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Please read disclaimer below. About: Ivan is currently focused on using the power of Web3 to give people more agency over their money. Before co-founding PennyWorks, Ivan was the Head of Delta Execution for FICC Options at DRW. He founded the desk and built fully automated execution algorithms in the futures markets. Additional roles include Senior Portfolio Manager reporting to the Chief Investment Officer at Bank of America, and co-founder of Blockchain Systems LLC, a megawatt-scale crypto miner. He holds degrees in computer science from Georgia Tech, financial mathematics from UChicago, and mathematics and economics from McGill University. Ideas For Episode Titles / Main Focus Be The Master of Your Own Financial Universe The Self Sovereign Individual, and How You Can Get There What They Don't Teach You About Money and Why Should Know Crypto 101: From Zero to Hero 5 Things You Didn't Know About Inflation Questions Discussed During the Interview: How can I protect myself from inflation? What investment opportunities are there in DeFi? How does DeFi work? What are blockchains, smart contracts, and web3? How do I protect myself from hacks, scams and fraud online? How do I optimize my investments for retirement? How do I keep my crypto safe? What industries will be disrupted by blockchain and web3? What's next for central bank policy? How will the central bank's actions impact me? Ivan can be reached at: https://www.pennyworks.com/ Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd We couldn't do it without the support of our listeners. To help support the show: CashApp- https://cash.app/$drchrisloomdphd Venmo- https://account.venmo.com/u/Chris-Loo-4 Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357 Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify. Financial Freedom for Physicians, Copyright 2022

About: Andrea Wilson Woods is a writer who loves to tell stories, and a patient advocate who founded the nonprofit Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association. Andrea is the CEO and co-founder of Cancer University, a for-profit, social-impact, digital health company. Her best-selling and award-winning book, Better Off Bald: A Life in 147 Days, is a medical memoir about raising and losing her sister to liver cancer. Ideas For Episode Titles / Main Focus: Love beyond loss Change the world by channeling your grief How to write and market a bestselling book Dying with dignity Living courageously through adversity Questions Discussed During the Episode: What motivated you to write your book? What was it like to be the parent of a child who is seriously ill? What should one do when they are overwhelmed by grief? Do you have any suggestions for people in those first moments or weeks of dealing with a loss? Your nonprofit Blue Faery is named in memory of your sister. What services does Blue Faery provide for liver cancer patients and caregivers? What do you hope to achieve with your new endeavor Cancer University? What products or services do you provide that help the cancer community? Andrea can be reached at: https://cancer.university/ Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd We couldn't do it without the support of our listeners. To help support the show: CashApp- https://cash.app/$drchrisloomdphd Venmo- https://account.venmo.com/u/Chris-Loo-4 Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357 Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify.

About: Justin helps executives and successful professionals blur the lines between full-time work and full-stop retirement in pursuit of the best of both worlds. For generations, many of us had a clear-cut path: Go to school Start a career Work hard Retire to a life of leisure... But the way we think about life, work, and retirement has shifted- especially in the wake of the pandemic. This is not your grandfather's retirement. Instead, this may be an opportunity to reprioritize and repackage how work fits into your life in pursuit of the best of both worlds. Ideas For Episode Titles / Main Focus Non-traditional retirement paths Portfolio Careers Prepping for a hybrid retirement Reducing Taxes in your 50s and 60s Navigating a Career Crossroads later in life Questions Discussed During the Podcast: What if somebody doesn't want to pursue the traditional retirement path? How can a Victory Lap help my personally, professionally, and financially? How can you replace your paycheck and ensure you'll be OK over the long term? Where will you get health insurance if you leave the workforce before you reach Medicare eligibility? What are common strategies to minimize taxes over your lifetime? How will you coordinate decisions around employee benefits, equity compensation, and social security? How do you integrate your financial resources into a coordinated plan that supports the life you want? Justin can be reached at: https://savantwealth.com/your-victory-lap/ Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd We couldn't do it without the support of our listeners. To help support the show: CashApp- https://cash.app/$drchrisloomdphd Venmo- https://account.venmo.com/u/Chris-Loo-4 Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357 Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify.

About: For 35+ years, Pamela Wilson has worked closely with some of the fastest-growing small businesses in the United States. She leverages smart marketing strategies so clients' websites, social presence, offline marketing, and email marketing work to generate more profit with less effort. Ideas For Episode Titles / Main Focus: Is Your Inbound Strategy Broken? Quick Website Lead Generation Fixes Simple Ways to Make the Most of Your Young Marketing Team Are You Wasting Money on Content Marketing? 3 Simple Ways to Get Strategic Starting Today 4 Ways Your Email Marketing Strategy is Leaking Revenue and How to Repair It Fast Are You Tracking the Metrics That Matter? How to Pinpoint Your Revenue-Generating Marketing Tactics Questions Discussed: What are the most important digital marketing trends you're seeing right now? Which website pages are most crucial to revenue generation? Does every business need content marketing? Why? What are the most common email marketing mistakes you see? How can business owners help their young marketing hires to gain competency? What are "vanity metrics" and why are they so damaging? Do business owners need to publish fresh content at the same pace forever? What's a smart long-term content strategy? What is one simple digital marketing action my audience can take right now that will improve their results this quarter? Pamela can be reached at: https://www.pamelawilson.com/consulting/ Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd We couldn't do it without the support of our listeners. To help support the show: CashApp- https://cash.app/$drchrisloomdphd Venmo- https://account.venmo.com/u/Chris-Loo-4 Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357 Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify.

Welcome back to Part 2 of my crazy stories of dating after my divorce. I cover the dangers of dating websites and give you some guidelines and best practices for keeping you safe when you jump into the dating pool again. Transcript below! ** Help me to plan this year's podcast! Fill out this quick 10 question survey and help a girl out! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeubk_cosJ895TQ5IWF5Vk8023Xi6qKpeJwoqGM5aiRDXfCnQ/viewform?usp=pp_url ** To listen to Me and my husband's love story listen to this episode! Link Tree Website: https://dswministries.org Email: diana@dswministries.org Social media links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DSW-Ministries-230135337033879 Twitter: https://twitter.com/DswMinistries YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgIpWVQCmjqog0PMK4khDw/playlists Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dswministries/ https://dswministries.org/subscribe-to-podcast/ Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, Listen Notes Keep in touch with me! Email subscribe to get my handpicked list of the best resources for abuse survivors! https://thoughtful-composer-4268.ck.page #abuse #trauma Mentoring https://youtu.be/WWgkERpkIoY An easy way to help my ministry: https://dswministries.org/product/buy-me-a-cup-of-tea/ A donation link: https://dswministries.org/donate/ Affiliate links: Can't travel to The Holy Land right now? The next best thing is Walking The Bible Lands! Get a free video sample of the Bible lands here! https://www.walkingthebiblelands.com/a/18410/hN8u6LQP Get one free month of Blubrry podcast hosting with the promotional code: FAITHFUL http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=FAITHFUL Get quality podcast guests and interviews from PodMatch! Get paid to be a host! Sign up below: https://podmatch.com/signup/faithful Visit my friends at the Heal Thrive Dream Boutique for some cool T-shirts, jewelry and other merch! Simply share the discount code we created just for you and receive a 10% discount on your order!  DIANA98825  https://www.htd-boutique.com/ Bible Study Notebook From Karen Robinson! Check it out!  https://www.htd-boutique.com/products/bible-planner-for-survivors-includes-prayer-requests-sermon-notes-bible-study-notes-and-other-note-pages-to-enrich-your-spiritual-life EP 118 Dating Trainwrecks Part 2 Takeaways Transcript: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. Brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. [00:00:26] Now, here is Diana [00:00:34] Hey everybody. Welcome back. I appreciate you coming back to this part two of Dating Train wrecks and we went over some really disturbing stories of dating after my divorce. [00:00:53] I'm gonna talk a little bit briefly about some of the other guys that I met [00:01:00] on these dating websites. Not gonna go into as much detail as the first episode, but I am going to go over detail a guy that I had dated that I really cared for and liked, and I thought that this would be a good person to have an ongoing relationship with. [00:01:22] But that didn't work out. [00:01:24] How has your week been going? I mentioned last time that Brian and I have COVID. I am fine. I had tested again this morning, and I am negative for COVID, thankfully, so I can go out and do stuff instead of staying at home. Please pray for Brian. He is still doing poorly. Last night he had a high fever and I was a little bit nervous, but it did go back down [00:02:00] this morning. Because of his [00:02:02] immune system, he has a harder time fighting any kind of viruses or illnesses. So,

About: Dr. Fawcett is a man on a mission; to teach doctors how they can live healthy, happy, and debt-free lives–to regain control of their practice, their time, and their finances. He is making an effort to improve the lives of his colleagues. Burnout, suicide, debt, and bankruptcy are increasing among physicians, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, pharmacists, nurse practitioners and others in the healthcare industry, and he focuses on halting the progression of these unnecessary outcomes. He is the author of "The Doctor's Guide Series", and can be reached at https://www.financialsuccessmd.com Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd We couldn't do it without the support of our listeners. To help support the show: CashApp- https://cash.app/$drchrisloomdphd Venmo- https://account.venmo.com/u/Chris-Loo-4 Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357

About: Claire is a personal finance expert and CEO at AskFlossie. Her website, AskFlossie.com delivers free, trusted financial guidance for unmarried women and single moms. After earning her MBA from Stanford, Claire left a 25-year career in business to become a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®). Claire serves as a volunteer tax preparer with the IRS VITA program with an advanced certification, and processed over 250 returns in 2022. She has passed all education and testing for the Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) accreditation. She presents frequently on personal finance topics to large and small audiences, in person and online. In her mid-forties, Claire is a wife, mom, IVF warrior, and raging feminist who loves a good cozy mystery. Ideas For Episode Titles / Main Focus Surviving inflation on a budget Growing income with side hustles and promotions Financially security in divorce How to prevent a personal financial crisis Generational Wealth Building for Women Questions Discussed: What the heck is going on in the economy/inflation right now? What can people do? What insurance do I need? What money moves should single moms do differently? How can single women set financial goals? How can women protect themselves before/during/after divorce? Claire can be reached at https://www.askflossie.com Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd We couldn't do it without the support of our listeners. To help support the show: CashApp- https://cash.app/$drchrisloomdphd Venmo- https://account.venmo.com/u/Chris-Loo-4 Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357

On today's episode I have the pleasure to interview Zane Landin , Communications Specialist I Authentic Storyteller I Culturally Competent Leader I DEIA Rights Advocate I Writer of Imagination and Transformational Positivity I Entrepreneur of Inspiration I Community-Based Journalist. Graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a Bachelor of Science in Communication and Public Relations, and have worked at places like USAID, NASA, and General Motors. Zane is a mental health and disability advocate, queer rights activist, entrepreneur, and positive change maker. Identified as Hispanic, Queer, and Disabled. Zane is also the founder of PositiveVibes Magazine, a digital magazine dedicated to telling authentic stories about mental health, wellness, and inspiration. Founder and President of Landing Dreams PR, a consulting business working with media and mental health advocates. Follow him using the ff links - LINKEDIN- https://www.linkedin.com/in/zane-landin-b2417a187/ FACEBOOK- https://m.facebook.com/zane.landin?eav=AfZ6XvNKQTC1MEoQZFUV936Uut3U-Wb46BwQ6JoGvYgtOChHqXYwsuSoZZd31tODodU&paipv=0&_rdr INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/zanelandin/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D TWITTER- https://mobile.twitter.com/LandinZane If you've found the Life With Francy podcast helpful Follow, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts Like this Show? Please Leave us a review here - even one sentence helps! Post a screenshot of you listening on Instagram & Tag us so we can Thank you Personally! STAY IN TOUCH LINKTREE INSTRAGRAM FACEBOOK Sign Up with Podmatch using this Link or paste this URL https://podmatch.com/signup/lifewithfrancy Hope you have a blessed day. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francelyn-devarie/support --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francelyn-devarie/support

Paul Halme went from working as a stock broker for a major Wall Street firm to Entrepreneur. He now specializes in helping Entrepreneurs fix their finances and then buy assets to create passive income. Ideas and Questions Discussed During the Episode: How any Entrepreneur can become a millionaire How to build your own passive income machine Setting up a simple money system Building a powerful money mindset The easiest way to get started investing What is the fastest way to fix an entrepreneurs finances? How do I create passive income? Why do I think everyone can become a millionaire? Why is developing wealth too slow and boring for most people? How do you get started investing? What's the difference between trading and investing? Whats the secret to building wealth? How do you give your kids an unfair advantage in life? Why are most people unhappy no matter how much money they have? How to get your spouse on the same page financially? You can connect with Paul online at https://paulhalme.com/ Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd To help support the show (we couldn't do this without the support of our listeners, so thank you) CashApp- https://cash.app/$drchrisloomdphd Venmo- https://account.venmo.com/u/Chris-Loo-4 Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify.

In this episode, Beate Chelette, the Growth Architect and Founder of The Women's Code shares her expertise in providing visionaries and leaders with strategies for growing their authority and scaling their impact in business. She works with clients including Amazon, Reckitt, Chevron, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, the Women's Legislative Caucus of California, Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Shelter Inc., Mental Health First Aid, and thousands of small businesses. She is recognized in PeopleHum's "Top 100 Global Thought Leaders" and HuffPost's “One of 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs" lists.Beate Chelette is also the author of the #1 International Award-Winning Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go from Overwhelmed to Awesome”–a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.”Beate Chelette is a first-generation immigrant who bootstrapped her passion for photography into a successful global business and sold it to Bill Gates for a multimillion-dollar deal, despite facing $135,000 in debt as a single parent.

Alex Sanfilippo (Founder, PodPros.com) is the host of the top-rated podcast called Podcasting Made Simple. He is also the founder of PodPros.com, a software company focused specifically on the podcasting industry. Alex and his team have created popular services like PodMatch, a service that matches podcast guests and hosts together for interviews, and PodcastSOP, a project management tool that helps podcasters keep up with their episode releases.

Looking to boost your brand presence and increase your visibility in your industry? Me too! Tired of feeling lost in the sea of competition? The power of credits should be underestimated! Whether you're a creative professional or a business owner, I'm sure you understand the importance of your portfolio and professional reputation when it comes to attracting new opportunities and clients. In our latest Creator Hub newsletter article, we share tips and strategies for leveraging professional credits on IMDb (the Internet Movie Database) to your advantage, helping you: - Build relationships and connections in your industry - Showcase your skills and expertise - Seek out new opportunities - Support and uplift your fellow professionals - Increase your digital presence   Check out our LinkedIn article for step-by-step instructions on how to do so and start maximizing the impact of your professional credits today! Connect with Vinnie on PodMatch: http://www.vpe.tv/podmatch Connect with Vinnie: http://linkedin.com/in/vinniepotestivo   I HAVE A PODCAST: ihaveapodcast.com - Launch a podcast: http://vpe.tv/podbean - Amplify a podcast: http://vpe.tv/quuu - Get paid for your podcasts: http://vpe.tv/podmatch  LEAVE US A REVIEW: http://vpe.tv/ratethispodcast

This podcast was recorded LIVE at Houston Hall NYC (https://houstonhallny.com/) Find out more about Brenden, founder of Master Talk and how he helps his clients ADAPT in the public speaking world. Links: http://mastertalk.ca/; YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Mast...; Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episo... Thanks to PODMATCH for this connection! https://podmatch.com

About: Koen Knaepen is a mindset trainer. He trains you to create the mindset necessary for the challenge you face based on insights of how the brain operates. Educated as mathematician, actuary, and an MBA, Koen has worked in the corporate, small company, and start-up sector. After he suffered burnout, he started his journey of understanding the brain and forming a mental framework that could be utilized for the goals that he set for himself. Koen's experience is the basis of the mindset training that he teaches his clients. Ideas and Questions Discussed During the Episode: You need a framework to manage the roller coaster of emotions. Reconnect with the dreams of your youth! The 3 secrets to create a winning mindset The key to motivation What is wrong with me? What is necessary to achieve your goals? Why do we not achieve our goals? What do successful people differently? How do we block ourselves? What is success in the brain? Does willpower work? How can we get clarity in what we want in our life or business? What to do about procrastination? Do we need to heal every trauma? What if somebody feels like an imposter? Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357 Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify.

About: Drake Scifers is a lifelong entrepreneur. His experience stretches across the advertising, digital media, real estate, private equity, and the telecommunication industries. Drake has always been an entrepreneur since the age of 16. After obtaining a finance Degree, he started a digital marketing agency right out of school, sold out to his business partner, worked in commercial real estate development building houses and a luxury RV park, and endured a brief stint in private equity consulting. Most recently, Drake raised angel funding for rural internet service provider. Got company to profitability 2017-2019. Grew 80% during COVID (2020) through employment restrictions. He recently sold his latest start-up Skyber, a fiber-backed, wireless internet service provider in October 2020. Ideas and Questions Discussed During the Episode: Scaling and selling your business during COVID How to build a business to sell Why customer experience is everything Why friction is killing your business What's your favorite book? You can connect with Drake at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drakescifers/ Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357 Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify.

About: Dai Manuel is a super dad, dating his wife, with a lead by example way of living and a contagious personality, who is on a mission to positively impact one million role models around the globe to lead a FUN-ctionally fit life through education, encouragement, and community. He is an award-winning digital thought leader and author, Distinguished Toastmaster & TEDx speaker, former partner and Chief Operating Officer of a multi-million dollar retail company, and a sought-after lifestyle mentor and executive performance coach. Dai knows the struggle of the juggle and keeping his health and happiness a priority. He models his work based on 5 F's: Fitness, Family, Faith, and Finances with an overarching roof of FUN, built on a rock-solid foundation of Health. Nuggets of wisdom and inspiration to take action to be your best self are guaranteed when you connect with Dai! Ideas and Questions Discussed During the Episode: Why vulnerability is a Human thing How to deal with the struggle of the juggle that is all things life How to be a champion of change (and not a victim!) The Whole Life Fitness Manifesto -- the 2% solution to taking control of your physical, mental, and spiritual health Don't be a martyr -- your health is your health, so own it! What's the best way to manage change in one's life? What's the biggest challenge you've overcome in your life? And what did you learn through the experience? What's alive and real for you in your life right now? What are some of your biggest learnings (and struggles) you experienced while scaling a business to 8 figures? What do you mean when you say, 'dating your wife of 21 years'? What is the most powerful question you've ever been asked? Why do you do what you do? How have you found balance when dealing with the struggle of the juggle of life? What lifestyle habits have had the most significant impact on your life? Why? Why do you believe that vulnerability is a 'human thing'? Dai's website is: https://www.joinwlfm.com/ Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify. Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@drchrisloomdphd

INTRODUCTION: Master Joshua: Why I do what I do My whole purpose is to help people self-actualize. I've walked my own journey of identity for as long as I can remember. And in my life's journey, adversity, stress, anger and sadness all came in different forms. What I do with my work is take the experience of trying to find myself, my struggles with self-acceptance and help clear paths so that people can ask themselves these questions. We talk through it. I want people to find their authenticity in expression and existence, to be able to sit in their truth not just in BDSM, but in their entire life. I needed to accept myself around my struggles with resentment about the color of my skin and my stress around expression. What was it like to find peace within myself? What did it mean to work through my relationships and find peace, and to find peace spiritually and religiously? What would that be like for you? I teach folks to empower themselves. I provide one-on-one training, couples training, and group training.  For those folks who want to pursue the BDSM route of self-actualization through submission, to really experience those desires, I curate and guide them through an introspective journey. I provide guidance to people trying to discover themselves. These are the various options for the time I spend with people, for personal growth and spiritual development, through the lens of BDSM. I will empower you through experience and introspection. I will help you find the power of your voice. We will find a way to get your soul to the surface. We will remove blockages and build our own community. Let me help you. Healing through the lens of BDSM, the space we hold is sacred. The feelings and the emotions run deep. Upon reflection of the lives we live, we stand in a judgment-free zone in a space that is empowering in truth. That's what I get to create. That's what I create for you. My purpose in all of this has been to witness other people's experiences in life, to capture them in my memory and to use all this knowledge to help others find peace within themselves. With permission I photograph what I witness. I bring all of this experience to bear on how I help you, and in this way, you will contribute to help me to help others find themselves. Let's connect with all parts of yourself. Let's acknowledge the wide range of personality we all have. Karma Said:My (pen) name is Karma Said. I'm Master Joshua's sex slave, and a happily married (to another man) mother of two. I'm the author of "Surviving Master Joshua: The BDSM Memoir Of An Unfaithful Wife" (Carnal Culture, April 2022). When Joshua and I met, I was a staff reporter for a reputable conservative publication, and Joshua was research. But, following Him deeper and deeper into New York's sexual underground, I crossed the line between observer and participant, right and wrong. I started out in this lifestyle as a cheater... turning that around reshaped more than just our own lives. At its core, our story is one of an uplifting personal transformation; it also showcases the lifestyle of one of the most sensationalized and least understood factions in LGBTQA+.  INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to): ·      The Role Of The Dominant·      Healing Found In The Kink Community·      Validation Found Within The Kink Community·      Gaining Power Over Sex Addiction Through Kink·      Me Too Accusations  ·      Talking About Things That Really Matter·      BDSM & Religion ·      BDSM Definitions ·      The Importance Of Aftercare·      A Sweet Breakdown Of Harnesses  CONNECT WITH MASTER JOSHUA: Website: https://masterjoshua.com/Website: https://carnalculturepublishing.com/Book: https://survivingmasterjoshua.com MASTER JOSHUA'S RECOMMENDATIONS: SSDCE: https://ssdce.orgThe Kink Collective: https://kinkcollective.net  CONNECT WITH DE'VANNON: Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.comWebsite: https://www.DownUnderApparel.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sexdrugsandjesusYouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCMFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopixLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannonPinterest: https://www.pinterest.es/SexDrugsAndJesus/_saved/Email: DeVannon@SDJPodcast.com  DE'VANNON'S RECOMMENDATIONS: ·      Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)o  https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370o  TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs ·      OverviewBible (Jeffrey Kranz)o  https://overviewbible.como  https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible ·      Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed (Documentary)o  https://press.discoveryplus.com/lifestyle/discovery-announces-key-participants-featured-in-upcoming-expose-of-the-hillsong-church-controversy-hillsong-a-megachurch-exposed/ ·      Leaving Hillsong Podcast With Tanya Levino  https://leavinghillsong.podbean.com  ·      Upwork: https://www.upwork.com·      FreeUp: https://freeup.net VETERAN'S SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS ·      Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org·      American Legion: https://www.legion.org ·      What The World Needs Now (Dionne Warwick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?: ·      PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon  TRANSCRIPT: Karma & Master Joshua[00:00:00]De'Vannon: You're listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De'Vannon and I'll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what's really going on in your life.There is nothing off the table and we've got a lot to talk about. So let's dive right into this episode.Joshua and his happily married to another man. Sex Slave Karma said are here to tell us their whole truth, and they're doing it with boldness and with zero shame. Y'all master Joshua is a professional dominant. , which is the male equivalent of a dominatrix, and also he's a non-traditional sexual behaviors consultant.Now, carer wrote a book called B D S M, memoir of an unfaithful Wife, and well [00:01:00] look, all I have to say is fucking wow.This conversation is deep and unadulterated in a way I've never done before.I mean, if you really wanna see something new, watch us on my YouTube channel because we take off our tops as I reveal to the world my special red and black harness for the first time. So if y'all wanna see these tits pop on over to the YouTube channel, baby.  Enjoy .Ooh, y'all. I've really, really, really, really, really been looking forward to this one here. Now, y'all all know me and my boyfriend have a, an open relationship, and we're new into the kingery and stuff like that. We're little baby virgins, and at least in that aspect all over again. But today I have with me on the sex drugs in Jesus podcast, a masterMaster Joshua: I'm blushing, [00:02:00]De'Vannon: a master. His name is Master Joshua. And Karma is it print property. Call you his slave, submissive, sex slave. Sex slave. And they have written a book called Surviving Master Joshua's, a memoir of an unfaithful Wife . And that's what we're gonna be talking about today. How are the two of you beautiful souls doing today?Master Joshua: Doing really well. Really excited to be on this morning. To, to talk about it. Being able to, to have Karma's story out there accessible is really exciting and important to me. Cuz she's worked really hard at it. She's dealt with me for four years to turn it out. . Karma: Yeah. It's a culmination of a big, big personal transformation and it's a, for me, it's a big personal victory to be able to talk about it cuz like the title says it's a V d s m memoir of an unfaithful wife.So that's where we start off from and it [00:03:00] ends with us being able to talk openly. And I still have my family so De'Vannon: You do. But it was, it was, it was a process and it's so interesting to see like how, you know, how you evolve in the story from. Somebody who's like, kind of timid about it all. It's by the end of the book.And you know, really the end of the book, you're like, you know, like, it's like there's like this cutting going on and stuff like that that we're gonna talk about, you know, later. And I guess it was fascinating to me that part three of this book is basically like one chapter. It's, it's like, it's like PO Box, I think it was like 1125 or, you know, something, something along those lines.And you know, the, you know, so that, that lets me know how important that that one section is. You know, that you separated it like that, you know, so, okay. I wanna get into y'all's very, very, very titillating like history [00:04:00] now. Now Master Joshua, I believe you've been doing this for at least like 20 years, I believe.No, I, Master Joshua: I I've been doing it professionally for about a decade. I actually have to sit down and do my timelines again cuz I've been saying a decade for a minute now. But I've been on my own personal journey. You know, there's levels to it cuz I can, I can remember a story I to I was told about when I was five and I would rub my aunt's nylons and they would, it would excite me as a five year old.Stimulating my body was a sexual in nature. No, it was all sensation and stimulation, right? I lost my virginity at 12. That's another major turning point in my life. I had my first child at 18, 19 having to deal with family court at 19. These are all different layers of my own identity and journey that, that all matter up until the point where I'm at today, you know, for all of us.But my purpose was [00:05:00] discovered about 10 years ago when I started doing this professionally. And by purpose, I mean people come to me for self-actualization and safety and submission. Being able to have someone hold space for them where they can be. Authentically themselves, you know, one piece at a time because you don't just jump out of the closet, right?It's like being deviant as some people call us, being perverted as some people call call us kinky fetishists. It's not easy because we're not the norm right now. The coolest part about it is that everybody wants something. It's just shame and fear and safety, right? People don't feel safe enough to be vulnerable, to be able to open those doors.My role is to be that safety for people to open the doors either in events that I produce or one-on-one sessions or intensives that we host. That's how I found power over sex addiction. And it was incredibly life changing to be able to [00:06:00] say no. Right? Just that simple word. No. And it really put the power back in my hand around who do I connect with and who do I not?De'Vannon: you say you've got the victory over sex addiction. At what point did you feel like you were a sex addict and why? Master Joshua: Oh, I mean, , I have four kids. I have four different w moms. I I would go outta my way in severe ways, detrimental ways to have sex. Right? It, it, I I had to, I was mandated to attend a program once, and while I was there, I was one of those guys sitting in the back like, why the fuck am I here?I'm not one of these guys. And, you know, for substance, I wasn't. Right. It was, it was a, an eye-opening experience though, cuz as I heard people's telling of the stories of their relationship with substances, that was my relationship with sex, the [00:07:00] things that they were ruining about their lives, the relationships that they were tanking financially, what they were doing, how irresponsible they were being.That was my relationship with sex. And that's how I know sex addiction is a thing. To get over it. It took a long time. I had a really intense relationship with sex. And I'm glad to be able to look back at it and say, this is what happened. And this is what was the turning point for me. De'Vannon: I was thinking about that earlier today about how addictions how we get carried away with desires.So be it drugs or the pursuit of money. People get addicted to their careers, people get addicted to their children, people get addicted to all sorts of things and but it's some sort of pleasure there that we tend to, to, to not be able to get enough of what I think that's [00:08:00] beautiful about what you're saying and a part of the reason why I.You know, take issue with a lot of like more anti elu addiction theories. Like, say the anonymous program says if you've been an addict, you can never stop being one. You can't ever do a drug again. So like, so somebody who's like an identified sex addict, you know, it's not gonna stop ever having sex.You're gonna find a way to get that shit together. Cause it is unrealistic to think just because you were once a sex addict, you're never gonna have sex again. You know? And I feel that. So I, I, I appreciate the fact that you've done that, and I commend you for that. But I feel like it's the same way with people who were once addicts and drug addicts.I don't feel like you always have to be one. I feel like you could learn girl, how to not do your crystal methyl cocaine every damn day, but just to deal with every now and then and still be fine. , Master Joshua: listen. No, listen. This is my theory around that. Right? If people were to handle their problem, They would be good.Right? But that's the hard part. This, the addiction is the easy way out of the problems. [00:09:00] The hard work is looking at the problems and it's okay that you resort to substance. It's okay that you fail sometimes. Just keep trying. Just get up and do the next right thing. It's, it's not easy, right? It sounds easy, but it's not.It's not. It's a simple solution. But by no stretch of the imagination, easy because it all starts with integrity. Right? And what we try to do, what I tried to do with this relationship and we'll, and we'll get into it, is I try to circumvent morals with ethics. Right? And you can't circumvent morals, right?Ethics are manmade rules around human relations and what it is to do good morals are like universal law, right? And the basis of this book is built off of our developed relationship connection into a deep relationship where. I have the perspective of I only need her permission. I only need her consent.Right. Ethically, morally, that's not the truth. [00:10:00] The truth is I needed to know all the ducks were in a row before opening that door, but I, I got selfish in it too because she provided me a safe space. And we'll get, we'll get into that cuz it's, we're human beings, right? And we make choices that aren't always the right thing.Well, sometimes they're the right thing for us, but they're not the right thing. De'Vannon: Well, we can talk about it now. It sounds like what you're referring to is that, that part of the book that I was reading where like karma, like maybe your husband gave you certain permissions, maybe you had, I think it read like you, you had loopholes and you used them, you know, quite severely.Is that what you're referencing right now? Having the liberty and taking it a bit too far? Karma: Well I'm glad the book leaves leaves that space where it's not quite clear where the fault is but as in the way I see it there, [00:11:00] the loopholes were big as in really ill-defined, and it was, it's, it's a fig leaf really, that my husband and I negotiated certain terms of, and it wasn't really a negotiation.We agreed on certain terms in which we can in which I could explore the topic of V D S M because I was interested in it, but he wasn't right. We should tell the people, , we should give them a little bit of background. Right. I went in as a reporter reporting on a story about religion in kink. Joshua and his partner, master Joshua and his partner were the people who let me in.I was writing about an event that took place in their venue. Once I went to that event and spoke to the people and witnessed what happened, it became clear to me that my interest goes beyond the professional in B D [00:12:00] S M. And shortly after it became clear to me that my interest in Joshua goes beyond the professional as well, but we were kind of entangled.It wasn't, the boundaries were very blurry. Is it personal? Is it professional? Is it about being a journalist? Is it about my interest in B D S M? Is it about my interest in him? It was all kind of like mixed in. And of course, I'm married in a traditional marriage plus kids, and I don't wanna risk that.So I am trying on, on the other front, on my husband's front to to be in a space where I'm not actually cheating. And, and it's kind of like okay, I am doing th so. I keep reaching agreements with him, and the agreements keep falling short of reality because in reality, I'm already in love with him.I fell in love with him very early on. So what was [00:13:00] happening was that it just wasn't an honest,it's very hard to be honest when you don't know what's happening and when you are in a vortex, right? But that vortex created a situation where I really wanted something and that something was not allowed within the framework of a traditional marriage. And I kept tweaking the framework, but not being honest about my intentions or about what I really want, because at the time I didn't know.I just, I was exploring, discovering, and I got that permission to explore and discover. But within, you know, nothing more than a kiss and. Less than a kiss with another man. And that kind of was hard to keep , right? De'Vannon: So, Master Joshua: so, so you don't, can I, can I throw in my half of [00:14:00] that e of the equation , right? No, because it's, it's like, it's, it's tough.I was going through when she met me, I was going through a breakup. It was at a dissolution of a dynamic, right? They're not really the same dynamics are power exchange relationships, where this case was a baby girl in the daddy dom this is master slave. There's dom sub, there's all types of power exchange relationships where the focal point is the energy, the power exchange differential.So I was going through a breakup, and this was around the Me Too movement when I first started. Now, the Me Too movement was very necessary, and the bad actors, everyone got called out. and over time we went from bad actors to bad people to bad relationships. And it got weaponized At a point I was subjected to a weaponized me to dissolution and [00:15:00] she came into the class that we were teaching the round table discussion around B D S M and religion, which believe it or not is, is they're, they're two peas of the same two peas in a pod.So dealing with that while still hosting events, while still trying to provide service to the community. Cuz when you're accused of something like that, no one wants to hear it from you. Right. Everyone. And I understand the believe the victim approach. I too, when as event as an event producer, I have to hold space for the victim.Right. And I believe what you're saying, what I am also responsible, especially in this lifestyle, which is heavily defined by integrity, is I have to ask the other party what happened. I have to because I need to hear the whole story to find out what's going on. Because it's our responsibility if we're gonna keep the community safe from all types of situations, right?We can't just pick and choose. Leadership [00:16:00] requires doing the hard work. So I had no platform still doing what I do because this is what I do. This is my, I found purpose in my journey through B D S M and holding space for folks to find safety and self-expression and to, to dive into their sexuality is important for me because there's liberty in that I was shut down and Karma was interested and curious about the lifestyle.So I gave her space and I gave her all my information, everything I could provide her information with, I would. And then she caught wind of the accusations. You wanna take it from there, ? Karma: Well you read the book so you know, , but what happened was I started exploring this world through Master Joshua, right.Attending a little bit more events being a little bit more involved on a personal level and getting a taste [00:17:00] which really kind of threw me off personally. It was such a shocking discovery. It, it really impacted me to, I, I read about it in fiction books, so I kind of assumed that this whole lifestyle was fiction, , cuz I never saw it in real life until I met him.And then the whole discovery of it was kind of like, it, it was just walking headlong into a train for me. And then, so I'm trusting him as a guide during this period, which is very brief. Just a matter of days or weeks. and very soon I come across one of the people I interviewed about the King and religion story told me, well it's a more interesting story to examine the impact of me too on the king scene.Take the accusation against Mr. J Master Joshua, for example. I'm like, whoa, whoa, hang on. What accusations against Master Joshua? And so he [00:18:00] sent me the link to the accusations which were on Fe Life, which is kind of like the Facebook Forsters mm-hmm. . And I began following up on them and my first step was to confront Joshua about them and then interview him and his then partner about them and.You read the book. So, you know, as I went along, I let go of that story first because he and his partner were not interested in the Me Too story coming out at that time because of, they've already been through a lot with it. They were tired, his partners specifically. But I let go of it because I couldn't find enough concrete evidence that would meet my that part is not in the book.So I'm telling you there are certain standards for my publication to run with a story that is, that involves a [00:19:00] me too story. You need a certain amount of sources. They need to be verifiable to a certain extent, and their, their testimony needs to be. About some concrete me, some concrete things. Now there's a lot of noise about a me too movement in the kink scene, but once you look at the complaints, the noise, the story changes because it's sort of like the story becomes not oh, they are bad people out there using kink as a, as a way to abuse people's consent.But the story becomes, there's a lot of confusion there about what consent means and how do you verify it, and when is somebody doing something wrong and when are they not? Because there were no clear parameters. So everybody who yelled abuser just, you know, okay, that person became an abuser and that's it.And there was no [00:20:00] recourse for them. That, that became my story. In the end. My, the story I wanted to write as a journalist, but I could not run with it as a journalist because I would be standing on the right, wrong side of history as a liberal and as a woman and as like nobody would publish it. And if they did publish it, I would get into a lot of backlash.So I ended up publishing that. It's not even a story because it, I ended up publishing that outlook in my book because as I was, it's not just my story, right? It's a part of history. It's a part of a movement in history and it's a part of history that impacted people I love very much. So I really wanted to do something with it as a journalist, and I couldn't, so I did something with it as an author.De'Vannon: You can't speak one way, you gotta find another way. I appreciate your thoroughness and, and I agree. You know, nothing [00:21:00] in this life you know, is really ever a hundred percent, you know, and it's somebody who has stood in front of a judge several times. I got like four felonies, you know I, I appreciate thorough research rather than jumping like to conclusions and things like that.So there's like literally no way every man who's ever been accused of abuse has done it. It's not possible. There has to be somebody lying somewhere, you know, or, and taking advantage of that movement. So Master Joshua: you know, one of, one of the, one of the great things about our relationship is the accountability that she holds me to.Right? And I've grown a lot and I've reflected a lot around my life, and I've, I've even come to admit the points. Where I was a horrible partner within those relationships. Not to the degrees that they made the accusations, but enough to know that I had a role in the love going from love to hate, right?So it's, and that's what these relationships bring out, [00:22:00] is she's held my feet to the fire because I have a role that I play. And it's like, if I'm falling short, she, she's gonna make sure that I'm aware of it. Karma: I'm gonna quote him on that when it comes my time to make sure that you're aware of it. , it's not easy.De'Vannon: Love it. It's beautiful. So I wanted to read a snippet from the book. Thank you. I may because it's, they're very fun. I actually have a lot of quotes that I pulled from there that I thought were just like, so fun. So y'all, karma had mentioned earlier, like she was a reporter and everything like that.Well, she had reached out to a friend Bec wanted to do this b s m religion story, like what she said. And and the response that Karma got from her friend included this here. She said and I quote she quickly lay out a feast for me heavy on the red meat. Seeks, seeks in diapers, clergy, men and kennels.Yeah, I'm thinking like dog kennels ca seeds, ca seeds [00:23:00] getting fucked up the ass with bottles of kosher wine in quote. I thought that You know, I'm thinking, why can't the Catholic church just admit that they do the same shit and be done with it?Master Joshua: No, I have a, I have a client who's been a priest for 40 years. Right. And it's like legit. It's everywhere. Everybody's got something. Everybody's got something. De'Vannon: And then another part. How Karma was saying she was timid and shy. You know, it's like the, the roles were, were flipped. You know, all the times you hear about the guy sneaking around with his porn and everything like that.In this case you were that person s smut, as you called it. You had these dirty little habits and stuff like that, and you were hiding him from your husband. And I thought, well, what a role reversal. And and speaking of fe life, you understood that you had to establish a profile to, you know, as you, if you're gonna be going down this road, and I'm gonna read how you felt about it at [00:24:00] first, so quote you said, but scrolling through the avatars on the list of attendees, an unsavory collage of inch by inch asses, tits, cunts, cocks, and combinations thereof, unease swept over me in quote.I thought that was so beautifully written. . , thank Master Joshua: you. Karma: Thank you. Master Joshua: I De'Vannon: appreciate that and it's very, very powerful that you, that we're so transparent about going from like being uneasy about it to all immersed in it. And a big thing about, even as I, myself and my partner trying to approach, you know, the B D S M community, I think it's super important to to ease into it.You know? Cause in the book you talk about how it's very complex, there's a lot of layers to it. You started off as an observer, then you transitioned, you know, into participating, you know, as you got comfortable with it. And I think that that's an important thing to point out. So Master Joshua, you're technically speaking [00:25:00] professional, dominant.And then a non-traditional sexual behaviors consultant are the two titles I found when I was Master Joshua: researching. Yeah. Yeah. So essentially I do professional domination and N T S B counseling is B D S M without B D S M, right? Non-traditional sexual behavior. It's for those who are afraid to call it B D S M, but they're into something that isn't so intense, right?It all falls into the big umbrella that B D S M is, right? Fetish and kink. The desire for something we're afraid to speak of, right? So I make myself accessible. I make this journey accessible in both perspectives, right? For someone who isn't ready to say that they're that far into it in B D S M or leather or kink, we can call it non-traditional sexual behavior.Hey, it is what it De'Vannon: is. now. Yeah. Now I'm gonna read a portion of. [00:26:00] Of of, of, from my research of, of you master Joshua. This is not specifically from the book, so, but that you stated that when you first started, you say, when I first started practicing B D S M and Earnest, I assumed that what interested me in kink was, well, the kink, you say the thrill, the rush I got from dominating other person made the Y seem pretty self-explanatory.You go on to say, I used to play a lot of play at a lot of parties in the beginning before Scene, my bottom and I would talk, these talks were often uniquely candid. We were heading into a heightened situation and people wanted to let go of their masks, show me what was really going on inside. And you go on to say that by the end of.It was people's trust, you desire their permission to connect on a deeper, truer level. Kink was just the way in. Now, I've never heard B D S M describe like that before because when it's presented, a lot of times all we see is the [00:27:00] kink. Speak to me about how it's not really about the kink so much. Master Joshua: So this, and this is gonna go back to my relationship with sex.I enjoy kink, I enjoy the intensity, the director energy of it, being able to, and because domination looks at 20 different ways, right? The way I enjoy it is like Rocco sire, if you watch porn, , right? I really enjoy being a monster sexually. I also bought 'em, right? I'm also a sex submissive too, right?I enjoy intense things. I enjoy being fisted, right? I enjoy licking shoes, so it's a very visceral. Raw primal energy exchange for me. Now in order to access that, and this is where the title Sex Slave comes in what Karma's given me is freedom to be who I want to be within the four walls of our intimacy.[00:28:00] And that looks whichever way I want it to block because she's given me the permission by calling me master and me calling her my slave. There's a freedom, there's a weightlessness of being able to express yourself sexually, that you can't compare it to anything else. So knowing that that's earned through trust, right?That the, when I connect with people, I have a level of, of emotion and safety I want to feel. And if you don't hit that bar, we're probably not gonna be hanging out. And all that's earned through trust. And that's, that's how I want to live my life, is surrounded by people who I can not have to wear as many masks as, as we often have to.Hmm. And then, I mean, once you have that freedom, that permission, dude, you can do whatever you want, man. Let's go. Let's play, let's be nasty. Let's do what you want. I'm [00:29:00] game. Right, because there's no judgment. I love how it's beautiful. De'Vannon: I love how relationship based it is. I do. Because you know when a lot of people think about sex, you know, so, so many times, you know, our mind defaults to like maybe apps or like quick hookups and things like that.And it seems like the way that this is set up is getting away from like more superficial connections.Do you feel like, you know, this community provide. As we might say, chosen family. You know, maybe somebody's been rejected by their biological family. Can people find their way into the B D S M community and find the new community that accepts them or others have rejected them? Master Joshua: I think that's a false hope.I think what people find in community is validation and affirmation that you're not alone. What I don't find in community more often than that is growth [00:30:00] beyond the validation, right? Once you hit that bar of what community is, and that's set by the lowest common denominator. Now I say that because I put a lot of time into community and there's not a lot of return that community gives back because a lot of people in community are there to take their validation and affirmation and experiences and not really contribute.So that's a lot of energy being put out. This comes to connection right now through the years of doing professional domination. I've spoken to and hosting events. I've spoken to thousands of people. I've done thousands of sessions. I've played thousands of times. I actually complained about my joints now because my shit's hurt, man, , like my arthritis is kicking.I got tennis elbow and stuff, and people laugh, but that shit for real, right? Because I can't do it forever. What I learned in that time is how to connect with people, how to hear what people are saying, and keeping my mouth shut and processing. Right now, while we're all different, we're all very much the [00:31:00] same, right?We fall into like six categories of people and we just have variables to each of us. What we're all looking for is connection and validation, right? Being seen and being heard. What we need, if we're going to find that piece, is to be put into positions where we're questioned about our beliefs. We're questioned about our journey and our directions, and that requires growth because you gotta be put in uncomfortable situations.That's the type of community I'm trying to build, where we. Know who we are. We know who we are not. Right? We we're trying to unlearn what society's taught us and we're trying to dig into finding out who we are because no one taught us how to do any of this stuff. No one taught us how to have relationships.No one taught us how to have sex. No one taught, taught us how to communicate , right? It's simple. Communication is all boils down to communication. All I do is hold space for people and ask questions that have you reflect. And cuz you [00:32:00] know all the answers, I'm not, no one can teach you anything. All we can teach you, all we can help you do is ask you the questions that you can answer for yourself, right?And transitioning from B D S M as a community, more towards human responsibility, right? As a community is where we're going. And I've learned all of that through my own journey, through my relationships, through our relationships. Of the importance of integrity and trying to be as judgment free as possible.Trying to always do, try, remember, try cuz we're not superhuman. Trying to always just do the next right thing. Because if you do that in your relationships, you'll see all of this is a achievable. You can achieve anything if you're open and honest. Cuz what you're doing there is you're, you're gauging your safety.You're ga gauging if you're being seen and heard. [00:33:00] And if you don't have that, why would you put your guard down? Right? So you gotta really reevaluate these things. I hope I didn't go off too far off topic, and how, De'Vannon: I mean, know how intelligent is all smart. It's like mindful, mindful sexual behaviors rather than just reacting to the fact that you're horny.You know, I think it's a smart way to do, you know, who is this person and do we have a connection? I think it's brilliant. I think it's bloody brilliant. Master Joshua: You can also do it on, on like a, a hookup, right? Because I, I've taught a few classes at Claw. Claw is Cleveland Leather Annual Weekend. They teach it, it's, it's held in Cleveland every April.And it's the, in my opinion, the best large format education convention out there, especially for men particularly gay men interested in leather culture. And I've taught about hookup culture and how it deteriorates our connection, right? Because it's more like playing jackpots. You, you, every time you hit that hookup, you get [00:34:00] that rush of endorphins and Oh my God, you're gonna go hookup and then you're gone and you're depleted again and it's empty.So you go back on there and you're trying to hit that hook up again. And it's, it's a cycle, right? And all you have to do is, it's not really all you have to do, cuz it's not, it's, it's work. It, it takes pr, it takes work is you have to. Be okay with not being who you want thought you were and doing some, find a mentor, find someone who's at where you want to be, and develop a, a friendship.Friendship, meaning have conversation without intention. Right? Meet people without thinking, what can I get from them? And just hold space. Hold space. Ah, holding space, meaning giving undivided attention and not judging. When you do that, and this can be with anyone, [00:35:00] right? If you do that without the intention, you'll hear yourself reflected back in many different ways, in ways beyond you can even comprehend.Now, imagine doing that in an arena where you are looking to meet someone because you have similar. Interest. Right? It doesn't just have to be at a bar or a club, but let's say you're into pottery, right? Or you're doing some Groupon Eatery event, or you go do movie, movie screenings, right? And you sit and you just have conversations about things that interest you hold space and listen for people, and you'll see how easy it is to hear yourself in things that matter from the other person.Not about sports, not about the movies, and not about TV shows, but about shit that matters, right? You open those doors and while they're scary, you'll see how much return you get back on that stuff. Mm-hmm. , you better De'Vannon: preach. And, and, and by the way, I wanna say I love the nails. You talk with your hands a lot, so I [00:36:00] think it's beautiful that you have those all dead up.So you mentioned earlier that you feel like B D S M and religion are two peas in the same pod. Break that down for me please. Master Joshua: So I define spirituality as how I treat myself through my belief system. My belief system is karma, right? I, what I put out is what I get back, meaning I drink alcohol. I know I shouldn't because it's bad for my body, right?The right thing to do is to not drink alcohol, right? I smoke marijuana. It has medicinal purposes, but it still puts tar in the lungs. I know that, right? Who am I kidding? It's not the right thing to do unless there's di cer certain circumstances, but I do it recreationally, right? There's lack of integrity in how I'm treating my body, and I'm aware of it, right?That spirituality, how I treat myself under my belief system. Religion, as I define it, is how I treat others through my belief system right now, karma, right? If I treat you like an asshole, you'll probably treat me like [00:37:00] an asshole back, right? If I do something nice for you, maybe you'll do ni something nice for me.Without in expectations, right? Intentions without expectations. Now, B D S M, and at this point, all the reli, reli, all the relationships I develop are built off of my belief system that B D S M works as a way to build deep and meaningful relationships, open and honest communication, transparency, integrity, doing the hard stuff that isn't fun, right?Having the hard conversations that aren't fun. That's my belief system. If I approach this with integrity, it's going to come back with integrity. And if I don't feel it, it's not meant to be, but we're not dealing with that level of integrity at this point, that petty shit, right? But you have to unlearn a lot of that stuff because what does it mean to feel safe, right?So how I associate the two is [00:38:00] people choose what religion they put in there. Ju Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Catholicism. Right? That's your belief system. Now the difference between talking, the talking, walking the walk is another big thing, right? Because you can say you're of any of these religions, I can say I practice B D S M, but it doesn't mean I practice that shit safely or correctly.Right? Who's not saying, I'm not using my knowledge to manipulate the situations. Wow. That kind of sounds like religion. , right? because that's it. It's all about human relations. That's all life is about, is human connections. Hmm. What did that was the first time I said that shit like that. Wow. I gotta have to play that shit back.Hopefully De'Vannon: you're on the podcast . What a deep thinker you are. Master Joshua. Yeah. Things come out of us when we need it to. Master Joshua: I found my connection to God through this journey. I mean, it's faith, right? The faith that if I continue doing the right thing, it'll come [00:39:00] back. Mm-hmm. the faith of. . When I need something, it'll be provided.This, the faith of, they won't disappoint me because I won't disappoint them. Right. It's like we've invested a lot of time and energy into building this. And it's not a house of cards. This shit's built out of steel and brick . Oh, that's right. I'm all hyped up, man. Karma: Finally, somebody wants to hear about religion.Master Joshua: It's crazy cuz I, I would've never seen myself here. I'm one of those guys. I was, I'm Latino, right? I grew up in New York, east Harlem. I pushed religion aside at an early age because you couldn't prove it to me. You can't prove it to me. What, how, what are you gonna prove to me? Nothing. What I learned it through was consistency in the return of doing the right thing and that that.Now, I've touched the iron many times, , right? But the point is, am I changing my behavior after I touched the iron, right? We can't just repent on Sunday and say we're all [00:40:00] forgiven. That shit doesn't work like that. We're just, that's a joke, right? Can I give you one philosophy? One theory. One theory. Just one theory.East Easter Sunday, I was coming out of the train and this guy goes, Jesus died for your sins. I'm like, Jesus did not die for my sins. I don't know Jesus. Jesus doesn't know me when they say he died for your sins. I said, maybe. Maybe he died for the sins of inaction, right? Of all the people that watched him, he get crucified for doing the right thing and they fell to do the right thing and that's why he died for their sins of inaction.So maybe the lesson to take away from that shit is if you see something wrong, do the right thing. Karma: Theta says it all the time. , you see something, say something. Master Joshua: Okay. Ah, sorry. I'm gonna drink my water now. . De'Vannon: No, you are so good, man. Like I love, I love me a good deep thinker, you know? And wouldn't I agree with everything that someone is saying?What I, what I always agree with is the passion and the conviction, [00:41:00] you know, behind it. And I can tell you believe every word that's coming outta your mouth. And I know that that translates to your, to your submissive and your slaves and everything like that, you know, confidence. That's something I love in a man.You know, it'll make you follow 'em to the end of the earth. Oh yeah. . Karma: Yeah, Uhhuh. You get it. You know how it works. De'Vannon: You know, so Carmen, so, so something that I read that you wrote in, in one of your profiles, probably on matchmaker, maybe on one of the websites, was that this lifestyle, referring to bds, the B D S M lifestyle is one of the most sensationalized and least understood factions of the L G B T Q I two s plus community.Right. I wanted to dwell on this for a moment, because I know when a lot of people think bd s m, they don't necessarily place that in the plus of the L G BT Qia A so, and I don't, to my knowledge, I mean, [00:42:00] are most people who practice BD s m in our community, is it sometimes separate? Is it always together?Help me understand. Karma: I'm gonna give you my, this is master Joshua's question, but that's his answer. No, no, go ahead. But I'm gonna give you my outlook. P D S M was something I was interested in, but once I began exploring it and living it as some, as, as a submissive, as a slave, it's not a, well, I, this is just how I enjoy fucking, it's not just, this is, it's an inherent part.It's, it's a identity, it's a sexual identity, and it's a personal identity, and it's a setup of how I would like to interact with people on, it has parts of it that are integral to who I am. [00:43:00] It should not be viewed as a I say it's as much of a, an identity as transgender. Transgender is, or gay is, or lesbian ins.It is not a game. It's a peoplehood in a way. . And for me, and, and it, it has very concrete aspects, right? Because for example, if I try to to advertise my book on Amazon so people could see it, so it would get some, you know, just because I exist and I want people to know about the book I wrote obviously.So if I wanna advertise on Amazon, I can't because the word B D S M is not they do not advertise anything that has B D S M in the title because B D S M is a perversion, a sexual thing, [00:44:00] a and they don't run with that, right? But transgender is okay, you transgender has its own category and is promoted as such.And in a way it comes to, I have a truth about myself that I cannot speak. Because V D S M is not acceptable as other sexual identities are. Right? I can't, I can't be who I am openly. I have to, I can't talk about this almost anywhere, right? I am, I'm poly, right? I, I have a husband and a master and I can't talk about that anywhere.And I am kinky, right? I, I, I like sex to involve certain things that other people do not like. And I can't talk about that. And both of these things are huge parts of who I am and what I do with my life, but I don't have any permission to approach it as such. However, there is a [00:45:00] community, and there is, and there are people who do this as, as a lifestyle and as an expression of self, an expression of identity.So in my eyes, it is just a matter of time until B D S M or the leather community or however it ends up calling itself or unifying itself, will become part of that umbrella of the L G B T Q A and it will be the plus, right? It's it somewhere in that plus is our place in humanity. And that's why I identified the book as such, because it really is, if you look at the larger picture of things at history, at what's happening, that's the purpose of my book, to show people that this is, this is an identity and a legit one, and it belongs into a group of people and this is the group it belongs to.De'Vannon: Yeah. That and [00:46:00] master Joshua, was there anything you wanted to add to that? Master Joshua: Yeah, because , I, I have the like the technical stuff, so while. And it's evolved a lot over the last X amount of years. It's, it was hugely segregated between gay pansexual and pansexual is more heteronormative and the queer community you had smaller subsets within those, with the times everyone's evolved.Mostly everyone's evolved to where everyone's promoting inclusivity, but the vibe still changes with every event that you go to. The, what we're trying to do within that event space and what people come to us for is a level of equality where people are just, again, people are just people. We have the, the name of the intensive that we host [00:47:00] is called People Before Kink. And it's like, it's all about getting to know the person next to you because I.I have a personal agenda around B D S M and getting it to fall under the Civil rights protection. Right. To be identified as an identity because I, we're not, we're born this way. Right? We have these desires, these relationship developments. Like I identify as a leather sexual because I need to get to know you and once I get to know you, I'll determine if I like you or not.It has nothing to do with what's between your legs. Nothing to do with what's between your legs. Nothing to do with how you identify. I don't care. Anything else other than are you a good person? And if I can vibe with you, I probably wanna fuck . Right? But it's like, don't put on a mask. Don't lie to me.Right. I [00:48:00] have no agenda with I I have, I, I just wanna, I just wanna witness your existence. Tell me about yourself. And just on that alone will tell me which way we're gonna go. Right. And I, I found that shit out in 2019 at, at Palm Springs pride March. I was standing in the back of the chute. Did I tell you this story?Mm-hmm. and everyone's waving their flags. And I'm tight, right? Because my relationship with my orientation has always been up in the air. I, like, I've, I, I don't identify as straight, I don't identify as gay. I, I'm, I fell somewhere in bi pansexual, like, eh, but it always fell short and everyone's waving their flags and I'm like, but does the genitalia really fucking determine, does this really determine like, what determines for me?And I said, well, I've been doing this process for years now and this is what matters to me, determines whether I wanna hook up with you or not. Cuz I've met enough people where they, once they opened their mouth, I was like, that's a done deal. I just spent all this time meeting them, talking to them, and then I've then fucking [00:49:00] box of rocks.Like I have no interest in them. . So I changed the way I approach to this lifestyle, and this is how we develop relationships. Once you have the taste for being seen and heard, you are not gonna settle for nothing else. If, if you do your sac, your sacra, if you're doing yourself, you're doing yourself harm.Right? By not doing what it, just being seen and heard, right. And learning the value of the roles that we play. So it's like,I believe it's that ingrained into us. It's about once you, we realize that it's about the connection we're making, that is our lifestyle.De'Vannon: I look forward to your book coming out. Master JoshuaMaster Joshua: Yeah, no, we're I'm working on it cuz. Something that just came to mind. I was visiting a, a [00:50:00] mistress friend of mine out in Pennsylvania and she's been doing it as long as I have and it was such an amazing connection to meet someone who is on the same page of, cuz once you've been doing this shit for so long, you've been wearing your mask for too long, your teacher hat.And we've gotten to the point where we've taken it off and it's like, we need to continue our own personal journeys. Dom domination aside, what does that mean? Now we got to share that space and vulnerability with each other was incredible. We also got to share perspectives of what are we doing with this knowledge And what I'm walking away, what I walked away with is creating a power exchange economy where just like our people before kink intensives and our other personal development intensives the idea behind.And all of it is how do we help you find your version of what you're looking for? How do we help you tap into your dominance? How do we help you tap into your submission and what does it look like and what does [00:51:00] structure look like? And all that's gonna be built and taught off of philosophy, safety, and techniques.Right now the book is gonna come out based off of that too, cuz there's a lot to say about this. That I believe bd, s m could be a form of therapy now, not only therapeutic as in the spanking and the relief that a person can get, but therapy with the understanding that the professional dominant understands the responsibility of the space that you hold.The person is coming into you, you're giving them, again, the undivided attention and you're judgment free and you're reflecting back to them that they're okay and that they're not broken. We also have the ability to connect with them on the, on the level of giving our own examples and life experiences that a lot of mental health professionals can't.They have to keep that wall up. So imagine you're sitting with someone who you just told you deepest, darkest secrets and they didn't even bat an eye. And then they said, you know what? I understand. I had an experience like that one time with broom. And then they just lay it out and you're like, holy fuck, I'm [00:52:00] not broken.I'm not wrong. What they've told me for the last 20 years was a lie. , right? Now that I'm talking about that level of therapy and healing, and then you walk into the therapeutic stuff. But we as the professionals have to understand the role that we play in all of it. You can't just say, listen, this is what I'm doing.And the only way you can do that is by doing the fucking work yourself. You have to go and you have to walk and you have to open the closets and you have to look in and you have to cry, and you have to have imposter syndrome e every other month, right? You gotta do all the ugly shit so that you can say the P, the point of suffering is on the other side of all that suffering.You can say, you know what? I see you coming. Keep coming because you can survive. I did it. Just keep going. Right? You can provide that space. Dude, that's all we're doing. That's all we're doing. So that's why I think it's a form of therapy. Well, De'Vannon: after that af after that sermon right there, I think it's about time [00:53:00] I take off my top for you,Master Joshua: I like it. I like it. So now we're all at home. Can I, can I turn on, can I, can I take off my shirt? Whatever it is you wanna do. . De'Vannon: So, sorry, I'm keeping in Karma: mind . De'Vannon: So this is the introductory piece of leather, one of the two, me and my boyfriend got when we started to experiment. And so I wanted to read a couple of chapter titles during this part cause I thought that they were so fun.And you have masochism, knives, rope negotiation, the dungeon , you know, that was my Karma: life at the time. That is my life. That is my life at the time now.De'Vannon: And so I wanted to just read a few definitions. So we were talking, you were talking about how like your bottom and everything like that, and I love your [00:54:00] tattoos and the harness and everything. All very thoughtful and thought out. It was very intriguing to me to find some of the you know, like top and bottom and everything like that, those terms, you know, in the B D S M community.Look, as far as I'm concerned, everyone's welcome. B D S M. Come on and play with us too. You know, as you mentioned in the book, you know, karma, you mentioned, you know, it was like, it's like coming out of the closet, you know, even, you know, like for you and I'm, and I was like, okay. You know, I don't know that I've ever, you know, con stepped to that deep into the BDSM world to realize that people who really like, you know, that sort of lifestyle have have all these barriers too and all this judgment and so, As far as I'm concerned, come on and play with us.I'm so happy that you go to Pride, you know, master Joshua and everything like that. I think it's so inclusive and I, I feel like, like your book, karma is really, really, you know, for people who are in that situation where you were, you know, in a relationship feeling like [00:55:00] something's missing. They don't know what in, you know, how the hell were you gonna tell your husband?And we're gonna talk about that after I go over these Definition, Sarah. So I just wanna read them. So top you say in the context of B D S M A top is a term given to the individual who assumes the controlling or dominant role over a submissive participant or bottom. I get the sense that it doesn't matter if it's male, female, other, it is just like whoever.And I think that that's more comprehensive than how it is. You know, like in the gay community, seeing the definition of seeing is A B D S M scene is a pre-planned space where BD B D S M activities take place. It is als it al it, it, it also includes the participation of B D S M related activities like we were saying earlier.There's a lot of work and planning that goes into this sort of thing. Now, what interested me the most, so, and what I want y'all to talk about is the after. Now, this is particularly interesting to me. It says in B D [00:56:00] S M aftercare is the period of time after a scene in which partners attend to one another's physical, emotional, and psychological needs.Typically, the dominant partner in the scene will be the one caring for the submissive partner or partners. B D S M scenes are often very intense and can often be emotionally and psychologically draining. Physical injuries are also not uncommon during these scenes. Tell me about this aftercare and why it's needed, honey.Karma: Well, first we should source them. This came from kingley.com. The definitions are from kingley.com. And I was learning them as I was going. So for me, how. There was a discussion, how should I put them as, should it be in glossary? Should it be at the end of the book? But I put them as I learned them, right?I would go after, each time I met Joshua, I'm online. I'm doing my research. I'm like, what the fuck happened to me right now? Let me see. And, and that's [00:57:00] and that's how all these things were, were pulled. Now of course he is the professionals, so he is the one who should be talking about what these things are and how you properly employ them.But in the place, in the book that you came about, the place where aftercare was mentioned, it was in the context of a party, right? Master Joshua was playing with another man. And, and it was a very intense scene. It involved breath play. and the person at the other end of it, he was, he was barely standing when we were done.He was not standing when we were done. He was, he was. When they were done master Joshua took him off the restraints and the person just kind of collapsed in, into his arms. And it master Joshua you don't see it here, but he has a pretty smallish frame. And the person [00:58:00] was much bigger than him. And when that person fell into his arms, they both had to sit down cuz master cuz he couldn't hold him.And what happened was he kind of master Joshua, kind of propped him up in his arms and, and put his held his head in his lap and kind of just caressed his head for, and just held his hands and caressed him. And it looked very, it was very tender and very peaceful and not at all something that I.Ever thought of in the context of bdsm. And I think that while the whole party, you know, the whole thing was exciting and mesmerizing, I think that was the moment where I kind of like fell in love both with the lifestyle and probably was Joshua because it was so just tender and, and naked. Like the, it's, it, it had a, a, a gravity [00:59:00] to it of like holding a baby or, or a tenderness, just there was so much warmth and, and empathy in it that it felt like the height of, of, of what a human relationship could be.Right. And there was, so, there was such a sweetness to it, right? The, the other person has surrendered, the conqueror has taken what he, it wasn't clear who was taken and who was given anymore, but there was just a, a comfort there. He was comforting him. . And I was like, how does that work? That person just beat the other person till he was senseless and now he's, he's holding him and he's comforting him.Like, like that big man is, is like a child, like a baby. And it was incredibly sweet. And later I researched it and came up with, what is that? Why, why did that happen? What, what is that about? And so I came across aftercare and I'm like, oh, there's a term for it. Okay, great. And that's the term [01:00:00] I included in my book, but really it's seeing it and, and that that's what got me hooked.I would say more than, more than all the rest because it's so De'Vannon: beautiful. Interesting. So since we're wearing these harnesses, what is it, you know, how, how, how are these used? In the, you know, in, in the community and, you know, why is the leather such a draw? But I see these harnesses everywhere in all the gay bars, you know, everywhere I go.What's the big deal with the harnesses? People want to know. Master Joshua: I think, I think now it's just a symbol, right? I, I think, I think it's a fashion statement is mainstream, which is cool. I'm thankful for it because it allows it to be more okay to go out in public like it granted I have a lot more leather than, than, than a piece or two, but being able to normalize bd, s m like 50 shades good, bad or, or different?It, it put B D S M [01:01:00] into the spotlight. Yes. As time has progressed, and we have other artists who have come forward with harnesses and other le leather outfits. I mean, there's designers out there that rock leather 24 7. I think it gets lost in the fashion that sometimes you can use these to fuck Right.And use those. You see the bar across your chest, you have a similar one on the back. Yeah. Right. And they're made outta leather cuz leather is very durable. Right. So imagine being off on all fours and using the harness as straps. As handles. Okay. You can also, you can also lead around on the leash. Kinda like a range.Karma: Yeah. right Master Joshua: On a horse. Nah. And yeah, you're not going anywhere cuz those are built to holdDe'Vannon: Yes. . Master Joshua: I mean they look cool too. Right. But like, the one I haven't like here in the back, my,[01:02:00] it's, it's it's meant to , it's meant to hold, to be Karma: sturdy. That was the first time I actually got to grab the shotgun . De'Vannon: I'm so happy. Oh, that's how it's . I'm so happy that was a part of your first time experience. . Master Joshua: Look at that. Four years later, five years later, we still happen. Seriously, . Yeah. Put a strap on.De'Vannon: So then the last thing I wanna talk about, and I thank y'all so much for your time today. I appreciate it immensely. Time is one resource that we cannot get back or create anymore. So I appreciate that when people sit down to give of their time, to me it means everything. And I humbly am thankful for it and I humbly accept it.So in that, in that last cha, you know, chapter in the book, you know, you were really, really giving a lot of like heavy emotion. You know, you were talking about how the burden of this, I guess you could say, like [01:03:00] maybe the secret life or the life you wanted to live, you know, was getting to you, you were like, I so unhappy.and then you've got an exacto knife, and then you begin to cut yourself. And you showed these, these cut wounds to master Joshua. And without really saying much, you know, he, he did. You know, he, he affirmed that he was going to take on this problem for you and then his solution was to Cru was to make you his submissive and to be enslave them for you to become, for him to become your master.You know, in the book you talk about how you were so, like relieved that you've gotten down and kissed his feet and gratitude. So, because I felt like this book is really, really written for people in like similar situations, whether they may find themselves in those situations today or in the future, I really want you to talk about just how unhappy you [01:04:00] were that it brought you to the point of self-mutilation and how what he offered you.Seemed to be like instant relief for you. Karma: WellI was cheating on my husband and I was living a lie. AndI, Joshua and I were too deeply involved. For me to walk away from it, walking away from it was just, it, it felt too much like walking away from my own story. Right. I was, I was invested in it. I wanted it, I did not wanna walk away from it. And every time I walked away from it, it just resulted in me coming back because this was, this is my story, this is what I'm going through.It's not. At some point, I stopped viewing it as a mistake and started viewing it [01:05:00] as my own personal odyssey. I cannot walk away. Uh, It's just like a hero walking away from his movie. You can, there's always a point where he wants to, there's always a point where he tries to, but , he's in the movie, so he stays and he sees the, the, the adventure through.So I couldn't walk away from that. But I also did not have the, the courage to step up to my husband and tell him, this is what I'm going to, because I see I'm, I was, I came from a, I didn't know much about this world going in. And for me, to me, the fact that Joshua has other partners, other women meant that he's not all in there for me, right?He has other women. It's not, I'm probably not that important. So how can I risk my whole family life? . You know, there, there was always that thought of like, you know, if I, if I, if I fail [01:06:00] and, and my husband leaves me, and like if I tell him the truth and it ends up in a divorce mm-hmm. , how am I gonna, will Joshua be there for me?Will there be anything left? Like well Joshua be there for me, you know, tomorrow. like, cuz I don't, it wasn't really clear how much, how, how deep his commitment was. Because coming from a monogamous world, how do you judge commitment? You judge it by you're my only one, right? That's not true. In this case you judge it by I love you more than anybody.It's not true in this case. I, you judge it by I'll give you all. My time, I'll give you it. It just doesn't work that way when you're in a, in, in other kinds of [01:07:00] partnerships. And that made me very wary of him. Plus again, he, he was going through a lot of difficult, his world was forming at that time.He was going through a lot of d

Brendan Kumarasamy is a public speaking coach and founder of Mastertalk. He teaches executives and coaches to become top 1% communicators. He completed over 300 Podcast guest appearances, 200 on Podmatch in 2022, giving him the #1 guest spot on the platform.In this session, you'll learn how to stand out as a podcast guest and how to get more hosts saying YES!Today's episode is a recording from the After Hours Entrepreneur Pro Group. This year, we're bringing in experts on topics to share insights to help you grow your business.Join here: https://podcast-savants.mn.co/share/yNcBshew-83P1nBP?utm_source=manualMastertalk on youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBYFP4mZLQovr7W6Si6sueAFree training rockstarcommunicator.com: https://www.rockstarcommunicator.com/Pro Member info:Jonathan Flight: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-flight-fcmo/Hi Braiden, I hope you're having a great week.My name's Brenden and I'm the founder of MasterTalk, a YouTube channel I started to help the world master the art of public speaking.Great to see what you're doing with the “Prosperous Life” podcast. Great focus on diving into hot topics of today's market.I'm reaching out to your show to help your audience navigate how to present effectively online and share my free resources with folks during this difficult time.Let me know if you'd be interested in having me on as a podcast guest for your show and I hope you're staying safe and healthy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KJVYCokY9M&t=0sBrendenp.s.: Link to my best podcast guest appearance to date (Entrepreneurs on Fire by John Lee Dumas), thanks; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-leverage-effective-communication-skills-to-grow/id564001633?i=1000589192277

Chris Myles is a fellow blogger, YouTuber, and Host of the Blogger Evolution Podcast. Specializing in SEO, YouTube, and podcasting, Chris is shouting from the rooftops about how anyone can "break free of the matrix" and learn to create their own income through 4 keys to success. Key to Success #1: Paying off Debt and Providing as a Father Key to Success #2: Going Full Time and ditching my 9-5 Key to Success #3: Overcoming Struggles and Making Changes Key to Success #4: Sharing my Passion With Others Ideas and Questions Discussed: Building Wealthy with Website Investing and Internet Marketing How to Turn Your Hobby into a Full-Time Income with Affiliate Marketing, Blogging and YouTube How to Build a Passive Income through Entrepreneurship How to Build An Affiliate Marketing Business that Replaces Your Current Income Financial Independence and Credit Card Hacking Why did you leave your $60k/year job to pursue a side hustle? Do you have to be a good writer to make money blogging? What is Website Investing? How do you find time to grow a blog with a family/kids? Can you blog anonymously? Without showing your face online? Isn't Blogging Saturated? Do you need a big audience to make money online? Do you have to be computer savvy to blog? How do you get people to your blog? Chris can be reached at: https://www.BloggerEvolution.com Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "Airbnb” of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify. Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@drchrisloomdphd

We're talking about dating after divorce and abusive relationships. How do I start dating again? How long should I wait? What about those dating apps? What are some red flags? I share my most regrettable relationships after my abusive marriage and lessons I learned. This is Part 1 of a 2-part series. Transcript below! * Help me plan this year's podcast! Please fill out my short survey HERE. Link Tree Website: https://dswministries.org Email: diana@dswministries.org Social media links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DSW-Ministries-230135337033879 Twitter: https://twitter.com/DswMinistries YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgIpWVQCmjqog0PMK4khDw/playlists Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dswministries/ https://dswministries.org/subscribe-to-podcast/ Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, Listen Notes Keep in touch with me! Email subscribe to get my handpicked list of the best resources for abuse survivors! https://thoughtful-composer-4268.ck.page #abuse #trauma Mentoring https://youtu.be/WWgkERpkIoY An easy way to help my ministry: https://dswministries.org/product/buy-me-a-cup-of-tea/ A donation link: https://dswministries.org/donate/ Affiliate links: Can't travel to The Holy Land right now? The next best thing is Walking The Bible Lands! Get a free video sample of the Bible lands here! https://www.walkingthebiblelands.com/a/18410/hN8u6LQP Get one free month of Blubrry podcast hosting with the promotional code: FAITHFUL http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=FAITHFUL Get quality podcast guests and interviews from PodMatch! Get paid to be a host! Sign up below: https://podmatch.com/signup/faithful Visit my friends at the Heal Thrive Dream Boutique for some cool T-shirts, jewelry and other merch! Simply share the discount code we created just for you and receive a 10% discount on your order!  DIANA98825  https://www.htd-boutique.com/ Bible Study Notebook From Karen Robinson! Check it out!  https://www.htd-boutique.com/products/bible-planner-for-survivors-includes-prayer-requests-sermon-notes-bible-study-notes-and-other-note-pages-to-enrich-your-spiritual-life Transcript: EP 117 Dating Trainwrecks Part 1 [00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. Brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. [00:00:26] Now, here is Diana. [00:00:34] Hello everyone. Welcome. I hope that you are well. Everybody, we have joined the club. Brian and I are sick with Covid this week. We have dodged Covid for the last two years. In fact, we haven't been sick with either a cold or a [00:01:00] flu or anything else in the last two years, and unfortunately we have it now. [00:01:08] So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about our experience. If you don't wanna hear about our experience with Covid, go ahead and fast forward five minutes. But I started feeling some symptoms at work at my temp job. And everybody around me is sick and it's a very small office and we're all jammed in there like sardines, and it's warm. There's not a whole lot of circulation. And there's not a whole lot of cleaning products like in the lunchroom. [00:01:41] There aren't any Clorox wipes to wipe off the table you were sitting at or wipe the sink area near the microwave. And I knew when I went in there that I'm gonna get sick. My previous temp job, I went [00:02:00] into the office and everything was very spread out. It was very airy. There was airflow, air conditioning, and there was plenty of cleaning products. [00:02:10] If you touched a surface, you were required to wipe it down.

About: Brian Thorp is founder and CEO of Wealthtender, an online marketplace helping people find the best financial advisors and educators for their individual needs. In 2019, Brian left his high six-figure financial services career in Texas to launch a startup. Everyone called him "crazy", but he said, "YOLO". Now he embodies time, financial, location, and health freedom, working remotely from a small beach town in Mexico or Miami, while building a business to help millions of Americans achieve their financial goals. Everyone's finances have been impacted by the pandemic and the need for useful advice and guidance has become more important than ever. Brian believes that there's never been a better time to find help with money matters from someone they can trust who truly understands their individual needs. He is a huge fan of technology, but when it comes to financial advice and guidance, Brian believes that artificial intelligence is no substitute for actual intelligence. Everyone deserves help with money matters from someone they can trust, no matter their income or stage of life.  With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress. Ideas and Questions Discussed During the Episode: There's no such thing as a five-star financial advisor. Or is there? Not artificial intelligence. Actual intelligence. Don't settle for less with your money. The financial advisor you're about to hire lives 3,000 miles away.  And that's ok! Did you know: Unlike lawyers and doctors, the Securities and Exchange Commission has always prohibited financial advisors from marketing their services using client ratings and reviews. But this is expected to change soon. What should our audience be prepared to look for (and look out for!) when this change takes effect? What's it like building a business from a small Mexican beach town during a pandemic? When does it make sense for our listeners to hire a financial coach? When does it make sense for our listeners to hire a financial advisor? Most people still hire a financial advisor who lives in their neighborhood. As we live through and emerge from the pandemic, does this still make sense? What's your opinion on being a do-it-yourself investor vs. hiring a financial advisor? How can people without much money access free or low cost help from financial professionals? Why should people consider subscribing to financial blogs and podcasts? How does a financial coach compare to a financial advisor? How can our listeners benefit from online financial tools and apps? Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify. Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chL1357

On today's episode I have the pleasure to interview Erik DaRosa, Founder and CEO of From Survivor to Thriver LLC. Erik DaRosa, known by friends as “Yoda,” is the Founder and CEO of From Survivor to Thriver, a mental health advocate and speaker and Co-host of the popular From Survivor to Thriver podcast. Through his work, Erik is upending the front-end of the mental health space and building a bridge between those who seek resources and those who provide both help and hope. Each week on his podcast, he tackles different mental health topics through honest and relatable "kitchen table" conversations with real people who are helping to shatter mental health stigmas and find their voices. He aims to normalize discussions around mental health topics and remind his audience they are not alone, there is strength in community and "it's perfectly ok to not always be ok." Follow him using the ff links - WEBSITE - https://www.buzzsprout.com/2043860 FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/erik.darosa.7 LINKEDIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikdarosa/ INSTAGRAM- https://www.instagram.com/skisherpa/ TIKTOK - https://www.tiktok.com/@fromsurvivortothriver If you've found the Life With Francy podcast helpful Follow, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts Like this Show? Please Leave us a review here - even one sentence helps! Post a screenshot of you listening on Instagram & Tag us so we can Thank you Personally! STAY IN TOUCH LINKTREE INSTRAGRAM FACEBOOK Sign Up with Podmatch using this Link or paste this URL https://podmatch.com/signup/lifewithfrancy Hope you have a blessed day. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francelyn-devarie/support --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francelyn-devarie/support

About: Tom Antion (King of "Kaching") dubs himself as an internet multimillionaire "guy next door". He is the host of the podcast, "Screw the Commute". Tune into this fun conversation where we discuss: “Internet Marketing: A Three Pronged Attack on a 7 Figure Income” “Passive Income - FAST!” “Top Ten Ways to Make Money Speaking” “The American Entrepreneur” “How to Become a Multimillionaire, but Not Act Like It” You've said you couldn't stop the money coming in to your checking account if you tried. How can you justify that? How can you make your hobbies tax deductible? You say you know many ways to make money online without even having a website. Can you give us a few? How do you make a $50,000.00 video production about your business for only pennies on the dollar? Why are you called the King of Kaching? What is Buttcamp? You've never had a job. What advice would you give to people that want to get out of their dreaded JOB. How has your speaking career enhanced your online business? You have the only licensed, dedicated Internet Marketing school in the country. How did that come about? Tell us about your retreat center and TV Studio. Tom can be reached at: https://www.screwthecommute.com/automatefree Disclaimer: Not advice. Educational purposes only. Not an endorsement for or against. Results not vetted. Due your due diligence. Click here to join PodMatch (the "AirBNB" of Podcasting): https://www.joinpodmatch.com/drchrisloomdphd Thank you to our sponsor, CityVest: https://bit.ly/37AOgkp Thank you to our advertisers on Spotify. Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/chl1357

Nicky Billou is the #1 International Best Selling Author of the book: Finish Line ThinkingTM: How to Think and Win Like a Champion, The Thought Leader's Journey: A Fable of Life, and The Power Of Connecting: How To Activate Profitable Relationships By Serving Your Network. He is an in-demand and highly inspirational speaker to corporate audiences such as RBC, Lululemon, Royal LePage, and TorStar Media. He is an advisor and confidante to some of the most successful and dynamic entrepreneurs in Canada. He is the co-founder of eCircle Academy (www.eCircleAcademy.com ) where he runs a yearlong Mastermind & Educational program working with Coaches, Consultants, Corporate Trainers, Clinic Owners, Realtors, Mortgage Brokers and other service-based Entrepreneurs, positioning them as authorities in their niche. He is the creator of the Thought Leader/Heart LeaderTM Designation.As the host of the #1 podcast in the world on Thought Leadership, The Thought Leader Revolution (www.TheThoughtLeaderRevolution.com ) Nicky has interviewed over 300 of the world's top Thought Leaders, such as:•Astronaut Chris Hadfield•George Ross of the Hit TV Series The Apprentice•Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank•Supermodel & Business Mogul Kathy Ireland•Ivan Misner — Founder Of BNI•Graham Weihmiller — CEO of BNI•John Maxwell — World's #1 Leadership Author•NYT #1 Bestselling Author Seth Godin•Marie Forleo — Oprah's Coach•Jack Canfield: Author Of Chicken Soup For The Soul•Scott Adams: Creator of Dilbert

INTRODUCTION: David Hernandez is the founder of Body By Purpose, creator of the Elite Champion Fitness Academy and host of the podcast, Listen, You're Not Defeated.  He is passionate, inspiring, andmotivated. He believes that each of us was designed to live a life of purpose. He believes in one core component in everything he teaches... providing VALUE. So that men and women can learn the principles needed to achieve a healthy, fit and fulfilling life. His life's mission is to empower OVER 1MILLION people to live a better life, healthy, fit and free! After losing hischildhood best friend to obesity at the age of 21, David promised himself thatno one he loved or cared about was ever going to die of obesity if he couldhelp it.  INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to): ·      Super Sickening Health Advice·      Male Self Esteem Issues·      Obesity Concerns·      Emotional Eating·      Our Relationship With Food·      Fitness Industry Tea·      Lagging Indication Of Lab Tests·      The Benefits Of Weight Loss·      The Stress Of Weight On Internal Organs·      The Mental Effect On Exercise  CONNECT WITH DAVID: Website: http://www.DavidHernandez.coWebsite: http://www.EmotionalEatingSupport.comYouTube: https://bit.ly/3k6mW3tFacebook: www.facebook.com/davekhernandezTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/davekhernandezInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/davekhernandezLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davekhernandez/  DIETICIAN RECOMMENDED INFO: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/adult-overweight-obesity/health-riskshttps://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/effects/index.html CONNECT WITH DE'VANNON: Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.comWebsite: https://www.DownUnderApparel.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sexdrugsandjesusYouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCMFacebook:   https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopixLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannonPinterest: https://www.pinterest.es/SexDrugsAndJesus/_saved/Email: DeVannon@SDJPodcast.com  DE'VANNON'S RECOMMENDATIONS: ·      Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)o  https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370o  TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs ·      OverviewBible (Jeffrey Kranz)o  https://overviewbible.como  https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible ·      Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed (Documentary)o  https://press.discoveryplus.com/lifestyle/discovery-announces-key-participants-featured-in-upcoming-expose-of-the-hillsong-church-controversy-hillsong-a-megachurch-exposed/ ·      Leaving Hillsong Podcast With Tanya Levino  https://leavinghillsong.podbean.com  ·      Upwork: https://www.upwork.com·      FreeUp: https://freeup.net VETERAN'S SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS ·      Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org·      American Legion: https://www.legion.org ·      What The World Needs Now (Dionne Warwick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg  INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?: ·      PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon  TRANSCRIPT: David Hernandez[00:00:00]You're listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De'Vannon and I'll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what's really going on in your life.There is nothing off the table and we've got a lot to talk about. So let's dive right into this episode.De'Vannon: Good morning everybody, and welcome to the Sex Drugs in Jesus podcast. So glad to have you with me today. David Hernandez is the founder of Body by Purpose, creator of the Elite Champion Fitness Academy and host of the podcast. Listen, you're not defeated. Join David and I today as we get deep and heavy about obesity, our relationship with food, mental health, self-esteem, and so much more.David [00:01:00] lost a friend to obesity and had a near death experience himself,and so this episode is quite emotional.Please listen and share. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Sex Drugs in Jesus podcast. I love having all of you. I love having sex with all of you. I love doing drugs with all of you, and I love talking about Jesus with all of you. David, how are you? David: I'm doing fantastic. My man's doing, doing a, a great morning here and excited to be here with you.Thanks for having me. De'Vannon: Hells fuck yeah. So y'all, David Hernandez is in Florida. He's the founder of Body By Purpose. He's gonna tell you what that is in just a moment. He's the creator of the Elite Champion Fitness Academy. He's gonna tell you what that is in just a moment. He's a certified personal trainer, a certified nutrition specialist, the member of the International Sports and Science [00:02:00]Association.He's gonna tell me what that is in a moment, cause I'm most curious about it. He's the host of. Of of the podcast called Listen, you're Not Defeated, and he's gonna give us some tea about that too. So I'll walk you, I'll walk you through everything that you gotta tell us. So first, what is Body by Purpose?David: Yeah. Awesome. And look, I believe our body was designed with the specific purpose, and each one of our purposes are unique. And if our body isn't aligned to our purpose, to our desire, to our lifestyle, to the things that we desire to achieve and do in life, well, we may fall short of that because our body is the instrument that takes us there.right? It's what makes us travel to that destination in life. And so I believe that when we align our body to that purpose, we can truly become unstoppable and ultimately able to achieve whatever we desire to achieve. So that was critical with me. I was, I was kind of thinking about what name do I wanna [00:03:00] give?Because I believe that health is bigger than us, right? And if we can include purpose in all that we do, well, then we can make our body achieve that as well. De'Vannon: So is this like a nonprofit? Is it, you know, like your fitness organization? What is it? David: Yeah, it's my company where I run all of my fitness through.But primarily it's also A, a kind of like a, like a motto that I, that I want people to adopt in their own life, so to speak, because it's a message, right? And I think that when we put a message or a meaning to everything that we do, then we can enhance the value of what we're doing. And I believe that our body is a critical tool.It's an instrument that oftentimes we ignore. We're now starting to talk a lot about, a lot about the mind, and we talk a lot about our emotions and we talk a lot about many things, and the body's also talked about, [00:04:00] however, I believe the body is not presented in the correct. I believed oftentimes when we look at the media, when we look at how we should look, there's a specific stigma.There's a specific style. Right now we're getting back into the really, really skinny look, and oftentimes if the look or the body, again, isn't specifically aligned to your purpose, then it doesn't matter what body you have, it's gonna ultimately keep us from achieving our ultimate desires in.De'Vannon: Okay. All right, cool.So what is the Elite Champion Fitness Academy? David: That's the academy that I put together where I utilize to train all my students. So instead of me telling you what to do, I believe in educating you to take control of your own health. So it's a platform that I have. All of the years that I've been in fitness, 15 plus [00:05:00] years, all of the education that I've acquired, I've condensed it to a very specific core component system, so to speak.And in that academy, I put all of the principles that I believe are necessary for one to achieve the ultimate health that they desire in one place. And so that's basically my coaching platform that I put together, and it's what I utilize with all of my students. De'Vannon: Fabulous. Now, what is the International Sports and Science Association?David: That's where I got my certification from. It's a certification education company or a certification company where you can get your nutrition certification, your personal trainer, asso certification and all things related to health basically. De'Vannon: All right. Now they had me atk. I was like, okay,So the podcast, listen, you're not defeated. What is its premise? David: The premise is really to tell [00:06:00] people that doesn't matter what situation that you're in, you're really not defeated. And oftentimes as humans, we have one area or a few areas where we might feel defeated in, and that might be nutrition, that might be in health.I can't release weight. That might be in mindset. I don't know how to take control of certain negative thoughts to get me there. So it's a lifestyle show where we basically cover many areas to ultimately help you live a not defeated life. De'Vannon: Now, when I was researching that on your website it's the verbiage kind of makes it seem like it's geared toward women.Is that still the case or has it expanded to include. David: It's expanded to include everyone, and it's really now to the place of, well, what is your ultimate desire, right? In life, which initially when we started it, it was geared very specifically towards only health. But I realize that in that [00:07:00] health is covering all areas, right?It's not just a physical health, it's also a mental health. It's also emotional health. It's also spiritual health. And health is bigger than us because it does impact everything that we do. So through our development and kind of going episode to episode, we've now been able to diversified and expand it to anyone that wants to basically just live a freedom lifestyle or a lifestyle of freedom.for proper English, De'Vannon: oh, fuck, proper English . One thing, one thing I despise about this country. Is that we don't have like an actual language of our own. That's right. You know, we speak English well, that came from fucking England and fuck the king off with his head. Yeah. . You know, may I think that, I think that Mad Queen might've had a few Few.Hmm. A few, few, few good points there. [00:08:00] I don't know. I just it would be, I just love it that every other, basically every other country has its own fucking language. Yeah. You know, Australia at least has a goddamn accent, you know, and at least they have an accent, you know, over there in the uk, but pretty much every other country, you know, they have and in that their own language and that language really unites them, you know?Yeah. And everything like that. It's like, it's like, it's like when you're on a job, but you learn to speak that occupation's language and it bonds you. Mm-hmm. , you know, David: I feel like, I mean, it's an essence, right? I believe it's, it's an essence that makes up a country and it makes up an identity type. And look, I, I think holding onto that, that conversation there, I think it's the same thing for all language in terms of who we are as people, right?Because when we look at language, it, it's the, it's an essence that, that identifies something or someone, a country. [00:09:00] And I believe that in America, oftentimes we don't have our own unique language, meaning we strive to sometimes be like somebody else, to copy somebody else, right? To, to, to, to live the life that somebody else has.And we sometimes forget about, well, what is our core essence that we can adopt to live our own life and set our own standard, so to speak, in what we want in our life? So I just thought De'Vannon: I'd throw that in. Feel free to throw in anything you want, man. So I love, I love how how deep of a thinker you are. And the reason why I really wanted to have you on my show is that that passion, you, you talk like a preacher, like you have like one of the good preachers, y'all, not one of the rapy ones or one of the molesters , not one of the grif ones.Good one. So you have like that certain fire and intensity and passion and I could tell that you're living, like you're calling [00:10:00] and you even fused that into health and fitness and so Right. Thought it would be a unique take. I could have gotten anybody on here to talk about health and fitness, but I, I was, I was needing that, you know, I was looking for that, that.And so, which you have that spark. And so I'm curious when I Oh, you're welcome. And so when I was read, you know, researching you and everything I saw where you in the beginning of your fitness journey, you would go to the gym and you, you start up like the big muscley guys or whatever like that and mm-hmm.and I read where you were able to extract insight and wisdom and tips that you said that you felt like the personal trainers and things like that either didn't know or they weren't sharing. So I would like you to share with us some sweet ass David: secret. Yeah. Look, it really, what I've learned through I guess, looking at many bodybuilders life is that they've got [00:11:00] two to three things very clear for the.They've given meaning to everything that they're doing in the gym. Like it has a certain value and it has a certain standard of meaning for them. It's what drives them. It's what gets them up. It's what keeps them on diets for months and years on end. It's what keeps them committed to a specific outcome.So much so that even if they don't get it, they live satisfied because they know that the process and the journey has gotten them close to it or to achieving it. Right? And when I look at health, I look at, well, I started asking questions and saying, well, why is it that people don't stick to the journey?Why is it that people fall off? Why is it that they have, they're able to commit to other things, but yet they fall off? When we're talking about health, and I really come back to this piece, they've either not given health the value. That is necessary for them [00:12:00] to continue, or they've put other things at greater value that are overvalued or have greater value than they've put on health.And then the second component is really looking at, well, they haven't given value or they don't find value in themselves. They don't feel that they might be worth it. They feel that they might not be worthy enough. They might feel that they're not deserving of having the health or the life that they desire.So that was a big one. And I said, okay, so if this bodybuilder is living in this way and he's given this meaning to them, that's keeping them stuck, well, why can't we incorporate that to just any average person? To help them in their own health and fitness journey. Right? So that was one. The second, the second thing that I learned, the second sort of secret, right, which is really not a secret, but is their commitment to process, meaning their determination and dedication to the [00:13:00] sport, right?Or to their body or to their life. Because we look at, well, what does it take to get a body so greatly proportioned, so immaculate, right? So precise in a sense that it comes down to a science they're determined to achieve, that they're dedicated to that process. And oftentimes when we're looking at an average person, right, or, or, or a, a person that is on their own journey, sometimes that might be lacking the dedication, the determination, and it help, it doesn't allow them to get to their ultimate goal and destination.Right. And then thirdly, a lot of it was learning how they actually work out some of the methodologies in terms of how they're sculpting the bodies, how they're actually doing certain movement patterns and taking that muscle to failure and making the muscle grow through increasing the blood flow in that body part, right?And [00:14:00] ultimately reducing down to as little body fat as possible. So it, it brought a lot of insight that I was able to incorporate and look at, okay, if I'm not training a bodybuilder, how can I still incorporate some of these principles or some of these things that they do to a average person that is looking to maybe release 20 pounds, 30 pounds, 10 pounds, 50 pounds, a hundred pounds?Right. And it was some, some of the core essences that I believe have really impacted many people in their, in their own journey. De'Vannon: You know what I'm curious about? I don't really think like a male. I identify more with feminine energy, so I think more like a woman on mills dating. Okay. Right. And so I'm curious cuz all of this, everything that you said is like, so like meaningful and deep in terms of physique and stuff like that.So from talking to other guys and within yourself, like what are some of the things that motivate men to go, [00:15:00] you know, to work out, to get, you know, really, really defined bodies? We're gonna talk about like the obesity and everything. Yeah. You know, in just a second. weight loss goals can be different, you know?Absolutely. Going from 300 pounds to one 90 is like a huge deal, but you may not be like chiseled and well defined, but you are in super great shape, especially relative to what you were mm-hmm. . And I know that once you get like a six pack and eight pack, a nine pack or whatever, every guy I know who has that, the, if he gets out of the gym for like a month, that damn thing goes away.Mm-hmm. . And so so whenever, so they don't go more than like a week out of the gym and whenever they travel, they take their asses over the Gold Gym, fitness or whatever, like, like religion. So when I look at a man like that, I think, okay, he's hot. This is like a sexual thing. Mm-hmm. . But the, but from hearing you describe this, and from the way I have [00:16:00] observed other guys, I don't know that it's like a sexual thing.And so I don't, so how, how do men look at, how do y'all look at your own David: body? A lot of it is driven by ego in a sense that because we as men are achievers, right, strivers, we want to be in that place of, of chasing after things, achieving the provider at the home or whatever that might be for you.It really is driven oftentimes by. How can I be the best version of myself or how can I be better than him? Or how can I be better than myself to become better? Or oftentimes it's, I used to be this type of person that kept me in a low self-esteem state that wasn't who I wanted to be, for example. I can really identify to that.Growing up, I was super. [00:17:00] I was given a nickname, skinny. My dad used to call me that he didn't know. He thought it was a good thing for him, but for me, it would affect my self-esteem. It would affect the way I would view myself because I did not like the way I looked. I was excessively for my standard skinny.I would be made fun of because I wasn't able to possibly perform, be good at sports because I was a specific physique type, right? And I always found myself having to prove myself, proving myself that I was able to play football, proving myself that I could become the best athlete, proving myself that I was much more than what my body said.And so that took me into, okay, so how can I change that? I started reading magazines. I started looking at these bodybuilders and these physiques and saying, oh my gosh, who is this? Can I possibly achieve that? Then I look at their back stories, and many of these bodybuilders were the same way. They were skinny.They were very thin, they were bullied, they were made fun of. [00:18:00] And then that drove them to change that. So oftentimes it, it really comes down to each person's unique story, but I believe deep down inside there is something of that nature that is driving them, either growing up excessively skinny, low self-esteem, maybe being bullied, or it can ultimately come down to an ego-based drive that's just like, I wanna be the best.How can I achieve that wall? Let me be intimidating. Let me have these muscles because it's gonna give me a certain look or a certain presence, right? Wherever I go, that when I walk into a room, I can change or capture the environment based on how I look.Okay. No, I can't speak for every male. Right? But that's what oftentimes I've, I, I believe is, is the reasons. De'Vannon: I mean I think you might speak for quite a [00:19:00] lot of them, especially men who, who are more on the masculine side, you know, and you know, cause even like the gay world mm-hmm. , you know, your tops and everything.You know, you, you have your tops, your bottom tops are like, the dudes bottoms are like the girls, you know, for lack of better. Right. References. Even them, they get like this thing about being too thin. Mm-hmm. , you know, for me, I've always been able to keep a weight on, so I've always been like, okay, how can I get this shit offYeah. But I, but I didn't wanna be muscley or nothing like that. I wanted it like a nice, you know, curvy like, you know, womanly physique and stuff like that. And I, I guess it's just, and I guess it's just because I don't think like a guy like it, it was, it, it has been absolutely perplexing to me in my existence.Why somebody who's not overweight. Who's like super skinny has a problem with that. Yeah. You know, [00:20:00] I, you know, hearing you explain it helps me to digest that better, because all my life I'm like, okay, how can I get down to, to being, you know, skinny mm-hmm. , you know, and and then the skinny guys are like, I'm not enough.You know, I want to be more. And, and I'm all like, boy, don't you know, you fine as hell. What do you want? Like, what more do you want? So, and then perspective. Perspective, right? And then the relationships. That I've had, you know, the, the, the, the dude, he's all like, he thinks he's too thin. I'm all like, okay, whatever you need to do.I'm not judging your body, but they have it in their head. So much likes saying like, I can't, I just can't be thin. I need to like, have muscle or whatever. And so I don't know if that's like the xy chromosome primal. If I need to defend myself, I need to be bigger than the other person too. Maybe some of that's getting worked in there.I believe David: so. Yeah. And, and oftentimes it can become a coping mechanism [00:21:00] to something like when we're talking about life experiences, right? We're talking about emotional triggers, emotional pain, trauma, right? Something in experience that causes some type of impact to us emotionally or psychologically will produce a stimulant to search for a coping mechanism.And as humans, we all need them to survive to allow us to release whatever emotional impact we've received by X situation or X circumstance, right? And oftentimes, if it's body dysmorphia, right, which we can kind of label that as as well. I see myself skinny. I see myself skinny, but dude, you're not right.In our head, we create that dysmorphia type where we may never be satisfied or we just see ourselves at something else. And oftentimes when we're chasing after this and we fall into this coping action physique wise, [00:22:00] it can become a trap because again, we're never satisfied. I remember on my body building journey, it didn't matter how big I was.I wanted to be bigger. It didn't matter how good I looked, I wanted to look better. It didn't matter how many compliments I received of, dude, you have a great physique. No, no, no, but this, but that, right? We have a tendency of finding the flaws of not being satisfied, and that ultimately is caused in my belief by finding a coping action in the wrong things or releasing our set circumstances that we're feeling emotionally satisfying them or trying to satisfy them with the wrong things.if that makes sense. Oh, it De'Vannon: makes perfect sense. And that's a huge reason why I do all the work that I do to try to, to get people to understand themselves. Because so often we don't. And we think we do. Yeah. Yeah. So you hear me say all the time, people, why do you think, what do you think? Why do you feel [00:23:00] what you feel?Where do you get that belief and value system from? I love that. Is it valid? I love that. Yeah. I, I went the opposite direction. No matter how thin I got back in the day. It wasn't thin enough. I lost so much weight that I couldn't fit the men's jeans in the store that I would go to. So I had to start wearing wow jeans as I was down like a 26th waistline.And I was like, I need to be thinner, you know? And so so I guess that's like how the girls, that's how we do. And thin enough, the boys, you're not big enough. Oh my God, help us to just figure this shit out, , . David: But look, if we are doing things for the wrong reasons, that can quickly spiral to that. So that's why every time I'm doing a consultation, right, and I'm talking to a potential client, it's why do you wanna release weight?Why do you wanna build muscle? Because if the reason why you're doing it is an incorrect reason, right? Just to give it a, a name, to give it a [00:24:00] category. If it's placed for the wrong reasons or it's placed on the wrong things, that is when things can quickly become destructive. Mm-hmm. . It's why sometimes I even ask myself, right?And now, now we're get, I'm getting hypocritical because this is me and this is how I tend to look at things based on my understanding and knowledge. I become hypercritical about certain things, and it's okay, I wanna have this whole pizza. Why do I wanna have this whole pizza? I wanna have this cake. Why do I wanna have this cake?Right. And it might be, I don't sit there and ask myself this question. It happens here now because of the practice that I've had. But if we can get into a place to, to, like you said, ask ourselves questions. Why is it that I want this? Why is it that I wanna do that? Why do then we can stop and really think, is this really necessary?Is this what I want? Which is why [00:25:00] one of the questions that I teach my students to ask them is, is this choice that I'm, I'm about to do in line with who I wanna be in line with, who I wanna become? Mm-hmm. in line with the life that I desire. If we can practice, like you said, to ask ourselves these questions, I believe that we can really get good at taking control of our impulses, of our reactions, of our emotions, right.That sometimes drive us or lead us to making choices that later we can regret. . Mm-hmm. De'Vannon: you preaching now. Amen. And amen. . So, so you mentioned consultation. So tell, tell us about exactly the, so what, what kind of, so you have clients, are they seeing you in person? Is it virtual? Clearly they're coming because they want to change their physique.So kind of walk us through what that looks like and if people would reach out to you through your website. Like how does a, what exactly are you offering here? David: Yeah. Before, [00:26:00] before Covid, a lot of it was in person and it was very exclusive, right? It was like only a certain type of people. Only certain, certain instances would I take them.And after Covid I realized, look, I, I, I could be impacting more, right? And really the reason why I do everything that I do, it was to be able to help people avoid. Going through what my best friend went through, and we can touch on that story story a little later, but it was to support and to help people.And when this epidemic happened, it was a great opportunity for me to then make that expansion. So now everything is virtual. Everything is now online based, right through the academy, and we've got several different types of formats. We have a one-on-one type coaching, and then we have a group type model.And it's to accommodate people at different levels based on their commitment and also based on their finances. But it's really [00:27:00] just, we make it unique and personal to you because we're that type, right? As humans, we're all unique. We're all different types of people, so no program should ever be the same for.Because we're different, right? We have different desires. We have different lifestyles. And that's really the big key, because I believe if whatever you're doing today doesn't align to your lifestyle, meaning who you are as a person, the type of career you have, the type of of schedule you have, the type of time that you have, the commitment that you have, if it doesn't align to that, at some point or another, you will quit or you will fail, you'll give up, right?Because it just becomes unstable. It's not sustainable. So my approach in every consultation is really getting down to the root and to the desires of each person's life. Why do you wanna do it? What is your motivation? What is the driving force, right? What are the desires? What do you wanna achieve? And then from there, it's really getting to the person's commitment level, [00:28:00] right?So how much time are you willing to invest? What is your life like, right? How can we make this align or come together with your life? Because. If you're, if you're chasing health in a f in a program mindset, meaning I have an exercise program, I have a, a nutrition program, that means it's not necessarily a part of your life.You're just following a specific program. And at some point, if you don't like that program anymore, you are gonna stop doing it. But if I can now introduce health to become a part of your life, now I marry it. I bring it together with your life. It's gonna be a lot easier for you to sustain, and you're more likely to hold onto it.Why? Because now it becomes a part of you, a part of your essence, a part of your d n a, a part of your makeup as a human and as your life. [00:29:00] So that's a very critical component for me. When we're doing consultations and we're, we're working closely with any student because I wanna ensure that. You keep it lifelong.So De'Vannon: then give me an example of the sort of help you would offer. Is it meal plans? Is it workout plans? Is it helping someone see like, like, like, like what, like what, what would it actually David: be? Yeah. Again, it's customized for everyone's need, right? So it would include all those things. If let's say, no, I only need help with the exercise part.Okay, we'll tailor it to that. No, I need help with a lot of things, right? I need help with my nutrition, my, my exercise. And then I'm also battling some type of unhealthy relationship somewhere. That might be with sugar, that might be with, with alcohol, right? That might be with another controlled substance type form.There's all types of. [00:30:00] Of needs, so to speak, and we tailor it to what you are needing from mindset, the psychological side, because a lot of what we do stems from there. A lot of the choices that we're making stem from there. And my object or or my process is I wanna help you identify why you're doing what you're doing.If we can get to the core root of what is driving you to make these food choices of what is driving you to have this relationship with food, this relationship with yourself, this relationship with exercise, it might be non-existent. You might hate doing exercise, but if I can change your relationship to exercise, you're gonna have a different psychological understanding of what that is.Therefore, then you're going to be more likely prone to holding onto it and doing it long term if we can make the relationship healthy and your understanding to that is a healthy understanding. , [00:31:00]right? So we work with emotional people that deal with emotional eating, stress, eating, binge eating, right?Unhealthy, toxic relationships with their body, with themselves, with all sorts of, of, of relationship issues in that format, De'Vannon: as it says in the, in the book of Proverbs, in the, in the, in the Bible. In all, in all that I get and get understanding . That's right. So, that's right. So we're gonna, so we've talked about some of the some of the skinny boy issues.Now we're gonna talk about some of the some of the obesity issues. Mm-hmm. . And before we get into Eric, Eric is his best friend's name and he's gonna tell us Eric's story. And but I, I wanted to read some of the statistics that we had discussed before because I feel like it leads into that. So I'll read this, you can talk about that, then you can tell us about Eric.Cool. And so it says emotional stress eating is something that affects between 83 and 88% of [00:32:00] Americans, and it produces 75, 70 5% of all overeating. A recent article by C N B C revealed that 11 million people die each year due to non-communicable diseases caused by poor eating habits. And I pulled this from David's website.He has two emotional eating support.com, and then David hernandez.co. Of course, all that will go in the show notes. So just speak to us about those statistics and then tell us about Eric. David: Look, these statistics are meant. Not to alienate or not to bring shame or bring judgment to anybody. They're simply to bring awareness to help us recognize that this is a potential threat to many people's lives.And if there's a threat, the threat is to let us know while, let's avoid falling into that, or let's avoid being impacted by that threat. Or if I'm in that threatful situation, right, [00:33:00] being impacted by this, let's do something about it. Let's change because I believe we can do something about everything. If we're still breathing, we can impact it and bring change.Right. And my best friend was one of these individuals. He was part of this sort of of, of group, of people growing up. He was that kid that just. Kind of never fit in. He was husky, he was slow. He wasn't good at sports. He was he w he didn't, he wasn't coordinated, right? So he always felt like this outcast, and I was the opposite.I was skinny athletic, into fitness, into sports, super coordinated. So we had this really unique dynamic of a relationship that I loved him for who he was, but I [00:34:00] ultimately also wanted better for him because he desired it for himself. And so, through the years, we'd work out together, we'd do things together.I'd, I talked to him as much as I could about health because he was overweight and he always battled with being overweight. And his, his, his battle was, I wanna release weight, but I don't know how. I don't know what to do. And that's where I would come in. Right? I'd give him as much as I could at the time to help him.18 years after high school, we split. I moved to Miami to study nutrition and culinary arts, and he stayed in Texas and we kind of lost, we went our separate ways, so to speak. We lost communication for several years, and at the age of 21, I got a phone call, you know, that he had passed away and I couldn't believe it.I said, what happened? How did this happen? So he got so obese and he became so desperate to get the weight off that he went to get a gastric bypass surgery. Two days later, he got an infection [00:35:00]and he died. Right? And that tore me apart because I started blaming myself. I started to feel guilty. I started to.Blame. Why didn't I do more? Why wasn't I there? Why didn't I support him more? Why didn't I help him get that weight off? So after about eight months of this self sabotaging guilt and shame, I finally had to come to a place and realize, well, there was really not much more I could have done. There had to be something within him that really ignited to do whatever it took to fight for his own health.But after that, I looked at, well, what were the reasons that kept him stuck in that it was his relationship with food, even though he wanted to release weight, his relationship with food was so specific. Eating, [00:36:00] eating processed. Right, eating junk food all the time. He would love chips with cheese and hot sauce, right?He would eat that as a snack. He would love burgers. He would love pizza. He would love all of these foods that were leading him to this path. And so his relationship with food and his own psychological understanding of food was what kept him trapped. He was an emotional eater. He loved sugar, right? And it didn't matter how much he worked out.It didn't matter how, how, how he tried to change his food choices. He just could not give up what he already knew. And so when we look at people that are in this place, right, according to the statistics, it's we're using food for the wrong reasons. Our relationship with food is an unhealthy relationship.Therefore, our psychological view of food or [00:37:00] understanding of food is also an unhealthy one. And if we do not fix this or get to the core of these reasons as to why a person is making these choices, to get 'em to become obese and stay obese. Doesn't matter what diet you do, doesn't matter what exercise program you follow.It doesn't matter what ills you take, what supplements you take. The root, the core of what makes you up is your relationship with food and your psych, psychology of food. Therefore, if we do not change that identity piece, you're gonna stay stuck and you're gonna continue to go back to these habits. Right?Go back to these choices. That's why these statistics are so alarming and so eye-opening that if we don't do something about it, somebody in that state can become one of those 11 million. Right? And it's a staggering number. Hmm. [00:38:00] because of this poor relationship with food. Right. Meaning the poor habits that we have with food.De'Vannon: And you know, if when people go out and get these surgeries and everything, if their relationship with food doesn't change, they're just getting the weight back. Anyway. That's David: That's right. That's it. That's what I'm getting to. A hundred percent. Right. And we see that through many stories. But here's the thing.People go to that place because they're desperate. Mm-hmm. , right? And oftentimes people are just desperate. Give me a quick fix. Give me something. Just, that's why trends and the fitness industry makes so much money off of this. I have news for many people out there. The fitness industry doesn't care about your life.They care about your. , which is why they take out new supplements every year, new trends, every six months, right? Because they're playing off of your emotions because they know you're vulnerable. They know, a, as humans, we become very vulnerable [00:39:00] and become desperate for answers. So therefore they go, oh, now it's this.Ha ha, we just made several billion dollars. Okay, now it's this. Ah, we just made more million dollars off of this. And supplement companies know this, right? And that is where a lot of this toxic relationship starts to happen. But if we can pull back for a moment and say, okay, let's stop chasing these quick fix, let's stop going to just a quick, simple solution.Let's stop doing that and let's simply focus on this component. It's a small piece, but it is a large makeup of who we are. If I can teach you, That your relationship with food happened at a certain time in your life. And if I can help you change your relationship with food, therefore impacting your psychological understanding of food, your own psychology of food, we're gonna be able to [00:40:00]rewire your brain, which is now going to make sure that you don't go back to these unhealthy choices.You don't change you, you change those issues. Now you change you as a person. Now you don't need a diet program now. You don't need supplements right now. You don't need these quick fixes because now you've changed your core essence. And if we can change you and your makeup, you're gonna be able to stick to it.De'Vannon: It's been a long time coming, but change is going to come, so. So in your coaching, do you have like coaches that work under you? Do you deal with everyone yourself? How does that work? David: Right now everyone is myself. I do have, you know, other people within my business that help me with the management that help me with different of the technical side of things.But right now it's really just oversee by me because I've set it up in a way where I can manage it through group [00:41:00] trainings. If it's a larger base format through one-on-one type coaching. I only take a certain amount of students at a time to ensure that I'm bringing the best coaching to every individual.And then we also work with corporations helping them create corporate wellness programs for their own employees. De'Vannon: Marvelous. Now I wanna talk about, like, get a little bit more granular about some of like the the, the the health implications of becoming overweight. So it's not really about like looking fat so much as what it is doing internally.Yes, we buried somebody who was. In their mid twenties, you know, and he, because he was overweight, he, he, he was like, like his, he couldn't breathe. Mm-hmm. . And so before he, when as he was dying, he was in the hospital on a breathing machine and they had to induce a coma. Mm. You know, to just basically [00:42:00] let him pass, because what, what a lot of weight does it, it like, it strains everything.So That's Right. If you're, if you have like extra as they call it in the, in the, in the health world, Addie, post tissue, that's the scientific way of saying fat. That's right. That's right. I learned that in massage therapy school. Yeah. So if, if you have extra weight hanging on you, then it takes strain on the body.So that means your organs have to work harder to do what they're doing. They're less efficient. Your blood doesn't flow as well, because it has all this. added post tissue. In fact, to move around. It's like it's like if you feel a car full of just a whole bunch of junk and weights, it's gonna drain the gas faster, it's gonna grind the gears faster.The brakes are gonna wear out quicker of the extra weight. If you pick up a 50 pound weight and then you put it down, you feel lighter. Yeah. And so when you lose weight, you can move about easier, you sleep better, your whole quality of [00:43:00] life. Hell, for me, when I've been, like, when I've had a extra weight on me, it was hard for me to reach down and like time my shoes and shit like that.Like absolutely little simple like that, that simply get, like, that goes a really long way for like mental health and emotional wellbeing. Just That's right. Being able to, and then, then, you know, you know, sexually too, sex drive goes up when the weight goes down. That's right. So diabetes, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, which is kind of what I was talking about earlier.But tell us about, you know, your take on how this affects people in their daily lives and internally in their organs. David: Well, think of, think of a Python or a serpent that com contracts and compresses, right, and strangulate. When we have an excess amount on our body of this tissue, it's literally doing that.It's compressing our organs together. It's compressing our heart, it's compressing our veins, it's [00:44:00] compressing our tissues, it's compressing our lungs, a lot of it, and it literally starts to impact us in ways psychologically, emotionally, physically, right in bed to sleep, to have sex, to have relationships with people, to communicate.Most people that become overweight or become. In any of the levels of obesity also become very introverted, right? They're shamed. They don't wanna go out, they wanna stay inside, they get depressed. There's a lot of impact that happens to our life, and it's not so much about simply living, it really comes down to what is your quality of life like, what type of life, what quality of life would you like to have?So if we're in this state of being overweight and possibly OB obesity, your quality of life [00:45:00]isn't at a good standard. It's not a good quality. And when it's not at a good quality, it starts to really do a lot of damage, not only health-wise, but emotionally, psychologically, right? Which tears us down even faster.That is why health is a responsibility that we have to give to ourself and it's bigger than us because it doesn't only impact you, but it impacts everybody around you. It impacts your relationships, it impacts your mood, it impacts the way you speak. It impacts your energy levels. It impacts your relationship with your kids, with your spouse, with your boss.It impacts your performance. And so that is why I'm such an advocate of understanding that health is a [00:46:00] part of my life, my makeup. If we can take the view of it, our perspective of it in that way, which is why I'm really on a mission to change the scope of how people view health, right? And how people view healthy living a lifestyle of healthy.Freedom versus simply wanting to lose weight, simply wanting to look better. That's part of it, but it's not the makeup that really is the impactful part that should be impactful for many people's lives. Mm-hmm. . De'Vannon: Mm-hmm. , very well stated man. Very well stated. And I, and I also wanna point out like, you know, obesity in younger people.Yeah. It's like, it's like, just because you don't have like negative health problems specifically today mm-hmm. , sometimes it, it's like a [00:47:00] lagging indicator. It's like if you keep that weight on you for too long it can. That's right. Cause you to have problems later. Because, you know, sometimes some people go, well, you know, I feel fine.All my labs look good. I'm able to mm-hmm. , you know, but the thing is, Is that is that shit is sneaky, you know, it catches up. That's right. And lab, lab results and tests only things have to get bad enough for the lab results to the lab tests to be able to pick up on it. That's right. You know, it's like if you don't have enough of a problem, you know, those, those tests are not that thorough where they can just pick up on a little bit of an issue.It has to be enough of it. Yeah. For it to manifest on a test, and then by the, sometimes by the time that shows up, then it's too late to really deal with it. Yeah. So what I'm saying is don't think because you are young and you know, and you, you, you're, you're eating all of this. You what, how you know you're [00:48:00] overweight, that your health won't like suddenly fail you one day.Yeah. Like, I don't want people to fall into this trap of thinking like, well, everything looks good. So That's right. David: Yeah. Yeah. Because in the same way, it, it's just one moment, one. One consistent choice away from making all of that flip. Right. And look, and it's the same for skinny people. Did you know that skinny people are, have the highest heart attack rates than anyone out there?No, because they believe, because their metabolism, right. Is keeping them in this state of being thin. They believe that, oh, I can eat all this. I can eat this food, I can eat this, this burger, I can eat all this. So their intake of fatty food, of sugary foods are at a higher rate oftentimes that then causes that heart attack to happen.Right. And so it, it's, it's, it goes back to what is our [00:49:00] relationship with food like, what is our psychology of food like? Because if it's unhealthy at some point or another, it is going to break. It's going to blow up. In the same way, when we look at a relationship with a partner at the beginning, there might be some arguments, there might be some fighting.Then comes a push. Then that push becomes a slap. If the relationship is unhealthy, it starts to get unhealthy. If we don't address it, it's just a matter of time for it to blow up, right? Which is why a lot of what we do when we're even talking about obesity, I believe obesity is learned. Because when we look at, well, what makes up a person to become obese, if we're talking about the relationship with food and their psychologic psychology of food, well, we learn that at some point we were taught to eat this way.Food was introduced to us [00:50:00] from our young age. Therefore, in those moments of us learning how to become a human, how to eat, how to react, how to act, it stemmed from home. So if growing up all we were given was frozen food, ramen noodles, fast food, right? , as you grow up, you're gonna stay with that same relationship and sometimes it's gonna magnify to go from ramen noodles to eating, I don't know, one cup to five cups or whatever it is, to another type of food.Very similar to that. To salty foods. Right? To sugary foods. And that is why it's important parents, right? Or those that are adopting kids. We've got to learn for ourselves how to develop a healthy relationship and a healthy psychology psychology of food so that then we can teach that to our young kids so that then they can grow up with a healthy relationship the same way.[00:51:00]De'Vannon: Yeah. And I feel like marginalized and a lot of like ethnic. Communities are impacted more by this sort of thing because, you know, when you growing up in the hood and in poverty like I did mm-hmm. You know, you know, you too, the parents and everything are too focused on keeping a roof over the head or keeping you from getting murdered or shot or whatever.Yeah. So we never talked about like, okay, this is you gonna balance this plate. Like I have a dietician now, and so, you know, through the Department of Veterans Affairs and awesome. So they're like, and nobody's ever explained to me before. Okay, so if you're going to eat, say, boiled eggs, you just need two of those per day.And then you be sure that the most of your plate is vegetables and not proteins. You don't actually need that much protein. That's right. Like actually laying up re reading the back of a food label, paying attention to mm-hmm. , the amount of servings not being all quick Oh, a hundred calories. But it's Tenten servings in the [00:52:00] Yeah, that's right.That's exactly thousand calories. Yeah. Yeah. And so, So I just really David: wanted to, and how much is the serving? 10 chips? 14 chips, right? And we're eating the entire bag saying, oh, okay, great. There's no problem with this. Right? And look, we're responsible for our own, for our own body, for our own health, right?It's our responsibility. But we also have to look at, look, our environment may not be helping us, right? Let's look at the American standard diet, right? It's not the best. So it's very quick to sometimes say, well, this is the reason. Well, our boss is the one that brought these, these things. My friend is the one that brought my coworker, brought these donuts here.But just because things are like that in our environment doesn't mean we have to give into our environment. Doesn't mean we have to conform to these things. It doesn't mean we have to say yes every time they invite us to go get ice cream or to go do this. Right. It really ultimately, like you said, is educating ourselves [00:53:00] and taking this as our own responsibility.Because if I can be responsible for my own health and I can teach those around me as an example piece of how to be responsible the same way, then we can start to really take control of this thing that has just really spiraled from us, right? Mm-hmm. . De'Vannon: Absolutely. And so we just have a few minutes left here.I want to So we, so we, you know, we, we, we've given people some very, very heavy Yes. Information right now. And so I wanna lighten it up for a little bit. it takes back heavy again because I'm gonna have you close us out towards the end with your near death experience. So let's talk about some ways that people can maybe implement this.So for me, what I found is that I'm, I'm, I'm from Wakanda, so I like it hot. I don't do Yeah. Temperatures below like 70 degrees. I'm like, bitch, it's cold. I'm [00:54:00] putting my teeth David: up, and running. I'm inside the house with the sweater and the, the, the ACS off , De'Vannon: right? I'm like, I, so I, I observed within myself. I work out when I w used to try to go to the gym, come like October, I'm like, fuck all that.I'll see y'all again in April. Yeah. And so my weight would go up in the winter. Right. So what worked for me was I had an empty room in my house and then I put a treadmill in there, which you can get them from like Walmart at Target. Yeah. A weight bench. I got adjustable weights so that they take up less.Beautiful. That's right. And then my dad gave me one of those multi-function machine thingies and so, so that I had to bring the gym to me, so that's perfect. Yeah. That's what worked for me. So what suggestions do you have for people to, to make it work for them or anything like David: that? Look, that's one example of a great way we can do that, but might, some people might say, well, I don't like working out in that format.Okay, great. It's [00:55:00] how can we keep things simple? If one thing you take away, I want you to take away this is asking ourselves, how can I make health or healthy living? Simple meaning, what's one thing I can do? That is simple that I can achieve, but that I can make it fun. We forget that healthy, a healthy life should be fun.And when we get to these states, they're darn well fun because you're able to do more. So in today, if we look at, well, all I can do is walk. Okay, great. How can we make walking freaking fun? Can we find a, a partner that we could do with? Can I listen to some awesome music? Can I watch a video while I walk?Right? Can I, can I skip? Oh, what are people gonna think? Who gives a rats? [00:56:00] What can you do that is fun? You like to. Put on a freaking show in your living room. You like to sing, freaking sing your heart out in the living room while you dance. That is part of exercise that is part of fun. I had a student a lady, she, she loved to country line dance.What would she do? She'd go dancing as many times as she wanted, as she could line dancing, and that was her exercise, right? Get some pool noodles and freaking sword. Fight with your partner, get some Nerf guns and play outside, right? Like, it really is about how can I make it simple and how can I make it fun finding something today that you can do?What is one thing? Oh, well, I don't have time for this. Oh, well, I don't have time for that. What can you do? Let's stop being negative and look at what's One thing I can do. Another thing that I tell my students is every time you go pee, when before or after you're done, do five squats. Do 10 squats. [00:57:00] How much does that take you?That literally takes you five seconds to do that takes you 10 seconds to do. You go pee 10 times. How many, how many squats did you already do in one day? 50 to a hundred squats in a matter of seconds. Right? So it's really about how can I simplify this thing? Because if it, anything that we do in life is overwhelming and complicated, look, oftentimes we overcomplicate it, right?But if we can simply keep it down to, to the core essence, what is health? Health is being active, okay? What's one thing I can do to be active? Go up and downstairs while you listen to some cool music. Go walking, go punch, get a punching bag, put somebody's face that you hate and punch the snot out of it. I don't know.Let's get creative because it's so able, it, it, it's accessible and it's so achievable, but it really just comes down [00:58:00] to us.I De'Vannon: just love to hear you speak and y'all, he has a, a book that he's working on that'll be out eventually and I can't wait to get my fucking hands on it. To, to, to, to devour the written version of this artistic poetry that you weave with your vernacular. And so Yes, yes. But where, where are you? The book anyway, David: we are, first draft is done.We're going. Making tweaks and adjustments and we should be working on that second draft here pretty soon and hopefully becomes the final draft and then we can send it off to, to printing. So we're excited. De'Vannon: Oh, oh my God. If you could get a book edited in three drafts, I would be impressed. It took me 10, I believe it mine.My, David: what helps is my wife is she's like a, a, a really strong, she [00:59:00] didn't get her English major, but she got her psychology major, but she is one of her strengths if she could go back to school, would be to become an English major. So she's helping me make sure that that thing could be ready as soon as possible.So we're excited. And what's the De'Vannon: premise of the book or the, or David: it's, the premise is really to introduce this concept, this understanding of the root causes of why we stay stuck in certain behavior patterns. And it's really to shine insight on, it's not just that. There's a flaw in you or that you can't be healthy, you can't release weight.No, no, no. We all can. If we can really simplify it to the core principles that makes up this, which is really our choices and our behavior patterns, right? So we're really breaking this down into a very simple, digestible understanding for people to learn this, this side of of health, because I believe it's gonna really be groundbreaking for people to [01:00:00] start changing their choices that yet then changing their behavior patterns to become healthier.De'Vannon: Okay. I can't wait to have you back on the show to discuss that. So, before you talk about your near death experience, it just occurred to me, I'd like you to, to address some, some people may say, well the healthy foods only at places like Whole Foods, and I can't afford that shit. , you know, what, what would you say to people who may have like, budgetary concerns or believe that Great question.The healthy food is, is super expensive. David: Yeah. Great question. Great question. I believe we can all be healthy in any budget, right? Because we don't ha we don't have to eat all foods, we don't have to eat everything in a grocery store, right? There are core principles that if we can adopt and understand, we can make good food choices.And that starts with understanding, well, what is a lean protein? There's, there's four makeups, right? In the way we should be eating. There should be [01:01:00] some type of protein in every meal. There should be some type of fiber, right? There should be a small amount of carb, right? To give us energy. Our, our primary food, our primary energy source from our body comes from carbohydrates, right?And then there should be some sort of essential fat. That is the key essential fat, right? Not just fat of all, of any kind. Right. So it really, if we can simplify it and look at, okay, what lean, what protein can I get that is inexpensive right now? Prices have gone through the roof. Okay. Can we get canned chicken, right?Can we get tuna? Can we get things that are proteins that are fairly inexpensive? We don't have to have the high processed foods. When we're talking about carbohydrates, there's low glycemic carbohydrates, meaning they have some type of fibroid substance that allows it to be [01:02:00] slowly dispersed in our body to turn into sugar, right?We don't need the chips, we don't need the ramen noodles, we don't need the pasta. We can find a list of low glycemic foods. Carbohydrates that help us find good sustainable energy. Right. We got our brown rice, which is very inexpensive, right. There is couscous, which is also fairly inexpensive, right? We have whole grain foods that we can find that are fairly inexpensive vegetables.Oh, well I don't like vegetables. Okay, well why don't we start with one that you do like that we can eat, right? And then, like you said, is having a vegetable with every food choice, with every meal, as many as we can. Right? So it's, again, it's about the education piece. It's about the knowledge piece. Can I understand what good or healthy relationship with food is so that I can then start to implement it?Right? So it's find these three cores. [01:03:00] If we can have a protein in every meal, if we can have a carbohydrate that is a low glycemic carb with every food, and if I can have a vegetable. More than likely we're already cooking within essential fat anyways, like an olive oil or some type of, of avocado oil, which is a, a essential fat.That's really all we need. Hope that's helpful. De'Vannon: Very fucking helpful. So tell us about your near death experience and then that'll pretty much wrap us up. David: Fantastic. I'd love to. 2018, I went on a mission trip to Haiti. Went to go work with a lot of help and support kids, orphanages. We have a close friend who's out there who has a, a men's kids, young men's orphanage, and a w and a young girl's orphanage.So we went to support him in what he was doing. I got back five days later. I was rushed to the hospital, what seemed to be a cold, but I had very high fever, about 110, 109. They [01:04:00] couldn't take it down with anything. Two days in there I was misdiagnosed six times. They couldn't figure out what w what I had.The third day there, there was a doctor from Puerto Rico who happened to be there. He overheard a conversation. He comes in and he says, I know exactly what you have. You have dengue fever and two other tropical viruses, and you're gonna feel like you're gonna die and you just might because there's nothing else that we can do.It's up to your body if it wants to survive. And he walked out. So, to give you a kind of a, a of a picture of this, I was at my strongest and biggest in terms of physique in size. I was actually training to compete the following year in body building. So I was about 245 pounds. I had about 25% body fat, a lot of muscle on me.I was the biggest I'd ever been. And after telling me this, I wanted to die. What we know about the dengue fever is that it's called the bone [01:05:00] crushing virus. It literally breaks up your bones from the inside, and it starts to shut down and eat your organs from the inside, right? It eats the muscle fibers, the muscle tissues, everything from the inside.My left lungs shut down, my organs were starting to shut down. My kidneys were about to shut down. I was one step away from hemorrhage and I wanted to die. That was it. I didn't wanna fight anymore. And so I just stayed there, literally unconscious for 10 days. And on the 10th day, the doctor came in and he said, well, we've got good news for you.You've beat this ding. And he said, had it not been because you were so healthy and you had so much muscle on you, you would not be here today. There's no reason you should be alive. And I said, well, if it wasn't because I was healthy and I had that muscle mass and because of God, I wouldn't be here today, right.Based on my faith. And so that experience turned everything around for me because [01:06:00] after I got out of the hospital, there was like this little internal, small voice that said, now that you've been given a second chance of life, what are you gonna do with it? What are you gonna do about it? And I woke up, I was like, wait, what do you mean?I thought I'm doing my best. I thought I could be more. I, I, I thought I, I am doing a lot with my life. But that really brought me into the turning point of what I was doing with my business, right? I was only, like I said, working with very exclusive clients. And at that point it was like, well, I'm not doing enough to impact as many people as I can with what I know.And that's what really put together body by purpose. That's what changed my whole concept, my whole value of life, my whole appreciation to people. Because when I, I, I made a commitment with my best friend that as long as I knew of somebody, I wanted to help them avoid what my best friend went through.But I really wasn't holding myself to that fully right? And so that's why I say that this experience, near death experience was the best [01:07:00] thing that could have happened to me. It changed my perspective on life. It changed my perspective on so many things. And obviously I don't take life for granted ever, but also the way I live life has also changed for me.How, De'Vannon: how in the hell does somebody catch UE fever? Is that from, so did something bite you? Is it air, mosquito bite?Well, , I'm glad That's right. I'm glad that your body decided to just, you know, everything happens for a reason. Yeah. And and it seems like the, the lower, you know, God takes us knowing he's gonna pull us back up. It's like we're stronger. That's right. For it. Yeah. I was devastated when I got H I V and I thought I was gonna die and I had this whole nervous breakdown, but now I'm like, you know what?I'm glad everything happened the way it did because it refined me, you know? Very well said. Yeah. So many different ways. And so, yeah. Alright. Yeah. So his website is [01:08:00] David hernandez.co emotion. His other website is emotional eating support.com. They click through to each other, and I will put all of this in the show notes with David's social media.Yeah. Well do you have any closing words forDavid: you're incredible. I mean, if y if I can get you to understand that and what that really means, that I don't know what life situation you might be in. There is still a makeup and a creation inside of you that is far greater than

We have a fantastic story of redemption for you today with my guest Steven Snook. He candidly tells of his abusive upbringing, him selling drugs at an early age, and winding up in prison, particularly in solitary confinement. God had big plans for Steven after he was born again, and he led many others to Christ in prison. He now has a thriving ministry and business after he was finally released. Steven is an incredible storyteller, and you will be so encouraged and inspired by his testimony! Don't miss it. Biography: I spent 19 years in federal prison for a non-violent drug crime. I got saved and born again in 2003 and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit in 2004. I was a minister of the gospel in prisons all across America. In 2017, I spent 377 days in solitary confinement, in intense prayer and fasting. During that time The Lord revealed Himself in many signs and wonders. Many inmates were born again during that time. Since my release from prison in Feb. 2022, I created a business based on a dream I received from God, I've been a guest lecturer at multiple colleges including Bradley University, and am driven to spread the gospel and tell my story of redemption. I have been on many podcasts recently including Jody Burkeen's, "Man Up God's Way", as well as Dr. Joe Martin's, "Real Men Connect". Both of which have tens of thousands of followers. This is my website. Jesus Speaks LLC - Decorative Inspirational Scripture Frames for Home I started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign on Nov. 14th to sell the scripture frames and to promote my Substack for the original memoir, exclusive prison photos, possible podcasts, etc. Transcript below! Website: https://dswministries.org Email: diana@dswministries.org Social media links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DSW-Ministries-230135337033879 Twitter: https://twitter.com/DswMinistries YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgIpWVQCmjqog0PMK4khDw/playlists Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dswministries/ https://dswministries.org/subscribe-to-podcast/ Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, Listen Notes Keep in touch with me! Email subscribe to get my handpicked list of the best resources for abuse survivors! https://thoughtful-composer-4268.ck.page #abuse #trauma Mentoring https://youtu.be/WWgkERpkIoY An easy way to help my ministry: https://dswministries.org/product/buy-me-a-cup-of-tea/ A donation link: https://dswministries.org/donate/ Affiliate links: Can't travel to The Holy Land right now? The next best thing is Walking The Bible Lands! Get a free video sample of the Bible lands here! https://www.walkingthebiblelands.com/a/18410/hN8u6LQP Get one free month of Blubrry podcast hosting with the promotional code: FAITHFUL http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=FAITHFUL Get quality podcast guests and interviews from PodMatch! Get paid to be a host! Sign up below: https://podmatch.com/signup/faithful Visit my friends at the Heal Thrive Dream Boutique for some cool T-shirts, jewelry and other merch! Simply share the discount code we created just for you and receive a 10% discount on your order!  DIANA98825  https://www.htd-boutique.com/ Bible Study Notebook From Karen Robinson! Check it out!  https://www.htd-boutique.com/products/bible-planner-for-survivors-includes-prayer-requests-sermon-notes-bible-study-notes-and-other-note-pages-to-enrich-your-spiritual-life Help me plan this year's podcast! Answer my 10-question easy survey. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeubk_cosJ895TQ5IWF5Vk8023Xi6qKpeJwoqGM5aiRDXfCnQ/viewform?usp=pp_url Steven Snook Transcript: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. Brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church...

On today's episode I have the pleasure to talk to Connie Lockhart Ellefson an engineer and professional organizer. She has been designing schemes to get water to flow downhill (drainage engineer) for more decades than you would have thought possible for a sane adult. Despite how fun that sounds, she has also taken time off to write books on three fairly unrelated topics, ethnic baby names, xeriscape gardening, and now, decluttering your life. She discovered that inspiring people to clear the space, through speaking, writing, and even some in-the-trenches organizing, speaks to her soul better than creating utility lines and grading plans on the computer all day. Learn more at www.ClearTheSpace.com Follow her using the ff links - WEBSITE LINKEDIN TWITTER If you've found the Life With Francy podcast helpful Follow, Rate, & Review on Apple Podcasts Like this Show? Please Leave us a review here - even one sentence helps! Post a screenshot of you listening on Instagram & Tag us so we can Thank you Personally! STAY IN TOUCH LINKTREE INSTRAGRAM FACEBOOK Sign Up with Podmatch using this Link or paste this URL https://podmatch.com/signup/lifewithfrancy Hope you have a blessed day. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francelyn-devarie/support --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/francelyn-devarie/support

Subscribe To Our Exclusive Podcast Show: https://simplesuccesswithjohnbrandy.supercast.com/ "Challenge yourself by setting saving goals that will propel your business to the next level.'' Our Credits: These podcasts are productions of Little Red Hen Industries. OUR THIRD YEAR!! Learn about financial education & personal financial management in this episode with John Brandy on the Simple Success podcast, which comes out on Mondays! Learn more about Simple Success with John Brandy using our all-in-one access link here Visit the Simple Success with John Brandy website today! Guest Credits: Lane's Website: https://simplepassivecashflow.com/ Lane's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Simple-Passive-Cashflow-Professional/dp/1948382245 Where Do I start?: https://simplepassivecashflow.com/start/ Join The Club: https://simplepassivecashflow.com/club/ The Big Kahuna Search Link: John Brandy Podcasts Simple Success Web: https://www.simplesuccesswithjohnbrandy.com/ A Choice Voice Web: https://www.achoicevoice.com/ Reddit Sites For CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS And Of Course Fun!: https://www.reddit.com/r/simplesuccess/ https://www.reddit.com/r/achoicevoice/ iOS Simple Success: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simple-success-with-john-brandy/id1549566678 Droid Simple Success: https://podcasts.google.com/search/simple%20success%20with%20john%20brandy iOS A Choice Voice: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-choice-voice-with-john-brandy/id1560026051 Droid A Choice Voice: https://podcasts.google.com/search/a%20choice%20voice%20with%20john%20brandy AI Voices & Other Stuff @ Online Tone Generator& @ Amazon AWS Polly & Google Finally, you can find us on Podmatch, Matchmaker.FM, Podbooker and Podcast Guests, where we consider guests & guesting on other pods. And really finally, our music and sound effects come from freesound.org. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/simplesuccess/message

This episode features Ramona Shaw, who discusses her passion for giving back to causes such as charity water and her views on mindset, leadership, and the importance of managing the people and teams around you. She encourages people to recognize their privilege and think about how they can use it to help others, stressing the importance of understanding personal responsibility and giving back in any way you can.As a Certified Professional Leadership Coach, podcast host, and best-selling author, Ramona Shaw is dedicated to empowering new and mid-level managers to become confident, competent leaders. With a Masters in Finance and extensive experience leading strategic projects and international teams in the private equity industry, Ramona has the knowledge and expertise to help managers strengthen their leadership and communication skills, boost their confidence and resilience, and improve their focus and emotional intelligence.Ramona has worked with a variety of fast-growing startups and companies, including Twitch, UBS, Google, Dropbox, Lionsgate, Asana, Stitch Fix, and Sequoia Capital, to deliver coaching and training programs that help leaders thrive. In addition to sharing her insights with her thousands of LinkedIn and Instagram followers, Ramona hosts a weekly podcast, The Manager Track, where she provides valuable tips and strategies for those looking to excel in their leadership roles.

INTRODUCTION: Jeffrey Kranz is a Bible geek who started OverviewBible, a biblical literacy website, in 2013. He uses his expertise as a writer and consultant to help people understand what the Bible is, what it's for, and what it's all about. In 2019, he wrote The Beginner's Guide to the Bible, a non-preachy, jargon-free breakdown of the Protestant canon. In his free time, he loves trying bizarre amari, performing musical improvisational comedy, and working Hamilton references into his homebrew D&D campaigns. He hides from the sun at his home in Seattle, WA.  INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to): ·      A Breakdown Of OverviewBible.com·      A Review Of Jeffrey's Book – The Beginner's Guide To The Bible ·      How The Bible Is Composed·      Identity Politics·      The Struggle For Gentile Acceptance·      What Exactly Is The ‘Hebrew' Bible?·      The Flexibility Of Jesus  CONNECT WITH JEFFREY: Website: https://overviewbible.comWebsite: https://jeffreykranz.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible/about CONNECT WITH DE'VANNON: Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.comWebsite: https://www.DownUnderApparel.comTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sexdrugsandjesusYouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCMFacebook:   https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopixLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannonPinterest: https://www.pinterest.es/SexDrugsAndJesus/_saved/Email: DeVannon@SDJPodcast.com  DE'VANNON'S RECOMMENDATIONS: ·      Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)o  https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370o  TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs ·      OverviewBible (Jeffrey Kranz)o  https://overviewbible.como  https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible ·      Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed (Documentary)o  https://press.discoveryplus.com/lifestyle/discovery-announces-key-participants-featured-in-upcoming-expose-of-the-hillsong-church-controversy-hillsong-a-megachurch-exposed/ ·      Leaving Hillsong Podcast With Tanya Levino  https://leavinghillsong.podbean.com  ·      Upwork: https://www.upwork.com·      FreeUp: https://freeup.net VETERAN'S SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS ·      Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org·      American Legion: https://www.legion.org ·      What The World Needs Now (Dionne Warwick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg  INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?: ·      PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon  TRANSCRIPT: Jeffrey Kranz[00:00:00]You're listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De'Vannon and I'll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what's really going on in your life.There is nothing off the table and we've got a lot to talk about. So let's dive right into this episode.De'Vannon: Hello and happy New Year. I hope your year is phenomenal, fantastic in everything you want it to be and more. Jeffrey Kranz is the Brains Behind Overview bible.com and the author of The Foundational Read, the Beginner's Guide to the Bible, which is a non preachy, jargon-free handbook to what the Bible is, where it came from and what it's all about.Jeffrey is here to help us understand how to navigate the Bible, learn about God, and expand our minds in a loving and open-minded [00:01:00] way. I've never heard anybody coin the term non-Christian Bible study until I met Jeffrey Kranz.And so I'm delighted to bring this interview to you so that you can learna little bit more how to navigate the Bible and to do so in a non-judgmental way. Lots of love to everyone. Please enjoy the show.Well, we have us here another episode of the Sex Drugs in Jesus podcast. And I'm here with a, a beautiful redheaded man by the name of Jeffrey Kranz. And he lives up yonder in the, in Seattle I believe you're in. That's correct. And and and I discovered him. Trolling around, no, that's not a cute word these days.I around on on [00:02:00] YouTube. But finding like different videos because I've recently discovered that I'm more of a, like a visual learner. So I've been consuming documentaries and all kinds of videos. So I've found that it sticks in my head better than re reading. Depends on what I'm reading. And so I discovered Overview Bible's YouTube channel and then thus the website.And so then I reached out to Jeffrey in hopes he would reply and he replied to my message and everything like that. And so here we are. Jeffrey. How are you? Jeffrey: I'm doing well, Devean. Thank you so much for having me. been looking forward to De'Vannon: this. Danielle's gonna enjoy how well spoken Jeff Jeffrey is like his, his dick's flawless and everything like that.And so so you are what I would consider to be. A Bible scholar, you are very, very detailed in your approach to all things that have to do with understanding this book. So the, y'all, the reason why I [00:03:00] reached out to Jeffrey as opposed to so many other people who are in various forms of media talking about the Bible is, is, is his approach.He's not really like trying to push Jesus on people. He's more like trying to make information available so that people can make up their own decisions. And so his objective neutral approach to it I found to be so refreshing in light of how so much of Christianity is trying to be forced on people during this day and time.And so his methods are very simple and easy to understand. And so it reminded me of how in the Bible, in the Hebrew Bible, it talks about how Jesus taught with simplicity. You know, he wasn't like super dramatic and over the top and trying to make everything a big deal and, you know, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.And then his, his Jeffrey does a lot of drawings and they're super colorful. And so that really made me feel like I was back in elementary school again, which just really warmed my, the boy and at least still lives inside my soul . So. [00:04:00] So Jeffrey, what would you like to tell people about you personally?Maybe some of your background education and what got you so impassioned about this book, ? Jeffrey: Yeah. Thank you so much for the kind words that made me feel good for, for those listen. . It's, it's about eight in the morning in Seattle today. And I feel like I'm starting off my day on a, on a very kind note.So, so thank you for all that. This is gassing me up and it's a Friday no less. So this is gonna be a very good day. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, so I would describe the overview Bible body of work as you know, you, you really, I, I think you encapsulated it pretty well when you, when you used the word neutral. I, I really like making things learnable and so I think that it's important when you're approaching something as large as the [00:05:00] Bible to, to have an idea of just what it is, what it's for, and what it's all about.Before you start really getting into, I guess the, the musts regarding re regarding biblical study, you know, when. When I was introduced to the Bible it was very much in the context of this is, this is what you should believe about the Bible. This is, this is what the Bible means to us as a family.This is what it means to us as a faith tradition. And so it, it came almost shrink wrapped in, in that sort of context. And, you know, I, as a child really, really got into studying it. I I really enjoyed analyzing the structure of the books. I started doing that as, as more of a teenager. And I was teaching Bible studies as a teenager and, and as, as an adult afterward.[00:06:00]And so what what I started doing when I was in my twenties was writing, writing overviews of the individual. That of, of the Bible and trying to help people who didn't necessarily have a lot of context to be able to approach it in a non-intimidating way. And so that's where, that's where the website came from.I started doing YouTube videos a couple years thereafter to try and help more of those visual learners out there and just grow as a presenter. It was a cool way to, to grow few skills that that I wanted as well. And then the book came later. De'Vannon: Oh, you say you did this when you were in your twenties.you still look young. . Jeffrey: Thank you very much. Devon . No, no, I'm I'm 33 now. De'Vannon: Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't know, that was like yesterday. So you started working on this maybe like in the last 10 years, this whole body? Jeffrey: Yeah. Yeah. . Yeah. It was, [00:07:00] I, I would say, Yeah, I think 2013 was when I wrote the first page for overview bible.com.And then I was done with the first stab at pages on every book of Bible. So if you go to overview bible.com I have an overview of each individual book of the Protestant cannon there on, on that website. And that was how the website began. Now I have more content digging into characters and themes and, you know, items from just the history of the Bible as a book.But no, that was how it began. Just individual overviews, trying to make it a little more approachable for people in my. De'Vannon: Let me make it more clear to people just how granular in detail your website is. So it's like, if you're reading one article, something [00:08:00] may be hyperlinked, is gonna take you in a further detail and then again, in a further detail.So like he said, he has an overview of all the books, but he also has overviews of like many popular characters. Mm-hmm. the Bible too, individually. So I was reading in there this morning before we got on, like, you have a breakdown on like on each of the apostles you have a breakdown on like the different prophets, the minor prophets, the major prophets who wrote the psalm, you know, and then there's a breakdown of like, of all of those.So this, like the, the painstaking detail that has gone into, into your website is absolutely mind boggling. I mean, I've never seen a, a bi, a bi biblical website make it so it's so much complex information. And it's presented in like such a readable way, and it's a lot thank you of little details in there for a lot of different people.So like on my website, the Sex, drugs and Jesus one, I'm creating this like little [00:09:00] minicourse version that shall never be as com as complex and detailed as your website is. Because I just don't want it to be, and my, my website's already as extra as I am and it's got a lot going on and so Nice. So his website is overview bible.com.Like the namesake says overview. Jeffrey likes to use this term high level view a lot. Yes, I do . And so if you watch his YouTube videos over on his YouTube channel, which is also Overview Bible, you know, you'll hear him say high level view. So his YouTube channel parallels. The website, and you'll see YouTube videos embedded at various points throughout the website as well.For those of you who want to click over to it. Mm-hmm. . So I really love the way the website is really well written. The YouTube channel compliments that, and then you provided these different mediums of learning and you've got everyone covered. [00:10:00] Thank you, . Jeffrey: I'm glad someone likes it. . De'Vannon: So you have a lot of comments on your YouTube videos though?Like people Yeah. Really. Have some feelings. One person called you a cult. . Yeah. Jeffrey: Yeah. That's there's always, there, there's always a new and interesting opinion on on YouTube and sometimes it's mine. But, but yeah. Yeah, it's, YouTube is a funny place. I think that the. Ability for people to just kind of browse and say whatever's on their mind can lead to some really interesting questions.And I try to approach most, most questions and comments in good faith. YouTube is also just kind of a breeding ground for bad faith arguments as, as many comment sections on the internet are. So [00:11:00] yeah, I would say that I would say moving from the website, which was predominantly found via Google to to making YouTube content as well exposed me to a lot more of the, of, of, of some thoughts that people have on the sort of material that I make.So, yeah. Yeah, the comments can be, can be pretty interesting. I feel like, and you know, Devon, maybe you deal with this too, as, as another internet creator. I feel like there's always a balance to be struck between like engaging, interesting comments that that people throw out. And, and then also saving yourself time and energy in, in responding to things and trying to assess the utility there.It's a fundamental exercise anyway. De'Vannon: So the way I'd say what Jeffrey's saying y'all is that some people are batshit fucking [00:12:00] crazy and they're not worth the damn time.Jeffrey: Yeah. There are, you know, the, the, there are some comments that, that I'm just like, okay, well this is this. I don't think there's much more for me to say here, , De'Vannon: you know, you know, as, as, as, as, as the saying goes in the good book, you know, every time we go to do good there's evil presence. And so, you know, weak-minded people are going to come onto our websites and send us nasty messages because this is, you know, the force of negativity trying to hurt us through people who are vulnerable to such influence.And so this is why we surround ourselves with people who are positive minded and who cater to positive energy and lighted not to negativity. Not, not so much cuz we judge the people, but because, you know, negativity can reach us through them. And so, Jeffrey: It's, yeah, I think, yeah, that's, that's such an interesting, [00:13:00] it's such an interesting part of the world, isn't it?Like the, I, I think that negativity wants to, it almost feeds by creating more of itself. And so positivity is almost an act defiance against that. Like, how can you, how can you continue to approach people maybe that you'll never meet again in good faith and be, or at least for, for me, I, I, I try to, even if someone's being mean online, it would be nice to be someone who is kind to that person.See, De'Vannon: now that's it. Sunday school teaching, right there, coming out , . Jeffrey: I mean, sometimes I'm better at it than others. I, I have responded to some comments with, and I quote, sir, this is a Wendy's. De'Vannon: Yeah, the, the, the, the, the, the, the redhead fire in you does come out in those comments. I would expect nothing lessAnd so, all right, [00:14:00] so the, his book is called The Beginner's Guide to the Bible. So that's what we're gonna talk about. Just a few parts of it. It goes over a little bit of the, well, it goes over a lot of the history, you know, of the Bible and where it came from and everything like that. And then the latter half of it is like a very deep overview, but still a deep look into like, literally each of the 66 books of the Bible.Mm-hmm. . And so tell us in your own words who this bible, who, who your book is written for. Jeffrey: Yeah. So when I started writing the Beginner's Guide to the Bible it, there was a specific conversation that I had with someone I had been doing improv with for, for a couple of months. And she was talking about how she had never really grown up with any sort of religious background.She didn't really have any context [00:15:00] for for what the Bible was or really what Christianity was at all. But she wanted to be able to speak with her aunt about things that were important with her. And I think this conversation was in 20, I think this would've been 2017 20 17, 20 18. And so there was, there was a lot of discussion happening in her family around like, politics, what does it mean to be an American?What does it mean to be a Christian? And my friend had no context for that, that third piece. And so in that conversation I had said, or she was saying, yeah, I just wish. I wish I had more context to be able to talk to my Christian aunt about these things that are important to to both of us. And I said, you know, I've been, I've been kicking around this idea of writing down just kind of like a beginner's guide to the Bible so [00:16:00] that you had, even, even if you never went to Sunday school or if you grew up in Sunday school and never really spent much time reading the Bible, which is a lot of people who would consider who, who would, you know, say, oh yeah, I'm a Christian.I grew up Christian, still haven't either had the time or desire or brain space to to really read or study the Bible said. I said I would like to establish some sort of baseline with a book. And she said, if you write that book, please let me know as soon as it's done, because that is, that is exactly what I want.I wanna be able to have an intelligent conversation about the bible. Without necessarily needing to go to seminary or, you know, go to church or do all the work to try to to try to arrive at, at where you're at. And I do think that that's a very fair thing to, to ask for. So, oh, you look like you've got a question.De'Vannon: No, you keep talking. [00:17:00] You're here, Mike. Cool. Keep Jeffrey: going. All right. All right. So that was the conversation that really sparked writing this book and when, when I finished it in 2019, felt like I had a good first edition. That would be for someone who knew that the Bible was important, but didn't necessarily know how to talk about it with anyone that didn't already share their beliefs.So if you read it now you should be able to have. A good baseline for talking with a priest, a pastor, a religious relative, your bartender, an atheist, all that good stuff. All De'Vannon: the fucking things. So I'm gonna comment on the, that the whole priest, bartender, and everything in a minute. So we said improv.What kind of improv you mean like some sort of Ted Talk improv? Were you doing standup comedy Jeffrey: or, [00:18:00] you know, I, I tried standup for a little bit, but I keep getting tired of my own jokes. So, no, it's improvisational comedy, mostly musical improv. That was, that was my forte. And so, you know, just a, a bunch of adults getting up on stage and pretending and making things up for an.De'Vannon: That sounds so much fun. I bet you there was a lot of alcohol and weed involved in perhaps other hallucinogenics, . Jeffrey: Sometimes, sometimes there is the, the improv community is really interesting. Like you've got, you've got a full, you've got the full range of debauchery from like afterschool special appropriate to absolutely notDe'Vannon: I'm here for the absolutely not appropriateSo I think it's interesting you said that, you know, your book, you know, is gonna help people be able talk with the Bible, talk about the Bible with their pastor and atheist, the bartender, or anyone that's interested. [00:19:00] So I think this, this statement speaks your open mindedness cuz you know, when I was growing up in.You know, they told us not to dare step foot in a bar, let alone have a conversation with a people bartender, you know, and an atheist. You know, they, they built up our egos to act like, you know, we're so great and we're better than everybody, you know, the heathen folk and everything like that. So, the fact that you're mentioning these taboo people who are considered outliers, outcasts from Christianity, by so many of these churches and preachers and pastors who look down their nose at them, I think validates, you know, your open-minded approach to this.Thank you. . I've been in churches where they were like, you know, don't, if somebody doesn't make enough money, don't even talk to them. You know, they were like, you don't want their, you know, brokeness bringing Oh man and stuff like that, . Oh, Jeffrey: that sounds so healthy. , De'Vannon: you know, that's, you know, that those were [00:20:00] the Pentecostals who told me that shit, you know?And so and where I think they get this from is how in the Bible, you know, you have like the Nation of Israel and God's telling his people to be separate from the people around them and everything like that, which has all kinds of like historical context and stuff like that, that we can go on and on for hours for.But there was a practical reason why God told them that he did not say for everybody who, whoever believes on him to distance themself from whoever they feel like isn't living right. You know, that's an example of people taking the Bible and doing what the fuck they want with it. Which is super easy to do.Yeah. It, Jeffrey: it's . Yeah. I'm, that's, that's kind of one of the reasons why, you know, in the book, what I, what I put a lot of energy toward at the beginning is talking about what it is and what it's for. Because if you treat this [00:21:00] collection of ancient writings as something that is essentially your magical codex and then whatever, whatever meaning you can pull out of this, because you can link your thought to this magical book, then that gives it authority.If that is, if that is your mindset, then you can wreck a lot of harm on the relationships in your life. You can wreck a lot of harm on people that you don't even necessarily know. If you, if you bring that into the world around,De'Vannon: That's what I call the batt crazy, like what I mentioned earlier, because you know, the, you know that and there's a lot of ego there, you know, for somebody to read through the Bible. Ultimately, what I believe the Bible is for is for each individual to read through it, to find out how they can improve themselves, end of story.Like it has nothing to do with policing somebody else, you know? You know, [00:22:00] but it's presented that way. So, so we're talking a lot about, like, talking about the Bible. I think it's fascinating. You know, we talk about so much stuff with our friends, you know, sex, who we've slept with, who we're gonna sleep with, who were dating.Oh my God, the travel, all the trips were taking, you know, I bought this thing, that thing, you know, and yet when it comes to like religion and Christianity, I think the furthest generally as society we've come is the whole universe. So people will be like, I'm gonna manifest this in the universe. That is very friendly talk that I get everywhere I go, but specific deities are like gods and stuff.Mm-hmm. like that, not so much. And so I like, like your rhetoric and everything. Just the fact that, you know, suggesting that somebody would want to have a conversation with a pastor, an atheist, just to converse at all, rather than just saying, oops, we shouldn't talk about that, is like a big deal. I get this from, [00:23:00] like, I remember when I was like, you know, younger in my twenties and going around all the gay bars, doing all the cocaine and all the drugs and everything, you know, and trying to be cute.But you know, we never really had serious conversations about religion, , you know, or life. If it was, it wasn't Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, don't bring it up. You know what, I'mJeffrey: you know, you know, I think I can honestly say that I've never been in a situation in which, if it's not Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan don't bring it up, really applies to me.But I have been in plenty of contexts in which religion did not come up myself. , I've, I, I guess it's safe to say I've had a lot more conversations about the Bible than I have about Lindsay Lohan. De'Vannon: The thing is man in, in the gay community and just in general [00:24:00] society, we talk so much more about the things we want to acquire in life, our successes or, or the experiences we want to have, be it drugs or traveling or going fishing.But we barely ever talk about spirituality. Hmm. And then usually when people mention the universe, it's about something they're trying to get from it, you know? Yeah. I don't really hear people who subscribe to the universe as their higher power is talking about like spiritual growth a lot. You know, self-help and self-development is separate from the speak of the universe.Like when the secret first came out and everything like that, you know, I watched that video and it was very much about, I'm gonna put this picture of this house on the wall, I'm gonna get it right. You know, it was all about like, what can I get? You know? I'm not throwing shade at it, I'm just saying it just is very grabbyJeffrey: It's, it's really interesting and I think that, In some ways, like it's an unfortunate [00:25:00]side of human nature to approach something good and then say, how can I exploit this? Like, how can I get, how, how can I use this for all it's worth for me? And I think that that really gets to I guess what I, I shouldn't say what religion is good for, but like the, I, I think conversations around spirituality with the people in our lives are a really good opportunity to, to check that.Like, that's, that's one of the reasons why I like discussing spirituality with folks because it feels like an opportunity to identify ways in which, you know, maybe we're, maybe we could be thinking about ways to be good to the universe in return and what can we. , what can we contribute to, to the cosmos around us as opposed to what can we extract for, for ourselves right now?Obviously we need to get, we need to get good [00:26:00] stuff too. But I think having, having an attitude of generosity for the universe is also really helpful in spiritual conversations. Can help Facilit facilitate that. De'Vannon: It's balance, man. This is what I'm saying. This is, there was nothing wrong with us doing all the cocaine and talking about Lindsay Loja and Paris Hilton, but we should have talked about something spiritual too, you know?So, yeah. So get, get all you want, but give too. So what I. What I hate is when I have friends who I've known forever and talk to all the time, who never talk about anything spiritual. And then like when something happens to like one of their kids or something bad happens and they take the social media wanting all this prayer, and suddenly everything is Jesus in my faith.And I'm all like, bitch, I didn't know this about you, . Wait. Oh man, where'd this come from? . Jeffrey: And that's, that's really interesting. Like, I think that one [00:27:00] of the, one of the really interesting things that or, or an interesting topic that I find myself discussing with like new friends is like, what, what is spirituality even for, like, what's, what's the utility in being a spiritual person or things like that.And, and I feel like what, what you're describing is, is something that a lot of people. we're told religion was for right. Like this is, this is your channel to go to someone or something that's more powerful than you because they can do things that you cannot. Mm-hmm. . So once, once you like, reach a spot in which you realize that you can't, you don't have the control that you want you don't have the resources or the talents or you know, the, the scope in order to realize what you want, then what do you go to?You go to your, your religion to try and see, okay, well is there anything [00:28:00] here that can help me? Now that I've exhausted everything De'Vannon: that I can do,I want people to stop looking at God as a means to an end though, because none of us want some, want some food coming around just when they want some shit from us. Like nobody wants that. And so, God lets us abuse him like that , you know, because he's really nice. But , Jeffrey: I think it's, I think it's really interesting, like, because a lot of, a lot of the thought around like asking, asking God for things doesn't seem to take into account like where that thing is going to come from.So, you know, I, I think, I think we're all familiar with like this idea of two people fraying that their sports team wins the same match. Well, okay. It's, I think it's pretty clear to see like where the interests are aligned there. Or we're [00:29:00] not aligned there. Like that's, that's pretty, that's pretty base level.But then even in the Bible, you've got the, the problem of job in that, oh, job loses everything, has no idea why he's lost it. and ends up, ends up saying, you know, I, I want to file a complaint with God. Essentially asks like if God had a manager job, would've asked to see him or demanded to speak with him.And you know, at the, at the end of it, we see God just saying to Job, look, you don't even understand why the ocean stops at the beach. Like you don't, you don't know how any of this works and you want to file a complaint with, with me and how, and how it works. Like this is just beyond your understanding.The system is so complex. And, and I think that, you know, like that that human desire for there to be someone making things right in the [00:30:00] end has been part of, that's been part of us for as long as we've been a species as far as, as far as I can tell. And. Like when to, to, to bring it back to like asking God for things or just like demanding things.I think I think that as, as far as the picture of God has been painted in like the Hebrew Bible and, and the New Testament, this God seems to understand and, you know, not really begrudge humans of of asking him for things. But there's, there's something bigger. There's always something bigger at play than, than what we want.And you know, the Apostle James says that if, if anyone lacks then they can ask for wisdom and God you know, God's not going to begrudge them that. And [00:31:00] so I think like asking, asking for things like wisdom that don't need to come from somewhere else, like, that's not going to disrupt any other part of the system.The way asking for rain or asking for money or asking for, you know, a child or things like that might, I think asking to have more of that divine perspective I think, I think God will, God will make it rain on that front, right? Yes. But, yeah. Yeah. But, but no, I, I don't, I don't think God gets annoyed by, by us asking things.And I, I, I agree with you. Like he is, he puts up with a lot of our bullshit because he is nice. But I think he's also wise and he knows that we're just children and we're doing the best we De'Vannon: can. I know he's not angry. I'm angry on his behalf. I'm like, I want y'all to see that he's a person, he's like a human without flesh, whatever personalities we have.What, you know, he's that. The more, because we're [00:32:00] made in his image, you know, we're just like little versions of him. So his feelings to get hurt and stuff like that, though he possesses the capacity could be completely objective in spite of his feelings being hurt. So I just want people to see like the humanity in God.Mm-hmm. , even though he's totally divine, and yeah, we can ask for everything, but still, he's like a person and you know, you know, he, he has feelings. Yeah. , Jeffrey: that was, and if you read the, the Old Testament prophets, you'll see that. De'Vannon: See just best feelings. You know what, I don't. , you know, so we're not gonna be on this earth forever, and eventually we're gonna look at God in the face.You know, our relationship with him cannot just have been transactional the whole time. You know, at what point are we gonna just get close to him for who he is and just talk, just, you know, know him. Mm-hmm. , you know, and I get off my soapbox on that. I wanna comment on something that you had mentioned earlier about your, like your, your family, friends, relatives, associates, saying like, they don't, they're trying to figure [00:33:00] out what it means to be American and to be Christian.So I just wanna say that to be an American is like a blank slate. You know, this country doesn't have its own language. We don't have a national religion. Like you can't speak American, like you can't write American , you know, this country. It's just like, oh, somebody says just like a white, well, they took a, like a, a, a dry race board, such as you have behind you , and, and there was a bunch of indigenous people on it, and then they like, kind of wiped the majority of those out.And then they, they just took, you know, when we went down to African and snatched people and threw them in there and, you know, and just like pieced it together, you know? So to be an American is what I, I don't really know. It's like this, whatever do you make of it, you know? Allegedly, it's supposed to be a whole lot of freedoms here, but that's not the case.But there's no like, say, like, you know, Italian, you know, culture, you know, rooted in us and stuff like that. You know, there's [00:34:00] no, Americans have pasta, you know, there's no, you know, the French have their crepes, you know, you know, there's no like American. You know, so it's whatevs. Jeffrey: I mean, we got serving sizes, right?we got we got, we got the supersize, we got the drive through . We got De'Vannon: things that the world laughs us about. So we have the golden arches. McDonald's. Yeah. Fast food capital. We're the fast food capital of the world. Arah,And what does it mean to be Christian? Well, you know, that's also very, very, very, very vague because you have many different denominations, you know, that are all supposed to be following, you know, the same God. But it seems like we can't get on the same page. So I think what it means to be both of these things, American and Christian, is very individualized.And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I think it's a beautiful thing because it requires each of us to get to know [00:35:00] who God is for ourselves to see what exactly Christianity is gonna look like for us. Go ahead. Jeffrey: It's, it's interesting how much of religion comes down to identity politics. Like so much of, so much of what it means to be a Christian comes down to what that individual means by Christian.Cuz you can talk to a thousand different people who would say I'm a Christian, and then ask, okay, well what, what about you makes you a Christian? Or, or what, what does that mean for, for you? How does that make your life different from what it would be otherwise? And you can get a thousand different responses.And so, you know, granted, like many of them will say, oh, well I [00:36:00] believe in the Niacine creed. I believe in the Apostles Creed. You know, I, I subscribe to this, or, or, or that. But ultimately I think the reasons why, We take on labels is because we want to, we want to know where we fit into the world. And identity politics is a really big part of that.But the De'Vannon: danger there is letting how another group of people define themselves define you, or how a certain group of people want to define you. Define you. And so then, so you're trusting that they're right and that, and you're believing that you're wrong. And which is how I entered into Christianity, believing the guy up in the pool pit knew better than me.And so then I would bend my mind. Yeah. Whether I dis whether I agree with what he was saying or not, I would change my mind by force to go with what the guy on the stage was saying. Now, I would never do that again because I, I need, I see the falling in that. So you know this, that sort of person you're describing is what we would call.[00:37:00] Maybe somebody who's not super experienced in their faith yet. Maybe it's somebody new. Cuz as you grow in God, eventually you'll get the point that you actually don't need a preacher , you know, or a whole group of people to . Yeah. It's, yeah, Jeffrey: you don't need it. But I don't think I, I mean, it, it sounds like we're touching on maybe one of the darker sides of like Bible study and I guess the way people approach this sort of topic in that we, we like having rubrics and we like having scorecards.And, and so like when, when we're dealing with topics of like morality or, or identity, then. It becomes like, I, I think humans have this this natural [00:38:00] gravitation to say, okay, well we know that there is good and bad in the world, and therefore, how do I make sure that I can identify what's bad and how do I make sure that nobody thinks I'm bad?Like, that's, that's something that I think a lot of people immediately try to figure out. And so that's where the rules come in. And that's, that's where like the, okay, well I'll, I'll just bend my mind to believe what what I believe to believe what I believe. The people who tell me what to believe, believeAnd I promise if you play that sentence back, it makes sense, . But that's, that's what we end up doing because we want to fit in. with a group of people that, that are going to affirm this idea that we're good and that we're, and that we're doing, we're doing what's right. [00:39:00] And I think that when you get to know the teachings of Jesus, and if you, if you can approach if you can approach this God with who you know, like John says, God is love, like if you can approach someone who could be described as as love personified then I think, I think you start to understand that it's not so much about checking boxes or, or meeting a rubric or criteria and signaling that you're good so much as it is just changing from within.And like all your core drives becoming more and more aligned to acting out of love for. For people around you, for people in general and for the world, De'Vannon: for the whole wide world. Mm-hmm. , let's spread some love. [00:40:00] So you, indeed, you make a point to say that this is not a Christian book, like right at the top of it.So what, why, like, explain why. Like, I, I, I believe that I know why mm-hmm. , so, but I'd like to hear you say it. Jeffrey: Sure. Well, it's not a Christian book because it's not trying, like in, in my discussion of the Bible, I'm. Really not trying to influence what you believe about God or what you believe about the person of Jesus.Like that's, that's not what you're going to, to find in there. And in fact, I try to be I try to not even say things like, you know, God says this without saying, [00:41:00] the ancient Israelites believed their God. Sid said this, like, I want, I want to keep the, the discussion focused on what the Bible is and what it says.As opposed to trying to say because we have these shared beliefs, then we can agree that this is what it says. I think that that's dangerous because it gates the, it gates the meaning of the Bible behind some sort of creed. And that's just, I don't think that's a helpful way of approaching or understanding such an old set of documents.You know, people appeal to the Bible when they're making legislation. People appeal to the Bible when they're making decisions as to who they're going to date or marry. They appeal to the Bible when it comes to how they conduct themselves in society. And these are things that [00:42:00] affect so many people who aren't Christian and, you know, don't necessarily have any reason to, to have the Bible in their homes.I think that it's only fair that there should be resources that help everyone understand what this book that everyone's appealing to says without them necessarily needing to either adopt beliefs that they don't have or pretend. To adopt those beliefs in order to, to get the education. Like I think that this is something that a lot of people appeal to when making decisions that affect other people and those other people should have as much as, as much as possible and unbiased means of understanding what these people are appealing to.De'Vannon: I'm gonna read two excerpts from your book that I feel like has to do with this right here, what we're talking about. And we were talking about [00:43:00] what does it even mean to be a Christian? And you were saying from the book it says, with so many Christians joining the faith from different backgrounds, there was a lot of confusion as to what it was they were actually supposed to believe and do.How did you theologians former prostitutes, wealthy merchants, illiterate slaves and other diverse people live their lives together, the follower of Jesus. And the other question posed in the book was, what should they do about the Jewish law? Then you say, if churches are a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish people, Jewish being of the bloodline of Abraham, non-Jewish, not of the bloodline of Abraham, as I understand it.How would Christians handle the culture clashes? The Jews had methods and traditions of food, worship, work, sex. The other cultures had their own approaches to these. How would they start out? Cultural differences in a new mixed community? Mm-hmm. in the book of Acts, which I think is a titillating read now that I'm, you know, older and I know how to go now that I'm able to look through it myself.[00:44:00]Mm-hmm. , one part that they never preached to me in the book of Acts growing up and all of them in their churches was about just how much the Jews hated the Gentiles. And they didn't give a damn about what Jesus said about all y'all kissing makeup and get together , they. It really had a heart. The Jew, the Gentiles being people were not naturally the bloodline of Abraham, people who were outside of the culture of the nation of Israel, who God said when he rolled out that, that vision to Peter, he's like, I want everybody, I cleansed everybody.Everyone can now come. Those people were not trying to have none of this. You know? They were like, we don't want them still. And so the book of Acts, a lot of it's about, yeah, the Holy Ghost coming and speaking in tongues, but a lot of it's also about, just hear what I just said. And what Jeffrey talks about in his book is, how the fuck do we infuse, you know, us together?Because up until the time of Jesus, God had told them, be separate. You're, you're, you're gonna be [00:45:00] holy and different than all these nations. And now all of a sudden he's saying, nevermind everybody play nice together. And so they had a meeting in the book of, And when they came out of this meeting, they were like, okay, if you're not of the bloodline of Abraham, then don't like eat chit strangled meat, strangled to idols, or some shit like that.It was like three tenets that all had to do with idol ideology or some shit like that. Jeffrey: It was, yeah, don't, don't eat things that were strangled, don't eat food sacrifice to idols, I believe. And I think it was abstain from sexual immorality. And then in in Galatians Paul, Paul says that like the, the main stipulation was care for the poor.So like, I, I think in terms of acts, those first three were, were the things that James just kind of said, okay, all right, all right. Like, we're, we're not gonna hold everyone to, to keep the whole Torah. But, [00:46:00] but we, we do wanna make sure that, that we're aligned on these three things. Is that the, is that the, the conversation that you're referencing when, like Paul and Barnabas come down from, from Antioch and they, they have this whole discussion as to whether or not Gentile Christians need to abide by the, the Jewish law.Right. It De'Vannon: was a whole scene. It was a whole scene, yeah. And so whenever I reference the Bible, I try to call it the Hebrew Bible to remind people that we're talking about a, a Middle Eastern book, you know, from all those years ago. Jeffrey: And just, and, and just for, for your reference, the Hebrew Bible in the Bible are kind of two separate things.So the Hebrew Bible refers to the Old Testament and like there's today a, a lot of folks call it the TaNaK, long time ago, I think it was called like Miska or Mik. You can, you can tell I'm not a Hebrew scholar. But, [00:47:00] but yeah, the he, the Hebrew Bible. Refers to the books that we now preserve in the Christian Bible that were written in Hebrew.So Old Testament books ranged in a different way for the Hebrew Bible, but that's, that's the Hebrew Bible. New Testament was written in Greek. And so like the Bible, you're right, was written in a different part of the world. The Hebrew Bible is, is really in reference to, to the Old Testament.Anything with acts would be, that would not be included in what most people refer to as the Hebrew Bible. Just, just so you know. De'Vannon: Thank you for the education. You got itAnd so it sounds to me like what they decided was that people can keep their own culture and like you said, agree on those things. And so, I think a reason why a lot of people are unhappy or they don't make it very far with Christianity and following Christ is because they're trying [00:48:00] to do too much. You know, God is not asking you to act like his people did over 2000 years ago.He's not. He's asking you to not put anything else before him. And he said to basically treat everyone else nice and to get serious, you know about God. So when Jesus says the love, the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and the love of your neighbor as yourself, he says, basically everything boils down to those two things.And so that's why I'm a big proponent of people getting past, just asking God for stuff and actually getting to know him. You know, because you got to, any relationship we have with anybody cannot just be based on getting stuff from them. We have to go beyond that. Yeah. And so and so I think that we have more freedoms in Christ than what the church tries to let us know.So this, so I don't know. I don't, I mean, I don't think he could get any clearer than this. You know, God himself has said, do your culture, but just worship me first. You [00:49:00] know? I don't, Jeffrey: yeah. And, and I think, you know, to, if we were to, to bring all of this around to what you had originally brought up like what the early church was dealing with, like this this desire to remain faithful to this to these traditions which we, we still have these, these documents preserved today in the Old Testament but also wanting to, you know, wanting to welcome in people that did not have any of that context and in fact had very, very different contexts.And this is, this is where I think that that command to love one another. Really starts showing what, what I maybe like most [00:50:00] or en or enjoy most about early Christian teaching which is you, you can't necessarily know what the long range ripple effects of anything you do are gonna be you know, to, to someone in the first century.I don't know how much they, how, how, how much they would've known about the nutritional or scientific benefits of abstaining from non-kosher foods. You know, like to today, today there's a lot of, there, there's a lot of talk about like, going back and like trying to find the science to make these ancient commands make sense.But that's not necessarily what people were, were dealing with back then. Like they, they just had these traditions. They wanted to acknowledge And, and I think that what Jesus did was gave us this opportunity to say, [00:51:00] well, what if we instead of tried to check the right boxes? And what if instead of trying to see you know, who is, who is necessarily winning this game?Or are we playing this game? Well what if instead we made it about acting out of love for, for those around us? Cuz while you can't know the long range ripple effects of anything that you do you can know for sure whether or not you're acting out of love for someone else. Like that's something that you can always, you can always check.And in many ways it's kind of like the only thing that you can know when you're doing something. So, like when I, I think that that's a, a harder rule because it deals with. Becoming, you know, a transformed person. But it's a simpler rule and I think that's, that's something that, that Jesus did. And I think that's what, [00:52:00] that's what gave the early church so much, so much appeal.De'Vannon: So in other words, Jesus was like, way more chill, , Jeffrey: and in other ways, way not like I like. Yeah. The, this idea that this idea that you can, that you can come in from anywhere like this this kingdom of God is, is something completely different from the empire of. And, and this this faith tradition doesn't rely on you being from a certain nation and then converting from, from one, you know, ethnic tradition to another.It's instead focused on you bringing yourself and and just using who [00:53:00] you are on behalf of, of those around you. Whether, you know, that's, that looks like giving giving of your, your resources giving of your services just being compassionate to, to the poorer around you. Like that's, that's what we see in in the early church.And yes, there, there was concern about, you know, there, there, there was concern about traditions and there was concern about teachings. But the. The general narrative that you're seeing there in Acts is one more of opening up than than closing off. I love De'Vannon: how Jesus broke. His own rules. So, you know, like when he was going through the cornfield and eating you know, on the Sabbath day and you know, and look back how and when he referenced how when David went into the temple, you know, and ate the holy show bread and stuff like that, you know, Jesus is like, yeah, the [00:54:00] rules are here, but if it comes down to it, you put people before rules.Because I think he said something like, rules were made for people, not people for rules. Jeffrey: The Sabbath was for man and not man for the Sabbath. Yeah, De'Vannon: yeah. You know, and so. and the love part comes in when you go, yes, it's AAB today, but I'm gonna heal this motherfucker anyway because he needs it. The rules be damned.Yeah. You know, so a version of that today would be like, we're gonna show love to this woman and let her get, get whatever abortion she needs if she wants it. We're not going to be like, well, these are the rules, you know? So 10 year old girl, have the baby anyway, even though you just got weight. So,Jeffrey: oh man. The, now I am, I am someone who enjoys petant or Petry a good deal. But no, the, define De'Vannon: what that word is. . Jeffrey: Petry. Okay. So I, [00:55:00] I am the guy who's super fun at parties because I will, I will show up and be like, I, I am kind of like the All right. Well actually it was this, or, you know, like I'm, I'm, I'm very much like a social nit picker when it comes to like answering trivia games and, and things like that.So respectfully annoying might be one way of putting it. So, so I do, I do enjoy picking, picking through the rules and lawyering around life. I'm not a lawyer, but that can be fun. However reducing someone's life to this academic exercise of whether or not something is, is right or wrong according to the rules, I think is just, it's dehumanizing.It would be, yeah. It, and, and I think that's a huge problem that that people, that [00:56:00] people in Christian circles, Are dealing with today when we, when we elevate this idea of being, of having a purity of creed but not, or, but elevating purity of creed over the way we actually treat other people. I think that, that, I think we could all do do a lot better on that De'Vannon: front.I'll just say amen on that . But there's, yeah, there's just, there's just so many rabbit holes can go down there. Yeah. Jeffrey: Yeah. It's, and, and it's, it's super frustrating. I mean, like, I, I grew up very much encouraged to, to look out for false doctrine and, you know, watch out for, for people that that might be trying to lead me astray and, and you know, just like be, be very play defensive when it came to [00:57:00]When it came to identifying with other people, and, you know, to, to some degree, I still, I still have a, a lot of that baggage today.But I think that if you are, if you gate yourself and if you gate the ability to commune with other people behind making sure that you agree on things, then you just, not only, not only does that result in just less love shared in the world, which I think is a negative, but you also just cut yourself off from so many connections that you cut otherwise have.And, and yeah, like that's this, this idea of trying to make sure that someone is clear before, before being able to relate to them or before being able to think of them compassionately, I think is it's a pretty big problem. Mm. De'Vannon: [00:58:00] What he said, y'all exactly how he said it. So, so in your book till you get very clear about detailing, like where the Bible came from, what it is, and like you said, what it's for mm-hmm.and you say in there that the Bible didn't, and I'll paraphrase here, like basically magically fall out of heaven. No. So growing up, and this is a good thing because your book really does that high level view because in there you talk about how it's important you compare the Bible to like a big 600,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.Cause apparently many words are in the Bible. And so you're driving the point home is that you have to get, you have to step very far. To get clear on the full scope of the Bible, what it is historically, how it's organized in your book. You know, you talk about who really wrote the Bible, you know, there's so many books we don't know the authors, you know.Yeah. From this time, you know, just cause someone's name on the book doesn't mean they, it doesn't mean that they wrote it. So, growing up in church, [00:59:00] you know, I used to think, you know, they always say the words divinely inspired. So, and this, it just made it seem like the book was always there. So, so what can you tell us about like, how the bible, how it's composed and it's, you know?Sure, Jeffrey: sure. That is a, that is a huge question. Let me, let me try and, and distill this real quick. How the Bible's composed. I think that in order, in order for us to talk about that, like the, the Bible. That we referenced today. And let's, let's just say, say it's the Protestant Bible. For, for the purpose of this conversation you have the, the Old Testament, which that's the first like three quarters of the Bible.That is that is a collection of texts [01:00:00] that the Israelites preserved that in order to show their relationship with their God. New Testament was composed and preserved to help Christians and churches understand the teachings of Jesus and what to do about them. How were, how was, how those two works were composed is kind of different.So let's start with, let's start with the Old Testament. Old Testament. You've got oral traditions. That, that people were just sharing, you know parents to, to children. Eventually these oral traditions become written traditions these written traditions get compiled into these literary documents of, of various types.[01:01:00] Then these documents came together as part of larger literary works until eventually we have the tark which is, you know, the, the Hebrew Bible the, the books of the Old Testament. And so you have these who have these works of writing that fit together as a larger literary masterpiece. And so when we're talking about the Old Testament, like how is it composed?A lot of these works are older than the documents that we have today, because like they, they've just been preserved and and edited and, and I don't say edited in a way that n necessarily means, like they were, they were, it's, it's not like you edit a document before you, you send it off [01:02:00] to, to a client or, or your teacher or something like that.Like these are, these are just works that were in the works for, for a very long time. The writers had their rhetorical agendas and then they, they joined this larger library for the New Testament. It's, that happened over a quicker period of. Followers of Jesus wrote down things that Jesus had said and then also wrote down things that Jesus followers said and did.And so these documents got passed around a lot by early groups of Jesus followers called churches. Eventually, a couple hundred years later, by about the, the fourth century in the common era, most like every, every book that we have in the New Testament today was relatively known and used by [01:03:00] churches.It wasn't until over a thousand years later that we actually got this definitive cannon of what books belong in what we call the New Testament today. So long, long answer to that question. Old Testament oral traditions People speaking out on, on behalf of Israel's God. People preserving that in order to tell that story of Israel and their God.New Testament got this person called Jesus. People write down what he wrote. People write down what his followers did. And eventually the useful documents or the ones that a lot of people found useful got preserved today. De'Vannon: Thank you for that breakdown. I think you did an incredible and spectacular outstanding job.And so thank you . Woo. And so, absolutely. And so there's a video on your YouTube channel called [01:04:00] 12 Non-Trivial Facts about the Bible, and I feel like as you said in that video, you wish you had known these facts before you got started reading it. Yeah, I think that that's a very good video as well.You know, I'm driving all these points home to make the point that when people are reading the Bible, either before they start or if they never thought of it like this before. So really take a step back and take that high level view, you know, and see historically how did this all come together? You know, you know what's what.And so the last thing that we're gonna talk about is we begin to wrap up here. You know, in your book, a part that I felt like was very special was how you talked about like the covenants. Mm-hmm. you know, you talked about the covenant of Abraham with Israel, Moses, you know, with David and how we have our covenant in Jesus Christ.And so, you know, this, this beckons back to the whole point of God trying to reach out and communicate with us, get on our level. The fact that he was willing to even come down in the whirlwind and [01:05:00] talk to Job, read him for filth basically, you know, and then turn around and bless him the way he did. You know, God is Big O God.He doesn't have to, to to talk to us. You know, like he's our equal, you know, if he doesn't want to, but he's been trying to just have a relationship with us, you know, the whole time. You know? And so I appreciate it, the fact that you highlighted all the different covenants in what they mean. Jeffrey: I'm glad, I'm glad that was helpful.And, you know, for, for those listening, this is, this is one of the things that I do in the book to try and make this enormous collection of documents, the Bible a little bit easier to, to grasp. If you think of, you know, this 600,000 piece jigsaw puzzle I pull out four, four parts of the Bible that can almost be used as the corner pieces.And that can kind of frame [01:06:00] the way the way the Bible fits together in your mind in, in a pretty, in a pretty straightforward fashion. So those, those four covenants are the, and, and a, and a covenant kind of using antiquated language here. But the Bible's an old book, so deal with it, I guess.De'Vannon: deal with it. . Jeffrey: Yeah. So so you've, you've got these, these old like solemn agreements that that God makes with with a handful of figures in Israel's history. And, you know, Devana, and obviously you've already read this, but these, these all relate to God's presence in the world and God's blessing for the people of the world.[01:07:00] And so understanding these four high points between God and Abraham, Between God and Moses and the nation of Israel, between God and David and Jerusalem. And then also between God and Christ and and the whole world. Understanding those points in the relationship really bring the rest of the Bible into focus.De'Vannon: Yeah. Yo, this book is practical. It doesn't have to be this overly spiritual woo woo thing, you know, it's practical. I wrote a blog on my website called The Common Sense of the 10 Commandments to break down how practical God thinks, you know, when he tells us to do something. It's for like a practical, physical reason.It's not just like, For fuck sakes or for rules sake, you know, or just to, you know, just to like have shit. So I'm gonna throw a little bit of shade at, at the Catholic church before I give you the floor for the last word. I feel like so much shit about all, you know, most organized [01:08:00] religions and especially the Catholic church, is just so extra for no purpose that I can articulate, you know, what the fuck are all the flowy robes and the, the goddamn processes, the protocols, all the pump, all the circumstance.You know, I, I think all of that is to just like, mind fuck you and to put you in a, a state of suggestibility so that you can't, you're focusing on so much shit. You can't really be critical of them. I just, I think that they're just like so over the top. And for me of all people to say something over the top, that is a big damn deal because I am an extra bitch , you know, all day long.I am a Sagittarius and I don't know when to quit. And so for me to say, you know, I got four felonies to prove that. And so for me to, so for me to say the Catholic church has gone too far, That that's a big deal. So I just wanted to throw a little bit of shade at them for not being simple. And practical and easy to understand like Jesus isJeffrey: Turns out [01:09:00] turns out running an empire is a little bit more complex than preaching a sermon sometimes. De'Vannon: Oh my God, when, when you say that, I'm getting parallels between the Galactic empire and Emperor Palpetine and the Pope. I think they're the same people. I know it . Jeffrey: It's Palpetine, not papain. Which sounds like some sort of only milks chocolate milk mixed chocolate milk drink.De'Vannon: Do the Pope is the Sy Lord. He is the Sy Lord. this whole time . Well, Jeffrey: no. Well, no. Hold on. I'm Pope Francis. Has gotta be the nicest sy Lord in the universe though, if that's, if that's the case. I mean like, he seems like a pretty nice guy. De'Vannon: That's until he executes order 66. It's[01:10:00]Jeffrey: It's, it's funny like the, you know, I, I can appreciate, I, I appreciate tradition. I think tradition has so much, has, so, like, there, there's, there's so much of what's cool about being human bound up in tradition gating understanding behind, behind behind regalia or, or behind I guess an ordeal.Can I, I don't think that's as good.De'Vannon: Okay, so tradition's cute, but I see too much sacrifice of people on behalf of the traditions, you know, is my thing. And then I [01:11:00] don't get where it comes from. So did God tell them to write out all these prayers and all of these things that you have to do before you qualify to be baptized or before you qualify?I heard the word say, as long as you have faith you can believe, not that you have to attend a catechism class. You know? So, Jeffrey: yeah. And that, and that kind of gets, that gets back to what we were talking about earlier, right? Like using rubrics to show that you're good instead of, instead of what's within, like how, how do we, how do we get people to behave sort of love for each other and for De'Vannon: the world?I say, take all the robes off and just put on fucking clothes and sit down and say what you got to say, . I'm done with it. There we go. But with that, Jeffrey, I thank you. You heard it Jeffrey: here first, folks, . De'Vannon: So Jeffrey, thank you for your time. I want you to again, his website is overview bible.com. His YouTube channel [01:12:00] is the same.The book is The Beginner's Guide on How to Read the Bible, A non preachy, jargon-free handbook to what the Bible is, where it came from, and what it's all about. The last word, anything you wanna say to all these beautiful bitches in the world? . Jeffrey: Hello? . No, no. The last word. The, the last word should not be.Hello. No. Thank you so much, Devon, for, for having me here. I, I absolutely love talking about this. And you know, if this, if you're listening and this makes you curious about, about this book, I just want you to know this is. The Bible isn't going anywhere. It's been around for a long time. And it's something that you can know just as well as anyone who believes it.And you, you don't necessarily need to, you don't need to change anything about yourself in order to understand what, what this is. It's [01:13:00] at the end of the day, this is information. This is something that is important to a lot of people and you, you don't need to adopt what someone else says about this information in order for you to know it.It's very knowable.De'Vannon: Hallelujah tabernacle and praise .Thank you all so much for taking time to listen to the Sex Drugs and Jesus podcast. It really means everything to me. Look, if you love the show, you can find more information and resources at SexDrugsAndJesus.com or wherever you listen to your podcast. Feel free to reach out to me directly at DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com and on Twitter and Facebook as well.My name is De'Vannon, and it's been wonderful being your host today. And just remember that everything is [01:1

How do you have better relationships after experiencing only toxic ones? How do you date again and stop choosing the wrong people? Our expert therapist Shannon Petrovich is here to answer those questions and more. We had very informative conversation about contemporary topics, such as, mental health issues and the Church, finding our self-worth, practicing positive self-talk, and all about the creep-o-meter! We also get to hear about her new book, Out of the FOG Into the CLEAR! Shannon's website: Home | No Foggy Days | Out of the FOG Into the CLEAR This website connects to my information, bio, blog, a sampler of my videos, an invitation to my newsletter, and a link to my book.  Listeners can get on to find more support in all of these different ways. Biography: Therapist, Author, YouTube creator,Shannon earned her Bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, and her Master's in Social Work from the University of Connecticut. She earned her clinical licenses in Social Work and Substance Abuse Counseling, and is a Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work. Her new book, Out of the FOG Into the CLEAR, Journaling to Help You Heal from Toxic Relationships has attained Amazon Bestseller status in Self Help for Abuse, Codependency, and Personal Transformation. On her YouTube channel Therapist Talks, she shares insights, information, perspectives, and strategies on a wide range of relationship and mental health topics.   Link Tree Website: https://dswministries.org Email: diana@dswministries.org Social media links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DSW-Ministries-230135337033879 Twitter: https://twitter.com/DswMinistries YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxgIpWVQCmjqog0PMK4khDw/playlists Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dswministries/ https://dswministries.org/subscribe-to-podcast/ Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Stitcher, Listen Notes Keep in touch with me! Email subscribe to get my handpicked list of the best resources for abuse survivors! https://thoughtful-composer-4268.ck.page #abuse #trauma Mentoring https://youtu.be/WWgkERpkIoY An easy way to help my ministry: https://dswministries.org/product/buy-me-a-cup-of-tea/ A donation link: https://dswministries.org/donate/ Affiliate links: Can't travel to The Holy Land right now? The next best thing is Walking The Bible Lands! Get a free video sample of the Bible lands here! https://www.walkingthebiblelands.com/a/18410/hN8u6LQP Get one free month of Blubrry podcast hosting with the promotional code: FAITHFUL http://create.blubrry.com/resources/podcast-media-hosting/?code=FAITHFUL Get quality podcast guests and interviews from PodMatch! Get paid to be a host! Sign up below: https://podmatch.com/signup/faithful Visit my friends at the Heal Thrive Dream Boutique for some cool T-shirts, jewelry and other merch! Simply share the discount code we created just for you and receive a 10% discount on your order!  DIANA98825  https://www.htd-boutique.com/ Bible Study Notebook From Karen Robinson! Check it out!  https://www.htd-boutique.com/products/bible-planner-for-survivors-includes-prayer-requests-sermon-notes-bible-study-notes-and-other-note-pages-to-enrich-your-spiritual-life Transcript: Shannon Petrovich [00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. Brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. [00:00:25] Now here is Diana. [00:00:29] Diana Winkler: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show. Come on in. How's life treating you? [00:00:35] I wanted to ask if you had any prayer requests, because I feel that's important.