Speaker 1: Big Fangs and DJ Scream bring you Big Facts, the
Speaker 1: hottest podcast in the streets. Visit the new website today
Speaker 1: www dot Big Facts pod dot com live from first
Speaker 1: Class Sounds. You know who it is. DJ Scream, Big
Speaker 1: Bankers here, Baby Jay to see a time for another
Speaker 1: episode of Big Facts and then get turned up on it.
Speaker 1: You gotta get the energy basine. We're blessed to be here. Bro,
Speaker 1: everybody don't get to do this. I'll be happy. I'm
Speaker 1: still happy. I ain't used to it. I ain't used
Speaker 1: to it. Yeah, you know, I'm still happy. But today
Speaker 1: I'll be happier back because we're gonna get some motivations.
Speaker 1: Houts to Ikey Johnson. If you're not familiar with Ikey Johnson,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Very captivated story, a real story.
Speaker 1: He gonna give us some motivation. Is some game today.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited about that. Pressure on that chill you Yeah,
Speaker 1: pressure on that little good ahead. After you tell you
Speaker 1: ship you got, we got to talk about uh surreal
Speaker 1: ship because this this is ship that be happening for
Speaker 1: everybody right. Oh what do you do when you feel
Speaker 1: like quitting? You know what I'm saying when ship ain't
Speaker 1: going your way. The obstacles, the obstacles got you down.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like what are you doing?
Speaker 1: And to be completely transparent, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: It's great and as blessed as everything can be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll be having some dash still have some days like
Speaker 1: like but like for I started off, like for like
Speaker 1: for me, when I'm when I'm down or like when
Speaker 1: I'm just not feeling it or I'm just like low,
Speaker 1: I have to like I have to get out of
Speaker 1: I have to go outside. I have to get some
Speaker 1: fresh air. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, Because it's
Speaker 1: like if I'm sitting in the house or I'm sitting
Speaker 1: somewhere or whatever, it's gonna just it's gonna stay on me.
Speaker 1: So I gotta get out, Go take a walk, you know,
Speaker 1: go swim, you know what I'm saying, anything to like
Speaker 1: shake that ship off and like get it off me
Speaker 1: and kind of just clear my mind a little bit
Speaker 1: because if I don't, then like my energy is gonna
Speaker 1: be sucked up for however long until I get it
Speaker 1: off of me. And like with me, like when my
Speaker 1: energy be fucked up and ship, I try to stay
Speaker 1: away from people. Anything could happen when my energy is
Speaker 1: sucked up, and I don't want to be responsible for
Speaker 1: offending somebody or hurting somebody's feelings, or cursing somebody out,
Speaker 1: or punching somebody or anything. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't warranted. You see what I'm saying is
Speaker 1: because I'm already in a fun up mood and y'all
Speaker 1: just ended up catching it. You see what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: So get it. You know what I'm saying. The first
Speaker 1: thing I do is pray. I got to start praying
Speaker 1: if it ain't going right out of Yeah, that's a friend,
Speaker 1: a lot of meditating, a lot of being to myself,
Speaker 1: like you say, because I don't want to suck up.
Speaker 1: It always seems like sometimes when when you when you
Speaker 1: haven't sometimes like when you're having that I'm a quit
Speaker 1: day or that fucked up day, that somebody else day
Speaker 1: might be going good. She don't want to be mad
Speaker 1: at him because they ship going good. It's just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like I don't know, hate every happy for you, like
Speaker 1: just the day ain't yeah, yeah, let me just let
Speaker 1: me just let me just stay over here until tomorrow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't want to, you know. I think
Speaker 1: that's a beautiful thing. Though maybe in our space you
Speaker 1: got to speak to bank, but like it would be
Speaker 1: a day for me. It don't never be like dumpty.
Speaker 1: They don't never what we're talking about. When you feel
Speaker 1: like when you feel like quit, when you had that
Speaker 1: fucked up day, when you like fuck everything, one of
Speaker 1: them days that could be having you happy to day
Speaker 1: I'm happy. Well, I'm thinking about Quinn too. I'm just
Speaker 1: a sad day for me. Man. I just every day
Speaker 1: I wake up, I want to do something different. Man,
Speaker 1: This ship just I guess that's what it is. Only
Speaker 1: one But how do you like, how do you shake
Speaker 1: out of it or shake it off when you're having
Speaker 1: one of those days like I just got damn smoke
Speaker 1: blood back with a day, man, take the pain away,
Speaker 1: real ship. You can smoke that ship away. Bro, We
Speaker 1: like got some men to make it to be like
Speaker 1: you can see that another way. That's the way to
Speaker 1: look at it. For me, I don't know what for
Speaker 1: other people like it should I be smoking. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you what the therapist told me. I do therapy
Speaker 1: and all that ship I started a gratitude general ship
Speaker 1: changed my life because you start writing down all the
Speaker 1: ship that's going, right, I don't like my hand right.
Speaker 1: I can't even read that ship when I got there.
Speaker 1: When I write the ship down, I can't he ever,
Speaker 1: Like what the fun they was this v y'all I'm
Speaker 1: probably doing on my phone. Probably No. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: that I get in the spirit of gratitude. You ain't
Speaker 1: gotten to write it down, but you can. You can
Speaker 1: sit there and look at them two or threefold things
Speaker 1: that's fucked up that day of that week. But if
Speaker 1: you start to think about, damn, I can walk, I'm healthy,
Speaker 1: I got food. Yeah, But you know another thing to
Speaker 1: like you're saying, like, when you like have some ship
Speaker 1: that you're upset about or depressed about or down about,
Speaker 1: and it's fucked up for you, another way to like
Speaker 1: kind of offset the ship is when you take that
Speaker 1: one thing that you are down about, think about three
Speaker 1: things that you're grateful for or three positive things, and
Speaker 1: focus on those. And then I'm not saying that you'll
Speaker 1: forget about what you're down about, but it will kind
Speaker 1: of help even it out to bring your spirit back up.
Speaker 1: Like I'm gonna smoke. Yeah. Man, One thing about it, man,
Speaker 1: ship just you just gotta pray for the best, man
Speaker 1: prepare for the worst. I think I think you know,
Speaker 1: kind of the purpose of this is to let our
Speaker 1: supporters and everybody know, like you know, go through ship too.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Bunch of right, everybody go
Speaker 1: through ship. Yeah, but it's you can't let that ship
Speaker 1: consume you, man, definitely not, but for real because if
Speaker 1: you focus, if you Another thing that I've learned too
Speaker 1: is that if you continuously focused on the negative as
Speaker 1: opposed to the positive, then you block your blessings because
Speaker 1: God feels like you're ungrateful for what you already have
Speaker 1: what allegedly allegedly who told you that? Okay told me
Speaker 1: that it ain't nothing more than Hey, what you perceive
Speaker 1: and what you think about and what's what's in that
Speaker 1: brain A lot can become a reality. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I think we kind of spoke up a
Speaker 1: thought up. It's all about me festation and infestations there is,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So you gotta just kind
Speaker 1: of be on that ship and then it's gonna be
Speaker 1: It's different energies around here. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: You gotta fight them when you gotta rebuke them, keep
Speaker 1: them away. You know what I'm saying. It's definitely you
Speaker 1: just know ship happened to like ship happens. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: I'm saying it do be some people that be when
Speaker 1: when you talk to some people though they do be
Speaker 1: having I guess you say a stream of bad luck
Speaker 1: like I'm talking about nigga's like that. You gotta stay
Speaker 1: away from niggas like that, the unlucky. You gotta stay
Speaker 1: the farthest away from them because that ship can run.
Speaker 1: You gotta be aware of help for help my life
Speaker 1: just it ain't going right what you're thinking. No, but
Speaker 1: listening if everybody I might know for real listening. But
Speaker 1: I might not get too close to him, but want
Speaker 1: to be with him every day. But I always tell
Speaker 1: niggas like, bro, have you evaluated some might not be
Speaker 1: right in here? You know what I'm saying, like evaluate
Speaker 1: that ship. Yeah, I just I just talk about this
Speaker 1: on my Instagram the other day, Like I'm the like
Speaker 1: I'm the friend that we might not talk every day,
Speaker 1: we might not talk a whole lot, but if you
Speaker 1: need me, I'm most definitely pulling up. And it's people
Speaker 1: that I don't funk with anymore, even though I don't
Speaker 1: funk with them, like I'm still gonna, like you said,
Speaker 1: answer the phone for them. But people, but the people
Speaker 1: that I don't funk with either I don't funk with
Speaker 1: them because they crossed me, or don't funk with them
Speaker 1: because they just got some funked up ship going on.
Speaker 1: And I don't want that ship to like spill over
Speaker 1: into my ship. Like we're talking about the unlucky people,
Speaker 1: but it's like at the end of the day, it's
Speaker 1: like you can help them, but you can only help
Speaker 1: them so much because it's like why the fund do
Speaker 1: you keep needing help? You have to evaluate like what's
Speaker 1: going on and why you keep being unlucky, and you
Speaker 1: gotta stop pulling people into your ship, like yeah, like
Speaker 1: that's crazy enough is enough? Sometimes right a wrong? You
Speaker 1: even got cash talking, she'll never talk. Big ain't helping
Speaker 1: your situation, nig you don't. But but but you gotta
Speaker 1: evaluate that ship. I'm telling you gotta evaluate that ship
Speaker 1: like somebody will be fucked up and blame everybody else.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You can't do that you
Speaker 1: gotta look inward. What did I do to get into ship? Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: he can't keep it real. He ain't come show me
Speaker 1: no love anyway. Did you show yourself love? That's what
Speaker 1: you gotta ask these niggas like are you showing yourself love?
Speaker 1: And nigga can't want more for you than what you
Speaker 1: want for yourself, just like they said, was that not
Speaker 1: poetic justice? What was that movie? Um Jason's leard you
Speaker 1: can't save a nigga don't want to be saved like
Speaker 1: like you can't like it's impossible. More. The story is
Speaker 1: if you feel like quit, get high right, everything throw
Speaker 1: you up shot a lot. I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know what worked for everybody else because you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, they might smoked the wrong ship. Yeah from me,
Speaker 1: I just except everything they come with this ship, taking
Speaker 1: everything that come code this ship co with it. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why Plue don't got a verse for every fucking situation, life,
Speaker 1: fucking obstacle, everything Like that's it, crazy man, you can
Speaker 1: get you through a lot of ship bro. Most definitely
Speaker 1: definitely shout out of Kirkwood, Shout out the Ink on
Speaker 1: the way Kirkwood. Yes, Inky Johnson on the way. Triple
Speaker 1: W dot Big Facts pod dot Com is going down
Speaker 1: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the Truth
Speaker 1: live and first class sounds. You know who it is,
Speaker 1: DJ Scream, Big Bank Baby and jade A Today We're
Speaker 1: gonna get motivated on Big Facts. If you're down and out,
Speaker 1: if you ain't feeling that, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We got the one and only Inky Johnson here. Oh
Speaker 1: big what's up my brother? How you feeling? How you're feeling, man,
Speaker 1: I'm all good, It's anna. It's a privilege, man. I
Speaker 1: appreciate y'all. We appreciate it. We appreciate it for everybody
Speaker 1: out there. Let's start by just letting everybody know a
Speaker 1: little bit of the Inky Johnson story. I guess you could,
Speaker 1: um let everybody know a little bit of the timeline,
Speaker 1: Like what you were doing, um that led up to
Speaker 1: you playing sports? You know what I'm saying, unfortunate circumstances
Speaker 1: while you were playing sports that led you to be
Speaker 1: a motivational speaker. Yes, so you know, boring and raised
Speaker 1: in Atlanta Kirkwood on six exactly. Yeah, lived all over
Speaker 1: the six but boring and raised in Kirkwood and like
Speaker 1: any other kid man, you know, boring to a mother,
Speaker 1: a sixteen two back on home fourteen people, and I
Speaker 1: saw sports as the vehicle, you know, I wanted to
Speaker 1: help my family. I felt like, you know, they were
Speaker 1: good people. I saw it all just like any other
Speaker 1: cat come up in the city. You see it and
Speaker 1: you want to make a difference in your family's life,
Speaker 1: and you feel as if you've been blessed with the
Speaker 1: talent to do it. And so football was my game,
Speaker 1: you know, not only just the skill set, but it
Speaker 1: was a release. Like once I got out on that field,
Speaker 1: I felt like I was free, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: from my household, from all that was going on. And
Speaker 1: I felt like it was the opportunity. And I got
Speaker 1: a scholarship to the University of Tennessee, first one in
Speaker 1: my family to go to college, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: make good on that investment that a lot of people
Speaker 1: have made in the sacrifices to get me to that point.
Speaker 1: And when I got to Tennessee in my third year,
Speaker 1: I was starting that corner, had been starting that corner,
Speaker 1: and it looked like I was about to be a
Speaker 1: first round draft pick and I go out the second
Speaker 1: game my junior year, make a routine tackle that I've
Speaker 1: been doing since I was a kid, and found myself
Speaker 1: in the emergency room fighting for my life two hours later.
Speaker 1: And it paralyzed my right on the hand, ruptured the
Speaker 1: artery in my chest toward the nurse, my spinic troll,
Speaker 1: my own, my hand, my fingers, and obviously it ended
Speaker 1: my career and my life changed, man, and I went
Speaker 1: searching for purpose. You know, I never thought I would
Speaker 1: be a speaker, Like I never wanted to speak because
Speaker 1: where I grew up, everybody grew up similar to how
Speaker 1: I grew up, and so I never thought what I
Speaker 1: experienced is anything special, you know what I'm saying. Just
Speaker 1: you grew up in the cats, living and sur best
Speaker 1: times in my life, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: one day I was telling somebody and it was like,
Speaker 1: you grew up, how you experience what? And um, you know,
Speaker 1: I felt like this is what I was supposed to
Speaker 1: be doing in my life, man, And I approached it
Speaker 1: with you know, a level of gratitude, and here we
Speaker 1: are and doing it for fourteen years. Well, when you
Speaker 1: when when you speak, though, brothers like a real gift
Speaker 1: from God or I ain't even gonna kept like because
Speaker 1: you can feel every word, like even with his interview,
Speaker 1: like like if y'all ain't only inc y'all got to
Speaker 1: get on them in Johnson on Instagram A talking to
Speaker 1: fit the thousand motherfucker's like he's packing it out like Drake,
Speaker 1: no little cot, no real ship, and I know the
Speaker 1: story like I used to stop down his day's house
Speaker 1: in the morning if I go to school and the
Speaker 1: little kids getting rid of like we all meet up
Speaker 1: at dad in the house thinking up with the kids
Speaker 1: going to white tumor and ship and we're going to coring.
Speaker 1: You get what I'm saying. And he get up age
Speaker 1: and started playing high school about ever, about the whole
Speaker 1: neighborhood behind. You know what I'm saying, we know what,
Speaker 1: we know what, this is, this guaranteed. Then he had
Speaker 1: to like I said, you had an accident or whatever.
Speaker 1: And then then like just popped up like this is
Speaker 1: what he's doing and this ship was serious, real ship.
Speaker 1: Congratulations to bro. No, I appreciate it real. I appreciate
Speaker 1: that one thing when when when you go through adversity
Speaker 1: and I think just being transparent I mean, even when
Speaker 1: you're not going to adversity, just life, sometimes you just
Speaker 1: want to quit. It's just like I still have those days,
Speaker 1: believe it or not. Like you, how you never just
Speaker 1: gave up, like late down, you know, Like I was
Speaker 1: telling the cat last week, like I never had the luxury.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like you grow up? How
Speaker 1: we grow up? I give up. I'm going back to
Speaker 1: the porch, you know what I'm saying. Like my uncle's
Speaker 1: going in and out of prison like cats in the city,
Speaker 1: you know him, like them, cats hustling like anybody in
Speaker 1: the city. And so I just couldn't fathom me getting
Speaker 1: to that point of like a lot of people helped me,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like that's why I lived
Speaker 1: my life the way that I live in It wasn't
Speaker 1: like I was this cat and I was claiming self made,
Speaker 1: Like teachers helped me, cats in the community, Corn Paul Kirkwood,
Speaker 1: Paul coaches helped me. My mom worked a double shift
Speaker 1: at Wendy's sacrifice, my dad when he came into the picture,
Speaker 1: Like a lot of cats helped shape me. And so
Speaker 1: I just couldn't see me getting an injury and quitting
Speaker 1: and going back home to Kirkwood and saying, all right,
Speaker 1: good ride. I made it to that point. Now come
Speaker 1: back to the hood. No, I gotta make good on
Speaker 1: this promise. I gotta show him what I'm made out of.
Speaker 1: I can't quit like and to be honest, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just be one hunt with you. Like I'm not built
Speaker 1: like that. You know what I'm saying, Like I'm a fighter,
Speaker 1: just how I am. If I walk out this building
Speaker 1: right now and I'm trying to get in my truck
Speaker 1: and my right on the hand para lit. If three
Speaker 1: cats running up on me, I ain't running, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like I ain't no tough guy. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But I ain't running. I wann't
Speaker 1: raised like that. You know what I'm saying, Like I
Speaker 1: wann't raised the fold like he know the cats I
Speaker 1: come up, I wasn't built like that. Like they ain't
Speaker 1: mold me like that. You know what I'm saying. The
Speaker 1: floor I came from the house. I came from rats
Speaker 1: and roaches when we got sent out of the house.
Speaker 1: If my cousin got into a fight, all y'all better fighting.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, what are you when you
Speaker 1: come home? It's on you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: so I wasn't raised like that, And so I looked
Speaker 1: at my injury the same way, like I'm not stopping.
Speaker 1: I'm not quitting because I got an injury. I gotta
Speaker 1: figure out how to process it and I might got
Speaker 1: to change my ain't But Quinn is stopping it ain't
Speaker 1: never been an option for me. Yeah, really, so so
Speaker 1: what about what about? What about something who might not
Speaker 1: have that? Just we speak for general people out there
Speaker 1: that might not have that same upbringing all that fire,
Speaker 1: like they might not be as strong. Like there's people
Speaker 1: that go to substances because they can't deal with the
Speaker 1: realities of Yeah, because it's it's like like real ship,
Speaker 1: like for you to be able to persevere through pretty
Speaker 1: much your whole world being shattered and turned upside down
Speaker 1: with no idea like where to go. That's like a
Speaker 1: one in a million type thing with the type of
Speaker 1: with what you had in front of you and like
Speaker 1: having to go through that. So dealing with, like Scream said,
Speaker 1: dealing with that type of adversity, most people would turn
Speaker 1: the substance abuse or you know, turn even suicide or whatever.
Speaker 1: So it's like, how did you I know, like you
Speaker 1: had the strong upbringing and you're a fighter and that,
Speaker 1: but it really took a lot of faith and a
Speaker 1: lot more than that to be able to get you
Speaker 1: through that. So what like how long process exactly what
Speaker 1: to get to where you are now to be okay
Speaker 1: with the fact that you'll never play football again and
Speaker 1: that was your dream? Absolutely no, I hurt um man,
Speaker 1: I cried. I was disappointed. I couldn't fathom it. I
Speaker 1: didn't think it was real. I'll tell people all the time.
Speaker 1: I went to sleep early for like a month, like
Speaker 1: every day. You know what I'm saying, I'll just go
Speaker 1: to sleep early, thinking, Man, I'm gonna wake up tomorrow
Speaker 1: and I'll be able to move my arm again. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like I can't be paralyzed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was real. I've been working for this since I
Speaker 1: was seven, and then you tell me one day it's
Speaker 1: like y'all coming here and do what y'all do. Every
Speaker 1: single day, something happened and the next day you can't
Speaker 1: use your limb again that you've been using your whole
Speaker 1: life without even thinking about it. And so I'm thinking
Speaker 1: it can't be real. And in the process of that
Speaker 1: that bringing me different options to do. When they say
Speaker 1: to me, Ink, we want to get you to assist
Speaker 1: it daily living, and I was like, what's that. They said,
Speaker 1: If you can go to a grocery store and you
Speaker 1: can hold a bag under your arm, that's a plus
Speaker 1: for us. If you can grab a pencil and you
Speaker 1: can write like a kid, that's a plus for us.
Speaker 1: But your arm in your hand would probably never be
Speaker 1: the same again. And I'm like, I can't, like I
Speaker 1: sacrifice too much, right and this can't be real. I
Speaker 1: go to sleep early again, wake up the next day,
Speaker 1: touch my arm and at the time I couldn't feel
Speaker 1: nothing on my up extremity on my right side, touch
Speaker 1: my back, touched my chest and I couldn't feel it.
Speaker 1: And I kept going throughout the process. And I always
Speaker 1: say to people, like, when you got people in your
Speaker 1: life that you love and you respect enough not to disrespect,
Speaker 1: it's a powerful thing. And I had a lot of
Speaker 1: people around me that I cherished and I respect it
Speaker 1: like I'm a loyal person. And so I had teachers
Speaker 1: at Corn Middle School that was in the emergency room.
Speaker 1: I had my coaches that put me in organized sports.
Speaker 1: When I was a kid that was in the emergency room,
Speaker 1: I had my mother and as I'm looking at these
Speaker 1: people and I'm talking to him, I start apologizing, because
Speaker 1: you know how it is when you come from the
Speaker 1: hood and you're looking like, man, I'm gonna make it
Speaker 1: so I can help everybody. You feeling like you're putting
Speaker 1: it on your back. You want to do it, and
Speaker 1: so I'm like, man, I apologize, I'm sorry, and it
Speaker 1: was like what you saw for it. I was like,
Speaker 1: I can't make it, and I can't pay you all back.
Speaker 1: Would kind of be disrespectful to them, that's how you.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I can't pay you all back,
Speaker 1: and they was like, man, you know it's nothing. It's like,
Speaker 1: the only thing we want from you is for you
Speaker 1: to do something with what you've been blessed with. Take
Speaker 1: your situation, take your circumstance, go out into the world
Speaker 1: and be a decent man. You get blessed with a family,
Speaker 1: be a decent father, you get blessed with a wife,
Speaker 1: be a decent husband. That's the only thing we want
Speaker 1: from you. And it was like it freed me to
Speaker 1: now focus on the process because you try to understand
Speaker 1: it right. And I say to people all the time,
Speaker 1: it's natural if something happens to you, donna want to
Speaker 1: know why, Like why me? Why did this have to
Speaker 1: happen to me? You get a paralyzed right on right hand.
Speaker 1: You want to understand it. And I told people when
Speaker 1: when they said that to me, I went from the mindsetting,
Speaker 1: the perspective of I was no longer trying to understand
Speaker 1: it and trying to survive it. Now I wanted to
Speaker 1: use it right. And you take that same energy when
Speaker 1: you're focusing on something and you want to understand it
Speaker 1: and you're trying to survive it, take that same energy,
Speaker 1: put perspective behind it, and go out and try to
Speaker 1: use your situations, in your circumstances to add value to
Speaker 1: the world. And so that's all I tried to do
Speaker 1: for two years. For two years. So you've been with
Speaker 1: your wife, hollow Man, we've been rocking since fifth grade. Kid.
Speaker 1: She grew up in Kirkwood two blocks away from me.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, you say, y'all going to your temp yr anniversary, Yeah, yeah, man.
Speaker 1: And she's been a blessing, probably the best thing that's
Speaker 1: ever happened to me, her and my children, you know,
Speaker 1: outside of my injury, you know, because it's a powerful thing.
Speaker 1: And that's how I got in to speaking, to be honest,
Speaker 1: you know, because she she co signed it. Because after
Speaker 1: my injury, I moved back to Atlanta and she called me.
Speaker 1: I was coaching and she called me, and I want
Speaker 1: to story. She called me and I was a graduate
Speaker 1: assistant because I thought I was gonna be a defensive
Speaker 1: backs college coach, and I was like, man, I got injured.
Speaker 1: I can't play our coach And she called me one
Speaker 1: day and she was like, I'm pregnant, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like, how that that happened? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I'm been shocked. I'm like, you pregnant, I'm
Speaker 1: a g a. I'm still in college almost, I'm making
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars a month. I'm like, how that happen?
Speaker 1: She's like, you know how I happened? You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I go in the coach office and I'm like, man, coach,
Speaker 1: I want to move back to Atlanta. I need to
Speaker 1: take care of my family. And he was like, go forward.
Speaker 1: And when I played to move back, I called somebody
Speaker 1: at Kirkwood Record at Bessie Branham Park. I said, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I need to come back. I want to work at
Speaker 1: the park. I want to take care of my family.
Speaker 1: I just want to create leadership curriculum for the kids
Speaker 1: at Kirkwood Park. And it was like, back, come on,
Speaker 1: you got a job. Packed up. I left. I get there.
Speaker 1: Cat that I was talking to supposedly wasn't there. I
Speaker 1: take my resume in all fish. They say you overqualified.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, what's that? I just want to
Speaker 1: work with it right. But at the time, I'm living
Speaker 1: in my wife's grandmother's home, you know, two back room home.
Speaker 1: She praked me with our daughter, Jada. She ended up
Speaker 1: having Jada. I'm there. The only thing I got at
Speaker 1: the time was my book that I had wrote. And
Speaker 1: I'm getting up every day trying to find a job.
Speaker 1: I wasn't speaking then. I was just trying to work.
Speaker 1: I wanted to put some money in my pocket, take
Speaker 1: care of my family. My wife was teaching and Stone Mountain.
Speaker 1: Every morning, She'll get up, get dressed, go to work.
Speaker 1: I'll get up, get dressed, go look for a job.
Speaker 1: Everywhere I go there, tell me something like I can't
Speaker 1: do it. And I knew part of it was probably
Speaker 1: he got a paralyze on. I ain't tripping, I ain't
Speaker 1: knocking it. It is what it is. And so one
Speaker 1: morning I got up, I looked at my wife. I
Speaker 1: said to her, I said, babe, my mom, I'm about
Speaker 1: to go meet Oprah. I'm about to give open the book.
Speaker 1: And my wife said, you know Oprah. I was like nah.
Speaker 1: She's like, you know somebody that worked. We're open. I
Speaker 1: was like nah, but you're talking about it's going to
Speaker 1: me open. I was like, I'm gonna take the book.
Speaker 1: This was before a show ended. And she was like,
Speaker 1: you you really believe you can do it. I was
Speaker 1: like yeah. She was like, go for it. At the time,
Speaker 1: I probably had two hundred dollars to my name. I
Speaker 1: was in my truck. I take off driving to Chicago.
Speaker 1: I get to Chattanooga. I called my buddy, Jeff and Knoxville.
Speaker 1: He's an attorney. He picked up. I said, Jeff, you
Speaker 1: ain't gonna believe it. He said, what you got ink?
Speaker 1: I said, Man, I'm on the way to Chicago. I'm
Speaker 1: about to take open the book. Jeff was like, ain't
Speaker 1: you know open like nah. He's like, I know what
Speaker 1: this is. He said, call me, man, when you get
Speaker 1: the Knoxville. I know you're an ambitious person. Chances of
Speaker 1: this happening slim to none. He said, Man, I don't
Speaker 1: want you to be disappointed when it doesn't happen. I
Speaker 1: called him. When I get the Knox he pick up.
Speaker 1: He said, you're still going on't you? I said yeah.
Speaker 1: He said, man, I'm gonna ride with you up to
Speaker 1: the Shy. I don't want you to be too disappointed.
Speaker 1: We get there at night, Jeff gets us a room.
Speaker 1: We get up the next morning. I go to the
Speaker 1: front desk. I say to him, man, can you give
Speaker 1: me the best possible directions to get the hard bow.
Speaker 1: They're giving me the directions. Jeff is in the corner.
Speaker 1: I go to walk out the door. Jeff said, ain't wait.
Speaker 1: He's said, IMNA, get us a taxi. Get us a taxi.
Speaker 1: We pull up. It's when the last shows was happening,
Speaker 1: so it's people everywhere. Right, I get out, He said, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to this coffee shop. I try to
Speaker 1: run into every door that I could see somebody coming
Speaker 1: out of. I see right, I run up in man,
Speaker 1: I drove up from Atlanta. I just want to get
Speaker 1: open my book. It was I get out of here.
Speaker 1: Man won't do that. I was like, man, y'all real.
Speaker 1: I thought, y'all be getting way cars and TV. I
Speaker 1: got y'all give me the third. I gotta bug right,
Speaker 1: and I got so discouraged. Right, I went around the
Speaker 1: back of the building. I sit down. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: my wife gonna go off. And I get back to
Speaker 1: the city and everybody had made it in. And I
Speaker 1: get up and I'm walking down the sidewalk. And it
Speaker 1: looked like it was a homeless gentleman right sitting on
Speaker 1: the curb. I sit down beside my man. I said,
Speaker 1: how you doing? My man said, I'm great, he said
Speaker 1: how are you. I'm like, I've seen better days. The
Speaker 1: irony of the situation, right, I look up, I kid,
Speaker 1: you not coming down the sidewalk. It's open her security guard.
Speaker 1: I get up. I'm like, man, I'm gonna take my shot, right,
Speaker 1: I'm taking my man gonna come up and move me
Speaker 1: out of the way. So I started walking toward her.
Speaker 1: She walking towards me, and she gets right in front
Speaker 1: of me. I said, hey, I'm Inkie. Johnson. I drove
Speaker 1: up from Atlanta. I just wanted to give you my book.
Speaker 1: She grabs the book, so, oh, that's nice. She gives
Speaker 1: it to my man. She grabs my soup. She shakes
Speaker 1: it right, and I had on like a two ex
Speaker 1: sup right, And she said it's a nice suit. I
Speaker 1: think you're trying to see if I had some minute, right,
Speaker 1: I said, thank you. I said, can I take a
Speaker 1: picture with you? He said, sure, we take a picture.
Speaker 1: She said, I gotta get in and do my show.
Speaker 1: I said, no problem. I went to walk off for
Speaker 1: security guard that he closed the door. He said, hey,
Speaker 1: little man, he said, come in, man, I want to
Speaker 1: tell you something. Go over to him. He said, UM,
Speaker 1: I'm not telling you anything that's gonna come of this.
Speaker 1: He said, I just want you to know what just happened.
Speaker 1: It never happens, he said. Usually she'll tell me go
Speaker 1: clear him out, let him going about their business, or
Speaker 1: she'll take it and she'll probably never get the product.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm not saying you're gonna be on a
Speaker 1: book club show, none of that. I just want you
Speaker 1: to know what just happened. Never happens. I said, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I send a picture home, family friends. Everybody responds, You're
Speaker 1: gonna be on the show, ain't I was like, nah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't care. Is that what your man?
Speaker 1: You don't know, you don't care You're gonna be on
Speaker 1: the book Club. I was like, that moment wasn't about
Speaker 1: that for me. They said, well, what was it about?
Speaker 1: I said, man, I needed to know that God was
Speaker 1: still walking with me. You know what I'm saying. That's
Speaker 1: all I needed to know. I just I just was
Speaker 1: trying to figure out if God was still with that
Speaker 1: kid that grew up in Kirkwood, made it to college,
Speaker 1: got eight games away from becoming a potential first round
Speaker 1: draft pick, and then my life got shattered, right, And
Speaker 1: that was God showing me like, now, bro, I got you. Like,
Speaker 1: the moment wasn't even about Oprah. The moment wasn't even
Speaker 1: about the trip to chicak That was a faith journey
Speaker 1: for me. That was a faith walk for me. And
Speaker 1: so when I made the decision to speak and say, man,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a speaker. I never called myself a
Speaker 1: motivation of speaker. The world labeled me that, right, But
Speaker 1: when I made the decision to do it, I just said, Bro,
Speaker 1: I want to be obedient right and do what I
Speaker 1: feel the creators called me to do with my life.
Speaker 1: And that's how it started. What would you say to
Speaker 1: somebody who and this is just a real question, like
Speaker 1: what would you say to somebody who don't believe in
Speaker 1: God or high power? What would you say to one
Speaker 1: of my best friends? Don't one of my best friends
Speaker 1: are atheist? You know what I'm saying. And I don't
Speaker 1: love him any less. I still got mad love for him,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And I let him work
Speaker 1: through his standing of what the Creator means to him.
Speaker 1: But like I always tell him, like, man, I ain't
Speaker 1: trying to preach to you, Like you believe what you believe, right,
Speaker 1: If it's allies, if it's Catholicism, right, it's all good.
Speaker 1: But I always say to him, I would rather live
Speaker 1: my life as if it's a God, and if I
Speaker 1: pass away figure out that it's not, then to live
Speaker 1: my life as if it's not a god. And if
Speaker 1: I pass away and figure out there is right. But
Speaker 1: I don't love him any less, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Because the same grace my man need, I need the
Speaker 1: same level of grace. You know what I'm saying. We
Speaker 1: fall short every single day. And so, like I said,
Speaker 1: I ain't knocking him. You find your belief how you
Speaker 1: find it, but I'm gonna be here to show you
Speaker 1: love and support alone that journey. Yeah, what do you
Speaker 1: think is the foundation of um? A lot of the
Speaker 1: hate in the world, like racism, I mean black or
Speaker 1: black crime or whatever it is. There's a lot of hate.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different things going on in the
Speaker 1: world as we speak. What do you think it's the
Speaker 1: foundation for that? And what would you say to somebody
Speaker 1: is the cure for it? I would say understanding and
Speaker 1: u in miscommunication, right, the ability to It's hard for cats,
Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes to put themselves in other people's shoes, right,
Speaker 1: And even if you would never experience what that person experience,
Speaker 1: it's hard for people to put themselves in somebody else's
Speaker 1: shoes and just try to see through the lens of
Speaker 1: which they see it through. Because it's hard for a
Speaker 1: cat sometimes if things are going well, to look at
Speaker 1: the other side of the corn. Right, it's hard for
Speaker 1: a cat. If a cat that made it to a
Speaker 1: certain spot, they got the house, they got the call,
Speaker 1: they got the money, and now you're trying to tell
Speaker 1: them to look at something with a different perspective, and
Speaker 1: they feel as if they struggled to get there, and
Speaker 1: it might be valid. You might work, you might have
Speaker 1: handled your business. I get it. I salute you. Right.
Speaker 1: It's hard for cats sometimes to stop and look at
Speaker 1: people's situations and circumstances through the lens of other people.
Speaker 1: But also, I think the cure to it is love. Man,
Speaker 1: It's unconditional love. You know what I'm saying. It's showing
Speaker 1: people love regardless of situation, regardless of skin color, regardless
Speaker 1: of what's going on. Like me getting an organized sports
Speaker 1: A white man paid for that. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Like I know my man. My man hadn't seen me play.
Speaker 1: He was coming down the street. He helped Patrick pass
Speaker 1: a bunch of cats. You know what I'm saying. When
Speaker 1: my man helped me, my man never came back to
Speaker 1: my mom and said, you owed me for putting inking sports.
Speaker 1: He never came back to me and said you owe
Speaker 1: me at some point, like my man came out of
Speaker 1: his pocket paid for me and my three younger cousins
Speaker 1: to play ball, and in my family, the only people
Speaker 1: that went to college was me and my three younger cousins,
Speaker 1: and so I looked at people different from rep Now
Speaker 1: I understand it's all type of people out there, whether
Speaker 1: regardless of race and regardless of what they do. And
Speaker 1: that's my constant challenge as a father. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying with my children. I got nine year old son,
Speaker 1: ten year old daughter, and so when something happens with
Speaker 1: the police in the world and they kill a black person,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying that my children have had
Speaker 1: encounters with police officers. You know what I'm saying that
Speaker 1: they're bringing a little K nine to their school at
Speaker 1: lunchtime and they know my man, Mr Henry or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then they see someone on television or they see
Speaker 1: someone on the internet. They say, hey, polices are this way,
Speaker 1: and then they come and ask their father. And I
Speaker 1: gotta break that down when at the same time, my granddaddy,
Speaker 1: who you calling, dad, I haven't seeing polices When I
Speaker 1: was a kid, kick out front door in and grabbed
Speaker 1: my grandfather out of his wheelchair, slamming on his face
Speaker 1: and plant dope in the house. But you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I didn't see that side of life, and
Speaker 1: so trying to balance that out with my children, and
Speaker 1: also trying to balance that out with my perspective. Like,
Speaker 1: come in the industry, and it's predominantly white old men.
Speaker 1: It's predominantly white speaking. Right, every room I walk in,
Speaker 1: almost the whole crowd is almost white. Right when I
Speaker 1: do corporate events, and I walk in and I got
Speaker 1: on a college shirt. You know what I'm saying, I'm
Speaker 1: not dressed in a suit. I got on jeans and
Speaker 1: a college shirt. And so if I'm going in to
Speaker 1: speak to a hundred and fifty ensuring agents, probably a
Speaker 1: hundred and forty five people white, and they're older than
Speaker 1: me and so off rep they're looking at me like
Speaker 1: what my man ain't got them say to me, like,
Speaker 1: my man, my son's age, What do you got to
Speaker 1: tell us? And I'm backstage taking it debt serious. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I'm backstage taking it debt sit.
Speaker 1: Not because I want to be the best order to
Speaker 1: the best communicator in the world. No, I'm taking it
Speaker 1: serious because I know one day it might be another
Speaker 1: young cat coming up and he's gonna need that opportunity,
Speaker 1: and I gotta steward that right. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He's gonna need that opportunity, and I gotta go about
Speaker 1: it in the right way. It's a bigger purpose to it.
Speaker 1: And so when I get the rock and I get
Speaker 1: to play, I want to steward it right and do
Speaker 1: right by it. So when the next cat coming the door,
Speaker 1: they don't look at him as just a young African American,
Speaker 1: young black man. They're like, hey, that cat ink that
Speaker 1: we brought in here, nobody has done it the way
Speaker 1: he did it. Let's get this cat of opportunity. And
Speaker 1: so looking at things with the right perspective and constantly
Speaker 1: trying to balance it out. But also man having a
Speaker 1: level of grace and love for cats when they slipped,
Speaker 1: because we all do. And I think sometimes cats get
Speaker 1: on that high horse and they forget that, you know,
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I think I think that's it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So with it, so with it being like with your
Speaker 1: new path, you being the one that's always motivational, always
Speaker 1: uplifting everybody, always trying to be positive. When you get
Speaker 1: down and when you don't really feel like yourself or
Speaker 1: you don't really feel like being positive, who do you
Speaker 1: go to to lift you back? Up and put you
Speaker 1: back in the right mind space. Absolutely, I got I
Speaker 1: got people I talked to in every aspect of my life.
Speaker 1: And so I got somebody I talked to for marriage,
Speaker 1: I got somebody I talked to for fatherhood, got somebody
Speaker 1: I talked to and speaking. And then I talked, you know,
Speaker 1: to my uncle's in prison. You know, I talked to
Speaker 1: my uncle's das. I still got uncles and cousins in
Speaker 1: the streets. You know that's trying to do what they do.
Speaker 1: I talked to my mother, I talked to my wife,
Speaker 1: I talked to my children. And I used that as
Speaker 1: sources of inspiration, sources of motivation. And I think cats
Speaker 1: think sometimes like if they see me speak that, like
Speaker 1: every day, happy, go lucky. You know what I'm saying
Speaker 1: every day, like, oh be part I come from it.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I come from it. And uh,
Speaker 1: but I'm willing to fight for it. And what I
Speaker 1: mean by that is the mindset that I want to acquire.
Speaker 1: I'm willing to fight for my happiness. I'm willing to
Speaker 1: fight for my peace. I'm willing to fight for the father,
Speaker 1: the husband, and the man that I'm striving to become.
Speaker 1: And I think it's important to have accountability in your
Speaker 1: life and people that don't just tell you what you
Speaker 1: want to hear, but people that tell you what you
Speaker 1: need to hear. And I got people around me in
Speaker 1: every aspect of my life that I remember when I
Speaker 1: first got married. I'm young and married, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm calling the dude that I talked to, the
Speaker 1: mentor me about marriage, and I'm like, man, she ain't
Speaker 1: doing this. She ain't doing that, man, she ain't doing
Speaker 1: this the way I wanted to do it. She ain't
Speaker 1: doing this the way I wanted to do And he
Speaker 1: listened to me. When I got done, he said to me, like, man,
Speaker 1: like God didn't bless you with your wife for you
Speaker 1: to change your wife. Like you can't change your wife,
Speaker 1: your position, your responsibilities, to love your wife and work
Speaker 1: with your wife through whatever it is that you're trying
Speaker 1: to get to. He said, I guarantee you what you
Speaker 1: just told me. If I get on the phone with
Speaker 1: your wife right now, she's gonna have being positive and speaking.
Speaker 1: I'm tired of him talking to the kids, trying to
Speaker 1: give him motivation, you know what I'm saying, Like she's
Speaker 1: gonna be saying, and I had to respect it. But
Speaker 1: also man, every single day, you know, just trying to
Speaker 1: be a better man, like the quest for better that's
Speaker 1: not perfect, but just trying to be a better man
Speaker 1: because you know, I come from a place to where
Speaker 1: we got our demons too. What's that one? What's that
Speaker 1: one situation that you can recall to make you feel,
Speaker 1: made you be like when you start speaking, made you
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, this is what I'm doing for you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like that one person told you
Speaker 1: their story, how you motivated them or help them get
Speaker 1: through it? You know what I'm saying. You know what's
Speaker 1: that you got the story? One of those storys? I
Speaker 1: got a couple of them, but the first one would
Speaker 1: be you know Eric Burry that that's from Atlanta, beast
Speaker 1: Man and uh, Eric like a little brother to me.
Speaker 1: And we was in West Town Maul and Knoxville. This
Speaker 1: was years ago, and we were leaving at the signing
Speaker 1: that EB had went to this car and I was
Speaker 1: walking to mind and a man was running over to
Speaker 1: me and my man was like, I'm talking about he
Speaker 1: was running and so I've seen him coming and I'm
Speaker 1: in the parking lot, and I'm like, and I don't
Speaker 1: know what my man about to try to do, like
Speaker 1: I might need to create some space with my man,
Speaker 1: Like my man might be trying to get me, like
Speaker 1: we're in the parking lot, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And he stopped a couple of feet away from me,
Speaker 1: and I could see he was crying, and he said
Speaker 1: thank you, and I said, man, no problem, if you
Speaker 1: don't mind, what are you thinking me for? And he said,
Speaker 1: I just saw your story on the news and you
Speaker 1: were making humor of your situation and about what happened
Speaker 1: to you. And he said, man, um life and beat
Speaker 1: me up. And I was about to leave my wife
Speaker 1: and my three daughters. And he said, I said, when
Speaker 1: you could laugh at what you've been through and how
Speaker 1: you've handled it, he said, surely I can hang in
Speaker 1: there and I can fight for my family. And he
Speaker 1: just walked off, and I never forget man. When I
Speaker 1: walked off, I was like, I gotta take what I
Speaker 1: do a little bit more serious, and even even like
Speaker 1: when Eric Barry got hit with cancer. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. He called me and he was like, man,
Speaker 1: I feel like something in my chest, like We talked
Speaker 1: like that, and he was like, I gotta go to
Speaker 1: Emory for some testing. Was like, call me Athew Donne,
Speaker 1: and he called me. He said they found a mask
Speaker 1: and they diagnosed him with cancer. And I watched him
Speaker 1: go through that process and we used to meet and
Speaker 1: when he got through it, I never forget him saying like, Man,
Speaker 1: ain't like now I know about that purpose you speak
Speaker 1: of out You know what I'm saying. Now, I know
Speaker 1: when you talk about your situation and not just thinking
Speaker 1: about it in terms of you and what you were
Speaker 1: quiet as a result of it, but you being able
Speaker 1: to use it like it's a reason. It's say in
Speaker 1: the Bible, Man, we are overcome us by blood and
Speaker 1: lamb and the word about testimony. That's why when you
Speaker 1: hear Cat's journey and where they've been, what they've been through,
Speaker 1: you're like, man, that's beautiful. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Because all of us got stories, all of us have
Speaker 1: walked our path and the journey is still unfolding. But
Speaker 1: every single day I bumped into somebody bank, I kid
Speaker 1: you not. I was in the airport yesterday. Cat come
Speaker 1: up to me, Man, be honest with me. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: change what happened to you, Like I wouldn't change it
Speaker 1: for nothing in the world. A man like y'are paralyzed
Speaker 1: on I'm like, it ain't about that. It's about what
Speaker 1: it did for my father, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It's about what it did for my my homies. It's
Speaker 1: about what it did for my family. Like this situation
Speaker 1: put me in put my mother and my father in
Speaker 1: the same room, you know what I'm saying, Like my mom,
Speaker 1: my MoMA despised my dad man for a long time, Like,
Speaker 1: and it felt bad to me when I was this
Speaker 1: athlete and my mother and my father couldn't even really
Speaker 1: be in the same room because he bounced and she
Speaker 1: just despised my man. And when this happened, now all
Speaker 1: the foolishness had to cease because they didn't know if
Speaker 1: they was gonna have to cut off my arm. They
Speaker 1: didn't know if I was gonna live, if I was
Speaker 1: gonna die. And now my mother and my father was
Speaker 1: in the same room. And so when I say I
Speaker 1: look at this as a blessing, I think people think
Speaker 1: in terms of it's just some spiritual facade, right, And
Speaker 1: I'm grateful to God for it. But when I say
Speaker 1: I'm thankful for it because of how it happened, I'm
Speaker 1: thankful for what it's done in the people's lives that
Speaker 1: are connected to me. And so every single day, man,
Speaker 1: I don't think none of us have to look for
Speaker 1: when we see people and meet people, because, like I
Speaker 1: say all the time, cats don't have to stop and
Speaker 1: say nothing to me what I'm saying. The cat don't
Speaker 1: have to say, Man, I appreciate your speeches. A cat
Speaker 1: don't have to look at my stuff. And so I'm
Speaker 1: extremely grateful for that, and I'm honored by it. It's humbling.
Speaker 1: It's humbling, man. Outside of um, you know your motivational speech.
Speaker 1: And of course we were in the book and everything.
Speaker 1: What's the ship that you just like to do? Like
Speaker 1: some day to day just man, like to work with
Speaker 1: young cats, man, Like we served at the homeless shelter
Speaker 1: at my sister's house under the Atlanta Mission. We do
Speaker 1: that quite a bit pre COVID. But I like working
Speaker 1: with young cats man a lot, because like where I
Speaker 1: grew up and a lot of the cats I went
Speaker 1: to Krim High School, right, a lot of the cats
Speaker 1: I went to school with, I felt like with talented cats.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, and I never forget. I
Speaker 1: was fighting one of my teammates one day and my
Speaker 1: man just thought like I was coming at him because
Speaker 1: I didn't like him, and I had to tell him, like,
Speaker 1: but I love you. You know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: got mad love for you. I'm like, but I see
Speaker 1: the potential. I see what you can become. I see
Speaker 1: what you possess. I see what you can do. I
Speaker 1: see what you can you can go on to do
Speaker 1: for your family right, and you don't want to leave
Speaker 1: outside of twenty you don't want to leave on the
Speaker 1: east side of Atlanta. I coach have to take us
Speaker 1: to a tournament in Popular Bluff, Missouri, and they was like, Coach,
Speaker 1: we ain't going and he was like, yeah, I see
Speaker 1: y'all in the morning. Man, three folks showed up, man
Speaker 1: to the bus. You know what I'm saying, like three
Speaker 1: and my man thought they was playing. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: them folks not playing. And so when I see young
Speaker 1: cast and I'm talking to him, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to help shape their mind. I'm listening
Speaker 1: to their stories like that's beautiful for me because cats
Speaker 1: did it for me, you know what I'm saying, the
Speaker 1: older cats at the part it's used to be at
Speaker 1: my granddad at the house, Like people did it for me,
Speaker 1: and it made an imprint on my mind that changed
Speaker 1: my life. And so anytime I get to work with
Speaker 1: kids and do certain things and going to the home,
Speaker 1: the shelter and making us grateful for what we do have,
Speaker 1: you know, it's something that I love to do. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So another thing that like we always talked about on
Speaker 1: the show is is how like growth is an essential
Speaker 1: part of progress. So what do you do, like day
Speaker 1: to day or you know, just whenever you have time
Speaker 1: or any time at all, to make sure that you
Speaker 1: don't get stuck in the same place and to make
Speaker 1: sure that you're at least taking one step a day forward. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I journal a lot, journal a journal. Oh yeah, every day,
Speaker 1: every day I journal. Um, I got four journals, and
Speaker 1: so I journal in the morning, I journal shortly after lunchtime,
Speaker 1: and I journal at night. But I journal to my children.
Speaker 1: So I got a journal with my son, I got
Speaker 1: a journal with my daughter, journal with my wife, and
Speaker 1: a journal with myself. I write to you know how
Speaker 1: like when something happened to a parent, or something happened
Speaker 1: to somebody, and somebody to go to somebody's kids and
Speaker 1: be like, man, let me tell you about your dad. Man,
Speaker 1: let me tell you about your mom. Tell you the
Speaker 1: type of person they're working. That's cool, right, But I
Speaker 1: want my children to have something that, like, one day
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it to him. I don't know when
Speaker 1: that moment comes, but one day they got something that
Speaker 1: they can look at and say, I know exactly who
Speaker 1: my dad was. You know what I'm saying. I know
Speaker 1: what it's how youse are. I know what his principles are.
Speaker 1: I know why he did sir. I explained decisions to him. Man,
Speaker 1: this is why I had to do this. It might
Speaker 1: then feel good in the moment, you might hate it,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna love me later for you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. And I explained things like that to my son,
Speaker 1: my daughter, but also to myself, like I'm transparent in it.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying about my fears about my future,
Speaker 1: about things that I need to work on, Like I
Speaker 1: told my wife yesterday, and I'm like, man, I got
Speaker 1: I got somebo need to work on, Like I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's from the time I was a kid
Speaker 1: and I just experienced this and this is how I cope.
Speaker 1: But like when I cut somebody off, I'm gone, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like I'm gone, Like I don't
Speaker 1: double back, I don't come back, I'm gone. And I
Speaker 1: told her, like, I gotta work on that, because I
Speaker 1: think that's something from my childhood that yeah, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just out. You know what I'm saying, like a man,
Speaker 1: you bound, I'm out. You know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 1: I ain't coming back, and it's all good. But I
Speaker 1: think it's something that I learned and I need to
Speaker 1: work go because when I was a kid, when my
Speaker 1: father wasn't present, that's how I coped without having to
Speaker 1: deal with the natural situation of my father not present.
Speaker 1: But it created certain levels of pain with other people
Speaker 1: to where all right, if you stagnant, if you're playing
Speaker 1: them out right and not giving people that grace in
Speaker 1: that time to grow, when probably if I would have
Speaker 1: gave him the grace in the time to grow, that
Speaker 1: could have been a situation we could have nurtured and
Speaker 1: cultivated relationship, right. And so it's things that I want
Speaker 1: to work on that. When I look in at journal,
Speaker 1: I know I'm not there yet, and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: continue to foster that level of growth. But having that
Speaker 1: journal there as accountability is something I can refer back
Speaker 1: to every single day in every aspect of my life
Speaker 1: and my children, with my wife, most importantly with myself.
Speaker 1: What's one thing you want to say to your followers
Speaker 1: people that don't follow you? You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: What's What's what's some some good game of motivation that
Speaker 1: you would give to the people, like the most valuable vitamin? Man.
Speaker 1: I would say, don't take life for granted, you know,
Speaker 1: make life count, man, because I think there's so many
Speaker 1: people man that that wake up and they just they
Speaker 1: take this thing for granted. Like and I didn't look
Speaker 1: at it that way until I almost lost my life,
Speaker 1: you know, because a lot of cats look at my
Speaker 1: injury and look at what happened to me, and cats
Speaker 1: focus so much on the sports part of it, and
Speaker 1: cats don't think about like bro I had three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty staples in my body, had six incisions down
Speaker 1: my left eye. When incision cross the left side of
Speaker 1: my neck went across the right twice do my right
Speaker 1: ribs cut out my right peck, bottom of my armpit
Speaker 1: to the bottom of my hand. They had to cut
Speaker 1: up plastic bags so I could take a shower. They
Speaker 1: just put me on the jet back and forth from
Speaker 1: Tennessee to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota every week.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So it changed my life.
Speaker 1: It made me look at life different, and I'll never
Speaker 1: forget the first time I sat down in the Mayo
Speaker 1: Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, it was like a little girl
Speaker 1: like she was sitting where you're sitting, scream about distance wise,
Speaker 1: she's probably like you love, And it looked like like
Speaker 1: her face is falling off what I'm saying. Her parents
Speaker 1: were sitting on the side of her trying to help her.
Speaker 1: I don't know what a condition was, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: she like eleven or twelve years old. And it made
Speaker 1: me look at my situation totally different. But most importantly,
Speaker 1: it made me grateful for the gift of life. Man,
Speaker 1: like make it count, Like when it's all setting done
Speaker 1: for me, I want one life to be enough for me,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like when they come, I
Speaker 1: want to be like I did it. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I lived it. I don't want to be
Speaker 1: the cat that's living with regret. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be the count that's saying, man, I wish I could
Speaker 1: have this time to do this now. That takes a
Speaker 1: lot of courage, a lot of bravery, a lot of pain.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I want to patch up
Speaker 1: certain relationships. I want to do things differently. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I want to grow. And I think
Speaker 1: we take life for granted so much. We think people
Speaker 1: are gonna be here. I'm sure some cats that wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to DMX and say something and felt like
Speaker 1: I get to it. You know what I'm saying, I
Speaker 1: get to I had that, I had that conversation and
Speaker 1: then get the opportunity to not because they didn't want to.
Speaker 1: Because we take life for granted and we feel as
Speaker 1: if we promised something. Cat feel as oh, I get
Speaker 1: to the next year. How you know you promised next year?
Speaker 1: I thought it were certain things in my career I
Speaker 1: was gonna get to. I get to it in the
Speaker 1: fifth game, I'll do it. Second game, my career was over,
Speaker 1: never to be played again, and so every single day. Man,
Speaker 1: don't take life for granted. Go out and live it up. Man,
Speaker 1: what's what's what's your? Do you still love the sport
Speaker 1: of football? Even love it? I love everything about it, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not mad at the sport um because
Speaker 1: it gave me so much. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It exposed my mind to a different level of life
Speaker 1: that it could never go back to what it used
Speaker 1: to be. Right like when I never forget bank. I
Speaker 1: walked in and I'm eating steak shrimp spaghetti like I'm
Speaker 1: coming from noodles. You know what I'm saying. I'm like, boy,
Speaker 1: y'all steak shrimp spaghetti. You know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 1: this is gravy like, but also just the access that
Speaker 1: it gave us, the resources that it gave us, like
Speaker 1: something different, you see something different, but they lay it
Speaker 1: out for you. You know what I'm saying, Like you
Speaker 1: get everything and so like I could never be mad
Speaker 1: at that. So they saying that ship set your set
Speaker 1: your boy in life like this what I want this,
Speaker 1: I want not going back to nothing else. It exposed
Speaker 1: you too, Like they're taking you the catering class. They're
Speaker 1: taking you to what side to put your spoon, your
Speaker 1: forking night Like they give you everything. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. They put you, you travel, you on the plane,
Speaker 1: You're getting everything. You go to a hotel, you five star,
Speaker 1: you standing the best, like they give you access to everything,
Speaker 1: and so I can never be mad at it. And
Speaker 1: then when my injury happened, they did right by me.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. And I'm gonna be honest.
Speaker 1: I was thinking, man, or they still gonna treat me
Speaker 1: the same, or they still do the same same things
Speaker 1: they did for me when I was playing. But they
Speaker 1: did right by me. You know what I'm saying. They
Speaker 1: they took care of me, and I can't do nothing
Speaker 1: but respect that. But also, I believe in destiny. I
Speaker 1: believe in faith, and so I don't live my life
Speaker 1: with regrets. I don't wish I would have grew up different,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like, I love the way
Speaker 1: I grew up. That made me who I am as
Speaker 1: a man. Like if a cat came to me and said,
Speaker 1: you want to grow up in Malibu, No, I want
Speaker 1: to grow up in Kirkwood, right down the street. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, that's why I want to grow
Speaker 1: up at my mom. I want to grow up the
Speaker 1: same way. And so when I look at my injury
Speaker 1: and what happened to me, I think it's destiny and
Speaker 1: faith for where I am now as a father, as
Speaker 1: a man, as a husband, as a friend. Like it
Speaker 1: changed me, you know in a good way. Not just
Speaker 1: physically with the arch fee and me walking around like
Speaker 1: if a cat see me, they're gonna know. Man, something
Speaker 1: happened to my man arm, but what it did for
Speaker 1: me internally as a man. In my perspective, I'm forever
Speaker 1: grateful for that. And most important, God's spared of my life.
Speaker 1: God could have took me that day, but he felt
Speaker 1: as if I was worth it, and so he left me.
Speaker 1: I do you think like a successful athlete or or
Speaker 1: rap artists and everybody should seek different like aspects of life,
Speaker 1: because sometimes it takes tragedy to make you open yourself
Speaker 1: up the other parts of life. But you like speaking
Speaker 1: to people that you think, like, man, there's other parts
Speaker 1: of life. It's more than just football. It's more than
Speaker 1: just rapids, more than just acting. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like people should see that different aspects
Speaker 1: of life. Yeah, I think I think they should maximize
Speaker 1: their talents, but they should honor their gifts. And so
Speaker 1: what I mean by that is like when you see
Speaker 1: somebody coming up, whether it be in the inner cities
Speaker 1: of America, in the suburbs of America, whatever the case
Speaker 1: may be. And let's say we look at sports, right
Speaker 1: and a catacomb to a young cat that's playing sports
Speaker 1: and say, hey man, look at some other things, right,
Speaker 1: Like I don't see the cats stand on the stage
Speaker 1: and say, y'all don't need to play sports. Don't just
Speaker 1: focus on sports. And I'm like, but what if sports
Speaker 1: is that person's gift that God has blessed in what
Speaker 1: like a lot of my boys, they took the vehicle
Speaker 1: of sports, made a lot of money. Now they're dabbling
Speaker 1: in the business and other ventures in life and maximizing
Speaker 1: their gifts. But the vehicle of sports change their family's
Speaker 1: life for generations to come. And so I think they
Speaker 1: should honor their gifts and maximize them whatever it is,
Speaker 1: Like it's a lot of cats and entertainment that wrapped
Speaker 1: that play basketball or whatever the case may be. If
Speaker 1: that's the vehicle, do that, But also maximize them talents.
Speaker 1: If you want to get in the media right, if
Speaker 1: you want to get in the podcast, if you want
Speaker 1: to be a public speaker, if you want to do
Speaker 1: things with business like, start doing it before it comes
Speaker 1: time for you to do it. Because a lot of
Speaker 1: cats they play ball and they make their money, they
Speaker 1: do what they do, or something goes wrong, they want
Speaker 1: to wait, and then they got their back up against
Speaker 1: the wall and they're trying to do it like it's
Speaker 1: like when the cats say pray. Don't just pray when
Speaker 1: things are going like bad, pray when things are going
Speaker 1: good too. And so why things are going good in
Speaker 1: your career whatever you're doing, start venturing off into other
Speaker 1: things and maximizing you because when you're back is against
Speaker 1: the wall, you don't have a clear head to think
Speaker 1: with because you're panicking facts and it jades your perspective
Speaker 1: and how you do things right. Instead of it being
Speaker 1: about purpose, now it's about money because you feel as
Speaker 1: if you're back and that's necessity and necessity and not
Speaker 1: saying that there's anything wrong money. You should get money
Speaker 1: for what you do. Just approach you with the right
Speaker 1: perspective and honor the gift whatever it may be big
Speaker 1: shots out to Inky Johnson positive positive motivation. They're crying
Speaker 1: and ship like, what what where can everybody go to
Speaker 1: if they're not familiar with you? Check you out online,
Speaker 1: your Instagram, anything, anyway you channel all that. Oh, no doubt,
Speaker 1: it's Inky Johnson on everything and on Instagram it's Inky
Speaker 1: Johnson motivate because the cat stole my name a year ago.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, cat stole the names. I
Speaker 1: had to come back as Inky Johnson motivate. But man,
Speaker 1: I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, man,
Speaker 1: for those that follow me and support me, I greatly
Speaker 1: appreciate it, you know what I'm saying, because I know
Speaker 1: you don't have to and that means the world to me.
Speaker 1: I'll never take that for granted and for y'all. Let
Speaker 1: me bless this platform, and I greatly greatly appreciate it. Man,
Speaker 1: it's a privilege. It's a privilege. Appreciate big sass. After
Speaker 1: Inky Johnson pulling up the Big Facts, y'all check us
Speaker 1: out online Triple w dot Big Facts pot dot Com,
Speaker 1: salute you're listening. Get Big Facts with Big Bank and
Speaker 1: DJ scream Big Facts on social media at Big facts Pot, Fine,
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