Circumstantially Successful

Ep 43: Alignment Is the New Hustle (Featuring Ronnie Megginson)

• Brennan Hilleary

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What happens when you finally stop forcing success and start surrendering to your purpose? Ronnie Megason's extraordinary journey reveals how alignment can transform your life more powerfully than hustle ever could.

From being falsely accused of murder at age 20 to building multiple successful businesses, Ronnie shares how his search for external validation nearly destroyed him - and how discovering his true purpose saved him. Growing up without a father figure, Ronnie sought acceptance from others at the cost of his authentic self, until a series of life-altering events forced him to reconnect with his values and faith.

The conversation takes a profound turn as we explore why people-pleasing is actually rooted in fear rather than generosity. "People pleasers are liars," Ronnie admits, reflecting on how he abandoned his own values to gain acceptance from others who ultimately weren't aligned with his purpose. This revelation became clear during what he calls his "isolation season" - a divine period of solitude where God removed everyone who wasn't meant to be part of his journey.

Perhaps most powerful is Ronnie's vulnerable sharing about a recent toxic relationship that attacked his businesses, reputation, and peace. Through this painful experience, he experienced a spiritual awakening that strengthened both his faith and resolve. Now preparing to relocate to Atlanta and expand his businesses, Ronnie demonstrates how surrendering to divine guidance creates opportunities that hustling alone never could.

Whether you're struggling with people-pleasing, seeking your true purpose, or wondering why nothing seems to be working despite your best efforts, this conversation offers a profound new perspective: alignment is truly the new hustle.

Ronnie Megginson's Socials

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kulturevibez/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ronnie.megginson

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kulturevibez434

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Circumstantially Successful. I'm your host, brennan Hillary, and my mission as a lifestyle entrepreneur is to help others become the creators of their lives. Every week, I'm committed to helping you build your power from the inside out. Thank you for tuning in, for believing in yourself and for refusing to be a victim of your circumstances. Hope you enjoy the show. Let's get started.

Speaker 2:

What's going on, everybody? I am back after a long hiatus. I think the last episode I recorded was September of last year. It is currently April of 2025. September of 2024 is the last episode.

Speaker 2:

I'm super excited for this one. There's been so many changes going on in my life and I'm not going to be talking about that today. That'll be in a different episode. But I am excited because I have a guest here who I feel is the perfect match for what our theme is going to be for this episode, which is alignment is the new hustle. My guest's name is Ronnie Megason. Ronnie is a Charlottesville superstar, he is a serial entrepreneur and he is God-fearing in his words, so he's a man of faith, he's a man of purpose, he's a man of drive, and me and Ronnie met a few months ago now at a networking event and we just have really hit it off ever since and I'm really excited for you guys to hear his story, because he has definitely gone through some trials and tribulations, and just want to say thank you so much, ronnie, for being here.

Speaker 3:

No problem at all, my brother. I appreciate you for having me man. The intro was nice. I appreciate that intro. Yes sir, yes sir.

Speaker 2:

I got to hype you up. Man, that's how it works. You did that.

Speaker 3:

You did that. Thanks for having me, man. It's my pleasure to be here. It's definitely an honor. Everything that you got going on, everything that you're doing, man, I can only commend you and the lives that you're changing, bro. Like, keep doing your thing, man. Keep doing your thing. This means a lot to me. This podcast here definitely means a lot to me. I appreciate you. Thank you, appreciate you brother.

Speaker 2:

Thank you man, both two men stepping in purpose. Yes, sir, I would love for you to just showcase real quick, real quickly, like kind of, what you're doing now. Then I also want you to talk about who was Ronnie in his past. So what are some things that you've experienced in your past that has shaped you into the man that you are today, and then what your future goals are, so kind of like, what are you doing? Who did Ronnie used to be Right, and how is some of the things in your life shaped you into, you know, becoming the more God fearing man that you are right now, and what are some things that you want to do in the future?

Speaker 3:

Cool, cool. Well, right now, you know, I'm a director of a non-profit Culture Cares, which is kids at risk embracing success, which is something that I'm very, very passionate about. I'm very thankful and blessed to be able to, you know, work with the kids, work with the youth, the community. That's something that's very big to me, especially me coming from this city and experienced a lot. So being able to give back and reach out to those that were once, like myself, lost, without any vision, it's a blessing in itself. I'm also a business owner. I own Culture Vibes, which is a clothing store here in Charlottesville, virginia, which we are planning to open up a new location in Atlanta the end of spring. So I'm excited about that as well. I own a trucking company out of Louisa County, which is. I've been doing that since 2016. It's kind of where it all started. You know to where I am now. It's like. It's almost like a dream. You know, I never really seen myself being where I am now, even through all the obstacles. You know, back.

Speaker 3:

I come from Charlottesville. Well, louisa County moved to Charlottesville. Been here, you know, all my life I've been trying to figure out my purpose, but one thing that I understand we don't build purpose, we discover it. So, you know, just growing up in Charlottesville, younger, you know I was more so in the streets, you know more so in the streets, you know, just hanging with the wrong people, the wrong crowd. You know I don't have a relationship with my biological father. So I ended up seeking, you know, guidance from close friends or older friends who I felt like, who I thought had my best interests in mind.

Speaker 3:

But you know, I've been through a lot, man. I've been through a lot. You know, like I just mentioned, I don't know who my biological father is. I've been through a lot, you know, even with the law. You know I've got in trouble with the law when I was younger. And even with the law, you know I've got in trouble with the law when I was younger, falsely accused for certain things which I never understood why I had to go through it at that time.

Speaker 3:

But you know, growing up, you know God revealed the reasons why I had to go through everything and it's actually why I'm doing what I'm doing now and why I'm really chasing my purpose and going after my purpose. Man, you know I was not aligned with the right people and God revealed that. He revealed that in ways that I never thought. So you know I'm blessed to be here today to speak on a lot of it and, you know, hopefully it helps save someone else from having to make the same mistakes that I made and doesn't have to take them as long as it took me to find my purpose, you know.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, well diving deep into your childhood. You know it sounds like you grew up and you didn't have that male role figure Right and so because of that, you were almost you know the people that taught you how to be a man Right and how to, how to, how to provide and how to adopt those characteristics that I feel like are expected of us in society. It sounds like that those people that you were learning from maybe weren't the best influences, so maybe right away, like you, you you had to. Definitely it wasn't your choice right. And I think a lot of times too, and when we grow up, we think that, especially when we get to adulthood, we look back on our past and we're like man, like I could have done that so much better, and we tend to judge ourselves and be super critical of ourselves. But, like, what are you supposed to do when you're a kid? And that's your, that's your surrounding?

Speaker 3:

That's your circumstances.

Speaker 3:

Exactly. You really don't. You really don't know. You know you're. You're just going with what you think is right, what you think is cool. You know what I'm saying. Especially, you know you want people to look at you in a way that you didn't look at yourself. You know, like me, I had insecurities and I used to look for validation in people. You know what I'm saying and I used to look for validation in people. You know what I'm saying, like I used to. You know, look for validation in individuals who I should never have, who I should never gave that power to. You know what I'm saying, and that was one of the things that kept sending me back was when I had to realize that. You know you don't need external validation.

Speaker 2:

You know what I'm saying, and when did you so specifically? Like, what are some things that you learned from the people in your childhood that didn't end up serving you later on in life, and when did you come to that realization that those things weren't serving you, and what did that transition look like from okay, I'm noticing that I'm not the man that I want to be right now and I want to be somebody who's a better version of myself. Walk me through what, maybe one thing that pops in your head of like what's one thing you learned that, like I said, didn't serve you? When did you realize it?

Speaker 3:

And then, what did you do to start embracing what does? Well, one of the biggest things that happened in my life that really shifted my focus and made me realize that the people around me weren't aligned with what God had for me, me and my little brother. We were falsely accused for a murder that we had nothing to do with, falsely accused for a murder that, you know, we had nothing to do with. Honestly, just even thinking of it, it's just, it's something that I never thought that would ever happen. Um, you know, I see, you see people get falsely accused on TV, you know, but when it, when it happens to you, it's kind of like like a wow factor. You know. You kind of like how, how and why is this happening? And, honestly, it was just being aligned with the wrong people.

Speaker 3:

People who were in my circle got in trouble and to escape their situation, they just threw names up for the police to, you know, just to shift it off of them. And you know, one day I'm at work and I get a phone call from my mom. She said US Marshals is at the house looking for you and your brother. I mean, she was frantic, going crazy. At first I thought it was a joke, until the marshal got on the phone and said he needed to speak to me. And where could they meet me? It was one of those come-to-God moments because I truly couldn't understand what was happening. Didn't understand what was happening, you know. So I ended up turning myself in and that's when they revealed that.

Speaker 3:

You know, my name was brought up in a case from someone which happened to be someone that was in my friendship circle, and it was the worst thing I've ever experienced. You know, I love people and to be faced with these type of accusations was just completely mind-blowing. You know, of accusations was just, was completely mind-blowing. You know everyone who, everyone who I thought thought was was a friend, I, I completely had a different outlook on my circle. It was.

Speaker 3:

And how old were you when this happened? I was 21 when that happened, 19 and 20. Yeah, 20. When that happened, I was a stocker at a shoe store and it's just, I mean still just even thinking about it right now. It was life changing. It was very life changing. You know, even the case that they were speaking on was just. I couldn't even believe I got implemented in something like that. You know it was. It was definitely God, showing me that he has been trying to break me apart, away from a circle that I had no business being around. Like I said, I was always looking for validation from people you know, so I would hang around people who do things like just for validation. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 3:

Just to be accepted and it was the worst situation I could have ever been put in, not only for me but for my family, because I know how I was raised. Having my mom go through this with me was something that I didn't like as well, because it was not only my mom but my younger brother was not only my mom but my younger brother, you know. And they finally ended up catching the actual people who did it and you know, we got no apology, we got nothing but coming from Charlottesville, and then you're a black man, you know what I'm saying. That's hard to face, you know. It's hard to face, and especially when you're actually you know you're not capable of doing anything like that and you have to walk around, still walk around this community with that blemish regardless, and not if the person was the people that did it was convicted. Just the fact that that they thought that you were capable of doing something like that, it's just. It's like wow, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's like they trust law enforcement over who they already know. You really are. Yeah, it's like people in your life that you feel were your ride or dies. It's like all of a sudden this statement comes out or this false accusation comes out and they switch up just like that.

Speaker 3:

Oh, my goodness man.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I can't even imagine how, how much of a just like heart shattering experience that was just to your whole life.

Speaker 2:

You've, like all you wanted to do is you wanted to get this acceptance and this love from others because you didn't have a male male figure to give that to you, right? So it's like, well, yeah, of course, like when you're a kid and you don't have a male male figure to give that to you, right? So it's like, well, yeah, of course, like when you're a kid and you don't have that person to reinforce your identity, of course you're gonna, you're gonna be like, well, who I am is not good enough. I gotta be who other people want me to be, exactly you know. And then and then, unconsciously, we surround ourselves with these people that aren't serving us and that take advantage of us and unfortunately, a lot of times we have to go through a really hard lesson to be able to really see the truth of the situation and I'm sure, even being 20 years old, it was hard for you to see the meaning in that and like the purpose in that.

Speaker 3:

Oh, most definitely, and that's why I feel like it still took me a little long to actually channel in on my purpose, because I was still young and I still I really didn't know my purpose. Still, I was just still going through life. You know, I knew that I had to change up my circle, I knew I had to do things differently, but I still had no, no understanding of what my purpose was or what God needed me to do. I was always ambitious, I was always a go-getter, I was always able to make things happen, but I never connected the dots to figure out what is God trying to do in my life, because I was too busy focused trying to control my own life.

Speaker 2:

And what is like for the people listening. So one big theme in my life has definitely been surrender. Yes, right, and I want to really demystify that real quick. So when you say, like I'm doing, I was doing these things in my life to try to control the outcomes of my life, what does that look like?

Speaker 3:

that's. That's just going for, like, really not talking to God before you make a decision, not um?

Speaker 2:

so maybe like making reactive decisions? Oh, most definitely Like being fueled by an emotion, maybe like anger or lust or you know something like that? Yes, definitely.

Speaker 3:

Um, I w I would, and you hit that on the head because I would things will happen and then I would act out of reaction. I wouldn't sit and I wouldn't think about it. I wouldn't think of what would be the best alternative or the best option. I would react If I got the door closed in one area. I'm using that to try to kick down another door, not understanding that the door I'm trying to kick down is not aligned with what I need to do. It was just me trying to prove a point that I still can do it, like I'm still gonna do it, with or without you.

Speaker 2:

Um, and do you feel like that came from, like that reactivity, because that's something I've dealt with in my life and a lot of times, like people I help, like they deal with it too obviously and do you feel like the reason why that's so easy for us to do like to act on an emotion like that is because we don't have a reason not to?

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think that in a way, Definitely.

Speaker 3:

I feel like. You know, when you feel like you don't have a reason not to, that's your go to. You're going to try to make something happen. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2:

Because, like, if you don't know who you are, right'm a deep level which, um, I you know I talk a lot about values, right. So it's like, if you don't have an internal dialogue of like oh, like this angry person that I am right now, like that's not who I am, that's not in alignment with my values, right then, the incentive to pause and process and really just like, think about a decision before we make it, it's almost like that incentive goes out the window. Right? Because, like, that willpower is, like, I think a lot of our power is rooted in who we perceive ourselves to be. So, if we don't perceive ourselves to be like the, you know, embodying the values that God wants us to embody, or we don't see ourselves for who we really are, then it's like, yeah, like it's, you're just going to keep doing the same behavior that you've done in the past.

Speaker 3:

Because that's what you've always done, exactly, you know exactly. So it's a lot of things that I was doing was to. It wasn't to prove anything to myself. I was more so trying to prove it to other people, which was the wrong thing. You know, I'm trying to prove to other people that I'm valuable and I can do this. I don't need nobody's help and I can do this. I don't need nobody's help, I can like. That was one of my. That thought process was what kept setting me back. Right.

Speaker 2:

And what was the? When did the?

Speaker 3:

shift start happening for you. The shift for me started happening really when you know my first isolation season, you know when God isolated me not too long after that, man, and it's like a lot of people who I thought were for me. They wasn't there, no more. It was. I was seeing people who I was in school with. I was seeing them elevate to a level that I felt like it was like, wow, we graduated the same year. How is things moving so perfect in your life? And I'm sitting here like God? I just can't even break the iceberg and figure it out. But still, man, I would always resort back to certain individuals who I knew that I shouldn't have been aligned with. But when you grow up in a community and you have family, the one thing that I didn't want anybody to think that I was better than them or, you know, trying to be something that I'm not Like I still wanted acceptance.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

I didn't know how to not want acceptance or need acceptance to make it Almost to the point where I wasn't comfortable being me.

Speaker 3:

I would have to, and that's one of the that's one of the biggest things that caught um opened my eyes up to is when I got around certain people, I had to become a lower version, right of who I really was, just to feel like I fit in right, and it like why are you doing that? Yeah, why are you devaluing yourself to be accepted instead of embracing who you are? You know what I'm saying? It's almost like you're scared to be the smartest one in the room, you know?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think there's that fear of what I've seen in my own life. Is that fear of being seen, yes, for who you really are? Yes, and especially and you talked a lot about just now the isolation chapter. Right, the lonely chapter, the chapter of you see everybody else in your life winning, right, it's like nothing you're doing is working, like the plan that you have for your life is falling through the cracks and you're being forced almost in isolation. And one big thing that I think that comes from is rejection is protection, right? So what happens is the way I think about it, and shout out to Ash, a new friend I just met, who actually gave me this analogy yesterday Okay, it's like the butterfly analogy, right? So like when a caterpillar is in its cocoon, right, it's completely shielded from the outside world, right, and I think that isolation period is like it's the same thing.

Speaker 2:

It's like we're shielded from people, places and things that don't serve us and we don't yet have, like the discernment or the capacity to really know what we truly need yet, or know who we really are yet. So what do we? Got to do? We got to connect with ourselves, like we got to figure out who we are, we got to rediscover God on a different level. Like we have to have that time of isolation, because if we don't, then we're just going to keep doing all the same old self-destructive stuff that we were doing. That's not taking us anywhere. And then, like the caterpillar starts going into goo, right. So like what, literally what happens before the caterpillar becomes a butterfly is like it breakdowns happen, like. So our whole life like falls apart in a sense.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

And then when it's ready, right, the butterfly breaks out of the cocoon and then he goes and flies away.

Speaker 2:

If the butterfly tries to go out too early, it dies.

Speaker 2:

So there's some things that we can't force, and I think that we're isolated so that we don't have the option to force it, because all those people in our lives that we may see winning, those are probably people who maybe, at the season when we start winning, maybe they're going through their regression, they're going through their isolation. Maybe it was a different phase, maybe they had to, like, build a billion dollar business before they had their breakdown right, so they're losing even more. So it's almost a gift to have that and that's what I've seen a lot with like the call whatever you want, like chosen one circle, or like the people who, like, are the old souls, or just you know, the people who just kind of know deep down that they're meant to do something big in their lives. It always happens early and it's always, and you always feel like you're the only one like you always feel like you're the black sheep. You always like nobody else around you is, is going through it, but you oh man, and I think that's by design, man, I truly do.

Speaker 2:

I think it's like that's a crash course in, uh, in self-discovery, you know, because it's like, oh, you fear being seen. Okay, well, you're gonna get over that because I'm gonna force you to see.

Speaker 3:

I'm gonna force you to see yourself that is so real that is so real, that is so real and it's, it's like you know just like you were saying you want people to see you.

Speaker 3:

You want people to see your value. It's just with me. I was focused on the wrong people seeing it. Right, well, you were focused on people who couldn't see it. Who couldn't see it, and that was what my setbacks kept coming from. Um, I knew I had, I knew I had a gift. Um, I knew I was gifted um early on in life. Like I, I always had a gift for for taking things um, seeing what something is and turning it what it and turning it into what it could be.

Speaker 2:

It's like unlocking potential.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, exactly. So, even like my entrepreneur mindset, I used to go on Facebook Marketplace you know what I'm saying find things like whether it was cell phones, cars or whatever, refurbish them and then resell them, put them around, post them, resell them and I was good at that, you them and I was good at that. You know, I was really real good at that. So you know, as I went through life, I just kept trying to figure out God, what like, like I'm, you know I'm, I'm meant to do more than just work a nine-to-five like I. I just don't. It's like working a regular job. It did, it was cool. You know you had to pay bills, but it was like. It's like in your, in your heart, you're burning because you're like man, I know I'm meant to do so much more yeah like I'm, I'm you feel like your soul is suffocating oh, my goodness, it's like.

Speaker 2:

It's like the way I imagine it's like there's like a you know we have this fire inside of us and and here and this isn't to say, by the way, people listening there's a ton of people who are super lit up by their nine to five job. Yes, and I think you know, me and Ronnie, both being entrepreneurs. We're kind of relating in our own experience and from my experience, it's like there's this big fire that when I saw, when I went to rehab for 89 days inpatient that's what I connect that was my first lonely chapter.

Speaker 1:

Right, I've had like several but that was my first one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I and I connected with my fire and that was the first time I really saw like, oh, I have this like insane drive Right. And you know we try to like I'm sure you can relate to this Like we, when we try to force ourselves to fit in this box that we know that our soul isn't meant to fit into. It's like it's the same thing as putting something over the candle. You know just like it slowly sucks the oxygen out of that candle and eventually, if it's suffocated long enough, the fire dies and honestly, that's what I kind of perceive burnout to be. Yes, in a lot of ways it's like the candle burns out when you're suffocating your soul by not doing the things that you're feeling called to do, yes, for an extended period of time yes, you know, yes, and that man, that was a perfect way of putting it, man, and it's like and that's how I just kept feeling, um, just on these jobs, you know, um, sometimes you'll be.

Speaker 3:

I felt like you know I was more qualified than than the person, than the manager or whatever you know. But it's just when you understand that is you're not going to grow in that business. So you're like my God, what is like? I know, I know I'm meant to do something. I just just, please, just just just help me understand what it is that I need to do. You know, I tried everything. I started a mobile detailing company.

Speaker 2:

So when did you decide? Like? Because there's a certain point, like you know, clarity has to come through action, right? So there's always a crossroads where you know that, where you're at, like, the return of investment that you're getting on, the energy you're putting in, is not high enough to continue. Right, it's like I'm putting all this energy into something and I'm not getting lit up from it, like it's not giving me life, it's taking it away. So there comes to a point where it's like and the longer you stay, the more energy it sucks up, yes, and that's like, you know, part of the Holy Spirit's way, or the universe's way, or God's way, whatever you want to explain it as, like anybody listening, it's like telling you like, hey, it's time for you to move on. So it's like for you, what was the first time where you took that faith-based action and took the leap from that false sense of security that we're told comes from that nine to five job and you started really leaping into entrepreneurship?

Speaker 3:

five job and you started really leaping into entrepreneurship With me. It was when I was a maintenance technician for the hotel. The graduate of Charlottesville, I was a maintenance technician there and that was my last maintenance job. I went above and beyond. I knew I gave a thousand percent because I was trying to make the management position. So I came in. I mean, every day I went above and beyond, not only doing my job but doing the job of others.

Speaker 3:

But I was getting overlooked, man, and I seen it. I was getting overlooked and I was being purposely overlooked and it was like god was revealing something to me. It's like this is not what I have for you. This is, this is not, this is not what I have for you. Like you're, you're putting all of this in here and I'm keeping you at this point because this is not where you belong and it's not um, trying to anyone else. It was just I had to understand what it was that I'm trying to do.

Speaker 3:

So, even with my that's when I started my mobile detailing business while I was working there and it was just like the mobile detailing business. It was going. It was going okay, but certain things was happening Like God was showing me like, yeah, it's cool, you're good at that, but that's not it either. Like that's not it. And so the the the biggest step that I had to take was really just letting that job go. I knew I needed a job that was going to be able to sustain my bills, be able to be able to be financially uh okay. So my friend, he, he was driving tractor trailers and he said, man, you, you could really make a better living driving trucks, and you know. So I sat down, spoke with him and was seeing everything about the trucking business, and then it just popped in my head and was like, wow, maybe I should start my own trucking business.

Speaker 3:

So he was telling me go get your CDLs and drive for somebody, because you don't have to.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm like I hear you but I got something else in mind. Like.

Speaker 3:

I'm going to go to this trucking school. But I got something else in. I left the hotel and went and put myself in trucking school and I got my CDLs. And the wildest thing ever because I grew up, you know you pass trucks all along the highway and the last thing I ever thought was I'd be driving a big rig or know how to drive a big rig. But, man, in trucking school it's almost like everything came super easy, like I didn't struggle with anything with the trucking, like it was and I'm going to be honest with you, I even graduated out of my trucking school earlier. Everything, man, everything was happening so organically and it's like I couldn't do wrong. I couldn't do wrong. I couldn't do wrong. Class went well, the truck school, the trucking school went well. I passed on my first attempt. Yeah, like it was like God, wow, this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Speaker 2:

And that's, I think, with the theme of alignment, is the new hustle.

Speaker 2:

Yes, because I think so often, when we're living predominantly through our head, which means that, like, we're living predominantly through, like, what we think we should do or what we think should happen, right, what I've seen is, like there's so much resistance that comes with that Like and and if you've been programmed to believe, like at some point in your life, that, like I have to you know, more effort equals more results, or like, like I have to you know, more effort equals more results.

Speaker 2:

Or like I have to, you know, suffer in order to be successful, right, like these, these deep rooted core stories that we tend to pick up from, like people in poverty or society or whatever. It's like, oh, like it's not possible for you to both be able to do something that you love to do and for it to come easy for you, yes, and that's why I feel like we ignore the things that are aligned with us sometimes because, like we've been taught, it's like that's not safe, like it's not safe for you to, for it to be easy for you, like you have to hustle and you have to suffer and you have to work 12 hours every day and you got to do all this, this, um, self-sabotaging stuff, not to say there's not seasons for that and there's not time and places for that. Just in general, it's like that is what alignment supposed to feel like. It's not supposed to feel like you're fighting yourself.

Speaker 2:

every single step that you take, some resistance is necessary, but typically when you just break through it, that's when flow starts, exactly you know, it's like your resistance was like when you have the choice between let me stay in the safe, secure nine to five job and let me do something of my own. Yes, right, and you broke through that. That's when it gets to be a little bit easy.

Speaker 3:

Yes, you know, you are absolutely right and that, and actually that's when, that's when things really started to change in my life and that's when I started understanding purpose. I felt like I was going through that because, even from where I came from, I feel like God wanted me to show other people that came from where.

Speaker 3:

I came from another way out Because the trucking business. It saved my life. I will definitely say that Me getting my CDLs, it saved my life. It put me on a level that I never thought I would be able to obtain, especially coming from where I came from. But, like I said, I wasn't more so thinking about just being a truck driver. I was thinking about owning a business.

Speaker 3:

So you know me growing up. You know my mom she didn't know anything about LLC or credit or anything. She could only teach me what she knew, you know. So we were always just told get a job, keep a job, save money. And so that's what I was taught coming up. And so that's what I was taught coming up. But once I got my CDLs, I really, really wanted to not only be the best truck driver, but I wanted to be a business here in Louisa. So I had to teach myself. I had to Google everything it was to know about LLC, building business, credit, things. I had no idea that even existed. Like I'm telling you, this is how I found out about an LLC. And no, I'm not embarrassed to say it, because hey it's part of the story.

Speaker 3:

So I'm driving my truck and I'm going to take a load of logs to the mill. I just got my first truck, my own truck, and I'm saying, yeah, I got my own business. Now, I got my own business.

Speaker 2:

I didn't, but I got a truck Legally, you did Legally.

Speaker 3:

So I'm at the mill and it's an older guy, he's a truck driver, beside me. He's like hey, man. He said what's the name of your company? I said my name's Ronnie Megason. He said nah. He said you got an LLC. I said nah, what's that? He said oh man, you don't know what an LLC is. And I'm like man, I'm new to this truck. I'm thinking it has something to do with the truck.

Speaker 2:

Like nah, something to do with the truck Like nah he said nah.

Speaker 3:

man, he said nah. He said nah. When we get up front, he said pull over. So I want to talk to you. And so when we pulled over that's when he broke it down it was let me know the importance of an LLC, especially with hauling trucks I mean driving trucks and hauling logs. He said you want to separate yourself from this man. You know, if you go out here and hit somebody or something happens, they're going to take everything you own. You know what I'm saying. So I'm like, oh wow, llc.

Speaker 2:

I'm like LLC. You said, let me go check that out.

Speaker 3:

So I went home that evening, man, and just was on the computer and mouth was open because I'm like wow, like it's so much more to this business thing, man. So then I started studying the LLC, then studying the business credit and the DMV profile, like everything. I'm like just my mind's just blown. And then the first thing I started thinking about is like, wow, there were kids I was in school with that probably was taught this before you know, and that's why it seemed like when we graduated that they had a higher gear than coming out of school because they were taught what we didn't know.

Speaker 3:

They were set up, they were already set up and I'm like, wow, wow, and it's like how I should be teaching people this and it's like how I should be teaching people this, like I should really be teaching the people where I'm from this, because we don't know this. Like it's not one person that I used to have in my circle that ever said anything about an LLC you know what I'm saying. Like it's like this is crazy. I'm literally in the wrong circle because, like this is life changing. So when I learned it and fully taught myself and I actually started my own LLC, um, built my own business credit and did it the right way, I was like, wow, god, maybe this is what you want me to do. You know, you want me to to bring people up, you want me to show people this because this is going to save some lives. So not only am I running my trucking business, but now I'm hosting, I'm calling friends over to my place. Like, look, man, six o'clock tonight I'm going to show y'all what an LLC, especially my friends that were truck drivers Right, like I was trying to educate them on what I just learned.

Speaker 3:

And you know, just to see the amount of people I was able to help my community and help my circle be able to, you know, level up. And that's another situation that actually helped me understand my alignment. Because I was helping people. I shouldn't have helped as well. And when I say that, it's because it was people coming around, not genuine, it was more so of what they could get and leave. Right, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, it didn't matter what I was doing. Yes, I was somehow just bringing in anybody at this point.

Speaker 2:

You know what I'm saying, trying to Well, I think and I think that's how it starts, right, it's like when you, when you start to realize how, what your purpose is and how powerful you are, essentially like how powerful God wants you to be right in your life, what happens is we think that just we, just because we can help everybody, we should. Yes, and that's been one of the hardest lessons for me to learn, even now, especially, you know, in coaching, in the service industry, where I'm doing like high ticket coaching. It's like, do I have the capability to help a lot of people? Absolutely, however, not everybody is meant for me to help them. Yes, and what happens is when we don't know how to use our discernment towards like, hey, like when you're like, for example, like I have this theory when it comes to like helping people in general, especially if you grow up to be a people pleaser because of not having that sense of self and that strong self-esteem, what tends to happen is we really think that, as a people pleaser, we're doing it for others, right, we think that we're doing it for the goodness of other people, like, like we're.

Speaker 2:

It's like like, oh yeah, like I feel this impulse, literally this impulse, this almost like lust to help others right. It's like this frantic, urgent feeling of like I have to do this for somebody else. We confuse that with feeling pulled to do it. Yes, we confuse, like this needy scarcity, like this, this like oh, like I have to help this person. If you feel like you have to help somebody and you're doing it from a place of lack, so you're feeling an impulse Impulse comes from trauma, so like that's a sign right there, if you're listening to this and you struggle with saying no to people or like over committing your time and energy, like understand, if you feel like you impulsively have to help somebody, even when you know it's going to be at the detriment of yourself, man, you just hit that on the head. That's not helping somebody, in fact, because what's required for you to actually help that person is abandoning your values. Whew, and that's the thing about people pleasers. This is probably going to be really controversial. People pleasers are liars.

Speaker 3:

I'm guilty. Wears, I'm guilty. We have to. I'm guilty too.

Speaker 2:

We have to lie to ourselves in order to play the role that we think we have to play, which is I have to be everything for everyone. And then what? Because deep down, we don't feel like we deserve right to help the people that we want to help. And when you start noticing that, when you start realizing like okay, I keep getting taken advantage of, I'm sick of my energy being drained from these people, I'm sick of not being recognized for who I really am, and you start just like saying no to those people and saying yes to the people that light you up, the people that you actually want to have a conversation with, the people that you know will receive what you have to offer better. That's when the results happen. Exactly that's when people get impacted. Yes, yeah, yes, yes.

Speaker 3:

Man, I'm not going to lie, you just said a whole word. That was one of my biggest issues was trying to be a people pleaser. I wanted to say yes to everyone. I wanted to feel like I could fix everyone's problem. It was draining, it was super draining it comes from lack, not alignment.

Speaker 2:

Yes, oh, my goodness you know and to people listening to this this isn't to make you you, if you're in the season right now, just know. I think it's incredibly normal especially for high achievers, entrepreneurs, right People who know they're meant to do a lot in their lives it's so normal for them to have low self-esteem and low self-worth. It's actually like almost like the prerequisite for people to like. That's usually where people start is like. I have this insane drive to help others, not only because I know it's a part of God's purpose for me, but it's also because it's how I'm going to overcompensate for my lack of self-worth.

Speaker 3:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

You know, but then it gets to a point where you have to start learning from the lessons, because that's the bridge People pleasing is the bridge to us for really learning how valuable we really are.

Speaker 3:

I think in a lot of ways. Yes, yes, that is so true, that is so true. And it's like I started seeing people you know only reach out or connect with me for what they felt like I could do for them, and it wasn't um, it wasn't genuine, it just started. It just I started seeing more people, just not genuine, the, and it was anybody and it was just just taking and taking, taking, taking and you know and you get around right around.

Speaker 3:

you're trying to fill them up with the knowledge that you're trying to give them, but it's like they're not giving you nothing back to fill you up, if I'm making any sense it's like all the return of investment. Exactly it's almost depleting your energy versus. You know what I'm saying, like you know, adding to it.

Speaker 2:

So how did you start to discern that? Like, what did you start to do that made it easier for you to you know, do things more for the people you're meant to help and say no to the people you're not meant to help you're not meant to help.

Speaker 3:

When God revealed to me that the people who I thought I should be helping, certain things would happen with certain people, god was revealing things to me that was being done behind my back, that I had to witness Gotcha. And when you witness this from people who you had genuine, genuine respect for, you really felt like they that had your best interest. Man, it's, it's a, it's a pain in the eye opener that you like. No wonder what do you?

Speaker 2:

what did you do, like, like physically? What did you do when you found that out? Like, how did you, how did you finally start setting your boundaries and how did you finally start owning your value?

Speaker 3:

honestly just disconnected myself from these individuals. Just cold turkey. You know it wasn't. I didn't feel like it was a conversation needed to happen. You knew what you did. You know what's going on. I know what's going on and before I allow it to happen again, I'm gonna set these firm boundaries right here, um to protect myself, because I see my protection is not in your best interest.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I have to protect myself and I think that's so powerful for people to hear is like it's almost like people who feel like the thing that came to my mind is like people who feel like they need valid, they need validation from their ex right. So it's almost like when you're in a, let's say, you have a relationship that ends really badly and you don't feel like you got the closure you needed right. It's like, oh, you didn't get an apology right, or you didn't get that. I'm so sorry, I did this to you. Or you didn't even get an acknowledgement'm so sorry I did this to you. Or you even you didn't even get an acknowledgement Right Of what they did.

Speaker 2:

When you really think about it, it's if you you thinking that you need their apology and you thinking that you need to have a conversation with them and you thinking that that has to happen, I think, like in the process of the breakup, you should probably have, like you know, like I'm breaking up with you right, like with the relationship. I think that is necessary in a romantic sense, friends. I wouldn't say necessarily the truth, but the summary is if you think that that's still giving your power away to them, oh, my goodness, that's still. That's still you. Oh my goodness, you, you thinking that you have to do that? That's not. They gain the power, right? That's not reality, right, like it's enough for you to acknowledge it and it's enough for you to just decide to move on exactly, yeah, and I think why some people especially we're speaking of relationships.

Speaker 3:

You know you, you, some exes they will purposely not give you closure to continue to have control over you outside of the relationship. Well, I want you to talk about that experience, Ronnie.

Speaker 2:

Because, Ronnie's just been going through the gauntlet himself. He's been learning his value. He's been going through a crash course of self-worth the past five six years probably.

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh man, it's been crazy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so tell the people about what has been happening to you recently and just what you're enduring right now.

Speaker 3:

Cool, well, I'll go right into it. You know, I opened up my clothing store. Well, covid came. During COVID, you know, everything shut down, everything was. You know, covid pretty much rearranged everything about life. So, with the trucking, with my trucking business, they bought my trucking businesses to a halt at the end of 2019, going into 2020. So I had to pivot and I was trying to figure out what's, what's my purpose, what's the next thing that I need to do? One of my dreams is open up a clothing store and an event venue. So I opened up my clothing store, culture Vibes, october 2020.

Speaker 3:

And January October 2020 and January 2021, I received an inbox from a lady, a young lady, you know, inquiring about my store. So she came into the store. Then she inquired about dating me. So, long story short, I moved in, I moved into this relationship pretty fast, only because I want to say I had good discernment, but I was also still seeking validation somewhere. You know, we still have that like abandonment. We still have that abandonment, and this person, you know, made themselves to be the perfect person in my eyes. You know, just like we were just talking earlier, the question that I will never allow a woman to ask me is what's your version of a perfect woman?

Speaker 2:

Right, we were talking offline about that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, because if somebody asks you that, oh my goodness, because once you tell a person you know the type of woman you desire or the type of men that you desire, they can become that.

Speaker 2:

Right, they can shapeshift.

Speaker 3:

They can shapeshift and they will do that to, you know, gain your trust to get you to trust them. So, once you fully trust them, then they know they have control of that, they have control of your emotions Now. So with me that's what happened. And in my situation, you know, she became my ideal woman in the beginning and it made me overlook everything that was happening behind scenes that I didn't see and that I couldn't see, like with her and the baby father, and everything I couldn't see, the triangulation situation that she was putting me in. And you know, I immediately, you know, took charge of the relationship. I brought her into my business, her and her kids. I had them around my businesses.

Speaker 3:

I was doing everything to, you know, elevate her life as well, position the kids in a better situation, you know, and I was doing what I felt like we were supposed to do as a man you know what I'm saying to elevate her life as well, position the kids in a better situation. And I was doing what I felt like we were supposed to do as a man. You know what I'm saying and exactly so. But what I didn't, what I didn't see was, you know, this person was really using me and using me, my businesses and everything in order to escape accountability for what was done to her previous partner and what was actually being done to me. What was that? Just manipulating, lying, using for her own selfish gain. You know what I'm saying? Not taking accountability for who and what she was. Yeah, and I became the main target at that point. You know my businesses, I sacrificed my businesses.

Speaker 2:

I put my businesses and my family in a position that they should never have been in, and that was all when she flipped that switch of like showing you who she really was when she flipped that switch.

Speaker 3:

See God, when you have discernment, god's not going to let you down. He's going to show you red flags. He's going to show you everything that you need to see. But when you're still focused and trying to control your own path, you overlook it. You make excuses. So, with me, I've seen her path, exactly. I've seen her path. I've seen her patterns. But I was ignoring the patterns for the potential because I was seeing what I thought was potential, so I would ignore the patterns.

Speaker 2:

Right, and you started for who you wanted her to be Exactly, not for who she actually was. I can relate to that a lot.

Speaker 3:

So it was like man and God was revealing so many things. He was revealing, you know, a lot of lies that was being told, a lot of things that was happening to my business, and that's another. That was also another way. God was showing me that this person wasn't in line because things started happening to my business that would never happen, like people pulling out of deals.

Speaker 3:

People pulling out, like things happening, like damages to my retail stores, like floods, just the craziest stuff was starting to happen and I was just like God. What is going on? Like I'm having to battle my businesses and then go home and I have to battle the relationship, like it's so much I was I get it ended up putting me in a flight of fight mode. You know what I'm saying. It's like Back to that survival mode.

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh, that, like you experienced when you were a kid probably right man being disrespected at the highest level as a man from this person that you would have done anything for. You know what I'm saying. Like you just can't believe it. Um, you can't believe a person that claims that I love you so much is just being so cold and evil, like just saying and doing the most craziest things, you know, manipulating, gaslighting. Um man, when I say I went through it, I went through it and the biggest mistake I made was adding this person to the lease of my venue, which I was. And I made that decision because I really didn't understand what was going on in the relationship. I knew we was having problems, but I thought that that was going to strengthen the relationship.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 3:

Just being able to try to build something and add her, because I didn't want to seem like I was being successful without them. But God revealed to me as soon as I made that mistake that nope, nope, this was the worst thing you could have ever done.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

So you know, once God revealed that, what this person was doing and who this person was, I immediately had to set strong, firm, healthy boundaries for myself, because I didn't set boundaries in that relationship Right. What boundaries were they? The boundaries that I had to set was not being a yes man anymore, so you had to start saying no. I started saying no and I started making this person hold themselves accountable. I'm not overlooking anything, no more.

Speaker 2:

Which is probably where the legal stuff started happening, exactly Right.

Speaker 3:

So when I started holding this person accountable. That's when, you know, I got falsely accused with. My landlord to my venue was called false accusations made on my name or my reputation to try to destroy my nonprofit. Wow, I was illegally locked out of my venue because the landlord thought he was protecting this person from someone you know. Just my social and networking circle was completely dismantled by this individual. They immediately started going on my friends list on my social media, contacting my customers, the friends, trying to align themselves with anybody that they felt they could put against me. You know, I'm good friends with the mayor here in Charlottesville as well and I get a phone call from him stating that my ex somehow found his number and contacted him to try to do the same thing, and it was. I never thought that I would experience and this is. You know. I'm a public figure in charlottesville, I'm doing a lot for the community and to have these false narratives and everything spread on your name.

Speaker 2:

It's like it's like literally like your childhood, like all over again. It's like it's like being repeated and I want your perspective on that, as you've been going through this, because this is fresh, right, right. This is happening now.

Speaker 3:

It's still happening in real time, like I'm still in court fighting this. You know what I'm saying. It's like fighting for my business. This has been. This situation is actually where I said my spiritual awakening came in Because, like I've always had a close relationship with God, now you still hear people say spiritual awakening. You know, you'll know once you have your spiritual awakening. I'm like, well, I don't know, maybe I had one, but no this time.

Speaker 3:

I understood it completely. Yeah, because I didn't even. You know you think of murderers, serial killers and everything. You know that these are bad people. You know that these are bad people. You know, you, you, you know that these people are evil. But, um, that's saying wolf in sheep's clothing. My god is the realest thing ever and I allowed that to come into my life and god used this situation to deliver me my spiritual awakening, because once you're like when you're a part of that world, you know saying you're you don't see it Right.

Speaker 2:

You know, it's the way I describe it is like A spiritual awakening is the first step, in my perspective, of ego death. Yes, right, it's. It's when you've, when we think we are our ego in the sense of like. We think all that we are is like the identity we've had to create for ourselves to survive, right, which is where, by the way, I always tell my clients this too it's like there's nothing wrong with you. The patterns and the behaviors that you have just don't represent who you really are exactly.

Speaker 2:

So, when we live our life with these limiting beliefs that don't represent who we are, that we don't choose right, and then we have these beliefs that don't represent who we are, that we don't choose right, and then we have these behaviors that don't represent who we are. So in your case, it was like you're letting people walk all over you, you're not saying no, like you're not, you know, doing the things that you know are going to bring value to your life, right? What has to happen? A lot of times, my perspective of a spiritual awakening is that version of yourself that has been clinging on so hard, that we've been clinging so hard onto it, has to be dismantled and it has to start to die, and usually what happens is like your life has to fall apart in some capacity and then, once you wake up, right, once you wake up to who you really are, which is like oh, wow, like once you see it for what it is, you can't go back to sleep man, god will break your spirit to save your soul.

Speaker 2:

Right exactly yeah, yeah, and and that's what I think a spiritual awakening is is, it's the process of waking up to yourself. Yes, and I think it's divinely timed. I think it happens like, specifically, when it's supposed to um who.

Speaker 3:

You just hit that on the head as well, because I felt the same way. I felt like, um, even though what I'm going through and what I've been through is very traumatic, um, honestly, I had to say I had to go through that. Yeah, and the reason why I say I had to go through this because? And the reason why I say I had to go through this, because this situation has made me the strongest and the best version of myself that I have ever been Just with everything, even the way God exposed the friends that I had in my circle. You know it was a lot of people that I genuinely had love for and was doing a lot for, you know, and I thought they had the same for me.

Speaker 3:

But God used this situation, like when she connected with, especially a lot of the males that was in my circle. Just seeing how certain people operated and maneuvered, god revealed that I had so many people around me that wasn't aligned with me and that wasn't good for me. So God removed all the wrong people for the right reasons. It was a lot to go through, because you never expected this to happen. You never expected like these are people that you really think that's supporting you on a genuine level and God opened my eyes up tremendously and I had to sit in silence. You know this was another isolation season I was telling you about.

Speaker 2:

It's like are you done yet? Yeah, oh my gosh, Are you done? Letting people in your circle take advantage of you.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, oh my gosh, are you done letting people in your circle take?

Speaker 2:

advantage of you? Oh, most definitely. You know. That's just God being like hey, bro, you going to keep doing this.

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh, and it was this isolation season was what built me and what made me discover this purpose that I'm on now. This purpose that I'm on now, and it's like I never thought that I would be speaking on narcissism, narcissists.

Speaker 3:

A year ago, I didn't even know what a narcissist was until I had to go to therapy and counseling. So it's like man. It's like, wow, god, you really shifted my life over here. But I had to go through it because when I understood the severity of what I went through and how a lot of people don't make it out of that, god built me strong enough to endure it and he wants to use me to help save someone else from having to go through or experience what I'm going through. Because had I had somebody speak to me about this while I'm going through or before, I would have been able to connect the dots of what was going on. Oh my God, way quicker. I've been able to jump ship a lot sooner. So that in itself it just made me understand more of my purpose and help me discover my purpose. And it's like Like I can't stop.

Speaker 2:

I was going to ask you how is that fueling what you're doing now?

Speaker 3:

Like how is the?

Speaker 2:

situation, change the trajectory of where you're going, like what are some aspirations you have now? What are some focuses you have?

Speaker 3:

going, like what are some aspirations you have now? What are some focuses you have? Like, like now my, my focus and my focus and everything is being able to be a voice for those who can't speak or scared to speak. Um, because going through it. That's why I never spoke on nothing. While I was going through it in the relationship, because I'm for one, I was feeling like I was going to be embarrassed as a man, because we don't like being vulnerable. You know, we will fight everything to ourselves. We'll keep it all to ourselves, yeah.

Speaker 2:

We think that's weakness.

Speaker 3:

We think that's weakness, you know, especially when it comes to other men. Like you, don't want to go around your male friends like man. I'm going through this, that and the third, because they're going to be like man. You're going to worry about what they think or what they say, so you keep it to yourself. You know you really keep it to yourself, and then you're trying to still figure out what this is. And so I never spoke on nothing and by my business being in the public eye, I didn't want the outside public knowing what was going on inside my personal life. But that's what that individual wanted was for me to stay silent and a lot of victims.

Speaker 3:

They are silent because the person that's doing this to them wants them to stay silent, because they don't want them to speak.

Speaker 2:

It's control Well it's also the fear of being seen. Exactly it goes back to I don't want I'm scared for people to see me for who I really am, because I'm scared to see me for who I really am. Yes, because we know, once we step into that, like we're not scared of I don't think we're scared of like. I know that a lot of people say there's this fear of failure, and the more that I talk to people, man, I really think it's more so. A fear of success, yes, especially in the high achiever world of of, because what happens when you surrender to your purpose right, and in my perspective of purpose is what you do is going to change a lot over the course of your life.

Speaker 2:

Your purpose is who you're meant to be. That's for me. What purpose means is it's am I becoming the person that I'm meant to be? And when you do that, you know you have to hold yourself to a higher standard.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you know that you have to constantly seek discomfort, like you can't, because you, once you finally allow yourself to see it, then you have to embrace it Right. There is no like we have this illusion that we have a choice when it comes to the purpose that we have for our lives and the best way that. It's almost like when somebody's trying to call you 20 times and it's a person that you know you're supposed to have like a really hard, hard conversation with, but you don't want to have the conversation with them. So what do you do? You keep avoiding them, you keep making up excuses, you keep beating around the bush right, so we're not confronting that person because we're scared. So once we finally confront who we actually are, we know that we have to drastically change and to our ego, change is perceived the same way as threat yes right.

Speaker 2:

So the more our soul craves change and expansion, our mind craves stability and safety, definitely so. It's like it's hard. Either way right, but it's, you know, that's just been my experience. It's like we yeah, you have to like, there's no going back. Once you finally fully surrender, there's no going oh, there's no going back. There's no going back you have, you have to be the one you have to. You have to do what you feel called to do.

Speaker 3:

Oh, my goodness and that's and that's when I knew that everything that I'm going through now it was, it was done, it was designed by God. Like I, it's nothing, no one that made this happen, but God. And even with um with me, getting my strength in my faith like this, this situation is strengthening my faith in God. Going through this situation is because just two months ago, I got baptized and this situation led me even closer to God, because I know if I had him closer to me in the beginning, before I allowed this person in, it would have never happened, right, you know. So I give God the glory and the praise and the thanks for saving me because, like from day one, he tried to save me from it. Like I'm serious, bro.

Speaker 3:

Like from day one, from the first inbox from her, there were red flags that I completely ignored. I'm looking at her appearance like, oh man, I always said I wanted this Just making, just going for what I thought I wanted for myself, not with what god had for me. And that's what allowed me to drop. You know, to drop, not have boundaries, because I was chasing what I thought I wanted. Um, yeah, like it was. And when I think about it, it's like, wow man like yeah, you were crazy, yeah like it, I accepted things that I would never accept it.

Speaker 3:

It's like wow, man, like yeah, you were crazy, Like I accepted things that I would never accept and what's so? This is what's crazy. The things that I was experiencing in this relationship were things that I was telling my friends. They were, like friends would call me, tell me what they're going through, and I'm telling them the complete opposite of what I'm doing, Because I should be doing what I'm telling them the complete opposite of what I'm doing, yeah, because I should be doing what I'm telling them to do. But here I am in my relationship just letting it go. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2:

it's like wow, the frame I always like to use when we don't know what decision we need to make is usually like what would you, what would be the advice that you give to others exactly. It's like when, whenever you're, something's not working for you. And it's like you know, because a lot of us are great at giving advice to other people, but when it comes to my own advice. But when it comes to embodying our own advice.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes we're in our own way, right so that's, such a great frame for people listening to, of just whenever you are not sure you're at a cross. You know, you know deep down, what you're doing isn't working for you anymore and you know that you got to do something different, because if nothing changes, nothing changes, but you're not sure exactly how. Then ask yourself if somebody came to you with the same problems that you were having, what would, what would I tell them to do? Exactly right, and that's a such a powerful way to move through it. So well, what? What about? So the aspirations?

Speaker 3:

now, ronnie, you're, you're, um, sounds like you're moving here pretty soon yeah, man, I'm planning on moving to atlanta in the end of may. So, um, for, one of the biggest reasons for me moving is because, like, uh, like I said, the situation I've been going through with with that individual has really made me just not want to keep my businesses here in Charlottesville anymore, because they're still under attack behind scenes, like I wouldn't wish what I'm going through on my worst enemy. Yeah, but it's, um and it's, and I feel like it's God to too, telling me, like you know, he needs me somewhere else, because I never thought I would move out of this city, but I feel like God's calling me somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

And that's different than escaping it right. Definitely that's different than trying to avoid it.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Different than escaping it right. Definitely that's different than trying to avoid it. Yes, and I think it's hard for us to heal in the same place that we got sick. I actually think it's impossible to heal in the same place we got sick, and that's why one of the first things they tell you in recovery is you got to change your people, places and things. There's another layer to that, which is also you have to change who you are so you don't recreate the same circumstances wherever you go. So true, however, yeah, like, the fastest way to change your life usually is to leave the environment that made you sick, and as long as you have taken the lessons that you've learned from the place that made you sick and you've learned how to make healthier decisions for yourself, then there's nothing wrong with moving to a new city. I've moved to a new city and started over man like eight times in my life. You know Literally.

Speaker 2:

And I kept repeating the same patterns over and over again. It took me like eight times to figure it out.

Speaker 3:

But you got it though. Yeah, but you got it.

Speaker 2:

So I'm excited for this new season for you, man, and I really, uh, I appreciate you being vulnerable on here and I appreciate you just telling the people the truth and yeah, this isn't a cakewalk, right like and for the people listening, I I hope to think I attract people who are actively trying to live through their purpose and people who are sick of settling for a life they know they don't actually want and who are ready to build a life for themselves that they actually truly desire and that they have always known as theirs. It starts with you.

Speaker 3:

It does, and I feel like people that's not uh, I feel like when you don't, when you don't chase your purpose, when you don't, I would even say surrender to it yeah, when you don't surrender to your purpose, I feel like it keeps you going in a circle, and that's how you end up going back to square one again, because you're just living to live.

Speaker 3:

You don't know why you're living. You're just living day by day, and we have a purpose here. I don't know why you're living. You're just living day by day and we have a purpose here. I don't care where you are in your life, you have a purpose, yeah, and if you can actually discover your purpose or figure out what your purpose is, it's going to help you align yourself better with what it is that you need to do in your life, and that entails it's going to help you differentiate the right and wrong people to bring with you, especially when you discover your purpose, because you're going to be like OK, I know you're not good, you're not meant to come on this ride, so set boundaries, let me understand, oh my goodness.

Speaker 2:

And the thing that popped in my head when you were saying that is so. Your ego I don't know who, I don't remember where I saw this or who said it, but at home is your ego moves in a circle. Right, you think you're getting somewhere, but you're not. Your soul moves in a spiral. So you think you're not getting anywhere, but you are Nice.

Speaker 3:

I like that.

Speaker 2:

And that's the thing is is life will bring you circumstances and people to show you where you're not free yet. Yes, sir, so you got to. If you look at life with the perspective of this is happening to me, if you look at life with the lens of a victim of to me, if you look at life with the lens of a victim, of a lens of being reactive, it's like, oh, nothing ever comes my way. That is powerlessness. But when you start to look at everything from the lens of this is happening for me, how is this happening for me? That's where your power starts to come online, because then you start to leverage. The obstacles are the way People think that their purpose is something they wake up and they just find, but it's not. It's something that you reveal through the obstacles that are put in front of your path. Right, because God gives us gifts, but they're wrapped.

Speaker 3:

You just took something I was about to say and, just like I heard, obstacles are from God, oppositions are from the devil, you know.

Speaker 2:

That's true man. Oh my goodness, it's the realest.

Speaker 3:

It's the realest man.

Speaker 2:

It's the realest.

Speaker 3:

You'll overcome those obstacles because those obstacles are meant to teach you. Are meant to teach you and to help make you stronger and align them with your purpose. Right, but oppositions, the devil sends that to distract you from your purpose, right.

Speaker 2:

And if you're not centered in who you are and you're not centered in God, then it's really easy to get distracted from pleasure.

Speaker 3:

That's the only way the devil can attack you or distract you is if you don't know who you are. Right, because if you knew who you are, he couldn't touch you. Yeah, he couldn't touch you.

Speaker 2:

Ronnie man, this is awesome. I want people to know where they can support you. How is awesome. I want people to know where they can support you. How can they find you? I'm going to put this in the description of the episode and I'm going to spread the word. So, how can people support you and follow you on Instagram? Yes, sir.

Speaker 3:

You can follow me on Culture Vibes on IG. You can also follow me, ronnie Megason, on Facebook. We're also on TikTok at Culture Vibes 434. And we also have Vibe Session Podcast at Vibe Session Podcast on TikTok Facebook and Instagram as well. And that's with a K Culture with a K.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

Culture with a K and Vibes with a Z.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, ronnie.

Speaker 3:

I appreciate you, man, thank you for I appreciate you, my brother. It's my pleasure.

Speaker 2:

Yes, thank you for sharing your story, no problem, and I'm excited for you guys to see who the guest is next week. So, with that being, said Stay tuned. Catch you later.

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Brennan Hilleary

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