Rethinking Education: Empowering Families with Financial Literacy, Faith, and Essential Life Skills

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: Nobody's showing up anymore.

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So if you just come in and you just show up at a level that most people won't like,

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you're already in the 1% of the 1%, and then people are gonna take note to that.

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And it's such a rare thing in this day and age.

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You can climb that ladder as fast as you want to, but nobody's being taught

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and nobody's given that opportunity and nobody's getting that clarity.

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Um,

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: In a world where the traditional education

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system often falls short in preparing us for real world challenges, how can

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we equip ourselves and our families with the skills truly necessary for success?

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Welcome to Seat Go Create, where today we're joined by David Williams, the

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visionary Co-founder of Fifth Degree Academy, a platform dedicated to

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teaching the practical, lifelong skills often missed in conventional education.

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David is not only a serial entrepreneur and investor, but also a passionate

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public speaker who believes in empowering individuals through practical

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knowledge and inspirational know-How With Fifth Degree Academy, he aims

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to address the education crisis by providing on-demand classes that

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cover the most vital areas of life.

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For people of all ages.

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David, welcome to Seek Go Create.

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah.

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No, thank you so much for having me.

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I am excited to be here today.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: I am excited to be here too.

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And, you and I have had a chit chat briefly, just got to know each other,

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but let's pretend that we bump into each, each other somewhere, and I just ask

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you what you do and people ask you that.

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What do you tell 'em?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah, so what I do so I can, like

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you said, a serial entrepreneur.

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I own and operate multiple companies, and what I could do is, if you like,

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give a little bit of my backstory, how I got started, and kinda where

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I came from and, where I am today.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Yeah, we'll definitely do

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that, but I do this for me.

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This is just a little bit of a gee whizz type exercise icebreaker.

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When someone asks you what you do, what do you tell 'em?

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if you're just out and about and someone says, Hey David, what do you do?

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What's, what do you typically lead with?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: I would say, I build businesses.

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I create and try to impact as many lives as possible.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Very cool.

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And I know we'll talk more about that impact with the fifth Degree

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Academy, but, but let's do this.

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Have you always been a business builder?

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have you always been entrepreneur?

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High energy guy?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: always up until, that started in, 2009.

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So that was the beginning of my journey there.

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And ever since then, that's been, that's been my mo.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So what'd you do before then, though?

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'cause 2009 was an interesting time.

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I was, I had three companies heading into oh eight that many would've looked at and

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says, wow, this guy's got it going on.

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And by oh nine, my, my guts were being ripped out, inside.

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So what happened in oh nine that got you going?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah, I was a store manager at Circuit

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City at the time, and, I'll give you a little bit even further back.

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So I grew up as a kid and dealt with a lot.

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Um, challenges, I guess you can say.

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Not a lot of things came easy for me in life.

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faced a lot of labels.

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As a young kid, I was told that, I had a learning disability.

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I wasn't gonna mount to much unless I did something with a trade

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or did something with my hands.

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Not knocking trades, but, that was just kind of the box that I was put in.

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And I had a deep love for the game of baseball, but however,

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I didn't have a lot of God-given talent, and I always felt like.

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I loved it way more than any other kids, but I had to put in just so

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much more effort to get a fraction of the result that other kids got.

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And, going back, going back to that time, I'd say one of my first

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mentors in life were my parents.

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It was my dad.

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And, we had a brother that went down the wrong path.

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My dad really took that to heart he had two businesses himself and just started

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working around the clock to afford the things that he couldn't afford.

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To make sure me and my sister just were constantly busy.

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I was in baseball lessons, she was in, music dance lessons.

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So we didn't have time to get in the same kind of trouble that my brother did.

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And, he taught me, I think, through osmosis, what hard work looked like.

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And he taught me, lessons, like hard work beats talent when

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talent doesn't wanna work hard.

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So I started to realize early on, my early on superpower.

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I could just outwork every other kid in the room.

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And the God-given talent that I lacked and the God-given talent that they

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possessed, I could close the gap by just running circles around everybody.

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And it wouldn't happen overnight.

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But if I did it day after day, the compounded effect of working hard,

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could get me to where I wanted to go.

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And, that's what led me to playing college baseball.

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I had a dream to play, pro ball.

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Ended up hurting my arm in college.

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Got done with that and then kinda lived in one of the labels and went

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and did, my tool and die certification that I got, wanted to take a job in

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tool and die and just didn't have a lot of heart and passion into it.

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So that's when I had to go out and find a job and I reached out and asked for help.

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Asked one of my friends who was working at Circuit City at the time

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and what I thought was gonna be a part-time gig, turned into a career.

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So I ended up coming in and, working as a salesperson in a car stereo.

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Circuit city, selling car stereos.

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And I thought I was starting over at the time, but then, little did I know

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that I was just building off of the foundation that I already had built.

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'cause I just did what came natural to me.

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I went into Circuit City and just started working hard and

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outworking everybody in the store.

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Before I knew it, I was number one salesperson in an entire store, became

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number one salesperson in the company.

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And I had another mentor at the time that took me under his wing 'cause he just

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noticed that I was showing up differently.

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Most people and I ended up getting promoted, one of the youngest

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store managers at Circuit City.

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at 21 years of age I got a $24 million superstore handed to me where

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I had to all of a sudden learn how to lead people, train people, coach

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people, and run all the day-to-Day operations of this big box store.

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And I'd say that was early on.

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That was a lot of my education, that I learned that had a really good program.

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And I was on a fast track, I was, they eventually had me start going store

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to store, and I was kinda like, Mr.

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Fix it, I guess it was like a Navy Seal.

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They would drop into a store and turn it around when it was underperforming.

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And I later became on an innovation team with Circuit City, where

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I was helping the company come up with new business concepts.

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And my, my, my career is rolling around just like anybody in corporate America.

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I had aspirations become a regional manager.

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And, life happened, unexpectedly.

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All of a sudden I started having pain all over my body.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: hold on a second.

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I wanna pause you a second 'cause I, and 'cause I, I think we're about to come to

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a Pivotal event, and I wanna pause before we get to that because I want to dig a

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little bit on some of the things you just mentioned, David, because the, the, what

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part of the world did you grow up in?

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where were you at?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: grew up in Rochester, New

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York, upstate New York.

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Now I'm living in sunny Sarasota, Florida.

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After I put in my time in that, cold white stuff.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Don't want to go.

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Yeah, I'm recording this now.

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We're in the dead of winter and I'm in Arizona 'cause I live in an RV and I could

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go where the weather's nice and I get it.

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I get that.

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so if I understand, I wanna dig a little bit in there.

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I wanna understand a little bit of the dynamics that led to someone.

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One of the things we do here, we don't shy away from discussing

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how we come to success.

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And many times that's defined by what the world calls failures and things like that.

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it sounds as if something that was fairly important in your family dynamic was your

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brother and I get the pers perspective.

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It was your older brother, is that right?

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tell me the siblings there.

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah, so I had a, an older brother, he

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ended up passing away at the age of 49.

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through drugs, drugs and addiction.

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He went down.

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At an early age, and, my parents spent their whole life battling and

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battling through the legal system, the court system, doing everything

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they could to try to save them.

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And it, just wasn't enough.

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It really got its grips on 'em.

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And, I have a younger sister as well, and, yeah, so I'm one of three.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So I, I'm just curious,

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what was the age difference?

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Because you mentioned that your older brother was his name Gary.

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Did I hear somewhere?

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His name was Gary

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Gary Williams was his name, and,

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Uhhuh.

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: it was, he would've been what,

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probably 53 years old, this year is what he would've been.

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And I'm, I'm 43, so it was about a 10 year gap.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Okay.

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So that.

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So there was a big gap there and and it seems like that had a big impact on the

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family, and I think it actually plays in some, when we talk about the fifth degree

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Academy later, because seems like maybe the education system was a bit challenged.

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Maybe he fell through the cracks.

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I don't know.

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I'm not trying to, put words in your mouth or anything like that.

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but, and it seems as if, now tell me if I'm wrong on this and then

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I'll let you just talk about this.

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It seems as if you had, I don't know if a slight chip on your should is the right

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term, but you were going to succeed even when people were telling you couldn't.

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Would that be accurate?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah, I would say so.

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I'd say that was the case.

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I just felt failure wasn't an option for me.

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And, when I faced some of these challenges, I knew, God put me on

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this planet for a bigger purpose.

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I wasn't sure what that was yet.

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And I know it wasn't just to have an almost life and.

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I was in a place where I was, I guess finding myself in,

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in this part of the journey.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Y Yeah.

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and the reason that I think that's important is that what we find when

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we have these discussions about redefining success and what it means

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there is often something that's driving the people like you that

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end up excelling it's interesting.

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I bet if we really dissected it, there's not that much of a difference

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between you and your brother.

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There were just some circumstances, some issues and things like that.

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have you put any thought into that?

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I know he was 10 years ahead of you, but have you put any thought

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into kind of how he ended up one path and you ended up another?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: I say, one of the things that I realized

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later in my life is like all the different places that took me to where I want to

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go, and probably all the different places that took him where he wanted to go.

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we both had great parents, but sometimes that's just not enough.

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And, sometimes it takes a village to, to raise a young man or, or, or young woman.

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And, for me, every time I got to the next place in my life,

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it was always, it wasn't a what?

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It wasn't a win.

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It was always a who moment.

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It was always the right mentor that took me under their wings that led me

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to where I was the right influence.

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And I think in his circumstances it was just the wrong people.

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He started hanging around with some of the wrong influences.

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they say we're the average of the five people we surround ourself with the most.

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he had the wrong five people when I was a kid.

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I was a little bit different.

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I was, challenged, learning wise, bullied a bit when I was a kid, so I

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didn't even have five friends to hanging around with to really be influenced by.

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And, but as I started to stumble along in life, I accidentally came across

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some of the right mentors that I was blessed with that got me on the right

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track when it came to my brother.

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he didn't have those mentors outside of my parents.

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And, when he went down that road and started the rebel, it was.

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A slippery slope and just, one, that one we couldn't get him back from.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: It is interesting you mentioned baseball.

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I think I've heard this time and time again.

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Often sports.

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Will be something that's very critical for people That could be, I don't, I think

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all of us are at risk to some degree,

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but, but obviously if you look at your brother then you maybe the thing that

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distinguished, but how important was sports in keeping you along a path of,

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achieving what you ended up achieving?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: I would say it was incredibly important

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'cause I really loved the game.

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And then, like I said, dad.

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he worked around the clock seven days a week, operated on four hours sleep

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to afford the things that he couldn't afford and keep me busy, so I didn't

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have an opportunity to get in trouble.

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So I had, private baseball lessons, baseball camps, leagues that I was in and

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just really fell in love with the game.

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And, that's what led me play into a year at, year at college at FLCC, at

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one of our local community college.

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I played college ball and it was just, something that I really,

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fell in love with at a young age.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: I've also, and this is not taking

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anything away from your drive and your discipline, but sometimes when people

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are involved with sports, especially when they're looking to achieve the next

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level, college and then pro, it's like you probably didn't have a ti have time

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to get involved with a lot of other junk.

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You, you were probably almost 24 7 on the ball field, correct.

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: No, that was exactly it.

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And then.

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when it came to college too, like even when I was in college, I was

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honestly not the most talented person that was out there.

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what got me there was putting in the work.

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And then when I was in tryouts there, there was a lot of other

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people that had alternative focuses.

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Like my whole mission, I was all in on the game of baseball.

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I was up running every single morning at 4:35 AM even before practice.

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I was practicing in the off season.

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I was practicing, while they were going out and partying

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and doing what college kids do.

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I was just all in.

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What that ended up resulted in.

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There was a lot of people that had more talent than I was in the initial

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tryouts, but they couldn't hack it.

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They were out the night before.

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So when we had to be in the gym at 4:30 AM or 5:00 AM and run, I was already

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conditioned months ahead of time.

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Prior to them, they were just starting to get conditioned.

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And then in addition to that, they just weren't putting in the time,

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weren't putting in the work, they're staying out partying all night.

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So one by one they just started dropping like flies and.

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I was one of the, I was, one of the ones left standard, ended up

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making the cut based off of that kind of resiliency and, played out.

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Played out a whole season.

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tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Yeah.

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One of the thing before we start jumping into some of the projects you're working

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on now and what happened when you transitioned away from what you were doing

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with Circuit City, what was, one of the things we don't shy away from here is we

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talk about the faith component of success.

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What was, describe what faith looked like when you were growing up, or, I don't

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think church is always the answer, but what was that faith component and at

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what point, 'cause I know faith is an important part of what you're doing now.

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At what point did faith enter the equation for you?

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah.

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So for me, face always been a big part of my life.

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My dad was always a very biblical man.

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He is.

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Read the Bible probably a dozen times, goes to church.

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Same thing.

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My mother and I was just brought up in that sort of household.

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and I'd say for me, like that was a big pivotal moment.

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Like even in the Circuit City days when, all of a sudden life happened to me.

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And, what ended up happening to me when I was at Circuit City on

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this fast track and I woke up one day and my body was just on fire.

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I could barely move.

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I was in so much pain, it just felt like I had kerosene running

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through my veins and I was pushing through all this neck and back pain.

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And then one day I woke up and I couldn't walk, lost my ability to walk.

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My ankles were swelling so big, my feet were swollen so big.

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There was this inflammation all throughout my body.

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I came in to work on crutches and then my same district manager at the

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time told me, they're like, Dave, you know you're gonna have to go out and

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disability and take care of yourself.

Speaker: 00:14:48

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: So I went out and started going doctor,

Speaker: 00:14:50

to doctor to figure out what was going on because, I couldn't walk and I

Speaker: 00:14:52

was just dealing with immense pain.

Speaker: 00:14:54

And it's so crippling.

Speaker: 00:14:55

I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

Speaker: 00:14:57

finally I found a doctor, a rheumatologist.

Speaker: 00:14:58

They figured out what was going on.

Speaker: 00:15:00

They're like, Dave, you have an autoimmune condition.

Speaker: 00:15:02

It's called, ankylosing spondylitis.

Speaker: 00:15:04

So it's basically your immune system.

Speaker: 00:15:06

It's overactive, it's attacking itself and that's what's causing

Speaker: 00:15:10

the inflammation in your body.

Speaker: 00:15:11

You're attacking your own joints and it can cause, spinal degeneration over time.

Speaker: 00:15:16

And the doctor looked at me in the eyes and said, Dave,

Speaker: 00:15:19

I'm gonna be frank with you.

Speaker: 00:15:20

most people with your condition and you have a very severe case of this.

Speaker: 00:15:24

So this is gonna be very highly probable the case for you.

Speaker: 00:15:28

End up on long-term disability.

Speaker: 00:15:30

That's what disability is there for.

Speaker: 00:15:31

Don't be afraid to use it, just gonna let you know you're gonna

Speaker: 00:15:34

be on long-term disability.

Speaker: 00:15:35

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: how old were

Speaker: 00:15:36

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: a kid.

Speaker: 00:15:36

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: How old were you, David?

Speaker: 00:15:38

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: at the time this was, this

Speaker: 00:15:41

was back in what, 2006 I had.

Speaker: 00:15:45

I've had it for about 20, 23 years.

Speaker: 00:15:48

I was probably about 20, 21 when I first got diagnosed with it.

Speaker: 00:15:53

Then I had a second, um, you know, got back, got back on my feet after that.

Speaker: 00:15:57

And then I had a second wave where, it put me off of work again.

Speaker: 00:16:01

And that was right around 2008, right before, 2009 when I

Speaker: 00:16:04

exited, I exited Circuit City.

Speaker: 00:16:06

So here I was at the time, I had a doctor telling me that, Dave, you're

Speaker: 00:16:09

gonna be on long-term disability.

Speaker: 00:16:10

And I thought about that and it just wasn't congruent.

Speaker: 00:16:13

It didn't sit well with me that, and I knew God didn't put me on this

Speaker: 00:16:16

planet to be some guy that was gonna be on a couch on long-term disability.

Speaker: 00:16:19

I looked at my wife and I knew she deserved better than that.

Speaker: 00:16:22

And then, I looked at my parents and I knew I had a duty and obligation,

Speaker: 00:16:26

um, growing up to be the one to take care of them someday because,

Speaker: 00:16:30

I watched my dad again work around the clock, never save for retirement.

Speaker: 00:16:33

Never took care of himself.

Speaker: 00:16:35

we always, money was something that was always scarce in our household.

Speaker: 00:16:38

So I knew one day there was gonna be a time that he couldn't work, and

Speaker: 00:16:42

when it got to his retirement years, I had to be the guy that changed the

Speaker: 00:16:45

trajectory of my family tree when it came from a financial standpoint.

Speaker: 00:16:49

So here, this was weighing at me, it gets to the six month mark and

Speaker: 00:16:52

Circuit City, and I'm still not well.

Speaker: 00:16:54

Circuit City says, we can't hold your job any further unless you

Speaker: 00:16:57

come back to work in a couple weeks.

Speaker: 00:16:58

So what I did.

Speaker: 00:16:59

I was at this tipping point, and that was my tipping point between faith and fear.

Speaker: 00:17:03

And I'll tell you, I really leaned into my faith in that moment and step

Speaker: 00:17:07

out and went beyond the labels and pushed myself to get back to work.

Speaker: 00:17:11

And in that moment I wrote myself out a check for a million bucks.

Speaker: 00:17:15

And it wasn't about the money, whatsoever, but I knew if I could cash that check and

Speaker: 00:17:20

I could find a way, and I had no idea.

Speaker: 00:17:22

My bank account had just a couple zeros in it.

Speaker: 00:17:24

Because I got into a tough financial situation, being off

Speaker: 00:17:26

of work for six months as well.

Speaker: 00:17:28

But if I could figure out a way to cash that check, what I could do

Speaker: 00:17:31

is create a life on my own terms that's conducive for my health.

Speaker: 00:17:34

I could give my wife the life she deserves to have, and I could be my

Speaker: 00:17:39

hero's hero, which was my dad and my mom.

Speaker: 00:17:42

I could be able to give them the life that they deserve.

Speaker: 00:17:44

So I looked at that check every single day.

Speaker: 00:17:46

I had no idea.

Speaker: 00:17:47

I was so far away from how I was gonna cash it, but I prayed on it.

Speaker: 00:17:51

Then all of a sudden, one day I met a friend of the family that

Speaker: 00:17:53

was in the insurance business.

Speaker: 00:17:54

Young kid.

Speaker: 00:17:55

He was younger than I, and he was doing really well.

Speaker: 00:17:57

And that was my first encounter with a little something called passive income.

Speaker: 00:18:00

Reoccurring revenue.

Speaker: 00:18:02

And I was like, sign me up.

Speaker: 00:18:03

I can't work in retail anymore.

Speaker: 00:18:04

I know I can't be on my feet anymore with all the pain I'm dealing with, so

Speaker: 00:18:07

I gotta do something on my own terms.

Speaker: 00:18:08

I'm gonna start getting my insurance license and I'm broke at the time.

Speaker: 00:18:12

Everybody's telling me, Dave, if you're gonna do that, go work for somebody first.

Speaker: 00:18:15

Most businesses fail.

Speaker: 00:18:16

You're sick.

Speaker: 00:18:17

You are surely gonna fail.

Speaker: 00:18:18

I ignored all the naysayers.

Speaker: 00:18:20

I kept moving forward, getting my license, prayed on it some more,

Speaker: 00:18:22

stepped into my faith and then all of a sudden, if this wasn't by

Speaker: 00:18:26

God's design, I don't know what was.

Speaker: 00:18:27

And this caused me to lean in even further.

Speaker: 00:18:30

Uh, I walked in the Circuit City one day and there was a insurance brokerage in

Speaker: 00:18:34

that very same shopping mall across from A DMV, about a hundred feet away that

Speaker: 00:18:38

was taken down their shingle and going out of business at the very same time.

Speaker: 00:18:41

I knew it wasn't because they had a bad location, and I knew it

Speaker: 00:18:44

wasn't, was because people didn't need insurance and they were right

Speaker: 00:18:48

across from A DMV where people by law had to have automotive insurance.

Speaker: 00:18:52

So I was like, that's gonna be my location.

Speaker: 00:18:54

that's my sign from God.

Speaker: 00:18:56

Now I gotta figure out how I'm gonna get the money.

Speaker: 00:18:59

And so I prayed on it some more.

Speaker: 00:19:02

And then, I came into work one day and the liquidators come

Speaker: 00:19:04

up to me and they said, Dave.

Speaker: 00:19:06

All the open merchandise, all the loose merchandise, the customer

Speaker: 00:19:10

returns, the display models we gotta get rid of for pennies on the

Speaker: 00:19:13

dollar, whatever you can get for it.

Speaker: 00:19:15

It was almost in that moment, it wasn't even I

Speaker: 00:19:17

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: and it, yeah.

Speaker: 00:19:19

Hold on a second, because when you talk about Circuit City, I have these.

Speaker: 00:19:23

I don't wanna say nostalgia, but I think about the times

Speaker: 00:19:26

that I spent at Circuit City.

Speaker: 00:19:28

There's some people listening in that don't know what Circuit

Speaker: 00:19:30

City is they don't realize

Speaker: 00:19:31

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: like a Best Buy electronic store.

Speaker: 00:19:33

so that'd be

Speaker: 00:19:34

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: it was awesome.

Speaker: 00:19:35

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: Oh

Speaker: 00:19:36

yeah,

Speaker: 00:19:36

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: was awesome.

Speaker: 00:19:38

And I, I do wanna pause though, one question though before we

Speaker: 00:19:41

jump into the insurance thing.

Speaker: 00:19:43

David, often someone who has the ability to just grind it out and throw their

Speaker: 00:19:50

energy and their physical all into it, like you had health, obviously

Speaker: 00:19:54

you are a, an athlete type person.

Speaker: 00:19:57

Often it really does.

Speaker: 00:20:00

Um, I don't, I don't even know how to describe, but it creates challenges when

Speaker: 00:20:06

all of a sudden that is hindered or taken away or whatever words we want to use.

Speaker: 00:20:12

Talk briefly before we go further about what it did for you.

Speaker: 00:20:16

When you, all of a sudden, again, athlete strong, you're able to,

Speaker: 00:20:20

you're able to grind it out.

Speaker: 00:20:22

You're able to throw yourself in and work 24 7, I'm guessing, and then

Speaker: 00:20:26

all of a sudden you couldn't do that.

Speaker: 00:20:28

What did it do for your identity and who you were at that time?

Speaker: 00:20:32

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: No, I'd say, I definitely

Speaker: 00:20:33

question my identity 'cause that's what it was in baseball.

Speaker: 00:20:35

It was my superpower.

Speaker: 00:20:36

I would just be in the batting cages all day, every day to my

Speaker: 00:20:39

blood and the compound effect.

Speaker: 00:20:43

Becoming a better version of myself at the game that I was trying to play.

Speaker: 00:20:46

And now I'm in the game of life, right?

Speaker: 00:20:47

And I'm showing up that same way.

Speaker: 00:20:50

now I have these health challenges, so I'm still trying to show up

Speaker: 00:20:53

and I'm pushing through 'em.

Speaker: 00:20:54

But it was like, I'm coming in now with 150 pound vest on,

Speaker: 00:20:57

still trying to push through 'em.

Speaker: 00:20:59

And now I got this mental challenge because I got people telling me, they're

Speaker: 00:21:03

like, Hey, you're gonna be on disability.

Speaker: 00:21:04

And I'm pushing up against, these limitations that other

Speaker: 00:21:07

people are trying to push on me.

Speaker: 00:21:09

And I'm asking myself, is this gonna be, is this gonna be it?

Speaker: 00:21:13

Am I gonna be dealing with this for life?

Speaker: 00:21:14

Am I ever gonna get better?

Speaker: 00:21:16

I'm even questioning God, why is this happening to me?

Speaker: 00:21:19

I started to realize later it wasn't happening to me.

Speaker: 00:21:22

It was happening for me.

Speaker: 00:21:23

When we talk about the Challenges.

Speaker: 00:21:26

I believe those are the thing.

Speaker: 00:21:28

A lot of times our prayers are answered in the form of challenges.

Speaker: 00:21:31

'cause it's the very challenges that get us to where we wanna go, that

Speaker: 00:21:34

build us into the people that we, into the people that we need to be.

Speaker: 00:21:38

So going back to the Circuit City part where I was there and, leaning into my

Speaker: 00:21:42

faith, prayed on it some more, all of a sudden the liquidators, came up to

Speaker: 00:21:45

me and they had to get rid of all the open merchandise and I immediately said.

Speaker: 00:21:50

What if I just made it easy on you and I just bought up all the merchandise from

Speaker: 00:21:53

every Circuit City store, all that open merchandise within four hours a year.

Speaker: 00:21:57

they're like, how much do you got?

Speaker: 00:21:58

And I'm like, I don't have anything in my checking account.

Speaker: 00:22:00

But I got a 401k with a little bit of change in it.

Speaker: 00:22:02

I got my last $7,000 to my name.

Speaker: 00:22:05

They agreed.

Speaker: 00:22:06

And I bought up about 70 to $80,000 worth electronics.

Speaker: 00:22:09

I was so excited.

Speaker: 00:22:10

I didn't even tell my wife at the time, forgot to run it by her.

Speaker: 00:22:13

She was working in retail.

Speaker: 00:22:14

So I just started bringing truckloads.

Speaker: 00:22:16

A merchandise home, and then she gets home and then sees she

Speaker: 00:22:19

doesn't have a living room anymore.

Speaker: 00:22:20

It's like literally filled to the ceiling with bow system speakers, remotes, like

Speaker: 00:22:25

everything that I could get, I'm like, I'm gonna put a dollar on this and, sell it.

Speaker: 00:22:29

So I did that and luckily she gave me grace, like she normally does, and, ended

Speaker: 00:22:34

up buying fixtures from Circuit City at the time and building a little mini.

Speaker: 00:22:38

Electronic store in my basement where I cataloged it.

Speaker: 00:22:41

So now I'm getting my insurance license at night.

Speaker: 00:22:42

I'm pushing through these health challenges.

Speaker: 00:22:44

I'm dealing with financial challenges where I had to lend money from

Speaker: 00:22:46

people to just to pay my mortgage.

Speaker: 00:22:49

The shot clock is ticking when I'm about to go on, disability.

Speaker: 00:22:52

And then at night, in the after hours, selling things on eBay.

Speaker: 00:22:55

So I ended up paying off all my medical debt with the eBay, and

Speaker: 00:22:59

then I ended up raising the minimum capital that I needed to start.

Speaker: 00:23:02

I couldn't buy an insurance agency, so I had to do it the hard way, the gritty way.

Speaker: 00:23:06

I won on a shoestring budget or just start one on a shoestring budget from

Speaker: 00:23:11

complete scratch with no customer base.

Speaker: 00:23:13

So that's what I did.

Speaker: 00:23:14

I had the minimum capital was $25,000 at the time and which was

Speaker: 00:23:18

only really two months survival.

Speaker: 00:23:20

'cause we had to start with two employees.

Speaker: 00:23:21

I had all overhead and, I was going down to training while

Speaker: 00:23:25

other people were driving in nice cars and staying in hotels.

Speaker: 00:23:29

I was driving in a beater with no ac going down in the dead heat of summer.

Speaker: 00:23:34

Staying on the floor of my sister's place that, also didn't have any

Speaker: 00:23:37

ac so I'm like dripping sweat, sleeping on an air mattress every day

Speaker: 00:23:41

just to save every dollar I could.

Speaker: 00:23:43

I got through training and then, they get in and they're like, I open up

Speaker: 00:23:46

my doors and I got two employees, and they're like, all right, we're gonna

Speaker: 00:23:49

train you for two weeks, and then after those two weeks you can start to sell.

Speaker: 00:23:53

And I'm like, hold the fort.

Speaker: 00:23:54

I only got about six to eight weeks operating capital and I

Speaker: 00:23:57

can't eat into a quarter of that.

Speaker: 00:23:59

So we're gonna do things a little bit differently.

Speaker: 00:24:01

I'm gonna sell and then you're gonna teach me as I do it.

Speaker: 00:24:04

So I started pulling people outta line at the DMV, or even remember my first

Speaker: 00:24:08

customer this day, her Heraldo Hernandez.

Speaker: 00:24:10

It should have took me 30 minutes to write his policies.

Speaker: 00:24:12

It took me four and a half hours.

Speaker: 00:24:14

Luckily he gave me a lot of grace.

Speaker: 00:24:17

But I learned quick and I, I had to just start running circles and

Speaker: 00:24:21

acting like somebody was trying to take it away from me 24 7.

Speaker: 00:24:24

'cause the reality was if I didn't make things happen within that short 60 day

Speaker: 00:24:28

window, I was gonna be living into that label that my doctor said on a couch.

Speaker: 00:24:32

I'd been out of business before.

Speaker: 00:24:34

the opportunity even started 'cause I had the payroll, I had the mall location.

Speaker: 00:24:38

But little did I realize by showing up the way that I did with that level of urgency.

Speaker: 00:24:43

That was the best way that I could be a leader and the best way to train my people

Speaker: 00:24:46

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: have you ever put any thought into that,

Speaker: 00:24:49

circuit City didn't make it obviously, and you were working your way up the

Speaker: 00:24:53

Circuit City ladder, and I I don't think God brings stuff on us, like sickness

Speaker: 00:24:59

and stuff like that, but have you ever thought about, had you just continued

Speaker: 00:25:03

along that Circuit City path and then they folded what your life would've been like?

Speaker: 00:25:07

That's a

: 00:25:07

No, absolutely.

: 00:25:08

And I think that, that's why later when I reflected, I realized

: 00:25:11

God wasn't doing things to me.

: 00:25:13

He was doing things for me.

: 00:25:14

And I think a lot of times when, when we pray and we step into our

: 00:25:18

faith, we gotta pay attention.

: 00:25:21

Because, while God will answer our prayers in the form of miracles, poof sometimes,

: 00:25:25

but I think more times than not, the miracles that he puts in our path are

: 00:25:29

opportunities where he'll force a door shut to open up a door that we're meant

: 00:25:34

to walk through to, to live into the shoes that, he wants us to be the creators

: 00:25:39

that he wants us to be in this world.

: 00:25:40

And I think a lot of times when we're sitting in a setback and

: 00:25:43

we're in the midst of our setbacks.

: 00:25:47

It's important to have a clear mind, to pay attention to those moments.

: 00:25:51

And I think there's two different types of moments.

: 00:25:53

There's inconsequential moments and then there's the defining moments.

: 00:25:59

So sometimes the inconsequential moments that are this big, we blow up and we turn

: 00:26:02

into a mountain or a big landmine in our lives and they create so much noise that

: 00:26:07

sometimes we miss those defining moments.

: 00:26:10

And luckily for me, I was able to.

: 00:26:13

Recognize some of those defining moments that God was putting in my

: 00:26:16

path when the shingle was coming down on the insurance agency, when

: 00:26:19

the liquidators came in and do that.

: 00:26:22

and to me it was just perfectly aligning so well, I knew this was the path that

: 00:26:27

God intended me to be on, and he was putting these, he was putting me through

: 00:26:31

these trials because just like anything else, anything great in life doesn't come

: 00:26:35

without great challenge and adversity.

: 00:26:37

You go to the gym and you try to get a six pack, well guess what?

: 00:26:39

You gotta show up day after day, sometimes for years, putting in

: 00:26:43

the work, experiencing the pain, having the discipline in order to

: 00:26:47

yield that, it just doesn't happen.

: 00:26:49

and I think that's the same thing with anything great in life.

: 00:26:51

There's challenges along the way.

: 00:26:53

And most people reason I share this is because most people, they stop, they

: 00:26:58

allow fear to paralyze them or they stop when the challenge is there and they quit

: 00:27:02

and they think it just didn't work out.

: 00:27:05

Sometimes it's just going that extra inch, it's going that extra degree in order

: 00:27:11

to, in order to really get where we want to go and get what we want out of this.

: 00:27:15

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Yeah.

: 00:27:15

And one, one of the things that I love about the story and how it's unfolding

: 00:27:19

is that, yeah, you were a hard worker.

: 00:27:21

your mindset, you were always, open and looking, but you were positioned because

: 00:27:27

of what many would look at as hardships.

: 00:27:30

You were positioned to do the thing that was that next step

: 00:27:34

along your way, that next journey.

: 00:27:35

And there's examples like that.

: 00:27:37

If we look back at successful people throughout time, we will often see that.

: 00:27:42

so you open up the agency, you got that going, and you're hustling to do that.

: 00:27:47

What was the timeframe then?

: 00:27:48

What year did you, get that started?

: 00:27:49

Yeah, so that was 2009, and then I'm hustling day after day, and

: 00:27:52

before I know it, like my people are starting to mimic me and they didn't

: 00:27:56

become at the exact level that I was 'cause I was just going like my

: 00:27:59

life was on the line, which it was.

: 00:28:01

But they started to become 60% of what we were.

: 00:28:04

What I was doing and we didn't really have a marketing budget, so I'm pulling people

: 00:28:07

outta the mall, peeling people outta the DMV and then I'm just doing old school,

: 00:28:11

picking up the white pages and smiling and dialing and figuring out talk paths.

: 00:28:15

And they start doing the same things.

: 00:28:17

And before we know it, our very first month, we ended

: 00:28:19

up one the top in the region.

: 00:28:21

Probably about three months in.

: 00:28:23

We ended up being number one of the top in the country where they started having

: 00:28:26

me go on speaking circuits, at Allstate.

: 00:28:29

How being a new agent, how I got the results that I was getting.

: 00:28:32

They started to allow me to open up multiple locations and then fast

: 00:28:36

forward, we ended up, scaling to about 50 team members and growing that to

: 00:28:40

$22 million in, reoccurring revenue.

: 00:28:42

And then that check, I set myself a goal.

: 00:28:45

I wanted to cash that check by 35.

: 00:28:46

Ended up cashing it by 34 and a half.

: 00:28:49

And was blessed to become my hero's hero.

: 00:28:51

I gave my wife the life she deserved.

: 00:28:53

I was able to create a life on my own terms, where now I'm a business owner, I

: 00:28:57

gotta work incredibly hard, but now I can do it on my own terms from my own health

: 00:29:01

while I'm continuously figuring that out.

: 00:29:04

And then for my parents, I take care of their bills.

: 00:29:06

To this day, I bought them their first brand new Cadillac and one of

: 00:29:09

the proudest moments of my life, just here a few years ago, I moved them

: 00:29:12

down to sunny Sarasota, Florida with me, and we bought them their dream.

: 00:29:16

Retirement home.

: 00:29:18

So we did that and I exited that first company.

: 00:29:20

ended up selling it off to my team members that we, developed.

: 00:29:24

And, they were ready to go off on their own.

: 00:29:26

So I'm like, things were becoming kinda less entrepreneurial in the world at

: 00:29:29

the time in Allstate specifically.

: 00:29:32

So I decided to sell to them, and that was another scary moment.

: 00:29:35

I felt like I was starting over.

: 00:29:36

Hey, I'm questioning myself.

: 00:29:38

Fear goes in right.

: 00:29:39

And, I think sometimes fear we can define one of two ways, is forget everything

: 00:29:43

and run or face everything and rise.

: 00:29:45

And I, and that voice kicked in of a mentor that told me that.

: 00:29:49

I was like, Dave, you can do it.

: 00:29:50

You're gonna face everything and rise and you're just gonna recreate it

: 00:29:52

and do what you did the first time.

: 00:29:53

And sure enough, found a business partner was getting outta his business.

: 00:29:57

We had like similar core values.

: 00:29:59

we ended up starting another insurance agency outside.

: 00:30:02

And, we grew that in a short few years, larger than the one that I did.

: 00:30:05

We started a recruiting company.

: 00:30:07

I built that into a multi seven figure, the number one recruiting company in the

: 00:30:10

insurance space, over 5,000, positive video testimonials and Google reviews.

: 00:30:15

We ended up, a couple software companies started to get into real

: 00:30:17

estate investing my money in the real estate and then all of our businesses.

: 00:30:20

'cause what a real heart and passion for me is impacting other people.

: 00:30:23

So we try to make all of our businesses for purpose businesses, and what

: 00:30:28

that means is we take part of our.

: 00:30:30

our time, our energy or profits, and then put it back into impacting community.

: 00:30:35

So in my brother's name, through our insurance agencies, we did a

: 00:30:38

thousand dollars scholarships where we probably gave away, I don't know,

: 00:30:41

$50,000 worth of scholarships to kids.

: 00:30:43

at risk served on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls

: 00:30:46

Club in our recruiting company.

: 00:30:48

We take resources and teach, inner city youth and veterans how to show up in

: 00:30:53

the interview process differently to help them gain meaningful employment.

: 00:30:56

And we give part of our profits back to, inner city kids give, the

: 00:31:01

homeless different things like that.

: 00:31:03

And then I started to realize, again, back to every time I went to the next place

: 00:31:08

in my life, it was a who moment, right?

: 00:31:10

So I started intentionally trying to create those who moments going

: 00:31:13

into masterminds, networking, and then hiring mentors.

: 00:31:17

I came across a mentor, a good friend of mine now, Cole Hatter.

: 00:31:20

He introduced me to another mentor that I hired and life coach

: 00:31:23

with now for about four years.

: 00:31:25

Tim Story and another mentor of mine's, Dave Meltzer.

: 00:31:28

But Tim, I was talking to him when we were riffing back and forth and

: 00:31:31

man, really missing the market.

: 00:31:34

We didn't learn any of the stuff that led to where we are today from school.

: 00:31:38

What is going on with our school system?

: 00:31:40

Imagine if the Masterminds where we're learning today, if we had that

: 00:31:43

when we were a kid, we'd be like on cloud nine right now, or on the moon.

: 00:31:47

We'd be doing some really huge things if we had that sort of head start

: 00:31:51

and then a light bulb was a God idea.

: 00:31:53

It's what if we had a mastermind for kids and their families so they could

: 00:31:56

get a head start and they could, because started to think about the statistics.

: 00:32:00

People like my brother.

: 00:32:02

Going down the wrong path.

: 00:32:03

How many other kids are going down the wrong path?

: 00:32:05

How many other David Williams that there were that maybe faced labels,

: 00:32:09

but they weren't able to find the right mentor to help them out and

: 00:32:12

they lived into their labels and they're still stuck into the setback.

: 00:32:15

you look at the statistics that are out there, 33% of kids,

: 00:32:18

they tried to medicate me.

: 00:32:19

Luckily my parents didn't allow it.

: 00:32:21

But 33% of our kids in our school system now are medicated in some

: 00:32:24

way, shape or form, whether it's Adderall or some antidepressant med.

: 00:32:27

What is a kid depressed about?

: 00:32:30

What are we doing to our kids?

: 00:32:31

And then you look at, in America, it's 78% of, kids that are 25 and

: 00:32:37

under have subprime credit scores, and they're living paycheck to paycheck.

: 00:32:40

90 some odd percent of kids are graduating school feeling they're ill prepared.

: 00:32:44

What does that leave them?

: 00:32:45

They don't wanna start life because it's fearful.

: 00:32:48

They should be excited to go out and create.

: 00:32:51

And excited to go out and start life in the world.

: 00:32:52

So what do they do?

: 00:32:53

They maybe go to college for the wrong thing, just so they can delay the

: 00:32:58

inevitable and then fall in the debt trap and ring up a hundred thousand

: 00:33:01

in debt, which is okay if maybe you're gonna be a doctor or a lawyer

: 00:33:03

or you have specific intention that you're gonna get a ROI on that degree.

: 00:33:08

But most kids don't know what an ROI in a return on investment,

: 00:33:11

and they just do it to delay life.

: 00:33:14

And now they start out in the hole and they think I'm gonna start

: 00:33:16

the American dream and get that new home, get that new Mercedes.

: 00:33:19

And I made it.

: 00:33:20

I got a home, I got a Mercedes, I got a hundred thousand college

: 00:33:22

debt, and I got the new iPhone.

: 00:33:24

But guess what?

: 00:33:25

I can barely even have any extra expendable income

: 00:33:30

and I can barely survive.

: 00:33:31

And I'm just like, I was maybe one health challenge away from losing it all.

: 00:33:38

And

: 00:33:39

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So David, David, one thing, one

: 00:33:41

thing, let me pause you a second.

: 00:33:42

let's again, let's have a little bit of back and forth dialogue here.

: 00:33:46

one of the things I'd love to talk about this current

: 00:33:49

state of the education system.

: 00:33:53

Both of my parents were educators and I do not disagree at all.

: 00:33:57

The education system has challenges, but this is something interesting.

: 00:34:04

I'm a product of that.

: 00:34:05

You're a product of that.

: 00:34:07

and I think some people might argue, but look, you, you know, you had your

: 00:34:10

back against the wall and y'all made it.

: 00:34:13

Okay.

: 00:34:14

So if someone were to say something to the effect of, yeah, but the education system

: 00:34:20

is just the base level, people are gonna figure it out like David did and Tim did.

: 00:34:25

How would you respond if someone brought that up?

: 00:34:27

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: yeah, the statistics I would

: 00:34:28

say show otherwise, right?

: 00:34:30

you look at the statistics in America where everybody's

: 00:34:33

living paycheck to paycheck.

: 00:34:34

You look at financial literacy, it's non-existent in our school

: 00:34:37

system, and I think it goes way back to the Rockefeller days.

: 00:34:40

And if you pay attention to Rockefeller, he put millions of dollars in the

: 00:34:44

school system and he said, I don't want.

: 00:34:47

Critical thinkers.

: 00:34:47

I don't want entrepreneurs, I don't want creators.

: 00:34:50

I want workers and consumers.

: 00:34:53

And I believe that base foundation has been the foundation of our

: 00:34:56

education system ever since.

: 00:34:58

And I think it's by design that they want to, that they want to create it that way.

: 00:35:03

And there's a reason why, the very thing they in, instead of talking

: 00:35:07

about money, instead of teaching about money, we teach money myths.

: 00:35:11

Like money is the root of all evil, so nobody wants to chase it.

: 00:35:13

But if you read the Bible, that's not what it says.

: 00:35:17

The worship of money is the root of all evil and money.

: 00:35:22

I think just my take on money is it makes the world go round.

: 00:35:25

Everything that we do is tied around money, so not talking about money is

: 00:35:30

actually the impolite thing to do.

: 00:35:31

We need to be, we need to be teaching our kids to have a great relationship

: 00:35:34

with money, and that's what we should be doing in our school system.

: 00:35:36

Not teaching parallelograms rather than, how to show up in life, how

: 00:35:40

to win emotional intelligence.

: 00:35:42

When we have a mental, high health crisis going into our country and

: 00:35:45

we're not teaching kids how to handle their emotions, they have 12 years is

: 00:35:49

an incredibly long time to educate.

: 00:35:53

12 years is a long time to create, I would say, some supernatural kids.

: 00:35:58

But we do the opposite of that.

: 00:36:00

And we have so many people that are suffering in this country and that's what,

: 00:36:04

when I was talking to Tim about that, I was like, Ima imagine if we created our

: 00:36:07

own mastermind where we brought some of the best and the brightest and the most

: 00:36:11

brilliant people and really taught the things they should be teaching in school.

: 00:36:14

We put faith back in the school 'cause they took faith

: 00:36:17

and core values outta school.

: 00:36:18

We started telling, kids how they could live a life by design freedom,

: 00:36:21

and maybe flip the script on what the American dream really should look like.

: 00:36:25

It's not going out and getting into the debt trap and just having

: 00:36:27

that new home and having, keeping up with the Jones, with the car.

: 00:36:30

But maybe you could take advantage of a new home buying program and instead

: 00:36:34

of buying just a home for yourself, you buy a duplex and then you rent

: 00:36:37

out the other side of the duplex and you don't gotta be an entrepreneur.

: 00:36:41

But then all of a sudden the passive income from Airbnb, that

: 00:36:44

other half, or renting out that other half, is now paying for your.

: 00:36:48

Living situation, it's paying for your Mercedes and now everything you get

: 00:36:51

in your W2 is all icing on the cake.

: 00:36:54

And now, instead of just trying to survive like every other kid and every

: 00:36:57

other American is doing right now, 'cause that's the reality of America,

: 00:37:00

they can thrive and actually live and enjoy their life and embrace freedom.

: 00:37:04

That's the narrative that we want to teach.

: 00:37:06

And then we wanted to bring in, we're like, Hey, we'll bring in, some of

: 00:37:09

the best and brightest influencers and we're thinking, how do we kick this off?

: 00:37:12

So what we did a free two day event.

: 00:37:14

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: David, let's go back to how

: 00:37:17

the problem was created.

: 00:37:18

I love, I actually was studying some things recently about

: 00:37:21

the issue with Rockefeller.

: 00:37:23

a lot of people would argue that our education system does

: 00:37:26

a good job of getting some basic information out to everybody.

: 00:37:32

I actually have this thought that what we're kind of doing is, I hate

: 00:37:36

to use the term dumbing down, but we're basically dumbing down almost

: 00:37:40

culture and society, that there does need to be some different paths.

: 00:37:46

That people go down and I don't know that everyone needs to sit in a public school.

: 00:37:49

We homeschool our children and, and all of that.

: 00:37:52

But, what I'm hearing you say is that you guys are working towards some other

: 00:37:58

alternatives, but I don't think you're gonna want to do this with the masses.

: 00:38:02

Is that correct?

: 00:38:05

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: We wanna do it with anybody that wants

: 00:38:07

the opportunity and wants to learn.

: 00:38:09

So we actually, we decided, hey, we're gonna launch this.

: 00:38:12

And we ended up doing a free two day event.

: 00:38:14

We brought some of the biggest speakers in Eric Thomas, Jim Quick Tim Story.

: 00:38:20

And then we broke a Guinness World record for the most amount of parents and kids to

: 00:38:24

learn about financial literacy together.

: 00:38:25

That showed us that there's a thirst and there's an appetite out there.

: 00:38:29

So we said we're gonna make this program.

: 00:38:30

If somebody can't afford it, we're gonna bless 'em and give

: 00:38:32

'em a grant to give 'em minutes.

: 00:38:33

So anybody that has the will to learn and they wanna kinda learn

: 00:38:39

differently and they want the path to success that we're gonna leave.

: 00:38:43

No family, no kid left behind.

: 00:38:46

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So are most of the people that

: 00:38:47

are coming to you, are they the kids or the parents or both?

: 00:38:51

What's the, what's the ratio there?

: 00:38:52

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: It's typically through the parents and

: 00:38:54

then the parents are bringing the kids in and we decide we wanna put a spin on it.

: 00:38:58

'cause it's tough to get kids excited about education.

: 00:39:00

We're like, how do we do that?

: 00:39:01

And we can influence through influencers.

: 00:39:03

What if we took some of their idols that are out there?

: 00:39:05

Like one of our next calls we have coming up, Carolina, she's a child influencer.

: 00:39:09

She's 12 years old.

: 00:39:10

She's a YouTube sensation.

: 00:39:12

With 9 million followers, violinists, and she's gonna be talking about

: 00:39:17

how she built a life at a young age and what the work looked like.

: 00:39:20

So now if we can bring in influencers like that, that kids already follow on

: 00:39:24

social media now that gets 'em excited about education, they get excited,

: 00:39:28

then they're maybe to see a Carolina, or maybe we get a Tim Tebow that

: 00:39:31

comes to talk on a call and they're like, wow, we're gonna see Tim Tebow.

: 00:39:34

But now they come on the call and then they learn some of the things that

: 00:39:38

are gonna get them to life by design.

: 00:39:40

So we're taking influencers to influence and excite kids around education and try

: 00:39:45

to do things differently, and our goal is to keep growing it and expanding it, so

: 00:39:48

we keep tracking bigger and bigger names.

: 00:39:51

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Sure.

: 00:39:51

So one of the things I did, I went over to the site, yesterday when

: 00:39:55

I was kinda looking around and I do I guess one thing I want to

: 00:39:58

ask is the name, the fifth degree.

: 00:40:01

I noticed that you guys had, the method for success and, fate, finances,

: 00:40:06

fitness, family, and then Freedom.

: 00:40:08

I guess that's where that spins off from.

: 00:40:11

Say just a little bit about those find, foundational items.

: 00:40:14

We don't have, we don't have time to go into

: 00:40:16

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: Yeah,

: 00:40:16

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: at length, but, but just talk

: 00:40:18

a little bit about that because obviously y'all are building it on

: 00:40:21

those five items, which is cool.

: 00:40:23

I think.

: 00:40:24

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: No, absolutely.

: 00:40:25

So you know, the fifth degree academy, it's the five degrees of learning that I

: 00:40:28

feel they don't teach enough in school.

: 00:40:30

Faith.

: 00:40:30

Family freedom, finances, and fitness.

: 00:40:33

Because without faith, I don't think you can go anywhere,

: 00:40:36

no matter what your faith is.

: 00:40:37

I think you gotta have faith as the foundation first and foremost.

: 00:40:40

understand with, it's not about keeping up with the Joneses, but

: 00:40:43

it's like creating a life by design.

: 00:40:45

Creating that freedom where you can enjoy life and not just be, a

: 00:40:49

prisoner chain to your nine to five or just, working your life away.

: 00:40:54

And then, so many Americans do and you never get to enjoy it, So we

: 00:40:57

want to teach them a different way.

: 00:40:58

And then, also, just like me, nobody taught me at a young

: 00:41:01

age to focus on my health.

: 00:41:03

And I truly believe one of the biggest things that triggered me,

: 00:41:06

I was a young buck starting a $24 million superstore Circuit City.

: 00:41:10

I was running and I was working 16 hour days.

: 00:41:13

I wasn't eating right.

: 00:41:14

I wasn't working out anymore After I got done with college.

: 00:41:17

And, I think stress triggered it and that's what triggered, I had a genetic

: 00:41:21

disposition for the disorder that I have.

: 00:41:23

But I do believe it was the lifestyle.

: 00:41:25

It was the stress.

: 00:41:26

It wasn't taking care of myself.

: 00:41:27

And there's so many people that don't learn that until it's too late.

: 00:41:30

And without your health is wealth.

: 00:41:32

And we want to teach that kids at a early age is to like, take care of

: 00:41:36

your body because you only get one.

: 00:41:39

And how to handle stress and how to process emotions and how to, maybe

: 00:41:44

Feed our body the right nutrients so we can go out there and, feel great when

: 00:41:48

we're, when we're, building our lives.

: 00:41:52

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So what's the funnel that brings people

: 00:41:55

into, obviously people listening in, if there's a parent or something.

: 00:41:58

We're gonna give 'em the information here in a little while.

: 00:42:00

But in general, are you bringing people in through online means?

: 00:42:05

Are you bringing people in through some kind of local structure?

: 00:42:08

what are some of the avenues that someone can discover or find what

: 00:42:13

you're doing with Fifth Degree Academy?

: 00:42:15

That might be a marketing question, but that's cool.

: 00:42:18

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: Yeah, no, absolutely.

: 00:42:18

We're in the Apple store, the Android store, so we got an app you can

: 00:42:21

download for the community to go on our biweekly calls with our experts

: 00:42:25

and influencers we have coming in.

: 00:42:27

we're on social media.

: 00:42:28

we did that, two day world record event to kick it off, broke the Guinness

: 00:42:31

World Record, and now we're doing micro events like that, going out

: 00:42:34

and serving the community for free.

: 00:42:36

Like in March, we're actually going down to la.

: 00:42:39

We're bringing in some, big speakers there, bringing in all local families.

: 00:42:42

We're gonna be broadcasting that virtually and then bringing anybody in

: 00:42:45

local that wants to be a part of it.

: 00:42:47

Attending shows, anywhere we can where there's a, there's a hunger

: 00:42:52

and we're starting out with, some of those entrepreneur parents.

: 00:42:55

starting out with the homeschool parents.

: 00:42:57

'cause we know entrepreneur parents really get it.

: 00:42:59

We know the homeschool parents get it.

: 00:43:01

And when we build the foundation there, our goal is to take that

: 00:43:05

community and then bring the rest of the parents in and really show

: 00:43:08

them what learning can be all about.

: 00:43:11

And get their kids to think differently and show up.

: 00:43:13

'cause again, I go back to my brother, nobody ever really taught him.

: 00:43:17

He never discovered his why and his purpose and his passion in this world.

: 00:43:21

And I think there's so many kids when you look at 'em, go down the wrong path.

: 00:43:24

That they just don't have that why they don't have that purpose and the mission.

: 00:43:27

And we wanna help every kid that we can touch find that, that purpose-driven life.

: 00:43:33

Because when you have a purpose, you wake up with a different pep in your step.

: 00:43:36

You don't want to quit, you don't want to give up.

: 00:43:38

You're excited about life.

: 00:43:39

And that's what we want to help, families do.

: 00:43:42

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Sure some people, I can almost hear

: 00:43:46

some people in a media setting and sometimes we have to turn this off,

: 00:43:50

but they would want to know what you're doing for like an at risk type group.

: 00:43:56

I was fortunate it sounds like you were too, that you showed up at school.

: 00:44:00

At least when you went and you had some food that, that you had eaten

: 00:44:05

that morning, your parents probably encouraged you to go to school.

: 00:44:09

And there's a lot of, that to me, the system that we've got, there's

: 00:44:13

so many, not even like your brother, but there're just so many that aren't

: 00:44:17

even, they're not even getting to the table or getting even to, to the

: 00:44:21

place to slip through the cracks.

: 00:44:24

I think you mentioned some scholarshipping and some things like that, but is there

: 00:44:27

something in place now or something down the road for what I think we

: 00:44:32

would term at risk type students?

: 00:44:35

And if there's not that's fine.

: 00:44:36

I'm just curious about that.

: 00:44:39

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: Yeah, absolutely.

: 00:44:39

That's a great question.

: 00:44:40

So we actually have a buy one bless one component to our program.

: 00:44:43

For every paid membership.

: 00:44:44

We'll actually take at risk youth that maybe can't afford, their family, can't

: 00:44:48

afford it to come into the program.

: 00:44:49

Or if we ever have a family that says, Hey, I wanna come

: 00:44:51

in, but maybe I can't afford it.

: 00:44:53

We'll have a grant opportunity where they can come in at no cost 'cause we

: 00:44:57

don't wanna leave a family left behind.

: 00:44:59

And we actually partner with organizations like that.

: 00:45:01

So we're in talks with the Dream Center down in la, the Boys and Girls Club, and

: 00:45:06

we'll offer this up to free for some of those organizations that actually serve,

: 00:45:10

those very kids, those at-risk kids that might, that might need it the most.

: 00:45:13

But if you think about that too, those are the ones that are struggling

: 00:45:17

in the education system the most.

: 00:45:18

They're not excited about education.

: 00:45:20

it's not, the current system's not working out for them, and that's why

: 00:45:23

we want to take some of their idols.

: 00:45:25

Some of the people they look up to, some of the people they get excited

: 00:45:27

about when they hear their name start to bring them into the call, and then

: 00:45:31

that gets them excited to attend.

: 00:45:33

And then once they're there, the byproduct is that they're gonna learn a

: 00:45:37

thing or two about a thing or two from that, from somebody that's got weight.

: 00:45:41

Because a lot of times, even when I was growing up as a kid, my

: 00:45:43

parents would give me great advice, but sometimes we hear it from our

: 00:45:46

parents or we hear it from a teacher.

: 00:45:48

It's in one ear and out the other, but then all of a sudden, maybe a, an

: 00:45:52

influencer celebrity, somebody comes in that's knows a thing or two about a

: 00:45:56

thing or two that's had some real world success and they're already looking up to

: 00:46:00

that person and they're excited about it.

: 00:46:02

Now all of a sudden it reinforces the principal where we're not,

: 00:46:05

trying to replace the school system.

: 00:46:06

We're not trying to replace parenting.

: 00:46:08

We wanna partner with the school system, we wanna partner with

: 00:46:11

parents, reinforce the things they're already trying to teach.

: 00:46:13

And so it sticks and it cements, and then it makes kids wanna.

: 00:46:17

Have something to chase and take action on.

: 00:46:19

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: You mentioned when you had conversations

: 00:46:21

with Tim that you thought this would be somewhat of a mastermind, but I think

: 00:46:26

there's a digital component to it and I think mastermind is a word that's used

: 00:46:31

in an odd way in our current culture.

: 00:46:33

David, I'm sure you're aware there's some people that, we go and there's

: 00:46:36

10 of us that sit around a table and we talk, which I love, by the way.

: 00:46:40

I love doing that.

: 00:46:41

but when you say mastermind, I think it sounds to me like what you're doing

: 00:46:45

is creating an avenue for people to get some things outside of the norm.

: 00:46:51

Tell me all the ways you mentioned events you mentioned, 'cause I don't know, is

: 00:46:56

there a mastermind per se, or is it just that they're stepping into this app and

: 00:47:02

it gives them access to a lot of things?

: 00:47:03

Tell me a little

: 00:47:04

bit more about the logistics of it.

: 00:47:05

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: So basically the Mastermind is

: 00:47:06

we do two live calls a month.

: 00:47:08

so ev the second Tuesday, the last Tuesday of every month.

: 00:47:12

That will bring in an expert speaker, and then we'll typically try to do

: 00:47:16

every month an influencer where it's a big name individual and have an expert

: 00:47:22

on the other call, and then they're coming in and teaching on things.

: 00:47:25

And then we give some homework in between too.

: 00:47:26

So I'll give you an example.

: 00:47:27

One of the calls, Tim's story came in and talked about having the miracle mentality.

: 00:47:32

Tim Story's a bestselling author, life coach of the Stars,

: 00:47:34

works with Robert Downey, Jr.

: 00:47:36

P Diddy came in, kids were excited about meeting with him.

: 00:47:39

And then after that call.

: 00:47:41

We actually gave the parents and the kids an action guide and taught

: 00:47:46

them about how they can create core values in the household.

: 00:47:49

'cause every one of my businesses, we created core values and those

: 00:47:52

are the very things that cemented the foundation of our company.

: 00:47:55

It allowed us to grow.

: 00:47:56

We're like, a lot of times when you look at families, they don't have

: 00:47:58

a defined, it's maybe talked about here and there, but it's not clear.

: 00:48:02

There's not clarity when it comes to core values in the household.

: 00:48:06

So we'd give them a template and then mom, dad, and the kids, and it's gonna

: 00:48:09

be different family to family, can sit around and create those core values and

: 00:48:13

commit to hold each other accountable.

: 00:48:15

And it's not just the parents holding the kids accountable, but maybe mom and

: 00:48:18

dad come home one day and they're having an off day and they're not living into

: 00:48:21

that value system that they agreed upon.

: 00:48:23

And now the kids.

: 00:48:24

Can help hold mom and dad accountable to help strengthen

: 00:48:27

and cement the family unit.

: 00:48:28

So our core values, to give you an example, is, put God first in everything

: 00:48:32

that we do, live with integrity.

: 00:48:34

Everybody that we touch, leave them better off.

: 00:48:37

A Williams never quits.

: 00:48:38

A Williams always finds a way, a Williams always shows up in life.

: 00:48:43

A Williams is set out to change the world.

: 00:48:46

So we set out these core values in our own household.

: 00:48:48

So as my little guy grows older and older.

: 00:48:51

We can speak to those things and we can live into those things and he knows what

: 00:48:55

it means to be a Williams and we wanna teach whether you're a, whether you're a

: 00:48:59

Smith, you're a Johnson, whoever it might be, what it means to be in your family.

: 00:49:03

What are those values that are important that you can live by that,

: 00:49:07

that are gonna allow you to really, take that next level in life together.

: 00:49:10

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: what are some of the challenges,

: 00:49:11

David, that you guys are identifying with this model?

: 00:49:15

We've already talked about, there's this baked in system of, I, I,

: 00:49:21

oh, I hate to say mediocrity.

: 00:49:22

It's even less than that at times, that we are, that we're fighting against

: 00:49:26

in our current society and culture.

: 00:49:28

But what are some things that as you look out over the next few years, you go, these

: 00:49:33

are some hurdles that we're gonna have to overcome with this model in this system.

: 00:49:38

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: I think, one of the things is

: 00:49:40

entitlement, and I think that's what's being bred in our school system.

: 00:49:42

It's being bred by the media.

: 00:49:44

we're, instead of teaching our kids to be a victor, we're teaching them to be a.

: 00:49:49

You can't simultaneously be a victim and a victor at the same time.

: 00:49:53

It just doesn't work.

: 00:49:54

You gotta be, you gotta choose one or the other.

: 00:49:56

But when you look at it, there's this sense of entitlement.

: 00:49:59

It's all being from the top down in our education system that's

: 00:50:02

being, instilled into our kids.

: 00:50:04

And you're seeing that in today's culture in society where, if you

: 00:50:08

look back 10, 20, 30 years ago, it was a totally different dynamic.

: 00:50:14

It was a totally different culture.

: 00:50:16

But people don't want to, you know, we see it even in our recruiting company that

: 00:50:19

people just don't wanna work these days.

: 00:50:20

There's this sense of entitlement that I'm not gonna take a job

: 00:50:23

unless I do this, and this.

: 00:50:25

When you look at back in, in my era, when I was growing up, heck, if you

: 00:50:29

were the janitor, you showed up and just gave it everything that you got.

: 00:50:34

And I think, a lot of that's being lost.

: 00:50:36

And there's a sense of instead of working and earning.

: 00:50:40

What actually being taught, it's the war on entitlement.

: 00:50:42

So I'd say that's gonna be one of the, that's one of the core challenges there

: 00:50:45

is creating that mind shift in competing against culture, competing against

: 00:50:49

society that's actually teaching that and instilling that in this next generation.

: 00:50:53

mean, you look at that, you look at, in colleges, they have safe

: 00:50:55

spaces, um, for people to go.

: 00:50:57

you look at this woke culture that's taking over and you

: 00:51:00

know what I think that is, is.

: 00:51:02

You look at historically, why did kids always join gangs in the past?

: 00:51:06

kids join gangs.

: 00:51:07

They don't have a father figure.

: 00:51:08

They don't have a mentor in their life.

: 00:51:10

And so now they see somebody there.

: 00:51:12

I can maybe go into this gang and then that's gonna be my community

: 00:51:15

because I don't have anybody else.

: 00:51:17

And now, in this day and age, when I was a kid and I was

: 00:51:19

bullied, it was pretty isolated.

: 00:51:21

social media can take one post to destroy a kid Now.

: 00:51:24

If you are a kid that goes into school and goes into society and you're not

: 00:51:27

academically strong, you're not wealthy, or maybe not a jock, and you just don't

: 00:51:31

meet some of those stereotypical molds and you don't have a place, or you're maybe

: 00:51:35

being bullied, who's gonna take you in?

: 00:51:37

it's the new woke culture and the woke community will take me in, and now all

: 00:51:43

of a sudden, if I identify over here and I identify with these principles

: 00:51:47

that I may not agree with, At least I know that I can no longer be bullied

: 00:51:52

and now I'm a part of something.

: 00:51:53

I was a part of nothing.

: 00:51:55

And if anybody ever started to stand against me, I got

: 00:51:58

cancel culture on my side now.

: 00:52:00

And that's what we're sadly seeing in our society today, is if you look at

: 00:52:04

this kind of woke ism, so to speak, and you look at the percentage of people

: 00:52:08

that are falling down this path just over these past couple of years alone.

: 00:52:12

It's eight x of people identifying into this new kind

: 00:52:16

of, this new kind of movement.

: 00:52:17

And it's not resulting in anything good.

: 00:52:19

it's that entitlement mindset.

: 00:52:22

It's that, the rich just get richer.

: 00:52:24

I don't have the same opportunities because of X, Y, Z.

: 00:52:27

we live in the greatest country on earth and everybody has a

: 00:52:31

phenomenal opportunity to be here.

: 00:52:32

But if you have the right mindset, you have the right work ethic, and

: 00:52:35

you're taught to go out and show up, especially in this day and age.

: 00:52:38

I think everybody today versus back in my day, have more of an opportunity

: 00:52:43

than ever because you know what?

: 00:52:45

Nobody's showing up anymore.

: 00:52:46

So if you just come in and you just show up at a level that most people won't like,

: 00:52:51

you're already in the 1% of the 1%, and then people are gonna take note to that.

: 00:52:55

And it's such a rare thing in this day and age.

: 00:52:58

You can climb that ladder as fast as you want to, but nobody's being taught

: 00:53:03

and nobody's given that opportunity and nobody's getting that clarity.

: 00:53:07

That, they can get everything out that they want outta this life, but it

: 00:53:10

typically comes after hard work.

: 00:53:13

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Yeah, it does definitely appear

: 00:53:15

as if we're kind of almost dividing up into two camps.

: 00:53:19

There's that group that you just mentioned, the Entitlement group, and

: 00:53:22

then there's a group . Unfortunately, from my view, it seems this group is

: 00:53:26

getting smaller and smaller that they still do want to either work or learn or

: 00:53:31

grow or whatever term you want to use.

: 00:53:34

but let's just say someone is in that group or they're a parent that's in

: 00:53:39

that group of that maybe even smaller group that they do want to grow.

: 00:53:44

They do wanna create some atmosphere environments for their children or

: 00:53:48

someone who's in that age group.

: 00:53:49

What do they need to do?

: 00:53:50

What is an action step that they need to do, David, to take the next step to maybe

: 00:53:56

step closer to what you guys are doing with fifth degree or anything like that.

: 00:53:59

You could give information on where they can go and stuff like that here

: 00:54:02

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: So they

: 00:54:02

can go to fifth degree.com.

: 00:54:03

It's five th degree.com they can subscribe on there.

: 00:54:07

They can reach out to this, at support@fifthdegree.com.

: 00:54:11

We're in the Apple store, we're in the Android store.

: 00:54:14

if somebody's out there and you go to the website and you're

: 00:54:16

like, Hey, I just can't afford it.

: 00:54:17

again, we have a grant process for that 'cause we don't wanna

: 00:54:20

leave any family left behind.

: 00:54:22

We're really not doing this for the money.

: 00:54:24

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Definitely we'll include, that, those

: 00:54:26

links and all down in the notes.

: 00:54:28

Hey David, we are seek, go create those three words here.

: 00:54:31

I'm gonna let you choose one as my last question.

: 00:54:33

Choose one of those words over the other two, and why, which one do you choose?

: 00:54:36

Seek, go, or create.

: 00:54:39

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_6_01-04-2024_141345: I'm gonna choose, uh, create, and actually

: 00:54:42

you can't see on the other side of the wall, but I got the sign behind me.

: 00:54:44

It says, go to distance.

: 00:54:45

And on the other side of the wall it says if you build it, the

: 00:54:48

reason it says if you build it.

: 00:54:50

One of my favorite movies growing up as a kid was the Field of Dreams.

: 00:54:54

And I feel like throughout my life, leaning in my faith, God always

: 00:54:57

spoke to me through that movies.

: 00:54:59

'cause when it came to creating something, I would hear that voice.

: 00:55:02

If you build it, they will come.

: 00:55:04

And when it came to, the Fifth Degree Academy.

: 00:55:07

And we did this, event and we broke the Guinness World record.

: 00:55:10

I'm like, how am I gonna get all these big speakers to come in?

: 00:55:12

And, I feel like God spoke to me and I heard the words, if

: 00:55:15

you build it, they will come.

: 00:55:16

If I build the table, if I build the right program, if I build the

: 00:55:19

right image to it, the branding, they all these speakers are gonna come.

: 00:55:23

And that's exactly what happened.

: 00:55:24

God brought 'em our way.

: 00:55:25

We had over a million dollars with the speakers kind of pour into the program.

: 00:55:29

We still got people outreaching that's in there.

: 00:55:31

And, uh, I, I believe we're all put on this earth to be creators.

: 00:55:36

Um, you know, we weren't put on this earth like Rockefeller wants

: 00:55:39

us to be, consumers and, workers.

: 00:55:42

I believe God put us on this earth, uh, Rockefeller to be creators and, to

: 00:55:48

make, positive impact in this world.

: 00:55:50

So that's why I choose the world.

: 00:55:51

Create.

: 00:55:53

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Very good.

: 00:55:54

Yes.

: 00:55:54

And great movie reference there.

: 00:55:56

Field of Dreams, I think one of the best sports movies ever.

: 00:55:59

Just, just

: 00:56:00

say that David, I appreciate it.

: 00:56:02

We are pulling for you in the Fifth Degree Academy.

: 00:56:05

definitely go down and check out the links.

: 00:56:06

If you've been listening in, share it.

: 00:56:08

You probably know someone that needs to connect with David and what his team are

: 00:56:13

doing over there at Fifth Degree Academy.

: 00:56:14

Make, make sure you go check it out yourself if you've got children or if

: 00:56:19

you are a child in that age bracket and, if not, share it with others.

: 00:56:23

We are seek go create here releasing new episodes every Monday.

: 00:56:26

Your support means the world to us.

: 00:56:28

Now you can tip us.

: 00:56:29

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: 00:56:34

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: 00:56:40

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: 00:56:43

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: 00:56:50

Until next time, we appreciate you joining us here.

: 00:56:53

Until next time, continue being all that you were created to be.