Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Rushion interviews Brian Custer, Emmy Award-winning ESPN sportscaster, discussing HBCUs, Kappa Alpha Psi, ESPN, and surviving Prostate Cancer!

Transcript

Rushion interviews Brian Custer, Emmy Award-winning ESPN sportscaster, discussing HBCUs, Kappa Alpha Psi, ESPN, and surviving Prostate Cancer! · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: It's to show that she is the secrets of success
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: experience firsthand by marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: will know he's giving me advice on many occasions. And
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: in case you didn't notice, I'm not broke. You know
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Decision make because it's what he likes to do. It's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: what he likes to share.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Now it's time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Money Making Conversations.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Here we go.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. I'm your host, Rashwan McDonald.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Our theme is that there's no perfect time to start
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: following your dreams. I recognize that we all have different
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: definitions of success. For you, it may be decided of
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: your paycheck. Mine has inspire you to accomplish your goals
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: and live your very best life. It's time to stop
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: reading other people's success stories and start living your own.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: People always talk about their purpose or gift. If you
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: have a gift, leave with your gift and don't let
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: your friends, family, or coworker stop you from planning or
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: living your dream.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: My guest today.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Is Amy Award winning sportscaster Brian custom well dressed.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: He joined ESPN in July twenty twenty one.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Is an acre for a sports center and they played
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: by play commentator for college football and basketball.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: He also has a.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Keen eye for fashion and his distinct love for picking
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: up patterns for his custom tailor suits and finding the
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: way to find that right time to match it. This
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: realis man is an avid watch collector, sneaker head and
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: co enthusiasts. Customer holds a degree in Broadcast Journalism from
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: HBCU as they see the real h Hampton University. A
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: cancer survivor, he's a sposed person for the pro State
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Prostate Cancer Foundation. Please welcome to Money Making Conversations master Class.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: And I'm gonna get him a hard time because he
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: ain't well dressed, y'all.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Brian Custer.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: Very very well dressed because I got the colors on.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I love it man. How you doing, sir man.
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: It's a pleasure to be on the show.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: I'm glad we was able to connect me because I
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: am a fan and uh you know when I when
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: I when we look at life man, because life as
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: a young person.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: You don't see thirty. Sometimes you don't see forty.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: I'm talking about when your team and then twenty years old,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: and then and then as you.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Go through Let's go back to your early years.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Because you came out of high off of the state
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: of Ohio, Okay, and you went to Hampton. How did
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: that translate your mind from Ohio to Hampton?
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: Well, I think like any youngster who was born in Columbus, Ohio,
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: that's all you eat, live and breathe. Ohio State, love
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Ohio State football, love Ohio State basketball.
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: And for me, it was.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: Always a goal to want to play basketball at Ohio State,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: you know, going through high school. And I knew that,
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: Hey look, you know I'm only six two, so I
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: wouldn't getting any taller.
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: I had dream of playing basketball at Ohio State.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: Kind of vanished, and then it was like, Okay, where
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: else can I go to play? Am I going to
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: go to like a Division two school in Ohio?
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: You know what am I going to do? And you
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: know this is how? This is how the Lord speaks
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: to you? Was that?
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: So I went to church one Sunday and the guest
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: speaker was the chaplain from Hampton and he was talking
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: about how Hampton was this and how all of the
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: best young black men come out of Hampton University. And
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: it was almost like, you know what, maybe I ought
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: to just give up this dream of playing basketball and
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: just go to then HBCU. And sure enough, I went
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: down after service talked to Michael Battle, who eventually became
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: the president of Virginia State. And I went down there
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: and talked to him and I said, man, Hampton sounds great,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: you know, And he said, you know, I hear you're
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: a good basketball player. I hear your grades are good.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: Doc tells me a lot about you. And he said,
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: what are your grades? Like, I said, I got a
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: three six? He said, you got a three six Sidney
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: your transcript. Wow, I'll make sure you get into Hampton.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: And that's what I did, and he did. He got
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: me into Hampton, and I just gave up basketball, the
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: dream of playing basketball in college and to him, university.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Now, let letters this was your initial dream. Now you articulate,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: have a nice voce tone, winted. The whole idea of
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: being in television from from in front of the camera
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: site start creeping into your mind because it says journalism
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: but then all of a sudden, now you're in broadcast.
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I mean for me, I knew what I wann't
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: to do when I was five.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: You know, I was raised primarily by my mother and
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: my grandmother, and we lived with my grandmother and she
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: was one of those who watched Walter Kronkrite CBS Evening News,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: and so I would sit right next to her and
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: that's what we watched every night.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: At six thirty booms, she turned it on and we
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: would watch that.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: And as I got older, I would say, like seventh
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: eighth grade and you may remember this with Sean kids
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: now don't remember, you know, listen they had MTV, you
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: know when we were.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: In college and think that. But before that, on Friday nights,
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: it was something called Friday Night Video.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely do you remember that?
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: And so I remember at Friday nights, I will be
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: watching Friday Night Videos. But before that came on, my
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: grandmother used to always watch the show Nightline and Ted
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: Copple was the host of Nightline and I thought he
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: had Wow. It was just his voice. It just threw
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: me in and the way he interviewed people. He could
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: interview people of all races, all religions, and he just
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: the way he conducted his interviews. I was enthralled, I
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: was captivated, and I was in seventh eighth grade. At
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: that point, I knew I wanted to do television. And
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: as I got even older, because I loved sports so much,
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: I knew I wanted to get into sports broadcast.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: You know when I was talking to Steve. I talked
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: to Steve Eismith all the time, and he said that,
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: like you, he was watching TV and he was inspired.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: He was inspired by Howard Cosell.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: And now you know, one of the people inspires him today,
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: of course is Brian Gumbele. From an African Americans perspective,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: who did you have as an inspiration?
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: So again from watching sports all the time, one of.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: The guys who I loved was IRV Cross because I
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: would oh, yes, CBS, CBS man football right before that,
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: you know, the football games on.
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: So as a kid, that's who I saw. I thought
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: IRV Cross, uh.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: Was the guy, And and then it became James Brown
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: for me. You know, James Brown was a guy who
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: I just I just loved his professionalism, the way he
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: conducted himself, the way he used his words, his vocabulary.
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: I mean, and and for him and me and him
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: have become great friends.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: He's becoenna. He's been a great mentor for me. I
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: you text him, call him for any advice. It's you know,
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: that's That's the one thing I love about this this
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: business is that when you've idolized and looked up to
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: someone and then they become a friend, a mentor.
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: Uh, there's nothing better. So for me from an African American,
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: there there were.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: A couple of people earth cross obviously because I would
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: watch sports all time, James Brown, Uh.
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: And then on the female side, right, if you remember
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: on ABC News Carol Simpson.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely, God, I just I mean it was like
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: for me, it was like the first time seeing a
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: black woman on network television.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: So those to me, those are.
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: Like icons Mount Rushmore type people when it comes to broadcasting.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: That conversation we got to talk about.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: You know you over at Hampton you you know, you
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: got all these great fraternities.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: On campus, all right, all of them.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: You know, you know, I'm a I'm a Vega man
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: and you're a camp aple side knew Kine Walker.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: What inspired you to go that way? Because it's all good.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: I'm playing with you because because the bottom line about
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: black fraternity is about uplift community, you gotta have a
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: GPA to get in. And a lot of times people
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: forget that because all they hear about is just just
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to step in, and they hear the word party in
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: and that is such a low level of why we
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: are part of lifetime members of these fraternities.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: What inspired you to become a member of camp aside, well.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: Listen, you know you you're influenced by your environment. My
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: older brother was a kappa, my younger brother is a kapa.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: My neighbor growing up was a kappa. Uh, so you know,
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: obviously that was really for me. That's what I knew.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: And you know when I went to Hampton if you
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: you know, and and for people who know about Hampton University,
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: it was run by q's I mean doctor Harvey, big
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: time q uh doctor Khalan who was in charge of
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: UH punishment and things of that nature. Q. I mean
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: all the administration were q. Some of my best friends
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: are cused. But for me, all I knew Waskapa Alpha
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: said when I got there, Kappas were suspended and uh.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: But there were a few noops on the on the
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: yard and they were just great and befriended a couple
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: of them. Uh, and I just knew. I mean, for me,
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: there was no other way uh to go. It's it's
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: almost like Rashaan, you know, the only thing I could
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: tell you is now, I don't know what you've been told,
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: but the streets of having our purple of gold the
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: world appeared to me in a dream, and he said,
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: the streets are having are crimson and creams.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, I ain't gonna go ahead on you. I let
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: you just lie.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: Oh oh mag yeah, oh oh mag, god baby.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Oh oh mad. Somebody trying to sneak in a frat.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I can't finish it on my podcast direction. But you know,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: my brother, you know it's great man.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: You know when we think about our lives and our youth,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: because that's that's the part of our life.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Where we feel invincible.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: You know, we just see the future, the possibilities, and
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: sometimes you can't see the possibility because it's so far away.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: And when you still you start seeing people thirty and forty,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: you can't even imagine that.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: Brian, So when did this start coming into play, that
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: this career it was a possibility for you?
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: Well, you know when I when I was in high school,
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: you know, obviously playing sports and doing a lot of things.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: The principal at my high school, you know, really he
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: took a liking to me, and he always said, hey,
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: look I need.
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: You in a leadership role.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: And I went to a school called Westernville North High
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: School in Westernville, Ohio. It's a suburb of Columbus, and uh,
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: he said, you know, I need you to take a
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: leadership role. Especially in my junior senior year. One of
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: the things we did was we produced a video for
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: our school, and he went, I had I got to
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: help like narrate it and do that.
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: I was out kind of out front when they shot it.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: So I did those kinds of things, and he gave
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: me an internship. I got into an internship program that
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: was for high school and it was about placing you
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: in a professional setting in a obviously in a job
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: that you're interested in. So I wanted to be sports,
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: a sports anchor, and they placed me with the sports
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: anchor at NBC. And so I would go there every
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: weekend and I was like an intern man. I did
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: whatever he wanted me to do, and I did that
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: basically my senior year. When I wasn't in season playing basketball,
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: I would go, and then when it was over, I
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: still went and I would just go and hang out
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: with Doug.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: I remember the sports taker guy named Douglas Cells.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: And I would just go there and still go and
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: help out even when the internship was over. When I
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: was in college, when I would come home from Hampton,
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: I would still go up to the station and go
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: help him out.
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: And I just knew this was what I want to do.
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: And I was at Hampton, I mean.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: You know, I got the opportunity to call football game,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: I called minor league baseball game, all kinds of stuff,
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: and I just knew that this was going to be
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: my calling. And I was lucky enough that when I
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: graduated from Hampton, my first job was in radio. I
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: got a job back in Columbus, Ohio at the news
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: radio station. And this is what you know, kids, they
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: wanted like this these days. But my first job, man
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: was that uh news radio station. I worked from midnight
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: to eight and at the top of the hour, I
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: came on and I delivered the newscast for five minutes, right,
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: And that's what I did man, from midnight to eight o'clock.
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: In the morning.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: And I worked that job chund for like a year
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: and a half and and and then uh, they they
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: promoted me and they said, Okay, what we're gonna do
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: is now you're gonna, uh, you're gonna come in and
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: they said, we're gonna shave your hours where you can
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: work just just halfway.
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: You'll work from uh six o'clock to ten o'clock.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: You're gonna come in and do do the newscast top
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: of the hour, and then we're gonna have you work
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: another four hours from like it was from four to eight.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: You're gonna we're gonna send you out and report. And
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: then I had to like cover the school board, city hall,
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: all kinds of stuff like that. I was like, I
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: can't do sports, and they were like, nah, I and
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: so but I did it. And the crazy thing was,
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: and you know this all of like the news directors
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: in town, you know, their radios were set to that
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: news radio stage. That's what they got up to, and
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: so they would hear my voice at the top of
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: the hour. And the news director at the ABC station,
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: he thought I was a white guy, right, and he
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: ended up calling me and right out of the state,
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: said hey, look, I'd like to meet you for dinner.
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: I ended up.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: I'm twenty three, twenty four years old. I ended up
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: meeting this guy at Chili's. I'll never forget it in
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: Columbus for dinner one night and I pulled in heat
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: and the look on his face and I never did it.
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: Mike Kevio, nice guy.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: He just said, you certainly don't look the way he
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: told me.
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: That's what he said. You certainly don't look the way
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: you sound. I thought you were much older.
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: And quite and you gotta admit you gotta remember see,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: people don't realize this too.
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: We're shon. This was in the nineties. People can they talked.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: We talked much different in the nine gus than we
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: talked today.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, And he said that you look you look much different,
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: and he goes, I gotta be honest with you.
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: You're you're darker than.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: I thought you were light and h That's how I
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: got my first job in Tellis. He offered me a
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: news reporter job.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: You know, you know, I know we always said that,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: you know, the kids that they don't want to work hard, well,
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: in some way they don't have to with the way
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: social media allows them to grow these brands and jump
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: out on TikTok and jump out on Instagram and especially YouTube.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: They're millionaires and thousandaires just tied to their subscriber base
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: as influencers. It's really incredible how that game has changed
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: and allow people I call them innovators. I don't I
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: don't really jump down too hard on because if I
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: had that technology, no telling what I would be doing.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Because I'm using technology now to be able to produce
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: this and feel like I'm in a studio and it's
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: really just in my office building. So technology allows us
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: to like bridge some gaps.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: But as you as you.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Go through these journeys, you know you and I share
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: a story. When I say share a story, it's tied
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: to cancer, and I just want to share a little
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: bit of my story because I want to hear your
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: entire story because it's important. And one of the reasons
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: I brought you on the show, Brian, not the fact
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: that you are successful. And I feel that everybody wants
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: to be And I say everybody because everybodys sitting at
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: home want to be a play by play who watching
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: watching football, baseball, basketball, soccer, They want to do play
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: by play. But when I was diagnosed with tyrod cancer
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: in twenty fifteen. I can remember, just like today, when
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: they said the word cancer.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: You know, I heard.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: It, and then they said something that we can. Then
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: they just use the word treaty. We can, probably we can.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: We called it early, sir, we could treat it. But
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: I just stayed on the word cancer because all I
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: all I all I heard was Wow, who survives cancer?
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: How can I live? How could I tell my family?
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: How can I go public with this and tell people
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: that I work with? How would that affect how they
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: look at me? It really started resonating with me in
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: such a powerful way that it scared me.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: And it also allowed me to put.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: My life in perspective because I didn't tell my wife
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: immediately because I wanted to find out where I was
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: at mentally.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: And when I.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Looked at it, it's all about where you at in life.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: And at that point, and I still today, I felt
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: that I was good if it was going to go
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: that way. I was good because I'd accomplished the things
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: that I've always wanted to do in my life.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I felt I was a good person.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: I felt I had enabled other people to be successful
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: tied to the talents that God gave me, and I
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: was cool with it, but it still was a moment
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: in my life where time did stand still.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I tell you, Rachelle, I don't know if you
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: could see my arm and that hair is standing up,
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: because it's almost like everything you said happened to me,
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: because you know it look like you.
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: It was basically ten years ago.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: Ten years ago in August was when I got diagnosed
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: with prostate cancer. Like even like today, I feel like
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: I'm in the best shape of my life. Even then,
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: I was a forty two year old man, strong this
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: and that, doing martial arts, boxing, playing who doing all
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: kinds of crazy. But the one thing about it was
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: I'm probably the only person in my family who goes
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: to the doctor and gets an annual checkup every year.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: Religious the only person in my family who would do that.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: And just went to my regular checkup and the doctor
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: was telling me like, hey, man, you know if we
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: need to do your PSA, you know, because you're forty.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: Now, and da da da da da.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: And at the time, I was like, what's the PSA
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: for proste I didn't even know what my prostate was.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: I know what my prostate did and I was like, yeah,
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: for what.
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: And they were like, yeah, well, you know it's something
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: that is affecting men of color and you should, you know,
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: we should, you know, take this. It's just a blood test.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: And then I've got to do a digital rector exam.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, all I thought was that
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: movie Flesh. I don't know about this doctor right, And
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: it was that kind of that stigma, like I don't know,
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: and he was like, look, we need to do it.
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: And we did it. And just to be to be
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: full full disclosure this, I really got it. When I
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: was forty we did it, and in any the following
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: year when I went to my physical, he wanted to
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: do it again to give me the PSA one I
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: was giving my face and I was like.
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: Look, we did that last year.
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: The results came back, I was good, and we ain't
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: got to do that and we blew it off. And
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: then when I was forty two went to back and
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: get my physical, He's like.
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: Oh, let's do your PSA. I was like, ah, we
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: did it last year. I wouldn't again, stigma. I wouldn't
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: have him trying to stick his finger up. I was
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: like that absolutely not down with that, and so he
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: was like, no, I.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: Think we need to do it because we didn't do
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: it last year.
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: You didn't want to do it. And luckily, you know what,
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: we did it.
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: And when he gave me the digital rectord exam, he
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: felt the bump on my prostat and he said, look,
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: when the results come back, if they're above a four,
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: then you know we got to talk. If not, then
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: you know, maybe it's just a calcium deposit or something.
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: But I'm a little worried about that bump. Results did
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: come back and they were a five point four. Wow,
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: And in my mind I was trying to justify it.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: So I was like, oh, that's not that high. Over
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: a four, maybe it's pretty good.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: You know. I just put the results away and didn't
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: even think about it.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: And then maybe two weeks later I ended up calling him,
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: left him a voicemail and he was like, yeah, it
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: means we need to you know, you need to come
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: back in and we need to do another one. Did
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: another PSA test, bump was still there, results were still high,
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: and then we had the biopsy, and at this time
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: he was kind of like you. He was like, look,
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: we're not gonna say don't say nothing to your family,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: don't say nothing to nobody, because I think we ought
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: to know what it is before we go forward, and
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: we don't want to scare anybody because it really could
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: just be a spike, It could be a calcium deposit.
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: And so I was not saying to anybody. Man. And
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: I had that biopsy, man, and you know that, as
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: you know, it was horrible and uh.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: And I just remember driving into work into the city
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: in New York City one time and I looked on
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: my phone and it was two one two, so I
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: knew it was the doctor. And I called and I
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: was like, oh, yeah, I'm about to go into the work,
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: into the job right now.
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: You can just give me the results. And he was like, nah,
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: I think you ought to come to the office. Yeah,
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: And at that point.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Which was basically was giving you the results. Yes.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: I made a five block walk to his office, and
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: I felt like that movie Dead Man walking because I
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: knew something was going down and it was kind of
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: like you. As soon as I walked in the office,
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: the assistant was like, Brian Custer's.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: Here, He's ready for you. And I walked right into
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: his office.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: He was sitting there and I'll never forget every time
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: he said, listen, man, there's there's never any way to
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: tell you this. You know, you got cancer. It's aggressive,
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: it's looking around, and he said, I gotta be honest,
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: I gotta I gotta find somebody, a specialist and get
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: you into surgery.
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: Like now, he said.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: And at that time, all I saw when he all
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: I saw, all I heard was cancer.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: How did you dance that moment of being confident comfortable
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: to talk about that?
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: And so here's here's the thing again, I'm going back
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: to what you is. This is in twenty thirteen, so
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: the times now again are a little bit different. My
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: whole aspect at that point was I don't want nobody
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: to know.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: First of all, I was like many other guys. I'm like,
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: I'm forty two. I got prosta. This is an old
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: man's disease.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: All I used to hear about was your grandfather and
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: this and that got prostate cancer, not a forty two
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: year old man.
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: And I'm not trying to.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: Tell anybody this and tell anybody I got cancer because
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: now people don't think I'm gonna be dead. And I
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: remember the doc was like, you know, look, we'll keep
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: it to ourselves, you're gonna we're gonna, we're gonna get
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: you into surgery and you're gonna be okay. And so
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: I remember going to the network and I had to
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: talk to our president. Our president. Our president was in
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: the room, the vice president of the network was in
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: the room, and so was the PR guy. I told
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: him what I had. You know, obviously I was very emotional.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: They were like, look, we're gonna keep it quiet. We're
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: just gonna say that you're going off on vacation and
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: then you know, we'll address it. We will address it
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: after you have surgery and we know everything is okay
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: at that point, then we'll let people know. But until
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: that time, Brian, what do you want to do? And
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I said, well, I'm gonna keep working and I'm not
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: gonna say anything. And they were like, look, we're not
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: gonna say And I didn't say anything to anybody until
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: the day I had surgery. Was the day I made
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: it public that I had prost tact cancer. And the
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: only reason why was because my doctor he referred to
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: a specialist who is the guy named David Somati here
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: in New York who does who does surgeries on prostact
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: can great urologists. And I remember he's saying, I'm the best, Brian,
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: You're gonna be great. I know it's aggressive, but we're
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: gonna go in there. We're gonna get your prostate and
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna take care of you. And he said, I'm
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: only going to ask one thing of you, and he said,
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: I need you to use your platform to help men
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: of color about this disease, because he says it is
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: ravaging your men of color and they need somebody to face,
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: a young face like you to see that look, it's okay,
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: I have it too, and it's all right, it's not
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: don't be shameful about it and be honest about it, Brian.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: He goes, that's the only thing I'm going to ask
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: of you, and at that point I was like, doctor,
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: I'm not trying to tell nobody. He said, that's the
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: only thing I can ask. And after discussing it with
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: my family and everything, I said, okay, you know, obviously
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: I have it for a reason, and God put me.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know, And it's important.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: He said that because of the fact that when I
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: talk sometimes a cancer I always tell people I know
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: I don't look like a cancer survivor because people stereotype
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: of the cancer survivor look like gray hair, come poorly
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: out of shape, you know, down on they love you, know,
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: they kind of like stigmatize them the look a certain way,
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: so it can't ever be me, when it will definitely
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: be you because of the possibility of your lack of knowledge,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: lack of education, lack of resistance, like you resisted of
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: years of getting these checkups and and and it only
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: just got words to think about cancer. Cancer don't go
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: away without help. It's gonna just keep winning until you
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: step in and realize that you have to be honest
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: with your body. Listen to your body, because your body
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: is telling you, is talking to you, is telling you
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: these things are not comfortable, that it's not right. And
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: when you ignore because of manhood, you ignoring because of rumors,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: You're ignoring because of stereotypes, that can cost you and
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: your family and your friends. A great person gets who
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: that great person is you, So it's good to remember that.
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: Yep, absolutely, I.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Know you know.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna just tell you this now. You know we're
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: about twenty six minutes. Man, we've been talking. But before
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: we go, man, I know you covered this fight this weekend.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: I'll call it a fight, Brian. But uh, it was
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: going good. They were looking good, Tattoo Sweaton. Then all
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, my man, my man came right under
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: his ribs and my man back to the collar and squatted.
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: Anybody knows who's fought you take a shot to the liver,
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: it's a rat.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: And I think for for Ryan Garcia, that liver shot
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: had a lot to do with it.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: And too, you know, look he looked down, and I
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: think Tank even said it. He said when he took
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: that shot and he took that knee, he said, he
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: looked up. He saw Tank, Sir said, and he told
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: him he said, he looked at it. His said, in
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: other words.
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: Don't get up.
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: If you get up, I'm gonna really put these hands
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: on you.
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: And Ryan's a good looking young man. I think that
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: was a bit this decision too.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, good good kid.
• 26:02
  Speaker 4: And I'm hurting this dude's about to rearrange my faith
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: and I'm too.
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: Crazy right now to have some damage done to this face.
• 26:10
  Speaker 6: So he said, you know what, Nate, not just go
• 26:13
  Speaker 6: ahead and get to ten. Yeah, all right, now I
• 26:15
  Speaker 6: get up and the fight was over. Yeah, it was great.
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna tell you something. I'm a big fan, Brian,
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: and thank you. I'm gonna tell you something for us.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: I have this comfortable conversation this journey and it's almost
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: thirty minutes.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: It really tells us we have a relationship.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: And I say that to say that anytime you need me,
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: anytime you I got something.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: I want to promote or get out there.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: You know, I definitely want to be a sponsor for you,
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: a big brother to you because I am older than
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: you and I've done this all my life and again, man,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: and even more, a more closer relationship like my boy
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: Steven as my boy. You know, that's my little brother.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: It's my best friend. And so now I'm gonna throw you.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna lump you in there too, okay, Brian.
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: Why I love that because I've been I've been such
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: a fan of everything you do.
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: When you look at look, I think people underestimate your
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: resume and what you had done.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, you're a freaking legend dude in this business. Man,
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: and listen, I love working alongside with Steven. I mean,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: Stephen has just done great things at the network. You're know,
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: with the face, you're at you're at the worldwide leader
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: and we got a black man h black man HBCU
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: and that to me, that's what I love it.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, Brian. We're gonna talk to my brother.