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Against All Odds Podcast, The Less than 1% Chance with Maria Aponte
Maria highlights stories of people that have been the "less than 1% chance" and have come out of their situations thriving and seeing life as happening FOR them and not TO them! Inspiring and empowering stories that will show you that against all odds you can make it through anything!
Against All Odds Podcast, The Less than 1% Chance with Maria Aponte
Turning Adversity into Strength: Lyve Neutral's Journey from Incarceration to Entrepreneurship
Ever wondered how someone can bounce back from the brink and build an empire? Meet Lyve Neutral, a resilient entrepreneur from Queens, who faced seemingly insurmountable odds, from taking on adult responsibilities at a young age to spending seven years in federal prison. Lyve shares his incredible journey of self-education behind bars and his renewed focus on self-employment upon release. His insightful reflections on how travel and personal development were crucial to his post-incarceration reinvention provide a compelling narrative of transformation and resilience.
Struggle was no stranger to Lyve Neutral, especially in the world of business. Imagine spending nearly ten months trying to close your first deal and facing constant battlefields in real estate and network marketing. Yet, every failure was a stepping stone, teaching him valuable lessons in marketing, advertising, and professional etiquette. Inspired by a mentor, Lyve realized that true success lies in ownership, leading him to establish a travel agency franchise and a holding company with multiple LLCs, including a podcast and an apparel line. His determination and insight offer a masterclass in turning adversity into strength.
Beyond business, Lyve Neutral's personal growth narrative is equally riveting. Navigating the complexities of past marriages and non-traditional relationships, Lyve emphasizes personal emotional responsibility and the importance of controlling one’s reactions. Lyve's story is a testament to the power of emotional awareness and resilience, highlighting the importance of staying grounded and embracing life's journey with a positive mindset.
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Welcome back to the Against All Odds the Less Than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Aponte, where we will hear stories of incredible people thriving against all odds, and my hope is that we can all see how life is always happening for us, even when we are the Less Than 1% Chance.
Speaker 1:Hey, hey, welcome back to, against All Odds, the Less Than 1% Chance podcast with your host, maria Aponte. I am so excited to have you guys back Joining us with a new friend that I have here. He is from Queens, new York. He is the oldest of six. I believe you were seven years in Fed.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Multiple business some successful, some failures, which we'll get into a little bit, because that is so important to know the difference and see the benefit in both. You've been through two divorces, rebuilding and seeing success that you deserve with your podcast, and we'll talk about that, and then how you help people go on vacation, which is awesome One of my favorite things to do. And then you also have some apparel that you have as well, which is amazing. So introduce yourself a little bit. Give me some background and how you got into all of this.
Speaker 3:And my name is Live Neutral. Thank you for having me. I truly appreciate being on your platform. It's an amazing platform, by the way. I listened to a couple of your episodes yesterday on my way to work. I was excited about being here today. I couldn't wait, but I thought I started off with a nice simple life until my mother kept popping out children, and the more children she popped out, the harder life got, because, being the oldest of six, I had to take on that responsibility, and my sister, the second one, didn't come until about eight years later. So I had eight years to be a kid and then the rest it was over after that.
Speaker 1:And then it's nope. Think again, yeah it's just.
Speaker 3:and then with her being a girl, we have no experience on that. That was a whole nother story. Everything that having a little sister comes with, that's a lot. So shout out to all mothers out there who can put up and tolerate with young woman. So yeah, I have two of my own.
Speaker 1:So I believe me, I understand.
Speaker 3:I have two of my own so, believe me, I understand. My sister did prep me very well because I wound up my first child wound up being a girl. I was somewhat prepared, but it's totally different when it's your sister and when it's yours. It's two different animals. I grew up in Queens, far rock away, and life was pretty good. My mother was doing her thing, doing the best that she could to take care of us, and I was doing the best that I can to help out.
Speaker 3:By still trying to be a kid and with me being a Leo, I was still trying to roam, still trying to find my own path and things like that. I moved around a lot. One thing I will say I tell my kids today when you travel, it opens your mind to a lot of different things in life, instead of just staying trapped in one place and only seeing everything in that one place. You have no idea how much you're missing out. So, with me starting out young and traveling a lot, it got me a little too curious about the world. I wound up getting into some trouble. It took a while to get into the trouble, but I wound up getting into some trouble that land me in prison and I did about seven years in federal prison and that was a wake up call for me. My brothers to this day, when they act up, I tell them I say you need to go to prison for about a year to help you wake up, so you can see that what you're doing out here is reckless and foolishness.
Speaker 1:It's just pure foolishness and it's not worth it.
Speaker 3:No, it's not worth it. At the end of the day it's not worth it. A couple of years go by. You look back. You just be upset with yourself because you made a lot of bad mistakes and it didn't get you anywhere, and that was the case with me. But what prison did do for me not only helped me do a full 180 mentally, but I finally picked up books and I started to read and self-educate myself on personal development and things of that nature and business.
Speaker 3:I never before my incarceration. I got incarcerated when I was 20 years old and I came home when I was going on 28. But before that I've never had a job. So I'm coming home with a GED, no formal education, never worked a job in my life, and it's just like being reborn all over again. And I got to figure it out. Because when you're in there you think when you go home, everything that you're going to do, but the world throws these curve balls at you and you got to try to figure it out all over again. And that's what I had to do. So I came home with a mindset of I might as well be self-employed because I've never been employed, so I might as well just keep going, but just time do it in a positive way, in a positive light, and that helped me reshape my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I love that because I wholeheartedly and if you've heard some of my other podcast episodes, my belief, full, wholehearted is life is always happening for you and not to you, and I truly think that the adversities that we go through, the circumstances that we go through them, because it's going to shape us. And we have two choices, right we could see it as we're the victims of our circumstances or we could see it as all right, I see you watch me now Like I found purpose in this and the fact that that, because you had never been employed, you don't have that preconceived notion of all the never been employed, you don't have that preconceived notion of all the crap that goes on in corporate world, corporate worlds, because there's a lot of it, and I think that then fuels you to be like okay, I know I can, I've already survived my worst day.
Speaker 1:Like this can't be yeah worse than that, like I. I know I'm enough.
Speaker 3:It's funny you say that because even to this day I've been home about 15 years now and even to this day, all of the crap that life throws at you at first it'll get to me and then I'll snap out of it because I haven't been worse than this. Like this is nothing compared to what I had to survive and fight against for seven years. So it helped humble me in a sense to where, when times get rough, I don't drown. I know how to keep my head above water, I know how to live a simple life, I know how to live below my means, I know when to turn up, when to immediately turn down, and I can fluctuate because of that experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. It shows you that, no matter what you're thrown, you've got this, it's all good. And then I think going into your own business and being your own boss then takes away the uncertainty of is this job going to even hire me? Because I have a record, Is this like? There's just so many other things that you're like no, I'm going to, I'm going to take that into my own hands and I'm going to, I'm going to hire me. So I think that's awesome. So I would love to hear some of your business successes and failures. So get into that a little bit.
Speaker 3:It always starts with failures. That's how we learn. Yeah, that's how we learn. That's how we grow, that's how we were able to remix me and get back on our feet. So I've started.
Speaker 3:When I when I first started I don't know why, but I started with one of the hardest things in the world to do, which was sell life insurance, and I don't know why I just jumped into it. I had no marketing skills, no advertising skills, no people skills, except tough love type skills how am I going to sell life insurance policies? But I had a coach who walked me through it. He took me under his wing and he, he, she, showed me the business and I was able to go out there sell life insurance for about five years five to six years and life was amazing. I learned all types of important things that we should know as business people and entrepreneurs. You know what I mean, like how to talk to people, etiquette, manners, respect and integrity in business and things like that, of course, marketing and all of that. But I did have some failures. It took me about 10 months to sell my first policy. But those failures taught me marketing and taught me advertising and taught me promotion, and I had to learn that those are three different things and I kept rolling them all into one. So after all those failures, I was able to finally get a graphs of what the three different things is and how to approach them differently.
Speaker 3:And then how to dress the part I'm trying to sell life insurance. You got to dress the part I can't have a white beat on, and all of that. I got to dress the part you can't have a white beat on, and all of that. I got to dress the part. So I learned that. And then I was able to take off and for the next five years things was extremely successful. And then that was in 2008. And that's right. When that started 2008, that started. And then around 2000, maybe about 13, 14, everything just went downhill. I got into. Next, I got into real estate. It took me about eight months to sell my first house.
Speaker 1:I think that's a magic number for you.
Speaker 3:It just takes a while to get off the ground. But again, there's so many lessons in those failures and a lot of money being lost too, and you learn how to where to really focus your investment on. But even though I became, I seen some success in it. Real estate wasn't for me. I dabbled into a little bit of network marketing and then I got into some other things. I don't know if your podcast is ready for that, but I don't know if your audience want to hear that. But I got into some other things. I don't know if your podcast is ready for that, I don't know if your audience want to hear that, but I got into some other things.
Speaker 3:And then one day I'm sitting in my office and one of my mentors he's in town, he's visiting me and we're sitting in my office and we're playing chess. And he's a millionaire, he's a pastor, he got it all, he got an amazing life. And while we're playing chess he changed my life with this one thing he said to me. He said you know why you're not successful? And for a second the old me almost came out. What are you talking to? Like, I make sixty one hundred dollars a month. That's why you here in town visiting me. What do you mean? I'm not successful. And he says because you don't own anything.
Speaker 3:And at that moment I realized I no longer have my life insurance license. I don't own that license, I no longer have my real estate license. I hung that up. I don't own my real estate license. None of us owns network marketing and all the other things. So I didn't own it. I was just a affiliate, I was just a part of it. I didn't own it. And that was just an affiliate. I was just a part of it, I didn't own it. And that changed my life and I had to restructure my brain and think ownership how do I get into ownership? So to this day.
Speaker 3:I now brought a travel agency franchise, which is Cruise Planners. So now I spend the bulk of my day literally marketing, promoting, advertising and booking travel for clients. I started a holding company called WDFYYP Holdings and under that holding company I put a WDFYYP podcast and put WDFYYP apparel, I put WDFYYP publishing and soon, hopefully in the next couple of years, I'll have WDFYYP Publishing and soon, hopefully in the next couple of years, I'll have WDFYYP Comedy. So now I own a holding company with four LLCs under it and I launched the podcast and I launched the apparel and I'm working on the books and I now own want you to tell our audience now what does WDFIYP stand for?
Speaker 3:WDFIYP stands for what? The is your problem, I like it. Like that.
Speaker 1:What do you why? Why that?
Speaker 3:I. I have a lot. I still have to a degree. I still have, uh, a monster caged up inside of me. And before that monster come out, the first thing that comes out of my mouth to someone is that question what the is your problem? That's the first thing that comes to my mouth before I snap or stop myself from snapping. So I decided after seeing the therapist. The therapist told me that I should find a way to channel that rage and I said you know what, Instead of asking people this question in a negative way or when the monster is trying to get out of his cage, question in a negative way or when the monster is trying to get out of his cage, let me try to put this in a bottle and make some money out of it, or at least do something positive with it.
Speaker 3:And I decided to start the podcast because, at the end of the day, we all got a problem and every single day that problem can change. I can literally ask someone that question seven days a week and they might have seven different answers. I just wanted to just put it in a positive light. So now when I interview people, I ask them that the answers is different for everyone and it's all. It never seems to amaze me the people's answer, and so when I, when I slap it on the t-shirt or hoodie, when people walk around and wear it, it's a conversation starter. When someone looks at these big gold letters that say WDFORP on your shirt and they figure it out, it just instantly starts a conversation or laugh or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I love that, and I think that it's a question that a lot of people are taken aback by. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And normally yeah, you're right, it comes out in when I got teenagers, teenagers and a 20 year old it's so weird to even say that, but yeah, I want to say that to them all the time. This, literally, I was telling you that I had just picked up my daughter from school and she's all emotional and turns down what I was listening to and I was like I was listening to that and she's and gets all because it's the last week of school and she's all emotional and so I look at her and I'm like I, that's exactly what I wanted to say.
Speaker 1:I'm like hello, excuse me.
Speaker 1:So I think that it's when you're able to spin something that usually comes out in like yeah, like in this like defensive way, right, because those are the walls that we put up when we feel like attacked. You put up a wall and you're like what do you? What the hell? What is happening right now? So when you can spin that and use it for good? For, because people when the most and this is what I love about this podcasting interview thing is people. The one thing that they love to talk about the most is themselves, absolutely, and you learn so much from people and it's the coolest thing.
Speaker 1:I love human beings. I Even when I love being able to sit back and being very observant of the way that humans act and behave, and I'm very much into personal development and because of that, it really has opened my eyes to human behavior and how different it is and where it comes from, and I go through therapy myself, so that helps me. Okay, I can sit back and like when someone cuts me off instead of getting mad, because my 18 year old he's about to graduate, he's like driving and stuff and he used to get so mad when people would cut them, cut him off. I'm like they just have to poop. It's fine, because you can't get mad at someone that's in that situation. We've been there, all of us, and you just have to go. So you've got to make it home somehow. And so I try to tell him that to lighten the mood, because that question is exactly what he wants to say, but in a rage way and I like no, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Their problem is that they gotta go to the bathroom let it go. Let it go and it's all good but yeah, I absolutely love that you can flip something that you felt like a negative thing into a positive thing, and that is life happening for you absolutely I love that so much and two divorces right.
Speaker 3:Yes, two divorces.
Speaker 1:And so what do you feel that you have learned from?
Speaker 3:I guess, looking back at that, Relationships are not for me, that is a really bad identity, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:I have to be honest. No, you know, what I learned about myself and marriages and relationships is that I no longer want to feel obligated for anyone else's feelings or emotions, and I also learned that if the woman isn't into other women, then that could be a problem as well, because I like to have fun, I like to travel, I like to have fun, and sometimes that one person is not enough, especially if they're stressful. So what I've learned? That a marriage can be an amazing thing if the two people understand each other and they're in it for more than just themselves. So for me, I prefer to. We could do a long-term relationship. As far as it's us, we're exclusive, but you can see other people and I can see other people.
Speaker 3:I don't want to be obligated Every time if I'm in a good mood and you're in a bad people. I don't want to be obligated If I'm in a good mood and you're in a bad mood. I don't want you bringing me down. If I want to do something that I feel as though I don't want to have to get permission from anyone and I don't want to cheat on anyone. I don't want to disrespect anyone. I just prefer to be free and when I call, you come. When you call, I come. Other than that, we just be free. Those are the things that I've learned about myself within two marriages. But I've also learned that everything isn't always about me, so I always have to make sure that I am respecting other people's wishes as well, and I can respect anyone's wishes. I can respect that. But I'm going to do it single. I'm going to be free. I'm going to be doing my thing whenever I want to, but marriage can be a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:It can be. Yeah, I agree, I feel like that's still something that I look forward to again, because I already had one divorce. But I just feel like when we learn that we're responsible for our own feelings, I don't depend on my boyfriend to make me happy. That is a me job and he can add to my happiness, but he isn't the one responsible and I try to teach that to my kids as well because I don't want them to depend on other people for their happiness. That is giving giving someone so much power over your emotions and I really learned that in the my marriage and my previous relationship. They can't be responsible for me being happy. I took time to get to know who I was again and that kind of stuff, but I do believe in the fact that I do want to at some point grow old with somebody and just know that you're my person, I'm your person, yeah, but nobody is ever going to be responsible for the way that I feel and I can't be responsible for the way that you feel.
Speaker 3:It's crazy to say that, right, because I've been. My experiences were when a person causes that rage to come out, I'm like why does this person have so much power? Like how, who are they to be able to make me lose my cool? That can't be. And if we go through something and I lose my cool and I tell you look, we have to figure out a solution for this, because you just caused me to lose my cool and that's not cool, and then and that continuously happens, now I have to make a decision.
Speaker 3:I need to get rid of this person because they keep causing me to lose my cool and we're not finding the solution, or I need to just find a way to get rid of them without vanishing. So sometimes I'm the type of person I just vanish, like I'll just leave every material thing behind and just go, because it can all be brought and accumulated again. But sometimes I try to go the route of taking everything with me and that just that turns into a long day. But yeah, just not giving someone that power that make you lose your cool is important to me. My sanity is important to me and sometimes relationships they can add to your sanity they can just cause you to go insane yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Again, I feel very I guess, from just life experience that we control that and I've had moments where even my kids I want to be like for real, for real. But then, even with them, I sometimes say, yeah, that was not the way that I choose to identify myself as the way that I react to things. Did you catch me, maybe on a day that I didn't have a lot of sleep and maybe my mood's not the norm? Absolutely, but I have to take responsibility of, like, how I react to things and you can't have this is what I tell my kids you can't have more power over my feelings than what I have, because you don't own me. If I allow you to enrage me, then I lost that power absolutely, absolutely so it's like taking the reins of that.
Speaker 3:That's why I can't do relationships no more, because I lose my power. As a Leo, I'm a sucker for damsel in distress.
Speaker 1:I always I feel like those, though Let me, I'm going to challenge you on something. All right.
Speaker 1:I feel like it isn't I'm all about. I'm gonna challenge you on something. All right, I feel like it isn't I'm all about. I'm a Sagittarius and I'm like give me the all the adventures, all the adventures. That's a totally yeah, I'm full throttle on that part of my Sagittarius and all the things. And the only reason I'm saying this is because I had an interview earlier today and we talked about this exact thing. It isn't necessarily that we are like our astrological sign or anything like that. It's so much of the wounds that haven't healed from when we were children okay, okay, I see you let me, I'm gonna venture to say that you were there to help your mom.
Speaker 1:You were your mom's right hand person yeah there is some type of childhood wound there that you haven't maybe you haven't healed, so that's why you gravitate towards damsels in distress abandonment yeah that's part of that's part of my trouble yeah, it's so crazy.
Speaker 1:It's so crazy how this happens, because we were supposed to talk yesterday, but I didn't have this conversation with this person until today, when we rescheduled and I just had this conversation a few hours ago. Like this is life happening for us, absolutely, and I feel like. So we had this conversation. I told him I was like when my mom was pregnant with me, I was a twin and my mom had a miscarriage and I stayed. So I've always felt like there's somebody missing, there's something missing there and I'm not full, I'm not whole, I'm not whatever, right? So that's abandonment. I feel abandoned by my twin, right?
Speaker 3:I feel abandoned by my twin Right.
Speaker 1:And then I could. I've worked enough on my own self-healing that I also know that I wholeheartedly feel that when that happened, I am as strong as I am because my twin gave me all of that. Yep. It's perspective right.
Speaker 1:I am because my twin gave me all of that. Yeah, yeah, it's perspective, right, and when we gravitate towards and we talked about this because I was in a previous relationship where he was my high school sweetheart we reconnected after we both got divorced and it was like sparks flew. However, I gravitated towards him because he was not that he was the damsel in distress, but he was the one that needed help in terms of I love to help people and he was someone that felt lost, right, and so I gravitated towards that and I got hurt over and over and over again and don't get me wrong, I love him and I will always love him. He will always have a piece of my heart. However, I could look back and see that it was my own wounds that I was soothing that.
Speaker 1:I was like trauma bonding or whatever you want to call it with this person because he was fulfilling a need that I had, but then that abandonment feeling continued to happen and he cheated on me a bunch of times and but he still loved.
Speaker 1:It was like this craziness and I feel like, looking back, I can see that I just had not healed from that and after we had broken up, we were still best friends and when he even when he passed away and everything like I spent three years on my own and I had written a list of exactly what I wanted in a man and exactly what I wanted in a relationship, from the experiences and from the things that I wanted. So I didn't want someone that didn't cheat. I wanted someone that was honest and faithful and trustworthy and someone that I could create a life with. Great. But it was because I learned that I needed to focus on what I wanted, not what I didn't want, and it was so crazy when I see this listed out right, I need to be the person that deserves this yeah, yeah and so that healing had to happen yeah and I spent three years on my own and I was always like the third wheel, the fifth wheel, the seventh wheel.
Speaker 1:I was that odd person out in all of the scenarios. Everyone was like oh my god, you're such a great person, how are you still single? And I'm like because I need to love me first right, really me first, and then I could understand what makes me tick, how I can protect my own feelings and emotions yeah, and but it's that, it's I needed to heal those wounds in order for me to.
Speaker 1:And still, things come up right because we, we're ever we're human and we're ever evolving and things trigger and whatever, but it's knowing that. So maybe it isn't that you necessarily are just gravitating towards these damsels in distress. It's that maybe there's some healing that still needs to happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm going to tell you you hit it right on the head, right Is because I have some healing as far as I have a 25 year old daughter, right, and when I was incarcerated, my daughter was two when I came home and she was nine, right. So I missed that those seven years, right. She's still making me pay for that to this day, right, directly and indirectly, right, yeah, and what I've noticed in life is that, even when it comes to relationships, when it comes to the damsel in distress thing is that I'm trying to make up for that in my relationships, not abandoning someone and leaving someone behind to fend for themselves or to not have my presence, and in return, while I'm getting what I need out of that, this person is putting me through hell, but I'm staying because I'm getting what I need out of that. You're feeding off of it.
Speaker 3:yes, because it helps me because of my trauma, my past trauma, but in a sense, I'm doing this with the wrong person yeah so now, when I try to mend this relationship with my daughter, it's every so often she's just throwing that gap of time back in my face. I'm not listening to you, I'm not letting you guide me, because I'm still mad about this gap. I'm like it's 15 years ago, like it's been here for 15 years.
Speaker 3:It is like how can? Why are we not moving forward? So yeah, you hit it right on the head. It's, and that's why I believe now it's best for me to stay single, because if I stay single, I'm no longer getting into relationships that feed my trauma. And it's not that these people are bad people, it's just I get it.
Speaker 1:I just it's funny that you said that and I'm like oh my God, I just had this conversation. This is craziness, but yeah, I agree. I think that it's when we learn how to heal that people that fall into what we need and that we can grow with seem to just appear in our life.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So I, yeah, I love that, and the most beautiful part about it is that you're aware.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Because if we go through life always la, la la, then we don't even know that this is something that's happening.
Speaker 1:And it repeats yeah, and the cycle will continue to repeat. But I think that the moment that you're aware and you're like all right, I'm ready for my own healing journey to continue and I'm ready to like do the things that I need to do to be okay with me, anybody could come into your life and it'll be like the most unexpected thing, because I didn't. I really it was. It's crazy, but I didn't think that I had who was gonna? Who's gonna be okay with a single mom of three kids and the oldest being diagnosed bipolar? It life was crazy you'd be surprised.
Speaker 1:I know, but I didn't want somebody that was just looking to save me either, so it's like a fine line there and you don't know anymore who you're letting into your life and then into your kid's life, and so it was crazy how things fell into place, but it's also really cool, because it's when you least expected that you're like oh well, all the work that I've done, this is good, all right, that we're more aligned, we're more, and everybody comes with, obviously with their own baggage and their own issues. But I think that, like when everything fits in a good way, like it's someone if you, if it's someone you can grow with oh my gosh absolutely it's so different than someone that you just feel like attached to because of the trauma.
Speaker 3:So because life is all about growth yeah it it is.
Speaker 1:I didn't understand that, and until eight and a half years ago when I was actually nine years ago around this time I had cervical cancer and it was that year that I started my health journey and it was that year that I learned what it was to work on my mindset. I was always a positive person, but the way that I viewed life was so different and I didn't know that there was this whole other personal development. What? And I started reading books and listening to books and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is crazy.
Speaker 3:Whole new world.
Speaker 1:Whole new world, and so I think that helped me understand. And I have a mindset coach and my mindset coach learned something from a different mindset coach that now I use. And the life is happening for you and not to you, I know, passed down from mentor to mentor, right, and now every time something happens I'm like, okay, this sucks, how is this happening for me? Where can I find the blessings in this? Because I know that there's always purpose behind something. I have to anchor myself in that, knowing that, no matter what I go through because I've been through a lot, I've already survived my worst day.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I've found purpose in the most horrendous things that I've gone through. So if I found purpose in that, then this thing right now, that's happening right here, it's nothing thing right now that's happening right here.
Speaker 3:It's nothing, it's nothing, yeah. And, like you said, when you're aware, it helps you stay on track and stay on point, because you're aware of what's going on, you're aware where you've been, you're aware of where you're at, where you're going, you're aware of what your traumas are. All those things that that you're conscious of helps you stay on point and stay focused and not blow your top.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think that's so powerful, the awareness of it is so powerful. I feel like the and it's OK, because you could still have the emotions that are attached to all of the things that are happening, right, like when my dad passed away. I was feeling all of the things that are happening, right like when my dad passed away, I was feeling all of the emotions, right, that was like my best friend, he. We were so close. I'm full through and through daddy's girl and I can still look back now and say, all right, can. I was his caretaker and he did everything I could. I was there for all the appointments, all the things. What a blessing, cause not everybody gets that and it's, it's. I could still. I still feel the emotions. I still, to this day, feel the emotions and the emotions aren't aren't bad, they're there for a reason, right, but I can go for a walk and see a Cardinal and talk to my dad, because that Cardinal is my dad's way of coming and visiting me. Yep and saying hi.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. I just feel like the. I want to make sure that we are aware that emotions are going to be there. Those are important, those are what keeps us alive. Yeah, Grounded, absolutely grounded. And, however, the meaning and the power that we put behind those emotions is how we continue to grow like, how we see how life is happening for us and the blessings that we go through absolutely anyways, oh my gosh, don't you love the journey, don't you love the journey?
Speaker 1:The journey is the best. The journey is the best. So if you had, what is the goal that you have, that you feel like is your mission, Live off the grid.
Speaker 3:That's my mission now. It's right now. I'm working on looking at RVs or maybe even just a camper. Yeah, but I'm looking at RVs, campers. I'm looking at just a way to give up the life of apartments and houses and just travel. So to add to that a part of my story, after all the madness that went on as far as incarceration and all of that, I wound up getting my record expunged and being able to start a new life. That's awesome. So now I'm now a flight attendant, right yeah?
Speaker 1:With what airline.
Speaker 3:JetBlue.
Speaker 1:Oh, I actually used to work for JetBlue.
Speaker 3:Nice, really nice. So I'm now a flight attendant with JetBlue. I now own this franchise travel agency. So not only am I discounted on cruises, I can also book tours for people, book vacations for people. And then I have the podcast and I'm going to have the clothing line. So now I'm ready to just get that RV and just live off the grid. I have wifi. I can live an amazing life and not have nothing tying me down. I still have my 25 year old daughter, my 14 year old son that I'm still responsible for, and they got the bat phone. But other than that, it's just it's. I'm ready to live the live off the grid and that's my number one mission that I'm working on.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 3:I'm taking a break from travel.
Speaker 3:And that was actually one of the reasons one of my missions was to become a travel agent. For that very same reason, I get paid for traveling when I'm flying. Because I'm a flight attendant, I can fly for free on any airline any given time. Why not go ahead and become a travel agent as well? So now even my vacations are discounted and almost free to a degree, and they just go hand in hand. So that was part of my mission. That has been fulfilled. Both of them now has been fulfilled, and now I just need that RV and that life will be amazing.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. So what are other than that? What are a few things that you may be working on and maybe some lessons you've learned from just the things that we talked about?
Speaker 3:One of the biggest lessons I've learned in life and you almost, you definitely, you touched on it earlier is when you was mentioning how your mentor learned from other mentors is that one thing life has taught me is that if you strip away everything in the world cars, planes, boats, houses, strip it all away, there's one thing that still remains, and that's humans. We're not going nowhere. We're supposedly the only species on earth, so we're not going anywhere. So helping one another is extremely, extremely important to me and always have been. I just didn't know it. Helping one another.
Speaker 3:So what I'm doing with the WDFYYP publishing is I'm working on a book right now to where I'm interviewing 25 people and all I'm asking them is what is their problem?
Speaker 3:And I'm going to let them just rant and I record it.
Speaker 3:And what I'm going to do is I have a transcriber who would then take everything they said, transcribe it, and I'm going to self-publish a book and what I'm going to do is I'm going to have 25 co-authors, because it's all their problems, and I'm going to pay each author, each co-author, a percentage of every book sale.
Speaker 3:Every time the book sale, 25 different people was getting paid 26 including myself and I'm going to do volume 1 through 25, so that it'll hopefully be thousands of people that I'm going to help put money into their pocket. Just because they shared what their problem is with me, I'll put it out into the world and hopefully that can help others who can relate to that issue or that problem. And that's one thing that I learned through my whole experience in life is that at the end of the day, humans still need each other. And how can I help as many people as I can help? And that's for me to just gather people, unite people and share experiences and stories with people so we can all help each other but also make some money at the same time.
Speaker 1:I love that so very much. That's awesome. And then, what habits help you keep on task with those goals?
Speaker 3:Basketball I love basketball, whether I'm playing it or watching it. I love it. Reading I try to read an hour a day, though I have been slacking lately due to busy schedule, and those are really it Besides spending time with my children. It was hard to spend time with my 25-year-old because she got to put me on her schedule, but I know the feeling my son, he like we kicking it every day. But those three things just basketball reading and my kids is the three things that just keep me focused and on point.
Speaker 1:I love it, love it so much. Is there anything else that you want to touch on before we jump off?
Speaker 3:I would just like to say thank you again for allowing me to be on your podcast and your platform. I truly appreciate it. Thank you for opening my eyes to some things with this conversation. If anyone's looking to get in contact with me, I am found you can just go on Instagram or Facebook, type in WDFYYP or type in Trusted Travel Advisor Cruise Planters. Trusted Travel Advisor. Go to trustedtraveladvisorcom or you could just pick up the phone and dial 407-300-0411. I'm available.
Speaker 1:Sweet. I'll put all of the information in the show notes for anyone to contact you, but this was awesome. Thank you so very much. I am like pumped for everyone to listen to this. I think it was a great conversation. That's what I love about having this podcast is that I have these amazing conversations with people that I would have never met otherwise.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's just it fills my cup. So, anyways, thank you so much. I really really appreciate it. Listeners, thank you for listening and I'll put again all of his information in the show notes and if you have any questions, I know that he'll help you out. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for listening. Peace out, guys, Love your life. Bye.
