Slaying with Jordan Brodie Recording Artist LGBTQIA+ Advocate

Thank you, Katie. I'm really excited to be here.
My pleasure. We are here to provide a lot of value and insight and be raw and real with you, you know, share some stories about how it is to be an artist the up, down in between and everything that goes along with it. There's no, you know, there's no degree on life and some of the experiences we go through as humans. So that's why we have the podcast to bring this value to you, to share in an authentic way. So Jordan, what's up
Just chill in here in west Hollywood.
Very cool. Love that. So you have a new song it's called SLAY and it's actually coming out August 11. So at the end we're going to play it. We'll be able to hear it before it even comes out. So that's exciting.
I'm really excited about we're going to play it daily would radio it's in the app store. It's my friends app and radio show. And it'll be playing like the day before, like all day on his station too. So I'm really excited that it'll be premiered on your, your show first and that it'll be on daily what the next day. So I'm very excited. It's been a really long time since I put out a new song, I've been recycling old songs during the pandemic cause I've been working on rebranding myself. And so I've been rereleasing old songs. And with my name, Jordan Brodie, I used to work with a stage name, tied several stage names, but I'm done with stage names who knows.
I still might pull out some of my stage names. It's like alter egos and performances or videos, stuff like that. Cause some of my friends love that about me. I'm very excited. I took a break publishing and performing music because I got sober and I was performing a lot at bars and nightclubs or I got sober. So I took a break for about two years. I only did like two or three performances in two years and then put out a song like maybe three years ago. But this is, those songs were songs I wrote a long time ago. This song I wrote two months ago and then I recorded it in the studio two weeks later.
And now it's going to be for everyone in a month. The shortest timeframe that I've written a song had it produced and had it out to anyone. I love that. Yeah. I'm really excited. Cause it's one of my goals. I write a lot always, right? Like I get inspired a lot and I would like to get my system down to where like I record a song and I get it out to people right away because it's fresh. It's like music to me is like fashion. Like you can express yourself and start and clothing, like how you're feeling. If you're in a bad mood, if you wear a few t-shirt you know, or like, so you can wear juicer that anyways. So yeah. And so music to me is like that it's like a status update.
It's like, I like to get it to where it could be like a status update for me. Like this is how I'm feeling. Let me put this song out for you guys. You know? Cause it's expression. Like for me, like I, this song means a lot to me. It's called SLAY. I wrote it about a guy. I had a crush on at the park that I would work out at during the pandemic and we just kind of would check each other out. Guy is the same slate. I have the biggest question him. Oh my gosh, because I was going through a lot. I mean, Katie and I both lost a friend during the pandemic and my brother died a month afterwards. And so I kind of dove into workaholism, not after their passing.
I don't know about you, but I just was working my butt off. I didn't do anything stupid. I didn't like use any of my addictions, which I'm really proud of. I just dove into working a lot and I wasn't doing therapy and I would have these moments where I would just be still and silent and I would just start crying. Yeah. But I wasn't it's cause I wasn't processing it. So I'm in there, you know, and I'm processing everything. But I was sitting at the park one day and I just was kind of crying. And this guy laid, like saw me and he looked like he wanted to run over to me and it was really sweet. And anyway, I eventually worked up the nerve to talk to him. I wasn't sure if he was gay or straight. And he told me his name's Slade like he's from Kansas.
But I found out he has a boyfriend and I have respect relationships. They've been together four and a half years. I found out from his boyfriend that that's his boyfriend. So I'm not going to mess with that. But he did help me inspire this song. And I believe nothing happens by coincidence. And I think that's music and art as its finest because sometimes I, you guys might relate to this artists, other gay people, anyone that gets a crush. Sometimes when we get a crush, you feel really, really lonely in our crutch because it's in our head. We want to talk to everyone about it. But then they're like, stop talking to us about your crush. Like my friends, they get annoyed. All I want to do is talk about my crush.
And then you just kind of like you're in it. And you're living in it. I was feeling this crush because it was the quarantine. We were all locked up for awhile. And I finally got out to go to the park and work out and here's this really handsome, very nice man. Anyway, like I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed talking to him. I think he started working out at the gym cause I don't see him anymore. But, but I got this song out of it. Nothing is wasted. I don't believe in failures. Everything is feedback and there's always something you can pull from everything. And I've only been realizing it the last four days. Katie asked me how I'm doing an honest thing. My heart has been hurting the last four or five days. Like, I don't know what's causing it and it comes up and then it goes, so I try to acupuncture yesterday and it did help.
And I got some Chinese. I've been wanting to try these Chinese herbs. So I got this. She gave me some kind, I feel it's helped for sure. They put these like patches on my chest. Like, I don't know if you can see that. But anyway, so it was really, I feel good. But then I'm sitting there cause this song's coming out. It's coming out and thinking about the lyrics. So the lyrics go like SLAY me, baby, come and SLAY my heart. Take me. Cause I'm dying to tear it apart. And it's interesting because when I wrote the song, I thought it was all about SLAY. Like trying to seduce this man. Right. That's what the song was. But now that I'm recognizing this pain in my chest and thinking about what we've went through with the loss of chase and my friend, my brother, I was in a lot of pain and I was wanting someone or something to take the theme away.
So it's not even really about a relationship. It's kind of sad. And to me, I think it's the perfect time to put the song out because we've all been locked up for like a year and a half. And the song is about asking people to come into your lives. Like SLAY my heart, like come into my life, love me. Like let's open up our hearts and allow each other to play each other's hearts and like kill it. Like kill us each other with our love. Like let's open up our hearts. Let's build this community of abundance and love and not be afraid to like SLAY, like kill it. Like, and I think some people are shy about how they share their love with each other, with their friends, their family.
And so when I wrote this song, I got this. I don't know if y'all remember when radon meat came out by lady Gaga, it was in the middle of the pandemic. That's like just, it made me so happy. Like I was dancing all around west Hollywood by myself, all the Nightclubs were closed. I put my headphones on and I would walk in the streets like for like hours listening to that song, it was, they gave me so much life rained on me cause it was just so beautiful. It was that iconic moment Gaga at Ariana. They were talking about leaning on each other and loving each other and supporting each other because her and Ariana have both been through. And I thought the message is so beautiful. Like rain on me, you can cry on like we can be there for each other.
And I thought that's beautiful. And so that's kind of why I got the same excitement. That's why I'm so excited about the song, the same excitement, feeling, the feeling the song gave me when I wrote it. And when I was singing it around west Hollywood, I practiced my song like out. I was feeling the same feeling rain on me gave me. So I'm really excited and I hope it helps people like this. The gay community is so marginalized and addiction runs rampant and the gay community and mental health problems run rampant in the gay community. And I just hope this song, just like a Ray of light, just stand like a tax, the gay community, and like wakes us all up like a shot to the heart.
You know, that's my prayer with this song and I'm going to have, I'll do my first show in the gay part of west Hollywood with this arm. I've been talking to the promoter of a bar in west Hollywood revolver in west Hollywood. So we'll be doing a show on the 12th. It's a release party. Some of my friends are going to perform. We're going to have some performers lined up, but check on my social media when you listen to this and we're going to have some really cool performers and you'll get to see the music video. It's the best music video I've done so far. Like,
So are you going to do maybe like a three or four minute video to just give an explanation of the meaning of the song? Because the message of the song is I didn't pick that up when I listened to it. So, but by hearing what you're saying, it just makes such great sense. And you as an artist, it's so beautiful. For example, I did my book and then I did a separate video on YouTube, just like a four minute video explaining the heart and the meaning of the book. And I feel like I definitely, I hope you're going to do like some kind of three to five minute video on YouTube and then put it on the social media so people can know the message of love and Slaying. And let's get rid of this toxic crap and the manipulation and all this, you know, secrecy and the isolation just to open up and like SLAY past, you know, with like a sword SLAY pass.
That's a great idea. And I will definitely do that. A lot of people think pop music is superficial, right? Like they think it's like, because this song is bright and upbeat, like, so it has a fun beat and you can dance to it. But the message, if you actually pull apart the lyrics of any pop song and you think about the person that is singing it, like lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and you think about them and what they're going through. A lot of the songs are really sad, but we're dancing to it. And we don't really know. And there's a deeper message behind a lot of pop songs. And that's why I like lady Gaga so much. She brought, she was trying to bring fine art arts, like hot music, which is
She didn't try. She did it her all day.
She changed the game because now everyone has, if they want, she brought, she leveled up. So like a lot of people were like Ariana and like a lot of other pop stars putting more into the work because of her. Like, And so
Were you in west Hollywood when apple was around on Robertson? Yeah, it was called apple it's across the street from the Abbey is called apple and Gaga performed on like a really small stage. It was like two feet.
Was that the show Cosmo was DJ I'm wanting the cause was DJ the night like that. I do doing revolve because he does the show before. But anyway, no, I don't remember apple. I wasn't around.
Oh yeah. Yeah. But that's when a Gaga was performing and I saw like her presence, her energy and her presence and everything. It was, it was really, really cool. But yeah, when you go to do your performance is like, I don't know, like what you're going to be saying and stuff, but like before the song, after the song, whatever, like let the people know like wake up and like let them know what you just shared that heart and soul. Cause they're going to be like raw and they're just going to want to implode and share it with so many people when they understand the meaning of the song. I, I, it's so beautiful. Thanks.
Yeah. I've definitely going,
You can't just be like an artist going on stage performing and leaving, like looking good. Like you have to like look amazing, but then like let them know.
And it's a part of the reason why I wrote this song is I really, really, really want to connect with people. Like I've been feeling isolated for so long. I don't know about you, but when I'm in pain, I feel that pain in my chest. That's why the song site it's like terror. Like I I've been craving someone coming into my chest, like a pressure washer, cleaning out the paint, just cleaning it out. Like I want somebody to get in there and gun it out. Like that's the vibe of SLAY. Get it out, get the paint out, SLAY my heart, like connect with people, open up our hearts to each other. And I think I definitely want to share that. And I'm so glad we're doing this and that.
You're asking me to do that and suggesting it for me because I think you're right. It will help me connect with the people who show up at the premiere.
Yeah. You're the ripple effects. Cause I want to scream right now. What you told me cause you and everyone they're feeling isolated. They want to connect. They want to roar out of their skin. If they don't know that they want to it's because they're so numb and isolated and frozen from the pain that you need to go in there with like an ice pick to like wake them up. So go in there and show your . You know,
I get it.
I get it.
I don't know about you. When I walk around west Hollywood, you know, we're lucky we've gotten to travel a lot. We have friends have a lot of basis. Like I get to go to New York and see my friends there. I've been to Chicago, Miami, like you'd walk around the world. You rock around all these cities. And people are just like on their phones in their own little world. And I'm not saying everyone because it's a horrible generalization to say everyone's doing it. Not everyone is that. And phones are a part of your community. Now, you know, I connect with people on my phone. I connect with people on Facebook, on social media. I'm not going to be one of those people. That's going to be like, oh, phones are bad. Like they have healthy technology has really helped me feel connected with people all over the world.
And it's helped me build my community because I'm such a niche person, like as like a feminine gay boy to meet other guys like me, it's helped that social media has helped me really connect with a bunch of people all over the world that are just like me, which communities were like, okay. So there's Desmond is amazing in New York, there's Santi and London. There's, he's a dope artist. I met him on clubhouse pandemic and then we're talking and I was interested in Luxembourg during the pandemic because, okay, this is a part of my demographic. There's 29 countries in the world that have laws protecting LGBTQ rights.
And that's a lot, but there's 189 countries registered on the planet. So that's only like a very small percentage of countries that have rights, protecting people like myself and people, trans people. And it's not even really trans people. It's mostly gay and lesbian rights. Trans people like if the numbers are smaller, when I was doing my business plan and my marketing plan, trying to figure out my demographics, who I'm going to market to for my BeYourSelfie Bracelet and for my music, because I want my music to be catered for the gay world for a feminine game. That like, I feel like there's enough Artist trying to make music for CIS men.
There's enough artists trying to make music for CIS women. There's enough straight artists making music. You know what I mean? There's a lot of queer artists too. And there's a lot of LGBTQ people. But for a while I was trying to be a gay artist that was universal. That was writing music for everyone. And I wasn't getting anywhere. So writing the music for gay men and if other people like it, which they will, they like it. But my, the target is this little niche. I, I created an avatar called Derek and Derek is like this gay boy. He's like teeny bopper. He likes glitter. He likes fashion. He likes to play with Barbies. He's very feminine boy from like the Midwest and he's lonely.
And he wishes he could meet other people like him. That's my demographic. He loves Britney. Got it. Like, it's pretty much me as a child, but like, it's pretty much my younger self. It's my demographic. And so that's my demographic. And I want to cater all my content for being a role model for this demographic being like a Brittany. But that's a boy and a girl for this guy. I think at a young age, I had a lot of like I had Brittany, I had Madonna. I had these women, these powerful women who spoke up like for women's rights and Madonna paved the way for me for like a lot of queer people. So I respect that, but we didn't have like men doing it for us.
Like Elton John, wasn't really out of the closet publicly. Like I didn't even know he was gay until I moved to Hollywood. And like you meet people behind the scene. I didn't know. So what I'm saying is, I don't think there's enough men that take this stance of like, there are LGBTQ artists that are really popular, but like even Kim Petras like, I wish she would do a little bit more advocacy work and might talk out. She has started to, she's been performing at like Outfest and stuff, but to each their own, I respect her. I love her. She has an amazing career, but I Man, it's, you know, like she's been trapped. She's the youngest person to be on TV.
She has an achievement as a young
People who do not know her at what is that exactly
Mean? Most, it means that she started transitioning at a young age because she knew when she was young and it's controversial because a lot of people think you need to wait till you're 18. But I mean, when I was younger, like I was playing with Barbies, I was the girl like pretty much like I like being a boy that feels like a girl inside because I feel different and unique. So I'm glad I didn't transition. But for some people they feel this compelling need like do it at a young age and she did it. And it's just how she chooses to represent himself at a young age. She had a family to represent her, but now she's world famous for her music. A lot of people don't even know she's Chad, because she's so gorgeous.
She's such a beautiful woman. And you can't even tell like, that's the thing. Right? So a lot of people don't know, just like a lot of people don't know Elton John is gay, which is shocking. But in the Midwest, there's a lot of people that don't know Elton. And it's because if you just hear someone's music and you see like a picture of them or you read an article about them, you don't know. I, so I just wish if she could, like the HRC has these things called youth ambassadors, the Human Rights Campaign. It's one of the biggest LGBTQ nonprofits. They lobby for our rights in DC. They have a lobby like a political branch. And then they have like a nonprofit branch.
It's a political branch. They have, they actually pay for a lobbyist full-time and DC to be like pushing like LGBTQ bills and Rights and stuff like that. And then they have the nonprofit side, which is doing things for the community. They're like every pride festival, they're the ones with the blue and yellow equals slack. Like you can't miss them. I'm actually a youth ambassador for the human rights campaign. And I got to meet a lot of trans activists like Brendan Jordan. I met Brendan Jordan at HRC event. And then like Adam Ripon was there, like speaking. And then like the first men cheerleader in the NFL, since Wednesday, I believe I met him.
Brown speaks out for trans rights. She was like speaking out on Fox, like a few years ago. I met all these people and they're all advocates. They speak out, you know, Kim could like do a speech, the HRC or something like that. You know, like that's all like she would really need to do because there would be posted everywhere. Like everyone would see it. And like I w a lot of these and Jaz Jenny, I met Josh, Jenny, sorry. I was a lot of, I talked to Jess, I talked to some other really popular trans advocates. I asked them if they know who Kim Petrus was, they didn't know who she was. And I was like, well, like, cause that's what I'm saying.
That's how they're doing it. Maybe everything's timing. So maybe she will be that voice, but she she's still very young. So, and her career is like, you know, booming in the, in the,
It was a conscious choice for her. I actually watched an interview about it because I had the same issue when I moved to Hollywood, I, myself and I choose to be myself. She was not to put a mask on myself now I do. But when I first moved to Hollywood, people were telling me that I would never make it as hard as if I was feminine, gay. And I try, I try to brainwash myself by watching straight porn and like turn my, I literally tried to brainwash myself. I lost myself for awhile because I'm so passionate about my career and my music that I was willing to do whatever it takes, but I lost myself in the process. There's that pressure. Right? And when Ken first started coming on scene, the Hollywood people were saying kind of the same thing to her, they would say, oh, you're trans.
Like, you're like you don't watch. Like that was the thing she was being ostracized a little bit. So she made a conscious choice early in her decision that she wanted the focal point of all of her conversations with people in the industry to be about her music. She it's about the music because at the end of the day, the music industry it's about music. It's not about advocacy or anything else. The artists it's about the music. Music has to be good. If the artists does advocacy as well, then that's great for that. That's their platform. They can do that. But the music is what's being sold on online. People are coming to the shows to hear the music in her marketing. She's marketing for music.
She's not marketing her trans position or like her identity or gender pronouns. So, and I respect that. Like it's, everyone's sways of what they choose to put out to the world and what they choose not to. And maybe one day she will speak up and she has, she's been doing like, she's been stepping it up lately and in a way she's paving the way for all of us, because that's a really brave thing to do it. And I'm sure it was hard for her to make that decision. But I read a lot. I always like watching when I meet a new artist and I love them. I look up, I just met Vincent at the west hall at the park, like a few weeks, like a week.
Is this really sick LGBTQ singer songwriter. If you want to be an advocate, the best thing to do is start locally. Like in your, and I'm talking like in your, you know, you starting your hops and then you start in your neighborhood, then you start in your city and then you can go to the state and then you can go to the world. But first you have to find your truth, your voice, you have to figure out who you are like and really take time to reflect and write and journal and think about like do a vision board and think about who you really are, who you want to be with. No inhibitions. If you had no inhibitions, no one's telling you that's stupid.
That's dumb. This is not cool. Like if you had all those voices in your head and all the bullies disappeared off the planet and you could do and be whoever you want to think from that space and write down, create a vision board, write down who your ultimate creature is that you want to be at, write it down, envision it and write and soak in it, bathe in it, like, think about it. Do some meditations about it. Find who you are first, because that is the most important thing. You can't really be an advocate unless you really have a passion for like protecting who you are. Like that's because at the end of the day I do it for me. Like, yeah, I'm advocating by Advocacy helps by community and everyone around me from me, because I want to be able to marry the man that I fall in love with when I fall in love with, and I want to feel safe with him.
When I go to the heart, when I go to the grocery store, I want to be able to judge those are it. I have a home with someone that I love. That's what I wanted to do. And it's been so hard because I keep meeting people and falling in love with them. And they're a drug addict it's like, and the gay community drug addiction runs wild. So that's why I'm so passionate about this it's life. For me, it's like life and death really? I mean like that's what life is life and death. Yeah. There's some countries, but people still get killed for like being somewhat like me. And I only know because people tell me on the internet, like how lucky I am.
Yeah. You have a privilege to be able to speak out and take all this frustration into the things within yourself. And you have opportunities with the events to be on the mic. So start roaring for yourself and for the people. Yeah, definitely.
Yeah. It doesn't. You can be straight and be an advocate too. Like there's cause your advocate. Isn't just for like LGBTQ rights. There's straight people. You're an advocate. Katie's Advocate. Like if you find what you're passionate about, like maybe your mom had cancer when you're a little and you want to do advocacy because you felt like maybe the hospital staff weren't taking the best care of her. So you want to do advocacy for hospital, better care for people, cancer patients. That's like a message. But first you find out who you are. You think about your experience and then you like start locally. So you, you just start by like telling maybe some of your friends and family about it, by the way, a lot of them will not be on board.
They may not jump on the train and that's okay. You're practicing with them. They might even tell you, try to squash your dreams, but you don't listen to them because you know who you are like for me, I did start. I went to the time to thrive conference, which the Human Rights Campaign. And I met a bunch of other LGBTQ advocates. And I only fell into that because I found out so every city in the United States, I'm not sure other countries how they're set up. But every city in the United States has what's called like a city council. And then they have like a board board members and the is usually go, but they meet once a week when they're in session. And anybody in that city can just go to the meeting.
It's open to anyone in the public and you can talk, get a slip and get a three minute talk like a share. You can talk about whatever that F you want in that three minutes in regards to what you want for your city. That's our voice. That's our, how our people are so focused on the president. It's not the most important. It's a really important role in our government, but you, this country is really set up for us. And people forget that people forget the power that we have. Once you find who you are and that advocacy and that fire, you can go into a city council meeting and present your idea to people and get some people in city council that believe in what you're doing.
And they'll help you get stuff started. I have a friend who is a she's in one of my Toastmasters meetings. She's in Hawaii and she was miss Hawaii universe or something. During the pandemic, she realized Hawaii is one of only five states in the United States, but doesn't celebrate Juneteenth, which was the day's slavery got canceled. And she basically thought, she's like, okay, what am I going to do with my platform as miss Hawaii? Like, let me try and do something for this. So she learned, how do I write a bill? She Googled it. She was like, how do I write about how do I get a bill going? And then she put it together.
And she went to, to a city council meeting and she presented her ideas and she got lobbyists. She got people on board and they were voting on it a few months ago. I don't know what the status of the vote was, but she did that.
And it's an energy and where attention goes, energy flows. So what, like you said, do the self work, the vision boards get going on with what's happening on the inside.
It has to start at the local level. Like you have to start with you. If you want to be there. If you want to see a change in the world, you have to be the change and then you, and then you can get people on board. Like that's how I've stood out. Like there's also board of educators meetings. There's all kinds of boards of that you can go to and you can speak. I really want to see more of like as LGBTQ history and kids classes. So they feel when you're a kid, the school system and the books you read in school, or this like authority, you're like, oh wow. It's it's in the history book. It must be official. You know, like you respect it.
If it has a certain amount of respect as a child. From that perspective, if LGBTQ history is not in the books, they're not getting that kind of respect for our past
Education. And
Then kids are going LGBTQ youth. It's not being mentioned in sex education classes. They're not being represented in sex education, like curriculum. So where are they going to learn about sex? They go on the Google transects. They're not finding healthy sex practice. And that's how kids are getting addicted to porn. So yeah. It's like,
But when you're a kid, you don't even know that word transects when you're a kid, you know, like, and when you're a kid, if I was sharing with you, like when you're a kid, it's like, you're already getting those butterflies and nervous about just like the idea and fantasies of like, you know, getting primal with maybe another human being. Then another layer is maybe like with the, you know, with, with the same sex or transitioning, it's a very, very confusing time. Like, and so it's been already difficult for a straight person to communicate those things at a young age. So, you know, it's so hard to have that conversation. So there definitely needs to be a space where people can share and feel the kindness and the compassion and without being judged to explore, because it's like, there's so many different things going on.
It's like hard to keep up and to know. And there's like always like a new thing. And it's like, so it's like, how do you know what's truth? And what's not, which takes me to off your instincts, being in the community deep, in any reflection of, are there any myths of like, what not to say, what isn't true that maybe a lot of people say, and it's like, get rid of this belief or this script, like, this is not,
There is a lot, that's time to thrive conference the Human Rights Campaign. That's why it exists. So if you Google time to thrive Human Rights Campaign, it's a yearly convention. They move it around. Usually it's in Anaheim, California, but people fly in from all over the country, all over the world. Mostly educated are going to learn about what's the best way to teach and talk to LGBTQ people. Because there's a lot just saying things like, like if a teacher yells like, oh, I think that kid's gay. Like, or like, you'll be surprised what teachers accidentally do and say to LGBTQ youth.
And it makes them feel so ostracized and like her. And I mean, of course, a lot of them are strong and resilient, but the better people can learn how to communicate. There's a lot of things you don't want to say. Like, but I I'm not. And the best thing to do is like, I mean, if you are getting at thought, like, maybe I should, or shouldn't say this to this person, then ask, don't just say it, like say, Hey, is it okay if I say this? Because people respect you if you ask, but if you just do it first and then you're like, oh, I'm sorry to notice the say that it's too late. You already did it. The feeling has already been received by the other person.
So it's always better if you're having some type of doubt about whether you should say something like a pronoun or whatever, like ask, what are your pronouns? Like if someone looks like they may be a female born, but presenting as a boy, you might just ask, what are your pronouns? They them, And he, she, and then just respect that. Like, but don't just assume I've gotten myself in trouble and it's really hard. Like, I have a lot of non binary friends, you know, they all go by, they, them pronouns. I call everyone girl. Like I girls straight guy, like, I'm like girl, like, and that can be offensive for them, but I'm like, I have to tell him, I'm sorry.
Like I say that all the time, there's definitely a lot.
Well, I was on Twitter and there was just this rivalry going on. And it's like, cause someone's like, whoa. Or like, girl, like you said, girl. But someone said like, bro, or like something like that. And like people just like attack this person online about it. And it was just this back and forth. And normally I don't read those kinds of things, but I was curious. I just wanted to see like, what are people saying about this?
This is why I love like French culture and French, like language in the language. There's the built-in like familiar, like other languages have the built-in like you say this to a stranger, but you can say this to your friends or to a family member. Like I get offended when people talk, when a stranger talks to me, like they know me or like, which is, might be my guardedness. Maybe that's why I'm doing this SLAY thing. I don't want to be called bro by anyone. That's like, not my brother. It's just the thing that I have because it's like a boundary for me because I don't know, like I've been hurt by people that talk like that. Okay.
Share something with you growing up when anytime like a guy would say, do you want to hang out? It was like, Hey, I don't want to hang out. Like, Hey, I, it was just, it was just, it was just like a, one of those pet peeve, nerving things like, yo, I don't want to hang out. Like, do you want to go to the park? Or like read a book? Or like, let's go hang out. Like,
But when I was younger, it's like, no, I had things to do. Like, what do you want to do? Just sit around and waste time. Like, let's do something like, I love doing things. I'm like, describe an activity. Let's do that. Let's go hiking. Let's go to the park. Or like, it just means that they're interested in you, but they don't really want to use their imagination to think of like what they would like to do with you. Or it could just be sexual, like
Turn off. I'm like, if anyone's seen, do you want to hang out? That's your vocabulary? Cause I'm into language of you're like, yo, do you want to hit different of you? You're like, I don't know. It's different. I feel like someone, someone in particular says it, but if it's like someone, I don't know. And they're like, yo, you want to hang out? It's like, yo don't you have any like better language you could be using or
You knew yourself very well. That's pretty cool that you, you knew that when you were younger. Cause I felt like I was so disoriented when I was little to even know. But now that I'm in walking in my truth more, I do get irritated. When people say that, like I agree with you, communication is everything. And some guys and girls, people struggle with the, and that's what I joined Toastmasters. It's a organization. Toastmasters not work. You can find a chapter in your local area. They're all over the world. It's literally like I have some people in our meetings that are like in China and stuff. They're in the pandemic. They were all on zoom, but they will meet in person what it is.
It's my business coach. Brian Casella had been suggesting me to do it for a long time. And because he's obsessed with communication, he's a real ATAR sales guy. He's emphasis is communication. Like people struggle with it. If you want to be a really good sales person, it's really important to have good communication. You want to be a business person, communication podcast or communication. Singer songwriter. Communication is good for everyone and everything. Any business, any job you have, you become good at communicating. You will Excel. And so he was always telling me it's about Toastmasters. I hesitated. It's not free, but it's really affordable. It's only like 40. The dues are like $40 for six months.
So what it is is they meet once a week. It's all about public speaking and communication. Some people's number one, fear is public speaking. Like over death. Death is like two public speaking is like once. So it might be, or it might be mixed up, but then it's up there. Yeah, no, they'll do two. So you give, you choose a pathway when you join. And my pathway is team collaboration because I really want to learn how to work well with others and collaborate because I know that's very important, especially for artists, period. There's other ones like creative storytelling. There's other business ones. There's other like more like art ones and you choose a pathway.
I think there's like 11 and there's like five levels. And each level has like reassignments and each level. It usually has got to Speeches. It's like a presentation online and I'll teach you how to write a speech about this. And then you prepare a speech. The first one's your introductory speech. And usually how the meetings are formatted every week is there's two speeches at the beginning of the meeting and then there's to evaluations. So people have done people join because they're business executives with their managers that they're leaders in their work. And they may be shy. I giving constructive criticism or not really know how to set boundaries or lead. There are people.
And so they want to do the evaluations. They're trying to learn, how can I give better constructive criticism to my team? And so that's, there's a lot of business executives in there that are learning to do that. And then the last part of the meeting is table topics. And it'll be like two to three minutes. There's someone that runs the table topics. There's a topic for the general meeting and they'll ask questions that are relevant to that topic. And it gives you a chance to just improv for two to three minutes and everyone signs up for roles. It's all volunteer. There's like a timer. They have different roles. You learn how to like communicate and work well with other it's very, for people in college that are trying to get that maybe don't have work experience yet.
Cause you kind of working, you know, like I said, great, I'm the vice president of education for my Saturday morning meeting. And I have the Sergeant in arms for my Monday night eating and I'm just getting into it. It's kind of silly. You'll probably be like laughing about it at the beginning because people take it so seriously. But like, and I had that. I always had that problem with things like taking things seriously. Like my kickball team, I'm like sitting on the sidelines like really? Why are y'all getting so worked up about this stupid game, but it's when you start taking things seriously, like you start taking other areas of your life. Seriously. It's really helped me if your work, if you're looking to improve your communication or anything, Toastmasters,
I've heard great things about ServiceMasters over the years, two quick stories. One as an actor, my background as an actor, I saw a lot of kids specially with our Susan Batson people internationally, they would come study with Susan actors, people who weren't actors, they would just directors would take acting classes to understand the mind of an actor and people who had fear of public speaking. They would do acting classes just to be able to memorize and speak and bring their body. So yeah, acting classes or Toastmasters sounds great. I want to shift into mental health. It sounds like doing Toastmasters would be really great to get out of your own self and be a part of a community for mental health. I think it sounds like it could be really good for people who are struggling to connect with other people.
What do you think?
Definitely because what, from what I've learned about my own condition with what I was diagnosed with when I was younger, which like doctors wouldn't even diagnose me with it anymore. Like I have, I don't know if I've healed because the symptoms could probably come back. If I don't keep working on myself and I keep connecting with people, there's a few they're called attachment disorders. There's like four of them and a lot of, a lot of mental health problems and that aren't genetic. So it's not like autism. It's not like the brain. It's not like genetic. A lot of some mental health problems come from environments.
So there they come from trauma when you're young it's attachment styles. So my mother and my dad got divorced when I was three. So my attachments were broken, but I it's like when you like, I have a cat Val, right? My cat is obsessive. He follows me around everywhere. We built an attachment. He has an attachment to me. Like he knows my voice. He knows my energy key comes to me. Like he there'll be five people in a room and he won't be focused on that. We focus on me cause we have an attachment. It's like a relationship. When we're younger, we have an attachment with our parents. Our mom got it. You usually only need to have one or two, like really healthy.
You only need a few healthy, really strong attachments. But my business's coach is always telling me, you care about like three or four or five people's opinions. Only five people should be able to affect your emotional state, all the other strangers and people on the planet. You've just screw up. Like their opinions don't matter. And they shouldn't affect your emotional state, but you should allow, have that. Attach it with a handful of people. I believe a lot of people have really had severed we're in like the divorce era, like 50%, a large percentage of families were divorced when they're younger and it's caused severed attachments for people when they're younger and, and what happens is they don't even realize it.
But that's the root of what causes a lot of the problems for me. It was I found. And so what's really helped me is to like help heal my relationship with my father. Like I've been working really hard on my relationship with my dad and, and then my stepmother and my, my biological mother, like I've been working on healing those relationships because what I craved as a child was Attachment. And if you are coming into the world, if your attachment style with your parents is not good, then as you grow up and you go into middle school and teenage, and as you get older, your attachment style seems to reflect those of when you're younger.
If you didn't have a good example of what a healthy attachment was as a child, you go to high school, you're more likely to build unhealthy attachments with people like toxic relationships, bad people like you, don't, you, you let people walk all over you because you think it's okay. You just want friends. You just want to be loved. So you accept all this BS. And so that's the thing that I've learned. So a big part of mental health and healing, Toastmasters and acting classes like anything to connect with people is healing. Like I, in a positive way, that's why I love going to concerts like where everyone loves the same artists, because we all listened to the same, song it off next to our heart and our soul.
And when the song is playing and you're in the arena with like a hundred thousand people at everyone's at that energy, it's the most magical thing that is healing. That moment heals you and it's connection
Consciousness of everyone being with the same essence.
I know that that's been the biggest part of my healing, Learning how to go through my trauma, not let the memories of the past project on people in the future. Like I had a problem with this guy named Matt once and after things went out, anyone named Matt, I would not talk to him. And then I was like, you realize that that's stupid. Not every man is like that. So, but it's trauma related. So I learned to go through that memory and be like, okay, that's silly. Not every bat is like this. Like we need to work through this. So not letting the president be defined by my past and allowing myself to have new experiences.
Not every new experience is going to be a bad experience, bad things might happen, but good things are going to happen too. And if I'm controlling my environment, trying not to get hurt, then I'm avoiding good things too. So I was protecting myself, but I was protecting myself from having positive experiences too. I was keeping myself that, but I wasn't having good experiences because I was too afraid. So you have to like go through your trauma. And then also, because once I was able to turn that down and trust people again, I started making good friends. You, you learn who you are, you learn what you like and what you don't like. And you start making your squirrel friends, like people that are like you, my friends and I, we were swirl friends because we all like shiny things.
And we all like nuts, you know, like we're a squirrel friends. Like we liked maybe like a book. Like you are a big fan of a book, join a book club. Like find people that like some of the things you like, even if you're the biggest nerd on the go world, the biggest nerd in the world, what are you nerding out about? There's another person on the planet that burns them out about what you're nerdy got about. Go on the internet, find a chat room, find a meetup.com and find a people in your area. And you'll build community around that topic. That's why I was so excited about clubhouse. Clubhouse was so exciting for me because it was people building community based on topics.
I fantasize about this business. It's kind of like a gym, but it's like, they have like meetings all day, but each meeting is like a book meeting. So they'll be like, cause I think I've gotten the most liberation for some books. I want to share everything with everyone. And I, and I want to hear other people's perspectives about the book too. So like, I think it'd be cool to like have like a book club business every day is like meetings about different books. And like on a Saturday you could go, maybe you're reading this book right now and you could start a book club about that and then y'all can talk about it. I don't know. I just think it's very community is I read that.
Yeah. I think the two topics, the LGBTQ plus community and the mental health topic, those could be a great book and research topics. Just if you just do those two niche things alone.
Yes, definitely. So you
Mentioned twice, like before, about your squirrel friends. Well, so first it starts with you are able to trust yourself first and then be able to trust others and then find the girlfriends. That's really important.
Where are the ones we can only change ourselves, our inputs and our outputs. We can't control anyone else around us. Like I can't, we can influence each other by the words we use and the clothing we wear and the actions we take and people will see that and we can influence people into changing, but we can only change who we are. It was relevant to what you were saying. We can only change ourselves and like, we can't change anyone else. So like we have to focus on ourselves. And the more inward I go in finding who I am, the more people I know out, outside, because I know myself and I know it's been very, very counter-intuitive because I thought to make it, I had to like be all out there
And then introverted ambivert. So what are one or two things that you can do to go inside and with yourself?
I meditate every morning. I Wim Hof, the IO, w H M breath. I do this 10 minute breathing session every morning with him. And, and then I also, my friend got me into that. And then I do like a 10 or 15 minute meditation, either guided on YouTube based on something I'm going through. I might be like meditation on heartbreak, meditation on anxiety, meditation on breaking attachments. I type whatever I'm feeling that day or what I'm going through. Sometimes I'll just do a frequency. I like the frequency meditation. Like I'll do a meditation, frequency, abundance, and then I'll just listen to a frequency for 15 minutes and try to quiet my mind and just try to like, and breathe into that.
But I do like guided meditations. They serve a purpose for me and that, but Meditation has been the biggest thing for me. Like learning how to turn off my brain and like, just like reset. I feel like that's when we got connected to love the ultimate energy healing on the planet, like, I feel like it's like resetting a computer. If the computer is running all the time, it'll die. Like it'll burn out. Like you have to turn it off sometimes for it to be healthy. Otherwise
Yeah. Love those words. Those are, that's a lot of value and insight. Thank you. I have a question. Do you know Gabor Montay? So Gabor Montay, I just did a re the wisdom of trauma reflection on the podcast, but I went on a 16, 18 hour binge of Gabor. I'm going to share it with you, But he go to the, I'm just binge them on the YouTube. You're going to learn so much. You're going to love that. You're just going to be like soaking up in so much trauma healing. And then you go to the wisdom of trauma.com and there's a documentary. So you put in your email so you can sign up. Cause they're doing screenings every few weeks. So I think you would really like that. And then earlier you were mentioning I'm branding. So I know you're really bringing big into branding and everything.
Robin Graham, she did a podcast on branding, so brand identity and some things you were saying, and I think you would really, really enjoy that episode and definitely check those out too. If you want to know more about like branding and you know, trauma healing and some of the stuff we've been talking about. So we're gonna hone it in all of Jordan's information will be in the show notes. So definitely reach out, say, hello, follow Jordan and yeah, lightning round, where somewhere in the world that you haven't been, that you really want to go
And Malta. And I really want to go to France parents. I have a long mess.
So one or two favorite places to go to for food in west Hollywood or in the LA area.
It's really a good place called true foods. I love Thai food. There's a good Thai restaurant down the street from me. I just went to Joey. It's called Joey's cafe this morning. I was like, it's like good diner. Like they maybe used to be kitchen 24. I used to eat there like every day also. Oh my gosh. Gracias Madre is one of my favorite beat and restaurants, so good. And I'm vegan so I can find something usually in most places.
Okay. So do you know it's in studio city area? It sounds Ventura. Cross street, I think is Colfax, but it's called hope. It's H O P E and it's Thai vegan. It's delicious. I will
Look that up.
We all we'll go together. We'll go together.
My aunt, this place and Bennis called superba food. It was so good. It was, they have one in LA, too.
So all the performances that you have coming up, well, they, someone will be shooting them. There'll be on your YouTube so people can actually see live performances. If they're not in LA and able to see you perform your new song.
Yes. I looked up every show. I do. I always get someone to bring a camera and I can't really like, I haven't toured like in a while. So like I try to film everything, get it on by.
It's going to be great to get back on the stage. I'm so happy for you. And so when this is all wrapped up, is it cool if we play the song SLAY, then may call, call, and then we'll do that. And then lastly, your next song, it's going to be called Moonlight. Right?
This conversation we had today is so relevant to Moonlight because Moonlight is this song I wrote after the movie came out, the one that won the academy award a few like four or five years ago, look it up. It's called Moonlight. It was about this guy. He got into some trouble and he became a gangster. Well, like it was based on a few things, but it's Moonlight. The goal from the Knight is to be an Anthem for people building a new life for drug addicts and alcoholics criminals, people who have done bad things and have best stuff. And it does, the chorus goes sweet and sad.
It's like, I've noticed even in the darkest people, there's still like a really bright light. And that's what the light is about. If I wrote it after that movie and I remembered I had this dog when I was little named midnight, I, for some reason, you know, it was newly sober kind of coming out of like my own psychosis remembered the dog being named Moonlight. So I wrote the song about the movie moon, my aunt, about my dog, that when I was eight, I was walking him by my grandpa's house. And someone left their dogs out. Midnight was like the sweetest little black lab. He was so sweet, like little puppy, like so nice to everyone.
Didn't have an ounce of meanness in him. And then what happened was he got attacked by neighbors, dogs. And I was little, I didn't know what to do. And they were tacking him. I had to like kick the dog. And I ran to my grandpa's. He got surgery, had to go like cone on his head. And then afterwards he was on jittery and like skiddish, like, and then he attacked one of our neighbors when they brought our dog over, my parents put him to sleep. Cause they thought he was like a liability. And I think I internalized that as a kid. And I was really sad about it when I got like two and a half years sober, it came up. The reason I, why I bring that up is that's how I see people with trauma and mental health problems and drug addicts and alcoholics and criminals.
I see them as human beings that come into this world with a completely fresh slate. And they're born into wherever they're at. They get traumatized, they're jittery and they're using drugs. And then maybe like Rob people, they do all this crazy stuff. They become criminals and or they become addicts. They've heard their family relationships again in trouble and that the world doesn't have compassion for them because now they're criminals, but they don't see what happens to them when they're little, they don't see the whole picture. They don't see the sweet, sweet core on the inside that we all have. And that's what moon Moonlight is all about. So I am really excited because that song is not about a guy or a relationship, which most of my songs are always about.
So I'm excited to finally put out a song that's like, I'm glad we're capturing this because
Meaning of it, I just, I mean with this could be like a whole nother podcast, so we'll definitely have you back on, but it's just so beautiful. And I totally identify with everything you're saying. It's just like, so on point it's for sure. And people are so in a rush, they don't have the time and the nurture and the care for another human being, you know, and, and the people who get in the circumstances and then they get hurt, beat down, hurt, beat down. They're so numb and disconnected that why should they be caring, compassionate for another humid because no one did it for them. You know? It's like,
That's why we need the change. That's that's, that's why it has to, I'm really, I'm excited about Mumbai too, because it's, I'm singing in my really high registers, which I've never really recorded and the vocals and the music is so beautiful. It's going to be really cool. And I'm very excited for you to hear it. Like, and now that you know what it's about, it's going to mean even more to you. So thank you for having me.
My pleasure. Yeah. I'm so grateful. And especially after I, now the know the in-depth story about SLAY when I hear it again too, so yeah. So I'll yeah. Thank you so much for being with us and we will tune in next week on she's all over the place. Wow. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time. Kyriaki, over and out.
I was dying at it. Be like go outside this room on me. Cause I'm dying to play God as a gap.
You see Chad sending AB E to make this thought. I wonder if you come inside the house, this room and you Name.