Channeling Adversity into Action: Best Selling Author & Motivational Speaker William "King" Hollis

In this episode, we sat down with William 'King' Hollis, freestyle motivational speaker, changer of lives and inspiring individuals through his powerful words and personal life experiences.

Host Brad and guest William 'King' Hollis discuss the journey of overcoming adversity, the importance of faith, and the power of unity and love. Hollis shares his personal story of transformation from a challenging upbringing to becoming a motivational speaker, emphasizing the significance of serving others and living authentically. The conversation highlights the need for connection and understanding among people, as well as the role of spirituality in personal growth.

William discusses the importance of faith, resilience, and storytelling in overcoming adversity. They emphasize the need for emotional control and the impact of generational burdens on mental health. The conversation also touches on the significance of leaving a legacy and the upcoming projects aimed at inspiring others through personal stories and creative expressions.

Video Chapters

00:00 Introduction to William King Hollis
01:54 Overcoming Adversity and Finding Purpose
06:01 The Journey of a Motivational Speaker
09:54 Faith and Trust in God
14:04 The Importance of Unity and Love
18:10 The Concept of Royalty and Authenticity
22:08 Living a Life of Service and Gratitude
25:12 Faith and Resilience in Adversity
28:15 The Power of Storytelling for Youth
31:08 Overcoming Generational Burdens
34:16 Emotional Control and Personal Growth
40:37 Legacy and Life's Purpose
42:06 Upcoming Projects and New Ventures

About William "King" Hollis:

King is an international motivational speaker, author & coach. From being homeless to quickly becoming one of the top motivational speakers in the world, he has truly spoken his way to success. That same passion, authenticity and his unique gift of connecting to the hearts of people everywhere led him to accomplish something no speaker has ever done.

In 2019 he made history by becoming the first and only paid motivational speaker featured at the highly prestigious Fashion Week held in Milan, Italy. This proved to be a turning point and solidified him as being one of the greatest young motivational speakers of our time.

From everyday listeners to celebrities, actors, professional athletes and leading corporations, his speeches continue to make him a household name in personal development.

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Transcript

Brad (00:00)

Welcome to the SALTYmf Podcast. Today we have a special guest. I'm so excited to spend time with William King Hollis. He's been an inspirational, motivational speaker. You may have heard his speech at the Super Bowl. He's had a couple books out. He just signed a new deal with Epic Records for distribution. He's starting a new podcast. He's my spirit animal brother. Welcome to the show.

William (00:28)
Thank you, you, thank you. And the record label is... Take it easy on my brother, because my brother do a million things in one day, but he loves me and I love him back.

Brad (00:41)
Empire

William (00:44)
It's a truly an honor man to be on Salty MF. This is one of my favorite brands. ⁓ And not only favorite brands, but one of my favorite human beings. You my guy. I tell everybody a brand is all about representation. know, people don't buy material. They buy what it represents. You're a great guy that represents something. So powerful man. Ever since I met you at John Brickensham Super Bowl party, ⁓ man, I've been watching

everything about your show, everything about the brand and I was like man, it would be pretty cool to have an opportunity to get on that amazing podcast. I'm here now man.

Brad (01:24)
I'm gracious

to you, I'll tell you, I meet a lot of people in my life and business and stuff. ⁓ When William and I first met, I felt like we'd been playing in the schoolyard and we just picked up where we picked up. I said, there's some people in life you know are family, regardless of whether you're blood. William is one of those guys. I think you guys are brother. I'm excited to have you because, first of all, there's...

There's so much good things happening to you right now in your life. And it's, it's amazing. So to the audience, a of people may not know about William, but William was an athlete. Uh, he came from Pontiac, Pontiac, Michigan. Um, you know, he had some hard times and he was a younger man, but he, he, he overcame that, believed in God and just had some amazing things happen. So just, just give everybody a quick, like,

Who you are what what you're about and some of the things that people will know you about a lot of people will know you but for the goes that don't know you let's just give us a brief history of you where you went from you went from you went from like going like ten miles an hour to a thousand miles an hour so

William (02:34)
I'm a man that realized that my pain was my biggest blessing. you know, I grew up in Pontiac, Michigan. My mother was a heroin addict. My father was a career criminal. You know, growing up as a kid, I always saw greater.

I always had a big imagination, man. I remember on summer days, King, I'd get up in the morning time before, everybody remember these days when we were kids, and we'd be the first one up summertime, first day or second day of summer. And nobody else is up but you. And you go outside, man, I used to walk outside, bro, and I used look down and I used to see crack needles, used to see crack pipes, used to see blood stains, bullets, all kinds of things, man. But when I looked in the sky, I saw something.

beautiful and I saw an opportunity to escape. I looked at the sky as an ocean, man. It's a place where ⁓ you can dive in and God is your lifeguard, you know? And I took pride in learning how to be a man before I became one.

Growing up watching my mother struggle, through abuse, go through all of these different things, it made me realize that sometimes you're going to have to bleed a while so you can shine a little bit. And I believe watching my life and watching my mother go through what she went through, she was molested as a child, we don't talk about that a lot.

We don't talk about the molestation of young men and young women that go through their whole life with that not realizing that they are special and that they were taken advantage of and it's not them. And I realize for my life... ⁓

I didn't grow up so much different than a lot of inner city kids that grew up like me, but what I did do was I realized that I wanted more, and that's a lot of kids don't do. I realized that I have the power to change my life. And I realized that the power of being an amazing man comes with serving.

And not the type of servant where you get paid for when you finish. The type of servant that you give when I want anything in return. Those are the best gifts and those are the gifts that stick. You know what I mean? So that's what that's my lifestyle was, know, raising myself, watching terrible things growing up and understanding that, ⁓

Nobody's gonna save you but you so whatever you do every single day make sure that you're working at your craft You're not wasting time don't procrastinate and it taught me that don't procrastinate every celebration I learned this quote and it changed my life every man should write this down the moment That you believe you made it. It's the moment that you start at the beginning And I and I wake up and I say that every day to myself

Brad (05:33)
You know, you

remember the old footprints in the sand where there were two sets of footprints and then there was only one set of footprints and the man said to God, God, why did you leave me? And he said, I carried you in those moments. And so that's so true in life that, you know, through the hard times and the struggles, which everybody has some bad times, you know, you might be getting carried and you don't know about it.

You know, you don't see the footprints, but you're not the one in control. That's awesome. Well, what's amazing to me, to be honest is you obviously have been a spiritual person and a good person your whole life, which is awesome. And so good things come to those who stay the path and who believe in themselves. And I think that's the hardest thing for not just men, in women is to have enough confidence to believe in yourself.

William (06:17)
Mm-hmm.

Brad (06:30)
Follow your dream follow your goal and I mean you're you're living that right now and that's that's amazing like what you you had a story that When you first started speaking you had you had gone to I think it was like a high school and you had given and that yeah You'd kind of given that speech and then someone had heard it and then came to you and said hey How much do you charge to speak?

And you were like, don't, I don't know. I like, I don't even know how much. So was it that moment that was the catalyst that kind of, you know, pushed you forward? Was that one?

William (07:04)
I man that was God putting his arms around me and asking me to trust him.

You know, trust me without being able to see what's next. And you know, that story, people need to hear it. It's a story that, you know, I was sleeping outside of a Turkey Hill gas station and an interim defensive line coach for the ASI Panthers in Red and Pennsylvania. It was an arena team. And she saw me talking to a group of players, but I also was homeless. I was sleeping outside of the Turkey Hill gas station. And one day she came to the gas

station and I ended up pumping her gas. I remembered it from the game and the young men. And she was like, you speak very well young men. I would love for you to come speak to a group of my kids. you know, about that same day I walked from Redding, Pennsylvania, ⁓ dingy little white collar t-shirt, dirty little slacks, whatever I had.

And I went and I spoke within five minutes, the young man was in tears and I was getting ready to go back to commit suicide at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel. I had a four or five pistol that I did take into the school.

just how I was traveling and moving at that time. And as I walked back to the Abraham Lincoln Hotel, I got a phone call probably about eight to seven steps away from the steps. And she said, William, how much do you charge to speak? And I said, $75 or $100, I ain't know nothing about speaking fee. And she invited me back to assembly of 500 kids. I went and did that assembly, 500 standing ovation, first time.

speaking.

Brad (08:56)
God put you back on the ground at that moment and you started to walk.

William (09:01)
And he changed my life. I didn't even know I was a speaker. you fast forward 10 years later, I'm over 900 million views on YouTube, First speaker to speak during my live fashion week. I remember I got a call to Italy the night before my floor came. That's My first apartment I got. That's great. Man, I can honestly say, when you truly...

Brad (09:17)
Great story. ⁓

William (09:26)
trust God, you know, it's a scripture in the Bible, I can't quote it verbatim, but it talks about faith and how the dream can never come true if you have an inkling of doubt in God. And sometimes having faith in God is painful. Sometimes having faith in God is scary, it's fearful.

Brad (09:53)
Cuz you don't understand it. You don't understand why. You don't understand what he's doing to build you up, to make you stronger, to make you better. You just don't know, so you can't comprehend it. And we wanna comprehend things in life. And the reality of it is, we're not ready to comprehend.

William (10:10)
And another thing is realizing that you're not in control. As a man, we want to be in control. And in God's eyes, me and you, we infants.

Brad (10:14)
That's true.

⁓ yeah, yeah. We're children, children of God, man. He's kind of running around.

William (10:28)
We baby. So

it's just like us as fathers. I got my son now, five months, my baby King. And he is teaching me, you know.

Brad (10:46)
patience.

William (10:46)
patience and trust in the process and understanding. It's so neat when you're growing up with your child, your son in particular, because he's literally watching you grow into a man as you help him grow into a man. It's like you're not even done growing into a man, but God gives you that to show you like, this is what I've been doing with you.

Brad (11:14)
Yeah.

William (11:15)
The best way you can show me you thankful for what I've done for you to show me in your son to tell your son about me

Brad (11:20)
100 % I

tell you I've had four kids, I four children and you Kacen, you met Kacen, outside, I had a granddaughter. And the reality of it is I tell people that, you know, no offense to people who don't have kids, if you don't have kids, that's fine. But until you have kids, you're really not a man nor a woman because it will test you. You will go through psychological, you will lack of sleep, worry, frustration.

And so, you know, it helps build character. mean, it

William (11:50)
You

know what I learned? I learned like, you know, I've always been a guy that thought like, you know, when everybody was thinking good, I wouldn't say I think negative, but I always think about the pros and the cons of everything. And I look at a lot of young men and a lot of people say, the biggest misconception people say is, if you didn't have a father, you should be a great father. And it's a lot of fathers out there that never was loved or know what love is.

And some of them look at that child, that child is born, the regular way, the regular world is, ⁓ I love it. But when you grow up in gladiator school, when you grow up in the trenches, we're never seeing that. You will kind of run away from it when it comes. And it's a man that may be listening to this podcast that feels like he failed his children, but...

God always tells me to tell people this, is that it's not over until it's over. No man or woman can vanish a man. Only God can do that. So if you're a father out there being called a deadbeat, I want you to keep fighting until you're a living vessel, until you're doing everything that you know you're supposed to. Because in this world right now, this is a world where people will leave you bleeding.

watch you bleed and walk right over your body and keep moving. So the reason why the world is so hurt and so sick with mental health is because they're living lives that they don't want to live. They're forced to live a life that they don't want to live and that's no different than being a modern day slave.

Brad (13:32)
Right, I truly believe it.

William (13:41)
It's a slave mentality. 100%. For women to have to go into strip clubs and sell their body and do sex trafficking and all of these crazy things to maintain their household and their families. That's sickening to be in one of the greatest countries they say ever was created. as our country...

is dwindling and the reason why our country is dwindling and looking bad across the scope of the world is because we have become so divided from each other that we don't realize that we've been on the same team the whole time. And now we're fighting, we're fighting while the enemy is fighting us. So imagine a whole million group of soldiers turning around fighting each other.

Brad (14:18)
This is how.

100%.

William (14:31)
when the opposition is dropping a bomb any second now. So I say that we have to really ⁓ pump up the unity thing in America again. ⁓ Loving our brothers and sisters like, I want to give a huge shout out to Bonnie Dutton, a five, five, six Jewish woman out of Michigan, Pontiac, Michigan. She's a... ⁓

She took my brother, my little brother, he played at Akron University. He was heavy in the streets. Our mother had passed away and she adopted my brother. She's the first woman to teach me about.

care packages in college and I remember we used to walk in a restaurant and she was like, what you looking at? You don't see the resemblance? And it was two big black kids setting up in the Red Lobster. love Red Lobster. She's literally taking the Red Lobster to me and my brother. But that's when I learned that no matter what color, race, or creed, man, if you get the proper love, you could be a great man or woman every time.

Brad (15:39)
Yeah,

and I think a lot of that's propaganda because, you know, people like people.

for who they are if you can sit down with someone. If you can just sit down with them, you can understand where they're from, what their background is. You do have common ground across everyone because we're all humans, we're all brothers, we're all sisters. And that leads to kind of like, I love your king and your queen because you kind of have this philosophy that we're all kings and queens, men and females. And I think that's a really awesome philosophy that you always call me king.

And I appreciate that. And I think that's a great thing that we all are in this together. So what made you think of like the king? Why did that kind of thought pop into your head?

William (16:27)
I would tell you, I can remember it, brightest day in head. I was in the living room in the projects, Pontiac, Michigan, and Michael Jackson, remember the times video came on. I used to dance my brother when that video came on. And my mom, looked at Michael Jackson and I looked at Eddie Murphy, and I saw him in the king uniform. And I asked my mom, like, what is that? She said, that's a king. And I've been using it ever since. And then I did more studying.

you know, study the kings in the Bible, just study royalty and I realize that we are all royalty because a king is not a king by his crown. A king is a king by his bloodline. It's what he represents. It's what he does for the people.

A king is a people's choice. And when you're a people's choice, that means you've done your due diligence of being a great man the majority of your life. So when you say king, you can go in the darkest neighborhoods or countries in the world. And if I call you a king, you're going to drop that aggressiveness immediately.

Because it's one of the greatest signs of endearment. You know what I mean? To tell a brother and from there I can tell who's the devil or not. You know what I mean? So if you're not a king, that means you're a peasant. You're a devil. You know what I mean? So you can kind of recognize what's real and what's fake. I really live by this rule, And I live by it for a long time. And this is how I keep from... This is for anybody that may get in some drama or some trouble. I live by this rule.

is 95 % fake individuals in the world and 5 % real. What's the chances of finding that 5 %? It's like a needle in a haystack. So with me, if a person comes into my life and does some outrageous, crazy stuff that makes me upset, I'm not gonna get upset because I already assumed that you were 95%. So when you show me you're that 5%, I'll show you I appreciate that 5%.

Brad (18:38)
That's a great way to live.

William (18:39)
I

don't take a man by his word. I take a man by his actions. And if you don't live your words, I don't want to be around you. Because you never know what.

new scenes gonna pop up in your life and how it's gonna affect me. So what I do is I keep my distance and try to surround myself with like-minded individuals. Individuals is not as hungry and greedy and all about based on money all the time. you that individual, that's a legacy that never will be fulfilled.

Money is the only thing you got, you poor. And one thing I learned about being the speaker that I am and growing into the speaker that I am, I was the homeless speaker. I was the speaker that didn't do their $20,000, $30,000 coaching program. I did God's coaching program.

and God took me past all of them. Even when I was setting up with the producer of the Under Armour commercial, I'm like, man, y'all went past Eric Thomas, Icky, y'all went past all these guys just to come get little on me. They said, well, they just don't got what you got. It's a different type of voice. And I believe our voice, man, our voices is an instrument from God.

Our voice is God's first instrument. You feel me? And they say the kingdom is voice activated. You can activate everything. Think about it. Even when your son or your daughter say, Dada for the mercy. The kingdom inside of you is activated when you hear Dada. You feel me? Everything starts with the word. Everything starts with the word. And the man, it goes back to the richest man in the world. You if you want to talk money.

was that warbuffet say what she mentioned our communication the world is your so is so many people that wonder why the business not until product is amazing you just have to give you a product of personality that's true your product is playing you know you like a lamborghini with no reason you know what i was no problem

You know what I mean? That's awesome. that's kind of what I live by, man. I live by ⁓ really trying to find the pieces to the puzzle. And when I say the pieces to the puzzle, that's our life, man. Like all of us think we a whole puzzle. We only a piece of the puzzle.

So until you start putting them pieces together, you won't really see the picture for your life or what you're supposed to be. And people ask me, Will, how do you know when you found what you was born to do? God gave me this simple answer, You found what you were born to do when it becomes easy to you and amazing to the world. It's that simple. It's gonna be the easy, the best gift you got. It's gonna be the easiest thing you do.

Brad (21:42)
Well, I think also to be honest with from knowing you now for a little while, mean, you're authentic and you're real. And just like we were talking before, there's a lot of propaganda in the world that's not authentic and it's not real and it's not trying to find good in it, it's trying to find bad in it. And so when you bring out the good and you highlight the good, even though bad things happen to good people, which is real, it happens to all of us. I think that's why you're...

people are so receptive to you because you're real, you're authentic, and you really genuinely, just like you, just so y'all know, I've been trying to get the king here on the podcast since we started. He's supposed to be the first guest, but he's been pretty busy doing a good job, so ⁓ we really appreciate it. But just to kind tell you the kind of person he is, he's like, man, I just really feel bad that I didn't do it. And I was like, it's okay, man. And that's rare.

That's rare for the success you're having and you know the great things that are occurring in your life. It's just awesome but your message is great. I wanted everybody in the Salty Nation to hear it because

William (22:47)
And I want to tell people this, you live a beautiful, peaceful life when you know you're going to heaven. It's like everything here is just a process. I had a dream, you know, my mother passed away and she said, I'm on a long journey, but I'm almost home.

What I took from that was that after this life, there's another journey. After that life, there's another journey. But in order to get to that journey, you gotta first appreciate the first journey. And when you start to appreciate the small things, I say, God will make you rich on the inside before he makes you rich on the outside.

Once he makes you rich on the inside.

You will glow in front of eyes of people who cherish things of ⁓ low value like cars and jewelry and clothes. Even the ones who got more money than you will be jealous of you. That's the power of God when there's anointing on you. So I tell everybody, you're living a hard life because you don't know you're going to heaven. But it's steps that you can take.

And the first step is serving. You can be the biggest gladiator, the biggest killer, and nobody ever told you that they loved you, but I bet God loves you. They say that he hates you, but I bet God loves you. Because for men to turn into evil men, other men have to teach those men how to be evil. And if a father walks away from his son and leaves him in a pit of criminals,

Brad (24:42)
True.

William (24:49)
when he comes back, his son will be a criminal. But when he comes back, only the father will be able to talk him from that life. And that's the only one you can save. God is the one that's gonna clean you off and keep you going. And I understand the power that people...

that's rich and famous, they can walk around and boast and brag and keep this community of elite, you know, all they want. you know, I remember ⁓ Bob Marley had a quote. He said, the devil doesn't take a day off, so why should I?

⁓ So, so, so, so, I live by that. Every day it's an evil soul hitting the ground. It's a strong soldier of God hitting the ground and I will whoop your ass. The devil.

Brad (25:46)
By

the way, my wife is going to love you by the way. She's going to love your message man. Your message is so powerful and I think that's why so much success is coming to you man. And you deserve it. Some people in life get lucky and don't deserve it or they create something but ⁓ I think you deserve it. So you wrote a book, the best things come from the bottom.

Right, guests come from the bottom. And so we got the book here, but you guys can get it after. So I read this, so I'm a reader, and I liked how that you were trying to help other speakers, people that wanted to get into this profession, how to do it. It's pretty much kind of like a how-to, everything. And I thought it was interesting because to

William (26:33)
teaching

you how to sell your life.

Brad (26:35)
That's right. And it was it's it's a great book. I mean, you can get it, but we'll talk about later. I, I just I the way the book was presented and what you were doing was ⁓ it was it's like a gift for someone that wants to be in this business and learn this business. And I think that was that was pretty cool.

William (26:52)
The main purpose of that book was made for children to also help with diversity. I learned this, all these athletes, some of us play sports and we're sometimes not like a teammate until we sat down and we're having that long bus ride home and we have a conversation with them and we're like damn, bro I relate to you, bro, we're really cool, we're really friends. And I realized if you teach kids early how to tell their story in the classroom setting,

and a counselor is present. One of the leading, leading diseases in the world right now is suicide amongst teenagers. And I believe by telling your story in front of a group setting, in front of instructors and counselors, that counselor will be able to detect ⁓ where the pain thresholds are in that child and where to attack and how to help them.

Also, by telling your story in front of a class, that Asian kid, that Caucasian kid, that black kid, that white or yellow, orange, no matter what race you are, once you see that our stories relate, you will start to realize that we are one. We're not that different. Yeah, we're not that different. So it's bridging the gap between all of that, and I believe the future of saving children's lives is teaching them the power of this story, taking the pain thresholds that they had in their story and turning it into a triumph. You know what I mean?

I believe God made me the way I am. Like didn't start off speaking being a millionaire or a person that had a Fortune 500 company. God took a homeless man on the side of a Turkey Hill gas station and made him one of the, arguably they say one of the top speakers of his generation. So if God can take that, just like he took trash and turned him into man, you won't be surprised. So what I tell everybody is the most important key to your mission is the faith. The faith is what keeps you going. The faith is what fuels

The faith is what gives you the blueprint to your whole empire. And the moment that you lose one inkling of that faith is the moment that you lose that whole big dream that you've been dreaming of your whole life. It's not that your dream is not amazing. It's not that you are not amazing. It's the fact that you keep putting your gifts in ungrateful hands.

Brad (29:09)
It's funny because we were talking about this before just on men's mental health and just mental health in general is a lot of times when bad things happen to you when you're younger or certain age, you know, it may be you may be in an abusive situation, whatever it is, is you kind of carry that burden of that individual, right? So whether it was your mom, your dad, your uncle, your, you know, someone you didn't know and, you know, being able to not carry that burden and carry that on is a very

tough thing to do because you you you feel bad about it you feel guilty about it you've and like leaving that like it's not your burden to carry if someone was intentionally doing something wrong to you or did something wrong to you it's not your burden to carry you can let it go it's their problem and we were talking about that before the show and I just think it's it's really important for people to let that go

William (29:58)
What that's called is carrying generational demons. You're carrying generational demons. So a lot of people that they say somebody might call them angry.

They call him angry, but it's really not him. It's really a reflection of who his parents were. This is how his parents communicated, so this is how he communicates. He thinks it's normal. So then you meet another individual in the world that grew up in a decent household and they speak normal and they say positive things, but to that person that grew up in a negative household, when a person is being nice, he feels he's in danger. When a person is being mean, he feels he's in his natural habitat. So what you have to do is you have to start

exposing the mind to beautiful things. You feel me? Like that's what I did. Like a kid that's growing up right now, a mother addicted to heroin. The only way you're gonna make it out of there first off, first and foremost is to develop an imagination so big that it even shocks you. The imagination is real. They call it imagination, but it's really visions from God. It's visions from God. It's not an imagination. It's visions from God. And if you follow those visions,

Brad (31:01)
That's all.

William (31:07)
you will not lose. He has already planned out and moved every opposition that wants to stop you from accomplishing everything you want. He's already removed them. And a lot of people give up on life and commit suicide because they spend their whole life going and driving in the wrong direction. But in order to get back on the right path, you got to drive. You drove all these hours in the wrong direction. Now you got to drive all the way back.

to the beginning starting point and reset your GPS. yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And guess what, guess what, Kade? And when you get to the wrong destination, some people commit suicide because they don't have the faith or the strength to go all the way back and start at the beginning.

Brad (31:39)
I'm trying to

William (31:59)
It upsets us, especially us men. You ever been driving square going the wrong direction the whole time? And then you get there, you just park and you might spaz, somebody might be around, and you might go crazy. But it's not everybody. Everybody don't have that willpower to get up and be like, I'm gonna go right back to the beginning. But this time, I'm gonna follow God's directions.

Brad (32:24)
But also, I mean, think one thing and you prove it and there's, you know, other people prove it as well is like you think your situation is unique. Like you think, and it is unique. Some things are unique, but you think your situation is unique when reality is there's other people that have gone through that, found the light and know how to get there. And that's like kind of what your message is and what you're all about, which is, which is awesome because it needs to be spread everywhere. But like,

I would tell people, you're not alone, and that's what people I think that I know that have tried to commit suicide or whatever, they think they're alone. In reality, they're not alone. There's someone sitting right next to them that may not know what the heck they're going through, but they're willing to walk with them, be with them, help them through it. And I think that loneliness, sometimes you're not alone. think if you can just find that thing or look to God, there's always someone that can definitely help you.

William (33:19)
So

it's an emotion, you know, emotions to me, you know, I look at emotions as a, a, as a, a disease or emotion. A man that doesn't have control over his emotions is not a boy. It's not a man. He's a boy. So I learned that a lot of people take these one moments in their life and they let their emotions overpower their mind. Right. When they don't realize it's just a small.

minor setback. But our minds and our emotions make it bigger than what it really is. So I believe one of the most important things to do for a young man, a young youthful man, a youth in general, is teach them the power of control in their emotions. Teaching them different emotions. Like, yeah, your father or your mother may not be here forever.

Brad (34:08)
So.

William (34:16)
You know that's a real thing right? And people want to hide it and then when it comes to people they all messed up and discombobulated. Death is not a bad thing. And it's coming. And it's coming. But you're going to live a happy life if you're living full and dying empty.

Brad (34:18)
100%.

And it's coming. For every one of us.

William (34:41)
I'm waking up every single day giving everything I got, every piece of my dream to the world. That's why new things come. People don't know it's called compiled interest. But I changed it. Compiled blessings. You got compiled blessings. So God will say, hey, put this work in. Put this work in. Put this work in. But you as a human being, because you don't have faith, you're like, I'm not clocking in. This ain't no money. But God.

Brad (34:56)
I like it. ⁓

William (35:11)
gives you a return on your work. Your blessing might not even come tomorrow, it might come three years from now. But he gonna wait, he gonna stay in the valley, he gonna watch you. He gonna watch and see if you give up. If you give up any moment, you gotta bleed for three years. You wonder why you not successful? You think it's to become successful?

Brad (35:15)
That's true.

Well, you're an athlete too, so that's all the young athletes too. Yeah, you don't become Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan didn't make his high school team what? Four years in a row and he goes on to be the greatest player.

William (35:38)
CHID HURT!

Yes,

I tell everybody you want to be great walk through the valley of gladiators And tell me can you take the the stabs of the knives in your back and keep fighting you got to go through that you can't skip that process You got to go through pain to get to greatness

Brad (36:01)
100%.

Well, that's why a lot of ⁓ people reach their success older in life and people like nowadays you hear about the 20 year olds or 18 year olds or TikTok guys or whatever and they're successful. The reality of it is I think the reason like, you know, starting salty with our age is because you have the wisdom, you have the things that you want to do and the things that become important to you and later in life and you actually actualize and realize that. you kind of become

who you were meant to be later in life. And there's never, it's never too late to wake up tomorrow and change direction. And people don't realize that. You can wake up tomorrow, who you are today, you don't have to be that person tomorrow. And that's the hardest thing with anyone's at a shitty job or in a miserable situation. Hey, you can wake up tomorrow and you can be something else, bro.

William (36:58)
And they've been afraid. Somebody's afraid right now. Some kid's sitting in a small little town, he's afraid. He's afraid to leave. He's afraid to go. But I'm tell you now, when God gives you a sign to leave home, He's giving you an appointment, brother. He's giving you an appointment. And you're wondering why the dream is not happening in that home city because God got to show you. He's showing you examples through His life. Even in His home, He was in love.

He not gonna be loved. But once he went off and made that name for himself, they had open arms when he came home. So we think that God gave us instructions. He literally went through the trial and error so you won't. So when you not listening to him,

And you not taking time to be intimate with him, praying with him, thanking him, eating with him, enjoying his presence. Because I tell everybody, it's like the movie. I don't know if you guys remember this movie, but it was a movie with Adam Sandler and the angels was the homeless man. yeah. You remember what I'm talking about? What's the name of that movie? ⁓ man, what's the name of that movie? It was with the controller. ⁓

Brad (38:21)
I know what you're talking about.

was awesome, baby.

William (38:26)
Click. And that's, dude, listen to me. When I was homeless.

All the angels were homeless on the street,

And I got a lesson from a homeless man. He told me that.

I was at a bar and I know it was an angel. He came in, ordered three, four shots, drinking, drinking, drinking. I'm sitting in the back drinking, drinking, drinking. And he comes up to me and he says, you won't be able to hear what God says intoxicated as he took a shot.

He gave me his number. He's one of most interesting men I've ever seen. Drove off in an all-black truck. I called the number. The number didn't even ring.

Brad (39:25)
That's crazy.

William (39:27)
It changed my life, He basically said that the world tries to keep us as a people, sleep, drunk, high, and out of consciousness because you can't call for your father in that state.

The devil is protected every time you use a substance.

you protect the devil. But if God gonna dwell in any place, that place gotta be pure. That's why he say clean your temple. Make your temple pure. So when it's time, I can come in. You know how many men died?

under a substance they couldn't call God.

So when you think about life like that, you kind of take it more serious than other individuals. Like life is delicate.

Brad (40:37)
No, 100%.

William (40:37)
It's

just a moment too. It's a second. After today, it's a second off your life. And I tell everybody, who wants to die and the only thing that remembers you is the dirt that covers you.

If I can leave a legacy, my grandfather used to tell me this, clowns will never be remembered. Clowns will never be remembered. Only Krusty the Clown. The clowns in this day and age can run around as jesters. You know, the world doesn't change. It just creates new names for it. You know, back in the day, the kings would set new castle.

Brad (41:05)
go out.

William (41:28)
And the king never used Instagram. They just posted them. You know? But the clowns, they got all the attention.

Because a king doesn't want attention. A king wants respect. A clown wants attention. ⁓

Brad (41:50)
That's true. That's so true. That's so true. I mean, that's awesome advice, ⁓ Amen. love it. I'm so glad you've been on the show with us. I also want to ask you though, all...

all of the good message we've got. do want more people to hear you because you're going to be on a lot more than the Salt-E-MF podcast, but you're going places. So what's with the Fox Sports? You're going to start a new podcast coming up. What is going to be the theme of that? You talked a little bit about it. Can you tell the audience what the theme of that podcast is about?

William (42:29)
Okay, I'm launching it with a game that works out to Levar Aronton.

for seeing something in me and Fox Sports Network for seeing something in me to create this show called Operating Chaos. Operating Chaos is a show that dives deep into the lives of professionals and we're not talking about the highlights of their life. We're not talking about all the great, gold things of their life. We're talking about the chaotic moments in their life. How did they make it through? Some gems that can help other individuals in the midst of chaos chasing their dream. And that's what I'm bringing ⁓ to a network, man, in this.

I believe it's gonna be revolutionary. I've been studying Barbara Walters. I've been studying the Ghosts, And I realized, you know, I do see a lot of podcasts out here. The podcast is dope. I love it. But once you get that impact, baby, that impact that, you know, I wanna get the stories out of the celebrities when you only had one dollar and you had to go buy a pack of noodles. Like, how did you feel? How did you rebound from that? You know, when you buried your brother or your sister.

Why did you rebound from that?

Like what did you tell yourself? A lot of people ain't never even answered these questions themselves, but they're have to answer it on prime time. You know what I mean? So I'm diving deep into the spirit and soul of individuals. The same way I speak, the same way I'm ask the questions and I'm gonna dig it out of you. And hopefully we can inspire and teach. ⁓ You know, that's a non-exclusive deal. I also have another show that I'm actually looking for a network to put this on. ⁓ Anybody out there may see this. ⁓

a taste of inspiration with William King College because some of the greatest individuals I ever met were chefs. And I want to dive deep into the lives of chefs and why they became the wonderful chefs that they are. And I love food. Food makes us happy. How would that be to travel the world and meet amazing chefs and showcase their amazing dishes and how they became the chef that they are? Where did they first fall in love with it? People love food. That's the next show that I want to bring to a network. That one is wide open.

Brad (44:36)
That's awesome. That's a hint out there. think I can find a few. So tell us about the distribution with Empire. What's the album about? Where can people get that? Where can they download it? I as I said, we'd be on here. Everyone's giving us a good click. I mean, we'd be on here for three hours. So tell everyone about that because it's awesome. listened to some it. So let's go.

William (45:01)
So the Darkest Hour guys is a revolutionary spoken word album. I put overlays of R &B, hip-hop beats over it so children want to listen to it, can vibe to it. It's track on there called Stayin' Alive that I made for people. ⁓ And this album man is something that is going crazy in the J-Pay and the prison kiosks. I wanted to make some for Kings Lock Mind Bars, people that's trying to develop

develop a stronger mindset, something fathers can play for their sons on the way to work or the way to school or on a long road trip instead of listening to evil things, talking about, it behind, shoot your brother, kill your sister, all that nonsense. I wanted to put something positive out there. And this album, it did amazing. It hit number two on the spoken word charts. And Empire blessed me. I was the first speaker to get a major distribution deal.

They didn't give me the funding money on it, but they did put it through their discord and it still hit number two on the charts. Curly setting it at 79 on the entire spoken word charts across the world. My last album, Painting Purpose, is still charting in Saudi Arabia, Barbados, and all those places. But I made The Darkest Hour in 48 hours. I free sell all my speeches. I don't write speeches. We rolled down the track listing. out to my brother, DJ R.

executive producer on Cleveland Ohio was a snowstorm. That album was made two years ago by the way. We took it down and re-released it through Empire. I had probably about 386 unreleased speeches that the world ain't even heard of yet. My next album is co-produced by Taj. ⁓

It's called Freewheel and it's inspired by Will Smith. The track listed on it is gonna be absolutely amazing and it's basically freeing people. It's the freewheel, the willpower of everybody. Living free and being who you wanna be, expressing your talents, not letting anybody in this world change your mindset of who you are because nobody in this world is perfect and nobody is living perfect. So with that being said, man, Freewheel is gonna be an amazing album.

Dark as Hour is an album for anybody that loves inspiration, that loves positive affirmations, that loves to be inspired in life 24 hours a day. Just turn it on, man. It's no skips. It's a banger.

Brad (47:37)
Man, I, I, so audience out there, mean, obviously you can tell how special William is and why he's earned the title king in my mind. ⁓ You're my family now and brother now, and I really appreciate you taking the time to be on here with us.

William (47:53)
Hey, I

gotta freestyle. Everybody know I freestyle in my speeches. I gotta do an assaulty MF freestyle for my brother.

Brad (48:00)
All right, here we go. Let's do it.

William (48:03)
Sahti MF, you may see a clothing line, but I see much more. I see a king that was trapped in the forest all alone, but he grew into a man that shared light around the world. You know, sometimes in life we may not understand where we come from or who we come from, but we do understand that God gave us a gift. It's a gift that we must fulfill, a gift that we must chase every chance that we get.

A gift that we must give to our children and our family to make them understand the pain that I went through was for you to smile. You see, SawTM effort is not just a clothing line, it's a lifestyle. It's something that you will remember forever. It's something that God created and it's a seed that will continue to spread. Something legendary, something magnificent, something straight from heaven.

Brad (49:04)
I love it man. ⁓ you're awesome. Well Salty Nation, we are going to top that boys. Let's go! ⁓