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Speaker 1: Everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks.

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Speaker 1: And we continue now with part two of our conversation

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Speaker 1: with Collie Sweeney. Right after these brief messages from our

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Speaker 1: general sponsors. When I coached at Manassas, we developed into

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Speaker 1: having act prep classes and all this stuff to help

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Speaker 1: these kids kind of hopefully get caught up and do well.

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Speaker 1: If I'd have showed up to Nassis and said, Okay, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna have an act prep class, why don't y'all

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Speaker 1: seventy of you show up and be with me every

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Speaker 1: day for nine months out of the year, ain't nobody

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Speaker 1: showing up?

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Speaker 2: Correct?

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Speaker 1: What I said is, how about I put together a

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Speaker 1: really good football team and buy you new equipment and

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Speaker 1: everything else. And the trade off is you've got to

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Speaker 1: do all this E two prep classes. You're gonna do

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Speaker 1: all this other work. Football was the hook. It sounds

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Speaker 1: to be like you found a hook. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So, like I said, I started doing this back in five.

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Speaker 2: I said, boxing is the hook. It's the icebreaker to

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Speaker 2: the bigger conversation. Homework. That's it started out just with

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Speaker 2: the homework. From there, we we've individualized programs.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 2: We do assessments. We do College and Career Readiness Act.

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Speaker 1: Do you know anything about that? Man? You just learned

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Speaker 1: to read and.

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Speaker 2: You with But we, for one, we're looking at We're

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Speaker 2: looking at what we need to pay attention to. What's

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Speaker 2: working and what's not working. How's this? How's this group

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Speaker 2: of people thriving and this group is not? So let's

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Speaker 2: look at everything that they have in place. Let's look

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Speaker 2: at everything that they have in place. What's key to

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Speaker 2: making this happen. The strategy is to win, not to

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Speaker 2: fall short. Just like a football Just like a football coach,

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Speaker 2: he's gonna look at the film, he's gonna look at

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Speaker 2: the other team, he's gonna look at the past records.

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Speaker 2: So let's look at what's working and they what we

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Speaker 2: need to do. Where are we falling short at and

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Speaker 2: what do we need to uplift? How do we get

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Speaker 2: those other seventy to graduate with the thirty? And so

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Speaker 2: we did that. We looked at all of that and

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Speaker 2: we said, okay, let's we So I early on I

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Speaker 2: knew it wasn't me. I already know I'm struggling myself.

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Speaker 2: But here's what I got to do. Here's what I

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Speaker 2: had to do. I had to put my pride aside.

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Speaker 2: If I wanted to make a community organization, it has

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Speaker 2: to be about the community. It can't be me with

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Speaker 2: founders syndrome trying to carry the whole load. Because I

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Speaker 2: did that, I ended up being homeless. I lost my house,

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Speaker 2: I lost my car. I was living in the gym.

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Speaker 2: I was taking showers in the sink, and we had

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Speaker 2: no lights, no gas, no heat, no running water. At

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Speaker 2: one point in time, we were losing a generator outside.

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Speaker 2: I was walking in and I was sleeping in an

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Speaker 2: old car in the in the field, and the kids

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Speaker 2: would always ask me, do you live in that car?

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Speaker 2: And I was like, no, I just got here early.

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Speaker 2: They was like, no, you had a pillow, We saw you.

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Speaker 1: Holy moly, you skipped something. How did it go from

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Speaker 1: the yard to that?

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Speaker 2: Oh man? We just I kept going. I was working.

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Speaker 2: I was working every day. I was dealing with my

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Speaker 2: security job. I was working construction, and I was like, okay,

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Speaker 2: I started paying other people to let me bring the

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Speaker 2: kids into their gym so they could see what the

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Speaker 2: real gym looked like, not just being outside.

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Speaker 1: Then I was like, you're working two jobs, yeah, and

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Speaker 1: paying your harder money yeah, for a bunch of kids

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Speaker 1: out the front yard so they could see what the

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Speaker 1: real gym looks like. Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So I'm paying them memberships at other gyms and stuff,

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Speaker 2: and I'm taking these kids all around places and stuff,

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Speaker 2: and and after a while I was like, man, this

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Speaker 2: is like this is like it's not it's not productive,

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Speaker 2: it's not actually working. This is actually I'm losing doing this.

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Speaker 2: And I saw a guy he was wrinting a building

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Speaker 2: out and I asked him could I rent? And I

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Speaker 2: told him what I wanted to do, and he told

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Speaker 2: me if could I afford it? And I told him yeah,

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Speaker 2: but I didn't have a real plan. I didn't. You

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Speaker 2: just said yeah, yeah, I said yeah, And before you

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Speaker 2: know what, the lights would cut off, the.

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Speaker 1: Gas off A yeah, that's how that happened.

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Speaker 2: So I stopped paying the rent at my I stopped

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Speaker 2: paying the rent at my house, and so then I

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Speaker 2: stopped paying that and I started just living in my car.

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Speaker 2: Then my car had it had a fuel pump issue,

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Speaker 2: and so it would always stop on the freeway and

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Speaker 2: the parents would pick me up on the freeway because

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Speaker 2: they had seen me walking on the freeway, and they

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Speaker 2: would bring me back to the gym. So it was

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Speaker 2: a whole It was a whole journey.

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Speaker 1: Oh was that?

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Speaker 2: This is like early on, like seven o eight, It

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Speaker 2: was stuff.

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Speaker 1: I ain't that long ago, I know. Yeah, so you're

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Speaker 1: bathing in it all right, Yeah it was. Let's let's

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Speaker 1: let's let's let's collect all this to get on time

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Speaker 1: to two thousand and seven. You're working two jobs. You

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Speaker 1: notice the same kids that you fear look like you

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Speaker 1: when you were in third grade taking an interest in

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Speaker 1: you because you're boxing. You say, I got a hook.

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Speaker 1: And so now you're spending all your own money to

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Speaker 1: get them gym memberships just so they can be part

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Speaker 1: of something positive.

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Speaker 2: Correct.

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Speaker 1: Then you rent a gym that you really don't have

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Speaker 1: the money paid for, you end up living in it

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Speaker 1: and you're broken down car. Why the sink in the gym? Also,

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Speaker 1: you can try to get the kids, yeah, to have

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Speaker 1: one positive thing in their life.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're a hero, no man, no, so.

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Speaker 1: No, no, no. I know the founder syndrome thing, it's

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Speaker 1: I got a word for it. It's called turkey person.

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you about it later, but let me just

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Speaker 1: tell you something dude, that is so I mean, wow, wow,

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Speaker 1: Why why do you think at that point you were

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Speaker 1: so convicted in this that you were willing to be

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Speaker 1: homeless for these kids.

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Speaker 2: Because at the end of the day, at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day, if you really want to be an

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Speaker 2: effective member of the community, if you want to do

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Speaker 2: your part, you got to actually understand what is it

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Speaker 2: actually that I'm actually losing a lost apartment? So what

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Speaker 2: a lost apartment? So what a loss of car? So what?

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Speaker 2: I went from two eighteen solid muscle to one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty pounds or whatever it was.

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Speaker 1: So what because you weren't eating.

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Speaker 2: I wasn't eating. The families used to bring food to

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Speaker 2: the gym and say, hey, can you just eat this?

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Speaker 2: Can you eat that? Or they invite me to their

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Speaker 2: house and then they just have a whole meal to

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Speaker 2: just have all the kids leave and they just let

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Speaker 2: me eat in the kitchen. So I wouldn't be embarrassed.

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Speaker 2: I knew what they were doing. I knew what was

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Speaker 2: going on. I knew what families were like, Hey, taste

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Speaker 2: this or have something. I knew what was going on.

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Speaker 2: I knew that they were trying to they saw what

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Speaker 2: was going on with me far as weight wise. But

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Speaker 2: what am I actually losing. So I lost a car,

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Speaker 2: so what. I lost an apartment, so what? I lost

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Speaker 2: friends who didn't get it. So what? I lost family

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Speaker 2: who didn't get it.

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Speaker 1: So what.

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Speaker 2: I don't care about that. But to lose a life,

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Speaker 2: something so precious as a human life, To lose a

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Speaker 2: life somebody who could potentially be the next person to

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Speaker 2: invent something the scientists doctor lawyer to who might have

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Speaker 2: a cure for cancer. One of our coaches told me

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Speaker 2: one time, he said, Man, the most talent is in

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Speaker 2: the graveyard. And I looked at him. I was like, man,

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Speaker 2: how true that is. Some of your greatest discoveries are

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Speaker 2: in a graveyard. Some of the guys who may have

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Speaker 2: solved the mysteries of the universe are in the graveyard

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Speaker 2: or sitting behind bars somewhere. When I hear people say,

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Speaker 2: Man's people could play basketball better than Michael Jordan in prison,

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Speaker 2: and I say, Man, what a waste. What are we

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Speaker 2: really losing by losing a car or an apartment or

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Speaker 2: a few pounds. I'm willing to make that sacrifice to

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Speaker 2: save a life. And I don't need a no heroes

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Speaker 2: or ward or none of that. I don't need no accolades,

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Speaker 2: just to see a child walk across that stage means

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Speaker 2: the world to me, because I know our society has

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Speaker 2: a chance. I've seen a white guy slip and fall

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Speaker 2: in the winter time. They fell in the middle of

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Speaker 2: the street, bus coming straight out of them. I drove

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Speaker 2: my car in front of the bus, stopped it, picked

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Speaker 2: him up. He teld me, get your hands off of

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Speaker 2: me and everybody I was down there looking at their phone,

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Speaker 2: so I would have left them down there. But that's

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Speaker 2: not humanity. I don't care what color is or how

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Speaker 2: old he is. I don't care what his attitude is.

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Speaker 2: That is a human life that needs to be saved.

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Speaker 2: And I picked them up, and I got in my

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Speaker 2: car and I rolled on. Because when I when I

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Speaker 2: get up in the morning, the first person I see

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Speaker 2: in the mirror is me. When I go to bed

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Speaker 2: at night, the last person I see is me when

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Speaker 2: I look in that mirror, and I want to say,

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Speaker 2: did you do all you could do? And I want

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Speaker 2: to be proud of when I go to sleep. I

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Speaker 2: don't want to say that I felt, oh, I had

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Speaker 2: to get this amount of money and this and that

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Speaker 2: or whatever. You know what I'm saying. When I got shot,

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Speaker 2: I didn't think about, oh how much money I got

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Speaker 2: it did I have on the latest fashion? When I

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Speaker 2: got shot, I said, man, I hope my family gonna

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Speaker 2: be all right. And that's the stuff that went through

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Speaker 2: my mind.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we really could end it there, but there's

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Speaker 1: so much more to talk about going. So you rent

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Speaker 1: in a gym and everything's turned off, but you're still

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Speaker 1: doing this. So what happened?

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Speaker 2: So I'm doing everything for the generator and I had

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Speaker 2: finally because I had found her syndrome. I really thought

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Speaker 2: I had to be the one to do it because

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Speaker 2: I'm from the community. Nobody else can do it because

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Speaker 2: I grew up here. I'm the one that has to

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Speaker 2: be the one to do it. I'm the only person

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Speaker 2: that see the need. I had to found the syndrome

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Speaker 2: very bad. And a young lady walked in. She said,

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Speaker 2: you know, can you train me. I'm looking for a

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Speaker 2: place to work out, And I said, well, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 2: I just told all the parents that I'm about to

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Speaker 2: do some remodeling. I'm gonna close down. And so when

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Speaker 2: she was walking around through the building, she was like

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Speaker 2: she followed me around for hours, and she was like,

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Speaker 2: wait a minute, you can't close this down. She said,

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Speaker 2: don't close this place down. She said, whatever I can

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Speaker 2: do to help you keep this open. You need to

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Speaker 2: keep this thing open. She said, I don't know how

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it, but let me help you keep

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Speaker 2: this place open, because this is something I've never seen

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Speaker 2: before in my life. And I've been to a lot

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Speaker 2: of programs. I've been to a lot of places, and

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Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of things. And I'm actually on

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Speaker 2: my way to go to Switzerland to work with the

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Speaker 2: United Nations, and I have an apartment in Switzerland. I'm

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Speaker 2: about to work with kids internationally, to work with kids,

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Speaker 2: to do what you're doing right here, which is fifteen

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Speaker 2: minutes from my suburban home, and I'm for the fly

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Speaker 2: to a whole other country. There's people right here in

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Speaker 2: our community, fifteen minutes from my house that I could

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Speaker 2: be helping. You help, so don't close it. So she

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Speaker 2: ended up homeless as well, because she put everything she

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Speaker 2: had into it to keep Yes, are you for real?

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Speaker 2: I'm dead serious? Because nobody was. Nobody was jumping on board.

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Speaker 2: So we were still financing it the best we could,

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Speaker 2: and we financing it the best we could, and then

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Speaker 2: finally we called a break. Somebody walked in on behalf

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Speaker 2: of another community. I'll let them tell their story, but

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Speaker 2: it was another community, suburban community, a group of people.

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Speaker 2: They had been hearing about what I was doing, and

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Speaker 2: they literally was getting turned down every time they would

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Speaker 2: send somebody to ask me questions. I was like, man,

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Speaker 2: get away from me. I got work to do. I'm

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Speaker 2: taking care of business. I don't got time to talk

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Speaker 2: to you. And I was just pushing people away. And

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Speaker 2: so a lady walked in the gym one day and

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Speaker 2: I'm in the back sweeping, getting ready for the kids

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Speaker 2: to get in there. And she came in and she said, uh,

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Speaker 2: she said, what is this place? And I've seen her.

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Speaker 2: She had on a pants suit, looking like the police

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Speaker 2: or some sort of inspect her about to shut the

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Speaker 2: place down, because I know we had probably every violation

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Speaker 2: on earth in the place, probably and because sometimes he

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Speaker 2: used to rain inside the building. So I'm thinking like

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Speaker 2: this is some kind of city inspector or the police.

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Speaker 2: And so she started asking me what is this place,

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Speaker 2: and I told her, I said, that's a youth it's

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Speaker 2: a youth program. You know, we work with kids for free,

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Speaker 2: and we we know we help them with their homework

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Speaker 2: and school and tutoring and all of that type of stuff, and.

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Speaker 1: We teach you about a box. But that's the hook.

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Speaker 2: So I'm breaking it down to her and I'm telling

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Speaker 2: them what we do, and she she looked me up

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Speaker 2: and down. She's like, when the last time you have something?

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Speaker 2: And I was like, what are you talking about? She's like,

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Speaker 2: the whole time, you're dirty and your stomach is growling.

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Speaker 2: She said, you don't look well. She said, how are

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Speaker 2: you gonna help kids? And you don't even look like

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Speaker 2: you're helping yourself. And I was like, lady, who are you? Like, like,

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Speaker 2: are you gonna write me a summons, a ticket or

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Speaker 2: whatever you're gonna do, Just write it and get on

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Speaker 2: out of here so we can go ahead and get

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Speaker 2: ready for these kids to get in here. She said,

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Speaker 2: is that food right there? Because we bought food for

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Speaker 2: the kids every day to make sure that they have food.

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Speaker 2: She said, why don't you eat some of that? And

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Speaker 2: when she tell the story, she said he wouldn't even eat.

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Speaker 2: He said, because if I eat that, one kid won't eat.

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Speaker 2: So she gave me twenty dollars and she said, go

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Speaker 2: get something to eat, and I said Okay, She's like,

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Speaker 2: you're not doing it. I said, no, I'm about some

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Speaker 2: food for the kids. So then that was that story.

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Speaker 2: That's a little bit.

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Speaker 1: That's that. Well who was she?

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Speaker 2: So she ended up being a lady by the name

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Speaker 2: of Leslie Andrews, and she was coming on behalf of

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Speaker 2: another group of people. I'll let them tell that story.

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Speaker 2: They because they do youth programs and nonprofits and stuff,

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Speaker 2: but they like to remain anonymous and so.

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Speaker 1: But basically, yeah, they helped fund.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they gave us. They gave us. They gave us

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Speaker 2: our first little bit of money to knock down the

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Speaker 2: first domino, and they were instrumental in helping turn the tide.

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Speaker 2: We were able to get the stuff taking care of

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Speaker 2: that needed to be taken care of. And then they

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Speaker 2: helped us develop a strategy as far as like, you know,

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Speaker 2: getting all of our paperwork in order and paying the

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Speaker 2: right people to do what needed to be done early on,

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Speaker 2: how to create a business plan that was solid.

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Speaker 1: We'll be right back. So from your starving, broke, homeless

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Speaker 1: no etn self in two thousand and seven, yeah, to

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Speaker 1: when Leslie tried to give you twenty bucks, yeah, to

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Speaker 1: when you drug another person into this and made them homeless. Yes,

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Speaker 1: when did it become an organization? When did it become

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Speaker 1: a self sustaining thing that was not only just teaching

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Speaker 1: kids how to box, but really engaging with kids.

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Speaker 2: So that was early. That was that was, That was

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Speaker 2: in the beginning, from from from the from the very beginning,

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Speaker 2: I'd already had a plan. I already knew that education

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Speaker 2: is the key. Education is the key, because it opened

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Speaker 2: up so many doors for me and so many opportunities

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Speaker 2: for me. I already knew that, and so I was

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Speaker 2: just truly using that as to the hook along the way. Yes,

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Speaker 2: we did find out some kids were talented that boxing,

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Speaker 2: but I used to let them all know, ninety percent

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Speaker 2: of the people here that's trying to learn how to

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Speaker 2: box is not going to learn how to box. Let's

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Speaker 2: get that straight. I said, boxing can be planned B,

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Speaker 2: not plan A. Education is planned A, not plan B.

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Speaker 2: Because if you if you make boxing plan A, boxing

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Speaker 2: demands a lot from you, and at some point in

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Speaker 2: time you're not going to be able to box. And

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Speaker 2: if you make education be a secondary thought, you're gonna

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Speaker 2: have a lot of catching up to do when it

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Speaker 2: comes to the real world. So right now. This is

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Speaker 2: just strength and conditioning. If you find that you love it,

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Speaker 2: take it with a grain of salt. Understand that it

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Speaker 2: takes a lot to compete at a high level. Education

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Speaker 2: should be your plan A. And we kept it like that,

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Speaker 2: and our kids thrives, and we have one hundred percent

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Speaker 2: graduation rate, and our kids go to some of the

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Speaker 2: best colleges in the country. And so now our program,

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Speaker 2: we have two hundred and fifty kids in our program.

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Speaker 2: We have no kids, absolutely not one kid boxes out

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Speaker 2: of two hundred and fifty kids, all right.

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Speaker 1: Which is crazy because you're called downtown boxing jail. That's

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Speaker 1: why we nobody's boxing. Nobody boxing. That's the greatest thing

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Speaker 1: in the world. I love it. Explain that.

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Speaker 2: So if you take a fifteen year old colleague, Let's

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Speaker 2: say a colleague come down to the Downtown reading program.

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Speaker 1: They ain't coming the ain't nobody he's coming for the

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Speaker 1: same reason. Ain't nobody coming to hang out with me

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Speaker 1: at an answers for an act prep class.

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Speaker 2: It's not happening.

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Speaker 1: But they'll go to the boxing gym.

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Speaker 2: Not only that, they're gonna bring twenty other people and

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Speaker 2: tell you how their uncle used to box and I

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Speaker 2: got it in my blood and all of this and

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Speaker 2: what your uncle used to do and what you do

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Speaker 2: is two different things. Boxing is one of those things

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Speaker 2: that you cannot play. You cannot play boxing. That's why

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Speaker 2: the boxing the boxing rings on our gym, they have names.

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Speaker 2: One is the polygraph machine, the other one is a

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Speaker 2: lot of detective. The truth will come out. I don't

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Speaker 2: care what your uncle's cousin's DNA is. If it's not

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Speaker 2: in you, it's not in you, and we'll find out

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Speaker 2: real quick. So the vast majority of people that get

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Speaker 2: in the ring don't really want to box.

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Speaker 1: Can we talk about boxing for a minute if you

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Speaker 1: want to, just briefly, if you want to. I just

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Speaker 1: want our listeners to hear this. Okay, a lot of

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Speaker 1: folks with fast hands, a lot of athletic guys. But

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Speaker 1: the little bit I learned and golden gloves was this

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Speaker 1: the best boxers, the one that know how to take

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Speaker 1: a punch. What do you think believe it that?

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Speaker 2: I don't believe in that at all?

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Speaker 1: You better because I won't tell you. I've seen a

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Speaker 1: lot of fast, athletic guys and the first time they

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Speaker 1: get hitting the nose, they don't want to box no more.

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Speaker 1: You better be able to handle that. I don't care

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Speaker 1: how good you are throwing hands. If you can't handle

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Speaker 1: a shot, you ain't never gonna box. So you don't

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Speaker 1: agree with that? No, no, nah, dude, man, I'm so

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Speaker 1: something now, I ain't that way we are gonna disagree.

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Speaker 2: So no, so no, no listen listen. So so here's

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Speaker 2: here's what I say. Right, I've seen guys who had

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Speaker 2: glass jaws. With a glass jaw, I mean porcelain. This

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Speaker 2: thing is pristina.

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Speaker 1: Just pop.

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Speaker 2: You can just break this thing. But I've seen these

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Speaker 2: guys go on to become undefeated champions until they reach

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Speaker 2: a certain point and then it catches up with them.

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Speaker 2: So you cannot be able to take a punch. But

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Speaker 2: you can develop strategies to avoid that. You can. You

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Speaker 2: can show the role. You can deflect punches, you can

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Speaker 2: slip punches, you can perry punches, you can do all

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Speaker 2: those type of things to get you along the way.

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Speaker 2: But there's somebody who will pick the lock and will

382
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Speaker 2: break your jaw, and it will expose you and expose you.

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Speaker 2: It happens to fighters all the time. So yeah, you can.

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Speaker 2: You can be a fast fighter. Smart fighter, have ring generalship.

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Speaker 2: You can be all of those things, and you can

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Speaker 2: protect your chin and the protect your weakness. I used

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Speaker 2: to teach my fighters. I used to tell him all

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Speaker 2: the time, we don't spend time fighting another man's strength.

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Speaker 2: We'll we'll fit, We'll find a way to exploit his weakness.

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Speaker 2: If he's if he has fast hands, we're gonna make

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Speaker 2: him very uncomfortable. If he's a rough and tough, rugged guy,

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Speaker 2: we're gonna box him from the outside. We're gonna make

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Speaker 2: him uncomfortable. We're not gonna fight his strengths. So it's

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Speaker 2: ways to hide a glass jaw.

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Speaker 1: Isn't that interesting that metaphorically boxing and the way you

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Speaker 1: teach it helps you figure out how to attack a

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Speaker 1: problem from all kinds of different angles based on what

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Speaker 1: you're faced with. Yes, and metaphy, that's exactly what you're

399
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Speaker 1: doing with kids.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I'll agree.

401
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:06,080
Speaker 1: Good, we agree on that.

402
00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:07,359
Speaker 2: We agree on that, all right.

403
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Speaker 1: So the whole point is what you're gonna do when

404
00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:18,280
Speaker 1: you can't box anymore. Grades are first boxing. Second boxing

405
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Speaker 1: is the hook to get you in And I'm won't

406
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Speaker 1: teach you how to box that that's what you want

407
00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:25,679
Speaker 1: to do, right, But that's b uh. There's one hundred

408
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Speaker 1: and twenty something thousand kids playing football in junior high

409
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Speaker 1: in high school every single year in the United States,

410
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Speaker 1: and there are about eighty a year that get drafted

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Speaker 1: to actually make a living playing football. And if you

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Speaker 1: figure out what eighty is in the percentage of one

413
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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five thousand, you will find out that

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Speaker 1: there are more people that get into Heaven than an NFL.

415
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Speaker 2: Correct.

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Speaker 1: So if you are more interested in football than you

417
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Speaker 1: are in your grades, you were sailing up a long,

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Speaker 1: difficult road. And it is exact same thing you're saying

419
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Speaker 1: to your kids about boxing. Yeah. I said that same

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Speaker 1: thing to everybody it's ever played football for me. Yeah,

421
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Speaker 1: because everybody thinks they're going to go with the NFL

422
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Speaker 1: when they're ninth grade.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. One of the things. One of the things that

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Speaker 2: we do we make sure we make sure our kids

425
00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:29,680
Speaker 2: we remove every barrier humanly possible that that can impede kids'

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Speaker 2: success academically.

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Speaker 1: So tell us about that. Now we got the background,

428
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Speaker 1: We got it. I mean, what is the you said,

429
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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty kids in this thing, and I

430
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Speaker 1: assume the roof doesn't lake anymore.

431
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Speaker 2: No, not at all.

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Speaker 1: I love that. So I assume the facility has been

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Speaker 1: built up. Yes, we got two hundred and fifty kids,

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Speaker 1: and you talk about kids graduating and going to some

435
00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:56,960
Speaker 1: of the best colleges. So now tell us what the

436
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:01,000
Speaker 1: downtown boxing gym that nobody boxing in boxes in, which

437
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:05,280
Speaker 1: is hilarious. Tell me what you do, Tell me now

438
00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:05,919
Speaker 1: what it is.

439
00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:11,160
Speaker 2: So just like before it was academic help and support, mentorship,

440
00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:14,879
Speaker 2: all of that is the same, but now we are

441
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:21,920
Speaker 2: able to do it more. We brought in more professionals

442
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,240
Speaker 2: who are now paid staff. Before it was volunteers, and

443
00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:29,359
Speaker 2: with volunteers is hit or miss. The volunteers may volunteer

444
00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:32,320
Speaker 2: and something comes along and then they're gone. And this

445
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:33,920
Speaker 2: is a long term thing that we have to deal

446
00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:35,879
Speaker 2: with from kids from eight years old until they go

447
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:36,359
Speaker 2: to college.

448
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:38,119
Speaker 1: And those kids need consistent.

449
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:41,280
Speaker 2: Consistency, right. And so I noticed that early on where

450
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:45,200
Speaker 2: a young person who finally opened up and that the

451
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:47,000
Speaker 2: school system had gave I hate to talk about the

452
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:48,840
Speaker 2: school system, but the school system had gave up on

453
00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:52,480
Speaker 2: this young person and she had finally opened up to

454
00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:55,920
Speaker 2: one of our volunteers and they were able to get

455
00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:58,879
Speaker 2: her on track where the school system couldn't and then

456
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:01,639
Speaker 2: that person got a better job offer somewhere and they

457
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:04,640
Speaker 2: couldn't volunteer anymore. And none of us had the skills

458
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,439
Speaker 2: to help this young person, and we saw that slip,

459
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,560
Speaker 2: We saw her start back slipping backwards. So I was like,

460
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,960
Speaker 2: never again, we can't do that. We have to have consistency.

461
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,880
Speaker 2: So we hire staff. We brought in people, and we

462
00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:19,320
Speaker 2: brought in the best teachers, people that we can find

463
00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:23,199
Speaker 2: academically who are looking and passionate about working in an

464
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:26,480
Speaker 2: environment like ours. So now we have you know, reading

465
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 2: and the venture, math, intervention, mentorship, computer coding, uh, steam lab.

466
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:35,719
Speaker 2: We have people who teach music in music theory, music les.

467
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:40,320
Speaker 1: You're missing a syllable steam lab.

468
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:44,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, because because we still have the arts.

469
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:48,880
Speaker 1: Okay steam lab. Yeah, all right, well listen, man, all

470
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,119
Speaker 1: my tastes in my mouth. I can't carry a tune

471
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:54,760
Speaker 1: in a bucket, so I don't know anything about that.

472
00:22:55,600 --> 00:23:03,120
Speaker 1: But the juxtaposition of the arts in a boxing gym

473
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,480
Speaker 1: is just too interesting not to hear about the steam lab.

474
00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:11,119
Speaker 2: So in our steam lab, you know, they might be

475
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:14,040
Speaker 2: doing computer coding, they may be doing We also have uh,

476
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:19,199
Speaker 2: we also have a Uh what is that machine for? Uh,

477
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 2: when you're a pilot, what do you call that machine? O?

478
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,720
Speaker 3: Uh, so you can get your pilot license.

479
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 2: What does that thing called?

480
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:30,399
Speaker 3: We have a flight simulator, see every once in a

481
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:31,199
Speaker 3: while Alex pro.

482
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:35,240
Speaker 2: Yes, we have, Yeah, we have, we have, we have.

483
00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:37,679
Speaker 2: We have a flight simulator. We so are some of

484
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:40,399
Speaker 2: our kids will get their pilots license with the with

485
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,879
Speaker 2: the drones and stuff like that. Yeah, they're doing their

486
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 2: drone license and stuff like that. We have drones. We

487
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,360
Speaker 2: have the flight simulator. We have the coding.

488
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:49,119
Speaker 1: Uh.

489
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,840
Speaker 2: They they've been in their dissecting frogs in there all

490
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 2: kinds of stuff. These guys are doing it real. They're

491
00:23:55,000 --> 00:24:00,280
Speaker 2: doing that chemistry stuff. Uh, this is a lot going on. Animation. Uh,

492
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,640
Speaker 2: we have we're doing something with the National Science Foundation.

493
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 2: We just got the Literacy Award. We're the only people

494
00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 2: in the United States to get the Literacy Award. For

495
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 2: our kids' grades going up so high. We take kids

496
00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 2: who are who are two to three grades behind, they

497
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 2: are two to three grades ahead. We, like I said,

498
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,000
Speaker 2: we'll send them to some of the best colleges. They're

499
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 2: doing computer coding, they're doing mock trials in the Federal Court.

500
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,800
Speaker 1: This is not a school, This is after after school.

501
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:29,879
Speaker 1: After school. How many hours does the kid spend with you?

502
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,720
Speaker 2: So they'll come there three hours. In the summertime, we

503
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,360
Speaker 2: open at six o'clock, we'll be open at six am,

504
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,400
Speaker 2: and we'll be there to six at seven at night.

505
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 2: We also have a full kitchen too. One of the

506
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:43,879
Speaker 2: stories that I didn't tell because I did mention about

507
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 2: the food, but I didn't tell how the food started

508
00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:48,920
Speaker 2: got started. Now I would like to touch on that

509
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,639
Speaker 2: because that's very important to food. And So we had

510
00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:55,520
Speaker 2: a young man in our program at one point in

511
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 2: time who was training just as harder, if not harder

512
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,120
Speaker 2: than everybody in the gym would work out. He would

513
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:04,760
Speaker 2: come do all his homework, very intelligent young man, almost

514
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:06,560
Speaker 2: a straight A student, a real straight A student too.

515
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:10,919
Speaker 2: He was just that that focused. But I noticed every

516
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 2: day he would get weaker and weaker. He was just

517
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,560
Speaker 2: looking so weak every day I would see him. And

518
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,360
Speaker 2: so one day I just asked him, I say, man,

519
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:21,119
Speaker 2: what did you eat this morning? Like, what did you

520
00:25:21,119 --> 00:25:24,080
Speaker 2: eat today? He said, I eat a bowl of cereal.

521
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,760
Speaker 2: I said that's the problem, I said, young man, you

522
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:31,600
Speaker 2: cannot eat a bowl of cereal, go to school, be

523
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 2: at school all day long, then come here and then

524
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,640
Speaker 2: train hard and do all this stuff off a ball

525
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 2: of cereal. He was like, I ate that three days ago.

526
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,639
Speaker 2: He ate a bowl of cereal three days ago. And

527
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,320
Speaker 2: that's when I knew that food was a big part

528
00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 2: of this community thing. And so our kids eat every

529
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 2: night together. We all eat. We sit down and we

530
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:55,880
Speaker 2: share a meal together, and our staff and everybody eat.

531
00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 2: We have a full kitchen staff, We have guest chefs

532
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:01,560
Speaker 2: who come in and our and we cook every day

533
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,560
Speaker 2: for our kids in our program, breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever

534
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 2: it is we cook for our kids. That's just something

535
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 2: I just wanted to add to that because that's important too.

536
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: You know, and candidly, there is a massive physiological connection

537
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:22,720
Speaker 1: between good nutrition and your brain's ability to absorb information.

538
00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:30,960
Speaker 1: And so I can't imagine that better nutrition children are

539
00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:35,439
Speaker 1: not also able to learn better. And you said that,

540
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: I did say that.

541
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 2: I gotta go read that one, but I hope it's true.

542
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,160
Speaker 1: Read it. It is true. You can call me later

543
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:43,640
Speaker 1: and say, Wow, Bill, I'm gonna call you. That's good.

544
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:44,880
Speaker 1: And what are these kids pay?

545
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:47,200
Speaker 2: They don't pay anything, never as long as I'm alive,

546
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 2: they better I pay anything as long as I'm alive.

547
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:53,040
Speaker 2: So we'll I'll never have a parent have to choose

548
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:57,360
Speaker 2: between paying the bills and educating the kids. Because if

549
00:26:57,359 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 2: you think about what it actually costs to put a

550
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 2: kid through school and to have that type of support,

551
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:05,080
Speaker 2: that's a lot of money. So we're we're able to

552
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:08,399
Speaker 2: provide that that that's expense. You know, are some of

553
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 2: our teachers they don't make what they should, but they

554
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 2: love the fact that they can do what they need

555
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 2: to do without having to. Like I said, we're able

556
00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,199
Speaker 2: to take a kid that's in the twelfth grade and

557
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 2: go all the way back to the third grade, where

558
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 2: in the school that teacher may have to do something

559
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,640
Speaker 2: that they don't want to do, like not help this kid.

560
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 1: If that makes sense, Well that that can I mean,

561
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 1: they got a whole classroom of kids, right, you can't

562
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,160
Speaker 1: stop the whole classroom advancing to go back and catch

563
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 1: another kid up. I mean, And so so a lot

564
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: of our teachers that way.

565
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so a lot of our teachers they love

566
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:45,719
Speaker 2: coming to the gym. They love it because now they

567
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:48,800
Speaker 2: can take that same kid who is seventeen about to

568
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:50,919
Speaker 2: go off to college and they can go back and

569
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 2: develop an individualized program to help that young person have

570
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 2: the foundation to be successful at life. And so we

571
00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 2: have another group of people that's on our staff who

572
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:04,639
Speaker 2: work with the kids after high school today to twenty

573
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 2: five through college to make sure that they don't go

574
00:28:07,320 --> 00:28:09,080
Speaker 2: to college and feel like they don't have that support.

575
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:12,680
Speaker 2: So we support them through college as well. So that's

576
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 2: a good part.

577
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. Where's all the money come from.

578
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 2: Bro a lot of corporate dollars. Just recently we've got

579
00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:32,959
Speaker 2: some money from the state of Michigan. So usually I

580
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:35,240
Speaker 2: usually I stayed away from that type of state type

581
00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 2: funding because you know, you just stayed away from it

582
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 2: because in our program, we're able to go back. We

583
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 2: don't have to follow some blueprint that may not be working.

584
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 1: You don't have to follow a state curriculum with what

585
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: you want to do based on common sense, what you

586
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 1: need to do, what we.

587
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 2: Need to do to make this young person. And we

588
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,080
Speaker 2: tell people we're not saying that you're gonna you're gonna

589
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 2: overnight be successful. This is gonna be some hard work.

590
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 2: And we talk to the parents. We have a strong

591
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:06,600
Speaker 2: parent group, We have a very strong parent group who

592
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 2: are working with us hand in hand. Some of our

593
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 2: parents have come back and got GEDs and went off

594
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 2: to college and stuff with their kids. So because they've

595
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 2: they've been able to come in side by side with us.

596
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:19,400
Speaker 2: And so we got some parents that are completely dedicated

597
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 2: to this journey. And we had those kind of conversations

598
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 2: up front, and honestly, we're gonna tell you. Your kid

599
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 2: may have a report card to say that it's a

600
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 2: it's a three, that kid has a three point six.

601
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:32,560
Speaker 2: Well we tested them. That's not a three point six.

602
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:34,959
Speaker 2: Your kid is reading at a fourth grade level. It

603
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 2: isn't in high school. And we have to have that

604
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 2: conversation with you.

605
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:40,880
Speaker 1: What what do parents say when you do you know

606
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,560
Speaker 1: you're parents shocking? Well you say, you know, I think

607
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 1: to your point, and it really opened my eyes to something.

608
00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: I do want to. I I want to I want

609
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: to grab parents by the by their shirt and say,

610
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:59,080
Speaker 1: please read your children, don't set them off behind. But

611
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 1: to your point, if they were never read to and

612
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,040
Speaker 1: their parents are never read to, it's just not part

613
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: of the ethos. So I get it. But I got

614
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: to believe those very parents when they see these report

615
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: cards come home from the school that their trust to

616
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 1: educate their kid, and their kid has a three point six.

617
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:18,600
Speaker 1: They're probably really proud, very proud, and they think everything's great,

618
00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:22,000
Speaker 1: and then you hit them in the mouth with that

619
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 1: ain't nothing. You might as well ball that up because

620
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: that report card ain't worth lighting on fire.

621
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:31,720
Speaker 2: Oh man, I've had I had staff who were new

622
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 2: to me, staff who are new to me who hadn't

623
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 2: hadn't heard my way of being.

624
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 1: Honest and open, which is I'm gonna tell you straight up.

625
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 2: Straight up and tell you the truth. I don't cold switch.

626
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:44,600
Speaker 2: I'm not none of that type of stuff. I'm not

627
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 2: switching who I am. I am who I am all

628
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:49,400
Speaker 2: the time, and I'm gonna tell you that that thing,

629
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,240
Speaker 2: like you said, bought it up and throw it compared

630
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,400
Speaker 2: to what compared to who don't be misled, don't be fooled.

631
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 2: I've actually sat here and looked over your scores and

632
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 2: you're not at that level.

633
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:02,960
Speaker 3: So let's be honest. So not if they do, parents

634
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 3: freak out sometimes I mean like not on you, but like,

635
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,600
Speaker 3: oh my, yeah, they're shocked. Do they feel lied to?

636
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:13,040
Speaker 2: But they appreciate the fact that somebody tell them the

637
00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 2: truth and then we're develop a strategy going forward. You

638
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:16,960
Speaker 2: understand what I'm saying.

639
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 1: I do. Look, man, my mom did the best she could,

640
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: but she worked all the time to keep me fed

641
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: and roofed. You know, I never had That's just the

642
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:39,520
Speaker 1: way it was. And if my mom got told when

643
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,640
Speaker 1: I was in tenth grade that all these report cards

644
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:46,840
Speaker 1: I've been bringing home, you know, I've told my wife

645
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 1: and kids this. But my big deal was if I

646
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 1: ever got straight a's, mom would let me choose between

647
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: and Wendy's or McDonald's. That was my reward. And that

648
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,480
Speaker 1: was a big deal. Getting go to Wendy's and McDonald's, right,

649
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 1: That's how I mean that was. That was my reward

650
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:07,520
Speaker 1: was a big, big deal. And my mom was really

651
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: proud and it was a stretch for her to buy

652
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: Wendy's or McDonald's, right. I mean, that's just how it was.

653
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:21,720
Speaker 1: And I cannot imagine how angry and broken she would

654
00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:24,560
Speaker 1: have been if at tenth grade, I want someone tested

655
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: and she found out that everything she thought I'd been

656
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:31,760
Speaker 1: achieving was a Yeah, it's hard, fraudulent.

657
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. It's been heartbreaking to a

658
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 2: few parents, a lot of parents. They upset the anger,

659
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 2: you know, the angry, but we don't dwell in that.

660
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 2: We try to figure out how do we solve it?

661
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:44,640
Speaker 2: How do we fix it?

662
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:46,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, and my follow up question is that do you

663
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 1: find yourself almost having to mentor the parents too?

664
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:53,200
Speaker 2: And all right, it is a it is a. It

665
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:56,120
Speaker 2: is a I always tell people that's like when I

666
00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 2: didn't have a purpose in life, right when I thought

667
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 2: I was gonna die, when I didn't a purpose in life,

668
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 2: Like I didn't have a purpose in life, I didn't

669
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,240
Speaker 2: care about anything. I helped tet the city apart. I

670
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 2: helped tet the city of Detroit a park. I've been

671
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:11,880
Speaker 2: in the prisons, I've been in the in the in

672
00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:13,959
Speaker 2: the juvenile detention centers. I've been on the streets. I've

673
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 2: been on the corners. I've been in all the community

674
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 2: meetings I've been. And when I say that, people never say, no,

675
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 2: he wasn't out here tearing it up. I was tearing

676
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 2: it up. But I was tearing it up because somebody

677
00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:29,080
Speaker 2: created a narrative for me, and I was ignorant to

678
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 2: what was going on. I didn't have any knowledge of self.

679
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,880
Speaker 2: I didn't care about anything. And so with that being said,

680
00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:42,959
Speaker 2: once I found that, Once I found that that self

681
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,239
Speaker 2: and was able to get past that, I developed a

682
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 2: passion for correcting wrongs. Correcting wrongs and to tell a

683
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 2: kid that he's a straight a student when he or

684
00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:59,920
Speaker 2: she is not is wrong and we need to correct that.

685
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:01,520
Speaker 2: And if I have to tell a parent and a

686
00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:04,040
Speaker 2: parent cusses me out, so be it. Cuss me out,

687
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:06,240
Speaker 2: but it needs to be done to correct or wrong

688
00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:09,439
Speaker 2: and for that kid to move forward. Now, let's let's

689
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:11,799
Speaker 2: not dwell on it. Let's develop a strategy. Because that's

690
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 2: what I was able to do. I was able to

691
00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:17,240
Speaker 2: take all that negative and turn it around and reinvent myself.

692
00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 2: Let's reinvent this kid's academic future. Let's reinvent this person's now.

693
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 2: We got one of our kids, she's she's working on

694
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 2: the double masters now. And when we had to tell

695
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:31,080
Speaker 2: her parents that she was not at the level that

696
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 2: she thought she was, we didn't dwell on that. We

697
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 2: didn't go to the school system, point fingers at the

698
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 2: school and at the teachers. We said to the parents

699
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 2: they were upset. We developed a strategy, and now she's

700
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:44,040
Speaker 2: working on the double masters. You see what I'm saying.

701
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:46,680
Speaker 2: We're gonna, We're gonna we wanna let you know what's up,

702
00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:48,920
Speaker 2: but we're gonna go fix it. We wanna do it,

703
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:50,719
Speaker 2: and however we gotta do it's how we're gonna fix it.

704
00:34:55,320 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 1: Stats graduation rate. Since inception of two thousand and seven,

705
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: ninety eight percent of the kids have come from your

706
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:13,760
Speaker 1: program have post secondary education continuation, which is phenomenal. Five

707
00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:20,560
Speaker 1: point five reading levels of literacy gained five point five.

708
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 1: That's like going from eighth grade to twelfth grade eighty

709
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,160
Speaker 1: four percent math gains.

710
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 2: Not just not just talking it. But we had a

711
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:36,760
Speaker 2: researcher document our kids study, I mean our kids progress

712
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 2: from she'd been. We had a researcher from a college

713
00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 2: was now. I think she's a purduer either Cornell been

714
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:48,000
Speaker 2: documented in research and our kids from way back.

715
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 1: These are her numbers documented.

716
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:54,440
Speaker 2: Independent research searchers.

717
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 1: Ten percent, adaptability increase year over year, and the ability

718
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 1: to apply and adjust skill in difficult settings plus twelve percent,

719
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: and self efficacy plus fourteen percent and sense of agency.

720
00:36:10,200 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 1: I circled that one. That one, to me is huge.

721
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 1: We always talk about how do we break the proverbial chains. Well,

722
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 1: one of them is, let's take folks in poverty and

723
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,320
Speaker 1: grow the middle class so that they have a sense

724
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:31,440
Speaker 1: of belonging to our culture. A fourteen percent increase and

725
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: a sense of agency meaning year over year in the

726
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: advantage of peers nationwide, and belief to make policy changes

727
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 1: in their community. You are affecting the very thing we

728
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 1: talked about, which is having a sense of agency in

729
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 1: your own children, in your culture, in your community. Point

730
00:36:54,960 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 1: plus eleven percent in what you call self regulation. Fifteen hundred,

731
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:08,680
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred total students served since inception. This is awesome.

732
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:14,319
Speaker 1: Three hundred and fifty plus active alumni network. You've got

733
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:19,839
Speaker 1: a dbg's parent committee. Ninety eight percent of parents say

734
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: DBG has a significant and lasting of positive imfact on

735
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:28,640
Speaker 1: their child's life. And here's another big one. Forty four

736
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: percent of parents report a positive behavioral change, which you,

737
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 1: of all people, would know because if you could have

738
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 1: read in third grade, you might not have gotten all

739
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:41,359
Speaker 1: the mess in the first place.

740
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:41,879
Speaker 2: Ye ye, yeah.

741
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:47,000
Speaker 1: So you know, these parents are shocked oftentimes to hear

742
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:51,759
Speaker 1: their kids aren't where they thought they were. But I've

743
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:56,239
Speaker 1: read where while you tell the parents the truth and

744
00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:59,360
Speaker 1: you're not trying to beat them down, but you're just

745
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 1: saying the truth. Yeah, but I've also where it read

746
00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:04,440
Speaker 1: where you say you really aren't listening to parents, you're

747
00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:07,839
Speaker 1: listening to the kids. You got to explain that, and

748
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:11,279
Speaker 1: that's that's basically as you bringing the kids into the program.

749
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:16,480
Speaker 2: So I always say that, you know, people say bad kids.

750
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:18,520
Speaker 2: I don't see bad kids. I see kids who haven't

751
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:21,200
Speaker 2: been heard yet. I don't see bad kids. I see

752
00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:23,719
Speaker 2: kids who haven't been heard yet. And so I try

753
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 2: to listen to the kids to see what they're actually saying.

754
00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 2: They may not say it in a way that an

755
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,520
Speaker 2: adult would say it, but they'll get to the point

756
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 2: if you listen hard enough. I had an example of

757
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 2: one time when on and people say, this kid got anger.

758
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 2: They want to get some anger out. Let them hit

759
00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:43,080
Speaker 2: the bag, they let them go punch something. They say,

760
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:45,839
Speaker 2: they need to get this anger out. It's like, no,

761
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,879
Speaker 2: let me ask the kid, why why do you fight

762
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:52,359
Speaker 2: so much? And then when you listen to it, they say, well,

763
00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 2: I've seen other kids do this, and in my life

764
00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:59,959
Speaker 2: this hasn't happened. So no, this kid is not anger.

765
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:05,839
Speaker 2: This kid doesn't have the same clothes that his peers wear,

766
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:09,080
Speaker 2: or he doesn't have the same kind of you know,

767
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 2: video games or whatever it may be that everybody else has.

768
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:17,600
Speaker 2: He doesn't understand that his mother and father may have

769
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:19,720
Speaker 2: a job that may only allow them to pay the bills.

770
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 2: They may not be able to go buy you some

771
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:24,839
Speaker 2: off white gym shoes that may cost eight nine hundred dollars.

772
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:26,759
Speaker 2: They may not have to be able to buy you

773
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:29,400
Speaker 2: a Gucci belt they may cost seven hundred and fifty dollars.

774
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,080
Speaker 2: They have to put that seven hundred fifty dollars towards rent,

775
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:35,240
Speaker 2: and the kid haven't haven't been able to vocalize that yet.

776
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 2: So it may show up as anger because when you

777
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:41,319
Speaker 2: get to school, nobody's nobody's polite. They laughing and joking.

778
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:43,640
Speaker 2: They're like, man, what of those? That's the thing? What

779
00:39:43,719 --> 00:39:45,360
Speaker 2: are those? And they all fall on the ground and

780
00:39:45,360 --> 00:39:47,000
Speaker 2: point at your feet? What are those?

781
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:49,560
Speaker 1: You know? What I mean is bow handles a word

782
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:50,200
Speaker 1: in Detroit.

783
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:51,440
Speaker 2: I don't know what that is ever.

784
00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:53,879
Speaker 1: Man down here, if you're wearing ugly shoes, they called

785
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 1: bow handles. Man, what you do with their bow handles? Yeah?

786
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:58,520
Speaker 2: And that's you know, and that's funny to everybody, and

787
00:39:58,560 --> 00:39:59,320
Speaker 2: everybody laughs.

788
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:02,000
Speaker 1: It's funny about to accept the one wearing the bow handle.

789
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,600
Speaker 2: The guy and so, But.

790
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:05,720
Speaker 1: That didn't make a kid.

791
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:09,160
Speaker 2: That's what happens, yeah and so so. So when I

792
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:11,759
Speaker 2: hear that, I say, hey, man, how do we how

793
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:13,239
Speaker 2: do we saw for something like that?

794
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 1: No?

795
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:15,960
Speaker 2: Am I gonna go out and buy them some Gucci shoes? No,

796
00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 2: but let me explain life to him. Let me explain

797
00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 2: certain things to him. At least he can have a

798
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 2: clear understanding of what's going on. And I'm not just

799
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,719
Speaker 2: calling him I'm a bad kid. No. Man, Listen, you

800
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:30,200
Speaker 2: have different situations and your parents shows their love for

801
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:33,240
Speaker 2: you by keeping the roof over your head. Your parents

802
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:35,880
Speaker 2: shows up the love for you by bringing you to

803
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:38,879
Speaker 2: a place like this, and then a kid understands like, man,

804
00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:40,719
Speaker 2: you know, I may not have Gucci's, but I have love.

805
00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 2: I may not have I may have on bow handles

806
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:45,720
Speaker 2: as you call them, but I have love.

807
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:51,440
Speaker 1: The uh. The best advice in that entire story is

808
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:56,040
Speaker 1: the greatest leaders of our time don't show up and

809
00:40:56,120 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 1: tell everybody what they're going to do. They listen and

810
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:07,359
Speaker 1: help people achieve what they're told they want. And that's

811
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:08,520
Speaker 1: exactly what you're doing.

812
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:10,920
Speaker 2: I had a principal. I had a principal from a

813
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:14,960
Speaker 2: school that's a real high performance school. Vice prince, I'm sorry,

814
00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:17,560
Speaker 2: vice principal from a real high performance school in our area.

815
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:22,560
Speaker 2: She came into the building one day and she introduced

816
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:26,240
Speaker 2: herself as the principal to school, and she pulled me aside.

817
00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:30,040
Speaker 2: She said, I wanted to say this to you. She said,

818
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:33,560
Speaker 2: I can tell the kids that go to DBG and

819
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:38,760
Speaker 2: our school and IM waiting to hear the other shoe drop,

820
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 2: she said, because they were the kids who were getting

821
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 2: in trouble before, and now they're encouraging their peers to

822
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,399
Speaker 2: do better. Now they're influencing their peers in a positive way.

823
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 2: They used to be in our office for all these

824
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 2: other things, and now their grades are coming up in

825
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:58,280
Speaker 2: they're having a positive effect on their peers.

826
00:41:58,680 --> 00:41:59,600
Speaker 1: That's agency.

827
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:02,360
Speaker 2: I was like, hmm, And I was so that you

828
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 2: made me think of it, just did.

829
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,280
Speaker 1: That's agency. You just made me That's how you change

830
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:10,759
Speaker 1: it all. It's bottom up. It's not somebody coming in

831
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:13,440
Speaker 1: and say do this, do that, or you're going to

832
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:17,600
Speaker 1: end up this way. It's allowing them to develop and

833
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:23,280
Speaker 1: then they take responsibility for their culture, for their situation,

834
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:27,520
Speaker 1: for their friends. That's having as agency. To me, I've

835
00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: done a lot of interviews the last two years, man,

836
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:36,240
Speaker 1: I have never heard a demographic or a data point

837
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:40,160
Speaker 1: that talks about increasing a sense of agency. I'm not

838
00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:42,799
Speaker 1: sure that that's not the most impressive thing about all

839
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:48,160
Speaker 1: of it, because that's how you change historical generational issues.

840
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:51,359
Speaker 2: Thank you. I was when you were when we were talking,

841
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:54,560
Speaker 2: I was thinking about a situation of mind. You know,

842
00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:57,400
Speaker 2: like you said, you just a guy that can read now,

843
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:01,279
Speaker 2: and still I couldn't hardly spell when I When I

844
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:04,120
Speaker 2: would go to job interviews, the only thing I could

845
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:05,880
Speaker 2: put on the thing was stock because that's the only

846
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,920
Speaker 2: thing I can remember how to spell, was stock. You

847
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 2: get what I'm saying. So imagine a young person going

848
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:13,800
Speaker 2: in there and that's the only thing that he can spell,

849
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 2: or he can remember how to spell his stock. He

850
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:21,240
Speaker 2: can't even spell manager, he can't even spell executive, corporate whatever.

851
00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 2: He can't spell any of this, analysts and none of

852
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 2: these type of things. So he goes in there, he

853
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 2: puts stock. You get what I'm saying. So now imagine

854
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:31,120
Speaker 2: that same kid walking there and say, hey, I want

855
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:32,120
Speaker 2: to be in charge of.

856
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:37,240
Speaker 1: You know, human resources logistics.

857
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 2: Logistics, human resources logistics. Yeah, yeah, you get what I'm saying.

858
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:43,759
Speaker 1: The point is you have you can't. If you can

859
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 1: only spell stock boy, that's all you're gonna be. That's

860
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:51,279
Speaker 1: if you can spell logistics manager, will maybe you've become

861
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:54,760
Speaker 1: something yeah yeah, or maybe you can now spell physician yes,

862
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:56,400
Speaker 1: or nuclear scientists.

863
00:43:56,880 --> 00:43:59,279
Speaker 2: So one of the things one of the things that

864
00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:01,560
Speaker 2: that yeah, because if you can't spell it, and how

865
00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 2: can you dream it? Yeah?

866
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:13,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's such a good point. We'll be right back. Well.

867
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:17,399
Speaker 2: So one of my one of my things that always say,

868
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:21,799
Speaker 2: become a judge before you get judged. Become a prosecutor

869
00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:24,880
Speaker 2: before you get prosecuted. Become a legislator and write the

870
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 2: laws before the laws are in posed on you. Take

871
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:29,920
Speaker 2: some of those positions, get those jobs, go after it.

872
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:33,279
Speaker 2: Don't be told that you can't do it. Become a physicist,

873
00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:36,960
Speaker 2: Become an engineer. Don't look at the apartment build and say, oh,

874
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:39,239
Speaker 2: I can't afford that. I can't be the guy who

875
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:42,200
Speaker 2: designs the building. Become an architect. We have kids now

876
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:45,880
Speaker 2: that's taking architecture classes in Poland who are working on

877
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:49,799
Speaker 2: Poland and working the double mass. We have a young

878
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:52,480
Speaker 2: lady who just came back from Poland. She was in

879
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 2: Poland studying architecture. Now she's working on her double Masters

880
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:59,160
Speaker 2: in architecture. So we tell kids we have a kid.

881
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:01,319
Speaker 2: I think we have a kid now Japan, we have

882
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:03,879
Speaker 2: a kid. We've taken kids. I just had a group

883
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:05,680
Speaker 2: I had just had a young man go with me

884
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:11,520
Speaker 2: to Manchester, England to talk about vinus prevention in Manchester, England,

885
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:16,560
Speaker 2: in London, England. So we've had kids go to Ireland.

886
00:45:16,600 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 2: We have kids who've traveled to Puerto Rico in different

887
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:21,200
Speaker 2: places to see the world.

888
00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:25,920
Speaker 1: You know that travel on, that exposure is an education

889
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:28,359
Speaker 1: in itself. Oh yes, that a lot of people take

890
00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:31,359
Speaker 1: for grant. I'm going back to Manassas because so many

891
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:33,399
Speaker 1: the kids you're talking about are like kids I coached

892
00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:36,560
Speaker 1: at Manasas. But I remember the first time I took

893
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 1: a team out of the city on a bus and

894
00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:42,800
Speaker 1: we went and played at a rural school and next

895
00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:47,040
Speaker 1: to the football field, and next to the football field

896
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:49,919
Speaker 1: it was out in the rule. It was a big

897
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:56,240
Speaker 1: old cotton field and those kids looked at me and said, look, coach,

898
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:02,080
Speaker 1: they've never seen a cotton field, they'd never seen sweet beans.

899
00:46:02,480 --> 00:46:05,600
Speaker 1: We were only thirty minutes outside of Memphis, and it

900
00:46:05,719 --> 00:46:08,120
Speaker 1: dawned on me many of them had never gotten out

901
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:12,480
Speaker 1: of their neighborhood. And you're talking about very kids like

902
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,680
Speaker 1: that in Japan and Poland and England.

903
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 2: So when I was young and my brother came to me,

904
00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:23,280
Speaker 2: one of the things that was part of that conversation,

905
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:25,200
Speaker 2: he said, man, you have to get out of that neighborhood.

906
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:27,680
Speaker 2: You have to leave the world is bigger than your

907
00:46:27,719 --> 00:46:29,680
Speaker 2: four blocks, is what he told me. He said, the

908
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:31,560
Speaker 2: world is. The world is bigger than the four blocks

909
00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:34,360
Speaker 2: that you call your neighborhood. The world is bigger than

910
00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 2: just those four blocks. And so one of the things

911
00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:40,120
Speaker 2: that he did, and part of the story that I

912
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:43,200
Speaker 2: that I over that I didn't say, was he took

913
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,319
Speaker 2: me to the airport. He asked me to drive him

914
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:47,000
Speaker 2: to the airport. First of all, this kid, he said,

915
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:48,719
Speaker 2: drive me to the airport. So I drove him to

916
00:46:48,719 --> 00:46:53,239
Speaker 2: the airport, Detroit Metro Airport. He said, man, can you

917
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:55,320
Speaker 2: go in there and grab me a ticket to Las Vegas?

918
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:57,640
Speaker 2: So I say what, So he give me the money,

919
00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:00,600
Speaker 2: say go grab me a ticket to Las Vegas. So

920
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:02,480
Speaker 2: I go grab a ticket to Las Vegas. I use

921
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:05,680
Speaker 2: my ID, I get a ticket to Las Vegas. I'm like,

922
00:47:05,840 --> 00:47:07,400
Speaker 2: how's this gonna work? How are you going to go

923
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:10,279
Speaker 2: to Las Vegas with my ticket? With my I'm like,

924
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:13,080
Speaker 2: what do you He's like, man, what time your flight leave?

925
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 2: I said what? He said, what time do your your

926
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:18,839
Speaker 2: flight leave? I said meh, what's you talking about? He said,

927
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:20,959
Speaker 2: here man. He gave me some money and he took

928
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:24,200
Speaker 2: his keys and he drove off. He told me, get

929
00:47:24,200 --> 00:47:26,720
Speaker 2: out this, get out this neighborhood. Just go see somewhere.

930
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:29,960
Speaker 2: Go somewhere. My first flight, my brother tricked me. It

931
00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 2: was the first time I ever been on the airplane

932
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:35,440
Speaker 2: in my life. Went Vegas, went to Las Vegas. Man,

933
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:38,279
Speaker 2: I have money. I went to a Motel six and

934
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,880
Speaker 2: got me a room at a Motel six, and uh

935
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:42,960
Speaker 2: just walked around Las Vegas because it's like I don't

936
00:47:43,040 --> 00:47:45,600
Speaker 2: I don't do nothing. I don't hang out nothing like that.

937
00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:48,080
Speaker 2: It's not my thing. And so that was my first

938
00:47:48,080 --> 00:47:52,279
Speaker 2: time exposed, get exposed. And so before he passed away,

939
00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:57,800
Speaker 2: the NFL, the NFL surprised me with all the spins

940
00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:02,800
Speaker 2: played trip to the to the Super Bowl two tickets.

941
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:05,400
Speaker 2: They gave me all the Spen thing for being a

942
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:09,319
Speaker 2: change maker in the community, and the teams voted in whatever,

943
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:11,439
Speaker 2: and I got picked as the person who making change

944
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:13,839
Speaker 2: in the community. And I took my brother to Las

945
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:16,799
Speaker 2: Vegas to go to the Super Bowl. I repaid it

946
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,120
Speaker 2: back to him, and I didn't even watch the game

947
00:48:19,160 --> 00:48:21,759
Speaker 2: because I don't watch sports, so I just sat there

948
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:23,319
Speaker 2: and watched him have fun. I was looking at him

949
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:25,399
Speaker 2: and he was the happy as he ever been. And

950
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:27,040
Speaker 2: we came back to the train and he passed away.

951
00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 1: So that's a beautiful story. Yeah, what do you want?

952
00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:36,000
Speaker 1: What do you want the gym to be? For the

953
00:48:36,080 --> 00:48:39,799
Speaker 1: kids when when they leave school and they're talking to

954
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:43,719
Speaker 1: their friends in the hallway. Not what do you want

955
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:48,760
Speaker 1: to be? What do you want the kids to say

956
00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:59,120
Speaker 1: about your gym? What is it that you hope they say?

957
00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:02,919
Speaker 2: It's family? The gym is family. It's all the things

958
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:07,080
Speaker 2: that you said earlier that family should be. It's a

959
00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:11,640
Speaker 2: place of support, love, understanding. Of course we're not gonna

960
00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:13,839
Speaker 2: always agree, but it's a place where you can voice

961
00:49:13,880 --> 00:49:16,759
Speaker 2: your opinion and not be judged or or or or

962
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:19,800
Speaker 2: hel to you know you say like a it comes

963
00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:23,319
Speaker 2: with something to it. No, at the gym, when one

964
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:25,880
Speaker 2: person is talking, we all listen. You could be the

965
00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 2: smallest person in the gym, and when one of our

966
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:30,960
Speaker 2: little kids get up and start talking, everybody in the

967
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:34,160
Speaker 2: building is quiet because that young person voice needs to

968
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:38,479
Speaker 2: be heard. It's a place of that you can call home,

969
00:49:39,200 --> 00:49:44,000
Speaker 2: place where you can there's no We don't create narratives there.

970
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 2: We just remove barriers so that everybody can be successful.

971
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:49,600
Speaker 2: So I hope that the kids understand that we are

972
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:51,719
Speaker 2: a family. And we say we said every We say

973
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:53,600
Speaker 2: it every day, DVG on me, DVG on three one

974
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:55,840
Speaker 2: two three DVG, and we talk about us being a

975
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:57,200
Speaker 2: family constantly.

976
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:02,680
Speaker 1: It's h it's interesting the dichotomy. We could just change

977
00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:04,920
Speaker 1: the words a little bit from something you said that

978
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:07,040
Speaker 1: I found very interesting at the top of the interview,

979
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:09,800
Speaker 1: which is people on the streets will be your family,

980
00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:12,440
Speaker 1: but at a cost. And what you're saying is you

981
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:14,640
Speaker 1: want this to be their family at no cost, both

982
00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:17,000
Speaker 1: no cost, both literally and metal.

983
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:19,680
Speaker 2: It's like what you said, at no costs. It's what

984
00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:22,280
Speaker 2: you said, that's what the family is there for. Were

985
00:50:22,320 --> 00:50:25,680
Speaker 2: there through the ups and the downs, and so that's

986
00:50:25,719 --> 00:50:29,080
Speaker 2: what I stress that about what you brought. You brought

987
00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:32,440
Speaker 2: it up earlier too. It's like, through the ups and

988
00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:35,759
Speaker 2: the downs, we're there for you. But when you get

989
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 2: in those other places, when you up, we all up.

990
00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:42,839
Speaker 2: But when you down, people disappear. And I've seen it happen.

991
00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:45,319
Speaker 2: I've seen it happen to a lot of guys. I've

992
00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 2: seen it even in sports. I've seen it happen in

993
00:50:47,200 --> 00:50:51,360
Speaker 2: sports too, where as long as you're winning, everybody loves you.

994
00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:56,400
Speaker 2: The minute you lose, everybody changes. So I've seen it

995
00:50:56,440 --> 00:50:58,239
Speaker 2: in sports too. So it's not just the streets. I've

996
00:50:58,280 --> 00:51:01,320
Speaker 2: just seen it people people do it. And so yeah,

997
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:03,959
Speaker 2: but now with us, we hear what you up and down.

998
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:05,920
Speaker 1: So what's next?

999
00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:09,520
Speaker 2: What's next? This is for Alex Global?

1000
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 1: Global Global?

1001
00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 2: He asked me on the way here. He's like, so,

1002
00:51:14,800 --> 00:51:17,520
Speaker 2: what's your plan for going global? Why you keep saying global? No,

1003
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:21,960
Speaker 2: We've we've took this eighteen year journey of information that

1004
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:25,759
Speaker 2: we've learned over eighteen years of trial and error. We've

1005
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:28,920
Speaker 2: we've packaged it, we put it into a franchise model,

1006
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:32,319
Speaker 2: and we opened up our first franchise in Buffalo, New York.

1007
00:51:33,719 --> 00:51:34,000
Speaker 1: Doing this.

1008
00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 2: We're planning on doing some of the same stuff that

1009
00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:37,000
Speaker 2: we're doing here.

1010
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:38,759
Speaker 1: Also called the Downtown Boxing Gym.

1011
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:41,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, he wanted to name it Downtown Boxing.

1012
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:47,120
Speaker 1: He loves it. He loves it. Export this idea of

1013
00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:49,239
Speaker 1: other cities, other states.

1014
00:51:48,920 --> 00:51:53,160
Speaker 2: Other countries. We've had interest for years. The first people

1015
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,960
Speaker 2: who reached out were in Spain, and they reached out

1016
00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:01,080
Speaker 2: back in two thousand and nine and ten in Spain

1017
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:04,200
Speaker 2: somewhere around that area. They reached out to get us

1018
00:52:04,200 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 2: to come out there to Spain, and I told them

1019
00:52:07,280 --> 00:52:09,560
Speaker 2: I couldn't do it unless it would be successful, and

1020
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:13,200
Speaker 2: we had to make sure that Detroit was solid on

1021
00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:15,839
Speaker 2: solid ground before I decided to try to up and

1022
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 2: move somewhere else. I want to do it correctly because

1023
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:20,360
Speaker 2: I don't want kids to slip through the cracks, like

1024
00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:22,879
Speaker 2: you say, consistency. We don't want to start something that's

1025
00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:25,040
Speaker 2: gonna be here today and gone tomorrow. I've seen the

1026
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:27,920
Speaker 2: the negative effect of that. I don't ever want that

1027
00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:30,040
Speaker 2: to happen to any young person. So either we go.

1028
00:52:30,239 --> 00:52:32,480
Speaker 2: If we're gonna come in your community, we all the

1029
00:52:32,520 --> 00:52:34,840
Speaker 2: way bought in. I don't like to do stuff or

1030
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:35,200
Speaker 2: not win.

1031
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:37,600
Speaker 1: I want to win so, but you said, if you

1032
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:38,840
Speaker 1: say you're gonna do something.

1033
00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:39,239
Speaker 2: We gotta do it.

1034
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:44,839
Speaker 1: Yeah. If how do people find out more? If they

1035
00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:47,080
Speaker 1: want to find you, if they if they're interested in

1036
00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:50,640
Speaker 1: bringing this to their city, if they want to donate,

1037
00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:53,799
Speaker 1: if they just want to know more? Where do they

1038
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:58,600
Speaker 1: find Collie Sweeney and Downtown Boxing Gym.

1039
00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:02,560
Speaker 2: So you can go to DBG Detroit dot org.

1040
00:53:03,120 --> 00:53:09,600
Speaker 1: D d BG Detroit dot org website and there's everything.

1041
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:13,960
Speaker 2: Contact me there everything, even a franchise opportunities. You can

1042
00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:16,200
Speaker 2: fact you can figure out all of that on there.

1043
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:20,200
Speaker 1: You you evoked Alex's name, and you know you brought

1044
00:53:20,200 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 1: the producer into the show. For goodness sakes, I can't

1045
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:28,439
Speaker 1: believe you did that. But let's go back. I want

1046
00:53:28,440 --> 00:53:34,200
Speaker 1: to end it up because of the pureeness. Bro. We

1047
00:53:34,320 --> 00:53:39,040
Speaker 1: talk about it all the time, and you know it's

1048
00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:41,279
Speaker 1: it's one of the things I say, probably too much

1049
00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:43,520
Speaker 1: and regular listeners are probably gonna get sick you're hearing it,

1050
00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:50,920
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna say it again. Magic happens when somebody

1051
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:53,359
Speaker 1: has a passion and a discipline. And when I mean

1052
00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:56,880
Speaker 1: a discipline, not being like disciplined on time, but discipline

1053
00:53:57,600 --> 00:54:01,440
Speaker 1: in terms of a of a skill set. When someone

1054
00:54:01,560 --> 00:54:07,960
Speaker 1: has passion and discipline and that passion and discipline collide

1055
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:12,880
Speaker 1: with opportunity, magic can happen. And you are a living

1056
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:16,879
Speaker 1: example of that. You could shadow box and you had

1057
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:19,839
Speaker 1: a passion about not letting kids deal with the same

1058
00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:23,120
Speaker 1: stuff you dealt with, and it collided at an opportunity

1059
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:25,160
Speaker 1: when those kids came in your front yard to talk

1060
00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:30,080
Speaker 1: to you twenty something years ago, and now fifteen hundred

1061
00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:34,399
Speaker 1: kids and growing lives have been changed. Do you ever

1062
00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:38,120
Speaker 1: take here's your word. Do you ever take stock of

1063
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:40,400
Speaker 1: that when it's just you and you and you're thinking

1064
00:54:40,400 --> 00:54:44,319
Speaker 1: about all of it, do you take time to recognize

1065
00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:46,440
Speaker 1: that for yourself? So for me?

1066
00:54:47,320 --> 00:54:49,840
Speaker 2: So for me. I always tell everybody I don't do

1067
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:54,359
Speaker 2: victory laps. I don't do a victory lap, not any

1068
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:56,680
Speaker 2: because it's so much work to be done. You know,

1069
00:54:56,880 --> 00:55:00,719
Speaker 2: it's still so much stuff to be done. You know.

1070
00:55:00,840 --> 00:55:02,239
Speaker 2: People tell me all the time, like you got to

1071
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:03,919
Speaker 2: take a break. You gotta take a break, You gotta

1072
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:08,239
Speaker 2: take a break. It's like, man, you know, I enjoy

1073
00:55:08,360 --> 00:55:11,520
Speaker 2: coming to work every day. I enjoy doing this every day.

1074
00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:15,240
Speaker 2: I have a purpose. See, for some people, things are cool,

1075
00:55:16,040 --> 00:55:18,160
Speaker 2: it's cool. It's something cool to do. It makes you

1076
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:21,759
Speaker 2: feel good. It's something cool to do that that makes

1077
00:55:21,800 --> 00:55:24,960
Speaker 2: you feel good. But once it becomes work, then it's

1078
00:55:24,960 --> 00:55:28,080
Speaker 2: no longer cool. That the shine is off of it

1079
00:55:28,160 --> 00:55:30,479
Speaker 2: now you know, now you can move on to something else.

1080
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:33,799
Speaker 1: I love that the shine's off of it. I know exactly. Yeah,

1081
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:37,120
Speaker 1: you've asked me about five times. You know what I mean. Yeah,

1082
00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 1: I know what that means.

1083
00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:42,280
Speaker 2: So for me, it's like once I found my purpose

1084
00:55:43,160 --> 00:55:48,440
Speaker 2: in my calling. When I see the hard times, the struggle,

1085
00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:52,080
Speaker 2: I double down. It makes me double down because I

1086
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 2: feel it. It's in my heart. It feels like something

1087
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:59,080
Speaker 2: that's I'm meant to do. You get what I'm saying,

1088
00:55:59,160 --> 00:56:00,799
Speaker 2: So I don't get tired of that. I love that.

1089
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:03,600
Speaker 2: I welcome the challenge and I'm up for it. But

1090
00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:06,480
Speaker 2: I don't do victory laps because what I want to

1091
00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:08,759
Speaker 2: do is work myself out of that job. When I

1092
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:11,359
Speaker 2: look up one day and everybody in the United States,

1093
00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:14,480
Speaker 2: everybody in the world is living good, and everybody's working,

1094
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:17,520
Speaker 2: and everybody's educated, and everybody's doing all the things, I'll

1095
00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:18,160
Speaker 2: take a break.

1096
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:26,040
Speaker 1: I get that you and I are cut oddly and

1097
00:56:26,160 --> 00:56:28,600
Speaker 1: affair I'll just tell you and are cut from a

1098
00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:32,360
Speaker 1: lot of the same claw. Yeah, I get the not

1099
00:56:32,480 --> 00:56:36,120
Speaker 1: one to do victory laps, also get the humility, not

1100
00:56:36,239 --> 00:56:39,160
Speaker 1: want to be called a hero. I get all of it.

1101
00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:44,279
Speaker 1: But you know, allow me to be a mirror for

1102
00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:47,280
Speaker 1: you just a little bit, bro, because what that mirror

1103
00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:50,719
Speaker 1: is saying to you is, you know, well.

1104
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:53,239
Speaker 2: Done, well done, thank you. I appreciate it.

1105
00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:56,879
Speaker 1: So I know you and Alex have shared a couple

1106
00:56:56,880 --> 00:57:02,279
Speaker 1: of meals. I like little lessons, and I want to

1107
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:05,960
Speaker 1: leave our listeners as we finish up with a lesson,

1108
00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:09,120
Speaker 1: and Alex said, you have a great lesson on the

1109
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:10,400
Speaker 1: word forgiveness.

1110
00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:14,120
Speaker 2: He told you that story.

1111
00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:15,400
Speaker 1: Huh, I know he did not.

1112
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:16,400
Speaker 2: He didn't tell you the story.

1113
00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:20,920
Speaker 1: I don't know nothing. Just like listeners right now, about

1114
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:24,080
Speaker 1: to hear it and let it end with your lesson

1115
00:57:24,080 --> 00:57:26,240
Speaker 1: on forgiveness because Alex said it was a good one.

1116
00:57:26,560 --> 00:57:32,200
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm the whole story. Okay, I'll tell the story.

1117
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:39,240
Speaker 2: So at one point in time, I was in the streets.

1118
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:43,439
Speaker 2: I was heavily involved in the streets, completely committed because

1119
00:57:43,440 --> 00:57:47,200
Speaker 2: I didn't care about life. But in the process of

1120
00:57:47,280 --> 00:57:51,760
Speaker 2: that change, I ended up getting an apartment and all

1121
00:57:51,760 --> 00:57:54,200
Speaker 2: the things that I would have did before for money,

1122
00:57:54,840 --> 00:57:57,000
Speaker 2: I refused to do because I made myself a promise

1123
00:57:57,040 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 2: to never do anything illegal again in my life. And

1124
00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:01,960
Speaker 2: so I fell on a little bit of hard times

1125
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:04,240
Speaker 2: and I was struggling to pay my bills and a

1126
00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:06,080
Speaker 2: friend of mine who was heavily and involved in the

1127
00:58:06,080 --> 00:58:08,840
Speaker 2: streets and had a lot of money, he came to

1128
00:58:08,880 --> 00:58:10,960
Speaker 2: my house and I asked him to give me a

1129
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:13,400
Speaker 2: loan until I can get some money to pay him

1130
00:58:13,440 --> 00:58:16,000
Speaker 2: back because I needed to pay my bills. And he

1131
00:58:16,080 --> 00:58:17,800
Speaker 2: kept laughing. He's like, how much are your bills? And

1132
00:58:17,840 --> 00:58:19,080
Speaker 2: I told him. He's like, man, what kind of man?

1133
00:58:19,120 --> 00:58:21,040
Speaker 2: Don't have that kind of money. And I was thinking

1134
00:58:21,080 --> 00:58:23,480
Speaker 2: like man, you know, like dude, don't do this in

1135
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:26,880
Speaker 2: front of these people. Just keep it quiet. Let me

1136
00:58:27,240 --> 00:58:29,840
Speaker 2: just loan me the money. And he kept laughing. He's like, oh,

1137
00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:33,240
Speaker 2: my girl's shoes costs more than your rent. Well, look

1138
00:58:33,240 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 2: at her shoes, and we just left them all. We

1139
00:58:35,720 --> 00:58:37,240
Speaker 2: got all this stuff and he was showing me all

1140
00:58:37,280 --> 00:58:39,200
Speaker 2: thet tacks. He's like, look what I paid for this belt.

1141
00:58:39,280 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 2: I paid for this stuff. And he was just and

1142
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:43,160
Speaker 2: he was doing like this in my face laughing and

1143
00:58:43,320 --> 00:58:47,600
Speaker 2: just kept laughing. And so I'm a fighter, and it

1144
00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:51,120
Speaker 2: ended in a fight, and then it ended with me

1145
00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:54,080
Speaker 2: putting my hands on them. And so after the fact,

1146
00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:58,800
Speaker 2: after he left, everybody like it was a normal thing.

1147
00:58:58,840 --> 00:59:01,280
Speaker 2: They've seen me punch people all the time growing up.

1148
00:59:01,320 --> 00:59:04,200
Speaker 2: But I wasn't that person anymore to just punch a

1149
00:59:04,200 --> 00:59:07,120
Speaker 2: person because of something that was wrong with me. So

1150
00:59:07,120 --> 00:59:09,200
Speaker 2: I used to punch people because I couldn't read. And

1151
00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:11,640
Speaker 2: now I'm punching a man for no reason because I

1152
00:59:11,680 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 2: don't have my rent. And so I thought about it,

1153
00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:17,120
Speaker 2: and I thought about it. He's from another side of

1154
00:59:17,160 --> 00:59:20,160
Speaker 2: the neighborhood, which we've been at war with these guys

1155
00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:22,240
Speaker 2: for years. He just got a pass to come through

1156
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:24,840
Speaker 2: our neighborhood. And I went into the neighborhood, not knowing

1157
00:59:24,840 --> 00:59:27,120
Speaker 2: what to expect. I went in their neighborhood. I went

1158
00:59:27,160 --> 00:59:29,320
Speaker 2: to his house. He let me in the house. I

1159
00:59:29,320 --> 00:59:31,840
Speaker 2: walked in his house. He said, man, I got a

1160
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:34,560
Speaker 2: jacket that a mastered that outfit you got on, and

1161
00:59:34,600 --> 00:59:36,400
Speaker 2: he I say, hey, man, I came over here to

1162
00:59:36,400 --> 00:59:37,680
Speaker 2: talk to you. He's like, no, no, no, look, put this

1163
00:59:37,800 --> 00:59:40,160
Speaker 2: jacket on, real expensive jacket and I said, man, I

1164
00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:42,440
Speaker 2: want to apologize to you for my actions. He said, man,

1165
00:59:42,440 --> 00:59:44,760
Speaker 2: I ain't thinking about that. And I said, this dude

1166
00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:47,560
Speaker 2: lost his mind. I'm like, man, I would be upset.

1167
00:59:47,600 --> 00:59:49,880
Speaker 2: I'm here willing to talk to you because I want

1168
00:59:49,920 --> 00:59:53,160
Speaker 2: to apologize. And so I left with the jacket and

1169
00:59:53,200 --> 00:59:59,680
Speaker 2: I left. Well. He had been getting people overstepping themselves

1170
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:03,000
Speaker 2: a lot with him, and long story short, he snapped

1171
01:00:03,520 --> 01:00:06,440
Speaker 2: and he started killing people. This is right after my

1172
01:00:06,600 --> 01:00:09,480
Speaker 2: incident with him. He started killing people and he killed

1173
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:13,160
Speaker 2: a lot of people. And I heard some gunshots going off.

1174
01:00:13,160 --> 01:00:15,760
Speaker 2: I was in another neighborhood. I heard some gun shots

1175
01:00:15,800 --> 01:00:18,240
Speaker 2: going off, and I was like, man, he got nothing

1176
01:00:18,240 --> 01:00:20,000
Speaker 2: to do with me. I'm not from his neighborhood anyway.

1177
01:00:20,480 --> 01:00:22,400
Speaker 2: And I looked up. I was at a car wash.

1178
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:26,600
Speaker 2: I looked up and I saw a car go pass

1179
01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:30,160
Speaker 2: and I looked. I said, what's that that guy? I said, no,

1180
01:00:30,160 --> 01:00:32,640
Speaker 2: he would have stopped and talked to me. And I

1181
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:34,640
Speaker 2: was like, no, that wasn't him. So I started washing

1182
01:00:34,680 --> 01:00:37,160
Speaker 2: my car. And I'm still washing my car and I

1183
01:00:37,160 --> 01:00:40,040
Speaker 2: felt somebody behind me. When I turned around, he was

1184
01:00:40,040 --> 01:00:41,640
Speaker 2: standing behind me with a gun to the back of

1185
01:00:41,640 --> 01:00:44,840
Speaker 2: my head and I turned around and looked at him,

1186
01:00:45,320 --> 01:00:47,840
Speaker 2: and he just shook his head at me and got

1187
01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:50,200
Speaker 2: back in his car and he drove off. Fast forward

1188
01:00:50,240 --> 01:00:53,120
Speaker 2: fifteen years later. I'm at the gym. I'm doing what

1189
01:00:53,120 --> 01:00:55,440
Speaker 2: I'm doing on a gym. With the gym, I'm getting

1190
01:00:55,440 --> 01:00:57,720
Speaker 2: things done. He called a friend of mine who gave

1191
01:00:57,800 --> 01:01:00,320
Speaker 2: him to pass through our neighborhood. His friend and who

1192
01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:03,400
Speaker 2: was the one who let him come through our neighborhood.

1193
01:01:02,840 --> 01:01:05,160
Speaker 2: He had him on the phone. He wanted to talk

1194
01:01:05,200 --> 01:01:08,479
Speaker 2: to me. He said, Hey, tell Kylee that I didn't

1195
01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:12,440
Speaker 2: blow his brains out that day because he apologized to me.

1196
01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:14,880
Speaker 2: He was the only person to ever apologize to me

1197
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:16,920
Speaker 2: in my life. He said, that's the only reason I

1198
01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:18,520
Speaker 2: employ his brains out there there and tell him to

1199
01:01:18,600 --> 01:01:20,640
Speaker 2: keep doing what he's doing. With those kids out there,

1200
01:01:20,680 --> 01:01:22,880
Speaker 2: they don't want to be in here where I'm at.

1201
01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:25,120
Speaker 2: And so I tell my kids every day, every time

1202
01:01:25,120 --> 01:01:26,720
Speaker 2: I get a chance, I tell a man, I apology

1203
01:01:26,840 --> 01:01:30,240
Speaker 2: saved my life. Me apologized and saved my life. And

1204
01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:32,360
Speaker 2: I needed to see that because had he said that

1205
01:01:33,080 --> 01:01:34,600
Speaker 2: he gave me a pass, I wouldn't have believed that.

1206
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:36,200
Speaker 2: I said, you ain't never gave me, no pass, That's

1207
01:01:36,240 --> 01:01:38,000
Speaker 2: what I would have said, But it was meant for

1208
01:01:38,200 --> 01:01:40,760
Speaker 2: him to come put the gun to my head. He

1209
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:43,040
Speaker 2: had just killed somebody on the corner that shut the

1210
01:01:43,080 --> 01:01:44,760
Speaker 2: shooting that I heard. He had just killed the guy.

1211
01:01:45,200 --> 01:01:47,560
Speaker 2: He's doing life in prison right now. He'll never come home.

1212
01:01:48,360 --> 01:01:49,840
Speaker 2: But I would have never believed it. I would have

1213
01:01:49,840 --> 01:01:53,200
Speaker 2: said no, But apology saved my life and it had

1214
01:01:53,240 --> 01:01:54,840
Speaker 2: to go out. It had to play out that way.

1215
01:01:55,120 --> 01:01:57,000
Speaker 2: He had to come put the gun to my head

1216
01:01:57,400 --> 01:02:00,000
Speaker 2: for me to know so I could tell other people apologie,

1217
01:02:00,080 --> 01:02:02,480
Speaker 2: you can save your life. Sometimes it's that simple.

1218
01:02:05,840 --> 01:02:10,320
Speaker 1: When you hear that story. All of us need to

1219
01:02:10,360 --> 01:02:16,720
Speaker 1: remember the difference. And a third grader becoming that guy

1220
01:02:19,240 --> 01:02:29,000
Speaker 1: and going to college might be your gym. That's real, man.

1221
01:02:29,280 --> 01:02:32,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, so y'all I always say. I always say, man,

1222
01:02:32,920 --> 01:02:34,240
Speaker 2: you know if people think a lot of people in

1223
01:02:34,280 --> 01:02:37,520
Speaker 2: their life. I thank him forgiving me, for giving me

1224
01:02:37,560 --> 01:02:40,040
Speaker 2: a past that day. And that's something I would have

1225
01:02:40,120 --> 01:02:42,280
Speaker 2: never said before, that some guy gave me a pass,

1226
01:02:42,520 --> 01:02:43,880
Speaker 2: or he gave me a pass, and I've seen it

1227
01:02:43,960 --> 01:02:47,000
Speaker 2: with my own eyes. So shout out to that guy.

1228
01:02:48,080 --> 01:02:52,640
Speaker 1: Shout out to Grace, shout out for and shout out

1229
01:02:52,680 --> 01:02:53,640
Speaker 1: to you for your hard work.

1230
01:02:53,680 --> 01:02:55,000
Speaker 2: Bro, Thank you, Thank you, guys.

1231
01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:57,080
Speaker 1: Man. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you

1232
01:02:57,120 --> 01:02:59,880
Speaker 1: coming to Memphis to share this story. It is un

1233
01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:03,840
Speaker 1: believable where you've come from and the work you've done.

1234
01:03:03,960 --> 01:03:07,240
Speaker 1: And you know, I hear a lot of people say,

1235
01:03:07,280 --> 01:03:09,840
Speaker 1: we want to scale it, we wanna go worldwide. My

1236
01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:12,200
Speaker 1: money's on you. I think you might just do it.

1237
01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:12,960
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it.

1238
01:03:13,280 --> 01:03:16,640
Speaker 1: I believe that. Thanks for being here, thanks for having me,

1239
01:03:24,560 --> 01:03:28,240
Speaker 1: and thank you for joining us this week. If Collie

1240
01:03:28,240 --> 01:03:31,480
Speaker 1: Sweeney has inspired you in general, or better yet, to

1241
01:03:31,560 --> 01:03:35,680
Speaker 1: take action by starting a DBG or something like it

1242
01:03:35,720 --> 01:03:41,640
Speaker 1: in your community, volunteering there or somewhere similar, donating to them,

1243
01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:45,840
Speaker 1: or something else entirely, please let me know. I'd love

1244
01:03:45,920 --> 01:03:48,720
Speaker 1: to hear about it. You can write me anytime at

1245
01:03:48,760 --> 01:03:51,680
Speaker 1: Bill at normal Folks dot us, and I promise I

1246
01:03:51,760 --> 01:03:55,960
Speaker 1: will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it

1247
01:03:56,000 --> 01:04:00,000
Speaker 1: with friends and on social subscribe to the podcast, rate it,

1248
01:04:00,320 --> 01:04:04,760
Speaker 1: review it, Join the army at Normalfolks dot us, consider

1249
01:04:04,800 --> 01:04:07,720
Speaker 1: becoming a Premium member there, any and all of these

1250
01:04:07,760 --> 01:04:11,280
Speaker 1: things that will help us grow an army of normal Folks,

1251
01:04:11,840 --> 01:04:15,320
Speaker 1: I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, do what you can