Transcript
Speaker: Back again, Bigger Talks, IG Live, another episode, and I can't wait for you guys to hear this discussion with J.R.
Speaker: Martinez.
Speaker: He's a motivational speaker, actor, author, and also the podcast host of Rebirth.
Speaker: We're going to talk about life, success, adversity, trials and tribulations, and everything that created this
Speaker: his name, his story, and his legacy.
Speaker: He has a great quote that I love.
Speaker: He says, scars are tattoos that tell a story.
Speaker: So we're gonna get him in here.
Speaker: You guys, if you have any questions, comment below.
Speaker: Brace yourself, this guy's incredible.
Speaker: He's amazing.
Speaker: And we're gonna get into it.
Speaker: Bigger Talks, back at it.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: Oh, there he is.
Speaker: Yo.
Speaker: What's up, brother?
Speaker: When you said 3.30, I was like, I got to be ready.
Speaker: Because the most awkward thing when you do IG lives is the host is like, all right, everyone.
Speaker: Hold on one second.
Speaker: Hold on one second, everyone.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then you see, and then you see, like, you go down to your phone and you're, like, looking, you're, like, texting a person or whatever.
Speaker: It's all love, man.
Speaker: We authentic here on Bigger Talks.
Speaker: We all about authenticity.
Speaker: Right on time.
Speaker: What's up, my guy?
Speaker: Man, living, man.
Speaker: Living the dream and creating a new reality, you know?
Speaker: Happy to be here.
Speaker: Yo, man, the one thing that still resonates from our conversation when you were on my podcast is you said we heal what we reveal.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Dude, I'm telling you, like, I think about that all the time.
Speaker: Like, all the time, I just think about, all right, I'm healing what I'm revealing, baby.
Speaker: I'm healing what I'm revealing, baby.
Speaker: And I just think that there's so much more that I need to reveal, that there's so much more that needs to be healed.
Speaker: I was even talking to my wife earlier today.
Speaker: And we were talking about, you know, things that trigger us.
Speaker: And I said to her, I was like, you know, I know something that I got to work on is I got to work on.
Speaker: Oh, what's up, Texas?
Speaker: Texas is the hell out of here.
Speaker: And I was like, I need to work on the power of being able to say no.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you and I, we went really deep about your history and Baltimore and everything.
Speaker: But for me,
Speaker: Man, like it's hard for me to say no to people because it goes back to my childhood.
Speaker: It goes back to like my mother.
Speaker: It goes back to, you know, like I never wanted to disappoint my mom.
Speaker: I never wanted to say no to my mom.
Speaker: And so now I live with this this pattern of behavior that I have to sort of break and put boundaries up with because I burn myself out, man.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, listen, I have a dose of that as well, and I've learned to kind of overcome that.
Speaker: And I'm still there a little bit, but I fixed it.
Speaker: But let's get right into it, man, because you have an amazing story.
Speaker: And last, before we get into, like, the real story, let's take it to the beginning, when you were young.
Speaker: I was on your website, and you said you had a sister that passed away, and you didn't get to meet her.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: I don't know how old you were when you found that information.
Speaker: How did that shape your journey?
Speaker: How that was that a scar that became a tattoo that became your story?
Speaker: Can we talk about that?
Speaker: Let's let's let's unpack that, man.
Speaker: Listen, there is this gets pretty this is pretty heavy and deep.
Speaker: So I ask your followers to just kind of be patient.
Speaker: So my mother is from Central America, El Salvador.
Speaker: My mother migrated here, had two kids, left my sisters with my grandmother.
Speaker: And my mother's motivation to come to the United States was honestly to make enough money to buy a wheelchair for the sister that eventually passed away.
Speaker: That was it.
Speaker: A wheelchair and some medication.
Speaker: That was her motivation, right?
Speaker: So she comes to the US.
Speaker: She ends up meeting my father, ends up having me.
Speaker: I throw a wrench into the plans.
Speaker: And then my dad dips at nine months old.
Speaker: Nine months?
Speaker: Nine months.
Speaker: He's like, I'm out.
Speaker: Like, I look at my son.
Speaker: I have an eight-month-old son right now, right?
Speaker: And I have two kids.
Speaker: I have a nine-year-old daughter and an eight-month-old son.
Speaker: I look at my son at eight months old, and I'm like, how in one month, how could I ever leave you in one month?
Speaker: And so he dips, right?
Speaker: So it's just my mother and I, and I remember when I was three years old, walking into the room and seeing my mother on the edge of the bed with the phone up to her ear and she was crying.
Speaker: And my mother told me, you remember that sister I told you about that you have?
Speaker: And I was like, yeah.
Speaker: And I remember her telling me at like four years old, like a little bit older.
Speaker: And she's like, she passed away.
Speaker: And I'm not four years old, three years old.
Speaker: And she told me she passed away.
Speaker: I vividly remember this man.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: You know, I'm three years old.
Speaker: I'm just kind of like, all right, just kept it moving, right?
Speaker: Like just, I mean, I remember being on the phone calling my sisters in El Salvador, my grandmother, my aunts, my uncles.
Speaker: And my mother would be like, that's your uncle.
Speaker: That's your sister.
Speaker: Say hi.
Speaker: You know, I'm a kid.
Speaker: And he's just like, all right, put the phone down and take off and run and go play.
Speaker: It made me feel like
Speaker: So when I went to El Salvador for the first time when I was six, at six years old, I went, it was a new culture.
Speaker: It was a new, you know, sort of experience for me.
Speaker: I went again when I was nine.
Speaker: This time when I went, when I was nine, my mother took me to my sister's grave site.
Speaker: I'm standing there, Eric, I'm standing there like looking down and crying, man.
Speaker: crying.
Speaker: I mean, emotional.
Speaker: It didn't make any sense to me.
Speaker: It didn't make any sense to my mother, to my family.
Speaker: Why are you crying so much?
Speaker: You've never met her.
Speaker: I left, came home, didn't even think about it, just moved on with life.
Speaker: Fast forward, my guy.
Speaker: I'm 19 years old.
Speaker: I'm in a Humvee, burning alive, fighting for my life.
Speaker: And literally in the midst of all this noise, I get an image of my sister, the one that passed away.
Speaker: She literally appeared to me and spoke to me and told me I was going to be okay.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: That's a bigger talks moment.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: So immediately after that went away, after sort of like, I don't even want to use, like I don't know how you explain this.
Speaker: Like as soon as her image went away, I was immediately pulled out of the Humvee and I started the medevac process.
Speaker: Now I was in a coma for three weeks.
Speaker: When I came out of my coma, I told my mom that experience.
Speaker: And of course, as you can imagine, you know, for, you know, to all the parents that have lost, you know, children, you know, sending you so much love, because I know that's one of the most difficult things to experience.
Speaker: And my mother was emotional.
Speaker: And she said, she said, I think she's your guardian angel.
Speaker: And
Speaker: That was one of the first moments in my adult life where I started to understand that in certain phases of life, things don't make sense.
Speaker: But if you're patient enough, if you stick with it long enough, the answer eventually shows itself.
Speaker: And that is one of those experiences, man, that just till this day, her name is Annabelle.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Annabelle.
Speaker: Yeah, our oldest.
Speaker: Annabelle, thank you.
Speaker: Yeah, and we sort of honored her by our daughter has her middle name is Annabelle and and she there have been so many monumental things that have happened over the course of the last 15 years that have happened huge milestones that have happened on or around like her birthday in September.
Speaker: And so to me, man, I pay attention to energy and there's no such things as coincidences in my opinion.
Speaker: I pay attention to all of these things that are happening in the universe.
Speaker: And I believe that there are signs and they're guiding me and they're allowing me to understand that I'm on the right path and that I'm not alone.
Speaker: And my sister, Annabelle, I truly believe is with me even till this day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, you know, this, this podcast, we decided to do it three 30, you know,
Speaker: was three times three.
Speaker: You said at the age of nine,
Speaker: you went to go see her grave site.
Speaker: You said at 19, that's another nine, right?
Speaker: So when you said, when you went to go see her grave site at nine, I channeled some images, some visuals.
Speaker: It was like a movie, JR. And it felt like in that moment when you was crying, it was like she was talking to you and it's like, I need you to go live out this mission.
Speaker: And it's like, she put the energy on you and it like, it compelled you.
Speaker: And that's why it was like, it was more like,
Speaker: Like, Annabelle, I got you.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: It's like that patience, right?
Speaker: I got you.
Speaker: And she knew in that moment when you was crying, she knew you had her.
Speaker: So when the thing happened in the Humvee at 19, when you were, she said, I got you too.
Speaker: And then from there,
Speaker: Y'all had each other and y'all just been holding hands on a way in your phenomenal journey.
Speaker: Before we get into that, like, so after that, so let's say nine years old, boom, you had that experience with your mother, you're crying, tears are pouring, you're feeling all these emotions that don't make sense in the moment.
Speaker: From that point on, that's a turning point to me, if I'm reading a book or a story of someone's life.
Speaker: What was your life like?
Speaker: Was you into sports?
Speaker: Were you into acting?
Speaker: Were you a dancer?
Speaker: Comedian?
Speaker: Like, what kept your focus?
Speaker: What kept you busy?
Speaker: Like, what was your life from that point on?
Speaker: So I was born in Louisiana, and I lived there for the first nine years of my life.
Speaker: Now, the first nine years of my life were filled with a lot of adversity, a lot of challenges.
Speaker: Back of that nine again.
Speaker: Back of that nine.
Speaker: You can relate to this.
Speaker: Since my father dipped at nine months old, and then here I am now, my mother's getting into relationships and she becomes a victim of domestic abuse.
Speaker: And there's a lot of violence in the house.
Speaker: There's a lot of violence in the community.
Speaker: If it wasn't happening in my house, it was happening to my neighbor.
Speaker: And that's what I witnessed.
Speaker: And at the age of nine, my mom said to me, we're going to move.
Speaker: And we moved to Arkansas, to a town called Hope.
Speaker: And at that time, I think I was like, yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: So there –
Speaker: Yeah, I know, dude, you got to pay attention to all these things.
Speaker: What was challenging was when I moved there, you know, any kid when they moved to a new area, you know, it's not always like peaches and cream, right?
Speaker: Like it was difficult for me.
Speaker: And I was one of the first Hispanic kids on site.
Speaker: There was predominantly white and black kids.
Speaker: I wasn't cool enough to kick it with the white kids.
Speaker: I wasn't cool enough to kick it with the black kids.
Speaker: You know, I just found myself as an outsider.
Speaker: And then there were more Hispanic kids that started to show up and I thought, okay, cool.
Speaker: That's, I guess that's my people, right?
Speaker: We, we stick together and that's my click.
Speaker: And no, I was never cool enough to kick it with them either because most of them spoke Spanish differently than I did.
Speaker: You know, maybe were born in a different part of the world than I was, um, had a different experience.
Speaker: And so I was never cool enough to kick it with either one of these groups.
Speaker: And it was challenging.
Speaker: I got into sports.
Speaker: I love football.
Speaker: I love playing basketball.
Speaker: And honestly, as far as like from a comedic standpoint, I never necessarily had this determination, this idea that I wanted to be a comedian.
Speaker: But I think life forced me to almost become that because that was my way of coping with a lot of the feelings and the frustrations that I was experiencing as a young kid.
Speaker: And I can tell you that at 16 years old, man,
Speaker: I told my mother one day, I said, sometimes I think about getting into a car accident just because I want to see how many people would actually show up at the hospital.
Speaker: I wanna find out how many people actually care about me.
Speaker: Now here's the crazy thing, man, and I know I can do this with you.
Speaker: I believe in the power of manifestation.
Speaker: I believe in what you put out into the world, what you tell yourself, it'll happen.
Speaker: So at 16, I'm sitting here saying these words, right?
Speaker: My mother, of course, didn't have the tools to help me.
Speaker: So she just, you know, give me a hug, show me some love, let's go eat something.
Speaker: And then that's supposed to deal with it, right?
Speaker: That was the extent of talking about it.
Speaker: And three years later, I'm in that Humvee, I get into a car accident.
Speaker: Three years later, I find out how many people actually care about me.
Speaker: So by the time I was a junior in high school, we moved to Georgia.
Speaker: Now that's a whole other story.
Speaker: I sort of orchestrated that move as a young 17 year old, but my mom trusted me and we moved to Georgia to a small town called Dalton.
Speaker: And dude, I can tell you that immediately once I got into this community,
Speaker: I was embraced.
Speaker: I was shown love like there were white, black, Asian kids, Hispanic kids.
Speaker: Everybody just showed me mad love and there was no division.
Speaker: And I just felt a sense of community.
Speaker: And that literally changed my whole demeanor and it allowed me to be
Speaker: What I think people know of me now, this big personality, Joe's here, fun energy.
Speaker: Accepted, validated, the guy.
Speaker: I'm him.
Speaker: What's up, George?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm telling you.
Speaker: And this is important for people to understand.
Speaker: At nine years old, when I moved to Arkansas and it was difficult to adapt to the environment, the biggest thing that I had to focus on is what I could control.
Speaker: I couldn't control the kids messing with me.
Speaker: I had a big target on my back.
Speaker: Some kids would literally jump me just for no reason because I was the lone wolf.
Speaker: You know, I couldn't focus on that.
Speaker: I could focus on how I showed up every single day, and that's what I did.
Speaker: By the time I moved to Georgia, I knew how to adapt.
Speaker: It was like just second nature.
Speaker: I didn't wait for other people to potentially create a target on my back.
Speaker: I immediately got into Georgia.
Speaker: I'm like, I'm here.
Speaker: I'm going to focus on what I can control.
Speaker: I'm going to be me.
Speaker: And that has been a lesson that I've carried with me over the course of the last 20 years of my life because I've realized that I can find myself in these uncomfortable positions, in these uncomfortable places.
Speaker: But it's all up to me how I show up and how I adapt to it.
Speaker: And that's essentially what I've been doing and I've been implementing my entire life, man.
Speaker: But I just, listen, man, I love sports.
Speaker: I love, you know, clowning.
Speaker: I love having a good time.
Speaker: I love laughing.
Speaker: I was a little bit of a dancer because when you're raised by a single woman, you ain't got no choice but to be her dance partner.
Speaker: So I was her dance partner.
Speaker: And that was essentially me in a nutshell outside of the challenges and adversities that I experienced.
Speaker: Yeah, so you turned your fun side, you know, your comical side to deal with your pain.
Speaker: You have a quote that I love.
Speaker: You said a person path in life will be decided by their ability to adapt and overcome.
Speaker: And I know, you know, in life, it's not about the smartest.
Speaker: It's not about the strongest.
Speaker: It's about the person who's
Speaker: the most adaptable.
Speaker: Yeah, we all have to adapt to get where we want to go.
Speaker: Things are not always go our way.
Speaker: Things definitely didn't go your way.
Speaker: And you took that, you had to adapt, right?
Speaker: Sometimes when you're pushed in a corner and you have no way out, you find a way out.
Speaker: So sometimes that resistance, those challenges, right?
Speaker: That circumstance, adversity,
Speaker: It's how you create pressure for yourself to become more than what you know you can be because you don't have no choice.
Speaker: So go ahead.
Speaker: No, sorry.
Speaker: I don't mean to cut you off.
Speaker: But on that point, though, you're so right.
Speaker: Because when I moved away from Hope, Arkansas, and if there's somebody on this right now that is from Hope, Arkansas, some of my boys that I've connected with later in life, they're like, oh, you dog in Hope, Arkansas.
Speaker: And I'm like, yo, I love you guys.
Speaker: But this was my reality.
Speaker: This was my truth.
Speaker: When I left Arkansas, I didn't tell anybody that I was leaving.
Speaker: I was just, I just dipped.
Speaker: Like I didn't say, all of a sudden people were showing up and I didn't learn this till later when I reconnected with some of my friends.
Speaker: They were like, yo, we came back to school in the fall for senior year.
Speaker: We were like, back then they called me Jose.
Speaker: I didn't go by JR, I was Jose.
Speaker: And they were like, where's Jose?
Speaker: Where's Jose?
Speaker: Nobody knew where I went.
Speaker: I just dipped because my experience there for the time that I lived there, in my opinion at that time, was horrible.
Speaker: Now, here's the thing.
Speaker: I finally went back to Hope, Arkansas at the end of 2019.
Speaker: So that was like almost 19 years later, 18 years later.
Speaker: Sorry, 18 years later.
Speaker: And I went literally to every part of that town that I lived in, every house.
Speaker: And I can tell you that in the almost nine years that I lived there, I lived in six homes.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That range from like, like these small apartments to literally like living in the trailer park to finally the last home was like this little duplex house.
Speaker: And that was nice.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I could tell you that when I went back, man, and I looked at every single one of those homes, when I looked at every single one of those areas where someone kicked my ass for no reason, when someone picked on me for no reason, I had a different appreciation.
Speaker: I was able to look at it and say, wait, you were preparing me for the life that I have today.
Speaker: That's what that nine year period of my life, it was all it was doing was preparing me because all those homes that I moved around in,
Speaker: It was literally preparing me for the life that I live today when people call me, they're like, yo, here's an opportunity, JR. We need you to move to New York.
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: JR, the show's moving to LA.
Speaker: You down?
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: Like, JR, we're gonna shoot this show in South Africa.
Speaker: You down?
Speaker: I'm out.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like, I'm always like, let's go.
Speaker: Adaptability.
Speaker: Adaptability.
Speaker: But as a kid,
Speaker: I didn't realize that, right?
Speaker: And so I say that because I want people to understand whatever it is you're going through in this moment, I understand that it might not be comfortable, it might not feel good, but just hang in there, man, because I'm telling you, 5, 10, 15 years from this point, 18 years later, you're going to realize that this period shaped you and prepared you for what was waiting for you on the other side.
Speaker: Yeah, patience.
Speaker: That's it, man.
Speaker: You know, when you get that miracle in the back and you like, wow.
Speaker: And you had so many amazing experience and wisdom, right?
Speaker: Because you're able to adapt after that nine year span.
Speaker: You've been through some things.
Speaker: Oh, I got this.
Speaker: Oh, we on another show.
Speaker: Oh, I got to read this script.
Speaker: Oh, I need to be on Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker: Oh, I write a book.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, my armor is my tools are sharpened baby.
Speaker: We need to do right.
Speaker: I'm gonna have it brother.
Speaker: I can tell you.
Speaker: So that's beautiful because so then you have that experience.
Speaker: When did the army
Speaker: you know, the American army come into place in your mind, like what was the intentions behind that?
Speaker: How did that happen?
Speaker: Where did they get started?
Speaker: How did that happen?
Speaker: So I always had this, it was a very naive dream that I wanted to be a professional athlete, right?
Speaker: You see what you see on TV and you think that that's just everybody's reality.
Speaker: I was not a stellar athlete.
Speaker: I was sort of an average athlete, you know, a good role player for the football team, for a basketball team.
Speaker: I was not exceptional.
Speaker: Somebody should have sat me down and said, hey, man, listen, let's talk about this crazy dream that you have.
Speaker: But nobody did.
Speaker: People were just kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let them keep going through life.
Speaker: And there was something beautiful about the fact that they allowed me to just believe in that because it kept me away from all the craziness in the streets.
Speaker: that I had friends that were involved in drugs, that were involved in gangs, that were involved in violence.
Speaker: And I always had in the back of my mind, well, I can't get to the NFL one day if I get involved in that stuff, so I'm gonna stay away from it.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: I mean, again, the idea of me really getting to the NFL was never going to happen, but it wasn't supposed to happen.
Speaker: It was just supposed to keep me out of that path.
Speaker: And so essentially, you know, I'm graduating from high school.
Speaker: I didn't get an opportunity to go to a big Division I school.
Speaker: My mom doesn't have the money.
Speaker: So I start rethinking what I'm going to do.
Speaker: So I think I'm going to go to a Division II school.
Speaker: Well, then I go take a tour of this one school, and they tell me, yeah, you can come into 10th school here.
Speaker: And I said, all right, I want to play football.
Speaker: And they said, well, let's go.
Speaker: Well, that football thing.
Speaker: So the thing is, you don't have the grades to play football at the college level.
Speaker: And the thing is, man, I heard something a few years ago.
Speaker: I did this event and there was a chef that was talking about his work with underprivileged kids, with youth and troubled youth.
Speaker: And he said that he heard a term, the reason he got involved and so passionate about it, because he had heard a term that somebody utilized and said that that kid that is causing trouble, that isn't applying themselves to school, no, that's a throwaway kid.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: And he said, when he heard that, he was like, wait, what?
Speaker: That's a, like, how can you use that terminology?
Speaker: And so he became very passionate and trying to mentor some of these kids.
Speaker: I would probably be one of those kids that you would look at and say, that's probably a throwaway kid.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Because I didn't apply myself in school.
Speaker: I didn't have the grades.
Speaker: If you looked at my transcript from high school, you would probably, your description would be like, he's not smart.
Speaker: And it wasn't that I wasn't smart.
Speaker: It was the fact that I was going, dealing with so much at home.
Speaker: There was so much that I was, I was living with, dude, I would get suspended from school for three days, for five days, for a week.
Speaker: Sometimes my mom wouldn't even know I'm literally roaming around town.
Speaker: just like pretending I'm at school.
Speaker: And then by the time I come back to school, I've missed out on a week's worth of, you know, curriculum that I'm like, forget it.
Speaker: At this point, I don't care anymore.
Speaker: And I'm trying to play that tough attitude.
Speaker: Forget it.
Speaker: I don't care.
Speaker: And so I didn't have the grades.
Speaker: And so I just kind of thought to myself, well, that I'm not going to go to college.
Speaker: I'm just, you know, it's not happening the way I envisioned it.
Speaker: So I forget it.
Speaker: I throw it all against the wall.
Speaker: And one day, man, I just, I had a job and I was just kind of at home watching TV and you know, those commercials, that commercial, that commercial popped up, man.
Speaker: And I remember thinking to myself, well, wait a minute.
Speaker: I've had some people talk about this, about the army and the military.
Speaker: So let me go ask some questions.
Speaker: So I went and asked a question to the recruiter and the recruiter was like, he was like, yeah, man, he's like, here it is.
Speaker: He gave me everything in the binder.
Speaker: I rushed home, dude, I thought I figured it out.
Speaker: And I solved all the world's problems.
Speaker: Like in that conversation, I came home and I was like, mom, I'm going to join the army.
Speaker: And she was like, no, you are not.
Speaker: Immediately shut it down because in the early 80s in Central America, there was a war happening.
Speaker: So my mother knows what war does to people.
Speaker: It was a civil war happening in South Africa.
Speaker: We were at war.
Speaker: 9-11 happened a year before I graduated.
Speaker: We were already in Afghanistan.
Speaker: My mother has lost a child.
Speaker: She knew that if I joined the military during this time, that I would go to war and that I could potentially get killed.
Speaker: So she was like, I'm not losing another child.
Speaker: You're not going to war.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: And one of the greatest gifts my mother gave me early on in my life and my youth was her willingness to sit down and listen to me.
Speaker: And that is a true gift to be able to give somebody the opportunity for them to just share and vent, even if you don't agree, even if you don't understand.
Speaker: Nonetheless, to sit down and say, we're going to share some space, but you talk.
Speaker: I'm going to try to really listen to understand.
Speaker: And at the end of this conversation, this really deep conversation with my mother, I said, Mo, I think this is the best thing for me to do right now.
Speaker: And she said, okay.
Speaker: And so I joined the Army, man, September 12, 2002.
Speaker: So, you know, here we are, April 6.
Speaker: Yesterday, yesterday was 19 years ago when I was injured.
Speaker: They go that nine.
Speaker: They go that nine.
Speaker: Let me tell you, it's going to get trippy in a second.
Speaker: You're looking at the patterns.
Speaker: So I joined the army.
Speaker: I decide I'm going to do three years.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: I go to basic training for three months.
Speaker: I get assigned in my unit, which was the 101st, right?
Speaker: Three months after I graduated from basic, I'm on a plane heading over to war at the age of 19 years old in March 3rd.
Speaker: I'm in Iraq for three weeks, then I get injured.
Speaker: I'm in a coma for three weeks.
Speaker: I recovered, I spent initially three months in the hospital.
Speaker: I spent almost three years in the hospital recovering.
Speaker: Three, three, three, three, it's crazy.
Speaker: Now here's where I'm gonna kind of reach a little bit.
Speaker: I'm gonna reach, I'm gonna reach.
Speaker: Reach, reach, reach.
Speaker: My wife's favorite number is three.
Speaker: And so there's a part of me that feels like, you know, that was kind of like universe's way of kind of saying, hey, but there's just always this pattern of threes, man.
Speaker: Like I was, when I joined all my children, I was only supposed to be off for three months.
Speaker: I ended up being off for three years.
Speaker: I joined dancing.
Speaker: They thought I was going to go home week three.
Speaker: I ended up staying on for three months and winning the whole competition.
Speaker: It's just, come on, man.
Speaker: We can just keep going with this pattern.
Speaker: I think, do you have something on your website about All of My Children?
Speaker: Like, you had a friend who found an open casting opportunity.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He called you, and I think you're supposed to be on, like,
Speaker: three something.
Speaker: I forgot how it went, but you was longer than expected.
Speaker: Literally, my boy was like, yo, they're doing a casting call for a veteran.
Speaker: They're launching a storyline.
Speaker: This is you, man.
Speaker: You, you, you.
Speaker: And I was like, man, you're crazy.
Speaker: I don't want to be an actor.
Speaker: I don't have any acting experience.
Speaker: What are you talking about?
Speaker: And I used to watch all my children as a kid.
Speaker: I think all of us did, especially back in the day, man.
Speaker: You always been watching soaps.
Speaker: You're home from school in the summer.
Speaker: Pshh.
Speaker: Yeah, Young and Restless.
Speaker: Young and Restless.
Speaker: I was watching General Hospital.
Speaker: I watched all my children.
Speaker: I knew all these characters.
Speaker: And he was like, man, just try out for it.
Speaker: And I was like, all right, I guess.
Speaker: What do I have to lose?
Speaker: And I tried out for it.
Speaker: And they told me, they were like, you got the part.
Speaker: And I was like, well, how long am I going to be on the show?
Speaker: They said three months.
Speaker: That was it.
Speaker: I was like, all right, three months is cool to be on a soap opera.
Speaker: I'd be able to go back home and tell people I was on a soap opera.
Speaker: yeah and it turned into six months it turned nine months it turned into a year it turned into three years of me being on that show man until it literally went off of the air in 2011 or whatever it was three years three three three man and so you just you know man like i i i because of all of this
Speaker: I am now a position in my life where I pay attention to everything.
Speaker: I'm listening to my own curiosity.
Speaker: I'm listening to whatever voices and people that are put in front of me.
Speaker: I pay attention now.
Speaker: I open myself up to these conversations that are unexpected, but they give me so many beautiful blessings.
Speaker: For example,
Speaker: I'm the guy that gets asked to come and speak all over the world to all these companies.
Speaker: That's what I do.
Speaker: I'm a motivational speaker now.
Speaker: That's primarily what my business is, my bread and butter.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I think I'm good at it.
Speaker: I've been doing it for a long time, right?
Speaker: Well,
Speaker: I, a couple of years ago, flew back from Atlanta.
Speaker: I did this event for Delta Airlines and I'm a Delta snob.
Speaker: So when Delta called me and said, we want you to come do it, I was like, right away, you know, and have the plane ready for me.
Speaker: I'll be there in Atlanta.
Speaker: And I remember flying home and I felt good.
Speaker: I was on this high and I was like, the event went amazing.
Speaker: On the flight, just something got in my head, man.
Speaker: Just something got in my head and I just got triggered.
Speaker: And all of a sudden I had this sour energy.
Speaker: I get off of the plane.
Speaker: I get to my car.
Speaker: I start exiting the parking garage.
Speaker: I go to the booth.
Speaker: I'm not even looking at the attendant.
Speaker: I just literally looking straight and I just hand the ticket out my mirror, my window.
Speaker: Well, the person grabs the ticket but doesn't take it.
Speaker: They're just holding it.
Speaker: So we're both holding this ticket like this.
Speaker: And so finally, this catches my attention.
Speaker: And I look up like, why don't you take the ticket?
Speaker: And I look up and I can see, you know, this lady's hand.
Speaker: And I start following the hand up.
Speaker: And it's an older woman.
Speaker: Like, I mean, I'm like, I don't want to be disrespectful, but she was like, like in her 70s.
Speaker: Like she was she was an older woman.
Speaker: And she looked at me and she said, what happened to you?
Speaker: And I said, oh, I just kept it simple.
Speaker: I was in a car accident.
Speaker: And she said, were you burned?
Speaker: And I said, yeah.
Speaker: And she said, is it all over your body?
Speaker: And I said, yeah, for the most part.
Speaker: And then she said, okay.
Speaker: She said, can I pray for you?
Speaker: And I was like, all right, sure.
Speaker: All right, cool.
Speaker: So, you know, she starts praying, but she's in silence, not out loud.
Speaker: And then all of a sudden she stops, she opens her eyes and she starts writing.
Speaker: I'm thinking, okay, cool, we're done.
Speaker: She's doing the transaction, pay, blah, blah, blah, peace out.
Speaker: Well, then she hands me a ticket back.
Speaker: And on this ticket, which you don't do, she hands me a ticket and on the ticket, I take the ticket and I read it and she writes Amitoba.
Speaker: She says, do you know what that means?
Speaker: And I said, no.
Speaker: She's like, are you familiar with Buddhism?
Speaker: And I said, nah, not really.
Speaker: She said, well, there is a Buddhist
Speaker: called Amitoba.
Speaker: And apparently he represents infinite light, infinite wisdom.
Speaker: When I see you, you are infinite light.
Speaker: You are infinite wisdom.
Speaker: And she goes on and on about this description, man.
Speaker: Listen, to the point by the time we were done, when that gate, when that arm went up and I was able to drive through, I was like, Amitoba, everybody.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But the point of that story is, I'm the guy that got the opportunity to go speak at Delta.
Speaker: But I'm also the guy that needed a stranger to give me a gift.
Speaker: And I had multiple opportunities throughout that interaction to not open myself up.
Speaker: When she asked me what happened, I didn't have to engage.
Speaker: When she asked me how much of my body was burned, I didn't have to engage.
Speaker: When she said, can I pray for you?
Speaker: I could have said, nah, I'm good.
Speaker: When she said, here's that omitaba.
Speaker: Do you know what that is?
Speaker: I don't care.
Speaker: I don't want to know what it is.
Speaker: I could have closed myself off from this interaction so many times, but because I always pay attention to what the universe and God is putting in front of me, I'm like, there's a reason you're asking these questions.
Speaker: And there's a reason I should open up to you and I should feed into this curiosity that I feel right now because you're going to give me something that I need in this moment.
Speaker: And she gave me something that I still think of.
Speaker: A beautiful gift from the universe.
Speaker: And you was open to receive.
Speaker: I tell people all the time, it's not what we get out of life, it's what we become.
Speaker: So it wasn't about you going to Delta and getting something from them, it's what you became on the route to Delta.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: It gave you the gold charm before you got to your, you know, event.
Speaker: And it changed your whole life.
Speaker: It shifted your paradigm.
Speaker: It opened you up.
Speaker: You were screaming.
Speaker: You increased your frequency in like a second.
Speaker: Yeah!
Speaker: I got the ticket right here.
Speaker: I can find it in literally one minute, like right there.
Speaker: It's in my office.
Speaker: And it's just, that's the beauty for me about life, man, is that I am always paying attention to everything happening around me.
Speaker: I never close myself off from any channel, any channel of energy, any frequent, nothing.
Speaker: I open myself to all of it.
Speaker: Even if it makes me feel uncomfortable, I discovered this ability, Eric,
Speaker: Six months after I was injured, I was asked to visit a patient in the hospital.
Speaker: And I walked into his room.
Speaker: I didn't want to do it.
Speaker: And I opened his door.
Speaker: I walked into his room.
Speaker: And it was completely dark in the room, man.
Speaker: And I just thought, oh, man, like this dude is really not in a good place.
Speaker: And I felt like this pit in my stomach.
Speaker: I felt uncomfortable because it's just the energy in the room.
Speaker: But I was like, I can't run away.
Speaker: I can't leave.
Speaker: What would that do to his spirits if he saw somebody just stand in the doorway and then dip?
Speaker: So I was like, I got to walk up to his bed.
Speaker: So I walked up to his bed.
Speaker: And that was the first time in my life where the definition of a conversation was redefined for me.
Speaker: Prior to that interaction, rebirth, baby.
Speaker: So prior to that interaction, I always thought a conversation consisted of Eric's going to talk 50% of the time, and then I got to talk 50% of the time.
Speaker: I walked into this patient's bed, I asked him like three questions, where he was from, where he served, and what happened to him.
Speaker: It literally turned into a 45 minute conversation to the point when I left the room, I noticed that he had the light above his bed on and he was opening the curtain to that big window.
Speaker: And something so simple, man, said so much to me.
Speaker: I gave him hope.
Speaker: I shed some light on the dark road that he was on.
Speaker: And so for me, I always pay attention.
Speaker: If something makes me feel uncomfortable, if something gives me a pit in my stomach, that means I got to lean in a little bit more.
Speaker: Because from that, what that patient gave me, what he gave me was my identity back.
Speaker: He gave me my purpose back.
Speaker: Because in the military, my identity started to become being somebody of service.
Speaker: My purpose was to serve.
Speaker: My purpose was to be a part of this unit and this team.
Speaker: He...
Speaker: When I was injured, they told me you can't be in the army anymore.
Speaker: So I was like, what am I going to do with life now?
Speaker: I'm not going to be able to do anything.
Speaker: He gave me the gift to understand that I can still serve in a completely different way.
Speaker: I can still fulfill my purpose in a completely different way.
Speaker: The military was not intended to be something that I was supposed to be in for 20 years.
Speaker: It was supposed to be essentially the bridge to get me over here on this side.
Speaker: for me to make all the connections and pay attention to everything that has allowed me to create the life that I've created for myself for the last 19 years.
Speaker: And congratulations.
Speaker: Congratulations, brother.
Speaker: I mean, you know, there's some...
Speaker: there's some moral and some truth in going through pain and adversity and challenges to get to your ultimate change.
Speaker: To help someone else get through that pain, right?
Speaker: Like you went through all that to get the information, to get the experiences, to get the wisdom, to get the opportunity, to have a conversation, to get the downloads, right?
Speaker: To have the awareness.
Speaker: And you said something, you continuously say it, you said you pay attention.
Speaker: And I think people watching, people listening,
Speaker: Listen to what he's saying.
Speaker: Pay attention.
Speaker: Pay attention to what you're giving your attention to.
Speaker: Think about the thinking.
Speaker: How are you feeling when someone is giving you feedback?
Speaker: Are you really listening?
Speaker: Are you listening to respond?
Speaker: Are you listening to understand?
Speaker: And I love your story so much because it was, I don't think nobody's story is planned.
Speaker: But you did everything you thought you should do to get where you wanted to go in life.
Speaker: And the universe said, listen, I'm gonna make a U-turn.
Speaker: We're gonna make a detour here.
Speaker: We're gonna go here.
Speaker: But I like you because you trust in what you believe, even if it's not the right path.
Speaker: Let me reroute you and I'm gonna take you down the right path.
Speaker: And now you're living your dreams.
Speaker: You'd have been on TV.
Speaker: You wrote books.
Speaker: You can travel all over the world.
Speaker: You'd have been through trauma and pain.
Speaker: And now you've got two beautiful kids and a family.
Speaker: I mean, that's the ultimate dream.
Speaker: You live in a dream.
Speaker: You created that for yourself through everything.
Speaker: And I'm not done, man.
Speaker: Because I've been exposed to so much change in my life,
Speaker: I'm so comfortable with it that I'm actually more uncomfortable when things are easy and smooth.
Speaker: If things are just easy and smooth, I'm like, wait, wait, wait, what's going on?
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: I need to be learning something.
Speaker: Now there's a message in that too.
Speaker: I should probably learn how to, it's okay to sit back and just enjoy and just relax and just take it all in.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: There was a message in that as well.
Speaker: And I do understand that.
Speaker: And that's something I'm working on.
Speaker: But a few years ago I was like, okay,
Speaker: When I got out of the military, I was called a disabled veteran.
Speaker: That was what people, the word that they used to put over my head in order for them to understand me.
Speaker: So I just started telling people I'm a disabled veteran.
Speaker: I just started repeating what people, what I kept hearing people refer to me as, like that was my identity.
Speaker: And then I started to get on, I got on all my children and then it was like, oh, he's an actor.
Speaker: So then my identity started to shift, right?
Speaker: And now I was like, I'm telling people I'm an actor.
Speaker: Then I get on dancing and it was like, oh, you're the dancing guy, right?
Speaker: Like he's a dancer, he's a champion, right?
Speaker: Oh, you wrote a book.
Speaker: Oh, he's blessed that it became a New York Times bestseller.
Speaker: He's a New York Times.
Speaker: But I was always sort of repeating what I heard from everybody else.
Speaker: And people were giving you labels.
Speaker: They were giving you labels and you was gravitating to and attaching yourself to it.
Speaker: There's a question.
Speaker: They say if you ask 90% of people who they are, they say I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer, I'm a firefighter, I'm a disabled veteran.
Speaker: I'm an actor, I'm an athlete.
Speaker: You take that away from them, you say, who are you?
Speaker: 90% of people don't know.
Speaker: And I think that's the beauty about your life is that you have to figure out who you were to get where you are.
Speaker: And I think people got, we got to get to in these times, who am I?
Speaker: What am I?
Speaker: What do I want?
Speaker: Why am I here?
Speaker: What am I supposed to be learning?
Speaker: Because if I define myself based on
Speaker: what TV show I've been on or what project I'm working on or what girl or what person I know, then I'm lost.
Speaker: So I think authenticity and understanding the rebirth of you, understanding who is that and how do you get to the root of knowing oneself without all these distractions.
Speaker: And that was the turning point for me.
Speaker: So in 2016, I decided, okay, I went to therapy.
Speaker: I had to go to therapy.
Speaker: There were some things that I realized that I needed to work through.
Speaker: I started to identify the reason I fell into some really unhealthy patterns in my early 20s and my mid 20s and to some degree in my late 20s.
Speaker: I was, you know, I was the guy that was always looking for love.
Speaker: You know, because I felt like I never necessarily had unconditional love.
Speaker: My mother, unfortunately, because of the trauma she experienced in her life, she loves me.
Speaker: But unfortunately, my mother put this pressure on me as a kid and into my adult life that that you show me your love when you do things for me.
Speaker: Don't leave me.
Speaker: That's how I know you love me because my mother's experienced a lot of abandonment.
Speaker: Don't leave me.
Speaker: That's how I know you love me.
Speaker: Always do something for me because that's how I know that you love me because no one never did anything for me.
Speaker: And it was a lot of pressure and I was just struggling with all of this weight that I had to carry and I finally went to therapy.
Speaker: And it was at that point when I started to understand that, oh, I've been falling into these reckless relationships looking for love, honestly, because I was looking for unconditional love.
Speaker: I was looking for pure acceptance.
Speaker: I was looking for validation.
Speaker: I was looking for those things.
Speaker: And unfortunately, any girl that I hung out with, I was like, are you the one?
Speaker: Are you the one?
Speaker: Are you the one?
Speaker: Are you the one?
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like, and I was just putting too much pressure on everything.
Speaker: And when I finally went to therapy and then I finally decided I'm going to go to school.
Speaker: I'm going to go to college.
Speaker: I don't need college.
Speaker: People on my team were like, why are you wasting your time going to college?
Speaker: You don't need to be in college.
Speaker: And I was like, I want to grow.
Speaker: I want to evolve.
Speaker: I want to learn.
Speaker: And I went to college, man, and I'm actually two months away, Eric, from graduating.
Speaker: I'm like two months away from being a college grader.
Speaker: Let's go, baby.
Speaker: And, you know, and it's like the reason I say that to people is because I want people to understand that just because I have reached whatever you may deem success, for me, there's always a next layer.
Speaker: And so now I'm just adding to the labels, but I'm starting to create them myself.
Speaker: I'm creating the label.
Speaker: I'm a husband.
Speaker: I'm creating the label, I'm a father.
Speaker: I'm creating the label, I'm a college graduate.
Speaker: And I'm proving to myself that I'm so much more than what everybody else perceives me to be.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: And I think that's the biggest thing because you have so the pinnacle to your success.
Speaker: You have so many winning moments.
Speaker: You have so many down moments.
Speaker: But I feel like you've discovered and found your sweet spot.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you said learning.
Speaker: You said that several times.
Speaker: I'm like, he's big on growing.
Speaker: And I always say, the more we learn, the more we earn.
Speaker: And earners doesn't always have to be monetary.
Speaker: It can be wisdom.
Speaker: It can be experiences.
Speaker: It can be relationships.
Speaker: And I think people listening to know, like,
Speaker: you're going to have some pain in life.
Speaker: You got to be adaptable, right?
Speaker: You should one learn if you want to grow and don't get caught up in your identity of what you do because what you do is not what you are.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I also I wanted to talk a bit on like because, you know, I didn't know you going back to college.
Speaker: We know about Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker: You won Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker: Let's talk about that.
Speaker: You also had 34 surgeries post injury, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: I think that number is higher now.
Speaker: Honestly, I don't even know what the number is anymore.
Speaker: I think once you get to a certain point, you're like, whatever.
Speaker: I've had a lot of surgeries, right?
Speaker: I don't even know what the number is anymore.
Speaker: So how did you deal with that mentally?
Speaker: Also, what's the remedy to getting over pain?
Speaker: Even for, like you said earlier, as a young child, you was rebellious.
Speaker: You didn't want to apply yourself.
Speaker: You didn't want to do no work.
Speaker: How did you get out of that?
Speaker: What was the remedy for you and for the people listening to
Speaker: you know, combat these struggles and these challenges on top of even winning in life because that's a challenge.
Speaker: People don't understand when you win, that's still a challenge.
Speaker: You got to keep winning.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah, man.
Speaker: You know, I think the biggest thing, listen, it was as much as physically impacted as I was because of this injury.
Speaker: I was just as mentally and emotionally impacted.
Speaker: I struggled.
Speaker: There were many times where I felt myself triggered
Speaker: I'd be in my room crying.
Speaker: I'd, you know, I, I, I, it was not pretty for, for, for, um, I'd say for about four or five years after I was injured, um, I was just reckless, man.
Speaker: And I was just searching to trying to figure out who I was and where I fit in and who was going to be a part of that world with me.
Speaker: Um, so to tell you that it was, you know, it was, it was a, it was a beautiful thing.
Speaker: It wasn't, it had, it had its days.
Speaker: But the biggest thing I always reminded myself was it's a moment.
Speaker: It's a moment.
Speaker: And what I would do when I felt something, when I felt that heaviness, I wouldn't run away from it.
Speaker: I would actually like sit into it.
Speaker: I would allow myself to cry.
Speaker: I learned, I had to learn as an adult and partially because of my best friend as a man, it's okay to cry.
Speaker: It's okay to be vulnerable.
Speaker: That wasn't something I, you know, like many young, young, young men in the world, you know, we weren't introduced to that concept until maybe later in life.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: For me, I just always kept going back to the five minutes that I was trapped inside of that home beat, literally burning alive.
Speaker: And I would always say to myself, it only happened for five minutes.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It could have happened for six, 10.
Speaker: It could have been the rest of my life.
Speaker: It only happened.
Speaker: Everything is a moment.
Speaker: Everything's a phase, a period.
Speaker: And so when I would have these moments that would just kind of these negative energy that would come over me, I would just say it's a moment.
Speaker: And I would allow myself to be vulnerable, allow myself to tap into it.
Speaker: I allow myself to cry.
Speaker: But then I would pull myself out of it.
Speaker: I would say the answer to get me out of this phase is not in this space.
Speaker: It's out there in the world.
Speaker: And I would literally essentially grant the world permission to give me what I needed.
Speaker: And so what I would do is I would literally just open the front door, I'd walk outside, and I would just be open to anything that the world was going to throw at me.
Speaker: And it would just get me out of that funk.
Speaker: There would be one friend that I'd run into.
Speaker: He's like, yo, what's up, man?
Speaker: You want to go to a bite to eat?
Speaker: I'm like, yeah, let's go.
Speaker: And all of a sudden, like my energy shifted, right?
Speaker: And for me, I just want people to understand that as much as you may have seen me smile in the hospital, joke when I was in the hospital, you know, just having this positive energy, there were a lot of dark days.
Speaker: But for me, it was, and it's still a mindset that I apply today, that if there's something that's a little uncomfortable, I allow myself to feel it.
Speaker: Feel it.
Speaker: I want to feel it.
Speaker: Like, I want to feel every aspect of it.
Speaker: Like, come on.
Speaker: Like, let me feel that pain because
Speaker: I never want to feel that again.
Speaker: So I'm going to do everything with my power to change, you know, the future.
Speaker: But at the same time, like I just want to continue to grow and evolve as a person.
Speaker: And honestly, I, my wife and I, we try to instill that with our kids.
Speaker: My daughter's nine years old.
Speaker: I'm coaching her softball team, you know, like, you know, I got, I had to learn about softball last season.
Speaker: I said something to my daughter in the game.
Speaker: You know, she's a pitcher and she's a pretty good pitcher.
Speaker: And I said, I was like, come on, girl.
Speaker: I said, come on.
Speaker: I said, you're hurting the team.
Speaker: Get us out of this inning, you know.
Speaker: And after the game, you know, we won or whatever and everyone's happy.
Speaker: My daughter comes and taps me.
Speaker: She's like, Daddy, I want to talk to you.
Speaker: What you said really bothered me.
Speaker: It really hurt me.
Speaker: And in that moment, I could have got very defensive.
Speaker: I'm like, oh, I didn't mean it that way.
Speaker: You interpreted it differently.
Speaker: And as much as I may have thought, like, I don't think I said it that way.
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: She felt a certain way.
Speaker: And she came to me and spoke and said that.
Speaker: And then I was like, you're right.
Speaker: And, dude, the power that we're giving our child at the time, yeah, she was nine years old.
Speaker: that for her to feel that she had this freedom to come up and communicate her emotions or feelings, that's everything to me.
Speaker: That's our whole goal as parents is to instill that in our kids and allow them to be able to feel that kind of comfort.
Speaker: And so I'm trying to pass that lesson on to my kids.
Speaker: My wife, I share with anybody I come in contact with.
Speaker: I'm like, it's going to get uncomfortable.
Speaker: I get it.
Speaker: But you're all right.
Speaker: It's a moment.
Speaker: It's a moment.
Speaker: I always make this reference, man.
Speaker: And it's hard to see it on IG.
Speaker: So I got a tattoo of a watch.
Speaker: Yeah, I see it.
Speaker: So when I joined the military, I couldn't figure out military time.
Speaker: So they would always make me do push-ups.
Speaker: So what I did is I bought an inexpensive watch and I set it at 24-hour time.
Speaker: So I would be done with doing push-ups.
Speaker: Fast forward, the day I'm injured, I'm wearing the watch.
Speaker: You can see my hand, this is skin graft.
Speaker: My arm, this is skin graft.
Speaker: My wrist isn't burned because of that watch.
Speaker: All the way around, look at that.
Speaker: So what I decided to do when I was 24 years old, I decided to get a tattoo of the watch.
Speaker: It has zigzags, which signify the face of the watch is broken from the explosion.
Speaker: It has the time, which is 2.30, which is the time that I was injured.
Speaker: And it has the date and Roman numerals in the band.
Speaker: So 4, 5, 1000, 2000, 1, 2, 3, April 5, 2003.
Speaker: So when you look at this, right, and it's hard to kind of do the angle right here, but if you look at a clock, not a digital clock, right?
Speaker: But if you look at a clock, I always say, I always want to be at 12.
Speaker: 12 is at the top.
Speaker: Everything is groovy in life.
Speaker: Six is at the top.
Speaker: We know what six is.
Speaker: We don't want to be down there.
Speaker: But what does a clock do?
Speaker: The hand constantly just goes around, right?
Speaker: The only way it keeps moving is there's batteries in the clock.
Speaker: So the point is, you don't want to be at six.
Speaker: You don't want to be in that vicinity.
Speaker: So you got to keep finding ways to put fresh batteries into it.
Speaker: You got to find a way to power that thing.
Speaker: And also understand that a clock is intended to go around.
Speaker: So you will find yourself close to six.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But know and trust that.
Speaker: It's going to keep going up to 12.
Speaker: And when you're at 12, appreciate it.
Speaker: Enjoy it.
Speaker: Be grateful.
Speaker: Give gratitude.
Speaker: All that stuff.
Speaker: Know, know that that hand is going to come back around.
Speaker: It's going to come to six.
Speaker: It's going to challenge you again.
Speaker: So stay humble.
Speaker: Stay humble.
Speaker: So for me, that's the biggest thing I always try to focus on is like, hey, I know we all want to be at 12 all day, every day.
Speaker: I get that.
Speaker: That's just not the way life works.
Speaker: You're going to find yourself at three.
Speaker: You're going to find yourself at nine.
Speaker: You're going to find yourself at seven, four, 11, one.
Speaker: You can move all around that clock because that's the purpose of a clock.
Speaker: But the point is, is that the one consistent thing that should always be there is us putting fresh power and batteries into it and showing up.
Speaker: If we can do that, we'll get ourselves out of that slump and learn the lesson and get back to that point in 12, which is so powerful.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's symbolism for you, because the fact that your wrist was still fresh and didn't get to burn, time was always on your side.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Time was always on your side, my friend.
Speaker: You can't lose.
Speaker: Time is always on your side.
Speaker: So then you're talking about pain, right?
Speaker: I tell my friends and people in general, pain is great when you embrace it because it's perspective in it.
Speaker: And you need the perspective of the pain to get on the other side so you can have the wisdom
Speaker: to appreciate it right that's what you created and time's always on your side because you just like a clock we still getting at 12 every day we showing up we show up that's it baby you know what i mean man that's it so get a people like so what's next i mean are you acting still i know you got the podcast rebirth i know you got a few books out uh you got the family you're traveling doing your speaking engagements like what's next what you working on like
Speaker: What can we see you on someone?
Speaker: I was like, can you ask him?
Speaker: Does he miss being on All My Children?
Speaker: Like, you know, as an actor?
Speaker: Yeah, I love All My Children, man.
Speaker: It was a great it was where I met my wife.
Speaker: We worked on the show together.
Speaker: And so I say that that show not only gave me my career, but it also gave me my family.
Speaker: And
Speaker: But for me right now, I'm just my focus has been the last few years speaking in school and my family.
Speaker: Now that I'm starting to wind down with school, now I got a little bit more time on my hands.
Speaker: So the biggest thing that I want to start kind of tapping people on the shoulder and be like, hey, I'm still interested in this acting thing.
Speaker: I'm still interested in the entertainment space from a hosting perspective.
Speaker: I love the podcast and I want to continue that and grow that because I love learning and conversation.
Speaker: But I got to tell you, I'm really in this fascinating place in life that I think a lot of people would avoid and I embrace.
Speaker: And what that is is that I'm just in this place in life where I'm figuring it out.
Speaker: I'm figuring it out and I'm okay with that.
Speaker: I don't have to have all the answers.
Speaker: And I'm still in this place where I'm just like figuring out where I'm going with life and I'm cool with that.
Speaker: And so I'm just starting to kind of knock on some doors and just kind of see what's out there for me, what feels right at this period in my life, what fulfills the things that are important to me because as much as I love traveling and being on the road, I also love even more being home with my family and my kids.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: Like, I sent you that DM and I was like, hey, I'm gonna have to log off because I got something going on with my kids.
Speaker: So I'm about to log off.
Speaker: Why?
Speaker: Because that's where I'm at in life right now.
Speaker: That's what matters to me.
Speaker: So as much as I'm opening myself up to everything in the world, I'm also now in this place where I know what matters to me.
Speaker: I know what I want.
Speaker: And I'm only going to take on things that essentially fit into what is important to me in my life right now.
Speaker: So
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know, man.
Speaker: Like, it's an exciting, it really is an exciting time in life for me.
Speaker: And I'm just looking forward to the next chapter.
Speaker: And I keep paying attention.
Speaker: And my wife keeps introducing me to this concept.
Speaker: Like, we see, every time I look at a clock lately, I see ones.
Speaker: I see just 1111, 1111.
Speaker: I just see ones a lot.
Speaker: And I said to my wife, I said, I see these ones a lot.
Speaker: And she looked it up and she said something about like, it's apparently like our spirit guides.
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: That are telling us we're on the right path.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: And I can just keep going.
Speaker: And then, you know, she's like, every time you see it, just kind of just ask, what am I supposed to be doing?
Speaker: What am I supposed to be doing?
Speaker: What am I supposed to be paying attention to?
Speaker: I keep seeing it.
Speaker: So all I'm doing right now, Eric, is I'm just doing the work that I need to do to prepare myself for the next thing that's coming.
Speaker: I don't know what it is.
Speaker: I know it's on its way.
Speaker: And I'm just getting myself ready for when that moment presents itself.
Speaker: I'm like, let's go.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: And it's beautiful because I always say alignment is the assignment.
Speaker: And 1111 is showing you and telling you on 111 that you're in alignment.
Speaker: And it's just beautiful because I've been living my life like that for the last five and a half years.
Speaker: It's like,
Speaker: I'm learning every day.
Speaker: I'm setting my intentions.
Speaker: I don't know what's next, but I know what's in front of me this moment.
Speaker: And I'm going to take full opportunity and full advantage.
Speaker: And then you just let the universe guide you, you let go and you trust.
Speaker: And then you have another rebirth.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah, man, I appreciate your time, your energy, your authenticity, sending you love and light.
Speaker: Thank you for this beautiful conversation.
Speaker: And thank you for opening up.
Speaker: a rebirth to your life for people to look in and to look into their own life and pay attention my guy i appreciate you sharing the platform and showing love and and for your followers i would just tell them to go listen to the episode that you or on my podcast right interview so for them to get to know more about you and the depth of your story because there's so much more
Speaker: that they can learn about you.
Speaker: And just thank you, man, for the opportunity.
Speaker: And I think when we spoke for my podcast, man, you and I just clicked and there was like good energy.
Speaker: And I was like, this is a dude I'm going to rap with for a very long time.
Speaker: Absolutely, man.
Speaker: And I just appreciate your energy, my man.
Speaker: So thank you again.
Speaker: And sorry, I'm about to abruptly like bop.
Speaker: No, do your thing.
Speaker: It's time, man.
Speaker: Perfect timing.
Speaker: The time is on.
Speaker: The little ones like at the door like this, like standing out there looking at the door like this.
Speaker: when you finish it, daddy.
Speaker: So I got a daddy duty right now, but man, I just appreciate you, bro.
Speaker: And I can't wait for us to connect again, man.
Speaker: Have a good one.
Speaker: Be great.
Speaker: Peace and love.
Speaker: You too, brother.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Take care, man.
Speaker: There we go.
Speaker: Another bigger talks discussion.
Speaker: J.R.
Speaker: Martinez, please go follow him at I am I am J.R.
Speaker: Martinez.
Speaker: And he's a phenomenal guy.
Speaker: You just heard beautiful story.
Speaker: I know you guys can take some gems from this episode.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker: Thank you for listening.
Speaker: It's Miracle Season.
Speaker: Big talks.
Speaker: We out.
Speaker: Peace.
