Set your soul afire: How to be rawthentically you
Sanyika “The Firestarter” Street is a former division 1 college athlete, a highly sought international speaker, an acclaimed spoken word poet, and the host of TV show “All-In Moment” that has reached over 108 million people across the globe. He is the CEO and founder of the ALL-IN MAN, a personal development company for high achieving businessmen. Sanyika stands for every man that walks on this planet to live a life of INtegrity. He talks what he walks, aware of what it’s like when you pick yourself up out of a rock-bottom sandwich.
EPISODE #001 WITH SANYIKA ‘THE FIRESTARTER’ STREET
Get ready to ignite your soul with Drops of Gold Jeff Scult and the unstoppable force known as Sanyika "Firestarter" Street in this badass episode of Drops of Gold. They obliterate the BS holding us back, delving into authenticity, leadership, and the art of truly listening.
Sanyika takes us on a fearless journey beyond comfort zones, diving deep into vulnerability and the magic of going all-in with a “double McFuck It” attitude. Brace yourself for powerful storytelling, razor-sharp dialogue, and a mind-blowing spoken word you won't ever forget.
Learn the ultimate "HOW TO" for crushing doubt, the vital role of community, and the game-changing impact of owning your purpose with unapologetic boldness. This episode isn't just about personal growth—it's a rallying cry to embrace your path with zero fucks given, to ignite yourself and go ALL IN.
Prepare to be equally confronted and comforted - all at once.
We know, weird.
Flow Stamps:
[00:01:06] A spoken word piece from Sanyika
[00:08:40] Embracing Identity for Success.
[00:10:32] Boldness and breaking barriers.
[00:16:18] Sharing personal growth journey.
[00:21:18] Listening as prayer-forming.
[00:25:26] The power of feedback.
[00:31:36] The power of sharing.
[00:37:22] Self-sabotage versus self-abandonment.
[00:38:25] Embracing responsibility beyond yourself.
[00:44:46] Doubt vs. uncertainty.
[00:47:30] Integrity audit.
[00:51:20] Purpose and calling differentiation.
[00:56:14] Defeating doubt and uncertainty.
[01:02:29] Answering the call to adventure.
[01:07:20] Exploring the meaning of leadership.
About Sanyika The Firestarter Street:
Sanyika “The Firestarter” Street is a former division 1 college athlete, a highly sought international speaker, an acclaimed spoken word poet, and the host of TV show “All-In Moment” that has reached over 108 million people across the globe. He is the CEO and founder of the ALL-IN MAN, a personal development company for high achieving businessmen. Sanyika stands for every man that walks on this planet to live a life of INtegrity. He talks what he walks, aware of what it’s like when you pick yourself up out of a rock-bottom sandwich.
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About JEFFSCULT:
A visionary in fashion, community and consciousness, embodies the essence of transformation. With a background as an Ad Man, storyteller, and five-time entrepreneur, Jeff transitioned from amplifying others' missions to birthing his own in 2016 with One Golden Thread. His multifaceted talents as an intuitive first-time fashion designer, word floet, brand consultant, writer, and igniter converge to create a brand that goes beyond clothing—it's a movement towards authenticity and regeneration.
As the founder, designer, and CEO of One Golden Thread, Jeff's mission is to harmonize fashion and functionality, urging authentic self-expression and purpose-driven living. His innovative approach has earned him recognition, including features in Forbes and invitations to speak on regeneration. Jeff's superpower resides in his ability to follow the thread, revealing the gold that resides inside every human being.
Now, with his podcast "Drops of Gold," Jeff extends his reach even further, guiding listeners along the golden thread towards their highest selves. Through his words, designs, and actions, JEFFSCULT continues to inspire and empower others to embrace their inner light and live boldly, authentically, and goldenly.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Jeff Scult:
Welcome to this episode of Drops of Gold, where we are honored to sit with my friend and inspirer, Sanyika Firestarter Street. Now, Sanyika is a spoken word poet. He's an inspirer and an igniter of how we go all in. So the question for you is, are you really all in and what does it mean to go all in? You will leave on this episode with a deeper understanding for your own journey of what does that look like to go all in. Welcome to this episode of Drops of Gold. I'm Jeff Skultz. I have been on the healing and revealing journey, following my thread to my inner gold. My great honor in life is to sit with the Golden Ones and discover what they've released in terms of their past Duck Stories, what they've revealed in terms of who they are anew, and within that, how we can each celebrate the art of living life golden. Welcome to Drops of Gold.
Sanyika:
What you haven't heard, Jeff, is you haven't heard the... You need to be you.
Sanyika:
The real you. The brilliant, dynamic, unapologetic you. The screw-it-everybody-thinks, the most energetic you. Or the one who cares too much, damn it, the most empathetic you. Whoever you really are. That's the you you need to be.
Sanyika:
Not the whatever you think I want.
Sanyika:
That's the you that's you for me. You need to be so you, people decide whether or not to like you. So when the party's going down, they may or may not invite you. You need to be you. The motivator, inspirator. The you who sees greatness in me and helps me believe. So when I'm suffocated by fear, it's you. Your truth helps me to breathe. And I think that I already know the superhero you. What I'm really trying to get to know is the was a zero you. Not just the successful you, but the loser you too. The you who you keep most protected. That's the you I wish I knew. You know, couldn't admit the pain, you know, the fake smile you. Indecisive about your future. We gonna be here a while you. The hiding feelings up your sleeve, the no cards on the table you.
Sanyika:
The ice-cold heart, the emotionally disabled you. The self-doubt inflicted, used to think I'm trash you.
Sanyika:
The one scared at the wheel, watching life go past you.
Sanyika:
You need to be you, the real you, the you that struggle.
Sanyika:
No cash, two jobs, shows your hustle and how you juggle.
Sanyika:
And if you got it all figured out, I'm not talking to you.
Sanyika:
But if you block someone from receiving this message, then I am walking through you. Because there's a you somewhere out there that couldn't get over the hump. And I need to reach that you before that you decides to jump. Many of you scared and restricted by what people say. The reason that you can't be you is because you are afraid of they.
Sanyika:
Because the story they told you about you is not your story. They always judge a book by its cover but never got your story.
Sanyika:
Never give they the time of day because people tend to twist stories. Because one day they will see your story become his story. And if they ever said that you were worthless, that there was no value, don't know how they reached that conclusion. They profile you?
Sanyika:
All up in your timeline to buddy up and pal you Then maliciously, viciously stomping on your style you Remember always speak your truth, don't let them interrupt you Then just keep dishing and dishing till they can't get enough you Now speaking your truth is lonely, so those that left you Tell them screw the fake approval Hit them with an F, you. If they leave, it's their loss. Let your roar get louder. When they envy your energy, tell them your truth is your power. And to all those that doubted you, tell them make them a promise to be like the incredible you and smash the negative comments. Don't you get it? The real you is what the world needs more. And once you get it, you'll realize that the world is yours. Ain't no stopping you. Keep it moving. Become the better you. Never be a replacement. There'll be no one instead of you. When they think of your greatness, there'll be no one ahead of you. They'll be loving the alphabet. They'll say, I never met a you.
Sanyika:
That's the golden approach. That's the bold move.
Jeff Scult:
Seneca, the forest registry, welcome to Drops of Gold. My God. Oh. And that's where we began again. I love to be speechless. I, anybody who just received that blessing of, ah, it just, it takes us to our knees. Thank you for burning our ships. Thank you for lifting and gifting. And you know, what I love about you and our brotherhood over the last eight years, almost to the day, pretty close to the day, is your emotional intelligence. is many people have emotional intelligence. It's the way you invite us into ignition, invite us into action. And I've never met somebody who I hold in such reverence and resonance in my life who equally confronts and comforts with equanimity. And it's just an honor to sit with you and go on this journey, and this is very much of a You know, it's a proclamation of all-in. And what does it mean to look like to be all-in? What does it mean to look like to cast aside any doubts to be all-in? And I love the way you framed how you were walking in today. So maybe you can explain what double McFuck it means. Welcome, Sonequa, the finest artistry.
Sanyika:
Thank you for having me, Jeff. I feel like I'm home, you know, when I'm with you and in victory, you as well. I feel like I'm home.
Sanyika:
And double McFuckett is, you know, it's just we were just talking about it. And And I was having a conversation with my wife and we were doing some, you know, in the scales, the frequencies of different emotions. It was charted that authenticity operates at a higher vibrational frequency than love does. And, and many times, you know, in my work as a coach, it's like, you know, you know, the conversation around like, you know, when people are moving either through a personal matter or business matter or some other matter, and they get bogged down with, um, the, the how, I was like, how do I do this? You know, how do I do, you know, uh, you know, um, And that the thing, there's something that precedes the how, that many people are not tapping into. They skip a step, people keep skipping this step and it's like, oh, I need to figure out the how. If how was the eternal solution to addressing an issue, no one would have problems. How is readily available? Google is amazing at what they do. You can identify the how, you can identify 13 different hows for one thing. You can identify 300 hows for one thing. So before I need to identify the how, and this goes back to the way I'm stepping in here with my double McFuckin energy, is before I do anything, I need to identify the who. I need to identify who I choose to be. And the thing that the barrier that many people run up against, they run up against this barrier in terms of like, well, what's the strategy and what's the tactic? I'm like, look, if I come to you and I say, yo, um, Jeff, uh, uh, you know, do you think I should be with my wife? You know, like, you know, uh, like, you know, how, how am I supposed to, to, to, to, to figure that out? Well, first of all, I just brought you an existential question about whether or not I should be with the woman that I'm currently with. A much more empowered decision, a much more empowered place to come from is I come to you and I say, Jeff, who do you think I get to become so I can be more effective in my relationship? Who do you think I, you know, like who, what character traits, what behaviors, What leadership qualities, what values do you feel like I could embody to really become more effective in my relationship? Like putting the responsibility of my existence on you by asking you a question about where I should be in relation to what it is I'm creating in my life is deference of my responsibility is a deferring of my leadership. So when I come to you and I bring you this question, and there's many ways to bring a question, but the ultimate question that I want to be is, who do I need to be to operate at the highest efficiency and effectiveness in my life? And I have decided that as I step into this phase of my life, right? So initially I brought it into this room, the double McFuckin energy, and for anybody that doesn't understand double McFuckin, is that if you go to like a place like McDonald's and you look and they got the little menu with like the number one, two, three, and four, It's like number two on the menu and it's double McFuckin' with a side of I'm bringin' the fuckin' heat. In every aspect of my life. Right? You can hold the bullshit. So that's the way that I'm moving in terms of this phase in my life. And it just got cemented by this beautiful thread that I just got wrapped around me by you. So that energy is what I'm bringing, and I'm bringing it in the full embodiment and ownership of my leadership. And the way you break through that is that your tactics and your strategies and your how ain't got nothing on somebody who has the audacity to live in their fullest expression. Boldness is what wins. Boldness is what breaks through barriers. And it's too many people who are predicating that the ineffectiveness or the lack of results on what it is because of the fact that they are not stepping up in terms of, um, it's, I know it's, you know, the strategy didn't like, you weren't bold enough. You weren't bold enough because you're, because where your strategy doesn't work, your energetic vibration and certainty will. That's the difference. And I understand the distinction between that because I operated when we first met. Dude, I was just rebuilding my life. Jeff, when we first met, dude, I had a 92 BMW 325i. And it was super dope because I remember we met at the event. And dude, I parked it like at a distance to the degree where nobody would see me getting out the car. You know, so nobody would see me getting out the car. And at the same time, you know, like that was the current conditions in my life. I was living in a set of circumstances and results in my life. But the reason I was living in those, in those, in that area of my life is because I wasn't bold enough. Right. Not because I wasn't making enough money. I didn't have money, but that's a result. A result derived from a set of action or inaction. So I wasn't bold enough. I wasn't honest enough. I hadn't processed or done healing work around my own shame and guilt and everything. And I hadn't stepped into a deeper level of personal ownership of what my gift was. And the interesting thing is that I went there to deliver my gift. And that's the reason that you and I met.
Jeff Scult:
And we met based upon the gift of what you just shared, this spoken word, which was the invocation of what you were seeing to be and stepping into. And, you know, we're going to go there because we're going to talk about, you know, where you are now, which is double McFuckett and where you were then, which is, as I understand, rock sandwich bottom. Mm-hmm gotta make got a McNugget Maybe the gold the golden the golden drops of gold is a golden McNugget, but we'll get there I But look before we get to you because I think it's powerful for us to understand the hero's journey And for us to go back with resonance and reverence, not looking back as his story, not looking back, but just going back with that degree of gratitude and releasing any notion of that was bad, now this is good. It's all the gift to lift. And so I just want to go back to the story of I'm invited to man talks by somebody I just met by the name of Jovan Lakeford. Not 6'8", but 6'6". Another benevolent brother, and he saw something inside me and said, you know, I think that you would enjoy coming to Mantox, which is hosted in a beautiful backyard of a home in Beverly Hills. I think it was Beverly Hills. And this giant of a man stands up and takes the mic and just drops me so deeply into the resonance of any shadows from which I had not yet emerged in terms of this invocation of Be you that we just received and I Cried then just the way I shed a tear now and I shed a tear now in terms of that Appreciation from where I've come and I shared it to then maybe of what I still need to let go in that moment to step in After the speakers and the igniters and the presenters and the spoken words and the musicians were done, there was a moment I walked into the inside because I felt literally pulled like a moth to a flame. I didn't know I was being pulled from a moth to a fire starter. And there's this giant of a man standing in the kitchen. He had a solo moment where it was just he and I. It was like a moment where I shed my own fear of expression and I just... shared with you how deeply touched I was by what you shared, and it inspires me deeper to go into my journey of expression. And it was one of the first times publicly, I mean, probably the first dozen times I'd shared publicly at that time, the first thing that I'd ever written to myself, which was a Life 2.0 Hue Manifesto, and I shared it with you in the kitchen, and I think that your reaction, you'd share with me at the time, was like, who's this guy? But I didn't care. Like I didn't care. I had to, I didn't care. I had to share. I had to share because I felt like I was, I was being received in the mirror of my highest self. And if I didn't step into that moment that I was being a fraud to myself. And so, A, thank you because you were absolutely a fire starter for me along my journey. And there's a beautiful expression that a deep soul sister in my life shared, Jess Magico, I've shared with you in the past. She says, do what you do not to be good, share what you share to be liberated and free. And that's what I felt in the moment of witnessing you, and that's what I felt in the moment in that kitchen of sharing with you. So before we get to a rock sandwich bottom, I'd love to hear how that landed for you, because that was definitely a moment for me.
Sanyika:
I remember it very, I mean, it's very vivid to me. And the reason why it's very vivid to me isn't really because of the circumstances surrounding that event, I don't really remember it that much. I do remember that Javon invited both of us, for sure.
Sanyika:
Shout out to Javon, Langford, where you at? And I do remember, The performance and I decided to give up the microphone and just really to speak from the heart and I can't so interesting I came off the stage and that's just generally what I end up doing when I'm in any environment now I generally come off the stage so I could be Among the people depending on the environment or the size of the experience that's you know that that feels very resonant to me and then So in that moment, we may have interacted just me being on the grass as opposed to on the patio. But more than anything, I remember our interaction in the kitchen. And I remember that interaction in the kitchen specifically because of the fact that you shared the piece with me. And I remember being there listening and just being in the receptivity of it. And yeah, I was like, who is this dude sharing this piece with me for sure? And there was something really, felt to be like, at that moment, it felt very delicate. And the thing that felt really delicate is that you said the mirror. And I remember how delicate it was for me to be in that expression at that event. Because it wasn't, that event may have been one of the first times that I had, maybe not one of the first, but definitely one of the first dozen of times where I had just performed in public.
SPEAKER_01:
Wow.
Sanyika:
You know, as I start to think about this, I keep thinking about how God got me covered, and I'm like, yo, it's insane. Jeff, in one of the first 12 times that I performed, period, maybe the first five, ended up me and me performing a piece called Thank You For Your Service, which got picked up by a network called the All Warrior Network, which got put out on Veterans Day that went viral, that I shot in front of a military-grade helicopter on a military base. And I think to myself, I'm like, Is that like, what, how does that occur? You know what I'm saying? Like in the first five times of me performing in public, that that's one of those experiences. And I think about the times. And so then I, and so somebody processing or listening to this, they go, man, that dude's lucky. Right. And then luck, it would be predicated based on the quantity of a quantity of occurrences based on what would actually happen. But the other part about it is that. The way that I process it in my head is that I am being called. And I'm being called. And you talked about the hero's journey. And in the calling of my experience, I just kept answering the call. And so when you presented and you performed for me, I was in there and I was like, part of my calling is to sit here and to listen. And I didn't feel like anything was taken away from me. I didn't feel like, you know, I was just present and in my listening. And it's generally where I find myself oftentimes nowadays, in my listening. And in my listening of others, in my listening of God, in my listening of the world. So I very much connected with that moment.
Jeff Scult:
I really appreciate that comment around the listening. There's an expression which the universe gave to me around when it's coming from a heart-based place, we're not performing, we're prayer-forming. And maybe really what that really is about is that what we're simply doing is we're being in the listening, even if we're speaking, even if we're singing, even if we're sharing. Because what it is, like a dear friend of mine, Octavio, he was a lead singer for a band. He taught me how energy is really shared when you are the first catalyst. And you go up on stage and as a singer, he's describing this and yes, you bring, you set your energy, you set the container and it goes out. And then as it's received, that energy comes back and then it's no longer my energy or your energy, it's this shared energy and that's frequency and vibration. So I really appreciate this notion around listening. There's a meaning within listening. What is listening? Maybe because I think that some people, and certainly times in my life, it would be like my father calls it, it's the one-ups. It's like I'm listening so I can react, or I can tell you, well, that reminds me of this, or I can share with you what I know and my wisdom, my ego and what have you, but really it's listening is to understand versus respond. Listen to understand versus respond. And within the listening, it's just, I hear you, I see you, I value you. And, you know, it's something which, you know, it's not about perfection, but it's something that I have a self and shared awareness of. It is something that, you know, going even deeper and deeper and deepening into the listening. So I really appreciate that as somebody who commands through his presence, through his words, through his energies, through his invocations, through his invitations, and it's like, oh, all I'm really doing is listening.
Sanyika:
I'd like to deepen this conversation about listening. When you first met me, I was pursuing a career as a speaker. And because of the fact that I had unprocessed shame and guilt around my life, That created, henceforth, the rock-bottom sandwich. As I tell people, financially broke, emotionally broken, 2 DUIs, girlfriend paying the bills, not effective in my leadership in my life or my leadership of others in any way, shape, or form. I call it a rock-bottom sandwich because I was already at rock-bottom and then rock-bottom smashed on top of me. That's the way I describe it.
Sanyika:
This microphone is sexy, I like it. It's great. This is just, I mean, I need a microphone like this in every room in my house. I just need to have some stuff like this.
Sanyika:
So the interesting, so when I'm like, so in the speaker pursuit, I was like, I want to be a speaker because I want to be heard. I've never had an issue being heard. I deeply care about what people have to say. I'm genuinely interested in your life. I'm a naturally curious person. Never had an issue being hurt. And because of my unprocessed trauma, I wasn't getting feedback from the environment effectively. on how to optimize my movements in my life. So when you're in a pursuit in business and you're not actively in the process of receiving feedback and refinement, as it was, it was the same when I was doing, when I was writing music on Universal, it was the same in my business pursuits. If you're not in an active environment where you're receiving feedback, where you're receiving insight and information from individuals that are performing at the highest possible level with the intention of refining your efforts so you can achieve what it is that you're looking to achieve, then you will not achieve what you say you wanna achieve. There's no get this is it that's a that's a that's a guarantee if you're not getting feedback from the best Then you can't be the best How is that possible You know, you just incubate your own ideas. That's what most people do. That's what I was doing So then I said I got this download I said hold up Dude, you're trying to speak and you don't even know what you're doing. You don't even know the game of speaking You don't know the ins and outs. You don't know the strategies, the tactics. You're not talking to the best. You're not interacting with the best. You're not being with the best. What if you just went back to your natural superpower, which is listening? So the moment I decided to stop speaking and start listening, everything changed. And in my listening of others, I have what you hear It's probably one of the most broken, and I'm inviting everyone who listens to this podcast to like really be in the space. When you are in the presence of the majority of people, I'm talking about like 90 to 95% of people, you will hear the brokenheartedness of never being heard. You will hear it. in someone's spirit, in someone's vibration, you will hear it. And the way that you will hear the vibration of someone who has never genuinely, truly been heard is that when they speak, they speak to either perform, they speak to be seen, to increase their status, they speak to be seen, to be seen in any of those things. And many people will hold the judgment against that person. They'll say, oh, that person, they're just trying to puff up their chest and they're trying to, That is the that is the speaking of someone who has a broken heart That has never truly been heard and when and when that occurs It is it I mean it honestly it pains me even to this day so that in the context and listening and I'll Summarize what this point is that for me? It's really important that I is that in my listening, like I'm talking to you on a podcast. So there's a different context for my speaking right now. There's a much different context. This is not the majority of my context. So the majority of my context for speaking is to be in my listening. And so when I am in my listening, it is the greatest, at least form of my expression on this planet, is to operate from a place of listening. And when you operate from that place of listening, You teach people about your strength simply because of your ability to hold space for another individual. You do so much in silence, so much more than most people realize.
Jeff Scult:
So listening is critically important. Yes. Fuck. Yes. Yeah. It's, it's so powerful. And something else you, you spoke to, which Just felt like an anvil drop as a reminder of where I came from on my soul. An anvil drop on my soul was this notion around the broken heartedness of being unheard. You know, I grew up that way. And much of it likely was a story or self-sabotaging. You know, I grew up in a way being empathetic to everyone's journey but my own. And even as I broke through the chrysalis and said, I have something to say, and I was coming from a place of being habitually sick, always in my throat chakra of being unexpressed on some level. The second time that I'd ever shared the Humanifesto with somebody was the circumstances were unique, you know, because it wasn't a place of like a ceremony or even a one-on-one or a quiet moment, which is it was such a deep thing, but it was an art gallery opening in New York Danny clinched, you know super cool kids, you know rock and roll anthology everybody there's a rock and roll star or what have you and Danny was a Friend and was honored to be invited and and and everybody's connecting with everybody at this social setting with all these beautiful rock and roll pictures on the wall, and this gentleman spins to me, and he's a South African dude, and we spoke for a minute, and I said, well, what kind of beautiful magic are you up to in the world? He says, well, I'm actually igniting. I said, did you just say igniting? He said, I've never heard anybody use that word at that time in a sentence. And he says, yeah. And he says, yeah, I come from a dark place, but I'm igniting. That's my South African accent. And I said, I can't believe you used that word. I just wrote this three-part story to myself about intention and integration and ignition. He says, well, I'd like to hear it. And I'm like, no, this is not the time or the place and what have you. I started feeling myself like as the escape artist that I was. It's like I'm going to dodge this and get out of here. And he lowers his glasses. He says, I want to hear it now. I know I wasn't gonna escape and so I shared it with him afterwards Immediately tried to sweating and trying to get out of there because it's loud and it's just totally wrong scenario He he received it all and he says to me says what are you doing with this? I said I Nothing. He says no. I'm asking you. What are you going to do with this? This is meant to be shared and I said well, who am I to share? I'm just like Jeff and these are with my personal raw authentic thoughts and and in 33 words he obliterated what you shared in terms of that broken heart and Where he said we're on this planet for three reasons to learn To love and to share and if you are not sharing your gifts, you're being selfish He poked me in the chest and see quit being so fucking selfish that was literally like what it felt like inside my body. Because what came to light was this notion that if we are sharing, I always thought that meant that I was being selfish, narcissistic, or egoic. Because I was deeply, deeply in a world of listening, deeply to understand. Because as somebody said, you don't, You shine the spotlight on people. You see people's inner gold. That's really what your gift is, is to see somebody's inner gold and shine the spotlight for them, never for myself. And so I was being inauthentic. My authenticity was, in some ways, him, I was ignited by others' joy, not really my own. I was ignited by others' expression, hiding behind my own. Or hiding from my own, thank you. So, I really, Within the listening there's also a lifting and within that lifting. It's also about sharing and you know, I really believe that Everybody has a golden gift. Everybody has a golden voice and it's it's so powerful when we lean into ours and we Create that space for that grace as well And I will share with you that I'm also writing a book, and a chapter of that book is dedicated to you. And do you think you can guess what the drop of gold is?
Sanyika:
No.
Jeff Scult:
What the headline would be? Words that you said.
Sanyika:
Give me, tell me. I'm thinking of it to myself, I'm dead. Yeah, tell me.
Jeff Scult:
Your fans are waiting.
Sanyika:
Mm, your fans are waiting. Your fans are waiting.
Jeff Scult:
I'll share you what that meant to me. Go for it. So what that meant so powerfully to me is this notion that, ooh, We are golden. We have a gift. The world is waiting for your gifts, patiently. And maybe we've been giving them small little bites or morsels, but they're waiting for the full meal. And to lean in with the Full Metal Mook, fuck it, or whatever. Now we're adding new layers to this. But the beauty of like, I think that the thing that I love most about Your Fans Are Waiting is it's like, oh, it's not about me. Oh, maybe it's about me inspiring another to go deeper into their feeling of being free. And I loved it when you walked in before we started rolling today where you said, Can we see that our mission is bigger than our feelings?
Sanyika:
Your mission has to be bigger than your feelings.
Sanyika:
It has to be bigger than your feelings. I mean, I'll tell you, here's an interesting thing. I had a conversation with a
Sanyika:
I had a conversation with a man that I'm coaching and business owner, you know, a guy really looking to step up in his life. And he started the call. He was like, you know, I'm just on this journey. Like, you know, I didn't really, you know, I was just checking in on progress. And he was like, you know, I didn't really do much over the course of the weekend, you know, in terms of the development that we had agreed on and that he had committed to. I didn't really do much over the weekend, and I found myself in this space where I was trying to figure out about my self-care, and I was like, should I spend my time focusing on myself? And I was like, yeah, I could've pushed it harder over the course of the weekend to really accomplish more, but I found myself in a space where I've gotten, I found myself in overwhelm, and I was in this place, and I just wasn't really sure, so I really just took some time over the course of the weekend, and then I definitely found myself on some death scrolling and everything like that.
Sanyika:
I just listen, right? No judgment. And then after he felt expressed and shared, I said, I got a question for you. He said, can I ask? He said, yeah.
Sanyika:
I said, how do you think, what do you think, if you just shared what you shared with me, with your board of directors for your company, what do you think they would have told you? He's a solo performer, he ain't got a board of directors.
Sanyika:
So he had to imagine it. You know what he said to me?
Sanyika:
He said, take a hike.
Sanyika:
He said, take a hike.
Sanyika:
That's what they would have said to him. His board of directors would have fired him had he shown up in that way. And many people talk about the idea of self-sabotage. But I will tell you something, that self-sabotage ain't got nothing on self-abandonment. And there are many people that find themselves in a place of self-abandonment and then rationalization of the self-abandonment. And so at the core level, it's like, why am I abandoning myself? Because you don't understand your mission. My mother had a mission to raise kids. If she abandoned herself in the context of her mission, we die. I don't give a shit about your self care and all of that other stuff. It's irrelevant. If she doesn't show up to provide for her children, we die. There are real life consequences associated with you not living into the fullest expression of what it is that you are brought here to do. We are ants. We are acorns. What is an ant's job? To serve the colony. What is an acorn's job? To grow oak tree so that it can produce more acorns. You have a responsibility. It's bigger than you. This is not about your feelings. Yeah, I understand that there are real life circumstances and that stuff that goes on in the world and dude, you got to show up. And the thing about it is that there's too many people who are off the, you know, convincing themselves and rationalizing themselves and getting themselves into a place where they're in this existential question of whether or not they should be catering to the, like, did you play in the wrong game? You can play the game of adequately nourishing yourself and nurturing yourself and showing up and achieving real world tangible results. They go, Oh, you know, I don't know if I should have a spiritual life or I should have, you know, um, a spiritual life and spiritual practice, or I should have, um, you know, exponential wealth. Why can't you have both? Stop playing the wrong game. You're playing these unnecessary games that put, that put you versus you in an unnecessary way. If you show up in your mission and then you refine along the way, you can have everything you want. You can have the spiritual practice. You can have real world results. You can have the tangible items that you want. You can have the love of your life. You can have your fitness, because then people go, oh, you know what? Do I work? Do I do the business thing? Or do I do the, like, you're playing the wrong game. I go, who must I be to step into that? So after the last event that I produced, the initiation, I came to myself, I said, yo, am I sacrificing myself? Am I abandoning myself? Am I abandoning in the critical pillars of my life, my fitness, my family, my finances, my faith and my fulfillment? Am I abandoning my fitness in this context? I said, you know what? I'm not prioritizing my fitness. And I'm not, I wasn't in like a rock bottom place. I was just like, you know what? It's time for me to really raise the bar. So you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to get my black ass up early. And guess what? It's, and I no longer call it getting up early. I just get up. So that's my double McFuck it. It's like, yo, bring it. You got a gift. Bring it. You got a mission. Bring it. You got something you want to do. Bring it. You got up. You, you, you have an, an ant's job is to serve the colony. Do bring your gift, serve the colony. Acorns job is to produce more acorns. Bring your gift, produce more acorns. Like, be that person. People go on that, and you know, and then the context on this, and thank you for everybody for coming to my TED Talk, I appreciate that. But I just wanted to say, like, this sort of rounding point is that the idea that I need to choose between whether or not I show up in my gift or I show up in my fear, whether or not I show up in my gift or whether or not I show up in my trepidation, Like the best action is the bias towards bold action. Take, when in doubt, take bold action. Err on the side of boldness and have the emotional resilience to be able to accept what occurs as a result of taking bold action. And in the areas of my life where I was not showing up and I was not measuring up, it is very, very clear to me that I was in my feelings and I was not in my mission. So the guy that you're witnessing right now, eight years after we met, is a guy that is very much more dedicated to his mission than he ever is to his feelings in a specific moment in time. I have a job to do. And I can cry while I'm doing it.
Jeff Scult:
And the tip of the spear is being surrendered into our mission.
Sanyika:
Damn straight.
Jeff Scult:
And I would love to hear you, because it's this notion around, you know, our infinite now flourishes in the bold, right? That's the truth. I agree with that. And there's this this dalience and this dance between doubt and uncertainty. I'd love to hear you unpack that, because I think that within one of those, boldness can not just reside but thrive, and within one of those, boldness dissipates. Yeah, I just, I have a deep resonance in terms of Asking ourselves to unpack that for wherever we are in our lives and saying is this doubt or is this uncertainty? Because doubt is that paralyzing motherfucker and it's challenging. Yes. It's great to say Just dive into the bold, you know Do the Joseph Campbell thing enter that cave because that holds our greatest treasure the doubt is that self-paralyzing? self-sabotage and itself it also is self-abandonment because you're paralyzed whereas uncertainty is It's just I don't know how this is gonna go, but I'm gonna go ahead and dive off this cliff anyway Because either I do have wings Or the landings give me soft and even if it's not It was a beautiful ride You know, so I think that there's something within here because I'm with you. I'm with you in the surrender. I'm with you with leaning into boldness. I'm with you with the expression. I'm with you with all of it. And there's some things which we get to create a container for that to thrive. So maybe you could unpack doubt and uncertainty and how to identify and also obliterate one and see one as a beautiful invitation. And frankly, the other thing I'll just say is like, again, like, I think that one of the most powerful things, you know, we always discuss, you know, on Drops of Gold, and it's like, the thing is not the thing, it's our relationship to the thing. And so it's not about like, even like doubt, bad, uncertainty, good, it's just about the self-awareness and the recognition and the listening, and then the basically being able to say, like, I'm gonna move through it to be it. Yeah.
Sanyika:
Great question. I love the distinction, doubt and uncertainty.
Jeff Scult:
Because we've been there. Every one of us has been there in seeds of doubt. And seeds of doubt grow into motherfucking deep-ass weeds that will grip our ankles and pull our arms down. It'll be like that. Children of the Storm or whatever that movie was that I've chosen to forget. Children of the corn?
Sanyika:
Children of the corn, I think it's children of the corn, yeah. That's crazy. But again, if you don't do the grain thing, then long story, but we don't have to get into that.
Sanyika:
Doubt and uncertainty. Yeah, doubt is the paralyzing one. Uncertainty is one of Tony Robbins' six human needs. So certainty, uncertainty. We need certainty, we need to know that certain things are certain. We need uncertainty, we need to have variety in our life. That's where variety comes from. So surprise, excitement come in the land of uncertainty.
Jeff Scult:
Surprise, delay, curiosity. All those things.
Sanyika:
So in that context, I without question agree. If you find yourself in a place of doubt, right, in a place of doubt, it is because in that moment you have made it about you without judgment or shame or guilt. So you've made it about your journey about you. So, my invitation in that is to do one of two things, is to either do an integrity audit on yourself and on your life and what's working and what isn't working, what's effective and what's ineffective, right, as it relates to those five pillars in your family, your faith, your finances, your fulfillment and your fitness. So to do an integrity audit, so to take those five pillars, break it down into five things under each category, what's working, what's not working. You'll end up with 25, so you'll end up with 50 entries in that context. It's a very dynamic approach. So that's one thing you can do if you're either by yourself in that, you know, you can do it if you don't have anyone around you, or you can do it if you have other people around, you just want to do a personal exploration. You want to do an integrity audit. So what is the definition of integrity? So definition of integrity is twofold. So number one, it is honoring your word. Meaning that, and this is the full definition that I give to every man that I work with, is number one, it is honoring your word. Meaning that, is that you honor your word, which includes keeping your word, and in the event that you are human, and you do not do what you say that you are going to do, that you are honorable enough and accountable enough to acknowledge what you said, apologize if you caused any harm, and then create a new agreement that you will commit to emphatically. That's the exact definition that I give. So I want to be in the awareness of my issuing of my word and then be in the place of getting myself to the aspirational place where everything that I say is exactly what it is that I do. That's the aspiration. The second definition of integrity is really important, which is workability. Does it work? If I have a car and it does not have wheels, it doesn't work. If I have a table and it doesn't have legs, it doesn't work. It may be a floor table, you can have a floor table, whatever, but if it's supposed to be a table with chairs underneath it or whatever like that, then that doesn't work. So does it work or does it not work? And if I have relationships that are out of integrity, it simply means that they don't work. Doesn't mean it's bad or anything else like that. It just means that it doesn't work. So then in my leadership, the decision that I need to make for myself is, am I going to be in the awareness of what doesn't work? And then am I going to bring it into a place of workability? That's an important context that I need to bring into this. So, am I going to create workability around this thing? Am I going to make it work? Or am I going to be in my complaint, my blame, my judgment, my resentment associated with the fact that there's some aspect of my life that does not work? So, integrity. So, integrity audit, first stage. Second thing that I offer to people is to do a feedback survey from someone else, a stakeholder in your life, the most critical stakeholders in your life. So, identify the five people in your life that you really feel are the most prominent and represent, your board of directors. I got a board of directors. I got my wife, I got my, I got two kids. They're stakeholders in my life, right? So my two and a half year old doesn't necessarily have, we don't have functional conversations, but he is a stakeholder in my life. But I have other people in my life that I go to that are part of my council. I consider you to be a part of my council, even though I haven't done this directly with you. But I will say that I have a council of individuals that I go to to get feedback. And so what I do is I'm going to them simply for the space of receiving feedback.
Jeff Scult:
Peter Krohn was recently on Drops of Gold, and he was drawing on the delineation between free and freedom. And he errs on the side of the power of freedom, because it's a constitution. It's a container of being. So.
Sanyika:
How do we create freedom from the place of the doubt to shift to uncertainty? The reason that I was providing those two contexts is because the gateway to creating the freedom, if I do an integrity audit of what's working and not working in my life, or I get feedback from my environment, is that I realize that the way that I show up in my life is bigger than me. And when I get to the context of realizing, oh man, this is, the way that I'm moving isn't just about me. And here's the thing, you may either, here's the freedom, here's the free will. The free will is, Now that I am in the awareness of the impact and the way that I'm showing up, I can be in the awareness of creating exponential results, or conversely, I can be in the awareness of creating collateral damage. I can just be in the awareness of it. So at least I have the optionality, now I can see it. I can see how that shows up. So the freedom, so the invitation into freedom is not like, The invitation into freedom isn't, I'm gonna do everything I need to do. It's the awareness to realize what the greatest possibility of who you can become looks like, and then what happens when you don't step into that possibility. And then choosing from an internally, like tapping into the internal motor that is genetically placed in you, in me, in everyone, Like tapping into that thing to say that your calling is greater than your current circumstances. You have a calling in you. So this is purpose, right? So purpose, this is acorn, ant, everything. We all have a hand, right? You got a hand? I got a hand, right? We both got five fingers, right? Me and you got a hand. This is our purpose, right? Our purpose is to create, to serve, to love, to forgive. That's it. Our purpose is to create, serve, to love, to forgive. So that's purpose. We all have the same purpose. But your calling is your fingerprint. And it is the thing that you are uniquely called to do. Only you can leave your fingerprint on something. And the idea is that, do I feel compelled enough to move beyond the belief that my circumstances are solely about me? Because every time I think about it, like Jeff, even somebody who's seeing me on this camera, dude, I'm not the first 6'8 person in the world. Are you joking? I'm not the first person that does, um, that, that has built a community for men. I'm not the first person that is, that does spoken word poetry. I'm not the first person that does music. I'm not the first person to do any of those things. I'm not special in that way. Are you joking? The only distinction is that I just step into it and own it. That's it. So how do you own it? How do you step into it? The reason that you step into it is because when I do that integrity audit and come into awareness of myself and then I invite my stakeholders into giving me feedback, all of a sudden they go, oh, you're doing it for real now.
Sanyika:
Now you care because you want to hear what I think.
Sanyika:
And then what you subsequently do that you're not aware that you're actually doing is you're building community around you. You can't do it alone I'm a repeat and you can get as triggered as you want to get triggered You cannot do it alone Question Jeff are human beings predators or prey
Jeff Scult:
You want to talk about the human condition or the human experience? I mean, human condition, we're predators. The human experience, we are P-R-A-Y. And somewhere in the middle there, it's time to play. But I don't know. How would you answer that question?
Sanyika:
I like that distinction on P-A-R-R-A-Y.
Sanyika:
I'll get back to that in a moment. Genetically designed, we are predators. How would you know that you're a predator? Because of the positioning of your eyes. Prey animals have eyes on the sides of their head. Predators have eyes in the front of their head. Facts. Facts. So, if I am a predator, as people go, human beings are at the top of the food chain. Are you sure? If you were on a walk and you ran into a bear, which is also a predator, how do you defeat the bear?
Jeff Scult:
You look away. Depends on the well, actually you you you you but as I understand it Actually, I feel like Nick Sharp who was a naturalist who? Understands this stuff at a very deep level is in my ear. I believe what you do is you you You you you make yourself big but not threatening you look at the bear and you you look away and then you look back at the bear and You're and you're slowly retreating. I don't know tell me so I
Sanyika:
So I agree with that, that is an option depending on the type of bear. And when you run into that one bear that's going through, if it's a female bear going through some situations or some emotions, or if it's a male bear who just lost his salmon to another bear, he might be having a bad day. So he may not operate the way that we have been scientifically proven. So the bottom line is that if you run across a bear on a walk, generally speaking, depending on the type of bear, you're dead. That's pretty much it. Now the question is, how does a human defeat a bear? Individually, you do not. We are pack animals, my brother. The way that you defeat a bear is in the pack. So the doubt and the uncertainty are animals. And if you are aiming to get beyond the doubt and the uncertainty, you need the pack. You cannot do it alone.
Jeff Scult:
Yeah, we feed the pack. Feed the pack. And it's the white wolf and the dark wolf. Yeah. Light wolf and the dark wolf.
Sanyika:
Yeah. So then that brings into the question, well, who is your pack? And then if your response to that question is, well, I don't trust anyone enough to be in my pack, or I don't have anyone in my pack, or I don't, those are societally created conditions. Those are, that line of language is a representation to you that you are operating from the deepest part of your broken heart. So it is an invitation to you to heal the parts of you that don't allow connection. It is an invitation to you to heal the parts of you that do not create connection because the greatest myth is the myth that we are separated. So when I come to you to break that myth, your desire to support me is contingent upon my ability to bring you not just my love, but the motherfucking truth. Bring me your authenticity. Bring me your transparency. Bring me your vulnerability. Bring me your truth. I want your truth. And as a result of you bringing me your truth, it allows me to genuinely deliver the greatest sense of love that I have to give. And so that doubt and that uncertainty is broken apart when you go on that discovery path of saying, you know what? I need to break this apart. It's gotta be bigger than me. I'm gonna need to pack it. I'm gonna need to bring the truth. There, my brother, is your freedom.
Jeff Scult:
All parts, including those we need to burn.
Sanyika:
Things must burn. Things must burn. It's scary to watch the things burn. It's scary to watch the things burn because some of the things that you hope, some people are holding up a house of cards. And many people are holding up a house of cards and it's like, well, if I just hold up this card and then this one and then that one with my nose and this one, my elbow, hold up the whole thing. And then they keep, they get into this place of just holding up the things that are not working. And sometimes you gotta let that thing fall, man. You have to let the thing burn. You have to let it fall. And your job in watching it fall is to be in your presence and your groundedness and your listening as to what you truly, genuinely need. Easiest way, ask yourself a question right now. It's like, if everything in the house burns, what's the five things I'm grabbing? Everything else can go. That'd be a good place to start.
Jeff Scult:
I love the fact that you are part of your 10,000 hours, your journey, was being a lyricist, writing music. And when I hear a lyric that speaks to me, it oftentimes becomes part of my tapestry of what I can draw on. And I remember when I heard these words and it's what you're speaking to and it's, um, you know, I am no master. I know nothing yet. I'm a witness and I see something. And you know, this, this notion we've, we've, we've, we've touched on, we've, we've, we've played with, we've gone deeper into around, around listening and expression. It's like, it's, it's where we, you know, as victory sometimes says, like, you know, if you list all the things that you're grateful for, that you love, how long does it take for you to get to yourself, right? And so within the burning and the brewing of ourselves, you know, giving ourselves the ability to be a witness, because within that self-awareness, oftentimes that discovery, and also is the obliteration of this thing which we white-knuckle clutch so tightly, oftentimes we call it our identity. And what I love about what you're saying is, don't be afraid of the fire. Because that's where the phoenix rises. And every one of us is on a hero's journey. within that hero's journey, it's not a straight ascension. And so when we're going through it, whatever it is in this moment of it, the infinite now is that we can see it through the grace of the thing is not the thing, it's our relationship to the thing. And this, you know, this self-awareness of coming into that and also, you know, the deepest depths of every side of it, And it's what I revere most, that we get to remind each other and remind ourselves along this journey.
Sanyika:
We come back to the hero's journey. I talked about the distinction between purpose and calling. Everyone, I have a saying, I say, every man gets the call, but everybody doesn't answer the phone.
Sanyika:
Everybody gets the call, but everyone doesn't answer the phone. And why don't you answer the phone? Because the call came from an unknown number. So why would you answer the call? No one would, unless you answered it for a call. I mean, sometimes I answer calls from unknown numbers, but generally speaking, most people don't answer calls from unknown numbers. So you wouldn't answer the call. But here's the thing about the call. First of all, the call is from God. And God says, I'm calling to give you the assignment. And obviously it's coming from an unknown number. But then you just see the call multiple times on your phone. You're like, well, why am I getting this call multiple times on my phone? And then eventually it just comes to the point where you're just so angry and so frustrated and just so curious. You're like, why are they calling multiple times? And then eventually you answer the phone. And then when you answer the phone, you get the assignment. And then when you get the assignment, what do you do with the assignment? What's the second part of the hero's journey? The hero gets the call to adventure, and then what does he do? He rejects the call. You reject the call. So, I get the assignment. Now this is what you're supposed to do. And I go, psh, you're saying that my life could look better than it does right now? There's no way. This is my world. This is what I can currently see. I can't see the possibility of a future creation. I can only see the current world that I exist in. So this is the world that I am currently in. Why would I believe that a future possibility even exists for somebody who is not worthy of creating that possibility? So I get the assignment. I'm like, psh, whatever. This don't make no sense. I'm not going to listen to you. Yo, Jeff, I just got this random call from this unknown number and I got this assignment to do this thing that's going to make my life better and make the lives of other people better. And the bottom line is, is that I'm not doing it. And then I start to go to sleep. And that's where God starts working on you. God does his work on you in every moment of the journey. Life is a journey and God does his work on you every moment of the journey. Every night you go to sleep. The ruminations that occur when you are going to sleep About the assignment that you have just been given and the call that you must answer they grow bigger and bigger in your heart every single day and That swell that begins to occur in your sleep makes it so that you cannot go to sleep adequately And if you cannot adequately go to sleep Eventually, you come to the point where you're like, I have to do something. And at the point that you say, I have to do something, at that point is when you are effectively on your mission. Are you willing to be a person that surrenders to the vision? Are you willing to be a person that surrenders to the mission? And if you surrender to the mission, you get the assignment. And when you get the assignment, your knees are going to shake a little bit. That's the way it works. And then after your knees shake, you say, I have no choice. If you are one of the select few people that answers the call, This is your opportunity to do so. And I will just say that, Jeff, from the point that we first met, through whatever you needed to go through after you got the assignment, you answered the call. I am in the answering of the call. And this is an invitation for those people who have chosen to be in the answering of the call.
Jeff Scult:
A dream that keeps coming back is no longer a dream, it is a calling, and it's an invitation to answer the call. For those that want to go deeper into either A, learning with you, learning of you, from you, with you, through you, through themselves, where can those learned people who are listening come to find you and go deeper into their own journey?
Sanyika:
They can go to the All In CEO on IG. They can go to the allinceo.com.
Sanyika:
They can find me on Facebook. I may have a profile somewhere on Craigslist if I got a profile on Craigslist. Don't respond to that. I need to get rid of that.
Sanyika:
Just let me know and then I'll get rid of it. But yeah, the All In CEO. Or just search San Diego the Firestarter Street and then we can correspond from there.
Jeff Scult:
Yeah, I I want to as we're approaching I mean 108 in the day two days after 108 So this is profound that we get to spend the time together. I just have a Inquiry What do you know about the etymology of your name
Sanyika:
I know that my name is Nigerian, it is Yoruba. And my name means leader or gatherer of his people. It was given to me by my mother. It is a Nigerian name, I am not Nigerian.
Sanyika:
I am from Washington, D.C.
Sanyika:
But my name is given to me and somebody asked me a long time ago, they said, are you born a leader or do you become a leader? I said, it's easy to be born king. All you have to do is be born. But everyone becomes a leader.
Jeff Scult:
Yeah, well that's epic. This morning I had a moment of going deeper in the etymology of your name, and this is what came through. Senyika, powerful symbolism and destiny impact, evoking lovingness, ingenuity, and sharpness as a gatherer of the people, to bring people together. The seeker of great opportunities in life, strong character, intellect, an achiever, a peacemaker. Mm.
Sanyika:
That's powerful.
Jeff Scult:
You are powerful. Thank you so much, Sanyika, for being a blessing in all of our lives. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for being a contributor to the deepest depths of so many journeys. The consistency of the way that you show up is profound. You are all in. You are the embodiment of it. And as we complete, This episode of Drops of Gold, I always invite my co-spiriter to make the auditory sound of what the golden mic drop is, which we dropped many times on this episode.
Sanyika:
Boom!
Jeff Scult:
And so it is. And so it is. Sineek and my brother, much love to you.
Sanyika:
I love you, brother. I love you, too. Love you, man.
Jeff Scult:
Thank you for showing up. Thank you for being with us on Drops of Gold. Produced by Mark Shapiro and Josh Robertson. Music by Josh Robertson and Shazia. I'm your host, Jeff Skolt. And remember, in this moment and this moment forward, remember to always pull on your golden thread and find your truth in this now reality. Thank you for being with us. You are golden. Enjoy your journey.