COMMON: The Untold Story of How Heartbreak, Rejection & Self-Doubt Almost Derailed His Success (And How He FINALLY Found His Purpose)

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 2 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 5 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 6 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 4 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 11 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

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Speaker 17 One of my greatest lessons has been in one of the greatest pains I had, and that was a heartbreak.

Speaker 1 Hip Hop Icon Common is an Academy Award, Mmm, and three-time Grammy-winning artist.

Speaker 18 What was the hardest part about learning to love yourself and take care of yourself?

Speaker 17 Sometimes I can bring that little Rashid into the present and those feelings of being rejected and make this new rejection greater than what it really is.

Speaker 18 Heartbreak, therapy, you're talking about the trauma you've been through. These are not themes that hip-hop's known for.

Speaker 17 All I was doing was telling my truth.

Speaker 18 How have you learned in the moment? to deal with that emotion and to learn how to trust.

Speaker 17 You understand

Speaker 17 what energy you want in your life and who deserves to be in your life. I usually wouldn't seize the moment.
The thought came to me, like, I'm gonna call John Legend.

Speaker 17 And I tell him, hey, man, I'm part of this movie, Selma. They don't want a song from us, so we're submitting it.
But will you do this song? And he said,

Speaker 17 The number one health and wellness podcast.

Speaker 18 Jay Shetty. Jay Shetty.
He won the only Jay Shetty.

Speaker 18 I'm so excited to finally share the live interviews from my very first podcast tour presented by Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Speaker 18 This one was recorded live at the legendary Chicago Theater with the one and only common. Special thanks to MSG Entertainment and the Chicago Theater.

Speaker 17 Chicago, Chicago, Feast.

Speaker 17 I love this place, Chicago.

Speaker 18 I am so excited to be here tonight at the Chicago Theater in Chicago with Mr. Chicago.

Speaker 17 What a blessing. The one and only Common.

Speaker 17 Thank you.

Speaker 18 Common, I want to start off by just saying how grateful I am to you for your artistry. I grew up listening to you in London.

Speaker 18 Your music, your words, your energies made it all the way over to the 14-year-old me who was dreaming of being a rapper.

Speaker 17 Wow.

Speaker 18 And then I listened to you and realized I wasn't good enough.

Speaker 18 And we've spoken before. We never met until tonight.

Speaker 18 And your voice has such a power, it carries so much energy, it carries so much that the frequency you operate comes through your voice so powerfully.

Speaker 18 And I want to start off by asking you, you know, today, obviously, we know you as the Emmy Award winner, the Grammy Award winner, the Oscar award winner.

Speaker 18 Yeah, give it up, right? It's like, there's not many people. There's not many people.

Speaker 18 But I want to know who Common was before the Emmy, the Grammy, the Oscar, because that's what we've been talking about tonight, is when you're at the start of your journey.

Speaker 18 Who were you at the start of your journey?

Speaker 17 Well, first, thank you, Jay. And thank you all.
I just thank God for this moment.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 17 who I was before

Speaker 17 I was out as an artist. I was a young black boy from the south side of Chicago who

Speaker 17 who had a tremendous, incredible mother and a great stepfather and a beautiful community that taught me everything from God to

Speaker 17 survival to intelligence to basketball to music to life and to love.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 17 that gave me a foundation of someone who wanted to actually be something in the world. I didn't know what I wanted to be all the way, but

Speaker 17 I knew I wanted to give something to the world. And that's who I was before I actually got to be out there as an artist.
Some of my dreams was basketball to be a basketball player.

Speaker 17 But I can't hoop, y'all, just so you know.

Speaker 17 Not as good as I used to, but I can hoop. But yeah, so, you know, I just wanted to be something.
It was something, though, Jay.

Speaker 17 One thing that got me when I was really a young kid was I used to love this English class because our English teacher would teach us a lot about like black history and

Speaker 17 like all these great writers from James Baldwin and Dr. Mayangelou and

Speaker 17 Nikki Giovanni and Richard Wright. So one day she taught us this story about this young man named Emmett Till.

Speaker 17 And Emmett Till was from Chicago. And in the 50s, I believe it was 1955.

Speaker 17 He went to visit his family down in Mississippi and went to the corner store with his cousins and was accused of whistling at a white woman.

Speaker 17 And her husband eventually found where Emma Till lived when he was staying with his aunt for the summer.

Speaker 17 And they grabbed him out of the house and they ended up beating him to death and threw him in the river.

Speaker 17 The reason why I bring this story up is his mother chose to show, have an open casket funeral, and and his head was bigger than I can describe.

Speaker 17 And the way they had beat him for whistling at a white woman, what he was accused of, it always hit me in a place where I felt almost like guilty. I felt pain.
I felt like I owe Emmett Till.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 17 that was really a real driving force in my life. Though I never met Emmett Till in my life, his spirit was like something that I felt like I had to live for.

Speaker 17 And for those people who had been like him, who had lost their lives for no reason, but specifically Emmett Till.

Speaker 17 Now, that was one of the driving forces for me as a kid, even though I didn't know what I wanted to be. And

Speaker 17 I just want to say that that meant a lot to me.

Speaker 18 It's incredible. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. Go for it.

Speaker 17 It's...

Speaker 18 It's incredible to me how people we've never met

Speaker 18 and people we've never seen, how their stories can transform our lives.

Speaker 18 For me, when I was growing up, I was reading everything from David Beckham and Dwayne The Rock Johnson when he was a wrestler, all the way through to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Yes.

Speaker 18 And I was really lucky that my dad would give me biographies and autobiographies of these people.

Speaker 18 And it was because of him handing them to me that I got so inspired by people who'd lived these service-based lives.

Speaker 18 But I wanted to ask you, when you read that story, when you heard about that story,

Speaker 18 how did you not get bitter or negative, but became hopeful about wanting to represent and live a good life? Because hearing about those kind of pains and struggles can also make you act different.

Speaker 18 But for you, it pushed you to want to do something positive with your life.

Speaker 17 The killing of Emmett Till was really the catalyst, many believe for the civil rights movement. And

Speaker 17 how that affected me was, man,

Speaker 17 I felt like this beautiful young man didn't have like that evil energy to him, that dark energy to him. And I felt that I wanted to be a reflection of that.

Speaker 17 I strive to approach life in ways where when I would go through something,

Speaker 17 I would figure a way out by figuring out the positive, the lesson in it.

Speaker 17 And I didn't have that type of like information as a kid or like, I didn't have it like really developed but I knew that as a kid that I didn't want to be putting negative energy out there even when I was dealing with difficult moments that didn't mean I didn't feel those difficult moments or I didn't have the anger but I couldn't stay there and I knew when I saw what happened with Emmett Till yes of course I did feel some anger and like why did that happen to him but i knew i had to make it into a positive and i wanted my life to feel positive and i wanted others lives to feel positive.

Speaker 17 So that's what I used it for. And eventually in certain aspects of my life, I've been able to translate that, you know, and that's what part of the practice is of what we do.

Speaker 17 Like, I'm so grateful that I know you can rhyme too. I know you can rhyme.

Speaker 17 I know you can rhyme, but I'm so grateful at how you are using your words and your gifts. and your spirit and your heart.

Speaker 17 It's amazing how the things that we do to build, to get to, you would never know that your love for writing would like lead you to this place.

Speaker 17 And I would never know that like the things that I experienced, whether it was with Emmett Till or on a positive note, some people don't notice.

Speaker 17 I was a ball boy for the Chicago Bulls, right? Yeah.

Speaker 17 So I was there when Michael Jordan first

Speaker 17 came into the league. In fact, I used to have some Jordans.
I used to get gym shoes or sneakers, as people say, but in Chicago, we say gym shoes.

Speaker 17 So

Speaker 17 I used to get gym shoes from a lot of players. And at the time, I would give them to my teachers.
I would sell them. But I had some Jordans that I gave to my father that he signed.

Speaker 17 My father would, God bless his soul, he would wear them to my concerts. And I'd be like, dad, do not wear these shoes, man.
These shoes is worth too much.

Speaker 17 That being said, I didn't know, you know, it's amazing how, as you said, sometimes, well, I did get to be around Michael Jordan. I didn't know him well, but I got to see that.

Speaker 17 It's amazing how witnessing that greatness affected me in a positive way too. So it was some, some heavy things that affected me and some beautiful things that affected me.

Speaker 18 Yeah. And it's your power that you were able to notice both.
Yes. and convert them and transfer them into building a positive life.

Speaker 18 And we were talking about dreams earlier, and I know a lot of this audience got dreams.

Speaker 18 This audience has dreams. and often I find yeah give it off of your dreams you gotta

Speaker 18 I know there's dreams I know there's dreams and sometimes it can feel like

Speaker 18 you know you're holding that dream back you're not living it fully you're hiding it you're kind of embarrassed about it maybe you're guilty about it maybe you're maybe you don't believe in it yourself you said one of your early dreams you were telling me backstage and even now you were mentioning was actually to be a basketball player yeah how serious were you about that dream compared to what then became music, what then became acting?

Speaker 18 Like, how serious was that dream?

Speaker 17 No, that dream was very serious. I mean, I was dedicating my time and energy, a lot of it to just playing ball.
Like that was one of the most important things to me.

Speaker 17 And my dream was the Magic Johnsons, the Isaiah Thomases, the Michael Jordans,

Speaker 17 all these great players.

Speaker 17 that I actually got to be, like I said, in the presence of, it was like, it made it even that much more attainable to me I worked on it I worked on it and I got pretty good I mean I can't you know we we all as when you're a hooper or whatever you feel like oh I'm cold I got game but but in all reality I probably wasn't pro material but it's beautiful how divine and how great God orchestrates things for you to be where you should be when you trust in that.

Speaker 17 I got injured in my sophomore year and I was out for like months. And those months of me not being able to play ball led me to wanting to write more.

Speaker 17 Like I was already writing, but it was like, okay, I can't hoop right now, so I'm going to write. And when I came back to the team, I wasn't getting any playing time.

Speaker 17 So I was like, well, I'm going to go be a rapper then, man.

Speaker 17 And it just, you know, it kind of guided me to where I should be.

Speaker 17 So my first dream was to hoop. And I kind of got to live out that dream in a movie called Just Right where I played an NBA player.

Speaker 17 You know, I was like, wow, this is amazing. Cause it was a fulfillment of a dream as an actor.
It was my first leading role.

Speaker 17 But it also was like, oh, I'm actually getting to play like I'm an NBA player. I was playing against Dwayne Wade and Dwight Howard at the time.
And

Speaker 17 it was an amazing experience. And

Speaker 17 it's something how.

Speaker 17 We talked about this, how, you know, you have a dream and that dream can evolve and it could become, you you find a new dream and that dream can evolve.

Speaker 17 And I think, you know, I'm really keen on dreams because, and I really try to try to like inspire young people to have a dream and even whatever age we are, but really I want young people to get that early because that was one of the most important things for me growing up.

Speaker 17 that led me to say, hey, I'm not going to go too far over to this craziness. Like we in Chicago, you're going to get into some craziness, right? You're going to, you're going to be around it.

Speaker 17 You're going to, you're going to experience something. You might participate in it.
But because I had a dream, I would only participate but so much. I had a boundary.
I had a boundary.

Speaker 17 And that truly was my guiding light. Like, you know what? I want to be something.
I want to do something.

Speaker 17 And even as those things began to evolve, it still became a boundary for me to be like, all right, y'all doing doing too much i can't do that over there

Speaker 18 the the thing i love about that and i want us to take away from this is sometimes your first dream doesn't work out and i think for a lot of us when our first dream doesn't work out we think it's dream over yeah like game over it's that's it now we can't live any part of our dream and you know i was saying my first dream real dream was to become a monk that's what i thought i was going to do for the rest of my life yeah and i did it for three years and when it ended i felt like i'd failed like i felt like it was over and i felt how am i ever gonna spread what i've learned and how am i ever gonna live a life that's dedicated to spirituality like will that ever happen again and it's incredible the plan as you've been saying that god has for you and i was sharing this earlier with a couple of people i was saying that God's imagination is far better than my imagination.

Speaker 18 Yes.

Speaker 18 Right?

Speaker 17 But

Speaker 17 it's a scripture in the Bible that says his thoughts are greater than your thoughts. You know, that's, that's very important for us to

Speaker 17 understand because sometimes in that dream, you like, I want it, I want it, I want it.

Speaker 17 I mean, because I have that. I still have it to this day.
I want this role. I want this role.

Speaker 17 And it doesn't happen.

Speaker 17 And now I've grown to understand that God's dreams and his thoughts are greater than my thoughts. So for whatever reason it is, I'm not supposed to be in that particular film.

Speaker 17 I'm not supposed to be with that particular relationship. I'm not supposed to have that particular job.
I'm not supposed to have that house that I really knew I wanted.

Speaker 17 It's hard to grab on to it at times, but the more and more, you know, we practice it and speak it and know it and trust.

Speaker 17 in our heavenly father, in the creator of the heavens and earth, and know that that plan is a master plan. And all we have to do is listen and be in tune and get the lessons from it too.

Speaker 17 Life becomes more beautiful. And I can look at those moments where I haven't gotten a role.
And that doesn't mean that I don't feel like, damn, man, I really wanted to be working.

Speaker 17 I was excited about this script. I wanted, I'm not going to fake and act like I didn't, but I can say, okay, creator, I know you got something greater for me, something out there.

Speaker 17 And I'm going to do whatever I need to do to be present and also be obedient and surrender to what the higher plan is.

Speaker 17 Yeah,

Speaker 18 I saw something the other day that really resonated with me. My friend sent it to me and it said something like, when things don't go your way, it's God in the universe saying, not now, not this.

Speaker 18 I got something better.

Speaker 17 Yes. Right.

Speaker 18 And it's that understanding of just being able to have that trust in the moment. I want to ask you that.
How have you learned to build that trust in the moment? Like you said, we're both human. Yes.

Speaker 18 We're not perfect. You feel that pain.
I feel that. I want to achieve things.
I'm trying to build things. I'm trying to create things.
And I'm the same. I feel pain.

Speaker 18 I'm not going to sit here and lie and say, oh, I just trust everything. And, you know, I'm beyond that.
No, that's not true. Like, I feel upset.
You're like, oh, gosh, I worked so hard for this.

Speaker 18 I put in so much effort. We did everything.
What happened? When you've done it enough times, you get a better relationship.

Speaker 18 But how have you learned in the moment to deal with that emotion and to learn how to trust?

Speaker 17 It's been the process. And as I said, like, you know, it's a practice.
I was thinking earlier today about

Speaker 17 how we always talk about bad habits, but I started thinking about good habits. For me, one of my good habits has been to use.

Speaker 17 the scriptures that I read and

Speaker 17 stay consistent and diligent in my prayers and my meditations, staying consistent with the way I love myself and treat myself.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 17 that kind of helps me build the armor and the strength to be like, when I have some of the most difficult pains, one of my greatest lessons and times that I've grown as a human being has been in one of the greatest pains I had.

Speaker 17 And that was a breakup. a heartbreak where I was like broken.
And I hadn't been broken like that. I had lost people in my life.
And

Speaker 17 that was definitely devastating. But it was something about a heartbreak where the person was, obviously, you hear they still alive.
This is the first love that I had as an adult.

Speaker 17 And I knew God had ordained it.

Speaker 17 But at a certain point,

Speaker 17 it became not healthy. And

Speaker 17 When we were parting, it was hard. It was really hard.
And it wasn't like I made the decision. I got broke up with, you know, and it was like, whew, this is hard.

Speaker 17 And at times I wasn't eating like consistently. I was sitting in this hotel room for weeks, just trying to find a peace, calling my aunt, talking to different people about it.
It was weighing on me.

Speaker 17 And I remember just starting to read certain books like The Mastery of Love and Return to Love and a lot of love books, y'all.

Speaker 17 But each time and each thing I read, I would get something out of it. Not even, I wouldn't even have to read the whole book, but I would get something out of it.

Speaker 17 And I started thinking and practicing some of the things that I was reading. As much as I was still trying to hold on and be like, oh, God, I know you said this is the relationship.

Speaker 17 I thought this was the relationship.

Speaker 17 Well, I learned some lessons in that. One of the lessons was that I was willing to dim my light for others.
And in that relationship, I was dimming my light. It wasn't, it's not that person's fault.

Speaker 17 I take responsibility for that.

Speaker 17 And I was dimming my light, but I was doing that not only in that relationship, I would do it when I would get around other artists that were more known than me, people that were like more celebrated than me.

Speaker 17 I would just dim my light. For whatever, somebody might not even, it might not even be about popularity, money, or anything.

Speaker 17 I would dim my light if someone else just had something that I felt was greater than me.

Speaker 17 Well, I started to learn to love myself more and that became a practice and it became saying beautiful things to myself and repeating those scriptures and like starting to do things for myself that like

Speaker 17 fed into who I am and the things that I love. And Jay, about being present, that really taught me to be present because

Speaker 17 At a certain point, I had to realize, yeah, that was something that a relationship that was in divine order for me and we had gotten the lessons out of that relationship and i got the pain that would that would send me to a whole new height and would turn me into a light that i never knew i had

Speaker 17 and that's when it was done at that point but it's hard sometimes to understand that it's done but once you realize that god ordained the relationship and he also ordained the progress from it and and the moving forward from it, then I was able to move forward and be be more present in my life and take that understanding of, man, I can believe in myself.

Speaker 17 I grew up in an environment where my mother is very strong and like wise woman. Almost everyone I was around, you couldn't really like be too

Speaker 17 confident. Or my mother would let you know, you think you're cocky or you think you're doing this,

Speaker 17 you think you're doing this.

Speaker 17 But

Speaker 17 you got to find a balance in that. And I didn't have the the balance.
I would always dim my life. Yeah.

Speaker 17 And eventually I was like, I have to declare and claim and know within myself and speak towards my greatness, towards the things that I envision for myself and the things that I know I am.

Speaker 17 I have to say it. I have to believe it.
And I have to not be afraid to wear my greatness in front of anyone. Yeah, I had to learn that.

Speaker 18 As I was listening to you, I was thinking about something that I always try and remind myself, especially when it comes to people going through breakups, is that

Speaker 18 you either grow together or you grow apart.

Speaker 18 But both are growing.

Speaker 17 Yes.

Speaker 18 Right. We think if we grow together, we're growing.
Yeah. But you also say you grow apart.

Speaker 17 Yes.

Speaker 18 But there's still growth

Speaker 18 in that journey. Yeah.
And you often miss that when you feel like, oh, well, if we stayed together, then it worked. then it was good for me.

Speaker 18 But if it ended, it wasn't good for me.

Speaker 18 And I wanted to ask you about, you know, these themes, I just, I don't want to take it for granted. The themes you're talking about, you're talking about heartbreak.

Speaker 18 You're known to talk about therapy. You're talking about the trauma you've been through.
You know, we have your beautiful book here. And then we rise, a guide to loving and taking care of self.

Speaker 18 These are not themes that you, right? Give it up. Yeah.
These are not themes.

Speaker 18 These are not themes that hip-hop's known for. To have you sitting here and you're talking about this balance of your mom and being too cocky.
It's like that.

Speaker 18 Like hip-hop has that bravado, that, you know, that feeling of, it's not really about humility. It's more about ego and being present.

Speaker 18 Then here you are with all these awards and all this achievement, but then you're talking about trauma and therapy and heartbreak.

Speaker 17 Yeah.

Speaker 18 That can't have been easy to start talking about it on day one in that space. I can't imagine.

Speaker 17 It wasn't, but I will say, I did start with a great advantage. And my advantage was...

Speaker 18 But first, here's a quick word from the brands that support the show.

Speaker 2 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 5 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 3 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 4 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 11 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 14 Learn more at don't sleep on OSA.com.

Speaker 10 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 18 All right. Thank you to our sponsors.
Now let's dive back in.

Speaker 17 I had a group of friends that allowed me to be me and allow me to be unique, allowed me to be different. And they embraced me.

Speaker 17 They would talk, you know, they're going to talk their junk about me and like joke on my crochet pants or crochet hats and, you know, whatever like obscure things I was into.

Speaker 17 But it still was love and it still was like,

Speaker 17 we are supporting you. And that kind of helped me to go out in the world and not be as afraid to be myself.

Speaker 17 So the actual like thought of being myself wasn't as difficult as it would seem.

Speaker 17 What was the question, though? No, no, no, no.

Speaker 17 That's the honesty. By the way, this Junior is this Junior is good.
I do want to know what the question is. My mind went to talking about that.

Speaker 17 But for a second, I wanted to know because I also had another thought about when you asked the question. But this Juni, I want to say, man, I really enjoy.

Speaker 17 Yo, this Junior man, I'm digging this, bro, for real.

Speaker 18 Cheers.

Speaker 17 Cheers. Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers.

Speaker 17 Cheers. Cheers.
Cheers, budget. Cheers, everybody.

Speaker 18 My question was: how does someone who's in hip-hop, which is known for being braggadocious

Speaker 18 and egotistic, have the comfortability?

Speaker 17 Yeah, that's what.

Speaker 17 So I was on my third album

Speaker 17 and I was doing a show.

Speaker 17 And after the show, this guy came up to me. And he was like, Common, your music, this song you did, it was called Retrospect for Life.
And it was about abortion.

Speaker 17 I was telling my own experience and story.

Speaker 17 It started off as a poem, and it eventually was a song. And he said,

Speaker 17 The song you did, Retrospect for Life, made me and my wife decide to have our child.

Speaker 17 And I was,

Speaker 17 and I'm not saying that this, I'm saying that because

Speaker 17 that was a moment where it was like,

Speaker 17 What?

Speaker 17 Like, this music and me telling my story can affect you in that way?

Speaker 17 Like, all I was doing was telling my truth. And I was doing it unapologetic.

Speaker 17 And I just had to do it from my heart because hip-hop was the way I was expressing myself in the best way that I could, and in the freest way that I could, in the most honest way, and sincere.

Speaker 17 So, for this gentleman to tell me

Speaker 17 that

Speaker 17 his child is alive because of this song,

Speaker 17 it made me know that I had a higher purpose with the music and with what I was doing. And

Speaker 17 that allowed me as a hip-hop artist, as a black man, because ultimately when we saying like, yo, you coming from hip-hop, hip-hop has been like the garden for black and Latino.

Speaker 17 black and brown people to express ourselves. And then it brought everyone into the garden, which is a beautiful thing.
But it was it was a garden that started with our expression.

Speaker 17 So when we're saying like coming from hip-hop, expressing yourself in this way, it's really saying being a black kid, expressing yourself in this way, how did you do that?

Speaker 17 I felt so good that I knew that I could move my people through the music that I was like, I have to keep expressing myself in this way.

Speaker 17 And it was those songs, like love songs that ended up being things that people responded to from me people wanted to hear them bars and all that but I had a gentleman come to me earlier before a show and be like hey comment would you be okay if in the middle of your song the light which is about a woman and woman being the light

Speaker 17 In the middle of your song, would you stop so I could propose to my girlfriend? And I said, yes, of course.

Speaker 17 And, you know, to have,

Speaker 17 to know that I'm writing songs about from my heart and spirit and my experiences, and they become those things for people led me to understand that I have to be as vulnerable, as goofy, as like free, reflective, as like just open, like non-perfect.

Speaker 17 I don't know a better word that I can say. You're a word, Smith.

Speaker 17 But, you know, I got to be that. Anything else is misguiding people or is not being true to who I am as an artist.
It's not being true to my purpose. And I'm not doing my duty to the most high God.

Speaker 17 Jay, if there's anything that I can tell you that drives me is

Speaker 17 every day, and I know you talked about every day, and I want to put into practice some of those things you said we should do every day. I'm so into that, the exposure and all that.

Speaker 17 I thank you for that. One of the things that gets me is I want to please the Most High.
I want to stay in my purpose and please the Most High. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 18 I I mean, that's

Speaker 18 there's nothing better than that. Yeah.

Speaker 18 There's not, there's no greater accountability. There's no greater source of inspiration.
There's no greater channel. And yeah, there isn't apart from that.

Speaker 18 And as I'm listening to you, one of the things that really resonated with me was what you said about the friends

Speaker 18 because to have friends that, you know, in England, we call it banter, right?

Speaker 17 People you can banter with. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 18 Like someone who can like poke fun at you, but then at the same time has your back.

Speaker 17 Yeah.

Speaker 18 And having someone that if you can do that with them, that means you're closer to them. Yes.

Speaker 18 So when we first moved to the States or maybe more LA, when me and my wife would banter with each other, because she's from Britain too, everyone would just think we're going to break up or something because we can like really lay into each other.

Speaker 18 But that's part of our love language because the more I can do that with you, the deeper we know each other. Yes.
Because as we grow up, you lose some friends that you grew up with.

Speaker 18 Maybe people move cities. They get married to someone else.
They move into a different part of the world.

Speaker 18 Maybe you've been here your whole life. You had the same friends, but you kind of outgrown them now.

Speaker 17 Right.

Speaker 18 How do you, as an adult, continue to build new friendships that look like your future and not like your past? That's beautiful.

Speaker 17 You said people was like, hmm, bro.

Speaker 19 What are you going to say about that?

Speaker 17 Man, you know, at a certain point, like, once I started to like, okay, understand who I am And,

Speaker 17 and I'm still learning, you know, like we hopefully we always will learn until we leave this planet on the physical level.

Speaker 17 So, I'm still learning, but I do know a lot of things about me and I know myself. And

Speaker 17 I think

Speaker 17 one of the things that has helped me to understand about attracting new friends and who belongs in this atmosphere is people's energy, being discerning about people's intentions, making sure that any friendships, relationships, even moments, you want to be able to give and you want to be able to receive too.

Speaker 17 You start by giving. You know, most of the time, if I see somebody, I'm going to greet them.
How you doing?

Speaker 17 And hopefully they'll greet back. Boom, love.

Speaker 17 And it's like, it might just be that moment or it may be more than that. But the point is, you understand

Speaker 17 what energy you want in your life and who

Speaker 17 deserves to be be in your life. And you also have to be accountable for being a good friend,

Speaker 17 partner, homie in their lives. And like one of my closest friends is backstage with me.

Speaker 17 Even though we talk about, tell the same stories over and over again, like, you know, I'd be like, damn, we still, but we still have.

Speaker 17 We still tell them same jokes about each other. But we also

Speaker 17 share scriptures. We also share motivation.
He'll send me things that motivate. We also talk about life and just being in pain going through these things.
And for me, that's a friendship that evolves.

Speaker 17 Some people, when you say, you said a very good point, sometimes you outgrow other people. But a great, beautiful friendship and relationship.
You all grow as individuals.

Speaker 17 And even if you're ain't not at the same place at the same time, always you might get there. And I think for me, just understanding when I'm around people, like, how do I feel around this person?

Speaker 17 And how do this person make me feel? And hopefully I'm making them feel great. Then that's the type of energy I want to be around.
And is this something that's going to be consistent?

Speaker 17 We're doing this quick movie together and we can hang out at this time, but this is not going to go further than that as a friendship. That happens sometimes, but that's okay.

Speaker 17 That person is great for your life at that moment and you all can give each other equal yoke. But ultimately, it's about, to me, just being around energy that you know is there to better you.

Speaker 17 Iron sharpens iron and you bring that into your life.

Speaker 18 Well said. Well said.

Speaker 18 I feel like when I'm vibrating at my highest energy, it's really clear whether someone wants to match it or not.

Speaker 17 Yeah.

Speaker 18 Whereas if I walk into a space and I go at my lowest frequency, I don't actually know where someone stands.

Speaker 18 So it's almost like being at your highest vibration or frequency actually allows you to see what energy someone's at and whether they're willing to match and you're going to match them.

Speaker 17 Is that new friends? Because I don't have a whole lot of new friends, to be honest.

Speaker 17 You know, but I do have new people in my life that I work with, that I love, that I'll be there for. But I'm like, you know, friends, not just people you like, I'm cool with them.

Speaker 17 I'm talking about friends.

Speaker 17 How do you decide who can, who you let into your life, especially with you being having such a big, widespread platform and so many people probably wanting to be in that space?

Speaker 17 How do you make decisions on who?

Speaker 18 I'm pretty lucky, I think, because my lane is so clear.

Speaker 18 The only people who want to get close are people who want to be spiritual.

Speaker 18 And so it kind of makes it easy because they know that I'm not really interested in other stuff.

Speaker 18 So it's kind of like the people that do want to get close, they're all people that want to evolve, that want to grow.

Speaker 18 You know, it's people like yourselves who want to become more healed, which I love because my lane is so clear.

Speaker 18 And that's what I mean by when we're vibrating at a frequency that I'm not always at a high frequency, but if our frequency is clear,

Speaker 18 then it's clear to others whether we're going to be a good time or not. So to some people, I'm the most boring person on the planet

Speaker 18 because they know I'm not into the three things that they love. But that's why I think it's so good to be clear about who we are

Speaker 18 and broadcast that. I don't mean necessarily publicly.

Speaker 18 I mean, when you walk into a room, whatever word you say, the question you first ask, the way you answer a question can completely shift the direction of a conversation.

Speaker 18 Like when I walk into a room, I want to get into one deep conversation with someone in the corner.

Speaker 18 I'm not the person who's like milling around trying to say hello to everyone. There's nothing wrong with that.
That's just not me.

Speaker 18 And so I'd much rather walk away from an event having had a deep, powerful, profound conversation and made one new friend than feel like I spoke to 30 people about small talk.

Speaker 18 And again, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just who I am.
So

Speaker 17 I love some of the things you just said because I love great conversations. I feel like that's one of the ways I learned so much about myself is through conversating with people who just have some

Speaker 17 emotional insight, intelligence. That's one of my favorite things, man.
No matter where I am.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 17 my friends be like, boy, you talk a lot.

Speaker 17 I am both.

Speaker 17 But I do love those conversations. And another thing you mentioned that I have to say has been one of the most powerful aspects about helping me in my life is to be clear.

Speaker 17 Like taking care of myself when it comes to like the foods I eat.

Speaker 18 like having um like i said my own meditation and prayer what does that look like walk us through some of those habits because i feel like this group loves learning about habits and practices and tools and tactics.

Speaker 18 What are some of yours that you commit to?

Speaker 17 Wake up in the morning thanking God for the day. Thanking God just for the day, for the breath of life.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 17 as Jay said, this is a spiritual thing. I'm not like, when I talk about God, I'm talking about the creator of the heavens and earth that exists in all.

Speaker 17 woman, man, that exists in all people on the planet. It's not a religious thing.

Speaker 17 This is about the spirit that created all of us and that exists in all of us. So just communing with God is the first thing.
And then I get into, it's certain scriptures that I

Speaker 17 read that reinforce who I am and my relationship with the Creator. And then I get into my prayer.
And then I'll get into my meditation. People ask me like, do you do this type of meditation?

Speaker 17 This type. My meditation is the south side meditation.

Speaker 17 I came, I just came up with, I pulled from everything that I had experienced and was like, this works for me. It's not going to be this 20-minute meditation.

Speaker 17 It might be a minute or two, but I'm going to get it in. And it works.
And it works for me. But seriously,

Speaker 17 it's that meditation. And then I go to this other book that I have that has these mantras and scriptures to them.

Speaker 17 At that point, you know, like I'm prepared for the day and going into that day knowing that, man, this is going to be a beautiful day. Cause we all, sometimes I wake up like,

Speaker 17 something feel funny. Like, as soon as I wake up, but me getting into gratitude and just saying thank you for the day and thank you for the breath of life starts to shift that funny feeling.

Speaker 17 And then like me starting to start to

Speaker 17 say. the things that I know I'm created for and the purpose that I'm here for, it starts to shift.

Speaker 17 And my day becomes greater just from there and even if some incidents happen my perspective on the day is is not down because i've done those things now the diet and food side i get into my i got my supplements that i take and you know take those in the morning and then i try to get a workout in like i said sometimes you don't have an hour to do a workout if you can get whatever time and that's just movement what i noticed is when i move around whether it's a walk i used to think i was like man those old people be walking, man.

Speaker 17 But now I'm taking walks. I'm walking in London, walking in the parks.
And I'm like, am I that age that I'm walking?

Speaker 17 But

Speaker 17 a walk is a beautiful thing. And I realize just the movement of the body is good for the mind and the soul.
So this is all part of my

Speaker 17 like wholeness.

Speaker 17 What I talk about in the book and then we rise is that wholeness of like,

Speaker 17 because I had certain certain aspects like i was always pretty much a spiritual guy like this and learning my spirituality you know reading from the bible at one point reading into the quran and reading different things to just know god for myself but then i needed other aspects and i started to to figure out that the diet made me see clearer not only did i see clear like

Speaker 17 I was rapping clear. Like my voice sounded clear, like for real.

Speaker 17 Like from not having certain foods in my body and taking care and and my energy i was waking up with energy instead like so i felt the difference and that was all the research i needed to do i didn't need to read nothing to know that like oh i feel better doing these things so all those things are things that i put into practice and you know i pick up new things like just listening to you i'm like wait i'm gonna start figuring out this exposure bless you i'm gonna i'm gonna figure out this exposure thing like and see what i can do because i'm always looking to learn and grow.

Speaker 18 Yeah, I love that. Talking about exposure therapy, I wanted this event to be special.
And

Speaker 18 this is going to be a surprise for everyone. I wanted to give someone in the room.
We've been talking about dreams. We've been talking about rising above judgment.

Speaker 18 We've been talking about taking your opportunity. I wanted to check, and there's no pressure, but I wanted to check if there was a...

Speaker 18 a poet, a rapper, a spoken word artist in the audience that wanted 60 seconds to share with the audience and with common their skills.

Speaker 18 I want to give you a moment. And I don't want you to steal a moment from someone else.
So this isn't messing around. It's someone who truly has.
I see the yellow shirt. I see one up there.

Speaker 17 I love that hustle.

Speaker 17 Big hustle. Big hustle.

Speaker 18 That hustle. I love it.
What's his name?

Speaker 18 Oh, you don't know. Oh, wow.

Speaker 17 Okay.

Speaker 18 That's amazing. That's great.
You know, I really feel like there's moments like this. We got you in the seat.
Yes.

Speaker 18 To give someone a moment, to give someone an opportunity to put someone out there, to put someone on. I chose the hardest person to get downstairs.
Now he's lost trying to find his way.

Speaker 18 While we're waiting for him, I want to want to.

Speaker 17 Oh, here we go.

Speaker 18 Want to come through? Wanna say hello? Before

Speaker 17 bless you. Thank you, brother.

Speaker 17 Thank you. All right.

Speaker 18 So, your name is? Daniel. Daniel, where are you from?

Speaker 20 I'm from Chicago.

Speaker 17 From Chicago?

Speaker 17 I'm from here.

Speaker 18 You're a rapper, spoken word eyes, poet?

Speaker 20 I'm a poet, and in all honesty, I taken kind of a backseat from the spotlight. I don't have any socials.
I go and perform at open mics occasionally, but yeah, my heart is pumping.

Speaker 17 I love it.

Speaker 18 Well, this is this is what we wanted to do tonight because you running down it. We saw you hustle, so you take a breath just to catch your breath.
But that was the point of tonight.

Speaker 18 I want to make it known that you can do it. It's not a,

Speaker 18 you know, I think we often feel like we have to wait for our moment. We've got to work for it.
But we want to give it to people right here. So I want to give you 60 seconds to share with us

Speaker 18 the words, the work, whatever you want to read to us. Common will give us a zero out of 10 rating.

Speaker 17 Are you good, Dennis? You ready?

Speaker 17 You got it, Dennis! Yeah, you got it, bro. You got it, bro.
You got it. You got it.

Speaker 20 Okay, so I'm going to give you something that's relatively new, and it's about the lady that pushed me to come up here.

Speaker 17 She's up there.

Speaker 20 Real quick, because I don't want to waste any of your time.

Speaker 18 You're not wasting anyone's time.

Speaker 20 God, I'm nervous.

Speaker 17 Why am I up here um

Speaker 17 yes

Speaker 5 it's called my new favorite color before we dive into the next moment let's hear from our sponsors this is sophie cunningham from show me something do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or osa in adults with obesity they may be happening to you without you knowing If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 11 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 14 Learn more at don'sleep on osa.com.

Speaker 10 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 18 Thanks for taking a moment for that. Now back to the discussion.

Speaker 20 If I asked any of you what's your favorite color, it would come without

Speaker 20 That's my favorite color. It's something about the way it massages her cheeks before they form that rose that reminds me of of Aretha's declaration.

Speaker 20 A dedication to the strongest flower in concrete jungles, never meant to grow, but defying all odds. God's peculiar creation.
Sending sensations where you hear, see, and touch vibrations.

Speaker 20 I love to make her blush just to see a smile from those red lips.

Speaker 20 I'd re-educate the inner child in me that was deceived to believe the synesthesia couldn't be achieved, but who knew the color red could taste so sweet?

Speaker 20 Scent like strawberries harvested solely by God's word. The yellow happily tricked for this treat and i'm gonna leave it there because i am dying

Speaker 17 hey yo jay jay

Speaker 17 jay

Speaker 17 let me i'm gonna rhyme i'm gonna rhyme

Speaker 17 yo that was that was dope real dope

Speaker 19 yo i know it's kind of hard to handle but everybody give it up for daniel yo i say it like this i say it like this and god we trust i see a shirt and i tell MCs they not like us. What can you do?

Speaker 19 Yo, you know the whole outcome. I see Martin and of course I see Malcolm.
We know right now I keep my mind heavy. I keep it already when I'm with Jay Shetty.
It's like this, Calm Sense.

Speaker 19 Yo, I guess you know me. I gotta say rest in peace to that brother Kobe.
This is how it is. Yo, we at your service.
We right here in Chicago and this is about purpose. It's on purpose.

Speaker 19 Yo, I'm telling you these words is my man Jay yo, I told you he's a wordsmith. Calm since I'm coming.
I got my brother from London. This is how it be.
I got a hundred styles and running.

Speaker 19 I can let you know my mind's like an encyclopedia. When I come to the Chicago theater, letting you know it's time for me to climb.
We talk about the spirituality. It's divine.

Speaker 19 And I'm coming straight for shot off the head. My man Daniel said his favorite color is red.
Yo, I read through books.

Speaker 19 This how we look.

Speaker 19 We got me understand calm since i never been shook i've been hanging in places where we hang outside i'm talking about the west and of course the south side and that's how it be when i know to go off and shout out to my people that's even from the north comm sense it's like this yo i guess i live in it i was cruising up and down the street called michigan avenue grabbing new things that i need to do comm sense yo i told you i believe in you and believe in me as i'm receiving these things Earlier, we was talking, Jay, about dreams, and that's how it be.

Speaker 19 The style of beef free. I just gotta say respect to G.O.D.

Speaker 18 You have been dangerous everyone.

Speaker 18 That was a surprise for me.

Speaker 17 Wow,

Speaker 17 wow,

Speaker 17 wow,

Speaker 17 fun. Wow.
Sound a little fun, yo. Yeah.

Speaker 18 That was, I was not expecting that.

Speaker 17 Man, I kind of,

Speaker 17 I love rapping, man. I love MC.

Speaker 19 And once we had the music a little bit and Daniel did his thing, I'm like, I'm at home.

Speaker 17 I'm

Speaker 19 on the J Setty show.

Speaker 17 I'm like,

Speaker 17 I got it. I want an MC.

Speaker 18 You just blessed us all. I mean, that was straight off the dome.
It was

Speaker 18 all the references, the what up t-shirt reference yeah

Speaker 18 it's amazing keep it free right it's um oh my god thank you thank you so much for that and thank you daniel

Speaker 17 daniel again everyone

Speaker 18 you took your moment uh i love i love people taking their moment yes and i love

Speaker 18 helping people have their moment and when those two things come together because I feel like I spent my whole life waiting for someone to give me a shot.

Speaker 18 And often we can feel that way. We're just waiting for someone to open a door or just let us in or whatever it may be.

Speaker 18 And, you know, oh, there we go.

Speaker 18 He just made it upstairs.

Speaker 18 And it's just beautiful when you put yourself out there like that.

Speaker 17 And I hope that.

Speaker 18 You know, one of the things I like to do differently in these evenings is have moments like that because when you see someone who's sitting in the same place as you are, but takes their moment, I hope it's a reminder to you tomorrow when you're at the office, when you're talking to someone, when you're with your family, and you've just been avoiding that moment.

Speaker 18 I hope it gives you the courage and the strength to go, Daniel did that, you know, on stage

Speaker 18 in front of 2,000 people with coming.

Speaker 17 Yo, Jay, I got to say, like, you made me think about like,

Speaker 17 it was a point where I had to learn to take that moment. And this happened to me.
This is further into my career.

Speaker 17 This is basically, I was in a movie called Selma, right? And I was an actor in Selma, yeah.

Speaker 17 And directed by the great Ava DuVernay. And I mean, it's incredible actors in there and actresses.
But anyway, it was about the people of the civil rights movement. And

Speaker 17 we finished the movie and the movie, it really moved my spirit because we were living in the shoes and in the skin of the people of the civil rights movement.

Speaker 17 So we got to meet Ambassador Andrew Young and John Lewis, the late great John Lewis, and it affected my life.

Speaker 17 I remember Ambassador Andrew Young at our first meeting said, What are you willing to die for? Live for that.

Speaker 17 He said, We were willing to die for freedom and justice and equality, so we live for it every day.

Speaker 17 Right?

Speaker 17 Well,

Speaker 17 that, all that affected me. We finished the movie and I'm asking everybody that's a part of it, what are y'all going to do for the like songs?

Speaker 17 Like, what's going to, what's, y'all got any music in mind? They was like, yeah, we got something in mind, but it's not you, right?

Speaker 17 So I usually wouldn't seize the moment or take that moment. And like, I would be shy about that moment.
That's what I was talking about, dimming my light at times.

Speaker 17 I was on the phone talking to my manager saying, well, what are they doing with the song for Selma?

Speaker 17 And he was like, man, they said they got some people they want to use, but they haven't locked it in. It hit me like, it was like the creator speaking to me.
God was speaking to me.

Speaker 17 I literally said, I'm going to call you back. The thought came to me like, I'm going to call John Legend and see if he.
would be open to like working with me on a song for this.

Speaker 17 I hang up the phone with my manager

Speaker 17 and call John. John is in London and I tell him, hey, man, I'm part of this movie, Selma.
It's incredible, man. Like, it's about Dr.
King and the women and men of the civil rights movement.

Speaker 17 Let's do a song. Now, they don't want a song from us, so we submitting it.
But will you do this song?

Speaker 17 He said, I got you, brother. I usually wouldn't ask like my friends.

Speaker 17 And I have worked with John before, but I wasn't the type to just ask for it. But something, I listened to what God said.
Look, call John. I did it.

Speaker 17 And John said, I'm going to be over here for a few months on this tour, but I will go in the studio on Wednesday. I hung up the phone.
I texted him three titles. The last title I texted him was Glory.

Speaker 17 He said he saw that

Speaker 17 name, Glory, and it sparked his thoughts. And he started coming with the melody.
And he started, you know, coming up with the words for the hook.

Speaker 17 One day when the glory is one, I can't sing it, y'all, I messed it up.

Speaker 17 But, you know,

Speaker 17 he did that, sent it back to me after that Wednesday. I remember getting the music.
I was going to my father's memorial. I heard that music.
I was overwhelmed. I ended up writing that song.

Speaker 17 And that song became the song that we ended up winning.

Speaker 17 Golden Globe, winning a Grammy, and winning the Oscar Award for.

Speaker 17 And I'm bringing that up because it was that moment. It was that one moment where I decided to listen and not be afraid and just ask

Speaker 17 and seize the moment. And it happened.

Speaker 18 I'm so glad you shared that story.

Speaker 18 I'm so glad you shared that story because I think, you know, that was later in your career.

Speaker 17 Yes.

Speaker 18 And you still have that doubt where you have to listen in and I think I love hearing that because I think we all think one day we're going to get to a place from which we don't have to listen anymore right to God to that inner voice to that direction but the truth is it's always the case you always have to go inward to find that outward direction It's not going to happen by constantly looking around and where do I want to be and where do I want to go?

Speaker 18 And you've got to constantly look inside and hear the ask, hear the calling,

Speaker 18 hear that question, yes, right? Because we're looking for the answer that you don't hear the ask.

Speaker 17 Yes, you know what I mean? Yes, man. Yes.

Speaker 18 It's a really interesting thing. Like, God's trying to ask you to do something.
You're like, God, tell me the answer.

Speaker 17 Right, tell me the answer. And God's like, no, no, no, I want you to do that.
I want you to do this. And you have to be open to the experience and the journey too.

Speaker 17 It's a beautiful thing, but it's a thing where it doesn't stop. Like, I mean, Last week, I was like, man, I want this.
I want this. It didn't happen for me.

Speaker 17 And I had to like really come to grips and do exactly what I told you.

Speaker 17 I work on, I work on, like, just still staying in gratitude, still knowing what's for me is there for me and really being present. And okay,

Speaker 17 I prayed for that. And I said, man, if it's in your will and I use my scriptures to, and that didn't happen for me, then I have to understand that.
I'm supposed to be here wherever you have me.

Speaker 17 And I'm going to be trusting in that and be present in that. And that's one of the things that I just, it doesn't stop.
Like, I was later in my career when I did that with John.

Speaker 17 When I said, hey, you know, I called him, but it's still moments where I'm like, should I say this to this person? Should I not? But I'm more leaning towards because

Speaker 17 I've worked on it to say, I'm going to speak up for the things that I want or just say my truth. Like, if it's something that doesn't work for me, I know how to speak up on that too.
So.

Speaker 18 I love that.

Speaker 18 I want to take the last few moments to end every on-purpose interview as we always do with the final five yes these questions have to be answered with one word to one sentence maximum okay

Speaker 17 so come and these are your real challenge this is a real challenge this is a real challenge

Speaker 18 these are your final five question number one which we ask to every guest who's ever been on the show what is the best advice you've ever heard or received To love others as you love yourself.

Speaker 17 I think that's the best. They're the best best that I've received.

Speaker 18 I agree. Question: Oh, yeah, give it up, absolutely, go for it.
This is awesome.

Speaker 17 Uh, question:

Speaker 18 Usually, when I'm doing the final five with someone, like, I don't get this, so this is amazing. Like, you don't know what a gift you're giving me by being here right now.

Speaker 18 You know, when we're doing this in the studio, it's beautiful, but we should do every episode with you guys here. Yeah, yeah, you know,

Speaker 18 uh, question number two: what is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?

Speaker 17 Um, People say this, they say the same shit every day. I'll ask them, like, how you doing? And they say, man, same shit, new day.
I don't subscribe to that mentality.

Speaker 17 So I looked at that as like bad advice. And I'm like, nah, it's got to be something new happening today.
Create something new.

Speaker 18 Create something new.

Speaker 17 Yeah.

Speaker 18 Question number three.

Speaker 18 What was the hardest part about learning to love yourself and take care of yourself? Which is the tide running?

Speaker 17 The hardest part about learning to love myself and take care of myself is

Speaker 17 learning to love myself when I'm being rejected. That is like a real, that's a,

Speaker 17 because

Speaker 17 that is when it taps into

Speaker 17 the little Rashid and the things that I've been. rejected or abandoned from before

Speaker 17 as a kid. And when I'm rejected now,

Speaker 17 you told me to keep this answer short.

Speaker 17 It's a great on to carry on. It's a great on to carry on.

Speaker 17 But when I'm rejected now, sometimes I can bring that little Rashid into the present and those feelings of being rejected and make this new rejection greater than what it really is.

Speaker 17 I'm not present in what is happening. So I think loving myself in those moments has been some of the toughest times, times, but I feel I'm worth it.
So I strive for it.

Speaker 17 Great.

Speaker 18 Question number four.

Speaker 18 How do you show yourself self-love every day?

Speaker 17 The things that I do for self-love that I spoke about from every aspect, the prayer, meditation, foods, I make sure I'm diligent about it.

Speaker 17 Like if my call time is at 5.30,

Speaker 17 if they coming to get me to go to set at 5.30, I'm still going to get up and make sure I have enough time to do those things because that's me loving myself.

Speaker 17 That's me giving the time to myself that I need.

Speaker 17 And that has nothing to do with nobody else, but that's me and the creator.

Speaker 17 And I think, you know, that's how I take time. And I also have boundaries now too, like where sometimes if somebody is, I know is taking advantage of me

Speaker 17 or just asking for too much and I'm not able or willing to give that. I know how to speak up for that.
So, that's another way that I've learned to love myself every day: to speak up.

Speaker 17 Beautiful.

Speaker 18 Fifth and final question of the final five. We ask this to every guest who's ever been on the show.
If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

Speaker 17 We would have to go inside of ourselves

Speaker 17 to find

Speaker 17 the greatest love that exists

Speaker 17 and

Speaker 17 in every daily activity we would have to acknowledge that love in ourselves and encourage it in others and see it in others and that would be the law to know that love within you and acknowledge it in others and treat them as such Common, we wanted to, I mean, beautiful answers, we wanted to do one last special thing with you because you kindly came out to Chicago to be here with us.

Speaker 18 I want you to take a look behind you in a second when we have it up there. If we get it up, there we go.

Speaker 18 What

Speaker 18 if you could communicate with your younger self now,

Speaker 18 what would you say to your younger self?

Speaker 17 Well, you had hair then, brother.

Speaker 17 Well, I would say, I would say.

Speaker 17 Man, I would say, man, no matter what you go through,

Speaker 17 you got everything you need to

Speaker 17 be what you purpose to be on this planet. And

Speaker 17 go out there and do your duty and do it in the highest way and do it with joy,

Speaker 17 do it with love, do it with grace, and you will make some mistakes, you will go through pain.

Speaker 17 But God loves you more than anything, and you love you.

Speaker 17 So show the world that love.

Speaker 18 I love that.

Speaker 17 And

Speaker 18 second one,

Speaker 18 what do you need to hear? Oh, look at very dapper.

Speaker 17 It's like, you know, it's like,

Speaker 18 what would you say you need to hear most right now?

Speaker 17 The quest is still going. You still got

Speaker 17 a lot of growing to do, a lot more to give.

Speaker 17 Be free. You're doing well.

Speaker 17 But

Speaker 17 you're going to be greater and you will do greater. And all those things you're envisioning, continue to be patient and be diligent and remember your purpose.
And

Speaker 17 Jay, I'll have you back on again.

Speaker 17 Anytime, anytime, anytime, anytime.

Speaker 18 After this next one, I'll see if you want to come back on again.

Speaker 17 If we get a third one up,

Speaker 18 it's some AI, AI from the team. When you look at that,

Speaker 18 do you

Speaker 18 what wisdom do you hope you will have realized

Speaker 17 well in the next 10 20 years you finally stopped putting that dye in your beard

Speaker 17 I would hope that I would still

Speaker 17 be enjoying like music creating music enjoying acting

Speaker 17 I would hope to be getting my Morgan Freeman on at that point.

Speaker 17 And I would hope that the work that I have done is penetrating people's lives and families and things are just better in the world because of me doing my part as we all do our part.

Speaker 17 And I hope that I'm just having fun and in a good, healthy relationship.

Speaker 17 Beautiful.

Speaker 18 Coming, everyone.

Speaker 18 Come back anytime.

Speaker 17 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 18 If this is the year that you're trying to get creative, you're trying to build more, I need you to listen to this episode with Rick Rubin on how to break into your most creative self, how to use unconventional methods that lead to success, and the secret to genuinely loving what you do.

Speaker 18 If you're trying to find your passion and your lane, Rick Rubin's episode is the one for you.

Speaker 17 Just because I like it, that doesn't give it any value. Like as an artist, if you like it, that's all of the value.

Speaker 17 That's the success comes when you say, I like this enough for other people to see it.

Speaker 2 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Me Something.

Speaker 5 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 6 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 4 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 11 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 14 Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com.

Speaker 10 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.