Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset

Mind Over Matter: Anthony Williams’ Blueprint for Mental Resilience

• Justin Mills • Season 1 • Episode 13

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Episode Summary:

In this episode of Dragon’s Gold: The Magic of Mindset, Justin Mills is joined by Anthony Williams, founder and CEO of Mindwell. From his early years in foster care to his groundbreaking work in mindfulness and holistic healing, Anthony’s story is one of resilience, self-discovery, and transformation. He shares his journey from navigating an elite prep school as a young Black student to traveling the world in search of inner peace and personal mastery.

His insights on the power of mindset, personal development, and emotional intelligence offer invaluable lessons for entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone seeking to break free from self-imposed limitations.

Key Themes:

  • The impact of childhood experiences on personal development
  • How travel and cultural immersion shaped Anthony’s worldview
  • The role of mindfulness in emotional resilience
  • Overcoming institutional and systemic challenges
  • The power of reframing adversity into personal growth
  • How self-discipline and self-awareness create lasting transformation

What You’ll Learn:

  • How to reframe adversity as a stepping stone to success
  • Why emotional intelligence is crucial for leadership and entrepreneurship
  • The importance of self-reflection and inner work
  • How holistic healing and mindfulness can improve overall well-being
  • How to align passion with purpose to create a meaningful impact

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About Gold Dragon Investments:
At Gold Dragon Investments, our mission is to bring joy to others by helping them win the game of investing — helping every client become the hero of their financial journey. We believe that wealth is a tool, but joy is the ultimate outcome.
Through meaningful partnerships, we strive to empower our investors to create freedom, and build lasting legacies of purpose, fulfillment, and wealth.

Join Us on the Adventure:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to another episode of Dragon's Gold:

The Magic of Mindset. Today we have the pleasure of having Mr. Anthony Williams, founder and CEO of Mindwell. Anthony, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Justin. Thank you for having me. My pleasure, my friend, thank you. Well, welcome. So I love the name of your company. I think that it falls completely in line with the entire mission of this podcast. We're gonna ask to talk about your company, but let's take it back first to the beginning. Let's go to the origin stories. Let's talk about Anthony Williams and who he is and where he came from. Okay, so I was born in Stamford, Connecticut, July 23rd, 1966. And I think I probably spent about six months, maybe to a year there. And then my mom dropped me and my sister, older sister off at my grandparents down in Richland, Mississippi. And so she came back to get us. My grandmother had a glaucoma, so they didn't really know what it was back then. So she was going blind. So my mom was kind of forced to come get us. So she came. I was probably like four-ish when she came back to get us. at that time, she came back with a third child, was my younger sister, Jennifer. And so we went back to. Stanford and I live with her I'm gonna say all of six months my mom was in and out of my adolescent life and and before long we were foster children with the next door neighbors the Harris's and they had a couple of foster children already there that were old, about 10 years older than us. So I kind of came into a couple of older brothers, Luther and Jerome, and thank God for them. They kind of, you know, I was introduced to a lot of different things. One is excellent music. You know, they were both musicians and this and that. So I had, you know, built in older brothers. So that was that was great. So I spent my. I'm gonna say my formative years, you know, at the Harris's in Stanford, Connecticut. I would say we were poor, but we were poor. But, you know, we we had love, you know, we had love. And so it made everything, you know. Cool, you know, for the for the most part in that situation. So that's where it all it all started. Thank you. Why and you know, it sounds you know, maybe poor in material but but rich in love right and like that that is a wealth that is Unfortunately underrated in many situations. Some people have an abundance of Wealth when it comes to the monetary sense, but they're lacking in in that love and that connection and so to have something like that that really is powerful. I'm glad that you had that. saw that when I went to, and we can talk about it later, but I saw that when I went to an elite prep school by the time I was in high school and I saw exactly that. So I was coming from this impoverished situation going to this elite prep school. And that's one of the things that I really realized like, wow, I don't have monetarily, you know, an inkling of what these people have, but I have love. And so that was very became very clear. And I saw a lot of kids in that situation. Again, they had all the money in the world, but they didn't. They did not have the love and the approval of their parents. And, know, that run amok. you know, leads us to what we have today. They had that privilege, but they didn't have the approval of their parents. And we can see how that manifests in the world today. So thinking about along the journey and going into high school and into that elite prep school, where in your journey did you decide that you wanted something different, that you wanted to share the mission that you now share with the world? When did that come about and how did that form? Well, again, being in this poor, poor, Black environment, again, we had a great community. I'm in contact with some of the people I grew up with to this very day. We always talk about the street we grew up, Division Street. And I had people around me that were, if not illiterate, close to illiterate. For reasons that you know, they weren't able to go to school when they were coming up, you know, they were sharecroppers. This is the person that raised me. You know, she came up in that so she didn't have that. You know, she probably got as far as third grade in school, but she was a disciplinarian. Mary C. Harris, may she rest in peace and Waverly Harris. May he rest in peace. So they were she was the disciplinarian. And so the fact that, you know, going to school and getting your your lesson That was paramount. That was everything. And now I can look back on it and really realize that. when I was in it, was like, you she's like, you better get your lesson. You better get your lesson. I had that. And then I had people around me, like I said, that were nice people, but weren't really... kicking butt in academics in school. And so I watched one of my family members graduate from the high school that I was supposed to go to and he could barely read or write his name. Beautiful person, right? Beautiful person, you know. Everyone loved them and they just passed them on. They gave them that passing grade, which did them a disservice, right? But I realized that at, you know, 10, 11 years old, and I was like, I don't want to go to a school where I can graduate and not really be able to read or write. And being that, I was always top of my class. You know, I was... I always got an F in behavior because I was a class clown, but I always did my work, right? I always did my work. And, you know, I wasn't really challenged that much because the fact that I didn't listen to these teachers, was never the diagnosis was never with, he's precocious. let's skip him up a grade or give him more work. It was like, he has a problem because he's a black child from a broken home and all of these things. was kind of, they tried to lump me in that, but it didn't work because I was outperforming everybody else in the class academically. it probably occurred to a couple of the teachers, he's smart, challenge him, right? And so... I saw I wanted more for myself, right? I wanted more for myself. I was kind of had that and sounds like, yeah, there has to be more than this. And so we had a caseworker and so she would come to the house, like, you know, at least, you know, two, three times a month to check on us, to make sure we're okay, this and that. So I like 11, 12 again. So I said to her one Wednesday that she came, I said, Miss Khaleesi, I said, I want to go to a private school. And so she looked at me and she smiled and she said, Anthony, foster children don't go to private schools. And at that age, I knew that that was silly, but I knew more so that what she meant was she was projecting her racism on me. I realized that I probably couldn't articulate it that way, but that's what it was. So you're a poor black kid in this situation. Like no one is expecting anything from you. Like just finish high school, get just a menial job and you would have really done great, you know, based on your situation and your circumstances. And I, you know, I saw myself in a much bigger. picture than that at 11, 12 years old. So I just said, OK, because I knew I was going to wear her down. Because I knew I was going to wear it down. So every time she came, I would ask her the same question. And so it got her angry. And so now she was like, she's like, what private school do you want to go to? And I was like, I have no idea. Like, I don't really know any private schools. But I want to go to one, right? And so she said, OK. Now she set out to show me how I was gonna fail. And she won't say, you know, I'm trying to tell you, you're gonna get your feelings hurt. And I said, fine. So she went and did some research. She came back and she had a list of like 10 private schools. And we talked about the pros and cons of each of the private schools. And one of them was Exeter. You have to go away. It's a boarding school. Then this one is Ride Country Day, but it's kind of a big commute. You don't have a car. And so she went through them and said, OK, well, I want to stay here. I don't want to go to a boarding school, but I want to go to a good school. said, so keeping that in mind. which one do you think is the best one for my situation? And she points to this one right here, know, King School, you know, it's across town, there's probably a bus that'll come through that'll get you there, and then you'll come back home at the end of the day. And I said, well, that's the school I wanna go to. So she said, okay. So she said, all right, you know, I'll set something up, you can go talk to them, what have you. So she set up an appointment. And I'll never forget the day she came to pick me up from Dolan Middle School in the, you know, the DCYS car, little car that she had. And I was standing, you know, in my home room. I was the only one in the home at the time. And I had this tattered book bag and I picked up this huge dictionary and I looked at the dictionary. said, you know what? I said that at the school that I'm going to be going to. I'm going to need a good dictionary. So I already knew I was going to be going to that school. So I stole the dictionary. I put it in my book bag. I have that dictionary to this day from Dolan Middle School. Yeah, I owe you a dictionary. So I went to the school and, you know, it was a really all white environment. I was like, wow. OK, you had all these white. was a boy school. And so I sat down with the then Assistant headmaster, Mr. Draper, and we just started talking and I knew that that was the time for me to shine. Like, okay, all the work you've done, this and that, it's like, speak to this man, let him know who you are. So I just came out, you know, here I'm like, again, like 12 or 13 or something. And he said, okay, you sound great. He said, I'll tell you what, we'll waive the fee for the entrance exam. and you just come take the interest exam. You see how you do. So he's like, you sound good, can you put pen to paper? Can you do our caliber of work here? And so did that and blew the exam out of the water. And so he said, OK, we want you to come back. So we came back. So now we're having a serious conversation. He says, well, we are really impressed with Anthony. We want him to come here. And what we've decided, we will give him throughout this high school, we're gonna pay 90%. They gave me a 90, I'm probably the only kid that got a 90 % scholarship. He's like, but we want the state to invest in him also and pay the remaining 10%. And so she was like, my goodness, like they really won, like he really did the work. So she went back to the then director of DCYS in Stanford, Connecticut, Mr. Razor, and he was like, yeah, let's find the money for him. So they found the money for me and... Everybody won. Everybody won. So I went to King School for my high school, 9th through 12th grade. And so that, you know, obviously put me in a different echelon of folks, put me on a different track to go to a good, you know, college and all of that. it was a win-win, you know, and just going into that environment. Like I think, you know, I was the token, you know, one of the, so everybody won. now the state, the state, you know, Ms. Khaleesi. So I became like, you know, the poster child at DC wise. First they told me. I couldn't do it. And then they had a poster of me down there like, look at what we've done, you know? I want to touch on that for a second because how powerful that is Where you start you say I you had a vision you had a desire to do something you you saw yourself Going to this school. You didn't know which school you didn't know which one, but you just knew you wanted more You push yourself you saw an opportunity that you could try to press and you were shot down and Whether they said it whether whether she said it nicely whether she didn't reality she said No, no, no, you just, you be comfortable with where you are. But you didn't stay comfortable with that. And you knew that you were destined for more. So you pushed and you asked again, and you asked again, and you asked again, right? And you push yourself until finally that chance said, okay, all right, we're gonna try. And even if she didn't believe, you did. And she brought these things to you to try and say, maybe to placate you, because she saw that your persistence was, right, you weren't giving up, you weren't going to quit. And so instead she tries a different tactic. And in that situation with the information she shares with you, you see an opportunity, you push it. my point in all of this is that you had a vision, you didn't let what other people say stop you. and by pushing forward, the doors began to open and opportunities arose and you took advantage of those opportunities, never to the detriment of anyone else, but only to push yourself because you knew that you were destined for more. That is a powerful lesson at any age and to have that kind of insight and inspiration to push forward at such a young age as you were, That's incredible and I think you should be commended for that perseverance. Well, thank you. people need to remember that you can do anything you put your mind to. You just have to believe and then take action, right? Keep pushing forward. And with that, now, you know, fast forward. So, you know, I work with youth at risk. I work with foster children. I work with, you know, kids from broken backgrounds and impoverished backgrounds. And I always share that with them, right? Because coming from that situation, everybody has a label. in a place for you. And my thing is I never know my place. My place is as high as anybody else's place. And I also tell them that I was able to, and again, I think I was kind of conscious of it back then. The fact that I was coming from this background, know, didn't know my father, met my father when I was 44, my mom was not in my life, all these things, I knew that was kind of solid gold. And I knew that Okay, coming from that situation, but crossing my T's and dotting my I's and doing what I was supposed to do. So when you go to school, you're supposed to go to school, right? You're supposed to bring your pens, your pencils, you do your homework, you do the best that you can do. You do what you're supposed to do and people will come to help you. They'll be the ones that naysayers there, but there'll be other people that will come to help you. And I tell them, you know, Because people want to be a part of a compelling story. And I realized I was in a compelling story. Like, wow, look at this kid. come from, he don't even know his father, all of these things. And like, he's the top of the class. Like, okay, yeah, come on in. Yeah, we'll open, go into church where you have like, know, used clothes and this and that. Come on in. You can get all the used clothes you want. You can get this, you can get that. How can I help you? So it'd be just a little, kind of a little assistance. And they felt good about giving me something. that would get me to the next level. I tell them like, don't be ashamed of the fact that you're a foster child. Like, no, lead, if I need, I'll lead with that. Like, yeah, I'm a foster child, da da da. And this is what I've done. This is what I've done thus far. people, you'd be surprised, people will rally around that and say, hey, wow, you did that from very little. Well, let me see if I can help you out a little bit. So again, it's just a way that you look at yourself. from crisis comes opportunity. In a situation like that, where you take what some would consider to be potentially a detriment or a hindrance, and you make it a strength, right? So you spoke of people helping and an aid, and I think that no one walks this journey alone. I believe personally, and what I love to share with the listeners is in regards to the fellowship, the allies, the mentors, the people that have helped along the journey. Anthony, in your journey and your story, who are some of the people that helped to support you along the way? Well, so going from King's school, that situation was, it was a great situation, right? So it was a great situation, know, in circles with basically, you know, I'm in a Lily White Prep School. And then when I went to Tufts University, That was a traumatic experience, right? So I was used to being around, you know, all white folks, but it was a very traumatic experience because, you know, I was introduced to institutional racism, right? So looking back, you know, it's like, okay, you can't do this, you can't do that because you're black, right? Simply because you're black. And so I wasn't used to that. And so that really just made me, you know, enraged me, right? And... There was a professor on campus, black woman professor, Pearl T. Robbins, a professor of political science and African studies. So she basically saw me walking across campus one day and I guess I had the fire coming out of my nose and my fist balled up, ready to go to war. Because I was ready to go to war every day at Tufts University. And so she saw that and she was like a mother figure on campus. She said, come to my office. And so. You know, she's a no nonsense person. And so I've had, had a couple of classes with her. So if Pearl T Robinson tells you to do something, you do it. So the fact that she called me to her office, was, it kind of jolted me a little bit. my God, what did I do? You know, Pearl's calling me to her office. So I went to her office and she hit me with a question that changed the course of my life. And so when I walked into her office, she just looked up, she's You know, probably on the phone, eating a sandwich, you know, writing her next book. So she was just a busy person, but she stopped everything for that second. She looked at me. She said, have you ever thought about going to Africa? And so this is from a per coming from a person I had great respect for. It interrupted my pattern of this, this anger, this perpetual anger that I had going on in my mind the whole time. It made me stop. and pause and look at this woman like, okay, mama's asking a question here and I have never heard a question like this before. And so it made me think about, well, what would it be like to go to Africa? And if I'm gonna talk about going to Africa, like where is Africa really? How do I really get to Africa? Like I had never been anywhere. And so all of these things in that split second just came to my mind. And I said, no, said, how do I do that? She goes, don't worry about that. She said, I'll give you some programs to apply to. You apply to these programs. That's something that you want to do. We'll get you on that track. That summer, before my senior year, I was going to Kenya to build a school in a rural village. And so that experience, and I tell her to this day, that changed my life, it saved my life, right? That experience in that village, it gave me, I call it with a glimpse of potential. It allowed me to see what my life could be like without all of this anger and rage. I'm in a village with, you know, people that are living in mud huts, speaking 12 languages, you know. One of the stories is, so I turned 22 in that village, 1988, July 23rd on my 22nd birthday. And I wrote my manifesto. And so one of the kids in the village, his name was Joseph. He was 15 years old, I'm 22. And he just worshiped the ground that I walked on. Like, my brother, you've come from this great country, America, every day, every day, every day, just showing me love, just holding me up, looking up to me. And so one day, and he spoke five languages. One of the languages he spoke was German. And I'm like, how do you speak German? And there are no German people in this village. How do you speak German? He goes, well, you know, I go down, I walk, I basically walk 25 miles to go to the city of Malindi, which is on the coast. We were like 25 miles inland in a village. He would go 25 miles to get to Malindi. He knew when the German tourists would come and he would just stay there for like, you know, three, four months at a time with all the tourists. So they got to know him and he had been doing that for like six years. So at 15, you know, now German is one of the languages that he speaks. So fast forward, he's like, he's one day, he's like my brother, goes, Do you mind if I ask you a question, brother? I said, sure, Joseph. He said, you come from this great country, America. Please tell me, my brother, how many languages do you speak? another moment that changed my life. So these epiphanies, right? So I realized in that moment, first of all, the way I interpreted the question was, after what I just told you about him and how he got to speak his fifth language, German, what he had to go through to get that. I took it as you come from a place where you don't have to walk 25 miles to learn how to speak German. You could probably turn your head to the left or the right and look in a book or go to a library to learn how to speak German. So what are you doing with the resources that are at your fingertips? That's how I interpret the question. And I realized, wow, I'm the most inadequate person in this village. Like I'm the dumbest person in this village. It was a major wake up call. and at that moment I raised the bar on who I am, not what anybody else thinks. I knew I had to be so much more. Right? I was like, wow, I really want to be a Renaissance man. I want to be a world traveler. I want to be a polyglot. I want to be well read. Okay. These are things that you have to do. And so the fact that I was I had my, excuse my French, I had my ass handed to me by a 15 year old young boy when I was 22, it woke me up. I was like, wow, what are you doing with your life? Unbelievable. That is such a powerful lesson on so many levels. And the fact that when he asked you that question, it wasn't rubbing your nose in anything. He genuinely was asking you, right? And that perspective. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. humility is larger than life. And I see all of these people that, you know, they're celebrities and it is and that it's the ones like you look at, okay, one that everyone knows Keanu Reeves. Everyone talks about his humility. He's, he's a humble person that makes him greater. That makes him larger than life. Like, he's got, he's got plenty of money. He's got all this stuff, but that humility, it's a, it's a game changer. So he came to me most humbly, my brother, please. He was like, please, please teach me something. And I was not in position. And I was like, that's unacceptable for me. fact that you were able to learn a lesson from it oftentimes we look at our elders and expect that we're gonna learn lessons from these people that are wiser and more experienced but age doesn't have to be the thing that is the factor in that right everybody knows something that you don't know you can learn from them, being open-minded to it. And how hungry do you have to be to travel 25 miles? And so if you've been doing it for six years, he was 15 years old, he was nine years old when he started traveling by himself and staying barefoot 25 miles at the age of nine. Living amongst people that you don't understand anything they're saying and making yourself learn not because you have to but because you want to. You can do anything you put your mind to. It's quite how bad do you want it? That is amazing Anthony. What a great great story. And I mean it's I mean the story yes but it's real right and how inspirational that is. Thank you for sharing that. You know I'm going to ask in the moments that the trials, the tribulations, the gauntlet that we run in life, each of us has our own moments. Each of us has our own perspective. Much as I think Joseph and the obstacles he had to overcome. But what would you say are some of the hardest hurdles that you've had to overcome? And how did mindset help you to get through those? I'm going to go back to Kenya, right? I'm going to, cause I had like made like, like five major epiphanies in that village. And one, so I had the hurdle of the hurdles of racism, the hurdles of, you know, me being thingified as Martin Luther King would say, me being dehumanized and treated less than at Tufts University. So That was one of the lowest points of my life, right? So I went to Kenya with that mindset and that anger and that rage. And I'm in this village with these men, these women and these grown men coming and holding my hand as a grown man, holding my hand, which made me very uncomfortable. That's another story. so. Looking at. These men. that were in by American standards, they were poor, right? And I'm like, every day these smiles and this love was oozing out of them. The love that was coming from them was boundless. It was tireless. They would just give me here, have, you know, I have two grains of rice, surely you can have one. Or I got two grains of rice, we got four people here, everybody gets a quarter, right? And so, and... So I looked at this again on my birthday. I looked at this and said, you know, that is what I want in my life. I want this this joy that they have this happiness. That's what I want in my life. And then I thought about how I was convicted. In my anger and rage. Justifiably so. But I realized, okay, but this is not really doing me any good. I wanna have that joy that they have in their lives. Well, I can't be convicted in my anger and have that joy at the same time. And in that moment, I realized my biggest fight to get to have joy in my life was with me. Mmm. Like I had to let go of this conviction. Not to say I can't, you know, I was fighting Tufts University, I was fighting just madness coming at me. And I realized in that moment, I don't wake up in the morning and fight the craziness that's going on here. I don't have to fight Tufts University. I don't have to fight America. I have to control myself. So I took all of my power back. Me controlling myself is doable. Me controlling America, not dual, insurmountable. That's a losing. So. That was the biggest thing that I learned. You have to control yourself. can't, and if you can control yourself, you can master the situations around you. Now that, the work is how do you control yourself? That, so that began with my yoga journey. So I had to ask the question, well, how do I get rid of this anger? That began a 10 year sojourn around the world. I just came back, graduated, I checked out of America for like 10 years. And I went, you know, lived all over Africa and Asia, Europe, this and that, but to how do I heal myself? And that's the thing that... evades most people because we live in a society today that tells you that there's a magic pill. that'll solve all your problems. Take this and that, so and so. You know, was just talking to someone just a couple of days ago at a Christmas party, and I know she walked away mad, but she was telling me about her son, his ADHD. It's like, you know what? I was diagnosed with ADHD at five, six years old. They were trying to give me drugs at that age. Luckily, my Mrs. Harris wouldn't have it. She was not gonna have them give me drugs. She said, you know, Basically, you tell me if he's bad in school, call me, I'll whip his ass when he gets home, and that's the cure. Don't talk to me about drugs anymore. And you know what? She was right. you have to get to a place first and foremost that you've made a decision. I want better for me. I want better for me. Okay. And with that decision is now what am I going to do? What am I going to do to invest in this? You have to invest something. have to relinquish something to cross. I was like, okay, first I had to make a decision. I don't want to have a quick temper. I don't want to be angry. I don't want to carry this anger. It was really debilitating, literally in my body. It was debilitating. couldn't go to sleep. I couldn't go to the bathroom. I had migraine headaches. I had hypertension. You name it. I was a wreck. I was an absolute wreck. Right? So I know this is to be true. So when I work with other people, I'm like, yeah, you need to, your mindset, you're killing your nervous system. making that decision and then setting out the best question you can ask yourself is how? And when you ask yourself how, answers will start to come. You'll start to research. You'll start to talk to people. Okay, little by little. Okay, all right. Well, I, okay, at least I knew, okay, well, if I, if I go back and graduate, if I come back to Africa, I know at least one village in Africa that got me. They love me. They'll support me. I'll get a one-way ticket and I'll just come back here and I'll start here. That was my mindset. Right? And so I'll tell you, unfortunately, we live in a society, unfortunately, that massages us into mediocrity. And so the easier we make things in the short run, the harder they become in the long run. We have to really think about that. such an incredibly powerful lesson that I completely agree with. You choose your heart, right? Do you want the pain of discipline or the pain of regret? What do you really want and are you willing to work to push for it for yourself and for others? And what's your why? When you know your why, how you find it. and being able to have those moments, to have those people in your life that helped to direct you, but you having the ability to see it, right? Being in those moments was only a piece of it. You had to be willing to accept and learn and to grow. So grateful that you have been able to even just on this, on today on this podcast be able to share some of those experiences with people because I think a lot of people need to do that self reflection and recognize that they have the power to change themselves for the better. I I I want to share with folks, when you are the beginning of a road that just looks so insurmountable. That is the road to transformation right there. Embrace that road. And that's what scares people because you have to change everything that you thought that you knew about and you believed in. It was not that. It's not that. And I'll share another quick story about that. So I you know to get the job to go to Africa I went and I went to France and took a leave of absence invested a lot of money a lot of time And then I got the job to go to Niger They got me in this in a chair. They got me took me from the capital city about a day and a half to get to my village I was in a village. I got electricity six years after I left I lived in a mud hut for like two and a half years and the Sahara Desert Okay, I'm talking in the desert I'm talking National Geographic. So I got out there and I was the boss. And so they put me out in the middle of this village on this little, you know, kind of a towel type situation. And so they were holding me up like he's the boss. He's the guy. And first of all, I felt lonely. And then I'm listening to all of these sounds and people talking and language is going on. None of them are French. I'm like. I just went and spent all this money. I don't hear any French going on here. So the person who was my right hand man at the time, Tanny Moon, said, Tanny Moon, in French, I'm like, you what's going on? Like, what is it? What's the language that they're speaking? He said, you know, they're speaking one of 14 languages in the country. They're speaking one of four, but they're probably if they're business people, he said they're probably speaking Hausa because that's the that's the lingua franca. That's the business language out here and the business language of West Africa. And so. I realized in that moment for me to be effective with what I was going to do, first of I had to be able to communicate, but I had to be able to speak Hausa. So I invested all of this time and all of this money and resources to get a decent French conversation, to get to the place. And they changed all of the questions. Like, No, you're not doing the French exam. You're doing the house exam. And so that moment, I felt so low, like I have to start from the beginning. And I said, okay, buckle up. And that's what people walk away from. what I want to tell people right here, if you get nothing else from me, when you find yourself having to start again at the beginning, Embrace that because that's where the transformation is right there to challenge everything that you grew up with that you believe in Let that be challenged So step into that so had I stopped right there it'd be done And so for me in my life as long as I'm alive. I'm always looking I already know like okay. I'm gonna have a conversation that's gonna Put me on my ass that's gonna challenge air and I look for those conversations I look for those conversations. In fact, before Bitcoin, before Bitcoin, I was in China at an airport. We were upheld in China for a day and a half in the airport years ago before anybody knew what cryptocurrency was, this and that. And I was sitting with a young man from, I think he was from Washington state, white kid, hippiest. hippy-ish grungy type kid and we just stuck up a conversation and I tell you I'm Talking to this kid and it sounds like he's speaking Greek He's like yeah, and you know this currency and this and that and I knew I Was having one of those conversations. That's the beginning of a bubble The beginning I had no idea what he was talking about, but I knew he was beyond me It was something that was brilliant, right? Wasn't all this guy's nuts. I was like, no. And he, didn't keep it. He's like, Hey, if you keep in touch with me, I'll show you how to. So I, I would have invested if I had invested like $10,000 back then with this guy, I'd be a billionaire and crypto current Bitcoin. He was talking about that before anybody was talking about it. And so it's, have to be mindful of when we meet people like that. And when we're having a conversation like that because just because you don't understand somebody Doesn't mean that they're not saying something and you check yourself first and foremost like hey these guys talking about something right here I need to go do some homework or ask some more questions and and get over myself Get over my ego. I'm like, hey, dude. I don't know anything you're talking about, but You seem passionate about it and I need to ask some questions So when you find yourself in that situation, tell people, go in, go in head first. Wonderful lesson, Anthony. And I 100 % agree with you on so many levels of what you've you made a comment earlier about aspects of mediocrity, very commonly people become comfortable and they don't want to stretch their boundaries. But that is where the growth is, is going outside your comfort zone. It's crossing that terror barrier. pushing past the fear, the things that are uncomfortable. It's asking the questions. In order to get better answers, you have to ask better questions and keep pushing forward. And then when you get those answers or you get that knowledge, you get those moments, it's doing something with it. Absolutely. I love what you mentioned in regards to all of the work, the time, the effort, the energy, the money, the resources that you invested to go and to get this job. And then it turned out to be completely, you didn't even need it. But you needed to get there for them to give you the job to begin with. The reality was, is that how many times in situations that we do, we do all these things thinking that we're doing the right thing that we need to. And it turns out that that wasn't even, or it isn't practical. It isn't what you require. And, and that is when people, just as you say, they throw on the towel, they quit. Cause, and cause that's the easy thing to do. You can be frustrated. You can be angry or sad that you've waste wasted quote unquote, all of this time and effort, right? Or you can build on that. And if you have already spent all that time, effort and energy, you've already proven to be resourceful. You've already proven to be committed, right? You've already proven you can do it. So what's to stop you from doing it again? And this time, arguably, it's even easier because now you've proven to yourself you can do it. and also in that moment it's like, okay, no, you're not going to be just bilingual. You're going to be a true polyglot. You're going to be tri-lingual now because you still have to use the French because your job is in French. But in order to really implement the projects at the village level and to get respect, you have to speak an African language. Because if I come in there speaking French, I'm coming in like a colonizer. So you don't get that respect, but I still need to be able to speak French to liaison and do my job here. but to really implement my project for longevity and have respect for the people in the village, you have to speak Hausa. So it wasn't that it was, you know, obsolete or being thrown out. It's like, no, you're going to be like everybody else in the village because again, you live in a country now where they speak 14 different languages. Right. So, you know, everybody around you, my right hand man, Musa, he spoke five languages, couldn't read or write. Musa couldn't read or write. spoke five languages. this is when you're a monk, I think it's important too, especially for the average American, for the average, these young kids, is it very, very important to travel out in the world and put yourself amongst worldly learning, learned people. Because what that will do for you is make you realize how ignorant you are as an American, right? And there should be some shame there. there was shams like, know what? I'm not gonna be this ignorant anymore. me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. So I feel comfortable now when I travel out in the world and I can speak other people's language or I'm smart enough to understand that I don't know and I'm open to know. you want to be a fully realized person, travel. Be in situations where, you know what? What you believe in, the way you came up, your religion, whatever is irrelevant. I call it the gift of irrelevancy. Put yourself in a situation where what you believe in and who you are is completely irrelevant. That's a gift. Because then you will only come out better. Anthony, one of the comments you made in regards to getting the respect of the people in that village, it makes me think of the power of relationship. When you connect with people and you go and you're able to communicate on their level with what's important to them and create those deep connections, it's so much more rich and it on an emotional level for all the parties involved, but also in turn that it also becomes more productive. You're able to on both sides, you both get so much more out of the experience. And then by virtue of that, whatever you're producing, whatever job you're doing or task you're trying to accomplish it. It's more rewarding for every person that is involved with it, but also you're creating a better product for the people that are going to be using it, right? Or that are, I think that that's something that you've conveyed in many levels over the stories you've shared in creating those connections and how lucky you've been to be in those situations, but even more so how wonderful that you've been open to learning from them and to creating those connections. It's really inspiring to me and I wanna say thank you for sharing that. No, absolutely. And the saying goes, he or she who makes no mistakes makes nothing. Mmm. He who makes no mistakes makes nothing. you know, anybody that's successful is standing on a mountain of mistakes. So get out there and make as many mistakes as possible. Yes, yes. You know, I think about words of the wise, right? And you've shared so many of them and those quotes, I personally, I love quotes, those one-liners, you can pack so much meaning into a sentence or two. And I thank you for the ones you've shared. Beyond that, and I call it tools and weapons, resources, things that you've experienced that have helped you in your journey, are there any books or things that you would share that you've enjoyed and have helped you that might help our listeners? The first one that comes to mind is As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. And they have it also a gender, so you can have as I thinketh or as a woman thinketh. But that book there, it's a short book, short read, but it's one of those ones that you should read at least every year. And then as you grow, you will learn more. You're like, OK, it's one of those books. Another book, so that one, As a Man Thinketh. And then the other one that comes to mind is that got me through a very rough time in my life at Tufts University was The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. Prophet by Khalil Gibran. That's one of those ones, again, that you read over and over and over. And the more experience in life that you have, that you will understand the words from that book. So As a Man Thinketh by James Allen and The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. I love that. Thank you. I love that you made comment about how when you come back and for the Avesman thinking, and I think this would be for any resource. When you come back and read it again, you now are in a different space than you were the first time you read it. You have new insight, new information, right? You've been able to change your perspective and you get more from that and you see them in a different level. And I think that that's a really wonderful lesson to remember. And I love that you said that, so thank you. I've got, Anthony, I've got three things I'd like to talk still about here. I'm actually gonna say it's four. And so I have four things here that I wanna talk about. First is the dragon's gold, the achievements, the moments that have been most inspiring and the things that you feel, lessons that you've learned. What would you share with our listeners as some of the most rewarding moments of your life? boy. I'm gonna so... after I travel for decade. healing myself, know, sitting with a Sufi monk that was 105 years old in the desert, learning how to breathe, meditate, going to Japan, learning body work, learning self-healing, this and that, that, that, coming back to graduate school. And then I went back out to Thailand. And at this point, I made a decision that I was going to do holistic healing and all of that stuff at, in grad school. And at that time, when I was in Thailand, someone that called himself my business partner, Clean me out. cleaned out three bank accounts, took me to the tune of 150,000. Back then that was my millions, Stole my car, stole my identity while I was in Thailand, right? He was dastardly brilliant and he took that time. And so when I realized that... You know, I on my flight back, I remember the movie Meet the Falkers, Meet the Parents, which had just got out. So I watched that about six times on a flight. I was crying. I was laughing this and that because I was coming back to what I knew. I was like, OK, you've lost everything. Right. So I went back and got back to L.A. and went to the place where my car was supposed to be parked. So that was it was it was not there. So it was physical proof that, OK, yeah, I've lost everything. And. So it left me homeless with, came back probably like $114 in my pocket and my suitcase and that's all I had. And so I knew right then it was time for me to really build my business. And I had been preparing for this for the last 10 years, all of this yoga, meditation, know, non-attachment, all of those things sound nice, but the universe was giving me the final exam. OK, you studied that. It's great to talk about yoga and meditation when you're on the beach in Thailand. What you know, money in the bank, got your car sitting back at the stage. You're good. It's lovely. OK, now we're to take all that from you. So how are you going to really use these this knowledge that you have? And so. That's what got me through. So I came back and I actually went to my yoga teacher at the time in the States and I went to say, hey man, I lost everything. Like I can't pay to come to your class. And this was my stronger class. I'm in that class at like, know, 630 in the morning. Like, you know, and I said, hey, I, you know, I studied body work. I have my hands. I can do a trade with you. He's like, hey, no problem. So I was in that class. every morning at 6 30 a.m. I would do about hour and a half minimum to two hours of yoga. And if I had any money, I would go to Green Acres right there on Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles. And I made friends with the Mexican brothers. I would get a shot of wheatgrass for like two or three dollars and they would give me like a they would give me about three or four ounces. Mordern they should have given me with some ginger in it. And so I knew like that could be my only meal. So let me make it the most nutritious thing that I could put in my body. And my mantra for that next eight months while I was pretty much homeless, you know, I had a couch here, a couch there, and some people, but I had no place to live really of my own. And my mantra was this. two hours of yoga, two ounces of wheatgrass, whom shall I fear? That was my mantra every day. That's how I went through my day. So I was like, bring it. I've lost every, and so even the person I stayed with for a little while, she's like, she said that changed her life because the way that I was. And I went to, you know, went to one of the banks and I sat down with this, this young, his name was Havan and he, you know, Bank of America. And he went through all the things like, yep, he did. see where all the, so every day it was basically like at nine o'clock I was there at the bank. It was just, I went and I sat with him and we went through all this paperwork and like that Wednesday, so three days in this young man sitting behind the desk, he's looking at me. He said, he said, I apologize. He's like, I'm looking at, your account and all this stuff right here. I can see that things happen here, but he said, it's hard for me to believe that this actually happened to you. The way that you come here and you sit here. Cool as a cucumber for three days straight. He goes, I just, doesn't, it doesn't make sense. I said, well, I could come here and scream at you, but you didn't take my money. And you wouldn't want to talk to me. So I realized it's not about you. And I said, this is what I do. So if I want to be out in the world saying, hey, come to me for health and healing, yeah, I have to have gone through some shit and be able to control myself where it's actually real. And I don't even say pat myself on the back, but I know when I go into the dirtiest, scummiest situations, I'm comfortable. Right? Because I've been in some dirty scummy situations and I've come through. when I'm talking to someone that's in a situation like that, they know right away if you're real or not. So especially when you're going into jails and prisons, brothers and sisters, they smell you coming. If you're a fraud, they'll eat you up. But if you can go in there like, hey, OK, this brother's, know, yeah, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth, brothers. I better do. I understand rage. I understand all of these things. Yeah. But if your rage ends you up sitting on death row, then your rage is not useful. So you need to learn how to da da da da da. So, I don't know if I've gone off the question, but so having these tools and then being able to go through and actually use these tools and apply these tools has been, is my life. It's my life. tell people, know, I do this because this is how I get through the days. Right. So it's like I wake up, you know, I get up at five o'clock pretty much every morning that, you know, the Lord allows me to wake up. I'm up early. I'm up before the sun comes up. Right. And so that's my my first medicine. And you know what? It bothers people that I get up at that time. When I say I'll get up at four five, they're like, why do you do that? So what I tell people is I said, well, I have a client at 5 a.m. Well, I don't tell them I'm the client. So I just kind of placate them because they just, okay, well, that's why he gets up and makes sense. But no, I'm my first client. Like I actually use this shit. This is very, very real. So I don't know if that answers the question, but. No, absolutely it does. Anthony has shared a hundred percent. Talk about a lesson. Talk about some dragon's gold. Like you just shared so much gold in that real life experience and with the knowledge that you're using what you learned, right? And you were put into a situation where you were forced to and you could have... You could have gone down many different paths, right? But you chose the higher road and you helped yourself, right? And now you use that to help other people, right? So let's talk about that. The impact that you make, right? The legacy that you leave and what you do. Tell me more about how you've been helping people now with MindWell and with the lessons that you've learned. Yeah, so when I was in LA, I was working with, it was mainly therapeutic body work, so my hands and my forte. And I was working with some Hollywood A-list folks. In fact, at that time in my life when I was homeless and this and that, I found myself, because I was working with my yoga teacher, he was working with all the celebrities, teaching them yoga and this and that. So he mentioned my name to some folks like, hey, this guy does great body work. Long story short, when I was homeless, so I was working with Sting and his family and they were like, we like the work that you do. We wanna invite you to come to the South of France with us. Is your schedule open? I said, well, let me check my schedule. yes. yes, it's open. And so I had to... So they had a limo come pick me up. I had to stand in front of my friend's house. I gave my friends, you know, address to come pick me up in a limo to take me to the airport, to fly me out to the south of France. And I'm on the stage with Sting, Patti LaBelle, Bono, Ricky Martin, you know, at this concert. And I'm pinching myself like no one knows I'm homeless. Right. And that homeless is a state of mind. Like I'm here at the highest level in my game and my profession, helping these folks and I'm homeless and nobody knows that. Right. So I say that then I came, I shifted, I came to, I left all of that and came to the Bay in 2008 to actually take all of my skills and my life experience into the community. Like I want to really install myself in the community. and like make sure people know that you don't have to suffer unnecessarily. Right? Everything you need is right here. So I, you know, I drove up here and stole myself and you know, I met a person by the name Kareem. He basically took me by the hand and he was doing community work. He took me to all of the places that he was working in in the community. Like, hey, you need to be working with this brother. You need to be doing this yoga. the jails, the prisons, this and that. And so I became an integral health teacher. So I trained people in the community, pretty much people of color to become yoga teachers, integral health fellows with my philosophy that this is how you heal under that big umbrella of yoga. And so, yeah, that's what I've been doing in the Bay now since 2008. The name of my company back then when I first came back was called Empowerment Yoga, right? And when I would go places, our community is very conservative. So if you go to church, we don't do yoga. if you read your Bible, you're actually doing yoga. But anyway, so I had to backpedal from this yoga conversation. People were just like, no, we don't. Or we do yoga, we have some. I'm like, no, you don't have what I do. my experience, but you don't have what I do. So I said, I need to change the name of my company. And so I sat down with some folks and this and that. And one person I always go to when I have things like this, his name is Kava Kante. He owns Red Bay Coffee, but he's a brilliant mind, brilliant brother. I say, hey man, you gotta help me come up with a name. We went over this and that, da da da da da da da. And like four hours later, he's like, mind well. I was like, that's it. So mind well, you kind of think you know what it is, but you don't know what it was. Definitely not yoga, right? Didn't you have a preconceived notion already? I do what would, no, mind well. So it's gonna make you ask the question, what is that? So once you ask, what is that? Then I have you. Cause now we can start talking about it. And then you're like, you do, well I need that. I get that 99 % of the time. If I just talk to you about what I do, people are like, well, I need that exactly. Everybody needs this. If you breathe, you need this. So that's my whole point coming in the community. I've had, you know, yoga classes in West Oakland in front of the BART station, you know, with brothers that are slinging drugs on the corner. So, you know, to being at UCSF with doctors. So being able to just go into different areas and be that chameleon and like be able to speak a language where it makes sense to the people that I'm talking to about centering yourself, finding yourself and being able to see other people because if you're in pain and you're feeling slighted, angry, miserable, there's no way you can work with anyone else. Hmm. So let's deal with your own personal pain points and let's let you see how easy, simple, but not easy, right? To go from being angry and punching somebody in the face is really simple, yet not easy. Right? So somebody comes up, hey, you nigger. I actually had that, you know, that's happened many times, but in Boston, a person came up, this is after I went back to, he's like, yeah, yeah, if I can nag, I gotta, I said, I said, well, you know, what's a nigga? I said, well, I've done this. I've traveled here. I've traveled there. I speak this language. I speak that language. I've read this. I've written that. Well, you might want, if that's what a nigga is, you might want to aspire. to be a nigger, right? So taking that and turning it upside down. Like don't have to react. Like I'm in control now, right? So that's what this is all about. And the people that I work with, whether it be someone that's an incarcerated youth, that's a juvenile hall or a high performing CEO of a major corporation. So that's how I bring what I do. What I do is me. Right? So I come in and it's like, again, this is what I'm doing in my life. And I'm able to have a conversation with folks about, okay, well, where are you? I can meet you where you are and we can help you cross that emotional spiritual bridge that you need to cross. So that's what I like to think that I'm doing. And I have some clients that tell me, yes, I'm doing that. Yeah, I mean, I think you've already shared even just in these stories exactly that, right? Coming in and meeting someone on their level and then being able to help them to elevate, right? You have to meet people at their level so that they can feel comfortable to be able to draw them out of whatever that is, whether that's an emotional pain, whether it's a physical pain. You have to understand it before they can change it, right? And I think that just as you said, it starts with you. You have to look inside because you can't help someone else until you're able to help yourself. You know, I'm absolutely loving all of the goal that you're sharing with me and the listeners. this is what we call the hall of heroes. people are walking through a hall full of statues and there stands a statue of Anthony Williams. What would you want them to know? What would you want it to share? I had the courage. to live my life. on my terms. I had the courage to walk upstream. Because what I'm doing is not conventional. I was supposed to be on Wall Street. was supposed to be this. I was supposed to be so many other things. And I was like, I'm not doing that. Like, I'm doing this. And when that time, 1988, in Maraffa, Kenya, again, I had so much pain. in my body because of the rage that I had. That's what the body, that's what yoga mind body connection comes together. And I told myself, I don't want to live like this. I don't want to have this amount of pain and discontent in my life. I want to have what these people have. This is Joua DeVive. I want to have that. Okay. What do I need to do? And so I told I'm going to do what brings me joy and happiness and fulfillment in my life. And I don't give a F what anybody else thinks. That's what my life and I want people to own that for themselves. Right. You know what? There's this dichotomy. No matter what you do. They're to be people that love it and they're to be people that hate it. The same exact thing. So if you're going to always have that dichotomy, you might as well do what you feel in your heart is right. So I want to encourage folks. He had the courage to live his life on his terms. Because if you are, then there's other people like, you know, wow. You really saved my life. You helped me. I've had that. And I had other people think I'm the biggest asshole in the world, but I'm cool with that. Right? So, I mean, literally in the same class, I've had people come in like, you saved my life. And I heard people like, you're the biggest asshole I ever met. In the same class. though, thinking about that. They're both in the same room. They both see the same thing, but they see it through a different lens and their perception changes what they receive from that experience. So I love that how you talk about you have the courage, right? To be yourself, to do what you knew was right for you. And you can't control how other people are going to react or perceive you. But you have to stay true to yourself. the lessons that you've learned in your life. You've now been able to share with other people. And in ways you've changed their lives, you may not ever know how deep that goes and how they've changed now affects someone else in a positive light. Those ripples that come from it. That's powerful. So, Anthony. What's next? What's the next quest, my friend? I ask myself that question. It's more of the same, but in the changing landscape of the zeitgeist right now, we're living in a crazy time and I have to be very mindful of who I show my cards to, right? So I'm asking myself, I'm gonna do the same thing, but how am I gonna deliver it? Right, so I look at the, there's a comedian now, I look at his name is Josh Johnson. And I think he was kind of founded by, Trevor Noah. But I like the way that he's able to do a social commentary and he, know, cause humor is disarming, right? It's disarming. So he's able to really go in on things and he's having people laugh while he's just mind punching. And that can be accepted, right? So, you know, again, it was the court, it was only the court juster that was allowed to laugh at the king without being killed. Right. So I'm asking myself, how do still reach many people, but. Have a meaningful life. Right? Still be able to... So that's what I'm working with. How do I do it? No, know, kind of retreat a little bit, but there's definitely another way that I can... share this information and have it land, right? Have it be, you you look at Malcolm X at the end of his life and he talks about that. He's like, know, at first he was like, you know, white folks get away. Then he was just like. And at end of his life, he was like, no, he's like, we need to befriend those people. He says, if I send people away, I haven't done a good job. Right. And so it like, how do we bring people together? And that is people don't know that about Malcolm X, but, know, again, we all want to vilify him and all of these, but, to really get to the place where you understand, like, no, and he's done his travels and he's been around the world and he's been with people that they're supposed to be his enemy. They've brought him in. They've given him love. They've lifted him up. He's like, wow, in America, they wouldn't want me to know that you would treat me like this. So for me and my travels, and I'm gonna just say, you know, I've been to the whitest of white Europe and the whitest of white places. And I'm like, wow, these people are human. As trite as that may sound. So I have a different outlook. and a way of looking at white people, right? It's like, I've been treated, I've been brought in, I've been treated good. I had a friend just invite me to go to Alabama with her. She's a white woman and I had to tell her, that's not a good idea. And she's like, and she's not from here. She's like, what, what do you mean? I was like, for me to just... go lollygagging with you in Alabama as a white woman, that's not a good idea. Because that's the world that we live in here. We say, hey, let's go to Denmark. I would have no reservations whatsoever to go to Denmark with her. That's the white factory. You know, because, you know, that's the white factory. But I have been, I have been received and treated like a human being. When I went to Iceland, I went to Iceland one of my birthdays and I went to the edge of Iceland, to the edge of the world, to this village to find this little spa hot tub out in the ocean. I'm in this, you know, I drove, I bring the camper, I was just driving myself and I'm like in this village in Iceland, in the middle of nowhere, I'm like, nobody, like nobody looks like me here. What the hell I'm gonna go knock on people's doors that I had to erase my mind like okay, you're not in America You're not in Alabama knocking on random people's So I said, let me go and I just went now say hey, I'm looking for this, know kind of an on sender and the guy was like yeah, he goes go go go to that person's house. Go knock on his door. He knows and I'm like, okay so I Go to this person's house knock on the door Girl comes to the door. I'm like, yeah, I'm looking. was told in Reykjavik that, you know, there's a hot tub here that's pretty, kind of like on the edge of the earth, right, like right here. She said, yeah. She says, hold on, let me get my father. He comes to the door. This man had been, looked like he'd been drinking all day. His face was red, he had this big red nose. And he was just like, he looked at me, he goes, okay. yeah, you look strong enough. Okay, you gotta crawl over the rocks. You have to do this, you have to climb down. It goes just the only thing, don't bring any soaps or shampoos in there, just natural water. He said, do that, and you can go over there, have at it, and when you're done, come back to the house and come in and have a drink with us. So that's in my trip and I all throughout Iceland. That's what I got from the Vikings. Come on in. Hey, the place is closed. It's 1 a.m. at the place is closed. But hey, come on in, come in the back in the hotel, in the kitchen. Let me sit down. I'm the owner of the hotel. What do you wanna eat? I'll make you something to eat. So my point is, these are, you don't get any whiter than the Vikings. Bringing me in. So I'm able to look at people differently, right? I'm able to bring people in, but also understand like, hey, I shouldn't be going even with those people from Iceland. I couldn't just go with one of my white buddies from Iceland to Alabama. That's the real. So how do we really start talking about this and opening this up so we can become closer, come closer to each other? That's what we need now. We live in a country that's trying to divide us at every step of the way, keep them sick and divided while few people have everything. That's the oldest one in the book. But I can go on. one step at a time, right? One relationship at a time, right? Each of us just can put out that kindness and that love and that acceptance and with the hope that those ripples that we talk about that it'll overcome. Well, look at our relationship, right? It's you have been there for me in situations. And you have proven to be simply a good human being. means a lot to me brother really yeah much love to you all right I got one more question and I gotta tell you my friend this is my favorite one if you could be any mythical creature what would you be and why I've given this some thought and it's a hard one, you know, there's a song that's entitled and it was a Jennifer Holliday sings it is I am love. I am love. So I would somehow maybe still be in this form, but when I show up, I bring this aura, aura of love. It's hypnotic. And I've had glimpses of this in my life. Like I've gone into, like I said, to the bowels of the correctional facility, correctional facilities here in the Bay Area with hardened criminals. And I go in with my clogs on, my flowy pants, and I show up and... manifest love. I sit there and like for the first two minutes, imagine you're sitting, you know, I got 25 inmates sitting around me and for a couple of minutes, I don't say anything, which makes most people very uncomfortable. but I'm exuding love. And by the time that I finished with these hearty criminals. they're putty because you just beaten. So I'll be this, this person that's just beating you down very softly with love. I'm, the love monster. You know, yeah, this love creature. Yeah, no, that's fantastic. I think about what embodies that. I think about like unicorns, Unicorns, cupid, right? I'm just trying to think about what would align with that. And it could be obviously any creature. I'm sure there's something out there. There's something, yeah, it hasn't been made yet. Or again, it could be me in some form. And the reason I say that, because what I want people to think is that they are loved. Like they really, like we're really, each one of us is this mythical creature. And I've had these parties, I call them the soul food joints and the soul food. So. We all know soul food, but I'm talking about soul from the soul. And if you come to this party, you show up as your authentic self. You showing up as your authentic self is my soul food and vice versa. We're each other's soul food. Right. So it's like, we are each other's and I've met people and I've said, and I let them know like there's something about you that relaxes me, that puts me at ease. I'll give you one more story. not. I was in Locksburg. You familiar with Locksburg? It's in Marin, right? It's out in Marin. Locksburg is so white that I was waiting for somebody on that little main road in Locksburg. I'm standing there, only black person for, and this older white woman, a grandma, she's somebody's grandma. She came up to me and I was standing, it was a hot summer day. I was standing in front of a little yogurt shop, not a little yogurt place. And she came up to me, she said, Excuse me, are you lost? Because I mean, there was notes like you you had to be like lost because like there's no other black people like and you're just you've been standing here for a while like and she really wanted to know that, you know, can I help you? That's how white lockspare is. OK, so that night I went to one of the restaurants and was bustling with a Friday night. went to the restaurant, and by this time I'm by myself and I walk in and I'm about say 15 feet from the bar and it kind of lane just opened up and I saw like the bartender and he was like cleaning some plates or something or cups and he looked, he saw me, he locked eyes with me and he said, Let me know again from afar, but just whisper through the crowd, very calm. And he said, let me know if you need anything, you're welcome here. I'm here for you. And he went back to what he was doing. He was love. Cause in this all white environment, he made me feel human. He made me feel. safe. He made me feel accepted He, was a human exchange. So I say that this way. So I want everybody to know that each one of us has this power to be this love monster. He was a love monster and it was just a simple greeting and acknowledgement. And he went back to what he was doing. That's the power that we all have. So I would encourage everyone to be that love that the bounty in life is what you share. bounty of life is in what we share. That's the bounty of life. Us sharing this moment right here on a Saturday afternoon. This is the food, this is the soul food right here. Don't hide this. It's like, when I go out and I see people, I talk to people. just. People are like, do I know you? I'm like, hi, I'm Anthony. And I keep coming. Like, yeah. How much do you know? Yeah, exactly. How you doing? What's going on? And actually, I got that last night. Yeah. You want to know them too. Absolutely. It's like, hey, I'm a human being. Like, hey, don't fear not. Come on in, have a drink, get a hug, sit down. Let's, you know, tell a joke. All right, cool. All right, see you next time. What's your number? Okay, yeah, I'll be here next week. Come on by. It's, share. Yeah, the bounty of life is in what we share. I that. I'm huge on quotes and that's the, so I post them every weekday and that one's going up brother. Yeah, that's that that came straight from me, man. I was like, I'm like, wow, this is you know, when you travel and you get that. If there's no. Better, richer, satisfying feeling when you just you're fully seen in, know. And generally speaking, when an Africa, when you go to Africa, you know, different countries in Africa, you know. Of course you have your trouble spots, generally speaking, when Africans, are masters in bringing you in and loving you. Right? Once you experience that, when I came here to the Bay, there was this white guy, you know, they were studying some sect of yoga and this and that. They were kind of a, what do call it? A sect, a cult. They were kind of a cult. wanted me, I don't know. And so, but this is white guy. He's from Boston. His sister went to Kenya and fell in love with a Kenyan. So he was going to go out. He's like, yeah, of course. was my father's the most racist person you ever want to meet. He says, so of course my sister went to Kenya and fell in love with a Kenyan. He says, so now I'm going to go out and meet the guy. So now this guy, again, he's in his yoga cult and you know, he, he knows what level spirituality is and all of this and all of this and all of this and all of this. He's one of those guys. He went to Kenya. I think it was supposed to stay like a month. I think he came back like three months later. and he found me and he said Those people taught me how to be human. He was forever changed. I mean, I know what he's talking about, because my first trip on the continent was to Kenya. And he was just like, I thought I was all of this. I thought I was so spiritual. I thought I was this. He said, they taught me how to be human. My life is forever changed. And that's what I want people to experience, right? Just when someone just say, Justin, we don't know you from a can of paint. Come on in, brother. Come on and get something to eat. Sit down. Pull up. Hey, Justin's in the village. we will dance tonight. We will slaughter a goat. We will dance. We will eat. I'm serious. Like, no, no joke. Another spirit is in the village. We're going to bring gifts. We're going to dance. You're going to be taken care of. Period. Generally speaking, that is Africa. When you go into the countryside, every country you go to, when you go to the capital city, everybody's got their game and this and that. But even here, once you go out in the country somewhere, people are living in concert with nature. So you go to a different country in Africa, You go, hey, we have, Justin is here now. He has come. Just, okay, we will sing, we will, they got you, travel more. I got got experience. mean I've lived literally and I've lived in California my whole life buddy like I mean I love it here don't I'm wrong but I think that I've got other I'm in a box in that regard right I've never I've never been exposed to those different pieces and so I I really need to to travel more and expand my boundaries and my horizons. Share more love. you owe it to yourself. you You you really do man. You really do and because you get you when you When I got in this yoga and this and that I was like This has been happening in the world Without me I kind of felt insulted, like, OK, now that I know that, it's not going to go on without me anymore. Like, I'm part of it. So it's like, you know what I'm saying? It's like, so you owe it to yourself, man, to just go and just be loved and brought in and humanized. Come on in brother. Yeah, yeah, is here. We will dance. will sing. We'll love you. Whoever else you got. Don't worry. You're good. You're good. You're good. Even if you go to Mississippi to where my people are from, you're good. Like we retain that. It's like come on in brother. So you owe it to yourself. I want you to really let that sink in. You owe it to yourself to go experience that. And if you can bring your family, great. If not, but you go check it out. Like hey, I checked it out. Let's all go You know, let me go check it out for it. Okay. Yeah, we're good. Let's go Yeah, don't don't let don't let your life pass you by man without going it going out in the world and get some of that love man Anthony, I'm giving you a hug right now, buddy. I want you to know, like, much love, my dude. Yeah, no, same here, Absolutely. Wow, powerful man. You shared so much awesome knowledge there. Lessons, experiences, moments, inspiration. There was so much for that. So I just want you to know from the heart, I'm very grateful for everything. No, thank you. Thanks for asking me, Thanks for, you know, thanks for asking, you know. Share that love. It's the most powerful thing. Love for yourself and love for others. That's right. Anthony, I'm very grateful for you taking the time today with myself and the listeners. Really, you shared so much value in your stories, your lessons. Thank you. No, thank you. Thank you for asking. Thanks for having me. My friends, thank you for joining us once again on our quest to inspire, educate, and empower you to turn your dreams into reality, one mindset shift at a time. We'll see you next time.

People on this episode

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Justin Mills

Host
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Aaron Iler

Producer
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Anthony Williams

Guest