[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back, everyone, to the Tron podcast, the Randomness of Nothing. This is your host, Rashad Woods. Today I have a very special guest, our neighbor to the west in Burbank, California, Vicki Brown, ladies and gentlemen. Goes by Vicki B. As well, too. Inspirational, a speaker, and always tries to help people get through different phases in life. Thank you very much for joining me.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me, Rashad.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: I very much appreciative.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: You're welcome. And congratulations on your new podcast. I'm loving it.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you. You know, it's a leap of faith, and it was something that oftentimes like fear can be your biggest reason. You know, kids are fearless, but then adults get fear in them kind of deal. Right, Right. So, like, it was time for me to kind of mentally be a kid again. You know what I mean?
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Oh, I love it. I love it. Same here.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: So, yeah, I never grew up.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: I don't think that's awesome. That's a good way to live, too. So I, you know, I love the way that you talk about resiliency, hope, inspiration. You're a speaker as well as empowering women, you know, for challenges in life. So please, let's talk about your background.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, a couple things about me that kind of shaped my life. My parents were divorced at. I was about 2 years old, and then my mom passed away. But not too, too long after that. Well, she. It was a while she suffered, but I didn't know. You know, my mom was very secretive about her illness. She passed from breast cancer when I was 8. And so I moved. Yeah, absolutely. Especially back in those days. You know, thank God we've come a ways with all that. A lot of technology now that she didn't have, but she was very, very brave. And she moved to California in her early 20s and started a life out here. And to make a long story short, all my family's from Philly. And so although she moved here, we constantly visit Philadelphia. So I was very close to my Philadelphia roots on my mom's side. And so I ended up living back there after she passed with grandparents and then an aunt. And so I was kind of raised by all my aunts and spent a lot of time in my formative years back there, and then came back to California, finished high school out here and then went to college out here in Long beach and lived in Garden and lived all over California and Philadelphia.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: And so fast forward to now, you know, after finishing college, getting married, having children, getting divorced, trying again, having another kid.
So I'VE raised all my children now I have become a single mom and traversed that space and. And experienced quite a bit. And so at this point in my life, it's time to share that journey with others, to show them that, like, wow, you can be successful no matter what the situation, despite whatever odds come against you. And so some of the battles that I had, a lot of them were internal.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: So as I'm still uncovering things, I'd like to be able to share it kind of had made a promise. There was a part in my divorce where I remember I was very angry, and I remember waking up hearing someone on the radio and was. Something broke in me and I just started sobbing. I'm like, you know, one day I'm going to help someone. You know, I'm on this side of it now, but one day I'm going to be on the other side like this person is. And they helped me to get up off my couch. It wasn't a pity bed, but it was very. A heavy place and darkness. I didn't understand, like, why me? You know? And so I thought, one day I'm going to get off this couch and I'm going to help someone else. And so now's the time. So that's what I've been focusing on pretty much now. All my kids are raised. They're very successful, beautiful. And so here we are.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: I think the most important thing, what you talked about, too, is that, and I say this very respectfully, was there were stigmas around people who got divorced. Obviously, society's come along.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Right, right. And so, like, you know, particularly, you know, I mean, you know, whether people went to church, it could be even more, I don't want to say judgmental, but there was something that people believe was something wrong with a person who got divorced, not knowing that that is just a regular phase of a part of life, and it doesn't define who you are or there's nothing wrong with somebody because that went. They went through that. So. And then number two, you know, sometimes. And I've never been divorced. I've never been a product. I won't say product. My parents, you know, never divorced. But there's also a situation where, you know, there's nothing wrong with somebody who's a part of it. It's part of the path in life of way. The trajectory of how things came in life, you know. And so I think that society as a whole has come a long way where, like, hey, man, this isn't defining who People are. It's just you got something beautiful out of it, your children, and it's just a bump in the road. And that's great that you overcame that.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. You know, it's funny. It's just like, whether it's whatever identity you have, you know, and this is always my thing, like, you're really. You're on the inside of yourself, looking out. You're just doing life, but people perceive you as so many different things.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: So oftentimes, you know, you hear things like, oh, you're different for this type of person or that type of person. I'm like, really?
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: You may have gotten that yourself. I'm like, I'm not really different. But your experiences do help shape who you are.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: And so I will say to your point about divorce, you know, when I was going through that, I began to notice, you know, for example, you may have good friends who, they're still married, and although they still love you and everything, it doesn't always fit that you're the single person, especially if you have small kids.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: You know, and so I began to realize, not that I was ashamed, I just kind of didn't fit in in certain spaces and found myself alone with my kids. And sometimes, you know, that's not a bad thing that you're in a space alone because you might have a job to do. You may think of it at that time like, oh, my gosh, I'm abandoned, or this or that. But I'm here to say, like, no, it's. It's. I'm not saying it was intentional that you got divorced, but the fact that you're there in that space, there's something about that that you can glean something for me, especially looking back now, like, what a critical time for my kids. It wasn't about me hanging out with the married couples necessarily.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: It's about the care for these individuals.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Right. So as you as that happened in life, and again, it's just what you call how your path, trajectory in life went. You found resiliency and hope and inspiration. So did you reach out to other women that were in similar positions? Or how did you actually navigate that path in your life when you're like, oh, my goodness, this is such a traumatic experience. And I just want to emphasize too, because how I've figured things out as I've done this podcast and grown up in life, is that it's very easy to get into a pocket of complaining, because then it's sort of, you eat bad, you. You've Developed bad habits. And then you start hanging out with or interacting with people who bring you negative vibes and energy. And when you decided to pivot is when you, quote, unquote, have that Road to Damascus moment.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. Absolutely. You know, there was a point, if I'm being fully transparent, I was raised in a Christian background. When I went to live with my grandfather, he was called the deacon. The weeping deacon, actually was his title, the weekend deacon. And, you know, he was phenomenal. And so I realized there was a part of me that. And I think every woman in my family, we expected every person, every man to be like my grandfather. He was great.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Sure. For sure. Right.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: And they don't make them like that. You know, my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: And so there was a part of me, that's why I was so angry when I got divorced, not realizing that I had a part to play in it. But I thought, well, like, wait a minute, what's going on here? So I'm angry than depressed or sad. And I kept thinking to myself, it's not supposed to be this hard.
And so for me, a woman of faith, I was angry with God because I was also angry that my mother left early. You know, and being raised in a Christian background, I always had a relationship with God that was very personal. So I just spoke to him like I'm talking to you right now, like, sure, okay. What is up with this? You know, that was kind of my tone. So through the divorce, I thought, okay, well, I'm not the first. I don't know why this is happening exactly. I'm sure you'll tell me at some point. But for now, how do we make this easier? And I began going down the road of reading statistics, coming to understand at that time that, like, 95% of Americans experience either separation or divorce, and kids are in this space. So I began going down that place of for sure, how is this happening in America, and what do we do about it? And how do I get out of this space? So meeting other people in that space, it just started coming to me naturally. You know, when you gravitate or focus on something, you begin to see all of that. And so one day, a single mom that I'm actually, she wasn't single at the time. She had gotten separated, gotten divorced, and then got remarried back to the same person.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: And somehow we met. I don't even remember where we met, but she was involved with a single mom's group or a single parent group. And I got involved with that as a participant. And then from there I started kind of understanding the dynamics of this space, whether it's a, a male parent or a female parent, how they navigate and kind of like how you mentioned about sometimes there's a negativity, you know, because it wasn't like 12 steps, you know, it's like you go in there and you're all in this group and then you get, you're sitting there like, oh my gosh, when are they gonna stop?
This is not going anywhere, you know, of course, but. But that's a part of it, you know, but that was the only space that I found that that was for single parents or people who are divorced.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: So I thought, wow, we've got to do better because most, a lot of people in this space and not too many people are helping.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think too, the other thing about it is this, I'm, I'm imagining this was pre social media. So there, you know, so if that's the case, then it's even more of a. Or it might have just been coming into an excessive.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Just. Yep.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Yes. So you. Now you're, you know, there's better resources, although that can still be toxic and poisonous. But at least you, the people are accessible, like something similar to what we're doing right now or, you know, person online, et cetera. But before you had to really find out to your local community. And I don't claim to be the biggest purveyor of, you know, church going, but I do know that even in the church sometimes, and this is in a negative slight to church, it was hard to be divorced in church, you know.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: You know what I mean? It just is right.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: You got stick by your man or your woman or whatever or, you know, right. You should have chose better or right.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Say like because, you know, depending on the denomination or.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: In the particular church, etc, it's so tightly woven in the community. People either A pick sides or B, it's just not supposed to happen. And again, that's not a slight to church or anything like that. It's just kind of the course of human nature, so to speak, irrespective of somebody's religious background.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: You're absolutely right. I can't could have said it better, you know that.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: I mean, I've seen, I've seen that.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean we've all seen it. Right? We've all seen it. It's even, you know, even as a kid when I knew some people's kids, you know, parents were separated. It's like, you know, they may still. The aunt or uncle or dad or mother may still be at church. You're like, yeah, you know, I'm just going to take a pass on anything that could be. That's not my space, so to speak. But I was younger, you know, I was younger. I'm not, you know, I'm older now, so. But still, I always try to find that, you know, high level of respect because you're not a person. So how. How did your public speaking come in? How did you go from that group to, like, I'm going to take this to the next level?
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Well, when I moved to Philadelphia, at some point, I moved with an aunt in West Philadelphia, and I went to Overbrook Elementary. Shout out to Overbrook Elementary. Amazing. Phenomenal time. And so it was pretty much African American at that time. And so we had a strong focus on building up young black people in a very interesting neighborhood.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: And so there was a teacher that took to me and recognized that I had the gift of gab, or I talked a lot. It was very, very inquisitive, and always wanted to know why. And so she began to encourage me to write speeches, and she would help me. She was a poet and a poet at that time, and she got groups of us together and had a speaking. And so she began to enter me into contests. So that kind of set the pace. And then when I moved to California, I got into drama and ended up in forensics, doing a lot of public speaking competitively. Yeah. There's another story. You'll probably hear about it one day on the Internet, how I met Niecy Nash, who wasn't Niecy Nash at that time.
We met in that space long before people had dreams of being actors and things like that. That's wonderful. That's kind of my background. So naturally, I don't know, people, somehow, I guess, the gift of gab they would pull on me, like, hey, do you want to come talk with me? I'm going to go talk at this church event, or I'm going to go here.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: I'd love for you. For you to come. And these people would have to be accepting of, like, my kids coming. If I had to bring them, like, oh, you could bring the kids. So that naturally, was a space for me to.
And so it's, like, perfect, right?
[00:12:19] Speaker A: And so, you know, like, first of all, the gift of gas. I can't tell you how many times I was told to shut up by teachers.
You know, like, that's a story for another day, right? So, like. Yeah, it's funny. I always. I always quote movies whenever I look for parallels in life. So one of my quotes is from the Maltese Falcon, and the character's name was Sidney Green Street. And his character said. I'm paraphrasing this. He said, talking is something you can't do judiciously. It's something you have to practice at. Now, we'll talk if you like to, but I'll tell you right now, I'm a man who likes to talk to people who likes to talk. And so, like, you know, so that quote always stuck with me. Right? So it's. Yeah, it's a beautiful. Yeah. I mean, like, you don't want to get the movie path with me because I'll bore you to death. Right?
[00:12:59] Speaker B: So probably not, but.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: Yeah, but I always. So, because I don't think people understand, like, I look at words between the words. I'm a. I like to think of myself as somebody who I can't build, I can't code, I can't fix cars, and I'm a terrible cook. But I know, like, body language and how people speak. And I can tell even if I shake somebody's hand right away if we're going to vibe or not. That's just like, kind of how I'm mentally wired. Right. So, like, I always. So based on your interactions, I'm like. I knew right away. I'm like, okay, she does this speaking. She's probably the kid who couldn't stop talking because she had to keep. And I said that respectfully. Right. Who, like, had to be. Because the space that you had to come from.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: And, you know, and I say this very respectfully. A divorced black woman is. Is already behind the eight ball. You know what I mean? Like, as far as, you know, there's stigmas that can get attached to it. You know, people can see, you know, and I say this respectfully. Hey, they see in the grocery store, and people are already passing judgment.
It must be because of X, Y and Z. You know, I mean, like, we know how that works, unfortunately. So I think that's very powerful that you decided to share your story with others and that you're not a statistic from. From your circumstances. And I think that's a great, inspiring story. You know, it's just the truth, you know?
[00:14:13] Speaker B: Yeah. And I have three young. Well, they're men now.
Young black men. That's. You know, I'm so proud of that fact. But. Well, I'm happy.
But when you're in the moment, you don't think about. At least I didn't. I didn't think about any of those statistics. It was just like, this is just how it's going to be exactly. You know, like it or leave it. I'm your mom. Sorry, but this is the way. And of course, having to navigate sharing with them at a certain age. Of course, looking back, I can go, wow. And I remember having to share things with them about how to conduct yourself, of course, at a certain age. And they're going, like what? Like why? Or, you know, one of my kids got called a name and he didn't even know what the name. He'd never heard it. And I go, oh, my gosh, I haven't even had that conversation.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Like, right.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: I'm trying to make ends meet. I'm trying to pay the bills. I forgot for a moment, right. What's. What's going on here?
[00:15:02] Speaker A: You went on autopilot. You know what I mean?
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah. So there's that whole dynamic as well.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Right. And so now what? Do you.
Do you have books? Do you do workshops? Do you, you know, do you have events that you hold and how. And have you had women reach and men even reach out to you from all walks of life, all stripes and say, listen, you know, thank God you exist because I have been looking for somebody to speak with or have a session to be able to show that there is some hope and positivity.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Yeah. You know the funny part about that? That's a good question. And the truth of the matter is I've done it all along. I've done it all my life without even thinking about it. Just like what you're saying with the talking. You are who you are, and I'm always hasht born for it. Because people have always come to me. Probably it's part of the talking aspect, but I guess I come off to people, like, I'm very open and they feel comfortable and they can share. So for me, even with the divorce, I've had grown older men come to me like, you know, I know you're not going to tell anybody, but this is what I'm struggling with. I know you're a woman, but I just feel safe.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: There's.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: I've tried everybody. There's nobody for me to talk to. And to be quite honest, I admire what you're doing here. Like, if I could help you in some type of way, I'll do anything for you. But what do you know about this? This is what I'm going through. And I'm thinking, oh, my gosh but the truth of the matter is just tell the truth. And for me, a woman of faith and the type of person that's going to go straight to God and say, look, why is this going on? You got to tell me, how am I supposed to get out of this? Obviously you know what's going on here? What am I supposed to do so that authenticity and my ability to just go straight to a higher power and not try to figure everything out on my own. People are like, hey, could you ask God something for me?
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Right?
[00:16:51] Speaker B: What does he tell you? Or what are you just saying?
[00:16:54] Speaker A: They've automatically bypassed the actual, like, you know, I'm going to do this myself. I, like, I need you to do this because maybe I'm not the person to really ask for something because what I was doing 10 minutes ago, they may not get the answer.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: You know, how are you making it? Like, what gives you the courage even, you know, like, I'm tired right now.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Do you have a website? You have your book? Do you have where's where people reach you? Out with.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: My book is not out yet.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: But I'm working on two right now. One is more of a self memoir because I've got to share how I got my kids to where they are. It's incredible story. And then I'm a genealogist now too, like I was telling you before, thanks to Covid and Ancestry. So there's a lot of stories, a lot of stories that I've uncovered there. So my book hopefully will be out within the next three to six months. But for website, I am at Speak Vicky B. On, on Instagram, but I'm
[email protected] okay. And then that's because my son, Paul McKellar Williams, my last son's an actor. And so I already had that page. So I'm just kind of, I was blogging on this. I'm already going to keep that. And then. So those are two spaces. Or you can reach me at DNA tree
[email protected]. i have many spaces, but I think Instagram is the best space right now.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So you know what I, what I always find out fascinating with people.
And you're a much more expert in this field than I am. I, you know, when they find out their historical roots, when they find out I'm a big student of history. Right. And one of the things that always fascinates me about when people go down the wormhole is, is that the person you think, like, you go to high School, you know, you go in your neighborhood and yeah, you know, you're pseudo related. Maybe by de facto you're related to. But to find out the real story behind who actually came from where, where they immigrated from, where they started to work at, you know, the ups and downs, you know, what neighborhood, you know, because, you know, and then more importantly, like, neighborhoods exist for a reason in the way that they are because of historical trends and because of migration patterns. Good, bad, ugly, indifferent to it. That's how the world worked. Right. So I think that what the work you do is very important because oftentimes we only look at just a building or just a street and we don't find out the real reason behind that. Why is it street? Why is that building existing? Whose name was really attached to that? Who owned it before that? You know?
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: It's not like this is secretive, you.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Know, I was going to say. Or why you're getting a divorce, you know, or why. No, it's true. You know, I found out through doing, not to keep focusing on divorce, but, you know, there's trends, there's things that happen. And I'm thinking, well, my grandparents made it to their 50th wedding anniversary, but when you start going down that, as you call the wormhole, we call it the rabbit hole, and you start seeing these trends and family dynamics and neighborhoods. Some things, you know, coming from a spiritual space, some things aren't even physical. They're. I don't want to say medical physical, but they're very spiritual. There's a whole invisible world that exists. And even if you don't believe in that, go down that DNA trail, you will start to see patterns like, oh my gosh, people that, you know. Because if you're African American, you're going to have two different sets of DNA that go down two separate paths.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: So I've got my Queen Elizabeth side and then I've got my Kunta Kinte side. And that's facts. Like I'm literally related to both of those people.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: But there's things that have happened in both of those lanes, those dynamics. I don't even know those people.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: There's exact same scenarios.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: So it's pretty profound. And I think that's helping me in the space that I'm navigating to assist, whether it's a child, a woman or a man in whether it's divorce or whether it's losing your job, whatever space you come from learning and understanding the spiritual aspect, like kind of what happened in your past or what's following you around?
[00:20:35] Speaker A: Well, right. And. Well, not only that, though, but like, let's say you have to. Let's say, you know, God forbid, if you didn't have that resource available, you may be suffering from an illness or disease and you have no g. And a lot of you have no, like, DNA reference point. Like, man, why am I getting. It could be an allergy, it could be, you know, asthma, sickle cell, anything. You know, we can go down the list of things that you could have a suffering or from an illness from. And then you find out, like, there's a reason why, based on my. On my family tree, so to speak, why this is happening. And, you know, they ask you your question at the doctor's office. Well, does your mother or father. What's deeper than your mother and your father? Right.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: You know what I mean? That's.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: Yeah, no, absolutely. You're absolutely right. And so to put that all in a nutshell, that's kind of, you know, I, for me, what my goal is now is to not only share with people the end result of all of that stuff, because none of that, you find out that none of that stuff really matters when it comes to knowing what is my purpose here.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: So that's. That's kind of like what I like to get to. Because I spend a long time, like, why am I here? And so once you realize, well, I actually have a purpose here. I was born for a purpose despite all of those things, but actually because of all those things, because it's all a part of who you are and why you're exactly where you're at right now. It's like, okay, now what am I supposed to do with this? And how can I catch up and get beyond all of those distractions to get right to where I'm supposed to be for my purpose on the earth, Right.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Well, the reason why I'm on here on this day with you is because we both, you know, have ultimately come to a very good meeting point with both of our trajectories in life. Right? Yeah. And it's like, okay, you can watch the sporting event, you can watch the news, but you, when you watch the news, you're still watching people do something. So you're still sitting while that's happening. So are you content with just looking out the window while things are happening or are you going to be in the mix of it? I'm a big. I'm a big martial arts and boxing fan. Right. And we always tend to laugh when somebody gets knocked out Gets KO like, it's. Oh, but it's like that person was in the ring, and there's something about being in or the cage. When you're in the ring, you can always say, I got knocked out. But you were in the stands, and I was in the ring. So you're doing things in the ring. Good, bad, fall in your face, indifference. Right. Same thing with me in this podcast. Listen. You know, people are free to criticize it. They're free to not like the content of that, but I stepped in the arena, period.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Thank you for saying that. Because I.
I've held back a lot of things for fear someone's going to judge me or I didn't do it the right way. I've always been criticized. Always.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I know. I could tell you this is the space where I don't do that. You know what I mean? You know, because it takes courage. And, you know, I always believed. I. There's a great quote from LL Cool J. I always. I'm a big fan of his. He said, love him. Yeah, he's great. And he said, dreams don't have deadlines. And when I heard that, I was like, whoa.
I was like, you know? And it's just amazing, you know, that you said, okay, well, I. My. My kids made it to where they're in the place where they can take care of themselves now. What am I going to do that I always wanted to do? And you didn't put your dreams on hold and instead stare out the window, so to speak. And just. I'm so glad you decided to take the steps that you did.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you so much. And I appreciate. Appreciate your podcast. It's so organic. I didn't plan, honestly for this to happen, but this was. I turned. Well, I turned to age.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: I already posted it. You know, it was like my 55th year last year, and I said, this is it. You know, I'm gonna step out there and just share with the world. They can judge, but somebody's gonna need my help. It's not gonna be for nothing what I went through, or just to say, oh, I raised some kids, or, oh, I made it. You know, that's great, but I can help someone in a bigger way. I don't want to just continue to have these private phone calls with people.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: Number one, it kind of pulls on my life a bit. I do want to travel and do some things for myself, but I do want to help people, right? So. By writing a book, by going More to public spaces and having gatherings and in a more public nature, I'm going to be able to help more people.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Well, I'll say this too, you know, is that people of a certain age that I get to interview have a wealth of knowledge that people of a different age don't. And I'm not dissing any age bracket because I'm right where in the middle of all of it. Right. So. But the experiences pre social, like for people who are under 25, there was a life before social media. Right?
[00:24:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: People picked up the rotary phone, they had to meet, they had Sundays after church and they all gathered at grandmas or aunts and there were large groups of people. And you had to navigate personalities. It wasn't an emoji or LOL or a post. Right. You had to actually either A, say something, B, know when to shut up.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: Or C, navigate multiple personalities and still be like, okay, you know, how do I fit in here? Where's my voice? So to speak. And that's been lost because more generations simply don't, you know, interact. It's almost like, and I hate to over talk you, it's if the patriarch passes away, the grandmother, the grandfather, you notice that people don't meet up anymore.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: It's true.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: You know what I mean? They just don't know it's true.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: You know, the only reason we saw large people come together was because of two people. Right?
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Yeah. You're telling the truth.
[00:25:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: You're telling the truth. We, you know, I struggle with that now.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: I do too.
Full disclosure, you know, I mean, you know, it's. But that's the part of life. But that's why people who have the experience that you do, it's so authentic. Because now people who are of a certain age are like, thank God you brought this up because I went through this 10, 5, 20, oh my God. Years. Right. I mean, I'm sure you've heard it all, you know.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: No, it's true.
And it's like you don't know what you don't know. And the thing is, you never stop learning. It's like a cliche, but it's really true. You never stop learning.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: No, I can't.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: I went to a graduation. This was happening when I was in college too. There were people in their 70s graduate, but it's still going on. You know, I went to a graduation.
Was it Cal state? I mean, UC Stanislaus.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: And the oldest person there was 88 years old. And what I loved about it was the person who was Giving the commencement speech was in his 80s.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: He had another person there with him, and she built him up and introduced him. But his storytelling, he was like, oh, my gosh.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: And all the kids were crying, you know, they were loving it because it was so historical. Validating for sure.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: For sure.
[00:26:48] Speaker B: You don't even know. Like, wow, I'm not even here by accident. Like, someone gave their life so that I could be here. So all of it comes full circle, and it's so significant.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: It absolutely is. And, you know, between your historical search, you know that your. Your. Your. Your what you've gone through in life, the book that you're writing, the people that you talk to, you know, it's like driving. And, you know, sometimes you can autopilot driving, and you don't even see. You just know how. Where you're going. But if you had to tell somebody how to actually specifically get there, you draw a blank. You draw. What street did you take? Ah, man, I don't know. It's the right at the McDonald's. Like, you. So, yeah, that's kind of what this podcast did for me. Like. No, it's not. The right at the McDonald's is South XYZ Street. Right. Because it's very important to know the details in life, because the more you know the details, you'll understand perspective, compassion, understanding, and more importantly, you can discern what's worth your time. Right.
Because, you know, like, honestly, like, I did this because maybe the people I'm talking to only have a certain level of interest of what I'm talking about, and that's not fair to them. For me to want to keep using up their time of something they're not interested in. It's not them, it's me. So I need to go to the podcast to talk to people who want to talk about the things that I want to talk about. No, I love that it's not always the receiver. Sometimes it's the giver.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Right.
Wow, that's really powerful. I mean, just the fact that you even have this space. And it seems like I keep meeting people like that.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: I do, too. I do, too.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: It's incredible, you know, Like, I don't know how you felt before you did the podcast. Like, if you were off alone, kind of felt isolated. Now you're doing this, and now you're, you know, publicly getting to share all these people now. Or if you've always met people. Like, I'm one who's always met people. You know, when I was in the airport with my mom, I was probably about three or four years old, and she's like, oh, my gosh, whisper me to go over and talk to this man. And he was a famous political. Political activist. I didn't know who it was, but when I look back, all my life I've been a person. To keep meeting these people, significant. And when I told people stories, they always thought, like, yeah, like, she's just making this stuff up. So for you to have this space, it's like, now you can share the knowledge of these little private conversations, these amazing people you've met. You can share it with the world, right?
[00:29:07] Speaker A: Well, for me, it was like, listen, how much are you going to read before you actually start asking the people who know it? Right? Like, I, you know, like, I don't have no problem, like, watching a documentary completely solo. Right? Like, and I'm like. Or I, you know, I would talk to people and I'd be like, you. You could find after five minutes, maybe they weren't just interested because that's just not their space of like, hey, that's cool, but whatever, man. I want to go watch the basketball game or football game, like, cool.
So it's my job as a person who's like, okay, what's interesting to me and who's out there that's interested in what I'm interested in, right? Like, you're not going to talk hockey. You're not going to talk hockey with a basketball player. All I gotta talk.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Right?
[00:29:39] Speaker A: It's just not how that works in life. So find the space that people want to value what you want to talk about, because then it becomes organic. Like what we're having right now, you know what I mean? It's authentic. So, you know, I hope to hear more from Vicki Brown, because like I said, I think what you do is amazing. And you, you know, just like Mr. Cool J said, dreams don't have deadlines. And you got a lot of potential and continued potential that you've already achieved ahead of you.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: I love that. Thank you so much. I keep saying I love that, but you're really pouring into me and giving to me today. Listen, so I'm receiving. It's nice to be on the receiving end.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: For sure. We met for a reason. We definitely met for a reason. So, you know, it's. It's been a place.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Cousins, I'm sure.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Right, right. You know, I mean, if you say you're from Michigan, you know, like, Michigan only yay big, especially southeast. Right. So I'm sure somewhere down the genealogical.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: Pool, my dad's side.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, you're. We're somewhere connected. Again. I want to thank you for being on the Tron podcast, the Randomness of Nothing. This is my space, but you're always welcome.
[00:30:36] Speaker B: Honor and a pleasure.
Appreciate you so much. I appreciate you, Rashid.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah, anytime.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Oh, did I pronounce your name?
[00:30:43] Speaker A: Rashad.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Rashad. I apologize, Rashad.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: I can't tell you how many times I didn't sweat it. Ain't no big deal.
[00:30:48] Speaker B: Well, I have a cousin, Rashid, so I was thinking of you. Kind of remind me of him. But I got you.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. All good. Thank you so much.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: Blessings. Take care.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: You too. Bye.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Okay. Bye. Bye.
