Take it off! See. Love. Grow.
An unfulfilled life has less to do with what it is - and more with how you see it. Your fulfillment is often on the other side of a tough decision or conversation. It is in the resolving of conflict and the releasing of self-judgment that we grow the most. So, if you feel stuck in your career, relationships, or how you think about yourself, it’s time to “TAKE IT OFF” and show up as your authentic self. Joshua A. Fields and Jeremy Rubin co-host the “Take it Off” Podcast. As a master practitioner of the Energy Leadership Index with 15 years of executive leadership experience at a Fortune 10 company, Certified Executive Coach Joshua Fields has a proven track record of creating high-performing teams and environments for personal transformation. Renowned author, speaker, and founder of FACE Consulting, Jeremy Rubin, immediately impacts groups large and small using humor, personal stories, and practical, result-driven applications. These two have brought unique life experiences, skill sets, and energy to create an experience like no other. The mission is simple but not easy. It is to empower people with the skills to see and accept themselves and others clearly and without judgment to live a more authentic life. So, if you’re ready to live with purpose and curiosity and to get clear on what you want for your life, join us weekly at the “Take it Off” Podcast. Some concepts are based on and inspired by the coach training program Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC).
Take it off! See. Love. Grow.
Will & Jada. Unraveling the Unconventional: Navigating Societal Expectations, and Embracing Authenticity
Joshua Fields and Jeremy Rubin, co-hosts of the Take It Off! See. Love. Grow Podcast, we ask: "Who says you can't live separately while married?" In our anniversary episode, we discuss Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's unconventional living arrangements since 2016. We also touch on Joshua's trip to Egypt and his perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We explore societal expectations, gender double standards, and the pursuit of perfection, analyzing the reaction to Jada Pinkett-Smith's Red Table Talk about her past relationship. We draw examples from famous couples like Beyonce and Jay-Z.
Our discussion peaks with the toll of maintaining a facade of perfection, exemplified by the recent Chris Rock incident involving Will Smith. Will and Jada's journey reflects the courage to live authentically amidst societal pressures. We encourage listeners to confront their pursuit or pause, making brave decisions for happiness. We end with inspiration from Joshua's Egypt trip, emphasizing the importance of reconnecting with our roots. Tune in for this exploration of relationships, expectations, and authenticity.
Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith Separated in 2016. (thecut.com)
Find us on our online platforms:
Co-Host: Joshua Fields ACC, CPC, & Master ELI Practitioner
Website: https://joshuafields.coach/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/joshuaafields?igshid=NDc0ODY0MjQ=
Email List: https://archive.aweber.com/newsletter/awlist6189433
Co-Host: Jeremy Rubin, Keynote Speaker, Author, Consultant, Sales Leader
Website: http://faceconsultinggroup.com/
Welcome to the Take it Out podcast, where we see love grow. I am your co-host, jeremy Rubin, and I am here with my guy co-host coach with the most, joshua A Fields hey man.
Speaker 2:Thank you, hey, I appreciate you. Hold on real quick.
Speaker 3:My role will come in, girl. I can't wait. It's our anniversary, our anniversary, hey, jeremy. The first thing I'll do is work straight to you.
Speaker 2:It's our anniversary the world. Are you not aware that November 1st marked a one year anniversary for the Take it Out podcast, episode 42. Be able to lock down 42 episodes in the course of a year and I did it with my guy, I've only made plans to hold your anniversary I knew it wasn't you and Amber's anniversary. Hey, man, we're back. I just took a little bit of a break. Man, Tell us about where you went.
Speaker 1:This dude decides to just on a humbug head out.
Speaker 2:I wasn't a humbug, it wasn't a humbug. Head out to the stands. Yeah, let's see my people. Egypt yeah, man, I just got back from Egypt. Man, it was crazy, it was an epic trip. Obviously we were next door neighbors to conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. You just following that situation is just super sad and tragic. I got the full scope of the human experience over there, from the highest of the highs to the, to just witnessing the extreme poverty of what some folks are dealing with. So you just leave with just a clear perspective and you're grateful, you're sad, you're high, you're low, you're in the middle and tourism out there is what helps amplify their economy.
Speaker 2:And so you're like man, tell your American friends, come through, we need y'all. This war is not our war, You're good here. And they needed it. It's their way to survive. And so we saw the pyramids. The pyramids are in the hood, by the way, In the hood, and we took two flights from this city. That city traveled on Nile River on a cruise ship and saw some other temples and the Valley of the Kings, which was so crazy to see how talented this ancient group of humans were and still provide a lot of inspiration today. So I should do a whole podcast on just that trip alone. But this is not why we're here today.
Speaker 2:We're here to talk about some tea that we've been laying on.
Speaker 1:I think that you said something that is very interesting to me. You said that the pyramids are in the hood.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:When you think about how many iconic things are just in the hood, like if you go to the White House and you just move a few blocks. I mean, I don't know what it's like now, but I know when I visited in 2000, the hood was really close. Yeah, you look at some of our greatest schools right in the middle of the hood, right.
Speaker 2:Especially our.
Speaker 1:HBCUs? Yeah, we're just here. The hood's not going anywhere. Man, yeah, the hood is a part of us, it's our favorite the great backdrop. But, anyway, when you were talking about some tea we're going to spill today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're a little late to the party, because I know this story has been. If you have any type of social media account or any type of pop culture news feed, you've witnessed this spill out from Jada Pinkett Smith and she has a whole book that's not just about her relationship with Will Smith, but obviously the tea might as well lead with that. Yeah, the tea has come out and we're a little late to the party, but we're going to add our little perspective, our twist, our understanding of things, because I think this is a great mirror for us to look at and see ourselves in. And I know you've put together again as the creative director of the Take it All podcast the creative director, yeah, about you, yeah, so yeah, I feel like we go through.
Speaker 1:still, we owe the folks a little bit of a synopsis. Absolutely, absolutely. Right. So like, let's get a little backstory. Yeah, I like how the cutcom got to the point In a recent article and it was entitled Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith separated in 2016 question mark. So we'll read from the article share some of our thoughts and what we can glean from this connected to, maybe, our jail construct that we've been doing since day one.
Speaker 2:Which is, and then what is the jail? Come on dropping terminology and people might not know what you're talking about when you say jail.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, for all the new listeners.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So our goal here at the Take it All podcast is not just to get butt naked. That's not what we're doing here. Okay, we're taking off anything that is connected to this acronym that we call jail. So anything that brings you judgment, anything that brings you assumptions, can I get there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you look like you were struggling to access the information. No, I was helping out.
Speaker 4:No, I mean right there. Okay, so we're going to look at these interpretations and limiting beliefs.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry to get it out enough fast for you, it's all good Fast enough for you, but anything that does that, because great people do what we do. Great people do.
Speaker 4:We resolve conflict.
Speaker 1:We resolve conflict there it is yeah, that's what we do. So, anyway, we're going to look at it through that lens. But the article says on paper, jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith have been a Hollywood power couple for over 25 years, but in real life they apparently haven't been on actual, an actual couple since 2016. In a preview in an interview that Jada did that aired on Friday with Dateline, the same day Pinkett Smith's memoirs worthy came out, the actress confirmed that she and Smith have been living completely separate lives for seven years. They are still married, but not romantically involved. So before I get into more of this, right, because a lot of people might just say, well, why, now, you know, with the book that's coming out, of course, like, why are we just hearing about this? Like why wouldn't this have come out? You know, this is kind of what's coming up for me. Why didn't this come out? When he slapped Chris, like why is it coming out now with a book deal, I think you can answer that.
Speaker 4:I think you can answer that. So anyway, they go on in the interview to ask.
Speaker 2:Why now, though? I mean, I think, what comes up for you in terms of the why now? Your intuitive guess.
Speaker 1:I just, you know, it just doesn't come across to me, and I'm not judging it because I don't know.
Speaker 1:But in my personal opinion it comes across as a little opportunistic, I think is the right term. It's like. This is information that you that have been keeping close to the vest for years, and I feel like there were other places where it could have been, at least in my opinion, more prevalent or more important for you to talk about this, like when people were talking about your lifestyles and how it was connected to maybe even the growth or the stifling of your children. When you're talking about your husband is or not husband is there for the entire world to see in what should have been his brightest moment became something that was just insane, and I believe that this information and the pressure of holding onto the secret could have been something that could have gave them and their family a lot of reprieve. And now it's like well, we're leading with that, but we're leading with that on the same day we're dropping a book, and so for me it takes a little bit of the shine off. Okay.
Speaker 2:That's my opinion yeah, yeah, no, I get it, I get it. I think it's brilliant yeah no, I'm sure you do. Yeah, I think it's brilliant.
Speaker 1:I think it's brilliant, yeah, from a business standpoint, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we have to keep that in mind, that they are business people, yeah, right, and I think that when you have an opportunity this is my opinion that you know the public wants you created demand for it, like they were silent on purpose and, much like Chris Rock, what did he do? He didn't say shit until he went on tour.
Speaker 1:Till the check got big enough. Absolutely Till the check got big enough.
Speaker 2:So what I'm saying is, when we deal with the celebrity culture, they much like our own lives. We don't owe anybody any explanation, even if it would have been more prevalent to speak on it then, today or tomorrow. However, she approached it. She approached it in a way that is going to maximize her earning potential and also, you're not just going to get it for free because of whatever goes into their rationale to release the information that they released at the time. I think that this conversation, though, sheds a lot of light on who we are as humans and how this kind of stuff really especially American humans how this stuff really gets our attention. But I thought, you know, I'm a fan of Jada and I don't know if she's been dragged.
Speaker 1:She's been dragged on social, but I don't want to approach.
Speaker 2:Oh, she's been dragged.
Speaker 1:Now when you say dragged like drugged. Now, when you say drug, though, yeah, what are you? How do you define drug?
Speaker 2:Because, yeah, how she's been getting dragged. I mean there's you can. I mean in the comments, everybody's not everybody, but there's been a large amount of you know high accounts with high follow counts that describe her. As you know, they make these jokes about her still being in love with Tupac. And how can we'll take this. She doesn't love you. Why would you air him out like that? And you know, you know this shit like to your point this. This should have came up when he was at the height of going through what he was going through, with Chris Rock around his, his Oscar that he won, and then it was, you know, dirty with all these other. You know the stories that took away from not just Will Smith but the other winners as well that night. And again, I think a lot of people see her as the villain in this story, you know. Then you throw in the entanglement with, you know, augusta Alcina in all these things that have unfolded.
Speaker 1:Yeah let's talk about that, let's talk about it, so, so, so here's my thing. So for actually a little bit more perspective. I'm on a social media fast until the beginning of the year. So I haven't. I'm like the jury right, I haven't seen no moves. Ok, I'm looking at these facts with clear eyes.
Speaker 4:OK.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, so when, when you, when you told me about this and we're like, oh, this would be a great topic to broach on the podcast. I'm not coming with no one else's opinion, but what I've seen, yes, so I know we're getting ahead of ourselves. We haven't even. Obviously, this is good, because we haven't even finished the synopsis and we're moving. That's fine, ok. But my thing is this OK, let's just say they decided to be silent on purpose. Yes, let's just decide that's the case. Do you believe? Because I saw the red table talk, with Will Smith sitting out at the table with Jada and going over this Agal scene. I think I will say this a couple of things. One did she get dragged? No, because I'm going to tell you if the situation was flipped, absolutely.
Speaker 2:My own opinion and I disagree with you.
Speaker 1:And you had one of Willow's friends who's a young impressionable woman, yep who is dealing with addiction and Will is having sex with her. I just believe he's getting canceled. That that's my own personal opinion. I believe that at this point that that is the situation. This was somebody who was sick, looking for help, and now you're in the sheets with somebody. So you know, ok, I don't think she got that drug because we can somehow excuse all that behavior away, because it doesn't take place from, you know, a masculine vessel like to me.
Speaker 2:Right, totally, totally, totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think. Let me ask.
Speaker 2:In terms of comparing the potential blowback. I mean, I think we can all Play out the scenario, like you mentioned, will Smith, with a young lady that's significantly younger than him and she's dealing with addiction. By the way, this is your daughter's friend. You're coming to the house and I'm laying those down. Yeah, yeah, we're not. Yeah, we're not, we're done, we're done, we're off, we're done so to me but she has it.
Speaker 2:But this, but just real quick. This also fits a narrative that when these type of situations arise and it involves another person, that you're having intimate relationships with women.
Speaker 1:I don't want to get canceled, but there's definitely a software blow You're going to get canceled.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, yes, but everything is just.
Speaker 4:I think, I think yeah.
Speaker 2:I think yeah, absolutely I do.
Speaker 4:I don't know our anniversary.
Speaker 2:I do think, from just from a general standpoint, women they don't, they don't necessarily have to be accountable in a way that men are accountable to the same action. There's a double standard here for sure.
Speaker 1:And we're a part of that.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to let me off the hook Because?
Speaker 1:I mean again I've seen stories of you know high schoolers and they're sleeping with teachers.
Speaker 4:Absolutely and.
Speaker 1:I've heard men say where were those teachers at when I was in? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Now you're not saying that about your daughter, right? Fuck. No At all.
Speaker 2:Like we're not like no, no, somebody's getting hurt and it was funny, even as you say that and I maybe I need to think about this differently, but it's just the way I've been socialized. My first reaction to knowing that my Charlie would be approached by a male teacher and she's in school, grade school, and he's in his 20s or 30s, whatever, and he's sleeping with my daughter oh, we got a problem.
Speaker 1:But let that be Tyson.
Speaker 2:If it's. Tyson, and it's a bad teacher she's 22.
Speaker 1:She just started Tyson 17. Hey, hey.
Speaker 2:I'm done with this. This is bad. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. I'm thinking like, oh, you're calling up Tyson for a week.
Speaker 1:Hey, tyson, yeah.
Speaker 2:Hey, hey, hey, hey, fam, hey, ok, my guy look at you.
Speaker 4:You're driving Right Right Right, right Right Right.
Speaker 1:You're right.
Speaker 2:You're so right here's $100.
Speaker 1:Take her out to lunch.
Speaker 1:Yeah take her out to lunch on me, yeah, and so we're all a part of the problem I'm not saying that we all are in a part of the problem, because I'm not sitting here saying like the audacity for us to believe that a 16 year old boy or 17 year old boy can compete in a sexual realm. But there's a reason why these laws exist, right, yeah and so, but. But my thing is like to me, when I looked across the table at Will yeah, this is something that's getting the red table popping Like. This is something that is is is when you talk about her career, right, is a pivotal moment and it's still in pop culture. The entanglement, like the conversation that came out of that. It's still in pop culture.
Speaker 1:The meme of Will Smith's face, right. So my question becomes OK, because I thought I saw real hurt on his face and I'm like, was he really hurt? And two things can be true. He can be really hurting and be like hurt for a couple of reasons. One, why am I sitting here? Two, I got to go through this and do all this because this is a part of it, this, you know this, the pain that comes with being in this business called show business. But to me it's like I felt like he was hurt. And then the other thing I'm feeling is like, or are they just doping all of us Like is this all just for entertainment you?
Speaker 4:know what I mean Like we?
Speaker 1:are we getting more emotionally invested than even the Smiths are, and is that all a part of the point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and that's probably the case. That's probably the case, I believe. Now, again, I don't have a lot, I don't. You know, I don't talk to Will every day, but when we do talk, you know, I read Will's book and what came out of that I actually posted on my social media. Will Smith is not a victim, because a lot of what I was seeing was this rush to protect Will and demonize Jada and in his book which, again, I'm not going to say no one's read it or the people that are, you know, leaning into the conversation on social media or just primarily and I'm making an assumption here this is what we're trying to remove.
Speaker 2:It intuitively feels like we're following the story off of sound bites and tea, versus a deeper level of context that he explains in his book about his relationship and dynamic with, with, with Jada and Jada has also been very vocal about this is we'll had the vision of big family in the public eye. You know, big wedding like the, the construct of marriage, traditionally, I'll take care of you, I got it, you know. I want to be the limelight. I want to be the guy with the family that everybody can look at and be inspired by, and for a long time that dynamic played out and spilled over from these, these pivotal even Fresh Prince of Bel Air that story and then the Cosby's like we were seeing a real life family in the public eye at that level live it out in a way that looked very inspiring, yeah, but. But he also describes Jada's reluctance and resistance to that lifestyle and he moved forward regardless anyway. Right, he pushed on regardless. She never want the marriage. He's actually very has articulated. I was walking down the aisle in tears, crying, not that I was going to spend my life with Will Smith, but I didn't want it this way. But he did, so I took down. I just wanted to be left alone on a, on a, on a farm, and just just leave me alone. I don't want the public eye in the way he wanted it. And so there's this competing of what one person envisioned in the marriage and what the other person envisioned in marriage, and I think today we're just seeing it spill out publicly. But I think they're very much in tune with. I'm making it a choice to be here and do it this way as well as I am, and this is how it's. This is how this is the mess it's created. Whether it's right, wrong, good or bad doesn't really matter, but it's the way they are doing it and how they're leaning into each other.
Speaker 2:Then you see Will Smith again continue to participate in amplifying. Jada's got a book. He's on his social media. You know, in many ways Acquiescing to. Now is my time to support my wife. Whether we've been together like in the traditional sense, this is still my friend, still my home girl. I'm still holding her down. So, what y'all think, this is who I'm still choosing to be with. So when I say he's not a victim, he's not. He's very conscious and aware of how he's leaning in to this very for many folks, we look at this as a, as a moment where this tests our limits of our own love. Right, this is like I don't know if I could do that. I don't know if I could just have my girl, you know, out here airing me out and then talking to me about this love she had for this other dude that ain't even alive anymore.
Speaker 2:And this entanglement with you know my her son's friend, you know this. This pushes the limits for a lot of folks, and I get it, but victim and choosing their pain. They are very aware of the pain they're choosing, in my opinion, which is why it is opportunistic, you know what? Let's, let's make this be aligned with a book. Let's make some money off the controversy.
Speaker 1:So anyway, so let's so. Then let's move into the first question that I have for you. Okay, why does this matter to us, like, as people? Why does? Because you had said something earlier that you don't know if people are reading or have read Will's book, but this jumping to, or if they're even listening to what he's saying, but this jumping to the conclusion or jumping to, I'm going to guard you because you can't guard yourself, because there's a whole thing around.
Speaker 1:She's this diabolical power and he's a little bit more puppet than what people want to give, but you're saying from his words yeah, I would argue that that's a human thing. Yeah, like most people, don't listen to what you don't know any better. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I got this for you now, yeah.
Speaker 1:You're too close to it, like, yeah, and there's some truth to some of those things. But we I've literally had conversations with people. You and I have both had conversations with people. You've heard what I've said. And then they, whatever story they told themselves from, that was on 10. Like, where did you get that from? Yeah, and it literally has nothing to do with me. Yeah, you know it has nothing to do. So for me, my question is like in your opinion, why does it matter? Like, how did we get to a space where this is making money?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah Well, I mean, that's connected to a long history of you know, the things that get our attention is typically the things that are the most provocative. Taboo, what's taboo, what's what's. You know what's what goes against the status quo. Regardless, if we see that as an inspiring fight against the status quo or oh, this is to the detriment of our status quo, all of that gets a emotional reaction. So this is not unique in that sense. This is how humans tick Right Now.
Speaker 2:Why does this story matter? I think you throw an element of not only a power couple, a black power couple that we've heard is living with an open relationship, or they're. They found a unique way, you know, to be married and to have children and to have those children thrive like and they're in the public eye and they have all this money and you know what does it mean to be that successful? Oh, they must have sold themselves out to the devil. They'll do anything for a dollar, like all these projections come up for us that are witnessing something that we're really inspired by.
Speaker 2:We're just not that close to it to understand at the seat they sit in, but it's very easy to take away what it means to be human when they're surrounded and decorated with all these things we wish we had. And I'm speaking very in a lot of generalities. But we look at them and there's almost an envy like, wow, they got all that money. Wow, look at their kids, oh yeah, but look at how she loves them. Oh, look at what Will's going through. Again, we're speaking.
Speaker 1:I don't want to sign up for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I ain't going to sign up for that. See, that's why I don't want all that money. See, let me get out of my head. They start doing weird stuff and they start doing this and that, and these are all just projections and judgments from pain. That's informing us about our own life that you can't even see them clearly, because they remind you of a failed relationship or a trigger or something that you've experienced or someone that has been connected to you that makes you think of certain things, and it really doesn't have anything to do with them. But these are why these stories come about and why they get our attention because they remind us about ourselves and about the things that we're going through, that we don't necessarily like or want to, but they become our out. It becomes a scapegoat to release all that tension and disappointment that may have come from a love story that didn't go the way we wanted it, and so it's very easy to sit back, especially when we see them as privilege. For some reason, when we start to attach millions and billions of dollars to people, we no longer see them as human, and they're human. They are and we have created them in many ways. Because we support. We support the narratives.
Speaker 2:I would actually be questioning why, jada, if this was a part of Jada's story, why she didn't hold on to this. What you mean? You can write a book about this and drop it and do all kinds of things to make some money off of this. Oh voila, that's what we did, what we would all expect someone around us to do, that's in the business, to make money. And so again, what all that means and why it matters. What matters are great deal, because we're just seeing us played out in reality, and I want to say us, us as humans. We're seeing ourselves, we're looking at the mirror. It just so happens to be willing, jada, that have emerged as the topic that we get to participate in seeing ourselves, and sometimes we don't like what we see, which causes the drama and creates the controversy from how we engage in this particular topic.
Speaker 1:If that makes sense? Yeah, no, it does, and I actually think that that moves us into what does this say about the power of constructs? Because I think that the actual, the biggest villain here is the construct of perfection, absolutely. That, like that's the biggest villain, is the construct of perfection, like what? What we'll want to Jada see was what he did in the pursuit of happiness. Absolutely, I got my son. He did have this brilliant performance. I have this brilliant performance. This, this crazy. Like who, who could even write that, having a movie where your passion is movie, you got your son in the movie and the movie does well, right? Well then he talked about when they did. What was the movie called? Was called last day on earth or something, earth where him and his son were in an in bomb and his son protected him.
Speaker 1:The fact that we can't even remember the name, and I saw that trash movie and I can't remember the name, right, but it's like I want to keep this perfection moving. I remember Will Smith when they were first, when he first hopped up on IG. See, this is what's interesting. I'm looking at him and his family move in the videos that he they were doing. How was just so? It was so much better than everybody else, right? A projecting this perfection that even in our failure, even in our shortcomings, there's something perfect about that right and trying to fit into that thing. You're only going to be able to fit into so long because we're not perfect. And what's interesting is we all know that. Yet when we see somebody fall, we want to act like it's big news.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so weird to me yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean it's even the word fall right, the religious were fall. Oh, he fell from grace. Like I don't get it, guys. Like it's in our DNA allegedly like to go against what is right. Like it's just in our DNA to rebel or to do things differently, or however you want to look at it. Yeah, so to me, what's interesting about this is the big. To me, the big constructs are perfection. And then even this rift over what family is and what marriage is that construct? Yeah, like, why was it so important that you had to be married? What was it about that that pushed you and the family into the public eye? And a construct that, based on what we've been seeing, neither one of you guys were actually really even down with. Like, why, why participate in that? And I think that that says a lot about us in, like, we know what we need to see in entertainment. Like I know what they need to see, but we also know that it's not sustainable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, which makes I mean now you're pushing on a lot of really good information or perspective the construct of marriage and how that plays out when you're in the public eye, and we'll I mean Jada had spoke about this recently in her interviews leading up to the release of her book about they didn't come out publicly and talk about this separation because they weren't ready for it, to have the world in their business. Then that's so human, it's like. It's just like I know there's an expectation that you guys want us to maintain, but we're struggling to maintain it and now we're going to make some decisions about what gets released and what doesn't get released. I've actually that was also funny about this is I've even watched on this other side about how Jay-Z and Beyonce have moved since it, and it's not even I know it's been confirmed, but has it been confirmed, confirmed that Jay-Z stepped out on Beyonce? She did it in a very, but hold on, listen to me she did it in a very-.
Speaker 2:You talking about the Lemonade album. The Lemonade album she did it in a very again. It's still open for-.
Speaker 1:The elevator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. No, it all makes sense. All of them connect right, right, yeah, but that elevator moment was not a controlled moment. That just that happened by happenstance. That was on the humbug, that was a humbug, right. But my point is is the Lemonade Jay-Z's 444 album, the kind of indirect conversation that has emerged from that particular act or maybe there's been many acts, I don't know, but they have taken a route to not talk about it they're not calling Gail or Oprah and say, hey, we ready to come clean, we ready to watch no, they're making too much money.
Speaker 1:But. I'm saying Beyonce got people in the club talking about all the single ladies and she's taken yeah no.
Speaker 2:I know she was taking I'm just saying the difference of how someone as equally you could say as successful, in their way-. Absolutely. Have navigated infidelity have navigated. What an entanglement or whatever has emerged from that union or the constructive marriage and I think Beyonce and Jay-Z benefit more at least now being seen as this resilient power couple that even infidelity could not destroy. That was an important narrative for them to continue to maintain.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think the narrative is and another powerful construct is just being in partnership. Like I see, people move and there are places where having a partner on your arm matters Absolutely. It still matters here, it still matters to us, and there's also things that show that having a partner on your arm increases wealth, increases your health increases-. Yeah, absolutely. There's just another accountability partner right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And so I think that, yeah, it looks better to the public, regardless of what message you are pushing. I don't care about the message that you're pushing, like all the single ladies, and don't want no scrub and all this stuff that you can't even connect to, like you're not even wherever you're going, there are no scrubs. B. We know that these are our anthems, right? So I just I look at it and I'm like how did this woman come out with a whole album when they're like, are they okay? And literally they're in a back room counting their money. So what is important to us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll tell you this regardless of what they're projecting.
Speaker 1:There's someone in their lives that they are loving, though there's somebody in their lives that they are connected to. I don't care what you project. Like you said, we're all human. We all need love. We all need to be connected to somebody. Somebody's connected to somebody. Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:No, you're real. Esther Perrell talks about this a lot, meaning that you can have a partner that you're doing life with and then there's also another partner that you're in love with and that isn't always the same person, and I think that that and she's been therapists and you know, she's like, she's seen over a thousand couples.
Speaker 4:Right right.
Speaker 1:She's not coming with some weird stuff.
Speaker 2:She's just like I've literally watched this happen in my practice, where the complexities of having someone else be supplement to a gap or a missing part of your primary relationship, and sometimes we don't want to frame it like that. It might sound too clinical, but it is the reality that there is oftentimes supplements to the primary relationship and it is very difficult for people to grapple with that consciously. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:We love to still be kept in the dark about those kind of things because we get to play the victim. We get to say, well, I didn't know, and how could you do this to me? And it rarely is about you. It's about how do we get above you needing to be someone's end, all be all, when that is unreal. That's actually unrealistic. What's actually realistic is what Jada and Will have done, which is the weight of the construct, was too much to continue to carry on in the way that we traditionally wanted them to carry on. In some ways they were that Jada and Will love that J Cole lyric. I guess he's blanking that lyric out now because now people are disappointed Some ways. People are disappointed that the fairy tale of what it meant to be in love doesn't look like the Disney story Is a fairy tale, right?
Speaker 1:See? This is the thing, yeah, is what do you expect, like, seriously, and why do you expect something that you can't create for yourself? Say that again. Why do you expect something that you cannot create for yourself? Like, we will look at them and we will say it needs to look perfect, and I bet you a lot of these people that are saying it needs to look perfect. If you look at their lives, you cannot find perfection, absolutely not. So why do I expect something from you that I can't create myself, like upset, that you couldn't hold this standard, and this happens for a lot of people on a lot of different levels.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Dad, you want me to do this this way. Look at how you did it. Nobody wants to hear that. Mom, I understand that you want me to wait till I get married. You don't want me to have a baby before I'm married, but you have me, an 18, mom, and I think we're doing okay. Like it's interesting, like I've had to make a shift, even with my own kids, not that I'm just gonna let them do whatever they wanna do, but making space for their humanity, yeah, so that they can be in relationship with me. Because if all I'm doing is projecting which I do this to myself because I'm the toughest on myself but if all I'm doing is projecting an unrealistic now, you can be perfect in a moment. Don't get me wrong. We have perfect moments and that's part of the problem. We have moments where we're perfect, but to sustain a life of perfection, what does that look like? And if I'm moving you and judging you based on this is how it needs to look. And I wasn't even able to be able to create that longterm, what am I doing to you? I'm just reinforcing this narrative that perfection exists and you need to move for it.
Speaker 1:One of my sons, I'll say one of my sons. I got twin boys, but one of my sons, so there's a little bit of anonymity. So he's like Dad, I don't wanna be second. Like, if I can't be first, I don't, why am I here, what am I doing? And oh, that kind of it hurt me, Because on one hand, I'm like yeah, yeah, you gonna win some shit, and on the other hand, I'm like man, but that you could be a slave to that too and I don't want you to take that on. Baby boy, Like I don't take that on and I'm sitting here telling him not to take on something that I've been wrestling with for four decades.
Speaker 4:It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. What comes up for me, even when you say that is, I mean it's like we don't wanna fail, we don't wanna be the individual that loses or misses out on something. And so when we look at our kids, we're often like, how do I put them in a position to be in a space to have what I didn't have? Because then that is success, right. And then we'll look at our even our celebrity cultures and we're like, well, they got all the money, they got all this. Don't destroy that family, keep it looking the way we want it to look, even if it's very rare for it to continue to look the way it looks. Give us something to hope for. And other couples that come up the Obamas, and I think Steph Curry and his wife are another example of this fairy tale story, not to say there's anything wrong with that. If that's their people in there in love and they rocking with their person, great. But just know that all of that is for a season.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes people are in relationships and they are not in love. They've just found a way to make it work for the sake of the resources or the people attached to that commitment, and that's okay too. Then it's okay for people to be like well, I want more, I want to live, I want to start over, I want to find a new partner. That's okay too, and what I've learned about this Jada and Will situation is stay out of married folks business, because it is okay for them to go through what they're going through publicly and then use your attention to monetize it for the betterment of whose family? Their own, because there's a certain amount of pain they're paying Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And they are consciously picking the pain that will earn them the right or the income to continue to fill the wealth, or whatever it is they're chasing as a family unit, even with something as someone would classify as disappointing, as infidelity can be, or Will Smith's approach to almost, in some ways, not listening to the desires of his wife. However, that all shakes out, it is not. What they're doing is not unique. It's very appropriate for married couples to have this spill and this spin-out of different desires. It just so happens we got a front row seat to it. In some ways, they've caused the pain and inflicted the attention on themselves, and they're very adept and smart at how to maximize the moment, which is what they're doing, which I would expect any smart business person to do that's in their position.
Speaker 1:And I would add to that there are new moves. There's nothing that you're seeing that Will and Jade have done, that ain't someone hasn't done in a burrow in New York or on a farm in. Indiana or whatever, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:There are no new moves, there's nothing that they can do, that's going to prove that they're not human.
Speaker 2:Whatever they've done, there is nothing. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on, hold on, because that's a bar.
Speaker 1:Say that again, bro. There is nothing that they can do that proves they're not human, like nothing. We just watching them Like we do this, like they're, so they're not different. They're not, they're not different. And what we're watching is we're really watching ourselves Absolutely and judging ourselves Absolutely and having an opinion informed by ourselves. Yep, right. And it's interesting a lot of times that people with the most pain are the loudest, you know, and the ones that have all the solutions for everyone else.
Speaker 1:But that's why, you know, sometimes Josh will literally ask me a question or want some, some advice in the area, and I'll be telling you I'll be like I don't know if I can get advice in that area because I'll be like man that's what I did really, and you always quick to tell me no, bro, like you can be human, you can make a mistake in an area and still have really sound advice, because sometimes I'm like man I don't want to be a hypocrite, but the hypocrisy is a part of it Like there's nothing that I'm going to do to prove that I'm not human.
Speaker 1:So whatever you see is a microcosm whether it's sports, entertainment, music is a microcosm of what we are already doing Absolutely, and maybe just don't want to admit Absolutely, like, like they're forcing us to actually look at what we deem as the ugly parts of ourselves. You don't like it, but they're being human. I got a question for you, you, josh, as we wrap this up. Yeah, and maybe you don't believe that they were under any, but what kind of pressure were the Smiths under? Keeping the secret up, I guess for the last, you know, seven years, and why would they subject themselves to it with everything that we know, like, what can we take away from you know the pressure that they were under, why they subjected themselves to it? What does that say about us?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well. So what comes up when I think about even the pressure that I have insight from even reading Will's book. There's always been this constant and he reminds me, I think, of why I connect to Will Smith. Also is he reminds me of this the nice guy narrative. Yeah Right, he. He battled it when he was in the rap scene, buddy, he won't cuss, he won't cuss, he's family friendly. And then that gets amplified with this opportunity to be on Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which is a very inspiring and rich thing, like showcasing black excellence Iconic, yeah, iconic. Right Again, the nice guy.
Speaker 1:And then, what did they do when they remade it, which is interesting, when they remade the Fresh Prince?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you get a. You get a little bit more of a Fresh Prince was a little bit more of an edge. Little grit, little grit to him, you know, and they're tackling issues on that in a way that I think matches our modern day realities in many ways. But I think Will Smith I know Will Smith has been grappling with this sense of being a coward, which is connected to the abuse his father used to put on his mom and his only way to combat that was to be the funny guy. Yeah, humor To strike with humor. I've been doing that for a while now with second nature and I think even at the height of his pain, he was finding ways to continue to distract with humor and being the funny guy and being the nice guy, being the guy that looked like he had it all together with his family, from what we could see. So the pressure to maintain an inauthentic presentation to the masses around this character that he created crushed him. That slap to Chris Rock didn't happen in the moment.
Speaker 1:Absolutely not. That was that. Shit was building, that had been brewing, and building and stewing.
Speaker 2:We're not. We're actually not even together, which is going to piss me off even more, but I want to be together. I want us to be together. I want us I don't know who separate, whose decision it was for them to separate?
Speaker 4:or whatever it was.
Speaker 2:But even that was all brewing and stewing inside of them. And Chris Rock, collateral damage Yep, collateral damage he had actually he really had nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with it. He was the camel. The straw that broke the camel's back in the moment.
Speaker 1:And people don't get that Right. It's like when that dude, when the person finally snaps, yeah, all too often we would be on the other side of some shit, that really we might be a part of the catalyst, but it's not, it's not us, it's not you know, and it's tough because you're still going to take it personally, right, you're still going to absolutely, but it isn't personal.
Speaker 2:No, it had nothing to do with Chris Rock.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. He just he was in front of a moving train at the wrong time. Like this train was moving, somebody was going to get this work, yep.
Speaker 1:You know and probably the safest thing was that it happened on live television. That comment happens in an alley, in a bar, like, where there is no security, where there is no expectation. I mean, again, a human being gets to a space where now what? But, like you said, you picked your pain. Yeah, you picked your route. You projected what you wanted to project and when that projection fails because you're human, yep, then what you got to deal with the pieces? Yeah, you've been there, done that. Like you got to deal with the pieces. You're out here projecting perfection, you're not perfect Everybody bought into it.
Speaker 1:Yep, and now the truth that you're human comes out, and you know what? No, you actually are a part of what people are saying, because it's what you projected. Yeah, because there was something in it for you to project that Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Totally, absolutely. And in a. Just to wrap that point up, if we as humans could understand that more inclusively, there would be much more grace administered to folks that feel the pressure to need to maintain the illusion of perfection what it means to be a good person, right? Another story that I'll borrow really quickly is the night Martin Luther King was assassinated. Yes, his mistress was in another room.
Speaker 1:Now, why do you want to bring people up into that history? You know they teaching that People don't know that. You want to bring that up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he dealt with his own litany of mental health illness and problem. Never document it. You just got to put yourself in a position of an early 30s. Been on the public scene since he was in his mid 20s, leading a civil. Now we have this language now in his hindsight, but leading one of the most courageous movements of our time Period, Consume with being away from home, still learning about who he is, but whisked into the spotlight and then he's not human.
Speaker 1:No, he can't be.
Speaker 2:His humanity has to show up.
Speaker 1:I'll triple down on that. The moment you said that, there were people in the audience that did not know that, that instantly lost respect for him, that literally were like, oh yeah, he wanted you can't. There are certain areas where, the moment they even say this, I can forget how the comment goes or the saying goes but don't ever meet your heroes, like that whole thing. What do you mean? Don't meet your hero?
Speaker 2:We love to put people, especially people that have more money or have a title or have more prestige or more recesses. Somehow they end up on a pedestal and there's not. No, somehow we know exactly how we get them there. We put them there because they remind us about what we're not and we want them to be inspired about what we can be, and that typically is attached to okay, they got the family, they got the money, they can travel where they want, they got the title, they have influence, they have all these things that I wish I had. Oh my God, you're my hero In a minute. They disappoint us. Now they're off the pedestal and we go looking for another person to replace them with or another family to replace them with.
Speaker 1:Don't forget, we celebrate too. We have a whole another Thanksgiving when they come off that pedestal, because then it reminds us that, just like we are, Absolutely Right. Like, let's celebrate, let's talk about it. Yeah, Because they're just like. Well, they were just like you. What are you talking about? At least they had the courage to go after something.
Speaker 2:See, now that is where we need to end, right there. It is regardless of what it means to be human that people are deciding not to be stagnant or resentful or complacent with what it means to be human. Oh well, if we're just the same, yeah, we're the same, but we're not the same, because the difference between me and you is not you specifically, but folks that have find tremendous success or just find even the successes in their own life is I did not let my human experience stop me in the pursuit of my happiness, and that's going to come with making mistakes, disappointing people, being on another person's pedestal and being on another person's non pedestal, being in being in pursuit of my excellence or my dream, while disappointing others and saying, oh, you should move this way, you should do it that way. When you decide who you want to be and you pursue what it is that you want to pursue, you do not give a fuck with people, think and I think Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are an example of in spite of, we move forward anyway. Oh, you thought you had me, doesn't matter, I still got your attention Right and we fail oftentimes in our own lives, but we don't want to make the so-called wrong move or disappoint this or disappoint that.
Speaker 2:So we stay stuck. And then we're resentful that we look up and so much time has passed and we haven't lived not one ounce of a dream that we have. We're afraid to take the risk, we're afraid to shoot our shot, regardless of what it is, from romantic to professional, to being able to relocate and live in a different part of the world, being stopped, because I'm too afraid of what people are going to say about me. So then I won't say anything at all. Jada and Will aren't living like that. If anything, we should be inspired by their public ability to live unhinged, unbothered, unapologetic. Yeah, I'm Mary DeWil Smith. I love Tupac. I'm dropping a book. Are you interested? You're going to buy it and, by the way, I'll probably do another red table talk and give you some more tea and have the haters come out of nowhere and still talk about me and you're going to demonize me and guess what?
Speaker 1:I do not care, because I found peace in being me Right, because it wasn't just August. Oh, those three or four of his friends, oh, at the same time.
Speaker 4:Oh God, oh God, oh father.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Jada.
Speaker 2:Jada. Jada know what she's doing. I'm a fan.
Speaker 1:See, and I said Jaden the son.
Speaker 2:Oh Jada, my bad yeah.
Speaker 1:Pray for him to just pay hands on my.
Speaker 2:Just pay hands on our own family, yeah yeah, pray for healing, pray for healing, pray for healing. Yeah, yeah, an inspiring couple, to say the least, and I know that might be strange for some people to say that, given all this stuff that has come out by design. By the way, this has been very intentional even though, and so new moves.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No new moves. No new moves. Even the so-called mistake of hitting Chris Rock or letting this stuff come out into the media, that, oh my God, can you believe it? They this, that and the other.
Speaker 1:And they have done. People have been hitting people at functions since day one At the barbecue last year at the Fourth of July the uncle guy hit Right Right Somebody just wasn't turning prime time during the Oscars. Right. People have been finding out that they have cousins left and right, brothers and sisters left and right since the beginning. Absolutely Like these are. No. They're no new moves, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know what I'm saying? That's real talk, bro, Like they're no new moves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hopefully there's not a lot of moms out here sleeping with their son's friends. I don't know, maybe I don't know, but it's not a new move. It's not a new move, not a new move. I would be distraught, though, if I found out that Bridget Marie, my mother oh God, what am I?
Speaker 4:I'm fighting everybody. Everybody's getting it today. That's crazy, bro. Do you remember the movie American Pie? See, I'm done with you. Yeah, I.
Speaker 2:And we're watching that. Think about how ingrained this is. We're not even batting the eye.
Speaker 1:We're letting Stifler's mom off the hook, but we want to assassinate Jada.
Speaker 4:And we want to know. This is crazy, myself included.
Speaker 2:Well, Jada got assassinated, but it was very delicate assassination process.
Speaker 1:No, I'm saying we didn't do more to assassinate her.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But I didn't even think about Stifler's mom she got a whole path, maybe because it's a movie.
Speaker 2:But she got a whole path, but again, art imitates light. I mean it's a whole, it's a narrative.
Speaker 1:Bro, I'm not going to even go, I already know where you're going and we just going to stop.
Speaker 4:We're going to stop there before we lose. This audience is about to get real. We're about to galvanize the audience here in a minute, but where are you about to go? I've been stopping before you get there. Yeah, All the movies.
Speaker 2:How Stella Gotta Grew Back. All of them play. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 1:You know older woman and that's empowering.
Speaker 2:Looking up with a younger man.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's empowering.
Speaker 2:But let it be the opposite way. The minute you flip it, it's something else. Now the older man is the predator.
Speaker 4:Super predator.
Speaker 1:But we again, we pay a part in that, because if some debonair 27-year-old teacher with a six-pack you know what I'm saying got his chain out of class, you're like, oh man, I like him. I'm feeling this guy this is named Raul, if you found out, raul is taking Charlie out to lunch. Not only are you going on a mission, I'm coming down to Portland for a trip we're just going to, we're going to step to Raul and again we take it the other way, and it's Tyson and his teacher, sophie. Are we having that meeting? I don't know. I don't know what we're doing Now. Maybe Amber? Amber is going down there for sure. Yeah, you probably have to try to stop Amber, but we're not going down to the school for that.
Speaker 2:Not at all, bro. I mean not at all. What is that?
Speaker 1:about what is that about? Same scenario we just swapped sexes and we go from ready to kill somebody to like I see like a little gleaming your eye, like the audience can't see it, but I see it. I see it. I'm a proud dad.
Speaker 2:at that point I'm like, yeah, my god. You know, I'm not going to out leak or hourly condone it, but you like, I feel it, and I'm just being honest because then I think about what if Jada? Think about what if Jada walked on stage and smacked Viola Davis? Oh, what do we give you? What's?
Speaker 1:the black. No, no, no, no, no, no. You can't do that.
Speaker 2:No, no, let's get a Tiffany.
Speaker 4:Haddish over makes a joke about something about we'll do it.
Speaker 1:Keep my, keep my God, keep my husband's name out your mouth. Oh, she's our hero. She's literally our hero. If you switch that to a woman coming in defending her man about something you had to say, maybe like Queens, this is, this, is this is you need to look at this. I'm not saying replicated, but I'm saying there's something to be learned here. Wouldn't?
Speaker 2:we, though, and will Smith drops his book called Worthy and spills the T on his love affair that he had with Aliyah and how he loves her so much, and that Jada and I haven't even been together physically since 2016, 2019, whenever the separation supposedly happened. Yeah, that was that, that was that narrative, that was going to bomb because again and and, and he was caught in an entanglement when one of Willow's friends yeah this guy doesn't even make it to the. He doesn't even make it to the Oscar.
Speaker 1:No, the book doesn't make it to publishing. It's going to bomb. But it doesn't work the other way.
Speaker 2:So it's again, bro, it's. This is just a great mirror of the world ain't fair. The world we live in, and it's not fair.
Speaker 1:And it is what it is. It is what it is.
Speaker 1:So you've got to just you've got to either deal like I was talking. I was talking to my son last night and I'm like you know, if you want to be great, you're already great, it's already inside of you, you're doing things right. You just got to keep doing hard things and proven to yourself that you could, that you can do them. That that's where your confidence I can give you a certain amount of confidence as a father, but that real deep and seated confidence is going to come from you doing something for you.
Speaker 1:100 and I can prime the environment for that? Yeah, but it's going to. I can't even give you it. I can give you this message, though Absolutely Figure out what the hardest thing in your life is and do it consistently. Yeah, and that's what's going to give you the confidence. Son, right, yeah, and so what we can say is the world isn't fair, but everybody has their hard thing, absolutely. And are you going to choose your hard thing and fight through it and change and evolve, because that's really all we're talking about doing? Is that we're going to continue to evolve, or are you going to do like most of us, which is, sit on the sidelines, be comfortable and have an opinion about things that people are doing that we don't have the courage to do?
Speaker 2:And you're not doing anything right. It's stewing in your resentment and your inability to make a decision because you overthink, you're trying to control outcomes, because you're so attached to what people think about the decisions you make. You can't even make your own decision without this over concern or consideration that you'll be rejected by other people that have such power in your life. At some point you have to move, and move courageously towards what you want, or, if not, you just let your life continue to dwindle by until you think, oh, 20 years ago, I wish I had it Right.
Speaker 2:And I think our celebrities in many ways inspire us about, regardless of if your life is perfect or not. They found their thing, yeah, and they relentlessly pursued that thing, and it has created tremendous amount of success and wealth for them, and I think that that inspires many of us, and we have a lot of hate for that. Are you lean into your purpose or find your way in the mess that you created or the situations that you were born into and come out of that creating a different narrative than what was set out for you? For many of us, that will fall into the trap of not making courageous and brave decisions. We just sit back idly and watch our time pass before we do anything about it. Next thing we know is too late. So um, yeah.
Speaker 1:Let me add to that. I will say this I think this is why it's so tough for people you know from their late 30s. I'll just say on yeah Is because there was a time in your life where you felt like you had all the time in the world and the world was your oyster you, but you had all the time in the world. And then you get to your late 30s, your 40s, mid 40s, and you realize you don't have all the time in the world, but you still have energy, and it's that conflict that now I understand that I do not have all the time in the world. I got the energy to do something, or I have the ability to get the energy. I can go work out, I can refine my mind. I still have it, yeah, so that I can get what I want, or I can continue doing what I'm doing and know that I don't have all the time.
Speaker 1:It's the fact is, when we respect time that we actually get into this funk, because we realize we either have to do something about this or do it. We're dealing with the regret that is directly connected to our in decision Right. Either way, though, we're going to deal with the pain, whether it's the pain of the pursuit or the pain of sitting. Still, one way or the other, we're going to deal with the pain the pain of the pursuit, of the pain of the pause.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2:I like that, just waiting for someone. No one's coming to press play for you. No one's coming to hit the fast forward button, no one's hitting the rewind button. That's for damn sure Right. So even in the pause, time still ticks. And if we know anything about our media equipment, that pause button you leave it on long enough, it eventually plays automatically. Yep, and so movement like it's not up to us. Change is inevitable. Movement is inevitable. Time is still passing. Whether we're trying to pause or not, making so-called mistakes or not.
Speaker 2:That, in its design, will move you on. You get to decide consciously and we talk about this all the time what are you going to spend your time doing? Mm, hmm, because the pain is inevitable, the sufferings option you get to pick. And so, again, tying it back to this will and jada story again becomes just a window and a mirror to look at, to face the our own human condition. And these folks are living out loud. They're living courageously and boldly, regardless of you agree with them or not, and it should inspire you.
Speaker 2:To what truth? Or you still? What do you still up under? What construct are you up under? And you're just accepting it because it's just easier to do so. Yet you're miserable and you, you, you find it very difficult to muster up any energy to go after what it is that you really want, because fair and rejection, fear and rejection is what you do not want to face. We got to turn the volume down on that and lean more into what it means to be brave, to live your authentic self, and I mean, at the end of the day, that's what we're promoting, what that's what we're preaching, that's what we want people to be inspired to do. And anyway, these situations come up to remind us about our own pursuit of happiness, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope you enjoyed episode 42. Yeah, take it out. Podcast. Happy anniversary, King. Happy anniversary, Okay. Yeah to all the ferro.
Speaker 4:All the ferro.
Speaker 2:I met out there in Egypt land, you know, shout out to my that was calling me cousin African blood. You, you, one of us, my friend, you know all that. In the words in the words of the Arab community out there Chikran, thank you for joining, I'm so dead with you.
Speaker 1:I'm so happy. I called ahead of time and told my people to treat you right Like I'm so happy.
Speaker 4:My guy had a great time.
Speaker 2:The cradle of ancient civilization was right there and we all emerged in some shape or fashion from that particular region of the world. So just going back to pay homage, my guy, to the sands, to the sands, well I want to thank you, yes, making this a memorable ride.
Speaker 1:I want to thank our audience for constantly tuning in and sharing. You can continue to support us by listening, of course, downloading, sharing and following us on our social media platforms. Here at the take it out podcast, we still want to hear what you know. You want to hear and feedback as a gift, so your five stars reviews would be very much appreciated. Very, very, very appropriate I slipped that in appropriate Absolutely, absolutely. But I love you, king. If you need anything, you know I'm here and let's continue this.
Speaker 2:Hey, man, keep taking it off. Man, I think I'm down to my socks, so stupid.
