Latest / Voices for Voices® / How I Overcame My Childhood Trauma | Episode 75

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How I Overcame My Childhood Trauma | Episode 75 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:00
  Justin Alan Hayes: Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast sponsored by Redwood Living.
• 0:06
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• 2:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: In today's episode, today, we are joined by our special guest, I believe.
• 2:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: He's in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• 2:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: He has declared a emergency on trauma, state of emergency on childhood trauma and trauma in general.
• 2:56
  Justin Alan Hayes: He's a father, an author, a producer, an advocate.
• 3:01
  Justin Alan Hayes: There's really nothing that our guest doesn't do and hasn't done, and we want to have him on our show because he is an important voice not only in the state of Ohio but also across the United States, and we thought it would be great to have him share his voice again and with our audience and connect with as many people as possible, because I have a feeling that a lot of us may have some synergies with some of the topics that he's going to talk about today.
• 3:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: And so, our guest is joining us on Zoom.
• 3:42
  Justin Alan Hayes: He is Mr.
• 3:44
  Justin Alan Hayes: Ronald A.
• 3:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: Hummons, thank you so much for joining us today.
• 3:50
  Ronald A. Hummons: My pleasure.
• 3:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: Wow, where to where to start?
• 3:53
  Justin Alan Hayes: Let's start with the childhood trauma that has been the foundation of a lot of the work that you're doing today, that there might be some relatability with our viewers and our listeners.
• 4:15
  Ronald A. Hummons: Well, childhood trauma is the most pervasive issue that the world has ever seen and sadly, it gets addressed with kids gloves.
• 4:24
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, we don't give it the aggression you know what I'm saying or the assertiveness that it needs to really deal with the issue.
• 4:33
  Ronald A. Hummons: Unfortunately, a lot of people don't really understand what childhood trauma is, or just.
• 4:39
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know the effects that it has on us personally, on our communities, on our country.
• 4:44
  Ronald A. Hummons: Right, we know the expressions of trauma.
• 4:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the expressions of trauma is what we see on the news every day around the world.
• 4:54
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know the violence, the poverty.
• 4:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: These are all expressions of trauma, broken communities, broken families.
• 5:00
  Ronald A. Hummons: But we don't understand it to be childhood trauma related issues, right?
• 5:06
  Ronald A. Hummons: So of course, you know we will put it up under the same category as mental health, which really waters it down, because childhood trauma is not mental health, it's not a cognitive issue, it's a physical issue, it's a bodily issue, it's a biological issue.
• 5:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: And as long as we keep, you know, just focusing on on mental health and not separating those two, it'll never really get addressed the way that it needs to.
• 5:35
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, and so you yourself have undergone some of that trauma.
• 5:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: That has really, really helped give you the voice and in the platform to not just talk about things in terms of you know the book definitions and the book theories, but actually you know your lived experience of going through that and being able to relate with individuals that have and are unfortunately experiencing some of that.
• 6:11
  Justin Alan Hayes: Can you touch on a little bit on how you're able to relate so strongly to the childhood trauma piece?
• 6:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I was conceived by Ray.
• 6:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: I was adopted at the age of five to a man that beat me into a huge blood.
• 6:29
  Ronald A. Hummons: He was my first bully and you know, in-home bully is almost worse than you know school bully or, you know, bully on the street, because I had to see this man every day, all day.
• 6:42
  Ronald A. Hummons: By the age of 12 I wanted to know who my biological father was thinking that, you know, that would be an escape for me and my biological father was a crack in heroin.
• 6:55
  Ronald A. Hummons: So it was like jumping from the fire, from the frying pan to the fire.
• 6:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the abuse only got worse, the abandonment only got worse.
• 7:05
  Ronald A. Hummons: I slept in abandoned houses with him.
• 7:08
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know we would kick in doors during the winter time of abandoned houses, you know, just to find a place to sleep.
• 7:14
  Ronald A. Hummons: So that trauma shaped my life, you know, because we're talking about a wide range of traumatic impacts that lasted during the duration of my entire childhood, even to my younger daughters, and that led to me really struggling with relationships.
• 7:33
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know I'm saying because of those abandonment issues, those trust issues.
• 7:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know isolation, and as I got older, I didn't, I, I still didn't know what childhood trauma was.
• 7:46
  Ronald A. Hummons: Of course I knew the eternal trauma.
• 7:49
  Ronald A. Hummons: Like I said, I didn't know what trauma really was as far as you know how it affected our daily lives.
• 7:55
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I understood my story to be a story of overcoming.
• 7:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: That's all I knew.
• 8:00
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know what I'm saying.
• 8:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, going from there, I became a successful entrepreneur, you know, best-selling author.
• 8:09
  Ronald A. Hummons: I didn't know that there was unhealed trauma because I thought that I overcame everything, because I became successful, and it was the suicide death of my first born son that led me to go deeper, because I didn't understand that.
• 8:27
  Ronald A. Hummons: I'm like what is this?
• 8:28
  Ronald A. Hummons: Where did this come from?
• 8:29
  Ronald A. Hummons: How did this happen?
• 8:30
  Ronald A. Hummons: No parent suspects or something like that.
• 8:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: Whatever you know happens today.
• 8:34
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, as I started doing my research, I took a couple of classes and it was at a behavior health class that I took that I was introduced to childhood trauma for the first time in my life.
• 8:46
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said you know the clinical definition of it, but then go even deeper, the actual biological, you know effects of childhood trauma.
• 8:55
  Ronald A. Hummons: And that's when I understood my story.
• 8:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, learning my son's story helped me to understand mine and once I realized how pervasive this issue was, I was sad.
• 9:07
  Ronald A. Hummons: I was sad because you know, you see, the black lives matter movements and so many other movements right that you know gone, global, global warming, all these different movements, but there had never been a movement for childhood trauma and this is the issue that the world should be focusing on.
• 9:26
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I decided, you know what?
• 9:28
  Ronald A. Hummons: I'll create the movement.
• 9:29
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I did a hunger strike.
• 9:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: I did a 48 hour hunger strike in the steps of our state house in Columbus in December and, let me mind you, columbus code, it's not Cincinnati code.
• 9:42
  Ronald A. Hummons: Okay, columbus code is more like Cleveland code.
• 9:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: Cincinnati's code is, you know, kind of like Kentucky, so we have 40 50 degree weather, you know, in the winter time.
• 9:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: This was during a time when it was very cold.
• 9:54
  Ronald A. Hummons: I did this hunger strike in December, december 18th, and but I knew that a radical issue deserved a radical response.
• 10:03
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I became that radical response and this is how I kicked off the movement and I start slowly started bringing, you know, people in to join me, be a part of the movement.
• 10:13
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know some psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health therapists, and from there you know we started really building what that looked like?
• 10:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: Because I didn't I didn't know anything about politics at the time, but I was told by a Republican, once a conservative, he told me.
• 10:29
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said he asked me the question.
• 10:30
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said what do you think that you get you there?
• 10:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: Get you all there.
• 10:34
  Ronald A. Hummons: He was speaking of the black community primarily.
• 10:36
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said what do you think that?
• 10:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: You're all there, and you know.
• 10:39
  Ronald A. Hummons: So of course I gave you know my perspective and he said no, he's gonna give you one word Policy.
• 10:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: Policy is what's got you there, policy is what's going to get you out.
• 10:49
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I decided, ok, cool.
• 10:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: So how are we going to shape policy in a way to where it affects our trauma?
• 10:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I wanted to find a model.
• 11:00
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the model that I used was the opioid model the state of emergency on opioids and I needed to understand exactly what that was, because I'm like, ok, if this is an issue around addiction, why didn't they just say a state of emergency on addiction?
• 11:15
  Ronald A. Hummons: They specifically named it opioids.
• 11:18
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the more I started really understanding systematically how that worked.
• 11:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: I was like, ok, I get it now.
• 11:24
  Ronald A. Hummons: I didn't like it but at the same time it made sense and there was a model that I was able to duplicate and revise.
• 11:30
  Ronald A. Hummons: So that's how I came up with the state of emergency on opioids, because the way that they addressed that issue was so aggressive and we're seeing the results of it now, at least here in Cincinnati.
• 11:41
  Ronald A. Hummons: I mean, the opioid addiction rates have gone down.
• 11:44
  Ronald A. Hummons: A lot of the calls, the emergency calls, have reduced.
• 11:49
  Ronald A. Hummons: So we're seeing the effects of it.
• 11:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I'm like, ok, it really blew me away.
• 11:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: Again.
• 11:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: I was saddened again because I'm like why is childhood trauma not addressed with that same aggression, with a state of emergency?
• 12:03
  Ronald A. Hummons: So we created a state of emergency on childhood trauma policy and we actually wrote the policy and it's HCR 45, where we're demanding that our governor declares a state of emergency on childhood trauma because that will unleash those dollars to fix the issue Because, just like a natural disaster, a tornado or a storm childhood trauma is a biological effect which would make it the worst natural disaster of all man.
• 12:31
  Ronald A. Hummons: So release those dollars so that we can fix the issue.
• 12:37
  Justin Alan Hayes: So it's so deep and you really went into the research.
• 12:42
  Justin Alan Hayes: Sometimes we hear about people and organizations where they just hear buzzwords and then they take an issue and run.
• 12:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: But you've really taken it to heart from your, unfortunately, lived experience and going through and, like you said, mirroring the opioid state of emergency to name and to go after the policy for state of emergency on childhood trauma.
• 13:12
  Justin Alan Hayes: And I guess, how did you connect all the pieces?
• 13:16
  Justin Alan Hayes: Because I'm sure it was complex, it didn't happen overnight or one or two days.
• 13:21
  Justin Alan Hayes: But when you decided, ok, here's what we're going to do, the hunger strike, we're going to kick it off, how did you connect?
• 13:29
  Justin Alan Hayes: Did you have a game plan of in 10 days or 30 days, or was it just a?
• 13:35
  Justin Alan Hayes: I don't want to say as you go and as you're learning, because that's, I guess, how I've gone about things.
• 13:42
  Justin Alan Hayes: I'd like to think I'm a good planner, but then when reality comes in, it's like OK, life kind of comes in and it might take you a different direction.
• 13:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I'm just curious on that process, because I think some of our audience might get hung up on the process of it, of OK, I'm in, what can I do, in not knowing everything that kind of comes with it.
• 14:09
  Ronald A. Hummons: Yeah, for me.
• 14:09
  Ronald A. Hummons: Honestly, I didn't know what I was doing and I told that you know when I would find volunteers that want to be a part of it.
• 14:17
  Ronald A. Hummons: These were people that had PhDs and I had to explain to them that I just need you to trust them.
• 14:25
  Ronald A. Hummons: I have no clue what I'm doing, but when I do do it, I know exactly what I'm doing.
• 14:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: And they didn't really understand that at first, of course, because they look at me.
• 14:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: I dropped out of school in the 10th grade.
• 14:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: So these are people, like I said, with master's and PhDs, and they were like OK, but you want us to follow you?
• 14:43
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I told them yes, because I know that this task, this mission, I was molded for.
• 14:52
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the first step was, like I said, being honest, that I don't know what I'm doing.
• 14:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: But when the idea came to me to do the hunger strike, I knew exactly what to do.
• 15:02
  Ronald A. Hummons: Even though nobody joined me, I reached out to religious leaders, I reached out to community leaders.
• 15:09
  Ronald A. Hummons: Nobody would join me on this hunger strike.
• 15:11
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I knew, right then and there, that I had to become the movement.
• 15:15
  Ronald A. Hummons: If nobody would be a part of it, I had to be the movement myself.
• 15:17
  Ronald A. Hummons: This is something I actually teach to other younger activists, it's you become the movement first.
• 15:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, like I said, so then they came down to really knowing how to move forward on a policy level.
• 15:29
  Ronald A. Hummons: I didn't know what to do, but I'm smart enough to know that there's models out there.
• 15:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I'm a consultant, and one of the things that I've done over the years as a consultant was I would never tell a customer, no, I can't.
• 15:43
  Ronald A. Hummons: I'm taking contract and the only thing that I'll do is I'll find a successful model and just duplicate and revise it.
• 15:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I was smart enough to know that.
• 15:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, like I said, I told my team I have no clue what I'm doing, but when I do do it, trust me, it's the right move.
• 15:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I actually shadowed a group in Columbus.
• 16:07
  Ronald A. Hummons: They were from Dayton, I believe.
• 16:12
  Ronald A. Hummons: They were from Dayton, ohio, and they were pushing for a single payer insurance.
• 16:16
  Ronald A. Hummons: I forgot the whole issue surrounded, but it was for about insurance, right.
• 16:21
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I asked if I could just shadow it, because I need to understand how things worked inside the state house.
• 16:28
  Ronald A. Hummons: I had never even been in there before.
• 16:30
  Ronald A. Hummons: So when I say that I literally didn't know, I didn't know.
• 16:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: So they allowed me to shadow them as they went from a legislator to a legislator, meeting with different ones about this issue and about their policy, and just watching gave me kind of a blueprint on how I need to move forward with my team.
• 16:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, of course, after that was over a month later I started setting up my own meetings with legislators who I thought would be supportive of a move like this, and I was greatly disappointed Because naturally, I went to, of course, a lot of Democrats and especially black Democrats.
• 17:09
  Ronald A. Hummons: I thought that this would just be a walk in the park and it wasn't well received at all and I was really surprised by that.
• 17:17
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I went back to the drawing board and one of my team members was the president of the Tea Party Cincinnati.
• 17:26
  Ronald A. Hummons: He's super conservative right and people to this day are like how is he on your team?
• 17:31
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I had to explain to him politically like how that worked, because he's a conservative or even a Trump supporter.
• 17:39
  Ronald A. Hummons: It doesn't make him.
• 17:41
  Ronald A. Hummons: I mean, he's a really good, great guy.
• 17:44
  Ronald A. Hummons: He's super supportive of humanitarian issues.
• 17:47
  Ronald A. Hummons: So they were like OK, that makes sense.
• 17:50
  Ronald A. Hummons: He was the one that actually told me that he had a friend who was a legislator, a Republican, he said.
• 17:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: Then he set up a meeting.
• 17:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: We met with him.
• 17:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: I laid out the entire issue.
• 18:00
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know for him as much as I had at the time and he said, ron, this makes sense, I'll sponsor your bill.
• 18:09
  Ronald A. Hummons: He reached out to another Republican that said the same thing.
• 18:11
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said yeah, I don't understand how the legislators that we met with you know, beginning the Democrats, he said I don't understand how they didn't get this, why they didn't jump on over this Like it's perfect, even if it's just for, you know, for campaigning, it's perfect.
• 18:24
  Ronald A. Hummons: So they came on board as sponsors and as we started moving forward, I started learning more and more about how I had the political game works right.
• 18:34
  Ronald A. Hummons: It was introduced to the committee, we had committee hearings, I was able to put together some proponents for it and we started moving forward from there.
• 18:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the more knowledge I gained on how the political system worked, the more I was able to put together this plan on how to move forward.
• 18:52
  Ronald A. Hummons: Then we got hit with COVID and everybody was like, ok, things are just going to shut down, you're not going to be able to do anything, and so one of my key gifts is strategy, and that's how I've been able to move through.
• 19:08
  Ronald A. Hummons: This journey is being really strategic.
• 19:10
  Ronald A. Hummons: So one of the things that I came up with was during COVID.
• 19:15
  Ronald A. Hummons: Since everybody will be confined to their homes, you know, close to radios or TVs, let's launch an awareness campaign.
• 19:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I reached out to some radio stations and I got some huge sponsorships that actually pay for the ads and we launched a full awareness campaign on childhood trauma what is childhood trauma?
• 19:38
  Ronald A. Hummons: And helping people understand that piece first, because if you don't know what to stick from, you can't heal.
• 19:43
  Ronald A. Hummons: So we utilized that entire time during COVID to launch the awareness campaign as I just continued to prepare for the outcome of COVID.
• 19:54
  Ronald A. Hummons: Then, after COVID was over, of course, we went right back to the state house, that's, committee hearings, and now we're actually on a federal level.
• 20:02
  Ronald A. Hummons: We're working with JD's NASA team to push it so that he can take it to the president, get it declared on a federal level.
• 20:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: Wow, that's awesome.
• 20:11
  Justin Alan Hayes: I mean you've literally like a grassroots issue.
• 20:16
  Justin Alan Hayes: You've literally worked from the ground up.
• 20:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: You said I don't know what I'm doing, but when I get there and do it you'll know and it all makes sense.
• 20:27
  Justin Alan Hayes: I'm curious on, maybe the more I would say like, finding your calling of you've done many different things throughout your life Very successful.
• 20:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: When this issue kind of came to you of, yeah, we need to do something about it, can you just walk through if somebody at home or is listening on the subway or train somewhere, is battling between a couple of things that they want to do and they're not really sure, how did you know?
• 21:01
  Justin Alan Hayes: All right, these are the signs, and I know it's not a direct science to it.
• 21:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: But if somebody is in between things maybe they're in college and they're in between majors and they're like, oh well, I like marketing, but I also like criminal justice, and can you maybe just walk through that mental process that you went through and, as things started to click, you're like, yeah, this is what I need to do right now.
• 21:39
  Ronald A. Hummons: So that was kind of tricky for me, because I tried to walk away from it multiple times.
• 21:43
  Ronald A. Hummons: I think that, right, there definitely is a sign.
• 21:47
  Ronald A. Hummons: If you can't walk away from it, that's where you need to be, that's where your journey is leading you back to.
• 21:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: It's kind of like the book the Alchemist he went on his journey just to lead right back to where he started from.
• 22:02
  Ronald A. Hummons: So for me, that's where my heart stayed, that's where my heart was planted, and I knew this was an issue that I had to stay with.
• 22:12
  Ronald A. Hummons: And then, as I started being committed to that issue, my consistency really kind of dug me deeper into it and rooted me deeper into it.
• 22:21
  Ronald A. Hummons: That's why I tell people all the time you know, why it's just a movement, is just that moving?
• 22:30
  Ronald A. Hummons: That's it, cause you know, like I said, not knowing what to do right, but as long as I'm moving, that's all the movement is and that's all I deal with.
• 22:38
  Ronald A. Hummons: I continue moving and my journey is just kind of unfolded itself.
• 22:43
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, and it takes time.
• 22:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: I think sometimes with our society and I know me personally one quick answer is a quick fix.
• 22:52
  Justin Alan Hayes: And as you learn throughout your process and as you're learning that there's certain steps and ways to go about it and although it should, the issue should be taken care of like relatively quickly because of the hurdles that are out there politically and in the community, the persistence did that also come back to.
• 23:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: Like you, once you got started, like you, you couldn't walk away from it.
• 23:22
  Justin Alan Hayes: So that just kept you motivated day to day to day with what you're doing.
• 23:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: I like, okay, I'm going to reach out to this, I'm going to meet with this person, I'm going to go to the state house, I'm going to.
• 23:35
  Justin Alan Hayes: I guess I don't even know how you get on the schedule to get on the floor to talk about things.
• 23:40
  Justin Alan Hayes: But, like you said, you're just continuously moving through the process of like okay, as things are coming along.
• 23:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: You can look back now and say, yeah, this one thing led to this connection and this connection led to here.
• 23:54
  Justin Alan Hayes: But when you're in the moment, you're, like you said, you're just moving.
• 23:57
  Justin Alan Hayes: You're just moving from conversation to conversation to meeting to meeting, using your you know your gifts, especially with a strategy of just continuing on and utilizing and I think that's helpful for students or anybody that we have transformational gifts.
• 24:16
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, whether you're consulting with your consulting business or you're working on the issue to make this a child of trauma, declare that a state of emergency on the federal level.
• 24:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: Your strategy gift is able to transcend wherever you're at.
• 24:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: If you're in front of a client or you're in front of a lawmaker, if you're in front of a media personality or you're doing an interview like this, you're able just to use those gifts and just kind of put on a little bit of a different hat, but you know you're the same person using that same strategy.
• 24:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: Yeah, I like to use a technique called life stream.
• 24:54
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know they have a thing called live stream.
• 24:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: I like live stream and I learned this technique from Aaron F.
• 25:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: So of course you know he's a he's deceased, but he does a lot of teachings on on live stream and basically what that looks like for me is a picture.
• 25:13
  Ronald A. Hummons: And imagine what it looks like to have this done.
• 25:17
  Ronald A. Hummons: If I can imagine, if I can create that, that that scenery in my head, and I can connect it with my body and get those emotions and those feelings on what, what it would feel like to actually have this thing completely to manifest.
• 25:30
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I stay there.
• 25:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: I give me a nice comfortable lazy boy chair and a bucket of popcorn room in my imagination and I stayed right there in that moment, stayed right there in that feeling.
• 25:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: But at the same time, of course, like I said, this is going on my imagination, but in real life I still have to live this thing all the way out.
• 25:52
  Ronald A. Hummons: I have to live out the resistance, I have to live out the pain, the rejection.
• 25:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: I have to live all of this out still right.
• 25:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: So this is where I call life streaming, because it's like, okay, I'm going to stay right here in this place of completion, but at the same time I'm going to watch the process play out and as I watch the process play out and I'm able to tap back into the that, those emotions and those feelings, it really kind of helps guide me.
• 26:17
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, do those really dark areas where it just feels like what are you doing?
• 26:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: Stop, just give it up?
• 26:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: Because there's times when this just seems almost impossible.
• 26:27
  Ronald A. Hummons: I mean, when you look at the scope of the work that we're doing, it literally looks impossible.
• 26:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: People wouldn't have ever expected for me to have gotten as far as I had, you know, and I honestly didn't expect, you know, especially in this short amount of time.
• 26:42
  Ronald A. Hummons: I mean, we've been really moving in the meat.
• 26:44
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, our goal is to get to the UN after we have declared on a state level, federal level, then from there we plan on going to the UN Because, like I said, trauma is a global issue.
• 26:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, we think about what's going on around the world the wars, the poverty, the experience, and these children are experienced as little children that have to grow up to be adults one day.
• 27:06
  Ronald A. Hummons: And guess what we say now in the adults are an example of trauma expressing itself.
• 27:13
  Ronald A. Hummons: We live in a world of trauma expression but we rather say let's focus on crime, let's focus on gun reduction, let's focus on all these issues that are only trauma expressions.
• 27:25
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, like I spoke for the in-depth WACP last year and they wanted me to speak in support of a gun reform and I couldn't.
• 27:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: When the mic came to me, I just couldn't, because, you know, one of the things that I wanted to explain to the viewers was the triggers on guns aren't the problem?
• 27:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: The triggers on our nervous systems, the triggers on our children's nervous systems that call for the response of these guns, for the need for these guns.
• 27:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: Those are the triggers we need to be focused on.
• 27:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: Like I said, we don't get any attention, any true attention, to childhood trauma.
• 28:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, we don't really come with that same aggression as we do for gun reform For that same issue of opioids, child trauma we deal with with kiddie gloves.
• 28:11
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, one of the things that an aid to us represented, a state representative, told me he said well, why should we declare a state of emergency on it?
• 28:20
  Ronald A. Hummons: Isn't there a wraparound programs to handle?
• 28:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: it.
• 28:24
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I said the issue around opioids was addiction, right, isn't there a wraparound programs to deal with that?
• 28:30
  Ronald A. Hummons: So why didn't you let the wraparound programs instead of the state they need to get involved and declare a state of emergency?
• 28:38
  Ronald A. Hummons: And of course he couldn't respond.
• 28:40
  Ronald A. Hummons: He literally didn't ask back and I was like that's what I'm talking about.
• 28:43
  Ronald A. Hummons: You asked me why does the state of emergency need to be declared on this?
• 28:46
  Ronald A. Hummons: But you supported the state of emergency on opioids.
• 28:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: Why?
• 28:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, that's wow.
• 28:53
  Justin Alan Hayes: I love the way your mind works, cause you're.
• 28:55
  Justin Alan Hayes: I mean, these are real life issues, people are making decisions and you brought it right back to that individual who had voted and supported a certain way and that mirrored that process.
• 29:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: Like you said, the wraparound programs and some of those things, mental health separate, but the same thing, some of the resistance Like I'm running into with you know, as far as supporting, you know, organization, it's like shouldn't the insurance take care of it?
• 29:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: You know, don't?
• 29:24
  Justin Alan Hayes: Aren't there programs already out there?
• 29:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: Like why do we need to support this?
• 29:29
  Justin Alan Hayes: And I love the way that you took the opioid and that wraparound and you're like, okay, well, you supported this and it moved through, so why, why shouldn't we support this?
• 29:42
  Justin Alan Hayes: And I would think children would be like a super top priority, just in general of you know, the children of the future.
• 29:52
  Justin Alan Hayes: You know, going back to different sayings, and of, like you said, don't use the soft gloves with that issue, that this needs to be addressed and it's gonna take some concrete action to make it actually happen.
• 30:12
  Ronald A. Hummons: Yeah, I mean we have to be intentional about it, because anything else it won't move the needle, you know, especially when you understand childhood trauma on a systematic level, because that's what it is.
• 30:25
  Ronald A. Hummons: I mean it's very systematic, you know so especially like you know you look in the black.
• 30:31
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know you look at the hundreds of years of terrorism and trauma.
• 30:36
  Ronald A. Hummons: How do you think that's gonna play out in the long term?
• 30:40
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know we're talking about over the course of 20,.
• 30:42
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know 25 years.
• 30:44
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know I can create, you know one generation.
• 30:47
  Ronald A. Hummons: That's tens of thousands.
• 30:50
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know of individuals.
• 30:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: Now you know time that on hundreds, time that on millions, I'm the residual of slavery.
• 30:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: When you understand childhood trauma and epigenetics.
• 31:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: Epigenetics is the transfer of trauma on DNA.
• 31:04
  Ronald A. Hummons: So now, like I said, so we really start to look at it.
• 31:07
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, from that set of minds it's like wait a minute, this issue is humongous.
• 31:13
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know we want our children to go to school, behave properly.
• 31:18
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, excel in academics, but yet we're sending them to school traumatized.
• 31:27
  Ronald A. Hummons: It doesn't connect.
• 31:31
  Ronald A. Hummons: So that's why I said to not address it.
• 31:33
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, with the same persistence and aggression as we did the old boy issue.
• 31:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: It goes to show a lot of intention negative, you know intentions, I should say because how do you deal with addiction?
• 31:47
  Ronald A. Hummons: Addiction is rooted in trauma.
• 31:49
  Ronald A. Hummons: It's almost like eating the icing and leaving a cake.
• 31:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: Right, you got a wonderful looking chocolate cake here.
• 31:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: You decide I'm just gonna eat the icing and leave the cake.
• 31:58
  Ronald A. Hummons: Leave the cake.
• 31:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: The cake is the trauma.
• 32:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: The icing is like eating the addiction and leaving what is rooted in it.
• 32:06
  Ronald A. Hummons: It doesn't even make any sense.
• 32:08
  Justin Alan Hayes: No, it doesn't your book, diamond.
• 32:12
  Justin Alan Hayes: How did that manifest?
• 32:16
  Justin Alan Hayes: In itself of wanting to express yourself in a book?
• 32:21
  Justin Alan Hayes: Cause I understand a little bit of the writing process.
• 32:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's not just cut and dry.
• 32:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: I mean, it takes a lot of time to put together, it takes a lot of dress, a lot of things go into it and many people can do many different things than you know to sit down and like hammer out a book.
• 32:41
  Justin Alan Hayes: So how did that come about and how did that make you feel?
• 32:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: Once it was out and that content was available, it actually was easy for me.
• 32:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I have a brain tumor and a speech impediment and I have to really work really hard, you know, making sure I stay aware of it.
• 33:05
  Ronald A. Hummons: But I write actually better than I speak.
• 33:08
  Ronald A. Hummons: Even though I have two TEDx tops lined up and motivation speaker, I like to write you know, more than anything.
• 33:19
  Ronald A. Hummons: So for me it was easy, and what made it even easier was the fact that I lived.
• 33:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: I lived.
• 33:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: This is my story.
• 33:24
  Ronald A. Hummons: So when I close my eyes, all I have to do is replay the story and just type, and from there you know, since it's my editor, I designed to cover myself.
• 33:36
  Ronald A. Hummons: So and, like I said, I mean for me it was just about putting up the content of my story that I've lived and being able to write.
• 33:44
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, sit there, it's almost like watching a movie and that's typing out.
• 33:47
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know everything you're seeing.
• 33:49
  Ronald A. Hummons: That was pretty simple for me.
• 33:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, designing a cover.
• 33:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the cover is me looking into a glass and my son's that's actually my son's as a baby picture stand back at me.
• 34:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: And the reason why I designed it like that was because this was me discovering what childhood trauma was.
• 34:07
  Ronald A. Hummons: This was me discovering my own story and my son's story, and I thought that the cover's been perfectly.
• 34:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, you're having such a profound impact.
• 34:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: How does that just make you feel that you are moving the needle, that in a matter of six, eight months or so, the movement is where it is, the progress that's been made, to know that you can have a positive impact with all the craziness that's out there in the world, the negativity, the divided, to actually be doing something positive and have that movement.
• 34:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: Does that feel validating to what you're doing and keeping you kind of a day-to-day of what you need to do to continue that movement?
• 34:58
  Justin Alan Hayes: No.
• 35:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: Honestly, it's disheartening.
• 35:05
  Ronald A. Hummons: It's disheartening because people want a luxury movement.
• 35:10
  Ronald A. Hummons: See, black Lives Matter is a luxury movement.
• 35:15
  Ronald A. Hummons: It's easy to put a black t-shirt on with BLM, raise your hand in the air, take the selfies, post on social media I went to a Black Lives Matter event and then hashtag BLM.
• 35:26
  Ronald A. Hummons: That's easy, that's luxury.
• 35:29
  Ronald A. Hummons: A movement like mine actually requires real sacrifice.
• 35:33
  Ronald A. Hummons: It's self-funded.
• 35:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: I don't have to know.
• 35:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: I'll put up both enemies and people who just completely passed it up as if it was nothing.
• 35:40
  Ronald A. Hummons: But yet they talk about how incredible work is we're doing.
• 35:43
  Ronald A. Hummons: I'll put together an event for a rally at our local city hall and four people will show up.
• 35:50
  Ronald A. Hummons: I've reached out to every religious leader that talks about the love of God healing their life and say, ok, this is what we're doing.
• 36:00
  Ronald A. Hummons: We're at being a part of this.
• 36:02
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, to be honest with you, it's really disheartening because when I have to go to DC to go meet with legislators there, I have to pay for that out of pocket and people don't really understand how serious this issue is, and especially in my community, and I can say this for sure that our chaos has become our normalcy.
• 36:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the world is burning down.
• 36:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: I just had a meeting with a pastor this morning and I was expressing my frustration with the church.
• 36:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said I don't understand.
• 36:47
  Ronald A. Hummons: You all go inside this building and happy and joyous and praising, but yet on the outside of this building the world is burning down.
• 36:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I said and you all are preaching to save people they're supposed to be already saved.
• 37:03
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said, but yet the world is out here in dire need and it gets really frustrating because it's like everybody else has a pair of rose-colored lenses and I feel like I'm the only one that's out here.
• 37:18
  Ronald A. Hummons: That's like you didn't just see that.
• 37:20
  Ronald A. Hummons: Yeah, I see it.
• 37:21
  Ronald A. Hummons: You don't see what's going on over there.
• 37:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: Like, are you serious?
• 37:24
  Ronald A. Hummons: It's bad out here.
• 37:26
  Ronald A. Hummons: Our children are dying at record number.
• 37:28
  Ronald A. Hummons: We don't see, we don't hear about the children and Black Lives Matter.
• 37:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: They don't cover the children that die under the hands of child protective services.
• 37:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: That's the humongous issue.
• 37:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: More children die under the care of child protective services than unarmed Black men by the hands of colleagues.
• 37:42
  Ronald A. Hummons: But we don't hear any numbers around that.
• 37:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: We don't hear any movement, no names, nobody's coasting.
• 37:49
  Ronald A. Hummons: I am Trayvon Martin or this person, that person, nobody's posting that.
• 37:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: So those children are completely voided and they don't even have a voice.
• 37:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: They don't have a voice of their own or a supportive voice to let people know.
• 38:04
  Ronald A. Hummons: Hey, we need your help down here, and I think is there's millions of them.
• 38:11
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, and the way you touched on the self-funding when you have to go to DC, you're paying for that.
• 38:20
  Justin Alan Hayes: When expenditures come about, you're paying for that.
• 38:24
  Justin Alan Hayes: You ask for support, like other organizations, other movements, and the people showing up is it's kind of like you said the rose-colored glasses Like wait a minute, are you seeing what's going on?
• 38:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: You think that this isn't a problem.
• 38:43
  Justin Alan Hayes: What reality is that?
• 38:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: And I think I know from the experience I'm going through some of the same thing.
• 38:53
  Justin Alan Hayes: Things are self-funded trips and if you want to do something, you want to make a statement, you're funding that.
• 38:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: If you're going somewhere or you're putting a media campaign out there, you're funding that.
• 39:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: There's no big corporation behind the scenes.
• 39:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: One might come and go and sponsor to get their name on something, but from a we look at expenditures of being 100%, they might be putting 5% or 10% and they go.
• 39:22
  Justin Alan Hayes: Well, who's paying the other 90?
• 39:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: And I've come across that Well, you're backed by a real estate company.
• 39:31
  Justin Alan Hayes: Well, they're a sponsor.
• 39:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: But when we look at a bigger picture, like what's going on, it's very minimal.
• 39:37
  Justin Alan Hayes: We're very grateful for sponsors.
• 39:40
  Justin Alan Hayes: We don't take it for granted, but it's just interesting.
• 39:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: And the way you talked about the rose-colored glasses.
• 39:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: People, I think just in general, need to kind of wake up to what's going on and the religious community, like you said your word disheartening, disheartening, that's really disheartening from the religious community People.
• 40:04
  Justin Alan Hayes: You said they come inside that building and share the gospel and the word and collect the tithe and the donations, but then once you walk outside that door it's like OK, that's not happening, like there's no trauma in this church or in this community because it's a gated community or whatever the reasons are.
• 40:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's hard and I think when somebody knows that and understands that and sees all that work that people like yourself are putting into it, that it isn't that random selfie or just showing up to an event and hashtag and being done and a half hour or an hour event or whatever the time frame be, you're spending many hours.
• 40:48
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's not like a 30 or 40 hour work week.
• 40:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: I mean, you're spending all, sometimes odd hours to be able to do things on other people's schedule, because it's like, well, I really don't want to do something on a Sunday afternoon, but if that's the only time I can meet with somebody, I've got to do it, because if I don't, then that's going to pass me up and I think that persistence of you're going after that goal You've envisioned that, you've envisioned the completion of that I think that's a helpful tool to use.
• 41:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: And I think I need to do that because there are, like you said, there's so many setbacks and the resistance and questioning yourself like am I really doing the right thing?
• 41:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: People, I was thinking people would support me and they're not.
• 41:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: But I'm just going to continue going.
• 41:41
  Justin Alan Hayes: The answer it's always going to be no if you don't try.
• 41:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: But when you do hear those no, that's like if what you're going after, like the why you're not going after the symptoms, you're going after the core issue and you're not cherry picking and going, ok, well, this is easy, somebody's going after this piece.
• 42:00
  Justin Alan Hayes: You're going after the leaves, Like no, no, I need to go after the tree, I need to go after the trunk.
• 42:04
  Justin Alan Hayes: And can you talk about just that tenacity of a business leader out there, a self-start, or somebody that wants to go into business for themselves, that might be thinking, oh, I'm going to be my own boss and things are going to be easy, or easy versus?
• 42:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: Here's the reality.
• 42:27
  Justin Alan Hayes: You have 20 plus years of experience, cross-functional, cross-industries, many different ways of just sharing what that's like.
• 42:38
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's like if somebody's thinking about going into business because they want the easy road, that might not be the best thing.
• 42:46
  Ronald A. Hummons: Yeah, if they're looking for the easy road, they would.
• 42:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: They're not going to be a good entrepreneur.
• 42:50
  Ronald A. Hummons: So my own personal entrepreneur story I was homeless.
• 42:55
  Ronald A. Hummons: I was actually sleeping on a part bench.
• 42:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: This was in 2000.
• 42:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: I was sleeping on a part bench and every day I would wake up and I would go to the Cincinnati library.
• 43:05
  Ronald A. Hummons: And how I found out about this?
• 43:08
  Ronald A. Hummons: Because where I come from and the neighborhood I grew up in, we never heard of business plans.
• 43:14
  Ronald A. Hummons: We didn't know what that was.
• 43:15
  Ronald A. Hummons: We didn't know what LLCs and S-Corps.
• 43:18
  Ronald A. Hummons: But I stopped at a bank one day and I walked in.
• 43:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: I had a sign on the window said you know business loans.
• 43:25
  Ronald A. Hummons: I walked in and said, hey, how can I get a business loan?
• 43:27
  Ronald A. Hummons: I got a business idea and the first thing they asked me was do I have a business plan?
• 43:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said no, like I said I didn't even know what it was.
• 43:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: But I told them.
• 43:36
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said I'm working on it.
• 43:39
  Ronald A. Hummons: My working on.
• 43:39
  Ronald A. Hummons: It was me going to the Cincinnati library and asking for a book on what the hell is a business plan?
• 43:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: And then, once I learned what a business plan was, my next book was how do you write one?
• 43:49
  Ronald A. Hummons: So while I was homeless and sleeping on this part bench, I wrote a business plan.
• 43:54
  Ronald A. Hummons: I had a friend of mine, she I was a secretary.
• 43:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: After I finished with it, I gave her tons of pages of these documents that I had rolled up and asked her to type it up for me, and she did an amazing job putting into a four business plan format my number's in Excel, everything no-transcript.
• 44:13
  Ronald A. Hummons: One of the things that I would do during this time period while I was homeless was I would go around to different businesses that I seen downtown, people standing outside, and I would just ask guys, hey, can I cut your hair?
• 44:24
  Ronald A. Hummons: I can cut your hair right at your desk when you continue to work.
• 44:26
  Ronald A. Hummons: So one guy in particular, this middle-aged black guy, he took me on as his barber, so I'm cutting his hair, and he asked me.
• 44:36
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said man, what's your goal?
• 44:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: What's your plan?
• 44:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I told him I kept it real.
• 44:40
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said man, I'm homeless, this is how I put a little money in my pocket right now, but I'm not going to be this way long, I told him.
• 44:47
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said you might want to find another barber because I want to be a wealthy entrepreneur.
• 44:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: So he laughed as if I was joking right, and I gave him a straight look at my face, like, but let me know, I'm not playing.
• 44:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: So he asked me.
• 44:58
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said well, you know, tell me more about your business, like me.
• 45:00
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I did.
• 45:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: And he said you know what you need to meet the owner of this company, wealthy gentleman from suburbs, and he probably might want to invest.
• 45:10
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said OK, cool.
• 45:10
  Ronald A. Hummons: So he actually tried to take me to introduce me to him, and this guy didn't want to hear anything.
• 45:16
  Ronald A. Hummons: He didn't want to meet me.
• 45:17
  Ronald A. Hummons: No, nothing, right.
• 45:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I said OK, cool.
• 45:20
  Ronald A. Hummons: I'll run the barber and I ended up moving into a man's shelter A man homeless shelter downtown since then, and that's when the director they would get ready for this big breakfast where they do fundraising and millionaires and billionaires from all over the city come to the city.
• 45:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: So he came to me one day.
• 45:39
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said can I take some pictures of you?
• 45:41
  Ronald A. Hummons: Now, what are you working on?
• 45:42
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said I'm writing my business plan, I'm finishing up my business plan and I'm going to be a wealthy entrepreneur one day.
• 45:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: So he said can I take some pictures of you?
• 45:50
  Ronald A. Hummons: Why are you reading it?
• 45:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: Why are you working on it?
• 45:52
  Ronald A. Hummons: So he did, and then so he actually invited all the men that were in the shelter where he would come to this breakfast as well.
• 45:58
  Ronald A. Hummons: And so now they get up there and they do a slide show and then my picture comes up.
• 46:03
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said, yeah, this is Ronald Humbens.
• 46:05
  Ronald A. Hummons: He's in his picture working on his business plan and he plans to be a successful clothing designer and all the blood.
• 46:13
  Ronald A. Hummons: He even gave a little bit about my background, my history, on where I came from.
• 46:19
  Ronald A. Hummons: And, like I said, that's so none of that bother, because I didn't know these guys in this audience.
• 46:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: So next week I go back to cut this guy's hair again.
• 46:27
  Ronald A. Hummons: And this guy so he's old, he was older, I guess he was maybe in the 70s at the time older white gentleman, conservative, somebody you wouldn't expect to be sitting in the table with me Came back to his office.
• 46:38
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said hey, when you get done, stop at my office and see me.
• 46:41
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I'm kind of nervous, I'm like what I said yeah, so I did.
• 46:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: I went back to his office and he said yeah, I was at the breakfast and I seen your picture up there.
• 46:54
  Ronald A. Hummons: So the first thing he asked me was do you have a business plan?
• 46:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: Pulled it out my pocket, put it on his tape and he was like looking through it.
• 47:04
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said wow, where'd you get this from?
• 47:06
  Ronald A. Hummons: Said I wrote it.
• 47:08
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said what school did you go to?
• 47:10
  Ronald A. Hummons: He thought I went to a college or something.
• 47:12
  Ronald A. Hummons: I told him I dropped out of school.
• 47:13
  Ronald A. Hummons: I haven't been to any college.
• 47:15
  Ronald A. Hummons: So he said how did you learn how to write a business plan?
• 47:17
  Ronald A. Hummons: Said I read a book.
• 47:19
  Ronald A. Hummons: And he laughed Again as if I was joking and I gave him that straight look.
• 47:23
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said you're serious.
• 47:25
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, yeah, I read a book, he told me.
• 47:28
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said go find you a lawyer.
• 47:29
  Ronald A. Hummons: And I'm like find a lawyer where I might be money.
• 47:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: He said whatever it is you need to do, he said find a lawyer, have them set up an operating agreement Something else I was familiar with.
• 47:39
  Ronald A. Hummons: I know what operating agreement was.
• 47:41
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I did.
• 47:42
  Ronald A. Hummons: I actually called the active American Chamber of Commerce.
• 47:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: I told him my story, told him who.
• 47:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: I am.
• 47:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said, hey, I got this rich white guy man who wanted the best of my money.
• 47:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: I don't need a lawyer.
• 47:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: So they were like OK, why don't you come to the president and invite me to come and speak with him?
• 47:57
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I went in and when she met with me she said there's something about your energy.
• 48:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: She said I don't know what it is, but I want to help you.
• 48:04
  Ronald A. Hummons: She found a black attorney at one of our biggest law firms here.
• 48:08
  Ronald A. Hummons: She told her about my story, told her, you know I was homeless, told her everything.
• 48:11
  Ronald A. Hummons: And the attorney invited me to her office, told her the same thing, you know, and she was like I don't know what it is about you, but I want to help.
• 48:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: She actually paid the money for my filing fee for my LLC, set up my operating agreement.
• 48:29
  Ronald A. Hummons: I told that guy.
• 48:30
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said, hey, I got everything set up and ready to go.
• 48:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: He met up there with the attorney's office.
• 48:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: He wrote a check for $125,000 starter, slid across the table to me Wow, to do what I need to do.
• 48:42
  Ronald A. Hummons: And years later I asked him.
• 48:44
  Ronald A. Hummons: I said you know, you just gave me that.
• 48:46
  Ronald A. Hummons: You didn't ask to be on the banking account.
• 48:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: You didn't like nothing.
• 48:49
  Ronald A. Hummons: And he said because he said I knew that it was something about you that I could trust, I knew that if.
• 48:55
  Ronald A. Hummons: I gave you that money, you would undo what you said that you would undo it.
• 48:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: So you know.
• 48:59
  Ronald A. Hummons: And so I actually teach business as well.
• 49:01
  Ronald A. Hummons: I teach business in New York how a prison.
• 49:03
  Ronald A. Hummons: I have a program called Vision, caretech or Steak and it's the first of its kind where I actually teach, turn inmates into businessmen.
• 49:09
  Ronald A. Hummons: I teach them practical business business step school on business development skills.
• 49:14
  Ronald A. Hummons: So of course the first level of it is business plan writing.
• 49:18
  Ronald A. Hummons: I teach them how to take their ideas and put it into a full business plan format.
• 49:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: But I also teach the class before that, life skills class.
• 49:26
  Ronald A. Hummons: And one of the things that I teach my students is that good character will take you places that money and education won't.
• 49:32
  Ronald A. Hummons: Because, once again, like I said, I dropped out of school in 10th grade.
• 49:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: But I've traveled the world.
• 49:37
  Ronald A. Hummons: I've lived in Bangkok, thailand, I've been to Africa, I've been to Korea, man, I've been all over.
• 49:44
  Ronald A. Hummons: I speak other languages, I've done international manufacturing.
• 49:47
  Ronald A. Hummons: I've produced films, best-selling author.
• 49:50
  Ronald A. Hummons: Once again, I've even authored academic research papers.
• 49:56
  Ronald A. Hummons: I have academic paper and the international journal Science that I wrote on challenge, and I did all that over the 10th grade.
• 50:04
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know education.
• 50:07
  Justin Alan Hayes: Wow, that's so.
• 50:08
  Justin Alan Hayes: I mean, that's so inspiring, because sometimes individuals will say, well, well, but I don't have that, or I didn't finish this.
• 50:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: And here you are, like I dropped out in 10th grade, I went to the library, did study and wrote it, found somebody to help type it up, and you knew that, kind of subconsciously, there was going to be a time when that was going to, that business plan is going to be needed and there are yeah, there are rejections along the way there.
• 50:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: But that was just feed in that energy of like okay, I'm on the right path, because people are telling, they're asking me for this one thing.
• 50:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I know that this is very important and you took it upon yourself.
• 50:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: You didn't have to go to the library every day, you didn't have to pick out books on that.
• 50:56
  Justin Alan Hayes: It could have been on other topics, but you took that energy that you had and you turned that into that, that initial, you know, $125,000 investment in you.
• 51:10
  Justin Alan Hayes: Because that individual saw that they're like, okay, that individual might meet people and they're like, oh, and they don't come as prepared as you did.
• 51:20
  Justin Alan Hayes: You're like, oh, yeah, like, here it is.
• 51:22
  Justin Alan Hayes: I did this.
• 51:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: I spent time in knowing what that individual probably did, about how much time and energy it takes to put one together.
• 51:30
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's like, wow, this person took time and energy to do that, like not that the other part was going to be easy, but it's like they took time to do kind of the hard part, the dirty work, and now it's like I want to do it.
• 51:43
  Justin Alan Hayes: I want to turn this into reality.
• 51:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: Were you kind of at visualization?
• 51:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: At what point in kind of your career did that kind of come into you?
• 51:57
  Justin Alan Hayes: Where you started that envisioning the completion of a project or of an agreement?
• 52:05
  Justin Alan Hayes: When did that?
• 52:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: Is that fairly recent, or is that just that's been with you for a while?
• 52:11
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, before I even knew what it was, I was doing it when I was a little child.
• 52:14
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, growing up the way I did, I remember sleeping on a carpet in an abandoned house during the winter and I would dream that I was somebody big time.
• 52:27
  Ronald A. Hummons: So I've always been a visionary and I think that's actually what helped fuel me even during my roughest times, because you know, but when you're in a situation like I was as a child, the dreams are the only thing that I could hold onto because I had nothing else.
• 52:43
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know what I'm saying.
• 52:45
  Ronald A. Hummons: So those hopes and those dreams that I can be, that, especially with being here, I can see it.
• 52:51
  Ronald A. Hummons: I know what it felt like physically.
• 52:53
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, like I said, before I even knew about the Aaron Neville, I was already doing that in those dreams where it helped me to really hold on to it.
• 53:04
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, one of the things that I tell my clients today is you got to build that boat during the dry season.
• 53:11
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know when I'm talking about when the ground is completely dry and cracked open and there's no sign of a cloud coming.
• 53:20
  Ronald A. Hummons: That's when you build your boat.
• 53:22
  Ronald A. Hummons: So, and for me that's what it was about.
• 53:25
  Ronald A. Hummons: It was like, okay, you know what I have to do the work now I have to build my boat, because when it starts to rain, so guess what the rain was for me?
• 53:33
  Ronald A. Hummons: That 125,000 dollars.
• 53:35
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know what I'm saying.
• 53:36
  Ronald A. Hummons: So guess what?
• 53:38
  Ronald A. Hummons: If I hadn't built my boat, I would have drowned, oh wow.
• 53:43
  Ronald A. Hummons: So yeah, build your boat during the dry season.
• 53:46
  Ronald A. Hummons: I love that.
• 53:48
  Ronald A. Hummons: You know, when it looks like there is no sign of rain coming, just stay consistent.
• 53:52
  Ronald A. Hummons: Consistency is everything.
• 53:54
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah.
• 53:55
  Justin Alan Hayes: So before we close out, where can people learn more about you, the movement?
• 54:01
  Justin Alan Hayes: Help out, volunteer, just be a part of your activity, because it's enlightening, it's positive and it's taking topics and turn it into action.
• 54:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's not I'm going to do this.
• 54:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's like you have that vision but then you go after it and I can imagine there's going to be people that are like, yeah, like that energy to be able to do all of the things that you have, the sort of amount of time that you've been able to move with the childhood trauma state of emergency Bill, trying to get that from the ground up and the state, the federal and then UN make that national.
• 54:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, how can people find about the book?
• 54:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: Just your plug.
• 54:52
  Ronald A. Hummons: So you can find me on my website at Ronald A as an Apple Hummins H-U-M-M-O-N-Scom.
• 55:02
  Ronald A. Hummons: Wwwronaldahumminscom.
• 55:06
  Ronald A. Hummons: You can find everything on there for my books, more information about the movement and all.
• 55:13
  Justin Alan Hayes: Great.
• 55:14
  Justin Alan Hayes: Ronald.
• 55:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you so much for your time being so generous, sharing your story, all the work you're doing, tips that have helped you along the way, and I just again thank you for spending an hour with us.
• 55:31
  Ronald A. Hummons: My pleasure.
• 55:31
  Ronald A. Hummons: Thank you for having me.
• 55:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: Absolutely.
• 55:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: And we also want to thank you, our guests, I don't think our guests Mr.
• 55:40
  Justin Alan Hayes: Ronald A Hummons, we thank you, our audience, our viewers, our listeners, for checking out the transcript.
• 55:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: This guest we just have, Mr.
• 55:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: Ronald A Hummons.
• 55:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: He has that energy, that positivity of making things happen and doing them and doing the legwork.
• 55:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, if that aligns with you and your interests or individuals that that might align with, please reach out to him and help drive his movement, his ideas, because this person is putting in the work.
• 56:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, thank you for listening, thank you for watching, thank you for checking out our transcript.
• 56:24
  Justin Alan Hayes: This has been another episode of the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast.
• 56:30
  Justin Alan Hayes: I am your host, Justin Alan Hayes.
• 56:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: We'll see you next time and until then, please be a voice for you or somebody in need.