Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Mental Health: Founded Black Men Wellness Day in 18 cities, includes Free Health Screenings and 5K Fun Run/Walk.
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: If you're about to make a change in your life
- 0:03Speaker 1: and you feel uncomfortable, that's.
- 0:04Speaker 2: The best feeling you can have because for the first
- 0:08Speaker 2: time in your life, you'll make a new.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Decision that's going to be best for you and not
- 0:13Speaker 1: what somebody told you to do.
- 0:15Speaker 2: And that's when all bets are off.
- 0:17Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation Master Class. I'm your host,
- 0:20Speaker 1: Lushan McDonald. Our theme is there's no perfect time to
- 0:24Speaker 1: start following your dreams. I recognize that we all have
- 0:27Speaker 1: different definitions of success. For you and maybe decide to
- 0:29Speaker 1: your JA it's time to stop reading other people's success
- 0:32Speaker 1: stories to start living your own. Keep wedding, Yes, sir,
- 0:39Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversation master Class. The reality is
- 0:42Speaker 1: this is a live show, which means that sometimes I
- 0:45Speaker 1: might make a mistake and it cannot get corrected. But
- 0:48Speaker 1: I will tell you when I make a mistake, it
- 0:50Speaker 1: will be an honest mistake, and I don't make many.
- 0:53Speaker 2: When you listen to Money Making Conversations master Class. The
- 0:56Speaker 2: interviews and the information that this show provides are for everyone,
- 1:00Speaker 2: and I always tell people it's time to start reading
- 1:02Speaker 2: other people's success story. I say that a lot because
- 1:05Speaker 2: we always want to be something that we are not.
- 1:07Speaker 2: You know, I knew long time ago I couldn't sing,
- 1:10Speaker 2: even though I wanted to play basketball. I knew I
- 1:12Speaker 2: couldn't dunk. So I had to figure out my goals.
- 1:15Speaker 2: So my goal wasn't tied to athleticism, and my goals
- 1:18Speaker 2: wasn't tied to music. I had figured out my strength.
- 1:21Speaker 2: There's a lot of people running around here trying to
- 1:23Speaker 2: be what they cannot be. Means you're reading other people's
- 1:27Speaker 2: success stories. Start planning a success story that you can
- 1:31Speaker 2: win with. That's why I always they keep winning. I
- 1:34Speaker 2: say keep winning because I'm trying to encourage you to
- 1:38Speaker 2: not settle because people have told you this is what
- 1:40Speaker 2: you're supposed to be doing. Keep winning means keep looking forward,
- 1:45Speaker 2: keep moving forward. I have a catchphrase, standing ahead of
- 1:48Speaker 2: the ignorance. That means that there are people out there
- 1:52Speaker 2: who are trying to stop you from being who you
- 1:54Speaker 2: are capable of being because they're going to kick you
- 1:57Speaker 2: in the area that makes you comfortable comfortable to them.
- 2:01Speaker 2: Let's get this show started. My guess is a game changer.
- 2:05Speaker 2: He's founding, the CEO of the National Center of Urban
- 2:07Speaker 2: Solutions and created the African American Male Wellderness Walk Run Initiative.
- 2:13Speaker 2: He's on the show to talk with that his career,
- 2:16Speaker 2: things he's overcame, and things that most people say. Hey,
- 2:20Speaker 2: I'm tired life is not giving me an even deal.
- 2:23Speaker 2: I'm just gonna sit back and cry, not this guy.
- 2:26Speaker 2: Please welco with the Money Making Conversation Masterclass. The incredible
- 2:29Speaker 2: John Gregory. How you doing John?
- 2:32Speaker 3: Hey, I'm doing great.
- 2:34Speaker 2: John. We came together. You know, we were both black men,
- 2:39Speaker 2: and we've also been frustrated by health awareness of our community.
- 2:46Speaker 2: Tell us how that impacted you.
- 2:50Speaker 3: Well, let me say, first of all, I am grateful
- 2:52Speaker 3: that you're having this conversation with me. I was ever
- 2:55Speaker 3: soonem pressed with your energy and your synergy, and too,
- 3:01Speaker 3: I wake up every morning and look in the mirror
- 3:03Speaker 3: and say I'm a winner. I lived by that model.
- 3:08Speaker 3: About twenty years ago, I was going to work for
- 3:10Speaker 3: this program and I was trying to figure out why
- 3:13Speaker 3: black young men weren't going to work between the ages
- 3:16Speaker 3: of eighteen and thirty and so I was doing a
- 3:18Speaker 3: research project and I was like, let me figure out
- 3:20Speaker 3: why these prosents. Are they lazy? Is they got some
- 3:23Speaker 3: of the memo going on, what is really going on?
- 3:26Speaker 3: And I did a project and I required that the brothers.
- 3:29Speaker 3: I got about one hundred brothers a job and I
- 3:32Speaker 3: required them from the ages of eighteen to thirties. When
- 3:35Speaker 3: they got ready to pick up their paycheck, they had
- 3:37Speaker 3: to get a biometric screen. And after one hundred and
- 3:40Speaker 3: twenty days of the biometric screens, the verses came to
- 3:43Speaker 3: me and said, let's take greatly. These young men are sick.
- 3:46Speaker 3: They have high reproos, they have high blood pressure, they
- 3:49Speaker 3: have high cholesterol, and three of these guys need to
- 3:53Speaker 3: go see a doctor right away. And after somebody said, John,
- 3:57Speaker 3: what are we going to do? And I was like,
- 4:00Speaker 3: I don't know what we're gonna do. I said, what
- 4:02Speaker 3: do white people doing. I was like, oh, they walk.
- 4:05Speaker 3: I was like, you know, they got dress cancer, they
- 4:07Speaker 3: got kidney walks, they got sympath ida, they do all
- 4:10Speaker 3: of that. So I looked there was no one dressing
- 4:15Speaker 3: this issue. And then a doctor came to a meeting
- 4:18Speaker 3: I was having and he said, black men are dying,
- 4:20Speaker 3: and nobody kids, and they're dying of preventable reasons. And
- 4:25Speaker 3: so I was walking, was starting that first step, trying
- 4:29Speaker 3: to get us to a solution.
- 4:32Speaker 2: But you know when you when you when you're starting
- 4:34Speaker 2: a new idea, John, that's when you have the biggest doubters,
- 4:38Speaker 2: the biggest people there to say, why or why are
- 4:41Speaker 2: you doing this? Don't nobody, nobody, Nobody's gonna show up
- 4:44Speaker 2: because it's walking.
- 4:45Speaker 3: You know.
- 4:46Speaker 2: You know black people out there, you know, they's the
- 4:49Speaker 2: stereotypes you're battling with. Like you said, you you battling
- 4:52Speaker 2: stereotypes when you was talking about trying to employ young
- 4:55Speaker 2: men between this age that people were telling you that
- 4:58Speaker 2: they don't want to work, but you had an idea.
- 5:01Speaker 2: I want to talk about the obstacles you had to
- 5:03Speaker 2: overcome to even make the idea of reality, which is
- 5:06Speaker 2: in now eighteen cities.
- 5:10Speaker 3: Well, you know I had to Well, I guess I
- 5:13Speaker 3: never really see obstacles because where I come from, I
- 5:17Speaker 3: see obstacles as opportunities. And when I did this, you know,
- 5:21Speaker 3: I knew that and I'm about of solutions. And so
- 5:24Speaker 3: you know, all over the country we're talking about black men,
- 5:27Speaker 3: black boys, and the they've been a report without came
- 5:35Speaker 3: out in about four years ago and said that black
- 5:38Speaker 3: men by the year twenty thirty was going to be
- 5:40Speaker 3: at the bottom of the total toe. And so you know,
- 5:44Speaker 3: when I look and see that, it motivates me to
- 5:47Speaker 3: do something. So even when I started this, I didn't
- 5:50Speaker 3: worry about who was going to believe in me. I
- 5:53Speaker 3: just call them brothers up. So I caught the captains
- 5:58Speaker 3: up until MCCUs is coming, the albums was coming. I
- 6:03Speaker 3: called them back. He said the methodism was coming. So
- 6:05Speaker 3: you know we competitive right, right, And when our brothers
- 6:09Speaker 3: got out there at seven in the morning and they
- 6:11Speaker 3: saw about seven hundred brothers out there, they was it motivated.
- 6:15Speaker 2: And this is in Columbus, Ohio.
- 6:16Speaker 3: Right, This is in Columbus, Ohio. And they're the ones
- 6:19Speaker 3: that came back and said, we got to do this again. Right,
- 6:22Speaker 3: They said, this is because it was networking. It was
- 6:25Speaker 3: brothers talking and brothers. We were all on the phones.
- 6:28Speaker 3: Called the news media precent. Hey, if we were on
- 6:31Speaker 3: shooting each other, you'd be covering this. It became a
- 6:36Speaker 3: rally call for black votes because it was something that
- 6:39Speaker 3: black men were doing, and so they said we got
- 6:41Speaker 3: to do this again. The next year we had eighteen
- 6:44Speaker 3: hundred black men show up at seven o'clock in the morning. So,
- 6:48Speaker 3: you know, twenty years later, they have thirty thousand people
- 6:51Speaker 3: show up every year to participate in this event.
- 6:55Speaker 2: Now the thing about it, now, this is the event
- 6:57Speaker 2: that's open to all genders with ladies. You want to walk,
- 7:01Speaker 2: please come. In fact, we may need you to help
- 7:04Speaker 2: bring some of these black men to these events because
- 7:07Speaker 2: when we fill in honorary that ain't for me. Let
- 7:09Speaker 2: me just throw some facts about this event that really
- 7:13Speaker 2: made me an advocate of the African American Male Wellness Agency,
- 7:18Speaker 2: which creates this Black Men Wellness Day, which is happening
- 7:22Speaker 2: in Houston, Texas April twenty seventh on the campus of
- 7:25Speaker 2: the University of Houston. I am the honorary chair. I
- 7:28Speaker 2: would let everybody know I'm proud to say that. But
- 7:31Speaker 2: what I also want to say is that in one
- 7:33Speaker 2: of the events last year, and it's a new compass Ohio,
- 7:36Speaker 2: excuse me, in Houston, Texas, five thousand men were screen
- 7:39Speaker 2: as black men were screen, fifty six percent did not
- 7:43Speaker 2: know they had high blood pressure.
- 7:46Speaker 3: Listen to me, it's eighty screen had high blood pressure
- 7:52Speaker 3: and of them didn't even know.
- 7:58Speaker 2: Wow. And then twenty percent of the men scream went
- 8:03Speaker 2: to the er immediately correct. This is in Houston, Texas.
- 8:08Speaker 3: That's in every walk we have across the country. Twenty
- 8:11Speaker 3: of the men of the screen have to go to
- 8:14Speaker 3: the emergency room and neediately.
- 8:17Speaker 2: And then you also scream men for prostate cancer.
- 8:21Speaker 3: We screamed Project cancer, we screamed. I was just in
- 8:25Speaker 3: a medium in Detroit and they talked about last year
- 8:28Speaker 3: we also do HIV screening, and they talked about the
- 8:31Speaker 3: number of men to tested positives for HIV and HIV.
- 8:35Speaker 3: White men don't even die at HID anymore. Black men
- 8:39Speaker 3: have the alarming rate of dying of HIV.
- 8:43Speaker 2: And when you when you start talking about you know,
- 8:45Speaker 2: we can trivialize this, you know, because when I say that,
- 8:48Speaker 2: because we don't talk about it, we just think it's
- 8:51Speaker 2: all cool. You know, it's not me. But the facts
- 8:54Speaker 2: are there, you know. I just looked at did a
- 8:57Speaker 2: little hor on myself John about a study there showed
- 9:00Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one that you know, the average age
- 9:03Speaker 2: expectations when you combine all racial ethnic groups to seventy
- 9:06Speaker 2: six point one years. Now when you start breaking it
- 9:09Speaker 2: down in each race, you know, Hispanics is seventy seven
- 9:13Speaker 2: point seven years, Whites' is seventy six point four years,
- 9:18Speaker 2: Asians is eighty three years. Who's at the botto Blacks
- 9:23Speaker 2: seventy point eight years. And that's what this walk is
- 9:26Speaker 2: all about. We are dying faster than any racial group.
- 9:31Speaker 2: I'm talking about black men in any racial group that's
- 9:34Speaker 2: out there. And we can stop that by understanding our health.
- 9:38Speaker 2: And that's what this is racist all about.
- 9:40Speaker 3: Correct, yes, sir. And actually it's depending on where you live.
- 9:45Speaker 3: So in Jackson, Mississippi, which is the sickest city of
- 9:48Speaker 3: an America, but behind men the number is a twenty
- 9:53Speaker 3: year gap. In some places like Atlanta, then the gap
- 9:56Speaker 3: might be fifteen twelve years of gap. It depends on
- 10:00Speaker 3: where you are in America where that gap is. We
- 10:04Speaker 3: know that on average, black men live twelve years of
- 10:08Speaker 3: less than white men.
- 10:11Speaker 2: And that's and that's so when you do an event
- 10:14Speaker 2: like this, because you know you're doing eighteen of them
- 10:17Speaker 2: or different times of the year. I'm fortunate to be
- 10:20Speaker 2: a member of the involved in the group and in
- 10:22Speaker 2: Houston at the on the campus of University of Houston,
- 10:25Speaker 2: April twenty seven. Like you said, the race starts at
- 10:28Speaker 2: seven am. Are there any fees for runners to participate?
- 10:34Speaker 3: There is no one thing we do with this event,
- 10:36Speaker 3: and we thank companies like Johnson and Johnson and jen
- 10:40Speaker 3: and Tech and a Jilly ad on Abbot because it's
- 10:46Speaker 3: totally free. We live that if we put a B
- 10:49Speaker 3: on this, black members gonna say, I ain't got that
- 10:53Speaker 3: kind of money to pay for that. I'm not gonna
- 10:55Speaker 3: pay to go walk. And so even we do it,
- 10:58Speaker 3: it's a free event. Everything's pensive. Screenings are print free,
- 11:02Speaker 3: there's docus there to interpret. The results are free. You
- 11:06Speaker 3: get all kinds of different kinds of screen you get it.
- 11:08Speaker 3: Some places you get e KG you get make it
- 11:13Speaker 3: a libitar of liberty. I can even pronounce it screening
- 11:16Speaker 3: appro sate. All this is free. It's all free, and
- 11:19Speaker 3: it's free. Like you said, everybody's welcome to town. Blacks, whites.
- 11:23Speaker 3: Women always tell women if you're looking for a husband,
- 11:28Speaker 3: at least you know he's trying to be wealthy, ye
- 11:31Speaker 3: know healthy.
- 11:33Speaker 2: Well, you know the thing about it, you know, I
- 11:36Speaker 2: first of all applaud you. I applaud you because of
- 11:39Speaker 2: the fact that you know, we kind of laugh about
- 11:42Speaker 2: our eating half of something about the black community. It
- 11:44Speaker 2: showed his colors in the COVID period because we were
- 11:49Speaker 2: the highest death We had the highest death rate, and
- 11:52Speaker 2: a lot of it was tied to our cholesterol level,
- 11:56Speaker 2: high blood pressure level, and obesity. And we you when
- 12:00Speaker 2: you turned that corner, did did COVID change anything from
- 12:04Speaker 2: the perspective because you started you event prior to COVID,
- 12:07Speaker 2: thed COVID happened. What's the what's the lifestyle approach that
- 12:12Speaker 2: the black male community is exhibiting to you now?
- 12:16Speaker 3: I would say we still when you're talking about just
- 12:21Speaker 3: last year five screening five dougs and black men, and
- 12:24Speaker 3: eighty five percent have high blood pressure and fifty six
- 12:26Speaker 3: percent them Even now, we still have not taken this
- 12:30Speaker 3: very seriously and it's so preventable. All you can do
- 12:33Speaker 3: is go to the doctor, know your numbers and moves.
- 12:37Speaker 3: So you know, even during COVID, when the revelation became,
- 12:41Speaker 3: you know some of that. It's just it's unfortunately in
- 12:47Speaker 3: our society, we've had a lot of elicit racial bias
- 12:50Speaker 3: is around long help. It's like, you know, we're doing
- 12:55Speaker 3: a study continue groups spondagers and you know, I went
- 13:00Speaker 3: to them and said they have they got ten social
- 13:02Speaker 3: determines of health. I'm like, how do you got ten
- 13:04Speaker 3: social determines of health. You should have eleven you got.
- 13:08Speaker 3: If you don't have technology in your home, if you
- 13:10Speaker 3: don't have the ability to do telling health, you don't
- 13:13Speaker 3: get to see about you right away, maybe three three
- 13:18Speaker 3: months before you can get a doctor. Telling health gets
- 13:21Speaker 3: you a doc. That's what COVID reveals that the systems
- 13:25Speaker 3: that have been put up really does not help a
- 13:29Speaker 3: lot of black folks become more healthy because the systems
- 13:33Speaker 3: that we have to navigate, or the this ad biases
- 13:36Speaker 3: that physicians have when they see a black person, what
- 13:39Speaker 3: they don't offer them like perifeal art disease. It's a
- 13:42Speaker 3: screening that you're supposed to get around your legs and
- 13:46Speaker 3: if the numbers in your legs are different than the
- 13:48Speaker 3: numbers in your arms, then there's an indication that you
- 13:51Speaker 3: have a blood flow problem. And it also is a
- 13:54Speaker 3: way that you can stop amputation. Do you know that
- 13:57Speaker 3: there really is no reason why person should be amputator?
- 14:01Speaker 3: How many black people are still getting amputated because we
- 14:05Speaker 3: don't happen we go to our doctors, Well, how come
- 14:08Speaker 3: you don't tell us about this? Well, they don't tell
- 14:10Speaker 3: us about it because they don't think we can afford
- 14:12Speaker 3: it our insurance with Covenant, so you can have welcome
- 14:15Speaker 3: solicit bias, which was the revelation of COVID of how
- 14:18Speaker 3: black people are sicker because we are not getting the
- 14:21Speaker 3: same treatment.
- 14:23Speaker 2: Well, I'm talking to John Gregory and we're going to
- 14:26Speaker 2: continue this conversation. I'm also the honorary chair for the
- 14:30Speaker 2: Black Men's Wellness Day that's happening in Houston, Texas. That's Saturday,
- 14:34Speaker 2: April twenty seventh, seven am. We're gonna start walking and
- 14:38Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you something. If you're in Oklahoma, Arkansas,
- 14:42Speaker 2: you know, any of the Connecting States, Texas period. Hear
- 14:46Speaker 2: my voice, come join us April twenty seven. The office free, complimentary,
- 14:50Speaker 2: as they say on NPR. But one thing we are
- 14:52Speaker 2: trying to do is make your man, your dad, your friend,
- 14:56Speaker 2: your partner, your cousin, your best friend, live a better life.
- 15:01Speaker 2: And that's because we care. We right back when mister
- 15:04Speaker 2: John Gregory own Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
- 15:07Speaker 4: Don't go nowhere, Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right
- 15:11Speaker 4: back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations.
- 15:16Speaker 4: Masterclass continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow Money
- 15:21Speaker 4: Making Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Welcome back
- 15:30Speaker 4: to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan MacDonald.
- 15:34Speaker 2: I'm speaking to mister John Gregory. He's the founder and
- 15:37Speaker 2: CEO of the National Center of Urban Solutions. That's one
- 15:40Speaker 2: part we've been talking about the African American Male Wellness
- 15:44Speaker 2: Run Initiative that I am an honorary chairl for April
- 15:48Speaker 2: twenty seventh in Houston, Texas. But I want to bring
- 15:51Speaker 2: up something about you, sir. You lost your sight and
- 15:56Speaker 2: let's discuss that, because I think that when one gets
- 15:59Speaker 2: in life, you can get down on yourself. You know,
- 16:02Speaker 2: you can say, hey, life is not dealing me a
- 16:05Speaker 2: even hand. Tell us about your backstory or how you
- 16:07Speaker 2: lost your site, and how did you overcome that. I
- 16:10Speaker 2: know it's a daily overcome, but it had to be
- 16:12Speaker 2: an emotional hurdle to jump to be the positive person
- 16:16Speaker 2: I always meet whenever I see you.
- 16:19Speaker 3: Well, eight years ago, I had been to New Orleans
- 16:24Speaker 3: playing the walk, was coming home, got on an airplane
- 16:29Speaker 3: and I noticed that I had some cloudliness in my eyes,
- 16:35Speaker 3: and I was like, but then when I was coming home,
- 16:40Speaker 3: my eyes are clear. I was like, I'm fine. The
- 16:42Speaker 3: next morning, I woke up and I looked and I said,
- 16:47Speaker 3: I can't see. I went to the doctor. The doctors
- 16:51Speaker 3: was like, this is temporary. I had eye surgery. I
- 16:55Speaker 3: had three of the finest eye doctors in the country
- 17:00Speaker 3: operate on me. They said, you'll be okay in six weeks.
- 17:03Speaker 3: It never got clear. But you know, the funny thing
- 17:06Speaker 3: is is that I never really thought about it being
- 17:09Speaker 3: blind because I knew that number one, I had a
- 17:13Speaker 3: company to write, and number two is that I didn't
- 17:19Speaker 3: think I didn't like to be over. So you know,
- 17:22Speaker 3: even today I went to get eye surgery, I went
- 17:25Speaker 3: to work that afternoon and I haven't missed a day
- 17:28Speaker 3: of work since. But in the midst of that, I
- 17:30Speaker 3: ended up having two bouts of cancer. I also had
- 17:34Speaker 3: a disease that that I got a an infection in
- 17:41Speaker 3: my back that went to my foot, and for about
- 17:45Speaker 3: six months I was on this medication because I had
- 17:51Speaker 3: a severe infection. So those back eight years, you know,
- 17:57Speaker 3: I was really going too. But never, even in my
- 18:01Speaker 3: cancer and the radiation and what have you, I didn't
- 18:03Speaker 3: miss I didn't miss work. I'd go do the radish
- 18:06Speaker 3: and that a woman told me some of the hospitals.
- 18:08Speaker 3: She said, you could choose the man, or you could
- 18:10Speaker 3: choose to go home and die. That's what you can choose.
- 18:14Speaker 3: And so from her saying that I've learned to be blind,
- 18:20Speaker 3: and I've learned that, you know, life is a little different.
- 18:24Speaker 3: I tell people all it's on, I can't see. I
- 18:28Speaker 3: do comedy shows, you know, I I does not stop
- 18:35Speaker 3: h The only time I probably really thought about it
- 18:38Speaker 3: was that people been telling me I should get a stick.
- 18:42Speaker 3: I'm blind, not blind, I'm telling me I need to
- 18:44Speaker 3: get a stick. So I got a stick and I
- 18:47Speaker 3: was like, well, is stick don't tell you which direction
- 18:49Speaker 3: to go? So, you know, I thought about it for
- 18:53Speaker 3: a minute. I could the stick away and said, you
- 18:55Speaker 3: know what, I'm okay. But blind has been isn't interesting
- 19:00Speaker 3: experience because I've had to learn to I still dress
- 19:03Speaker 3: myself and people asking me you dress really nice, and
- 19:08Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, I'm figuring this out. They a little
- 19:12Speaker 3: longer to do stuff. My wife told me one day,
- 19:15Speaker 3: she was like, when's take this long. I was like, dug,
- 19:20Speaker 3: but no, I mean and I can see where. You know,
- 19:23Speaker 3: if you have you ever been in the airport, how
- 19:25Speaker 3: many blind people you see in the airport, Here we
- 19:27Speaker 3: go places you hard I even asked, I said, what
- 19:30Speaker 3: do y'all do with all the blind people? Because I
- 19:32Speaker 3: never hardly saw any blind people, and now that I'm out,
- 19:35Speaker 3: I still don't see a lot of blind people.
- 19:37Speaker 2: Now you do think that's due to people just wanted
- 19:41Speaker 2: to be h comfortable or not wanted to be uh
- 19:45Speaker 2: stared at or feel that a field they are are
- 19:49Speaker 2: annoyings When you say that.
- 19:52Speaker 3: How would they know if somebody was staring at him?
- 19:54Speaker 3: They well, you know you, you you know you, you know.
- 19:57Speaker 2: We walk in the room and you just feel uncomfortable.
- 19:59Speaker 2: That room makes you feel uncomfortable. You ever been you've
- 20:01Speaker 2: been in those type of rooms? Now you know, John,
- 20:03Speaker 2: you go, man, this ain't the room I.
- 20:07Speaker 3: Feel like. I mean, I just tell you I used
- 20:10Speaker 3: to feeluncomfortable when I was young because I grew up
- 20:12Speaker 3: in an all white neighborhood. Right now, when I went
- 20:15Speaker 3: around black people, I'd be like, hey guys, and they
- 20:18Speaker 3: would be like hey guys. But after that, I never
- 20:21Speaker 3: really felt uncomfortable. I don't even think about it. Now
- 20:24Speaker 3: that I'm blind, I can't see you. I beg on
- 20:26Speaker 3: something I can't see anyways. So I don't care what
- 20:28Speaker 3: you're doing.
- 20:29Speaker 2: That's right and that that's the motivation. But I think
- 20:32Speaker 2: it's key when I when you look at yourself, and
- 20:35Speaker 2: I just wanted to share that story because you're a
- 20:38Speaker 2: motivator and I think that's important. Like I'm a cancer
- 20:41Speaker 2: survivor too, and I know when I was announced what
- 20:43Speaker 2: it was announced to me, I had cancer. Cancer is
- 20:46Speaker 2: a powerful word. Once you hear that word, it sends
- 20:49Speaker 2: you own a story about I don't care what the
- 20:52Speaker 2: doctor says. He said cancer. So you have to make
- 20:55Speaker 2: a decision what that means to you in your life.
- 20:57Speaker 2: Like you said that person, you could live or you
- 20:59Speaker 2: can just go home and cry, because either way it's
- 21:02Speaker 2: going to you not cancer is going to be with you.
- 21:04Speaker 2: Even when they say you're cured of cancer, you still
- 21:07Speaker 2: have cancer. You know, you just walk up the room.
- 21:09Speaker 2: So you have to go through your annual checkups and
- 21:12Speaker 2: everything hopefully it doesn't come back. But when I look
- 21:15Speaker 2: at your life, man, you know, not only do you
- 21:17Speaker 2: have the black men's wellness, but you're also a forerunner
- 21:20Speaker 2: in the training of blacks for technology. How did that
- 21:23Speaker 2: come about?
- 21:26Speaker 3: Well, we do. I started out doing a Welfare of
- 21:28Speaker 3: Work program because I was like, you know, WINLFARE was
- 21:32Speaker 3: the worst thing that could ever happen to the black community,
- 21:35Speaker 3: free free, free, free. And so I was working in
- 21:39Speaker 3: this community it was drug and fester and it came
- 21:43Speaker 3: on me that well, we need to do was get
- 21:44Speaker 3: people jobs and education, and so, you know, I started
- 21:49Speaker 3: training people, getting them up. We've gotten thirty thousand women
- 21:52Speaker 3: off of public assistance. And then as a workforce change,
- 21:56Speaker 3: I was like, we need to make sure that we
- 21:58Speaker 3: are training black people to take these technology jobs. You know,
- 22:02Speaker 3: it's it's no longer called the white collar or the
- 22:05Speaker 3: blue collar. It's called new column worker. And the new
- 22:08Speaker 3: color worker is the worker that doesn't need a college degree. Oh,
- 22:13Speaker 3: they can go get a job. And so we're training people.
- 22:15Speaker 3: We're the only black owned company in the country that
- 22:18Speaker 3: Amazon allows to do their Amazon products, and so you
- 22:22Speaker 3: can come to us and get a fiber opts six
- 22:25Speaker 3: certification and get a job making twenty six twenty seven
- 22:28Speaker 3: dollars an hour without any formal education. So that's how
- 22:33Speaker 3: this is just another way for us to make sure
- 22:35Speaker 3: that black people have become self sufficient and take care
- 22:38Speaker 3: of themselves. You know, they did the study where you
- 22:41Speaker 3: get people employment and education, crime drops where they have
- 22:46Speaker 3: just community policing, crime stays stagnant. So we want to
- 22:50Speaker 3: resolve the finance and all that we got to make
- 22:53Speaker 3: sure we're giving people opportunities to be self supphistient.
- 22:56Speaker 2: So that's the National Center of Urban Solutions that you founded.
- 22:59Speaker 2: That that that does the tech training through Amazon.
- 23:04Speaker 3: Yes, Amazon, Google, Advanced Manufacturing, all of that. You can
- 23:09Speaker 3: come to us stn a e KG. You can come
- 23:12Speaker 3: up to get every one of those contentials that you
- 23:14Speaker 3: would get at a two year of college.
- 23:17Speaker 2: Now, with that being said, because we get hooked, one
- 23:19Speaker 2: of the thing that annoys me so much, John, is
- 23:22Speaker 2: that when you when it comes to technology, we're the
- 23:24Speaker 2: ones that always get shut down, you know, you know,
- 23:28Speaker 2: even down to a phone.
- 23:29Speaker 3: You know.
- 23:30Speaker 2: But when you look at it, because your personality, you're
- 23:33Speaker 2: a unique guy. You're just like me in a lot
- 23:34Speaker 2: of ways. Because you know, I've never ever thought that
- 23:39Speaker 2: I couldn't do anything. I just somehow managed to do
- 23:43Speaker 2: it because the right people stepped in my life and
- 23:45Speaker 2: also believed I could do it too. So when you
- 23:48Speaker 2: look at yourself and give some advice to people, look
- 23:52Speaker 2: at the physical setbacks you had and the fact that
- 23:54Speaker 2: you know you've been a motivator. What advice would you
- 23:57Speaker 2: give people and why should they be coming to this
- 23:59Speaker 2: race other than the obvious, you know, to save their
- 24:02Speaker 2: own life. Possibly, well that.
- 24:05Speaker 3: Should be coming to see you, uh, And we're very
- 24:11Speaker 3: grateful that you're there. I mean, you're going make a
- 24:12Speaker 3: life bent uh and exciting event. And people are very
- 24:17Speaker 3: exciting in Houston that you're involved in engaged and so
- 24:21Speaker 3: don't think we're just gonna use you in Houston. But
- 24:24Speaker 3: people should come because it's an opportunity to email your
- 24:30Speaker 3: car and when your car light goes on, you take
- 24:33Speaker 3: it to the shop. And so men know more about
- 24:36Speaker 3: their automobiles than they do with their bodies. And so
- 24:39Speaker 3: this is an opportunity for you to come and get up, free,
- 24:42Speaker 3: tune up, and get your body checked. And I said,
- 24:45Speaker 3: like with women, women you get checked too. We have
- 24:48Speaker 3: seniors there. There's a place where seniors get get some
- 24:51Speaker 3: opportunities to get checked. One of the things we don't
- 24:54Speaker 3: talk about in our comunity is Allheimer's, but there are
- 24:56Speaker 3: ways that just get checked to see if you handing
- 25:02Speaker 3: down the Alzheimer's patch. So it's a place to get
- 25:06Speaker 3: information and knowledge for the eggs, you can live a
- 25:08Speaker 3: little longer. I mean, the body says I've come to
- 25:11Speaker 3: give your life, and that more abundantly. We want people
- 25:13Speaker 3: to have abundant life.
- 25:15Speaker 2: Wow. April twenty seventh on the campus of the University
- 25:19Speaker 2: of Houston. That's in Third Ward, Texas, right down the
- 25:21Speaker 2: street from Texas Southern University. We're going to be there
- 25:25Speaker 2: at seven am. In fact, I be in town early.
- 25:27Speaker 2: You know, we probably get together, go to some of
- 25:29Speaker 2: my favorite eating haunts and do our thing. But more importantly,
- 25:32Speaker 2: if you are near and you know a relative that
- 25:36Speaker 2: lives in the Houston area, we're talking about the Golden Triangle.
- 25:38Speaker 2: We're talking up in Dallas, we talked down to San Antonio,
- 25:40Speaker 2: We're talking up at Austin. Tell them to be there
- 25:42Speaker 2: April twenty seventh. Last year they had five thousand men
- 25:45Speaker 2: show up for this free walk. Now let's say free
- 25:48Speaker 2: walk for these free health screenings that are happening. I'm
- 25:52Speaker 2: just telling you it's something that It's not a gender issue,
- 25:57Speaker 2: is not a racial issue, is a people issue. If
- 26:00Speaker 2: we don't start helping each other live a better life,
- 26:04Speaker 2: educating ourselves, encouraging people who around us that we say
- 26:07Speaker 2: we care about because sometimes you know, we can get
- 26:10Speaker 2: a point, we just tie. I don't want, I don't
- 26:12Speaker 2: I'm just tired of telling them to live the right life. Right.
- 26:15Speaker 2: He gonna eat what he's gonna eat. No, not if
- 26:17Speaker 2: you show him there's other people who care about it.
- 26:20Speaker 2: If you show up on April twenty seven at seven am,
- 26:23Speaker 2: actually before seven am, because the race starts at seven am,
- 26:27Speaker 2: you will find a lot of people. You'll find a
- 26:29Speaker 2: community that believes in You'll find a community that understands
- 26:33Speaker 2: that on this day, we want you to live another day.
- 26:37Speaker 2: And I always tell you the difference that you can
- 26:40Speaker 2: make in somebody's life, in your life if you live
- 26:42Speaker 2: one more day, is a wonderful thing. John. I want
- 26:46Speaker 2: to thank you for calling Money Making Conversations master Class,
- 26:48Speaker 2: and I know we're gonna talk before April twenty seven,
- 26:51Speaker 2: but in the meantime, I appreciate you taking the time
- 26:54Speaker 2: to call Mishelle.
- 26:55Speaker 3: Thank you, and thank you for who you are and
- 26:57Speaker 3: the difference you're making in all people's lives.
- 27:00Speaker 2: Appreciate you, my friend, and you are as they say
- 27:04Speaker 2: the man, John greg I was wanted to call you
- 27:06Speaker 2: like me, You like chaff man. We're gonna you like
- 27:10Speaker 2: just chaff for me. You know you're bad. Shut your mouth.
- 27:13Speaker 2: Talk about John Gregory, well he can dig it. I
- 27:16Speaker 2: can talk you. So I appreciate you. Man.
- 27:19Speaker 4: Bye bye, Thank you for joining us for this edition
- 27:23Speaker 4: of Money Making Conversations Master Class. Money Making Conversations Master
- 27:28Speaker 4: Class with through Sean McDonald is produced by thirty eight
- 27:31Speaker 4: fifteen Media Inc. More information about thirty eight fifteen Media Inc.
- 27:36Speaker 4: Is available at thirty eight fifteen media dot com. And
- 27:40Speaker 4: always remember to lead with your gifts