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Hmm, it's working again. It's working. You know, many of you actually did have access to the podcast. I didn't realize it until I started getting a lot of messages. The podcast was saying unavailable and my apologies, there was an issue in the back end and technical support help me identify it. And hey, it's working again. I'm sipping on some Puerto tea today. Been drinking a lot of tea as always. I don't know why I always say that, but that's just how it is. It's just so nice for things to be working again with the intention and the mindset to be in the right place again. That's another sweet spot. You know, we did a podcast titled Sweet Spot not that long ago, but just the other day I discovered another one. I was deconstructing some of my own desires and motivations. I was doing an audit on myself. You know, these are just check ins. They're important. We are human beings constantly shifting and expanding, you know, often faster than our awareness can even catch up. And I was reflecting and then I realized something. Yeah, sometimes our intention is in the right place, but our mindset is in the wrong place. It's shifted. The other day I was walking through one of my favorite neighborhoods where I live called Granville island. And it's really like an artisan community, like where every shop is just ran by somebody who really cares about their craft. Craftsman, craftswomen, you understand. There's a knife maker, a rug maker, authentic Persian rubs, a sake shop where they make sake. They even teach you how to make sake. I think I'm going to take some classes. Jewelry artisans, you know, organic markets. The whole place is just given soul and spirit. Everywhere you look, someone is creating something by hand. And what I love most about it is most of these businesses don't even make sense. Like, they don't really make that sense. I'm like, how are they still open? Are they even profitable? And then I thought about it. I'm like, a lot of my biz, my favorite businesses are like that. My favorite sushi spot, my favorite tea shop, you know, one of my favorite African markets, every single one of them. I'm like, man, I know the rent is high here. I know the cost to run this shop isn't easy. And sometimes I'm like, they may be barely getting by. But then I realized my favorite businesses aren't the ones that were built to get rich. They were made to simply exist, like the true spirit of an artist type of vibe, you know. One of my favorite artists was Bob Marley. And not just because of the music, but the philosophy. One time an interviewer asked him, bob, are you rich? And Bob's like, what do you mean, rich? He's like, you know, like, lots of money. And Bob was like, I don't have that type of richness. My richness is alive. And a ladak is so real, so grounded, so true. I think that's why we often feel disconnected from artists who seem to have sold out, you know, when they become, like, too big. Because sometimes it feels like their intention or their mindset swayed away from the art. And to be honest, it just happens. It's like a natural part of the process. It's happened to me as well. And I've had to go and rectify my intention. It's a. It's a practice, something we. We all gotta do. And sometimes you will lose yourself just to discover what is truly important to you after all. So having that grace with ourselves is super important if we have shifted. Shifted away from our intentions. And I'm not saying, like, making money is bad at all. No, like, not at all. You know, let's be abundant, let's be resourceful. All of it. Freedom. Yeah, love it. But the mindset. The mindset around it is very important. You know, there's this tea shop owner down the street from me that I've become friends with. And we were testing out different kinds of. Kinds of cacao the other day. Just being nerds, we're actually launching a drink on the menu, like a Hein special. I'm quite excited. And this woman walked in and she asked for, you know, a cup of coffee, of course, because it's a cafe. Then he looks at her and he's like, oh, we don't sell coffee. And she looked confused because she's looking around with me and she's like, well, this is a cafe. And I asked him, I'm like, oh, you don't sell coffee. And he's like, no, I don't like coffee. I like tea. I only sell what I like to make. And that stuck out to me because he could probably double his sales overnight if he just added coffee to the menu. But it's not about that. To him, it's about the experience. It's about the vision. It's about the quality. He sources everything organic to take their time. His intention and his mindset, to me, they were perfectly aligned. And you could feel it in the room. You know, when you walk into a certain store or an environment and you're just like, man, something about this Place feels good to be in it feels real, feels authentic. Like the contrast between him and Starbucks. You could, you could notice instantly he built something to exist in the world, not just get rich, not just to scale. And it made me realize how deeply our culture is obsessed with building empires and getting rich. And, you know, I've been a victim of this as well. And I say victim because I believe the system is designed like this. You know, it's a culture obsessed with efficiency and convenience. Like we have Amazon, which ships in a day, which is like great in so many ways, but we have fast fashion dropping every single day. Everything is about that efficiency, that speed, and that convenience. But often convenience can rob us of our own capability. I realized this the other day when I was like, I'm gonna make some rice. And I was like, you know, I'm just gonna use a regular pot. But I forgot how to, because I've been using a rice cooker or an instant pot for so long. I forgot the basics. I'm like, I forgot how to just make rice and just a regular pot. The thing that was supposed to make my life easier actually made me weaker in some ways. And I think that's the modern trap we all experience. Like, we have a culture that likes to optimize everything without asking what we're losing in the process. That's the main question with AI is always asking, hey, what am I gaining? But am I losing anything in the process? Think about junk food. It's convenient until your body pays a price. Microwaves are fast until you, you know, you forget what real food tastes like. Algorithms feed us content instantly until you can't focus for more than 30 seconds. The culture thinks efficiency is always better, right? But sometimes the better is actually the one that takes a little longer. You know, like the handwritten birthday letter over a text, or the slow cooked meal over the drive through, or the crap that takes years to master over the hack that works today. Because efficiency optimizes for output, but it doesn't care about depth. But still, I find that our intentions are actually often in the right place, right? Like we want stability, you know, that's why we want to get rich. We want to save time so we can breathe for a moment because we all have such busy lives and responsibilities. Maybe you want to be wealthy to provide for your family, you want that freedom. These are beautiful, beautiful intentions. But sometimes the way we go about it can easily become misaligned and eat at us along the way. Think about like a kid growing up in a rough neighborhood in like New York City, everywhere he looks, you know, he's going to see struggle. You know, his mother's working three, four jobs, barely able to pay rent. And then like deep down, he just wants to change his life, her life, change that story for themselves, you know, so he goes and maybe he starts selling drugs, gets inspired by the local dope boys, you know, starts making money, starts to feel a sense of pride in himself, finally able to provide and help his mama out as well, you know, can escape the cycle, gets a real taste of power and possibility. But then in the same breath, he's poisoning his own people in his neighborhood, hurting the same community he grew up in, helping his mom while destroying somebody else's mom. The intention was good, but the mindset was off. And the difference is what matters right there because it destroyed lives, right? Potentially even put him in jail, you know, and that same difference in intention and mindset we can actually find in our own lives and our own experiences. Your intention may be in the right place. You want to be love. You want to love and be loved. But maybe you put someone through emotional hoops to test that they really care about you, they love you, instead of just saying, hey, I need to feel seen. The intention was good, but the way you go about it is all off. Or you want financial security. Who doesn't? We all do. You want to stop worrying, stop struggling, stop living paycheck to paycheck. Live your best life. Beautiful intention. So maybe you take a high paying job, you sacrifice the time with your kids, your health, your peace of mind, all to build the security that you're chasing. And then by the time you have the money, you've lost the thing you were trying to secure. Your body's broken, your relationships are distant. The people you were doing it for barely know you. Maybe they're not even around anymore. You achieved financial stability, but traded your actual security, the love, the presence, the moments that make life worth living. You know, the intention was good, but the mindset, more, faster at any cost, was off, ended up costing everything. And this is exactly how, like consumerism and, you know, parts of capitalism like to operate. They feed on that same divide between intention and mindset, intention and awareness. What I find is they'll take our natural desire to care, to build, to protect, and then twist it into a chase for status, profit and validation. Think about social media. Everyone's like, hey, social media has changed. We used to come on here and disconnect and share and all of that. And that was true. That was the intention, right? But then it turned into a thing too. Chase for status, for profit, for validation. And then what happened? The essence was lost. Intention and mindset not in the same place. You know, the system is brilliant in how it hijacks the human spirit. One of my favorite books is. It's. It's called. It's not what you eat, but what eats you. And it's like a book about energy, but how we. How what we consume and what we eat doesn't just feed us, but it becomes us. And it can either obviously nourish us or take away something from us. You know, like alcohol brings pleasure and fun, but with abuse. It can damage your liver. Literally. It will eat you back. It will consume you. I think about that a lot. When it comes to creativity, it's not the work that burns you out sometimes, it's what's eating you while you work. The voice that says you're behind. The feeling you're not enough. The fear that everyone else has it figured out. When your intention is in the right place, but your mindset is in the wrong place, you end up exhausted by the very thing that was supposed to set you free. You achieve the goal and then feel empty. You make the money and then lose the meaning. You win the game, but forget why you started playing. Because you can't build a life of purpose with a mind full of panic. And it will happen. We all go through it at times. We want love, so we chase approval. We want security, so we chase control. We want freedom, so we chase more money, more status, more proof. But the thing we're chasing often only shows up when we stop running. When our intention and our mindset finally align. And that is where the magic happens. That is when the tea tastes better, you understand? That's when the work feels lighter. And that's when you stop trying to build an empire and start building a life for yourself. One that you love. And while you are loving it, you are living it. You're not going to be happy when you are happy, while. Because our existence shouldn't revolve around becoming rich. Our richness should rise from our existence. Let me say that again. Our existence shouldn't revolve around becoming rich. Our richness should rise from our existence. You know, these days, I'm constantly making sure and rectifying my intentions, asking are my intention and my mind aligned? Are they working together? Or is my mindset too far ahead of my intention? It's just a nice little audit we can do on ourselves. Pull out the telescope and look deeper. You know the saying the best revenge is success. We've all probably felt that. Maybe we've even said it. I've definitely had that mentality in the past. Remember the last time I had the opportunity to adopt that spirit when I was faced with dealing with, like, just a really ugly individual. Like, you know what I realize? Some people are just disgusting human beings. Like, as much as I love human beings, you, y' all don't know me. I come on here and I'm like, yo, we are like a global museum. But the truth is, you will come across some real nasty people in this world. Just nasty spirits, you understand? Like, they just have no intention to rise up. They just love to sit in a low vibration. They are miserable and they want to drag you into their mess too. And I remember I was like, man, I'm gonna just let my success eat this person. You know? That is my response. But then I was like, I don't even want to operate like that because I'm gonna be successful regardless. I am successful, but I don't want that to be my fuel. All that does is actually center them. You know what I mean? It centers them. Your intention is in the right place. Hey, I'm a focus and build my life. I'm going to take a better route for myself. But the mindset, oh, this will be my revenge. They will have to watch me be successful. Mindset is in the wrong place, because who cares? Imagine being at the top of a mountain. Why would you even want to look down and laugh at whoever is at the bottom? You know what I'm saying? When you could enjoy all the new views of your hard work and resilience and compassion. Allow, like you standing on top of a mountain, take that in. Don't look back down. Intention in the right place. But is the mindset in the right place? Meditate on that. Is your intention and your mindset aligned or is there a misalignment? Bring them back together where they need to be, and then you will see that you have all the energy that you need to succeed and love the life you are living. And while you are living it, you are loving it. You done know, in hindsight, everything gonna be more than all right. Good to be here. And I'm glad that the podcast is working again for everybody. Thank you.