Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Smoke Trail, hosted by Smoke Wallin, is a journey into awakening consciousness, weaving authentic stories and deep discussions with inspiring guests to unlock high performance and perfect health. Each episode delves into spirituality, leadership, and transformation, offering tools to transcend trauma and find your bliss along the way. It’s a reflective space for achieving peak potential and inner peace in a distraction-filled world.
Welcome To the Smoke Trail hosted by Smoke Wallin. Join Smoke on a unique journey of awakening consciousness, sharing authentic stories and deep discussions with inspiring guests. Explore spirituality, leadership and transformation, tools to elevate your path.
Smoke:Mark Walker. You're here. Welcome to the Smoke Trail.
Mark:Appreciate it. Glad to be here. You know, we've been talking about this for quite while, and so finally, it's happening. Yeah. But I
Smoke:had to wait for you to get off the island of Jamaica, trek your butt all the way over here to Sedona. And we would have done this outside, but it's a little hot today.
Mark:It's just a little bit. Little bit. Not quite island hot, but it's Sedona hot. So
Smoke:Yeah. Well, welcome. Welcome. Super super excited to have you here. And we were talking the other night.
Smoke:I think we figured out we met more than a dozen years ago. Right. We did that Larry Botton. I forget what it was called, but it was like this, you know, find the champion in you. Right.
Smoke:Entrepreneurial Entrepreneurial boot camp.
Mark:Leader boot camp, something along with
Smoke:With Travis McVeigh. Right. Our buddy.
Mark:Yep.
Smoke:And and you and I paired up, and we end up becoming good friends and doing lots of adventures Exactly. Over the
Mark:Exactly. So I guess twelve, thirteen years later, lots of changes in life, but positive for the growth and so definitely beneficial.
Smoke:Yeah, for sure. Well, as you know, the intention of the Smoke Trail is to tell people about our journeys tools we've picked up along the way, things that have worked for us in the intention that, some of them may be useful for other people take your pick, you can try out whatever we discuss and see if it works for you. But at the end of the day, everyone is on their own journey.
Mark:Well, as they were saying, islands, you eat the fish and you spit out the bone. So take the part that works, but you eat
Smoke:the other parts that won't work. We're definitely gonna do another episode on the island, by the way.
Mark:I'm coming to you next time. No problem. No problem.
Smoke:So that's actually kind of a cool story. You live in Jamaica. You guys have renovated this beautiful home on a cliff overlooking the ocean. You're growing your own food, but that's not how it always was. So like, maybe let's unpack that.
Smoke:Like what Refine back to go. What got you to Jamaica? And we'll come back to kind of what life is like now, but like what led you there? I know this story a little bit, but let's talk about it. Okay, well,
Mark:I was I was in LA, doing business, running my restaurants, had a few food truck, had a couple of locations and just living life, working hard, you know, all my employees, just building my team, just, you know, in a process of expanding it, you know, into Texas and across the country, meeting with some hedge funds, talking about funding to take, you know, take this brand nationwide.
Smoke:Because it was crushing it.
Mark:Yes, yeah, I mean, we were in the process of getting ready to go into the new stadium and Staples Center. So, I mean, we fed everybody, you know, like, you know, the LeBrons, the Oprah, the Kevin Hart, you know, just as well as throughout the downtown, Inglewood was going to Carson. So, you know, what, this building is And an
Smoke:all the athletes, the NBA All
Mark:good. All
Smoke:All the athletes, NBA players, all the guys that, you know, you had a lot of following. And if they saw you out, what would they call you?
Mark:I was known as the chicken man.
Smoke:Chicken man. Chicken man.
Mark:Chicken man. That's what it was.
Smoke:Chicken man. But it was so good. Right.
Mark:We had a, like I said, organic organic soul food place. We had chicken, wings, we specialize in wings, but we've made our own sauce. We was definitely a health conscious organic along that line. So we had our own juices, you know, things along the line. I think, you I was happy with it, happy with the culture we built, happy in terms of building my employees, building them up in terms of, you know, from that standpoint.
Mark:So, you know, we're in a process, we do pop ups all across the country, but we're in a process of taking it now, taking the brand nationwide. And then the creator said, let's pause that, I have something else in store for you. So, I mean, you know, but long story short, I had a throat, I had this throat issue, you know, really I'm pretty healthy.
Smoke:Super healthy, fit. Know, the time Big workout guy.
Mark:At the time I was average about, I was about two twenty five, two thirty pounds, you know, pretty healthy, worked up. All my life I compete natural bodybuilding, I was running. Know, health was fine from my perspective. But I had a, what I realized for about a year, I had this throat thing that just, it came and it went, came and went but I couldn't quite figure out what the issue was. So I had this, it was like a sore throat.
Mark:So it'd come and I'd go get some antibiotics for it, all right. Then it would come back again. And so I couldn't quite actually figure out what the problem was until, you know, went through a series of doctors where doctors told me, Oh, you're fine, you're okay, nothing's wrong with you. And I was like, No, I'm not, something is wrong. So eventually I switched doctors and found this new doctor.
Mark:I said, Okay, we're gonna do all the tests. And eventually the doctor was like, you know, even on my intuition, I'll never forget, was shopping for the restaurant in a place called Smart and Final, I was walking through the aisle and I saw a cover of a magazine and it was, I think, I'm trying to think what the guy is, this actor. And on it it said he had throat cancer. And I said to him, I looked at it and I said, is that? But I remember reading the article and they said it took them, I think two and a half years for them to find out what the problem was.
Mark:They're just misdiagnosed, couldn't find out. And I was just like, could it be? But it was in the back of my mind by then because I've been trying everything but still not feeling 100%. And so finally, my lymph node on my neck started getting pretty big and went to the doctor and had the biopsy and the doctor was like, you know, he looked and he was like, yeah, it's cancer. And I would say that's the hardest part of the entire thing because it was just said instead of such a matter of fact way, my wife is sitting across from me, she broke out into tears, and I was just like, man, couldn't you, you know, it wasn't the fact that what he said, it was just how he said it and the fact that she was there and I'm literally looking at her and just the tears started coming down her face and I was like.
Mark:So after that
Smoke:I was
Mark:like, not a problem. Then I had to go in on Monday, no, the Tuesday, the following Tuesday, this may have been a Thursday, Tuesday to get another sample, get a biopsy where they get a sample so they could figure out exactly what kind it is. So that happened and you know, the doctor said to me, he said, Well, you know, if you're gonna get cancer, this is the best kind to get, there's a ninety seven percent chance of recovering. So I was like, not a problem, you know, I'm very structured and I said, all right, well, what do we have to do? We just have to cut it out?
Mark:He's like, no, no, no, it doesn't work that way. You have to, you know, it's this whole process, we have to, you know, do all the blood work, make sure everything is fine and then we have to, because it's sitting in my throat, they have to use radiation and chemo and I have to go through and spend a lot of time with the dentist, I had to get his mouth guard fitted because of the process, you know, with the treatment, I had to go through that, that took maybe about a month and then I had to get a cage system because it would strap me down. So I was like, okay, fine. You know, so what I, you know, went into training mode. I said, okay, I'm gonna get as fit as I can be.
Mark:So I was doing two a days, eating, you know, super, super strict and healthy. No sweets, which in hindsight, know, for the moment I should've had some sweets. But, know, we went through the whole process. And so I said, Well, I need to do one thing before we actually start. So did all the treatments, all the pre blood work, I felt like I was at the hospital every day, getting blood work, doing this, checking Great and team of doctors, other than the first doctor that just blurred out, a great team.
Mark:They went in, they knew everything to do and I just kinda followed the process. And I said, okay, well once we're finished with this, I need a gap of one week before we're finished, then when we actually start the treatment. You know, it's like rounds of radiation and chemo, I think I have 42 or 43 rounds of radiation every day, Monday to Friday and then I had four rounds of chemo. So I was like, okay, I need to go to Jamaica in between that. So that's what I did.
Mark:Was like, I went to Jamaica. And in Jamaica there's a place in St. Thomas called Bath Fountain, where it's been known to be like healing water. Yeah. Was way up in the mountains.
Mark:So what I did, you know, went and, you know, went in the water. I mean, you have like the spring on the water coming out the mud like super hot and they all, you know, and when the rosters they put the clay all over your body that's coming from out of the mountains. And then, so I was like, I have to do this, went, had this treatment. And so now I'm gonna go start my treatment, you know, through the doctors. And so I went through the whole process, it took me, like I said, I had the 47 rounds, I went from 200 and like I said, 25, 30 pounds, down to one hundred and fifty pounds.
Mark:Yeah. Throughout the four months. Just literally, you know, it zapped me. But I can say, one of the things I didn't tell anybody, even you, you guys
Smoke:did Yeah, no, found out at the end.
Mark:Right, you found out at the very end. Because I knew that I'd be okay. So I didn't tell anybody, didn't tell any friends, I didn't tell any family members, because I knew I needed to just harness my energy and just being able to stay focused and healing myself. I have a large family, I'm originally from Jamaica, so I have a large family and so I knew
Smoke:Spread out, Baltimore, Jamaica
Mark:The UK, Switzerland. UK, yeah. And we're still pretty close, so I knew that if I had said something, every day I would get a call and my mother would have been, and it just, and I didn't need that, I
Smoke:needed to just harness the energy, focus. I think it's a really interesting choice and I have a lot of respect for it because I appreciate it because now thinking about it, as you told me about this, you know, with the intention to go into this with your full energy and your full force of, I'm gonna heal, I am going to make it through this. I'm gonna, you know, do whatever I have to do. Not having the constant batter interference of energies of, even if it well intended.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:But reminding you, like reminding you you're sick, you're sick, you know, by by, you know, just by asking, by Right. How you doing? How you doing? How you doing? It's like, you're like, dude, I'm just doing fine until I pick up this phone call from you.
Smoke:Thank you. Right?
Mark:True.
Smoke:And then the other thing that I thought was really interesting and maybe you're going get to this, but I'll, I'll just surface it is you were prepared for this in a, in a unique way, you know, not that anyone's ever prepared to get cancer, but you had just gone through it with a friend, right? Right, right, And you had helped him through it.
Mark:Right, right, right. So, the interesting thing, a year before that, you know, this is right during COVID, the beginning of COVID, you know, my mother reached out and said, Oh Mark, you need to, know, have you had your colonoscopy? And I'm like, okay, all right, you just turned for, have you had your colonoscopy? I'm like, you know, she was like, I think I turned right before that I was 48 and I think that's the time they recommended. I was like, alright, okay, okay, fine.
Mark:I'll, you know, they would cover all the delays, so I think I was a year into it. I'm like, fine, I'll call the doctor, just set up a time. So, I went and had a colonoscopy done. And then, I was like, okay, not a big deal. And then I told a friend of mine, a few of my friends I had reached out and said, hey, you had your colonoscopy?
Mark:And he was like, no. And so a friend of mine recommended. I was like, Hey, you should go get your colonoscopy. So, literally dropped her off. She set up the appointment.
Mark:I was the contact. So the doctor calls me and said, hey, I see something. And I was just like, and I said to the doctor, are you sure? Because that was not what I was expecting.
Smoke:Yeah.
Mark:And he was like, yes, I'm sure. And I was like, oh my. So how But he said, don't say anything to her, wait till tomorrow. She's off the, I dropped her off, know, dropped her off and I spoke to my wife and said, okay, well, we need to convince her to come over our place the following day so we could talk to her about it and then I'll call the doctor. So, you know, somehow forgot what excuse she came up, came over and say, hey, come over, duh duh.
Mark:So she came over, sat down and she's like, what's wrong, Ryan? Nothing wrong. So then I was like, the doc, you know, then I explained to her, which I think is, you know, about it in a range with her family and everything. And so of course she
Smoke:You did it in a better way than your doctor did, you, right? Like you.
Mark:Right, you know, little bit more compassionate because you know, you're figuring, I mean, people hear cancer, it's, you know, it's a shocking thing, it's a jarring thing, it's just sort of, you know, it's like, oh, my life is over, I'm done, that type of thing. So she came over, we kinda set the stage on, told her to call the doctor and the doctor spoke with her. And so throughout that time, then I went to the first visit with her, because you have to, you know, once they tell you go to the visit, they tell you exactly what's gonna happen and this is a whole process. So, I took her multiple times in a week throughout this whole process, throughout the year. As a matter of fact, she even moved in with us.
Mark:You know, she didn't have any family members in the area. So, you know, she's good friend. So we moved in, so we kinda literally watched over throughout the year. So, I think the unique situation is that I had a year to where I'm watching someone go through this process Yeah.
Smoke:In helping How they're dealing with the medical community, the doctors, how you're making sure they're getting what they need, and you were kind of her advocate. Exactly. So So that did prepare you in a unique way.
Mark:Yes, so everything she finished in, I remember it was that, because she thought she was gonna finish in December, but it spilled over into January. So I think her last treatment was done, she had a port taken out in like the first week in January. And I think three months later is when I got my diagnosis. So like you're saying, somehow the fact of being there throughout the year prior allowed me to not be as alarmed because I watched her go through the treatment. Yes, lost her, but she got back healthy and she was doing fine.
Mark:And then so when it happened, I, somehow I was just, I was prepared for it. I never felt like anything, I knew that I'd make it, it wasn't an I never doubted that part of it. Maybe that's the reason why, part of it, and just maintaining my energy, not talking to family, not telling friends, was just like, okay, it's a process, I just have to go through it
Smoke:to get there, which Well, whether you, I think you did know it, but whether you know it or not, as we talked about, we are all physical, mental and spiritual beings. And the truth is that the health system is treating the physical.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:And that's the least powerful of the three. Right? It's kind of the, it's the output. It's the, you know, what we see here is our, is the result of everything else.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:So what we hold in mind is much more powerful than what's in the physical. And then of course spiritual is even higher. But you were, you had the, like, I guess a positive mental attitude from the start to the end. Mean, were just like, this is okay, I have this, I'm gonna go, this is what I gotta do. Right.
Smoke:How do I, you know, what do have to do for it?
Mark:Right, and I remember something, because you mentioned Larry. So we met at Larry's event, but prior to that, how I met Larry was through Craig Duswall, his event. And I remember, and it's funny how you hear things and how little things will stick in the back of your mind. So I met through Craig Dussewall event, he had a rock, I think it's a rock star event. But one of his events, talked about being younger with him and his wife when they got married, like early on his wife Natasha, how she was diagnosed with cancer.
Mark:But what she used, she never said she had cancer, she said she was diagnosed with cancer. So even when there's, oh no, don't, so somehow that stuck with me. So I used the same language in saying that I was diagnosed, never had, I was diagnosed, went through the and that had a big, big, big, I remember the language from, which at the time when I first heard it was probably like another eight or nine years prior to that. But at that time, it had no significance, but for whatever reason I remember Well,
Smoke:and that's amazing because, you know, language matters.
Mark:Mhmm.
Smoke:How we name things, what we call things, you know, instead of calling, you know, so we have these energies that are coming up all the time and we name them things, emotions, thoughts, you know, sometimes an energy will come up and say, I'm anxious or I'm afraid or I'm angry or something. But if we don't name them, we have power of them. And same thing with diagnosis. If you have been diagnosed with something, whatever it is, I mean, stomach ache or something minor or something major like cancer, You diagnose with it but you don't have to acknowledge it. Not something that is you.
Smoke:So, have great compassion for people who suffer from illness and fight illness and do all the things. But one of the big mistakes that people make time and time again is they let the disease define them. Right. And when, if you get to the point where you're defined by the disease, in your own mind, That's true. You've manifested it to be more than it needed to be.
Smoke:And it's a lot harder to kick. And you know, I even liked the idea of like, you're not really fighting cancer. You're just, you're addressing it. You're, you know, so cancer's coming over here to knock on the door. Hey Mark, you're not paying attention to something.
Smoke:Right. And you have to address it and then figure out what that something is. And I think that leads us to where we're headed, is Jamaica and paradise and why you're living there and not in the fast bustling LA and running your restaurant empire and all your other stuff.
Mark:Think after going through, that was one of the things while I'm there, going through the treatments, it wiped me out, I couldn't eat, so my body literally just deteriorated over that time. Because you, if you know anything about sort of radiation and chemo, it compounds on top of itself. So of course the first, you know, the first week or the first few weeks and maybe the first month, okay, you're a little bit, but after that it just kept compounding and compounding itself.
Smoke:It doesn't differentiate very well between good cells and bad cells, right? So it's not gonna, it's hitting hard on all Exactly. All fronts, right?
Mark:So for me, totally wiped me out throughout the whole time. And I was just laid up running back and forth, going to the docks. So as a result, while I was sitting in this space, only thing I would think about is, well, by getting past this, I can't wait to go back to Jamaica. I can't wait to get the fruits. I can't wait to eat.
Mark:I can't wait to get in the water. I can't wait to sit in the sunshine and just get healed by the land. And that was sort of the thing that I was looking forward to. And I think it's important to have something just to look forward to as you're going through, essentially you're going through the process and having these things. So for me, once it was completed, and my doctor said, Okay, everything is fine, you responded great to the treatment from the very first week.
Mark:Because every week they would look at the chart and they would be able to see and diagnose and see okay, is it shrinking and things, oh my gosh, she's like, you're, you know, from the very, very, very first week. But that was my thing, is saying okay, what's the reason? And it's kinda like there's a purpose that this occurred. And my thing is, okay, what's the reason? What am I supposed to learn from this?
Mark:And so, as much as I enjoyed the industry, as much as I enjoyed feeding people, as much as I enjoyed creating a space for, just for people to come and give them joy for them to be happy with the food and all those things. I knew that the ten years of sleeping on average three hours a night, sometimes I'm up for thirty six hours and running and doing, you know, you're doing everything and just being concerned about all my contractors, my employees, making sure everyone is happy, that I needed time to just heal myself to get back within. And I knew that I couldn't do that in The US. I knew that the environment didn't present itself. And I knew even from the very beginning why, even when I went to a bath fountain, that they're just, the botanicals in Jamaica offer, you know, like you have the soursop and these are trees and fruits and leaves that's been around and people have been using since ancient time for healing properties.
Mark:So I knew that I needed to be in the environment where I could go get these things off the tree, eat them, eat these fruits to be able to heal from it, to just be able to sit in nature. And so once I was cleared, everything was on hold because we'd moved to Houston but we're back and forth. I did a lot of my treatment in LA because that's where I was diagnosed. But I had to give myself the grace to move to Jamaica, just move out and just immerse myself in the environment. You know, I would come back every few months because, you know, in your first year, I think it was every two months, the doctors, you have to go back and they're checking everything.
Mark:And then once I got past a year, then I think I went to every four months. And now I'm three years out, it's every six months now. So I would come back for my doctor visits, but at the same time it was about just being in the environment. And I think after a year, I think I was a year and a half, I ran a half marathon in the grill. And so the doctor's like, well, what are you doing?
Mark:And I'm like, how, you know, are you healthy? Like, and I'm saying, I'm just sitting in the sun, but at the same time I'm eating off the land. Because essentially when you plan something and the intention is there, you're just able to consume that to nourish and heal and strengthen your body.
Smoke:Yeah, it's so important and it's real. Oh yeah. It's the real deal. And I think you living it, exhibit it, right? But it's, you guys are doing it now which is super cool.
Mark:Right, right, right. So, you know, I'm thankful for it. And you know, often time, you know, I look at my wife and I said, you know, well, it really is a blessing because, you know, you have to go through, sometimes you have to go through some things to get to some place where it was always a plan to be in an island, but I was working myself to death. Yeah, Essentially, it's not sustained, you can't, you know, but you're in it, so when you're in it, you're on this treadmill, you're just going, we've gotta go here, we've gotta get this, we have another, we have to do a thing, we have to open a new location, we have to have this event, we have this movie, we have to cater in for them, we have to So you're just always running and making sure that everyone is taking care of it, but you're not healing yourself. You're not, and that's one of the things I was guilty of during that time.
Mark:I was just making sure everyone's fine, but I never took moment to heal myself to just because
Smoke:Which, which you've, I think historically been pretty good at taking care of yourself, but that was just all in and you lose track. And like you, you just, you're in it to win it. And you've got a lot of people counting on you. Right. You know, you're a lot riding on it and it was doing well.
Smoke:So like the more success created more, more things to do. You open up more branches, you open up the commissary, you open up, you know, you're doing delivery stuff, you're like, you know, nonstop.
Mark:Right, right, right.
Smoke:So, you look at it as, you know, a blessing that caused you, forced you take a step back.
Mark:Right. It it it, how I looked at it is, I'm running, it's as if I was on a treadmill, and someone tripped me and pushed me at the same time. That's how it went. Where it just forced me just to stop. Because otherwise, it wasn't gonna happen.
Mark:Mean, my wife would say, I am daughter back at dad, you eat something. And yes, you think that you're being healthy, I'm doing the best that I can, but at the end of the day, it's not sustainable. Three hours of sleep, two hours, it's not sustainable. Some point in time, you're just gonna, you fall out. So for me, was like I said, it really saved my life.
Smoke:Now will you ever go back to that kind of life?
Mark:No, no, no, no, definitely not.
Smoke:So what's your routine now? Like, give a, give us a little glimpse of like, is a day in the life of of Mark and Katina in Jamaica?
Mark:Well, you know, we have sort of, what we've done in Jamaica after renovating our villa, have like a full service, we have a full service villa that we've provided for Jamaica. So essentially people call us, say they wanna come to Jamaica, and we prepare for them to come to have an authentic experience. We have the chef, we have the butler, they get to see certain things if they wanna to be able to eat the healthy food, be able to go to the farm, to be able to see some sites. So it'll really slow down. So essentially we've created this environment, essentially a healing environment for other people to come, even if it's just for a week or two weeks, just to step back because we don't realize that most of the time when you're in it, you're just going so hard.
Mark:So we provided this space for people just to come down Awesome, And here here we And take off.
Smoke:I know I've been invited a long time, it gets on my list.
Mark:Right, just to come and experience it for themselves, just to heal, to take a step back, drinking the teas and being able to pick the soursop off the tree, to be able to have the guava off the tree, those kind of things where you know it's truly organic. There's stuff that we've grown and then, so we have that and we don't have guests, I'm on the farm. We're deciding like, okay, what we're planting and harvesting different things and drying some of our leaves. So that's really what it's about now, just really understanding like what are the botanicals and what are the purposes and the properties and really taking care, you know, taking care of ourselves from that standpoint. Watching a, you know, literally sitting there watching the bees pollinate and just learning about like, hey, a pineapple takes anywhere from eighteen to twenty four months to actually grow.
Mark:So things that you really, the relationship with food, think is what, we can understand things from an intellectual perspective, but to be there, to put your hands in a dirt, to understand and see and watch and say, okay, well on a full moon, you actually see the leaves pointed upward towards the moon. Yeah. At nighttime, you come out at night, you'll see the leaves and you're like, the first time I noticed it, was just like, wow, the actual leaves are pointed up, where during the daytime, the leaves may be down, but during the full moon is pointed up towards us like the end. So you're seeing things, you may even be seated and we're here like bees flying around, you think they're, I've actually been seated outside on the ground and the bees are just flying around, they pollinate, they're going to the coconut tree, they're going to this tree there, and you're there and they're not even bothering you because they're doing their job. So being in the environment to observe nature and then at the same time to actually, you know, nourish the plant and to fly and watch it bear fruit and to actually consume the fruit and realize the taste of the fruit completely different than actually going to the store.
Smoke:We've gotten so far away from that in modern society. Right. And I guess community gardens are a step in that direction.
Mark:Oh yeah, definitely.
Smoke:Which is kinda cool. I'm excited at our place to have a little greenhouse But that we're working yeah, I think we largely in, certainly in this part of the world, in The US, have separated ourselves dramatically from the actual food production, the actual natural environment where it comes from. And then one of my daughters is, they've gotten really big into the Amish and so they've got the Amish, know, they're producing, you know, all these great, know, butter and milk and meats and things and, know, they're doing it in a kind of a traditional way. Right. Hand done.
Smoke:And that's been really cool.
Mark:Right. Well, you realize, one of the things that we've realized is just through my wife. It takes a little bit of time in understanding some of the processes, but the process for a lot of it is not that difficult. It's just that you have to prioritize, say, okay, I'm gonna take time out to do this. And even just with the, as they call it regenerative farming, but it's what they've been doing for hundreds of years where It's how we farmed
Smoke:until we stopped doing it that way, right? Until it became non regenerative.
Mark:Right, where, like the peeling. So for us, everything compost, everything is completely recycled back into So the skins get thrown back into, you know, and from that it helps to sort of nourish the plant, to nourish your fruits and vegetables. So essentially, I look at it and I said, it's healed me. I can't speak for, I know personally that's my healing because essentially you're there, you know, you're doing it. So, I mean, it really, really, really, you know, means, it makes a difference when you're able to get a proper rest, proper nutrition, because rest was out of the equation.
Mark:I'm thinking I'm doing the right thing by, you know, maybe getting on the treadmill, working out and I'm eating what I think is organic, but it's nothing like actually growing your own, putting the seed and planting it, having your own little nursery and then watering and, you know, creating your
Smoke:own Well, it makes me think, I don't know if you're familiar with Doctor. Moto which is the Japanese doctor who, he's passed now, but he did a bunch of water studies where they basically, there's documentary on Netflix or some place, it's like really, really worth watching because they basically measured that you could put intention into the water. And so like you could literally put love or thankfulness or something beautiful into the water or you could put, you know, hate or some angry word or thing into the water. And then they would basically they would put these intentions and do it and they would freeze the water. And as the water froze just in between freezing and liquid, it crystallizes.
Smoke:Right. And the crystals they could take out and study and the crystals that came from love and thankfulness and beautiful words were beautiful, like symmetrical, like just these beautiful shapes. And the crystals from the hate or angry words or ill intent, bad intentions were all mangally and like what you would expect.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:So that's the water responding to our intentions. Right. And showing you what it gives you. That, are we? We're seventy, eighty, 90% water?
Smoke:I don't know how much, but mostly, we're mostly Water. What are vegetables? What are all the food we eat? I mean, all of these things are responding to the intentions around them. So when you're growing your own food, when you're giving it love and care, you're taking care of the plant and you're, you're doing these things, it responds, it knows it.
Smoke:Right. And when our food is handled in a commercial way with, you know, large industrial equipment, with fertilizers, with, you know, thrown into piles, thrown into warehouses, processed, thrown into trucks, thrown into grocery stores, and then it ends up in a bag in our house. What did it take on? Properties did it take on along the way? You know, it's a real question.
Smoke:And, you know, it's well, it's not a question to me, but it's a real problem in this highly industrialized ecosystem we live in. It doesn't mean it couldn't be fixed. It'd be actually pretty simple to add positive things along the way. Right. You know, I've done it in one of my little clips I did one point, I talked about it, you know, if you test, you do muscle testing or, there's Bodhi, she might have to come join us, but you do muscle testing for things like pesticides or fake sugar, aspartame or whatever.
Smoke:These things are all test negative. They test you go weak on it. And organic sugar or you know, organic vitamin C or you know, fruits, you know, all test positive. Well fluorescent lights, everyone tests negative for that. You could do it, you get a 100 people in a room.
Smoke:And everyone's going to test negative for fluorescent lights. And yet we fill our grocery stores, actually everywhere, but grocery stores are full of fluorescent lights and you're sitting there, it's a negative energy Going
Mark:to the food.
Smoke:On the food and on the people that are shopping for the food. I mean, when is somebody gonna have a grocery store that has natural light or some kind of light that is not a test positive Right. That is actually good for the food and good for the people. Whoever does that is gonna win. Right.
Smoke:Like in the marketplace, like this is actually a real thing. I mean it's kinda interesting, but you Right.
Mark:True, true. Well I just think that because we're so far removed from the food or whatever it is you eat. So, it's so far removed where people don't understand just like what you're saying is that being there you realize that okay, you watch, they go, because I got mango trees. You watch it ripen on the vine. Yeah.
Mark:You take it off. You if you sit it in the house on the counter four days, five if you're lucky before it starts to go bad.
Smoke:Yeah.
Mark:And that's most fruits.
Smoke:Yeah.
Mark:Or vegetables, same thing. Go to the store, buy something, sit it and seize it. I mean, are things sometimes that'll last up to two, three weeks.
Smoke:Because they're putting stuff on it.
Mark:They're putting stuff on it. So then you ask yourself to say, okay, well, if this peach or wherever it is, it's coming from somewhere in Latin America or when is that pick? They're picking it, they're putting some chemical on to prevent it from ripening, then it gets to a warehouse and they may have to put another chemical on it for it to start to ripen in a certain time, and then it's being in a box, it's being transported. So what that doing to your body?
Smoke:Yeah, and look, these things may have been innovations that were well intended. Right. Like somebody was like, well how do we get fruit, fresh fruit to people in Canada, in the North in the winter, you know, and they're, let's get it from South America. Well, is it gonna, how is it gonna survive? And they came up with something, but all these little micro decisions add up to like a really bad ecosystem.
Smoke:Right. I actually saw that they approved some, there's some kind of substance they can put on organic fruit and still allow it, but it preserves the life of it and that doesn't sound right to me.
Mark:Right, exactly.
Smoke:Like something doesn't seem right.
Mark:Because what is that doing to your body?
Smoke:Yeah, that that what is it doing to your body? Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, what can people do? Like, let's just say that most of the peep look, a lot of people watching this might not be in a position to move to a beautiful island in paradise and build a build a villa and grow their own food today.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:What could people do in their normal life to move in that direction? Like, what could they do that to be that would be useful?
Mark:Well, I think it's about the intentionality. I think that's where it starts and just really focus on your life and say, okay, are you living the life that you wanna live in the way that you wanna do it? Because what happens that oftentimes we're conditioned without even knowing. I used to always tell my daughter and say, okay, are your thoughts your own thoughts? Because we have so many things that's bombarding us.
Mark:So a lot of us think that, okay, I'm this age, I'm supposed to be here, I'm supposed to do this, I'm supposed to have that, I'm supposed to do all these things. And so what happens, your decisions are now forcing because you're not even conscious about it. You see a new thing on TV, oh, a new thing now pop up on the phone, I need to buy that, which means I need to work additional hours, I need to do all these things. And so, however, just like myself, and I was guilty of it and saying, you know, I have to get this, I have to do this, so, you know, I'm going hard. Like, you know, sleep out, you know, always say, oh, I'll sleep later.
Mark:I'll sleep when I'm dead. You know, that was all I was, I'm just gonna, and then you realize it. So I would say that if you're intentional about the things that you want, the quality of life, in many places now I'm seeing where people, plant a boxes, you know, even indoor, indoor little guy, if you have like a little balcony space, you know, now you can plant stuff and you're, you know, from that, you know, if you're in a state where if it's, you know, some states, you know, it's warmer, you have a little backyard, you know, you set a little guard in the backyard and understand that, okay, well, at a certain time of year, stuff is gonna freeze over, but maybe that's the time where, you know, you plan Yeah. You you most
Smoke:And even even, you know, in a lot of places there are farmers markets. Exactly. You can go find those, they're, you know, usually on a weekend or something. Right.
Mark:Most places.
Smoke:But we used to do it in Ventura, you know, it's California, they've got a lot of great, you know, access to produce if you want it. We do it here in Sedona, we go to the farmer's market and you know, pick up stuff from local farmers and you know, and then when we're not doing that, we're going to natural grocers or whole foods. But you know, those are not that affordable necessarily to everybody. But I think you can pick and choose, even Walmart's got an organic program. Right, right.
Smoke:Which you know, it's gonna be a little more, but it's gonna be potentially a lot healthier. But even growing, I
Mark:mean like you said, you'd be amazed like, especially now, I'm always online looking on YouTube, I see so many people like growing things in their home like potatoes, like in a bag. It's just, you can grow potatoes on your balcony. So, I think there are ways that you can start to do some of these
Smoke:At least, maybe you can't grow everything. Right. You can grow some stuff and supplement it and add to it. Yeah. But even putting good intentions to it, you know, you can put your grocery bags on the table when you get home, take them out of the plastic and literally, you know, give it good intentions.
Smoke:Definitely. You know, if that works with water, it's gonna work to some degree with everything you, everything you bought at the
Mark:grocery. Exactly.
Smoke:I mean, that sounds, might sound a little, little crazy, but it's real. No, it's real. Yeah.
Mark:Like you're saying, it's about being, having intention with every aspect of your life. Yeah. But trying to take a step back and just for a moment, you know, so those are the things that I used to incorporate, but not now, definitely more because I've given myself the time and I understand that if I'm so busy trying to accomplish so many things, I'm no good if I'm not around for my family. Yeah. So it defeats the purpose.
Mark:I'm trying to accomplish something.
Smoke:Well, and you divide your energy, right? What I, because you know, I'm, you know, been serial entrepreneur and done, I've been in those shoes with you.
Mark:Exactly.
Smoke:Doing the same thing, around the clock, building companies, doing stuff, having a lot of demands and never saying no. Like just like, yeah, can do it, I
Mark:can do it, I can do Say yes and figure it out.
Smoke:And what happens is our energy is divided and yeah, you can do it and you can sometimes, some people have the ability to do it for a long period of time, but nothing you're doing is that, is getting your full energy And your full you're dividing it across a bunch of things and it's never gonna be the great, the best outcome. You know, it's much better, less is more.
Mark:Exactly.
Smoke:And you know, saying no and creating space for yourself. One of the things we were talking about last night and I thought would be kind of tied to your comment about your daughter and thoughts and you know, those thoughts aren't even yours and all this stuff we're inundated, we were talking about this, right? We're inundated from whether it's television, social media, our friends, our community, you know, everybody's inundating you with their thoughts and their opinions and they're all coming at you in different ways. And a couple of things. One, we are not sovereign, we're not operating in our free will if we don't create a gap between stimulus and response.
Smoke:So, but that is right, it's, you know, someone comes at you, a customer comes at you, they're angry, a, you know, employee, investor, know, someone in your family, and you just respond out of reaction, you are not in your free will. And if we can create a gap between stimulus and response and then choose from what are the best options I have. It doesn't mean you don't ever respond, there might be some anger that is appropriate. Like, person needs to see a little anger. But if you chose to do that because you thought about all the options and you know, this person needs to see that in like, you know, create some space, know, that's different than just hauling off and being angry.
Smoke:And it's so important and it's something that until you do it, until we do it, we are really mechanical, we are animalistic. We're just, you know, doing, responding to whatever's around us.
Mark:No, that's definitely true. But I think, like what you're saying in terms of because it's so much, people are so busy, overworked, their tags, it's like time. So it's, no one, I think most people are not giving themselves enough time just to have ten minutes, fifteen minutes, just like you're just saying to allow you to just say, okay, well, let me pause, let me think about this, let me respond.
Smoke:Yeah, you can create space, right?
Mark:Like
Smoke:whether it's, even if it's a situation you can say, I need a minute and you can step away, you can go to the restroom.
Mark:You can
Smoke:step outside and walk around the building and come back. You can just pause for a moment, look away, take three deep breaths. You know, just to create a little separation.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:And then you can decide how you wanna respond. In most cases, you don't actually have to respond. You have to respond in a way that's, you don't have to give an answer. You can say, I see why you're upset. Let me think about how we can best help you with that.
Smoke:Or let me think about how I can help you in some way. You can acknowledge the situation without having to give an answer. Right. It doesn't mean you don't ever give an answer but you're not required to give an answer to anybody. Everybody is their own sovereign being.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:And we forget that and society likes us to forget it and all the noise helps us forget it but this is what we're here for. Wake up, wake up, clean up, you know and it's a great life but you have to take your sovereignty back.
Mark:Right, yeah. You definitely have to
Smoke:Well it's the same with health, right? You know, if you used western medicine, you used the latest doctors and best practices and everything else, but you were the CEO of
Mark:your journey
Smoke:to get healthy again, right? Like you took ownership of that.
Mark:Definitely.
Smoke:You know, think it's so easy to abdicate and give our power away, you know, to experts, to a doctor, to whatever. And that's not, that's not the way to do it. The way to do it is take ownership of your own journey, your own health, your own whatever situation. Yeah, tap into expertise. Yeah, find out what they think and then you decide.
Smoke:Right. You decide what matters and how to best go about it. Because you know, you've got higher self looking after you, you can tap into that, but you can't tap into it if you're constantly giving up your power.
Mark:Right, it wasn't, that went back to my reasoning for not telling anyone until literally the day after my last treatment. I was having my last treatment and the doctor said, Mark, you're good. I called my mother and father. I called my father and I said, you know, mom and I said, no, she's upstairs. I said, I have something important to tell you guys.
Mark:I said, and I preface that I'm okay, just know that I'm fine. And I told him first, I said, this is what happened, this is the reason why, you know, I've been kind of elusive over the last couple of months on the phone, but I'm okay now. And he said, well, I said, what's the best time to call? He said, call her at seven because she'll be in her favorite chair, sitting back, kinda relaxed. He said, I'll kinda soften the blow, I won't tell her, but I'll make sure she's in a good position.
Mark:They're on a plane the following day. Yeah. But it goes back to, because it's about maintaining your own power, staying within, understanding that if you have to heal yourself, yes, you're going through the process, you need as much energy focused and directed in one area. You don't need to have it divided because naturally, we're concerned. So I couldn't console my family members, my parents, my cousin, my aunties, wife, everyone while I'm trying to heal myself.
Mark:Because essentially it would be a phone call, calls every day. How was treatment day? How do
Smoke:you
Mark:feel While I just needed to just be within, sit still, go within and focus on that area and see it getting better, see it and just feel within, you know, my entire body.
Smoke:And that's, to me, that's so powerful as an example. And, you know, I was joking about the other day about, you know, when a doctor or surgeon like goes in and cuts something out or stitches, you know, fixes something, stitches you up, they don't say, okay, they're healed. They say, all right, our work is done. Now the body's gotta do the work. Exactly.
Smoke:What is that? It's because all healing happens from within. Right. There's no doctor that heals anyone. They may get something obstruction out of the way, they may repair something that's damaged, but they don't actually heal you.
Smoke:Your healing is coming from a higher source. So, it's really, really important. So it's, I think you, you are a wonderful example of that and just your, the way you've approached your sickness, how you got through it, how you, you know, operated, I think can help other people.
Mark:Right, right, right. Well, you know, I think once again, a blessing from that even before, during and then even after, you know, I've had a neighbor and a few other friends just sort of say, hey Mark, you know, going through the same thing. And the blessing is that I've been able to sort of help whether it's, you know, get them leaves, be able to give some advice. Like a friend of mine, Tom, same thing happened to him and he's like, I'm not gonna eat this. I said, okay, Tom, understand, eat everything you wanna eat, definitely eat sweets.
Mark:Because part of the, you know, one of the things I didn't read, I didn't go online and read anything because once again, same thing. If you go online, your energy's getting pulled everywhere. So I just was kinda, okay, this is treatment, I have to do this, this, this, this, this. And I just followed it, but at the same time, poured the energy back into myself to heal it. But with it, I lost my taste, but they said, the sweets, you would lose it for maybe eight, nine months.
Mark:It took me two years to taste anything remotely sweet. So Well, don't
Smoke:know about I don't know about before, but I saw you eating some McConnell's ice cream that we had shipped in.
Mark:It is back, and I'm enjoying
Smoke:You seem to enjoy that. Exactly. So you got it back.
Mark:I got it back, and I'm enjoying every bit of it. So that's the thing too, you know. I'm enjoying every bit of every fruit, every food, just whereas before, now I'm taking my time. Yeah. Just because we don't realize that.
Mark:I remember when I was able to drink a glass of water, that was a joy because there was a moment I only could get a sip because with the radiation and everything, literally, was just able to just sip water. So the day I was able to drink a glass of water, you would have thought, I mean, I was the happiest man. I was just so happy just to be so, sometimes it takes for you to lose certain things for you to appreciate it. And that's the reason why, like I said, I'm thankful that during the process I was able to enjoy the moment and just understand what was happening and knowing that I had to go through this process but at the same time, there's a, I'm not sure where in the Bible, but there's like a saying that talks about you can't pour new wine into old skin. And so I knew that I had to become someone else for this next journey.
Mark:So that was a big thing. And like I said, going through it, while going through it, it was never woe is me, why am I It was like, you know, I'd be laying there on my side just in a fetal position of like, what am I supposed to learn from this? What is the message? You know, and that was a big part of even just me focusing on healing
Smoke:Well a lot of our sickness is a wake up call. Is what am I supposed to learn from this? What am I missing? What am I not paying attention to?
Mark:And
Smoke:when we're ignoring parts of our being, parts of our self, at some point it manifests into some kind of disease.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:And unless we put our focus on it and try to understand it, don't be the victim, don't be the, woah, why did I get this, what was me, instead it's, what am I supposed to learn from this? What did I miss? What am I doing? What am I supposed change? And which is things like how you approach it.
Smoke:High vibes. We were talking about high vibes and you mentioned something that I thought might be interesting, but you know, you grew up around that. You grew up around like the words, you know, hey, I don't like that, their vibe. Right. Let's do this.
Smoke:And the Rasta guys, Yeah. So like those guys are tapped into something. They're not just like a, you know, a caricature. They're tapped into something, right?
Mark:No, definitely. Well, essentially they've always talked about the vibration. And so essentially, know, understanding that there's a certain vibration that we, you know, that you need to be at. So it's about like maintaining the vibes, your vibration need to be high enough so you can, you know, maintain, so you can just withstand, so you can be able to receive the proper frequency. Then if, you know, anyone that listens to any of Bob Marley music, you would hear me constantly, you know, he's there talking about, it's a natural mystic blowing through the air, proper vibration, you know, what's the vibe?
Mark:So those are the things that, you know, we may know it, but we're running around so busy and it's about like, for me, it was just this forced me to slow down, stop, not slow down, stop,
Smoke:like a
Mark:full stop, but at the same time, look around and say, okay, well, how can I be a better person? But in a sense, how can I help others even more on this new journey in going forward and just being aligned with my vibes and vibing with people on the same vibrational level? Like the both of us, I look at it and say that we've been, you know, we met in a different space, you know, but we connected from the very moment. Yeah. And at the same time, here it is, we've gone through some things over the same time period, and we realize that there's a lot of things from a vibrational perspective, just the way of life, the way of thinking about things that we're in tune in it, within it.
Mark:So it's just, it's
Smoke:one For
Mark:sure, right.
Smoke:Well, think we're, we figured out we're on a common mission. We won't go there today but for sure. You know, it's really important to keep your vibration high we talked about it last night, but like, methods for keeping it clean and even when you have cleaned up and you're in a very high vibrating state as a steady state. Right. We're still inundated with all these negative thought forms and energies that are coming out our way from all kinds of sources.
Mark:Right. And it's worse.
Smoke:And we have to negate them. You have to negate them, like you have to actually say, this is not, I negate any and all false beliefs regardless of where they're from, from, you know, anything I've heard, because like this stuff like accumulates and if you don't get rid of it, your subconscious picks it up and then it starts to believe it. And it's really an important thing. You also can't, you know, I don't want to say can't because I don't want to like, you know, go overboard here but make some kind of crazy health claim. But the fact is like viruses and a lot of bacteria, lot of things can't survive in a very high vibration environment.
Smoke:So as we raise our vibration, you know, I'd be, it'd be overstatement to say you're immune from anything, but I would say you're practically immune from most things.
Mark:Right, right, right.
Smoke:You just don't get it. It just doesn't, it doesn't operate in a high vibration environment, so there's that, right? Right. Like practical things, like you know, it's not just about, you know, the journey, there's some really good things that come out of it.
Mark:Oh no, no, definitely. That's what I look at and I said it was a blessing. Essentially, I don't look at it as, you know, I'm not, in life things happen and my father always said, he's always said to me, he said, Mark, everything in life happens for a wise purpose. In the moment you may not realize it, but at some point in life you will realize why that happened. So that's just always been my life, I've always approached and looked at life from that perspective.
Mark:And even that, you know, helped me from the moment your doctor said yes, and this is what it is, your diagnosis, and looking at it because it's not the thing, it's okay. And that's why it was always like, what am I supposed to learn? And I'm, you know such
Smoke:a great question in every situation, whether it's a health issue, it's something doesn't go the way you want it to go, it's like, you know, whatever it is. A deal doesn't happen the way you want it or you know, you lose something that's important to you, you know, you have a fender bender, whatever it is.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:There's something that we're supposed to learn about. There's something that's supposed to happen keep asking that question, yeah?
Mark:Yep, that's it. What am I supposed to learn from this? So, you know, you learn, you grow, you increase your vibration to be able to have a more fulfilled life, to just to be happy. So, like I said, you know, I have family members that's like, Mark, what? I can't believe you're back there.
Mark:You're in the farm, got your hands in the dirt, you're doing this. They're seeing me, I'm having my machete, I'm chopping a coconut, I'm drinking a coconut water, I'm, you know, chopping, getting the bananas off the thing, and And I'm like, what, my I'm like, and I said, yes, if not for experiencing everything in the past, I wouldn't be able to appreciate this now. So it's just, it's all a part of the journey. Life is a journey and going back to what you're saying in terms of like the power in words and understanding. It's, you know, there's certain words I don't use.
Mark:I don't use the word try because I'm either doing something, I'm not doing it. And if I say something that's not in my alignment, I catch myself or someone says something, my word is always say, that's not my reality. So all you do is like, no, that's not my reality. Because, you know, we're being forced, we're to sort of fit in a box to say, you're this, you're supposed to, you're man, you're supposed to, you're a woman, you're supposed to do this, you're tall, you're to, and so society and everyone kind of put us in these various boxes. And if you like, once you're intentionally, you say, this is what, you know, I'm doing, I'm gonna focus here, then
Smoke:Words matter, thoughts matter, intentions matter. And I mean, look, we don't have to get religious in any way, shape, or form, but the word, like, it started out with consciousness, God saying a word, and then there was light.
Mark:Right.
Smoke:You know, so like, it it don't don't think that's like, like, that's just like some rhetorical thing, like words matter. Right. And our words, whether they're spoken out loud, they're more powerful, but even if they're said inside or said to ourselves, it's why negative self talk is absolutely not, can't be part of your program. Right. It is working against you in every which way.
Smoke:Negative self talk, thinking ill thoughts about other people, all the things that like it's easy to fall into and you may get into a habit, you may have a habit of it, you've gotta clean that up because it all works against you. Anything you put out comes back to
Mark:you. Exactly, so it can't No, come back it's That's why Ross has said, keep the positive vibration. Well,
Smoke:Mark, that's I think that's a beautiful way to to to close the conversation. Thank you for sharing, being a great friend, and and I look forward to more conversations and coming visit you and Exactly, doing it with some mangoes and Coke
Mark:exactly, exactly. Yeah, we, you know, expand the vibes in Jamaica, definitely on the rock as they say, you know, as in Jamaica, we always say yacht. And so when you come a yacht, have you gets a definite positive vibration.
Smoke:Awesome. Thank you. Alright. Appreciate you.