I mean, you always want to find love, right?
You want to find that person that's going to be a life mate.
That person that you're excited to wake up to the next morning.
And 40 years or 50 years from then, still
knowing that you made the right choice.
You're like a Black Barbie Doll.
JOY: Black Barbie Doll?
So you the Black Ken, then?
I guess that-- hey, if that's what we need.
Do I need to get a little Corvette?
And we get in that [INAUDIBLE] and just do Barbie-Ken style?
I decided to do "Ready to Love" because I
was at a point in my life where I
was willing to take a chance on finding love however
it was going to come my way.
So a TV show, let's go for it.
Let's try it.
We'll do it once and see if it works.
And I think it came out all right.
I learned to be flexible with life.
Trust the journey and just kind of go along for the ride.
So the show taught me a lot when it comes about being flexible
and just looking out to what's going to be the positive side
of something that comes out.
Joy and I are not together.
I wish her the best.
She's such an amazing woman.
We had a great connection on the show.
It just didn't translate into real life.
I think that any man that ends up with her
is definitely a lucky guy.
But as far as for me and her, it just more
translates into a friendship.
"Ready to Love" has definitely changed
what I'm looking for in a partner in some situations.
But on the other ones, it's always been the same.
I have parents that have an amazing relationship.
And I've got a chance to see them
just be truly in love with each other through thick and thin.
And for me, it's that same thing.
You want somebody that's going to go through life with you
and have your person and y'all support
each other through everything.
And take the walks in the park, and enjoy vacations together,
and raise kids together, and say stupid jokes to each other,
that type of stuff.
And so whether it's changed what I'm looking for?
No.
Has it changed the way I view what I'm looking for?
Yes, for sure.
Man, the RTL family is real.
We all will hang out if I run into one of them
at a restaurant.
Sometimes we've just sat down and finished dinner together.
If somebody has a business, we all tend to support each other.
If somebody has a birthday event, we're there.
Today is actually nephew Tommy's birthday, which is crazy.
So we actually all just got through supporting him
this past weekend.
And this, it's the RTL family, for sure.
If there's anything that I could change on the show,
there wouldn't be.
I really feel like that every part of the process
is important.
The journey is really the big part.
You never know what's going to end up happening in life.
So all of those things that happened
on the show, the experiences, the highs and the lows,
I wouldn't change them at all.
I think they helped shape the people that were involved.
It's helped set me into being a better person.
And it's one of those experiences
that you will never get in life, to where you're dating somebody
and then the person that they're dating is a friend of yours.
And also the person that you're interested in,
the other person, is also a friend of theirs.
And we're all going on dates with each other
at the same time almost.
And you're never going to experience that in life again.
So there's so much that I learned
from that part of the process.
I just take a lot of that with me on a daily basis,
especially in my dating life.
I think the connection with the guys
that we had was such an amazing part of the show.
And I know it's "Ready to Love," it's not, like, ready
to find a friend, right?
But we had this one prayer breakfast with the guys, man.
It was just, I had started off the morning
with devotional at the lake.
And then ended up running into one of the guys.
And we ended up just kind of having breakfast
and had the Bible there.
And all the other guys ended up coming.
And so you got, like, nine guys sitting around a table,
talking about fatherhood.
And I mean, some of us are in tears.
And just really everybody's different
experiences with fatherhood, with their fathers
and whether they had a chance to be a father yet.
And so it just ended up being, like, this men's Wednesday
Bible study that was one of the most amazing
experiences on the show.
At the same time, there's always so much footage that they have,
taping 18 hours a day.
And then having to scale it down to as much as
we can consume in one episode.
So there's always going to be something that's left out.
But I think were substantial moments
in the process for sure.
Dating after "Ready to Love," interesting.
So I took a break.
After the show, that was a lot.
Just dating multiple people at the same time,
and all the relationships, and the connections.
Having those all happening at one time was a lot.
So for me, getting back home and getting a chance to get back
to work, and my kids, and enjoying family,
and the normal life, dating wasn't really
a part of it when I got back.
I'm just now getting back to the point where
I'm looking forward to dating.
Kind of understanding who I am now in this part of the process
and enjoying life.
And so dating is something that I look forward,
to finding my person, having these amazing moments
that life is meant to be.
I'm looking forward to it.
What's most important to me in a woman
is that the connection is there.
The vibe.
It's a whole energy thing for me, man.
So finding somebody that you enjoy
just shooting the crap with.
Laughing, laughing until your gut hurts.
Those type of things.
Somebody that is your equal when it comes to spirituality
and you guys can share that part of the journey.
Those are the things that really are important.
I'm also a fitness guy.
So I like somebody that I can go workout with.
And we can go on a hike with or travel with.
Somebody that has some similar interests to the things
that I like to do in life.
And of course, hopefully, we share the same interests
so that way at the end of the day,
we're experiencing the things that we both love together.
And the only way to make that experience even better
is to have somebody that you love to do those things with.
So that's dating for me.
I don't really know how you can tell somebody's
ready to love at first.
But definitely having the conversations.
I'm big on communication, so just having the conversations
about expectations, and love languages,
and some things that are important
about each other's past.
The things that you share, how you deal with conflict.
All those things to me are things
where it just kind of determines whether it's the right person
for me to love.
And I guess that would be my interpretation
whether they're ready to love.
So the future singles going on "Ready to Love,"
it's a process, man.
Enjoy the process.
Enjoy the discovery part of yourself
that you're going to deal with.
And at the end of the day, just have fun.
There are some great people that you're
going to meet that you'll end up being family with probably
for the rest of your life.
The RTL family as a real thing.
And going through this experience with other people
that you've never met before, and having a chance
to have some great highs and some even great lows
is part of the process.
So just lean into it.
Lean into it, enjoy the process, and have fun.