Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Todd 'TJ' Duckett Full Interview

Transcript

Todd 'TJ' Duckett Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Listening makes us smarter, more connected people. It makes us
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: better partners, parents, and leaders, and there's no better place
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to start listening than Audible. Audible is where so many
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: inspiring voices and compelling stories open listeners up to new
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: experiences in ways of thinking. Audible members now get more
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: than ever before. Members choose three titles every month, one
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: audiobook plus two Audible originals that you can't hear anywhere else.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Members also have unlimited access to more than a hundred
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: audio guided fitness and meditation programs. Audible delivers best sellers, business,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: self improvement memoirs, and more, all professionally narrated by actors, authors,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and motivational superstars like Rachel Hollis, David Goggins, and Mel Robbins.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Audible members can also get free access to the New
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post delivered daily
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to the Audible app. With a convenient app, members can
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: access Audible any time at the gem, while commuting or
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: on the go, and on any device will always pick
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: right back up where you left off. Audible also offers
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: free and easy audiobook exchanges. Credits you can roll over
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: for a year in a library you keep forever, even
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: if you cancel. Explore all the ways listening on Audible
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: can help improve mind, body, and soul with entertainment, information
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and inspiration. You can get titles from your favorite I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Heeart talent such as Chelsea Handler, Danny Shapiro, Charlemagne the God,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: and Bobby Bones on Audible. Start listening now with a
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: thirty day Audible trial and your first audiobook plus two
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Audible originals are free. Visit audible dot com, slash I
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred, five hundred.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: My next guest is a farmer Atlanta falcons running back
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and gets what we're talking in Atlanta, George. He's from
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Michigan State, one of my favorite schools up there in Michigan.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I know it's cold. He is now the owner of
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Duckett Brothers Distributing and The Printing King. I'm a printing King.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: And see see if you're gonna name a company, put
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a big name on the printing King. You're like printing
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: somebody printing one or one. We are the Printing King.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Please welcome to money making Conversations. Y'all might know him
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: as Todd Jeffrey Duckett. I call him by his playing
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: name t J. Duckett. How you doing that, J What's
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: happening t J. It's really interesting because of the fact
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: that you know Todd Jeffrey that you know you you go,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: you're born with that name, you go to middle school,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: you go through high school, you get to college, and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden you become that brand. And I
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: would saying you have to, but you know that brand
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: can also limit opportunities. So tell us about when you
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: know it was all great? I think you know, work done,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Michael Vick y'all over here, just trampling people and Falcon
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Stadium doing your thing. You know, d v D d
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: v D the big bruiser two in the fifty pound
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: buzzing through the line. You need one, y'r a touchdown?
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Give it to Duckete, Give it to Duckette, give it
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: to t J. You know what I'm saying, You go, Okay,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: that doesn't work in the real world. T J. Don't
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: have that same transition. How did you how did you change?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: How did you how did you make that switch? And
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: we go tell you tell a part of your journey now, yeah, well,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: let's uh, I mean the the journey he got to
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: start in the beginning. Man, So as a kid, as
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a kid having the dream to even just I mean
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a kid, what you want to do when your girl
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: club everybody raised their hand and half of them want
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to sing, they half want to play on the board.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: So I was on the one to play a sports side.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: And and then to to have that that dream, and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: then to see my brother, my old my middle brother
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Tico to eleven years older than me. He actually um
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: went to ended up getting a scholarship at Michigan State,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: became the second all time leading Russia at the school history,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: and kind of paved the way. So to see that
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: dream even closer to home and the potential of it
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: being more realistic, I became I created that identity. I mean,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: as an eight nine year old, I'm t J Duck
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: at this football start. I'm you know, I'm just pretending this.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm visualizing this as a kid, And throughout the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: years you had checkpoints. You couldn't be an eight year
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: old NFL player, but you could be the best kid
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: at the park, And as you get older, you could
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: be the best kid in high school. And then you know,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you keep going rising up the ladder, but you always
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: have that identity, and that identity is what keeps you there,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and so t J being the identity. And then as
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: an eight year old kid, now you get your name
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: calls in the first round of the NFL Draft, you
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: walk into the locker room, you see your name on
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the NFL jersey, you got once in a lifetime. Athletes
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: is like Michael Vick and work done as your teammates.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I mean these this you're at a different level. You've
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: ascended through all the clutter from the beginning and the
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: trials and tribulations. You figured out how to how to
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: take success and manage it and still still be hungry
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: to excel. And you're here and in that space you
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: you're you're playing your idols. You're visiting dream stadiums that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: you've only saw on video games. And you know what
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, you're using yourself on the video game. You
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: go to the store and people want your You're the
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: bobber Job. You go anywhere, and people just love that
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: presence who you are, what you're about. And and they've
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: they've they've grown with you. They saw you as a
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: college kid or a high school kid, and they've seen
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: you make mistakes and they've seen you win championships and
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: then you get to that pentacle at that pinnacle the top.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: And I mean it's it's a job just like anything else.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: It's a job. You gotta come to work every day.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: And the difference is in this job, this job is
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: more passion driven. You gotta love getting hit, you gotta
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: love putting in the time, you gotta love everything about it.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: And if you love that, then you'll have success. You
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: can't just show up to your job hated pushing buttons.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: You'll get hurt, You'll let your teammates. Now, I mean
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: that that's not gonna work. So at the end of
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: my my football career, after playing for a few teams,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: being traded, getting into the takes up the business and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: and it it just took the love away. That passion
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: was gone. And and and that being when that passion left,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: this identity that I created as an eight year old,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: that that just developed into this athlete, I mean, that's
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: not the same. There's another guy wearing forty five in
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Atlanta now. So that's where it's just you get you
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: get into that that that I'm this, I'm that you
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: go into the world and and then it's well, what
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: are you? What are you about? What are your rules?
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: What are your laws? What do you believe in your heart?
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And at the end of my career, man, I was
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: questioning all of that. I had no idea and I
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: was just going through what normally either made me feel
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: good or just going through a a non thinking process
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: of self identification and nothing that didn't identify with the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: world outside of me. Now the n world and outer world.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: There was a conflict. So I had to had to
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: do something. Man had to figure out what the next
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: step is gonna be, you know. So with that being said,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: what that being said? The next step? First of all,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: you know he was the eighteenth pick in the draft.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I tell him with him to gloss over like he
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: was at the bottom of the first round, eighteenth pick.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: When you anyway, you go top twenty, top ten is
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: where you you you you really want to go top fifteen,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: top twenty, you number eighteen pick. Now you went from Michigan,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Northern Michigan up there. Then you come down to a
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: city that's a predominantly strong African American based city, which
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: is which is Atlanta. And then but you guys changed
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: the African American presence at football games. And why was that?
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: You know, the African American community just graphic there. You
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: had that done, you have worked down which is stronger community.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I just brilliantly talented stud Lee eighteenth pick in the draft,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: bruiser coming up. And then you had the fleet of foot,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the fastest quarterback in the history of the NFL. And
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Michael Vick. Why you guys were like a like a
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: like a like rock stars. That's it. I mean I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: think that that's exactly what what it was. And um,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: you know, like you said, being from from up north
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: in Michigan and coming down to live in Atlanta, there
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: was a culture that I even learned a lot about. Yeah,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: you know, it just it was something that I just
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I didn't have a chance to really experience now one
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: was until I started living there. And and the energy,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: the music, the flow's so it's so real and it
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: just touches your soul. And I think our game, our
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: team emulated the same thing. Whether it was the fast, quick,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: it was the bruising, it was the excitement, it was
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the music, it was the DJs on the sideline. I mean,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: it was everything. And and for for me, that was
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: I mean playing in Atlanta that first year, the first
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: couple of years there, that was the dream as an
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: eight year old kid. I mean that we were winning
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: game games. I mean it was amazing. And then as
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: I started to get traded, different cities and different teams
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: have different cultures and different makeups and and and that's
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: where I mean some of the teams you can see
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: how there was success, and others you can see how
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: there wasn't success. And but being in Atlanta that was.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: It was a special time, man of a special place
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: in a special time. And the group of guys, the
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: team it was, it was awesome. The city was awesome,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: but it still is awesome. They still got major love
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: and and the Birds are playing great too. Now. Man,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: they know they hurt you. I know they hurt you
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, like they heard everybody, man,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: But they got there. You got there. The other thing,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: you know, the other things like you you mentioned, you know,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: being the eight team pick overall. After after I got
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: done playing there, I went through this depression where I
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: was questioning even the success I had playing football. And
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: then you think, like you sit back like you were
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: eighteens overall in the whole world, every kid, every person
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: in a in a ten or so age range. You
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. You were eighteen, Like, that's that's
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: pretty phenomenal. And and then from there you made a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: team that the thirty thirty two teams in the league
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that everybody wants to play on. And you were able
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: to do that for seven years. I mean, those were
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: feats that were phenomenal without getting caught up and I
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: didn't make a Super Bowl, Um didn't do this where
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you actually had the chance to do what you did
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and you loved for a long time. So that's something
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: that that got clouded to during the process. So that
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: was that was that was the point where you're trying
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to find your identity when you left. Yeah, and so
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: what I do and what you what you do? What
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: you did and what you do? Now? Okay, do you
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: have value or why would anybody want to recognize you
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: for anything other than carrying a football? So I know
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and the biders say that you wanted to build your
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: brand under Todd and not t J Why yes? So, um,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: during this during when when football season, when football ended,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I was doing a lot of questions in life and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: going through in and out of dark spaces, highs, lows,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and um, I found myself in a very very low
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: place that didn't resonate with with who I was raised
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: to be in and what it was about. And and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: in that moment, that's when I really jumped into religion,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: really jumped into the church. And that's all I knew
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: from from here, my parents, my family. If mom or dad,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: brother and sister can't be there, pray and answers will happen.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And so doing that, it shook my soul man and
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I ended up leading myself. It led me to a
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: forty day fast at just water. So I went forty
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: days and forty nights, about seventy pounds eighty pounds. So
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: we ended up happening. I I the two and fifty
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: pounds football player Big Beard, ended up it than ninety pounds.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: And Beard's gone looks nothing like, nothing like. I couldn't.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: And so I started going into a lot of familiar
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: places that I normally would just stroll in and get
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: that attention, and people didn't even sliding. You were sliding
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: me I was going to and in clubs or something,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I'd get stopped in normal places where I would just
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: walk right in and hold on, you can't get in here.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: And I would be like, hold what They'd be like, Oh,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I ain't know that was you. I ain't know that
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: was you. Man, you So you lost the person. You
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: lost the person, your lost the identity, you see what
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I'm saying. And so what that made me question things
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: as far as like, so all my life have my
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: friends been hanging out with me just to get in clubs?
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Because they'd be at the front door. I said I'll
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: be there in an hour or two hours, and they
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: say they don't wait. Just started it started just questioning
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: every relationship that I ever had, and and and in
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: those moments it was like, man, they just loved to
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and what t J could provide and TJ this and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: t AT that. They're I'm thinking, Okay, Todd is a
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: name I never. I'm still me, but that's the name
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: might never you know, lived and learned and not after
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: this fast my habits changed where I was going change
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the identity change? But I need a name, you see
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: what I You gotta with a name, you know. And
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: so it was a rebirth and it was my new
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: it was me. Now let's see who Todd Ducket is
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: gonna be in this world. So that's where the name started.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: And from there, I mean I I literally had to.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I zoned out on anything involved in football, anything involved
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: in the name TJ. Because I'm creating a new idea.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I'm creating a new space, and in this space, as
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: an adult, as a conscious adult, I can determine what
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: that's going to be. And so doing that, Man, it
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: was cheap. No, it's Todd. This is who you're talking.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: So you're not gonna get the same conversation that you
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: would have had before. Todd. Hold hold that thought. We're
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: gonna be back because of the backside. We're gonna hear
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: about the business, being in business with your brother and
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the printing team. I'm gonna fall with the printing team,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the Prince and King. Money making conversation coming right back. Hi,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: this ra Sean McDonald. You're listening to money making conversation
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: on the phone. One of the eighteen pick in the
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: NFL draft running back superstar has made the transition to
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: be a business man entrepreneur Todd Jeffrey Duckett uh during
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a professional game for the whole first part of our
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: interviews about t J. Now, we're gonna do the whole
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: part about that transitioning and how he lost seventy pounds
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: people don't recognize. And it was a really a really
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a strong uh point of uh you change for him?
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Are they? Who am I? And where do you about
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: go forward? And so when we talk about that the
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: business aspect, you you know, God played the guard played
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: a major role in that transition. Help us with that
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and uh and I know that you know, it's about faith,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: it's about transition, it's about being able to motivate yourself
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and tell us about that. Yeah, yeah, so all that
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: uh save motivations. But again back to my brother and
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: the people put in your life. My brother he played
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: four years in the league as well, but he absolutely
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: made that transition. He came back to Lansing and started
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: working as a on the on the factory floor, and
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: he worked there for a few years and worked his
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: way up to become a buyer at the company, worked
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: his way all the way out to start his own
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: distribution company and selling to that company that started him
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and kind of kept it growing. So as I'm playing,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I'm keeping my eye on this, I'm seeing this um
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: and in the meantime, I'm also investing in the company.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I'm not there physically, I'm just
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: there financially. Um. And so when the when the game ended,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the vision was shoe walk off the ceiling in the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: very next moment, walk into the business world and got
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: a company and everything's rolling. So I did that, but
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: the depression set in because that was a whole I
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: didn't have any skills. I didn't know how to meeting,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: how to conduct myself. As far as the terminology, I
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: didn't know what what what they were talking about. And
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: so my ego took a shot, started questioning should I
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: even have been here? Should still be playing football? Because
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: I know that people are and we're selling toilet paper,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: you know, Chanctorial Distributions, Cleanup Facilities management company. So I'm
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: going in and I'm gonna ask cold call and asking
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: people where they like to buy toilet paper, and they're like,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: ain't you the guy I just got done playing Or
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I'm like yeah, and then and not only that, but
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: then they're like, oh that's funny, nice job, and then no,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: we already have a supplier, and I'm like, now, yeah,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: well everything used to be good, but but we started
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: talking about the money in the business. Y'all don't want
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to shake my hand now, So that really took I
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: took a hit there, and it took me even deeper
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: into uh, just that dark space. And so I ended
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: up going back to Michigan State and lower and the
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: whole class that I took was a class that we
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: had to create a business. And I'm big into volunteering,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: giving and serving. I'm heavy in the community and UM,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I also wanted to get into clothing getting fashion. So
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: our group we ended up creating a T shirt printing
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: company that um we had to we uh we were
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: making shirts for mainly nonprofits at a super discounted rate,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: UM and which. But it gave me a chance to
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: start from the beginning of how to create a business plan,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: how to read a resume, write a resume. We had
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to do all those things, so I was able to
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: then at least get some groundworking and have an understanding
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: of the fundamentals of the business. So took this other
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: business and not as I'm growing this T shirt business.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: It was called Simple Team the beginning. As I'm growing
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: this T shirt business, I'm getting all the initial bumps
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and bruises as of a first initial business owner. I'm
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: hitting them all hitting. I mean, that's just they're hard.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: But again, luckily I had this brother who had hit
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: them before ten years earlier, so he's able to walk
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: me through the steps. Now, a lot of people don't
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: know or have entrepreneurs and their family are close that
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: will really share the deal, just like going to a
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: football camp or having a coach that will take you
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: through a sport. So so having him there guided me
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: through the these obstacles I could I could actually see
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: how you practice, and then it carries over into a
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: game or a business deal. So I started switching my
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: transition from football terminology and just putting it into the
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: business world. And this became the same competition, became the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: same challenges. I just now started to have that passion
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and that drive to do something. So from there I
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: can see that you can grow your business by reaching
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: out to others and doing certain things. And then you
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: have to learn your learn your quick books, and you
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: have to learn how to financially make money, not just
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: actually get it, but make it, and then you can
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: actually work in the community. So started a nonprofit after that,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: and and and the world just opened up. Man just
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: opened up with potential that we all could do if
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: you're willing to focus for your season and fight for
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: that championship and build a strong team. And the entrepreneurial
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: world became identical to how it was in the football world.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: You start in your backyard, you're the best kid at
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: eight years old, and then as you were sinning, you
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: might be the best in the city or the neighborhood.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: And same thing with business. You might be the best
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: in your small little community, and then you reach out
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to a couple of other cities, and then you rise
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: into the into the whole entire state. So the evolution
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: of Simple t the printing company ended up becoming the
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: printing king because now we actually do more than just
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: shirts and clothing. We do signs, we do mirrors, we
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: have expanded stickers. Had had to evolve, had to be
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the simple team. Couldn't we ain't simple teas no more,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you don't do that. Yeah, it's something that really dripped
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: me out when you said you co found the Black
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Success Network. Yes, yes, so, um a group of us
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: are myself another another. Just like you said with the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: draft pick, you know, he just kind of glossed over
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: like it's no big deal because I just see because
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: you know, people have asked me to join the Black
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: success now, ducky, I gotta go. I gotta join that. Yes,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: yes man. So a group of us, we UH started
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: capturing videos of successful African Americans and they're telling their
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: stories and we didn't have we didn't have enough of
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: us our stories being told and documented and saved. And
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: by telling these stories, these aren't out there. There's some
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: athletic stories, but these are careers, different careers, journeys, so
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: you're able to hear different careers and how they started
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: at where they started, in the ride they had to
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: go through. You've got different time frames, different generations for
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the culture tone is different, but there's a lot of
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: similar undertones and the conversations. And this has led us
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: to now creating our career training camp where all the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: things I just mentioned that I didn't understand about business,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: I didn't understand about the workplace, where now teaching those
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: we're teaching the soft skills. We're teaching how to do resumes,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: were teaching how to present yourself not just once you
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: get to the job, but how do you get through
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the job. Can call and say you're gonna be late.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: You have to do these things so uh that the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: goal is to just keep educating, inspiring and telling our
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: stories to keep influence our people to strive for success.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Uh no, no different than the show. This show you
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: got us all right now trying to follow your footsteps
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: and keep keep the path, keep the path hot, because
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: it's happening. It's happening, and we just gotta keep doing
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: it and keep doing it together. I'm just telling you
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: can talk now. You're a natural talker and a natural
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: motivating I know you. You must be doing a lot
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: of good speaking opportunities and share wealth out there, tell
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: people how they can get in touch with you. Yes, yeah,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: um my straight uh info at Ducket Enterprise dot com.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Um it's t J. Duckett dot com. Um as well
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: and my law on Facebook. I'm on uh Instagram. But yeah,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I do do a lot of traveling and sharing this
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: story and it resonates well with people who are are
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: not just athletes, people who have a big goal that
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: they want to achieve, but also people who have achieved
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: their big goal, their life goal. What's next? What do
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: you do next? What's the next step? And and just
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: like a car, you've got to rechange the oil. We
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: got to rechange your oil. We have to figure out
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: what we're about and either re add new of the
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: same same, the same mid grade oil that we live on,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: or before we go I'll be I want to definitely
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: get out the New World Flood the mission, community and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: council research campaign that you've got together, because you know,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: we can talk about your football group, we can talk
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: about you as an entrepreneur, but it was what you're
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: doing in the community that's even more uplifting. Expound on
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that and the reason is there, Yes, sir, it's a
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: New World flood, flood in the world through given and service,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: a single rang drop at a time. The name comes
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: from New World that went from Old World Sports Center
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: ESPN football to New World opening the paper and the
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: local section in your in the paper, what's going on locally?
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: What how can you be involved in the flood? Comes
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: back to the forty days forty nights of my own
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: fast but also in most cultures there's a flood and
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: after the flood came, it washed away the old and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: there was a fresh renew birth. And when our organization
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: comes in volunteers with you, comes and inspires comes in
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and does things with you. Whatever is placed you in.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: When we leave you, you will have fresh new growth
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: if you have a heart that's willing. And right now
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: we've actually just bought a community center and Landing just
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: bought a building in Lanting, Michigan that we're turning into
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: renovating into a community center to create a home for
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: all the great programs that we do in a base
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: to radiate that that energy and lancing. So this is
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: this is, this is the passion, This is that w
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: NFL for me. You're preaching that, you're preaching that californzoo, califorzoo.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Love it, love it well, you know thinks the great
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: thing about it. That's why you're absolutely right. That's why
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I created this show, Money Making Conversation so people can
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: hear these stories and also hear the background and the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: secrets to success. And you wouldn't tell people. Look, I
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: went to a place that I wasn't happy, but it
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: motivated me to change physically, mentally and spiritually. And these
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: changes make me who I am today. Not so much
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: that I can't forget my past, but also the past
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: was just a foundation and your There are people called
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: mentors your biggest mentor just happened to be your oldest brother.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: As an entrepreneur, findal relationship that you can believe in.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, find a relationship that that you can
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: depend on because you cannot be successful by yourself. Mr Duckett,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I want to thank you for coming on my show.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I hope we're friends. Man, we're friends. DJ come off
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: that last see Michigan State, Calamazoo. Keep doing it the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: big brother, and then you keep winning brother and know
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: you've got a friend of Rashan McDonald. Much love. Listening
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: makes us smarter, more connected people. It makes us better partners, parents,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: and leaders. And there's no better place to start listening
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: than Audible. Audible is where so many inspiring voices and
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: compelling stories open listeners up to new experiences in ways
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: of thinking. Audible members now get more than ever before.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Members choose three titles every month, one audiobook plus two
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: audible originals that you can't hear anywhere else. Members also
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: have unlimited access to more than a hundred audio guided
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: fitness and meditation programs. Audible delivers best sellers, business, self
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: improvement memoirs, and more, all professionally narrated by actors, authors,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and motivational superstars like Rachel Hollis, David Goggins, and Mel Robbins.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Audible members can also get free access to the New
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post delivered daily
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to the Audible app. With a convenient app, members can
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: access Audible any time at the gym, while commuting or
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: on the go, and on any device will always pick
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: right back up where you left off. Audible also offers
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: free and easy audiobook exchanges. Credits you can roll over
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: for a year in a library you keep forever even
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: if you cancel. Explore all the ways listening on Audible
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: can help improve mind, body, and soul. With entertainment, information
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: and inspiration. You can get titles from your favorite I
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Heeart talent such as Chelsea Handler, Danny Shapiro, Charlemagne the God,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and Bobby Bones on Audible. Start listening now with a
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: thirty day Audible trial and your first audiobook plus two
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Audible originals are free. Visit audible dot com, slash I
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: heart or text i Heeart to five hundred, five hundred