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Ep. 0011 | When Clarity Costs You Something
0 Playsin 4 hours
🗓️ Released on the 5-year remembrance of Zena’s father’s passing
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What if the truth you’ve been waiting for… asks for something in return?
What if clarity doesn’t just set you free—but sets you apart?
In this episode, Zena C. reflects on the hard-earned wisdom passed down by her father, through one of his favorite poems and the life he lived with deep conviction.
This is more than a message—it’s a memorial.
A tribute to legacy. A meditation on loyalty.
And a reminder that sometimes, the most powerful shift begins not with a plan… but with a whisper.
💜 Released in honor of Dr. Thomas E. H. Conway, Jr (1949–2020)
🍋 Laid Off Lemonade available at LaidOffLemonade.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Theme
00:00:08
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This is The Greatness Router, where we connect purpose to process one conversation a time.
00:00:24
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Before we begin, i want to share something that was created with moments like this in mind. Laid Off Lemonade is not just a book. It's a breath for those learning to trust life after disappointment.
00:00:38
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It's a soft place to land when the path ahead feels unclear, but something in you still wants to believe there's more. Whether you've lost something recently, walked away from something, or just feel the weight of not knowing what's next, this was made for you.
00:00:56
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You
Reflecting on 'If' by Rudyard Kipling
00:00:57
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can find Laid Off Lemonade on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or directly at laidofflemonade.com.
00:01:05
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If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too.
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If you can wait and not be tired by waiting or being lied about, don't deal in lies or being hated. Don't give way to hating and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise.
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If you can dream and not make dreams your master, if you can think and not make thoughts your aim, if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same,
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if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools or watch the things you gave your life to broken and and build them up with worn out tools.
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If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss and lose and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss.
00:02:36
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If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are gone. And so hold on when there is nothing in you except the will which says to them, hold on.
00:02:55
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If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue. or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much, if you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run,
00:03:20
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Yours is the earth and everything that's in it. And which is more, you'll be a man, my son.
Impact of 'If' Across Generations
00:03:31
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That was If by Rudyard Kipling.
00:03:35
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A poem passed through three generations of my family, not by accident, but by design. My father recited it to my firstborn, line by line, word by word, again and again, until the rhyme of it became a lullaby, creed, a cre ah kind of quiet armor.
00:04:03
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He never made it a lesson. He never called it a rule book. But the way he spoke it and the way he lived it, I understood what he was handing us.
00:04:20
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Clarity, character, composure, even when it costs you.
00:04:29
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So let's talk
Challenges and Stages of Clarity
00:04:30
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about it. What does it mean to choose clarity when that clarity might demand something from you?
00:04:42
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What does it mean to stand in your knowing even when it shakes the ground beneath you?
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What does it look like to live through the questions this poem quietly raises?
00:05:07
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This isn't just a poem about manhood. It's a poem about becoming. About what you build within yourself.
00:05:19
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When the world around you feels uncertain, unstable, or unfair. It's a mirror and a measuring stick, but it's also a map.
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The kind passed down with hope, with love and with warning.
00:05:41
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Today, i want to hold space for that clarity for the moments where it costs something. Because if you've lived long enough, you know that clarity is not always a comfort.
00:06:00
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Sometimes it's a cutting away, a letting go, ah walking out into the unknown. And maybe, just maybe, it's the beginning of something much, much better.
00:06:19
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When clarity costs you something, let's get into three ways to really reflect on this concept.
00:06:30
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The first I would like to touch on is the quiet knowing. You know it. There are moments when everything around you says stay, but something within you starts whispering,
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go
00:06:47
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It's not loud. It's not dramatic. It doesn't come with lightning bolts or announcements. Just a subtle nudge or a tap on the shoulder of your spirit.
00:07:01
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A low hum that says, this isn't it anymore.
00:07:08
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And maybe you ignore it for a while anyway. Because on the outside, it looks fine. Maybe even successful. But the whispers, those keep coming.
00:07:22
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That's the quiet knowing. It's often the first sign that clarity is approaching, even if it hasn't introduced itself yet.
00:07:33
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So my next one is the costly call.
00:07:39
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Then comes the moment when knowing just isn't enough. Because clarity asks for action. And that's where the price tag goes up.
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Sometimes it's a relationship you outgrew, a job that no longer honors you, version of yourself that kept you safe, but small.
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The costly call is the decision point. To stay or to shift. To pretend or to pivot.
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And it always comes with cost. That could be maybe your comfort. Maybe your certainty. Maybe how people see you.
00:08:32
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But clarity doesn't barter. It calls you out and through.
00:08:40
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And then we have the third angle or perspective. I like to call this the legacy build.
00:08:49
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And if you choose to honor that call, the costly one, if you walk through the discomfort, you find yourself in new terrain. It's raw, it's tender, but it's also full of possibility.
00:09:09
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This is where clarity begins to create, where new roots take hold, where your story starts to evolve Not in spite of the cost, but because of it.
00:09:25
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The legacy build is what you do with the clarity. It's how you turn what you've lived through into something life-giving. That could be for yourself, for others, maybe even for the next generation.
Personal Stories of Clarity and Change
00:09:44
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So maybe you felt one or maybe you felt all three. Maybe you're hearing the whispers now, or maybe you're even facing the cost or maybe just maybe you're standing at the edge of a brand new build.
00:10:10
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I've lived each one. And I can tell you how. So maybe you felt one of them. The whisper, the cost, the rebuild.
00:10:25
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I have too. My clarity came cloaked in admiration. Watching my father, he was a man of conviction, y'all.
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Brilliant, straight strategic, anchored, and I mean anchored in grace. A living embodiment of the poem, If.
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He poured his entire being into his work. His career was his calling. And I believed in it. mainly because I believed in him and I believed in him so deeply that I followed that path that he modeled.
00:11:07
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We're talking head down, work hard, be loyal, show up, stay late, be excellent. I thought if I do all of that, I'll be protected, respected, rewarded.
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And for a while I was. And for a while he was until he wasn't. See, my father reached what we thought was his dream role.
00:11:42
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And then politics stripped it away. It wasn't his performance. There was no scandal. We're talking just systems, just the cold hand of the industry shifting gears.
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But watching that happen didn't just break my heart.
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It broke something in my understanding of success.
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I realized no matter how hard you work, how loyal you are, how aligned your values are with your company's mission, none of that guarantees protection.
00:12:29
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That was the moment clarity came calling for me. And y'all, it was expensive.
00:12:39
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Because i had to walk away too. So I made the move. I laid myself off.
00:12:50
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Yeah, y'all heard that right. I laid myself off. No blueprint, no backup plan, no applause. I didn't have a roadmap or a title waiting for me on the other side.
00:13:04
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I honestly didn't even have a clear answer for the people who asked me, so what's next?
Birth of 'Laid Off Lemonade'
00:13:13
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But I knew what i what what wasn't. I knew what wasn't and that had to be enough.
00:13:20
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And what I found on the other side wasn't certainty. It was actually rubble. But slowly, slowly, I started to realize that rubble is where new foundations are born.
00:13:37
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And from that came laid off lemonade. Not just a book, but a breath. Something i could place in the hands of anyone who's had to walk away from something they once believed in.
00:13:54
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ah soft landing, ah survival kit, a reflection, ah rebuild. Because clarity might take something from you, but it also leaves space to create what you actually need.
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So I'll ask you the same thing I had to ask myself. Where is clarity whispering to you right now?
00:14:28
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And more importantly, what would it mean to actually listen?
00:14:36
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Mm-hmm. Now, I'm not saying it's easy. It's not. And I'm not saying it's cheap. Again, it's not. But clarity is never a loss.
00:14:49
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It's an invitation.
00:14:53
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If this conversation stirred something in you, if you're standing in the rubble or sensing a shift or just trying to name the fog, I wrote something that might help.
Invitation to Growth and Closing Remarks
00:15:05
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Laid Off Lemonade isn't just my story. It's a breath, a rebuild, a gentle guide for anyone figuring out what comes next when the old version no longer fits.
00:15:17
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You can find it at laidofflemonade.com or wherever books are sold. Until next time, honor the whisper, trust the shift, and keep routing yourself back to your greatness.
00:15:33
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Peace, love, light. It's me, Zena C. And I hope you have a beautiful, beautiful day.
00:15:43
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And that's a wrap on this episode of The Greatness Router. If you found some value in today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, rate, and definitely share. It helps more people connect to the journey of greatness.
00:15:56
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Until next time, keep moving with purpose.