Transform Your Future with Eddie Isin

The Power of Faith: Building Resilience in the Face of Adversity Ep 26

• Eddie Isin

Share episode

Send Eddie a Text Message

Join our Newsletter and visit TransformYourFuture.com where I write about reinvention, identity and personal growth.

Welcome to Episode 26 of the "Transform Your Future" podcast. I'm your host, Eddie Isin, and today we have an extraordinary guest whose journey from adversity to triumph will inspire you to harness the power of faith and resilience in your own life. In this episode, we sit down with Ahmard Vital, a motivational speaker, author, and coach who has turned life's toughest challenges into powerful lessons and a mission to uplift others.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 - Introduction

  • Welcome back to "Transform Your Future." Eddie introduces Ahmard Vital, highlighting his background as a motivational speaker, author, and mentor.

05:00 - The Catalyst for Change

  • Ahmard discusses the painful breakup that plunged him into depression and how he turned to personal and spiritual development as a lifeline.

10:00 - Writing "Awaken the Baller Within"

  • Ahmard talks about the inspiration behind his first book, "Awaken the Baller Within," which combines his love for sports with powerful principles of success and leadership. 

15:00 - Turning Tragedy into Triumph

  • A pivotal moment: Ahmard shares the profound impact of his father's sudden death, which occurred shortly after his book's release. He describes the spiritual awakening he experienced during this period and how it led to his second book, "I Am More Than Enough."

20:00 - The Journey of Public Speaking

  • Humility and servant leadership: Ahmard recounts his early days of public speaking, where he often spoke to small audiences. He emphasizes the importance of showing up fully, regardless of the size of the audience, and how these experiences shaped his approach to motivational speaking.

25:00 - Faith and Resilience

  • Ahmard delves into the role of faith in building resilience. He discusses how his unwavering faith helped him navigate life's toughest challenges and how listeners can cultivate a similar resilience to face their own obstacles.

30:00 - Empowering the Next Generation

  • Ahmard’s mission: Through youth ministry and speaking engagements, Ahmard mentors young men, helping them navigate life's challenges with faith and resilience. 

35:00 - Practical Advice for Listeners

  • Ahmard offers practical advice for those struggling with personal setbacks. He emphasizes the power of faith, determination, and the right mindset in transforming one's future.

40:00 - Conclusion

  • Eddie wraps up the episode, highlighting the key takeaways from Ahmard’s journey and encouraging listeners to apply these lessons in their own lives. 

Key Quotes:

  • "In our darkest moments, we often find the greatest opportunities for growth. Faith is the foundation that helps us build resilience and turn adversity into triumph."

Resources Mentioned:

Subscribe to Transform Your Future Newsletter Where Eddie writes about personal development, reinvent & identity: http://transformyourfuture.com

And I'm in the parking lot and I'm screaming, I'm screaming to God and I'm upset and I'm like, look, you know what I asked you for? What's going on? Did you not hear me? And so I'm crying and I sweat and all this stuff. And I remember hearing the voice of God speak to me and I said, my only best was for my father to walk out of this hospital. And the voice of God spoke to me and said, he's walking out of here as you. He's given you all the values. He's given you all the characteristics. He's given you all the blessings you could ever need. Now I need you to go out there and be who your heavenly father and earthly father called you to be. And it was like a spiritual heart attack just smacked me right there in my chest. And the words I remember coming from that is You are always more than enough. And so I am more than enough is a recap of my father died from Awaken the baller within. And so that all was created from that and I wrote it is a very short book and I came up with three points for it and ended up putting it out there. It is been a book that ended up doing quite well. Papaya and hello all and welcome to another episode of Transform Your Future with me, Eddie Eisen, where I sit down with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and high achievers as they identify areas I can improve on and guide me to further my self-improvement practice. For more information and insights, join my newsletter@transformyourfuture.com where I write about reinvention, personal growth and identity. If you like the show, you'll love the content on our website. We want to hear from you. Let us know how we can improve your listening experience. Please reach out to us through our website, your podcast app comment, or just text me directly at 3 7 2 2 1 4 1 7. I'm serious. I really want to hear from you in this episode, episode 26 of Transform Your Future, the Power of Faith, building Resilience In The Face of Adversity. My guest today is Ahad vital author, speaker, and coach, whose journey from personal tragedy to profound transformation will inspire us to overcome our own challenges. Ahad and I discuss how he turned life's toughest moments into powerful lessons and a mission to inspire others. We discussed transforming pain into purpose and tragedy to triumph all while we talk about faith, spirituality, and spiritual growth. A major turning point in Ahmad's life was the sudden death of his father, which happened shortly after his first book. The Baller Within after that was published, his father had died. Now, this tragic event could have derailed anyone, but instead it sparked our Maud's reinvention engine towards a deeper spiritual growth. His second book, I Am More Than Enough is a testament to his belief in his own self-worth and the values his father instilled in him. Now whether you're facing a personal setback, seeking motivation to pursue your dreams or looking for ways to deepen your faith, or you just want to stay in your zone of personal growth, then this episode is for you. Ahad Vitale story is a powerful reminder that we are all more than enough and that with faith determination and the right mindset, we can transform our future. Welcome rad. Thank you for coming on. Transform Your Future. We've been talking a little bit. I want to kind of just jump right in. What was it that got you to start that first book? Let's talk about that. My first book, waking The Ball Within End. How can I forget that? It was written at a time of tragedy for me, but we always know that gold is not made in an easy process. And so neither was that book. And so basically during that time I was going through a bit of transformation in my life, bad breakup, but I also was having a lot of success. I moved into the house I'm in right now at the age of 29, had everything going on in my life, but for some reason after the breakup I was depressed and I didn't know what to do. And I remember being in my front room talking with God and saying, I thought I was doing things right, but I don't feel like I'm doing this thing called life well. So how about I do things your way? I went on a complete transformational journey, got a mentor into my life, got some spiritual development in my life, got some personal development in my life, started reading more books, obviously reading the Bible, reading books like Thinking Grow Rich Reading books Who Moved My Cheese Richest Man in Babylon. I mean if I flip this camera around, you'll see the shelves. I know I see yours behind there and we keep a nice little stash of books back there. And I just remember I got this new personal and spiritual development and I'm really diving in deep and understanding where my faith is, but I'm also a jock and a sports writer, so can I find a way to bring those two together? And that's what awakening the baller within ended up becoming. So basically the same thing Napoleon Hill did with Think and Grow Rich interviewing entrepreneurs, businessmen, and high achieving people. I did that with athletes who were playing football at the highest level in college. And so I did the interviews with 'em, sat down with 'em for hours and asking 'em a question, asking 'em about leadership, asking 'em about dedication, asking them their skillset, their preparation and dream building goal setting in a relentless pursuit to be the best was sort of the common denominator across the board. I mean, I probably could have wrote two or three thinking of awake the ball with ends, but I wanted to keep it concise because I'm an ex jock and I want to write books where athletes will actually read them because I was a guy who didn't like to read. So therefore I want to make books to where it's understandable and someone who doesn't like to read can get the concepts they need out of it. And so what I understood was is that all those guys played major college football, A percentage of them, a small percentage. That's just how it works. A small percentage of 'em ended up playing in the NFL. But here's the deal, Eddie, when I went back and checked on these guys, you got to remember that book was written what, 12, 13 years ago. When you look at those guys today, I think only one or two of 'em are still in the NFL right now. But here's the deal, those guys are successful in life. What that means is that the success principles that made them great football players also made them great fathers, made them great husbands, made them great entrepreneurs, made them great in business. All these guys are rocking it out right now, man. I have an actor. I got a guy who's doing construction work out in Austin. I got a guy who's running one of the biggest waste management companies here in Houston. I mean guys are all over the place. Engineers, I mean, you name it, we have it right? And it's they keep producing more beautiful and awesome producing and doing great things to be able to employ other people, which is what we need more of in this country. And so awake the ball within really set the tone for me of being manual for athletes. But what ended up happening is that their parents would buy it for the kids only to find out it has nothing to do with football. Football was just the metaphor and the language used in it, but the principles are for way more than playing sports. And so what happened after you wrote the book and everything? Did you change or transition into anything? I did. I remember after I wrote Wake the Ball up at the end, I was with my mentor and we were at our church service and I was just like, I just wrote this book, man, it's pretty good. A couple people like it. And I was like, I want to start moving. And he's like, the way the best to sell your book is to go speak. Okay, let's try that out. And so I remember going to a coach I had known for a while and he bought 80 copies of my book to give to his team. And I said, coach, I'll come talk to your guys. You bought 80 books. And so I did my first keynote right here in the downtown area of Houston, and I spoke to 65 athletes, man. And that got me started, but it's interesting. But what ended up coming out of that was the fact that I became a keynote speaker, a motivational keynote speaker. What's funny is that my first ever paid speaking gig was at a sports camp in East Texas in Tyler, Texas, and a coach booked me for $300, and I remember he sent me a check for 150 for the deposit, and I was just like, we're doing it now. Yes, this is it. And I remember getting down there to the, I remember being on my way to the camp and the coach said, Hey man, we have to cancel. And I said, what happened? He's like, not enough guys ended up registering, so we don't have enough players really here for you to speak to. I said, look, man, you paid the deposit. I've already taken off. We're coming down there, hotel's booked, let's do it. I remember getting down there, Eddie, and I'm sitting there at this park and it's supposed to be filled with athletes. My first paid keynote was to two middle school football players on a park bench. There were more coaches and parents than student athletes. But I look back at that and I say, if this is where we're starting and we've spoken now in five countries, I think it starts in moments like that When we go into things sometimes we just undermine. It's like, well, I'm not at a certain level. It's like no one's at a certain level until you're at a certain level. And then when you get to a certain level, you're just like, man, this is pretty awesome. But it was awesome when I was doing it for two guys. It was awesome. When I spoke to 12 people over here, it was awesome when I had a no-show, all of these things end up being great moments. And when you look back at 'em, me and my manager always joke about that. I was like, man, you remember when we went out to that location and man, we thought they said it was going to be 500 and then 22 people showed up. I look at those moments, Eddie, and I think that they're part of development no different from benching 85 pounds to being able to bench 300 in a weight room. It is all part of the journey. It's all needed. I think there's a level of humility that comes with that. That's why even today when somebody's just like, Hey man, we don't have a lot of money to pay you, but we really want you here. And I'm just like, what do you have? Let's find a way to make this work. It's like if I go to a small Texas town and they have a football program of 52 kids, they're not paying me the same thing that people in Dubai pay me. I mean, come on now. And I understand, and sometimes people are like, well, sometimes you can't afford to do certain jobs because you are just worth more than that. I'm like, sometimes it's just about doing it. It's the right thing to do. It's a service and I never want to lose that. And so far I have not, and I have pledged to continue keeping that mindset, that servant leadership mindset. And so I pray that continue being in that way. So thank you for that. Yeah, that's the best way. That's the best way. And it's those situations when you show up when there's just one or two people in the seats, how you show up there is really going to dictate how you're going to show up the rest of your life. You're absolutely correct. Sometimes people will look crazy when I get through at a convention or a conference and tons of people in there, and they'll see me when everything's over, when the tape is down and you signed all the books and I'm over in the corner packing up my equipment and maybe I'll start picking up some trash off of the floor. And people are just like, what is going on? I'm just like, I am still the young man from a small town in Texas with a pen in his hand and a dream. And I never want to lose that. I never want to lose the idea where I may have to go through a city and speak in five different gigs to make a thousand dollars. I remember those days and I don't ever want to forget them, and I never want to lose the hunger that it took for me to get my first five figure check. I never want to lose that. And so as you were going along, I know when you wrote your second book, well actually before we go there, you want to talk about, I know that you had also helped with the book Awaken the Baller within to help secure scholarships and whatnot for players. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? Yeah, and that would be interestingly enough, that's another one of the things that actually ended up coming from the book because at the core man at the core, I literally am a writer. I'm a guy with a pen in his hand. I'm a sports writer. I was writing for newspapers at the age of 14. I wrote my first book when I was 11. So at my core, I'm just a writer. And so doing the sports recruiting work for Fox and Rivals and scout.com, I'm around all these top athletes. Well over time people started seeing me do that type of work and they would say, well, hey, how do I get my son recruited? And so I would put together plans because I'm talking to the guys, I'm talking to the coaches, you're trying to go to those schools. And so I started putting together that. And what I would do is I would wrap it in with mental performance coaching to where again, I'm using the waking of ball within, using the strategies I know to help you get recruited, knowing how to scout your film. Because I do this work. I'm a recruiting analyst. And so I wrapped all that up together. And yes, I have a gentleman right now, I've sent his entire family to college. I think when we were joking about it, I think I've saved his household $650,000. Wow. And we're still friends today. And of course it's bigger than just the money we share. We ended up actually becoming really good friends. And I mean, for goodness sake, the man was at my wedding. So it was a beautiful thing. But yes, working through all that time, getting a lot of guys to a lot of private schools, putting together those principles was really a great experience for me during that time. And it's funny because even now a lot of people know I did that work and I've been out of that work for some time. I still do the mental performance working, but I don't really do the recruiting work. And so what'll end up happening is they'll still book me for that. But what's happening now is people are coming to me earlier. I'm about to sign a client on, and his son is nine years old. So it's interesting how that all works out. But definitely working with those athletes all those years was a beautiful thing for me. So you second book in 2019, I am More Than Enough. Let's talk a little bit about that. What was the impetus? What was the thing that started you on this idea to write that one? So it's interesting because they all kind of tie together, awaken the ball of Within came out. And for anyone who out there who was an author, you get Well, with this company, I actually ended up getting, I think five paper bag books and 10 hardback books as part of the package. And so I remember the book came out, I think to shift in on a Saturday. No, it shipped in on a Tuesday. And my plan was to drive to go see my father that weekend, have the father son, here's your son's first book, here's your copy. What's going on, dad, let's sit in the backyard and let's just have father time. Well, the night after my 33rd birthday, my father died and it was like, no, heads up. Your father's sick. I mean, I know he had a couple of health issues, but I didn't know it was to the point where he was no longer going to be with us. And I remember driving to the hospital and I was upset and I was upset with God because I'm like, Hey, this is what I need for you to make happen, and I need you to do that because you said your word says you never leave nor forsake me. And what I asked for in your name, you you'll take care of that. For me, that was my mindset at the time. And of course I get there and I mean, I'm full of myself saying, Hey, I've already talked to God. This is done. He's going to walk out of here. And five hours later or three hours later, they were like, there's nothing else we can do. Because his vitals were just going down. And I remember they said, look, we can keep him on machines and keep him alive for a lot longer. And I looked over and I remember going to go see my father in those final moments while he was still alive. And I'm looking at him, and for the first time I felt like my father was not there in that body. He wasn't clinically dead yet, but I'm looking over at him and I didn't feel the father touch I needed knowing that he was still there with me. So I said, turn the machines off and let God's will be done. If it's meant for him to go home, fine. But I want my father to go out with dignity and I want him to fight Eddie. He ended up being alive for, I think he fought for four and a half hours. And of course then it was time for him to go, and it's about four, almost five o'clock in the morning and I'm in the parking lot and I'm screaming, I'm screaming to God and I'm upset and I'm like, look, you know what I asked you for? What's going on? Did you not hear me? And so I'm crying and I sweat and all this stuff. And I remember hearing the voice of God speak to me and I said, my only best was for my father to walk out of this hospital. The voice of God spoke to me and said, he is walking out of here as you. He's given you all the values. He's given you all the characteristics. He's given you all the blessings you could ever need. Now I need you to go out there and be who your heavenly father and earthly father called you to be. And it was like a spiritual heart attack just smacked me right there in my chest. And the words I remember coming from that is, you are always more than enough. And so I am more than enough is a recap of my father died from awaken the baller within. And so that all was created from that. And I wrote, it is a very short book, and I came up with three points for it and ended up putting it out there. It is been a book that ended up doing quite well. And I'm grateful that all my books are written from times of tragedies. They're not tragedies, they're more like awakenings. They're more of the blessings needed. And it's interesting that we're having this talk at this time because I'm actually creating curriculum to teach Sunday school tomorrow where we're talking about the purity of how you make gold. Well, us going through the struggles of life, us going through trials, us losing family members, us going through divorces, debt and death and all those things, those are all to refine us, to bring us closer to him. And so that's where I am now. So I see that. So now when I speak, I actually talk about how my father dying was the greatest blessing God could have ever given to me. Why would it not be? And so I'm more than enough focuses on your image. You're accepting what is as it is and making the changes to know that you can do something about it. So that really encapsulate the entire message of more than enough three steps to get up. I mean three steps, three ways to overcome the fear of your own reflection. And so that it's one of those like me versus me books you versus you books. And so I always look at that from that standpoint. So let's talk a little bit about what drives you each day. What is that drives you, pushes you, keeps making you go? Well, at this point in time, if you would've asked me this question three years ago, I wouldn't have this answer. But my faith drives me now. I've been through enough tragedies to know that without God, I'm not here and I'm not representing things in the way that I would be, hadn't those things not happen? And so now what drives me is for me to become, the prayer I asked for is for me to become the man I needed when I was 17 years old. What drives me is the idea of giving of myself to the point where I duplicate myself a hundred times in my lifetime. That's kind of one of my little goals I have going on right now, especially with me working in youth ministry, is I want to create, pour into enough young men to where I duplicate myself a hundred times and for them to do the same thing I did. And eventually we'll get the tipping point going to restore the order of this country and bring back values that we need in this country so desperately at this point in time. And so what drives me every morning is my faith for God to use me as an instrument, as a vessel to go out and share what is needed to pour into young men whom I work with, wherever I run into them, whether it's at church, schools, nonprofits, on the streets, in sports, it doesn't matter. That is what drives me every morning is to become more, to give more. Yeah. I have a deep faith in my life. I have real spirituality that I practice. I feel called, and I just don't understand. When I work with other people, I often ask them, do they have any faith? Do they believe in God? Do they have a higher power? It just seems like such an important thing to me in my life. I'm not sure what I would be doing or how I would exist without that. I mean, life is life, man. And failure's going to happen. Things are going to break down. People are going to get sick, people are going to die. Your house may go on fire. Mean there's all kinds of things that happen in the world that we can't control and manage. And so without that kind of deep faith to know that I got everything that I need and I'm okay and that I could reach out at any time when I need a helping hand, I just don't know how you can go on in life without something like that. It's a strange thing to me. Well, it is interesting, and we do run into those people, but that's at least according to the Christian faith, that's what we're called to do. We're called to be the light. We're called to go out. It's direct in scripture. Go out the great commission, go out and share the good news, share the gospel with everyone, with every creature it says in some translations, and go out and let your life shine so men and women can see the goodness of God through you. Let the mind of Christ be in you as well. And the beautiful thing is, is that the reason why we're called to go do that because we are that We've been been wayward. We've been in the ditch, we've been in the pig pens, we've been in the streets. We've been in the darkness. So because we know what that looks like, we know how to go there and be like, yes, I'm going to love my neighbor as myself. I mean, as I love my Lord God, right? Because why? Because this is me. I'm not above nor below you. And so I am called to bring you from where you are. Pray to my Father to be able to bless you because he's blessed me so that I want to extend that blessing onto you. So it's really an opportunity and opportunities that we probably should seek and look for every day. And so I look at that as a blessing, Eddie, that you go out and you interact with those people. And I don't think it's an accident that you run into them. That's a calling for you. In fact, is it not? You go to the hospital because something's not right? Could it be that God sent that person into your life to save them, right? I share with my teens, you may be the only Bible some of your classmates see. So you have to be the walking representative. That's why we have to stay on guard. That's why we have to stay reading. That's why we have to stay praying without ceasing. We have to stay in that at all times. That's why we have community, so that when you fall, you have your brother to reach out and say, Eddie, I love you, and I'm not going to let you fall, let you fail. In fact, lemme call the crew over. Let's wrap our arms around you and let's bring you back to who we know God is calling you to be. You're having a moment. It's okay. We love you enough because our father loves us. Yeah, I like the light and the darkness. Shine the light where it's dark. No, there is no darkness. It's just the absence of light. Remember, light is undefeated against darkness. Darkness has to flee when the light turns on. It's not my opinion. Not only is it written, but it's also, Hey, go into a room and hit the switch. Where's the darkness? It's gone. Because light defeats darkness every time. Yes. Yes. That's inspirational. So what's next for you. Right now, Eddie? I'm in a bit of a transition right now. I've really grown in my faith, and I've said this multiple times, but it's like every year it just keeps getting more. And I was actually talking to my youth pastor last night, and he was just like, man, I've just seen you grow. Every time I see you, I feel like you're growing us because I'm yearning to know more about this beautiful, awesome man named Jesus and what he's teaching me through his word. So what's next for me is I got some keynotes coming up. I'm going to start doing some recorded classes as well. I don't even know what those are going to look like. Me and a couple of guys are getting together and collaborating on a project. But I know that much of what we share today from a ministerial standpoint, I'm going to take it into the schools. And I always say it's like I'm not going to come in and slam the Bible down and be like, all right, now turn to the book of Romans. Like, no, but what I am going to do is I'm going to take the light of Christ. I'm going to take the light that is needed. And these schools, these schools are extremely dark. They're extremely negative. They're extremely, in a way, not helping our children. So I want to go, my plan is that I want to hit 50 schools, 50 and just go bring a talk of motivation, of inspiration, of empowerment, of personal responsibility, and get all these negative traits and labels out of there. I want young men to know who they are. I want young girls to value themselves. So what's next for me is to continue staying in the word, continue working with my youth ministry and going out and speaking to sports teams, speaking at nonprofits, and speaking in various churches when I'm in these. And just really just bringing a message of just hope and inspiration to people of knowing, reminding them who they are and getting people out of the victim mentality. You're not a victim. Nobody's against you. Nobody's thinking about you like that. And I want these young men and these young ladies to know whom and who they belong to and know that they have a future. A future that's bright, but it's going to come with a cost. I'm not going to sit up here and sugar coat things for you. I'm not going to tell you it's going to be easy. In fact, I'm going to tell you the opposite. I'm going to tell you that it's a grind, that it's a struggle, but it's worth it. Stop seeking happy and look for fulfillment and purpose, which is going to be my message when I go out to those places, and I want them to be committed to that. That's awesome. Well, very much needed, like you said, very much needed. Yes. Yes. Our schools and our different systems of government, it's a lot of darkness out there. It's a lot of darkness out there. That's why you starting to see a lot more people speak up and speak out and say, this is where we are. This is what I believe in. This And you'll take some marrows for it, but you know what? And my word over here says that all the time. Yes, you will be persecuted. They'll come after you. They'll try to destroy you. However, the attack they've done on our young people has gone too far. And I'm disgusted with it. I'm sick with it, but I'm not going to be like, oh, I'm just mad about it. No, I'm going to reload and I'm going to go out into the streets and I'm going to go to every coach, every teacher, every principal, every superintendent, every pastor, every business owner who says, we need a message like you. And I'm like, okay, give me a call. We're working it out. That's just where I am, man. You know how they say Covid broke people. Covid broke me in a different way. Covid broke me in the fact of how dare you go take shots against our children. How dare you put your hands on them? How dare you mess with their minds? How dare you ruin them from an educational standpoint? No, no, no. You can come after us as adults, but leave the kids out of it. So now it's like, okay, I'm their advocate. I'm their representative. I stand in their place and help them, equip them to go fight the battles in the areas where they can't be. But on this other side, I got them. And that's where my platform is. That's very worthy and big goals. Big responsibility. It is. It is. It is. But it's like, I know we weren't brought here to play small. We were called here to do great, awesome, and amazing things. And I'm still growing into that. This version of me, I don't even think this version of me existed two years ago. Sometimes you look in the mirror, I don't know if you have this moment when you're having your quiet time, it's just like, who is Eddie? Who am I? And the growth sometimes just happen, and your father's pouring into you and you just be like, alright, let's do this. And so I'm ready to do some new things. And I have not articulated all what those new things are, but I'm trusting right now. And the meetings I've had here recently are very, very, very, and I'm looking forward to in a couple of states here soon. I know that Colorado's on the list, Florida's on the list, hopefully somewhere in the Midwest, maybe Illinois or somewhere up there. But I'm looking forward to the different ventures that are on the schedule that coming in through the rest of the year. Well, how can people find out more about you and what you're doing and where are you're going to be? Well, amad vial.com is the hub for everything. And of course, just Amad Vial owns all the social media platforms, mainly on Instagram and Facebook. They can find me at any one of those locations and reach out to me. I have to see when the next conference is. I know one of 'em is still, we're still trying to confirm a few things that one will be public. But everything else is right now is private events. But some of the work I'm doing with some of my new colleagues I'm working with, there'll be some programs and there'll be some different opportunities and some workshops that will be open to the public. Some of them will be live events on location, and some of them will be live events at those locations, but available for access for others to jump in on them. So New York actually is on the list as well. There's some rescheduling going on out there. So that's the main place people can reach out to me. And I mean, tell them to tell 'em, Hey, Eddie sent me and we'll look out for them, get them free gifts, give them a coaching session, a discovery session, 45 minutes on me. On behalf of your awesome platform, Eddie, I want to be able to serve as many who are needed. And we have a big need, the need for both of us and guys like us. I mean, we got an army out here, man. And I think we're all starting to band together and realize we may not agree on everything, but you know what we do want? We want people to win. We want people to live fulfilling lives, and we want people to have a hope and a future. And so I'm grateful for a gentlemen like yourself who have stepped up and put a platform together for people We need more of this. If we can get a hundred more a day, I'd be here for it. And so me too, let's continue to band together. And. Yeah, there's just way too much negative and complaining and bad news and controversy. It's like I like things that serve me and help me and make me feel inspired and vital and make me feel like I'm on a path and I'm becoming something better. I'm doing the best I can when a sports person, a basketball player's, trying to be the best basketball player he could be. Maybe he's shooting 400 shots a day practicing. And so I want to keep my mindset into the betterment of my life, more education about myself, more looking at myself more, being honest with myself. And then sometimes it's scary. Sometimes what we get, what our intuition tells us, what the voice tells us is a little scary sometimes. We're like, what? But those are the things that make it worthwhile. When I feel scared, I'm like, okay, this must be something really good that I really need to do. That's why I'm scared of it. It's interesting because clearly I did not choose the proper attire for this podcast, but this actually is representation of what happens when I'm on stage. I tell people when I come out of my suit jacket, there's a whole river coming out of me because, and obviously I'm not scared on this podcast right now, but the bottom line is that when you are in the flow, there's so many things that we do that we just go ahead and do, and you're scared doing it, and that's okay. In fact, we should invite that. Absolutely. So I know I've asked you a lot of questions. We've talked about a lot of good stuff and a lot of your philosophy, and I obviously wish you the best in carrying the message and helping the youth of this country. But is there anything that I didn't ask you about that you wanted to talk about? Man, I think for your listeners out there, because you have a lot of listeners who, business owners, they're game changers. They're making moves. I'm not going to tell them to reevaluate it, but I would tell them, do a health check on your community. What do I mean by that? The crew, the three to five people who are closest to you, who you keep around you, people who work with, and for you, you were talking about being scared and you're learning new skills or whatever. You know what I'm really learning right now is that I don't need to know everything. What I need to know is trust and understanding and collaboration, meaning that I need to know enough to know how this works. But the execution, it serves me better to allow someone else to serve me and allow them to be a blessing to me. There's certain aspects of my business I can't stand doing, absolutely can't stand doing, but somebody else absolutely loves it. What I would say the last parting words I would say is, let's do a community checkup. Let's do a community checkup with all of your people and see how they're doing and see how you can help serve them by allowing them to serve you. Hey, there he is. I don't know when that happened. All I know is that the screen went blank, and we did have a pretty bad storm here. We still, probably about a third of Houston still doesn't have power. So bravely I'm where I have power, but I dunno where we cut off, but Well. You were talking about the business owners that are listening and looking to up their game and crush it. For recover. Are you there? Yeah, you could just go ahead and go. As long as you could still see it, then it's working and it's recording to your hard drive. So although it might not look right, it'll be okay. Yeah, I think it's probably a good four second delay behind it. So I'm trying to see if it's going to get caught up. Lemme see if Lemme try this. Lemme try. I'm going to try another portal, see if it'll work a little bit better. I can hear you. Yeah. Camera's struggling right now. I don't know what's going on. I think it's, it could be. It could be. It's okay though. Usually, Yeah, we have some bad technical whatever with the wifi or the internet or whatever that's causing this. My cable company's been texting me for the past 48 hours of outages here and there, so I don't know if they just decided to kick one in Right now. Right now I can see you fluid and I'm looking at, I can see myself out out of the left over here, and it's behind about three or four seconds. I don't know. But just trust the process that if you just say your final words, it's going to get recorded. Exactly. So if nothing else, it'll be audio. Yeah. Okay. All right. So say the parting words. So I would say if there was anything I wanted to leave your awesome crew of business owners, entrepreneurs, guys who are making major moves, guys in the podcast media world or just in business in general, I would say do a checkup on your community is obviously different about the community, but I'm talking more so about your inner crew, the three or five guys who are around you, maybe a mentor, maybe a business partner, some close family, whoever's in your circle, check in on them, right? See where you may be able to help serve them by them serving you. Just get a nice little health check on them. See where they are mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially, and strengthen that bond with them. Take each one of 'em out for a coffee or a lunch or something and just see sort of where they are. I know most of us have recovered from Covid, but at the same time, man, we're starting to see some of the lagging effects from that. And with that, I think that we could all benefit from just checking in on one another and saying, how are you doing these days? And I think we could do that and kind of just restructure a few things and just see if there's some ways where some things has been on their heart and start making some moves in that kind of way. And so I think they checking in on your people, on all your community and maybe reevaluating, maybe there's somebody who you want to bring in closer or maybe somebody you've met at a business meeting at church or at the grocery store who maybe you want to reach out to an add-on to your crew. I think there's never a shortage of good people, but the thing that you want to always realize is that allow people to serve with you. We don't need to figure it all out. We just need to be the one who can organize a lot of allow them to be great in what they do. And we all win. And so I want us to just take a step back, look through the people who are most important in your life. Obviously starting at home with your family, but extend out to those who will have helped you build a business who have helped worked with you in your podcast. If help worked with you, with opening your store, any of these ventures you're going on, check in with them. Allow 'em to serve you and allow 'em be led by your mind and your heart to put them in a position and find out what they need. And so everyone can really. Absolutely. I love it. I love it. For more information and monthly topics of interest, please go to transform Your future.com and join our newsletter.