Gary “Litefoot” Davis on How to Get More Done | Impact Theory

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Impact Theory. On today's episode, we are joined by real life renaissance man Gary Lightfoot Davis. Award-winning rapper, actor, author, entrepreneur, and political figure are just a few of the amazing accomplishments on his resume. Join us as we discuss how to keep moving forward, setting aggressive timelines, and leading by example. Without further ado, my friends, the one and only Gary Lightfoot Davis. Wow. Good to be here. Pleasure. Awesome coming on. Absolutely. Absolutely. Glad to be here, dude. It was awesome to have you hearing your story. Obviously, it's a very unconventional tale of success, right? And it started from something pretty powerful. Walk me through what happened with um the the financial collapse for your family, what that led to, and what your parents taught you through that hard times is pretty amazing. Yeah, I had grown up with a father that had shown me, a grandfather that had also shown me hard work and that through hard work, we can accomplish uh providing for our family if nothing else. That we can uh show them that that um maybe we didn't have these things when we grew up, but we can give back uh if we just get a very clear-cut idea of what we can do uh however small that it might be to make an impact. And so for my grandfather, it was it was way tougher. Um he had a way tougher um start in school. Uh had run away from uh a very well-known Indian boarding school in Oklahoma and hitchhiked back all the way with his little brother um to uh Claremore, Oklahoma, right outside of Claremore, Oklahoma. And um he his whole life taught himself resiliency and showed us resiliency that you can do things that um uh will will sort of help motivate other people. And my father was the beneficiary of that. He saw that it was possible to be an entrepreneur. And then myself, I would see both of these guys, uh, my grandfather at that point very, uh, well along in his years getting up every morning and going to work at 4 in the morningow, uh, in very hot Oklahoma weather in the summer, then coming home and working all evening in the garden. And I couldn't get enough of that. I wanted to be around him as much as I possibly could. than my father. Seeing him do everything that he needed to do, even if it meant taking it into his own hands to get it done. And just me through osmosis absorbing all of this and seeing these two men uh do very very great things for our family. And then in a turn of events, um we lost everything and it was pretty devastating. um we went from having a decent sort of middle class life to um really sort of having to lose our home and end up living with my grandparents and the burden that that put on them and then I had to sort of forego school for a year to get out of that and go work. Uh not that they forced me to do that. I just felt like look these guys have a load on them and what can I do to help? And so I went and got a job and and um and tried to contribute the best that I could with my paycheck to provide groceries and food. And I just probably didn't realize it then, but I was building this feeling that I need to do as much as I possibly can so that we never have to go through this situation again so that in as an adult um things will be different for me. So, I was fighting and I was fighting to try to make sure that that um I kept moving forward. And I realized that if it was going to happen for me, I probably was going to have to make it happen, that there was going to be no way that um somebody's going to swoop in and just put it in my lap and that it was just all going to be there for me. So, when did you start thinking that? Cuz that's that's a pretty incredible like moment of awakening that shuts most people down, right? But it definitely didn't shut you down. So, at what age do you start actually thinking in that way? Around the time that things started to fall apart with my parents' marriage even in high school, there was this sort of guy that was the the it guy on the team and and another guy that his father had built the stadium. So, you know, he he was going to play regardless of what happened uh and regardless of how good he was. So, I started to learn these lessons that it's not always about how good you are or how talented you are. you have to work 10 times as hard to cut through some of this. And as I was going through this, I lost my grandparents, both of them, within a very short period of time. So, here I am, I think, sort of being forged, you know, in the flames, uh, to realize that you really can depend on yourself. You you you of course have to have many great people around you, but I knew that if it was going to happen for me, I had to keep moving forward. Maybe that was a stumble, maybe it was a crawl, maybe it was just barely trying to put one thing in front of the the other during that time. But I kept pushing forward. I kept moving forward. And I think that's one of the lessons I still carry forward with me to this day. When I see things getting tough or when I see things that seem insurmountable to other people, um, I know we just have to stay the course. We have to stay focused and we keep putting one foot in front of the other. The key is to keep moving. And and that's something that I think really was that turning point for me. But there were people that had that same belief, but they didn't make it. So, what is it that people can cultivate? Like right now, the kid that's listening to you that for whatever reason, whether he's Native American or not, he's being told the same thing. Whatever you want to do, like it's ridiculous. Like, what can they do to make sure they've got the fortitude to last through the whole res tour? Um, yeah. Like, how do you build that in yourself? Every experience that comes your way is is a tool. When we lost our home and we had to go live with my grandparents, I understood that these are just material things that that doesn't define you. It's not it doesn't make you. So when you get these challenges, when you have these things that come up in your life, continue to move forward. Now, how do you get to that place where you come back and move forward and that you become very intentional about it? I just did uh one of our footnotes that's sort of a daily motivational inspirational thing about baby steps. M baby steps. Become intentional about what it is that you're going to do. Nobody in your family may have done that. Nobody in your community, your city, your country may have done that. But if that's what's been put here for you, take it in baby steps. Begin to see how that you're going to move forward. It's exactly what I did once I came and understood my purpose and I understood what it is that I was supposed to be doing. I I sat down and created a plan as to how I was going to go about deploying that. And I think that's what you really have to do. And take it in baby steps. Don't try to do the whole thing at once. Sit it down, uh, look at it, break it down, rebuild it, put it back together, and then assign time frames to everything that you want to accomplish and break it down in phases and then focus everything you have on that phase. How do you do that, by the way? I So, I heard you say this in probably the the footnote you're talking about where you said, "Okay, I start with where I'm trying to get, right? This is my goal, and then I work backwards to where I am today, and I identify each of those baby steps that I have to take." How how do you do that process? This is a question I get asked a lot because I'm totally with you. This exactly what I do, but even like I'm not sure how to explain that in between like how do you get good at identifying the real tangible steps. We only know what we know right now about what we want to do, right? I mean it could be there could be things out there that will be so much more awesome, but we just we don't know what we don't know, right? And to the best of our ability, what we can say is here's where I am right now. I can put a waypoint right there. I can mark that and I know that I want to do X and this is that thing. So if I'm going to step back now, what I've got to do is go to work. I've got to study every single bit of that and understand every iteration. You know, if it's to make an album. So what are all the steps in making an album from content creation to music production to mastering to editing to recording the record? you know, what are all the the business aspects of things that go into that? Who do I need to sing on all these 10 songs? How many are going to have a chorus that somebody sings? How many of So, I I start to understand what I have to do and what I'm going to need other people to do. And then I start to think, okay, well, what's the money going to be? How much do I have to put from a money point of view into each phase? So, each phase has a capital raise that I have to ascertain all of these other things about what am I going to do to have to put into this to make it become a reality. And so that's where I'm focused on once I hone in on all these things, you know, yes, it's to be on tour with somebody, right? But first, I have to have a record. I have to have an album. And do you model after somebody? Like if you're trying to do an album, do you find somebody that you can get a lot of information from and then copy that as a starting point or how do you do that process? I think every successful person always looks at other successful people as especially in their field or a field they're endeavoring to get into. Why uh why fix it if it's not broke? You just have to find your piece of it that you bring to make it you. But if they're doing it and they're doing it incredibly well, sit back and look at it and and find all the ways that that you can take that great model, fix it where you feel like it needs to be fixed. Make it you. And then can you add to it? Can you put something on top of it? And then you take that and and really that's when you start to really do the work and and sit down and study each piece of it. And then you assign the time frames. I think the time frames the timelines are the critical piece to it because that's where so many people go from just having a hobby or a a dream. And I'm and I'm sure many people understand that uh dreams are tough because without a time frame, a timeline, they may just stay dreams. when you assign a time frame and a plan of action to it, it can become a goal and then it can become attainable. And I think that's what you have to do is it and it brings it makes it very present. Then you have your work cut out for you. You know what you need to do and now it's just about doing it. So you do you set like really aggressive timelines or how do you decide your timeline? Very aggressive. Very aggressive. I I I guess it would be that old adage, shoot for the stars and if you fail then at least you're in the clouds, right? I remember somebody telling me uh when we were choreographing some of my first songs, just whatever you do, don't stop because more than 99% assuredness, nobody's going to know it was a screw- up unless you stop. If you keep moving, everybody's going to think that's just, you know, own it. If if you were supposed to go right and you go left, then the minute that you realize, oh my god, I just went left. What am I going to do? go to the crowd and start going, you know, dancing to the crowd or doing, they're never going to know that that it was a mess up. So, yes, you have to improvise, you have to adapt, you have to overcome, you have to be like water. Uh the great Bruce Lee saying that, you know, you have to be uh able to conform yourself to those situations so that you ever don't do yourself a disservice by not growing and not becoming better. You have to be able to be malleable. And I think that's the greatest thing about being shaped and having been to that place. You know, it may cause you to go through some growing pains, but there's there's that's that's awesome. And and at first when you go through that, you're just, "Oh my god, this hurts. I don't want to be here." And oh, it hurts. And complain, complain, complain. But if you start to look at it once you've got through it a couple times, you're like, "Oh, here we go. This is probably going to be pretty good." You know, oh, this is going to be awesome. I know. Wow, man. This really hurts. So if it's really hurting, I know it's really going to be good on the other side of it. And you just see yourself grow and you grow and you grow and you grow. And I think that's how you get from, you know, rapping to a small group of people and then speaking to larger audiences and testifying to Congress. Wow. Yeah, it is pretty unbelievable like the chasm that you've crossed. In fact, walk us through a little bit of that. So who are some of the performers that you modeled yourself after that you feel like you've learned a lot from and what have you learned? So, I I would be remiss if I don't first go right to Michael Jackson. He's the man and and he was a master. Uh there will be never another Michael Jackson. He just was all it. And and so when you get into, you know, hiphop um you know, so many uh folks influenced me um from from very early on. Um, and then I remember all the way forward into folks that really started taking it um into the mainstream and you know, folks that that were really ridiculed, that were berated for their commercial success, MC Hammer um was just ostracized because he got a British Knights shoe deal and he was a sellout. And now you can't find a rapper that doesn't want a shoe deal. Yeah. They're like rushing to it. No. and you can't find a record label that's not factored in a shoe deal, a clothing deal, a movie deal, a commercial deal, a Sprite deal, you know, some something deal to promote a product or a brand. Um, and it's just part of what it is and so it's very accepted today. But I also looked at, you know, the people that hung on to these people and milked them dry of all their money and, you know, coming coming from the hood or coming from your struggle and, you know, everybody that sort of, you know, and I to my degree experienced some of that, too. So, it helped me as I was watching other people and again modeling some of the mistakes, some of the things that they did do, didn't do, you know, getting into problems with, you know, your money in general. Um, and so, long story short, just looking at sort of the the things that that Public Enemy uh was saying. Um, things from a political activist standpoint cuz your lyrics are very political. Very much so. Um, in fact, people were calling you militant if I'm not mistaken when you first came out. Yeah. Early. They don't they now they're just like, "Wow, that's so awesome." And grandma's like, "This is so awesome." Like, "Man, I wish you would have said something when people were calling me militant and an activist and all this stuff." I didn't feel like it was militant, you know, and and I and I say that and my stuff was at least even with some of the concepts and things that um Public Enemy was talking about or um you know, Exclan or some of these you know, old school groups that that you know, Professor X and and all these guys in in in you know, the um S1Ws and everybody that was down with Public Enemy. Um, so you know, um, it was trying to really with my music give folks some pride, some understanding to remove some of the oppression. Um, I think, you know, still to this day, we suffer from an intense amount of fear that I think is just genetically and and through years of oppression built into our community. So people are very hesitant to do anything outside of the box because every time we've done that uh we've felt the wrath and the power of the the government and it's very tough and again you only know what you know right so some of my lyrics were very very um just cut to the point and get right to it because at the same time I was writing these things I was having grandma's cry I was out in the community seeing how people were living not just in my community and not just the struggles that my family was h having but I was everywhere constantly in the community for for years and years and years just from one reservation to the next reservation. It would be nothing to be in three or four reservations within 10 days and we're doing this every year for years and so you can't help but absorb the struggle of everyone. What does it mean to you? You've got a really powerful saying, we are the people we've been waiting for, right? What does that mean? What do you hope people do with that? There's um a prophecy that our ancestors will return one day. And so you kind of take that at face value and you sort of think, okay, so what does that mean? They're like, we're gonna see a bunch of spirits rolling up and you know, they're all back. Oh, hey, I haven't seen you in forever. Um, I don't think it means that. I think that everything that has been done before us is a part of us. And so it's equally as important that we do everything that we possibly can with our life for everything that they did for us before we were even born. And I think that makes it even more powerful when you think of we can't depend on other people. That that's sort of been my throughine is I've never understood how you can be independently codependent. You you either can be independent and stand on your own two feet and know who you are and what you're here for. And in the tough times, uh, when when everything is pulling you to do something, you know, that maybe just go with the flow, that's the moment you have to be the flow. And it may run in the opposite direction of the current that's asking you to to jump in. Um, you talked about that with your dad. You said one thing that I learned from my dad was never be afraid to stand alone or maybe even be the lone wolf. I don't I might be painting that on it, but that was the image that I had. You could assign both of those things to him. Yeah. Um, what does what does that mean? like how can how have you manifest that in your own life, you seem the absolute embodiment of that, right? So, being the first Native American rapper when everybody not only is just going to sort of obviously tell you that it can't be done cuz that's where people always start, but this is also at a time where you would be the the only person who isn't African-American being taken seriously with minor exceptions. So, like, how have you in your life been not afraid to stand alone? How has it served you? Like looking at you self-published your book, you created your own record label to sign yourself. Like, how has it worked for you? What are lessons that you hope people will take from that? It can be a very lonely journey. Um, so you absolutely have to know where you get your strength. I remember walking on the set of Indian in a cupboard. had never had an acting class in my life. Um, and it started to dawn on me and it becomes pretty big where you're like, I'm the Indian in the Indian in the cupboard and this is already a classic book. This is a huge production. Frank Oz, Industrial Light and Magic, Paramount Pictures, Sony Studios. And I'm like, does anybody know? I don't know what the hell I'm doing, man. Um, and I went in the sound stage and I was first day of filming and I found this quiet place over off of the set and I just went down on one knee and I just asked the creator to give me everything that I needed to do what's in front of me. Not everybody's work ethic is the same. So, if you don't feel like you're up to that place right now to run a marathon, how do you start training for a marathon? By running. By running more and running more baby steps. Take it as you can take it to grow and to work those muscles, develop those muscles. And if you're willing to go through the pains and the es and the flows and and the new shoes and the blisters and the whatever you got to go through to get to that goal, you will run that marathon. It, you know, you speak about the people on the tour that couldn't make it through. Uh here we're very focused. you know, of all the people that we left uh to go on that uh journey with, uh only my wife, my son, myself, our documentary uh film director, and one person made it from beginning to end. Um there was literally a time where um there was somebody complaining on the tour and uh I'll never forget this in my whole life. Um we were almost you know through I think probably midway and um this really big guy and he he was hungry right and we hadn't had a chance to really eat well that day but we were on our way to it and he was complaining about not wanting to go anymore because he wanted to eat now right so my wife went over and now you got to imagine this is a F550 really large Ford pickup truck in a big huge long 48 foot trailer. So, it's it's a pretty big tandem. And she walks over and she says, "Um, can I have your car keys?" And he says, "For for what?" She's like, "Why don't you go get in and sit down and I'll drive." And he just shut up. That was it. He said, "All right." So, and he just turned around and went and got in and started the car and we were ready to go. But I think you you have to lead. You have to be willing to lead. And if you're not, nobody will follow that. And in the moments where it's most stressful, if you don't know where you're headed, if you don't know what you're supposed to be doing, nobody else will either. And you have to be able to stay that course and be willing to do what you need to do. So there were times where the the bus driver that we had, we think, okay, well, this is already hard enough on everything else we got to do. Um, he didn't make it probably I would say he didn't make it 5,000 3,000 miles of that 54. Wow. So, I learned how to drive a tour bus. Just to paint the picture for people, the reason that people are dropping off is because you're having to drive through the night. You're doing multiple shows in one day. Like, I mean, there's just no rest for you guys to do the 211 shows, meetings, speak speeches in the single year. as much driving as you guys have it. It when you said that it was the equivalent of twice around the earth, you really get a sense of like how far you guys are going in such a short period of time. I was really quite inhuman, frankly. And what I loved is I heard you guys talking in another interview where your wife said, "I wasn't trying to check the guy when she took his keys. I wasn't trying to check him or like, you know, get in his face about it." And the interviewer said, "Sometimes that's the best way to check somebody." You know, to your point about leadership, you you lead by example. It's not like you're trying to go. So you take that off the table, we'll eat when we eat. No judgment, right? Like but I am going to take the keys and I'm going to drive. And that's one of the things that I find so fascinating about your story. And one thing reading your book that really hit me was when you were talking about your mom and she goes from the nice middle-ass existence to being the peer of everybody. You guys lose everything. She doesn't miss a beat and she starts working as a maid for some of essentially her former peers. And she told you never be afraid to start over. Right. And I don't even know your mom. And that hit me and I can only imagine what you took from that. How has that echoed through your life? She led by example. I I really believe what they did in their lives, my father, his work ethic, my mother's resiliency. Um I'm the beneficiary of all those things. I stand on their shoulders and therefore I can't be anything less than that. And you know, you talk about the the sort of inhumane nature of this tour, this effort. The situation out on the reservation is that crazy. It's that unknown to people, how horrible the conditions are here in America. Um, and how under the radar it is almost for everybody. Um, the anomaly that it is for most everybody. um how how hard it it it maybe it's almost akin to standing on a uh island where you're the only inhabitant wanting to be rescued or wanting somebody to come down and provide some assistance and you keep saying it's an island next to an airport. You know, everybody sees you must be, but nobody's going to come down and do anything about it. And yet at the same time, you see all this going out to all these other countries and we're doing everything for everybody else. So, is it intentional? you know, this must be intentional. People must intentionally not be looking down to see that because it's right here. And so the tour was an effort to draw over and above and beyond the attention not just from outside of Indian country, but for Indian country again leading through example. I'm going to make this an example of if some some folks I'm not a tribe. I don't have all that funding. I don't have all of these things. But if if you know a couple uh their family can go out and garner enough support to be able to execute and deploy and logistically do this whole effort, what is our bigger excuse to not do this? If if a few people can make this happen collectively, what could we do? And it was to really say that as well. And in order to say that, you have to be willing to do more. You have to be willing to take a stand and make a difference. um almost on an epic scale just sometimes to get people's attention and I think that's really what it was about. Um but going back again, you know, to to do something like that to to have the resiliency to believe in yourself, um going to see my mom uh at a home where she was, you know, cleaning a toilet. um to know that when I was going to school, she was cleaning those toilets to help pay the tuition for me to be able to go when a lot of the kids there's parents were doctors or, you know, because she wanted me to have a better education. She wanted me to have a better chance. Um and and also the things that I would have to do every Saturday to go work at this lady's house that helped pay the other part of my tuition. Um I learned nothing's free. M everything has a a price one way or the other that you have to pay for it. And understanding that early on and coming to terms with that helped me I think um navigate my journey. You talk a lot about self-belief. How can people cultivate that? You know, it's it's interesting you say that because literally um one of the issues that I think that we're dealing with more in Indian country right now than ever before is knowing our value, knowing our worth. Um if you don't love you, you can't love anybody else. If you don't appreciate you, it's impossible to appreciate anybody. If you don't respect yourself, it's impossible to respect somebody else. And if you are absorbed with that, really what it is is hatred of self. And and however you got there through trauma or oppression or you know sort of genetic uh historical trauma um it becomes a situation that can be so devastating. Um not just in the lives of individuals but in communities and we have that trauma. Uh absolutely. Um, one of the biggest challenges right now for us to really stand up and come together as a community, I believe, is the the need for our people to realize their purpose and their value and and to come to terms with who we are and and the beauty of our culture and and the beauty of the life that we have and that self-worth manifests and grows. And I think it's very contagious. And that's one of the things that sometimes people say, well, these are just words or these are are just things that you're saying and don't put a very high price on motivation or inspiration. But if you don't have hope, if you don't believe that there's possibility for you, um, well, then you do start to understand why we have the highest rates of suicide, why we have the the highest college uh the the highest high school dropout rates, the lowest college attendance. M um you know I think right now we have less than than 1,000 tribally enrolled attorneys right now in 2017 in the United States. Um I think we have less than 250 certified public account accountants that are enrolled tribal members. I you look at the doctors look at you you the whole scope begins to be almost unattainable. I know you and your wife have started talking about actually getting into film making being on the other side to tell stories. what so when I put that in conjunction with helping um anybody but Native Americans specifically see a sense of selfworth get a picture of what's possible um one why do you think that film making will be effective which is something my entire life is built around um and then two what are the kinds of stories I know some of it is we just want them to see people playing normal roles a dad regardless of the fact that he's American right but what's that other thing like you talk a lot about the warrior your spirit like is there something are there stories that you want to tell people that impart a certain like life code that you want people to internalize you know I think sharing stories of course in our culture culture is is how things were passed down how historical events were passed down how we learned from each other my grandfather talking to me every day in the garden when I was working with him is how I learned a lot about who I am today and who he was and who he is um I think when we look at these mediums that are more accessible and more viable than they've ever been before. Um, you know, with with access to reaching people, we have to be out there telling our story. We can't let other people tell our story for us and continue to not have the ownership of of who we are. And I think we just have to do that. And again, hopefully that's leading by example because we don't have all the access in the world to doing these things, but I know that it's meaningful. So at the end of it, at the end of the day, we start with is it meaningful? Absolutely that's meaningful. The power of of our people seeing somebody uh on TV uh on film playing a role that is just a a person that's just a a story that they see that's there. The power of that can impact and change folks. Whole idea of what is possible. You've got such a big mission in front of you and it's really amazing and you've clearly got the willingness to put in all the hard work, but how do you think about failure? What do you teach your kids about failure? Do you see it as a teaching mechanism, something to be afraid of? Like, how do you conceptualize of that in your life? Failures are our greatest teachers. Um, I don't think anybody that's ever endeavored to ever do anything didn't fail at some point in some aspect of what they were trying to do. um we learn from it and we move forward. Um how do you keep it? So your your dad used to say that one of the things he had gotten good at and he wanted you to get good at was not letting the um the energy of a negative situation or confrontation to carry you away. So how do people in that moment of failure which is usually really embarrassing and like when you're failing like all the talk in the world if you're caught up in the energy it it it's just it sucks. so much people just want to turn and run in the opposite direction. So, how did you learn not to get caught up in that energy? I We're people and we feel how people feel, meaning it hurts when people say bad things about us. It doesn't feel good when people don't believe in you. My dad always told me, "If something ever doesn't go the way that you've planned and you find yourself in that situation, don't panic. The most important thing you can do is stay calm, stay present. And I've always sort of likened, I can't remember which, you know, I think it was a Vietnam war film or some other film that I was watching one time and this sergeant stood right up in the middle of this battle and bullets are hitting branches and knocking trees down. You can hear him zipping by. And he stands up and he says, "Hey, go over there. Move up. do you need to wa watch right over there. And the presence amidst all the chaos and destruction and calamity was what saved all of their lives. And I think that presence of mind and that being able to be calm that you've laid a plan out. You've done what you've done that got you to this point. If something comes up that you didn't expect or that you didn't know was going to come, your plan's not bad. It got you to where you are right now. You have to deal with what's in front of you. That doesn't mean run away. It doesn't mean stop and don't do anything. It means deal with it. Deal with what's in front of you. Move through it. Move around it. Move over it. Move under it. But keep moving forward. Rectify the situation. Regroup and go. So, I've got a somewhat ridiculous way of practicing this cuz I'm such a huge believer that you have to learn how to do that because I think naturally you're saying we're people, right? So naturally, I think people just kick over into the uh sympathetic nervous system fight or flight. They freeze. Blood is literally leaving their prefrontal cortex. They're not able to process things. So I started playing firsterson shooter video games as a way to practice cuz on the other end of that computer is a 14-year-old who wants to say horrible things about my mother. And I've got to in that moment learn like how to just literally not get caught up in the emotion. Like literally not get caught up in the emotion. Lower my heart rate, slow my breathing, like find that calm in the center of that storm. It's like in in that moment you have to go the opposite way of what your body is telling you. And learning to go the opposite way. So whether it's everything's heightened, you're panicking like dude, I can't imagine testifying before Congress. like I've worked pretty hard not to get like really nervous. That would freak me out. So going your body wants to amp up, right? And you've got to find a way to bring it back down. So I'm looking at your son over there and I'm thinking what are you telling him to do to practice that? Is it hey life is going to present that and in that moment don't think of it as a performance or are there things that he that you try to put situations you try to put him in where he can practice going the opposite way of what his body wants like how does he prepare now for what will happen tomorrow as you were talking one of the things my mom used to tell me also was run to the roar I love that run to the roar um I love that that came from your mom that's something you'd expect from a father. Yeah. No, she she was very she would, you know, she would sit me down and she would talk to me about this and she would say, um, there's always going to be hard times and you just have to have belief in that where you are is where you're supposed to be. And by moving forward, the strength of your faith will unleash the power of the creator in your life. And I've seen that happen so many different times. And the I I keep going back to it. When you see that happen, when when you see a man go out and talk to a storm and the storm goes away, you can't unsee that. You can't unknow that. What's something about entrepreneurship that you want to teach people? Cuz h man, it's so clear hearing the way that you talk that there's so much like entrepreneurial thinking woven through the way that you see the world and the way that you approach things. Absolutely. What What do you think people would benefit from learning or understanding about being a real entrepreneur? It's the most rewarding, hardest, most beautiful liberating journey you'll ever go on. And I don't know of anything much more fulfilling than to see a possibility or an opportunity when nobody else sees it maybe or see a a piece of it that's already existent and say, "Wow, I could do that." and then take that and breathe life into it through your hard work, your efforts, your passion, and see it not only help you, but help other people. There is nothing there's nothing I can think of that's more rewarding than that. Every time somebody says to me, "When you came here on tour, you you help or I was I was thinking about killing myself, and when I heard what you said, it changed my life. Every bit of being day one doing anything I was doing that led me ultimately to impact that person's life everything has been worth it the fact that there's kids in Germany that listen to my music and learn about Indian people everything has been worth it so I guess that's the most beautiful thing is that when you have the ability to do something that maybe other people haven't ever identified as a tangible and you you can help people see that and then glean from it, what it means to them. That's just that's just the ultimate end result for me. And what are a few tools that you think will universally prepare people to actually be an entrepreneur to not just talk about it, not just have the dream like you're saying? Like what are what are some tools that people need to cultivate? Planning. um planning I I think absolutely your confidence you know whatever you got to do to really continue to build your confidence and continue to craft uh the value that you comes from I think confidence comes from doing trying failing correcting and then doing trying failing correcting doing trying failing or if it's not your own journey hopefully it's not doing your work enough to look at what you're going to to get involved in or or people around you and identifying where other people are having a hard time and correcting off of their mistakes. Um, I mean, you don't wish anybody bad and you don't want to see anybody fail, but if you can look at that situation and say, "Wow, I know that when I do X, I need to kind of be prepared to move right and take two steps forward. Let me file that one." Um, so being aware being aware of whatever it is that you're going to get into or whatever is passionate about you. But I think that you really have to understand that if it's your dream and that you're moving forward to accomplish your dream, don't let anyone ever take that from you. Don't let anyone kill your passion about what it is that you feel innately is what you're supposed to do, what your journey is. That's yours. That that that that's almost been ordained to you specifically, uniquely that you may be the one person that's able to move that forward. Don't let anybody rob you of that. And it's going to happen. People are going to doubt you. people are going to and as you'd mentioned, you know, there's going to be people that just don't see it. They just don't get it and and it sucks. I mean, it's it's hard to to maintain that excitement. I think the the other thing right there in that window is, you know, absolutely uh be about it. If you expect other people to be about it, if you if you want people to be 100% excited, understand you got to be 150% excited about it. Nobody is ever going to be more excited about what you're doing than you. So, you better be on fire about it. If you walk in with your head down or you don't feel that this is something that you really at the core of your being believe in, then you're not ready to walk in there yet. Don't go until you know it better than one no than no one else. that you know it better than anybody else on this earth. Um, that's vital. You have to know what you're doing. You have to know every bit of it to the best of your ability so that you can talk about it because the minute they see you flinch, the minute that they see you not know or you start to make it up as you go, I think that's where people start to lose confidence in who you are, what you're about, what you're talking about. You have to be able to to walk in and and and and I think that all comes with knowing uh your service, your product, what it is that you're doing, your story better than anybody else could ever tell it and being on fire about it. And you don't have to if if it's really your passion, it's really that it's just going to come out of you. Um but a lot of people maybe have to work on that skill more than other people, right? Um, and I think that, you know, get in the mirror, uh, get your wife, uh, get your uncle, get anybody that'll let you listen, uh, that'll let you talk to them and listen and and maybe help tell you, hey, look, I I didn't really believe that too much, you know, maybe, well, where did where did you stop believing me? What did I not communicate enough? And just go through the iterations, do the work, practice, um, whatever it is that you've got that that you want to communicate to folks. And I think that's that's a communication. You know, I think back about my what my dad said, and I said it earlier, be able to speak, be able to to to know what you're trying to say. And if you can communicate to people, if you can speak and talk um about your idea, you know, that's the key to it all. You've got to be able to express and and I think there's so many things people will find as they begin that journey that they didn't even know they had. But you got to take one step. And I think that's where people fail is they don't start. Wow. Yes. that that I will agree with you on. What What would you say? I love when people have kids because it really like clarifies what their beliefs are. What would you say if your son came to you and said, "I just don't know how to start." Um, if my son came to me and said, "I don't know how to start." I would say to him, "Do you really believe in what it is that you're trying to start to do?" Yes. If if you got to start there, do you believe in it? is do you know why you're doing it? Does it have purpose and meaningfulness to you? Because if he's saying he can't attach to it or he can't find the the place to to to move forward, to me, he hasn't found the thing yet um I would encourage him to keep looking and um and searching for it. Before I ask my last question, where can these guys find you online? They can find us online at lighfoot lit fo t.com and uh of course all the social media, Facebook, Instagram. Um my wife would kill me if I don't say Snapchat. Um I do my best on Snapchat. Um but yeah um we uh Twitter everything. So yeah. All right. YouTube. I'd be remiss if I didn't. Yes. True. YouTube.com many of your YouTube videos. Yes, sir. So what's the impact that you want to have on the world? The impact that I would want to have on the world would be for people to understand that their life is not a mistake. That their life isn't just because that they've been put here for a reason. That we're all here for a purpose. None of us were put here to do nothing. And I would never want to see anybody come here for the window of time that we're here which ultimately is very short no matter how long we live and not find that because really for me life is contained within that living is contained within that um and through that I would want them to understand that we're here to live not survive. I think too many people survive every single day and not enough of us live. And I wouldn't want anybody to come here and do an 80-year bid and just survive. We should all spend every second that we possibly can living. I love it. Thank you so much for being on the show. That was amazing. Thank you. Thank you guys. You want to talk about somebody that has definitely lived their life and however much time this man ends up getting, every bit of it has been used wisely. This is a story, an incredible story of hard work, perseverance. He once said, "If you're going to ask somebody to do 10 push-ups, you better do 50." And that I think really sums up what he's learned, the incredible way that he's drawn from his family, the lessons that he's learned from hardship, seeing his mother in failure, only thinking about moving forward and reinventing yourself, and whether people were judging her or judging him. Her encouragement was always to never let anybody else define you and what you're capable of. And a story that we didn't even get to when he goes back, he used to be a bus boy. He meets another kid who's bus boying and sees him being mistreated by other people. Goes up to him, gives him a $100 tip and tells the kid, "Don't ever let anybody else define you and give you your worth." That's something you have to define for yourself. And that is something that goes through everything that he puts out, all the content that he creates, whether it's the raps, which go listen to. They're amazing. Especially if you grew up when I grew up, it is amazing to hear the lyrical prowess, to hear the things that he's talking about, to hear somebody that was political long before many people, if anybody, was being political. It's really, really fascinating. Hard work gets you an outcome. This man's life is absolutely proof of that. and just to see how far he's gone from rapping about the reservation all the way to lobbying on Capitol Hill. It is an absolutely breathtaking journey that I think you guys will learn a lot. So, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe and until next time, my friends, be legendary. Take care, my friend. Thank you so much. Fantastic. Fantastic.