DeAndre James| Transparent Leadership, How to Focus in Changing Times

The room gets loud when stakes are high—threats, rumors, pressure, even your own inner commentary. We sat down with DeAndre James, executive director of the Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley to map a saner path through the chaos: turn down the noise, clarify the facts, and move with integrity even when power says “wait.” From an all-night food mission in the mil tary that drew bogus warnings to the green light on a new wellness center in Watsonville, this conversation shows how courage and patience can coexist.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Leadership Lens
• 2:10 From Helping People To CEO
• 5:00 Turbulence, Noise, And Resilience
• 9:40 The Food Delivery Standoff
• 15:20 Butterflies As A Decision Signal
• 18:00 Building A Wellness Center
• 22:30 Coping Tactics: Step Away, Move, Return
• 26:30 Transparency Without Oversharing
• 31:30 Racism’s Quiet Rooms And Resolve
• 37:50 Reputation, Circles, And Breakthroughs
• 42:50 Faith, Strength, And Endurance
• 45:40 Practical Advice For Emerging Leaders
• 49:00 Community Projects And Wine & Roses
• 53:00 Closing Reflections And Gratitude

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:11

Welcome back to Speak for Change Podcast. I'm your host, Thomas Sage Peterson. And today we have a guest we've had in the past, but we're coming back. Uh DeAndre James. Welcome. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah, man. It's an honor. DeAndre's the executive director of the community health trust of Pajaro Valley, right? Is that I get that right? You got it. You got it. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 0:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 0:35

So yeah, today we're talking about leadership. I, you know, this is going to be the first episode of this series. So exciting. So no pressure at all. You know? So tell us all your secrets. Um, but you know, uh, you know, when I first met you, you know, it just you you are like uh a big inspiration uh about leadership and how to like show up in in turbulent times and how to navigate your energy. And when I thought about doing this project, you were you just came to mind like immediately. So uh I'm just really honored to have you back and I appreciate it. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16

I appreciate no this coming back. Yeah, I think there gotta be spaces and places for um people to speak their, you know, speak things in the world and and speak good things in the world, and you know, especially African American people. I mean, we don't have any too many spaces and places, so to have uh that come back and be uh place and space for African American leaders and African American in general to come and just have a conversation or you know, tell their story or tell their truth is always a good space, you know. So I appreciate you coming back. Yeah, thank you. I I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:49

Um, so let's just like dive in there, right? Um, we've talked a lot about your past in the in the past episode, but I want to kind of dive more deep into your like leadership history. Have you always wanted to be in leadership roles?

SPEAKER_00: 2:05

Uh if anybody told you they they have, I don't think they're telling you the whole story. Um, you know, I mean, I think people do things out of necessity, out of need, yeah, out of being in certain positions, and then um you're somewhat blessed to be put in a leadership role. You know, I I think that's my opinion of it. Like me, I just set out on one goal to see if I can help as many people as I can help. Yeah. And that put me in different positions and different places and put with some great people around some different things. And next thing you know, I'm a CEO. In fact, if I woke up and said I want to be a CEO, you're crazy. I didn't, I didn't I didn't think this would be the position where I'd be at. I'm blessed and happy to be in a position I am in. But um, no, I didn't I didn't think that. I want like, hey, let me help some people, let me get in front of some stuff. Um, and sometimes you stand up for and speak for people who can't speak, yeah, and you get those opportunities, and it's just what you do in a time when no one's watching or when people you know need somebody. Yeah. And then next thing you know, they're like, hey, man, you're great. Oh, really? I didn't I was just out here trying to help, you know?

SPEAKER_01: 3:11

Yeah, I mean that's beautiful. It's uh I think that's why I I resonated with your your just like leadership style. Um so I guess you know, just diving in here, like have you had any experience in your leadership history of uh what you would consider like turbulent times or any kind of like conflicting times?

SPEAKER_00: 3:33

Yeah, I I think you go through uh highs and lows and and different times where you're challenged in different situations. Like I've been in situations where um you didn't know you're walking into that door, yeah, and then you open that door and everything behind it um necessarily wants to eliminate you and wants to take you out of different positions or uh quiet you or take your voice away or things like that. And it's it's a tough uh situation because sometimes you walk in those situations and didn't know you're gonna be in there.

unknown: 4:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:05

Uh and it's it's those things like you know, you have to pay attention to what you were born with. Yeah. And what you grew up with. Yeah. And what you came from. Like I came from nothing. Like I came from like if the statistics were all right, yeah, I ain't supposed to be here in front of you right now. So, you know, I grew up in a poor neighborhood, the the the ghetto, the the that I lived in all that, you know. I mean, I grew up in all that, but some of that teaches you resolve and resilience.

SPEAKER_03: 4:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:30

Right. And so those times of learning that you kind of go back to that, yeah. When you're faced with that. And I I like in today's times, man, I you know, somebody asked me that, young guy asked me that. Like, like, what do you do? Yeah. And I'm like, well, do you have a good pair of headphones? Yeah. And they're like, Yeah. I say I'm I'm particularly a fan of you know, um beats by Dre. But good headphones or good headphones, yeah, the one thing they all come with is a little bit of noise canceling.

SPEAKER_03: 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:02

And so in these times of weirdness and greatness and and these things that you're challenged with these turbulent things or these things that come up to you, it's time to turn down the noise. Oh, I see. Turn down the noise. The noise is all the stuff people screaming, all the stuff people are coming at, all the people around that, things that they're throwing at you, and try to stick to, you know, me, like, you know, one of two things. You know what I mean? Like, one, what's the facts? You know, I mean, try to, you know, get some facts and knowledge behind it, right? Read up on it, get some real true knowledge on it. But two, like, you know what I mean, like, okay, what is that? What's the real?

unknown: 5:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:37

What's the middle of that? And is it gonna stop me from being a good person or good human or good anything or a good steward? Right? Like, if I if I'm being a good steward, then I'm gonna be a good steward.

unknown: 5:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:48

And so don't let the noise make you move left or make you move right or make you move somewhere else you don't supposed to go. Yeah. And so that's what people get sometimes, I think, get caught up into in these turbulent times, the noise. And it's a lot of it. I mean, it's shh, it's a lot of noise. So you need some good headphones, right? So um, you know, and and rely on the people who relied on you. You know, they've always been there anyway. You know, most of the people that got you in some of these times, you kind of turn it back to them. You got family, you got friends, you got things like that. And yeah, and once you turn down the noise and really start thinking about the facts, the truth becomes it becomes like bright.

SPEAKER_03: 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:24

And then you just stay in that truth. And more than likely, in my opinion, is what you already knew anyway.

unknown: 6:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:30

It's more than likely what you already knew or what you stood for, or what you tried to get at anyway.

SPEAKER_02: 6:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:36

And so when some of these things come up, man, I just feel like I, you know, I get my beats out. Turn down the noise a little bit, right? Turn that, and I try to do that. It's tough.

SPEAKER_02: 6:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:47

There's a lot of noise, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 6:51

Yeah. I mean, so what I guess do you have a story of like what um brought that perspective of turning down the noise?

SPEAKER_00: 7:00

Yeah, I mean of or multiple stories if you have multiple stories. Yeah, you know, but like yeah, just does one come up and yeah, yeah. It's it's I mean, there's multiple ones at that. I mean, I think I learned that by my past. Yeah. Right? Of being like, you know, if that item is gonna change me, then why is that item changing me?

SPEAKER_03: 7:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:20

Is it the noise that's changing me? Yeah. That's making me upset or making me whatever, versus that. And it's being realistic with your feelings and your emotions at that time.

SPEAKER_03: 7:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:28

Right. And don't let, like, okay, let's make it, let's try to make, yes, your emotions and feelings gotta be that you got passion. If you wouldn't doing what you're doing, you wouldn't be passionate. I mean, yeah, like come on, nobody walks around here saying, oh, I'm not passionate today. You know, like yeah, you're passionate and energetic about that, and you gotta let that passion guide that passion nowhere. And so when I was like coming up, like I I I spent seven years in the military as a hospital corpsman, right? Yeah. And those times, you know, bring you into some different situations, right? Yeah. And one great guy, a mentor, was like, what is what is what is bothering you? Yeah. Ask yourself that.

unknown: 8:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:05

What is bothering you? Is it the fact that this person is acting like this or the situation is like that? Because it's two different things. The person acting like that, hey man, we got good and bad people around us all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 8:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:18

Right? So I'm not, why does that person dictate what I'm doing? Totally. Right? Or is it the situation? Now, if it's a situation, now we got something to deal with. Yeah. Now we got something to peel back the layers on and understand that situation. Right. And so sometimes the noise comes from us, right? We can be noisy, we can be that. And it's a lot of people got a lot of opinions and a lot of thoughts, right? You like, okay, is that the situation we have? Or is that just because you feel a certain way or you want to point me in a certain way in a certain direction? So we were in, we were driving, we had drive, oh, this is so crazy. So we had while I'm telling the story. But uh no, it's good, it's all good. Uh we were driving. I had to drive, we had to drive 10 hours through the night to get to deliver like these packages to these like families. Yeah. Right. And it was guys that didn't really want to do that, right? Like, like, I mean, like it was just like, you know, they didn't really want to do that. Yeah. But these families were hungry. We were doing this like delivery package. And yes, we could have made it there the next day, right, uh, and been all right, but we didn't know the situation going in, right? Right. So the best idea is to go now, yeah. You know what I mean? And just run through it together as a team and make it happen. And so a lot of guys had a lot of different opinions of how to make that happen, right? And a lot of different situations that make that happen where we got, you know, pushed and prodded by certain things. We got threatened. Oh, wow. Yeah, like threatened by, you know, authority. Yeah. Right? Authority wanted to threaten us like, hey, you know, like, you know, you guys shouldn't be doing this. This is gonna get you guys all, you know, court monstered, you're just gonna go to jail or all this stuff. And they thought throwing some of these fake things and false things out, right? And it's a lot of noise. And at the point we're like, wait, wait, wait. We can go to jail for giving people food?

unknown: 10:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 10:03

Oh, yeah, hold on. Yeah, wait, wait a second. Well, you're saying it. Yeah. If we all get in here and drive this stuff to here that's going to go in the same place anyway, yeah. That's going to be there anyway. Yeah. We're going to go to jail for giving people food earlier than when they expected it, or earlier than they than that that protects their people. Yeah. I'm lost. Yeah. So it was that. Like, whoa, what's the situation? Right. The situation is really we're gonna this is going to go to these people irregardless of what's gonna happen today or not. Yeah. We're trying to get it done right now, so it gives us an opportunity to do some other things later. Yes. Right? And so hold up, let's slow down. And I think the guy that was in leading that charge really showed me where that's at. He was like, let's think through the situation.

unknown: 10:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 10:54

And he wrote down all the situation in that. And he says, okay, if we leave at eight, nine in the morning, or we leave here at at 10 at night. Yeah. What's the difference in between the pathways? Nothing. Yeah. So what all them dudes are saying and all that means nothing. Yeah. Right. And so in that, in that time, you know, I'm young. Yeah. Right. So I'm believing anything you say to me, right? At that point, like you tell me we're going to jail. Man, I ain't going to jail. Yeah, yeah. I've been living this life how long? Yeah. I'm from the hood. I ain't been to jail once. My mama's gonna kill me. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Like, like, what are you talking about? Right. And then, like, we are we where are we at? I'm not going to jail for nobody, right? I'm not going there for nobody. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But I think that leadership, seeing that leadership from their eyes, he was like, yo, like, that's not gonna make a difference. So we got in it and we did it. As nervous I was the whole time, stomach felt like everything's going crazy. You feel like you like, like, like, what's gonna happen? Yeah, what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? And we stayed true to that the whole time. And we went all the way through that. We delivered this food, we did all the stuff. I mean, people were so happy, so thankful, right? It got there on time, it did all these things. We were able to get some other stuff and bring it back. We were able to do all these little things. We come back, and I'm like, man, we're about to go to jail. I'm like, man, that's the reaction.

SPEAKER_02: 12:18

We're about to go to jail.

SPEAKER_00: 12:20

I mean, because I was young, you know, totally at that time. So I was young, and I was like, like, it I felt great that we did all this stuff, and it was a lot of like the people were hugging us, and we had a lot of like great good feelings and the and that and everything like that. And we're driving back, and all I can get in my head was like, Man, we're going to jail. I'm like, we just did all this great work, man. These people love us. Yeah, we're about to go to jail. Like, man, why am I listening to this guy? Like, what are we doing? Like, and then we go back, and it was nothing. It was nothing, nothing said, nothing. Not an inch, not a word, yeah, not a nothing. They just checked it off the checkbox and complete it. Oh my gosh. I'm like, wait, wait, wait. There was a lot of noise. Yeah, a lot of threatening noise, a lot of poking, a lot of this, a lot of that. And once we broke down the actual facts and looked at the truth of what the matter was, and we went ahead and did what we thought was the right thing to do. Yeah, all the noise stopped.

SPEAKER_02: 13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:24

No more noise. No more nothing. No more what? Threats, all that, all that's gone.

SPEAKER_02: 13:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:31

So really the threat was us going.

unknown: 13:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:34

For some reason. Still don't know to this day what the reason was. You know what I mean? Tried to figure it out nine different ways of Sunday, but somebody had an agenda and they didn't want it to go. Maybe it was a power thing. They didn't want to, they wanted their power to be shown like I made the decision.

SPEAKER_02: 13:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:48

Right. You can't make that decision. I make that decision.

SPEAKER_02: 13:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:51

Right. And if you listen to me or whatever like that, or if you don't listen to my decision, regardless of whatever that was, it was just power and it was just authority. And it was just that, right? That's my take on it, right? It was just that. Because once we went and everybody was happy, everything went successful. We walk out of thing, we did everything we were supposed to do, and all these kudos, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 14:11

It's nothing.

SPEAKER_00: 14:12

Yeah. So I always took that approach when some stuff comes. Yeah. I'm like, wait, let's look at the scenario, let's look at the situation, let's understand what's going on, really, what's going on. Right. And let's decrease the noise.

SPEAKER_02: 14:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:24

Like decrease the noise around the situation. Right. And make sure whatever and just try to walk in the truth or what's really there. Oh man.

SPEAKER_01: 14:32

Man, what a great story. I mean, that sounds uh I feel like I just had some anxiety listening to that story. At the time I was going to jail. I'm like, uh, we're gonna take a quick break uh from you know. But I guess uh, you know, you were talking about how like nervous that feeling was, right? As someone who, you know, I I do get nervous in different situations and all this stuff. I'm wondering, as an as a you know, a grown man and in these leadership roles, you still get kind of that feeling sometimes when having to be approached with a decision or anything like that. Are you are you have you found a way to kind of transcend that or like what I don't know, you know what I mean? No.

SPEAKER_00: 15:13

The answer is no. You know, a great coach once told me, like, if you don't have butterflies in your stomach, that don't mean that much to you. Right? So if you don't have butterflies in your stomach when you're making a decision, it don't mean that much to you. So I take those butterflies as it means a lot to me, this decision. Yeah, and so let me be careful with it. Yeah, so when those butterflies come, I'm like, wait, let me be careful with my decision. Yeah, so you know, the whole like um, you know, measure twice, cut once, yeah. I go measure twice then.

SPEAKER_03: 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:42

Where that butterflies come, I'm like, shh, this means a lot.

SPEAKER_03: 15:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:45

Let me go measure twice. Let me go look at it one more time to make sure I am actually getting everything I can, like any information I can possibly get before I make this decision.

SPEAKER_03: 15:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:55

And before I go down that path, let me make sure I get it all.

SPEAKER_03: 15:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:58

And if I made the best decision with the information I got and I feel good about that, then okay, I'm gonna go for it.

SPEAKER_02: 16:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:04

Regardless of the butterflies, I it just means it means a lot. Yeah, it just means so much to me that that goes successful or that we made the right move.

SPEAKER_01: 16:12

Right. Is there is there an example that you can just think of in in in your mind like that comes up where that feeling was there that you could share?

SPEAKER_00: 16:20

Yeah, we had to like so right now for my organization, yeah, we're working to build a wellness center. Yeah. And looks amazing, like just yeah, that sounds awesome. We're working to build a wellness center in Watsonville, right? Yeah, and I've been talking about it for so long, you know what I mean? And here we go, it's in front of us. Yeah. And that I'm like, uh, you know, yeah, totally like, you know, wait, hold on. Yeah, you know what I mean? And it was because um, you know, a great partnership we ended up getting with the Presbytery Church. Shout out to you know, Pastor Julie, yeah, who's running Somos, who's that uh um the uh coffee house that's there right now, right? Um, and meeting her just by random chance. Yeah, right? And so here it is right in front of you. I meet her by random chance. We end up talking about the same things, we end up hearing the same things, we end up like thinking the world in very similar lights and similar pathways, thinking this pathway is that. And I'm like, I I can't believe it. Yeah, I'm not believing it. Nah, I'm not gonna nope, can't believe this. Yeah, right? And wait, we can go forward. Yeah, like I don't know. Nah, this ain't real. Right? We can move, we can do this thing, this can that, it's a lot of great things, a lot of stuff. We've been talking about this thing. We've been putting ourselves in a position to be this, but it's here now. And that decision to go. I'm I'm at the I'm damn near throwing up in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_01: 17:45

Oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:46

Right? So you're feeling I'm feeling that. I'm feeling that decision to go because it's huge. Yeah, it's huge for the community, it's huge for us as an organization, it's a it's uh it's an impact that you really want to make. You know, you're like, wow, we're gonna get an opportunity, you know what I mean, to make this impact on a hard level. Yeah. Like, hold up.

unknown: 18:05

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:08

We just did like a collective breakfast together. Right, exactly. Like, hold up. Yeah, you know what I mean? Let me go back and look at it again. Yeah, let me go back at it again. And it's like that. I I sat there for a minute. Yeah, right. And then I had to go to my board and say, look, we're here.

SPEAKER_02: 18:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 18:24

Here's an here's here's an example, here's the thing, here's the stuff. Like, we here. Yeah, I mean, like, all right, all right, boy, you can talk me off of it. Talk me off of it, yeah, right? Like these butterflies. I'm dying right now. If you say no, I'm good. Right? Right, I'm good with it because it keeps these, keep these anxiety, keep the butterflies off for a while. Okay, cool. Tell me no. And they're like, all looks good to me. Okay, so instead of a little, but now I got double. Yeah, we just doubled up the butterfly action, right? Thanks a lot, board. But you know, they made that bold choice to go forward and it's like, okay, we're here. Yeah, and so I sat on it for a night, went through some stuff, and I said, Okay, this is what we gotta do. And here we go. And we set on this pathway, and and so hopefully by next year or this time, we'll have that place fully open.

SPEAKER_01: 19:15

Man, that's that's a perfect story, and it and it it definitely highlights the amazing work you're doing too. You know what I mean? Like that sounds like a much needed thing to have in Watsonville for sure. Um I'm wondering like what you know, I'm I'm like also selfishly asking. Uh, so what strategies would you like if you're when you're feeling like kind of like that to the point of like throwing up or like to going through that, do you have anything you do to kind of help you just like manage, you know what I mean, or get through um those situations? I think a lot of people go through this, right? But I'm wondering if you just have even if it's if even if you don't think of them as perfect or whatever, but do you have anything that you kind of do to kind of help you move through that?

SPEAKER_00: 20:00

Yeah, I well typically do yeah uh two or three things, right? I'm a no-shoes person, so I take my shoes off. That's nice. And I walk around, yeah, yeah, right. I love that.

SPEAKER_01: 20:13

I'm a no-shoe guy, so I love how you just identified as a new shoe, no shoe guy. I think that's the first time I've heard that. But like I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 20:21

There's some leaders out there. I know you guys are out there. You take your shoes off in your office or something like that, and you walk around, even at your house, you walk around, no shoes on, and you say, Okay, you know, I get I need a minute. Yeah, so I'll take my shoes off and I'll leave it. Yeah, I try to leave the situation for a minute. Yeah, go engage with whatever it is, right? Whatever, talk to somebody different, understand them. Don't even bring it up. Yeah, I try to spend like a few hours of not even thinking about it for a minute, yeah, right, and just go away from it. Like put your screen away, put it away for a minute, right? Come try to come back at it with a fresh mind. Yeah, ask yourself if there's some questions you haven't asked yourself or some questions you might not have asked or seen.

SPEAKER_02: 20:58

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00: 20:59

And I try to do that as frankly as I can. So I take my shoes off and walk away from it.

SPEAKER_02: 21:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:04

Um, and then the last thing I do is I'm a sports guy. So I'll try to go play basketball or go to the gym or something like that. Yeah. You know what I mean? To like, all right, let me get some stress or anxiety out of their way. Like some people have other things, like some people draw and art and you know things. So whatever that is, that brings you back to that ground zero thing. And I'm a sports guy, so I would rather do some active sports-related, you know what I mean? Totally. And I'll do that, and then I'll finally come all the way back to it. Right? Like, and I'm like, take my remove myself from it. Yeah, and I somewhere in there, I think like if you remove yourself from it, is it is it still true or is it still there, or is it still mean sense, or is it make sense? And sometimes you come with a different eye or different clarity, or you heard from somebody. Yeah, the weirdest part about it is like I'll go to the gym, yeah, and somebody asks me how I'm doing, and I'll be like, Oh, yeah, I'm all right, you know, me just working on this little thing right here, and they're like, Oh, cool, this and this and this. And they'll say something, you're like, I didn't even think about that. Like, did we think about that? Okay, hold on, let me go back and you know, think about that, right? Yeah, or you know, reference that or make sure that's in there. And you know, sometimes it is, and sometimes it's like, oh, all right, a different viewer angle, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01: 22:15

Right. Do you ever feel like I mean I feel this way sometimes when if I'm trying to leave something, but there's that anxiety, there's that little transition period where it's a little hard to leave the thing. Do you ever feel that? Or is or do you think like do you feel like that's a it's like kind of like you're you're very eager to leave?

SPEAKER_00: 22:32

I think I I've learned to to take that moment. I've had that at first, yeah, where I'm like, I can't leave this alone, and I gotta tinker with it. Right. Right. And I I've somebody told me you gotta take your hands away from tinkering. Got it. Because you'll never settled on a project, yeah. And you'll never settle on the way if you tinker. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, I've had to learn how to not tinker. Okay, right? Like you have to teach yourself, yeah. But I've taught myself how to not tinker with it. So you taught yourself to just like you need you know yourself enough that you know you have to do this. Right. Yeah, I know I have to walk away from it. Like, because if I don't, I'll tinker with it. Right. And then I'll tinker with it so much that it's not exactly what I originally wanted to set out to be. Yeah, I I totally understand that. Right. So I'm like, no, let's stick. So so it helps me stick to the roots of what what I said I was gonna do or what we're gonna do. Right. Instead of tinkering with it so much like it has to be perfect.

SPEAKER_02: 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:22

I'm like, no, it's gonna be what it needs to be. Totally. Right. And it's gonna be right for the right things and the right reasons, yeah. Right, instead of me trying to make it perfect for everybody and everything.

SPEAKER_02: 23:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:32

And so sometimes it's an unrealistic, as a guy to miss an unrealistic expectation you put on yourself, yeah. And an unrealistic expectation you put on this project. Project ain't gonna save the world. Like, who you who you right? Yeah, if the objective is to help one person, yeah, then look at it from that. Yeah. Did you help one person? I love that. Right. So if you help one person, you probably helped 10. And you've helped those 10, those 10 helped another 10, and so forth and so on, right? Right. So I'm like, oh, I had to teach like okay, let me stop touching it.

SPEAKER_01: 24:00

Yeah, yeah, this is back away.

SPEAKER_00: 24:02

Let's back away from it, right? And you know, I've also in there probably got more feedback on it during that time. Yeah, so that has actually helped my tinkering. Yeah. Meaning, like, I've um take my hands off of it. What do you think about it? Or let me tell it to somebody else, or let me see me like that. And it and it they tinkered. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like they tinkered with it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:25

They helped my tinkering. I love that, right? Yeah, it's like it's almost like unintentionally bringing the community or a collaborative process, yeah, but but but doing it in a kind of a self- in a good way, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 24:38

Yeah, it's a selfish way to get my hands off of it, yeah, push it out there, and then I'm getting feedback from it.

SPEAKER_01: 24:43

But it but it's a win-win, right? It's a win. It's a win-win. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so we're gonna transition to kind of like so. For you specifically, you work with people, right? Like in your teams and different things like that. Um, there's a lot of literature out there around leadership, around like being vulnerable or being open or being these kind of ways of being with like your staff and your board or your community or whoever you're leading, right? I'm wondering, like, how do you approach that? Like, when do you uh, you know, when are you like open, like vulnerable or open or that thing, and when do you have to kind of be more guarded, you know, and like do you have any kind of thoughts around that perspective?

SPEAKER_00: 25:25

Yeah, I I tell my staff and people that I'm as transparent as I possibly can be. Yeah. And so people just say transparent. I'm transparent. No, come on, yeah. Let's be real, yeah. Right? It's sometimes when you're not as transparent, yeah, right, but I'm gonna be as transparent as I possibly can be. Yeah. If I stay in that, always trying to be transparent as I possibly can be, it leads to humbleness and vulnerability. Yeah, you have to be humble to be transparent, yeah. We have to be vulnerable to be transparent, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 25:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 25:57

So I'm gonna try in these moments to be as transparent as I possibly can can be all the time, right? And so it sometimes builds some trust in that, right? And it's also not done me well all the time. Yeah, I'm not I'm I'm you know, me to be transparent. I'm just being transparent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does not help me all the time because they're like, you know, I just say it. Yeah. Right. And so I'm like, I'm not, I'm not the one for the bluff and the nonsense or the extra stuff because I'm just gonna say it. So it could look bad sometimes and it can look great as sometimes. But for me, as long as you know exactly what you get, yeah, right. Then it's no there's no faking or no up and down. You know, when you come to me, that's what you're gonna get. Yeah, right. And so I try to be in that. So I think when people try to switch that on and off, yeah, it leads to people having other feelings. Yes, that makes sense, right? It leads to people having other feelings. So I'm like you can't trust it. Right. I can't trust what you're gonna say. I don't know if you're in transparent mode or not transparent mode. Or or you're okay, all of a sudden you're humble, all of a sudden you're cocky. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which one are you? Like, what is it gonna be? Yeah, and so I I think it's just that. Now, there are levels to the transparency, I think. Yes, right. There's some people that are close to you that you can be super transparent with because um judging, right? Yeah, they'll they don't they won't judge you, right? They'll they'll be like, ah, you know what I mean? I know you yeah, and I got I got some uh trust in who you are, yeah, and there's some you know uh forgiveness and all of the other stuff that comes with that, you know. Yeah, and then there's some people you just can't be as transparent, that transparent with. Right, right, and I think that goes for staff, right? You've got to be like, because some people need certain things and some people don't.

SPEAKER_01: 27:42

So I guess you know, where what is a situation? I mean, no names or anything like that, but like where you've had to not be as transparent as maybe you would want to be.

SPEAKER_00: 27:51

Yeah. Yeah. So when I'm dealing with as like a CEO, you get information from all these different places. Yeah. Right. And you could say some things because you're in some meetings and some context with some people that you're saying.

SPEAKER_02: 28:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 28:05

Right. And you'd be like, okay, and now my team walks up to me and says, you know, hey, what's going on here? Now, if I'm totally transparent, yeah, I could say some things that you know yeah, yeah, I'm killing you now. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. But not necessarily conducive to what's going on there. Yeah. Right. So I'm trying to be constructive in my transparency of like what can I be transparent as of value to you? Yeah. Right. And if I give you that information, that's for me being as transparent as I possibly can be. Right. Because I I this other information, not necessarily a a need and it won't bold you well, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01: 28:45

It's kind of like oversharing or something. Yeah. You got knowing like I guess the balance between when is it just like oversharing and when is it like just being truly transparent. Or like, you know, uh, Brene Brown talks about clarity is c kind, right? Right, which I kind of dig, you know. But like, you know, when when do you balance like kind of the transparency versus the oversharing, right? You know, because I I could easily see someone being I'm transparent, and they're just like saying way too much, probably, you know, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00: 29:12

But I don't know it No, it's it's rudeness. Some people are rude, yeah. Right, yeah, it's rudeness and kindness, and that's what I'm saying. If you're being humble, yeah, and and have humid in that whole thing, you're not being rude to somebody. You just like, oh, I'm gonna be transparent, I'm just gonna tell you what I feel. No, no, no, no, no. That's not being transparent, totally. That's just telling you what I feel, yeah. Right? That's just expressing my feelings. Yes. That that's a different road, but you want to use that context to that. Oh, just being transparent. You don't like it? No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_04: 29:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 29:42

You're being rude and being unkind, right? I'm trying to like I'm being transparent to help you, right? Right? I'm giving you as much information as I can to help you. Yeah, that's the difference between transparency and all the other things, right? Like, I'm I'm being transparent to give you information that will hopefully help you make a Decision or whatever you're trying to do. Right. Right. From my experience or from whatever I got or whatever I know or whatever I've seen or not. Yeah. And sometimes being transparent is saying I don't know. Yeah. See, people don't understand that. Like, oh, you know, you're being transparent. No, no. Just give an opinion.

SPEAKER_02: 30:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:15

Right. And I don't have, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 30:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:17

You know what I mean? Now, if you want my opinion, let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_02: 30:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:20

So me being transparent saying, no, I don't know. Yeah. I have no idea. Right. I have no, like some people have a hard time with that. Right. I I say I don't know all the time. Like you tell me. Yeah. Help me help or help me help you. Yeah. Or if you want my thoughts on something, then let's talk about thoughts. I don't know that topic very well, but here's my thoughts on what I do know. You know what I mean? And that's also being transparent in there, right? Right. Being honest in that moment. Like I don't know what's going on. Yeah. I've read some things. I maybe have some opinion on some stuff. Right. Right. You can hear my opinion and you take that how you want to take it. Right. Yeah. And so the difference makes complete sense.

SPEAKER_01: 30:54

Yeah. I'm wondering what, so this is like kind of a you know a broad question, but like what are some obstacles, right, that you that you face like in the inter in interpersonal, like between between your staff and other things like that, um on a professional level. And then like on like a on a personal level, like I guess like on like your own mental health or physical health, you know. Like do you have and you know, you could share whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

SPEAKER_00: 31:23

Oh, it's okay. Yeah. Um, you know, uh work-wise, you know, I mean, I I live by this open door policy. Like you can come say anything you want to say to me behind that door, right? Right? And I won't walk out of there judging you or making it things like that.

SPEAKER_02: 31:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 31:39

Because we spend a lot of time with each other. And if I can't, if we can't be vulnerable in those moments or have those moments, not every day. Like every day is about too much. Like, hey, come find something nice to do. All right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 31:51

But but hey, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 31:54

Like every day ain't gossip story. You know what I mean? Like, I can't take it. You know what I mean? But but sometimes you do need those moments to blow off and you don't know where to blow them off at, right? And you need some there, or something's not jiving right around how we're moving as an organization or how we're moving in certain things or certain things. I mean, come talk about it. Yeah. Right? Get it off your chest, get it off your mind, so then we can figure out uh if it's needs a road around it, if it's just blowing off steam, it's blown off steam. But if it's a pathway we got to figure around it, or if it's something we gotta work on, let's work on it together. Yeah. Right. And and it's okay to have those moments because everybody's not gonna be great, you know, in every moment, right? Right. And then like me personally, right? I've I've you know, I don't go everywhere. Yeah. I've I choose very wisely where to put my energy at.

SPEAKER_02: 32:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:43

I have two young kids, you know, and so I'm like, I get my hugs at home. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so, but I choose to not spend certain energy in certain spaces and certain surroundings for a purpose. Yeah. And also it helps me be with my family.

SPEAKER_02: 32:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:57

And so um I think I take that very seriously to help my mental health.

SPEAKER_02: 33:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:02

So people always walk me and ask me, like, hey DeAndre, how you doing? Yeah. My answer, nine times out of ten, is great. I'm good. Yeah. And they're like, what? All the time? Like, all the time. Yeah. And they're like, why are you good all the time? Because the other, I'm like, if I'm walking, breathing, talking, the rest are issues. Yeah. Right. And I'm trying not to pile too many issues up.

unknown: 33:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:23

Right. So I try not to pile too many issues up. So if I don't have to pile too many issues up by taking on some of that stuff, and so I choose to be in certain environments in certain places. Like I've had people, you know, like I've seen racism in multitudes of ways.

SPEAKER_02: 33:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:40

Right. I've seen racism in a direct way. Yeah. Right. Like, hey, saying some racist things, but I've seen it in the back rooms. Yeah. You know, being in this seat. Yeah. Oh, hold up. Yeah. I seen it. I've I've touched it. And some of it tried to touch me. You know what I mean? And it made you feel a certain way.

SPEAKER_02: 33:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:59

Right? Like, and not that I thought I would ever feel that way.

SPEAKER_02: 34:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:02

Right. Because I was like, oh, I can see racism coming. I grew up around some of that, right? So I'll see it coming. Yeah. Right. And I'll just put up my shield like I normally do. Bing, bang, block it. Bing bang. Yeah. Bing bang block it. And you know, move on about my day. Pivot. Yeah. Pivot. I'm not, I'm not giving you my energy right towards that nonsense. I'm not putting that issue on my table. Yeah. Find somebody else. Yeah. I mean, I'm not that guy. Yeah. But when you see it in this seat, in another way, where people are moving, objects are moving. People are having conversations where you're not in the room. And then they come around the way and they come to you.

SPEAKER_02: 34:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:38

And your eyes are wide open, like, hold up.

SPEAKER_02: 34:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:42

Hold up. And then in some cases, there's nothing. Wait, I can't do anything about it. Yeah. There is no shield I can put up.

SPEAKER_02: 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:50

It's coming right to my front door. Yeah. And I gotta deal with it personally, professionally, emotionally, every which way. Yeah. Right? And I have people that you know literally like try to you know use their groups and their surroundings to take you out. Yeah. Right. And it came from people who weren't necessarily white. Yeah. But they only knew that white system. Yeah. That's all they knew. So they said, okay, this is how we do it. And I'm like, dude, you're just perpetuating racism.

SPEAKER_02: 35:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:26

But you you don't understand it. Yeah. Because the only way you've seen it, the only way you've seen it is verbally right in front of you. Yeah. So you say, I'm not racist. Yeah. But you're doing racism. Yeah. You're carrying racism. Yeah. Right. You might not be racist.

SPEAKER_02: 35:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:44

But the way you're acting, how you're moving, how you're doing, that's racism.

SPEAKER_02: 35:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:48

And you're using that same structure and system they use to take down people for years to now take me down.

unknown: 35:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:55

Or attempt to. Yeah. Because daddy's still here. Yeah. So you gotta remind them. Yeah. I'm still here. But they use that, try to use that system, right? To come at you, say certain things, put certain things. There's people saying stuff that never met me a day in their life. That's right. How are you talking about me?

SPEAKER_02: 36:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:13

And you've never met me a day in your life. How are you saying I'm this and I'm that and you have never shook my hand, had a conversation with me, or whatever?

SPEAKER_02: 36:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:22

Oh, that's because somebody else told you. Y'all sat in a room and had a conversation. And this is the plan y'all put together to get what you want from me.

SPEAKER_02: 36:31

That's right.

SPEAKER_00: 36:32

And so put me in a position of that. I'm like, oh, there it is. Yeah. And so I had to live with that for a minute. It took me a minute to get over that.

SPEAKER_01: 36:40

How do you how do you uh function in that? You know, how do you like navigate in that? That was a lot of basketball.

SPEAKER_00: 36:53

It was a lot back to the sports. I was in the gym every day.

SPEAKER_01: 36:57

You're like, I'm in the best shape of my life right now.

SPEAKER_00: 37:01

You don't even know. Uh right. I'm like, we're doing push-ups.

SPEAKER_01: 37:04

I never done. You're like, hold on, I'm gonna take a little push-up break right now.

SPEAKER_00: 37:07

You don't even know. Uh you know, it would I you know, it was a lot of sitting back and reflecting. Yeah. And a lot of not like what is true. Yeah. And I didn't respond to any of it. Yeah. They asked like I could have responded, I could have put a letter out there. I could have been, and last time we spoke, I started to put some of that out there last time we spoke. Yeah. Just to say, okay, dogs, I'm still around. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. But I was like, you know what? That's my story for a book or another day. Yeah. But it ain't your story to hold for me.

SPEAKER_03: 37:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:40

But you know what I mean? So I think it's been a lot of that. I didn't respond.

SPEAKER_03: 37:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:44

And so to me, that was like cutting out the noise. Yeah. Like you can talk, all that stuff. You got a lot of noise. You're saying a lot of things right in here. Yeah. Here are the truth. Here's the facts. And the funny part about it, some of the things I said at that time are now working themselves out or playing themselves out. It's interesting how it works. You're just making me look like, you know what I mean? I'm the smartest guy in the world. I didn't, I didn't sit out there, I just set out to help some people. Yeah. But you didn't want that. Yeah. But you wanted with something else. Yeah. And you use those different systems and bricks to try to get that. Yeah. Or try to take that from me. Or try to take certain things from me. Yeah. Right. And I'm like, wow. You know what I mean? So going through that experience is definitely life-changing, mind-changing, you know what I mean, body changing in a sense. But um it also says, okay, I'm resilient. Yeah. I know what's true. Yeah. I'm holding the value of that up and I'm doing what we said we were gonna do. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 38:45

Man, yeah, I think when I when I hear this, I'm um there's part of me that's just I wish I was like surprised, right? You know what I'm saying? Like I wish I was like, oh my gosh, that happened to you, you know. But I'm like, I'm more impressed by I think you you still being you, you know, and being in the position you're in and staying strong, you know, within that, right? And that kind of resilience, right? Because I think that that's that's hard to develop, right? Like literally hard, right? You know, it's like you're going through you're feeling things and having to sit with that and like having to deal with maybe you know, lies or different strategies of people coming at you in different ways. I mean, that just sounds um like very rough. Uh and yeah, just mad respect, man, for uh, you know, just just just you know I don't I don't wish that on anybody, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00: 39:40

I understand it though, yeah. And it's some people in this world who've had had that done to them, yeah, and had you know um had been removed or removed themselves from that because it was a lot, yeah. You know what I mean? So my you know, I just me, I that's what I said, trying to eliminate the noise, yeah, and really trying to hold true to what you believe in. Yeah. And truly trying to say, like, okay, God, man, like you put me in this position. What am I supposed to do?

SPEAKER_01: 40:09

And I also think that when you show up with like integrity in your life, you know, like I don't know from my experience, you know, I've had some of these, like probably not at the level that you've had it, but like I've had some people come at me in different ways who kind of perpetuating that system. But like ironically, I think just like my reputation like kind of stopped it from like like spreading too thick, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 40:33

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 40:34

Because I've I've shown up in a in a way, you know what I mean? And I'm like pretty open, you know? And so how how do you think your reputation helped with kind of like preventing some of that noise or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00: 40:46

Yeah, I think when people actually started asking questions, yeah, and they asked to the different people, they're like, Man, this this guy, he's every I mean, my rule is this if you can follow up and follow through on what you say you're going to do, yeah, you're gonna win nine times out of ten. Yeah. And and sometimes that's hard because you have to lose. Yeah, you have to be willing to lose or fail. Yeah. Because I said I'm gonna do this and it's not gonna work out for me, really. Yeah. It's gonna work out for you, probably, right? But I said I'm gonna do it. So I did it anyway. So that means I stood up on my ethics, I stood up on my morals, and I said what I was gonna do, and I did what I said I was gonna do. Yeah. And so if every time you talk to somebody, they'd be like, What? Yeah, him? Yeah, crazy. That dude, that dude stood up when nobody else did. That guy, yeah, you know what I mean? Like he knew he was gonna take an L and took it right in front of me because he said he would do it. Yeah. Right? And I'm like, that's I'm not saying I'm some superhero or something. Just I'm just standing on what I believe, right? Right. And standing on that. And so that reputation of always trying to stand in that way, yeah. I think when people started asking, like, as you got closer to my circle, yeah, right? The outskirts, they're the outskirts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. They're yakking, they yak, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They got a lot to say. Why am I answering you? Yeah. If it was somebody in that circle or somebody that was close in there that was asking those questions or saying those things, I don't know if I'd be here. Because it that that hurts. That's that's what I'm saying. That's what really hurts. But when it's those people that are really around you and know you, yeah, it stops it from spreading because as soon as you get closer to that circle, the closer you get to that, the more you get louder and louder, louder, and the closer you get to that circle, and they start saying, like, what?

SPEAKER_02: 42:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 42:26

And they start pushing back.

SPEAKER_02: 42:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 42:28

And then they start gathering more and more people becoming your circle because they're like, wait, wait, wait, this is my friend.

SPEAKER_02: 42:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 42:33

And my friend say he good, right? Yeah, exactly. So why would I listen to this noise or this nonsense over here? Yeah. I mean, that I from somebody I don't know. Yeah, totally. Right. And so I think more and more of that started to happen. Yeah. As more and more of that started to happen, the more and more, you know, you you you start to, okay, we made it through. Yeah. You start seeing levels of levels of like success and making it through and things like that. And then you have these breakthroughs, right? Yeah. And we had a couple of breakthroughs where we're crazy. Right. Crazy. Like breakthroughs. Like we got um, well, one big one, we got two million dollars from McKenzie Scott.

SPEAKER_02: 43:11

Yeah. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00: 43:12

Right? That's awesome. McKenzie Scott's giving out money to great organizations across the country.

SPEAKER_02: 43:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:18

Right? She's giving out money. And it we started off by just putting our name in the hat.

SPEAKER_02: 43:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:23

And just saying, eh, we'll see what happens. It's never gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02: 43:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:26

And every week we were further and closer and closer and closer to that. Right? Yeah. And next thing you know, it went from a million dollars to give us two million dollars.

SPEAKER_02: 43:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:34

We got two million dollars from McKenzie. Like, shut up. Like across the country, right? Yeah. Now, what does that mean?

unknown: 43:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:42

Because she doesn't not do her homework. Yeah. She doesn't go around just like, you know what, today's Tuesday. Oh no, she does not. But I imagine she might. She might see. She's like, well. But you know, she does, she does have that type of money. But she has, I don't care, money. But I'm saying I imagine from her process and what we know about her process and everything like that, she does her homework. Yeah. And she goes find out. And so when she went to ask questions, yeah, and her org asked questions. And they went to go ask questions, not only about the organization, but about me, about everything like that. Yeah. We got two million dollars. Not just a million.

unknown: 44:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 44:16

Because we put in for a million. We got two million.

SPEAKER_02: 44:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 44:20

To me, yeah. That means your inner circle, what's around you, how you stood up for certain things, how you stood in front of certain things. Yeah. Matters. That's a breakthrough. Like, okay, I didn't do all this just to be hanging out. Yeah. Here it is. Yeah. We stood in front of all that. We stood in front of that. We walked through that, and somebody said, Let me go look at that. And they recognize it. I love that. That's where you're like, okay. And there's been other breakthroughs, but I just know that one's that one to me was a huge one. Man.

SPEAKER_01: 44:51

That sounds awesome. That's amazing. Yeah. Um, okay. So this is kind of a different, kind of strange question, but um, I mean, maybe it's not just kind of a more vulnerable, I guess. But like for me, uh like uh, you know, I I feel like I I've talked to a lot of leaders in different capacities. There's some form of like higher power that has helped them get through different things. And I'm wondering if you do you have any kind of spiritual beliefs or religious beliefs that have helped you kind of navigate some of these tougher times.

SPEAKER_00: 45:23

Yeah, I'm I'm a spiritual guy. Okay. Right. I grew up as I grew up as Baptist. Yeah. Right. I don't necessarily um religion is an interesting topic. Totally. That's why I was like, I was like, you know, religion is a super interesting topic. I am spiritual. I pray. Yeah. I mean, if you, you know, whatever God or whatever that is, and that whatever gives you solace in that, I mean, I think it's a it's a valuable way to go.

SPEAKER_02: 45:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 45:47

Um, you know, for me, you know, I pray to God about certain things. I pray to have my family and for the decisions I make, or just being in the right place at the right time, or totally, you know what I mean? Like sometimes uh a lot. Well, I pray for a lot. Yeah. Like if we're getting transparent, yeah. It's strength. Yeah. Like I don't I don't need extra this, I don't need that to go my way.

SPEAKER_02: 46:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 46:12

I need strength to endure whatever that is, right? So I I pray for strength to endure. Give me the strength to overcome, give me the strength to endure. Like, don't take away the situation because I gotta learn whatever you need me to learn. Yeah. But just give me the strength to endure it. Give me the strength to see it through, give me the strength to be there in those tough times. Be give me the strength to take those butterflies and and put take off my shoes. You know?

SPEAKER_03: 46:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 46:39

Like, give me that strength, right? So I I I find myself a lot praying for strength.

SPEAKER_03: 46:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 46:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 46:45

All right. So we're coming near the end here. And so I want to get some like advice, you know, advice for future leaders or lead people who are stepping into leadership who are new. Um, if I know you had the the noise thing, but you if you could just like boil down some things or just give someone um some advice about just like how to be or values to bring up in themselves or whatever, you know, like what what kind of advice would you give someone if someone's like, you know, help help me, you know, like you know.

SPEAKER_00: 47:16

I I think about it as um what a lot of guys say about playing professional sports, yeah. Everybody has talent at this level, yeah. Everybody has talent at this level. How are you going to make yourself shine within that talent? And sometimes it's doing the little bitty things that makes you stand out a little bit more than the other.

SPEAKER_03: 47:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 47:41

And so if you go in that belief that everybody has talent, everybody's at your same level, everybody has talent in this game, nobody's a slouch.

SPEAKER_03: 47:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 47:49

Then what am I what do I need to do for me to make sure that my message, my voice, my stuff gets done.

SPEAKER_03: 47:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 47:56

So if it's going to this little thing, or if it's reaching out to this person, or if it's talking to these people, or if it's having this great conversation with me right now, you know what I mean? Yeah, um, then I want to do it. Yeah. And I want to do that to make sure my vision, my voice, my talent can actually shine through. You know, because we have a lot of talented individuals doing a lot of talent at great work.

SPEAKER_02: 48:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 48:18

And so it's it's those things. So if you can focus on those little small things to do, yeah, they turn out to be big things. Yeah. And I make I my example of that is, you know, uh we were friends starting off at nothing. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And we just we went to the same school together, a friend of mine went to the same school together and all that stuff like that. And I'm like, yeah, and we just always kind of stayed in touch with each other, everything like that. Yeah. Right? Now I'm going through this other stuff. I'm trying to figure out all this other stuff. This dude's like one of the top five in the freaking country. You're telling me what? Hold on. Yeah. We we shared you know, baloney sandwiches together. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, totally. And now your talent has took you all the way here. Yeah. And I need some of that right now. Yeah. And I can just text you. Yeah. Come on.

unknown: 49:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 49:10

Right? Those relationships, that stuff, those things, just building that. And it's not building off of what you can do for me. Yeah. It's building off like, hey, we we here.

SPEAKER_02: 49:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 49:18

How do we help each other grow? How do we help each other do things? How we come together and that. And now this person's here or this person's there. Look, I was a CEO of this person. This person's now over here. I'm like, I know that person. I can just I just call you. I just yeah. Like we've talked about life together and been in certain situations together. And now these things grow. And that came of time, relationships, just doing a little bitty stuff with just reaching out to people, yeah, hanging out with some people. Yeah. Always trying to be there for certain individuals, or always trying to be in these different spots and doing those little bitty things like that that put you in these certain situations. And then next thing you know, somebody's helping you, and your talent's growing, and their talent's growing. And you're like, whoa, like what's happening right now?

SPEAKER_02: 50:00

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00: 50:01

Yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_01: 50:03

Um that's yeah, that's inspiring. Um so this is your chance just to kind of let us know like what is the community health trust up to? What are you up to? Is there anything you want to do as a shout-out, or you know, is there anything you want the world to know right now, or just general advice, you know, whatever you want to do. This is your this is your time. Spotlight's on you, no pressure. Here we go.

SPEAKER_00: 50:26

It's tough times. Uh, you know, I I mentioned that that we are really our project right now is to bring wellness and health and wellness to um South County and South Santa Cruz County, but really we work with all three counties: San Bernico, Santa Cruz, uh Monterey County. We work with all three, and so that's a huge project for us. And so um, yes, there's gaps and and capital funding that we need to close and all that, but really we want everybody to be a part of that story. Yeah, and the more people we can get part of that story, the more of that. So look us up online, see where that. We have our huge fundraising event coming up at uh in November 8th, the Wine and Roses. If you haven't been to it, it's probably the coolest wine party you've ever been to in Santa Cruz County. You know what I mean? So if you can get out there, come out to the where where is it again? It's on Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. Oh, awesome. Right on November 8th, yeah, uh, from four to seven. Uh so and we have some very exclusive wineries and stuff, and we get to showcase all these great artists and work and stuff that's happening in this community.

SPEAKER_01: 51:29

What's your favorite part about it?

unknown: 51:31

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01: 51:32

Gotta pick something. I know it sounds it sounds all amazing, but what's your favorite part about it? Like that you look forward to? Well, there's probably two things.

SPEAKER_00: 51:39

Right. Yeah. I get the I get the tastings before everybody walks in the room. So I get to sneak, I get to sneak bite everything before everybody walks in the room. But also, right at the certain time the sun comes down, right? And you see everybody in the room, I take a moment to stand back and watch the people in the room just having a really good like community time.

unknown: 52:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 52:04

Just engaging with a community, regardless of what's going out there in the community, what's happening in our country, and all that stuff, we're all in this space have sharing a glass of wine or water if you don't even drink.

SPEAKER_02: 52:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 52:16

You know what I mean? We're just in there sharing and having like, you know, a good time with each other. Right. And that's like my favorite part. I'd get that five minutes of that because by that time somebody else is talking to me, I only get like five minutes of that. But but you know, I take back when the sun's come down, the ambiance looks great, and people are looking nice and they're just in there fellowshipping with each other. It's cool. You know, oh man, what a great answer to that.

SPEAKER_01: 52:38

Um, well, DeAndre, it was an honor to have you back on. Um, this was an amazing conversation. Thank you so much for coming back, man. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00: 52:47

Yeah, thanks for having me, man. And and and hopefully more of these more people get out here and get on here to get this story out. Yeah, we got some interesting people coming, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_01: 52:56

This has uh been Speak for Change Podcast. I'm your host, Thomas Sage Petterson. Uh, thank you so much for listening and have a wonderful day.