The BASIC Show
The BASIC Show
Hosted by BASIC Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Viktorija Pashuta, The BASIC Show blends luxury aesthetics with unfiltered interviews featuring bold voices in fashion, art, and culture.
Each episode dives deep into topics like identity, reinvention, emotional resilience, and the real stories behind public success.
Perfect for listeners who crave depth, elegance, and raw authenticity.
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The BASIC Show
MIKE RASHID: Mastering Mindset, Masculinity & Modern Power| EPISODE 8
What does it mean to be powerful in today’s world? In this gripping episode of The BASIC Show, host Viktorija Pashuta sits down with fitness icon, entrepreneur, and thought leader Mike Rashid for a raw and deeply philosophical conversation on discipline, spiritual alignment, mental mastery, and breaking free from societal systems.
Mike shares:
🧠 How breathwork and mindfulness can dissolve anxiety
🥊 Lessons from boxing that shaped his life philosophy
📈 The rise of his supplement empire and the truth about "clean" living
🍄 How functional mushrooms transformed pre-workouts
🚫 Why most people are trapped in the matrix—and how to break free
📚 His journey from fugitive to author and thought leader
💬 The real meaning of masculinity, leadership, and legacy in 2025
From street survival to spiritual evolution, this episode is a masterclass in reclaiming your life—mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially.
👉 If you enjoy the show, please follow, rate us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, and leave a review — it truly helps spread these incredible stories to more listeners.
Full length video episodes available on YouTube
Subscribe to the Print Edition of BASIC Magazine — A Collectible Work of Art Delivered Quarterly - https://buybasicmagazine.myshopify.com/products/basic-subscription
🔗 Follow Mike: https://www.instagram.com/mikerashid
📍 Recorded at: The Maybourne Beverly Hills www.maybournebeverlyhills.com
📖 Order his book The Divine Quintessence now
🎧 Hosted by Viktorija Pashuta, Editor-in-Chief of BASIC Magazine
🎵 Music by Brandon Dalo: brandondalo.com
#MikeRashid #TheBASICShow #MasculinityRedefined #DisciplineEqualsFreedom #BoxerToCEO #MentalStrength #FugitiveToFounder #EmotionalIntelligence #FunctionalFitness #Biohacking #EntrepreneurMindset #ModernMasculinity #MasculineEnergy #MindsetMatters #LegacyBuilders #MenWhoInspire #PodcastDrop #BuzzsproutPodcast #ViktorijaPashuta
Filmed at The Maybourne Beverly Hills
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A person's breath, really the essence of your spirit, the animating force of life. Because if you don't control it, you're out of control. Everything that ever will be is now. Part of the brain that the amygdala is in is called the limbic, the ancient part of the human brain. Because as long as you're in the process of making it happen, it's happening.
SPEAKER_00:The lioness hunts and the lion sleeps.
SPEAKER_01:Processed food is a buzzword.
SPEAKER_00:You cannot live off the grid.
SPEAKER_01:It's survival of the fitt. Divorce yourself from the system.
SPEAKER_00:Easier said than done. If
SPEAKER_01:you say it's not easy, it's not easy.
SPEAKER_00:Moving to Tokyo.
SPEAKER_01:Well, my pleasure is being able to provide. To be divine is to be wise. Consistency is the spirit or the breath of success. Steroids don't kill people. That's a lie. That's a myth. Miseducation of the American mind. What candy does to a child's mind, so does information. My lifestyle was going to give me guilt.
SPEAKER_00:You call yourself a professional badass?
SPEAKER_01:I train myself every day to make life My bitch.
SPEAKER_00:They say luxury is a lifestyle. I say it's a mindset. And this one comes with room service. Here at The Mayborn, where European charm meets California flair, I don't just check in, I reset. Because real power isn't loud. It's knowing when to ghost the noise and draft something far more lasting behind the scenes. The Mayborn, Beverly Hills.
SPEAKER_02:Hi,
SPEAKER_00:Mike. Hello. Hi, welcome to The Basic Show.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks for having
SPEAKER_00:me. Nice to have you. Welcome, welcome. Nice to be here. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. And talk to me. So my question is, are you nervous right now?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_00:So I am a little bit nervous. And when I was driving here, I was thinking, I would like to ask you, what is the advice you can give for people who experience anxiety before going on stage or before filming something or if they have any important project on that day? How do you get rid of anxiety and calm yourself down?
SPEAKER_01:Just, like, quit and run home. Don't do it.
SPEAKER_00:Don't do it? No, you can't. No, just
SPEAKER_01:breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Like, breathing... It's interesting because a person's breath is really the essence of your spirit.
SPEAKER_02:That's
SPEAKER_01:literally what spirit means, is breath. If people want to look it up, the etymology of spirit is spiritus, and it is Latin for breath, right? That animating force of life. So if you have a body, there's no breath in it, no oxygen, it's not alive. So that breath controls everything, like your spirit is everything about you. So what you do is just breathe before you're going to do what you're going to do when you're feeling that anxiety. Okay. Five, six, seven of them, however many it take. And you're literally, literally calming down your heart rate, you know, making those nerves just calm down. See, people, there's so many functions of the body happening at once.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:But we got to like control it. Because if you don't control it, you're out of control. And you seem kind of chaotic and kind of nervous
SPEAKER_02:and
SPEAKER_01:anxious. And here's what's interesting about being anxious, like anxiety. So... you have a part of the brain, this little, like a cashew-shaped part of the brain called the amygdala, right? The amygdala is where our fear and anxiety comes from. That was necessary for us being safe when we lived more primitively, like, you know, out in nature and had predators after us. We don't live in that time no more, so we have to, like, not... use the amygdala to that degree. Now, when people do use the amygdala a lot, it becomes stronger and bigger in the brain, that part of the brain, like a muscle. So they will default to anxiety a lot easier. And they'll have anxiety disorders or whatever it's called, or anger or rage, firing back at people, stuff like that. When you're using that amygdala a lot, it just gets stronger and stronger. So you got to not do that. And how do you not do that? Breathe. Just being conscious of it.
SPEAKER_00:You know, sometimes what I do, I don't know why it works. Every time I have an important project, I'm driving, I do three loud claps in my car. And I also make the sound like, I don't know why. And I right away feel goosebumps throughout my body. I don't know if it's connecting my mind to my body and sort of, using the frequency to set myself to that energetic field. I don't know how to explain scientifically, but that works for me. I
SPEAKER_01:mean, it sounds scientific already. You're taking control. Whatever your ritual is, you're doing it to settle yourself. And that's essentially what you want to do.
SPEAKER_00:That's really good advice. So Mike, you are a professional boxer, entrepreneur. You're a very influential figure in culture. You've achieved so much and you've had so many important transformations. My first question, I guess, would be second question. How do you start your morning? What's the first thing you did today in the morning?
SPEAKER_01:Well, typically how I start my morning is with a prayer.
SPEAKER_02:And
SPEAKER_01:I sit still for a little while and then I go to the gym.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I train cardio. sauna, shower, office. That's my typical morning routine.
SPEAKER_00:Every day? So you don't have any cheat days?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, well, there's days that I just stay in bed a little longer. Today I did. Also, I did on Thursday.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Thursday, every Thursday I have a lecture that I give to my community, and it's in the evening. It's at 6. And... I had a friend that I flaked on earlier this week with a fuhuka because I'd just be tired in the evening. So Thursday I was very intentional about let me get up a little later and start my day a little later so I have energy in the evening and that's what I did. So yeah, every now and then it's a little bit different.
SPEAKER_00:So how do you approach discipline in a way? Do you believe you have to be disciplined 24-7 or sometimes you have to kind of cheat here and there just to enjoy and indulge?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't necessarily think that cheating or not being disciplined is fun. It's more fun to be disciplined and to be on point. Two, okay, so for one to like cheat, indulge, what is that? Food, alcohol, whatever. You're not going to feel that great. That might feel cool in that moment, but you're not going to feel good afterwards. And you're doing more damage to yourself. You're like investing in something bad later. Because how the human body works, our bodies and mind is, say for instance, a person is dehydrated and they have the physical effects of dehydration. It's not because of right now, it's because of yesterday. It takes a while for everything to cascade properly in the body. So you're drinking tonight, you won't pay for it tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00:Right? So you see the bigger picture, right? Always the bigger picture. Always the
SPEAKER_01:bigger. Yeah. All right, so back to that amygdala. Yes. All right, so the part of the brain that the amygdala is in is called the limbic, the limbic system.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:That's the ancient part of the human brain. That's what all animals have, robust limbic system. That's just survival, instincts, so on and so forth. In the limbic system, there's no planning. It's like, what I need right now. I'm hungry, I'm going to eat right now. It's not, think about it, lions don't hunt and save. They hunt, kill, and then they go hungry for a long, for however long. And most lions die of starvation. People don't realize that.
SPEAKER_00:Can I correct you? The lioness hunts and the lion sleeps.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Right. Lions, when I say lion, I'm speaking of
SPEAKER_00:men
SPEAKER_01:and women, but... Male lions hunt as well.
SPEAKER_00:They do?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, they, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You don't think male lions... I feel like they're just taking out everything. The lioness hunts.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, that's okay. But they do hunt as well.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So they die. Most of them die of starvation because they don't plan. So a lion is a perfect example of just limbic energy. A human is a perfect example of frontal lobe, a cerebral cortex of not being instinctual, not doing what you want to do just because you want to do it right now. Plan. We can exercise, right? So we know that exercise will prolong our life, give us some more quality of life. We can do that. Animals don't do cardio. You know what I mean? And I'm not saying animals are bad, but humans, we have so much responsibility because We have this high degree of intellect to where we have, you know, we wield magic, really, technology and stuff like that. So we got to be responsible about it. We can, like, you know, we can extract nutrients from the earth and put it in a pill to help us quicker. So we got to be mindful about how we're doing that with anything, you know, alcohol. Somebody figured out how to... you know, extract, because alcohol, everything is natural. Everything comes from nature to an extent. So somebody figured out how to distill that and have fun with it. But you got to be mindful about it. So if we were all limbic, we'd just go crazy with everything. And a lot of people do. A lot of people indulge in food, pleasure. Those are the two killers, food and
SPEAKER_00:pleasure. So speaking of food, what are the maybe top three things foods that you would say should be in any person's diet and maybe three outside of the fast food that we shouldn't be consuming that's poison?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I can't say for every person because you got to eat what you like. Like, people should be eating, you know, healthy whole food diets, but it's got to be something that they enjoy eating. If not, it's not going to be sustainable. It's like somebody doing a crash diet, lose a bunch of weight, but is that sustainable? If it's not, then you're really not doing yourself that much of a service.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Well, salad is not enjoyable. I haven't heard people saying, oh my God, I love salad, right? Do you have any three ingredients that, let's say, your specific diet? Not ingredients, foods that you always have in your fridge.
SPEAKER_01:I'm very basic. Okay. Basic.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to the basic show.
SPEAKER_01:What I eat. I love salmon.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I love beef. Rice, she cooks very good. And I want the same thing every time. Some chunks of cubed steak. Okay. Some blackened salmon. Okay. rice uh avocado and some broccolini
SPEAKER_00:yeah that makes sense because it's not processed food right a lot of people just have a lot of dressing and uh ketchup and mayo things like that your diet is very would you say it's very clean in a sense
SPEAKER_01:i mean how do you determine how do you define clean
SPEAKER_00:that it's not processed that it's not processed food so it's pretty much farm to table, so to say. I mean, it's hard to say about salmon because for me, I haven't had fish for a while because it's hard to find wild Alaskan salmon. It's always farm raised. And that's another thing how to, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Wherever you find farm raised, there's wild caught as well. Yeah, for the most part, I try to do a little overly processed as possible, but process is a loose term, you know? Here's the thing, too. People got to educate themselves and be aware of buzzwords, right? Because processed food is a buzzword, right? And when I say processed food, what do you think of?
SPEAKER_00:I mean something in a can, you know, like tuna in a can. Do you
SPEAKER_01:know what that means, though, the processed food? of it being processed?
SPEAKER_00:Why is it considered processed? Chemically processed, I guess, for the longevity of it, so it stays longer in your fridge. That's, to me, it's processed, because natural foods usually spoils faster. So I can go back from my experience coming from Latvia, the strawberry smell, and they get bad, like in a week here, you buy fruit, and it could stay for a month in your fridge, so there must be something in it. So to me, it's sort of pesticides or some kind of additives that they add for the food to stay longer fresh but not necessarily mean healthier
SPEAKER_01:for you. Yes, ma'am. So here's the thing. It's a nuanced conversation that should be had, but people are very... They're very tethered to feelings, to what they feel like things should be or is. So process is not inherently bad. Some stuff process is bad, right? But not everything. Process literally means... It's a silly word because... packaging meat
SPEAKER_00:oh it means that's a
SPEAKER_01:process oh that's technically what processes everything but then it can go all the way up to the preservatives right uh genetically modified right and even that gmo is a buzzword that was yielded out because of marketing gmo is not bad most of the food that we eat is genetically modified. And it's not that people are doing this to harm us. We're doing this to give us, make this food more palatable and enjoyable or for it not to spoil because we do shop in bulk, right? That's just the nature of our society, right? So these things are not inherently bad, but You know, you have, look, we live in a capitalistic society and people got to not be naive, right? Capitalism reigns supreme. So when you're going to Whole Foods and you're thinking it's all,
SPEAKER_00:it's
SPEAKER_01:all
SPEAKER_00:great. Organic. They're just
SPEAKER_01:marketing to you, right? They got organic plates, organic t-shirts, a t-shirt, right? Organic. All right. So and I know this from experience because we are in the food slash supplement industry. In order for one to be deemed organic, you let the people know you pay a fee. They give you the dates that they're going to come. We'll be there in between this date and this date. This is the checklist of what everything has to be. So that got to be it. When we get there, you can do that. Have it ready for that for them when they come. And when they leave, you go back to doing business as usual. Nobody knows what's organic and what's not. We have to trust these businesses. And I don't trust nobody, especially when it comes to money, because once again, one issue with capitalism is you have the fiduciary duty to make more profits for your business. You have to do that. So what does that mean? So that means in food, you have to make more margins on what you're selling, right? So your quality can't be that great, right? And that goes for everything. When profit margins are the most important metric, where's the quality going to be at? It's going to go away because high quality, high profit margins do not go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_00:So what is the solution to that? We cannot live off the grid, right? How do we educate ourselves in understanding what is actually organic, what is not? How to make these decisions?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, ma'am. Well, we have to have a degree. I say I don't trust nobody, but If I choose to buy organic fruit or produce, I'm trusting that it's organic, right? But if it's not, I don't really care. It's not that big of a deal. Wash your fruit, right? Because here's the thing. We have, all right, so if we were to go to the rainforest and eat a banana, we'd throw up. We wouldn't even be able to digest it.
SPEAKER_00:That was my next question, right? We're probably not event-built right now.
SPEAKER_01:We are accustomed. Our bodies have... adapted and evolved to be able to process food. So we're fine. The fact that the reason that we are such a robust species is because we have the ability to adapt. There were other human species that existed before. They died out because they couldn't adapt to certain things. And that's what You know in one of the laws of nature is survival of the fit right so and that's like fit of our Bodily systems and so on and so forth just like a family or like you know bunch of elephants mm-hmm one's born and that's a runt, he might not make it, right? So the weaker of whatever species always kind of die out.
SPEAKER_00:So you're suggesting it's okay to go and accept the modifications in food, or you think we should sort of rebel in a way that, okay, what's best for our bodies and make a change?
SPEAKER_01:I think people should be mindful of what they put in their bodies, for one. Rebel, I guess you could say that. Or I like to say, divorce yourself from this culture, this system, and come up with your own. So when it comes to food, you being very specific about what you're eating. I'm a Muslim and we're prescribed to eat halal, to eat a certain way. And then my minister, my teacher, they're very specific about Restricting it even more. And I'm cool with that. So, you know, having some guidelines, some rules
SPEAKER_02:will
SPEAKER_01:keep you good. Right. But if that's not the play for you, being healthy and look, maybe somebody can afford organic. Just still get the apples, still get the veggies. Right. You know, so it's like. Like I said, it's a nuanced conversation, just like water, tap water. People talk about tap water versus bottled water. It's literally the same. I've done the research. Bottled water is not more cleaner than tap water, right? Or whatever. So it's just like in certain poverty areas that's really bad, it's not going to be that good there, right? But mostly where we're at, you could drink right out the faucet, it's fine. And But these nuanced conversations people don't have because why? You're marketed to so heavy, right? And water companies are businesses.
SPEAKER_00:It's interesting you mentioned apple and carrots, and I remember movies back in the day. You could see somebody walking down the scene just biting on a carrot. Right now, I don't remember any commercial or any modern, contemporary movie or film where you could see characters eating fruits. And we're surrounded by... advertising, commercials, all targeted with the purpose to consume, to sell. And you don't see that anymore in media or in pop culture. And when you said apple or a carrot, I'm like, I don't remember last time I've seen anybody having an apple or eating a carrot.
SPEAKER_01:Very true. You got a good point there. Yeah, this is a consumeristic society. The average American family has$3,000 saved. The average Japanese family,$30,000 saved. We live in debt.
SPEAKER_00:Moving to Tokyo. Nice.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, so it's like the values here is upside down. It's so strange. We live in a world. We were talking about this last night. None of us are asked to be born, right? But once we get here, we got to pay for food, pay for cool air, pay for water. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_00:It's crazy. I had similar conversations the other day. I was thinking we all have the right to be happy. We're all the species of this universe. But if you think about it, anywhere you go in the world, you probably couldn't find land that is free, right? You couldn't come. you know, like if I have a fox or a wolf, they come, this is my place, this is my area, this is my forest. Nowadays, I don't think there's a spot in the world that hasn't been visited by influencers or belongs to somebody. So if you think why universe and land belong to certain people, how was that distributed, right, throughout the years? And we forget that we do have the right, right, we do have the right clean air, clean food, space to live, right? But now we're enslaved by restrictions in the system. And speaking of that, can you maybe expand about your concept of modern slavery in the sense how we are addicted or dependent on the system and how hard it is to break out from it?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, ma'am. People use the term slavery a little too loose. Because the literal definition of slavery is for one to be held captive and made to work for free. So unless that's what people are doing, then it's not slavery. Now, I think people do. Well, I know that we exist in matrices and systems that may not be ideal for each person. For instance, you know, I have a concept like for my children to stay home until they're going to get married. and not work a job,
SPEAKER_00:right?
SPEAKER_01:So here's the thing. They're going to work.
SPEAKER_00:A lot of girls will be questioned. Okay. Have questions.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so your job is to, if you're in school, this school, right, working out, you have something you got to study outside of school that's not school related. And whatever you want to do in life, your passion, work on that, right? So, and that's it. Why? I'll tell you. So I use my son as an example. Okay. He's the oldest. He's
SPEAKER_00:19. How old is your son? 19? Okay. So
SPEAKER_01:he actually works with me with one of the businesses.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:But he spends most of his day working on his passion and his craft. He has to work out. He has to read, right? If we took an eight-hour chunk out of his day to go work for whoever, Chick-fil-A, I don't know, whatever an 18-year-old can get a job at, What is it for? What is that little money that they're giving you going to do for you? I'm going to tell you what you're doing. You are wasting valuable time out of your days, the best time of your life. Because when you're young, you can learn so much. When a person is young, we're not supposed to be working all our lives. But when you're young, you lay that foundation. You work hard, right? But work at something that's benefiting you, not somebody else, right?
SPEAKER_00:Do you think it benefits him or it's more of a protection? No.
SPEAKER_01:My way?
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:It's benefiting him. I'll tell
SPEAKER_00:you why.
SPEAKER_01:If he's working eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, flipping burgers, right? It's not even a lot of money. Let's say he had his own place. So he's basically getting a little bit of money to pay rent, right? for an apartment that's not his dream home. It's not even his home, just to rest, to go back to work, to get money, to go back here to sleep, rest, and pay to sleep, to go back and keep working for that guy over there. He's making him rich, right? So he's working with the family business. He's making himself rich, right? He has equity, right, for one. But best of all, he's working on what he wants to do. as well. He's perfecting his craft. And, you know, we as parents, you know, we love our children. We should try to set ourselves up to be able to give our children that space. I know that's not everyone's reality to be able to provide that kind of space to where they don't have to go out and do this and do that. But that's my thing, you know? So, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you've definitely done something right because in my experience, most of the kids that stay with their parents, they like discipline. They play video games or they go party or, you know, they procrastinate. So, did you have to instill certain mentality? And was he rejecting it or he was like, yes, that's exactly what I want to do and following your... Because I guess obviously it's coming from you, right? How did he perceive it? Was there any rejection in a sense? No
SPEAKER_01:rejection. He was a kid that wanted to play video games and then he grew out of it. I just think that when you are focused and he's been working out all his life, right? When you're doing all the things, your mind is working properly. So of course, Video games, cool. It's an allure to that, but then it goes away because he's focused on progress. He just is, literally. I got to calm him down sometime because He feel like he should be further along in life already. Oh, that's great. So I'm like, chill out.
SPEAKER_00:You're lucky. I mean, you're definitely doing something right since I know a man in their 40s is still playing video games and procrastinating.
SPEAKER_01:Look, I wish I could play video games. Video games is fun. I just don't get nothing out of it no more. And I got other things to do.
SPEAKER_00:It's like pretending to live in...
SPEAKER_01:It's an escape.
SPEAKER_00:Escape. Which
SPEAKER_01:people need, right? But I find my escape in different things now. You know, more creative ways and... And I try to do it to where it's still going to benefit me, not just waste time.
SPEAKER_00:Well, in one of your previous interviews or videos, you mentioned you called yourself a professional badass. That was a long time ago. I love that. So you're doing so many things. What is your favorite thing? You have your businesses, you're in athletics and sports, and you also have this spirituality. We're going to talk a little bit more about your book. What's your favorite thing as of right now from all of the... activities that you're a part of?
SPEAKER_01:That's a good question. So five minutes ago, I would have said, or 10 minutes ago, I would have said my mentorship program, right? But I have to say it's my supplement company because that's the most lucrative for me. And that's important because it allows me to give my family a good life, right? And that's what I'm tethered to. You know, not fun, not pleasure. Well, my pleasure is being able to provide and protect. So that's probably my favorite right now.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Until something else comes and topples that financially. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I briefly looked at your supplement companies. You had one. I don't know if it's not a flavor. What's the correct word? Something with mushrooms? Can you tell me? That's the part I want to learn more about mushroom culture. Can you tell us a few secrets or ingredients or what the flavor or taste is more beneficial, let's say, from your supplement line?
SPEAKER_01:Well, the particular product you're talking about is called Kinetic. It's a pre-workout. And pre-workouts give people anxiety. They get them all jittered. So what we did is we put functional mushrooms, not magic mushrooms, not psilocybin, functional mushrooms. It doesn't make you high. They're called adaptogens. And what it does is it mitigates stress, mitigates anxiety. And why that's beneficial for a pre-workout, because a pre-workout will have you up here and then you crash. So this one keeps you like you're elevated. And you just go. And the fade, it doesn't drop ever. It just fades later in the day. You know what I mean? So huge benefits to that. So that's why we put the mushrooms in kinetic. We're the only people that have ever done that.
SPEAKER_00:Really?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow. Yeah, that's the first thing that caught my mind. Like I haven't seen that anywhere. Amazing. So let's talk a little bit about how you started, right? So you are a two-time Golden Glove. gloves winner if we speak about boxing so what was the hardest thing that you learned in boxing that you still apply till this day outside of the sports world
SPEAKER_01:hardest thing about boxing that i learned i don't know i started so early that none of it was hard right You know, just to be honest, it just gave me a lot of discipline at an early age. And when you just when you start as a kid, you don't realize, oh, this is weird that you're jogging. You're 11 years old, jogging at six in the morning.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:This is what you do. And then you are so tethered to that. I was so tethered to my training because boxing is like it's a sport. It's a sport, but it's a sport that. The outcome is based on your training, right? Your running and so on and so forth. So, you know, the type of discipline that I developed with that, it just set me up for life, you know? And it's still with me to this day. And I'm 48. I started when I was 11, right?
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:So, and that discipline has been with me my entire life, you know? So, yeah, but discipline is hard for some people, right? Because people, you know, they're not set up with that when they're young. And I got to thank my father for that, like for real. Me and my father go back and forth on a lot of things, but I really appreciate the fact that he put me in boxing at such an early age. And not just threw me in there, but like he was like guiding me. And like my father would take me to like the park where the sand is at. And I had to sprint sand, do sand sprints. He called it the sand pit. like all kind of crazy stuff, like hiking up mountains and stuff as a kid. So he made me crazy at a early age, and it's just so deeply ingrained in me. And that, you know, one may look at that as, oh, well, that's just exercise. That's very important. It's very important, right? For many reasons, right? For one, Exercise, physical, mental is all the same, right? This is one body here, right? Our mind is not outside of our body. It's right here. And there's direct benefits cognitively and physiologically in the brain from exercise, neurogenesis, a person's ability to adapt to stress or mitigate stress, stress tolerance, right? Emotional resilience, keep going, keep going, right? Being, what's the word? Consistent, right? Consistency is the spirit or the breath of success, for real. Everybody I know that's successful is consistent. They ain't got
SPEAKER_00:to be- You could be very talented, right? But without being consistent, you might not go far. Correct, correct. And people who are consistent but might not be as talented will achieve better results. That always happens,
SPEAKER_01:always happens. So yeah, so yeah, that discipline, powerful.
SPEAKER_00:So let me ask you this question. So I think it's more for men and you work in the supplement industry. There's good supplements and I guess there's bad supplements and enhancements. So I want to ask your point of view. I don't know if you've heard in 2026 in Las Vegas, there will be enhanced games. You heard about those? So enhanced games where athletes are openly allowed and encouraged to use performance-enhanced drugs like steroids and testosterone. And they're going obviously against the traditional standards from the Olympics. What is your take on that? Would you support that and say, yes, let's have it? I
SPEAKER_01:think that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:You think so? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I want to see, if I'm going to pay money to see some athletes, they better be way better than me. That's entertainment, right? A person, I'm of the mindset that I don't do drugs, but I'm of the mindset that people should be able to do drugs if they want to. It should be legal. No one should be telling people what to do and what to put in their bodies, right? And, all right, so you mentioned, you said there's good supplements, there's bad enhancements. What do you perceive as the bad enhancements?
SPEAKER_00:That you have long-term side effects, life-threatening side effects. Well, if I'm not mistaking, there's a lot of accidental death of athletes as they influence their heart, they're having heart attack or strokes or things like that, just because, I mean, a lot of bodybuilders from back in the day, not in a good shape right now, and they have serious health issues just because they overused certain supplements. I don't know exact names, but I've heard examples of people having like, I mean, in the gym, I've had a friend of a friend who died on a treadmill just because he was using steroids. No? Tell me. Give me the scientific point of view. If his autopsy said
SPEAKER_01:steroids killed him, then that's one thing, right? Okay. So, steroids is not a supplement? It's highly improbable. Okay. Let's dig into this.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:All right. So, once again, marketing, right? Okay. People are marketed to, right? So, you have to really... take it with a grain of salt whenever they, the government, deem something bad, right? For instance, psychedelic drugs, right? These were initially created for therapeutic purposes. People with depression, people with anxiety, where traditional medicine wasn't working, this stuff would work, right? And it wouldn't just work. They wouldn't have symptoms for six, seven months. From LSD, when they were doing the studies on that, People with extreme depression and so on and so forth, two-day therapy, right? That means they're taking a lot, big doses with their therapist for two days in a row, no symptoms for six months, right? But guess what? That's not good for big pharma because big pharma needs you to run out of pills every 30 days so they can sell you more, right? So that's one of the reasons why this was considered a Schedule I. They lied. No therapeutic purposes allowed. and highly addictive. They use LSD to get people off of addiction from alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, right? Drugs that'll really kill
SPEAKER_00:you.
SPEAKER_01:So now let's talk about testosterone and hormone replacement therapy, AKA steroids. Steroids is a part of regular medicine. It has been for a long time. My grandma was on steroids. She had a heart attack. There's so many different uses for steroids, for hormones. Hormones are very important. Now, when you see a 300-pound bodybuilder, if you don't know what you're looking at, you're like, this is crazy. He's going to die. A lot of these guys are super healthy. They do that. This is not a way of life that they can do forever. you got to understand now there's people that abuse it right but let's talk about a professional bodybuilder what you would see like who would be the representation of steroids most of those guys they have a period in which they they max out they go hard they they set up their career and so on and so forth and then when they retire they stop right they may not stop completely like the steroids or hormone replacement therapy But they take a lower dose just for maintaining health. And this is something that's recommended for men and women after certain ages because your hormone levels drop to a drastic degree, not just because of age, but pollution, stress, so many different things, processed food, alcohol, whatever. There are so many things that are way worse that are super legal, like alcohol, that nobody, everybody, it's okay. It's fine. It's fine because it's legal, right? But alcohol, you know how many people alcohol kills? Okay, have you ever looked at how many people alcohol kill in America versus steroids?
SPEAKER_00:What's the percentage? You can't even
SPEAKER_01:compare it. There's nothing here.
SPEAKER_00:So you're telling me there's more deaths?
SPEAKER_01:Steroids don't kill people. That's a lie. That's a myth.
SPEAKER_00:That's very controversial because every guy I talk to, they say, oh, he's on steroids. It's bad for you. What do you guys look
SPEAKER_01:like?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they don't look that. They go to the gym. The
SPEAKER_01:guys are saying this, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:What does he know? You have to ask people, like, where are you getting this
SPEAKER_00:information from? So you're telling me there's no side effects?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, there's side effects for anything, right? If someone is abusing testosterone,
SPEAKER_00:they
SPEAKER_01:can increase their blood pressure, right?
SPEAKER_00:Erectile dysfunction.
SPEAKER_01:Erectile dysfunction. But if somebody has low testosterone, they have erectile dysfunction and they have high blood pressure.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Low testosterone is worse than high testosterone. It's very dangerous, right? You have emotional men, moody, no testosterone. When a man is not activated and his hormones are not aligned, Well,
SPEAKER_00:yeah, but we're talking about extremes, right? But say you would recommend, you would advocate for using steroids to become big and bulkier and stronger?
SPEAKER_01:No. I advocate people doing whatever they want to
SPEAKER_00:do. Whatever they want to do.
SPEAKER_01:What do I think is healthy is this. If you have symptoms of low testosterone, let's say you're in a bad mood, you're lethargic, no energy, you have brain fog, you can't get an erection, there's a lot of different things, you should go to an endocrinologist or your doctor and get your complete blood panel, which everybody should do at least once or twice a year, and look at your markers, look at your testosterone levels, right? If they're If they're super low and you have these symptoms, then you should get on treatment.
SPEAKER_00:Is there any natural way for men to increase their testosterone without?
SPEAKER_01:100%.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But they'll never be able to get it to where they can get it exogenously. That's just how the same with vitamin C. You can never eat enough oranges to get the vitamin C that you can get from a pill.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:What
SPEAKER_00:about the absorption of certain vitamins? Do you believe that just by taking a pill, it doesn't mean you actually, your body will absorb the nutrients, right? There's a lot of chemical processes, right?
SPEAKER_01:100%. So here's the thing. We kind of just leaped. Yes. That's okay. But I'll touch on that. So with my company, Ambrosia Collective, we have certain products that, you know, say, for instance, turmeric.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:People buy turmeric all the time. It does amazing things, right? Actually, not the turmeric. It's the cucumin, right? Cucuminoid that's inside the turmeric. So put it like this. Cucuminoids are what a cucuminoid to turmeric is what vitamin C is to an orange. That make sense? The orange is not the healthy thing. It's the vitamin C in it, right? The orange is a carrier of the vitamin C.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:Turmeric is not really good for us or bad, it's neutral, but it's the cucuminoids that's in it, the cucumin that's in it, right? That's the ingredient that helps us, right? So the antioxidants and everything. Now, the human body has a hard time digesting that, right? This is a fact. 94% of companies that sell turmeric, your body's absorbing very little of it. you're wasting, people are wasting their money. We've done reports on it. We've done our research and there's a fix. So we actually have a technology that we employed on ours called HydroKirk, which it fixes that issue and it increases the bioavailability of the cucuminoids of the turmeric so that your body absorbs almost all of it. And we even did a test. We bought the most popular, turmeric brand and we got ours and we did a test live one we filmed it opened it up theirs it just sits on top of the water open ours i
SPEAKER_00:have no disappointment because i hate the taste of turmeric and i was forcing myself to take a shot of it and now you're telling me i did it for nothing
SPEAKER_01:even like you can't eat enough turmeric to get it it's impossible you need Tumor comes in roots, right? It's funny because people will comment, oh, I can just make a tea. Okay. You're getting like that.
SPEAKER_00:It's more like a placebo. It's a placebo. It's
SPEAKER_01:in food coloring. That's all it is,
SPEAKER_00:right?
SPEAKER_01:So technology, look, people have this thing, this hatred, this self-hatred, right? People hate themselves, right? I'll tell you why. Because they say it's man-made. I'm like, what's wrong with that? we're men, humans, right, mankind, right? What's wrong with us using our natural minds to alchemize the resources that we have at our disposal to make things better for us? What is wrong with that? Do you not trust yourself, right? Do you, you know, you think you're not worthy of coming up with these incredible inventions or whatever? Listen, humans, we, people, Everything is so nuanced. Nature this, nature that. I'm like, you know, pollution. We're destroying the earth. We can never destroy the earth. We can destroy ourselves. And if you love nature so much, go live in it. Get out of the AC. Leave the car. Walk. Ask a horse if you can ride on him. Good luck. Keep yourself safe out there. Stay warm. Stay cool. People, you know, they just talk. I
SPEAKER_00:think it comes from ignorance, right? It
SPEAKER_01:sounds good,
SPEAKER_00:right?
SPEAKER_01:It sounds good to virtue signal to say steroids kill people. Oh, look at these guys, these muscles.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's in the mainstream media everywhere. That's like a common knowledge.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but it's a miseducation of the American mind, right? Most things that people are taught is not factual. We do not have a benevolent government, right? If y'all think that's the case, you're wrong, right? These people are not moving with our best interests at heart. It's all money, literally. It's all money, right? We have a military industrial complex, which is bad. That means it's ideal for us to be at war or have conflicts going on all the time. We have a prison industrial complex. That means it's ideal for inmates to not get rehabilitated, to keep that revolving door, right? And then you have what's called a Prussian school system. Now, if anybody can research that, Google that. This was... Prussia's model back in the industrial era, right? And this was set up to be very sterile, very utilitarian, and no creativity, no this, wear uniforms, sit in these lines, 30, 40 people, one leader, right? Raise your hand, go to the restaurant, whatever, teaching you how to be a good worker. Because back then that was the vibe, industrial factories, so on and so forth. This is a tech age. Why is that system still in place? It's an outdated system that doesn't teach people how to really be smart. It teaches people to work.
SPEAKER_00:Because it's not beneficial. It's
SPEAKER_01:not beneficial
SPEAKER_00:to the people. To the people, not for the
SPEAKER_01:individualities. Right. No creativity. Zero.
SPEAKER_00:So let me ask you this. Where do you gain your knowledge? Because obviously... Regular folk get the knowledge from social media, from the news, right? What we see around us. So what is your source? Where do you get information? I know you read a lot of books, but is there any resources you can share with us? Where to or which resources to use to educate ourselves?
SPEAKER_01:Me. Me. Listen, when I was young, there was people like me that I was drawn to. I'm like, wow, I like what they're talking about. And I tapped in, you know? So I'm not saying like, yeah, you can say influencer, a preacher or leader, whatever, they have influence over you. Yes, I had my people, you know? And so. So
SPEAKER_00:who was your mentor in the beginning? I know you spoke highly of your mother who introduced you to books and things like that. So were there any other influential people in your life who really? Outside
SPEAKER_01:of my parents. Yes. My spiritual father, his name is Louis Farrakhan.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:This is such an intelligent, eloquent, masculine man. He's like a leader. And he taught me, love yourself and have knowledge of yourself and learn who you are. You are special. You don't grow up with people telling you that you're powerful, you're mighty, you're intelligent, right? Especially being a black person in America, especially when I was growing up. Look, I went to Catholic school, right? Think about how oppressive this is to a black mind. You go to a school, this is in New York, so very Gothic architecture, so scary. Poor kid, right? And all of the divine figures are white. All of them. So you're like, where do we come into play? Didn't they give you a book about slavery?
SPEAKER_02:It's
SPEAKER_01:like, what? This sucks. And you're not treated good, right? So I had a leader that pulled me out of that. You understand? So I'm like, oh, oh, this is bullshit. Oh, this is my history. So I learned about myself at a very early age. And, you know, it set off a cascade of like amazing. I'm amazing about everything. Everything fascinates me. I like learning about everything. Right. I don't have just a subject. I like everything.
SPEAKER_00:So what was the first thing that your mentor introduced you to that really started shifting your mindset?
SPEAKER_01:It's not one thing. And like I say, he's one, but my parents, like my mother, for instance, Like I was into, when I was a kid, I was into fighter jets. I was into dinosaurs. I could tell you every dinosaur in detail. Their names, you know, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, right? I always had these different interests. And then my grandmother would take me to like The museums. In New York, it's a lot of culture there. We went to the science museum.
SPEAKER_00:Is it the planetarium you mentioned? Went
SPEAKER_01:to the planetarium. That blew my mind. And, you know, when I was a kid, we even went down to Florida to NASA Space Center, to Cape Canaveral. And this is before the IMAX was open to the public. Because people just know it as a movie theater. But the IMAX was for flight simulation. I got to see that as a kid. So my mind was just like... What candy does to a child's mind, so does information and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, observing. Everything's so much faster when you- But
SPEAKER_01:you got to expose these kids to this stuff. I was exposed to it, so my brain was going crazy. And then I traveled a lot too as a kid because I boxed. So that got me to travel. So that opened up my mind to a lot of things that a lot of kids just didn't. So yeah. And I'm a weird guy because I was- You know, I have siblings, but I was raised by myself. So I was like the only kid. So I just thought, I just thought a lot. I thought for myself and read and drew and wrote stories and stuff like that. So I always had a very, I have a very active brain already, right? So me being exposed to these different things, it just made me interested.
SPEAKER_00:Which brings me to my next question. You went through, extreme challenges before, right? You experienced homelessness and jail. So what was your first step to rebuilding your life from that? Because I guess that was the turning point that shifted everything for you. What was that first step?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, ma'am. That's a good question. All right. So just a little backstory. For a while, I got off my course and I was, you know, engaging in illegal activities to make money. Activities that are legal now, but it was illegal back then, right? But I also was like fully like wearing that lifestyle, you know, very authentic at whatever I did. And there's a dichotomy because I was raised good. I knew better. So my conscience would always be like right here, like your grandparents would be so disappointed at you. I would hear that all the time. And so, I could never go so far with certain things, but I was still digging myself in a deeper, deeper hole because when you know better, your consequences are worse, right? So I'm digging myself, digging myself, and I'm like, damn, I got to stop doing this. So while I was in it, I was already trying to figure out an exodus, but I didn't move fast enough, right? And it just came in. came and got me and there's a book that i read when i was younger called disease right and it broke down what disease mean dis-ease the removal of comfort of ease right and this book it was very philosophical but it was talking about how we will attract a diseased situation to us to prevent something from worse from happening like later on and that's exactly what i did i i my lifestyle was gonna give me kilt or get me in a RICO charge case or something like that, right? Because, you know, when you out there moving in the streets and, you know, you embodying, I was just real. So I was intelligent so I could move right and I was making a lot of money, but I was down to be violent too, right? And that makes other guys uncomfortable and people will kill you out of fear, right? So when you lead out as a tyrant, Out of fear, you get killed. You lead out of love, you get protected, you know? And I was leading out of that fear component. So I was being a real American, the American way, you know? So, you know, I embodied it and it was like, I was always anxious. I was always stressed. I was always paranoid. I didn't trust nobody. I look at everybody like I'm trying to figure out who you are, right? I'm looking everywhere, right? My phone rang. I just answered and just like, just listen. Like, here's just paranoid, right? It was street smart. It was not fun, but it was not fun. So then when everything came to a crescendo, I was kind of relieved, even though I had a long journey ahead of me. I'm like, all right, well, that chapter is done, you know? And I closed that chapter. part of that book and burnt it. And then as I'm moving forward, I'm still not out the clear, right? Because now they're trying to put me in prison for a very, very long time, right? And just the way my mind works is like, no, no thanks. I'm not going to do that. I don't want to do that. So I'm trying to go through the process to see what we can work out. They wasn't being reasonable. So I'm like, all right. I gotta do this my own way. And then I absconded and became a fugitive. I ran. Didn't go far, but I ran. And then I was really forced to like rebuild my life, you know, in a more constructive way with a solid foundation, because I don't know how this got in my head, but it was always something that's like, don't be a loser. Don't be a loser. Don't be a loser. And I had children, so I had to provide. So I started rebuilding my life and legally, and I was doing that as a fugitive though. So I'm doing all the good things, but there's an asterisk.
SPEAKER_00:It was like six years, right? Seven years. Seven years. Which is
SPEAKER_01:kind of crazy, right? So, and then... Things got so big for me. They like, what is this guy doing? He's on social media. So they came and got me. And then I'm like, all right, here we go. Now, another. elevation of my life. Now I'm glad I can stop lying about my past. I wasn't really trying to lie to people, but I was leading them to think certain things. Because when you're a fugitive, you're in a new place, you got to have your story together. Like, why are you here? And I never said specific things, but I made them feel like this is where I'm coming from and why I'm here and so on and so forth. But that's still lying. So I remember, I ain't gotta lie no more, I thought that the day that they got me. And then the U.S. Marshals come when you're a fugitive, and that's like the bad boys.
SPEAKER_00:Wait, were you at home or were you in the gym? No, I was in the gym. It was in the gym? Yeah. In front of you? No, it wasn't even a lot of people there.
SPEAKER_01:And he was a gentleman, you know? He respected me and he told me and, you know, I had to go through the process, the adjudication process. And so when you go on a run, whatever you are facing now is more, is worse. It's called an aggravated circumstance, right? You made it worse. So my bond was like way more like everything. So got to a position where I bonded out. I had the money to get like the best attorney that you can get. And I did that. And This guy, he did his thing. That is a friend for life now. I check on him every now and then. So we beat it. And then I really got to be free. I was free then too, because look, I was facing a lot of time and I had to go for sentencing. And there was a chance that I would get this probation plea that we accepted or I would get the presumptive sentence would have been like 10 or 15 years. And I was prepared for the 10 or 15 years. That's the only way I could be free, right? I can't be worried about that. When I was younger, I was worried. That's why I went on the run. But I got to the point where like, all right, no, I'm set up, right? The kid's going to be good. I'm going to see them all the time. I'm at my mind right. Y'all thought Malcolm X was something? Wait till I get out. Watch the studying and the discipline I'm going to have in there. I was going to make it benefit me, right? As a
SPEAKER_00:businessman, you are. You already had a plan for
SPEAKER_01:that situation.
SPEAKER_00:But I can't imagine the change, right? You're having a comfortable life, and then you're in a completely different, opposite environment. If you
SPEAKER_01:play in dirt, you get dirty. You cannot... We cry about it. It's like, you know, you joined this organization.
SPEAKER_00:So how many years were you away?
SPEAKER_01:No years. No years. I beat it.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you beat it? Yeah. Oh, I see.
SPEAKER_01:I was there a few months.
SPEAKER_00:A few months. Oh, gotcha. Okay. Well, welcome back.
SPEAKER_01:You wouldn't do it. I'd
SPEAKER_00:still be there. I wasn't sure about the timeline.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'd still be here. But no, I was prepared. When I went for sentencing, I was okay. I would have been all right with that. Because you can't beat me if I'm bummed out.
SPEAKER_00:I can only imagine the sense of freedom, right? When he was behind you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I would have been free if I would have been incarcerated. I'd still be free. You can trap my body. You can't lock my mind. No one can trap my mind. And that's real power is when you're free right here. So whatever happens to you, make it happen for you.
SPEAKER_00:So what is the first thing you say in your mind to feel that way? Because it's easier said than done.
SPEAKER_01:100%, you're
SPEAKER_00:right. What is that thing that you tell yourself that gives you that freedom? Because it's not easy.
SPEAKER_01:Well, if you say it's not easy, it's not easy. So I... I train myself every day to make life my bitch. That's what I say, right? For instance, if I'm working out and I'm going for a heavy lift, I'm like, it's easy. There's nothing. I cite myself. crazy to myself right and i get real aggressive like on a bench when i'm rocking i'm like give me this fucking shit
SPEAKER_00:i've seen i've seen some of your older videos where you were having this huge hammer and smashing on the tire you're wearing like a gas mask and
SPEAKER_02:that was
SPEAKER_00:way back yeah i went all the way back i wanted to see the first videos and those videos were really intense i'm like wow this guy's crazy
SPEAKER_01:i have a little crazy yeah but now i listen You gotta manhandle life or life will manhandle you. That's how I see it. So what's the first thing one can do? Well, first and foremost, let's try not to put yourself in a situation like that. Let's try to make good decisions so you're never in a bad situation. Because the bad situation that people find themselves in is always their fault, always. And if you don't think so, That's a weak mentality because you're blaming other people, right? If you got to blame other people, if anything good happens to you, is it because of them or is it because of you, right? So I don't blame nobody for nothing, right? Whatever happens is supposed to happen and I'm going to make the best out of it. And that's just how I see it. I've trained myself to know that. I don't believe it. I know that that's reality. Only good things happen to me. I'm telling you right now, only good things happen to me. You can lay out all of the events of my life and be like, oh, what about that? I'll tell you how that was a beneficial situation to me. Everything.
SPEAKER_00:Do you believe it's manifestation? Nope.
SPEAKER_01:I don't believe nothing.
SPEAKER_00:Me neither. I don't believe in manifestation. I
SPEAKER_01:don't believe anything. I know what I know. So
SPEAKER_00:let's speak about that. You are a very wise man, and you use the wisdom combined with your life experiences, and you wrote a book, The Divine Quintessence. Yes, ma'am. Can you tell us a little bit more? One, what is this book about? And two, what really inspired you and motivated you to write a book?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, ma'am. I've always wanted to write a book and write books and write. I write a lot. I've always been a lot. At my parents' house, I got movie scripts I wrote when I was a kid. Nothing happened with it, of course, but
SPEAKER_00:I
SPEAKER_01:love writing.
SPEAKER_00:I
SPEAKER_01:just got a lot to say, and I don't say it all the time, so I write it. So I tried writing a book. It started a long time ago, but I had no discipline with writing a structured book. I had so much stuff that I wrote, but it was like in my iPhone notes and silly stuff like that. But for some reason, my mother ascended in 2023. And for some reason, I got super disciplined right then to finish a book. And I did that. So it took me about a year. Did
SPEAKER_00:you set up a timeline for yourself? I didn't. That's the thing.
SPEAKER_01:I just really wanted to get it done. I really wanted to get it done.
SPEAKER_00:You didn't tell yourself, like, in a month or in three months. Nah, nah. You just knew you have to finish this book no matter what. Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_01:So, and I did it in a year. But within that year, it wasn't, like, consistent. It was, like, two days of writing. And two days is a lot for me, right? And then maybe nothing for a week. You know, stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02:Intervals.
SPEAKER_01:Correct. So... Yeah, I just got the discipline to do it when she passed away. Maybe it was her, like, all right, get this done. What the book is, the book, the divine quintessence. Quintessence means fifth element, fifth essence. The quintessential, you ever heard that before? It's like the best of, right? And the fifth element, people don't really talk about it, is the best of the elements. It's the fabric of the universe. They used to call it the ether, right? Now they call it dark matter. So symbolically, I wanted to use that for the book because what the book is, is the best that somebody can ingest because it's confidence. It's like, it's making you, it's suggesting that you go inside and trust yourself and see who you are and understand that you have God in you, that you are divine because you're taught that you're not. You're taught you're not. You're taught that God is in the clouds and you're not there. And he talked to people a long time ago in the Bible, but he don't talk to you. He presented himself to them, but not you, right? So this is what the fables that people are taught. So people have no confidence. That's why people say man-made, like that's bad, right? Like we are, what do I mean? You're a man, right? So, yeah. So when you're able to step into that divine acknowledgement, you live a different type of life. You have a different air about you, right? You are looked at as wise. And thank you for saying that because it is to be divine is to be wise. So it's not just saying it is doing it is qualifying yourself to be wise, right? Like I tell people all the time, I don't get sick. Well, I got to do the things to not get sick. I got to qualify myself to not get sick. But that's for everything that falls under divine, divinity. So that's what the book is. It's like, yo, one thing I've been good at, my professional life, because I started out as a personal trainer, was helping people see how strong they really were. Because people just doubt themselves. I was like, no, you're going to do it. I know you can do this. I'm going to stay here until you... And they'd be like, wow. So this is just another level of that. intellectually, spiritually, physically too, because we get into that in the book too, because it's all important. And
SPEAKER_00:it sounds very scientific, and you speak so eloquently, but I'm going to read out one passage, which I liked, that is very practical. So in one of the chapters you said, do this at once, teach one lesson you have learned to a younger man. Mm-hmm. Pass down your wisdom. Read one book this month that will sharpen your mind. Knowledge feeds wisdom. Move with precision, not emotion. Let every action be intentional. I love how you also had practical advice in the book that can be applicable in everyday life.
SPEAKER_02:Because
SPEAKER_00:sometimes I believe if you have a gift, you must share it. And I love when you say that teach one lesson that you have learned to a younger man.
SPEAKER_01:Correct.
SPEAKER_00:What is the last lesson you have taught somebody recently?
SPEAKER_01:How to study. How I study. Okay. So, like, the community that I have. I'm big on studying, so I show them how I do it. Because it'll make it kind of fun, right? So, all right, the basic show. I'm going to ask you, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00:What it means, the basic show? Mm-hmm. Semantically or?
SPEAKER_01:I didn't give any footnotes. I just said, what does it
SPEAKER_00:mean? It means the basic show, but not ordinary people.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. All right. That's it?
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah. All
SPEAKER_01:right. So what I do is this. I'll break down every word. The, basic, and show. And I'll start out with what the means. Right? And then I'll explain. Do you know what the means?
SPEAKER_00:Tell me.
SPEAKER_01:No, I'm asking you.
SPEAKER_00:No. I know in my sense, know thyself. I probably would connect thee with thyself, but I don't think that I... It's a
SPEAKER_01:definite article, right? So my thing is this. Why use a word if you don't know what it really means, right? So it just gives people that like... that wherewithal to really master information, okay? Knowledge, they say knowledge is power, but it's not. It's potential. Knowledge is power potential, right? The application of wisdom with that knowledge brings forth understanding. That's powerful. Knowledge, wisdom, understanding, right? Because knowledge is just words, just information, okay? That's a great bit of whatever, but what are you going to do with it? That's like me telling you, you shouldn't drink alcohol and you should eat healthy okay but are you doing that right that's a very small example simple example but it's literally that the application of knowledge and wisdom is the understanding so um anyway so
SPEAKER_00:what does that mean so how do you let's say if you take the basic shell how would you dissect it
SPEAKER_01:d is the definite article explaining um it is out of all things being spoke of, of that moment, it's the most important one.
SPEAKER_00:The, I am
SPEAKER_01:the, whatever. So this is the,
SPEAKER_00:and then we
SPEAKER_01:have to go into basic. I thought basic meant ordinary, I don't know. I don't go by what
SPEAKER_00:I feel like things. To me it's more back to the basics. I
SPEAKER_01:don't even go by to me.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I see, okay. I'd rather
SPEAKER_01:go by it. So if I was to break that down, I would look it up,
SPEAKER_00:right? Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And I wouldn't just look up the definition, but I'd look up the etymology as well. And then those two is really telling me what it means. And the same with show. So matter of fact, my notes in the book, notes from the author, is that, is me studying my study template on the divine quintessence. And it breaks it down.
SPEAKER_00:Your brain works in a freaky way. But
SPEAKER_01:don't that seem like it should be normal?
SPEAKER_00:It does. It's fascinating. It's fascinating.
SPEAKER_01:If we're going to use a word, we should be able to completely break it down. Understand. I get it. Exactly. But we use words a lot of times and we don't know what they mean.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I guess it also coming... Do you speak... Is English your only language or you speak other languages? I
SPEAKER_01:speak a little Arabic.
SPEAKER_00:Arabic. Okay. So to me, obviously, when you speak several languages... every word means something different in a different language. But I get what you're saying to understand the etymology, the semantics, and also probably words have certain power that you use in your vocabulary. And I think we talked about it earlier, which words to use in your vocabulary and set your energy to that frequency, right? Not to use the words that you don't... Don't use the words that you don't want to live by, right? Like we spoke about... like treat me with respect or do not disrespect me, right, in a sense. So you have to, like you said, carry yourself already in a way that you are respected by default. I love that. I still remember that. I remember that. I'm going to apply it every day now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think once when you can like, if I can like open up, like show people, like open that door, like you see that? like just different ways of thinking and looking at things and so on and so forth, if that door can stay pierced open long enough and people can really see it, they're going to be hooked, right? So, you know, and I'm like, it makes sense, right? They're like, yeah, like, of course.
SPEAKER_00:Well, let me ask you then this. You speak so beautifully and you're extremely successful, but there are people who are stuck in the mediocrity, right? They're stuck and they want to, but they can't. can't get out so what is your advice to get out of the matrix what is the first thing you do to escape the matrix and make that big change in your life
SPEAKER_01:okay what's a matrix
SPEAKER_00:to me it's the social conforms that you you know have to be successful you have to be you know accepted you have to you want to have things that you want but you can't you want to have comfortable lifestyle but There's so many games you have to play to really get there. And a lot of people just stuck. And I feel, especially in the entertainment industry, fashion industry, very talented people, but they really cannot get out of certain lifestyle they're in. And they cannot really get to that success level that they aspire to be, where they aspire to be.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so I'm going to bring it back. What's the matrix?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, what's the matrix?
SPEAKER_01:So this is what you did. What? You said, to me... And that's the wrong answer, always. Because I'm gonna explain why this is important. All right, part of us having this cerebral cortex, this prefrontal cortex, right? A lot of responsibility because we have, this gives us the ability to have language, to have a robust and vivid imagination, to have empathy, to develop societies, right? So in that we develop rules. For instance, a red light, it doesn't make you stop, but we agree that we should stop so they can go and we don't have accidents and die, right? So we can have order instead of chaos, right? So it's the same with words. We have a definition in the dictionary full of words, so we should all agree that. We do agree that that's what the words mean, but when people say, well, to me, then you're like, you're just making up something, right? And that can- I always make up stuff. Everybody do, right? Yeah. But we should be conscious of it because when we're not, when we're all sticking to what it means, we have more order, you know? And order is just the best case scenario. So- with a matrix, how do they escape the matrix? Now, a matrix is a mathematical system, right? We just use it in colloquially, I can't say that word. Well, in modern vernacular, we use it for like a system, right? And usually it's being used as a system that's bad for you, right? And here's why. They're on point with that because the system, the American system, is bad for most American people, right? It's beneficial to the people creating the system, right? So how do you escape the system? Create your own system.
SPEAKER_00:Create your own system. That's like being revolutionary. That's like going against.
SPEAKER_01:What's wrong with that? What's wrong with a revolution? What's wrong with a change?
SPEAKER_00:I guess if you accept that path, then you have to be ready to sacrifice everything A lot, right? You're getting out of your comfort zone, right? Being a revolutionary is a problem. Best case
SPEAKER_01:scenario. That's the best case scenario. Your comfort zone is a death zone. It's mundane life. Nothing comes out of that. It's safe. Think about this. I'm going to make this real ridiculous. If you go outside, you get hit by a car, right? You know you're going to be paralyzed, right? So just stay inside. It's better to just stay inside. Don't ever go outside, right? It's the same thing. Your comfort zone is a death trap. It's dumb. It's like, why are you living being safe?
SPEAKER_00:So I guess if we kind of put labels on it, you need to be courageous, get courage, because the first thing you need to do to get out of your comfort zone, it's not comfortable, right? It's not something you would do with ease. So be courageous, have no fear, maybe not be afraid to risk. And then hopefully that will get you out of the matrix, out of that mediocrity. Maybe you're not going to achieve your goals, but at least you might get a few steps closer to your goal. Is that right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I wouldn't maybe nothing. I would just make it happen.
SPEAKER_00:Make it
SPEAKER_01:happen. Because you just said maybe you don't achieve your goals, but you're going to. Because as long as you're in the process of making it happen, it's happening. Life is not a... All right, so this is another thing that I don't know why people don't look at life like this, right? People look at life as linear only. A to B. Okay, two-dimensional, right? How about quantum fields, right? This exists. And you look at all the possibilities, right? It's not just, oh, I made it. What does that mean? Once you get... Let's say, let's use getting in shape as an example, right?
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I want to be 8% body fat, 200 pounds, whatever it is, the metric. Okay, you get there, now what? You stop? No. As you're going along and progressing, you're successful. It's happening. Because guess what? Because when you get to that one point, you can't stop. Because if you stop, you're going to digress. So it's always a continuous progression. nonstop motion, right? Because that's life. Energy is not created or destroyed. It always is. It just changed forms, right? Everything that has ever existed in the past still is. Everything that ever will be is now. Different forms. Literally. Think about the weight of the earth. The earth weighs six sextillion tons, right? Y'all can Google this. Think about how many cars existed in the early 1900s. Not a lot, right? Think about how many now. A lot, right? The way the earth does not change. These materials and these things are still here. They're always here, right? The weight of the dinosaurs is still here, right? We ain't dinosaurs. So what I'm saying is people look at things in a very... basic way they got to open their mind and like look at life for what it is because life is just is is vivid as wild as it's not safe right it's not safe and then people i think about the things that they tether themselves to you're not where you want to be at in life right you want to escape this system of this matrix what do you do what do you do well whatever you're doing stop doing it because it's not working it's that simple right and what is What am I talking about? People are chasing pleasure only.
SPEAKER_00:They're looking for easy way out, for the pill to take, for the easy solution. They don't want to work or think about it or make themselves uncomfortable to get to the point. So speaking of you, I'm sure there's so many young men aspire to be like you. And speaking of your goals, you may have achieved and be the dream for many. So being at that point in your life, what is that next thing for you? You know, you wrote a book, you have your businesses, you're successful, you have beautiful family, you educate yourself, you're in a great shape. Is this, it feels like, okay, what more, what's the next thing for you? What is that next thing? Yes, ma'am,
SPEAKER_01:marriage.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And, you know, growing my wealth to a degree to where I could just give it away. Just give all the money away.
SPEAKER_00:I love that.
SPEAKER_01:Yo, my family hate when I say that, but I'm so serious.
SPEAKER_00:Well, isn't it the beauty of the circle of life? You can't just hoard it, right? You have to be able to. Think about
SPEAKER_01:the people that you see. And people idolize people on social media, right? With the cars, with this. Y'all ever be like, so? What is that doing for you? Nothing. What good is a man with all the money in the world if he's not benefiting people? Right. So, yeah, I'm not that guy. You know, I
SPEAKER_00:want
SPEAKER_01:to die with nothing. Nothing.
SPEAKER_00:We came with nothing and we'll leave with nothing.
SPEAKER_01:And that's leaving with that's having everything.
SPEAKER_00:You
SPEAKER_01:know, the Egyptians thought that they can take their wealth with them into the afterlife. OK. The tomb raider just said this. I'll take that.
SPEAKER_00:A little
SPEAKER_01:dusty mummy.
SPEAKER_00:That's true. They
SPEAKER_01:even try to take their pets with them. They're like, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, forget it. The cats is in there. Nowadays, yeah, all you can get away is experiences, I guess, and leaving something behind, which is probably legacy, and you talked about it before. So let's say 50 years from now, what do you think would be your legacy?
SPEAKER_01:50 years from now, when I'm almost 100? Yeah. Oh, I don't know. It's a lot. That's a lot of time still. That's a lot of time still. But even right now, I mean, I have a book out. And I have more that I want to do. You know, tons of content that is there. And hopefully some of the people in my community are really inspired by the things that I've said. Hopefully I've planted them seeds to where they're going to be more impactful to me. And that lives on. but also my essence living on through my children excuse me that's how we excuse me we have immortal life through our progeny or through our works If our works were, we're able to leave things behind and people, you know, can pick it up and keep running with it. That's how you live forever.
SPEAKER_00:I personally don't believe in legacy because if you think about it, no matter how big of a pharaoh you were in Egypt or ancient Greece, years from now, nobody's going to remember your name. Either you're a famous warrior or a soldier, which brought me to the thoughts, maybe legacy, we overthink legacy. Maybe legacy supposed to be in the present moment and living it the best way possible to be a good human being because nobody really going to care about you, what you've done, or what you've created, you know, 100, 500 years from now.
SPEAKER_01:That's interesting. I see it differently.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I think people do remember you.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:When you are memorable after you have left, ascended. I mean, we talk about pharaohs now. And also, When you say legacy, I'm talking about wisdom. I'm talking about systems that we've put in place for our people, for our children, for our family, to where they can have a good life and then make it bigger, add on to it. Because my family, just because of the way that black people was introduced to this country, You know, we don't have a history of legacy because it was cut off about a few hundred years ago and we had to start fresh. So we start now and it started with my grandparents. They left some seeds to teach my father to teach me. Now I'm putting systems in place, right? And I'm leaving tangibles behind. So I'm the first in the family to do that, right? And my son, he's going to be way greater than me, right? Because he's a better person than me already, right? So he doesn't even realize how incredible. I admire him. I do. I'm so fortunate that that's my kid. So that's legacy.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, to me, sometimes it feels like you're feeding your ego as well, right? Because you're thinking you're creating something greater, right, to make yourself feel better. But the way you say it, I see your point, right? It's creating longevity, right? It's passing your knowledge on. to the next generation. I
SPEAKER_01:can see how it can look like ego. And part of me wants to say, what's the big deal with that? What's so bad about that? But I can honestly say for me, it's because I love them so much. I love my son so much. I love my children so much and my family. It's not my ego. Maybe it's my ego. I love you so much that I want to be the one to do this for you. But there's nobody else doing it, so I got to do it. And you got to have it. So that's love. Is there some ego in there? Sure, but I'm all right with that too. I don't think ego is necessarily bad.
SPEAKER_00:I guess it's more coming from, for me personally, from self-indulgence and a lot of people promote themselves over the top and it's about me, me, me, me, me, right? look at me, what I've done, follow me, you know, buy from me. It's kind of creates more, you know, the consumerism part of it, right? It's just more of attention that you might not want to have. So to me, in a sense, it might be more less about like we talked about giving back. It's more about what can I get for myself? That's how I saw it.
SPEAKER_01:That's how you saw what, though?
SPEAKER_00:Well, before I heard your opinion.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, you're saying that's how you saw me? No, I didn't see. Or legacy in general?
SPEAKER_00:Legacy in general, yes. Yeah,
SPEAKER_01:I'm sure. Well, if it's for the person only, then that's not a legacy. It's a weird legacy, right? But I think from my observation, it seems like when people leave a legacy, it's pretty legit for their progenies, for their offsprings, for their, or just people who tapped into them, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Which brought me, so do you think you can leave the legacy if you don't have an offspring?
SPEAKER_01:100%. Yes. Yes. Information, knowledge, wisdom, system. Childless
SPEAKER_02:people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. You can adopt, right? But even if you don't want it that close to you, like let's say I didn't have kids.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:I'm leaving books. I have a whole blog, which is probably more stuff than my book. So it's always stuff that you're creating. It don't even got to be that broad. It could be people that you know and you interact with. There's a guy, Brother Muhammad, he passed away last year. And this dude was the nicest dude I ever met. I am... a mean guy sometimes, right? I'm just not
SPEAKER_00:always... You look a little bit intimidating. I'm not always super friendly, right?
SPEAKER_01:And there's times that I, you know, and I carry a lot on me. So we go to the gym and I'm like upset about whatever. And he's like, what's up, Mike? I'm like, yeah, man, give me a minute. Nothing that I can do can make him like not happy and bubbly. And he just wears me down with... good vibes and then i'm in a good mood because of him right that's he left that's part of his legacy and everybody that knows him knows him to be that man he is such a positive dude and there is a lot of value in that right because i can i can um accept my shortcomings and me not being super nice is a shortcoming i i i own that and And I want to be nicer. It's
SPEAKER_00:just hard. What do you mean not super nice? Like, give me an example.
SPEAKER_01:I'm just not always the nicest person. That's all. I'm very straight to the point, dry. I ignore people sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe that's more like you're not fake.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but it's still not nice.
SPEAKER_00:Really? We
SPEAKER_01:don't have to be. There's a polite way of doing things sometimes. Look. I'm not one to do therapy, right? But I did sit with a therapist before and they were, she was trying to, oh, trying to like make me out to be like, I'm like, nah, I know me, stop, right? So I'm telling you, I know I'm not nice sometimes. So, and I think that that's not good because people that I know that are really nice, I love them. I'm like, this is an awesome person. Even the people that I think is too nice to where it's fake, like I don't like it, but they're really genuinely like
SPEAKER_00:that.
SPEAKER_01:I see it, and then I really love them people. Like, yeah, I want to be like that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, sometimes... I'm
SPEAKER_01:sorry, but
SPEAKER_00:just to land that plane,
SPEAKER_01:Brother Muhammad, I don't think he had kids, but that's a part of his legacy that he left behind. So I'm always mindful, like, be nicer, be cool. It's okay. You know what
SPEAKER_00:I'm saying? What I wanted to add, that sometimes you don't know what's going on inside the person's mind, because... You can have the most nicest and sweetest person, but you don't know what they're going through. So it's what you're saying. It's always be mindful as you never know. what someone with a smile on their face today might be going through right now. That was just recently I saw on the news and I forgot the name of the girl. She was rescuing foxes and then she experienced online bullying and she committed suicide because of experiencing online bullying. And everybody saw her as a very outgoing, sweet, smiley personality helping the wild animals and then facing something like, you know, being bullied through the internet. She took her own life. So it's really sad. So when you say, that you can impact somebody just with a smile or being positive, you should reciprocate that because, again, nobody knows what anybody's going through at the moment.
SPEAKER_02:Very
SPEAKER_00:true. Well, to wrap it up, is there any advice you would like to give to young men, young women who are kind of on the crossroads of their life and they want to make the change in their life but they're sort of not sure where should they start? What's the first three things you can advise them to do?
SPEAKER_01:That's a good question. And that's not one that I want to rush an answer to. Take
SPEAKER_00:your time.
SPEAKER_01:But I would say, I would start by praying. Start with prayer, right? Start with prayer. And then from there, meditation, sitting in silence. And meditation, like the type of meditation I do is called mindfulness meditation, right? And it's just nothing. You're sitting there and you're not thinking about nothing. You find a focal point on the wall or you close your eyes and you breathe, set a timer, start out for like three to five minutes. That's a long time to not do nothing. I can't do that. I need to practice. That's why you should. I need to practice. That's why you should. So, and you start doing that. And, you know, how I describe the benefits of it for me is I have a GPS for my decision making. I'm never second guessing. I need to do this. I need to do that. Right. And, you know, we are inundated with information at all times. Phone, people, this, that, whatever. You owe it to yourself to turn everything off sometimes. Right. So that alone will give you so much clarity on how you see things. Also, be mindful about how you eat. Your mental and physical diet has everything to do with your mood, your demeanor, how clear you think, everything. And yes, food affects that. Your brain, people gotta realize this, the brain is not a big, it doesn't take up that much real estate. But it consumes 40% of the calories that you put in your body. So a good chunk, almost half the energy is being consumed with your brain, right? So be mindful of the things you put in there because it's affecting your thinking and your ability to think. And the problem with a lot of people is they don't think. They're not thinking.
SPEAKER_00:I would think opposite, maybe what you don't put in your body, because that's a whole different topic, but you talked a lot about fasting and starvation sometimes.
SPEAKER_01:That's part of it. And, you know, try to dedicate one day to a 24-hour fast. It's not that bad. It's super nice. Think about, so we do it on Mondays. So... The cheat code is to eat early on Sunday, your last
SPEAKER_02:meal,
SPEAKER_01:five o'clock. So then five o'clock on Monday, you eat. If you're busy all day Monday, and then you eat at five, you're
SPEAKER_00:good. A lot of in water, nothing?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, water.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you can drink water, okay.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, just because the physiological benefits is voluminous, it's a lot, but the psychological benefits is heavy, is dope, right? You feel a sense of accomplishment, which adds to your confidence. um your brain neurogenesis begins right that happens with meditation as well right you develop deeper empathy right um just so many things it's a cascade of positive things when you meditate when you fast stuff like that so those things right there oh and movement you don't got to be in the gym but just walk look I walk on average about four miles a day before my workout. Sometimes I get up and I'm just kind of groggy. My walk, I get like a runner's high while I'm walking and it's low impact on the body. It's something that you could do every day. It's not going to be bad for your knees or whatever. Burning calories in your brain, your blood is flowing all throughout your body. Your brain is working. So just those little simple things right there. Those things right there, the benefits are so profound. And it's all free. You don't have to pay nobody nothing to do that.
SPEAKER_00:So the best things in life are free.
SPEAKER_01:Sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you for this interview. insightful advice. I'm sure everybody will benefit from that. Thanks
SPEAKER_02:for having
SPEAKER_00:me. Thank you for being on The Basic Show. We had Mike Rashid King. Yes, ma'am. One of the most insightful interviews. I made mental notes. Okay. Make adjustments in my life for the better. Thank you for this conversation. Yes, ma'am. And I wish you all the very best in your future endeavors. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
UNKNOWN:Thank you. so