Episode notes
Transcript
Download .txt986 timestamped passages
Good morning, good evening, good night, good afternoon, whatever time you're listening
in, wherever you're listening from.
Shout out to my Spotify listenership, Apple and Google podcasts, and YouTube if you're
watching in.
Thanks for giving me a reason to get dressed.
You could have been anywhere in the world, but you're here.
Be present and recognize that it's now, right now.
Whether your right now is working, flying, running, driving, be thankful we're alive,
baby.
Failure can be frightening.
However, as Winston Churchill reminds us, success is all about going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
This is I Will Not Lose podcast, where we set out to prove everything is learned from failure, and we must persevere and recognize it as one step closer to success.
I'm your host, Tony Ortiz. Let's jump right in.
What's up, man? Welcome back.
Yeah, welcome back for the first time.
yeah yeah yeah we got eric ravriguez of the dope individuals podcast uh author got a whole bunch
going on we're gonna chop it up and get into what you've been up to what your plans are
we're coming to the end of this year so yes sir all right so let's see let's start with the
podcast tell a little bit of people about your show uh so i run a podcast called dope individuals
only um where i only invite dope individuals who i deem dope you know what i mean um it's
predicated about around people sharing their testimony, um, and trying to help essentially,
you know what I mean? Everybody got a powerful story. Everybody's been through something.
Everybody's going through something, um, healing from something. And those stories should be told.
Um, everybody has something to offer and everybody could take something away from someone's
experience. So ultimately I provide a platform so people can tell their story, share their
expertise, share their pain, share their struggles. Um, and hopefully not only does it help the
person be able to share their, you know, share their experience, but hopefully the people
listening have something beneficial to take away that they could use in their own lives to better
themselves or their friends or their family, you know, something of that sort. So, um, yeah, man,
I love to help people in any way, shape or form, but I also love to talk to people and learn about
people because it's real easy to think like nobody's really going through the same struggles
nobody understands until you talk to someone you're like holy shit people are actually going
through stuff too yeah yeah so you know um but I actually really love it talking to people has
always been something that came really easy in my life um I moved around a lot as a kid uh pretty
much lived in every corner of Allentown so meeting new people building relationships uh maintaining
those relationships over years has been something that came relatively easy um just because I had
so much practice at it so a couple years ago i was writing like what was some of these things i
want to do over the next couple years and uh start a podcast was one of them and it was just solely
so i can i can do those things i can talk to people i can meet new people build new connections
and help people somewhere along the way so it feels good to be able to hit all the bases
yeah in one thing because a lot of time it don't work out that way do you ever have somebody see
one of your shows and then hit you up and say, connect me with that person? Like, have you ever
made any connections through the show? I have never had nobody hit me up and be like, yo,
I want you to connect me with this person. But I've, I've orchestrated things where multiple
guests that came onto the show could connect with each other. You know what I mean? I remember the
one of the first episodes I did, it was with Derek Jones. And we shortly after that episode, I put
um it was myself my boy victor who i met derrick from and then a friend of mine named richard who
also came onto the show and we all went bowling and it was it was a really really dope experience
started group chat shopping it up they ended up like going to each other's churches you know
so things like that make me happy to see that not only like did i get to meet someone new and
derrick and get to learn about him and meet him and hear his testimony but i also took somebody
I met from years ago out of the blue and Richard and then I connected all these people together
and it felt really good to see the relationship cultivate itself without me you know what I mean
so it was really cool to see like oh you know I wasn't just like throwing shit at the wall and
hoping it sticks I actually seen something in these people all these different people from
different walks of life and actually get along with each other and actually can feed off of each
other and you know things like that so that was really cool another thing I hope to do at some
point is uh i want to start like a barbecue like a yearly summer barbecue so for the guests for the
year get all the like it'll be like the dope individuals like barbecue kind of thing and i
invite all the guests out for the year um that was something i was hoping to do this year but my
summer was crazy my summer was nuts so um i didn't get to do it but that is something that i'm hoping
to do for next year it's put together i mean we're up to 45 episodes now so it's gonna be a lot of
people and most of them are guest episodes that you have then right yeah yeah every once in a while
i do solo ones um when it's something like i just want to speak about something on my heart
something that's important to me but yeah most of them are guests other than myself and my family
like my kids and my wife it's gonna be a huge barbecue if you have year one and year two yeah
oh man it's i'm honestly i'm probably gonna have to do it at like a nice park a big park
you know what i mean yeah yeah and uh but i think it'll be great because the people that have been
on the show still continue to listen to the show and things like that so these people are somewhat
familiar with each other even if like they didn't finish the episodes in full they know
they recognize these people i've had that happen too where they're out in public and they're like
yo i ran into the other dude who was on the show i'm like oh that's what's up you know i hope y'all
connected with each other you know because y'all both up there you're out there for a reason i hope
y'all said something to each other kind of thing for real you just never know you could have
performances too i know you had a couple of musicians on your oh yeah on your show yeah you
could perform i could i could it's i was just thinking about perform the last time i performed
it was at uh um what was it steel stacks i was at i did a show with like uh movement moves media
and mike threw me on the lineup um and yeah i forgot what it felt like to perform after so long
and i was thinking about it yesterday i was like damn i should probably perform again so maybe
maybe i have to show you uh my facebook memories just came up 11 years ago when i was performing
at pigpen oh shout out to turning down harvard we had a live band uh playing our music oh that's
fire yeah they they took the the hip-hop and threw like an alternative on it oh it was dope
that sounds i love live instrumentation just seeing people be able to like like rapping is
one thing especially because like for rap it's a little bit different you can put the music on
you got words that are playing in the background but like to play a guitar and like maybe perform
at the same like sing at the same time or do the drums like that shit's hard bro not hard as in
like it's hard for them but just like it's dope it's dope yeah yeah for sure that's something i
wish i always learned was how to play an instrument because uh it's just cool as fuck
if you could play any instrument what would you pick the violin you'd play the violin okay
that or well violin would be my first choice and it would be the piano yeah you know you everybody
there's always somewhere always got a piano you know what i mean it's one of the most popular
instruments in the world but i've just always loved the violin like the sounds it makes is
just it's nothing like nothing like it so yeah it'd be cool to learn to control that yeah i don't
know but we're young you could pick up a good you could pick up a violin maybe maybe right now my
like my focus is trying to learn a new language which is spanish and i'm you know i'm grinding
that out right now so it's like trying to learn too many things at one time just that should give
me anxiety i took a break i took a break from uh spanish for a little bit i've been focusing on
one thing at a time which has been jujitsu so i've been training every week i was gonna ask
how is that how's that going it's awesome yeah i came off a shoulder injury so i was uh i wasn't
even doing the dangerous shit I wasn't even rolling with somebody trying to kill me I was
just like doing drills and I rolled over my shoulder in a in a weird way uh I had calcific
tendonitis so I don't know if it was from the injury or if it was beforehand and I just aggravated
something or what but uh did it make you feel old well actually being injured made me feel young
and it reminded me of like high school wrestling and stuff like that that's funny that's that's
the opposite reaction of everybody when you're when you're old you feel like uh you don't feel
like your body's alive when i'm injured for some reason i just it's like that pain like that pain
receptor is like yeah your boy your boy's still kicking kind of thing it was terrible i couldn't
roll for for months i was just i still went to training but i couldn't really go live or do
anything nuts like that but shout out to exalt jujitsu shout out to evan robinson runs a dope
program i'm gonna get you over there one weekend i want to i want to try some some type of fighting
for him i've always thought like kickboxing i me and my son play fight in the house all the time
and i like i practice my kicks on him i mean they're light but i practice my kicks on my son
i was just like this would be so cool to just like know how to use my feet in a fight like yeah you
learn how to use your whole body and kickboxing for sure elbows fucking everything bro i was like
this would be cool as shit but it's oh shoot it's hard to it's it's hard to come around the time
right now like focusing on the things that i want to do and the things that i have to do like
sometimes like i try not to have this mindset like that scarcity mindset where it's like
oh there's not enough time in the day i try never to think like that because
the time i have is very valuable as long as i'm just not doing a bunch of bullshit with it but
sometimes it does really feel like there's just not enough time in the day like i get up every
day at 5 45 and it sometimes it still feels that way you know yeah i'm beating i'm beating the sun
up on most days and it's just like god damn the minutes are ticking away as as i'm doing things so
yeah yeah you got to take a step back every now and then like you got to live in that serenity
live in that like uh the now moment and just all right everything's all right there's always going
to be something to worry about there's always going to be something in the future you know
always it it there's there's a lot of time where my life feels like that where it's like
i gotta be concerned with this i gotta be concerned with that like today um i had we
had to go see two houses this morning um i gotta build a shed which i was doing right before i came
here so i gotta build this seven by seven shed all like by myself which is it's pretty fucking
complicated i've never built a shed before i've done dressers and shit like that but never no
shed um later on today i gotta go grab my nieces so i'm gonna have like i got three kids of my own
i'm gonna have two more my wife's going so it's just gonna be me and five kids you know what i'm
saying like i'm trying to like anticipate that leaving right after this to go right back to work
go pick up kids and to do like so yeah all morning i'm sitting here just like anxious as hell just
like i don't know how i don't know how i'm gonna make it through today i don't know i appreciate
you taking the time to get on the show and show your experience to come here bro yeah no for real
for real uh for those of you listening or even watching in we recorded an episode and there were
some technical difficulties which i ended up going on air ranting about but um i just i wanted to put
together we had a great conversation it was it was good to get to know you and i wanted to do
something again right you know so walking walking in here today was a total different feel from the
first time it felt like i was walking in my in my friend's house like my guy's house the first time
i was like yeah i don't necessarily know what to expect but you know i mean you're like yo the
doors open come downstairs i was like oh yeah yeah you know but no we i took uh this morning
and even late last night so i was working on a project which had a deadline of friday we're
recording on a friday now so i got that done and approved last night and i just took today
i worked the election on tuesday you was doing the polls i'm a judge of elections for allentown
13 4 so um did that that was all day that was from like 4 a.m to 10 p.m yeah um but and they
had you out there after the polls close well you have to take the votes down so i after everything
after the polls close at 8 we were out of there by 8 30 but you gotta you gotta go pick up like
ballots and stuff you gotta take the the ballots yeah so i mean i i have all my paperwork lined up
i get out of there i've been doing it for years now like i just wait for the machines to turn off
sign a couple of things pack everything up but you got to take it down and deliver the memory stick
like give the votes it's really important so you go down there's a couple people waiting they have
a nice thing but till you actually get home get ready to go to bed it was like 10 you know that's
And, yeah, you said you was up at, like, 4.
That's a long day.
Yeah, it was a long day.
So I just needed today.
I take the time to put my life back in order, clean up, make sure laundry's done, just make sure, like, I can't fly by the seat of my pants.
That feels good, too.
Like, after you have, like, a rough week or rough night, whatever, and then you get to kind of organize some of the things that, like, are always going to be in your life, that feels good.
It makes your life not feel as cluttered.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And then that I feed that back into being able to create.
So I'll probably do a little bit,
um,
see what's up with my son this weekend.
I'm jealous of you right now.
Why is that?
Cause I'm so backed up with laundry.
Yo,
yo,
people have this thing about me from time to time.
Like,
especially those like really close to me.
Um,
they always like,
Oh,
you like,
you think you're perfect kind of thing like that.
It's cause like,
I kind of have that mentality where it's like,
I don't let people see me sweat.
You know what I mean?
but it also gives them like this this false image of of who i am like as if i'm i don't have any
problems and like it's driving me nuts that like we're behind on like a week of laundry because
for five people that's a decent amount it's like yeah it's like two and a half baskets worth of
clothes so we you gotta fold it you gotta wash you gotta fold you gotta put it away i'm sitting
there like oh no just like all the anxiety no don't worry we have we have laundry we got plenty
of stuff but i keep uh i keep a list of personal and a list of work stuff because as an entrepreneur
it blends in sometimes on the weekends you'll do something so you know uh but i try to keep
jujitsu for the weekends family for the weekends just do a little bit of stuff like uh before
everybody wakes up so i still get up early on the weekends you sound like like no no disrespect
like my wife my wife is very like boom boom boom boom boom and me I am kind of like one of those
like I fly at the what you say fly at the seat of your pants or something like that I'm one of
those people especially because the way that she is sometimes like she would like might miss
something every once in a while and then I'm the person that like picks up the slack for it so like
a lot of my day is like oh this is going on over here I gotta go help here boom I gotta come over
here gotta help there so like that's essentially like my my life like the role especially because
of all the things i do outside of our business you know i mean i do the podcast and freaking
write books where'd you get time to write a book i was doing it last summer last summer is when i
started the book that's actually about to come out it's happening for you plug it it's happening
for you yeah it's happening for you um it's happening for you uh 27 years of lessons that's
the full title um and it's a collection of 10 life experiences that i've i've experienced myself
in detail basically detailed experience and what i learned from those things um and that's true
some some of the chapters was hard to write i would say maybe the last three chapters was very
hard to write um talking about something that you know i had just now told my mom maybe at the
beginning of the summer um i also freaking disclose uh like you know like my my coming
finding god essentially uh for like a like a really long time i used to walk around talking
saying i'm borderline atheist i used to walk around and say that shit with pride but um getting
in like touch with god and things like that and and finding some faith in myself you know essentially
um to my tumultuous like fucking childhood like of all the moving around and you know stuff like
that so it felt really good to be able to to share my story with somebody um shit even if one person
buys the book I'll be happy honestly because I've never I've never done anything like that so just
just writing it was an accomplishment for me you know uh so I was really really grateful to be able
to do that um and it's funny because right i actually wrote that one really really fast like
it was something that it spilled out of me okay because for years i i didn't just i didn't tell
anybody anything that's like that goes back to where people had this image of me i really didn't
disclose anything there's like things my mother read the book um it's not out yet so my mother
read it at the beginning of the summer and there was plenty of things that she just had no clue
even while i was living under her roof and it's uh i think it's less of a detriment to her but
more of a thing to me where it's like i just didn't feel comfortable saying certain things
to people having certain conversations not being brave enough to address certain things um and then
me finally get into a space in my life where it's like okay um i have the courage now you know and
i owe a lot of that to my wife where there were so many things that i was carrying myself that i
was even I had no ambition to tell her as well and you know eventually she got through to me was
like yo you married me like we're locked in here you got to let me help you carry some of this
stuff and everything changed we were in Boston last what was it last year or two years ago
somewhere like that last year or the year before but we were out in Boston for my son's football
tournament and I got high I went outside like to just like have a smoke break by myself and
everybody went to sleep it's like 10 o'clock we gotta be up like seven o'clock the next morning
and i just like kept hearing this thing like tonight tonight you have to tell her you have
to tell her you have to tell her and bro i woke her up out of her sleep i'm out here crying like
it was for me it was extremely emotional but it felt like with every tear that dropped i was
losing 10 pounds of of weight you know just like just my heart just felt so like light for like
the first time in in years and then ever since that day she basically like she basically let me
know that it's okay to have feelings about things and it's okay not to not to be okay because for
the longest i'll be like yeah it's fine it's whatever i'm fine i'm fine i'm fine yeah it's
easy to mask it's really easy to mask yeah so after after i get to this part with her and i'm
finally comfortable enough to share share my life with her i took the train wheels off everybody
like after after my after i realized my wife wasn't gonna judge me i didn't give a fuck what
anybody else had to say about me because this is the person i gotta go to sleep with it's the person
i raise children with it's the person i build my life with if she can if she can love me through
everything that i thought made me unlovable i could care less if anybody doesn't like me or
what i have to say or my my story anything like that it means nothing the one person that i care
about what she thinks of me she still loves me and it for me it was like i could take the
handcuffs off myself now and that's where the book came from um sounds like the podcast would
have come from after that too because you can't care what people think about you to do this
yeah like and and the podcast is part of that like i have people that are convicted felons
where they spent damn near as much time inside as they have outside especially like their most
impressionable years like their end of their teen years their early 20s you know what i mean these
are important years these are foundational years of building you who you're gonna be maybe for the
next 10 to 20 you know in some cases and they spend them behind bars so like i know some people
could be like oh what what do you have to offer me you've been sitting in a prison cell for 10
years what can you really offer me about life but there's a story within there of redemption of
making mistakes of not not truly thinking about your decisions consciously before you make them
there's a whole lot to learn from somebody who's been sitting behind bars and had nothing but time
to think about their choices and their behaviors so um even in that you know that takes a lot
because i could easily be like oh you know you you don't really fit the mold of what i'm trying to
um present to people but like i said in the beginning i think everybody has a story
that someone can take something away from and you know so yeah the the book and the podcast came
after i took the handcuffs off them off of myself so yeah i think it's a product of it
i didn't even realize that if i think about it man i had a crazy year before starting the podcast
too and i had that compelling feeling like i wanted to do something but i mean i had a notepad
and everything i was like how am i gonna change the world like start list number one list number
two but um i like how you said that like how am i gonna change the world because i think people
have this this view even myself earlier in in in my earlier years i'm saying that like i'm
fucking 40 but um in my earlier years like my teen years like my my impression of i gotta change
the world um meant like you had to affect every single person in the world but you can affect
one person and it just be the right person and they learn that from you and that's you changing
the world you know what i mean you just never know who you affect and how they affect people
outside of just you two so i i really like the way you frame that how am i going to change the
world that's why that's why I think that was the title on the page and everything but now it's just
all one step at a time and the I will not lose reminds me that every week and I knew that when
I started it was part of uh I even discussed it with my therapist I was like should I start a
podcast you know should I do but um I think there's power in talking I think there's healing
and speaking so agree making a platform for people to be able to come on and share things and
especially the guests i mean none of my guests so far have really cared about much about the
listeners they're just like i want to get on and tell my story it's like it yeah i want i want to
come up here and i want to talk i spend a little bit of time with you you know what i mean telling
telling my part so i i've realized that too when i have guests come up and i'll be like um have you
ever heard the show they were like no i'm like well i recommend that you listen to like at least
one episode so you can get a feel for how i do things and the type of feel you get from the show
and then they're just like okay and then like we'll talk before the show and i'll be like did
you ever get a chance to listen like no but i'm ready though and i'm like okay fuck it let's do
it yeah yeah there you go there you go let's do it you just never know man you just never know
like what what your your presence brings to people and um i've realized that a lot more over the
years uh shoot i got a great example of that two weeks ago we were in washington dc it was again
for my son's uh football tournaments and i come out the hotel valet just brings the car so i'm
loading up the loading up the bag while i'm getting ready to load up the bags into the car
and there's this dude walking down the street with this big ass book bag on him and i see him
i'm like i was gonna say something to him but i was like ah you know he's i'll let him go about
his business and then i looked up again and he was kind of looking at me so i was like i was like
how you doing he's like thank you for speaking to me and i'm like i'm like oh no problem you
know i mean just i you know have good morning kind of thing he's like no seriously thank you
for speaking to me i was like no problem bro you know have a good day and i started loading up the
bags but then i stopped loading the bags and i watch him cross the street and i just watch him
walk and i watched him walk for like a whole block and every person he passed it didn't look
like anybody said anything to him and i'm sitting here thinking to myself like i like even just
saying hello i didn't realize like the impact of of hearing a hello like we ain't in no store you
know we i don't have to speak to you i'm not our cash register like working at the cash register
or something yeah like but that shit meant something to him for something that was so
small and frivolous and something i wasn't even gonna do meant the world to this dude at least
that was the impression I got. And I was like, you know, it made me go get on Instagram and
share like a piece of the story and basically saying like, treat everybody with kindness,
treat everybody with love, because you just never know how you're going to impact somebody. I could
have been in a rush. He could have, I could have cut him off and we could have gotten to a fist
fight for all I know, just simply just me, just like going about my business and not caring about
anybody else walking on the street that day. So I like to, I like to remind other people as well
as myself like you just never know the impact you never know how how you can positively or
negatively and like improve somebody's day you know i i do like a lot of reading and and
one of the things like i used to have a really tough time with patience being patient um i think
it's part of it because the era that i grew up in everything like everything just gets faster and
faster so whenever i'm looking to accomplish something that's kind of the results i'm looking
for us faster like this shouldn't be taking this long especially when i'm putting in work this
shouldn't take this long i should already be there and i remember listening to like one
spiritualist video and it was talking he gave an example of sitting in traffic and getting cut off
and he's like you know typically you're gonna start giving a horn and maybe getting frustrated
with your steering wheel or yelling in your car he's like you don't know why that person just cut
you off they could be on a rush because they're they just got a phone call that their mother's
dying in the hospital and you think just because you're trying to get to the store down the block
that you know they're just being an asshole because they cut you off but they they might
have some real shit going on and i was like wow and i sat with that for a minute and i was like
i don't beat my horn at the people at people no more no i i would never i was i was never a horn
beeper at people but every once in a while i would i'd be like you know what you're getting
this fucking horn dude but now i don't i don't beat my horn at people when they cut me off just
like whatever man maybe you got somewhere more important to be and that's you know now i think
about that uh i had uh i can't remember which book it was but the author was talking about like when
i'm in the grocery store i'm just kind of like thinking about what i want to make i do a lot of
my planning while i'm in the grocery store like you would hate to bump into me you know what i
mean but like i'm not i'm taking my time but at the same time like who knows if that other person
is in between jobs and just has to pick something up so if they're going and they're rushing past
you while you're just thinking you're taking too damn long in the pasta you want angel hair do you
want you know what i mean but it's like bro it's pasta pick a pasta yeah no you never know if
people are on the the verge of i mean i've seen i've uh oh man i don't even like um i don't know
what to do and i don't like sharing stuff i i did like i don't even like not saying you can't post
it on instagram as a message to be kind or anything like that but man i've seen people like
just break down and it's like it's over something stupid you know there was way more like to me it
might be something stupid yeah but that might have just been number 10 after number nine like
you know like they might have just pulled themselves together after number nine and
they were like i got this yeah and then that printer broke nonsense like he's fucking snapping
like a pencil in summer school breaking stuff but oh man no you just never know what you're
what you're what people are going through um before the camera cut on we we talked a little
bit about gratitude um i kind of think this this fits right into that into that conversation we
were having um this also allows me to be grateful for like the times where my life isn't isn't a
shit show you know what i mean like it's very easy for us to think because we see on social media
like the only thing you'll ever see from like my personal social media is family pictures maybe us
somewhere you know doing something um vacation or something like that uh maybe me with my friends
you'll only see good times but like i have a very stressful life you know people will never know
that unless they get an opportunity to do this so um but my life isn't always isn't always stress
you know even and even if my day is stressful there's plenty of times within that day that
isn't stressful those couple moments i even if it's 20 30 minutes i get to sit on the couch
before i hear my kids start to argue or some shit like that like be grateful for that 30 minutes
that i got to sit on my couch you know what i mean like i got to sit on my couch there's people that
don't even got a couch just people that don't got a house you know what i mean there's people that
lost their kids there's people that don't have a tv to kick their feet up and watch you know what
i'm saying like i got a whole lot to be grateful for in that 30 minutes and it's very easy for me
to go fucking kids they're arguing again about who's putting away this clothes in that drawer
like it's not that serious but just having the gratitude like yo i did get to spend 30 minutes of
just peace just peace and i and i gotta take that i can't take it with a grain of salt i gotta i
gotta really appreciate that because sometimes life does get stressful sometimes it gets loud
sometimes it gets hectic sometimes it moves too fast um you know and i think i think gratitude
is something that everybody could benefit from i talked to like i got a little my little he's not
my little brother but he's my younger brother i call him my little brother though because he's 21
and he fucking wet behind the ears but there's so much in his life that he could be appreciative of
and he only sees the negative things that go on in his life and i always say to him like how do
you expect anything to change about your life and and your reality if all you see is everything
that's going wrong you know what i mean like you got to you got you woke up this morning we'll
start there like you woke up plenty of people that didn't get to wake up this morning you're
healthy you know what i mean your daughter's healthy there's plenty of people that got that's
going to the hospital right now because their kids are fighting leukemia you know i mean like
and all you want to focus on is did something come in the mail like bro fuck the mail get there when
it gets there bro it ain't amazon like you know what i mean and i and it's sometimes i'll be honest
sometimes it's a headache talking to certain people like when they can only see the bad about
stuff and then they were like like my wife calls me positive paul because every time she comes to
me like is she stressing i'm like yo but you're looking at it from the wrong lens let's let's try
to reframe it a little bit and look at it from this lens she's like oh here's positive paul
here's positive i was like yeah fucking positive paul's in the building like you know um i said
that to somebody one time i said um i'm grateful they're like why i was like because i'm not sick
like right you only think about being sick when you're sick when you're sick you're like oh this
sucks i don't like being sick but you ever just like man you ever just breathe you ever just
breathe and you're like man this is great that this works well like i i go outside and like
sometimes like how today it's not it's not cold but it's not hot and like i'll go outside in a
t-shirt and i'm just sitting here and i'll just like look at the trees and i'll be like yo it's
crazy we really live in a place that is like perfect for us you know i mean like it's a little
too cold we wouldn't be able to live too high we wouldn't be able to live here you know i mean like
oxygen is a little too too too much oxygen in the air we'd be fucking giants we you know i mean like
it's it's perfect for us and like i try to remember that shit like every day i walk out the house i'm
like fucking is glorious like even if even if it's raining out like it's glorious bro it's glorious
i try to remember that shit because it's so easy for me to like be living in my head and just like
having being anxious about things because i know i got a packed day or something like that but it's
like in this moment right here everything's cool everything's cool you know you go yeah i had a
couple of those this this week i had oh man everything up until election day because it's
something that took me out of my normal schedule i was just i was so taken aback like i was just
like that's the end and then after that is the start so everything has to be done by then and
then started on wednesday from there but um pulled it pulled out i'm grateful for the work that i
have i had something i didn't even get a chance to post it yet but i got referred to somebody for
a logo and they you got to see the testimonial that wrote me dude like they were like this
embodies it exactly i'm not even i'm not even gonna say it and mess it up but i will pat yourself
on the back we'll post it yeah no i i have written down that i want to post uh the testimonials
because people think like facebook and social they think that's all there is but google's a
big deal like people still google things to verify whether or not they're real you know what i mean
so having a presence on there is way better than having in my opinion than having a facebook
just social media like just just being on social something substantial people could be like oh so
that's his social but if i look up to the designer tony ortiz the designer there's like something
there but there's other resources that i can i can look at to make sure like i'm my money's being
put in a in a good place but that's uh that's what the podcast does too like it substantiates it like
it looks it looks good people that just even if they just see the clip you know what i mean i got
a clip from last week's episode going nuts right now and people are like okay that happened it
looks like it was they may never check into the whole interview yeah you know but it's deep if
somebody shout out to you if you found a clip and decided you were going to check out eric
Rodriguez and uh tune into the conversation and uh shout out to dope individuals only listeners
I have to put the link to our episode in the description I went back and listened to that
the other day man that was a great episode it's it's so crazy I have I'm like four or five episodes
behind this is like where it comes to like uh where I'm saying like sometimes it feels like
I don't have time um because like I I love to listen to podcasts too like at ones outside of
like, I listened to like a lot of spiritual ones, a lot of spiritual podcasts. Um, I do Spanish
podcasts cause I'm learning Spanish and things like that. So, um, I don't always have an opportunity
to like, listen to these things because like, I'm trying to like educate myself in areas or I'm
trying to like grow in this area. And I'm like five episodes behind on my own podcast. I always
listen to the episodes that I put out. Cause I'm like, if, if I don't listen to them, why should
anybody else listen to them? You know what I mean? Or go back and I now think to myself like,
okay i don't necessarily agree with that point that i made so maybe i maybe i shouldn't say
that anymore because i don't really feel that way um and i've noticed things like that and i
critique myself of how was the energy you know what i mean um just trying to improve so i'm happy
to hear that you went back and listened to the episode because it's something on my to-do list
i think i gotta go back if i'm not mistaken it's the episode before yours who is that sleepy or
some it might have been sleepy sleepy um latia latia latia was wasn't right before me you had
someone else in between i'm trying to think i shit i've been on i've been you had macville
macville macville yeah karaskia it was it was macville um because yeah will will came after
macville um i've been doing a lot of like the like the actual podcast but like finding the time to
like create the clips like quality clips because i could always just go in and grab a segment like
on youtube i put the time stamps and stuff like that but like i want shit that is gonna portray
the true message of the podcast because we we laugh you know we talk sometimes they rap whatever
we cover a lot of bases in an hour but like i want to encapsulate the true purpose of the show
in these clips because for the most part that's how most people are going to find my podcast they're
going to see these 30 seconds to a minute clips and then they get to gauge whether they want to
whether it's worth their time so the people that do come in contact with them i want them to come
in contact with something powerful which requires me to you know truly listen and and everything
like that and it's just something that i like i said i'm five episodes behind yet and i'm like
well i don't know you got to listen to like um have your listeners share it with other people
that's something i'm going to start putting in my outro like you know the greatest share you could
do is because that's the best testimonial somebody says hey i listened to this podcast it brings
something up i mean it's great you don't you don't want to build like a flash in the pan type
thing you know and sometimes like i'm uh i'm a few i have a few years bookmarked but i have
like uh even i haven't watched brilliant idiots this week i think they just dropped today
um rory and maul i can't keep up with that they dropped that shout out to rory and maul they
dropped like two three times a week yeah yeah it's not like the joe budden podcast where it
was like on a weekly basis i just watched the clips honestly like they're funny to me but
they haven't put out anything that made me want to go watch an episode yet
even and i've been listening to them for years their clips i don't know i follow the show so
like i get to see all the material and typically that's how i gauge it is like if somebody can put
out something that is intriguing enough for me to watch the clip then i'll go and check out the
episode but ever since they became rory and maul i just i haven't went and listened to it i don't
know maybe it's because like the way i found them ain't the way that they are i don't know if they
could put the stuff on the clip like i don't know if they could i don't know if the show is super
clippable some of the stuff that they they talk about yeah yeah and i mean yeah patreon i i'm not
tuned into their patreon or anything like that but i just know whenever i'm like whenever i need to
listen to a podcast they're gonna have something new and current up and i'll be able to just throw
it on and go from there even if i don't listen to the whole episode i i mean i'm sure they have
listeners that tear up every minute of every episode yeah they know their numbers there's a
reason why they're dropping that that frequent but i don't know did you ever think of going to
bi-weekly or you you post every week i considered it i as of now i do every week i just came off of
um a couple weeks ago i didn't post for about i want to say close to a month and it was because
i was like trying to reset my algorithm so uh me and me and mustafa shout out to staffa shout out
staffa um we came up with this plan where we was like we're gonna get five episodes and we're gonna
keep them all in the tuck and then we're gonna drop them three days apart and we're gonna see
how that changes things and it has changed things um I've noticed that I'm getting I'm getting more
listeners on Spotify that was like the main area I've noticed um and the algorithm switched up a
little bit for me as well like via YouTube um I've noticed that I'm getting new listeners in
areas I wasn't before but um we came up with this plan so for like three weeks I didn't have no
episodes out um but ever since I went back to a weekly basis kind of thing and it feels good too
like it feels good like this is the one time out of every week i get to do something that i truly
love to do you know sometimes i i've just got to go with the flow of life and the things that i've
put in my life and sometimes they're not always as exciting as i would like them to be but
shit gotta get done you know what i mean i'm a man at the end of day i gotta yeah do certain
things but it does feel good to be like okay yo on this day i typically i record on either
tuesdays or fridays i'm like on these one of these days out of the week it's my time like
for two hours it's just only what the fuck eric wants to do and it feels good to have that
because uh there was a time that i wasn't doing anything creatively my i felt miserable i'll be
honest i felt i felt miserable it's been a long time for me not doing anything creatively actually
my my calendar just went off i was supposed to drop that music video i showed you today
You didn't drop it yet?
No
Johnny was supposed to come over
J2
Shout out to J2
Shout out
He was supposed to come over Monday
I was like
I'm old
I gotta work the election
I'm gonna go to bed early
Cause I gotta be up early
So
We gotta like
Get the paperwork out of the way
And figure out
What we're gonna do
We're probably not gonna
Promote it
Like
We're thinking of promoting it
To people we don't know
And just get a more
Raw response
Yeah
Because it's not
What we're known
for doing you know what i mean like i kind of like that i like that just the people who know
you are going to find it they're going to see it but like uh targeting a specific audience that
has no clue about you guys it'll definitely give you a different feel because people will let you
know strangers love to talk shit strangers love also i realize not only do they love to talk shit
they love to support yeah they love to be like all right that looks dope and well i don't really
care what people have to say about it because i have shown it to a few videographers like um
and they think it's dope so as long as i'm not gonna get haha emojis from from my network yeah
then we're good yeah so as i got the i got the okay you took the handcuffs off yourself you know
what could you guys think i really shout out to tug mcgraw he told me to post it he's like yeah
if it's done stop working on it big shout out to tug man i've been a fan for for a while man uh
tug i'm talking to you whatever camera we're on so i'm gonna definitely reach out so we can connect
tony was like yeah man definitely get him on your show i have to get you guys on the show for sure
hey get him on the get him on the show i'll plug you i'll uh remind me after we're done recording
i'll shoot him a message i bet go from there my man my man's been in the game for a minute
yeah for sure for sure i had him on itunes oh shit i had uh i had his album on itunes back in
uh i i don't even think it was 2010 yet but that's that's another thing too through music
like you connect with people you don't understand the amount of people that are just like this is
great music you know what i mean i think music and food are like two of the things that i realize
like are universal you you you show people good music or even if it's not i can't even say good
music because music is music it's art at the end of the day it's to be uh observed listened to
yeah and and then and then they get to judge for themselves but music and food are two of the
things that i think like connect all people because we all gotta eat and we all love music
even if we don't dance we all love music so i i agree i agree um shit i was gonna say something
i was gonna say something i forget what it is whatever it'll come back yeah it's been a block
to you but yeah so what's uh what do you have on your goals for 2024 is it too early to start
dropping those um continuing with spanish it's funny um i'm still working on a couple of the
goals so when i wrote the first book before i started writing the book and i was trying to get
organized of figuring out what i wanted to do what i wanted to aim for i came up with this uh
this i wrote my i wrote my goals down on a piece of paper and then my wife made it all nice for me
and typed it up and put pictures and shit but there was like 12 things on the list it was like
um uh create a new stream of revenue start a podcast write a book um put on 10 pounds of
muscle learn spanish i was like become fluent in spanish to have basic conversation so there
was a couple things on that list that i made probably over 12 months ago now that some of
the things i accomplished but some of the things that are still really important to me that i want
to accomplish um i think they're gonna have to continue on to 2024 especially because not only
not only that i'm not bored of these things yet like i i still haven't i still haven't been able
to figure out how to have basic conversation in spanish and i would say mainly it's because of
me because i'm afraid of looking stupid you know i mean i i love to tell people it's like
i'm good at everything except like when it comes to speaking spanish in public it's like one of
things like i don't know i it's just i have this like this fear of speaking but i know
i know that in order to learn how to speak i have to speak so well do you know what uh this i don't
know if this is any solace to you at all but you don't have to speak perfect english for somebody
to understand what you're saying like you know what i mean so forget accent aside even just your
word choice like you can understand a incorrectly structured sentence in english and still kind of
get the gist of what it is and people will correct you so i know that it gets to the point then where
you do have to be in conversation and people can correct you and that was uh when i was actively
trying to learn earlier in my life i worked with people who uh who spoke spanish spoke spanish so
we could work in spanish and that helped with certain things but that's not going to let me
know like anything outside of how the weather like you know what i mean go and put a fork on
table number four is not that shit can't be applied just anywhere yeah so um so yeah so some
of the goals some of the goals um are are gonna stay uh solely because like they're they're still
really important and i haven't accomplished them yet um but i do have a couple new things that are
on there um i have my own flag football team i've been doing that for about a year and some change
but I'm going to be taking a step back there
because some things that are going on with my son
and I'm going to go coach freshman football
at Allen you know I'm going to try to help
get the next generation of football
players coming into Allen
hopefully we can change the culture hopefully we can
get these kids like some passion
to play football
and hopefully by the time they're in
10th, 11th, 12th grade they can start winning
some football games so I'm hoping to be part of that
change that's something
that's going to be coming into the fold next summer
um so yeah that's that's one of my goals is to is to try to create a winning culture at a school
with without a winning culture um so that's huge for me uh finish up my second book um i started
writing it but i haven't finished it yet i'm on chapter 16 i had scheduled for it to have 22
chapters so i still got 20 i still got six chapters to go so that's another thing is wrap
up the second book ever i did um i want to do a little bit of traveling too next year i've been
saying for a couple years ever since i got like into like spirituality i want to freaking go to
a couple places and try a couple things like i would love to go and live amongst monks for at
least a week may two would be ideal for me but live amongst monks for for two weeks in tibet
so that's something that's like on my next 12 months of to to do so it's pretty exciting it's
pretty exciting for real oh man it's nerve-wracking too cool i could see you in a tibetan monks i uh
i just hope they don't make me i don't want to cut my hair i saw they announced a uh a trailer
for avatar yeah that shit's on my watch later list i was i was i was thinking of eric i was
like yo that's funny the microphone the little advertising things must know he's coming over
i love the avatar bro i love the avatar that's funny that you thought of me when you seen that
because that's funny that you held on to that because well we were talking about it on the
on the last episode yeah i know but listen to the episode recently oh but i didn't know how
recent but it's funny like that you retain that a lot of people people know like my wife knows i
like the avatar but like i've had to tell my mom that shit three times like like explain the show
to her why i like it because recently i've been getting into cartoons and the avatar was one of
the shows that i started with it was that and attack on titan were two of the first cartoon
shows i actually started to watch um because in this healing process that i'm going through like
of all the things that like some of the things that i covered in my book um i'm still healing
from i'm still working through on a daily basis and i feel like because of all the moving around
that i had to do as a kid and um just the way like people are raised in the black community i'll just
say it for a spade for a spade you know what i mean um i didn't have a childhood in many aspects
like you know we didn't keep coloring tools in the house we didn't play organized games as a family
um i didn't watch cartoons um a lot of time like we were told like as soon as we're done with our
homework go get the fuck out of the house go play go be a kid which i'm grateful for because i i
learned to like navigate the world but then there was also a piece of me where it's like i missed
out on a lot of things as kids so like now i'll be at home like i'll smoke some weed and i'm like
you know what fuck that i'm gonna go paint i'm not playing video games tonight and i put all my
paint stuff and i'm over here i'm making mountains and it doesn't look like if you're comparing it to
like a professional artist somebody's been doing this it doesn't look good but i showed my daughter
and my daughter's like oh my god dad i love it and i'm sitting i'm like this is good like this is
you know but she's six and to her it's it's a work of fucking art and like that in itself is like
maybe i shouldn't judge this against like something that fucking bosky out made maybe i should just
judge it for what it is or maybe not even judge it at all and just appreciate the fact that i got
to color i got to paint there's famous art that's looks like shit questionable i can't say it looks
like shit i mean some like i'm not afraid to say it but some of that shit is like i don't even know
what this is bro i don't know why somebody paid twelve thousand dollars for that i wouldn't have
but art is art so i mean depends on the process the tools there's all sorts of stuff but yeah
it depends on what your last one was sold for so you could uh essentially i mean i don't know
i don't know fine art that's a whole different ball game like when people get into buying and
selling art they know way more about it if they're going to spend a car on a piece of art then i'm
sure they know what they're buying and why they're buying it but i don't know people some people hate
this logo i'm sure i mean i don't know everything like it's art isn't subjective like there is
objectively good stuff there's laws and stuff you have to follow but for the most part if it
sparks a conversation it belongs in the art museum it probably did his job or i don't know not the
museum but I like I like to criticize things I like to criticize things including myself and
this is something I'm working towards like just like letting things be what they are and then
just appreciating that for that but I'll be honest it's tough some areas like like I said like I'll
see some art like I've seen some dope Basquiat pieces and then I'm other and then other pieces
I'm like I don't even know why they sold for that I wouldn't have bought it you know but that's just
like that's my opinion about it and i try not to judge art like that because i'm a i'm a artist
at the end of the day i write poetry um i write music i write books and i mean i'm pretty sure
somebody's like hey that shit's whack but like at the end of the day i didn't i didn't make it for
you then it's okay like but i don't know i like that people could change the channel yeah yeah
like it might not be your cup of tea that's fine but no when you get into I've had people
I don't get into checking numbers a whole lot because I'm not going to change a whole bunch
of things like I have it to the point where I have a process it's comfortable for me like yes
I always push to expand it I'm always growing little pieces here I was going to say so how do
you how do you push to expand well you you set goals but the goals aren't based on numbers going
viral off the thing that i did last week you know what i mean like it's it's about creating new
content and the thing is is when i did check the numbers it was like up 138 or maybe it was 188
percent i was up month over month so i thought oh that's crazy maybe my last couple episodes were
hidden but when i checked people are downloading stuff from last february people are grabbing
titles and so i had more downloads from older stuff so i'm like okay yeah somebody went through
and saw on instagram the like all the stories that i posted and they were like i just went down a
rabbit hole listening to a whole bunch of different guests so there's people that don't need to like
creating those reels and captions people can catch up and say okay maybe they want to go back and
listen to that episode but even if they just got the highlight like i started getting way more
intentional with my reels i used to just throw them bitches in ai like i'd be like i'd throw them
do what you do the link i'd select like three out of the 12 and uh it and they'd be good but it it's
expensive to be lazy yeah versus and i don't want to call it lazy maybe it's work smarter
with the gems today what do i say it's expensive to be lazy it is bro it is i know exactly what
the fuck you're talking about it's like that's that's two that's two gems i hope i hope you
clip them shits yeah there you go that's the clip yeah that's the clip no but um going through and
actually cutting the clips as i'm listening to the episode so now my process is like i'll take this
i'll throw everything in i'll get it technically right so that i could watch it with the camera
switching then as i'm listening to it i'm gonna mark it i'm gonna be like i like that part there
like i like that um i should get to the point where i got a little button here that marks the
audio somehow so i'm like all right clip that but like i get a little instant replay button
a smoother process but no then i just go through cut those little parts make sure it looks good
in the reel and stuff like that i'm gonna hook you up i'm gonna do some stuff for that overlay
you gotta show me how to do those overlays yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna show you you're creative as
fuck bro oh man i don't know i don't know i don't um i don't think it's that like i don't know
you know what it is it's like it's wrestling like you're a district 11 wrestler you're always gonna
run into somebody tougher than you you know what i mean like even if you're a state champ there's
somebody in the world you know what i mean like there's there's somebody in a village somewhere
i'm just comparing it to the things that i've seen from you bro you're talented as fuck
you know what i mean yeah i don't know i get stuck in that impression compliment tony damn
I do that same thing where I just be like, yeah, man, you know, I'm just trying to be
humble in somebody told me, stop being fucking humble so much.
And I was like, I don't know how else to be any other way.
And then they're like, you know, take the compliment.
And I'm sitting here.
I'm like, I'll try.
Well, I'll take it as I'm dope, but there's always going to be doper.
I'll erase that caveat.
You heard this is the clip.
Tony Ortiz, the designer.
I'm dope.
I'm dope.
i don't even know if anybody says that anymore shit i do i'm like yo that's dope as fuck bro
yeah i tell my wife that yeah i tell my wife that i'm like i'm dope yo that's she's like why
you like that because i'm fucking dope that's why and she's like i'm really just doing her
hating shit hating wife shit i'm like kick rocks yo get out the way while i watch this tv
no my wife my wife tells me how much she loves me how much she supports and stuff and then she'll
tell me like i can't dress and i'll be like that like the the best thing that happened with our
with me in terms of my part in our relationship is i just don't really care as much she's like
i don't really like that shirt that you picked out i'm like this is dope yeah i'm wearing it
yeah it's just it works from there you know you could dress me when we go out i think i think you
need a balance of that in a relationship it's like yeah i gotta be able to like joke with each other
like friends do you know i mean because me and my boys we talk shit all day like whenever we're
together for football games and shit like that like we roast each other we fuck around you know
i mean that like that's where that's how we we exchange like our love for each other but like
at home typically like the way you would think ideally is oh you guys actually love each other
you know you cuddle you kiss you do all those things but like it can't just be that some like
you got to find other ways to bond you got to dance you got to joke you got to play me and my
wife we love to wrestle like we wrestle with each other like we we went on vacation with our by
ourselves um earlier this year um i believe in like july or some no in june for my birthday we
went down to south carolina and we we took a like a big mug out there like a 24 ounce mug we filled
that shit with fucking wine and we went out there we went out to the beach put our blankets down
and we were like i just started pushing her shit and she's like oh you want to fight i'm like yeah
we're on a fight and we're out there fucking full-blown wrestling like in stalemates we got
a reset and everything and people are watching us but it was probably the it was probably the
best time i had just us two and i don't even know like to recent memory like it was it felt good it
felt like we were kids again you know what i mean and it's shit like that that has to go on to keep
your relationship fresh and and enjoyable you know i mean now i know everybody don't wrestle
I know you're probably not wrestling with your wife, but me and my wife love that shit.
There's a bit of a size difference between me and my wife.
We're not in the same weight class.
She's bigger than I am.
She weighs more than she weighs, like, maybe like a 40.
I'm going to cut that out.
I'm going to cut that out.
We're not putting your wife's weight out there.
My wife's sexy.
My wife's sexy for all y'all out there.
Go ahead.
Go look her up.
We're not doing that.
We're not doing that, man.
I appreciate it.
No.
we'll cut that out
we gotta get you to exalt
jujitsu
especially if you're over here wrestling
your wife and feeling alive
I do the wrestling
so I be teaching her stuff
and she gets it somewhat
so it's fun
it's fun to learn all the
oh shit that could get me killed
like bellying out
that's something I had to unlearn quick
oh you guys don't belly out
in jujitsu
no
it's practically
that's giving someone
your back
and in a fight
okay that makes sense
and wrestling
that's what they
you know
they get to your stomach
get to your feet
kind of thing
and granted
you're not
you're probably not
going against somebody
that's a blue belt
in jujitsu
so like
you just never know
so you know
you don't want to get
in the process
of giving your back
up to anybody
so just untrain it
you know what I mean
like it's just
I'm a lot more
comfortable on my back
but
I don't know
come to the gym that's what it's for bring your wife to the gym too i'm pretty sure she would
like to try she was interested in trying kickboxing so i'm sure rolling around on some mats for a
while would be fun for her as well you gotta send us an invite bro any day that you're going over
there just send me a text like hey man i'm about to head over there let me you know if you're
if you're not occupied you know i'm saying come through we'll definitely pop out i'll let you
know off air because we'll have somebody showing up to the gym we were we were just looking at that
Man, back in, like, the earlier days of jiu-jitsu,
like, they would just, they would storm dojos.
To what?
They'd be like, oh, you studying this and that?
Well, let's fight.
Let's fight.
Let's see your skills against our style.
I have no rules.
He was sending me videos and no rules bouts.
Like, it's like, oh, my God.
It's like organized street fighting in a way.
That's what it sounds like.
Yeah, well, the whole, my coach will tell you the best,
But the whole story was they wanted to bring jiu-jitsu across the world.
So there was a ton of Gracies, like a ton of suns.
And if you were a sun, you were in a gi by the time you were crawling around.
What are these different levels you can get to in jiu-jitsu?
What?
Like suns, a gi?
Okay, I'm sorry.
Yeah, you got to provide a little context.
You know that orange shit that Goku wears?
Yeah.
It's a gi.
it's like for training like you're wearing a collar right now you're not going to be in a
singlet when you go and wrestle against somebody so most like sport jujitsu you're going to have
uh no gi where in the tournaments you're wearing like rash guards it's closer to like wrestling
and stuff like that stuff people can't get a hold of kind of thing but when you're training to
with the gi you learn to prevent different types of chokes there's things where people can grab
onto your clothes and throw you so i was gonna say is that what i was gonna ask what's the purpose of
of wearing baggier clothing if you don't compete in in that well they have geek competitions too
they have competitions where people compete in it and it's all like i'm not gonna get into it or
have people showing up to my gym but some people are like sport to death like some people are like
they learn this and they learn really flashy stuff some people i'm more along the lines of like
self-defense like what is going to prevent me from letting somebody break my teeth poke my eyes out
like you know what i mean nobody wants to end up on world star yeah i just seen i just see some
horrible stuff if i have to pull a stalemate and just wait there till the cops come and there's
nobody jumping in or something like that or i have to restrain someone it's like maybe that's
the way to go maybe it's not always about the spinning flying elbow would you ever would you
ever try to make a citizen's arrest make a citizen's arrest no like if i'm gonna avoid
confrontation at all costs but there are you learn those quick there's ways to control people like
even if you're trained if somebody has you in this position it's really fucking hard to get out
of or move so i mean but then again you got people on drugs so you're still going for a ride like you
gotta work to control somebody yeah you gotta work to control somebody but um i'm telling you man you
should definitely definitely try it out i'll talk to what what does it do for your mental does it
you know does it have any like i'm saying you personally does it does it provide something for
your mental space you remember in wrestling when you used to size everybody up when you just kind
of like you don't do it on purpose but you're like man i don't know his balance seems too good
for me to shoot a shot in like i was some big ass fucking long legs like shit i started doing a lot
of that i'm just like uh man so would i go arm triangle or would i try to no like there's a lot
of um it adds a lot to confidence it adds a lot to just just getting out and stretching and moving
around and people i haven't been testing but i think i lost like 10 pounds doing it uh people
are like hey you look healthy you look good what are you doing so i'm not getting younger i'm not
getting younger it's got to be time does it does it feel like i mean i know you just said the
shoulder injury does it feel like it keeps you more limber than like maybe more like other active
things you used to do oh yeah because you're using your legs and your feet so like one drill will do
like we'll lay on our back and you just kind of do windmills with your feet to flex your hips out
Like, you're never flexing your hips out normally or stretching your hips, but it just helps with certain things.
If I'm trying to, like, you got to, like, keep your weight down while moving if you're trying to move to an armbar or something.
So, like, having your foot, like, Indian style or weird.
Crooked.
It looks contorted.
Yeah, yeah.
That's what's up.
It's super cool stuff.
I asked about the mental because like you see people that like hit the gym a lot and they work out and they're just like, you know, if I don't if I don't go to the gym, like I feel like out of balance mentally.
You know what I'm saying?
There is a physiological like I just feel good after I go, especially after rolling live.
Oh, you just feel super alive.
And then like I'm driving home and stuff.
Music sounds better.
Like so that's probably endorphins.
But it's similar to that's just exercise in general.
I don't know that jujitsu does more of it, but going, like, going live where somebody's, even if you're going against somebody with a higher belt that's way more experienced than you, they're not going to go and try to annihilate you.
Like, think about you.
If you're teaching, like, a younger wrestler, like, you're going to give them pressure and show them and then, like, do your stuff slower.
So it's just.
It's really, like, teacher and student kind of thing.
so and let me tell let me show you this like when you get into the mentality of you're not trying to
use energy you're trying to go whichever way the fight goes so I might wait here and then if you
move this arm now that opens up my next move from here but I'm not going to move your arm in order
to force it to do that it's just if you swing on me and you lift your arm back this is what I'm
going to do so you wait for things to open up it seems more it seems it sounds like it's more
reactive than it is uh aggressive yeah absolutely way more reactive so that lets me think about
things like that in my absolute life i'm like okay this doesn't need to be forced just yet
this doesn't need to happen like just like everything is flow yeah i can take that time
that little bit of space and relax for a little bit because i've heard of people doing like like
tai chi i know tai chi is a little bit different but like people doing like tai chi or um i've
heard of uh jujitsu like being good forms to like uh not only like move your body but just get in
touch with the body like you said a lot of people don't even get up and move their hips or like
people don't typically stretch to get up they start their day and they're out the door kind of
thing but how many times do we actually sit there and like feel our body like truly feel it and move
like move different parts with intention and things like that that's why i like to ask those
type of things because um honestly i'm in a space where it's like i'm down to try it but i'm in a
space where it's like if it doesn't also have like like some mental some mental uh i don't even know
the word i'm looking for but like if it doesn't if it's not going to help the mental space either
like if it's just a phys like a physical thing i'm probably not interested because i have something
like that's physical but also helps the mental like football things like that but um i've heard
of like a lot of things like like i said tai chi jujitsu um just being able to create the mental
space of where things are more clear you know things like that just getting in touch with
yourself and you can compare it a lot to wrestling compare it a lot to i love wrestling so if you say
that i might i might fall in love yeah no when you you know like when you're just is the room
hot like wrestling no no no okay no he has an ac he has an ac in it normally we're like turn that
ac off it's too cold oh man listen for anybody who's never been in a wrestling room they they
kept it at a hundred hundred three hundred five hours was like 103 i believe it was in there just
dripping sweat from standing like let alone having to grapple with another person your exact same
size like it's nuts sometimes i mean we had to wrestle up two weight classes or something like
that like he used to do that i so many practices i find myself wrestling whoever's at 145 instead
of whoever's at 138 or 126 and i'm like this dude got like 13 pounds on me you know what i mean and
if he's skilled like i'm skilled 13 pounds is a lot in wrestling but you know it bends it builds
that mental toughness and you know challenges you so i wrestled up most of my high school career
i only had a few matches i weighed like 163 and i wrestled 171 that's a weird weight so i would
have like 60 well that's what it was it was 160 so i'd have to drop three pounds if i was going
to go 160 but where you go up i just felt better like natural like i wasn't cutting a ton of weight
yeah when i was trying to get down to 60 i think i weighed like 174 so i was dropping almost two
weight classes but i shit yeah i uh i found like i don't know 163 and i learned at like 45 52 so
i was used to that faster paced wrestling you take that up to like 171 you could feel the
difference you could feel the difference they don't move as well yeah it's like a lot of
circling but i couldn't lock up that you had to i had to wrestle my own game like people were a lot
stronger so that's that's because they're coming from 180 uh 190 yeah i remember my coach the one
time because our 126 um he was he was losing a decent amount of his matches um so my coach is
like hey why don't you try to cut your weight from 132 to 126 and then go wrestle down um you could
you could really help us there as well uh and lewis was a pretty good wrestler but i don't know
he just had this string where he just wasn't he wasn't winning and i tried so hard to cut this
weight i got down to 127 and i like i didn't eat for two days i did like a i did a water fast
like it was nuts i just didn't have anything to lose and i was like fuck this shit i'm not doing
this shit like i'll wrestle at 132 he's just gonna have to win some matches bro like i don't know
or we'll just keep losing team matches because we can't win in the lower weights like i don't
know what to tell you but that's like cutting weight is no joke especially when you don't have
much i was like in high school i was like six percent body fat yeah i mean i said i was 6.3
yeah i was like six percent you remember stuff like that that's because i was amazed when when
they did like the tests and everything i was amazed like only six percent you can't do that
no more what i'm pretty sure they changed that you can't wrestle that low body fat they or that
might be just like at the minimum at the minimum but they they test your body fat and let you know
how low you can drop now it's unhealthy to be that small yeah and i and i was like i was shredded
like like my legs were fucking just diesel like i was cut and everything like that i'm like i'm
trying to lose six pounds of nothing i'm like bro i'm gonna i'm gonna disappear yeah i'm gonna
disappear bro i turn sideways like so i don't know i i do miss i do miss some of those things
not only because like the camaraderie but like the the challenge you know what i mean like there's
very few things in life like that you don't that you sign up for that a lot of people don't don't
challenge themselves and even, even to like my, like in my life, sometimes like I do things and
I stick with it maybe a little bit longer than I should. Cause it's comfortable. You know what I
mean? And, um, but every day you show up to somewhere like jujitsu or you show up to wrestling,
it's a challenge. You know, you're going to go in there and you're going to work for whatever
you're, you're trying to accomplish that day. And, um, having that, that competition,
like on a daily basis sometimes i miss that shit because uh it builds something in you
you know i don't know it's hard to find that like as an adult it's yeah you can't find it as an
adult and once that like competitive edge is missing i find you start getting like over
aggressive and things that doesn't like give me like you don't need like fucking video games like
you know what i mean like get that kid in call of duty that's screaming that's capping out the mic
get him on the wrestling mat he'll come back and he'll play that game and he'll just be chilling
you start you know what i mean like that your company announces a bake-off and you're like oh
i'm gonna do spider-man swing in and it's like the bake-off but yeah you you find you find things to
be like overly excited about that may not even you know like you said like it might transition
to something that isn't as positive so you got to find like something something to get that energy
out and ultimately that's what it is it's like it's like pent-up energy um that that needs to
be used i wanted to give you a chance to shout out your social uh talk about the book let's see
you got the podcast where can they find that okay um so for the podcast you guys can follow
dope individuals pod on uh instagram and tiktok um i'm posting videos on a daily basis a lot of
motivational shit up there um i also do a lot of on on those platforms where i highlight other
podcasts um local artists and things like that so you not only get to come on here hear some
dope ass conversations with dope ass individuals but you're also getting an opportunity to see like
there's a lot of people that you have never heard of making some great pieces of art you know
what i mean so uh make sure you guys follow me there dope individuals pod on youtube it's dope
individuals podcast uh actually dope individuals only podcast you can find all the videos i um all
the content that you see on the social platforms you'll also see as the shorts um but you have the
full length video episodes there um so you can listen to it and watch as well um i'm very active
in the comments so please drop your opinions uh if you disagree with some if you agree with some
If you just got something that you want to tell the people underneath in the comment section, drop it.
I love when people give me feedback or or talk about the subject that we were speaking on in that episode.
So please, please, please let me know what you think, what you feel.
I want to hear it. Even if I don't agree with it, I want to hear it.
I want people. That's what this whole thing is about.
It's about starting conversations and sharing with each other.
um and then also on the spotify i'm now just started doing a thing where did you know you
can put videos like your videos on the spotify i knew but i haven't looked into how to do it yet
i did it for the first time it's like the same way you would upload it because i i upload my
podcast through um spotify podcast and then i use that as like my central station to upload it but
yeah they allow you to do the videos now and when you do when you upload the videos it automatically
takes the audio and puts it right on there. So if it's the same audio file that you're using for
the video, then you only got to do one and you get to have both so they can listen to it or they can
watch it via Spotify. So for all you guys who use Spotify, you can watch the videos there and you
can listen to the episodes there. So make sure you check it out. I drop episodes on a weekly basis
and there's more dope shit, more dope individuals on the way, man, for real. And as far as my book,
my book as of now i got it scheduled for january 29th which is my mother's birthday i got it
scheduled for january 29th you'll be able to find it everywhere um the main place you'll be able to
find it is going to be on amazon you can place the order there however i'm working on setting
up an online store so they can buy it direct to consumer kind of thing because amazon is robbing
people so no lie if i charge 15 for the book i leave with six dollars in profit so that's wild
that's wild especially for something that's like do a limited run first and then put it on amazon
after everyone bought it already yeah that's a good idea i'm gonna look into that because they
got the network man yeah they got the they got the network they got the platform yeah that's crazy
that's crazy for my for my personal story and triumphs and and ups and downs you know what i
mean um it's not about money for me but i think six dollars for every 15 is nuts so um but yeah
that's where you'll be able to find it you'll also be able to find it on audiobook and i'm
actually working on the audiobook where i read the books uh to read the book to you so there's
like a lot of stories in the book where i actually tell stories from like my own memory so i get an
opportunity to really put the energy into it and and uh and and read it to you guys how it was how
it was done in that moment in time um so i think that's going to be pretty cool too i've never
narrated a book but this i'm gonna have mad fun with that shit um so make sure you guys check that
out it's um the book is titled it's happening for you 27 years of lessons there's gonna be a little
qr code on the back of the book if you guys buy it and you'll be able to follow me on everything
and everything that i got going on uh for the podcast for the book and uh for me as as a person
just trying to find uh find a way to make an impact in this world while i'm here so um yeah
man thank you y'all i appreciate you giving me the platform i appreciate rodriguez yeah man eric
rodriguez don't forget the name i'm gonna be everywhere bro all right thank you for listening
all right peace thank you for listening to another episode of i will not lose podcast
to support the show visit i will not lose podcast.com you can subscribe to your favorite
podcast player share the episode link leave a comment your contribution is greatly appreciated
and if you're listening in and can't see the qr code for donation go to to the designer.com
slash links and there's instructions to donate up there thanks so much