Dr. Kofi Smith: No Timeouts in Life, an Athlete's Story of Resilience and Rising Up

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
President and CEO of AATC, are reported to the board of directors.
That came about with all of that huge responsibility.
And I just want listeners to realize we're going from Kofi, you know, sleeping in his car,working for coach, taking showers in LA Fitness to then being president and CEO of AATC.

(00:22):
Welcome back to the Badass Leaders podcast.
Today's guest shows us what truly excellent leadership looks like.
Dr.
Kofi Smith is the former president and CEO of the Atlanta Airlines Terminal Company, wherehe led
nearly a billion dollars in operations at the world's busiest airport, doubled theworkforce and delivered major sustainability wins.

(00:47):
In 2020, he then launched Keystone Management, one of Atlanta's fastest growing privatecompanies.
Among his many awards, Kofi was most recently named 2025's Entrepreneur of the Year by theGeorgia Tech Black Alumni Organization and the Atlanta City Council awarded him

(01:08):
the 2024 P-Center Award.
Dr.
Smith also serves on several non-profit boards, teaches at Georgia Tech, remains committedto developing future leaders, and is an all-around badass leader.
Okay, as a reminder, we love to hear our listeners' thoughts and feedback, so please leaveus a comment and we will respond to continue the conversation.

(01:33):
Okay, now it's time to dig in.
So join me, Angela Gilnell, on today's episode
of the Badass Leaders podcast where I'm joined each week by industry experts for intimateand eye-opening discussions about the challenges and joys facing the leaders of today.
Listen in and get ready to scale your company, grow your brand, and unlock your fullbadass potential.

(02:03):
So listeners, welcome back to the Badass Leaders podcast and welcome to AGN Studios, Kofi.
This is so amazing.
am amazingly humbled, so impressed, of course I would be, but it's so amazing just to behere with you.
So you and I know each other because we both serve on G-Tab, which is the board to thepresident at Georgia Tech.

(02:33):
And I will say, I love our board meetings because I constantly sit there and I just wantto sit back and watch the amazing leaders in the room give.
And your energy and your passion and the things we're going to talk about today reallyinspired me.
Full transparency, we turn away about nine out of 10 people that reach out to us to be onthis podcast.

(03:01):
Because this is not a popularity podcast.
It's not a how much revenue did you have at your last company podcast?
It is a podcast that we really want to focus on amazing leaders who are driving change,who are passionate about the world, who are passionate about making work life great,
making cultures great, really

(03:22):
really having a paradigm shift of impact.
And so recently we were setting across from each other and I was like, hey, Kofi, will yoube on my podcast?
After what you just said, I think I need to get up and walk out.
absolutely I am not that person.
I am so amazed that, I am truly amazed that you asked me to be on your podcast.

(03:47):
I'm amazed that I am here and I hope that something that I say and that I share will beable to impact one person, if not more than one, but just at least one.
So thank you for giving me this opportunity.
Absolutely, absolutely.
And I asked you to be on the podcast and then I gave you my card and it was Badass Leaderspodcast.
And you were like, yeah, of course I should because I'm a badass leader, which I think theworld, the more leaders who are badass leaders need to recognize that because I am on this

(04:19):
mission.
We're gonna talk about legacy in a moment.
but I have a couple of pieces of my legacy.
And one piece of my legacy is I really want to kind of get rid of...
the managers and elevate the leaders.
I want to make the work world where you can really love what you're doing.

(04:39):
I want to make it an environment that's safe, uh compassionate, impactful, motivating, allof these types of things.
So if I can talk to individuals who've done this in different spheres, that is a great.
So now what I'm gonna do is I want you to introduce yourself, Kofi, and tell us a littlebit about your background, okay?
And then tell us why you agreed to say yes to today.

(05:01):
Because the other thing is that I know that every time we say yes to something, it meanswe said no to something else.
And you have to teach your yeses wisely.
So also tell us why you said yes to being on the podcast.
Well, let me, I'll tell you why I say yes, which will flow into my background.
Okay.
All right.
So when you asked me to be on your podcast, I think a lot of people who may be classifiedby others as bad-ass leaders, they don't see it.

(05:31):
um Many times people see more through their lens about us than we see through our lensabout ourselves.
Yes.
And full transparency, I've struggled with that a lot, a lot.
Growing up insecure, low self-esteem, low self-confidence, growing, it became impostersyndrome.

(05:58):
Been with three different therapists and before I ever got with my first therapist, Ithought it was taboo, I thought it was, you know, why would I go talk to somebody about
me?
I know me better than anyone who knows me.
A very crazy thing to say, but until you go through therapy, you don't realize.
well and I think it's not crazy.
One of the things that I learned and we haven't finished my conversation about mykidnapping.

(06:19):
But one of the things that I learned when I was in residential treatment after thekidnapping and I was with several people from the African-American community were really
that's when I realized that the taboo for therapists within that community is way higherthan what it is in the white community.

(06:42):
I don't know.
Like listeners forgive me for not understanding how I should define my community.
But the thing is, is that I had no idea.
It is so high.
And then I just remember Kofi, the moment that Adrienne, she went by age, originally saidthis to me.

(07:04):
When she first said it.
I was just like, okay, this feels like an excuse or whatnot.
That was the story I was telling myself in my head.
And then when I researched and with my previous podcast and I learned more, I realizedthat the difference in the culture dynamics of being willing and understanding the value
of therapy, which I'm a big proponent of therapy.

(07:25):
Me too.
Are huge.
So first off,
Kudos to you because you and I are not young.
So I know also as we age that cultural barrier and that is much higher.
So I just want to spotlight that because that really says a lot about who you are as ahuman that you are willing to venture into that.

(07:45):
And just so you know, and again, I'm probably more transparent at a fault that I've beenblamed that I shared too much.
I don't think I really know any other way, but I'm going to talk to my therapist afterthis.
Oh, good.
So hopefully it's good thing.
It's thing.
a little pumped me up and reminded me what an amazing human that I am.

(08:06):
Yes.
You probably don't know this about as much about me, Kofi, but some of our listeners doand former employees is that I do not give out false accolades.
I will not say something, but I won't give out.
And so one of the things that I loved building companies when team members, when I gavethem kudos, they said,

(08:28):
I know I really earned it.
Like you weren't just, it wasn't a fake thing.
So I want you to know, like, like when I selected you, it was not a false thing.
We didn't, we're booked out till October.
We didn't need to fill a slot, but what we needed to do is fill slots with amazing humans.
So there you go.
A lot of uh

(08:51):
Don't fuck it up.
Sorry.
Sorry, Adi.
Again, am so thankful for many reasons and part of it is when you asked me to be on yourpodcast and you slid a card and again, so many people know how amazing you are.
I didn't quite know honestly, because there's so many people that's on our board.

(09:14):
Right.
Right.
haven't got to know everyone.
But sitting across you and just having a little bit of that conversation and you asking meto be on your podcast It was It was a it was a it was God speaking to me then Saying that
I got you.
I know a lot of things are going on with you and you're looking for a win Because I washaving a lot of ales

(09:41):
And it was him speaking through you to me to say, I got you.
even more so when we were standing out in the green room getting ready to come in, youtold me why you do this.
And I told you that I didn't want to talk about it because I'll start crying.
We'll after the interview.
But this is very, this is on time for me.
Hence the reason why I'm going to see my therapist after this.

(10:02):
This is, I needed this.
And I think a lot of badass leaders.
don't see themselves as a badass leader.
And it takes people like you and others to remind us who God created us to be and who weare and who we are becoming.

(10:26):
So for me, this is that moment.
Literally when I came over with a whole bunch of stuff that's going on in my life, uh wasGod reminded me, I got you.
Yeah, he does got you.
I was just kind of like, can I convert that to proper English when I say it in the back?
But I'll just use that.
But he does have you.

(10:48):
And I'm a big believer in those special moments like that.
I remember that when I decided, it's so funny, right?
Because we have this board meeting.
So listeners, you know.
People on our board are freaking amazing.
I mean, these are people who are on the board to the president of Georgia Tech.

(11:12):
not, you know, and so in, and also there are so many amazing, humble leaders.
on it that just I learn something new.
So one of the life, one of the values of the aging group is being lifelong learners,right?
And so one of the things I love being on the board is being a lifelong learner andwatching these other executives, right?

(11:33):
And I remember there our last board meeting coming in and I used to be, this is gonnashock you.
I used to be super shy and I used to really be focused on
also the imposter syndrome, I used to be really focused on when I walk into a room, and alot of this ties to childhood trauma.

(11:58):
So I used to walk into a room and think, everyone's looking at me and thinking she doesn'tbelong.
That's what I thought, right?
And now when I coach people, I'm like, trust me, they're not thinking that.
They're thinking, you know, did I brush my teeth or I have lipstick on my teeth?
Like, do I have something, do I have parsley or something in my teeth?
And so when I...
Like as I've progressed and especially this last board meeting I just walked in and I wasjust like, look, I'm just Angela, you know?

(12:25):
And I sat down across from you and we were eating food and I observed you and I alreadyknew your story because I just love to get to know humans as humans and I'd already
researched a lot of board members.
I've been watching you for several years, not in a soccer way, but you get it.
And anyway, but I was like, oh, I want to sit across from Kofi.

(12:45):
Absolutely.
Right.
And I sat down and then I observed you blessing your food.
And it just warmed my heart.
I thought, and because here's the deal is that full transparency, I see in the world a lotof people blessing their food.
Right.
And yet oftentimes I see a lot of amazing leaders.

(13:09):
who are afraid to show that part of themselves.
And especially when they're in an environment like what our board meetings are with a lotof other amazing leaders.
And so I observed that and I immediately said to myself, okay, I already knew who's anamazing leader.
He was already inspiring.

(13:29):
I've been tracking everything you've been doing for years on LinkedIn.
And at the same point, dude is like a legit human.
man, you're gonna make me cry.
You're gonna make me cry.
So, and the reason why I say that is, one, I'm an introvert.
I would surprise you as well that I'm super shy.
People don't believe it until you get to really know me, because people see me on stagespeaking to people.

(13:54):
People see me.
um
In in ballrooms, whatever that case may be and they think I'm working the crowd and it'snot I'm just in a place where I know a lot of people and I've been blessed to know a lot
of people so my network is big so if I go to the four pillars award I'm gonna know a lotof people at the four pillars award So when my mentees are there and they're following me

(14:15):
like, my god, you know, you know, you my god, you're just you're just out, you knowoutgoing and you never meet a stranger.
I'm like, that's not me
If you put me somewhere where I know no one, I'll retreat into a corner and I'll wait forpeople to approach me.
Now once you approach me, I got you.
We're gonna be able to rapport very, very quickly because I'm a lover of people.

(14:37):
So I'm gonna engage, I'm gonna find out as much as I can about you.
Again, I'm an open book, so I'm gonna share a whole bunch about me that I probablyshouldn't, but it creates that connectivity very, very quickly.
So I only say that is because I'm shy.
And when I meet another introvert or I meet another quiet spirit who's as successful asyou are, and the fact that you've been able to get past that, I learn a lot from that.

(15:05):
And it makes me feel, you know what, I'm okay.
I'm okay, it's okay.
The other reason what you said really impacts me is because I sat with a lady, I sat witha lady.
last Thursday maybe I get all my days confused and she made a similar comment I'm in heroffice she asked me to be on her board it hasn't been announced yet so I can't announce it

(15:35):
but she says I've been tracking you since the fall when someone made me aware of you I waslike what?
She's like, I've been following you.
And I don't even really post like I should, only then I should get a lot better, right?
ah But the fact that you've said that comment, and just last week someone else said thatcomment, it makes me know that God got me and I'm a badass leader.

(16:00):
You are a badass later.
You are a badass later.
Okay, so I want to, so we have a lot of questions and we may or may not get through thembecause listeners, what you may not know, my passion is really to have an engaging
conversation.
And I have a lot of questions I want to ask him.
I'm not sure if I'm gonna have enough time to ask Kofi, but we're gonna dig in.

(16:20):
What time is your appointment with your therapist?
You're good.
okay.
You called me when you're ready, No, no, Okay, was gonna say I was gonna talk fast onlybecause I for your time.
We are good, we're gonna crush this.
Okay, listeners, are you ready?
We are going to talk about amazing things about, we're gonna talk about manager versusleader.

(16:44):
We're gonna talk about conflict resolution.
We're gonna talk about Kofi's earlier days in high school and coaching and legacy making.
We're gonna talk about your time in, and I'm not gonna get this right.
It's on my cards here.
Your time, yes, at the Atlanta Airlines Terminal Company, which I don't even know whatthat is and I live in Atlanta.
But we're gonna talk about that and we're gonna talk about why you decided to move intoyour own company and what the future looks like for you.

(17:11):
How's that sound?
Good, let's dig in.
Okay, so let's start.
One of the things that at the Aegean Group, if you pull up on our website, which youshould listeners, if you pull on our website and you scroll down to what our values are,
The first value is people's first, people first.
Okay, people over profits.
uh And then after that is getting to know humans as humans.

(17:33):
So what I wanna do right now, Kofi, is I wanna know you as a human.
So maybe share some vulnerable things.
Tell us about your family or about how you grew up, where you grew up, some things likethat.
So really quickly, just giving you a back story.
I always tell people I'm just a little country boy from Alabama.
Lawrence, Alabama.
my God!

(17:55):
Lawrence,
My daughters.
yes, yes.
My daughters.
uh Dad, aka ex-husband, but my daughters.
Grew up in Ardmore.
And Ardmore, Alabama is very close to Florence.
it?
It is.
It's a small town close to Florence.
And my uh sister-in-law, Melissa and them live in Florence.

(18:18):
And we did all this stuff in Florence and in Huntsville and all that kind stuff.
know that.
Huntsville, area, that was my stomping ground.
Yep.
Yeah.
grew up in Florence, Alabama.
And as I mentioned earlier, you know, what a lot of people don't know, but I try to shareit is I had a speech impediment growing up.
So I just it was hard for me to say certain words.

(18:39):
I would get my Rs and my Ls mixed up.
I would not.
that now.
And it was so funny I still have that.
I still have somewhat of a problem with pronouncing certain words so I try to challengemyself in that aspect but when I get on stage I recognize what words I can't say and I
make accommodations.
I love this.

(18:59):
love it.
So can we pause for a moment?
Because this, think, recognizing who you are as a human and the things that make youunique as a human.
I'm not going to call them disabilities.
They are what make you unique as a human.
And then saying, OK, in this new environment, in order to set myself up for success soeveryone can receive what I'm trying to say, I am just going to select the words that I

(19:26):
can crush.
And I think all public speakers, if you're gonna pause for a moment, then do that.
pause, I'm I'm blown away by that.
Okay, sorry.
That whole moment, I was just like, my gosh, that is amazing.
Absolutely.
Why don't we pick the words and the phrases and things like that that we can crush.
For that piece, it's all about delivering your message, right?

(19:48):
That's the goal.
You're in a position of serving and you want to make sure that what you serve isnourishment for their body.
So you got to serve it the right way so they don't throw it up, right?
They need to walk out saying, wow.
So that's why I pick words that I don't try to impress people with words because it's hardfor me to do that.
So I pick words that are simplistic in nature.

(20:10):
I can say, and then I know that they'll get the message.
So that speech impediment issue, I was bullied when I was younger.
That's one of the reasons why I have a lot of people that may tune in and hear this,especially when I post it, that I call big brothers, big sisters.
I just started adopting people to me.
Now I was a big brother with my little sister in the house two years behind me.

(20:34):
But I was, again, the insecurity, the low self-esteem, not really understanding who I wasas a young man.
or who I was going to become.
So I struggled a little bit.
Got into high school, faced some betrayal from some good friends, which was my first timeof ever having to do that, which is the worst time because you're in high school, so

(20:58):
young, you don't know how to process it.
In high school, we think it's the end of the world if I have a friend that says they're nolonger my friend or I have a girlfriend that breaks up with me, whatever, it's the end of
the world.
I still remember my first breakup.
Exactly, right?
That's our little world at the time.
Exactly.
It was ending and everything has this perspective and we live in a world where everythingis relative.

(21:24):
So relative to me at that time, this is the worst thing that could happen to me.
So high school was not bad for me.
That was just a moment in my life.
Ended up having, didn't play football for...
My freshman year I played, but it was my sophomore year that was most impactful for mewhen I was not playing.

(21:45):
And then my cousin, I call him my cousin, just like my cousin PJ, he was on the field andhe was killing it.
And I was like, man, PJ's out there killing it.
I loved it for PJ, but I was like, man, I wanna be out there with him.
So I pretty much got no playing time my sophomore year.
I sat on the bench, cheered him on, cheered on the other.

(22:09):
varsity guys but my junior year I got my breakout and my junior year my senior year wereamazing quarterback and defensive back free safety um long story and that have a couple
records from high school
Don't be humble because you know one of the things that Katie our producer said is whenshe was we were preparing for this interview she was just like uh Kofi has all of these

(22:37):
awards and almost none of them are posted on LinkedIn So I will say you've been judged asbeing a little too humble brag a little bit more So tell us about some of your words,
okay?
All right, well I'll tell you this one where it fits because God has blessed me a lot witha lot of awards and it ties into this story but that junior senior year, you know, got a

(23:00):
couple records, four touchdowns in one game, some rushing yards as a quarterback, so I washaving a great junior year but my senior year was even better.
um But during that time
All of my teammates were getting offers.
And this is a story.
I tell this all the time.
My teammates were getting offers, and I was getting rejection letters.

(23:23):
Hadn't taken any what we call official visits where the college brings you to the campus,takes you out, blah, blah.
So I was getting rejection letters while everybody else was getting acceptance letters.
So I got this one rejection letter, and it was...
right now because I know your future story.
Yeah, it's amazing.
I got this rejection letter from UCLA and I don't know why that letter had such an impacton me as it did.

(23:50):
It may have been because it was on the tail end of all these other rejection letters andit just happened to be that one.
But that letter, I looked at my mom and I said, mom, I'm not going to college.
And that for me,
not being able to get a scholarship to me meant I wasn't gonna be able to go to college.
And my mom, she grabbed me and she said, listen, true story, tell everybody this, is thatshe said, we're gonna pray for a week.

(24:17):
We're gonna pray for a week.
Now I knew about prayer, I knew about talking to God, but I really didn't understand thatit's a conversation between you and God.
I didn't understand that.
So I just followed my mom's lead.
We prayed for a week.
The next week, true story.
I had 11 offers.
11.
just got chills because I know which offer you took.

(24:39):
uh
I just got chills because I think, you know, one of the things and I'm working on a coupleof things.
I want to write a book on conflict resolution.
We're going to talk about it a bit because I love conflict.
And also resilience because when people look at me and they say, you're so resilient.
One of the things that I want individuals to understand is that resiliency, no one is bornwith resiliency.

(25:06):
Resiliency is created when you
do hard things and you overcome them.
And then you realize that and it gives you the courage to do hard things again.
And I think that by you being in a situation where you're getting these rejection lettersand you're just like, I'm gonna pause and pray for a week, right?

(25:30):
And then see the other side of it is an early stage of resiliency, which is amazing.
And you start stacking, I call it stacking wins.
Yes.
you're able to build upon that resiliency.
So it makes you stronger for the next thing that is coming, but you have to get throughthat one.
You have to pass that test.
You got to push through it.

(25:50):
And it's just like in school, I've got to pass this test.
I got to pass this grade to progress and get to the next grade.
So in that one, again, I didn't know what was happening.
So I had to look back and connect the dots going backwards, but that was God's.
hindsight is always 20-20 and foresight is always completely blind.
mean, it's like, where do go?
What do do?

(26:11):
uh So, you know, if I chunk high school, or if I chunk my beginnings, it was speechimpediment, bullied, low self-esteem, low self-confidence, finally got the breakout moment
in high school, getting the, setting the records, getting on the field, becoming somewhatof a star, and then getting rejection letters behind becoming a star.

(26:35):
Pause with my mom.
pray for a week from zero acceptance letters, 100 % rejection letters, to the next week,the very next week, 11 scholarship offers, 11 acceptance.
And what was so cool, super cool about that, now the official visits could start, right?

(26:57):
Because now 11 schools said, hey, we're interested.
So I took my visit to Mississippi State, fantastic visit.
went to...
Vanderbilt well at Vanderbilt is where I wanted to attend because I wanted to be a doctorso Vanderbilt was bringing me on as a Orthopedic, okay, so me and my best friend So my

(27:23):
best friend Michael passerella who's a fantastic doctor now in Birmingham?
Mike shout out Mike
We were going to open up a practice together.
So we were working in the hospital, in the OR, when we were in high school.
So we were in Florence, Alabama.
So I can think of what hospital would that have been?

(27:46):
ECM, okay.
So we were working in the hospitals, we got to see all kinds of surgeries, all this stuff.
It was an amazing experience.
So Vandy, being an incredible medical school and wanting me to come.
And Nashville, I was like, man, this feels really good.
Absolutely.
feels great.
One of the smartest decisions I've ever made is when they offered me to come to Vandy onSunday.

(28:13):
I said, hey, and they were gonna take us as a package deal, me and my tight end, EricWissman, who ended up going to Vandy.
um Eric signed his commitment letter, yes, I'm gonna come.
They asked me, I said, well, just give me till Monday.
Smartest decision I ever made in my young life.
And my parents, amazing, they supported me.
They said, hey, it's your choice.
um Which is huge for parents to do for a child when you're talking about a scholarship.

(28:38):
Well, and I want parents to hear this, right?
I think one of the struggles that I see in dynamics are if parents can advocate for thekids and help them learn how to make wise decisions and own their decisions, the amount
they're setting themselves up for success in the future, in the corporate world andwhatnot is amazing.

(29:00):
And I know as a parent myself, that's really hard.
And I have a special needs daughter and I go through this constantly.
And my thought is,
if we can pause as parents to help our children learn how to make wise decisions and thenown the decisions and move forward, what greater gift could we give to them at that

(29:23):
juncture in life?
There's no greater gift that we can give our children than the gift of independence.
Right?
Absolutely.
that's a part of it.
Being independent is being able to make your own decisions, chart your own path.
Yep.
Right?
And especially as you told me about your daughter, how she has charted her own path andshe is doing what she loves to do as it pertains to the animals.
Right?

(29:43):
Yeah, good memory.
in that instance, my mom and dad were so wise to say this is your decision.
We love Andy.
We think you would be great here, but it's your choice.
You make your decision.
Both my mom and dad supported me.
The very next day, Monday, Coach Huxtable called me.
So Coach Huxtable, he called me and he said, listen, I don't know how we did not see yourfilm.

(30:06):
We just got your film.
The last visit is this weekend.
We want to get you up to Atlanta.
Now I knew nothing about Georgia Tech except for one thing.
Sean Jones.
So Sean Jones, I've seen Sean and I told Sean this story, but back then Sean Jones was oneof maybe three, maybe five black quarterbacks back then.

(30:29):
Now everything is black quarterback, right?
But back then you had a very, very small number of black African-American quarterbacks.
So I used to wear all of my stuff in...
high school at Bradshaw like Shawn Jones did at Georgia Tech.
So I had the same face mask he had.
I wore my gloves like him.
I had wristbands that I would wear.

(30:49):
Like I just mimicked Shawn Jones, right?
I picked him and said, I'm gonna be a quarterback like Shawn Jones, right?
So when Coach Hussle would call me, that's all I knew about Georgia Tech.
I'm like, yes.
I called Vandy, I said, I got one more visit.
I need to go to Georgia Tech and I'll let you all know once I finish my Georgia Techvisit.
Go to Georgia Tech.
Lone story, it was amazing.

(31:10):
uh Sunday, I called, I accepted at Georgia Tech on Sunday, I called Bandy on Monday andsaid I'm gonna be a Yellow Jacket.
eh
yes, yes, those were my best yellow jackets.
They were the best.
They were the best.
And it's been great.
uh mean tech was amazing So you take that little chunk and now you move me to Georgia Techand a very important part of Georgia Tech Industrial engineer from Georgia Tech when I got

(31:34):
to tech I called Mike and said hey man, I cannot be a doctor I am at the number oneindustrial engineering school in the world Forever right?
Number one industrial engineering uh for masters, right?
I mean we just that is who tech is uh
amazing engineering school, but industrial engineering is number one.

(31:55):
So I said, I can't be a doctor, gotta be an IE.
You take that and take me through football.
I wasn't a star, I was not a star, I was a star amongst stars.
I played with Joe Hamilton, Keith Brook, and the list goes on and on.
Ryan Stewart and Javaris Tillman, the list goes on and on.
These are guys that were amazing.

(32:16):
And all these guys went to the NFL.
Joe Burns, these guys had fantastic careers.
And I was not at that level, although I wanted to be, but I was not at that level and itjust was not my calling as much as I wanted to believe it was.
So big story about Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech was amazing.
I'm an industrial engineer.
I'm a football player.

(32:38):
I pledged fraternity, Kappa Thasi Incorporated.
Loved my uh college experience.
I had a lot of highs and I had a lot of lows.
And my deepest low is when we were playing Georgia in 1997.
finally got into the game.
starting because I was not a starter and we're doing great.
It's the best game that I ever had.

(32:59):
And I'm starting.
It's Thursday night game.
No other game is on.
Everybody in Alabama is watching the game.
Everyone in Georgia is oh
watching the game.
And I'm having the best game.
This is Hans Ward that was on that team.
Corey Allen.
So they had a high-powered team.
Georgia was very good.
So we're beating Georgia.
And we had not beat them since 1990.

(33:22):
This is 1990.
90, what year was it that Georgia Tech won the national championship?
91, 90.
So we beat Colorado in 90 and won the national championship.
So we had not beat Georgia since 90.
So here it is 1997, seven years later, right?
And I'm having the best game of my life.
We call a timeout, they have the ball, we're winning.

(33:43):
Coach O'Leary calls a timeout, we come to the sideline, he's trying to get us all focused.
I'm focused, Coach O'Leary, you didn't think I was focused.
I was focused.
He yells at me on the sideline, coach.
I was focused.
he's like, he would call me coffee.
Coffee, pay attention, pay attention.

(34:03):
And I was, I was zoned in and I zoomed in and I was imagining and I knew the play wasgonna come my way.
I knew the play was gonna come my way.
So we end the time out, we go out on the field and the play came my way.
And I did not make the play.
Cory Allen catches it and we had like, I don't know, seconds on the clock.

(34:26):
He catches it.
I look up, Ref raises his hands for touchdown.
I look at Keith Brooke and I look at Brian Wilkins and I saw their faces and my heartcrushed.
Everything.
Everything.
And for the listeners, you got to remember that who I was in high school, insecure, lowself-esteem, low self-confidence, speech impediment, bully, blah, blah, getting to Georgia

(34:52):
Tech and then pledging, becoming a Kappa and...
you know, matriculating through Georgia Tech, all those same things still existed with me.
And then when I was not playing, was not starting, and then I finally got on the field,that was a big deal.
It was as if I had arrived.
It was as if everything that I had been through now is my moment, because the world iswatching.

(35:16):
All I have to do is make this play, and I go to the NFL.
That's what I told myself.
All I have to do is make this play.
We win the game.
We haven't beat Georgia in seven years.
I go to the NFL, I'm on everybody's um charts.
I'm gonna start the next year, because I said I had one more year to play, but that wasgonna catapult me into the next year.
I was gonna be a starter, blah, blah, blah.
I didn't make the play.
um Long story short, I was the last person out of the locker room.

(35:41):
I cried the entire way walking back to West Campus.
I get to my dorm, I close my door, and I was gonna commit suicide.
So I took a bottle of 800-milligram Moltren.
And I didn't share this, I share it all the time now, but I didn't share it until, I don'tknow, five, six years ago was the first time I shared it on Facebook and on, I don't even

(36:01):
know if I shared it on LinkedIn, but I probably did.
But it was about six or probably more like six or seven years when I first shared thestory and I held it with me for all of those years.
Even people at tech didn't know.
The next day, didn't know.
But I poured out these 800 milligram motrin, I was gonna take them all.
And whether not that was gonna kill me or send me to Grady to get my stomach pumped, Ididn't know.

(36:24):
But in my mind, I'm trying to take my life.
And the reason why I never understood how people could get to suicide, but that night Irealized when you lose all hope and all belief, if God doesn't exist, the devil doesn't
exist, heaven doesn't exist, hell doesn't exist, all that exists is my pain.
What's the point in living with my pain if I take my life, there's nowhere I'm gonna gobecause

(36:49):
God cannot exist if you allowed this to happen to me.
Right?
You cannot exist if you allowed this to happen.
That's what I was telling myself in my head.
So I told God, if you do exist, which is crazy when I look back, right?
Because I just said I'm going take my life because you don't exist.
If you do exist, I need to hear from you, God.
Because I'm now.

(37:10):
Like I need to hear from you just as I'm being, you're hearing me in this audible tone.
I need to hear from you, God.
I wouldn't open up the door for anybody.
Classmates knocked on my door.
A friend of mine had driven all the way from Stone Mountain, slid a card up under my desk,had watched the game, and said, I know you're not gonna open the door.
I left a plant outside of your door, but I need you to read this card.

(37:31):
And I opened up that card, and that card says, sometimes God closes doors to open up newwindows.
That's what saved my life.
That is what saved my life.
Now,
The next day was one of the hardest days of my life.
What kind of plant was it?

(37:52):
Did you kill it?
no.
But I do not have a green thumb, okay?
I kept it as long as I could and watered it every now and again.
But the plant died, but that note never did.
Oh, I hate that.
Right?
Yeah.
And it has carried me to where I am today being, well, we'll be 50 in October.

(38:16):
We're the same age.
turned 50 in August.
Yeah, I turned 50 in August.
We're hitting the big five.
living our best lives, right?
yes.
So that carried me all the way to this day.
So the next day was hard and I had to face my teammates.
I had to face campus because it was Friday, because it was Thursday night game.
I had to go in and I had to watch it over and over and over with my teammates and thecoaches.

(38:41):
It was hard.
I started my senior year on third on third string.
So Coach O'Leary and the coaches.
And when you're on third string, you're benched.
And this is my senior year, five.
fifth year, senior year, if I'm gonna go to the NFL, I'm gonna have any shot of going tothe NFL.
You're not gonna do it on the bench.
So I was on the bench and that's when people kinda came to know me as fans and peoplestill talk about it today when I meet them, like the diehard tech fans, is that I accepted

(39:14):
my role.
And this is something for all leaders or just all people in general, is you bloom whereyou're planted and then God will lift you out that pot and put you in a bigger pot.
Yeah, so I accepted that I'm on third string defense I'm not gonna get into the game But Iam on special teams and I'm gonna do everything that I can to be the star on special teams

(39:34):
and my teammates will tell you to this day I mean that's where I made my name is onspecial teams and then I became the hype man so to speak on the On the sideline for all
the fans for my teammates just getting them uplifted the point of that piece on the chunkof it is I got into our last
It was our senior day.
My mom and dad were there.

(39:54):
My little guy, D'Audrick, who I took the responsibility of when his father got shot, hewas there.
He was five at the time.
And he came on the field.
My mom and dad came on the field at halftime.
We took pictures.
We were playing Boston College.
I was, no wait, that's not right.
We were playing Wake Forest.
We were playing Wake Forest.

(40:15):
I got into the game and I was able to scoop up a fumble and take it back for 90 yards.
and that was a school record, my last home game at Bobby Dodd.
my gosh.
That win, not my touchdown, which caused the win, but the win got us into a bowl game.
That record stood in the record books for 22 years.
Wow.

(40:36):
And my son saw it, my mom and dad saw it, everybody saw it.
And it's just one of those things when you accept your role and where you are and youbloom where you're planted.
then being grateful for the small things will bring the big things.
So God allowed me to end my career at Georgia Tech.
As I mentioned, I some very big highs and very low, lows, but I was able to end my careeron a high.

(41:02):
And that season we went 10-2, we beat Georgia at Georgia between the hedges.
We ripped out the hedges.
But that was Georgia Tech.
And then trying to get into the NFL, I tore my quad.
uh
And football was not going to be the thing anymore.
So I went and I worked in my industrial engineering degree at Millican and company.

(41:27):
And just for all your listeners, because it's much longer than the time that we have.
People always ask me, how did you become so successful?
Yep.
And it was Steve Alford, who was my plant manager at the time.
He said, do you want to be?

(41:48):
Industrial engineer you got the degree you can do time studies you can do analysis you cansit behind the desk you can do that or You can go out on the plant floor, and I'll give
you a team and I'm a football guy right
Show me that team, right?
Show me the team.
Give me a team." And he said, great, I'm glad you said that.
True story.
I've never forgotten this.

(42:09):
And I give Steve Alford all the credit for the path that he put me on because what he saidto me is that, great, I'm glad you said that.
I'm to give you the worst team, C-Shift.
They're the lowest in productivity.
They're the lowest in process reliability.
They're the lowest in quality.
And he told me, you're going to sink or swim.
uh I mean, this is a young kid coming out of Georgia Tech.

(42:33):
This is my first job.
Right, right.
And at that time, know, I'm like, this is amazing.
I called my mom and said, I don't know what I just did.
I just accepted this role as a production manager.
And the plant manager told me it's going to, I'm going to sink or swim.
And my mom said, that's fine, baby, swim.
Right.

(42:53):
within six months, that team became the number one team.
broke records.
We set records.
Every other shift was chasing us within six months.
you make that change?
So this is so important for everybody, because you will hear this story, or you will seethis formula throughout my whole entire career.
Even to this day as CEO of my own company, I do the same thing that I did then.

(43:17):
So all I did was, and again, I didn't know a lot about leadership, but I had alreadystarted at Georgia Tech reading Robert Kiyosaki's books.
I read Napoleon Hill books.
I read Dennis Kimbrough books while at Tech.
I try to get into Amway, I try to get into Quickstart, all this multi-level marketingright there.
I wanted to be a CEO of something.

(43:37):
So listening to all those tapes.
And I think also we should realize that we should all throughout these journeys be the CEOof the current role that we are currently living and do it for the absolute best we can.
When I tell, so my students, my mentees, people that speak, say what I want you to do,what I want, and all your listeners right now, I want them to walk away understanding that

(43:59):
you are the CEO of you.
So if I'm the CEO of Dr.
Smith, Inc., then that means I need a board of directors that's gonna help govern the CEO.
So from my therapist to my business coach to my executive coach to my executive mentors tomy spiritual advisor.
I have a board of directors that help govern me.

(44:22):
I still, make some knucklehead decisions at times, but for the most part, when I have amajor decision to make, I go and I seek out my board of directors and I ask them to help
give me guidance.
So the point is about that, when we're the CEO of us, then brand is important.
How we interact with people are important.
experience.

(44:44):
who your shareholders are, which is anybody that you may bump into because anyone that youbump into can improve and increase your stock, whatever your stock is.
In your instance, your stock is, I'm going to be on TV one day and I'm going to have atalk show.
Yes, one day.
Right?
so whoever you meet, that person is a shareholder or a potential shareholder because theycan impact your stock price.

(45:10):
go back to what you said about the board of directors.
So I love this.
I have been also sharing this idea for probably like the past 10 years.
I have a blog post about creating your A team and the A team is you have your board ofdirectors, the people in your foxhole and then the people in your locker room.
And I think one of the things is that when we're creating these different uh teams aroundus is that then we realize, okay, when I have a

(45:38):
business decision, I'm going to go to my board members.
When I am dealing with something and I just need a high level of motivation, I'm going togo to the locker room.
And if I just need a lot of compassion or I just need to know that people have got my backconstantly, I'm going to go to the foxhole.
And really being very thoughtful, disciplined and strategic about surrounding yourself,not inauthentically, but authentically with amazing people.

(46:02):
So I love that you talk about this board of directors because it's so impactful.
Fuck.
It's amazing and you know we that old African proverb is that you can you can go fasteralone you can go further with others.
So for me I'm very blessed God has done such an amazing thing where I have my YPO forum Ialso have another forum we call ourselves the BCCF forum and oh these forums are like my

(46:30):
locker rooms.
m So I have this board of directors or board of advisors but then I have these two
forums where we can speak confidentially about anything and everything that's going on andall of us are at the same level so all of us are CEOs and presidents so you drop the
titles and we're just humans this is the problem that I'm having can you help me with thisso that em the importance of you listeners being the CEO of your name ink then puts you in

(47:02):
a position to say well what's the most important thing for
a company.
What's the number one obligation of a company?
The number one obligation of a company is to increase shareholder value.
So if you think that way, now anyone and everyone that I meet and I bump up against, ifwhat I said originally was true, that anybody can be a shareholder, now you're in a

(47:26):
position where I'm looking to see how can I increase your value.
no matter who I bump into.
Because anybody can be a potential shareholder.
So what I try to encourage people, think of yourself as a business.
When you think of yourself as a business, the most important thing to a business is toincrease shareholder value.
Well, Dr.
Smith, who is my shareholders?

(47:46):
Anybody that you bump into.
So I love this because one of the things that I struggle with when I talk to and mentorpeople about relate, I love relationships.
We're both relationship people.
And one of the things I have a lot of conversations about is that we need to buildrelationships that are authentic relationships.
Like we truly are passionate about adding value to the world around us.

(48:12):
And that's what you're saying.
And I love this mindset of let's just say,
and the CEO of the Ajan Group, but also the CEO of Angelique Gilnellem's Inc.
And when I meet other people thinking about how can I, because they're coming into thispartnership with me, and how can I just add value to their life.

(48:40):
when they're, in whatever way they're looking for.
Not in a way that you're overbearing.
So I think that there could be an instance of that, but really how can I not be one ofthose individuals, because what I hate are the people that reach out to me and they wanna
connect and it's super clear.
they just want to connect because they just want to monopolize my connection.

(49:01):
So they just want to use me for X, Y, and Z versus the people who reach out to me and wantto add value to my life.
Those are the individuals that I want to have a partnership with.
And that's exactly right.
And when you think about that same concept of when whoever I meet or whoever bumps into meand my world, I'm looking to add value to them, right?

(49:22):
It's about other people first, a second.
So I love the fact that that's part of your organization, it's part of ours as well, um isthat our people first, everyone else second, including my clients, including oh our
customers.
our people first.

(49:43):
If we take care of them, they'll take care of the clients, right?
If we take care of them, they'll take care of us.
If we take care of them, all the business things will be taken care of.
So with that mindset, if you take me back to Milliken with my first team, I startedlearning about them.
I would bring food to them.
We would sit down, we would have breakfast, we would have donuts, and we would have orangejuice.

(50:05):
And this is on the third shift.
So that was point number one.
Search if is what time what hours are searching?
Yeah, like 10 p.m.
10 p.m.
6 a.m.
Right
You know different people third shields right you know crossover, but it's basically theTwilight hours So I started bringing food in and I started learning their names so Bobby

(50:30):
Big John little John I started learning about their families.
I started having conversations with them So now they viewed me not as this old GeorgiaTech degree young guy Coming here trying to tell us what we need to do
and he knows nothing about it, they didn't view me that way because I never told himanything to do.
I told him, I just want to learn about you all.

(50:51):
I just want to get close to you.
And food and orange juice was a way of doing it.
Number two is that I got out on the floor with them.
So yes, I have industrial engineering degree, came from Georgia Tech, but what we'retrying to do, I need to do it with you.
So as a leader, you lead from the front, not from the back.
You get

(51:12):
In front and you pull with the rest of your team and you don't sit in the back of thecarriage And use a whip to make them pull you so as a young engineer.
I got in the front Let's go pull these jets.
Let me get soaking wet with all of you.
Let me get tired Let me feel what it's like to do your job and as an ie because Iunderstand process I understand the system.

(51:38):
I understand my players
but I need to understand the game.
Once I understood the game and they recognize that he's on the field with us, he's feedingus, he knows our name, he cares about us, what happens?
All of a sudden you have their trust.
And once you have their trust, now you can say, hey guys, I got an idea.

(51:58):
Let's change positions, right?
Like Bobby, you're sitting over there on that slitter and you're sitting down, but you'refast.
I need you over here on the slitters.
John, you do a fantastic job.
of recognized quality defects, you go sit on a slitter.
All I did was take football.
I took my players and I recognized that I got a receiver who can't catch the ball.

(52:20):
Right?
I got a quarterback.
It's true.
got a quarterback who couldn't hit that wall if he was standing in front of it.
Right?
But man, if I put them into different positions and I started tapping into what theirgifts are and I start basically
sucking out that which is already in them as potential and turning it into kinetic energywill change.

(52:46):
And within six months, that's all I did.
the way that you did it, because one of the things I want listeners to understand is thatI'm very passionate about people understanding that you cannot, as a great leader, you
cannot go into an organization and immediately start making change.
So I was experiencing this in my new role at Biolocity with Georgia Tech and Emory.

(53:06):
And just because of loss of employees and that kind of stuff, I had people ping me like,need to select what you need.
And I was just like, no, no, wait.
I'm not selecting who I need to hire next.
I need to pause.
I need to observe.
I need to see where are we at now?
Where do we need to go?
What resources do we currently have?
What resources do we need to add?

(53:28):
And I'm going to resist the urge to, and I think the thing that when you're telling thisstory that really speaks out to me is that you came in and you said, I'm gonna spend this
time just being a learner.
I'm gonna learn about you as humans.
I'm gonna learn about your current processes.
I'm gonna observe and I'm gonna get in the trenches with you and feel what it feels liketo be in there.

(53:53):
And then together, like I may create a strategy, like a game plan, like you would infootball and you might, know, but you're also gonna maybe do an audible at some point.
And go in and say, I want to help each individual be their best selves.
And the way that I'm going to do that is by really encouraging you to understand the valueyou add that isn't being optimized.

(54:22):
And then we're going to sit back and celebrate it.
And I think Brene Brown talks about uh vulnerability.
Yes.
Being vulnerable.
And when you get on the field with your teammates, you're not going to, especially whenyou're learning, you're not going to run every play correctly, right?
You're going to mess up.
They get to see you mess up and you get to show that vulnerability and you get to let themknow, look, I'm just a human like you all.

(54:49):
So teach me, right?
Teach me.
And then now they gain um ownership.
They gain some power.
You reduce your role power and now you are able to connect.
So the food, learning who they are, getting on the floor, being vulnerable, it createsthis connect.

(55:10):
And when you have that connection to people, then they will trust you.
When they trust you, they will follow you.
And you want people to follow you not because they have to, but because they want to.
And people only do that when they know that you care about them.
So when you know their names and you know their family, you know what they want to do, youknow what their dreams and their hopes are, and somehow, some way, you can kind of lean
into that, then that's when people follow you.

(55:32):
And that's all I did.
And from there, with Millikan, that was...
My four years with Millikan, I received six promotions and four of those promotions wereupward level promotions.
And every place I went, all I did was duplicate my same strategy.
And at the time I did not know, I had not read oh Michael Watkins book, The First 90 Days.

(55:55):
Exactly what you were saying is when you go into an organization, there are fences up thatshould not be kicked down and there are fences that are not there that should not be put
up.
But you don't know that.
until you go and you have conversations with people and you learn about them and learnabout the organization and learn about the department or whatever it is.
So with Millikan, I ended up having this fantastic career.

(56:18):
I was on an upward level trajectory, six promotions, four of them, upward level.
I was fast moving and then decided to go chase football.
So while I was working at Millikan, I was driving, I was in LaGrange, Georgia and I wasdriving down to Columbus, Georgia.
I would work all day.
And then would drive down to Columbus, and I was playing for the Columbus uh War Dogs.

(56:40):
uh
So listeners, we're going to put a link to this in the show notes, think.
I've never even heard of that.
Columbus War Dogs.
It was Arena 2.
And they were, you know, you got to pay $200 a week if you won.
Okay?
Okay.
So I'm working all day.
I'm traveling down to Columbus.

(57:01):
I'm practicing.
We have our games.
It's very much a passion move, not a profit move.
Very much so.
Well, I'm going tell you the big passion move because I was working at Millikan whileplaying at Columbus or in Columbus and for Columbus War Dogs.
I did that for two years.
I got noticed and a coach, Coach Frazier, who's no longer with us, God bless his soul, buthe reached out to me and said, hey, we want to pull you up to Arena One.

(57:30):
And it was for the Toronto Phantoms in Canada.
I'm like, oh my God, this is amazing.
Right.
Arena one is one step below the NFL in my mind.
Right.
So if I get to arena one, that's a step to the NFL.
total about 23.

(57:53):
And, m but what ended up happening is the Toronto phantoms ended up folding uh before Iput in my two week notice, which was fine.
Thankfully.
Right.
Kind of sort of.
Kind of sort of because Coach Frazier called me and said, hey, I'm going to Norfolk andI'm going to be with the, I'm going to go from arena one down to arena two and I'm going

(58:16):
to go to Norfolk team.
Would you come with me?
And you were the Columbus team was already a m
a level two, Level two, right.
$200 a week.
So he asked me to come and that's when it was a passion move because there was noguarantee I was going to make the team.
So it was very, it was really kind of crazy what I was doing.

(58:37):
But a coach, shout out coach Heywood Hill, he gave me a book and he said, he was inColumbus with me.
I had this huge decision.
And remember I learned talking to God through my prayer with my mom.
Through God, need to hear.
oh take to God and then receive.
So uh Coach Frazier, I mean, I'm sorry, uh Coach Heywood-Hill gave me this book and it wasWho Moved My Cheese.

(59:01):
oh I read that book.
we're gonna put a link in the show notes to that book because I really honestly think thatpeople our age remember that book.
I think it's a generational thing and I actually would encourage all the newbies if youhaven't read it read the book.
It's a great it's a classic.
I read that book and that was God speaking to me that I should put in my resignation fromMillikan after winning manager of the year, the same year, manager of the year, my team

(59:30):
won team in the year.
I had this rocket on my.
shitty team that you got that they said, sing or swim, right?
I was just about to say not to any of the people that are on the team, but I think you'reshitty.
But I think that sometime is the mentality that we have when someone gives us that is thatthis team is shitty and they really weren't.
Like in none of these things, I think the reality is is that none of the teams in theworld are shitty, right?

(59:56):
They get a bad rap because they didn't have a great leader who could help them live totheir best.
So there are no, I strongly believe there's no such thing as a shitty team.
There's a shitty leader who hasn't figured out how to make the team the best they canpossibly be.
agree 100%.
So even the team that won manager of the year, I mean team of the year, we created a lotof efficiencies and productivity that was not there, hence the reason why we were able to

(01:00:26):
become the team of the year.
I always tell people, I would tell my board of directors at AATC is that it's not thepeople on the floor for our custodial company.
It's not them, they're not the issue.
It's the leadership that's issue.
So if you keep the people, you change out the leadership, you will see enhancedperformance.

(01:00:49):
Yep.
Right.
Same people, same group of people.
It's just a different leader.
So I was able to accomplish those things very early on and decided I was going to jump andgo chase football.
And I did for $200 at the time I was making, um, I always forget the number.
I mean, it's just the cost 65,000.
Right.
I was making
and this is in the late 90s.

(01:01:12):
Yeah, this is 2000 and this is 2003 when I left.
2003.
Like 65,000 and it may have been like 635.
I can't remember the number.
I probably should get that number.
I should get that number.
But this is what we call 65,000 and I left that to go make $200 a week.

(01:01:36):
And
which we'll let the lessoners do the math on that.
It's a lot less.
a whole lot less.
So I leave, end up, I pack up my Acura, I drive to Norfolk, Virginia.
And long story short, that's important for the listeners, is that I chased this football,but in Norfolk I started working at the coach store, I worked at Illuminations, which

(01:01:57):
doesn't exist, right?
But we remember Illuminations.
Yes, we remember that, yes, So I worked at the coach store, I worked at Illuminations, andI was playing football.
The coach, the ladies handbag store.
So when that season was over, I transferred down to Atlanta to work in the coach storeshere.
And there was one in Phibs, there was one in Lennox, and there was one in Perimeter.

(01:02:19):
Perimeter was my home store.
Funny story is that my store manager and one of my uh teammates, we all met last week forlunch.
Dinner.
And this is, so you're talking about maybe what, 2005 to 20 years later?
20 years later, 20 years later we met.

(01:02:40):
And the reason why I tell that story is because while sitting with my store manager,right, two weeks later, and Tony, shout out to Tony and Miss Eleanor, Tony said, I
remember when you were sleeping in your car.
I remember when I found out that you were sleeping in your car and I told Eleanor, andEleanor was sitting right there, and tears started coming to my eyes because I remember,

(01:03:06):
And Eleanor said, I would never allow you to do that.
You come and live with me.
You come and sleep at my home with me and my husband, my family.
You don't have to be in your car.
So the reason why I share that story is because I was sleeping in my car on and off.
And there was times when I had amazing friends that I could go and I could crash on theircouch, but you didn't want to do that all the time.

(01:03:27):
So I was sleeping in my car.
I would go to LA Fitness.
I would take a shower in LA Fitness.
Yeah.
then I would go and I work at the coach store.
uh that story lets people know, you know, when people look and they think that success isovernight, right?

(01:03:49):
We're back to the resilience comment.
People think that success is overnight and they see it is thousands and thousands andthousands of nights.
It's thousands of nights.
So, know, God got me through that.
But during that time, you know, I worked at a coat store.
I went off and I'm just chasing football.

(01:04:09):
went from Norfolk, Virginia, transferred back to Atlanta, to Corpus Christi.
Corpus Christi, Texas, amazing story there.
Then went from there to Iowa, went from Iowa back to Florence, or back to Huntsville.
Madison and Huntsville.

(01:04:32):
Prior to getting back there, when I was at Corpus Christi, I had a severe concussion whereI got hit.
I was going for the ball and me and my teammate going full speed, he hit me in the back ofmy neck, snapped my body around.
I was out cold.
They ended up having to cut the stuff off of me, put me on a gurdy, they carted me away.
MRIs, all that stuff, throwing up.

(01:04:53):
had a severe concussion.
The coaches, I'm sorry, the doctor said, um you should never play football ever againbecause you were one level down from brain damage with your concussion.
Now, that obviously, know, devastating all of that, but I came back to Florence orHuntsville and I was with the...

(01:05:14):
um
Vipers because I wanted to play again.
Mm-hmm and I decided to play with the Vipers and Unfortunately, I was never I just wasnever the same because I'm on the field thinking about How to hit how not to hit all that?
Prevent the impending idea of brain damage that you're going to get.

(01:05:36):
to like, yeah, and how to be like, uh go rogue, not listen to the doctor, but you don'twant to admit what the doctor said.
I told you so.
Right.
Right, so um it really sucked, it did.
sucked.
Coach A.
Woodhill, he ended up being there, this amazing gentleman kinda, somehow we always endedup together and he was always somewhat of a guardian angel, kinda just telling me and help

(01:06:02):
guide me when I needed guidance at the time.
So um last part of this overall story, cause I promised this would be the last part of thejourney.
But this is important because it's part of my journey.
When I was in Madison, Alabama, I had an opportunity, because I'm working pick up jobs inbetween seasons.

(01:06:23):
So I had an opportunity to work for Banana Republic or I had an opportunity to work forAshley Furniture.
Banana Republic was a store room manager, right?
Which basically I was gonna manage the store room, industrial engineer, I can do that,manager, I can do this.
um Ashley Furniture was a salesperson selling furniture.
And this was so important.

(01:06:44):
And you're an introvert.
Let's remind everyone that you're an introvert.
m
though I was selling purses at the coach store, it was a little different.
Now I'm gonna have to go and I'm gonna sell furniture.
I need to learn about furniture.
And in my mind, at the time, again, just young and naive, I thought about salespeople asused car salesmen, right?

(01:07:07):
That kind of thing.
I didn't wanna be that.
But then I said, because this is hard, this is, again, this is...
a part of my story and I hope that your listeners will get a piece of this, is that I wasstanding outside, Italian silent, I called them my sisters, grew up with them, I was
crashing and living with them in their guest room, um and I was standing outside makingthis decision, Ashley Furniture or Banana Republic, and I was so scared to do Ashley.

(01:07:41):
I I'm like, I don't know the answer.
Listeners, I don't know what he's gonna say next.
But in my head, I'm thinking, okay, Banana Republic feels like the safe move.
And Ashley Furniture feels like the badass, bold, go outside of my comfort zone, dosomething that I don't really wanna do move.
And I'll tell you, because we're going talk about this at the end, ah everything that youjust said is 100 % correct.

(01:08:06):
I'll add on.
Ashley ah Banana Republic was easy.
Ashley Furniture was hard.
And I was so scared to do it was the first time that I understood very first time is thatI understood I need to step through my fear to get to the other side where there's glory.

(01:08:27):
So at that moment I decided because I'm so fearful of it.
I'm going to go do Ashley furniture.
You fast forward that story.
I do Ashley furniture.
I started understanding what real sales is.
Sales is not trying to convince you to get that cup.
Sale is sale real sales.
is about people and connection and problem solving.

(01:08:49):
So you come into Ashley Furniture and you have a problem.
And what I need to do is solve your problem.
And I became known as the guy that would send people away.
I would say, hey, go down to Havertz.
Go down to Lazy Boy.
Hey, go down to Our Rooms of Gold.
They have what you need, right?
We don't have it here.
I started doing that.

(01:09:10):
People will come back.
And then they would tell their other friends, come back.
And when they would come back, they would say, listen, you were right.
I went down to Lazy Boy, they had exactly what we wanted, but the salesperson was anasshole.
We wanted to come back to you and we don't want to give you our money.
So get us as close as you can to what we want.
And all of a sudden, I started stacking up all these women.

(01:09:31):
So people that were at Ashley Furniture for 30 years, I mean, this is what they did.
I was blowing their numbers out, the water.
Literally, I was creating 10, 20, 30,000 sales ahead of all these people that had alwaysbeen furniture sales.
Because you saw the individual as a human being and you were like, okay, as a human beingyou have a problem and what I'm gonna do because you're a customer and I wanna make your

(01:09:57):
life better, I'm gonna help you solve the problem.
And that may or may not be in the environment we're currently in.
It could be in some other environment.
But my goal is to help you as a human solve a problem that you have.
We saw I was solving the problem and I did it so well that people started saying I wasstill in sales.
Literally they was saying to management, he's still in all of our sales.

(01:10:22):
And it wasn't that it was that I finally understood what sales was and I was able to do itbetter than them because I wasn't selling anybody anything.
I solving a problem.
But that helped me understand, holy smokes, if I can do this with furniture, let me gosell some houses that the furniture goes in.
So I went and got my real estate license.
In Alabama, I got my real estate license in Georgia.

(01:10:43):
I started selling houses.
I became a realtor.
That went from selling houses to where Lucius Sanford at Georgia Tech invited me to theHall of Fame dinner to see Keith Brookin, one of my teammates, inducted into the Hall of
Fame.
I asked to go there.
didn't have two pennies to rub together.
It was $50.
Lucius told me, okay, I know you don't have the $50, but come and work.

(01:11:06):
Work, host, help me.
and I'll waive the $50.
And he wanted to introduce me to a gentleman who worked for Brandon Goddard at the time,so I could move from residential into commercial.
And that is where I sat at a table, Jamal.
Ovington was at the table play baseball um at Tech at the same time.

(01:11:27):
He was sitting beside Ed Fielder Georgia Tech grad as well who ran track uh early in theyears.
Jamal told Ed about me.
Ed came around and Jamal told Ed about my career at Millikan because Jamal had heard aboutit.
Ed came around the table.
He sat with me.
He he had a position as a facility manager.
I knew nothing about facility management.
I knew plant engineering, Millikan.

(01:11:47):
Right.
And two weeks later I was hired.
And that literally took me from
not selling real estate anymore.
By the way, I was struggling selling real estate.
eh
you were selling real estate and what was this 2005 2006 right before the
Yeah, absolutely.
So it was the 2005 timeframe into 2006.

(01:12:10):
I started with Link Facility Services in 2006.
And again, it's just amazing what God does, right?
He knew the crash was coming.
I was trying to get hired, because I was selling real estate, but I wasn't selling a lot.
So I was like, okay, well, let me sell real estate and do my engineering work.

(01:12:32):
And I know like LG electronics in Madison, Alabama, they turned me down and he told me,listen, it's not that we don't think you can do it.
We think you're overqualified.
And because you're overqualified, you're a flight risk.
Exactly.
And I was like, come on, right?
I need a job.
want to whatever.
So I get higher.
And um what I did not know at the time is that my client was going to put the company out.

(01:12:58):
Okay.
Link facility services.
because we just were not performing the way we needed to perform.
So they hired me, they just threw something against the wall.
They say, let's just change the leadership and let's just see, let's bring in this kid,let's see what he can do.
And within six months we won an award oh and we went after the most improved plant, ohmechanical plant, and we won the best.

(01:13:20):
The next year we won the best over the most improved, which was us, had never been done inthe company's history.
We won...
the Customer Hall of Fame Award, and this is from a customer that was putting us out, thatwas gonna end the contract.
So all of a sudden, we went from last to first, and the customer, amazing customer, put meon a plane to Albuquerque, New Mexico, Carson, California, and Bethune, Boston, to

(01:13:49):
implement the same processes of continuous improvement that we were doing in Covington,Georgia.
And then the company said, you've done well here.
We need to take you over to Delta because we're having problems at Delta.
So we, um, I transferred from General Mills.
went over to Delta and at Delta within six months, senior vice president of, um, or vicepresident of corporate real estate gave a call to our president, Phil Rogers and said,

(01:14:19):
Hey, instead of us, uh, taking away your contract, we want to extend your contract.
There's been a lot of improvement that has happened.
And we want, you know, we're going to give you guys the opportunity to continue.
And that team at the airport put me into a position of the same gentleman recognizing thatthey need a leader at AATC and they had.

(01:14:41):
Atlanta, the Atlanta airlines terminal company.
And what is that?
So for any listeners who are in Atlanta, what is it?
AATC so people don't know about AATC because it's kind of in the shadows
Yeah, I mean, I'm a Delta girl.
I'm an Atlanta girl.
I didn't know about it until I saw that.
It's super cool, an amazing group of people, but that organization is responsible formaintaining all of the building operations facility management of the building.

(01:15:13):
So think about when you walk into the airport, everything that makes that airport kind ofwork, what you see, what you hear, what you smell, kind of runs through AATC.
Not 100 % of it, but AATC is responsible for the janitorial.
AATC is responsible for the clean services.
They're responsible for...
the MEP, the mechanical, the electrical plumbing.
So the HVAC lights, power coming into that airport comes through AATC with our partnershipwith Georgia Power.

(01:15:37):
um The escalators, the move of sidewalks, vertical transportation, AATC is responsible formaintaining all of that equipment.
um So all of the things that kind of make the airport work and function as a building,AATC is responsible for that.
So at the time that I was there, we had like 46 different contract partners.

(01:15:58):
that all helped me and partnered with me and my organization, or the organization that Iled, for our shareholders, which were the major airlines.
it.
Delta being the one that sat on the board of directors.
So essentially, I as president and CEO of AATC, I reported to the board of directors.
That came about with all of that huge responsibility.

(01:16:21):
And I just want listeners to realize we're going from Kofi sleeping in his car, workingfor a coach, taking showers in LA Fitness, to then being president and CEO of AATC.
My mom I love you mom.
Love you dad.
They were sending me money to keep gas in my car I was eating off the 99 cents menu atWendy's and McDonald's at the time because I just did not have enough money, right?

(01:16:47):
Right um And I was so fortunate and blessed for my mom and dad to hear me um Recently forthe Georgia Tech black alumni organization
So go ahead and say what your award was.
It was Entrepreneur of the Year, which I just received that honor this past March.

(01:17:08):
And my mom and dad were able to be in the audience.
My two sons, and Kyler, stood on stage with me to receive the award.
And it was a moment that I'll never forget.
Because I've been blessed to receive some awards.
And my mom and dad have been there to see some of these awards.
But this one was very different for me.
because my mom and dad was able to witness not only the output and the manifestation ofall their hard work, their sacrifice.

(01:17:37):
and what they gave up to produce this young man, but they were also able to see that withtheir two grandsons.
So they were able to see all that they have done for me that has helped create the goodpart of me, because it's a bunch of bad.
But all the good came from my mom and dad, and they were able to see their two sons'legacy, or their two grandsons staying on stage.

(01:17:59):
So listeners, I only mention that is because going from sleeping in a car,
showers at LA Fitness, even going further back, speech impediment, bully, low self-esteem,low self-confidence, all of that to get me to that award that I just won last March.
And going back to AATC, AATC was in a rough place when I came over there.

(01:18:23):
And uh incredible people, but they had some very, very challenged leadership.
So when I came in at this point, I had read Michael Watkins' book.
Yes, yeah.
realized, oh my God, this is what I've been doing.
I need to call Michael and say, man, I've been doing your concepts.
But now I've read his book, I came into AATC, and I interviewed every single person in thecompany, every single person, and be it a 30 minute to an hour, and I had people in front

(01:18:48):
of me crying.
And the basis of the interview is I want to know what the good, the bad, the ugly is aboutthis organization, and I want to hear from you what you want to see from me and what you
don't want to see from me.
So those five things, and then I told him who I was and my leadership.
love this.
like listeners, any of you who know about me and what I've been doing since January 27that Biolocity is exactly this.

(01:19:11):
And I know so many times that so to carry this on takes a lot of discipline because one ofthe things that I realized in doing this for the past couple of months with Biolocity is
that because it's not the norm.
for individuals coming in as leaders, right?
em It's the exception, although we wanna make it the norm.

(01:19:33):
So it's not the norm.
And so people were confused by it.
And I was just like, no, I'm doing, what I labeled it is customer discovery.
And all of these people are my customers.
And I want to learn all of this before I make any decisions.
And this is why, because then you can actually craft a vision and a path forward that isgonna include all of those customers.

(01:19:54):
And I think we forget
that all of these individuals are our customers.
Absolutely.
And again, going back to that, um all these individuals, they are our customers.
And if I'm Dr.
Smith, LLC, they're also my potential shareholders.
I have to create value in all of them.

(01:20:16):
I have to increase shareholder value.
So when I sat down with all these individuals and I asked them those five questions andtold them the six of who my leadership was, I told every single person,
that okay, this is who I am as a leader and what's most important about um me living as aleader is that when I die, story, president, or I wasn't even president, they brought me

(01:20:41):
over as vice president, by the way, uh because the board of directors, they were not, theythought I was a great uh person who had ran a department.
I ran a division, but I hadn't ran a company.
So they said, hey, we're going to bring him in.
going to test you out.
We're going to test you out.
So we're going bring him in as vice president um of facilities, which at that time wascalled Deputy Executive Director of Facilities.

(01:21:04):
Bring me in at that position.
They did.
And that's when I did all this interviewing.
So I told everybody at the interview, they told me all their stuff.
People are crying in front of me, things of that nature.
I said, OK, here's who I am as a leader.
Blah, blah, blah.
But when I die, I want to go to heaven and I want God to look at me and I want him to beable to say it wasn't about the profit, it wasn't about the money, it's how you treated

(01:21:30):
your people.
Well done, my good and faithful servant.
I told everybody that.
And that is what I've always stood on.
Not that I'm the best, because I have a whole bunch of problems, whole bunch of problems.
I'm going to see my therapist, okay?
So I have a whole bunch of problems.
I don't always make the best decisions.
A lot of that stems from insecurities and all that stuff that I've been trying to washaway all these years.

(01:21:54):
I am very intentional and I'm very purposeful about taking care of people.
So if there's anything that I'm good at that I'll put myself up against any bad-ass leaderis that I know how to take care of people and I'll take care of my people better than you
take care of yours, right?
Because I'll give everything I have to them.
And it's not about me, it's about them.
So what ended up happening is the board of directors came to me within six months andsaid, we're ready to promote you to CEO, which was at the time executive director of a

(01:22:20):
CEO.
And I said, well, I'm not ready.
This whole airport thing is
I know leadership, know people, I know business, but I don't know politics.
Give me three more months up under the interim guy who became my mentor and a good friend.
Give me three more months under him to learn from him.
So in nine months, I became the president and CEO of the organization.

(01:22:41):
You fast forward that story.
We ended up turning around that company and we were recognized as one of the best placesto work.
in 2015 with the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Fantastic.
I was very blessed to be one of the most admired CEOs for the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
I received the Trailblazer Award for the Atlanta Business League.

(01:23:02):
I received the Image Award for the 100 Black Men of North Georgia.
God just, 40 under 40 for Atlanta, 40 under 40 for the state of Georgia.
Graduated leadership Atlanta, leadership Georgia, the Regional Leadership Institute.
It was just an amazing journey.
and you take that president, CEO, all these wonderful acculades, all the things that I hadto overcome to get there, all the things that I still struggle with even while I was there

(01:23:29):
having all of this incredible, what I call light shining on me.
Even though I knew I was still dealing with some insecurities, imposter syndrome, I hadall this light.
And when the opportunity came for me to make the decision to step away, it was a decisionfor me at the time to go into entrepreneurship.

(01:23:50):
And I didn't believe I could do it.
I was very scared to do it.
But again, there was these moments that are stacking up.
Right, Resilience.
You building that resilience must...
and also building that resilience muscle but also
Each one of those times I passed a class, I knew that I was passing it because of God'sfavor.

(01:24:15):
So I knew every time I moved forward, I wasn't moving forward by myself.
And wherever he gives you vision, he will give you provision.
So I knew that, okay, if I'm gonna start this company, I don't believe I can do it.
I don't think I can do it, Lord, I'm scared to go out and start this company.
He will always send a messenger, right?
and Miss Mikeisha, who was at the airport with me, we were walking down the North Terminaland we had talked about the business, like starting a business, I think I started a

(01:24:43):
business, and I told her, I just don't believe I can do it, I don't believe I can do it.
I'm gonna lose my shine, which is such a, but it's a egotistical statement that.
like a surface thing.
think it ties into, you know, when, when we all I, I've heard a couple of people tell methey've never had imposter syndrome.

(01:25:10):
I global shit on that.
And I think that we all have it and we all have this moment, regardless of how successfulwe are, if we're going to make a transition that maybe in that transition, people might
realize we're not as amazing as they.
think we are, which is what I think is like losing the shine, right?
Is this fear, this vulnerable moment, I'm trying something new and I had that like takingthis by velocity job and everyone was like, are perfect.

(01:25:38):
Like everyone who saw the job description, they were like, you are perfect for this.
And you know what was going on in my head is.
what if I can't do it and then everyone who has so much respect for me at Georgia Tech andEmory, then they suddenly will lose.
That was my fear.
It was my fear of like, wait, I have all these people who are raving fans of mine that,and suddenly maybe they will lose it because I will fail in this new world.

(01:26:04):
Man, is real.
Just hearing you say that brings back the reality of what I was going through at thatmoment.
And when I said, just don't believe I can do it.
I don't know if I can build it.
I'm gonna leave this airport.
I love this airport.
I everything about this airport.
The security, all of the prestige.

(01:26:27):
Which I kind of wrap into this shine like and it was so crazy I would even allow that tocome out of my mouth But I did and and a lot of times and everybody knows this who's
listening even if you don't try to especially for me and We set our identity to our jobsand having a job as president CEO again.
Remember who I was So now I this right, you know

(01:26:49):
salesperson who was sleeping in their car.
Nations taking out trash like my car and now I'm president CEO and I have been for tenyears and all these things that God has given me and I'm gonna walk away from that I'm
gonna walk away from that shine and miss Mikeisha said basically in that discussion shesaid you can't do it, but we can and when she said we can

(01:27:13):
The power of the word we, right?
we can go, we can go faster alone.
We can go farther with others.
with others.
Yeah, I will say that I was singing, I was on a long walk earlier today and I waslistening to the podcast with Daniel Steer, who you have to meet.
He's a future guest and he has a podcast, Make Work Not Suck, with his co-host, totallyamazing.

(01:27:40):
He was recommended by episode one, Scott Wozniak.
And I was listening to it it was all about, uh
This one I was listening to was about recruiting and about salaries and stuff like that.
And I was thinking about this moment of Katie on our team.
So Katie and I are a team of two.
Katie is employee number two.
And also like the reality is that Katie is very much underpaid right now because we justwere new, right?

(01:28:06):
We were an entrepreneur.
you know, we're not making, we're not making money right now.
We're spending a lot of money to try and empower the world.
And we just hope that the moment will come.
that if we continue to do this, we will get the right opportunities to coach the rightpeople and build the best brand.
And we're building this together.
And I was thinking that the power in that is that what makes the Badass Leaders podcastand what makes the A-Gen group so amazing is not me because my name's on it.

(01:28:35):
It's the we.
is, is Katie is in the...
behind the scenes, but also taking care of every single person.
And that magic of having that other person on your team and knowing you're not goingalone, that you're going with someone you trust, who is aligned with your values, who's
aligned with your purpose, and wants to make a bigger impact in the world, like, howpowerful is that?

(01:28:59):
so powerful, because as soon as she said it, I knew that we could do it.
I knew that I wasn't traveling in this business alone.
I was traveling with somebody.
And the other thing that she said was when I said, you know, I'm gonna lose my shine, shesaid, you're gonna shine brighter.
And how amazing is it that I truly believe that I would lose my shine, and I've probablydone more speaking events and things

(01:29:28):
like this oh in four years of being with Keystone than I did the entire 10 years of beingwith AATC.
The other very important part about that is, and I always share this, so I have to shareit, is that I had an amazing business partner who, like you, saw so much in me.
And he believed in me.
I was like, I don't know what he sees.

(01:29:50):
I don't know what he sees, but I will not let him down.
And I told him.
I just sent him a text message the other day.
said, remember what I told you when we were in your office in Atlanta?
that all I wanna do is make you proud.
And this is four and a half years into the future, and that's my focus, is making himproud.
And then very thankfully, um another major blessing in my life, is that my spiritualadvisor told me, Dr.

(01:30:13):
Smith, God told me he has a package to deliver for you, and you're at the wrong address.
You have to move and change addresses to receive the package that God has for you.
And what he was saying is that I had to leave the comfort of AATC and I had to step intothis great unknown and uncertainty and put all of my trust in him.

(01:30:37):
And there was a package that he was gonna be delivering.
And you take that, I don't even think I've seen the full package.
I think I've just been able to see pieces of the package.
I think it's just starting for you.
know, when I started the hashtag be brave be badass about 14 years ago, the reason, whatyou're saying to me resonates with us because the reason is, is it was back when I first
started doing triathlons and people would say to me, I could never do that.

(01:31:01):
And I was suddenly like, wait.
um
Each of us has our own personal badass.
And this is a foundation of the Agen Group, is that we believe that every individual teamand company has their own badass.
And what that is, is that's the absolute best they can be.
And it's the absolute best they can be today, each day.

(01:31:21):
So our badass can change over time, but it's the absolute best that you can be that day.
And what I believe is that so many of us are not brave enough to step out into the wild,into that comfort zone.
to reach that.
And what I'm hearing from your story is that when that spiritual advisor was saying thisto you, he was saying, hey, Kofi, am I pronouncing that right?

(01:31:43):
Kofi?
Yeah.
Because when you said it the other way, I was just like, wait.
So, but he was just like, hey, Kofi, when uh this is not, there is a bad-ass package foryou.
And in order for you to reach that level of bad-ass, you're gonna have to be brave enough.
to maybe relocate some things around and step outside of that.

(01:32:04):
And that takes a certain amount of, A, it takes resilience from the past, right?
Because when we have resilience from the past, then we can look back and say, okay, I'vedone hard things before.
do hard things again.
It also takes having that boardroom, you know, your A-team and all those people becauseyou can suddenly say, okay, if I screw up, I have people to reach out to.

(01:32:25):
And then it takes your confidence in whatever your spiritual nature is to say when it'sall said and done, if what I've done for my legacy has made the world a better place, I've
won.
Amen.
you know, along with that, what you just mentioned, what I forgot to say, because we talkabout the legacy, is that when you have somebody that's willing,

(01:32:51):
to leave with you, right, who is willing to go and talk to their husband and make surefrom a family structure with her husband and her little girl, is this what we want to do?
There's a huge amount that I shoulder.
Because now it's not just me letting down my wife and my little baby that's at the house.

(01:33:15):
It's me now.
saying, my God, and by the way, I said my little baby is because um at the time we had asix year old, one year old.
So I had a young family.
Now I'm about to step out and I'm going to do this entrepreneur thing.
Well, it's one thing for me to say, okay, I got my family, but now I got someone else'sfamily.

(01:33:36):
And it was just her and I that were stepping out.
So that support of my spiritual advisor, the support of my business partner believing inme and the fact that Ms.
Mikeisha believed in me.
What I tell people, sometimes I hear a lot of entrepreneurs, I mean, I'm sorry, I hear alot of motivational speakers that talk about, um and they,

(01:33:56):
And I understand why they say it is that you have to believe in yourself.
You have to believe in yourself.
You have to believe in yourself.
And that sounds really good.
But there's a lot of people who don't believe in themselves.
There's a lot of people that don't.
a lot of times, everyday, right?
So there's going to be ebbs and flows with that.
So one of the things that I learned in that experience is that if you have the rightpeople around you,

(01:34:22):
then you can believe in them more than you believe in yourself.
And that will create movement.
They gotta be the right people.
They have to be people that you trust, right?
And if you trust them more than you're trusting yourself at that time, then you moveforward.
And that was...
how I was able to move.
the way, at AATC, I mentioned to everybody that when I started at Millican, I was feedingpeople.

(01:34:47):
At AATC, I was president and CEO.
I would come in on third shift and I would feed donuts.
Yes.
my third shift.
Where are my donuts in orange juice?
I'm just asking for a friend.
I know, I got you next time.
So it was great and I must say at that time as well, having this team around you thatbelieve in you, but then also having that support team and that infrastructure that is

(01:35:15):
there that will allow you to go and do it without my wife being the amazing mom that sheis and being able to say,
Go build, I got the boys.
m
part of the team.
And I think that's what oftentimes we forget is that when we go to do brave things, um

(01:35:39):
If we've spent the time to cultivate relationships authentically with people, then we havea much bigger team than we think we have.
And when we empower those team members and we show gratitude to those team members, and wealso allow those team members to serve us, know, allow your wife to say, yes, I'm going to

(01:36:01):
do this and I'm going to because I'm feeding into the mission.
She's a part of the team just as much.
The kids are as part of the team just as much as what, you know,
And I think sometimes we draw these corporate structures that are archaic.
And instead, it's like, wow, the people that are making this successful are all of theseindividuals, because they're all playing their unique part of being able to add the beauty

(01:36:25):
to what it is.
everybody has a role.
Yes.
And when I chose my role or I surrendered to my role as a special teams player and becauseof that I wasn't a starter no more.
I'm third string.
I'm going to go to NFL being on third string.
Not even gonna have a shot.

(01:36:45):
I end up having a shot.
But that surrendering into the role and then blooming where you're planted.
Exactly.
That is where the magic happens that is where the magic happens um By the way one thing Ididn't mention with that whole football thing.
Yes.
I got that school record Yes, we end up beating Georgia and between the hedges.

(01:37:08):
We also
uh Yes, we beat Georgia between the hedges and we ripped out the hedges.
I would emphasize that as well.
uh Carried the hedges off with us.
um
You don't still have the plant from the head.
See, that's the plant you need.
amazing?

(01:37:29):
So uh it's so funny you said that because when we beat Virginia and we tore down thegoalposts.
um
athletic director at the time, Brain, he had the goal post cut up for us.
We all got a piece of the goal post.
I have it on my bookshelf at my home remembering that amazing win against Virginia.
But what happened at the end of that season, Special teams player, right?

(01:37:53):
Got a record, great, had some good wins, great, 10 and two season, fantastic.
But my team members and the coaches voted me as a permanent team captain.
on special teams.
And typically you got your offensive team captain, permanent team captain, defensivepermanent team captain.

(01:38:16):
And I walked out with that and I had no idea.
I no idea.
I still remember the moment to the statement Coach O'Leary asked me to come up.
So all of that resilience, right?
And just leaning in and accepting and understanding and surrendering.
This is the role that I must play for the team.
Yep.
I'm going to play this role the best that I can.

(01:38:39):
Okay, so I had this thing and I learned it when I was very young and I remember one day,and I'm trying to think of what circa this was.
This is probably, I don't know, 97, something like that.
And I remember going into an Office Depot or Office Max, one of those, and...

(01:39:00):
It may have been 2000s, does not matter.
The point being is that the person who was working with me, was overhearing him talk tosomeone else and he was basically saying, well, that he wasn't going to step up until he
got the next position.
And I heard that and I said to him, you know,
My philosophy in life is that whatever role you have, you should be the best damn includethe, right?

(01:39:25):
And so if you're bussing tables at McDonald's, you should be the best bus person on theplanet.
If you're every, and I believe this to my core, is that if you focus on doing your bestjob in the role you're currently in,
then so many gifts and so many things are going to come to you because of that.

(01:39:46):
It's when we think we're going to hold out our best for a future opportunity, which somany people do, right?
Is there like, I'll I'll step it up a notch when I get this or I'll do this when I getthis.
No, no.
Do it today.
Yeah.
To the absolute best.
So I do want to also make a comment that I think we should.

(01:40:06):
We, Kofi and I are not saying you should tear down goalposts, although
Last year when we beat Miami and the goalposts were coming down I was in the College ofEngineering suite and some of my other board members were in there and he was just like
Angela do you think we should go down on the field?
And I was like yes, he was just like well what if we get in trouble you know and likestorming the field and I was like

(01:40:31):
seriously, we donate to the university.
What are they going to do to us?
Right?
Right.
And so we went down and you know, Angel was recently saying he's still a little sore aboutthis.
But I think it's also this memory that we should always give our best.
And then when we do, we should also pause to enjoy the celebration of the best that wewere able to be a part of.

(01:40:54):
I would love to just layer on to the comment about the young man that you heard Makingmaking that statement and so many people do yes, they want to hold out and you know I'll
do this win and a layer of that Do the best right bloom where you're planted right right,but also perform now in the role that you want to have yes, so I want to be

(01:41:23):
vice president and I'm a managing director right well then operate as a vice presidentdoes even though you don't have the role yet yeah because when you start operating and
performing in the position that you want then the position will come and hunt you downexactly
Because no one's going to have a doubt of whether or not you can carry that out, right?

(01:41:45):
Start doing it now.
Yeah, when I was building Florence along with Ryan Jones and Andreas Garcia, that was oneof our big mottos is that we really, one, we worked to pay fair wages and we worked to
always actually give additional money to employees when the rates went up and stuff sothey weren't incurring, they didn't want to go somewhere else.

(01:42:08):
We worked to grow them and at the same point,
is that when they wanted their next promotion, we said to them, okay, we need to see youworking at that capacity.
And some leaders may hear me say that in cringe, but it was really this opportunity for acouple of things.
From my perspective, it was also an opportunity for them to kind of test out the watersthemselves to see if they even wanted that knee roll.

(01:42:31):
Because sometimes you try something and you don't want it, right?
But it was also the opportunity for it to be an obvious decision to...
to promote that one.
OK, so we have a couple of rapid fire questions for you that I want your wisdom on.
one is now that in Keystone Management and also maybe in your previous examples, becauseyou're a human first and a people first person, just like we are, can you give an example

(01:42:58):
of a time when you fired a customer?
And what was kind of the story behind it and what was the outcome of it?
So there was in Keystone.
So at Keystone we
tell us what Keystone is because we've like done all your history but not your currentamazing work.

(01:43:22):
Keystone Management is a facility management company, a construction management company, aprogram management and a property management company.
Most of our, the majority of our revenues are driven from the facility management side ofthe house.
We started during COVID and incorporated in 2020.

(01:43:42):
Operations got running February of 2021 and we've been very, very blessed.
has shown favor on us where we grew from just Miss Mikeisha and I.
just two of us, and we were doing everything.
mean, she was washing towels that we were using for cleanups at her home.
So we were everything that entrepreneurs.

(01:44:05):
We were HR, we were accountants, we were everything.
We were everything.
And to be very, very clear, it is very hard.
It is very hard.
It is very hard.
And as I mentioned earlier, is that...
uh
Easy doesn't pay well, Hard does.
So it's been very, very hard.

(01:44:27):
It's been very, very fulfilling.
And in four and a half years, October will be five years of incorporation.
We've grown from just us two to where we're 89 people.
we're in five cities.
We're in five states of operations.
And we're very blessed.
have amazing customers.
And we have big customers and big clients.

(01:44:49):
But there was a time in AATC where growth as you start is everything.
You just got to get that first contract.
You to that second contract.
You got to continue to live.
it's that eat.
I mean, it's that hunt, kill, eat mentality.
And for your listeners, I'll be uh very transparent because I told you that God has showna lot of favor on us and we have done as much as we can do.

(01:45:18):
But I would be remiss if I did not tell you the first part of our journey felt more likeGod door dashing food to our front door.
And then many times it was food that, we maybe had to prepare, but he brought it.
And many times it came and we just get to eat.
And during those times, you're still focused on, we gotta get a

(01:45:42):
We got to get this next contract.
got to you know, our contracts are three to five years So you got to continue to feed thebeast in this one instance.
We had an opportunity a client uh They we done a little bit of work for and they wereready to move us to a position of doing a lot of work Okay And in that instance, I really
wanted us to do it.
All right, because i'm trying to i'm trying to get whatever we can

(01:46:05):
Right, right, exactly.
Because you're also like, I need to, a good leader from an organization is, I I thinkabout this a lot with Katie, right?
I'm thinking about how can I figure out how to bring money in?
Because it's not me.
want to keep her in her role.
want to do that.
And I think that's what a good leader is doing, is they're focused on how can we continueto do these things.

(01:46:26):
And so it can be hard because you can take jobs and opportunities that you should probablysay no to.
Exactly.
So in this instance, in this instance, we had already done a little bit of work and thatwas a lot of big work that was coming.
And I was like, we got to take this.
And Miss Mikeisha in her wisdom, she said, so I was walking, you know, I teach at GeorgiaTech and I was walking to my class and she called and she said, Hey, have you gotten to

(01:46:50):
class yet?
I said, no, I haven't gotten to class yet.
She said, okay, well, I just want to tell you, I don't want to disrupt your class.
want you to have a fantastic class.
Okay.
But we're not taking that business.
said, what do you mean we're not taking that business?
Wait, what?
She's like, I've already told him no, we're not doing it.
It does not fit who we are right now.
And we got to make sure that our people that we currently have are taken care of before wetry to expand into this bigger um opportunity.

(01:47:17):
And she said, I told him no.
And I was like, well, I trust you.
I trust you.
So I'm going go teach now.
But how much does that say about you as a leader?
Is that she felt confident enough, she felt empowered enough.
She felt empowered enough to be able to make an executive decision that was in the bestinterest of the whole company.

(01:47:41):
And then you reacted in a way that was just like, okay, I think you're probably in yourhead saying, okay, I'm gonna go to the bathroom and puke right now.
And then I'm gonna go teach this class.
It's funny because I actually told my students then about it because my class wasleadership and communication and I was able to come with this fresh example of what

(01:48:02):
leadership is both on with her and what she did.
And then the way that I reacted in knowing that you give trust and you give power andownership to your people.
and they will take that and they will do the right things.
So that was a time that we said no to a customer uh when they were saying we're giving youthe work.

(01:48:31):
And we said thanks but no thanks.
I love that.
love that.
Okay.
Rapid fire two.
I said this to you earlier, I love conflict.
And actually, love when I say I love conflict, people look at me like I'm an alien, whatis it?
But I have lots of reasons, listeners, can listen to previous episodes.

(01:48:55):
I was severely abused as a child and I wasn't able to speak up.
And so then when I finally learned my voice, I learned really the power of if uh you cancreate a safe environment for people to have conflict,
turn it into cohesion and you can turn it into something amazing.
And I really want to write a book on this because I just think the world is a better placeif you have more of us who are really good at conflict resolution helping the rest of the

(01:49:22):
world improve in this.
So I want to understand from you, what is your methodology for conflict resolution?
How do you handle it?
I can't wait for you to write your book.
I love that notion of from conflict to cohesion.
I love that.
And to answer your question, you know, I am not, honestly, I'm not the best person atconflict, right?

(01:49:46):
I'm an introvert and I'm a people lover.
So one of my Achilles heel that I had to learn over time, Steve Alford, he told me thevery first time when he was doing my review, I sat there and cried in front of him because
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
I thought I had done a great job.
First year in, um
But a part of my Achilles heel that stayed with me a long time is that I always try tomake everybody happy.

(01:50:07):
And you cannot do that.
You cannot do that.
So I'm not really good at conflict, but I have to deal with it, right?
I have to deal with it.
And what I've learned over time is that when there's a conflict that exists, then you needto make it about the conflict and not the person.

(01:50:30):
Yes.
Right.
So let's talk about the issue and let's not talk about each other Yeah, because this issomething that has happened or this is something that's going on Let's talk about that and
if you can hone in your focus on that while also Helping the other person understand thatyou're validating what they feel or what they think about Whatever the situation is if

(01:50:55):
you're able to do that.
Keep it focused on the issue
make sure that they understand that you're leaning in and that you hear them and thatyou're validating what they're saying and what their feeling is, then you're in a better
position to get to a solution.
But if one of those two pieces are not there, if we're not focused on the issue and we'refocused on each other, there's gonna be a debate and there's gonna be a fight because both

(01:51:20):
of us are gonna start taking sides and we're gonna come very defensive.
And this is for relationships, this is for corporate.
In corporate, obviously, I can't run away from conflict.
So with my clients, that's the trickiest one, is that your client is telling you thatyou're doing something or your people are doing something that they're not doing, or your

(01:51:41):
client who has the power and the check and the pen is accusing you of doing X, Y, and Z.
Well, now it's personal, right?
Because you're attacking my company, which means you're attacking me.
But how do I stay in that frame of mind of not making it?
Personal but putting it back on the issue and then leaning in to the customer and theclient to make sure that I'm in your shoes And I'm having empathy emotional intelligence

(01:52:07):
to say yes, I understand what you're feeling I would feel that way too If that wasn't thethe fact so let's talk about these facts, right?
But that's the best way because again, I'm a lover of people so I don't want to hurtanybody I don't I don't even like arguing quite honestly.
I mean, I don't even really argue well
And I say I don't argue well because I'm not good at it.

(01:52:30):
And when I'm not good at something, I tend to take a lot and then I end up becoming thatoven.
So I heat up very slowly, right?
But when I hit 450, ding, and now I'm hot, right?
I am hot, I'm irrational, and I am blazing hot.

(01:52:53):
And because I'm an oven.
Can picture that?
I am blazing hot and because I'm an oven I take a long time to cool down.
So there's microwaves out there, they heat up fast and they cool down fast.
They move on to the next thing.
But while you're microwaving me, I'm slowly heating up and then ding, I'm 450.

(01:53:14):
And I don't do that well.
I don't do that well.
So I've tried to work in my professional life and my personal life on understanding how toresolve.
and those two things that I've mentioned, is keep it about the issue.
Don't make it about the person, don't make it about the people.
And then lean in to the person and validate and understand what they're trying tocommunicate.

(01:53:36):
Hear behind what they're saying, right?
Hear behind what they're saying, because all of us in conflict, our brains don't work fastenough to truly articulate what our feelings are, because we're in conflict.
So if you can't pause,
and be able to articulate, which is very hard for you to do, uh you've got to havesomebody that's in conflict with you to understand that that dynamic is happening, and I

(01:54:02):
need to hear behind what you're not saying.
And I love the focus on the human because when I do coaching, one of my favorite things todo is to come into teams and do coaching and talk about conflict resolution and talk about
this because uh the reality is is that sometimes your best partnerships with yourcustomers are ones that you've successfully navigated conflict with.

(01:54:29):
man.
And I can think of this one customer that we had at Florence and they just, they thoughtwe were their only customer and they just wanted us develop all this code and all this
stuff for them.
you know, sales was coming to me like, don't piss them off, don't scare them away.
And I was just like, whoa, wait.

(01:54:50):
once again, everything we say yes to means we're saying no to something else.
And so I had a very, and I think when we look at conflict as there are humans involved,and really it's the need for transparency, and then taking a step back and kind of
understanding the hierarchy of needs for different, then that's how we can get cohesion,right?

(01:55:11):
And so to this particular customer, I knew.
They were very vested in us being as secure, robust as the software solutions we possiblycould be.
And so I transparently said to them in a meeting, look, we can't do all of these thingsthat you want.
Maybe somebody else can tell you they can, and if so, go ahead and go with them.

(01:55:34):
But I'm to be honest with you and tell you, this is what we can do right now.
And I will be transparent with you along the journey.
And if we have the opportunity to speed up, we will.
And if we don't, we won't.
Because our ultimate goal
is to make sure you pass every FDA inspection that you have and that you are successful inall these ways.
And the only way I can ensure your success is by slowing down some of these things that wewant and saying no to some of these so that we can excel on the ones that are really gonna

(01:56:02):
set you up for success.
And it was amazing.
They ended up being our best customer.
They were our raving fans.
They loved us.
And really all it took was me being transparent and kind of saying, this is the reality.
This is not you versus me or anything, but I want you to be successful.
And I'm going to kind of save you from yourself.
I love it.
Which is what I think we have to do with customers, right?

(01:56:24):
They expect us to do that, right?
You're the subject matter expert.
Not them.
As a customer, don't want to have, and the beauty of me being at the airport and being infacilities before I got to the airport, I was on the side as the vendor.
Then I stepped into the airport and now I'm the customer.
So now I'm the customer and I know what quality service is all about because I used togive it.

(01:56:52):
Now I step out from being the customer and I step into Keystone.
Now I know what the customer needs because I used to be you.
So a lot of times as a customer, we don't know what we don't know.
And quite honestly, we ain't got time to think about it.
That's why we're hiring you.
Be my subject matter expert, save me from myself, help me answer questions that I don'teven know that I should be asking.

(01:57:17):
And when you can do that, as you did, you build trust.
And what I've talked to my company about,
all the time, speed of communication, speed of action will get us to speed of trust withour customers.
It's amazing.
it?
Yeah, yeah, okay.
I figured so.
Okay, uh next round, manager versus leader.
How would you define the difference between a manager and a leader?

(01:57:39):
What I mentioned earlier, I believe that um a leader is always in the front pulling theorganization, right?
As opposed to being in the back and having the organization pull him or her.
Managers, and we've all heard this, managers manage processes, they manage systems, theymanage outcomes, and they're looking for execution.

(01:58:02):
Leaders are making sure that the execution that we need, the processes that we need towork.
that is all people and I gotta make sure that the people are good.
So as it pertains to servant leadership, Servant leadership is all about service, right?
It's so, there's all these beautiful books, Simon Sinek, Your Why, and there's so manybooks that are written on it.

(01:58:30):
It is hard, but it's simple.
It's just not simple or easy to do, but it's very simple.
do it though I will tell you this so many of the times that and I tie this back to the theconflict piece is that
We can be really afraid of it, but then after we do it, it's kind of like, wait, themonster didn't eat me.

(01:58:53):
Like I didn't die.
Right.
It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was.
so focusing on, and one of the, I mean, one of the big reasons for this podcast is to helplisteners hear stories like ours and say, you know what, if Kofi can do it.
I mean, if the...
the Southern boy from Florence, Alabama, right?

(01:59:17):
Can do it.
And that's what we want.
We want people to say, wait, if Angela can do it, she grew up in small town Griffin, youknow, uh if we can do it, they can too.
And we can help them get there.
And I think that is when you talk about, when we talk about manager versus leader, I lovewhat you said about managers focus on processes and precision, that kind of stuff.

(01:59:39):
Leaders focus on people.
I said managers are processes, they're procedures, right?
And leaders are people.
Leaders are focused on people.
And if you do that well, and again, anybody, I've sat on stage, I've talked to 300business leaders in Atlanta, and my whole...

(02:00:01):
Communication to them is that I know it's hard and some of you that are so Profit drivenif you would just believe what I'm saying Yeah, but it but even if you're not people
driven and your outcome is like, know, I don't believe all that stuff That's just not whoI am.
I'm about making this bottom line this top line.

(02:00:24):
I'm about making the money I said guess what?
My solution in ideology works for you too.
So even if you don't believe in it, that you should be putting people first, if you justtrust me and you put people first, you're gonna get all the profit.
You're gonna get all the revenue.
Show you the money, right?

(02:00:44):
I will show you the money.
And again, Ms.
Mikeisha and I came over to Keystone, was just two of us.
And within four and a half years, we're teetering on 90.
That's amazing.
I'm so proud of you.
And it's because everybody that bumps into us or that is within our orbit, they are apotential shareholder.

(02:01:07):
We must increase their value.
We must take care of people.
Our clients are people.
Our people are people.
Our partners are people.
We just need to take care of them.
are people.
Yeah, we ourselves are people.
Okay, so how would you finish this sentence?
A badass leader is someone who what?

(02:01:30):
What is your definition of a badass leader?
never quits, keeps moving, keeps moving.
There is so many things that, and this thing is hard, it's hard.
When you start chasing your dream, right, if you wanna do anything that's great, you'regonna meet great resistance.
It's just the way it is.
There's nothing that is worth having that's gonna be given to you.

(02:01:54):
I mean, God just didn't create the world that way, right?
um There's no honor, there's no glory in being handed.
um
something.
So what I've learned from those who are most successful, mean, and they're, however youdefine success, so it can be Dr.
Martin Luther King, can be Mother Teresa, it can be uh Jeff Bezos, it can be Oprah, it canbe LeBron James Michael Jordan.

(02:02:19):
Well, however you define success, these people were
be the single mom who has just put four kids through college.
Absolutely, it can be the guy who his whole dream was to grow up and be a mechanic and heis now doing that work.
Exactly.
And he's a master mechanic.
So whatever your pursuit, whatever your goal is, the pursuit of that goal is success,whatever your definition of success is.

(02:02:49):
But in the pursuit of that, no matter what it is, whatever the is is,
It is going to be very, very hard.
And we all hit these moments.
We hit these barriers.
hit these, uh Steve Harvey called it turn back moments.
We all hit these walls.
And the ones who are most successful, they keep moving.

(02:03:11):
And it is the hardest thing.
And that's why they are the most successful.
Because it's very hard if your spouse turns against you.
It's very hard if...
Mom and dad turns against you.
It's very hard if your business partner betrays you.
It's very hard if your clients drop you.
It's very hard.
get laid off.

(02:03:33):
It's very hard um if you yourself do something, right?
And you uh self-inflict some pain.
That's the worst pain, by the way.
It's very hard.
But the most successful people
What they figured out, somehow, someway, is they take the next step.

(02:03:57):
They take the next step.
And it's painful, you're in tears.
I was crying in my office on a Saturday.
We were one year into the business and I did not have $120,000 to make payroll.
And I didn't know where I was gonna get it.
I had exhausted resources.
I didn't know how to do it.
And I'm in my office and I'm crying.
Nobody in the company knows it.

(02:04:17):
Ms.
Makisha didn't know it.
I didn't wait.
I told her like a year later.
Right, right.
Because I certainly didn't want to be worried, but um it's hard.
And when you have to ask people for money, that's hard.
That's hard.
should be vulnerable and think all the stories we tell ourselves in our head, right?
When you have to ask people for forgiveness, that's hard.

(02:04:41):
So this pursuit is very, very hard.
But a bad-ass leader, what they know is that I'm going to take the next step.
I don't care how hard it gets, because I have to move forward.
I have to move forward.
And it may be a leap forward, it may be a step forward.
I might crawl forward, but I am going to move forward.

(02:05:02):
That's powerful.
you know, that's why I have this in my background.
It's supposed to be hard.
If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it.
Hard is what makes it great.
And I created this sign about 12 years ago or so.
And it just, keep these things around.
I have a tattoo that says perseverance in the storm.
I have another tattoo that says fall down eight or fall down seven, get up eight.

(02:05:24):
And it is that reminder that, hey, you know what?
When it's super hard, just...
as as was it Dory this is just keep swimming.
I'm dying to know what your favorite motivational quote is because you know that's arequirement this podcast what is
It kind of filters into everything that we've talked about um and it's two quotes kind ofcombined and I've mentioned it earlier Easy doesn't pay well hard does everything is hard.

(02:05:55):
So choose your heart Everything is hard, right?
Everything is hard.
Everything Choose your heart, right?
I could have stayed at AATC and it was hard
Right?
AATC was hard.
It was very rewarding and it was very fulfilling.
But there were some hard times at AATC.

(02:06:17):
I could have chose that hard.
Being an entrepreneur, starting your own business, it is hard.
It is hard.
Choose your heart.
And I chose this and it chose me and I'm not letting go of it.
Right?
I'm not letting go of it.
So I would tell people easy doesn't pay well.

(02:06:37):
We always want to go the easy route, right?
Easy does not pay well.
It never does.
Hard pays, but hard is hard.
Everything is hard.
When you talk to me or someone comes and says, it's going to be hard, I'm like, everythingis hard.
Of course it's going to be hard.
Anything worth having is hard to pursue and hard to capture, right?
Choose your heart and go after it.

(02:06:59):
Last point I'll tell you is in that heart, it is very important, as we've talked about.
because it's hard, you gotta have a team around you.
You gotta have a core around you.
If I did not have all those people I've mentioned earlier, if I didn't have my spiritualadvisor that when it gets hard and I get low, I can't call him and talk to him.

(02:07:21):
If I didn't have my therapist that I could reach out to and say help me think throughthis.
If I didn't have Ms.
Mikeisha that's in the trenches with me and...
saying that no matter what, we're gonna get through this, right?
If I didn't have my business partner standing behind me saying, you'll figure it out,here's some information to help you, I believe in you, go back out there and get it done.

(02:07:43):
If I didn't have my wife that was at home being the most incredible mother to our twochildren, ah
There's no way I could do this because I would always be thinking about my kiddos, right?
And I just wouldn't have the mental capacity to focus on all of this over here if I didn'tknow that they were safe and that they were being protected and they were being nourished

(02:08:05):
and that they were being groomed to grow up to be two amazing men.
But that's what my wife offers.
So now I'm able to get into this jungle and say, all right, let me roll up my sleeves.
And when the blows come, I'm going to take the blows, but I don't
have to be concerned about my two little boys, my wife got them, right?

(02:08:27):
I don't have to be concerned about.
um these other issues because I have a core group of people around me that the issues aregoing to come.
Rest assured, they are going to come.
And when I say you don't have to worry about them, it's that you don't have to give in tothem because you have a core that's gonna support you.
You're not alone.

(02:08:47):
And again, a lot of motivational speakers, and I hear them and I follow a lot of them, Ilisten to a lot of them on pep talk, but this whole notion of you don't need anybody, all
you need is yourself is crazy.
Yeah, I just think that is insane.
I think it's not true.
And I love the conversation of it being hard.

(02:09:08):
I remember when I was getting a divorce from my daughter's dad and going to school as a 29year old single mom.
And he said to me, you will never be able to.
And you know what?
It was hard and it was the best decision I ever made.
So now I think when someone tells me something that I want to do when I've chosen to dosomething and they say, you know,

(02:09:29):
and it's gonna be hard, all I think is game freaking on.
Give it to me.
Show it to me, game freaking on.
Because you know what?
I'm gonna do the absolute best I can.
I'm gonna bring in my troops and we're gonna collaborate.
And you know what?
If it doesn't work out, we learned a lot of resilient lessons and we're gonna say gamefreaking on to the next opportunity.

(02:09:52):
you know what's so amazing about that is that once you build that mentality, you end upsaying yes.
Yes.
You end up saying yes, right?
Instead of saying no to opportunities that could create an amazing life for you, yourfamily, or your community, you say, or people say no because of X, Y, and Z.

(02:10:12):
Right.
Once you understand that everything is hard,
It's now about choosing your heart.
And once you get into that mindset of bring it on, right?
Cause I'm not scared of it.
You just say, yes, my clients ask for something.
Yes.
My clients can you, yes.
Can you do this?
Yes.
Are you okay?
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Give it to me, right?

(02:10:33):
Give it to me.
Cause I will not stop until I succeed and I will not let you down.
So give it to me and I'll figure it out.
love this, love this.
Okay, so tell the listeners how they can find you and learn more about you.
We will include your links in the show notes, but tell them a little bit about where theycan find Kofi.
So I need to do a much better job of posting on LinkedIn.

(02:10:54):
But that is the best place to find me is Dr.
Kofi Smith on LinkedIn.
oh My handle on Instagram, which I must do a better job of posting on Instagram is Dr.
KK Smith on Instagram.
So that's where the listeners can find me, follow me.
I promise you listeners, I'll do a much better job of putting posts out there.

(02:11:17):
But apparently I'm doing an OK.
Because it got me on this badass leadership, badass leader podcast.
I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for this.
Thank you for bringing the badass to this episode.
I am like so grateful for sure.
Thanks for joining me for today's episode of the Badass Leaders podcast.

(02:11:41):
To hear more interviews with industry experts and learn how to grow your career andleadership potential, be sure to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to ensure you
do not miss future episodes.
This podcast is a production of the AGN Group.
To learn more about the AGN Group, visit our website at theagngroup.com.

(02:12:04):
There you can discover
more about our services which include hosting workshops, management consulting, brandstrategy, keynote speaking, and more.
Follow us on all social media channels shown on the screen and displayed in the shownotes.
And until next week, be brave and be badass.

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