Latest / Story Scaling / Legacy, Leadership & the Long Game

Transcript

Legacy, Leadership & the Long Game · Story Scaling

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Story Scaling by PodcastVideoscom, where creators share the truth behind the content, the grind and the growth.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, boys and girls, I am Bang of PodcastVideoscom.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: This is Story Scaling, and I'm here with an obviously well-dressed good brother of mine, Stomper.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: It's your arm, strong man.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Nice to be here, Bang.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, brother.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Eddie, thanks for joining us.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Man, Work, work, work.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Usually I'm the one that got it on, okay, okay, and you caught me slipping today.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying You're repping beef a bang you got.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: you know it's all legit.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: You are in your skin.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: This is a good flow for this rainy several meetings and trying to get my nephew hopefully acclimated and interested in the university of august, so I want them all to be hogs.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Man, you said something profound off camera.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: You said this is just me.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: They said that's a special day.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: No, it's just you.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: No, yeah, this is definitely just me.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Uh, it was probably 10th grade, the 90s.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Tall tees, colors were real, sets were real, neighborhoods had their own colors and schemes.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Everybody that was clocking any kind of bread allegedly had a pair of J's, and we me and my buddies grew up in a neighborhood informing each other on our decisions.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Sure, grew up in the neighborhood informing each other on our decisions, sure, um, and then jefferson manor you know if you know from anything from north little rock, you know that I'm a north little rock guy.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: but my own boys and I just kind of made this decision that it started with a pair of sandals.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Nike came out with some sandals in the summer and we all copped the sandals.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: And then they came out with a canvas shoe and we copped the canvas shoes, we all boughtped the sandals.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: And then they came out with a canvas shoe and we copped the canvas shoes, we all bought them.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And then the older cats that were like two years older than us and we were maybe going to the eighth or ninth grade, said when we start school we're going to all start wearing Dockers Back in the day, khakis.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: But we got every color of Dockers or asked our parents to get them, and Levi's.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: And then we decided, if you can get one or two shirts on your christmas list, ask for like a heel figure or a polo, and and we weren't thinking nothing of it.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: But we really made this conscious choice to start dressing as they call preppy, with a belt, tucked in and clean.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: You can count on that consistency and for a minute everybody's like the pretty boys.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: But we were way in high school really no exposure to like college life and kappas and not the pretty boys that are accused at all.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: This was just a group of high school guys was like we not finna dress sagging, showing our drop because we kept hearing our mama say that.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: And then big clothes.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: We wore that for a while, but over time we started just to create and invent our own style and it stuck.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And then by the time we got to college, we were cutting our long sleeves off, you know, and wearing them before that became popular On your flannel long sleeve shirts.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: We cut them off in the summer and just started to get real fast as we fly, and it stuck.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: So, though it's not a big, huge closet, sure, I got the right pieces and I just let's go.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Love it, bro, I love it.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to dive way, way deep into the swag.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to dive deep into the swag, man, so I put a bio together.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: You obviously a man of many talents and, I'm sure, a lot of things.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: This will not encompass all of it, but I just need you to let me know.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Either bang you on the right track or, you know, throw this in, let's.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Let's add this yeah, man, it says.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Mr eddie armstrong is a dynamic leader, a seasoned public service servant excuse and passionate advocate for progressive change.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: A former Arkansas state legislator, armstrong has consistently worked at the intersection of policy equity and entrepreneurship.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: He is founder and CEO of Armstrong and Associates, a respected public affairs government relations firm based in Arkansas, where he helps clients navigate complex policy landscapes with integrity and strategic insight, and he recently launched the Strong with Armstrong podcast, a platform that brings together thought leaders, change makers and everyday people to share stories of resilience, empowerment and innovation.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: With roots in community organizing and a deep commitment to social justice, including work in the cannabis policy and business space, armstrong continues to shape conversations that matter in Arkansas and beyond Word.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's in a bucket, is that it?
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Are you pulling up for the J?
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: The words that stand out, though, because bios can get lengthy, sure, and accolades and awards can can become many, and accolades and awards can become many.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: But integrity, change agent, establishing something that is a brand and something sustainable, and longevity, sure.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: And at the front of all of that, maintaining a commitment to service.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: First, yeah, I'm a servant leader.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Through, with or without any money in my pocket, I'm going to serve, be it opening the door for somebody, helping an old lady get her bags Kids don't do that, no more, but I used to be the kid seeing a lady walk out with a couple bags.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: I'm going to help her get them bags to the car, open the door for her, put them bags in, help her get her stuff out the basket basket.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: So, in any and every way that it moves me not that I have to think about it to serve somebody, I'm gonna try to serve, and you know, whether serving them with fashion, because you just never know who's watching absolutely, or serving them through intellect and conversation, absolutely, that's what I aim to do is be service driven, and everybody can be great because everybody can serve.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: I love it, you know.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Saying that'm saying that was a.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Anybody can be great because everybody can serve.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: You know, shout out to the greatest of all, dr martin luther king.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: You know, um, but no, that that hits it in the head.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: And, and my bio isn't a makeup of all eddie armstrong, none of us get where we are.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I think we were chopping it up before we came on camera today and, uh, you're talking about your connections to the music label and your relationships, and, for now, my relationships, um, would I do something, be something, make something?
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, it's in me, not on me.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Sure, um, but the people definitely help shape and and maintain and and pour into me in a way that I have enough to pour out to other people.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Love it, the people that I keep around me, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I love it, man, whenever I'm asking people what stands out.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: You know that's the first question on the podcast, so you took it there already automatically.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: You know, you see that things like Integral and Changemaker yeah, who were some of those people for you coming up that you looked at and you said, man, I like how they carry themselves.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: It might not be what's popular, but I know they're going to do what's right.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: That bled over into the person that you are today, you know that's a melting pot.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: At this stage I mean I get the category because of the gray on my face, but you know I'm a young, 46.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but everybody calls me Unk now, or school or all that stuff, especially my people.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: But it's a melting pot of people, black, white.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: I believe in learning from younger people, young and old, seasoned veterans and young people that may be able to tell me or teach me something different, as young as my nine-year-old little boy, edison um, you know, to nephews and cousins, you know showing me things like it's still okay to be quiet sometimes and be a sponge, as opposed to always running and got it.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: And some of my young people teach me that.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: But the list is too long, with mentors, advisors, supporters, prayer warriors, lovers, people that I have had and do have a personality to be able to receive it, and not only to receive it.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: But you know, we have to always caution ourselves.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I think it was in a magazine I read one time that a multi-successful, billion-dollar company did reverse mentorships.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Reverse mentorships People in management and new phases of their jobs in this company were put in positions to mentor and advise the CEO and executives of the job.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Wow, that switched up, of course the executives and CEOs would lead the course, but they dialed back in to what this new crop was doing.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: And oftentimes we're on a course and we've got the you know investor relations division, the sales division, you know R&D division, and everybody's on their lane, on their jobs, and directors of HR and directors of these divisions, evps and SVPs, and those titles and those jobs become so demanding that we don't take a pause to humanize the workforce and say, all right, well, maybe let's do some learning exchange.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Right, maybe we're missing something.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Right, as we're talking about why we choose to do away with dei.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Or just let's say diversity, because it wasn't and it never has been, in my opinion, about race with diversity, because it's such a broad scale when you talk about religion, race age life situations, proximity, environment, uh, purposes, purpose, yeah, so it's a bigger thing.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: And, um, you know, I'm happy and I'm full, uh, most days because of the people that have helped shape me.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: It's a good pot of mentors.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: And then I'm always down and opening the game to pull another g over young yg and say, hey, man, let me tell you, I was just thinking this, take it if you want unsolicited advice.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: And then sometimes I say, before I open my mouth, um, tell me, if you want my advice, maybe you just call to park your situation with me and if you want my feedback I'll give it.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: But if not, I listened, we can keep it cool right there and keep it moving.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: So I'm learning that that's valuable, it adds value and those relationships stick.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: I am a relationship master.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I know what it takes to make the first introduction and keep a relationship for 50 years, if necessary 30 years.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: For as long as I've been on earth, I've had some relationships that just have lasted the test of time, because I love quality relationships.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Sure, you know whether you talk to him once a year or once a week.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, man, this is this dope, hearing you communicate.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I feel like when I speak, sometimes I go off on a tangent and I forget where I'm at, but you always dial it back, and so that's that's what I got to say on the mentor, and I think that's dope.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: It's a through line of intentionality and consistency there, for sure.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: You know, my partners in crime tell me I speak in hyperbole and I kind of got a little frazzled about that until I learned that in that is a sense of speaking direct Absolutely and my political chops oftentimes have you speak it broad.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: But then it's so important, especially for your constituents and your community folks and people in my church, my mama even, to bring that thing all the way back to Main Street Absolutely and say break that down so that I can understand it.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Help me see it through the nonpolitical lens or the non-corporate lens, because you get into acronyms and this and that and they're like long you lost, yeah, yeah.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: So you have to always, I think, especially if you have a gift to speak, be able to maybe speak abroad and then bring it back to a central place that people can tap in I think it's more difficult now.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I'm a writer, so I do music and all different types of things.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: But when I was growing up I used to think it was profound to be this eloquent speaker with all the words in your toolbox.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: One of my mom's favorite stories to tell is when I was 10.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I told her I run out of words.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Every word I know in my head I've used so like I need you to now give me new words that I could say, like I don't want to say I'm cold, I want to say it's frigid in here.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, and so she at that.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: But now I realize that the more simple you can make something a lot of times says more about how intelligent you are, because people always want to know.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: It don't matter if you're a CEO or a super educated person.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Break this down to me like I'm 10 years old.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Break this down like you're speaking to a six-year-old, and I think you do a good job of just communicating.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: You know to these maybe complex principles, did you?
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And so, and I think you do a good job of just communicating, you know this, maybe complex principles, yeah and uh, did you learn more words?
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Are you multilingual now.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: No, I mean at that time, for sure.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: And I took, I took some different languages in school, yeah, um, but now it's like man, I'll say what needs to be said and just keep it pushing whatever I need to to elevate the, the vernacular, I do, but uh, yeah, I try to keep it simple they're shortening it up too.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Speaking of the vernacular, my, my little man and I will eat words like suspect, or we used to say as bussing, as a term of saying that's dope or that's cool.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we might be out now.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: My little man might be like dad, that's sus that's or that's, but that's it like okay, I'm with it, that's it learning, so it's new language he got new words for sure.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, man, take me back to the young eddie.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: What I'm talking about.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: As far back as you can remember, um, what did you want to do?
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Did you see yourself then like you are now?
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Did you have any idea?
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Like, let's go back and let us in as much as you care to.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I know that's a big question.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: So people are going to see this all over the world, and especially my day ones.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: You know, my A1 day ones, no play ones, the guys that have been there, my classmates from sixth and seventh grade and I just you know I'd be remiss to say that you know, I was really touched and impacted at a young age to know that I had a gift and that gift was to help people.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: And then that transformed into me saying, well, if you want to help people, what are you going to be?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: You know, what are you going to do with that?
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Probably about the time I started to really smell myself and know that I had a gift and know I could do things and knew how to keep myself in alignment and had great support in my church and community.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Anybody that knows me knows and will tell you that the Eddie Armstrong you see sitting in front of you is the Eddie Armstrong, just an adult version of this young dreaming kid.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Anderson Paak has a great song called Dreamer, and every time I hear this one Shout out to.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Anderson Paak, that's the one I'm a product of the two.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Anyway, I've been a dreamer for a long period of time.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: A visionary, I've had dreams.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Dreamer for a long period of time, a visionary, I've had dreams, ideas, passions and desires, and they've always tended to center around how can I help my fellow man or woman?
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: And a huge, insatiable desire to be around and learn and get into stuff with people that weren't like me, that didn't look like me, maybe that didn't come where I came from, because I always had my base root.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I knew who my real A1s were guys and girls in my neighborhood that had my back, no matter what.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: So when I left off the porch in my own neighborhood, I just had a hunger and thirst to be over here and over there and in the art room and in the band room and in the drama department and out on the bed and before who practiced with my partners, that's, playing basketball, and I was everywhere.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, it was always driven by trying to be a part of what can change look like, and that is no matter.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Who's been in office or elected changed and just never stopped.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: So I soon say, man, the young kid in me was just dreaming yeah, there's a dream and having visions of what can I do and how can I be and who can I be and who can I help.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Sure, I tell people oftentimes when I'm giving speeches I got a real bad diagnosis of a case of the can't help it.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: It's just something in me.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Sometimes my phone rings If you come through, if you need it, and I got it, and sometimes if I don't to a fault, I'll try and find a way because I think it comes back.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: I not think I know it comes back way bigger than what I can even put my hands around.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: I am so blessed and full and rich, you know, beyond monetary rich because of what I've put in and what comes back, without me even looking for it, from people that I never know are watching, from my scholarships to get to college to my time in college.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: I never had a clue who was checking me out when I was doing community service in high school and junior high and brother pulled me over.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Blessing to Mr Wellington.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Won a home.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Won a scholarship 20,000,.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Front page of the newspaper first day of school, jet Magazine two weeks later, ebony Magazine a scholarship 20,000,.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Front page of the newspaper first day of school Jet Magazine.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Two weeks later, ebony Magazine a month out of the day.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: You.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Me traveling all over the country Oprah president, professional football, basketball.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: I was everywhere.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: And here at Fayetteville, flying out of old Drakeville, really the country as a freshman and sophomore here at the U of A and yeah, but it was all because of what?
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Somebody was peeping about this kid's really committed to helping other people.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: We're going to help him.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Let's go there.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: What?
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Take us there, Like how?
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I used to read the magazine.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, and so even just for a couple minutes.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: I touched on that man so and so, if even just for a couple of minutes, I came out of a time in the 90s when, you know, little Rock, arkansas, was the murder capital of the world per capita.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: More young people were being shot and or killed.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Statistics show today that between the ages of one and forty four, I think, or something like that you're bound to get killed or die.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: If you're black and growing up for me that was a big statistic you're either gonna go to jail, have a baby out of wedlock or die before you turned 18.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: And now the real statistics are.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: I graduated, I'm 46, so I made it and I and I.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: That gave me chill.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: So I was a little bit scared and I lost a friend early on, um kendall, who was murdered um one summer when mike tyson had a fight and we were all the way he was shot but he was the only guy in our neighborhood banging and he's the only real gangster we knew and um, he lost his life to banging and um.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: It was unfortunate, but sometimes the worst things can make the best things out of you, and some of my own boys, I think, with his death, took that on.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: It's like we're going to switch this thing up.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: I went on from there, adapted into helping people, community service.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: I was a kid in my Boys and Girls Club, big, big advocate and proponent of that, a man that went on to die.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Right after I won this national award, I was a national spokesperson for Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: It's a national year award you win and it's sponsored by Reader's Digest.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: So I went to DC, competed nationally for that one and when I came back to Little Rock Mr Wellington called because he's just a special kind of cat like that.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: The local police had a police escort cameras.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: When I got off the plane, like your life changed, like you went to a, I called like a miss america pageant or something.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: You come home, you're getting out of hometown.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Hero, love, absolutely so.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Cameras, lights, action.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: I fall right into it, love it.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: You know I had been boy state governor right before that, so I kind of got some aptitude to speaking, because even back in my church I was speaking but became Boys State Governor, went on, won that award.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Shout out to Hennon County, shout out, shout out to Boys.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: State Okay, we're in Boys Stateers Made me good but built on that Boys and Girls Club scholarship and when that happened they gave you $20,000 or you went a pot of money to go to college.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: But you are now the youth spokesperson and at the time I was the youth spokesperson for 2.8 million young people around the United States.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: It's grown tremendously.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I was the voice for young people.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Here's my story.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: There are many more like it, don't mind us this.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: There are many more like it, though mine is this there are several other kids from Opelika, florida, to Eudora or Helena West Helena, arkansas, that have similar or their own stories and my Boys and Girls Club was my safe haven for that and I maxed that story out.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: But I had already been given this gift to speak.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Sure, and it just perpetuated.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: So I was invited to New York.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Shaquille O'Neal was a big name in the league.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: He gave a million dollars to Boys and Girls Club near Rucker Park.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I was invited out to speak and present the check.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Jet Magazine was there.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I was in jet magazine the next week Wow, when I made it to college, my freshman year that, like I said, those first two weeks I was in the Arkansas traveler front page before I even knew anything about the?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: U of A announcing freshman wins $20,000 scholarship and has a picture of me with you something at the airport.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: So how are you handling all of this?
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Are you to type of person that the attention is too much, it's overwhelming?
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Are you taking it on like you?
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: You know I made some of the steps.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I didn't know it's like I liken it to my YGs and my nephew and others with NIL.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Once you get something that you hadn't had if you hadn't been trained on how to deal with it, it can be a little different, and my mom was the type of mother that she gave me all she could and when she couldn't give no more, she was like you got it from here.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: So she dropped me off and her words were really simple, like okay, excuse me to your listeners, but don't fuck this up.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: This is what you got to do.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: You know what to do.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: I've trained you.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: I've given you all I can give you.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Go and make good on it.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: You've got scholarship, you've got a job, you've got a dorm room.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Make me and yourself proud.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Ego is a real thing, sure?
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Um, as a man now, knowing and looking back, all of that can kind of get a little bit flighty.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: But then I had homeboys that were playing basketball and big stars on campus, so I was around other big names and I was nothing.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: And then I had some real homeboys that had pledged on megan other things, and they were pulling me to the side and saying hey, man, just step light, but be you, you know, stay true to who you are.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: The environment is one.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: At the time when it was 90 plus percent white versus black, you know, on campus probably 18,000 students at the time, we're at like 30,000 now, 28,000 at the U of A campus, and so I had to really learn how to navigate that with a true place of authenticity.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: And once I tapped into that it was on, yeah, and that propelled me.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: But yeah, freshman year you come in, yeah, and you know.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: And then you might get a wink and a smile from this girl or that thing or this thing and that's fool's gold and a distraction.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: But I had to learn my hard lessons, absolutely, and I did and got scared out of my shorts.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: I almost lost my scholarships and disappointed my mom, but again, great people kept me locked in.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: I dialed in even deeper and by the time I became a senior in 2000, I was the second black president of the University of Arkansas in the school's history.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, since 1972, when the first one was elected, gene McKissick, and I got a chance to be blessed to see him yesterday.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: He was the first black, wow, I got a chance to holler at him when I was my time to run and he gave me some real jewels and one of them would be authentic.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Stay true to self, mix and be with everybody.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: It's not enough that you carry your skin, it's yours.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: We know you're black, but there are other people and you need to know them all and they need to know that they know you.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: And it worked like a jewel that, along with you, know my white Greek friends and my black Greek friends and all of the other non-Greek athletes.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: So, really, college became at that point, by the time I was a senior a way of life.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Sure, we knew how to have fun, but we also knew how to take care of business.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: And I take care of business now.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: So I live by three F's and I take care of business now, so I live by three F's.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: When I used to give my Boys and Girls Cup speech and U of A orientation speeches, I made straight F's at one point because my mom and dad had split and I'm dealing with my own issues, I'm not paying attention in class and up and down and getting in what they call trouble, but I made straight F's and I wasn't proud of it.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: But out of that I adopted a three F rule and I tell people all the time.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: It's so important that you have fun in this life.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: No matter what you do, you wake up.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: It can be the worst day.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Rent due thing is crazy.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Something try to imagine, think of something, try to have an ounce of fun, and people say I'm too serious sometimes, but I know I have some good fun.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: So have fun, stay focused and finish whatever you set your mind out to start.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: If you start something, finish it.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: If it's just taking the trash out and you're going to commit to it for a week, if you want to get a sweet job shot, work on it, but finish the task.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: There's something to be said about non-finishers.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: You.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: It's important that you have some fun along the way, though, because this life isn't meant to be so serious.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: So you got to have fun, stay focused and finish, and that's what I try to do every day, man.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Man, you're dropping some gems on us.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Word, you're dropping some gems on us, it's just a life well lived.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Lots of stuff coming my way, man, anything I can give.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's a gift because I'm going to get it back, like I said, in a true return.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I like seeing this position.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: You're in Bang.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: It's an inspiration to my nephew and others as we ride around northwest Arkansas.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: You come up here with one perception and one state of mind.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: When we came it was like be careful, absolutely.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: But now this world has opened up even more.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: It's global, it's California, it's New York, it's Chicago, it's Texas and it's Arkansas, absolutely Right here in the heartland, and it deserves its look, as people are coming in here to first understand that when you come to the heartland and you come to the South and you come to Arkansas especially, what makes us strong?
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: The reason I created this podcast is because I know from all of my travels that our people are our strongest asset.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: We got some real, genuine good folks here across the board and if we can see people as opposed to race and opposed to power and dominance and Arkansans tend to do that pretty lightly and easily you can meet a stranger and say hey, how you doing, everybody ain't like that.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: You can walk certain places, speak to somebody in another city and they hear you and won't speak.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've been all over the world.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: You've seen a lot of different cultures where it's not the same.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Oh no, and our people are bar none, one of, I think, our greatest assets and, of course course, our environment, our way of life, quality of life, it's.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: It's still, in some ways, a big rule.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Three million people state totally, you know, you got the capital city, you got northwest arkansas.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Now northeast arkansas is booming, but most of this place is rule and rich with good, solid folk you know, fort smith booming now, but, um, yeah, that's, that's the, that's the formula, man, I think, um, our people are our greatest assets and, uh, when I see people like you doing what you're doing and this invitation is grand, um, you know, one of the questions chris asked me is why do we start stronger with armstrong podcast that's in front of a live studio audience where you jump?
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: in this conversation I feel almost divine, because I feel like no, it's perfect.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I'm not doing much work.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: This is really your podcast.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: It might be like Jesus take the wheel, he take the wheel.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: It's just rolling, literally.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: My next question was let's jump into the pod.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Before I say that, though, is there an intention in the three Fs, you have fun first.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Is it a reason why you said have fun, focus, finish what you start.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: You know I never had that question asked but I probably lay it on my mom's lap.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: You know my mom is the oldest of her siblings, ain't siblings?
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Aunt Diane is what my cousins call her.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Her name is Jackie, but when she now that I'm raising a little boy, when she was raising my sister and I and then helped raise my cousins, it was just all hands on.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: Most people when they see my mom, miss Armstrong, miss A as my homeboys call her, they say Miss A, don't play.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: She was just devout and very serious about how we were raised.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: She was one of them women, that's right.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: And I seen her laugh and have a good time with her girlfriends, maybe on a Sunday here and there, but it wasn't a we going out tonight, y'all be good.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: She wasn't going to dance going.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: We going out tonight, y'all be good.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: She wasn't going to dance, you know, going to a social event, none of that.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: And I think growing up watching her take this thing so serious to raise us to the best of her ability and get us off to a good start as young adults and people, I had to take my Aunt Velma, who was the fun auntie, and my Aunt Molly, who was the super fun.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: Auntie, shout out, aunt Mo, they just made life fun.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Fourth of July, holidays my Aunt Velma, full stop.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: She doing everything for everybody she could because she wanted us to all have a good time.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Aunt Molly, going to give you a good laugh and have some good times with you.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: So I look at those ladies in that time, when there wasn't a lot of men formulating it for me and my cousins sure, boys and we had uncles and stuff like that but we were primarily raised by the women my memo, my mom, my aunties, uh, and especially my mom, because that's who I spent the most time with.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: I was like you know what, with all this thinking she's making me do?
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Because she just demanded that if you do nothing else in this life, you're going to be a great thinker.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: You're going to think, think about your decisions, think about your right and wrong.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Some of my greatest punishments as a kid was to go in my room and think about it and I was like, damn, this is weak.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: You know, just give me a spanking.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you'd rather get the woodman.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: But now I think about it as an older man and I think about brothers that maybe did do stupid things and had to go sit down for a bit, and that time that it took them to sit in there and think about what they had done, to come out a different person, sure, or a pastor, or a CEO or a tech guy on a Coldplay concert.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: You got to think about that.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Make sure you're having fun.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: So I just took it on myself that I'll be dang if I go through this life and not make it worth living by having some fun first out the gate.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: So when I wake up, fun to me.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: 2.5 miles on the elliptical, because I know my spirit's going be jamming.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I might get a good workout in.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Fun to me might be sitting in my floor, getting my yoga and meditation in at first and getting out of there and turning on some larry june in the car just to vibe out on my way to the crib.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: That's fun to me.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Um, locking in on a group text of my own boys and joking Fun.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Now we can go to a whole other level Right Parties, dancing like we used to good times, live music, a vibe I'm there too, you coming to the show tonight, right Bar.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: No, you got to be there I ain't seen a lot of music since I've been here.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: You got to be there.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: You got to be there.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Get my people with me.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to, yeah, and I love that my family's here with me because he gets to see a little bit of Northwest Arkansas, fayetteville, through my lens.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: And if I could bless kids with that, I feel like you know I'd do that for all of them.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: I could, especially young black boys.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Just give them this view.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: You don't have to choose it.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: You may go to any other school, but now you know that this world exists, it's wide open and we have it our way too.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: It's not what you think, and you can have some fun with it.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, first and foremost, make it fun If it's in your prayer life, your spiritual life, your health life, your physical life, your work life.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: Don't be a slave to your work.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Find some fun in that, your 15 minute break or your hour-long lunch, so that your life doesn't become so mundane with just doing the everyday, same old ordinary.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: You gotta have some fun.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, you gotta look at the problems of your life and say that's today.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Tomorrow might be something completely different, and if it's not, i'ma change that and do something that at least helps me forget that, and it has to be.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Doesn't have to be no substance abuse or none of that.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: It just may be something cool with getting on the phone and laughing with my homeboys or home girl.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, to make it worth living, they say.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: If you I think jimmy valvano said if you love, laugh and cry in the same day, you've lived a full life.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: I agree For something of that nature.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, fun's got to be there.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: And then the lock in on focus just comes from thinking you know, don't get too lost in the sauce.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: You know, no matter where you are, who you with, what you're doing, there's a level of fun that you need to be mature enough to say, all right, who's around me, that's real.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: What we got going on, that's real, it's popping in here.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: But you know, if you're with your lady, it's about time for us to leave with you, with your people.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Let's make our move now so that you never get yourself too caught into the action.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: We've seen, unfortunately, what getting too caught in the action can do, and you know you hate it or love it.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: For the brother diddy, too much fun can take you to places sometimes.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: That's right and that focus is also critically important.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: You know, my first vote though being raised around him, having him at my church, knowing him through the community was President Bill Clinton.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: I wasn't able to vote.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: I was in high school so I wasn't able to cast my first vote until I was 18 and in college.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: But I watched Bill Clinton grow up in Arkansas to become president from grade school to when he won in 92.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Hmm, and with all of that, all that greatness, an amazing connector, an amazing legal mind.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: You know the truth.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: You know so I'm calling the first black president.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: For a while before we got our brother Obama in there, but it got him to a place where maybe that and too much fun took him to something that I often tell young people Don't let your character don't take it, let you excuse me.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: Don't allow for your talents and actions to take you places that your character can't keep you.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: So you can be talented, you can put all that work in and have all the actions, but if your character ain't buttoned up, diddy anybody in this world I don't, I'm not saying that brother's character isn't buttoned up.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: You have to have that focus in there to check your own character and know when enough is enough.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: So if you allow for your fun to get you to a place you know, with your talents and actions, that your character can't sustain you, you're you're shipwreck waiting to happen.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: You gotta have a self-check barometer.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: You gotta have a temperature gauge, just in my opinion.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's talk about it, my last name, armstrong, is a very valued and vibrant name.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: Our roots are strong in Arkansas, coming out of all-time Arkansas, my great-great-grandfather, uriah Armstrong, and then my grandfather and, excuse me, lewis no, uriah is my great great Lewis and then the children.
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: Then my grandfather was Eddie Armstrong senior and then my dad, eddie Armstrong junior.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Me and I was driving down Interstate 30 a few years ago and I think one of the banks had a sign out on the interstate and a billboard that said Arkenstrong and it was a play on it and I was like that's close to my name, hold on, let me grab this.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: And I had no desire to be a part of the social media world anymore.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: I had taken some losses that really impacted me and one of those losses a part of the feedback you get when you're on social media is people vicariously don't want to live through you or try and tear you down because you're posting too much.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: You know it's a double whammy.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: That Internet don't lose either.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: It's a million.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: No, they don't get you.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: So when I peeled off of the Internet and social media, I was like I ain't doing it no more.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: And I got this child that's on YouTube and I'm monitoring and parental guides and I was like, just, you know no.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: And my staff and team really came to me and said you really should think about this, your access and relationships and what you've worked for over the last 25 years.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: I tell people I'm a 25 year overnight success.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: It's taken me 25 years and I'm still churning, but those relationships, in Arkansas specifically, were rich and I thought I want to tell stories about Arkansans from the mud, as we call it Absolutely Extraordinary and ordinary people exemplifying strength, not glorifying resilience, but showing resilience.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we like and maybe too often we like the story of pulling it up by the bootstraps as opposed to everybody having it.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: One of my organizations I represent Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and Alice has a platform there.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Asset Limited, income Constrained Families of Arkansas, also known as the working class poor in the old days.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: But these are people with two or three jobs still not making enough to get by and I thought you know we got to go tell stories about not glorifying resilience, but showing it straight up right now, absolutely.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: So we set out.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: I got some ideas from my staff and team smarter people than me than me, internet connected and savvy as far as disney, spotify started, tech companies, new things and they locked me in and said you should think about it.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: I said no.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Edison said you gotta do it, daddy, you're gonna go viral like case denied.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: It's like who is that how you show speed?
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: It's like man.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: And so he shows me these kids and he said don't forget to tell people to like and subscribe.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: You know, because he's always be sure to subscribe to my channel on youtube.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Keep but it's a real close.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: He knows him, he in it, and so I went back to my team, I was like yo, let's go for it and this is what we're going to call it stronger with our strong.
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: I think we should set out a path to meet as many people where they are, in their neighborhoods, at their offices, in their pulpits, in the hood, at the bank, on the corner, wherever we can find them.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: We're going to go see them and we're going to have a great conversation, dialogue, talking about their personal life, their professional lives and what makes them stronger, what makes their community stronger, what makes our stay stronger, or the latter, and it's really been one of the easiest things I've done doesn't even feel like work.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: I'm following instructions really well.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: They tell me what not to worry about.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: I was just gonna jump off the porch with my phone, yeah, and a little DJ camera, and they were like you can't do that.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: We're going to button this up in a way to where it is professionally cut.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: We got all of that.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: You just be Eddie Armstrong.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: And then they came with the concept and asked me what I thought about launching it, as we were visiting off camera before a live studio audience, and I was like why you?
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: know all the podcasts, let's see a one on one.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: We're having conversations and I thought about that some more and it goes back to your earlier questions of who I am.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: I'm a servant leader and I believe in sharing what I've got and I think my access to these relationships are gifts to me and if I can call on these people and they can offer me insight, information that we normally talk about, but I ain't talking to the other 10 percent I mean 90 percent, it's only my 10 percent bubble, that's like let's just turn the camera on and start having these conversations.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: So we took this approach of a live studio audience to invite people in, to share politicians with them, business leaders with them, and that's where we started.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: We're hoping to scale that up.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: You know, no play on story scaling, but we're looking to scale that up, absolutely, go wherever people are.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: So you know people ask me so, how's your podcast going?
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: And I was.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: I'm just like you know it's.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: It's really beautiful because it's not work absolutely and I'm not overthinking it Do I take the time to do my research, as you've done, know who I'm speaking to?
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: And in my first interview my mom said I could tell you were nervous, but the thing I'm most proud of is you did your homework and I was like word.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: If that's what this is about, my intentions are to continue to share information.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: It wasn't about going viral.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: It is primarily right now to do something organic off the ground.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: Should somebody find us or be watching it and say we want to lock in with him, let's collaborate.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: I'm looking for collaborating opportunities and great pods across the country, and especially in Arkansas, to start having these conversations cultural conversations, food conversations, clothing conversations, professional conversations, financial conversations, access to new jobs and industry conversations.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Where's the future going conversation.
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: I want them all and the only way I think that I can get those conversations and receive them is if I'm a pipeline of sharing them with other people.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and um, every call I've made I've not gotten to know.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know people are like either I'll think about it or yes, absolutely, and it just comes from a great place of having great, established relationships.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: So I'm taking advantage of my gifts from friends and relationships I have and I'm sharing those gifts, which is why we launched stronger with armstrong and um.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: I hope it goes well, but in my opinion it's gone great already.
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: My biggest joy was the first night we popped out um, we put it on the big screen at the house and edison had the opportunity to be with me this week.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: That weekend we watched a little bit of it and all he wanted to know was how many subscribers I had.
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I said so.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: We got 10 subscribers and he danced and jumped all over that living room.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: It was like yes, yeah, and to see this child's joy over 10 subscribers gave me all the indication that I needed, that I was doing the right thing, because he, while he, may be on it for the subscribers there's no different than Ebony or Essence Magazine coming out to give people something that they otherwise were not getting, and the subscribership went up.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: Of course, that's a vehicle and they're selling it.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: I got a real job, sure, and I enjoy my job in government relations and representing the clients and companies that I represent, but this is now a passion project, absolutely A fun project, to be honest with you.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: You know you might see me in September at a boots on the ground competition.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Arkansas State U of A game we're playing down in Little Rock, and you know I'm up here and all the buzz on it.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: But we intend to have, you know, the welcome mat out for my friends that are coming from Northwest Arkansas or Northeast Arkansas for that game in Little Rock, and then UAPB and UCA are playing right up the road.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: So Central Arkansas is going to be a bonus.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a bonus.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: I can't let people come down there and not have the welcome mat.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be a bonus.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: We're going to pot it out.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: We're going to party it out.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: We're going to party it out.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: We're going to do it with a purpose.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: We're going to help some people along the way.
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: That's what Stronger with Armstrong is all about Highlighting that and sharing my gifts with other people.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: I love it, man.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: There's been a through line in your story of boldness, of connecting and of helping you go back to when you was in the sixth grade on that, even calling the homies and saying like, okay, this is how we come, and you know what I'm saying.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Like that's a connection aspect.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: And then you go into your journey, you go to school and and now you are representing the boys and girls club of america and then up to now, even the podcast in and of itself is sharing.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: First of all, it's highlighting people whose stories might not always be championed, and then it it's sharing that information with the people like me or like Colin, or people who need to see it and be like man.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: I can see myself represented in that person.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: So, man, just giving you your flowers and saying kudos for that.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: And what would you say to that person out there that wants to do something similar, that wants to either start a podcast, that wants to either start a podcast that's afraid to put themselves out there on Instagram because of the comment section, that don't want to do TikTok because they don't know how it's going to be received?
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: What would you say to that person, that creator?
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: You know, with technology today, what I've learned is just not to overthink it, and that's easier said than done.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Let me be real with you.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: For Edison, 10 subscribers is legit.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: I called my producer a week ago and I said how does south memphis hype man have 65 000 likes and followers in less than two weeks?
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: And?
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: And he said, if that's what you want to do, we can flip the script and go that route.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: You can just go out here with your phone and do.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: He said if that's what you want to do, we can flip the script and go that route.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: You can just go out here with your phone and do that and be that authentic and organic, and that page will turn too.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: Or we can stay true to the mission and keeping the main thing, the main thing, which is who you are, and the rest will follow, and that is what I've been on now is like okay, distractions block them out, stay in my lane, stay doing what I'm doing, doing it with purpose.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: Stay and got it.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: So I tell young people or people out there, creatives, especially number one, don't overthink it.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: Uh, number two, you gotta write it down and make it clear.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: See your vision.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: They gave me an idea.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: I went home, I put pen to paper, I put stronger with armstrong on that paper because it came to me what do we want to talk about everything?
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: Why do we want to talk about it?
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Information and access.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: So these things I wrote down and now you've got the spirit of ai and chat.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: So if you've got the mindset to think through it, line it up, sit it down, look at it and then start to roll through it without all of the distractions.
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: We are in an age of hyper-distraction.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: Today's news is Epstein.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: Two weeks ago, was the border or the Coldplay concert A distraction?
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: There are real issues and real problems and real opportunities going on in our country and in our state that we're oftentimes too distracted by the scroll of the thumb, and so I just encourage young people to do that.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: I would be lying if I said fear doesn't exist, but I don't see it as fear, and so I would tell young creators out there or young people trying to come through this life, to let your fear become a part of your fuel.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: It's a liken to me going to speak in front of 20,000 people.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: Am I nervous, absolutely?
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Or 10 people.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: My assistant, erica, says Mr Armstrong, you know, you got it.
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: You've been talking since you've just got there.
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: Say it, but in my gut I'm nervous.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, with the notes, I'm nervous here.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: The lights are on.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: I hope this lands and measures, but there's still a nervousness there.
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: But I've learned, and I'd encourage you all to learn, to allow for maybe your fear to be your fuel.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: Let those things that maybe tap you on the shoulder and say no way, you can't do it to be dominated by your other shoulder saying you got it, you're prepared, you're there.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: You could just show up and say 10 words, but you did that, you finished that and, um, whether stronger with arm, strong goes 50 episodes or we cut it off tomorrow.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: I did it and I'm proud of it and I intend to finish it and finish it right, but I started that and I and I would encourage young people to do that, and I'm not the tech guy.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't tell you.
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: I had to ask them who's going to administer this, because I got these pages set up.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: But now how you boost the likes?
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: And is it on linkedin?
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: And the story or the reels on instagram aren't the same on facebook.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: That ain't my lane, yeah, and I want to be clear about that.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: So if you're out there and you're a creator, own your lane, know your lane, stay authentic and true to your lane, don't be afraid to ask others for support.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: Don't be afraid to peep other people's podcasts.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: I did my homework, watched a lot of them still do listen to a lot of them and I picked out the things that I wanted.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: Very similar to your question about the leaders and mentors I had.
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: Everybody wasn't the greatest mentor or leader.
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: Many of them were people that I was watching for things that I didn't want to do Mayors, governors, heads of state, preachers, teachers.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: I liked them.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Maybe it was how they dressed, maybe it was how they talked, maybe it was something they did.
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: But then I also watched them and took notes on when it's my turn.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: If I should ever have a turn, I'm not going to do that that way.
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: So it was a collection of good mentors for both reasons, not just people that was calling to put a dollar in my pocket or calling to give me advice.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: It was some people that were acting out and I was like, no, I'm not going to flow that way, and so that's how I move, and I think people would be like you know well, you're an amazing leader and one of my great OGs and mentors said I'm only a leader because I'm a servant first.
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: To be able to serve puts all that other stuff in its own category.
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: I don't need a title to serve, I don't need a major salary to serve, to serve I don't need a major salary to serve.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: But out of that service man, like I said, I'm extremely rich and I'm stronger because of it.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: You know, and I hope that you know, story scaling becomes stronger and we collaborate.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: And now that I know bang you as a man and having some north side roots shout out to court chronicles and all my guys out there on the north side that will see this, they were inspirations to me.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: You know, guys that I hung out with and grew up with, they started their pod and I was like you know what?
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna do this now I really came into it.
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: So who I am is who I am and if you really know me, you're like, yeah, that's legit, that's really who this guy is and I don't get too high on it and I don't get too below it neither anymore.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: You know, life has taught me to try and stay right there authentic, consistent, true to dying on self at all times.
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, I'm standing on black and trying to encourage young black boys and young black girls to see themselves through a person like myself.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: Because when I was a kid, I was told that I was going to die, I was going to go to prison, I was going to have a baby Not that I had a chance to be married, not that I had a chance to be a CEO or a doctor.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: Statistics show this is where you're going to be a ceo or a doctor.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: Statistics show this is where you're going to be.
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: And right outside my door in little rock, arkansas at the time, more young brothers were dying or going to prison or having babies than I could count and that, for me, said, all right, I got a mission and so if I can show other young people and my relationship circle is the rainbow of the world.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: But on principle, I don't have to go out and scream that I'm black or African-American or any of that.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: I'm living comfortably within myself and authentically me and hopefully becoming a better example every day for my son and for my nieces and nephews and cousins that hey, you can do this you can be this and I'm not too flashy, I drive and I do this, but I'm, you know, growing up like you used to grow up, seeing your uncles with the big caddy, absolutely.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: You know the dookie gold chains and the things.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: If you got a chance to see somebody like that, that was amazing to you.
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: And now I feel like it's my turn and if I'm out here, I want them to see me and be like oh, that's a whole different version.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know about.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: I didn't think I could be that kind of guy or that kind of girl that you know.
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: If you can just show them a little bit, you know you don't have to force their hand.
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: Young people ain't taking it like that.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: No right, they're thinking too fast and clearly you can get google to tell you did.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: Did he say that, right?
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just trying to live it.
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: You know less of what I say and more I live.
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: That's it Great.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Eddie, thank you for your time.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: Thank you, man.
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: This has been a great, great opportunity.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: I consider Northwest Arkansas a place that I want to be here.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: Correct, correct.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: It's a part of the fabric that made me.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: I came from North Little Rock at 17, 18, and this was my first home out of my mom's house and it did something to me in a lot of ways and now I've seen it grow to this metropolis and I know they're on a mission to recruit and attract and retain people from all over the world Now, not just at the university but for these corporations too.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and if I can be a statesman and an ambassador and plug into Northwest Arkansas and have a piece up here and have a piece down there and do it for the right cause and reason, I want to be here, not just cheering for the Hogs on Saturday or my boys on the hardwood on Tuesdays and Fridays and Saturdays with Coach Kyle.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: I want to be a part of the business and the local community, because people that were here before I got here, the Don Friesens and Cole Petersons OGs that were here making marks before I got here, lay some good cornerstone and so I'm going to be in the state.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: Why not?
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir, you know why not.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: Then we'll have you back.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: If you, if you'd be willing to come back 100 percent.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: If we can chop it up like this anytime and, you know, get into what real scalability looks like.
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, let's recap, revisit where Stronger With Armstrong is as a podcast, or how my company is doing Armstrong and Associates and what it's doing.
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and what special projects we have going on out there.
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and what y'all are doing is kind of low-key secret sometimes the only thing most of what we hear done in Central Arkansas Megan Thee Stallion and Clay Thompson was in the what.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: Or Babyface is performing or Rick Ross is doing Ball Thugs and you get these shows and life is beautiful.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: It's like, huh, they doing something.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: Just come see.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just come see.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it, and you know the Waltons shout out to them.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: They could have done this anywhere else in the world.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: But you know for her to say that she wanted to create Crystal Bridges and envision Bentonville and Crystal Bridges being the Central Park of the Middle America.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: You know and I know what wealth on Fifth Avenue, across the street from Central Park, looks like and the Waltons could have easily packed up and been right across and maybe got a crib up there on 63rd and 5th, but they're right here and the grandson's right here and they spinning it right here and they spinning it in East Arkansas.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: They spreading their stuff out, and you know, we got to appreciate that and then carry it out a little bit more, break down some more barriers so that it can look like the rest of the world, you know, and not based off a party affiliation or what president is in office.
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: If you want to work, earn a good living, get a good education, raise your kids in a safe environment, live within your means that you can afford and have a decent way of life, Arkansas is a great place to be in.
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: Northwest Arkansas, I think, is one of the front runners right now for showing the rest of the state how that can be done.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: But it's because of the investments that are being made from the Waltons and the Tysons and the Hunts and the people that are up in this rich pot.
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: Up in this rich pot.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: I hope other proportions of the state start to capitalize on taking advantage of how can we build it, brand it and show others how to do that too.
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Eddie, I appreciate you.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: Till next time.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: Boss man, that's perfect, that's perfect, bro, that's perfect, that's perfect.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: These conversations, they be fire.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: That's perfect, that's perfect, these conversations, they be fire man man.
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: These conversations I come away from every one.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, and make it worth it.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you and make it worth it.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: I enjoy getting stories.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: That's why story scaling, because, as much as I like to be an avid reader, that's a muscle I got to flex.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: But this is my version of reading.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: I'm downloading information.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: This is just like a documentary.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: I'm learning about you, and then it's an edifying conversation as well.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: It's not draining, it's life-giving.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: I'm finna go to soundcheck, you know what?
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: I'm saying, I'm doing it.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Legit.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: So, man, I appreciate you stopping by, and anytime you want to.
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: What's it like Door and any.
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: Anytime I'm going to stay here.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: Is it a door, a gate?
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: none of that.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: It's free.