#17 Embracing Imperfections with Champion Boxer Cam Awesome

Ever imagined what it's like inside the mind of a champion, the struggles, the doubts, and the triumphs? Welcome to a riveting conversation with Cam F. Awesome, a multi-time national champion heavyweight Olympic boxer who has used his experiences to transform into a powerful motivational speaker. We journey through Cam’s life, from his personal struggles to the heights of his dreams, exploring his unique perspective on the power of possibility thinking, imposter syndrome, and overcoming self-doubt.

In our conversation, Cam shares his rich experiences from the boxing ring, emphasizing the significance of embracing imperfections and nurturing an entrepreneurial spirit. He enlightens us on the power of belief and hard work in achieving our goals, and how he navigated through the demanding world of professional boxing by developing strategies to defend himself while maintaining a positive mindset. We also reconsider the concept of humility, exploring its impact on our sense of self-worth and how it affects our performance in the arenas of life and competition.

As we wind down, we delve into more personal topics - loneliness, self-reflection, and the importance of developing a relationship with oneself during times of solitude. We discuss how Cam's journey towards success has been shaped by the value of feedback, growth, and productivity. Finally, we get a glimpse into Cam’s personal life, discussing his unique perspectives on winding down, balancing hard work and rest, and cultivating motivation. This episode is a treasure trove of inspiring insights and life lessons from a true champion, designed to encourage and equip you on your own path to success.

A special thanks to Eggtc. Shawnee for sponsoring this episode!
https://eggtckc.com/eggtc-shawnee

Guest website: https://camfawesome.com/

No Sweat Seats Cover: https://amzn.to/4a22HJN

Chapters

• 0:04 The Power of Possibility Mindset
• 6:54 Belief, Hard Work, and Achieving Goals
• 13:44 Overcoming Challenges in Boxing
• 21:15 Reconsidering the Concept of Humility
• 29:21 Imposter Syndrome and Overcoming Self-Doubt
• 41:10 Lessons in Speaking and Self-Improvement
• 45:57 Feedback and Growth
• 56:35 Winding Down, Productivity, and Motivation
• 1:08:24 Loneliness, Self-Reflection, and Burning Brighter Together
• 1:13:52 Embracing Imperfection and Entrepreneurship

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome to the possibility mindset podcast. I'm Devin Henderson, your host, and I believe that something greater is always possible for you. All right, cam, what's up?

Speaker 2: 0:20

I also believe that you believe that too.

Speaker 1: 0:21

Yeah, he's not just like saying that, like you, believe that at a deep level, there's always a greater thing to aspire to.

Speaker 2: 0:29

But to a fault.

Speaker 1: 0:31

some will say yes, yes, that is the trick sometimes with knowing that something greater is always possible. But should we always be pursuing that, like when other things are at stake, like if I'm like, oh, there's something better in my career, but if I chase this certain thing right now, it might sacrifice, say, quality time with my family. So you do have to kind of keep it in balance and in check. I think that's what you're saying.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that is part of it, right?

Speaker 1: 0:54

It's like so anyway, okay, awesome. Well, hey, I'm excited to introduce Cam and tell you who he is and what he's about and everything. But first of all, I want to thank et cetera. Shawnee, they have been so amazing. Shannon, the manager, has been just so great about getting me spots in the schedule to use this space. They provide breakfast and our server, sonya, is amazing. And how are your hash browns today, by the way?

Speaker 2: 1:23

Yeah, really good, really good.

Speaker 1: 1:25

So it's funny, because I usually order this veggie omelet and everything and I text Cam. Last night I'm like, hey, let me know what you want to eat, what to order. And he's like hash browns simplest order ever. And I kind of forgotten you're vegan. And so I'm like, oh yeah, that makes sense, but you also got fruit with it. So how long have you been vegan?

Speaker 2: 1:44

Over 10 years, 11 years now.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Okay, maybe we'll hear more about that. I'd like to see why and how you think that affects you and why people might consider doing that. Okay, awesome man, we'll get to that. So, okay, if you're listening, I'd love for you to get the full experience and watch this on YouTube, because every once in a while there's something visual so you can find me on Devon Henderson speaker on YouTube and subscribe to that. We're trying to reach more people. So the more people that subscribe and like the episode, we can extend our reach and bring these valuable lessons to people who may desperately need them. Okay, and if you're on Apple or Spotify, go ahead. Rate comment. That also helps us extend our reach and I want to give a big thank you. I know Cam's like am I here for?

Speaker 2: 2:29

a reason.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Am I just going to sit here?

Speaker 2: 2:31

the whole time. I want to thank people too.

Speaker 1: 2:34

You got anybody you want to thank.

Speaker 2: 2:35

I like St Sonia. Yeah, the satch brunts are fire. Yeah, that's a great job.

Speaker 1: 2:37

That's funny, but I want to big thank you to. This is a listener at SQL underscore dangolf. Yeah, I think I'm saying that right. So thank you so much for buying me coffee. There's a feature through my podcast platform where you can buy me a coffee to. You know, support the show, show some morale support, but this person coffees are $5. Sql underscore dangolf bought me 10 coffees.

Speaker 2: 3:07

Wow, shout out to them.

Speaker 1: 3:08

I know, so thank you for that. I'll be drinking a lot of coffee now.

Speaker 2: 3:11

You're not going to sleep for a week.

Speaker 1: 3:12

I know, I know I'm going to spend it all the day, so, but seriously, thank you for that. So, okay, awesome. Now that we've got all that done, let's introduce the man of the hour. Okay, everybody, this is Cam F. Awesome, so get ready. He's got quite the quite the bio here. He's a keynote speaker, he's a diversity consultant, event emcee and a multi-time national champion heavyweight Olympic boxer. That's as impressive as that is hard to say.

Speaker 2: 3:43

You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 3:44

It's like a national champion heavyweight Olympic. It just keeps scaling up. It's Olympic. What Boxer I mean? This is so cool. So, as I'm acting like I'm learning this from the first.

Speaker 2: 3:55

You're a boxer.

Speaker 1: 3:57

As a motivational speaker, cam shares lessons he's learned traveling to 30 plus countries as captain of team USA. So Cam's Olympic journey was featured in the Netflix original documentary Counter Punch, which, I am ashamed to say, I have not watched it.

Speaker 2: 4:14

I do not die at the end. You don't die at the end. I don't die at the end.

Speaker 1: 4:18

Spoiler alert. We actually Netflix is one of those platforms where we're like we're trying to get our kids more and more away from screens, because screens are always going to be there. It's like candy, it's like we're not like ruling it out, but it's like it's always there. So how do you kind of keep you know? So Netflix was one of the things to go for now, but when it comes back on, I know what I'm going to watch. All right, yeah, spirit. No, it's a kid show. No, I want to watch Counter Punch. So if this is a quote, this is a Cam quote, it's okay if I quote, you Go for it.

Speaker 1: 4:47

If you can fail without being discouraged, success becomes inevitable. Man, is that possible to fail without being discouraged? 100%?

Speaker 2: 4:57

yes, 100%, yes Okay.

Speaker 1: 4:58

All right. So that's a quote. Cam lives by. His secret to remaining resilient through ups and downs is keeping a positive mindset through practicing gratitude, which I have seen that play out. You're very thankful for me for the time that you know we put into each other In the words of Cam. He's the most decorated US amateur boxing boxer in history and he was also this is the cool part. This was recent. He was inducted into the Kansas City Golden Gloves Hall of Fame.

Speaker 2: 5:25

Yeah, congratulations, thanks. When was that Made me feel old?

Speaker 1: 5:28

Made me feel old, I still got it. I can't be in the Hall of Fame. Yet that's hilarious. Well, that's great.

Speaker 2: 5:33

I saw it on LeapDin, I think About two or three weeks ago. Yeah, I thought that was more recent man.

Speaker 1: 5:36

That's great man, congrats. I think you're going to see a lot of people who are in the youth world and the market speaking, do motivational speaking to high schools youths, all that. But now he's been transitioning into the corporate world and it's going really well.

Speaker 2: 5:50

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:51

So because his message is versatile and something that adults need to hear.

Speaker 2: 5:55

Adults are just children with the ability to drive.

Speaker 1: 5:57

Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 2: 5:58

Like the same message you give to students, like the same things we need to hear as adults. What do you think changes now that you have you pay taxes? Yeah, it's like the same issues we have. We had, a lot of us still have.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Yeah. So, speaking of that, let's jump into it, man, because I've heard bits and pieces of your stories from your keynotes, from copies with you. I know that you had a rough childhood man. So we talk about the possibility mindset, always asking what else is possible. You'll see that his life has just been one. What else is possible after the next? So can we go back into childhood and talk about how hard that was for you?

Speaker 2: 6:32

Yeah, how it all started there. So I think everything is perspective, because I think it's like 40% of the population doesn't have drinking water within a mile of their home. So when I say things were tough for me after traveling to 30 countries, like maybe it wasn't all, like, that I love that perspective.

Speaker 1: 6:50

I mean that's that's so true man, I lose sight of that constantly. Question.

Speaker 2: 6:54

What would it look like if you lived in a utopia where life was perfect? Yeah, would it look like more people were dying of obesity than starvation? Would it look like something like that? Wow, something found a way to complain about everything. Wow, yeah, luxuries become necessities. Hmm, and I think that's where we are in life. Wow.

Speaker 1: 7:13

That's, that's profound dude, absolutely, man, yeah, We've, we've. I've talked about that recently with my daughter with air condition, like you, just like it. You know, if you go into a place where there's no AC, or you like you forgot to turn it on, you're like, oh and it's just, or you're in air condition and you go outside, you feel the difference right when, if you didn't have air condition, there wouldn't be that shock factor that we constantly experience when we go from luxury to a place of well, discomfort, you know.

Speaker 2: 7:41

Luxury to to normality.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Yeah To normality. There you go there. What other people in that, like those parts of the world that you're saying, are struggling, or all parts of the world where they're struggling, Um, they, they. That's like you said. That's normal to them.

Speaker 2: 7:54

So my, my dad's from Trinidad and like they grew up like not the greatest area in Trinidad, he came to America for like, a better life and that whole story. But like you hear the rots and I came to America with this, with $8 in my pocket and like everyone says those stories and to me those stories were silly and irrelevant to me because like, oh, my dad did that and something your dad does can't be cool or exciting. And I always I didn't appreciate what it was, because I saw it.

Speaker 2: 8:19

I saw someone stop going to school at the age of eight, came to America, started a business like, helped his 12 brothers and sisters come to America and, like my dad is a billionaire compared to where he was, um, a little bit about me and I was. I struggled with confidence. I struggled with weight, uh, my whole life. And like you're watching TV and everything's like prom and dating, and like you know you're 14, you're super insecure, I'm like gain weight and I was like, okay, I'm going to join a team to like lose weight, get in shape, cause like that's important to me. And I wasn't good enough to make a team, like I try out for every team.

Speaker 2: 8:55

And I kept getting cut and I was like, well, how else does a person lose weight? And for like a year or two, like, and then one day I was in class and the teacher explained how calories work. You consume about 2000 calories a day. You burn about 2001 calories a day. You break even, yeah. And then I was like, oh, you don't have to do sports to burn calories, I can do anything. And because I was a really cool kid, uh, I had rollerblades and I decided that I was going to go role-blading.

Speaker 1: 9:22

We were a cool kid. I was the coolest Because rollerblades though, are a new place today, right, like they're everywhere, but at the time I'm joking, yeah, yeah there was a certain vibe.

Speaker 2: 9:29

No, I know you're in my neighborhood, that's why no one was neighbor. No one's role-blading.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Because skateboards were kind of like the thing. It was cool.

Speaker 2: 9:38

Actually in my neighborhood I wasn't even skating, like your word, and notice that I say we like were the exact same age or something Like I'm not 10 years older than you I'm 44.

Speaker 1: 9:45

Oh, I thought you were your 30s. So we're like ah, well, earlier I said something about when I was in my exit in my 30s and I was like dang, I'm old now because I'm seeing him at 30. You didn't realize I was.

Speaker 2: 9:56

No, I didn't know you were already gone. I already, I joke, I joke.

Speaker 1: 10:02

I love it, man, it's OK.

Speaker 2: 10:03

So you're role-blading that burns calories, so I did morning after morning, after morning, six, seven mornings in a row and by like the seventh morning I woke up. I was sore because I was doing this like two hours before school started, because I have to wait an hour to stop sweating before.

Speaker 2: 10:16

I got to school All right, let's get moving into the seventh like Zero progress. No one stopped me. It was like hey, man, I can tell you're working out, keep it up. And then, like I, I like, I remember looking at my rule of blades, like and thinking do I want to do it again? Like I just, is it a waste of time? And I thought back to how calories work and I was like well, every diet you can think of is just different variations of burning more calories than you consume. The only way for this to happen? Two ways I can consume less calories, which ain't going to happen, right, or I can start burning more calories. So I just, I was like you know what, there's no other way to do it, I'm just going to keep doing it, okay.

Speaker 1: 10:53

Okay.

Speaker 2: 10:53

And after about three months people were like look at Ken, he thinks he's skinny and I would blush bro, cause I was like it's working, it's working yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:01

And I saw it as an equation and this is what has carried me to be able to do. I believe I can do anything. I won't. Anyone could do anything if they follow this equation One plus two equals three. In this equation, you are one. You should always be your own number one. No one's going to believe in you until you believe in yourself. And this is how it looks.

Speaker 2: 11:19

If you start to believe in yourself, you start to take the actions of a person who believes in themselves, like, let's say, you have like a test coming up or something Like, if you believe that you pass, you'd study because that's the process. And if you made the decision, oh, do I hang out with friends or do I go study? Well, you know what you got to do. So you start to study and once you make start making the decisions of a person who believes in themselves, you start to get the result of a person who believes in themselves. And then, funny thing happens Once you start believing, once you start seeing the results, everyone else starts believing in you and you don't need to lean on yourself so much. That's one of this equation One plus two equals three. Okay, in this equation three, the last thing is the outcome, the goal, the objective. Yeah, what do you want? Two is appropriately named number two because the crappy part of the job, it's the hard work, it's the things that people want to do, it's the waking up early in the morning, it's the going role playing while you're sore, it's the doing it when you still don't feel like doing it. And what I love about this equation is there's no room for your emotions. When I say, if you can fail without being discouraged, success becomes inevitable. Being discouraged is a feeling, because we don't quit when we fail. We quit when we get discouraged, and a lot of us get discouraged before we even start, so we don't. So, with this concept of removing your feelings from this, look at the equation as it is. Me plus burning more calories than I consume equals losing weight, and it worked.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Now, the reason why I was role-blading so intensely is I was going to go to the boxing gym, but I wanted to lose weight Before I went to the boxing gym because I was intimidated. It was like brushing your teeth really well before you go to the dentist, or cleaning your house before you. Your house cleaner comes over and never had a house cleaner, but I heard people talk about it and I feel good. And so I got to the boxing gym and I was like, okay, I'm not, I don't want to, I'm not, I'm not aggressive. And I was getting bullied in school Like I didn't want to fight, I didn't want to spar, I just want to do the workout, I want to look like a boxer. So I just did a boxer's workout but they didn't coach me Because I wasn't interested. They're like I do whatever you want.

Speaker 2: 13:12

So I would just watch what other people did and I put logic to it and I realized quickly that most things people do didn't make sense. They would hit the heavy bag and like, if you're hitting the heavy bag, a lot of people punch like in the middle of the heavy bag, like where someone's body would be, because they're lazy, they're developing bad habits, like no one's face is down there. Why are you punching down there? Well, because it's easier to do. So I told myself okay, if I ever hit the bag when I'm sweating, I'm going to hit the bag when I'm sweating, I touch my face on the bag and that's the line where I hit. If I'm too tired to hit there, I just don't know, I just stop.

Speaker 2: 13:44

Uh, then one day after like losing, I was. I was there. The gym was open for hours a day. I was there as soon as it opened and I was the last person there every day. And sometimes I want to close open because it was just me and the coach. And he's like, all right, I'm going to go home. Uh, and after about six, seven months of that, my coach was like you're in better shape than anyone else in the gym, do you want to spar? I was like, oh, my parents won't let me. And then everyone laughed. I was like joking, I'm joking, I'll get my mouthpiece. And I was so nervous. It was the. I never made a team before, so this is like my first competition. It wasn't. It was like work out in the gym.

Speaker 2: 14:16

But it's a huge moment. I I thought about this all day. I was like thinking school, like okay, I'm sparring tonight, like and I get there, and I was so nervous and I turned out turned out that the guy I was sparring had just recently lost a fight to a guy with one arm.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Uh, so either like he's humbled or he's mad, or where's he at, oh no he sucks.

Speaker 2: 14:34

Oh, okay, and it wasn't one arm, it was like the dude had a nub and they put a glove on his nub and he lost the fight. To that dude, okay. And I was like, okay, he's not that good. And my goal was just not to get hit. And I did so much moving that I was like, oh, I burned so much calories in those three rounds. I was like I burned more calories. I felt like in those three rounds and I did my whole workout. This is all I want to do. And I was so worried about not getting hit. I was just, I was really good in defense and then I became.

Speaker 2: 14:58

I never had a community. This is the first time I found a place where I I felt like I belong, because everyone else in the gym was like, oh, there's a. Because I was big, I was heavy, so I was perfect to spar. I wasn't strong enough to hurt anyone, so I was the perfect sparring partner and I just sparred everyone until I developed this concept of seeing punches coming before they came and no one could hit me in the gym. And immediately I was like, oh, let's go back to the equation One plus two equals three. Me plus not getting hit equals winning. If I win all the time, I can just be the best in the country.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Cause you said you're not the most aggressive person in the ring. You told me that earlier. So that's kind of what that was more of a defensive position in your boxing. Yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2: 15:38

All right, and I would. And so I said I was like, okay, I'm having my first boxing match and I started to fight. I didn't tell anyone for my first four fights because I was afraid to tell someone that someone like as passive as me was like a boxer. Yeah and uh, and I would. I, I could have. I was at 200 pounds and I could have either fought super heavy weight anything above 200 pounds or fought a more appropriate weight class, a little lower.

Speaker 2: 16:01

But I realized that men are so macho that they they're so macho that they they don't use their brains and they're all muscle. I'm like, oh, you have all this muscle. Muscle requires oxygen. You're going to get tired in the first round if I move around enough. So I was like, okay, my fighting strategy is I run from you until you're tired and then I start to punch you, not till you're hurt, but till you can no longer defend yourself and the ref will stop it.

Speaker 2: 16:25

Hmm, uh, so it was that equation one plus two equals three and um, my parents moved my senior year in high school and I had to walk to the gym six miles every day and I didn't have this back when MP3 players came out for iPod and I didn't have batteries. So for three hours a day, I'd walk to the gym five days a week and I would just make up stories in my head. Uh, I didn't think anything of it, but if I'm going to be the author of a story, I'm going to be the protagonist. So I was like I was kicking butt in all these stories. I was winning all my fights, I had all the money. None of this was true, but you know, I just had something to think about. But I realized I was giving myself affirmations and I would pat myself on the back for three hours and then work out and doing that for an entire year.

Speaker 2: 17:04

I gained this confidence that I never had. Uh, almost it was disillusioned, because immediately I thought I was like well, I'm going to be the best boxer in the country Great. A year before I'd never played a sport. But in the years, like, oh, I'm going to be the best. And it was obnoxious to some people and I qualified for the 2008 Olympic trials. I lost, but I was in the sport for two years. It's pretty good accomplishment. Turn around, I won nationals in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. I won the United States Olympic trials. I am on top of the world Like cocky, doesn't even describe me, and I understood that certain people didn't like me and I basked in it. I wore, I fought, in pink, in a pink skirt, because sure, I look like a, I look soft, but you can't beat me, so it doesn't matter, you actually wore a pink skirt in the ring.

Speaker 2: 17:47

Yep, wow Fought in pink skirt, cause what are you going to do about it? Are you going to lose to a dude in a pink skirt? Yeah, and I was. I would. I would, admittedly I was obnoxious.

Speaker 2: 17:57

And then I left the country to fight in Azerbaijan. I've been there three times, still can't spell without spell check. And I forgot to tell the drug test testing agency I was leaving the country and they showed up to my home here in Kansas City to give me a random drug test and I wasn't there, Even though I tested negative in Azerbaijan, to even fight in the tournament that same week, to show there's nothing in my system. But they still suspended me for a year and kicked me off the Olympic team and I went from this like cocky, arrogant person to like the shell of a person the same unconvenant person I used to be and I was depressed, I was heartbroken.

Speaker 2: 18:32

I was so embarrassed Cause like Kansas City is not a big city, so like I was getting a lot of love, the Kansas City star was amazing to me. I was like in the newspaper constantly and and on TV and around here and people would see me and one more like hey, you're, you're the boxer dude, right? I'm like, yeah, like you, ready for the Olympics. I'm like, yeah, but then I got suspended and I didn't post about it because I was so embarrassed. And what year was this? 2012. Okay, and I would. I started to avoid people because I was afraid to tell the story and if you read the ESPN headlines, it says I failed to meet drug test requirements, Right?

Speaker 1: 19:03

Yeah, that paints a picture, it does.

Speaker 2: 19:06

But if you read the article, I got the minimum sentence because they didn't suspect anything. But no one cares about that. Yeah, and maybe I was over. I was internalizing it. So I stopped leaving my house and started drinking. I got up to 277 pounds the biggest I'd ever been and I was like, okay, I don't have a degree, I don't have any certifications, I don't have any skills, I'm broke. I need. Well, I have to go back to boxing. I have nothing else. So I started doing personal training and all that and I lost a bet and had to be vegan for 28 days. And I didn't understand the time that the bet, the diet, entails sobriety. Okay, so this is the first time during my suspension I had to be vegan, I had to be sober. Wow. And on the other hand my word, I lost a bet. So I said I do the 28 days and I stopped drinking and just going through withdrawal and and I just being aware of how much you hate yourself and I was like, okay, I so real quick question.

Speaker 1: 20:03

But can I pause your room? Yeah, because you know you're saying in the one plus two equals three. There's no room for emotion, right. So that's if you want to be successful. Clearly there's some emotion in your story right now. That's why I am just curious, because there's people probably going well, I'm emotional person. Yeah, I deal with like disappointment, discouragement, that's maybe made them give up or want to give up. So what would you say to people about that? When the emotions do creep in in a negative way, how have you dealt with them? How has that pushed you maybe to even be better?

Speaker 2: 20:32

I'll tell you exactly. Okay, all right, 2012. I was when I decided I was going to get back into boxing because you know, I know the equation and but I'd work out for two or three days and kind of fall off and then I realized I haven't worked out four days. I'm mad at myself again and I was beating myself one up one day and I realized there's a difference between me and 2012 and me walking to the gym in high school. One of us liked me and I realized I was humbled by life and I believe words are powerful and that's why I asked you who's your middle daughter?

Speaker 1: 21:08

Yeah, uh, elsie is my middle daughter.

Speaker 2: 21:12

Now, how old is she? Uh, nine, nine. So if you, you look at Elsie and you're like, you know in your heart, your soul, anything she wants to be in life she can be if she puts time and she believes in herself. You know that in your soul. What would it look like if she knew it? And I started to think about that and I decided to look up the definition of humble. So if you could look up the definition of humble, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 21:36

And while you're looking up, I'll look at it.

Speaker 2: 21:37

Yeah, yeah, I keep looking up at it and I realized what the definition of humble was, and a light bulb went off in my head. So I want you to read me the first definition, okay, and think about your daughter in mind.

Speaker 1: 21:48

Okay, here's one little slow. So, go to the phone here.

Speaker 2: 21:54

This, this completely changed definition.

Speaker 1: 21:57

Speaking of laziness? Okay.

Speaker 2: 22:00

Efficiency, yeah, okay, okay, go ahead All right, so you got the definition up here.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance.

Speaker 2: 22:09

Okay, Now with with with Elsie in mind, would you wish that definition on your daughter? No, Maybe that's a fluke. Read me the second definition.

Speaker 1: 22:17

Okay, of low social, administrative or political rank. What about that one?

Speaker 2: 22:21

Nah, is there a third one that makes sense? No, okay. Now the reason why and this is what the realization I had in 2012, the change in my life, yeah, the reason why humility and humiliate sound like the same word is because they are so Latin, root word of lowly. So when you think about a situation, let's say, you're killing in the speaking world, right, you're booking all these key notes and everything, and then you run to me and I'm not doing too well, what are you doing that moment?

Speaker 1: 22:47

Encourage you.

Speaker 2: 22:47

Well, a lot of times we humble ourselves down to that person. You don't want to be bragg, you don't be braggadocious, Right? So what we do is we lower ourselves down to that person. But I believe if we continue to lower ourselves to the lowest common denominator in the room, we're doomed to be a depressed society.

Speaker 2: 23:01

The idea of lowly. If you tell your daughter to be humble, if you constantly beat into her the socialization of being humble, then how is she going to excel being small? Because being lowly, you can't tell her to shoot for the stars while still holding on to the ground. And I had that realization and I realized, oh, I need to believe in me, Like I need to. First of all, I need to love me. And when I say being humble, when I say I'm, no, I'm, and I throw away the concept of being humble, I am not humble. I went out and I legally changed my last name to awesome because I I realized how hurtful being humble was to me. I was humbled by life. That's not a positive thing, Cause people will agree yeah, you were humbled by life, but we look at being humble and humility as a positive virtue. So when I asked this question outside of course, the religious context cause. I want to respect everyone's religious beliefs, but who does being humble serve?

Speaker 1: 23:56

I guess with that and, by the way, I'm absorbing a lot of this, I don't know if I completely agree- so I'm kind of I don't want anyone to agree with me, I just want to challenge the way we think. A lot of questions, but I'm just going to go with the narrative. The question you're asking right now is who does being humble serve? Well, I feel like in my faith, I'm called to be humble, so I feel like it would serve my God, it would serve me and it would serve others.

Speaker 2: 24:18

And in the working context and in like speaking or performing.

Speaker 1: 24:22

Yes, I guess. I guess to me humility is more of a maybe starts inward right Of of don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to. Why? That says it in the Bible.

Speaker 2: 24:35

Okay, Outside of religious beliefs.

Speaker 1: 24:40

Let's just do away with faith. Okay, then, what was the? What was it like? Why, why, why would I do it? Or who told me to? Or would you?

Speaker 2: 24:49

Well, I'm seeing who does. Who's being humble serve in this, and even like in for your career is like okay, be humble. You're getting like as a boxer. Do you think I can walk into the ring humble?

Speaker 1: 25:03

My gut tells me yes, I think you could.

Speaker 2: 25:07

There's so many boxers and this is why why I know I can't because there's so many boxers who are amazing in the gym and they're beating up world champions and sparring, but when the lights turn on, they don't think they deserve to be there and they never perform to their ability. They're humbled by the big stage.

Speaker 1: 25:26

I guess what I would look at is confidence with humility, those two working together or what would make it and I've never been in the ring, but I in the ring of life, right, like, like competition. I mean I would say that I think you can. You can be humble and have a confidence that you know you. You, you were serving your people. Now you're not there to serve your opponent Maybe Not the sandwiches.

Speaker 1: 25:50

You know, you know because I mean, if you're serving your opponent, if we're called to love all people, the fighting is not real. This isn't your real enemy in the ring Right. This is your, your brother, that ultimately you love and you want to serve, and your humility could potentially serve him by saying wow, even though Cam is as awesome as he is and he can dodge my punches and he can hit hard, deep down, he loves me, he wants the best for me.

Speaker 1: 26:15

So you know so so are we really? I mean, are we all meant to be heavyweight champs and to always win? Or is maybe winning sometimes look like losing, or losing look like winning.

Speaker 2: 26:26

I don't. We don't even need to define what winning is, but it's the way we carry ourselves, is what I'm, what I'm trying to get to when it's time to set goals. A lot of us set goals that we think we can achieve, but you're so much. I believe, just like we said, there's greater things out there. I believe there's so much greater that you're capable of that you're not allowing yourself to get to because you're being humble. And a lot of people say well, being humble doesn't mean thinking less about yourself. It means thinking about yourself less.

Speaker 1: 26:52

I'm here to tell you.

Speaker 2: 26:53

That's not true, ain't nobody going to think about you more than you think about yourself. So when you do think about yourself, what are you thinking about yourself? How kind are you to yourself? It's just you in there, right yeah, are you a great teammate to yourself? Let's say you live in fourth floor of an apartment. You carry your groceries all the way upstairs, you put them on the counter and then you realize you forgot your phone in the car. What do you say? Oh Devin, sometimes we're forgetful. Buddy, let's go get that phone. That's not the way a lot of us react. Oh stupid idiot, why do you need?

Speaker 1: 27:25

a phone. Yeah, it's like beating yourself up like that.

Speaker 2: 27:29

You're making yourself smaller.

Speaker 1: 27:30

Yeah, I agree with that. We should love ourselves Like I. Wouldn't like, if you forgot your phone, I wouldn't talk to you the way that I and Ailey talked to I, wouldn't be like you're an idiot. Why would you forget that, which I might say my own head to myself? So it's like why aren't I as nice to me as I'm as nice to you? I definitely agree with that. Self love, self love.

Speaker 2: 27:46

I changed my last name to awesome and the whole idea of like I'm up here and I see someone down here. I'm not coming down to you, buddy, sorry, I'm gonna pull you up to where I am. No, I don't think anyone's better than me, Cause a lot of people say I don't think I'm better than anyone else. I'm humble, I'm like sure, but you also think there are people who are above you. Well, yeah, I don't think anyone's above me and I don't think anyone's below me.

Speaker 1: 28:10

I like that. I like that. I had a coach tell me that one time that we do tend to look at people are they're more successful or I'm better than them. But if we can see everyone, I don't even play a film. Now, the part that I'm getting hung up on what you're talking about, and maybe I'm paying too much attention to it, is that I don't feel like humility, whatever the definition might be is what's holding me back.

Speaker 1: 28:31

Yeah, so I guess my own definition of humility would be like being willing to make myself less to bring others up, which I know is exactly the opposite of what you're saying. But like, if we talk about, say, Christ, for he humbled himself to death, even death on a cross, right, I mean he gave up his life, and so if we're willing to sacrifice life, why aren't I willing to sacrifice anything else? I mean, life's the most precious thing that you could give up. So if we walk into a room and I'm like a successful keynote speaker and you're not, I don't think me going. Now if I were to say, okay, tell you what, I'll start making less money, booking less gigs, then I am coming down to that level. But if I talk to you more of a nurturing, caring, gentle way, a palatable way that you can accept hey, I am booking this, but hey, man, you can get there and you can bring them up to that level in a humble, kind, gentle way is what I mean.

Speaker 2: 29:20

Oh okay.

Speaker 1: 29:21

So I don't know if that makes sense or not to you, but what do you think about imposter syndrome? I think it's real. I think a lot. I think more people have it than they admit. That's just because through deep conversations I figure out it's almost like everyone has it. It feels like it's some level everyone does. I don't know if that's true or not, so don't trust that statistic, but maybe you don't. But I think that it's something that we just see ourselves as worthless, you know. So it's a perception.

Speaker 2: 29:56

Yeah, and it's definitely a perception and it's the way we see ourselves. It's the you're afraid to ask for a raise because you don't think you deserve it. You don't think you're worth it, but you see somebody else who is what makes that person any better than you? Yeah, and that's when I had that realization of okay, I got this far. Now it's 2012,. I'm beating myself up. I changed my last name to awesome as a reminder that I am worthy, that I'm great enough, and me being me, refusing to be humble doesn't I'm not saying be obnoxious because I'm just lifting other people up. I'm not, but I'm not beating myself up. I'm gonna be my biggest fan. So I changed my last name to awesome. I changed the way I was thinking. I no longer beat myself up. I started to give myself grace. I started to be my biggest fan, my biggest supporter, my big I cheer myself on.

Speaker 2: 30:45

I returned to boxing. I won nationals every single year until 2016, where I won the 2016 Olympic trials. And then I lost in international competition in the finals on a split decision and didn't get to go to Rio. And when I lost that fight, I was in Argentina in my hotel room and it was July 4th and I was like, okay, I put all my eggs in the boxing basket. I didn't make it. I could go where I was in 2012 mentally, because I had a choice to make that day. And I got back to my hotel room, I made a tweet it's still out there and I said lost my fight. Today, my Olympic run is over Time to reinvent myself Three times. Because it was the third Olympic trials I was a part of. See what's next for me. It may not be boxing.

Speaker 2: 31:32

I knew immediately what I wanted to do and because, a year before I had met you at an open mic, you told me about the National Speakers Association in 2015. I went to their annual conference a week after I lost in the Olympics and people thought I was crazy. I was already moving on and I was like, oh, if I were to go back home and just like sit and wallow, oh, I'd hate myself, I'd cry, I'd do all that. I'm like, no, let's speak it up, let's keep it moving, cause if I could do the Olympics, I could do speaking. So, all right, what's that equation? Look like One plus two equals three. I gotta change the equation. The equation will always change. You will always be number one. The goal will change. Number two will change and I said, okay, my goal is I want to be a successful speaker. What does that mean? Okay, first I have to learn about speaking. I have to learn about the business. I have to become a great speaker.

Speaker 2: 32:17

And the approach I took with boxing is I'm not very athletic. I get that. If you watch my fights it's a little. I was called awkward. I was an awkward fighter, so I was like okay, I'm not gonna beat you with athleticism, so I can't let you outwork me. So we were the same weight class, same age and everything, and you had a hundred fights and I had three fights. Who do you think would win?

Speaker 1: 32:42

Me yeah, that's fun to say yeah, so only in these made up scenarios can I beat you up.

Speaker 2: 32:51

I'm sure you can magic me up, man. Oh yeah, probably. So I took that approach. So in boxing because I wasn't athletic I said, okay, I'm just gonna get a hundred fights, because the average boxer has like 30 to 40 fights Like once I have a hundred fights. I'm the most experienced guy in the room and I retired as the most decorated boxer in US history because I just fought all the time. I don't say I'm the greatest winning percentage in history. I've just won more boxing matches than anyone else because I allowed myself to be in that situation, I gave myself room to fail and after you gain all that experience, I think I believe experience is intelligence right Cause if we both have a task to do and you spend two years thinking about how you're gonna do it and then I fail for two years, when we start year number three, I'm gonna be so much further than you.

Speaker 1: 33:43

Now, you're better than me.

Speaker 2: 33:46

Yeah, to make sure you can.

Speaker 1: 33:49

Find a way to make the winner again.

Speaker 2: 33:54

So that kind of philosophy in my state kind of changed and I realized a lot of people who suffer with imposter syndrome. They don't believe they belong to be there. They don't believe they belong to be there. Belong to be there, they're supposed to be there, yeah, they don't believe they belong to be there. I do words. It's like an.

Speaker 1: 34:14

S, that's like a.

Speaker 2: 34:16

I will say I know it comes off very obnoxious to people the idea that I dismiss humility and I'm okay with that.

Speaker 1: 34:25

Could that be the name of your book Dismiss Humility?

Speaker 2: 34:27

I was, so my Ted talk that I'm gonna do this. Humility is overrated, really yeah. All right, because I think people lean so much on humility as a way to keep themselves small, because you won't wish those definitions on your daughter. So what we do is we come with our own definition of humility to make us feel better and when you actually look at the word and the Latin word and where it derived from and the meaning of it, it's not a positive virtue, but it's a virtue that is of our nation.

Speaker 1: 34:54

I'm going yes, like I agree.

Speaker 2: 34:56

I don't want you to agree.

Speaker 1: 34:57

And I'm more like just it's funny, because on the last podcast, which it was with an IT professional and he was talking about other cultures and other cultures would go huh.

Speaker 2: 35:05

Yes.

Speaker 1: 35:06

And it just means I hear what you're saying, I'm not necessarily agreeing, so anyway.

Speaker 2: 35:10

I don't want to think I understand. This is such a sensitive subject to a lot of people's core beliefs. I'm about to cry. If you cry, cry Cause it's like throwing that for me, I'm very emotional.

Speaker 1: 35:20

We just start crying and throwing up and talking and people are like, uh, unsubscribe, no, no, it's good, and I also, admittedly, take a long time to absorb a new idea. So like for me to sit here and like process. All of this right now about humility is like well, but I'll probably listen to this later and be like gain some more clarity on what I think. But, but I appreciate a fresh perspective and a peek into your mind, because it's very well. We've been very successful in your life in so many avenues, and so it's just good to hear like what's, what's going on up there, man, and so this is really good man, I'm appreciating this.

Speaker 2: 35:53

Thank you, I'm sure in that and I often get like I am, what's the word Delusional? I get delusional and it used to bother me because I Jenny and believe it. You think I'm delusional, so you don't think I'm gonna do it. Yeah, and I would see it as like a slight, but now I see it as a positive.

Speaker 1: 36:15

Delusional about what? About what you can achieve. What I can achieve, yeah, nice.

Speaker 2: 36:19

And I think that I don't have imposter syndrome. I think I deserve to be everywhere I am.

Speaker 1: 36:24

Well, it sounds like to me. Like you, a lot of adults just lose sight of dreams as a kid. Like as a kid we're, like we can do whatever we want to. Yeah, you know, I mean, if the right people believe in us and who's the right person.

Speaker 2: 36:34

Who's the right person? Okay, all right, you are.

Speaker 1: 36:37

Right. Do you think it matters, though? I mean, can people have an influence on our life and help us believe in ourself more?

Speaker 2: 36:43

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, so okay, cool, oh yeah, I'm very big on that. But the thing is, if you don't first believe in yourself, everyone else can believe in you as much as you want, and it's not gonna really help.

Speaker 1: 36:55

I don't know. I think people can help you find that belief in yourself.

Speaker 2: 36:58

I agree with that.

Speaker 1: 36:59

You know, so yeah, so anyway, we only get stuck on the only thing.

Speaker 2: 37:04

That's the small part of my life but that allowed me to have the confidence to get on stage. Now, the whole idea of that is like when I got into speaking, I understood just like comedy. I was like, okay, I'm gonna suck in the beginning, I'm going to suck in the beginning.

Speaker 1: 37:18

I love that idea. I'm like my listeners know I'm about start ugly. You know it doesn't. It doesn't even mean like you're out there to like be sloppy or careless, you know it's just about let's just get out there and it's going to be sloppy and careless. That's not the goal, but that's definitely going to happen. But then, like that's, you grow from there. Yeah, so I love that man.

Speaker 2: 37:37

Yeah, and I realized I took the same approach in speaking as I did with boxing, where I was like okay, I don't have the natural ability, so I'm just going to work everyone, so I'm going to get more fights. So I decided how can I speak more than anyone? Yeah, so I bought a van and I lived in my van for three years. I spoke at high schools, middle schools, I MCed Gallas, I did vegan festivals, I did stand-up comedy and I lived in a van for three years because you were literally Matt Foley For real Right Do you know how I found out?

Speaker 2: 38:07

Someone said because I totaled my Prius and I was getting my insurance money. My friend was like oh, you should buy a van and live down by the river. And I was like I don't, I don't get it. And then I Googled it.

Speaker 1: 38:17

She sent me the link and you're like I'm living this life, People can live in vans.

Speaker 2: 38:20

I never knew and it never occurred to me. And one of the cool things about being living in so many different, traveling to so many different countries, is I got to see how, how many different ways there are to live. Of course we live the way, a lot of times we live the way our parents or our family live, but there's so many different ways to live and I embraced this van lifestyle and it allowed me to lower my expenses. I'd know I didn't have to pay for flights, hotels or car rentals and it allowed me to speak for a lower fee, which made me more desirable to more school, more schools, and I spoke at 200 schools a year for the first three years in that van. It's a lot.

Speaker 2: 38:57

I I wanted to be undeniably good when I told you my fee. I wanted to get so good that when I told you my fee, you say you should probably charge more and then I will, and. But I could only get there unless I put in that work. So I looked at that three years in the van as my college, because I never went to college and was like okay, you got to eat ramen noodles, you got to grind. Life goes suck for a little bit, get over it.

Speaker 1: 39:21

What was the hardest thing about living in a van for three years? If you were to say one thing, that would have made it easier.

Speaker 2: 39:26

Can I get two things?

Speaker 1: 39:27

Yeah, you get two things Two things.

Speaker 2: 39:29

First thing I realized when I packed the van I packed too many things and I didn't pack anything. 99% of the things you own you do not need.

Speaker 1: 39:37

Wow, hear that, lynn. Now I'm not preaching to my wife. We agree, we're trying to live the more minimalistic lifestyle. It's just hard to do Like we always like what do we throw away? You know, and so she already knows this. But it's like how do you? How'd you do it? I mean, did you achieve it? Did you finally start throwing out the right things?

Speaker 2: 39:58

I well, july. So it was a year later. I was on, I woke up in bed. It was July 4th. It was a July 4th 2017. It was a year from when I made that tweet. I'm going to reinvent myself and I owned the van but I didn't have any money to to to fix it up, to make it nice, to put air conditioning in it. And it was July 4th and I woke up and I saw, like your memory tweet or whatever it was like, you posted this a year ago. Oh yeah, and I I felt disgusted in myself for the first time in a long time, highly as I think of myself. I said, well, I said I was going to do all these changes and you know, I didn't really do anything last night. I'm not really doing anything in my life. I'm going to leave now. I was like I'm going to pack up this van. I don't know where I'm going, and I started packing things in the van. I was like, okay, too many things.

Speaker 1: 40:39

You were like four scum with a van.

Speaker 2: 40:41

Basically. Yes, yes, I was like time to go and I packed everything up and I was like I'm going to just because it's it's hot, it's July and Kansas. I'm like you know what? I'm just going to drive north. That was my logic. Wow, don't know, I'm going, I'm going to make it to. How'd you pick north? It's colder, higher.

Speaker 2: 40:55

Okay, that was my logic. All right, yeah, and I said I would get to Des Moines, iowa. Okay, I would go to Chipotle and I'll sit down and I'll map up where I'm going next, but I cannot go.

Speaker 1: 41:03

That's a great plan. By the way, chipotle I mean good things happen in your head when you're good things.

Speaker 2: 41:08

Chipotle, yes, yes. Problem was, uh, packed up the van. I brought 12 shirts, uh like, limited my stuff because I needed space in the van. Got to Des Moines Chipotle's clothes on 4th of July oh yeah, I didn't take that out. Oh man, that's how quickly. Because I was like I need to get this done. Yeah, and uh, I ended up in Canada, actually like I ended up doing like a festival in Canada and Way over achiever I brought my passport. Yeah, I brought my passport.

Speaker 2: 41:36

And uh, and throughout that I started booking gigs while I was on the road and by that time the school year had started. Back up, I drove down to Arizona uh, because their school year starts in July. So I drove down there to end of July and I started speaking at schools for anything. And one school was like we loved you. I'm like hey. They're like oh, you're leaving town. I was like, well, I could, I'm in a van, I could stay a little bit longer. So like, oh, if you can stay around until next week, we got two more schools for you to speak in. Oh, wow, and that's what I was. But it was great. Man, it's a hundred degrees at night, bro, that's a metal box with no air conditioning. It was wrong.

Speaker 1: 42:06

Did you have a way to sleep outside, like on top of the van or beside the van, or is that just too too many rattlesnakes in Arizona? No, it was. It was, I wouldn't sleep like I.

Speaker 2: 42:14

I never thought about considering sleeping on top of them, but I have the AC Well, and I didn't have the AC unit up there that I could have slept on top of it. I never considered that Uh, but I would sleep in Walmart parking lots with my back doors open.

Speaker 1: 42:26

I was going to say really, yeah, wow, and sketchy doors open. That's scary man.

Speaker 2: 42:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and. But the thing is like I, I, I realized like one plus two equals three, me become becoming two. Number two is becoming a dope speaker. Undeniably good. Three equals the life I want. Yeah, the freedom, because I never grew up with financial freedom and I said, okay, this is the way I'm going to achieve it.

Speaker 2: 42:51

And I can achieve it while while speaking at schools and changing lives. Bro, the amount of selfies and high fives I get to do sometimes. I can't sleep at night, Just so it's like you feel like a rock star for a day. Yeah, First of all, these kids are just happy they're out of class.

Speaker 2: 43:02

But then you give them a message that they want to hear and you connect with them. And the thing with with middle schoolers uh, I like to think that they're the worst people on the planet, because they know what feelings are enough to hurt them, but they haven't developed the empathy to care. So if they don't like you, they will tell you, and I got to learn real quick what was good and what wasn't, and it was. I'm so grateful for signing in my speech.

Speaker 1: 43:27

They will tell you Okay, and it helped me become who I am.

Speaker 2: 43:30

Yeah, another thing that helped me become, become who I am, is you. I invited you to my first uh talk. Yes, one of my first talks is like in front of an adult audience. Yep, and, from being honest, I just wanted to show off that I was in front of an adult. I'm not, I'm not talking to kids anymore and I was like, hey, you want to come out? And you're like, yeah, and you give me feedback. And you showed up with a pen and a pad and you, you sat in the corner and you took notes and I was bro. I was so glad that you were there because you got to see me kill it, cause I was like, yeah, I'm killing it Right. And I got off and like shaking everyone's hand and good, and you're like, hey, do you want to be for coffee? And like, time for you to tell me how great I was. That was. It was time for you to tell me how great I was, what year was that 2016.

Speaker 1: 44:17

Wow, wow, cause you had come to your first NSF Cause you had come to your first NSA conference right around then, right after that in Phoenix. Yeah, it all goes back to Arizona. Yeah, man, um, yeah, no, I remember that. I remember sitting down. I'm trying to remember now if you asked for feedback or if I volunteered.

Speaker 2: 44:33

You said are you looking at? You said are you looking for feedback?

Speaker 1: 44:35

or an audience Before I came. Okay.

Speaker 2: 44:37

And I said feedback because I never thought, but I was like I don't want, I'll just say feedback, sure Cause, of course it's going to be positive. And then we sat for coffee. Yeah, and it was one of the.

Speaker 1: 44:45

The greatest lesson of my speaking career was when you sat me down and I was waiting just to be padded on the back when I was just like I know that people say like I've heard it said like when you ask for feedback, you're really seeking out a compliment and I get that yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:01

We sat down and you said the first thing you said is your introduction. And I was like, oh no, I was like this is not going where I thought I was going to go and with the introduction that you give or that they give for you before you come up. That they gave for me before I came up.

Speaker 1: 45:15

Oh, and they didn't have one. You didn't have one.

Speaker 2: 45:17

You didn't want. You said it wasn't. It wasn't uh, because I let them just choose whatever. They said, oh gotcha, and it wasn't relevant to what I was speaking or anything like that. And you pointed that out. And then you said my own introduction and then you broke down kindly, by the way, kind, very kindly Inch humility, you. You were, yeah, bro, when I tell you, I got back to my car after we left Starbucks and I went from this high of like I got my first corporate gig to realization and I sat with it and it was a discomfort, Uh, and I was like, and even though I was like, I was so grateful for it Because I was like okay, I got so much stuff to work on.

Speaker 2: 45:57

Yeah, and if I, if you didn't tell me that, I would still. Now I have my introduction that I give school. I have a, a printed out introduction I bring to schools. I email it beforehand because of you. There's so many things that I do in my speech now because of you. Even you said closing out, because I just kind of ended it and you're like well, you said sum up what I spoke about, and I never even considered doing that. I thought they just heard me for the last hour. Why do I need to sum up what I said? And I'm so grateful that you gave me that feedback and I realized that's what we need. We need to gym, Of course, we need to believe in ourselves and we need to be delusional.

Speaker 1: 46:36

I love your believing yourself. Be delusional, don't be humble.

Speaker 2: 46:41

But every so often you need to get back to reality. And you snap me back into reality and I was like, okay, and then I got to discuss, started I changed up the way I was doing everything since that meeting and still I'm. I can't wait for you to see me speak again. Oh yeah, because I want feedback.

Speaker 1: 46:56

I can't because I watched you, maybe a year after that, speak at a school to youth. Do you remember that? And that was that was I had seen improvement, you know, and and I think that's before you hit the van and hit the road.

Speaker 2: 47:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 47:07

Yeah Well, and what's great about you is that you know there's a lot of times where I sit down to coffee and people want feedback. You truly absorb the feedback and you take notes and anytime. I remember we met for coffee at Black Dog a year or two ago and I was telling you like who prints my business card? And you're writing these things down and you say I feel like if someone gives me advice and I don't at least go pursue it and seek it out and give it some attention, then I've kind of wasted this person's time and I haven't really validated them meeting with me.

Speaker 1: 47:36

And I think that's just really cool that it doesn't just bounce off. You you absorb and then you process and you either accept it or you reject it. But the fact that you take it in and actually make changes based on the feedback you know I mean that that makes someone like you know, someone who you're pouring into you feel so much like okay, this is, I want to pour more in because it's it's been received well, and you just want to keep, keep giving. So kudos to you, man, for just like taking and that's a hard hit man to to go from that I'm awesome, I'm thinking to oh really.

Speaker 2: 48:06

I know that Best thing ever. And the thing is because I I've seen you speak, I've seen your show also side, but when I first seen you do, I don't like to even call it magic.

Speaker 1: 48:14

Oh, mentalism, yeah the blind show.

Speaker 2: 48:16

Yeah, I was like I wonder how this guy's doing it, because how are you pulling a profit?

Speaker 1: 48:21

Because I was sure I went with Shannon Pulling a profit, I went with Shannon.

Speaker 2: 48:23

I was convinced it's like a hundred people in the room. I was convinced 98 of them were paid off actors.

Speaker 1: 48:28

It was like it was the only way.

Speaker 2: 48:30

I was like this whole show just for me and Shannon. It was like the things you were doing were so mind blowing your stage presence, everything. And I value you so much as a person and your knowledge that if you give me advice and I waste your time, like when you gave me that advice, I actively avoided you Because I don't want you. If I said, hey, what do I need to do? And you say, hey, add this to your website. I don't want you to see me again before I've added that to my website, because I'm like, what am I going to ask you for the same thing twice? And do you know, when you give you've given the same person the same advice before and you're like, well, you're not really taking this. So how much deeper are you willing to? Like the Vulch? Yeah, like so I'm very big. Everyone I meet, I have notes, I keep my laptop out. I can tell you every single time we've met, every location we've met and everything you've told me to do.

Speaker 1: 49:15

That's amazing and you know, I bet like everyone can relate to this story of going from feeling like, like being delusional, but not in a good way.

Speaker 2: 49:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:23

Because I think sometimes like maybe you need to be delusional to attack that. Maybe if you weren't delusional, like to go along with this whole be delusional thing, maybe if you weren't delusional, you wouldn't have had the confidence to go in and do that gig, to then learn, to then have that low, yeah. And I remember I had the same kind of thing when I wrote my first motivational speech. I did it for some family members and I went in thinking I've written this whole script out, I've interjected some magic tricks, some audience participation, and I went in and it was like the war. It was just like a train wreck. It was like I was just talking and talking. They were just sitting there like mm-hmm, and it was like this I got in the car with my wife afterwards, because it was her side of the family, and I was like, okay, I have nothing, like I have so much work to do.

Speaker 1: 50:06

But it was that I didn't even need feedback. I could tell them the feedback from the people sitting on the couch. You got feedback. Yeah, I got my feedback I needed, but it didn't make me quit, it made me go. Okay, this is ground zero. Now, how do we go from here? And that's what I see in you, man, and you just like, haven't stopped, you just shh.

Speaker 2: 50:22

The thing is I'm not special, like, of course I call myself awesome, I name myself awesome, but I don't think I'm special. So I think everything I have, you have it.

Speaker 1: 50:31

Everyone else has, mm-hmm no one's any better than anyone else.

Speaker 2: 50:34

It's just the work that we're willing to put in, yeah, and what we think we're capable of determines a lot about our actions, mm-hmm. And so when I say delusion I don't actually mean it, because in reality I could achieve those things. Like people would say it would be delusional for not being able to make your high school basketball team or any team sport to be coming the number one box from the country in two years. Like when I walked to the gym every day I was having those talks, talking to myself in the delusional way of like you can do this, can't nobody beat you, you're the best. And eventually you start to believe yourself. So it's no longer delusion. But what happens is other people might think it's delusion. So what we do is we end up doing what other people think we can do. So I'm like, ok, maybe. Well, I think I can go to the Olympics. But it kind of sounds crazy if I say it out loud. So I'm just going to say I'm going to do what they think I'm capable of doing. So remember I said I didn't tell anyone I had for my first four boxing matches. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't think they would think I was a boxer and Charles Horton, I think, believed is. I saw this quote years later. It's I'm not what I believe I am. I am not what you believe I am. I am what I think you think I am.

Speaker 2: 51:57

And now that I look back at my story, I was like, oh, going to the gym, like in high school in New York. I grew up in high school in New York and I was super awkward and I didn't have any many friends and I was a shell of myself. And in my senior year of high school my parents moved to Florida and that's why I had to walk six miles to the gym. But when I got to Florida I realized, oh, none of these people know who I am. I can be anyone I want to be. I can adopt my mom's English accent. No one will know the difference.

Speaker 2: 52:22

So I decided I was going to be a culmination of cool people in New York. I went to school with and my camp counselors it's like I would say what I think they would say. I would do what they would, I would carry myself the way they would, and everyone in Florida believed that was me. A month before I graduated high school, I went back to my old school to do my graduation there, and I couldn't wait to get back to show everyone this new, confident person. And the second I walked through those high school doors I reverted into the even my posture, everything about myself. And now I look back I realize I was being who I thought they thought I was and they thought I was that same person before and I couldn't change that. And then I went back to Florida. As soon as I graduated. I went back to Florida. I was like I'm never going back to New York because I don't like who people think I am there.

Speaker 1: 53:11

So your mom had a British accent.

Speaker 2: 53:12

Yeah, she's from England.

Speaker 1: 53:13

From England. So it sounds like if you were to really be true to what you believe at your core, which is like it only matters what you believe, you wouldn't be caring what all these other people think about you. That wouldn't be changing your behavior. You would just be focused on. This is who I am. I believe in myself, so I'm going to be the real me right now. But you couldn't do that back then because you were too. You know you had to. What's when you're fixated on something? You were too fixated with, like, what they were thinking about you. That was sort of paralyzing you. You couldn't be free to just like be the new you.

Speaker 2: 53:47

And I will say I say it a lot and like it sounds obnoxious, arrogant, all that, but it's possible to think better of yourself. And when I say I changed my last name to awesome, I didn't come back from the courthouse and was like, okay guys, I'm awesome. I was still a little bit depressed, I was still not 100% there, but it gave me the hope to like to keep going more of the delusion or people call it delusion and I think it's funny to call it delusion, so I refer to that, but yeah, it didn't happen overnight.

Speaker 2: 54:18

And a year later I wasn't awesome Like I. My book is coming out. It's called becoming awesome, because I think everything you do is working towards who you want to be. And if you want who you want to be, why are you doing the same thing that you're doing? And I've kind of taken that approach. But it doesn't happen overnight. And there's I still have insecurities that I work on. I still have parts of myself that I believe is flawed that I'm continuing to work on, but the whole idea of becoming awesome is fixing those things and knowing that I can, and even even like seeing your feedback, accepting reality and understanding I can change it.

Speaker 1: 54:54

Yeah. So one thing I heard you say in one of your speeches I think it was to the students right was do hard things, and I love that. That stuck with me, you know, because I believe the same thing. I think that that if we want to grow, we got to do the hard things. And right now I've recently have quit coffee again. I don't know if I'm going to quit coffee, quit coffee, but now I've been drinking mud water so I take cold showers, you know, I think that makes us stronger. I mean, it does good things for your body. So so I do believe in this doing hard things right. I believe, like with your, with your work, you got to put in the work to, you know the marketing and building your team up to get to a place where you want to go. But what hard things are you doing, like on a daily basis, that you feel like you're helping propel you forward to the next thing?

Speaker 2: 55:42

One thing I do is being sharp. I think it takes a lot of us. We're naturally, we go towards the least resistance and what I found is if you put more effort in the front, front end of things, you become more efficient all the way around. So I believe, like this morning, I show up early.

Speaker 1: 56:05

Yeah, he was here before I got here.

Speaker 2: 56:07

One thing you can control you're not going to beat me somewhere, like, and I'll show up somewhere early and I'll get work done there. So when you walk in, I'm already getting that, I'm in workflow and then we get stopped.

Speaker 1: 56:17

Like the Brian Regan bit, I'm making money right now. I'm getting on the plane, yeah.

Speaker 2: 56:23

And that's. And I'm like okay, those are the things, those little, those little things. Everyone's thinking about the big changes, like what are these small changes we can make in our lives? And these things are difficult. Going to bed early, I realize like and I figure this out during the pandemic I am, we start to all of us. We wind down during. Everybody's time is different, but we wind down in the evening. Let's say, I start winding it. When are you? You're a parent, so, but I'll speak on myself. Like I start wind down.

Speaker 1: 56:54

You're like you're worthless to me right now in this scenario. You're a parent, so there's no normal. I love that you know that.

Speaker 2: 57:00

I was like, oh, you can't just go to sleep when you want to go to sleep. So I totally get that, but I find I'm less. I start winding around my productivity around six, seven o'clock, I don't do anything, okay.

Speaker 1: 57:10

And I realize, do you get off screens at that point too, because they say the blue light can affect your sleep, do you? I don't know what your rules are.

Speaker 2: 57:15

I get off professional screens Like I get off my laptop or same laptop, but it's Netflix. But you might, okay, but it's nothing productive that I'm doing I'm like watch Netflix, hang out and I realize I spend most of my money and consume most of my calories between the hours of 8pm and midnight.

Speaker 1: 57:32

Yes, I could see that that cause Chipotle delivers. Now, oh, you know what I'm saying. Now I could just start having it. But yeah, I mean, dude, once I discovered Chipotle delivery, yeah, it's dangerous.

Speaker 2: 57:43

Here's why I can't do Chipotle delivery.

Speaker 1: 57:45

Here's why I love it. You just have a rule that you just can't do it.

Speaker 2: 57:49

Because I don't want them to show up. I want to look you in the eyes while you scoop the rice.

Speaker 1: 57:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 57:54

And look a little deeper if I don't get enough rice. Oh really, Cause when you get your to-go order, it's small. Oh yeah, when I'm there like extra rice and I will get the order, and after you put the salsa I'm like, hey, can we go back and add a little extra rice to that?

Speaker 1: 58:06

See, that's funny, cause I'm the annoying guy who is always telling them hey, half scoop of rice, a little bit more, because I have. I'm very like, I watch my cal, the whole calorie thing, the one plus two equals three. I'm always trying to lose 20 pounds.

Speaker 2: 58:20

So it's like.

Speaker 1: 58:21

I know that everything adds up on a Chipotle burrito and it's like less beans, less rice, less guac, less meat. Otherwise I'm, just like you know, never going to meet any kind of goals.

Speaker 2: 58:29

So anyway, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 58:31

Yeah, 8 and 10 PM, so that's when.

Speaker 2: 58:34

Between 8 and midnight. Midnight Okay, and those are four hours, so I started going to bed at eight.

Speaker 1: 58:41

Wow, and you can fall asleep.

Speaker 2: 58:43

Not at first, okay, not at first, but regardless, I was waking up at 4.45. And it sucked, doing hard things, yeah. First 10 days sucked, yeah, and then eventually I started falling asleep earlier.

Speaker 1: 58:55

Huh.

Speaker 2: 58:55

Finding how that works.

Speaker 1: 58:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 58:58

And then I realized I would work from 5 AM till 10 AM. Five hours, yeah, uninterrupted, yeah. And by the time most people clock in and start getting that work, I'm done with my work day.

Speaker 1: 59:07

That's my most productive time too. Early morning hours, Like when I'm most focused. That's crazy.

Speaker 2: 59:12

And yeah, and that kind of changed the way I was spending my time. And now I have to re-change it because I'm doing comedy at night. Again. I'm like, okay, I can't wake up at 5 AM anymore, but doing difficult things, and it's like if life, I believe life, life is a game of cards, right, and if you don't like the way the hand is being dealt, you have to shuffle the deck. Shuffling the deck looks like doing things completely different.

Speaker 1: 59:36

Yeah Well, and you do open mics, speaking to doing hard things. You're not afraid of open mics, like most new people are, but just the fact that you're getting your reps in, that's hard Right To just stick with it. It's like when you lose the weight, you lose the weight, that was hard, but to keep it off. So to keep doing these open mics, because you're always like what's the next story, what's the next bit that I can even add to my motivational speech.

Speaker 2: 59:58

Right.

Speaker 1: 59:59

I mean you're doing it for all kinds of reasons.

Speaker 2: 1:00:01

Yeah, and I see and I'm competitive in a sense in everything I do when I see someone killing something, I'm like, yeah, it's possible, I'm going to kill it too. So I never see it as like, oh, I'm mad at that Killing it. Like no, no, you're just showing, if you can do it, I can do it. Yes, and you would say, I can do it, cam, you can do it as well. Like it's just weird for me to say it out loud, because that's a whole humility thing.

Speaker 2: 1:00:28

Right, no, I can do it too, yeah, and so I have this concept of the top five. So anything you do in like your, your the sum of the five people you hang out with the most right. So I think of it industry wise. So, like in boxing, I have specific top five. The first and the top five is terpop. First person out of the five that you hang out with is the pinnacle. That's like, and to me it was Muhammad Ali, and you don't need to spend time with this person or know them personally for them to be in that, because that's the top of the game, that's the goal I'm getting to him. He's at the top.

Speaker 1: 1:00:58

And, by the way, does that they have? How much did his influence of the defense and the dodging have to do with your whole defensive stance, with boxing? Was that everything to you?

Speaker 2: 1:01:08

No, it was actually. I don't care for Muhammad Ali's boxing, oh okay.

Speaker 2: 1:01:12

It was his personality In boxing. I've met so many people in the road, a lot of older guys and like or woman like I met Muhammad Ali 30, 40 years ago and everyone who tells me that has an amazing story of how he made them feel I've never met. Someone said, oh yeah, I met Ali, like I was great. It was like no, I met Ali and guess what happened. And he stole my pen and like and he. I realized that that and that's who I want to be. I want to be that person that changes people's lives. I don't care for his boxing so much. The reason why I did the defense was a guy named Emmanuel Augustus. He was called the drunken warrior. He had a losing record as a boxer. He wasn't that great but he had fun, but so the pen.

Speaker 1: 1:01:52

Okay, so, yeah, so I need, yeah, so I attract your big time the first one's a pinnacle.

Speaker 2: 1:01:56

The second person is someone who, let's say, in the boxing world is better than you. So someone in the gym who's more experienced, who's been doing it longer. Look at that person. Maybe Ali is not attainable right now, but that person is. You're with them every day. If they go for a run, you go for a run, you do what they do because they became great that. And you're always chasing that second person, that third person, someone who is just as good as me same experience level and everything and this person is my friend, my peer. I will never let them get better than me, and that's also their job too. They should never let me get better than them, and any opportunity I have, I'm going to try to make them better, because it's going to force me to be better.

Speaker 1: 1:02:38

And one, just to pause, reminds me of we in soccer and high school. For conditioning we would do a thing called the 12 minute run Just how many laps can you make around the track in 12 minutes? And me and this guy named Jake Brown always would do it together, shoulder to shoulder, just would run it and we'd be pushing each other and it was kind of like you're not going to, I'm going to beat you. And he would say the same thing, and but we were like always like the top, the first finishers, you know, and if I didn't have them there at my side, I wouldn't have done it that quickly.

Speaker 2: 1:03:03

So I can see that analogy that's great and I remember you know the Budweiser horses.

Speaker 1: 1:03:09

Yes, clydesdale, clydesdale.

Speaker 2: 1:03:12

One Clydesdale can pull 10 tons. How many do you think two can pull?

Speaker 1: 1:03:15

Interesting. Well, I would say 20. You would say 30. 35.

Speaker 2: 1:03:19

Wow, because they're they're competitive and they'll never let another horse outrun them.

Speaker 1: 1:03:24

Wow that's crazy.

Speaker 2: 1:03:26

So when you have someone next to you to compete with. A lot of us don't like competition, but I think competition is the best thing for you. It doesn't have to be hateful competition. It's to help push you.

Speaker 1: 1:03:35

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:03:36

And so that box in the gym. If he went for a three mile run, I went for three and a half. If he jumped rope for 20 minutes, I did 25. He is not going to be better than me.

Speaker 1: 1:03:44

And what's great about having that kind of relationship? Because I have that with, actually, todd Lemansky, who was on a previous podcast episode. After gigs, usually from me, after keynote, from, after a magic show, we call each other and we'll be like, hey, this went really well and it's. We never see it as braggie because it's like, man, I crushed in this area or did this, and because we can both do that because we're like peers, you know where. You could also tell a mentor that, but it's hard to tell people who are, you know, up and coming, hey, man, I went in and crushed, or whatever. Because it's like, okay, you know, but you would probably say, well, don't be humble, just do it, and you know bring them up, my question did you crush?

Speaker 1: 1:04:21

Have I ever?

Speaker 2: 1:04:23

Yeah, but a lot of times you wouldn't tell someone who's like doing bad and like crushed why? But you did. Why wouldn't you want to?

Speaker 1: 1:04:29

Well, I would tell I know I would tell someone above me because they'd be proud of, like Mark Mayfield, a mentor to both of us, like, hey, mark, this went really well and you know I did this joke, this tag that you gave me, or whatever. But to someone low, I think, I don't think you couldn't tell them that you didn't crush, like, let's say they're like I just bombed, like if you're doing like comedians, I just bombed.

Speaker 1: 1:04:48

You want to be like oh, I just crushed in a better audience for better money. It's like you're going to be hum, hum, humbling your tone to that person and gentle so that you don't just crush their spirits entirely like amen.

Speaker 2: 1:04:59

You can be obnoxious. You did go well for me.

Speaker 1: 1:05:01

You know, pete mind, I've been doing this longer man. You got this dude. I remember being there bombing in those same scenarios. You can do this, so I think there's a.

Speaker 2: 1:05:09

Well, that's you pulling them up.

Speaker 1: 1:05:10

Yeah, exactly it's pulling them up in a hum, in a tone of humility, you know. So that's. I think we probably agree, more than maybe we think. Oh I agree, humility thing, yeah, and it's on the wall concept and I think it's.

Speaker 2: 1:05:23

I throw it out there and I'm not. It's a concept I'm still working on. I'm not 100% done completing. That's why I haven't used on stage or anything like that. But it's a concept that's been floating around my mind. Yeah, idea of humility Number four, person in this.

Speaker 1: 1:05:35

Notice how I keep pausing you.

Speaker 2: 1:05:36

I'm not going to let you finish this. No, I love this. It's so good man.

Speaker 1: 1:05:39

Yeah, it resonates obviously.

Speaker 2: 1:05:41

And it could change different. So even that number two person could be your mentor in whatever the industry is Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:05:46

So the number four person for me was a boxer who wasn't as experienced as I was, but was just as hungry as I was, so he wasn't as good as me. Okay, so to me I'm his number two, he's my number four. Okay, all right, got it, and I he should first of all you'll name. I'll never let him be better than me and I'm gonna give him all the tools to do it, because he needs to push me to be better and, and if he ever does, I'm happy for him. Sure, uh, with that person, they're looking up to you. Be that example, be kind to them, be to them what you want number two to be to you. Um, if, if you see like they perform, or they had a fight or something You're like they did well, just shoot him a text like hey man, great job, because to me that validation means so much for someone who's lost.

Speaker 2: 1:06:34

Uh, or if you don't know your path, when I first was going for my first national championship, a guy named russheed warren, he was like a three-time olympian. I sent him a message on myspace. I was like, hey man, I'm gonna be going to my first nationals and I can't wait to see you. I heard a lot about you. And he responded see you there, champ. Screenshots weren't a thing back then, man, but I was on cloud. I started training hard. I was like, oh, russheed warren, he's like he knows who I am. And and if you that's what you could do for that number four person, you can give them that motivation, that drive.

Speaker 2: 1:07:05

Yeah and the fifth person's, the most important person. It's you. Why would those other four people want to spend time with you if you wouldn't want to spend time with yourself? Hmm, are you the best version of yourself? Hmm, and you can't progress if you want. So that's the way I looked at that and I took that same model from boxing and I brought into speaking and, uh, I it's a little more abstract, because Boxing is very objective, whereas, like, you win or you don't, yeah, so speaking is a little more of an abstract, an abstract Concept concept. But we have, like mark mayfields and we have kerry philips and we have these people that we look up to, who've done it before, and and those are the people I constantly look up to, and you are that person. For me, actually, we you're not my number three, you're my number two, buddy, okay, and I see the things you do and I see the places you're performing and I'm like, okay, it's possible, might not get it this year, but I'm gonna figure it out.

Speaker 2: 1:08:01

Yeah and the thing is, we can figure anything out. It's we might not figure it out our first try, but again, if you can fail without being discouraged, success is inevitable.

Speaker 1: 1:08:13

I love that. The one, two, three, four, five, so number five. Uh, you know we talk about spending time with these people. How do you spend time with yourself?

Speaker 2: 1:08:20

Uh, oh Well, that was the second thing of the two difficult things in the van. First thing was the amount of stuff that I can bring in. The second thing was how lonely it was. Second thing was how lonely it was.

Speaker 1: 1:08:31

It's lonely. I mean you, I bet. I mean I feel lonely when I go out for two days and I can still text my wife and everything, but I can't imagine.

Speaker 2: 1:08:40

Yeah, it's. It was so lonely and uh, and when I got to the van I was like, okay, I'm done drinking, because this is my livelihood, I'm. So I stopped drinking in the van. I was like, okay, I, I, I lost that kind of social connect with people. I, just because usually I old cam, I go to karaoke, go to a bar, I sing a song that no one expects I know the words to, I get off. Someone high fives me. I buy that person a shot, boom, I'm in with their group for the night.

Speaker 1: 1:09:08

What is that song by the?

Speaker 2: 1:09:09

way, it's just an array of them.

Speaker 1: 1:09:11

Okay, I think maybe.

Speaker 2: 1:09:16

I know that one, but uh, the isley brothers contagious. Uh and r kelly and I sing all three parts in different voices and stand in different parts of the stage. I make it like a per and none of these people will ever see me again, so it doesn't matter if I make a fool of myself.

Speaker 1: 1:09:29

Yeah, man, and, and there's just so many people to connect with so in the van, do you start to develop a different relationship with yourself and be more disciplined about the time, like I'm gonna read more, I'm gonna meditate more, I'm gonna pray more, I'm gonna, you know, work out differently or what's? What does it look like to change that relationship with yourself when you're so? Because there's probably a lot of people I know, there's people who are lonely, who are even with other people all the time. They're in families, they're in work environments, they're not in a van alone in the desert. What do you do when you feel lonely? How can you culture that relationship with yourself?

Speaker 2: 1:10:00

uh. So one of the things I started to do was the idea of, like I should be reading more. I should do. It took a long time for that to set in, uh, because I was like, okay, I guess I'll just, I'll just park in this mcdonald's and use their wi-fi and and download some stuff for Netflix and and you have just so much time. It seems like there's nothing to do with all the time. And then I look back at six months. I was like, well, I did a lot of speaking but I did nothing else. And then I started, I started to read and I started to do those things. But one of the things that really kind of changed the way I looked at everything was I started volunteering because, like everybody needs help, huh, and whether it's a dog shelter or like a uh, I do a lot of farms and you just go and do farm work with people.

Speaker 1: 1:10:44

Man volunteering. What did that do for your spirit? Just being giving?

Speaker 2: 1:10:48

First of all, everyone who is there volunteering, even if they're on community service, it's like it's a different energy and like it's very supportive and it's like a kindness that, a kindness that you don't get anywhere else and it's like just for the people are just there for the good, and I was able to make so many connections with so many different people because of that and I kind of built communities in each city and a lot of it was kind of vegan based, because I would go to farms because they were always there to help and uh, and they would give you food. Uh, and that was a really, really cool part with me was like to get into volunteering all those places and meet, meet with people and hear people's stories.

Speaker 1: 1:11:27

Yeah, oh, I'm sure, I'm sure you, yeah, so as we kind of start to campsfire like we're gonna.

Speaker 1: 1:11:34

We're gonna be rolling out of this pretty soon, but, um, well, we're kind of still in the vein, like we're talking about. You know, you just came out of the mentorship thing, we, you, you shared the jay-z Kanye illustration you share with me, because I talked beforehand about Helping people and sometimes you're helping people who are potentially going to be your competition or who are your competition. Uh, that you like, like cam and I are in the same market, basically in in terms of speaking here in kansas city, and there might be times where we were competing for the same gig. I don't know that it's ever actually happened, but it could. So you know, um, I can help him, he can help me, and I've always shared that illustration that if you like someone else's flame, it takes nothing away from your flame, but you can burn brighter together.

Speaker 1: 1:12:14

Yes, but, as we were talking about that, you shared the thing about jay-z. Would you just share that with them?

Speaker 2: 1:12:19

Yeah, uh. So I I'm a big fan of jay-z every the way he's handled his business, the way he trends. So the reason why I transitioned from sports into speaking is because I saw the way jay-z transitioned from Well, I did, I transitioned from sports into business, the business speaker. I saw the way jay-z transformed from music into business Okay, and I saw the way he carried himself and and he kind of he's, he's my number one in the speak in the business world. That's my number one.

Speaker 2: 1:12:42

Okay, I don't have to meet him or anything like that, but I aspire to him and I he was the first rapper to to hit a billion dollars, which is like crazy. And then Kanye West, his protege, hit the billion dollar club but passed jay-z and I was like, oh, I wonder if Jay-z is like, oh sure, a little competitive about that. And I heard Jay-z speak about it in an interview. He said he got to his billion the way he got to his billion and he made sure when he got there he wanted to help other people get there as well. And if he would have had a jay, if he was, if he would have had a jay-z to help him get to where he was, he would be further than where he is now and he sees Kanye West's success as a branch of his own success. And I was like, oh yeah, we just burn brighter together, man.

Speaker 1: 1:13:25

Yeah, that's great. I love that illustration, man. That's crazy awareness from him and I love that you absorbed that and shared that. So, man, thank you. So I just couple final questions for you and appreciate that. But I do love how you notice that like I should have hit the record button as soon as I walked into the room, because when camera, because we had breakfast together first, and it was like I was like wait, save that, save, because that's too good, don't, don't go deeper with that. But it's like it's always this rich talking with cam and I appreciate that. I also love just your, I mean your humility. Even with your idea about humility, you're kind of like I don't know it's this thing that I'm thinking about, but I love how you're always thinking Um, you're always creative, uh, and but you're always like but, but, but. I might be wrong about this, you know, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it, see how it feels, see how it lands, and then, and then go from there, kind of like that start ugly idea.

Speaker 2: 1:14:12

So, yeah, it's being being imperfectionist, yes.

Speaker 1: 1:14:16

I think so much perfectionist someone's weight.

Speaker 2: 1:14:18

We wait till things are right. Like, like I told you, I have my first book coming out. There's some holes in it, there's, there's gonna be some. I've never written a book before, so now, by my third book, like, oh, now I'll do this, I'll do that, do this and you gain that knowledge, but until I release that first one, I'll never get to the third one. Yeah and how many of us are waiting and things until things are perfect. Yeah, to get them started.

Speaker 1: 1:14:39

I think so many people wait way too long for version version 1.0, thinking that's the one that needs to be perfect. It's like, no, no, that's the mess.

Speaker 2: 1:14:46

Yeah, you know, get through that, work through it and get to 2.0 and and keep going and it's important to keep 1.0, like don't forget if you can record whatever it is, because then you get to see your growth. So you start podcast one, sure podcast one might be trash, yeah. Podcast 15, I don't know yet. Podcast 15, it's gonna be a lot better, yeah. And then when you get to podcast 130, sure, it's gonna be a whole different production. And you look, but I, after you get to podcast 150, go back and just watch podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:15:18

I remember Ed Sheeran did that on one of the talk shows where he was like watching old. They had him watch old footage of himself and he's just like oh my gosh, you know, and if he's doing that, can't we all? Yeah that's, I love that. Save 1.0 that's gold man, I love it. Well, awesome, okay, well, hey, before we kind of conclude here, and I do have just a couple questions left, so again.

Speaker 2: 1:15:37

I'm gonna One of them.

Speaker 1: 1:15:38

I'm gonna put you on the spot.

Speaker 2: 1:15:39

I do this with all the guests, all right.

Speaker 1: 1:15:42

It really made one of the guests freeze up like I don't know, but it's, it's all good. So thanks once again to exit, roshani for hosting this. Hey, um, go to youtube at devon Henderson speaker for the full experience. Subscribe, like it if this episode meant anything to you at all. Um, also, if you were inspired, you know, on apple or spotify, if you're listening, please rate, please comment. That helps us extend our reach and get messages like cams to to more people. So, um, one thing too wherever your, whatever platform you're on, comment, let us know what is one thing that cams said that made you Decide to do something differently in your life today. So, okay, awesome, uh, with that, how can people connect with you?

Speaker 2: 1:16:19

We'll link your website, but go ahead and tell us cam camf awesome calm and at cam of awesome on all social media platforms, because I'm not famous enough for anyone to steal my name yet at cam f awesome Okay please trust the f perfect.

Speaker 1: 1:16:32

Yes, yeah, you got it Okay, and then can't you have a. You have a product which I told you I'm gonna start doing some Affiliate. My goal is to start doing some affiliates with some products I really believe in like this one right here, that some of you know what this is, the magical liquid in this can, but hopefully that's coming soon that I can talk more about that. But you have your own product and you're gonna be starting up a podcast again.

Speaker 2: 1:16:53

That's the plan.

Speaker 1: 1:16:54

Yeah, that's the plan and you have your own. What is your product, man?

Speaker 2: 1:16:57

So, uh, I Again. I love the concept of business and when I got into the speaking business, first of all I thought, like I'm just gonna be a good speaker, yeah, very little to do with the speaking business when you turn. And now I'm starting to learn more about business. I decided to start my own and they said If you're gonna start a product, start a product that you need and you would use every day.

Speaker 1: 1:17:17

Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:17:18

Okay and uh, when I bought the van it came with the seat cover. Yeah, so like when I was sweaty I didn't want to sweat my pants I would put the seat cover on the seat and then every softener wash it Not as much as I should have, but yeah, well, of course, do we ever.

Speaker 1: 1:17:31

I, when I think of a van that you live, and I think one of those seat covers, that's the wooden beads that are.

Speaker 2: 1:17:39

Hippy vandana the budget for it.

Speaker 1: 1:17:44

He didn't have the budget to be a hippie, I know yeah things are rough back then.

Speaker 2: 1:17:49

But I got the seat cover and I loved it so much and even when I stopped using the van, I still took the seat cover and I put it in my Prius and People in the gym be like, oh man, where'd you get that from? And everyone was asking me about it. I was like, oh no, it came with the van. And one day I looked at the. I saw there's a website and I checked the website. The website's closed out. The company is closed down. So I was like, okay, I took it, I shipped it to china, I had them remake it. Wow, ship, sent it back, get samples. And Uh, they sent to me and they're on amazon right now and I'm starting to sell them.

Speaker 2: 1:18:18

And I realized that I couldn't find a because I wanted sponsors as a speaker and and my podcast and all that. And I was like I can't find someone who thinks I'm worthy of being sponsored. So If I can't find someone to believe in me, I'm gonna believe in myself and I'm just gonna do it my own. It might take a little bit longer, but I'm so grateful that I'm taking this route because there's so much I'm learning about business and shipping and handling and different concepts of of generating different streams of income that I would have never Learned if I wasn't going through this procedure, and even if I did this for a year and I broke even, it would be so worth it from the things I've already learned from this.

Speaker 1: 1:18:57

Yeah, nice, okay. So how can we get? We can just link to the product in the in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 1:19:03

Well, what's it called Steak cover? It's called no sweat seats.

Speaker 1: 1:19:06

No sweat seats.

Speaker 2: 1:19:07

No sweat seats.

Speaker 1: 1:19:08

I'm not even affiliate, but I believe in this man and I might be man by that. Yeah, maybe we'll do it affiliate. Yeah maybe let's be my first. My first product is yours.

Speaker 2: 1:19:17

I would be honored.

Speaker 1: 1:19:18

Okay, okay, awesome, maybe we'll get that set up.

Speaker 2: 1:19:20

I know, I'm also honored that you because I I do think you're my number two on that list and you were. You're the person who got me into speaking and I thought it was so cool that you asked me to be on your podcast and I wouldn't say I was humbled by it, but I would say I was certainly surprised.

Speaker 1: 1:19:37

Oh, that's funny, Maybe a little bit delusional. Maybe your delusional would think I should be on the spot cast.

Speaker 1: 1:19:44

But, yeah, I think I'm good enough to have awesome fun and no, that's good. Well, and, by the way and I know we're wrapping up like this is how it is with cam you just Always fun, man, you. When I saw you do the open mic, I was like there's more that. There's more to this guy, because I saw man, this guy's a boxer, he's got this history of, like, you know, tough childhood grown up. I was like, man, there's a story there and that's all any speaker needs Is a story which we all have, as we learned with will, sever and you know, back in the tell your story episode, but you had this story. I was like this story needs to be told.

Speaker 1: 1:20:15

And the fact that you already are comfortable on stage and you're funny, you're like, so you're like 80 of the way there I don't know how I chose, you're so close and so it's like let's just get this guy, you know, connected with the speaking community. And so it's just been awesome, dude, that you have risen to the challenge and done it. You did it, man, you're doing it, and you're just always growing. So it's really, really cool to watch that and just see this growth man. So congratulations on everything.

Speaker 2: 1:20:42

Thank you, man. I'm just trying to get my devin on.

Speaker 1: 1:20:44

Yeah, thanks, thanks for being here, man. I appreciate it. So, okay, all right, um, and here's the. Here's the last one, the one that's like that. Just one piece of advice for my daughters, let, piece of life advice. What could you tell them?

Speaker 2: 1:20:57

Don't base what you can do off of what others couldn't. Hmm, there's a lot of people out there who will tell you, hey, you shouldn't do that, because they've done it and they got burned or they weren't capable of accomplishing it and they were heartbroken. And a lot, of, a lot of times we try to save other people the embarrassment or Try to guide them away from failure. But I realized everything I did. Everything I failed Is why I'm like. 2008 lost the olympic trials. 2012 one olympic trials got kicked off. 2016 one olympic trials Didn't make it to olympics. Signed up for the 2020 olympic trials. Flew to trinidad and tobago, my dad's home country. Got my dual citizenship. Fought in the olympic trials, won by knockout. Returned to the us, continued to speak, living in the van To because I had to fund myself. Then the pandemic happened. I didn't get to go. I believe if I were to tell someone back when I was walking to high school that was going to be go to four olympic trials, they would probably tell me maybe you should try college.

Speaker 1: 1:21:59

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 1:22:00

So I would tell your daughters Do what you want, understand there's going to be consequences that come with it, but don't base what you're going to do what based off what others couldn't wow, okay, here.

Speaker 1: 1:22:10

That, girls. That's sound advice, awesome. All right, we're going to wrap by. Um, I do this with my audience. I say what else and they say is possible, because when you embrace the possibility mindset, you never stop asking. So I'll say what else you say is possible. All right, you ready? Yeah, okay, here, we're gonna never stop asking the question what else and what's possible. We'll see you next time.