Transcending Fear and Pain to Achieve Success: Anthony Kitchens

00:03 - Annoucer (Announcement)
Welcome to Nightbeat Medias living the dream podcast with your host, gregory Tucker, where we discuss the entrepreneur's journey of turning a dream into reality, showing you how to learn, overcome and acquire strategic action steps. If you're ready to turn your dream into a reality, then get ready to take action. Here's your host, gregory Tucker. 

00:36 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
This young man grew up on the south side of Chicago, considered an average boy, his father only having a third grade education. Well, this young boy built a business that massed over a hundred million dollars before the age of 50. This occurred prior to the internet, prior to YouTube, before cable was blanketing the airwaves. His name is Tony R Kitchens. I can't tell his story. That's why you're here to hear his story and, with that said, tony, tell us about yourself. 

01:30 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
Hello, gregory, thanks for having me. I really appreciate being on your show and I'm looking forward to talking to the audience and sharing experiences with them and hopefully, in the conversation that you and I have, they'll learn a lot more about me, and not just me as a person, but my story and how it connects to them. I've been an entrepreneur for 32 years, but my best and most important role and title is dad I love hearing that word and husband. Those are the two most important things to me by far, absolutely by far. But, with that being said, I have run five different businesses in my life, had a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but at this point in my life, I'm really focused in on providing wisdom and guidance and knowledge for those people who are looking to move beyond their current circumstances toward their dreams and their goals, and I accomplished that through a book that I have, the Gift of Pain. I also do one-to-one strategy sessions with people and businesses and I just try to use those opportunities to really get people to think differently and change their perspective on pain and fear, and that's what I'm doing today. Greg. 

02:46
A station in Germany for a while, and the other one was stateside. But even then, early on, I knew I wanted to be in business and I wanted to be in the Army. Other than that didn't know. And to come to find out when my junior year of high school came about. The Army had this program called split training and I actually enlisted. So I went to basic training between my junior and senior year in high school. When all of my friends are out partying, as soon as we got out of school I was on a plane to Fort Leonard Wood, missouri, for basic training and then I served in a National Guard unit in the Army and then, after I graduated from high school, that next summer I went and finished my what's called AIT, advanced Individual Training, in Fort Dix, new Jersey. So as I look back and it's interesting that you mentioned that, greg, because I look back the family members what I saw I became. I became a soldier because I saw my cousins do that. I became an entrepreneur because I saw my uncle do it. 

04:00
And there was nothing on TV that I was really interested in as a kid except cartoons. The program was limited Channels 25, 7, 9 and 32. That was it Right. There was no internet, there was no. We didn't have 100 TV channels, so I didn't see anything on TV that sparked interest in terms of something that I would look forward to doing. It just wasn't there. As a matter of fact, we didn't watch much TV. Tv was the thing, greg, if you remember when you got on punishment, you couldn't watch it and you had to stay in the house. So imagine being in a house, no TV, you couldn't go outside. That was life for us as young people, right? So we had to find other ways to be creative, to occupy our time, but I did. Looking back on it now, I became exactly what I saw. What my environment was was a soldier, which I said I have passion for today, and as an entrepreneur. 

04:59 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
And one of the things is I was reading your book that really stood out to me and that was listen and don't speak. Because you listen, you learn when you talk, game's over, almost 100% true. 

05:24 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
The interesting thing about that, though, is my parents never made us be quiet. What I mean by that is there was a. It was custom in households when you were young for the young kids to be seen and not heard. That's what you always would hear, but my parents were kind of the opposite. My older sister, my younger sister when we had company, neighbors or people from church or whoever came by, we were allowed to sit at the table with my parents and talk, and their position was, as far as I can remember, going all the way back. If my kids can't go, if they can't be there, and then we're not going, if they can't be in the conversation, we're not going to be in the conversation, and I really appreciated that, and we treat our son the same way. Well, he'll be 20 years old next month, but the point is is it's the same thing? How were we going to learn if my parents would not include us in these conversations? And let us be allowed to expose us to my uncle and what he was doing, and my cousins and all the stories that they had, and I really appreciate that, and it's something that's invaluable. 

06:37
But, to your point, I didn't have anything to talk about. So I listened. I listened to my cousins. I couldn't share any war stories with them, I couldn't share any business stories with my uncles. I just sat there and just with wide eyes, just an open mouth, just an amazement, and he wasn't doing, looking back, he wasn't doing anything extraordinary today, looking back, but at that point, as a young boy, it was extraordinary. I didn't know anybody that flew to Germany and was in Italy. A lot in Spain that was unheard of, and I was just listening to how he would talk about the people and the wine and all of the things, the experiences he had. And I just wanted that for myself and for my family. 

07:23 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
Okay and some of the other things that you mentioned, and that is that when you didn't connect yourself far as with the title, because when you first came on, when I asked you, go ahead and tell me about yourself, you didn't start out with oh well, I got this PhD, I did all of these companies, I was a CEO, and you came up with the element and that was I'm a husband, I'm a father and you're just a good man trying to help others along the way. So I really enjoy and that's something that's refreshing to hear. So often we kind of get caught up in the titles and the years right there. 

08:34 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
Absolutely, and I think, greg, in all honesty, that just comes from what we become along the journey in our lives and the things that we see, the things we experience, the ups and the downs. When my son was 15 years old this was back in 2015, we decided that we wanted to just go on road trips. We wanted for him to see how other people lived, to interact with other people, different nationalities and races and everything. So what we did was, in 2016, we started doing road trips. My wife and my son and myself, we would literally take the entire summer off from. We would leave in June, typically late May, and we would get on the road and we would be gone for four or five weeks and over the course of four summers we traveled to 48 states so all of the states except Alaska and Hawaii and many of them. We went to two, three, four, five times during that time period, and then we flew to about eight different countries also during those four years. And the reason we did that was because we wanted our son to see the world, to see that, as big as our surroundings feel like to us, we're just a small player in the grand scheme of things, no matter how successful we are as a family, it doesn't really matter when you look at the entire world and see how other people live way better than we did and some way worse than we did. And that perspective, that not just what my son learned, it also refocused my wife and myself to see that, no matter how successful we were, we had so much more work to do to impact the lives of others and we have empathy for others, and that's the important thing. When people get stuck on titles and they should want to talk about all the successes they have, that's good, because that also inspires and motivates people, and I would encourage them to do so. 

10:47
At a certain point, with success, though, you remember the bruises more than you remember the successes, because I always tell people your greatest lessons come in failures. They come when you get beat up. They come when you get knocked down. They come during challenges. They come through difficult times. That's where your lessons come in. I've never learned anything by being ultra successful, except time moves really fast when you're successful, when things are going well, time moves by at the speed of light literally, where you don't even remember some of those times. 

11:28
Imagine going out in Expressway, driving in a car going 120 miles an hour. You can't see the off ramps, you can't see cars around you. You're focused on staying between those two dotted lines, one to your left, one to your right. You're just focused on staying on track. And that's what life is like when things are going extremely well. 

11:49
And how can you observe life? How can you pay attention to anybody or anything around you? You can't, because you just have your hands on that steering wheel, trying to maintain control as much control as we believe we have. But when you go through difficult times, greg, life slows down to a halt. It literally moves at a snail's pace. 

12:11
And then what happens is life gets quiet, because you don't want to be around a bunch of people, you don't have the energy to be in front of a whole bunch of people in situations, and then you allow yourself to be quiet enough to listen to who you really are. And when you're quiet and you hear that voice, that's when you connect with who you really are and that's when you really find your true self. That's where you find the determination. That's when you say to yourself I'm in this hole. It's eight feet deep. How do I get out? There's no ladder here and you have to really think and you have to really remember every time you were in a hole before and how you got out in the past and can you get out using those same methods today. So I've learned way more being quiet than I have in the highs of my success. 

13:16
But again, when you mention titles, does it really matter at the end of the day what a title is? Because most of us are going to change careers several times in our lives and if we identify just with a title, then that's what people see and hear when they see us. But that's not how I want to represent myself. So, greg, if we're walking out on the street, you and I, and we're drinking some coffee, and we run into a group of guys, and I want them to see me and you for who we are, we're just being on a journey. We're trying to do the best that we can do for ourselves and our family. That's it. 

13:54
But if I walk up and say I'm Dr Tony or I'm Professor of this, then it's this shield, because then people treat you a certain way. Maybe they don't want to engage with you too much because they feel like maybe you're wiser than they are and now. They're reserved, they're not going to be your true selves. So if we take all of those masks and uniforms off and it's just Greg and it's just Tony, let's just talk, let's just have a conversation, and that's where you find the real value in relationships. But if you start out with the shield upfront, you're not going to be able to establish those relationships or it's going to take a long time to do so. 

14:36 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
Oh, yes, definitely. Now that segues into your book, the Gift of Pain, and that is considering what you can become because of your pain. Because so often no, let's face it, pain is uncomfortable and at one point our bodies try to avoid or it's, any signs of discomfort and we tend to look okay, do I really want to endure this pain? Now you say it's a gift. Could you elaborate on that? 

15:27 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
So, as far as pain is concerned, here's the thing that I would say and I would qualify this by saying that there's certain types of pain that you'll never be able to see reason or a gift or blessing from it, the cry of a mom that just lost a child. There's certain types of pain that nobody can probably recover from, but they can figure out how to manage. What I'm referring to is is, in life we're going to face certain challenges, whatever that may be. Maybe it's a relationship that we thought was gonna last and it didn't. Maybe it's a business that failed and we thought it was gonna last forever. Or maybe it's a career, maybe it's a job that you really love and they outsourced or they downsized. Or maybe it is the loss of a loved one, a parent. But here's the thing that I would say in every situation I faced in my life, when I sat down and started just really writing, it was really more of a diary, it was a journal for me, because I was going through a tough time and I was trying to figure out how to deal with this, and what I did was I just wanted to write down and remember all of the times that I faced challenges and, going back to a previous point, life had been going so fast for me that I didn't have time really to sit down and think about any of the challenges, the trauma that I dealt with over the years, a lot of stuff. And not that my life was bad, I'm not saying that. But again, when you're running a company, you got a lot of employees. When my parents passed the next day, you got bills, you got employees. So when there's a share in those over everybody's expecting you to continue to do what you do, because you got payroll to make, because you have people's lives who have rent and mortgages and carnotes and in tuitions to pay, so you can't stand still and mourn. You just physically can't do it. So what I learned when I was writing? I looked at all of these experiences that I had and I just remember thinking to myself that, wow, there is a little bit from each of them that was gonna help me out during this time and that was a blessing in itself. I looked at the fact that after my dad died, for example, and my cousins from Georgia came up, my cousin Chris came up on my dad's side and every since then, chris and I speak every Sunday and we sit on the phone, greg, and we'll laugh for two hours, and now that we live in Georgia, we get to see each other. We've traveled the world together. We continue to travel. We're gonna be traveling the future together, but that's a blessing that came from Chris coming to my dad's funeral. That's a blessing. The relationship that me and my cousin have, it's just, it's an unshakable relationship that I really, really appreciate. That's a gift. It was painful for me to lose my dad, of course, but that's just one example. There are other examples. 

18:44
When my business closed. I closed one of my businesses in 2019. It was a horrible time, absolutely horrible time. I didn't know what I was gonna do with anything in life. There were so many things happening at that period of time. Then COVID hit. Then my son was going to school, to college, and just trying to figure out what life looked like now as opposed to what it used to look like. But what I realized, maybe a year or two after closing the business, sooner than that that it was a gift, it was a blessing, and the reason why was because, as I looked down that road that I was going down, it wasn't gonna lead to anything that was gonna be beneficial to me or my family. It was very stressful and I didn't realize how stressful it was having that corporation until I had to close it until afterwards and I really believed if I would have stayed and had that corporation I probably would have had a heart attack just looking back at the amount of stress that was released afterwards. But in the process I didn't feel that way. It was just normal, this 24 hour weight that's on your shoulders. It was just normal for 29 years. 

20:02
But the reality is is you and I are here on the podcast. We're talking, telling other people what it's like to look at pain and look at it as a gift. Down the road I wouldn't have had time or opportunity to be on this podcast. That's a gift. There are a thousand things that I can list, but I think what I would tell the audience is this you won't see the gifts or the blessings the next day. It may not be for six months or it may not be a year, two years from the time the event or those situations happen. 

20:39
But if we're able to look at things in our lives and not say why me, but say what did I learn from that, what can I take from those situations and then you apply that to today and you apply that to the future and you realize that you got strength from that. You were able to develop more skills that you need to deal with bigger challenges that you're facing today and in the future. And that's really what the gift of pain is. And the other thing that I would say about that fear walks hand in hand with pain. And, greg, think about this If we allowed ourselves to run away from fear and to avoid pain at all costs, ultimately at the end of our lives, when we look back, are we gonna have regret or are we going to say, yeah, I avoided that stuff and I stayed in a safe place? I will much rather come to the end of my life knowing that I just gave it all. I gave every piece of energy, every piece of grit and determination I had in my body to move for, in spite of fear or in spite of the potential pain that it can cause. 

22:03
For example, starting a business is a scary thing for people. It is because you're literally jumping off of a cliff. In essence, you have no support system that's going to pay you every two weeks, twice a month. It's not there. You have to create it for yourself, and that's a scary thought. 

22:24
But here's the thing that fear that you're looking at starting a business, or that avoidance of pain, of not being able to maybe drive the car that you want to drive today and maybe you won't be able to get that for two years, that pain of feeling like you're going to be without the fear of missing out the rewards that you will get after that, after overcoming the fear, after moving past this idea that the rest of your life is going to be painful, what you're going to become in the process is something that you would have never experienced if you would have shied away from those challenges in life, if you would have ran the opposite way to the safe corner and just stayed there to avoid the rain, so to speak. 

23:11
When I'm in a grocery store, in the interest, when I walk outside and it's raining, I see all of these people lined up in the grocery store, afraid to get wet, and I just walk to the car, greg, and get in, and by the time they leave the grocery store, I'm at home and I've made dinner already. In other words, life is going to continue, whether you're on the sideline or not. It's okay to get a little bit wet, it's just water. That's what I learned in life that the pain and fear, they're going to be there no matter what, no matter what. And it's painful at two o'clock in the morning when you're waking up trying to figure out how to pay bills. But I would rather wake up at two o'clock in the morning with excitement and energy, knowing that tomorrow I can control a lot of my destiny because I'm going to put in 115% more work than I did yesterday as an entrepreneur. 

24:09 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
Now you say also nothing happens to you, it happens for you. 

24:17 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
Absolutely. I honestly believe that and the things that have happened in my life. I didn't necessarily bring those things on, and some of them I may have. We create situations that may be challenging for us, and that's just part of life. But I look at everything as a test, greg, every single thing that I face as a test and the thing that I, once I deal with what that reality is, my next move is to say I'm going to get an A plus on this test and I allow myself to sit in, whatever the situation is, for a period of time for a day, maybe two days tops just to really feel it and just as a human say you know what? This is bad, it doesn't feel good. What am I going to do? 

25:05
So I allow myself as a human to sit in that and just to feel those feelings that I have. Right, I allow myself to do that. But then, no matter what, that next night or two days later, that feeling that I have, literally there's a light switch that goes on and what I feel is this energy is literally like a burning desire for me to get out of that situation and never get back in that situation, and then I'm going to get up and do everything I have to do to make sure that I don't have the fear of things like that, or make sure that, whatever pain I felt, I don't feel that specific pain again, and that's what all of us have the ability to do if we desire. 

25:59 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
Do. It seems like sometimes people talk themselves, have that self talk and they talk themselves out of doing stuff like the analogy you used, and that is people don't want to go outside. They're stuck in the grocery store thinking I'm going to wait to go to my car when it stops raining, not when it slacks up, but it has to stop right there. 

26:36 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
Yeah, that's we as humans. We do talk ourselves out of it. And what I've learned is, the longer you, when you're faced with a situation you need to make a decision, the longer it takes you to make a decision. You're allowing your mind to point out every single thing that can go wrong, everything. So, as you're standing there, you're facing the situation and you want to walk on the rain. What do women think? Oh, my God, my hair is. Now I'm going to have to go back and get my hair done again. That's $100. Right? Or the guys that think I don't want to get wet. You know, I don't want to go, have to change my clothes and this, that another, my phone might get wet. Your mind is preparing you for every worst possible scenario that you can ever think of, but in that moment, I just go out and do it. I'm walking to the car, that's it. I see these situations. It's a challenge. You just walk and what you realize is, as soon as you start moving, as soon as you start taking action, that voice will either go away altogether or it'll get so quiet that you don't even really hear it anymore. And that's the thing about life is, yeah, we talk ourselves out of stuff for sure. 

27:53
I give one example in the book, my friend. We're boaters and when people will come to Puerto Rico, where we lived, we would take them out on a boat. That was something we enjoyed doing and every single time we would try to take them out to this little island, vieques, or Culebra, or one of the islands, and we just wanted to get in the water and snorkel with them. And they would stand there, greg, they would suit up, they would put their life vests on and they would stand there on the swim platform on the edge of the boat, in the back, and they would ask a thousand questions how deep is the water? 18 feet? Are there sharks in the water? Probably this is where they live. Are the other? Do the fish bite? I don't know. They bite by a fish. Am I going to drown? I hope not, but if you do, we'll have a nice ceremony for you. All of these questions, right. 

28:46
But here's the thing. What I would typically do is is I would stand there and I would say let me just adjust your life vest and I would tug on the straps and make sure that it's tight and I would just look at them in their eyes and just push them off the boat. It's 18, 20 feet, 30 feet of water and they would panic for about 10 seconds and I would just stand and look at them. I would look down at them because they can't drown. It's physically impossible. They got the life vest on. They can't drown. So I'm just looking at them and then at a certain point I would just point to my eyes and say look at my eyes, let's just have a conversation, how are you doing? And sooner or later they would calm down. And then here's the beautiful part of this Greg, I couldn't get them out the water. 

29:42 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
So it's overcoming that fear. And once they saw that Zig Ziegler had a scene, what is that Fear? False evidence appearing real. But once they make that jump and they see it wasn't as scary after all. 

30:04 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
And here's how life works. They would have a mask on and I would jump in the water. After that, I would get in the water with them and I would just take and we would just swim over to a little coral reef and they didn't have to go underwater. But I would just say, just put your head in the water. And they would literally just put their face in the water just enough for the goggles to clear the surface so that they can see underwater, and they would immediately snap their head back up. Oh my God, it's Nemo. They're fish. Look at this. Look at the colors and the level of excitement. 

30:42
And here's the thing when they went back home, greg, and once we talked after that, they never forgot how beautiful, how beautiful under the water looks. They never imagined that it was so beautiful. Because here's the thing you can't see how beautiful it is unless you go under the surface. The ocean looks completely different once you break that plane and go under. And isn't that again what life is? 

31:09
Life is way more beautiful when you can move past fear and stop avoiding pain and really go after your goals and your dreams. 

31:19
Life is way more more enjoyable than I ever thought that it was going to be. 

31:26
We've traveled the world, we've seen some amazing places, and we would sit there, Greg, and we would just kind of pinch ourselves when we're sitting in Kenya, in Africa, sitting in the dirt, amongst the Maasai community, these warriors who used to fight with lions, with spears, and we would sit there and I would think to myself this little boy from Chicago who had big dreams, but I didn't imagine this in my dreams and just sit there and you just pinch yourself. Imagine if I never had taken that leap off that boat as I pushed people and taken that leap of faith and started a business to be able to have the means and the resources to travel the world and have these amazing experiences. And again, what are we missing out on in life by being afraid to take a chance, to be afraid to step out and move beyond our fear? And that's the lesson that I think that I want all of us to learn, and me to continue to learn is life is so much more beautiful on the other side when you can get past fear and pain. 

32:40 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
I have a little sticker that's on my desk and it says don't let your biggest enemy be the one between your ears. 100% true. 

32:57 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
So the next thing is how, or? 

32:59 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
do you have any suggestions on how can someone step outside their comfort zone? What does it begin with or is to make that change? 

33:11 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
There's always a reason why people step outside of their comfort zone, and then there's a reason why people step outside of their comfort zone, and then there's a reason why they stay in their comfort zones. So, if I'm giving advice to someone, this is what I would say what's really, really important for you in your life? What's the most important thing for you? Because a lot of times, as adults, people stop dreaming and maybe that's not the approach that you want to take. What's your biggest dream? I'm living my dream right now. I'm doing okay, I don't need anything else. Okay, that's great. Well, let's rephrase it what's the most important thing to you today? And people may say it's my kids, making sure they're safe and secure, whatever that is. Or providing us a solid household for my family, whatever that is. And the thing that I would say is, if that's the most important thing for you today and you have this little thing of fear stopping you from either maintaining that or enhancing that, are you willing to just not be at a place where you say you really want to be? And that's the why. It's why we do what we do. But the thing that I would say is, if you're really afraid to jump into water, if you're really afraid to take that leap, find someone that's going to hold your hand In business. We call them mentors. Same thing in life. Maybe it's a business coach, maybe it's a consultant. Find someone who will hold your hand when you jump into water. I had to jump into water a lot of times with people holding their hand and that's okay. That's absolutely okay, because it gave them the confidence to know that they're not by themselves, they're not going to go under. Same thing in life. And a mentor is someone who has experience doing something that you're looking to do. By definition, it's a very simple definition Same thing in business. So, if you're looking to start a business, find someone who's already in business and say I need a little bit of support. I don't need you to create a business plan or to be my chief executive officer or chief operating officer, just give me some perspective. What am I getting into? That's what I will look at and it's the same thing in life. It's who can be your mentor in life? 

35:43
I used to ask questions. I was in this business group years ago and it was mostly men about four or five women who were in the group, but I was always asked these older men two questions. One is give me some advice as a dad. Give me just some solid advice. And then two what would you change in your life that you, looking back, would want to do differently? And I would always ask those two questions to them. 

36:14
And what I was really doing is these were people that I knew intimately and people that I didn't, but then we were all part of the same business organization 73 of us total and I didn't care that I didn't know them very well because I knew they would definitely respond. 

36:31
But the thing I was really doing, greg, if you look at it, was I was getting advice and guidance and wisdom from these people Because I was on a journey and I was treating them as mentors, even though they didn't know it. We didn't have this formal relationship, but I was trying to learn from them because they were at a place that I was looking to go. And I think that's a lost art today Is everybody believes they know everything and they stop learning, they stop asking for advice, they stop asking for perspective and guidance Because we want to know everything ourselves, and it's weak if we reach out and ask someone for an opinion. You don't have to take everything they say word for word, but it's extremely important to talk to people who have experience, and that's probably some of the best advice I can give to people If they're looking to jump out there and really not know how to conquer fear that is so valuable. 

37:32 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
What you just said right there, it's because life is a lifelong learning. You're going to continuously learn and if you don't, then that's when you stay stuck right there. So I know you are a very busy man and you've taken this opportunity. You've given us the opportunity for us to come on and share some of your wisdom. So for people who are looking for us to get your book, let's see here we're going to show some information on where they can get a copy of your book, because I would have to say and it's not just because you're here on the show, but I'm going to say because this is something that's extremely valuable. And you know I read, but the first time I just kind of read through it and I picked up some nuggets, but I want to go back and dive deeper into it, because each time that you look through it you find something new, and it is like you said, and that is the at the end of someone's life You're not looking at. Oh, this is what I did do. The biggest thing is they say regret, regret. They say regret, regret. I did not do these things right there. 

39:19
So let me bring out your book right here and that is for people to get more information or get in contact with you. We have your YouTube channel up there linked in, and then your website also. One thing I would like to do a plug and that is for your YouTube channel and that I'm going to hit that one more time in order to bring that back on there again, because it kind of went quick and that is again. We want to look at at Tony kitchens and, as I told you, I get up in the morning because before we begin our day, I think it's important that we kind of arm ourselves, because we can easily get stuck in that rut or are picking up all the other things that negative, negative things that are that are constantly going on. But this way, right here, we're able to get something that's going to keep us informed. If you can tell them where can they pick up the book? 

40:39 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
Yeah, thank you, gregory, for that nice review. I appreciate it. You can find the book at gift of pain book dot com or you can visit my website at Tony our kitchens dot com and there's a link to it at the upper right hand corner under the word shop. Social media contacts and links are at the bottom of the web page. 

41:00 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
Okay, and one of the things that we're not trying to pitch anything, but if someone's looking far as far coaching and they want to dive deeper and you they're ready to make the commitment, they can go to your website also and find more information right there. So that way, if they need to have more, that one on one right there. 

41:26 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
Yes, yes, gregory, I do one on one sessions with individuals and business owners and those are really valuable. Sessions will re dig into issues that people want to overcome. This is not psychology or psychiatry. This is more of moving beyond circumstances today to toward goals and dreams that people have really good sessions or really enjoy them. 

41:53 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
Okay, and is there anything else you would like the audience to take away? 

42:03 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
I think in closing, I would first thank you, greg, for this opportunity to spend time with you and your audience. As far as the audience is concerned, here's the thing that I would say is success, by all of the measurements that you can possibly think of, is really not a destination. I know that we've heard that before. All of us have heard that. But if you think about what that means, it's the journey it is. If you're a longer journey, you're going to develop resilience. You're going to develop humility, empathy, you're going to develop a characteristic for longevity. You're going to develop so many more things along the journey, and that's the beauty of it. But if, if you're in life and you don't have any direction and you're just kind of sitting still, then you're not really on a journey. You're waking up every day and just reacting to what happens. You're reacting to what happens on the news. You're reacting to what happens at work. You're just trying to get through your day so that you can get home and turn down at night and start all over again waiting for the weekend to get here. But there's way more to life than that. There's way more being able to travel the world and meet other people. You'll be amazed at how much you're connected to other people around the world and how many similarities you have and how many things you have in common. So I would definitely tell people travel. That's extremely important because it gives you perspective that you wouldn't have. 

43:45
And the second thing is continue to learn. I try to read as much as I can. He's read one book a week, and not just little books, but big books, 900 page books in certain situations. I don't have as much time to do that anymore, but I still get through 10 or 12 books a year and I'm always amazed at how much I continue to learn, because it shows me how much I didn't know the year before. So I would encourage people continue your education, revisit your dreams and your goals. If you don't have any, start some today and then get around people who are doing things. Get around people that you can ask, who are at the places that you're trying to get to, and they will help you. They will hold your hand as you make that jump into the water. They'll hold your hand as you walk through life, and that's probably some of the most valuable information I can impart on your audience today. 

44:43 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
All right. Well, thank you, and for all of you you know, I hope you took some notes and again remember this small things make big things happen. So every begin, everything has a beginning and, as Tony mentioned, you know, sometimes you just got to jump in the water and once you put your face underneath that water, you'll see that it's beautiful right there and it's not as scary as it's all been made out to be in your mind. Again, thank you, Tony, and you have a great evening. 

45:28 - Anthony Kitchen (Guest)
You as well. 

45:29 - Gregory Tucker (Host)
Just listening to those stories, I'm hoping that you'll be inspired to take action and turn that big dream that you're having into a reality. Now, one of our dreams is to expand this platform here, and we can do that with your help. That is, hit the like button, leave a comment and share it with a friend. The thing is, sometimes you just have to leap or, as Tony put it, jump off into the deep end. It's a lot less scary than what it's made out to be. You'll never know until you take that chance. 

46:41 - Annoucer (Announcement)
When writing the story of your life be sure you're holding the pen.