Gents Journey

The Key to Everything: A Series Retrospective

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What happens when you achieve everything you've ever wanted only to discover it's cost you what truly matters? The Key to Everything series review takes you behind the scenes of this powerful story about success, presence, and finding your way back to authenticity.

Anthony shares his creative process for developing this unique narrative—one without gods, kings, or magic—focusing instead on real people facing universal challenges. He reveals how the main character's journey from invisibility to success mirrors what many of us experience: the adjustment to recognition, the whirlwind of achievement, and the corrupting belief that everything revolves around us.

At its heart, this is a story about presence. The protagonist doesn't lose Lena through dramatic conflict but through micro-decisions—moments of absence, of prioritizing external validation over genuine connection. The mysterious key, passed through generations of powerful figures, only stays with those brave enough to face their truth. Every element—the café, napkins, silence, bookstore, and bench—symbolizes aspects of the journey toward authenticity.

Perhaps most moving is Anthony's reflection on Lena's character—strong, forthright, and deeply kind. Her departure wasn't abandonment but a profound act of love, creating space for him to rediscover himself. The story reminds us that while we can't always undo our mistakes, we can return to what matters most. True happiness is found not in accolades but in being present for each meaningful moment with those we love.

Ready for more storytelling? Anthony teases upcoming projects including special Halloween series in October and holiday-themed stories throughout November and December. Subscribe now to journey with us through these new worlds of imagination and insight.

"True mastery is found in the details. The way you handle the little things defines the way you handle everything."

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Gentleman's Journey podcast. My name is Anthony, your host, and today we're just going over, actually, the series review of the Key to Everything. So if this is your first time listening to this, I implore you, please go back and listen to this whole series. This series was honestly amazing. I'm just so grateful that you guys listened to it and it was just such a fun thing to do for you guys. But I'm just going to go ahead and what we're going to do here in this review. I'm going to talk about how I kind of came up with the concept, the characters, the plot, all that kind of you know back end stuff that you know doesn't really get talked about very often, and and then kind of tell you you know about what to expect this next couple series and you know some other future things that we're going to be doing. So let's go ahead and jump into it. So the key to everything when I was coming up with this concept, it was one of those things to where I wanted to write through the idea of what happens if you get everything in your life that you want and you realize it's it's. You have to become somebody you don't like or revere or honor, you know, like, what does that look like? So, like with obviously I gave him a nondescript job, because a lot of us work nondescript jobs and then when he starts to get accolades, you know, obviously the key shows up. And we don't really describe a lot about the key, it's just it's always there, right? We don't go into mythos until later, but obviously he gets the key.

Speaker 1:

Things start to change in his life as you look at him in the beginning of episode one he hated his job. It was very, very low level. No one respected him. He was invisible. He was just living day to day, hand to mouth. There really wasn't anything going on in his life. You know, the only thing that he even somewhat enjoyed was really seeing Lena, this beautiful, smart, intelligent, kind woman who was straight up with him the whole time. You know, and and with that you know, if you know, like in the first episode we talked about how he's scraping together money just to get coffee, just to see her, just to see her, and then how that blossoms, you know, because he gets the key, obviously, puts the key away and then you know, over the next coming days, weeks, months, things start to change in his life and if you think about it, when he did that, you know he obviously starts going towards Lena and then their relationship starts to change.

Speaker 1:

But just like with everything, right, as relationships change, when you start to get success in your life, you know two things. Actually, three things happen. The first thing that happens is there's an adjustment period to success, right, especially massive success, where all of a sudden people start to know you, they start to call you, you start to become more busier. Opportunities happen, they're given to you, you start to take advantage of them, those kind of things, right. So there's an adjustment period. Then, as you're in the success, you start to understand everything that comes with big success the long nights, the constant rotation of being at places where he traveled, all the time everything was just kind of a blur for him and as that he thought that everything was about him, not that everything was about him. And that's where you can say power or success really corrupts people, because they think it's everything's about them. And, yes, it is in the beginning it is, but it's about the people around you that really give you your true success, right.

Speaker 1:

And as he started becoming more well-known, well, what started happening? He wasn't going to. You know he was still going to the cafe but he wasn't fully present. And you know he built up that relationship with Lena and then kind of and no other way to say kind of took a big old crap all over it. You know what I mean? Because he thought everything was about him. He thought everything was about him. And when you start to think like that, when you start to understand that everything's about you and everything evolves around you, that's when downfalls always start to happen. Right, and you saw that with him that the success that he thought he wanted and he received it was shallow at best. Yes, he was making more money, he was very popular, all these different things. His word mattered, but it didn't really matter to him. And his biggest turning point, if you think about it, was Lena leaving right, her graduating and him not even knowing that, you know, losing track of time because she was graduating and she was gone.

Speaker 1:

You know, there's things that happen in our life when we think we have it all figured out or when we think that we are the most important thing in the world. The world tests you with that. Then you know, the universe, god or whatever you want to say starts to test you and you start to realize that you are not the most important thing. You know, it's the people around you who are you influencing in a great way, how are you being present in your relationships? And to go further now, like as we're talking through this, that's what this really was all about is. I've seen so many successful people in my life and that I know that chose careers, chose money or something outside of themselves instead of internal happiness, and now they're miserable. They're going through boyfriends and girlfriends. They've been married and divorced multiple times because they haven't realized that whatever you find is never outside of you, it's inside of you. And that's what this was.

Speaker 1:

You know, as I'm talking about this, you know this wasn't a story, right, because you could say like, oh, this was a love story and there was some elements of that, right, but it wasn't a story about falling in love and this can go with self-love too. It was about forgetting. You know why love mattered in the first place and then thinking about it, you know, remembering that it was too late to rewind. But here's what people never get. You know, it's never too late to return.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes you can't undo things, but you can always return to things and that's, honestly the biggest thing, because if you look at like the key, you know the key quote-unquote it might have opened some doors for him, gave him power and a voice, a stage right, but it cost him two of the biggest things in his life. The first was presence right, he was never present anymore in his life. The first was presence right, he was never present anymore in his life or in other people's life, but it cost him her. You know that version of her that waited without asking. You know who poured coffee for him and had quotes that she gave him written by hand. You know who was going to school to study people, but not to understand them, but to essentially remind them of who they are. They are, and I think that's the whole.

Speaker 1:

Redemption is that he didn't lose her in those moments. Right, he lost her in the micro decisions as a not coming in, not being present. Right, he was yesing everybody. He was more in depth of wanting to be in front of crowds and and everyone yesing him than really being truly present. And and I think one of the things about her that I like so much about her in general is the fact that she didn't. She didn't leave because, you know, there was no like big blow up, there was no anger. She left.

Speaker 1:

In truth, you know, and I think what we have done it like, what we have to understand about this guy is he still returned, right, but a lot of people like, oh, it was to win him back. No, it was to find himself that only ever existed in her presence. That's why, if you look at the series, especially the episodes, every episode was like a trial. Well, okay, it was a trial in disguise. Let's be honest. Right, it was a test if his internal noise was going to win, or if the external noise was going to win, or, you know, if love could wait, or his success was holding a mirror and he was wearing a mask, and they were all symbols of journey. Think about it the cafe, the napkins, the silence, the bookstore, his voice, the bench, the key.

Speaker 1:

It was the first time I was writing in this series where you know they're not becoming a god, they're not becoming a king and they're not waking up. And it was just something that I think we all fight is that we're trying to lead ourselves to something greater, but, realistically, what that greater thing is is something that is quieter, and I think, when you start to realize that your truth is never tucked away, it's really written in every ordinary detail that you ignore. And he ignored right, because, if you really think about it, the key wasn't gold, it wasn't magical, it was An idea, a metaphor that kept handing itself down to those who really forgot who they were, especially with all the power and stuff that they had around them. You know, I mean, think about it. It came to kings, prodigies, presidents, CEOs, you name it, but the true thing was it only stayed with the ones who were willing to become honest. And I think that's a big, big thing that a lot of us don't understand is that a lot of times, we're not ever honest, truly honest, with ourselves, because once you start to do that, it's a re. It can take not to toil on you necessarily, but there's so much to unpack that it can be very, very overwhelming.

Speaker 1:

Right Now, as I end this, right, I just I wanted to talk about Lena. She, honestly, is probably one of my favorite characters I've written so far, just because and I know I say this on every review, but I just don't write, I can't write weak women, right, she was strong, she was very forthcoming with who she was, she was very comfortable in who she was. But in all of that she had kindness and warmth and you saw that when he earned her trust and her love, she gave him that. She gave him kindness, she gave him grace. She gave him unconditional love. It shows up when they have their son, when she reveals what happens at the end, you know where.

Speaker 1:

She knew he was who he was supposed to be and he couldn't. She couldn't tell him because if she did, it would. It would have ruined him and ruin the whole thing, you know. So she carried that. She left him. Think about that. She left him knowing that. Think about that. She left him knowing that. She took a leap of faith, knowing that her leaving could destroy him. But it was the exact thing that he needed to return to himself and return to her. Because, if you think about it, the minute he started returning to himself, he returned to her.

Speaker 1:

Look what happened. He became happier, right, money was no longer an issue. He found love. They got married. Nothing was ever over the top and nothing was ever like that Over the top. And you know, nothing was ever like that. They just took their time and were present in every single moment Of what they and then each other's lives, and now their son. They're going to be present in his life and the key did all of that and to me, that's honestly going to be one of the biggest things I'm going to miss about this series was there's no gods, there's no kings, there's no.

Speaker 1:

You know, there's a little bit of mythology, but nothing crazy, right, there's no magic, there's nothing. It's just real people who went through pardon my French real shit and came out at the end being honest with each other, being in love with each other, creating a beautiful life with each other and then creating a beautiful life as in their son, dominic, and then how they can now be present and change his life right. And that's, to me, is the thing I'm going to miss. I mean, yes, I guess I could come back and write some future episodes about them, but that's probably not going to happen with these guys I'm going to miss. I mean, yes, I guess I could come back and write some future episodes about them, but that's probably not going to happen with these guys. I'm going to leave them be, I'm going to leave their world perfect, because that's who they are. They became perfect.

Speaker 1:

So, all right, guys, we're about 17 minutes, so I didn't want to make this too long, but I just wanted to thank you. I know I say this on everything, but there's a lot of hard work that goes in creating these series and creating this universe of these people, so I sincerely appreciate you allowing me to be a part of your universe and listening to these things, and I hope that you enjoy them. I hope you learn stuff from them, and it's just such a pleasure and honor that I have you as a listener, and I can't tell you how much I'm thankful for that. So I'll end that here, guys. Again, thank you so very much again for listening today. Again, thank you so very much again for listening today.

Speaker 1:

Oh, before I end this, sorry guys, I just re-recorded this, um, so there's. I wanted to. I said I was going to talk about this and I didn't, so there's gonna be some things coming up here, um, after this, I'm actually gonna go through a whole. We're gonna talk about a lot of the other series, so that's probably going to be about 45 minutes to an hour, kind of tell you, like, how I made the switch from doing just single episodes to series, cause we're actually this is, we just finished our 14th series, which is crazy. We've done over what? 150 episodes this year. So crazy, crazy, crazy. When I talk about that, I want to talk and then I'm going to talk about actually coming up here too about some changes that are going to happen in the fall and for the holidays. So I'll talk about that real quick.

Speaker 1:

So what's going to happen here is this is for the fall, so like around Halloween time, right, the month of October, we're going to do essentially four series. They're all going to be a week and they're all just going to be very short and it's going to be around the holiday season. So, yes, it's going to be a little scary, you know it's, it's going to be a little crazy, but we're going to do in the gents journey way, where there's always going to be things and learn, and no, it's not going to be always get in the running car, I mean. Yes, those are obvious and there's, there's going to be tropes, but you know, just got to follow me, okay, um, and then for the holiday season, so like um, november, december, we're going to do the same thing. We're going to have four short series for November, four short series for December. So each week is going to be a new series, so instead of the two weeks that we're on right now.

Speaker 1:

So with that, what will happen? Again, it's going to be just holiday stories, and I'm not just talking about Christmas either. For the holiday season. So we're going to have different types of Thanksgivings. We're going to have different types of Thanksgivings. We're going to have different types of holiday seasons as well, too. So I also wanted to tell you that as well, and also I will again remind you of this and also this next series that's coming up. There's a high likelihood that it's going to be our first series. That's going to take a month to do, because there's going to be a lot of things to unpack. So be ready for that. All right, okay, so now, 20 minutes in. Now I will end this episode, okay. So, guys, thank you again so much for listening today and remember this you create your reality, take care Bye.