Dancing his way into success, Coach Sebastian Kruse tells us his amazing story

Sebastian Kruse: 0:04

Hey, welcome to another episode of In the Black. This is your boy Dex, and I have this amazing, amazing guest today. And I always say that my guests are amazing, but I've developed this talent lately of finding better and better people for you guys to listen to, get inspired from, and learn from. Now, my guest today, I'm going outside of, uh, America's boundaries, crossing the pond as far as, uh, Sweden this time. Um, our guest hails from a little hamlet called Gothenburg. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. But, um, he comes from a Cape Verdean father and a Swedish mother and his story is amazing. And so without further ado, I'm going to give. My guest a little surprise greeting that I know he wasn't expecting but Sebastian had a more do Yeah, I guess the brother do Yeah, I Know you weren't expecting a little Swedish, but I love it. I love it. I love it. I went to a While I was in college, I worked at this international hotel, and we had this one guy who was an exchange student, uh, Thomas, who's from Uppsala, and, um, you know, speaking to him, I learned a little bit of Swedish, and so, I know, I know how to say, how are you, thank you, and din vittiga lille horunge. You know, that's, that's the extent of my Swedish, man. But, um, yeah, let's keep, let's keep that last part for, for, for another, for another conversation. Of course. Of course, my friend, um, first off, thank you so much for taking the time, uh, to do this. I know it's an absolute honor to be here together with you on, in the black podcast. It means a lot. Fantastic. Fantastic. Um, I, I can't tell your story as well as you do, man. Um, because every time I do, I take myself down this hole of just amazement. And I start to question what, what am I doing with my life? But tell us your story. Tell us about your beginnings in Gothenburg. Something happened with the sound now, Dex. I can't hear you. Uh, you can't hear me? Um, how about now? 1 2 7 8. We're back. We're back. Okay. Okay. Um, tell me about your beginning in Gothenburg. Yeah. So I'm from, I'm Sebastian, or as most people call me right now, coach Sebastian. I'm born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden, in the outskirts of Gothenburg, Sweden. So Sweden is a small country in, in, in regards to the world, right? We have approximately 10 million Uh, in our population, Gothenburg is the second largest city, which has a little bit less than a million. So around 900, 800, 000, I come from a small town in the outskirts of Gothenburg. When I lived there was around 15, 000 people. So I was born and raised there, small town. My, my best friend had, uh, had the chickens and cows. And so really more of a farmer type. Uh, city, even though we, I didn't have a farm, right. But still in the outskirts, very, very much forest lakes, very idyllic. Um, however, I had a Cape Verdean father, which, uh, I saw something I'm extremely proud of, but growing up in Sweden in the nineties, it comes with a lot of racism. Um, I had the opportunity, this is how I see it right now, at least I had opportunity to be faced with neo nazisms. And neo Nazis was, uh, as crazy as it sounds, standard in our, in, in that, in, for a while in that city. So I grew up with that, uh, have stories of, uh, being chased by Nazis, being called, uh, all the, all the, all the, everything you can imagine, everything under the sun. And just being extremely insecure during that part of my life and scared, um, fast forward a couple of years later, I take my best friend and we, we moved to, or we're 19 and we leave Sweden. And ever since I've been out, I lived outside of Sweden for the last, what is that 14 years now? And, um, uh, I. I'm, I speak five different languages, I'm, I lived in six different countries, I, I consider living in a country when you live, when you stay in one place for over six months, that's when I say like, I lived there, uh, I, I traveled to 30 plus, um, and when I, Moved to the third country I lived in, Norway. So I went to Australia first, then I lived in Norway, then I lived in Spain, then I lived in Malta, and now I live in Cape Verde Islands, which is, uh, where my father's from in Western Africa. But when I lived in Norway, I lived together with my dance crew, which is, uh, my career. I became a professional dancer and a professional model and was, that's been my My, my thing for the, for the longest time. Right. When I lived in Norway and when I'm living this perfection illusion, this illusion of perfectionism, I'm going on dates with Miss Norway. I'm having the biggest winter campaign in the whole country. My face is in a hundred plus stores. I'm traveling the world. I go to South Africa, New York, Los Angeles as a model, blah, blah, blah. I'm living this. Illusion of perfection, and then I, I run into a wall and I'm starting to develop panic anxiety attacks, which is something I'm completely new at at this time. I had no idea what this was. Yeah, that spirals into, I'm giving you the quick story now, but, um, that spirals into obviously, uh, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, managed to get myself out of that goes into. I go into coaching. I become a personal trainer. I developed this method where I'm focusing on training dancers, uh, specifically, uh, focusing on sports specific training, but for dancers passed forward. A couple of years later, I'm developing the world's first Afro Latin dance festival. Combined with training, doing that for a couple of years, COVID hits, I moved to Africa where I've now been for about two years. And, uh, I literally just came back from New York earlier this year where I trained, uh, Madonna. So I just had my first TEDx talk. So a lot of things happening, but this is the summary of my life. That is so awesome, man. Um, so I'm assuming you speak Portuguese then, right? I actually speak Creole. So I wasn't raised with speaking, uh, I actually wasn't raised with speaking, uh, Portuguese. But, uh, in, in Cape Verde, that's the, that's the, Portuguese is the, Quote unquote official language, but it's not the common language. So we speak a Creole down here, which is a mixed of African language and Portuguese. So I, when I, when I moved here for about two years ago, I decided to, I want to learn my language first, our African language before, because Portuguese wasn't our language, Portuguese was forced upon us on, um, of, uh, of slave traders. So the colonizers, they forced Portuguese upon us. We never spoke that. And even here in my day to day, I never speak Portuguese. I speak Creole. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for correcting that record, man. Don't worry about it. Cause you can't, you can barely find that information anywhere because it's not an official language, but it's not the same as Portuguese. Yeah. Um, I, uh, I really vibe with how you took. I mean, well, your story is just incredible, uh, and that word is gonna get used a lot, but one of the, one of the things I liked about your story is how you, you chase towards things and not from them, um, you, you got into martial arts. Um, tell me about how you got into martial arts, because I'm going to build up to this and people are going to see where I'm going in a moment. Yeah, so when I was around, uh, 11, 11, 12 is when I took up martial arts. I was playing soccer previously, which is very popular and, um, different types of team sports. But I was, uh, I was first of all, very inspired by the fact of being able to, to, to control your body like that, but also just out of, I was scared. Like, it's very important to remember this. Like I, this is the time when I'm being faced with neo Nazism. Um, I'm being called the N word when I go to school, I start to understand that. Okay. Um, I'm different. I have met like, okay, like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Um, we are the same, obviously, but I don't look the same. I'm getting treated different. Um, so I took up martial arts and that helped me so much in my life. Uh, I started doing taekwondo. Then I went into kickboxing, uh, kept doing that for about seven years and did. Thai boxing for a while. And I'm still, I'm still until today, uh, doing a lot of martial art, but martial art teaches you about yourself and it teaches you to be humble and to not to judge people by how they look because you see people and then you judge them quick. But then when it's time to sparring, which is fighting, right? Like a simulated fighting or controlled fighting, let's call it like that. Then you understand more about yourself. So that was my, that's my quick journey about martial arts. Now, tell me about how you got into the dance aspect. You wanna hear it? You wanna hear the real story? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. So, um, I'm doing martial arts, right? So I'm doing that, and in my head, I'm gonna be a professional fighter. Like, I'm 17 at this time, I've been doing martial arts since I was 11. So I'm deep in it. I'm training twice per day. Some days, every day of the week, I'm going to different cities. I'm winning Swedish championships. I'm a red belt for people who don't know. So a bit more martial art, which is like, I'm, I'm just about to get my black belt, but then I, then I, then a friend of mine. Tells me he's like, Hey, bro, like I'm going to this, I'm going to this dance class and I'm like, Oh, wait, what? Because my mom is a professional dancer. So she, so she has always shown me dancing. So I was, I had, I was always aware of it and I loved it, but I never dared quote unquote to do it because I was going to be a fighter. And then, and then my, my, my, my, my friend, he goes, Hey, and the teacher. She's so hot, bro. I'm like, I'd say, less sign me up. And I went to, and then I went to, then I went to that dance class and then, and then from there it was game over. So I went from doing, and then it was really, okay, but so, now I really start to like dancing. I start to do one dance class a week, and I do, and I do martial arts six days a week. And then that was the first semester. And then it was just a moment where I'm like, I'm so tired of being, of having pain and only training with boys. It makes no sense when I can go and dance, listen to music that I like and. There's only girls, but then, so that's part of it. But then it's also very important to add to this because that is definitely the true story. Like it's definitely true. But it was also the fact that I found a place where I wasn't, I found a place where I could become part of a different culture. All of a sudden, now I'm exposed to African culture. Um, cause I, the martial arts that I did was in my, it was in my small town. So that was, there was a lot of Swedish, which is part of me also. I'm equally as much Swedish as I am African. However, when it came to that, it was like, okay, wow, this feels. I can, I can, I can become myself here. So dancing gave me a place to become myself. But, the initial, my initial start was because I wanted to get girls. Make no mistake. Is that right? It's fun to be transparent. Yeah, hey, that's exactly what I was looking for. Because I, I noticed a couple parallels in your life. Um, but we're gonna, we're gonna definitely get to that. What you mean? He, he, he, um. And a couple times in your story, uh, you've moved ahead in your life simply because you're chasing a girl. Yeah, that's it. I didn't know in the black was going to be a therapy session, but it's good. I like it. It means you're doing your research. It's absolutely true. It's absolutely true. Man, I, uh, I realized, um, You know, a few episodes ago that the more I do research about people, the more I can get into their story and the more my audience can connect with who they are, because you've taken X amount of time to become who you are. And I realize I'm trying to summarize that in an hour long conversation, but I still want to put the essence of who you are into not just what you do, but how the audience knows you. So. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Um, so yeah, research, you're worth the research, my friend. You're definitely worth the research. I appreciate it. Um, I, I want to skip ahead to something that you said, um, because this is really. A big part of growth and I've, I've realized in after hearing what you said, I've taken in and, and kind of absorbed it, uh, within my own and I'm going to quote, and this is coming from a podcast that you did, um, about dance and. You said people think that diet is just nutrition. Diet is everything you consciously or unconsciously take in. What you're reading, what you're listening to, your surroundings, your wa your water. Nutrition is is in food, sleeping, breathing. Tell me about the moment you realize that because I feel like that's something that Business people need to, you know, take in as they encompass everything about their businesses and who they are. Yeah, that's, that's a great question. And when, when I was dealing with daily panic anxiety attacks, I could have up to six of those per day. So I'm, I'm in my room, I'm living in another country. I'm, I'm, I'm literally at what I see as my personal bottom. I'm contemplating suicide. I'm I understand in a sense that I have to do something about this. And then I became obsessed with myself as in like, it sounds egoistic, but it's definitely a personal journey. And I believe a lot of more people needs to do this, but I started really, I tracked. Everything. I tracked how, I tracked my meals, I tracked my thoughts, I tracked how much I meditated, I tracked what I dreamt, I tracked my water, I tracked the conversation I was part of, and then I understood, it's like, okay, but it doesn't matter how much I meditate. If I'm constantly talking negatively about myself, it doesn't matter how much I, how much food I eat, if I never, or how little food I eat, if I'm feeling bad every time I'm eating it. So I believe that diet is everything that you consume. With all of your senses, the energy you're around, the people you're around, the conversations you're having with yourself, which are with people around you, the things you're watching on television. Like I haven't watched a scary movie since, since I was probably around 14, if not younger. Like when, when did the ring came out? The first, the ring, that was the last scary movie I saw. And it's really, yeah, that was a minute ago. So, so it all, it's, it's all comes down to this point of when I was at my bottom, I understood that I have no other way of just, I, I have to be able to get out of this and then I started finding people online that had been going through this. So it's like, okay, wait. So my journey is very unique, but it's very simple. It's other people. Okay. What did they do? Okay. So they really, really started taking care of their. Entire being, because your mental and physical environment is both, it's one, it's one organism, but in the West we're thought to think that, okay, but the mind is one thing and then the body is another thing, but they're very much correlated. I always say that your mental output determines your physical outputs. Yeah, bro. But yeah, as much as that makes sense when you say it, it's so easy, it's one of those things people really do need to hear, they really do. Yeah, but, but don't you think so? Like when, when you are, imagine this, right, because, because you're running your own business and you know how it is, but imagine, you know, the difference when, when some bomb is happening, the unpredicted happens at work and you're like, I got to deal with this, let's get it. And then you deal with it. Yeah. And then the other time, something of the similar effect happens. Oh, like, not again. When it rains, it pours. It always happens to me. You're like, when, when do you think you have the best time to succeed? Right. Yeah. Yeah, this is true. I, uh, I, I don't know if I've ever personally ever had success. Um, I've had glimpses of it. I've had, I've been close to it. I've failed in business many times and, but I've, one of the reasons why I put together this podcast is so I can, I can learn from other people. I can, you know, I'm not trying to highlight millionaires and billionaires. I want to highlight that guy down the street. That's like, all right, I figured out a couple of things. How about, you know, pass this on to somebody else. Yeah. And I love that. I love that about the black podcast because you hear real stories, right. And, and I understood pretty. early in my journey that, okay, the difference between who I was suicidal in the bed in Norway versus the person I am at this very moment. It's just my mindset. I'm the same guy. I just have an understanding of my thoughts. I know how to control them. I practice thought control. I can discipline my mind and that's a practice. So that is. Definitely one of those things where I consider to draw the line in the sand between myself and different trainers or coaches out there, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's, it's, it's crazy because you take that training. I mean, you can literally use that word training or practice and put it in, in various different things. And it's all it is, is practice. It's touches, you know, and I'm explaining this. Yeah, I've explained this to my, um, my son's baseball team. You know, there's kids on the team that, you know, they're not as immediately gifted. I'm like, listen, all you have to do is keep doing it until you get it right, then take a break and then just keep doing it until you can't get it wrong. Yeah. Until you're unable to make a mistake with it. And it's, it takes doing it over and over again, reputation, learning who you are, making it easier for yourself. And I hate to use the phrase. Make it easier for yourself, but you learn how to do the hard things so much that they no longer seem hard. The actual task never changed, but they don't seem hard because you've done, you've conditioned yourself to do the hard thing. You get comfortable being uncomfortable, right? So it doesn't seem strange anymore. And there's this great quote when you're saying, Amateur practices until they get it right. Professional practice until they can't get it wrong. Is this, I heard this incredible story of, I think it was, it wasn't Jordan. It was, what is the name of the guy with Kobe Bryant? No, no, no, no, no. Same, same generation as Jordan, but he played in the Celtic. It was Scottie Pippen and, Oh, um, are you thinking of, uh, Larry Bird? Yes, yes, exactly. Okay. So Larry Bird is recording this commercial when he's supposed to, he's supposed to do a three shot and he's supposed to miss it, but they had to retake that shot, I don't know how many times, but a stupid amount of times because he just couldn't miss because he practiced so much that he couldn't get it wrong. That's the difference between an amateur and a professional, right? Yeah, definitely. And there's also this thing when, when, when I start interrupting you, when it comes to, when, when it comes to, the way I like to see it is that when you, when you know how to do one thing good, you can You can use exactly the same principles and apply it to anything else, right? Same thing for you. When you started doing this podcast, it was a little bit awkward, you didn't really know the tech behind it. But the more you did it, the more you did it, the more you started to do it good. Here we are, a couple of, like a bunch of episodes later. But the same thing was when you came to work. The same thing was when it came to work, where it wasn't the first, the first day at work wasn't good, you didn't perform well, but you kept touching it. Kept touching it, kept touching it, kept touching it. The sooner, the later you developed it. Yeah, I, um, I want to, I want to actually, that kind of leads me to my next question really, which is, I want to get into not just your business, but how you translate sort of your principles and your ideas, your ideas into the business. And I want to lead it with this question. You're very obviously an expert in movement of the body as far as martial arts and dance, and you've now incorporated, uh, your mindset and I hate using that word because it seems so marketing. Yeah. But how did you translate all of that into your business? Because that's, that's a whole nother realm. So I started my business with I started as a dancer, right? And then I became, and keep in mind, like just what you're saying, I am not a talented dancer. Make no mistake about it. I've done two. I, so what I, what I consider to be talent, right, it's like almost like a natural born thing. Like I didn't have that. So I didn't, I have, I have recordings of my first dance class. I'm as, I'm as bad as the rest, but I practiced more than ever. So I was early with the understanding of like, okay, I'm not naturally gifted at this. Let me practice more than anybody. And then I did two knee surgeries, which became okay. But so I could, I can't, I'm not a great, uh, I'm not good at taking choreography. Not because I'm not fast at taking the moves, but because other people's moves for my knee is something that is really, it's tough for me to do that. It's okay. Okay. But how can I still become a professional dancer? Because I still want to do this. So I used all of that. Okay. But. I'm, my style is going to be this, but I'm going to be the best at doing exactly this. This is where, this is how I'm going to become me. Right. So I became, I have a very original style. So that became my first thing. And then it came into training. Okay. Then. Then I, so I kept on building on top of things. Right. So I kept on building and I was like, okay, but there are more dancers than me that needs to be stronger because then I done my second knee surgery and I'm doing rehab and I'm like, okay, but how do I, where can I train as a dancer, what does that mean? And I go online and I'm a hip hop dancer. Yeah. And the only thing I'm finding is like, Oh, this is good for ballet. This is good for contemporary. This is good. But I'm like, but this is not what I'm doing. I'm interested in, in, in African culture, in black culture. This is my thing. Where do I find that? How do I become a better hip hop dancer or African African dancer? Fast. Okay. It doesn't exist. Got it. Then I'll create it. Then let me do it. And then I started doing it. And then when I'm there, it's like, okay, cool. Now I've been dealing with panic anxiety. Got it. And I've been training tens and thousands of people online and offline. And what you understand very fast is that, okay, wait. So personal trainer. It means that you're a psychologist. You have that also is what they don't teach you at school, but you're dealing with people's problem. People are coming through shit. Okay. But let me study people. Let me study them. So I don't know if I, I don't know if I told you this previously, but I've, um, I've taken several, um, Several masterclasses and mentorships of a man called Tim Grover, who is, uh, or was, or is Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade's personal training. It was Kobe Bryant's training for 15 years. Yeah. He's specializing in mindset. That's my, that's one of my routes in, in the mindset parts and it's like, okay, but how do I build off this? Okay. But then, then I started building that and then, um, and then what I'm thinking now, even now, when I'm moving into, uh, I'm moving into a tech to the, to the tech world right now, I'm doing a lot of, uh, AI automations with my, with one of my companies, but even then I'm looking at myself as like, okay, but what can I do with the things that I already know? How do I build on top of things? Right. Yeah. So I'm constantly focusing on building on top of things and, and. Skills that I already do possess. Yeah, that is awesome. Yeah. And I think, I think that's how that's the, that's the journey, right. And, and, uh, it's to constantly keep on building and knowing what you're good at and not be scared to delegate. Um, but, but, but that's the, that's the mindset. And then it's also important. Like I spent a lot of time thinking. Like, it sounds crazy, but some, a lot of my day is just like, what do you do today? I took a walk. Like I was staring into the, I was staring into nothing for an hour or like I had this concept in my mind and I was contemplating it for a long time and now I can finally talk about it because I understood it. Yeah. Do you have? Do you find it ironic that you had a hard time taking, uh, choreography, but now you're having to delegate towards other people? In a sense, yes. In a sense, yes. Um, I'm, but at the same time growing up, even if I was, even if I had a hard time taking choreography, I was always a good student. Yeah. Um, I'm a great student. Like I'm, if I, if I sign up for something as a student, I'm, I'm completing it. I like, I like to go the extra mile, not to impress the teacher, but because I understand myself how much I'll get out of it. So, and I was a waiter for the longest time, waiter, like I was serving at the restaurant, uh, same thing as if you're a dancer, if you're a model, like you're, you're taking orders, right? Like it's very. Like, so do this dance now, more of this, less of that look in that direction. And that was natural to me because my mom was so, uh, growing up in Sweden, we, I wasn't me and my family wasn't rich. We had everything, but we were not rich to, to any extent of the imagination. So I was working very early together with my mom. So she taught me the importance of being able to be a team player. And as a result of that, I've. Like, I find it easy to, I find it easy to, there is an irony, I definitely understand what you mean, but at the same time, if I, if I, if I look back at my life, and the same thing with martial art, right, it's, if you're doing, if you're doing traditional martial art, which I did as in Taekwondo, it's you, this is right, and this is wrong, do as I say. Why? Yeah. Because I'm the teacher. I'm the, uh, like, you know what I mean? So yes and no, yes and no, but I always had a problem with authority, make no mistake about it. It was never my fault. Yeah, I'm with you, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So now that you've had a, you've had a problem with authority, now that you've become an authority, I'm going to just call it now, you become an authority on, on training dancers, on training their bodies. Um, and you have this amazing app. I'd like for you to tell me about that app because this is the reason why we're here. As a, as a, as a great question. So I have an app called dance specific training, which is, um, where I run my coaching program, but also it's been a part of a subscription platform that I have. And in that app, I'm able to literally track everything I can. I see how much you sleep. I see how much you trained. I see if you didn't do your workout, I can assign your workouts. It's a really holistic approach to dancing or to. Physical training for people that like to move as dancers, not exclusively for dancers, which is what a lot of people think. And it's not to be confused with Zumba. This is not what this is. This is, if you want to go to the gym, that's fantastic. We're still doing full body functional exercises with the equipment at the gym. Right? So when we, when we decided to, to, to buy this app because we bought it, it was really a point of, but how can I be accessible for others? After without burning out, because I still want to have, which is a main thing of mine is one of my main things that I value it's, it's, I really, really value freedom. I really value freedom. I value to be able to go to the beach. I live literally two minutes from the beach, the island where I live. It's 21 beaches. That's where I'm from. I want to be able to have this lifestyle while still, while still making money. So how can I create all of this, right? So I was very clear of how I, what type of life I wanted to live and then we started just, uh, How do you call it? Just backtracking, reverse engineering it. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's exactly it. Um, one of the, um, I, I, I kind of sum that in on this tattoo that you have that says, uh, by any means necessary. You did research. Brother, man. Hey, I just get fascinated with people. Respect. No, respect. I respect that. Good job. Good job. Yeah. By any means necessary. That's very true. I have it on my shoulder. Yeah. And because of you, like I have heard of bachata before and I've heard of salsa, but I had never heard of Kizomba. Um, when, I'm sure during your journey, there was a point where you had never heard of it before. Tell me about Kizomba. Yeah, most certainly. Kizomba is the traditional dance of Angola and it's a music style as much as it is a dancing. It's our traditional music also in Cape Verde is one of them is, uh, Or a very popular music is Kizomba. It's very, very popular over here. And it's an, uh, it's, um, how can I explain it? It's a very, there's two sides of Kizomba. There is what is, because now as, as time evolves and people from the diaspora start to mix in things that they've got from Europe and from the States and what is fashion. And the diaspora have now mixed Kizomba into what's now called Urban Kiss, which is. Beats and you dance, uh, more faster. It's Kizomba is a partner dance. You dance with a woman and a man or a leader and a follower. And then, but it's also a traditional side of it. So I've danced Kizomba with my, with my best friend's girlfriend or with my, with my, uh, with my grandmother, right? Like there's no, I do it with my aunt. So like, if my aunt is there and there's Kizomba, I'm going to dance with her. And then there is also the social aspect of it. Now, because of the Ashpora, you can go out and social dance. You go out and social dance, Kizomba, uh, or Urban Kiss. And then it's the same thing. You dance with everybody, big, small, black, Brown, orange, green. It doesn't matter. It's a beautiful way where it was a mixture of, of social dancing. So Kizomba has a big, big, uh, big part of my heart. I absolutely love it. It's not the dance that I'm besting by enemies necessary. But it's, uh, it's definitely the music that I'm playing the most in my life at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. I dig that, man. I, um, I, you know, checking you out and everything, I, I've come to this conclusion, but I, I had also come to this conclusion before is people really grow with community. Certainly. And one of those, you know, there's, there's different ways that you can do that, you know, you can join a church, a book club, um, you can, you know, find a dance partner and all that. And one of the things I realized about your app is that there's a lot of community involved with it. Um, you just have these different sessions at different times and people are posting. Um, tell me about how that community, because you've given so much to it, how does that community give back to you? More than I can give them. More than I can give them. I can't, I can't give them. As much as i'm getting back and that's the crazy part of about coaching right and that's also a beautiful part about coaching because you're only a successful coach if you if you get results so my business is built around the fact that i'm getting results from other or to others but even if it's even if it's me going to dance classes or i'm going to europe now in in january to go to teaching at and having show at bachata central world congress. Which is a huge, huge Congress, right? But you're going for the community and if I'm, if I have that, or if I'm doing coaching sessions here in Cape Verde, or if I'm, if I'm part of, um, like community is the, one of the main cornerstones in almost everything I do, I live with a community. I've, I've, I've. Always done that. Even if, when I lived in Norway, I live with my dance crew. We were 12 people that live together. When I live where I live now, I live together with my best friend and I've been doing that for, for X amount of years and it's me, him, uh, his little brother or our, our little brother. And so it's constantly communities. And it's such an important factor because your community is there to lift you up. When things are tough, the moment I was able to go through what I went through with my mental health and be able to come out on the other end because of my community and people love to use the word self made and I think that's, I think it's, I think it's absolutely ridiculous. It's like self made, like how, how, how are you in any way, shape or form self made? Like I'm not self made, my mom was there, my dad was there, like, so you didn't get anything from your mom. No, but yeah, but how are you self made then? Like, didn't, wasn't you raised there? Yeah, but I didn't get support. It's like, I think community is the absolute best thing that you can do if you want to grow and feel good about yourself. If you have the right community because that comes back to what we just spoke about previously how we started this conversation because your community is part of your diet if you part of a shitty ass community your results will be shit make no mistake so that's one of the main principles that we keep to need to remember when we're moving moving on in life is who is in my community. Because much like you're saying you, you, you, like what I said previously, you had a bunch of businesses. You failed. I've had a bunch of businesses. I failed, but the people in my life that stuck with me. That's one of the reasons why I've been able to keep on going. Yeah, yeah. I, I love that man. I, I've often said about, you know, um, you know, that self made millionaire, billionaire or whatever, it, that's crap, because it's not like, Jeff Bezos is sitting there slinging books outside of his garage. That's not the case. He had people around him. Of course. You know, he found the best experts and he, he leaned on their experience and that's what, that's the value of communities. You can lean on their experience. Certainly. Exactly, exactly, exactly. And that goes for everything, everything, everything, everything. Because like I Taekwondo. Well, like when I kick boxing, it's like, okay, I'm practicing alone, but we are a community is the, is the locker room is the people that you're hanging out with is the, we're, we're traveling as a team to competitions, to different cities. Okay. So when I'm feeling low, people are, people are pushing me inspiring. Okay. Wait, so there's a community here. Same thing with dancing. Same thing with, with, with my, with my own businesses, same thing when we're doing this AI thing. Everything has to do with community because that, that's the fun part. That's the cool part. That is, that is. Um, you, uh, you had started the, the Afro. I'm sorry, I'm going to mess this up. Don't worry about it. No, no. Tell me about this dance festival. I apologize. No worries about it. So I had, I had, uh, I was, I am the organizer of the world's first Afro Latin dance festival that is specifically focusing on training. So we had, uh, so we had a bachata sensual and salsa festival called Be Fit and Sensual. That was the name of our festival, which I did together with my previous girlfriend called Judith Cordero. Uh, who is also is, who is the creator of the dance style called Bachata Sensual. And even if she's my ex, we still have, I spoke with her as, as recent as just a couple of minutes before this call. We're still great friends. Like we're just not boyfriend and girlfriend, but she's amazing. Um, So we did that festival together, which later turned into a brand again. I'm like, I do things naturally. I build on top of things that are already existing. So we did that festival. I started traveling with that festival and did it on tour. We did pop ups in different cities, went to Japan, went to China. And then I understood, okay, but this is a brand now. People are associating training for Afro Latin dancers with this brand. Okay, perfect. Let me build on top of that. And then I developed that specific training, which is the method. But be fit essential was the company name. That specific training is my method, my training method. And yeah, like I said, we were, we are the world's first, uh, festival for Afro Latin dancers to train, to get mentally and physically stronger. We thought we, we were had, we had lectures about mindset. We had lectures about nutrition. We had nutrition experts there, yoga, acro yoga, stretching, uh, mobility. And then of course, on top of that, we had. 20 different instructors from each year. It's a four day festival. There were people from Cuba, from Puerto Rico, from Angola, from Spain, from Germany, all over, all over Cape Verde, all over, all over. So that's, that was an amazing experience, but then COVID happened and then, and as COVID happened, life kept on moving forward and, um, we, I don't want to say we stopped doing it, but we're not doing it at the moment. We might, we might do it again. That's awesome, man. That's awesome. So you had everybody from around the world, all these, you know, different diversities and everything. And it sounds like everyone was welcome, right? Exactly. And that's the beautiful thing with, with, uh, with dancing, cause it, it connects people. Dancing connects people. It's like you, you, when you're on the dance floor, I couldn't care less what's the color of your skin. Do you like to dance? Yeah. Cool. Are you a good person? Yeah. Nice. Let's dance. Yeah, I'm a, you know, I'm, that makes me sad that no Nazis showed up. You know, they're really missed a good time. All inclusive. All inclusive, all inclusive. You can show up, you know, just keep your tattoos at home, . Exactly. So, so, so lemme just let here, here's another story. My sister, now my sister who is with, on my mother's side, my sister is blonde, blue eyed lover. Uh, yeah. She has now started dancing bachata. And she told, and I'm going to a dance festival or I'm going to dance class with her and the way I look. So, so we don't, we don't look like we're siblings at all. Right. Even if we're raised together, because my father is black and now my brothers are on my black on my, on my father's side. Right. But anyway, my sister goes to, so we, I see a man and he has a black out tattoos. Right. Which is like, he's just has two full. Black arms tattooed and I told my, and I told my sister, I'm like, wow, that's so fast. Cause we're both of us have tattoos. Right? So I'm like, that's so fascinating. Um, I, it's, it's always interesting to see why people are taking that decision, right? They're so, they have moved past a part of their lives. So they're deciding to just black out everything almost like a, almost like a reset. Right. And she's like, Hey, you know what? This guy used to have swastika tattoos, Hitler symbols. All over his arms. This is why he has, he, this is why he has blacked out tattoos. And there he is couple of years later dancing, uh, an Afro Lattin dance and yeah, he's just, just part of the community. So , you know, so yeah, they, they, they, they, they are there. Some of them are there. So I guess the Nazis were invited after all. That's so awesome. They, they are. But hey, you know, you know, shout out to that guy who made that change in his life. Yeah, you know, certainly, certainly change and improvement is always welcome as far as I'm concerned. You know, I, yeah, yeah, you know, at what point do we have, because at what point do we, do we stop judging people for their past and like, Hey, look, like he did what he's supposed to do. Like he was an asshole, he was aware of it, that's why he's now here, like he's, he's doing his best. It's like, I have this, I have this saying that it's important to remember that if you were raised in his circumstances, you, with his exact body, you would be exactly the same. There's no difference. There's no difference. Or. It's important to remember that. Or, and I'm just throwing this out there, there's a chance that he went the Sebastian Kruse route and chased some girl into a bachata, you know, session. That could have been the case. That could have been. Stronger men have fallen for worse. So yeah, you know what I mean? It could potentially have happened. Hey, no lies told there, man. No lies told. I read that, I read that Jeff Bezos ex wife is officially the world's richest woman after they divorced, so... Strong, greater men have fallen worse than I have. Hey man, good on her, man. Good on her. Um, I, uh, I, I can't believe, like, how many things... Lately, I've been picking up from my various guests, and from you, I've picked up that the diet thing just really stuck with me, and it's very encompassing, um, because it's not just one thing, and I think a lot of people fail to look at it as just one thing, and business itself is never just one thing. Never. Uh, you know, I'm just going to add, you know, to what you were saying, because it's, there's a lot of little problems and you're solving a lot of little problems. Sometimes those problems are within yourself and sometimes they're external, but you know, when you're building a business and when you're, you know, becoming an entrepreneur, you're doing your own thing, you're finding a problem. And you're solving it. And again, in, you know, not to espouse, uh, you, or talk, you know, for you, but you, you started, um, you started that training based off of something that you were looking for and that you couldn't find, and you just assumed that nobody else had it because it wasn't there, and... You started this amazing app, and I just, man, I, bro, flowers to you, man, just, this is really awesome. Yeah, blessings brother, appreciate it. And, and I think, I think what you're saying is that it's so, it's so crazy for me to sit here on the other end of it and hear it, because even now it's like, yeah, but, I'm just, I'm just getting started, like I'm, I'm just getting started so much more. And I think that's forever. And I think that's one of those things we spoke about it, me and my friends, we had this conversation the other day. It was like, cause I said, I have to say that if I die tomorrow, if I die tomorrow, don't worry about me. Like, don't cry. Like my life was absolutely incredible. I had a crazy life. I've done so much things, but I can, I know for a fact that the day that I am on my deathbed, I will feel that. I still had much to go. I still had so many things that I wanted to. You know, I will, I will be stoic enough to accept death, right? But at the same time it's just like, Damn! I, I, I, this, this one thing. It's always just that one thing, brother. Can I put you on hold for just one moment? I gotta run and do something real quick. Alright, one moment. Hey, sorry about that. Don't worry. All right. Cool. Um, I, uh, let me see. Where's my list of questions. So, um, getting back to your app, you, you didn't build, build your app, but you bought it, is that correct? Exactly. Okay. Talk to me, talk to me about that whole process and taking over and because I've never bought an app or anything. So. So I have, I have, my business is based around different things. I have a coaching business where I'm actually coaching dancers, which I do as a high ticket, selling high tickets, which is essentially, I have a high ticket offer, which is more expensive. And then I'm coaching dancers individually, or again, dancers, people that wants to become better at moving. And doing whatever they want to write, whether that is to drop weight or to get mentally and physically stronger or whatever the case may become more flexible, so I have that part. Then on the other side, we also have a platform, which is, which is now in integrated into the application also, which is a low ticket offer, which is where we sell, sell it for lower to the subscription platform, essentially, where you have access to a bunch of videos. You can train with me. It's not as customized, but you will, you will definitely get right. Then on the other hand of my business, I'm also doing, um, I also have an AI automation business, which is where we help companies or consult companies. At this moment, we're focusing on solar energy companies that is setting up for private, private people. So not business to business, but we are doing business to business, but they are focusing on B2C. And then we help them to with their automations using artificial intelligence. That is awesome. Yes. That's, that's like, that's my main business, but then on top of all of this, I'm also, I'm still actively dancing, traveling to different places, uh, and you know, the hustle, the hustle don't stop. It really doesn't. So in all my research, I never came across the solar part. Are you? No. Now I have to ask questions. Are you doing that in Africa right now? Yes. We're like, I'm all of it. All the things I'm doing, all the things I'm doing is based out of Africa, but, but I'm doing it online so I can work with a company in Sweden or I can work with a company in the States or whatever. It's just that I'm based in Africa and I want to spend my, I want to, I want to live here. I tell you brother, moving to Africa is the best choice in my entire life. I've done a lot of crazy decisions, but moving to Africa is the best thing I've ever decided to do. Uh, it's soul filling, it's, uh, you feel a connection with your roots. You feel that you, you connect with your ancestors in a completely way I never thought would be possible. Yeah. People are friendlier. It's calm. It depends obviously where in Africa, it's huge, right? Yeah. Yeah. But you're going to Cape Verde, certainly. And the reason why you haven't heard anything about, you can't find anything about the AI automation company that I work with is because. I can't post everything online. You know what I mean? Like I purposefully have not shared that part just because it gets confusing. Just hearing myself explaining my story sounds confusing. But if I would have shared that on top of everything, because I'm also Doing a lot of charity work. Like I'm, I'm working, I've been to SOS Children Village here in Africa or here in Cape Verde. I've, I've actively, I'm not gonna say weekly, but it's not bi weekly, out training children, dancing with children, doing, like today I spent two hours with some of my friends picking up trash from the beach. So I'm actively engaged in all of this. So if I put all of it on my social media, it's really hard to navigate because I'm using social media as a platform to actually generate client for my coaching business. At some point I have to like, okay, the solar part is not my personal brand. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a company. That is amazing, man. And then you get to spend time at the beach, dude. Yeah. Jealous. Jealousy has no limits, brother. Jealousy has no limits. Um, you, you touched on one thing and, um, and I guess I kind of wanted to extend on that a little bit. So moving to Cape Verde, did you, um, did you feel, uh, A bit more closer to your father? A certain, I felt I was close with my dad, but the thing was that I, when I moved, my father moved with me. So he came down just a month or two after. So we got to spend six months together here in Cape Verde, which was, cause he just retired, which was a super blessing, super blessing. I definitely got closer to him. Um, certainly, but as I get closer to my heritage, I understand my father better. I understand, okay, but why was that like this? Or why is that like that? Okay, hey, it's a cultural thing. Got it. I just didn't know that because I wasn't raised in the culture. Yeah. Um, and moving to Cape Verde has showcased so many things of myself. I understand. Okay. Wow. Like this has to come from here. This thing of mine has to come from here. Um, why, why, why wasn't I aware of this? Yeah. Because I was never exposed. I didn't, I never saw it. Nobody told me. It was just something that was talking about my dad's upbringing and then he passed it on. I learned it through our small sisters. And if I would name him my uncle and, um, and just being able to meet my, being able to meet my grandmother also. Uh, which is a person that is somebody I didn't grow up knowing. So you need to know that I'm 33, but I came to Cape Verde the first time when I was 29 or 28, 28. Oh, wow. So I came late to Cape Verde. And then I said, like, so that was in 2019. So I go, I'm going, I'm going to move here. I'm going to move here. I go, I'm going to move here in 2020. COVID happened. That got pushed. Um, but when I came to Cape Verde, like not once have I ever felt like a stranger, I was never treated like a foreigner. And I was, and I am obviously aware of how I look, if I look myself in the mirror, right? Or like how I dress and how I talk, you can hear in my accent, like I'm actually, I'm learning Creole as, as, as times have moved very far from perfect. You're straight away. They're not from here. They're not born here. Not once have I ever felt that as a. As somebody who wasn't welcomed home, so to say. So I say that I moved back to Cape Verde even though I never lived there. I love it. I love it, man. So, it sounds like you're not in, is it pronounced Praia? Yeah. Except Price . I love that research you've been doing. I'm so, I'm gonna be honest, I'm super impressed by you. You, you, you've done great job. This is the best, this is the best podcast I've been on ever. And we're the podcast. So yeah. Thank you for that. Thank you, man. Yeah. So no, I'm not Praia the capital, uh uh, I mean the nor one of the northern islands called. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So the beach right there, uh, I'm assuming you, you only drink water, right? Yeah, certainly. There's a lot of, I drink a lot of fresh juice and I drink alcohol also every once in a while. So we drink our version of rum, which is called grog. So we have two types. One, we have our version of rum, which is grog, and we have, which is also done with sugar cane. And then we have one version of, we have almost like old grog, which is called grogberga, which means exactly that old grog, but we store it in barrels. So it's much more, it's always like our, it tastes more like this. Yeah, that smokiness to it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So anybody listening, I'll tell you right now, Cape Verde is paradise on earth. Oh, man. Okay. So now if I ever retire, you're gonna have to save some of that beach for me, brother. Brother, I'll tell you, and if you're into history, like I really, I find a lot of inspiration and a lot of power in history. And as a black man living in the West. Your ancestors passed through here. It's a huge chance that your ancestors came through Cape Verde because it was one of the most, uh, one of the most busiest ports during, during, uh, during slave, slave times, enslavement of our ancestors because they took us from Africa and then Cape Verde is the only stop between, uh, Africa and the States. For, for, for any part of the, or any part of the America, the West. Yeah. Yes. If you look at, I think it's, uh, I think you can search, I think it's slave voyage. com. I think it is something like that. You can see the boats that are actually passed through Cape Verde. Oh, wow. Yeah. You can see the boats that pass through. You can see the name of the captain of the boat, the amount of registered people, which is obviously not true probably, but yeah, so a lot of, a lot of people, a lot of Americans come here. A lot of, a lot of black Americans come here and it's like, wow. Yeah, this, this, this place, because also what is important to remember is that we are Cape Verdeans and we're very proud of being Cape Verdeans. But as much as there is a, there is a struggle for, for Africa, uh, Afro Americans to backtrack their heritage, so is it for us. We know we're here. We know we lived here for, for as much as we, we understand history. We know we, or we trust the history that Portuguese have shown us. So we know that Cape Verde was discovered around 400 years ago, right? Yeah. And then, and then, according to them, according to them. Of course, yeah, it was there before, but yeah, they 1400s, not 400 years ago. Uh huh. But before that, we, we lived on, we lived on the continent. Yeah. We lived on the continent, as much as everybody else. Of course, yeah. But I also have my own, I also have my own theory about, about, about Cape Verde discovery, but that's for a different time. That's for a different time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can, that's a, that's a rabbit hole. So do you, do you find like, um, you know, uh, translating from, I think your app said that you, it, it's in pounds or is it in euros? Uh, both. It's in both? Okay. Yeah. So do you find like that transfer into the Scudo like a lot easier and like, you're just, your money just goes further? Yep. Certainly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you are living on the beach, so yeah. Yeah. That's a dumb question. I'm sorry. No, don't, don't. Not at all. A Scudo, which is our currency in Cape Verde, it's not a strong currency, unfortunately. Um, so, uh, euros or dollars or pounds, once you, once you've done the exchange rate, you, you get far with it. It's important to remember that in Cape Verde, the minimum salary, which is absolutely insane, but it's the truth, is 150, approximately, 160 perhaps. That's US dollars? Yeah, per month. Oh, God. Yeah, yeah. So that tells a lot about our prices. Now, that these, the people that make that money are struggling. It's a cheap country, but it's not that cheap. Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, there's just always so many resources to go around. Um, that, uh, that's crazy, man. I'm so glad you found a home there, but more importantly, I feel like I'm glad your home found you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a, it's a blessing beyond imagination. Yeah, bringing it back to Africa. That's, um, yeah, it's, your voice and your energy changed when you talked about that. Like, there was, you know, not that anything that you said was like, uh, anything else, but you went to this, Pureness of the soul that I just it just can't be defined by any other way. Yeah, definitely man. So, um With that I think other people need to know about you dude. I think they need to find you What is the best way people can get to coach sebastian? You can find me on meet coach sebastian. com as in m e e t coach Sebastian. com but on any social media whether that is facebook instagram youtube I am coach dot Sebastian. Yes. Um, I'm also going to have all that information in the show notes. Um, you guys are going to check my notes about this guy. He's amazing. Sebastian Carlos Kruse bro, there's this, that you've absolutely, and I, I don't use this term very often, but you've absolutely blessed this podcast today. And for that, I got to say tech. So, or, you know, Obrigado, uh, you know, whatever, but we're out there flexing dicks or anything with a flex. I love it. Hey, man, I do it. I love paying respect to people. Um, you know, and, and I can't, I, I can't do things as much justice as you know, your story. But man, I, I, I try and put my best foot forward, bro. I really do. So listen, I said it previously in the, in the chat, you're doing, you're doing a great job. And the fact that you're focusing on the, the, the guy next door that is out there doing it, pushing it, giving people like it's a platform. It's, um, yeah. It's nothing but, but, but, uh, admirable. And if you ever come to, to, to Cape Verde, you, you have a bed right there. I appreciate that, brother. I appreciate that. Um, so with that, um, you know, I definitely, again, want to publicly thank my guest, Coach Sebastian Kruse Um, you're gonna, you're gonna find all the information about him in the show notes. Please visit him. Please check him out. You're just gonna feel an energy that you, you probably haven't felt before. Um, but that mindset thing, please take it with you, take it with you into your business. So, yeah. For my guest, um, thank you for listening. Uh, if you liked this episode, please share it with a friend. If you don't like this episode, share it with two people you don't like. Um, a great, a great way to support the, uh, show is by going to, um, intheblack-podcast.com Um, checking out there. You could, um, there's a link for buy me a coffee. I always love and need the energy to do these things. Check us out on all platforms that is Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen, and again, please support the show by sharing it with a friend. Take care, Sebastian. Hold on.