 Well, welcome everyone to our first episode of our podcast. It's Arts So Wonderful and Poetry Pioneer. I'm Candice Owens. And we are so excited to be here today and talk about some things that we've been doing and that we're gonna do. And I'll turn it over to my co-host, Bruce, over here to put together this film. Well, hey Candice, nice to see you. And I'm Bruce Wilson, co-host with Candice Owens from Arts So Wonderful. And we're very excited. And I am very excited to be able to do this podcast with everyone that's gonna be showing we're hopeful around the whole country and possibly in other parts of the world. And we have so many friends around the world and we have so many friends in this country and who are tomorrow, all the things that we're doing Candice Owens for incredible poetry that she writes and reads and presents. And God, I think she's gonna start us off with one but go ahead, Candice, what's first? All right, so good catch there. We need to start out with the poem. So today is the day. Today, everything will be okay. Today, I will see color even if everything looks gray. I will take a deep breath and clear my airway. I will be mindful of all I do and say. I will enjoy each moment and create a new pathway. I am grateful for not going astray. I'm grateful for not getting distracted by the dismay. I'm amazed by the peace I get when I pray. Today, I will let love be my guide and lead the way. Today is the day. Nice, nice, that's nice. I really appreciate you all writing those poems and actually reading them to us all when all give us a uplifting within ourselves and our mind, bodies and soul. And make us feel like we're part of this world and that we're something other than whatever we might think we are other than just waking up each morning and going to work or whatever we do, whatever we do in this world. You know, poetry for me means a whole lot for my life, livelihood, you know? These words are incredible, you know? And one word can help you with your life and your goals in life and help you with your day and just make you feel better as well. And so I think that's some of the reasons why you and I are doing these podcasts and our cable shows is to help people who might need a little word or two or who might want to share a word or two with us and just be a part of what we do and help us and reach others, you know, make the world better. You know, I think that's our goal, it's like... How many times have we said that? So go ahead, Candace Owens. All right, well, we're definitely gonna leave this world better than we found it. I guarantee you that. So that's... I will start out with saying, so we did our first contest, which was really cool. And we had an, well, it's not contest competition. I don't even wanna call it a competition because it's not really competition. We did a worldwide global contest hosted online, I guess, where we had poets that could submit a poem about anything, anything they wanted. And we had a great turnout. And so we're gonna go through that closed yesterday on March the 20th. So we're gonna go through that, Bruce, and figure out what we need to do. And we did this, that we're gonna do first, second, and third place and have multiple winners. Yes. Everybody wins something. Everybody gets something from us. Yeah, everybody's getting a certificate of participation because, you know, that's huge. And when we didn't have global participation, there was people from multiple different countries. So that's super exciting. We're gonna plan on announcing the winners on April 1st or 2nd. I thought about April 1st, and then I'm like, that's April Fool's Day. It's a good day to announce it. So I thought I'd go on with the second just to... Yeah, yeah, let's do that. But so that's kind of the goal with that. And we'll do it via social media, email, Instagram. And then I'm sure I'm gonna try to post it on the Poetry Pioneer website. I don't know if you'll be able to do the same part. Wonderful, but we'll advertise it through where we can. Teddy better put it on our website. Yeah, don't worry about it. And each winner, we'll get to speak on our next pot, not the next one. Yeah, our next podcast. Okay, well, we'll get that. Okay, maybe you sent me the date. Maybe you sent me the date, but I don't know. I think we talked, hold on, I did send it to you, I sent it, it was, let me pull it up. Monday, April the 29th was our goal. Oh, okay. April's National Poetry Month. So that's kind of a good thing that we're trying to do. Yeah, I see it, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, so I'll set it up. That has been, I mean, I'm pretty, I'm really excited about all of it and we're gonna host more of these. This was just the first one. Our next one, I think we're gonna shoot for May 1st and have it open for 30 days. And we're gonna keep it simple, write a poem about faith, you know, like write something. What is faith to you? Is it faith in, you know, you go outside and you're like, the sun gives me energy and I know every day I can have faith in that or is it I walk outside and, you know, I see my, you know, whatever you have faith in, we wanna hear about it and write about it. No, not about it. It means to you. No, that's, thank you for picking that topic because one of the things we wanna do too with Poetry Pioneer and Are So Wonderful is that we wanna have like a understanding about, you know, we have a direction we're trying to follow within and the direction is how can we make ourselves better? How can we help each other? How can we make the world better? How can we live better? How do we feel better? How can we make ourselves feel better? And so, so these are some of the topics that we're gonna be presenting on Candice's incredible Queen Candice, Queen Candice, yes ma'am, yes ma'am. You know, we'll come up with all these topics. Maybe I can think of one or two, but definitely I'm so excited about the faith topic and I think a lot of people gonna, give them something to think about too. You know, what is faith? And like you said, like you asked the question, what is faith? You know, and you know, when you said that, I had to think about, hmm, what is faith, you know what I mean? Cause it means so much to me, it means so much to us and it's just that, wow, faith man, you know, there's faith in so many things, faith in the higher power which is your higher power who wakes you up every day who you consider as your higher power, your God or whomever, but that is your faith, you know what I mean? And you follow by, I mean, you follow the faith that's there, the Holy Quran or the Holy Bible or you know, passages or scriptures and oh, talk about the, I'm so bad, I go off so many ways, but you know, faith could be, it's gonna be a lot of faith in Candice Oren's affirmation book. What's the name of this book again, please tell me. So we, I'm actually almost at the end of it. So soon, I'm not saying, well, it'll be published, coming soon. So it is called the New World Light poetic affirmations to create heaven on earth. So I strongly believe that, you know, our reality is a state of mind, right? So we can choose to see earth as heaven or we can choose to see earth as hell. And so I think that how you start your day and how you start your mind that every morning, even not any time you need that pick me up and it's like, you know what, my thoughts are down here. So I'm hoping that my words can help people transform our thoughts because I know as we've both talked, I've grown, you know, my first one compared to, I'm doing 60 days, right? Cause I feel like 30 days isn't enough so you really need that 60 days. It's been real time. So every day since we have started doing what we're doing, this has been created. So this isn't a past thing, it's real time. So once I get the 60 days, we're gonna publish it and I'm really excited to share it. And so far I did post some advertisements on it, not advertisement, but some stuff just on social media. And I think that the world really needs this right now. So if you are a poet or anything, just we're really excited to share and just anything like that. Yeah, and a wonderful thing about what we're doing is that it's not about us, you know what I'm saying? It's about the people who we serve in theory, you know? And so we're very excited to hear other people's affirmations in poetry and words of wisdom, you know, how excited are we, Candace, about that? You know, because we wanna continue to get better and learn ourselves, you know? And like Candace said, that we wanna have you we have a cable show as well. It's our so wonderful cable show and poetry partner cable show that's coming up. I think I'm changing the date, but we have a cable show too, as well as podcasts that we want you to be a guest on our show. Tell everybody about what is, you know, what's faith to you, what poetry means to you, how words change your life, how you feel good each morning, what makes you feel good each morning, whether you like, you know, you go outside and scream holla, you know? I know Candace go out there and mess with her chickens and her peas and go to walk towards a real pond, that's right there behind her, that's a real pond. You know, just do her thing, you know, make her feel better, you know? She told me a story about her at lunchtime. She go out and look at the birds fly and make, come back in and feel so much better, energetic and ready to go, you know what I mean? We all need these uplifts for ourselves throughout the day. And we're just saying a prayer, you know, we always say pray all day long about to our high park, about how we can make ourselves better. You know what I mean? And pray that please help us make ourselves better and give us the words and guidance and spirituality. And so, yeah. The way you said better, I think is a good way, but I think that what we have, society, we've kind of got away from is being the better version of ourselves than we were yesterday, instead of better than someone else. Like we have to stop and it's, I do it all the time. I mean, I will naturally just be like, oh, well I should be further because this person did that. And it's like, you know what? I'm doing better than I was yesterday. So today is progress, right? Progress is success. And I think that that can be expressed in so many ways and, you know, in so many forms. And it's like, you know what? Just get better, right? No, not about it. If you did something yesterday that when you got done, you're like, you know what? I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that. And if it was right, then that's when you need to think, okay, please let me do better and then do better. No, not about it. And like we say, probably almost every day that anybody, you know, some people like wake up in the morning and they think that just like yesterday, you know what I mean? Same old, you know, same, just that now. But it's not true, you know? Because, you know, yesterday you might have woke up with a headache. You know, today you might not have that headache, you know? And people like, I don't know what's good today. You say, what's good? You know, I'm like, what's good? And they be like, ah, you know, just that another. But the good thing is that you woke up this morning. How good is that? Ask, nothing can beat that in a day if you win $70 billion today. Just so having a lot of these clothes, you gotta wait till the morning. And you don't wake up in the morning to get that $70 billion. What's more important? You're waking up or the $70 billion. You know, so waking up each morning is the best thing that can happen to you. And guess what? You can design your day. How good is that? You can design your day. You can say, today I'm gonna do this. Today I'm gonna feel this way. And then as if you like Candice said, if you go a little straight a little bit, you can use or you can repent or repent. Think about ways that you can make yourself better. And always know that, you know, you're always forgiven for whatever that seem not, don't seem to be right. And that you are, you're a hard part of God's person. You know, we always use the words, Candice, I'm too great to measure it. Cause we are too great to measure. We don't try to put a limit or anything on what our worth is. How can you do it? If you're too great to measure and your bars burst open and your cup overflow as the Bible said, you know, how in the world can you put a measurement on that? Can you imagine your cup just keep overflowing and no matter how much you eat out your barn it still burst open, you know? And you're too great to measure. How can you measure that? I don't go by, I don't measure that. I just know that I just want to keep good, continue to better and all I can do is get better by learning from Candice and everybody in this entire world. And so thank you all and everybody for helping me get better each day. You know, I'm not the best. I'm trying, you know, I make mistakes. And so all day long, I had to forgive myself and then please forgive me for saying that. Like you say, okay, thinking that is weird. You know, we live in a world like, you know, to kind of have us be in certain ways. You know, but we have to remind ourselves that, you know, we're part of a higher part. And when you stay on that narrow path, you know what I'm saying, keep getting better. So where are we now? Where are we at right now on our show? So right now we got to finish. It looks like we're doing good. We got to finish up. Just talking about the second competition there that we're going to have the next one. So we are going to charge an entry fee for the next one, which is going to be $10. But the prizes are going to be bigger. So we're going to offer bigger prizes and the person will also get to be a feature on the cable show and podcast. I don't know about, oh, sorry. Just one of those, we'll fix that. But yeah, I think just we're going to have them on the podcast. And so that's kind of our goal is you know what, part of writing poetry as I've learned through doing this is speaking it too. So, you know, if this comes from you, we want to hear it come out of your mouth and we want you to speak it and we want to share it with as many people as possible and hope that it makes a difference. And so we plan on announcing those results in June and I don't want to go too far into it because I know that seems like so far from now. But we're really looking forward to more competitions and then something that I did do because, you know, I do, I did found in poetry pioneers is an actual company. So we created a GoFundMe page if anybody is interested in, you know, donating whether it's a dollar or anything just to help with our competitions or support travel or anything like that, that would be great because, you know, eventually that would be something I'm looking forward to doing is not just doing this virtually, you know, look thinking big, right? As you said, we're too great to measure. And so, you know, but sometimes when you're first starting out you just need a little help. So if that would be appreciative and then we're gonna, all this information will be on both of our websites, the poetry pioneer.com and artsowonderful.com. And I know, Bruce, I don't know about you but I would love to hear other people's suggestions, you know, like about what they think would be good positive topics that we could discuss that would be, that would uplift humanity, right? What- No doubt about it. Yeah, what could we use? And, you know, just, I like maybe come up with some different giveaways and- Yeah, no doubt about it. And there's nothing too about charging, you know, not actually charging, but adding a, you know, we're not charging nobody, nothing, but adding an interest fee to our contest is all about for the contestants. It's not about us, you know what I'm saying? It's all about how can we make our show and our podcasts and our contestants and everything we do better? So, you know, I know we say we can't, I had to go up against the grain a little bit right here. I know we said, yeah, well, we didn't say it, we just thought, oh, maybe we shouldn't say how many people, how many contestants can I submit it there for you? But maybe we should. It's up to you. Well, I think only because people can probably can understand more a little better why we need to have charger of entry fee and- So we, in less than 30 days, we had over 80 entries. So some of those have multiple poems and it was a very open contest. But saying that, you know, I do work full-time job, I am a mother. And so you also have things outside of that. So it's gonna require a lot of our time set and go through, which we're so excited about. Like we're super pumped about it. But, you know, to be fair, everybody is gonna get the same amount of attention. So whether you're number one or you're a number of thousand in our contest, we are going to set and we do it together like we talked about, we're gonna schedule a time. And it's not us clout, we're going through each individual one, every week we're gonna get that East certificate. So it's individual custom attention. And it's not just for file or likes or social media. This is legit. I've been writing poetry since seventh grade. I've invested money to develop a company. Sure. Word were pumped. And we just wanna, you know, give everyone what they deserve. So. Plus, yes, thank you, Candice. Thank you so much. You know, I really appreciate, you know, all the work you do and all the between work you do as a person, as a mother. And, you know, you know, all the things, who you are, you know, your job and everything, you know. You gotta deal with me, you know. Oh my God. Anyways, so because of the so many entries, contested entries, when we looked at it in a short period of time, Candice and I were like, oh God, we got to, we have to increase the prize money for the winners. So do we increase it to first, second and third? It was just first place winners. Now it was a second and third. We had to do it because it just had to feel right for us. For that, for wonderful people like you to submit your poetry to us, and to appreciate, you know, the work we're doing and helping, trying to help you get yourself out there and in the world and people can read your poetry and you can be on our cable show and our podcast to talk about yourself, you know. What you want, you know, your future. Well, how you see the world. Faith, you know, the light shining bright on you. How are we going to make this thing better here on heaven and on earth? How can we do it? You know what I'm saying? And so it's only fair that we increased the, we increased the prize money, you know, from first place to second and third now. So now we thought, wow, you know, with these many contestants, you know what I mean? That we, you know, we need to really raise some funds and keep it going and keep, have some more prizes, have some, I think we're going to have a giveaway. I think you say we're going to have some giveaways and stuff like that. And so, and not to mention this, the certificate to everyone that participated, you know, who could show to any, hang on their wall and put on their show to their teachers, show to their mother and their family, how, you know, how they've been a part of our poetry pioneer and also wonderful cable shows and a part of our network and how we, what we're trying to do in the world to help people with their ghostries, the inspiration to learn about how to help other people. And so it's a big deal, you know what I mean? And so, so it's only fair that, you know, we all help each other. So, so where are we? Where are we at now? I think we're close to pretty, we were about 30 minutes in. So we've been going a pretty good time now. Yeah, so I think I do, I have one more poem, I'll read it closing. Okay, well, before you read that poem. Let's, so, so I think our next show is going to be, I don't have the confirmation yet, but I just suppose, well, we better wait. I think he said the 29th, right, April 29th, but. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll wait for that. So I know we talk about so much, you know what I mean? It's so, it's so weird. And we talk for hours and days, you know, about the work we're doing with the poetry and all the things that we want to do, how to reach people and, you know, the faith-wise, how can we help this world? Yeah, but let's talk about that a little bit, Candice. You know how the world is going through this devastation. It's going through this, man, it's just like people are killing each other, you know, people are starving, you know, the environment is bad, you know what I mean? It just, it's so sad, you know what I mean? And what we try to do is help uplift people, you know, make the world better in the ways that we can, the ways that we can is help each other, right, around the world, and maybe a good, one word can, I know one word can really, you know, like happiness, I mean, or love, or, you know, be kind, like your poem, Be Kind, you know what I mean? Can help people just feel better, you know, just feel better more than just, you know, drive and, you know, I don't feel like doing it, or, you know, just for themselves. I mean, you know, I don't have all the words, but I'm sure that, so let's talk about the world for like a couple of minutes. I mean, like, what do you think, you know what I mean? Man, I mean, I'm not going to say where we headed because where we figure it's headed is going to be really good if people, my father was a stick, they was, and we have a lot. How many followers do we have, first of all, that can reach us right now? How many what? Followers that can reach us right now. I think I got about 2,000 right now, followers. So, but I do advertise using just basic mechanisms, not basic, but using the algorithms and stuff. And I think in a 30 day period, I reached about 1.1 million. So, and that's worldwide, that's not USA, but that's a pretty big amount, right? That was, that got in front of 1 million people's faces. And it cost me a little bit of money, but I know that in turn, that's helping someone down the road. And I know because it's viewable, right? That means that people are interested, they're clicking. And so it helps, and it's not even about, it's just like, wow. And it's people who will message me frequently, like, thank you for your words, I found your page, everything's so positive, I like the content, I like the, you know, they'll offer, do you want to, you get these messages, do you want to buy followers, do you want to do this? Well, then you end up with junk. I'm like, no, I want real people and real people only. If you follow me, it's because you want to follow me. I'm not paying a third party person to give me fake followers so that I can get more numbers. No doubt about it. It continues to grow, it's been three years. You know, I started out with one, and I don't know, it's like, my stuff falling on my personal page, but it was like, you know, and then here I am. Here you are, here you are, here you are. It's Ken and Dyson Owens, the queen. Green Owens. But it's just, it's clear, I think, as you talk about the world right now, I mean, I can't tell you the last time, I used to, I grew up watching the news every day, so I knew what the weather was like, but to kind of look forward to, you know, that's kind of, and you know, this is a news channel, but I think it's all about what? Not a news channel, this is a podcast, but you know what I mean? It's all about what you choose to feed yourself, and so I choose, you know, I'll turn it on and watch the weather and stuff, but I'm in tune with the world, but I'm also in tune with myself more, and my, as we say, faith or higher power. Like, I'm constantly checking in with how I feel, why I feel that way, is it because of me, or is it because of something I saw, you know, am I sad because I personally had something happen to me, or am I feeling it because someone else is sad, which is totally okay, but at the same time, this world can be so much more than it is, like, and as people were kind of just settling for the narrative we're being told, it's like, yeah, okay, this is what it is, and you know, when people do speak up, they're so angry and aggressive and frustrated, which is all natural, but we need to instead be like, let's take a deep breath and pause. Like, what can we do, like you said, to make it better? Can we buy some land and plant some trees so that we make more oxygen? Can we start each having our own gardens and grown our own food so then we're not having to depend on all the stores for the food sources? Like, is there ways that we can go back to our natural ways, but still be modern? Those are the things I think that we really can look at whether through poetry or just in conversation is those things. And so I hope that we continue to do that as we go, but. Well, you know, one thing is that you have to personally, Candice, you have no choice to make sure things happen the way I suppose you just, you have no choice. You just, you know, you have no choice. You are the light shining bright and you have no choice. You have no personal choice, but I'll be my habit choice, but not you. So you have to continue to do the work you do because you have to, you know, you have no way out. I'm just born for this. Right? You're bred for this, born and bred for this, you know. So you're only gonna get better each day, each moment, you know, and that you share yourself in. Thank you for sharing yourself. People don't understand that you're sharing yourself is with all of us is like so important. They will get it though sooner or later. Now how powerful you are in this world, you know, you really are. But I just got noticed that our time, I guess, we're hitting about close to the 45 minutes. Okay, sure. So no doubt about it. So we can talk forever though. We can talk forever. You know, we can. But you know, so are you gonna put on, you're gonna let the people know about our next cable. So date or a podcast, both right? We will have our next podcast, April the 28th. It will be recorded, but it won't probably be live on the website. 29th, 29th. Sorry, good catch there. 29th, it won't be live for a couple of days, but once it is, it'll be viewable on YouTube and both the CCTV website. I'll upload it to my website too, poetrypioneer.com. I don't know. It's accessible many different ways. And so that's our goal with that. And we were so excited to announce No doubt about it. And read the bookies and figure out. No doubt about it. Yeah. What our next one? So look up our so wonderful.com as well. It'll be on our website too. And so I just wanna thank you, Candice. Are we from Kentucky? And I'm all the way from Vermont, you know, for us doing this work that we do and we love people. And so you can send us out of here. Go right ahead. Okay. So this column is entitled, Can a dream become a reality? Can a dream become a reality? Can it be something we feel, taste and see? Yes, it can't. Manifestation is part of our birthright and destiny. Do you believe me? Having faith and staying positive is the key. Happiness can be found within, there is no fee. Start by self-talk and saying, I will do it instead of maybe. Stand up for what you believe, even if others say you are crazy. This world can be overwhelming and hazy. Take a break, relax and realize you are not lazy. Even leads are beautiful, like the flawless Daisy. Nice, nice. So take us out. All right. Well, I wanna thank you again for partnering with me. Don't worry about it. I am just, I don't know, I can't explain it. I'm full of just even more light and love and positivity when I've seen all of the people. So thank you to everyone who entered and took the time to submit your work to me. It was not me, to us, to every, we are so grateful because it just shows that what we're doing is of service, that what we're doing is needed. And it's so, I guess, pumped to see us grow and do our next podcast and just keep going and only place we're gonna goes up. So just come on with us people. Just keep following our journey and it would be nothing but fun. Right, and just look out for our next contest. What's just, when you start again? That will be starting May 1st and our announcement on my Instagram. My Instagram name is poetry pioneer 2021. You should be able to look me up by that if you wanna follow me on there. But yeah, all of that, we'll have it all on your website, my website. We'll have it everywhere that people combine. So if you wanna connect with us, you should be able to find us one of those ways. Okay, just take us out of here, Candice. All right, may God bless you all. And we're all too great to measure, as you say, Bruce. No doubt about it. All right, have a good rest of your day. Thank you everybody. Bye.