Hood2Hooded Podcast

Rise Above: Overcoming Barriers to Join the 1%

• Shonteral Lakay Redmond, DDS • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Ever wondered how to break free from the generational curses that hold so many back? Join me, Dr. Shon, the Motivational Dentist, on the Hood to Hooded podcast as we chart a course from adversity to prosperity. I share my raw and personal journey through homelessness and the challenges of growing up with limited resources. Discover how acknowledging childhood trauma and taking personal responsibility can pave the way for higher education, financial literacy, and ultimate success.

Opening a dental practice while battling depression and PTSD is no small feat. Yet, a compelling sermon by Sarah Jakes guided me through the darkness, highlighting the necessity of evolving and seeking new sources of inspiration at every life stage. This episode underscores the power of personal development and the importance of surrounding yourself with a community that fuels your drive and ambition. By addressing your weaknesses head-on and finding support, you can turn your struggles into stepping stones for success.

Planning and financial literacy are your keys to moving from underserved backgrounds to the top 1%. I'll share practical strategies—like setting clear goals, budgeting, and seeking mentorship—that have been crucial in my journey. Learn how to navigate financial barriers, find scholarships, and leverage a supportive network to overcome the emotional and financial obstacles on your path. Rise above your circumstances and transform your journey from "Hood2Hooded" with actionable advice and motivational insights. Keep pushing forward, kings and queens!

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Thanks for listening, I pray this episode inspires you to kick start your journey towards the ultimate level of success.

Let's connect. Visit this link drshon.com

Dr. Shon:

Welcome back to the Hood to Hooded podcast with Dr Sen the Motivational Dentist. In this podcast, we discuss breaking generational curses, what it means to be chosen, we build skills and we also focus on financial literacy and sometimes oral hygiene education. Of course, we promote positive vibes only and motivational content. So all aboard the Hood to Hood Express, let's grow. Hello kings and queens, hood to Hood mentees, welcome back to the Hood to Hood podcast with your host, dr Sean the motivational dentist. And in this podcast, we will be talking about rising above and overcoming barriers to join the 1%. Okay, did you hear that? Rising above and overcoming barriers to join the 1%? So this podcast, hood to Hooded. Our mission is to get you from a place of pity and poverty to prosperity and persistence in pursuing your goals, and I'm just excited that we're here to talk about this crucial topic on how to elevate yourself from the struggles of your past to achieve greatness.

Dr. Shon:

In this podcast, I'm going to be giving you actionable steps to overcome childhood trauma, generational curses and challenges that come with mental health disorders. Okay, let's get right into it. First off, I want to acknowledge that if you're tuning in, you may have faced hardships such as homelessness, the lack of resources or feeling like you just don't belong. But here's the truth despite all of those obstacles, you are still destined to overcome them and become something great. Understanding your journey is so important. It's like being able to acknowledge the trauma that you went through and know that it's going to make your path a lot more tedious and difficult to achieve. And the reason why you want to understand your journey is because a lot of times you may get lost and feeling, like you said, like I said earlier, inadequate, like you just don't belong to make it into the one percent or to make it to your dreams and be successful because of where you come from. You definitely don't want to count yourself out before you begin. I have faced homelessness multiple times during my life, the lack of resources and just the lack of understanding who I am. And that's the biggest setback you can have when you're trying to go from hood to hood and break generational trauma and generational curses.

Dr. Shon:

For example, one key way to determine if you have been impacted by childhood trauma is to have that sense of trying to block out your past or just not even paying any attention, not knowing that it's doing something inside of you mentally to lead to those feelings of depression, to lead to those feelings of depression, to lead to those feelings of inadequacy. You always feel like you don't deserve and if you don't understand your journey, you can't understand where you're going. So, even though the past and the things that you went through as a child and growing up it was super, super tough, super, super difficult, and growing up it was super, super tough, super, super difficult the best thing you could do is to talk about it, get it out so that you can heal from that. You don't want to stay stuck at the beginning of your journey when there's so much more for you to accomplish and there's so much more for you to learn All of those hardships that you're facing. Kings and queens, I need for you to recognize that it is by design, especially when you come from poverty, especially when you come from the hood.

Dr. Shon:

I can just remember being in high school, my senior year, and in this international baccalaureate program, but I'm this kid from the hood. So when I leave school, I'm going to hang with my friends in Frenchtown, which is the hood part of Tallahassee. I'm going to hang with my friends. I'm not really thinking about studying, applying to college, and it didn't hit me that I was missing a few steps until I saw my classmates at the end of my senior year getting accepted to college and I'm like nobody told me. Nobody told me, and that was the breaking moment where I truly understood that in order to proceed in fulfilling my dreams if I even had any at that point I was definitely going to have to do it myself. There was going to be no one coming to save me or give me a roadmap, or there was no YouTube. Things are different than they were back then. There was no roadmap, so I had to understand where I come from, how the lack of knowledge in my village and going to college, applying to college, taking those college standardized tests no one had that knowledge where I came from. So I had to go out and take steps to make these things come true and to see if I could get into college, because I know that I could get in. I know that I deserve to be there. I just didn't have the information early enough to apply and really give myself a fair chance.

Dr. Shon:

Now, when you're underserved and you come from generational curses and a background that is rooted in poverty, you will be left out and left behind out of a lot of things. You will get the short end of the stick and you won't even recognize that it's happening until you have a sign like oh, that's what I'm supposed to be doing at this age. And that's one thing about breaking those barriers to success and overcoming those generational curses to going into the 1%, going from hood to hood, is that you must understand your journey and know that you are in control of changing the trajectory of your life. No one is coming to save you, and that is that's just how it is. I'd rather tell you now than later that no one is going to be able to come to save you because they couldn't even save themselves.

Dr. Shon:

You have been chosen and designated by God to overcome these obstacles, to break those generational curses. And the reason why I say that is because if you're on this podcast, that means you're the first one in your family who is trying to become a millionaire. Or you're the first one in your family trying to get into college or get that doctoral degree or even start that business. You're the first one making an effort to learn something about financial literacy, investing and all the different things that help us become successful. You are not just laying down and saying it's not easy, so I'm not going to do it. I'm telling you in advance understanding your journey is understanding that it won't be easy, understanding that, even though you're going through these hardships, you can still overcome them and become something to reckon.

Dr. Shon:

Now the actionable steps that I want you to take to understand your journey is, just like I said, acknowledging your past, reflecting on your experiences and not allowing them to define you. I did not allow my past experience to make me this teenage mother. Everybody thought I would be a teenage mother and it's funny now because I don't even have kids but everybody thought that I would be a teenage mother, a high school dropout, just somewhere clubbing, not focused in and out of bad relationships and not really fulfilling my dreams. So you have to acknowledge your past and know that it does not define who you are. You learn from those experiences and use those as a part of your story, as a part of your testimony and as fuel to get you to the next step in the journey.

Dr. Shon:

Okay, another thing that you want to do when you're in this process of understanding your journey is you want to seek some type of inspiration. You want to find that spark that you need, whether it's a quote, a person or a goal that resonates with you, that helps you always remember your goal, to get to the 1% of people who did not let life destroy everything that they deserve. Okay, so for me, I got my inspiration really young. I was really fortunate to have my mother, who was also a teenage mother. She had me at 14 years old to have her just be so witty and wise above her years to say, hey, my daughter is going to be a doctor. I did not come from a household where I was living with my mother or my father, so it was just like a traumatic situation that you don't really understand as a child. But despite our situation and our atmosphere and our surrounding and the poverty that existed from my birth that was passed on from my mom and her mom, she still found some kind of way to inspire me at such a young age and I embedded that into my psyche and that was always my single source of inspiration along this journey.

Dr. Shon:

It's hard to believe that somebody just saying hey, you're going to be a doctor is enough, but sometimes that's all you need is a little bit of inspiration and motivation that is going to keep you going? What is that quote? Who is that person? What is that phrase? Or that song, or just that goal that you have that you just cannot let go. This is how you know you're chosen because, no matter what happens, no matter what comes along on your journey, you will not let this go. It's going to be attached to you like super glue. That was funny. It's going to be attached to you like super glue. And I'm just being honest. And this just drives us to our next point, which is the importance of having a spark. So, just like gasoline gasoline, it doesn't burn, it doesn't provide heat. Or wood doesn't provide heat without a spark, things don't are ignited without some type of spark.

Dr. Shon:

In the journey from hood to hood, it won't be easy and, as I said, you need that spark to ignite your motivation. For me, it was my mother's words you are going to be a doctor. That phrase fueled my journey, and it's crucial to seek that type of motivation, especially from an external source. If it's missing at home, okay. So, like I said, identify your spark, write down what motivates you, whether that's a goal or a mentor or even a service that you want to contribute to, and surround yourself with a strong support system. Engage with people who uplift you and inspire you. With that being said, coming from poverty is hard to do. Have those people in your family. Sometimes this can be professors, other students, sometimes this can be somebody. Online now, especially on YouTube, you can find that one person who just hits home. Even as I get older, I'm still learning to find different people that can help me elevate my mindset for the things that I lack at home and that I didn't get as a child. That I need to get to the next level of success. That I need to overcome these barriers to get to that one percent.

Dr. Shon:

Every day, you want to make sure you are just trying to advance because, like I said, you already started 10 steps behind. So the only thing for you to do is to keep going forward. You don't want to keep going backwards and dwelling in the past and just not understanding your journey and not having something to spark your motivation, especially on those days when that depression kicks in, especially on those days when that PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder makes you not want to get out of the bed, especially on that day when you're missing a loved one who has passed away. For me, I know that if I had a bad day, it's like a trigger for me to cry out for my mom, who was not here. Since the age of eight years old she was not here. I never cried out for my dad because he was never there either. I saw him in a jailhouse or at family functions to spend the night. A couple of times I cried out for my mom because I was in agony and you want to recognize those things that kind of get you to that space. But you also want to have something, a tool that you can use to pull you out of that funk. A tool that you can use or that inspirational resource that is your go-to inspirational resource that can always pull you off of a ledge before you just give up and quit.

Dr. Shon:

Just this year I was battling with a big like a deep depression, with having this dental practice and pursuing entrepreneurship and just managing a dental practice. It had me into this deep depression for a couple weeks and I could not pull myself out of it. Everything that I know that normally would work. It did not work. Because, guess what? I'm, on this whole new level, as the chosen one to do something that no one has ever done again. As the chosen one to do something that no one has ever done again. So I had to find a new resource to explain this crazy space that I was in. I have felt I did all these things, overcome this obstacles, broke generational curses, and now I'm here trying to do this dental practice thing, but I don't have the experience, the same thing that plagued me when I was younger not having the knowledge, the experience, the preparation, but just having that ambition and that desire. It was enough to fuel me opening the practice, but it wasn't enough to sustain my positivity and the things that I needed to make up for what I lacked.

Dr. Shon:

So I found a sermon by accident from Sarah Jakes, and she talked about being in that spot where you're in the wilderness, like it's this spot between where you started and where you're going, and just feeling like it's dark and feeling I've been in this darkness for a couple years. I can't seem to get myself out of this funk that I'm in. I can't seem to get myself out of this mental uncertainty that I'm in, and when she spoke about it it just hit home. She said some powerful words that had me breaking into tears, because I needed that key piece of information, to know that my purpose was not done. It was so hard because I'm chosen. It's so hard because I have to be able to come to reality and know that what I'm doing is not easy and some of a part of me wasn't prepared. So that sermon helped me get back my positivity. It helped me think of the situation more optimistically and it helped me walk more by faith, because I'm doing the hard work.

Dr. Shon:

But I started to lose my faith and when she said that you know, if you're on this journey and it's starting to look dark and you're in this unclear space, you don't really know because you're always used to being in control and especially when you're on the hood to the route, that means you're like someone who really likes to. You know, have your stuff in order, have your ducks in a row, and when you get to after graduation and it can get tricky you can get. Who am I? What am I doing? Because you've been in this educational space for so long that when it's time to go into the entrepreneur space, it can be very demanding and very overwhelming. So you always want to seek some sort of inspiration or that spark for the level or the stage of life that you're in to help you elevate. When I was in dental school I used to watch so many personal development videos Brian Tracy, jim Rohn, the hip hop preacher, people like this and listen to their words because they were in a place that I'm trying to get, a place where I am personally developed and I recognize in dental school that was a space that I did not even know I needed to work on. So every level, every age, every year, you're going to find new weaknesses in your plan and you just want to keep focused and not let those weaknesses break you down to the point where you just throw in the towel. Make sure you keep that spark alive and find your village. And your village may not always be blood related, but as you go through life you will find that village. But as you go through life you will find that village. You will find those people who keep you motivated and allow you to work hard, break those barriers and you recognize that you're chosen.

Dr. Shon:

Number three is the power of planning. Now planning is going to be so imperative on your journey from hood to hood and in your fight to join the 1%. You will not get there I'm just going to be blunt. You won't get there if you don't plan. Planning is so powerful that in itself is going to be your power Planning. Now, there is a disclaimer with planning Tell God your plan. What does it say? Tell God your plan, and what is God going to do? He's going to laugh at you. But also, if you plan to, if you fail to plan, guess what you're doing? You're planning to fail. So you have to have some type of sense of direction that you can't put it all on God and say, god, I have a plan, but I know it ain't going to work, I ain't gonna even plan. That's not what all of this is about. Planning is powerful. Once you have that spark, you want to create that plan and to help you go to the next level.

Dr. Shon:

It's something that I didn't realize growing up, but I did plan a lot. I will always, after I didn't have the roadmap, to know that I needed to apply to college early. Once I realized I was behind and I didn't know a lot of things, I started to do research to make sure that I was ahead of the game the next time. I never wanted to feel left out, so I did a lot of research on the internet about what schools were best, which college to apply to. Which degrees would get me to become a doctor, what courses I need, what are the prerequisites? How many community service hours? What does the personal statement look like? How many letters of recommendation do I need? Who do I need these? From? Which one of these parts of the application is going to be more powerful? What tests to take? There is so much planning involved.

Dr. Shon:

When you're on this route, it is not easy, and if you don't plan, you're going to hit a dead end. And it's never too late to learn the skill of planning and time management. And just trying to force your way into your dreams. I would plan every semester in college to get a 4.0. I pretty much never really got that, but because I had that plan, sometimes I would get close, sometimes I would get halfway there, but it was always just to keep me on point, to say, hey, I need to take this class, I need to get this grade in this class.

Dr. Shon:

You really have to be a micromanager of your life, a micromanager of everything that comes your way. Because, guess what, when you're trying to join the 1%, it's easy to fail. Now, that's the easy part about it. Nothing is easy about it, but it's so easy to fail and get weeded out and for people to count you out. They're already counting you out because it's like you came from the hood. You came from the struggle. I already know you ain't gonna be nothing. I already know you are stupid, dumb and you won't amount to nothing because you didn't start with anything. These are the people who they underestimate because you are a seed. You are a seed planted here by our ancestors. You are a seed, and a chosen one. Who is meant to shut those people up?

Dr. Shon:

Okay, so here's some clear, actionable goals or actionable items that you can do to help you hone in on that power of planning. Number one you want to set clear goals. Where do you anticipate your life in the next month? You can go so far to say where do I anticipate my life in 10 years? Now, when you're on the route to becoming a doctor, dentist, engineer and becoming in that 1%? You need long-term goals. You need short-term goals, but long-term goals is what's going to get you to that next level, because you need to know in advance, in advance, what is the dental school going to require. I could not be in college, undergrad at Florida State and not already be thinking about how am I going to get into dental school? What are they requiring? This is something you start at the beginning of your college career, joining pre-dental society so that you can get as much information as possible to know how and where you're going to be five to 10 years from now. And you want to break this plan down, create those short-term actionable items that help you reach the larger goals. So, for example, like I just said, if I know I want to go to dental school, I have to create a lot of short-term items to help me get there. First, I want to see everything that they require and start working on all of those tasks, and they require a lot. There's so much to the anatomy of applying to graduate programs and I really think that should be another podcast on the anatomy of just breaking into the 1% and breaking into these difficult programs and completing them.

Dr. Shon:

Next is take action. All of this is irrelevant. If you understand your journey, you have that spark and that quote. You plan, but you never take action. All of this is irrelevant. If you understand your journey, you have that spark and that quote. You plan, but you never take action. All of this is irrelevant. You will never be in the 1% if you do not take action.

Dr. Shon:

Action is where many falter. You must hone in on your educational goals and not let obstacles deter you from your dreams. You got to take action. There's no way, no how, that you can win if you do not take action. Number one is to find resources. What resources are going to help you take action? You want to utilize those mentorship programs, educational access programs and counseling to guide you through your journey. This is taking action on your dreams. If you want to break those barriers, you're going to have to take a multi-level action. There's actions you need to take to make sure you're mentally prepared for this journey. There's actions you need to take to make sure you're physically prepared. And there's actions you need to take to make sure you're doing the right thing. Okay, mentorship programs are going to give you a head start, because people have been there, they're mentors, they've done it before, so they can help you get to your goals. All right, and another thing is you want to stay consistent. If you have this route, you have to stay consistent every single day. Make education a priority daily, even if you're struggling, because once you get to these higher level doctoral programs they really demand.

Dr. Shon:

I could just be honest and say I didn't know my brain could hold so much information until I got to dental school and I thought, oh, florida State didn't have nothing on dental school. My master's program did not have nothing to dental school. And I thought, oh, florida State didn't have nothing on dental school. My master's program did not have nothing on dental school. Nothing had nothing on dental school. Dental school is just like studying to take more tests, to take more tests. That's what one of my professors said, and he did not lie. There's tests to get in, tests to stay in and tests to get out, tests everywhere you look.

Dr. Shon:

So you want to make sure you're staying on top of it using those resources on your campus, whether that's the counseling resources, whether that is the study hall resources or if you know what program you want to do. You want to make sure you're in that program, like the pre-dental society, where they're going to give you the secrets and the tips. And you get to make sure you're in that program, like the pre-dental society, where they're going to give you the secrets and the tips and you get to interact with people who are, like you, chosen to pursue that field. Now me in those programs, a lot of these students will be set up for success. They have their parents, they have all that they need, and you might be the one who doesn't, so this is like amazing for you. So I know that the pre-dental society helped me feel like, okay, I can actually do this. I'm interacting with people, I'm getting a head start, I'm learning what I need to know so that I can set myself up for success. And this is something that you can do to actually take steps and action towards your dreams and not just say, okay, I'm planning to do it, but I'm not actually doing it. You're planning to go to school, but you're not actually in school. When you actually want to break a barrier and become a doctor, you actually have to do something every day, otherwise it's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen, and you're the only one who can make it happen.

Dr. Shon:

Coming from poverty and coming from those environments where you do deal with trauma and no one else has made it out and you're chosen. You will deal with a lack of support, you will deal with a lack of people who don't know how to take action and they can't even motivate you. So that's where motivating yourself is so, so, so important. I can't stress this enough. A lot of times you don't want to motivate yourself but, honestly, you're just going to have to motivate yourself. But, honestly, you're just gonna have to motivate yourself. No one is gonna make you study, no one is gonna pick you up and say, hey, I see you come from poverty, so let me just save you. No one is going to save you. It is going to be a fight for your life, a fight for your dreams, and I am just being honest. You have to fight through poverty, you have to fight through brokenness, you have to fight through failures, bad relationships and just not having enough money for, sometimes, your books and not having enough money for rent. But never let go of your dreams. All that stuff is temporary and it will not prevent you from overcoming anything that comes in your way. It didn't stop me and it's not gonna stop you, and I really honestly believe that.

Dr. Shon:

Okay, so the next is your role in personal development. Personal development is often overlooked and for many backgrounds like people like us who come from underserved households, it's something that is not taught, but it is so crucial to your growth. You want to make sure that you are developing personally in the areas that are going to help you become a great doctor, help you become a great business person, and learning those skills that you can always take with you. You can learn any skill, so you want to attend workshops focused on planning, time management and self-affirmations. A lot of times you can find this stuff, especially now on the internet. You just need to know what type of information you're looking for. So make sure you are constantly trying to improve your mental health, constantly giving yourself self-affirmations so that you can always start your day off on a positive foot, because you're going to need that when those battles and those tests come, because they're going to come Now.

Dr. Shon:

You also want to practice positive self-talk, replace all those negative thoughts that you have with affirmations that reinforce your worthiness, because the one thing, like we mentioned earlier, when you come from the hood is that feeling of not belonging, that feeling of unworthiness, the feeling like you don't qualify, like you're missing something, like you're just not good enough, the feeling like you just don't have enough money, you don't have enough brain, you don't have enough support, nobody is coming to show up. All of these feelings you want to replace with positive self-talk, positive, positive affirmations, positive vibes only that are going to make up for the lack of things that you don't have. Words. Positivity is so powerful. That's why it's so important, and extremely important, for you to work on yourself. Work on improving who you are as a person. Yes, you can go to school and learn all these things, but if you're a bad person, you didn't learn how to communicate All those little bitty things that you learn. In a household with the perfect setup, you're not going to learn that unless you do it yourself. So make sure you spend time developing who you are and learning who you are. That is just powerful in itself in knowing who you are, where you're going, and it takes a while when you come from poverty to know who you are because you don't really have any examples. You don't. You haven't really started to figure out who you are and kind of you. Life teaches you who you are. I know for me, I learned backwards. I had to go through something because there was no warning. I had to go through the bad experience and then I'm like, okay, that was a lesson. If I can prevent you guys from having it backwards, try to find resources and mentors who are going to help you prevent having to learn something the hard way. Okay.

Dr. Shon:

Next, we want to dive into another way to overcome barriers and join the 1% is overcoming financial burdens. Money challenges are very real. You might find yourself struggling with finances along the way to the one percent. Honestly, you can't really blame anybody, and this is why organizing your finances and learning about financial literacy is key, because it's not taught. It's not taught in any schools. It's really not taught in many households, so financial literacy is going to be key. To get into dental school, you need loans, you need to have credit and if you're not paying attention to this, you have to stress about who's going to co-sign for me to go to school. Who am I going to use to make my dreams come true? How am I going to overcome this barrier? Okay, so you definitely want to have a plan. Another thing is you want to explore financial aid, research scholarships and grants that can ease your burden and help you overcome any financial barriers that you have. How can you use free money and your education to make it easier, so that it's not all on you, and you want to start budgeting early for your education to lessen the financial strain.

Dr. Shon:

That is a lot and I will be honest with you guys my financial journey during this hood to hood journey was a hot mess. I mean, from undergrad working, two to three jobs, work, study, winn-dixie um, working at the hotel, plus going to school, taking care of, uh, grown people and their kids and stuff like that. It messed up my financial journey when it came to being hood to hood and the best advice I can have tell you is stay out of a relationship unless that relationship is going to be equal um, and you can't save everybody because those same people will not turn around and save you. So that was a lot of my um downfall with coming from hood to hood along this journey is that I looked out for people when I didn't even have it myself and I was always trying to look out for people and and that's just the Pisces in me it's also the generational curse feelings of just wanting to help people even though I can't even help myself. So you don't want to fall into that. You actually want to have a plan and start building your early. Whatever you can do when you're younger to work on your finances is going to be very imperative to your success and getting into the 1%.

Dr. Shon:

Another thing is building a supportive community. This is your village and your village may not always have the same blood. I know my village, I don't believe really show up in the way that I would have expected it to, but I have gotten over it. I used to be so mad to the point where I even went live on Facebook one time and just cried Because I could not believe that I had came all the way on this journey and I felt like my family didn't care. I felt so lost and that could have been partly because I was under the influence of a chemo drug, so it made me very angry and grumpy and it just felt like people didn't really care and there were signs that people didn't care and that hurt. To be honest, it hurts when you don't have that village that you expect to be there. So you have to just find people who are a part of your village and be grateful for those few who do show up and just connect with your peers, engage with others with similar experiences, like you're on this podcast.

Dr. Shon:

So obviously you're trying to break a generational curse and obviously you need some type of motivation to help you get there. This is a community and you want to create a network of organizations and mentorship programs to help you get there. So for me, like I said, every school that I went to, I always knew the counseling resources. I always had a couple of friends there that could keep me on track and we could keep each other on track and study together. That could keep me on track and we could keep each other on track and study together. You always want to have a relationship with your professors and your mentors, because these are going to be key people in your life to help you accomplish your goals. It may not always be the person in your family who don't have a goal and they just go to work, go home and live inside of that box. We want to break outside of the box.

Dr. Shon:

In order to be in the 1%, you have to break outside of that box and really pay attention to who is in your village and, you know, continue to build that over time, all right. So just remember that you are not alone in this journey. You are a chosen one and your path may be different, but you can still make it. I know that you can rise above anything that's holding you back. I know that it may be difficult and I know that you're going to need a lot of patience and persistence and determination to make this happen. Being in the 1% is like a far-fetched dream. It's okay, I want to be a doctor, but there is no guarantee. There was no guarantee for me to make it into the 1%.

Dr. Shon:

I had a very slim chance when I applied to dental school my first year. I was rejected from the schools that I applied, so I probably didn't apply to as many as other students because I didn't have a lot of money. It goes back to the money so I had to pick a few and take my chances. It's like playing the lottery you might get in, you might get an interview, you might not, and if you get an interview, you still might not get in. So that first year I did get an interview at the University of Florida and I did not get in because I cried in the interview and a lot of the things that we talked about in here. They impacted me in that interview because I did not feel worth it. I did not feel like I belong, I did not feel like the people there look like me and I counted myself out.

Dr. Shon:

And we can tend to do that. Sometimes, even when you're a chosen, you can count yourself out. Tend to do that. Sometimes, even when you're chosen, you can count yourself out, and that can be the biggest mistake of your life feeling like you're not worthy because of the lack of things you don't have at this present moment. God is setting you up for miracles, and when god is setting you up for miracles, sometimes you have to go without, sometimes you will lack, and sometimes you just have to understand that you're in this part of the journey, you're in the middle part of the journey and you just need to keep pushing forward. Okay, so let's just recap before we get out of here, guys, on how to rise above and overcome barriers to join the 1%. So number one is understanding your journey. Number two is the importance of having a spark. Number three is the power of planning. Number four, taking action. Number five, your role in personal development. Number six, overcoming financial barriers. And number seven, building a supportive community.

Dr. Shon:

I hope that you found this episode helpful and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Keep pushing through those barriers and never forget that your dreams are valid, no matter how challenging the journey is. All right. Your dreams are valid. Your dreams are valid. Your dreams are valid and I thank you guys for just showing up here, listening to this podcast and growing with me Every day.

Dr. Shon:

I realized that I know nothing. This world is so crazy that I just have so much to learn being in this space in order to keep myself motivated, inspired and not give up. It's a lifelong journey. When you're a generational curse breaker, I can say that it is a lifelong journey, but eventually I have faith that we will reach the spot where we can just be financially free and that is really the goal. Not only financially free, just have the free time and just the free positive energy to do what you want to do in this lifetime. Okay, so I am challenging you guys to rise above and get into the 1% and just go from hood to hooded. Until the next episode. This is Dr Shon, the Motivational Dentist. I will holler.

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Shonteral Lakay Redmond, DDS

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