0:10

we are back in the booth and I'm sean

0:12

booth and thank you guys for tuning in . We

0:14

got a fun episode today . I got a very special guest

0:16

to my left , which I'll intro here in a minute

0:18

. So whether you're listening from st

0:21

louis , missouri , we got a couple guys in

0:23

here from St Louis Area code was

0:25

a 314 . 314. , 314

0:27

. Or you're listening from Syracuse

0:29

, new York , or Austin , texas

0:32

. Thank you guys for tuning in . We

0:34

appreciate the love , we appreciate the

0:36

support and I'm excited for this

0:38

next hour , as I have a guest to

0:40

my left and I just want to kind of set the

0:42

scene up here to how we got here

0:44

in these seats . As you know

0:46

, I own a gym right downtown . It's actually

0:48

right down the road here from the studio

0:51

and a few

0:53

Fridays ago a gentleman walked up

0:55

to me and asked to

0:57

talk and we sat down and we had a good

0:59

conversation for about an hour and

1:02

I don't know if you remember your first question

1:04

you were asking me how I felt

1:06

about the homeless

1:09

outside of the gym that we're using

1:11

an outlet . So there's an outlet right

1:14

outside the gym that has

1:16

had a lot of people

1:19

from Nashville , homeless

1:21

in particular , coming and hanging out and

1:23

we kind of were going back and forth a little

1:26

bit about it and you were telling me your side

1:28

of things , I was telling you my side

1:30

of things as a business owner . And then we

1:32

just sat down and had a great

1:34

conversation and I

1:36

ultimately asked you what

1:38

you want to do . And you said you wanted

1:40

to do a podcast one day . And I said , well

1:42

, I actually have a podcast , so do you want ? Said well , I actually have a podcast

1:45

, so do you want to come on my show

1:47

and have a conversation Because you're providing

1:49

a lot of insight to me ? You

1:51

said let's do it . We got you here in

1:53

the building . Everybody give it up for JW

1:56

.

1:59

Thank you , thank you , thank you

2:01

. I really want to thank

2:04

you for real , just

2:06

having a heart to

2:08

see what

2:10

you saw when you saw that plug

2:13

and those people congregating which

2:15

could be a nuisance

2:17

to what you got going on

2:19

or what you potentially could have going

2:21

on . Instead , you still

2:24

saw , you

2:26

had a heart to see the need of what was going

2:28

on there .

2:29

Yeah .

2:29

Your thing was your investment there , but

2:31

who knows what they think was Right

2:34

. You know what I'm saying and we

2:36

all live by a phone today , and if you don't

2:39

have it

2:41

charged , you might as well toss

2:43

it in the closest creek you run across

2:45

.

2:46

Right .

2:46

Because it's going to do nothing for you if

2:48

it don't have a charge . You can't even do AI

2:51

if it don't have a charge . Yeah , you know what

2:53

I'm saying . So I'm

2:56

glad that you saw the

2:58

need and it was striking

3:01

to me that maybe

3:03

a person who have

3:05

not had the experiences of living on the street right

3:08

, uh , most people who don't have

3:10

the experience of living on the streets , they really

3:12

don't have the flavor for

3:14

the best decision when

3:17

it comes to dealing with people that are

3:19

living on the streets right and

3:21

that's um , it's kind

3:23

of a tricky situation because , you

3:26

know , to be completely honest

3:28

, I have been like I need to get

3:30

this damn outlet out of here because

3:32

of the negative things that

3:34

it brings .

3:35

Like , um , you know , we

3:37

have a very heavy female

3:39

populated gym and

3:42

so for our members to go outside

3:44

, they're working out right there , running through , uh

3:47

, you know , sometimes 5 , 10 , 15

3:49

people who are hooting and hollering at them

3:51

or saying negative things to

3:54

them , um , obviously makes them feel uncomfortable

3:56

, or that you have , uh , a bunch of

3:58

trash out there . So it's like I was

4:00

like , ah , this is not a good thing

4:02

. But also I

4:04

understand , because this

4:06

is their life , this is my

4:08

life , and it's divided by

4:10

one brick wall . And

4:12

then you came across to talk to me and

4:15

I got to see your side of that

4:17

brick wall .

4:17

Yeah , we get a chance to take down that wall .

4:19

Yeah , exactly .

4:21

Just look across and see

4:23

what's actually there . Yeah , Exactly , just look across and

4:25

see what's actually there , and you

4:29

know I want to be honest with you . I've

4:31

seen your place

4:33

is like right across from the

4:36

Greyhound bus station . I've seen just

4:38

as many guys from Greyhound hooping

4:40

and hollering .

4:41

Oh , exactly Right , right yeah , because I

4:43

put them all together .

4:45

I'm not saying that in defense but , putting

4:47

them all together is not

4:49

a fair shake , right , you

4:51

know what I'm saying .

4:52

Yeah , I agree .

4:53

And you know , some of the access trash

4:55

there , I would probably say 100%

4:57

belongs to those who are kind of jacking

4:59

around needing to use the plug . Right . I don't need to use the plug

5:02

, Right . My first thoughts when I

5:04

had approached you . To be honest , I

5:07

wanted to see if you

5:10

were interested in seeing how it

5:12

could work . Right , you

5:14

know what I'm saying .

5:15

Yeah .

5:16

And so I had to ask some particular

5:19

questions to get around

5:21

to see if you were interested in how it

5:23

could work . Right , because if

5:25

you were like 100%

5:27

done with it , you don't care if it could work

5:29

.

5:29

It's done , yeah , you know what I'm saying .

5:31

So I kind of wanted to see where you were with it

5:33

, yeah , and I was glad to

5:35

find that , you know , you had an ear for it

5:37

and a heart for it and say , hey , you know , this ain't

5:39

all about me , right ? This ain't all about me , right

5:41

, you know ? Yeah , and my job

5:44

became to let

5:46

the population , those

5:48

who are using this plug , know that it was not

5:50

all about them . You

5:53

know what I'm saying , and

5:55

I think when you have two

5:57

parties that understand it's not

5:59

all about them , you have a better place .

6:02

Right , yeah , yeah , all

6:06

about them . You have a better place , right , yeah , yeah , and I think it's uh , like you said

6:08

, unfair for me to put everybody , group everybody together , because you know

6:10

there are a lot of people from

6:13

the greyhound who just come in for a few nights

6:15

or whatever it is , and then you have

6:17

the people who live here right

6:20

right in downtown or , uh , near

6:22

the greyounds , and

6:24

so it's definitely two different parties

6:26

. Being there for six years

6:29

, I have seen everything

6:32

imaginable from the Greyhounds

6:34

or whoever's outside . We

6:36

have seen people

6:39

get shot . We have seen

6:41

just the

6:43

other day a guy was for

6:46

lack of better words masturbating right

6:48

on next to that outlet . Um

6:50

, we've had a lady come

6:52

into the turf when I'm coaching class with

6:54

a knife , just walk straight down . We've

6:56

had people steal my

6:59

general manager's uh , belonging

7:01

. So it's like every day we feel like they're

7:03

like I saw a guy chase

7:05

another guy with an axe and there's cops there

7:08

and ambulance . So it's like you never know

7:10

what you're gonna expect . So when

7:12

you approach me , I was like , okay

7:14

, I didn't know what to expect , but I'm glad you

7:16

did . And here we are . So , um

7:18

, wanted to kind

7:20

of get your background for the listeners

7:23

and your story and

7:25

how you ended up

7:27

here in Nashville .

7:31

I've come to Nashville from St

7:33

Louis , missouri . I've

7:36

come to Nashville for reasons

7:38

I'm learning daily

7:40

. If I knew the whole answer

7:42

of why I've come to Nashville , I would probably give

7:45

it to you , but I don't even know of why I've come to Nashville . I would probably give it to you , but I don't

7:47

even know it . I can say well

7:49

, there's been some things I've

7:51

learned . There's been some things I've been

7:53

able to do . There's been

7:55

some people I've been able to help . And

7:57

those things help reveal

8:00

my purpose of coming to Nashville . And I know

8:02

that there's a greater purpose than that for

8:04

me being in Nashville . I just had not walked

8:07

into that purpose yet . I

8:11

have a background in education , believe

8:14

it or not . I

8:17

spent a lot of years working in

8:19

youth development , in the community of youth development

8:21

. I

8:24

worked a lot in community development

8:26

. I worked a lot with

8:28

not-for-profit organizations . I

8:32

feel a need

8:34

just to always be

8:37

in a place mentally

8:39

and physically , to know

8:41

that you don't live in a space by yourself and you're

8:43

always looking to help another . St

8:48

Louis been there

8:50

a lot of years . Things

8:53

have changed . It's becoming a better

8:55

place and a worse place for others . It

8:58

just became an old place for me . So

9:01

I come to Nashville . I knew nothing about

9:03

Nashville , I didn't even know two streets

9:05

that crossed , and

9:08

that kind of sums up the story

9:10

of my life . I go places where I know

9:12

nothing .

9:13

Right or anybody .

9:15

Or anybody . And it's so funny because

9:17

I get a chance to talk to persons and they be

9:19

like well , I'm going to go over here

9:21

because my uncle I say , well , you

9:24

ever try going someplace , you never knew anybody

9:26

. It gives you a chance

9:28

and an opportunity that

9:31

going home and going around

9:33

familiar faces and going places

9:37

because you're familiar with people , those

9:40

scenarios can't supply that Going

9:43

there and knowing nobody , you're

9:45

talking about everything you come up with

9:47

.

9:47

You came up with so is

9:49

that more of like a fresh start

9:52

or more of a trying

9:55

to run ? I guess those two

9:57

kind of go hand in hand . If you want to leave

9:59

a place that you're familiar with .

10:01

I embrace the whole idea of

10:03

life being a journey . Your

10:07

journey takes you where your journey takes you . Your journey

10:09

may take you out of conflict and another

10:12

person can say you ran , but

10:14

your journey didn't cause

10:16

for you to run into that battle . We

10:18

have to know that we are journey oriented

10:21

and stop , you

10:24

know , being controlled by so many different

10:26

sources out there that I won't name .

10:30

Right , you can name them , go

10:32

ahead .

10:34

You can name them , but

10:36

I do want to start here

10:38

, for

10:40

you and for your listening

10:43

audience . We want

10:45

to do away with the term homeless . Right

10:47

, it's so outdated . The

10:50

term homeless is

10:53

a character , now it's a creature . If

10:55

you were to go home , if you were to say

10:57

hey , honey , I'm bringing this homeless

11:00

man home for Thanksgiving dinner .

11:01

And they say , no , you're not yeah .

11:04

If you're having Thanksgiving dinner with him , it won't be

11:06

in here . You know what I'm saying , and it's

11:09

not that people are being mean

11:11

. Society has created

11:14

homeless as a character

11:16

, and it's not a character , it's a condition , and

11:20

so I try to encourage people to

11:22

not use homeless and

11:24

simply use the term unhoused , because

11:27

it speaks to the condition and not the person

11:29

.

11:29

Nashville is your home . These streets

11:32

over here could be your home right , it's just

11:34

you don't live in a house .

11:36

Right . So , that's

11:39

unhoused is the politically

11:43

correct term .

11:44

Okay .

11:45

I don't know , that politics is involved in this

11:47

, but Right , politics is involved

11:49

in everything .

11:50

It's always involved in everything . Yeah , always involved . Okay

11:53

, yeah , and now was that something

11:55

that you decided on

11:57

your own that you didn't want to live in a house , because

12:00

I've always wondered how someone

12:02

could get to that point .

12:05

Because I've always

12:08

wondered how someone could get to that point

12:10

. Well , you know a lot of . They say all roads lead to

12:12

Rome , but I know there's a lot of roads

12:15

that lead away from Rome as well . But in

12:17

reference to people

12:19

who find themselves homeless , I

12:24

don't feel like I chose it , I

12:29

feel like it chose me . You know what I'm

12:32

saying . And

12:40

sometimes homelessness can be the result of some decisions

12:42

a person made and

12:45

so , inadvertently , they may have chose homelessness without knowing

12:47

that homelessness was on the menu of listed choices . And

12:49

then you have some persons who

12:52

have gone through bad relationships

12:54

with family and loved

12:56

ones and it seemed

12:58

best that if they were to just leave

13:01

the environment or leave

13:03

the house , somehow

13:05

that solves things . And

13:07

so there's a lot of reasons . I've heard a lot of reasons

13:10

why people become homeless , and it

13:12

ain't all because some guy just couldn't

13:14

get it right , just became so

13:16

outright that nobody wanted to deal

13:18

with him . Another

13:20

reason for

13:23

homelessness in a

13:25

lot of the cities is when

13:28

, a few years back , when Mr Ronald

13:30

Reagan was president , his

13:34

administration thought it was best to

13:37

cut down on the budget

13:40

and they closed all the mental

13:42

health hospitals that were holding

13:45

persons on

13:47

a long-term basis in terms of cases

13:49

and working with them

13:52

, and had committed to work with them pretty

13:54

much the rest of their life . He done

13:56

away with all those places and just gave everybody

13:58

a check , and

14:00

that's where we are today .

14:04

And you say that there's decisions

14:06

obviously everybody makes . Is

14:08

there something ? You look back at your life , something

14:11

that happened , if you were to pinpoint

14:13

one thing and you say homelessness

14:16

kind of chose you . But

14:18

if you're looking at your past

14:20

, is there something that

14:22

you may have done that

14:25

was like oh , that was the breaking point and that's

14:27

what led you to

14:29

that direction ?

14:30

now , uh , I want to

14:32

be 100 honest and say

14:35

that , uh , sometimes

14:37

, well , all times we

14:39

can have , we can make decisions

14:41

that will

14:43

make that

14:47

the result . One decision

14:49

I made was , you know what ? I'm not

14:51

interested in working

14:56

just to be able to live behind

14:58

this door and not having enough

15:00

to do nothing else on the other side of the door

15:03

, outside going to work . That

15:06

didn't register as the best

15:08

life I can live . It

15:11

just didn't .

15:13

You know , I feel like a lot of people can

15:15

agree with that .

15:16

Well , you know , it's

15:19

some things you have to think about

15:21

, you know , and say , hey , which

15:23

one is me , a , b

15:26

, c or D ? I'm not the person

15:28

that just wanted work

15:30

, just to have a place to go . I

15:34

don't know if that's called living . You know

15:36

, I've done more living on

15:38

the streets than I've done living in

15:40

an apartment . If

15:43

that makes sense to you , yeah , let's dive into that a little bit

15:45

.

15:45

So living on an apartment , If that makes sense to anybody . Yeah , let's dive into that a little

15:47

bit . So living on the streets do

15:50

you remember the first night where you were on the streets ?

15:55

Oh , I

15:57

can't 100% say

16:00

I remember the first night , but

16:02

I can 100% say

16:04

that every night , sleep

16:07

on the streets is dangerous and

16:11

I

16:13

share that with persons

16:15

that I've never seen on

16:17

the streets before , that may seem like they just

16:19

arrived , and I'll

16:22

let them know that sleeping on the streets

16:24

is dangerous arrived

16:26

and I'll let them know that sleeping on the

16:28

streets is dangerous and

16:32

that , to scare them more , so to make them aware , don't let

16:34

your guards down . You know people sleep on the streets

16:37

, wake up without their ID , without

16:42

their phone . You know what I'm saying . And whatever that was in their pocket that fell out , or whatever , just kind of take legs and walks off . You know what I'm saying

16:44

.

16:44

and and whatever that was in their pocket that fell out , or whatever

16:46

, just kind of take legs and walks off

16:48

, you know yeah , because I think we

16:50

talked about this too , how it's

16:52

never really a comfortable

16:55

or easy night's

16:57

rest because it's always

17:00

dangerous and you've always got to , kind of I guess

17:03

.

17:03

Yeah , yeah , it's

17:05

, uh , that's exactly it

17:07

. It is the wiser

17:10

choice out of all the

17:12

other options is to be

17:14

that way . Now sometime , um

17:18

, life can catch

17:20

up with you to where you just so dead

17:22

tired , to where you just kind of pan

17:25

out like you know you didn't work

17:27

five doubles

17:29

, you know in

17:32

a row , and

17:34

that you just can't help , you

17:36

know . And then sometimes you have to go to a safer

17:38

place than the streets . You know

17:40

what I'm saying . Maybe spend whatever monies

17:42

you have to get a hotel room that night

17:44

Right , just to not put yourself

17:47

out there in a vulnerable situation

17:50

in a vulnerable way .

17:57

And so when you're on the street , are you changing where you sleep on a nightly

17:59

basis , or you have a spot that's ?

18:00

yours . Well , you know , one of the things

18:02

I really don't subscribe to is persons

18:07

that are taking

18:12

ownership over things that don't

18:14

belong to them . I

18:21

really don't subscribe to that and I really don't encourage people to do that . And it's like hey

18:23

, man , that corner belongs to whoever comes and walk down

18:25

it and whoever decides to stand on it or whoever

18:27

decides to sit on it or whoever decides

18:29

to lay on it . Right , you know

18:32

? But of

18:34

course , if this was a spot you stayed

18:36

in and laid in often enough , you wouldn't

18:38

say , hey , this is a spot I stay in

18:40

and lay in often , and you know

18:42

not the hey , I own this spot , and none of

18:44

that kind of craziness . Okay , you

18:47

know I

18:50

want to and maybe you would

18:52

have got around to bringing it up , but

18:55

since you didn't , I will . What

18:57

do you think about when you

18:59

see unhoused

19:02

persons or

19:04

people just holding signs

19:07

saying what they need in life ?

19:10

yeah , what do you ?

19:11

think about that it's .

19:13

That's a good question , um , I

19:17

think obviously

19:19

the initial thought is damn

19:21

, that sucks , like you feel bad

19:25

. The

19:27

next thought is , oh , I want to

19:29

help them , like , do I have anything

19:31

here to help them ? And

19:33

then the next thought immediately after that , um

19:36

, which might be the wrong thought

19:39

, is they're probably just going to use

19:41

my money for

19:43

drugs or something or something not good and

19:46

they're gonna be up in the same spot , right

19:50

. And then you see people you're like you don't know

19:52

what to believe , um

19:55

, so , yeah , I go through

19:57

all these thoughts when I'm sitting right next

19:59

to somebody who doesn't

20:02

have a home and

20:04

, um , somebody who doesn't

20:06

have a home and

20:09

, um , I don't know what I can do to help them . And I

20:11

I , you know most

20:13

of the time I feel like a lot of people . I just sit there

20:15

and then drive on by , you

20:18

know , and I don't know if that's necessarily the right thing . I want

20:20

to help , but I have

20:22

a hard time , I

20:25

guess , justifying if it is

20:27

for the right reasons , if they're doing that

20:29

. Let's ask easton

20:31

same question if

20:34

you see somebody on the streets

20:36

holding a sign and you're sitting there at a stoplight

20:38

, what do you do ?

20:39

what do you think and what do you do ?

20:41

I mean , I would say I echo the same things

20:43

that you said , but you also see a lot

20:45

of people who like , especially on

20:47

social media . You'll see someone who like is

20:50

standing on the street with a sign and then gets a

20:52

bunch of money and they follow her till the end of the day

20:54

and then she goes and gets in a pretty

20:57

nice car and drives back to her

20:59

house and so it's like there's there's

21:01

the fact that you don't know what they're going to use it for good or bad

21:03

or you don't know

21:05

if they're going to get it back

21:08

in their car and they just like basically took a bunch of money . What

21:10

I usually do is I always just try , whenever I'm in that

21:12

situation I have something , I

21:14

usually try to give something other than money

21:16

. So

21:21

, like in the summer , I usually have like extra , like bottles of water in my car . So , like

21:23

in the summer , I'll be like here I don't have cash or anything , but here's like a bottle of

21:25

water .

21:25

if I have like granola bars or like a bag of chips or something , I'll

21:28

usually give that yeah , because I know I mean yeah

21:30

you can't go buy drugs with a bottle of water , or

21:32

you can't yeah , I've done that in the past too and

21:34

then I get a bunch of people coming to the gym and

21:37

then they'll walk into my

21:39

class and it's just like , do

21:41

you have any money ? And then I'm

21:44

like I'm sorry , I don't , because

21:47

I you know because . But then there's people

21:49

who come and they ask for water and

21:52

I give them water .

21:53

Right .

21:53

And I'll do that . But then you

21:56

run into well , then they

21:58

or other people then start coming

22:00

and asking for more . It's like I'm also paying for

22:02

this water and I have to like I try and

22:04

help out when I can . I guess I don't

22:06

know what

22:08

the right thing to do is .

22:11

Okay , I

22:15

thank you for your honesty on that . I've

22:19

asked that question before to

22:21

some people and a lot of times they'll start

22:23

saying goofy stuff that

22:26

they thought they've done in the past , but not

22:28

even sure if they've actually done it . Yeah , you

22:30

know what I'm saying . Right Just to , you know

22:32

, not feel so awkward . One

22:36

of the things that I will , one of the topics

22:39

I will discuss on the

22:42

podcast that's soon to come , real Talk

22:44

with JW is how

22:49

to help . First

22:51

off , help starts with a question . It

22:54

don't start with a gift . It starts with a question

22:56

. And

22:59

when you walk up and give a person a gift without

23:01

asking the question , and when you walk

23:03

up and give a person a gift without asking the question

23:05

, without asking the

23:07

question , then who's wrong , you

23:10

or them ? And

23:12

now , if we start reacting

23:14

that way in this population

23:18

of unhoused persons , a person

23:21

that are economically struggling

23:23

, if they start to just

23:25

say , hey , we're living in

23:27

a gift-giving society , we

23:33

expect them to start thinking and reacting and living

23:36

. Right , because you're not interested in their condition

23:38

. Why ? Because you didn't even ask here

23:43

. You know what I'm saying . And

23:45

there's times where a person may have some things on the side that

23:49

you may say oh man , this is interesting . Oh

23:52

, you're trying to get back to Montana . Hey , man , where you

23:54

live at in Montana , they probably can't even name a

23:56

city in Montana . Right , you

23:58

know , if they can name a city , they couldn't name two streets

24:01

that crossed in Montana . I mean

24:03

so to help

24:05

. If you're

24:07

interested enough to help , you should be

24:09

. Help starts with time . You

24:12

got to invest your time before you invest your money in helping

24:14

somebody , and if you invest just

24:16

your money in helping somebody , it's

24:18

not going to work . It may

24:21

not work as often as it works

24:23

, and 50-50 is

24:25

nowhere . You know what I'm saying , and so

24:27

those would be my answers to

24:29

if a person was to ask me how

24:31

can you help a person who's

24:34

out there kind of struggling ? However their struggle

24:36

goes , sit down and talk to

24:38

them . Find out how you can help . It

24:40

may be something simple , it may

24:43

be something you even been through , it

24:45

may be something a relative I've been through

24:47

, something you're familiar with , but if you

24:50

never sit down and talk to him , it

24:53

kind of stays . Everybody

24:55

kind of stay on their side of the street , right

24:57

? What do you think ?

24:59

yeah , no , I agree with you . Um

25:02

, and I just think of people writing

25:05

on signs where they just and

25:07

I feel like the sign game has changed because of social

25:09

media now everybody's like has to be

25:12

super witty or try

25:14

and get attention for their sign because

25:16

you know , you see funny signs down the

25:18

road and the signs like not

25:20

gonna lie , I just want to go get a fucking beer

25:23

, you know help me out

25:25

saving for a hooker .

25:26

Yes same stuff like that right

25:29

well , the thing of it is is , you

25:32

know , uh , I

25:34

had a thought or two pertaining

25:36

to that . I was like

25:39

, and so I would ask persons who

25:41

would potentially give to

25:43

some of these people and a lot of

25:46

times these

25:49

are tourists coming into the city and

25:52

sometimes there's some regulars that may live

25:54

outside of it don't come into the city a

25:56

lot , at any rate I

25:58

would say , hey , how

26:00

ridiculous of a sign do he need to hold

26:02

up to say , hey , I'm struggling , can

26:05

use a few bucks . What

26:07

must you say ? I will kidnap your grandmama

26:10

and turn her into a

26:12

ninja or some ridiculous stuff . You know

26:14

what I'm saying . How graphic do we have to be

26:16

to talk about getting a penis

26:18

reduction and saving for this and

26:21

saving for that ? Yeah , you know what I'm saying

26:23

. I'm thinking

26:25

when you

26:27

take dignity

26:29

. When a man loses dignity

26:31

, he has nothing . It can't be

26:33

replaced . You know what

26:36

I'm saying ? If he can , it's going to be very hard

26:38

to replace it , and to

26:40

hold up a sign saying something I don't

26:42

agree with or something I don't feel

26:44

from the inside out is losing

26:47

a shred of dignity every time I do that .

26:50

So you do hold up signs .

26:51

I do not hold up a sign .

26:52

Okay .

26:54

You know what I'm saying . The sign is what you see . If

26:56

you see something you want to help , you will . If you see something

26:58

you don't want to help you ain't Right

27:01

. Personally , I

27:05

have put some thought into this . There

27:08

are some persons who are living on the streets

27:10

that know the streets very

27:12

well . You are in a city

27:14

where there's tons of tourists who

27:17

couldn't tell you nothing but the street where the hotel

27:19

is at and can't tell you the streets that it take to get

27:21

back to it Exactly Now

27:27

, if you can't figure out how to make the two ends meet , it's

27:29

like supply and demand . You have something

27:32

this person need , and that's directions , and

27:35

the person that

27:37

need directions say you have something they need , and

27:42

that's a knowledge of how to get there . You know what

27:44

I'm saying . I try to encourage , uh persons that , as

27:46

opposed to holding up goofy signs and stuff

27:48

, just see how you can be of assistance to somebody

27:50

, yeah , provide some value for them yeah

27:52

, and that way you won't lose dignity . It's

27:55

holding up saying stuff

27:58

that you know you wouldn't say to

28:00

your grandmother .

28:00

Right , yeah , yeah

28:03

, and so then that's got to be a

28:05

struggle then to find ways to

28:07

get money , and every

28:10

day you're waking up .

28:12

And you got to eat .

28:13

And you got to eat .

28:14

You got to survive yeah .

28:15

And that was my next question A day-to-day

28:17

, how does it look

28:19

for you ? What are you doing when you wake up ? Is

28:25

it thinking about how you're gonna get your next meal ? Is

28:27

it thinking about how you're gonna get some money

28:29

?

28:31

well , uh , for me

28:33

it's how

28:36

closer can I get to

28:39

doing the things I need to do

28:41

? How closer can I get today

28:43

to producing

28:45

my podcast ? How closer

28:47

can I get today , you

28:50

know , to meeting

28:52

some goals ? It's more than just

28:54

well . Today I

28:57

hope to be able to eat . You know

28:59

you have persons that are like that , but

29:01

you have persons who are not inspired

29:04

. You have persons who may

29:07

feel hopeless . I

29:10

used to share with people . To be hopeless and

29:13

homeless is two different things . A

29:17

lot of people think everybody that's

29:19

unhoused is hopeless or

29:21

feeling hopeless . There are persons

29:23

who feel uninspired and

29:26

there are persons who feel hopeless . And

29:28

then there are persons that

29:30

feel hopeful and

29:33

they are inspired . I

29:35

happen to be one of those , but

29:37

everybody kind of just groups everybody together

29:39

. I

29:42

don't worry about what I'm going to eat today . You

29:44

, don't you know I may worry about the

29:46

fact I ain't ate at the end of the day , but

29:49

I don't put a lot of nah

29:51

.

29:52

It just kind of comes along throughout the day . No , I believe in .

29:54

God , if he going to feed the birds

29:57

and everything up in the air , I'm pretty sure

29:59

he got a hand on me . So

30:04

then , what does a meal look like for you ? What's the last thing you ate

30:07

? Oh

30:11

, I don't know .

30:14

Maybe a hot dog or something , Not today though Not today .

30:19

Okay , so maybe you'll

30:21

respond to that need after the podcast is over

30:23

. Yeah

30:26

, yeah , for sure Not to put him on the spot Right

30:31

? No , 100% . They want to come back next week and say where

30:33

did you give him ? Yeah , exactly . Well

30:36

, I had a pit of a junkie

30:38

my wife put in the bag . I didn't get

30:41

around to yesterday .

30:43

Yeah , we'll go to the buffet after this

30:45

. Okay

30:48

, so then you can go a couple days without any food

30:50

.

30:50

No , I could never go a couple days without any

30:52

food . I could never go a couple days

30:54

without any sleep . Persons

30:58

who do those things are usually

31:00

on meth or some other drug

31:02

. That somehow

31:05

makes that the answer . I don't know what the question

31:07

is , but somehow that becomes the answer

31:09

is hang out all night for about three

31:11

, four days and don't bother eating . That's

31:15

called some guy ran into a few bucks and

31:17

having a good time . That's

31:20

what I would call that one .

31:21

Okay time .

31:22

Yeah , that's what .

31:21

I would call that one .

31:23

But hey , man , nashville

31:26

is one of those cities where it

31:33

has a reputation of taking care of people

31:35

, and so that's for a lot of people

31:38

who may find themselves unhoused

31:40

come to Nashville . And

31:43

then there are some persons who find themselves

31:45

unhoused and

31:47

say , hey , that's not the worst situation

31:50

to be in in Nashville . I can do this until

31:52

things get better or whatever

31:54

. And so as Nashville

31:57

is growing , you know , economically

31:59

and with all the businesses and

32:01

whatnot , the population of

32:03

what it attracts is growing as

32:05

well .

32:06

Yeah .

32:07

And I'm real curious on how it's

32:09

going to answer that question

32:11

. Yeah , you know , I've

32:13

seen efforts where

32:16

they were helping people

32:18

, where they put them all in a hotel

32:20

and helping them slowly but surely get a

32:22

place or whatever . But

32:25

the list kind of went according to those

32:28

with income . If you're homeless and

32:30

on the street , that should qualify

32:32

you . How can income qualify

32:35

you for a place if you're homeless

32:37

and living on the street ? Exactly Because

32:39

personally homeless and living on the street the only

32:42

income you got is what the government gave you . And

32:44

if the government gave it to you , why you gotta tell them they

32:46

giving it to you ? They sure already know

32:48

they can put your name in there and say , hey , we're giving

32:50

them that , so

32:52

why not give them this place to stay with it ? But

32:56

to go through the whole ordeal , having to prove

32:58

that you ain't got

33:00

no money , I

33:03

never quite understood that . One right , you

33:05

know , uh , but

33:07

anyway , yeah , yeah . Another

33:10

topic .

33:10

Yeah , exactly , yeah , I can talk about that

33:12

all day . Um , well

33:15

, you also mentioned too that there

33:17

are a lot of tourists that are on the

33:19

streets , so you probably see them all the time , and

33:22

obviously on the weekends I mean a lot of nights that are on the streets , so you probably see them

33:24

all the time and obviously on the weekends I mean a lot of nights . Here in nashville

33:26

, we're so close to broadway people

33:28

are drinking up and down the streets and

33:31

I I mentioned this to you when we spoke . I

33:33

said , hey , what did you ever hear anything about that

33:35

riley strain kid ? Because that

33:37

was major news , that was global

33:40

news . And then , all of a sudden , there were , um

33:43

, a lot of people saying , well , the

33:45

quote-unquote homeless people know

33:47

, or something happened where

33:49

we think that he got

33:52

attacked , beaten up

33:54

under the bridge , saw a homeless man

33:56

wearing his clothes , whatever , and

33:58

that was a huge story . So when you

34:00

were out on the streets , when that was going

34:02

on , did you ever hear anything about

34:05

Riley Strain ? You

34:07

heard about the situation .

34:09

I'm familiar with the situation only

34:11

with what the media has shared

34:13

.

34:16

And for those that don't know , riley Strain was the kid

34:18

who went drinking with

34:20

his fraternity brothers on Broadway

34:22

and then he ended up missing and they found him in the river

34:24

a couple weeks later .

34:26

But yeah , yeah , go on . Uh

34:28

, I started

34:30

to hear stories about , oh we think

34:32

, some homeless person . What's so crazy

34:35

is , uh , where he was found in

34:37

the river was , uh , right , was

34:39

right near an area where

34:41

there is a ministry People

34:47

up in Nashville they come and they set

34:49

up , they spread and share up and

34:52

set up with clothes and food and

34:54

stuff for the unhoused population and

34:57

it was kind of right where they had found the body

34:59

at . And so , you

35:02

know , people were starting to get

35:05

weird thoughts and say it

35:08

had to have been part of this deal over here

35:10

or somebody out of this deal over here

35:12

or somebody should know something . You

35:15

know , being on the streets , homeless

35:17

people do they see a lot of things . They

35:20

do , they see a lot of things . They do they

35:22

see a lot of things and you know , sometimes

35:25

if you say everything that you

35:27

see , it will involve you

35:29

. Go

35:32

tell the police everything you know and you become instantly

35:34

involved . Now , what

35:36

person living on the streets wants to be involved

35:39

with the police ? They're

35:41

kind of oppressing the population

35:44

on the streets because they're

35:46

politicians , nobody wants them around

35:48

and so they're nowhere

35:51

near embracing them . What

35:53

do you think ?

35:56

Yeah , I

35:59

agree with that statement . But

36:03

so you're saying that you could literally

36:05

talk to anybody or tell anybody your life

36:07

story , no matter who you are and you're somehow

36:10

involved if you tell them everything you see ?

36:13

Well , you see a situation on the streets

36:16

and stuff . Yeah , because

36:18

you become a witness , right

36:20

, you know what I'm saying . And now

36:22

you're a witness and we need you to be part of this , and

36:25

this person is struggling , living on the streets . And

36:27

they don't want Nobody is saying hey we want

36:29

you to be a witness and we're going to take

36:32

care of you for a couple weeks .

36:33

It's like well , what are you going to do for me ? Why

36:36

am I going to help you if you're not helping me ?

36:38

And it's not like this person is

36:40

being difficult and

36:43

operating with no morals . I

36:46

mean , the

36:48

first law of preservation started with self . He got

36:50

to worry about himself first . Right Before

36:57

I started worrying about what happened over there , I got to worry about what could happen to

36:59

me . You know what I'm saying . I see people sleeping on

37:01

the sidewalks all the time and man

37:04

, I've done it

37:06

a time or two , I don't make a practice out of

37:08

it , and here's why I've

37:13

seen cars jump curbs all the time . You know , for whatever

37:16

reasons , lose control . Maybe the

37:18

guy's drunk , whatever , whatever , maybe

37:20

he misjudged the turn . I've

37:24

seen cars , especially over in the area where we're talking about , over near

37:26

the gym . I've

37:28

seen so many accidents at that street

37:31

corner it's so funny , we do too . All

37:33

right , yeah and imagine if you had

37:35

some unhoused person laying their sleep

37:37

and then this car comes jumping

37:39

over the curve . Yeah , you

37:41

, you know there's a Vidox that's kind

37:43

of with , you know , with a little shrubbery

37:45

and stuff . That's in the middle of the street right

37:48

across from your gym . I've

37:50

seen cars drive clean up

37:52

and over it and

37:54

keep going like that

37:56

Vidox , that big cement . Vidox was part

37:58

of the traffic signal or something Right , because they just jumped in and kept going

38:00

like they was in an part of the traffic signal or something

38:02

Right , because they just jumped in and kept going

38:05

like they was in an episode of the Dukes

38:07

of Hazzard , right , and I'm like man for

38:10

real , right . And so how

38:12

safe do you think a person feels

38:15

Right ? So leave it on the street

38:17

?

38:17

Yeah , all right . So

38:23

then you're saying that the unhoused population isn't really going to speak

38:25

up or say things , if they see something , because they're not getting

38:27

helped .

38:29

Well , it's a if

38:32

. This person first off , let's

38:36

be smart about this this person

38:38

is living on the streets , right

38:40

? If I say this

38:43

about anybody and

38:46

I'm vulnerable and he knows where I live because

38:48

I'm living on the streets , right , what

38:50

protection do I have Exactly ? Why

38:52

am I going to involve myself and put my

38:55

livelihood and I'm

38:57

not just talking about me , but why would

38:59

a person put their livelihood

39:01

on the line , right , who

39:03

are already struggling ? Now I got to

39:05

put my livelihood on the line .

39:07

Yeah .

39:08

For the sake of somebody that ain't about to look my way , let alone help me . Yeah , For the

39:10

sake for somebody that ain't even bothered to look my way , let alone help me

39:12

. Yeah , Unless they needed something from you like information

39:14

, yeah , right , but

39:16

a lot of times when we , when

39:18

I say things like that , people don't think that

39:21

far into the idea of

39:23

okay , I can see

39:25

that , I can see

39:27

that . Yeah , that

39:33

, I can see that . Yeah , you know what I'm saying . Uh , so it's for

39:35

many reasons that a person may see and not see things yeah , oh did

39:38

you see that guy hit that guy ? no

39:41

, I didn't see that , because I don't want that guy coming at

39:43

me next yeah , right so

39:46

why am I gonna turn around and say I saw

39:48

that and put myself you know

39:50

what I'm saying ? I don't have a bodyguard or anything

39:53

.

39:54

Do you think it's unfair for people to

39:57

assume that the unhoused

39:59

population had something to do with somebody

40:02

like Riley Straner people going missing ? Do you think it's just

40:04

an easy target , or

40:06

do you think ?

40:08

It was an easy target for

40:11

the media . It

40:13

sold papers , it

40:15

sold advertisement and

40:18

all kinds of stuff . It

40:21

didn't do anything healthy

40:26

for the unhoused population . Even

40:28

after it was said and done

40:31

, the foul play

40:33

we thought it could have been , turns out

40:35

it wasn't , and they still never

40:37

said hey , we

40:39

kind of shined a bad light over on

40:41

this crew over here and we want to just kind of

40:44

say that ain't cool and we

40:46

want to make amends and apologize . Nobody

40:48

, none of that . I

40:51

wonder why you have any ideas

40:53

.

40:57

That's crazy how it works yeah

40:59

.

41:01

You know . And so how trusting

41:04

should this unhoused

41:06

population be with

41:10

how society's working for them ? Yeah

41:13

, they see it . They

41:15

see the way the wheels turn . Yeah

41:17

, they see the way the wheels turn against

41:19

them when they

41:21

have no reason to . Exactly , you know what

41:24

I'm saying . And

41:26

it was just easy to point the finger and say had

41:28

to be some homeless guy . Yeah , they

41:31

watching this guy and

41:33

I've learned that I didn't know there was so many

41:35

cameras on so many buildings . They watched this guy

41:37

walk four , five blocks and didn't

41:40

miss a step he made and

41:43

nobody jumped out and said hi to this man . Yeah

41:46

, why would you conclude that

41:49

this had to have been the fate ? Right

41:52

? You know what I'm saying . So

41:55

people living on the streets have to

41:57

deal with those

42:01

type of stereotypes and

42:04

those type of opinions that people

42:06

have . They don't want

42:08

to look a person in the eye and speak , because

42:10

if I look up in the eye and speak , he's going to ask

42:12

me for something .

42:13

Right .

42:15

You know , sometimes

42:18

, hey , I have nothing . So if

42:22

you say you have nothing , I

42:24

understand that , no problem , I have nothing

42:26

and you have nothing . But what if

42:28

a person thinks I have something , but I really don't have nothing ? Just be honest . And and you have nothing

42:30

. What does a person think I have , but I really don't have nothing

42:33

? Just be honest and say you have nothing . Why

42:35

are you making it hard on yourself to

42:38

go through all that anguish and

42:40

unnecessary

42:42

energy you're losing by

42:44

saying , hey , man , today

42:46

I'm just as poor as you might feel . And

42:50

be honest , you know what . I'm saying as poor as you might feel . You know and

42:52

be honest . You know what I'm saying yeah . And I think

42:54

people take . I've seen

42:56

people take offense when

42:58

persons may ask them for something

43:00

and they may

43:02

not have it

43:05

and it may look pretty

43:07

shiny , might have got out of a shiny car

43:09

, whether they was riding

43:11

or driving , but

43:14

the fact of the matter is , you know , to be

43:16

honest , hey , man , you misjudged me today . Man

43:18

, I have nothing If

43:20

you judge me to have something not

43:23

good .

43:24

Right .

43:24

You misjudged me today .

43:26

Yeah , and I feel like there's just a lot of judging , obviously

43:29

on both sides , and , um , what

43:31

would you say ? You

43:33

know one thing or a few things , uh

43:36

, the pros and the benefits of being unhoused

43:39

versus the house population , something

43:41

that you look at and

43:43

you're like , oh , I'm not jealous of that . Well

43:46

, I think living on the streets is is

43:48

a lot better because of this .

43:50

Well , I'm not jealous of the guy that got evicted

43:52

, you know what

43:55

I'm saying . I'm

43:58

not jealous of the guy after

44:00

he paid this bill . He

44:02

has enough for one can

44:05

of beer and a bus pass to go do it all over

44:07

again . I'm not jealous of him

44:09

, you know what I'm saying

44:11

. And I'm not jealous of the

44:13

guy that's written a place from a slum

44:15

landlord that won't fix nothing

44:17

and the place is flooded and right

44:20

. I'm surely not jealous of him . And

44:23

so I'm just saying that there are some

44:25

situations that I don't regret

44:28

not being there .

44:30

And when I asked you to do the podcast

44:33

and then I thought about it , I'm like do

44:35

you even know what day it is ? And

44:37

he said no . And I said

44:40

do you know what month it is ? He

44:42

said I think . I'm like okay

44:44

, I'm jealous of that .

44:46

I don't keep a calendar in my head of

44:49

events . I

44:52

keep track of

44:54

a schedule that I may have

44:56

. I think you and I made a schedule and

44:58

it just 100% slipped my mind

45:00

.

45:03

Yeah . So I said all right , if you want to do this , meet

45:05

me here next week at

45:07

1 o'clock . And then

45:09

you didn't come . But then you came the

45:11

next two Mondays at the same time .

45:14

I was like alright , let's do this . The

45:16

thing of it is , a

45:19

lot of people may

45:22

say , hey , you

45:24

look good for your age , I just turned

45:26

60 . But you know , your memory

45:29

is the first thing to go . That

45:31

starts going . You won't if

45:34

I don't write it down . It don't exist

45:36

. You

45:38

know , we could talk about something and five

45:40

minutes from now I wouldn't have a clue what we talked

45:43

about . And you

45:45

know what ? I really don't even want

45:47

one , because I learned to just roll

45:50

with the times . When

45:52

you start losing your hair , you

45:54

know , start cutting

45:56

it a lot shorter . You

45:59

know , yeah , that's what makes

46:02

more sense than going to get some weave

46:04

and some implants

46:06

and all these other things People will be glad to sell

46:08

you .

46:10

And you came in here you got two bags . I

46:16

said what do you have in the back ? And you said what

46:18

I need to get through today .

46:20

That is absolutely correct . You

46:26

know some loose

46:28

papers that I've put

46:30

a few notes on . You

46:33

know a change of underclothes

46:36

, a pair of socks and

46:40

the other bag I usually have

46:42

. You know , if I you

46:45

know if they're passing out a sack , lunch

46:47

or something , I may grab some things out of it

46:49

and hold it in that bag and

46:52

whatever

46:54

you kind of come across . I had a couple

46:56

of baseball caps given to me so I put

46:59

them in that bag . The thing

47:01

of it is one of the struggles

47:03

for a person living on the street and

47:06

a lot of people have . Even

47:08

the people who are committed to helping

47:10

people who live on the streets

47:12

don't have a clue . The

47:17

main thing a person needs

47:19

that's living on the street , is

47:22

storage

47:24

. Yeah , pushing

47:27

carts , dragging

47:30

suitcases and all this

47:32

other business because they have no place

47:34

to store it . Now

47:36

, if a person have no place to store

47:38

their things , how

47:40

can they make an appointment and

47:42

keep it without having to take all their things

47:45

with them ? Who's

47:52

going to welcome you to fill out an application ? And I'm sitting there with a shopping

47:54

cart full of my stuff out there . Now , these people may not discriminate against

47:56

the fact that I'm unhoused , you

47:59

know , and don't have a permit , and we'll talk about that

48:01

in a second . But if

48:03

I show up with a shopping

48:05

cart full of all my belongings in it , I'm

48:11

pretty sure the application is going in the trash . What do you think ?

48:16

Yeah , I think that's probably

48:19

a good assumption . Yeah , that's

48:21

the reality . If I was a bad man , I was probably bad on that , and you could be

48:23

the best guy for the job .

48:25

And it won't even matter , and it won't matter .

48:27

So is that all of your belongings right here , everything

48:29

you have ?

48:29

That's everything I have In a backpack , in

48:32

a grocery bag . It's not that I need me to

48:34

cut you off , not that I hadn't

48:37

. I've owned probably enough

48:40

stuff to fill up both of those couches

48:42

, both of your couches in this studio . And

48:45

over a period

48:47

of time you lose stuff . You put it in storage

48:50

. Things happen , you get

48:52

behind your storage and they auction off

48:54

all your stuff , so everything there is gone

48:56

, right . And then you know , uh

48:59

, you're down to what

49:01

you can stash behind a bush

49:03

or or a

49:05

person's uh place

49:07

or garage that you may meet . Then all of a sudden

49:09

you stop seeing that person . They

49:12

move and you know the

49:14

first thing a person loses that

49:16

live on the streets . The first

49:18

number two things , number one things

49:20

uh they lose is id

49:23

telephone . Everybody

49:27

started off with one , basically right

49:30

, but not everybody ended up with

49:32

one .

49:32

When you say losing , or is it stolen from

49:34

other people ?

49:36

Well .

49:38

Because you said , a lot of people wake up and they don't have it anymore

49:40

.

49:40

Well , if I find it on the ground

49:42

. I didn't steal it from you .

49:44

Right .

49:45

So that's technically not stealing .

49:46

An ID ? For what

49:48

purpose ?

49:49

An ID for the purpose of

49:51

being able to prove your age

49:53

, prove you are

49:55

who you say you are be

49:58

able to prove that you're a citizen

50:00

for sake of a job , for

50:03

sake of qualifying and showing

50:05

eligibility for whatever you're trying

50:08

to apply for to move

50:10

ahead in life . So you got to . You

50:12

got a hundred percent standstill if you have no

50:14

ID . Yeah , and that's

50:17

, yeah , that's the hopeful . Right , and

50:19

if you have no ID and no phone , you

50:27

know , just lay down and take it out of your car

50:29

.

50:30

No , you made a good comment too .

50:31

You're saying when you don't have a phone , you

50:33

don't have all these problems that most people

50:36

do well , but

50:38

I would just speak into if you don't have

50:40

your id or a phone , right , you

50:42

, you , you just laying

50:44

there , uh . But for me , I

50:47

hadn't had a phone in almost

50:49

five months

50:51

and it's

50:53

been five of the

50:55

best months of my life . I

50:58

don't know what radiation is coming

51:01

out of those devices , but not

51:04

sitting there staring at it

51:06

, and everything I think about

51:08

and everything I do is centered around

51:11

it . I feel so relieved

51:13

. Not that I

51:15

had gone through that for

51:17

the last five months , it was not

51:20

by my choice . I didn't have a phone , but

51:23

I didn't say , hey , this

51:25

is something that has to be fixed right now , right

51:27

now , right now . I didn't feel that

51:29

I just let it go . Things

51:32

were still kind of clicking and

51:34

rolling without it . You

51:37

know , it

51:39

showed me how to appreciate what

51:41

was in front of me and the people that were

51:43

in front of me . See , a phone

51:46

connects us with people that are not in front of

51:48

us . They're across the world

51:50

, across the country , all this other

51:52

kind of crazy business and

51:55

it distracts us from dealing with what's

51:57

in front of us to deal with , if

52:01

that makes any sense .

52:03

What do you think ? I agree with you . I

52:05

wish I didn't have to have my phone .

52:07

But there's a place for it and there's a

52:09

need for it , you know , uh

52:11

, but then I can look back

52:13

and I'm , you know , not going back

52:15

to the dinosaur days , but you

52:18

know , 20 , 30 years ago , before

52:21

cell phones were even out there , people

52:24

did just fine and

52:26

that's a lot .

52:27

Uh , I think about stuff like that all the

52:29

time too , where it's , like

52:32

you know , sending

52:34

somebody an address or if they don't have , like people

52:37

, figured it out how to get there years

52:39

ago without a phone and

52:42

now it's drop me your location . Yeah

52:44

, yeah , and there's so many things now that we're

52:46

just so , we're such prisoners

52:49

to this we're so dependent it's

52:51

so dependent , that's the word . Yeah

52:53

, and it's slash prisoner to

52:55

it yeah , we're dependent prisoners

52:57

, if it's a such title yeah , well , there

53:00

is now , and , I think , one of the main things . The

53:02

reason why I think about that is because , uh , we

53:04

just had a , a baby , eight months

53:06

ago well , congratulations yeah , thank

53:08

you . and the amount

53:10

of information that's out there and

53:13

the amount of people trying to

53:15

tell you how to raise your kid and what's best

53:17

, and I'm just like there's so much information

53:20

, and people

53:22

have been fine for years and years

53:24

and years and years without

53:26

any of this stuff , like every . Our parents

53:28

figured it out , their parents figured it out , their

53:31

parents before all this technology figured it out

53:33

. It's now just an overload

53:35

of information . So I have to remind myself that

53:37

too .

53:38

You know . But yeah

53:41

, the other thing

53:43

I want to kind of look at with the

53:46

unhoused population is , you

53:48

know , we

53:51

all one step from being a part of it . We

53:54

one paycheck away , two

53:59

housing notes away from

54:01

it , and I

54:03

thank for a lot of people . That

54:05

scares them and

54:08

they feel the closer I'm to

54:10

that type of situation

54:13

whether it's being around people that are homeless

54:16

makes me that much closer to it and

54:20

so they may feel a need to create

54:22

a border or a wedge . That

54:27

may not be healthy in terms of

54:29

what's best for all

54:31

, because it may

54:34

make this person feel , you

54:36

know , awkward and you feel

54:38

awkward about it . It's just not a

54:40

good deal .

54:41

Yeah , you know . Yeah , we're

54:44

getting close to time here wrapping it up , but

54:46

want to end on you

54:48

. You know what you

54:52

hope to accomplish going

54:54

forward in life , your

54:56

goals where

54:59

you see yourself well , my

55:01

goal is to attract

55:03

all your listeners to listen to

55:05

my podcast . Real talk with

55:08

jw you to

55:10

get the podcast going first . I got to get

55:12

it .

55:12

Well , you know

55:15

you invite me to come here

55:17

as part of the start Right . Everything

55:21

has to start somewhere somehow

55:23

and for most of

55:25

us who have started things

55:27

before , the hardest part

55:29

is just getting started . Everything else

55:32

just kind of works its way out Right

55:34

and just like with your gym . I bet the hardest

55:36

part was just Getting started Without

55:39

seeing a wall , a building a floor

55:41

and still moving

55:43

forward , as if all those things

55:45

you see and know that

55:48

they're there . And I'm

55:51

looking forward to it , man . One

55:53

of my biggest goals , man

55:55

, I want to be a part of just

55:57

raising people's

56:00

awareness , helping

56:03

people to heighten their awareness . I

56:07

think we live in a real dumbed-down

56:09

society to where all

56:11

we know is just all we know and all

56:13

we know is just what those who are in

56:15

power tell us , and

56:17

we don't seek anything further than

56:19

that , and

56:22

I don't think that's

56:24

creating a healthier society for

56:26

us . So if we're going to look after our kids

56:30

, grandkids and great-great-grandkids

56:33

, we got to start trying to push

56:35

back and bring some normalcy

56:37

back into our society

56:39

. Where we can look at each other and speak

56:42

and not feel awkward , where

56:45

we feel okay , asking for hey , man , you

56:47

from here , you local , how do I get

56:49

down the street ? Where

56:52

we feel comfortable doing the simple things . Again , I

56:55

like that , that's

56:57

what I feel most committed to

56:59

, and

57:03

if a nice house , come with it , so yeah

57:06

, exactly I

57:08

that .

57:09

And then one thing if you

57:11

had one sentence to describe

57:13

yourself or say you know

57:15

, I like asking people if you had a tombstone

57:17

one day right , we're all going to pass what would you want

57:19

that to say about you ?

57:24

Well , here lies a guy that stood

57:26

up more than he said that .

57:30

All right , I

57:32

like it . Alright , we'll

57:34

end it on that . I appreciate you coming

57:36

in well , I thank you for the invite .

57:39

I thank you for the invite and I thank

57:41

you for sharing your audience with me

57:43

. I hope

57:45

we all can

57:48

get together and do this again real soon yeah

57:50

, I would love to do that .

57:51

I usually tell people where to find people on social

57:53

media , and you can find JW

57:56

outside of BC Gym over here .

57:58

Yeah , you can find me outside of BC

58:00

Gym , that's right , and

58:02

I look forward to seeing you all soon .

58:04

All right , thank you . We got team on three .