all right here he is [Music] the book emotional intelligence 2. 0 and gaining that changed your life how yeah um so i read it back in 2020 and it was a it was a breakthrough for me because i've never been introduced to the concept of emotional intelligence you know we all have been introduced to the concept of just cognitive intelligence you know iq and that idea and you know that being a fixed thing even though i learned that iq can improve over time as well both mindset exactly but um just like iq can improve emotional intelligence can improve over time so once i became aware with the concept i started to become more self-aware i started to analyze how my lack of understanding my emotions was affecting the people around me and once i became more self-aware i was able to become more socially aware and see how other people's emotions were trickling down to like you know just the energy and everything and learning how to learning how to read nonverbal cues and stuff like that you know what i mean and um yeah man it single-handedly changed my life so now um you know because that it wasn't a requirement it wasn't anything we were required to learn and it's so important because we we're emotional beings and especially as men as black men like you know we were raised we were taught not to be emotional and the funny thing is that makes us even more emotional because we don't realize anger is an emotion you know i mean like lashing out rage frustration absolutely you know i'm saying like that's the emotion that is acceptable from men yeah but that's not acceptable you know what i'm saying like that shouldn't be acceptable right you know what i mean like we should be soft and that's the thing is like being emotionally aware has nothing to do with being soft right you know what i'm saying got nothing to do with being selfish like we need to change our relationship to like just the concept of emotions knowing how you know what i'm saying feel like you tell a man if you and the man is in the you and the black man is in the heated uh conversation and you tell him he's being emotional that might trigger him you know what i'm saying and with reality he is being emotional especially if you calm and he's screaming and woman was like yo but if you're like i understand how you feel right that could calm him down it could but you see the thing is and this is why it's important for everyone to be in a growth mindset because you see the thing is if i'm in a growth mindset and i approach a fixed-minded mindset person i'm like okay cool i'm a uh you good the [ __ ] out of them like you win and then i'm out of there because my mindset is growing i see you locked in a place you know i mean like i'm at a point in my life where for a long time i felt that i should you know try to change people or help them change but i'm now secure more than ever that people gotta want to change for themselves the best thing i could do is lead by example if i'm gonna inspire them to change because you know once you try to put that on people and stuff like that like it's uh they get um what's the word uh you know it just it causes friction sometimes and then sometimes people are not willing to accept information from certain people you know what i mean it's like you could tell your homie son but then he go and meet a stranger and he takes the stranger advice so wait so how does your increasing emotional intelligence affect your emceeing um that's a good question i feel like it's evident in the music you know especially on my song show me on the new album i feel like that song was definitely a showcase of my growth with emotional intelligence like you know i'm speaking from the perspective of speaking to a young lady who i've been dealing with but you know we've had a off period and now we're trying to find some reconciliation but we're also trying to i'm trying to be transparent i'm trying to be honest with her you know i'm saying and uh my approach in getting her to open up was super gentle and it had to be gentle because a lot of the times in relationships you know women don't want to tell men the truth because women don't really know men to be emotionally sound totally or stable totally you know what i'm saying and yeah then also want me to be scared yeah you know what i mean you don't know how a dude might lash out you feel me like especially if you don't have that emotional high emotional intelligence connection with that person so um what we got to do is like if you want to get a person to open up you got to provide a safe space you know what i'm saying and you got to provide a safe space in the perspective of you understanding you know i'm saying whatever it is that that person decided to do was what they wanted to do and not necessarily something that they did to you yeah i loved earlier when you talked about being a self-improvement junkie yeah i think i think about it a lot that a lot as well about what can i do to get a little bit better one percent better every day sort of thing so what are you doing to improve yourself all the time so all right there's certain things that are part of my routine when i'm in that routine like it's just clockwork i'm just getting better every day like waking up early like when like for me seven and nine a. m okay it's a good window for me okay wake up 7-9 a.
m that's that's early for me that's good okay some people some people might i know i know but i don't care because i i'm i'm i was i was an afternoon lark okay you know what i mean so seven to nine a. m is a big accomplishment i'm not bad like yeah like listen uh to the five to the four a. m to six a.
m crew shout out to y'all yo i'll be there before i had kids there used to be this this this ad where they said um tim duncan gets up first thing every morning watch the 10 a. m sports center it took me a very long time to understand what's the joke because i got up first thing in the morning and watch the 10 a. m sports center yeah and after a while like oh most people don't wake like that's late for most people and you stay up late wake up at 10 like first thing in the morning i'm ready to go once in a year right it's bad late that's kind of funny so anyway you're saying but yeah wake up early waking up early so there's a quote that i live by um early to bed early to rise makes a man young wealthy and wise it's benjamin franklin so that's that's something i live by my dad used to say that yeah oh i got dad vibes bro i'm dead so you wake up early and then what prayer an affirmation meditation prayer meditation you know um wait what religion are you so i don't i don't have a religion okay i'm non-denomination okay um you know i my belief is that um there's a all powerful source you know i mean there's a higher power there's a there's a higher energy without a doubt you know what i mean um i don't think it could be personified right i don't think it could be you know simplified right uh and i pray to that you know i mean i give my i give my i express my gratitude to the all you know what i'm saying like everything mother nature the the the earth the wind the energy the it all you know i'm saying whatever is that higher power because this this [ __ ] is all connected you know what i'm saying um i guess my belief is is a little bit agnostic you know but i've always resonated with islam though okay yeah i've always resonated with islam um so you pray a little meditation mm-hmm what else eat breakfast most important meal of the day you know i'm saying uh get a meal probably uh watch a podcast or some type of informational video and i head to the gym you know physical training is very important you got to get the blood flowing you know without movement like you'd be so surprised how much movement improves workflow and you know just your cognitive intelligence you know i'm saying brain flow all around you got to get that movement got to get that oxygen to your brain so i do that um also you know i want to stay in shape i want to stay healthy i want to be the best shape of my life so those three things alone is always bringing me to a state of improvement right i'm the 7 to 9 a.
m club so i still got room to improve to 5 a. m i mean you don't have to get up at 5. you probably in the studio late i mean sometimes but i prefer not to be i actually prefer to go to the studio early like when like 2 p.
m is it even open at 2pm yeah i only know the studio that existed late night right right you know i actually really hate late night sessions because i feel like by then it's like i didn't put my brain through so much it's it's fog it's like right i'm i'm eating i'm more prone to like be forcing [ __ ] right you know what i mean like i rather go in with fresher energy ready to stay in there all day because when i'm in there at 1 am i'm like okay i got to leave soon that's what i'm thinking about i'm like where but if i'm in there at 2pm i'm not even thinking about time yeah it's like i'm not even thinking about time so um reading it's another thing come back from the gym read a book you know um knowledge you got to keep what are some of the books that have really you talked about emotional intelligence what are some of the other books emotional intelligence 2.
