BIG FACTS feat. INKY JOHNSON

to it. Yeah, you know, I'm still happy. But today I'll be happier back because we're gonna get some motivations. Houts to Ikey Johnson. If you're not familiar with Ikey Johnson, you know what I'm saying. Very captivated story, a real story. He gonna give us some motivation. Is some game today. So I'm excited about that. Pressure on that chill you Yeah,

pressure on that little good ahead. After you tell you ship you got, we got to talk about uh surreal ship because this this is ship that be happening for everybody right. Oh what do you do when you feel like quitting? You know what I'm saying when ship ain't going your way. The obstacles, the obstacles got you down. You know what I'm saying, Like what are you doing? And to be completely transparent, you know what I'm saying,

It's great and as blessed as everything can be. Yeah, I'll be having some dash still have some days like like but like for I started off, like for like for me, when I'm when I'm down or like when I'm just not feeling it or I'm just like low, I have to like I have to get out of I have to go outside. I have to get some fresh air. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, Because it's like if I'm sitting in the house or I'm sitting somewhere or whatever, it's gonna just it's gonna stay on me.

So I gotta get out, Go take a walk, you know, go swim, you know what I'm saying, anything to like shake that ship off and like get it off me and kind of just clear my mind a little bit because if I don't, then like my energy is gonna be sucked up for however long until I get it off of me. And like with me, like when my energy be fucked up and ship, I try to stay

away from people. Anything could happen when my energy is sucked up, and I don't want to be responsible for offending somebody or hurting somebody's feelings, or cursing somebody out, or punching somebody or anything. You know what I'm saying. And it wasn't warranted. You see what I'm saying is because I'm already in a fun up mood and y'all just ended up catching it. You see what I'm saying, So get it. You know what I'm saying. The first

thing I do is pray. I got to start praying if it ain't going right out of Yeah, that's a friend, a lot of meditating, a lot of being to myself, like you say, because I don't want to suck up. It always seems like sometimes when when you when you haven't sometimes like when you're having that I'm a quit day or that fucked up day, that somebody else day might be going good. She don't want to be mad

at him because they ship going good. It's just like, yeah, like I don't know, hate every happy for you, like just the day ain't yeah, yeah, let me just let me just let me just stay over here until tomorrow. Yeah, I can't. I don't want to, you know. I think that's a beautiful thing. Though maybe in our space you got to speak to bank, but like it would be a day for me. It don't never be like dumpty.

They don't never what we're talking about. When you feel like when you feel like quit, when you had that fucked up day, when you like fuck everything, one of them days that could be having you happy to day I'm happy. Well, I'm thinking about Quinn too. I'm just a sad day for me. Man. I just every day I wake up, I want to do something different. Man,

This ship just I guess that's what it is. Only one But how do you like, how do you shake out of it or shake it off when you're having one of those days like I just got damn smoke blood back with a day, man, take the pain away, real ship. You can smoke that ship away. Bro, We like got some men to make it to be like you can see that another way. That's the way to look at it. For me, I don't know what for other people like it should I be smoking. I'm gonna

tell you what the therapist told me. I do therapy and all that ship I started a gratitude general ship changed my life because you start writing down all the ship that's going, right, I don't like my hand right. I can't even read that ship when I got there. When I write the ship down, I can't he ever, Like what the fun they was this v y'all I'm probably doing on my phone. Probably No. I'm just saying that I get in the spirit of gratitude. You ain't

gotten to write it down, but you can. You can sit there and look at them two or threefold things that's fucked up that day of that week. But if you start to think about, damn, I can walk, I'm healthy,

I got food. Yeah, But you know another thing to like you're saying, like, when you like have some ship that you're upset about or depressed about or down about, and it's fucked up for you, another way to like kind of offset the ship is when you take that one thing that you are down about, think about three things that you're grateful for or three positive things, and

focus on those. And then I'm not saying that you'll forget about what you're down about, but it will kind of help even it out to bring your spirit back up. Like I'm gonna smoke. Yeah. Man, One thing about it, man, ship just you just gotta pray for the best, man prepare for the worst. I think I think you know, kind of the purpose of this is to let our supporters and everybody know, like you know, go through ship too. You know what I'm saying. Bunch of right, everybody go

through ship. Yeah, but it's you can't let that ship consume you, man, definitely not, but for real because if you focus, if you Another thing that I've learned too is that if you continuously focused on the negative as opposed to the positive, then you block your blessings because God feels like you're ungrateful for what you already have

what allegedly allegedly who told you that? Okay told me that it ain't nothing more than Hey, what you perceive and what you think about and what's what's in that brain A lot can become a reality. You know what I'm saying. I think we kind of spoke up a thought up. It's all about me festation and infestations there is, you know what I'm saying. So you gotta just kind of be on that ship and then it's gonna be

It's different energies around here. You know what I'm saying, You gotta fight them when you gotta rebuke them, keep them away. You know what I'm saying. It's definitely you just know ship happened to like ship happens. Yeah, what I'm saying it do be some people that be when when you talk to some people though they do be having I guess you say a stream of bad luck like I'm talking about nigga's like that. You gotta stay

away from niggas like that, the unlucky. You gotta stay the farthest away from them because that ship can run. You gotta be aware of help for help my life just it ain't going right what you're thinking. No, but listening if everybody I might know for real listening. But I might not get too close to him, but want to be with him every day. But I always tell niggas like, bro, have you evaluated some might not be right in here? You know what I'm saying, like evaluate

that ship. Yeah, I just I just talk about this on my Instagram the other day, Like I'm the like I'm the friend that we might not talk every day, we might not talk a whole lot, but if you need me, I'm most definitely pulling up. And it's people that I don't funk with anymore, even though I don't funk with them, like I'm still gonna, like you said,

answer the phone for them. But people, but the people that I don't funk with either I don't funk with them because they crossed me, or don't funk with them because they just got some funked up ship going on. And I don't want that ship to like spill over into my ship. Like we're talking about the unlucky people, but it's like at the end of the day, it's like you can help them, but you can only help them so much because it's like why the fund do

you keep needing help? You have to evaluate like what's going on and why you keep being unlucky, and you gotta stop pulling people into your ship, like yeah, like that's crazy enough is enough? Sometimes right a wrong? You even got cash talking, she'll never talk. Big ain't helping your situation, nig you don't. But but but you gotta evaluate that ship. I'm telling you gotta evaluate that ship like somebody will be fucked up and blame everybody else.

You know what I'm saying. You can't do that you gotta look inward. What did I do to get into ship? Yeah, exactly, he can't keep it real. He ain't come show me no love anyway. Did you show yourself love? That's what you gotta ask these niggas like are you showing yourself love? And nigga can't want more for you than what you want for yourself, just like they said, was that not poetic justice? What was that movie? Um Jason's leard you can't save a nigga don't want to be saved like

like you can't like it's impossible. More. The story is if you feel like quit, get high right, everything throw you up shot a lot. I don't know. I don't know what worked for everybody else because you know what I'm saying, they might smoked the wrong ship. Yeah from me, I just except everything they come with this ship, taking

everything that come code this ship co with it. Man. Yeah, that's why Plue don't got a verse for every fucking situation, life, fucking obstacle, everything Like that's it, crazy man, you can get you through a lot of ship bro. Most definitely definitely shout out of Kirkwood, Shout out the Ink on the way Kirkwood. Yes, Inky Johnson on the way. Triple W dot Big Facts pod dot Com is going down the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the Truth

live and first class sounds. You know who it is, DJ Scream, Big Bank Baby and jade A Today We're gonna get motivated on Big Facts. If you're down and out, if you ain't feeling that, you know what I'm saying. We got the one and only Inky Johnson here. Oh big what's up my brother? How you feeling? How you're feeling, man, I'm all good, It's anna. It's a privilege, man. I appreciate y'all. We appreciate it. We appreciate it for everybody out there. Let's start by just letting everybody know a

little bit of the Inky Johnson story. I guess you could, um let everybody know a little bit of the timeline, Like what you were doing, um that led up to you playing sports? You know what I'm saying, unfortunate circumstances while you were playing sports that led you to be a motivational speaker. Yes, so you know, boring and raised

in Atlanta Kirkwood on six exactly. Yeah, lived all over the six but boring and raised in Kirkwood and like any other kid man, you know, boring to a mother, a sixteen two back on home fourteen people, and I saw sports as the vehicle, you know, I wanted to help my family. I felt like, you know, they were good people. I saw it all just like any other cat come up in the city. You see it and you want to make a difference in your family's life, and you feel as if you've been blessed with the

talent to do it. And so football was my game, you know, not only just the skill set, but it was a release. Like once I got out on that field, I felt like I was free, you know what I'm saying, from my household, from all that was going on. And I felt like it was the opportunity. And I got a scholarship to the University of Tennessee, first one in my family to go to college, and I wanted to make good on that investment that a lot of people have made in the sacrifices to get me to that point.

And when I got to Tennessee in my third year, I was starting that corner, had been starting that corner, and it looked like I was about to be a first round draft pick and I go out the second game my junior year, make a routine tackle that I've been doing since I was a kid, and found myself in the emergency room fighting for my life two hours later.

And it paralyzed my right on the hand, ruptured the artery in my chest toward the nurse, my spinic troll, my own, my hand, my fingers, and obviously it ended my career and my life changed, man, and I went searching for purpose. You know, I never thought I would be a speaker, Like I never wanted to speak because where I grew up, everybody grew up similar to how I grew up, and so I never thought what I

experienced is anything special, you know what I'm saying. Just you grew up in the cats, living and sur best times in my life, you know what I'm saying. And one day I was telling somebody and it was like, you grew up, how you experience what? And um, you know, I felt like this is what I was supposed to be doing in my life, man, And I approached it with you know, a level of gratitude, and here we

are and doing it for fourteen years. Well, when you when when you speak, though, brothers like a real gift from God or I ain't even gonna kept like because you can feel every word, like even with his interview, like like if y'all ain't only inc y'all got to get on them in Johnson on Instagram A talking to fit the thousand motherfucker's like he's packing it out like Drake, no little cot, no real ship, and I know the story like I used to stop down his day's house

in the morning if I go to school and the little kids getting rid of like we all meet up at dad in the house thinking up with the kids going to white tumor and ship and we're going to coring. You get what I'm saying. And he get up age and started playing high school about ever, about the whole neighborhood behind. You know what I'm saying, we know what, we know what, this is, this guaranteed. Then he had to like I said, you had an accident or whatever.

And then then like just popped up like this is what he's doing and this ship was serious, real ship. Congratulations to bro. No, I appreciate it real. I appreciate that one thing when when when you go through adversity and I think just being transparent I mean, even when you're not going to adversity, just life, sometimes you just want to quit. It's just like I still have those days,

believe it or not. Like you, how you never just gave up, like late down, you know, Like I was telling the cat last week, like I never had the luxury. You know what I'm saying, Like you grow up? How we grow up? I give up. I'm going back to the porch, you know what I'm saying. Like my uncle's going in and out of prison like cats in the city, you know him, like them, cats hustling like anybody in

the city. And so I just couldn't fathom me getting to that point of like a lot of people helped me, you know what I'm saying, Like that's why I lived my life the way that I live in It wasn't like I was this cat and I was claiming self made, Like teachers helped me, cats in the community, Corn Paul Kirkwood, Paul coaches helped me. My mom worked a double shift at Wendy's sacrifice, my dad when he came into the picture,

Like a lot of cats helped shape me. And so I just couldn't see me getting an injury and quitting and going back home to Kirkwood and saying, all right, good ride. I made it to that point. Now come back to the hood. No, I gotta make good on this promise. I gotta show him what I'm made out of. I can't quit like and to be honest, I'm gonna just be one hunt with you. Like I'm not built like that. You know what I'm saying, Like I'm a fighter,

just how I am. If I walk out this building right now and I'm trying to get in my truck and my right on the hand para lit. If three cats running up on me, I ain't running, you know what I'm saying, Like I ain't no tough guy. You know what I'm saying. But I ain't running. I wann't raised like that. You know what I'm saying, Like I wann't raised the fold like he know the cats I come up, I wasn't built like that. Like they ain't mold me like that. You know what I'm saying. The

floor I came from the house. I came from rats and roaches when we got sent out of the house. If my cousin got into a fight, all y'all better fighting. You know what I'm saying, what are you when you come home? It's on you know what I'm saying. And so I wasn't raised like that, And so I looked at my injury the same way, like I'm not stopping. I'm not quitting because I got an injury. I gotta figure out how to process it and I might got to change my ain't But Quinn is stopping it ain't

never been an option for me. Yeah, really, so so what about what about? What about something who might not have that? Just we speak for general people out there that might not have that same upbringing all that fire, like they might not be as strong. Like there's people that go to substances because they can't deal with the realities of Yeah, because it's it's like like real ship, like for you to be able to persevere through pretty much your whole world being shattered and turned upside down

with no idea like where to go. That's like a one in a million type thing with the type of with what you had in front of you and like having to go through that. So dealing with, like Scream said, dealing with that type of adversity, most people would turn the substance abuse or you know, turn even suicide or whatever. So it's like, how did you I know, like you had the strong upbringing and you're a fighter and that, but it really took a lot of faith and a lot more than that to be able to get you

through that. So what like how long process exactly what to get to where you are now to be okay with the fact that you'll never play football again and that was your dream? Absolutely no, I hurt um man, I cried. I was disappointed. I couldn't fathom it. I didn't think it was real. I'll tell people all the time. I went to sleep early for like a month, like every day. You know what I'm saying, I'll just go to sleep early, thinking, Man, I'm gonna wake up tomorrow

and I'll be able to move my arm again. You know what I'm saying, Like I can't be paralyzed. Yeah, it was real. I've been working for this since I was seven, and then you tell me one day it's like y'all coming here and do what y'all do. Every single day, something happened and the next day you can't use your limb again that you've been using your whole life without even thinking about it. And so I'm thinking it can't be real. And in the process of that

that bringing me different options to do. When they say to me, Ink, we want to get you to assist it daily living, and I was like, what's that. They said, If you can go to a grocery store and you can hold a bag under your arm, that's a plus for us. If you can grab a pencil and you can write like a kid, that's a plus for us. But your arm in your hand would probably never be the same again. And I'm like, I can't, like I

sacrifice too much, right and this can't be real. I go to sleep early again, wake up the next day, touch my arm and at the time I couldn't feel nothing on my up extremity on my right side, touch my back, touched my chest and I couldn't feel it. And I kept going throughout the process. And I always say to people, like, when you got people in your life that you love and you respect enough not to disrespect,

it's a powerful thing. And I had a lot of people around me that I cherished and I respect it like I'm a loyal person. And so I had teachers at Corn Middle School that was in the emergency room. I had my coaches that put me in organized sports. When I was a kid that was in the emergency room, I had my mother and as I'm looking at these people and I'm talking to him, I start apologizing, because you know how it is when you come from the hood and you're looking like, man, I'm gonna make it

so I can help everybody. You feeling like you're putting it on your back. You want to do it, and so I'm like, man, I apologize, I'm sorry, and it was like what you saw for it. I was like, I can't make it, and I can't pay you all back. Would kind of be disrespectful to them, that's how you. And I was like, I can't pay you all back, and they was like, man, you know it's nothing. It's like, the only thing we want from you is for you

to do something with what you've been blessed with. Take your situation, take your circumstance, go out into the world and be a decent man. You get blessed with a family, be a decent father, you get blessed with a wife, be a decent husband. That's the only thing we want from you. And it was like it freed me to now focus on the process because you try to understand it right. And I say to people all the time, it's natural if something happens to you, donna want to

know why, Like why me? Why did this have to happen to me? You get a paralyzed right on right hand. You want to understand it. And I told people when when they said that to me, I went from the mindsetting, the perspective of I was no longer trying to understand it and trying to survive it. Now I wanted to

use it right. And you take that same energy when you're focusing on something and you want to understand it and you're trying to survive it, take that same energy, put perspective behind it, and go out and try to use your situations, in your circumstances to add value to the world. And so that's all I tried to do for two years. For two years. So you've been with your wife, hollow Man, we've been rocking since fifth grade. Kid. She grew up in Kirkwood two blocks away from me.

Yeah yeah, you say, y'all going to your temp yr anniversary, Yeah, yeah, man. And she's been a blessing, probably the best thing that's ever happened to me, her and my children, you know, outside of my injury, you know, because it's a powerful thing. And that's how I got in to speaking, to be honest, you know, because she she co signed it. Because after my injury, I moved back to Atlanta and she called me. I was coaching and she called me, and I want

to story. She called me and I was a graduate assistant because I thought I was gonna be a defensive backs college coach, and I was like, man, I got injured. I can't play our coach And she called me one day and she was like, I'm pregnant, and you know, I'm I'm like, how that that happened? You know what I'm saying. I'm been shocked. I'm like, you pregnant, I'm a g a. I'm still in college almost, I'm making five hundred dollars a month. I'm like, how that happen?

She's like, you know how I happened? You know what I'm saying. I go in the coach office and I'm like, man, coach, I want to move back to Atlanta. I need to take care of my family. And he was like, go forward. And when I played to move back, I called somebody at Kirkwood Record at Bessie Branham Park. I said, hey, man, I need to come back. I want to work at the park. I want to take care of my family. I just want to create leadership curriculum for the kids

at Kirkwood Park. And it was like, back, come on, you got a job. Packed up. I left. I get there. Cat that I was talking to supposedly wasn't there. I take my resume in all fish. They say you overqualified. I was like, man, what's that? I just want to work with it right. But at the time, I'm living in my wife's grandmother's home, you know, two back room home. She praked me with our daughter, Jada. She ended up having Jada. I'm there. The only thing I got at

the time was my book that I had wrote. And I'm getting up every day trying to find a job. I wasn't speaking then. I was just trying to work. I wanted to put some money in my pocket, take care of my family. My wife was teaching and Stone Mountain. Every morning, She'll get up, get dressed, go to work. I'll get up, get dressed, go look for a job. Everywhere I go there, tell me something like I can't do it. And I knew part of it was probably he got a paralyze on. I ain't tripping, I ain't

knocking it. It is what it is. And so one morning I got up, I looked at my wife. I said to her, I said, babe, my mom, I'm about to go meet Oprah. I'm about to give open the book. And my wife said, you know Oprah. I was like nah. She's like, you know somebody that worked. We're open. I was like nah, but you're talking about it's going to me open. I was like, I'm gonna take the book. This was before a show ended. And she was like, you you really believe you can do it. I was

like yeah. She was like, go for it. At the time, I probably had two hundred dollars to my name. I was in my truck. I take off driving to Chicago. I get to Chattanooga. I called my buddy, Jeff and Knoxville. He's an attorney. He picked up. I said, Jeff, you ain't gonna believe it. He said, what you got ink? I said, Man, I'm on the way to Chicago. I'm about to take open the book. Jeff was like, ain't you know open like nah. He's like, I know what this is. He said, call me, man, when you get

the Knoxville. I know you're an ambitious person. Chances of this happening slim to none. He said, Man, I don't want you to be disappointed when it doesn't happen. I called him. When I get the Knox he pick up. He said, you're still going on't you? I said yeah. He said, man, I'm gonna ride with you up to the Shy. I don't want you to be too disappointed. We get there at night, Jeff gets us a room. We get up the next morning. I go to the

front desk. I say to him, man, can you give me the best possible directions to get the hard bow. They're giving me the directions. Jeff is in the corner. I go to walk out the door. Jeff said, ain't wait. He's said, IMNA, get us a taxi. Get us a taxi. We pull up. It's when the last shows was happening, so it's people everywhere. Right, I get out, He said, Man, I'm gonna go to this coffee shop. I try to run into every door that I could see somebody coming out of. I see right, I run up in man,

I drove up from Atlanta. I just want to get open my book. It was I get out of here. Man won't do that. I was like, man, y'all real. I thought, y'all be getting way cars and TV. I got y'all give me the third. I gotta bug right, and I got so discouraged. Right, I went around the back of the building. I sit down. I'm like, man, my wife gonna go off. And I get back to the city and everybody had made it in. And I

get up and I'm walking down the sidewalk. And it looked like it was a homeless gentleman right sitting on the curb. I sit down beside my man. I said, how you doing? My man said, I'm great, he said how are you. I'm like, I've seen better days. The irony of the situation, right, I look up, I kid, you not coming down the sidewalk. It's open her security guard. I get up. I'm like, man, I'm gonna take my shot, right, I'm taking my man gonna come up and move me

out of the way. So I started walking toward her. She walking towards me, and she gets right in front of me. I said, hey, I'm Inkie. Johnson. I drove up from Atlanta. I just wanted to give you my book. She grabs the book, so, oh, that's nice. She gives it to my man. She grabs my soup. She shakes it right, and I had on like a two ex sup right, And she said it's a nice suit. I think you're trying to see if I had some minute, right, I said, thank you. I said, can I take a

picture with you? He said, sure, we take a picture. She said, I gotta get in and do my show. I said, no problem. I went to walk off for security guard that he closed the door. He said, hey, little man, he said, come in, man, I want to tell you something. Go over to him. He said, UM, I'm not telling you anything that's gonna come of this. He said, I just want you to know what just happened.

It never happens, he said. Usually she'll tell me go clear him out, let him going about their business, or she'll take it and she'll probably never get the product. He said, I'm not saying you're gonna be on a book club show, none of that. I just want you to know what just happened. Never happens. I said, appreciate it. I send a picture home, family friends. Everybody responds, You're gonna be on the show, ain't I was like, nah, I don't know, I don't care. Is that what your man?

You don't know, you don't care You're gonna be on the book Club. I was like, that moment wasn't about that for me. They said, well, what was it about? I said, man, I needed to know that God was still walking with me. You know what I'm saying. That's

all I needed to know. I just I just was trying to figure out if God was still with that kid that grew up in Kirkwood, made it to college, got eight games away from becoming a potential first round draft pick, and then my life got shattered, right, And that was God showing me like, now, bro, I got you. Like, the moment wasn't even about Oprah. The moment wasn't even about the trip to chicak That was a faith journey

for me. That was a faith walk for me. And so when I made the decision to speak and say, man, I'm gonna be a speaker. I never called myself a motivation of speaker. The world labeled me that, right, But when I made the decision to do it, I just said, Bro, I want to be obedient right and do what I feel the creators called me to do with my life. And that's how it started. What would you say to somebody who and this is just a real question, like what would you say to somebody who don't believe in

God or high power? What would you say to one of my best friends? Don't one of my best friends are atheist? You know what I'm saying. And I don't love him any less. I still got mad love for him, you know what I'm saying. And I let him work through his standing of what the Creator means to him. But like I always tell him, like, man, I ain't trying to preach to you, Like you believe what you believe, right, If it's allies, if it's Catholicism, right, it's all good.

But I always say to him, I would rather live my life as if it's a God, and if I pass away figure out that it's not, then to live my life as if it's not a god. And if I pass away and figure out there is right. But I don't love him any less, you know what I'm saying, Because the same grace my man need, I need the same level of grace. You know what I'm saying. We fall short every single day. And so, like I said,

I ain't knocking him. You find your belief how you find it, but I'm gonna be here to show you love and support alone that journey. Yeah, what do you think is the foundation of um? A lot of the hate in the world, like racism, I mean black or black crime or whatever it is. There's a lot of hate. There's a lot of different things going on in the world as we speak. What do you think it's the foundation for that? And what would you say to somebody

is the cure for it? I would say understanding and u in miscommunication, right, the ability to It's hard for cats, I feel like sometimes to put themselves in other people's shoes, right, And even if you would never experience what that person experience, it's hard for people to put themselves in somebody else's shoes and just try to see through the lens of which they see it through. Because it's hard for a cat sometimes if things are going well, to look at

the other side of the corn. Right, it's hard for a cat. If a cat that made it to a certain spot, they got the house, they got the call, they got the money, and now you're trying to tell them to look at something with a different perspective, and they feel as if they struggled to get there, and it might be valid. You might work, you might have handled your business. I get it. I salute you. Right.

It's hard for cats sometimes to stop and look at people's situations and circumstances through the lens of other people. But also, I think the cure to it is love. Man, It's unconditional love. You know what I'm saying. It's showing people love regardless of situation, regardless of skin color, regardless of what's going on. Like me getting an organized sports A white man paid for that. You know what I'm saying. Like I know my man. My man hadn't seen me play.

He was coming down the street. He helped Patrick pass a bunch of cats. You know what I'm saying. When my man helped me, my man never came back to my mom and said, you owed me for putting inking sports.

He never came back to me and said you owe me at some point, like my man came out of his pocket paid for me and my three younger cousins to play ball, and in my family, the only people that went to college was me and my three younger cousins, and so I looked at people different from rep Now I understand it's all type of people out there, whether regardless of race and regardless of what they do. And that's my constant challenge as a father. You know what

I'm saying with my children. I got nine year old son, ten year old daughter, and so when something happens with the police in the world and they kill a black person, you know what I'm saying that my children have had encounters with police officers. You know what I'm saying that they're bringing a little K nine to their school at lunchtime and they know my man, Mr Henry or whatever, and then they see someone on television or they see someone on the internet. They say, hey, polices are this way,

and then they come and ask their father. And I gotta break that down when at the same time, my granddaddy, who you calling, dad, I haven't seeing polices When I was a kid, kick out front door in and grabbed my grandfather out of his wheelchair, slamming on his face and plant dope in the house. But you know what I'm saying, I didn't see that side of life, and so trying to balance that out with my children, and

also trying to balance that out with my perspective. Like, come in the industry, and it's predominantly white old men. It's predominantly white speaking. Right, every room I walk in, almost the whole crowd is almost white. Right when I do corporate events, and I walk in and I got on a college shirt. You know what I'm saying, I'm not dressed in a suit. I got on jeans and

a college shirt. And so if I'm going in to speak to a hundred and fifty ensuring agents, probably a hundred and forty five people white, and they're older than me and so off rep they're looking at me like what my man ain't got them say to me, like, my man, my son's age, What do you got to tell us? And I'm backstage taking it debt serious. You know what I'm saying. I'm backstage taking it debt sit. Not because I want to be the best order to

the best communicator in the world. No, I'm taking it serious because I know one day it might be another young cat coming up and he's gonna need that opportunity, and I gotta steward that right. You know what I'm saying. He's gonna need that opportunity, and I gotta go about it in the right way. It's a bigger purpose to it. And so when I get the rock and I get to play, I want to steward it right and do

right by it. So when the next cat coming the door, they don't look at him as just a young African American, young black man. They're like, hey, that cat ink that we brought in here, nobody has done it the way he did it. Let's get this cat of opportunity. And so looking at things with the right perspective and constantly trying to balance it out. But also man having a level of grace and love for cats when they slipped,

because we all do. And I think sometimes cats get on that high horse and they forget that, you know, And so yeah, I think I think that's it. Yeah, So with it, so with it being like with your new path, you being the one that's always motivational, always uplifting everybody, always trying to be positive. When you get down and when you don't really feel like yourself or you don't really feel like being positive, who do you go to to lift you back? Up and put you

back in the right mind space. Absolutely, I got I got people I talked to in every aspect of my life. And so I got somebody I talked to for marriage, I got somebody I talked to for fatherhood, got somebody I talked to and speaking. And then I talked, you know, to my uncle's in prison. You know, I talked to my uncle's das. I still got uncles and cousins in the streets. You know that's trying to do what they do. I talked to my mother, I talked to my wife, I talked to my children. And I used that as

sources of inspiration, sources of motivation. And I think cats think sometimes like if they see me speak that, like every day, happy, go lucky. You know what I'm saying every day, like, oh be part I come from it. You know what I'm saying. I come from it. And uh, but I'm willing to fight for it. And what I mean by that is the mindset that I want to acquire. I'm willing to fight for my happiness. I'm willing to

fight for my peace. I'm willing to fight for the father, the husband, and the man that I'm striving to become. And I think it's important to have accountability in your life and people that don't just tell you what you want to hear, but people that tell you what you need to hear. And I got people around me in every aspect of my life that I remember when I

first got married. I'm young and married, you know, and I'm I'm calling the dude that I talked to, the mentor me about marriage, and I'm like, man, she ain't doing this. She ain't doing that, man, she ain't doing this the way I wanted to do it. She ain't doing this the way I wanted to do And he listened to me. When I got done, he said to me, like, man, like God didn't bless you with your wife for you

to change your wife. Like you can't change your wife, your position, your responsibilities, to love your wife and work with your wife through whatever it is that you're trying to get to. He said, I guarantee you what you just told me. If I get on the phone with your wife right now, she's gonna have being positive and speaking. I'm tired of him talking to the kids, trying to give him motivation, you know what I'm saying, Like she's

gonna be saying, and I had to respect it. But also man, every single day, you know, just trying to be a better man, like the quest for better that's not perfect, but just trying to be a better man because you know, I come from a place to where

we got our demons too. What's that one? What's that one situation that you can recall to make you feel, made you be like when you start speaking, made you be like, Okay, this is what I'm doing for you know what I'm saying, Like that one person told you their story, how you motivated them or help them get through it? You know what I'm saying. You know what's

that you got the story? One of those storys? I got a couple of them, but the first one would be you know Eric Burry that that's from Atlanta, beast Man and uh, Eric like a little brother to me.

And we was in West Town Maul and Knoxville. This was years ago, and we were leaving at the signing that EB had went to this car and I was walking to mind and a man was running over to me and my man was like, I'm talking about he was running and so I've seen him coming and I'm in the parking lot, and I'm like, and I don't know what my man about to try to do, like I might need to create some space with my man, Like my man might be trying to get me, like

we're in the parking lot, you know what I'm saying. And he stopped a couple of feet away from me, and I could see he was crying, and he said thank you, and I said, man, no problem, if you don't mind, what are you thinking me for? And he said, I just saw your story on the news and you were making humor of your situation and about what happened to you. And he said, man, um life and beat me up. And I was about to leave my wife

and my three daughters. And he said, I said, when you could laugh at what you've been through and how you've handled it, he said, surely I can hang in there and I can fight for my family. And he just walked off, and I never forget man. When I walked off, I was like, I gotta take what I do a little bit more serious, and even even like when Eric Barry got hit with cancer. You know what

I'm saying. He called me and he was like, man, I feel like something in my chest, like We talked like that, and he was like, I gotta go to Emory for some testing. Was like, call me Athew Donne, and he called me. He said they found a mask and they diagnosed him with cancer. And I watched him go through that process and we used to meet and when he got through it, I never forget him saying like, Man, ain't like now I know about that purpose you speak

of out You know what I'm saying. Now, I know when you talk about your situation and not just thinking about it in terms of you and what you were quiet as a result of it, but you being able to use it like it's a reason. It's say in the Bible, Man, we are overcome us by blood and lamb and the word about testimony. That's why when you hear Cat's journey and where they've been, what they've been through,

you're like, man, that's beautiful. You know what I'm saying, Because all of us got stories, all of us have walked our path and the journey is still unfolding. But every single day I bumped into somebody bank, I kid you not. I was in the airport yesterday. Cat come up to me, Man, be honest with me. You wouldn't change what happened to you, Like I wouldn't change it for nothing in the world. A man like y'are paralyzed

on I'm like, it ain't about that. It's about what it did for my father, you know what I'm saying. It's about what it did for my my homies. It's about what it did for my family. Like this situation put me in put my mother and my father in the same room, you know what I'm saying, Like my mom, my MoMA despised my dad man for a long time, Like, and it felt bad to me when I was this athlete and my mother and my father couldn't even really be in the same room because he bounced and she

just despised my man. And when this happened, now all the foolishness had to cease because they didn't know if they was gonna have to cut off my arm. They didn't know if I was gonna live, if I was gonna die. And now my mother and my father was in the same room. And so when I say I look at this as a blessing, I think people think in terms of it's just some spiritual facade, right, And

I'm grateful to God for it. But when I say I'm thankful for it because of how it happened, I'm thankful for what it's done in the people's lives that are connected to me. And so every single day, man, I don't think none of us have to look for when we see people and meet people, because, like I say all the time, cats don't have to stop and say nothing to me what I'm saying. The cat don't have to say, Man, I appreciate your speeches. A cat don't have to look at my stuff. And so I'm

extremely grateful for that, and I'm honored by it. It's humbling. It's humbling, man. Outside of um, you know your motivational speech. And of course we were in the book and everything. What's the ship that you just like to do? Like some day to day just man, like to work with young cats, man, Like we served at the homeless shelter at my sister's house under the Atlanta Mission. We do

that quite a bit pre COVID. But I like working with young cats man a lot, because like where I grew up and a lot of the cats I went to Krim High School, right, a lot of the cats I went to school with, I felt like with talented cats. You know what I'm saying, and I never forget. I was fighting one of my teammates one day and my man just thought like I was coming at him because I didn't like him, and I had to tell him, like, but I love you. You know what I'm saying. I

got mad love for you. I'm like, but I see the potential. I see what you can become. I see what you possess. I see what you can do. I see what you can you can go on to do for your family right, and you don't want to leave outside of twenty you don't want to leave on the east side of Atlanta. I coach have to take us to a tournament in Popular Bluff, Missouri, and they was like, Coach, we ain't going and he was like, yeah, I see y'all in the morning. Man, three folks showed up, man

to the bus. You know what I'm saying, like three and my man thought they was playing. I'm like, man, them folks not playing. And so when I see young cast and I'm talking to him, you know what I'm saying,

and I'm trying to help shape their mind. I'm listening to their stories like that's beautiful for me because cats did it for me, you know what I'm saying, the older cats at the part it's used to be at my granddad at the house, Like people did it for me, and it made an imprint on my mind that changed my life. And so anytime I get to work with kids and do certain things and going to the home, the shelter and making us grateful for what we do have, you know, it's something that I love to do. Yeah.

So another thing that like we always talked about on the show is is how like growth is an essential part of progress. So what do you do, like day to day or you know, just whenever you have time or any time at all, to make sure that you don't get stuck in the same place and to make sure that you're at least taking one step a day forward. Absolutely, I journal a lot, journal a journal. Oh yeah, every day,

every day I journal. Um, I got four journals, and so I journal in the morning, I journal shortly after lunchtime, and I journal at night. But I journal to my children. So I got a journal with my son, I got a journal with my daughter, journal with my wife, and a journal with myself. I write to you know how like when something happened to a parent, or something happened to somebody, and somebody to go to somebody's kids and be like, man, let me tell you about your dad. Man,

let me tell you about your mom. Tell you the type of person they're working. That's cool, right, But I want my children to have something that, like, one day I'm gonna give it to him. I don't know when that moment comes, but one day they got something that they can look at and say, I know exactly who my dad was. You know what I'm saying. I know what it's how youse are. I know what his principles are. I know why he did sir. I explained decisions to him. Man,

this is why I had to do this. It might then feel good in the moment, you might hate it, but you're gonna love me later for you know what I'm saying. And I explained things like that to my son, my daughter, but also to myself, like I'm transparent in it.

You know what I'm saying about my fears about my future, about things that I need to work on, Like I told my wife yesterday, and I'm like, man, I got I got somebo need to work on, Like I don't know if it's from the time I was a kid and I just experienced this and this is how I cope. But like when I cut somebody off, I'm gone, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm gone, Like I don't

double back, I don't come back, I'm gone. And I told her, like, I gotta work on that, because I think that's something from my childhood that yeah, yeah, I'm just out. You know what I'm saying, like a man, you bound, I'm out. You know what I'm saying, And

I ain't coming back, and it's all good. But I think it's something that I learned and I need to work go because when I was a kid, when my father wasn't present, that's how I coped without having to deal with the natural situation of my father not present.

But it created certain levels of pain with other people to where all right, if you stagnant, if you're playing them out right and not giving people that grace in that time to grow, when probably if I would have gave him the grace in the time to grow, that could have been a situation we could have nurtured and cultivated relationship, right. And so it's things that I want to work on that. When I look in at journal, I know I'm not there yet, and I'm trying to

continue to foster that level of growth. But having that journal there as accountability is something I can refer back to every single day in every aspect of my life and my children, with my wife, most importantly with myself. What's one thing you want to say to your followers people that don't follow you? You know what I'm saying, What's What's what's some some good game of motivation that you would give to the people, like the most valuable vitamin? Man.

I would say, don't take life for granted, you know, make life count, man, because I think there's so many people man that that wake up and they just they take this thing for granted. Like and I didn't look at it that way until I almost lost my life, you know, because a lot of cats look at my injury and look at what happened to me, and cats focus so much on the sports part of it, and cats don't think about like bro I had three hundred and fifty staples in my body, had six incisions down

my left eye. When incision cross the left side of my neck went across the right twice do my right ribs cut out my right peck, bottom of my armpit to the bottom of my hand. They had to cut up plastic bags so I could take a shower. They just put me on the jet back and forth from Tennessee to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota every week. You know what I'm saying. So it changed my life.

It made me look at life different, and I'll never forget the first time I sat down in the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, it was like a little girl like she was sitting where you're sitting, scream about distance wise, she's probably like you love, And it looked like like her face is falling off what I'm saying. Her parents were sitting on the side of her trying to help her. I don't know what a condition was, and I'm like, man, she like eleven or twelve years old. And it made

me look at my situation totally different. But most importantly, it made me grateful for the gift of life. Man, like make it count, Like when it's all setting done for me, I want one life to be enough for me, you know what I'm saying, Like when they come, I want to be like I did it. You know what I'm saying, I lived it. I don't want to be the cat that's living with regret. I don't want to be the count that's saying, man, I wish I could

have this time to do this now. That takes a lot of courage, a lot of bravery, a lot of pain. You know what I'm saying. I want to patch up certain relationships. I want to do things differently. You know what I'm saying. I want to grow. And I think we take life for granted so much. We think people are gonna be here. I'm sure some cats that wanted to talk to DMX and say something and felt like

I get to it. You know what I'm saying, I get to I had that, I had that conversation and then get the opportunity to not because they didn't want to. Because we take life for granted and we feel as if we promised something. Cat feel as oh, I get to the next year. How you know you promised next year? I thought it were certain things in my career I was gonna get to. I get to it in the fifth game, I'll do it. Second game, my career was over, never to be played again, and so every single day. Man,

don't take life for granted. Go out and live it up. Man, what's what's what's your? Do you still love the sport of football? Even love it? I love everything about it, Man, I'm not I'm not mad at the sport um because it gave me so much. You know what I'm saying. It exposed my mind to a different level of life that it could never go back to what it used to be. Right like when I never forget bank. I walked in and I'm eating steak shrimp spaghetti like I'm

coming from noodles. You know what I'm saying. I'm like, boy, y'all steak shrimp spaghetti. You know what I'm saying, Like this is gravy like, but also just the access that it gave us, the resources that it gave us, like something different, you see something different, but they lay it out for you. You know what I'm saying, Like you get everything and so like I could never be mad at that. So they saying that ship set your set your boy in life like this what I want this,

I want not going back to nothing else. It exposed you too, Like they're taking you the catering class. They're taking you to what side to put your spoon, your forking night Like they give you everything. You know what I'm saying. They put you, you travel, you on the plane, You're getting everything. You go to a hotel, you five star, you standing the best, like they give you access to everything, and so I can never be mad at it. And then when my injury happened, they did right by me.

You know what I'm saying. And I'm gonna be honest. I was thinking, man, or they still gonna treat me the same, or they still do the same same things they did for me when I was playing. But they did right by me. You know what I'm saying. They they took care of me, and I can't do nothing but respect that. But also, I believe in destiny. I believe in faith, and so I don't live my life with regrets. I don't wish I would have grew up different, you know what I'm saying, Like, I love the way

I grew up. That made me who I am as a man. Like if a cat came to me and said, you want to grow up in Malibu, No, I want to grow up in Kirkwood, right down the street. You know what I'm saying, that's why I want to grow up at my mom. I want to grow up the same way. And so when I look at my injury and what happened to me, I think it's destiny and faith for where I am now as a father, as a man, as a husband, as a friend. Like it

changed me, you know in a good way. Not just physically with the arch fee and me walking around like if a cat see me, they're gonna know. Man, something happened to my man arm, but what it did for me internally as a man. In my perspective, I'm forever grateful for that. And most important, God's spared of my life. God could have took me that day, but he felt as if I was worth it, and so he left me.

I do you think like a successful athlete or or rap artists and everybody should seek different like aspects of life, because sometimes it takes tragedy to make you open yourself up the other parts of life. But you like speaking to people that you think, like, man, there's other parts of life. It's more than just football. It's more than just rapids, more than just acting. You know what I'm saying. Do you feel like people should see that different aspects

of life. Yeah, I think I think they should maximize their talents, but they should honor their gifts. And so what I mean by that is like when you see somebody coming up, whether it be in the inner cities of America, in the suburbs of America, whatever the case may be. And let's say we look at sports, right and a catacomb to a young cat that's playing sports and say, hey man, look at some other things, right, Like I don't see the cats stand on the stage

and say, y'all don't need to play sports. Don't just focus on sports. And I'm like, but what if sports is that person's gift that God has blessed in what like a lot of my boys, they took the vehicle of sports, made a lot of money. Now they're dabbling in the business and other ventures in life and maximizing their gifts. But the vehicle of sports change their family's

life for generations to come. And so I think they should honor their gifts and maximize them whatever it is, Like it's a lot of cats and entertainment that wrapped that play basketball or whatever the case may be. If that's the vehicle, do that, But also maximize them talents. If you want to get in the media right, if you want to get in the podcast, if you want to be a public speaker, if you want to do things with business like, start doing it before it comes

time for you to do it. Because a lot of cats they play ball and they make their money, they do what they do, or something goes wrong, they want to wait, and then they got their back up against the wall and they're trying to do it like it's like when the cats say pray. Don't just pray when things are going like bad, pray when things are going

good too. And so why things are going good in your career whatever you're doing, start venturing off into other things and maximizing you because when you're back is against the wall, you don't have a clear head to think with because you're panicking facts and it jades your perspective and how you do things right. Instead of it being about purpose, now it's about money because you feel as if you're back and that's necessity and necessity and not

saying that there's anything wrong money. You should get money for what you do. Just approach you with the right perspective and honor the gift whatever it may be big shots out to Inky Johnson positive positive motivation. They're crying and ship like, what what where can everybody go to if they're not familiar with you? Check you out online,

your Instagram, anything, anyway you channel all that. Oh, no doubt, it's Inky Johnson on everything and on Instagram it's Inky Johnson motivate because the cat stole my name a year ago. You know what I'm saying, cat stole the names. I had to come back as Inky Johnson motivate. But man, I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, man, for those that follow me and support me, I greatly appreciate it, you know what I'm saying, because I know you don't have to and that means the world to me.

I'll never take that for granted and for y'all. Let me bless this platform, and I greatly greatly appreciate it. Man, it's a privilege. It's a privilege. Appreciate big sass. After Inky Johnson pulling up the Big Facts, y'all check us out online Triple w dot Big Facts pot dot Com, salute you're listening. Get Big Facts with Big Bank and DJ scream Big Facts on social media at Big facts Pot, Fine, big bag and DJ scream bring you big fat hey man it sideway up at merch. Yes, yeah that's right.

Www Dot big facts pot dot com. What the real one one time? Y'all come get y'all some of this merch man Big facts pot dot com. Get that merch right now, shot with us side away up. Big fact Merch going down at the new website today www dot Big facts pot dot com. Visit now