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Season 1 Recap 3 - New Episodes Drop May 6th!
20 Plays1 year ago
Season 1 Recap 3 of Vulnerability Muscle - New Episodes Drop May 6th!
Welcome to "Vulnerability Muscle with Reggie D. Ford," the empowering podcast that challenges societal norms and invites you to explore the transformative power of vulnerability. Hosted by bestselling author and motivational speaker Reggie D. Ford, this show is your guide to finding strength, connection, and personal growth through embracing vulnerability. In a world that often portrays vulnerability as a sign of weakness, Reggie D. Ford believes it is a source of tremendous strength and authenticity. Through insightful conversations and thought-provoking interviews, "Vulnerability Muscle" aims to redefine vulnerability and help listeners develop a new perspective on their own lives. Reggie D. Ford, renowned for his bestselling book "Perseverance Through Severe Dysfunction" and his captivating motivational speeches, brings his unique expertise and personal experiences to the forefront. With a deep understanding of the impacts of trauma, the importance of mental health, and the power of vulnerability, Reggie inspires and empowers his audience to embrace their own vulnerabilities as catalysts for growth and change. Each episode of "Vulnerability Muscle" delves into a variety of topics, such as mental health, social issues, and mindset shifts. Reggie and his guests explore the power of vulnerability in healing, building resilience, and fostering meaningful connections. They provide practical tools and strategies to navigate life's challenges, overcome adversity, and create more inclusive and just environments for all people. Whether you're seeking personal growth, struggling with your mental health, or looking to create a positive impact in the world, this podcast offers a safe space for deep exploration and transformation. Reggie's compassionate and engaging style invites you to step out of your comfort zone and embrace vulnerability as a path to personal empowerment. Join Reggie D. Ford and his inspiring guests on "Vulnerability Muscle" as they illuminate the path toward self-discovery, authenticity, and true strength. Prepare to be inspired, uplifted, and equipped with the tools to unlock your full potential through the power of vulnerability.
📲 Connect with Reggie IG - https://instagram.com/reggiedford FB - https://facebook.com/reggiedford LI - https://linkedin.com/in/reggiedford X - https://twitter.com/reggiedford YT - https://youtube.com/@reggiedfordWebsite - https://reggiedford.com Book - https://amzn.to/487OqJD Podcast - https://reggiedford.com/vulnerabilitymuscle Podcast’s IG - https://instagram.com/vulnerabilitymuscle Podcast’s FB - https://www.facebook.com/vulnerabilitymuscle
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Transcript
New Season Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
What's up Vulnerability Muscle fam? Just wanted you to know that new episodes of Vulnerability Muscle are gonna drop May 6th. That's Monday, May 6th.
Reflecting on Season One
00:00:09
Speaker
The next season of Vulnerability Muscle will drop, so mark your calendars. But in the meantime, I hope you enjoy some of these clips from season one.
Practicing Vulnerability
00:00:18
Speaker
Please like, subscribe, share these episodes with everybody that you know so that they can get a taste of Vulnerability Muscle. In the meantime, keep flexing that Vulnerability
Appreciation and Personal Stories
00:00:29
Speaker
Muscle.
00:00:29
Speaker
And so, man, I just, from black man to black man, man, I just appreciate what you do and how you do it. And man, I just champion you, man. You know, I'm here for you. Whatever you need, I'm here for you, man. Bro, that's like, you literally stole the words right out of my mouth because I was about to do the exact same thing. Look, I was about to hand you your flowers right there too. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta plug that real quick too. If you don't have it.
00:00:57
Speaker
But tell me so 15 is the name of the show And what does that represent for you? And what was the significance around naming it 15? Yeah, it was a
00:01:10
Speaker
It was about a 15 year prison sentence.
Art as Healing
00:01:12
Speaker
So in 2008, I was arrested on a drug possession charge that carried a 15 year sentence. And so I did three and a half of those years and had to do the rest on parole. And in April got off parole and decided to yeah, it was definitely.
00:01:31
Speaker
Man, it's quite a journey. But in getting off, I decided to mark that time with an exhibit because that's been the most influential and healing thing in my life has been art making. Vic knows, bro.
Lessons in Unconditional Love
00:01:50
Speaker
I would say once I got in a relationship with
00:01:57
Speaker
my wife, I didn't realize how much love I wasn't getting from my house. And it made me so fucking angry, right? It made me so angry because when I was with my wife, she had unconditional love for me, right? There's certain things that like,
00:02:22
Speaker
that I would do and I'm expecting a completely different, I'm expecting what I'll get at home, whatever.
00:02:30
Speaker
like anger, just reactionary shit. And it was the complete opposite with my wife. It was complete grace. What's the difference between how your father raised you and how Gabriel raised you and how you gave him a raise? Basically, I'm doing the complete opposite. I'm making sure that that boy wakes up every day, tells himself, I'm confident, I'm smart, I'm kind.
00:02:59
Speaker
Because when you don't have that, you're broken.
Representation in Mental Health and Sports
00:03:04
Speaker
The mental health space, it's a person who doesn't look like us. And that's great. And it's, you know, well-intentioned, but it's still, if you're trying to break down vulnerabilities and break down insecurities, especially as they relate to your identity, you need somebody who's going to be able to, you know, be on that level playing field.
00:03:23
Speaker
And if I can add this, it's like our company relates to athletes. We really focus in on trying to reach those students who are the racial majority on the team, but they are the minority on the campus. And I think it's important that people invest in multifamily property because that's when you're young because you can have, heck, save your money.
Young Investment Strategies
00:03:45
Speaker
And then, you know, when, when you get a little older or, or, or whenever you can move home. But I like, I like, I like multi-family invest. That's something I'm big into. I go into juvenile and I speak to children about young men and women about, you know, what, what you think is going to determine your outcome. I tell people all the time, the city we make, why are you young is going to be the outcome when you get older.
00:04:12
Speaker
And you know, at the time you think you just living and just going by day-to-day life, but the decisions you make will affect you as you get older. Once I was able to, and it's still a struggle for engine,
Overcoming Shame to Help Others
00:04:28
Speaker
man. It's still a struggle because as I said earlier, I just want to be a daddy, bro. It hurts me, but
00:04:36
Speaker
You know, once I was able to really, really drop that shame and embarrassment, man, I'm able to do what I'm doing now because it's another man that is probably gonna hear this through the exact same thing I went through and it's going through the exact same thing. And above all this, that's the biggest hurdle is the shame and embarrassment. If I'm being honest, knowing that you did what you did, but holding yourself accountable,
00:05:01
Speaker
to how you brought variables in the situation that have made it what it is. And then how are you going to change it?
Vulnerability and Self-Discovery
00:05:10
Speaker
So much, man. That was to be able to see the light that was within myself. But to be able to see that light, sometimes you have to be OK going through that darkness. Yes. For me, vulnerability has really been my way of, I guess, just like the scripture says, you know, walking through the valley of the shadow of death, but not fearing any evil.
00:05:27
Speaker
I think the reality for me is that I feared it for so long that at one point you have to just make that decision in your head to say, you know what? If I'm going to stay here, there's no reason being scared. I got to keep going through. There's no reason. I think Steve Harvey said it best. If you're in hell, why stop? Keep going. You're already in hell.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah. And so, voteability has made me to say, Eric, this is who you are as a person. Let's keep shedding all that numbness. Let's keep shedding all that shielding. Let's keep shielding all that extra flesh and stuff, those calluses that you put on yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually, and let them go so that you can actually be open to the reality of life and what it has to offer for you. And so, that's what I think the power of voteability has done for me. The imposter syndrome set in, you know, and me feeling like
00:06:12
Speaker
I've known people who've been doing music for 10 years, and I've touched stages that they haven't in my first year.
Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
00:06:19
Speaker
And am I worthy of that? You know what I'm saying? Am I supposed to be in this position? Was that a flute? You know what I mean? So you know what they say, that sophomore slump. You know what I mean? And that kind of just, like I said, the loss of the job came
00:06:32
Speaker
It was a company issue, but it was also in me not, like I said, I went from being here to there. So I was a low man on the totem pole in so many ways. And that really put a halt to all of my plans that I'd had for my first. I was ready to follow up and I was ready to hit a home run. And once that happened, I went to being a full-time entrepreneur in music.
00:06:57
Speaker
you know, something that I'm still so unsure of. I should be able to expect what I give in return, you
Emotional Reciprocity in Relationships
00:07:05
Speaker
know? And the interesting thing about that, particularly around faith and around sports, it's been so ingrained in me that you just give, give, give, and you don't worry about getting in return because God is gonna be the rewarder. And while that's true,
00:07:28
Speaker
In relationship, you're supposed to get back what you get. Yes. Reciprocity, man. Huge. Right? Reciprocity is so, so important. Giving myself the permission to expect to be treated well. To expect to be loved. To expect grace. To expect forgiveness.
Spiritual Relationship Beyond Religion
00:07:50
Speaker
Whenever you give humans a very powerful thing like religion, they will always use it to divide and try to conquer with it, right? So for me, it was like, I started to look at it from the sense of just because somebody misuses something doesn't necessarily mean that's
00:08:07
Speaker
it's inherently evil or you can't be used productively. So for me, I started to foster more of like a relationship with God, but also not from the lens of like, I'm right, I'm wrong, you're wrong, you're going to hell. It's like, man, look, this works for me. This is what gives me agency to be the best person I could be. This is what gives me agency to create the most community and most love and operate in the world that
00:08:29
Speaker
at the best of my capacity, whatever works for you. I want to hear more about it. And I want to see how that works for you. And let's have beautiful conversations about that. Let's create space for each other.
Addressing Systemic Issues for Minorities
00:08:40
Speaker
What are some productive solutions that we can do to address those from a system level? From a system level. So from a system level, I would say that we need to first recognize the ways in which all of the different systems are
00:08:58
Speaker
impacting different groups of people disproportionately. You would see how the education system and the lack to teach black history is causing us to not really understand ourselves and we're essentially accepting whatever the media tells us about ourselves because that's what's most prominent in our experiences. When it's talking about healthcare, we got to talk about the ways in which our healthcare system is keeping us from having access to it. Not only that, when we do have access to it, we got to talk about the ways in which
00:09:28
Speaker
For example, mental health system, we're being restrained and violence is being enacted on us when we're going to seek care. We've got to talk about the ways in which the family policing system, they're using social workers to break up black families when the real issue of neglect is about not having the economics to provide for their families, right? So instead of seeing people as
00:09:52
Speaker
they're deficient, we got to see people and humanize them in ways that we're like, what are the resources that they need? What resources would my family need in order to secure safe and healthy environment for them and a future for them?
Finding Personal Greatness
00:10:06
Speaker
So in those ways, if we analyze each system and the ways that it's, you know, waging violence against black bodies, the ways that, you know, even
00:10:16
Speaker
our names can affect whether or not we get employment, right? Unless we act on the fact that there are black women getting sued right now for the fearless fund, right? A fund that's trying to give black women grants, but they think that's racist and against the Civil Rights Act. And, you know, there's like less than 1% of VCs who are focusing on black women.
00:10:44
Speaker
So it's right. We have to understand that there is these systems that exist that are enacting violence and they don't want us to be great. And that's what's in us, right? Our destiny is greatness. We come from greatness. We got to learn our history, right? Because if the system won't do it, we got to realize that like, hey,
00:11:03
Speaker
I come from greatness and I have the ability to exude this greatness. I just got to not let myself get brainwashed by society, by other people. And I really got to figure out what my passion is and be in line with it as you started in the conversation this morning. Self love.
00:11:23
Speaker
Because to me, when you have self-love, you drop the shame that comes with whatever it is that you're afraid to be vulnerable about, right? And so to me, the opposite of vulnerability is not strength.
Vulnerability, Self-Acceptance, and Love
00:11:41
Speaker
Like it's not like you're either strong or vulnerable. No, it's to me, it's you're either vulnerable or you're shameful.
00:11:47
Speaker
And so shame comes from a lot of negative self-image. And how do I look at myself? How do I view myself? What do I feel about me? And why is it bad? Why is it negative? Why does it have that connotation? Whereas vulnerability, if I'm able to be vulnerable about it, if I'm able to own up to my story, my life, my
00:12:08
Speaker
my struggles, my goods, my bads, then that is a level of self-acceptance and self-acceptance is a step towards self-love. What's up Vulnerability Muscle fam?
Season One Recap and Engagement
00:12:18
Speaker
I hope you enjoy season one of Vulnerability Muscle. If you haven't already done so, check out all 12 episodes of Vulnerability Muscle season one and tell me who is your favorite guest? What is your favorite quote? Let me know, send a message, send a DM, send something so that I know what you resonate with.
00:12:37
Speaker
Be looking forward to season two of Vulnerability Muscle that is set to drop on May 6th. That's Monday, May 6th. Episodes start at 2 a.m. Central time. That's U.S. Central. Monday, May 6th mark your calendars. But in the meantime, every Monday this month of April, we will be having clips from our favorite episodes of Vulnerability Muscle season one. So if you haven't already checked out the full episodes, go check those out. But you're all caught up for season two.
00:13:06
Speaker
Thank you for joining another episode of Vulnerability Muscle. I hope that the stories and the insights shared really resonated with you.
Call to Action for Engagement
00:13:14
Speaker
And if you want to help podcast, you can do a few things. First, hit the subscribe button. If you've been moved by the conversations of redefining vulnerability, please consider leaving a review.
00:13:26
Speaker
Share your thoughts on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're tuning in from. And don't forget to spread the word. Follow us at Vulnerability Muscle, where you can keep up with me personally at Reggie D. Ford for additional resources. And remember, embracing vulnerability is a strength. Thank you for being a part of the journey. And until next time, stay empowered, stay vulnerable, and keep flexing that vulnerability muscle. I'll see y'all May 6th.