We'll Beg for Forgiveness, Because We Ain't Asking for Permission with Will Lucas

out to all the Black inventors. Lanny Smooth becomes the second person from Disney since Walt Disney himself to get inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He joined the twenty twenty four class of recognized Inventors. Smooth who was making history as the first Disney imagineer to receive the honor. He's also the second person at Walt Disney Company since Walt Disney to earn the recognition. His forty five year career, he's been a theatrical technology creator, inventor,

electrical engineer, scientists, and researcher. He's a mass the collection of over one hundred patents, seventy four of them created during his twenty five year stint at all Disney Company and is star shined long before he joined Disney. Graduated with a bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, developed multiple innovations such as video on demand technology, video conferencing technologies, and specialized in television for remote locations,

just to name a few. He's been integral in creating some of the most technically advanced special effects at Disney theme parks and experiences, and if you've been some of these. Examples of his special effect technologies include the Seance Room at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. He worked on the Madame Leotas float there that I've not been there. Well, I've been there, but I've not seen this particular thing. But Madam Leota's floating in the Seience Room at Disney's Disneyland's Haunted Mansion,

he worked on that. Disney Live Entertainment's Extendable Lightsaber, he worked on that. The Magic Playfloor interactive game experience on Disney's Cruise Line, he worked on that. And the Fortress Explorations adventure at Tokyo Disney c. He worked on that, and he said in a statement as a lifelong as a lifelong inventor. Let me start that over. As a lifelong inventor, I am excited, delighted, and humbled to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. This is

he told this to Disney Parks. He said, to be included alongside my childhood hero Thomas Edison and my lifelong role model Jim West, the electreate microphone inventor who's also a black man. It's exciting and humbling, and as someone who's had the privilege of working at the Walt Disney Company, it's especially meaningful to know that Walt Disney himself is also an inductee, So big shout out to you, mister smooth.

Next up, Cole Trane Curtis. If you know him, you know he's an icon for marketers like myself and he makes Afro Tech News Today. Team Epiphany the company he founded his black indigenous people of color founded marketing agency, and they've worked with people like Easter Ray, companies like American Express and more. They have been acquired by Stagwell.

Kudos to you, Coltrane, he said in a statement. We're excited to become part of Stagwell and its constellation network a company that shares our values and looks to further Team epiphanies long standing commitment to aspirational marketing, embracing culture, and impacting communities of influence through our work. As previously reported by afro Tech, Curtis runs the business alongside his

why and fellow managing partner, Lisa Chu. The team works to not only put culture at the forefront of the agency, but also create community impact through its efforts. Team Epiphany's

clients include American Express, HBO, Max, Heineken Moore. For AMX, the company worked on the company's campaigns for its AMX one hundred for one hundred program, which invested two point five million dollars in black female entrepreneurs part of their press release and what's more, after creating launch campaigns for the Insecure Fest for Easter Ray's show Insecure, Team Epiphany went on to obtain a strategic partnership with Ray's Hooray

Media in twenty twenty three. Justin Lewis, who's chair of Constellation, said in the statement, people tend to see Team Epiphany and one to compartmentalize its offerings into multicultural or experiential, but when I met the team, it became clear it me that their deep appreciation and mastery of culture is an essential ingredient for contemporary brands focused on forward looking growth. I'm excited to welcome col Train, Lisa and the entire

team to the network. So much more afro tech news, but I'll do one more for today, and that is seven diverse brands will be shelved at Target stores thanks to a woman owned tech platform prioritizing diverse led startups and suppliers. This push is in part due to Diverse Powered Brands of Business to Business Global digital catalog that helps buyers connect with diverse supplies and brands. According to his website, the efforts have led to victories for the

new business owners. According to a news release, thirteen suppliers to partner a pitch competition moderated by Diverse Powered Brands in last year at Target headquarters in Minneapolis, and suppliers were able to pitch Target's wine team while founders interacted

with the executives from several wine distribution companies. And among the companies who will be on this shelf soon is Boyd Crew Wines, which has been talked about an afrotech before it is a story on afrotech dot com entitled the Boyds are behind the first Black family owned wine company in Maryland, So check that story out on afrotech dot com. It created out of a deep desire to honor their families legacy. Matthew and jon El Boyd created Boyd Crew Wines, which is a family owned winery crafting

locally made wines. Were also fostering community and connection. Jon El said in the statement, as the old saying gohs, representation matters, and although when considering entering the wine industry and starting our own winery, we noticed there was a lack of diversity, it was the innovation and history of what our ancestors were able to accomplish and what that stood for that gave us the faith and the courage

to move forward and launch our own wine company. They're Wine reopened in twenty twenty three, and they said their ultimate goal is to own and operate a standalone vineyard with a community marketplace incubator for entrepreneurs and small businesses who are just starting their business. So salute to you and you guys, go look for them on a target shelf soon. That's Shaffro Tech News, Black Tech green Money

will Lucas here another exciting episode. I'm excited about this one because I could do by virtue of tell you my story hopefully inspire you to take bigger steps in your journey without the things that hold you back today. So I'm going to tell you two different stories today. One, I'm going to tell you the story of afro Tech, how I found my way at afro Tech. I've told pieces of your story on previous episodes, but today I'm going to tell it from like a slightly different perspective.

And I want to tell you the story of my marketing company Creatio, which I was actually when I was looking at the Afrotech News that I was going to do today, it was so fitting to talk about what col Trane Curtis did in the Afrotech News segment previous to get into this section right here, because Cold Train is such an inspiration to people like myself. So I'm going to talk about two stories for my life and give you, hopefully fodder to feed the spirit inside you

of going without permission. Okay, so the first one, let's see I'll do I'll do Creatio first because that one came first in my life. So Creatio is a full service marketing production technology agency. We do everything from video production, website development, communication, strategy design, more and we're situated in Northwest Ohio and in my region, I have the only full service agency that's run by a black person, that's

run by a minority. So we lean into that particular niche and because we own it, there is no other person doing it in our region. And so I'm like, if I'm going to be the only person doing this, and I'm the only minority that's doing this, then i have a particular value proposition, a competitive advantage that every other marketing company in the region does not have. So

I'm going to lean into the things that make us special. Well, my company I started because I got an idea and it's in sort of a way, well, it's truly a way that if you're just paying attention to the way that your life works, you will pay attention. I've given you this quote before because it is my favorite quote. It's that Steve Jobs quote, and it says, you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the

dots looking backward. And what I get from that and it's necessary to set this foundation, as I tell my story is when you're in certain times of your life, you may not always appreciate in the moment or understand why in the moment you're doing the thing that you're doing now, whether that is why am I in this particular relationship, Why am I working at this particular job, Why am I working this particular function at this particular job, Why am I taking this class, et cetera, et cetera,

And you feel in the blank. And so I got my idea for what we do at Creatio, not intentionally on my part, but it was by virtue of the dots connecting for me. And so I was wanting to be in the music business growing up. I told you guys, it's part of my story. Before I wanted to be in the music business, I didn't necessarily want to be an artist, because that wasn't my gift. I wanted to be a songwriter, a producer. I wanted to be the person behind the scenes helping the person make amazing music.

I will particularly write R and B songs. I could write rock songs, things like this. I could produce R and B beats, hip hop beats, etc. And I thought it was pretty good at it, but The point in telling you that part is that I'm from Toledo, Ohio, and in Toledo there's not a music industry scene necessarily, or at least the scene as we consider the music

industry to be. There is no scene for the music business in Toledo if you want to be signed by a record label or there's no record labels on the corner, you know, and there's not a lot of studios, etc. And so me, being a very ambitious teenager, I said, you know, well, look well I live intele Ohio, not moving yet, So what is how close can I get to the music industry from where I'm at? And I've said, you know, well, the radio is pretty close. And mind

you like this. This is years after having asked myself that question first, which is why I learned how to play the drums, because I was like, you know, I wanted to be in the music business one day, let me start learning some instruments. And so I started playing

the drums in church. But I wanted to give you that so later in my teenage years, I'm like, you know, the radio is the closest thing to the music business here, And so I went to a teen summit which was at least I'm not sure if it was produced by or hosted by, but there was a program director from a local radio station on the panel at this teen summit. And this is before I graduated from high school. So this program director is on stage at this teen Summit.

I'm there with a friend of mine and I'm like, Okay, here's my chance, because I want to be in the music business and he's in the radio, and I've already determined that the radio is the best way for me to find my way into the industry. And so at the end of the teen Summit event, which was at a local library, I walked up to him and I'm like, hey, you know, my name is Will Lucas, and I want

to be in the music business. You know me me as sixteen, seventeen year old kid, and I'm just like, I don't you know how to make that sound any you know, more professional or whatever. It's just like, this is what I want, you know, tell me what to do. And so at the end of that conversation he was like, you know, well number one, there was like a bunch of other people in line waiting to talk to him, and so I'm like, one of ten kids at the time waiting to talk to him and get some of

his attention. And so he's like, you know, the best thing I can tell you to do is find an internship somewhere. As a matter of fact, just come out to the radio station and we'll talk some more. Because again there was other students' kids. They're waiting to talk to him. So he's like, just come out to the radio station, we'll talk some more and I can spend

some more time with you. So that next day, because that's just the kind of person that was in him, next day, I drove out to the radio station, which was like in this one of the suburbs of Toledo. It was out in the country. So I drove out there after going to school. That they drove out because he had the afternoon drive radio program, so he was on the air from three to eight. So I got out of school at like three and then drove out

there to talk to them. So I like, I get out there and he's like, you know again we number one. He gave me this catalog which is like this old musician's friend catalog, which are these catalogs of instruments, keyboards, you know, processors, beat machines, and et cetera. He gives me this catalog and he's like, you know here. So I'm like, you know, thank you. I didn't have the money to buy none of that stuff anyway, So it was strange that he gave him me. At least I

thought it was strange. It was the fleeting thought. But so it gives me this catalog and it's like, you know again, the best thing I can tell you to do is find an internship somewhere. Matter of fact, we need to intern here. And so my internship at the radio station started that day and so three days. So every day after going to school, I would get in the car and drive out to the radio station immediately after school. Three days into that internship. Because I don't

even it wasn't even like a structured internship. I would just hang out with him and learn what he was doing. And so I would go out there. Three days after doing that, he put me on the air with him, like on a whim during the five o'clock traffic jam, because again he was on from three to eight, So at five o'clock he puts me on the air with them. Three days in and he's like you know, something to

the effect of like, hey, I'm out here. You know, well, Lucas is in the studio with me, and we just jamming for thirty minutes, which was the five o'clock traffic jam, and so then I would come off the air. No, I stayed on the air with him until eight o'clock I would finish the show. And so I was on every day after that, starting at five o'clock, because I guess the chemistry was just really good until it's like he's kept putting me on. Six months after that, they

gave me a Saturday night show on that station. I was doing six to ten on Saturday nights, and it happened to be pretty good at it because I was beating all the big radio stations in town on Saturday nights. And then six months after that he went to the morning show and they gave me his drive time radio show. But this story is not about me in the radio. I just got to set a bed for the story I actually want to talk about, and that is creatio. And so again, I did not get into radio to

be in radio. I got into radio to be in the music business. But I told you this. My favorite quote from Steve Jobs about connecting the dots right, so you know, keep that in your head. So I am walking through a clothing store in my hometown. This is after I had been on the radio maybe three years or so. So I'm walking through a clothing store and they're playing it's like a hood clothing store, so they sell stuff very inexpensively. It's in the part of town,

in the inner city, et cetera. So I'm walking through the clothing store at this time, I had had, you know, two or three years of radio experience under my belt. And this clothing store is playing FM radio over their sound system as there in store music, so inevitably the commercials come on and so you can hear it, like on all the speakers in the store can hear the

commercials just like you can hear the music. And so one of their competitors came on another clothing stores commercial came on over the air inside the store that I'm standing in, and I'm at the time, if I recall, I was like the only person shopping at that time. And it was a big store too, and so it's like fifteen thousand square feet and so I'm the only

person in the store. At this particular moment and that these commercials come on and one of their competitors come on, and I'm looking at the I'm looking at the speaker. I'm looking up at the roof the ceiling looking at a speaker like I can't believe what I'm hearing because it makes no sense. Why are they allowing another clothing store to get airtime in their clothing store. It doesn't

make sense to me. And so in that moment, I'm like, they need their own radio station that just talks about them. And so this light bulb goes off like, hey, I can build that. Because I had just had three years so far of radio experience, I know how to make a radio program. And so one of my mentors at the time owned six McDonald's and I would DJ for him because he also like hosted Wednesday night skate. I think he still does in town. It's like forever ago, but he was at least back then I think he

still does. Was the host of skating in our town every Wednesday night, and so I DJ for him, and so I went to skate. I went to DJ for our skating that next Wednesday night, and I'm like glug Glenn I got this idea, like, I want to build these radio stations, these custom radio stations for brands, Like the same music that you would listen to on the radio, same music that's tailored for the audience that's going to be in your store. But when the radio DJ comes on,

in between the songs, they're talking about that busines. So imagine you know, me being like in it was called VIP Clothing store, so imagine me it's called VIP Sports. So imagine me being in VIP Sports. And in between the songs, DJ comes on, like, yo, welcome to VIP Sports. That was the latest song from this particular artist. Hey make sure you check out in Asle two. We've got a sale on hoodies and all backpacks are twenty five percent off. Here's the latest song from this other artist.

You're listening to VIV Sports Radio. So that was the idea. And so what I wanted to do was build this thing. And at this time it's just an idea. But when I told my mentor, Glenn, he's like his eyes got big and he's like do it, and that's all he said. And Glenn was not the kind of guy to just have that particular kind of response to something. But then he wasn't gonna like easily encourage you to go do

something that he didn't think had any merit. And so him's you know, being looking at me to he was looking at me and just like do it made it? Gave me validation that it was something and if I can make it something real, it could be something real. So I go and I go to the studio, back to the radio station, and I put together like this demo of what it could sound like in a McDonald's restaurant,

because again he had six McDonald's that he owned. And so I'm like, like, if I build this, like, would you let me test it in one of your restaurants? And so he gave me one restaurant I could test it in. And what's interesting about what this particular restaurant he allowed me to test this in. And this is the actual point of this story to pay attention here. So I go to this McDonald's restaurant Number one. I

didn't know how to stream over the internet. This is you know, mid this is like not two thousand, but it's not quite twenty ten, so it's it's mid two thousands, and so I didn't know how to stream. At the time, streaming was not like a huge thing back then. And so I'm like, I'm gonna just burn a CD of a radio program and I'm going to produce that and then put it in his store. So I produced this thing. The store doesn't have a CD player, so I find a and I needed it to loop, and so I

didn't really know what I was doing. So I bought a mini computer. It was a mini PC, and I just programmed it to just loop continuously this one hundred and twenty minute, ninety minute whatever it was CD, just on a loop. And so I'm all ready to go. I get to the store and the store does not have speakers in the lobby area, and you have to sit the actual media console, the hardware, the DVD player or the CD player or in my case, the computer

in the back office. And so I've got to figure out I've never run by this time, I had never run any type of wires. Was like, I was a very like interesting kid in the fact that I would play with electronics, but I really I knew enough to figure it out, but I had never done it. I had never had any experience doing it, especially not in

a commercial environment. It has its own city code and et cetera and laws, and so I've got to figure out number one, what to buy speakers, wise to get it appropriately designed for this restaurant, having never done this before. Got to figure out how to get speaker wire from the back of the restaurant to the front of the restaurant where the speakers are, having never done that before. And also the CD player or the PC in my condition,

how to get that to work. And so the challenge on top of this was there was no ceiling tile between the back office and the front of the restaurant. It's drywall, so I can't run the speaker wire above the ceiling to make it look appropriate and to be safe like your kid. You can't just run speaker wire without a conduit like you're supposed to put it in something to protect it that I know now. I didn't know this then. I knew what I was about to do, which I'm about to tell you wasn't like the way

to do it, but it was all I knew. And so I had this speaker wire which was not even it was car speaker wire, like it was not even commercial speaker wire. It was not because commercial with speaker wire. I'm about to get way too technical for a second, but commercial commercial speaker wire is wrapped in this gray cabling. The speaker wire I was using is for guys and guys who would notice. It's this transparent and you can see the copper on the inside of it, and that's

what you're using cars. So the speaker wire I'm using is the stuff that you're using cars. I didn't know this at the time. I just knew speaker wire or speaker wire. To make it worse again, I didn't have a way to get it from the office in the back to the front the lobby, and so I'm like, okay, well, and I've got to go through a commercial kitchen to do this, which you also have to be doubly safe because it's all kinds of fire issues back there, fire

protection and fire prevention issues back there. But I didn't know any of this stuff at this time, and so all I know is I got to get the music from the back of the store to the front of the door. And so I take a staple gun and I staple this speaker wire to the dry wall through the kitchen from the back of the restaurant to the front of the restaurant, clearly visible to anybody who walked through. In the middle of the aisle, where in between the grill and fry station, you look up and you can

see naked speaker wire running through this McDonald's restaurant. I didn't know no other way. All I knew was I was trying to get music to play, and so put a book marked there because that's story number one. Story number two was right here. So I went to afrotech, my first afrotech in twenty seventeen. And again, if you're listening of this podcast, you've heard this part of the story. So I went to afrotech in twenty seventeen. I started my first podcast in twenty sixteen, and it's called of

ten Podcasts. It's still on iTunes. If you go look for it, you will hear the Will Lucas of eight years ago. You will hear those podcast episodes and I'm talking to black technologists. And at the end of the first season of ofp ten Podcasts, I had heard about this thing called afrotech, and I was like, how did I not know that this thing happened? Because everybody I had interviewed on my podcast of ten podcasts. The first season was on stage at the first AFRO Tech and

I'm like, how did I miss this thing? And so I'm like, I'm never going to miss another Afrotech And so as twenty seventeen approaches, I positioned myself to go. And I also knew at the time, like there was

no real home for black technologists. There was like no homecoming for us, and so I knew I was going to have a remarkable time because we were not on the cover of tech Crunch back then, like we were not getting placed in YC Y Combinator back then, and so black people were very way more underrepresented in technology back when Afrotech started. And so I'm like, I know, I'm going to have a remarkable time. So and I got this radio background, all the things I'm going to go,

and I got this podcast. I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna vlog every day of this conference. And since I got this podcast, I'm also gonna pass out flyers like club flyers, but instead of being club flyers their podcasts advertisements, they're like podcast flyers to let people know I got a podcast, and here are the people that are on it. Because it's the same people that's at on stage at this conference. So I'm walking around with like you've seen like a selfie stick like this is. I didn't even

have a selfie stick. I'm just walking around with a camera looking at myself, you know, selfie talking to the camera all day long at afro Tech twenty seventeen. And so I'm like, I need to get this content out quickly because my whole intent was to give people FOMO because I knew I was gonna have a good time. And I'm like, if I'm going to have a good time, I want the world to know that they missed out

on this afro Tech. So I would record all day and if I recall, afro Tech twenty seventeen was like three days long. It was like all day Thursday, all day Friday, all day maybe partial of the day Saturday. So I get there probably Wednesday night, and I've logged my experience going to the airport, being at afro Tech all day Thursday, and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna edit this video in my hotel room tonight. And so Thursday, I edit the video that night and I publish it

to YouTube that night. And so Friday, a few people walk up to me like, yo, I saw your video from yesterday. That was pretty sweet. So I do the same thing Friday. But my intent, Remember, it's just to get people, fomo, That's all my intent is. And so all day Friday, I record, walk around with a camera and edit the video that night in my hotel room

and I publish it to YouTube that night. So Saturday I will around and way more people are like, yo, I saw your video from yesterday, and the one before the day before that, like that's doe, Like how are you doing this that fast? And so unintentionally I was building a name for myself because again I was trying to get people from mo but I was becoming the Will Lucas who does this podcast today and I didn't.

But that was not the intent. I knew. I wanted to contribute something to the conversation and contribute something to the culture. And so in my innocence of doing that, I was doing the work. So today these blessings are apparent. So I'm the brand manager Afrotech today. All right, So let me actually it makes sense to tell you just one minute on that. And so I took my wife with me in twenty eighteen, I'm like, you've got to

see this conference. This is the most remarkable thing. You got to see all these black people in San Francisco. So I took my wife to two eighteen. I did not vlog that year, but at the end of that conference of twenty eighteen, she's like, that was remarkable. I'm like, wasn't it remarkable? That was remarkable. You should not come back unless you're on stage. And I'm like, how am I gonna get on this stage? Did you see the people on that stage? How am I going to get

on that stage? But I'm like, challenge accepted. I don't know how I'm gonna do it, because if people on that stage are doing it, I don't know how I'm gonna get on that stage. But if you say I should be on that stage, I want to figure out how to be on that stage. And so I found a photo of somebody else, I think it was an war bay I would find. I found a photo of an war on the Afro Tech stage and I put

it on my vision board. And so every day from December to March April, because there's a reason that it stopped. In March April, I was wake up and I would see this picture that one day I'm going to get on this afro Tech stage and this next time they open up a call for speakers, I'm going to apply. And so they open up a call for speakers in

like February March. And so around that time I told you guys this story before I get an email and it says, hey, my name is and I'll work for and we're going in a new direction for afro Tech. And Morgan Debon, who's the CEO of Blavity, says we should talk to you about running it. And I'm like, I cannot believe what I'm reading right now. This is an email. I'm sitting at a red light in Toledo, and I'm like, I'm being asked to have a conversation about running afro Tech as the brand man mis year.

And so I'm like, I went from just trying to figure out a way to get five minutes on stage to being a part of the conversation about running afro Tech. Now to culminate these two stories, the reason I told these two stories is because you, my friend, are waiting for somebody to tell you when it's time to go, when it's time to do the thing, and that's a mistake. We're waiting for you to get tired enough of being tired in the role that you're in, or in the role or not in the role that you want to

be in. We're waiting for you to get tired of that, tired enough that you do something about it. Because there is nobody coming to save you. There is nobody coming to tap you on the shoulder and say it's go time. So because there's nobody coming to do that, I'm gonna say it it's go time. So whether or not you decide to go it is completely up to you. But I'm telling you the only way to go is to take the limits off yourself dream again and do something.

When I was doing creatio stapling speaker car speaker wire to a commercial kitchen's roof ceiling that was not legal. Number one, I'm not telling me you do something that's illegal. But what I'm saying is in my innocence, I'm like, let's go, LFG like we just going because I'm going to figure this thing out. All I know to do is what I know to do, and I'm gonna do what I know to do until I know to do better. But what I know to do I'm want to do it.

That's the only difference between people who make it and people who don't go. Regardless. When I was going to Afrotech twenty seventeen, and the thing about like doing this, like going without permission. Sometimes people go and it's innocent, like they don't even know that there being ambitious. They just go. But it's still ambitious. So when I went to twenty seventeen, my whole point was to contribute to the conversation. I wasn't going to be the brand manager

of Afrotech. I didn't even know what the experience was going to be. Like, I had never been to Afrotech. I wasn't going to, you know, develop a name for myself. That happened because I was doing the work period and it was honest and it was authentic. But I went and I didn't ask permission for somebody to let me record. I didn't even know if you could bring a camera, you know, and start set up shop. You know. I'm just out here recording y'all footage. I'm recording, taking clips.

I'm gonna publish it to my YouTube. I don't even know if that's allowed, But not an ass I'm just doing it. I'm showing up, I'm recording, I'm publishing YouTube. Come see me. It's still on These videos are still on YouTube. If you Google, or if you go to YouTube and you start Will Lucas afrotech, you will see

these videos. And they were done with innocence. Stapling speaker wire to the ceiling of a McDonald's kitchen was done from innocence, but also ambition and also like, look, nobody's gonna give me a playbook on how to be successful. I've got to figure it out for myself and write the playbook for my story. Nobody was gonna give me a playbook and say, here's what you do. You go

to afro Tech. You find a big conference to go to afrotext, the one you take a video camera and you go record every day and also make You're not just recording every day. You also go into your hotel room every night and you're gonna edit the video that night, publish it that night, and then walk around the next day. And meanwhile you're also taking flyers and everybody you interviewed on your podcast, and you're gonna go Kinko's fedexx office

and print them and then you're gonna print them. You're gonna print five hundred copies, and then you're gonna go to AFRO Tech, you go on video camera, you gonna edit that night, you're gonna publish the YouTube that I also walk around with five hundred flyers talking about your podcast. And then also that as also also there was no playbook. I was just doing stuff in furtherance and hopeful furtherance of the mission, which was to contribute to the conversation

with creatiol. The mission was to figure out how to make a business be said, to know how. There was no playbook for my story. You can get clues and tidbits and advice and etcetera from other people and books and podcasts and etcetera. And I think you should. But you also just have to learn by movement, get active, get about it like you gotta just go, and you got to figure it out along the way. Well, too many of us wait for is the permission number one?

And to have certainty that the destination we plug into navigation is the place we're going to arrive at. I'm telling you the destination is the goal, but the place where you will actually land up will be better than you could have imagined because you don't even know what opportunities are available to you. We have a limited view of what our opportunities are. But when you get about it, and when you get active, a world opens up to you things that you had not even imagined you wanted

to do. As you learn and as you grow, as you see more things, as you get more experiences, as you meet more people, your desires will change. They will get bigger. The scope of things that become at your grasp get enhanced. But none of this happens if you sitting there in your car on your way to a job that you hate, with people you don't even want

to be that don't actually pour into your life. If you're sitting there waiting for something to happen, something will happen because you know, I firmly believe some people jump and some people are pushed. Firmly believe that something will happen. What I'm saying is what you want to happen, you can actually get about it. There is no playbook, there is no prescribed way you're going to find your success. The only objective is to get active in doing the

work that you know to do. Don't stay focused on the big goal, the big dream. Yeah, write it down, have a picture of it, keep it, you know in your mind when you wake up in the morning and have a visual of it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But the only thing you need to focus on is what to do next, Not what to do ten steps from now, not what to do one hundred steps from now, Not what you're gonna do when you got this big company, when you live in this big influencer's dream, when you're the CEO of this big foundation, et cetera, et cetera. The only thing that matters is the very next step. That next step could be as simple as sending an email to somebody who could be key key contact for

your thing. That next step could be going to your state's website to find out if they have dollars or training programs to support retraining for people who have worked in certain jobs and now need to figure out how to do coding and software development and AI and etc.

Many states have programs for this, many universities. Maybe your next step is going to your local university community college's website to figure out if they have training program certificate programs to help you figure out how to do AI, or do software development, or build a website, or do video production intro to video production. Maybe your next step is just going to the website and seeing if you can apply for a class, not figuring out how you're

gonna pay for it. The next step is just figuring out what's available to you, and then once you know what's available to you, then the next step changes. It's actually writing an application and submitting it to the school. Maybe it's applying for financial aid. Whatever it may be, the next step is the only thing you should be thinking about, is the point? What is the next step? Too many of us are waiting for somebody to tell

us the steps. When I'm saying, just get active, Just get around the conversation, Just get around people who are doing things, and the next step will become a parent. Start listening to the right things, get around the right people, Consume things that help you stay far focused on your dream. It's possible. I don't care what you're dreaming about, the thing that you've been delaying, the thing that you've been discouraged about. Get active, stop waiting for permission. The answers

are found when you get in motion. If you got something out of this episode, Share with somebody I appreciate it,