The Road To 100! W/ La'Fayette Lane & John Lebrun

Welcome to the Unscripted Authentic Leadership podcast. A podcast where we are seeking to lead change, while also seeking to understand we are also here as a platform for leaders to come together to Unites the development of power, other leaders in the areas of business, family and community. I'm your host, Lafayette Lane, joined by my co-host John LeBrun. It's a night we do not have any special guests because this is a special episode because tonight is episode 100. And tonight we're just simply talking about John and I's road to 100 episodes. Now what exactly what exactly they meant. Yeah, let's let's let's start here pro like first of all did you ever think that we would get to this Yes. So I never when we started the podcast I never thought about how many we would get to know. But I also never doubted that we would be consistent. So by default, we would eventually get to episode 100. But I don't think we ever started as a let's just try it out and see what happens. Yeah, that's that's a good, that's a good that's a great answer. I think I would agree with that. 100 episodes in my mind, starting off, let's just start, let's get this thing going and see where it goes. You know, you have these lofty ideas in your mind. But neither one of us, our expert podcast, we didn't really know what we were doing. Those of you that have been with us, a part of our unscripted family, those of you that may be nude maybe you don't know our platform didn't always look like this. Go back to episode one, which is still our second most popular episode to this day, which is pretty amazing. If you go back to episode one and look at those first ten or so episodes, you'll see the transition from episode one to 100. And we're calling this The Road to 100 because it's literally been a journey. Would you would you agree, bro? Like what? How how's the journey been for you? Oh, my goodness. It's been amazing. So, you know, we started with the purpose of let's talk about important things and help people level up their leadership. Mm hmm. But the coolest part has been how much I feel like we've been able to level up our leadership man by starting this process. It's not just been about it has been about giving value in content for everyone else. But what I didn't think about was how much value I would get from putting together that content for everyone else. So our leadership has leveled up. My communication has leveled up. All the areas have been have been better since we started. Yeah, it's been a great journey. Absolutely. As I reflect back I think initially it was what can we provide our audience? And of course, that's still always the goal, given what's value and interviewing the guests. But I did not know or did not understand how much I would grow personally from the podcasts we you know, personal development is a part of the fiber, the DNA of our podcast, and that was more so from an outlook perspective. A what could we give? But man, I did know everything that you're saying about partially developed man just in every area because we've had so many different types of guest on the show that have helped us in every area of our lives. And I think that because we have grown, I think our audience has grown with us and it truly does feel like a family. We say that all the time. And I think the fiber of our podcast again is that authenticity piece. We've never changed. We've never flip, we've always been the same. Even though we've grown, we've expanded our perspectives, we've grown. We we may have changed some perspectives that we have before, you know, our outlook may be different on some things, but at the end of the day, we are still who we are. We share the same core values, the same moral values and things like that. And so we didn't change. We improved. Right. So I heard that a long time ago. Everybody I heard a leader once say, I hate the word change. Because someone says all you gotta do is change. And you bet he goes, no, because that signifies that you are not good enough as you are. I God created you to achieve what you want. You don't have to change. You just have to improve your that's it constantly level up one day at a time. Wow. That's so golden. Wow. Because we don't have to change who we are. We're just constantly getting better. Mm. Oh, I mean, I like that. What would you say as far as you mentioned, I believe you said your perspectives had changed. Mm hmm. What would you say for you personally? What perspective made the biggest adjustment over one hour, two episodes? This may sound, you know, interesting or weird. I'm not sure my perspective of people because of the variety of people that we've had on the show, I've learned to embrace everyone doesn't have to think like me. Everyone doesn't have to be me. Everyone doesn't have to necessarily believe what I believe. It doesn't change what I believe. That will change what I do. But having that other perspective from other people, from walks of life, it has changed my perspective of how I view people. I feel like I'm more understanding because of the different stories. I mean, we've had people on our show, guest on our show, rather, that have been incarcerated for ten plus years. Then we've had people that are multi-millionaires, people that have been, you know, homeless, people that have been that don't have ligaments. I've been in explosions and just so many different perspectives, learning that the world is more broad, broader than what you read then what you see or who you interact with on a day to day basis. Some of these people I would probably never run across with, you know, just in my circle, you know what I mean? If we don't have more to show is not somebody I would even think to connect with. But for me, that has challenged me and it has helped me grow in connecting with people and engaging with people and just being more understanding of people in general. Very cool. What about you, bro? Like, what do you think as far as you like? How is your perspective has been challenged on this role? Yeah. So it's funny because my word for 20, 21 was perspective. I wanted to I used to get taught a lot that people feel like I wasn't empathetic enough, empathetic enough, like I didn't care that kind of thing. Okay. And so I thought, okay, I got tired of hearing it. So I said, let me focus more on perspectives of everybody else, what they're thinking, what they're feeling, where they come from. And what I've realized is I could add a little bit of empathy. Sure. But a lot of people were confusing empathy with sympathy and I had this talk with my wife the other day. I said, Look, I feel I can understand. I try to understand where someone's coming from, but it doesn't mean I feel sorry for them all the time. In circumstances, because feeling sorry doesn't help anybody. Yeah, I can't help them. I'm feeling sorry for them and I can't help them more by them feel like sitting there and crying with them. But I can be empathetic to their spot and help them get through it. But to answer your question, are more exact. Yeah, the the perspectives was, you know, I grew up in a pretty conservative family and I say conservative. I mean, like business type of like not sometimes when I say conservatives and people think like non-progressive and they confuse the right, but like we should be progressing as a society that's not what conservative values doesn't mean that it's typically like we hold these Christian values. We those types of things. We like standing to truths, not standing to not changing which but that I'm not going to get in the whole thing about that word being hacked and taken apart. But but anyways but what I have learned though is there's amazing so I would think is to think like if someone's super liberal, they probably believe this way all the time. They're not very business. See that kind of thing. If someone is super conservative, they they're probably very business. The philanthropy, that kind of deal. What I've learned by meeting with so many various successful people in different walks and I mean, when I say successful, I mean different people. Let's just say with business success, we've met people in all kinds of different successful lives, not just in business and financially let's just think financial and business ways. They have all kinds of belief systems. Some are Christians, some are not. Some have other religious beliefs that I don't even understand very well. If some have no religious beliefs, right? Some are super liberal and their belief systems, I would I would think by a few questions. Some are super conservative. And so I don't what I've learned through all that is honestly all great people like it doesn't really matter because the one thread for all of the all those people was they just wanted to help people. They wanted people to be better. They wanted this country to be better. They want the world to be better. And so does it really matter, which is Lafayette always says is we got a left wing and we've got a right wing. But the problem is it's all part of the same bird. So, you know, it is it. What I've learned over time is it doesn't matter if someone's left wing or right wing or center or however you want to call it alt right, alt left halfway through whatever, you know, press all around. So some people say I'm conservative in my business and liberal progressive in my social views, whatever. I, I just gotten to where I just don't pay attention to that anymore. So I really don't identify with one spot. But it's because when I've met with so many people and they wanted the same thing, they wanted the same type of mission in a general sense, the reason they're doing it is to help more people Sure. I realize it doesn't matter what their political views are, it just what matters is what they're trying to do to help people and all the successful people have in common is they just act. They really want to help everybody, you know? Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think we we kind say that when people ask because it's about our story that sometimes we look at things two different ways, but we have the same goal in mind. I think that's what you're alluding to. That is the same goal. We may, you know, you may take 75, I make take 70, whatever, but we're going to get there at the end of the day to the same destination and I think another thing for me, as I'm just thinking and listening to what you were saying on those roads, 100 about podcasting and just getting into this industry in general, what you think is going to make you successful, you find out is the total opposite. What I mean by that is if I could get somebody on the show has 100,000 followers, there are shows going to explode. If we can get an A-list, what we call an A-list celebrity or A-list athlete or A-list entrepreneur, we can get Daymond John from Shark Tank, we can get LeBron James. Our show is going to be the number one podcast in the world. What we've come to find out is that some of the best shows, some of our most highest performing shows and what I mean by highest performing is not necessarily just numbers, but what people really got out of it the most were some people that have less than a thousand followers or 1500 followers in social media world, that may not be a lot. That may not get you a blue verified checkmark on Facebook or Instagram. But for us, what we found out is that those people were genuinely trying to build relationships with us. There's relationships that we built with people on the podcast that go beyond our show, that are lifetime friends, that are lifetime connections, that we can literally pick up our phone and call them and people that have that clout and access and reach more resources than we do. They don't have that access that we do, and we never sought that out. We never sought out starting this that we wanted to be, you know, a spotlight. We want to have this and this miss. It was through organic relationships that I've learned that if you learn how to genuinely connect with people and not look at the, you know, the old the first great adage, don't judge a book by its cover if you don't just go by the cover of, well, if we have this person, they're really going to, you know, just blow us up. That's just a book by its cover. And I've been guilty of that because what I found out is that some of the people that you think that are going to share really engage after they've come on the show, you know, they really don't do that. And that's not to to doubt anybody or be condescending, but just stating the facts on our journey. I can't speak for everybody else, but just build on those genuinely genuine connections and relationships, bro. It is just it's it's priceless. And for those of you that may be looking to going into podcasting, I would tell you to check your motive. Check your motive, because if you have the wrong intent and the wrong motive, you're trying to just be a Joe Rogan overnight. Whatever, you know, whoever you think is popular, you won't make it to 100 because you'll get burnt out real quick. As John said at the beginning, we were consistent. We started this August of 20, 20 and we're at 100 episodes now. We're in April 20, 22. So you can do the math on that. They'll tell you right there how we've been on the grind and just on this road to 100. I don't want to keep going. Russell, you drop him. You're good, man. We have missed any weeks you know, and it's funny you mentioned that we have good relationships because as we're talking right now, my cell phone, I got a message from Don Tell Antonio sitting on there right now it's I don't know what it says, but he's a guest we had a few weeks ago and he was just cool it without this show I never would have met him, just likely and had a conversation slash text back and forth because we come from such different walks of life. I grew up in a desert which is basically like living in a farm country. But with this dirt he grew up and I'm pretty sure Chicago I'll go. Yeah, and I'm pretty sure he said it was in the hood. And so, you know, I grew up very sheltered. He grew up basically on his own from a young age. I had a sort of soft life. I would say he did not. I mean, we just we're not even in the same ballpark of growing up. So it's so cool that I'm sitting here. I'm like my phone flashes and I say, huh? I sent him a message earlier and he's just responding back and I'm like, this is awesome. So yeah, it's cool. What would you say is that was the hardest part so far for you? Most challenging? Hmm. That's a good question. Man. The most challenging part for me. Hmm. You know, I guess it goes back to the Y, just really knowing your purpose. Um, because just to be very honest for a while in the beginning of our podcast, I felt like we were struggling. But I think we've talked about this many times and it was it was hard sometimes to be like, I don't understand why this is not clicking. I don't understand why we're not having the Hey, we just recorded one episode. Why don't we have 15,000 downloads you know, and so I think that was hard, but I kind of want to flip it like you did for me instead of saying it was hard. I think it was part of that development it was neat. It, it was neat. It, it was a part of that developmental process. And to really understand, to bring value to people and you have to find your right audience. Sometimes it takes time. And I'm not a very I'm not a very patient person by nature. I'm just not. And so that is that can be very hard for me at times to trust the process. Trust, trust, trust. I think my word for 20, 22 is trust. John, you talk about your word and your challenge. I think for me, I will say I know for me, God was really putting me in a place to start trusting different processes more because I'm a person who likes to be in control. And you, you know, you and I are both alpha male, so you know what I mean? We want to do what we want to do and how we want to do and things like that. And when you feel like your hand, you're losing that grip on it. It can be hard, it can be challenging. And so we're not I'm not in that place now. We're not in that place now. I mean, our podcast is literally growing leaps and bounds every month. The past year, it's just been it's been crazy. And I still don't feel like we've even scratched the surface. And I think that you can concur with that. But that was that was hard for me. That was challenging, but it wasn't necessary. It was necessary for me. What was what was challenging or what was hard for you? And to along I and so that people know, for perspective on what Lafayette's saying is, we didn't have so month three well maybe as month two or three we had fake 40 downloads 42. But it wasn't anything incredible. We started off with like a hundred and then we went it dipped. Right after that we realized we had a friends and family around of everybody who was interested or curious to what we were doing. And then it went to 40 and then it went to like 45, then 60 it took us until the next spring to get 101 month and it took us to July to have a sum total of a thousand downloads. Yup. I remember being on vacation, we got like, yes, we had a thousand, but we did it every month now, I mean over that and so this we'll have 10,000 downloads in a couple of months. And so it's just, you know, we're not even close where we want to be. We want that every month. Yeah, but it's not about the downloads. The chasing downloads is like chasing likes. You don't put the content out because you want to like you put out there because you want value. And over time you get more likes because people find you you didn't do this for the downloads. We did this to give good value. I would say the hardest part for me was probably Oh man, it really wasn't being consistent because I love doing it, you know? And the only the only thing I've ever been good at is being consistent. My wife says at all times, she's like the most consistent person I know. I'm not consistent in, like, working out. That's I'm terrible, but it's something I believe in the I just the consistency is not hard. And I one, when Lafayette texted me in July when I was on vacation, you said, hey, that that podcast I think we we've been talking about doing we should do it. It wasn't like we had it on. I don't remember having an ongoing conversation. I just know we talked about it and I said, all right, let's do it. And then we had a meeting and I remember sitting at a at a restaurant, small restaurant, like we get wings and stuff. And I said, Hey, I got a vision that can go with this. And I out this thing. And you just smiled and said, Looks good. And I don't know if I did anything or not. And we probably aren't even on the exact same vision, but it was important that we had one. Yeah. Was effortless figures. There you go. And so and that was sort of how we launched and the 30 minute lunch. And so but a lot of that vision is probably similar to what we have now, man. The hardest part, I would say for me was probably time management. I'm just balancing things with, you know, I don't know, my parents have another company that I do a lot, a lot of work for, for my kids and I coach my kids because imports all those things. That's been difficult and that's about it. Now when you said trust, I have a question about that. You know, so you said stress. This is came to mind. How hard was it for real? Yeah. When working with me and we started giving up sort of you do this, you do this. How hard how hard was that? Because I remember. So is it funny? I've never told you that when we first started the podcast, Lafayette did an episode and the intro to it and stuff and I said, hey, and I was only asking this out of genuine curiosity, like so how do you want to do episodes going forward? Do you want to just intro them all or do you want I said, you want to swap the intro kind of thing? I'll do an intro. You don't enjoy any weekends or do you just want to do my Oh yeah, let's do that as like, yeah, just get about the intro part. And I was totally cool because honestly speaking was way superior than mine, all of them. And so I was I was really like, How do we supposed to do this? Because I want to prepare for next week yeah. And you said, I like to have control. He said, Well, maybe that was the easiest thing, but how hard is it with us to trust? And that's sort of the, Hey, you do this part, I'll do this part, and it'll come together at the level that I'm hoping for. Yeah, I think I think for me, I've had to learn. You don't have to be Superman Mm. And it takes a level of humility to say, this is a partnership, this is a brotherhood, this is a relationship. And I can trust. John, those. You have not read the speed of trust. Please do this or read that. Because what I'm getting ready to say comes from that. I can trust you because I know you're competent, and I know your track record. Mm. And I always knew that. I just didn't know how to apply those principles. Right. On all times because I'm a I got it type of person. I got it right. I'll do it I mean, what I do for a living, I solve problems. I do that. So in some ways, it, it helps me, but sometimes it can be my biggest setback. Your biggest strength can sometimes be your biggest weakness. And relinquishing that control in even our relationship, those you that listen to this, I don't mind saying it because, you know, this is the Authentic Leadership podcast. And so I love John like my mom brother. He's he's one of my best friends in the world. And he's a brother from another mother of Z. But that was hard, bro. And I had to learn that just because you relinquish a part of something, you don't lose value will acknowledge. I'll do this though. What I will do if I let Dennis, then I take something away from me. No. And I had to realize that's that's that's the insecurity, you know, and to be secure enough to understand, I really want to emphasize that partnership that we are here to complete, not to compete. So John, does this this is what John does. Well, let John do that. And if John's offer me this assistance I'll let him do that and vice versa, because I can never think of a time where, you know, I'll say, I'll do this in this whatever. And you have like the like, no, you never have said that. That's been me. And so I definitely will, you know, here to own up to that and apologize for all of those times, man, I feel like I'm doing better. I feel like I'm doing better with that. But I know I still have a ways to go, but I understood and I understand that as we grow, there are certain things that I'm not going to be able to continue to do, just like you. And we've had conversations about what those things are, but I've understood that the currency of life is relationships. Mhm. And if you don't have that, you don't have anything. But in order to have that relationship, we have to have trust. And so, bro, I trust you. I know that you are competent. I know you're my brother. You're if you want to do some intros, Melissa, for all those listen. No, I doubt all those people that baby listen to this, that you are a person that you feel like you got to do every single thing that is when burnout will come in. That is when I can do I want to do this. And it's not that you're tired of doing the thing. It's your own fault. Right? And so those you that may be listening to this learn from me as I'm learning that not just in the podcast, it has spilled over in every area of my life. It's okay. That allowed my wife to do this. And my wife asked me all the time, let me do that. And I'm like, No, I got it. And I have to learn to let her help. Let her do this is a partnership and relief. Is that control? I promise you, you'll go further, faster if you have somebody to do that better to do that with you instead of doing so. So I hope that as your question right now and I have no desire to do intros with you you guys to hear an episode coming up or I did an intro to a surprise for Lafayette. Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't have it memorized like he does. I have no interest. It was literally a genuine question to see how I should prepare for the next week. I was not interested. I was just when you said that, it brought me back to the moment and I heard it's not like something I ever think about. It was 99 episodes ago, so now we are good. We're so good. Okay. You know, one thing I did learn is that trusting someone else to do something, you'll often find that they have a strength in that so much superior than you do. So when we first started, we would both edit clips. Yeah. And I would do them all the time. And I remember you sending me something once I was, I remember doing some websites stuff. I was doing a clip stuff, and I was trying to get some guests. And you sent me a message like and it was something along the lines of, Hey, bro, you don't have to do it all. I'm here to say okay. And I remember I was up to like 1:00 in the morning, like most nights I got a hammer this out, right? I was just put too much focus in it because we were so bad. We, I mean, now that we were bad, it took so much time because we weren't fluent at editing. And finally I said, you know, and then last year was editing videos, and I noticed our our editing was pretty close. We're learning new things. Yeah. And then his just slow, slowly started getting better faster than mine was. And eventually I thought, why am I me doing these edits, which I hate? He seems to enjoy the journey of learning that his are getting more superior. Me doing this is slowing down his growth, but I'm like, Oh, I got this one, I got this one, and it's slowing me down. I could take this effort and go find better guests, build better outside relationships to come on this show. It's networking, something I've always been okay at your thought. So once we did that, our guests got way better. Our audio, our clips are go look at the old clips. If they're bad, they were mine or I I want to and I want to go back and really delete all of them. And that was just me saying like, I can do this. And now, yeah, some somebody asked this once, Who does your clips? I said, The good ones, Lafayette. The bad ones, me, because I don't do them very often. But every now throw one in because I had a random idea that I thought was funny and that was it. And I just like, as you say, I've relinquished it and it's just been a burden off me. And I'm like, he is so much better at this than I am about what's been your favorite part of 100 episodes. Like, what's been the most fun part to you? The most fun part outside of being able to do it, my brother being able to see what God put in your head in reality and I'm not I'm not gonna cry tonight, but it is. It's a different type of feeling to where you're like, Man, I can't get through this door. I don't have this opportunity. I feel like I have something to say. I feel like I have something to offer to the world that is going to bring value, that is going to change someone's life. And you don't necessarily feel like you in that place are. You may have those seasons in those moments, but it's not consistent but then God says, here's your own platform where you can use your voice any time, anywhere, and literally be heard around the country. Like when when we say it's not about downloads, it's not about numbers, it's not about that. But it is an affirmation and a confirmation to when you see that your second most area of downloads is in England, that that's not a fluke. Right? Because your first combat is like, oh, that's just, you know, they projects tuned in. We're like, wait a minute, we're episode 100. They're tuning in every week. And we had a we had a kind of a joke for a while. I told John because we have been heard all six of the seven continents except for Africa. And I'm trying to figure out what's going on with my motherland was going to homeland of Africa now, you know, I've never been there. Tells you that nobody listens to me. No, I'm joking. I have a black man. So I know I have I've never, never done ancestry.com. But so but I'll but now you can see, hey, we've got some listeners over in Africa that are consistently tuning in and we've got some relationships in Australia. So the the the funnest part for me is to see the not that you need a confirmation of what God has told or what God has shown you, but kind of affirmation that, yeah, you're on the right pocket, you're in the right vein and that is just it sparks me because I am a preacher, but that's not who I am. That's what I do, right? I'm not the most comfortable person in front of camera. I'm not the most talkative person. People that know me, I don't talk that much, you know. And so for me, it's kind of been fun seeing myself develop even more even more recently. Like, I would tweet out a lot of things, like I would say in my notes, I put in my phone, I put on our page or from my page, but more recently is like hey, instead of putting ours, it's we put it out as an Instagram real and to see that people will listen and tune in, not because of me or not because of you, but because we have something to offer that is literally changing people's lives, literally changing people's lives that, yeah, we may not have a million followers we may not have a million subscribers on YouTube yet, but there are there's something that you can't take away from a person. And that is the experience that they have had we have had experiences that will last as a lifetime that even when this podcast is over, even when we moved on to our leadership company and we've done entrepreneur tours, venues and ventures and, you know, done moved on to greater things, we will look back on this and say, Wow, what we started as just a conversation over lunch. It literally took it to the world so that for me, it just makes my heart glad. It makes my heart glad to hear even my family members have said, Hey, I tune in to this episode that you guys have for financial data that my dad told me the other day. I'm like, I'm shocked, you know? He's like, Yeah, I was listening to I think it was Roy Douglas or some other financial person we had on leave. They were saying some really good things that I'm going to apply to my finances, and it's not always something that's come from me or something from you. It could be something from the guest, but just to know that we're giving a value, that's the fun part for me, like and just to be our authentic self, to be our real self like I feel like be myself on here and bring my full self. We say certain things, you know, it may be funny, we've had some tough times, but it's been fun and I just can't wait to see what the next 100 has in store. What's been fun for you, bro? Man, the journey is just the growth. Yeah, just just the understanding that leadership is something that we're both passionate about and personal development, you know, in just seeing the start to the now and how much we've grown, how much has changed crazy. And also I have two kids, and so they see everything. I did an episode with my son here, and that's been I had so many people who I know I did not know. They listen to the show. They're like, Hey, I listen to this show with your son is cute. And I said, well, was a little impromptu because what I was going to do to change it. And they said, why it was so am I think I had no clue that you watched it. My wife will go meet up with old friends and they'll say, I love John's podcast. I listen to it every now and then. I thought, No kidding. And so it's just it's just interesting because guys, when you start, whenever you're starting, you're going to be nervous because you see you and everybody and you think everybody in your community sees you as John the dork from high school, or John the guy who plays soccer, or John the network marketing guy that used to be that kind of thing. That's what they see you as. And so you think, I'll start a podcast, but people don't see me as leadership guy. You don't see me as podcasts or whatever you want to do. This is my story. What I've learned is when you stay consistent in what you're doing, people start to see you in that light. They forget about old you or they just dismiss all you. And now it's John, the leadership guy. John, your podcasting guy, John, the family man who loves to post about his son and his goal scoring and all the things that he does. Yeah, that's who people will see you as. It's not the old you. It's the new you. Have you accepted and you decided to walk forward into they'll see it, but you've got to see it first. And this take those steps and B, be completely convicted in what you're doing. And people will use will see that as well. But until you're convicted they're not going to be convicted. So it starts with you and I think it started with us here. That's where that's what's been cool. Just sort of changing the story, I guess you could say in Broken. I just add on to something that you just said what you as you was talking that people you don't know you as this in the past but they come to find out. John, our leadership got all of that. That was already in you the whole time. Yeah. That was already in you back in high school. Mm. God never puts anything new in us. Everything we are that we are, we already were. Everything that we will be, we all where we were. And so when we we're the ones that are discovering and unlocking the revelation of who we really are as Michelle Obama, you know, that's one of my favorite books. We're becoming right. We're becoming. And so that I and G, the suffix is a continual becoming, you know, and what you're talking about is the becoming process. And a lot of people, they're like, wow, I didn't know that was you, did you? You said that is the new you are. You changed. No, we didn't change. No, this is really not of the new US. This is just another chapter of who we already were in our book, in our story, you just saw chapter one this is the next chapter. This is the next phase of our development. I don't believe in evolution from monkeys to humans, but I believe in the word evolution. What I mean by that is you should always be constantly evolving. You're right. We said all the time, we you should always believe filling up somebody for my church. As with other week job. What do you mean? When I saw some of your posts, they level up. What do you mean by that? You know, and they're all a person, so it's like they don't understand the the lingo, the tea, the millennial, where we're at, but trying to explain to them and tell them all that means is that you're growing. If you're not leveling up, if you're not going higher, if you're not going deeper, if you're not being challenged, the only person that does not grow should be the person that's not alive. Hmm. That's not breathing. If you're breathing, you're supposed to be growing. You're supposed to be moving. You talked about your kids, man. When we started this podcast, I was in a season of transition. Like, I have a six month old son, I have a five year old daughter, I have a wife. But if you go back to when we started the podcast, I was in transition and the podcast was a part of my process in that season that I was in that saved my life was an outlet for me to continue to press through. Even though you're going through hard times, to continue to press through, even though you're going through some tough tribulations and some wins in your life is not only going you don't know what's going on right now, you just know that I have to get up tomorrow and have to put one foot in front of the other, and I've got to keep going. And so we would get on the podcast every week and we would encourage our listeners and our family in our audience to be the leader that got it called in the BE. We're still living real life ourselves. We don't really like it. We're not exempt from we're not exempt from from the kids getting sick. We're not exempt from going through troubles in hard times and in transit. And so it was really, are you going to put your money where your mouth is? You know, you're saying all these things, but it's one thing to say it is one thing. The poster is one thing to tweet it, but it's a whole nother thing to live it. And those you that are listening to this, this is really an authentic podcast. We live what we say. We live by the principles that we give you guys that we are literally living this. And a lot of times I feel like we go through things and experiences that we've been through, so we can't be a help to somebody else that maybe you're listening to this, you don't have to go down the same path. You have to make the same financial decisions. You don't have to go down the same routes. You tuned into the episode that said, Hey, man, I can change my life, I can be better, I can level up from any walk of life because I tuned in to the script out there, to leadership. I hate men for. I don't know when we're closing this out. Before we do, though, I need you to know from one brother to another, I appreciate you. So this first hundred episodes has been amazing. Absolutely. But what's been more fun is just doing it and forming that brotherhood. We were friends when we started yeah. And I think we're forming a strong friendship. When we started, there was just an automatic respect where we started. But through the last two years, and through the grace of needing to change schedules for each other and and needing to give to the other person. Grace, when you felt like one, maybe one person was doing something, you want to do it, or you would maybe one of us would have made it look this way. But we were fine that it looked that way, that kind of thing. And one person took this role in the other. And we never we've never had an argument which that tells you is that we've both had a lots of grace as we grow and learn to let the other person lead them with lead as well. Yeah. And so I just want you to know I have so much respect for you and just appreciation, and I'm super excited for the next whatever however we episode as we roll through a bunch. Absolutely. So I just want you to it's been a complete blessing doing this with you and I'm just really excited about the next step and, and keep moving forward and things will not change things up and so forth. But the one consistency will be that we're both still be there building, growing continuing to push forward for the mission. Thank you, man. Let me say thank you for those kind words. And let me say I feel that way and more about you, bro. As I, as we. The episode will drop at Hollis. I think I said that on there and I'll say it tonight and I can't help but be who I am. I'm a preacher, so I'll reference the Bible a lot. The Bible says the brother is born for the day of adversity and a friend love at all times. You've been consistent, bro. And through every season, as you said, we've had grace and you've had grace for me, you've had respect for me and I honor that. I appreciate that. I think a lot of people, they look at shows that have to host as our show and the host may get along well on camera, but off camera there's friction. There's tension of you remember the E ESPN tender Mike and Mike and how successful that show was. But it ultimately ended because people found out off camera they hated each other. A little of his guts. That is the total opposite of what you see here. When you see John on this camera, you see off camera, we do live together. What brought us together, if we didn't have a podcast, we're still going to be brothers. We're still gonna be friends. And as you've said, this is only strengthen our relationship. But I don't think people really understand because a lot of times people that have more than one hosts show during a show, they're in the same room. They're the same physical proximity. All of our shows I've been virtual because of me changing locations, but also a pandemic and things like that. And we've never missed a beat. Literally never missed a beat. You know, still find time to to to put business where business needs to be, but not putting the business above the relationship the relationship always comes first and the brotherhood always comes first. And that's was always going to last. And I appreciate you, bro. I appreciate your family. You know, my family is your family. Your family is my family, bro. As you as I tell your son, that man is uncle out is Uncle Elvia. And, you know, say way to my kids, bro. And so I appreciate you, bro. And those of you that are listening to this, we appreciate you all for even accepting what we have to offer and really just being there for us, supporting us. And we definitely appreciate what you all are doing. Just continue to take this journey with us. All right. So what's the next steps for unscripted? Let everybody know what do we got and what do we got in the near future? Yeah, so cast the vision we've heard talked about it. Yeah, man. So I think that you all should be preparing yourself for a leadership conference call. Janet actually hit me up the other day, bro, about that. Asking if we were still doing. I absolutely. I would toss a 20, 23 look for it. So I'll put it out in the atmosphere, look for that conference, look for us as we move forward that I hope you all know by now. Unscrambled Topics of leadership is not just a podcast. This is a leadership brand. This is a business, this is a company, this is a worldwide global corporation. And so the podcast is just a sector or underneath a script, authentic leadership. And so stay tuned for what you've got going. I believe you'll see John and I getting public speaking engagements around the world, around the country. Stay tuned. I believe God has got some things in store for us that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard. Neither has an incidence of the heart of any of the things that God has prepared for the unscripted ethics of leadership, podcasts, and the unscripted, authentic leadership brand at large. I mean, we've got we've got so much vision, not just with the leadership company, not leadership conferences, but real estate and just taking over man, helping entrepreneurs and bringing you all along with us on this journey. You guys have it. Stay tuned. We're really excited about this. Super. I know my voice doesn't say I'm still learning, but it's an excitement in my voice. Oh, right. So I'm just a chill person by nature. Yeah. We are so excited. Stay tuned for what we've got. Coming up next, the podcast isn't going anywhere before we add anything to it. Absolutely. And listen, stay connected with us. Hit that follow button. If that subscribe button on our social media at unscripted leadership on all platforms, our YouTube channel, I'll skip the Effective Leadership podcast. And of course, you can get our podcast on giving podcast platforms. And if you want to support our mission, help us take us further, faster. Join our patron, patron.com/unscriptedleadership Support us there and then just help us take this mission around the world. As always, we pray that you all be the leader that God is called you to be. We're here to build bridges and not walls. Bridges connect and walls divide, until next time, God bless