S2E07 with The Honorable Daniel Sohn - Even An Advocate Needs An Advocate

Meet The Honorable Daniel H. Sohn—a unwavering business advocate, human rights and DEI consultant, and former lawmaker with a groundbreaking career in chamber of commerce leadership, economic development, and workforce advocacy. Renowned for his high-energy presentation and visionary leadership, Daniel has made a lasting impact by empowering businesses, expanding economic opportunities, and championing inclusivity.

Based in Sonoma County, CA, Daniel shares his life with his husband and their five beloved dogs—Sammy, GG, Lukas, Gillian, and Gracie. A passionate hockey fan and dedicated collector of dog figurines, he is also known for his unique blend of expertise, infectious energy, and relatability. Whether in a boardroom, on stage, or in conversation, Daniel ensures that everyone he encounters walks away inspired, empowered, and ready to take action.

Daniel’s personal journey is as extraordinary as his professional impact. Adopted from Romania at a young age alongside his twin brother, his early life captured international attention and was featured in a news story told by Diane Sawyer. Beyond this remarkable beginning, his mother played a pivotal role in shaping his future, introducing him to the power of advocacy when he was just 11 years old. This early awakening ignited a lifelong passion, propelling Daniel to become a dynamic force for change in the realms of advocacy, human rights, and social justice.

To learn more about Daniel, visit: https://www.danielsohn.com

To find Daniel's Book, Lemonade For Sale, visit: https://www.danielspeaks.org/purchasebook

To book Daniel as a speaker for your next event or conference, visit: https://www.danielspeaks.org

Thank you for joining us and we can't wait to welcome you back again next week! New episodes drop every Thursday and can be found wherever you find your favorite podcasts!  

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Want to learn more about our host, Eric Nicoll?  Visit:  https://ericnicoll.com

Transcript

0:05

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the JUST DO YOU podcast. My name is Eric Nicoll, and I'm your host. If you are a first time listener, welcome to the conversation. And if you're a regular, I'm honored that you've decided to join me for another episode. The JUST DO YOU podcast is centered around a network of conversations, which are meant to connect us to inspire us to find our own confidence, our own voice, and to live our own truth. And who knows, we might even learn a little something new that ultimately allows us to live in the sweet spot that I like to call the JUST DO YOU space of being. Each week I have the privilege of sitting down for unscripted conversations with friends, family, colleagues, community leaders, and influencers that all share their own personal journeys. I hope that you enjoy our time together as much as I have. We are certainly going laugh, and yes, we might even cry a little, but in the end, we're going know that we're not alone during our life's journey. So, are you ready? Great, let's do this. Welcome to the conversation. All right, everyone. Welcome to today's episode. I am so excited and humbled to introduce you to my guest today. We are going to just get right into the conversation because there is so much to talk about. I want to introduce everyone to the Honorable Daniel Sohn. Hi, Daniel. Hey, Eric. Thanks for having me. Oh, thank you so much for being here. I'm so grateful that we were able to carve out this time and also spend a little time over the last couple of days getting to know each other and having probably one of the most profound conversations I've had in quite a while. So I want to for that. You killed an hour in the car the other day, which was great, but I'm super excited to have you here and quite timely. So thank you again for being here. Thanks again for having us and working with my team to get a schedule. And honestly, congrats on the success of the Just Do You podcast. I know several of my friends and colleagues before me and just feel very honored that you've asked and considered me to join you. So thanks again. You're welcome. For our listeners, I was quite taken when I was introduced to him. I will obviously do my deep dive. I do my research. I head to websites and Instagram and LinkedIn to find out more about the person that I'm going to be having a conversation with. And I will tell you, and I haven't told Daniel this, when I read through his bio, I was a little intimidated but it also makes sense because we are in a time right now that is incredibly uncertain and we're having a multitude of conversations on the just to you podcast, about what it means to be authentic, what it means to find your voice, what it means to find that kind of just do you space of being that living authentically. And Having you on today, I think is a real privilege because of the conversations that are happening out in the world today. So for our listeners, I'm going to give just a brief little bio, and then we're going to jump right in. So you get to know Daniel as I have gotten to know him. So The Honorable Daniel Sohn is an award winning business advocate, a human rights and DEI consultant, and a civics champion. He's also the author of a newly available, book called Lemonade for Sale, which is, he's got it right there, see that in the YouTube video, Lemonade for Sale, which is a guide to nurturing the spirit of entrepreneurship. And Daniel currently lives in Sonoma County with his husband and their five dogs. We're going to talk about that. I'm a huge fan already. just because he has five dogs and a few of the breeds that I love. And I found this interesting, Daniel, you're not only a huge hockey fan, but a collector of dog figurines, which is even more intriguing to me, which we'll talk about another time. So Daniel hold. Has held, I should say, several high level positions within the chamber of commerce arena. Something that I found quite fascinating and something that I've dabbled in over the course of the last 20 years and has not only lived in Florida and been engaged in a multitude of opportunities there, he currently now lives in California. We're going to talk about that. You can read more about Daniel. It would take us quite a while to read through all the accomplishments, but you can go to his website, but there's a couple of things that I wanted to point out. And Daniel, we're going to jump right into the conversation. But not only in holding these positions and really being engaged in communities to bring awareness to residents and to people, what it means to be civically engaged, I think is super, super powerful and important. We especially see that right now. But there was one key moment in your life, which I was really fascinated by. This is obviously followed by not only the LGBT community, but also our allies. But in February, 2020, you and your husband. had an historic wedding in Florida and you were actually the first LGBTQ couple to be married in the Florida State Capitol building. And you were also married, officiated by the Tallahassee, former central Florida state representative Carlos Guillermo Smith. That is tremendous. I want to hear more about that. Sure. Thank you. Yeah. Certainly. the best day of my life. I, there's a few I could point to, but that truly has been the best day of my life. And we just celebrated actually our fifth wedding anniversary. And so that was last week. I used to joke, Eric, that when we just got married and we'd hear people say, Oh yeah, been married five years, 15 years. I'd used to say, Oh, I can't wait till I could say that. And, Now we're here and with COVID, we didn't get a honeymoon. It was a great experience and I'm happy to go into a little bit more detail, but, we got married just I should say governor DeSantis was just in about a year in office and we were. Actually in DC at the Victory Institute LGBT leaders conference. I'm a huge supporter and and Victory alum as now Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith is. And we were attending the LGBT leaders conference and there was a breakout session. The session was called LGBT spouses. I didn't sign up for this. Elected spouses, and Carlos's husband, Jarek was one of the panelists. And so we, I was sitting watching with Carlos table and Jarek was up there and my husband was next to me and Carlos was, my husband's up there. It was great. And then, it goes over the next. Breakout session happens and Jarek comes back and says, Yeah, you guys next you're going to be up there, Kai. And then I said, yeah, only that's that'll happen. And and maybe, we'll be the first LGBT couple to be married in the state capitol. And. Carlos and I that's what Jarek said. And Carlos and I looked at each other and we said, cause we had both been legislative aides in the Florida Capitol. And he's yeah, let's do it. And I said, if only if you officiate six months later, no way married. And and to give you an idea of what that looks like, still very much the Democrats in minority now. A super minority in the Florida house. And our wedding was held on in the democratic house office, the house minority office. At the same time that trans and anti equality bills were being held on discussed on the floor and actually. During setup of the house minority offices and again your viewers can go look at these articles and see for themselves the layout but there is a screen in the house minority office several tvs that show when Democratic legislators or whoever is speaking so you can see what's taking place on the floor in the chamber from where you are and it was interesting to see we were in the back before we entered the room till we went down the aisle we walked each other down the aisle and you could actually see Carlos at the time representative Smith run out of the chamber and then appear in front of the podium upstairs. And then immediately married us and went back to fight against some anti LGBT and anti equality, anti woman pieces of legislation. And we got married, made history I got to make history with the love of my life. I never expected. History was not something we were trying to make. I think it, I think that, it does say something that even amidst what the representatives and senators Who are advocates and fighters for our communities and our constituents and the values we believe in while they were still on the floor fighting for us to know what was taking place just two floors above is progress. And it is progress. And so I think it, again, privileged to have led it. But I also just have to say this for you, for Eric, for your viewers. We stand, we stood on the backs of those that came before us. And so while it is true, we were the first LGBT couple to be married inside of the Capitol building. Our dear friends, Todd and Jeff Delmay. Were the first were one of the six or seven plaintiffs through Equality Florida suing for marriage equality. And they were the first married LGBT couple in the state of Florida. And I'm happy to connect you if you're not and hear their story because their story is also one of progress. They have an adoption story and they, he will tell you, and he shares this in his speeches. So I have no quarrels in saying this publicly, telling a little bit of a story, but certainly you, he'd be better to tell it. They were recommended when they were adopting their son, that only one of them do it and the other ones stand in the back of the room. Otherwise it wouldn't happen. And to come so far, to be having to create such a loving family, to being the first, and then for us to then take that next step, allowing others to do it. Certainly one of the proudest and the happiest days of my life. But again yeah, thanks. Thanks for bringing that. It's a great reminder, especially after our fifth wedding anniversary last week. Congratulations on the anniversary. Number one. You're welcome. I think what's really important in this current climate that we're in is for people to remember that we say that there were people before us who trailblazed the way for something as simple as a marriage and a wedding between two people who love each other. And we stand at the forefront of some trying times coming ahead of us. We don't know what's coming. And to have these stories and to have them told out loud is my mission on this podcast is to continue these kind of conversations and these stories that they live on. Super proud moment. I am just, I would have loved to have been the fly on the wall and watch all that go down. But again, reminiscing at another time, I would like to, before we before we somewhat jump into the meat of the conversation, I'd like to take my guests back a little bit to find out a little bit more about who they were in their youth. Where'd you grow up? Were you only child? Oldest sibling? Youngest sibling? What was that life like for the young Daniel? Yeah, so I'll try and speed this up, but it's a great American Dream story and it's one that I'm completely proud of for a lot of reasons. It's number one now with. We've shared, I've shared with you, Eric and as we're building our friendship, you'll learn more, but what your listeners and viewers may not know is that I, with all the things that I'm doing in the world I'm also part time caregiving with my twin brother for a 74 year old mother who was diagnosed with a Parkinson's and dementia. Last year, and so that is progressing pretty quickly. And so still 74 years young right so much more life to give and so I'm really lucky that are the stories, and my life story, I was able to hear these stories and be. really told them. And what that means is my mother is not my birth mother. She's not my, by our biological mother. We are two twin boys. I biological fraternal twins adopted from Bucharest, Romania. And in the early nineties this was part of the Chichesco regime. And so there are plenty of stories out there that were covered about the adopted children from Romania the people of Romania had just overthrown the dictatorship there fighting for a democracy. And we were born because the dictator outlawed birth control and forced Romanian women to procreate. To build a Romanian workforce and militia, there was no option. So when we talk about choice and freedom over our autonomy, our women's bodies and the autonomy to make their own decisions. That was not even heard of in the early nineties in, in, in Romania. And with the overthrow of what was their government, not really a government of the people, but was their government, many Romanian families that could not afford to have children placed their children in orphanages because they felt that they were, would be better served and taken care of. in orphanages than an institution like the government. There was no government. The cries of children, as I was told, were heard across the world. War torn Eastern Europe many American families that came rushed. Planes full of American families traveled to Eastern Europe to adopt. Some orphaned children, by virtue of, they were placed up for adoption there. Like ours, our families couldn't afford us and received money for us. And some who, unfortunately, were killed in fighting through the dictatorship. And my mother used to tell us, You guys were born into adversity instantly. And you guys have known since day one what overcoming adversity is all about. You didn't know it then, but I'm going tell you now. And funny story is our adoption story, was covered on the nightly news by Diane Sawyer. We were the first twins, but adoptees to arrive in the Northeast. So we originally, I'm trying to stay with what you're asking me to give you. But we, my mother was from is from New York and my adopted father and her who I don't have a relationship with, and that's another story. But they adopted us and we returned to the U. S. after three or four months in Romania in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. And my adoptive father became abusive while in Romania and in fear of losing us or not getting us, she kept her mouth quiet until she returned back to the United States. And to give you an idea though in the expose or whatever we would call the report done by Diane Sawyer, it was called the lost children of Romania and We were featured in that. They covered the story of us back to the northeast. And the first three months of our life, my mother thought she was getting girls. So we were in, Pink and lilac. There was nothing you couldn't buy. You couldn't buy baby formula. There was no central air. You had to bring whatever you had. And so I was in pink, he was in lilac, and those are the pictures that they covered. And then we got to the Northeast and we were born premature and malnourished. And so we were very sick. So much that the doctors in Romania and the child finders as they called them said they need American medicine. My brother Oliver, was in the hospital for months. And then I was as well. And we got to the Northeast and my adopted father at the time became more physically abusive. And my mother, by our first birthday gave him an ultimatum. You can stay, and I'm leaving, or you can change your ways, and stay, or If you continue, I'm taking the boys and leaving, or I'll let you out now, you go and you never have a relationship with them and I won't ask for child support, I won't ask for alimony, whatever, and unfortunately he took it, and you know what, my mother's been the most amazing mother, the most amazing father and I was very lucky to have fabulous grandparents who told us, Helene You got sick boys come to Florida where it's warm, where we are, we'll help. And that's how we landed in Florida. And I grew up in Southern Florida and went to school in Southern Florida. I will spare you the other nonsense of our childhood, but I will tell you that our journey. To advocacy and overcoming adversity didn't stop after being born. It continued through a very early age. My, my brother was diagnosed with severe emotionally. disturbed SED. It's not a term that's widely used today. And behavioral health and mental health were separated. Now it's all behavioral health. And so my twin brother, Oliver, is the most amazing man has overcome his own adversity and he is not the child. 30 something years ago. He is an amazing graduate with degrees who is a social worker and giving back to the community that helped him. So anyhow, we ended up in Florida, but because of that diagnosis, and I was diagnosed ADHD and OCD and I. I was the Energizer Bunny, literally we became advocates, our mother became a nationwide advocate for children's mental health. And so we started traveling the country at the age of 10, 11, 12. traveling to conferences, becoming advocates for others our peers youth advocacy. My mom founded two groups, the Parent Advocacy Coalition and the Teen Advocacy Coalition traveled the country. Tons of conferences speaking to groups of 300 at a time. Working in public kind of was forced onto us, but In our own special ways, we've continued that advocacy, maybe my brother a little bit more privately, helping others and me a little bit more publicly through policy development, and the work that I do in human rights and so on and so forth, but Yeah, I was around county commissioners, senators and representatives from the time I was 11 I was appointed to my first board, despite the haters on the internet Eric, it's true I was appointed at 11 years old by. Broward County, they received a eight billion dollar federal SAMHSA grant, Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration. It was under the Jeb Bush administration. And actually received tons of awards nationwide after that eight year period. I for becoming a best practice on how we do cross sectionality by interchanging mental health, behavioral health, the school system, the judicial system the homeless. population the the, everything, like all in one. And essentially what comes out of it was the wraparound services that we see today. And yeah so I got my start at 11, 12 years old, standing behind my mom at press conferences, getting up to speak on mics and essentially set me on a path to Advocating for others as well as becoming an advocate for myself. And my mom's mantra, which I think became our mantra and still is very true today is that every advocate needs an advocate. And that has really set us both on our path to what we do in life in our little part of the universe. So I'm very privileged of my childhood. And I list still very much lean on the lessons I have learned through the best. Role model of service, which is my mother. Yeah. Extraordinary story and woman. Crazy. So I'm curious though. So here you are at 10 11. Okay. You're on stage. So what was going through your head? Because those are very impressionable for years, right? That so you've. You've left a country. You are here now in the United States. You're living in Florida, which you said comes with its own set of circumstances. At that time, you are also dealing with your own wellness, your own wellbeing. You get through that. Did you play in the dirt? Did you play in the mud? Did was that not a, what were you thinking? It's a great question. What were you thinking back then? It's a great question, and you know what, sure, I was afforded a little bit of a child, of course, but I don't mean that in a bad way. I don't mean that in a bad way at all. I'm just curious. Yeah, no, Eric, it's a great question. And I'm glad you asked it because I don't get to share this kind of. Yeah. conversation often. And I actually, I appreciate the question because it is more about the stuff I've done, the history we've made, the policies I've been afforded and privileged to work on, the people I've been able to do that work alongside. So I don't get asked this question a lot. But what I will share is that I was never, and probably now, I have never been a normal kid. I was never a normal kid. And I think that it just because of who I was. In general, add on that I was, nominated at 11 to be appointed by a county commission with a nomination in support of a governor who had to oversee Jeb Bush, who had to oversee the federal grant at the state level. His administration, I should say his administration, not necessarily him. And I'll just add this because I think it's important, I'm a proud Democrat, but I will tell you that there was no better fighter for children and there've been some great people. But there was, there were, there was no better fighter in my eyes, looking back on it, and what I know of the Bush family, but specifically, no better fighter for Floridians with disabilities whether they be mental, physical, or emotional, than Governor Jeb Bush. He was one of the most caring governors, and I think his whole family. If you look back at the administration to the presidential administration, his father, his brother, you will find in policies that, that even in their own families, because of who their family members are, they've adopted children they who had mental health and physical challenges, you will find that there was no better fighter than Governor Jeb Bush, and I will stay true to that statement every day and very proud to have. met him and worked with him and former first lady Columba on a lot of these issues growing up, but I was never the normal child, right? Because of the rooms and the people I was in these rooms with. What I will say is that there's some pros and cons, Eric. So yeah my mom just wasn't never the person to let us stay out past a certain hour, go do this and do that. And I think that we benefited, frankly, from that. But sure. My mom provided in other ways. And we were provided experiences. And we can go into detail. But in the 90s, and even today, but in the 90s, I guess When the dollar amount was a little different than it is today, Disney world was unheard of. If you could afford, even in Florida, if you lived in Florida, going to Disney world. Was still unheard of. And so we, I said, there's a point to answering your question here. We were complaining in second grade and I remember our fifth grade was fifth grade, Mr. Smith's class. He was my fifth grade teacher and I see all the kids with the mechanical pencils and I had the W the number two and the wood one. And it's I want that. And so we would complain and my mother wouldn't buy and spend the money. It didn't occur to me till later in life that while parents were, and again, parents can do whatever they want to do, but as I got older, I realized, and I heard stories, I've never been to Disney World, I've never been to Disney World, I had always been to Disney World, and it occurred to me that while other families were buying their kids more expensive mechanical pencils, my mother was saving to give us experiences that she knew, that she never had, that other families would not be able to afford. And when I look at it in that perspective, I see that a lot I have learned. In, in the role of being a child the examples that just adults. Professionally and personally have laid out for me. And unfortunately I was in the rooms with elected officials who taught me, who showed me I want to be just like that. But there were also those who said, yeah, I don't want to be like that. And so those were the things that I don't know if necessarily in that moment I was thinking about, but as I got older, as I matured, I would remember somewhat seeing or hearing that from somebody and I'd be like, yeah, that is not who I want to be. That is who I want to emulate myself out of. That is not what I want to look like. That is not the type of policy I want to do or implement, or that's not the person I want to be. So certainly those were the things that I think I realized. As I got older but all of my childhood, again, I was very blessed to have a very supportive family and my grandparents and my mother. So I'm very privileged and I count myself blessed every day for those interactions. So did you just, I'm curious, because again, this extraordinary path and journey, not common for most, right? And maybe not even common for most that find themselves in the political arena later on in life, right? Yeah. Certainly not. So you obviously have this experience and you've had this ongoing conversation in the background, right? And literally, I don't mean figuratively, but literally in the background of your daily world, there are conversations within civic engagement and human rights and all of these things that are happening. So was that decision easy to, or was it tripped into this is the road that I'm going to take through my adult life? years. Yeah. I think it's a great question. And I think it's not a one answer to that question. It never is Daniel. It never is. It is. No. Again, I said my mother dragged us around to conferences, but you know what I'm more vocal. I have a stage presence. My brother was Oh, and probably still is, but he's much better at it. Hated getting up in front of people. But again, I think to the heart of the question is what values were instilled in us and where the path we wanted to go is every human has to decide when they reach a certain age. And that can change, Eric, right? You can decide like now that this is where I want to be, but who knows where I'm going to be in 20 years. I might say I want to. Change direction. And, a great example would also be my mother. My mother went back to school at 60 to get her master's in education. We were all in college together and she told us, she sat us down and said, Look. I don't want you to wait till you're 60 to go back to school, but what I want to show you is it's possible. And so she did. And so we graduated at the same time, and we were forced to study because she was studying. It was a whole thing. And, because she was studying, we had to study like her. But, again, I think that the arena that my mother was in the events we went to, the conferences we followed her to, whether we had a, we were just tagging along or whether we had a role as a speaker or so and so forth did play a role. I think though, as you mature and you grow up and you, again you say, Oh that, that's important to me. That issue is important to me, or I like doing this, who thought that My in Florida, we have a Publix, so that's like our grocery store. Yeah, Publix subs. But I remember us walking out of a Publix one day. And my mother, there was a conversation that I guess ensued when we walked into Publix. What do you want to be? And my brother said, I want to be a trash man. And my mother went, what? Like the guys that throw the trash in the, and he's they make lots of money. That evolved to, I want to be a social worker. They make no money, but they do very important work, not to say waste management is not a respected and should be respected profession. It should, any job is that, that's pays you honestly, be proud of it. But again, I think being in the room with several other leaders, watching my mother knowing that God, my mother was the queen of reinvention, the queen of reinvention. And I don't know a time where she didn't have three or four jobs beyond what she did with the county, beyond what she did in advocacy. This season she was a tax preparer while she did. I agree a great example. And I think, all of those kinds of shows. Me, I don't know if I chose it. It shows me led into work about becoming a legislative aid in the Florida legislature. I knew that I got this opportunity from my godmother who wasn't my godmother. When we first met, but I was in high school and she was a city council member, city commissioner in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, a history maker herself, the first woman and black woman and Jamaican woman elected to the Lauderdale Lakes City Council. And she did a mayor and commissioner for a day. And I participated three years in a row and one year I was the city attorney and the next year I was a city a council member and the other I was a city manager. And I got to learn the, what happens behind the scenes of preparing an agenda, calling the role and so forth. Later became one of her staffers when she was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. But before that I became a messenger. So in Florida they have the page and messenger program, a program that I will continue to contribute and recommend and ask people to go through if they're interested. In the high school years, middle school years, each legislator gets to sponsor. I don't know about in the Senate, but in the house too. people per session. I was senior class president of my high school and my vice president Carolyn, my dear friend at the time, best friend, we're still friends, she was vice president. We both were given that opportunity by the time state representative Hazel Rogers. And I remember going and being in the Florida Capitol. I want to preface that was not my first experience, Eric, in the Capitol. Because of my mother's advocacy, I have never missed a Florida legislative session since I was 11. And I can talk about that. I have never missed. Even in my move here to California, I've always gone back at least two or three days out of session. So I've never missed it. And but I, when I was 17, I was in the Florida Capitol and this is when we had, they had Blackberries, not iPhones. And I just remember being there with my blue navy and my badge and my little patch that said Florida House of Representatives, Daniel Messenger, and I saw all the aides with their lapels. That's why I'm a lapel guy. And they're like this in the elevator. And I said, I want to be that. I want to be a chief of staff. I want to be a staffer. It's exactly what I did when I went to college. I applied to be a legislative staffer through college. And that was my introduction. And then ended my time in the legislature as an aide in the Florida Senate for my dream boss. And then real quick, Daniel, what did that mean? No. What did that mean to you to be a staffer? What was the conversation that you had with yourself? What was that going to give you? That's important. I don't know. But I will say this. My first experience ever in Tallahassee, trip to Tallahassee, was again because of my mother, and it was a trip called Project All Aboard, and it was funded by Broward County through the SAMHSA grant, Teen Advocacy Coalition, Parent Advocacy Coalition, I think Hispanic Unity of Southern Florida, Funded in several others that I cannot think about right now. I was 11, 12 years old, so it's been some time. Some of the players, by the way, are still around but a very different time. We got the school system. My mother got the school system to give us two yellow school buses, to which we put banners hanging on the outside, tied to the outside, and we picked people literally up along the way. Started at four or five o'clock in the morning. We made our way up to Tallahassee and we arrived at 8 AM. Every kid was exhausted. The parents were like, this is already a day and a half. We're all tired. Everyone was hungry and a legislative advocacy days. It was our time to go and speak to our legislators. And during this time, the real conversation was. public education. It was about where was our public dollars going? And this is really where you started to see the rise of charter schools and public school funding and going to charter schools is really where you started to see corporations, getting started to have all these charter schools. And I won't get into that for the purpose of that's another conversation. But there was a coordinated effort for public education advocates from all over the state to meet that day, do their own meetings, but then one big thing on the Capitol steps. I will never forget sitting on the ledge, looking at the Florida Supreme Court the we were in our yellow shirts. My mother still has this shirt. By the way, and God, it's 20 something years old, but she still has the shirt. Project All Aboard. The bus, the logos, who sponsored us. Me and my little yellow shirt, this skinny 49, 49 pound, couldn't get off 49 pounds for three years, this short kid, skinny, bony, never forget sitting on, the ledge where the fountain was, which were the dolphins at the time. I think there's been renovations since in, in the Portico area, but not paying attention because of my ADHD to any of the speakers. But then I heard my mother on the microphone and I. And to me as a kid, thousands of people, maybe it was more like 500, but to me, thousands of people and my mother getting on and chanting like activist, whatever. And I can, I'll remember, I remember the chant. Tallahassee, look out your window, look out your window, go into the Capitol, go into the Capitol, Tallahassee, and the crowd chanting that back. And we got to see legislators and staffers looking out of the windows. And then after we did that rally, we walked in and we did our meetings. And our purpose there was to, and there's a point to this, Eric, to answer your question. Our purpose was To go and thank the legislators, not convince them, but thank the ones who were, we already know we're going to vote in our favor and I'll never forget. This was our last stop inside the Capitol building before we got on the bus to go back down to South Florida. I'll never forget. My mother leading this group, and everybody was broken into groups, but I was with my mother, and, there was probably 10 or whatever, parents, children, she walks up to the desk, asks to speak to the legislative aid, Hi, how can I help you? We're just here to thank Representative Senator so and so for their support on this bill. They've already voted, but we wanted to say thank you. She says, Okay give me one second. Do you have an appointment? No, but we just wanted to say thank you. Stop by to say thank you. The legislative staffer was a woman. I don't, I was a kid. I don't know who it was. Walked into the room, which would be the legislator's office, closed the door behind them, came out a couple of minutes later and said, Oh, the legislator's out at a meeting, not here. And my mother turned and said, Thank you. No problem. Could you let him know, or her know, that we stopped by? Eric, very clearly, the legislator was in the office, just didn't want to speak. And I'll never forget my mother's words. She turned around to the group, and mind you, at the desk of this staffer was still there thinking we were just going to walk away, and she said, I want this to be a lesson to everyone. The legislator is here. The aid wouldn't have gone in. to speak to them if they were not there in the five minutes it could have taken the legislator just to come out for us to say thank you in five minutes. We're going go back to the district and we're going vote them out. And that was the exact words of my mother and I'll never forget it. So I never wanted to be a staffer that did the dirty work of my staff. And so of My boss and so I think that's what set me on the trail to want to be a staffer And I'll run I get chills thinking about it because I don't want to speak ill of any staffer, but it's our job to protect our bosses. That's not how I protected my bosses. And the lesson I learned was when constituents come to voice their opinions, good, bad disagree or agree but specifically children. You come out, and you greet them, and you hear them out, and, or you walk and talk with them. And that's the lesson I learned. I wanted to be a part of the process. I didn't know if that would ever be as an elected, or if that would be a staffer, but it was very clear that I wanted to be different than what was just shown to me. And maybe that influenced my decision, but certainly my time as a messenger in the Florida House certainly made me say, I want to be that. And I, again, I play back all of those things, the chance the visits to the state Capitol that they, those interactions, good or bad. And I think those have really set me on the path to be who I am today and the things that I've done and and still want to do. Yeah. Our listeners may be wondering, does advocacy change over time? Does your definition of advocacy change? It does. Especially when you find yourself being the one that you're advocating for. Oh, you answered that question just like I was going to ask it. The answer is yes. It does. And I think that's the job for us to change how we advocate it's our job as humans to do that. I don't remember who said this quote, but I do remember watching at the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Saying this quote and basically, she said, we're not doing our jobs as humans if we're not constantly updating our viewpoints and so and so forth. And I think I also apply that back to advocacy, the issues are going to change, the environment's going to change, the leadership's going to change, the effort, the amount of effort that we put and where we choose to direct our energy. But again, I think we are finding to your point, and I'm sure you're going to go into this, so I'll leave it to you to ask those questions. But as, more communities are targeted, as more special interests are engaging and special interest doesn't have to be a bad word either. So I just want to say that out loud because everyone pins it. It doesn't have to be. But as we see more and more about, less about the people, less about the growth and the future of our communities and the support of our communities and more about hate and the games that we see politically on both sides of the aisle. I think you adapt. So you find yourself becoming your own advocate and through that, because your community is now targeted. It's that old, that thing that the rabbi said first that came for, then they came for, but then there was no one to fight for me. I got, I butchered that too, but you know what I'm referring to. You become, an advocate for the community and I think it ties for yourself and the communities. You identify with and I'll just go back and answer it with this. My mother's quote, even an advocate needs an advocate. Yeah. For the person who may be at home and listening and throwing their hands up in the air and having moments of despair, and I'm not referring to myself, although I might be, moments of despair. Right there with you some days, too. We're all there. And again, this crosses multiple communities. We're not just speaking about one. We're speaking about everybody. Sure. What is your advice to the person who says, okay, that's great for Daniel, I didn't have that background. What can I do? What does my voice matter? What does my time matter? What do you say to them? It's a great, question. And you know what? Everyone is in a different place in their life and everyone's in a different place in their journey. I think what I will say is that. No matter where you're starting, or, who you've decided to influence, what cause or issue, you hold near and dear to your heart. And it doesn't have to be one, it doesn't have to be three, it could be a hundred of them. I think the one thing that I will say is to lead with empathy and kindness. And it sounds cliche, but No one got anywhere by being hostile or ruffling feathers, at least in, in a negative way, right? Violence is not the path forward. That, not where you want to be. I think if you are your authentic self, or you are, to your question, learning what That actually means for yourself what your authentic self is. Do it with kindness and empathy. Here's the key. Be kind and empathetic for yourself, to yourself, and to others. You can't do one without the other. You have to do both. You have to give yourself some grace. And so I will say this. Yeah, to the kid who's listening, who says, I'm the Black young gay man who comes from a religious family I live in the South where I thought we were making progress, but now I'm not sure I was ready to come out, but now I'm not sure or that biracial couple that still is afraid to date publicly because, right? What their community is going to think about them. Number one, you need to protect yourself, right? You need to protect yourself. And your well being. So if you don't feel like you're safe. It might be okay to wait. It does not mean though, that you're not being authentic and I want to preface again and piggyback Eric and say, if you're not speaking your truth, it doesn't mean you're bad or you should look down on yourself. It just means it's not time. It's not time. And, but that's why I think it's important for all of us. Who do just do us, just do you, and we are our authentic selves. Some unapologetically and some of us who are still like, Oh, I don't know. I don't feel like being this today. I don't know if I want to continue the hate and I think it's important for us to continue to be those role models so that when they are ready, they have a great example of how to advocate for themselves, but it starts at home. As most everything does, and home doesn't mean your family necessarily, it means with yourself. And as long as you're comfortable doing it for yourself, you feel safe. That's where it starts. And I think it's important. I mentioned this to you in the car on our conversation the other day. I've mentioned this a couple of times in previous podcasts with some of the people that you know. And I said, one of the things that I think is so important these days, especially is that we don't. react, but we get into action. And I think when we react, it's an emotion, right? We're angry, we're upset, we feel vilified with all of those things. And that reaction doesn't always further our cause or further our state, our authenticity. And and I'm guilty of it. I'm the first person to admit that there are days that I go and Doom scroll and get reactivated and send off nasty messages. And then I go back and delete them. I've been there, but what I also noticed is, and I have surrounded myself, whether it's knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly, I've surrounded myself with people that are incredibly bright and incredibly opinionated and also very much. in this political arena. And what that's done for me is it's it's given me an education that I now know how to manage my thoughts and feelings around what's happening. I'm not sitting back going, how did this happen? Why did this happen? It happened, and now I know what I need to do in order to be in action. And so I try not to react, and I try to do that with this podcast. I try to bring in conversations that allow us to have a conversation that might incite a different perception, or a different way of looking at something. But it's that being in action that I think is really important. And not everybody's going to have the time or the bandwidth or the wherewithal, again, because it's timing. to go out and march. I've noticed something really interesting, though, and I've looked at a couple news clips. I try to stay away from the news as much as possible, get my clips where I know that I can trust and rely. But I've been watching some of these protests and some of these groups of people within the LGBT community and other communities that are going out, and there's something very special and very powerful about the energy and the environment. And so I think people, when they think about advocacy, they think about activism. They think about what that means. may not be exactly what they think it means. So I encourage people and I encourage our listeners to take a look at what's important to them, find those things that are important to them and then put their toe in the water. We also need to Relieved, maybe not the right word, but a sense of comfort knowing that there are people like you out doing the things that are fighting for that advocacy, fighting for those rights, fighting for that social justice and equality that are out doing the hard work. Not that we're not, but they're out doing that hard work involved in these conversations. And so honestly, Daniel, that's what gives me this sense of hope. is that if we were left to staying in our monologue and not knowing that we were part of a larger conversation, part of a larger community, part of an advocacy that is out to have us keep our rights, all of us, all of these marginalized communities. Recently I had a conversation with somebody who's, she's known as a DEI disruptor, and she was talking about disrupting this conversation around DEI. That could be a whole other conversation you and I could do. I get it. But what's really great about the conversation that she had is not to dispel what that means, but to encourage a conversation so that people understand what that includes. And so when we talk about advocacy, we talk about social justice and equality for the person who doesn't really know, they may go back and go, I don't know what that means. Here's my task for them. Ask the question, reach out to somebody and have the conversation. Do you agree? Is that because I think that's where we get stopped is that we don't know what it means. And if we don't know what it means, then we don't take action. Yeah. The, I wholeheartedly agree with you. And the term I use is I'm an accomplice, not the disruptor. I'm an accomplice, but I wholeheartedly agree with you. The unknown is scary. And what we don't know to be our own reality is scary. And I think that's part of. What we're seeing and have seen throughout decades in government is we hear one thing, we read one thing, we are, we keep ourselves in these communities, we don't expand out. And so it's hard to put ourselves in other people's shoes and their mind. So and so forth. Yeah. You know what? It starts with the question. I'd even gather to say to you because you had mentioned it is, what does it mean to you? If you're like, I don't know why this is my issue, but I have a real, attraction to making sure that people have food or I really care that person I saw in the hospital couldn't afford it. Their hospital bill or I saw someone get discriminated in public today because their shirt was too small, but they were too big. I write down. Why did that bother me? And if it bothered me, what could I do about it? And I think that's where it starts. And then saying, Hey, this happened to me the other day. What are your thoughts on it? That's where this starts. And it goes back to that communication thing, but you know what? I am a little sick and tired of just communicating and going around and around in a circle. So how do we affect change without none of that? And I think the other question is, you had asked and I would challenge your listeners to think about this for themselves, is if you're not in, in a place to work with elected leaders as I am, you said, this is where I'm starting. How do you lead when you're not in charge? What is it that you can do? What is in your ability to do your willingness to do that can influence? Do you have to be the person in charge influence, or could you talk to your parents about something that happened at school and then your parents say you know what. Let's do some posters, let's get some of your other friends that might feel the same way or that's where it starts and so I would encourage anyone who's listening who has something they're passionate about to find out why it, it bothers them or why they, why it's a good thing that they're passionate about and then see how they can get involved or support it or disrupt if that's the word that we're using. And I loved her word, and to further on Zoe's comment, it's not to disrupt to dismantle, it's to disrupt to have the conversation. A hundred percent. And then we need to ask the question, why do you feel that way? Okay, I get that. This is how I feel. We're not doing that right now, right? And so I liken the current climate to And forgive me because I love Snoopy and Peanuts, but I like, I liken it to Pigpen is that there's this person that's come into our world and they're kicking up the dust and we can't see past the dust. And then the person's going to walk away and ultimately the dust is going to settle and we're going to be all left there going, what just happened? So I want. our listeners that are looking to get out and to make that difference, to look past the dust, find, like you said, find what they're passionate about, find what they care about, but then go out and sit and have a conversation with someone. We stopped doing that during COVID. We stopped having conversations because we all went insular and we all went into our phones. And I like to use the word doom scroll and text incessantly, but it's not until you have a conversation that you actually see. What's living outside in the world. Yes. So that's my 100 percent agree with go talk about it. Have a conversation Absolutely get engaged. Listen, here's the thing you and I could talk forever I want to be respectful of your time I want to invite you to come back for another episode down the road I find your journey fascinating and also so inspirational. I find what you have done and the things that you have accomplished so far and the things that you are yet to accomplish. Like I said earlier, the world is a better place with you in it. And I want to thank you for that. And I want to thank you for your time today, but I do have one final question that I ask all of my guests as we wrap up and that question is if you could go back to that young Daniel. Very young Daniel and tell him about his life today. What would you tell him? I think there's two things, Eric, but I don't know if I could pick one. So can I say both? I will allow you both rest, but don't give up. That's number one. Rest, but keep going and do what they think and they say you can't do. And so I think those go hand in hand is when you're in the fight for a cause that you care about, which we just talked about you're going to come up against obstacles and hurdles, right? And there are going to be people who are naysayers who appear to be on your team and sometimes they're not. There are going to be people who are swayed by the voices of others. They're going to tell you, you can't do this, or we won't let you do this. As long as you're not breaking the law, like horribly. Do what they say you can't do. But when you come up against those hurdles, little Daniel, it's okay to rest, but don't give up. And I think if I could go back, I would tell myself the most important thing would be rest. Don't give up. Live to fight another day. And I've had to learn that lesson a few times in my life and fortunately more recently. But rest. And don't give up. That's what I will say. Thank you for your time today, Daniel. Thank you, Eric, for having me. We'll talk again soon. Okay. Okay. All right. All right, everyone. Thank you again for joining us on today's episode. I hope our conversation resonated with you like it did me, and I cannot wait to sit down with you all again next week. Remember to subscribe to the Just You Podcast on your favorite platform so you can make sure not to miss a new episode, which drop every Thursday. If you like what you hear, you can easily share the podcast and episode. Directly with your friends. And if you would rate us and leave us a review, we'd love to hear from you. You can also follow us on Instagram at just do you pod. As you go out into the world today, remember to just do you. All right. Talk next week.