Shawn Ryan Show - #182 King Randall, I - Rescuing a Lost Generation from Gangs, Crime and Chaos

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

King Randall, I is the founder of The X for Boys, and a mentor to hundreds of young men in his community. Randall's organization is a charter school in Albany Georgia that aims to teach boys the true ...meaning of masculinity, manhood, and how to be protectors and providers in their communities through various programs including automotive repair workshops, construction training, and a book club. The school focuses on traditional academics, trade skills, firearms training, and the science of family and manhood. Randall's work has gained national attention, and he continues to advocate for male youth development through his organization and school. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://ShawnLikesGold.com | 855-936-GOLD #goldcopartner https://tryarmra.com/srs https://patriotmobile.com/srs | 972-PATRIOT Head to https://lumen.me/srs for 20% off your purchase. https://ziprecruiter.com/srs https://ROKA.com - USE CODE "SRS" https://babbel.com/srs Upgrade your wardrobe and save on trueclassic at trueclassic.com/srs #trueclassicpod https://betterhelp.com/srs https://drinkhoist.com - USE CODE "SRS" King Randall, I Links: The X for Boys - https://thexforboys.org LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/king-randall YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@NewEmergingKing Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/newemergingking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 BedMGM, authorized gaming partner of the NBA, has your back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BedMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BedMGM. Download the app today and discover why BedMGM is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BedMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM. A sportsbook worth a slam dunk. An authorized gaming partner of the NBA.
Starting point is 00:00:33 BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. King Randall, welcome to the show, man. Man, thanks for for having me glad to be here. It's my honor I love love love what you're doing down in Albany and
Starting point is 00:01:11 I've been really looking forward to this interview. So yes, sir. I appreciate it. You got a lot of fans in Albany, too I mentioned it to a couple of people and they were like you are where really? Yeah got fans down there. Yes, sir Damn, that's cool to hear. That's cool to hear. Well, I'm going to start you off with an introduction here. King Randall, you graduated culinary school at age 17. You are a former United States Marine, a leader in your community and a role model and mentor for many young men and you're only 25 years old. In 2019, you founded the X for Boys program
Starting point is 00:01:47 to fight back against the high crime rate in your community by stepping up to mentor young men. This is the only rehabilitative program for juvenile offenders in South Georgia. That's surprising, man. In August, 2022, you founded the Life Preparatory School for Boys, the first free all boys boarding school in South Georgia.
Starting point is 00:02:09 The school's motto, Let's Make Men Reflect Your Vision. You earned the 2019 Larry Sanders Legacy Award, the 2021 B1 Education Award, and the 2023 Dreamstone Award from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's family. Wednesday, tomorrow, you'll be going to the White House. And most importantly, probably out of every, not probably out of everything,
Starting point is 00:02:39 you're a father to three boys. Yes. So, man, and you're a Christian. Yes, absolutely. Born and raised Christian. Really? Yeah, my grandmother was a preacher. Grandfather down in Florida, my dad's father preaching.
Starting point is 00:02:54 I played the drums my whole life. My grandmother used to have church at home. So we used to have people come to the house and my grandmother had me this little drum set and I started playing the drums there. This was before my grandmother could afford to get us this little drum set and I started playing the drums there. This was before my grandmother could afford to get us a church and I started out playing the drums there and I played the drums all the way up until I was about 17 or 18 right when I went to the
Starting point is 00:03:13 Marine Corps. That's when I stopped but other than that I spent my whole life at church. You still do it? Play the drums? Yeah. Nah, you know what I've been wanting to get back into it. I've been considering buying a drum set. I've been missing it lately, apparently, but cause I find myself still doing it a little bit, but I played my whole life, man. And it's weird for me to go to church now. It's interesting. It's so weird for me to be at church.
Starting point is 00:03:35 I literally spent every second at church behind the drum set. So it's so hard for me to actually just sit at church and pay attention because I'm used to listening for cues. Like we, we had to worship differently. We couldn't just sit there and just pay attention because I'm used to listening for cues. Like we had to worship differently. We couldn't just sit there and just pay attention. Like we paid attention, but we worshiped in our own way. So I'm used to listening for cues.
Starting point is 00:03:52 I'm watching the musicians seeing what they're doing. Watching the number chorus they're calling out. Cause I'm listening, watching the bass player. Cause that's the guy I had to watch, you know, calling numbers out, calling hits, all that stuff. So I'm used to that. So every time I go to church, it's like super weird cause I'm like staring at the musicians the whole time.
Starting point is 00:04:08 So it was just interesting, man. It's very weird for me to be at church now, but I love it. I love it. Do you take your kids to church? Absolutely, yeah, they go to church. So their grandfather on their mom's side, he's a pastor in Cuthbert, Georgia,
Starting point is 00:04:22 and they love to go see him preach. And he'll bring him on the pulpit because they want to sit by him before he's about to preach. So his name Pastor Vaughn, and they love him. I love him too, he's a great man. But my sons love their grandfather, maternal grandfather, they love him to death.
Starting point is 00:04:39 So they listen to him preach often. Every Sunday on Saturdays, they're like, dad, can we go to Magani's house so we can go to church with them? They ask every Saturday to go to church. They ask, they beg to make sure they're going. They get mad if she can't come pick them up or something like that, so it's pretty neat.
Starting point is 00:04:56 Right on. You know, we had a conversation downstairs about fatherhood, and it sounded like maybe, I don't know, maybe your audience or somebody sounds It sounds like the way you raise your boys is maybe a little controversial. Yeah, man certain people's eyes. What what's what? Why I wanted to save it until we were on the podcast. Yeah, man. So My son's very good at baseball. He's six years old But dude is like the best six year old baseball player you ever see but we spend a lot of time practicing
Starting point is 00:05:24 My sons are also homeschooled too. They're homeschooled. I have a private teacher for them also. My mom takes turns teaching them different things. So they're very intelligent. He also boxes. He does gymnastics, my oldest son. My younger son does gymnastics also.
Starting point is 00:05:40 He's just not old enough to participate, but he's already training in baseball. And so they'll see our videos I also posted videos where they're crying and upset also because I'm trying to show the part of fatherhood They're just not the sweet stuff For example, my son was about to get ready to spar for the first time He'd been boxing since he was since he was four. He was practicing He's just you know doing they teaching them everything all the numbers etc
Starting point is 00:06:04 So he's been doing that since he was about four years old. And so this is the first time to spar. He's going to spar this 10 year old kid. And he'd never been hit in the face before. Never been punched, never had any competition in front of him. So we got home, I put his gear on at the house in the garage. I got on my knees and I put my gloves on
Starting point is 00:06:19 and I told him to put his hands up. And I told him to remember everything that Coach Dino had taught him during practice. So I hit him in the head, not hard, but I hit him to put his hands up. And I told him to remember everything that Coach Dino had taught him during practice. So I hit him in the head, not hard, but I hit him in the head. And he was like, Dad, you're punching too fast. He just starts crying. He's just, ah, he's just crying.
Starting point is 00:06:35 And I'm like, put your hands back up. Focus, I'm teary-eyed just thinking about it. But I'm like, put your hands back up, son. And he put his hands, I'm like, remember what you were taught, son. And so he started remembering the different, moving out the way and throwing punches. I'm like, this is why you were taught for this whole year.
Starting point is 00:06:51 You know, this is what you were learning. This is to put into action now. And so then he started getting confident. He started getting aggressive. Like he started punching back and moving out the way and, you know, dodging and weaving. So we get to spar the next day and he got a couple great licks off the 10 year old.
Starting point is 00:07:07 He's a good 10 year old boxer. Not saying he was like really fully boxing him, but to get a couple licks off of him, like some really good licks, I posted the videos and he was so happy that he did it. He was like, that was easier than I thought. He was like, I didn't know I could do that. And so I posted those videos and people just like,
Starting point is 00:07:21 oh, this is too much. He just needs to have fun. And oh, you're not letting him have fun. And fun, fun, it's everything everybody says, just say, fun, fun. I'm like, but what if this is fun to him? He enjoys baseball, he enjoys practicing. Does he enjoy every practice?
Starting point is 00:07:34 No. Does he always want to practice? No. But I teach them also that I ask them a question. I'm saying, son, when do we work? He always say, when we don't feel like it. Exactly, that's when we work. But then we'll go to the baseball field and we out there with the other kids and he'll notice that he's better than everybody else. He enjoys that. He is now proud. I teach my children not
Starting point is 00:07:53 about happiness but about being proud of themselves because being happiness to me, being happy to me is word the devil resides because being happy is hanging out with your friends and going to do little stupid stuff. It's fleeting, but when I'm proud of myself, when I do something that I can accomplish, you know, and I accomplish a goal, like I'm like, okay, he's like, I want to hit a home run this year. Okay, cool.
Starting point is 00:08:14 This kid's six years old. He's six, he's six. Yeah, and he's like, that only- When did you start this? I mean, when did you- Start baseball? I think it's, I mean, it's intense. Yeah. It's intense. Yeah. But I mean, I like it's, I mean, it's intense. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:25 It's intense. Yeah. But I mean, I like it. I mean, you're pushing your kids to the limit. You know, at age six and you're teaching them that, hey, if you want to accomplish something, it takes a lot of work. And I mean, it sounds like we both can agree.
Starting point is 00:08:42 I mean, you just see people today and they think everything's a fucking handout. It's not. And they don't want to work for it. Very few people. So I mean, hold on. So when did this start? Does it start at age six?
Starting point is 00:08:56 Did it start at four? It started about three, four. My son knows a lot of my, I call my quotables. He'll tell people my quotables too. Like for example, like we don't try, we do. I always tell him, no, we're not gonna try anything. We're gonna do it. So he tries his hardest to do everything.
Starting point is 00:09:12 And also like do things like make him keep his word. For example, I don't allow him to change his mind often. If he said something, I'm like, well, you gotta do it. No, that's what you said you were gonna do. So you have to do it now, you know, because you're gonna be a man one day and your word is your bond. so you have to keep your word. So that's what you said.
Starting point is 00:09:27 So he'll remember like, ah. So he'll think about things before he say it now, and that's important because you're teaching them to think through things before you just say it. And so now he's thinking about what he's, he was like, hmm, nevermind. He'll think about the things he says versus just blurting something out or just saying anything.
Starting point is 00:09:44 And so that's very important to instill a lot of these little character traits now. So when they get older, they won't miss it. Like he knows, like I said, a lot of my quotables, he'll tell people my quotables and say, well, my dad says, you know, X, Y, Z, and this is why we do X, Y, Z. This is why we practice.
Starting point is 00:10:00 I always ask the question every time we go practice on the baseball field, is it, you see anybody else out here, son? No, sir, why? Cause they don't want to put that work in. You see anybody else out here, son? No, sir. Why? Because they don't want to put that work in. That's what he'll say. They don't want to put in the work.
Starting point is 00:10:09 At age six? At age six. He will tell you that. They don't want to put in the work. And so, again, he'll go out there to the field when everybody's there. We just had evaluations the other day. He destroyed evaluations or whatever. And to me, he'll still critique himself.
Starting point is 00:10:23 I teach him about accountability also. For example, he'll hit off the tee, right? And I don't think it's a good hit. And then he'll say, daddy, that was a thumbs down because I hit the top of the tee a little bit, so let's try that one again. I taught him about critiquing himself because I shouldn't always have to be here
Starting point is 00:10:38 to tell you what you did wrong. You should critique yourself. You know right from wrong. So I put these videos up and people are just like, oh, well what about fun? I'm like, he has fun all the time. Damn dude, most 25 year olds, which are 25, most 25 year olds don't even get this concept,
Starting point is 00:10:54 I feel like it. Yeah, but I tell them, I'm like, I teach them to earn everything. Are you a perfectionist? No, I'm not. And I wish I was, but I wish I was a perfectionist. My chef told me back in school, he'd say, man, he'd say, King, you'll be fantastic.
Starting point is 00:11:08 He said, you're good, but you'd be fantastic if you learn how to finish. Cause I'm just not, I just, like, I'm just not a perfectionist, and I'm trying to get there because I want to make sure that my sons see that we gonna finish everything that we do. So it's like, my sons are making me be better too. I critique myself often, you know, with them.
Starting point is 00:11:23 Being, you know, just so young and they're remembering everything, they're watching everything you do. I'm watching him with my mannerisms and stuff. So it's like I have to be almost perfect to make sure that my sons are following in the right footsteps. So that's important to me. So even teaching them to earn everything.
Starting point is 00:11:38 Like for Christmas, he got the shoes, the toys, et cetera. Ask my son when can he play with that stuff. When you give me something, you have to do something to wear those shoes. So my son, for example, I got the shoes, the toys, et cetera. I asked my son when he can he play with that stuff. When you give me something, you have to do something to wear those shoes. So my son, for example, I get up every morning at 6.30 and go work out in the gym every single morning. They'll hear the music. For the first couple of times I started doing it,
Starting point is 00:11:56 they would be like, dad, what you doing in the morning? I'm like, daddy's working out in the gym, early in the morning. And so they were like, well, can you wake us up so we can come watch? I'm like, why not? Okay, so I got out, I get up in the morning, I go wake them up, I'm like, hey, daddy's gonna go work out, and they'll get up, they go put their clothes on, they go like, well, can you wake us up so we can come watch? I'm like, why not? Okay, so I got out, I get up in the morning, I go wake them up, I'm like, hey, daddy's gonna go work out
Starting point is 00:12:07 and they'll get up, they'll go put their clothes on, they'll go brush their teeth, and then they'll come outside and come in the gym and watch me work out. I turned the garage into a training gym. And so then after a while, he started saying, daddy, can we do the workouts too? Why not?
Starting point is 00:12:20 So I have them doing things with their pushups and pull-ups or whatever like that. And so my son is pretty strong now. He went viral on Instagram during he was learning how to swim. And they were talking about his physique. He got like a six pack and he looked like he's been to prison, man. He's six. And so people were talking about his physique.
Starting point is 00:12:40 They're like, how'd he get like that? I'm like, bro, just like to work out. He likes to do push-ups. He can do more push-ups than I can like, bro, just like to work out. He likes to do pushups. He can do more pushups than I can. So it's really cool to watch it, but kids mimic what they see. But it's fun to him. He enjoys it.
Starting point is 00:12:52 And so when we go out of town or we go to Chuck E. Cheese or whatever like that, he just has to do something for it. So he has fun all the time. We just don't give, he always will tell you what I say. We don't have fun for free, we earn it. He always will tell you. What age does that start?
Starting point is 00:13:05 What age do you start making them earn it? As soon as they understand right from wrong, and that's early. Even my younger son, William, is three right now, but he also understands right from wrong. So when he wants to watch TV or play a little video game or something like that, okay son, you have to learn how to read better
Starting point is 00:13:23 because he wants the Nintendo Switch like his brother. And so he plays it with him sometimes, but he wants his own. I said, okay, cool, you have to learn how to read better because he wants a Nintendo Switch like his brother. And so he tries, he plays it with him sometimes, but he wants his own. I said, okay cool, you need to learn how to read this book by your birthday, which is May, and I'll get you a Nintendo Switch. So he's working at school, like trying to learn how to read better because he really wants to learn
Starting point is 00:13:37 because he has trouble playing the game because he can't read everything that's on the screen or like, you know, play now, continue, whatever, he's not understanding everything. So he's working now to read better because he really wants that game. So I'm just making him earn it all. I mean, I think that's important because if you just give them things, I believe it's important for me to create hardship for my sons. They're not going to want for anything. I do well, they do pretty good, they're not going to grow up in the hood like
Starting point is 00:14:02 with me, like I did or whatever like that. So I have to create hardship for them. So I do well, they do pretty good, they're not gonna grow up in the hood like with me, like I did or whatever like that. So I have to create hardship for them. So I do that through sports, I do that through making them earn things, I do that through saying no. I say no often, I say no for sport. And I say that because no is a character building word, you're not gonna always get what you want. So I don't care what sad face you want,
Starting point is 00:14:19 I don't care if it's just something simple, that can't get a bag of chips, no. Like no, for what? What you need a bag of chips for? No, no, so I say no often and I used to cry and get upset But now it's just like okay, that's it. No, whatever, you know like that or uh, dad can I get something to drink? They try to trick me sometime when they ask for something to drink. They really want a juicy juice I got the little juicy juice drink. So they'll be like dad can I get something to drink?
Starting point is 00:14:38 I'm like, yeah, and they'll go in there go get some juice They're like you didn't specify which drink you were talking about. I'm like, you know, I may get some water son Don't play with me, you know, so now I'm like, you know I meant get some water, son. Don't play with me. You know, so now I'm just like, you can go get some water. And they're like, never mind. I don't want to drink anymore. That's what I thought. You know, like, but go drink some water anyway.
Starting point is 00:14:52 So it's a lot of different things that I do with them and it's very particular because it's building those little small character traits even with training practice for baseball or boxing. If the coach tells us to be to practice at four o'clock, I'm like, so what time we going to practice three? Yeah, like he'll tell, he like, we have to get there an hour before everybody else does so we can get some extra warmups in
Starting point is 00:15:12 and get some extra practice. He knows this already. He'll tell his mom the same thing. His mom take him to practice. He like, coach said we got to be there at four, but we need to get there at three so I can get out there and hit off the tee a little bit and I can get some ground balls in before,
Starting point is 00:15:24 before practice actually starts. So he's already warmed up when everybody gets out there. But he knows, he internalized it already. So he doesn't understand it all the way, but he's internalized that now. So when he gets older, the work ethic is going to be crazy. Because work ethic is in his system now. I hadn't given him fun.
Starting point is 00:15:41 People try to wait until they're like 10 and 11 to just get on them. I'm like, no, you need to get on them as soon, as early as possible. At one year old, nothing's cute anymore for me. I start disciplining at one. After that, nothing is cute. Everything you do wrong is not cute anymore.
Starting point is 00:15:56 I don't do the, oh, he threw something, ha ha ha, no. I'm gonna say, no, you don't do that. Or he hit me today, no, you don't hit daddy. You know, like, I discipline early. Nothing's cute anymore. After one year old, start You know, like it's, I discipline early. Nothing's cute anymore. After one year old, start raising your child. That's what I believe in. Damn, were you raised like that?
Starting point is 00:16:11 Uh, yeah, my grandmother was pretty strict. Yeah? Uh-huh. We'll get into that. We'll get into that. If you take your health as seriously as I do, you know how important hydration is. That's why I want to tell you about Hoist. Hoist is made in the USA
Starting point is 00:16:29 and has three times the electrolytes and half the sugar compared to other sports drinks with no artificial dyes or preservatives. Hoist is on military bases globally, serving war fighters in operations and training. I wish I had had Hoist as an option for hydration during my military career, especially the brand new flavor they just released, five star punch. Through December 31st, 2025, hoist is donating a minimum of $10,000 to Folds of Honor, a
Starting point is 00:17:01 nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships to family members of fallen service members or first responders. Hoist is now available in all Publix locations. You can use the store locator on their website to find a store near you, or you can purchase directly from drinkhoist.com where you can use my code SRS to save 15% on their website. Go check out their website
Starting point is 00:17:26 That's drink hoist.com and use my code SRS to save 15% This episode is sponsored by Roca Roca is a performance eyewear brand for people who want to invest in themselves. Roka manufactures premium sunglasses, prescription eyeglasses, and readers, and cuts all of their lenses here in the US at their headquarters in Austin, Texas. Roka recently partnered with one of my favorite guests, Dr. Andrew Huberman, to launch a new line of glasses called the Wine Down Collection. Guys, I've tried these. You know I have problems sleeping. I absolutely love, love, love these frames and lenses.
Starting point is 00:18:12 They're available with and without prescription and have a proprietary red lens that helps filter out short wavelength light. Short wavelength light is in pretty much all artificial light and it's terrible for your sleep. Roka let me try a pair of these things and I can feel the difference whenever I wear Short wavelength light is in pretty much all artificial light and it's terrible for your sleep. Roka let me try a pair of these things and I can feel the difference whenever I wear them. I wear them in the evening after the sun goes down.
Starting point is 00:18:33 I pretty much started at dinner and I wear it until bed. Let me tell you, these things work. With so many options and I wear them wellness products out there, it's a relief to know the glasses I'm wearing help two things I really care about. My vision and my sleep. And as a business owner with all the decisions I already need to make every day, wearing a pair of Roka's glasses is one of the best ones I've made.
Starting point is 00:18:58 Check them out for yourself at Roka.com and use code SRS for 20% off site-wide at checkout. That's Roka.com with code SRS for 20% off sitewide at checkout. That's roca.com with code SRS. It's seeming more and more like we're about to hit an inflation cycle like we saw in the 70s. President Reagan once said that inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber, and as deadly as a hitman. And I couldn't agree more.
Starting point is 00:19:22 The price of gold during the last inflation cycle during the 70s was a saving grace for a lot of people that were trying to protect their savings. That's why I want you to go to SeanLikesGold.com to learn more about my partners over at GoldCo. They're a great company, impeccable customer service, and for my listeners, they're gonna give you a free gold and silver kit where you can learn
Starting point is 00:19:44 about how precious metals could help protect your money. And lucky for you, you could also get up to a 10% instant match in bonus silver on qualified orders. To learn more, call 855-936-GOLD or visit SeanLikesGold.com. That's 855-936-GOLD or visit SeanLikesGold.com. Performance may vary, consult with your tax attorney or financial professional before making an investment decision.
Starting point is 00:20:17 How do you see your oldest treating your younger ones? My, they love- Is it rubbing off on them? Yeah, so William and Baby King, which is my oldest, William is very different from Baby King. They like night and day. William does not like school. He's not fond of it.
Starting point is 00:20:33 He's his own child. He does not get excited about things that Baby King gets excited about. We go to an amusement park or something, William's kind of just sitting there. Like the other day, we went to this ice cream shop with nitrogen ice cream where you can get like the dragon's breath and stuff, you know, to breathe a little smoke and stuff. He was like, I don't want to do that.
Starting point is 00:20:47 He does not like the pool. He does not like the beach. He does not like, he's super like, he doesn't deal, like for example, Baby King, he'd come in here, shake his hand, you know, introduce himself. William does not, he will not talk to you if he doesn't know you.
Starting point is 00:20:59 Like he just, unless I tell him, say son, introduce yourself, and he'll say something, but he just like, mm-mm. Like, so they like night in- Very standoffish. Yeah, very standoffish their night and day But I will say something different about them both. I've had to teach baby king what I call that dog I have to I had to teach him aggression. I'm like son You have to learn how to turn aggression on and off. So sometimes during baseball practice
Starting point is 00:21:19 I would purposely frustrate him so he could see how good he does when he's upset when he hits that ball when he's upset, I'm like that's the furthest you ever hit a ball. See how you're using that aggression right now? He'll cry. I'm like okay now use that and hit the ball. Get mad at the ball and hit it. And he's like oh I didn't know I could hit the ball that far. I said exactly. So make your angry face and hit the ball and turn it off. I said daddy could get angry right now and I could turn it off. I said you have to learn how to control that aggression. So he's learning about controlled aggression early. William hadn't had to teach aggression to him. When he go hit the ball, he's angry already.
Starting point is 00:21:51 When he's boxing, bro is already angry about it. Like he's in there practicing with his brother. So he watches his brother often. They get into it like normal siblings about sharing stuff or whatever like that. But for the most part, Baby King is always leading. He's like, no, William, you need to brush your teeth right. You need to make sure you're getting the back of your teeth.
Starting point is 00:22:09 You need to make sure you're doing this right. William, put your shoes on the right foot. Grant, William can always listen to him. He gets upset with him like, no, leave me alone, you know, whatever like that. But he's always leading him. I taught him about that. I'm like, listen, your brother looks up to you.
Starting point is 00:22:20 He may not want to listen all the time. He'll participate in the bad stuff you're doing, but he doesn't want to participate in the time. He'll participate in the bad stuff you're doing, but he doesn't want to participate in the good things that you do. But what about, I mean, are they observant of other kids? Yes. In the work ethic and six years old, damn dude.
Starting point is 00:22:35 He, so he does- Taking notes. Yeah, he watches the other kids at practice not go as hard as he does. So next year, Baby King will be playing up in baseball. He's going to this eight year old team next year. A team called about him because they've been watching his videos online.
Starting point is 00:22:49 So he's going to play up next year. But that's only because the kids his age are not giving him any competition. And so, but he watches the kids his age and it's not no fault to the kids and not even necessarily to their parents. It's just that we all raise our kids differently. And so like during the games, sometimes people will be like,
Starting point is 00:23:06 oh, why he going so hard about it or whatever? I'm like, well, this is why my kid's great and your son suck. Because we believe in what we're doing. And it's important to believe in what you're doing. If we're going to do something, we're going to give it our best. We're not just doing anything just for fun. We're going to do anything. I don't care if we're making our bed.
Starting point is 00:23:26 We're going to make our bed the best way we could possibly make our bed. If we're going to brush our hair, we're going to brush our hair the best way we possibly can brush it. Like, do it all the best. I'm like, you want to be the best at it all. And if you are the best, find somebody else that's better and then go after them. So like last year during baseball, he wasn't the best on the field yet, or whatever. Last year, because like I said, we've been practicing. And we found, we during baseball he wasn't the best on the field yet or whatever last year because like I said we've been practicing and we
Starting point is 00:23:46 found we want the kid who was the best and so he came to the plate I'm like baby can't get him out and so he hit the ball he caught it he played second base he caught the ball threw him out and he was so excited about it I'm like that's what I'm talking about. I don't care about that like we don't care about him being that good. We want to find the best and we want to we want to beat him that's what we want to do. Damn, D.I. I love what you're saying already. We're only like, what, 10 minutes, 20 minutes into the interview?
Starting point is 00:24:10 Yeah. I mean, so, this is fantastic. I appreciate it. I'm serious, man. But, you know, something that, you're describing how I think all the time. I think if I'm not working,
Starting point is 00:24:25 somebody else's, they're gonna be better. I think it came from the SEAL teams. If you're not training, the enemy's training, and they're gonna kill you. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I've carried this mindset into business. I've carried it into my whole life. And now I'm hesitant to,
Starting point is 00:24:49 with that mindset comes a tremendous amount of pressure that you put on yourself. It can be debilitating. It's very, it's a life of stress. And so I've been careful on, I don't know if I want my son or my daughter to carry the amount of stress and responsibility that I feel that I have. And so, do you think about that at all? Yeah, I can push back at that a little bit actually. Stress to me is good.
Starting point is 00:25:19 And not necessarily saying like the stress you put on your body or something like that. Stress, worry, doubt, et cetera, it causes you to work a little bit more. When I'm worried about if I can't take care of the light bill this month, I might go do a little extra work to make sure that I can take care of that.
Starting point is 00:25:37 But why am I not thinking like that all the time? It's like we'll get comfortable and then we'll stop doing what's needed or whatever. We'll get comfortable and stop doing what we could be doing. So it's like, I don't ever want to get comfortable. I'm like, okay, if there's children, like for example, again, talking about my son, there's this kid that we interact with on social media.
Starting point is 00:25:58 His social media is called Sense Diapers. His dad's been training him in baseball since he was literally almost a newborn. He's got the videos. This kid is five years old now and I kid you not this kid is sliding doing all types of crazy catches. Like he's world's better than my son. So when people see my son on the field and they're like oh he's fantastic. I'm in my mind thinking about Malik. I'm like no Malik is gonna destroy my son Like, he is great with it.
Starting point is 00:26:25 So we plan to have them practice together and stuff like that to make each other better or whatever. But I'm always thinking, like, just like you said, the enemy's always waiting to kill you, you know? And not just, you know, in regards to sports, just in life in general, there's somebody making the money that I want to be making. There's somebody successful, more successful than I am.
Starting point is 00:26:42 You know, and- You're getting happy. Yeah. The next guy's training. Yes. The next guy's training. Yes, the next guy's training. He's innovating. He's developing. The stress is important.
Starting point is 00:26:49 You need it. You need the worry. You need it because it causes you to want to work a little bit harder. And so even like working out in the mornings, I ain't gonna lie to you, I hate working out in the mornings, it gets on my nerves.
Starting point is 00:26:59 But I do it anyway because I need to put myself through something I can accomplish in the morning. It makes me feel great. I did this thing I really didn't want to do and I know my sons are watching me too. So even though I don't want to do it, I do it anyway because I know they're going to get up in the morning and look for me.
Starting point is 00:27:15 The morning that I don't get up, like some mornings I may not do it or something like that, maybe every once in a while, I get upset at myself because my sons come and ask me, hey, why you ain't wake us up this morning to go work out? To me, I just told them that it's okay to Not do something. I just told him it's okay to not do what you're supposed to do on yourself Yeah, I do I do I critique myself
Starting point is 00:27:34 It's and it's important But I don't mind it because I'm proud of the results in the end the results is what make it all worth it And it makes me that's what makes me happy after see the results, after I see that I've gotten a little bigger, or my suits are getting a little tighter, I gotta buy new suits or whatever like that, I'm getting training better, I'm doing better in boxing. Yeah, it's annoying at the time, but once I finally see those results, I'm like,
Starting point is 00:27:56 man, like, now I wanna do it some more. But all that success you're looking for is gonna come through the dangerous, the treacherous going through the minefield. It's gonna be the treacherous going through the minefield. It's going to be the treacherous going through the crazy river just to get to the other side. So as a man, I like being Batman to my kids. I like being Batman to those around me. Like, man, King's always doing all this great stuff.
Starting point is 00:28:17 People think I do fantastic. I think I could be doing more. I'm just like, I just left Nigeria back in August and those kids are out working everybody I know. You know, their dreams are to come to America, but those kids are out working everybody I know. Their dreams are to come to America, but I'm just like, when I got there, it almost removed empathy for me, for anything that people claim they're going through.
Starting point is 00:28:33 I'm like, these kids don't even got sewage and running water, barely eat every day, and they are working circles around us. So it made me want to come home and do even more. So when people are impressed with me, I'm not impressed with me at all. I'm like, this is nothing. You know, I'm like, I could be doing a whole lot more.
Starting point is 00:28:47 I could still be getting up a little bit earlier. Like I still critique myself about that. Like, why am I getting up at six-thirty? I could easily, I wake up at five o'clock in the morning and I just sit there and scroll on my phone. Why don't I get my butt up and go on the computer and do something, you know, do something else other than sitting here scrolling on my phone?
Starting point is 00:29:01 Like, you know, I could be making other things happen. So Elon, et cetera, all these billionaires, et cetera, we got the same 24 hours in a day, and it's all what we decide to do with it. And it's going to come with the pressure. So, if I'm comfortable and sitting around and nothing's happening, I feel like a failure, because I'm just like, something needs to be happening.
Starting point is 00:29:19 Something needs to be shaking right now. Something needs to be moving. I critique myself for not training my son as much sometimes. I feel like we could train more. We could train like an hour a day sometimes, but a day we miss training, he ain't thinking about it. But me, I'm like, dang, it's another kid somewhere training right now and we missing it.
Starting point is 00:29:36 It's interesting. So who picked baseball? Say that again? Who picked baseball and boxing? He did. He picked it? He picked baseball. He asked me.
Starting point is 00:29:44 I had never played a... Listen, I had never caught a baseball in my life. I had never played, I played football my whole life. And I stopped football in high school because one of my friends got paralyzed on the field. I was very good. But of course I was running back, I'm short. But anyway, man, he asked to play baseball. I remember he was four.
Starting point is 00:30:02 And he was like, I want to play baseball because he got this little tee, this little tee for his birthday. And he was like, they ought to play baseball because he got this little tee, this little tee for his birthday. And I was like, sure, why not? So I signed him up for baseball and me, when we do something, we're going to be the best at it. So I had to learn how to coach him because I didn't know what I was doing.
Starting point is 00:30:16 Like I had to go watch videos, because at first when I was just rolling them balls, I'm thinking that, you know, he's catching the ball, riding and stuff like that. We was doing everything wrong. So I'm watching all the videos, I'm doing it. So we've traveled to different places to get some coaching from other coaches.
Starting point is 00:30:28 So they'll coach him and I'm coaching myself, watching them. I'm watching them coach him so that way, okay, that's what we can do when we get home. So I'll go train with these coaches, in different cities or whatever like that, we'll train with them. And I'm subconsciously watching what they're coaching so I can go back and coach at home.
Starting point is 00:30:44 Or I'll watch what the boxing coach is doing and I can do it at home. So now we don't necessarily need y'all all the time. We can do this at home. So it's very important. The training is very important for me, but he picked baseball. And so I told him, if we're gonna do something,
Starting point is 00:30:58 we're gonna be the best at it. Or boxing, he's had times where he said he wanted to quit, no doubt, cause he asked me to play, but he didn't want to do the work at first. He's just like, oh, we got to go practice, you know, whatever like that. Now he wants to practice at six because he understands that he's good now.
Starting point is 00:31:12 He likes being good. So now he likes to practice. But before, when he was like four and five, he like, I don't want to play baseball anymore. I want to play something else, because he thought it was easier. So I let him try another little sport out, but we wouldn't practice a lot with that. And he like, dang, I thought this was going to play something else because he thought it was easier. So I let him try another little sport out, but we went and practiced a lot with that.
Starting point is 00:31:27 And he like, dang, I thought this was going to be easy. Nah, ain't none of it easy. Even gymnastics, I got him doing pull-ups in the house, you know, like, because he had to pull up on the bar and stuff. All of it is hard work. I don't care what sport you choose, whether it's school, whether it's reading a book, et cetera, you have to put the work in to be the best. Because if you want people out here beating you because he hates to lose, I'm like, well, if you hate to lose, you got to be the best. You got to practice.
Starting point is 00:31:48 And the only thing that's going to keep you winning is practicing. And so now, you know, as he's coming of age, he's understanding the practice now. So he'll get in there like at 6.30 in the morning, we got a tea in the net in the gym, made it for him. And while I'm in there lifting, he got the tea and he's hitting off of it before school, every morning.
Starting point is 00:32:04 And before he goes to school, he's in there hitting off got the tea and he's hitting off of it before school every morning before he goes to school He's in there hitting off the tea in the morning times. Yeah, so I love it, but he picked baseball man So I never played at all. So I just take I take him to the games let him watch the other players He loves show a that's his favorite guy. He loves show a but we go to the Braves games Etc. He loves it. So I just try to hone whatever he asked for he asked to do do that, so we're gonna hone it. Wow, that's fantastic. That's, well, we're gonna get into your story too here. So we got a Patreon account. Patreon, it's a subscription account.
Starting point is 00:32:36 They're our top supporters, and a lot of them have been with us since the beginning. And it's turned into quite the community over the years. One of the things I offer them is to ask each and every guest a question. So this is from Eric Alger. How do you handle the unseen pressures that come with being a young leader in a world
Starting point is 00:32:56 that often doubts people of your age and background? For one, through God, and then for two, through the work. At first, when I first began, it was a lot of, oh, you're too young, how you gonna teach boys how to be men, et cetera, et cetera. I was 19. So people had stuff to say, but once I started doing the work, it's like, there's nothing you can say,
Starting point is 00:33:19 because I'm doing everything that I said I was gonna do. I said I was gonna open a school, I said I was gonna start an after-school program, I said it was gonna all be free, I said I was never gonna charge, I said I was going to open a school. I said I was going to start an after school program. I said it was going to all be free. I said I was never going to charge. I said we were going to take care of kids. We were going to make sure they got haircuts. We were going to make sure they got uniforms.
Starting point is 00:33:31 We were going to make sure they got clothes, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, underwear, et cetera. I said I was going to do it. And people didn't believe it at first. People were like, where are you going to get the funding? Where are you going to get the capital, et cetera? I don't know where I'm going to get it from, but we're going to do it.
Starting point is 00:33:43 And I said it over and over again. And as I've done it, people started getting quiet. And as I'm working, I've really asked people, name somebody else that's doing the type of work that we're doing for free. You can name the boys and girls clubs, et cetera, et cetera. They're not doing the type of work that we're doing, not in mindset changing.
Starting point is 00:34:00 Most other programs are aimed at giving children something to do. I'm not aiming for that. We're aiming at trying to change their minds. I could put 30,000 basketball courts in the city of Albany and they're gonna kill each other and fight each other on the basketball courts because there has been no mindset changing. So our goal is to actually fix and train the minds of the child. When we say let us make man, making the man ain't about teaching them how to fix cars or painting the house or whatever like that.
Starting point is 00:34:26 Sure, that's great stuff to know, but for us making that man is all entailed in their character. I always say we make habits with them. We make them do things over and over again. Just like when we're in Marine Corps boot camp, I always say habits build character and character makes the man. Routines build habits. And so we make routines, which forms a habit,
Starting point is 00:34:46 which forms their character. So that's how we make that man, teaching them to hygiene, clipping their fingernails, making sure they smell decent, asking them why they didn't have this today or why they didn't, hey, son, why you smell funny? I ain't got no deodorant at home.
Starting point is 00:35:02 Okay, cool, we're seeing you home with a whole package of soap, deodorant, underwear, et cetera. I had kids, you know, had holes in their underwear, holes in their socks. What's going on? My mom ain't been able to buy me such and such. Okay, cool.
Starting point is 00:35:12 We'll take care of that for you. People don't know, we help moms take care of light bills, et cetera, but it's incentives for that. If you make sure your son is coming to after school on time, if you're making sure he's doing his work, if you're making sure he's studying, if we see you trying your best and doing good with your son and making sure you're raising him, we will incentivize that.
Starting point is 00:35:30 And I'll say, hey, mom, we're going to take care of your rent for the month. Easy work. We do that through our donors that help us take care of that, but it's important for morale too, because moms need to see that somebody believes in them. Mom needs to see that somebody sees them trying and it helps them with raising their sons because today she may not be as angry when she gets off of work, you know, and actually wants to come watch a movie with you.
Starting point is 00:35:51 You know, it's all these little tiny things matter. We don't post that. We don't say those things. We don't, you know, readily post whose funeral we helped take care of. Like one of my student's brother passed away in a cold murder, you know. We paid for his funeral or whatever, but we didn't share that. We know, we paid for his funeral or whatever,
Starting point is 00:36:05 but we didn't share that. We talked to the family about it, but it took her to share that online, you know, on her own, because she was just like, this is what this program means to us. Like this program is for families. Like, yeah, we help boys, but we've helped so many families.
Starting point is 00:36:22 I mean, I could go on and on, but that's how we combat that. And to a point now, I've had so much families. I mean, I could go on and on, but that's how we combat that. And to a point now, I've had so much negativity said about me. I mean, it just rolls off my back. I'm used to people having something to say. Even now, we record everything we do with my sons. We record our whole lives.
Starting point is 00:36:38 Me and my mom, we have it out sometime, and she's upset with herself because she didn't take as many pictures growing up. So have a few photos and things like that but we don't have many pictures of anything I don't have any photos from playing football no videos or anything I played for my whole life my mom's just like I'm so mad because my grandmother used to force her to take pictures all the time so she thought she was doing me a favor by not forcing me to take pictures all the time and things like that and she didn't realize what was happening so we have
Starting point is 00:37:04 footage of my sons from when they were like one, two years old. We record every single thing, so the guys posted online the other day when we were out at evaluations, you know, I got cameras taking pictures of my son or video, and they like, imagine having some egotistical guy out here taking pictures, you know, and y'all out here trying to play baseball.
Starting point is 00:37:21 I'm just like, so when you go to the MLB game, and they got cameras out, you can't watch it then because they're recording it, I'm just like, it when you go to the MLB game and they got cameras out, you can't watch it then because they're recording it. I'm just like, it's the same thing. But people just want something to say. But I'm just like, we post this stuff and for my son's brand, because this is going to help him as he gets older,
Starting point is 00:37:34 people are watching him already, watching his content, et cetera. So we're building on that early. And plus we just record their content anyway. So when they get older, we just got all this stuff we could watch, you could sit down and watch old family movies, whatever, just from conversations in the car, I mean we have everything.
Starting point is 00:37:49 Sometimes my videographer will send me stuff, I don't even remember he recorded it, like he'll send me like old videos of me holding them when they were babies, he's like, hey man, I was just going through the vault, looking at some old stuff, or old videos of us in the after school program back when I was like 20, you know, reading the Bible to the kids or something,
Starting point is 00:38:03 he'll send me that, I'm just like, man, this is crazy, I don't even remember this day, you know, but the Bible to the kids or something, he'll send me that. I'm just like, man, this is, I don't even remember this day, you know, but he's sending me, you know, this content and it's important, but yeah, that's how we combat it. We just keep doing my work and we let God do the rest. Eventually people just have to be quiet because I mean, what more can you say? So, mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:38:19 I guess, you know, they say if you don't have any critics, you're not doing it right. Correct. Well, got you a little gift. I'll get you some more for your kids. Sure. Here are some of the John Slick gummy bears. Love it. I swear, some people just come on the show just to get those.
Starting point is 00:38:36 Really? Yeah, I'm done. So, like, are they like special gummy bears or? No, there's nothing weird going on. There's no cannabis. There's no CBD. It's just candy. You know, it's funny.
Starting point is 00:38:45 I love, I love gummy bears. Yeah, I got some in my bag right now. I love gummy bears. Nice. So this is going to be a hit for me. So if they good, I'm definitely just going to order some. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:55 I am a gummy bear fan, man. Cool, cool. Well, let's get into your story. So where did you grow up? I grew up in Albany, Georgia, born and raised. Born July 1999, so technically a 90s baby, almost made it to 2000, but July of 99 is born in Albany, Georgia. My mom had me when she was, I think, like 18 and a half.
Starting point is 00:39:19 Just real quick, Albany, Georgia. Sure. High crime rate, chance of being a victim of crime is one in 43. The neighborhood scouts, the neighborhood scout ranks in the top 100 most dangerous cities in the US. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:35 That's Albany. Yeah, can you tell us a little bit more about, other than just statistics, you know, what Albany is like? I love the city of Albany. I love the city of Albany. I think the city of Albany is what you make it. It's important to mention also that population, it's only, well now it's only about 66,000 people
Starting point is 00:39:54 that live in Albany. So when you hear about the high crime rate, it's off of the ratio of people there. So it's not like somebody's dying every single day or anything like that. But there is murder pretty often, I would say. We do have a lot of murder happening, stabbings, a lot of domestic issues.
Starting point is 00:40:13 And I tell people I attribute that to it being impoverished because you got to think, because people always talk about all the kids that are in Albany and people just constantly having children, but also the domestic issues. I'm like, guys, let's be honest here with ourselves. If people are broke and don't have any money and there are no jobs, there aren't any many jobs in Albany.
Starting point is 00:40:32 If people are broke and don't have any jobs, what all they have to do all day? Argue and have sex. That's it. So that's what's happening in Albany. You constantly got a lot of children being had in Albany, but also a lot of domestic issues because it's women, most of the time it's always some woman stab the guy, or the guy shot the woman, or it's just some domestic stuff. It's always domestic disputes.
Starting point is 00:40:53 It's never like a stray bullet or no, it's always domestic stuff. Never, we get some gang related stuff here and there, but it's mostly girlfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend, girlfriend. These guys arguing about something. Like, it's always domestic stuff. And I attribute that to, again, being impoverished, even mentioning how people raise their children in the city of Albany. If somebody, like, for example, me, I look at some of the things that I get mad at and
Starting point is 00:41:21 I don't get mad at based off of what I'm able to afford. For example, like, my sons sometimes want to draw on their shoes. I don't have a problem with that. Have fun. I don't care. Draw on your shoes. Whatever. They want to make little...
Starting point is 00:41:33 I see it as them being creative. Now, specific shoes, I don't let them draw on, but other shoes, I'm like, have fun at it. But then I can also understand why one mom would want to spank her child for riding on his shoe because for one, she's maybe, to be frank, she's taking out a little frustration on him, being for real, she's taking out a little frustration on him, but also, dude, I paid 40 bucks for those shoes. I barely had that 40 dollars and you drawing on your shoes,
Starting point is 00:41:55 like, oh my God, and she's ready to kill him, you know, like, about that, and it's just so much happening around her. You know, she's doing it by herself, dad's nowhere around, vice versa. Maybe a couple of guys that's raising their sons by they self or raising their kids by they self. I know there's one guy, he got like nine kids, bro just got too many kids, but he raising
Starting point is 00:42:14 them all. Moms are nowhere to be found. He's frustrated all the time. The moms make him upset, he goes to jail, he calls me, Mr. King, you know, it's one of my students dad, his mom, he calls, Mr. King, can you help me? You know, I went to jail, wanted kids' mom, you know, made me upset and I did such and such or whatever like that. You know, he's barely making it and I'm just like,
Starting point is 00:42:33 guys, like, this is why this is happening. People need jobs here. And so this is why I started getting into the politics of the city of Albany. Cause I, at first, people know me, people hear me saying this now, but back when I was younger I would say, man, bump politics. I don't care about politics.
Starting point is 00:42:48 We just need to do for ourselves, do stuff for our community, and everything will be fine. Bump the politicians or whatever like that. But as I got older I started realizing, notice, some of the stuff that they're passing, and the mayor, and the city councilmen and the commissioners, they're passing stuff that's directly affecting these kids, and not only passing stuff, but not doing stuff to actually affect people having money here. People need money.
Starting point is 00:43:10 I'm like- How did you get involved in politics? I started in Albany, maybe in this last year, trying to figure out politics in my hometown, because I'm seeing stuff not happening in my hometown that should be happening, stuff that seems common sense. And so I'm just like, okay, let me just start going to these meetings.
Starting point is 00:43:29 You know, all the meetings are open for the public to come to, nobody's there. The mayor is in their meeting, they're having meetings about all this different stuff that's happening in the city. 67,000 people are up there and nobody's there. The last mayoral election, only 7,000 people voted, you know, for the mayor. And we have 67,000's there. The last mayoral election, only 7,000 people voted for the mayor.
Starting point is 00:43:46 And we have 67,000 people there. And I'm just like, how exactly are we expecting the city of Albany to change and we don't know what's going on? What are some of the things you see that's affecting the community? Well, for starters, mentioning the lack of jobs. There are no jobs there.
Starting point is 00:44:04 And on top of that, they're not attracting people to want to come to the city of Albany. And I will mention that our city sucks at marketing and just in general from, and I'm a big fan of the school system, but the school system does not do a good job at marketing. The police department does not do a good job at marketing. Fire department, the city of Albany, et cetera,
Starting point is 00:44:22 they do not do a good job at marketing. The reason I say that's important is because everything you hear and see about Albany is always negative. If you go type Albany, Georgia in on Google, it's always negative. It is important that people in the city know that these people are actually doing their jobs. I told you this before, our police department is doing a fantastic job, but all you ever see online about people talking about them is just negative stuff.
Starting point is 00:44:44 But these people actually aren't solving murders. They're actually taking care of things. They're making things happen for the citizens. They have these new equipment, etc. They're really doing good, but I had to go take a private class to learn about our police department. I'm like, why aren't you guys posting this stuff? Like people should know that you guys are doing your job, that you are trying to make things happen. Or our school system. Our school system is doing a phenomenal job and I have to almost apologize for the things
Starting point is 00:45:10 that I was saying about them previously because I didn't know what was happening. Not because I wouldn't go in to look, but also because they wouldn't say anything about it. Our school system has health clinics, dental and vision clinics, et cetera, for the students to go to for free because the parents in Albany cannot afford
Starting point is 00:45:28 the insurance for those kids. They've gotten the grants to make sure, the clinics are at school. They're- You never hear anybody today No. Props to the public school system. No, and I'm going to do that because they are doing,
Starting point is 00:45:39 they are trying. I've had them tell us stories about kids who didn't even know, this kid didn't even know what a toothbrush was going to the dentist. These are real stories. And so I'm listening to them tell us, I'm like, why aren't y'all talking about this? So I offer it with my team to do a small documentary on the school system and the things that they've changed in the city, especially since COVID. They also have this program called Level Up.
Starting point is 00:46:03 The Level Up program is where they have parents sign up for the program. They'll go pay for these parents to go to school to get their forklift license, nursing license, bulldozer, whatever. They'll pay for them to go to school to get these licenses and they'll say, oh well I don't have any care for my child. They'll go get your kid from school and pay for the daycare and everything for your child while you're in school getting your license to go get whatever degree you're trying to get or go get whatever certification to get a job. So this in turn turns into these parents not being able to parent their children because they don't have to work three and four jobs anymore and they don't have to keep sending
Starting point is 00:46:40 the kid to the auntie's house and send it to whoever's house to be raised by God knows what when they can raise their own children now because now they have a liveable wage job. This is impactful. Like I'm just like, why aren't you guys saying anything about this? Like where's the marketing team? It's important that people know
Starting point is 00:46:58 because all people here is the negativity surrounding the city of Albany. And it's important that people know that like the commission I'm on now, I just joined the Historic Preservation Commission. It's important that people know about the history of Albany and why these buildings are important and what happened here and things like that. And they're just like, we wish people would get involved with the Historic Preservation
Starting point is 00:47:18 Commission, et cetera. I'm like, okay, well, you guys should probably make a Facebook page and explain what's going on. Make some TikToks, make videos, et cetera. So me being the youngest person on the five different boards I just joined is gonna help the city out a whole lot because they've been looking, they're like,
Starting point is 00:47:31 hey, how can we market like you're marketing? Listen, let me help take care of those things for you. So we're gonna show these different stories that the Doherty County School System has helped with these parents and their kids and the free dental and vision. I also didn't know that our school system has a hydroponics garden where they are growing all of the green vegetables for the entire school system They are feeding these children and fresh vegetables from a garden that the students manage
Starting point is 00:47:57 Wow, and I'm just like why aren't you guys showing this stuff online? Because all people do is talk trash about our school system in Albany, Georgia, including myself at one point. And I didn't know all these things were happening. I didn't know that they were answering the questions that people ask at the school board meetings. I went to the school board, and they're answering the questions.
Starting point is 00:48:18 They're in there saying, hey, no, they're like, oh, the kids can't read here. But what they're saying is, look, COVID stopped us. These kids couldn't come to school But as COVID has you know left or whatever like that they're showing the trajectory going up from the statistics I'm like these people are trying these people are trying to do their jobs grant Everything ain't perfect. But this is something that needs to be shown. Why aren't you guys showing it? I've even spoken to the city about it. They're paying this company in our hometown.
Starting point is 00:48:45 I won't call them out, but it sucks. I was at the city commission meeting. They're paying this one video company six figures over six months for marketing for the city of Albany. I go on their city of Albany website pages. The couple videos that they've done, maybe got one like if any, or some got no likes, no views, et cetera. I'm I'm like so they're older so they don't understand how social media
Starting point is 00:49:09 and marketing works so I'm like have y'all asked them for any deliverables asked them how many people have seen this stuff y'all paying them six figures and this is maybe our third time doing it and they've only done like maybe two or three commercials for like the hospital or something like that who who why are y'all paying them all this? My team don't even make that much money and we're pushing out more content than y'all ever have. Y'all are releasing one or two videos every couple months and y'all paying them six figures.
Starting point is 00:49:32 So why haven't y'all asked them for any metrics? How many people in the city of Auburn have seen these things? You know, the regular person in Auburn doesn't even know who the mayor is. They don't know what ward they live in. They don't know their commissioner. Not saying it's completely the citizens' fault, but I think it's the mayor's fault. I think it's the city
Starting point is 00:49:46 commissioner's fault. Why aren't you in people's faces? Because people still thought that our mayor from two mayors ago was still the mayor the other day. They had no clue that we had a new mayor. And I'm just like, why aren't you guys trying to show people who you are? I talked to our city commission about this because I think that you guys maybe are just doing stuff that y'all don't care for the public to know about. That's what I think. I think you don't want people involved,
Starting point is 00:50:12 so you can just keep passing little stupid stuff up here that's not causing the city to advance. You're just giving contracts to your little contracting companies that you know and passing little stuff for people that you know and your homeboys and your family and your affiliates and people don't know what's going on. So I've been at every meeting
Starting point is 00:50:27 so I can just keep jotting down notes. Is that happening? Yeah, it's happening. So I've been at every meeting and I've joined five different boards. I am on the Historic Preservation Commission now. I'm on the Planning Commission now. I'm on the Southwest Georgia Housing Task Force.
Starting point is 00:50:41 I'm on the Albany Police Department Civilian Review Board. So I know all things happening with the police department. Every, and mind you, every board I'm on, I'm the the Southwest Georgia Housing Task Force. I'm on the Albany Police Department Civilian Review Board. So I know all things happening with the police department. Every, and mind you, every board I'm on, I'm the youngest person there. Everybody else there is extremely older. But mainly because they don't even get applicants for these boards and people don't know these boards exist. So I'm telling people,
Starting point is 00:50:56 these boards are actually making decisions too. The Historic Preservation Commission is so important. They make decisions that the mayor can't make. We make decisions to say, hey, you cannot do this certain thing in this historic district. You cannot do anything over there because you're gonna mess with the historic preservation
Starting point is 00:51:12 of this building or you can't do this thing to your house because you're gonna mess up the historic district. Like it's important. The planning commission is important because everything that comes through us is what people wanna rezone something for. Do I wanna open a liquor store over on this side of town or if I want to open up a new bar over here or whatever we have to approve of those things but that's important
Starting point is 00:51:30 because we can think about then what's the demographic on that side of town that you're trying to open a liquor store on. I don't think that side of town needs a liquor store. We don't need another liquor store on that side of town. It's already high crime over there. We're gonna give them more liquor over there that don't even make any sense. You know whatever so they're trying to to monetize, you know people that's coming into town. They were trying to open business They're monetizing the dubotri in our hometown. They're monetizing that people are drunks in all being there Monetizing that people are obese and overweight in all been so they're opening tons of restaurants on The worst sides of town because they know people can't afford to go buy healthy food
Starting point is 00:52:03 So they're got Popeyes and all these, this stuff that's causing people to die. I want to talk to the coroner. Not too long ago, I asked, I said, Mr. Coroner, why people dying? He said, heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes. He said, I'm picking people up every day for it. He said, because of the food,
Starting point is 00:52:19 people don't want to get up and exercise because they scared to walk in the neighborhoods, et cetera. He said, this is why people are dying every day. Nobody knows that. Wow. And I'm just like, this is stuff that needs to be talked about. And so this is why I'm even having your platform when we share these videos and stuff, I'm going to share it to our city.
Starting point is 00:52:34 Because people need to know that our school system is trying their hardest. They are doing their job there. And granted, some things could be better with maybe disciplining the kids in certain ways, etc. But that's free health, dental, vision, y'all giving kids glasses, etc. Y'all trying to make a way for these kids to just even live, you know, for free. Making sure their parents got forklift licenses, etc. They graduating kids with truck drivers simulating all this.
Starting point is 00:53:01 I mean, it's crazy what they're doing and nobody knows about it. driver simulating all this. I mean it's crazy what they're doing and nobody knows about it. Here's something I'd love to tell us Americans to get better at this year. Something that our international friends beat us at in spades. Speaking more than one language. And you can get fluent sooner than you think with Babbel. This year find a whole new voice with Babbel. The language learning app that gets you talking. Learning a new language is one of the best ways to understand the world around you. With a focus on conversation,
Starting point is 00:53:33 you'll be ready to talk wherever you go. And if you watch my show, you'll know I've spent a lot of time in dangerous places all over the world. Being able to speak the language was a lifesaver more times than I can even begin to count. With over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award-winning language courses
Starting point is 00:53:53 are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash SRS. Spelled B-A-B-B-E-L dot com slash S-R-S. Babbel dot com slash S-R-S. This year, get talking with Babbel. Rules and restrictions may apply. Visit babbel.com for terms and details. When your metabolism is working properly,
Starting point is 00:54:23 you can feel it in every part of your life More energy improved sleep. It's connected That's why I started using lumen a powerful tool that helps me see real-time insights into my metabolism Lumen is one of the world's first handheld metabolic coaches You just breathe into it and it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs. Then, the Lumen App gives you a personalized nutrition plan to help optimize your workouts and even manage stress. I check mine first thing in the morning.
Starting point is 00:54:57 It's best to check it first thing in the morning. It's like a status report for my metabolism. It's best to check it first thing in the morning. It's like a status report for my metabolism. It's best to check it first thing in the morning. It's like a status report for your metabolism. Plus, you can test before and after meals or workouts to see what Lumen says about how your body responds in real time. Take the next step to help improve your wellness. Go to lumen.me slash SRS for 20% off your Lumen.
Starting point is 00:55:23 That's L-U-M-E-N dot M-E slash SRS for 20% off your Lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N dot M-E slash SRS for 20% off your purchase. Thanks to Lumen for sponsoring this episode. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Lumen is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease. What kind of jobs are there right now? You mentioned there's not a big job market.
Starting point is 00:55:49 I wish I had my phone with me, but I mean it's gas station jobs, McDonald's, these $10, $12 hour jobs for the most part. And if you're like me, or maybe just a regular person who probably needs a lot more money than that, you either have to drive an hour away to go to another city that does pay a livable wage job and then come back home or whatever like that, or eventually just have to move to there, which is why our population's declining.
Starting point is 00:56:14 Over the past 10 years, our population dropped 10,000 people because people are leaving, because there's no growth happening in the city. But there's no factory jobs, no like, we got factories. Have you ever tried the combos, little crackers, little combos food? Those are exclusively made in Albany, Georgia. They are made nowhere else.
Starting point is 00:56:33 M&M Mars makes combos in Albany, Georgia. They have a secret little recipe thing and everything. I love combos, but they're all over the country, but they're exclusively made in Albany, Georgia. Why isn't that a thing? Like, that's a, people eat combos all the time. I go and they're sold out. Why aren, Georgia. Why isn't that a thing? Like, that's a, people eat gumballs all the time. I go and they're sold out. Why aren't y'all talking about that?
Starting point is 00:56:49 But these are like the little small jobs we have. Factories have left, we used to have Bob's Candy, they left, we do have a Marine base in Albany, the logistics base is probably one of the most important bases for the Marine Corps. But if lo and behold they ever decide to move the command somewhere else, we'd be F'd to be frank. We're one factory away from Albany becoming like
Starting point is 00:57:10 some real bad town. We do have Procter and Gamble, like they make tissue and things like that and laundry detergent and stuff like so we do have a couple of factory jobs, but most of those factories have people that work there that come from other cities to come work because they won't live in Albany. So, I mean, you know.
Starting point is 00:57:25 What would you bring then? I would think about, so this is long term, what I would think. I would think about trying to bring car manufacturing or something like that to Albany. The reason I would do that is because we have so much open land in Albany, so much space for factories, warehouses, whatever, even clothes factories.
Starting point is 00:57:42 We got just some just abandoned, just sitting there or whatever like that. But I would do that because for one, we could bring a livable wage job to some of these people that are in Albany. But also these jobs require you to work a long time. They require you to work at least nine to 12 hours. These kids out here on the street that ain't got no job
Starting point is 00:58:00 and y'all could do the training on site, you give they boy the job, they working nine, 12 hours, making a livable wage, but also they ain't got time to go do nothing stupid outside. You working them to the bone and now they sleepy and ready to go home and maybe eat some food and that's it. They not getting into any trouble because they sleepy, they tired.
Starting point is 00:58:16 Have you thought about how you would incentivize an auto manufacturer to move there? Only way I could do that is selling the city of Albany. And at this point, if a manufacturer were to look at the city of Albany online, they're like, absolutely not. This is where relationships come in. This is why I'm grateful for my traveling through the country, talking about the Extra Boys and building relationships before I started working in the city of Albany like I am now.
Starting point is 00:58:42 I have so many different relationships now. Right now I'm in contact with a professor from Yale. And we were working on this private project that he and I are working on to bring to the city of Albany because they're like, Albany is the perfect pilot project. But they would have never known
Starting point is 00:58:58 that Albany was a great place for this project. I can't talk about it, but for this project, unless if it weren't for me, going to talk to them about it. And I'm like, dude, Albany has so much potential. I call Albany Potential Incorporated. We have so many empty spaces, so many of downtown's beautiful, no businesses at all. It's like all these empty buildings down there.
Starting point is 00:59:18 So much history, so much rich history in Albany, from Dr. King coming to Albany during the Civil Rights Movement to all these other different things that happened in Albany from Dr. King coming to Albany during the Civil Rights Movement to all these other different things that happened in Albany. Like they don't preserve a lot of things. The house that Dr. King used to stay in Albany is currently boarded up. I'm like, why isn't that like some landmark or something that y'all add to like some tour people do? We have Radium Springs in Albany.
Starting point is 00:59:40 It's a natural spring in Albany that has like this fresh water that comes out of it or whatever like that. It's just, it's really cool. But I'm like, why this fresh water that comes out of it or whatever like that It's just it's really cool But I'm like why don't you guys do like boat tours or something down here like it's just my brain is turning I'm just like why aren't y'all monetizing the true good history in a good life city Ray Charles is from there We got a Ray Charles Plaza, but that's it like we don't really do anything for Ray Charles You got a couple NFL players from Albany or whatever grant
Starting point is 01:00:02 They won't come back or do anything or whatever like that But we got a lot of things that have happened good from the players from Albany or whatever, grant they won't come back or do anything or whatever like that, but we got a lot of things that have happened good from the city of Albany, but why aren't we pushing those things? Why aren't we showing people how great the city of Albany can be? We have a lot of great mom and pop restaurants who make great food, but why aren't we showcasing them
Starting point is 01:00:18 on TikTok and through the city of Albany website or through the city of Albany social media pages or whatever? I've made this stuff mentioned, but again, these people are older and they don't understand. We don't even have an app. Most cities got an app you could download to talk to your commissioners or report stuff
Starting point is 01:00:34 or whatever like that. We still got to dial 311 to call by the pothole. What was it about your childhood that just got you into this? I mean, you started, was it 17? Yeah, I started- Professional chef? Oh yeah, uh-huh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:45 So you're only 25 years old. Yeah. What was it about your child that motivated you to kind of start turning the city around, becoming basically a father figure to all these people? Young men. This is going to be a long-winded little part. When I was younger, when I was a kid,
Starting point is 01:01:05 my grandmother, my grandmother's been very spiritual my whole life. She's been preaching, having Bible studies, prayer lines, et cetera. She's big, she's huge into God. I mean, she does it. When I was about three years old, I'll never forget, we were riding in her car, she had this old green Lexus
Starting point is 01:01:21 she had when I was like three. And I remember the car seats at the time were these little things you had to pull over your head and I had to learn how to strap myself in. It was this little circle inside my car seat I was to play with all the time. I remember, just remember little things. I remember we were riding on this street called,
Starting point is 01:01:36 I think it was Johnny W. Williams Road and we turned to South Madison. She stood on South Madison Street. And we got to the stop sign. I told my grandma, I said, Grandma, I said, you know how it is, like when something's about to happen, like you feel like something in your stomach, like that. And she was like, yeah, I know, you know, what you mean.
Starting point is 01:01:52 I told her that I was here to finish what Dr. Martin Luther King started. And I told her, like as I got older, that I don't know if we like maybe watch the Dr. King video at preschool that day or something like that. I don't remember anything from that day but that conversation. I remember it vividly. I'll never forget it. But as I got older, my grandmama would always tell me that often. And I'm like, grandma, like, can you stop saying that? Like, because she would like tell like people at the church what I said
Starting point is 01:02:19 and stuff like that because like as a testimony, I'm like, grandma, can you stop saying that? Like, I'm like, I was a kid. Like, whatever. Like, I was maybe watching the Dr. King video or something. I'm like, girl, can you stop saying that? Like, I'm like, I was a kid. Like, whatever. Like, I was maybe watching Dr. King videos. I'm like, I'm not trying to do that. I want to cook. Like, cause my biological father was a great cook. He would cook at like different restaurants. He, you know, he wasn't like a professional chef or anything, but he would like cook.
Starting point is 01:02:35 So I wanted to cook because that's what my real dad did. I just wanted to be like my real dad. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with him. My stepdad raised me, but anytime I interacted with my father, I just wanted lot of time with him. My stepdad raised me, but anytime I interacted with my father, I just wanted to do things with him. And my mom, thank God for her, she purposely fostered our relationship
Starting point is 01:02:52 to the point where I never hated him, even if he wasn't around. And so my mom would literally go buy me Christmas gifts, go bring it to my dad, pick me up, and then bring me to my father as if he gave me the gift. Like my mom is, that's something special. So I loved my dad. I still love my dad, you know, my biological,
Starting point is 01:03:10 even if he ain't like just there all the time. My biological father, I love him. I'll call him, we'll talk maybe every couple months. He's been sick lately. I just visited him in the hospital. He had an enlarged heart or something, but I love my real dad. So I started wanting to cook because of that.
Starting point is 01:03:25 And so I joined a culinary team at school. We had a culinary team in high school in this culinary class with Chef Sly. He's gonna watch this. He's a big fan of yours too. But Chef Sly, he taught me everything I know about cooking. And I started with him and I started cooking things at home. I started baking different things.
Starting point is 01:03:43 I would sell like different things to bake at home. I would sell to the community. I made like cupcakes and everything. I was really good at it. And then I also did this program called Move On We're Ready where you could take college classes in high school. So I took the college classes at the culinary school that we had in Albany, Albany Technical College. So I was there every day. I was cramming classes. I went to high school in the morning times. And then I would leave there at about 12 o'clock. My grandma had bought me a car when I was younger, but she eventually started driving it. And I would drive to the college and go take those classes. They would allow me to leave school to go
Starting point is 01:04:19 take the college classes. And I took those classes and people don't realize culinary classes are long. These are six to eight hour long classes because you got to think, things have to bake, things have to cook. It's not a quick class. Then we also did catering events. I would sometimes come home at like one or two o'clock
Starting point is 01:04:34 in the morning at like 15, 16, because I'm out cooking. And my grandmother would just make sure I was okay, make sure I had everything I needed, make sure I ate food. And I'll tell a little story about her later. But yes, she would make sure I had everything I needed. You know, since my grandmother, if I open my phone up,
Starting point is 01:04:48 I got prayers every single day. She's sending me these long scriptures I read every morning. I don't text back all the time. She knows I read them. She'll send me these videos, motivational videos, but that's what she used to do when I was in high school. Same thing. She'd send me prayers, make sure I'm okay,
Starting point is 01:05:00 call, make sure I'm good. And I graduated college before I graduated high school. I walked across the college stage first because he had spring graduation. And then I graduated from high school right after that. Wow. Yep. I mean, were you always a straight and narrow motivated kid?
Starting point is 01:05:19 For the most part until I got to eighth and ninth grade. I tell everybody you have to go through your first heartbreak. When I was in eighth grade, this girl, I was dating in eighth grade. I had planned my whole life out with her after I started dating her. And when we were about to get to high school, she broke up with me this summer
Starting point is 01:05:37 when we were about to go to high school. And I was confused. I didn't know what she broke up with me for. She was just like, well, I just want to go explore. At that time, I didn't know what that really meant. I'm like, what you mean you want to go explore? She was just like, well, I just want to go explore. At that time, I didn't know what that really meant. I'm like, what you mean you want to go explore? She was just like, I just, you know, I don't want us to just, you know, worry about each other.
Starting point is 01:05:49 Mind you, I had to, we just named our kids and everything. I'm like, want to go live my whole life with you type deal. She was all I thought about, you know, like, that was my first like girlfriend girlfriend. So I was, my whole ninth grade year, she would like go in and talk to these other guys. And I'm like, seeing this stuff, I'm just like, what? So my whole ninth grade year, she would like go in and talk to these other guys and I'm like seeing this stuff. I'm just like, what?
Starting point is 01:06:06 So my whole ninth grade year, I chased her. Like I just chased her. I would just try to figure out what I could do to get her back and I'll get mad at the guy she was talking to and things like that. I'd try to meet her at her locker and like leave her letters and stuff like that. I'm just this lover boy kid. Like I'm just trying to get my girlfriend back. I spent my whole ninth grade year doing that.
Starting point is 01:06:24 I lost all my grades. I was so upset. I just, I lost all confidence in myself. On top of that, you know, I was, I was trying to find myself in the ninth grade. Like I was trying to dress like everybody else. Cause when I was in middle school, I'll tell this story too. I was in middle school and I'll get back into the first question in a bit, but I was in middle school and my, my sixth grade year, I wore a suit to picture day. I love suits. I wore a suit to picture day. I always did in elementary school too.
Starting point is 01:06:53 I wore a suit to every picture day. I wore a suit to picture day in middle school in sixth grade. I got to school, everybody picked on me the entire day from front, like top to bottom, cause I had on a suit. And all they picked on me the whole day. Like, top to bottom, because I had on a suit. And oh, they picked on me the whole day. Like, I mean, just picked on me. I took my jacket off to just try and alleviate some of it.
Starting point is 01:07:11 They picked on me from my shoes, everything. I had a decent suit on. It was a pretty nice suit. And oh, they picked on me the whole day. I never wanted to wear a suit again, ever. I just never doing it again. So every picture day after that, I just wore regular clothes like everybody else did. And people would pick on me still
Starting point is 01:07:28 because I didn't wear the different name brands that they were wearing. I would wear Beverly Hills Polo Club. That's what I wanted to wear. My mom wouldn't pour or anything so she could afford to do things. She drove trucks sometimes. My stepdad worked at a Marine base.
Starting point is 01:07:39 So, it ain't like I needed for anything. But I wanted to wear Beverly Hills Polo Club. So everybody picked on me for that for a long time. So then I started, I had my mom buy me some of the merchandise that they were wearing. I get to school, everybody's like, well about time you finally buy some, you know, this stuff, they still talking about me.
Starting point is 01:07:56 So I get to ninth grade, I'll never forget, there's one of the cheerleaders, I still remember her. I'll never forget, I always thought I was maybe ugly or something like that, because nobody ever wanted to talk to me. She was a senior cheerleader, and she told me I looked as sexy one day. And I was like, you talking to me?
Starting point is 01:08:11 And she was like, yeah, you, you look good. I was just like, thanks. From that day forward, I got all my confidence back. Never forget it. She probably doesn't even remember that right now. But I'll never forget, they say many remember all their compliments, because we don't get many. But I got all my confidence back.
Starting point is 01:08:27 I started back wearing suits. I wore a suit to school every single day from 11th and 12th grade year, every single day. Every single day? Every single day. You wore a suit? A suit. And if I didn't have a suit on,
Starting point is 01:08:38 I had on some type of nice sweater with a tie on, like if it was too cold or something, and I had a briefcase. I never had a binder, I had a briefcase. All my school work was in my briefcase every single day. I cut my hair off. I had like a box, but I cut my hair, so I had a low haircut.
Starting point is 01:08:54 And at that time, I was like the school mascot at the time. Like my principal would allow me to go speak at different schools. Like they were so impressed, like just how I carried myself. Like my principal was like, hey, can you go speak at this you know, this elementary school on behalf of Westover and things like that. So he'd always announce me over the end to come like, hey, we're going to have King around to go speak at, you know, the elementary school, you know,
Starting point is 01:09:13 let's congratulate him for a job well done. So I would do that, be going to do my college classes. It was great. So I found myself. So I left high school, I graduated high school, and I got married to my son's mom. And we got married immediately out of high school, I graduated high school, and I got married to my son's mom. And we got married immediately out of high school. I went to the Marine Corps right after that. I originally wasn't going to do that, but I found myself not having anything to do. I just didn't feel accomplished in life.
Starting point is 01:09:38 And my best friends at the time... You didn't feel accomplished graduating college before you graduated high school? I didn't feel accomplished. I was working at Chick-fil-A. I was working on trying to find a good cooking job, at the time. You didn't feel accomplished graduating college before you graduated high school? I didn't feel accomplished. I was working at Chick-fil-A. I was working on trying to find a good cooking job, but I just didn't, nothing was hitting for me.
Starting point is 01:09:50 It just wasn't what I wanted. So my best friends, all my best friends had went to the Marines, every last one of them. All of them went at the same time. And so I'm just, they write me letters, I'm writing them letters, but I'm just like, let me go see what they doing. So I'm on YouTube looking at boot camp, you know,
Starting point is 01:10:04 I'm just like, I could do that. Like, why like why not you know like I ain't doing nothing else so I went to the recruiting office talked to the recruiter and off I went to the Marines I got married off I went to the Marines I met so many brothers there that we are still you know super close to this day I was a reserve so I was able to be stationed back home, a 3051 supply. But anyway, I got back home after combat training and things like that. I get back home and my grandmother, while I was in boot camp, was sending me those letters,
Starting point is 01:10:37 reminding me of what I told you previously about me finishing what Dr. King started. So I took a second to sit down. I said, okay, let me just figure out what exactly that's supposed to mean. So I did research on Dr. King for like a month straight, every single day. I had deleted all social media off my phone.
Starting point is 01:10:55 I had no social media at the time, anything. Like I was just studying, studying, studying. I'm like, what exactly did Dr. King, like I'm not understanding what's happening. So I'm studying, I'm listening to speeches, I'm reading books, I'm not understanding what's happening, so I'm studying. I'm listening to speeches, I'm reading books, I'm going through stuff, I'm trying to figure out what exactly did Dr. King not finish?
Starting point is 01:11:13 I don't get it, I'm not understanding this. And I don't tell this story often because people think it's weird, but I always tell the story privately, but I want to share this with you. So I'll never forget, I was studying him, I'm listening to speeches, I started listening to Malcolm X, and I'm listening to Malcolm X,
Starting point is 01:11:28 like, this sounds like 2020, like, well, 2019, 2020, like, this is crazy. It sounds like now, he's basically advocating for us doing for ourselves and opening up schools and opening up banks and opening up stores. And I'm like, why don't we doing that? You know, so anyway, I went to the Dr. King Memorial In Atlanta because I'm like, well, maybe I'll find something here. I went there
Starting point is 01:11:49 I'm looking at all his old cufflinks and they got old shirts and stuff and old letters He wrote and I'm just and they're looking around just Nothing's it's not nothing. It's Hitting I'm just like I don't understand like I really didn't understand like why would I say that because I remember saying it I can't lie. I say I did not remember saying it and I'm like, really didn't understand. Like why would I say that? Because I remember saying it. I can't lie and say I didn't. I remember saying it. And I'm like I don't understand. Like I don't get it. I'm going through the museum still and I get to this room in there and my ex-wife at the time she was with me and I'll never forget we I get to this room where the carriage carried the casket that brought him through Atlanta, you know,
Starting point is 01:12:25 when he was in the casket. And in this room, just like this one, it has on all over the walls, newspaper articles from when he was killed, all the headlines from Dr. King. I was walking through there and I was looking at the headlines and I'll never forget, there was this newspaper article from the Pittsburgh Courier, April 20th of 1968, it said,
Starting point is 01:12:45 will a new King emerge? And at that moment, I realized that Dr. King didn't train any replacements. And that's where I had the idea that we need to work with young people. And before I ever decide to figure out what it is that Dr. King was trying to finish, as I'm still figuring it out now,
Starting point is 01:13:02 I'm in the city that Dr. King failed in for one, and my name is King. If you look at all of my social media handles they all say new emerging King and I reached out to the Pittsburgh Courier because they're actually currently trying to find that original newspaper for me because I don't put it up on my wall. But that meant something to me and so that's when I started working with kids. I originally started taking them on field trips. Now hold on, how old were you? I was like 19.
Starting point is 01:13:26 19? Yeah, I was 19. Mm-hmm. So basically the motivation came from your grandmother. Yeah. Telling you, you need to finish what Dr. King started. Yep, I told her that and she never let me forget it. I told her that I think I was about three years old.
Starting point is 01:13:43 Yep. So I've known for a while what I was here to do. And living in Albany, Dr. King mentioned Albany and the failures that he made in the city of Albany. And till this day, he mentioned the mindset of the people of Albany, and still the same to this day. And I mentioned on a video yesterday, I hadn't released yet, but as I've been maneuvering
Starting point is 01:14:04 through the city as of late, I've been going to different volunteer workshops. I've been going to different smaller things in the city to show my face. The reason I've been doing that is because ever since I've been maneuvering, I used to not like go out to the grocery stores unless it was early in the morning
Starting point is 01:14:20 or like never go out to eat, because people would see me. But I've watched people in Albany almost look at me like they don't believe in anything else, but they believe in me. And it's been so special to see, just going to the grocery store and people just like, King, it's so good to see you.
Starting point is 01:14:42 I love everything that's happening. You inspire me to be a better father, you know, to my kids. Or, you know, moms is like, I really want my son to join your program. Or kids who are even recognizing me. Like, that's Mr. King Randall. Like, he be on Instagram, like, helping the kids. Like, it's, I try my hardest.
Starting point is 01:15:00 Like, I've been all over the world. I've spoken to the biggest celebrities, whatever. And I never want people to feel like that I've gotten too big for our small hometown, ever. I still go volunteer at the smallest places. I still go to all the mom and pop restaurants that I've always frequented since I was younger. I still give $100 to every waiter
Starting point is 01:15:19 that I run into in Albany, every last one, even if they did good or bad service, because I don't know why they gave me bad service. They maybe having a bad day, their mom could have died, anything. And I do that. And so people remember me for small stuff like that. I never, speaking of the waiter thing,
Starting point is 01:15:35 I was going to get my, I got a pet snake, my kids wanted a pet snake. I was going to get him a gerbil to eat or whatever. And the lady that was working in there, she said, you look familiar I'm just like, you know, of course, I mean most people, you know, ring me as King Ram She was like you're that guy that gave me a hundred dollars two years ago when I was waiting at the fire grill Which is one of our mom's pot restaurant. She was like, I'm she's like that like meant so much to me
Starting point is 01:15:57 She didn't even know my name, but she remembered my face. I'd have no clue. I did not remember who she was I don't remember giving her the hundred dollars But I know I did it because I do that for every who she was. I don't remember giving her the $100, but I know I did it because I do that for every waiter. And even if I don't got it, I won't go out to eat unless I got $100 to get a waiter. Because I remember when I used to be with my ex-wife, we trying to get pennies up in the car to go just have us a little ice cream date.
Starting point is 01:16:19 Like just, we don't even have money, like just go get some ice cream. We getting $50, trying to figure some stuff out. You know, so I remember all that stuff. Or like now I give to local businesses now. I do a scholarship now for kids in Albany because they can't afford, you know, like to go to school and stuff.
Starting point is 01:16:36 So I do my own scholarship just for kids in the city of Albany. The only condition is they have to remain in the city of Albany. You have to put back into our city because that's what I believe in. But I give to local businesses, I've given to some of those mom and pop shops
Starting point is 01:16:50 or whatever that have fed me for so many times. So most times people are trying to, around Albany they want to give me discounts on things like my tailor before I got here. The guy who tailored these pants before, he used HEMINTATE. And so when I was about to put them, he used HEMINTATE. And so when I was about to put them on, the HEMINTATE came off and I didn't have a hem
Starting point is 01:17:09 on my pants anymore. And this was like one of the only suits that I could fit until my new suits come in because I've been working out. And so, and I had this new shirt that came in. I was like, I need it tailored. Like, I got to go tomorrow. Like, I need to tailor them a couple of hours. She's like, I got you.
Starting point is 01:17:21 But he tried to give me a discount. I'm like, no. I texted him. I said, listen to me. I said, don't ever give me a discount, ever, because I'm just like, I want you to have all your coins. If you're going to charge somebody else, that's not me, charge me the same thing. And I still tipped him.
Starting point is 01:17:35 And I'm like, I told him to make sure you add where they could tip you on your little Square account. And I tipped him too. The guy who washes my cars, or whatever, he's a great guy, or whatever like that. I tip him every single time he washes my vehicles, and I tip him nicely. And he's just always grateful for it.
Starting point is 01:17:51 And I do small things for so many people I never just share, but I really love my city, and people believe in me like no end. People believe in me more than I've seen them believe in themselves. And that's a charge I got. So it's like now I'm like, okay, let me do what I can to help fix my own city.
Starting point is 01:18:12 Even this older lady, we're about to help her fix her house in the historic district. She called me when I got an historic preservation commission. And she was like, I've been trying to get somebody to come help fix my house for the longest. She's like 80 something. I go to this lady's house.
Starting point is 01:18:24 It's the worst house I've ever seen in my life. And she doesn't even have pipes under the ground. The water she runs goes straight to the ground outside. The house is so unleveled, like you're, it's walking like this. She's cooking in her foods like this. Wow. It's insane. So, and then she can't even get in her tub
Starting point is 01:18:41 because she's had a hip replacement, so she can't get, so she's having to sponge bathe because she cannot actually get in her tub because she's had a hip replacement. So she can't get, so she's having to sponge bathe because she cannot actually get in her tub. And I get to this lady's house and I'm like, how long you been living? Like the house is sitting on some two by fours. I'm like, it's sitting on some wood and the wood's gonna rot.
Starting point is 01:18:58 I'm like, this house could fall in like at any time. You know, and so I called my contractor friend. I'm like, listen, can we get this fixed up in any way? He like, yeah, we gotta start with it. Cause at first he called me just about the bathroom, just so she could have a walk in shower. I'm like, sure, why not? We get there, I'm just like,
Starting point is 01:19:13 the contractor was like, dude, we can't do nothing until we like, first of all, get some plumbing in here, and also level this house out. So, you know, he gave us a quote for that. And you know, I was able to, you know, share that on social media, like, but when I get there, this lady like mr. King like it's so good
Starting point is 01:19:28 I see you on the TV sometime like on the news like doing the things with the kids and she was like I didn't know you were so young you the commissioner on the historic president. I'm like, yeah She's like I didn't expect you to be so young but these people believe you know in me And it's heavy sometime. It is it It's a little pressure here and there, but I don't mind it. Bruce Wayne got a lot of pressure to keep the city fixed. Everybody don't like Bruce Wayne either. But my son loves the Batman and we love the Joker,
Starting point is 01:19:54 so we always use that. But I have a call, and there's this old Baptist song when I grew up in the Baptist church. You may not know it, but it's an old devotional song called A Charge to Keep. I mean, it's a charge to keep that I have and a God to glorify and to serve this present age. Like, that's the song that we sung all the time growing up
Starting point is 01:20:15 and I never understood it. But now it's like, I have a charge to keep in this present age, you know, to fulfill for God. How did you decide that you were gonna go after the younger generation? There's this one time where I did try to work with it. I'll tell you what's interesting. Go ahead, go ahead.
Starting point is 01:20:31 What's interesting is it doesn't sound like you grew up in a poor, broken home. No. It sounds like you grew up in a very good home, with good parents, good grandparents, maybe surrounded by people that weren't as fortunate as you. And so, where did the vision come in? Is it who you grew up with that made you want to
Starting point is 01:20:55 go after the younger generation? So going after the younger generation, I'm going to mention what I started out doing. When I first started working in the City of Albany, I originally started working with older men, like actual men, not kids. But then- Like what age? 23? Just men. I just invited men to come to these different barbershop events I would have.
Starting point is 01:21:19 At age what? 19? Yeah, I was 19. Yeah, I was 19. And so I started out working with these men. How do you start out working with men at 19? How do you influence older men? I mean, you're dealing with egos. Yeah. You're dealing with people that don't believe you. I mean.
Starting point is 01:21:37 That's why I stopped working with them. So originally it was, I was working at a barber shop and I'm telling them like, look, like we could do all these different things to try and help fix the city of Albany. But for one, because there's this kid who's telling us what we could be doing with the city of Albany. So I stopped working with the men because they stopped coming to the events that I was doing, trying to, you know, encourage us to go do things. I took these kids on a field trip to the Center for Civil
Starting point is 01:22:03 and Human Rights and African American History Museum in Atlanta. So here are these kids on a field trip to the Center for Civil and Human Rights and African American History Museum in Atlanta. To hear these kids asking these questions, to hear them not wanting to be in their condition, that's where I knew I had to work with kids. And immediately after that, I started working with them. I started doing oil change workshops. I started doing brake repair workshops, teaching them how to work on cars, etc. And these workshops were a hit. But I was still working, driving a forklift at the time. And I'll never forget, my job told me that I fell asleep at work. I was working a graveyard shift.
Starting point is 01:22:36 They told me I fell asleep at work and everybody was trying to call me over to intercom, et cetera, and I wouldn't answer. I don't remember falling asleep, but they said I fell asleep, so they let me go. I asked my wife at the time, I say, can I do a summer camp at the house? She was like, yeah, you can do a summer camp at the house.
Starting point is 01:22:50 I was like, okay, cool. And mind you, Baby King wasn't even one yet. My son was a couple months old. So I posted this flyer online, and I said I'm gonna be offering to teach kids how to grow their own food. And I learned that this is growing up, by the way. So I'm teaching them how to grow their own food.
Starting point is 01:23:04 I'm teaching them how to work on cars. I'm teaching them how to work on cars. I'm teaching them how to work on houses. We're going to do math. We're going to read, et cetera. I found a couple tables. I turned my dining room into a classroom. And I got this little small dry erase board from Staples for like $24.
Starting point is 01:23:20 And that's where I started teaching. They brought their kids to me every single day. I was still 19. I had 20 parents brought their kids to me every single day. I was still 19. I had 20 parents bring their kids to me every single day. 20 parents? Right off the get go. Right off the get go. And I'll never.
Starting point is 01:23:33 What's the literacy rate in Albany? If you would've asked me, I could've been able to tell you. I will say that our kids that came to work with me, maybe 17 out of the 20 of them could not read on grade level. And I had maybe like five of them who couldn't read at all. And imagine these kids were 11, starting out at 11, 11 to 17 was the age group. And I mean, I had a kid who couldn't read cat dog. And I'm like, son, how exactly are you in the sixth grade and you can't read at all?
Starting point is 01:24:05 Who exactly passed you through school not being able to read? That's where I got the idea at the time. I said, well, I'm gonna open up a school one day. So I don't know when I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna open up a school and I know where we're getting money from, but we're gonna open up a school.
Starting point is 01:24:19 But that's when I started truly working with kids after I discovered that kids don't wanna be in their condition. They just want somewhere in an atmosphere where it's cool to do the right thing. And how did you find 20 parents right off the bat? Facebook, I just posted the flyer online. People, yeah, I think when school's out,
Starting point is 01:24:39 we have a lot of poor parents and stuff. They can't afford these summer camps. They can't afford to send their kids out, so the kids are just stuck at home. So it was a summer camp. Yeah, it was a summer camp. So the kids were stuck at home. So the moment somebody's online saying,
Starting point is 01:24:52 hey, you can bring your kids over here, they don't really care at that point. They just want their kids somewhere where they think something constructive's going on while they at school, I mean, while they at work, or going to school, whatever they're doing. They just don't want their kids just at home. So that's where we got the 20 parents from.
Starting point is 01:25:06 How many hours a day were you spending on this? Nine to three. Nine to three? Yep. How are you making money? Do you have an occupation? Yeah, I was a skilled tradesman. So my brother came to live with me when he was about 12
Starting point is 01:25:20 or 13, he was losing himself at the time. He's in military school now in Marion, Alabama, at a military institute or Marion Military Institute. But with him, he and I would go around and fix people's cars. I learned how to do that off of YouTube. I had previous experience working on cars, but obviously, you know, working on different cars,
Starting point is 01:25:39 you have different things. So when people would say, hey, I need my car fixed, I asked them, you know, what exactly needs to be done? I need my starter changed, send asked them, you know, what exactly needs to be done. I need my starter change. Send me the year making model. I got a 2009 Chevy Malibu. Cool. YouTube. YouTube how to change starter on a Chevy Malibu. I basically determined what I felt like the labor costed and I told them, I'm like, hey, this is how much I'll charge for that. We'll go and do it. That's how I got a light bill paid. Then I learned how to cut hair while I was in the Marines, while I was
Starting point is 01:26:02 in the barracks at Camp, what was it, Camp Johnson? I think I was at Camp Johnson. But I learned how to cut hair in the barracks because the base barbers were trash and everybody got tired of their haircuts being janky. So I was like, look, how about y'all just let me practice on y'all head.
Starting point is 01:26:15 I'll watch a couple YouTube videos and I went and bought some little cheap clippers from Walmart and everybody would just come like, I don't care if you practice on my head, to be frank, because it looks like they practicing, so why not? So I eventually got good at it. I got really good at cutting hair. And so that's what I started doing in the city of Albany too.
Starting point is 01:26:32 So whenever I went fixing somebody's car, I would do house calls, I didn't care what time it was. I would have to go out at 12 o'clock at night to go cut somebody's hair. And I would do that because I didn't have a regular job. So I had to go put up somebody's door, or go put in a window frame, or go change a regular job, so I had to go put up somebody's door, or go put in a window frame, or go change a ceiling fan, or go paint somebody's, you know, wall, because that's how I made money.
Starting point is 01:26:51 That's how I funded our field trips to take the kids different places. When I wanted to take the kids somewhere, I would find something to do. I mentioned to Wyatt earlier, the way me and my brother made our first thousand dollars. Granted, it was cheap at the time, but we made our first thousand dollars. We were at Home Depot, and this lady, while we were in there, we were actually looking for some paint for someone else's, the inside of somebody's house,
Starting point is 01:27:13 they wanted a room painted, so we were looking for the color paint they wanted. And this lady came up to us, and she said, "'Hey, do y'all paint?' We were like, "'Yeah, we paint like that.'" And she was like, "'Well, do y'all paint houses?' I'm like, "'Yeah, we paint, yes, ma'am, we paint houses.'" she's like, I mean like the outside, like y'all paint the outside and stuff. I'm just, I looked at him, look at me.
Starting point is 01:27:29 We had never painted outside our house before and I was like, yes, ma'am, we paint houses. We paint houses. You just come get you a coat. She's like, yeah, come by my house, this is the address, and this is my phone number. I said, okay, cool. We hadn't painted a house in a day in our life. But we went out there because I wanted to make sure the house wasn't too big, like it wasn't nothing crazy. It was actually a nice, small, perfect home that we could paint. It was perfectly square, not no crooks and crevices, it was perfect.
Starting point is 01:27:52 She wanted to paint it a completely different color. So we said, okay, cool. We'll charge a thousand dollars for it. That's cause we didn't have no experience. So we sat on YouTube for like three hours watching videos of people painting houses from all the equipment we needed, etc. We went and rented all the equipment. So we had her give us a deposit. All the deposit went to all the
Starting point is 01:28:13 equipment basically. We didn't know how much equipment cost it. So we went and rented a paint sprayer from Bob White Rents and Albany. They got to rent all this stuff out. So we rented a paint sprayer, etc. We painted our house and maybe like a week and that's how we made our first thousand dollars. And from then on, you know, we started pressure washing people's driveways, because we had to pressure wash the house first. And so I had to learn how to operate a pressure washer.
Starting point is 01:28:33 So then I started, hey, we can pressure wash the drive. We can pressure wash the house. I just made it work. Me and my brother would just hop in my grandma's truck, and we would figure it out. Like, that's what we did. My grandma would allow us to borrow her truck to go put stuff in the back, and we figured it it out. Like that's what we did. My grandma would allow us to borrow her truck to go put stuff in the back and we figured it out.
Starting point is 01:28:47 So I never got a regular job. I just wanted it. And that's what I believe in. Wow. So nine to three, you're teaching kids how to grow food, how to do math, how to read, how to write. Yep. And then three to whenever you're
Starting point is 01:29:02 Whenever. Basically an entrepreneur. Yep, absolutely. Do whatever you can. Yep, I did whatever I could, because I didn't want, for one, my son was a baby baby, and I never did my wife working or anything like that. She had to go get a job, and I didn't like that.
Starting point is 01:29:16 Like, it just messed with my psyche. You know, I was at home with a kid, you know? So, it just kind of messed with me a little bit. And that was for a very short amount of time I literally picked up my business fast I can start posting on Facebook about me fixing cars or whatever and people started booking me to come do their different things So she eventually was able to leave that job after like a little while and um So she could get back home and I was out with my brother. We were again, you know, just
Starting point is 01:29:41 Doing whatever we could to make some money. How fast did you get 20 people to show up to your program? Originally? 20 parents. How many kids? Yeah, it was 20 kids. So when I say 20, they all had parents. So it was 20 kids. But yeah, it was pretty fast.
Starting point is 01:29:56 I probably had that post up maybe about two weeks and we had everybody signed up in that 20, yeah, that two weeks. Yeah. Did you think it was going to happen that fast? Nah. Everything that you've seen happen for the X of Boys program, I've never thought would happen as fast as that. Did you have a curriculum lined up or were you just winging it?
Starting point is 01:30:13 I winged it for the most part. I had an idea. I had a layout. Okay, I'm going to teach this today, and on Tuesday I'm going to teach this, and Wednesday I'm going to teach that, and we grew squash and cucumbers and all that stuff during that time or whatever. I just did what I thought was best for that time during that day.
Starting point is 01:30:30 Of course, I've matured a lot. I've learned about everything. I didn't have an LLC done. I didn't know nothing about any of that stuff. I'm just helping some kids. It's strictly volunteer, right? Yeah, it was strictly volunteers. I just did what I could with the kids.
Starting point is 01:30:43 What age group? What spread? It was 11 to 17 at that time. 11 to kids. Now we're here. What age group? What spread? It was 11 to 17 at that time. 11 to 17. So you're teaching, I mean how do you, 11 to 17, that's a big range. I attribute, it is, but I attribute the discipline
Starting point is 01:30:57 that I was able to give them to the Marine Corps. I believe if I never went to the Marines, the program wouldn't be as successful as it is. People have asked me, how am I able, like I used to have, I had 40 kids at one point and it was just me. And people are like, how do you control them? Like, how are you able to get them?
Starting point is 01:31:12 I said, you gotta think, we all have like three drill instructors and like 90 kids. Like, you know, but I remembered what they did to control us. And so I did the same thing with them. So when we go out, they're just like, man, they're so mannerable. And they saying, yes sir, no sir,
Starting point is 01:31:26 they giving the proper greeting of the day, et cetera. Like, how are they doing this? I'm just like, I just attribute it to what I learned in the Marine Corps. I just talk them that. I don't allow a lot of mistakes when they mess up, they get in trouble for it. High knees, mountain climbers, pushups, et cetera.
Starting point is 01:31:38 That's how we did it. And they respected me, for one, because I was younger. A lot of them didn't know I was 19 at first. I didn't tell them to around the end of camp. They was like, Mr. Ken, you 19? Your mentor and kids are only two years younger than you. 17 years old. One of them turned 18 while he was there. But they respected me so much because they saw I had my own house. I had my own car. I was raising my son. I had a wife. They saw all of that. So they obviously thought I was older. But then it became inspiration
Starting point is 01:32:04 to them because, man, I could be young and helping people and doing okay for myself. Is that uncommon in Albany? Yeah, it is. It's uncommon. Yep. It is uncommon. How fast has it spread?
Starting point is 01:32:19 Thanks for Boys program? Yeah. Fast. After that summer camp, we became the most popular program in the city. Wow. To this day camp, we became the most popular program in the city. Wow. To this day, we're still the most popular program in Albany.
Starting point is 01:32:29 Where'd you come up with the name? The Extra Boys. X equals unknown. And so we're trying to give these boys the unknown variable. What are some of the success stories out of there? You know what? This is, I was hoping you got here. I probably have maybe a couple hundred kids
Starting point is 01:32:47 that I've worked with. I probably only have like four success stories, true success stories. You only have four? Absolutely. This is why I dig into the failures of the program. So, for the past six years, I've worked with kids at ages 11 to 17.
Starting point is 01:33:01 And I'll dig into the success stories in a second, but I have to talk about it while I talk about their success. I worked with kids at ages 11 to 17. And I'll dig into the success stories in a second, but I have to talk about it while I talk about their success. I worked with kids ages 11 to 17, more teenagers than not. But during my time working with these, in the program, I had this rule, like I was like, I'll never kick a kid out of the program.
Starting point is 01:33:17 You know, we're going to do what we can, even if they don't want to be here, we're going to try and make them do it and different things like that. I'll never turn a kid down, et cetera. So during that time, I had many kids that I working with that just didn't want to be there. They were constantly unruly, didn't want to be there,
Starting point is 01:33:30 messing up the experience for other kids, et cetera. And at the time I didn't realize, you know, that that was actually affecting, you know, teaching because I spent so much time disciplining versus teaching. I didn't realize I was I was wasting a lot of time of those kids who actually wanted to be there because they got to get in trouble too because they acting up. They can't go somewhere because they acting up. They can't get the teaching because they acting up. So I spent years
Starting point is 01:33:58 doing that thinking that I was doing the right thing like by just trying to make them do it and trying to discipline them as much as possible, et cetera. And I'll never forget when I realized it all, I had a student named Bryston. I had started allowing some younger kids to come in, like just because. And I was still having the older kids come in too, but I had some younger kids start coming in also.
Starting point is 01:34:23 And I'll never forget, Bryston's a great kid, on the road student, whatever. And he told his mom, he said, mom, I love the program. I love Mr. King, but it's not, I don't know if I can stay that long because I'm other kids so bad. And I thought about it for a second. And I realized that I got a whole lot of kids in there in that room who want to be there. And I spent half of this class period fussing that kids who didn't want to be there and I spent half of this class period fussing that kids who didn't want to be here who were unruly who have said they don't want to be here and I should just send them home from that point on every kid who didn't want
Starting point is 01:34:55 to be there I told their mom they didn't have to come back because I have children here that we are messing the experience up. We're ruining the experience for those children who could actually be changed. Then I realized it hit me again that I don't have that many success stories because all these children, they have had to get punched in the face by life for them to call me and say,
Starting point is 01:35:18 Mr. King, I appreciate you. But they have already made mistakes. They have already had a child too early. They already have went to jail. I've had kids call me from jail and say, Mr. King, I hadn't talked to you in two years. Mr. King, I appreciate everything you're trying to teach me. I realize it now.
Starting point is 01:35:34 Life had to hit them in the face first. Our program is- I would say that's a success story. I can say it's success, but what I mean by success is- You definitely impacted hundreds of kids. Yes, I impacted them, yeah. Now to the degree and what level they achieve in life, that's out of your control, but you've shown them,
Starting point is 01:35:54 I believe you've shown them in, I mean, look, you've rerouted the norm. Yes. You've rerouted the norm. Yes. You've rerouted the norm or shown them that the norm, that the, you know, the normal path in Albany, New York can be rerouted. And there is a whole other side of life. We have all the Georgia's.
Starting point is 01:36:17 Yeah. Right? Yeah. And so, I mean, I would say that's gotta be a lot more than four. Yeah, so impact and success. Thank you for mentioning that because I can start using that because that's important.
Starting point is 01:36:31 So when I mentioned success stories, I have about four students who embody everything that I've taught in the past six years. The reason that they embody is because I had students that I allowed to be blessed in the program if they had older brothers. So if they were younger, the only way they could come into the program
Starting point is 01:36:49 is they had an older brother that was there. Those kids started out maybe seven, eight years old. Those children now literally live by the rules of the extra boys because they started almost as a baby in the program watching me tell them to get a proper greener today, watching me tell them to keep their hygiene up and making sure they're bathing, et cetera, et cetera. So now these kids are like 13, 14 years old,
Starting point is 01:37:14 and their teachers are calling like, hey, I just want to tell you I appreciate this student because he said he's been in the S Voice program and this is why he says yes ma'am and no ma'am and comes in every morning and tells me good morning and you know does his work and tries to make sure he's doing the right thing. And it's four of them, I got one of them painted on the mural outside of our building, his name is Bryson Pitts.
Starting point is 01:37:36 And he is the number one example of our program, Bryson Pitts. He's a fantastic kid. He's playing trombone at his middle school. He's about to go to high school soon. But he is fantastic. He does everything correctly. He keeps everybody in line, etc. I can't say the same all the way for his brother or whatever or even Kendarius. He's one of my other success stories. Great kid. Can't say the same for his brother either or whatever because again I started with him for so late and I can say that about him because I call their, can't say the same for his brother either, or whatever, because again, I started with them for so late. And I can say that about them
Starting point is 01:38:07 because I call their brothers and tell them the same thing. I'm like, you know you can be doing a whole lot better. I taught you so much. So why aren't you doing what I taught you? But again, that's life. But their brother's fantastic. So those are some success stories that I could talk about. But that's why we've shifted our age range now
Starting point is 01:38:23 to seven to nine. So we begin again in March next month. You've shifted the entire program from seven to nine? To seven to nine, yep. So seven to nine or seven to 17? Oh, ages seven. No, ages seven through nine, that's it. That's it?
Starting point is 01:38:41 That's it. No kidding. Yep, we have switched it now because I believe that those children now, well, children now are losing themselves a lot sooner. That's it. That's it. That's it. No kidding. Yep. We have switched it now because I believe that those children now, well, children now are losing themselves a lot sooner. I've had third graders smoking. Like this is what's happening now. And being in the city of Albany, these kids are learning so much from other children,
Starting point is 01:38:59 just from what's happening in their homes, even from molestation, et cetera. That's a huge issue that I've run into that a couple of times working with kids even from molestation, et cetera. That's a huge issue. I've run into that a couple times working with kids, the molestation and family violence. Huge issue. And these children are losing themselves a lot sooner. And I believe that, again, so many kids are hearing moms say, make sure you do the right thing.
Starting point is 01:39:20 And everybody's saying, be good. And the teachers are saying, be good. But everybody's punishing you for it. I'm being good and everybody's picking on me. I'm being good and everybody's, no one to be my friend. I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm trying to do my work and everybody's being mean. They need an atmosphere where it is cool
Starting point is 01:39:36 to do the right thing. And so they need somewhere where they can come, where they get praised for great grades. They need somewhere they can come and be praised for having intellectual conversation. They need to come somewhere where they can be praised for making sure they keep their hygiene up, etc. Kids will pick on you for, because all the other kids don't know how to iron their clothes,
Starting point is 01:39:52 they'll pick on you for looking nice. Again, we want to give them an opportunity in an environment where it's cool to do the right thing. And if a child does not want to be in our program, they don't have to be there. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Who's your support system? For me, it's my family and my inner circle of friends. They've always got time to listen and help me navigate whatever life throws at me.
Starting point is 01:40:18 In a society that glorifies hyper-independence, it's easy to forget that we're all better when we have a support system behind us. Therapy can be a source of support for any area of your life. Therapy from BetterHelp is so helpful for learning positive coping skills and how to set boundaries, it empowers you to be the best version of yourself and it isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma. Therapy is beneficial for everyone. BetterHelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide.
Starting point is 01:40:55 You can access a diverse network of more than 30,000 credentialed therapists with a wide range of specialties and easily switch therapists at any time at no extra cost. Build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash SRS to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp.com slash SRS. I'm always on the lookout for ways to get healthier, especially now. That's why I'm always on the lookout for ways to get healthier, especially now. That's why I'm so glad I discovered Armora Colostrum.
Starting point is 01:41:32 Armora Colostrum has thousands of people reporting absolutely life-changing benefits, tens of thousands of five-star reviews, and transformational stories. Armora Colostrum is a proprietary concentrate of bovine colostrum that harnesses over 400 living bioactive nutrients that can help strengthen the barriers of your body and help fuel cellular health for thousands of research-backed health benefits. Armour Colostrum can help strengthen immunity
Starting point is 01:42:01 and gut health, help improve fitness and metabolism, and enhance skin and hair radiance. We've worked out a special offer for my audience. Receive 15% off your first order. Go to triarmora.com slash SRS or enter SRS to get 15% off your first order. That's t-r-y-a-r-m-r-a dot com slash SRS. These statements and products have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition.
Starting point is 01:42:33 These statements and information are not a substitute for or alternative to seeking care from your healthcare providers. I'd like to invite you to gain access to an exclusive experience on Vigilance Elite Patreon. Our patrons are the driving force behind the success of this show and their support allows us to keep doing what we do. Depending on the tier you choose, you'll get access to benefits like behind the scenes
Starting point is 01:43:02 footage before each interview, early access to episodes, end of the month live zoom calls with me, exclusive merch, and more. Join us and become a patron starting at just five dollars a month by visiting patreon.com slash vigilance elite. That's patreon.com slash vigilance elite. That's patreon.com slash vigilance elite. We talk a lot about generational trauma on the show and stuff like that. And I think, I mean, you got to, you can't make light of showing people that there's another option because people get, they get stuck in the same cycle. They see their parents in it. They see their grandparents in it.
Starting point is 01:43:44 They see the people, you know, younger than them in it. They see the people younger than them in it. They see all the families around them in it. And so even if you just have planted a seed in that community that shows them like, hey, there are other options out there and I'm showing you, look at what's happening here. This is another option. This is a way out of that generational curse
Starting point is 01:44:09 that so many people are stuck in. I mean, don't make light of that, man. That's a big success story. Even if it doesn't happen right off the bat, when you look back, even if it's 10, 20 years from now, I mean, you've planted the seed in there. They know. I know.
Starting point is 01:44:28 I just critique myself a lot, you know? So it's just... Not everything has to be a grand slam. Absolutely, but you know, if we're going to swing the bat, we're going to swing it hard. So definitely, but yeah, I appreciate you even saying that because I could definitely use that from now on. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:44:44 I mean, what's the response from the parents? Response from parents is always great. Granted, I ain't got the best reviews from all the parents, because again, I discipline a different way, and I hold kids accountable. So I've had parents accuse me of lying on their kids, like I'll tell them, hey, your son did such and such. No, my child didn't, he didn't do that.
Starting point is 01:45:01 You're just lying on my son, et cetera, et cetera. I'm just like, that's fine, man. I don't see what reason I have to lie on your child. I'm like, what does it benefit me? But whatever. But for the most part, parents adore the program. Again, we've done so much for parents. We've done workshops for parents themselves.
Starting point is 01:45:19 Parents in workshops, I had people come in, help them prepare their credit, different things like that. I just try to help parents as much as possible because they have to go home to these parents. So I could be giving them teaching all day, then they go home and go right back into the stupid stuff. So we try to incentivize parents also teaching the same discipline at home.
Starting point is 01:45:40 We try to make sure we incentivize them, making sure they're doing the right thing at home too. Because even though we have them for quite a bit of time, we want to make sure those kids are doing the same thing at home because we hate to have to keep reteaching the same thing because you're allowing them to go back into who they used to be.
Starting point is 01:45:56 But response from parents is always great. We've had a lot of videos with parents giving testimonials and different things like that. So definitely happy about the parents who truly support our program. Are the parents pretty receptive to the information you're teaching them? You would think not, but they are.
Starting point is 01:46:13 I haven't had any parents that got mad at me for telling them they should do better with their children, because I will tell them, I'm like, listen. Like I remember one time this parent came to me about her son's attitude. She was like, oh, he always turning his nose up at me and he doing this and that, et cetera, et cetera. But while she was saying that, I'm looking at her face
Starting point is 01:46:30 and she's doing the exact same mannerisms that he does. I said, as soon as she finished, I said, hey, mom, I said, listen to me. I said, you were just talking to me about him and you were doing everything that he does. He gets that from you. You should stop doing that stuff and maybe he'd stop it
Starting point is 01:46:45 because he's only watching you. And she didn't even recognize it until I told her. And she was like, I didn't even realize that because I am doing the same movements. I am turning my face up. I'm like, exactly. He does that here and he does that at home, but he's doing it because you do it.
Starting point is 01:47:00 And so it caused her to critique herself and caused her to stop. I mean, here's some stats that we got from you. 0.01% recidivism rate, 82% proficiency in general contracting, 86% increase in reading comprehension, 91% improvement in grades, and 93% proficiency in automotive repair. I mean, dude, this is a huge success. This isn't like four wonder kids out of hundreds that,
Starting point is 01:47:31 I mean, you got to give yourself more credit. I will, I just. Like what? You know, I mentioned mindset earlier, and like I said before, yeah, I mean, yeah, the kids, we've done firearms training, we've done all types of different training, welding, et cetera, so yeah, they've. We've done all types of different training, welding, et cetera.
Starting point is 01:47:45 So yeah, they've learned how to do a lot of different things, I think, are beneficial for their lives. But at the same time, you know, I'm bigger on fixing their mindsets and the character that they have. Because I could have a kid, you know, who's, he could do all that stuff on the list. He could go change the oil for you. He could paint a house. He could, you know, do firearms training, et cetera.
Starting point is 01:48:05 But he could still be a terrible person. And it's important for me to make sure we're creating the better people. And that's what I believe in. So yeah, definitely, you know, we are big on teaching the trades, just showing them that there are different ways to make money, no doubt.
Starting point is 01:48:19 But we want to fix on that character. That's the bigger thing in Let Us Make Man. What do you think some of the problems stems? I mean, we talked about fatherhood at the very beginning. to fix on that character. That's the bigger thing in Let Us Make Man. What do you think some of the problems stems? I mean, we talked about fatherhood at the very beginning. Do you think fatherhood is a major problem in that area? Yeah, absolutely. The lack of true male presence
Starting point is 01:48:37 is probably one of the bigger issues. In order to be a man, you have to see a man. That's it. And people will try to say, oh, well, my mom raised me by herself, and I was a good man. I said, if your mom raised you by yourself and you became a good man
Starting point is 01:48:51 it's because you was on the football team, you had a gym coat somewhere, you had male presence in your life. Your mom wasn't the sole person raising you completely. You never ran into any other men that had any impact on you. And no, absolutely not. And moms will be honest about that. But I'm like, do not sit here and tell me that your mom impact on you and you know absolutely not and most and moms would be honest about that but I did do not sit here and
Starting point is 01:49:07 tell me that your mom never put you on the football team never let you play basketball you never had a male teacher anywhere you never had no male presence at all and you became a great person I believe you have to have that balance any single moms that have raised good men is because they put them around good men too yeah they might have done it by themselves but they also put them on football teams. A lot of single moms will make sure their kids are in sports. They will make sure their kids have some type of male
Starting point is 01:49:30 around them, you know, good moms anyway, to make sure that they become something successful. Because most moms who refuse to put their men, I mean, put men around their sons, usually end up some gangbanger, et cetera. Like I guarantee it, and I've seen it, and I can say this because I've worked with children for so long, I can guarantee that that's what's happening
Starting point is 01:49:49 like every time. And again, some parents, they don't want to parent. They don't want to be a parent. They just having sex and having kids and don't want to parent. Some people try to use us as a second parent and so they don't have to do nothing. Granted, I try to, you try to do what I can with their sons,
Starting point is 01:50:07 but it's hard because I need your assistance, Mom. I really need your help with him. You can't just throw him off to me, because the program's free. You can't just throw him off to me, but coming now in March, we will have rules for parents. And as much as I don't want to, we will kick some children out of the program
Starting point is 01:50:25 because of their parents. And because I want the parents to be accountable also. And I have to be a little cutthroat like that. As much as I may love that child, and as much as I may have built a relationship, if that mom does not assist us with her child in a meaningful way, we will let them go from the program.
Starting point is 01:50:41 Wow. Well, I mean, with the lack of fathers, where are the fathers? Where are they at? What are they doing? Let's get into realness. We got a lot of moms also that have fathers that do want to be dads,
Starting point is 01:50:56 but they are so vindictive and bitter with the dad that they'd rather their son fail than have the father in a child's life. Are you serious? I'm dead serious. I'm dead serious. I am dead serious. I've had conversations with moms where they tell me, I'm like, where the daddy at?
Starting point is 01:51:10 I'll make contact with the dad. Dad say, you know, I live in North Carolina or I live in this city, but she never wanted me, they'd have moved on, got kids of their own with their new wife or whatever like that. She never want me to see him. I'm like, mama, send that boy to go stay with his daddy. He don't need the ace of boys program. He needs his dad. Send him with his father. What are you
Starting point is 01:51:28 doing besides sitting up here complaining about you doing it by yourself? It's like moms had this new thing now where they proud. It's like they have to say, I'm doing it all by myself and I'm trying and and I love my child and putting them on Facebook and pretending you was a parent at graduation and they turned out to be some terrible person because you was too proud to keep their father in their life. I've run into that so many times with moms who didn't just want to just send the child to stay with his father. You don't need him.
Starting point is 01:51:57 You don't need to be trying to raise him by yourself. Send him with his dad because he needs his actual father. He don't need somebody trying to get the play father. He needs his real father. But because they are so bitter and the court system, which I hate, benefits mothers more than fathers who want to be dads, it hurts kids. It hurts children. They send these kids to stay with moms or like,
Starting point is 01:52:21 I'll never forget, it's a few cases where moms will be on drugs and they'll give it to the mom before they give it to the father. Like I watched these court cases and I have said before that custody court needs to be a jury. I have said that over and over again. It does not need to be a judge because it's based off of how this judge feels today. What if they don't like you today or what if they mad or whatever? It needs to be a jury. I believe a jury of our peers needs to decide where custody goes. We need to be able to prove why I'm a fit parent, you know, for my child. I have said if we have
Starting point is 01:52:49 enough custody battle, let's talk to the jury, a jury about it. It does not need to be one judge, I'm trying to prove to this judge while I'm a good dad, etc. I don't understand why that isn't a jury trial. That's something I want to fight for because I've, I ran into that issue, you know, in divorce at one point or whatever like that like the lawyer was telling her to keep the kids away from me and so because she didn't have any knowledge she you know thought she was doing the right thing because that's what the lawyer told her to do and she told the lawyer she was telling me after it was over she was like well I told him
Starting point is 01:53:19 he was a good dad and everything I didn't understand what he was telling me to keep the kids for but I was doing it because that's what he told me to do. I said, don't you ever in your life let somebody tell you to keep your kids away from the dad. Like she said, that's what the lawyer was telling her. And I was like, well, why wouldn't he be looking out for the best interests of the kids? Cause I had already offered multiple different things.
Starting point is 01:53:39 When I got a divorce, for her to be okay, I left the house, left her the car, et cetera. I just wanted out at that time. But I just, you know, I just wanted out, you know, at that time. But I just wanted to make sure I had, you know, proper custody with the children, because I wanted to make sure I'm raising my sons. And he was telling her to try to get full custody, et cetera, et cetera, and so of course,
Starting point is 01:53:55 we ended up working it out privately, or whatever like that, and we eventually, you know, worked out our own custody agreement, or whatever like that, but I'm just like, man, imagine if I wasn't able to afford a lawyer, imagine if I wasn't able to afford, you know, these different incentives for her, et cetera, like that, but I'm just like, man, imagine if I wasn't able to afford a lawyer, or imagine if I wasn't able to afford these different incentives for her, et cetera, like that. The regular guy get railroaded and can't see his kids
Starting point is 01:54:12 for no reason. No matter what happens in a marriage, et cetera, et cetera. If both parents are fit, both parents should be able to see their kids at an equal amount of time. It shouldn't be, oh, well, you can't see them because this was the judge's society. Like, that's insane. You know, so it's a little delicate line to walk.
Starting point is 01:54:30 So who are these kids, who do they look up to then? If fatherhood's a major problem, who do they find as role models? If they have any, they look up to whoever's close to them, around them, whether that be mom or grandma, you know how that turns out, or they look up to whoever's close to them, around them, whether that be mom or grandma, you know how that turns out. Or they look up to their football coach. They look up to the basketball coach,
Starting point is 01:54:50 as much as they can. They don't have that, they looking up to the rappers. They looking up to the gang members. The gang members come around with the cool cars and the nice chains, whatever like that. Hey, how you get that? And so they get them into their lifestyle. Now they want to be gang bangers,
Starting point is 01:55:03 because they think this is the life to live or whatever. Well, this is how I'm going to make money. This is how I'm going to take care of my family. You know, I got to sell a couple of drugs or whatever like that to make some things happen. I'm like, bro, do you see me selling drugs? I'm like, because I had a red Corvette I just sold a little while ago.
Starting point is 01:55:17 The reason I bought the car originally was because I wanted the kids to see that you could just be a giver and be a great person and be a great father, and get what you want still, or whatever. And so I showed them that, and the kids were like, Mr. King got a cool car. You know, like, it was cool for them to see.
Starting point is 01:55:33 Like, it was interesting to just witness them, like, have a, it's like their mindset shifted when they saw me with the car. Granted, I'm still the same person, I'm still the same Mr. King, I'm still the one who feeds you all the time, but when I got the car, it's like, so I can make it. So you're finding what these kids value,
Starting point is 01:55:52 what they look up to by possessions or whatever, and you're showing them that they can get these possessions by taking a different route in life. By trusting God, which is we do Bible study, you know, all the time, by trusting God and giving. I tell them, you're going to receive by giving as much as possible. Because that's what I do. I give as much as I can. Like I never stop giving. I give every single day. But that's how I keep receiving. That's why I keep telling people, I'm like, how are you so blessed? Because I give. I give as much as I can. Like I never stop giving.
Starting point is 01:56:26 I just help random people. I sometimes have to stop myself. Like I'll help anybody who needs it. And that's important to me. But yeah, that's how I figure out what the kids love. They look up to people, they look up to possessions. Unfortunately, that was for the older kids. And now the younger kids that I'm about to start working with,
Starting point is 01:56:44 they're not really interested in possessions at the moment because they're just living life. They're just alive. They're not like, oh, I need to have a cool car to look cool or whatever. They're just elementary school young kids. But teenagers, all they care about is the scat packs and the cool cars and this and that.
Starting point is 01:56:59 That's all they care about. Literally, that's all they talk about coming in. Oh, I seen a scat pack yesterday, y'all. It was cool, it was purple. They they come in there talking about that or some NBA young boy or some beef. They got some rappers they saw on YouTube or some streamers or whatever like that. That's all they talk about, the teenagers.
Starting point is 01:57:14 But the young kids, they just be talking about toys or talking about playing. Like they're young in the mind. So it's like, I don't need a cool car to impress them. I don't need none of that. They're not even trying to be impressed I don't need a cool car to impress them. I don't need none of that. They're not even trying to be impressed. They just want a cool environment to be in. And so as I hone that, and I'm never talking about cars,
Starting point is 01:57:32 and never talking about the cool stuff, they're not interested in it. Like my son, they don't, I mean, they've seen cool cars and whatever like that, or they see, but they know every day, they just wake up, put some T-shirts and some gym shorts on, and they out the door. Like, that's me.
Starting point is 01:57:43 I wear a T-shirt and some jogging pants every single day or some shorts in the summertime. Blank t-shirt, nothing on it. I got cool shoes. I wear them every blue moon. And that's only for the kids to see, the cool shoes, cause they like them. So I'm like, okay, let me get some cool shoes
Starting point is 01:57:57 so they can see that Mr. King got on some cool shoes today. You know, so they can understand that Mr. King's not rapping. And I got the cool shoes that the rappers got. You know, like, so that's why I would do that stuff, but I don't have to do that anymore, because like the kids are younger now, so. It's like I could be me, and I could show them like,
Starting point is 01:58:12 you know, this is a cool way to live life, and that's what I believe in now. How are you funded this? You don't take any government funding. I refuse. I won't apply for any grants. I won't do anything that's tied to government. I won't do it.
Starting point is 01:58:24 Our donor base is completely private donors. apply for any grants. I won't do anything that's tied to government. I won't do it. Our donor base is completely private donors from social media, etc. We have been exclusively funded from the inception from private donors. And I am wholly grateful for everybody that has watched us, that has shared videos. I tell people all the time, they're like, why may not be able to give? Give a share, give or retweet. This is just like giving. Because again, everything that we've done has been funded exclusively from donors. Every single thing.
Starting point is 01:58:53 We have an Amazon wishlist. When Elon Musk shared my video, maybe like a couple months ago, we had an Amazon wishlist. They went and bought every single thing off the wishlist. We got all, we got like 20 different tables and whole bunch of chairs and we got tools, equipment we needed, etc. They bought every single thing off the list.
Starting point is 01:59:14 Camera equipment, everything we needed, pencils, calculators, tape measure, markers, kit stuff for the toddler classroom, etc. They bought everything off the list. So again, this is why we share everything we do. This is why we always have a camera with us, et cetera, because we want people to see where their money's going. I wholly believe in, you know, not being one of those nonprofits
Starting point is 01:59:35 that you never know what's happening after. No, we post receipts. When we were renovating our school building, I posted receipts for the toilets. Like I posted everything that people could see because it made people want to give. And the wishlist is different too because it's not like they're giving money, they're giving an item. So that encourages people to want to give too. So we have an Amazon wishlist and we have just like people that can regularly donate.
Starting point is 01:59:56 Damn, man. All right, let's talk about the Life Preparatory School for Boys that started in 2022. Sure. This is a totally separate thing? Yeah. What is this? This is the school that I opened outside of our after school program. We originally opened in 2022. We're completely boarding, completely free. We fed them every day, obviously. It was very, very particular what we did with our students at that time.
Starting point is 02:00:24 Every day I ran it almost just like Marine Corps boot camp. Had to get up at a certain time of the day. You had to make sure. They live here. Yeah, they live there. We had to make sure they're brushing their teeth. They had to make sure they iron their clothes. I had kids who didn't even know how to pull on a belt.
Starting point is 02:00:38 Teach them how to pull on a belt. We had to teach them how to brush their hair, et cetera. Teach them how to bathe. I had to show them, teach them, this is what you do when you get in the shower. What age group is this? This was all sixth graders. They were all age 11 at that time.
Starting point is 02:00:50 They were all age 11. And so it was a beautiful thing when we first started. I miscalculated how much funding we were going to need to keep that operation going. I did my best to fundraise and we kept it open. Even with us being in the red, I kept it open. But then the summer, after our school opened, we had a summer camp going with more kids
Starting point is 02:01:12 and we came to the building to play basketball. We had a big school building we purchased. We came to play basketball. I remember I opened the door and I looked in and it was stuff everywhere. And I'm like, what in the world? Somebody broken in school? Cause we hadn't been there, it was the everywhere. And I'm like, what in the world? Somebody broke into school? Cause we hadn't been there, it was the summertime.
Starting point is 02:01:27 So we hadn't been in there. It was stuff everywhere. I come in there, it was doors ripped off the hinges. It was our uniforms were ripped up. Our school shield on the wall was ripped up. I mean, it was sinks torn out the walls. Like doors were like beaten, ripped in half. I mean, they had like took a couple of things,
Starting point is 02:01:50 but all the glass in the building was destroyed. Like they pull all the wires out of the power box. Like, so it was no power in there. I mean, the destruction that was, I was floored. So of course, I was gonna pull my weapon out immediately cause I'm just like, what the world? Like, this is crazy. So I pulled my weapon out and I had my video
Starting point is 02:02:15 after it was recording, like it was insane. Pulled my weapon out and we caught two people in there at the time and I held them at gunpoint, called the police, they got there extremely fast. They took them to jail and they were just trying to figure out like what was the reason in you know behind this like why and at the time we couldn't get insurance on the building because the building was old and we didn't have the funding to get certain things fixed that
Starting point is 02:02:40 they wanted fixed before they insured us. So we looking at a million, $2 million worth of damage on top of the stuff that we already had to fix, in general that we were working on by project. And so right now the building's boarded up. We ended up having to turn the afterschool building into school, but we eventually closed, we shut down the school portion last year. We shut it down last year because we just weren't able
Starting point is 02:03:05 to keep it up as far as funding. But this last year, as I was having an afterschool program, after Elon shared our video, we did have a donor reach out to us and basically just ask what all did we need to take care of for our afterschool program and the school. And so I just told him everything. I was just like, this is what all did we need to take care of for our after school program and the school. And so I just told them everything. I was just like, this is what all, you know,
Starting point is 02:03:27 we would need to really thrive. I said, we need vans to go pick the kids up. I said, I never had vans, so we never been able to go offer pickups for kids. Cause that was a big problem we had. The kids weren't able to be picked up. I don't have any staff. I said, every time I have to go somewhere,
Starting point is 02:03:41 the program had to shut down. Like I have to, everything has to close. We can't do nothing. Everything's closed until I get back. Like I have to go somewhere, the program had to shut down. Like I have to, everything has to close. We can't do nothing. Everything's closed until I get back. Like I don't have any staff. I don't have any, you know, back of the house staff at all, anything. So they were just like, look,
Starting point is 02:03:54 so they called me back and was like, look, we're going to give you this small amount of funding, small to them, a small amount of funding to take care of everything for the entire year of 2025. So we just hired a operations manager to operate the program while I'm not there and three new staff members. They told us to get 25 kids.
Starting point is 02:04:11 They've already signed up. They bought us two vans and make sure they were completely fixed. And they renovated the inside of our school building to make it more school friendly. And they're currently renovating it right now while we're sitting here actually. So they basically told us, look, you deliver on this year.
Starting point is 02:04:29 If you deliver this year, this will determine whether I'll continue funding y'all more in the coming years, but show me what you could do this year, give me the data, show me what you're doing with these children. Don't just talk about it, show me numbers, show me what you could do. And then this will determine whether we're able to continue funding the program and reopening the school
Starting point is 02:04:48 and rebuilding the whole school in the coming years. So, yeah, so social media. 25 kids you have? Yep, we just signed up 25 kids. They started March. And they live there? No, this is for after school. Oh, this is the after school one.
Starting point is 02:05:04 It's after school program. Yep. Man, you got a lot of stuff going on. Yes, a lot of stuff. I just started head coaching my son's T-ball team now, so that's going to be fun this year. What's your daily routine? I mean...
Starting point is 02:05:16 Sure, I love to go into that. I wake up at about... I wake up, my eyes open about five, but I don't get out of bed, which I should though. But I get up, my trainer gets to the house, he comes to train me. It's a up, my trainer gets to the house, he comes to train me. It's a 19 year old kid.
Starting point is 02:05:27 Well, he just turned 20 actually, but he's a bodybuilder. He trains me every morning at 6.30. I get up, wake my sons up, they go put their clothes on. Baby King goes in there, does a little baseball. I live till about eight o'clock, go take a shower, take them to their teacher at about nine o'clock. They're in school from nine to three. During the day, depends on which commission I'm on.
Starting point is 02:05:49 I may have to go to a Historic Preservation Commission meeting, may have a County Commission meeting, may have a City Commission meeting. Depends on what's happening, may have a task force meeting. I'm on the YMCA board of directors, may have a meeting. Those meetings are in the afternoon. But anyway, I go to whatever meeting I have to go to. I go check our PO box.
Starting point is 02:06:04 I go deposit checks that, you know, donors may send. I send over the addresses to those donors, to my assistant, so she could send thank you letters to those donors. After that, I may go get me some food. And right now, I've been going to check on the building right now every day as they're working on it. I pick my sons up at about three o'clock. We go do some training, whatever it is that we're doing,
Starting point is 02:06:25 whether it be gymnastics, boxing, or baseball. We go do some training with them for maybe an hour or two. I get home, make sure they got some food. Remember, I told you I support everybody around me. There's this new guy in our hometown who's been cooking, and he cooks really well. So I've been having him come cook for us sometime during the day when I don't have time to get food.
Starting point is 02:06:48 I have him come cook for me and my sons just to support his business and it also gets him content too. So he can share for people to continue supporting him. So he'll come cook for me during the week. And after that, I'll get the kids in the tub maybe about seven o'clock. The reason I do that is because we were big WWE fans so we watch wrestling on Mondays
Starting point is 02:07:08 and Fridays. So if it's a Monday or a Friday, they get me in the tub about 7, wrestling starts at 8 o'clock and we watch wrestling until it's time to go to sleep. And they got their own rooms and they go to bed and repeat just depending on what I got to do for the next day. And then I'll go over my calendar or whatever just to see what I got to do. the next day. And then I'll go over my calendar or whatever just to see what I got to do. So some days are busy, some days are not.
Starting point is 02:07:29 But yeah, for this past couple of days, it's been extra busy. So yeah, that's kind of what a daily schedule looks like. And then right now I'm about to coach the D-ball team. So that's about to turn into getting practices together for them. And on weekends, we do a lot of practice with my sons. I take weekends to dedicate to my children.
Starting point is 02:07:46 So we'll go to the baseball field and we'll get it in. We'll just out there just getting it in, doing IQ, learning about the bases, what to do, your different assignments, et cetera, boxing. Wow. They enjoy it. Is your middle son boxing too? He just started, yep, just started.
Starting point is 02:08:02 He's about to turn four. But he was already practicing, watching his brother. So when he was practicing, the coach was just like, well, I'm just going to go ahead and get started with him because he's already watching the punch numbers and he would go practice on the little mannequin thing. So he would just be over there, just doing his own little thing over there.
Starting point is 02:08:19 And so he just started with him too. I'm going to get them in jujitsu soon. Only things my kids don't have a choice in is doing self-defense and Yeah, any any self-defense they don't have a choice Everything every other thing they have a choice with sports whatever they can they can choose but self-defense they have no choice You will box you will do jujitsu. Yeah I think earlier you had mentioned you traveled to Nigeria not too long ago. What prompted that?
Starting point is 02:08:46 So it's a foundation called the Mega Impact Foundation. They sent me an email originally and just asked me to do a little video because their students had saw me online. They just sent me an email and asked me to send a video over via Zoom so I could interact with their students. Something in me, I'll never forget, was just like, go, ask them, can you come? And I'm like, ain't no way.
Starting point is 02:09:11 I'm like, absolutely not. I never just wanted to go to Africa or anything like that. Not saying I wouldn't go, but I just never was like, I'm gonna go to Africa or something like that. But something was just like, go. And my conscience was like, absolutely not. No. Anyway, I sent them an email, I was like,
Starting point is 02:09:25 is it possible for me to come? So they thought that maybe they didn't reach the right person, because there's no way this guy wants to come to Nigeria, so they wanted to set up a Zoom call. So they set up a Zoom call with them and the leaders of the organization, and they were surprised it was actually me.
Starting point is 02:09:38 They was like, we thought this was going to be fake. Like, so you want to come to Nigeria? But they needed me there in three days. So I was just like, look, this is what I'm going to do. I said if I'm meant to come to Nigeria everything will go right in these next three days. My videographer didn't have a passport and we need to give him a passport overnight and it's possible to do that you just have to go to where one of the overnight passport place is. Only appointment it has Buffalo New York. We flew to Buffalo New York to get him his passport.
Starting point is 02:10:07 Mind you, everything has to go right. We cannot miss a flight, cannot be delayed. Everything has to be done on time. While he was getting his passport, we was in Buffalo, we had to get overnight visas to even go over there. Cause we had to get visas to even go get into Nigeria. So we had to get visas, got those approved. I forgot, we had to do some other stuff.
Starting point is 02:10:26 I can't remember, just off the top of my head. But everything went right. And I was hoping something messed up. I said, please, God, something needs to mess up. I really am scared to go. Like I just, I was. That's my first time really being afraid of something. Cause I didn't know what to expect.
Starting point is 02:10:40 I'm like, why am I going to Nigeria, God? Like why? Oh, whatever. So he got his passport squared away. Flight was ready to go. The only thing that happened was our flight was delayed by like nine hours. We was just sitting at the airport.
Starting point is 02:10:53 Other than that, we flew to Nigeria. Everything happened right. We was able to get straight through customs, et cetera. And the stuff that I saw in Nigeria, it changed my life, man. It changed my life. We were there 10 days. I lit the whole little summer boot camp they had there.
Starting point is 02:11:11 The kids were so excited to see me because to me, to them I'm famous or whatever like that. So I got there and they were just ecstatic, asking a whole lot of questions. And they were so articulate, so well read. And just the questions that they were asking, it's like adults here wouldn't ask those questions. Like they were really well thought out questions
Starting point is 02:11:30 that they were asking me in regard to the sessions I was teaching. And I posted those sessions online for people to see on Instagram or Facebook, but I posted all those different sessions and just teaching them about character and just proper greetings and how to shake hands. Some of those issues they were having there,
Starting point is 02:11:45 like how to shake hands, looking people in the eye, talking to people in a stern voice. Confidence. Yeah, confidence, making their presence known. And so I taught them a lot of that stuff. And as I left, they were sharing how the kids were still are trying to do what I taught them. So I'm supposed to be going back in May,
Starting point is 02:12:01 but I told them I would come once a year to come see them and just interact with them and do the little boot camp thing they had going on. But man, we rode through Benin, Nigeria. We weren't supposed to go through there originally. We were supposed to take a flight from Asaba straight to Lagos, Nigeria. But our flight from Delta got delayed,
Starting point is 02:12:19 so we ended up having to drive two and a half hours through Benin, Nigeria to get to Legos. But Benin, Nigeria was probably the poorest thing I have ever seen in my life. I had, I felt like I was in a movie or something. I didn't believe it. But the one thing that was weird was I had every bar while I was there on my phone.
Starting point is 02:12:38 I had servers the entire time. Didn't understand how. But so I was sitting in my family video and pictures and it was scary. And to the point where I'm like, how, the roads were so bad, I'm like, are we gonna make it all the way there? They was like, yeah, we're gonna be fine.
Starting point is 02:12:53 It was crazy. I had kids that are younger than my son, like my middle son, out selling stuff on the side of the road. Wow. Like actually selling, like trying to sell stuff to get money on the side of the road. Wow. It actually selling, like trying to sell stuff to get money on the side of the road. Wow.
Starting point is 02:13:06 It was crazy. And I'm like, what they do? Like, well, they selling things, you know, to get some money, you know, to go get food and stuff like that. I'm like, okay, what are their parents? Their parents are probably working. They probably won't see their parents maybe but seven days at a time. I said, so they don't see their parents like every seven days?
Starting point is 02:13:19 Like, yeah. So what they, so they just by themselves? Like they just sleep by themselves? Yeah. They take baths? They may, you know, try to bathe wherever they can. They may or may not eat. They may see their parents, you know, in a week. You know, because they got to go work to make money, to make really pennies. And I'm like, are you serious?
Starting point is 02:13:34 I couldn't even imagine my three-year-old selling something to make... It was insane to me. Riding through there, I mean, it was, I don't know how to explain it. I just only could have videos, I got videos, but I could only just talk about it. It was insane. And it made me so, so grateful. Like when I got home, it took a minute for me
Starting point is 02:13:55 to even just register that I was back. Because I was just grateful to just go get some water from the fridge. Like we had to organize to eat while we were there. Like it wasn't just you could just go grab a snack or go just go get an apple or eat a banana. You had to, we had to organize to eat. Like it had to be a thing.
Starting point is 02:14:11 Like we had to make sure everybody was squared away, et cetera. And of course it's not a lot to eat there either. Like you have to kind of eat the same things over and over again. So it was, it was a little harsh, man. Like it was, it was a little harsh there. The beds were so hard.
Starting point is 02:14:24 Like, and we were at a nicer, you know, hotel for them. I mean, I feel like I was sleeping on a metal box. Like it was bad. You know, like my back was killing me the whole time I was there, but I was just grateful to see those kids, man. They made me so happy. And we were racing, had a little barbecue the last day.
Starting point is 02:14:40 We were racing and having a good time playing soccer with them. I got all this on video. It was the most beautiful experience I ever good time playing soccer with them. I got all this on video. It was the most beautiful experience I ever had, just interacting with them. You think you'll be back? Yeah, I'm going to go back. I'm going to go back once a year. It'll be better this time. I'll go with a team and stuff like that this time.
Starting point is 02:14:56 It was just me and my videographer last time, which was not the smartest thing, but God told me to go, so I had to go. But this time when we go, we're definitely gonna have like a full team, you know, and stuff, you know, just for protection and things like that, you know, just to make sure things go okay. But it was definitely an experience and I'm actually excited to go back,
Starting point is 02:15:14 not because of the experience, but because of seeing those kids. Yeah, yeah. I'm just, you know, we're wrapping the interview up here, but do you plan on expanding your vision, what you're doing outside of Albany? You're going to stay in Albany? People have asked me that so many times.
Starting point is 02:15:31 I don't mind giving advice. I don't mind giving people inspiration, but my job and my goal and my duty is to fix the city of Albany. I never want to stray away. I have been offered to come other places. I've been offered money to open the program somewhere else and to move. I won't do it. The city of Albany is my charge and I believe I'm responsible for fixing it. And so while I believe that I'm responsible for fixing it, I'm going to do my hardest to make sure I do that. That's what I
Starting point is 02:15:59 believe in. People believe in me in the city of Albany. People have hope in me. People see me and People believe in me in the city of Albany. People have hope in me. People see me and they think I'm the hope. And I believe in Jesus. And so I guess God's working through me to help fix our city. That's what we plan on doing. It's amazing what you're doing. And then, you know, I have another question.
Starting point is 02:16:19 Mm-hmm. You know, we've talked a lot about being a father, becoming a man, it's the lack of male role models in, actually everywhere. And you know, and so I'm just curious, you really resonate with me, especially at the very beginning. And what do you think are the most important attributes to becoming a man?
Starting point is 02:16:49 We have different pillars in our organization, accountability, courage, commitment, consistency. We have, I think, three more, but those are the main ones. And I think all of those are what makes a man, being think, three more, but those are the main ones. And I think all of those are what makes a man, being able to be consistent, being able to be accountable, having courage, all those things are important. And really just being able to have endurance.
Starting point is 02:17:18 Pain is gonna be a gift, and I have to explain it all the time. It's a gift for pain. Pain is what teaches you. You learn with pain. What did we say? Pain is weakness leaving the body. So that's important to me.
Starting point is 02:17:34 And if we teach, I teach the kids that when you're going through things, you're just being built. And so it's almost like always looking at the glass half full as a man. We cannot afford to be sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves or not wanting to go through something. No. What you're looking for is through that pain, through the stress, through the worry and through the doubt. You have to get through it in order to be proud of yourself in the end. And continuously setting goals. That's important.
Starting point is 02:18:02 I think not setting goals and just wanting to be stable. and I will say maybe everybody don't have a big chart. Everybody don't have big visions and things like that. Some people do want to just live the American dream, have their kids, you know, have a wife, barbecue on the weekends, go on vacation once a year. Some people do want to live that life, but for those, you know, men who are aspiring to do a whole lot more, there's gonna be trial, there's gonna be tribulation, and I promise, a lot of those people that you believe in and you have seen their successes, they have more failures than you can count
Starting point is 02:18:29 behind closed doors. They've been through a lot behind closed doors. I have been through a ton behind closed doors, especially just having this organization from personal life issues, bad decisions I've made, et cetera. I've had to learn on my own. Just what I'm doing now. So, really being able to be teachable too. And being able to look at the glass half full
Starting point is 02:18:50 because you have to learn that stress and pain is a gift. I promise it's going to build you. And I look for it. I look for the pain. I look for the stress because I understand on the other side of that is the gift that I was looking for, the goal that I was looking for. So I know when I come up with a new vision, I already know, here we go.
Starting point is 02:19:08 It's about to be some hell I got to pay to get through there. Because God has to teach you, you know, in that time, we'd be thinking we'd be ready for something. God knows we're not ready. So He's going to put you through the trial and tribulation to get there. We can't just put the meat in the oven. You have to season it. You got to beat it.
Starting point is 02:19:22 You know, so you got to tenderize it. You got to season it. You got to get rough with it, you know, etc. Same with a pizza, you can't just throw the dough in the oven. You have to make the dough, you got to knead the dough, you got to beat the dough, you got to toss it up in the air, you got to turn it all types of, you got to put it through the fire, you got to put all this stuff on top of it, and then you finally get the nice pizza. You know, so it's very important to realize you just got to go through it.
Starting point is 02:19:43 People think you don't got to go through it, man, you live in the wrong life, but as a man that's what I believe in. just got to go through it people think you don't got to go through it man You live in the wrong life But as a man, that's what I believe in you got a got to go through the pain. You know, it's a gift for you Yeah, you know you said something else at the beginning I think this is one of the most important at shoes Attributes if not the most important attribute and you know be a band of your word So you're gonna do something you do it You got to do it if you're not worth your word, then you're not worth shit. Absolutely.
Starting point is 02:20:06 And I think that is one of the main things, if not the main thing, but. Yes. Well, King, man, you are a very impressive man. I appreciate it, thank you. I'm just so thankful we met. Me too. And I hope to see you again. Yeah, I would love to. I'm just so thankful we met. Me too. And I hope to see you again.
Starting point is 02:20:26 Yeah, I would love to. I want to see you again. I would love to come back and maybe when my son's a bit, maybe like seven, probably, or eight, he's done a few interviews before, but I think he gets a little bit more competent to be able to give an interview. I would love for you to sit with both of us
Starting point is 02:20:39 and talk to us, because he's going to give some gems. He's very intelligent. That would be amazing. I'd love to do it. Yes, sir. All right, King. Best of luck. Yes, sir.
Starting point is 02:20:49 Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. The NFL is over him. Scorching debates. All the good, all the bad, all the ups, all the downs. He's the Spitfire of sports smack. Sorry for what I said because it was appropriate when I said it, but I can't say it anymore, dude. You are killing the game.
Starting point is 02:21:32 The Jim Rome Show Podcast. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.