Self-Care & Self-Love: A Journey

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All right, I'm ready. Are you ready, babe?Oh, yeah, I'm fine.Are we recording?Yep, we're good to go.Who wants to do the intro? But didn't you do it on our Q and A last time?Yes, you did.Yeah, you did. So it's on you, bud.I wasn't prepared for an intro, but all right,I'm gonna do it. You can't see me, G-Rex,but I'm gonna do it. Dirty Skittles, ready? Three,two, one. And we're back to another very exciting episode of shit that goes on our heads. And as another season wrap up, in this case, season two, we are going to be doing another Q and A with our hosts Dirty Skittles and G Rex. We need one of those things queued up where you can hit the button and it makes you sound.Yeah, we need the soundboard.Yeah, it's like Chicken in the Fox on 102.6.Chicken in the fox. You could have went with,like, Dinosaur and the Candy or something. I don't know. Chicken and the fox. Who's the chicken?It wasn't you guys. It was just in general.Like, they always have other old radio. Does anybody listen to radio? Do cars have radios now?Yes.Dinosaur eats the candy.Trex goes trick or treating.The day Trex turned Dirty Skittles into a lesbian.Oh, damn. Guess we're all in for a treatle.Is just sitting here like, what did I get myself into today?For those that are listening prepared, it's.Literally Father's Day Eve, and I've got Bizzle sitting on a carpet floor with a mic and a headset asking us questions. You ready?Yeah, I'm ready. So the questions are going to be a mix of things that viewers submitted, which was fantastic, sick. Grex, do you want to throw out the show? Email, Twitter, all that stuff so folks can actually submit even more questions for next season? Submit guests, things like that. So maybe we could do a quick social media plug before we get into the questions.Yeah, so you guys can find us all on Instagram. It's shit that goes on in our heads.And it's shit spelled with a one on Facebook.It goes on in our heads. Twitter. It is st. It's the initials for shit that goes on in our heads.S-T-I-G. No T-T-G-O-O-I-H. It really rolls off the tongue.We're also on Tic TAC.Golly and Drax hasn't even had anything to drink today.We're apparently 30 going on 70.Yeah, that Tic TAC. Finest on the Tic TAC.We've broken grex. She's literally bent over laughing into her desk. Oh, you are red, girl. She has lost it. Oh, my.Okay, I'm good. All right.We're also on TikTok TikTok. Okay. Not the candy.Tic TACs. Got it. And then maybe dirty skittles.You can talk about why we might be a little tired and punch drunk today.Yeah. So Bizzle and I, for quite some time have been debating on whether or not to get a new puppy because children are out of the question. Well, as fate would have it, we did get a new puppy. His name is Mayor Styles.He is some sort of doodle. What is he?A Swiss doodle, which is also it's a breed of two doodles put together inception doodle.So we have a male dog and now we have or we had a female dog and now we have a male dog. So we've got a boy and a girl.Snicker doodle.Yeah, like a snicker doodle. So we drove somewhere.Grex was asking me earlier, where did we go to pick him up? And I was like, South Carolina. I was like, I don't know. I put my audiobook on. I was messing around with some stuff, and the next thing I know, we were there. So we drove there and we drove back.We had to get up real early.Yeah, we had to. Well, Bizzle says really early

because if he's awake before 07: 16:56:30

00 A.m., it's like.The world real problem.Yeah. So we woke up at six for Bizzle,that's like really early. I'm used to waking up probably 435 to six around there, but yeah, we're a little exhausted, but not for long. I've got a rum and coke, little ASMR.Yeah. So let's jump into it. So this is just sort of a generic first question, but I'm curious what you feel like has changed, each of you individually between season one and season two. So what are the major things that you feel like between the seasons? Are different, better, worse areas for opportunity?Do you want to go first? Your ex?Yeah, I just think that we're in a better rhythm now. We have better show notes now, we have better social media posts. We're asking better questions.And our guests, every single one of them has an interesting story. And every episode I walk away learning something new.Yeah.And so I'm really enjoying this. And I think that we're just getting into our stride now, and by the end of season three, we're going to have much better stride. But the other thing that I'm happy about this season versus last season is that we actually had Merch that went out. That was very cool.Yeah. Grex really came in. Clutch on that for me. I will say I agree with everything Grex has said. I remember our last Q and A I had mentioned in season one, I had realized that I wasn't actively listening sometimes when we have the guests on. And so for this season, I was really trying to stay in the moment with our guests, so whoever it was and whatever story they were telling. So I think that has been a change, at least personally for me. We also got some really good stories this season, I think.Yeah, things really made me think and put things into perspective. I'm very grateful and we're super blessed that these folks wanted to come in and talk with us and share their story.Yeah, I think we gotten into a good rhythm.I think next season, I'm curious to see what our answer will be for this. We should keep this question going because I think with every season,we'll learn a new thing with the process. I don't think we'll ever do a three episode in one day again. That was, like, so exhausting.So hard. So hard. Plus, we've been drinking, so it made it even harder.Yeah, we recorded three in a day, and that was about all of our limits. I think Bizzle is correcting. Our puppy's bad behavior already.Not an ideal set up to have.A brand new puppy in a room full of wires.Yeah. Well, let's keep moving along, and I'll keep my one eye on the dog. One eye.You're going to have so much editing in this episode. It's going to be wild.It's going to be just chopped. Yeah. So I would also like to ask take that again. So this season we had a lot of firsts, but I think as a producer, the thing I was interested in asking about is we had a lot of two part episodes, or at least we had a couple of two part episodes, and we had Pez, and we had Mr. M. So I'm curious how you guys felt. Any thoughts about a longer episode? So traditionally they run about a half an hour or so, but in these cases, the stories were compelling. The conversation just seemed very natural and flowed. But we wanted to split up into two parts. So what do you think of having two part episodes?I liked the two part episodes. Our listeners, I will tell you, on the two part episode with Mr. M, I must have gotten 14 texts of people are like, what the fuck? You left us with a cliffhanger. But you know what? That actually brought them back, right? Because now they listen to that first episode, and they're like, god, now they want to know what happens on the second episode.And with Paz, I liked it that we broke it up into two separate entities because there was two sides of her life. But maybe let's split that into two episodes and bring a different perspective.What I found really interesting to piggyback off what you said Grex, was I actually got a ton of texts from people about the Mr. M episode and the cliffhanger, and they were both annoyed that we had such an aggressive cliffhanger, but also really excited to hear the next week and find out more about the story. So I think every guest has been incredible, and I think we'll probably have a lot of folks back. So far, mr. M and Crazy Eight are the two that I've gotten the most feedback. So we'll definitely try to have them back next season. And I think we are talking about an interesting opportunity with Mr. M and bringing in the other folks that were actually part of the story and they'll share their side and their experiences, which I think would be really interesting.Yeah, I'd love to bring Pez back, too. She has some really interesting perspective on life, and she was just amazing. She was a lot of fun.Absolutely. Yeah. Also, by the way, one of my favorite episodes to edit, in case anyone couldn't tell by the by the edits and things. I really enjoyed that a lot. Buzz, how about you, dirty Skittles? What do you think of the two parters?I like it because for the listeners that are out there, obviously we keep it going so we don't stop and then come back in a day.We're not filming it or recording it in two parts. We can let the conversation go, and that's usually what determines, hey, this is a little bit longer than normal. We definitely need to make this two parts. I will say Mr. M's episode, I'm really looking forward to season three, to how that story progresses and continues to progress and hoping that we can secure some sort of closure for our listeners with all three of the parties involved in his story.Really cool closure. Yeah. Even with the exciting conclusion of the two parter, there's still so many interesting pieces that I think we'd love to dive into.All right, what would you both say was some of the most memorable parts of season two for each of you?I think every episode for me had something memorable.But as we're talking about Kitchen Capers, I really liked Pez's story because it wasn't necessarily planned. I thought we were just going to talk about kitchen stories and nightmares that we've experienced in the industry.And I was like, yeah, we can definitely do that all episode long. But her story and how it progressed and how she found strength within herself to do these things that she never thought she could do to me, that was so impactful and it happened so organically that I loved that. And then just some of we had had some conversations with friends, and it's not really a secret that I'm kind of shy to tell people that I'm doing a podcast, but just, like, conversations that happen outside of the podcast with a group of friends saying we've known each other for x amount of years and hearing everybody's story in this format, it's almost like you're relearning who your friend is. And it's deepening that relationship. So I really, really enjoyed that aspect of season two as well.Awesome. What about you? G rex.So when we were speaking with Bookie and just how she lives her life and puts everything into perspective, even living with a terminal illness, it made me really think my wife and I are actually getting our wills done, getting everything taken care of now. And it really made me think, like, why we travel, why we do these things, why we don't put things off. And then speaking with Catmandu and and just seeing how he's through all the adversity he had in his life, how he's able to progress and seeing life through a kid's eyes,it really opened my eyes to some of the things that he's gone through and he's going to go so far in life, and I'm just really excited about that. And then just speaking with our other guests, I learned something new every week.Yeah, really?In some episodes, I get a little broken because you all make me laugh a little too hard.Like with Pez, I learned so much about her and her life story and just dealing with shit in life and getting on with it and finding that inner strength. Just say, fuck it.Yeah. I'm so emotionally involved now in every guest that we've had that I think there's something to be said for that too. I think it's really cool to be able to take these relationships further.Right? So I don't know. I'm emotionally invested in everyone.It's like my unpaid therapy. I get a little therapy session out of each session, and it's stuff I can take back and work with in my own life.Dirty Skills is poking the dog with a lightsaber to get him to stop chewing puppy. Sorry.He's chewing trash, so I guess that's okay.On the flip side, I think we had some extremely trying to think of the right word, like serious topics that we dove into. I'm thinking like cape bait, juju B. We really dove into some complicated topics that they might have been harder to tackle. So it was really interesting on the feedback that we got, we did a survey and asked for questions, feedback, things like that. And it was really interesting to see the comments. A lot of people were actually really I don't know if excited is the right word, but they had a lot of great feedback that YouTube really dove into these complex and detailed and hard to discuss sometimes topics.So I'm curious, how did you feel going through those having those interviews? And how did you keep it light hearted while at the same time give the respect to such a complicated or?I was really nervous when we had our first Trigger Warning episode. I got really nervous. But we do prep a little bit, right? But we try really hard not to prescript anything that we're going to talk about. We want it to just be natural. But for that episode, I did sit down with Juju because I knew a little bit about the story, not the full extent, and I was proud of her for sharing her story, but also concerned for listeners, right? Because I don't ever want to put something out there that somebody's going to consume and then be troubled by. But I remember thinking we should definitely have a trigger warning on this episode and I was a little nervous. I was a little nervous if that would be received well, because we knew in the beginning, I think,right, grex. We wanted to talk about mental health and everybody has a story and that's still very important to us. So it's not like that. I want to shy away from the heavy topics because we've definitely had a few this season. It's a challenge to keep it healthy because it's easy to get lost into the sadness, right?It is. And trying to get the guests to feel comfortable and to open up. And I think that both of us are very nurturing and that we don't portray ourselves as being experts and we ask questions, but we're very cognizant of how we're asking them and making sure that we don't trigger them in any sort of way. Same thing goes with Bookie. I knew her story and at first I was being very tiptoeish around her, but she just opened up. And I think that having the two of us as guests, as co hosts, we bring a certain perspective and a light into the conversation that makes people feel comfortable to open up to us and we let them lead the conversation and we can interject. And even in the hardest topics, we were still able to laugh and get some levitivity and get people thinking. As a testament to the both of us, I think that we do a good job at that. I'm still working on it, but I want to learn. And mental health is a big deal right now, and having people share those stories that nobody else is recording or doing podcasts about and showing the world that we can all get through life while still dealing with mental health issues and we can still laugh about it too. Hindsight for me is like 2020.Yeah, I think as a listener, right, so I do the producing side of things. But as a listener, the thing I really like about the podcast and that I think we could do even more of is dive into those uncomfortable questions because the reality is I would like to ask those questions and hear the kinds of response and hear from people that are in those situations. But you don't always have a chance to ask them. There's not always a good forum to to find those things out or how or even how to ask them.Right. It's not always easy to have that uncomfortable conversation with somebody and dive into it, but you want to learn more. And that, I think, just helps people grow and be able to interact with folks in a way that speaks to them that are perhaps dealing with whatever the situation is you're talking about.Yeah, I never thought of it that way.Yeah, me neither.Yeah. Thanks for your insight, pizza.Greatest producer ever.Oh, he's blessing. For real.Well, I'm going to follow it up with what should we change next season? Like, what are the Big Small?Doesn't matter what not have Barton puppies in the back.I think a couple of things that we're going to do different is we're going to be able to send out newsletters, kind of give you a preempt of what's coming out on Tuesday morning, maybe asking some of those harder questions, doing a little bit of homework before we do, before we record.No, I think you're right, it's a fine line because we don't want to completely prepare and script our questions because then it's not as natural. But I think having some sort of a flow or format that we know we kind of want to stay on maybe will benefit from that. I think I want to also, and I said this before in the last Q and A, and I didn't follow through on it, but I am going to follow through on it is sharing more, at least from my perspective, like, we have social media accounts.It would be really nice to be able to share more than just the episodes that are posted.Right.Hold on. What in the world happening? Hold on.The puppy manages to tangle up invisal's headset, rip it off and like, rope it around my chair.1 hour later.What are you planning in the new planner?So I'm waiting for the herbs that I just planted in the small ones to all sprout and then I think I was envisioning. That would be a nice little herb e situation.Had some strawberries with it.Yeah, you did say that.So I think we kind of talked about this on the last Q and A, but I wanted to follow up now that things have evolved and changed over time. So just I'd like to hear about why we started the podcast and what do you hope that comes out of it?Yeah, we started it, as the story goes. I thought it was just a hobby, right. Like something that we were going to do together because it made us both happy and it helped our mental health. And so we thought, oh, it would be really cool if we recorded this, put it out there. And I think ultimately we knew that other people were dealing with mental health just as much as we were and it would just be nice to know that there are other people out there that share in those beliefs. And so I'm hoping that if there's anything, anybody's getting out of it,at least a laugh or a way to kind of feel better about their day.Or just even learning something. Right. So, like a couple of the reviews that we've gotten on Apple,people walk away from our episodes and they're actually learning something and they're laughing and it helps them kind of get through their day. And that's really the reason we did this, is because for me,laughter is healing. It's a universal healer. And some of our topics are really tough and it's hard to get a laugh out, but there's always that thin layer of levitivity in all of our conversations because I don't think there's been an episode yet where I haven't completely lost it in laughter and my co host and our guest broke me. But that's why we do it. We help each other.This is like our unpaid therapy session, but getting to be able to talk to different people on their perspective and their lives. Man, I learned so much and being in my I'm going to be60 next month. Learning is still crucial to me.Is there anything you've learned, Bizzle, when you're producing our episodes that you want to do differently next season?Technically or just emotionally?Emotionally, I mean, I guess both. Now, who might deny you of your.Emotional feelings on the technical side? It is so hard when you interview people, you know, or being part of it, to not use their real name.I would say, and I know we talked about this a little bit in the last Q and A, but that is such a hard thing to do. Fall into it all the time. Technically. The other thing I'm working on is just adding in more, just like silliness to some of the edits.That's been really fun.People really enjoy that, right? Trex they do. They really enjoy it.Yeah, emotionally. I mean, for me, it's just I would love to bring in more stories. Somebody was asking me, like, how do I describe the podcast?Originally I was saying, oh, it's kind of like a little bit mental health, a little bit this and that. I think now I've kind of evolved the way I describe it to say it's basically vignettes or little stories that people tell about their lives that have a particular focus. And I think in that sort of direction, just diving deeper, asking tough questions, like I was mentioning a little bit before, I as a listener, I would want to ask those questions and hear the answers from folks,but I don't always have an opportunity or it's awkward, right. So in this setting, I think it opens up the opportunity to have that tough conversation and ask those questions that people might be wanting to ask.Love that.I think one thing that I just thought about that I would like to bring maybe into season three is for people to send us little voice emails of their questions and being able to answer those questions on the air, I think that would be a lot of fun and love that.I love it.Trex share your cell phone, your personal cell phone,and then people can send you little voicemail snippets.Can't they just no, I love those snippets. We should figure out how to do that. Technically. I think that is fantastic. So for the listeners, we'll definitely work on how to do that. And then hopefully in these show notes, we'll put how to do it, and then in future episodes, we'll talk about how to do that. I love that.Yes.All right, I've got some fun questions that are just kind of like brain twisters or whatever you want to call it.Brain Twisters?Yeah, it's like a hot glove.That's like an inside joke. Sometimes Bizzle doesn't quite remember the name of common things like an oven mitt. Yesterday, god, what a disaster. We were making grilled pizza and his what is it, a Camato?Yeah, we have like one of those little egg kind of things.Yeah, it's like an egg, like the green egg,something like that. And we realized that that was a bad idea. We were burning it, and he's like, Give me the hot glove. I need the hot glove. And I'm like, what the fuck is a hot glove? Are you talking about an oven mitt, bro? Like, bless your heart, sir.So brain twister.Brain Twisters. I'm dying to see what that really means.All right, so here's your brain twister. So you're trapped on an island. You can bring one book and three things. Three items. The book is not one of those items. So it's like something to read and then three items. What's the book you're going to bring and what are the three items?I'm going to jump in. Sorry, I got really excited. The Great Gatsby. You weren't expecting that, were you?I was expecting your French romance novel.Oh, God, I've fallen into another role. Anyways. No.Great Gatsby is the book. I would bring the three items. So it's funny because at work, we were just talking about this question, and my mind immediately goes into every survival show I've ever seen on TV. So I'm going to say a machete,a fire starter.Okay.And some way to fish. So whether it be a fishing rod, fishing line, something, those are my three things.That's pretty good.You're welcome for that. Brain Twister, whatever you call trex.All right, so the book I would bring would be eat pre Love.It's a good one.The three things I would bring. I'd bring a fishing pole. I would bring a sleeping bag, and I'd bring mattress because you got to stay warm.Yeah, those are good.What about you, Bizzle?Oh, what would I bring?Yeah, you asked a question that Brain.Twister twisted right back around at you. It's like a boomerang.Let's see here. What would I bring? Well, for a book, there's one or the other. Either would be fine for me. So I like science fiction.So I'd either bring the book Ender's Game or the foundation series by Isaac Asimov. Both are sci-fi books. And then for the three items that I would bring, I would definitely piggyback off of some sort of bladed item. So either a hatchet or a machete. That would be one, two, I would bring flint and steel. So like like you guys said, like a fire starter type item. And then I actually really liked the fishing gear. But you never know if you're actually going to have fish nearby.You're on an island. Where are you if not nearby?It could be an island in a lake. I don't know. That's tough. The third item, I mean,I want to steal your fishing line and fishing lure, but yeah, it's not very good.Bring a pot.A pot?Yeah, so you can boil water.Oh, you're welcome. Okay. Yeah. So I'm going to bring a machete, a Flint steel, and a pot.Trex, why do you hold your laughing? I feel like people aren't going to believe you. And I'm like, she's laughing, I promise.Because I'm spitting on my microphone.Oh, we need to get her one of those spit guards.The pop filter? Yeah.Is that what it's called? I call it a spit guard. You call it a pop filter. He knows a pop filter. He doesn't know a hot pad or hot glove or whatever the fuck you call.Doesn't know what oven meant, but hey.All right, so we've covered this on a few episodes that you both enjoy imbibing adult beverages. So what you all drinking currently?I am doing a spiced rum and Coke. Simple.Is that your go to?No.It is.What I had on hand today go to is just a shot of tequila.Warm shot of tequila.No warm, bro. Come on, treat your lady right.Shake it on some ice, pour it in a chilled shot glass, hand it my way.All right.That's my go to tequila.Trex. My go to is an old Fashioned or a glass of champagne because I'm bougie glassy.Simple.Bougie.Okay.I love it. All right.Wait, can I ask a question? I just heard today that you can freeze grapes and put it in your whiskey.Yeah, a lot of people do that for like,what is it called? Bellini or something like that.The champagne with raspberry? Frozen raspberries and stuff?Yeah, the raspberry. Oh, yeah.Give it a shot, though. We've got great Santa freezer and whiskey.It's better with cherries.We have cherries.Put the cherries in the freezer, get them nice and hard, and then drop them in your whiskey.They're like little red balls.Alcohol is hitting, buddy. I want to speed these questions.All right, I've got just a couple of last questions. I kind of want to plug our live episode that's coming up and maybe some exciting guests that we might be having and or folks that have just contributed in different ways. So GX. I'll start with you. Do you have anybody you want to plug or thank or anything like that? And then we'll talk about the live episode?Yeah, so I wanted to thank the podcast Tales from the Crawl Space. You guys fucking rock. You guys plugged us. On your episode and our listenership went skyrocketed. And every post that we put out on social media, you like, and you actually bought some merchandise from us. They bought a hat. So I'm super excited about that. And I just love that. Podcasters are supporting other podcasters and it's so important in this industry that you help each other out because there's 4 million other podcasts out there,each one of them a little different. But thank you guys very much. We really appreciate you guys.I'm going to put a link out to your podcast on our Link Tree account so that you guys can go out and check them out. They're on every single platform just like we are.Give them a listen, you all. They are really funny.Yeah. If you think we're reverent, they are 1000times more irreverent. They are pest control guys and some of their stories are a little creepy, but I enjoy listening to it.Sounds amazing. I love it.Yeah.What about the live episode?Oh, yeah. Let's chat. We are going to do a friends giving episode, but it'll be live. You can actually see us. That is coming, obviously, in November. We got a little bit of time, but yeah, we're going to do a friends giving. We thought it would be cool to gather in person together and break some bread, do some tequila shots.I don't know.Yeah, you're doing tequila by yourself.We should do a drinking game. Okay.In line with that, I wanted our listeners to know that we're putting together a YouTube channel also for the podcast. It has snippets of each of the episodes, so you'll be able to follow us there. As soon as it's live, I will put that information in our show notes.Love it.All right, I have a couple more brain twisters for you both, so I'm just going to say them and you guys just answer however you want.All right.Thank you for giving us permission.Thanks, dad.Yeah.So I'm going to ask you a couple more brain twisters first. One, if you won $10 million tomorrow, what would you do?I would pay off my debt. Your debt or my family's debt? You get your debt paid off.Just one? Yeah. It'll be like Survivor. No, I would not. I would take care of my family and myself first and then with whatever is left over. If you're my boss and you're listening to this, stop listening here. I would quit my job.I would dive 100,000% into my passion projects, including this podcast and, like, all my little crafting stuff.And travel. Yeah, cool.What about you? G rex.I would pay off all our bills. I would help some of our friends that are a little less fortunate than we are pay off all their bills, travel. Probably quit my job and give some maturity. It's a sabbatical. Eventually I'm going back, but I want to help out some of the underprivileged kids and underprivileged adults that are underserved. So be able to dive into my passion, which is the podcast, and do some tutoring. I would love doing that.I can see you, like, starting a charity of some sort.All right, next question was, what did you want to be when you were kids?Oh, man.I wanted to be a doctor.You did?Like a human doctor or like a.Human doctor specializing in any particular area?Pediatrician. But life got in the way, and now I'm doing a podcast. My mom was a nurse,and I just loved how she took care of people and kind of fixed up all the kids in the neighborhood. And I at one point had wanted to do that, but being a stupid kid and doing stupid shit, that never happened. But I'm doing things I love now.I wanted to be an astronomer and a lawyer.Neither of which did I pursue. I instead went to Johnson Wales University. Nobody. I wanted to be an astronomer and a lawyer.Nice.I know. Could have had all that money.What would you say was the biggest turning point in your life?Mine was when my mom passed away. It was a huge turning point for me. My mom, I would be able to talk to her about anything,and then all of a sudden, that was gone.I'm sure she's super proud of us, though.I'm sure she is. For me, that is a really hard question to answer, because I think at different moments in my life, there have been turning points that led me to that. It's almost like you're reading a book where a chapter closes and then the next chapter begins. So there's not any one moment that changed my life totally. I think it's a culmination of things. My most recent one was seeing my therapy through, completing close to two years, getting to a really good place mentally, where now I'm in a maintenance mode. And just the reward of that that I didn't expect when I started therapy. That has been one of the biggest changes in my life, is just like, rewards in ways I never would have expected.How about becoming a mom? I want to know.Because I don't have kids.Yeah, so that's why it's hard. So that changed my life, for obvious reasons. Right. Like, your mom and I have a child. But it was something that a little insight. Right. I didn't actually want that in the beginning. I was totally fine just being walking this world alone. And something changed in me in my 30s where I think I talked about it on our bizzle episode in season one,where it was like, once somebody wants to take that away from you, I realized just how much I wanted it. So actually accomplishing that. Yeah. It was a monumental moment that changed my life. But that was one of many. I'm a very headstrong female, so when I know who I want to be. Kind of like what Juju said, picture who you want to be and do the things. Take those steps to get to be that person. That was one of the steps, was becoming a mom,getting married, moving, stuff like that.Yeah, I've had pivotal stuff, but for me, the biggest one was losing my mom.Yeah, I can imagine. What about you, Bizzle? Put you in a hot seat, throw a brain. That's a brain twister, sir.Right there. Brain twister.My biggest turning point, I would say the first and probably the one that changed my path most,I would say it had the biggest overall impact on the trajectory of my life, was there was a period right after high school where I went to college and was not ready. I was not even close to being able to handle the freedom that comes with college. Right. I wasn't focused, and there were too many fun opportunities that I took advantage of as opposed to studying and doing all that. So I worked as a bartender and things like that, and then I happened to have the opportunity well, I got the opportunity to start an It job. I had taken a friend in to apply for a job that he wanted to at this hotel, and I was sitting in the lobby while he was interviewing. It was like just flipping through the job openings, because in that day, they literally would print out every day a binder full of openings, and they just had it in the front desk of this hotel.I didn't know they did that.Yeah, so I was waiting for him because I was his ride, and I'm flipping through, and I saw that they had, like, a tier two kind of server administrator, and I'd done a lot of that in high school, and I was like, oh,well, what's the worst that could happen if I apply for this job? I ended up getting the job, and that literally changed everything. I had a manager that empowered me to try anything and everything I wanted. I explained why it would be interesting.I had, like, a real adult job, whatever you want to read into that. And yeah. So for me, that really put me on the path for everything else that came after. Right. The opportunity to shift careers, get organized, get focused, ultimately go back to college, get my degree, and things like that.So I'd say that was a thing that really changed my life for the better. And it wasn't necessarily the job. It was all the things that went into being a responsible person in a professional job that enabled me to be the person I am today.Nice.I like that.So one last question, and then we'll wrap up.And I'm hoping this is a super fun one.If you had to pick a spirit animal, what would be your spirit animal?Mine is a unicorn because it's a little different,right? It's a non existent animal, but it kind of, like, goes at its own pace, right? Doesn't really give a fuck what anybody thinks about it.I don't know how the unicorn became representative with the LGBTQIA community, but it resonates with me, and I just like unicorns.I like that, though, a lot.My spirit animal would be a wild horse. Yeah.Running through a field, free hair, blowing in the wind, finding its horse pack.Yeah.I don't know. They're big, majestic, mysterious animals.I like that. So I have one question for the both of us for season three. What are some topics that we might want to tackle? I can go first because I have something on the tip. So I think a couple of topics would be living with depression and being poor, talking to somebody about that.Maybe like financial, food, et cetera. Insecurity. Right?Yeah, food, insecurities, financial insecurities, depression. That goes along with that, I think getting some really fun guests on, right? Talking about their life experiences, like how they overcame adversity. Those are the stories I learned so much from. Because for me, I take my life for granted sometimes. And I don't have everything in the world, but I do have my health.I have money, I have a house to live in, I have a car. And I often don't have to worry about where my next meal is going to come from. But talking to people about things like that and how they overcame that adversity.It'S hard to come up with something apart from what you just said, because I agree. I like to learn from people, and I like to get to know people's stories. So there's not any one topic that I can think of that I want to cover, because they just happen organically. But I keep getting asked, you can cut this out, Bizzle,if it's inappropriate. But people keep asking if I will ever talk about my story, and I just don't think I'm ready for it. Don't think I'm ready for it. Because, you know, what it really boils down to is that people I work with listen to it. So I'm just like I don't want them knowing me like that.Right.But I don't know, maybe I have.To say it's really interesting because a lot of companies now are doing the whole, like, bring your whole self to work kind of thing. This is not my podcast, but I do kind of sometimes struggle a little bit also with that, because a lot of companies say that very few that I've ever worked with truly embrace the whole person. Sometimes people are venting, or they don't really mean the full extent of what they're saying. They're just venting.I think that's an interesting line that you both walk in, that people that you work with and for and whatnot listen.Yeah. I don't know. Maybe I'll come around to it. It's just that that's a very intimate part of who I am that I don't necessarily I don't know if I'll ever share my story, but I am definitely down to talk about human rights and adversity, and I'm very passionate about human rights.One of the things that I'm dealing with right now is you all know I'm writing a book about what happened last year, and I'm suffering from some really serious writer's block right now. So I went back and listened to a couple of the episodes of our podcast because I need to practice some self love and self care because I've been really hard on myself. I've been waking up at,

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00 in the morning because you can't write.And I do want to talk about those topics.Self care, self love, because that's important for everybody.Male, female, young, old. If we're not taking care of ourselves, we can't take care of anybody else.Right? I agree. Couldn't have said it any better.It's okay to be not okay. Just make sure you're talking to someone.