Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Went, and today we have a
Speaker 1: very special guest. We have Butter from Keep It Run hundred,
Speaker 1: not one hundred, but run hundred. What do you have
Speaker 1: us eating today? Today? We're having good old hit pockets.
Speaker 1: You know it can't go wrong with them, just kick
Speaker 1: grabb and go. You know everybody loves a good hit pocket.
Speaker 1: A little backstory. I was like, what do you want
Speaker 1: to eat? What do you want to cook for us?
Speaker 1: And you were just like, I don't cook. This is
Speaker 1: the second guest in a row that just has no
Speaker 1: idea how to cook um. And we went back and forth.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know you did give me the option
Speaker 1: for ramen. But we hear at Eating Wall Broke. We
Speaker 1: know ramen is a very popular dish. So unless you
Speaker 1: have a special twist to your ramen, do not get
Speaker 1: to cook it. You know, I could have made you
Speaker 1: what's called spread, but that's a whole We actually had
Speaker 1: the spread. It was like a jail experience in a
Speaker 1: garbage bag. I will never forget that episode. Shout outs
Speaker 1: to Ajah from Compton. Right, she's she's Compton. Now you're
Speaker 1: you do, we keep it run hundred and your focus
Speaker 1: is south Central. My focus is just activity period. It's
Speaker 1: not really a certain area. I'm from South Central. Um
Speaker 1: are do runs in Inglewood, Culver City and just all
Speaker 1: different parts of l A. But um I am from
Speaker 1: south central underserved community, and running is something that's just
Speaker 1: not the norm where I'm from. So for me to
Speaker 1: find a passionateness and be able to give it back
Speaker 1: to my people and get people going has been one
Speaker 1: of the most amazing journeys I've ever been on. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: we don't take a bite of these hot pockets, bring
Speaker 1: you back to nostalgia lane. This was nice and warm. Yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully you're gonna bit it into your order. You're gonna
Speaker 1: tear yours, all right, just for your listeners. He actually
Speaker 1: asked for like a fork and knife, and I said,
Speaker 1: is that how you ate him a gentleman? And I said,
Speaker 1: if that's not how you ate it, that's not how
Speaker 1: we're eating. You enjoy It's great. Mine is cold. Mine
Speaker 1: is still warm, Pepperoni. I don't want to see this
Speaker 1: cheese stretch mine as a warm listen. Okay, how better,
Speaker 1: way better? So take me back to the hot pocket dames.
Speaker 1: I mean, the hot pockets are still very present, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't I don't forget where I came from.
Speaker 1: But no, I don't know if anyone ever graduates past
Speaker 1: the hot pocket base. As long as they're in your freezer,
Speaker 1: that is a smooth day when you're walking in out
Speaker 1: microwave real fast. But take me, take me back before
Speaker 1: the casual pot pockets. Um No, Um, just growing up
Speaker 1: as a as a as a as a kid in
Speaker 1: in South central you know. Uh, I did a bunch
Speaker 1: of different things. I played sports my whole life. Um,
Speaker 1: and just growing up trying to maneuver through my community
Speaker 1: isn't the easiest thing to do. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: as we grow, as we go through our I'm thirty
Speaker 1: nine now, so trying to figure out the way things
Speaker 1: get tough sometimes, you know, and sometimes you may not
Speaker 1: have or you're working towards that that life that you wants.
Speaker 1: So there is some struggle in that. So and that
Speaker 1: I was, you know, enjoying hot pockets. Men. You know,
Speaker 1: in your twenties, what did you what were you striving for?
Speaker 1: What was your ultimate goal? Um? In my twenties, I
Speaker 1: was working production so I wanted to do something in
Speaker 1: like television production that I did it for some years,
Speaker 1: Uh kind of got tired of it, transitioned into a
Speaker 1: multiple jobs after that. Uh I had I had my
Speaker 1: daughter at thirty, which kind of forced me to grow
Speaker 1: up and really become a man, That's what. And then
Speaker 1: running started around that time as well. And you know,
Speaker 1: with with time and with age and maturity, things just
Speaker 1: getting better, you know, because you're you're in a different
Speaker 1: headspace and you're able to you know, and and then
Speaker 1: and in having a chad, you have to figure it out. So,
Speaker 1: so what happened at twenty nine where you twenty nine
Speaker 1: you're working television production? Did you end up quitting television
Speaker 1: production to provide better for your daughter or like what
Speaker 1: was that transitional point when she came? Um so and
Speaker 1: that I left production. I started driving buses. Gave me
Speaker 1: more security, Uh you know, the health benefits. Think you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying things like that, and um, so
Speaker 1: many things that happened at that time too. When you
Speaker 1: say buses, like, uh, public trans you don't have to
Speaker 1: get a special license for that yet. One so you
Speaker 1: just you were like, you know what, forget this television
Speaker 1: production because I need more stability. I needed more stability,
Speaker 1: so because television was more freelance, you know. And then uh,
Speaker 1: I went into the driving the bus situation, which lasted
Speaker 1: some years. Um. But then at that ranis course as well. Um.
Speaker 1: And then where did your running into the picture. I
Speaker 1: was doing it as a hobby and then um, uh
Speaker 1: running with just something I did just to just just
Speaker 1: to be active. It wasn't something that I planned on
Speaker 1: doing like for the rest of my life. And when
Speaker 1: did other people start getting involved in your running? At nineteen?
Speaker 1: So this is right before the pandemic. Ah yeah, so um,
Speaker 1: let's say so I started my run club eighteen. We
Speaker 1: picked up a lot of bus throughout the you know,
Speaker 1: the remainder. I started April, So from April to like November,
Speaker 1: the numbers are rowing. I started with eight people, were
Speaker 1: eventually getting a hundred people out at you know, by
Speaker 1: the by the fall. And this is all in South
Speaker 1: central or I was actually doing it in Manhattan Beach
Speaker 1: and Culver City at the time, so expanding in those
Speaker 1: areas because in South central running isn't the easiest thing
Speaker 1: to do, especially in a group setting, you know, because
Speaker 1: it's not like you could just pull up to some
Speaker 1: random park which with a bunch of people, and because
Speaker 1: that's just not how the area works because of gang
Speaker 1: activity and things like that, you know, because every everybody
Speaker 1: seems to thinks they owned in certain areas, so you
Speaker 1: just can't pull up to So you were telling people
Speaker 1: that lived in South Central pull up to Manhattan and
Speaker 1: they were doing it. Okay, okay, now you just you
Speaker 1: were enjoying running and you said, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: going to do a run club or and then the
Speaker 1: eight people joined or were you slowly? I mean I
Speaker 1: was just running with like and me and a buddy
Speaker 1: of mine. Me and a buddy of mine. We actually
Speaker 1: trained for my first marathon the fall of seventeen, so
Speaker 1: I ran in March. So that's when I fell in
Speaker 1: love and running. It was like I wanted everyone to
Speaker 1: experience the feelings that I have from it. So I
Speaker 1: started my run club two weeks after that marathon. And
Speaker 1: when you first started running, you were in love with it.
Speaker 1: You kind of morphed into love. It was just like
Speaker 1: it was a hobby at first. And then I said,
Speaker 1: pushing my body but my mind past barriers I had
Speaker 1: on myself, thinking I couldn't do ten miles or twelve
Speaker 1: miles or fifteen miles. And when you're when you're knocking
Speaker 1: down those walls, you feel like you can continue to
Speaker 1: go forever because it's more mental than anything. So the
Speaker 1: you know, the mental toughness afforded to did you get
Speaker 1: from that? You know, I can't even explained, you know, people,
Speaker 1: you have to kind of do it to really understand,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm what I'm saying because a lot
Speaker 1: of people put like limits on themselves, like I can't.
Speaker 1: I would never run a marathon. I would. I used
Speaker 1: to think the same way, but now it's what's the
Speaker 1: biggest marathon you ran? I originally ran last month. I
Speaker 1: ran in New York Marathon. That's the absolute biggest marathon
Speaker 1: in the world. Six point two. So a full marathon
Speaker 1: tween six point two I've done it ten times, okay.
Speaker 1: And then how long does it take you to do that?
Speaker 1: What average? Like three and a half hours? Three and
Speaker 1: a half hours? Are you? What? What pace are you at?
Speaker 1: That a pretty good place? You know. It's it's like
Speaker 1: a fast jog, No, it's a it's a run. So
Speaker 1: it's about you run for six miles straight, no breaks?
Speaker 1: Do you carry a water pack? No? I mean like
Speaker 1: alone the route there's like yeah, like there's there's water
Speaker 1: stations if people giving you stuff. It's a in New
Speaker 1: York the greatest marathon I've ever ran in my life.
Speaker 1: But um, the energy was crazy. People are there's people
Speaker 1: everywhere like this. They shut down the entire city. You
Speaker 1: run through all five boroughs. Wow, wow, I didn't you
Speaker 1: run through all five boroughs? So there's people lining the
Speaker 1: street the entire way. And then what barrow do they
Speaker 1: end in? Uh? You inno central Park? So um you're starting,
Speaker 1: you're starting Staten Island. Yeah, and in central parks? Do
Speaker 1: they actually have a winner in the marriage, like a
Speaker 1: first Yeah, they get they make a lot of money. Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't even know there's money. Like how much does
Speaker 1: a New York matter, say six miles three or four
Speaker 1: hours out of your day? You know? Yeah, but you
Speaker 1: gotta like thanks. So is there a marathon winner that
Speaker 1: is like notorious? Who h elliot keep chokie. He's the
Speaker 1: he's the goat. He's uh he's actually ran the fastest
Speaker 1: marathon ever. It was under two hours, so he's the
Speaker 1: first one one fifty nine He's the first one to
Speaker 1: running under two hours six miles, so it's like a
Speaker 1: four minute pace or like four so minute paced the
Speaker 1: entire way. He don't take no breaks. You don't take
Speaker 1: no breaks. Have you met him? I met him last
Speaker 1: month in New York for real. Do you think you
Speaker 1: would ever come and like check out what you're doing?
Speaker 1: I think he would. We we are aligned in some
Speaker 1: way with the with the Nike connection. Something he ever,
Speaker 1: if he's ever in tail, you know, maybe he'll pull
Speaker 1: up all my run club someday. So you decided to
Speaker 1: build this run club, eight people show up? What are
Speaker 1: your parents saying at the time when I'm running my
Speaker 1: run club? I got eight? No, I don't even It
Speaker 1: wasn't even a run club. It was just me gathering
Speaker 1: my friends, you know, like let's let's let's get you healthy,
Speaker 1: let's just get active. So we were doing like two
Speaker 1: miles one mile out back, and you know, it was
Speaker 1: cool because like people were seeing what I was doing,
Speaker 1: and you know, because I would know documented on Instagram
Speaker 1: and things like that, and you know, people would just
Speaker 1: want to get active with me and get healthy. So, um,
Speaker 1: my friends just started growing organically. Like if I told
Speaker 1: you you tell somebody else. You know, next we went
Speaker 1: from eight, you know, to twelve, and twelve to fift
Speaker 1: you know, like social just a gradual growth and then
Speaker 1: people start seeing it, you know, and it's it's a community.
Speaker 1: I always I'm big on AP preaching community because especially
Speaker 1: with my group and runners of color have the most
Speaker 1: reluctant group of people to want to run because of whatever.
Speaker 1: Like we feel as though running agast punishment because growing
Speaker 1: up playing sports, basketball, football and things like that, when
Speaker 1: you get in trouble, you're told to run. So like
Speaker 1: when you get older, you're like, I'm not gonna run
Speaker 1: because it's kind of like some trauma in a way.
Speaker 1: So um exactly exactly. So now you have to do
Speaker 1: things like this, like just to just once they're healthy.
Speaker 1: We're combating COVID, high blood press, your heart, you know,
Speaker 1: so many these different things. So an active lifestyle helps
Speaker 1: with that, and with community it helps even more because
Speaker 1: black people don't get together in large numbers unless we're
Speaker 1: consuming alcohol. So to get together weakly to do something
Speaker 1: positive and you know, impact each other and motivate support
Speaker 1: each other. I think it's important to work out in groups.
Speaker 1: I one of my close friends is day storm Power.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know about him, and he's
Speaker 1: an influencer on social media, but he does these brutal
Speaker 1: ass workouts. They're absolutely ridiculous. They're a hundred percent free.
Speaker 1: It's just I want to join and it's absolute hell
Speaker 1: on wheels. But he'll to a hole like in his
Speaker 1: brain he has a plan, you know, and there are
Speaker 1: moments where you say, I don't necessarily agree with this plan,
Speaker 1: but then it's like he has a plan to prepare
Speaker 1: you for the nightmare that he has planned for you.
Speaker 1: So like there was a yeah, it was a set up.
Speaker 1: So like all year you're like, you know, first of all,
Speaker 1: the amount of weight you lose running is it's it's
Speaker 1: highly not spool. And then um so he trained us,
Speaker 1: trained us, trained us, and then one day he was like,
Speaker 1: you're gonna run these three hills, and we're like three hills. Anyways,
Speaker 1: you run and you're able to because he's gonna train you.
Speaker 1: But then one day randomly, I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I haven't ran these hills in so long, and I
Speaker 1: just pulled up on them hills and I tried to
Speaker 1: run it, and I said he was fucking nuts. He
Speaker 1: was nuts because you did have to train to prepare
Speaker 1: to run those and these weren't little hills. These were
Speaker 1: like nightmares. Everything in life is about preparation and it
Speaker 1: took a long time for that. So how consistent are
Speaker 1: your meetups? We meet weekly, so three times a week, Tuesdays, Tuesday,
Speaker 1: Thursday nights and Sunday mornings. So and then where is
Speaker 1: it at Tuesday night? We meet in Inglewood? I mean
Speaker 1: we meet in Culver City at Veterans Park. It's seven
Speaker 1: pm Thursday night. Simpen signed the coffee shop in Inglewood
Speaker 1: seven pm and six thirty am on Sunday mornings at
Speaker 1: del Ray Lago. Apply apply that. Now does someone have
Speaker 1: to start at the same start date to join your group?
Speaker 1: Because no? I mean because you can come any times.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's you can come whatever you like. It's
Speaker 1: free charge. Um it says it's more community than than
Speaker 1: the post like a training program to where you if
Speaker 1: you don't make it here by this day that you
Speaker 1: can't run with us. No, like, it's come whenever you
Speaker 1: feel like it. But how long are the runs? Three miles?
Speaker 1: So what if someone comes it's their first day and
Speaker 1: they can only run a mile, so we have I
Speaker 1: have a walking component as well, so uh to walk.
Speaker 1: My mom's out there every week leading the walk. Um
Speaker 1: so it's like I said, just getting your body moving.
Speaker 1: It's like you gotta tell people to bring kids, bring
Speaker 1: their parents. And my next question what do you do
Speaker 1: if you have a I have a toiler that just
Speaker 1: started walking, So what do you do? I meaning bringing
Speaker 1: with a stroller, running stroller prefervably. You could do like
Speaker 1: a backpack or no, that doesn't work. I probably hurt
Speaker 1: the kid, you know, like with the kid bouncing all
Speaker 1: over the lake. I wouldn't if I was that, but
Speaker 1: um no, I have a stroller. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: have a strollder, bring it and then if you want
Speaker 1: to walk, go ahead, Like if you're up for it,
Speaker 1: I'd have one of my one of my guys on
Speaker 1: my team pushed the stroller for you, so you could,
Speaker 1: you know, do you know put your working and kids
Speaker 1: actually sitting the stroller. My daughter treats her stroller like
Speaker 1: a surfboard. Like the second I put her in it,
Speaker 1: she's like, sir, I have to like tire down in
Speaker 1: that thing, not the kids. The kids love it because
Speaker 1: you know they're they're seeing all these people moving and
Speaker 1: you know they're they're just they're just being pushed up,
Speaker 1: pushed along for the ride. So and they're going at
Speaker 1: a fast speed for sure, for sure. So okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna remember this. Yeah. So you if they're
Speaker 1: doing six thirty in the morning, I'm guessing they're done
Speaker 1: before church. Yeah, like nine, but we're done my So,
Speaker 1: so Sundays more for our longer runs. That's more of
Speaker 1: our training day for marathons. Are just people to get
Speaker 1: have to help people get better with distance. Because if
Speaker 1: I told you go run six miles, they're not gonna
Speaker 1: do it by yourself. So I created this base to
Speaker 1: where it will help you reach whatever goal you're trying
Speaker 1: to get to. So okay, now your daughter is involved
Speaker 1: in your she comes out from time to time. It's
Speaker 1: it's a for me, it's a tough balance to be
Speaker 1: to be the leader of the run club and be
Speaker 1: a dad at the same time because I have so
Speaker 1: many people I have to kind of keep an eye on,
Speaker 1: so trying to keep it. You know, we're just you know,
Speaker 1: run to the streets and have a team that helps
Speaker 1: guy indirected you know, have like team leads and things
Speaker 1: like that. But um, to try to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on a hundred people as well as my kid is
Speaker 1: not the easiest thing to do. So, um, now, when
Speaker 1: didn't Nike get involved twenty eighteen A really good friend
Speaker 1: of mine a comedy to that are former olympian, uh,
Speaker 1: fastest woman in the world. She connected me with them,
Speaker 1: so I always want to show her her love and
Speaker 1: give her shout out. She connected me with them. It's
Speaker 1: just the way to get free products, shoes, gear, whatever.
Speaker 1: And then they've seen what I had going on with
Speaker 1: the community, got behind it and it's been a great
Speaker 1: relationship ever since. Now was your run club a nonprofit
Speaker 1: or was it? No, it's not. It's not a nonprofit.
Speaker 1: So Nike was just like, I'm going to sponsor that.
Speaker 1: There's in a very supportive role. So we do events
Speaker 1: throughout the year. Um, we do, we do. We've done
Speaker 1: huge events. They've shut down Crunshaw Boulevard for us, and
Speaker 1: they've shut down the whole city in Inglewood for us
Speaker 1: to do just different runs and things like that. Nike
Speaker 1: will go ahead and Nike in my relationships with other
Speaker 1: people as well, who might think is just putting together community,
Speaker 1: giving people that space to just run in the communities
Speaker 1: that they think that they can't. So so in South
Speaker 1: Central they're now running, Yes, South Central, Igglewood, Compton, all,
Speaker 1: you know, all the all the a lot a lot
Speaker 1: of inner city neighborhoods. So we got a lot of
Speaker 1: people active in moving now. But are they running in
Speaker 1: that community? Yes, yes, yes, And so you were like
Speaker 1: pivotal in that because originally you started Manhattan Beach. Yes,
Speaker 1: I started Manhattan Beach because, um, yeah, like gathering in
Speaker 1: the inner city like parks and things like that isn't
Speaker 1: the easiest because you know, the gangs and you know,
Speaker 1: so pulling up not even if I if I went
Speaker 1: to a park and told you meet me at a
Speaker 1: park and you're from the other side of town, You're like,
Speaker 1: I'm not coming over there. That's not you know, my
Speaker 1: you know, that's not my negative was and they don't
Speaker 1: get along with the side of town that I'm from,
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to that park. So I had
Speaker 1: to take it to an area where everyone felt very
Speaker 1: safe and willing to want to come out. So I
Speaker 1: started Manhattan Beach and went to Coover City. Now our
Speaker 1: biggest runners in Englewood, which is an underserving community as well. So,
Speaker 1: um so when Nike gets involved with your organization, I
Speaker 1: want to kind of get into the meat of you
Speaker 1: going from I'm creating this group too, Now I have
Speaker 1: to transform it into like an organization slash business. Did
Speaker 1: you have a business background? No? No, So that's the
Speaker 1: that's the funny part. Um I started this. It's just
Speaker 1: like I said, just get to my friends moving. So
Speaker 1: when it started growing and people are like you need
Speaker 1: to you need to come up with a name, or
Speaker 1: you need to get it, you know, your trademark and
Speaker 1: things like that, I'm like, I'm not expecting any of this,
Speaker 1: Like I didn't have a blueprint of like how any
Speaker 1: of this worked. Um So, eventually I did get my
Speaker 1: company trademarked, and you know it's that's my stamp. Now
Speaker 1: you know, nobody could take it from me, but trademarking it.
Speaker 1: When Nike comes along, trademark and it doesn't necessarily make
Speaker 1: it where you and Nike could do business. At some
Speaker 1: point you had to do like a corporation. No we
Speaker 1: we uh so Nike. So that's always like the big
Speaker 1: question like interviews, but like we have the understanding that
Speaker 1: we have U there, I myself am an athlete in
Speaker 1: their supportive role to keep a one hundred. So it's
Speaker 1: not like Nike is like we're under the umbrella and
Speaker 1: they're like there who like cashes me out monthly for whatever.
Speaker 1: So that's not that's not how it works when we
Speaker 1: do events. We have our understanding and how that works.
Speaker 1: But um, I make my own money. However, you have
Speaker 1: to have other jobs while you're doing keep keep, Um
Speaker 1: you're not. Are you still doing bussing or not? No? No,
Speaker 1: I'm full full run like everything and running like that's
Speaker 1: that's everything for me. So um, but making that transition,
Speaker 1: can it happen that smooth? It wasn't, but everything uh
Speaker 1: moment where you quit bussing. So so I left bussing.
Speaker 1: And actually when it's funny because I was working at
Speaker 1: the left bussing to work at the Anheuser bush right here,
Speaker 1: So I was there for some time and what were
Speaker 1: you doing? I was fermenting beer. Fermentation is a very
Speaker 1: important process of beer making. Um, great job, great money,
Speaker 1: but like all I want to do is run, so
Speaker 1: uh you know, I was one for the and one
Speaker 1: foot out like I was going to work making the
Speaker 1: money but not seeing my kid or being able to
Speaker 1: spend money on my kids. So what's the money gonna do?
Speaker 1: You know? So I really decided I had to bet
Speaker 1: on myself and just trust and follow my passion, which
Speaker 1: was running. And in that space, I gave it two
Speaker 1: years just to see where it could take me. And
Speaker 1: where are you living on savings at the time, savings hustling?
Speaker 1: Just you know, was your child's mother like supporting? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean like we I mean we we Yeah, we
Speaker 1: worked well together in the space. Um, you know, like
Speaker 1: I was always able, like I'm always able to make
Speaker 1: some money, but in the process of like trying to
Speaker 1: get your own things started to require sacrifice and you
Speaker 1: have to you know, uh, trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: So I gave myself two years. My mentality was always
Speaker 1: I can always get a job. If this doesn't work out,
Speaker 1: I can go back to work. But um, I never
Speaker 1: wanted to sit with the sugar. Could have would have
Speaker 1: was like, I could have stayed at the job. And
Speaker 1: now it's five years later and be like, damn, if
Speaker 1: I had started my run club, what did that two
Speaker 1: years look like? It was actually a good like it
Speaker 1: was a it was a it was a growing time.
Speaker 1: It was very It wasn't like there was some struggle
Speaker 1: there of course it would be. Um, but um, because
Speaker 1: it seems like a year into your business the pandemic
Speaker 1: or two years hit. So I'm I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out, like you start the business, pandemic hits. I
Speaker 1: just want so I started pandemic, so you know I
Speaker 1: was able to really stay afloat just with like different
Speaker 1: connections and you know, relationships I've had with different brands, uh,
Speaker 1: selling merch doing you know, like fighting other ways to
Speaker 1: just make make money happen. But in that too, like
Speaker 1: money isn't a big issue for me, Um, being genuine
Speaker 1: field happiness. Success to me is in service. So me
Speaker 1: being able to help my community, help hundreds and thousands
Speaker 1: of people through running like pays me aways that people
Speaker 1: never understand. So like money isn't like isn't my driving
Speaker 1: force at all. No, that's that's good. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how you survived. Um, oh yeah we survived. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we survived like we made it, like we made it
Speaker 1: make it. I was never broke, Like I was never
Speaker 1: in a position to be like damn, like this doesn't
Speaker 1: work out, I'm gonna be on the street. You know,
Speaker 1: very have a very strong support system. Like I said,
Speaker 1: we had tough times. We you know, we had to
Speaker 1: do the hot pockets and the noodles, you know, but um,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's now that I want to you know,
Speaker 1: in a in a better space. And like I still
Speaker 1: I still dabble, you know, with with with with with
Speaker 1: the with the broke food. But um, what did you
Speaker 1: do to survive the pandemic with Ron Club? How did
Speaker 1: you keep the brand? Alt um? The first like two months,
Speaker 1: people were still meeting up, which I was like totally against,
Speaker 1: but were you there when they were meeting him? But
Speaker 1: people are still like people needed that community. So a
Speaker 1: lot of people, Um, a lot of people who were
Speaker 1: with me aren't from l A, you know, so like
Speaker 1: they're you know, they're here with no family or no
Speaker 1: support system, so like they needed that space to where
Speaker 1: they primarily black or where they yeah, majority of black.
Speaker 1: But you know, like depression is real and you know,
Speaker 1: uh all types of things, you know, and this like
Speaker 1: people were telling me how they were on the verge
Speaker 1: of when they were when we couldn't meet they you know,
Speaker 1: thought about suicide and things like that. So they needed
Speaker 1: that space to be able to come together with other
Speaker 1: people and make them feel better there. So like, uh,
Speaker 1: after about two or three let's say three let's say
Speaker 1: three or four months, we got back out there together
Speaker 1: and it was you know, it was like clockwork. We
Speaker 1: got back to the way you know what what what
Speaker 1: we had been doing, where they running with masks. Everybody
Speaker 1: was running with masks and things like that. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: if you know, they were still hesitation and it was
Speaker 1: like meeting up and like gathering and things like that.
Speaker 1: But um, we weathered the storm. Now at your meetups,
Speaker 1: do you guys do any type of talking? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I I speak, I make announcements. We Uh, I created
Speaker 1: space at the end of the run where people are.
Speaker 1: It's like a networking space. So there's eighty people here,
Speaker 1: so everybody in here does something. If you're a mechanic
Speaker 1: or a barber or you know what I'm saying, you're
Speaker 1: able to just put your business on display and share
Speaker 1: with the group because you never know who may need it,
Speaker 1: you know, or who can help you you can help them,
Speaker 1: or things like that. So uh, that's probably one of
Speaker 1: the best parts of the run okay. So at the end,
Speaker 1: everybody's like, this is what I did. If you needs
Speaker 1: that's great, that's a great. That's a free marketing and
Speaker 1: healthy marketing experience. Like people have like written books and
Speaker 1: that the group has bought their books. People bring like
Speaker 1: you know, people are make healthy juices, people bring you know,
Speaker 1: and so it's a very supportive community. I like that.
Speaker 1: I like that. So you're embracing other entrepreneurs to do
Speaker 1: you guys. Um you also in addition to keep it
Speaker 1: run hundred, you also have Rock Can you talk about that?
Speaker 1: So Rock w R okay, we raise our kids. It's
Speaker 1: a nonprofit me and a buddy of mine started in
Speaker 1: twenties seventeen um. Just to show it and then in
Speaker 1: highlight you know, positive fathers, positive black fathers, and in
Speaker 1: just those spaces like we're doing picnics, father daughter dances,
Speaker 1: father's son brunches, just to show that, you know, there
Speaker 1: are dope dads out here, despite you know some of
Speaker 1: the you know, negative things that you may see or
Speaker 1: hear about about dads. We love our kids, so we
Speaker 1: uh are very present and try to you know, create
Speaker 1: the best lives for him. And we want that on display.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like that a lot of the mission
Speaker 1: was because black dads tend to be targeted as or
Speaker 1: painted as the non present dad's. Yeah, because me, me
Speaker 1: and my boy were like a lot of people and
Speaker 1: a lot of people who were a part of who
Speaker 1: are partners uh of of Rock, they were fatherless, they
Speaker 1: grew up fatherless, so they're striving to just change the narrative.
Speaker 1: And um, you know, like we as as dads, we
Speaker 1: will go out together and just try to build as men,
Speaker 1: you know, like so that space was it was that
Speaker 1: still is a very important part of my life. Okay, okay, perfect.
Speaker 1: How's your daughter now? She's eight eight eight going on
Speaker 1: twenty eight. What how often are you meeting up with Rock? Uh?
Speaker 1: We haven't. We haven't done much since the pandemic, just
Speaker 1: because I think, you know, every his life just shifted
Speaker 1: a little bit. But we will be back. Okay. And
Speaker 1: then for men that aren't present in their child's life,
Speaker 1: is there anything you feel like you can do to
Speaker 1: bring that presents back? And we tried. I tried to
Speaker 1: highlight it with my actions with my kids, you know,
Speaker 1: just to kind of show that this is fun, Like
Speaker 1: I love, I love being a dad. So like, you know,
Speaker 1: I post her every day and you know, show us
Speaker 1: hanging out and things like that just show people like
Speaker 1: having a kid and being a part of your kid's
Speaker 1: life is a very exciting situation. Like I get, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody's circumstances situation is different because whatever reason they may be.
Speaker 1: But I just try to, you know, have and show
Speaker 1: men that, like if you haven't picked up your kid,
Speaker 1: go go get it and go get him or her
Speaker 1: this weekend, because like watching them grow and become their
Speaker 1: own person is a dope thing to see. But why
Speaker 1: do you think that those males are not present? I
Speaker 1: mean that's the that's our own situations, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like what example, like what have the reason
Speaker 1: has been that you're aware of, uh, you know, issues
Speaker 1: with the mom or you know some in parenting, sometimes
Speaker 1: I feel like some people just are meant to be parents,
Speaker 1: you know, like that's just not that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: you don't show up for your kids, but some people
Speaker 1: just don't have what don't have what it takes. So
Speaker 1: some men kind of just straight away because you know,
Speaker 1: they feel as though they are already or they you know,
Speaker 1: which is a sucky or do you think it's like
Speaker 1: the evils? Like I try to understand the whole dad
Speaker 1: not present thing, and you got to you have to
Speaker 1: acknowledge statistics. A guy that grows up in a home
Speaker 1: without his dad has a higher higher chance of not
Speaker 1: raising his kids as much as he hates it. So
Speaker 1: you have to acknowledge statistics. And then you also have
Speaker 1: to acknowledge, you know, systematically. Obviously, our culture has painted
Speaker 1: this image of you know, sex, drugs and alcohol is
Speaker 1: the ultimate king. You know, there's nothing more fun than sex,
Speaker 1: drugs and alcohol. Like who wants to change a diaper?
Speaker 1: When you know this vixing is over here and you're
Speaker 1: dealing with the fund is over here and your kids
Speaker 1: starts to feel more like an obligation. So it's like,
Speaker 1: I just wonder when I see organizations like like, how
Speaker 1: do you not just change the narrative of oh I'm
Speaker 1: a great dad on because there's there's great dads that
Speaker 1: post their kids. When I say great dad's, I say
Speaker 1: in quotations like I love nothing more than hair and
Speaker 1: a girl say, oh, look he posted his kid that
Speaker 1: he hasn't seen in a week, or you know, he
Speaker 1: returned the kid and the rash was like literally outrageously
Speaker 1: over the top, But hey, guess what, he's got two
Speaker 1: thousand likes for posting his kids. So it's it's that
Speaker 1: I just asked that question because it's great that you
Speaker 1: represent like the great dads, but at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, like, what are we doing to get to
Speaker 1: the root of the problem if we don't even understand
Speaker 1: for sure? You know, good point, because for every angry
Speaker 1: baby mama I've ever seen, she's always had a valid
Speaker 1: point or valid like her validity and her complaints is
Speaker 1: like so real. It's like, what's she really difficult? Or
Speaker 1: was it like there's a lot of valid validity all
Speaker 1: all the things that you didn't did you take yourself
Speaker 1: with I mean, did you hold yourself accountable a lot? Exactly?
Speaker 1: I think that men? I think men. Uh. There's a
Speaker 1: book I keep shouting it out, hopefully we'll have them
Speaker 1: on the show. There's this book, Mail Versus Men. I
Speaker 1: talked about it a lot on the show. I read
Speaker 1: it by Dondre Whitfield, Um, and it kind of talks
Speaker 1: about like men just need accountability systems, They need mentors,
Speaker 1: and I I think more so than like Instagram posts
Speaker 1: or or like, you know, dates, they just like, if
Speaker 1: you see a guy that is not headed down that path,
Speaker 1: maybe taking time to say I choose you to be
Speaker 1: friends you because for whatever reason, and kind of be
Speaker 1: that mentor that gutting point, because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, my mom used always say, like, if you
Speaker 1: show me your friends, I'll tell you who you are.
Speaker 1: Not a at ten times a guy that's not there
Speaker 1: for his family, all his friends aren't there for his family.
Speaker 1: So you could be that one person that's like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I choose you, you know, And I think
Speaker 1: that's something that people in general like, you don't need
Speaker 1: an organization and you can just say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna choose this random guy in the block and
Speaker 1: that's gonna be my homie and we're not alike, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be friends and you know, to learn one
Speaker 1: another and becomes who knows you. You never know that
Speaker 1: that initial conversation could take you with somebody. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't see a lot of people be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you want to be my friend. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be your friends. Get out of my what you hang
Speaker 1: out with your kid on the weekends. I want to
Speaker 1: be your friend, like I also have a beautiful girl
Speaker 1: and or a beautiful girlfriend or a great relationship with
Speaker 1: my baby mama. You know what I think. You know,
Speaker 1: I would like to see where Rock goes. You know,
Speaker 1: I hope that baby seed was planted you like that? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's it's a it's a deep it's a deep issue.
Speaker 1: It goes a lot deeper than just I think the
Speaker 1: external of spending time with your kids. Sure, for sure,
Speaker 1: Like it's a full time job, it's a full time Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's you picked up one of the hardest.
Speaker 1: Like when I hear Rock, I'm like, yo, that's a
Speaker 1: hard one. That's a hard one. So do I think
Speaker 1: as creating a run club is hard? So where do
Speaker 1: you see the run club going from here? Um? So
Speaker 1: we spoke earlier, we spoke a little bit about nonprofit.
Speaker 1: Three I will be you know, I will be going
Speaker 1: on the non profit route. So that would create just
Speaker 1: different avenues me and the club. But I want to
Speaker 1: make just running an activity, you know, a huge thing
Speaker 1: across the world like it is now. But like I
Speaker 1: would keep a hundred in every major city across the globe. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, growth and expansion is what I'm working on.
Speaker 1: And you guys create your own marathons, right, no, are
Speaker 1: you going to um dyeah? So, like that's that's definitely
Speaker 1: a plan in the future to create one for l A,
Speaker 1: South central l A. You know, like run one through
Speaker 1: the area where I grew up. How how does someone
Speaker 1: go about creating a you know who talks with the city,
Speaker 1: you know, mapping it out and funding, you know, so
Speaker 1: many things involved. So I have relationship. I have a
Speaker 1: really good relationship with some of the city councilmen. So
Speaker 1: and I was actually just speaking with is that current
Speaker 1: price in your city? Or is that city Harris Dawson? Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: we I've done events with him authorout this year, So
Speaker 1: I actually just spoke about you know, and I'm not
Speaker 1: putting out there too soon, but we talked about we
Speaker 1: talked about the possibility of trying to make a marathon
Speaker 1: route through the inner city. That would be great, that
Speaker 1: would be that would be a yeah. And then does
Speaker 1: the city pick up the bill on that or what
Speaker 1: you guys have to um or is that something we
Speaker 1: got to figure out in time? Like it's like it's
Speaker 1: very it's it's still in the in it it's in
Speaker 1: the very very beginning of the talking stages. We haven't
Speaker 1: really you know, we met, we saw I saw him
Speaker 1: last weekend, so I said, were just something anesting in
Speaker 1: conversation and we can see where we can take it
Speaker 1: from here. Okay, okay, So moving forward, how would people join? Um?
Speaker 1: You know, I foll on Instagram first off at Keep
Speaker 1: and Run hundred, following me at Barrock Underscore. Oh butta
Speaker 1: um and everything that we do is posted on the
Speaker 1: Instagram's very active on the pages. Our schedule was there
Speaker 1: Tuesday nights, Thursday nights and Sunday mornings. But it's it's
Speaker 1: very it's free charge to show up, you know, come
Speaker 1: with a willingness to work and a good attitude and
Speaker 1: we're gonna get you across that three miles. Okay, and
Speaker 1: then I do I know this is kind of backtracking
Speaker 1: a little bit, but was there ever point in you
Speaker 1: creating the run club that you wanted to quit? No? Never, Um,
Speaker 1: this is my thing. Was it because it's not a
Speaker 1: top heavy business or no? This is just it's it's
Speaker 1: really what I was put here to do, like put
Speaker 1: on this earth to do. Like I spoke about impacting
Speaker 1: other people it it, it's amazing. So like every time,
Speaker 1: you know, people hit me telling me they've gotten healthier
Speaker 1: and they don't have to take their meds anymore, that
Speaker 1: they don't have to see the doctor as much. Like
Speaker 1: those are the winds for me, you know. So, like
Speaker 1: I said, do you have a story of someone losing
Speaker 1: like astronomical amount of way, like someone that showed up
Speaker 1: where you're like, man, man, No, people will lose weight.
Speaker 1: Like I had a girl she was three hundred plus pounds,
Speaker 1: she's probably about one sixty now she's running marathons and
Speaker 1: just you know, a mother of four that runs will
Speaker 1: be you know, she's seen a multiple time marathon runner
Speaker 1: um and she started in your club and people from
Speaker 1: all walks of life, you know, didn't you tell them
Speaker 1: how to eat? Because there was a point when I
Speaker 1: was working out with day Storm, and they will tell
Speaker 1: you this. I would eat like a whole sub and
Speaker 1: then I'd have like some serious heartburn and like serious
Speaker 1: struggle throughout the whole workout. Now now eat like a
Speaker 1: salad or banana and then I work out. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: so I'm not giving nutritional plans and things like that,
Speaker 1: but I got there, like you know, and and then
Speaker 1: but then life too, there's a balance as well, you know,
Speaker 1: so if you're gonna put whatever into your body, make
Speaker 1: sure you work it off. So um, yeah, like you
Speaker 1: can still have fun and go out and eat to
Speaker 1: eat whatever and you know, partaking some libations, but you
Speaker 1: know you gotta do the other work on the back end.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, okay, cool. So thank you so much for
Speaker 1: coming to the show and not cooking for us. That's
Speaker 1: less dishes for me. But definitely tell our list is
Speaker 1: how they can catch you where they can catch you
Speaker 1: and keep up and let us know you're scheduling. Oh man,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for having me. Um, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate that. This was fun. Um. Keeping on a hundred
Speaker 1: meets Thursday night, Well Tuesday night seven pm, Veterans Park
Speaker 1: in Cobra City, Thursday night seven pm sipping Sounder Coffee,
Speaker 1: shopping Inglewood and Sunday morning six thirty am at del
Speaker 1: Ray Lagoon and Amply del Rey. So follow us on
Speaker 1: Instagram at Keeping Run hundred. Following me on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Barack Underscore. Oh butta as Barack like the President underscore
Speaker 1: O b U T T A hope to hear from
Speaker 1: you all soon. Yes, and there's no feast to join you.
Speaker 1: Just they don't have to pre register either, right, just
Speaker 1: come in your running gear and they have to bring
Speaker 1: their own water, right, bring water, bring whatever you like.
Speaker 1: Just just bring your willingness to work and you know,
Speaker 1: get attitude. And kids are welcome. Kids are welcome. You know,
Speaker 1: elders are welcome, Walkers, walkers are welcome. I just want
Speaker 1: you to get your body moving. Okay, Well, we appreciate
Speaker 1: having you. Um piece out everybody for more eating while
Speaker 1: broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows