After 19 years of working nonstop, I quit my job, not because I failed, but because I didn’t recognize myself anymore. In this episode, I talk about rejecting perfectionism, burnout, and the pressure to constantly be “better,” especially as a Black person navigating systems that reward overworking and self-erasure. I share what I saw after a decade in HR, how hustle culture became survival conditioning for me, and why I’m choosing wholeness over performance. This isn’t a motivational speech or a quit-your-job fantasy. It’s a reckoning, a reset, and a reminder that success shouldn’t cost you your soul.

This episode is about what happens when success becomes something you perform instead of something you actually live.

I talk about the pressure many Black men, queer folks, and people of color grow up carrying the unspoken need to always be “on” to be seen as worthy or safe and how that pressure shows up in careers, dating, and mental health.

From tone-policing at work to being “too much” or “not enough” in relationships, this episode explores the quiet exhaustion of constantly proving your value and the moment you realize surviving isn’t the same as living.

If you’ve ever done everything right and still felt tired, this conversation is for you.

In this episode, I break down the negative reactions to my Instagram reels about queer representation and how a conversation about “men of color” somehow became a conversation about Black people. I’m talking honestly about the patterns of queer anti-Blackness, the defensiveness I saw, and how media quietly programs desire for young queer people of color by framing love as something that happens closer to whiteness.