LIFE OF A BOSS The Podcast

Takeaways from Ruben Munoz

January 13, 2022 JASON HARDIN Season 2 Episode 2
LIFE OF A BOSS The Podcast
Takeaways from Ruben Munoz
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Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, Jason & Suzu share their takeaways from our interview with business owner and founder of Grand Rising Institute, Ruben Munoz.

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Jason Hardin  0:02  
Hello, hello, and welcome to another wonderful episode of Life of A Boss The Podcast. I am your host, Jason Hardin. And today we have a special guest. As always in the studio, my co producer and lovely woman, Suzu Sinay. How you doing?

Suzu Sinay  0:19  
Thank you so much for that introduction. I'm doing wonderful. And it's wonderful to be here again. And to be back.

Jason Hardin  0:24  
I'm glad Yeah, we are back. This is our first episode of the new year. And today we will be talking and taking away from my interview with Ruben Munoz. Ruben is the founder of grand rising Institute and Telesis printing company. So the good brother dropped a lot of gems, and we want to get into it today. Because, yeah, it was just a very profound interview, very overcoming young man, this brother had so many challenges I'm talking about, from the gang lifestyle, to jail to cases in prison and all that. So he's been through a lot to, to get to where he is today. And he is a remarkable member of society now, and does a lot of good with a lot of youth and people in our community. So I just want to give him that credit right now. But that being said, we're gonna get into our takeaways, and baby what's your first takeaway from the interview?

Suzu Sinay  1:25  
My first takeaway, so you asked him a question, you asked him what resilience meant to him. And I wrote down just the first line, which was can't stop won't stop. He said a bunch of other cool shit that was that rhymed and

Jason Hardin  1:40  
was about to get into a flow. Yeah, I swear.

Suzu Sinay  1:43  
But I love that can't stop won't stop. And it's not so much that, you know, it can't stop. So it's almost like you don't have a choice. Yeah, the resiliency, you can't stop, you won't give up? You know, and I think that's really driven, I think by finding like, a higher purpose, you know, and finding direction. Yeah. And just for him, maybe, you know, finding like God's purpose.

Jason Hardin  2:07  
And finding himself. Yeah, I think he found himself in his transition. Yeah, you know, like he says later on multiple layers of change. And I think that's one of the first thing is just realizing who you are. And my first takeaway was a little bit different. For those that don't know, I just got out the hospital and I had surgery, I had a cystic tumor in the back of my neck. And that caused a lot of issues health wise for me and a lot of mechanical and motor issues. And one of them was speaking, I could not speak well. So it it. It was very apparent listening to myself, I can hear the tumor in my voice. Seriously, I can hear the speech impediment, I can hear the effects of it. And it was kind of hard to listen to. But to tie that in with resilience, because I said it's bouncing back from any ailment, or adversity. And I'm just happy to be back right now. Y'all see the shaved head, that's the doctors work. You know, there wasn't no barber that did that. I was there was a nurse, they were trying to get to my brain. So that's why they did it. But um, but yeah, I just feel like a million bucks now. And that's what resilience meant to me. And that was my definition. And that's what I got from the podcast, listening to it. It was kind of hard to listen to it hard. Listening to myself. Being that way, you know, cuz I've remember how I felt. It's like, almost forgot how, how good it felt to be healthy. You know, I forgot how how much joy I get out of doing all this for a while, you know, so So now I feel back. Now I feel like I've overcome that adversity. And then I've normalized again. And I'm still healing, but it just feels like a new awakening for me. And it feels like I've overcome it. And that's what resilience meant to be. And that's what I got from the show. And you didn't stop. And I didn't stop. That's the whole point. When I was in it. I was still do. I didn't even talk about how bad I felt. Because I didn't want to add that to how bad I felt. You know, I didn't want to play you. I'm glad it didn't stop you. It. It didn't. It didn't. And it slowed you down. It did slow me down. It slowed me all the way down. But I didn't have a choice. I did. I felt exactly and that that's a testament to what we just said is that when you find your purpose, you just keep going. Yeah, you know, and when stuff trips you up when you fall, you get back up. And I think that was a great point made by Ruben. Yes. Okay. My next takeaway from this interview was he said he felt every pain in his transition. He said he felt everything he went through and change didn't come overnight. That was layers of change and really He said those layers peel back with each piece of adversity he faced. And I can relate to that, because everything I go through, is almost like becomes a breakthrough. At some point, you know, if I went through it, then there's something at the other end of it, you know, and if nothing else, there's knowledge. At the other end of it, there's the knowledge of how to get to what you went through, even if you couldn't do nothing about it. It was the knowledge of how you accepted it, how you mentally went through it without you know, getting worse, or having a making the worst with with a poor attitude or with with trying to quit or give up. It's like, how did you get through it? And if you didn't do anything else, you You survived it. So there's value at the end of everything. And I think that's one thing that he really tried to touch on is that after every piece of adversity he faced and one was going to jail. One was losing his kids and, and there was so much that that happened. He turned that into knowledge. And he turned that into an experience that then allowed him to help somebody else.

Suzu Sinay  6:11  
Yes, yeah. Yeah, that's my next point. Yep. Layers, he basically had to peel those layers to build to boost his confidence, self esteem. And I think that's also basically how he built you build resilient resilience as well. It's not just it doesn't resilience doesn't come all at once. It's layers, and every time you overcome some problems, or difficulties, that's just peeling back another layer adding resilience, you know? So it's kind of the same as peeling the layers and building confidence for him. Absolutely. Because he was building that reason.

Jason Hardin  6:42  
And you're only gonna discover how much resilience you have or how resilient you are by going through something. You'll never know what you can make it through until you go through it. You know, and some people say, Man, I couldn't survive that I've never been. And I felt that way about the surgery about, you know, like, Man, am I gonna wake up? And well, you know, but you don't know until you go through it.

Suzu Sinay  7:02  
Mm hmm. Yeah, what I didn't know.

Jason Hardin  7:05  
And when I woke up, I felt better, you know, so. So you have to go through stuff to get through stuff. I don't know if that makes sense to you. But you have to go through stuff to get through stuff. And to know that you can actually make it through. And every time you make it through some, you become that much more powerful. Because that was brilliant. Anyway, yeah. You only you like, I can't do the part of you, I can do this. And then it gives you that bit of confidence that you need to know that I can go through it again, if I had to, you can help others get through it. Exactly. And that's so valuable. And that's one thing that we did an episode on is turning problems into profit or, or into success. Yeah, turning problems into success. And if that's how it happens, it's resilient, that allows you to turn those problems into a success story. Mm hmm. Okay, next, what you got?

Suzu Sinay  7:55  
Um, so next takeaway was how intentional Ruben was when he said he was incarcerated. Yeah. And how he took that opportunity. Like he didn't see it as a disadvantage. So many people see it as a disadvantage, but he used it to his advantage. Yeah, yeah. You know, he took the time to really self improve, like, you know, read books and work on himself, read write? And where other people would just be killing time? Yeah, they wouldn't see it as an opportunity. It would just be like, and then it really would be wasted time. Yeah,

Jason Hardin  8:27  
he gave me his time. Time didn't do him. You know, that's the old school saying, if you're from the hood you heard that before, man, do your time. Don't let your time do you young brother! You know, in the end, he did it. And, and he tapped into who he was, because one thing I want to say like he, he saw he looked in the mirror and saw himself, you know that he didn't try to lie to himself anymore. And that was one thing that I wanted to touch on, is that, he said, once you're honest with yourself, being vulnerable, is a piece of cake. Yeah. And I think a lot of us, we lie to ourselves about who we really are, that's

Suzu Sinay  9:06  
hard to be vulnerable. To tell, you know, to be honest with yourself, you have to be very vulnerable.

Jason Hardin  9:11  
Man. We can't hide from ourselves. Why lie to ourselves? Oh, you know what I'm saying? And there's so many things that people just don't want to face about themselves that if they just faced it, yeah, it admit it, they can solve it. You can't fix a problem you don't think you have? And I think that's the whole point of just reflection and knowing who you are. So you can actually fix those flaws because because you can't own your flaws. If you don't think you have them, you know, you can't improve you can't improve. Yeah, and that's one thing that I want to say about Ruben. His change came like he said in jail, because it came to finding self improvement. He learned that the solution to everything started with looking inward, the solution to all the problems he had and and the gifts that he he now is able to give to people It came from looking inward. It started looking inward. It started with self improvement. How can I teach myself to me? And he said it. How can I teach what I don't know? Yeah, you know, I gotta practice what I preach. In all that's the same thing. And all that is just accountability. It's all knowing your power and your control, and that you have absolute control over you. And it's exercising that control. And I thought that was very powerful. Baby?

Suzu Sinay  10:27  
oh, well, which point did you want me to talk? Because I'm jumping all over the place. You picked up some I don't

Jason Hardin  10:34  
like reading. That's the whole point. I don't like reading.

Suzu Sinay  10:38  
list one.

Jason Hardin  10:41  
You know, I go down the list too. But yeah.

Suzu Sinay  10:45  
I don't I'm not there yet. So it's okay. Yeah, it's, and the next point was really just like uncovering himself. He was finding Rubin by letting go of preconceived ideas and shedding layers to uncover who he was.

Jason Hardin  10:58  
Yeah, yeah, that's basically everything I just said. But that's the point it was in another thing that I got, I mean, to cut you off, okay. And at the end, he learned to cut ties and burn bridges. You know, once you discovered himself, he learned to separate himself from the person who he thought he was supposed to be the person he thought, what is their preconceived ideas. That's what he said. He had preconceived ideas of how he thought he should act, who he should be how he should conduct himself. And he realized that those weren't helping him, those preconceived ideas weren't written in stone. Yeah, he can be who he wants to be in who He really was. He said he was a nerd, you know, he's a yoga lovin nerd, you know. And, and that's deep, because that's been him being vulnerable again. And that's also being true to yourself. And I think at one point, Ruben just gave up the need, or the conditioning, to be like anybody else to be like, the people who saw in his life to be like, the people in his environment. He had to be somebody, he had to create who he was. And it started from learning who he was. And I think that's so important. Once we know who we are, we can be that person. Yeah. But if you if you don't ever look to see what really makes you happy, what really makes you shatter five really brings you joy. Ruben said he loved reading, you know, he loved reading, he loved learning, he loved doing things. And, and he had to tap into that, because he was probably avoiding things like that. But yeah, he was talking about how reading doesn't look cool. If you're in a group or in a neighborhood or in an environment where nobody read. Yeah, yeah, you know, big words, and cool if nobody understands what you're talking about. So he had to just separate the need to fit in and from who really was and the person who really wanted to be so I respect that.

Suzu Sinay  12:50  
Yeah, um, I think that next point was removing barriers. That was my next point. And towards the end about, I also connected to harnessing energy, because when you remove barriers, it's like, you're harnessing the energy, but you're also focusing energy, because a lot of times our energy be focused on these barriers that aren't serving us. Oh, correct. And so removing those, you can actually harness the energy that was being used on those barriers. Yeah. Can you hold on to them? Right, yeah. And you let them go, you remove them from your life. And now you can actually use that energy towards something that's going to serve you

Jason Hardin  13:22  
exactly because I don't know about you. But when I had legal issues, because I wasn't addressing those issues, I was had to think about it, you know, because I forget about it. It's like a turning towards facing your embrace, sadly, and now, and now they become real hazards become real barriers. Now, I can't do nothing with a warrant. Now I can't drive freely, but I worry about getting pulled over and arrested. Now I can't you know, I might lose a job, I might lose a gig being arrested over a warrant, that could have been fixed over traffic warrant, how many people have been to been to jail over traffic, been to jail, because you didn't go to court. And I just think it's so important to take care of your business. You know, whatever you got to do to get your kids back, whatever you got to do to get to expungement, whatever you got to do to clear your record. And again, as you get stuffed, knocked off your record, all that time consuming and all that paperwork and attention. But once you go through it, you don't have to worry about it as much. If you never go through, you're always have to worry. So many people are dealing with child support issues, and you know, and avoiding them, but still have to deal with it everyday because you're avoiding it. Instead of just going to make an arrangement make some payments and moving on and release some of these barriers. What you about to say baby?

Suzu Sinay  14:39  
I was just gonna tell you sometimes it's easier to remove the obstacle before you have to get to a point where you need to overcome the obstacle.

Jason Hardin  14:46  
Yeah, it is easy to remove it. But it takes that time and like you said it takes that energy, yet the focus energy on the right stuff. And then when you do when you alleviate that barrier, it's no more energy sucking out Yeah, it's a past experience now. And now you got something else that you can teach somebody. If you remove a barrier, you become more valuable because now you know how to remove that barrier, not just for yourself and share the solution. I love that.

Suzu Sinay  15:17  
Okay. Um, I know a reoccurring theme was just gratitude, gratitude to balance his life, and it just makes me think of just living in gratitude. You know, when you live in gratitude, you live for your purpose. Yeah, you know, you stay humble. Yeah. And, yeah, that's it. That was the reoccurring theme there for him. I like that. And having gratitude to balance your life.

Jason Hardin  15:45  
Yeah. Because I asked him, How does he balance being a parent, a single parent, being a on on honor role in College, running a nonprofit, and running a business, you know, and basically, he said, is being grateful to have all those things to do, because he remembered when he didn't have nothing to do. He, where he could just sit and relax and smoke all day and didn't have he wasn't missing nothing he wasn't late for nowhere. But nowhere he didn't have to be anywhere. And he remembers of days, and he's grateful for all the things he has to do right now. So that's a perspective, a paradigm shift. Yeah, yeah. And we all need that to do better. We have to, it's all such a perspective. You know, once we see and value, what we have, once we show appreciation for what we have, we can get through a lot of things we can do so much with that appreciation. And I think that that's how he's able to stay in school and not miss classes, not miss a board meetings, not miss children's practice at Karate and Taekwondo, like he's able to do these things, because he grateful for each and everything yes to do. And I appreciate that.

Suzu Sinay  16:57  
Yeah, it's totally his perspective. Because otherwise, you have a perspective of all these things that you have to do rather than that you get to do Mm hmm.

Jason Hardin  17:06  
And the last point, I want to make the last takeaway, I have so many, you know, but the last takeaway I want to have takeaway, I want to say is that when he said, don't be a slave to your past, you know, that and I think that was a last word of wisdom that he gave to the audiences is to don't be a slave to your past, don't, don't hold on to the mistakes you made. Basically, forgive yourself, you know, because we were talking about forgiveness the other day, and, and you just, you can't move on, without forgiving yourself for the mistakes you thought you made. Or for the, or forgiving other people for the situation you used to be in. Or you might be in now, because some of us are still in situations and still blaming either ourselves for making a bad decision, or parents for making bad decisions, our job or whatever, we still blaming somebody. And that's why we're still in that situation. As soon as you let blame go. You're able to focus that energy to to spending blaming somebody, to getting ahead now to progressing to correcting whatever that flaw was, whatever that flaw that made you made the mistake, whatever that that insufficient attitude you had for yourself or other people. And I think that's so important. That's so powerful forgiveness, you have to forgive yourself first. If you don't, you'll never move on. It's

Suzu Sinay  18:25  
an act of self love. And showing yourself grace and accepting yourself.

Jason Hardin  18:29  
Exactly. You have to love yourself. That's so important. And the whole thing is, is just to relate to another point, you have to say and see that your worth, you know, if you if you don't think you're worth it, none of this shit matters. None of this personal development. None of these are getting healthier, getting better, getting smarter again, making more money, being a better person, being a better father, being a better lover. Like none of that means nothing if you don't love yourself, if you don't, if you don't think you're worth anything that will make you get better than you're not going to get better. Yeah. So you have to see the value in yourself. You have to love yourself to make any kind of difference or any kind of positive change in your life.

Suzu Sinay  19:11  
Oh, yeah. And you know what, it's sometimes it's hard if to get to that point, if you've never loved yourself, and just a little bit of advice, just sometimes being around people who really love you can kind of help there's a saying in recovery, that, you know, they love you before you can love yourself. Yeah, kind of showing you that you are worth it. You know, you're worthy of their love. And then you grow to believe that, you know, maybe I'm worthy of my own love. So

Jason Hardin  19:38  
that's good. I like that. And that goes to being in the environments that are healthy. Mm hmm. If you can help it, stay out of unhealthy environments, stay away from negative people, if you can help it. Some of us I mean, they're not family, some of us, they're in their parents, you know, they're their teachers, their bosses, so you can't escape that person. But you You can always escape that mentality, escape them and know that you're worth it. Know that you're valuable if somebody says otherwise don't believe it, like, you know, cuz they don't know your value you and if you don't know your value, love yourself and you'll find your value, you know what I'm saying you have to see that you're at least valuable enough to invest time in to invest resources in because like I said if you don't love yourself you're not gonna invest nothing. If you love something you get to take care of it. You love your dog, you're gonna buy him the nicest collar, the best pedigree food, the nicest dog house, but if you hate your dog, you ain't gonna buy him nothing. You ain't gonna put no love. No, anyone gonna talk to him? You're gonna train them? Yeah, go teach him nothing is same with ourselves. You don't love yourself, you're not gonna teach yourself nothing, you're not gonna, you're not gonna try to get better. You're not gonna invest money into your ideas. It is just a waste, you become a waste. And it all starts from self love. But anyway, that's our show for the day, man. I love our first day back, you know, I'm excited. And I'm just happy to be here. I'm happy to be healthy. I'm grateful for everybody who who's shed some love and shared some resources and positive thoughts prayers, all that stuff, man. I appreciate it all man cuz I felt it all. Yeah, I felt it already. And I saw it all you know, and and it was more than I would have ever thought to see. I didn't know that. That many people care. You know what I'm saying. So I love myself a little bit more now, because of y'all felt the love. I felt the love and it made me want to love myself. And it made me want to value myself even more. And I appreciate all of it. So thank you for that. We are back. We're going to have a great season for you this year in 2022. And I just want to tell y'all, man, keep checking out the website. The book is coming out soon. Life of a boss the book, man you can pre order it on the website right now, but it's coming out soon. And yeah, check out the podcast. New episodes every Thursday and every Monday. Probably could have sent the other way around. But still, you know, days of the week. Exactly. And man I love y'all. Anyway, peace.