Remember Why You Started: The Dream Traveler - EP 237

I'm saying what you're gonna do till you do what you said. Will you open that Bible you knew what you read? Is your debut in your soul? The promise did not expire.

Be inspired. I can see beyond the tears you cry. And I think you feel it. I saw every hill you had to climb.

Just a make it here. When you say you ain't afraid to die. Is it? Yo, what's up people?

I'm your host Jay Will. And I would like to welcome you to inspire guys people where we balance faith and business to guide you to your purpose. This is episode 237. Remember why you started the dream traveler.

All right. So first things first, it's been a minute fam. I think this is only my fourth podcast episode in 2025. That's a little ridiculous.

I know and I haven't done one in the least four months. So it's been a while since I've been kicking it with y'all and I'm gonna be honest. It was probably five reasons I can name off the top of my head that I shouldn't even be doing this episode tonight. You know, one of them being that the sports season is underway in a fella's own first game.

You know what I'm saying? Here I am when that's like the most watched sport in the US and you know nobody's probably gonna see this right now. It's been better so I could talk to myself because some of this is to me as much as it's meant and intended to be for you. First, I'm gonna kick it a little bit about what's been going on with me.

Why have I been away from the show for so long? We're gonna talk a little bit about what I've been up to. I'm also gonna talk about like this idea of remembering why you started. And so if this is for somebody who is out there in the world and they like, yo, you know, you've been doing something you go through life's ups and downs and you lose your love for it.

I know you could relate to that. It's happened to me a hundred times probably happened to you as well. And this is for those people to encourage, inspire and give you some insight into how remembering where you started can help you in moving forward. And again, it's from a Christian perspective.

So let's jump into it. First things first, you know, I've been busy, but also just been kind of trying to look, I'm remembering why I started. I've been trying to kind of find myself in certain ways. And I'm always the kind of person is like, you know, I go through different seasons and ups and downs in life just like you.

I'm a normal person, right? And throughout that process, sometimes I have to focus on certain things at a particular time. So as much as I love this podcast and I'm excited to get back started into it and just get myself going, I got to a point where super busy in the corporate role, that's something I prioritize my job and taking care of my family and being a leader and growing and things like that. And there's a lot of advantages that comes to the experience I gained from work in the corporate America to become a better leader communicator, to have that real world experience at a high level, right?

And then, you know, I also put out an album, you know, this time is different by J-Will music. I'll show you all a little bit of that. So I was rocking with the album and that was a process. We did the music and then we jumped into the music videos.

So I've dropped, I think, four music videos. I have a fifth one coming this month, maybe three, I dropped four music videos. I think I dropped four so far, three or four. Don't quote me on that.

But four, we did four videos. I'm sorry. I can talk. Four music videos, we got a fifth one coming this month.

So that was a lot of work just kind of focusing on that. And I really wanted my music and the quality of videos and stuff. I was doing to be of the highest quality content as possible. And so I allowed myself some time away from this podcast.

And then lastly, I want to be honest, you know what I'm saying? I want to be super vulnerable in this episode about, you know, some things with myself and remembering why I started in, you know, some of the encouraging and discouraging things that, you know, you go through as a human being out here trying to do things. And one of the things for me is that, you know, I started this podcast as an audio podcast with a particular purpose. And I started before the pandemic, believe it or not, if you were a listener, this is episode 237.

So we've, you know, been able to do 237 episodes over the course of some years. And throughout that time from where I started with podcast where and what I was intending this podcast to be, it's what podcast kind of became, especially as they became more video oriented. It was, it's different. It's still different for me, like, you know, working through the video element at this podcast versus what it was when it was just an audio podcast, which is still an audio.

You can go on Apple podcast or Spotify or Audible and listen to all the episodes. There are some dope ones in there. We've done some dope interviews, but podcast in general in the world kind of evolved and became something totally different than what I was intending to do. And sometimes, you know, throughout the process of, you know, doing things in the public eye and whether it's podcast or music or just being a creator at large or kind of fighting the algorithm and, you know, what people want to hear versus kind of what gets views and things.

And I think through some of that, I just didn't enjoy what podcast was becoming, especially you adding the politics and how politics is so much at the forefront of what people like to think about and talk about in the world today. And I've tried to dabble into that a little bit. And again, I think I just got, you know, a little, if you want to call it discouraged or just not filling in for a minute and allow myself a season to step away from it, to kind of refresh my mind and focus on some other things. And so here I am.

I'm back. Remember why I started, but then also sharing some of this with the intention of reaching the people that are that is intended for. That's all I'm here to do. I'm not here to try to go viral.

I'm not here to try to reach a million people or not or whatever it is with this podcast. It's really about remaining authentic and doing and talking about the things that the Lord leaves me to talk about to inspire his people in the most real way that I possibly can and hope that even if it's one person out there that this reaches or two people that I'm not overlooking those one or two people because I want more views or because I want to go viral or beat the algorithm. And those are all the things sometimes that we're challenging to face with. You might have felt that before.

I don't know. But I have. And remembering why I started, it's really about getting back to the essence of what this show was created to be, regardless of what's happening around me. And sometimes let me be honest, sometimes you can feel like you're doing okay with that.

And so you take a step back and be like, no, you know what, it's affecting me a little bit around my life. And it's not always about like, while I'm out of the name, like I was wilding out or going too far or something. And it's just that I was allowing myself to be reactive to what is happening in the world versus this show started off as a very proactive show. And that's what I'm getting back to and remembering why I started.

But a couple of things before I jump into that, this is remember why you started, but also I call it the dream traveler episode because I'm going to kind of tie a little bit into why I started and created my album into this episode because it's relevant. Not just because I'm like promoting it. Yes, do I want you to check out my album and listen to it. I would love you to listen to my new album this time is different.

But there are some things that I'll outline, outline, there we go. I could talk. There are some things that I outlined in an album that are super relevant to what we're going to talk about today. And I might not even dig into them the way that I was intended to, but I do at least want to, you know what, we're going to come back to the album after I talk about some things.

So, sometimes we all lose our way. It's not always as bad as that sounds though. And I've kind of learned in the world today, like people love things to sound extreme or explosive or polarizing. And those are the things that really go viral when you think about it.

Most things that go viral is something you either strongly agree with, like strongly agree with or strongly disagree with. And when you think about the things people share with their friends, that's usually why they're sharing them outside of like just comedy. And it's just funny, people share things because it's like, yo, I really agree with this, or I really disagree with this. In the middle, sometimes there's just someone trying to be balanced and logical and trying to be fair and think through things.

And that's not always like super saucy. And I think that's kind of, that's why that's kind of what my show is is balanced. It's not about doing weird stuff to make people listen to you or like you. But even me, even you, we could lose our way sometimes in the most subtle ways you can lose your way.

And it doesn't mean again you were wilding out or doing something crazy, but a lot of times it just means you lost focus on why you started something in the first place. And I believe that losing your way is the beginning of losing your love for something and you know, losing your spark and your fire for it. If you kind of track, trace back, first you probably lost your way a little bit. And maybe you look to the right or the left a little bit like you just glanced over and saw someone else doing something and maybe they were being successful and you started to overthink what's happening with you and like, maybe I should be doing that.

Maybe I'm tripping and again, in life there's all this pressure around us these days, especially with social media and just the fact that we're all so public and there's so much access into people's lives that I think is easy to get distracted. It's very easy to see or hear something else and think in question, should I be doing that? I want to encourage you today that even if you lost your way, you know, there's a path to getting back on the right track. So here's the beginning to that path.

We should draw close to God. The Bible essentially says I'm paraphrasing, draw close to God. It's like, draw not in Him, He'll draw not in you. So draw close to God and He'll draw close to you.

And sometimes I think about that as like, that just sounds too simple to be true at times. Like, yo, that's all it is. I just get closer to Him and He gets closer to me. And it's like, yeah, it's that simple.

And sometimes we lose our way because we simply started separating ourselves from the Lord. We started taking steps back just and they look, it happens in inches. I think sometimes we think that when you find yourself separate from God or find yourself distance from the Lord that, you know, we're used to looking at the extreme examples and like, pointing out like, oh, this person is far from God. But sometimes I know I'm guilty of just taking small steps back.

What a small steps back look like. It could look like, yo, I'm not praying every morning, right? Like maybe I had a good habit of praying every the moment I wake up, getting on my knees and praying and thanking God for this day and seeking the Lord for guidance and direction throughout this day. And then maybe, you know, something happened and I just got lazy and all of a sudden I find myself like, you know, I didn't, you know, I didn't pray as soon as I got up.

Maybe the first thing I did was grab my phone and before I even prayed, I'm like looking at checking email or looking at, you know, social media or my timeline or something. And that's happened to me before. And so I think when I look, you know, in the mirror, it's like, yo, you might be feeling this distance from the Lord in your mind, you thinking, yo, Lord, why is God distance from me? I'm not hearing his voice or, you know, like, why do I not feel close?

The God and you almost blaming God. Like, like, why are you not close to me? Like, like what's going on? Why can't I hear you?

And a lot of times it's like, oh, no, like, it's you. I'm here. God is here. He didn't, he didn't leave.

We walk away from him. And sometimes that's a very humbling reality to face. And it comes to like, oh, wait, like, it's me. I'm, I just inch to my way away from the Lord.

And it was so subtle that I didn't even realize it. And then maybe as a part of that process, as I'm inching away from the Lord, now I'm more distanced from him. So his voice is more faint. But the things that I'm drawing closer to, social media, you know, all these shorts and reels and all these messages and ideology and the pressure of politics, just pulling people in different directions.

And I think some of us even sometimes can draw further away from God with good intentions. And what do I mean by good intentions? I look at politics like this a lot of times of like, you know, people have a righteous indignation and they feel like, yo, we're going to save the world. We're going to change the world and we're going to fight against this and look, I'm not trying to discourage you from fighting or, you know, whatever, whatever purpose and calls you believe in as long as it aligns with the Lord.

But sometimes what happens is we find ourselves in these industries or surrounded by these people where God, Jesus is not the source of why they do what they do. And so although it is a good cause or although it is about helping people, like what happens is you get in these arenas and Jesus is not the centerpiece. He's not the cornerstone. He's not the reason why they're doing it.

And so then again, you inch away from God little by little, you got into politics and then you, hey, there's nothing wrong with that and then you started doing charity and there's nothing wrong with that. But then you find yourself in this like, this social warrior that's like actually a disciple for one political party. And then you not even preaching Jesus no more. And maybe you used to be a person that was all about drawing people to God as the answer and as the solution for their life and salvation.

And you find yourself like you look up three years later, like, whoa, wait a minute. I don't even talk about the gospel no more. I'm arguing with people on Facebook on what this president or this presidential candidate said or this mayor or this governor. And now you're caught up in this world where Jesus isn't even the foundation.

So a lot of these worlds and these industries are really a web of lies and you find yourself defending something that's probably a lie from a person that you can't trust and don't even know or definitely can't save you because they aren't preaching the gospel. And so we started preaching something as a solution that's not the gospel and that doesn't happen overnight. It didn't happen overnight. Like you feeling like it happened overnight.

It just happened and it's like, no, in reality, like in reality, like, no, no, no, that ain't it. That ain't happened overnight. What up, Tony? How you doing, sister?

And so what's my point with all of this? My point is we can find ourselves even as well-intentioned people as Christians. I'm not saying you're not saved. I'm not saying you don't love God.

I'm not here to point the finger at you. I'm really looking at myself and saying even as believers, we can find ourselves in these moments in life where it's like, yo, I lost a little bit of sight. I got a little bit of distance from God. And then I looked up and I ain't talked to you in a minute.

I looked up and I ain't seen you in a while. You ever have a friend like that that y'all used to talk every day? Y'all used to kick it. Y'all used to go somewhere.

And then like life happens a little bit. And maybe some life event changes. Maybe y'all don't work together anymore or work as close to each other and y'all can't grab lunch or whatever it is. And you looked up and you're like, yo, it's been five years since we did lunch.

It's been five years, three years since we even talked. And then now we don't even know each other because there's been so much distance between us. I know I've been in situations where there's been distance between me and people. Who are you?

I got a whole song about that. Who are you? Like, yo, am I still me? I don't know.

And maybe you grew. You ever had a situation where you've grown? This happened to me. So in high school, I was a class clown, right?

And look, now, if you know me, you know me. Don't let how serious I'm coming off on this podcast for you. Because I am both the most serious and the silliest person you will ever meet in your life. And like, I have two switches and like, I could go in either direction.

Most times, I could literally go in a bag right now to make this whole podcast nothing but jokes and be equally as passionate as I am about it being serious. And sometimes I struggle to find a balance. Sometimes I'm just all the way one of those. And what happens is people who know me from certain situations, like people who know me in the corporate world, they might see me as very serious.

They might even see me as quiet and just kind of like about my business and whatever, whatever. And then people who know me from like school back in the day, they like, might only know the completely crazy and maybe far less mature version of myself. Excuse me. And so what do I say that to say?

I say that to say that people who know me from like high school and sometimes even college, if they get around me now, I could see them looking at me and trying to figure me out. Because maybe they see me on social media. And it's like, I've never seen this side of you. But the thing is, the truth is there's been so much distance between us and so much change during that distance that I'm actually a different person than you probably are too.

Even though maybe the core of who I am is the same. I am something different about me. I'm like, you know, you have an iPhone, you update the software. Like I've been updated.

The software has been updated. I am a new version of myself. I do new things. You ever like update the operating system on your phone and you're like, oh, it do this now.

We can respond to the emojis with emojis and we could do all of this stuff. And that's how it is sometimes in life. And what happens is you've had a software upgrade, but then you go around people who knew you in the past and they only know the downgraded version of you. And they don't even know what to do with the new version of you because you've changed or it's just been so long since you've seen each other.

And my point with all of that is that some of us allow so much distance between us and the Lord that we don't even know God no more. Like we getting around like we come into the presence of the Lord and it's like, whoa, wait a minute. What happens now? And it's like, oh, you forgot who saved you.

And so, you know, some of a drawn closer to God could be as simple as praying, reading the word and fellowship and what other believers, right? Praying, reading the word, fellowship with believers. I'm not saying those are the only ways to draw close to God, but I'm trying to give like some really practical, tangible things that we could say like, yo, I want to get closer to God. It's not magic.

It's not lightning and thunder. It's like pray, read the Bible and fellowship with believers. And then God will begin to speak to you in those situations. And it's not always easy.

I want to say sometimes it's like working out. You ever start a workout, you feeling good for a week, start a diet, you feeling real good for a week. And then you get like further into the situation and it's like, all right, I'm going to go ahead and have that donut. And then maybe the next day you have another donut you look up and it's like, ah, my point is sometimes when you're trying to draw closer to God, it's a fight just like that.

So don't give up if you find yourself slipping. If you like, yo, I pray three mornings in a row, first thing in the morning, before I even touch my phone, then on the fourth and fifth day, you look at your phone, don't allow that discouragement to cause you to slip all the way back in, keep fighting. So drawing close to the Lord takes effort and energy. All right, cool.

And also remember the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Like this is God's world. So sometimes the distance that we feel between us and God is because I think in a weird way, we think God can't relate to what we want, or we think we want something outside of God. And there are times in my life that I have to remind myself that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

Everything that I want or need is already God's. And if it's his will for me to have it, he's going to give it to me. So there's no need to have anxiety. You could calm down.

You could breathe easy. There's no need to be worried. You know, the Bible says like, don't worry about anything, but in all things, pray. And so again, it goes back to what we say, drawing closer to God starts with praying, reading the word, fellowshiping with believers.

And so with that said, God is saying, don't worry. Don't be anxious. Be anxious for nothing. And so again, isn't that interesting that we can find ourselves living in anxiety?

There's a lot of anxiety and mental illness going around. People are struggling in this world. And part of the reason I think it is is because we're not prescribing them the remedy. We're prescribing them and diagnosing them with everything but the need for salvation, the need for the gospel, the need for Jesus Christ.

We're pointing people in every direction. And I'm not saying that all those directions are bad. Don't get me wrong. What I'm saying though, is we are missing the most important ingredient, which is the source, the salvation, Jesus Christ.

And because we've allowed ourselves to start giving remedies outside of Jesus Christ, we put ourselves in a position where we're forgetting what the word of God even said. We're forgetting that. Wait a minute. People are struggling with anxiety.

The word of God says be anxious for nothing, but pray in all things. And so what's that saying? Prayer is actually part of your prescription. Like I'm prescribing some medicine today, some spiritual medicine that the word of God says that if you're struggling with anxiety, it says you shouldn't, you should be anxious for nothing, but in all things to pray.

In all things, pray. So prayer is a prescription for anxiety. Okay. Still go see your doctors.

Still do, like see a professional and all of that. I'm not a professional. I'm not a doctor. But what I am saying is that as someone who believes in the living God, it is important to give people the right prescription.

All right, cool. This time is different. So now we're going to get into a little bit of my music. I'm not about to play no music at this point.

What up, Angie? How you doing, sister? Tiger didn't say don't let me right now. You are wild.

You are crazy. This time is different. So this part ain't about the music. I'm using this to say that sometimes in life, you get discouraged because you've been here before.

So going back to the diet thing, right? Like I'm a speaker myself. Like I'm a person that has been eating healthy, being eating crazy, working out, and then not working out at all. And look, my health and my physique goes up and down with it.

Sometimes I'm skinny. Sometimes I fat. I'm fat. I don't know what version of me you might get in real life, right?

Because there is an up and down. And sometimes discouragement seeps in because you feel like, I've been here before, whatever. But you got to tell yourself, no, this time is different. And I can get it right this time.

And just because I failed before, just because I've fallen short before, doesn't mean that I can't get it right now. And why am I such a believer in the idea of telling yourself that this time is different? It's because it represents hope. And if we're not going to give people hope, like if we're just going to tell somebody, yo, yeah, you failed, you messed up, you're no good.

God has done with you. Then what is the gospel? What was Jesus here for? What was Jesus preaching?

When Jesus encountered people when they were down it out, busted, disgusted, the worst part of themselves, he pointed them to the direction of salvation, gold and sin no more. Jesus pointed people to hope. So the idea that you don't always have to be what you were. Think about Rahab and how she was able to turn it around by following Joshua in that second generation of the children of Israel and becoming a part of their family and a part of the fold.

And she's in the bloodline of Christ from being a prostitute. So a lot of times with us now, we see people and we see the worst version of them. And we think like, oh, you're nothing. You might as well let it go.

No, this time is different. Keep fighting. You can get it right. You can draw closer to God.

You can get your diet right. You can get your prayer life right. You can start reading the word more. There is hope in Jesus Christ.

There's enough fear being sold to everybody about what they can't do and why you can't do it. And we got a million excuses to make ourselves victims, but we are victors of Bible. You're more than a conqueror. Like what happened?

We are overcomers. Like what happened to believing the word of God and the idea that I can become better. We have so the word of God and the word of hope. And we've accepted the word of fear because we have started to listen to leaders who are not following a voice of God.

Leaders with selfish ambition. People who have agendas to become kings. And we've allowed ourselves to believe them because they're branded right. Communicate properly or their page has a lot of followers and a lot of views and they went viral.

Listen, Jesus don't need you to go viral to use you. I don't care what nobody said. You can disagree and I still love you. You are able to disagree.

So I don't say that to be disrespectful to somebody who might disagree. I know some people think you have to be famous in order to be effective, but I don't believe that. I believe effective is not just about with and the amount of people that you're reaching. But I believe effectiveness is about how deeply you reach the people you touch.

You can touch 10 people. And if you touch them in the real way and connect to their soul and give them the gospel, those are 10, so safe. That's why Jesus said he will leave the 99 to go after the one. We do the opposite.

We leave the one. The one person has listened to your podcast. The one person has commented on your videos. The one person whose life is being changed by the things you're doing in your ministry.

We leave them because we're trying to seek the 99. We want more people. We want more followers. I've had people tell me you're supposed to be famous.

Like, man, I'm not trying to hear that. I'm not trying to accept that. I'm trying to accept that God will take me where he wants me to go. And if God called me to the two people that's listening to this podcast right now, then I'm going to give the two of y'all everything I got.

I'm going to preach to the two of y'all. I'm encouraged and inspired the two of y'all like y'all, two million because Jesus left the 99 to go give the one everything he had. You think he went to that one discourage because it was just one? No, Jesus goes to the one and offers them salvation.

Goes to the one and offers them hope. Goes to the one and offers them everything. Full benefits coming to the body of Christ. You got full benefits that one so matters.

And sometimes we are allowing ourselves to be distant from God because we are becoming consumed with reaching more people, consumed with doing more, consumed with being the most viral and the biggest influencer. And did you see the check they got for over here? And I'm telling you, I believe that that's why so many of us are selling out. We're selling out the cause of the gospel and we following all these selfish ambitions because we following numbers.

We chasing numbers. We chasing. We want more. I want to reach more people.

I got to beat the algorithm, bump the algorithm. I don't care no more. Forget the algorithm. You know, I'm going to tell you the crazy thing about the algorithm.

I was thinking like, oh, you know, two things happened to me. A on my Twitter, I had about 13,000 followers. I think by the time it was over, it was like a little under 12, like maybe 11,700 followers on Twitter. And one day, about a year, maybe a year and a half ago.

Now, I know it's been a while, but I tried to log in. And it was just gone. Like literally my Twitter page just disappeared. I genuinely don't know what happened.

I don't know somebody stole it. I don't know what happened. And for one minute, I was mad and I was irritated because I have accumulated these 11,000 followers. Like we treat people like they're yours.

These are my followers. I had it's like, don't get me wrong. You don't want to get your pages stolen. We're having go away.

But I was like, oh, like, all right. All right, life goes on. I just don't have Twitter now. And my point with all of that is we can't be so consumed with numbers and things that we allow that to be our purpose.

And the other thing is like, you know, I look at Instagram and stuff now, right? On my Instagram, I think I got, um, thanks sister Angie. Um, on my Instagram, I think I have about who I got on Instagram, 9,700, 9,772, I think 9,700 followers on Instagram. And I'm like, you know, it's funny because I got 9,000 followers.

I think I made a post today. You know, you can see, at least I got a professional page. You can see maybe everybody can see how many views or whatever. I don't know what features are professional versus non-professional.

But I'm like, okay, so only 150 people saw this post. And it's like first they make you work for followers. Then you got to like do all this weird stuff just to reach the people that decided. Like these are the people that said they want to follow me.

To me, everybody should just be able to see it when I post it. It should reach my followers because you click follow me. But now I got to like try to do something weird to beat the algorithm to go viral, to reach people that already said they want. I'm like, bro, look, I'm gonna do what I'm doing.

I'm gonna keep putting on quality content, but I can't be consumed. I'm not saying it's wrong to learn the business and do strategic tactics and marketing. Don't get me wrong at all. I'm a business guy, but what I'm saying is we've allowed it to be the, like the purpose of, we've allowed it to consume our life.

I got to show up on social media. I got to tell them what I'm doing. I got to show everybody everything. Oh my God, I got a new pair of boots.

I got to put them like a picture of my new boots. And like it's so much of our lives as public and I'm not critiquing you. I'm sharing how I'm thinking through this stuff, but don't take the like let God deal with you. You know what I'm saying?

I'm not here to like try to critique nobody in the way you're doing it. But I do think it's something we should at least be thinking about like how much it might be coming consumed with the digital world to the point that some of us is more focused on the digital world and in real life, we don't even have it together. Like I know people who digitally have it together, like digitally you killing the game, but in actual real life, you're struggling. Our real life is more valuable.

What's the last thing I want to say about this? Life is a journey and you have to allow yourself to go through the journey of life. You're going to experience some ups and downs. I'm no different than you, bro.

I'm just a normal person. Like I don't know. I'm not I'm not into trying to be something for the internet and like try to create some false image and idea of who I am and I'm a regular person. I'll be having problems.

I have good days is like I got crazy family members. I got cool family members. I have, you know, people that I love to end up in a hospital and people, you have people new babies born and birthdays and graduations, just like the next person and you're trying to figure out life and you're going through these ups and downs. Just look, it's a journey.

We have to put it in God's hand. When you remember why you started, right? When I started this podcast, it really was about helping people, inspiring God's people. I wanted to inspire people, but I wanted to be specific in the fact that I'm talking to God's people because the inspiration was coming from a biblical influence.

And that's what this show was about. And yes, the world around me has changed and podcasts have become more gossip settings. I'm not saying all podcasts. I'm getting wrong.

It's some good ones out there. But what I'm saying is buying a large is become a lot of negativity and like, I don't, it's just like this weird stuff that I don't really get into. And I just had to tell myself and do my process of drawing closer to God and really asking God for direction. I'm like, you know, should I stop doing this?

I got to ask people, I almost quit this show. But I had to remember why I started and it's like, no, I don't stop. Just ignore the noise. Like stop being caught up in the noise.

And then you'll be all right because you're doing what you're doing. But if you allow yourself, which happens to me at times, right? I'm just like you sometimes the noise and it distracts me and it gets in my ear and it, you know, discourages me. And I feel like what's the point?

Like, you know, people want all the ignorant stuff. And like, so what's the point of me even doing the show? If people just want to find out the latest drama or follow the latest while, whatever, whatever, it's like, why am I even, why am I even doing this? You feel what I'm saying?

And it's like, no, bro, you got to remember why you started. And so here we are. And I want to tell you something. This is me, this is me really bringing in the sales part, the corporate part of myself, right?

I'm a sales person, you know, so if you don't know me, I've been in sales for the last 19 years and I've been able to grow through sales. So I've done everything from like entry level sales up to, you know, national director, executive sales and still growing. They're still room to grow. I haven't done it all.

I'm not the ultimate sales person, the most successful sales person on the internet to give you all whatever. But it's interesting some of the things that I've learned through the process of growing through sales and becoming a sales leader, becoming a sales executive. I've been, I've been able to learn a lot of things. And one of those things that I've learned is that in sales, the most successful sales people fail a lot.

And I looked up some stats like, you know, because I've done a lot of deals, like, negotiating and closing on deals and, you know, you're talking, you know, multi-million dollar deals. I negotiate, you know, fairly large, you know, tens of millions, you know, close to 100 million dollar deals, right? So in doing that, sometimes, you know, there are so many factors from the process of, I've cold called on people. Those were smaller deals when I was cold calling.

Then you have like, you know, kind of enterprise account management and things like that. And you end up dealing with these multi-million dollar deals and negotiating all these levels of agreements and all these details. And part of what you learned in that is that you're not going to be successful in everything. Like you're going to, and you're going to hear no so many times before you hear yes.

So I looked at some sales data. 80% of deals are closed after five to 12 follow ups. 80% of deals are closed after five to 12 follow ups. What's the, why are you sharing this with us?

What has got to do with anything? In order to be successful in sales, not only do you need to have the initial sales pitch, and the sales pitch itself comes after a lot of work has been done, a lot of research, a lot of discovery. There's a whole sales process that we go through an organization I work for before we get to actually a pitch meeting where you have a presentation and you in a room with other, you know, the leadership and decision makers from whoever you're negotiating with and all these things. By the time you get there, not only do you need to do the sales pitch, you need to follow up five to 12 times.

80% of deals take five to 12 follow ups to close. Now why is that important? Some of us give up after we try something one time. Oh, don't let us try twice.

Oh my God, I didn't do this twice. Life is over. Oh, if you try something three times and fail three times and you don't get the result that you want yet. Oh my God, you tried four times.

Imagine you have tried four times to do something and this the fourth time I tried, God, it just ain't working. And I know the feeling I know the discouragement, but success 80% of the time in sales takes five to 12 follow ups. So that means you got to do all this work and then follow up and keep coming back and keep coming back. And I've closed deals that have taken five to 12 follow ups.

And what I've learned and closing those deals is that what happens is a lot of times the first four times people ain't even listening to you. They got other stuff going on, but they start taking you serious when you keep coming back. When you keep trying when you're relentless when you're persistent, people tend to take you serious when you're consistent. But some of us we just blow with the wind today.

Today you know, I ain't even going to see this where this see I was about to get silly. Hold on. It was close. I was about to go into a bag.

But some of us don't know what we are today. We're preaching the gospel tomorrow. We're preaching politics. The next day we talking about something else and what happens is people can't take you serious because you're not consistent.

As I you the Bible says a double minded man is unstable in all his way. Everything. Some of us just unstable in everything because we have no consistency. No follow up.

We try something one time it didn't work. Everybody didn't buy it. All right. Cool.

I'm on to the next thing. You need some consistency. What's the next thing? 44% of sales reps quit after one follow up.

So wait a minute. 80% of the time it takes five to 12 follow ups to be successful, but 44% of sales people quit after one follow up. So you did your sales pitch. You followed up and called them one time.

Didn't get what you wanted. And 44% of people will quit right after that. Here's the kicker. 94% of sales people quit.

After four follow up attempts. Now wait a minute. 94% of people quit after four follow ups, but 80% of the time it takes five to 12 follow ups to be successful. That means I'm just using this as an example for our real life.

That means that if we were sales people 94% of us are quitting before we even reach the level or standard that it takes to be successful. Wow. And we wonder why we can't reach success. Remember why you started.

You know, I consider myself a dream traveler. And what that means, it means a lot of things. But what that means is, and this is me incorporating my new music into this, you know, as a dream traveler, you know what? Matter of fact, versus me explaining it, I'm going to let the video explain.

It's like a one minute video. I'm going to show you because I want you to see where is it at. God created. All right.

This is going to explain what a dream trial. Let me see how I'm showing up. All right. Cool.

All right. Let's let's watch this to see see what I'm talking about. The Earth is the love and everything in it. I'm a dream traveler with a unique ability to alter time through music.

And the beginning God created. Sometimes we all lose our way. And that's when the enemy wants us to fear darkness. Consider this a reminder to turn to the light source.

He made us something from nothing and called us to this great purpose. Now is not the time to quit. It's time to remember why we started. Some say if you close your eyes while you're missing.

You can see God's dream. Other say they've heard it all before. And on my travels, I've never seen anything like this. You actually this time is different.

I lift you up for holding me. All right. Dream traveler. So I start this project.

This album this time is different. And it started in this rough space. The idea of being a dream traveler is you know, some of it is fictional me taking this idea and rapping into like my real life. The idea is that I got to a place where there was distance between me and God.

And I was, you know, confused about what I was supposed to be doing. And my shit I'd be creating. Should I be focused on business? What should I be doing?

And it's like, it represents me just eliminating distractions. And going before the Lord and asking the God for direct asking God for directions. And in God giving you direction to go, He allowed me to kind of be this person that travels through different moments of time with my music to inspire people ultimately. And the idea of being a dream traveler is also about going through the different stages and allowing yourself to experience life in a real way.

And taking some of the pressure off of yourself to be perfect for the sake of people and people looking at you and seeing you. And you know, there's all these weird things that we're trying to live up to to create some false image of who we are. And so I want to encourage you, whatever your dream traveler moment or purpose is in your life, to say free yourself from the pressure of trying to be perfect for everyone. Because what I've learned is whether you're doing good or bad in life, everyone isn't always going to be on your side.

And I don't say that in a way to be like, oh, we got haters. I don't get into all that. But what I'm saying is that you can't be a people pleaser. You can't be a people that's doing this for people to like you.

You have to be doing this for purpose. And that's part of remembering why you started. And I'm just sharing some of like my testimony of how, you know, I hadn't done music in a few years and just through this process of remembering why I started, remember why I ever started doing music in the first place. It has freed me to be able to create what I believe is some of the best music in art that I've ever created because the intention and the purpose is focused on exactly why I started doing this in the first place to inspire God's people and to just share the art and the gift that he put in me.

And in some ways, selfishly, I feel more alive when I'm doing what God created me to do. And some of us are struggling in life because we aren't focused on doing what God created us to because we're trying to do things for the result or the reaction. And sometimes you just have to embrace the process. You have to embrace the purpose, but you can't worry about the results that it'll produce.

Get the results out of your mind. I'm telling you, this is what's working for me. And so I'm just sharing it as some of the testimony to say, man, I'm creating music. I'm creating these videos, working with people like K.E.

He's been really dope. My producer read all of the features on my album. It's been just such a joy to create at this kind of with this new mindset and stage of my life. And I just want to share that with people because I think we're also distracted and all trying to front for each other.

You don't have to front for me. And I'm not here to front for you. It's nothing to front for. I'm here to create the art and to share the inspiration that God put in my heart and the leaf.

Whatever legacy God allows me to leave and created me to leave, nothing more, nothing less. I don't even want more viewers than God want me to have. I don't want more followers than God can see that I'm ready for. I don't need more attention than God has called and purposed me to.

If it's the five people, what I told myself is that I am going to create as if millions, I'm going to create with a passion and purpose as if everybody in the world will hear my music. As if everybody in the world will listen to my podcast, but I am going to be perfectly fine with whatever group of people God allows me to reach. And yes, I will try to grow organically and authentically, but I am not willing to sell out or do weird stuff so that more people can listen because I'm talking about something super spicy or I'm being gossipy or all these things. It's like, no, I will go and do what God has caught me to go and do.

And I will be okay with the results that it produces. And I encourage you to try to find your way to be the same and just free yourself of the pressure to try to be doing it for some false aesthetic so that people who probably don't even like you anyway can maybe like you. People just don't like people. It's probably people to just grow right past this podcast on their payelow.

He doing the podcast, whatever. And you got to be okay with that fam. We all have to be okay with that. What up Felicia, how you doing?

What up, Courtney? All right. So I want to share a couple other things real quick. And these are some of the things that I've been up to.

And some of the things that helped me kind of get on this journey to getting back to remembering why I started. And it's funny how when you start doing things and just doing what God called you to do, he will open new doors and doors that you weren't even thinking about or doors that were never open to you before. And that's somewhat, God has done that for me at different times. First, let me just at least show you this album.

This time is different. You know what I'm saying? Check it out. Look, we got, was it 12 songs?

Yeah, J-Wail music. This time is different. Apple music. Everywhere you can listen to music, check out this project.

All right. We got that out the way. Now I want to show you some of what I've been up to. I was on the track stars.

Let's go there. Let's go to the track stars. And I thought this was pretty dope. First and foremost, let me just say, shout out to the track stars for having me on their show.

It was super fun. It was a, it was really dope. If you don't know who the track stars are, just check out their their YouTube channel where this episode was down in Atlanta. I was there maybe a couple weeks ago.

I did a couple of different interviews with them, but this was their main show. I'm gonna just play a little clip and allow you to kind of see and hear what we were talking about on that show. But I had excellent time, you know what I'm saying on the track stars. To be open-minded.

When I hear things like that, that's where I'm lost. I'm lost. Not to have a draw line. I think for me, it's a couple of questionable things, right?

And these type of situations actually are such a bad look for the church because it's like it puts us in a position like me. I got the silly side on the serious side. And I'm like, all right, the silly side was almost, I was almost tapped in because some of the stuff she's saying is so outlandish. But on a serious matter, it's like, all right, like you saying, Sean, it's you start taking these imaginary things.

I think because my biggest question is why are only artists going to hell. Like so, like you would go take me, show me hell, but only show me like entertainers. I think there's some like salaciousness to that. It's like, all right.

So that was that was the track stars interview. Shout out to the track stars again. We were talking about the lady, somebody went viral and she saw Biggie Smalls in hell. I'm gonna give you a little more commentary around that because on that show, you know, I was there as a guest host and you know, you know, you're going on the show as a guest my first time here.

I definitely don't want to over talk people. And I learned a lot like I've never done really a podcast. You know, it reminds me almost like when I've done a lot of panels live, live panels where six, seven people on the stage and you have to be very kind of straight to the point and quick with your answers. And you don't really have a lot of time because you're trying to be respectful of everybody that's there and other people have points and then you want to listen.

So you can't always remember what you wanted to say. So shout out to the track stars really different feel for me, but a great opportunity to go kick it with them. And I would love to come back. You know, I'm in Atlanta enough.

Y'all hit me up if y'all see this. I've been in, so I still, they still been showing up and I'll be talking to them a little bit. But I like them. I like them a lot.

And I enjoy my time there. They were super hospitable. And what I like about them is I walked away with the impression that they were, they actually are serious about the things of God. And there was a diverse group of Christians in the room with various opinions that there wasn't like one opinion or something like that.

Even they disagree on things. But I enjoy my time on the track stars, you know what I'm saying? We'll definitely gladly go back. But let me say this.

With this topic, this lady who saw Biggie Smalls in Hill, she says, like I said on the show, I was about to get silly. Now I want to tell y'all specifically why I was about to get silly. But first before I do that, I want to maybe be a little more serious with this. There's a lot I don't like about these type of things because there's a lot of it that doesn't add up biblically to me.

And not just like with content of what she's talking about, but like the character behind it, right? Like I want to be careful because what happens when people say stuff like this is you find yourself in a weird space where somebody's telling you that God showed them something. So if you disagree with them, there's this internal feeling that you are potentially disagreeing with God because this person said that God did this thing for them and you don't want to be ignorant. You don't want to be on the side against God.

And I found myself even when I was on with the track stars, like a couple of people like, yo, if I'm wrong, God, forgive me. Because that's the manipulation behind it. I don't like, I don't always enjoy where people make this claim about God doing something like, uh, let me see, it's even weird to say in that way, because you don't want to discount what God could do. So let me just first say, nothing that I feel about this situation is to discount God, right?

And to say that God can't do or what God is unable to do. It's more about saying from reading the word and along with like some of the character behind the lady. And I don't know the lady. I literally only saw that minute clip.

I don't know nothing else about her. So God bless you. This isn't even a dog carot or anything. She could be completely legit and and that's okay.

But here was my problem. If you didn't see that story, just as a high level summary, she says that God took her to hell and she saw a biggie Smalls there. Now, I believe this lady has made claims of seeing Michael Jackson in the Hill and other people as well. But you know, she's like this ain't a dream.

This ain't like God took me physically to hell from what I understand she said that. And okay, I know there are people with that testimony and I'm not here to I'm not here to say what God did or didn't do. What I find interesting and maybe a little hard to believe in her story, she started talking about it was one word she used. Y'all got to forgive me.

I literally almost lost my composure because she said God put biggie in a juicer. There's something about that that just completely destroys me on the inside. It's the word juicer that gets me. I don't know why.

I literally don't know why. But the idea specifically that it would be a juicer, I guess because juicers are popular now and it's like so specifically he showed you an appliance from the 2020s. It's like she described making a human smoothie and then maybe it was like he came back together and I don't understand why he would juice him. I'm not trying to be funny.

I'm not but I have to at least explain to y'all how I'm thinking like to juice him. All right, I feel like a lady was being a I said it's a lacious in that interview that's not technically the right word because I think salacious is like has sexual connotation to it. But what I was basically just trying to say is I think she was being a little extra. There was some character behind where she was saying and it was hard for me to believe.

The other thing that is challenging for me is that Jesus took you to hell to show you somebody that's dead that's there. I guess I didn't understand the significance of why specifically he would choose to show you this particular person. They're already there. It's not like a warning.

I don't know. It was there's a lot of inconsistencies with that. I'm going to stop right there because that story is just very sticky. But that was one of the stories we talked about on the track stars and even here on my own show I'm like struggling to summarize it because it almost feels like any angle you go with that story you don't end up being offensive and maybe being silly about something that's serious and that's not the intention.

I don't want to offend nobody. But it is just a very challenging story to say the least. I will just say I am not the kind of person to just easily believe that kind of stuff. And when I say easily believe it, it's like all right if God took you there maybe he had a purpose to take you there.

Right? Cool. I'm not easy. I'm not easily following that.

I don't even know what to do with that. Like when I read the Bible God gives you situations and stories and things that you can go and do something with that. You can apply it somewhere. It's typically things like that are like typically like warnings like when when Joseph interprets the dream is it's like to show of something to come and like I just don't understand enough the significance of juice and biggie smalls.

And I also think it's really weird. This last thing I will say there's so much of the Bible that when Jesus is correcting he's showing you you like get you know this beam out of your eye before you try to get the speck out of somebody else's eye like you know you deny yourself and follow Christ daily like there's so much of the encounter with Jesus in the Bible about you looking at you and getting yourself right. And there's so much of the internet that I feel like is outward and it's about judging other people and hey let's all talk about what's wrong with this person and look what's wrong with him over there and look at this person and it's not that it's not a place to call out even when call out seeing that's not what I'm saying but I'm saying like we become so consumed with like pointing out like me talking about biggie going to hell I just don't understand the significance of it for me. I didn't even listen to his music like that like he's been dead for like a long time and then it's also like I am not comfortable judging people in that way that I don't know I don't know him meaning I don't know if he had the opportunity the day he died to give his life to cry I don't know and I don't and to me that judgment belongs to Christ to God that judgment belongs to God what I don't need is I don't need me playing a role of like final judgment like yes for sure he's in hell yes for sure that means and it's like why is it always music people why is it always musicians and I don't you know there's other people that go to hell like you know I don't know that was just a very tricky story but I don't easily I don't even want to say believe I just don't easily follow those type of things because in order for me to follow something it has to be some level of significance to it not just like to scare me but it has to be like yo what's the significant takeaway from me in this situation all right so that was that track star story hopefully I ain't make nobody mad it's funny though it is look it is it is very funny that lady was what up what up Elijah like bruh it was the lady was it was weird bruh it was weird I don't anyway I'm gonna move past that but shout out to the track stars all right there's one more I think there's one more thing I want to show y'all I did another interview with the track stars with Ryan Reiches and that is over here so I'm gonna play y'all a little bit of this to see what I was talking about and then this is on an independent artist spotlight I'm gonna have these and if you go to the Inspire Guys people YouTube I'll have these linked below the show so you can check them out but let's go.

Jai Will music in the building the day man this is gonna be exciting we're gonna talk about this time it's different the new album we're gonna talk about what was the hiatus between this album and the last songs that he put out then we also gonna get into what it's like being from Detroit what it's like being in this music scene and how it got to the Jay Z's yeah yeah those are probably kind of the main two when Kanye came with college dropout you know he's like that but in the early days it was just jokes and it was freestyle it really wasn't influenced by anything in particular other than just me enjoying the artboard man that's that's so crazy man I'm it's interesting the way our passions find us right I told you a little story about how I got to my passion and I was just like you I had a cassette tape and I was practicing being a radio DJ loving and I had the mic and I'm just doing a thing and I'm just doing that and and God just breathe on that man did you always did you ever think you were gonna end up doing music for Lord I mean it was prophesied when I was a young team my grandmother I grew up a lot in between home church and my mom's house and in actual you know church you know environment when I went to my dad's house but yeah we were like the word go forth and the Holy Ghost house of faith and Christ and their grandma's basement they said I was gonna travel to work with the music while we're in another and so no it was you know honestly I did a lot I was inquiring school I played drums so I was around music and I come from a music family but no like I would say basketball was my life for him that was what I wanted to do it took me feeling at that to look for other things to you know be interested in okay kind of feeling that who been in the end of high school beginning to college and it's like all right I can't just stop living okay to find other things okay were you trying to make a career through basketball at one time yeah I would never say that I was close yeah you know I don't want to get out here in front it's just that I love hoop and I grew up around hoop and I was always close in nearby like I was one of those almost making it people in college I wasn't on the team but I worked out with the team practice with all my best friends still hoops today overseas so I would I've always been around hoop and in my family but it just never the politics I was never wired in like the right way to actually like make something of it yeah and but I loved it like I was gonna make it that makes sense yeah I noticed that there was a like a hiatus this time is different and and music you put out years ago what was the what was the balance there what made you pause and a great question man you know like I always tell people my music is created off the life I live so sometimes I have to live more life yeah yeah I have more content but really it was this kind of inflection point around like some of it was around a pandemic okay a lot of it was around my career so just being at a stage in life where I'm like all right I put out a project like a little EP right in 2020 in like May now this is like pre-planned right and we get to May and you know all the things happening in the world that's all people cared about and I found myself in a position as a believer trying to talk about Christianity trying to inspire people and that was one of the first times in my life I feel like people don't actually want to be inspired yeah I'm talking christians it was like people want it to be mad and that's probably like the least fanfare project I ever put out and at the same time simultaneously I'm building a corporate career trying to I was at the time trying to get to executive and I decided just to focus on that part of my life my real life um I have like half financial goals and things I wanted to achieve that music just wasn't doing but then you took away like people's interest in the world's thing to get dark for me so I spent the last four four or five years really just focusing on my career focusing on my life doing some podcasts and other things um and then uh find my way back and then it seems like okay young man talk y'all talk to him bro talk your talk young man so that was uh my interview with Ryan righteous again I'm gonna link those interviews on the youtube channel um you know in the show description so you can check it out you know it'll be let's say hour after the show those links to be on youtube on inspire guys people page um and I had a good time again with Ryan righteous and with the whole track stars team just being able to share a little bit about my story but you hear when I said they're right it was um you know in 2020 or yeah I dropped a project called to whom it may inspire that was the when you want to say like nobody rocked with that project and it was crazy because that project ended up coming out in May of 2025 right like the same week of like the George Floyd stuff and that wasn't on purpose obviously I didn't know that was gonna happen but it was like I I was doing what I always did and I remember like when the politics started really heating up going in the 2025 it was like I was fighting it meaning I'm like all right they everybody on this politic and this negative stuff and all this you know pro black and you know anti black and whatever it is everybody was on one side of all these things and I was like all right like I'm gonna just keep I'm gonna keep it about God so whom it may inspire and the whole idea with that project look it up it's something like five songs to whom it may inspire by jay with music um I think you should still listen to it even though it wasn't really I had one song on here I think they're good good enough a lot of people rock with that a lot of views like um and a lot of down a lot of streams on that one song and I did a video for that um me and my wife actually filmed that video with in our on our iPhone in like this open field by this farm and just like recorded this video I edited on my phone and dropped it good enough so check that out but what that project what happened was I was fighting to be about inspiration and fighting to try to keep being keep people inspired and that album came out at the height of the racial tension during covid that was literally if you could tell me a worse time you could not tell me a worse time to put out christian inspirational music than may of 2025 when people were marching when people were mad when people were you know masked up in pandemic and fear and politics and here I was saying to whom it may inspire and the first song is called fated the world what if the fated the world depended on you to be you me to be me Moses the lead Joseph the dream handed a pray for Samuel the priest jonner the pray from the depths of the beast tell me what if it means a night with alliance for Daniel because of his faith like all right so the whole idea was what if the fate of the world what if the fate of the world depended on me to remember I can't remember the word to follow God's lead to stand in the midst of the fallen to try to be a light to pray while they panic stay ready for the fight what if the fate of the world depended on me to walk in my purpose to follow God's lead to stand in the midst of the fallen to try to be a light to pray while they panic stay ready for the fight so I had this song in this project that was all about what if the to fader the world, depending on you, to stand for what you believe in in the midst of everybody else following something else. Least popular product, project I ever put out. I mean, it's like, because when I was making a post and putting out the videos, it was like, it was George Floyd, it was Trump, it was anti-Trump, it was Biden, it was Democrat, Republican, Black Lives Matter and all lives matter and blue lives matter, and it was just the height of all this tension. And I'm just gonna be real with y'all, man.

I was so discouraged, I'm just being real. I was so discouraged because it was like, and I'm gonna tell you who discouraged me. It was when I started looking on my timeline and my Christian friends and people who have followed me for years and who I had looked at as solid believers, and I saw them, I saw them become more passionate about the politics and the racial tensions and almost like say, forget God. Like, and it was like, as I was making my post and talking about, inspiring and like, fate of the world and pray while they panic and don't give in it a fear.

It was like, it was people arguing me, it was people ignoring me. It was challenging internally because I had to like, look, it's easy to stand for what you believe in when everybody's standing with you. But the fact of the matter is, there comes times in life and moments in life, like where you are just standing alone for what you believe in. And I believe those moments can have purpose.