November 16, 2023 • 35 mins
Step into the raw and unfiltered world of William "King" Hollis with hosts Darren Waller and Donnie Starkins. From the depths of despair to the heights of impact, Hollis bares his soul, recounting his journey from the darkest corners of addiction to the pinnacle of motivational speaking. This episode is a powerful reminder that, no matter how dark the past, the human spirit has the capacity to rise above adversity and leave an indelible mark on the world.
► YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCriVmGIBt38uDKYOL3pmjkw
► iHeart https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-comeback-stories-119696372/
► Instagram https://www.instagram.com/inflectionent/?hl=en
► Instagram https://www.instagram.com/comebackstoriesshow/?hl=en
DARREN WALLER
► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/rackkwall/?...
► Twitter | https://twitter.com/rackkwall83?lang=en
DONNY STARKINS
► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/donny_stark...
► Twitter | https://mobile.twitter.com/donnystarkins
#ComebackStoriesPodcast #AllIN #InflectionNetwork
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back, everyone to another episode of come Back Stories.
Your co host Darren Waller joined with my brother, my friend,
mister Donnie Starkins. Donnie, how we doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Bro? Doing great?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Excited for this one, hyped up?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh yeah, this is a big time guest. If you
don't know who this man is, you are in for
a treat and for a pleasure. A man who I
see as one of the top motivational speakers of this generation. Author,
a coach, a husband, father, I mean, a man that
can't be put in one box, and we're just honored
to have his time, have his voice, and to feel
(00:50):
his impact on the show. Today we got mister William
King Hollis in the building, Man King, how you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You doing?
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Darren Man and Donnie man Is, Like I tell you,
told you guys, it's been a dream of mine to
come on this podcast and to have a great conversation
with you guys.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
You guys do a lot, which I.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
You know, on mental health specifically that really touches my heart.
I've been there multiple times in my life and it's
just always a blessing to see individuals that.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Pread coming back from some of the darkest hours of
our life.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
So, like I said, this is my honor to be
on here today.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Absolutely, man, this is something that all three of us
not only can relate to, but we embody and we've
lived the triumphs and the pain of it, and we
know it starts very early on, at least in our lives.
And we'd like to know what was Keep paint a
picture for what growing up was like for you.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yeah, man, it was like a lot of inner city kids.
When I grew up in the city called Pontiac, Michigan.
My mother, like I said, she basically my grandmother, moved
from Monroe, Louisiana, and basically start running numbers. She had
twelve children, started to cook crack cocaine and taught all
(02:03):
twelve of those dren how to do the same, include
my mother. So I was in a house that basically
was like a gladiator school for teaching people.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
How to cook crack and say o crack.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
But one thing about it with me, King, I always
noticed that, you know, our life wasn't normal. So you know,
but as you stay in it long enough, it began
to get normal to you and you adopt some of
those same traits, some of those same anger issues, some
of those same addictions. And I'm just blessed that God
(02:37):
gave me the strength to always see more than my circumstances.
My mother ended up moving out at fourteen years old,
started selling drugs.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
In her own own place. She had me at sixteen
years old, had my sister at fifteen, and she was
molested as a child, so she eventually never healed from national.
She eventually started to use heroin that.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
You know, the crazy thing about it is I never
could notice until I became an older young man. She
did a great job of covering it up, covering it up,
and you know, it just showed her strength to to
to just keep fighting and and and that's why I
got a heart for, you know, the woman in general. Uh,
(03:26):
because as I go around the country speaking, I meet
a lot of young young women man that that that's
been molested and never got the help, never got the therapy,
and they turned into something that they're really not.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
But to get back to my.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Story, Kade, Yeah, it was it was absolutely chaos, chaos
that that I was living in.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But I always I used to say, when I was
a young kid.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Man, I used to walk outside in the projects, and
I used to always look up to the sky.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Man.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
I was always I never looked down. I always looked
to the sky because I never liked the picture that
was on the ground, the streets, the gangsters, the drug addicts,
just the chaos that was going on. And always seeing
that sky man, and I always realized that the world
is so big, man, and I can change my life
(04:16):
if I give it everything I got for my life.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And I understood that at a very young age.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Man, I always knew that the life that I was
living was not normal, and I would never accept that.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
For my family, my wife, my son, my children. I
just always wanted more.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
My father got incarcerated the first time, he had to
do six years when I was about, say, about seven
or eight years old. Missed him for a long time,
and then he got another three years after that, and
it's firing to a year of a crime. Then I
ended up having to move back and forth, bouncing, you know,
(04:57):
a minute for a foster home and then bouncing into
my grandmother's house. So they finally took us in. To
be honest with you, man, I went through a lot
of a lot of a lot of tearing down. You know,
a lot a lot of uh uh you know, jokes
from cousins. You know, your mom's a crackhead, your father's
(05:17):
in jail. You're gonna be just like your father and uh. Man,
I tell everybody, I give God all the glory for
the man that I am and who I am, because
through all the pain, through all the thing that was
supposed to make me angry, God always kept love in
my heart.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
And that's the only thing that I wanted to exude.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
I realized that, you know, the richest man in the
world is not really the man that has millions of
dollars in the bank account. Man, it's the man that
that comes home to a family. Since that's derriertable with
his children, teaches his son how to go further, which
is basically the real definition of father. And and that's
(05:58):
what I wake up every single day to do.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Man.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And hey, I want to I want to hop in
and asked you like, through all these peaks and valleys,
through not only your personal life, through physically, through football,
mentally with your family, your situation and football, like I'm
seeing all these things, like, was there ever a moment
in all of this where you realized that you had
(06:22):
a gift for speaking, or was this like after your
football career ended?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
This was?
Speaker 5 (06:25):
This was after I was it was after the football career.
So basically King, I ended up cracking my l one
vertebrate uh down. And when I when I got the
wrong Georgia, I ended up playing one game. Then I
had a mini stroke. I had to play in the
game because if you didn't play, they put you out
the house. So I played the worst game. My life
got cut. The mother and my child called me and
(06:49):
it was like, will are you okay? And I said,
I'm doing the best. At this point, we not together
no more. The distance it broke everything up. And uh,
you know, I said, no, I need a ticket to Printing,
New Jersey. So it's getting closer to how to speak.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It started. I go to Trenton, New Jersey. I got
a one way bus ticket about twenty.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Dollars to my name. I got nothing all the way.
The flight was from Rome, Georgia all the way to.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Trenton, New Jersey.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Trenton Freedom was the team owned by these millionaires that
specialize on solar pattern and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
But they brung me in. I had a tryout. I
made the team.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Next day, I was in a hotel and they had
all the restaurants. I mean, I felt like I was rigiating,
even about the money. It was like I'm eating square meals.
So when I get there, I dominate break the single
game sack record on Mother's Day. And after that game,
I see some of the CFL scouts, So I'm thinking
I'm getting ready to go to the CFL. Get my
(07:47):
opportunity to go over there, and boom, at the end
of the season, I don't get the call from the scouts.
I go to a workout with one of the Toronto
Argonaut scouts and he basically said, the coach at Trenton
Freedom said that you had mental health issues. He used
my past story to tell him that he's not mentally
(08:08):
ready to go because he wanted to secure a bigger
contract for him to move up to a higher level
in the rental league, so he used me.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
As a pond.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
I found that out, cuss his ass out, and once
again I'm back homeless. So I go to Dover, Delaware
with a teammate after the season, and you know, I'm
bouncing house to house and then the coach that I
broke the single game sack record, Bernie Bernie Northtowski.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
He actually was on.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Facebook getting a blood infusion and he saw my post
on Facebook, like, man, life is so tiring. I said,
I don't think I ever played ball again. And he
was like, I got a team for you, harrisburg Stampe
Marcus Coasting. Team down here Hersheypa. He brings me down
to Hersheypa. I'm in a gym doing the workout. My
whole right side go out on me.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I go to the doctor.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
They say, will you got an air one vertebrate crack?
You basically can't play football no more. I never tell
a coach this is where God come in. He comes
in now getting closer to the speech. He comes in
and and the coach cast me one day and be like,
will Marcus Coaster is folding the team. He's canceling up
the season. He no longer wants to invest in the team.
He's gonna shut the team down. So if I would
(09:16):
have went in that season and I probably wouldn't even
be talking to I've probably been a para believe it
or something. And Uh, I told coach about my injury.
He moved me into his apartment. I mean not his apartment,
his house with his wife and his three kids. I'm
the only black guy down in the reading pa in
his neighborhood. I'm basically staying in the basement until he said, hey,
(09:39):
will you want to coach the D line with this
Arena team. I got down here and and and read
and I said, for sure. I was like that, that'll
be honor. And that's when I learned the power of coaching.
It's a beautiful, beautiful thing to watch people, you know,
do what you teach. So one day I was speaking
to the players on the sideline and and I had
already I was getting ready to I was moving out
(09:59):
of Coach nortowsky basement.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Just didn't want to be a burd into the family.
Ain't of that anymore. So I go into the hotel
rooms with the players. Sometimes a player will leave with
a lady or a woman or anything like that. And
one particular day I had to sleep on side of
the Turkey Yo gas station. I'm sleeping on something. I'm
telling basically relaxing, I can call it relaxing. I'm sitting
(10:22):
on side of the Turkey Yo gas station and it's
early in the morning.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
I get up and the teacher that saw me talking
to the Kings at the game said, basically, I would
love for you to come speak to my young man
the way you spoke to those young men.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And I said, why not. You know, I got you.
I could be there.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
The school was right down the road. So I got
up and probably around twelve thirty and went down there
to the school. I spoke to five young men within
five minutes, and he was in tears at this point.
It was the first time talking about my story and
it broke me down. And people will be surprised by
telling your story. Just speaking your story out loud, it'll overwhelm,
(11:02):
it'll make you emotional.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And I was walking back to the hotel. I had
a four or five in my bag.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
I was about to go into Abraham Lincoln Hotel and
committed suicide in the bathroom. About five sets before I
got to the hotel, I got a call from Miss Robinson.
Cheryl Robinson. Shout out to Cheryl Robinson. She said, will
how much he charged to speak? I knew nothing about speaking,
and I said seventy five one hundred dollars or something
(11:27):
like that. So basically I went to the hotel and
I went to the computer room. I typed in in
motivational speaking. They nothing about it. Les Brown popped up
man this man. I seen him speaking in the Georgia Dome.
I saw he talked about his painting, kept a smile
on his face. I just just like we used to
watch when we was literally watch football videos. I studied
this whole monnerism, but I just was myself and just
(11:50):
took pieces of what he had and used my story.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And I went into the assembly.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
A week later, I got my one hundred dollars first
of being paid, got a standing ovation.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
King.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Every five hundred students, every single student came down and
shook my hand.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Cried tears, and that was the moment I realized that
this was my gift the whole time.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
And you fast forward, you know, ten years later, over
one point three billion views on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Now platinum spoken word Albums history.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
The first week of to speak during Milan Fashion Week
of Philipply Paris Hilton super Bowl commercial this year featured
in Super Bowl commercial. Last year, just did an Undermer
commercial with Stephen Curry and King also received the Ambassador
of Peace Award at Kingston, Jamaica. Spoken in Australia. And
it all started by me telling my story in that
(12:50):
high school. So when I tell people I realized this,
I realized that God this whole time, the love that
I had for my mother, it never really was my
job to save her. You know, our job to save anyone.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
That's God's job.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
All our job is is to basically give our message
and give our truth and help as many people as
we can.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
But the person that can only truly get it done
is God.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
And you know, he turned a kid from the projects
into one of the you know, they say, one of
the greatest young speakers of this generation. And one thing
about my story then a lot of speakers, can you know?
That separates me from a lot of speakers, is that
when I speak, it's not that you hear me, they
(13:37):
feel me, you know what I mean. And I just
thank God for giving me this gift.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I'm setting in a home. Man, I got home, I
got a family, I got a wife, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
And the best thing He's ever done for me is
make me rich on the inside before he made me
rich on the outside.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And that's why I'm humble. That's why I look at
myself as a grain of salt. On the ground. So
I can never look down upon people.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
And I believe when you truly work for God, your
promotions become everlasting.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
And now I'm an author. My book was I'm a
self published author.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Was putting Walmart, Barns and Nobles, Amazon Prime, It's a bestseller.
And man, all I can say is, I can never
it wasn't me. My story and my sacrifice was for
all the time. Right now we're living in where kids
(14:32):
are lost, women don't love themselves, young men don't know
who they are, They don't know how to control their emotions.
And I'm so grateful that I'm a speaker that can
walk into any room and I don't care if you
got murderers, the killers, the drug dealers.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
They feel me and I believe God gave me up
my gift to motivate the individuals that thought motivation wasn't
even real. And that's the blessing that I have.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
And I tell everybody when I was telling my speeches,
when I was saying my speech, I was talking to
myself king and the world simply was listening. And that's
the only That's what I tell everybody, that I was
talking to myself. I had to speak self life and
to myself.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
To be the man that I am today.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
And that's why I got a passion of spreading this
message all over the world. I got a passion of
helping with mental health because I know my story is
not a story that I'm just talking to you.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I lived this. You know.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
This past Christmas day, my father and my father was
released from prison after doing eight years. First time seeing
me as a motivational speaker. I flew into Michigan, got
to see him, got an airbnb. You know, we first
got out of prison. They just want to eat all
the new foods, introducing them the door dash.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I'm feeding them.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
And the first time in my life, I saw my
father as an old man. He's falling asleep. He's always
been this big superman god to me. And I flew
back home to Atlanta, and in eleven days after my
son was born, he was murdered and left for dead
in Detroit this past Christmas. So I lost my father,
(16:14):
bro I lost my mother and all that pain that
I had that will break a lot of meat uh
and women.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
I believe that, you know, God just broke it full
a circle that you know, he sacrificed himself for us,
and they say we live in the limit the image
and likeness of God, and a man's job on his
earth to me is to sacrifice his life and sacrifice
himself for the betterment of his family and the betterment
of the young kings that's coming up from behind him.
(16:46):
So it wasn't for me to go out and try
to be this big celebrity. I just wanted to be
a man that could just say I sacrifice God. I
sacrifice everything to help your people and to keep love
and God in people heart.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So that that's my life king, and that that that's
a I give all glory to the most.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
Hot man, all prices of mo hot for everything I
got and even being able to be on this podcast
with you, guys.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Man, it's just a it's been a hell of a journey, man,
but the pain was worth it. Well, it's cool.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
It's cool to hear you say that it's been a
dream for you to be on our podcast because I
look at you as a speaker, and I know Darren
and I have talked about doing more of this speaking.
Darren's not going to play football forever, so it's just
cool for us to hear you say that it's a
dream to be on our podcast when we see you
just crushing it on the biggest stage and facing what
(17:42):
for many people is their biggest fears, talking in front
of a group, but not only talking in front of
a group, but being able to deliver in a way
that people can relate. And I think that's what I'm
hearing in everything you're saying. And that's why I relate
because I can feel I can feel you, and it's
exactly why every piece of motivation that you give people,
you're just talking to yourself, which is why it's why
(18:04):
it's so relatable. I have a question for you regarding
because I've heard you talk about how being broke as
a mindset, it's not the lack of funds, it's the
lack of belief. But what do you think right now,
like in the world, what do you see is like
the root cause or the commonality of people's broken down
belief systems.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Just I believe right now in the world, they killed
every example that can teach us. If you watch the
world man, all the great leaders that was trying to
educate and teach us and put us in the right mindset.
Some way, somehow, something happens soon. And now you have
a generation of lost souls that now they believe that
(18:49):
they believe fame and being in a light is more
important than family. The woman believes that being a model
is more important than being a mother. And you know,
if you have a generation of children that that doesn't
love themselves, that doesn't value their lives, that doesn't know
(19:11):
where they started or where they come from, you will
have a lost generation of people. And one thing I
tell people, money is not the greatest thing you can have.
Purpose is the greatest thing that you can have. So
it's so many individuals in the world right now that's
walking around with no purpose.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
They have no purpose for life.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Man, And I tell everybody, once you find your purpose,
it can heal all the pain of your life. Because
what happens is individuals are going the wrong direction they
whole life. King And this is when the mental health
thing pops up. They're going the wrong direction their whole life.
And when they realize that they when they finally realize
they been going the wrong way their whole life. Whether
(19:53):
you have to do in the DPS, you got to
set your current destination to get to your final destination.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
And when people jump off the ledge and commit suicide.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
It's because of the simple fact that they do not
have the strength to go all the way back to
the beginning and do it the right way. And that's
the problem in the world. We got a first identify
with what's hurting us. You got a hurt world. King,
kings and queens like myself that buried their mothers, young
women that was molested and taken advantage of but never
(20:24):
got the help they needed. You got a broken society
where young kids are raising kids. Our grandmothers are children
now they're not the old elderly women. And then you
got men that walk around dressed as boys. You know,
back in the day, when you're walk wash a man
walk around, you will see a man in his suit.
(20:45):
You'll see a man in his shoes. You will see them.
You can see a man. But now you got the
older man competing with the younger man. The older man
looks like a boy. It's a scene a boardwalk Empire
that changed my life. And it was al Capone talking
to this Jewish man. So al Capone kept acting the
Jewish man, Why do you keep calling me a boy?
(21:06):
Al Capone's able to show the Jewish man around the city.
So he said, why do you keep calling me a bone?
They say, this is a true story. Why you keep
calling me a boy? And the Jewish man said, as
long as you wear the hat of a boy, you
will always be perceived as a boy, no matter if
you like it or not.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And they said, al.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Capone never put on a hat a boy's hat anymore.
He never wore regular slacks anymore. When this man told
him that, because he realized that in the world, the
way you are perceived is the way you are treated,
and it's not right that people treat you that way.
(21:52):
But one thing about this generation. If a boy never
sees a man, how can he ever become one. So
now you got the rappers, you got the little boosters,
you got all these other all these rappers.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
That that's old enough to.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Be my father behaving like a child. So if a
child sees a man behaving as a child, he's always
gonna be a child. He's gonna believe being a child
is a man. And then he gets into a marriage
and don't know how to control his emotions. Something I
(22:26):
speak on often. If you never learn how to control
your emotions, you can never truly be a man. You
will always be a boy. And goes back to what
I told you was one of these boys, these little kids,
they was hurt. One of these little girls, they was hurt,
and when they were hurt, they.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Stayed that age.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
They might have turned twenty eight this year, But when
that little girl was hurt, when she was twelve years old,
she's still twelve years old. That little boy that waited
at the door for his father to come home, but
he never came. He's still a hurt little boy, but
just dressing a man uniform.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
So what I feel the.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
World is lacking right now is therapists therapy, being able
to talk about their pains and being able to share
their pains without being talked about, or taking advantage of
a safe place for them to express themselves. That's why
I wrote this book for one day. I want to
get it into the schools, man, I want. I want
(23:29):
to create a curriculum where kids get up and tell
their stories in front of their brothers, the Hispanic brothers,
the Asian brothers, the white brothers, so they can see
our stories not too different, our pain is the same,
and that's gonna build the love. And then what you're
gonna get kids doing is just like me telling my stories,
saying my life, it's gonna save theirs. Then the counselors
can set in the room and identify the red flags
(23:51):
just hurting these children, the things that they don't have
to ask some questions for. They can just ask the questions.
And then you get children writing books about their lives.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Then you got then then you say, no, can you
not just a project? Baby? You're an author.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Your story matters. And that's what it's all about with me, man,
That's that's that's that's that's this is, this is my life, man.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Is to.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
It's to inspire billions of individuals. Man, and I'm doing that.
I've done this without management. I got in the Super Bowl.
God has been my manager. Man, I don't have a team.
I don't have a social media team.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You know how I get my content? People from all
over the world top it up and I take it off,
They page and post it.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
That that that that's how I built my brand. Everything
you see is organic. That's why I was able to
go over million million plus views on all my videos.
My first speech, my football speech. The number if you
go to YouTube right best football speech ever, the number
one speech. I was homeless in Huntersville, Alabama.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
King homeless. I was homeless.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
When I was over three million views on you, I
was still homeless. It wasn't That's what I learned. I
had to realize, like God, I didn't give you this
job to become a starting rich. He gave you this
job will to say lives. So I took my last
one hundred and twenty dollars and went to Columbia High School.
(25:23):
A coach asked me to speak. I gave a video
wager for one hundred and twenty bucks. I gave him
a hundred bucks, actually because I kept twenty. I just
got a limit of tours, all black tours. And I
needed gas because I was leaving. I just got evicted
from my apartment. I go in there, I dropped the
speech to the football speech King. I leave go down
(25:43):
to drive down to Atlanta. Sleeping in the AMC Theater
in Camp Creek in Georgia. I'm sleeping in the I'm sleeping.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
In the parking lot.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
The next morning, I wake up and the videographer called
me and said, I posted a clip last night of
the speech and it's going viral.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
On Twitter. It went viral on Twitter and now it's
the number one football speech in the world.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
That's why I tell everybody there's nobody that can take
this away from me, because God gave it to me.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
And I tell people all the time.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
And to bring it full circle, the man that reached
out to me and called my phone the legendary Les Brown,
when I was homeless setting in Camp Creek Less Brown
was in the hospital getting the blood transfusion defeating cancer.
He listened to one of my speeches called the Journey,
and it starts off with I didn't come this far
(26:36):
to only come this far. That's the same quote Drake
and Kim Kardashian using. By the way, that's the quote
she heard on the internet.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
When when he heard that, it inspired him to keep going.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
He flew down to Atlanta and the man that I
turned on the computer the first day I ever spoke
this is God man met me in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
We met at the grocery store. First, got got a
little he loves watermelon, It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
We got some some fruit from I'm the Groceries, the
whole food store. Then we went to a house and
where he did an interview with me and passed the torch,
which is he also actually.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Let me grab something for you guys. He actually just
wrote he wrote the forward. He wrote the forward to
this book. We'll tell you, guys, let's legendary, Les Brin.
I'm sorry, guys, kidding me. So that's who wrote the
forward to my book. See that legendary.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
When I say God built my career, he built my life.
He created the entity William King Hollis whatever they want
to call me. But I tell everybody, if you want
to win in life, don't ever think a man can
change your life more than God can. Because when I
(28:03):
had no food, he gave me meals. When I had
no underwear, he gave me clothes. When I he never
gave me what I wanted, but he gave me what
I needed. And if you work long enough, how they
say that cut will run it over, It'll run it
over for the rest of your life if you if
(28:24):
you give your life to him and you serve, and
you work for him daily. And that's the reason why
the kid that couldn't read they was sixteen years old
is a best selling author and one of the best
young speakers in the world.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
And I believe my story has it haven't even hit
the ice bird of of what I would do and
how many people I will aspire leading up to this
next generation. And I believe that I was created for
this very moment in the world.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And my time is My time is now, no doubt, man,
I mean, I mean, you're embodying everything that a comeback
story is. And you know, I believe God is ultimately
the author of all of our comeback stories, you know,
like the timing of it. We don't know the exact
(29:16):
circumstances of it. We don't know the amount of pain
we have to endure. We don't know. But ultimately, if
we endure, Ultimately, if we push and uh and have
faith that it can't get better, it will get better.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
It will.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
And but the people in order for them to believe
that they need new examples, I feel like there's so
much truth in what you said about the examples that
we have. The leaders that we have, they're not the
same quality, you know what I'm saying. And that's where
that's where us three come in. Like having this platform
and being able to utilize this platform to give people
new examples and to have men that are successful and
real and authentic that have pain, that have tough experiences,
(29:52):
and that develop real lessons from that, and that there's
so much more substance in the riches and the fame,
but just real character growth, character development. Man, you really
are that, and you are and you know you're your
story isn't over. You've come back from many things, but
you're still coming back here, coming back to bring to
bring people with you, man, And so I just want
to honor you and say that we appreciate you whether Man.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Thank you, damn Man.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
That's truly an honor Man once again, Donnie, thank you again,
big guy. You guys are amazing man, And thank you
guys for creating this podcast. You know for so many people, Man,
and Donnie, I want to get with you one day.
I want to create a podcast myself, man. So it's
a lot of things I need to learn on that
in that podcast, wheld, I think I could create I
(30:36):
go viral mostly everybody podcast, and I'm tired of go
a viral other people podcasts now my own. But you know,
I see a podcast as a beacon of light to
inspire and help a lot of people, man, And hopefully
we all could collab on that stage one day. Man
and do and do something, do something magnificent. I actually
(30:56):
have an idea man, and and it's uh, it's called healing.
It was it was called healing with William King Hollin
and it's basically what you get on a whole bunch
of group of men. You gotta breakout session with women
and what you want. What I want to do is
I want to talk about I want to give them
a speech on mental health. But I also want to
open the room for every man to share their traumas together.
(31:17):
I want to cry tiers together. I want to let
that pain out together. I want to heal together inside
the room. And I believe you guys would be great
to be a part of that, and and and and
and really help a lot of people. Uh there, and
a lot of people look up and admire you for
your game. But I tell everybody for a long time
that brother is a huge advocate for mental health.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
And and way more than a football player.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
So I just want to thank you Kaine for being
the stand up individual that you are man and being
the leader that you are. And Donnie, thank you brother
for always staying consistent, always supporting. I seen your likes,
I seen your shares and and it means a lot
coming from a brother like yourself. Man, So once again, brothers,
(32:04):
I am extremely honored to have the opportunity to be
on this podcast today.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yeah, thank you will.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
I feel like we heard your story. And there's so
much adversity and just in the football and how much
rejection and hurdles you had to face, but also your life.
So we'll have to there's so many just one liners
and quotes and a lot of fire that we didn't
get to, so we'll probably have to get you back
for around two. Maybe you can, maybe you can take
(32:32):
us out and just let us understand the listener out
there that just can't understand why this pain, how it
possibly could be necessary. Can you just take us out
and tell us why pain is necessary?
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Probably pain is the Neto theory because pain is the
only thing that can strengthen you.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
You know.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
I was watching this show on the Discovery Channel. I
think it was the Discovery Channel, but it was the
jiu jitsu coach and practiced this thing on his fighters
where he hits him in the same place over and
over and over again, and the fighters start to say
that this is painful, but the coach will say, what
if I told you you could take more pain, But
(33:17):
as you continue to hit him in.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
That same spot, the pain that he thought was pain
no longer was pain.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
And what I tell everybody is pain is the thing
that separates those guys that gets the opportunity and fails,
and that other person gets the opportunity and to seize
by any means necessary as a man. And I don't
want to speak for women. I just know right now
(33:46):
for a man, you can't be a king without pain.
If you go back and you do your research, every
great king that became a king had to take a loss.
He had to lay down and bleed awhile. He had
let down and bleed awhile so he for him to
(34:07):
become who he was born to be. So what I
tell everybody the pain is the portal to the purpose.
And once you get through the pain and you get
to that purpose, it won't be a human being on
this earth that will be able to stop you from
accomplishing anything you want. If you want to turn that
vote onto a ferrari, you can do it. If you
want to turn that apartment into a mansion, you can
(34:29):
do it. And if that family tree is rotten.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
You let it go and you.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Replan another one. You water it different, you take care
of it different, and you love on it different. But pain,
my friends, is the portal. The greatness can't get there
without it. God got to test you.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
That man, sir, on that No, that's a mic drop man.
We appreciate y'all checking us out. Appreciate you king from
being here with us.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Man.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
We hope you guysure to take some and from this
into your own journey. I know I have, I know
Donnie has as well, So appreciate you guys. Join in.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back, everyone to another episode of come Back Stories.
Your co host Darren Waller joined with my brother, my friend,
mister Donnie Starkins. Donnie, how we doing today?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Bro? Doing great?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Excited for this one, hyped up?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh yeah, this is a big time guest. If you
don't know who this man is, you are in for
a treat and for a pleasure. A man who I
see as one of the top motivational speakers of this generation. Author,
a coach, a husband, father, I mean, a man that
can't be put in one box, and we're just honored
to have his time, have his voice, and to feel
(00:50):
his impact on the show. Today we got mister William
King Hollis in the building, Man King, how you doing?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
You doing?
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Darren Man and Donnie man Is, Like I tell you,
told you guys, it's been a dream of mine to
come on this podcast and to have a great conversation
with you guys.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
You guys do a lot, which I.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
You know, on mental health specifically that really touches my heart.
I've been there multiple times in my life and it's
just always a blessing to see individuals that.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Pread coming back from some of the darkest hours of
our life.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
So, like I said, this is my honor to be
on here today.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Absolutely, man, this is something that all three of us
not only can relate to, but we embody and we've
lived the triumphs and the pain of it, and we
know it starts very early on, at least in our lives.
And we'd like to know what was Keep paint a
picture for what growing up was like for you.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
Yeah, man, it was like a lot of inner city kids.
When I grew up in the city called Pontiac, Michigan.
My mother, like I said, she basically my grandmother, moved
from Monroe, Louisiana, and basically start running numbers. She had
twelve children, started to cook crack cocaine and taught all
(02:03):
twelve of those dren how to do the same, include
my mother. So I was in a house that basically
was like a gladiator school for teaching people.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
How to cook crack and say o crack.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
But one thing about it with me, King, I always
noticed that, you know, our life wasn't normal. So you know,
but as you stay in it long enough, it began
to get normal to you and you adopt some of
those same traits, some of those same anger issues, some
of those same addictions. And I'm just blessed that God
(02:37):
gave me the strength to always see more than my circumstances.
My mother ended up moving out at fourteen years old,
started selling drugs.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
In her own own place. She had me at sixteen
years old, had my sister at fifteen, and she was
molested as a child, so she eventually never healed from national.
She eventually started to use heroin that.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
You know, the crazy thing about it is I never
could notice until I became an older young man. She
did a great job of covering it up, covering it up,
and you know, it just showed her strength to to
to just keep fighting and and and that's why I
got a heart for, you know, the woman in general. Uh,
(03:26):
because as I go around the country speaking, I meet
a lot of young young women man that that that's
been molested and never got the help, never got the therapy,
and they turned into something that they're really not.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
But to get back to my.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Story, Kade, Yeah, it was it was absolutely chaos, chaos
that that I was living in.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But I always I used to say, when I was
a young kid.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Man, I used to walk outside in the projects, and
I used to always look up to the sky.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Man.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
I was always I never looked down. I always looked
to the sky because I never liked the picture that
was on the ground, the streets, the gangsters, the drug addicts,
just the chaos that was going on. And always seeing
that sky man, and I always realized that the world
is so big, man, and I can change my life
(04:16):
if I give it everything I got for my life.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And I understood that at a very young age.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Man, I always knew that the life that I was
living was not normal, and I would never accept that.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
For my family, my wife, my son, my children. I
just always wanted more.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
My father got incarcerated the first time, he had to
do six years when I was about, say, about seven
or eight years old. Missed him for a long time,
and then he got another three years after that, and
it's firing to a year of a crime. Then I
ended up having to move back and forth, bouncing, you know,
(04:57):
a minute for a foster home and then bouncing into
my grandmother's house. So they finally took us in. To
be honest with you, man, I went through a lot
of a lot of a lot of tearing down. You know,
a lot a lot of uh uh you know, jokes
from cousins. You know, your mom's a crackhead, your father's
(05:17):
in jail. You're gonna be just like your father and uh. Man,
I tell everybody, I give God all the glory for
the man that I am and who I am, because
through all the pain, through all the thing that was
supposed to make me angry, God always kept love in
my heart.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
And that's the only thing that I wanted to exude.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
I realized that, you know, the richest man in the
world is not really the man that has millions of
dollars in the bank account. Man, it's the man that
that comes home to a family. Since that's derriertable with
his children, teaches his son how to go further, which
is basically the real definition of father. And and that's
(05:58):
what I wake up every single day to do.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Man.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And hey, I want to I want to hop in
and asked you like, through all these peaks and valleys,
through not only your personal life, through physically, through football,
mentally with your family, your situation and football, like I'm
seeing all these things, like, was there ever a moment
in all of this where you realized that you had
(06:22):
a gift for speaking, or was this like after your
football career ended?
Speaker 3 (06:25):
This was?
Speaker 5 (06:25):
This was after I was it was after the football career.
So basically King, I ended up cracking my l one
vertebrate uh down. And when I when I got the
wrong Georgia, I ended up playing one game. Then I
had a mini stroke. I had to play in the
game because if you didn't play, they put you out
the house. So I played the worst game. My life
got cut. The mother and my child called me and
(06:49):
it was like, will are you okay? And I said,
I'm doing the best. At this point, we not together
no more. The distance it broke everything up. And uh,
you know, I said, no, I need a ticket to Printing,
New Jersey. So it's getting closer to how to speak.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It started. I go to Trenton, New Jersey. I got
a one way bus ticket about twenty.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Dollars to my name. I got nothing all the way.
The flight was from Rome, Georgia all the way to.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Trenton, New Jersey.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Trenton Freedom was the team owned by these millionaires that
specialize on solar pattern and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
But they brung me in. I had a tryout. I
made the team.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Next day, I was in a hotel and they had
all the restaurants. I mean, I felt like I was rigiating,
even about the money. It was like I'm eating square meals.
So when I get there, I dominate break the single
game sack record on Mother's Day. And after that game,
I see some of the CFL scouts, So I'm thinking
I'm getting ready to go to the CFL. Get my
(07:47):
opportunity to go over there, and boom, at the end
of the season, I don't get the call from the scouts.
I go to a workout with one of the Toronto
Argonaut scouts and he basically said, the coach at Trenton
Freedom said that you had mental health issues. He used
my past story to tell him that he's not mentally
(08:08):
ready to go because he wanted to secure a bigger
contract for him to move up to a higher level
in the rental league, so he used me.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
As a pond.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
I found that out, cuss his ass out, and once
again I'm back homeless. So I go to Dover, Delaware
with a teammate after the season, and you know, I'm
bouncing house to house and then the coach that I
broke the single game sack record, Bernie Bernie Northtowski.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
He actually was on.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
Facebook getting a blood infusion and he saw my post
on Facebook, like, man, life is so tiring. I said,
I don't think I ever played ball again. And he
was like, I got a team for you, harrisburg Stampe
Marcus Coasting. Team down here Hersheypa. He brings me down
to Hersheypa. I'm in a gym doing the workout. My
whole right side go out on me.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
I go to the doctor.
Speaker 5 (08:55):
They say, will you got an air one vertebrate crack?
You basically can't play football no more. I never tell
a coach this is where God come in. He comes
in now getting closer to the speech. He comes in
and and the coach cast me one day and be like,
will Marcus Coaster is folding the team. He's canceling up
the season. He no longer wants to invest in the team.
He's gonna shut the team down. So if I would
(09:16):
have went in that season and I probably wouldn't even
be talking to I've probably been a para believe it
or something. And Uh, I told coach about my injury.
He moved me into his apartment. I mean not his apartment,
his house with his wife and his three kids. I'm
the only black guy down in the reading pa in
his neighborhood. I'm basically staying in the basement until he said, hey,
(09:39):
will you want to coach the D line with this
Arena team. I got down here and and and read
and I said, for sure. I was like that, that'll
be honor. And that's when I learned the power of coaching.
It's a beautiful, beautiful thing to watch people, you know,
do what you teach. So one day I was speaking
to the players on the sideline and and I had
already I was getting ready to I was moving out
(09:59):
of Coach nortowsky basement.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Just didn't want to be a burd into the family.
Ain't of that anymore. So I go into the hotel
rooms with the players. Sometimes a player will leave with
a lady or a woman or anything like that. And
one particular day I had to sleep on side of
the Turkey Yo gas station. I'm sleeping on something. I'm
telling basically relaxing, I can call it relaxing. I'm sitting
(10:22):
on side of the Turkey Yo gas station and it's
early in the morning.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
I get up and the teacher that saw me talking
to the Kings at the game said, basically, I would
love for you to come speak to my young man
the way you spoke to those young men.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And I said, why not. You know, I got you.
I could be there.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
The school was right down the road. So I got
up and probably around twelve thirty and went down there
to the school. I spoke to five young men within
five minutes, and he was in tears at this point.
It was the first time talking about my story and
it broke me down. And people will be surprised by
telling your story. Just speaking your story out loud, it'll overwhelm,
(11:02):
it'll make you emotional.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And I was walking back to the hotel. I had
a four or five in my bag.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
I was about to go into Abraham Lincoln Hotel and
committed suicide in the bathroom. About five sets before I
got to the hotel, I got a call from Miss Robinson.
Cheryl Robinson. Shout out to Cheryl Robinson. She said, will
how much he charged to speak? I knew nothing about speaking,
and I said seventy five one hundred dollars or something
(11:27):
like that. So basically I went to the hotel and
I went to the computer room. I typed in in
motivational speaking. They nothing about it. Les Brown popped up
man this man. I seen him speaking in the Georgia Dome.
I saw he talked about his painting, kept a smile
on his face. I just just like we used to
watch when we was literally watch football videos. I studied
this whole monnerism, but I just was myself and just
(11:50):
took pieces of what he had and used my story.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And I went into the assembly.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
A week later, I got my one hundred dollars first
of being paid, got a standing ovation.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
King.
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Every five hundred students, every single student came down and
shook my hand.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Cried tears, and that was the moment I realized that
this was my gift the whole time.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
And you fast forward, you know, ten years later, over
one point three billion views on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Now platinum spoken word Albums history.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
The first week of to speak during Milan Fashion Week
of Philipply Paris Hilton super Bowl commercial this year featured
in Super Bowl commercial. Last year, just did an Undermer
commercial with Stephen Curry and King also received the Ambassador
of Peace Award at Kingston, Jamaica. Spoken in Australia. And
it all started by me telling my story in that
(12:50):
high school. So when I tell people I realized this,
I realized that God this whole time, the love that
I had for my mother, it never really was my
job to save her. You know, our job to save anyone.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
That's God's job.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
All our job is is to basically give our message
and give our truth and help as many people as
we can.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
But the person that can only truly get it done
is God.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
And you know, he turned a kid from the projects
into one of the you know, they say, one of
the greatest young speakers of this generation. And one thing
about my story then a lot of speakers, can you know?
That separates me from a lot of speakers, is that
when I speak, it's not that you hear me, they
(13:37):
feel me, you know what I mean. And I just
thank God for giving me this gift.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
I'm setting in a home. Man, I got home, I
got a family, I got a wife, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
And the best thing He's ever done for me is
make me rich on the inside before he made me
rich on the outside.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
And that's why I'm humble. That's why I look at
myself as a grain of salt. On the ground. So
I can never look down upon people.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
And I believe when you truly work for God, your
promotions become everlasting.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
And now I'm an author. My book was I'm a
self published author.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
Was putting Walmart, Barns and Nobles, Amazon Prime, It's a bestseller.
And man, all I can say is, I can never
it wasn't me. My story and my sacrifice was for
all the time. Right now we're living in where kids
(14:32):
are lost, women don't love themselves, young men don't know
who they are, They don't know how to control their emotions.
And I'm so grateful that I'm a speaker that can
walk into any room and I don't care if you
got murderers, the killers, the drug dealers.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
They feel me and I believe God gave me up
my gift to motivate the individuals that thought motivation wasn't
even real. And that's the blessing that I have.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
And I tell everybody when I was telling my speeches,
when I was saying my speech, I was talking to
myself king and the world simply was listening. And that's
the only That's what I tell everybody, that I was
talking to myself. I had to speak self life and
to myself.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
To be the man that I am today.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
And that's why I got a passion of spreading this
message all over the world. I got a passion of
helping with mental health because I know my story is
not a story that I'm just talking to you.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I lived this. You know.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
This past Christmas day, my father and my father was
released from prison after doing eight years. First time seeing
me as a motivational speaker. I flew into Michigan, got
to see him, got an airbnb. You know, we first
got out of prison. They just want to eat all
the new foods, introducing them the door dash.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I'm feeding them.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
And the first time in my life, I saw my
father as an old man. He's falling asleep. He's always
been this big superman god to me. And I flew
back home to Atlanta, and in eleven days after my
son was born, he was murdered and left for dead
in Detroit this past Christmas. So I lost my father,
(16:14):
bro I lost my mother and all that pain that
I had that will break a lot of meat uh
and women.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
I believe that, you know, God just broke it full
a circle that you know, he sacrificed himself for us,
and they say we live in the limit the image
and likeness of God, and a man's job on his
earth to me is to sacrifice his life and sacrifice
himself for the betterment of his family and the betterment
of the young kings that's coming up from behind him.
(16:46):
So it wasn't for me to go out and try
to be this big celebrity. I just wanted to be
a man that could just say I sacrifice God. I
sacrifice everything to help your people and to keep love
and God in people heart.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So that that's my life king, and that that that's
a I give all glory to the most.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
Hot man, all prices of mo hot for everything I
got and even being able to be on this podcast
with you, guys.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Man, it's just a it's been a hell of a journey, man,
but the pain was worth it. Well, it's cool.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
It's cool to hear you say that it's been a
dream for you to be on our podcast because I
look at you as a speaker, and I know Darren
and I have talked about doing more of this speaking.
Darren's not going to play football forever, so it's just
cool for us to hear you say that it's a
dream to be on our podcast when we see you
just crushing it on the biggest stage and facing what
(17:42):
for many people is their biggest fears, talking in front
of a group, but not only talking in front of
a group, but being able to deliver in a way
that people can relate. And I think that's what I'm
hearing in everything you're saying. And that's why I relate
because I can feel I can feel you, and it's
exactly why every piece of motivation that you give people,
you're just talking to yourself, which is why it's why
(18:04):
it's so relatable. I have a question for you regarding
because I've heard you talk about how being broke as
a mindset, it's not the lack of funds, it's the
lack of belief. But what do you think right now,
like in the world, what do you see is like
the root cause or the commonality of people's broken down
belief systems.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Just I believe right now in the world, they killed
every example that can teach us. If you watch the
world man, all the great leaders that was trying to
educate and teach us and put us in the right mindset.
Some way, somehow, something happens soon. And now you have
a generation of lost souls that now they believe that
(18:49):
they believe fame and being in a light is more
important than family. The woman believes that being a model
is more important than being a mother. And you know,
if you have a generation of children that that doesn't
love themselves, that doesn't value their lives, that doesn't know
(19:11):
where they started or where they come from, you will
have a lost generation of people. And one thing I
tell people, money is not the greatest thing you can have.
Purpose is the greatest thing that you can have. So
it's so many individuals in the world right now that's
walking around with no purpose.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
They have no purpose for life.
Speaker 5 (19:32):
Man, And I tell everybody, once you find your purpose,
it can heal all the pain of your life. Because
what happens is individuals are going the wrong direction they
whole life. King And this is when the mental health
thing pops up. They're going the wrong direction their whole life.
And when they realize that they when they finally realize
they been going the wrong way their whole life. Whether
(19:53):
you have to do in the DPS, you got to
set your current destination to get to your final destination.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
And when people jump off the ledge and commit suicide.
Speaker 5 (20:01):
It's because of the simple fact that they do not
have the strength to go all the way back to
the beginning and do it the right way. And that's
the problem in the world. We got a first identify
with what's hurting us. You got a hurt world. King,
kings and queens like myself that buried their mothers, young
women that was molested and taken advantage of but never
(20:24):
got the help they needed. You got a broken society
where young kids are raising kids. Our grandmothers are children
now they're not the old elderly women. And then you
got men that walk around dressed as boys. You know,
back in the day, when you're walk wash a man
walk around, you will see a man in his suit.
(20:45):
You'll see a man in his shoes. You will see them.
You can see a man. But now you got the
older man competing with the younger man. The older man
looks like a boy. It's a scene a boardwalk Empire
that changed my life. And it was al Capone talking
to this Jewish man. So al Capone kept acting the
Jewish man, Why do you keep calling me a boy?
(21:06):
Al Capone's able to show the Jewish man around the city.
So he said, why do you keep calling me a bone?
They say, this is a true story. Why you keep
calling me a boy? And the Jewish man said, as
long as you wear the hat of a boy, you
will always be perceived as a boy, no matter if
you like it or not.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
And they said, al.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Capone never put on a hat a boy's hat anymore.
He never wore regular slacks anymore. When this man told
him that, because he realized that in the world, the
way you are perceived is the way you are treated,
and it's not right that people treat you that way.
(21:52):
But one thing about this generation. If a boy never
sees a man, how can he ever become one. So
now you got the rappers, you got the little boosters,
you got all these other all these rappers.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
That that's old enough to.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Be my father behaving like a child. So if a
child sees a man behaving as a child, he's always
gonna be a child. He's gonna believe being a child
is a man. And then he gets into a marriage
and don't know how to control his emotions. Something I
(22:26):
speak on often. If you never learn how to control
your emotions, you can never truly be a man. You
will always be a boy. And goes back to what
I told you was one of these boys, these little kids,
they was hurt. One of these little girls, they was hurt,
and when they were hurt, they.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Stayed that age.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
They might have turned twenty eight this year, But when
that little girl was hurt, when she was twelve years old,
she's still twelve years old. That little boy that waited
at the door for his father to come home, but
he never came. He's still a hurt little boy, but
just dressing a man uniform.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
So what I feel the.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
World is lacking right now is therapists therapy, being able
to talk about their pains and being able to share
their pains without being talked about, or taking advantage of
a safe place for them to express themselves. That's why
I wrote this book for one day. I want to
get it into the schools, man, I want. I want
(23:29):
to create a curriculum where kids get up and tell
their stories in front of their brothers, the Hispanic brothers,
the Asian brothers, the white brothers, so they can see
our stories not too different, our pain is the same,
and that's gonna build the love. And then what you're
gonna get kids doing is just like me telling my stories,
saying my life, it's gonna save theirs. Then the counselors
can set in the room and identify the red flags
(23:51):
just hurting these children, the things that they don't have
to ask some questions for. They can just ask the questions.
And then you get children writing books about their lives.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Then you got then then you say, no, can you
not just a project? Baby? You're an author.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Your story matters. And that's what it's all about with me, man,
That's that's that's that's that's this is, this is my life, man.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Is to.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
It's to inspire billions of individuals. Man, and I'm doing that.
I've done this without management. I got in the Super Bowl.
God has been my manager. Man, I don't have a team.
I don't have a social media team.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You know how I get my content? People from all
over the world top it up and I take it off,
They page and post it.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
That that that that's how I built my brand. Everything
you see is organic. That's why I was able to
go over million million plus views on all my videos.
My first speech, my football speech. The number if you
go to YouTube right best football speech ever, the number
one speech. I was homeless in Huntersville, Alabama.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
King homeless. I was homeless.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
When I was over three million views on you, I
was still homeless. It wasn't That's what I learned. I
had to realize, like God, I didn't give you this
job to become a starting rich. He gave you this
job will to say lives. So I took my last
one hundred and twenty dollars and went to Columbia High School.
(25:23):
A coach asked me to speak. I gave a video
wager for one hundred and twenty bucks. I gave him
a hundred bucks, actually because I kept twenty. I just
got a limit of tours, all black tours. And I
needed gas because I was leaving. I just got evicted
from my apartment. I go in there, I dropped the
speech to the football speech King. I leave go down
(25:43):
to drive down to Atlanta. Sleeping in the AMC Theater
in Camp Creek in Georgia. I'm sleeping in the I'm sleeping.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
In the parking lot.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
The next morning, I wake up and the videographer called
me and said, I posted a clip last night of
the speech and it's going viral.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
On Twitter. It went viral on Twitter and now it's
the number one football speech in the world.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
That's why I tell everybody there's nobody that can take
this away from me, because God gave it to me.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
And I tell people all the time.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
And to bring it full circle, the man that reached
out to me and called my phone the legendary Les Brown,
when I was homeless setting in Camp Creek Less Brown
was in the hospital getting the blood transfusion defeating cancer.
He listened to one of my speeches called the Journey,
and it starts off with I didn't come this far
(26:36):
to only come this far. That's the same quote Drake
and Kim Kardashian using. By the way, that's the quote
she heard on the internet.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
When when he heard that, it inspired him to keep going.
Speaker 5 (26:48):
He flew down to Atlanta and the man that I
turned on the computer the first day I ever spoke
this is God man met me in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
We met at the grocery store. First, got got a
little he loves watermelon, It's crazy.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
We got some some fruit from I'm the Groceries, the
whole food store. Then we went to a house and
where he did an interview with me and passed the torch,
which is he also actually.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Let me grab something for you guys. He actually just
wrote he wrote the forward. He wrote the forward to
this book. We'll tell you, guys, let's legendary, Les Brin.
I'm sorry, guys, kidding me. So that's who wrote the
forward to my book. See that legendary.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
When I say God built my career, he built my life.
He created the entity William King Hollis whatever they want
to call me. But I tell everybody, if you want
to win in life, don't ever think a man can
change your life more than God can. Because when I
(28:03):
had no food, he gave me meals. When I had
no underwear, he gave me clothes. When I he never
gave me what I wanted, but he gave me what
I needed. And if you work long enough, how they
say that cut will run it over, It'll run it
over for the rest of your life if you if
(28:24):
you give your life to him and you serve, and
you work for him daily. And that's the reason why
the kid that couldn't read they was sixteen years old
is a best selling author and one of the best
young speakers in the world.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
And I believe my story has it haven't even hit
the ice bird of of what I would do and
how many people I will aspire leading up to this
next generation. And I believe that I was created for
this very moment in the world.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And my time is My time is now, no doubt, man,
I mean, I mean, you're embodying everything that a comeback
story is. And you know, I believe God is ultimately
the author of all of our comeback stories, you know,
like the timing of it. We don't know the exact
(29:16):
circumstances of it. We don't know the amount of pain
we have to endure. We don't know. But ultimately, if
we endure, Ultimately, if we push and uh and have
faith that it can't get better, it will get better.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
It will.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
And but the people in order for them to believe
that they need new examples, I feel like there's so
much truth in what you said about the examples that
we have. The leaders that we have, they're not the
same quality, you know what I'm saying. And that's where
that's where us three come in. Like having this platform
and being able to utilize this platform to give people
new examples and to have men that are successful and
real and authentic that have pain, that have tough experiences,
(29:52):
and that develop real lessons from that, and that there's
so much more substance in the riches and the fame,
but just real character growth, character development. Man, you really
are that, and you are and you know you're your
story isn't over. You've come back from many things, but
you're still coming back here, coming back to bring to
bring people with you, man, And so I just want
to honor you and say that we appreciate you whether Man.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Thank you, damn Man.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
That's truly an honor Man once again, Donnie, thank you again,
big guy. You guys are amazing man, And thank you
guys for creating this podcast. You know for so many people, Man,
and Donnie, I want to get with you one day.
I want to create a podcast myself, man. So it's
a lot of things I need to learn on that
in that podcast, wheld, I think I could create I
(30:36):
go viral mostly everybody podcast, and I'm tired of go
a viral other people podcasts now my own. But you know,
I see a podcast as a beacon of light to
inspire and help a lot of people, man, And hopefully
we all could collab on that stage one day. Man
and do and do something, do something magnificent. I actually
(30:56):
have an idea man, and and it's uh, it's called healing.
It was it was called healing with William King Hollin
and it's basically what you get on a whole bunch
of group of men. You gotta breakout session with women
and what you want. What I want to do is
I want to talk about I want to give them
a speech on mental health. But I also want to
open the room for every man to share their traumas together.
(31:17):
I want to cry tiers together. I want to let
that pain out together. I want to heal together inside
the room. And I believe you guys would be great
to be a part of that, and and and and
and really help a lot of people. Uh there, and
a lot of people look up and admire you for
your game. But I tell everybody for a long time
that brother is a huge advocate for mental health.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
And and way more than a football player.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
So I just want to thank you Kaine for being
the stand up individual that you are man and being
the leader that you are. And Donnie, thank you brother
for always staying consistent, always supporting. I seen your likes,
I seen your shares and and it means a lot
coming from a brother like yourself. Man, So once again, brothers,
(32:04):
I am extremely honored to have the opportunity to be
on this podcast today.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yeah, thank you will.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
I feel like we heard your story. And there's so
much adversity and just in the football and how much
rejection and hurdles you had to face, but also your life.
So we'll have to there's so many just one liners
and quotes and a lot of fire that we didn't
get to, so we'll probably have to get you back
for around two. Maybe you can, maybe you can take
(32:32):
us out and just let us understand the listener out
there that just can't understand why this pain, how it
possibly could be necessary. Can you just take us out
and tell us why pain is necessary?
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Probably pain is the Neto theory because pain is the
only thing that can strengthen you.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
You know.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
I was watching this show on the Discovery Channel. I
think it was the Discovery Channel, but it was the
jiu jitsu coach and practiced this thing on his fighters
where he hits him in the same place over and
over and over again, and the fighters start to say
that this is painful, but the coach will say, what
if I told you you could take more pain, But
(33:17):
as you continue to hit him in.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
That same spot, the pain that he thought was pain
no longer was pain.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
And what I tell everybody is pain is the thing
that separates those guys that gets the opportunity and fails,
and that other person gets the opportunity and to seize
by any means necessary as a man. And I don't
want to speak for women. I just know right now
(33:46):
for a man, you can't be a king without pain.
If you go back and you do your research, every
great king that became a king had to take a loss.
He had to lay down and bleed awhile. He had
let down and bleed awhile so he for him to
(34:07):
become who he was born to be. So what I
tell everybody the pain is the portal to the purpose.
And once you get through the pain and you get
to that purpose, it won't be a human being on
this earth that will be able to stop you from
accomplishing anything you want. If you want to turn that
vote onto a ferrari, you can do it. If you
want to turn that apartment into a mansion, you can
(34:29):
do it. And if that family tree is rotten.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
You let it go and you.
Speaker 5 (34:34):
Replan another one. You water it different, you take care
of it different, and you love on it different. But pain,
my friends, is the portal. The greatness can't get there
without it. God got to test you.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
That man, sir, on that No, that's a mic drop man.
We appreciate y'all checking us out. Appreciate you king from
being here with us.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Man.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
We hope you guysure to take some and from this
into your own journey. I know I have, I know
Donnie has as well, So appreciate you guys. Join in.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Eric Balchunas
Donny Starkins
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.