can control when you're going to die. No,
I can't, so what happens if you're eighty nine with it?
Speaker 2 (45:19):
I thank God for what He's given me.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
But you're not going to be mad if you're sixty
nine and it's time.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I mean, I'm good at whatever God does because it
ultimately is his life anyway, It's his breath. So when
he takes it and when he extinguishes it, I have
no control over that. Now, if he sees fit that
I live past sixty five, that's a blessing. They told
me when I was sixteen, I wouldn't make it to eighteen.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
My mother told me when I was twenty because of
the life I was living, I wouldn't live the twenty two.
And here you are, and here I am at forty nine.
So everybody who has put a life expectancy on me,
I've already surpassed it, surpassed it, so then therefore it's
all God, this ain't my life.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
One has been the greatest lesson that you've learned from
this whole life Institute for Experience.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
The greatest lesson that I have learned is the bounce back.
I've learned how to take everything that has come my
way and turn it into something that now created a
life for me, that travels, that makes money off of pain.
You know what I mean That I might not have
seen this, but because I didn't give up and I
(46:37):
just took those blows, I was able to bounce back
and I was able to well, I don't want to
say me, but God was able to position me to
be able to show other individuals that regardless what you
go through, don't give up. You know what I'm saying.
You keep pushing and you keep just living life.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Wow, it's been a journey, you know what I'm saying.
But it took a long time for me to get
this mindset. It took a long time. And being that
I'm here, I'm not gonna lose it. I'm not gonna
give it up.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Yeah, for people who feel like you once felt, and
maybe even still do feel on some days. God, please
take me what words of encouragement when you have to
people who find themselves in that same mindset, in that
same position, to help them feel like, you know what
you can You can go on one more day, and
(47:27):
then one more day again, after that, and after that
and after that. What would you say to that person?
Speaker 2 (47:35):
I would tell them just just embrace the opportunities that
they do have, because you never know what the next
one's gonna bring. You know what I mean. You may
think that you don't want to be here, but it's
not up to you. Yeah, you know, God has you
here for a reason, and I know that. You know,
when we talk about God sometimes it becomes cliche. Yeah,
but I understand the power and I understand the grace
(47:58):
that He has given to me. So if he has
given it to me, he's going to give it to
the next individual. You just have to be willing to
accept it.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
Yeah, that's all. Wow. And the hardest thing that you've
had to accept is having sickle cell.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
No, the hardest thing I had to accept is losing
my left arm. That's all.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
Not even having the I'm.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Sickle seller, it doesn't matter to me. Like you know
what I'm saying. That doesn't bother me because I turned
it into a strength. I no longer call it sickle seller.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
It's super cells, super cells.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
I love that, feel me. That's what truly strengthens me.
That's what truly makes me strong. Yeah, you know what
I'm saying. So if you look at the word sickle,
I always ask people spell sicklem as I seek stop.
Do I look sick? Ooh you can't spell sicle without
spelling sick.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Do I look sick?
Speaker 1 (48:51):
No?
Speaker 2 (48:51):
If I wouldn't have if you didn't know me, would
you think that I had.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
To know, I would have no idea exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
And you're not going to see somebody my position getting
up at two o'clock in the morning go and work
out for two hours, you know what I'm saying, rehabilitating themselves.
You're not going to see anybody doing what I'm doing
as far as strengthening my mind.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
So I don't have sickle say I got super sells.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
You have supercells?
Speaker 2 (49:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Wow, So what's the goal. As we close up the
conversation for you, Mars, what is the ultimate goal.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
The ultimate goal is to do the will of God.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
What does that look like for you?
Speaker 2 (49:28):
For me is to make the biggest impact that I
can before He takes me away.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
And let's talk about impact for a second, because I
think when people think about impact, they think of quantity
of people that they have to touch and reach.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
It's the quality quality of my life, you know what
I'm saying. The quality of my life is going to
make the impact on another person, you know what I mean?
And that's basically it.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Wow, this was good.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yeah, I don't care about quantity. It's quality over quantity,
you know what I mean. I'd rather worry about the
quality of my life than the quality of my life
because I just told you I don't want to be
here for a long period of time. Yeah, So if
I can make a quality a bigger impact. I mean,
just look at Tupac. The man died at twenty five
crazy made a big impact that nobody yet has surpassed
(50:18):
at that age, at that age, and we're still talking
about him thirty years later. Did anybody ask him why
he was in such your rush to doc?
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Right, but the quality of his life is still the
biggest impact that is here, So it's quality of a quantity.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Wow. Well, I feel grateful and fortunate to have been
able to have a discussion with you and this conversation.
The fighting you that you've been able to just exhibit
and yourself in this short time of me knowing you,
I've been following you, watching you move your message is amazing.
And as we get ready to close, I want you
(50:59):
to talk about that because off camera, off you know,
all outside of the podcast, me and Mars, we're talking
a little bit about you know, our callings and how
God has n bo called us both to speak mm
and he hasn't a very interesting philosophy around the difference
between being a speaker and being a messenger. So as
we in the conversation, I want you to kind of
unpack that idea and that concept and why people should
(51:22):
understand in terms of their ability to storytell and to
just get their message across if they wanna be seen
in a more you know, visible space like motivational speaker,
public speaker, keynote speaker, why they shouldn't have the intentionality
of being a messenger over being a speaker.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Okay, well, really quick, the reason why I won't put
the title speaker on me is because for one, it's cliche.
I think in this in this time that we live in,
this time is so bombarded with Everybody wants to be
a content creator, everybody wants to be an influence, everybody
(52:04):
wants to be a thought leader. Right, so then therefore
everybody has this thing as far as I want to
be a speaker. When you look at what a speaker does,
what does it do? A speaker regurgitates when it hurt
or something that's programmed. So when you get in your
car you turn on the radio, the first thing it
does is whatever station is programmed is gonna play something
(52:26):
through your speaker, and that's how you're gonna hear it. Now,
that's why I won't say that I'm a speaker, because
I'm not somebody who's coming to regurgitate something that i've heard. Now,
as far as being a messenger, when people say, don't
shoot me, I'm just a messenger. I'm coming to bring
(52:47):
you something that you didn't already have. So if you
look at it biblically, Moses was the first messenger, right,
and God said he called him and he told him
that he would free the people. But in order for
him to do that, he had to embrace what God
(53:10):
was giving him. Right, So God gave him the words
to say, and Moses tried to rebel against it, and
he tried to say, I'm not a good orator, I
don't speak well. Could I have somebody help me? So
he gave him his brother, right, So Aaron became his tongue,
(53:31):
became his messenger. But as as Moses grew within his assignment,
he became that messenger.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
Right.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
He became the one that God parted the Red Sea
through Moses. Right. So if I'm coming to an engagement,
if I'm coming to deliver something, I'm not coming to
deliver something that I heard. I'm coming to deliver something
that was given to me that I'm going to speak
through me, you know what I mean. And that is
(54:01):
the message and the message that I'm gonna give you
is gonna resonate with your spirit, and only a way
that God can do it through me. Yeah, you know
what I'm saying. It's not something that's programmed, it's something
that is authentically me, because it's gonna be transparent and
it's gonna be something that connects with you. Yeah, so
that's the difference that I say between a speaker and
a messenger. So that's just my own philosophy.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, and I like that, and and I want to
just kind of just touch on that just a little
bit because I think that's so interesting when you know,
you think about God and the devil, God and the enemy,
they both need people.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
They both need people.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
You know, And so to get the message across, how
do you I guess what you're saying, how do you
get out of the way?
Speaker 2 (54:46):
That is that is the biggest challenge that I've had
to do. I think getting out of the way is
just understanding your assignment and being able to being able
to do it the best way that you possibly can,
and understanding that it's not coming from you, it's coming
(55:07):
through you. Yeah, you know, and I think that is
the But see like for me because I like, because
God gave me life. That's not my company. I work
for God. I'm just the president. He's the CEO. Yeah,
so I go where the CEO takes me. But in
order to have a relationship with the CEO, I have
(55:27):
meetings with him every day, which is called coffee and conversation.
I get the download from him on what it is
that he needs from me to say yes. And like
it says in the in the book, it says, write
it on your tablet, so that way you always speak
my word yes you feel me. So everything that I
have gained over the course of time has already written
on my tablet. So when I speak, I'm only speaking
(55:49):
his word. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (55:52):
It does. I love that and I love that word.
Ending with coffee in coffee and conversations brings me back
full circle now to the mushroom, coffee room, coffee. Oh
my gosh, Mars, thank you so much. Yeah, no, this
(56:12):
was so good and and this is my first I
don't know, I might have started at the beginning of
the show, but I'm excited because this is my first
audio rendition of the episode. And I really thought you
would be a great person to have on because it's
such a good storyteller, and you help to really paint
the picture because when you do audio, there's a lot
of visualization, you know, involved, and so you really helped
(56:34):
put me, you know, in the scene of your experiences.
And for anybody who wants to connect with you, who
wants you to come and speak to their community, their organization,
their school. How can they contact you? What's the best
way to get you to be in the room you can?
Speaker 2 (56:53):
You can reach me on my website Mars Bishop dot com.
You can reach out to me on Instagram Mars Bishop
at uh was it? Instagram is Mars Bishop. G l
LinkedIn is Mars Bishop. Facebook is Mars Bishop. All social
media is Mars Bishop. And that's m A R Z
B I S H O P.
Speaker 1 (57:13):
Is that your government name?
Speaker 2 (57:14):
Where? Just please remember how I told you Jacob fought
with God?
Speaker 1 (57:23):
Yes, right, he touched them, Yes.
Speaker 2 (57:25):
But what also did God do to Jacob when he
when he touched them?
Speaker 1 (57:29):
He gave him an what do you call that word?
Speaker 2 (57:35):
Like?
Speaker 1 (57:35):
Uh, what's the word I'm looking for? It's an not
an impurity? I can't think of the word.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
He changed his name.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
Oh, right along, so you changed your name.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
So my first name is Now here's the connecting here's
a connecting fact. Who was Samuel?
Speaker 1 (58:09):
I don't know who was Samuel?
Speaker 2 (58:10):
Samuel was a prophet. Samuel was the one that anointed
Saw then he anointed David. Oh, my first name is Samuel.
Speaker 1 (58:21):
So where we get Mars?
Speaker 2 (58:23):
When I came, when I was brought from New York
to come down here. I started out doing spoken words.
I asked God, I said, God, what am I supposed
to do? How am I supposed to be to these people?
He said, Now you can change your name to Mars Bishop.
Mars Bishop was the name that was given to me
by an old manager when I was rapping. Interesting, so
nobody ever heard Mars Bishop, but you get to hear
(58:46):
Mars Bishop now. So what I actually do is my
love was for a rapping and what I do when
I tell the audiences. I dropped one of the hardest
freestyles on you.
Speaker 1 (58:54):
You can do one right now.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
No, I just didn't. I just did it. How you
gave you a whole freestyle session?
Speaker 1 (59:06):
Eighteen bars, twenty four bars.
Speaker 2 (59:09):
Thirty sixteen thirty two.
Speaker 1 (59:11):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
So my first name is Samuel, so actually my prophet,
So when it comes to same, I'm a messenger. That's
where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (59:18):
No, you see right, Yeah, you're a seer basically, Oh
my gosh. Wow right, well Mars.
Speaker 2 (59:27):
Yes, this is great. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (59:29):
So does anybody call you Sam or Samuel?
Speaker 2 (59:31):
That's why I don't because of that right there. My
father's name is sam and I because I have the
relationship I have with him, I refuse.
Speaker 1 (59:38):
Yeah, that you have it extracted yourself.
Speaker 2 (59:41):
Basically, Wow, you've never seen anybody in the Bible called
Samuel Sam. Hey, Sam, come over here and go annoyt
David going annoyt Sal You've never seen that, right, But
we live in a society where everybody wants to kind
of shorten stuff. Don't call me Sam. That's the biggest
way to piss me off, really real. That's why I
(01:00:01):
just removed myself from it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
That's interesting. You are interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
I'm going to have you back for the visual podcast.
But this was great. I want to thank you so
much for coming on telling your story. And I'm just
going to keep watching because you're going to keep amazing me.
I'm sure in the rest of the world. Yes, and
I'm going to say on this podcast, I want you
to live past sixty five.
Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Okay, from your mouth to God's ears. Yes, I accept that.
I embrace it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Okay, good, Thank you so much for coming on. All right, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Peace later.
So we're back for another amazing episode of Finding Your
Niche with Niche. I am really excited because, for one,
this is my first audio version of the podcast. I
uh don't usually do this, cause y'all know me. I'm
all about the aesthetics, all about the visibility. If you've
seen me, you've seen my face, duh. But we're doing
(00:21):
the audio version today and that's okay. And I'm really
excited about this audio version because I'm gonna talk to
somebody who has an incredible story, an incredible message. He
is an author, he is a facilitator. He is not
a speaker, but a messenger, and we're gonna talk about
that a little bit more. He's here to help you
(00:43):
learn about how to really navigate through life's adversities, but
not only just navigate through them, thrive through them, how
to actually manage the stress that you experience day to day.
I'm excited to have him on the show today in
this audio version of Finding Your Niche with Niche. Welcome
to the show, mister one and only, Mars Bishop.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, thank you, Niche. You may me sound like I'm
so phenomenal with that introduction. Oh my gosh, it sounds fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You are phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I mean to a degree I am, but you know
you took it to a next level.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, I'm excited, and we're gonna talk about next level
and later in this episode. Okay, but I want to
dive in, so I want to start off with asking you.
I like to ask all my guests this for this
audio version that I'm starting, because it's always interesting to
just find out. You know, you get to learn a
lot about people through what they eat. Okay, Okay, So
what did you have for breakfast today?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Today? I had a everything bagel toasted with cream cheese.
I love bagels, the rice, coffee, the mushroom coffee. So
I'm really big on, you know, taking my health more seriously, Yes,
especially within not I don't want to say this season
because that sounds so cliche, you know what I mean.
(01:55):
But really, because of what I've been through, I'm put
myself in a different space because I'm working out. I
work out three times, four times a week. We'll houp
at two o'clock in the morning, you know what I'm saying.
In the gym by three out by five. So I
want to make sure that my workout and my meal
they go together.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Is that humble brag or huh a humble brag?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
The whole working out like how you're mentioning like just
like slight like, oh I work out three times a week.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
No, it's it's just you know what I'm saying. Like
I said, I don't want to sound cliche.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I don't want to make this sound like Okay, everybody's
in the gym, everybody's doing this. You know what I'm saying,
Like as we start to peel back the layers, you
don't understand why I'm in the gym the way that
I'm in the gym.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, well let's just rewind for a second. Okay, why
are you What is mushroom coffee and why are you
having it?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Mushroom coffee? Is mushroom coffee? I thought it was gonna
be kind of nasty, but it's actually what it does
is it takes away the inflammation okay within your stomach
and the bloating okay. And it also it's almost like
a natural laxative.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Oh you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
And it gives you more clarity, gives you more energy.
So it doesn't. It doesn't do what regular coffee does
just have caffeine. Though it does have caffeine. Okay, it's
not as I don't want to. I don't know how
to say, like maybe as heavy or as harsh as
regular coffee, because it's it's designed to be more holistic
(03:27):
of a healer. So that's why I started drinking.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
It more importantly, what does it taste like?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
It tastes good, I mean, make it like a regular
cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Okay, we're gonna talk about this to you guys. Hear
how he's saying coffee and I'm saying coffee. We're gonna
talk about that in a second. Okay. But so I
like mushrooms. A lot of people don't like mushrooms. Okay,
so when you're saying mushroom coffee, what is this experience?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Like?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Okay, what is that?
Speaker 1 (03:57):
How did you get introduced to that? Why does it happening?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Here's the crazy thing. I don't like mushrooms, right, really,
I don't you know how everybody has this thing about
portobello mushrooms and put mushrooms on my steak or put
mushrooms mushrooms. No, I don't like mushrooms. So it actually
took me a minute to really gay or understand the
concept the mushroom caffe. But it has like three different
(04:21):
types of mushrooms in it, and it has the mushroom
that is in it. It's called turkey tail, and that's
the one that focuses on the gut health, and it
focuses on you know, like making sure that you can
cleanse yourself in such a way without being so I
don't know how to say, like I guess nasty about it,
(04:46):
but it helps you to release yourself, you know what
I'm saying. And it helps you with the like I said,
the inflammation and the bloating of the stomach.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
So do you drink it every day?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I drink drink it morning, noon, and night.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Really you have coffee at night?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:05):
My mom does that. She says it relaxes her.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
That part really a part, yeah, because it's it's not
like I said, it's not like the folgers or you
know what I'm saying, like a coffee that would keep
you up and keep you No, it actually has benefits
in helping you sleep and things of that nature. So
it's really good.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yes, Okay, so back to you saying coffee.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
All right, So you're from upstate.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I'm from Long Island, Long.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Island, Okay, that's you know what, you're actually my first
Long Island person. I don't think, yeah, I don't think
I know anyone else from Long Island.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
That's like the unofficial sixth Borough.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Okay. So if there's one thing I need to know
about somebody who's from who's from Long Island? What is
that thing?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What is that thing? I mean, basically, we're still part
of New York City period. Okay, that's it because it's
like literally ten to fifteen minutes from Queens. You know
what I'm saying. Everybody who comes from the city comes
to Long Island. They want to get their house in
Long Island to get away from the city, you know
(06:10):
what I mean. So that's why I say we the
unofficial sixth Borough.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So, so is that part of the culture, like the
people from New York and ill consider you guys from
New York.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
No, they'll yeah, because they'll say the island.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Okay, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So you got the city, you got the boroughs, and
then you got the island. But everybody comes to the island.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Okay, what do they come to the island for?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
To get away from the chaos of the city.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Okay, okay, I get it.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I get it.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So that's more of like your suburbs rule.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Right, Okay. So it's just like if you was to
go to Mariotta, Douglasville County to get out of the city,
out of the city.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
It's the same. It's the same thing. It's just over
the water.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's just basically Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Okay, I love that. Okay, So what was it like
growing up in Long Island?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
To be honest with you, I didn't had the opportunity
to grow up in Long Island because my story started
in a chaotic way to where my mother had to leave.
We had to leave New York, you know what I'm saying.
So she went into the military to get away from
the abuse that she was encountering. You know what, I believe.
(07:19):
I was five when she went into the military.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Oh wow, what branch?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
She went to the Air Force.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Okay's in the Air Force. Well, he was active duty
for ten years now, Air Force Guard.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Okay, yeah, she she she retired from the military.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, So I did my whole you know what I'm saying,
twenty years in the military or whatever.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, So you guys moved to Long
Island just briefly.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Well, she my mother is actually from Long Island.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Oh, she's from there.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Her and my father they both went to high school
together in Long Island Westbury, Okay exactly, So they went
to Westbury High School. Okay, So my mother grew up there,
but you know, after my sister was born, the relationship changed,
so it became more toxic, it became more abusive, and
(08:08):
my mother had to go into the military because my
pop stabbed her.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
WHOA.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, so I don't know if he was ready to
get it right now, but we can.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Oh my god, were you there?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Like I wasn't there to see it, my uncle. The
crazy thing is is like, as I was growing up,
I remember sitting in my mother's room one time and
I had seen this mark on her like it's on
her it's on her side, like in her back. And
I was like, mine, what is that scar? And she
was like, well, actually, dad, And I was like, well,
I'm supposed to ask him. So, you know, the more
(08:42):
that I like started talking to other family members and
things of that nature. And my uncle, who is like
my favorite uncle, he actually told me what happened because
he told me that, you know what I'm saying, he
was gonna actually stab my my father's sister. Yeah, it's
it's crazy. This this my story is it's crazy. That's
(09:04):
why I said it started in chaos.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Oh my goodness, my.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Story started in paying chaos.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
So what was I guess if you could fast forward, like,
why did he stab your mom?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
That part I'm gonna not reveal. Okay, some things, you
know what I'm saying, Yeah, to stay in the closet.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I'm full transparent, Yeah, but certain things got to stay
in the closet.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Okay, then okay, if you can't answer that, can you
answer what was the biggest takeaway I guess from you
learning from your mom her experience of what she got,
you know, when she got stabbed, and how that actually
translated through the entire family and the narrative behind it.
What was the biggest takeaway from that experience that you
think your family took Well.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
The biggest experience that I think that I took from
it was really trust. There is no trust you know
what I mean, even with blood, even with blood, because
they're the one to do you the first because they
have so much access to you, you know what I'm saying.
So when you're with them, you kind of put your
guard down. You're not as on edge. Yeah, you know
what I mean. So it taught me, like really, and
(10:13):
it's a monstrous tattoo that I have on my arms
called you know, trust nobody.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And you still have that philosophy today.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Very much, so really very much.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I mean we're cool, we're cool, but I trust to
an extent, you know what I mean. Yeah, I know
not to give my all, but I know not to
put my guards down one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Do you think that's healthy?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I think it's it's got me to where I am,
whether it's healthy or not. You know what I'm saying.
What in life really is healthy?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
You feel me.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
But see that's you know, if you live your life
that way, that makes me feel like nobody has one
hundred access to you because you live life like you
just said, like you live life, you know, you live
authentic where people have there's a certain level of accessibility
that you give people. So how do you have relationships
(11:05):
that are vulnerable that have transparency when you still like
in the back of your mind sleep sleep.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
All right. That's that's a really good question, because that's
a question that I ask myself. You know what I'm saying.
In regards to all my relationships that I've had, it's
been a question that I've gone through as far as commitment, right, Like,
you know what I'm saying, Like, I have no problem
being in a relationship, but I understand that some of
(11:36):
the things that I've gone through has been a barrier
or obstacle for me to fully commit. Yeah, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah, Because I mean, well, trust is like one of
the cornerstones of a successful relationship. And if you're saying,
I trust you, but I got to sleep, you know,
that's really hard to be able to like commit, you know,
to be in a really long term commitment to somebody
who they can't say I have one hundred percent trust
you unequivocally.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I mean I can't. I won't say that, you know
what I'm saying, But I understand where you're coming from.
I understand where you're coming from. But see the way,
the reason why I have to the reason why I
do is because I have such a a giving heart. Okay,
you know what I mean, And my heart has been
taking advantage of plenty of times, and you know, it
just put me in a sense of like, Okay, it's
(12:24):
not saying like I won't trust you, but until you
earn access to it, it's not gonna be accessible to you.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
So what So what is the experience like if somebody's
in a relationship with you until they have access, Like what,
how are they? How are you towards them?
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Oh, I'm I'm I'm I'm mean.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Okay, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
I'm me. I don't change, I'm not like guarded, I
won't talk to you. No, I'm going to embrace you. You
know what I'm saying, Like we're gonna joke. We're going
to because I understand like that's a connecting factor. So
I'm going to until I feel like a hundred percent
like Okay, I know I can trust you. I'm still
gonna be mean. It's just I'm not gonna give you
certain access to parts of me. Okay, does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes? So what would be the deciding factor to when
you would do that? Is it a time thing?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Is a time thing? It's more so an energy thing, like, Okay,
you know what I'm saying, I have to know that
you're committed as if you're asking for my commitment one
hundred percent, I have to know that I have your
commitment one hundred percent, you know what I mean. And
that's gonna make me put That's gonna allow me to
put down those walls and go one hundred percent in,
you know what I mean, Like I think so much more.
(13:34):
It was a commitment problem that I had before I
began my evolvment involving as an individual, you know what
I mean, because I was in so many different facets
of life, going through different stages. Yeah, so different stages
of life is what made me keep such a hold on,
like you know, trust and not give up myself open
(13:55):
because of what I learned in different environments.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, speaking of different environments, different ages, and going through
different stages of life for anybody who's listening right now.
I actually met Mars at a conference called Unstoppable You,
and he did an incredible speaking experience, really telling his story,
unpacking what he's gone through. And one of the things
(14:17):
that really resonated with me during his talk was he
started talking about the concept of waking up every day
wanting to die. And it was very penetrable because you know,
you don't hear people you hear you know, you hear stories,
you see news stories and stuff like that, but you
don't hear people being very outspoken about the idea of
(14:40):
death and wanting to not be here. It gets kind
of this taboo topic, taboo subject. So when you were
so like vocal about death and I mean, we're laughing now,
but about you not being here, you know, it made
me really curious to this different stages that you're referring to,
these different seasons in life. What was it, you know,
(15:01):
in what age were you first waking up? How old
were you when you were like, I don't want to
be here anymore, God, please take me. And why were
you saying that?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
You want to really know the answer to that, Yes,
my first encounter was between five and eight years old.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
At five and eight years old, you were realizing that
you didn't want to be alive that young. Yes, yes,
conceptual you were able to conceptualize I don't want to
be alive.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Mind because of Okay, let's be honest. I grew up.
I was born with sickle cell anemia. Okay, right, So
people don't even understand what that is, you know what
I mean. And that was one of the reasons why
I ask people in the conference tell me what sickle
cell is. I don't want to hear it's a blood disorder,
you know what I'm saying, because you can't even fathom
(15:49):
the fact of a blood disorder, you know what I mean.
But in regards to the blood disorder, you're missing all
the pain, all the challenges that come with it, you
know what I'm saying. Yeah, So I've been in the
hospital my entire life, all the way up until I
was about i'd say, fifteen, sixteen years old.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
So do you with sickle cell anemia? Do you have
to be born with it? Or can you get it?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Like that's the only way you get it when you're born.
You have to be born with it. But here's the thing.
You have to have two parents that have to have
the trade right. So mother and father both have to have.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
The trade right, so they cannot carry it.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
No, they can either have sickle cell the full disorder,
or they can have the trade. If either one of
your parents have the trade, one of your kids is
gonna come out if not all your kids with sickle
cell anemia. I'm the only one on both sides of
the family, mom's side and pop side that has it.
(16:46):
My older sister she doesn't have it. My younger sister
she doesn't have it because we don't even have My
younger sister has a different dad. Right, So me and
my older sister we have the same fathers. Yeah, right,
so she only got the trade. I am thenominally out
the family. Wow, because I have the whole thing. So
when you're growing up and you're constantly in pain, and
(17:07):
you like I used to wake up with very bad migraines, right,
I mean migraines that people wouldn't even be able to concept.
And I'm not talking about like your regular like you
know handah, yeah, I'm talking regards to when I would
wake up. It would be like somebody taking a hammer
and banging me in the back of my head, which
(17:29):
would make me not be able to see. Right, Not
just that, not just the headaches. But then that sickle
cell has a thing that's called a cute chest syndrome.
A cute chest syndrome is when it shuts down your
chest in your back, you can't breathe. Now you have
everything in your body is run by the blood, so
everything in your body shuts down everything. So when you're
(17:52):
going through this amount of pain and you don't understand why,
the only thing you want to do is die because
it feels like, damn, I'm already going through all these challenges.
Now he mo husans, go ahead and just finish the job.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Wow. So wow, Okay, So for people who you know
are very novice to this or ignorant to sickle cell,
like you said, there are a lot of people who
have a lot of misconceptions about it. When you were
I guess how old were you when you were like,
I have sickle cell anemia. This is why I feel
this way. When were you able to actually connect the dots.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Basically, Like I said, five years old is when my
mother found out because I had to go. I had
an emergency I had to be It was an emergency
blood transfusion that I had to have on Mother's Day.
So my very first encounter with death was on Mother's
Day at the age of five years old. Right, So
that's when a doctor came and he told her. He
was like, you know, your son had sickle cell anemia.
(18:50):
And she was like, well, what does that even mean? Yeah,
she didn't know that she was a trade carrier. So
at that point in time, that's when it was like
from there on, once I really found out what it
was I was going through, that's when it was like, okay,
you know, like that's when I had to embrace the
fact of like, I don't want to be here.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Now with the pain. Is it progressive or is it
like do you know like it's gonna be one of
them days like it's coming on? Or is it just
like sudden It's like you wake up and it's like spam.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Now, See, when I was young, it was I had
no control over it, okay, right, it just whenever it
wanted to take over, it took over. But since I lately,
I'll be honest with you, I haven't been hospitalized in
the last fifteen fifteen years. Wowieation tell you that?
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Is it because of the mushroom coffee?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
No, it's because of the fact that, really I don't
know what it is. To be honest with you, I'm
just gonna I'm gonna attribute it to the blessings of God.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, you know what I'm.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Saying, The covering of God yeah, but I have not
been hospitalized within the last fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Answer this question for me.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
So I had somebody in my family who has sickle
cell Amie, And you know our culture, and I'm not
trying to make a joke of this. And you can
tell me, you know, if you have had this experience
or why this happens. But my I think she's my cousin. Yeah,
I think she would be my cousin. She was eating
(20:25):
her hair. You've never heard of people with sickleson nimia
eating hair to get like more iron.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
She was literally pulling out her hair. Come closer. She
was literally pulling out her hair and she was eating it, yeah,
to get like I don't know what I'm hearing, but
I hear something. Okay, she was pulling out her hair
and eating it. Because they say, like, your hair has
a lot of iron. So is that a thing with
(20:55):
sickle cell like you need iron?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, because you have to look at it when you Okay,
sickle cell is is a deficiency for the red blood cell.
Right now, when you look at what the red blood
cell carries, it carries the oxygen and it carries the iron.
That's what the hemoglobin is. What is a hemoglobin is
your red blood cell? Oh right, So with the hemoglone
(21:22):
with it carries the oxygen, it carries the iron to
the body. Right, So that is that is the main
thing that basically runs the whole body, really red blood cells.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Oh wow. And so when you have sickle cell anemia,
you have a deficiency of red blood cell.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
The deficiency of red blood cells because they break down
along their journey.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Oh so they don't make it to where they're where
they need to go.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
No, they'll make it to where they need to go.
But the thing is is that when they break down,
they break down into a sickle shape. Oh right. So
now when they start to get to like a smaller vein,
if they become compacted, that's where you start to get
the trouble and you start to get the pain from
because it has not pushed through that that vein. Wow
(22:06):
does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
So what they really do is like for me.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
So the cells themselves become disabled.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Very much so okay, very much so wow. And then
what they also gave me when I was younger was
called what is that that follic acid and folic acid
folic acid. Okay, that's supposed to be like something that
helps with the iron and stuff like that, or you
(22:34):
can you can actually go get iron pills.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Okay, yeah, so I've done that.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah. So it helps with the iron and then it
increases the blood, right, so the iron is gonna make
the hemoglobe and count go higher.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Okay, so it kind of helps to compensate.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Right basically.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Okay, And so when you're experiencing this excruciating pain, what's
the duration of the pain. Is it lasting like five minutes?
Is it lasting all day?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
What is it's lasting until it puts you in the hospital?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Oh my god, So you're just out here at five, six, seven,
eight years old living life with this pain.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I live life in pain every day even today. You
won't know it because I won't tell you.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
That's how I'm I'm acclimated to pain. I'm acclimated to pain.
Every day I wake up, I'm in pain and you
won't know it.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
How have you resolved, I guess, with God, with yourself,
with your parents and the traits the anatomy. How have
you resolved living a life of fulfillment with a life
that is embedded with pain.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, I think you just said the number one thing
because it took me a long time to really embrace God. Right,
So when you're when you say, you know what I'm saying.
When I be like, okay, God please kill me, to me,
you didn't exist.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Because he didn't kill you.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
No, because you gave me something that I didn't.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Ask for, oh like an unfair.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Like unfair advantage. You know what I'm saying. I'm watching
my sister, I'm watching everybody else have this life that
they don't go through what I go through. Yeah, so
why am I the only one that goes through it? Right?
So it took me a long time to embrace that
fact of it.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And once I embraced that fact, and once I really
really started to grow spiritually and give me a relationship
with God, that is how I learned to resolve my issue.
You know what I'm saying. That gave me the power
to be able to speak about it.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yes, you know what I mean. Yeah. So it was
there an isolated moment or an isolated day or event
that made you have that realization, the day where you
actually came to the moment where you had to confront
the idea of like, actually, God, there's been a few.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I'll give you a couple real quick. The first one
was when I had my first stroke at the age
of twenty two. Right, I felt like like Jacob did
in the Bible, like when he touched him, but he
didn't kill him. And he said that, you know, I
fought with God and he he like, didn't kill me. Okay,
(25:19):
So that was one. Okay, he spared my life on
that one.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
The second one was I went to jail for a
short stint first degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, larceny.
You protected me while I was in there, and I
asked you when I made my first covenant God, if
you get me out this situation, I'll never go back
to living the where I was living before. That was
(25:43):
number two and number three was my second stroke at
the age of thirty two.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Ten years later.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Ten years later. Wow, so you you covered me. My
first one I was about twenty twenty seven, twenty eight
I got when I was in prison. Thirty two. I
have my second stroke and you still allow me to
be here. So you have me here for a reason. Yeah,
tell let me find out what this reason is.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Wow. Okay, So for people who don't. This is an
audio podcast, so you guys can't see Mars right now.
But one of the amazing things that he impacted in
his story was losing mobility in the entire left side
of his body. This is because of sickle cell anemia.
This is where is this because of something else?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It's because of the stroke. But here's the thing about
the stroke. I never went to the doctor when I
have my first stroke.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Wait what, I'm sorry what.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I never went to the doctor when I have my
first one?
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Where is this a thing?
Speaker 2 (26:47):
What do you mean?
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Where who has a stroke and doesn't go to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I told you I was. I literally was trying to
kill myself. And this is when I was in California.
I was in Los Angeles, California. I was in Inglewood
when that I was leaving Inglewood because we had we
was in the studio the night before. We were drinking,
we were smoking. At what I was doing. I was
walking down one oh four crossing over Krisshaw the last
(27:12):
fifteen minutes of that bus ride. That's when everything changed
for me.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
This was daytime or night time.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
This was in the daytime. Wow, And I went I
was in school at that time. I was taking medical assistant. Right,
I went to school and I talked to my professors
and I was like, hey, this just happened, you know
what I'm saying. I talked them the symptoms of what
I went through, and they told me, you know, like
you had a transit get skimmic attack. And I was like, well,
what is that? And he was like, it's literally a stroke.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
And at this is your first stroke.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
My first stroke at twenty two, at twenty.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Two, and that's when you lost mobility in your body.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I didn't lose mobility in my body until after my
daughter was born, when I was twenty five.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
But you were also on the bus or when when
you lost what was the situation when out first? Take
me to that day?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
All right, so let me see if I could walk
you through it. Okay, I'm getting up. I'm walking down
this beautiful, beautiful sunshine right and I'm in the bottoms
of Inglewood. Okay, now we all know what Inglewood is.
We all know that the games play every day every day.
So I'm just I'm just hoping that I can get
(28:24):
to the to the bus so I can go to school.
So I'm worried about the enemy, but I wasn't worried
about the enemy. Ooh, you know what I mean. So
when I'm got on the bus, okay, from everything that
I did the night before, I wasn't worried about you know,
thinking that I didn't even know a stroke was particicle
set to be honest with you, So the last fifteen minutes,
my fingers go numb, my lips start tingling, the blurry
(28:46):
on the bus.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
But before that, you felt regular.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Felt everything was good. Everything was good.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
But so you're on the bus and do you start
feeling like, okay, well that's weird.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Yeah, like what my fingce is it growing?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Is?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
It?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Is?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
It?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Crazy thing? It went from my fingers to my lip
to my eyes. I didn't feel anything else but those
three symptoms.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
So in that moment, are you having a stroke.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
At that moment, I'm actually going through a stroke.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yes, but you don't know do you know that?
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I didn't know that, So what are you thinking is happening?
Speaker 2 (29:23):
At that moment? I was like, damn, I don't want
to die, you know what I mean? So that was
to die at that point, yeah, because I didn't know
what was going on, and that was the only time
when I really felt like I don't want to die.
You ever heard what I was saying, that you don't
know how much you want to die into you almost die.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
That was powerful when you said that that, like, you know,
because people were like, oh, I hate it hear you know,
but it's like when you're about to die, then you
realize like.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait right. So when
I got to when I got to my my stop,
when I got to the end of Crenshaw, I got
off the bus and I had to walk from Crenshaw
to I had an apartment that was off of Wilshire
That sure is the main highway like Pea Street, so
I had to walk down Wilshire when I got off
(30:11):
the bus, my arm on my leg, well more so
on my leg at that time, it did like this
crazy thing, and I didn't think that it would be
without have now yeah you know what I'm saying, Like,
I started limping in and I was like, well, that's awkward.
But afterwards everything went back to its regular motion. Really,
(30:32):
everything went back to his regular motion, which is why
I didn't go to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So later on that day, after I got to school,
I went back to Englewood. Yeah, I went back to
smoking and drinking.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
So wait, so between you getting off of the bus
and going in, like your body was functioning regular, back
to regular.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Regular, and I had that that short, brief moment where
it it I had a glitch where my leg and
my arm like really did something that kind of made
me like be like, oh, that's awkward. Yeah, but by
the time I got to my apartment, everything was right.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
So you're just was like, oh, that was just weird.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yeah, it just caught me off. That's why when I
went to school and I talked to you know, the professors,
and I told them what was going on, That's when
they told me what it was. Wow, I did not
know that. You know what I'm saying, Oh I need
to go see a doctor.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah I didn't.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
I did it wasn't thinking about that, so really I
didn't care.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Interesting, So, okay, what was the moment where you realized, wow,
I officially can no longer use the left side of
my body? Like when did that happen?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
When I went back to New York?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
So what's the timeframe?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
So my stroke happened at twenty two and was it
nineteen ninety seven, ninety seven, ninety six, and ninety seven,
I went back to New York. No, I went back
to California. I'm sorry, I went back to a lot.
That's because my mother were stationed in Alaska for a minute.
And when I got off the bus, I went and
I called my mother and I told her what was
(32:07):
going on, and like a couple of months later, six
months later, she was like, you need to come back
and get checked out. So I went to Alaska and
I got you know what I'm saying, They did a
little piss poor exam, and really they couldn't do nothing
about it because it's what happened. Yeah, So after I
left there and went back to New I went to
(32:27):
New York. After leaving Alaska, I went to New York
my daughter. I met my daughter's mother, and my daughter
was born like when I was twenty when I turned
twenty five, my daughter was born. Right. So when she
started to walk in like she started walking and using
(32:47):
her arms, I found out that she was left handed.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Oh wow, I.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Didn't really lose my left arm. I know where it's at. Yeah,
she has it.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
So that's when it was like, okay, you know, like
all you know.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
So is this something that like if you had been
had a little bit more urgency when it first happened,
is it something that could have been prevented? Or is
it something that you feel now is like it's inevitable.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
I think it would. If I would have been taking
care of myself the way that I should have, it
probably could have been inevitable. I mean, it probably could
have been taken care of or prevented, you know what
I mean. But like I said, I got tired of
being in pain, so it just was like it doesn't matter,
Like right now it still don't matter.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
The only reason I really take care of myself now
is because my daughter and we have such a phenomenal relationship.
Yeah that I want to be able to meet my grandkids,
you know what I'm saying. But I don't want. No,
I don't want to live a life till like seventy
eighty years old.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
You don't know, I don't want to be that old?
Why Because I just don't, Why though, Mars, because I
just don't. Okay, what age do you want to live
to be?
Speaker 2 (34:01):
S I'm good with sixty five?
Speaker 1 (34:03):
How old are you right now?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
I am forty nine.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Oh my gosh, that's that's like, that's not far.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
I understand this.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
What in the world? Okay, hold on a second, cause
we were about to talk about this. Do you remember
the last thing that you did with your left arm,
the very last time you used your left arm.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
The last time I used my left arm my daughter
was born. Mkay, and I held my daughter with your
left arm, with my left arm. Wow, that was the
That was the last thing that I can remember that
I did with my left arm.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Interesting, So talk to me a little bit about life
right when you can only use how did you have
to navigate like this new idea of Like, Wow, I
would you consider yourself disabled? Is that a thing? Or no? No?
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Because my mind is fully functioning.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Okay, so I don't.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Feel myself being disabled at all. You know what I'm saying.
I might have a challenge, but as long as my
mind can you know what I'm saying, focus on how
to get past that?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
You know what I mean. It's like, am I truly disabled?
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah? Yeah? Now what was the reaction like for you? Like,
how did you I guess, transition from you yourself having
this personal experience to now the people around you are
witnessing and having to understand and work with you, do
(35:25):
life with you with this new found insight of you
having no no mobility on the left side of your body.
What was that like in learning and seeing like how
people treated you differently with this new.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
It wasn't It wasn't as big a transition as you
may think it was, you know what I'm saying. The
only one that really kind of bothered me a little
bit was my mother and she had said something one
time and she was like, you know, I gave birth
to a healthy, a healthy baby, and I'm like, what
part of me is not healthy?
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (35:58):
You know what I'm saying. So that really kind of
bought me a little bit. But as far as like
it was me having to embrace it more so than
anybody elsenybody else.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeh know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
I had a home, I have a friend now. He
asked me just a few weeks ago, he was like,
what is the biggest thing that you had to learn
to adjust to with losing your arm? Yeah, it's embracing
the fact that it even happened.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah, because every day you're reminded that it happened.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Every day. You know what I'm saying. So it's like, okay, well,
you have to learn how to truly embrace who you are.
You know what I'm saying, Despite all your flaws and
all whatever wrong you have, you have to learn to
embrace it. And that's the biggest part of resilience, you
know what I'm saying, Because resilience is you being able
(36:48):
to get through the misfortunes and adversities of life.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
I love that. Speaking of resilience, they're also an author
which I really like. You have credible organization called Life
l I f E.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
And that stands for the Learning Institute for Experience.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
And how did you come up with that? Because I
love that acronym. Really, I was looking at it earlier
and I was just like, wow, Like that is literally
what life is.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
What's crazy? Okay. I used to work for Children's Health
Care of Atlanta, right, and I used to sub lease
my apartment to I DO And we were texting one
day and he had said something I don't remember what
it was that he said, and I said, that's just life, bro,
it's the Learning Institute for Experience.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
You just said it like that off your tongue just
rolled off. Your tongue like that.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
That's how I know it was God, whoa because it
just came so naturally and it was just like, that's life.
The Learning Institute for Experience.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
And when I said it, you know how you can
certain things and it catches. Yes, Yes, it caught wow,
and I was just like wow. So when people ask me,
they're like, well, you know, how did you come up
with that? And it's to the fact where I got
that revolution, that revelation at the conference because somebody asked me.
(38:11):
She was like, well, what is this life? And I
went home and I thought about it, and God was like,
I gave you life. You know what I'm saying, Like,
as much as you fought about what you didn't have, yeah,
now I've given you life. So now you get to
take all the lessons that you learned from your experiences
(38:32):
and you get to share with other individuals, you know
what I'm saying. And the institute is us. We're the
Institute for Experience. So every day we go through whatever
whatever life presents, Life is an experience and you are
the institute that's going through it. You're learning from every experience. Yes,
So that is life. The Learning Institute for Experience.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Okay, and then I think that's incredible, And you wrote
this book.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
The fighter is in you.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
The fighting you are you willing to accept the challenge.
What's the challenge.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
The challenge is life, but the challenge is in you.
So whatever it is that you're striving to accomplish, that
is the battle that you're fighting. But you're also fighting
through life because life will come and take your life
and go on to the next individual. Life don't care.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
It doesn't care, not at all. Wow. Okay, I'm going
to pick a chapter.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
From this book, okay, and I want you to.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Unpack it a little bit, just to give everybody a
sneak peek. Okay, oh okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna pin
that one because I might want to do that one.
I see, all these titles are really good.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Actually this book was written by God.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Really it was.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
You know.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
I commend people who write books because it's like such
a daunting task. Like you go into it like I'm going
to write a book, and then when you start writing,
you're like, oh, no, it is because anybody who's like
gets on the other side of it. I'm like about
down because it's not I hear it from what I hear.
It's not an easy It's not.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
It's not because you gotta make sure. Basically, everything has
to be it has to coincide, Everything has to be formulated,
you know, from the titles to the way that you
put it together, to every it's just it is a process.
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
I like that with each chapter you have a quote.
I'm a big quote person, so I really like that.
I'm trying to do. Okay, some torn between three chapters
right now, which one do I want to do? Okay,
(40:37):
I'm gonna do all right, I'm gonna do six. Round
six is with stand the Blows. The quote is by
Jack Dempsey. It says a champion is someone who gets
up when he can't. I unpacked up for me a
little bit with the book, you know, withstanding the extra
(41:00):
blows that come to you, that that we endure in life, like,
how do you actually continue to fight?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Well, basically, I mean it's just like you said. You
know what I'm saying, you got to withstand the blow.
So when you look at boxing, that book is written
off the analogy of boxing.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
I love boxing, by the way.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Right, So I'm a south fall really Okay, So you're
out there knocking that I wouldn't go that far, okay,
but with standing blows, I mean just like for me,
for example, I've had two strokes. I was born with
sickle cell anemia. I grew up in the house of
domestic lines. Right now, here's the caveat on top of
(41:39):
what I didn't tell you. I'm a product or rate
really right, So that's a blow, every one of.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Them, Oh my god, one of them.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Right. But God gives you something that is already inside you,
which is called intrinsic ability. Okay, right, So then therefore
you can't be equipped already to be able to withstand
the blows. So when you look at a boxer, a
boxer is training for those blows. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
They're not training to not get hit, that's so good.
They're training to get hit exactly.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
You know what I'm saying. Because you figure you're gonna
get hit with a jab, left hook, uppercut, whatever it is,
you're gonna get hit with something. But like that quote said,
a champion can get back up, yeah right. So if
you don't get back up, ultimately life knocks you out, yes, right.
(42:31):
So when you are pursuing whatever it is that you want, right,
you're gonna have some type of challenge. You're gonna have
life is gonna throw your blow because it's not gonna
be easy.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Right, So when you want to be an entrepreneur, if
you have a nine to five, if you have whatever
it is, you're gonna get some type of blow. You're
gonna get some type of challenge. So with standing the
blows means that you just take them. You learn how
to you know what I'm saying, like kind of either
duck them, slip them, or block them, you know, so
that way you can move on to the next to
(43:02):
the next challenge, or to the next round.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah, And I think what's interesting about what you're saying
and using this metaphor of boxing, you know, so obviously
some blows are harder than others.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Exactly out of the.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Situations that you have been through, I guess what blow
has been has taken you the longest to withstand? Really really.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Not having my left arm mm hmmm, that's it. That's
the only one because I bowther that every day. Yeah,
it's a it's a constant reminder every day of a limitation.
You know what I'm saying, Which is the biggest blow
if you didn't.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Have your daughter, and you have this situation that you
have right now, not you know, having your left arm.
Would you want to be alive today? I know you
said earlier? Would you say sixty five? Sixty nine?
Speaker 2 (43:55):
I wouldn't and that and see that it scares her
because my daughter knows how I feel. I'm not one
who sugar coata hides, and I've already explained how I
feel about everything.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
I guess I'm having a hard time because I'm having
I'm not your daughter, so I can only imagine, like
how she anybody else who knows you and loves you,
I'm not understanding, Like are you wanting to die because
you're in pain? Are you wanting to die because you can't?
You just are unhappy with this circumstance, Like what is this?
Striving factory?
Speaker 2 (44:26):
Just embraced it. Death is the inevitable, there's no dodging.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
But why are you putting a number on? Like I've
never heard anybody say yeah, I don't mind dying at
sixty five? Why are you doing that.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Because I don't want to be old? Why because I
don't want to be old with pain? I don't I
don't want to carry this any longer.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (44:47):
Okay, that does make sense. Okay, So.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Right now, with you saying that and having that understanding,
with that concept and that idea, you are still in
pain every day every single day I wake up and
you're just living life?
Speaker 2 (45:06):
What am I supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (45:08):
But you don't want to be old with the pain.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
But I'm not going to give up either.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
But you also can control when you're going to die. No,
I can't, so what happens if you're eighty nine with it?
Speaker 2 (45:19):
I thank God for what He's given me.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
But you're not going to be mad if you're sixty
nine and it's time.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I mean, I'm good at whatever God does because it
ultimately is his life anyway, It's his breath. So when
he takes it and when he extinguishes it, I have
no control over that. Now, if he sees fit that
I live past sixty five, that's a blessing. They told
me when I was sixteen, I wouldn't make it to eighteen.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
My mother told me when I was twenty because of
the life I was living, I wouldn't live the twenty two.
And here you are, and here I am at forty nine.
So everybody who has put a life expectancy on me,
I've already surpassed it, surpassed it, so then therefore it's
all God, this ain't my life.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
One has been the greatest lesson that you've learned from
this whole life Institute for Experience.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
The greatest lesson that I have learned is the bounce back.
I've learned how to take everything that has come my
way and turn it into something that now created a
life for me, that travels, that makes money off of pain.
You know what I mean That I might not have
seen this, but because I didn't give up and I
(46:37):
just took those blows, I was able to bounce back
and I was able to well, I don't want to
say me, but God was able to position me to
be able to show other individuals that regardless what you
go through, don't give up. You know what I'm saying.
You keep pushing and you keep just living life.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Wow, it's been a journey, you know what I'm saying.
But it took a long time for me to get
this mindset. It took a long time. And being that
I'm here, I'm not gonna lose it. I'm not gonna
give it up.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Yeah, for people who feel like you once felt, and
maybe even still do feel on some days. God, please
take me what words of encouragement when you have to
people who find themselves in that same mindset, in that
same position, to help them feel like, you know what
you can You can go on one more day, and
(47:27):
then one more day again, after that, and after that
and after that. What would you say to that person?
Speaker 2 (47:35):
I would tell them just just embrace the opportunities that
they do have, because you never know what the next
one's gonna bring. You know what I mean. You may
think that you don't want to be here, but it's
not up to you. Yeah, you know, God has you
here for a reason, and I know that. You know,
when we talk about God sometimes it becomes cliche. Yeah,
but I understand the power and I understand the grace
(47:58):
that He has given to me. So if he has
given it to me, he's going to give it to
the next individual. You just have to be willing to
accept it.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
Yeah, that's all. Wow. And the hardest thing that you've
had to accept is having sickle cell.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
No, the hardest thing I had to accept is losing
my left arm. That's all.
Speaker 1 (48:17):
Not even having the I'm.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Sickle seller, it doesn't matter to me. Like you know
what I'm saying. That doesn't bother me because I turned
it into a strength. I no longer call it sickle seller.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
It's super cells, super cells.
Speaker 2 (48:27):
I love that, feel me. That's what truly strengthens me.
That's what truly makes me strong. Yeah, you know what
I'm saying. So if you look at the word sickle,
I always ask people spell sicklem as I seek stop.
Do I look sick? Ooh you can't spell sicle without
spelling sick.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Do I look sick?
Speaker 1 (48:51):
No?
Speaker 2 (48:51):
If I wouldn't have if you didn't know me, would
you think that I had.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
To know, I would have no idea exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:58):
And you're not going to see somebody my position getting
up at two o'clock in the morning go and work
out for two hours, you know what I'm saying, rehabilitating themselves.
You're not going to see anybody doing what I'm doing
as far as strengthening my mind.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (49:11):
So I don't have sickle say I got super sells.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
You have supercells?
Speaker 2 (49:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Wow, So what's the goal. As we close up the
conversation for you, Mars, what is the ultimate goal.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
The ultimate goal is to do the will of God.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
What does that look like for you?
Speaker 2 (49:28):
For me is to make the biggest impact that I
can before He takes me away.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
And let's talk about impact for a second, because I
think when people think about impact, they think of quantity
of people that they have to touch and reach.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
It's the quality quality of my life, you know what
I'm saying. The quality of my life is going to
make the impact on another person, you know what I mean?
And that's basically it.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Wow, this was good.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yeah, I don't care about quantity. It's quality over quantity,
you know what I mean. I'd rather worry about the
quality of my life than the quality of my life
because I just told you I don't want to be
here for a long period of time. Yeah, So if
I can make a quality a bigger impact. I mean,
just look at Tupac. The man died at twenty five
crazy made a big impact that nobody yet has surpassed
(50:18):
at that age, at that age, and we're still talking
about him thirty years later. Did anybody ask him why
he was in such your rush to doc?
Speaker 1 (50:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Right, but the quality of his life is still the
biggest impact that is here, So it's quality of a quantity.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
Wow. Well, I feel grateful and fortunate to have been
able to have a discussion with you and this conversation.
The fighting you that you've been able to just exhibit
and yourself in this short time of me knowing you,
I've been following you, watching you move your message is amazing.
And as we get ready to close, I want you
(50:59):
to talk about that because off camera, off you know,
all outside of the podcast, me and Mars, we're talking
a little bit about you know, our callings and how
God has n bo called us both to speak mm
and he hasn't a very interesting philosophy around the difference
between being a speaker and being a messenger. So as
we in the conversation, I want you to kind of
unpack that idea and that concept and why people should
(51:22):
understand in terms of their ability to storytell and to
just get their message across if they wanna be seen
in a more you know, visible space like motivational speaker,
public speaker, keynote speaker, why they shouldn't have the intentionality
of being a messenger over being a speaker.
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Okay, well, really quick, the reason why I won't put
the title speaker on me is because for one, it's cliche.
I think in this in this time that we live in,
this time is so bombarded with Everybody wants to be
a content creator, everybody wants to be an influence, everybody
(52:04):
wants to be a thought leader. Right, so then therefore
everybody has this thing as far as I want to
be a speaker. When you look at what a speaker does,
what does it do? A speaker regurgitates when it hurt
or something that's programmed. So when you get in your
car you turn on the radio, the first thing it
does is whatever station is programmed is gonna play something
(52:26):
through your speaker, and that's how you're gonna hear it. Now,
that's why I won't say that I'm a speaker, because
I'm not somebody who's coming to regurgitate something that i've heard. Now,
as far as being a messenger, when people say, don't
shoot me, I'm just a messenger. I'm coming to bring
(52:47):
you something that you didn't already have. So if you
look at it biblically, Moses was the first messenger, right,
and God said he called him and he told him
that he would free the people. But in order for
him to do that, he had to embrace what God
(53:10):
was giving him. Right, So God gave him the words
to say, and Moses tried to rebel against it, and
he tried to say, I'm not a good orator, I
don't speak well. Could I have somebody help me? So
he gave him his brother, right, So Aaron became his tongue,
(53:31):
became his messenger. But as as Moses grew within his assignment,
he became that messenger.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
Right.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
He became the one that God parted the Red Sea
through Moses. Right. So if I'm coming to an engagement,
if I'm coming to deliver something, I'm not coming to
deliver something that I heard. I'm coming to deliver something
that was given to me that I'm going to speak
through me, you know what I mean. And that is
(54:01):
the message and the message that I'm gonna give you
is gonna resonate with your spirit, and only a way
that God can do it through me. Yeah, you know
what I'm saying. It's not something that's programmed, it's something
that is authentically me, because it's gonna be transparent and
it's gonna be something that connects with you. Yeah, so
that's the difference that I say between a speaker and
a messenger. So that's just my own philosophy.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, and I like that, and and I want to
just kind of just touch on that just a little
bit because I think that's so interesting when you know,
you think about God and the devil, God and the enemy,
they both need people.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
They both need people.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
You know, And so to get the message across, how
do you I guess what you're saying, how do you
get out of the way?
Speaker 2 (54:46):
That is that is the biggest challenge that I've had
to do. I think getting out of the way is
just understanding your assignment and being able to being able
to do it the best way that you possibly can,
and understanding that it's not coming from you, it's coming
(55:07):
through you. Yeah, you know, and I think that is
the But see like for me because I like, because
God gave me life. That's not my company. I work
for God. I'm just the president. He's the CEO. Yeah,
so I go where the CEO takes me. But in
order to have a relationship with the CEO, I have
(55:27):
meetings with him every day, which is called coffee and conversation.
I get the download from him on what it is
that he needs from me to say yes. And like
it says in the in the book, it says, write
it on your tablet, so that way you always speak
my word yes you feel me. So everything that I
have gained over the course of time has already written
on my tablet. So when I speak, I'm only speaking
(55:49):
his word. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (55:52):
It does. I love that and I love that word.
Ending with coffee in coffee and conversations brings me back
full circle now to the mushroom, coffee room, coffee. Oh
my gosh, Mars, thank you so much. Yeah, no, this
(56:12):
was so good and and this is my first I
don't know, I might have started at the beginning of
the show, but I'm excited because this is my first
audio rendition of the episode. And I really thought you
would be a great person to have on because it's
such a good storyteller, and you help to really paint
the picture because when you do audio, there's a lot
of visualization, you know, involved, and so you really helped
(56:34):
put me, you know, in the scene of your experiences.
And for anybody who wants to connect with you, who
wants you to come and speak to their community, their organization,
their school. How can they contact you? What's the best
way to get you to be in the room you can?
Speaker 2 (56:53):
You can reach me on my website Mars Bishop dot com.
You can reach out to me on Instagram Mars Bishop
at uh was it? Instagram is Mars Bishop. G l
LinkedIn is Mars Bishop. Facebook is Mars Bishop. All social
media is Mars Bishop. And that's m A R Z
B I S H O P.
Speaker 1 (57:13):
Is that your government name?
Speaker 2 (57:14):
Where? Just please remember how I told you Jacob fought
with God?
Speaker 1 (57:23):
Yes, right, he touched them, Yes.
Speaker 2 (57:25):
But what also did God do to Jacob when he
when he touched them?
Speaker 1 (57:29):
He gave him an what do you call that word?
Speaker 2 (57:35):
Like?
Speaker 1 (57:35):
Uh, what's the word I'm looking for? It's an not
an impurity? I can't think of the word.
Speaker 2 (57:45):
He changed his name.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
Oh, right along, so you changed your name.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
So my first name is Now here's the connecting here's
a connecting fact. Who was Samuel?
Speaker 1 (58:09):
I don't know who was Samuel?
Speaker 2 (58:10):
Samuel was a prophet. Samuel was the one that anointed
Saw then he anointed David. Oh, my first name is Samuel.
Speaker 1 (58:21):
So where we get Mars?
Speaker 2 (58:23):
When I came, when I was brought from New York
to come down here. I started out doing spoken words.
I asked God, I said, God, what am I supposed
to do? How am I supposed to be to these people?
He said, Now you can change your name to Mars Bishop.
Mars Bishop was the name that was given to me
by an old manager when I was rapping. Interesting, so
nobody ever heard Mars Bishop, but you get to hear
(58:46):
Mars Bishop now. So what I actually do is my
love was for a rapping and what I do when
I tell the audiences. I dropped one of the hardest
freestyles on you.
Speaker 1 (58:54):
You can do one right now.
Speaker 2 (58:57):
No, I just didn't. I just did it. How you
gave you a whole freestyle session?
Speaker 1 (59:06):
Eighteen bars, twenty four bars.
Speaker 2 (59:09):
Thirty sixteen thirty two.
Speaker 1 (59:11):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (59:12):
So my first name is Samuel, so actually my prophet,
So when it comes to same, I'm a messenger. That's
where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (59:18):
No, you see right, Yeah, you're a seer basically, Oh
my gosh. Wow right, well Mars.
Speaker 2 (59:27):
Yes, this is great. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (59:29):
So does anybody call you Sam or Samuel?
Speaker 2 (59:31):
That's why I don't because of that right there. My
father's name is sam and I because I have the
relationship I have with him, I refuse.
Speaker 1 (59:38):
Yeah, that you have it extracted yourself.
Speaker 2 (59:41):
Basically, Wow, you've never seen anybody in the Bible called
Samuel Sam. Hey, Sam, come over here and go annoyt
David going annoyt Sal You've never seen that, right, But
we live in a society where everybody wants to kind
of shorten stuff. Don't call me Sam. That's the biggest
way to piss me off, really real. That's why I
(01:00:01):
just removed myself from it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
That's interesting. You are interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
I'm going to have you back for the visual podcast.
But this was great. I want to thank you so
much for coming on telling your story. And I'm just
going to keep watching because you're going to keep amazing me.
I'm sure in the rest of the world. Yes, and
I'm going to say on this podcast, I want you
to live past sixty five.
Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Okay, from your mouth to God's ears. Yes, I accept that.
I embrace it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Okay, good, Thank you so much for coming on. All right, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Peace later.
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