Author, Founder & CEO Of Love’s Pursuit: DB Marshall AKA The Loving Boss – S2E46 (#74)

S2E45 DB Marshall.m4a – powered by Happy Scribe

Three to one. Welcome welcome back to Boss Uncaged podcast. On today’s show, we have well, I look at this guest as someone that has jumped into the authorship side of the world, goes by the name of DB. So we want you to give our viewers a little insight to who you are.

Well, honestly, I don’t even know where to begin. I’m a man of many facets. So when people ask me, you know, who are you and what path you want, I always tell them a universal servant. So I’ve just serve the people and a lot of people in the world will understand that. And I know a lot of people about say off me, me, me, but along my journey, I learned that I benefit more when I serve others. So with that said, I am a recently. Well, I just became author on March 17th, which I have a book that is number one bestseller internationally. In addition to that, I’m a doctoral student writing my dissertation. Hopefully I’ll be done by the end of the year. That’s to go. I’m also a kidney patient and a kidney ambassador. So I go out into the community and I talk to a lot of faith based institutions and partner with a lot of faith based institutions just to bring awareness around kidney disease, because for the most part, roughly about 74 percent of individuals walking around with stage four stage kidney disease, they don’t even know it. And with that said, most of the individuals who are walking around with kidney disease and diagnosed are minorities, predominantly African-Americans. In addition to that, I’m a social worker. I provide therapeutic services for , geriatric population, and just making sure I just give my due diligence and do my part is making sure that I’m just making the world a better place to live.

Hmm.

That’s nice. So, I mean, it sounds like you’re definitely devoted to giving back and helping not only people, but just community in general. So let’s just take this back, those time travel back a little bit like,

OK,

you just don’t wake up on a random Tuesday, right. And say, hey, this is what I want to do. All right. So let’s start from the beginning. Like like when how old were you and when did you first start realizing that, you know, this could potentially become your path?

Literally about six years ago? Yeah. So I’m 47 years old, but I usually don’t tell people my age. I usually say like 27. I’ve been 27 later, like 19 plus years. My nephew always laugh at me, but with that said, I had a job and I still work at the job that I’m at now. But this particular job. In my head, right, this is actually talking about so we are raised, at least within my community, the African-American media, which I grew up in. You go to school, you go to work, you stay on your job. That job becomes your career. And that’s pretty much there wasn’t a whole lot of room for exploration. My mom supported it if we initiated as kids. But for the most part, I was pretty much mimicking what what I saw within my family dynamic. So that’s what I did. So the job that I am at currently, I always saw that as this is the place where I’m going to retire. So what end up happening is I experience racism. And I was demoted due to some allegations that were kind of brought up. I still, like I said, still work for the organization, but I’m no longer a director. And so with that same experience, the racism for the first time like blew my mind. In addition to that, I was dealing with grief and loss with three loved ones, in addition to going through a divorce at the time, having my car ran off the road. And so all of that just really brought me into a place of depression. Most of it really stemmed from the divorce because I don’t particularly believe in divorce. I feel like if you have an iota of love, you have an opportunity to plant that seed or replant their seed and nurture and allow it to grow. But again, that was what I wanted, apparently is not what God wanted. And I had to come to grips with that. And so that for the most part, I was led into the Depression. And so I was going through all of this. I started birthing all of this great stuff. Right. Who birthed stuff out of depression. Usually when people are depressed, literally, they don’t create anything. But for whatever reason, it was the thing that created a whole lot and allowed me to reconnect to myself and to nurture myself. And so this is how all of this pretty much started.

So it sounds like I mean, obviously you work for somebody, but you’ve always had the entrepreneurial spirit inside to kind of want to do something. And then like most entrepreneurs, like you, believe it or not, like you cross over the tracks now, right? Most of us, you put us in a damn cage, we’re going to break out that cage and we’re going to run free and we’re going to create we’re going to develop as much as we possibly can to the last 80 we die. So, first of all, I want to welcome you to the club. Thank you. Next to that is like I think you two out a little tidbit right there that I have to kind of like. Slow down. Ruwan, recap what you said. You said something about getting ran off the road or your car run off the road.

Like, yes. Like literally I was on my way to work driving in. A gentleman didn’t see me come in and he was trying to actually come in the middle of the street to kind of, I guess, yield over until my lane. And he did not see me. And so usually the way I was going to hit him head on or I needed to kind of get off the road. And so all I thought about is what would be the safest thing that is going to keep my car intact because it was almost paid for. And because I believe it. Grado So it was almost paid for and how I’m going to save my life. And so I end up, you know, pretty much ran off the road and they had to call a tow truck and just put me and my car out of a ditch.

Crazy. Crazy. So, I mean, you sound like you got a little adrenaline and got your blood pumped up. So let’s dove into like, if you could define yourself in three to five words, what, three to five? Would you choose to do that?

Love is me.

Yeah, just loves me, loves me.

What if that’s the case, then? You know, I always kind of dream everybody that I’m talking to, I usually give them a nickname. So I’m going to deem you the love boss. As simple as that. That’s what you are for now are. I love it. Right. So let’s just talk about, like, your business. So obviously, you know, you’re doing the kind of we call it like the jumping off the gap. Right. You kind of still got your steady paycheck, but now you’re dribbling into the solo partner side of things. So, I mean, what kind of business do you have? Like, you have your book, but what are you doing in addition to the book to monetize?

So I do wellness coaching.

Huh? Mm hmm. And that pretty was like

OK, so that pretty much is assessing individuals to see where they are in life and what are some of the things that they are struggling with. And so I’m also a interanring clinician. And so the difference between being a therapist and being a wellness coach is that I don’t as a wellness coach, I don’t start diving into your past like that. You know, what I’m saying is like, what’s going on now? What are you struggling with and what is it that you need to help you move past your hand? Really? Because a lot of times we can’t see past our hand when we’re dealing with a lot of different challenges in our life, a lot of different storms. So my goal is to put your thoughts, depending on where they are. Oftentimes they all over the place and write them down and organize those thoughts and start peeling that onion back. What is priority? What do we need to address first until we get to the core issue?

So it sounds like you’re a good handshake before someone even dives into their vision board. I mean, you kind of get them in alignment to actually expand what they’re thinking about and what their goals and achievements could possibly be down the road. Is that a correct assumption?

Yep.

Yep. And making sure that they are realistic. Right. Because I want to be a millionaire. Right. I want to be a millionaire like yesterday. That’s not realistic. And so we have to come up with a plan of action to determine a realistic plan of action, to make sure we can mobilize whatever it is that we are listed on that that that you have listed on that paper.

So it seems like I can tell you right now, once you start getting into entrepreneurs, right, we’re going to tell you that we could be millionaires yesterday. It’s just a matter of time. Right. So, I mean, it’s that is your point, right? Obviously, there’s a difference between people that work for somebody and the people that are entrepreneurs. So right now, your business, would you say you’re more dealing with solar business entrepreneur, business owners? We are deadling withdealing more with people that work for a corporation.

For the most part, I’m dealing with other small business and other entrepreneurs, like, for instance, in my book initially my book started as a collaborative book project with an individual, one of my friends. And as we were building out the book and creating a blueprint, he decided that it would not be a good fit and he didn’t like the direction in which it was going. I didn’t take it personally because I understand we all have our journey, we all have our path. But what I did was because I believe in helping others, I contacted a total of six other individuals. I like to call them entrepreneurial souls. And I contacted them and say, hey, do you want to be on this project? I’m paying for everything. You have to do a show up, share your journey to wellness, the things that you want went through and what got you here and give the audience some tips or some of the things that you did to bring you from a negative mindset to a positive mindset. And so those individuals did just that. Most of them are based in Atlanta, five a.m. in Atlanta. One is in Gary, Indiana. But with that said there, I am uplifting these African-Americans so they can have that exposure just from me, just doing some work, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does.

So are you based out of Atlanta?

I am.

How ironic. That’s where I’m based out of.

Oh, awesome. Yeah. So I mean, obviously past covid I have to catch up in person and kind of just do some live conversation. So let’s just dove into it like your business structure a little bit. So you worked for corporate America and now you have your own business on the side. It’s structured as an LLC and EZCORP Corporate Core

LLC.

OK, OK, so do you have any current partnerships or is it just you.

It’s just me literally running the whole ship. And let me say this. I attempted to create a team. And so one of the things that I have learned because I started my business in 2018 and all of this is very new, even technology is new. I just got on Facebook literally because my church was like, I don’t know if you remember this, but you remember when you go to church. And they used to give you, you know, the programs of everything that they was doing and the announcements within the program. You remember that,

Yeah

OK, they don’t do that anymore. So I went to my pastor and I was like, well, what is the program like? You know, I want to know what’s going on in church. And it was like, son, you have to get on social media. So that was my first exposure to Facebook and all that good stuff. And so with that said, everything is kind of new. And so when I tried to be on my team, I was run into so many different issues and people were not delivering the way that I needed things to be delivered. And no matter if I had a very intentional, concise conversation that listed every single thing with due dates and it just wasn’t happening. So I had to just really pull back and literally do everything the way that I needed it to be done. Is it a lot of work? Absolutely. But is it getting done the way that I think that it needs to get done? Absolutely. Does it take more time? Absolutely. But the plus or the pros that is that I’m learning a whole lot.

So I think you’re at that point to where eventually you’re going to have to outgrow that. Right. And if you don’t mind if you don’t mind, I’m going to give you a little bit of direction, right?

Oh, yeah.

Every single entrepreneur hits that hurdle sooner or later to where you can do it better than anyone else. Right. But you have to look at it as if I can get two people to get to 50 to 70 percent of what I can do.

The combination between these two people will be more than what I can ever do because my time is going to be limited. So to your point, you said you was making a list and you segmented out this list and they weren’t getting it right. Didn’t take that one step further. Don’t deliver less, deliver videos, give them step by step videos, record your processes and show them step by step, like when I worked my Vespas. If I have something quick that I want to show, I think about how long it will take me to write this and make it correct because I’m an author as well. Right. Or how do I need to get on the phone with them and talk to them? But in five minutes in that conversation, they’re probably going to forget it. So the best thing I could possibly do is record my screen, record the problem and talk about the solution and then tell them to watch that video until they get it right. That’s frees up all my time. They don’t have to call me for anything. Take a look at the video and figure it out and then send me back the results.

Yeah, I listen. I love it. I love it. It is important because what happened is it stifles my creativity. Right? So I’m no longer in the creative space and now I’m in ministry administrative space when I could be spinning or invest in that, create a few in my art in that craft. So I love it.

Right. Right. So let’s let’s talk about some hurdles. Right. So obviously, like you’re in that transitional period and you’re going to get to the point to where you’re going to look at the security of your current job and you gonna be like, the hell with that. You want to want to put more full time effort into raising and growing your seats. So what hurdles have you have to over? So far on this journey.

The only hurdle thus far that I had to overcome is just really myself, and when I say to myself, because I run into different things that I didn’t realize that that lies dormant within me that I have to face and address. So one example is when I started doing social media things nobody wasn’t engaging or liking. And so I would say to myself, like, why are they not like on the page? Why they’re not engaging? Then I remember Buddy of mine came to me and said, hey, look, and even though they’re not engaging and show enough like a year or two or people will send me messages, hey, this blessed me. Hey, this I don’t know how many people does that I stopped from committing suicide or attempting suicide. I get messages like that all the time. And so when I get those type of I like to call them validations. Right. We affirm people validate what you’re affirming. And so when I get those validations, I’m like, OK, I’m a stay in the game a little bit longer. Now I’ll be completely honest with you and transparent. I’m still having a difficult time getting people to engage on my social media. And if I pull sexy back up there, they’re like, oh, I mean, they go all crazy for that. But when I put content out there, education and materials awareness materials, they don’t respond to that, but I continue to do it.

Yeah, I think I mean, I love these type of conversations because it’s kind of like you’re at the dawn, right? Like you’re like you’re not at sunset, you’re not at high noon, you’re at the dawn. So the sky is your horizon. So any piece of information and anybody that you can surround yourself with and absorb that content and repurpose it, then obviously you’re going to succeed and keep moving forward. So one of the things with social media. ,Right. And, you know, obviously everybody comes on my show. I go and I look to their social media profiles. And the one thing about your Instagram account that stood out to me was your celebration of you becoming a published author. And you did you little I called Ogie Boogie Dance and you at the grill, right?

Yeah.

OK, so things like that by default, you get attraction of people to be like, OK, he’s celebrating. He’s a cool person. But what are you celebrating? Right. You celebrate. OK, so your book is your plug, but you’re not necessarily selling the book. You’re just talking about, you know, I’m dancing, I’m happy and I’m grilling. But here’s my book. Right? So if you kind of just stay in that space and, you know, it kind of I had another guy on my show recently and he does the same thing. Right. And he’s like international multimillionaire. And what he does, he pulled random guy. He owns a farm. So he’ll be on his farm working with goats and he’ll just post a random picture with him. He’s going to be like this one morning, it looks like. What is your morning look like? And that’s social media post. But by default, people are looking and they want to live their life. They want to have a farm. So they’re going to keep following him. And every once in a while he’ll throw in the plug in there with the plug is not a blunt plug. It’s kind of an indirect plug. This is what I hope to do. This is what I’m helping them do. This is this is how I helped this person do that. I’m not selling it to them. But I’m talking to you about how I helped someone else. And that message could resonate with that person. So just think about adding that into the mix. What you’re doing,

OK?

OK,

let’s dove into you like your OK, you’ve been on this journey, you said about like six years and the perception, right, for somebody to your point, looking on social media made see that your overnight success. You have a book you’re posting, you have more. Everything’s going on. You’re helping clients. But how long did it really take you? I mean, six years is your current journey, but how long have you really been on this journey to get you to where you are currently?

I mean, the journey started at birth, you know, so the important piece of it is just understanding who you are and who you becoming. And when you understand that, I think you are able to come up and understand what you are doing in your purpose. And this, just in my opinion, a lot of people that come in contact with when I asked them, what’s your name or what’s your purpose is they look at you like they like a deer stuck in headlights. Right. Like they can’t articulate that. And I share with them, if you don’t know the meaning of your name, then that’s the problem that I mean, we need to go back to the basics, name you that name, whoever, name you. But if you don’t define your name and I kind of touch on this in a book, if you don’t define your name, somebody is going to define it for you. So know the essence of your name, whether you want to just give it a unique definition. If you want to Google it and, you know, put all of their heads together and figure out what these letters mean and what does it symbolize, know and be able to ask you to articulate the meaning of your name. So when you meet somebody like, hey, my name, you know, is D.B., you know, what’s your name or my name stands for this, this, this, this. You have already started laying a foundation for them to embrace who you are because you can articulate exactly who you are.

Well, that’s definitely very, very powerful, very insightful. And actually, I mean, I totally agree with that. It’s it’s kind of one of those things. If you’re having a conversation with someone and you start to write about what the definition of your name is, first of all, they probably will remember your name, right? Yes. Second of all, they’ll probably be more inclined to talk to you again. So definitely, definitely inspirational. So if you could go back in time, what’s one thing that you would want to do differently if you could do it all over again?

Nothing.

I want to do anything. And the reason for that, because I really love and appreciate who I am now. So, you know, we have strength and we have weaknesses. And a lot of times people look at downfalls. They call them failures. I don’t call I don’t call them either those things. I call them opportunities. You know, I didn’t pass this exam, but that’s an opportunity to learn and to grow. As long as I have breath. I mean, in my right mind, I have an opportunity to do better the next time. And when you do better and you learn from that mistake, you have to learn from it. Now, you can’t go up there, don’t learn and keep repeating the same business mistake and be a part of that vicious cycle. You have to learn from it. And once you learn from it, you start to grow, you start to develop. And that’s what I like to call your soul journey. Right, because I think we all on Earth have a soul and it’s constantly traveling. But in my opinion, I don’t always think our mind and our body is traveling along with our soul. So to me, spirit is perfect, right? So we use the spirit to help guide where we’re going to guide. I passed a guy steps and your experiences is what helped develop your soul, your character and all those other traits that you may have.

Oh, definitely. So. I mean, if you have an added motivational speaking to your agenda, obviously, I think that that should be an itemized item that you need to start working on for sure.

I have. I do. Is on air.

Definitely. Definitely. So like what? Your entrepreneurial hustle, right? I mean, you have you have it I mean, to your past, you work for something, but right now you’re in that zone, right? I could hear it. I could see it. Yes. So does that come from ancestors? Come from parents. Grandparents like where’s an entrepreneur hustle come from?

Oh, my God, I love you, man. Thank you for bringing that up and I’m just getting chills right now and I’m actually getting a little emotional because, again, this is something I touched on in a book and so reflecting so. Wow. So doing my depression, I came up with a four hour model that I literally worked through is it hasn’t been scientifically proved anything. This is my personal model that I developed. And while I was developing this model, one of the phases is to remember and to reflect is the third stage. But I’m saying that to say that I start with reflecting on my history and I don’t know a whole lot. You know, most African-Americans don’t kind of go sometimes to generational if you really lucky three generations. But I learned that my grandfather was an entrepreneur and I’ve always knew he was an entrepreneur. And he passed away when I was one years old. So I didn’t get a chance to really, really meet him. But I always hear these wonderful things about him. But he had his own truck. And so he was a truck driver and he was the breadwinner in my back then. My family was considered middle class, which was kind of huge in the black community back then. And so then that was passed down to my uncles and they had their own trucks and my dad has his own truck. So I had this whole trucking thing, but I looked at them as truck drivers, not entrepreneurs. Right. So, you know, depending on how you perceive things, can determine your outcome and determine your behaviors when we approach life in itself. And so when I was writing a book and I did this whole dear dad thing, dear black man, actually, dear black man. And I was just speaking to us, you know, honoring black men as a whole, especially with everything that’s going on. And I pay tribute to my uncle and my dad and just start remembering like this is always being a part of my generational bloodline. How like, you know, how did I miss and how did I not connect to it? But I also believe that we connect to everything when we supposed to. So someone may look at this particular lesson, look or hear this particular podcast. And when you hear it, you hear it when you supposed to hear, not necessarily when you need to hear it. And so it started with my grandfather and my great grandfather. I mean, we own land. We were land owners here in a state of Georgia and and Hawkinsville, Georgia. And, you know, I used to pay to help my grandmother pay taxes on the land, but I didn’t know what that meant. Right. She would just say, baby, I need some help with the taxes this year. Yes, ma’am. How much you need? It’s, I would say the money. And, you know, I would get the Taxes pay every year. I always would put money aside because I knew there was a possibility she was going to need help. And so just thinking about I had a family that owned land. I had family members that owned their own business. businessesNow I understand where this comes from. It’s in my blood.

Oh, yes. I think definitely with that, I mean, not only do you have not to say a price to pay, but you have a legacy to live up to. So I mean, by default, you have no choice. This is this is not a not a negotiation. Right. You have to make this work. And I think you definitely will. I mean, to the point where you’re saying three generations back, they owned trucks, they weren’t just truck drivers to have that insight back then to be on the road driving their trucks, but they’re earning all their keep at the same time.

Yeah,

it’s a hell of inspirational. Even though, Dad, you didn’t even realize it back then.

Yeah.

Yeah. And my grandfather purchased my uncle like they he purchased these trucks. You know, that’s milblog. If you have to put it in context and realize what area it was, how much money they made. And it was like, do it’s just kind of it’s just mind blowing. I’m so proud of my grandfather, my great grandfather in all that they did because they sold those seeds, even though I’m not really, you know, about forty years old. But they sold those seats.

Nice. Nice. So, I mean, that kind of brings me up to the family to the point of where now you’re on the grind, you’re still working, but obviously your your business is probably going too far away and everything else you’re doing. How are you currently juggling your work life with your family life?

Yeah, everything is scheduled, everything is if it’s not on the calendar, then it’s not happening and I don’t do anything. Last minute in my family, they picket me and I hope I don’t offend anyone when I say this, but all of my work when I was 14 and so I’ve always had more than one job. So my nickname in my family dynamic is Haymon. So haymon basically me, I’m a Jamaican. I got 20 jobs and holler at you whenever I get an opportunity. So when I walk into family reunions and everything. Haymon there you go. You got to go to work, got to go to work. So that’s the running joke in my family as it relates.

So to me. Like what did you brought that up. I mean obviously what the TV show was the dame in living color, right?

Yeah.

So are you actually Jamaican?

No,

Got yaa

. So I’m actually from Ireland. From Trinidad. So, I mean, you’re kind of like everybody from the islands always get thrown into that category under the hats of wearing multiple different jobs and being called a Jamaican. So it’s just funny that you brought that up.

Yeah.

So let me just talk about, like, your morning habits. So you talk about everything needs to be scheduled with morning routines look like.

The morning routines. I start every morning affirming who I am, but actually I start off with Pray and it took me a while to understand what prayer was for me because I was accustomed to the Baptist tradition around you. Get on your knees and yellowwood. And, you know, it took me a minute to build my relationship. I don’t know any of that. I lay in my bed, you know, my eyes are still closed and I just pray it becomes very, very, very intimate. And oftentimes if I’m working on a particular area, I’ll put my hand on that area because I do believe that I am a healing property. And the body has itself, in your mind, can heal a lot of things that’s going on in the elements in your body. And so if I’m working on my heart space, I’ll put my hand over my heart and I just pray over my heart. So I just connect to whatever part I have kidney disease, which I’m a kidney patient. So I put my hand sometimes on my kidneys and just kind of pray over. And from that then I go to affirming what I have to do. And from now then I would just go off to, you know, brush my teeth and do whatever. But first thing in the morning, I spinellis anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes just meditating and praying and chanting, affirming and just connecting with myself in the spirit.

Hmm.

So I think you brought it up a couple of times like kidney disease. Let’s go ahead and find that. So, I mean, obviously, somebody may hear kidney disease and that could be multiple different things that have the side effects and what caused it. So let’s just talk about your journey with kidney disease. Like, is that something that’s genetic? It’s something that happened. Like how did you get get into that situation?

I got in that situation, I was I just I got accepted at Virginia Commonwealth for my doctoral program. It was 2012. I was actually accepted in 2010. So I was finishing up my coursework. I am a health nut unless I work out. So I was on my way to the gym one Sunday morning and I’m walking, listening to music. And I just collapsed. I just fell on the concrete floor. And so when I came to the first thing, I was like, Oh my God, what happened? I feel embarrassed. I looked around to see if anybody saw me. There was no one around. Then once I realized that, OK, kind of like pretty much kind of started to wipe the shame off, I guess I could say, what do the average man do? He goes to the gym, they go to every emergency room. But I already got my workout in. And with that said, eventually I went to the doctor, the E.R. doctors, they overlooked it. I went about three times. Every doctor overlooked it. And I went to see a PCP and they was like, oh, what’s going on with your okay? And I was like, what? Creatine? Yeah, I take creative. And I was like, no, not creatine supplements, creatine level. And I was like, no, what is that? So they start to explain it to me. And it was like, well, so do I need to stop, take it for granted. Like, no, no, no. I’m not saying that we just going to run some lab work to try to figure out what’s kind of going on. And so at the time I was married and I got this whole speech, oh, you never know. Wanted to do anything for you. Please come home and let me take care of you. So I withdraw from school and I went home. So we figure out what was going on. And that’s when I had the kidney biopsy at Grady Hospital and they came back with a rare form of kidney disease called FSD. So to answer your question, my family does not have any history of kidney disease that I know of on my mom’s side, my dad’s side, he was a little closed off, so he really didn’t see a whole lot. And I don’t even really think he was really connected to his family members like that because his grandmother raised him. But it was all new for me. And it was chaos. It was pandemonium. Pandemonium. I was upset. I was frustrated because my nephrologist called me and God went at it for a few years because I was like, I eat, right? I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I exercise like. What is this thing that I have to deal with now, here it is, I grew up ho not poor because there’s a difference between PO and poor, you know, is when you just your family have to depend on the welfare system, government cheese, powdered milk, I mean, food stamps, you know, I mean, so here it is that I’m working to change the trajectory of what I was raised and to become a better man and I had to battle this particular issue.So that’s how it came about. It was just really rough, man. It is just it was a rough journey.

So I think when that happens, right, like everyone’s going to go through a life death experience sooner or later, whether it’s someone external, like like a family member or internally. So for myself, it happened when I had a stroke back in twenty eighteen. Almost died. Right. Pulled out of it. But that is what inspired me to create this podcast and to create a legacy. So in your near death experience, is that probably some of the things that kind of behind the scenes that kind of stemmed in the direction you’re going right now to kind of fulfill some legacy items?

Partially so most of the things that really steered me into this item is how I was treated at work. I mean, blood, sweat and tears. I will work anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week, sometimes at work and to be treated the way that I was treated and realized that at any point your job just can pull a plug and say, screw you. And I was like, oh, no, I’m taking control of my life. I mean, like I was treated on the flip side with the kidney diagnosis. So I did not speak publicly about it for seven years. And so I was diagnosed at stage three that. So for those who don’t know, when you have kidney disease, there’s five stages, one through five. When you end up in five, eventually you go into renal failure. So I was at diagnosed stage three, a stage three have staged a stage B is the only stage to have A and B, and so right now I’m stage three B saying all that to say that when I found all of this out and dealt with it for seven years, I stabilized my condition. So I was like, you know what? You need to start teaching people what you’re doing. If you can say someone kidney, then you are. I mean, you just continue to one hundred and one million dollars to their life because it’s very expensive to be on dialysis. And once once the kidneys are damaged, you can’t reverse them like you can’t they they just don’t heal. And so if I can prevent someone from oh, I slow down a process of kidney disease once they find out or just put it out there to get African-Americans and particularly to get renal exams to know what’s the status of your kidney, I’m going to do that. And so I share a lot of my nutritional habits, some of my exercise habits, just my day to day life in the battle with kidney disease, because you have to manage your lifestyle because it’s a lifestyle change. Hm.

So, I mean, obviously, we talked about different things and we talked about business. We talked about history. We talked about the kidney. So, I mean, all of these things, it seems like every single point is conversation. You kind of talked about the book. So let’s just talk about your book a little bit. And part of this is kind of like let’s save your book for the third part of this question. The first part being what book helped you on your journey?

Write that you would want to recommend. What books are you currently reading right now to help you grow? And then the last question, to dove into your book and talk about what could someone get out of reading your book?

I’m not a huge book reader, but one book that stood out for me that I read from, you know, from the beginning to the end was Star Jones. She came out this book a long time ago when she was very popular IV. And you may have to have me on. If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. And so that was something that stood out with me and also another one that still resonate with me. I picked up in an airport years ago was don’t sweat the small stuff. And that book changed my life because I think a lot of things, you know, we just harp on when it’s really not that serious, but we hop on it so much. So we make it serious. But I don’t sweat small stuff. I don’t internalize because internalizing things just turns into a form of cancer to me. Once it’s up here and you keep playing it over and over and over and over again, it just change everything. Change your demeanor, changes your attitude before you know it, you just become this really nasty, unhappy, jaded individual. So that way, answer that particular question. What am I’m reading now? I’m reading now really my dissertation, I don’t have a whole lot of time for. I would call it. I guess just. Just free, alcohol free. I don’t have a whole lot of time for free reading because I’m in the process of trying to take my license board and writing his dissertation. So a lot of things that I’m reading is very technical type stuff. But believe it or not, it still pours into me because my dissertation is based on kidney disease. For the most part, seeing how African-Americans incorporate positive psychology to help them in their treatment process. And positive psychology is just, you know, self affirmations, journaling, you know, it can be meditation, yoga. How are we incorporate in those things in our lives so we can manage our emotions a little bit more and have a better outlook on life? Because a lot of people that deal with kidney disease, they run into this place of hopelessness and helplessness. And so my goal is to teach them or bring or introduce positive psychology and say, hey, you know, you can incorporate this. It’ll get you over this little hump.

Oh, yes, very nice. So let’s just talk about your current masterpiece, because I have a feeling and anybody that writes books will realize that you don’t just write one book. Right? So this is your first of many to come, hopefully. So let’s talk about your first book and kind of dive into it.

Mm hmm.

Yeah. So the first book is it was just written for readers, you know, and when I say for readers, the goal is to engage your emotion in your thought process and challenge every reader to think differently about a situation that they may be going through. So the premise is really based on I take cognitive behavioral therapy and positive psychology and I kind of infuse it because I also want to bring awareness to the black community, not just black, all communities about military health. Like it’s real, you know. And I know sometimes there’s a stigma about seeing a therapist. So I kind of break all of that stuff down, what it is, what you can do in layman’s terms. So hopefully it would be embraced a little bit more. And so what I do throughout the book, there are what I like to call practice tools in which I challenge your cognitive thinking, I challenge your emotions, and I also challenge your behaviors, old behaviors versus new behaviors. So like I said, there are a total of six other individuals and they talk about their journey to wellness story. We have one lady that talk about her divorce. We have one lady to talk about how she was molested and raped as a child by her brother’s best friend. One lady talk about racism. Someone talks about how someone broke into their home and held them at gunpoint as a little girl. One gentleman was I think he was 10 at Fort Valley University. He was wrestling with a buddy of his landed on his neck. Wrong. And he ended up being a quadriplegic to this day. And how he dealt with by the images and shame in losing weight and bet that he didn’t have control over certain parts of his body. Then we talk about church hard. We talk about it. We just talk about so much always to make sure you have a box of tissues. One of these stories are going to resonate with you. We have relationship trauma. Someone was physically abused and but we just don’t talk about the negative experience that we had. They literally lay out what were the things that they did that helped them to become successful business owners to this day. So is to encourage people that, look, I know we’re dealing with mental issues, we have emotional issues, we deal with occupational issues, and we’re talk about how he went from, you know, a college baby to a hospital bed because he experienced renal failure. Now he’s running an organization for our kids. It’s it’s called Why Not? But he his organization, for the most part, based on organ donation for these little small kids here in Atlanta. So, I mean, they just really just took that negative experience, changed it around and did something positive with everything that happened in their life.

That’s nice. So, I mean, I’m just I’m just thinking about everything that you just said, and I’m going to internalize it and I’m recapping it and I’m just trying to segment it because. That seems to be a lot of information into one book, so the title of your book like what is the title of the book and how did you come up with that title?

So Last Pursuit, Journey to Wellness, which is lust pursued in the name of my company as well. So I decided to title my company because every last one of us on Earth, we are constantly on this pursuit of love, whether it is loving ourselves, loving our spouses, loving our kids, you know, when they are acting up with loving God, just loving whatever it is that you want to do is a constant journey to trying to figure out what that is. In a book that talks about there’s a total of 21 definitions of what love is, you know, so you have to define it. You don’t need to necessarily go off the Webster dictionary like somebody have defined that. But what is your definition of love and how does that resonate with you? I think sometimes we get so caught up in the formality of certain things that when it doesn’t fit our narrative, we think something is wrong with us. You have to create your narrative customers who you are. I know it’s good to have role models. Listen, I have role models, but I also understand and I am you uniquely made there’s something extremely special about me in my story. And I want to put that out there in the universe and out there to the world. So remember, what you bring to the table is unique and special. And it took me almost 40 years to realize I am unique and I am special. There’s never be another Beyonce there never be another me. But you know, but Beyonce doesn’t supersede who I am as an individual. But I think a lot of times we put people above us and not see other human beings is equally to us, if that makes sense.

Yeah. So it’s definitely very, very powerful stuff. So I’ll put you on the spot, right. Yeah. Like you produce this book and it’s so much wealth of information in this book. Like, like when is the next book coming out and what is that book going to be about.

Yeah. So what I’m hoping is that this book, this Journey to Wellness book is the goal is to turn it into somewhat like a series or a franchise. Right. And so the goal is really just to kind of just take this on on the road show, go to a whole nother city and just kind of figure out, you know, hey, you want to offer your journey to wellness story and how can I help you as well? Again, is about expanding not just me, but others. I really, truly believe in a collaborative project. So that’s to go. However, I do have probably four other books in the pipeline. Doesn’t necessarily attach directly to those the WHO journey to wellness. But my goal for love, for wellness is to really, really travel and to start normalizing some of the things that we as African-Americans have not talked about. Their shame this year around a lot of the things that we do and that and then it goes back to you, you know, on occasion. Right. So once we are able to open up and tell that story, we not only help ourselves, but there’s liberation for others in our community, but we have to start somewhere. So this is my dedication. This is my work to the community to say, look, this is where I am. This is what I’m going through. Look, you can be successful well, as well as I was.

Yeah, I think it’s definitely a journey we’re taking. I’m just wondering, like, have you thought about maybe possibly becoming like a podcast host yourself?

Yeah. So my podcast is the same project. So and so basically it’s actually of saying so saying stands for our support, awareness, normalize and educate. So it’s a platform that’s geared to bring it on all different races, ethnicities. I don’t care what your your sex, your gender, your sexuality. I don’t care about any of that right now. We are living in a world that’s completely divided. And so my platform offer people to come on and to also share their stories, to hopefully remind people that even though we may be a different gender, a different race, we have different religious beliefs, spiritual beliefs. We kind of go through a lot of the similar things. I’ve been talking to people all across the world and I’ve been interviewing them for the podcast show and realize like, oh, my God, that’s that happened to me, too. But you all the way over there in Australia and you were white. Yeah, so we’re really not that different, but I learned it in social work that genetically we really not that different is just the external that is completely different. They call it the phenotype that’s different. But when we really break ourselves down, we’re really not that different. We are more alike than we are different.

Wow.

So what do you see yourself in 20 years from now?

Where do I see myself 20 years from now? I see myself just freely walking in my purpose without any unnecessary stress, having that freedom to decide what it is that I want to do and making sure whatever it is that I do is blessing other people. So definitely not working a nine to five job. But yeah, I think for the most part, if I had to say that is just traveling around the world giving motivational speaking engagements, educating individuals, partnering up with different communities, faith based organizations, and bringing all this wealth and knowledge into that space so we can save a life, we can save a kidney. And that’s really it. Save a mine. Save a heart. All right.

So. You’ve got two obviously different facets going on right now, multiple different things of your business moving around. So what software softwares are you currently using to help manage? And in addition to that, like what software you not see your company running without?

Hmm, so there is one particular software, and I want to make sure I say the name correctly called Content Studio, so it’s more like a HootSuite and that particular platform allow me to sit down because I sit down every month and I schedule everything and put it into the scheduler and it kind of sends everything out. But not only does it send out the information, but if you have articles that you’re interested in or a particular topic, you can kind of pull from different platforms and you can kind of post it and send it out on your platform that may be on CNN or, you know, Men’s Health magazine, that type of information. So right now, I’m married to that and I kind of like it.

That’s nice. Yeah. So they’re going to like final words of wisdom. So let’s say, you know, I’m a 40 year old person. I’m listening to this podcast like, you know, your of inspirational. You’re motivating me. And if you could tell me a few words, something to help me make the leap of faith and jump into my entrepreneu40-year-oldrial endeavors and move forward, what would those words be?

I would say make sure you understand the difference between passion and purpose. So throughout this journey, I’ve been very passionate about it. Right. I’ve been passionate about everything in my life. I’ve always given one hundred and fifty percent. A passion doesn’t always lead you to an emotional, a healthy, emotional state of my passion can run you ragged. Right. Because sometimes people don’t appreciate your worth. They don’t appreciate your passion. They don’t appreciate your work ethic. And when someone doesn’t appreciate you, it shows right. And it doesn’t feel good. And so but when you understand that regardless of passion, when you walk in and purpose, you don’t question it because you know exactly what it is that you’re supposed to be doing. You don’t need to be validated because you is your purpose for me have already been confirmed by your God or your spiritual being. So, again, I look at I affirm people validate God, confirm. So once you get that confirmation in your purpose, you just keep on going. Everything else will attract or will show up when it’s supposed to show up, you just keep doing what you supposed to do. But when we are driven by passion, which is also emotion, oftentimes that emotion would just have us all over the place on different paths. And we’re seeking validation from someone who doesn’t even appreciate the hard work and dedication that we put an insight into something. So understand that there’s a complete difference between passionate passion and purpose. Passion is really fueled by your emotions and your talent, but purpose, even when you don’t want to be faithful to a purpose, I don’t want to walk in your purpose. Its purpose will find you whether you like it or not. That’s why I’m here. I’m an introvert. I am an introvert. I like to go home, closed my door. It gets stuck in my shell. But because of purpose, I’m walking on down that world. I’m walking down that path.

I feel like like literally like I just want to jump up and say testimonial, like literally I felt like they were the first women right there. It was like it was definitely some solid words of wisdom for sure. So talk about like, how could people get in contact with you? I mean, like, what’s your social media handled? Like what website do you have any promotional stuff that you want to give out to our listeners?

Absolutely. So you can find me at lovespursuitatl.net/ not .com and that spells l o v e s p u r s u i t atl . Net. I am on all social media platforms including LinkedIn. My website is https://lovespursuitatl.net/ And I do have a promotion for anyone who purchases a book here in the U.S. because I’m not across seas, but in the U.S., you make that purchase, there be a discount and I’m giving away a free gift for all of the viewers and listeners. And if you want to purchase a book and you overseas, you can just go to Amazon.com, lovespursuitat pull it up. Yes. Into right to you.

Right. So this we’re going to bonus questions. Yes. Right. So if you could spend 24 hours with anyone dead or alive, uninterrupted for those 24 hours, who would it be and why?

I would probably spend that time with Tisha Campbell. So I love TESHA Campbell, I have always loved her since I was a little boy. She has inspired me. I got in my feelings when she got married to Duane Martin. I mean, yeah, I didn’t like that at all, that she had the audacity to, you know, eventually go to another Martin. And I’m like Martin and Martin of them worked out. They were all temporary. Why? She just they come to a Marshall, a DB Marshall. So if I give my time with T.C., Campbell is just going to be me and her. We’re going to listen to some good music and we just going to go over all of the stuff that I follow her on. And it just really just show my appreciation and my gratitude because she impacted my life, like as a little boy. You know, back then you saw one token black. She was the black one of the blacks on the shows that will watch.

Wow.

Yeah, I’ve got a whole house party T-shirt.

Yeah. Yeah.

And Blew that away.

Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. She’s done a few dozen of them. Yes, sure. Definitely. I mean it was like I guess Ninety’s was her reign of fire man. Yes. Yes. So if what’s your most significant achievement to date?

My most significant achievement is so because people get on me, because I never talk about, like a lot of different accomplishments and accomplishments and degrees and I don’t really hang them on a wall in a file cabinet. But the most significant accomplishment is raising my nephew. And so when I went through the divorce, I was going to move my own apartment. And my family is extremely close. My my siblings are extremely close. And it was like, no, we don’t trust you. We know you’re going to take it. You know, you moving in with us. I’m like, I’m a grown man. I’m moving in with you. But I did. And man, my nephew was a huge part of me coming out of the Depression, sitting down watching cartoons, or he just want to have, like, sleepovers, you know, right there in the middle of living room floor, eating popcorn, just looking at different things. So I still call parent. I still am raising him, helping my sister raise him. But he I mean, he has been a huge accomplishment. And he also reminds me to just don’t take stuff seriously, really like it is. It’s just not that serious. Yes. And he also teaches me how to laugh because I’m analytical. What I can be serious a lot. So he teaches me how to have fun.

How old is he?

He’s now nine now.

Oh yeah. Time flies by pretty quickly, man. I was just watching a video earlier today when my son was like four and now, you know, he’s well into the teenage ages. So it’s just kind of like crazy night and day difference and how I remember it vividly from yesterday. But I’ll see today he told it to me. He has a mustache and it’s crazy. So it’s not actually a question. When did he stop or I won’t say stop. When did he stop putting boundaries on what type of affection can that you are able to display to him? Like my never I’ll never forget. I want to say he was like five. He just went to kindergarten and I went to just hug and kiss him on the forehead. And he was like, No, uncle, no, you can’t do that anymore. How are you doing? And I was like, oh, I was devastated.

I’m so honestly. I mean, I went through a divorce as well, and I had primary custody since he was about four years old. So we’re still passionate huggers and I still give him a kiss. And, you know, believe it or not, every once in a while, I still go in his room and give him a kiss goodnight and tuck him in. So it’s beautiful. It’s one of those things that, you know, going back to the whole African-American dad side of things, it was kind of like for me, like my dad was, you know, in my life, like my entire life.

But it gave me an opportunity for me to evolve that, to kind of give my son back a life that that and that’s what I wish I had. But a life that I can deliver to him now. And I’m hoping that he will take that and deliver it to his kids and grandkids.

That’s beautiful, man. That’s so awesome. I appreciate you sharing.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it’s funny that you brought that up. I mean, this is the time. But a podcast usually whoever I’m interviewing the microphone I give to you and you can actually any questions that you would like. So I’m giving you the questions. Feel free to do it.

Oh no. Actually I think you really just you poured into me. I’ve never been on a podcast when, you know, I had someone to say, give me give me suggestions on how to move forward. The only thing that I will probably say, man, I have enjoyed it. I would love for you to keep pouring into me. You know what? That’s not true. I do have a question. I’ve been having a very difficult time finding a PR person.

And so if you had to recommend what I would need to do in reference to I may not need a PR person. Right. But marketing is just heart like. It’s very time consuming. What would you suggest or who would you recommend moving for? You just make sure that I keep this momentum going and get into and book different, you know, where this radio shows, TV shows, whatever.

So the PR, it’s one of those things, it’s kind of like PR and Eskow, somebody may hear me answer this question like what the hell does CEO have to do with PR? But they’re both kind of similar in the sense that neither one of them are going to deliver overnight success. Both of them are going to have to be set up and you’re going to have to magnify them over a period of time and you have to maintain them. So when PR this PR people that essentially will inform people that this in my circles that I give you access to, that can kind of help you do shows, radio shows, podcasts, talk shows and so forth and so forth.

But then on the other side, this technology PR, this PR syndications and this PR services out there that can give you some of that PR by getting you plugged in to their network of media outlets, not necessarily just taking the article and syndicating it, but taking you as a person and saying, hey, we have access to 100 podcasters. Right. Put you on a schedule to get on one of these shows or at least 20 percent of the shows that follow under your criteria.

Right. In addition to that, they may have media outlets like TV. We’ll hear three to four TV shows that we can get you on because you have the topic that they’re looking for. So there’s two different schools of thought. Both of them can work in conjunction with each other or they can work independently. It really comes down to like the costs and the return. So to start off first, I would say start creating your own PR, do your own press press releases, start there.

Things that way when you get with someone that has PR or you get with a PR syndication, at least you have some content to say, hey, I have my headshots. That’s the first thing. Then your articles, then your bio have the basic stuff ready to go. So then you could have content to deliver.

Yep. Which I have all of that. So yeah that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s real good. I appreciate that. Other than that man, you know, just keep me in your prayers and keep pouring into me. Like I said, you know, when we have an opportunity to meet up in Atlanta, let’s let’s make it happen is I just love what you’re doing. And you just started a book club. I was reading it, too, and I actually downloaded all your books.

I’m not stalking you or anything, but I read all of your books as well. And I just appreciate what you doing, where you going and have you how you are giving back, you know, to this big world. So I really appreciate that.

Yeah, I definitely appreciate I mean, one I appreciate you. One reaching out to for you to even take the time out of your schedule to be on the show. This show is for people like you and me, whether we’re at ten thousand or whether we’re at ten million. It’s all about the entrepreneurs. And if we all work together in synchronicity like this, the opportunities for me to give you an information is information that I’ve grown to use myself.

Oh, I’ve heard of the people on my show delegate. So it gives me opportunity to pour back into you. That’s what this show is not for me. It’s about creating a legacy of entrepreneurs to have information that’s useful evergreen information so they can continue to grow and grow and grow.

I have a growing information. I like that. I’m going to use that. I like that.

Well, I mean, I definitely appreciate you taking time out to schedule and coming on the show, man. It was definitely a blessing.

My pleasure.

That’s a grant over and out.