Rebecca Rose Payne 0:00

Today's guest is Antoine Hood, an MBA free agent, an entrepreneur, author, motivational speaker, and cancer survivor. After overcoming cancer as a teenager, Anton went on to serve in the US Air Force, pursue a professional basketball career, and build several successful businesses. Today we'll talk about the experiences that shaped him, the mindset behind his success, and the resilience and discipline that kept him pursuing his goals that once seemed impossible. So great to have you.

Antoine Hood 0:29

No, thanks so much, Dr. Payne. I appreciate it. It's an honor to be selected.

Rebecca Rose Payne 0:34

So I guess just to start growing up, what were the kind of experiences or influences that shaped the way that you viewed work and discipline and what was possible for you in general in your life?

Antoine Hood 0:48

Yeah, I think being a minority from the suburbs, right? Because definitely wasn't normal back in the day, you know. So for me, having a two-parent home and having a dad that works for, you know, a larger major corporation and then having a stay-at-home mom, it was uh just a different world for me because I got a lot of uh intentionality, right? I mean, uh academic was non-negotiable in my house. So I always had to make sure that uh trade age was that was the thing, right? So I never was really allowed to slack off. So that natural, hey, we work hard in this house. So being lazy and unproductive and things of that nature, just it was a milk flies. So I'm a byproduct of that indirectly, and then I think overcoming the uh the lymphoma at 13 to also really helped.

Rebecca Rose Payne 1:43

Totally. So yeah, you were 13 when you were diagnosed. What was that like for you as such a young child?

Antoine Hood 1:51

Um it was first shattering, right? I mean, when someone walks in and tells you you have three months to live, I mean it gets it gets real really quick. So me and Jesus got really close really quick. And I tell people all the time, it's it's not about what we can believe, it's just what you're willing to believe, right? Because I was told there was no hope. And I think those are the worst people on the planet are hopeless people. Because when you don't have any hope, you have nothing, right? It's just you're basically dipping in the tap out. I want to be insensitive to anybody that's ever had suicide things of that nature in their life. But like that's when people reach that really, really deep and dark place. It's really hard to come out of. In my journey through that, I mean, I had fantastic nurses and doctors and caretakers at children's hospital in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and it was phenomenal. So for me, taking that mindset and that path, say, hey, I'm gonna believe against the impossible because I have nothing to crack it. You know, I say all that to say it's not for the weak, and you never know what you're built for until you got that right.

Rebecca Rose Payne 3:01

Totally. So you were told you had three months to live. Was it like stage four when you were diagnosed?

Antoine Hood 3:08

Or yeah, well, they in their mind it had already spread throughout my entire body. You know, so like technology wasn't, well, this was back in what 90 94, 95-ish. Dating myself a little bit. Yeah, so technology wasn't as advanced as it is now to where, you know, they can scan you and kind of know where everything is and direct pinpoint, cut this out, cut that out, biopsy, whatever the case may be. That was not available at that time. So in their mind, they did a biopsy like on my on my right ear, and like a cough all signs with them that was just on a left field. So in their mind, it had already spread everywhere, right? Like they didn't know, so they just put me on the trajectory chemo, radiation, final half. They just didn't want to be, hey, you're gonna make it, and then I didn't make it, right? Versus giving me I guess the worst case scenario.

Rebecca Rose Payne 4:02

Okay, yeah. So how long were you battling cancer for?

Antoine Hood 4:07

It felt like 20 years. I mean, in reality, it was probably less probably about a year, less than a year, give or take. So I say about 12, 13 months. So even I mean, for the other day, the smell of hospital today were triggering at time. It was just a lot to take taking 20, 30 pills a day. And I wasn't a good pill flawer back in the day, so I had to crunch them up and put them in mashed potatoes and all the things that come with that. So it was just it was a lot, man. It was a lot. And I mean, I guess it's hard to say I'm thankful for it now, right? Because with no pain, there's no no gain, that's the cliche, but the pain is what makes up, right? And then that longing to be different, right? That desire to be a better version of this or something different. Like you have to want something.

Rebecca Rose Payne 5:00

Yeah. And so when you were going through this, how did your parents respond?

Antoine Hood 5:04

Oh, man, that's a tough one, right? I mean, my mom is a super Christian, so you know, she prays 28 out of 24 hours a day, right? So I mean, for her, it was kind of a normal transition. And my father was it was just too much for him. He was overwhelmed. So I think he was flooded emotionally and didn't have a way to emotionally not really self-medicate, that's what I'm looking for, but that emotionally regulate. He had no emotional regulation based on his past and his childhood. So he couldn't even like be in the room. That was difficult because it created something in me thinking that I wasn't good enough, right? And I think a lot of men struggle with that just present day, and it created this staying loop that I was completely unaware of. Make sure I can see a better person, feel this stuff, which I didn't even know that I had. And now it makes more sense because he projected onto me what he wasn't able to process. And me not even realizing what it did to me from an internal standpoint of believing that I wasn't loved enough or good enough or enough, period. We're all wounded, we all have traumas, you know, and their generation is the best way to do. Our generation is probably the worst generation of anything on the planet, however, you know, hurt people, hurt people. And if you don't know, and just from experience and gone through intense therapy, I did not know that I was carrying this thing for 43 years of my life.

Rebecca Rose Payne 6:40

What's your relationship like with your dad now?

Antoine Hood 6:43

It's improved, right? I mean, we've had some knockdown, drag out conversations about this type of stuff in the past of like how I needed him to be there for me and he wasn't. And I mean he owned it and apologized, right? But that's fucking years, man. Years of just hurt and I'm thankful for his apology, and he's always been there for me. And I mean he would if I needed something, right, from a material standpoint, he'd buy anything, you know, like do whatever he had to do from a my very material aspect of unseen things, right? The spiritual, mental, and emotional covers of life that really shape us into who we are.

Rebecca Rose Payne 7:30

Yeah, I think that's that's honestly such an good point. And it's interesting from the perspective of this podcast where we talk about success, and a lot of times that means like success in your career or financial success or you know, artistic success, when really a huge part of what actual success looks like is being able to be there emotionally for yourself, for your family, being able to emotionally regulate. But you don't necessarily, I feel like that is not something that is you know set out for people typically as a goal.

Antoine Hood 8:10

For sure. Yeah. I mean, and to your point, right? That's that's the hard caught up. Like that's nothing sexy about that, this conversation, right? No, like you know, there is no MTD emotion, right? Like it's MTD crib, you know. There is no, oh, you know, kept my scary, except my right, you know. So I mean it's just like that type of that's not the clickbait that people want to see.

Rebecca Rose Payne 8:33

Yeah, like watch how watch how how badly we can agitate this person without them breaking.

Antoine Hood 8:39

Right, exactly. And I think the awareness of mental health, right, as a buzzword is great, but it's so much deeper than just mental health, right? Like Simone Biles as opposed to a person. I mean, you got uh, I think the NFL receivers, and uh there's some NBA guys came out and just talking about their mental health and the struggles and this and that. It's like, yes, that's a part of the process, right? But it's like, where, how did you get here? Like, what's in here that gets you here that you've been dealing with that little boy or girl that never got a hug or never got validated or never got appreciated? However, and I mean, I think I'm part of the I'm a victor and a victim at the same right, right? It's like it's okay it's okay not to be okay, but it's not okay to stay there. And I can play that victim victimization for the rest of my life, right? Like I could say, well, it wasn't fair, my dad wasn't there, he was there, but he wasn't there, and I went, I did this, and the military did that, and I can I can name all the challenges and obstacles that I've experienced. However, at the end of the day, some of those things that I didn't have, and I think a lot of people, to your point of uber success, and I think Will Smith came out and said it too, it's like that feeling of not enough is also a driver, right? Like it's also like, you know, okay, you said I couldn't do it, so I'm gonna go do it. And I'm gonna keep doing it, and I'm gonna keep doing it, and I'm gonna keep doing it. And I think the shortfall, or not the shortfall, the horrible outcome of that is when you get to the top of the mountain and you realize you plot the wrong one. Right. And I think that's where the devastation and the depression and the anxiety and all these things start to just hit you like a flood because there's still something in here that never got attended to.

Rebecca Rose Payne 10:27

Yeah.

Antoine Hood 10:28

You know?

Rebecca Rose Payne 10:29

So I mean, and we see this over and over again with like extremely successful people who are struggling so hard with mental health. I mean, sometimes even with like suicidality, but just it can be almost more devastating when you reach the top and you realize that you're still not happy. Right.

Antoine Hood 10:50

Like you've amassed all these things and the women, the wine, the dance, the cars, the trips, the IG, the faces, the TikTok. Like you got you're influencing everybody, you know? And I think that the person in the mirror is the most important person. And I think most Uber successful people, as hard as people say it is, they were trade it all for peace, right? Her serenity, her stability, for just knowing who I am, no identity right now. Like being successful in my own stand, being able to sit in my emotions, being able to process and regulate and go out and actually enjoy my survival. So it's a double-edged sword, man, because everybody, and we're just a society of have and have nots, right? Whatever you don't have, you want a prevented proof. And then people that do have it almost want to trade it down, right? Because even with taxes don't care, people don't care about taxes because you become wealthy.

Rebecca Rose Payne 11:52

Yeah.

Antoine Hood 11:52

Now all of a sudden you're like, whoa, I have big boy money now. This is different. I'm in a I'm in a whole nother echelon, right? So then now you're like, wait a minute, I gotta give Uncle Sam what? Because I made this and that, you know, but when you're in the rat race and violence, you haven't reached the mountain or the pinnacle, you're taxing the blessing that you get 10 grand. Yeah. You know? So it's it's just it's crazy. It's crazy that everybody wants what they they want what they think they need when they don't have it. And then the ones that have it sometimes don't know how to appreciate that, right?

Rebecca Rose Payne 12:29

Because Yeah, or they realize that it's not actually what they wanted.

Antoine Hood 12:33

Exactly. Exactly.

Rebecca Rose Payne 12:35

Which actually I was gonna bring up in your career, you've had many different iterations of yourself, like you've um, between being like an athlete, being in a military officer, an entrepreneur, an author, a speaker. Have you kind of experienced this? Like you reached the top of a certain like area and are like, uh, this wasn't it?

Antoine Hood 12:57

You know, it's such a great question because a lot of people look at me and they're like, man, you're so inspirational, like your story, all the things that you've accomplished, this and that. And it's weird as this sounds, I feel like I've done nothing. I know that's so just egotistical to say, right? It c it doesn't essay very well because I I have been blessed to do a lot of things and accomplishing a lot of bots. But for me, like I just have this insatiable desire for like ambition and more and like sprayblazer and why not let's do this and that. So I'm just I'm like a I call myself the polymath trillionaire, right? Like I have so many different things that I like to do. And I just I'm a voracious reader. I read like eight books at a time, and I just love learning. I want to grow, and I think curiosity is a superpower, and I'm just curious about so many different things. I want to learn about things, and I want to be in whatever vertical I don't know, and tell people all the time to not say authenticity in that. You can act for a little while, but the things that you're passionate and authentic about, you're A, willing to die for, and B, there's nothing that's going to derail you from sex at all. No matter what it looks like, whether you got a penny in the bank, no matter crawling, lengthening, and for me to your sister answer the question in a very long-winded way. Yeah, it has been interesting to your point, because I haven't been able to see it in a lot of rooms that I ever thought I'd get in, and I've got to meet a few heroes that I thought are gonna be like, oh my god, I'm meeting person X or Y or Z. And they're human just like us. You know, and I mean it's not to be cliche in yet, but like never meet your zero might be for the better because it's not like you see one side, right? All we see is what's portrayed, and a lot of that is entertainment, a lot of that is just lobbying, a lot of that is just image, and but then when you actually sit down in an intimate environment with the hero, and you're just wanting to have a normal conversation, and they have no conversation outside of their craft or their skill or of the glory that they achieved, it's like that's it, bro. Like that's all you got. All we're gonna talk about is all your accolades and the games or the songs or the things. Like, that's like okay. This was very underwhelmed because I'm under the impression you're this creative genius, like you're super interesting, you're intriguing, you're visionary, all these different things you're coming to find out. You like McDonald's, and it's just the shallowness of it all is it's just ironic because you just don't know what you don't know, but you feel like you know because they portray a certain side of them, so that's gonna keep everybody on a hook and keep the machine moving in the direction move. However, that person with no makeup behind closed doors in the sweats, just that same little boy or girl that's just looking to connect like everybody else at a very basic level, right? We all wanna be desired, we all want to be careful. And if you never got that, then it comes down in your conversation, it comes out in your relationship, comes out everywhere because you need that emotional security, you need that safety, and that's extremely hard to find at certain levels.

Rebecca Rose Payne 16:40

Yeah, I mean, it's like to a certain extent, wherever you go, there you are. It's like you can get to get to the top, but you're still gonna have your same insecurities, your same feelings of struggle, and it's all still there if you don't deal with it.

Antoine Hood 16:56

Exactly, right? I mean, to me, it's like the book I'm reading right now, the myth, the myth of normal, right? Like normal's a myth. Your normal's not my normal, my normal's not yours, but based on our circumstances, our past, our traumas, that is the normal, right? So I'm gonna meet you. And we only see in fragments. So my fragments may align with yours, they may not, but that's my that's my normal, right? So when I come into your normal, I'm like, whoa, this is weird. Dr. Payne's a little different. I don't know if I like that, right? And then I already have my biases and prejudices and all the things. It's not even about judgment, it's just natural human fragmentational thought processes of how I frame the world through my experience, which doesn't make it right or wrong, you know, it's it just it is like you are where you are. You know, so how did you navigate that when you come into a group or come into a five of different humans that have different fragmented pieces that I'm unwilling to be gross-minded to even empathize to see your perspective, which just because I empathize with you, and I just learned this, calling myself, right? All the things I've done and accomplished, I just learned empathy is not agreement. I didn't know that. I had no idea that you could empathize with someone and be there for them and see life from their perspective but not agreeing with this. That's like just game changer. Because I mean, these words are just thrown around and narcissists and unempathetic, like all the buzzwords and this game. Okay, well, everybody does these things. Yeah, right? Everybody manipulates, everybody gaslights, everybody lies, everybody deceives. Now, they're levels to everything. I tell them all the time, to it, right? Like you lying about to a police officer about where you parked and this and that, where you're going, is definitely different than lying about hiding 900 bodies in the desert, right? For sure. You know what I mean? Now, but but the basic principle of our behavior is you're still alive.

Rebecca Rose Payne 18:57

Absolutely. And like I think that that's something that I'm so glad you brought up because I think that if like if the general public understood that you can empathize and validate someone's concerns without agreeing with them, like maybe we wouldn't have such division in our politics or in I mean in all areas of our life.

Antoine Hood 19:17

No, it's been race too, right? I mean, like it's it's it's unbelievable. We'll take and that's the other thing. When I do, I guess this is my microphone, right? Like, I want to tell the world there is a dichotomy in every ethnic race, right? Every group of ethnic, whether you're European, black, white, brown, otherwise, Asian, Hestet, Middle Eastern, Indian, like one experience with that ethnic does not classify the way. Right? Like ignorance does not discriminate. So if you meet me as an educated black American, and you meet an ignorant black American, you can't put us in the same category because we're not the same.

Rebecca Rose Payne 20:03

Exactly.

Antoine Hood 20:05

But to your point, that's that's what society does. Oh, well, I had one experience in that, and that is back to the fragmentate. It's like, dude, like every situation is unique, every human is unique. There's only one fingerprint for every person on this planet. Love them, hate them, whatever. That's these that is an un irrefutable fact of life. So my interaction with said ethnic group, with one individual, does not classify the whole now. Our stereotypes, there are truth to stereotypes and the zodiacs and all that. Yeah, if I take a group of people over an extended period of time and analyze all the characteristics, there's gonna be some copy, right? Like that's hard makes sense. But once once again, it doesn't mean every person instead of a beta group is that way.

Rebecca Rose Payne 21:00

Yeah. And also for people that are whatever way you don't like, you can still you can not like that and still empathize with where they're coming from and why they are the way that they are.

Antoine Hood 21:13

Thousand percent. Thousand percent agree, right? And that's and that just comes, that's a mindset. Being broke is a mindset, being successful is a mindset. Success is a choice. Just like love is a choice, commitment is a choice, discipline is a choice, these are choices. If you choose not to, you don't get to sit and Monday morning quarterback me because I chose to do something you're not willing to do. You know what I mean? And that's where, to your point about society, if you're willing to do what I'm doing, then now you can speak about my effort and liability because we're both on the same trajectory. However, if you're on the couch eating potato chips all day and on fantasy football or basketball or hockey or soccer or whatever, and I'm the man in the Arena? We if you've never been in the arena, you don't even have an opinion, you can critique, you can say whatever, but you never didn't put in 10,000 hours.

Rebecca Rose Payne 22:10

Yeah, you haven't been training your whole life.

Antoine Hood 22:13

Right. You don't you don't get that privilege to say, and even if you have trained your 10,000 hours, there's no levels to this. For me to come on here and talk about LeBron or SGA or Dak Prescott or Aaron Rodgers or all of this, those are elite superstar athletes. Now, am I an athlete and can I compete with them? Yeah, I'm not gonna lay it out for anybody. But for me to say I know what it feels like to be that girl, that's tough. That's tough to say. That's tough to even give an opinion on because I can go to Walmart and I'm not gonna get mobbed, right? Like I'm not signing on a grass, no, I can blend in on a tall human, look athletic. Hey, he might be famous, he might not. I'm in that, right? Not to the point where I have to shut down an entire wall just to take my family shopping for safety.

Rebecca Rose Payne 23:03

Yeah. And it's, you know, there's advantages and disadvantages to each.

Antoine Hood 23:07

Correct, right.

Rebecca Rose Payne 23:09

Like, even if I like if I were to have trained just as much as LeBron, like there's no way I'm gonna be LeBron, I'm five foot three.

Antoine Hood 23:18

Right, right, exactly. Exactly. But now, hey, could you be a phenomenal gymnast? Yeah, you know what I mean? So you and Samoan might maybe get along, right? But it's just it's the way people are so quick to ask you a religious opinion and and when people get paid for it, right? Like now, that's the new thing. Like, oh yeah. Like you're a multimillionaire off an opinion. Yeah, like and I'm not saying it's not talented, I'm not saying it's not entertainment, I'm not saying it's not comical, but boy, what a world we live in. I can be famous while critiquing this podcast. That's it, that's all I was saying. Yeah.

Rebecca Rose Payne 23:58

Like be a professional hater.

Antoine Hood 24:01

Right. And I mean, and I'm glad you said that. I I am so thankful for the haters, right? Because that's the fuel that keeps most people successful. Yeah. The saddest part about it is the people you love the most are the ones that hurt you the most, right? Like, and I'm sure we're all guilty. But those are also the people that motivate you at the same time, right? And so it's just such a weird dichotomy because the same person that can hurt me is the same person I want to build for, right? That's the legacy. I want to, you know, like the validation I really only seek is for those in my inner circle. Yeah. From a healthy human, right? The ones that are unhealthy, you need 10 million likes. I need this many followers. Like my identity is tied like crap. I think that is another huge shortfall, or I guess not shortfall, but just a huge limiting factor. It's never pretty. By the time you get to the bottom, you're bleeding. You know, people still know who you are, but now they don't see you. You know, like the ram stop spinning, the chair stop coming, the weapon stop.

Rebecca Rose Payne 25:08

Yeah, become more like known for who you were, not who you are.

Antoine Hood 25:13

Yeah. And that and on that, that's another huge transition for successful people, right? And I encourage people all the time, like, you have to have another, it can't, you have to have another identity, right? You gotta be able to pivot. Like, basketball can't define me, right? Public speaking can't define me. Writing books can't, like, okay, all that stuff is great. I love it, I'm passionate about it. When that's said and done, I gotta be able to sit in my pool with an adult beverage and just enjoy my life. And be content at some level of how much effort I put in, where I've come from, where I'm at now, and just enjoy it. Like in a safe, emotionally, spiritually, physically mature body and be healed and pass on a legacy with my children and then grab my grand eventual grandkid, etc.

Rebecca Rose Payne 26:08

I mean, I couldn't agree more. I think you said it perfectly.

Antoine Hood 26:13

Thank you. Thank you. Mike, mic drop on that one.

Rebecca Rose Payne 26:16

Yeah.

Antoine Hood 26:18

Oh, good, good.

Rebecca Rose Payne 26:19

Well, so we are almost out of time, but just for my own curiosity, what would you say of all the books you've read for the past couple years your favorite or the most important one to read is?

Antoine Hood 26:32

Yeah. There are so many. I mean, I think Zig Ziggler does a phenomenal job in the self-help area and just with like and hackful quotes that you just just kind of like just stick with you, right? Like I think most of the stuff that I read is is just like, wow, like they're simple, but simple hits so hard, you know? So I mean I would I got a shout out to Zig Ziggler and his uh Leadership Academy and all those things. I'm a big Mac and Malcolm Gladwell guy. Yeah. Yeah, he's a the way he frames just not even giving you a book, I'm giving you authors, right? Circumstances, situation. I mean I think I've read everything he's written to date that I've that I'm aware of at least. And it's just very smooth, very easy to read, very practical, and uh very good practicality guy. And it's hard. I mean, I think you know, Doctor of Seven, highly effective habits of people, or how now how to win and influence people. That's great.

Rebecca Rose Payne 27:30

Yeah, how to influence and and win people don't.

Antoine Hood 27:32

I know I'm I'm butchering the title. That's a good one.

Rebecca Rose Payne 27:38

I mean make friends and influence people.

Antoine Hood 27:40

That's a that's it, yeah. That's a great that's a great one for anyone that's either looking to get on the pad. Uh shout out to my boy Robert. I think it's it's Koasaki, Kowasaki, Rich Dad Cordad.

Rebecca Rose Payne 27:51

I couldn't say.

Antoine Hood 27:52

Okay. Rich that cordad's another good one.

Rebecca Rose Payne 27:54

Oh, yeah, no, he's good. I read that.

Antoine Hood 27:56

Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. I think uh the richest man in Babylon is another good one. My boy Victor Frankel, a search for me. I mean, meaning, a search for meaning.

Rebecca Rose Payne 28:08

But that's another I know which one you're talking about, though.

Antoine Hood 28:11

Yeah, right. So, I mean, those are some some. I think the secret was actually another one that impacted me pretty powerfully as well.

Rebecca Rose Payne 28:19

It sounds like just based off what you're reading, I think one of the key takeaways is that you are constantly, even though you've experienced all the success, you're constantly looking to improve yourself. Like, how can I get better? What else can I do?

Antoine Hood 28:35

Right. And oh, another good one to your point, the soul of shame, right? Game shape from I don't care male, female, black, white, brother, otherwise. It is insane. And I mean, now that I've lived it for freaking 43 years, and now I'm man, if I am 43 years old and I had no idea the depth of that, and I didn't even know I could transfer my shame to you. And now you can't even heal from that shame because why? It never belonged to you. So, I mean, you gotta name it to tame it, and I gotta own it to control it, right? Like if I can only control what I own, and I can only obtain what I name. So if it's if it's not my, I gotta give that back to you. There are just so many people. And I tell these people all the time, no one has a positive inner voice. No one. Yeah. No one. Unless you're psychopathic, right? Or Machiavelli is of like the dark. And you know what I mean, which which we all have a little bit in us too, right? We all have another side, and I tell people I'm healing so that that animal and that monster is cage, you know. There are there's a time and place to let them out if my family's in danger, if no one else around and find out type situation, then okay, I will unlock that, and that's a sign you will not that's not pleasant. However, even understanding those aspects of emotional trauma, trigger, and you tell yourself, you have to be very, very how to speak to you.

Rebecca Rose Payne 30:10

Absolutely. And the way I think people don't realize the way that we're constantly speaking to ourselves because we're with ourselves more than anyone else. And it's like if you ever spoke to a friend the way you speak to yourself, you would have no friends.

Antoine Hood 30:26

Right. Because I mean, the irony is you can't give what you don't have, right? So if I don't love myself, I can't love you. I thought I'm patient with myself, I can't be patient with you. If I'm not understanding about myself, I'm not found in my self-creation next to you. All these things I don't give. Anybody in my circle is doomed, right? And then you take my dome and then tie it to their dome, and you give me something I didn't ask for. Now I'm carrying this. It's like, okay, well, how broad can my shoulders get? Because now I'll I'm looking to run this race, but it's a little heavy with all this extra length, but I don't even ask. You know, it's like both hands, ten toes, I'm just as guilty as a next person. But I want people to have the awareness of like, hey, fix your ish, you know, as a man, it starts with us. And no offense to women, I know they're all independent and successful and all the things. However, a healthy you is the best gift you can give to me.

Rebecca Rose Payne 31:29

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. And so, one final question. What do you think is the core belief about you that you hold, which has driven your success?

Antoine Hood 31:41

Man, a great question. Core belief that has driven me the most. I mean, there's I'm such an onion, right? I mean, like there's there's levels to it. To pinpoint it, I guess, and uh to answer it directly, would be I'm uh just a servant looter protector, right? Like I love to serve others, I want others to win. I want to never be in a room to where I can't help anyone, right? So for me, and everybody's not like that, right? We all have our gifts and talents, and for me, yeah, just gifted a mass and a lot of different skills and talent that freaking rolling, and I just I enjoy it and I do it not for me, but for us, right? All the gifts that I have, all the wealth that I'm building, not for me. It's for podcasts like this, it's for the next level, it's for people I meet that are really passionate to, and the only thing they need is an olive branch, whether it's financial, whether it's network, whether it's whatever it is, I want to be a conduit to that because if you win, I win.

Rebecca Rose Payne 32:56

Yeah.

Antoine Hood 32:56

You know, and that's just it's scientific, it's you know, the I'm an oxytocin whore, right? For lack of better words. Like I wanna give, I want to give and do, but I can't give something up either, you know, and that's that's the nuance, right? So the core is a loving, giving, serving, protecting to a level and bandwidth that's healthy.

Rebecca Rose Payne 33:20

Yeah. I mean, it sounds like it's an awareness that we're all connected and like your win is my win, my win is your win.

Antoine Hood 33:26

Exactly.

Rebecca Rose Payne 33:27

If I'm giving too much and I'm not winning, then I can't help anyone with.

Antoine Hood 33:34

So you go. That would be that would be the core belief, right? And then I mean, I just believing in yourself. I mean, one of my favorite quotes is until the lion lines to right, the pill will always go to the higher. We all have a story, and I encourage everyone tell your story. Don't be afraid of your story, don't be afraid of what you're talking about, small town, big town, whatever. Like your story can heal someone else. So if people can just start to get that and start to heal themselves, and nobody's hurt very well. We're still gonna have for a coming. I'm still kind of blowing my life and all that. But if I can repair it connect, and if I can do that in love, authenticity, and empathy, and understanding and all the things that I know I need if I can work through that conflict in a healthy way, at least today.

Rebecca Rose Payne 34:28

That was beautifully said.

Antoine Hood 34:30

Thank you. You can vote for me next year, right?

Rebecca Rose Payne 34:32

Yes, yes. You gotta vote. Absolutely. Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for joining us.

Antoine Hood 34:38

Oh, uh Dr. Payne, my absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm forever grateful and in gratitude for it.

Rebecca Rose Payne 34:45

Yes. So great to have you.

Antoine Hood 34:47

Awesome.