Faith, Fame & The Filter That Changed Their Life

A platform can make you famous, but it can also expose what you’re really serving. We sit down with Sarah Beth Lewis to talk about the last few years of change with Smo: shifting from label life and constant hustle into a season marked by conviction, clarity, and a much heavier sense of responsibility over a million-plus reach.

We get practical about the work behind the scenes too. Sarah Beth explains how she runs social media management and brand management across platforms, why content insights and retention matter, and how easily the phone turns into a distraction machine. From there, we unpack the rise and release of Smolicious, their vegan food trailer born out of major weight loss and health advocacy, and why they ultimately felt called to step away so the bigger mission could breathe.

The heart of the story is what changed after the Bless God Summit in California and how that moment led to bolder Christian faith, cleaner music, and a re-anchored life. We talk jail ministry and juvenile outreach, spiritual warfare and discernment, church hurt and finding real community, and the filter they use now: the Fruit of the Spirit. We also highlight Smo’s Smosis album, including songs like Lift Me Higher and Man On Fire, plus what it means to make faith-based country rap and Christian hip hop without losing your identity.

If any part of your life feels noisy, compromised, or pulled off-course, this conversation will help you ask better questions and choose your next step on purpose. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you heard.

Transcript

Recording Started

SPEAKER_03 0:12

Welcome back to another Unstoppable Podcast. This one has been long overdue. Again. Third time, right? Third time.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Third time.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

We're going to record and talk to each other, so I'm not going to be looking at you the camera the whole time because last time we recorded it and it was great. We had the visual recording. Somehow, Travis, we're going to blame it on Travis because he did, lost the video. So we're going to do video, hopefully. We'll see. We'll see. And then we're going to do a voice recording on all our platforms. So again, this is raw, unedited. That's how we do it because that's how we do it. We do it that way because it's real organic stuff. You don't want to miss anything. You're not going to miss anything. You're not going to miss anything. Maybe we can retire. So um I'm going to start just by saying welcome back again. Our last podcast was amazing. If you haven't listened to the part one, part two of that, it was simply an amazing podcast by Ashley Owen. She just really shared her heart and her truth. Go back and listen to that if you haven't. She's a domestic violence survivor. So much. Great story to share. Great, great story to share for sure. And anytime me and Sarah Beth are in the room together, like it's awesome. We had breakfast last week and or the week before. Oh, we met for an hour and we could have been there all day. If you have friends like that, hold on to them, dearly, especially as adults. Yes. Because, you know, those we just treasure our conversations because we truly talk about some awesome stuff. And we're like, we've got to get back in here and talk to you guys. You've got to join our conversation. So everything we say, you know, if we get into a deep dive discussion, we love a good conspiracy theory. We love a good rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

We love to talk about what things are allegedly doing.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Yeah, allegedly maintained purposes only. Yeah. So, you know, if you don't like something in our opinion, that's fine. But if you do and you resonate with stuff, that's great. And we're here just to bring value. We want to bring value to all of our listeners and especially you guys that are joining us today. So, Sarah Beth, welcome back, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Thank you for having me. I love coming here. I love getting to come and talk to you.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Here it's awesome. So tell us a little bit about what's been going on for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

So it's so funny to go from our first talk to like our third talk. Because even when I listen to the things we talk about, see like some of it almost sounds childish just because how much time has passed the things that you know that we've yeah, what we've talked about and the things that even the things that we saw coming that we we've been able to talk about and see the trajectory of how uh things within our own life experience and our business, the things we'd hoped and dreamed for coming into fruition. And so it's really cool to like think who who we've been over these years now, being friends and what we've grown to. So I think the biggest difference from first podcast to now is I feel a little more seasoned in life. Uh I feel like both in what we do as content creators and in our season in our relationship, even in our friendship, we're so much closer now that we're even able to talk about things deeper. So I think for the listener, my biggest change, I've gone through being Smo's girlfriend to his wife to an artist myself. And now I've changed even in the past year. I've gone from more of an artist to more of a management. I do all social media management for all of our platforms for so I am the real big Smo on the internet. If you want a real secret, I am the real big small on the internet. Keep everybody selling for me. I love, I love social media management. I love data. I come from a teaching background. So anything that gives you measurable data, and if you're a content creator and you can look at your insights and see what's working, what's the retention rate, what kind of things really get people listening. I like that kind of stuff because it's very similar to what teaching was like. Kids and my students were the same as whoever's watching the TikTok. So just like a student would lose attention, a TikTok viewer is gonna lose attention. So being able to skill stack and take those different talents I have and use those from my other industries and apply them in the music industry and in the content creation, it's it's been fun. Yeah, it's stressful and it's hard and it can be very discouraging at times. But having my finger on the pulse of what Smo's fans need and what they're asking for, and then to be able to fulfill that with him as an artist and a management is it's been really rewarding.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

So absolutely. And if you guys, if you've never listened to our podcast before, you gotta go back and listen.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Go back and listen to what we wanted to.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

Yeah, my husband, maybe I should notice. Yeah, no, you're good. No, I'm sure everybody, all our listeners know that, but just in case we get one in that take a little bit about hubby and yeah, and uh and what you're doing when you say managing his music.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Yes, so my husband is the artist, the real Big Smo, Big Smo, formerly Big Smo, now Smo since 2015. He had heart surgery. We went through a rebranding at that point. He had lost 100 pounds from his heart surgery, and he was like, I don't I don't want to be Big Smo anymore. So in 2015, he went through that rebranding with his first album that came out under that was The We the People. And that album we worked on together. We went to Indiana, we were in the studio together for like 18-hour days. So that was like my first time in a position. And we for our relationship, we've always we've always worked together way more before we were even like a couple because there were so many needs that he had between having daughters that needed caring for at times and having, you know, appointments that need managing and clothes and wardrobe and different things that were going on. Yeah, that it was I stepped in and helped with some things, assisting on music videos and assisting with getting the lyrics typed up and submitted so that he could have those turned into the label because back then he was still with a label.

unknown 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

So through our relationship of being together now, 11 years, he's transitioned from being with Warner to going to a smaller label to another label to going back to independent. And so this past year, the past couple of years, I transitioned into being an artist myself. Yeah. Went from Sarah Beth Lewis to SB the Queen. You're killing it. Yeah, so and then Smo and I have had songs together. I had some independent releases. I had a release with another artist, nitty gritty GR. That was what we were talking about promoting the last time I was here. We were promoting that. It hadn't even come out yet. Yes, yeah. Yeah, so it's come out now. Yeah, so nitty gritty gr, Smo and me were on that song, and we won Multi-Genre Song of the Year for the Josie Awards year before last. So that was really exciting. And yeah, so now in this past year with the Smo brand, we opened a food trailer. We had talked about that on the last episode or the last time that we got together. And we've had a food trailer, health food advocacy. We've lost over 300 pounds together. We've been vegan for six years. So we've taken different parts of our lifestyle experience together and made it something that we advocate for other people to experience and kind of like a lifestyle brand. So Smolitis was our food trailer. We share all of our, like you were saying, we share all of our recipes, all of the resources. If you two want to learn how to live a healthier life, we have all of that at therobicsmo.com, uh, which is the website that I run as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

So let's see how you do it. Like I run two, and I'm like, I can't do it all.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Man, websites are just a beast.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

That it's social media.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Man, social media is a beast.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

So and then you have to catch roles you have to do with and then supporters, and it's just like balance.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

You know, the you can be inundated with support. Like support can be oppressive, even at times where it's like, great job, you're doing great. And I'm like, I have to go thumbs up every single one of these. I was like, it's okay, it's okay. This is this is positive, but you know, it's definitely a lot of workload. Especially running four pages. Luckily, he runs the YouTube page. I'm like, please take one thing or keep one thing, you know. To imagine he had managed all this as an artist himself gives me a lot of insight too. Of like, I I really, you know, as a wife, you know your husband hopefully better, you know, better than anyone else. And when you are so close to walking a journey with someone, it can make you very compassionate, or hopefully it makes you very compassionate of what their struggles and their temptations. And and there are a lot of things that social media directly, you know, it really eats at your pride, it eats at your vanity. Yeah, it really you have to be very intentional and your heart posture has to be in the right place when you post. Yeah, because sometimes I want to post very reactive out of anger because of some things that someone said to Smo. And I'm like, hold on, I have to present as as Smo, not as how this person's made me feel about my husband, you know. So that is a hat that I've I've been wearing uh probably primarily, that's like my main uh social media management, brand management has been my main role. But with this last album, let's segue into the album that I can tell how my role has changed with that.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Why is that?

SPEAKER_00 9:51

So with the food trailer, you know, we were taking. If you've never had a food business and you've never been in food and you aspire for that, it's a beautiful dream to want to share what you create with the world, any sort of art, whether it's food, music, crafts, you know, things that you bring to the world. But you as the creator know how much energy and time and value goes into it. And then you take it to the world, especially if you're in, you know, somewhere where you have to go and sell your product, it can be very discouraging if the people aren't always there, or if you go and you make the effort to be there and the people are like, oh, you know, we've got other plans, and that's all understandable. But we had gotten to a point where always being set up with the food trailer, we were saying no to things that maybe would be better suited if Smo had been able to go to or be present at. While the value of providing healthy food to people is is great, they people need to have a healthy food option. The value to have the message that Smo is able to provide to people outside of that food trailer, it felt like the trailer commitment was really confining the bigger mission that's starting to play out. Well, it served its purpose, it served its season. So, and without the food trailer, we never would have found this next season. I feel confident in that that being in the community, seeing the need, seeing the disparity in people's health, and feeling like people they're so hopeless.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

So being able to provide hope and a message of encouragement to people that health can be flavorful, health can be affordable, affordable, health can be manageable on your own if we show you how we just can't manage our own health and everyone else's and continue to do music and the other because there's so much about the health food journey that I didn't understand that I learned through your website and that I learned from you talking to you and SMO and visiting your food trailer and just seeing like my husband is like salad oo, but he loved your bobbled it up. Everything I mean the first time we were there, I think ordered almost everything off of your menu to try.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

It was always I love seeing y'all at your food trailer.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

We're dropping some, we're dropping some dimes here because it's good, and those overnight oats, like I learned to do them myself and make it at home. And I still use those gluten channels for everything for the oatmeal cookies that I make my children and the cacao powder, yeah, stuff because it's just a healthy refinement that you learn. So you definitely went to a small town where there's a lot of pride and all the stuff like that. Food noise. You put education in people's minds and made them think that hey, I understand that you do that sometimes, but if you replace even a little bit better than nothing, if you replace all of it, great, but you educated people. So that season was amazing. Yes, and like you said, it led you to where you're at now.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah, you know. Yeah. So doing the food trailer, you know, we were able to kind of set our schedule around, you know, we didn't want to work in the winter. So we knew we were closed in the winter. And during that particular season, my dad was really interested in just Christian content creator, kind of like keep you company content, stuff you can listen to while you're working on things that can be in the background, you know. And I feel like as people, we desire knowledge and information and we want to know more, but we can't drop everything and go back to a classroom, or we can't always drop everything and go meet with a small group. And so these content creators are giving people an opportunity to continue to learn and feel a sense of community, even if you're not able to be together. So my dad's really been falling in, and people like us who've been listening to podcasts for years, you know, are like, okay, and he's like, This is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

He's like, Do you know this?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

And have you, yeah, and my well, he's like, Yeah, my dad calls me, he's like, Do you know who Joe Rogan is? And I'm like, personally, no, like have I heard of him? I like I grew up with him, you know. So but Joe Rogan had had different, you know, he's so good about having different guests on my different opinions that can speak to a wide audience of people. And so through that, he met, you know, my reached my dad. And so my dad was listening to guys like Rusla and Katie, Wes Huff, Mike Winger, and he's like, Look, I'm listening to these guys. Ruslawn Katie is gonna have a summit in California. Do you want to go? And so Smell and I were like, well, you know, the food trailer doesn't open for another month. We've got a little time. Uh, we had some time on our schedule, and we were going as like to chaperone my parents to California. Like, my parents are going all the way to California. We're gonna go with you guys, make sure this goes okay, you know. And um, we were at a position that the food trailer had been open for a year. We knew that it was something that we wanted to keep doing, but we knew like at our age and just our personalities and everything that we're like, okay, this is not gonna be a 10-year plan. We can't.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

We're one can do it by themselves, the other one has obligations. Exactly. It's tough and toughness, yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

And it had just become this thing of like, you know, okay, this is what we're gonna do. We're here all the time. Well, then we weren't at the gym like we had been, and we weren't in the studio as much, and we thought we were gonna be able to juggle all the things, and we're like, okay, we've done this a year. What are we moving into next season? So when we went to California with my parents to the Bless God Summit last year, it was kind of like, let's see what God shows us. Because Smel and I have always, you know, I grew up in faith. Smo grew up in faith, I grew up Church of Christ, he grew up Baptist, so he jokes I was in a cult. I joke that his church was like student council.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Back to back.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yeah, I'm like, yeah, we have a healthy, healthy appreciation for each other's differences. So, and he, you know, it's it's we've grown so much in this journey, but we've always had an appreciation of we grew up in faith, but we had turned to this point where we were more spiritual than religious. And I think a lot of our age group, we got conned into feeling like we would hurt people's feelings if we said we're a Christian. And you don't want to hurt people's feelings and turn them off from Jesus by talking about Jesus, so we'll subtly live like Jesus and maybe it'll eventually come up, you know, or maybe we might live like Jesus around some people. You know, it's tricky.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

It is it's very tricky, it gets muddy that way.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah, and Smo and I, we don't drink, so we had already become very anti-the bar scene and the performing scene and all that because we're around people that aren't aligned with our values, you know. So when we went to California, we're like, we'll go to this Bless God summit, open mind, open heart. And he and I have always been very if where the spirit moves us, you know, and just go, we're like, God, let's let's see what happens, you know. And it was really profound because you know, the whole process to get to California is already like by the time you get to the conference, you're like, I'm ready to sit down. And it was like every we flew.

SPEAKER_04 17:27

Okay, and then let's still get lagged.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

You know, and everything that could have gone a little more complicated did, you know, we got held at security a little longer or real IDs and all the weird things, and then uh we get there and the room's not ready, so we're gonna miss our VIP section, you know, like little things, little things that either the enemy or time or whatever, you know. So we're like, what are we doing here? And we get through, you know, the first night, and so many people were saying so many things that were really like hitting on a point that we were in our in our our marriage and professionally where we were at, of a lot of people were changing seasons and not knowing what was next, how to prepare for the next thing. And um, so the very first night of being in California, Smell was like, I really think I'm supposed to be here. And if you are a woman of faith and your what your husband has not always been the leader of faith, for him to say something like that, I was like, Okay, I'm here with you. Yeah, I'm listening, I'm on your team. Like, whatever's said to us, we're here for it, you know? And so the next day, there were two things that that were said that were so just like, you know, when something's been said to you and you're like 10 years from now, I'm gonna remember how that made me feel when someone said that to me. One of the creators said, do not accept criticism from someone you would not seek counsel from. And it was Pastor Ed that said that from the CBC Church in Texas. And I remember that like renewing and and making me take this because sometimes I feel like we've fallen this, like I've felt so criticized, and I've felt so like this is just what it is. And it's like, no, these people that are criticizing me are not people I go to and ask for guidance. And for so to receive that felt like a good kick in the pants in a good way of like quit letting people bring you down that aren't gonna lift you up in other ways. Uh-huh. And the other was if you have a platform and you are not using that platform to glorify God, you're gonna have to answer for that. And it was like the moment that that was said, like there was a genuine like smooth shifted in his chair, and I'm like doing math in my head of adding all the platforms together, and his reach alone is over a million people. Yeah, and we were both like, ooh, like, how many times have we used the platform to say, go party, go have fun, go not care, go self-indulge, go self-pleasure, go all these things, go forth in sin, basically. And you know, Smo's got plenty of songs that are clean and uplifting and positive, but there is a real like realization that we aren't using our daily platform to give glory to God and give gratitude for how wonderfully we've been blessed.

SPEAKER_05 20:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

And there's always this assumption of, oh, I'm thankful, oh, I'm grateful, oh, I'm so glad. But we have not, we have not been bold and brave enough to use his platform to talk about our conviction and our faith. And use that platform as an example to show others how you can repent and how you can find redemption and how you can grow in your faith daily. I think, you know, there is this quick jump to think that people are disingenuine because they change, that it's like they're gonna be perfect after that. You know, so there were some things that we had to make measurable to his kinfolk, to his fan base. What's gonna be something when we go home that they're gonna notice a difference in you? Well, Smo is a persona, cusses a lot. We as people, like we we cuss a lot. And I don't know if that's our, it's definitely not my upbringing because my parents aren't like that. It's the music I listen to, it's the environment I was in, it's not really believing that self-control and out of the mouth is the overflow of the heart. That I there have been things that we're like, okay, if I have this platform and I am proving to people, or not proving, but I am I am showing to others that I am willing to repent and make a change. And we came home, he's like, no more cussing. So music, there's no cussing. When he's in his podcast, when he's in his interviews, when he's doing his ministry. And that through that self-control, self-control in his brand, it's trickled into him as a person. And some people may say, oh, well, that's not genuine. But it was it was definitely that's his conviction.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

That that was his conviction. That's not for them to do.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Yes. It and it definitely transformed by transforming the persona that he was living for everyone else. It's definitely transforming who he is. Because John Lee Smith, the person, had to change his heart to decide that Smo, the persona, is gonna change his behavior. And so we've spent the last year, he said, you know, my music's gonna glorify God now. That means we're not making secular music anymore. And in a call to make faith-based music, you have to make sure that your music's glorifying God. You know, so he's even taking like scripture and putting it in. And now he's got where, you know, I have been one that would be like, well, maybe if Eminem rapped the Bible, I'd know the Bible word for word. Well, you know what? Smo is rapping Psalms and First Timothy, and like he's putting verses in his scripture now, and you catch yourself, like, God has not given me the spirit of fear. And I'm like, Oh, how am I quoting Bible verses? Yeah, it's in the Smo music now. You know, so I think this the heart change that happened last year after being at the Blessed God Summit. When he came home, we were so different that when we opened Smolitious, even that was, you know, we're trying to share with people like this is God's food that you're eating. And we've been very, you know, I would use words like the creator and things to avoid making people uncomfortable with my faith. But now I'm like, I don't, I don't worry about making people uncomfortable. I just want you to join me in being as joyful and hopeful. And all these things I feel like I've tried to be careful, yeah, to not be too Jesus-y. Now I'm like, I don't, I can't care anymore.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

No. Well, it's not like, I mean, I've before we even had this conversation out at breakfast a couple weeks ago, like I knew that we used to see a shift in a good way.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 24:37

And I was like, there's a story behind it, can't I hear it? But you're not forcing it in the Bible beating people in the head. You're not. You're doing it in a way that honors God, but also is relatable to people to come in and ask questions. Yeah, you know, that's one thing that I've learned with like platforms that I've done is a lot of people have been hurt by religion. I think they've shared away. Like I grew up in a very straight church press background, and there's some amazing people at that church. Like, I still I think they will be on the the front row of heaven and make it happen. Like there's one Miss Philentine, she is an angel on earth. I love that woman the day she dies, and then some, but but then there's also people that have put a lot of hurt and judgment not knowing any better, which we talked about before in the last podcast. And and I think that I always pray, like, God, give me the words that I don't come across too preachy that turns others away, yeah, but brings opportunity for you to be, you know, you can't find essential. That's what I'm trying to say. And so, and I think that's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Well, and we're called as the a believer to give an answer for the hope that we have with gentility.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

And and and too, you gotta be gentle to people, and people like us that have had those religious hurts and know that that they're at the end of the day, they're just people that are trying to do what they think is best in the word. They're they're just some people, and some people are evil, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Some people are there's and now coming to a point to where I am in my life, and the where we are in our culture, yeah, and the way that we are in our world, yeah, I'm not convinced that some of the people that were in the congregation that I grew up with may not have been sent just to cause chaos.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Oh, I believe so.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

And just to cause disorder, and just to because the the Christian faith in the 70s and the 80s and the early 90s was growing so fast and authentically, and the power of the Holy Spirit was growing so powerfully through people organically that bigger people were threatened by that. Yeah, and they were sending people into churches to mess churches up.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

And this is you can fact check this fact-check.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

I can't I can't fact-check it's my church, but no, I'm not even gonna say my church, the church that I attended, but there's things called you know offering pastor, all the things you really want to write about. We'll go there. MK Ultra.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

MK Ultra was so threatened. The Illuminati was so threatened by the Baptist church movement, yeah. Because Baptist people, y'all are doing it. Real Baptist people that are real with the Lord and Jesus, their faith is so powerful they scare the Illuminati.

SPEAKER_04 27:09

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

You scare the Illuminati Baptist people. And if you know some real Baptists, you understand why they love the Lord, and the Lord is their savior, and he's not only their savior, he is their Lord. Yeah, and if the Lord is lording over your life, people aren't even gonna ask you questions, they're gonna know, and you're gonna scare the devil. The devil's not scared of who he already has, the devil is scared of the people who are trying to bring more people to the faith. And and that's scary too because the devil doesn't mess with you when you're on his team. Hey, and guess what? The devil doesn't even like you. That's the worst part. You think that you are giving back to this great rebellion when you sin and you're not, yeah, absolutely not. You're not, you're not, you're not contributing to this greater rebellion of bad. Like, no, you're just messing up your own opportunity to have more good. That's all it is. What you said there, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

I've heard that before, and I absolutely love it. The devil hates you. He hates you. The devil hates you, and the fact that he's gonna leave you alone. So if you're never bothered and life is perfect, check. I'm not saying that it can't happen. I'm not saying that there's not been instances where people have complete people, but if you usually if your life is perfect, you're never being bothered, you never have trial, you never have tribulation. Are you really what are you really watching the faith?

SPEAKER_00 28:39

The devil hates to love you, he loves to hate you, he definitely loves to hate me, but he hates to love people that are so comfortable in their comfort.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

I always say, I'm like, man, you know, I always wonder, like, am I doing enough? God, I'm like, with all the trials, I must be with your big wars. Like, yes, side me up.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Like, he's like, I got I got that little girl, that little boyhead girl. We're gonna put her in the front row again. She can handle it.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Yeah, and like it's patience and bravery and courage. You don't pray for these virtues and receive the virtue. You pray for the virtues and you receive the trial. And it's how you pull through that is if you gain the virtue or if you lose your salvation, you know, and it's not funny. I'm not laughing at it, but that's it's it's the truth.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

It's not funny. I don't know. We're trying to mock the situation, but it's the truth because we're laughing because it's common. If you really think about it, it's truly common sense, but we make it so hard and confusing and almost intangible. Yeah, and we forget grace, yeah, we forget to show ourselves grace. The enemy is always like, Well, you did this, you're not good enough. Oh, the lies of the enemy, the accuser, accuser, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

And we can't like the devil can't actually do anything. He's sent to make you do everything, you know. You know, I suppose destroy deceit. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

I told some girls this weekend at a women's retreat, I said, you know, one of my things I was talking about was distraction. He may not always just attack you, but he will distract you. Big time. And that can be causing a worry or cause a conflict or hostility with this person or money problems or whatever. You know, and sometimes, yeah, life is hard, it's just a situation, but a lot of times it's distraction. He wants you to be distracted. A D D, whatever, I know the world's worst with it, but I could have such a good idea and a message that I want to put on TikTok or a live I want to put on TikTok that I know will save somebody or maybe help somebody. There's no internet, yeah, no internet or the kids. Strong aspect ratio. Yeah, Cohen's like, I've so much hands, or or me like, oh my god, I get that stuff out of the washing machine that could wait, but I think I have to do it just then in urgency, just like and I'm not saying that the enemy uses your kids, and I'm not saying that. So don't say that. But what I'm saying is he's an order distraction to keep you busy. So yeah, you can handle that situation and go back. But what the enemy loves to do is to create more situation, more conflict that way we stay away from where we're supposed to be and are calling it. Yeah, you can tell the Holy Spirit just shook took over this conversation because we were talking about SMO, and all of a sudden we're like, and this is I mean, I found out now.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

If you talk talk about SMO long enough, the Holy Spirit is gonna take over. And the and it's so crazy because that's something that's happened throughout our whole course of our relationship. So I I've become very like emboldened when people are like, oh, smell got saved. And I'm like, well, I would not have married a man that was not. I mean, I hope to God, I'm very thankful I was able to marry a man that believed in God because that was something that was in my value set of my standards. Um yeah, and there are, you know, some of his songs, if you listen to it, the very first song, Redneck's gotta ride, Jesus is Lord, Cash is King. I mean, it's facts, you know, like he said Jesus is Lord off the rip of the song, you know. And so there's like a handful of things that I I have known about him and I've seen about him, but you know, he was with a label, he was with different management, he was with another different, you know, group label. Like it's not always fashionable to sing about your faith. And if your music is being displayed and played at places where sin is the main goal, like it's kind of hard to make music for that anymore, you know. So we've had this like transition in which this is cool. Fans that have been saved quit listening to Smo because of his music and are now like, I'm back, and that has been so cool for people to go, you know. I had to take a break because of my own spiritual walk, but now I'm back all the way in. You know, because we have this Smoses album has 12 songs, and the role that I got to change in through our marriage and as a woman in the music industry, for Smosis, I worked as an engineer. So I was the one on the computer, he was in there recording, and I'm like, nah, you can do that again. Okay, let's do this, okay. Run it back, okay, let's do that. You know, so there aren't a lot of women producers, there aren't a lot of women engineers. And for him to put me in that position and go go run that computer, and now I can do it. It was something I did for myself before I was even working for him because I had to record special ed tests when I was a teacher because I was a Spanish teacher. No one else could read aloud the Spanish tests for my special ed kids. So the kids who had read aloud needs and requirements for their testing, I was recording my test and giving it to them. So I was prepared for this test. Yes. And so there again is a talent that I've been able to stack from something else for the kingdom now. Yeah. That it's like, you know, I took this ability to record myself on Audacity. It looks the exact same as this program that Smo records his music. I hop in and he does all the hard work, but it still is a job for someone to sit there and record so he can go go over his vocals, go over his vocals, you know, so and get those vocals and send them on, or for him to work on. So for Smosis, for me to get to be in the position as engineer is not only a big deal for myself professionally, but also for the music industry. That there is a woman working in faith-face music in this weird country rap, rock position. And, you know, I'm hopping in there and I'm helping get this music out there too. So it's been really cool to get to be. You know, I've been in other positions as far as like background vocals and writer and other things, but to get to be, know for sure, like these are songs I helped record on this album has been really amazing.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

He trusts, like I just seeing y'all together, he trusts you. You have that connection that is only a spiritual connection. Yeah. Because, and that's before like he even got, you know. I I say now he's always had the core, but now he's been activated. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

And when he pours into anything, and same for you, just from knowing you, you know, the four years or so that we've known each other, you're gonna give it 100%. And then some, and so is he. Yeah, and incredibly talented, he's incredibly talented. You are too. You've got a good ear for music, you can listen. You both love each other very well in the studio. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

And you can tell with your art that you've already released. And like we've been in the studio together 11 years. If we don't click by now, like it's conversation.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Even when you you were recording it, so I was like, Oh yeah, you give me this better. Yeah, and he would pull it out of each other. You pull it out of each other. You have to, yeah, and you can take that because you're now you're not trying to hurt each other, you're trying to help each other. And I think that's so cool. Like, shout out to the women in the studio, engineering Sarah Bay. Yeah, thank you. And you know, so funny because when we were doing our breakfast, like me and Sarah Beth have so much to talk about when we catch up on our breakfast sessions or or borrow Boroughbo shout out to them. Yeah, Burrowboard. But we're like, we need to do like a spreadsheet or something. She sent me notes of how lots of things we need to talk about and catch up on and stuff. I was laughing so hard on Try Travis. I was like, how about she just said she won a Josie award like it was nothing? Like I was like, this is a Josie bar, but that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

She's celebrating on the party. You're like, oh, it's just you know, it's just another chat mark.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

It was cool, it is cool, and you know, it's it's accolades and accomplishments, you know, and achievements, they're they're cool and they mean something, you know. I think it was cool. I think it's cool because I know who all worked on it, you know, with nitty-gritty gr and our producer Josh Bright and Snow. Like it was a real collaborative effort, and so I like that that I can stand behind a project that won an award, and the team won together. Yeah, and the team won together, and it's a fun song, and we have a good time with it. So, yeah, so I did win a Jesse Award. That was that was cool.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

So, one of the things that I think talking about when we were talking about this how the food trailer led to the ministry coming together, that led to the music and all that, getting back at it. When we were set up for the food trailer, when we had come back from Bless God, one of his friends who like helped him write kicking it in Tennessee, like this guy's been around forever. He comes up to the food trailer and he's like, Hey, I do jail ministry. I'd love for you to come with me. And so Smell's like, I guess I'm going to jail.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

You're like, what?

SPEAKER_00 37:56

And so his his homie, who's always been TD to us, is Pastor Tommy. And his fire and his passion for God and his conviction for Jesus is just so it's contagious. And he's taken Smo with him into the jail, and now he's gotten the opportunity to go and see these guys in his own town. You know, Smo is in the workhouse for like a week before, so he does have some jail time to understand what it's like to be deprived of your freedom because of consequences of your choices, and so just to have the opportunity to kind of level the ground with the guys to be like, you know, I've been here and I've been here. I've been at both ends of the swing. You can have nothing and be hopeless. You can have everything and be hopeless. If you don't have Jesus, you still have nothing. And I think Smo being able to share his story of being at the very top of the world and still feeling like he had nothing because he wasn't standing firm on his faith with Jesus and in that walk with his faith at that time. He knows that success doesn't matter. Like, who cares if you have a million-dollar tour and you have all these fans cheering, you have all these things if you still feel so empty and lonely. And he knows that that true loneliness and void can only be filled with knowing that Jesus is your Lord.

SPEAKER_05 39:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

And so going and sharing that message with these guys, I think has been really humbling for him, obviously, but also for the people in our community to realize like, oh, wow, this guy was on TV and this guy had it all and everything, and he wasn't, he still wasn't happy, you know. And we hear that so often, and we know, you know, even King Solomon tells us more money, more problems. Like having everything doesn't make you figure anything out, you know. And I think being able to go into that and having a heart of ministry, and now being able to go and take it to the people who need it most and take that message where it's needed most, to the greatest need, and to the biggest group that can receive it, he's been going to the bed for going to jail, you know, and through that, some guys ended up going to rehab. Uh, some people have left lives of homosexuality. People have experienced sobriety for the first time in their life, people have gotten their kids back. So, like in just a year's time, by Smo choosing to change and glorify God, people are living their lives. They're being set free. They're being set free. Change are being broken.

SPEAKER_03 40:45

That's why he was under so much suppression before because like got like the enemy knew what kind of shakeup he was gonna do for the kingdom of God.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Oh, you know, yo, and when you see what you're able to accomplish when you realize you're not in charge anymore, and that's he came to me and he said, you know, he's always saying, I'm the king of the country, the boss of the sticks. And he was like, I was so humbled when I realized Jesus is the boss of the sticks. Like I've done nothing, I've done absolutely nothing, you know, and that humility that comes from realizing your salvation is a gift, and your relationship with God is a choice, and taking that more as like it's a responsibility and not a burden, and it's a joy to have faith has really changed how he shares it with others. And through that, like I've been able to blossom. You know, a lot of people don't know I come from a mission background, so I did a month of mission work in Africa, I did three months of mission work in Honduras, and like both of those experiences for me were two completely different things. Like in Tanzania, it was 50% Muslim, 50% Christian. They did call to prayer for Islam like five times a day. You know, like I was in a very I saw what living in a country without the trickle down, because we have the watershed of Christian values in our country that protect us. We don't realize like how many joys and comforts that we experience, especially as women, come specifically from being in a trickle-down of a Christian country and nation. So to be able to see what it would be like in a country that, yes, there's religious freedom, but that majority religion is not what we're used to, you know, that creates different trickle down within the culture. And so experiencing that in a young age, I came back very bitter. Like I came back from I had like reverse culture shock. And it made me very grumpy at Americans and very grumpy at how well we had it and how gray Christianity is in America, you know, because like you have people that are like, I can't say names, allegedly are witches, but are also baptizing their children in the Jordan River. So it's like how in Western culture and our entertainment, when it's become so muddy of what's good and bad, you know, and so I have walked these different times of feeling like it's too gray. It's too gray.

SPEAKER_05 43:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

And it's too, it's too hard, you know, that you fall into this position of complacency of I'm gonna live my own life, I'm gonna worry about me, y'all do y'all, you know. And and mission work pushed me directly into that because I had not enjoyed knocking on people's doors and telling them they were gonna go to hell.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

Yeah. They're just like, that's something I want to wake up and do on a Saturday morning.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

Right. And then when we lived in, you know, when I lived in Honduras, our mission was more live like Jesus, so that they asked, why do you live so well? You know, and so it was a different approach in a different way that had positive, you know. know that can have positive and negative things. So like I come from where my ministry and my mission work had caused me to become a little bitter and had caused me to not want to share my faith as much. That to now be in a position to where it's like, okay, we're gonna we're gonna use this platform now to talk about truth, like you and I've said, that that's really important is that the gray approach and the watered down and the you know oh you know kind of answers like I can't be like that anymore. And we're we this is what we stand on. These are the standards that we draw our faith from this is our creed for our life is based on these values you know like we have a set a set core belief and it's a bunch of people though.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

Yo you're gonna have critics no matter what. Yeah you did I mean you people love you when you don't say no you don't say no. Even when you were just you know doing you know your your food truck you had critics when you were just doing the music before a set card music before you had critics. Yeah you you know you're gonna have critics now you know being a person of faith or Christian does not mean that you're not gonna have adversity from people. That's because you're gonna you're gonna have that yeah I mean yeah Jesus had it in the Bible that's how we respond to it and not letting them steal our joy in where we're at and that's I think this is growing and being older in a season that I'm sure I'm having to really lean on God like I told you my son last night you know nine years old if he's gonna be a prophetic speaker one day I don't know what God was all over that kid and he's just like we don't need to worry God's got everything and are you a what is winner not a quitter. Yeah winner not a quitter and I'm like what yeah you know it's God speaks to children he's music he speaks to just seeing something other people you might be driving on the road and see something that triggers like oh my gosh that's I know it's God's way of winking at me like no he's with me. Like and so if you're listening and you're not a faith and it sounds you're so confused at what we're saying reach out to us.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

We'll have a conversation and I think you when you said distractions it hit on something that I was thinking about before I came here of like conversations we'd had in the past publicly personally and then you know preparing for this is that one of my biggest distractions is my phone. I think it's everybody's and you get so inundated with information and I over the past few years had found myself drawn to new age thinking and had gotten really into and being in the health community and the holistic community it kind of like spirituality comes as a part of it. If you really believe that you're healing yourself you have to you have to believe that your spirit is part of I'm gonna go back and microphone your spirit's part of who you are so sorry.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

And through that journey I became very distracted with and it's not not to discredit any practices or other things but I was getting very distracted from prayer to God I was getting distracted from reading the word of God I was getting distracted from spending time with God and it was becoming more self-love self-help self and you can only help self so much and that's the thing all that can go hand in hand together if Christ if Christ ascended like I like to make what people call ground I like to go out there and just be in the sun and walk on the grass and some people like oh are you somehow hippie or what no it's I'm enjoying the beauty that God's created just because like people are like well you can't manifest and be a Christian I'm like you're yes you you can't be sitting there passing spells on people and things like that. But you can call to action and speak things that you want to see you know fruition because God gives you the desires of your heart. Right. You know like you don't have to let the enemy roll over your mind for such a long time even as a Christian I let the enemy roll over my mind. And I had to understand grace you know forgiveness from past mistakes forgiveness from future mistakes because we're not perfect. We're gonna see it. I I will tell you one of the hardest things is I was not raised around cussing my granny dean said you know the S word all the time but I will tell you like I love Jesus but if I hard break or something it you know it might pop out of my mind oh yeah just because you're looking at two imperfect people we're saying transition and try to live right I look at it I guess I look at it this way Sara Beth like my nine year old you know loves loves the Lord and we know it he talks about it but there's things that he does sometimes like hey cohen need to clean your room I don't want you right now you don't but he'll clean let's say he'll clean his room is it gonna be how I would clean it no but the fact that he tried right and that he put forth effort and he truly genuinely was trying to do a good job I'm so proud of him. Yeah and I feel like that's how God looks at us. Right we don't have to get it all right that's where grace comes in. That's why I want you to understand what we're talking we're not saying you have to be perfect. We're talking about our convictions of where we're at in life and our transition to what we came into yeah you don't have to be perfect. We're gonna mess up today we're gonna mess up tomorrow but that's where grace comes in and we're trying to live right and I think I heard this when I was at Impact at Luxen University and it stuck out especially you know after being divorced and going through the trials of life that I've had it sticks out even more and I told my brother when he was going through stuff in his life I told him this too the diamond shines the brightest beneath behind the darkest velvet. Yeah and that is so true. And even Cohen when he was doing his prophetic talk last night nine years old even like when I say when I told Sarah before we started recording this I said I know God uses children that God was all over my child last night and some of the things he was saying had to be God using him as an instrument to get a message to me because he even said I didn't tell you this part when we're pulling in the driveway coming back from Dollywood he said Mama if you don't go through hard times you don't know you don't I can't remember exactly what it's like you don't know what it's like to help other people. And I'm like how do you even know that nice result? Like how do you like get that wisdom to translate it to an adult like he's a smart kid but that's something a preacher would be saying you know so as in the words of my nine year old like we have the people that go through the hard things and we go through adversity we can relate absolutely genuine to people and those who've been forgiven much love much.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

Love much you know and if you've you've been through a hard time then hopefully you're more compassionate with the people that you deal with on a daily basis. And I I think it's just unfortunately we live in culture and I mean even the Bible says a lot of people will claim my name and not really know me. And so I think it's that personal relationship being your goal and that when people you know because so often people may be like oh well if you're if you're a Christian your your life's gonna get easier or you know this or that and other and it's like no it's not necessarily that life gets easier it's that I am better equipped to handle the hard times because I know this isn't all there is. Yeah this isn't yeah it's already won it's done yeah it's gotta get through it yeah and whoever whoever is not going to receive justice here as they should my sister and I were talking about this on the way because you know with the files being out how you and I are such we seek truth we seek justice those are the two things that we really want from people who have uh been in a victim scenario specifically if you find yourself being overwhelmed and my sister was telling me this if you're overwhelmed with the people not getting justice right now they will know that they will get justice and if you believe and if you are if you are strong in your faith it gives you hope that one it's not my job to bring vengeance to these people as angry as I get and as emboldened as I get to feel so bold to go and take matters into my own hands it's not really my job that's the Lord's job to to vengeance you know to avenge all these things. So he will bring justice he will bring the revenge and I I hate that for the people who have experienced the suffering that they've experienced here but the same hope for them is that you're gonna be so vindicated for the things that have happened to you and blessed hopefully for if you continue in your walk with God and believe that he has a plan for you and the will for you that he is going to use you in spite of how horrible a circumstance may be. And I have to have faith in that because I haven't been through something as terrible as these other people and it's really easy to say that to someone who's been through something so horrible but Jesus went through something so horrible and still tells us it's worth it you know so I just it I find a lot of faith especially with the people we've been doing a lot of work with juveniles that's been one of the things that's trickled down from going to the jail is we've gotten to go and meet these children in juvenile detention and knowing the stories I know from the children from the things that they tell obviously being an adult I know like these are your parents like your parents are what got you in and these poor babies are just acting out of the environment that they've been put in and so sometimes I think of that grace that I give those juveniles of they're babies they don't know better. That is the hope that I have for the grace that I will receive so much greater from God of like forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Like they have we have no idea you know one how this was supposed to go and to try to be light and darkness Jesus knows is hard. So to be called to that position and to be walking that faith and having uh people like you as accountability partners but also as someone to lean on when it is hard. And uh I think that's something people who don't have faith may not have is community.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

That that word is subject we need it.

SPEAKER_00 54:44

And and I think that's when church gets misconstrued and people start having church hurt and feelings as it's you know they the power of what a community around you holding you in your faith is so important you know so and and that's getting on community like I can call Sarah Beth or I could call the girls in my Bible study on Wednesday morning and these girls including you Sarah you if I need you to pray for me if I need you if I need to send a text just to them because I don't know what else to do.

SPEAKER_03 55:21

Yeah I know I gotta pray but I don't even have the words to pray. Like I'm going on something I'm stressed same for you same for them I can send it and know that they've got me that you've got me right absolutely because that is what community is and that's why it's so important to find your people and that can happen in church that can happen as you get older I really feel like adult friendships are the ones that you cherish forever and I'm friends with people from childhood and I am close close with you and if in these women from my Bible babies group and I'm so thankful for that. Yeah because I've never had that like I've been hurt by you know I know we've all like I said before we've all been catty we've we've all been the girls right but you grow up and you learn but I've been hurt by women before and for me to be completely vulnerable and just to be able to share things with you in our thankful for that.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

Yeah and I'm thankful for that with those girls I'm a Bible babe group but I just feel like one thing that a lot of people are missing is that because they don't have anybody to talk to no and if their friendships aren't based on the fruit of the spirit they're not having real friendships. If you're not experiencing love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness and faithfulness and self-control like if the women because I feel like we speak to women mostly if you're not surrounding yourself with women who are trying to cultivate and harvest and produce good fruit your female relationships are going to suck because what's the opposite of love what's the opposite of joy what's the opposite of peace if that's the kind of fruit your friends are farming you're gonna have a sucky friendship. And it's it's gonna be turning and chaotic always it's always if you if you are friends with someone who is not healed and if you are a woman of faith seeking friends who aren't in the same fruit of the spirit mindset as you especially when it comes to self-control you know I have to be careful with the kind of women that I'm around because I don't want to be caught up in impulsivity and compulsivity and I feel like I've had female friendships before we're very oh do whatever yeah whatever that's not self-control like that's not practicing self-control. And if you're not having this same way if you are in a marriage like my marriage I strive very hard to keep this hierarchy of God husband me and my husband respects me like Christ loves the church. Like we have this system that works it's really hard to be friends with people if their marriage isn't like that. Because it's hard to be couple friends if we don't view our roles as wives the same and they don't view their responsibility as husbands is the same. And so it being having these convictions and having these standards weeds a lot of people out. Yeah which kind of sucks but it also calls to you yes it calls to you the people who are going to edify you and who are going to uh hold you accountable and who are going to keep wanting God's will to happen in your life and not everyone wants God's will for you.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

I know and also when you say that too you know just knowing the gut feeling that we get sometimes you just when you pray for discernment and you and you're like I don't know how to I don't know discernment I don't know how to do this like this religion stuff's new to me you know the gut feeling that you have like when somebody calls you and you have that thing in your throat or your stomach like gosh my energies get ready to be drained or whatever I say people that are impaths really feel this way.

SPEAKER_00 59:09

Yeah like you just feel it's not easy you dread it that's God telling you something and you need to pray for more clarity in that like that's something something's all God likes to talk to you like he wants to have a dialogue it's not just you making requests and putting in suggestions it's not like the Costco suggestion box you know there is a dialogue and if you look in the Bible there are several instances of like God's just walking talking with you. And so if if you are constantly in prayer and you're constantly in God's word these answers will come to you so they will be revealed to you so plainly that you won't have any doubt in your mind of what the calling is especially if you're talking to God all the time not just when you're in a pinch and need a favor. Like you have to have this constant conversation of show me the will that you have for me. Show me what I'm supposed to you know and it even down to closing smellities we prayed on that and there have been people to get on Facebook and go you need to pray about that I'm like you think I haven't yeah no more oats today no more for you not so for you no more yeah no it's in and I would love to do all these suggestions that the people on the internet who have no idea of my circumstance suggest would be a better thing for me to do. And you know in an ideal world I would just give smolitias away to somebody and y'all go be a bit like it's not how business works first of all and our time that we're being called to now you know smell once he went to jail ministry that one time the whole season of smolities after that basically was like okay now we're doing ministry and running the food trailer. So we had always had the goal of okay we're just gonna do the food trailer but we were doing music in the food trailer and then it's like okay we're just gonna do the food trailer then he started doing ministry and taking guys to rehab and some other things that it was like okay so that's now where we're at the season of we've asked God very very boldly please show us and it just keeps going back to this has been your season you've had that season. Anytime we've tried to push it something anytime that we've had our mindset that you know well we could something has so it's like God will show you and if you push back he's either gonna show you through a trial or a hard time or something or he'll just slam the door right in your face and be like stop it. So that's where we've gotten to the point with smellish is we have been what's your will God and it keeps going to this you've had this season you've had this you've done this this served and so now that's where Smosis came Smosis was born we smell loves Moses that's his favorite Bible he loves Moses he's always loved Moses and even before he moved into the gospel thing he loved he's always had Moses as like his icon yeah people don't think he's trying to like no this is not new coming to cry he's not this is an album cover he for his he loves Moses yeah I love the Charlton Hesse and Moses personally that's like my favorite depiction of Moses the 1950s and legs so through Moses is where Moses comes from is his always been his favorite Bible character and I think what he loves most about Moses is that Moses is always doesn't know who he is. You know he always wants to know who he is and I feel like we all struggle with that regardless of if we were put in a river and taken from our real mother or not like you can know who your biological parents are and still feel like you yeah and I think that is what calls us back to God is that constant yearning of feeling like I know there's something more but with Moses I think that he loved that even through his journey and being called by God and being chosen by God he messed up so many times like big big mess ups like he didn't even get to go into the promised land kind of messups. But he was still loved by God and still chosen to do something so great in history and and I think that really resonates with Smo of like even through all this journey of all the places all the things he's got to do you know because he's got to live so many childhood dreams that even though his message was not always about God, God has blessed and breathed life on his journey even to the point that he's been able to see a whole other you know career now with the faith-based aspect of his music so we were nervous writing the music making the music putting the music out people were wanting to work with him and he's like sorry you have to give glory to God no cussing some people were like okay and some people were like yeah I don't want to do that and through that you know other artists have been able to put out faith faith music by working with Smo their fan base now has access to a new message and we were really just like praying over the release praying over how it was going to be received and I mean the numbers are numbers don't lie numbers don't lie you know when you listen to the song like it's so catchy like his hit side on just tell tell people there's 12 songs allowed 12 songs allow what's your favorite song so I don't there's there's a lot of okay so right now specifically this song that we're focusing on is Lift Me Higher it's like the the big worship song. It's probably the most like worship based song it was written with D-Ray Stevens who's incredible songwriter songwriter of the year BMI Awards very very talented. I've had the joy of being very good friends with D-Ray's wife Tara. So she and I she's one of my best friends because she understands what it's like to be in the industry you know and you and I've talked about so many things of like understanding what it's like to be the wife of an artist and now turn artist myself. Like there are things that she has been a part of in this journey that only she understands Just like how there have been things that you know about our journey that like people don't understand, you know, what it takes in the industry and the compromises that can be made or expected and the sacrifices that are expected, you know, and and sometimes if you're not willing to make these compromises, you're not as popular or you're not as famous. Or so I really appreciate my relationship with Tara to know, you know, we've been through the ups and the downs and the big moments and the little moments. And so working on these songs, Lift Me Higher was really cool because I remember the line specifically it says those footprints in the saying keep me from ever turning back. And we think about like all those times, like God have me. I can't go back. I can't go back to who I was. I have to be transformed. And so Lift Me Higher has wound up on two playlists: the New in Country and In Christian and Gospel, which was a full circle moment this year because KB was the artist that was on the face for the New and Country or the New and Christian Gospel, we got to see him at Bless God. So Smell, you know, got to shake his hand. So proud of what you do. You know, you've been doing this. KB's been like a pioneer in this. And so for him to get to shake hands and be like, bro, we're on the same playlist, you know, like for him to have been on a secular playlist and do so well, and then be on this Christian playlist and it'd be doing so well, that means a lot to me from the industry perspective. The song I think that means means the most to me, like as a listener and as his wife is man on fire. Because if you go listen to her, you're like, whoa, because you know, you know what it's like driving down the road. Where am I going? Where am I headed? It's all metaphorical, but it's also we find ourselves in these existential crises, so to speak.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:08

It's relatable too, right? You get the metaphor. I mean, she's probably a metaphor of the Bible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:12

Yeah, I've been lost trying to find my way home. So Mad on Fire is one I would anybody, everybody should go listen to. It's a very easy listening song. And that's a lot of rap. If you like rap and you like and you like a good, clean, positive message, there's several rap songs.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:30

I love that he didn't lose his identity in the type of music that he does, right? Like it has a clear message. Obviously, the message has changed in a good way. Yeah. But if you like the type of music, you can do it without, you know, feeling like, oh, I've got to cut the conversations off.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:44

He's still got that smell, like he still has the stats, he still has, and I feel like his conviction and his faith almost gives him. I mean, I know his conviction and his faith gives him a greater confidence. Because when you know you're not in charge and you're not the creator of your own destiny, and there is a greater will that you are responsible for being a steward to follow, it gives you a greater confidence in where you're headed. Because I'm not driving anymore. No, I'm, you know, Jesus is driving and I'm in the passenger seat. And I think for him to let God be the boss and God be the CEO now, and he worked in that direction, everything has fallen in line in a clearer way. Yeah. Not easier, but clearer. And clarity is what's so needed in a time of confusion. And so I'm very thankful for the clarity that we've received by leaving this worldly expectation and living in a conviction that more aligns with our value system. Instead of giving the people what they want, we're giving the people what they need.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:54

Yeah, absolutely. And and that's way more fulfilling. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:58

Yeah. Yeah. Way more fulfilling. I love that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:01

I love that. I was just sitting in one, and I I pulled up and I was like, Travis, I was like, this is this is awesome. Like I like, you know, like the other thing is the one that bought the bus. Yeah. He's had a lot of those moments, I feel like, but like just with this new, I wouldn't say new genre, but just this new season that he's in and stuff. But I just feel like even with the jail ministry and you guys working with the youth, and I just I just know I feel it in my in my bones that you guys are gonna be on so many more stages because I feel like the message God wants people to hear more messages. And what better way to do it than somebody that has been through been through it with these people and that can bring them there and through storytelling through the music, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:37

And you don't realize like sin, sin really limits who you're able to be around, especially if you're living a life of like a real habitual sin that's like really holding you down. I would say like drinking is probably like the best example I can have of like a habitual sin in my past that like probably held me back from my greater potential and probably holds most people back. But that's an example that I can think of that, and people say, Oh, but drinking's not a sin, depending on where you're from or what your viewpoint is. I'm not even trying to get caught up on that as much as when we were in an environment where drinking was what was the goal, kids can't be around that. To a certain point, you don't want your wife around it, you know, like they it becomes a very limiting environment. And so for Smo to be able to have music that all ages can listen to, all ages can be present for, that really means a lot to him because the all ages shows they have the most impact. If you're performing to a bunch of drunk people, they're not even gonna remember you tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:45

And yeah, there's been studies showing. I mean, yeah, I I know, like like even our pastors, like we minor on the minors, major on the majors. Exactly. So we're not gonna say, Oh, you're gonna help you drink because you know, we'll have a glass of water or something on on a cruise or you know, a date night or whatever. That's one thing. But going and getting impaired and making bad decisions, that's when I I like to say the devil can creep in because yeah, you're not under your sound mind. Like you're it's almost like, and this is deep, maybe another podcast of what about the poles that we're in, but like I would not let my kids I I did it as a child, play with the Ouija boards. I would not let me.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:22

Oh yeah, and we were done talking about Ouija boards yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:25

Like I was like, yes, I want me to watch me, you know, yeah. We didn't know what we were doing, yeah, what we were possibly letting in. Yeah, but once you know better, you gotta do better, my angel says that. Yeah, and I my kids, even my older kids, have gotten on to me because I'm really careful about what movies I want to watch and stuff. And I was raised and I was an 80s baby, 90s baby was like, Oh, you want to go to the movies and watch Jason 513? Okay, just close your eyes, you're in this part, you know. So, I mean, like we let them watch like Halloween. I'm not saying we've never let our kids watch scary movies, but like demonic possessed stuff. I would not let that in my house. And my and my you know, even when it's like it's just a movie. I'm like, no, if it's demonic possession, they are not allowed to watch it in this house. Like, I pray for peace in this house and I pray over my house.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:16

Yeah, so why are you gonna bring it in?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:19

He's like, and again, some people hear this, they're like, oh, it's just a movie. It's not like it's I'm not gonna photo to it. If my if my spirit's convicted and I'm my kid's mother and I'm trying to protect their innocence and protect their childhood, I'm gonna do what I may not be popular, right? But I'm gonna do what I feel is best to protect it. Yeah. And I feel like any parent should be there, or anybody that doesn't have kids protect yourself. But it's like I was one of those that was like, say yaks, let's go. You know, yeah, 80s and 90s. That was the thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:49

It's so funny you say that because when I was in like the seventh grade and like Ouija board, like my dad was a preacher and bought us a Ouija board. Like I skipped school one day and we were playing, like it, but it's funny because Smoono just went down a Ouija roll Ouija board rabbit hole yesterday, and there have been so many instances of bad things that have happened because of them. So you can go either way on that, you know. Uh-huh. And I remember being, but I remember being like seventh or eighth grade, and there were a couple of girls, and they specifically were having a sleepover for a seance. And I have this just feeling in my stomach of like, I just don't think I need to be there. And, you know, come to find out a bunch of crazy, dumb stuff, drama happened, and I was like, how funny that I knew just because of what these girls were getting into, like something inside of me was like, you know what I'm gonna be a part of. You know, and I was I was a kid then, you know. Uh, but then as an adult, I've not had that same discernment, and I've wound myself up around people that maybe I'm like, ugh, I would have never chosen to be around this person. But now I'm in this because I didn't use my discernment and I didn't listen to that gut feeling, or I chose to conform to the world, or I can't and I wanted to be popular. Oh, yeah, oh, I'll be the better. And then it's like, well, what were you doing there? Why were you having and so it's you know, I've even we're very careful where we go and who we're seen with and who we affiliate with, and because it's you don't when they say a picture's worth a thousand words, you can have a picture that can be everything, and you can have a picture that can be nothing, and we're learning that very much as a culture with photos when people's faces are cut out of them, you know, but so as a brand operating in faith now, there is a greater conviction of where we allow ourselves to go. Is that limiting? Possibly, but also it could also, like you say, open the doors to a greater audience by saying, sorry, we don't go to bars anymore, or you know, we don't perform at places where they're gonna have a girls gone naked episode at the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:14

It's not doing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:15

It's tough, it's so tough, and you know, people may be like, Well, you're not any fun. Well, cool, I've been fun before, and I was not happy.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

You know, you just feel there's some places that you know where you just you just spirit just feels tough the whole time. Like you're there, you're there with friends, and you're like, Okay, I'm not having any fun. What am I doing? I'm 42, like no, I'm 42 years old. I'm not gonna put myself in a situation on a kid free night, which we get four every other weekend, kids don't know. Like, we're not gonna put our kid free night in in jeopardize.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:51

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:53

We'll let her hair down and have a good time. Like, I'm not gonna put myself in places that I don't want to be. No. And it's gonna make me feel like crap the next time. Like, I want to I want to, you know, feel good feel good and feel good about who I'm hanging out with. And some of the people that we're friends, we're acquaintances with, I want some we're close friends with, like, they're still in a season where that's just where they're at right now. And I, you know, I've prayed that they change, but I can still love them from a farm, but I can't constantly be on the go and want to go do do do do do because I'm just at the season of my life where I'm totally okay with going to Gatlinburg and going to Dollywood or sitting at home or just going to listen to live music over dinner, going back home or doing breakfast with you. I love some day books. Day, I always say day Nashville is is where you'll find Megan because I don't do not Nashville. I don't like the night bars and all the things. You don't want to go get roofied in Nashville? No, I don't know. I mean, that's a thing. It's a thing, I hear. Yeah, I mean, yeah, if you go on the scene, the allegedly yeah, allegedly in the paper selling, yeah. So I just I just don't I don't find that fun. Like I go to a sports game, things like that. That's fun for me. But it's honestly to be really honest, I'm happy be going during the day and being home at night. Like I'm tired, I'm old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:05

Well, and I've found this season of beauty in the duty of being a wife. Yeah. And if you are a wife for the right reasons, and if you are a wife in the way the Bible teaches you to be a wife, and if you are a wife the way Jesus wants you to be a wife, what you do for your husband as a helper, and if you're not married, like I wasn't married for a very, very long time, but you operate in, I'm already married to Jesus. You know, I'm already exactly. So I have tried to uh to view my responsibility as a wife as a great honor. You know, we own our house. I've never owned a house before. So it's like this excitement of like, wow, you know, I did everything backwards. Most women get married in their 20s and then they get a house, and then they have their kids, or you know, I didn't do any of that. And so, you know, I was doing mission work and other things. I was being a teacher and I hadn't met the right guy. And so, to via a season where I'm 40 years old and I'm finally a homeowner and I'm finally a wife in the way I'm supposed to be, I have found a lot of excitement and joy and peace with this is my house, this is what I have domain and order and control, and my husband helps give that to that, and I don't have this overwhelming need to go seize the world and save the world anymore. If I am taking care of my home and I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, you know, and I find myself sometimes, and I've if you're a person that lives probably a very normal life, you don't have an assistant, you don't have a makeup artist, you don't have a hair girl outside of your regular hair appointments, you know. So we're managing these things like housework and you know, like that takes up yeah. I I love doing podcasts, but I had to get up and do my dishes and stuff first. So it's like these duties and these roles and these hacks that we and not to dis men have their own duties and their own responsibilities that they have to juggle and things, but finding the value in my home is our headquarters. Good is only gonna come out of here if if everything in here is good. So I have I've really taken a season where I've stepped back from being so Espie the Queen in your face, and I'm Sarah Beth Lewis, the wife at home, that's taking care of my husband. And I am like a supporting star figure for him in that I assume that role in persona publicly, but I have really leaned into my season of being a wife is what God called me to.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:01

Do you think it's been easier since he's led spiritually now?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:04

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:05

I think that's a key component because I think some of them may listen to this, be like, Well, I can't, I have to you have to lead. I've been never done that. Yeah, like I've having to lead builds resentment in your marriage. It it's not unsavorable, but having to lead in faith, having to lead in masculinity is hard. But your husband is leading in faith right now, and and he and you're letting him faith.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:30

And I think when a husband can be a very good leader and a very good provider and a very good protector, but if he doesn't feel like he has been provided and protected for and everything, he's not gonna be able to do that for you. So having a man who has now put God in charge all the time, and through that, I know you and I've talked about the importance he now has his men's group, and he goes and talks to other men about how they can be better men. And that has been so wonderful because sometimes those people we don't realize what we could be doing better. But then when we hear other people's circumstance or see our own circumstance through another person's perspective, we go, oh, okay, I could probably step it up here. Or I could communicate better what my need is because yeah, there's a deficit here. You know, so I guess my my hope for people who have not found their person is be a person of faith yourself so that you attract a person of faith.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:40

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:41

And if you are with someone who hasn't found their leadership with the Lord yet, you know, you just keep being an inspiration for them, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:51

And and that's a and I can contest for this. Travis believed in God, and he and he'll tell you this himself. Like he believed in God and loved Jesus, but he didn't really have a personal relationship with him. And you know, that's one thing over the past since we met last time, Travis has been baptized. And so and it came like I thought when we first started dating, like I had to have somebody that maybe not was bent, you know, like 100% in church or everything, but and they had to have a relationship that was important to me. And I remember asking him a bonnerie of all places, this is what's so funny. It was a bonnerie and we're eating spicy pie pizza, and I said, Would you ever go to church with me? It's like our first six months dating. He's like, Pat at my leg. I never forget he said, It's my football watching days, and that's the day I rest. I have to work all the time. And I'm like, Okay, I just played it off, but I was almost in tears. Like I'm trying to turn my head because I was like, I'm getting ready to cry. I'm gonna have to break up with him because he don't love the Lord. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't thinking that, but something just told me to stick with him because I loved his heart, his work was good, right? And he loved my kids and he loved me. And I didn't bring up faith or beat it in his head per se, but I would like turn on the uh experience and he would watch Corey, and he's in love with Corey and Murphy's girl because of his testimony, and just he could relate. He told you know, Corey has tattoos, Travis has tattoos, and he could just relate to him, and he just started like watching documentaries online, and and he would watch that the chosen. He's like, I know it's not like oh yeah, people can sell it. It wasn't raised in church, yeah. It looks like some characters and I can understand the story a little bit. Yes, and he's always like, I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:31

It should it, it's it's an okay tool, I think, to supplement your faith, not sustain it, but supplement it.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:38

Yeah, and try to get some context because you've never been brought up in it, and even like with with like Corey at the experience, like there's things that I brought up knowing the Bible, like Church of Christ drills in those stories, those terribles, those Bible stories when they're little, that really broaden it out, and he he like does chapter by chapter, you know, chapter by chapter, book by book, and I'm learning so much, even as a Christian that's been a Christian for a long time at work. So Travis is learning stuff, and he'll say something, and I'm like like baby things like I found out when I was three or four. He's like, What? Uh it's so great. Yeah, he's like, I'm new here. I'm like, yeah, you are so cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:18

I loved it when you said the red words. What's the red words? Like, I love that. And I I love to be because I have that like I have an envy of some of the times like when Smo comes to these realizations on things because he, you know, he was raised going to Baptist church and things, so he knows the overall message, but there are like some little details sometimes that he's like, Man, one of my favorite things is that I will always use Potiphar's wife as a you know warning to women. You know, some women are Potiphar's wives, they're gonna do anything to get your husband to close enough to them, then they can snatch their clothes off and then turn it back on them when they don't get their way. Well, my husband being in the music industry, Potiphers wives are dime a dozen, you know, and so it became an expression that I'd be like, mm-hmm, you know, she seems like a Potiphar's wife kind. Well, then to know the story of Joseph and to know what Potiphar's wife did to him and how all that played out, and to know like there are bad girls in the Bible doing bad things and you know, like for us to read it. And I grew up, I had the full Bible, raw, unedited, uncensored. Like, yeah, we had children's Bibles, but like we read the Bible, the whole, all, whole version, you know, no editing, or you're too young for this, or you shouldn't hear this yet. So I was very aware that the Bible is just sex and violence, and you know, so many people taking advantage of each other and lying and stealing and cheating. And like I was aware of all this. So for other people as adults to be like, do you know what's in here? Like, yeah. I was reading that when I was way too little, I think. I was like, you know, and how he is about saying, Oh, that's a sports day and stuff. I was probably the one with the greater church hurt as far as like wanting to go back into a church community. So Smo's when everybody wants to invite him to church. Everybody's like, come to my church, come to my church, Smo. And he's like, Okay, okay, okay. So I have been being much better about trying to go back to church because it's it's tough, it's hard to open yourself up to community and to that vulnerability and the accountability and the things. So we have been doing a lot better of trying to visit other churches and like trying to get out there and meet people where they're at and their journey with the Lord. But it's hard, it is very hard to step into a group of people.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:01

It's so beautiful too when you define that group or the church. I think it's more like about the experience.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:08

Like it's

SPEAKER_03 1:28:09

Big enough, but not but not too big. Right. That if we have a basketball tournament or something and we watch it online, we're not met the door the next time. Strangers? Stranger, you missed a good service because that brings up so much guilt. So much guilt. Yeah, because people start showing up for other people and start showing up worship the Lord. Like if I don't come, they're gonna get mad. I have to come knowing that I'm there to worship the Lord and not because Peggy Sue over there may be mad if I don't show up to Bible study. Like I need, yeah, you need accountability, you need to show up and things like that. I'm not saying that, but you know what I mean. Like, just especially if you have her where it's almost like a works only versus faith.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:54

What works are you doing? Then that makes you just kind of be resentful of church and not want to go. And that's why I kind of did online for a while.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:01

Yeah, yeah. Digital discipleship.

unknown 1:29:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:04

That's it. We go back and forth between CBC and 2819. Yeah. And then I'll catch whatever is on otherwise, you know. But it it's tough. It is, it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:15

So you just have to find your church, like church talk. Go to a couple churches and see there's great people in everyone. There's people that are gonna hurt you in everyone because they're human. Yeah. At the end of the day, that's why you have to go somewhere when they're speaking the truth. And I always tell people, I don't care what denomination you're in. As long as it preaches the word of God and it's significant, that's good. And that's why, like, you need to stop mining on the minors and majoring on the majors. What's keeping people out of heaven and putting them into hell? Stop with the stop with the gibberish, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:40

You know, well, and it's so tough for me because and you know this being raised church Christ, it's so hard to find worship that that feels that feels you're not sending. Yeah, that feels appropriate, you know, and and through my mission experience, you know, I feel like I've got to worship God in like real, real, real scenarios. And when you experience that and you come to a place that doesn't feel real, it's like stop, you know. But where when I was in Honduras, where we were specifically, one of the towns that we were in, there was so much witchcraft. Girl, they were hanging doll babies and stuff from our school. Like you would pull up and there would be like hanging dolls. They would take, you know, tang, like the drink tang, and freeze it in baggies, and you bite the corner and just suck on this little frozen rock of tang. When it's hot, like this is the most delicious popsicle you've had. The lady poisoned the whole batch and came and sold it at our school specifically. So our whole church got poisoned. So, like, I have lived in scenarios where I have been a direct recipient under the attack of real witchcraft, real centuria, real stuff. Yeah. So it was very scary. And I had to have a bodyguard, and we would pray over our school. We anointed it. I mean, it it when you feel real evil and you feel the Holy Spirit in the same place, and you feel the Holy Spirit drive the evil out, it's really hard to replicate that experience here. Not to say it's not possible and not to say it's not happening every day, but I I have lived a time in my life where it was very obvious who and what was evil, and we were there on the ground fighting it head on. And I think that's why when I came home, I it was so easy to fall back into like, what does it matter? You know, like it's easy. This is so easy, you know. Yeah, anybody. You know, yeah, and then but when I was in a classroom setting with students and realizing like the real evils, and and we do know the real evils that are in the world and everything, you have to realize that the witchcraft and the I mean it's all very, very, very real.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:22

It's real, it isn't scary, and and for somebody to say it's not is so naive.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:27

It's so naive when you're not putting yourself in protection, you're not protecting your not reading your Bible if you don't believe it's real.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:36

Yeah, come over you and your family, like it's it's real. And it's not some people are like, oh, it's just you're just a tinfall hat, you know, rabbit hole reader, and I'm like, you know, I get there's some conspiracy theories that it's like, well, okay, I can't buy that one. You know, I can't buy that one. But there's a lot that's coming out now with the files and everything else. And me and you talked about this. God bless the truth seekers because there's a lot of truth seekers out there that are willing to stand up or even take a bullet, Kurt did, you know, God bless his soul, and the people that are actually trying to speak truth and getting shot or getting condemned or have propaganda canceled, um, having a slur or smear campaign that's going against them. Like it's true, and we need to pray for protection over the truth seekers. And you, as Christians or as believers, I think we need to pray that God gives us this discernment which preacher to listen to, which church to listen to, which influence to listen to, because there's a lot of people out there, like the Bible says, wolf in sheep's clothing, and our radars are going off, like something triggered, like it's not right. This person's not speaking the truth. Yeah, you get that feeling, there's a reason to get that feeling.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:43

And you have to believe that I know what I'm talking about enough because, like an example, if you've ever, if you like fans of Smo, if you've ever watched Big Smo kicking it in Tennessee, he chops the chicken off of a head.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:09

Just because he's hungry.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:10

Hello, that is a sacrifice.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:13

Everybody that called, John Rich called, hey, do you really chop that chicken's head off? Somebody from the head of Warner called, did you really chop that chicken's head off? No one is ever calling and going, Tune to two so it's like the coolest song I've ever heard written. They're going, did that bro, did he really just chop a chicken's head off? So in his he showed them what he's willing to do. When you show people what you are willing to do to be seen, that is the compromise that in ends up selling your soul. It's showing more of your body this time. It's showing more of this, it's letting them have a little bit more of that. Let it, you know, like it's this selling your soul thing is and smote didn't even mean it like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:01

Or really, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:04

Why would you put child on the chicken set off in a video for attention? And what is attention?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:10

Got you. So that's when it came in. Okay, so the little thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:14

So the kicking in Tennessee, the kicking it in Tennessee video, originally they had made a video like 2012. Okay. They had made a video how to prepare chicken, how to cook, how to cook a chicken. And so back in the early days of YouTube, you know, it was like weirdo, like do whatever on YouTube. So they had done a tutorial. PETA, of all people, PETA makes them take that video down. Well, as his middle finger to PETA, he took just the chopping the chicken's head off part, drops it in a kicking in Tennessee video. If you watch the video, I mean it's so quick. It's so quick. With a shout out to ICP, who's going chicken hunting, yeah, which is another rabbit hole we're gonna go down. Yeah. Everyone that reached out to him, it was not you in Tennessee. It's like a call to the soundtrack of the people of the no, they're like, you really cut that chicken's head off. And it was a quick, like, we once I mean to a hillbilly like me that worked for Tysons, like, when you're gonna chop on chicken's head off. Yeah, that's that's but to a big music producer who knows that the industry is thriving on chicken's blood, loves seeing an artist willing to lap a chicken's head off in their music video. Yeah, and if you know what we're talking about, there's a there's a a dark there's a very dark side to fame. If you want to be big and famous, you're going to have to make compromises. And those compromises are what cost you your salvation, and that is how you sell your soul to the devil to be famous. You show your whole body, you show your whole everything, you do whatever, you humiliate yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:09

We get some blackmail on you that we're gonna or if we we can't control you, we'll expose. So you like to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:16

So so knows that compromise is what gets you attention. Now he uh really unwittingly was not compromising. But when you look at it pulled back, he was he was like who paid for it. The chicken did. And now, as six-year vegans to look at that, and now as Christians who know how much blood it takes to make the music industry what it is, yeah, yeah, that chicken was the first compromise. Thank God when they got Smo into these other rooms, they realized they can't compromise and pass certain things. No, I was gonna say he's pretty women were objectified. Yeah, his marriage was compromised, his relationship with his children was compromised. Like there were a lot of things that that has have been sacrificed, and real harm has been done in those relationships. Almost his health.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:24

I mean, he literally almost died on tour, which which caused the revelation of his health turn.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:31

So Smoa has been one to be very bold to say, I chopped a chicken's head off in a music video, and it got me a lot of attention. And through that attention, so if you're wanting attention, what are you willing to compromise? Now, people who are out eating chicken, all this stuff every day, all the time, maybe don't see anything greater, but people who are in occult, people who are in santeria, people who are in witchcraft, they know chicken's blood is it's very valuable, yeah, and it's very powerful.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:09

Yeah, see.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:10

When used for evil.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:12

I didn't really even know they said for that. I mean, I need I need I need some things that we had talked about prior.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:21

But like when you look at it that way, it's it's scary.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:25

That's that's I I knew the conversations we've had off camera about some things, and I'm like, holy crap! Like, and especially now that research and stuff, and I'm learning and I'm digging into history, American history, not even world history, it's world history. They are some elites, they are some powerful people doing some very unchristian things, very bad things for children and all this stuff. And I think we're finally starting to awaken to that.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:54

Yeah, and I mean people don't realize like witchcraft is used for very strange things, like a lot of people are doing beauty spells, which I have even seen now when we talk about distraction and we talk about this self-care. Like when we grew up, you just washed your face. You wash your face, you moisturize. But now there are these rituals. Look at my morning ritual, get my get ready with me ritual, and the amount of attention, especially for women, that's being put on us to put attention into our vanity and what that extreme is causing women to go to like that's the whole that's that's the things that I I really pray about, especially me and you both in content creation.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:49

Yeah, we're not saying that my pastor sometimes will be like, if you're doing content creation, I'm like, Yeah, but you don't really know. Not all content create creators are bad, and we're not mean. But I do, I do like get ready with me sometimes, and I do, but it's not like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:03

No, it's not like we're not, we're not gonna be like who's the fairest of them all, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:10

Content creators of people that are doing that. I go I know exactly what you're saying because we've talked about it before. It is very easy in this industry to compare, not feel good enough, feel like you have to put yourself in debt, yeah. Still get and not be happy with who God has made you to do it. Yes, yes. That's when it becomes being like just for entertainment to being unhealthy. Yeah, and what Sarah Beth said right there, I really want you guys to listen because TikTok and social media, I mean, we get paid, we you know, you can get paid off of it, you can make a living off of it. Yeah, I do. You have to be careful because it is social media is a good tool, but it's also an evil tool. That's why people like Chat GPT. Yeah, Chat GPT can be evil or it can be good. It's whatever you use it for. Yeah, and that's one thing like I you've hit a head, you've hit a nail on one. I can't that's it. I've been talking backwards. The enemy knows we're telling the truth. So but you have to be very careful. There's a fine line in that, and especially women here in my heart here, women compare themselves and just do not feel good enough. And I find you find yourself, I guess what our pastor was talking about is that you find yourself in a wormhole, and it's meant to. They know that women's what do you call it? Doom scrolling. In the doom scroll, but it's also it's like a serotonin beans. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:33

And your dopamine hits.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:34

Um you have to be careful because like if you use social media as a platform, you have to be super careful not to get in the doom scroll and find yourself hours and hours on there because I can't get it in a video. And even though I try to be very disciplined, I'll be an hour in a loophole down a workhole and it might be educating, but it still always an hour in my day. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:53

That's when that self-control comes in.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:57

Uh-huh. And that's where the distraction comes in. So there's things that you may not you may be doing that are not simple, they're not bad. But when they become an obsession, yeah, or you do too much of it, or it's keeping you from being who you're called to be and what you're supposed to do, that's when the reality of something's just not right. We need to fix it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:43:15

Is it becoming your idol? Idol. We can idolize, you know, we yeah, we we always seem to put idolatry on people, on idolizing other people, but you can idolize other things. Uh-huh. And even to the point where I think as a culture, even among women, we have confused personal hygiene with this whole like, oh, you know, so there is this, yeah. There's this responsibility to be good stewards of the vessel that we are in. And through that, how we use our time has to be it, it has to be important. Yeah, and it has to be precious. We have to view our time as precious because God tells us like we are just a vapor and a mist. Like what our time that we have here is so fleeting. That getting caught up in the dissension, getting caught up in the comparison. And I'm all for a debate. Like it's great to have a good debate and discussion and a disagreement, even, but these fights that serve no end, that have no solution in this. You said it earlier, being catty and you know, being people are contrary just for the sake of the argument. And it oh, it just gets so aggravating. You can get so caught up in that because I'm the queen of loving to go read some comments. I'll see a post that is the most ridiculous. I'm like, what are people saying? What are they saying? What are they gonna say about this? What do they say?

SPEAKER_03 1:44:43

Where's my thought for?

SPEAKER_00 1:44:44

Uh, what, what?

SPEAKER_03 1:44:45

And that's not any better. It's not any better. You're not commenting, you put time, you put effort, you put energy out your mouth from being thankful and positive to being like, ooh, drama. Yeah, we're supposed to be out of the drama.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:57

And your gratitude, maybe you're taking and that's the thing too, like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:02

I'm you know, there's some you know, some seasons, things that I'm going through life. And the hardest thing for me that I've done as a Christian, but it says in the Bible, we're commanded to do that, because it says it's like keeping coals on the yeah, is to pray for your innocent. Pray for them. I look at some people, and I'm like, how can they be so evil? Or how can they get by doing this? This is a blatant lie. What they're doing is wrong. Like, when is God gonna intervene in this? Yes, and it's just like I feel like God's just like, yes, just I'm showing you, I'm showing you, just trust me, pray for them. And I do because I even the people that have hurt me and that have caused chaos and confusion in my life, I essentially want their hearts to be restored to God. Absolutely. And I think as a Christian, if we really are Christians, we shouldn't want that. So even the people that I may necessarily have my blood pressure goes sky high when I see them or have to deal with them, I still pray for them. And that's hard.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:53

Yeah, but I still pray for them absolutely if God changes the heart, because if God changes the heart, then we'll get a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:58

We won't have to think enough confusion and and fighting and all this. And yeah, and there's things that happen to good people all the time where it doesn't make sense. And we're like, how can this evil, how can this happen when this person's doing this, and then this person like I'm living a certain way or I'm doing this, and like, why? Or when is it gonna be my turn? Uh-huh. And that's what the enemy wants you to do. Absolutely. It's the blessing that's not in turn.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:27

And that can happen too with what's going on right now with the files, because I, you know, have assumed this personal role that I, you know, work for The Economists or New York Times or something, and I'm like, Yeah, I I am very good at stalking that I is really missing an opportunity with me. I don't want to work for the FBI, but I have a skill set that they could greatly use.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:49

Yeah, get fired, girl, because we tell the truth too much. They'd be like, opportunity this mess. You expose too much light onto this situation.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:56

I hear some people are starting private investigation firms. Maybe they need somebody to hire. Nah, but with the files, finding yourself to the point that I'm looking for truth.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:09

And you're so fresh.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:10

And I'm not even, but I'm not a victim. I'm not, and then I'm uh I'm feeling all these ways, and I'm treating my family and the people in front of me, and it's so I have now had this like obsession of when it's all I want to talk about, and it and it's like, ooh, hold on, hold on. When it's not your yes, we should all there's a healthy, there is a healthy way of being involved in things, and there's a healthy way of getting information and having information and education without it ruining the blessing that's right in front of you. And I think the victims would feel the same way. The victims would be like, please don't let my don't let don't let and that that's the bad things that have gone for me. Like, don't let my bad story ruin the rest of your day, you know. But I I feel like we have a responsibility as we seek truth to not let the yuck diminish. Yeah, and and and make what we have so good in front of us gross.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:16

These people, you can say the liminati or whatever you know you want to call it, but that's what they want us to do. They want us to be confused, they want us to be against each other. I always say a long time, this is a long enough about democratic public anymore. It's good versus evil. Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like that's where we're that's way easier. That's where we're waiting for it's like they want you to be fighting because they can make this confusion and that spite and have families at the dinner table. Like I've had family members that we've almost had a not-known drag out in the election years because like you don't view my way or you don't view this way, and uh in this past year, and I will say it, it's probably after Kurt got killed that I just really I think a lot of America woke up and we were like, Holy crap, we have been puppets and we have been made to fight arguments that wasn't ours to fight, and we have been made to disagree with family members and friends that we normally wouldn't disagree with. And I feel like I think people are starting to wake up to that to be like, we are we have been blind, yeah, and now we have light, and that's when we're praying for the truth seekers, and it's those people that we have been fighting against the whole time. Yeah, it's not been Democrat versus Republican, it's not been Christian versus non-Christian, like it's it's truly an evil that's surviving it. Yeah, and that's why light is what exposes darkness, and we just need to keep shining light, and whether it's talking about it on our little podcast and these therapy and our little rabbit holes and wormholes we squirm in too, but we we've talked about some really good things today, or it's you know, listening to a podcaster that speaks truth, or going to a church that's Bible-based and speaks truth, there's truth there if we want to find it, yes, or listening to you know, Moses' new album, you know, that speaks truth. Yeah. Whatever you do to get introduced to it and you start sticking more of it in your education, that's where you grow. Yeah. I feel like that's where it's at.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:59

And then if there's anything that I can challenge people who are at a point where maybe they're trying to seek clarity and chaos, especially the people you follow. Because I, you know, I've had to step away from a lot of celebrities and stuff that I've looked up to and just thought they were so amazing and all these things. And if you're if you want to know if the person that you're following is something, a person that you should have in your life as an influence or whatever, use the fruit of the spirit as a way to really gauge if that's a person you need in your life. Because someone may be saying they're a Christian, but they're not practicing modesty. Or someone may say that they're a Christian, but then whenever they get the chance to get the microphone, they just talk very vulgar. Or they may have the microphone and say they're a Christian, but then you have video evidence of all these other ways of that they're behaving, even after a proclamation of repentance. So if you are in a position where you are following people and you just can't figure out where they're standing, peep the fruit. See if see if the fruit that they're putting out matches the message. And if they are exuding love and joy and peace and goodness and kindness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. And I will tell you, there are not a lot of people in the world that are practicing those virtues outright and openly. And when you start using modesty and you start using propriety as your standard that you allow the kind of people that you're allowed or that you allow yourself to be around, you're gonna figure out really quickly, like there aren't people who are sharing the same conviction. And it is, you know, we can hope that we plant seeds so that other people will find their faith in their relationship with Jesus. But outside of planting seeds, you know, our responsibility is to tend our own harvest and tend to ourselves. So uh we're really trying to go out there and plant seeds, get the ideas out there to people, let our faith journey hopefully inspire others just through the way they walk out. They can watch how we walk. But that's what I'd really challenge to people, not to say that I've got it figured out and all that, but if if they're not, yeah, if they're not checking these simple boxes of propriety and modesty and the fruit of the spirit, then that's a really good measure of if that person is someone that should have influence in your life.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:35

I totally agree with that, totally agree with that. And that's and as we're getting ready to wrap up, I'm gonna let Sarah tell you how you can follow them in his new journey, but like he that he that they're doing. Because I just think it's amazing. Like God is opening doors and avenues of places and touching hearts that I mean, like the youth that you're working with in the jail ministry and the people that have heard or still have yet to hear the music, right? And to just have that playing. I can't wait to just hear even more testimony on our next podcast. Yeah, I know to see what else changes. And um, so definitely share this. But I want you how can they download his music? Yeah, find you guys the website and the book, yes, and the book too because the book is is great. So just tell tell her tell her by all the things.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:20

Yes, so you can find us at the realbigsmo.com on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, everything, all of those. It's the real big smo. He does go by smo as his artist name. So if you are on Spotify, there is a big smo and a smo. So go follow the Smo for all the new stuff. But Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, he has like a huge Pandora following, which I think's great because I think Pandora's an amazing streaming platform. It's like the it's like the Mastics. Yeah, I love it, right? Yeah, and you got your curated list, you don't want to let it go. So a shout out to the Pandora listeners, thank you. And yeah, so Facebook, we're in the process of selling smellishes. So if you're interested in starting the food business, we have all that available for sale, everything. Top top top to bottom, everything gotta go. And we're also selling our bus. So we had toured in this bus, turned it into a tiny home, and now we're letting it go. So one of the things that we've been called in this stewardship, this season of stewardship is just let go a lot of the extra stuff. Sometimes downsizing it takes up your time. And that's what being called to be better stewards with our money and our finances. We really felt like a call to get rid of some stuff, you know. And Smo's done very well throughout our relationship. He always had the nice cars and the cool stuff and everything. And we've we've tried to let that stuff go. And that way, like you said, you have more time to use the better. So if you're looking for us out and about, we may be doing some shows toward the end of the year, especially. I know September, we have at least two dates that people are talking about. So if you would like to have SMO at your event, we're looking for all ages, family-friendly, uh, no-alcohol kind of environments, recovery fest type things, any faith-based organizations if you're needing entertainment, those are the kind of things that we're moving into now. So I haven't started a big push for booking. We're kind of trying to wrap up Smoe Licious and still very much promoting the album, shooting music videos coming up. So there'll be more visual content for Smosis. And yeah, then I guess we'll see if we get any more shows books. So you may be looking for some tour dates coming out.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:38

And also, you know, he's he's written books.

SPEAKER_00 1:55:40

Oh, yeah. And so the autobiography came out in 2019. We've recently gone and done a flash sale. It's only$5 on the website now. I'm trying to move those copies. It is dated because it is before the pandemic, a few things, but it does talk about Smo's journey as a child and how he became Smo essentially. And so it's a really good story for that. It's like pre-meeting me, but after the TV shows. So it goes all the way up to his heart surgery and his life, a little bit after that. I did edit the book, and as an editor, I chose to edit myself out in 2017. You know, we didn't know where me and Smo were gonna go. So I was trying to be like, I don't know if I want to be in this book forever. But now that you know, now now he has this story that he can tell everyone of his childhood and how he got into music and how that became a career for him. So autobiographies are five dollars on the website. Go get one, realgigSmo.com. And congratulations on your book. Girl, a man, I'm yo, as someone who has worked on a book, as because the thing about Smo's book, Smo's book started out as like unapologetic, I'm old, tell everything. Here's my tell all, this all, that all. First of all, I don't know anyone in his fan base that was gonna read 500 pages. Yeah, it was like a Harry Potter book, it was huge. And I am the kind of person that if that person's not in my life anymore, I'm not gonna talk about them in a platform or anything. Also, I I wanted Smo to walk away from his autobiography with a sense of integrity and dignity that did not shame even maybe the people that probably deserved it a little. You know, we wanted it to be where his story did not make anyone else look bad.

unknown 1:57:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:57:36

Uh, and where any person who maybe did have any responsibility in things not going the way they should have, that they, you know, they're unnamed and get to live their life without being, you know, drugged through the mud. Yeah. So I I was very intentional when Smo started this book that we did not want it to be a tell all, put everything out there. It's just not for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:00

Nobody deserves nobody has to know everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:05

And if you've been through a divorce, you know the last thing that you want anyone to do is read about it in your book forever.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:13

He said she said the truth. And there's there's good and bad for every part. Yeah. And nobody honestly, unless you're just a drama fan, nobody really wants, they want to read like what made you you, how you got through diversity, and who you are now.

SPEAKER_00 1:58:26

And how can your journey maybe help them in their own life? And that's what led me to talking about your book. I really love that your book is helpful to anyone that reads it. It's it's and I understand an autobiography is to tell the story of your own life, but in the goal of writing a book, you know, you offer information that's helpful to other people. And I think that that's very valuable that people have an opportunity to read something that they can apply directly to their lives. And so I'm very proud of you for that. Because I know that was such a labor of love.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:01

You get such an awful shout-out. Get to some friends that will see your success, they'll clap and they'll get they'll shout it out and post it on their social.

SPEAKER_00 1:59:08

I love my cool friends. I love my cool friends. I'm so thankful. And I'm thankful for you for always sharing your platform. You know, you had reached out, you had reached out to Smo back before our season of wanting to open the food trailer or anything. And you've always just been so open to be able to let us share our message with your people. And so we're very thankful to you and Travis for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:59:30

Our platform is y'all's platform anytime. And we are, we talked about today, you know, having Travis and Smo sit down and talk about the new season that he's in because we get more of a one-on-one perspective with him and uh share some of the new music. Yeah, you know, because uh yeah, they they want to hear the music. I love it. Well, guys, we're gonna wrap up today. It's always a longer show than normal, but we love that. We love that. So if you sit with us to the end, I hope it blessed you. I hope it blesses somebody. Make sure you like and share it, and we will see you guys again at the next one.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:01

Thanks for having me.