Latest / Nightmare Success In and Out / Homeless to Hollywood Producer - Michael Henderson

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Homeless to Hollywood Producer - Michael Henderson · Nightmare Success In and Out

• 0:01
  What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
• 0:04
  Hi. I'm Brent, Cassidy.
• 0:05
  Welcome to the nightmare success in and out podcast, where we
• 0:09
  explore, how to overcome your fears and Nightmares to set
• 0:12
  yourself free. We're going to be exploring this
• 0:14
  topic with guys that was in Leavenworth with and others
• 0:17
  who've gone through their own nightmare success, experience,
• 0:20
  adapting and surviving these stories can be inspired.
• 0:24
  Sometimes sad, there's some humor but hopefully you can come
• 0:28
  away with a nugget of something that will help you knock down
• 0:31
  some of the prisons you've built up in your own mind, folks.
• 0:34
  Today, I got to tell you, I've been really looking forward to
• 0:37
  this this interview. My guest today is Michael, I'm
• 0:42
  going to use as his nickname, in here, to Michael Hollywood
• 0:46
  Henderson. He's been called that since he
• 0:47
  was a kid Michael and I met a few months ago and it kind of
• 0:55
  like a Hollywood Story, we met in a Lobby of a hotel and A
• 1:00
  Louis and Shane Scott put us together and said, you know, you
• 1:06
  guys, you know, you kind of talk the same language.
• 1:08
  You might like each other and we hit it off and we've been pretty
• 1:11
  much talking to each other every week since.
• 1:13
  And I said, man, I said your story.
• 1:16
  I read his book and his story is just incredible, but to give you
• 1:22
  a little background on Michael Michaels from st.
• 1:24
  Louis grew up in St. Louis, but he's worn so many
• 1:28
  hats. As where he sits today.
• 1:32
  He's a, he's a former police officer, a detective as CEO of
• 1:39
  worldwide, private security protection, agency, Phoenix,
• 1:42
  risk, assessment Global Security expert, serial entrepreneur
• 1:48
  media, commentator public speaker TV, film producer and
• 1:53
  sets on multiple charity boards, as a member, as a CEO of sweet
• 1:59
  media production. As a management, Michael has
• 2:01
  produced feature films and shorts.
• 2:04
  Examples of eyes don't lie. First, pick Rock the movie and
• 2:09
  Face-Off, additionally, he's the best selling off, he's a
• 2:13
  best-selling author. How do you say that Michael?
• 2:18
  Interminable. Yeah, there it is.
• 2:20
  There it is and it's stories and steps to overcoming life's
• 2:24
  obstacles after a repetitive cycle of pain and loss.
• 2:29
  How to maintain your win. Wow!
• 2:33
  Wow double wow, Michael Thank you.
• 2:37
  I'll top of all that we're going to unwrap a lot of this.
• 2:41
  I just read you off some really cool stuff.
• 2:43
  This guy has been homeless two or three times on top of this
• 2:47
  and I want to get into that because that's part of the story
• 2:51
  of his journey of never giving up.
• 2:55
  He had this drive in him and he just never, you know, he had
• 2:59
  this, I got to get it, got to get it, so Michael welcome.
• 3:06
  Thank you, my friend. Thank you so much.
• 3:09
  So cool. Having you here, we were just
• 3:12
  talking before we got on here, you know, Michaels story growing
• 3:16
  up is one of those, where you're reading the book and you're
• 3:19
  like, oh, oh boy, and then you think, well, at least that's a
• 3:24
  oh, oh boy. There's a oh boy.
• 3:28
  Michael. Can you walk us back into, you
• 3:30
  know, your life growing up as a kid because there's so many
• 3:33
  layers of it. Yeah.
• 3:37
  Wow. You're right.
• 3:39
  You know and to actually make that make sense.
• 3:42
  If you can imagine going to 13 different schools before high
• 3:46
  school living in one town, or one City St.
• 3:50
  Louis kind of opens up a Pandora's box if you will, but
• 3:57
  what's really special is my grandmother has passed away and
• 4:03
  she of course was the matriarch Arc of the family and looking
• 4:08
  back at her life, you know, as an entrepreneur, you know,
• 4:11
  working for the government, the Army, and then having owning,
• 4:16
  you know, the series of Townhomes that, you know, Turf
• 4:19
  and her entire family lived in and then the bar across the
• 4:23
  street, you know, as a, basically, a 02, you know,
• 4:27
  three-year-old starts to really start to unravel, a lot of
• 4:32
  questions there and growing up with that and And I remember
• 4:35
  vividly, she around five running away and for those that are
• 4:41
  familiar with st. Louis around, show do and
• 4:43
  Jefferson was the area. We lived in.
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  There was a flower shop behind there and I think it's still
• 4:51
  there are pieces of it and the owner literally saw me running
• 4:56
  down. The alley got me in the car and
• 4:59
  took me back to my grandmother's house.
• 5:02
  I was running away and he stopped me from that and And so
• 5:05
  I look back and go wow you know as my mother would say you've
• 5:10
  always wanted to be somewhere else.
• 5:12
  Be bigger. Do better you know and looking
• 5:16
  back at that childhood that started that all our.
• 5:19
  So I think one of the quotes you have in your book, I thought was
• 5:23
  really interesting because I've always run towards things that
• 5:26
  scare me. I've come to realize that for
• 5:29
  me, that seems to continue to be where all the great things are
• 5:32
  in my life. That's that's deep.
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  Because that's kind of the opposite of the way that we're
• 5:38
  taught to believe that. That's the way to go.
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  Everybody follows in a heard, you have a herd mentality.
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  Everybody's doing this is what everybody is.
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  I wear the same shirt, he wears and everybody's got the same,
• 5:50
  everything's same as whereas, you're saying, you had some kind
• 5:55
  of something in you that you ran towards things that scare you
• 5:58
  and it's interesting because you, you've lived your life in
• 6:03
  that. Elm in that Arena, which is one
• 6:07
  that a lot of people don't and we'll get into that because I
• 6:10
  think that whole part of your life where you get into the
• 6:12
  security piece of this and you're dropping down and going
• 6:16
  into places that nobody's gone in the middle of the night and
• 6:19
  snakes and guns and stuff. Scare my scary to me.
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  Oh my. So when you're growing up,
• 6:29
  what's the dynamic of your family?
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  I know your grandparents played a big role in your Your
• 6:35
  grandmother, your mom, your dad hat and your siblings, how did
• 6:39
  that all pieced together? Yeah, so you know, the connect
• 6:44
  the dots there, my mother was a single mother, my father left,
• 6:49
  when I was younger when I eventually reconnected with him,
• 6:52
  multiple years later and we had a sit-down, you know, that
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  conversation wasn't even sick. I was just, he was just scared.
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  He was frightened. Yeah.
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  And so he but but so really my mother just really my mother and
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  I and so when she was putting herself through school and we
• 7:11
  eventually left, you know, the compound if you will of their
• 7:16
  family Dynamic and when her own for her to get her bachelor's
• 7:19
  degree or her master's, I can't recall in Columbia University
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  was kind of the beginning of, you know, she and I truly, you
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  know, being on our own and, you know, learning how to coexist,
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  you know, me being a young Kid, you know, 67, something like
• 7:37
  that. I'm not mistaken.
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  And and then that kind of started that off and then the
• 7:44
  man that she was dating at the time, technically became my
• 7:47
  stepfather had already had two boys.
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  And so, you know, we had just been connected as brother
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  literally since this big, you know, tiny, tiny young, young
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  boys, and so growing up through life, they just become my
• 8:03
  brothers. And you know, it's just been a
• 8:07
  phenomenal Journey. So when you you talk about in
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  your book, The You talk about, you know, your school experience
• 8:17
  where you had the new city school and you did couldn't
• 8:18
  figure out how your mom before, did that.
• 8:20
  And that was, it was something, I think, maybe you gained a
• 8:22
  little bit of confidence in yourself and that time period,
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  but there was also like crazy things that were happening at
• 8:29
  home fights and police, it had to show up, break it up and
• 8:35
  those type things. And then you also talk about the
• 8:38
  times when you're, you know, the kid and you know they've got
• 8:42
  their family picking up and you're waiting and they don't
• 8:46
  pick you up and you go you know down to the bus station you get
• 8:49
  what's all going through your mind at that time as a kid You
• 8:53
  know, even when I look back at that, it just, it's almost like,
• 8:58
  and I'm sure, so many people can relate to this just the way life
• 9:02
  is, right? Because you didn't know any
• 9:05
  different because you did see other like, when you went to
• 9:07
  spend the night, you were talking about safety and
• 9:10
  comfort, and those things don't even go.
• 9:12
  By Ting ya, nice things and a different love that you see
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  from, you know, this person and that, that era was more, you
• 9:21
  know, white families. There were few Lack.
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  But I think that when you're in survival mode and then being a
• 9:28
  child, you just kind of know that as well.
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  This is my existence, right? So you don't really and I don't
• 9:34
  think I had the mental fortitude at the time, you know, the truly
• 9:37
  understand all the Dynamics of what was going on.
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  It was just a matter of okay, well the there were drugs.
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  There was a fight that was blood.
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  The cops came back then they didn't really arrest, you know,
• 9:49
  the man or something for that. And so it was like, okay, I was
• 9:52
  just throwing it to act. Cigar band I work off to either
• 9:55
  my aunt house or to my, you know, my grandmother's house.
• 9:59
  Right. You know.
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  And that type of scenario was frequent and then I was yes I
• 10:05
  was fortunate to go to, you know, new city school which is a
• 10:08
  private school and expect to you know perform and you know live
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  like everybody else there and I feel like when I look back at
• 10:18
  it, I didn't think anything different of it other than, you
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  know, this is What I have to do. I'm the one.
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  I'm the kid that in the whole school has a walk up to the bus
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  stop? Yeah.
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  Yeah. You know what I mean?
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  I'm the poor one. Yeah, whatever.
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  You know what I mean? Yeah.
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  But that's a lot to deal with as a kid because you're trying to
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  figure things out as a kid and you're seeing things and
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  experiencing things. And you get to a certain point
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  where I think we've all done it. Where we've grabbed our stuff
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  and said, I'm leaving 10 or 12 years old.
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  You did that, but you It it and that was what happened.
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  I mean, you, you went and left the home.
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  What? Yeah, what's Michael thinking
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  their idea? I remember vividly actually,
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  which is hilarious, to me, you know, I was, you know, I was
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  living with my mother. We had our place and, you know,
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  there were just so many things that I wanted, you know,
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  probably selfishly to be fair, you know, I wanted my own I own,
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  I want a car, you know, just about to turn 16 at some point,
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  you know, and, you know, I was working at the swimming pool.
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  The auditorium that Natatorium was called you City High School
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  and you know, just wherever I could do things.
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  And so literally I remember my mother making dinner and I just
• 11:49
  had enough and I remember going into my room, getting them.
• 11:53
  Backpack. I might have put some things in
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  and I only remember what was in it and while she wasn't looking,
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  I just walked out the door and it was winter time.
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  And I went up to the natatorium because I knew I had friends
• 12:05
  that were lifeguards that were older.
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  They had parchments in houses or whatever it is and, you know,
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  hung out for a little while and then told them, hey, I don't
• 12:14
  have anywhere to go. I just ran away.
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  You know, and my safe haven during the day was really just
• 12:24
  You know, being able to go to school.
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  Yeah, so, you know, I stayed in school and graduated and what
• 12:30
  have you? But there were definitely some
• 12:32
  house happy Nights from friends to friend sleeping in the park,
• 12:36
  you know, so on and so forth. So yeah, city of that like scary
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  to you. Or did you feel like you were
• 12:43
  making your way and this is what Michael.
• 12:44
  This is how I'm going to do it and I'm going to be me and I'll
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  figure it out. Yeah I would say a little bit of
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  both. I mean Only fear there, you
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  know? And when I look at my life today
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  and I look at, you know what the word outcast mean.
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  It all starts to truly make sense as to me being an outcast
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  from society, really in a lot of weight.
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  And I never really thought about that.
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  Until, you know, we talked about maybe, you know, doing this
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  interview and connect. It that those steps of fear and
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  yet bravery mixed at the same time of, no, I got to stay the
• 13:27
  course here because I'm not happy with the condition at
• 13:31
  home, you know. Fast-forwarding until adulthood
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  you realized that? Wow.
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  Those are the training grounds to be able to one.
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  Either do law enforcement, do security being entrepreneur
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  where the world is against you, especially in the bank, to do
• 13:48
  your mom and UI, obviously, you've created a relationship
• 13:53
  that she wrote the forward to your book but during that time,
• 13:56
  period, I feel like there were you guys started.
• 14:00
  Maybe it was strained, but became two more connect.
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  Act. It took it took a multitude of
• 14:07
  year, you know. I would say the communication
• 14:12
  was there. Yeah.
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  Right Dora at school. You know, knowing that I wasn't
• 14:16
  I wasn't coming back home. Yeah.
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  But you know, her being able to at least, you know, meet some of
• 14:22
  my friends families that I would periodically stay with and what
• 14:27
  have you just to make that connection?
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  But know it's a strange for many years but yet still Will close
• 14:35
  and communication. So as I would get older and I
• 14:41
  would start taking my hand at this entrepreneurial run, you
• 14:46
  know, she would be around, you know, we wouldn't share the same
• 14:51
  views on, you know, how that looks at the beginning of an
• 14:54
  entrepreneurial opportunity and how it looks at the end.
• 14:58
  We probably disagree on that place till today.
• 15:02
  Well, that's good, that's healthy that.
• 15:05
  So you graduate from you City, what's, what's your next step
• 15:12
  going into adulthood? Yeah, so, you know, I don't have
• 15:17
  a lot of rejection. I don't really have any regrets
• 15:20
  throughout my life, I would say, but I think I had one class that
• 15:26
  my senior year And if only someone had told me that I
• 15:31
  should have been, you know, taking college courses, you
• 15:35
  know, things of that nature. I just wound up blowing off the
• 15:39
  rest of the day, you know, because this is cool, you know,
• 15:42
  and I had made my mother promise before I left home, that I would
• 15:49
  volunteer at the police department, in this organization
• 15:53
  called Boy Scouts of America explores.
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  And I think there's still a national program.
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  With that law enforcement agencies, and I would do that
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  and you would compete with, you know, other, you know, explorers
• 16:05
  around the country and of course, around the city and that
• 16:09
  was also kind of a semi Safe Haven.
• 16:12
  If you will like make friends, there I would stay at some of
• 16:15
  their houses and things of that nature.
• 16:18
  And when high school kind of came it was like my need to get
• 16:24
  a job and and then that turned into a lifeguard Ready.
• 16:30
  I borrowed $25 to get to the YMCA and get certified and just
• 16:38
  that whole trajectory had and but I had no idea what I want to
• 16:42
  do a life. I mean literally I was a decent
• 16:44
  athlete. I had also a partial Dan
• 16:50
  scholarship at Indiana University to particularly
• 16:56
  dance. I did modern, Jazz and dance.
• 16:58
  In ballet and you City High. And so I was a dancer and, you
• 17:03
  know, the funny thing about that is that you, if you look at
• 17:08
  everything that's happened in your life, you've kind of come
• 17:10
  full circle back to those days when you were doing the
• 17:13
  Performing and get into the playoffs and yeah.
• 17:16
  That's something. Yeah, that's something.
• 17:18
  It's like man. I could have just beelined in
• 17:21
  effect then what has it? Yeah, it doesn't work like that
• 17:25
  and it was interesting is when I did get into this, This
• 17:29
  Hollywood entertainment space. It was really not as complicated
• 17:35
  because I had taken the journey. I hit so many ways and we know
• 17:39
  we can talk about that, you know, at another time.
• 17:41
  But you know it was either go to the Air Force.
• 17:47
  Go to law enforcement as a Cadet.
• 17:49
  I applied for that was the goal. Perp a gopher washing the police
• 17:52
  car working record, you know, dispatch whatever.
• 17:59
  Maybe go dance or something, but that was, those are my choices
• 18:04
  of adulthood. And so I just come to the
• 18:07
  realization that whoever called me first, whether it was the Air
• 18:11
  Force recruiter or whether it was, you know, the police
• 18:14
  department at University City, police department and st.
• 18:17
  Louis, and they call first. So, that's where I went.
• 18:22
  So, was that, I mean, it had to be for you, you know, being in
• 18:27
  that. Immunity and then, and then
• 18:30
  turning this all around here, you are going to be a police
• 18:34
  officer you City. What was that?
• 18:36
  Was that world? Like, oh my gosh.
• 18:38
  And then being in high school and and University City High
• 18:42
  School back in the 80s, we had to play you guys in basketball
• 18:51
  and man. There were good very good.
• 18:54
  Yeah, Eddie. Hi. you said he I am mad at you
• 19:00
  you know, it it was interesting because I would do right along
• 19:04
  with the police officers and so, you know, I would be right along
• 19:09
  one night and then, you know, that's a domestic-abuse
• 19:13
  situation or domestic all or some type of call at someone's
• 19:17
  home and then the next Monday morning or something, I'm
• 19:21
  literally sitting in the math class but you know, so there
• 19:25
  was, you know, Always nicknames or 21, Jump Street.
• 19:29
  Yeah, you know people thought up really undercover and that I
• 19:32
  replaced, you know if you knew me I had a big head and I was
• 19:36
  super skinny. So that was having the funniest
• 19:40
  looking police in the airspace. So when yeah, that when you got
• 19:46
  into that world and became a police officer, what how did
• 19:49
  your family? How did you had it all work?
• 19:53
  Yeah it worked pretty smoothly. You know, my grandmother had
• 19:59
  said something to me that really talk about full circle but she
• 20:04
  had said something to me. When I just pretty much become a
• 20:08
  policeman that really just set the trajectory for everything
• 20:13
  and how I did it and that was you know she said if you're
• 20:18
  going to be a policeman you need to be a real policeman because
• 20:23
  Cuz you know, we rely on you guys to do your job and if
• 20:26
  you're not going to do your job and you're going to answer dog
• 20:29
  calls or whatever you're going to do, then don't be a
• 20:32
  policeman. But we need people out here that
• 20:34
  really want to go get these bad guys.
• 20:36
  And that triggered something in me.
• 20:39
  Is she the one that said be brave for someone when they
• 20:41
  cannot? Yeah, that's a big statement.
• 20:46
  So you get into this world. You do well and in and you
• 20:53
  Detective but somewhere in this timeframe is this, when it
• 20:59
  starts boiling that you want to do something bigger better
• 21:04
  wider, and then I, you know, there's a rock bottom moment, I
• 21:09
  don't know if you want to talk about that or not Michael be
• 21:12
  you, you went to that rock bottom.
• 21:14
  And then from there, it seems like you just decided, no matter
• 21:17
  what happens to me, I'm going to make this all work, one way or
• 21:20
  the other. Yeah, you know, one of the
• 21:24
  things that I commend law enforcement for for me is, you
• 21:28
  know, I grew up in it, you know, as a volunteer than a paid
• 21:34
  golfer than a policeman, you know, going to the academy and
• 21:37
  and I really, you know, applaud law enforcement for really
• 21:43
  teaching me how to grow up fast because, you know, there's, you
• 21:48
  know, there is the blue code if you will.
• 21:50
  And, but there's Six and you know and you know as a 20 year
• 21:56
  old 21 year old. By the time, I was on the
• 21:58
  street, you know, policeman with no Father Figure, no real
• 22:03
  Parental Guidance, no one really staying.
• 22:06
  Okay. You know, here's this or, you
• 22:09
  know, someone that can immediately go back to and say,
• 22:13
  well, this is what happened to me today, like they tried to
• 22:15
  fired me today or, you know, I had to wear a wire because I got
• 22:19
  to protect myself because they're trying to You know, get
• 22:22
  rid of me or someone trying to, you know, get me harmed or
• 22:25
  killed or whatever that is. And so fortunately there were
• 22:30
  certain, you know, officers that were there that you know, took
• 22:34
  me under their wing and kind of helped me learn the racism and
• 22:40
  the Judgment then and a multitude of things that I just
• 22:43
  was not skilled at all. And, and so, you know, learning
• 22:48
  how to navigate internally in law.
• 22:51
  Law enforcement and then, of course, building with you.
• 22:55
  No criminal element on the street, getting it from both
• 22:59
  ways that are 20, you know, when you're 20 and and that takes a
• 23:03
  toll come to find out for me. Well, what you said in the book
• 23:09
  was, there was a guy that you were really intimidated by and
• 23:13
  not happy that he was going to be the officer trainer and he
• 23:15
  ends up being a guy that you stayed Lifetime and touch with.
• 23:19
  Yeah, but yes, just cool and itself, so Walk us through like
• 23:27
  a win. You decided you were going to
• 23:30
  step out into in your mind. You kind of had it set out of
• 23:35
  how it wasn't it like a security firm.
• 23:38
  It was a global security for, you know, people who had money
• 23:45
  people who were in celebrity people who needed protection.
• 23:52
  What did that all come from like, what would that?
• 23:55
  What was the Genesis of that idea?
• 23:57
  Yeah. So in 1996 Bill Clinton was
• 24:02
  President man. I'll tell you.
• 24:05
  We feel I feel young but men might only need two dates
• 24:08
  around, I'm like it was that long ago, Michael we just
• 24:13
  casually talk about some was 25 years ago, years ago when you
• 24:20
  know you're getting old. It is casually.
• 24:21
  Talk about stuff is 30 25 years ago?
• 24:23
  Yeah. Well my mind went through here
• 24:25
  and date. But I was detached to have an
• 24:30
  opportunity to work with the Secret Service on that detail
• 24:36
  and that was a good eye-opener. I had friends that were already
• 24:40
  on that detail as well. I got to meet him and there's no
• 24:44
  photo somewhere floating around with me and it with and that
• 24:48
  really opened my eyes that I wanted to go that secret service
• 24:51
  path and and after I've had people that work with me from
• 24:57
  the past. I've been in before I left and
• 24:59
  after I left that are now Secret Service to retire.
• 25:03
  And they you know, they had said to me, you know, this is a great
• 25:07
  Industries, a great job but you know, with your personality, you
• 25:12
  know, you might want to look at the private sector where we
• 25:15
  retire to and kind of jump on that.
• 25:18
  Because at that time in the 90s, I mean, they were making what a
• 25:21
  hundred thousand dollars with over time.
• 25:23
  They're not as evolving their evolve, but they really have
• 25:26
  become evolve now. Since then and like, you know,
• 25:29
  you might fit in better that way.
• 25:32
  So why don't you look that way and what a hell of a journey?
• 25:36
  It had been. But I actually really thank them
• 25:39
  and I still think them when I see them today, you know, for
• 25:42
  really giving me that advice, you know, to kind of skip that.
• 25:47
  But that had always been my objective was to go there
• 25:50
  because I felt like I had hit a wall with local law enforcement
• 25:56
  to put certain degree. I in my, my arrest record and
• 26:00
  numbers were through the roof. You know, I wanted to, you know,
• 26:04
  get to the burrow, I had done that, you know, I was attached
• 26:08
  to the FBI for a time period, in organized crime and protect, you
• 26:12
  know, and doing undercover work. And I just felt like I had
• 26:15
  reached that. And so when the dynamic was
• 26:19
  okay, well, I'll start a security company.
• 26:23
  And you know I'll start trying to put on that business hat
• 26:26
  which I had no clue what I was doing creating a business plan.
• 26:32
  But I you know, I think the SBA for turning me down because they
• 26:35
  created a fucking monster. Yeah, and you know and because I
• 26:39
  realized at that time, SBA was just all bullshit.
• 26:44
  Now it's probably a little more evolve, from what I understand
• 26:47
  and you know, they've helped a lot of people but back.
• 26:52
  How can we curse on you? Oh yeah, it's explosive.
• 26:55
  I should have asked that we get more listeners, get more
• 27:00
  listens, Michael. I got this big sound board here
• 27:04
  and I don't use any of the beeps, you know.
• 27:14
  But I think them, I think them for that because at the time I
• 27:17
  had had a fiance and She was a stockbroker.
• 27:23
  And, you know, I realized that, you know, when she would help me
• 27:28
  with the business plan and just try to help me add, you know,
• 27:31
  learn this business thing, everything was good and groovy
• 27:35
  and gravy with SBA. But when we split up and I was
• 27:38
  on my own and I was like, man I'm using first position on the,
• 27:42
  you know, on the equipment and you know, all these terms that
• 27:45
  you know, who knew what they were but I was, you know, hey,
• 27:47
  I'm good like, you know, give me this 90g so I can go out here
• 27:51
  and They're like, man if you don't get your black ass out of
• 27:55
  this office, right? Right, right.
• 27:58
  But then, I had an article and I had held onto this article for a
• 28:01
  long time and it's white woman who have been homeless for 11
• 28:04
  years, got 126 thousand dollars from the SBA and I was like,
• 28:09
  okay, Got it, got it. So that that really taught me
• 28:14
  how to and there's nothing wrong with what I'm about to say.
• 28:18
  But for me, personally, it kept me away from the mde which is
• 28:25
  the minority business program. It kept me away from you know
• 28:31
  organizations that help minorities.
• 28:34
  Get a leg up it really put a fire in me to go.
• 28:38
  You know what I'm gonna I'm gonna do this.
• 28:41
  Right. The way that others do it that
• 28:44
  have resources or have really started to put me, which is
• 28:49
  probably one of my favorite parts of my book is being in
• 28:54
  rooms where I'm like, how the hell am I sitting here at
• 28:59
  Tony's? Which is the five-star
• 29:00
  restaurant, you know, back in, you know, 2000's, if you
• 29:04
  remember, yeah, you know, have to wear a jacket and I'm
• 29:07
  watching. I literally get a fact back.
• 29:10
  For 36 million dollar deal that they just did on a napkin in
• 29:14
  front of me. And I'm literally at table, and
• 29:17
  I'm sitting here and I'm learning all these things.
• 29:20
  And, and so I applaud and thank them for that.
• 29:26
  Well. So there's a lot in there.
• 29:30
  Michael, that you go, where you want me to go fast.
• 29:33
  Because well, because in between all that when you're trying to
• 29:38
  make your way with this, and you've got this big idea, Tia,
• 29:42
  you end up homeless again. Can you walk me through, because
• 29:49
  you do a really good job of in the book where you are in your
• 29:53
  mind, your drive, your determination.
• 29:57
  But in the meantime, you're living under a bridge.
• 30:01
  It's so, I mean this is not normal for.
• 30:06
  I mean, if you look at where you're at, now I can it all
• 30:10
  makes sense to me, I can see everything, you know, how you
• 30:13
  just, you were just wired this way but at that time, when
• 30:17
  you're living under a bridge and you're going to the the the
• 30:20
  library to read books and biographies of what can I learn,
• 30:25
  what can I get? And you're frustrated because
• 30:27
  they're not giving you the gaps of what you need.
• 30:32
  You're you're going and sleeping at the airport with your clothes
• 30:37
  on like you're traveling back in the days when you could get
• 30:41
  through security and you look like your travel.
• 30:44
  Are you thinking, what are you thinking?
• 30:47
  When now that's happening? Yeah.
• 30:51
  You know, realistically most of those nights.
• 30:56
  I'm just in my own Zone. I literally you know, I had two
• 31:02
  things that I really, really a test to my sanity one, I had a
• 31:09
  piece of paper. Yeah, my mother thinks she lost
• 31:14
  the drawing, but and I'll tell you what, that is the data piece
• 31:18
  of paper and I had My cassette player those you know who
• 31:23
  remember that were aging ourselves back.
• 31:25
  Yeah, absolutely. And I had the red hot and, you
• 31:30
  know, under the bridge, which I never even made the connection
• 31:34
  to that until many many years later like, five, six, seven,
• 31:38
  Ten Years Later, that I even realized that that was the song
• 31:42
  that was making me cry all the time right at night and that
• 31:47
  piece of paper. Lee was I would draw and Union
• 31:53
  Station, I'll let me back up, so a Union Station across the way,
• 31:58
  the highway exit ramp, would come underneath the highway
• 32:02
  where I lived and so across, the fence was Union Station, the
• 32:07
  train station and most union station's around America.
• 32:10
  And so when they're they had a Starbucks Hula, Hula Hands,
• 32:15
  Hooters whatever, right? And there was this empty space.
• 32:19
  Space in between Hooters and cool hands on the second story
• 32:23
  that was empty. It used to be a restaurant or
• 32:25
  something. And so, I just went and I would
• 32:27
  go up there and I would just visualize and write and draw
• 32:31
  what, you know, would be really cool if I could open up, you
• 32:34
  know, a really cool restaurant. Lat Jazz, you know, Lounge,
• 32:38
  whatever Coughlin the name of my older son.
• 32:43
  And so, I would just dream and do that.
• 32:45
  And so, that was in my mind and I always was looking for Or you
• 32:51
  know, in my mind of, you know, how do I get back into society?
• 32:56
  Like that was always on my mind and one day.
• 33:00
  And so just to put it all in perspective, I had left with and
• 33:04
  this is how I got to where I was.
• 33:07
  And some point in time, you know, you bounce around from
• 33:12
  house to house because even as a grown man, you know, you bounce
• 33:16
  because people have been trained not putting judgment on anyone
• 33:22
  but they've been trained to. There's a right way and there's
• 33:26
  a wrong way to live and the right way especially back then
• 33:33
  was you just have to get a job. You have to be working at
• 33:38
  McDonald's or somewhere because that is what you have been as
• 33:43
  what we've been told to do as Americans.
• 33:45
  And so that job will at least give you some money.
• 33:50
  And then that way you're not lounging around on my couch or
• 33:54
  sitting at my house or whatever. And for me, it was but I'm not
• 34:00
  lounging around. I'm literally looking to build a
• 34:03
  company. I'm literally looking to build
• 34:06
  Build. And so when I psychologically
• 34:09
  look at that completely different than, you know, the
• 34:13
  lazy, you know, kid who, you know, well now you play video
• 34:16
  games, you become a millionaire fast.
• 34:17
  But so anyway, I took all of that and after a while you just
• 34:25
  run out of people around until you end up there, that you also
• 34:30
  did some interesting things that I think of now, how I mean, if I
• 34:34
  read this right? And you and I talked about This
• 34:36
  when we first met you would go out because you like to see the
• 34:40
  private planes take off and land.
• 34:43
  Yeah. But one day you happen to be at
• 34:47
  the right place at the right time with a guy that has a lot
• 34:49
  of money. It was waiting on his car that's
• 34:52
  late and you guys make a connection.
• 34:56
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 34:58
  And so, you know, leading up to that leading up to that was a
• 35:03
  series of things that were taking place.
• 35:05
  So so my clothes that I left with that, I could only keep all
• 35:11
  my other possessions I have in storage.
• 35:13
  I couldn't pay the $60. So I lost my detective badge,
• 35:17
  you know, that I was able to kind of, you know, retire with
• 35:20
  or whatever and and you know Awards and certificates and you
• 35:26
  know that of boys you know all that.
• 35:29
  I'll also that in storage somewhere because I couldn't
• 35:33
  afford the 60 plus dollars which I think I only gave you like two
• 35:35
  months. They like a, gotta go to the
• 35:38
  north of 100, something dollars to get my keep, my think, my
• 35:41
  thing. So, I had Hilfiger overall a
• 35:45
  white down coat and some boots and then I kept, which I have
• 35:52
  framed in my house, my Ralph Lauren pinstripe blue suit and
• 35:57
  some Aldo aldo80 shoes that I write framed over here and as a
• 36:06
  Reminder and I had that and I had a dirty white shirt and
• 36:10
  blue, shirt Sukkot, I mean suture.
• 36:13
  And so that was my, I was my my clothes.
• 36:17
  And so, when I would sneak into these, after our regional growth
• 36:22
  commission Commerce, after our networking event, I would sneak
• 36:28
  into there like five dollar donation or whatever.
• 36:30
  And so, you know, to get in, I'd sneak in a pass out, some
• 36:33
  business cards that I you know, had still And try to keep the
• 36:38
  phone on. Somebody would say, okay, well I
• 36:40
  can't stay at my house. My wife won't let you but, you
• 36:43
  know, we'll keep the cell phone on for you.
• 36:46
  You know, just in case I might this case, the this case the
• 36:48
  bastard gets lucky. And, you know, and I would just
• 36:52
  try to eat something and then, you know, try to pass out
• 36:56
  business cards and so fast forward that wouldn't it got
• 36:59
  really cold, especially with that wind under the bridge.
• 37:02
  I would go to the airport just to get a shelter and I know
• 37:06
  Noticed that the homeless people would get kicked out.
• 37:10
  So I immediately remember going into the upstairs, still there
• 37:13
  in the bathroom was still there which is just cracks me up when
• 37:15
  I'm in st. Louis and that flying in the
• 37:17
  main terminal that bathroom still there.
• 37:20
  And I remember going in there and putting on my suit and going
• 37:24
  to a gate deep away from the front of the airport and
• 37:28
  literally you just go to sleep and you just look like a
• 37:30
  traveler who missed his flight and while the homeless guy
• 37:34
  getting kicked out, right? Put out into the cold and so
• 37:38
  that that they're really taught me that there's a process to
• 37:45
  this game of life. It really taught me that the
• 37:49
  rules don't apply to everybody right?
• 37:53
  And yeah yeah yeah so anyway that that led me to sneaking
• 37:59
  into after hours and then I oddly enough, sat on the board
• 38:04
  and eventually accidentally Became president of the Opera
• 38:09
  House, St. Louis, Opera House board.
• 38:12
  They were during this time period, this during the time
• 38:16
  period a guy by the name of Ed goal term and he was a wild
• 38:19
  character, always on the news always fighting and shouting.
• 38:23
  And you know almost coming to fisticuffs and blows with the
• 38:28
  media because he really wanted the opera house, which is now
• 38:32
  steeple Opera House downtown st. Louis He wanted to renovate it
• 38:38
  and it was beautiful. And it's like it hadn't been
• 38:40
  sitting empty for 20-something plus years, right?
• 38:43
  It's the seeds were beautiful and it had no erosion to.
• 38:47
  It was just this amazing thing and a man rest in heaven, Peter
• 38:52
  vacarro. I don't even remember how I met
• 38:55
  him, but invited me to sit on the board with them and just
• 38:58
  kind of go with those calls and I believed in it and, you know,
• 39:02
  over, you know, those six seven month period, they Had to have
• 39:07
  Ed step down. They thought I was a good
• 39:09
  communicator. I wanted up being president of
• 39:11
  this thing. I don't know what the hell I'm
• 39:13
  doing. I don't even have a home, okay?
• 39:17
  So, long story short, is that I one of the board members Gary
• 39:22
  bill and his girlfriend, Christine Frederick Frederick,
• 39:28
  who I actually really, they saved my life, they caught me
• 39:34
  sleeping out in front of you instead.
• 39:36
  And one day and, you know, like they thought I was drunk or
• 39:40
  something, and and I just came clean to say, you don't have
• 39:42
  anywhere to go. I'm homeless and, and she, let
• 39:45
  me stay at her house with him and, you know, and I would drive
• 39:49
  her to work and use our car and dropped her off.
• 39:52
  So I can get back on my feet and figure out what I'm going to do.
• 39:55
  And and then I would drive out Way West to the private Airfield
• 39:59
  Chesterfield airstrip and and just watch the planes come in.
• 40:04
  There's something about it. Just was Just bring to me.
• 40:09
  Yeah, and that, that really kicked off that relationship who
• 40:13
  became a friend, and a client for a long time.
• 40:15
  So when you, when you, you know, you always talk about You know,
• 40:19
  books and whatever finding that opportunity and be ready and
• 40:22
  prepared for that opportunity. You, you ran into this man, and
• 40:27
  I'm guessing that you were ready to go.
• 40:31
  And you were just saying you need.
• 40:32
  I need a client and not, you know, correct me if I'm wrong
• 40:38
  Michael. But I feel like this guy totally
• 40:40
  bought you and he said, I'm going to take you to someone who
• 40:44
  needs your services and that happened to be in New York,
• 40:47
  right? That was similar.
• 40:51
  But yes. Okay.
• 40:52
  But this guy helped you connect the pieces to getting in the
• 40:56
  world. You were trying to get into.
• 40:58
  Yeah, 100%. And on and on a level that, you
• 41:03
  know, and also if by that time I had already, you know, used a
• 41:07
  lot of my money that I had had for training.
• 41:11
  Yeah, so I had already gone overseas and trained and you
• 41:14
  know, and really started to have a different skill set.
• 41:19
  It was greater than that, that I learned in law enforcement.
• 41:22
  That, you know, and I remember a guy in the like you kind of
• 41:24
  turned into a ninja, right? I mean I mean is well the stuff
• 41:29
  I've seen you. You can kind of do whatever and
• 41:33
  you don't want to mess with Michael Anderson.
• 41:37
  I appreciate that. I think I appreciate that.
• 41:41
  I kind of move a little more with love these days but yeah,
• 41:46
  there's always that that inner city kid.
• 41:49
  And that that skilled professional still there.
• 41:52
  I believe so. And I know you've got sore ribs
• 41:56
  because you just tried to be your own stunt man trying to get
• 41:59
  into your own place because you were locked out fall down and
• 42:01
  hit the retaining wall and but you're playing your own moving.
• 42:05
  I like that. So you start building right?
• 42:10
  And how long, how long of a time period?
• 42:13
  Was it that you were kind of in this homeless world of and
• 42:17
  there's a milkshake A moment that I'm maybe rolling over
• 42:21
  here, but it meant something to me in the that like, steeled you
• 42:27
  into, I'm going to show them. I'm going to show them.
• 42:31
  Can you roll us through the milkshake moment?
• 42:33
  Yeah, that was in that time period of, you know, sleeping in
• 42:37
  the airport. And you know, finally staying,
• 42:41
  you know, being able to stay with friends, became friends,
• 42:47
  build and Gary. L and Christine.
• 42:50
  And, you know, I remember that story goes, I went to go, see my
• 42:57
  barber, who, who was shot was literally in the town, where I
• 43:01
  used to be a policeman. So if you can imagine, you know,
• 43:06
  having a job being, you know, having having a career, and most
• 43:11
  Law Enforcement Officers, if you don't know too many of them,
• 43:14
  right? They they they I always want to
• 43:19
  get out but they never really get out because they don't
• 43:23
  they're missing that one component of well, you know, I
• 43:26
  got this safety net of his paycheck just like probably
• 43:29
  overtopped. Right.
• 43:30
  Sure. And I was out and and I took the
• 43:34
  bus to go see Chris my barber and I didn't have any money
• 43:39
  other than to get above, but, you know, gave me a haircut on
• 43:45
  the house. You know, I had a potential
• 43:46
  client and it was With a potential client.
• 43:49
  That's the other thing about the Carny ride, it's all.
• 43:52
  But been, if this is the one, this will be.
• 43:54
  It was the one. But it's always always hope.
• 43:59
  It's the next one, you're always ready for it and it was on it
• 44:02
  was on my way back towards the city where, you know, I still
• 44:07
  want this, I won't say his name, I won't rat him out like that
• 44:11
  but you know where you pulled up.
• 44:13
  And, you know, basically told me I was a fucking loser and
• 44:18
  whatever and And the car was he driving a police car pulled up
• 44:29
  and at that moment it just dawned on me that that was my
• 44:33
  Crossroads because I know so many people, you know, they have
• 44:39
  so many things against their dream that it only takes
• 44:44
  something of embarrassment ridicule.
• 44:49
  Laughing at you to turn you into a fucking monster and go or, you
• 44:55
  know, become what they have imposed on you.
• 44:58
  Right? Which is, which is that and for
• 45:02
  me, once the bus came, I couldn't wait to get off the
• 45:04
  bus. I can't wait to get, I couldn't
• 45:06
  wait to get to a place where I could just focus and go.
• 45:10
  Okay, I'm getting it. I'm getting it so much so much
• 45:14
  so that one of the detectives years later probably about,
• 45:18
  Thousand. And Jesus six, maybe seven.
• 45:26
  Oh no, 2007, one of the detectives, I remember pumping
• 45:31
  gas in University City with my Aston Martin and she rolled up
• 45:36
  in her, you know, raggedy-ass police detective car and asked
• 45:40
  had the audacity to ask me. I'm sure stolen and I said run
• 45:45
  the plate. You know, that's not technically
• 45:47
  what I said, but running a family.
• 45:51
  A show somewhere in here. So nonetheless, yeah, it's all
• 45:55
  these cycles of of It's all these cycles that I didn't know
• 46:02
  how to break until we that just continued to repeat itself.
• 46:08
  And so I never really paid attention to learning, you know
• 46:12
  how to step outside of it. So it was always success and
• 46:16
  failure. It was always, you know, love
• 46:19
  then law. It was always, you know, this
• 46:22
  person loves me. How do I love them back then
• 46:26
  lost it was always self-sabotage.
• 46:29
  Constantly constantly on the cycle you felt like you were
• 46:33
  self sabotaging your success, 100% hundred million percent and
• 46:38
  I love to share that with people of you know, identifying that
• 46:43
  you know, a lot of the decisions we make are are probably the
• 46:48
  right decisions if we approach them in the right lens and the
• 46:53
  Right View and with the right intention, right?
• 46:55
  If we well I think, you know, your business.
• 46:59
  Take off and you started becoming and driving an Aston
• 47:03
  Martin. And you tell the story about
• 47:05
  going back to you City, your high school and you want to
• 47:09
  share that story because I think it's a really interesting story.
• 47:11
  How you handled that and what happened with the preachers and
• 47:15
  and how that all came about in the parking lot.
• 47:18
  Yeah. So actually, it was difference,
• 47:20
  but the position about the school's Michonne high school
• 47:23
  and is actually where I part of one of ours was the best shot,
• 47:28
  not you City. Okay?
• 47:29
  Yeah. Okay.
• 47:30
  Yeah. Just as a guest speaker and and
• 47:34
  that's ironic because it was across the street from Blue
• 47:37
  Meyer projects, which is where I also grew up where, you know, we
• 47:41
  and my cousin's used to play, you know, kick the needle in the
• 47:45
  crack at, you know, and the heroin addict, and all these
• 47:47
  little to play, you know, somewhere your nice little
• 47:50
  games. Yeah, you don't have a ball to
• 47:52
  kick around, right? Close it.
• 47:54
  Ironic that happened, but it was their motivational speaker.
• 48:01
  And you know, there's Dynamics about, you know, my voice and
• 48:04
  what I am and who I am. And and so my message has always
• 48:09
  been to people, especially the people of color is, you know,
• 48:14
  don't don't allow right? The - that have happened to your
• 48:20
  cousin and your relatives and other people prevent you from
• 48:25
  accepting that true support. That's coming for you.
• 48:31
  And if it's someone of A different race primarily, right?
• 48:34
  Oh, why people are bad or why people don't like blacks or
• 48:37
  whatever that is? I mean, yes, there's a lot of
• 48:39
  that. However, that does not mean that
• 48:43
  the white individual, right? That has an interest in helping
• 48:48
  you believing in, you seeing you opening that door from you
• 48:51
  should be excluded ignored or shut out because your cousin's
• 48:56
  interaction with a totally different life.
• 48:58
  Person. As an example was, the beautiful
• 49:01
  star are mistreated of what have you.
• 49:04
  And so my message is that you just don't know where your
• 49:09
  blessings are coming from. And there's so many lessons in a
• 49:13
  situation. And if you're moving with your
• 49:16
  eyes open, you're going to see them and you're going to learn
• 49:19
  from them. And you don't know why the
• 49:22
  interaction no mistake, right? There's no coincidences real in
• 49:26
  life, right? And so, It's, that's the message
• 49:30
  and the reverend's and the principal whatever, like, you
• 49:34
  know, hey, look it up, that's not the message.
• 49:37
  We try to tell them, right? We have to help them.
• 49:40
  We got to help ourselves, right? If they don't rely on us,
• 49:43
  nobody's gonna put you. Put their arm around you while
• 49:46
  they're walking. Yeah.
• 49:48
  And they're leading to the front door like, you know, this guy.
• 49:53
  Yeah I think I think ones handing me my hat, the others
• 49:56
  kicking. But the other thing was is that
• 49:58
  message? Resonated with the with the
• 49:59
  people you were talking to. Yeah.
• 50:02
  Yeah, it did and it's funny when you get to see Karma come full
• 50:07
  circle and the moment. Yeah.
• 50:10
  But like I would say, you know? Yeah.
• 50:11
  It's like here's your hat. What's your hurry?
• 50:13
  You know? And as we're walking out into
• 50:15
  the front of the school, there was a big commotion.
• 50:18
  There's a big, you drive for you, you drive way and there's
• 50:23
  big commotion going on. And someone told the security of
• 50:26
  the run over there and break that up must have.
• 50:28
  Flight or altercation. And when we got closer because I
• 50:31
  had parked in that direction, it was just all the kids just
• 50:35
  drooling over that 2007. Aston Martin, which was just in
• 50:38
  the James Bond movie. Yeah.
• 50:40
  And and that and that was my call and then it immediately
• 50:46
  shit all of them up. Right.
• 50:48
  This is L and I unlock the guard and let them all get all limits.
• 50:52
  Do what you need to do? Have fun, explore pick up more
• 50:55
  and do whatever start it up. Rev it up, do your feet because
• 50:58
  that And itself. Like, I told my other CEO friend
• 51:01
  of major corporations like nobody wants to hear your sob
• 51:06
  story about your shit right. Bring those pictures of that
• 51:10
  jet, that you're flying around, you know, bring the, you know,
• 51:13
  the role of cars that you live in our pictures of your home
• 51:17
  without the address, right? All right.
• 51:20
  But bring those because you're competing with drug dealers and
• 51:24
  you're competing with athletes and you've got to show them that
• 51:28
  there's another Bath. You can use your brain to get
• 51:31
  that. Yeah.
• 51:32
  So that's so powerful though. And, you know, I bet a lot of
• 51:35
  those kids remember that day, you know, that's what 15 years
• 51:39
  ago, however, long that goes, yeah, we hope so.
• 51:41
  Remember that day, that that guy came and spoke to them who was
• 51:47
  using his brain and had gridded himself into a situation where
• 51:52
  he could drive that car. And he used to live right across
• 51:55
  that street there. Those Are the things that, you
• 51:59
  know, kind of give you, you know, goosebumps it, you know,
• 52:02
  those in like you said, karma has a weird way of finding its
• 52:05
  way through the cracks, but what a great story.
• 52:09
  What? I mean, what a moment.
• 52:10
  Really? That here you are.
• 52:12
  And here that happened and they were just getting told the
• 52:16
  opposite. Yeah.
• 52:17
  Yeah. And is also a lesson for me as
• 52:20
  well. You know, it's a lesson at the
• 52:22
  time that I spend. Fortunately, did not respect
• 52:28
  Right. It wasn't, it really wasn't
• 52:30
  until the pandemic that I altered me.
• 52:35
  Ultimately, finally realize that I need to.
• 52:40
  I need to serve You know, maybe it was, you know, being I see
• 52:45
  you, maybe it was the, you know, being isolated, maybe it was the
• 52:49
  furloughs and having to, you know, almost lose the company
• 52:52
  and having to use my own book. As my guide to find myself,
• 52:58
  reinvent myself in a very short period of time.
• 53:01
  And then build my business, right back to where it was and
• 53:05
  now, is taking off on a relaunch, in a rebuild, is just
• 53:12
  a funny way. Way of realizing that it's all
• 53:15
  because this isn't about me. It's literally about how do we
• 53:20
  change lives? And in the midst of changing
• 53:22
  people's lives, and impacting them is where all your abundance
• 53:26
  and blessings can come. That's right.
• 53:27
  Because it fills you up, you know, the and I'm assuming
• 53:33
  Michael that as this company grew and you became somebody
• 53:37
  that people sought out for Talking on shows and that how
• 53:43
  did that all feel to you because you know you reached a peak with
• 53:48
  your with your idea and I think you had 47 50, people that did
• 53:53
  the work that you had basically trained into an idea to come to
• 53:58
  life. What did that feel like for you?
• 54:01
  Yeah, it felt like, it's all like a level of success.
• 54:05
  Considering that in 2012, I mean 11, you know, that internet
• 54:14
  thing, you know, was really taking shape, right?
• 54:19
  And I was still living in a dinosaur world protection.
• 54:27
  Where, you know, the the professional protectee is behind
• 54:33
  the scene. You don't need to be in front of
• 54:35
  the camera. You don't need to, you know,
• 54:38
  it's like you want to, you have a friend.
• 54:41
  Brent, let's say and they need protection or they have an issue
• 54:45
  or problem, you know, hey, I know a guy and then my phone
• 54:49
  rang and that was the way business was done in that world,
• 54:55
  but then this internet thing started happening and then the
• 54:58
  CIA guy started breaking contract Protocol who started,
• 55:01
  they will end up on CNN. And on the news talking about,
• 55:06
  you know, protection and terrorist activities and what
• 55:11
  have you and these active shooting and it put us in a
• 55:15
  position where when people will start looking us up, we didn't
• 55:18
  exist. And so we had literally almost
• 55:23
  lost everything, the business because we weren't above, what
• 55:28
  we call above board. And so, it really took us hiring
• 55:33
  a publicist that opened up a couple of doors and, of course,
• 55:39
  being prayerfully and gratefully being good enough that, you
• 55:44
  know, ABC and fox and NBC. You know, liked having me on and
• 55:50
  that was relevant. I mean, you, that was in your
• 55:53
  ear. That was your Arena.
• 55:55
  I mean you trained. You knew it you're there's your
• 55:57
  business, you experienced it. I mean, some of the things you
• 56:01
  talked about where you go in the middle of the night, get shot
• 56:05
  and run and jump in the water. And I think you told me there
• 56:09
  was an anaconda and that water, which freaks me out but you know
• 56:15
  these you did some things where when you were when you were
• 56:18
  doing that Michael was was it just an adrenaline rush of just
• 56:23
  I mean or were you was there? I mean a normal person to be
• 56:27
  scared that they're going to die.
• 56:29
  You know, normal people don't pay I'll shoot in the South
• 56:31
  America go and run and shoot and do and and then you get on that
• 56:35
  helicopter and get out of there. What does that feel like?
• 56:39
  I don't know, I've never talked to anybody has done that.
• 56:41
  I mean, what, what is that feeling?
• 56:45
  Yeah, well first of all you do is go down to any soup kitchen.
• 56:48
  Brother, there there, where everywhere that's first off.
• 56:52
  So, you know, if you ever want to go get them, it's weird.
• 56:55
  It's okay. Any shelter you can find find
• 56:59
  out, okay? There's a Brother's, okay, we're
• 57:03
  like amick everywhere. You know, for me it, you know, I
• 57:12
  came from the law enforcement route into the private sector
• 57:15
  contractor route and so you know for me it was really about
• 57:20
  having a negative credit score pipe 300.
• 57:25
  You know, it was so bad and not having money and not being able
• 57:30
  to provide I'd for my child and being deemed a loser and, you
• 57:34
  know, knowing that I'm never going to amount to anything and
• 57:37
  and being told this by so many people because, you know, I
• 57:41
  didn't fit into the norm. And, and when you get to a
• 57:43
  certain age, especially when we're also talking about the 90s
• 57:47
  now, it's super cool. It's a soundbite to be an
• 57:50
  entrepreneur even though, you know, you know, you can have a
• 57:54
  great company and all that old. But did you forget that?
• 57:57
  It's family funded that, right? So, there's a difference.
• 58:00
  Different variants variants in that and views of how that were
• 58:06
  played and youth. But back in the 80s 90s, what
• 58:08
  have you? That was just completely
• 58:09
  different periods. And and so for me the logic was,
• 58:15
  especially when I started working with Contracting with
• 58:18
  the company, they had to I probably would have gotten
• 58:22
  worked sooner, but they didn't know if I was crazy or what my
• 58:27
  deal was. I had to meet with the other
• 58:28
  partner in New York. Just to make sure that I was
• 58:32
  saying. Yeah.
• 58:33
  And I just told them, I was like, look, man, you know, I
• 58:36
  have a skill set at the time, the Israelis ran the market,
• 58:42
  like they ran a market in the United States and blessedly,
• 58:46
  they started I stay peacefully to my Israeli brothers and
• 58:51
  sisters. I'm not throwing shade guys, you
• 58:56
  know, some of them became thieves and so I was like, hey,
• 59:00
  I'm praying, I'm not a thief and I really started to open up some
• 59:04
  of those doors for me. But the mentality wasn't about
• 59:08
  this craziness, you know, or the stupidity of Bravery, or their
• 59:15
  of, it was just more of I don't like being poor, you know and
• 59:23
  being top and going back to law enforcement.
• 59:25
  Just it the passion had Barn. Yeah.
• 59:29
  You want a more anyone to create watching?
• 59:32
  Yeah, I wanted more and, you know, back then it wasn't cool
• 59:35
  to Brent to be an entrepreneur, right?
• 59:37
  Right. It just wasn't what it is today.
• 59:40
  I mean, that is unstable. Yeah, yeah, well, I the other
• 59:44
  thing that I guess in that time period did You talking about
• 59:48
  your son, you got a couple of sons, right?
• 59:52
  Yeah. So, for that time period, Is
• 59:56
  that when all that took place, I mean you are you making things
• 1:00:00
  happen with your new company and feeling the life of, you know,
• 1:00:05
  making a success and then you've also bring it in the family into
• 1:00:09
  play. Yeah, so my journey there is
• 1:00:13
  another Testament to manifestation and willpower and
• 1:00:20
  belief of the unknown. I'm a huge advocate of that.
• 1:00:25
  You know. People always want the roadmap
• 1:00:29
  and I don't blame them, right? I mean, wherever you can you can
• 1:00:34
  miss a hurdle. I'm all for it, you know.
• 1:00:39
  And to answer your question, I have Friends who come from very
• 1:00:43
  well-to-do families and I see them trying to dump their self
• 1:00:49
  down or, you know, ignore Their Blessings, right?
• 1:00:54
  That their families have created for them because it's been such
• 1:00:57
  as it's been embedded by society's.
• 1:01:00
  You got a struggle right? You don't want to if you don't
• 1:01:03
  want it too, easy wrap and it's like no no no and I how dare you
• 1:01:07
  don't don't do that. Like we go through the hard way.
• 1:01:10
  Route because that's just what we just had to do.
• 1:01:14
  Not because they cool about it is because it's either that or
• 1:01:18
  complete failure and not doing anything it's Billy.
• 1:01:22
  And so it's that, it's that entrepreneurial difference.
• 1:01:29
  But to specifically drooling, all your question was I'm asking
• 1:01:33
  about your love life, I guess. Yeah, well my kid, my kid, my
• 1:01:40
  His were not necessarily in the picture.
• 1:01:42
  And for me, I had already an outcast.
• 1:01:46
  I've been Outcast by their mothers, my two boys are two
• 1:01:51
  others and their family. Well, you know I'm at my oldest
• 1:01:56
  was born in 96 and my youngest was born in 2020.
• 1:02:02
  Yeah yeah. So you know I was already dirt
• 1:02:06
  of the earth so for me, it had to be a situation.
• 1:02:10
  Equation. Where and anyone that knew me
• 1:02:13
  personally, relationship-wise, you know, knew that my kids were
• 1:02:18
  always in the Forefront of my mind, right?
• 1:02:21
  Everything that I was doing right wrong or indifferent was
• 1:02:24
  was always about my kids and me getting to a place and this is
• 1:02:28
  what really shifted my whole life.
• 1:02:30
  And I'm glad you asked that because to me is a reminder that
• 1:02:37
  I knew one day I was going to reunite with my kids.
• 1:02:40
  I just knew it was an internal motivation of yours.
• 1:02:43
  Yeah. And and part of that was, I have
• 1:02:47
  to make sure that when I'm blessed and fortunate enough to
• 1:02:51
  be before them, I can't, I have to be stable enough to not break
• 1:02:57
  a promise. Meaning, I can't say I'm going
• 1:03:02
  to meet you on Wednesday and then have to go clock in.
• 1:03:07
  Right? Our the boss is mad at me, and I
• 1:03:09
  have to now, I meant, but I promised my son, who I haven't
• 1:03:12
  seen in 15 years. That I did not want that
• 1:03:18
  scenario and I made sure of that.
• 1:03:21
  Is that? Because maybe that there were
• 1:03:23
  parallels between your relationship with your dad and
• 1:03:28
  you didn't want to repeat that type of feeling that you had.
• 1:03:32
  Because your dad went on to be a very complex guy was the
• 1:03:36
  football coach at Washington University.
• 1:03:39
  What time period in your life, did that happen where you've
• 1:03:42
  actually made a Section and then he I think he passed away
• 1:03:48
  shortly after that. Is that correct?
• 1:03:51
  Yeah. Yeah yeah.
• 1:03:53
  So at that time I had been at that time I had been, you know,
• 1:04:00
  attempting to find myself and my I think I wrote about this to a
• 1:04:09
  degree of, I had always been very fortunate as I sit here,
• 1:04:13
  single right today, at 52. But I'd always have met young
• 1:04:17
  man. Well, thank you sir.
• 1:04:20
  I agree with those ribs will. He'll you know, as I sit here
• 1:04:28
  I've always felt like I've had really amazing relationship.
• 1:04:33
  You know, with women and and I'm very grateful for all of them
• 1:04:37
  and time that I've spent with everyone, you know, and I and I
• 1:04:45
  I know that there was so much missing in my life to even
• 1:04:50
  remotely think that I would have a fighting chance to make
• 1:04:55
  something work. And so at that time, I was in
• 1:04:59
  the position to do some psychotherapy and and once, you
• 1:05:05
  know, I had ended one relationship and I was like, you
• 1:05:08
  know what, I'm it was a very special relationship and dear
• 1:05:12
  and I thought, you know what, I can't do that again.
• 1:05:16
  I've got to get my shit together and that's when I just dope into
• 1:05:22
  therapy and to out of court for you though, Michael wasn't like
• 1:05:26
  you were it was an imposter syndrome.
• 1:05:28
  I'm so happy. I feel so good.
• 1:05:30
  This is love but I don't deserve This or something's not right?
• 1:05:35
  I don't have myself together and so you would you would sabotage
• 1:05:38
  it. Yeah, and really, that was was a
• 1:05:42
  false sense of self love. Meaning, it was the purchasing
• 1:05:46
  of multiple Vehicles. It was the purchasing of things
• 1:05:49
  that I thought would make me feel better.
• 1:05:52
  Like having a portion that another poor zooms by me and I
• 1:05:55
  pull the guy over. Yeah from I personally what
• 1:05:58
  model is that why that right go by that and realizing that
• 1:06:03
  that's not low that's and it gets right.
• 1:06:06
  T you know are lonely and really healthy and then not Being able
• 1:06:10
  to have that self love and not self and then how do you expect
• 1:06:15
  to, you know, share that with someone else who does love you,
• 1:06:19
  who all completely different, who had so much value to add,
• 1:06:23
  you know, to your life. I just knew that, okay, I got to
• 1:06:27
  get that together and I got to get it together fast.
• 1:06:30
  So when you use, you've been around me enough to know that,
• 1:06:33
  you know, when I go to a therapy right?
• 1:06:37
  Or when I do anything, it's Of light and has pretty 0 to 60.
• 1:06:42
  Yeah. You could do that spread.
• 1:06:43
  Yeah. Look at the time.
• 1:06:46
  I was trying to go three days a week and then at, you know, the
• 1:06:48
  times like look, you know, hey, I don't have time to do this
• 1:06:52
  once a week. Being you know what, I'm be 80
• 1:06:55
  years old. Nothing else works.
• 1:06:57
  You know like what the hell did I do all this for right?
• 1:07:00
  I got slow dance all the time. Like I don't want that life.
• 1:07:03
  So I just went all-in and and even the therapist was like,
• 1:07:09
  what? First of all, I just want you to
• 1:07:10
  know that most people cannot function that way, right?
• 1:07:15
  They don't absorb information that fast.
• 1:07:17
  They, you know, but I'll take your money, I'll do that.
• 1:07:20
  And for me it was like, I don't care.
• 1:07:25
  I'm going to dive into it, I'm going all in and that's Anna and
• 1:07:29
  I only complain three times after seven months for you but
• 1:07:33
  it's good. Yeah.
• 1:07:33
  But I mean you're talking six days a week just work and study
• 1:07:37
  and reading books and hitting And in the midst of that, to get
• 1:07:41
  to my dad and even my kids is that that's where the
• 1:07:45
  Breakthrough occurred the lessons and you realize.
• 1:07:50
  And I realized that when you're going through things, right, you
• 1:07:55
  have to find that something to latch onto that is not going to
• 1:08:00
  have you focused on what you just went through.
• 1:08:04
  But literally are latching onto your current present situation.
• 1:08:09
  And where you need to be and where you want to build on that,
• 1:08:12
  that is what you focus on from that moment for because you've
• 1:08:15
  acknowledged you have accepted and if you're really, if you're
• 1:08:19
  really into energy and connectivity and spirituality,
• 1:08:23
  then you've asked for forgiveness for the people that
• 1:08:26
  you've hurt and then you ask for forgiveness.
• 1:08:30
  Michael, you hit your mute button that you ask for
• 1:08:33
  forgiveness you know for them that's perfect it's for yourself
• 1:08:38
  and then you move on and you never look back.
• 1:08:42
  Well, you can't change the past. I mean, you just said, is so
• 1:08:46
  relevant to how you have to tackle each day as you could,
• 1:08:50
  you can win the day and change the future but you can't, you
• 1:08:55
  can learn from the past. I mean that's that's obvious but
• 1:08:59
  you can't change it. Yeah, and I think a lot of
• 1:09:01
  people get stuck in that and lots of times, I think just
• 1:09:06
  causes paralysis that I can't take another step because I've
• 1:09:09
  done so bad up to this point. There's no way that I could do
• 1:09:11
  it. Whereas when people do start
• 1:09:13
  stepping they start feeling like a little bit more confident and
• 1:09:17
  another step that feel a little bit more.
• 1:09:19
  And by the time they take the third steps, like I got this, I
• 1:09:21
  can do this, this is me. I, this is the authentic me,
• 1:09:24
  that's right. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:26
  And you know, and I had and I had had a disdain and a It's
• 1:09:30
  like for my father, My real father for many, many years and
• 1:09:37
  when I got through therapy and I saw him and I would see him
• 1:09:41
  riding his bike to the park, right?
• 1:09:44
  And when I, when I would see him, you know, my men of
• 1:09:48
  however, bumper this to I'ma knock him out or do whatever,
• 1:09:51
  you know, ignorant. But what I realized after
• 1:09:55
  therapy was that a I needed to communicate with him because it
• 1:09:59
  was part of the girl. Period and then secondly, you
• 1:10:04
  know, I had to just come to an understanding that I need to
• 1:10:10
  just deal with it. I need to just deal with it and
• 1:10:14
  I carry it anymore and and ironically in a true Henderson
• 1:10:19
  fashion, my kids are the same way.
• 1:10:22
  It's the hottest day of the year, the st.
• 1:10:24
  Louis I'm jogging in Forest Park which was not abnormal for me
• 1:10:29
  which is the big part that they will.
• 1:10:30
  It I kind of like our big central part and the only two
• 1:10:35
  idiot outside where me and my dad and I'm running and dancing
• 1:10:41
  kind of, you know jogging and having a good time, listen to my
• 1:10:44
  headphones. And I'm literally bumper to this
• 1:10:46
  man on his bike and it's my Dad. Wow.
• 1:10:48
  And it's, it's that Whirlwind of my entire life of just blessings
• 1:10:55
  constantly coming from, you know, being left in third world
• 1:10:59
  countries too. Why is this guy's done, not
• 1:11:02
  shooting me and why I did my bullet Miss in and, you know,
• 1:11:07
  and we're literally, you know, face-to-face of art that both
• 1:11:10
  can shoot. You know, why are these things
• 1:11:13
  constantly happening to be? Why am I going through?
• 1:11:15
  This is why, you know, why am I shot here?
• 1:11:18
  But I'm not dead. And, you know, why did I just
• 1:11:20
  fall off to story, right? Then they didn't wall where, you
• 1:11:26
  know. So when I would die, you know,
• 1:11:29
  why are these Whole thing happening to me.
• 1:11:31
  And and so I'm not saying it in the realm of some Guru or what
• 1:11:37
  have you, but it definitely lends to the opportunity of
• 1:11:45
  courage and belief and you know having your listeners and people
• 1:11:52
  that you interact with understand that the shit that
• 1:11:56
  you've done right, wrong indifferent.
• 1:11:59
  Is okay to shoot you do now and it's what you do going forward
• 1:12:04
  and it's that positivity. It's that belief that you can
• 1:12:07
  have different, that changes everything in your past and that
• 1:12:13
  forgetful myth of what people think of you.
• 1:12:18
  What Society thinks of you, anybody successful will tell
• 1:12:22
  you. There's always somebody doesn't
• 1:12:23
  like, you know, that's just a part of it.
• 1:12:26
  Yeah. Part of it.
• 1:12:28
  Yeah, this is part of it. I love the journey.
• 1:12:30
  Yeah, I love the journey in the blessings of that.
• 1:12:32
  Yeah, what literally bumping into your dad, that you hadn't
• 1:12:37
  spoken to? Was it a Moment of relief.
• 1:12:42
  Disappointment, was he more than what you thought it would be?
• 1:12:45
  I mean what was that like Well, first he didn't have his phone
• 1:12:50
  on him, so I took his number and it was, it was comforting
• 1:12:57
  because I knew I needed to do it, and my therapist had been
• 1:13:03
  telling me, you know, you got to reach out to your dad, you know,
• 1:13:07
  you got to talk to him. Yeah.
• 1:13:10
  And what's interesting is that over that next two or three
• 1:13:13
  months before he passed away, you know and I've met him and
• 1:13:17
  taking him to the Ritz We had launched and we just got to
• 1:13:22
  catch up and realize that we had the same personality saying
• 1:13:25
  humor. Yeah.
• 1:13:26
  Right. Everything was as you would
• 1:13:28
  expect and the connectivity was there and he was on dialysis
• 1:13:32
  and, you know, and he said that he had been passed away.
• 1:13:36
  I think in the 60s mid-60s. But you know, he's like, I had
• 1:13:41
  been dead at 49 because I was on dialysis and he's like, you
• 1:13:47
  know, any white people? And I said of course, Like eat
• 1:13:49
  their food, you'll live forever, you know, and that was just his
• 1:13:52
  humor, you know, and after he passed away, he lived in Hue
• 1:13:59
  City, where I was a policeman, and I remember getting phone
• 1:14:04
  calls at my office from you City and I didn't know who the
• 1:14:08
  officer or the the officer was. So I called a friend of mine who
• 1:14:12
  was the end Secret Service? Who had just kind of left the
• 1:14:15
  Department and ask them to, you know, the officer?
• 1:14:18
  And he said, yeah. So what the hell is this guy
• 1:14:20
  won't with me? I never call the guy back.
• 1:14:23
  So I figure is probably one of my agents run around town doing
• 1:14:26
  something. And then it was until later that
• 1:14:28
  night I got home and and check Facebook and then one of the
• 1:14:32
  detectives called me and, you know, Ralph me to call them and
• 1:14:35
  I called and said, hey is your dad live over the Starbucks,
• 1:14:38
  blah, blah blah. And then I was at another
• 1:14:40
  Crossroads where is like, I could ignore all of that when I
• 1:14:45
  didn't really know the guy. But, you know, his good friend
• 1:14:49
  from high school was his Was in charge of the finances but not
• 1:14:55
  him. So the more couldn't release the
• 1:14:57
  body anywhere. Yeah.
• 1:15:00
  And that's where my entire life changed.
• 1:15:04
  I mean, and entirely, I mean everything about my entire
• 1:15:07
  existence changed that moment when I decided.
• 1:15:09
  Okay, I'm going to do, I'm going to handle it, I'm gonna go to
• 1:15:14
  his house. I'm going to meet his friend.
• 1:15:15
  Renee, I'm going to talk to his best friends and come to find
• 1:15:19
  out. He didn't fall in my entire
• 1:15:20
  career news. Articles, you know, and they
• 1:15:24
  thought he was lying the entire time so but that's not what I
• 1:15:28
  mean. Yeah.
• 1:15:30
  But and the long story short of that though, is that that's how
• 1:15:33
  I reunite it with my kids. Yeah, that opened up.
• 1:15:36
  Magazine opportunity magazine cover opportunity that opened up
• 1:15:40
  television spots. That opened up my interaction
• 1:15:44
  with my kid that inner that change everything in my world,
• 1:15:49
  everything just started to fall into place.
• 1:15:51
  Because of those decisions. So Michael you have, you created
• 1:15:57
  a successful company of insecurity and now what do you
• 1:16:03
  want to accomplish with the production and sweet and with
• 1:16:08
  movies and TV? What's your what's your dream or
• 1:16:11
  goal impact? Yeah.
• 1:16:15
  My goal is to be the the biggest and the best television film
• 1:16:20
  Creator, the industry has ever seen.
• 1:16:24
  You know, there are some top names up there, you know, you're
• 1:16:27
  Jerry bruckheimer's, your marks of gave these, you know, these
• 1:16:30
  are Power Players, Ron Howard's and these are people that, you
• 1:16:36
  know, I guess you could even add Tyler Perry in there or what
• 1:16:38
  have you. But now there are players who,
• 1:16:41
  you know, have found their way to the very top.
• 1:16:44
  To where they decide they want to make a piece of content that,
• 1:16:48
  you know, it's going to make the screen and make an impact.
• 1:16:53
  And that's, you know, that's the cool thing about it is you're on
• 1:16:56
  a world where you actually can make impact.
• 1:16:58
  I mean, a lot of people think, you know, if I could just create
• 1:17:00
  change and a lot of people can create change by doing what they
• 1:17:03
  do, but you're in you're in the world in the arena where these
• 1:17:10
  things get out to a lot of people and if you, if you're
• 1:17:12
  doing the right things and promoting The things that you
• 1:17:16
  have a passion for that can really create change and that's
• 1:17:19
  that's what's cool about the world.
• 1:17:21
  It was it hard for you to make the transition?
• 1:17:25
  The transition was smooth, the the pitfalls as there always are
• 1:17:32
  then usually unseen and again sided, right?
• 1:17:35
  So so I would say the best advice or the the most important
• 1:17:42
  statements that have been made to me since I've been out here
• 1:17:45
  playing this game is when I first arrived in 2017 to really
• 1:17:51
  do this An executive that been the Sony for many, many years,
• 1:17:57
  like 30-something plus years, you know, said to me, you know,
• 1:18:01
  you're probably badass and, you know, security.
• 1:18:05
  You know, you probably done this that another and I've seen your
• 1:18:09
  videos and all the rest of that, but you got to be careful.
• 1:18:13
  This is Hollywood. Yeah.
• 1:18:16
  It's it's own Beast. Yeah.
• 1:18:17
  And so no matter where you fit. Yeah.
• 1:18:22
  So that's probably I mean, for you that's I think you've been
• 1:18:25
  in a you've been trained well to enter Hollywood, I think so.
• 1:18:31
  I don't you. I mean, is I say that all the
• 1:18:37
  time? Like I I mean it, you know, it
• 1:18:39
  has its moments. You know, I little bump in the
• 1:18:42
  road was frightening for a second but I do, I agree.
• 1:18:47
  I feel very comfortable here in this space.
• 1:18:50
  I mean, you know, I'm used to dealing with you know, crime.
• 1:18:54
  I'm syndicates and and other, you know, I use that Loosely
• 1:19:00
  but, you know, yeah, I feel very comfortable here and I feel more
• 1:19:05
  importantly that, you know, understanding the nuances of the
• 1:19:09
  industry and I believe in the content that we have and we're
• 1:19:14
  fortunate, that Hollywood is actually starting to take notice
• 1:19:17
  of that. And yeah.
• 1:19:20
  So we're going to see what about what happened?
• 1:19:24
  Ask you Michael that, I was supposed to ask you.
• 1:19:27
  What's up with you? What's up with you, man?
• 1:19:31
  That's what we need coming down the pike, try to get by.
• 1:19:36
  Michael is trying to get by man. Well, I'll tell you what, I
• 1:19:43
  really appreciate your platform. Well, I appreciate you being on
• 1:19:47
  here and it's it's it's encouraging to people to see
• 1:19:52
  that it doesn't just it's not just one Fell.
• 1:19:56
  Swoop of success. You you have success, you got to
• 1:19:59
  reload, he get success, you got to reload, you know, it's
• 1:20:03
  success isn't permanent, it's a constant and you got to stay
• 1:20:06
  with it and believe and and had the determination and that's
• 1:20:09
  what I see from. Um, your life story Michael,
• 1:20:12
  it's not all written, but up to this point, man, whatever that
• 1:20:17
  is that you're wired with and how you stay determined and
• 1:20:20
  gridded through some really tough things.
• 1:20:23
  And now you're living, you know, I think you've gotten to that
• 1:20:26
  point where you feel like you're your authentic, self feeling,
• 1:20:29
  all the different things, you want to feel and good things are
• 1:20:32
  happening. And I've all that stuff,
• 1:20:34
  everything that's happened to you, your book and your the
• 1:20:38
  production company and the You've experienced.
• 1:20:41
  What do you think your biggest takeaway is to the listeners
• 1:20:43
  that what you've gone through. Yeah.
• 1:20:48
  So one of the things that that's an amazing question first off,
• 1:20:54
  but it's team, it's team, you know, I there are times where,
• 1:21:01
  you know, I wish I didn't have a team just because, you know, I
• 1:21:08
  can move. Yeah, I can do the job and I
• 1:21:11
  literally can do the job of pick seven different people, they'll
• 1:21:13
  tell you and it drives them nuts, right?
• 1:21:14
  Because I can move because I understand, I'm wired.
• 1:21:17
  Different. And I know that by now that's a
• 1:21:19
  lot of not, not very normal, but there are those days but
• 1:21:24
  realistically, I had to change the team.
• 1:21:30
  Some people are still with me from, you know, the beginning of
• 1:21:33
  this journey, but we had to bring other real strong pieces
• 1:21:40
  to the table to make it work, and not just their ability to
• 1:21:45
  look good on paper. But the ability to be in the
• 1:21:47
  Mental space because everything that we're doing everything.
• 1:21:50
  You're doing everything your listeners are doing.
• 1:21:54
  If their mental is it right? If they don't mentally
• 1:21:57
  understand what it is that they're after how to achieve it?
• 1:22:02
  Yeah people that they bring into their Circle.
• 1:22:05
  Yeah will be small and few in most cases they're going to
• 1:22:11
  they're going to probably have a bump in the road at some point
• 1:22:13
  in time. And so for me, my takeaway and
• 1:22:16
  their takeaway is Literally don't be a hostage to Your Ego.
• 1:22:22
  Yeah, you know, honor yourself, honor your God and you your
• 1:22:26
  Universe in you. Yeah.
• 1:22:28
  And be very careful of of your ego.
• 1:22:32
  So it's good words man. I mean those are words to live
• 1:22:36
  by because you can't let the ego, get in the way because you
• 1:22:39
  miss opportunities that way. And if you've let that get in
• 1:22:43
  the way, you can't see the road and that's where you got to.
• 1:22:47
  On when you're trying to grow or try to be better trying to get
• 1:22:50
  through, whatever you're trying to get there.
• 1:22:52
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:22:53
  But you you, if you don't mind. Yeah, you and your platform and
• 1:22:58
  your story, you know, your listeners.
• 1:23:02
  I mean, this to me, this is one. I'm just grateful to be part of
• 1:23:08
  it today and even on some of your other things that were, you
• 1:23:13
  know, talking about. But you know, the the Prison,
• 1:23:19
  the prison of our mind, I didn't I didn't go to prison, right?
• 1:23:25
  We're they were joking earlier, you know, I sent a lot of people
• 1:23:28
  to prison and people wanted to assassinate me because but but
• 1:23:36
  my journey was prison. How it literally is no different
• 1:23:43
  than being locked behind bars because my brain In was my my
• 1:23:49
  Wharton. Yep, my fear was my cards right
• 1:23:55
  and my environment, right was the yard.
• 1:24:01
  And so you know for for me it's and for your listeners.
• 1:24:07
  I'm hoping that they understand that, you know, it is for some
• 1:24:12
  of us on the other side of that, fear of that.
• 1:24:17
  Prison in our mind and that's what I'm saying.
• 1:24:20
  It's the mental. Yes, the mint and Michael.
• 1:24:23
  I think that's why. I think this podcast is taken on
• 1:24:28
  different listeners, because everybody knows through their
• 1:24:33
  own experiences. They've built up prisons are my
• 1:24:34
  some have broken through some set themselves.
• 1:24:37
  Just what we talked about with you, you have gone through and
• 1:24:41
  you're sitting in a different chair.
• 1:24:44
  Now then where you were 23 years ago because you did the work and
• 1:24:47
  You've you feel like you set yourself free your that that
• 1:24:51
  prison of your mind, you work through it, you over around it
• 1:24:54
  under it and I think that's what it takes.
• 1:24:57
  You got it. And you know, nightmare success
• 1:25:00
  is all about. You got to step into the unknown
• 1:25:02
  and got to step into the fear. And, you know, that's what I
• 1:25:05
  liked and that, that quote, you know, you've always stepped into
• 1:25:10
  that, what scares you and a lot of times, that's where the good
• 1:25:13
  stuff is, you know, where it's at.
• 1:25:16
  That's where it's at. But Please let your listeners
• 1:25:18
  know that have bit lies. You don't have to go into the
• 1:25:22
  darkness. I feel good this, leave that
• 1:25:24
  shit, okay, just go straight, we'll meet you there, we'll meet
• 1:25:30
  you there, just Wake Forest, go on there, but, you know, I'm
• 1:25:38
  glad you said that and that you probably, you know, you can
• 1:25:41
  delete this or whatever. This is more of a conversation
• 1:25:43
  for us. But, you know, that's the thing
• 1:25:46
  that when I use the And our cat. I looked it up and that's what
• 1:25:52
  Society just doesn't seem to grasp is I'm here to applaud the
• 1:26:00
  people that take the chance. Buddy has torn, all these people
• 1:26:04
  down, all these people that have failed, all these people who
• 1:26:08
  want to do something else, try again, try again, go get a job.
• 1:26:13
  What are you doing? You're not smart enough.
• 1:26:16
  You can do this. And so Society, just
• 1:26:18
  continuously tries to make us outcasts because you want to go
• 1:26:23
  and be better and do better. And if you can do it again and
• 1:26:28
  try and continue to try, you're going to hit it.
• 1:26:31
  But you've got to remember that. Unfortunately, we live in a
• 1:26:35
  world where Society is brainwashed us to ridiculing us.
• 1:26:41
  Instead Society should, in my opinion, should be opening the
• 1:26:46
  doors. Wow, look at this.
• 1:26:47
  Gasps look at him. Yeah, this guy's got the balls
• 1:26:50
  in the chops to do it. You know what, guidance, I can
• 1:26:54
  probably pick up the phone and call Oprah pick up the phone and
• 1:26:57
  call, right? Yeah, you know, whomever Jerry
• 1:27:02
  Bruckheimer, right? Well, the universe introduced me
• 1:27:04
  to him by the way, so that that also but right.
• 1:27:08
  But pick up the phone because let's change the narrative
• 1:27:12
  through nightmare success. Let's change the narrative
• 1:27:15
  through your guests when they speak.
• 1:27:17
  Week to start training people's minds to go know.
• 1:27:21
  This person has the ability to do what you're afraid to do and
• 1:27:24
  that's okay, but don't shun them.
• 1:27:26
  Right, open the door for them because they're the new leaders,
• 1:27:29
  they're the ones creating something and they're going to
• 1:27:32
  do it. And so, instead of becoming an
• 1:27:34
  employee of that, be part of their journey to, hey, I hope
• 1:27:38
  this guy opened that door. I don't have the balls to do it,
• 1:27:41
  but I at least made the phone call because I believe it's all
• 1:27:44
  and it not shut them down term down and prevent them from I'm
• 1:27:47
  going forward, you know? I think that's, I think we ought
• 1:27:51
  to in that there, because that's big, that's the purpose.
• 1:27:54
  That's the passion. The mission.
• 1:27:57
  Good stuff Michael. Hey, if anybody's looking for
• 1:28:00
  books out there, Michael, what's your book?
• 1:28:02
  Stay interminable terminal and it's a good.
• 1:28:11
  So, it's a great book. I've got a book.
• 1:28:15
  We got two authors here, trying to hock.
• 1:28:17
  Books nightmare success. Everybody, the Give me a review
• 1:28:23
  on Apple. I love those.
• 1:28:25
  You know, all the likes and other things.
• 1:28:28
  If you happy have anything you want to get to me on brick
• 1:28:30
  Cassie.com. Leave me a message as I used to
• 1:28:34
  say when I was writing back from Leavenworth, stay strong and
• 1:28:38
  I'll do the same, not a success in and out.
• 1:28:41
  Thank you, Michael Henderson. Thank you, sir.
• 1:28:44
  All right.