Partial PTO: A Quick Check-In

I hit pause on purpose—and that might be the most honest move I’ve made all week. This is a quick check-in, not a full episode: no forcing content, no faking the vibe—just tapping in to say I appreciate the early listeners, I’m protecting the message, and I’ll be back next episode with a few surprises since it is love week. We also touch on why owning your voice matters more than chasing algorithms, especially when platforms get quiet after real conversations. Sometimes progress looks like rest, clarity, and intention. SIP happens. Every SIP tells a story.

Chapters

• 0:00 Quick Check-In, Not A Full Episode
• 0:44 Gratitude For Early Listeners
• 1:50 Shadowban Thoughts And Owning Our Voice
• 2:39 Why Two Episodes Stayed On The Shelf
• 3:39 Love Weekend And What’s Coming Friday

Transcript

Styles: 0:00

What's good y'all? Check it out. This is kind of like PTO, but not really PTO. Because I'm here, right? But then I'm only gonna be here for like two seconds and then I'm gonna bang out. I'm out of here. So I'm using partial PTO. It's not a full episode today. So it's not a fall off, not a disappearance, just a pause. You paid the price of admission. You showed up. You know, you hit play expecting something. I'm here. I'm gonna give you something. Just not all of it. Pause. That was crazy. Welcome to the Brunch Behavior, the Paul Report. I'm Styles. And today's vibe is real simple. I'm checking in and I'm keeping it honest. Let me break this down for you. The Sip Sermon. So look, like I said earlier, I don't have a full episode for y'all today. And before anybody panics, relax. I'm good. First, a quick thank you, right? And I'm not gonna make this long, but a quick thank you for those of you who subscribed if you have your notifications on, and for the people who presses, play earlier. Improper grammar. But whatever. Like I said, I don't have a full episode, so I'm ill prepared. Anyway, I see you. I see you. All of those people waking up, hitting play, and all that other good stuff. Because my episodes go live at 6 in the morning. And like I said on a previous episode, we had a bunch of thank yous. You know, it's always nice to roll over and actually have a bunch of downloads before I even get out the bed. So I appreciate you guys for that. Um, in some way, somehow, I promise you, I'm gonna try to touch the people in some way and show my my appreciation and and and gratitude and all that other good stuff. Now, I'm gonna say this gently. I feel like the Instagram shadow banned me. You you like how I said the Instagram, right? I feel like Instagram shadow banned me after my black history episode. And honestly, that's not surprising. Because these platforms love to tell us we have freedom until we use it, then mysteriously it gets quiet. And then, of course, we have those that blame the algorithm, because you know the algorithm loves to pivot or do the LeBron and take seven steps or what have you, and then still call it the rules of the game. But we know what it really is, that's why we need our own space because we're not as in control of our voice as we think we are, at least not on somebody else's air quotes platform. But back to my reason or excuse for not having anything today, right? I do have two episodes that are ready to go, but I'm not dropping them because the vibe is off. I actually recorded those back in August before I actually started the season. I gotta stop saying actually, actually, actually, actually. Alright, I think it's out of my system. I actually, and I did it again, I recorded those episodes back in August, and they sound a bit bitter because they were talking about the lack of love and support, low-hanging fruit, and not really so much that it was low-hanging fruit at the time, because that's how I felt. How it was really happening to me, but it's not happening now. 58 episodes in at this point, my thoughts on love and support have changed drastically. I'm not in that space, so I don't want to drop it now and confuse the people. I'm not gonna confuse y'all. Y'all out here holding me up, and I appreciate it deeply. I promise you. So let's talk about right now. Right now, I'm in love with the love. The feedback, the support, the people showing up quietly and consistently. And this week is all about that. It's the love weekend. Love on your spouse, your partner, your work wife, your work husband, your side situation responsibly, and all of that. I don't want to force the content just to say I dropped, but I do want to check in with you guys because if you're up early just to hit play, or even at some point during the course of the day, you know, I actually take a stroll through your mind and you're like, yo, where is that dude today? I wanted to drop in, put in some work just to say, what up? What you doing? Nah, I ain't got nothing for you today. Not today. But I will have something at the end of the week. Alright, you good? Good. The final pull. So, yeah, no feature drink today, no heavy breakdown. This is literally just a check-in. I will catch y'all on Friday with a special lineup of real love, work love, side love, play date love, all of it. I promise you it's coming and it's worth the wait. Pause. Anywho, yo, sip happens. Every sip tells a story. That's your poll for today. I'll catch y'all on the next paw.