May 3, 2023 • 41 mins
Today host Louis Carr speaks with Mahdi Muhammad about his upbringing, pivotal moments in his life, nursing and his company, BKlear water.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Lewis Carr, host of the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Men's Summer,
where we have consistently given men a prescription for growth,
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their communities. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness, and relationship.
(00:28):
And today we have Muhammad Madi, founder and owner of
be Clear Water Company. Welcome Madi, thank you for having
me on. Mister Scott, how are you. I'm doing good,
very excited to have this conversation with you. You supplied
(00:50):
the water for the Blueprint A Men's conference twenty twenty two.
It was a real hit, and you know, I think
you know, MANI I'm a water kindoisseur and I tested
it out the day before to see, I'm like, this
is gonna be good water. We're just gonna be trying
(01:11):
to drench our thirst. And I have to say the
water tastes pretty good. So tell us a little bit
about where you grew up. I hear you were a
military baby and moved around a lot, and how you
got into we'll get into how you got into this
(01:33):
water thing, and we're going to talk about some reinvention.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Sounds good, all right. As you stated, my name is
Mohammed Mahdi.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I go by the moniker of just Madi or Nurse
Madi U, and we'll get into that later. I am
a father of three who started his journey and was
born in Florida, Tallahassee, Florida, and ended up being raised
(02:04):
between Boston, Massachusetts and Saint Louis, East.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Saint Louis and.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I come from a family of six siblings that later
got to eleven, but we'll go to that six siblings
that I grew up with. My mother and my father
divorced early, so being that we're my father was in
the military, my father ended up his course ended in
(02:34):
Saint Louis. My mother found her way to Boston after
they divorced at an early age. So that goes to
why I spend time in Boston and Saint Louis in
my formative years. In between before that, we bounced around
from everywhere, as you stated, because of the military. My
mother is has always been an education my father's in
(02:56):
social work, but they both have always been super involved
in community and and believe community life is very important,
and so they poured into a lot of that. We
lived in, like I said, in Boston for the most part,
(03:17):
because my mother had primary custody, So we spent the
school years out in Boston and the summers in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, so just go where did you did? So you
went to high school in Boston?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
No, I actually started high school in Milwaukee with guys.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Okay, I'm assuming this is all this moving around is
because of the military.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, yeah, I think it started at it was the
reason for it, but some of it came to being
because I kind of found myself or led myself to
being involved with being in the streets.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
My mother worked two jobs to care for us.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
As I believe I said, is my mother.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
She always opened up her house to everyone.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
So we were in a two bedroom with about nine
or ten people.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I was my.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Cousins, my siblings, my mother, my grandmother, everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Of course, they get the rooms, so we got the floor.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
And Boston was rough, but it was also joyful because
my mother was the type to make cookies, pies and
hugs everybody. She's like everybody who's ever met my mother
they love her and that's an honor to be able
to say it's because she has such a.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
A loving spirit. But I didn't see that then.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
So with my mother working two jobs, I kind of
found myself attracted to street life.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That's where everything was happening.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That's where I learned, this is where men do and
say what they want, go where please, and can't nobody
tell them anything.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I did that while my mother was at work and
then came back and listened. But I found myself being
more attracted to it because I appealed to my mask,
what I considered my masculine nature because of but it
was what I learned now is that was toxic masculinity.
It was a bunch of people not knowing what it
meant to be a man, teaching everybody how to be
a man. And but I that's where I found my identity.
(05:31):
And to go back, I think a lot of the
reinventing myself came to be because I was at a crossroad.
And this will later upcome on. I was at a
cross road and it's almost like they say that the
devil and the angels on your shoulder, right, you know,
someone tells you something good other one say something bad,
(05:52):
you kind of go whichever one. Folks both right, My
crossloads were always because I suffered from identity issues. I
didn't know what a black man was supposed to be.
I didn't know what a male was supposed to be.
I didn't know what a sun was supposed to do.
You know, these are the times and no one knows
because you're growing and learning. But when you're growing up
(06:15):
so fast and with trauma, you're always in survival mode.
And some of that trauma came from and I shared
that I always grew up feeling like I didn't belong
anywhere we live and what we call the heart of
the hood. But my mother used to ship us. We
(06:36):
to take a little bus hour and a half two
hours out to predominantly Caucasian schools in Bedford. And when
we got out there, we were the poor little black
kids that looked like the token people. And you know,
everybody makes fun of me. You know, they're wealthy, they're
well off there, this and that and here. We all
would hand me downs and rolling up sleeves and rolling
(06:57):
up hand legs, and you know, that's what we consider
important at the time when everybody's talking about the lunch box,
so this and that we had to free lunch because
we were on the program.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So it was I was like we.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Were being poked at, and then we bust back to
where we're not from the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
We're not going to the neighborhood school. So then we
tease where y'all come from.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You know, we went from the will Smith's out there
to the Carltons in the hood. So I had to
kind of assert myself of what I feel like, what
was going to give me some respects and sports? And
wasn't it or I didn't have anything else at the
time other than my hands. Because my father taught us
said that a man is only going to learn, a
(07:37):
man is only going to get through life by working
and fighting. He's gonna have to fight everything he wants
and work for everything he wants. Well, I knew how
to fight, So those that identity issue there, and then
the identity issue of always feeling like I didn't belong
even in my family because of learning at an early
(07:57):
age that my mother was great.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
As she says with.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
When she was with child, and of course at that
time I didn't know what that meant. When I heard
people make fun of it, or my siblings make fun
of me saying you adopted, that's why daddy's not your daddy,
or my cousins you know, that's the low blow. They
would say, you know, that's why you not really you
know those things. And even though children say that kind
of nasty and without really trying to hurt me, it
(08:27):
did have an effect on me.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So in a house where I didn't.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Feel in place, and the school I didn't feel in
place or where I belong, then now in the area
where now I'm accepted, if I put somebody on their
back for saying something I don't like, that's where I
wanted to be. And so that toxic masculinity kind of gone.
And then as I got older, the story even kind
(08:52):
of built up to where now my father, you know,
I worked up enough nerve to ask, and he didn't
want to talk about it. But my mother decided to
tell me about it. And she didn't tell me anything
about what happened. She told me that your father she
always praised them. I never heard my mother talk ill
of my father.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
She praised them.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
And she said, you know, your one thing your father
did was he didn't let anybody hurt his family, and
I think it became a real big blow to him
when he felt like he was helpless as a man
to actually be able to protect his family. And maybe
that's why he became to be so mean. I don't know,
or I felt the reason why he and I never
had a real type relationship was because I felt that
(09:33):
adds up to where he doesn't feel like I'm his
and every time he sees me, he sees where he
fell short or where he feels he fell short. So
I always felt there's a disappointment to him. So then
as I got older, So what was your.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Relationship like with him when you were growing up? It
was one of just fear. It was just fear.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
My father was very militant, martial arts, always in shape,
ape right, didn't watch TV, worked with a lot of
prisons and detention centers to try to like save the
younger black vels. But a lot of our days were spent,
like I could tell you, like a Saturday morning wasn't
(10:17):
like some kids eat cereal and watching TV. We're waking
up before the sun rose to go outside in these
fields and pick up rocks and sticks in the dark,
and with the fear of if I run this lawnmower
over a rock or stick in the mess of my blade,
I'm gonna tear you all up. So we would do
(10:37):
this before we can eat, before we could play, before
we could do anything. And because he felt that, he
got up, and I know in his mind he was saying,
I'm teaching him how to be young black men that
are gonna have to be disciplined and hard working. But
as a child, all I saw that was he hates me,
you know, you know, this was with these chills. Now, well,
(11:01):
society will say this is abusive, you know, and it
may have been some form, But his father was killed
on a construction side by some white supremacists at a
young age. So everything he learned about being a man
was with aggression and anger, and everything that he talked
(11:22):
it only fed my anger, and so.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
On and so forth.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
And this all will flow, no pun intendent into how
the water is, because every last part of me ends
up why the locals the way it is, why my
children are implemented in it, and why it decided to
be water. And so I got in trouble. First time
I got in trouble in the neighborhoods is okay to fight.
Nobody called the police. Like I said, I saw my
(11:48):
first murder at eight, I kind of realized, like, that's
where it's gonna end up with the people that I
look up to, So don't try. I occasionally we were
very intelligent, but igccasionally would do very well in school
to give my mother something to brag about, because she
used to always say, where did I go wrong? And
so I felt like a disappointment. Fast forward, we moved
(12:10):
to Lacrosse, Wisconsin. I think I was in seventh grade.
Now we lived around My mother remarried to my stepfather,
and that's why we moved to ended up in Wisconsin.
So we moved to Lacrosse, Wisconsin, where my stepfather was
the dean of Multicultural Service for the University of Lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
So, now, this was the biggest house I've ever seen.
This is the only house that we've ever lived in,
the biggest house I've ever seen. But he had five
older sons and they hated us because their mother and
father got divorced and they father got remarried to my mother.
And my stepfather was complete opposite of my father. It
was docile, he was passive, and his kids were the
(12:53):
aggressor ones. They kind of did this, and so I
kind of had a disrespect towards my stepfather. And now
we're in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood and school.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I get to school the.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
First time one of these kids they said, hey, little nigger,
go back to juvie where you belong. I didn't know
what juvie was, because all I know is you go
to jail or you don't. But I knew what nigga was,
and I knew what to do when you heard nigga.
And I myself and this other boy named Gary who
(13:26):
is from Gary, Indiana, who ended up hitting school. It
was because they were pushing around him, and I went
to go help, and they said, you niggas, go back
to juvie where you belong.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And we put a mopping on all of them.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
It was about seven noose and there was two of
us and we put them mopping on them. And our
principal was crime stoppers. He was like something with crime Stoppers.
He did not arrest any of the other kids to fighting,
but the police came and got us and arrested us.
And that's the first time. The first running I had
with cops and a disrespect towards authority, because now every
(14:00):
thing makes sense.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Why f the police? Why this?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
And that they arrested me and they didn't even say
anything to these children. They pumped the fear of life
in me and they put me in and I was
so afraid. And then I thought about, now my father's
gonna find out. I'm about to get in more trouble.
Now my mother's gonna be disappointed. I'm being more in trouble.
But I had to continue this bad, this kind of
tough guy image, and so seventh grade I kind of
(14:23):
get out of that, got threatened with detention. When before
a judge, I learned what juvenile was, Julie was. Now
I learned what that was. Fast forward when my mother
starts taking over a school or working with the school
in Milwaukee, and now we end up here. Ninth grade,
I go here, I learned about sports is super important,
(14:45):
and I wasn't able to identify. I find myself in
a new place again, feeling like I have to start over,
there's no real connection. I feel ostracized again and again
I result to my hands. I felt like that was
the only thing that was gonna give me an identity somebody.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
You sound like you was just a bad kid. Man,
you know, I was.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I was, I was, I was.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
You was just a bad kid.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I was struggling.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
We're gonna we're gonna level set there, all right.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, we'll be right back with more of my interview
after this quick break. When was the change? When did
that change happen? Did that happen after high school? When
(15:37):
when did you say, you know, this ain't working out
too well, this ain't leading me down the path that
I want.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
When was that change?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
It started when I was doing some sort of activities
that I will not disclose, and these.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Guys were trying to set me up up and something
didn't seem right.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
It didn't look right, and I knew it wasn't and
my gut told me it wasn't right, like everything else
wasn't right, but here I couldn't ignore it, and it
ended up coming to be.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
There was two cars. It was at night, and and.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I had some something in my trunk and the guy
was me mad at the trunk, and next thing you know,
it was a whole shootout and curve.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It wasn't like the movies. It wasn't like you know,
you know, everybody does. It's cool.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
My heart was pumping, my feet were heavy, you know,
I was sweating, and that adrenaline was.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I was found myself. This was a graduation from.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Fighting.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
This was now it's gonna be life or death.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And as much as I had this idea of y'all
gonna die young anyway, Yola, it don't matter. That time
it became real. It's not that I didn't have run
ins before. I didn't see people killed us, some friends
get killed. I seen some of my friends kill and
end up in life and all that stuff or what
I considered my friends.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
But it was happening to.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Me, and.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Whatever it is dealing with guns.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I had a bullet in my hand and the grae
on my back and I left that place. And at
that time the woman that I was talking to, he
was pregnant. And I touched your stomach and my son kicked,
And I want to have you understand I didn't actually
(17:38):
lose my virginity till eighteen. I was scared of all
of that, but I always said I wanted to have
a son because I wanted to leave something behind. But
ignorant at that time, I realized I didn't have anything
to leave behind. It was just my name. And from
there I said, hell, I ain't going because when he born,
he gonna call somebody else daddy.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And that was the start of the change.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
How old were you at that point? Eighteen?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
No? No, no, no no.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I was twenty twenty, twenty three, twenty three, twenty three.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
And what, let's just say, your career at that point
was in the streets.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I had been to school. I was in college in
Texas before that. That's where I learned to college. Texas
did you go to? I went to Katie. I started
off at Paul Quinn, but they lost the accreditation and
I was supposed to be a grown up. So when
I got kicked out of college here, I went down
there and I was like, I'm not gonna make my
mom that I was eighteen and I had a full
(18:48):
academic scholarship at eighteen. I lost that. I saw a
disappointment in my mother's eyes. So I packed my car
and I drove Texas. I didn't know anybody, I said.
I learned to be somebody ere and I learned two things.
I learned that I wasn't grown and uh, I learned
a different side.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Of the streets. The business side of the streets.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And and uh I brought that back up to up North.
I said, it was it was that was the profit
you know. Down South was cheap, up North was was
they pay for anything? So I ended up in Milwaukee,
and I was going back and forth to Texas and Milwaukee,
like every week. I would drive back and forth, and
(19:32):
and then I ended up, like.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I said, I met a woman. I said, I wanted
to have a kid.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And this woman I we weren't really, we weren't in
a relationship. I just thought I want to have a child.
She wanted to be with me. I wanted to have
a child. And that's what happened. It wasn't an accident,
it wasn't. I really wanted to sun and I always
said I was gonna have a son. But it got
more real when I touched his hand. And I used
to read to my son in the stomach. Uh I
used to hear my mother talk about how important it
is to read the children, how important it is a
breastfeed and so on and so, so I knew I
(19:57):
had the nursering and aspect in me. And uh I
touched my son's stomach, I mean, my my son's mother's
stomach and he kicked and for me, it was like
kick the crap, kick the bs, kick it, and uh,
I went cold turkey around there. I stopped hanging around everybody,
(20:17):
I stopped doing everything. I started working little ends, nas jobs.
I said, I wanted to come up with something so
he could be proud of me. And fast forward I went.
I went to school for early education. I was an
early early education teacher when he was young. I said,
one of these kids are going to have to have
(20:39):
the personality of my son to prepare me so I
don't fail as a father.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
I didn't feel like I placed, like I belonged anywhere else,
But I said I was going to have a son.
I got a son, and he's gonna love me because
I'm gonna be there. So I have to make sure
that works so I don't fail that.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So you're you're teaching at that point, right, yes?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yes? Right?
Speaker 4 (20:58):
And how long did you teach?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh? I man, that was only about a year, two years.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Probably, okay? And you went from teaching into nursing.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I went from teaching to administration. It was a part
of that I went in from. When I got into administration,
I was in school now for nursing, and I just
didn't like I felt at the time of teaching that
I really wasn't I was doing a disservice to children,
(21:33):
because how I feel like the system is set up
is I was only training them to know certain things,
but not teaching them how to be the best selves
in society, teaching them how to function and operate and
maintain a society, but not really thrive and do everything.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
And so when they say they have to learn this,
they have to do this. Everything ever get so.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
After I was a rebel and I was gonna take
you to administration because I'm gonna change something.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
It didn't really work out. So I went into health care.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
And I got into healthcare because at the time of tea,
I was driving to Saint Louis to my great grandmother.
And I used to talk to my great grandmother all
the time, and she was always so nice to me.
And whenever I would do laundry, if I was in Texas,
I was doing something, I would call it and I'd say, hey,
pretty lady, and she would talk, or she would sing
(22:16):
and play the piano. She was just a nice, little,
brittle old woman. And now when I learned that she
was dying. I was going up there to just, you know,
say hey, tell I love her, and where the time goes,
it would happen. But then when I got there, she
only took to me. She wouldn't take her medication unless
I was there. She wouldn't she wouldn't speak, or she
(22:36):
wouldn't do anything unless I was there. And so it
felt like a very big weight on me that I
wasn't able to handle. I didn't understand the diagnoses and
some of the yelling and screaming and then calling me
daddy that I was really I was intimidating this big
I mean, I felt like I'm a big man on campus,
I do whatever, but now I'm intimidated by a little
(22:57):
old woman. So I was holding her hand, and she
used to always have me sing this song that I
didn't know was called let Me Hold Your Hand by
the Beatles. Well I want to hold you in something
about hand and the beatles.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And she didn't know me.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Until I said, hey, pretty lady, and then she says,
you used to talk to me in Texas.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Mind you, it had been fifteen years by then.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
So I went to there, and the part of my
nature in my spirit was I didn't like something about it,
and I had to do something about it, because that's
what a man does, right. So I went back, I
said I I made a vouch to her. I said,
I'm going to go to school.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
To be a nurse.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
And I said that if anybody in my family is
going to be in this position again, I no longer
was going to feel helpless, but I was also going
to be able to be the provider. I went to school.
I left Saint Louis, calling every school on the way there.
In that five and a half hour drive back, I
got a hold of one school, and that school said,
(23:56):
at this time, I was in the military too.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I was in the National Guard. So I was. I
hadn't been. I just got back from a deployment.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And this is why I ended up in You know,
I take a lead from work, lead from everything. And
I was going back to Belleville, Illinois, a whole lot
of it. I was in the military, I was in
the education. And I made that drive and I went
there and I called them and I said, do you guys,
how do you get a nursing program? I don't know
nothing about nursing. How do you do it. What does
that to do? He said, well, you have to placement.
(24:28):
You have to get on an exam. And I wasn't
afraid of all that because I said, you know, I
never knew. I knew I was never a dummy. So
I said, okay, I got to take an exam. Then
what she said, Well, classes start next week and the
last day to take an exam is today. I said,
well good, I'll be back in Milwaukee in about two hours.
Is there going to be somebody she says, sir, this
is kind of like it's unorthodox. I can see if
(24:50):
they can have a place for you just to walk
in the storm. I said, ma'am, it would be a
great honor if you please just do me to service.
She went in, Come in, She said, you got five hours,
but you only have four and a half hours. You know,
four hours because the test is five hours and you're late.
I came in, I took tests, passed, I started class.
I didn't know anything that was going on in class,
(25:13):
and that again I fell out of place again, and
the instructors started telling me, the professors, maybe you should
drop out, maybe you should do this. It was predominantly
white women. They laughing when I asked the question, but
I was paying now, so the hell with them. I
sat in front of their class, I asked every question
and by my third year, by my third year or
(25:35):
by clinical, they went from books sound to patient side,
and then I had to learn this goes back. So
the first time was when I touched my son's stomach,
I mean my son kicking, and then it really clicked
went out. I started dealing with people in vulnerabile stages.
I became patient side. I started seeing people very vulnerable,
the toughest of men we helped getting out of the bed,
(25:55):
and the oldest of women being as strong as they
want to be.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
And I learned that they were all human. We were
all people.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I don't care what color you were, how tall you are,
what background you were, if you were in that bed,
all you wanted was somebody to help you.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
So now many you become nurse mindy.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I became nurse Mindy.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I was student nurse mind at the time, but I
own nurse Miny because it became a passion of mine.
I was so much better than every nurse that I
every nurse that I saw, and every student that was
going to become a nurse I thrived so much so
that then I got letter of recommendations. When I was
still a student, I got the attention of the dean
(26:38):
of nursing. Now because befirst, it was I was always
the bottom of the incident because people will say something
because they were trying to get me out the program.
Now they wanted to they wanted to know my story,
they wanted me to mentor people, they wanted me to help.
But I took that and I said, it's my time
now to go back into my community like my parents started.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
And how long did you stay as a nurse?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Oh, I was a nurse almost a decade.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Okay, So I became a director of nursing, so it
became less bedside, more administration out of actually Chicago.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
We'll be right back with more of my interview after
this quick break. How did we get to be clear?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
War?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I mean, that's that's sort of a three sixty. That
ain't a one eighty. That's the three sixty, that's a
seven twenty.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
What it has is I was a director of nursing
and in that time I was, I got married and
I had two more children. Well, I had one child
at a time, and then I was going through divorce.
And what I was realizing was I was on call
(28:05):
twenty four to seven and going back to when I
was a father, I said, I can't fail. The one
thing I know that I can do well is be
a father, and I said I will no longer from this.
It just epiphany hit over me. I was actually I
was sleep three fourteen am. I was working up on
August twenty eight, two years ago, and it told me
(28:31):
to do it, and I felt like I was drowning.
I was in complete sweat and I already knew what
it meant because I had been thinking about the water
for six years. I had visited certain things, I've done
certain things around nutrition in the community.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Trying to help through prevention through nutrition was my model.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
A lot of the illnesses I saw came through was
the food we put in our mouth, for the drinks
we put in our mouth. So everybody always asked me
this thing of well, what are you selling? I said,
I got a job. I'm not selling anything. What I'm
doing is trying to help, right, And then I needed
something too. I decided water juice was I was gonna
water down juice. I was gonna still have them the
satisfaction of this, this, and blah blah blah. But then
(29:08):
when I sat at a corporate meeting, I was arguing
with them about giving someone in need and unfortunate a
thirty dollars walker as I saw hundreds of dollars food
being wasted in front of that building. I was accepted
by them, but my job was to care for patients.
And I said, I'd be damn if I'm gonna lose
(29:29):
any more time or energy from my children, as these
men and women spend time with their children, as they
really don't care about people. I had to be the
superhero that I didn't have as a child for my
children and for everybody else. And so I said, well,
I'm going to go in business for myself. Didn't have
a clue what I was gonna do. I thought about
(29:51):
the water. I kept going back and forth. I said,
I'm not gonna sell them damn water. What am I
gonna do? But then I looked at plastic studies and
realizing how plastic had harmful effects on people. So I
started pumping out, you know, try to store your food
and glass and do this and do that.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And I make my kids do the same thing.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
My father made me, do they get out here and
they have to pick up the trash in the neighborhood.
And I said, I don't care where we live, it
doesn't have to look like this. So my children had
this negative thing that I had. My child as a
child's like, why we gotta do it? We ain't throw
it down. So instead of crying about something, I said,
we do something about it. They clicked with the plastic.
(30:30):
A lot of it was bottles, soda, bottles, water, bottles,
chip bags. And then the water has always been that
is the only place I found peace and all of
my chaotic life, peace was always water.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I could not sleep unless I had a soundtrack of water.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Any big decision I've ever made, including this of leaving
my job and working, I went and I sat by water, and.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Water was it.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
And like I said, it woke me. I felt like
I was drowned. It woke me up in a sweat,
and it said to do it. And honestly, that moment,
everything was clear, okay.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
And.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I got up. Within a month, I mocked up.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I continued, I revisited some of those different plants in Colorado, California, Georgia.
I said, I gotta find So I saw some of
these places. Some of these places I wouldn't even drink
I don't care. Yeah, some of these waters that even
come in a bottle convenience. I look at some of
those places. I wouldn't even drink anything from them. And
if I was gonna do something, I was gonna do
it right.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So now I couldn't do plastic plastic. I saw it.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
I knew it was the problem. I knew it negatively
affect people. My job is to help people. I have
my profession as a nurse. I'm gonna be a superhero
in my kid's life. I'm gonna be a superhero in
my own life. Do it right, Be clear, right, be
clear with your intentions, Be clear with your path. I
was at that crossroad and I chose to go the
(31:56):
right way, and my name Madi means rightly guided.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And so I took that and.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Somebody, how did you know where to go?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I mean, I did.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
What factory? How did you find uh? A factory producer?
How did you know what taste? Uh?
Speaker 4 (32:21):
How did you know any of that?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
What?
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I told you that when I saw my when I
heard about my father going in and grabbing every man
possible to see if they were the ones.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
What I saw was You're gonna keep on looking until
you find.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Some of the characteristics and traits that I witnessed of
my father growing up, they became I never had a mentor.
I never had anybody take me under their wing and say, hey,
I see this in you. But I've always had people
to look at me and says like, you're better than this.
I understand this for certain people, but there's more to you.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
You're no dummy, You're intelligent, this and that.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
So there have been people in my journey that have
dropped nuggets in me that I can pull back from
now as an adult. But growing up and being where
I am, the survival mode was that I was always
by myself. So if I wanted something done like a
man would do, he just goes and do it. He
goes and does it, And so I didn't a lot.
(33:24):
I probably wasted so much time because I don't know
how to ask for help. I don't know how to
ask for mentorship. I don't I feel like if people
see me doing something and they see it's wrong, if
it's in their heart, they'll help me. If they don't,
I don't know what questions to ask, Like you said,
I just jumped in. I just this is what it is.
The dream came to me, it was clear, and I
(33:45):
had a job to do. And anytime something somebody here
at weightmaker. We believe that every successful person that had has.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
Had a weightmaker. Absolutely who was the weightmaker? Who was
the person that helped you turn the corner with be clear?
Who was that person?
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Everybody that looked at me and made me feel like
I wasn't good enough, that was everyone. And when I
told you those nuggets, those are the only ones I
set my eyesight on. But as an adult, like I
told you those nuggets, there's my mother who always saw
(34:29):
the good and everything. I go back and I look
at my father, that discipline and hard work he dropped
those nuggets.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
And then my son.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
The birth of my son, seeing that whole process of
life was like death can wait right now?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
You know life and they're bad. So those are the
reasons why I am.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
I've never had a a mentor after school counselor, or
a teacher or certain things like that, like some people
do I have a coach that believed in them or No.
I never had any of that. I never I never
had any of that. I think that I displayed so
much anger and and lack of respect for authority that
nobody wanted to deal with me. So so tell us
(35:22):
about where is be clear?
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Where is the water? Where did you come what did
the water come from? Where is it?
Speaker 4 (35:33):
So be clear?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Be clear?
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I actually visited a company in Colorado and out of.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Los Angeles who bowels it.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Their factory was was clean, it was clear, everybody was
product is some of the best tasting water I had
taste out of the aluminum. There's only a few people
that actually deal with aluminum. And so yeah, I just
I got to work on that chemo with the loco,
the local. Everything on the local represents something. It's not
(36:05):
just an accident. It's not just something I did. Every
line on it means something. The actually be clear means something.
The colors, it all has purpose. Everything had to be intentional,
as what I heard Missus Shelton say, like everything had
to be purposeful.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
So you find it online is primarily what it is.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
As I'm learning now sales and marketing on how to
get it out there. The one place everybody is is
online at be clear H two oh with an oh,
not a not a zero dot com. It's in some
of smaller or growing businesses here in Milwaukee, like Funky
Fresh Spring Rolls, which just got picked up by Palermo,
(36:47):
so they're growing. Flower Girl and Flame, which is a
pizzeria and catering company that goes all over.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Honeybe Sage is a wellness uh center.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
And one of our first sponsors was English Gardener, who
was a two time Olympic winner, two time NCAA champion.
She took to the water on social media and that's
where I learned social media. I said, get on social
media then, and so we found it out of there.
(37:24):
She tried to talk to the people at Princeton because
she coaches there, so mostly online, and then I've been
what I call social media prostitution is at nighttime two
o'clock in the morning, I get on social media and
I look for things that I feel like speak to
my spirit or I feel like things that I guess
(37:47):
I shouldn't say spirit and prostitution at the same time,
but I feel like things that spoke to me. And
I go on people's pages at around two something in
the morning and I look and when I ran across
one night, I saw something that sid Blueprint Summit. When
I saw Blueprint, I thought jay Z. Then when I
saw Blueprint, I thought a plan. I thought, like, man,
(38:10):
I'm all over the place with this water. I need
a plan. Maybe this speak to me.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
And I went on there.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Then I saw celebrities. I said, well, maybe this might
be a good opportunity. I said, mister Carr, do I
see the name somewhere? I see something. I looked on
way Makers page. I looked at it and I said,
everything that I saw I saw free, I saw men only.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
I saw this.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
I felt like I spent my whole life trying to
identify what a man is. And then I ended up
on a page that was speaking to men only. I'm
trying to I'm working.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Through this business, but there's no real plan for marketing austrategies.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
There's no real distance and that. And then I saw
blueprint and then I said, you know what. The only
thing that I can do at this point right now
is offered myself to be part of something that I
always wanted, to be a part of, something bigger than
just myself, and play the role that I could play
in it. And I reached out and I said, you
y'all need some.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Wash, well, Mati, we thank you for that. And and
and here's here's an opportunity for you to market that Warter.
Tell the people where they can get be Clearwarter.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
You get B Clearwater, B Clear H two oh dot
com and get B clear Water. You can get on
our social media. We have Twitter, uh, Facebook, and Instagram.
All b k l e A r H two oh.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Repeat it.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Repeat all of that again on the on the website
be clear b k l e A r H two
o dot com, or on social media. Our angles are Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram and TikTok b k l e A r
H two oh. My children are the CEOs if be clear,
(40:04):
all three of them you'll see on the website and everything.
The whole journey has started with my children, and they've
been very much so a part of every packaging, the boxes,
not through a manufacturer. We box them, we put the
flies in them, we ship them off the labels.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
They all have a role in it. And so it's
a family business.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
So not only is it veteran owned, it, his nurse
owned and his family owned.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
And it was children ran.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Wellmighty, We thank you so much for your contribution to
the blueprint Man's Summit. We wish you, and be clear,
only the very very very best, and we hope that
the people who are listening to this podcast go and
order it offline, and I can tell you it tastes
pretty good.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
One last thing, one last thing before you go. I
got to doing it.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I'm going to propose it question that's very very hard
for me. If you, or anybody listening, or anyone you
know can actually provide mentorship for me on this journey
or guidance or any type of introspective, I would very
much so appreciate it and honor and be humbled enough
to accept it with no pride and no resistance to authority.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Where you got, I'll do that for you.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Thank you,
I'm Lewis Carr, host of the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Men's Summer,
where we have consistently given men a prescription for growth,
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their communities. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness, and relationship.
(00:28):
And today we have Muhammad Madi, founder and owner of
be Clear Water Company. Welcome Madi, thank you for having
me on. Mister Scott, how are you. I'm doing good,
very excited to have this conversation with you. You supplied
(00:50):
the water for the Blueprint A Men's conference twenty twenty two.
It was a real hit, and you know, I think
you know, MANI I'm a water kindoisseur and I tested
it out the day before to see, I'm like, this
is gonna be good water. We're just gonna be trying
(01:11):
to drench our thirst. And I have to say the
water tastes pretty good. So tell us a little bit
about where you grew up. I hear you were a
military baby and moved around a lot, and how you
got into we'll get into how you got into this
(01:33):
water thing, and we're going to talk about some reinvention.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Sounds good, all right. As you stated, my name is
Mohammed Mahdi.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I go by the moniker of just Madi or Nurse
Madi U, and we'll get into that later. I am
a father of three who started his journey and was
born in Florida, Tallahassee, Florida, and ended up being raised
(02:04):
between Boston, Massachusetts and Saint Louis, East.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Saint Louis and.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I come from a family of six siblings that later
got to eleven, but we'll go to that six siblings
that I grew up with. My mother and my father
divorced early, so being that we're my father was in
the military, my father ended up his course ended in
(02:34):
Saint Louis. My mother found her way to Boston after
they divorced at an early age. So that goes to
why I spend time in Boston and Saint Louis in
my formative years. In between before that, we bounced around
from everywhere, as you stated, because of the military. My
mother is has always been an education my father's in
(02:56):
social work, but they both have always been super involved
in community and and believe community life is very important,
and so they poured into a lot of that. We
lived in, like I said, in Boston for the most part,
(03:17):
because my mother had primary custody, So we spent the
school years out in Boston and the summers in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, so just go where did you did? So you
went to high school in Boston?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
No, I actually started high school in Milwaukee with guys.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Okay, I'm assuming this is all this moving around is
because of the military.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Yeah, yeah, I think it started at it was the
reason for it, but some of it came to being
because I kind of found myself or led myself to
being involved with being in the streets.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
My mother worked two jobs to care for us.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
As I believe I said, is my mother.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
She always opened up her house to everyone.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
So we were in a two bedroom with about nine
or ten people.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I was my.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Cousins, my siblings, my mother, my grandmother, everybody.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Of course, they get the rooms, so we got the floor.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
And Boston was rough, but it was also joyful because
my mother was the type to make cookies, pies and
hugs everybody. She's like everybody who's ever met my mother
they love her and that's an honor to be able
to say it's because she has such a.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
A loving spirit. But I didn't see that then.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
So with my mother working two jobs, I kind of
found myself attracted to street life.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
That's where everything was happening.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That's where I learned, this is where men do and
say what they want, go where please, and can't nobody
tell them anything.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I did that while my mother was at work and
then came back and listened. But I found myself being
more attracted to it because I appealed to my mask,
what I considered my masculine nature because of but it
was what I learned now is that was toxic masculinity.
It was a bunch of people not knowing what it
meant to be a man, teaching everybody how to be
a man. And but I that's where I found my identity.
(05:31):
And to go back, I think a lot of the
reinventing myself came to be because I was at a crossroad.
And this will later upcome on. I was at a
cross road and it's almost like they say that the
devil and the angels on your shoulder, right, you know,
someone tells you something good other one say something bad,
(05:52):
you kind of go whichever one. Folks both right, My
crossloads were always because I suffered from identity issues. I
didn't know what a black man was supposed to be.
I didn't know what a male was supposed to be.
I didn't know what a sun was supposed to do.
You know, these are the times and no one knows
because you're growing and learning. But when you're growing up
(06:15):
so fast and with trauma, you're always in survival mode.
And some of that trauma came from and I shared
that I always grew up feeling like I didn't belong
anywhere we live and what we call the heart of
the hood. But my mother used to ship us. We
(06:36):
to take a little bus hour and a half two
hours out to predominantly Caucasian schools in Bedford. And when
we got out there, we were the poor little black
kids that looked like the token people. And you know,
everybody makes fun of me. You know, they're wealthy, they're
well off there, this and that and here. We all
would hand me downs and rolling up sleeves and rolling
(06:57):
up hand legs, and you know, that's what we consider
important at the time when everybody's talking about the lunch box,
so this and that we had to free lunch because
we were on the program.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So it was I was like we.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Were being poked at, and then we bust back to
where we're not from the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
We're not going to the neighborhood school. So then we
tease where y'all come from.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
You know, we went from the will Smith's out there
to the Carltons in the hood. So I had to
kind of assert myself of what I feel like, what
was going to give me some respects and sports? And
wasn't it or I didn't have anything else at the
time other than my hands. Because my father taught us
said that a man is only going to learn, a
(07:37):
man is only going to get through life by working
and fighting. He's gonna have to fight everything he wants
and work for everything he wants. Well, I knew how
to fight, So those that identity issue there, and then
the identity issue of always feeling like I didn't belong
even in my family because of learning at an early
(07:57):
age that my mother was great.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
As she says with.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
When she was with child, and of course at that
time I didn't know what that meant. When I heard
people make fun of it, or my siblings make fun
of me saying you adopted, that's why daddy's not your daddy,
or my cousins you know, that's the low blow. They
would say, you know, that's why you not really you
know those things. And even though children say that kind
of nasty and without really trying to hurt me, it
(08:27):
did have an effect on me.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So in a house where I didn't.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Feel in place, and the school I didn't feel in
place or where I belong, then now in the area
where now I'm accepted, if I put somebody on their
back for saying something I don't like, that's where I
wanted to be. And so that toxic masculinity kind of gone.
And then as I got older, the story even kind
(08:52):
of built up to where now my father, you know,
I worked up enough nerve to ask, and he didn't
want to talk about it. But my mother decided to
tell me about it. And she didn't tell me anything
about what happened. She told me that your father she
always praised them. I never heard my mother talk ill
of my father.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
She praised them.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
And she said, you know, your one thing your father
did was he didn't let anybody hurt his family, and
I think it became a real big blow to him
when he felt like he was helpless as a man
to actually be able to protect his family. And maybe
that's why he became to be so mean. I don't know,
or I felt the reason why he and I never
had a real type relationship was because I felt that
(09:33):
adds up to where he doesn't feel like I'm his
and every time he sees me, he sees where he
fell short or where he feels he fell short. So
I always felt there's a disappointment to him. So then
as I got older, So what was your.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Relationship like with him when you were growing up? It
was one of just fear. It was just fear.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
My father was very militant, martial arts, always in shape,
ape right, didn't watch TV, worked with a lot of
prisons and detention centers to try to like save the
younger black vels. But a lot of our days were spent,
like I could tell you, like a Saturday morning wasn't
(10:17):
like some kids eat cereal and watching TV. We're waking
up before the sun rose to go outside in these
fields and pick up rocks and sticks in the dark,
and with the fear of if I run this lawnmower
over a rock or stick in the mess of my blade,
I'm gonna tear you all up. So we would do
(10:37):
this before we can eat, before we could play, before
we could do anything. And because he felt that, he
got up, and I know in his mind he was saying,
I'm teaching him how to be young black men that
are gonna have to be disciplined and hard working. But
as a child, all I saw that was he hates me,
you know, you know, this was with these chills. Now, well,
(11:01):
society will say this is abusive, you know, and it
may have been some form, But his father was killed
on a construction side by some white supremacists at a
young age. So everything he learned about being a man
was with aggression and anger, and everything that he talked
(11:22):
it only fed my anger, and so.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
On and so forth.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
And this all will flow, no pun intendent into how
the water is, because every last part of me ends
up why the locals the way it is, why my
children are implemented in it, and why it decided to
be water. And so I got in trouble. First time
I got in trouble in the neighborhoods is okay to fight.
Nobody called the police. Like I said, I saw my
(11:48):
first murder at eight, I kind of realized, like, that's
where it's gonna end up with the people that I
look up to, So don't try. I occasionally we were
very intelligent, but igccasionally would do very well in school
to give my mother something to brag about, because she
used to always say, where did I go wrong? And
so I felt like a disappointment. Fast forward, we moved
(12:10):
to Lacrosse, Wisconsin. I think I was in seventh grade.
Now we lived around My mother remarried to my stepfather,
and that's why we moved to ended up in Wisconsin.
So we moved to Lacrosse, Wisconsin, where my stepfather was
the dean of Multicultural Service for the University of Lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
So, now, this was the biggest house I've ever seen.
This is the only house that we've ever lived in,
the biggest house I've ever seen. But he had five
older sons and they hated us because their mother and
father got divorced and they father got remarried to my mother.
And my stepfather was complete opposite of my father. It
was docile, he was passive, and his kids were the
(12:53):
aggressor ones. They kind of did this, and so I
kind of had a disrespect towards my stepfather. And now
we're in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood and school.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I get to school the.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
First time one of these kids they said, hey, little nigger,
go back to juvie where you belong. I didn't know
what juvie was, because all I know is you go
to jail or you don't. But I knew what nigga was,
and I knew what to do when you heard nigga.
And I myself and this other boy named Gary who
(13:26):
is from Gary, Indiana, who ended up hitting school. It
was because they were pushing around him, and I went
to go help, and they said, you niggas, go back
to juvie where you belong.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And we put a mopping on all of them.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
It was about seven noose and there was two of
us and we put them mopping on them. And our
principal was crime stoppers. He was like something with crime Stoppers.
He did not arrest any of the other kids to fighting,
but the police came and got us and arrested us.
And that's the first time. The first running I had
with cops and a disrespect towards authority, because now every
(14:00):
thing makes sense.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Why f the police? Why this?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
And that they arrested me and they didn't even say
anything to these children. They pumped the fear of life
in me and they put me in and I was
so afraid. And then I thought about, now my father's
gonna find out. I'm about to get in more trouble.
Now my mother's gonna be disappointed. I'm being more in trouble.
But I had to continue this bad, this kind of
tough guy image, and so seventh grade I kind of
(14:23):
get out of that, got threatened with detention. When before
a judge, I learned what juvenile was, Julie was. Now
I learned what that was. Fast forward when my mother
starts taking over a school or working with the school
in Milwaukee, and now we end up here. Ninth grade,
I go here, I learned about sports is super important,
(14:45):
and I wasn't able to identify. I find myself in
a new place again, feeling like I have to start over,
there's no real connection. I feel ostracized again and again
I result to my hands. I felt like that was
the only thing that was gonna give me an identity somebody.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
You sound like you was just a bad kid. Man,
you know, I was.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I was, I was, I was.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
You was just a bad kid.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I was struggling.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
We're gonna we're gonna level set there, all right.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Yeah, we'll be right back with more of my interview
after this quick break. When was the change? When did
that change happen? Did that happen after high school? When
(15:37):
when did you say, you know, this ain't working out
too well, this ain't leading me down the path that
I want.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
When was that change?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
It started when I was doing some sort of activities
that I will not disclose, and these.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Guys were trying to set me up up and something
didn't seem right.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
It didn't look right, and I knew it wasn't and
my gut told me it wasn't right, like everything else
wasn't right, but here I couldn't ignore it, and it
ended up coming to be.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
There was two cars. It was at night, and and.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I had some something in my trunk and the guy
was me mad at the trunk, and next thing you know,
it was a whole shootout and curve.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It wasn't like the movies. It wasn't like you know,
you know, everybody does. It's cool.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
My heart was pumping, my feet were heavy, you know,
I was sweating, and that adrenaline was.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I was found myself. This was a graduation from.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Fighting.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
This was now it's gonna be life or death.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And as much as I had this idea of y'all
gonna die young anyway, Yola, it don't matter. That time
it became real. It's not that I didn't have run
ins before. I didn't see people killed us, some friends
get killed. I seen some of my friends kill and
end up in life and all that stuff or what
I considered my friends.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
But it was happening to.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
Me, and.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Whatever it is dealing with guns.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I had a bullet in my hand and the grae
on my back and I left that place. And at
that time the woman that I was talking to, he
was pregnant. And I touched your stomach and my son kicked,
And I want to have you understand I didn't actually
(17:38):
lose my virginity till eighteen. I was scared of all
of that, but I always said I wanted to have
a son because I wanted to leave something behind. But
ignorant at that time, I realized I didn't have anything
to leave behind. It was just my name. And from
there I said, hell, I ain't going because when he born,
he gonna call somebody else daddy.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
And that was the start of the change.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
How old were you at that point? Eighteen?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
No? No, no, no no.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I was twenty twenty, twenty three, twenty three, twenty three.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
And what, let's just say, your career at that point
was in the streets.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
I had been to school. I was in college in
Texas before that. That's where I learned to college. Texas
did you go to? I went to Katie. I started
off at Paul Quinn, but they lost the accreditation and
I was supposed to be a grown up. So when
I got kicked out of college here, I went down
there and I was like, I'm not gonna make my
mom that I was eighteen and I had a full
(18:48):
academic scholarship at eighteen. I lost that. I saw a
disappointment in my mother's eyes. So I packed my car
and I drove Texas. I didn't know anybody, I said.
I learned to be somebody ere and I learned two things.
I learned that I wasn't grown and uh, I learned
a different side.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Of the streets. The business side of the streets.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And and uh I brought that back up to up North.
I said, it was it was that was the profit
you know. Down South was cheap, up North was was
they pay for anything? So I ended up in Milwaukee,
and I was going back and forth to Texas and Milwaukee,
like every week. I would drive back and forth, and
(19:32):
and then I ended up, like.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
I said, I met a woman. I said, I wanted
to have a kid.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And this woman I we weren't really, we weren't in
a relationship. I just thought I want to have a child.
She wanted to be with me. I wanted to have
a child. And that's what happened. It wasn't an accident,
it wasn't. I really wanted to sun and I always
said I was gonna have a son. But it got
more real when I touched his hand. And I used
to read to my son in the stomach. Uh I
used to hear my mother talk about how important it
is to read the children, how important it is a
breastfeed and so on and so, so I knew I
(19:57):
had the nursering and aspect in me. And uh I
touched my son's stomach, I mean, my my son's mother's
stomach and he kicked and for me, it was like
kick the crap, kick the bs, kick it, and uh,
I went cold turkey around there. I stopped hanging around everybody,
(20:17):
I stopped doing everything. I started working little ends, nas jobs.
I said, I wanted to come up with something so
he could be proud of me. And fast forward I went.
I went to school for early education. I was an
early early education teacher when he was young. I said,
one of these kids are going to have to have
(20:39):
the personality of my son to prepare me so I
don't fail as a father.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
I didn't feel like I placed, like I belonged anywhere else,
But I said I was going to have a son.
I got a son, and he's gonna love me because
I'm gonna be there. So I have to make sure
that works so I don't fail that.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
So you're you're teaching at that point, right, yes?
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yes? Right?
Speaker 4 (20:58):
And how long did you teach?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Oh? I man, that was only about a year, two years.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Probably, okay? And you went from teaching into nursing.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I went from teaching to administration. It was a part
of that I went in from. When I got into administration,
I was in school now for nursing, and I just
didn't like I felt at the time of teaching that
I really wasn't I was doing a disservice to children,
(21:33):
because how I feel like the system is set up
is I was only training them to know certain things,
but not teaching them how to be the best selves
in society, teaching them how to function and operate and
maintain a society, but not really thrive and do everything.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
And so when they say they have to learn this,
they have to do this. Everything ever get so.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
After I was a rebel and I was gonna take
you to administration because I'm gonna change something.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
It didn't really work out. So I went into health care.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
And I got into healthcare because at the time of tea,
I was driving to Saint Louis to my great grandmother.
And I used to talk to my great grandmother all
the time, and she was always so nice to me.
And whenever I would do laundry, if I was in Texas,
I was doing something, I would call it and I'd say, hey,
pretty lady, and she would talk, or she would sing
(22:16):
and play the piano. She was just a nice, little,
brittle old woman. And now when I learned that she
was dying. I was going up there to just, you know,
say hey, tell I love her, and where the time goes,
it would happen. But then when I got there, she
only took to me. She wouldn't take her medication unless
I was there. She wouldn't she wouldn't speak, or she
(22:36):
wouldn't do anything unless I was there. And so it
felt like a very big weight on me that I
wasn't able to handle. I didn't understand the diagnoses and
some of the yelling and screaming and then calling me
daddy that I was really I was intimidating this big
I mean, I felt like I'm a big man on campus,
I do whatever, but now I'm intimidated by a little
(22:57):
old woman. So I was holding her hand, and she
used to always have me sing this song that I
didn't know was called let Me Hold Your Hand by
the Beatles. Well I want to hold you in something
about hand and the beatles.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And she didn't know me.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Until I said, hey, pretty lady, and then she says,
you used to talk to me in Texas.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Mind you, it had been fifteen years by then.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
So I went to there, and the part of my
nature in my spirit was I didn't like something about it,
and I had to do something about it, because that's
what a man does, right. So I went back, I
said I I made a vouch to her. I said,
I'm going to go to school.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
To be a nurse.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
And I said that if anybody in my family is
going to be in this position again, I no longer
was going to feel helpless, but I was also going
to be able to be the provider. I went to school.
I left Saint Louis, calling every school on the way there.
In that five and a half hour drive back, I
got a hold of one school, and that school said,
(23:56):
at this time, I was in the military too.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
I was in the National Guard. So I was. I
hadn't been. I just got back from a deployment.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And this is why I ended up in You know,
I take a lead from work, lead from everything. And
I was going back to Belleville, Illinois, a whole lot
of it. I was in the military, I was in
the education. And I made that drive and I went
there and I called them and I said, do you guys,
how do you get a nursing program? I don't know
nothing about nursing. How do you do it. What does
that to do? He said, well, you have to placement.
(24:28):
You have to get on an exam. And I wasn't
afraid of all that because I said, you know, I
never knew. I knew I was never a dummy. So
I said, okay, I got to take an exam. Then
what she said, Well, classes start next week and the
last day to take an exam is today. I said,
well good, I'll be back in Milwaukee in about two hours.
Is there going to be somebody she says, sir, this
is kind of like it's unorthodox. I can see if
(24:50):
they can have a place for you just to walk
in the storm. I said, ma'am, it would be a
great honor if you please just do me to service.
She went in, Come in, She said, you got five hours,
but you only have four and a half hours. You know,
four hours because the test is five hours and you're late.
I came in, I took tests, passed, I started class.
I didn't know anything that was going on in class,
(25:13):
and that again I fell out of place again, and
the instructors started telling me, the professors, maybe you should
drop out, maybe you should do this. It was predominantly
white women. They laughing when I asked the question, but
I was paying now, so the hell with them. I
sat in front of their class, I asked every question
and by my third year, by my third year or
(25:35):
by clinical, they went from books sound to patient side,
and then I had to learn this goes back. So
the first time was when I touched my son's stomach,
I mean my son kicking, and then it really clicked
went out. I started dealing with people in vulnerabile stages.
I became patient side. I started seeing people very vulnerable,
the toughest of men we helped getting out of the bed,
(25:55):
and the oldest of women being as strong as they
want to be.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
And I learned that they were all human. We were
all people.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I don't care what color you were, how tall you are,
what background you were, if you were in that bed,
all you wanted was somebody to help you.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
So now many you become nurse mindy.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I became nurse Mindy.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
I was student nurse mind at the time, but I
own nurse Miny because it became a passion of mine.
I was so much better than every nurse that I
every nurse that I saw, and every student that was
going to become a nurse I thrived so much so
that then I got letter of recommendations. When I was
still a student, I got the attention of the dean
(26:38):
of nursing. Now because befirst, it was I was always
the bottom of the incident because people will say something
because they were trying to get me out the program.
Now they wanted to they wanted to know my story,
they wanted me to mentor people, they wanted me to help.
But I took that and I said, it's my time
now to go back into my community like my parents started.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
And how long did you stay as a nurse?
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Oh, I was a nurse almost a decade.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Okay, So I became a director of nursing, so it
became less bedside, more administration out of actually Chicago.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
We'll be right back with more of my interview after
this quick break. How did we get to be clear?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
War?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
I mean, that's that's sort of a three sixty. That
ain't a one eighty. That's the three sixty, that's a
seven twenty.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
What it has is I was a director of nursing
and in that time I was, I got married and
I had two more children. Well, I had one child
at a time, and then I was going through divorce.
And what I was realizing was I was on call
(28:05):
twenty four to seven and going back to when I
was a father, I said, I can't fail. The one
thing I know that I can do well is be
a father, and I said I will no longer from this.
It just epiphany hit over me. I was actually I
was sleep three fourteen am. I was working up on
August twenty eight, two years ago, and it told me
(28:31):
to do it, and I felt like I was drowning.
I was in complete sweat and I already knew what
it meant because I had been thinking about the water
for six years. I had visited certain things, I've done
certain things around nutrition in the community.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Trying to help through prevention through nutrition was my model.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
A lot of the illnesses I saw came through was
the food we put in our mouth, for the drinks
we put in our mouth. So everybody always asked me
this thing of well, what are you selling? I said,
I got a job. I'm not selling anything. What I'm
doing is trying to help, right, And then I needed
something too. I decided water juice was I was gonna
water down juice. I was gonna still have them the
satisfaction of this, this, and blah blah blah. But then
(29:08):
when I sat at a corporate meeting, I was arguing
with them about giving someone in need and unfortunate a
thirty dollars walker as I saw hundreds of dollars food
being wasted in front of that building. I was accepted
by them, but my job was to care for patients.
And I said, I'd be damn if I'm gonna lose
(29:29):
any more time or energy from my children, as these
men and women spend time with their children, as they
really don't care about people. I had to be the
superhero that I didn't have as a child for my
children and for everybody else. And so I said, well,
I'm going to go in business for myself. Didn't have
a clue what I was gonna do. I thought about
(29:51):
the water. I kept going back and forth. I said,
I'm not gonna sell them damn water. What am I
gonna do? But then I looked at plastic studies and
realizing how plastic had harmful effects on people. So I
started pumping out, you know, try to store your food
and glass and do this and do that.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And I make my kids do the same thing.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
My father made me, do they get out here and
they have to pick up the trash in the neighborhood.
And I said, I don't care where we live, it
doesn't have to look like this. So my children had
this negative thing that I had. My child as a
child's like, why we gotta do it? We ain't throw
it down. So instead of crying about something, I said,
we do something about it. They clicked with the plastic.
(30:30):
A lot of it was bottles, soda, bottles, water, bottles,
chip bags. And then the water has always been that
is the only place I found peace and all of
my chaotic life, peace was always water.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I could not sleep unless I had a soundtrack of water.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Any big decision I've ever made, including this of leaving
my job and working, I went and I sat by water, and.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
Water was it.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
And like I said, it woke me. I felt like
I was drowned. It woke me up in a sweat,
and it said to do it. And honestly, that moment,
everything was clear, okay.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
And.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
I got up. Within a month, I mocked up.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I continued, I revisited some of those different plants in Colorado, California, Georgia.
I said, I gotta find So I saw some of
these places. Some of these places I wouldn't even drink
I don't care. Yeah, some of these waters that even
come in a bottle convenience. I look at some of
those places. I wouldn't even drink anything from them. And
if I was gonna do something, I was gonna do
it right.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So now I couldn't do plastic plastic. I saw it.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
I knew it was the problem. I knew it negatively
affect people. My job is to help people. I have
my profession as a nurse. I'm gonna be a superhero
in my kid's life. I'm gonna be a superhero in
my own life. Do it right, Be clear, right, be
clear with your intentions, Be clear with your path. I
was at that crossroad and I chose to go the
(31:56):
right way, and my name Madi means rightly guided.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And so I took that and.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
Somebody, how did you know where to go?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I mean, I did.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
What factory? How did you find uh? A factory producer?
How did you know what taste? Uh?
Speaker 4 (32:21):
How did you know any of that?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
What?
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I told you that when I saw my when I
heard about my father going in and grabbing every man
possible to see if they were the ones.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
What I saw was You're gonna keep on looking until
you find.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Some of the characteristics and traits that I witnessed of
my father growing up, they became I never had a mentor.
I never had anybody take me under their wing and say, hey,
I see this in you. But I've always had people
to look at me and says like, you're better than this.
I understand this for certain people, but there's more to you.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
You're no dummy, You're intelligent, this and that.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
So there have been people in my journey that have
dropped nuggets in me that I can pull back from
now as an adult. But growing up and being where
I am, the survival mode was that I was always
by myself. So if I wanted something done like a
man would do, he just goes and do it. He
goes and does it, And so I didn't a lot.
(33:24):
I probably wasted so much time because I don't know
how to ask for help. I don't know how to
ask for mentorship. I don't I feel like if people
see me doing something and they see it's wrong, if
it's in their heart, they'll help me. If they don't,
I don't know what questions to ask, Like you said,
I just jumped in. I just this is what it is.
The dream came to me, it was clear, and I
(33:45):
had a job to do. And anytime something somebody here
at weightmaker. We believe that every successful person that had has.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
Had a weightmaker. Absolutely who was the weightmaker? Who was
the person that helped you turn the corner with be clear?
Who was that person?
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Everybody that looked at me and made me feel like
I wasn't good enough, that was everyone. And when I
told you those nuggets, those are the only ones I
set my eyesight on. But as an adult, like I
told you those nuggets, there's my mother who always saw
(34:29):
the good and everything. I go back and I look
at my father, that discipline and hard work he dropped
those nuggets.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
And then my son.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
The birth of my son, seeing that whole process of
life was like death can wait right now?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
You know life and they're bad. So those are the
reasons why I am.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
I've never had a a mentor after school counselor, or
a teacher or certain things like that, like some people
do I have a coach that believed in them or No.
I never had any of that. I never I never
had any of that. I think that I displayed so
much anger and and lack of respect for authority that
nobody wanted to deal with me. So so tell us
(35:22):
about where is be clear?
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Where is the water? Where did you come what did
the water come from? Where is it?
Speaker 4 (35:33):
So be clear?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Be clear?
Speaker 3 (35:36):
I actually visited a company in Colorado and out of.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Los Angeles who bowels it.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Their factory was was clean, it was clear, everybody was
product is some of the best tasting water I had
taste out of the aluminum. There's only a few people
that actually deal with aluminum. And so yeah, I just
I got to work on that chemo with the loco,
the local. Everything on the local represents something. It's not
(36:05):
just an accident. It's not just something I did. Every
line on it means something. The actually be clear means something.
The colors, it all has purpose. Everything had to be intentional,
as what I heard Missus Shelton say, like everything had
to be purposeful.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
So you find it online is primarily what it is.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
As I'm learning now sales and marketing on how to
get it out there. The one place everybody is is
online at be clear H two oh with an oh,
not a not a zero dot com. It's in some
of smaller or growing businesses here in Milwaukee, like Funky
Fresh Spring Rolls, which just got picked up by Palermo,
(36:47):
so they're growing. Flower Girl and Flame, which is a
pizzeria and catering company that goes all over.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Honeybe Sage is a wellness uh center.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
And one of our first sponsors was English Gardener, who
was a two time Olympic winner, two time NCAA champion.
She took to the water on social media and that's
where I learned social media. I said, get on social
media then, and so we found it out of there.
(37:24):
She tried to talk to the people at Princeton because
she coaches there, so mostly online, and then I've been
what I call social media prostitution is at nighttime two
o'clock in the morning, I get on social media and
I look for things that I feel like speak to
my spirit or I feel like things that I guess
(37:47):
I shouldn't say spirit and prostitution at the same time,
but I feel like things that spoke to me. And
I go on people's pages at around two something in
the morning and I look and when I ran across
one night, I saw something that sid Blueprint Summit. When
I saw Blueprint, I thought jay Z. Then when I
saw Blueprint, I thought a plan. I thought, like, man,
(38:10):
I'm all over the place with this water. I need
a plan. Maybe this speak to me.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
And I went on there.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
Then I saw celebrities. I said, well, maybe this might
be a good opportunity. I said, mister Carr, do I
see the name somewhere? I see something. I looked on
way Makers page. I looked at it and I said,
everything that I saw I saw free, I saw men only.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
I saw this.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
I felt like I spent my whole life trying to
identify what a man is. And then I ended up
on a page that was speaking to men only. I'm
trying to I'm working.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Through this business, but there's no real plan for marketing austrategies.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
There's no real distance and that. And then I saw
blueprint and then I said, you know what. The only
thing that I can do at this point right now
is offered myself to be part of something that I
always wanted, to be a part of, something bigger than
just myself, and play the role that I could play
in it. And I reached out and I said, you
y'all need some.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Wash, well, Mati, we thank you for that. And and
and here's here's an opportunity for you to market that Warter.
Tell the people where they can get be Clearwarter.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
You get B Clearwater, B Clear H two oh dot
com and get B clear Water. You can get on
our social media. We have Twitter, uh, Facebook, and Instagram.
All b k l e A r H two oh.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
Repeat it.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Repeat all of that again on the on the website
be clear b k l e A r H two
o dot com, or on social media. Our angles are Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram and TikTok b k l e A r
H two oh. My children are the CEOs if be clear,
(40:04):
all three of them you'll see on the website and everything.
The whole journey has started with my children, and they've
been very much so a part of every packaging, the boxes,
not through a manufacturer. We box them, we put the
flies in them, we ship them off the labels.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
They all have a role in it. And so it's
a family business.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
So not only is it veteran owned, it, his nurse
owned and his family owned.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
And it was children ran.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Wellmighty, We thank you so much for your contribution to
the blueprint Man's Summit. We wish you, and be clear,
only the very very very best, and we hope that
the people who are listening to this podcast go and
order it offline, and I can tell you it tastes
pretty good.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
One last thing, one last thing before you go. I
got to doing it.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I'm going to propose it question that's very very hard
for me. If you, or anybody listening, or anyone you
know can actually provide mentorship for me on this journey
or guidance or any type of introspective, I would very
much so appreciate it and honor and be humbled enough
to accept it with no pride and no resistance to authority.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Where you got, I'll do that for you.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Thank you,
Host
Louis Carr
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