redefining success w/ michael hale jr, project manager city of detroit

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Michael it's good to people they want me. Who are you? Where are you? What do you do? And we'll go man Who am I? Michael Hale junior so from Detroit the great city of Detroit Born and raised been here almost my whole life. I had a stint in Florida So we'll talk about that. Maybe we'll see I've seen somebody from Orlando in here Maryland shout out to Orlando My family lives down there too. So But yeah, what I do So I got into the tech game over the last, I would say, three or four years. The funny story is I got in tech like a long time ago, like almost 10 years ago, and I was completely not ready.

Like fish out of water, did not do wells, working out of startup, didn't know what I was doing, and they all were supposed to do sales, and they were like, all right, go to this conference and sell this stuff. And I said, I don't know what I'm doing. So anyway, so stepped out of tech for a little while, worked in different service industries and kind of bump my way back into tech after working in nonprofit field. And, you know, took the opportunity to get tech adjacent. Like you always talk about, like, I really like, I don't do technical things, right? I was working at a software development type company where we were training people and bootcamp style, which is where I met you.

And so from there, you know, just kind of fade into that area, big on helping people to see their full success and getting them to the next level. And so whenever I could do that, which is, you know, while I was working at the nonprofit working with young people from, you know, transitioning them from young adults to straight adulthood, which was a crazy process. And then, of course, getting into the tech space. And so now I'm still in the tech space, but now in the mobility space, innovation and like learning about what that looks like now and seeing how I can put my thumb print on that.

I love that. That's awesome. Well, man, what lots to talk about today, right? I think the first thing is talk to me. I love this discovering who you are before looking for a job you want that is bars right there. I'll tell you that much Talk talk to me like listen. Here's like I don't like to prep You just said me this today before two days before talk talk about like where's this coming from right cuz I'm always curious if people want to talk About something it's on their heart. It's a reason why it's on their heart. Yeah Man, I feel like in our society in our world a lot of times we get focus on the goal, right?

Like, get the job or get the opportunity or, you know, marry the spouse, get the house, do all these things. But like, we never really slow the clock down to figure out, like, why do you want those things anyway? And are those things worthy of your desires? And so when I say finding who you are before you find the job, like, who are you for real? Like, what do you even like? Because sometimes we end up like going after a job because we see, you know, our homie, you know, they get the job or our boy or our friend, whatever they get this job and they love it.

But we don't realize like maybe that's something inside of them that like really likes what they're doing outside of the money. And so for me it's like slowing down and going back into childhood and figuring out like, yo, what was I like? What was I on and what made me tick? What made me grow? And then taking that and discovering, how do I line it up with something that I could do every single day? Like, you know, some people say, you know, when you get paid for your passion or whatever, like, yeah, that's the thing too, but like, can you actually just find out what you, what you want to do with yourself outside of a job?

Like that's kind of where I'm headed with that. Can you give a practical example? Also, shout out Brett Hughes for the new job. You're a STEM man, very, very proud of you. Love fun along your journey. Ricardo's good to see you. And then yeah, Jason knowing your why is so key to all this stuff. So can you give it a practical example, man? I mean, if you're, if you have a story about yourself about, if you want to share, maybe something that clicked with you? Sure, yeah, yeah. So a couple of times, when I was working in youth development, which is like a big area for me, I started working with young people.

And me and my wife actually created a program called Beyond Hashtags. And so the whole thing started because I wanted to get kids beyond just getting online and saying like, hashtag, hashtag. I love that. Don't get it. Y'all wanna hashtag. I was like, yo, that's not activism. I mean, it's whatever you're doing, but it's not a thing that can take you to the next level. So I wanted to get inside of that matrix and help them figure out how do you actually put something to the paper and change your life and figure out who you are and strengthening your skills and strengthening yourself. Like always talk about Steph Curry, he doesn't play defense, he shoots threes.

And we don't worry about the defense, we worry about the three point shooting. And so I started. And all I do is I play defense and hockey, and I don't score at all. So there you go. There you go. You don't worry about scoring. Yeah. So it's the same thing. And so I started really pouring into these young people over the last five years in the city of Detroit. And this nuts to see how kids were able to really embrace that and say, OK, like, I am somebody. I can go to the next level. Like, some of them kids had never been to actual private dinner.

And we took them there so they could see themselves as just not another black kid in Detroit, but like I'm not missing ghosts somewhere. Yeah. And so now the funny part is like me and my wife running to these kids out and about sometimes, and they're just like, yo, I did it. I'm going to college and I'm like, yo, you going to college? Like, bro, you wasn't even thinking of it. So that's kind of like the practical side of it. That's one example I can think of. It's like literally going from this is something I'm desiring to like actually putting it to paper and then making it happen.

What? So good man. What what what what's what's the common theme or thread that you have seen That can that maybe you want to give advice to to give people over the hump right because you see a lot of people be on the hashtag Getting people out right taking them in dinners Getting them to get any mental mindset of this is where this is what I deserve These are the rooms I should be in which not a lot of people are able to do What what was the thread or the theme of people that were stuck? And how do they get unstuck? They were trying to be everybody else Like they were trying to be the thing that looked like success, right?

It was like well My man dressed like that so I'm gonna dress like this or you know They talk like that so I'm gonna talk like this versus really just being authentic and saying but what do I really? Who am I really you know what I mean? What makes me laugh what makes me upset what makes me angry? I love asking that question like what makes you angry. I actually love that Because when you find out like what makes you angry, that's like passion, right? And then you start finding out like, wait, I can't like it bothers you. It may not bother everybody else. Right.

So like, why is that? And let's dig into it. And so like once I get people to like start thinking about that kind of stuff, man, like, everything takes off, you know, especially. I got a Christmas part of this Friday or Saturday. I'm going to go up to him and be like, Hey, what makes you angry? Hey, look, I used to ask it in interviews. Like when I was interviewing people and they would be like, uh, and I was like, just answered. Don't worry about it, you know, and it was a reason for it. But yeah, I love that. What for you, how has this kind of what we're talking about now, defining who you want to be?

I know you've talked a little bit about your experience, but is there anything else about how you've maybe zeroed in on these key things? And that's what's propelled you more throughout your career? Sure, sure. A lot of gratitude, you know what I mean? Like, flowing down. That's something I'm being on. Man, being grateful, like, just thinking about your life, right? And thinking about the opportunities that you have to go out here and implement something and change the world that you live in. Like being grateful for that every single day. It changes everything. And you start looking at stuff from a totally different lens versus like, versus like, oh, I could be upset about, you know, not getting my Starbucks.

Like, I wanted to get before I got on this call, but then I think about the fact that I can actually go buy Starbucks. Like, bro, what are you talking about? Like somebody can't even go do that. Like one of my, yeah. Go ahead. No, go, go, go, go, go. I mean, I mean, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk says it. I know he's a polarizing figure. Gary V, Gary V. Yeah. He says, he says, y'all are just getting angry that you got the wrong milk in your latte. Bro. Like and it's also and that's that's like for me I slow the train down a lot because I worked with a lot of different kids from a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of different people Who can't even fathom doing the stuff that we do on a daily basis and then not to mention?

You know like unfortunately I recently I've had friends pass away. I mean these people are young I'm 38 Like if you pour out 38 30 I thought you're you're doing a lot. Hey Hey, hey, I run a lot. My wife makes me juice more. You look great. You look at the skin. The skin is skin is skinning this morning, Michael. Skin is skin. Hey, human race by Pharrell. You know, it's really good for the face. So check that out if y'all want to, you know, but anyway, tell them I'm not. I can't see that for me. Hey, phenomenal. They always talk, they say he's a vampire.

So he let us have a vampire juice. But anyway, I can see that for the record. But talk, talk about, Um, uh, it kind of somebody goes, I want to go back to the, to the gratefulness here, the great gratitude and gratefulness. I, that's something that I've been struggle with, but I feel like if I can really align myself in that mindset, I think everything else is more positive. Absolutely. Man, it just like, I don't know, like sometimes we just, we take so much for a granted, like, like for real, like not even just like the amenities that we have access to, but like the fact that you can walk out on two legs.

Like what are you talking about? Like somebody can't do that. We don't think about, I remember Dr. O, he's at the University of Michigan, man, shout out to Dr. O, like I'll tag him later. But like he gave this speech at an event when I was in Grand Rapids and it blew my mind because like he was like, yo, nobody even thinks about how I got here. Like he's in a wheelchair. Like how did I get upstairs? How did I get inside of the building, right? Gratitude. So it's like a lot of that slowing down And really being self-aware is like a huge part of gratitude.

Yeah, okay. You're starting to become more aware of like who you are, your surroundings. Like you'll tuck it in real quick. Like, yeah, 100%. 100%. I'm kind of looking over your questions too. And you're just one of those guys I could talk to forever. Likewise, man. Redefining success. So this is something, I'll hold real quick, gratitude real quick. My guy Ashley yesterday, he's from Haiti. And he was talking about the unrest and the civil war that's going on in Haiti right now. And he talked about, he goes at the end of the day, he goes, I get to wake up in the US and not have to deal with unrest.

And he goes, I can be safe. And so we talked about gratitude yesterday with my guy Ashley, who's speaking at render, and just talking to individuals who did not grow up the same as you, I did not grow up in Haiti, right? Like that, obviously not. And so I think talking to different people, let's just call what it is. talking to different people who don't look like you. Facts. Like that's the facts. Like when you start getting comfortable with that, like even for myself, like me and my wife talk about this all the time, like, yeah, like a lot of people didn't grow up like me, but I also didn't grow up like a lot of people.

So my mind said, I have to listen so I can understand your worldview versus saying like my worldview is the view. Like maybe, maybe not, probably. So like how do we exchange that so we can learn and we can both grow, then we can be grateful for each other's experience, you know what I mean? Absolutely, absolutely. Let's talk about redefining success, right? So I've gone through that, right? I mean, I, I mean, I'm, you know, I posted this. I mean, I'm making 40% less than I have, right? Over the last few years. When you take that type of pay cut, just because I've been so sales driven in an engineering market, it's obviously gonna hurt.

And my wife and I've had a lot of conversations. And, you know, I've looked at my wife And I know this is, I know I said this in a podcast recently that I posted by look at my wife and I was like, what if we don't, what if we don't get back to where I was and she goes, that's okay. Man, so fucking. And it's been hard. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and be like, I'm great, right? Like it's been a mental battle for the last year. I felt major imposter syndrome, not know what I'm doing. So talk to me what redefines this says, looks like for you, man.

Man, you said so much, man. Like I said, we can talk for days. So for me, let me just start by piggyback on what you just said. So like a lot of people don't know, like they see the glitz and the glamour or whatever. And like even working at, you know, work at the city of Detroit now, which is like nuts, you know, office of mobility innovation, all this stuff that's happening all the time. But if you rewind, like me and my wife both lost our jobs this year. And like it was like a staggered effect of like it was shocking all right. We had just bought a new home.

We have a four-year-old daughter, like we were progressing and you know just trying to do we're supposed to do and You know be intelligent and responsibly young people growing up But like one shoe dropped and then I was the only one working for a while and it was like okay Well, we're fine. We'll be able to make it, you know, we got things say we got this we're okay And then it was like oh my other shoe drop like that you didn't see and I know you've been talking about this a lot like how the market is tough and so it was like completely shifted us and so we went from like having Whatever we wanted to like Right So how do you like you just sit like so how do you redefine success?

Like what did that look like so then I had to start asking myself will like was success me going to work every day? Or was success me finding out why I'm here every day And so now when I start redefining that and saying, man, like my daughter's still looking at me and still like she don't care about none of that. And her, she like, y'all she cares about I don't know how your daughter is my three years old she cares about chicken nuggets and her stuffy that's all she cares about. That's it because they look they rely upon us they're not asking no questions they come in like I always tell people my daughter come and ask me for a juice I got to figure out how to get to juice somebody where we at.

the park, I'm like, well, I'm in halo juice, but I'm about to figure it out, you know, I'm alive because you came to me actually, so I'm gonna get done. So when I talk about redefining success, like, I'm really looking at like, who told you that was success in the first place? Like, let's take a lot of times we start like going after this stuff, and then you slow down and you realize like, like, who's measuring this? Right. Like, every day, I've said Listen, here, and if y'all have seen my content, you may have seen this clip too, but I mean, it's something that's really resonating with me over the last two years.

You know, whenever my wife and I travel, you know, whenever we're gonna New York and Miami, you get caught up in the glitz, right? You get to design or handbag, whatever, right? And then, I come back home, and then I live on a farm. I've seen that. I go, why the fuck did I buy a designer? I live on a farm. And also too, like something my wife and I've been talking a lot about, like one, what does great from us in success look like right now? Right now success looks like having a job. Something. Right? And so for me it's like success is like all the people, and I said this in the podcast, I said, all the people who love me, they don't care that I have anything.

All they care about is maybe coming over riding some horses. That's it. And it's like, I mean, like why, you know, why, why do I need all this stuff if at the end of the day, and here's the deal, right? At the end of the day, I sit at home my sweats. I've worn these sweats now for four days in a row. Congratulations. I'm happy for you, man. Like who are you trying to impress? Who are you trying to? And that's my thing. It's like, so when I read the fine, for me, when I started to redefining success, I was like, all right, like you just said, like, okay, well, my family's still loving me.

They still care about me. I still get treated with love and respect. My daughter still looks at me to start away My wife still looks at me in certain ways to like how do I read the science success? And so now for me is being the best version of myself every single day Like being the best possible me and serving as many people as I can that have been assigned to me in my life every single day That's success and like and here's the crazy part about that Taylor when you start living like that that the success comes to you. The opportunities start coming to you, the people start seeking you out.

And it just takes you to a whole nother place. And so like, my whole goal is like, get people out of this mindset of like, yo, like that might be success for somebody else, but with you, it could be failure. I want to talk about one thing. You didn't put this in your email, but it just kind of popped my head and something I've been really passionate about, right? So there's people who may be watching this right now or in the future and be like, success finding a having a job. I don't have a job. I want to talk about at bats, right? What's on my at bats for a second?

So I'm not a baseball guy. I tried to play baseball, but not good. And, you know, don't follow the profession at MLB. It's too many freaking games. I do fall college baseball. Went to the South Carolina. So big big and we have a good baseball program. So I follow baseball when it went in the springtime. But one of the things I talk about, Especially in today's world with how hard it is right now is app bats getting an app bat right when you get up to the plate And you tip the ball you foul ball or maybe you strike out after a few foul balls That's still an app bat you are touching the ball.

You are getting close to it I think at bats at business and life are something that you should focus on more than even the wins Right because what happens is like for example, right It comes so last night last night I had a client who I'm good friends with they had to cancel the project not a big deal But they canceled the project you would have been a decent payout, but like not a big deal But you know why I was I was I was okay with that cancellation at 10 o'clock at night last night Because I had a call with a hiring manager with 25 positions see Right, you're you're not gonna get every at bat, right?

I think I think if you're a good I think if you're a good baseball player You hit the ball once every four times you get 250 bad in average if anybody's a baseball person you baseball person I don't know I think 250 300 Yeah Person that wants to chime in on what a good bad in average is let me know I'm pretty sure as long as you're above 250. I think I think you're doing pretty well and the end of the majors No, I look man I think you're a hundred percent right one of my mentors shout out to Brian and he would tell me stuff like that literally all the time.

And you know what he would tell me? He would say singles and doubles, Mike. He was like, let's just get some singles and doubles. Stop trying to get all the home runs because the singles and doubles get you on base. And a lot of times people are swinging so hard that you don't get a chance to actually put yourself in the right position. Like somebody's watching you at those at bat to your point. Those at bats are starting to build up stamina and you start getting better. You start understanding how to swing a little bit differently. And next thing you know, you knocking them out the park, but it takes time.

Like I tell all my people, like I said, I tell all my people, hey yo, like it takes time to become whatever it is you try to become. It ain't gonna just happen. Like Kobe didn't just become Kobe. It's a long time for him to become. Yeah. Yeah, like what are you talking about, man? Jason, Jason comes in, Hall of Famers are about 300 or so. Have another one, 300 is elite, right? So we would kill for that on our job hunt failing. 75% of the time is really good. We got to change our perspective. John, so good. Absolutely. Yeah. Marie comes in after a few crappy at bats to get all in their heads.

I think we do the same thing. Any tips we're getting out of your head wouldn't you have had some bad at bats? That I got another one coming. Like that. Well, in gratitude. I mean, I think it goes back to gratitude. So for me, right? Again, this year has been hard financially or the last two years, right? But like, I'm still getting at bats, right? I still got a job, right? I still got 25 orders. I could potentially fill and never really works out to 25, but that's neither here nor there, right? Like, like you're like, it's focusing on the small things, right? You know, you picked up your daughter safely from school today, right?

Like, like again, it's reframing what at bats look like, right? Like, and I think that's important. Yeah, no, I think you're spot on with the at bats, like, And for me, it's like being that gratitude piece, been thankful that I had it at that. And then it's just also like, I look at it back to the sports analogies, like, and I love basketball if you can't tell, but like I can watch a dude go 0 for 20. And if he really bought that life, he shoot that 21st shot. And most of the time, those are the game winning shots. Yeah, terrible game. You won't win in the win, but hit the best shot in the winning game.

Hit the best shot of the game. Like, but if we don't shoot that shot because we're afraid that we're going to miss it. And then we want people to see us making everything, like the truth is you're not going to make them all. So like, okay, just get over yourselves. Like that's my advice. Yeah, no, and like, so big, big ice hockey guy played last night. You know, one of the things as a defenseman, my role and responsibility, I mean, I try, I try to play basically flawless hockey, and that's not possible. First off, it's beer league. Second off, like I've never played professional. I've never even sniffed anything professional.

but I'm not here trying to be perfect, right? And we're at a tournament, we're at a tournament in Pittsburgh. Shout out to my soccer team. We actually placed six 36 teams in Pittsburgh. Yeah, pretty good. A little humble brag. Yeah, a little humble brag. Actually last night, just put us top of the division. But that being said, I am a nervous player, right? Like I have relatively high anxiety in general. I play a little scared, a little timid. And one of my buddies, he's actually an epic content creator. My ice hockey team's got a bunch of creators and stuff on, which is really fun. He looked at me before one of our games.

He goes, Taylor, he goes, why are you so stressed? And I was like, well, just because like, if I mess up, like I don't want you all to hate me and like, you know, yada, yada, I just care about team. He goes, Taylor, we're going to skate with you every single game, whether you make a mistake or not. He goes, we got a good team. And he goes, it's not just rely on you, it's everybody. So if you make a mistake, we're going to come back to another tournament. It's not like we're just going to piece out after this. And after that, I was like, OK, that makes more sense.

So again, I think it's. And this is why I tell my team, so this is the first time I haven't managed a team in years. But I love football, big football guy. And one of the things for South Carolina, our old offensive coordinator, they talked about how there are so many plays and formations to memorize. And it got the team really tight because they tried to remember. And if you're thinking while you're playing, you're not moving fast and you're failing. So what they did is they stripped down the playbook and made it simpler, right? And so that's what I told my team over years and years of managing them.

It's like, listen, let's not get caught up in all like the X's nose necessarily. Like let's just play free. And I think going back to Marie's comment and I know I'm talking about, I'm sorry, but basically, like, play free. And if you mess up, just, just relax, take a breath and keep showing up, keep showing up. Keep showing up. Yes. Yes. No, last thing I'll say about this was like the I started playing golf a few years ago and like I'm Like I am not good like I Never miss again again. We were go golf. Oh, you come in to Michigan. You just don't know you come in Detroit pizza is my favorite by the way Detroit is look Detroit is going up like we got the NFL draft coming up like there's a lot of anyway, what we'll talk but But no, I remember golfing and my friend Brian, you know, my mentor, this dude is like a lights out golfer.

Like he can, he can just hit any shot on the green. It's crazy. And I'm golfing with him like the first time and I'm like upset. And he's like, why are you upset? And I'm like, I'm not having a good time. He's like, why do you expect to be good if this is your first time trying this? And I'm like, I don't know. Like the reality kicked in. And then I was able to relax and have fun. And so my whole point is like, yo, I just kept golfing, right? I'm still not that good. But I still golf. I get out there with my friends and now I can enjoy it a lot better.

And I hit a lot better ball sometimes. Sometimes I pack it in. And I just get back in the car and I ride around. But that's what between me and my friends. I love that. Last, all right. We got to have a part two because we're out of time. And I wonder if you're struggling with time. Real quick before before before you end I do want to talk about The developing boundaries is gonna be that's that's could that could be an entire episode Creating an impact filter basically five questions you can ask yourself before deciding Anything especially in the career world. Can you break that down real fast?

What what what does these impact questions or impact filters look like? So it depends upon the person right and for me, you know, I took about I don't know maybe an hour or so and like really drill down and figure out like what are five questions that I can ask myself in Any situation especially like I said in career and so for me It was like I don't remember them all off the top of having them my notes But like one was just like yo, I'll be able to wear what I want to wear right? I'll be able to you know does this does this opportunity to provide me the place to wear what I want to wear or the Autonomy to wear what I want You know will this get me towards this place of financial stability I'm looking for will this give me the freedom to create and transform and connect with people Will this give me the chance to innovate like stuff like that right and like I have five of those different questions I think sick sometimes and like the crazy thing is when you go through it like that It just slows you down just enough to really evaluate like what am I trying to do?

And so last time I did that like it was funny We did it for a juicer got the nama juicer shout out to the nama juicer like I know that's not a career choice But I sent this list to my wife, she was like, I want to get this juicer. And I was like, that juicer cost a lot. I was like, let's go through the impact filter. And we went through it. And we were like, yo, this is going to provide this. This is going to do this. It started answering. So whenever it answers four out of five or three out of the five, it's probably a good nod.

So my point is just slow down on it and figure out some questions for yourself so that you can make an educated decision. Because as you know, as a father, not as a husband, and as a worker, and as all these, you know, as a teammate, you got to make decisions like all day. So how do you filter those out so that you can make a wise decision, versus just rushing and doing whatever. I love that. I love that. All right, man, four, four questions, relatively rapid fire. one if money was not an issue what would you do for your career outside of what you do I mean I would be working at Nike headquarters like messing around with technology and innovation like playing around in the LeBron James building I figure in all how to like James have a building Absolutely, there's a building at Nike headquarters.

I tried to work there I think I got an interview and I thought my life was for the change like I told my wife like we're moving to work Never got the second call but I'll talk to you about that you could help me with But it would be it would be something in that in that room like coding or just like more on the product side and like It would be more like definitely not coding. That's not me. But it would be like product development, but more so I will tell you, it would be product and community engagement. Like I love being a part of the community and like I love like Nike as you can tell.

But so I don't know. I think that's what I would do. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Second question. What do you do outside of work for fun that brings you joy? What do I do outside of work for fun and brings me joy? I spend a lot of time with my family. Like my daughter, man. Yeah, I have one daughter. You are. That's my girl. I love being a dad. I spend a lot of time wearing to create memories. That's one of my big things. I don't know. And then music. I love, I write music. Like a lot of times I'll listen to music. Yeah, like that's kind of one of my things.

Like my little decompress is just like sitting down, writing music, listening to music. So I would say those two things for sure. Any type of music specifically? Oh, hip hop. Like, so, all right, hold on. So I love like, I love hip hop. I love writing hip hop. But I love like, I love classical music a lot more. Like, I'm honest with you. Like, Alexander Sturlitsky, like anybody that's like looking the nerd out, go look up that was industry list key. She'll change your life. So like, Andre 3000 has said this quote one time and I heard I never never forgot it. He was like, I need to have music to have my own thoughts to and ever since then I kind of like started dabbling and now I like it.

So Yeah, I'm a big jazz guy. Really excited for the Bradley Cooper Bernstein, the composer. He it's all about Bernstein, which is He's arguably the greatest American composer and Bradley Cooper's playing him and the previews look insane insane. Okay. Okay. Uh, Third thing anything that you're kind of tinkering with reading about Like kind of like a content side of things. I usually when I usually talk to developers and I usually ask them like What do you tinkering with on the side yada yada? But since you're not developer, I could just say hey What do you read and what are you watching? That's fun that you want others to know about Yeah, I'm reading a couple things.

One is called Rebel, Rebel ideas. I forget the author to grief. One of my friends sent it to me, shout out to Kyle McGregor up there, Spartan innovation. He sent me a look and it was just like really about thinking what diversity, like diverse thought, not necessarily that. Oh, did we lose Michael Michael do we lose you? come back to us Michael You also there Michael froze Michael Please come back to us. Dang it. You also there the whole thing just freeze if you all watch and still please comment Michael Michael All right, we lost Michael for a second. We lost Michael for a second if you're watching Michael you there Michael.

All right. So, well, listen, this was a great. Yeah, no, John. No, Michael, come back to us. Come back. Michael, you're there? My bad. All right. All right. All right. All right. Hold on. Let him refresh. All right. So let's go back one more time. What are you reading right now? All right. So I'm reading. It's called Rebel ideas. I'll get you the. I'll send it. put it in chat, whatever the case. But it's about diverse thought. Diverse thinking, thinking outside of the box, because a lot of times we look at the demographics as a way of thinking, but that's not the only way to think.

Getting somebody who's completely outside of that field and that spectrum to completely expand the mindset of a team. And so that blew my mind because we saw about innovation and developing, I'm big on innovation, I'm coming up with new ideas, ideating. So that one, and then I just picked up, hold on, I keep a book with me. So this one is called, in potential by Adam, great book so far. It's really interesting because it's like, we have this myth that you have to be built like LeBron James to become LeBron James, but like, it's not necessarily true. Now I'm granted, you're probably not going to be LeBron, like let's just say that.

But at the same time, you could really become talented if you decide to hone the skills of character development, like build the character, and that'll get you to where you're trying to go. I love it. Last question as we wrap up here, Nia Michael, thank you. For hanging out with me today, man, we'll do a part two for sure at the beginning of the new year. The show's called Guidance Council 2.0 for a reason. We had Guidance Council's a middle school high school college, but now as adults, we don't really have anybody to turn to for career advice. What would be your biggest piece of career advice to young Michael?

Like if you could talk to Michael, when he was starting out, what would you tell him? I would just say, stay true to your talent and your gift. You know what I mean? Your gift will make room for you and bring you before great people. Like you don't have to acquiesce to how everybody else does things. It's nothing wrong with having guidelines, but they can't give you a playbook for a blueprint. like you live a blueprint life and you you you build within and you go there so like that's what I would say. Just trust what you believe because a lot of times we we had that in us already.

And then we just start like just believing it because somebody else says that's stupid. Absolutely. Awesome. Alright, y'all again. Thank you for bringing that was today. We appreciate it. Michael. Thank you my friends. Stay on real quick. I can say about you backstage. Again, check out renderatl.com. It's going to be a good little time next year. Otherwise, I appreciate y'all for hanging out with us today. Tomorrow, tuning in, I have my friend, Vittor from Gunio joining me. We're going to be talking about the Gunio platform a little bit, a little bit of updates on what's going on. It's going to be a good informational session.

But y'all have a good one. Y'all have a great Tuesday. And if you need me, reach out. Also, also, Jewish wants to say this. If this episode resonates with you, please reshare. I think today was good. I think today was good and I think people need to hear it. So please share this episode. Michael, I appreciate you, you're frozen again. Y'all have a good one. Take it easy. Peace. Hey, you did it. You listened to an entire episode and I am very grateful. Cause you know why? There's a lot of podcasts out there. There's a lot of episodes and I myself rarely finish an entire episode.

So I appreciate you so, so much for listening. Quick reminder, please rate and review this podcast in the App Store. I want this to be discoverable to others And the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it, please, like right now, unless you're driving, then don't do it. So thank you again. If you need to reach out to me at Tdaston on all social media handles. And I hope you have a fantastic day.