J.R.: [00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome back to One Thousand Gurus with me, your host, J.R. Yonocruz

So today's guest is Andre Malicdem.

Andre is a family member. Born again, Christian.

I have a handful of disclaimers. But first off, I'll say it was a fantastic conversation and I really love and appreciate Andre's vulnerability to share what he went through, all in the first seven minutes of the recording, which must have been difficult to recount the lowest point in his life.

Also trigger warning we get into topics of depression and suicide.

Following that he shares his testimonies of his own beliefs and value systems, particularly regarding transgender people and what he considers okay for romantic relationships.

Some people might not agree with his stance, and that's okay. I don't always agree with the values and viewpoints of the guests on my show.

But I would hope that in the spirit of this show, which is to encourage people to listen with an open heart and mind to the life experiences of others in good faith, because trying to understand others is always a worthwhile endeavor.

That aside, it was such a joy for me to reconnect with them after all these years. And we reminisce on our past shenanigans as we [00:01:00] basically grew up together.

We also talk about fitness, how he became a male model. All of his career paths, and basically just a lot of reminiscing and a lot of good life lessons.

I really enjoyed this conversation. It was really fun to catch up with him, like I said, and hopefully you enjoy this conversation too.

So without further ado, hope you enjoy this episode with Andre.

Welcome to One Thousand Gurus. Andre, welcome to the show. 

Andre: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. 

J.R.: Don't worry. Those were completely by design. I was messing with you. So anyways yeah, welcome to the show, Andre. For those of you who don't know, I would've already read his bio pretty short and sweet. But Andre is my cousin just like two weeks younger, but we've grown up together.

He is kinda like a brother to me. We've been out of touch for a few years, so I asked him to be on the podcast and I'm happy to have him here. His wife is also here in the studio backstage.

And so Andre, just a warmup quick you know, what have you been up to, man? What's the recent happenings? [00:02:00] 

Andre: Well, I do wanna say something to what you said just right now before we go. Yeah. The two weeks thing. I was actually supposed to have been 

J.R.: Right. 

Andre: Born before you. 

J.R.: Yep. 

Andre: But I decided I wanted to stay. 

J.R.: No, God was like, nah, 

Andre: I don't think he's ready yet. I don't think he's ready.

Let's go ahead and keep him a little longer. Anyways a lot has happened in the course of the years of 

J.R.: Because it's been like, it was like what? I say, it was about four years-ish that, you know 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: Kind of outta contact. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: So like when Andre hit me back up, I'm like, happy four birthdays, because usually we, we do like the text or call like happy birthday.

And so the last four years I'm like, okay, I'm saving up all these happy birthdays. So happy birthday four times. 

Andre: Thank you. So yeah. I 

J.R.: appreciate 

Andre: it. Same to, same thing to you as well. We made it happy. Four birthdays. We, 

J.R.: we made it. 

Andre: Of not talking. 

J.R.: Yeah, not talking 

Andre: to nobody. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: But anyways yeah, you know, a lot has really happened in the course of, I'd say, yeah, the four [00:03:00] years that I just kind of just stopped talking to everybody. And it was a lot that was going on in my head.

Mm-hmm. You know, it's also the enemy that, you know, was making me think these things that I didn't never thought, you know, I needed people. I thought the friends that I had were okay, you know, to have all right, I can live the way, you know? I can live without anybody. My family included. I was sadly mistaken.

That was years, year after year. Just got worse progressively. But do you want me to get further into this one right now? 

J.R.: Sure, go for it. 

Andre: Okay. 

J.R.: We're already here. 

Andre: All right. So. Needless to say I went down a very, very dark path for people listening out there. I'm not gonna say too graphically or say anything too graphically, but going into the it's more of the sexual sides of like my sexual orientation. And what happened with that and thinking it was [00:04:00] okay to talk to other, like transgender women's women.

And and dating I say this I didn't know at first. I did have another relationship before, which was a female. Mm-hmm. Yes. Got outta that relationship. It just was a lot to very toxic. Didn't know. It took about a year to get out of that relationship. I didn't know how to, but I finally did.

But I guess after that, that's when everything started to plummet for me, for myself. 'cause then that's when I didn't have anybody at all. I only could rely on myself and my friends that I had. And it I've want I guess what you could, what I can say is I wanted to show people that I was still happy, but I wasn't.

And I would try to do everything for my friends, show the love to them. 'cause that's all I knew, who I could love at least, or that could at least love me back. But it turned slowly started to turn into, I was festering these thoughts [00:05:00] of when, especially when it came around my birthday and when it came around Thanksgiving and about Christmas, new Year's, that's when it really would hit me in those few months.

The rest of the time, I would still go through it. You know, I'd use gaming as my crutch. I'd use GTA RP role play to just kind of hide, you know, and just hide everything from there. And just, I was around a lot of like-minded people that were also going through it. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, that wasn't something good 'cause it just kept me in that same position.

J.R.: Right. 

Andre: But fast forward to relationships. I, you know, I guess social media kind of really, that's another thing. Social media really can persuade things in weird ways that I thought it was okay to talk to another transgender person. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: [00:06:00] I'm not trying to be rude 

J.R.: like romantically. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm.

Andre: And of course I was tricked. I didn't realize it until I was told. And then it was just, I just kind of stepped back and I was like okay. I guess like I'm already, I feel like I'm already like invested.

And then, so I decided to date this person. 

J.R.: Oh, I see, I 

Andre: see. That didn't work out too much longer.

It only lasted maybe like a few months. And then I was like, okay, I gotta, I'm good. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: You know? But anyways yeah, it was doing things that were not right, that I thought it was, you know, that became okay to me. But yeah that's really what it boils down to. But I guess also the final straw of why I'm here now is because of I almost committed suicide. This was the second attempt. First attempt was a little bit pa in the past, but we'll talk about that. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: As we go on. But it I had so many anxiety attacks [00:07:00] to the point where I couldn't even work. I would be at work and I worked for a good company. Dexcom was a biotech company for like diabetics.

But it's just, I would have to stop and I gotta go home. I can't deal with this. And I would be, I would cry and I'm talking about cry and didn't know how to handle it. And it was like getting pushed to the edge of the cliff. And I got to the point where I got to that cliff and I just was like, there's nowhere to go.

Now I'm, I'm just bombarded by all this. This bad energy and what the enemy has been putting in front of me and thinking that the enemy was saying, your family ain't gonna love you and don't, there's no point in going back. Mm-hmm. They're gonna hate you. You know, you know, you're disowned.

That was really what was going on in my head. [00:08:00] Mm-hmm.

J.R.: Like it was your own brain telling you that you were disowned by your family. 

Andre: Yeah. And that's basically just kind of turned into where I was in my room most of the time, crying. But the time when I was looking at my phone, I had my mother's phone number up.

Didn't know she had two phones. But it took me about an hour to get a call, that number. 'cause I had in my head that I was gonna go and jump off the Coronado Bridge. And I was gonna call my mom and tell her that, and I was gonna tell her I'm sorry. And but once when I called her, the first thing when she said, hello, like very confused 'cause she didn't have this number, and I said, hello back.

But hearing her voice after how many years was like, probably one of the craziest feelings. It just, I dropped my, everything just kind of just came out. 

And I started crying and then my mom started crying and that's when it [00:09:00] became, you know, obvious that she was happy to hear me. But I couldn't, I couldn't do it to myself to go and jump off.

But she, they came down and picked me up and from there it turned into, you know, ref fixing myself and, going to therapy and, you know, whatnot. I'm still going to therapy. I'm still doing a lot of that, which is helping. But yeah that's kind of how the journey started and then finished. Yeah.

For being gone for so long. 

J.R.: Yeah. Dang. That's crazy. Thanks. Thanks for sharing, obviously. And man, five minutes in, we're already deep, so Yeah, we're already 

Andre: deep, 

J.R.: but yeah, obviously for the audience you know, we haven't talked in like prob Well, we'd be caught up, you know, like a couple months ago right when you reconnected and I know you've been like living like near your mom and stuff like that.

Mm-hmm. And so obviously we're happy to have you back and it's nice to connect and thankful that you're here to share your story.

Yeah. Well there's, I have a few questions on what you said before, but maybe we'll come back to it. So now let's completely [00:10:00] pivot and tease all of that for the audience.

But now let's go like, into stories from our past. I wanna do a little bit of reminiscing first before we get into the topic. So we grew up in the Bay Area, right? You know, I lived in Fremont ish, and you were around Hayward. I know, like we all kinda moved around and stuff, but remember how, you know, both of our moms were like working single ish moms.

And so we would go over my sister and I would go over to your house with you and your sister, and then like your mom would watch us and then vice versa, your mom would drop your you and your sister off at our place, and then our mom would watch you guys. So like, we kind of did this sort of back and forth.

Mm-hmm. So our two the, our two duo siblings, all four of us would always like, basically we're like four siblings getting into shenanigans. It was always fun growing up with him because we'd always make fun of Andre for always wanting to eat everything. And then, and then he would cry when we'd take away his food.

He'd be like, no, that's my like, chocolate pie thing. And then we would, my sister and I would just do it just to mess with him. So my sister's the oldest, I'm the second, and then Andre's two weeks younger than me. And then Adrian is a couple years younger, right? Yeah, 

Andre: a couple years. 

J.R.: Yeah. So it was like, [00:11:00] you know, we're very similar in age, but it would always be that thing.

And I guess if you have a story, but I'll tee off mine. One of the things that was fun to mess with you with was like, so we had a strict rule in our household that in Filipino culture there was like kuya, right? Mm-hmm. 

Andre: And 

J.R.: so like when we're younger. If Andre ever calls me, not Kuya or my sister, not ti like if he calls us by names like Marley J or mj and then Jr.

And myself, then like my mom would like go off on him. And it's always like a, it's like respect culture, right? And so I think whenever we would mess with you and then you two retaliate, we'd be like, we uh, JR. And we're like, oh you, what'd you say? So we'd go to my mom, we like mom, what Andre said.

He didn't call me Kuya. And then, then you get in trouble and then you start crying and then it's all just a mess. Yeah. This is like sub 10 years old, you know, we're always young, but. So that was always funny and that's kinda like my impression of Andre. Even though he's way bigger than me now, like I always still see him as like my quote unquote, like little cousin.

But, you know, we're basically brothers. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: So do you have any other fun stories growing up? 

Andre: Oh yeah. A couple. Well, [00:12:00] the, the one where the kiss of the dragon. 

J.R.: Yes. 

Andre: I, I'll never forget that. Stuck in five grade. Ugh. That was bad. That I 

J.R.: was, do you wanna explain that or do you want me to explain it?

Andre: Actually, you know what, I'll, I'll, I'll let you go. Explain this one. Yeah. 

J.R.: So we, so there's a movie called Kiss the Dragon by Jet Lee. And you know, all of us were obsessed with that movie. Like we, we grew up on like these martial arts films, especially Jet Lee. And there was a movie called Kiss the Dragon, where at the very end, climax Spoiler, jet Lee, like has this little pin, like acupuncture pin, and if he puts it in the right point in the back of your neck.

You basically explode, like blood just shoots out of all your orifices. Right. And so Andre thought that was real. And so my sister and I would like, we're like, we're going to like kiss of the dragon. You like put like to the back of your head like a, like a, I don't know, a pencil or something. Yeah. And you'd be like, start crying and screaming, like, oh, stop.

No, don't do it. Don't do it. And so we'd just mess with you all the time, like, we're gonna do it. And you would just like, be bawling. Oh, 

Andre: cry. That's so 

J.R.: hard. Cry. Like, literally cry. Like really hard. Like, he thought that was real. [00:13:00] That was hilarious. 

Andre: That was bad. I, I, I was so scared. I was like, you really gonna kill me?

I was like, 

J.R.: like, stop, stop crying. Rre. We're gonna do it. You would cry more. 

Andre: Gosh. Yeah. That was, that was pretty brutal. But the other one was when we were in Pacifica. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: I don't know if you remember this one. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Andre: But when we were in that apartment over there and one of Adrian went to go to the toilet and had diarrhea.

J.R.: I hope she doesn't listen to this. No, I hope she does. 

Andre: And we were seeing diarrhea, poop, just like that in that cadence. 

J.R.: Yeah. So his little sister, Adrian, right? Use the restroom and then maybe there's like poo or something left over, whatever. So Andre and I would sing in a harmonized like melody, diarrhea, poop, diarrhea, diarrhea, 

Andre: poop.

Just 

J.R.: like 

Andre: that. 

J.R.: She was there crying. Man, this so much trauma. We gave each other [00:14:00] 

Andre: bad trauma. 

J.R.: Kids are assholes, man. 

Andre: Yeah, we are. I, we all are. Exactly. Gosh, man, 

J.R.: I do remember that. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: That was my favorite jingle, man. If my phone my ringtone, I would put it on today. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: Yeah. That's funny. Cool. Yeah. So, yeah, grew in the Bay Area.

And then, so the other thing I wanted to remember is like, so after we graduated, we're both graduated at this point, right? Mm-hmm. So I'd lived in Irvine, called in a group house with my dance friends called Titan Tower. Actually Andy Ho, who was on the show, lived with me. He was one of my roommates.

And so Andre lived in SD at the time, and he would come up for our weekend parties. It was literally weekly parties, like every weekend. Mm-hmm. Our roommates would throw up parties and then so Andre would come up. And you were in the military at this point? 

Andre: No, I was already out. 

J.R.: Oh, yeah. I, I was the military and so it'd be crazy rages and.

This was when Andre was super fit and he was army strong. And so we would always make this joke. I'm like, yeah, let's go army strong. And then during like rage cage or beer pong, they'd be like, army strong, army strong. And then Andre would just take [00:15:00] off his top and he's just like, flexing into playing beer pong.

I was like, yeah, that's my cousin. Let's go. 

Andre: That's crazy. He's 

J.R.: like, full on. Yeah. So then, 

Andre: yeah. Oh, like, oh my God, 

J.R.: Andre, when he was in his male modeling phase 

Andre: Yeah. The male modeling phase. Exactly. 

J.R.: It's, it is so funny because you know, we watched Zoolander growing up, right? Mm-hmm. Zoolander with Ben Stiller and like male models, right?

Oh my gosh. So when, when Andre got into modeling, we're like, you're a male model, blue steel. 

Andre: Oh, it 

J.R.: was ripped, man. 

Andre: Yeah, that was, yeah, that was the time. You know, actually what's so crazy about this photo is during that time I didn't think I was ripped. 

J.R.: Oh really? Oh, 

Andre: I had body dys dysmorphia like crazy.

Mm-hmm. And so I went to this and they told me that, Hey, you gotta go do a. An angel fragrance. Yeah, yeah. Modeling thing. And so I was, okay, I'll go do it. So I went and they had to oil us up and everything and mm-hmm. But we were doing it in the back. We had a half an hour. Yeah. Yeah. Of time. So we just started training.

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: We just were like mm-hmm. Getting a pump on crunches, course [00:16:00] pushups. That's what we were literally doing in the back for 30 minutes. Mm-hmm. And then he was sitting there telling me, I think if I can't, if I can remember his name, I think it was Mike. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Looks like a mike. 

Andre: Yeah. And he was like, dude, you're freaking shredded.

I was like, no, dude, I'm not. Yeah. 

J.R.: I 

Andre: was like, dude, I haven't trade like my ass for like five days. 

J.R.: I'm a sumo man, dude. Like I, I eat crazy. Yeah. 

Andre: Yeah. So, but now when I look at it, I'm just like, what the heck? 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Andre: Like. What, what was I doing? Like how, how did I look that good in my, I'm not trying to, I'm not boasting about it, but 

J.R.: Course, of course.

Yeah. 

Andre: You know, I was like, how did I do that? 

J.R.: You worked hard. 

Andre: Yeah, I really did. I definitely did. 

J.R.: Because the thing I respect about people in shape is that no one is in shape on accident. Genetics does can take you a certain way, but I feel like, you know, we don't come out of the womb ripped and stuff, right?

Mm-hmm. You had to put in the discipline and so that's what I respect about you. What I wanna, what I wanted to ask was like, okay, obviously you know how to get into shape, right? Like TLDR. What was your regimen? What were you eating? Like, how did you structure yourself to get to that point?

Andre: [00:17:00] So a lot of the training I did to get to that Yeah. Was literally calista training, and I'll tell you this. 

J.R.: Yeah.

Body weight stuff. 

Andre: Yes. Body weight training literally, and making us look back. Then funny, the funny thing about it was I was working for America's Tires and Union City. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: So what I would do, it was about six and a half, seven mile distance. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: So I started out I started out taking the train from Fremont's off of Stevenson 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And taking it to Union City. And then work was literally right there, just not even a quarter of a mile. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And I would literally I would go and work and I would throw tires. I would literally get the shipment mm-hmm.

Of 400 to like 600 tires. Damn. Right. And what I did with that was, Hey guys, let me do the shipping 'cause you guys don't wanna do it. Mm-hmm. So let me go ahead and do it. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. 

Andre: That gave me an excuse to train. Mm-hmm. You know, while on the job. So what I did was I would use the tires, I would [00:18:00] lift it, I'd do five reps, and then I would throw it.

J.R.: Mm. 

Andre: I would throw it up in the air. 

J.R.: Oh, easy. 

Andre: Up to the to the second floor. 

J.R.: Oh yeah. Throwing 

Andre: tires second 

J.R.: floor, easy, 

Andre: funny. And I would do that. That was for that many tires. I mean, I'm not even gonna do the math 'cause my math is not that great. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah. You're like, I don't care. I I got abs, man. I don't need to count, count my abs.

Andre: Yeah. And then we would literally we'd be on, in the back, you know, when there was downtime and then the guys would come back there and we're like, let's do a pushup like competition. Let's go. Yeah. And so we would do, do that. 

J.R.: You're like, you wanna play this game? Are you sure? 

Andre: And the juujitsu too.

So one of the guys was always messing with me.

I'm like, let's get back here. Let's roll on the, on the cement. See what you got. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. 

Andre: And I'd choke him out and whatnot. But but that was near 

J.R.: was this, this was af this was after Army, right? Yeah, 

Andre: it was after Army. After Army. Okay. Yeah. But back to that, after I'd get off of work, I would run home.

Instead I would have a backpack with all my work clothes in it had my running shoes shirtless. Shorts. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: [00:19:00] Boom. And just start running. 

J.R.: Well, you have to do shirtless 'cause aerodynamics, you know? 

Andre: A hundred percent. You don't need no drag dude. 

J.R.: Yeah, no drag man. 

Andre: DRS is 

J.R.: a thing. Yeah. Oil up. We just go fast, you know? No friction.

Yeah, so it was crazy because so calisthenics. Right. And I was gonna ask so did you do any like weights or resistance, but like, obviously the tires is weight. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: But did you any other weight based stuff or like, were you ever in the 

Andre: gym at that point? I was in the gym, yeah.

Later. 

J.R.: Okay. Okay. 

Andre: I did everything first. Body weight. 

J.R.: Body weight. 

Andre: I, I would go to Lake Elizabeth in Fremont and it was a two mile run right around that, around it. And I would go like. Three, like three laps around that. Yeah. Four laps. Yeah. And I would focus on someone that was across the way, and I would see that person and I would remember 'em, and I would try to catch that person Oh yeah.

Before they get off. 

J.R.: Yeah. So like about a mile away, you're like, I'm gonna get you. 

Andre: Yeah, exactly. I, I'm gonna come at, I'm going. So I just start pumping it, you know? 

J.R.: Were you focused on speed at that point when you're trying to do those three laps? Or 

Andre: just I was both. 

J.R.: Okay. 

Andre: It was endurance and speed.

J.R.: Okay. Gotcha. 

Andre: I was clocking when I was [00:20:00] tucking my mile times. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: My first mile would be like a five 30. 

J.R.: Damn. 

Andre: And then my, the rest I would slow, I'd dial it back and I would slow it down to like a six 20. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: You know, pace where I was comfortable. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: That's still moving. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: I didn't realize it was, but that's moving.

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And then about about a little bit of almost finishing I would pick it up again just a little bit, you know, to like a 6 0 5 or six 10. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And then at the end when I knew where my ending point was, 

J.R.: yeah. 

Andre: I would start picking it up and I'd start burning it. And I got up to, I think I was at like a five, like a five 15 or something.

Oh yeah. And I'd be a full dead sprint. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: To, to the end. And yeah, I would do that. And then I would do a hundred pushups, three sets to four sets of a hundred in a row. 

J.R.: Okay. Well, 

Andre: yeah. And then air squats. Yeah, I'd do a hundred of those as well. Three to four sets. High 

J.R.: volume. 

Andre: Yep. And then pushups, oh, sorry, I [00:21:00] already said pushups.

Sorry. Yeah. Pushups 

J.R.: again. 

Andre: Pushups again. 

J.R.: Four more reps of come on. Four more sets of a hundred, you know, 

Andre: and then jump rope. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And you did 

J.R.: a lot of jump rope, I remember. 

Andre: Yeah. I loved jump rope. Oh gosh. That's really fun. And yeah, that was pretty much it. And crunches. Sorry. Crunches. 

J.R.: Yeah.

So you're a machine. So really quick, two things. What was the diet like and two, why were you such a machine? What got you so focused and dialed in and, you know, disciplined 

Andre: alone? Again, 

J.R.: being Yeah, 

Andre: just being alone and not dealing with anybody. Just work and go train. Oh, 

J.R.: so you mean like because you were alone, you were just so focused?

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: Oh, 

Andre: okay. Exactly. It was just, I wasn't, 

J.R.: you said nothing else, so, but like, but why training though? Like, you could, you, could it 

Andre: be 

J.R.: games, 

Andre: alcohol? It was something I knew, 

J.R.: yeah. 

Andre: Would. Better me still. 

J.R.: Gotcha. Gotcha. You're like, okay, this is good for me. Be productive with my time. 

Andre: Exactly. 

J.R.: Not really distracted with anything else.

Andre: Exactly. 

J.R.: Gotcha. 

Andre: And then there was someone that was trying to like, talk to me, which was crazy. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: I 

J.R.: mean, I would talk to you if you had abs like that. [00:22:00] Like 

Andre: no. Literally she would sit at the on her balcony with her huskies. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And just be when I'd go train by the pool. Yeah. You know the apartment complex.

J.R.: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Andre: And then I'd be by the pool, just training and then she would somehow come out and then start sitting there the whole time. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: While I was training, I was like, not a focus on the person, but what 

J.R.: a shame, man. 

Andre: Another life suck another lady. Check 

J.R.: them out. Yeah. 

Andre: Was told me about, that's why.

Yeah. I didn't know until the other lady that was older was like, oh yeah. That girl was like checking you out because she kept talk, like when she came over she would talk about you. I was like, oh. 

J.R.: She's like, oh no, please don't stare at my body. Oh, my sub 10% body fat. Please don't. 

Andre: It was crazy. But 

J.R.: What were you eating?

Andre: I was eating. 

J.R.: What was your diet? Like, how did you structure that? 

Andre: I was eating a lot like vegetables, uhhuh, and like more of a liquid diet almost uhhuh and raw, like raw broccoli? Yeah. And cauliflower, uhhuh and just a little bit of hummus or something like that. Yeah. Just to kinda get a little taste.

J.R.: How did you, how did, like where did you get this [00:23:00] diet from? 

Andre: I, on my own. 

J.R.: Oh, you were just like, okay, veggies, like lean protein. 

Andre: Yeah. Fish. 

J.R.: Gotcha. 

Andre: Chicken. 

J.R.: So there wasn't like something you were following, someone told you, you were just 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: Lean and veggies and stuff. 

Andre: Exactly. That's all I did. I just, I mean, I had a decent knowledge should be like, okay, this is what I should be eating.

Yeah. I should be eating beef. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: Should be eating red meats as much. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: Chicken is what's gonna get, be cut. Chicken, fish and, you know, eating a lot of vegetables. Yeah. And having fruit. 

J.R.: Was it difficult to maintain that? So I think the, okay, so from a regular non machine person. Right. Eating just broccoli and fish and chicken and stuff like that is, is difficult.

And so like people are like, oh, but taste and flavor, like, how did you were you just, you didn't care. You're just like, fuck it. Like you 

Andre: just chicken, you know? I got it from someone that was a bodybuilder. I forgot his name. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: But what he said, and this is, and I always, I'll never forget this, he would always say, I don't eat for taste, I eat for function.

And so I just [00:24:00] decided you know what? Okay, I wanna be that guy. Gotcha. I'm gonna eat for function. Gotcha. So it was bland. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So it was the mindset that really just numbed the palette of like, okay, I don't need it to be like so powerfully flavorful. Like I'm just doing it for a purpose.

Andre: Yes. 

J.R.: Gotcha. 

Andre: Exactly. 

J.R.: I feel it. I feel it. Okay, cool. Well, that was a side tangent. That was just for me. But let's see anything else before we move on to our first actual topic? 

Andre: No, I don't think we have anything else really to talk about. 

J.R.: So that's, that's Andre, you know, just throwing tires, you know, running and pushups and making fun of each other and stuff like that.

Mm-hmm. So that's, that's basically my conception of my cousin.

Okay, cool. So let's rewind it back a little bit. So now holistically, where did you grow up? We kind of went over this and like, what were your main influences growing up? 

Andre: My main influences growing up, gosh, racing was one of 'em. 

J.R.: Mm, that's right.

Yeah, 

Andre: yeah, 

J.R.: yeah. 

Andre: Go-kart racing. Go-kart 

J.R.: racing style 

Andre: of lamont's karting in Fremont. Remember that? 

J.R.: Yeah. Mm-hmm. I do remember, I only went like once or twice, but but like you were into like racing video games as well, right? 

Andre: Yeah, I [00:25:00] currently do have a full on racing sim. 

J.R.: I don't doubt 

Andre: that it's, right now, it's in the storage right now.

But we wanna set it back up. Yeah. Soon at some point. Don't know when that's gonna be, so I can't put a timeline on it, but when we do get our house, we wanna set it set up so we can race. And of course the little one she's excited, she's seen it. She's like, oh, that's so cool. I'm like, yeah, I can teach you how to race, girl.

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: But yeah, I think see with that, gosh, racing was just kind of in my blood because of Papa. Mm. You know? Yeah. Papa was racing he was doing circle track racing in San Diego in 1955. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And I was like, oh, so that's where I got it from. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our grandpa like, you know, owned an auto shop.

Like he was, it was my first job, and he's very into like cars and like mechanical stuff and whatnot. Mm-hmm. So yeah. Had big influences, obviously our grandpa. 

Andre: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which I call him, we call him Papapa. Mm-hmm. The way we say it, you know. But yeah, that, that man right there is what kind of like put me.[00:26:00] 

In that type of sport. And man, I loved it. Don't get me wrong. 'cause man, when we went to Lamont's racing 

J.R.: mm-hmm. 

Andre: We were, 

J.R.: you were like, like setting records or something? 

Andre: Yeah, I was fast. Yeah. And I was only in like, God, I was young. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: I was like, near Annie's age, maybe. No, maybe, maybe sixth grade.

J.R.: Pre-high school. Of course, 

Andre: right? Yeah. Pre-high school. Yeah. But 

J.R.: oh, like, so remember we went to church camp you know, on our, like we were like sixth grade or something like that. Do you remember that? 

Andre: Mm-hmm. I remember church camp. 

J.R.: Yeah. Okay. So again, with papa, like, you know, he would take us to church and then eventually at the church that we were at, we went to a church camp.

That went time with us four, I think. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: I remember it was quick tangent and then like, remember one of our church camp leader, like the men who were looking over like our, the boys group. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: Remember he was like. So I wanted to buy a bandana, right? Like I wanted to buy, I red was my favorite color.

And then he's like, no, 'cause he used to be in a gang or something like that. Oh. He's like, no, you guys aren't allowed to buy blue or red. 

Andre: Oh, okay. 

J.R.: And so, we would buy black bandanas, and this is random tension, but I'm like, I think I secretly bought a red one because I'm like, I like red. Right? [00:27:00] But yeah.

Anyways, anyways, so yeah, church camp Papa racing. Sorry, go ahead. 

Andre: Yeah, no worries. So yeah, with the racing, we, it was so funny, but I was so confident, right? That kid like, oh yeah, I'm gonna whoop all these Yeah. All these adults. Yeah. And you know, you hear all the adults, I don't always hear 'em.

Oh man, you're gonna get whooped, man. I'm I'm gonna just, I'm gonna take you on the inside and this and that, and yeah. Y yada, you know, and I'm sitting here looking at him, me and Papa look at each other, right? Yes. That look. And we're like, mm-hmm. He is like, you go get him. Go get him. Show him what's up.

And so we get in there and I start in the back automatically. Just not in the front.

Let them do their thing. 

J.R.: You wanna humble them from the back? 

Andre: Yeah. Humble them from the back. Exactly. And then and lap 'em. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 

Andre: I've lapped them. I think I lapped 'em like four times. 

J.R.: Dang. I would've been crushed.

I would've just gone. 

Andre: They were, yeah. We got off. You know? We got off the track and, and it never fails. Every time, once I got off the track and took off my helmet, they're like, how old is he? Yeah. He just [00:28:00] burned all of us. Like, what in the world? You know? Just, and I'd take different lines, but I was quick.

I'd come around 'em corners and just, I'd find their mistakes and I'd just take, I'd just capitalize on their mistakes every single time. It's a chess game. It really is. Racing is a chess game. It's not about passing 'em right off the bat. It's about, it's you bully. It's called bullying on the track.

J.R.: Oh, 

Andre: yeah. So you, 

J.R.: the psychological part. Yeah. It's like, like a Kobe Bryant playing sort of thing. 

Andre: Exactly. So when you're behind them, you let them know you're behind. You know you're behind them. And you pressure 'em. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: You pressure 'em into mistakes, and then what happens in those split seconds, you know, they're looking, they're looking, and then they miss their breaking point.

Yeah. And guess what? Now I'm taking that. 

J.R.: Right, right. 

Andre: You know? 

J.R.: Oh, 

Andre: so that's really how you race is, it's, you, you basically just, 

J.R.: it's not just technique. It's also like the psychology of the mindset. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: The bullying. 

Andre: A hundred percent. 

J.R.: It's kinda like a, have you watched that movie? Grand dmo?

Andre: Oh yeah. 

J.R.: Yeah. It was good. I have that movie. It was good. I love that movie. I was, I'm not a, I'm not a big racing movie or even racing [00:29:00] kind of guy, but I watched it. I was like, this is a good movie. 

Andre: Mm-hmm. It is 

J.R.: really good. And F1, have you seen F1? 

Andre: Oh yeah. 

J.R.: Yeah. F one's good too. 

Andre: Yep. Yep. The good thing I liked about F1 it wasn't about just racing and winning.

It was the battle within the team. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: You're the teammates and the political side of that. So that's what was so cool about it, because that's literally what happens. On the, you know, on the grid there, there's not, yeah, you might be teammates, but there's only one. There's a number one driver and a number two driver.

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: There's always, it's always gonna be like that. 

J.R.: And then if you like, the ego that gets in the way and the dynamics and like how you work as a team Right. Affects that. 

Andre: Absolutely. Yeah. 

J.R.: Any other main influences? Otherwise I wanna ask about your career and life aspiration trajectory.

Andre: I don't have any really anything else that I don't think so. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: For 

J.R.: we can probably get back to it, like if something comes up. 

Andre: Yeah, I think we could get back to it. Yeah. 

J.R.: We have rapid fire questions.

So in terms of your career, like when I went to college, you [00:30:00] were in the Army, right? 

Andre: Mm-hmm. 

J.R.: And afterwards, you know, you did other stuff, male modeling, you worked at like auto shops.

You did like, you were a bouncer at clubs in San Diego as well. Mm-hmm. And then you also did some streaming for a little bit as well. So I don't know if you had any specific. Parts of those careers, or maybe an overarching perspective of like how your career journey's unfolded or any reflections on where you are today and like where you've come from in your career?

Any thoughts? 

Andre: I was, I'll say this, I was a hot mess. I was everywhere. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: It's, it was just one of those things I didn't know what I wanted to do. You know, and at first I was kinda like, dang, like everybody else is doing this. Mm-hmm. They're doing that. 

J.R.: What did you, so, so when you're at the end of your military, what were you trying to do at that point?

So this was like our early twenties, right? 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: Like what was like your aspirations? 

Andre: Gosh. 

J.R.: Just trying to figure something out or, 

Andre: I was just trying, yeah. I was just trying to figure, figure it out. That's really what was going on. Yeah. I didn't [00:31:00] have a goal. Right. As of now I do. 

J.R.: Right, right. 

Andre: But I didn't have really much.

I was just like, lemme see what I can get into. And so, yeah, just when I was in San Diego, it just was, I was working. You know, bouncing, I was bouncing for a very long time. Mm-hmm. So I gotta see a lot of stuff. And also I, celebrities that we helped out with, or, you know, 

J.R.: oh, Santy tangent. The last guy had in studio, he, he DJ'ed in SD for like the last 10 years.

And he is like, I wonder if I ever ran into your cousin because he would play all these different clubs. And so I feel like you guys are probably in the same circles, but you know, we'll see if you guys ever meet up, if you guys ever met or something like that. 

Andre: Okay. He's 

J.R.: Filipino DJs.

He's been in SD for like most of his life. He only moved up to LA two years ago, but he's like, is 

he 

Andre: tall? 

J.R.: No, he's not tall. He is talking around my high-ish, but he's been in the nightlife scene for a long time. Okay. And so, so when I told him, I was like, yeah, my cousin used to like bounce for a long time in SD and he's like, I don't doubt that I probably crossed paths with him at one point.

Oh, okay. So that was [00:32:00] interesting. 

Andre: Oh, that is interesting. I like that. 

J.R.: Okay. So you were trying to figure things out and so I guess going into your like mid to late twenties to early thirties, like what was that sort of career aspirations like? 

Andre: It was just working. I guess once when we got close to the end of I guess when I basically stopped talking to everybody was when I kind of had a little bit of a career change when it came to working for Dexcom.

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: It was a biotech, it was for for the diabetics. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: So, yeah. What 

J.R.: were you doing there? Like what was your 

Andre: I was just one of the technicians. Okay. I was in the lab, you know, we're making sure that all the sensors were actually going through the machines properly, checking the the grid and looking at, you know, make sure everything's working properly.

So nothing too crazy, it just. Something that was just manufacturing, I guess you could say, manufacturing side of things. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: But that was, that's where I was doing well, but then that's when what [00:33:00] I was saying before, yeah. You know, I started plummeting, you know. But yeah, that's, there's nothing really going on from there.

And then, then I guess moving on from there to slow. Yeah, I just now have a better career change. I don't know if you want to go into that. 

J.R.: Oh, yeah. So I was gonna ask, so what are you doing now currently? And I know you have, you know, career trajectory that you're going towards. Do you wanna touch on that?

Andre: Yeah. So, right now I do, I deal with caregiving. I take care, the Filipino thing, right? 

J.R.: It's definitely a Filipino thing. You're such a stereotype, man. 

Andre: I know. Gosh, man. But yeah I help take care of, elderly also. I work at an elementary school right now with children with disabilities.

Actually, I wouldn't call 'em children 'cause they're adults. Gotcha. But it's add to elementary, it's called the a TP Adult Transitioning Program. But they're not able to obviously live on their own. Right. But it's just kind of like teaching 'em fundamentals, [00:34:00] functions, very simple things that we take for granted actually, you know, that they can't do on their own.

And to us it feels so simple to them it's like just, it's like almost impossible, you know? So, you know, I have to think about that. And like, and, but also it's good work. It's good honest work and it does make me feel good. I'm like, I'm helping. But yeah, it's not the career path I want. Yeah. You know, it's just, it's work and it's good work.

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: At least I am able to do what I need to do. But now, the VA has got everything set up to where I'm able to go to school and they pay for it. And so going, I'm working into, going towards cybersecurity, IT type of work. Obviously I gotta start from somewhere. So, looking at like CompTIA and, you know, learning the language.

So I'm a little nervous. Don't get me wrong. I'm a very nervous about it, but you know, as long as I'm just plugging in and plugging away at it and I [00:35:00] should be fine. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: You know, I just, I'm only thinking about it because I have a wife and I have a beautiful 11-year-old daughter that's, you know, she's my stepdaughter.

She's my wife's kid and you know, she done, man, my wife is incredible. Mm-hmm. I'll tell you that right now. 

J.R.: She's not just saying that 'cause she's here, but also 

Andre: Yeah, yeah, exactly. She 

J.R.: actually is. 

Andre: Yeah. She's incredible. And she, she, man, she struggled with having her by herself for like the 10 years.

But I wanna do my best as for, as a husband and as a stepdad to provide that for her that she hasn't gotten. You know, but you know, that's just a little short snippet about that. But that's who I now am working towards. Yeah. I'm making sure that all the stuff I'm doing now is for them, not for me.

I gotta, I can't be selfish no more. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: You know, I can't just go off and do random things on my own. 

J.R.: Yeah, of course, of course. You know? Yeah. I love that. Thanks for sharing. And it's funny because, you know, so when Andre [00:36:00] reconnected back with me and with everyone. He's like, Hey, Kuya, you know, been MIA, you know, stuff like that before we caught up on the phone.

And he's like, oh yeah, by the way, I'm married and have a kid. I'm like, what the f I've not talked to you in four years, and all of a sudden you're married and you have a kid. Which I think is crazy, but I'm like, okay, that checks out. That checks out. But yeah, I'm happy, super happy for you, man. 

Andre: Thank you.

J.R.: So I wanted to ask, so I know we, we got up to some stuff like, you know, how you end up to where you're today and all this other, like disconnecting and reconnecting you mentioned in the form, so you now became a quote unquote full blown Christian.

My main question is basically, you know, we grew up in a Christian household or a Christian Christianity, like we went to church and stuff like that.

How is your faith different from now until what it was before? Like how has it changed? 

Andre: Well, it definitely changed, right? Because when we're kids, we, church is church, right? We're like, oh, we gotta go with mom, we gotta go with dad or grandpa, go to church. 

J.R.: Hey, they had pool and [00:37:00] video games.

They had like PlayStation and 

Andre: that was what brought us, 

J.R.: that was fun. That's what brought us, 

Andre: it was great. 

J.R.: No, you It was fun. 

Andre: Was fun. 

J.R.: They had 

Andre: PlayStation, Xbox, 

J.R.: that's what like our, I don't know where they got that money from, but they had like several Xboxes and PlayStations, like five pool tables. So that was what I looked forward to.

Andre: Oh yeah. I definitely did look forward to that. Yeah. That was one good thing, you know, but you know, when you think about it a lot of the stuff that was kind of learned stayed actually. Yeah. Which is crazy. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: You know? Yeah. I might've I might've. Okay. Not might've. I definitely backslid like absolutely to a different, you know, that I thought it was no returning.

J.R.: Right, right, 

Andre: right, right.

J.R.: What stayed, what, what do you 

Andre: remember what stayed was that one of 'em is God will always love you no matter what. Come as you are, you know? And that, that always stayed. And also, you know, whatever's done in the dark is always gonna come to light. You know, just just if you follow, you know, if you follow, you know, God and everything, you know, [00:38:00] he'll keep you right on that path, but he's always gonna put some challenges in front of you.

Mm-hmm. And man, he definitely put some challenges in front. Especially when I backslid and it was like to the point where it was like, Hey, you're not gonna, you know, if you're not gonna follow, then I guess I'm just gonna have to let you do your thing and then you'll come back though, you know, you'll come back, it might take a while and you might go through what you're going through, which I did.

But you need me. Yeah. You know, I do got actually one little side. Yeah, yeah. Note, right? About the alcohol. When I was driving on the freeway, I was telling my wife about this when we went up to for Christmas. I showed her the area off of 1 0 1. I was we're coming from a I was going to a party in Palo Alto with people I worked with at Google contracted, by the way, not actually at Google.

Mm-hmm. But they had alcohol. Hennessy. That's one thing I will never touch ever again. But I was drinking and [00:39:00] then I was tired and I was like, you know, I'm not, I'm pretty drunk. Let me just go ahead and lay down over here on the couch. Did that, and I thought I was gonna drink water. No, I fell asleep, so I didn't get to drink the water.

I get woken up and they're like, you gotta go. I'm like, looking up. I'm just like, what are you talking about? Yeah. Going where? I, I'm, I'm drunk, dude. Like, I, I can't go anywhere. Yeah. And all of a sudden, like he's said, no, you gotta go, man. I was like. All right. I guess. Thanks, dude. Yeah. Whatever. And then so I left.

J.R.: Damn. That's crazy. 

Andre: Yeah, 

J.R.: you're drunk. Just go. 

Andre: Yeah, exactly. And so, and by the way, don't drink and drive guys. Really don't. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: Please don't. I'm 

J.R.: sure the story does not end well. I'll teach 

Andre: a lesson. It does not. And that's why I'm very big on people like when they're drinking or anything, like stay, you know, you better freaking stay.

Do not drive anywhere. Make sure if your friends are Dr drinking mm-hmm. Make sure, you know, take their keys, let them get mad at you, whatever. But, [00:40:00] you know, in the long run, they're gonna thank you. Mm-hmm. But yeah, so what happened was I decided to just go lay in in the car. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna go ahead and just like, lay down and just sleep.

Dude comes in my freaking window and just knocks on my door, Hey, can you take this guy home? I was like, heck. I was like, wait, what? I was like, you're waking me up. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: So take another drunk dude home and I'm drunk. 

J.R.: Yeah, 

Andre: yeah. You're the only one that's here. And I can, bro. Okay. I was like, that's crazy.

J.R.: Great decisions all around. 

Andre: Yeah. Absolutely. Great decisions. All those people, I tell you right now, you guys suck. Like, that's the worst, worst people to be around. Never be around those types of people that make you wanna get on the road. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: But yeah, I, I was like, okay, I guess I'll take the guy. Yeah.

I felt drunk, but I didn't think I was that drunk until, and it was Henny. That's why I'm saying this. I will never touch Henny ever again. It was three times I've done Henny, and it just did not end well. [00:41:00] But this time was he I opened my windows, put his address in. I go, all right, dude. Good luck.

Literally, good luck. I was like, I'm drunk too, just by the way. Yeah, 

J.R.: yeah. 

Andre: So we were going, and when the wind hit me is when I got really drunk, that's when I started blacking out. 

J.R.: Oh, shit. 

Andre: And I don't know how I got him to his house. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And he was looking at me and he is like, all right, dude, he's, you know, I was like, go inside.

I said, is it okay if I come in? He's like, nah, dude. Sorry dude, I can't let you in the house. Yeah. I was like, dude, that's crazy, bro. 

J.R.: That's that's crazy. 

Andre: I said, well, I guess I'm just gonna sleep out in my car. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: Yeah. He says, dude, I don't recommend you sleep in your car. You're gonna probably get robbed.

I was like, dude, where are we? Where we gonna get come gonna get robbed? What the, so I didn't even know where we were at, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm just like, okay, I'm obviously somewhere not good. Yeah. It's probably the east, east east San Jose maybe. I don't know. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: [00:42:00] But I put my stuff on again and I was like, all right, well it's either do I get robbed or do I just go ahead and start driving again?

J.R.: Great. Great option. 

Andre: Yeah. Great. Great options. Great options. So I decided to drive, 

J.R.: yeah. 

Andre: And get myself home. I stopped on the freeway on 1 0 1 already out of South San Jose, where there's like those golf course along the right side. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: And this is where God actually played here. Mm-hmm. Because I didn't think about it then, but now I'm like, oh my gosh.

As God being, you know, this is, this is like a supernatural situation.

And I was like I stopped and I was like, what is that? What's that in the road? And it was like a figure of a person just there. And I was like, and I stopped and I was looking and I go, I'm confused. And then I came to you again and [00:43:00] I'm like, oh my God, I'm on the freeway.

I need to start going. So I start going again. 

J.R.: So you're stopped in the freeway 

Andre: lane Literally stopped. 

J.R.: Not on the 

Andre: side. Dead stop. Not even on the side, in the middle of the lane. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And this was mind you, at like three in the morning? Yeah, 

J.R.: yeah, 

Andre: yeah. So there's most likely nobody out. And it's the weekend.

Yeah. But that's when the cops are out too. Yeah. So I was telling myself like, Hey, we gotta get going. I'm like looking around like, oh my God. Like is there any cops? Like, I don't wanna get a DUI, I don't wanna go to jail. Yeah. And we finally get into Gilroy. And I told myself, we're not going down First Street. 'Cause First Street is where all the cops sit. Oh, guess what? I go down First Street. 

J.R.: Why? I 

Andre: don't know. I don't know. 

J.R.: Hennessy Brain. 

Andre: Yeah. And I was like, oh my God, I went down wrong street. I told myself not to, and I was like, well, let's keep going. Yeah. There's no point in turning right back around now. Yeah.

So I just kept going, tried to take my time. Before I got ready to get all to the other end of first Street. I don't know what was going [00:44:00] on, but I had a, I just had to turn left, so I turned left and guess where I turned left at? Where? A cemetery. 

J.R.: Oh, okay. 

Andre: And I turned left in there and I kid you not, I stopped and I looked at the cemetery and it just dawned on me, and this is God talking.

And it was just like, and he didn't have to say words. This was just, he was showing it to me. And was like, if you keep doing what you're doing, you're gonna end up here. And that was the last time I've ever drank and drive and or got stupid drunk. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: But yeah, that was 

J.R.: when, what year is, do you remember what year?

This 

Andre: Oh, no, no, I can't say that. I can't say that. Yeah. Sorry. I got still drunk with you guys. Are you? See, this is before 

J.R.: I was about to say, that's why I asked what you this because I've, I've seen you drunk, so, okay. Sorry. Is that, is that end your story? 'cause I had a story too. Yeah, go ahead. 

Andre: Yeah, this is so this is, this happened before 

J.R.: [00:45:00] Lying on my podcast.

Andre: I know. Lying, but I had to think about it. I was like, let timeline, timeline. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. 

Andre: No, not drunk drinking and driving. 

J.R.: Sure, sure, sure. 

Andre: Sorry. But I mean, yeah, of course drank, but yeah, never done, never was stupid like that. I know you didn't let me go to drive anywhere drunk. 

J.R.: Okay, so can I, can I tell you my story now?

Yeah, 

Andre: go ahead. 

J.R.: So, so Aren, so we were at maybe my cousin's house, like, Ate Lani's place, and we were drinking. Family party. Right. And so Andre was drinking his, his hardo out because he, I don't know if it was like you broke up or something about a relationship. Yeah. Because you, you were like crying over some girl, and so you were, you were going fast.

I'm like, oh God, he's gonna get. And so obviously he weighs a lot more than me, right. And so he's already leaning over the car, like throwing up sort of thing. And so I drive you home eventually, right? Yeah. Obviously I'm like sober or whatever. And so I help him up to his apartment. 

Andre: Oh my 

J.R.: God, I remember 

Andre: this.

J.R.: And then, and so, I help him to his apartment and I, and I like put him on his bed. And I'm pretty sure it was you who asked me to take off your shirt or your pants or something, and then you were gonna go crawl to the bathroom to throw [00:46:00] up. And so I'm like, are you sure on me? He's like, yeah, just take off my shirt. I was like, sure. All right.

So I start unbuttoning his, his button up and I, I think I took off your pants. I don't remember I was taking off something. And I'm like, man, this, if someone walked in me just taking advantage of my drunk cousin, think I was going, this look really weird right now. And then eventually I think you got to the bathroom, you crawled there or something. Or maybe I helped you.

And so I remember when I left your apartment, you were basically like laying on the toilet or something. So that's all I remember. And I remember we talked about this afterwards, right? Yeah. And I told ti this to, I'm like, yeah, I literally I stripped that guy and I just, after he was drunk and I left him there.

Andre: True dog. Confused. What, 

J.R.: what did 

Andre: I do 

J.R.: to, I, what did, dude, why am my shirt missing? You told me to take off your shirt. I swear. 

Andre: That's funny. Actually, so. To go off of that. It was, it was a girl that I was still having issues with. Yeah. Yeah. It was a bad relationship still. This is the one that was in, I was in the military, like, yeah, 

J.R.: yeah, yeah.

Andre: And it was just like, even when I was over here, she kept trying to talk with me and you know, I was like, okay, I mean, [00:47:00] well, whatever. But she like cheated on me and did all this other stuff and I would see all the stuff that she was posting and I was like. So what's going on here? But you know, obviously I, my emotions were 

J.R.: Yeah, you're heartbroken.

Andre: Yeah, I was, this is all messed up. I was like, dude, you know. But I'm not gonna talk bad about the person. Yeah. Stuff happened already and whatever. 

J.R.: Of course. The past. 

Andre: That's the past. 

J.R.: I thought it was funny 'cause I'm like, as you were taking shots and you're going, I'm like, oh, this is not gonna end well.

And you just kept going and then at one point you were gone from the party and I'm like, where's Andre? And then I could go outside into the gr not the garage bath in front of the garage and you're just leaning over the car. I'm like, ah, this is, ah, let's take this guy home. Like, 

Andre: oh yeah, yeah. 

J.R.: So anyways, he didn't drink and drive after that, but he still drinks. So just tying up that one.

Okay, anything else on faith and spirituality or how you've changed since then? I know you've had a huge like overhaul and now your life's in a different direction and you refound your faith. Anything else you wanna touch on? Otherwise? That's my last topic before rapid fire.

Andre: So I guess when it comes [00:48:00] to the Christianity, right, being born again, and I'll say this right now to everybody here, that I'm not a perfect person. You know, nobody's perfect. 

J.R.: No one in the Bible's perfect like, man is Jesus, right? Like 

Andre: absolutely 

J.R.: all those guys who are like amazing, we're not perfect.

Andre: Yeah, we're not perfect. You know, it's all about what we put out for, you know, and walking that faith. So yeah, as I said, you know, I'm still working on a lot of stuff. But you know, I want, I'm still walking that, that, that I'm not walking the line no more. I'm on the other side. I used to walk the fence a lot.

But yeah, it's you know, I'll tell you how it actually happened. Actually real quick. So I was going through social media and I was watching a guy then. His name is Kai Sinat, very big, big streamer. He does those Sabbath ons and he raised. Over a million, I think 1.2 million. Don't fact check me, but I know it was over a [00:49:00] million a 

J.R.: lot.

Yeah. 

Andre: Subs. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: And he got all his hair cut off by LeBron. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: That's just a quick little thing on it, but there was a clip that came up and I was working at one of the facilities on a one-on-one. So for the two hours I was just sitting there next to my, you know, client while they're sleeping.

And I'm just like reading my daily devotional. This is when I started reading the devotional reading the Bible. 

J.R.: This is after you reconnected with your mom? 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: Okay. Okay. 

Andre: And I was looking at the, you know, social media, 'cause I'm always on social media. God, I will say this, God finds ways in ev to, to everybody.

There's different ways to get you to God, right. Supernatural things. This one was for me was social media. And just stuff started popping up and. I kid you not, there was something that came up from Kai Sinat that said, God is real and he, you know, all the stuff that happened with him we don't know about.

And he was saying that not [00:50:00] all money is good money. And he didn't take the Nike deal. And I think his Nike deal was like over 500 million. But he had to take God out of it. But he didn't do that. And he said there's, he doesn't know how, but God has done so many things for him to get him to where he's at because he followed his faith.

I don't know where his faith is right now. Mm-hmm. But that was something I think God needed to give to me to show. And that had me crying, literally at work, crying at freaking like seven in the morning.

You know, still dark. I'm still. You know, just whimpering. Yeah. And that's the where the change happened.

And then, 

J.R.: so it was him, his example or his testimony of putting God first is what got to you. 

Andre: Yeah. And being somebody that was an influencer, you know, now I see all these other influencers, like, Brian, I don't remember his name. I'm not gonna say it. And I feel like I'm, I, I'm gonna butcher his name.

J.R.: Sure. 

Andre: But [00:51:00] he's a Christian influence and he's great and I love it. He also went through a similar situation with with suicide. Almost attempted suicide. But yeah, I'm, that's, that's all I gotta say about it. But I'm just very, I'm thankful 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: To be, you know, in faith and you know, God is amazing and you know, you come as you are and he'll fix you.

You know, it takes time. Mm-hmm. 

J.R.: I love that man. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. Happy for you. Obviously happy for everything that where you've ended up and obviously like I think with the spirit of, you know, you're grateful for all the challenges 'cause now it's brought you here to where you are.

Happy to hear man. I'm glad to and happy that you're able to share it with us.

Alright. You're ready for rapid questions? 

Andre: I'm ready. 

J.R.: Yeah, let's go. All right. I might jump around a bit 'cause I know we touched on a lot of these things. Oh man. I mean the first four are like basically what we already talked about, but how about self-inflicted wound?

Do you have a story about something that's gone wrong in your life that's your own fault and you can't blame anyone else that's different from what we've already covered? [00:52:00] 

Andre: Self-inflicting, gosh. Man, there's a still self-inflict. Yeah, I would tell you that right now. This is long and 

J.R.: ongoing. 

Andre: Yeah. I'll tell you this, my wife's here.

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: Communication is probably one of my things that I'm so bad at. And man I, man, I apologize to my wife. I, I, I feel so bad, but there's thing, I'm just, I say stuff and I make things up in my head. As I said, I'm not perfect. And 

J.R.: do you have any examples you can share or No? 

Andre: Gosh man, just thinking that she's saying something, I can't really get into detail of it.

Sure, sure, sure. I, but just, you know, you know, thinking that something else is happening, right. And then really it's not, but I just let it play in my head like that. And then. And I'm talking about simple things, man. I'm, I'm a sensitive dude, I'll tell you that right now. I might be this big dude, but I'm sensitive, 

J.R.: self-aware man, you know?

Andre: And yeah, and, and man, I, [00:53:00] and I'm talking about simple things, right? A kiss. And she's like, I'm just taking my clothes off and I'm all sad. And now I'm, now I'm butt hurt. I'm like, what? What's wrong with me? 

J.R.: That's funny. 

Andre: And so that 

J.R.: you might be what we call your girlfriend. Like 

Andre: you're the I'm the girlfriend, 

J.R.: the girl, you know, that meme on the line.

I was like, oh, the girlfriend que like, I joke with my girlfriend when she asks a girlfriend question. Mm-hmm. Not a girl thing, obviously. But it's more just like a, the sensitive sort of thing. Like, what's wrong with me? Like what? 

Andre: Yeah. And I have to say I self-inflict a lot of them and I feel so terrible.

And my wife is such a, she's amazing, as I say. 'cause gosh, there's things I probably would say to her and she's just like, why? Why, you know, and, and, but she, the thing is, the one thing about her is she lets it, she just lets me just go through it. Yeah, 

J.R.: yeah, yeah. 

Andre: She's like, you know what? I'm not even gonna feed into them, but go over there and do it.

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. 

Andre: And then I come back and then, and then [00:54:00] I'm, you 

J.R.: good? 

Andre: Yeah. And I've, I'm over here crying. Stop. And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to like No, I'm, I'm stupid. Da da da, you know? But, you know, I, I, I just have to say there's a lot of self-inflicting on that one that I, I definitely do. And and I'm Babe, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. 

J.R.: Is on camera. Nice. Like it.

What is, if you could give your younger self advice, what would it be? Or what was the best piece of wisdom you've ever heard? 

Andre: To my younger self? 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: You know, the best advice I would give my younger self is don't. You know, you shouldn't succumb to the ways of the world.

That's what I'll say, because we do that a lot. We enjoy the things of the world, which are usually not good. And 

J.R.: do you have any examples? Like anything? 

Andre: I, I say the best example I'd say is, or general 

J.R.: things, 

Andre: In general, right. Following people, you know, trying to [00:55:00] please people please, you know, wanna please these people in this way, you know, I wanna show it.

But why you shouldn't, you know, you should do it for yourself. If you really wanna do that, do it for yourself, not for other people. Because if you try to get, you know, try to get gratification through others, it doesn't work. You know, I have to say that from experience. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm always like, I always wanted people, please.

At times, now I'm gotten better. That now I'm just kind of just focused on what I need to handle on my own. 

J.R.: Mm. I like that. Okay.

In the last few years, what new belief, behavior or habits has improved your life? 

Andre: Gosh. Softball. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: Because I'm getting, look at this. I'm gave quick. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah. If you, 

Andre: you know, if you look at the photo of me with the abs and everything that's, and then six 60 pounds later.

Look at what abs Look at this. 

J.R.: Hey, the guy with the abs is somewhere in there. 

Andre: He, oh, he's in there. 

J.R.: He's in there. [00:56:00] Ate heating. 

Andre: Yeah, he ate, I ate 'em. 

J.R.: Why? What you eat man? You ate a ripped model. 

Andre: Yeah. Guess what? This what happens. 

J.R.: So softball you enjoy 

Andre: it. Softball has been helping me keep me more you know, accountable moving.

'cause I'm helping coaching our men's league because I played softball. I, sorry, softball. I've played baseball. I played little league, so I understand. Currently I play in field right now. I. Shortstop. And then I've been playing first base so far right now. But I 

J.R.: forgot that when you lived in Pacifica, you would play, you played like, was it Little 

Andre: league?

J.R.: Little League, yeah. I remember that. Like I can remember the photos in my head of you, like sitting on the grass and like had like a brown and white outfit or something. 

Andre: Yeah, I played for a couple different teams. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: Yeah. Orioles twins. 

J.R.: Mm-hmm. 

Andre: Mm-hmm. I don't remember the other ones. Yeah, 

J.R.: I I totally forgot that until now.

Yeah, 

Andre: yeah, yeah. I think Blue Jays was the other one. 

J.R.: Oh, okay. 

Andre: But yeah, I played for some little league teams and then I played high school too. But I wasn't an infielder actually. I played catcher. Okay. Yeah, I was a catcher and pitcher and that was one of the positions I definitely played. But yeah, it kept me that's right now the [00:57:00] habit it's a good habit that I have motorcycles, my other hobby, which I love, but that's another thing.

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.

How do you define success? 

Andre: How do I define success? Man, I in my own words, how do I define success? And you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think defining success is something that you actually like to do, but you do it to your fullest and forget the naysayers.

You know, do it. If it's something that you like and makes sense to you, do it. Don't let anybody else chime in. You know, 'cause it will happen. People will chime in and say, no, I think that's wrong. Oh no, you shouldn't do that. You know, then that's that. Then you're not having success. So just focus on what you think is right and you think is, makes sense to you.

If it makes sense to you, then keep going. 

J.R.: What is your favorite recent purchase that's about under a hundred dollars that [00:58:00] has impacted your life the most?

Andre: You actually wanna know what this one is, and this might be this. 

J.R.: You asked for it. 

Andre: You know what? So, and this might sound a little weird to other people, like maybe for people that are single. 

J.R.: Oh, okay. I was like, not that anything we've talked about is not weird 

Andre: for sure. Yeah. But for, for me, my favorite purchases are something I get my wife, and it could be simplest food.

Her, her Red Bulls, she loves her Red Bulls for work, you know, or her I forgot what they call that one. The ones usually for Valentine's Day, like the, all, like the crunchy, nutty 

J.R.: energy drink. 

Andre: R Rache. 

J.R.: Oh, forever 

Andre: Rash. Yes. Yes. Yeah, that thing. The Hubble, literally. 

J.R.: Yeah. Yeah. 

Andre: When I get her those, or like some flowers, something like, and it puts a smile on her face.

It just makes me feel good. So I think those are my favorite. That's my favorite type of purchase is something that I get my wife. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: Makes me feel good. Oh, [00:59:00] you know what? I did get her something. Just dawned on me right now. Yeah. Sorry. I got her some nice coach sunglasses 'cause she was always wanting sunglasses.

She would complain about, oh, I can't see when I'm driving. And then finally I was just, you know what, yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and buy it now since you've been talking about it, but I haven't gotten it. 

J.R.: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you was dropping hints, man? 

Andre: Yeah, the dropping hints. She was actually surprised she didn't think about that.

J.R.: Oh, I 

Andre: see. What, so she, we got to coach. Yeah. And then she was like, what did I say? 'cause I gave her a hint. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: I was like, it was something you always wanted. Did 

J.R.: did she specifically say coach or is that just, she like, no, she likes brand or 

Andre: No. She doesn't care about the brands or anything. That's just me.

J.R.: Okay's 

Andre: a me thing. 

J.R.: Yeah. I'm gonna get you coached. 

Andre: Yeah, 

J.R.: babe. $10. Amazon sunglasses would've been fine, but Yeah. You got, but thank you. 

Andre: Yeah. So yeah, I guess that was a purchase that I definitely, 

J.R.: yeah. That's not weird. That's, that's wholesome and probably very true. Like I, I'm a big proponent of spending money intentionally on things, you know, that are a good spend.

And I feel like on our partners is always a good investment. Right. 

Andre: Yeah. 

J.R.: [01:00:00] Cool. Last one. Favorite books, movies, videos, articles, media, or anything that you share or recommend the most.

Andre: I forgot the name of it. Why did I just forget it? I had the Brain. It's a TV show. Okay. It's beauty. Beauty in Black Beauty. Can I look at it? 

J.R.: I mean, you can send it to me later, but what 

Andre: about the 

J.R.: show? Yeah. 

Andre: It's a pretty intense show. I don't even know how to explain this show actually.

Yeah, it's very so we're in the second season now. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: But the first season it's about this family that has serious money and have leverage a lot of stuff. And they have this com they have a strip club that another guy named Jules, the character Jules. And I forgot the uncle's name or grandpa, but they were running this secretively, like this, strip club that uses females and everything and they, they basically use them as collateral or not use them as collateral, but they use whatever they'd done in life as collateral. 

J.R.: Like blackmail. 

Andre: Yeah, like blackmail and then make them [01:01:00] work. And they had to owe them money, you know, this money back because a guy named Jules, he's a big, you know, he has a lot of pool within like the FBI and stuff like that.

Interesting. So, which was crazy. Yeah. But I'd say the premise of that is, is the character, main character Kimmy, she is a bad chick. And how 

J.R.: bad, like good or bad? 

Andre: Like good 

J.R.: evil. Okay, gotcha. 

Andre: Like the, the girl, 

J.R.: like Michael Jackson bad. 

Andre: Yeah. She, it felt like she was hopeless and then all of a sudden now, like throughout the, you know, the season and how she progressed and her character was ama like, it's crazy.

She's just now became this insane, like just. She's like a brick wall. 

J.R.: Mm. 

Andre: You know? So I don't want to get too much into it. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: But beauty, beauty and black. Beauty 

J.R.: and black. 

Andre: Yeah. Yeah. It's called Beauty and black. Yeah. 

J.R.: Gotcha. Cool. Yeah. That's a good re That's Netflix, right? 

Andre: Yeah, Netflix. 

J.R.: Gotcha. Cool. All right, we are over time.

So let's get to ending questions. So, Andre we end with gratitude. Shout out to my mom. What are you grateful for? 

Andre: Oh, [01:02:00] man. I am grateful for my mother and my stepdad, Danny, for being there and helping me get through what I needed to get through. But also I am grateful for the wonderful wife that I have that I would never thought, which was through Facebook.

And it was through the dating app that I didn't even, I wasn't even going on there for a dating app. It was just for friends. Yeah. 

J.R.: Yeah. 

Andre: We connected as friends. 

J.R.: Gotcha, gotcha. 

Andre: But that was just a quick thing. But I'm grateful for her as well because man, she is, this woman is, as I said, I already said it earlier, she's just.

An awesome, awesome person in general, you know? And and she's made me a better person. I'm still working on myself still, but she's definitely made me a better person, so I'm grateful for them and thankful for them. 

J.R.: Nice. All right. Final ask from the audience or any final takeaways you'd like them to have from our conversation?

Anything we haven't touched on?

Cherry on top. 

Andre: I [01:03:00] don't know about anything that we haven't touched on, but I would definitely say if you aren't someone that's walking in faith definitely look into it. You know, read a little bit of scriptures or maybe talk to someone that's a Christian and you know, but I'll tell you this, God loves everybody, you know, and he has, you know, the reason why he loves us.

Is because he wants us to follow in his footsteps. You know, he's the only one that's perfect. You know, God himself is perfect. And I'd say that you know, God he makes, sorry. He is, I don't know how to say it. I can't explain it. What I'll say about it to kind of bring it back down is come as you are, as I said earlier, and he will help you and he will fix you, whatever it is.

That's what I'm just gonna ahead and just end it off with. 

J.R.: Yeah, [01:04:00] that, that's perfect. Alright, so I'll link your social media, your Instagram handle, so if people can wanna connect or check out what you're up to, they can check that out, right? 

Andre: Yeah, absolutely. 

J.R.: Cool. Awesome. All right, well, I'll do my final sign off.

So thank you guys. Thank you Andre, for being here. I really appreciate it. Thank you. I'm glad we had this conversation to record and share with our family, and then they can laugh at it. But yeah I love this. And so shout out to you, my audience. Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it. Be sure to like, follow, subscribe, all that cool, fun stuff.

Leave us five stars on whatever platform you're listening to. Leave my cousin Andre Love in the comments below. Also, of course, reminder to always be kind to other people, especially yourself, and remember that you can always learn something from someone if you take the time to listen. So thanks for being here.