#33 - Ebrima "Abraham" Sisay: Guiding One Billion People to Mental Health Breakthrough

Okay, rapid fire question number three is, if this happens, drop your therapist.

Oh, ooh.

Um, if a therapist is dismissing what you were going through, 100% drop them, because they're therapists like that.

They'll cut you off and try to dismiss the things that you were saying.

So if they're dismissive, drop them.

Yeah, definitely, because it doesn't make sense.

Your job is to help me understand and value those feelings and help me navigate, not just saying, well, no, that's not what's happening.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening to you.

My name is Chris Miller and welcome to the Talk to People Podcast, a weekly show where I sit at this roundtable to talk to a new person about how they improve their life with better conversations, relationships and community.

The whole thesis of this show is that life is better when you talk to people.

And as you talk to people, you become socially fit.

And this social fitness is going to align with your overall health, your outlook on life, and the community around you.

This week, I had the privilege of sitting down with Abraham Sisay, a man who really needs known reduction.

If you're familiar with Kansas City, then more than likely you're familiar with Abraham.

Abraham founded the Freedom Project, which is a cool organization that highlights the importance of mental health.

He is a filmmaker.

He is a content creator.

He is a speaker and a natural friend.

In this episode, you can expect to hear about the dangers of burnout, the importance of therapy, how to find a therapist that fits you, something that may indicate it's time for you to get a new therapist, and how to build a team that supports you while also allows one another to pursue their own goals.

And before we hop in, if you haven't already, go ahead and review the podcast, rate the podcast on however you're listening.

But then if you want, share it with someone who you think is going to need it.

Other than that, let's hop in.

Okay, well, you are officially live in the dining room studio, just like that.

And you have a different hat today.

So let's start there.

Yeah, so I actually got it from my girlfriend.

She bought it as a gift because of my space that's always up and down.

So it's acting as a reminder for me to always remember that they'll always be up and down.

And without rain, they can never be flowers.

And the founder of this company, he's also someone within the community in Kansas City who's always working on all these amazing things.

And he has this like one of the designs is the no rain so flowers, but he has multiple designs.

But this is the one that everyone knows him with.

And one thing that he does is he brings in a bunch of kids from the inner city and they actually make these hats together, which is acting as a hub for just a space for them to meet other people.

So sometimes we bring people like me to come in and talk to all these kids just to make sure that they're out of trouble.

But instead, they're seeing other people that are doing something positive.

So yeah, and that's one of the reasons why I like to support him.

You know, his name is Clark.

You know, we call him Big Clark.

And then, you know, the company.

Oh, yeah, like strong dude.

You know, his company is called Clever.

I believe Clever.

I think it's Clever.

I should know this because I buy the product.

But if you look up Big Clark, you always see him everywhere.

He does his cinematic shots of his videos.

Super talented.

Yeah.

So look him up.

It's funny because whenever I met you, I went and we're hanging out talking.

And it's almost like a lot of the people you know, they have a business venture, but they're also skilled at capturing content.

True, true.

Yeah.

It's like typically those two people are different, but I've seen a lot of hybrids lately.

Right.

It's almost like if you want to survive or succeed in the digital content space, you have to have a business, but also be really good at creating content.

Big time.

Because nowadays we're all like consuming content right now, because you were shooting videos.

There's so many of these videos out there.

But people gravitate to content like this, where you can hear authentic stories and people sharing things that can help someone else watching and how to do X, Y, Z.

At the end of the day, if you're not creating some form of content that people can see, it's really hard to penetrate into any space.

Usually when I meet people like that, I like to go all in because I know how hard it is to set up, to actually find the guests, to editing all the videos and then having to manage the business side of it.

Earlier, we were talking about sponsorship.

If there's any company watching, you need to sponsor this.

This is really dope.

There's a space for water.

Jump on board.

This is my commercial.

Yeah, sponsorships, they're really difficult to come across.

I like to go in and help out as much as I can and share if there's people that I know that could participate or be a guest or a sponsor.

So yeah, it's out there.

There are people out there just creating with no strategy as to what to do.

So whenever I meet people like that, I like to go in and help out because I see myself in every person that's a hybrid, as you said.

Because that's what you've been doing because currently, let's talk about your projects and we'll just kind of go from there.

But we'll start with the Freedom Project.

And that was founded in?

2017.

2017.

How old were you in 2017?

Officially, it was founded in 2017.

But you were working on it prior to that.

But I was working on it as a side project and I never really wanted to do it full time because it's mental health.

And back then, I was holding back myself to share my own story.

So I felt like I was just talking about mental health by using other people's story, but I was afraid to even share my own story.

Until 2019 is, sorry, 2017 to 2019 is when I started telling my own story.

And then that's when I started seeing people that knew me back then will say, Oh, my God, this was happening to you.

Like we didn't know.

And then some people like this also happened to me.

And I'm gonna say, Oh, crap, this is I should do this full time.

Like this is like impacting other people on a daily basis.

But here I am, like withholding my story, right?

And not sharing why I'm doing what I'm doing.

And the moment that happened, that's when things changed.

Like when I started talking about my why, the reason why I was talking about mental health and how I was impacted, how people in my circle were impacted, I decided, okay, it's time to do this full time.

And that's how the Freedom Project became an actual thing.

And the name Freedom Project came from a show that I was watching on, I think, on like YouTube or somewhere.

And then this guy was like, freedom in America is a toxic version of what freedom really is.

And I was like, that's deep.

Like, oh my God, okay, how can I use this to make sure that I can communicate that to people, that one sentence, but then using the word freedom as a project, which, you know, like infinitely, it's always going to be in progress.

Like the fun will be in the process as we're figuring out what really is freedom.

But the goal is to talk about mental health.

So kind of like masking mental health underneath freedom, because everybody want to be free, right, at the end of the day.

But we don't necessarily know what are, you know, how do we get to freedom?

And which to me, it's like mental, you know, it's not with your mental health, because if you have a crappy mental health, you don't project any positivity towards people.

You don't care whether people are free or not.

To you, you were just in a bad state and you project that wherever you go.

So that's why I decided to use the word freedom.

I think I'm eventually going to rebrand it to something else, but I want to accomplish that first and then rebrand it to something simple.

Because Freedom Project sometimes comes with a...

There are some drawbacks as to some companies where when they have Freedom Project, they're like, what is this?

Some far right movement and they see me, they're like, oh, okay, this is weird.

What is this?

Some far left?

I was like, it's not political at all.

But even though we work on legislation now, but I figured out if we can accomplish anything, we need to pass bills.

So now, Freedom Project, it keeps changing from, to your point, a hybrid.

I feel like I'm projecting what the things that I do into it now and all the other people that I come across, they're all hybrids.

So Freedom Project does films, documentaries.

Now we're doing legislation, events to bring in all of these people that we meet on a daily basis in order to make change.

Yeah, why wouldn't you?

Especially if that's naturally you.

Because it's that whole entire idea of it takes us a while.

I know with the podcast, I would talk about building relationships because that's crucial for mental wellness.

Having good people in your life.

That way you can endure the bad days and enjoy the good days.

With the social infrastructure, it's crucial.

But it took you a while to start talking about your own story.

Similar to me, I'd be on the podcast asking people questions and I'd be like I'm grateful they're not asking me that question.

You're like, thank God.

Which is so backwards.

Then I went to go guest on a podcast and they were asking me questions.

I was like, wow, it gave me a lot more grace as a host, but also it encouraged me, be you, share your stuff.

For you, what was it, therapy that gave you the courage to start sharing?

What happened?

No, it was my ex-girlfriend.

She was always demanding for me to open up.

Back then, I didn't understand what that meant because, again, I grew up in West Africa and the relationship that I had with my parents was more like a general and his son.

Yes sir, no sir.

That's the environment.

What about your mom and dad?

No, my dad, but my mom as well.

She doesn't really have the language to help me navigate.

Even though she was very graceful, she was always there whenever something would happen between me and my dad.

After the fact, she would come and apologize because she can't really do anything.

The dynamic of my family back then, it was like the dad was everything.

He was God, he was the king.

Is that how it is in West Africa most of the time?

Yeah.

It's a patriarch life.

Yes, the dad is up and then he decides what we're going to do, all of the things.

The mom is kind of like the supporter, kind of like Batman or Robin.

Batman sometimes will always overwrite whatever Robin wants to do.

That's the dynamic that I grew up in.

Communication wise, I lacked the skills.

I also had a really bad stutter due to all the suppressed emotion.

I actually had to stutter due to a bunch of trauma that I experienced as a kid.

We can get into that.

I don't know what your audience mindset, state of mind is.

Me having all that baggage, going to a relationship with someone from the US, the first white woman I've ever dated, and she always wanted to talk about being yourself.

I was like, what the heck?

What do you mean be yourself?

Like, leave me alone.

But then she was very demanding that.

I'm using demanding in a positive context, because she was like, if I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I need to know who you are.

And I was like, I don't even know who I am.

To me, I'm just here to study because my parents told me so.

So she kind of inspired me to get that out of me, wanting me to share who I am and tell me.

She would always tell me who she is.

And I was like, I know who you are, but I don't really know.

Even down to me dating her came from the fact that she was the first person who said, I love you.

And to me, I was like, this is weird.

Because I've never been told by my parents that I love you.

I've never even heard my parents tell each other, I love you.

So to me, someone saying, I love you, I didn't even realize how big it was until I heard her say that.

And so I said, okay, what is this?

What do you mean?

I love you.

It was such a big gesture for me when that happened.

And that was the reason why I even decided to date her because of that.

Because it kind of sparked my curiosity and opened new avenues for me to explore who I am.

Because now someone else loved me.

And they gave me this space to be myself and was always asking me questions about me.

And I was like, I've never had anyone be interested in me at all.

But then, over time, obviously she got burnt out because I was as stubborn as a rock.

Because it takes me a while to process things and I don't know who I am, but she wants me to talk about who I am.

And she did her best and eventually she kind of gave me an ultimatum and said, you either go see a therapist or I'm out because I'm tired.

And I was like, okay, cool.

So I literally went to therapy with the mindset of like, can you tell me how I can get my girl back?

And then the therapist back then, I remember she would always laugh whenever I would say that.

And I was like, no, I'm serious.

I want to get this girl back.

She's the first person who made me feel this way and gave me access to all of these things that I've never experienced before.

How can I get my girl back?

And then the therapist will always just tell me, well, cool.

We're going to work on that.

But first, tell me about your childhood.

I was like, what are you talking about?

You're like two different subjects.

Oh, yeah.

My brain was automatically like, no, I want to talk about this girl that I've been dating.

And I want her back.

And she was like, no, tell me about your childhood.

And then little by little, I was like, well, I grew up in Africa.

She said, how was that?

I was like, I don't know.

It was Africa.

What do you want to know?

Can we go back to this girl that's going to leave me?

And I was saying things like, she's probably dating someone right now.

So hurry up.

That's why now I talk about domestic violence because of that, the things that I discovered while in therapy, understanding me having this expectation on her and then feeling like she was mine because she made me feel this way.

And over time, through therapy, I was able to learn that even the reason why I dated her is not because I love her.

I love the idea of being with her because she made me feel loved for the first time ever.

And now I expected her to love me all the time.

I expected her to be my everything.

And while in therapy is when I learned that all of my behavior led to her leaving because down to her giving up friendships to be with me because I would feel uncomfortable whenever there are other people that I don't know.

Even her hugging people was weird to me because back in Africa, I've never experienced that before.

So I was able to learn all of that in therapy and I was like, so I'm the problem this whole time?

Are you telling me?

So that's why foundationally with the Freedom Project, therapy is such a big concept for people to seek whenever I talk about mental health because to me, it works for me.

But I'm talking about in a way that even though it works for me, doesn't mean that it will work for you because you don't understand how to access therapy.

For example, whenever you break your arm and you go to the hospital and without knowing what doctor to speak to, you have to go through the whole intake process before you see the actual doctor.

You have to figure out how did this happen, blah, blah, blah.

But you could be at a skin doctor and not know that that's not the right doctor, but you will see them anyway and you pay for all of those other extra things that you're doing.

Insurance would pay for it.

If you don't have insurance, you have to pay for it.

And then you go see the doctor and realize, oh, that's the wrong doctor.

And he's like, oh, well, I don't do this.

How about you go to this other doctor that actually practice with your bone and be able to put a cast on it.

But all that time wasting is what's happening in mental health.

People will go and see the wrong therapist.

That's basically talking about family or dysfunction.

But they're dealing with something else, like trauma or PTSD.

They're not talking to someone who is specialized.

But they've spent the whole time going through the intake process.

They get burnt out.

And sometimes a lot of therapists, they don't have like continuum of care, so they don't really share who to go see, because to them, oh, I'm not the right therapist.

We've done three sessions.

But this is not working.

And the user or the patient will say, I'm out.

And they build that stigma over time.

So that's why with Freedom Project, the goal is to educate people on how to see a therapist, not just go and see a therapist.

Go and see a therapist.

A lot of people say that, but they don't tell you who to go see, because they don't even know what you are struggling with.

You, the individual, don't know what you are struggling with, and then you just go to Better Health.

Better Health, can you sponsor this?

And then they go and just see a therapist who is not specialized in what you are dealing with, because you don't know what you are dealing with.

Therapist has to talk to you different times before they actually know how to properly diagnose you.

So it takes time.

So that's why I'm trying to get rid of that space through the Freedom Project by making sure that whenever you pick up a phone to speak to a therapist, it's the right therapist for you.

Same with healthcare.

I'm trying to apply the same standard to mental health care, because that's how it should be.

It's just that there's so much stigma to get to that.

So yeah, I kind of lost my chin.

No, that's a great point.

And I hadn't thought about that, but you're right, because for a lot of people, going to see the therapist is like, okay, I've done it.

Yeah.

And it takes a long time to get there.

Right?

Like, particularly for you, you're saying to get the therapist took you a while and then you show up and the therapist is laughing at you.

Yeah, I know.

Like I still take that personally, you know, and we can talk about this, but the event that just got canceled, I took it so personal because the guy laughed while we were on the phone.

And then maybe, you know, it was just not like, You don't have to name them, but like, so I can understand.

So the Kauffman Center event that I put together is a big event, like 500 people, 30,000 people registered online to watch it.

We had people all over the US flying in, like, you know, even like representative from like Wonder Mind, you know, Selena Gomez's mental health agency.

All these people were like interested in coming and I was ready to host one of the biggest things that happened in the Midwest and then the event got canceled.

And you know, I remember talking to the guy trying to like, like tell him, hey, this is really important for the community, blah, blah, blah.

And at some point he laughed and I took that really hurt me.

I literally told him, I'm going to get off the phone now and I'll call you back because I had practiced with therapy and whenever things hurt, get me personally, I get off the phone because sometimes it's not even about that.

It's because of something that happened a long time ago that triggered that.

So I literally got off the phone.

I said, I'll call you back.

Give me like an hour.

I get back to you.

I literally get off the phone, sat down like, why the heck did this bother me?

And I started processing and I'm saying, okay, I'm not going to call him back in an hour.

I'll call him the next day.

Actually I ended up emailing, I'll call you Monday now because I'm still, I'm not ready to talk to this guy.

Yeah.

It's still an open case.

Yeah, it is.

It's still open.

Whenever I get to it, I'll get to it and then I'm going to make sure I'm in the right head space to talk to him because to me, when people laugh, it literally gets to me.

Like, it's the only thing that can break my shell or the fedora that I use it over.

Yeah.

Have you seen those memes with Michael Jordan and it says, and I took that personally?

No, I actually did a photo of me doing the same thing in a documentary and I put it on my Facebook and I said, and I took it personal.

Yeah.

And he's like, his stories are so funny.

It's like, someone beat me in pool and I took that personally.

And then he trains for three years and then came back beating everybody.

But that drive.

No, same here.

I think a lot of things personally but quiet.

And then I actually, because at the same time, I respect them for being able to do that, but I'll go back and train and like learn, like even film, I shot a video a long time ago and a guy taught it was garbage and some random people on the internet.

And I was like, okay.

And I went back and learned and I came back.

Now I produce documentaries, films that are like 60 person crews because of that person said that even though I've kind of gotten over it, I said kind of because every now and then I was like, this video is not good enough.

Because you're still fairly competitive.

Oh, yes.

Yes.

Very, very, very competitive.

I had an older brother who was always telling me that I was garbage.

So I always had to like try to be the best all the time.

And soccer.

Oh, yes.

And soccer, so he was like two grades above me.

And then I actually skipped two grades and I went above him.

Played with his team?

No, just to show him that I'm better than you.

Like I like skipped two different grades and I was above him and he hated that.

In school in general?

Yeah, school.

Yeah.

I was like, you know what?

You know, because I felt like he was making it difficult for me because every class that I go to with the same last name as my older brother, he was the bad kid in school, quote unquote, bad, whatever that he's just active.

And then I'll be going after him and then they're like, oh, that's another Sisay.

And they'll always expect the worst.

I felt like I was always rewriting, you know, the identity portion of our last name.

I come in and I get the good grades and they're like, oh, he's actually a really good kid.

And then I was like, but then I always have the expectation from the teachers of all the damage that he caused.

And then I was like, okay, what can I do?

And I literally went and I remember, you know, in like grade six or something, I, because in Africa, I don't know whether it's the same in the US, we kind of grade students based off of the like hierarchy from first, you know, the first position all the way to whatever, you know, the number of people in class.

So I remember, you know, sixth grade, the first, actual fourth grade, the first term, I was like number 22 in class, and then the second time I went second.

And then the third time I went first.

And then that's when they skipped me to sixth grade.

And then sixth grade, I also had like first position in each and every term.

And this, you know, I didn't go to seven, I went straight to eight.

And that's when I went over my brother, which was awesome.

And then but that also had an impact to a kid's mental state.

If you keep skipping them over and over again, because they're not in the same age group anymore, they're like two age groups.

And I was a lot smaller.

So that's when I started experiencing bullying.

Like those kids will bully the shit out of me.

Because you're small?

Yeah, because I was smaller and I skipped two grades automatically.

I'm a nerd to them.

And you know, they expected me to do all these things.

A small nerd.

Yeah.

And then I was younger, like a lot younger than all of them.

So to me, I kind of look up to them because they're these big kids that are cool.

And I'll just carry their backpacks and follow them all over the school.

But then they would tease me all the time.

But to me, I don't really care because I'm hanging out with the cool kids.

At least I'm here.

Right?

No, exactly.

So, but yeah, that's the story of how I'm very competitive.

And you and I have...

So I was in my brother's footprint shoes.

I had to...

Shadow.

Yeah.

I had to match his performance because he was the whiz kid up until about high school.

And that's whenever he started falling off.

But I had a weird moment with my older brother.

And I don't know if it's similar for you because I know we've mentioned it a little bit, but my older brother ended up being diagnosed with schizophrenia.

And there was a moment where me as a younger brother, I almost had to transcend him and be the older brother to take care of him.

So it was like this really weird thing.

I always wanted to be competitive and overtake my brother.

But then it hit a point to where I was actually caring for my brother and like acting as the older brother, which is really interesting.

Yep.

No, yeah, I did experience that because at some point, we also found out that my older brother had a severe mental delay with him, but we had no idea.

And this is something that I didn't even know.

I remember he would always get sent to the mental facility because of his behavior was so different from everyone else.

And this happened also during while he was in high school.

Maybe I've contributed to this because I was always like, I'm there.

We would fight all the time, but that's what siblings do.

But at some point, he was admitted to the mental hospital because he had a fight with my dad, just attacked him.

And then also at some point, my mom had people in the house and he just showed up and walked past them, didn't say anything, went to the bathroom, picked up a bucket full of water, came back down with a towel and just started taking bath in front of everybody.

And that's when they actually admitted him to the mental facility because usually they take him to the hospital and get admitted.

And the doctor's like, we don't know what to do because no one even considers to check his mental state.

But to them, just to turn his crazy started coming up a lot more, to a point, even other kids in the neighborhood will tell me that your brother is crazy.

He did this and everybody would be laughing.

And I would laugh too because I don't know how to react to that.

I don't want to be the one they get cast out to because my brother is being cast out.

So I didn't really have the resources or to know how to navigate all that.

And I don't know why I became the older brother because I have six other siblings that are younger.

So now I became the person that was like the older brother, even down to like family expectations.

Even me coming here to the US was for me to study and then go back and work at my dad's company.

But that was all for my older brother.

But now that he's no longer in line, everything came down to me.

So yeah, I was dealing with a lot of expectations.

I don't really know how to handle it.

And to me, that kind of annoyed me, the fact that he's no longer responsible.

I was like, what the heck, man?

Oh yeah, like a cop out kind of.

And growing up, that was very, it was something that I battled with for a very long time.

But I didn't have grace for him until when I actually went and saw a therapist and learned about mental health.

And I was like, wait, that's what my brother was dealing with.

Like, so this is what he's dealing with and no one told us about it.

And even till today, he still experienced it because I talk to him a lot and he always changes his number because he thinks someone is spying on him and listening to him.

And now he's a lot older.

He's always also moving from, I don't even know where he is honestly, but somehow he always figures out how to call me, which is crazy.

And so, yeah, I mean, it's something that I'm learning as I'm navigating the mental health space and learning about myself and having that grace for him in turn.

And down to even my family, because even till today, they don't understand why I'm doing this.

Me sharing my story includes them in a very big facet.

And that also is not the best time to have a conversation with them because at the end of the day, they're part of my story.

So there's the weird gray line that like, who, when do I stop?

So hard, right?

Because it's your story.

Yeah.

So you should be able to share it.

And I feel the same way talking about my brother or my family.

I recently had my mom on and she was talking about being in a family with alcohol, but the alcohol is my dad.

So it's like, I don't want to talk bad about my dad, but that's part of my story, right?

Or like my brother, I don't want to talk bad about my brother.

So in Gambia, was therapy popular?

Nope, nope, not at all.

I don't, I don't, I mean, maybe now, because it's been almost 11 years since I left.

But back then, therapy was not a common, like there's not special people that specialize.

Was it done by the pastor?

Yeah, usually it's the imam, because it's very heavy in Muslim and Christian is and it's usually the church or the mosque, you know, super like religious and sometimes they'll give you stuff for you to drink.

Yeah, literally pray for you.

It's so intense.

Like, you know, so that was my reality.

Like whenever you hear someone has a mental issue and in Gambia, it's usually very bad, like negative connotation that comes with it.

And usually the picture that I see, I saw growing up is some guy in the corner or a lady in the corner with really dirty dreadlocks, you know, they have some kind of something that is sniffing on, similar to Skid Row in like Los Angeles.

Just the bottom.

Yeah.

It's really bad.

Like you see like a woman naked running around, you know, the block, people are laughing.

Literally this was the image of mental health for me.

So that's why when my ex told me to go see a therapist, I was offended because then I was like, I'm not crazy.

What the heck do you mean see a therapist?

So it, you know, I went and saw one because to her, it was so serious that she wanted to leave.

And I'm saying, well, if this person says he loved me and wants to leave, I don't want that.

Because I've never had anyone told me that they love me and then want to leave.

That's weird.

So that was the reason why I went and seek a, you know, like a counselor and learn.

And I was able to learn all of these things about myself.

And you know, one thing led to another.

Now it became like a full time thing.

Like, that's all I do now.

I'm always out there just figuring out how to pass a bill or to do an event where I can bring all these individuals that can help make that a possibility when it comes to legislation and also do all these videos and put it out so that people can know how to identify who to talk to when they go see a therapist.

It sounds simple, but it's not.

No, it doesn't sound simple at all.

It sounds really like you have a lot going on.

And it's good that you learn about mental health because if you didn't have any knowledge of it, then I imagine you, like many people, if we don't take care of it, we get crushed and all of our ambitions, all of the things you're currently working on, all of the projects go by the wayside.

And we don't know why.

It's like, why don't I have the energy to do this?

Why don't I feel hopeful?

Why don't I feel like I'm able to conquer this?

When really we are very mentally unstable and we have to reestablish stability.

So I'm grateful that you have all of the knowledge, particularly because you could also, and I imagine you think about this all the time, but culture really dictates the way like expectations and relationships.

So whenever you move to the west, you have this girl talking about self-disclosure and sharing your story.

And you're like, no, no, no, no, that's not something we do.

Right.

So like learning how to do that.

And then when she says she's going to leave, you're like, oh man, fearful because this just unlocked a new thing in your life.

Right.

And she was the one who had the key.

Right.

So exactly.

Yeah.

It's like the key holder leaving like, no, no, no, don't take the key.

But therapy gives you the words and the knowledge to be able to understand that it's up to you.

Right.

And unpacking all of that.

I know it's, you know, super, super like powerful.

That's why I let it with my friends.

Whenever they come to me and like want to talk about something.

And I was like, it sounds like you need to go see a therapist, bro, like, and I can help you.

And I'll literally send them on it because I know them.

They're my friends.

So I can tell, like, you know, I can not diagnose them, but I can tell this will be a perfect fit someone to talk to.

And I'll literally like I have text messages of friends that I'm like sending like a matchmaker for therapists.

No, exactly.

I'll send them like five different.

I was like, all right, this one specialized in this, but I think they can talk to you in this capacity.

This other one will be perfect because of their background and your background makes very well.

I'll literally do all of that and then match them.

And then eventually they'll like tell me, oh, that was awesome.

Like I felt like I was talking to my mom or a friend.

This is awesome.

Like, thank you.

And you know, I'm actually building a software now because of that matchmaking.

Because during COVID, I actually sat down on in my bedroom, I created a little office space there where I became a call center for mental health.

So basically the 988, I was doing that during COVID, because all the videos that I was doing over the past, like since 27, I always put my phone number and I've never changed my phone number 8167396498.

And then I also put an email info at alcambacs.com and no one ever responded to it.

And I was like, no, I'll never use this.

And COVID came, it was going crazy.

Like my, you know, the phone is in my back somewhere.

And I have to turn it off after five and put it in the store.

Because even till today, I will still get people call that number and say, hey, I was watching this video that you post on YouTube and I heard like someone in the video talking about dysfunction.

And it sounds like something that I'm very familiar with.

Is this what I'm experiencing?

Can you help me find a therapist?

It got so big that I hired a call center to help me reroute those calls.

Like it was crazy during COVID, which also impacted me and my because back then I had a three year old and doing all I would just be on the desk and he would just be there.

And I was like, this is bad.

Let me get some help.

And now that help, I decided to build a software where we can match people to a therapist using things that they already do, like entertainment, streaming.

People are always streaming.

The reason why Facebook is so successful, Netflix is because they understand human behavior.

They understand why we watch something.

That's why when they recommend something 98%, you're like, how the heck do they know this?

Because you've spent so much hours on their platform, clicking this, doing this.

All of those have some tracking codes, some UTMs that's listening to you.

It's like a therapist.

Those technologies constantly watching your watch history, or if it's Facebook, seeing how you're navigating those platforms and then using all of those data points to find the perfect product.

That's why we keep seeing the things that we like on social media.

And then they say, oh, the algorithm is, how does he know me?

Someone is spying.

There's more thousands of algorithms in this platform.

It's not just one.

And they all have different purposes because we are telling those platforms what we want without even knowing it.

And they're building algorithms to make sure that they match those behaviors.

So I'm using that same type of technology to create it for mental health, where I'll build a streaming platform, mix it with e-learning, because that's what's been working on during COVID.

All those e-learning videos that I would share, people will call and want to see a therapist.

So imagine if you had a Netflix that looks like Masterclass at the same time, but whatever you're watching, instead of Netflix saying, are you still there?

We say, we found a perfect therapist for you, or the perfect counselor for you, the perfect, down to like spirituality.

I've broken it down to spirituality.

Like, actually, I call it spiritual well-being, mental well-being, emotional well-being, and physical well-being.

But they'll always just get bigger the more we know who the individuals are and how they're navigating the platform.

And in true that, we will match them with it.

If it's a spiritual person, we'll match them with a therapist who has that background, because they'll more likely open to that person.

If it's someone who is very big in physical well-being, then we'll match them with a therapist who has that background.

So in the platform, I'm building the marketplace where there's a bunch of therapists that I'm signing on.

And that's why I'm about to go on a tour all over the US to individually meet therapists as I'm traveling all over the US talking about suicide and also trauma.

Because I was able to get T-Mobile to jump on board.

And we're still talking about details, but I'm putting it out there.

I'm hoping they will sponsor a whole tour bus.

Because I did music in the past and I toured a little bit.

So I have an experience with how impactful touring is.

And I want to use that experience to apply to mental health, where we can meet people in every state that we go to and then do the listening series, which is an event that I do, where I give away people mental health starter kits in a box.

But we use music from Kendrick Lamar, J.

Cole to talk about trauma.

And then the T-Rex walk is a T-Rex costume focused on suicide awareness.

Which got on the news.

It got on the news when I did it.

I even got someone from New York reached out and they're like, hey, we saw this.

How can we bring it to New York?

So I'm using all of those interests and presenting to T-Mobile, hey, I have this happening.

We have no plan for PR.

We just knew it's going to work and we did it and it worked.

And then now we're getting calls from New York.

We got a call from Boston.

We got a call from, I believe, like Chicago as well.

And I was like, how can you help us take this on a tour?

And this is what T-Mobile can get out of it.

And they're like, this is awesome.

Like, we would love to be a part of it.

And so now we're just working on the details, figuring out how it would make sense in their budget.

They literally told me, we are a 30 billion company.

We can do this.

I was like, cool.

I just need 0.02% of your marketing budget.

That's like $8 million.

But to them, 0.02 is like nothing compared to how much they spend, like $22 billion on marketing.

Sorry, $2 billion on marketing.

It's like crazy.

T-Mobile.

Yeah, T-Mobile, just US.

They spend $2 billion in marketing and they have a $30 billion company.

So they can do that.

It's nothing to them.

So I'm hoping with all of these things that I'm doing, traveling all over the US, meeting counselors, hiring them to be part of the listening series, we will build that relationship, number one, and then telling them the platform that I'm building and why they need it on that platform.

Instead, they'll be a partner on the platform as well.

And I'm actually building an equity pool to give away to all those therapists as they jumping on board.

For the platform.

Yeah, for the platform, because at the end of the day, I want to build a solution where we can actually have longevity with those therapists and actually help them be successful.

But then also giving them the space to be able to have their own schedule, do their own things.

Even down to the film premieres that I'm building now as a sample, the future, the goal is to have a Grammys, but for therapists, for like doctors, nurses, therapists, all the healthcare people, they'll be getting awards based of how they worked on the platform, how many people they've impacted on all of that.

Every year, once a year, we're going to do a big film premiere of a film that's about to be on the platform or a film that got very successful.

And then we will bring all those therapists and give them awards.

That's the goal for it.

And it's a, just like Netflix, you hop on, and there's entertainment for you to consume.

And are all of these movies or TV shows related to mental health in some way?

Or is it anything?

Every movie is related to mental health.

That's what I was able to find out.

Writers are writing about stories every day.

And depending on how weird or whimsical the stories are, at the end of the day, they're writing about their own individual stories.

It's like Batman related to mental health.

Batman is traumatized as heck.

He lost his parents.

Yeah.

And the reason why people that are into Batman, it's because they can relate to that in some capacity.

So those data points can tell the AI or all the algorithms that, hey, this person has been watching Batman.

He's watching all of these Avengers stuff.

There's something telling us that maybe there's a pattern as to their behavior and how they consume content.

And then we're going to have a soft intro as to nudging, because every person's Netflix account is different.

So your account on the platform is called Forum.

It's almost done.

I'm just taking my time.

F-O-R-U-M.

And with that, it's going to start nudging e-learning videos underneath your recommended because of those films that you keep watching.

And those e-learning videos will be a master class type videos where you're learning about, if you keep watching videos about trauma or drama, all of these trauma drama, there's likely there's something in your subconscious is making you watch all those videos without you even being aware of it.

And through that e-learning, they'll be more open to even speaking to a therapist.

And I think we're giving them 14 to 30 days as we learn about them.

And eventually, we will open the connection with therapists.

But hey, we notice if you're watching this, here's a therapist that matches who you are.

We would pay for the first three sessions.

So every subscription that comes in 3% will go into a nonprofit that I created with one of my old-time clients.

I probably shouldn't say old-time clients because she would get offended.

Yeah, a long-time client.

And her goal was to always build a nonprofit where she can help assist people, assist all the time.

And so we build a nonprofit where all of the subscription 3% will go into that nonprofit as a fund for all the people in the platform.

Whenever you want to use a therapist, we will cover up to three months of sessions.

And then if you feel like this is for you, then you can continue your sessions.

And then the therapist fund will act as an insurance eventually, where half of that will cover half of your sessions.

The subscription fee.

Yeah, exactly.

So you pay a subscription fee and then you would get access to the entertainment.

Yeah, the entertainment and the e-learning.

Yeah, and the e-learning.

Everything is combined on the one platform.

And then how do you categorize which therapist would be best for what?

Oh, yeah.

So I'm actually hiring the therapist to work on categorizing because it's so wild when it comes to category, how vast it is when it comes to therapists.

There are therapists that are literally focused on film and entertainment.

So they're actually coming on board to help me create all of those different categories in order for us to perfectly match people, because that's not my specialty at all.

So I'm bringing all these individuals on the journey to help us properly categorize all these different people and all different categories when it comes to film, because film is always categorized.

Even when you purchase mass films, they will tell you, okay, this film is categorized as a drama.

This is kind of a trailer, you know, sci fi.

So they already have the categories already.

And then we're using the therapist and their specialties and their modalities.

It matches perfectly with film stories.

Like a therapist can go down to even entertainment.

They have experience in that.

And there's a category that's entertainment.

So we will use all those categories and their specialties.

Like right now, if you go to Psychology Today and you just have a therapist, they'll show you all of their categories.

It's so packed when it comes to data, all those platforms.

So, they already have a system out there that's already working.

It's just not matched.

You can use their system or better help system, you can go in.

I'm not sure whether Better Help will open because they're VC funded, they're very big.

So that's less collaborative aspect to that.

But eventually in the future, who knows, we could eventually acquire them.

I'm saying acquire because it makes sense.

Or they can even build a streaming platform because they already have the market size or everything, or they can end up acquiring Freedom Project depending on what their business model and who's running it because I don't want it to become a big ass VC driven company.

So that's why I'm also funding it myself.

It just depends on the VC company because if I find someone who has the same belief that I do and then have the same drive towards human longevity, then I'll probably open to letting them coming on board as an investor, but I haven't met that person yet.

So far, I've talked to, usually I get approached by investors a lot because I'm always everywhere in Kansas City, so they're like, want to know what I do and I'll tell them, this is amazing.

But to me, it's usually I talk to them while I'm testing them the same time, I tell them all the cool stuff and then see, and then tell them all the heavy stuff and see which one they gravitate to.

If they dismiss all of the other things that are actually the background, the backbone of the platform, then I'm not going to, I don't even continue that conversation.

If they're like Netflix software, ooh.

Yeah, they're like, ooh, like, yeah, like, how can we be involved?

And then you mention trauma and they're like.

Yeah, and then all the heavy story, they can't even handle it.

So I usually dump them all of my story too, just to see how they take it.

And then it's like, if they can't, I'm like, ah, yeah, this is not going to work.

This is not the right person.

Good for you though.

Because some people would just take it and be like, try and introduce what your true heart is.

And then this is all virtual therapy.

What's your thoughts on virtual versus in-person therapy?

I mean, I've tried both and it always works for me.

I think at the end of the day is down to the person and how they're open to trying that.

And that's why I feel like the education, not even feel, believe that the education is so important.

Because people usually people are going to try it because someone forced them to do it.

And if you force someone to do anything, they will go into it with with stigma.

They don't care.

They will probably try to prove you wrong that this doesn't work.

And that's why to me in my process, even though my I was forced into it, but I went into it with like that drive to get someone back.

And I found all these other things.

And I'm like, wow, this is amazing.

But not everyone experienced that.

Or maybe I just I'm just a very open minded person personally.

So sometimes, you know, luck played in me being where I am today.

But I've worked my ass up, like constantly trying to figure out chasing, like learning.

And you know, that's part of my personality.

Whenever I put my mind to something, I'll make sure I achieve it down to like me and all the brother me skipping two graves just to show him that I can do this.

You know, so but when it comes to other people trying to therapist, you know, I want to make sure that with Forum or Freedom Project, they can go into it with their own like, hey, I'm going into this because I want to better myself, not because someone is forcing me to do so.

You know, and that's why the platform is designed in a way that is nudging.

You can watch your films.

You can do whatever you want.

You know, we're meeting people where they're at and simply introducing e-learning as a recommended video.

You may like this.

And then if they like it, then we're like, all right, we actually want to talk to a person.

And even, you know, the way that I'm adding therapist, I'm like localizing the whole process.

If you want to meet a therapist, we will only match you with a therapist in your own community as well.

So if that's an option to do virtual or in person, because at the end of the day, I want to be able to give people the option that works for them, not what I think would work for them.

So that's the problem in Facebook.

They just recommend stuff that they think will work for you, but sometimes it becomes like a bother because you were just like, oh my God, this is annoying.

He's like, you need therapy or a therapy.

I can tell.

I wonder what, so with COVID, one of the big impacts of COVID was it revealed to us how important the healthcare worker was, the nurse, the doctor, the nurse assistant, you name it.

And I think recently after COVID, what the after effects of COVID is revealing to us is how important mental health is to us.

So, COVID had a lot of healthcare workers leave healthcare because it was so hard and they were so oppressed.

But then it also had a lot of kids say, I want to go to med school now because I realized how important a doctor is.

So now that after COVID, we're seeing that effects of loneliness or just not being around people or not having proper mental health.

I wonder if people are like, ooh, I need to be a therapist.

And it's like, how do we get more people to be therapists?

Because if more people seek therapy, which I think they should, then we're going to need more therapists.

Right?

No, absolutely.

No, I actually did a whole project with UMKC because during COVID, one of the things that I saw, to your point, like healthcare workers were leaving because they're burned out.

They felt like they weren't compensated properly with the work that they're doing.

And they're disrespected by their own doctors.

And so like nurses were leaving.

They would rather do a traveling nurse than stay in a hospital because it's more beneficial for them to be a traveling nurse, even though it's very risky because you can make a mistake that can come back to you 10 years and you could lose your license for it.

Oh, wow.

But they'll rather take that risk than deal with staying with one hospital.

So, even KU, the reason why I had a partnership with them is focused on that, telling stories within the hospital to figure out why the nurses were living.

We all know why.

They weren't paying them enough.

But the nurses want it.

Most of those nurses are not doing it because of money.

They love taking care of people.

And the compensation act is a way to complement the work that they're doing because it's hard.

The amount of things that they see on a daily basis, that's not normal, but they show up every day to do that.

So when COVID came, it just kind of was a moment for them to just realize how unappreciated they were and most of them left.

So I went to UMKC and I told them, hey, we have a problem right now and we have a lot of kids that are in your psychology classes, that are going to mental health and you guys are not doing anything for them.

They're just home, taking online classes.

I want to help.

I'm going to do a virtual event.

So the first launch of Freedom Project's last forum was with UMKC.

I brought in therapists on the call.

I brought in ateliers from chiefs because I figured the kids will be more likely to show up if you bring that.

So they will have questions.

But you know, we had like, I think, 60 plus students show up.

It was amazing.

Like this was virtual during COVID, you know, you know, and it's after virtual died because virtual was like everybody was on the virtual and then people got tired of it.

And we had all the students show up and then they had so many questions.

And, you know, that's when that's when I was able to learn about how they even communicated so different from us.

And I was like, dang, I'm old.

What the heck?

I was like, my sister says all these things.

I didn't realize she was dealing with all of these things.

And but but like when it comes to the education, one of the kids just kind of just said something which blew my mind.

You know, she was like, I think the best way for mental health is just to start at the young age because she was like, if I was in pre K, and I was learning about mental health my whole life, instead of coming to college and deciding to learn it, I would be more more open to do this full time because healthcare, they're teaching kids at a very young age, introducing them to, you know, the human body like super young, and they're telling them what this is, what this is, what this is.

If we start building curriculum at a young age where kids can learn about mental health from pre K all the way, the entire, you know, education, you know, lifetime, they will be more likely or they'll also grow up saying I want to be a therapist, because it's cool, they're learning it in school.

So that's why I'm like working with the state of Missouri and Kansas to pass a bill which is going to change the curriculum or add into their curriculum and make it a requirement for kids to learn about mental health at every level.

So from pre K, they'll have a curriculum for that first grade, second, third, fourth, all the way to sixth grade, so that we can introduce them slowly into the human brain because it's amazing.

But do it in a way that is super fun at pre K and eventually graduate them through the curriculum.

So that's what I've been working on with the city because I want to make sure that kids are growing up saying, I want to be a therapist.

Like someone say, I want to be a football player.

I want to be a therapist.

And maybe I'll be a therapist to fix your brain when you're done in your career.

So you know, so that's what I'm working on.

And it's so wild that the support is so lacking that I'm having to create all these extravagant strategies just to get it funded because the city, they don't do well with funding entrepreneurs.

They just, they suck, honestly.

And then, you know, the people with the money, if you're not a nonprofit, they don't even want to talk to you because they, you know, they do all this funding, but at the end of the day, it's a tax rider for them.

You'll find one person who actually genuinely believe and they'll go all in, but that's hard to find because they're getting all of the offers.

They're burnt out.

Everybody knows they'll go all in.

Everybody knows the good ones.

And then, I'm not saying they're bad, but they're more focused on the bottom line.

Like, how can I get the big tax incentives?

Okay, let's go find this foundation that that's like 16,000 nonprofits in Kansas City and only 20 of them get all the funding.

Like that's how bad it is.

So all the voter people are just figuring out using their own paychecks to do things that they genuinely believe in.

And it's incredibly hard for them to find funding.

And that's why I didn't go down the nonprofit route.

I just built a media company because my background, I've always been in media from soccer, you know, I did advertising for Marvel and I did so many different media approaches and I saw how companies were throwing like a seven figure budget for us to do a 30 second spot.

Makes no sense back then, but I was like, well, they're paying, so why not?

So I decided to use everything I learned in media and apply it in mental health.

That's why I do all of these other avenues, like the events, the film premieres, you know, traveling over the US because that's, you know, helps the brands have a longevity for their brands as they associate with the Freedom Project as we do all of this.

It's like, oh, if they're supporting this and we're building a community.

So my community and the Freedom Project, all of those will more likely work with those companies.

And me going to US.

I don't even know what that's going to look like, especially being in Kansas City and the success that we're seeing.

It's pretty big, even though I don't even talk about it because I have I try not to identify with things like that because it can break you pretty quickly.

Like the big cancellation that happened, that would have shut me down if I attach my identity to that.

Like this is me, I'm doing this cool event.

We have all these people over the US flying in.

We're 500 people, 30,000 people watching.

We've raised X amount of dollars.

But all of that disappeared overnight.

From July 25 to 26, I lost all of that.

I'm talking about multiple six figures in sponsorship, everything gone.

Did you share why?

Well, there's so many different reasons as to why it happened.

But I'm trying to be very careful with how I say why because Kaufman is a very big company.

Even the lawyers that I talked to, they're like you have a solid case, but we don't want to end our career by attacking Kaufman, which is insane.

I was like, oh my God.

Because I just felt very discriminated and very disrespected because everything was going really well for a whole year.

I was talking to the team, everything was going well.

Then on the 25th, I met one of their CFOs and the VP of Operations.

They've never met me, but I don't know where the whole company was looking at my LinkedIn down to their president.

I was like, who are these very, very polished people, just because I have a personality and I was advertising.

I'm very loud with my campaigns and I was creating all these cool things, putting out there and Kauffman user, they don't do any type of social media because the name alone is big.

Now, I'm ranking the whole Kauffman Center, three different halls, that's expensive.

Then out of nowhere, my character started getting questions.

I was like, wait, what's happening?

I'm trying not to say that they did something because I don't know.

But after talking to multiple lawyers, they were able to figure out, this is very interesting.

The way they talk to you because the way I work, I'm very meticulous with research.

I literally printed all of our communication for the past year and documented everything, create a bunch of files.

I was going over to figure out why the disk got canceled because it doesn't make sense.

At some point, they introduced some weird terms and I was wanting to do that, but they keep changing real time, keep changing their mind and it's one person alone, so I don't want to say it's the whole organization.

Somehow, I want to sue them, but I don't like to go down the route because it's expensive for everybody.

But I do want to get an answer for them.

I'm reaching out, setting a meeting and so that we can sit down.

I told them I want to talk to the entire organization.

I'm requesting for everyone to be in the meeting because I'm a paying client.

I paid a huge amount of money to just hold this space.

Then now this got canceled because you guys are saying reasons that don't make sense at all.

So let's meet and talk and see whether they can be like some mediation or something.

Because I lost a lot from that.

I lost pretty much every sponsorship because I didn't necessarily have to return their money back, but I wanted to act in good faith because, number one, I'm a black dude talking about mental health, talking about legislation and politics.

So all of this adds on to why before anyone says yes to me, it's super difficult for me to even get meetings with sponsors.

But I'm very persistent and I can ignore any comment that comes up because I know what I want and how I should get it.

So me getting offended by little comments would just waste my time.

So I don't have time for that.

So I kept chasing and even with Kauffman, it took them a year to even respond to me.

Like I was emailing everybody.

So you've been working on this for a year?

Oh yeah, for four years, since 2019.

For this event?

Yeah, for this event.

So and it got canceled two days before the event.

You know, some people have said because of the film strike, all these BS excuses.

But then I was like, all right, let's figure out how we can get to the bottom line because saying due to non-payment doesn't make sense because in the email I said, OK, I'll bring this amount of dollars just so that we can fix that problem.

And they said no.

And in somewhere in the email, you know, this guy said, oh, well, you haven't paid one of your employees.

I was like, what the heck?

How do you what's none of your business like, like, like questions about payment just keep coming up.

And then I was like, what the heck is happening?

I've secured a big deposit.

These are all the brands that are going to be here.

That's literally backdrops created, like 80 by 20 foot backdrop with all this KU health system.

Like all these other companies.

And I was like, why is payment being questioned?

Like, this is going to happen.

But everything happened so fast.

And I, you know, the first couple of days, I felt like I went through 16 stages of grief so fast, because I was like, what is happening?

And then I was calling everybody like, yo, SOS, like, what's happening?

But then, you know, it happened so fast, and, you know, I had no control.

And then contractually, you know, they were just coding their contract.

But I was not in the mindset to even think of the contract, because I can read contracts really well.

Like, I work with filmmakers and distributors.

That was my job for quite some time.

But I didn't have time to read their contract.

And some things, some things that they said on the email did not align with the contract.

They kind of fabricated that.

And I'm not saying this is the organization.

I would just talk to one person, by the way, because for the whole year, I've had great experience with the whole team from the sales, marketing, events.

They were all amazing.

Like me, me touring the space.

It feels like coming from coming to America.

I walk in as like whole line of people with flyers waiting for me.

It was awesome.

And it felt like heaven and going there all the time.

Yeah, it was it was insane.

Oh, you know, the whole team was amazing.

You know, they did phenomenal job.

I felt for the first time, I felt like I'm working with actual companies that actually take care of their their their clients.

So it was amazing experience until the 25th and 26th because this individual was introduced and you know, he had zero history with me at all.

And now I'm seeing my LinkedIn was just going Kaufman, Kaufman, Kaufman.

I was like, actually Kaufman Center, not Kaufman, the family, but the name at the end of the day, it's a Kaufman family.

And my lawyer did advise me that I probably shouldn't pursue this because this will be either a good thing or a really bad thing because they involve in so many different entities in the city.

I should figure out how to mediate things with them than having to go with the other route because that can be bad.

So who's the first person you tell when it gets canceled?

I called my event coordinator, Josh Damm, because he's been working on it every day.

Even while the cancellation was happening, he was updating me on all the amazing things.

We finished the design.

We got the invitation sent.

So you're seeing this as you know it was canceled?

Yeah, as I know.

And it took me a day to tell him because I felt bad because under 25, we got canceled by 6 p.m.

And then in the morning, I had like 16 people working on the event.

But Josh was the one managing all those events.

He has his own team of six people.

Angela was my communications person, so they're all working.

Everyone was working.

And then I had this other event company that's doing all the flyers already.

Everything is going smoothly and I'm sitting here in my bedroom, in the dark room, too, because I woke up and I got the news and I spent a whole day in my PJ just talking on the phone, on the computer calling.

I didn't have time to change, leave the house.

I was just on the call.

At some point, I got approval to meet the whole company and their whole leadership.

And I got dressed, put my suit on, I'm sorry, put the fedora on, let's go to war.

This is going to happen.

And then they cancel that.

And I went back to the room sat there and I'm like, what happened?

The PJ is back on?

No, I just had the suit on and my hat and I was just sitting there because whenever I wear the fedora, I'm ready to go to work.

It's like my whole suit of armor.

And that's why I make...

Your Luffy hat.

Yeah, exactly.

One Piece, literally.

I'm out here just trying to become the Pirate King.

Find the One Piece.

This was kind of like leading up to the One Piece.

And then it just got destroyed by Emu, the, you know, the...

The individual.

Yeah, exactly.

How do you feel about Netflix doing a live action One Piece?

I mean, I was kind of like holding back at even watching it for so long because I'm like, they're going to ruin it.

And then eventually I watched the official teaser and I'm like, this is actually good.

Like they got a lot of things very accurate.

But at the end of the day, it's a teaser, amazing editors out there.

So I'm just holding my comments, my two cents until when I see the episodes.

So far, the shots are incredible.

Like the locations wise, down to the casting, the crew, they executed really well and they spent so much money and Oda himself is part of it.

And if you don't watch One Piece, it's an anime, one of the best animes, one of the highest selling book, bigger than Harry Potter and all these other things.

But yeah, it's an anime in Japan.

I've been watching it for like 17 years now, waiting once every Saturday night.

So tonight, tonight is the fight between Luffy and Tony and Gear 5.

And you'll watch it?

Oh yeah, 12 p.m.

I already have my schedule.

I told my girlfriend, you know, hey, like, please do not interrupt me in this 25 minutes from 12 to 12.45, please do not interrupt me because after 12.30, I'll be hyped and I'll go to YouTube and comment Twitter for like 15 minutes, crazy.

And then I'll come back to you know, and I apologize, you know, just so you know, it's not intentional.

Right.

You'll come back to Earth after that.

Yeah, I've been waiting for that episode for like, for as long as I can remember Gear 5.

What do you think makes One Piece as successful as it's been?

I think at the end of the day, you know, it's the fact that, you know, the way that the story is told, it's focused on relationships, it's focused on, you know, adventures, and it's so genuine because it's like Luffy is at the end of the day, he's just a regular kid who has a very goofy power and somehow he's achieving things that are impossible.

Like the fact that he was able to build a crew in the first place, just because he saw one guy named Shanks who just inspired him and he decided, okay, I'm going to become the King of the Pirates, everyone was shocked because no one says that and he just said out loud and was laughing about it.

At the end of the day, it's not even about him achieving the One Piece, it's that the journey of getting to it is the One Piece the whole time.

Even in the story, that's the whole point, everyone else is like, the One Piece, I'm like, no, this is the One Piece.

The friendships that he's building, the people that he's saving along the way and he never claimed to be a hero or savior at all, to him he's just having fun and he meets all these people, like literally he toppled the whole country because someone in the country feed him when he was hungry and he learned that that was the only food that they had.

And he's like, no one deserves to be hungry.

Who's doing this?

They're like, is this guy who can turn into a dragon?

Okay, I'll go punch him.

And he went and beat that guy.

He literally transformed while they were fighting.

He had no idea how to do it, but somehow he went in and in the fight, getting beat up so many times, he figured out how to beat him.

He literally had to die to transform into something else to beat that human dragon.

It's insane.

Do you identify with Luffy?

Oh yeah, I wear the freaking hat.

I wear the straw hat because of Luffy.

I literally saw the hat a long time ago.

I've been wearing the same hat too.

At this point, the color has been changing because it's a straw hat, the sun.

I saw the hat, I was like, all right, this is going to be the hat I'm going to wear until I find my One Piece, then I'll take it off.

Literally, even the way that I was building my team, I had a team of 10 person for so long and every person matched the personality of Luffy and his crew.

Literally, we had this lady come to our office.

She was going to be a host on one of my TV shows, but apparently in her past, she does kind of like readings and stuff.

And she was sitting there, she was like, your crew is very interesting or your team is very interesting.

And I'm like, what do you mean?

He was like, this guy, he kind of has a fire aura, which was Zorro.

And then Jose Antonio, he's like, this guy is very sweet.

He has a flower, rain flower, a sunflower aura, which is, and he loves to cook, Jose Antonio, which is Sanji.

It was insane.

The lady was able to point all that out.

And then I had this girl named, who had an Nami's personality.

And she was like, kind of broke.

I was like, whoa, this is insane.

That was the best day of my life.

And I was like, someone else noticed that I was, even though they had no idea what One Piece was, where they were able to diagnose their personalities and how we're all different.

But the fact that we're all walking, doing the same thing to achieve one thing.

But they all have their own different things that they were doing.

Because One Piece, Luffy's crew, everyone had their own goals.

But at the end of the day, they all come together because they're the lions.

They're all heading to the same direction, but they all have different goals.

So they're all entrepreneurs in their own sense.

Nami wants to just to wait for Luffy to become the One Piece and steal all the goal, because she thinks One Piece is the goal.

And then Zoro just wants to be the strongest swords fighter ever.

And he knows he can achieve that if he follows Luffy.

And Sanji just wants to feed the whole world and make sure no one is hungry.

And he knows Luffy loves to eat.

And Luffy makes him feel good, because no matter what he cooks, he's excited to eat it.

He's like, you know what, I'm going to just cook for this guy for the rest of his life.

And then I also try to figure out how to achieve the all blue, make sure there's food for everybody.

It's super cool.

And what is your thoughts like Japanese anime?

What does Japanese anime do that Western film cinema doesn't do?

So in the West here, they spend a lot of time.

And this probably reflects on society at all at the same time, because filmmakers, especially studios, they create things that people are interested in.

And here, violence, guns, you know, boom, that's what people are interested in here.

Not everybody, of course, but like majority at the time, the people that are seeking content are watching things that are very, very like disturbed, you know, bombs and weird stuff.

So and there's a lot of dysfunction shows out there, like those TV shows where people be in islands and doing weird shit, like people enjoy that.

That's why I think Forum is going to work because people here are very traumatized, but they don't know because they seek all the shows that validate who they are and how they see society.

But when you go to Japan, the culture is so different.

Like people are so polite, it doesn't make sense.

Like, why be nice?

People are inherently nice to each other and they value human connection.

Even here, we value human connection, but at the end of the day, it's very off.

But when you go to Japan, it's different.

You walk and someone is bowing their head to you.

It's super nice.

Like people are just genuinely nice and that reflects into their creation.

When they do anime, you see that in those shows.

And the reason why us Western people love watching Japanese anime is because somehow deep, deep, deep down in our subconscious, we want that and we keep watching it.

And that's why One Piece is one of the biggest stories ever told.

Bigger than like Harry Potter, like it's huge.

It's like the number two when it comes to book sold, the highest book sold.

I think like Macbeth or something is number one.

And then you have One Piece, like goofy as anime.

But it's like it's goofy if you don't take time and actually watch it.

But the moment you watch it, then you realize how deep this anime is when it comes to human connection, because we're lacking that now as a society.

And there's this anime that's explaining it so brilliantly.

And so silly at the same time.

But here, you come here, it's like, even now, we're trying to create anime here, but at the end, it's just people cutting each other with katanas and violence, fights all the time.

One Piece has a lot of fights, but every fight is not about Luffy winning.

It's about changing that person's perspective on people.

He never actually take anyone's life.

That's the whole point of One Piece.

In all of his fights, he would fight them, but the whole fight is dialogue.

They're literally challenging each other's beliefs.

At the end of the day, who has the strongest will ends up winning because their belief actually is rooted into society, human longevity, human belief.

And at the end of the day, they win because the other person realized how flawed their beliefs were, and they give up in the fight, and then Luffy ended up winning.

But at the end of the day, sometimes all the people he...

He's fighting a human dragon.

This is a big-ass dragon right now.

But somehow his belief is so strong that he transformed into what they call the Sun God because there were so many people in the bottom of that island that were hoping for him to win, all praying, fighting too.

They've let all of their belief and just let him handle it.

And they believe that he's going to win.

And he had to transform for him to win because of all of that support.

But Kaido, the Dragon Man, he just believes in conquering because he thinks he's the supreme being and if you're not strong, you don't even deserve to be in his presence.

And his will is so strong that people around him will faint.

Luffy also has a very strong will, but he's super empathetic.

And the way he looked cracked design-wise, he's so goofy that you will never get afraid of him.

But whenever he's angry, he transforms into something else.

You're like, oh crap, this guy is goofy.

But you don't want to mess with him.

But he has that grace and he has his own boundaries that he doesn't change no matter who you are.

And now that he's fighting a dragon, he's like, what?

He's really strong because he's rooted into making sure that no one is ever hungry, making sure that no one goes, doesn't have shelter, just basic human needs.

So I see myself in that.

I'm not crying.

Something got in my eye.

But I was like, yeah, so, but yeah, I mean, that's how I approach everything.

I feel like somehow I've gotten, you know, like impacted very heavy with like the Japanese culture, the Japanese anime, the style that they use.

And even down to when I do films and documentaries, I try to bring that human aspect to it, making so so so simple that you as a person watching it, you're going to be like, I understand what this person is going through.

Like, it's that's a deeper meaning in every story, every line, every question I ask, everything that the person said, maybe, you know, some people can say, but who makes you the person who decides all that?

Because at the end of the day, I'm literally getting feedback from the people turning into question and asking people again, the same question that I got from from other individuals.

And then it's just a very beautiful loop, I think, where I'm just getting source from people, asking them those questions, and them answering, creating more information for me to ask them those same questions.

At the end of the day, all the documentaries are produced, it's the same questions that I keep asking, because at the end of the day, that's what people are asking.

It's super simple, but it comes down to being able to listen and hearing those questions.

That's why in advertising, I got very successful because every campaign I create, it was never original.

I was always telling people, this is not my idea.

I'm just reading your comments and seeing that people are saying, hey, I had this crutch company that I was doing advertising for.

And then before I came in, they were spending so much money to acquire a single customer.

And I went into their comments and I saw they have like thousands of comments of people saying, hey, when I use the crutch, I always get burned.

Like is there a solution for that?

And I brought them to their attention, like, can you guys fix this?

Like so many people are asking about this.

They're like, oh, we didn't know.

And I'm saying, well, create a solution and do a video and answer those questions.

And that video went viral to a point that that's a single video that I use for every campaign, which also cut cost on the end to even do any other video.

Because at the end of the day, they were answering a very dire question that everyone was asking.

And it became a goldmine for them to completely using that same video, recycle, turn into audio, turn into short videos and made into different, different platforms, you know, and just share the hell out of the video.

And people were able to get their answers, you know, the question answers very quickly.

And they respond more, more different variation to that same question, because now this is solved.

Now they're back, their legs, you know, because they're, you know, their legs, you know, one of their legs is amputated, they lose balance.

I learned so much from just listening to people, their comments, even to the Freedom Project, the forum itself, it's someone from a school that I was doing a, you know, the listening series virtually, and then the kid said, it'll be super cool if we can, you know, introduce mental health at a very young age.

I think that's going to make kids to learn about mental health.

I was like, that's a great idea.

And I went Google, how do you pass a bill?

And I wrote a whole summary and I sent it to the capital.

And I wish back then I had AI, because that would have saved me so much time.

I remember doing the whole process on ChatGDP and it told me the whole process, draft the whole summary, even draft the bill.

I was like, I would save so much money on research if this was a lot of work.

But now you know it better.

Yeah, exactly.

Because you went and did it yourself.

Because I know how to prompt, how to act the right prompt, because I spent years just figuring it out.

But yeah, so, you know, I forgot where I was going with all this.

We were talking about the difference between Western culture and Japanese anime.

And you're right, it's more human, it's more nuanced and people can identify.

But you posted the picture of how much it costs to get a bill like that.

Oh yeah, yes.

It's expensive.

It's like $200,000.

And this is just local and state of Missouri, not even talking about a national bill because there's so many different individuals that are involved into it.

And maybe to me, in my opinion, that's super wrong.

It doesn't make sense that they have to create.

But we're in a capitalistic world.

And every level of consumer interaction is designed in a way that people do pay for it.

It doesn't matter what it is.

It's a transaction.

It's all legal, too.

But the reason why I post that, even though my lawyer was like, you were a headache, but I love what you do.

That's why I'm not firing you.

Because I just publish everything.

Because I treat my Instagram like my girlfriend tags me all the time, and I never reshare it, and I feel bad.

But I was like, I use this as a platform to document all of these things that I'm learning doing.

So me changing that throws the whole platform off.

And I apologize.

Someday, maybe I'll create something different.

But today, I'm not creating that, you know, because my energy is focused on this.

And I share all those numbers down to even last year, I lost like $98,000, like one day.

And I post the whole thing, my QuickBooks, everything on social media, and I was explaining it.

And I'm like, I just how to avoid losing this.

And this is how to do this.

This is why I lose this.

And this is how it happened.

So you lost close to 100 grand in a day.

In a day that is not normal.

What happened?

Well, back then, I was doing a TV series called Monday Makeover.

The writer approached me.

She was very passionate.

And to me, I gravitate to people like that.

I'm just like, I want to help.

What can I do?

And then she told me the concept of the show.

And then to me, in my head, I already visioned the whole show already.

And then I'm like, let's do it.

And then when all the numbers came in, we realized we needed a big crew, we need six different camera angles.

And we're using the cinema like Sony FX9, a huge six of them.

And we had like 200 millimeter lenses for each lens just to get tight shots.

It was a big production.

And we rented a beauty salon and the owner said that a day for him to close, it will cost him 10k.

I said, cool, let's do it.

So we rented the store, closed the whole day.

And then all those cameras were all rented.

It was expensive.

And then, you know, I hired this big ass crew and there were so many different people.

And then I had an investor in line because the way that I operate is like, I will put money up front and produce the first episode so that I can, the pitching will be easy.

I just go, hey, this is what we're trying to do.

Are you interested?

So I had an investor in line.

But in the set, you know, you have a lot of women in the film because the domestic violence focused project went in parliament and you have a few other people that don't have good intentions.

They see the women and, you know, they lose their shit.

And then one thing led to another.

There were some people messing around on set and it just turned into a really, really bad thing, which I learned not to be detached from my projects because I was like, this is a big project.

I don't have time to manage the day to day.

I need to focus on other things.

I hired the wrong people to manage something that I should have been the person managing every level of it because this writer approached me and trusted me, so I should have been able to deliver that and make sure that her goal and her dream can be successful.

But then I was just burnt out and I just checked out and I let someone else manage.

And even though they lied to me about their special skills, they didn't have the skills at all.

So everything went under because the word got out that these people were messing and the other investors found out they all exited, but I already put up my money to fund it.

And then within a day, I just lost all of that.

It was crazy.

So I just went to Instagram and I just shared, hey, this is how much I lost.

This is the QuickBooks.

If you ever find yourself in a situation, this is what not to do, avoid this because I messed up, remember that because I have a lot of entrepreneurs that also follow me on Instagram.

So I try to just be transparent and I just do that for me, not because I'm trying to get anyone inspired or anything.

I just do it because just to remind myself to come back and look at those videos whenever I'm in that problem ever because it's acting as a diary for me to journal everything I'm doing virtually so that when I'm in a situation, what did I do back then because I do forget very easily.

So every now and then I'll go back to my videos back to when I was touring music and I'll remember, okay, how did we lose this deal with Capitol Records and I'll go back, oh, this is what we did.

We weren't communicating as a team.

We all had individual goals, but we didn't really know what those goals were because we were afraid to tell each other and lose each other as a crew.

And then when it came down to Capitol Records, I was able to see that this is not a team.

No one is supporting each other.

So I would go back and I was like, okay, don't do that here.

Tell people what your goal is.

What do you want to achieve as an individual and then as a team, because we're all very inherently selfish at the end of the day, but that's okay because we have our own thoughts.

We have our own dreams and goals.

But if we don't communicate that, we end up just stabbing each other in the back.

So to me, I tried to be very transparent with, hey, my goal is to achieve this.

What is your goal?

And this is a safe space.

Just tell me.

I'm not going to judge you.

I just want to know what your goal is so that I can better work with you because if you don't tell me what your goal is, I'm just going to pursue my goal even though you're helping me achieve this goal because I don't know what you want.

So I like to be very upfront with that when I work with people now.

But yeah, so with that project, I was upfront with people.

I had so many other things happening and I decided to take that on.

I didn't have the time for it.

I didn't have the, you know, the investment wasn't confirmed.

I just took his word.

I should have, in hindsight, I should have signed papers to make sure that I had the right document.

I had a very soft agreement with him and then the terms were in his favor and I took everything emotional and sued him, which I shouldn't have done.

And that's why it cost me $98,000.

Oh gosh, because you have more legal fees too.

Yeah, more legal fees and the cost, equipment.

Yeah, I mean, it was bad.

It was incredibly bad, but no one knew what I was going through while all of that was happening.

I actually shared this meme back then of someone hugging someone crying and I put me, me, me confronting myself.

Because you're doing it by yourself.

Because a lot of people were angry.

No one know what happened because I could not legally talk about what was happening because the case were still ongoing.

And then I could only tell a few people that I trusted and one of them decided to record me and share that with everybody else and I was like, this is crazy.

There you go.

That's a story right there.

Yeah, it was it was bad.

Like, yeah, that's a story.

One of the things that you were talking about, I saw you talking about it and I liked it.

And it's it's it's complex because you're driven and you want to get this stuff done and you have a lot of different projects you want to work on.

And you have like, Luffy, you have a vision, you have a goal, you have a team, and you want to acquire that one piece.

But you also mentioned this phrase or this concept of sometimes that may not be for me.

Like if there's a project and it's just not working out, then being comfortable enough to be like, you know, I guess that isn't my thing.

You were mentioning it on the rooftop near the Kauffman Center.

And like that idea of, hey, this isn't for me is so hard.

And I think it really helps you with probably avoiding burnout.

That way you don't commit to things that just don't pan out.

And that's something I think a lot of people can learn about is being willing to be like, hey, let go.

Yeah, let go.

No, yeah.

I mean, even this event that just got canceled, I know back then it was 98,000 that I lost.

This one was like 240 something.

Are you going to make another video?

Like in two days.

Like I remember like even with Austin yesterday, he saw me like doing like returns, just returning people's money.

He's like, you're still returning money?

I was like, yeah, 240 something thousand.

That's a lot to like return in like in two days.

I'll just be like return and I'll get it most of the burnt out.

And I was like, okay, I'll take a break.

Burn out returning people's money.

Yeah, it's crazy because, you know, I don't have to, but I want to operate in good faith.

It makes sense.

So I want to make sure that people long term, because what I want to do is not just because I want to do cool stuff.

It's because I want to make sure that, you know, access to mental health, like it's a bigger problem than me and all of that.

And anything that I'm bringing to the table, I just happen to be the guy who's working on it.

So but at the end of the day, I'm human and I'm very flawed.

I'm, you know, I make mistakes.

So that's why I do things like that.

I return people's money whenever, you know, stuff like that happen, because, you know, number one is out of my control.

And these people trusted me to do this, but it's not happening.

So I'll make sure that I operate in good faith.

But yeah, when it comes to me having that ability to let go, at the end of the day, you know, I was able to learn that the reason why I had a really bad stutter was because of all the things that I was identifying when it comes to trauma.

I mean, I was very traumatized kid and I am traumatized.

I made that my identity and it automatically made it a defective identity.

And over time, everything that happened in my life, it was defective.

Anything bad was me and it became a defective part of my identity.

And somehow I developed a really bad stutter from all of that suppressed, you know, emotions, like suppressed, like experiences that I was experiencing that weren't going well.

I was like, well, this is me, obviously, but at the end of the day, I was able to learn and I actually learned this in therapy was that, you know, the things that happened to me as a kid weren't my fault.

It's something that I experienced, unfortunately, but it's not something that I put on myself.

I was just in a very bad environment, number one, and I happened to experience really bad people at a very young age.

And that impacted my experience to that thing that we were all doing at the same time, from like people dying, me getting molested, all of these things weren't my fault.

But I didn't have anyone else telling me, hey, this is not your fault.

This is an experience.

It's not who you are.

It's an experience and that's it.

So I apply that down to me losing this big event.

It's because a lot of things happened for that event to be canceled within two days before it.

However, that cancellation doesn't define who I am.

That helps me keep pursuing other things and keep pursuing the event and have grace for myself because I know I've put in four years of work to make this happen.

It got canceled.

There are things bigger than me.

There are things happening in the cosmos that I have no idea.

I'm here today, this whole universe is operating so that we can have this conversation today.

What if whatever is maintaining gravity just said, I'm tired and drop us?

We're done.

So all these little things that I genuinely believe the things that I do is adding to that perfect operating system and me having a tech background.

I see computers as something that they think they have free will, but at the end of the day, we can pick the computer and drop it and the computer is gone.

I apply the whole universe, but the computer will do its thing.

Right now, our phones are communicating whether we like it or not.

Everything is sinking because they have free will.

They think they have free will, but they do have free will in their own box and the networks that we've built as humans and make sure the computers are all connecting like the Bluetooth system.

We can airdrop stuff like right now, our phones are talking.

Whether we like it or not is the same thing with us.

We have that free will as human beings to like, you know, either, you know, do X or do Y.

So to me, whenever I am doing anything, I make sure that me as an individual, I'm not attached to that.

And if it doesn't work, I'm like, well, I may have lost six figures, but I'll I'll walk away with that experience that I've learned.

It was a great experience.

I met someone like Angela, she changed my whole like email game.

Like, she is one of the best communications person I've ever worked with.

Josh Damb is phenomenal event coordinator, amazing, meticulous guy.

And throughout the whole process, I've never seen him stress.

And I was like, how do you maintain such a high stress environment project and be so graceful, no matter what it is, he always had the best things to say.

So I met all of these individuals, you know, I've met the whole Kauffman team, they're amazing.

The way they deliver was in a whole different level.

And I was learning from all of that, now I'm taking all of those experience and applying to something else.

Because at the end of the day, it's not even about the event, it was about the process leading up to an event, the people that I've met, the things that I've done, you know, the education that I received from all these individuals.

To me, I'm genuinely honored by that instead of seeing us as a defect in my identity when the event doesn't work, I've just accumulated amazing people, amazing experiences, stories to tell about, because it's messy, it's life is messy itself.

So I felt like I'm just mirroring everything I believe in to things that I do, because I feel like it's a giant test to see whether I'm going to give up.

It's okay, you know, like down to me talking about mental health, you know, my friend back then, James got killed while I was talking about gun violence and like, like, and also talking about like veterans and stuff.

And out of nowhere was a freak accident, someone shot him and kill him.

And then I was like, what the heck, man, whoever is up there, you need to chill, I'm tired.

Because he's like, anything I talk about, because lately I've been talking about loss, I've been talking about identity, and then this event dropped.

And I was like, because, you know, I remember someone telling me, this is really hard for you, because you put yourself out there, you're everywhere, everyone is talking about this event, and this drop, how you're handling this, how you're smiling right now.

And I was like, because it's, it's whatever I'm doing, it's bigger than me and this event, and this event doesn't define what I'm doing.

So, it is what it is, and he's like, what about the money?

I was like, money will always come, as long as I have the, you know, I'm doing what I believe genuinely believe, because I ended a day with Luffy.

He knows food will always come as long as he do good, whatever he believe good is.

So good.

Because to him, food equals the money.

He's always hungry.

Yeah.

So good.

And you're not the event.

Yeah, I am not.

Yeah.

You know, the event was just a, and one thing I like about the team, especially Angela, she, I remember the day of 25th, I was trying to book another event, space and transfer everything there within two days.

And she like, Hey, look, you need to stop, like, just stop, go home.

I'm home.

She's like, Okay, just stop and walk away from the computer.

This is canceled.

It's gonna be okay.

And to me that literally, you know, saved me from more headache because I had those people again down to the experience.

Now I'm learning that from Angela, that even though I believe that this is not my identity, but at the end of the day, somewhere, I wanted to make it happen.

But I had the right people around me to remind me, Hey, this is not an identity.

Just walk away from it.

It's okay.

Everything is going to be okay.

And to me that like reaffirmed everything in the midst of chaos.

I literally shut my computer down.

I remember Austin came over and we just went to the pool and laid out like it was nothing and we had drinks.

We were just hanging out.

After this event was canceled that you've been working on for four years.

It was canceled, we just sat in the pool, like everything was okay.

And then we just hung out and one of our other friends came in, Paul, he's like on crutches and then humbled me and just see him coming over with the pain.

And I was like, I have really good people around me.

I need to chill.

This is not the end of the world.

And that kind of helped me just identify, all right, this is an event.

That's what it is.

And you are here trying to make it happen.

It's not happening.

Cool.

Let's figure out how to move on.

Yeah.

And that reframes everything.

No, it does.

Because, you know, you know, the things that we're working on, we have no idea whether they're even real or we just believe in them and it's happening.

But at the end of the day is like, what is the things that we've been working on?

Like who gives us the right to work on them?

Just the thought pops in our head or something that we've experienced a long time ago, and we want to accomplish it.

Like but what is good?

Down to it.

And so, you know, to me, I define good as something that benefits a mass of people.

Like even the rebrand of the Freedom Project, you know, it's down to like physics, like E equals MC square, like mass, energy, because I've been learning about so much about energy and frequency.

And I was like, that's why I felt like the name has to change eventually, maybe next 2024.

I'm thinking about changing it to like, like a mixture of energy and like protons.

Because if you bring those two together, it's so ingrained in who we are as humans, because that's who we are.

Energy and like protons and hydrogens and all these other elements is in us to like, and it's so similar to the universe.

And maybe this came from a place of pain.

I was just in my room just thinking about human behavior.

And then I just remembered back in college, I was working on the E equals MC square back in chemistry, and I went into my bathroom and I started writing the actual like Einstein.

Yeah, like I wrote the whole like equation and I came down to calling the Freedom Project like infinity, but infinity, I and pH to like signify protons.

So infinity, instead of the regular infinity spelling, fi base, phi in the middle.

So that's going to be the new rebrand for Freedom Project.

We get the exclusive.

I know I haven't even shared this is little on my window in my bathroom mirror.

Because I'm like, because I feel like the Freedom Project was good when I started it.

People needed that reminder that freedom is a toxic version of what we what we experience every day now.

But I needed that.

But now that I'm growing, I need to humble myself and instead of calling people out, infinity just ties the whole thing together, like we're, hey, okay, a young Abraham needed this to call people out.

But now I'm approaching even more people, I'm approaching bigger stages, I need to have the space of love that I've been writing a book I'm writing about for so long, and create that space for people to come in and understand that when it comes to whole health, we need like an infinite energy in order to achieve that, but as a community.

So that's the whole equation that I came down to, for like, for Infinity to be the new rebrand for Freedom Project.

I'm excited because I know you thought about Freedom Project for a while and you have the logo and I remember seeing that logo with the key and everything.

Yeah, it was like, whoa, that was so cool.

So I can be very deep with logos because the FFB just represent human and the keys that the keys literally you so you just need to access it and open your own freedom.

So I'm excited for to see that infinity.

Okay, I'm going to do a rapid fire round with you real quick and then you have a final message.

All right.

So question number one, what's something you wish more people knew about you?

So one thing that people assume is like, I am this very serious guy, but I'm not at all.

People that know me know how goofy I am, I watch One Piece as my entertainment.

So something that my son experienced all the time, I remember Jose Antonio telling me, you're a different person when your son is here.

What the heck?

Because it's like, I wear many hats, so I can just take that off and put that on, depending on the situation.

But that doesn't mean I'm changing who I am.

It's just in that moment, in that space that I'm currently in, I will try to meet that frequency, because at the end of the day, frequency, as human beings, we're all gravitating at the same frequency.

That's why we usually have really great conversations, because we're vibing at the same level.

So to me, whatever I do, I try to approach the space based off of what the frequency is.

With my son, I'm like, really weird.

I talk to him like I don't even know how to talk.

If you see me with my body...

But whenever he talks normal, I was like, no, we don't talk normal.

I was like, don't complete your sentences.

His mom is like, he has to learn how to talk.

You have to stop.

I was like, no, it's fine, man.

He's a kid.

You're going on podcasts, doing all this stuff, and then with him, you're just talking funny.

Oh yeah, I'm just talking super weird.

He calls blueberries like, blue, blue.

It's so funny.

And now that he knows how to say it, I'm so sad about it.

I was like, no, don't.

It's not a blueberry.

It's not a blueberry.

Say it the way you say it.

Favorite soccer player and why?

Oh man, OG Ronaldo.

Brazilian Ronaldo?

Yeah, Brazilian Ronaldo.

Number nine?

Number nine, my forever number nine.

I grew up watching him.

One of my uncles, one of my favorite uncles, always call himself Luis Nazario Ronaldo, because that's his full name.

And I grew up seeing he's a really good soccer player.

He's the reason why I got into soccer, my uncle, and he always had number nine, and he always had his jerseys whenever he played.

And I watched his game, he was phenomenal.

All this Messi, Messi is amazing, but Ronaldo was a different player.

I felt like he was more of a movement player.

Everything he did, I define culture in football.

I call it football because that's how I grew up saying it.

So I watched him, he's not just about soccer for him.

This man could have run for president in Brazil and he will win.

That to me is a whole level of achievement.

But at the end, he's so humble.

You see him, he's just like, how are you doing?

It's funny, talking to soccer players, oftentimes they'll talk about Brazilian Ronaldo, but then outside it's Messi, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Pele.

I mean, Pele too is up there for me.

But to me, I more relate to Ronaldo, Luis Nazario, Delema Ronaldo.

He's the only soccer player that I genuinely look up to.

I've met some really big name people and I never react, but I feel like if I ever meet Ronaldo, I'll probably pass out.

I've been in some really big name artists or entertainers, and I'm just like, whatever, how can I help you?

But number nine, he would boom through everybody.

Man, strong, fast, creative, it's crazy.

That's why I didn't play soccer much in the US because they were more like, they draw the whole game and I'm like, there's no freedom in this.

Let me freestyle.

I grew up watching Ronaldo.

That's awesome.

Do you know Musa Barrow?

Oh, yeah.

He's my little cousin.

He is playing for Balogna right now.

He's the one who made it in soccer.

He's incredible.

I remember back in college, high school in Gambia, the moment we realized he's going to make it is when, because back then, he would want to play with us.

We were like, no, you're young.

And then he played, I swear to God, his first touch.

He was in the middle of the field and kicked them, scored.

It was the most aggressive score I've ever seen.

And he did that three times.

And mind you, we were pretty high level.

And this kid came in, he was dominating the whole field.

I literally stood there, I was like, damn, this is the one that's going to make it.

I've worked hard so much, but I just saw it and I knew that he's going to make it.

I remember he sent me $17,000.

And I'm like, wow, this kid really made it.

No, yeah, he's talented.

I watched his highlights.

He's been scoring goals like crazy.

He's an incredible finisher.

He can cross with both feet.

Oh, yes, both feet.

And he can jump pretty high.

And he's physically very strong.

And he's tall, right?

Really tall.

He got tall from nowhere because he's his older brother, Sherry Barrow SM.

Super short.

The oldest brother, Ching, super short.

His mom is super short.

And he's just like, whew.

He's long.

And I was like, this is not fair, man.

But you know what?

I'm very happy for him.

Sometimes I wish I was in those moments because that was my dream.

And I'm very competitive.

Me too.

And seeing him and I was like, you know, it's nice.

This is family.

It's okay.

But at the end of the day, deep down, my competitiveness, I would have dominated if I was here.

I watch him play.

I was like, yeah, I know what he's going to do.

He's going to shoot and he scores.

And I was like, yep, I know this.

But it's just me in my living room watching.

No one is here to validate this.

It's so funny, especially whenever we really want to make it.

We know how long we've trained and how much effort we put in.

And then someone shows up who completely outclasses everybody.

Yeah.

And he didn't actually like he wasn't really into it.

He was just naturally gifted.

It was crazy when he played with us because I was like, whoa, like I could because I remember at some point, you know, I had a free kick and I was like trying to like outperform him because I was like, this is my thing.

Usually, I'm the one who's out here dominating like, you know, because I can jump really high to like, like, like, whenever it comes to corners, like free kick, I'm always ready to add a kick or or or beat a header because I can move really well in the box.

And he came in and took that and I was like, what the heck?

And he was like, boom, like, boom, boom, three, all goals, every touch was a goal.

And I'm just like, no, and then I had a free kick and it was so bad because now I'm like, now it's in your head.

Yeah, it was in my head and I had a really bad free kick and I was like, well, at least it's going to be successful and it's all right.

And you know, you know, I saw him grew up as a kid.

Like it was crazy.

You know, I'm sorry.

At least his mom's last name is Sisay.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

So his mom is related to to my dad.

Yeah.

So super, super talented.

Right.

Rapid fire.

Question number three is if this happens, drop your therapist.

Oh, oh.

Well, if if a therapist is dismissing what you were going through, 100% drop them because they're therapists like that.

They'll cut you off and try to dismiss the things that you were saying because their job is to listen and identify ways that they can help you navigate the things that you were saying.

However, there are therapists that will dismiss you and sometimes there are older therapists that have different methods.

Sometimes it could be younger therapists because I've actually experienced this with a therapist who kind of dismissed what I said because I came from Africa.

They have no, they've never been, they've never traveled at all.

So they have no experience as to the things that I am saying.

So I felt like I was being cut.

She was cutting off, cutting me off all the time and being very dismissive.

Like well, that's not what was happening.

I'm not even finished yet.

I'm just at like, you know, you know, the first arc.

I've been talking about arc two or three and you already cut me.

So yes, episode one, right?

Yeah, that's 1600 episodes.

So if they're dismissive, drop them.

Yeah, definitely.

Cause it doesn't make sense.

Your job is to help you understand and validate those feelings and help me navigate.

Not just saying, well, no, that's not what's happening.

Yeah.

You don't know.

And then message four, if you had a billboard that was going to be seen by millions of people and you put one phrase on it, what would it say?

You are not your mental illness is not who you are.

It's just an experience.

Literally, I literally had a billboard that I was going to do that.

Like a big billboard just said that.

But then it never happened back then because I could not afford it.

I found a billboard for like $7,000 for a week.

And I wanted to have, I know, right?

You don't realize all of these things until you start working in those spaces.

And those are discounted billboard by the way.

And it was just for two weeks.

And I was like, how the heck do companies afford?

And they kept saying, oh, we don't have money for this.

I was like, you have a billboard that's been around for three months.

Dang.

I what?

Yeah.

Hopefully they look at their balance sheet and they're like, I didn't realize billboard was that expensive.

No, it is.

So that's all my rapid fire questions.

Awesome.

Thanks for being here.

Yeah, me too.

Thanks for having me.

It's been nice to reflect and talk back and share the things that I'm working on and the people that come across and I congrats to you because I remember when we first started talking, like this is pretty cool.

It was in the making, you know.

I was like just trying to listen to you to hear how you've done some of the things you've done.

And then since then, it's been trying to build as well.

So no, like even the mic, the short mics, because I remember you had a different mic back then.

Yeah.

I was like, oh, it's the short mics.

So I always have my sexy voice.

Maybe it sounds so good.

So onto the next one.

Yep.

All right, folks.

We'll see you next time.

Awesome.

So that's it for this week's episode of the Talk to People Podcast.

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