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I was listening to a podcast yesterday, this dude, Billy Carson on the Sean Ryan Show. And I've seen Billy Carson on a few things. I'm not super
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familiar with him. But this This interview was really fascinating. I suggest taking a look at it. It's episode 93. On Sean Ryan Show. So there's one
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part of the podcast that really hit hit me because it's a it's a lot, it's sort of a line of thinking that I've been thinking about for quite some time. And
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so when he asked Shawn was he's or didn't ask him, he was telling me, he said, you know, we're in this room, and it's really well lit. And there's no
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amount of darkness that you can sort of inject into this room, that's going to make it darker, like, that's not how it works. And he said, if you turn all the
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lights off, and I light up my cell phone, he said that, that small amount of light, makes darkness flee immediately. And then he went on to say, you
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know, we, when you're thinking about it on a universal scale, you know, as if I've talked about the laws of the universe, and the sort of interconnected
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interconnectivity of all things, like we're all interconnected, like the universe, all people, all this kind of stuff. So he was saying, you know, it's only
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going to take a certain amount of enlightened enlightened beings, like people that are waking up. And I took it as like people that are mainly like not
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being dicks and like trying to contribute to, to making things better and contribute to making society better, it's only going to take a certain amount of
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those people to make darkness flee. And he said, that will re enter a golden age. My understanding of the Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, it's
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like, like a period of peace and stability and stuff like that. And so obviously, it wouldn't appear that we're in one of those right now. So what he's
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talking about is a certain amount of people waking up, and, you know, contributing in some way, that's, that's the way I took it. I'm not, I can't really
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speak for him. But that's the way I took it. And so I'll go into some examples of sort of how I've been sort of thinking about this along along these
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lines and sort of the work that I've been doing. And then we'll, we'll kind of see how it goes from there. I don't really have a plan for this. But I was
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thinking back to sort of the earliest the earliest account of sort of the path that I'm currently on, which is trying to contribute to my direct peers,
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which would be like graffiti writers, and, you know, maybe on the outer edges, different artists and shit like that, but it's mainly like the graffiti
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culture that I'm trying to give back to the most. And the way that this all started was around 2014, I was volunteering at the Venice art walls. And 2014 What
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was I like 45, or something like that. Or? Fuck, I was 40. That was 10 years ago, like. So I think I've told this before. So I'll try to I'll try to kind of
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shorten it up a little bit. So I remember, it could be a collection of memories. But I remember talking to this kid. And it might have been just,
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like I said, a collection of different conversations that I had. But I came to this realization that even as a 40 year old man at the time, I'm 50
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now, but at the time, I was 40. And I'm talking to these teenagers. And I remember a couple of interactions where these kids were actually
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listening to me, and they actually wanted to hear what I had to say. And it got me thinking about when I was a teenager, and I was if some some
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40 year old guy was talking to me, I wouldn't really take what they're saying very seriously, you know, like, oh, this old guy, whatever he doesn't know,
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he doesn't know what I'm about, or what I want to do, and all this kind of shit. But like, I realized that graffiti sort of bridge, that gap, that bridge,
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this sort of age gap, even though like it's still there, obviously. But, you know, there's a sort of a respect among the graffiti culture of
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people that have come before you and so I have the same respect. I respect everybody. I mean, as long as you're a good person, but like, there's, there's a
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certain diff a kind of a difference when you start what like for someone like me, I started graffiti in 91. But like, when I look at people that
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started in like the 70s or late 60s, you know, there's a certain level of of like, I guess respect is the word but it's something else, you know? And so
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when that when when I had those interactions, what that did for me was it kind of created a kind of an urgency to do something with that opportunity. Because I
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felt like, there's not a lot of cultures, you could be a part of, I think that that would provide that sort of opportunity where someone that's older and
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has had experiences and sort of knowledge that they can pass down. And then young people, at least people, young people that are trying to get better and
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trying to learn will actually listen. And so that's what led to starting, you know, machines studio and creating the sort of community art space that we had,
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or we still sort of have it. I mean, it's moved around a little bit, but the initial machine was just, that's all it was, was just, it was just an empty space
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with a black book table. And we would have art shows and let the kids come in and draw and do all that kind of stuff. And that stuff is still, you know, we
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haven't had any art shows lately, but anybody can still come in and draw at the black book table, it's the same. The same table we had back in 2015
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is in our shop still. And actually, I was just clearing out a storage unit this weekend, and I found all the old Black Books, I'm looking forward to
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going through those. And right on top was the very first black book we ever had. So we're going to be looking through that, it'll be pretty cool to see that
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stuff. There's some really good stuff in there. And then there's just lots of stuff from from the kids, the local kids that used to come in. So anyway, my whole
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thing was like, trying to be sort of that or contribute in some way similar to what Billy was talking about, you know, trying to, well, similar to what
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I assumed Billy was talking about, which is, you know, being a person that's trying to help make things better. Early on in the, when we opened the shop, we
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started the cuts crew that clean up the streets, that community service, kind of type of graffiti crew. So the idea was like creating an additional
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path, you know, you as a graffiti writers, you can, you can go different routes, you know, you could be a full blown vandal, you can do more of the
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piecing type stuff, there's lots of like, well rounded people that kind of do all of it. But we wanted to create a crew that was mainly just for giving back
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to the community. And that was sort of a different, a different path that that people could take. And that was the idea around it. And so when we first
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started the crew, we started doing these murals all around San Pedro, and they said clean up the streets. And they had like some nature type themes to
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them, you know, they were meant to look really nice and be the kind of things where they were graffiti letters, but they also had elements to where people in
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the community might appreciate them. And then obviously, the message that says clean up the streets. We would we hoped that that would resonate with people.
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And we also strategically put these murals in places where there was a lot of like trash and you know, those kinds of like alleys where people dump
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all kinds of shit, and there's like a mattress and some pile of shit that caught on fire, you know, those kind of those kinds of alleyways. And so we would
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strategically put them in those places, and we would clean up the alleys and all that stuff. So anybody that had consistently passed by this area, they might
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see, you know, this, like blight kind of shit, you know, just garbage and all this kind of stuff, then all of a sudden, they drive by another day, and
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it's all cleaned up. And then there's this nice mural that reads clean up the streets. And I started thinking about those as like, almost like beacons of
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of good energy, you know, so like,
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I don't even mapped it all out to sort of see what that would look like I printed or not printed, I downloaded a map from Google Maps, and then I I
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pinpointed all of the murals that we had up and then just sort of like guessed, like, how far out it would spread just kind of thinking, you know,
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these people are driving by this area, and a certain number of people that are going to be affected by those, you know, those murals and maybe that
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would make their day better or maybe that would lead them on to doing something, you know, to kind of try to pay it pay it forward or sort of spread
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positive energy on their own. There was sort of a commercial that I saw around that time where it was sort of a chain reaction. I don't remember
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exactly all the all the things but it was sort of like I think one of them was like a But like a young skater kid, like saw an old lady having trouble crossing
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the street, so he helped her across the street, and then somebody saw that happen. So then they did something like a good deed. And then someone saw
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that, and they did something. So it's it kind of spread, you know, and that's kind of how I saw what we were doing as as a possibility. And so after we put
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all these murals up, we did it in sort of a short period of time over a few months. And we started getting messages, you know, people saying, Oh, can you
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can you come and put one up, you know, in my alley, you know, there's all this shit here, and all this kind of stuff. But one of the messages that I thought
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was so cool, Somebody contacted us on our website, and they sent us a photograph of a bunch of students, and they all had bags of trash. And they were standing
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in front of the mural. And the message said something along the lines of, we see your mural every day when we start class, because it was right across the
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street from like, a, I don't know, if it was like a school or sort of like an academy where they do like side classes or something I'm not not too sure
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what it was. But so they said they, they were so inspired by the mural that they decided to have spent the first you know, 15 minutes, or I don't remember
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how long of their class time going around the area and cleaning up and picking up all the trash around the mural and around sort of the general area
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there. And so to me, that was sort of proof of the concept that, you know, you can put this positive energy out in the world, and then, you know,
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obviously, not everybody's going to pick up on it, but there's going to be some people that do. And so I've tried to continue doing that, and that's another,
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you know, that's why this podcast exists. That's exactly 100% why I started doing this podcast, because I was, you know, we were doing that thing
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in Piedro. And I was I was starting to put out educational content on social media. So like trying to help, you know, improve the graffiti culture and
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try to, you know, try to share things with people that are getting started. And I thought that might be putting some good energy out into the world. And
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then obviously, the stuff that we're doing at the, at the, at the studio, but then I also felt like, you know, there's another layer of people that I would
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like to try to reach. And so the podcast sort of started along those lines. And when I first started, it wasn't covered I, I came up with the concept and
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everything. And I was pretty much ready to go. And I did one interview and never never used it, because it was just sort of like a it's like a test
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interview. And it was fine. But it was also not, didn't exactly go the way that I had hoped that would go mainly my fault. I just didn't know what I was doing.
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And Kubb and I had been talking a lot and we'd get into these long conversations about how to how to make the culture better. And we'd get into these
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conversations about, you know, the rules of the game, and like, how they sort of contribute to making the culture better, and kind of maintaining a sort of
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understanding and all this kind of thing. And at one point, it just dawned on me and I was like, Hey, man, this is the this is perfect. This is like the
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podcast that I've been thinking of like, I have all the shit, like, Would you like to do that with me. And that's how, that's how this started. And so that
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quickly kind of turned into more personal development, philosophy and all these kinds of concepts that we felt were helpful for us. And then I've, after he
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passed away in 2020, I've just, you know, continued trying to share stuff that I found helpful as I came across it. So that was another layer of this kind of
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idea that hopefully, you know, anybody that listens to this, there's little bits that they pick up on. And I do appreciate everybody that sends me emails
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or messages on Instagram. That stuff really helps, you know, keep me motivated to do this. When somebody when somebody sends me a message that this
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stuff is helpful, like I said, that's another layer of what I was trying to do. And to go back to what Billy said he said that he didn't say exactly how many
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people and I don't think he knows. But he said there's a certain number of people that if think he said, like become enlightened beings and I know
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that's like a kind of a I don't know, I think that's a I don't want to say subjective but I almost think it is kind of subjective as to what exactly
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that means. But to me that means like being a good person and wanting to contribute To making all this shit better, and I, it could be anything like your
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local community, your family, you know, your the culture, your part of the world, your state your city. I don't know, at what level that is, I mean, I
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personally chose the graffiti culture because I felt like that's a community of people that I could reach. And hopefully then that would spread
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out into all these other areas. So like, if somebody that's part of the graffiti culture is listening to this, because it's a graffiti writer that's
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delivering the information, and then they talk to somebody that maybe isn't a graffiti writer, and then maybe certain things spread and all this kind of
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stuff. And so when he was talking about a certain level of people to reach this, you know, enlightened state, then that would cause the darkness to
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flee. And then we would enter a golden age. So she's, I keep knocking this cat over, I'm moving out of the way. It'll cause us to enter a golden age.
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And so when he said that, I immediately thought about this book called The Tipping Point. And it's been a while since I read it. So I don't I may not
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have all the details. Exactly. Right. But I was telling Jesse about this when we were driving. And I see it as a similar thing is what he's talking about. And
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so that the tipping point book, it goes over all kinds of like, reasons why things catch on. And one of the things that he talked about in the book, and like I
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said, I might not have all this exactly right. But this is how I remember it. He said, like, if you get a certain amount of people and the right people to
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adopt whatever thing it is, and I think this could apply to, you know, a political movement, it could apply to a product, it could apply to the shit that
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we're talking about right now. Just enlightened beings, like all this kind of thing. If you get the right amount of people, and the tipping point book
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talked about, like the right people to adopt whatever this this is, it's going to start spreading, and then it'll reach a tipping point where it becomes
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this big thing. And so one of the examples I can remember from the book was those Ugg boots, and I'm sure everybody knows what I'm talking about. It's
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those just kind of weird looking for Lion boots. If I remember this, right, they were originally originally invented for surfers, I think in
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Australia, if I'm not mistaken. And the idea was like the surfers would get out of the out of the water, and their feet would be super cold. So they
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created these boots. That it if I'm not mistaken, it had like a moisture wicking type of thing in the wool or something along those lines, but it was mainly
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like, it keeps your feet warm, and it helps you like kind of warm back up after getting out of the out of the ocean. And so the only people that were
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wearing these were surfers. And and so now if you think about it, I don't I think most people don't think about surfers when they see those because, like
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everybody, not everybody, but like tons of people wear them. And they had talked about I wish I wish I had read this more recently, because I don't know
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if I have this right. But the way that he was describing it the way that I remember it is like they had these things on surfers. And then surfers. In
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certain areas were sort of considered like the cool people, you know, when people look at Oh, look at that surfer guy or girl or whatever. And they would
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be wearing these weird shoes. And so people started
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like, oh, I want to be cool, too. So I'm gonna I'm gonna get those shoes. And I think they also talked about the shoes, hush puppies, I think there was
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a similar story to that. And so the idea is like, you get a certain amount of people to adopt whatever this is that you're trying to get people to
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adopt to? And maybe those people are somewhat influential, or, you know, yeah, I guess influential is a good word for it. And people will see them
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adopting that thing. And then hopefully, that'll spread to other people adopting it, and then it becomes like a more of a mass thing. So what if all of
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us, everybody that's listening, I can't imagine that if you listen to this show. You You don't have some kind of desire to contribute or or be better or
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all these kinds of things. What if we all as a small community, you know, the graph culture or even just the amount of people that listen to this show? start
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adopting this idea that if we start to become more enlightened beings and more are putting effort into contributing to making the world better and
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making our local community better. And you don't even have to be some influential people, because I've said it a bunch of times on this show that, you
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know, you could just be some teenage kid that has a younger brother that looks up to you like that's, that's all the influence that you need, if you
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start doing better than he's going to start doing better. And the same thing if like, maybe you have a small group of friends at school, or if you're
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an adult at your workplace, or some club you go to or whatever it is, like if you your people that are around you all the time they see you starting to adopt
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this sort of higher frequency mindset and trying to, to do more, you know, contribution to the world. Other people are going to pick up on that. And
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then we may reach the tipping point that Billy was talking about.
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All right. I appreciate each and every one of you guys who are supporting the cause and continue to spread the love and yeah, stay up