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So it's August 6th and we are heading towards Amsterdam to the Renaissance Hotel.

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Welcome back everyone, we've been here for a while. Now we have our next part of the orientation

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program which is the Multisational Speech by John Ford. All right on the highway heading to Amsterdam

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giving a presentation for the Samaritan students to land in but they actually landed yesterday

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so they should be rested up a bit and Multisational Speaks for the speech. He also spoke last year,

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a lot of the students were actually very motivated. He has a lot of experience here in the Netherlands.

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We need some coffee before we get in the hotel. I don't want to say too much but he has a lot that

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he wants to share with you and I think it would be a very good part of this orientation program.

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We're going to be recording this one to share with you guys as a special

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Sunside Kingdom episode 7 done in a non-podcast style but in a presentation style.

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So without further ado I'd like to call John Sam Ford to the front.

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Welcome to the Sunside Kingdom show. So who has never been in the Netherlands before?

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Never been. Also quite a few of you have visited before.

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See that was a trick question to see if you're awake. Okay who's, is it your first time in the

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Netherlands? Show of hands. Okay so quite a few been here once before. So my presentation is called

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Five Lessons from an OG. Now I'm a millennial so Gen Z's. There's no Gen Alphas yet right?

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It's only Gen Z. What does OG mean? Okay well I'm not really a gangster but you know what I mean.

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So I'm here today because I failed. Ta-da. Throughout life there'll be many different moments

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where you'll face failure and different aspects and different parts of the journey but it's okay

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to fail. The main thing that you have to do is fail forward. So if you stumble you get back up,

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you keep moving. But I'm also here today because I succeeded and my name is John A.M. Sandy Ford

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from the beautiful island of St. Martin that most of you I assume would know. I'm married.

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This picture was 10 years ago already. We celebrated our 10-year anniversary in June.

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We'll get to that part. We'll get to that part. How will I look?

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Tutti-something yeah. So over five months I won't be tutti-something anymore.

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This is my family, twins Michael and Mary. This was actually last year at the wedding of a friend

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of ours in Morocco and my company is located in this building in Eindhoven. It's called Antonio

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Media and this is the team. Well I thought I had about another hour to prepare because I had to

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stick a funny little picture of Haroon in there. Haroon say hi. Our video editor, cameraman,

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all-around media specialist also needs to be in this picture. And what we specialize in is web

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design and user experience design. So we create web applications, mobile applications, etc. And

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we do that for all sorts of companies in Europe but also some back home as well. Some of the bigger

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clients that we've worked for Rockwool, ASML, Philips, the European Union, Honeywell, Brainport

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Eindhoven, the TU, the Technical University of Eindhoven and founded by all. But 20 plus years ago

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You see the OG now. I didn't have these fancy suits you know it was it was different times,

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different times. And this is actually at Princess Juliana Airport. The old airport that I guess none

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of you were born when that was demolished. The yellow maybe y'all seen it in these old pictures.

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Yeah the yellow building and I think they were doing some remodeling and this was looking very

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shabby where arrivals would come. But this was a 16, 17 year old me. So once upon a time I was

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right where you guys sat in 2003 to be specific. But now I'm going to dive into the lessons.

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So lesson number one. A lesson in focus. Who here has sometimes difficulties to focus?

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All right let's dive in. So making the right study choice for you determines a big part of your future

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success in life. And this also is going to tie into the amount of focus that you can actually put into

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that study choice. And I'll tell a bit of a personal story. So I did my intern well not internship

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sorry. I did my studies at the Fontys in Eindhoven. And initially well this is back in the days when

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computers still had like you know the big CTR screens and and we was rocking MSN and websites

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was super, super, duper crappy. So there wasn't a lot of information for us to find. No videos

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online to really see what the future school is going to look like. I didn't travel to the

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Netherlands before to check out the schools or anything. So I made a choice based on other

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people's information slash oh I'm interested in computers I'll do information technology.

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But quickly I realized that was not the right study for me. And I also used to do this little

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thing called music. And we brought out a couple mixtapes back in the days. How old are 18, 19,

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18 to 21. So 21 brings us where 2003 oh s**t. Sorry see you my friend. We'll bleep that out.

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So these were 2007, 2005, 2008. And at the time, at the time I didn't really have the full focus

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on school. So I was juggling between my music career and school. And every time things would go

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good in music, build up some momentum, school falls back. Gotta go focus on the grades again,

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focus on the grades, momentum falls. So you're constantly juggling back and forth. And the big

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lesson in focus is you can't do two big things simultaneously. You'll have to focus on one,

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finish it up, and then give the other one your full attention. Whether it's you can't split the

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time 50-50, you'll have to either give it like 80-20, 90-10. But there needs to be focus in order

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for those things to really work. But during that time I also discovered along the path that the

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information technology was not right for me. So I switched over to ICT media design where I could

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design my own album covers as you saw before, websites, videos, etc. And that led me to this

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quote here as well. So college is not something you have to do. I know I might be contradicting

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some of the elders that have spoken to you before, but it should be something that you want to do.

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So whatever it is that you're going to choose, it better be or it should be something that you're

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going to use for the rest of your life. Otherwise, I guarantee you, you'll graduate, you'll go into

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the workforce, one year, two years, ten years, at some point you'll be like, this is not for me,

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I had enough, and you'll make a complete switch. So if those feelings are emerging early, then seek

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the help, seek help from the guidance counselors, online advice, etc. Find maybe older students,

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perhaps in my busy schedule like a pencil you in for an hour somewhere down in the south,

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someone to talk to, to help you figure out what that thing is truly for you.

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So along the career, met a couple interesting individuals, some of you might recognize, maybe

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you don't recognize him without the beard, and this was actually the highlight of the career before

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I shifted focus fully on the business side of things.

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So you live in Holland, but you're from St. Martin, and you have a beautiful accent.

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The name of the song is called, Break Your Back.

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It's basically something for everybody that like to get busy.

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I'm a guy that gets busy.

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And in St. Martin they get busy on a week.

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We get busy.

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I'm going to go over there for a blitz. So right now we're going to go to the nemesis

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rapper there, St. Martin baby.

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Okay, okay.

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Prehistoric time, so 2003.

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So most of you were between four and six years old when I did that.

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No, no, no, no, no, this was 2009.

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This was 2009.

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This was 2009.

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Yeah, so lesson in focus.

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After this moment, well, I had different experiences in New York.

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Won't get into that right now, but saw how things could move in a New York minute.

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Saw how people could try to get you under contracts that they would still be profiting

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off of me from today. And luckily I had some back end that I could call back home.

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They check contracts with lawyers and eventually I didn't sign certain contracts.

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And I left that chapter behind.

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But I do love to show it because it also shows the other side.

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And wherever your starting point is, it's okay for you to diverge.

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It's okay for you to go out there if you have different interests, taste different things.

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Still have your focus point, but go out and experiment and go figure out the things that

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really work for you. So you go broad.

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But at some point you have to know when it's time to go back narrow and to then really get

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down to that focus point like, okay, these are the things that I'm really interested in.

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This is what I really want to pursue.

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Maybe you'll never know it 100%.

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You'll always have some doubts, but let's say if it's 75% plus, it's good enough.

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And you focus on that and you give it your 100%.

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Let's see, next lesson.

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A lesson in resilience.

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Anyone knows that word?

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I believe most would.

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Yeah?

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St. Martin is a very resilient.

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So I almost failed my first internship due to some miscommunication.

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Bless you.

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During my first internship, I worked by Tracks Design in St. Martin.

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So this is back in 2008.

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I did a lot, a lot of work.

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A lot of print design work.

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Also worked on their website.

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Did tons of stuff.

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And this was a campaign for Heineken during the Euro 2008.

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That I worked on all of the design work for the entire campaign and it was all over the island.

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Now, I had my internship coordinator, no, my internship mentor that I had to have communication with.

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I wasn't hearing from him after a while.

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So in my regular island mode, I say, well, if he's bothering me, I ain't gonna bother with him.

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And I continued doing my work and I did amazing work.

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But when I sent my final report, he was like, I'm gonna send you a report.

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I'm gonna send you a report on how to do your work.

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But when I sent my final report, he was like, oh, oh, you're alive.

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I thought you was chilling on the beach somewhere.

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Oh, this is not gonna work.

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What?

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After spending 20 weeks blood, sweat and tears.

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And then when I came back, I even heard that some guys maybe worked on one website in the 20 weeks.

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I did a website and at least 120 pieces of content.

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So but I didn't give up.

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I went to the coordinators.

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I started to plead my case.

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Many people weren't fully believing me because again, the amount of work that I was showing them that I did,

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they thought I was just forging that or lying about it.

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Because sometimes they don't believe you when you come from other places.

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Just a hint.

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So you got to continue pushing and fighting and find the resilience to keep going.

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Eventually, going to the higher ups, they gave me a chance by setting me up in one of my upcoming projects

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that I then had to do all the communication with the same mentor.

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And in the end, they gave me a six, even though I got the eight from my internship itself.

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But this was a very interesting moment because while I was pleading my case,

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the internship coordinator watched me dead in my face.

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Well, in Dutch, he said it.

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Do you even want to be here?

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And wow, that felt like another big blow because during my internship was the first time that I realized,

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OK, I actually chose this study to support the marketing for my music.

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But I realized that I was pretty good at the design stuff.

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And then for him to tell me this at that point.

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But I swallowed it, stayed cool.

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And made sure that I got through and got my six and moved on.

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And then in the end.

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At graduation, so at my final internship moment, the same internship coordinator was my second assessor

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and basically gave a mini stand innovation at the end of my presentation.

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And I graduated with an eight and a half.

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So you can prove them wrong in the end.

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And years later, this is him right here.

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Now we're very cool.

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And he invites me over to speak to the students, the excellent students on how to succeed in this career.

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So the world is round.

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You just have to have patience for that moment when it comes back and keep working hard.

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A lesson in patience.

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You can't get to level five without going through levels two to four first.

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Who knows this game?

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OK, what does the mushroom do?

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Yeah. OK, what does this the goomba do?

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Yeah. And what do you get from this?

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OK, now this is level one.

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So you learn the basics in level one.

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Now in level two, there's turtles walking around, right?

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And then in level three, there might be one with the fireball.

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Now you have to go through each level to understand the skills that you need in each level in order to be ready for the next level.

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Sometimes in life, there's moments that you can jump through one of these green things,

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and you pop out on a higher level.

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But you're going to be overwhelmed by what's happening there because you haven't mastered the levels that came before.

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And this is this is the key lesson that I learned during my musical career, because as you saw, I was on BET,

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but I wasn't signed to anyone.

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So I had my own situation going.

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So I couldn't fully capitalize on the momentum of that moment because you need a team behind you in order to capitalize on those moments.

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So sometimes you might step into something and you wouldn't be fully ready for it.

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It's OK to still experience it, but you have to understand that you have to go through each level with the patience of knowing that you have to experience these lessons in order to be ready for the next lessons that are coming.

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So, yeah, during that time, I wanted it fast.

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I didn't have a manager, no record label.

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And each time I would find that green pipe and sneak up the other side, I would be up on a certain level and then get slapped.

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I would be slapped back down because you're not ready to be in that space.

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All right.

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Lesson number four, networking.

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So you might think that as you start school, you'll already see that certain people have these little cliques and groups.

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Some of them might have known each other from high school.

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They might have met somewhere else.

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And you as Samartiners, how many of you are here today?

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Twenty two.

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How many different cities are going to?

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Seven.

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Seven different cities.

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So on average, that's three or four per city.

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Any of you know people that are living or going to the same schools?

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Raise of hands.

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All right.

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So at least in the school, you might be able to meet up.

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But if your schedules aren't syncing up, et cetera, for the most part, you'll end up being alone in these situations.

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And at times it can feel very lonely.

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It can feel very difficult.

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But I would encourage you to try as much as possible to step out of your comfort zone and try to connect with others.

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There will be people that you just don't need to waste your time on.

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But there will also be people in there that out of the blue, you never know how life is going to turn out.

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And one of the persons that I met in my very first year back in 2003 is someone that I work with today.

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And someone that eventually created a connection for me that led to, let's say, six figures plus plus plus for my business.

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But that all started with a handshake talking about Eminem and Dr. Dre in 2003.

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So a lesson in networking.

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Does anyone recognize this guy on the left?

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I'm not saying I believe in his politics, but this was a special moment that was created through networking.

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00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:27,120
Or that's going to die.

220
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Did you guys do the game yesterday?

221
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:35,600
Sabrina, did you do the game yesterday?

222
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:39,440
OK, so did they show this picture?

223
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:40,880
They should know.

224
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:41,760
Yeah, go ahead.

225
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:43,040
Just tell them.

226
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:44,400
OK, there we go.

227
00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:47,760
He was a prime minister for what, 12, 13 years?

228
00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:49,040
13 long years.

229
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:52,240
13 long years.

230
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,920
So that was a moment back in 2017.

231
00:21:55,920 --> 00:22:02,960
And this is a quote that actually came out in 2003 by 50 Cent, something that I really believe in up to this day.

232
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And coming from St. Martin, you should know that this also plays a role down there.

233
00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:15,040
So who you know puts you on, and what you know determines how long you stay on once you get in.

234
00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:18,960
So that means that knowing the right people is going to get you in the right doors.

235
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But if you yourself aren't ready to be in those doors, you don't have the knowledge of what it takes to be in those doors,

236
00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:29,040
the door will open again, and you'll be kicked right back out.

237
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So that's why you have to have the knowledge, the experience, et cetera, to be prepared to walk into certain doors.

238
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But it all starts with who you know.

239
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And these are different networking moments throughout the career.

240
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And this is what I mentioned before with that friend of mine.

241
00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:56,960
We started working to get on a project at this company.

242
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:03,360
You guys might not know it today, but if you stick around long enough in Holland, you'll definitely hear about it.

243
00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:07,040
It's basically the largest company in the Netherlands today.

244
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:13,760
And we've been doing work for them since 2014.

245
00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:17,120
ASML.

246
00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:26,160
And all of that networking and good business, et cetera, et cetera, also led to a moment that I was announced,

247
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:38,480
granted, awarded, awarded the Young Professional of the Year in 2016 by the World Trade Center, Eindhoven.

248
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Thank you. Thank you.

249
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:46,800
And I'll tell the story of how this happened afterwards.

250
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,880
But this also came as a personal invite.

251
00:23:50,880 --> 00:24:01,680
300 changemakers in Europe were invited to Berlin to meet Obama and have a presentation by Obama.

252
00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:05,920
But that's a story that I can maybe tell at the time, the details.

253
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:07,520
All right. Let's continue.

254
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:09,520
A lesson in knowledge.

255
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:13,920
To know that you do not know is best.

256
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:18,560
To think you know when you do not is a disease.

257
00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:23,760
Recognizing this disease as a disease is to be free of it.

258
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:26,400
Any guesses what this means?

259
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:28,400
Yeah, go ahead.

260
00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:43,040
There's about seven plus billion of us on this planet.

261
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,960
And not one person on this planet knows everything.

262
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:53,280
So the more you know is actually the more you realize how much you don't know.

263
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:59,680
And the more you start to respect how much you don't know and how much you can actually learn from others

264
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:06,080
and how you can collaborate with others to you don't have to know it all.

265
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:14,320
And there are certain things that you're going to be uniquely good in that others aren't and the opposite as well.

266
00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:20,080
So whether it's in the school projects that you'll be doing or in work later,

267
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:25,520
you have to collaborate with others to to really get the best results.

268
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:34,000
Back in 2019, the time flies, man, when you get an old because this is this because this feels like yesterday.

269
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:37,440
But I did I did something that I never thought I would do.

270
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:42,240
I went camping in the woods.

271
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But don't worry, I'm not planning to repeat.

272
00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:51,280
It was for a very specific purpose.

273
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,640
So in 2019, I followed what is called a mastermind.

274
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And a mastermind is where you're in a group of like minded individuals.

275
00:25:59,120 --> 00:26:06,560
In this case, it was entrepreneurs and your exchange in knowledge, exchange in network.

276
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There's different presenters that come.

277
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,280
You sort of follow like these little mini courses.

278
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:16,560
And one of the events because it was a year long was the vision quest.

279
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:23,360
And the vision quest is you go for 24 hours in the woods with no food, only water,

280
00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:32,480
none of your devices, a flashlight and a tad polio because not even a real tent.

281
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:39,360
And you fast and you only allowed a notebook and a pen to write your thoughts.

282
00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:46,160
So this was this was the setup.

283
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:55,120
Do you think you like a conference?

284
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:56,160
Well, we can't.

285
00:26:56,160 --> 00:27:00,400
There was there was kind of like a bonfire thing the next day.

286
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:04,000
So it started at 12 noon.

287
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,320
And how many of us were there?

288
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:08,080
Maybe 20 something of us.

289
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,840
And it was a pretty big woods forest, whatever you want to call it.

290
00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:16,160
And we had to spread out because we we weren't allowed to be able to look around

291
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:17,920
and see where someone else was.

292
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:22,240
So you had to be kind of far enough that you couldn't see anyone so that you really

293
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:24,960
feel that you're in in solitude.

294
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:29,840
I definitely remember thinking, OK, I'm going to learn all the sounds of the forest

295
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:31,280
during the day.

296
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:35,520
They're completely different than at night because there's a lot of things that wake up at night.

297
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,840
I don't know what was crawling down there at times.

298
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,680
I didn't I practically didn't sleep a wink until the sun started to come up.

299
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,840
I maybe took a cat nap for two hours.

300
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:49,520
But once I woke up, I felt pretty refreshed because this is now the next day

301
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:54,800
because there was a photographer that came around around noon when we first were setting up.

302
00:27:54,800 --> 00:28:00,160
And then he came back around, I don't know, maybe anywhere between seven to nine o'clock

303
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:01,200
or something like that.

304
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:05,760
And he snapped some pictures of of of everyone.

305
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:10,320
And the first day, my thoughts were super random, sometimes like two, three lines, like, OK,

306
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:14,800
I got to do this in the garden or I got to pay that bill or I got to do that.

307
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:22,480
But the next day, the thoughts were very clear and I started to write and I end up writing

308
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:28,640
about six pages and the six pages actually turned into, oh, you're asking about the campfire.

309
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:33,680
Here is here's a kumbaya moment when everyone comes back and they get some soup.

310
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,560
And we were talking about our experience.

311
00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:46,400
But that those six pages turned into a personal finance course that I created that I also

312
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:51,280
give to persons between your age to about 35 ish.

313
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:57,040
But as I mentioned before, my profession is building applications, not personal finance,

314
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:03,040
but due to being the designer, as I dived into the personal finance topic myself and

315
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:09,040
started to really extract the knowledge I put on my designer hat and created a framework

316
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:14,640
that really tells the complete picture of the personal finance model.

317
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:19,920
And here we have a couple of quotes from persons that followed the course.

318
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:40,160
In this particular part of the course, I'm going to talk about the

319
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:45,440
quote from Steve Jobs, and that is you can't connect the dots looking forward.

320
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:47,840
You can only connect them looking backwards.

321
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:51,680
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

322
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:55,760
You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

323
00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,240
And this approach has never let me down and it has made all the difference in my life.

324
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:06,720
But in essence, in all these different moments on your journey, you have to trust that the

325
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:11,280
dots will connect in your future.

326
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:17,040
You wouldn't be able to see always why this particular thing is happening, why this person

327
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:18,640
is in your life, et cetera, et cetera.

328
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:23,760
Only as you grow, you start to see how all these dots connect to bring you to where you

329
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,960
are in those future moments.

330
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:30,160
So trust that when it feels right, go with the flow.

331
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,680
When it doesn't feel right, also put the brakes on it.

332
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,480
Trust your own intuition.

333
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:42,400
Then, last but not least, so what were the five lessons?

334
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:48,080
You guys can just shout it out.

335
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:48,720
No, no.

336
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:53,680
Focus, patience, and knowledge.

337
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:54,160
All right.

338
00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:56,400
That side was paying attention.

339
00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:06,400
So along the journey, there's going to be many different moments in life and some will

340
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:09,200
try to find it, others may not.

341
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:14,320
I encourage you to definitely go look for it because once you start to connect with

342
00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,240
it, life becomes even better.

343
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,040
And that's a finding purpose, your purpose.

344
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:25,040
And there's been many different things on my journey that have been very important to

345
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:29,440
me, and I've been able to do many different things on my journey that started to make

346
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,960
more sense for me and click for me of what my purpose is.

347
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:41,200
And I believe what that is is to connect and share knowledge, experiences, but also bring

348
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,240
vital tools to my Caribbean folks.

349
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:46,480
And this is also why I'm here today.

350
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:51,440
And along that journey, I did various projects.

351
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:58,880
One of them was under the umbrella of Cosme, and we trained and connected with folks in

352
00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:06,240
11 different islands, no, 10 different islands, where we trained them on the aspects of setting

353
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:14,640
up business incubators and shared office spaces and basically the collaboration mindset.

354
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:21,280
Often than not, in the Caribbean, if one person opened up a store, started a business in X,

355
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:26,240
then someone else might come along and try to just copy the exact same business instead

356
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:32,520
of create something adjacent to it and collaborate together to boost the economy.

357
00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:39,920
So these are some of those moments back in 2017, 18-ish.

358
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:46,620
This was on the Cayman Islands, here in Aruba at the Chamber of Commerce.

359
00:32:46,620 --> 00:32:53,600
From government officials to entrepreneurs to people in education were all trained on

360
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,360
these different aspects.

361
00:32:55,360 --> 00:33:04,200
And I can say that today Aruba has completed one in the Cayman Islands as well.

362
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:10,520
In St. Martin, there has been variants of it.

363
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:21,000
And this was at a big conference in Aruba also talking about the same subject matter.

364
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,880
And then came a moment in 2017.

365
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:28,360
I started this together with some friends and acquaintances of mine.

366
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:34,880
And we raised over 71,000 euros in actual money.

367
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:42,040
But in total, in the funds and grants that we received, we maybe topped out around 120,000

368
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:43,320
euros.

369
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:46,320
And we did various projects on the island.

370
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:54,320
So back in 2018, we donated to nine-place schools, to six primary schools, and three

371
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:55,320
high schools.

372
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:59,720
So different sports equipment and school equipment, et cetera.

373
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:01,920
We had contact with all the schools there.

374
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:06,920
Most of the schools from the Catholic School Board already had quite some donations.

375
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,360
So they said that they were pretty OK.

376
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:15,200
The schools that fell under government, unfortunately, didn't have that much granted to them.

377
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:19,940
So those schools became the focus of our donations.

378
00:34:19,940 --> 00:34:29,340
And then the following school year, we collaborated with the SMDF and the Windward Island Bank.

379
00:34:29,340 --> 00:34:33,620
And we donated to almost 400-plus kids.

380
00:34:33,620 --> 00:34:35,600
So we collaborated again.

381
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:37,400
You hear this word constantly, yeah?

382
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,600
Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate, working together.

383
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:45,440
We collaborated with the, what's it called again?

384
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:54,120
It's a foundation that encompasses about 17 primary schools.

385
00:34:54,120 --> 00:35:00,760
And they gave us a list of the kids that they knew were most in need of the support.

386
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:08,560
And we donated two shirts and two pants or skirts for over 400-plus kids, so over 2,000-plus

387
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:13,360
items.

388
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:18,800
So the summation of all of this, I have to slide over here.

389
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:24,840
It's something that I actually would like you guys to check out and subscribe to.

390
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:28,440
Now this is my blatant marketing.

391
00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:32,440
People!

392
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:45,240
Welcome, welcome to season two of the Sunside Kingdom Show.

393
00:35:45,240 --> 00:35:50,640
We have more in store for you this season, more interviews, more epic.

394
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:55,520
Remember this is the place where we interview Dutch Caribbean role models doing greatness

395
00:35:55,520 --> 00:36:00,120
in their communities for their islands represented to the fullest.

396
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:04,920
And we want to interview those individuals and showcase them and highlight them to our

397
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:09,040
communities all around the world throughout our diaspora.

398
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,880
Thank you so much for tuning into season one.

399
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:16,520
And I can't wait to see you for season two.

400
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:22,800
So it's called the Sunside Kingdom Show where we interview Dutch Caribbean role models.

401
00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:28,960
So not only St. Martin but also from the other five islands.

402
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:35,600
And yeah, they talk about the struggles but also the successes and the things that helped

403
00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:41,520
them along their journey to become the individuals that they are today.

404
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:43,340
So I'll leave you with this quote.

405
00:36:43,340 --> 00:36:48,240
So this big circle is your comfort zone and that little circle outside is where epic shit

406
00:36:48,240 --> 00:36:49,760
happens.

407
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:53,480
So you have to leave your comfort zone in order to reach those goals.

408
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:59,660
And every time you start to feel too comfortable, change it up.

409
00:36:59,660 --> 00:37:04,320
Go and seek the uncomfortability.

410
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:09,040
So the ultimate life lesson is find your purpose, whatever that may be.

411
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:10,040
Thank you.

412
00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:11,040
That was my presentation.

413
00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:17,280
Thank you.

414
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:18,280
Any questions?

415
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:22,080
Oh, a question in the back.

416
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:25,960
Do you offer internships?

417
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:27,640
Yes, I do.

418
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:29,200
AntoniaMedia.com.

419
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:33,400
Whenever we have internships, they always post it there.

420
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:40,440
Well, maybe I'll stick around a bit.

421
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:44,160
Because I know we have to get into the next thing.

422
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:45,780
But it was really true networking.

423
00:37:45,780 --> 00:37:48,420
It was true all that I was doing before.

424
00:37:48,420 --> 00:37:49,880
Someone recognized that.

425
00:37:49,880 --> 00:37:58,320
And she was in a position that she was asked for, is there anyone that you would recommend

426
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:00,880
that suits this profile?

427
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:05,400
And then she gave them my name, called me up.

428
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:09,440
So this is called me up the same day.

429
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:15,000
Called me, I need to prepare this letter.

430
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:20,400
And send it to her by the evening, because it was a last minute thing, a final submission.

431
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:24,220
So had to drop whatever I was doing, prepare the letter, send it over.

432
00:38:24,220 --> 00:38:28,720
And then a few weeks later, in my inbox, there was an email from the Obama Foundation.

433
00:38:28,720 --> 00:38:32,720
And it felt like one of those moments, like these are scammers sending me this.

434
00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:34,840
This can't really be real.

435
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,840
But it was real.

436
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:45,600
Yes, yes.

437
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:50,200
Two, three sisters working at Versant.

438
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:55,280
I have six sisters in total.

439
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:56,280
And no brothers.

440
00:38:56,280 --> 00:39:03,180
That's why I have these gray hairs.

441
00:39:03,180 --> 00:39:04,180
Any other questions?

442
00:39:04,180 --> 00:39:05,180
Yeah?

443
00:39:05,180 --> 00:39:15,120
Do you have any advice on networking for people who aren't as social or more timid with the

444
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:18,120
networking?

445
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:26,880
Well, I know in modern times, people go online for a lot of these things.

446
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:31,020
I would encourage you to also try to network offline.

447
00:39:31,020 --> 00:39:35,720
So you may find certain groups online where you could already start to build connections

448
00:39:35,720 --> 00:39:36,720
with.

449
00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:41,000
But try smaller settings, smaller gatherings.

450
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:48,560
If the bigger gatherings feel a bit too intimidating, then try to find those smaller gatherings.

451
00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:53,760
Or definitely what's always recommended is to have one or two persons with you.

452
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:55,920
So the persons that you feel comfortable with.

453
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:59,800
So even if you don't end up talking to anybody else that night, then at least you had a good

454
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:02,560
time with the people that you came with.

455
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:07,200
But the more that you go out, the easier that it becomes.

456
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:13,760
So those first times that you go out and you network, you won't be doing this.

457
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:15,700
You'll just be doing this.

458
00:40:15,700 --> 00:40:17,840
So go with your own little group.

459
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:22,920
And then some random person will slide in and start to speak to you guys.

460
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:29,360
And you'll see how organically it can flow from there.

461
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:30,360
Anyone else?

462
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:31,360
No?

463
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:32,360
All right.

464
00:40:32,360 --> 00:41:00,520
Then thank you very much.