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The speaker emphasizes the importance of helping others, moving culture forward, and showing empathy towards family members. They talk about the need to be accountable and lead by example. They also discuss the impact of societal programming and discrimination based on skin color. The speaker mentions their interest in sports topics and the retirement of Bill Belichick. They express gratitude and support for the Black community and highlight the progress that has been made. They mention their time in Chicago and the impressive entrepreneurship and Black-owned businesses they encountered there. Yep, so be great. Help out when you can. Move your culture forward. You know, show empathy to your family members. Help your family members. Let's move this culture forward. We can do it. We are setting the platform with so many others who are using their platform. Marlon and I, we created this platform because we felt the need. January is flying by. My husband has been grinding from day one. I'm looking forward to Valentine's Day already. So yeah, I know it's flying by. I hope everybody's having a great day. We couldn't have tucked our tails in good health, good mental health. We don't care, but we do care because we have family members that feel in the struggle. I feel like, I hear, I get a lot of human beings. Oh, I'm a good person. Oh, I'm excited for this show. For me, you don't have to tell people that you show people that. People feel that already. I don't know if they should be telling you that. If you don't hear that from people, that you're a good person, that, oh, thank you for moving the culture forward. Thank you for doing this. I don't know if everybody else feel like that. I mean, you got work to do for yourself. That goes for anybody. Pay attention to what I'm saying. That goes for anybody. It's always enough room for change. I couldn't picture it today. Start today by understanding others around you. Be good stewards. Be good stewards of your family, your children. Lead by example. Be accountable. I know it's hard. I know it's so hard because people take advantage of you. You've been hurt. I've been hurt. My husband has been hurt. But we think about the people who are like us that don't have the resources and they cannot advocate for themselves. That hurt turns into motivation for us. We're never going to stop. No matter what stones people throw at us, no matter what people say about us, I'm holding his hand. I'm going to stick beside him. I don't care what is going on. I'm going to stick beside him. I'm here. I'm going to stick beside you no matter what flaws you have, no matter what people say about you, no matter how people look at you, how people view you. I always felt like it's good in everybody. You just got to reach down and get it. And if you can't, you move on to the next. Move on to the next. It's okay to move on to the next. If people can't see your worth, if people don't know you for how you love, if you've loved people and that shit was shot down, if you can't go hard for your family, move on. But don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up until you actually feel that in your soul that it's no hope. I mean, no ego driven, no anything. Our culture needs us, especially you adults. Also, I want to piggyback on something you said regarding how society, government, and those who, you know, as enemies, that's so people relevant. Jot down five things you've done in the last year to actually move your culture forward. That will tell you if you're a good person or not, or who you are. Oh, they hate each other. Oh, they want to fight each other. No. Let us just, you know, marinate in our craft. Let us be who we are without the fight. And that's something that's still relevant today. You know, we can push ourselves to the greatest, the best version of ourselves. And sometimes we fall short. Sometimes we fall short. Life happens. Things happen. You know what I mean? Blueprints are the majority of my childhood. When I say I had to fight, I literally had to fight. You know, as long as you can get up the next day, as long as you can get up tomorrow, you can fight over it. That's it. Oh, she got on the better shoes. Oh, she got on the better coat. When in fact, we're all one. We're all human. We're all black. We just have darker skin. We're not different. That's why I bossed up. I bossed up to let people know, just because I have brown skin, don't look at me any less. Because I'm always in my best form. I can talk with any woman. Hey. And that's what I put out to the world. And that's what women, men also, you should be teaching your sons and daughters. Don't settle for less because of the shade of your skin, because this has been going on since day one. Light skin is better. Dark skin is bad. Anything black you've ever noticed from cake, even cake down from cake mix, devil's food cake, because it's black, it's chocolate, it's called devil's food cake. I don't care if you got a dollar, the yellow cake in your bank account. What is it? Exactly. Everything. You're worthy of the shade of black, the shade of white. We love you, Dr. King. We love you. We love your family. We're always grateful. And if they ever come at me like that, I'm going to wrap it up. And I would never do that to anybody from humans. Don't get me wrong. I know what it is. I see all the jokes out here. I can go on about this subject for days and days. But hey, before we cut out, I want to touch on that a little bit too, because sports type situation, we haven't really named it yet. And we open to y'all's feedback too. I know Latisha, because she's big in psychology and the mind, and I named her segment in the future project that may come to fruition. I'm speaking into it. It's Tish Talk, right? Tish Talk is coming, honey. Tish Talk is coming, right? But maybe for changing lives, these last few minutes, when we wrap it up, trinitopics is a common phrase. Maybe it's tea time or tea talk. And I'm not tea. That's like a phrase in pop culture, tea. But until we figure it out, we're going to do it. But the point I'm trying to make here is to introduce our sports segment, because we're heavy on sports around here, and I think we're neglecting our sports topic. Many of them out here unconsciously and consciously feel that they're more superior, because it's been programmed in society. CLP Toast. You said CLP. CLP Toast. Okay, we knew him. Y'all get it. I think we're going to implement that to our ending segment. And some topics like Super Bowl, all that, we're going to get into that shit rapidly, right away. Okay, guys, so yeah, we're going to go into CLP Toast. When we're podcasting, we usually have our little drink or whatever our mode is. Champagne, and everybody knows I'm a lemon drop girl. Marlon is a gin and tonic guy. He needs a little wine on the way. So yeah, let's get into it. Bill Belichick. Yeah, he just retired. I was moved. Man, I woke up out of my sleep. Usually I'm way here before that. I don't go to sleep that often. Stephen A. We watched First Take at 7. Get up, Greenie. I woke up out of my sleep like, something's going to go down today. I was really looking for Stephen A. because he went on the rant. He was in New York. He was New York mode last night. So I was like, oh, see, I missed it. Let me get up. Let me get up. And I'm looking at Marcus Spears right now. This is what I tell Marcus Spears, Brian Clark. If I'm Dominique, I'll get up. Stephen A. Smith. Dan is our favorite. Molly, all of you guys. Kimberly Martin. We love all of you guys. I'm a fan, and you guys are a part of our world. Black and white. Black and Hispanic. Black on black. Whatever you want to call it. This is what we fought so hard for. To know our roots and who we are in this world. So you owe it to your children to let them live through their bloodline. It's a bittersweet, I mean, it was time. It was time because these last few years have been rough for the Patriots organization and the fan base and the players. That's how this conversation all kind of kicked off. Happy birthday, King. All good things must come to an end. We are forever grateful, and we're going to always continue to fight that fight. And support your mission and keep your dream alive. I don't care how we got to do it, but we are and we're always going to push that trip. They had a lot of respect for each other. It was just a classy move. It was the right thing to do. How they presented it in the medium that he gave. I do think an interesting topic of conversation surrounding this. His exit would be Tom Brady and how he pushed Tom Brady out after he pushed him out. Because he had a script. He had a schedule. And Tom no longer fit into that schedule. So he did what he did to get him out. Tom went on to do what he did. 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. Shout to the Cowboys. Don't even mention the Cowboys up here. You see that? You see America's teams just slip off the image. I do not. And let me tell you, I love that. I am a big supporter of that. I think the sports industry is really, really hard on him. That's because he belongs to a team that puts you in that type of perspective. But the fans? We got a problem. 100 years later, I think that's going to be an interesting topic of conversation. Fight for change. We are about 70 years later. After Tom Brady left. The interesting question is how far have we come? When he went on to do what he did without the Patriots. There's a lot of change. Let us know what y'all think. Hit us up, changinglivespodcast35.gmail.com. Thank you, guys. This is so great. I feel so good today that we can get a lot of change. We're able to be in this position, Marlon and I, my family, to have that platform to help us. We're in tune with what's going on with the Black Brothers and Sisters. Thank you, guys, for listening. We appreciate you. Until next time, this is Rap. I do see the Black culture. Man, we are elevated. We are elevated. We were back home in Chicago for the summer. A lot of people don't know we were there for a good six months, but we had to be low-key. Low-key as meaning low-profile because of who we are. I mention that because we're not just anybody, and that's how we carry ourselves. We're not. It's sad, but kind of it's for protection, I'll say. We were there for business. We were there to give back. We were there supporting the I Have a Dream, you know, to give back to our families there, our Black children there. And I wanted to say I was very, very impressed with the entrepreneurship there, the Black-owned businesses, the Black men and women out there making a change with the youth, youth programs, just nonprofits, even the daycare centers on every block. Like those centers, those organizations, they provide safety for those children. I don't care if it's seven hours, five hours a day. They are saving lives out there, and they're taking risks on their own lives, you know. I was disappointed also. I was still seeing some things. You know, we hadn't grown in certain areas. I heard a couple gunshots. I got into it with a couple people where I felt like I had to defend myself, and I'm just not used to living like that anymore. So, yeah, Chicago has come a long way, but we still need work. We still need a lot of work, not only Chicago, just the Black culture in general. Like we should be together, not against each other. I don't care who you are. I don't care what kind of hair you have. I don't care what language you speak. I don't care what car you're driving. I don't care what job you have. I don't care what's in your bank account. I don't care what's in your bank account. In today's world, if you have black skin, you should be supporting the mission because you are the one that's going to be affected. You've already been affected. Everybody's still being affected. And let's pull together and try to fix what we can. No, we can't fix the whole world. I'm not saying that. All I'm saying is 1%, do your part. It all adds up. You guys see me on Facebook, Instagram, a lot of social media asking for $1, $2, $3, $5 to feed the homeless, to feed anybody for that matter. I don't care if you're black or white. People be like, well, what a dollar going to do? You'd be surprised. That dollar can go with another $6 to get a pack of cheese that's going to make 10 grilled cheeses that's going to put a meal in a baby's belly for the day. So always look at it that way. If you've got to give a quarter, give a quarter. You're giving back. Do something to give back to push us forward. Yeah, any little thing helps. Any little thing helps. And we're several hundred years behind in this race. And it's interesting how the term race is used to separate people based on their shades and where they're from. But it really is a race. And every culture, their priority is their people. But for whatever reason, for many reasons, we can be better for our people. We're not as good for our people as we can be. I feel like we hold ourselves back. And we have the opportunity, and I'm speaking on opportunity now, taking it back to 1963 when Dr. King gave that speech. What he was fighting for and what they were trying to change back then was discrimination and segregation on the highest level. And today we're not fighting those same fights necessarily. It looks different. It feels different. And a lot has changed for the better, in my opinion. This is up for debate, of course. But I feel like the playing field has been leveled a little bit more so than it was then. Again, we've got a long way to go. And granted, this is a relatively young country. This country was founded in 1776, 250-ish years old. Most kingdoms, most empires, most countries, superpowers around the world have been in existence for hundreds and thousands of years. But this country is young. And there's a lot of flaws that this country was based upon and a lot of flaws today, just like with a family. No family is perfect, but it's your family. This country ain't perfect. It's my country. It's our country. And it's up to us to make it a more perfect union, a more perfect scenario. So I feel like all of the opportunities for us to be great are available. And it's on us. Absolutely. Yeah. It's on us to get our shit together, to do what we need to do to take advantage of those opportunities that are afforded us in this country. Absolutely. Effort, wanting to want better. I think we lack that in so many communities. That's why I always say you keep your network open. You get out. You talk to people in the community. You make new friends. You just don't know what opportunities are available or going to be at your foot, like just off of conversation. Networking is very, very important, especially in our culture. It's not easy to trust everybody. I do get that. But at some point, you just don't know how an individual can elevate, upgrade your life. And a lot of people don't because of color. A lot of people don't because of clicks and that sort of thing. But I just think you do yourself a disservice. You stay at a certain level, you know, forever. Because you're not broadening your mind of just the simple thing of talking to someone. Yeah. Get out and network. Communicate. Meet new people. Open your mind, yeah. Yeah. Get with some of your friends that got businesses. Hey, girl, how you do this? How did you get there? Connect. It's called connecting. Yeah. Like you even look at the way we used to dress back in the, you know, the early 20th century. Yes. You've always touched bases on that and always admired that. Like presentable black men looking presentable up to part. I'll let you finish. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's cool. Black men, black women, black children. Like we walked around in suit and tie. You know, women had, you know, nice dresses on, skirts, blouses. You know, we were presentable. Not saying that the way we move now is not presentable. It's just it looks different now, you know. Fashion is different for the culture. We keep up with the trend and times. But I think what you're trying to say is keep yourself up. Yeah. And I'm what I'm trying to say is that too. But I'm just comparing the way we presented ourselves, the way we carry. Yeah. Look at me. This is the thing about doing a podcast with your spouse because she's in my head. She knows what I'm about to say. Most of the time she does. Oh, I do, honey. Trust me. I tell you, the superpowers do not play. She does not play. We finish each other's questions. Like we finish each other's sentences. And, you know, we know how each other are feeling. She's reaching down. Hold on one second. I got to get the ice for the champagne. But really what it is, is when you when you look good, you feel good. That's if you're walking around looking, you know, like you're homeless. That's what you're going to adapt to. Yeah. And then you, you know, you fast forward to today and look out the majority or at least what's portrayed. Because I'm not saying that this is all of us. Because you got some some clean brothers and sisters out here that step out. Yeah, absolutely. It's not everybody. I'm not I'm not painting a broad brush, but, you know, I'm just kind of speaking on some of the things I see. That can help. Yeah. With us. We don't we don't, you know, we don't we don't dress the same. We don't act the same. We don't have the same respect for one another. Generally, you know, from what I've seen and in certain circumstances. And then music is a great. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, portrait. It kind of paints the picture of how we carry ourselves. It's crazy. It's crazy. Music has shaped so many minds out here. I think I've told this story before. I grew up on old school. My mom played nothing but old school from sun up to sundown to all the way around Motown, Marvin Gaye, Chaka Khan, Luther Vandross and my favorite of all time, Alexander O'Neal. Hey, I got to touch on that. Let's put a period on that. Let's bookmark that. We got to touch on. Wait, let's do a toast to Alexander O'Neal. Man, Lord. Because he is a mainstay in the household. You got that. What is it? A Google? We got a Google and Alexa. But what's the one in the kitchen? Is that the Alexa? It's the Alexa. The new generation. Every morning, every afternoon, every evening. Hey, Alexa, play Alexander O'Neal on Pandora Radio. He's a mainstay. 24-7. But listen, guys, what I was getting at is that music my mom played was embedded in me. It taught me to be the woman I am today. It, like, grew me up before my time. It's like Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross. All of those women raised me, sort of, because they were in my head 24-7. So when I became a woman, I already knew what to do. When I became a wife, I already knew what to do. Yeah, I always tweak myself often on how to be better in those roles. As, you know, sister, auntie, all those things, I mean, they come with growth. But those women taught me how to be strong. Like, I heard that. So when I listen to the music today. Now, some of it I like because we love music. Our family, man, if you know anything about Marlon and I, both sides of our family, whether it's gospel, whether it's rap, R&B, I don't care what kind of music, on down from our children, our siblings, we love music. Our house is full of music. We love art. We're those type of people. So when I say this, I just can only imagine how the music today is shaping the minds of our youth in this generation. And you have to look at it. This generation is going to be taking care of us when we become elders. I can't even see that right now. That's why we teach our kids different. We teach our kids from that era. You know, they got some new age things, too. And let me say this. All our children are grown. I refer to them as kids because they'll never be older than me. You know what I mean? And that's not even with age. That's with wisdom, you know, where I've been, experience, what have you. We teach them. We keep them grounded in old-school music. You like your new-school music? That's good, too. Our son is deeply rooted into country music. He's about to be 29, February 26th. He's deeply rooted into country music, but I think music shapes the kids, what they're watching on TV, all of that. That's why it's important for us to get in tune with our children and teach them what their blood is made of, like the real truth, not what you think they should know. Because, like I say, and like I mention all the time, and I'm a product of this, my siblings is a product of this. My mom died. She had three young siblings. She had three young kids, three of my siblings, that were solely dependent on her. And I'm glad she taught them how to be upstanding people. My mom died early. My youngest sibling, I believe Precious is, what, 25? Yeah, my mom died, what, four or five years ago? 2018. Yeah, something to that nature, but I'm a product of this. They are a product of that. It wasn't for my mom teaching them how to, especially Precious. That's my little sister, Precious. She's the youngest one. People don't know this. I have a 25-year-old little sister, and sorry, Precious, if I got the age wrong. You know everything I have to deal with. We love you, Precky. But this is what I'm saying. My mom raised her, raised all three of them to be good people, understand where they came from and where they're going. That's important because you're not guaranteed this life to shelter those children, and that's how I teach mine. Be independent. I'm going to tell you when you're right. I'm going to tell you when you're wrong. I'm not trying to be nobody's friend. I am not your friend. I was put on this earth to be your mother, and I'd rather me give you the bad news, me show you the way than the court system or somebody knocking you upside your head in the street or you being taken advantage of. This music today, we really, really got to do better. It's all good. It's all good, and like I said, I like some rap music, the beats and this and that, but we're talking about somebody, oh, he looking at my coochie, he doing this, he doing that. Like no, that's distasteful. No way. Yeah, and I get it. You know, like opportunities for many of us, many people within our communities are limited, and that's like, you know, a path of least resistance. The more bullshit you can put on wax, the quicker you're going to come up. You know, and it's by design. It's by design, you know, all the way up, you know, from the media outlets, the production companies, the record labels, you know, all of the brands, the sponsorships. This country was built on thriving and generating dollars off of the backs of black men and women, and between, you know, the way music is being put out, it kind of reminds me of that in many respects, and like I say, it's no disrespect. It's a path of least resistance, and we got to get it how we can get it. That's it. And it's all about what you put out, how you carry yourself, you know, because a lot of us, like look at Jay-Z. You know, he started out. I mean, he wasn't really distasteful with it. He was always ahead of his time. You know, he's a man. Right. You got to kind of fake it to make it. I understand it, but real people are dying. Yeah. Yeah, it's different now. Yeah. It's different now. Music today, you know, rap beats were just within hip-hop. It was part of the culture back then, and it stayed there for the most part early on, and then it started to morph into, you know, the East Coast, West Coast beef, which that was fabricated. You know, that really wasn't a thing until the powers that be created it, and then today, you know, but now it's like, you know, ops, you rap about, you know, sliding on the ops, and then you're talking about either what you've already done or what you're about to go do, and then when you go do it, you're going to come back on the wax and rap about what you did, and then it's a back and forth thing, you know, and then we're just destroying ourselves, you know, either dying or getting locked up, and we're putting out this negative image that, like Letitia alluded to, is getting ingrained in our culture and our people of all walks of life. It ain't just us, and it has a disparate impact on the future. Yes. You know, so we just have to be mindful of that. You know, we all, everything is interconnected. We all play a part in the bigger picture, so just keep that in mind, you know, but do what you got to do to make it. That's my takeaway. Just don't be out harming anybody, and you guys, especially you grown guys, what you guys are rapping about, you know, think about the people who are in the inner cities, the kids, and, you know, they don't have bodyguards and protection and that kind of thing, so be mindful of that. I think you guys could create a bigger movement, you know, other than, oh, I flopped that bitch. I fucked that hoe up. I fucked that bitch. Yeah, yeah. You know, there's more shit we could talk about, and it'll sell, and it'll have a bigger impact, you know. So you got music and the similarities and differences compared to back then, how we dressed, you know what I mean, how we carried ourselves like the elderly community. Back then, there wasn't no walking down the street, you know, with your pants sagging or disrespecting a woman or fighting, you know, in Chicago on the blocks that we grew up in back in the day. Oh, this is huge. You know what I mean? This is huge because it's so different now. Yeah. It's very, very different because, as Marlon was mentioning before I cut him off. Yeah, she's good at cutting me off. This is what I grew up on. My uncles, they didn't play on the block I grew up on, 64th and Justine, okay? So when, you know, you couldn't come on that block doing things to, you know, to the children causing harm to the elders. So, yes, the block I grew up on, 64th and Justine. Shout out to all. I'm hoping. I know a lot of you are gone on, like Lavelle, rest in peace, one of my brother's good friends. My brother, Dennis, rest in peace. They all from 64th and Justine. Yes, I love you guys dearly. I know I'm forgetting a lot, but just if you're listening to this and you're from 64th and Justine, man, I'm proud of you just for still being here, just for maintaining. Like they, my brother Lavelle, they had illnesses that hindered them from being here, but if you're still here, you're still on 64th and Justine. And I see the work you guys are doing out there, Devon and everybody with the block parties and the foundations, the barbershops, the haircuts, giving little kids cuts and everything. Man, we talked about this, you know. We manifested this, who we are today, because we went through the struggle. We went through hell. But let me tell you, back to respect. These kids have no respect today. Like I was saying, when I grew up, my uncles, they did not play about their block, their community. They kept us safe. They wasn't scared of the youngsters. That's a big deal right now today. All the elders, not my people, but other elders that was out, they called them OGs. I'm just being real. I'm being real here. CLP, we're going to keep it real. You don't like it. You don't like the slang. You don't like the way I speak. You don't like the profanity. This is not the podcast for you, so go head on. Bye. We cool. Bye. But listen, my uncles did not play. You came on that block, hey, don't come over here with no shit. They checked on the elderly people. Hey, you need water. You need food. You need this. You need your snow removed. You need salt put down. It was just that. You don't see that in today's world. And this is all by design, music, et cetera. It's not cool to help others. Oh, it's not cool to help your family members. It's not cool to be there for your loved ones because of what everybody else is doing. You don't even know the struggles of what's going on in those households. People out here going hard to keep their unions and families together, whether they got money or not, whether they live in the hood, whether they live in Peel Hill. At the end of the day, none of that shit is going to matter. What's going to matter is sticking together. Because it's coming. It's coming. Yeah, and that's one area where we can improve at, you know what I mean, like that family unit, that family structure. Yeah, we just throw each other away. Bye, your damaged goods. Bye, get out. Yeah, no, you're right. That shit wrong, and it doesn't go well. Yeah, we got to stick it out, you know, through the good, the bad, and the ugly, you know. And there were a lot of forces, you know, against us back in the 60s and the 70s that played a part in intentionally destroying, you know, the family unit within our communities, destroying our communities in general. So don't get me wrong. I understand. I get it. You know, it's an uphill battle. We behind the power curve. But, you know, we control our own destiny. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, at the base level, taking care of yourself, taking care of your family, taking care of your community, you know, stacking your bread, gaining assets, building generational wealth, you know, educating yourself. Once we have all those things in order, then as a culture, like not just individually, but we have to start individually, and then it grows. And then once we get to a point where, all right, we're standing on something, because we ain't got a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of right now. I'm going to just be straight up with you. Culturally, big picture. So until we get to that point where we got a foundation to stand on, like a lot of these other coaches out here, then, you know, our voices won't be heard. We're just yelling down an empty hallway with nobody listening. You know what I'm saying? Like we got to put our money where our mouth is. We got to hold our people down. We got to hold our families down. And then, you know, that transitions into, like, politics too. Like that's a big topic that, you know, is top of mind, especially this year, going into this year. You know what I mean? Like everybody's so big on voting and, you know, not saying that it's not important. It's important to a certain extent. So we'll get into that too. Yeah, maybe not this episode. Because I could go on and on. Yeah, this is my hubby, Forte. He's a businessman, so he don't play around with these type of topics. And as you can see, they hit home for us because we've been grinding. Like I said, we've been grinding from day one since the day we met each other. Like we didn't always have it, but we always stuck together and made it work, no matter what type of situation we was going through. Because if you know anything about Marlon and I, our hearts are big. And anybody around us, if they really, really know us without agendas, they'll tell you. They reach back for everybody. We reach back for everybody. Not saying that they are receptive, because trust me, it's hard reaching back, especially for your family members, because people don't be receptive. Because I'll say this. I'll put it this way. Generational family toxic situations hinder families from moving forward. We don't deal that way. We'll reach back for you. If we see you're not capable, we move on. That's just how we are, because we have so much to do, and we have so many people in our circle that want a shot. So we can't spend all our time on you. We got to keep on moving. And we reach back for everybody. I can stand on that. For real, for real. For real. I got some crazy reach-back moves I done made and just been shot down over. That has cost us thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars, just reaching back for people, just trying to help people out. Won't even give you a phone call. Won't even say, hey, girl, how you doing? Won't even say, here goes $5. Won't say, here goes $10. Won't even say, hey, girl, let me take you out to dinner. But you have saved their whole life. You have went hard. My husband and I, we have went so hard for people, they don't even understand it. They look at us as the bad guys because we went hard for them. You have people that turn jealous, envious of you because they're not mentally capable of accepting who you are and what you bring to the table and how you sacrifice your shit to help them. It's really, really tough out here. That was some of Marlon and I, 2024, also, too. Just be mindful of the people who really, really need help, who are receptive. Be mindful of who is receptive, meaning they're ready for the help. Just because you're ready to help them don't mean that they're ready to accept it, even though they're calling and asking. You got to make sure that they are ready. And guess who I learned that from? That particular piece right there, no other than Jada Pickett. That's one thing I learned from her that I agree on. Anything else, I don't. But that, when you're helping people, when you're reaching out to help people, you have a good heart and you're like, hey, yeah, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. Girl, I'm going to put you on. I'm going to help you with anything from your union, from getting in school, from helping you with your kids, just being an ear, just providing comfort for that person. Make sure they're ready for it because they don't be ready for it. They don't. And it'll save you a whole lot of time and heartache. And in the state that the world is in now, there's no room for error. People take this life for granted. We don't. Yeah. No, that's facts, man. That's nothing but facts. MLK, it's his birthday. Mr. King, this is our opportunity to reflect on his dream, his vision for a more perfect union, and then just kind of reflecting on where we are today and then who we can become in the next 100 years. You know what I'm saying? Yep. And that ties into CLP, Changing Lives Podcast, our foundation, and what we're about. We're about moving in lockstep with the culture, with the world, with the country, moving each other forward and doing what we can to make a difference. Yep. And we laid all this out on the line just to help you guys understand that moving a culture forward is not always easy. You're going to come into some glitches. You're going to come into some setbacks. But think of those ones who really need you, really need your support. That's what I do. People come in my life and they go. I've learned from them. They have learned from me. But I just don't, you know, surrender to them. My energy don't surrender to them. I keep going because there's somebody else in line who needs my help. That's me. And I also wonder, too, where we just went with this episode, MLK episode. Just we laid all this out so you guys, like I said, can see what we go through on a day-to-day basis, why you guys, some of you guys think it's all peaches and cream, like we just woke up like this. I tell people all the time, I didn't just wake up like this. I put in hard work for my union. And I'm still putting in work. But I bring all this up for the black culture to say, do we, after this, listening to this episode, was MLK sacrificed in vain? Was his work in vain, yeah. Yeah, like where do we go? It's never too late, though. It's never too late to get out and make a difference. You probably think I don't have money. Well, I don't have the resources. It's a lot you can do without money and with money and the resources. Hit me up. Oh, our email address. Give them an email. ChangingLivesPodcast35 at gmail.com. Common spelling, C-H-A-N-G-I-N-G-L-I-V-E-S podcast, P-O-D-C-A-S-T 35 at gmail.com. We want to hear from y'all, so hit us up. We're also on Instagram at ChangingLivesPodcast.com. No, it's The Changing Lives Podcast. So what is it? Hashtag or at? I ain't the biggest of social media. It's just. Yeah, it's The Changing Lives Podcast. So look us up, The Changing Lives Podcast. You'll find us. And we'll plug our information here on the podcast so you guys have it. And send us some emails. Reach out to us. Some topics you guys want us to elaborate on or get to for future episodes. And we're here. And I just want to say, do your best in life. Do your best. We're talking about future and coming together because we're going to need it. This coming election is amongst us. We need to get together. We need to get together. Reach out when you can. Move your culture forward. You know, show empathy to your family members. Help your family members. Let's move this culture forward. We can do it. We are setting the platform with so many others who are using their platform to get the word out. That's another thing I want to touch bases on is Marlon and I, Marlon and I, we created this platform because we felt the need. We felt we are ready. My husband has been grinding from day one. I have been grinding from day one. And we are here to share. We could have tucked our tails and went on, oh, we made it, and, you know, we don't care. But we do care because we have family members that's still in the struggle. And I feel like I hear, I get a lot of human beings, oh, I'm a good person, oh, I did this, I did that. For me, you don't have to tell people that. You show people that. People feel that already. They should be telling you that. If you don't hear that from people, that you're a good person, that, oh, thank you for moving the culture forward, thank you for doing this, thank you for doing that, blase skippy, that means you got work to do on yourself. And that goes for anybody. Like, pay attention to what I'm saying. Like, that goes for anybody. It's always enough room for change. It's never too late. You can start today. Start today with understanding others around you. And be good stewards. Be good stewards of your family, your children. You know, lead by example. Be accountable. Yep. And I know it's hard. I know it's so hard because people take advantage of you. You've been hurt. I've been hurt. My husband has been hurt. But we think about the people who are like us that don't have the resources and that can't, they cannot advocate for themselves. So that hurt turns into motivation for us. We're never going to stop. No matter what stones people throw at us, no matter what people say about us, I'm holding his hand. I'm going to stick beside him. I need some snaps for that. I don't care what is going on. I'm going to stick beside him. I'm here. I'm going to stick beside you. No matter what flaws you have, no matter what people say about you, no matter how people look at you, how people view you, I always felt like it's good in everybody. You just got to reach down and get it. And if you can't, you move on to the next. Move on to the next. It's okay to move on to the next. If people can't see your worth, if people don't know you for how you love, if you've loved people and that shit was shot down, if you can't go hard for your family, move on. But don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up until you actually feel that in your soul that it's no hope. I mean, no ego-driven, no anything. Our culture needs us, especially you adults that's listening to this podcast right now. Once we're done, once this episode is done, once you get done listening, jot down five things you've done for the culture, even if you're not black, you're white, Hispanic, whatever. Jot down five things you've done in the last year to actually move your culture forward. That will tell you if you're a good person or not or who you are. That's a good vector check. Yeah, it just allows you to check your situation, like check the work that you put in. Like you said, we all have good in us, and we can push ourselves to be the greatest, the best version of ourselves. And sometimes we fall short. Sometimes we fall short. Life happens. Things happen. Blueprints are altered. Yeah, the beauty of it, though. Your picket fences kick down, but you can always rebuild. Right, that was kind of what I was about to get to. You just took the words out of my mouth. As long as you can get up the next day, as long as you can get up tomorrow, you can start over. That's it. You fell short because I fall off the wagon every now and again. We all do. But the beauty of it is as long as you're able to wake up the next day and start fresh, the birds chirping, the sun's shining, the wind's blowing. And then the beauty of it with me is I got a strong woman on my side that's going to help me get back up on that saddle. That's right. Get up on that saddle. That's right. We need to continue to ride that. Hey. Yep, smooches. Yeah, smooches to that, for real, for real. The point I'm trying to make is you write those things down, and that allows you to check yourself. It don't necessarily mean you're a good or a bad person because, all right, I had a few things. I may not have five or I ain't have any, but it just allows you to internalize your situation. And then it's up to you how you want to move forward from there. So you got your grade. You got your score. So now what you going to do with it? Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't care if you got a dollar in your bank account. You still worthy of this world, this universe. You're worthy of love. You can help in some type of way. Let's wrap this up. CLP MLK Day. Dr. King. Yes. Thank you, Martin. We love you, Dr. King. We love you. We love your family. We're always grateful. We're blessed, and we're going to keep the mission going. I'm going to wrap it up, and I hope you guys took something from this episode today, and that's love, and that's pay it forth. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But, hey, before we cut out, though, because we normally always do a little sidebar sports-type situation. We haven't really named it yet, and we're open to y'all's feedback, too. Because I know, like, Letitia, because she's big into psychology and the mind, and I named one of her segments in a future project that may come to fruition. I'm speaking into existence. Tish Talk, right? Yep. Boom. Oh, Tish Talk is coming, honey. Tish Talk is coming, right? But maybe for Changing Lives, these last few minutes, when we wrap it up, is trending topics is a common phrase. Maybe it's tea time or tea talk. You know, like, what's the tea? You know, that's like a talk. That's like a phrase in pop culture, the tea. You know, but until we figure that out. Wait. I was thinking CLP Toast. CLP Toast? To introduce our sports segment, because we're heavy on sports around here, and I think we're neglecting our sports topics and everything. Yeah. So maybe, yeah, maybe it's CLP Toast, you know? So this is a CLP Toast hour, you know, and we're going to… CLP Toast. She's telling me I'm not saying it right. You said CLP. CLP Toast. Okay, we new here. Y'all get it. So, yeah, that's… I think we're going to implement that to our ending segment. And some topics like Super Bowl, all that, we're going to get into that shit, like, rapidly, right away. Okay, guys. Okay, guys. So, yeah, we're going to go into CLP Toast. And we usually, when we're podcasting, we usually have our little drink or whatever, our modium. Champagne. And everybody knows I'm a lemon drop girl. Marlon is a gin and tonic guy. He needs a little lime twist. Yes, sir. Yep. So, yeah, let's get into our sports. So, what's happening in the sports world? Bill Belichick. Yeah, he just retired. 24 years. I was moved. Man, I woke up out of my sleep at 6. Usually, I'm way up before that. If you know me, I'm up. I don't go to sleep at all. But, one… I don't get that. Shout out to Gates. Stephen A. I watch… We watch First Take at 7 out here on the West Coast. Get Up, Greeny, all them. And I woke up out of my sleep like, something's going to go down today. I was really looking for Stephen A because he went on a rant. He was in his New York. He was in his New York. He was in his New York mode last night. In his bag. So, I was like, ooh, 6. I missed it. I missed it. Let me get up. Let me get up. And I'm looking at Marcus Spears right now. And I love those dudes. Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark. If I'm Dominique, I'll get up. Yeah. Stephen A. Smith. Dan Orlovsky. Dan is our favorite. Dan Orlovsky. Molly. All of you guys. Kimberly Martin. We love all of you guys. I'm a fan. And you guys are a part of our household. Yep. All right, babe. Go ahead. Bill. Yeah, like 24 years. You know, he did his thing. He did his thing out there. And in Massachusetts, you know, like six championships, mad wins. You know, did his thing with Tom Brady and the Kraft family. Like, yeah, it's a bittersweet. I mean, it was time. It was time because these last few years have been rough for the Patriots organization and the fan base and the players, you know, because they hadn't been seeing that level of success that they were so used to seeing. You know, all good things must come to an end. That's just one of them. You know, I think it was really graceful the way they went out. Like, it was, you know, they spent it to where it's all right. They mutually agreed to part ways and, you know, which is fair because he was in the game for so long and they had a lot of respect for each other. And it was just a classy move and it was the right thing to do, like how they presented it in the media. I do think an interesting topic of conversation surrounding this, his exit will be Tom Brady and how he, you know, how it said that he pushed Tom Brady out, you know, and after he pushed him out because, you know, he had a script, he had a schedule and Tom no longer fit into that schedule. So he did what he did to get him out. Tom went on to do what he did and look at the fate of the, of not the Cowboys. Shout to the Cowboys. Don't even mention the Cowboys up here. I'm talking right now. You see that? You see American teams just like they just slip off you. Nobody come up here talking about the Cowboys. I do not. And let me tell you, I love Dak. I am a big supporter of Dak. I think the industry, sports industry is really, really hard on him. That's because he belongs to a team that puts you in that type of perspective. But the fans, oh. Yeah. We got a problem. That's for sure. But, you know, I think that, I think that's going to be an interesting topic of conversation. Like, you know, how his fate was, was solidified after Tom Reddy left and what, what came of Tom's legacy when he left and when he went on to do what he did without, you know, the Patriots and Belichick. So interesting, interesting talk. So let us know what y'all think. Hit us up, changinglivespodcast35 at gmail.com. Hit us up on IG. Thank you guys. This was so great. You know what I mean? And, you know, we'll catch you guys. I feel so good today that we can use, we were able to be in this position, Marlon and I, my family, to, you know, have this platform to help us and to, you know, use our voices to move our culture forward. And thank you guys for listening. We appreciate you. Until next time. It's a wrap. We out.