The UnlearnT Podcast
The UnlearnT Podcast is designed to help you gain the courage to change your mind about things you never thought you would change your mind about. Our hope is that you will begin to move towards a life of freedom after hearing stories from individuals who have chosen to unlearn some things in their lives.
The UnlearnT Podcast
Avengers Infinity Wars: What Happens When Power and Leadership Collide
We examine the six Infinity Stones from Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War and extract powerful leadership lessons from each one that can help us become more effective, balanced leaders.
• The Power Stone demonstrates the difference between personality-driven leadership and team-centered leadership
• The Space Stone warns against taking up too much room in your organization out of insecurity rather than necessity
• The Reality Stone reveals how we must distinguish between changing realities and unchangeable truths in our leadership
• The Soul Stone challenges us to define our purpose beyond our position, considering all the relationships we impact
• The Time Stone teaches intentionality with our most valuable resource, showing how leaders must forecast and prioritize
• The Mind Stone illustrates the critical balance between knowledge and wisdom, especially in an AI-driven world
Share these episodes with your people and let us know what you think. We want you to be part of this community as we continue to grow a community of unlearners who want to gain the courage to change their minds so they can experience more freedom.
hello everybody and welcome once again to the unlearned podcast. I am your host, ruth abigail aka ra. What's up, friends? It's your girl, jaquita, as she pulls the mic closer to her. Thank you very much my bad friends, my bad and this is, this is the podcast that is helping you gain the courage to change your mind, and to change your mind so that what quita, so that what they can, what that you can experience more freedom.
Speaker 1:Look at that, look at that, look at that and we are uh so excited to be with you again. As you know, we are in our summer movie series and we are having a great time. We have you have listened to several so far. Y'all let us know how you're liking this series. We enjoy it. We are enjoying talking about these movies.
Speaker 2:You know, you just don't even realize how deep some of this stuff was, but it, like the stuff that we're talking about, was going into your psyche, it was and like, yeah, and it, it. It really does inform the way that we, the way that we lead, the way that we relate, the way that we build and construct, like how we're going to move forward in our lives in different areas, and so it's in us there are themes that I know.
Speaker 1:I was definitely not thinking about when I saw him the first time.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? Absolutely not, because most of the time I'm looking at that movie I'm like man, these people are hilarious. Yeah, and it's okay. Yeah, it's just entertaining.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a good time.
Speaker 1:We're having a good time, so if y'all are enjoying it, do us a favor. Okay, like, share, subscribe, get in that room. Thank you To the Unlearned Podcast. Make sure to share these episodes with your people and let us know what you think. We want you to be part of this community as we continue to grow a community of unlearners. Y'all who want to grow A community of unlearners, come on.
Speaker 2:Come on, a community of unlearners y'all who want to grow, come on, we can start like an unlearners academy. I shouldn't even say it it's on air y'all stay tuned y'all stay tuned. We might put a little something together for you.
Speaker 1:We gonna put a pin in that and we gonna let y'all know what happened today tell a friend to tell a friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah we're such middle adults we put something like a leadership symposium oh man, oh my gosh that's great. Um, all right, ruth, abigail, I got a question for you. What's up as we think about what our movie is today that we're going to talk about? I need to know are you a dc or marvel girl? Marvel.
Speaker 1:I will say, by the way, marvel movies, dc TV, dc TV shows are on point.
Speaker 2:Listen most people who know me know how hard I get down with the Flash.
Speaker 1:She loves the Flash.
Speaker 2:Me and the Flash.
Speaker 1:She loves the.
Speaker 2:Flash. I've seen every single episode probably three times, because I'll go back and rewatch season.
Speaker 1:I'm rewatching the arrow right now which I enjoy. I could not the arrow is too dark.
Speaker 2:Like it starts off and he in a doggone boat, somebody about to die? It's definitely dark. It's dark and all the scenes are dark Like why is he always moving around in the shadows?
Speaker 1:and stuff, it is true, but I don't know. I like the storyline a lot and the Flash is cool, but the Flash is a little too light. It's weird, it's a little too, and that's exactly.
Speaker 2:See everyone here and again, I am a general, though I'm light, I'm a general. No, no, no, no, no, no, no here again lies the difference between me and Ruth Abigail. Light and dark, okay, because I'm just kidding. Oh man, just jokes, friends.
Speaker 1:It's hilarious.
Speaker 2:But I would say, like in our movie preferences, though probably I'm a little bit more upbeat Okay, ruth, abigail is the arrow.
Speaker 1:Okay, I like the arrow.
Speaker 2:He rarely even smiles. It's he rarely even smiles.
Speaker 1:It's true, no, it's true I can't get down with it but the later seasons they have a little bit lighter feel to it because more characters come yeah the only reason I really know much about them is because they started doing those cross episodes with the Flash exactly here we go.
Speaker 2:Now we gotta go down there to Day City and get this over with anywho, anywho for the movie cinema world.
Speaker 1:Marvel has it hands down you know, one of the greatest IPs ever.
Speaker 2:Intellectual property yeah, man, fantastic IPips. Okay, stellar on the ips. Okay, um, but listen, I am definitely a marvel girl. Okay, we don't miss, I don't miss an x-men movie. Okay, I first of all. X-men movies are so deep, they're so deep they're so deep I don't miss an x-men movie.
Speaker 2:I don't miss any of the uh, marvel cinema. I'm down with you know, when they start getting into them side characters. Sometimes I'll be like, wait a minute, like who, what you know? When they started getting into the insects, I was all right, I was with you for ant-man now we got a wasp. And now there's what? Then there's something else too.
Speaker 1:I was like I'm lost. I'm not a huge fan of Ant-Man, but the other ones.
Speaker 2:I'm with. I love him as a person and as a contributor to the overall team, right to the overall narrative, to the overall team.
Speaker 1:But solo character. Eh, you know, I could take it or leave it. But you know I could take it or leave it, but you know, I think I could. These are movies I could watch over and over again, for sure, and the one we're talking about today is one of my personal favorites.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, in order to talk about Marvel movies, there's a really easy way to get everybody in there all at one time.
Speaker 1:And it is friends, the all right, the avengers all right now.
Speaker 2:The first avengers was. It was a cool, cool introduction to everybody. Uh, age voltron. Nobody really watched that, one don't sleep on edge ultron nobody age ultron was actually a really good movie.
Speaker 1:We were all confused, you were confused. Age ultra was a really good.
Speaker 2:I only went back and watched it because of what happened in endgame and they were like, oh look, he got the hammer. And I was, okay, why did captain america, why was that such a big deal?
Speaker 1:and then I went back and I was like, oh now you know which one I didn't watch for a while was Civil War. But I was like Civil War was really good.
Speaker 2:But I didn't watch that for a while.
Speaker 1:Winter Soldier which I know it's not. It's Captain America, but like and so it's technically Civil War.
Speaker 2:The Captain America movies, though feel like Avengers movies.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Versus the Iron man movies. They are their own thing.
Speaker 1:They are their own thing.
Speaker 2:You know. But like the captain america movies, it's like man, this man, yeah, stands for us all okay, and he usually is like he's rubbing shoulders yeah, okay with other people, sure, sure. You know what I'm now. What I still don't understand is how bucky is in everybody's story, like bucky the winter soldier, this man show all of a sudden he's in wakanda chilling, yeah, yeah, you know in a in a hut yeah, like it is.
Speaker 1:It is pretty wild how threaded these things are together yeah, I mean I am just completely fascinated by the, the, the storytelling you know acumen for sure uh, that is the marvel universe.
Speaker 1:I, yeah, absolutely love it. Um, you know. So we are are going to be talking about a particular Avengers movie. We debated which one we were going to do. I personally like this one because I like the tense ending. I like movies that are not predictable, and this one I did not see it coming. I didn't see it when I first watched it. You know, I did not see it coming.
Speaker 2:I didn't see when I first, when I first watched it.
Speaker 1:you know I was definitely in the theater and I I was like, you know, I mean it, like there, no, they're gonna. I mean they always win, like it's not through, they're gonna, you know. But it's like hold on and and it ended.
Speaker 2:It was just like Well, I mean, I remember OK, you all know we're talking about Infinity War, for sure, talking about Infinity War, you know it's that it is Infinity War and Endgame are the ones that, like you, had to go to the theater, oh Lord, to see those. Ok, you couldn't just watch those on the Disney Plus, oh no, all right, you had to go to the theaters. And I just remember, at the end of Infinity War, being in the theater, like we felt, like our world was, like I was looking around like y'all still here.
Speaker 1:We just felt lost. We just felt lost, yeah, when he snapped and people, you started seeing the little shimmery dust. You know, it was wild. It was like this can't be the end like that, obviously somebody's gonna come and it's gonna and it's just and.
Speaker 1:But what I love about it is I am a big, I love story, I love the process of it and what I really enjoyed about this is watching, um, the kind of what we're going to lean in today, lean into today are is kind of the core of this whole thing, which is the, which are the infinity stones right, they are the drivers of the conflict and it was what I like about this. Is it pulled? This is the first movie that pulls all the movies together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it just pulls all of them together. There's no other movie that pulls it all together, and so you're seeing these small little excerpts from every movie, and like before, at least I didn't. For those of you that were comic readers and knew this, I mean, I'm sure you were way ahead of the game. I don't read comics and I didn't know that. You know I didn't see it, but when you're looking at like Dr.
Speaker 1:Strange, or Captain America, and you know, um, uh, the, the age of Ultron, which did, which did introduce that reality stone, um, and the mind stone which you, you wouldn't have, you wouldn't have known, right.
Speaker 2:So, like I appreciate it for its historical context.
Speaker 1:You have to have. You know, I'm saying those are important, and so it pulls all these things together and it's like you. Just it reminds you, oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot, and I just love stories like that and so this. So we want to talk about these stones, because these infinity stones there are six of them, right, and they represent what it is to be a god. Really, you know, when you put it in, when you look at all the different stones.
Speaker 2:I don't like saying a god.
Speaker 1:A leader is sufficient. No, I'm sorry, no, I can't agree with that, because everything that you have, all these stones, that, when you put it together, it represents God likeness. I'm not saying God, but I am saying God likeness and that's, and so so that. But that is a danger, that's the danger of the stones, and what the danger of what thanos wanted to do was essentially play god is what he, what he wanted to do, which was destroy, yeah, destroy and create, and his own will, um.
Speaker 2:I am not saying I got you, I got you, I got you. I just ain't with the language. But whatever I mean, it is what it is.
Speaker 1:Nevertheless, big G, little G, there is no God but Jehovah.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, no God like him, I'm not going to get into a theological argument with you on this podcast, not to come afterwards.
Speaker 1:We could go toe for toe. For that I mean we could we there's there's, there's there's a. You know, when you talk about got like little the, the, no, I ain't gonna go there, I ain't gonna go there.
Speaker 2:Girl, if you don't get out, sorry, I'm talking to you like we. Not on air. Okay, we're going to be respectful Producer. Joy on air okay, we're gonna be respectful producer.
Speaker 1:Joy y'all producer. Joy gonna, she gonna get us, she gonna get us she's gonna get us episode.
Speaker 2:She's not gonna like it, okay. So I think that, um, one thing before we talk about the stones, one thing that ruth abigail and I really noticed that I think it's kind of swirling around like what the collection of these stones mean. Yeah, right, is this idea of personality driven leadership versus a leadership that's more team-centered? And when you look at thanos, because when you set the movie up right, you have we start off on, uh, in a dreary land, right, and it was a dark and a dreary land right and Thanos has this huge glove and he already has one of the stones in there, which is the power stone it's the power stone, so he already has this power stone, and so he's already gone to like Thor's homeland and started destroying their people and taking power over that, over that land.
Speaker 2:And it is when you start seeing how Thanos is a person who has followers. Right, it is. It is all of these creatures that he has gathered for his cause, and they are following every time they show up in a new city. They're like greetings Earth. You have been visited by the amazing Thanos who will come to kill you. Yeah, and you should be grateful.
Speaker 2:And you should be grateful that this personality has come to include your death as a part of their plan. Right, but it is. It is. Everybody is very much focused on who Thanos is and what Thanos said that he can do, what it is that he's able to do, so much so that it oftentimes leads to the sacrifice of anything that's not in alignment with what's in his mind, and that's very different from the Avengers, who all stand in their own leadership but have to find ways to link together at different sections of the movie in order to. Basically, they're trying to keep something, whereas thanos is trying to destroy something and so in.
Speaker 1:In that, I think, when we look at this power stone and we look at what power is right, my Lord, I think the definition of power that I hear the most often is the ability to get something done. I was trained to think about power in the context of community organizing, one of the organizations I'm involved with, and when we would get trained, they would often ask what do you think about when you think about power? And most of the terms were terms like destructive, selfish, self-centered, not caring about people, only caring about yourself, money, hungry, that kind of thing. Nothing really positive, right? Nothing really positive about what you think about when you think about a person who wants power. They would ask us do you want power, do you want to be powerful? And it was very interesting because it was almost people didn't want to say yes.
Speaker 1:You didn't want to say yes because you didn't want to be perceived that way, but the reality is you need power, but the question is, what do you need it for? And I think this is the tension in the movie. Right, thanos wanted power to destroy, like you said, he wanted power to enact his own will yeah on everybody else at the detriment of them yes and but what? What the avengers had to learn how to do was share power.
Speaker 1:They were all powerful in and of themselves but what they didn't do is they didn't say, like captain america could have said okay guys, this is that like we're going to, we're going to do it this way and it's going to be for this purpose and all of you were like he allowed everybody to, or everyone allowed everyone to function in their own power and they shared the victory Right Um, and, and that's the difference. Power is not bad, but we have to unlearn that power is not something we should, we shouldn't want.
Speaker 1:Right, I think we should want to be powerful. You need to understand why you want to be powerful and you have to make sure that you understand. It is not in and of yourself, it is a shared experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to be aware, power is kind of like the chain link that is connecting two big ideas, right. So you have the idea of who you are and you have the idea of what you're called to do and what that's connected to like a bigger purpose. And power is what connects who you are to what you're called to do, right. But if you are situating what you're called to do in selfish ambition, are in uh, you know, this is my idea and I'm the only one if you're situating your assignment and pride, it's going to fall. It's simple, it's going to fall right. You have to situate who you are and what you're called to do in something that's bigger than yourself, or else that power will get misappropriated. And I think one of the most powerful sorry, one of the most powerful kind of examples of the use of power and then the aftermath of it, was with the Hulk. You know, in this movie, in every other movie, you know, we're like all right, this is better Smash smash yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like hey man bring out the guy, all right, we need him. All right to smash some stuff, throw some stuff around, get some stuff done. You know like, when you need a, you know your heavy hitter, all right, you, you need the big man, he's your guy. And so loki, literally in that point in the movie, says you know like, and, and he's not even worried. He says, ain't nobody worried about you, thanos, we have a hope. And here comes the hope and he, he, he is like, going at it, like doing, he's doing. Oh, he's doing what he's always done in the way that he's always done. Yep, but when you get to something that is greater than where you've been, come on Right and it defeats you, work it out Right.
Speaker 1:I know, right, it's it.
Speaker 2:Y'all, the fact that we know each other so well. It is scary sometimes. It really is, it really is. She knows exactly what my brain is doing in this moment.
Speaker 2:Nevertheless, when you face something that you've never faced before, that's greater than where you've been, and you're trying to use who you were and what you had before to accomplish this task you had before to accomplish this task, that moment of defeat made the Hulk feel so powerless that he refused to emerge for the rest of the movie.
Speaker 2:Man, right, he tucked away. Because when you depend See, this is why we need the Lord, this is why we need him. Right, because when you depend on yourself to get a task done, when you get to that point where you are incapable, unable to produce anything in a season on your own accord, on your own strength, with your own power, you are going to have to, you're going to have to go back to who created you in order to, to figure out how do I navigate differently in the season. And we see that in end game, that he, he you know what I'm saying he had, he had to go back and talk with himself and and and reemerge in a different way, in a different form, in a different form In a different form and with a different understanding of power.
Speaker 2:Yes, now, power wasn't brute force, and I go and pummel through everything you know, and that really is difference between twenties and thirties. Yeah, and in our twenties I don't care how meek and mild you are, in our twenties we were like, hey, all right, this is the way life is going to go and you know, I'm going to do what I got to do to try to make something happen. Whether it's a little something or a lot of something, whether you were very driven or whether you were just kind of chill In your mind, you believe things worked a certain way and in your 30s, you learned Nah, it ain't really the way that I thought it was
Speaker 2:nope, but the whole. We're watching him in the transition and there are moments when it was, you know, I think that there's um, this has been my last point, but there's, there's something else to be said about when other people know who you are, but you don't believe in yourself anymore, you know. And so iron man, when, when they're all meeting up and they're getting ready to face thanos, minions, right, like iron man's, like it's gonna be good to work with you again, buddy, buddy, call him up, bring the big guy.
Speaker 2:You know he's excited because he's like we're gonna be all right because we got the hope yeah but when you refuse yeah, when you refuse to activate what's on the inside of you, you become a liability, yeah they have to keep protecting him. That's it, because bruce banner will get killed in this fight. That's it.
Speaker 1:That's good you gotta hook up, even when you don't believe in yourself anymore.
Speaker 2:You gotta fake it till you make it. So that's a part of leadership the question is what?
Speaker 1:what happened to where you don't, but where you don't, you don't realize what power you have anymore, like what happened, and I think. I think it's a question to ask, like what happened? Because it's not that you're, it's not that your power's gone, it's that you're afraid to use it. Um, so what happened? And I think it's just something to ponder on.
Speaker 2:That's something to ponder on, I think. And, ruth abby, what do you have an instance in your life where you were afraid to kind of be your full self?
Speaker 1:for sure, uh, yes, so my and I talk about this a lot because it's very, it's very impactful, like my leadership took a hit in 2021-22 and um, do some. You know we had some just some transitional pains, you know, with, with, with uh team members and uh I, I just felt like a complete failure and it took me about a year and some change to show up as the leader. I know I could be again, because I was afraid that the same thing would happen People would leave, not be healthy. Um, you know, I was afraid of a repeat situation and I think that's similar to what the Hulk was. He's afraid of being defeated again. He's afraid of being beat up again. It's like I don't want that and so I'm just going to.
Speaker 1:I made safer calls, I did, um, you know I wasn't taking, as you know I was, I just wasn't showing up in my full self. Um, and I was, I was just, I was, I was really leading through fear, and it wasn't until about a year uh, um, I really about six months ago that I was. I knew like the situation happened. I can't recall it right this second where that six months earlier I would have just I would have gone back and I'd have kind of been deflated for a while. But I wasn't.
Speaker 2:And I was like okay, cool. But you know, that's interesting because I think one of your superpowers is the ability to both identify healthy risks and help to navigate teams through it, and that's a way because that pushes people out of their comfort zones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now that pushes organizations out of where they've been. Yeah, you know, I think something I really relate with the hope. If I, if you had at different points in my life, if you asked me who my favorite Avenger was, like it changes for a long time it was the hope. Yeah, right, because he was big and strong, you know, and I was like, hey, you know, and I think it was because something in me wanted to smash some stuff, but I couldn't cry exactly you know, but I couldn't like do it on the outside you know, and I was like man if I could just you know no, don't, don't try but, but I think even more so than that.
Speaker 2:What this movie showed me was that I absolutely was that person for a long time I was that person that everybody was like man. You know, there's just so much inside of you and I just can't wait to see all your potential. And you don't even know what's inside of you and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like the Hulk. No, I ain't coming out. Matter of fact, I'm running, I'm hiding. Every once in a while I'll let a gift peek through but, people's expectations made me so frightened.
Speaker 2:I was like they're going to see me fail and then all of their goodwill toward me will end. And it was really the fear of rejection that was keeping me, because I was like, the moment that people find out I'm not as good as they believe that I am, they'll leave, I'll be deserted and no one will want me and no one will essentially have space for me in their world, because they're going to find me to be useless. And so I could imagine the Hulk who is the smasher tries to smash, can't smash.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that came out wrong, it did.
Speaker 2:It did, it did. Joy is going to kill us. She's going to kill us. She's going to kill us.
Speaker 1:I genuinely didn't catch that.
Speaker 2:Anyways, you can't hit things and break them and you're moving on. There's other stones.
Speaker 1:So after we kind of see, you know the, the power stone that play ruth abigail, uh-huh, there's this there's a space stone, and I think this is actually a beautiful pivot into that right, because, yes, it is, and we're gonna make it, um, it's, uh. So because when you a lot of times like and I and I definitely did this I did this exact thing actually Because I was feeling powerless, I didn't, I was, my confidence was low in my leadership in this season, I would take up too much space trying to prove that I was a leader, my Lord, that I was a leader, my Lord. And the space tone was this idea of, like, you can be anywhere, everywhere, wherever you want to, right, you can travel through different dominions and galaxies and different planets and all this stuff and you could do it with ease, just boom, boom. And that was kind of how I was. I was kind of everywhere and I didn't need to be, but because I, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't understand where I needed to be and I wasn't stable in who.
Speaker 2:I was.
Speaker 1:I my presence became a hindrance for people. And um, I thought that I had to be around in order for things to function well.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you something as someone who has been on the other side of that, right in the midst of a leadership transition. You know I've had a leader who you know I'm like I, a leader, am here to assist. But when you also show up, you make us feel like you don't trust us to do what we've been doing Yep, like we've been doing very well. So when you show up and that's especially when that's not the norm and in your mind you have all of these thoughts that are like I'm going to be there to help. I want them to know that. You know I'm going to show up. You know you and I think, especially in our generation, we have overemphasized this you know I show up for my team.
Speaker 2:You know I walk alongside the team you know, know, because you don't want to be perceived as that person, like you don't want to be perceived as that aloof, power hungry, yeah every tower.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come down when I want it from the people.
Speaker 2:You know you want people to know. Hey, I'm with the people, right? You know I'm here with the people. I'm on the. Hey, I'm with the people. You know I'm here with the people. I'm on the ground yeah, I'm on the ground with you. You know I ain't afraid to get a little dirty. You know you really want to be that person and you don't realize what you do to your people's confidence.
Speaker 1:It's really insecurity that drives that, and I had to learn this the hard way. Like it's insecurity that drives that, and and and I and I had to. I had to learn this the hard way. Like it's insecurity that drives that, because the truth of the matter is you want to be on the ground but you don't. It doesn't help them for you to be on the ground. It helps. Somebody has to be watching appear, somebody has to be on the like. I hear the dance floor and the balcony analogy right, and so you know, when you're on the dance floor, you can see here, you can see as far as you can see, but you can't see everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And somebody has to be watching on the balcony to catch what you can't see on the dance floor. Yeah, and I think when leaders on the balcony to catch what you can't see on the dance floor. Yeah, and I think when leaders don't take your proper position as the leader you're supposed to be and you're doing what makes you feel important, but it's not helping, it is actually hindering your team from growing?
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's honestly hindering you from growing. It's hindering you from because you don't realize that by you taking up space and other people's work, there is an empty space left where you're supposed to be. That's it, right. And so all of the things, all of the forward direction we could have as an organization, all of the, you know you're supposed to be out there. I want my leader out there meeting and greeting with the, with the heavy hitters, so that you can be advocating and representing for us, so that, like, when I ask you and say, hey, we need more money, you can say I've been out here, you know getting getting to the money, I've been out here building influences, yeah, but instead you, over here with me, got a program like you know, like what you doing.
Speaker 2:That's right and so and so, and I think that there has to be a balance, which is why, again, I point to, because I've I've been in middle management for so long now you know the importance of middle managers. It's important, man. This is why you have middle managers who do that, who do the work, who oversee. They don't do the work of the groundwork. I just want to clarify.
Speaker 1:They're the chaperones Of the dance floor. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to get the.
Speaker 2:I'm not being You're not chaperones, I'm saying in the dance floor analogy.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying? You're the chaperones. No, nobody was on that, okay.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, that was an analogy that was in your head. Gee Y'all on chaperones. Okay, I'm just Okay, fine, all right, and make sure nothing bad happens. I mean, I understand they don't make the dance better.
Speaker 1:They could, they can.
Speaker 2:A good one can no that's a monitor and those are the type of middle managers you don't want. You don't want.
Speaker 1:I know the monitors, the helicopters, jaquita's not that I'm just making sure everything's going well here and that everybody's doing what they're supposed to do here. She Just to be clear. She's not that, nor do I think she's that, If Queta was here in Memphis. I would work with Queta. Anyway, go ahead, ruth Abigail, I would love for you to work for me.
Speaker 2:Okay, that would be a grand time. Wait, what that? It would just be a grand time Me telling you what to do, oh wow, this is a joy.
Speaker 1:I see that I really didn't even understand what you just said. Go ahead.
Speaker 2:But no, but you know, I think that there has to be you, as you're thinking as a leader, about how you're going to set up your leadership style, how you're going to set up your like an org chart or your team, or how you're going to navigate that. You have to. Even when I was supervising students, I identified, I told these students, I was like y'all are going to be leaders in respective areas and you're going to have teams associated with your area. So when I worked in campus life, I had somebody that was over the office, I had somebody that was over events, I had someone that was over the team, like I had people stationed. I had someone over marketing right, I had them stationed over different things and then when we came together as a team, they led us all in those initiatives under my guidance. That's right, right. And so you have to, as you, as a leader, are thinking about, you have to think about how is space situated within my team? How am I showing up? How do I want other people to show up? And you have to realize it is not your presence that dictates the nature of the organization.
Speaker 2:It is the ideals that you pass down through your leadership style that inspire other people to be leaders through your leadership style. That inspire other people to be leaders. That's the ultimate goal is not to shepherd people, as if they're not going to grow into shepherds themselves. It is to lead and develop others so that they can. I'm honestly, I'm trying to get people to take my spot one day and I like leaders who are grooming. I like, hey, what you doing over there. Let me learn how you do that right there. Can I sit with you right here? I want to shadow you. That's how you establish those type of situations where you can think about succession. Because I knew I wasn't going to be in campus life forever. I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1:I think I will say that and we can pivot to the next one after this, to the next one after this. But I do think this is important to realize that if you feel like your presence is necessary, then you might. Two things might be the case. You may not have done a complete job of creating a culture and a value system, everybody knows, or you may not have the right team. And so those are. Those are just two things to read to, to recognize if you're like what it you know, because I have felt, I have honestly felt both right, um, where it's like.
Speaker 1:If I feel like, for whatever reason, my presence, I have to be there. One of those two things is happening, um, and it's just, it's a checkpoint for you. Okay, is it? Is it is it? Is it a lack of culture, understanding of culture, or culture setting, or value setting and value, um, uh, uh, alignment, right, that they understand what the values and the cultures of the organization? Have I done my job in transferring that? Or do I not have the right people on my team? And that's a real, and you have to evaluate it and then kind of tackle whichever side of that equation you're on, because it shouldn't be that your presence dictates what's going on yeah that shouldn't.
Speaker 1:You shouldn't have to do that, but sometimes you feel like you do, and if you do, I would ask myself those two questions for sure, yeah, um, what's next? Reality, reality, reality, stone. This was really interesting to me it was it was I.
Speaker 2:I like that in the movie like they were fighting a fight that wasn't really there yeah, you know what I'm saying, like and they were like all right well you know, gabora was like all right, I gotta kill my daddy. All right, that's the only way. And then she told you know her boyfriend. Uh, oh, lord, what's his name? I forgot it too.
Speaker 1:Star lord, star lord that's his name, yeah, something different.
Speaker 2:Okay, no, it is something different, but that's his like you know how like spider-man says oh sorry, we're using made-up names.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah that's right, yeah, uh, I can't think of it right now, but his, his made-up name, yes, uh, is star lord, and you know she's like hey, you know, if anything goes down, I need you to kill me. Yep, right. And so they go out and their, their emotions are all tied in it. You know like she's crying, you know he, you know everybody is emotionally fraught at the scene, and then it disappears, yeah, and then you hear uh, you hear thanos in the background, like oh, so you do love me. Yeah, you do have tears for me, daughter. I knew it. You know like, and it's like wow, we were fighting a battle that wasn't even real man, I, I think this, this man, that is um, dang like.
Speaker 1:That's such. It's such a powerful scene. I love how you talked about the emotions that were all in it that made the.
Speaker 1:It was almost like that's really what the um, how the scene was created was almost like the through the emotional connection to what you want to happen and they're using that like it's the stone is almost like harnessing your emotions along with its power to create this reality, and I think that that is it's a reminder to us, and this is something I've talked about before on freedom Friday. I'm sure I've talked about this before on another episode we've had, but it is one of my pet peeves.
Speaker 2:My Lord.
Speaker 1:The phrase this is my truth. I don't like that phrase. I'm here to say publicly that phrase.
Speaker 2:As someone who values truth, I can see that really irritating you, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:And so because I think, what people? I get the sentiment behind it, but I think what's? This is the problem we equate truth with reality, and that's not accurate. Those are two different things. Right, reality changes, truth doesn't, and this is a great picture of that is what they saw was real to them and so real they acted as if what they were going to do was going to make a difference. But because it wasn't true, it didn't last, it disappeared and you're faced with the truth again. Right, and what we have to learn how to do is separate the two, because we respond so deeply and so emotionally to realities that are real. But I think what we, what we, what we tend to do, and what I have certainly done, is we I'm so attached to this reality, whether it's a good, good or bad, positive or negative, um, that when it changes, I'm completely torn up and distraught, as opposed to holding on to the truth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right as opposed to holding on to the truth, which is rooted in things that don't change, that I don't control, that are bigger than me and that are eternally situated and not in time, those things are true, but when I put my hope in my current reality, I can get shattered when that reality shifts. Yeah, and that's something to watch out for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you have to. You know, as a leader, you have to know what are the things that have built my understanding of my reality. Sure, you know what are the childhood things, the experiences, you know. You have to know what are the disappointments and the wins that I've experienced that have shaped the way that I approach leadership, team building, strategizing forward, progression, mission setting, vision setting All of that is being shaped by your own sense of reality.
Speaker 2:That's right. You know. Like, even when I think about me as a mentor, right, I am constantly thinking about what I will and won't do as a mentor, based off of what I've experienced, off of what I've seen, off of some of these movies that we've been watching, some things from my childhood. All of that is informing the way that I give advice, it's shaping the way that I am helping other people to understand their realities, and the biggest thing is that you need to be aware of that, like, you need to be cognizant of what's informing you so that you will know when you're off. You need to know when am I being led by a truth versus a trauma, and a lot of times we have built up our leadership styles and our, our wisdom around our quote unquote truth when it's really trauma. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's really undealt with. Yes, and it's real and it's valid and I think it's. It's something it's not to be dismissed. No-transcript um it.
Speaker 1:I was not a leader of an organization before covid, so I don't know what it's like to lead a pre-covid organization. Um, however I was. I was in leadership positions before that and I think what, what covid taught me pretty immediately was that as a leader, you better not you better get used to the pivot and how you handle stuff. And if you can't, if you can't do that quickly, then it's not just it's, it's not just you that is going to um, the consequences don't just hit you right, they hit everything else around you.
Speaker 1:If you don't learn to pivot and the, and so when you're, but when you're stuck in in in in reality or in a trauma or something that's not stable, it's hard to pivot because now I don't, I don't, I don't know, I can't leave. What I feel like is my only way and I feel like this is the only way I know. This is the only thing I can believe, because it's the only thing I've ever experienced, and so you had a lot of leaders who found it really hard to move from. We'll call it like an analog world to a digital one so quickly, because for them, the way that we do business is the way we do it and we stay like cause. This is the way we've always done it, this is what I've always seen, this is how I'm what I'm used to, and we stand on something that's not stable and something took it away. It's gone.
Speaker 1:What are you going to do now? Right, we saw that at church and churches. You can't, you can't gather what are you going to do? The, the, the, the, the power wasn't in your current reality. It's in the truth of what, what it like, there's what, okay. So the reality is we gather and the methods are. Are your reality? The, how you do it? That's cool, that's your reality, but that's not the truth of what you need to be doing. It doesn't mean that you can't stand on something else. So I think, um, we got. You gotta be willing. You gotta be willing to shift how you do things and understand that you can do that without losing truth. But your reality will change all the time as a leader, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think I think that's key, um, and I think that that's something that, uh, I think that's something that I think that is the ultimate thing that these Avengers are having to deal with. You know they are, they are superheroes, they're used to. You know they are superheroes, they're used to using their little powers making a thing happen and getting reality to shift back to what it was. They have been maintaining reality this whole time. They are almost the keepers of it. That's right. And then Thanos comes and he's like I'm about to disrupt all of this, all of it, that's right. And then Thanos comes and he's like I'm about to disrupt all of this, all of it, and they are fighting to maintain what they have. And so I think that that, ultimately, is what they have to deal with, because when we get the end game, we're seeing everyone have to have to grapple with with a new reality with a new reality.
Speaker 1:That's right, yeah, yeah, um, okay, what's the next one?
Speaker 2:soul stone. The soul got soul power I said a soul power.
Speaker 1:All right, that's a callback to another episode. Callback to previous episode yep, yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 2:We need to do, like some guess that, movie games. That would be fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah um, okay, so I think this is as we were talking, and quit, I'm just gonna ask this question, right, because I think this we were talking beforehand and I feel like this question, this question, encapsulates the kind of heart of this stone, um, and it is are you so relentless in following that one thing, whatever that thing is for you, that no one can tell who you really are? Beyond it, that part, right, yeah, are you.
Speaker 1:So relentless in this one thing, in your purpose, in your destiny, like Thanos was. He was like it's this and nothing else, and he was so relentless in it. It's like, who are you really? And he struggled with that because you made a point he had. He had come to that point before, he couldn't make the sacrifice. But then he came again and said I can't, I am, I am 10 toes down on my destiny, so I'm gonna do it. And it's like, who are you man? Are you somebody who loves your daughter or not?
Speaker 2:yeah, but it was here's the thing.
Speaker 2:One, his daughter didn't know that he loved her that's right, you know she was sitting there and they were on that mountain, yeah, and then, you know, the little red man was like hey, listen, in order to get this whole stone, you know you must sacrifice one that you love. And she's like, you know, because you don't love anybody, all you love is yourself and your little mission. And he got tears dropping from his eyes. She's like what are what you crying for? Yourself and your little mission? And he got tears dropping from his eyes. She's like what are you crying for, right? And it's like, baby, you.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. You, you don't even realize.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of all the people he could have brought to this little cliff, you about to get thrown off. But that's something so deep. That's something so deep, the things that you are inwardly prizing and have all of these deep feelings for, but you have no commitment to them. Yes, that's good. We focus a lot on self-care. You got to practice self-care. You got to get your nails done and your toes done and get massages and go on vacation, rest your body. But self-care really becomes a lot about like body care, you know, and mind care, but we don't really practice soul care. We don't really practice like what are the things outside of work which, honestly, is what we have made purpose.
Speaker 2:We have started to align purpose with career we started to align it with. This is my job, but you are so much more. Your purpose is not single focus.
Speaker 2:It has to be all encompassing of who you are. That was definitely something I had to learn from my twenties to my thirties. In my twenties, I was so focused on what job I had I was like, ah, I'm in nonprofit. I got to make this the thing. Ah, you know, I teach freshman seminar classes. I got to make this the thing. Oh, I do campus, you know. And I was really focused on what was the thing I was doing and pouring all of myself into that thing and what I'm learning, you know, in these later 30s. Sure, because you know we're now on the latter end of this thing every time I hear 40, I'd be like child if you round up, we don't have to keep saying it we don't have to keep saying it.
Speaker 2:We don't have to keep saying it 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40, 40. Okay, but I think one of the things I've had to realize is I'm like the job, the title, the position, it doesn't matter. No, as long as I'm in the place that God has positioned me in, anywhere I go. And now there's different elements to my life. Right, I have church life, I have work life, I have podcast life, I have friend life, I have auntie life, because I got nephews and nieces and such out here in these streets. Right, I have relationship life, soon. Right, I have all of these lives. Right, and so my purpose doesn't just my purpose doesn't clock in and out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, you know it's not.
Speaker 2:It's not like, hey, you know, yeah, when I went to work, man, I was in purpose. Then I came home and no, when I come home, my phone is ringing and a friend needs something, or our mentee needs something, our, our family member is calling for something. I get home and the Lord is like I want to show you something, I want to show you what's next. Your purpose is all encompassing. How are you treating the people who are also a part of of your, of who you, of what makes you you? That's right. And so Thanos missed that, yeah, entirely missed anything that his soul was connected to. Yep, they were not connected to him because just in a previous scene, his daughter tried to kill him right, that's.
Speaker 1:That's it like in the?
Speaker 2:previous scene. I mean, she cried about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she was like she was gonna do it.
Speaker 2:She was gonna do, she did it, she did it. Yeah, that's right to do it, she did it.
Speaker 1:She did it. Yeah, she did it With the little knife he gave her Right. There's a, and I've I've mentioned this book before, but one of I know Queda's favorite author is Stephen Covey.
Speaker 2:Yes, kind of.
Speaker 1:We love a Stephen Covey that he there's a book, uh, called First Things First, and this, to me it is. It is very much talking about what we're discussing and it it is a book that I I don't say this about many books, but it changed my life in the sense of I have never. I was going through a leadership program and one of the things we had to do was write out our purpose statement, which you know I've done a million times in different programs. I made really nice statements, but I was never really connected to any of them, from being honest, and I struggled with this one even. We made it at the beginning. This was a couple months into it.
Speaker 1:We have to read this book and it talked about purpose and it took you through some exercises that broke down the roles that you have in your life and then who those roles impacted Right and that, when I, when I saw that and I really kind of listed all the roles that I have right Leader, podcast, founder, you know, co-founder of organization, a mentor, a friend, a wife, a mother, what all those things Right, I mean it's, um, you know, like 10 roles.
Speaker 2:Mm.
Speaker 1:Um, and then I saw who was attached to those roles and it shifted how I looked at my purpose.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:My purpose is not about what I do. It's about who I impact, and I impact people all throughout my entire life.
Speaker 2:What do I?
Speaker 1:want them to see.
Speaker 2:What is?
Speaker 1:it that I want them to say about me. When I thought about it, it's just like at my funeral. But then I heard somebody else is like, well, maybe not funeral, it's a little morbid Maybe your 80th birthday party, right? How do I want my husband to talk about me at my 80th birthday party? How do I want my son or my children to talk about me? How do I want my friends to talk about me? And that's what my, that's what my, that's what my purpose is.
Speaker 1:And so I developed a purpose statement around that yeah, our purposes.
Speaker 2:And so I developed a purpose statement around that and I went.
Speaker 1:When I got it, I went because it was like that is me that is me, and I don't care what job I have. I will show up as that person all the time, and I was like that I can do.
Speaker 2:This is the clip Post, this Post, this think. I think that this is what we're not getting, this, this is what we're missing. You know, and this is, this is the transition that you have to make coming out of young adulthood. That's right, this idea of being a human doing and being surmised and being understood by what you're able to accomplish. That shit man. And what Thanos missed was that he made everyone in his life circulate around what he wanted to do. He trained his daughters up for what he wanted to do.
Speaker 2:He didn't even let them have their own identities and purposes and understandings of themselves. Everything circulated around this one idea and when it came to and that's why Gamora was confused, she was like you don't care about me, you care about your idea, yeah, yeah was confused. She was like you not, you don't care about me, you care about your idea, yeah, yeah. And so when, when he looked at her with tears in his eyes, it was really, are you crying for me or for the idea? Right, right, right, because you know she's like oh, you crying because you ain't gonna get your little soul stone, you know. And so, like, how, when you think about your impact and and you know, even when we think about gifts, you know I remember somebody.
Speaker 2:Um, I I've, I've been told in different areas of my life that I would be really productive, that I would produce things, and I started thinking about okay, lord, what am I going to do? Like, do I need to build something? Do I need to? Da, da, da, da, da. But it is about. It is about how you navigate every opportunity that God gives you to have kingdom impact.
Speaker 2:And a lot of times it does not look like being the front person.
Speaker 1:No, and it does. A lot of times it doesn't look like being the same anywhere. Yeah Right, like it's. You might be the front person here. You might be in the background over there. You might be on the sidelines over here. Put me in the background, you don't know. Please, gladly, I'll be in the benches. I don't even need to, I'll just be in the stands.
Speaker 2:I want to be president of a university. I've mentored a few who were like, yeah, I'm going to be president and they absolutely will because they got it in them. I think that's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Listen, please let me help you.
Speaker 2:Let me be a positive force in your life.
Speaker 1:Do your thing. I love that. I love that.
Speaker 2:All right, we got two more.
Speaker 1:All right, we got two more. So the next one is the Time Stone. We enjoyed it. We enjoyed like the strange we liked I'm not look doctor. Strange is actually one of my favorites like solo movies I love it.
Speaker 2:I love his story, our first one. He started getting strange. He got a little too strange. I like it in that madness one. I get it.
Speaker 1:That was a lot, but I didn't.
Speaker 2:It was a lot. I draw the line.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed it a lot. Yeah, you wouldn't like that one, quita wouldn't like that.
Speaker 2:It was too much but I I enjoyed it. That was one because again, I'm a marvel girl. I was like we're going to the theater and I was in there like I gots to go, like I know good and well I know good and well y'all didn't play with me like this right, but I do love dr strange yes um, yes, you know, he, he, he, he got a lot going on, though what I what?
Speaker 2:I what I loved about him and the idea of time in this particular movie was, you know he emphasized that. You know he was the protector of the time stone Right and he guarded it, you know, like it was his to keep. You know, and so I think that you know, as leaders, I think something that really changed the way that I navigate my own leadership is how I started seeing time Right and how I started seeing the way that I was spending my time when I because I had so much going on in my twenties you know you can be a little free You'd be like, hey, you know, I get up, I go to work and I got like five hours to just chill.
Speaker 2:I be chilling in your twenties, you know. But as I started getting older and I I do this I mind map. So I like to like put my name in a bubble in the middle of a piece of paper and I draw lines of all my responsibilities and of all of, like, the places where I show up. So I got like a line for church, a line for the podcast, a line for this, a line for that, Right, and there's like 10 lines going around my name and then I start mind mapping Like what are all the things associated with those things?
Speaker 2:Because each of those things need time. Yes, and everything in your life needs time. And one thing that I teach about time management is you don't actually manage time. No, you manage yourself, but if you don't learn how to take a step back and say what's, what's taking up the time in my life, If I'm supposed to be the keeper of it and I keep, because every time something happens, I find myself off kilter and I say I don't have enough time for it, it's because I wasn't really aware of how my time was really being spent. That's good when I came in, when you become more aware of where your time is going, when you become more aware of where your time is going, you learn how to make the correct adjustments so that you can reclaim the time that you need to do what you're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2:So, for instance me, I was, you know, before the move. You know, before I moved to my new home, I was commuting about an hour and a half there, hour and a half back. It take you an hour to drive there and 30 minutes to find parking, and then 15 minutes to find parking and 15 minutes to walk from wherever you parked to get to your, to your office. Right, so I was. I was like Lord, it's an hour and a half there, that's three hours. Every day I'm giving up for free. That's crazy. You know, every day I was getting home and it was dark. That's crazy. Every night my yard man would cut my grass and I would never see it Dang. He would send me a text. He'd be like cut your grass and I'd drive up trying to put the headlights on it Like yeah, he did a good job.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. You know, I was missing my life because of the commute. I said I can fix that, that's fixable. Yeah, but it was only until I was able to discern it that I was able to do it.
Speaker 1:So I love that you're saying this. Something I heard somebody say not too long ago was well, I'm going to say two things. The first thing is you know I'm gonna say two. I'm gonna say two things. The first thing is um, you know, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a budget person for money, and I one of the exercises I think is really healthy is to also do that with time, do that with your day, right? Is is, um, like you make a bunny, uh, I'm sorry, a budget for your money. A bunny, also a bunny, a budget for your money, a bunny, also a bunny, also known as a bunny. Um, you, you, uh, you do the same thing for your time, right? Here's the difference, though you can always go get more money, you can't get more time.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think that we often equate the two right Time is money, money is. That's not true. Time is not money. Um, time is infinitely more valuable than money. And so, as we, if we budget, if we take the time to budget our finances, we ought to take the time to budget our day. And here's the other thing. Um, I heard somebody say this, and it's so true. Uh, you, if you give yourself the, whatever amount of time you give yourself to do, it is the amount of time you'll take to do it. Whatever, whatever amount of time you give yourself to do, it is the amount of time you'll take to do it. Whatever, whatever amount of time you give yourself to do, it is the amount of time you will take to do it, right. So, if I give myself an hour to send an email, I'm going to take an hour to send that email, right. But if I give myself 10 minutes to send the email, I'll do it in 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:Um, and I think you know, as you're making these deadlines, because I'll be making these deadlines too, but you gotta. You know you got something. I'll be having to be hard on myself. You don't be afraid to talk to yourself. Middle adult, you have to. Okay, I'll be like Jaquita. So are you gonna waste an hour on this email? Are you gonna get it together?
Speaker 1:well, that's the thing. So, though, I think, the budgeting of the time and I, I say what I did not realize I did not realize how much time I had before I got married, I did not realize how I was, I wasn't, I wasn't effectively budgeting my time. Um, I also didn't realize how much time I had left to budget, like I didn't know. And it wasn't until I got married. And you know I'm not doing this, I know I'm, I'm, I'm, I have a family life, which I didn't have before.
Speaker 1:Um, I think it hit me the first time when my husband went and he was out of town and I it was just me and the kids and I'm doing drop off and pick up from school, get dropped off. He gets to school right Eight o'clock Uh, that's when I start my day. I got to get back in the line no later than two. I really need to get there at one 30 so I could be up front. Um, so I started getting there once. I have from eight to one 30. That has that's half a day, that's half of what my day used to be.
Speaker 1:But I realized, if I think about it and I'm intentional, I could get eight hours of work done in four hours. The difference was I had eight hours to do it. Now I don't, and I still get it done. And so it shifted how I think. And so now, even when I don't have that particular responsibility, I'm going to get my stuff done in four hours because I can. I know it's possible, I'm going to give myself that time, and so I'm not always perfect, that I certainly don't get it right every time, but at least I know the method and I think that has really helped me. And I think you're you know to your point. You have to be intentional about it. You can't just you need to think about. Think about what you're doing with your time, like you said, be aware, like understand what it is that you get you or how you're spending your time, and then you can make the adjustments.
Speaker 2:What I love the most about Dr Strange in this movie is the is the pivot he took when he sat down, because he sat down he evaluated what are all the possible uh, what are all the possible outcomes? Yep, that, and which outcome will lead us to a potential victory? That's right. He sat down and he thought he went back backwards and forwards in time and planned and and necessary tool of a leader to be able to forecast.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:What will it take for us to get to victory man, and what are the potential things that would prevent us from getting there? Because it's all about as the decision maker. You don't just make decisions, and he did. He made the decision that made the least amount of sense. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:He what he do. Tell the people what he did.
Speaker 2:He took the time stone out of its protected place, my Lord, he took the thing that he had been protecting and covering and keeping and maintaining. What'd he do? He took that and gave it away. Oh, my Lord, he gave it up. He gave it up. Wow. He gave up his control. He gave up his understanding. That was his. He stated in the movie it is basically my life's purpose to protect this stone. I am the defender of the time stone. Yep, he gave it up.
Speaker 2:And he allowed a different scenario to play out, where he wasn't the overseer of that stone wasn't the overseer of that stone, I think.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that is important to unlearn in in this, and I would say, with all of these, is that you don't control time, and that was an act of faith for him to do that. And there's I mean, what, how many things do you need to get like? What are the things that you need to get Like? What are the things that you need to give up as an act of faith to say I got to release this so that the right things can happen at the right time in the right way, and it's not going to be driven by me, and that's a really difficult decision for a leader to make, but that's the kind of decisions leaders have to make. I'm have to release this. I can't control it. Um, and time is one of the things you just can't control, and I think he, he, he demonstrated that in a really beautiful way. Um, um, okay, last one the mind stone. The mind stone, the mind stone so quita, quita.
Speaker 1:Okay, so quita didn't watch age of ultron. But for those of y'all that did, right, I did, I did.
Speaker 2:I just say you didn't watch it I watched it, but she didn't like it. I probably fell asleep, woke up.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying like that's crazy but, um, we are introduced to this idea of what the mind stone ends up be becoming. Who is Vision? But, if you remember, in Age of Ultron, vision is a combination of two entities, one Jarvis, and the other one is the big person. I can't remember what his name is, but we'll call him Ultron. I don't remember his name in the movie, however they so at the end of that movie, right they are. They come together to make this one big brain, and I think the interesting part about Vision is he is a.
Speaker 1:It represents a perfect balance of how one uses knowledge and how one uses wisdom, right, um, vision had full, like he had the, the ultimate power of knowledge with that mind stone. There, there was things that he knew that other people didn't know, um, and there are things, there are things that he was all, that he was going to be able to understand, that people didn't understand. But when he spoke, he didn't come from knowledge, he spoke with wisdom. He spoke with other people in mind, he spoke from a place of empathy, he spoke from a place of understanding. He spoke with a humanity what's the word I'm looking for? He spoke honoring people's humanity, right, and I think that that is something that we can learn, you know, from that is knowledge is not enough when it comes to leadership.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not about what you know. It can't just be about what you know, because leaders involve people. If you are a leader, you are leading, you have people that are with you, and to flaunt your knowledge with those group of people does not help them and oftentimes it centers you and your own, just like in the age of Ultron, like his goal was to basically fix humanity because he knew more than they did. And so when you come with that understanding of like I know everything, I'm here to come and fix the problem and you know I'm gonna fix you and don't worry, you know, it doesn't really matter what happens to you, just know at the end of my doing you're gonna be better right yeah it's.
Speaker 1:It's an unfeeling, uncaring way of going about doing things, but wisdom and wisdom is how you present that knowledge with people in mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I think that is something that we can take from the kind of the Mindstone concept Just your knowledge is not enough. You have to unlearn that. You have to practice wisdom, and when it's a practice, it's an applicable thing. It's not something that you just get, something you can't. You can't have it and not use it. It's it's, it's it's not. You have to use it. You have to practice wisdom. Um, and I think that you can see that in different leaders, like leaders who are acting from knowledge and acting from wisdom.
Speaker 2:I think there's such an important conversation, especially as we are moving in this age of AI. You know, and I think you could literally live your life like with AI, making all of your decisions. You could. You know, that feels like I've thought about it. Well, hold on.
Speaker 1:I am an avid listen. I am an avid chat user, love chat Me and chat go together.
Speaker 2:I love chat. Listen, chat threatens my very position in Ruth Abigail's life. Ruth Abigail's like. I don't need the wisdom of a friend, I'll just ask chat. Hey, man, I'm just saying I really need to hear from the people around me. Chat knows what to do, but that's like. But that's where we are Like. You know, like every day. You know, one of the things that's big in my world professionally is academic integrity. You know like, and what does that mean in the age of AI? If a student used you know chat GPT to you know brainstorm and then took the brainstorm and made it their paper outline, and you know, then we put it in the like turnitincom and it says this paper was written 60% by chat GPT. You know like what? How do we? How do we navigate that?
Speaker 1:Is that a real thing? By the way, do y'all get that Y'all could do that? Yeah, really, turnitincom.
Speaker 2:Turn. I feel like I shouldn't tell people that Interesting. I'm sorry, go ahead, but yeah, no, like they there are. There are AI systems that can tell you how. What percentage of the paper was written by AI. It's embedded in some of the coding as well, Like, yeah, you're not, you're not getting away with it Like you think you are. You know, please, if I could, if I could, give one message today do not go and copy and paste the whole paper from chat GPT.
Speaker 1:No, that's not going to work.
Speaker 2:It's not going to work. It's not going to work. I do believe there are really wise ways to use AI and to use because that's generally what it is it is knowledge. It is oftentimes knowledge disconnected from truth though your chat, gpt and all of the AI systems. They don't have a moral values based code that is guiding in how they're bringing you this information. I was listening.
Speaker 2:I saw somebody put up a Facebook post the other day. I ain't even going into that conversation, but I saw them put up a Facebook post and they were talking about how they refuse to use chat for different things, because it is literally stealing other people's work to give you your answers. Like it is pulling from hundreds of you know similar things of what you're asking for to provide you with your new thing. Right, and they was like that is not integrity, yeah, you know, especially in certain settings, like it is not integrous or integral to use something you got from chat, gpt that has literally pulled from your peers in the field. That's a good point, you know. Like that, you know so. So being mindful of how you're using technology and how you're using your people right, because you're essentially the people that work for you are bringing different talent skills ideas you know?
Speaker 2:how are you honoring them? Yes, how are you honoring them? Yes, how are you giving them, how are you protecting their rights to what they're doing? Yeah, are you just like taking your idea and be like, hey, my team came up with a great idea that I'm gonna help lead. Are you using it to get you ahead? You know that's like there is so much knowledge requires ethics. That's why, in every discipline you know, I was a, I'm a religion major and now I'm in in the field of education, getting a PhD and there is always a conversation around the ethics of what we're learning Everybody knowledge. You know knowledge is power. You know that's a. There is a lot of power that comes with being the person who knows the thing For sure. Right, and so you have to build an ethical code and you have to build some boundaries around knowledge, because knowledge is not truth. No, knowledge is just what we know for right. Now 's it? That's correct. It can always change.
Speaker 2:Truth doesn't change and truth doesn't require your input. Come on to develop absolutely truth. Truth is not like hey, I'm really looking for a way to grow. Yeah, that's right. You know knowledge is always evolving. You know we had arithmetic, then we had trigonometry, then we had algebra, geometry, calculus, and you know they keep coming up with more symbols and more things to do. Yeah, try to take me out in quantitative research method you know, but I made it through.
Speaker 2:You know she's still traumatized yeah but you know, but, but knowledge. Knowledge in some sense requires human, um, uh, not supervision, but it requires us to create a code around it. And the more knowledge we get, the more we have to think about the ethics of maintaining it.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's good. Yeah, I think I think you're right. And can I just say this? I put a little plug in for the chat users. If you do use chat I'm not an expert, I'm not, but I use it a lot Every day I think a way to think about it and just kind of, how do you use it wisely, right? I think one of the ways that I hope I'm using it wisely is thinking about chat as not a producer, but an assistant, and don't use it to produce things. You use it to assist you in your production of things, and a lot of that is making sure that it has the information it needs from you in order to give you what it is you're asking for.
Speaker 1:Don't you ask it for its thing, and I think that's where people kind of get tripped up Chat give me this and you know it's like well, no, you give it something first. I always give chat something first before I ask it to give me something, because it's like what's what I would do to an assistant, right, I'm going to give you the information you need in order to give me this and then we're going to work together Rarely. Does it come out exactly how I want it?
Speaker 2:And so I think that's an important distinction.
Speaker 1:It is important, and I heard somebody say that one time and it's a game changer for me as a leader but in the ethical conversation and using wisdom around it and making sure that you're not lazy with it, right, you don't want it to make you, but but treating it as somebody. I also heard somebody say treat chat like an intern. You don't give it and you wouldn't have your intern write your paper. Who does that? It's an intern. They don't know what you know, Right and so. But you would have an intern do research for you, Right, so I'm going to have that. You might have your intern do an outline or organize your thoughts or put you know things like that.
Speaker 1:So, use, use it for things like that, as opposed to like generating, you know, and producing something that you then put your name on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the thing that scared me with chat a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1:That was. This was hilarious. I was on.
Speaker 2:I was on. I was a in a meeting with some of my co-directors and you know I was like you know I used to be, and somewhere still on the inside of me is a spoken word poet. It's still there, you know like. I in college, you know we were. I was doing a slam poetry contest.
Speaker 2:I held my own slam poetry concert with another amazing poet, like you know. Amazing poet, yeah, like you know. Like, yeah, you know, I used to get down in the poetry world until I realized that it was a little sad and scary sometimes. But but I I, you know, I used to. I used to really write poems and I was like I know chat can't write no slam poem. Like I know it can't, it can't spit something that that you know y'all. I put a prompt in and asked ChatGPT to write me a spoken word poem about like a gospel concert.
Speaker 1:Finding love at a gospel concert. Finding love at a gospel concert, that's what it was, and y'all the poem was fire.
Speaker 2:It was.
Speaker 1:The poem was fire. So she read it to me over the phone. No, I performed yeah, you performed it over the phone and I was like I had to remind myself throughout it this is not jaquita, because if she hadn't told me that she'd be like girl, listen to this poem I just wrote I'll be like yo whoa, that is dope that is.
Speaker 2:It sounded just like that. That's what that's. What was creeping me out as I read it was that it sounded like something I would write, correct. It sounded like something I would write and I was able to put my cadence to it and do my thing and I I was like, oh it was wild. I said chat won't be getting none of my original work. See, see, see, don't, you ain't got to worry about me, Don't worry about me, sweetheart.
Speaker 2:It was worry about yourself, because I'm not finna fool up with chat and my original work.
Speaker 1:It was wild. It was wild, it was crazy, crazy, um, but yeah, so I, I, I think, I think, yeah, knowledge, um, you have to have ethics and you need to. You know, we need to learn how to pair knowledge and wisdom, um, and lead with wisdom, don't lead with knowledge, um, all right, those are all the stones. Those are the stones. That was good, that was good. That was fun. Yeah, that was fun. Go watch Infinity Wars, you know, but just see if you see different things. That'd be fun. Let us know if we missed something. Yeah, let us know. Well, I'm sure we missed a lot, but just let us know what it is.
Speaker 2:We only got butt so much time.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm. What happens when producer joy is on vacation and we have to do this ourselves?
Speaker 2:special shout out to all the graduates. Okay, by the time this airs, we won't be in graduation. We won't, we won't. But uh, congratulations to everybody who has graduated it's awesome, congratulations, um, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's it. So y'all, we'll see y'all on the other side and, uh, let's keep unlearning together so that we can experience more freedom. Thank you once again for listening to the unlearned podcast. We would love to hear your comments and your feedback about the episode. Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and to let us know what you think. We're looking forward to the next time when we are able to unlearn together to move forward towards freedom. See you then.
.jpeg)