Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm a little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to it. Good do it, Good do it.
Speaker 1: That's getting down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: about it, then we're about to let you know. It's
Speaker 1: all class. Get wait on you all right? Hey, So
Speaker 1: over the weekend, I saw something that's been training a
Speaker 1: little bit on social media, so I wanted to get
Speaker 1: your take on it. And I love a good social
Speaker 1: media list behind on social media, that's fine. That's why
Speaker 1: I want to ask you this because I know you
Speaker 1: haven't seen this. That's why I want to ask you
Speaker 1: in real time to get your reactions. So this is
Speaker 1: a top ten list the most exciting college football players
Speaker 1: of all time. Alright, top ten lists? Notes, alright, alright, right,
Speaker 1: just down, write it down. I'm gonna go through one
Speaker 1: through ten. Alright, Number ten, Jabrill Peppers, what exactly? Jabrill Peppers?
Speaker 1: Number ten is what you wanted? Jabrill Propers all time,
Speaker 1: all time. I know Tim Tebow in the top three. Alright,
Speaker 1: let me let me run through the list. Number nine,
Speaker 1: Michael Vick, okay, I like vic numbers of baller. Number eight,
Speaker 1: Peter Wark m it was so smooth. Number seven, Braxton Miller,
Speaker 1: Ohio State. Oh oh, Now the eyeballs are going the quarterback,
Speaker 1: the quarterback. Hold on, yo, yeah, say save your opinions
Speaker 1: when the list is completed, because there's there's more of
Speaker 1: a Is this a coast like East coast? This is?
Speaker 1: This is? I will diverge the source at the end.
Speaker 1: This is, but this got's a lot of Braxton Miller,
Speaker 1: Bxon Miller. Number seven. I'm not gonna put his full
Speaker 1: naw d b Miller. Number six, Lamar Jackson all time,
Speaker 1: all time, most exciting college football players of all times.
Speaker 1: So how does on here? Because you said exciting? Trek
Speaker 1: number ten, Jabrill Peppers, number nine, Michael Vick, number eight,
Speaker 1: Peter Ward number seven, Braxon Miller six, Lamar Jackson, number five,
Speaker 1: Johnny Manziel, Who Johnny Manzi Johnny Football? Number four? N Right, here,
Speaker 1: guy's your podcast. Number four, Christian McCaffrey, continue, number three,
Speaker 1: number three, number three before number three can do this?
Speaker 1: Number three not Manny, Number three, Smith my Son number three,
Speaker 1: The shadowest is the kiddie pool of college football. This
Speaker 1: is all like in the last twenty years, number all time.
Speaker 1: Number three, This isn't three year old, did it? You're
Speaker 1: trying to take my shoine, It's all I'm just I'm baffled.
Speaker 1: Number three, you got Johnny football and Braxton gets it
Speaker 1: gets better. Number one Reggie jam Miller. Damn, it might
Speaker 1: be him too, benjam Miller might be on this. They
Speaker 1: all look alike. Number three, say Kwan Barkley. Number two,
Speaker 1: Number two Tavon Austin, who table from from West Virginia,
Speaker 1: from West Virginia. And number one, as we revealed, Reggie
Speaker 1: Bush who did this? So so? Just Kyle Brant who
Speaker 1: so so this has been getting I mean just think
Speaker 1: about it. Before I even say where this came from,
Speaker 1: think about who's missing off of this list. Jon Bo Jackson,
Speaker 1: Bardershall Walker, Ricky Williams. You can even said Tim tebow S,
Speaker 1: Bessel was Braxton, Ron Dane right, Tommy fra Yes, Lawrence Phillips.
Speaker 1: I mean we can go on and on, right, this
Speaker 1: is number this is the top ten list. Top four.
Speaker 1: So this went around. It was going around on social
Speaker 1: media and it was in my group and it was
Speaker 1: my it was in my group chat. So I download
Speaker 1: the pictures. It wasn't fat bad, it wasn't fat. But
Speaker 1: he didn't time in on this. He didn't. He didn't
Speaker 1: time in on the conversation. So so I get the
Speaker 1: pictures sent to me and so I download cause I'm like,
Speaker 1: we gotta talk about this on the podcast. This would
Speaker 1: be this would be great. So then I download this picture.
Speaker 1: So I'm so so dumbfounded. I wrote the wrong wrong.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking at him like all right, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about this, and I'm like, all right, where I'm like,
Speaker 1: where did this? Where did this come from? And I
Speaker 1: zoom in on the picture and read at the very
Speaker 1: bottom the source of the It's from Tavon Austin, number
Speaker 1: two on the list, created his own social media debatable
Speaker 1: top ten list. You're number two and you created this list.
Speaker 1: To your point, bro, if you're born after you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be making a list like all the people that and
Speaker 1: you put yourself second. He's not even sit, not even
Speaker 1: a humble like I'm gonna put myself in there, like
Speaker 1: you know, like if I'm a top five, and see,
Speaker 1: like you know, y'all might humbly put myself in eight, right,
Speaker 1: like evenlu Wayne doesn't do that, right, But come on,
Speaker 1: you're gonna put yourself at number two? Come on, man,
Speaker 1: where's he's number two? Sa Kwan was three? Sa Kwan
Speaker 1: is three, and he put he put himself a number two.
Speaker 1: And then Reggie Bush. I can't really are Reggie Bush
Speaker 1: is up there? Right? Reggie Bush is up there? I
Speaker 1: don't have Reggie Bush is on this sure? No Vince Young,
Speaker 1: But like the list is like of players that some
Speaker 1: of the players. Maybe he was you know, yeah, he
Speaker 1: was exciting, he was this, he was there. But in
Speaker 1: the same cap, you're telling me that he surplants Barry Sanders, right, Like,
Speaker 1: there's so many players, so any fantastic players, heralded players,
Speaker 1: And I mean, I know CMC, but Peter Ward, Peter
Speaker 1: Ward deserves to be on that list. But not don't
Speaker 1: even I don't even know bracting like that, And I
Speaker 1: don't even want him to be offended. But were just
Speaker 1: we're just debating the list. It's not it's debating the list.
Speaker 1: I am removing names. You're you're now amending the list. No, No,
Speaker 1: I am please record striking from the record number ten,
Speaker 1: number seven, it's just all time. I'm not I don't
Speaker 1: think putting Lamar Jackson at six all time right now
Speaker 1: with still with his career and let me big number nine.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you about Johnny Manzeil. Johnny Manzel more
Speaker 1: exciting than Michael Vick. The Sugar Bowl game, John Ball.
Speaker 1: I know some people may think that's a shade, so
Speaker 1: let the shade begin. My man is whether he chooses
Speaker 1: not chooses. He is in a football league right now
Speaker 1: because of his lack of ability to play in the NFL.
Speaker 1: He was, yes, an exciting football player in college who
Speaker 1: had weaknesses like every other college football player has. But
Speaker 1: to say that he is four spots ahead of Michael Vick,
Speaker 1: he is three spots from the top player Reggie Bush
Speaker 1: and Tavon Austin is even on this list is remarkable,
Speaker 1: the self serving list. But then Jabrill Peppers as number ten.
Speaker 1: Jabrille was a dynamic player, absolutely, but he is not
Speaker 1: a step below Michael Vin. He's not on the same
Speaker 1: page as Peter Ward now. He is on the same
Speaker 1: piece of paper with Braxy Miller, which is which is aflow.
Speaker 1: He had a great career, but I mean defensively, Charles
Speaker 1: Woodson was even a more impactful player. Charles Watson is
Speaker 1: not on this list. If we're if we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a defensive player on here, no Charles, No, No, Honey Badger,
Speaker 1: Like there's there's been some more impactful, even defensive players, Lavaran. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say Matt Liner before I say Johnny man Zail.
Speaker 1: I can see that. I can see that. I would
Speaker 1: say Carson Palmer. Yeah, definitely, Johnny man Zail, Like, come on, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you if you're born after I don't know that
Speaker 1: you should be listing out stuff. You haven't seen anything yet,
Speaker 1: come on, come on, tape on. Should have gave him
Speaker 1: the big dummy. I'm not even gonna say anything. He's
Speaker 1: gonna take it the wrong way if I say anything.
Speaker 1: I watched you much film, right, I'm just top ten
Speaker 1: most exciting college football players of all time, Braxton Miller,
Speaker 1: I'm still you're still react. This is this is why
Speaker 1: I wanted to give it to you. It's not even
Speaker 1: because I'm you just talking about when you you talk
Speaker 1: about Lamar Jackson, talked about oh swift right, Pete a
Speaker 1: Ward not fast, but just smooth. Peters definitely right, Peter
Speaker 1: would be top five. Michael Vick, Bye bye bye series
Speaker 1: see fast, Reggie Bush flipping Braxton Miller. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't have a memory, and I'm not trying to shave,
Speaker 1: but I don't have a memorable Braxton Miller play like
Speaker 1: I can think of. I'm thinking of place right now,
Speaker 1: Peter Ward, of Michael Vick, of of Reggie Bush. If
Speaker 1: I was just the guys who were on here, I
Speaker 1: just go down to Ohio State Memory Bank. Reggie Germany,
Speaker 1: mm hmm, Terry Glenn ted Ginn. Yeah, Maurice Clarette. You're
Speaker 1: talking about Zeke Zeke, but Braxell Miller does not ring
Speaker 1: a bell of man that that play that that defining
Speaker 1: even just one place. George right right, so we could
Speaker 1: we could dissect this all day. I'm just grabbing some
Speaker 1: names that I'm just like, well, I'm just saying in
Speaker 1: terms of players we know that should be on there.
Speaker 1: That's that's he was on the squad, but he ain't
Speaker 1: on the All Times squad and I ain't on it either.
Speaker 1: But I tell you who needs to be on He
Speaker 1: need to be over here on the list with me,
Speaker 1: which is nobody's no, man, I'm just being honest. Goodness gracious, well,
Speaker 1: hey must be nice to be able to just be
Speaker 1: a returner go from team to think. That's me. What
Speaker 1: we got now? Who we got besides Shade? Coming up
Speaker 1: on the Cut to It Podcast, We've got Inky Johnson,
Speaker 1: a renowned motivational speaker, former college football player at the
Speaker 1: University of Tennessee and the native of Kirkwood, Georgia. Inky
Speaker 1: Johnson on the Cut to It Podcast, Our first segment
Speaker 1: is called get iced Up. You don't know what's coming,
Speaker 1: so buckle up, Smithy game. The first one, all right,
Speaker 1: what did you eat this morning for breakfast? Hash? Brown's egg,
Speaker 1: white blueberries, m m okay, carbohydrate starts and then uh, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: you like you see how you see how I broke that?
Speaker 1: Broke it down? Bro? What so would you have to
Speaker 1: drink or you're gonna lie and say you have water? No? No,
Speaker 1: I have some O J and some gatorade? Nice hydrated?
Speaker 1: Hold on? Hold on? Yeah o J and gatorade. Yeah,
Speaker 1: o J and gatorade. Why both get that vitamin see
Speaker 1: and try to stay hydrated. I usually hit the steam
Speaker 1: room or the sun in the morning. Oh, Okay, I
Speaker 1: get a little hydration in a method to the madness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or he lazy touch your club workout and then him
Speaker 1: being an athlete, that's it. Hey, you know how to
Speaker 1: manipulate use that steam. He'll be in a state. I've
Speaker 1: been in the steam shower fully dressed just to get
Speaker 1: that wet. She calls it, Daddy, are you being trash
Speaker 1: man the game today? Because I got the trash bag
Speaker 1: of sweat out fit in the steam room? Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: in my steamroom episodes, do you know who what you got? Inky?
Speaker 1: Inky less Brown m that's serious. I am in love
Speaker 1: with Inky's intensive Yes, and anytimes his post just right.
Speaker 1: It's always right about six o'clock. I know I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get Inky on my feet and morning motivation. Get Inky.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the YouTube like Intertwine. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: twenty minutes like I'm in there sometimes. My wife came
Speaker 1: in there one time. What she showed me to the glass.
Speaker 1: She goes, are you doing push ups and sit up
Speaker 1: in the steam room? Yeah? I got that. I mean,
Speaker 1: what's up everything? So so I can have that orange
Speaker 1: juice and gatorade and hash brown egg whites and blue
Speaker 1: Bears man as real. What's your go to genre that
Speaker 1: gets you relaxed? Man? Um, I like that old school music,
Speaker 1: man like because I used to hang around my uncle's
Speaker 1: coming up and they used to play that the old school,
Speaker 1: you know that Sam Cooke and Old Jay's, you know
Speaker 1: all them cats. Man, just chill. I joke with the
Speaker 1: wife a little bit, play around like I could sing,
Speaker 1: but you know I can't. Common in the back, some
Speaker 1: rooftop type stuff. So yeah, doctor a babe, you know
Speaker 1: all that. I was listening to. My wife came in
Speaker 1: off and she said, what do you listen to? I
Speaker 1: was listening to Miles Davis. M hmm. You gotta have
Speaker 1: that old school, especially if you if you like inky,
Speaker 1: you've grown around older people. Oh you you you gotta
Speaker 1: listen to their music because they're not going to change
Speaker 1: to your stuff back today. You gotta listen to that stuff,
Speaker 1: you know. So last one, the weirdest spelling of inky
Speaker 1: on the Starbucks cup. I'm gonna be real with you.
Speaker 1: I don't even do Starbucks. Oh I don't even do
Speaker 1: Starbucks too. When the cat doesn't spell inky with a cue,
Speaker 1: you know, and of course we all know it's in
Speaker 1: k but the cat. Don't put in che eye. That
Speaker 1: was one of our dudes too. Didn't my man trip out?
Speaker 1: It was a brother, wasn't ye? He was struggling, man, struggling?
Speaker 1: Your birth name is what? And Corey is incorious? And
Speaker 1: who is? Who is? Who? Also is incoorious? Are you
Speaker 1: a junior? No? So my son is a junior. But
Speaker 1: my mom she was reading a book about the Iroquois
Speaker 1: Indian tribe and she came up with incurious, But my
Speaker 1: grandfather came up with inky m So everybody kind of
Speaker 1: just took to it for obvious reasons. That inquorious kind
Speaker 1: of drawn out. Do you like your first name? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's unique, it's unique. I struggled with it early on though,
Speaker 1: trying to spell it, you know, smacking me upside the head.
Speaker 1: But I like it. It's unique. So I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be funny, but I'm being serious. You can't read it
Speaker 1: right right, you know as a kid, you don't know
Speaker 1: how I found out. Are you trying to spell? Yo?
Speaker 1: You're trying to spell emporious? And every day listen and
Speaker 1: I'm just saying how we want to how we want
Speaker 1: to say. It's a grown folk conversation, right you gave
Speaker 1: me my name. I'm getting my asswoll from not knowing
Speaker 1: how to spell it. How come that's my fault. It's
Speaker 1: my fault, you get I can be I can remember
Speaker 1: being at the kitchen table trying to spell up my name.
Speaker 1: I was like five years old and struggle with my
Speaker 1: last name because it has so many letters. Last name
Speaker 1: is a little john, right, so it has so many letters.
Speaker 1: And it was just trying to remember like the coming
Speaker 1: for to eat, Like I can remember that the same thing,
Speaker 1: like I got this name, how to spell it? Love
Speaker 1: having you on here, man, I told you, like I said, Man,
Speaker 1: I just love your intensity. I love what you do,
Speaker 1: how you do it. And so we really want to
Speaker 1: get into, uh, really the way how did you become
Speaker 1: who you are? UM. We know a little bit. I
Speaker 1: know a little bit a lot of bit about your
Speaker 1: story also too, but I really want to let you
Speaker 1: dive into, um really the aftermath of what happened and
Speaker 1: and and what you have gone through internally to become
Speaker 1: inky and not allow the incident to be a story,
Speaker 1: but the outcome to be your story. Where are you
Speaker 1: from and in the place you call your hometown? Absolutely
Speaker 1: you know it's um it's southeast corner of Atlanta UM
Speaker 1: neighborhood by the name of Kirkwood. You know, Kirkwood today,
Speaker 1: with gentrification and things of that nature, is a lot
Speaker 1: different than it was back when I was coming up.
Speaker 1: You know, your typical inner city. You know, you got everything, drugs, gangs, violence,
Speaker 1: you name it. We had it. And uh, just a
Speaker 1: kid with a dream, man going to a mother at
Speaker 1: sixteen two bedroom home. Fourteen people are sleeping on the floor,
Speaker 1: you know, roaches and rats. And I wanted to change
Speaker 1: my family situation. You know, I had uncles in that
Speaker 1: how it's going in and out of prison. Um saw
Speaker 1: cops kicked down my door numerous number of times. I
Speaker 1: watched my mother get up and go to work at
Speaker 1: Wendy's a double shift. You know, from the time I
Speaker 1: was a kid to the time I went to college,
Speaker 1: and it's dream feeled me. Man. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: get my family, my grandmother, my mother, my uncle's, my
Speaker 1: aunt's just a better living condition. And I felt as
Speaker 1: if at the time, football was that vehicle, and I
Speaker 1: put all my chips into it. And I had a
Speaker 1: lot of people along the way that assisted me and
Speaker 1: helped me. You know, it helped me accountable. How did
Speaker 1: growing up that way impact you on how you saw
Speaker 1: the world because you had to see it in a
Speaker 1: different light compared to the person on the other side
Speaker 1: of the tracks. Absolutely, you know, I always tell people,
Speaker 1: and I felt like I was fortunate because I got
Speaker 1: to see both sides at an early age. You know.
Speaker 1: I think sports gave me a certain, you know, avenue
Speaker 1: of exposure to know that it was more out there
Speaker 1: than just my environment. It in my living condition. And
Speaker 1: in the same sense, I saw the collateral damage that
Speaker 1: came with you know, crime. I saw a collateral damage
Speaker 1: that came with cats getting sent to prison, right and
Speaker 1: seeing what it did to their children. I've seen the
Speaker 1: collateral damage of when a cat go out and make
Speaker 1: a certain decision, or when a cat went to work
Speaker 1: and did it the right way to take care of
Speaker 1: his family. I was able to see both sides of it.
Speaker 1: And my grandma used to say something to me, like
Speaker 1: all the time, like me and my cousins be walking
Speaker 1: to the bus stop, and in my little age range
Speaker 1: I was the oldest, you know, they were younger than me,
Speaker 1: and then my other cousins they had me by three
Speaker 1: or four years and they were older than me, and
Speaker 1: my grandma used to say to me every morning, she
Speaker 1: would say, hey, Inky, remember you got a choice, right,
Speaker 1: Remember you got a choice. Every single day. You got
Speaker 1: a choice. And the way I processed it was, I
Speaker 1: got a choice of my decisions, my choices, right, how
Speaker 1: I view life, the perspective that I have about the
Speaker 1: things that we were going through at the time, and
Speaker 1: it shaped and it fueled me right more than anything,
Speaker 1: I used it as my dry having forced right to
Speaker 1: know that it was more out there than just my
Speaker 1: living condition and inside of Atlanta, because I attended Atlanta
Speaker 1: Public school system and at the time my school was
Speaker 1: one of the Lord's performing public schools in the state
Speaker 1: of Georgia, and so the conversation was just different. So
Speaker 1: through sports, it exposed me to a different world. We
Speaker 1: have to take a break and the morning thing, we
Speaker 1: gotta pay some bills, you got checks. I love cut
Speaker 1: to It, and I love it even more when you
Speaker 1: download us and subscribe and you can follow us on
Speaker 1: social media too. Smithie, where where at that's at? Cut
Speaker 1: to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook?
Speaker 1: Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online
Speaker 1: and you can follow us at cut to It podcast
Speaker 1: dot com, where you can buy merch and you can
Speaker 1: subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got
Speaker 1: all my answers questions. Uh yeah, I got all my
Speaker 1: questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother, Cut
Speaker 1: to a podcast dot com. What were would you use
Speaker 1: to describe what football meantor you growing up? Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: It was an escape for sure, right because of what
Speaker 1: it did for me. It helped me take everything I
Speaker 1: was dealing with at home, and when I got on
Speaker 1: the field, man, I just forgot about it right, Like
Speaker 1: it escaped me right and I was able to be free.
Speaker 1: I felt like when I played ball, I was free.
Speaker 1: I'm sleeping on that floor with the roaches and rats
Speaker 1: from seeing cats in the corner doing what they're doing,
Speaker 1: And I would say it was it was an escape
Speaker 1: for sure. Being from a big family. I'm from a
Speaker 1: big family. My mom is one of thirteen. When my
Speaker 1: mom being one of thirteen, she had two children, me
Speaker 1: and my brother, but one of my aunts she had
Speaker 1: five now that an't had three. And then those cousins
Speaker 1: grew up to be adults like myself. And then I
Speaker 1: have four, and my brother has two. Mother cousin has three.
Speaker 1: You had all those up. It's about sixty of us
Speaker 1: living and breather. About seven percent of us live outside
Speaker 1: of the state of California. The rest of them live
Speaker 1: live in California. You had to learn some things good
Speaker 1: and bad from your from being a close knit family.
Speaker 1: Whether you want to be or not, you have to
Speaker 1: be because of the circumstances. So what were some of
Speaker 1: the things that you experienced being in a two bedroom house.
Speaker 1: You could have been in a tin bedroom house, it
Speaker 1: didn't matter. You were in the house with a lot
Speaker 1: of different folks, a lot of different attitudes, a lot
Speaker 1: of different perspectives, a lot of different viewpoints. And then
Speaker 1: you add the cold trull part on there. You add
Speaker 1: you add the struggle on in there, and it is
Speaker 1: a cocktail. Some would say disaster. But we're talking to
Speaker 1: Inkie Johnson today with one of some of the things
Speaker 1: that he experienced. And there was a cocktail for success
Speaker 1: because it fueled you. It made you intense. That people
Speaker 1: are intrigued in love the intensity of you. So what
Speaker 1: what did that strong, tighten it forced living situation do
Speaker 1: for your your internal dialogue of how your family structure
Speaker 1: was absolutely man it um. You know, Steve, I always
Speaker 1: tell people, Man, I say, those are some of the
Speaker 1: best times in my life. Now, of course, you know
Speaker 1: I've had more because I got children, got a wife.
Speaker 1: But growing up, man, that was some of the best
Speaker 1: times in my life. You know, me and my cousins
Speaker 1: will be sleep on the floor and we will lay
Speaker 1: out pallets. And at night when a cat would jump
Speaker 1: on the phone and be talking to a girl and
Speaker 1: all us base dropping and we're a joke with him.
Speaker 1: When you get off the phone and all of us
Speaker 1: right there in the same environment, you know, it taught
Speaker 1: us protection. It taught us you protect family, right, you
Speaker 1: care about family. Because in that same family, you got
Speaker 1: certain cats. You know, they're doing what they're doing, and
Speaker 1: they're going to prison, and they got their reasoning for
Speaker 1: You got other cats in that same house that get
Speaker 1: up and they go to church, they go to Bible study,
Speaker 1: and so you got two different types of cats in
Speaker 1: that same house. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it was still a level of unconditional love. Meaning when
Speaker 1: a cat went to prison, right, you you might you
Speaker 1: might hold him accountable, you might criticize him, you're gonna
Speaker 1: talk to him and where you're gonna talk to him.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, that's family. Like
Speaker 1: when me and my cousin used to wear the same
Speaker 1: clothes to school, Right, I wear it on Monday, my
Speaker 1: cousin wear on Tuesday. My other cousin weared on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Other cousin wear on Thursday. Other cousin wear it on Friday.
Speaker 1: Right in a catory talking crazy at school, right, we
Speaker 1: weren't tripping. You say what you say, But we're gonna
Speaker 1: protect each other. We're gonna hold each other down at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, and we're gonna love each other.
Speaker 1: When a cat will bring that Roman Nooters in the house,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, And we gotta split them,
Speaker 1: the Roman Nooters and you're breaking down one pack so
Speaker 1: you can have a little extra saut or a cat
Speaker 1: doing a syrup sandwich, you know what I'm saying. It
Speaker 1: taught us gratitude. It taught us appreciation for family, and
Speaker 1: you made the best out of what you had right
Speaker 1: in that current situation. Like I never saw my grandmother complain.
Speaker 1: I never saw my mother complain, right, And so even
Speaker 1: though the environment was what it was, right, We were
Speaker 1: still grateful, we were still having fun, and you just
Speaker 1: suggest to it, right, it just is what it is.
Speaker 1: And so it taught me a lot, man, a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that I think of, shaking the mold
Speaker 1: of me into the man that I am today. It's
Speaker 1: easy for people, I believe, to remember what you didn't have.
Speaker 1: It is so tough to remember what you had. And
Speaker 1: as I and allows what Inky just said and even
Speaker 1: feeling it right now, just the love that I can
Speaker 1: remember having. My grandmother didn't have a lot, had probably
Speaker 1: the reading level of a third or fourth grade, but
Speaker 1: the love that I remember having, the protectiveness that that
Speaker 1: our family have, and so never being avoid in that.
Speaker 1: Maybe not having a lot from a financial standpoint or
Speaker 1: or an abundance from that, but man, in abundance of love. Uh, Inky,
Speaker 1: who was the person you talk about, the cousin you
Speaker 1: talk about that. Who was the person or people that
Speaker 1: were inspiring you and your family? Yeah? It was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of people, man. But if I
Speaker 1: had to choose one, you know, outside of my mom,
Speaker 1: I would say my uncle. You know I had an
Speaker 1: uncle named JJ. You know, well he's still living today.
Speaker 1: But you know, he dropped out of school early, you know,
Speaker 1: just grew up in a different time and he poured concrete. Right.
Speaker 1: He used to bust driveways and he still does it
Speaker 1: till his day. And some sad of the days or
Speaker 1: on the weekends when we didn't have a game, he
Speaker 1: would take us to work with him, right, and he
Speaker 1: would let us bust a driveway, give us a couple
Speaker 1: of dollars, whatever the case may have been. And he
Speaker 1: would always give me like the jackhammer, right, and Jack
Speaker 1: him was about bigger than me, right, Like I'm not
Speaker 1: a big dude. Jack him werl be wearing me out.
Speaker 1: But I'm a competitor. So at the time I'm young,
Speaker 1: I'm mad, Right, I got snapped coming out of my nose.
Speaker 1: I got on goggles, and he got my older cousins
Speaker 1: with him as well, And so I'll never forget. One
Speaker 1: day we was going to work with him, and I
Speaker 1: told one of my other cousin, like, man, if he
Speaker 1: give me the jack Himer to day, like, oh, y'all
Speaker 1: bigger than me, Like he needs to give y'all to
Speaker 1: Jack him. I want to smooth the country out, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. He's giving me the jack himmer,
Speaker 1: And sure enough he gave it to me, and it's
Speaker 1: hot and we're working. I'm wrestling with the jack himmer.
Speaker 1: I throw it down. I go over to him and
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, man, why why are you always giving
Speaker 1: me the jack? Him give it to them like they're
Speaker 1: bigger than me. And he was like, look at him.
Speaker 1: And I looked at him. Cats that quick, all right?
Speaker 1: They drinking a pickled juice. They acting like they're getting cramps.
Speaker 1: And he was like, look at him. I looked at him.
Speaker 1: He said, I see something you don't seeing them. He said,
Speaker 1: That's why I give you the jack Cameron. He said.
Speaker 1: I know you're gonna fight when you feel pain, he said,
Speaker 1: but also I want you to feel this manual labor,
Speaker 1: so one day you probably never have to do it
Speaker 1: another day in your life if you handle business the
Speaker 1: right way. And he was that guy for me. Man
Speaker 1: that when my father wasn't present, my uncle, you know,
Speaker 1: he showed me the ropes and he shaped and molded
Speaker 1: me and my mindset throughout life. And he never spoke
Speaker 1: ill of my father up until my father came back
Speaker 1: into my life. So he taught me a lot when
Speaker 1: you were saying, as you were questioning your un that
Speaker 1: served as your father, when your father wasn't there at
Speaker 1: that moment, he was saying that he knew you were
Speaker 1: conditioned to hold the jack hammer. You just didn't know it.
Speaker 1: You our mind was prepared, but your effort wasn't. And
Speaker 1: so it was really cool that he saw something in you,
Speaker 1: that guy placed in you that you didn't know that
Speaker 1: you had in you. And the discernment from him, You
Speaker 1: know that Inky has something inside of him and already
Speaker 1: seen it there. Because it's always crazy. Those older folks,
Speaker 1: they always know because they live life, so they know
Speaker 1: who you're supposed to be around him he shouldn't be
Speaker 1: around And for us, you know a lot of times
Speaker 1: we're hard anyway, so we don't want to know and
Speaker 1: you end up having to learn the hard way. But man,
Speaker 1: just even that level of discernment from him, so you
Speaker 1: were built off that. Take us through, Take us through
Speaker 1: that moment at the University of Tennessee. That changed your life,
Speaker 1: that made you into the guy fearing. You were guy fearing,
Speaker 1: but it really changed your perspective on how you saw everything.
Speaker 1: That September nine, you know, two thousand and six. He
Speaker 1: was playing against the Air Force, you know, fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of the game, a little bit over two minutes left
Speaker 1: half Florida the next week, and um, I just thought
Speaker 1: I was about to go make a tackle in the game,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe force a fumble. And when I hit him,
Speaker 1: you know, I never forget. Man, it seemed as if
Speaker 1: my soul left my body right and and my body
Speaker 1: just went completely limp. I fell to the ground. I
Speaker 1: blacked out. Had never happened to me before. When my
Speaker 1: eyes opened, it was a shot going from my head
Speaker 1: to my toes, just constantly going up and down my
Speaker 1: body and I couldn't move, and my teammates like, inin't
Speaker 1: get up, let's go, And I was like, man, I can't.
Speaker 1: It's like what you mean you can't? So I can't move.
Speaker 1: And the shock eventually left, but it stayed in my
Speaker 1: right on in hand, and they put me on the
Speaker 1: spine board to get me in the ambulance and they
Speaker 1: say to me, we'll get you over in a couple
Speaker 1: of tests. No, it's football. Things happen, You'll be good.
Speaker 1: And they get me over and they run their tests
Speaker 1: and everything is going smooth, like it's protocol. And when
Speaker 1: they put me in the room. You know, my mom
Speaker 1: comes in. She kissed me on my forehead. Cracks a joke,
Speaker 1: says incors football. Things just happened. And when she walked
Speaker 1: out of the room, I'll never forget I flipped my
Speaker 1: head to the left. When I flipped my head to
Speaker 1: the left, the head doctor was he was jogging and
Speaker 1: he was screaming, and he was saying, guy's guys, get
Speaker 1: in here. We gotta rush this kid back to emergency surgery.
Speaker 1: He's about to die. And I was like, die. And
Speaker 1: I thought he was joking, like trying to make the
Speaker 1: situation more intense, and I was like, doubt, you mean die.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, we ran the test. We noticed you
Speaker 1: had ruptured your cyplavian artery and your chest. You're bleeding
Speaker 1: internally said we gotta rush you back right now and
Speaker 1: take the main vein out of your left leg and
Speaker 1: plug it into your chest in order to save your life.
Speaker 1: He said, I guarantee you you won't be here in
Speaker 1: the morning. And the next morning, man, when I woke up,
Speaker 1: I had six cuts down my left eye, one cut
Speaker 1: across the left side of my neck, one across the
Speaker 1: right side. Twice through my right ribs had cut out
Speaker 1: my right pack, bottom of my armpit to the bottom
Speaker 1: of my hand. I had three fifty staples in my body.
Speaker 1: And they said when they went in to repair the artery,
Speaker 1: they noticed I had torn the nerves and might break
Speaker 1: your plexus. What are the nerve roots that go from
Speaker 1: my spine that controls my shoulder, my arm, my hands,
Speaker 1: and my fingers And they said they can't be replugged.
Speaker 1: And they said, we hate to tell you, man, but
Speaker 1: you probably can never play the game of football again.
Speaker 1: And so, Bro, my life got turned completely upside down overnight. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When you say turned upside down, m hmm, what do
Speaker 1: you exactly mean? Was it that? What your experience of
Speaker 1: the life threatening injury? What was the career in the injury?
Speaker 1: I would say a little bit of both, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's like, you know, I think it's people sometimes
Speaker 1: we never think about how fleeting life is, right, I know,
Speaker 1: I had never thought that something like that could happen
Speaker 1: to me. I just never thought about it, right, that
Speaker 1: no injuries happened. But I never thought I could get
Speaker 1: an injury in a game and be fighting for my
Speaker 1: life that night and wake up the next day, and
Speaker 1: my life has never went back to the way that
Speaker 1: it was prior to that injury. I just never thought
Speaker 1: about it that way. And so when I say got
Speaker 1: turned upside down, a little bit of both, because a
Speaker 1: lot of people see the injury and they're like, man,
Speaker 1: you gotta paralyze right on my hand, And people don't
Speaker 1: really realize what you just said that I was really
Speaker 1: fighting for my life. Like if they didn't catch that,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have woke up the next morning. My mother
Speaker 1: would have walked into that room, my father would have
Speaker 1: walked into that room, and I would have been dead
Speaker 1: right just from the cyclavian artery bleeding internally. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: such a it's such a balance because to seize one
Speaker 1: thing where you're alluding to, like you were projected first round,
Speaker 1: pick you or a star at Alonzo crim in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: What was the biggest change that this injury caused you
Speaker 1: to look inward? Like the biggest change internally for you? Yeah? Man,
Speaker 1: it um it made me evaluate and self assess a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, just in terms of priorities, in terms of
Speaker 1: my life. You know what I wanted my life to
Speaker 1: mean after that, You know what I wanted my life
Speaker 1: to represent after that, and it convicted me, Man, to
Speaker 1: be honest, it convicted me because I felt as if
Speaker 1: I had given everything I had to something, and all
Speaker 1: those years have given everything I had to something. I
Speaker 1: lost it like that. Whatever my little dream, my little
Speaker 1: aspiration and my goal was, I lost it in a moment.
Speaker 1: And so it convicted me, like, man, you gave everything
Speaker 1: you had to this, and you wrapped your identity up
Speaker 1: in this and you lost it that quick, right, and
Speaker 1: you never thought that it could happen. And so the
Speaker 1: conviction came with me trying to search and find fulfillment
Speaker 1: and purpose because my identity for so long was a
Speaker 1: football player, right, And I was cool with it because
Speaker 1: I never had to think outside of that. And what
Speaker 1: the injury did. It convicted me and made me think
Speaker 1: outside of what I once was. You wrote a book,
Speaker 1: m hm, and I really want to focus on the
Speaker 1: title because I think it's really interesting. Um faith, Yeah?
Speaker 1: And what was the last one? Perseverance? Yeah? So I
Speaker 1: know what I have in my nose, but I wanted
Speaker 1: you to say it because it's a setup. What is
Speaker 1: the meaning of perseverance for you? Today? Inky? You know
Speaker 1: how like um in the Bible. Right, it says, um,
Speaker 1: no weapon formed against me share prosper. Right, And we
Speaker 1: hear people say, well, let's say no weapon formed against
Speaker 1: me shall prosper. It didn't say the weapons wouldn't form.
Speaker 1: Is that they wouldn't prosper. And so in terms of perseverance,
Speaker 1: when I think about perseverance, always like interconnected, outside of
Speaker 1: what the definition of perseverance is, I interconnected to this
Speaker 1: two shall pass, right, like keep pressing forward, This too
Speaker 1: shall pass. No matter how tough, how rough, how bad
Speaker 1: it gets, This too shall pass. And so my ability
Speaker 1: to persevere is predicated upon that's a moment. I'm not
Speaker 1: about to make a permanent decision to give up over
Speaker 1: temporary condition. This too shall pass. That's what perseverance represents
Speaker 1: to me. This too shall pass. No weapon formed against
Speaker 1: me shall prosper. It didn't say they wouldn't form. It
Speaker 1: said they wouldn't prosper. Now, how we navigate and get
Speaker 1: through that, that's on us. But this too shall pass.
Speaker 1: That's what it means to me, outside of the definition
Speaker 1: of what perseverance means. So I'm a piggy back off
Speaker 1: of the question that that Smitty proposed. So then what
Speaker 1: does faith mean to you? Absolutely, faith for me represents
Speaker 1: you know. In the Bible, it says the Biblical definition
Speaker 1: is faith is a substance of things hopeful to evidence
Speaker 1: of things not seen. And so for me my whole life,
Speaker 1: even before I knew pretty much what faith was like
Speaker 1: the essence of it, what it always represented to me
Speaker 1: was everything is gonna be okay, right, Like me growing
Speaker 1: up to bedroom home, fourteen people, Everything gonna be okay, right,
Speaker 1: me having this injury, Everything's gonna be okay, right, Things
Speaker 1: are gonna work itself out if I do my part right.
Speaker 1: That's what faith is for me, continuing to press forward
Speaker 1: and knowing that everything is gonna work itself out and
Speaker 1: be okay, right. And so with situation, circumstances, with adversity,
Speaker 1: with our position. Faith is that hope, right, that unbelievable
Speaker 1: hope that man, when you go through it, I knew
Speaker 1: it maybe hard in a moment, but everything will be okay.
Speaker 1: It's like we all experienced stuff in life, as people
Speaker 1: like I tell people all the time, I'm like, bro,
Speaker 1: the one thing we all got in common, no matter
Speaker 1: where we come from, no matter where we grew up at,
Speaker 1: we all gonna face that version in opposition. It might
Speaker 1: look different, but we're all gonna go through it. And
Speaker 1: what it means is just bro. You keep moving forward,
Speaker 1: you keep pressing. Everything's gonna be okay, and the things
Speaker 1: that you thought wouldn't be okay you look back on
Speaker 1: it and if you acquired the right perspective about it.
Speaker 1: I think we all got moments in our lives to
Speaker 1: where we look back and in the moment we didn't
Speaker 1: appreciate it. But a month later, two months later, three years,
Speaker 1: four years down the line, like, man, I'm grateful for
Speaker 1: that situation because it's shaped and molded me into the
Speaker 1: man that I now am. I think it's about that time.
Speaker 1: Just take a little breather, goudadud, let's get down to
Speaker 1: do it. Hey Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where we have exclusive merchandise shout out right guys and
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt subscribed to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts And you when did that hit you
Speaker 1: that you you know now you've you've you've pivoted, You've
Speaker 1: become an amazing motivational speaker. Not amazing. You short change
Speaker 1: it to give me, give me the adject, let me go.
Speaker 1: How about our door opening for Inky? Right? But coming
Speaker 1: to the stage, y'all know him as Mr Johnson. However,
Speaker 1: Age and eighty nine knows him as Inky. He's not
Speaker 1: a guy that just had three hundred fifty staples lost
Speaker 1: his packing, also has lost his limb. He is a
Speaker 1: guy that internally is bigger than what he could have
Speaker 1: been on a football field. He also understands holistically what
Speaker 1: you need to bring to the table to be able
Speaker 1: to tackle and also shake off the haters of life.
Speaker 1: He also understands and needs you to stand up and
Speaker 1: if you said and we will remove you, let Inky
Speaker 1: know how much you love them, how much you need him.
Speaker 1: And coming to the stage, my friend, my encourage her
Speaker 1: and the man that motivation Inky Johnson and that music
Speaker 1: copy What's what's what's song you gotta play? What's your
Speaker 1: woke up? So, man's what's your woke up on that?
Speaker 1: If Smithy did that whole intro? What's what's the song
Speaker 1: I played that I played at Field College? Coming in
Speaker 1: the air to night. I used to be joint Okay,
Speaker 1: I got my mind right. Oh man, that was fun.
Speaker 1: We did not playing that at all. But but but
Speaker 1: I would love to know when when did you decide
Speaker 1: that you wanted to encourage others and embark on this
Speaker 1: career being a motivational speaker. You know, I never I
Speaker 1: never wanted to just speak, you know. I thought after
Speaker 1: I got done playing, i'd be a coach, you know,
Speaker 1: I thought that would be a natural transition. I was
Speaker 1: a graduate assistant for three years and then I moved
Speaker 1: back to Atlanta and I was supposed to have a
Speaker 1: job at the rec center. I grew up, you know,
Speaker 1: playing ball all that things of that nature, and things
Speaker 1: kind of fell through, and I was just doing service
Speaker 1: projects because a lot of people helped me and my
Speaker 1: family growing up. And I would go back to Knoxville
Speaker 1: from time to time do service projects. And every time
Speaker 1: I would go somewhere, somebody would see my arm because
Speaker 1: of the atrophy, and cats would just strike up and
Speaker 1: then formal Q and a like, man, what happened to
Speaker 1: your arm? Man? Like all your arm look like that?
Speaker 1: Or what happened? What's the story behind it? And I
Speaker 1: would be talking, not speaking, just tell them what happened
Speaker 1: and when I would leave, Cats would be like, man,
Speaker 1: you might need to look into speaking. I'll be like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm good on that, and I'll never forget I Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: why did you say now I'm good on that? Like that?
Speaker 1: Because yeah, something internally you battle with you You shot
Speaker 1: it down so quick? Why m Because I never saw
Speaker 1: myself as that, right I never I never thought to
Speaker 1: be honest, like I tell people all the time, like
Speaker 1: we all know cats that then went through something that
Speaker 1: grew up a certain type of way. Like I never
Speaker 1: thought my situation, you know, it was anything special, Like
Speaker 1: I never because I was growing up in it. It
Speaker 1: just was what it was to me. I never thought
Speaker 1: even when I got injured, like cats get injured a lot.
Speaker 1: After I got to a place to where I could
Speaker 1: accept it, I never thought it was anything special for
Speaker 1: me to try to stand up and talk to people, right.
Speaker 1: I never liked standing up talking to people. My personality
Speaker 1: is I played a background like that's just who I am.
Speaker 1: I observed I'll come in be quiet, you know, and
Speaker 1: just chill. And so I shot it down because it
Speaker 1: was just something I never saw myself doing. And I'll
Speaker 1: never forget. Man um I did an interview in Knoxville,
Speaker 1: and after I left, I went to the mall. Later
Speaker 1: that day. When I was leaving the mall, a guy
Speaker 1: was running towards me. I never forget it. He was
Speaker 1: running towards me, and I'm like, what's up, my man?
Speaker 1: And he stopped a couple of feet away from me,
Speaker 1: and he was crying and he was like, man, thank you.
Speaker 1: Man like thank you, and he was saying it in
Speaker 1: a passionate way. And I was like, thank you. I
Speaker 1: was like, if you don't mind, what are you thanking
Speaker 1: me for? And he said, I saw your story on
Speaker 1: the news earlier. And he said I saw you making
Speaker 1: humor of your situation. And he said, um, I got
Speaker 1: a wife and I got three daughters. And he said
Speaker 1: when I saw you, I was like, man, if that
Speaker 1: dude could stand there and fight with what he's going through,
Speaker 1: surely I can stand there and I can fight for
Speaker 1: my wife and my three daughters. And he said. I
Speaker 1: was about to leave him, man, and he said thank
Speaker 1: you and he left. And when he said it, I
Speaker 1: was like, man, if I represent that the people, I
Speaker 1: gotta take, you know, my life a little bit more serious.
Speaker 1: I gotta take what I'm doing a little bit more serious,
Speaker 1: and that sparked it. Man trying to find purpose, and
Speaker 1: I felt as if this was what God wanted me
Speaker 1: to do, and I wanted to be obedient to it.
Speaker 1: How have you really intentionally sought out self care or
Speaker 1: help to kind of manage no fellers. When I when
Speaker 1: I was saying that like the situation, I think one
Speaker 1: of one of the greatest things that it did for
Speaker 1: me was, um, it made me, you know, self assess
Speaker 1: with conviction, right in terms of the thought process I had,
Speaker 1: the way I went about things, and when the injury happened,
Speaker 1: like y'all said, it was a process because I was
Speaker 1: in a process to where nobody could give me any answers. Though,
Speaker 1: because when you go through the break your plexus evulsion,
Speaker 1: nobody can't come to you like an a c L
Speaker 1: like a shoulder injury and say, hey man, three months,
Speaker 1: six months, nine month, twelve months, They said to me,
Speaker 1: think we're gonna put you in a two year process
Speaker 1: from Knoxville, Tennessee to the Mayo Clinic. Best pieces of
Speaker 1: equipment on the world, give you access to what's supposed
Speaker 1: to be the best doctors in the world. We just
Speaker 1: need you to show up every week and for two years,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what it produces. We can't guarantee you
Speaker 1: that your fingers will work after you're done. We can't
Speaker 1: guarantee your arm will work. We can't guarantee you one
Speaker 1: day you'll be able to hug your mother. You get married,
Speaker 1: you'll be able to hug your wife. We can't guarantee that.
Speaker 1: They said, we're just trying to get you to assist
Speaker 1: it daily living right, And I'm like, what's that like
Speaker 1: if you go to the grocery store, you could put
Speaker 1: a bag up under your arm and you can hold
Speaker 1: it right now. I was like, cool, sign me up.
Speaker 1: Because my mentality, my whole life has been I never
Speaker 1: needed a result to get gone. I never needed you
Speaker 1: to guarantee me anything for me to show up and
Speaker 1: work hard. I never needed you to say, Inky, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna promise you this like I never needed that. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be dedicated and committed just from my circumstance and
Speaker 1: what I've been through. Now when I got a family
Speaker 1: and I got a wife and I got two kids.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget telling my cousin man some of the
Speaker 1: things we were taught, like it was wrong, like not
Speaker 1: wrong in a bad way, wrong in terms of they
Speaker 1: gave us the best that they had. Now we're in
Speaker 1: a totally different situation. Now we're dealing with different circumstances.
Speaker 1: Now we have different resources. And so when it came
Speaker 1: to my children, I'll never forget trying to explain things
Speaker 1: to him and help him with certain things right, And
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. One day, my wife said, sometimes it's people.
Speaker 1: We can get so focused on who a person can
Speaker 1: become that we forget to acknowledge, like where they are
Speaker 1: and who they are. And so with my children, when
Speaker 1: they would do something great, I would always say, man,
Speaker 1: that's cool, but if you do this, it can produce that.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's great. But if you do this, it
Speaker 1: can produce that. And I'll never forget. Fellas one day,
Speaker 1: my my daughter got in the car and she's ten now,
Speaker 1: it's probably when she was around eight, and she got
Speaker 1: in the car and she had a grade from school
Speaker 1: and she said, Daddy, I gotta I gotta be on this.
Speaker 1: And she was like, you might not think you know
Speaker 1: it's that good, but I'm really proud of myself. That's
Speaker 1: how she was talking to She was studying with and
Speaker 1: every I'm really proud of myself now, I said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of you. Maybe they're a great job. And
Speaker 1: I thought to myself, have I created an environment to
Speaker 1: where I'm always telling my children, yeah, that's cool, but
Speaker 1: if you do this, it can get that. And I
Speaker 1: never stopped to appreciate the small things. I never stopped
Speaker 1: to congratulate them on the small winds, because that was
Speaker 1: my mentality my whole life. Like that's how I was
Speaker 1: wyat my whole life. Ain't that's not good enough? Bro,
Speaker 1: You gotta do twice as much. You come into better
Speaker 1: from home fourteen people. Right, you're being raised by a
Speaker 1: single mother. My daughter got both for a parents in
Speaker 1: the home. That was my mentality growing up. And your
Speaker 1: mother working a double shift, bro, Like you can't do
Speaker 1: a hunted shots, you gotta do a thout like that
Speaker 1: was my mentality growing up. And so taking time to
Speaker 1: deconstruct all of that reverse engine near all of that
Speaker 1: and put myself into space to where I quiet new
Speaker 1: skills to try to be a better human being. It
Speaker 1: wasn't that any of the things I learned was that bad.
Speaker 1: It was just every next level of our lives demand
Speaker 1: the new version of us, and we got to be
Speaker 1: in a constant pursuit to become better. Well, ink, your
Speaker 1: last segment is called the deep three smythe I'm going
Speaker 1: to give him the first one. As an athlete, we
Speaker 1: relish more plays, more drills, more weights, more challenges. Um.
Speaker 1: What is the more in your life today that you
Speaker 1: want to attack like a like a workout or or
Speaker 1: or an opponent. Man, Um, I'm really on this pursuit, man,
Speaker 1: just in terms of more, like just being more as
Speaker 1: a father. Right, it's being more in terms of my
Speaker 1: communication with my children, my timing with my children. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, dealing with certain things with my children in
Speaker 1: terms of situations and circumstances and my response. Right like
Speaker 1: I felt I felt like, Um like it was certain
Speaker 1: times last year, in the year prior. It was moments
Speaker 1: that I failed in my communication. Right, it was moments
Speaker 1: where I failed in my timing. Of course I'm near form,
Speaker 1: but just just trying to be better. And you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, that's that more for me man, being
Speaker 1: more as a father. You mentioned a couple of times
Speaker 1: how you wanted to break generational curses. What other generational
Speaker 1: curses are you striving to break now just um, you know,
Speaker 1: generational wealth man, in terms of decisions, choices and not
Speaker 1: just financially, just a lot of information that you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't have access to, Like when I was speaking
Speaker 1: about you know, the generation that brought me up, you know,
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, they gave me what they had
Speaker 1: access to. And like you always just speaking about resource
Speaker 1: wise now you know, cats are wealthy. You know, you
Speaker 1: got all types of resources around you, all type of
Speaker 1: access and so generational wealth not just from a financial standpoint,
Speaker 1: but also my information standpoint, you know, get myself in
Speaker 1: the best possible position to educate you know, my children,
Speaker 1: my family and cats that just God brings across my path. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you could put a billboard up to reach millions
Speaker 1: of people. Mhmm, what would you put on What would
Speaker 1: you want to put on that on the billboard and
Speaker 1: what would it say? I would say, have gratitude and
Speaker 1: advance for everything, because everything plays apart into your development
Speaker 1: as a person. M Yeah, gratitude and advance before it
Speaker 1: even shows up. Be grateful for well, Inky, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate um you coming on this podcast again. I love
Speaker 1: your intensity man, that means a lot of Thank you brothers, man,
Speaker 1: thank you both for the opportunity. Man, I enjoyed this. Man.
Speaker 1: Have you always separated your identity from age and eight nine?
Speaker 1: M uh no, because I mean the identity age and
Speaker 1: a not just kind of you know, last couple I'll
Speaker 1: probably say last ten years. So um, you know, I
Speaker 1: think more than anything, which is probably shocking, is I
Speaker 1: found my identity agent eighting and honest Steve Smith saying
Speaker 1: you all that stuff it is me. It's all wrapped together.
Speaker 1: It's all wrapped together. Um, so they will never you
Speaker 1: didn't just leave Agent eighty nine on the field. Age
Speaker 1: and nine comes off the field too. Yeah, but but
Speaker 1: that part is is um you know, of the business
Speaker 1: aspect of it. There are times where I'm asked to
Speaker 1: do things and I will say how much of it?
Speaker 1: And people think I asked the price because um, focus
Speaker 1: on the money. I asked the price because then that
Speaker 1: tells me how much of my time will be required,
Speaker 1: what you are expecting out of me. And there are
Speaker 1: times I've declined some prices where I don't have the
Speaker 1: time to put all of that in there, So no,
Speaker 1: thank you? And why is that time parting important? A
Speaker 1: little bit I'm sure what Inky just told us. Because
Speaker 1: you can't get it back and get it back, how
Speaker 1: many times is he doing a speaking requesting, leaving his kids,
Speaker 1: leaving his wife, or you're not you're not present because
Speaker 1: you're you. You've said I'll do this for a big
Speaker 1: sum or little something, and then you do all of
Speaker 1: this stuff prepare for it. So you have event on Saturday,
Speaker 1: but you spent Monday through Thursday preparing for it, and
Speaker 1: then you try to check in for a little bit
Speaker 1: on Friday, and then you're off to your event on Saturday.
Speaker 1: You've pretty much been absentee individual for the last six
Speaker 1: and a half, five and a half days preparing for that.
Speaker 1: In thirty five minutes, Time's almost valuable resource. Time is
Speaker 1: a non renewable energy. You cannot It's a resource that
Speaker 1: is not renewable. You can't get in the back. Nope,
Speaker 1: that's that's the end of the day. You're not You're
Speaker 1: not getting it back. And I'm always reminded it. I'm
Speaker 1: here's the thing, my my my my daughter is six
Speaker 1: right now, I'm never gonna have memories with her again
Speaker 1: being five years old. You can't get it back, right,
Speaker 1: So every every moment is precious. Every every time, every
Speaker 1: every piece of time, every second, it's all. It's all.
Speaker 1: It's all precious. Man, it is. You are a unique person,
Speaker 1: you are well worth it, you are competent, and most
Speaker 1: of all, you're lovable. I'm Steve Smith, Singer, I'm Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John and this has cut to It Cut two
Speaker 1: with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production
Speaker 1: of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
Speaker 1: team Wesley Robinson and John show from Balto Creative Media.
Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevic and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Theme music by Alex Johnson,
Speaker 1: lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it,
Speaker 1: then We're about to let you know. It's all two