Are You a Bunny? (Thanks to Jewel & Ed Mylett)

One of the things I absolutely love about my career is the fact that when you're focused on a topic, then you get tips and tricks and hints and clues and new information and new knowledge everywhere. I obviously work in the realm of Canadian Indigenous reconciliation. Overcoming oppression, internalized oppression. Yes. I have a friend with me today. Say hi to Stormy. So anytime I listen to anyone else who is marginalized or racialized, I can learn from that. Now, I do not comment on their threads. I do not. I do the same thing for them. Show them the same respect that I ask you to do here. I don't divert the conversation. If they're talking about women being disempowered, I'm not going to take that to discussing Indigenous empowerment or disempowerment or oppression or whatever. I'm going to respect them and leave it on the topic they're bringing. But that doesn't mean I don't learn from the conversation. Today I want to talk about two people that I learned from. Well, the first one that I learned from on a regular basis. And the second one that Holy moly. Did she drop a knowledge bomb that just totally blew my mind. I will share that with you. She's in the news lately because of her latest relationship, but trust me, there's going to be a link in the description below of a podcast episode you need to check out. She is so much more than her relationship. So sit back, relax, maybe grab a tea or coffee first. Get in your comfy chair, because today we got to talk about it. Hi, everybody. My name is Sandy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory in Northern Ontario. And Stormy and I are here today to talk. Oh, Stormy is going to take off. Yep, there he goes. No. Yes. No. Are you stuck? Gotta trim those back nails. Oh, he is stuck. Hang on, honey. Hang on. There you go. I just trimmed his front nails. I guess I gotta do that more. Anyways, it's all about other people today, whether they're four legged or two legged. As promised in the opening, I wanted to talk to you about. Can you tell these videos are real, they're not staged. Whatever happens, if Blue comes walking in here in a minute, you're gonna see her too. But today I wanted to talk about two people. One that is part of my world, even though he doesn't know that. And then one I am so glad I got to listen to. The first person I'm talking about is Ed Mylett. And he just Got ranked the number one motivational or inspirational coach in the world. So, like, a lot of people follow him, I definitely subscribe. I watch his podcast, I watch it on YouTube. I prefer the visual as opposed to the audio, but it's available on all the podcast platforms and he brings on the most amazing guests. And I learn so much every single time about life, about business. Like, I mean, highly, highly, highly recommend him. But recently, and the link is in the description below, he did a podcast where his guest was Jewel. And he acknowledges in the beginning of the podcast that most people think of Jewel for her music career or the fact that she walked away from her music career. By watching the podcast, I'm not going to go into any great detail here except for one point, but by watching the podcast, you're going to see that she has so much more to offer than her musical career or the fact that she now is supposedly dating Kevin Costner. Which kudos to you. Hope you're happy. I'm none of my business, but she grew up poor, like dirt freaking poor, and ended up, I remember correctly, ended up, like, homeless and on her own at an incredibly young age. Her parents were, shall we say, dysfunctional, and she basically raised herself, which Ed points out in the podcast. She mentions when she's talking about her home life and the fact that they had, like, farm animals, like a lot of impoverished people do. And she mentions at one point this story of this bunny rabbit that through whatever circumstances, ended up hanging out in the chicken coop and that this bunny never hopped it, would peck around the yard like the chickens. And she's very much into self reflection, always has been, largely because she has several learning disabilities, so she had to learn how to live in the world. Amazing. Love it. But she was thinking about this bunny one day, and I'm totally paraphrasing this. Watch the podcast to get the authentic version. But she's watching this bunny and thinks, you know, it's kind of funny or odd that the bunny actually thinks it's a chicken. And then she realized, like, what if I'm a bunny that thinks it's a chicken? What if I'm really like a superstar, but circumstances and the people in my world have led me to believe otherwise. How long do you think it took me to think of indigenous people, or specifically indigenous you? How many of them think they're less than never going to amount to anything, drain on the public coffers, all of the garbage, stereotypes, because that's all they're hearing and that they're growing up in an Environment, unfortunately, where they probably know a lot of adults. Remember three natural human reactions to oppression. Violence is the first one. They're definitely seeing that acquiescence. They're probably running into a lot of people that have just given up the why bother group. Why bother showing up for the meeting? Why bother getting a job? Why bother going to school? Why bother getting out of bed. All of this is influencing them into believing that they're chickens when they're actually a bunny. I was blown away by that thought because remember, how often have I said indigenous people are flowers TR trying to grow in soil doused in gasoline? That is the oppressive environment that we are born into. And it takes a lot of conscious effort, a lot of self healing, a lot of self awareness to move out of that environment. And it's not like we can move out of it. Canada is Canada. But we can definitely distance ourselves and minimize the influence. So I wanted to really share that with you today because I hear it now. We all know if you've watched any one of my videos, you know, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, any of those, like, no, thank you. Not in my world. Like, I'm just not into the stereotypes. And so often, like, I am a successful person. That doesn't make me a jerk. That doesn't mean that I ripped people off to do it. Means I worked my tush off to get here. But often I hear people that assume negative things about someone who is no longer living paycheck to paycheck. And I have sold furniture to feed my kids, so don't even flip and go there. I was raised in a house where we literally melted snow in the wintertime to be able to take a bath. Do you know how much snow you have to melt to be able to fill a bathtub? Do not get me started. So the judgment absolutely bothers me. But this quote from Jewel got me thinking. And I've met people. People fascinate me. When I can meet new people and hear their story, I could just sit there all day and listen. It is no longer a surprise for me that successful people raise successful people. Not always. I mean, every single one of us has children lost to addictions or the streets or whatever. And here I go with my ph going on silent. But the odds of them being successful are greater. Not just because they can afford to go to better schools, but their parents see that as a possibility. For me, it wasn't that I decided not to be a lawyer. It was. That wasn't even on my realm of possibilities because I Knew nobody who thought that was possible. Do you see what I mean? So when you have parents that are incredibly successful, of course they're raising children in an environment where it's assumed they're going to be successful. Now, I'm not saying that's ideal. And of course there's challenges. Trolls, please go back to another channel. But can you see how the possibilities are there? I met someone recently. His dad had started a business he inherited and went into the family business business. His daughter is now highly educated, just as a matter of course. Of course she would be. And like, I'm sorry, but I was thrilled my kids got a job. Not because I don't think they could achieve those great things, but that was my definition of success. And let's not get into a debate of the definition of success, okay? Disadvantaged people, unless you put in the effort, are going to raise disadvantaged people. I now love my mom even more for all those books she read and all the possible. Even though it scared the daylights out of her that I wanted to go to college, she created an environment with the help of my dad, who always encouraged me and the straight A student that I was. As a result of that, they created an environment that allowed me to be me. I don't know what your parents offered you, but they gave you the one thing you need to succeed. Life. You can unpack any negative they gave you. You can put down the baggage. You can pick up the best and leave the rest. That's the power of being an adult. And I hope you choose to because we need way more indigenous people with examples, excuse me, with examples of success. So it's not just more internalized oppression. We're going to change that environment. And it's not what Canada is going to do for us. We're going to quit people. There are people out there that are waiting for someone to save them. No one's coming. We got to save ourselves and we got to stand up for what we deserve, which is equal services and supports to any other Canadian. Not more than, just not less than. And if you think we get so much more than other Canadians, you got to go unpack that and do some research that would take to make this a three hour video. I hope that made sense. Go check out Ed Milet's podcast. When his guest is Jewel, I highly suggest you check out his podcast and subscribe because all of the top and they're all over the place. As far as topics, I highly recommend it. I know it's done a lot for me and I'm certain it could. For you to change that mindset, it can change everything. Until tomorrow. I love you. Take care. Bye. Bye.