People Empowerment: Making A Difference In The Community With Toni Patillo

How do you make a difference in the lives of others? In this episode, Toni Patillo, host of the Call Toni Real Estate Radio, joins Rodney Flowers to talk about her philosophy of success and her dedication to people empowerment. Get to know what lights Toni up as she dives into the purpose she found for herself and her constant drive to make a difference in the life of others. Toni and Rodney also discuss adversity and the approach needed to overcome unpleasant situations. Tune in and learn how you can find your higher calling in life and create meaningful change in others by doing the things that are in alignment with your purpose.

—

Listen to the podcast here:

People Empowerment: Making A Difference In The Community With Toni Patillo

I am excited about this episode. I have a very special guest in the studio with me, Toni Patillo. She is an award-winning entrepreneur, a motivational speaker, educator, blogger and the host of the Call Toni Real Estate Radio which is a weekly radio show broadcast in the Greater Los Angeles area on iHeartRadio’s channel, The Patriot AM 1150. Without further ado, let’s welcome Miss Toni Patillo to the Game Changer Mentality podcast. Welcome to the show, Toni.

Thank you, Rodney. I’m happy to be here. It’s exciting.

A woman who wears many hats and has experienced success in many areas of her life. I’m grateful to have you here on the show. How are you doing?

 

I’m blessed and highly favored, very grateful and amazing. I can’t complain, considering all the things that are happening around us. I am fine.

Isn’t that a state of mind? Whenever there’s a lot going on around us, it doesn’t have to dictate how we feel and who we are. To be okay in extenuating circumstances says a lot and it can take you a very long way. Being a person that has gone through a lot of trauma, challenge or resistance in life, it’s okay to be okay when there’s a lot of chaos around. You’re practicing real estate in the Greater Los Angeles area. LA is a very hustle and bustle type of area.

It’s moving and shaking.

You seem to be doing fairly well. You’re sought out by a lot of colleges and universities to speak both in the private and public sectors. I’m interested in your philosophy on life and your philosophy on success.

We're all here for a reason. We all have a purpose. Click To Tweet

First of all, we’re all here for a reason. We all have a purpose. I have a lot of different philosophies. Anything is subject to change. Everything’s in divine order and we’re all here for a particular purpose. From childhood, we don’t necessarily know that. At some point in our lives, some people may or may not discover that they’re here for a purpose and we are here to serve. My philosophy is, how can I help make a difference in the lives of others? It’s that simple whether it’s by selling real estate. I was in the entertainment business and real estate for twenty years. I’m an entrepreneur but at the end of the day, my objective is to make a difference in the lives of others. It doesn’t matter what industry it’s in. I’m going to still have that same focus, purpose and drive. That’s what lights me up.

Why is that? There’s money, fame and power. There are all these other things that excite people and get people going, “I want to have those things.” Why do you feel that as part of your philosophy, making a difference for people is the way to go? What drives that?

I could say what drives it is my parents. My parents were civil rights activists for many years back in the ‘60s. I was the youngest of four. I grew up with my parents when they got very deep into the civil rights movement. I grew up around a family that was constantly working to empower the lives of our communities. People in our community, particularly the African-American community at that time, call it the struggle. We worked to get people through racial injustice.

I grew up in that environment. Ultimately, it’s all about empowerment and empowering people. Empowering those around you. I watched my parents make a huge difference in a community. I did not know this as I was maturing and getting older. I did not realize what an impact that had on me until these days where I’m at now. I’m realizing how much of an impact that experience had on me. My vision and hope are to continue their legacy. That’s what drives me, by making a difference in the lives of many.

Whenever it’s my dad’s or mother’s birthday or an anniversary, that brings back memories of when my parents have made their transition. I will make a post in honor of them on one of my social media handles. Everybody who grew up in that town that we were living in when I was growing up will respond, like and make comments about how much of a difference my parents made in their lives. How much of an impact they had. It warms my heart. They were normal people but they were working very hard to make sure that the community knew who they were, proud of their history, proud of their roots, and knew they could do anything they wanted to do. That was embedded in me from a young age and carried on. That’s what drives me.

The fact that you brought up in race and social injustice, given where we are now as African-Americans as it relates back then when your parents were very active and making that difference, doing activities to cause a positive impact. Where do you think we are now relative to the work that not only they have put in, but Dr. King, the activists that have contributed to where we are now? How would you describe the status or the space that we’re in right now as African-Americans as it relates to that work?

It’s interesting because in the summer of 2020 when we were dealing with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, it is not like it just happened over the summer. This has been happening for many years. What it did for me is it took me right back to the ‘60s. I went right back to where we were. It’s intensified a lot more because of a lot of things and because of technology. We have video, mobile devices, technology which changes the game, but we went right back there. It’s just a little more intensified. We have a lot of work to do. That’s a heavy topic.

What body of work do you think is necessary? You probably have to have a lot of work to do and a lot of work has been done. Let’s not forget. What do you think is the next step here? A lot of conversations are happening now that has happened since George Floyd, but given where we are, what do you think are some of the activities or tasks that need to happen?

 

It starts at home. There’s a responsibility that we have to get more involved with our communities and our families. We have to start at home and work with the idea of empowerment and making sure our kids are aware. Because of technology, there are many things that are out of our control. I don’t have kids personally but I’ve been around a lot of kids. We have a lot of kids in our family. We’ve got to make sure that we are empowering these kids with the right information and this needs to trickle down. We’ve got to get more involved in our communities and if there’s an opportunity for me to go and speak with kids, I’m taking that on. It starts from home, but we’ve got to educate our kids and our people. It doesn’t mean we don’t work on the adults at the same time, but it’s the constant education, even if it’s street education. I’m not talking about just going to college. There’s what we call street knowledge. That’s as valuable as your traditional college education and high school education.

Do you think there’s a lack of economic strength that we need to pay attention to as well? The reason why I ask that is because with all of the protests happening and the movements going on for George Floyd, there’s still this hesitation for change to happen. There were a lot of protests happening and a demand for change at a higher level and political level. There has always been this hesitation. I’ve heard and read articles about, “The reason for that is there’s a lack of economic strength.” We could do these protests but if we were to execute activities that would cause economic strain at a political level or even for businesses, things would happen faster and the change would come. Because there isn’t this economic strength, it causes things not to move so fast or people don’t pay attention as much. What are your thoughts about that?

I have mixed feelings about that because I don’t think it’s about the money all the time. I think it’s all about the mindset. You need to have economics to be able to drive certain programs and certain things, for sure. It is about the development and education of the mind. It’s such a vast challenge that we deal with in these communities and there are many different aspects that are driven by many different factors.

Anything is subject to change. Click To Tweet

I want to get at the heart of when we talk about education. Education is something we need to address. What level of knowledge is missing? Where do we need education? I’m asking because I want to leave here with something that’s actionable to say, “This is a target area we need to go and address.” I want to get involved in my community. How can we solve that problem? Maybe someone reading would say, “That sounds good. I want to be a part of that. Where do I go? What do I do?” We got to be clear because stats have shown that African-Americans are more educated than they’ve ever been. They’re graduating with degrees and all of that, yet there’s still something missing. There’s still a level of education or awareness that’s missing.

I want to get at the heart of that. If we had to single out a certain thing specifically, what would that be as it relates to education? Where would it create the biggest impact at this point? I have my own opinion about where we are. There are a couple of things you brought up about where we are, what’s missing and responsibility. Responsibility is on both sides. There’s a responsibility on our Caucasian race to take some action on some things. I have my thoughts about that, but then there’s the responsibility that we have as African-Americans. Given we’ve been through so much, a lot has happened to us as a race and as a group of people.

I’m the type of person that if there’s a problem, I’m going to go and solve it. I want my efforts to pierce the problem. I want to go directly to what the problem is and put all of my efforts into solving that problem. I want to know, if we were to mobilize as a group of people, what would we do? We have done protests but if you say, “We need to address education,” what would we do? I feel like African-Americans are more educated than they ever been at this point, but do we still need to address high school dropouts or adults that don’t have diplomas? Do we need more people attending colleges and graduating from higher education? Do we feel like that will fix the problem? That’s what I’m trying to get at. When we talk about education, what does that mean?

It’s not just in education alone. It’s a culture. When you have a community, there is transformation. It’s about developing a community whereby you can effect transformation. That’s infused with love, empowerment and healing. Even in the world of arts and music, those kinds of things are very healing. It’s a combination of things. There’s not any one thing. There’s going to be a combination of things that come to play when you’re working on the healing of the community. That’s what we’re talking about. It’s the healing of a race. There’s a lot of healing that is going to be needed for us as a people. In addition to that healing, there’s education, empowerment, opportunities and culture. That’s what we’re dealing with. We’re building and strengthening culture. That comes in a multitude of ways. There’s no one way, but love is at the base of it all. It sounds simple and it is, but it’s powerful.

I didn’t realize we were going to go here and talk about race but it’s one of those things that I think often about in an effort to laud progress and improvement. I think about where we’ve come from, the people that have come before us and have contributed to where you and I are now and what we have. The liberty to do and to be and the voice that we have. I’m saddened and excited at the same time. I’m sad because things like what happened to George Floyd is still happening. I’m excited because we have the opportunities to do and be and say whatever we want. There was a time where we couldn’t have that.

The actions that have come before us in terms of activists and people like your parents, those efforts didn’t go in vain. We’re living the fruits of their labor. As a result of that, we have a responsibility. I feel sometimes that’s where we need more attention because we do need more people in power. When you talk about contributing and making a difference, we need more people on the field and playing the game. If I had to think about strategy, if this was a real-life game and we will play in this game, if I’m an analyst and I’m analyzing the game, I would say, “We got hit and we keep getting hit.” The way we are going to combat that is we need more people in the game. We need more people in higher places with voices speaking and advocating for us. We have positions that we haven’t filled yet. We’re getting outplayed not because of talent. It’s just we don’t have the right players in the right positions.

Everything happens for a reason. While there are all these negative things that have taken place over the years and over time, all of those things have been vehicles for us to grow and learn. We’re still learning, growing and going to continue to. Even watching over 2020, a lot of athletes stepped up and participated in making their voices heard when these things that were being done were blatant. There were a lot of people like LeBron James who stepped up to the plate big time. A lot of people did. It’s because it was just like, “Enough already. This is enough.”

Look at what’s happened with the election. This is the most notorious election where people stepped up to voice their opinion and historically, we’ve never had this kind of activity. Overall, we’re growing. We are trying to make a difference and make this a better place for all of us, but there’s such a huge divide. There are as many people on this side as you got on that side. What do you do? You keep moving and keep doing what you can do within your power to make a difference in the lives of others. Each one of us has a responsibility or should at least take on the idea of being responsible for doing what we can within our power to make a difference in the lives of others, whether that be through education, art, media, technology, spirituality or congregations. There are all these different vehicles that are available to humanity to be able to make a difference.

You talked about purpose. Sometimes people feel that they don’t have that which makes it very difficult at times to navigate life. Why do you feel that it’s important now to have that purpose, have that contribution, and take on the ownership and responsibility to bring your contribution forward?

 

It doesn’t happen for everyone at the same time. For some people, it never happens. They never discover what their purpose is. They go through life, make their transition and never knew what their purpose was. It’s a very individual type of thing but I believe that when you discover your purpose and your genius, this is where the magic happens. First of all, your passion should be commingled with your purpose. Doing what you love and doing it so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you, that’s like being in your purpose and in your genius. One of my favorite things to share with people is that when you are doing what you love, that’s in alignment with your purpose. It’s important because you light up when you’re doing what is naturally gifted and talented for you.

I’m getting at the fact that everyone has something. You mentioned that everything happens for a reason and you’re here for a reason. That’s aligned with your contribution. When I think about everything that exists in the world that’s man-made that is of value and benefit, that was someone’s dream and goal or purpose in life. As a result, we all benefit from it. That shouldn’t be taken lightly regardless of what it is that you feel you’re here to give. You talk about making a difference for people and having an impact on people. The very fact of you bringing it forward can have a profound effect on someone’s life. It could be a matter of life and death. It could be so much struggling or not.

I bring it up because that’s been a motivator for me. I don’t know about you, but it’s been a driving force for me to get out of bed every day. You never know who you can touch, who’s going to hear your story, who’s going to be inspired by that, or some progress that you’ve made that at some point was improbable, but you were able to get beyond the challenge and make that progress. That can inspire people to live another day, take another step and go a little bit further. A lot of times, we do things because of money or materialistic things. Don’t get me wrong. I like having nice things and a little money in the bank. We talk about making a difference and having an impact on people, the bang for the buck is the contribution that you give.

When you have community, there is transformation. Click To Tweet

It’s not about the money. A lot of times, people think that it’s about money. They’re like, “You can make a lot of money over there.” Money is great. I love nice things, travel, nice cars, but when I am in my purpose and my stride and I’m doing what I love to do, I would do that for nothing. When I can do what I want to do and what I love doing, I don’t do that for money. It just happens that I can monetize it and be paid for some of my services.

Several years ago, there was a time when I was working for the money and doing things for the money but then there was a shift. That shift happened when I realized that I was passionate about what I was doing. It shifted when I started helping people get through circumstances, whether it was in entertainment or in real estate. Whenever I was able to help someone get through a circumstance or a situation, whether it was a distressing situation or it was them realizing they wanted to acquire something that was the biggest thing they’ve ever acquired in their life, or an exciting thing that they’ve ever done with their career. That was exciting and fulfilling because I was helping somebody to realize their dream and/or get through a circumstance. I work with a lot of people in the 50-plus real estate market. I work with a lot of older adults. That’s a niche for me. I love working with people who are going through lifestyle transitions. There’s never been a book written on how to get through lifestyle transitions. It’s all about how can I make a difference in somebody’s life? Whether it’s a little baby, an adult or an animal.

At what point in your life did you discover your genius?

I’ve always known what my talents are and what I could do well, but I discovered my genius this year. It’s through a profiling system that I was introduced to. That profiling system has eight profiles that tell you through an assessment. You take an assessment and it spits out a report. It’s 15 or 20 minutes at the most to take the assessment. I could not believe how much information came out of that report that was spot on and nailed me. Once I got clear about what my genius was and was not, then I got all this freedom. All these years I would be struggling with certain things and I never could understand why I was struggling with that. When I got clear about my profile, then I realized that that’s who I am. I shouldn’t be focusing on my weaknesses. I need to be focused on my strengths, genius and natural talents. I was inspired by it that I went off and I got certified.

It’s all about being in your flow and trust in flow. I went off and got a certification to be a flow consultant. I do a lot of consulting and coaching work. I use this profiling system. It has been amazing. I discovered it by going through this system and then now being able to evaluate because you can look at various case studies. With all these different profiles, there are various case studies. You look at these people’s lives and you go, “Now I understand the dynamics here.” That’s what happened to me. It freed me up.

What are some of the pitfalls that prevent people from trusting in flow?

There are some pitfalls. First of all, doing something that’s not in alignment with you. Many times when we’re not in flow. You can feel it energetically because you’re irritated and aggravated. That’s not being in flow. When you are in flow, it’s the path of least resistance. It’s when everything flows naturally like a river and water. Everything is flowing, but when it’s not flowing, a lot of times, we don’t understand why it’s not working and not in alignment. It’s not meant to. The only way I can describe it is when something is not right and not in alignment, you are not going to be in flow.

What are some of the things we could do to get in flow and stay in flow, more importantly?

That’s to stay focused on your genius. That’s what you do to get and stay in flow. To get and stay in flow is to know how to stay and become familiar with who you are. I would invite everybody to take an assessment and find out who it is. That report, when you study it, you will see. A light bulb will go off, and you’ll be like, “Now I get that.” The key to staying in flow is staying focused on your strengths and not worrying about your weakness. You let somebody else who’s got a different profile that likes to do the stuff that you don’t like do, you let them do that. I surround myself with my team. Everybody has done this assessment on my team. I make sure that I’m complementing my weaknesses with somebody else who loves to do that. That way, I’m not doing what I’m not good at or I don’t like to do. Somebody else who likes to do that, that’s what they do.

We talked about purpose and intent. We’re now talking about genius and staying in flow. One of the things that you mentioned was people sometimes can go through life and not find their purpose or their genius and therefore, not find that flow. Do you find that to be problematic in society or within the community? I’ll bring that back full circle. If we were to select or identify an issue as it relates to, “This is maybe a target area in our community we want to focus on,” do we feel that developing individuals who have had that opportunity to identify that genius and purpose changes the game?

 

We need to have that identity. You put that on. It’s almost like walking around naked when you don’t have that. You’re not clothed. You’re not suited up for the day and life. You’re open and you put on whatever. Anything feels good when you’re naked. It doesn’t have to look good. When you can put on what fits you, you can put on the coat, shirt, jeans, pants and shoes that say, “This is me,” you become one with that. It’s a part of you and you are part of it versus, “I’m just throwing something on that doesn’t fit me, but I got to put something on to stay warm.” It has a different feel to it.

I’ll tell you what resonates. When you don’t know who you are, that is problematic. You must get to know who you are. Many people go through life and they don’t even know who they are. They’re living through the eyes of somebody else. They’re living through the visions or the visuals of someone else. They’re living somebody else’s identity.

Also, the idea about who they are.

It’s important for people to get to know who they are. Most people don’t even realize that they don’t know who they are. They’re oblivious because they’re just functioning. They’re out here doing the due and their thing. They don’t know who they are, what their strengths are and what their genius is. They’re not tapping into it because they’re ignorant of it. Let’s call it ignorance. There’s a lot of ignorance out there in the world on all levels and all people. There’s no race attached to it. There’s ignorance globally. Until you make that step into awareness, where you can become aware of who you are, it’s life-changing. I encourage people, get to know who you are. Once you know who you are, then you can go to work. You can do what you’re intended to do. You can fulfill your purpose at that point. They could say God-given or universe, but every one of us has a purpose.

If someone’s reading this and say, “How do I figure that out? I feel like I don’t know. I want to know. How do I know?” What’s your response to that?

They come into my website EmpoweredMindset.com, hit the button that says, “I want to know my genius,” and they can take an assessment. They’ll do a debrief with me and we’ll talk about it. It’s a blast. I love it. This is the most fun I’ve had because it’s enlightening and empowering. People get fired up, because they’re like, “That’s me. I’m a star. I’m a creator. I’m a mechanic. I’m a lawyer.” They look at those things. If you take an assessment and you get a debrief done, the world opens up for you.

Get to know who you are. Once you do, you can get to work. Click To Tweet

You can go through your whole life and no one tells you how cool you are, how great you are, how beautiful you are. It outlines your strengths and the things that are about you that are wonderful. If you don’t hear that, you don’t have the muscle to tell yourself or identify those for yourself, then you’ll go through life believing that, “There’s nothing to me. I’m just a person. I’m here. I can’t contribute to anything because I don’t know anything about myself worth contributing. No one ever told me that.” It’s funny because especially as adults, we think sometimes that that is something for kids. Kids know who they are when they’re kids. They know exactly what’s good. This is a problem more so for adults rather than kids. Kids don’t have a problem with identity.

Kids are pure and fearless. They roll. It’s, after all, we go through this stuff when we’re coming up and whatever we’re going through in society and at home. We all end up confused. By the time we get to where we’re going, we’re all affected. It’s important for us to go back to the basics and get familiar. Use these tools. We’ve got many tools. To be in an environment like where we are now, you have got to work with self-development and empowerment tools. Every day, you’ve got to work on yourself to even step out there and be in the space of what is going on if you’re going to have any sanity or peace of mind. You can’t not work on yourself. Those who are not working on themselves are going to be struggling with everything that’s going on.

There’s a good book. It’s called Humility is the New Smart. It talks about life in the smart machine age. It’s describing how we’re going to have a high reliance on machines to do routine tasks. The tasks that human beings will be more known for like the high-paying jobs, the demand will be for some of those skills that you’re talking about. The self-awareness, skills, collaboration, team building, leadership, and being able to engage and interact with people and not just doing routine tasks.

The tasks that are going to be in high demand require you to have a high sense of self-awareness to be in tune with yourself and who you are as an individual. It’s going to be the fundamental prerequisite for a lot of these positions. Even as an entrepreneur, if you decide to do your own thing, you’re still going to be dealing with people that have that high sense of awareness. There’s no way around not developing this part of you, this inner conscious awareness of you, in order to keep up with where we’re going and evolve. It’s going to be part of the evolution of human beings. It’s here now. It’s not something to come. It’s going to be a continual demand for you to operate at this level and have this fundamental self-awareness about yourself to be effective in the community.

It’s a never-ending process of growth, evolution and education. We never graduate. We’re always educating ourselves. We’re always studying more. We have to in order to keep up because the entire world is evolving constantly, every second. We can hardly keep up with it. When you look at China, they’re moving at lightning speed taking over everything. It’s amazing to watch.

Those devices are always listening now.

People say that and nobody believes it, but it’s real. When I started talking about China, now all of a sudden they woke up and said, “We’re right here.”

There’s a system that automatically picks up when you say certain words and it zooms in. It’s always listening. It keys in or certain words that you may say and China may be one of those. Toni, how can people reach you? If they wanted to take the assessment, learn more about you, or hire you as a coach, how can they connect with you?

There are two ways EmpoweredMindset.com, that’s the landing page for the assessment. They can also reach out to Info@ToniPatillo.com. I’m all over social media. My handle is @ToniPatillo on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

Toni, thank you for coming to the show. It’s been a great conversation. It’s great to hang out with you to get to know you and your thought process. I love making a difference for someone else. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone woke up every single day with that on their mind, “What difference can I make in the life of someone?”

How can I make a difference in Rodney’s life?” Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.

You have made a difference in my life. Thank you for coming on the show and sharing your philosophy and your expertise with me and my audience. We appreciate you for that. Thank you for being who you are. Bring forth your contribution.

I’m grateful and I appreciate it.

I would like to ask you if there’s something that you can leave with us, related to how we can change the game, how we can overcome the adversities that show up in our life, dominate our challenges and consistently win. What would be your parting words?

Mindset is everything. It’s important that you work on your mindset daily and stay positive. Constantly infuse yourself with gratitude and positivity. That’s key. That’s how you’re going to get through all this stuff. It’s by changing your mindset and constantly working on your mindset, and starting off the day with gratitude. Be grateful for what you have. You might have a lot of things that you think, “This is wrong. That’s wrong.” I told somebody, “We’re going to look at this from a different perspective. You’re going to be grateful for what you got.”

Toni Patillo, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing with us.

It’s my pleasure. Take care.

There you have it, people. Another successful episode. Mindset is everything. You’ve read it from the words of Toni Patillo. This is one of the reasons why I started this show because I realized the importance of mindset. It doesn’t matter what you go through, how big it is, how strong the resistance may be for you now or in any situation. What is the difference-maker? It’s your mindset towards it. That’s the difference between winning and losing. I challenge you as well, as Toni said, “Mindset is everything.” Work on your mindset every single day. Make it a habit to work on your mindset every single day. Until next time, peace and love.

Important Links:

• Toni Patillo
• Call Toni Real Estate Radio
• EmpoweredMindset.com
• Humility is the New Smart
• Info@ToniPatillo.com
• @ToniPatillo – Instagram
• Facebook – Toni Patillo
• Twitter – Toni Patillo
• LinkedIn – Toni Patillo
• Is Life Knocking You Down? Read Rodney’s inspiring story – Get Up! I Can’t. I Will. I Did… Here’s How!
• Recognize Your Positive Potential – Essential Assertions by Rodney Flowers
• Get Access to Rodney’s Daily Inspiration in your Inbox Today
• Is Life Knocking You Down? Read Rodney’s inspiring story – Get Up! I Can’t. I Will. I Did… Here’s How! https://rodneyflowers.com/get-up-book/
• Recognize Your Positive Potential – Essential Assertions by Rodney Flowers https://rodneyflowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• Get Access to Rodney’s Daily Inspiration in your Inbox Today https://rodneyflowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734

About Toni Patillo