March 25, 2024 • 56 mins
Welcome to another insightful episode of Uncle Dad Talks, where we sit down with Marcus Strother, the President and CEO of Mentor California. Dedicate this hour to understanding the essential role of mentorship in shaping all aspects of an individual's life, from instilling resilience to fostering talent and personal growth.
Engage in a heartwarming discussion about mentorship's transformative power, underscored by personal experiences of our hosts, Uncle Dad and Mike, as well as our special guest, Marcus Strother. Unpack his journey with Mentor California, an organization dedicated to enhancing mentoring across the state. Marcus's unique narrative marries his passion for music, education, and community service – a life path significantly affected by an impactful mentor from his eighth-grade.
In the course of the conversation, gain invaluable insights into the initiatives designed to positively influence life trajectories, especially for young people navigating through challenging situations. Listen to an acute evaluation of the education system, the necessity of incorporating love and listening in mentoring relationships, and the ideal way to foster a holistic learning environment that goes beyond performance indicators.
Appreciate the paramount importance of self-care in maintaining a high level of performance and explore various ways to incorporate it into daily routines. As we surmise, this episode encourages you to embody the spirit of lifelong mentorship - a journey to enduring relationships and enhanced human development.
Further in the discussion, Marcus's affinity to Sacramento, his family's undying support for the Chicago Bulls, and his work with NBA teams offer an interesting backdrop set against their work at Mentor California. Through high-profile partnerships and community outreach teams, engaging in initiatives such as the Mentoring Girls of Color Restoration Retreat, Marcus's experiences have served to reinforce the belief in the colossal potential of mentorship programs. As we sign off, we encourage more people to step into mentors' shoes and shape the future.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram: @UncleDadTalks
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Uncle Dad Talks.
I'm Uncle Dad and with me as always is ultimately the most handsomest, bestest looking,
and honestly, the damndest, goodest mentor I could ever ask for.
Even enough for just Mike.
Well, if all my accolades could sound like they do coming from you,
(00:23):
I would be, I don't know, I'd probably be a millionaire or something,
I don't know. You would be a celebrity.
Then I would be a celebrity, yes. Yes, that's what happens.
It's been a while since we've done a regular intro. How are you?
I'm doing great. We are, at this current time, we are at the beginning of spring,
(00:44):
and my allergies are in full bloom, just like all of the trees outside of my house here now.
Yes, yes. For those who don't know, Mike owns multiple houses.
I have houses in different parts of the country. Yes.
But I'm not a celebrity. He's not a celebrity. No, he's just a mentor.
(01:06):
And we'll get to that in a second, won't we?
I'm just Mike. You're just Mike, yep.
Just Mike the mentor. I'm the mentor talk today. And the reason being,
Mike, is because our guest is a...
Well, how would you describe our guest?
Well, I would describe him as a man.
(01:28):
He's a president and CEO of a group called Mentor California.
And so, you know, I'll get into the story of how I ran across him when we get
on the show with him. But, you know, he's one of those people who's dedicated
his life to public service in a way.
And, you know, he's made a career out of it.
(01:51):
And I can't, I don't know, and I'm sure we'll find out more about how many lives
he's affected, you know, kind of giving himself up to that.
Yeah, I think that's so important, right? Like how much you give to others for
mentorship. It's a lot, right? It's a lot you have to give to do so.
So, Mike, I have to ask, what are your top three mentors?
(02:11):
Top three that are top three. Yeah.
Wow. Top three mentors in my life that I've, that I've had? Whatever,
however you want to take it.
Um, well, I've had some, I've been fortunate to have a couple of mentors in my life.
One of them is a guy we refer to and have had on the show is,
(02:33):
uh, Steve Wyatt, who's, you know, big in the California comic book industry.
And yeah, he came into my life. I've told this story,
I think when you know my dad wasn't around and
my mom was working or just
not able to you know be there so i
was fortunate to have to walk into his comic book store one day as a young teenager
(02:57):
and yeah he just kind of took me under his wing another one is the guy we've
had on this show multiple times age scott and what better mentor than than age
right uh we need age back on the show it's been a a while.
That's a tough cookie to get nowadays. He's the celebrity.
(03:18):
Clearly. What about you? What are your top mentors?
Do I really have to answer that? You know the answer to this, aren't we?
There is. Well, number three, I'm very fortunate enough to say is my father.
My father, even though he had an interesting start in my life,
my father's done a really good job of being there and being a big supporter.
(03:39):
He's one of our biggest fans of the show.
Mike, you've met my dad a few times, and you know how much he reps us and how
much he loves being a part of this. And yeah, I'm very thankful for that.
And then number two is also somebody who's a part of the show, who's a guest host.
And one of my dearest friends is the one and only Retro Gaming Nomad. So shout out to Nomad.
You've hung out with us before, and you can tell, obviously,
(04:02):
there's a lot of that fatherly feeling with him. And of course,
Number one has to be my man, the one and only, Just Mike.
Oh, I made the top three. I made it.
Just Mike. And I'll tell you what, you were telling your story that you said
(04:22):
that you saw Steve Wyatt and you walked him through a comic book store, right?
Did he say to you, hey, kid, if you like superheroes?
Something probably just as creepy, though. What does that say about us, Mike? Mike.
We're willing to go where creepy men ask. I guess so.
(04:42):
And I'm still waiting for my superhero book because I don't think it's ever
happened. Oh, actually, I took it back and it did happen. I mean,
a superhero book. You got it.
Yeah, that's right, sir. Mike, before we kick off the show, I just have to quickly
say something from one of our affiliates, Lionsgate.
Lionsgate, once you check out their website, go to lionsgate.com to check out
all the new films coming out. They got a lot of great great stuff coming.
(05:05):
And because I brought this up, I do need the hint that next week's guest is
actually going to be a pretty phenomenal pivotal guest that we've ever,
we never had a guest like this before on the show.
And Mike, you know, I guess I'm referring to, and I think our audience is in
for a treat from landscape. What do you think?
Based off of what you have told me, I think it's a, it's one of the most interesting
(05:28):
stories we have, we'll probably have ever been able to talk about on this show with a guest.
So I think the listeners are, for a treat.
They are. Once again, another treat from A Moodle That Talks. Another treat indeed.
So be sure to go to lionsgate.com to see their list of films currently out.
Mike, we just came off the heels of a very good episode too.
(05:49):
We had David Mandel on the show.
What an experience. What an episode.
But I just wanted to shout out, we've gained a lot of followers on our social
media since that episode. More followers, I should say.
Everybody who's new to our show, thank you you for coming thank you for joining
us and mike tell them what i need to stick around why they need to stick around
(06:11):
is because we are going to keep making more shows yes,
he is correct and if you don't follow us on instagram we always could use more
followers can we i mean isn't that what life's all about now is how many followers
you have and aimed at the truth aimed at the truth it's one of the it's one
(06:33):
of the top three Three things we all strive for is followers. Followers.
Followers. Yes, be sure to get us a follow at Uncle Dad Talks.
We have some big things coming down the pipeline.
And Mike and I are working on something very special that we hope to launch
April 1st. That is not a joke.
And if it's not ready by then, it will be ready very soon. So,
(06:54):
yes, without further ado, Mike and I will be right back after this break with
our guest from Mentor, California.
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What's up? We are back. Mike, we are with our guest. Mike, I know you're very
excited because I know mentorship is a very passionate thing for you.
At least I hope so because you're my mentor and that would be a bummer.
I'm not really into mentorship. But I know that you are. So,
(08:27):
Mike, go ahead and introduce our guest to our audience.
Yeah, I'm not really into mentors, but I'll be your mentor, I guess.
Oh, yes. So this this this gentleman I did, I met out in Monterey,
California, at an event where I was selling my my Bart Bridge hats.
And he came up and was very nice and mentioned that he was part of a program
(08:49):
called Mentor California and was looking to do a custom hat with us.
So we eventually got that done. And super nice guy.
And the more I looked him up and saw what he was doing, I was really just taken
back by all of the good work that you're doing with the community.
And so we have the executive director, president and CEO, forgive me if I'm
(09:12):
leaving anything out there, of Mentor California, Mr. Marcus Strother.
Marcus, how are you? Hey, what's happening? Hey, I'm amazing.
I'm amazing. Good to be with you, Mike. You as well, Uncle Dave.
This is a great opportunity.
And as you stated, Mike, I'm really excited meeting you in Monterey.
Seeing the hats, I had already been a fan of the hats. And then seeing you that
(09:34):
day, and to your point, we had great conversation.
And things just continue to build from there. So I'm excited to be here with you all.
Yeah, yeah. You know, we get asked often to do custom hats and collaborations.
And so, you know, we kind of have to pick and choose what we're going to give
our time and resources to.
And obviously, this is something that, like Uncle Dad was saying in the beginning,
(09:57):
I feel is very important, especially in California.
It's so easy to go either way when you're a young person here.
There's so much opportunity and advantage
to living here but there's also so much other stuff to get
into that's not so productive i should say it
you know and so having someone around to
(10:19):
kind of show those those boundaries and paths is
really important so anyways yes just very happy to work with you here and so
so mentor california so just please tell us uh tell us uh a little bit How long
has it been around and how you became where you are at with them?
(10:40):
Please. Absolutely. Absolutely.
So Mentor California, first and foremost, I'll say we are the affiliate of the
National Partnership out of Boston, Massachusetts.
So there are 23 affiliates across the country. Not only is there Mentor California,
there's Mentor Washington, Mentor Maryland, D.C., Mentor Greater Milwaukee,
(11:01):
and so on and so forth, Mentor Georgia.
So we have a phenomenal group, family,
as we like to say, of folks who are really trying to, in our words,
our mission, increase the quality and quantity of mentoring across the country,
but of course, for our affiliates like us, Mentor California here across the state.
So we started, I started Mentor California four years ago. We are four years
(11:25):
old, about to be into our fifth year.
We're pretty excited about that. July 1, we'll make five years.
And before doing that, I started with a little bit of history.
So I spent 22 years in public education.
I was a high school teacher for eight years, English teacher for eight years,
was a high school administrator for nine years, and then went on to be a district
director for five years. So 22 years in that space.
(11:50):
In that time, my wife and I were consistently running our mentoring programs.
We had one called Brother to Brother, which was specifically for young men.
We had another one called Sister Circle for, of course, young women.
And then we started a leadership initiative, Leaders Empowered to Achieve Anything
Possible, where we really just brought all youth together and really tried to
(12:12):
give them what was needed to be great leaders, to get mentors,
and really understand how the global affects the local.
So some of that work would take us to the Dominican Republic,
where we've been a part of building three schools.
We recently went to Peru and started a medical clinic there.
And every time we go, we brought over 100 young people with us to those spaces
(12:32):
to be able to do that work.
And we're hoping to get into Belize very soon to continue doing that.
So mentoring has been a huge part of what we do.
My wife is a high school wellness counselor, so she is in the education space as well.
And as I was getting into my 22nd year,
maybe a little bit before that, Mike and Uncle Dad, I started thinking about
(12:53):
how can I step away from public education and come back and still do good work,
but not necessarily have the tying of my hands,
should I say, by the public school system. them.
So that is where Mentor California came into play. The national office wanted
to start an affiliate here.
I had done some work with the national office. So conversations began in terms
(13:15):
of what this could look like and how we can make it make sense.
On 2019, we did a feasibility study across the state to see,
does it make sense for us to be here?
Because what we are is really a TA provider.
It is our biggest body of work in terms of making sure we give professional
development element to mentoring organizations, whether they are faith-based,
(13:36):
community-based, school-based.
We want to make sure people understand that mentoring is not something you just
show up and do. It is a skill.
We want to be able to teach folks how to build relationships with young people.
We want to be able to teach folks what does it mean to actually put together
a group mentoring program or a one-to-one mentoring program.
So we do that, and it allows us to be able to to really connect with a number of programs.
(14:00):
So we support currently right now, 307 mentoring programs across the state of California.
And it just is an absolutely amazing body of work for us. I have an amazing staff.
And outside of our training, we do mentor recruitment.
We also do great partnerships. So we can talk a little bit about some of the things that we've done.
(14:20):
Mike already mentioned the Sacramento Kings, and we are partnered with the NBA in its entirety.
So So we get to work with multiple teams, but it has been absolutely phenomenal.
So I'll stop there because I've said a lot and I'm sure there's other questions.
Yeah. I mean, that's, that's, that's quite the, the, the explanation.
And, um, what, so, so you, you pretty much in 22 years is a lot,
(14:44):
a lot, you know, a lot of time of your life.
I'm sure there was less gray in that beard when you first started.
So, so what, what caused you to dedicate, you know, your life to public service
and community, you know, and helping the community any like that.
Like where along the line did you find that as that was your path?
(15:05):
Yeah. My eighth grade English teacher, Mr. James Hudson, phenomenal gentleman
who really became probably the person I would say was my first mentor before
I even really knew kind of the uncle dad's point earlier.
Like I didn't know that he was my mentor. I didn't see him in that way.
I kind of just seen him as my eighth grade teacher, but he continued to pour
(15:27):
into my life into my life in different ways.
So he followed us to our ninth grade year. So we got the blessing of having him twice.
And then even as a senior in high school, music is a big passion of mine.
I have my degree in music and theater education.
And really, he was the one who introduced me to my HBCU, University of Arkansas at Ive Love.
(15:49):
He brought me to a show where the choir there was singing and performing in
Illinois, where I'm originally from.
And he introduced me to the choir director and the choir director said,
you know, sing something.
And from there, you know, I got a scholarship to go to UAPB.
And then coming back home and just continuing because I knew from meeting Mr.
(16:10):
Hudson that if music didn't end up panning out the way that I wanted it to be,
you know, I was in a singing group.
We thought we would be the next Boyz II Men, didn't happen for us.
But I always knew that education was the way that I wanted to go go outside
of that. And that was all because of Mr. Hudson.
He really showed me because he not only was our eighth grade English teacher,
he led the Black History Program in our town.
(16:32):
He was very well respected. And I really just, I wanted to be that person.
I wanted to be someone who was making our community better and really giving back.
So, you know, shout out to Kankakee, Illinois, where I'm originally from, just south of Chicago.
I love my hometown. Just a kid from Kankakee is something that many of us will say.
(16:53):
Alright, okay. So that's... I want to know, let me ask you this,
is there anywhere that we could hear recordings of this early, of this group? route?
That usually is the question. If I sent it to you, you would find it. There's no YouTube.
You could find stuff. So I did do music with many other artists that I could
(17:14):
send you that is on YouTube.
Really great folks from Randy Malone and Howie T and some really great artists
who have done really three feasts out of Chicago.
So there's some things I could send you in terms of my writing skills.
But me, vocally, we'd have to go do karaoke or something. Let's do it.
I also had a period in my life where when I was younger, I thought I was going to be the next Eminem.
(17:41):
And so there are recordings that you can hear of me that are out there.
I'll share them with you and we can compare our potential.
You know, one of the things you mentioned, it was an eighth grade teacher that kind of got me.
It was your first mentor type. and one of the things I saw on the vision for
(18:04):
Mentor California is that you're looking,
you're doing things to help grow and develop these young people into productive
and engaged adults which which I think is a lot different for most teachers
in school that they're they're just looking to get the the youth to or the kids
to pass class because you know like that's how schools make money is by you know,
(18:30):
getting kids to graduate and move on.
So, you know, obviously we all get certain teachers that care a little more.
It sounds like you had one.
I had one in 11th grade.
I had a teacher that kind of stepped up in that way.
But that is, I think, overall, in general, it's a missing piece in the education system is that part.
(18:51):
It's not just, hey, we got to get these kids to pass.
Let's do whatever it takes to get them to pass. Like, how do we prepare them
to be successful successful adults, you know?
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why we have one of our initiatives is called
Relationship-Centered Schools.
And that is our way to pour into schools because that is where we have everyday mentors, right?
(19:13):
Like those teachers and even outside of teachers, right?
Counselors and administrators and cafeteria staff.
All of these folks are there pointing to young people on an everyday basis.
But what we need folks to understand in the education space is that young people,
if you see them as just someone who can perform for you, right?
Like, can you pass this test? Can you pass this exam?
(19:35):
Can you walk on the right side of the hallway? Can you be quiet in certain areas?
If you look at them as just someone who can perform, you're going to miss out
on all the beauty that is them as a whole person.
So we try to get people to understand that love is the way that we can really
move this in the direction that we need it to go.
And, you know, I heard something yesterday and I can't remember actually who
(19:55):
said it, but it was a gentleman on ESPN and he said, you know,
there are folks, actually, I think it might have been Good Morning America,
but anyway, he said there are folks who care and then there are folks who care less.
You know, we're really trying to get people who actually want to care about
young people and lead with love first.
So we lift up Life Data Matters. We lift up love.
(20:15):
We just released a state of mentoring report, which is entitled California Love,
right? Now, some of that is old to Tupac and Dre, of course.
All of the little chapters in the book have actual California songs that are the titles for it.
But we really want people to understand, you know, based on what Bell Hooks
talked about in many of either her talks or books or articles,
(20:38):
was really how do we think about love when we're working with young people and
recognizing that they are human beings first?
First and if we can get them to be great human beings they'll
understand why they need to pass or why they need to do
well in school or why they may need to go into a career or college or whatever
happens for them past k-12 so i think that's the way we're trying to move mike
(21:01):
uh so when you talk about the the mentor uh program is that something that anybody
can be involved in or is that just something i select for you like you have
to prove your worth to become a mentor.
No, that's a great question. So it really is something that we want to push
people to be a part of if it's something that you really feel like touches your life, right?
(21:24):
Like we don't want you to step into this space of working with young people isn't your thing.
Don't step into the space like it's okay. I go do the other stuff that you do
and be great at that. But it is a way, we do have a way for folks,
should I say, to get involved. We have what's called our mentoring connector.
They can go to our website and they can just click to become a mentor.
And when they click that, they're going to get a drop down menu that is going
(21:45):
to share tons of different opportunities and ways that they can find different
programs within 25 miles where they live.
So they can reach out to whether it's a Big Brothers, Big Sisters,
all the way down to some very small programs like Aging Up here in Sacramento,
who works specifically with foster youth.
So there are many different ways, but we love and really want to push people
(22:08):
to want to be in the mentoring space.
But only if that is what touches you. There's six million babies in the state
of California. We got a lot of recruitment that we're trying to do to try to
make sure that at least one caring adult is reaching out and making sure our
babies have what they need.
But, yeah, you know, there's there's no real requirement other than loving young
people and wanting to see them be great.
(22:30):
That's really beautiful. You know, one of the things you said earlier,
Marcus, was was something along the lines of being able to to know how to relate
or connect, you know, reach, you know.
And so I feel, for me,
I find it hard sometimes to really know how to talk to the youth just because
it feels like it's such a different space than when I was a teenager and throughout the 90s.
(22:56):
And yeah, how do you figure out how to connect to the youth these days?
Yeah, that's a great question. So you listen to young people,
right? Right. Like you get them in space.
We lift up youth voice all the time, but sometimes it's not really centered
in a way that means that we really are going to give credence and give weight
(23:19):
to what it is that they say.
So it's about finding space for young people to tell you, you know,
I say this to adults all the time. I say, I'll push it out this way.
Can we be humble enough to get out of the way and allow young people to tell us what we need to do?
Right. So if we can do that, if we can listen to young people,
we have what's called our youth design labs.
Well, we'll just bring young people into spaces and let them talk to us and
(23:40):
tell us what they need, you know, and then try to figure out what are the resources
that we have to be able to find those things and get them excited about those things.
You know, the young people seen, they seen the hat that you designed for us,
Mike, when we were working with the Golden State Warriors and working with McClinus
High School, they seen the hat and they were like.
Strother, how do we get one of those hats? And right away, I said,
(24:02):
ah, let's figure that out. Went to the Warriors and said, hey, young people want a hat.
What do we need to do? They're like, we got it. We'll take care of making sure
all young people in the program that we're working with have a hat.
So it's then showing up, right? That was a small thing. That's not going to
necessarily change the trajectory of their life, but it is an adult hearing
them and saying, all right, you want a hat? Let's figure out how to get you a hat.
(24:26):
So it's how do you sit down with young people allow them to
tell you what it is that they need and then actually moving forward
with it you know and trying to be culturally relevant and
listening you know to the things that are happening in
the streets the things that are happening around the country and what's really
affecting how to move so again it's young people will tell us what they'll tell
you what they need and they'll tell you how to move and and how you can show
(24:49):
up for them in the best way someone who's new to this world uh you use the term
young people a lot rather than children or you know,
whatever you would use. Is that intentional?
And what is the intention behind it? Yeah, no, it's great. It is very intentional
because sometimes those words can make...
Our young people feel a little bit maybe not respected in different ways.
(25:11):
When you call them kids or you call them children, that comes with a different type of weight, right?
My wife and I say all the time that we've never been married.
We've really just been great partners because marriage comes with a certain weight.
As the husband, you're supposed to do X, Y, and Z.
As the wife, you're supposed to do X, Y, and Z. And that's not the case for
us. Like my wife will change the toilet.
(25:33):
I'll write somebody a song. Right. Like totally different things.
Like I'll write curriculum while she's fixing something outside.
So we try to live in a space where we give young people respect in many different
ways. Now, you may also hear me refer to them as babies sometimes.
And when we speak to that, that often in many ways, when Trayvon Martin was
(25:56):
killed, one of the things that people from God was that at the end of the day,
that was somebody's baby.
Right. Right. I was just walking down the street, minding their own business
and murdered because the person we all know, I don't want to give weight to
their name, but decided that they were a threat, that he was a threat. Right.
And we also want people to recognize, though, that at the end of the day,
(26:19):
you know, really until 25 years old, their brain is still developing and they're
still trying to figure out, you know, who they are and what it is that they can be.
So we in many ways and i say we because
there's a number of us that it really took this song was
we wanted people to also recognize though don't forget that these these are
somebody's babies these are this is somebody's child uh this is someone's son
(26:39):
daughter this is this is someone's young person and what that means to them
so we try to be intentional with the conversation and just make your words matter
right like words matter in many different ways and we just want.
Yeah, like, we just want to be really intentional with that.
You know, I tell people when they say, like, hey, man, I'm trying to kill two
birds with one stone. I'm like, why are we killing animals?
(27:01):
Like, the birds didn't do nothing to you. Like, there's got to be a better way to say it.
Yeah, I think that, I mean, that's something we're starting to figure out more
and more, right, is where a lot of these weird sayings that we just nonchalantly
throw out there, actually like where the roots of those come from.
And yes, words do, they hold a lot of weight in hell and not just in what you
say, but how you say it, right?
(27:22):
That's right. I don't know. I know, excuse me, I know if I was talked to by,
you know, say I'm looking for my way and I'm talked to by an older gentleman
who calls me, hey kid, look, this is how you do it.
As opposed to, hey, young man, this is how you do it.
I'm going to hear it way differently if I hear that I'm a young man. So that's right.
(27:45):
You know, one of the an interesting stat I saw on the website is that one in
three young people in the U.S.
Reaches the age of 19 without having a mentor.
And I was fortunate. You know, I just give a little story here.
I was fortunate when I was about 14.
My dad was checked out doing whatever he was
(28:06):
doing which wasn't really taking care of much of me and I
mean my mom was was working so she wasn't really around
much and I was starting to get into
some trouble just running around out in the streets and
walking to a comic book store and there
was a guy I mentioned his name earlier in the show on
our intro his name Steve Wyatt who just said hey the
(28:27):
door's open come on in and you know
I think he could see and he had a son of his zone a couple years younger than
me but he could see that I needed some
help I needed some some guidance and he just kind of took me
in and I started working for comics which eventually led me
to drawing comics which eventually led me to you
know doing design and artwork and now you know that's how
(28:48):
you have the hat that we collaborated on but it
just it meant so much you know and I've and I've
you know now he's still like he's like family to me and
you know he's not the only person that stepped up you know uh
you know my mom remarried that man helped
me a lot and other you know other artists and stuff but
that one person changed my life you know and and he saw something and and stepped
(29:13):
up on his own and didn't have to and it's just so i just want to iterate with
you or reiterate with you how important it is for for men to step up when they
when they have have the ability to, right?
Because not everyone has the ability to, but if you do, how important it is.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, just to hear you say that,
(29:35):
that one person, right, it was just one person who stepped in and there were others.
Right. But it was that one, you know, that really said, hey, I see this in you.
Let's do something with it. Let's manifest it in whatever it is that you want
it to be. You know, and it's amazing to think about, you know,
what's the meant to all of the things that you have done. Right.
(29:57):
But but in connection to how I know you and thinking about Barbridge,
you know, my one of the most beautiful things that happens is I wear that hat
on a daily basis. If not the beanie, I'm wearing the Men for California hat.
And I have been, I was most recently down in San Diego and with the Aspen Institute.
And I can't tell you how many people walked up and seen me and was like,
(30:20):
is that one of those hats?
The patch hat? You know, like just watching them make the connection.
And it's just beautiful, right? Right. It just speaks to, you know,
what Steve had done for you to get you to a place to not only,
like I said, what it has, but many other things around your artwork.
And people don't recognize how important it is to try to just find one.
(30:42):
Right. And if we can expand it into more, of course, that's great.
But just that one person that says, man, I got you. Come on,
let's figure it out. I wish I could say the same about my mentor, Mike.
But let me tell you how Mike introduced himself into my life.
Okay i was 16 years old i
was at a comic book convention hanging out just walking around
(31:02):
and i'm looking through i guess at this point we determined it
was steve wyatt's comics right and i'm looking through steve wyatt's comics
and i hear this guy and he goes hey hey
kid hey kid hey kid do you
like superheroes and i go sure yeah
i do like superheroes and so he brings me over and
he introduced me to his character now mike i'll let you explain the character real
(31:23):
fast well well to be fair i didn't marcus i don't remember me saying hey kid
but that's what this guy swears up and down i said where is i swear to you i'm
gonna forget that that's not even stuff i would say but uh okay so let's just
say i said hey kid do you like superheroes,
if steve would sell he would go to conventions and set
(31:46):
up a huge booth selling golden and silver age comic
books you know the boxes and boxes of comics and
he would give sometimes give me like two feet of space on the
table to sell my self-published comics which at
the time was called i'll just say the the paraphrase named captain a and he
was like a character kind of based on myself with a guy with a paper bag on
(32:10):
his head who was also a rapper but he would say say the things that you kind
of wanted to say to people,
but you couldn't say because then you'd be in a hole.
So that's how I lured him in.
And somehow he thought that was worth following me around to the next thing. I don't know. It worked.
(32:32):
Right. Let me explain. I don't know if I've actually have explained this before
on the show, but what I think happened was this, was that kind of when you were
saying, that's why I asked you about when you brought up the conversation,
the intention behind using the word youth or young people.
And when I, even though I was a 16 year old, I might've actually been 17, but whatever.
Ever mike always spoke to me and looked
(32:53):
at me as somebody who was a peer maybe he didn't do that intentionally and to
me it felt like as if somebody who digs the things that i dig you know because
at that time comics they were popular but they weren't as what they were now
right and having somebody,
who a little bit older kind of cool edgy you know look at me and talk to me
(33:16):
like that i think it meant more to me than I realized, and then every time I
saw him at every show, because I would go to these conventions,
all of them, and every time I would go, he would still treat me as if
I was just as important the first time as I was the second time.
I don't know if I ever showed the chair that story. But yeah.
That's beautiful flowers. One of the things that we always say is give folks
(33:38):
flowers while they can enjoy them and receive them.
And this is the first time Mike's hearing that. It's beautiful.
I appreciate you letting me be at Art of that experience of sharing that story,
because that's just absolutely phenomenal.
And I think, you know, that every time, right, like that's part of the training
with my training is like helping folks recognize that every time should be the
(34:00):
first time, like every time should feel like I'm here, I'm important.
I remember a young person saying, like, if you got to put me in your calendar,
then I'm probably not really that important.
Like, if you got to schedule me in, right, because if I'm somebody that you're
trying to help, like, move in the right direction and guide me in the right
way, I might need you at nine o'clock at night.
(34:22):
That doesn't mean that I'm going to always call you at nine o'clock at night,
but I might need you at nine o'clock at night.
And if I if I can't depend on you in that way, maybe you shouldn't be my mentor.
So I love, you know, what you're saying just in terms of like you felt like
every time, you know, you were important, you mattered.
And one of my mentees, who now is a mentor to me in many ways,
(34:46):
because he's a phenomenal writer and has done really, really great work.
So anytime I write an article or anything, I have him look it over.
But, you know, he said to me a long time ago, he said, if you're not mentoring
someone with the idea that maybe eventually they could become a friend later
in life or even closer, maybe you should rethink what it is that you're doing.
Now, that doesn't mean that it will always end that way, but I do have young
(35:09):
folks who, you know, now him being one of them, you know, he's a bonus son for
us, but he is, we get to hang out, we get to talk, we get to share whiskey ideas.
Like, he came to me when he was 13, 14 years old.
Now we're saying, you know, man, did you try this new whiskey?
Right? Like, it's huge and just special to be able to see that.
(35:29):
So, Mike, you got some good flowers today. That was awesome.
I did, yes. Yes, and Uncle Dad and I have also shared whiskey a time or two. Maybe too much at times.
What's your favorite whiskey? What's your favorite whiskey? Off topic real quick,
just curious. Mike, you go first.
(35:52):
I don't, you know what? Any kind that doesn't make me gag right away. Okay.
I wish I had a name to give you, but I, you know, I don't know.
Jameson? I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding,
I will actually tell you this and Mike, you were actually there funny enough,
(36:12):
you were there when we first tried it recently, I went to go visit Mike and
we did a whole thing on Asheville North Carolina and we went to this distillery,
and you know what, it's going to kill me now Mike, do you remember the name of the distillery?
You know I don't.
How dare you do that to me on this show in front of Marcus?
(36:35):
It's like, Ash, I can't remember what it's called. It sucks that I can't because
that was probably the best whiskey I've ever had. It was really smooth.
It was made in a small batch. And this is my second favorite whiskey, I'll tell you this, man.
If you ever get the opportunity and you're in Joshua Tree because it's in California,
go to Joshua's Distillery.
Go check them out. It's a family-owned operation. they make like some of the
(36:57):
best whiskeys I've ever had in my life definitely done so that's what I would,
those are my two I would say love that.
Uncle Nearest right now is what I'm enjoying that's a good one,
I would love to get to their space in Tennessee it's supposed to be their distillery
(37:17):
it's supposed to be I think it broke the record for like the world's longest bar,
if i'm if i'm correct don't quote me on that the
chain whistley do not work for uncle nearest so i don't i don't
know for sure but i think so but i
but i do enjoy uncle nearest absolutely and i would say my number two is whistle
pig oh yeah oh yeah well yeah speaking of whiskey like let's just say hypothetically
(37:45):
you're out drinking whiskey one night and then tomorrow you have a big mentor,
I'm sure you wouldn't go excessively drinking whiskey the night before you have
a leadership summit or anything because who would do that?
But, you know, let's just say like, what if there are days where you've got
to perform at this high level, you know, and you're not feeling in the best shape?
(38:08):
Like, how do you, what do you do to power through and like find a silver lining
in your cloud to perform? Yeah.
Yeah, no, that's a great question. You know, we talk about self-care a lot and
really, you know, what does that mean and how do we get ourselves right?
And there are days where I have to go and speak and it may just not feel in the best space.
(38:31):
And immediately, one, I'll find some place to go and sit and meditate,
you know, where I can feel like I can put on Calm or I can put on Jay Shetty,
something and listen and meditate and try to get into a better space.
I may take a cold shower to help wake me up in a different way and just get
my body a little bit more re-energized.
And if I'm not in a place, you know, where I can find a way to go to a float,
(38:54):
I don't know if you all are float fans, but I love to find a float spot somewhere.
And if I can get in before I have to go and speak and be in space, I will do that.
But typically I try to, you know, make sure the night before I'm good and in
a great space and I can soak. That doesn't happen.
(39:15):
I was seeing you wondering what
a float spa is. Yeah, yeah. Like a deprivation float or whatever it is?
Deprivation tanks. Yep, yep, yep. Exactly.
Yeah, yeah. I've always been curious about those. That's the,
you know, you don't feel any sensation, right? You're in the salt water.
Yeah. Correct. So, yeah, tell me, can you just, what's that like for you? Yeah.
(39:36):
Oh, man, it's the best nap you'll ever take. Right.
In that 60 minutes, you feel like you slept for eight hours once you wake up.
Some people don't always fall asleep.
Let me say that. But for me, once I lay back and begin to float, I fall asleep.
I'm out. I'm out until the music times and the light comes on.
(39:57):
And it is it is the best nap you will ever take.
First of all. oh yeah well i should start doing those before the show maybe what do you think.
There you go yeah i saw yeah i
saw on the mentor california website that self-care is
mentioned a few times and you know self-care
(40:17):
it doesn't always just mean like eating and sleeping
the right amount right like there's other things you do
that's right meditating i think is a huge huge way to
help kind of reset your brain and you know
and then just notice the things that come up especially when you're in
those float tanks right like when you're not
stimulated by something and you just sit there to be with your thoughts like
(40:39):
what comes up and do you work through that or do you find that you avoid that
and and so i think you know psycho psychologically there's the self care part
of everything too and like what are you doing to take care of your mental space Absolutely.
Absolutely. You know, taking a walk. I mean, if I could be done with the walk
(41:00):
today, I'm going to get my beard cleaned up.
For me, I love those homelands.
It gives me an opportunity just to chill and lay back and be a little pampered.
There's multiple different ways, as you said, Mike, to get a little self-care in there.
Yeah, yeah. So you were originally from Illinois. What was the town?
(41:20):
Kankakee. Kankakee. I need to make a Kinkakee hat for you,
man I'd love it that would be amazing how did you find your way you're in Sacramento
how did you find your way out here yeah great question so have you ever seen
the movie Freedom Riders.
I don't think so. Maybe, maybe not. That's your homework assignment.
(41:42):
You got to watch the movie Freedom Riders. So Freedom Riders is about a teacher,
Aaron Ruel, in Long Beach, California, who was working at a high school there.
She's an English teacher and just had, you know, some of those young people
that many teachers throw away and say, hey, they're not going to amount to anything.
We'll put them here and hopefully we can get them through and call it a day.
(42:03):
Well, Aaron seen and wanted more for them and really created an opportunity
for those young people to thrive and become amazing adults who are doing amazing work in the house.
Her story, actually, she was played by Hilary Swank in the movie,
and her curriculum and methodology is something that folks can go and learn.
So I went and actually learned from her. She's a mentor of mine,
(42:26):
the Freedom Rider methodology, and have been training teachers now for 20 plus
years. years, but I had been coming to California for years,
training teachers in her methodology.
While coming out here, some of the folks that are Freedom Riders teachers,
especially here in Sacramento, there were some openings at a couple of different high schools.
And they were like, Marcus, you should come to California and be a principal.
(42:49):
My wife would come with me every now and again when we were doing trainings.
And every time we got back on a plane to go back to Chicago,
we were like, why? Why are we?
It's freezing. What are we doing? We should just stay out here and Cali.
And, you know, to make a long story
a little bit shorter, all high schools recruited me within the district.
In Sacramento, Sac City Unified School District, they had a job opening that I applied for.
(43:12):
And thanks to an amazing person, her name is Dr. Stacey O.
She found me to be someone that she wanted to hire to be on her team.
And here we are. And my wife and I moved Moved out here, sight unseen.
Other than me coming from my interview, we had a great now brother,
Ken McPeters, who went and FaceTimed some homes for us to help us find a place to rent.
(43:38):
And we did that first and came out here. And we have no intentions of ever leaving California.
We love it. Or Sacramento. We love it here. This is home.
And our three kids, we have three fantastic kids.
Babies as we would say they'll always be my babies but our daughter is 23 and our boys are 19,
(43:58):
and they're doing fantastic our daughter just graduated from
arizona state our other son is in arizona state right now and our other one
mike mike he was an artist and he wants to get into tattooing he's done a bunch
of artwork for some tattoos i used to design shoes was doing when Gene Jack
hits, and he's a fantastic artist.
(44:21):
He's like, I'm not going to college. I'm trying to get this art thing in,
this tattooing. I'm going to figure it out. And we was like, ooh, go make it happen.
What can we do to help you? We love it.
That's a great story, and congratulations on the recent graduate there.
That must make you proud. Thank you.
So let me ask you, are you a Chicago Bulls fan, or are you now an adopted Sacramento Kings fan?
(44:47):
Listen, so we will forever be a Chicago Bulls, Bears, and Cubs fan.
Forever. But if we, you know, the best way for me to say it,
I say it all the time, is we have a 1A and a 1B.
And that 1B would definitely be Sacramento Kings.
They are not only a fantastic partner for Metro California, but,
(45:08):
you know, they do amazing work here in community.
Even when I was with the school district, district they did a lot of stuff to
have support the work and trying to get young
people involved and one of the things that we've been doing with them
is really trying to teach young people how to be in the nba and never play on
the court because we want them to know that there are so many different jobs
and opportunities in the nba you don't have to be a basketball player to be
(45:30):
in the nba so yeah love it love the sacramento kings uh they pulled out a win
last night it shouldn't to go into overtime,
but they pulled it out. They lit the beam.
They lit the beam. Absolutely. I was there to watch it live.
It was quite the thrilling... Yes.
Do you live in Sacramento, Mike? I know you come here often, though.
(45:53):
I don't know if you live here or you just come here often. I used to live here.
I went to high school here and spent all of my 20s here.
My folks still live out here. I have a bunch of friends that are still here.
But I was here during the C-Web, Mike Bibby, Bobby Jackson days when they were
really good and then had to sit through all of the horrible years after that.
(46:19):
But I think it's so fun that you collaborate with them. Obviously, I'm a fan.
And one of the guys that I saw you that you had worked with was Bobby Jackson, right?
And he was one of my favorite six men of the year.
So what's it like? How does that work? do you approach a player or do you just
approach the organization and they offer you someone?
(46:42):
How does the relationship happen? Yeah, the latter. So the Sacramento Canadiens, along with,
All of the NBA teams, for the most part, have their community outreach team.
And that's who we work with. So Marita Davis and Veron Clark and Justin Williams,
they're all a part of that community resource team.
And then we just collaborate and figure out, like, what are the things we're
(47:05):
going to do? I want to lift up National Mentoring Month during January,
but what can we do throughout the year?
And they approach different coaches and players, which is how we got Bobby to
get involved. I ended up doing a video for us to really, you know,
help promote and push out not only the idea of who Mentor California is,
but to really help recruit mentors.
So the organization does a great job in terms of getting players involved,
(47:28):
getting some higher execs involved and really helping us.
You know, we even got an opportunity to do some work with 50 Cent because of
the partnership they have with 50.
So it's been really, really great. When you work with those different partnerships,
is there ever like, does it ever feel like intimidating to you?
Because like, you know, you're the mentor, but that's like, and many people,
those are like the big time mentors, right?
(47:48):
Like those are people who claim to be, you know, want to be so bad.
Is that ever a challenge for you? Or do you feel like you're facilitating a
bigger need? I always, a couple of different things.
I always get nervous going into spaces, even if it's just young people.
But there are folks that, to your point, Uncle Dad, that bring a different kind
of weight and different kind of feel.
So, you know, you always want to be, I guess the best way I would say it is
(48:12):
you always want to be top notch when you step into those rooms and making sure
that you're bringing your best self, because it can be intimidating, right? Right.
You don't want I know the bigger picture to your point. Like,
I want to make sure we're getting young people what they need.
And before I can get them what they need, I have to be great at delivering the
idea of what it is we're trying to do and why the second little kings,
(48:34):
warriors, clippers, why they should be involved.
So, yeah, I mean, you definitely walk into those spaces, always kind of getting
that imposter syndrome.
Do I belong here? You know, does this make sense? You know people will see it
and Like oh Marcus you're working with X, Y, and Z And I'm like yeah but Trust
me It still feels unreal sometimes,
(48:55):
And you know it Definitely can you know when we met 50 You know and then you
meet 50 and It's like cool regular Cat was down sharing All the information he could,
Good dude so then you kind of Get a little bit of an ease About yourself for sure,
Yeah. Well, also, let me ask you, how many signed jerseys do you have in your collection?
(49:20):
Four or five. Four or five. Yeah. Yeah. I have one that my son has them all.
I shouldn't even say me. I have one that's hanging up here in my office.
But my son, he's been doing pretty well with getting this one jersey signed by multiple people.
So he has De'Aaron on there. He has 50 50 signed the jersey for Keegan Murray.
(49:43):
One other. So he's got a few folks on there. And then I have the pleasure,
like I said, working with multiple people around the NBA.
So he now has a couple of different jerseys from a couple. And I say he because
he takes all the signed jerseys from me.
He let me hang up the one in my office, but he takes everything else.
But I will say I do have a signed Sacramento Kings basketball.
(50:05):
Basketball, and the Warriors made me an honorary member of the 2022 championship
team, and they gave me a ring.
So I have a championship ring from 2022 as well.
You are an NBA champion. We should
have added that to the accolades at the beginning of the show. I know.
Listen, listen, we did. I had a group. I was at an event, and they did like a human bingo.
(50:29):
And on one of the things, they had, who in this space is an NBA champion?
In it and poor but listen like all the day i'm looking around like who could
they be and the person you know that was running the event of course knew it
was me but i wasn't even thinking in it you like marcus you're an nba champion
like you gotta own that yeah you're right i gotta own but yeah what what's your
(50:51):
free throw percentage marcus.
It definitely is an nba championship worthy i'll say that Yeah.
Well, yeah, I saw you did something earlier. I think it was on Instagram.
You did something at one of the games. Do you have any events with any of the NBA teams?
(51:11):
I know we're reaching the end of the NBA season, but is there anything coming
up with any of the teams that you work with?
Yeah, so we are still finishing up our mentoring program with the Golden State Warriors.
So we are supporting them at McClindon's High School. That's one Wednesday a month.
So we still have three or four sessions left with them. It'll end in June.
So we're pretty excited about that with the Warriors.
(51:32):
The Clippers are sponsoring a huge event that we have May 4th.
May 4th, down in the Inland Empire, we are hosting a Mentoring Girls of Color Restoration Retreat.
So when we talk about that, thinking about how we can really give people in
the self-care, we're inviting 30 women of color and 60 young women of color to be in space.
(51:53):
I mean, we're going to have a napping center and we have hammock row and we're
going to do meditation and dancing.
So it's going to be a real great place for them. So the Clippers,
Starbucks and Marshalls are all sponsoring that.
And we just finished literally two weeks ago with the Sacramento Kings in partnership with UC Davis.
Davis, where the business management team department, should I say,
(52:16):
at UC Davis had their students mentoring Improve Your Tomorrow,
which is an amazing organization here in Sacramento doing mentoring work with young men of color.
So that is phenomenal. And that's all in partnership with Sacramento Kings,
who hosted five different events.
And actually, two of those events
were actual games that the young people and the mentors got to go to.
(52:38):
So we got phenomenal stuff. We're excited to keep it on.
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun, fun and also like very like these are things
that young people want to do, right?
Like you want to go to the game, you know, and so I think it's so great that
all the organizations step up, you know, and absolutely make a difference. Yeah.
(53:01):
So, okay. So you named off some things. I know there's also a,
there's a lot, you know, there's the mentor month back in January.
I know there was a summit that you were part of and there's all kinds of stuff that's going on.
Where can, how and where do people find out and how to get involved?
Yeah, I'll say three different places. One is, of course, our website,
MentorCaliforniaYouth.org.
(53:23):
You can find all of our information there. You can find a state of mentoring
report to download, different ways to find or become a mentor and really just
keep up with the work that we're doing.
We're getting ready to launch a new part of the website with our Mentoring Girls
of Color work, which is going to be phenomenal. And then, of course, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Just look at Mentor California and you'll find us there.
(53:45):
Or you can find me, Marcus L. Struller, on any of those platforms as well.
All of our information will be there. Consistent.
Consistently. And if you're interested, they can, yeah, and they can also go
on the website and find out how they can get one of the official Bar Bridge Mentor California ads.
Oh yes that's right yes they do
(54:08):
exist if they're out there well marcus man
thanks so much for coming on and taking some time this morning
and telling us about this you know it
i think i hope for our listeners out there that it you know it shows that there's
you know there's ways that you know we can all step up and and maybe make the
uh the next podcaster or the next next president and CEO of an organization
(54:33):
just by stepping up and being a mentor to someone,
you know, like absolutely just need more of that. Yeah.
And also, you know,
there's still time, Marcus, for you to become the next Boyz II Men band. You know.
I don't know about me. All three of us, we'll just make our own band together.
(54:55):
We got Trapper, Uncle Dad could be our dancer, our background dancer,
and then I would say, yeah, we'll make it happen that way.
He might be the engineer. I don't know about dancer.
Okay. All right. That works. Thank you all for having me on. I appreciate it.
Yeah, Marcus, and we will be in touch. And everybody, please go check out Mentor California.
(55:18):
Uncle Dad, do you have any last words? Oh, wow.
You know, I just, I'm going to throw this out there. We'll end it like this.
What is your favorite 50 Cent song?
Oh, yes. 21 Questions. 21 Questions. Easy.
21 Questions. No question. I like that. That's one of my favorites,
too. Mike, do you have a favorite 50 Cent song?
(55:38):
I'm going to go deep in the crate. my favorite one was the first time i ever
heard him which was rob the industry with the mad rapper,
do you guys do you guys remember that one i i've
only heard of it maybe once maybe i mean yeah this was when he was all east
coast still and hadn't met dre and him yet and basically he's just he names
(56:01):
almost every single rapper in the industry and talks about how he's gonna rob
and clown them. And he's hilarious.
So that was my... Now I got to go find that. I got to go find that.
It's fun. Yeah. You're like, wow, this is the same guy that hangs upside down with his shirt off.
That's right. Right. Thank you, everybody. We really appreciate it.
(56:25):
Thank you, Marcus. Thank you, Jess Mike. And of course, thank you to the audience.
And as always, we're not uncles. We're not dads. We're just someone you can
talk to. And we'll see you all next week.
Bye.
Music.
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Uncle Dad Talks.
I'm Uncle Dad and with me as always is ultimately the most handsomest, bestest looking,
and honestly, the damndest, goodest mentor I could ever ask for.
Even enough for just Mike.
Well, if all my accolades could sound like they do coming from you,
(00:23):
I would be, I don't know, I'd probably be a millionaire or something,
I don't know. You would be a celebrity.
Then I would be a celebrity, yes. Yes, that's what happens.
It's been a while since we've done a regular intro. How are you?
I'm doing great. We are, at this current time, we are at the beginning of spring,
(00:44):
and my allergies are in full bloom, just like all of the trees outside of my house here now.
Yes, yes. For those who don't know, Mike owns multiple houses.
I have houses in different parts of the country. Yes.
But I'm not a celebrity. He's not a celebrity. No, he's just a mentor.
(01:06):
And we'll get to that in a second, won't we?
I'm just Mike. You're just Mike, yep.
Just Mike the mentor. I'm the mentor talk today. And the reason being,
Mike, is because our guest is a...
Well, how would you describe our guest?
Well, I would describe him as a man.
(01:28):
He's a president and CEO of a group called Mentor California.
And so, you know, I'll get into the story of how I ran across him when we get
on the show with him. But, you know, he's one of those people who's dedicated
his life to public service in a way.
And, you know, he's made a career out of it.
(01:51):
And I can't, I don't know, and I'm sure we'll find out more about how many lives
he's affected, you know, kind of giving himself up to that.
Yeah, I think that's so important, right? Like how much you give to others for
mentorship. It's a lot, right? It's a lot you have to give to do so.
So, Mike, I have to ask, what are your top three mentors?
(02:11):
Top three that are top three. Yeah.
Wow. Top three mentors in my life that I've, that I've had? Whatever,
however you want to take it.
Um, well, I've had some, I've been fortunate to have a couple of mentors in my life.
One of them is a guy we refer to and have had on the show is,
(02:33):
uh, Steve Wyatt, who's, you know, big in the California comic book industry.
And yeah, he came into my life. I've told this story,
I think when you know my dad wasn't around and
my mom was working or just
not able to you know be there so i
was fortunate to have to walk into his comic book store one day as a young teenager
(02:57):
and yeah he just kind of took me under his wing another one is the guy we've
had on this show multiple times age scott and what better mentor than than age
right uh we need age back on the show it's been a a while.
That's a tough cookie to get nowadays. He's the celebrity.
(03:18):
Clearly. What about you? What are your top mentors?
Do I really have to answer that? You know the answer to this, aren't we?
There is. Well, number three, I'm very fortunate enough to say is my father.
My father, even though he had an interesting start in my life,
my father's done a really good job of being there and being a big supporter.
(03:39):
He's one of our biggest fans of the show.
Mike, you've met my dad a few times, and you know how much he reps us and how
much he loves being a part of this. And yeah, I'm very thankful for that.
And then number two is also somebody who's a part of the show, who's a guest host.
And one of my dearest friends is the one and only Retro Gaming Nomad. So shout out to Nomad.
You've hung out with us before, and you can tell, obviously,
(04:02):
there's a lot of that fatherly feeling with him. And of course,
Number one has to be my man, the one and only, Just Mike.
Oh, I made the top three. I made it.
Just Mike. And I'll tell you what, you were telling your story that you said
(04:22):
that you saw Steve Wyatt and you walked him through a comic book store, right?
Did he say to you, hey, kid, if you like superheroes?
Something probably just as creepy, though. What does that say about us, Mike? Mike.
We're willing to go where creepy men ask. I guess so.
(04:42):
And I'm still waiting for my superhero book because I don't think it's ever
happened. Oh, actually, I took it back and it did happen. I mean,
a superhero book. You got it.
Yeah, that's right, sir. Mike, before we kick off the show, I just have to quickly
say something from one of our affiliates, Lionsgate.
Lionsgate, once you check out their website, go to lionsgate.com to check out
all the new films coming out. They got a lot of great great stuff coming.
(05:05):
And because I brought this up, I do need the hint that next week's guest is
actually going to be a pretty phenomenal pivotal guest that we've ever,
we never had a guest like this before on the show.
And Mike, you know, I guess I'm referring to, and I think our audience is in
for a treat from landscape. What do you think?
Based off of what you have told me, I think it's a, it's one of the most interesting
(05:28):
stories we have, we'll probably have ever been able to talk about on this show with a guest.
So I think the listeners are, for a treat.
They are. Once again, another treat from A Moodle That Talks. Another treat indeed.
So be sure to go to lionsgate.com to see their list of films currently out.
Mike, we just came off the heels of a very good episode too.
(05:49):
We had David Mandel on the show.
What an experience. What an episode.
But I just wanted to shout out, we've gained a lot of followers on our social
media since that episode. More followers, I should say.
Everybody who's new to our show, thank you you for coming thank you for joining
us and mike tell them what i need to stick around why they need to stick around
(06:11):
is because we are going to keep making more shows yes,
he is correct and if you don't follow us on instagram we always could use more
followers can we i mean isn't that what life's all about now is how many followers
you have and aimed at the truth aimed at the truth it's one of the it's one
(06:33):
of the top three Three things we all strive for is followers. Followers.
Followers. Yes, be sure to get us a follow at Uncle Dad Talks.
We have some big things coming down the pipeline.
And Mike and I are working on something very special that we hope to launch
April 1st. That is not a joke.
And if it's not ready by then, it will be ready very soon. So,
(06:54):
yes, without further ado, Mike and I will be right back after this break with
our guest from Mentor, California.
This episode is brought to you by Skyline Smart Energy. It's a new year,
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What's up? We are back. Mike, we are with our guest. Mike, I know you're very
excited because I know mentorship is a very passionate thing for you.
At least I hope so because you're my mentor and that would be a bummer.
I'm not really into mentorship. But I know that you are. So,
(08:27):
Mike, go ahead and introduce our guest to our audience.
Yeah, I'm not really into mentors, but I'll be your mentor, I guess.
Oh, yes. So this this this gentleman I did, I met out in Monterey,
California, at an event where I was selling my my Bart Bridge hats.
And he came up and was very nice and mentioned that he was part of a program
(08:49):
called Mentor California and was looking to do a custom hat with us.
So we eventually got that done. And super nice guy.
And the more I looked him up and saw what he was doing, I was really just taken
back by all of the good work that you're doing with the community.
And so we have the executive director, president and CEO, forgive me if I'm
(09:12):
leaving anything out there, of Mentor California, Mr. Marcus Strother.
Marcus, how are you? Hey, what's happening? Hey, I'm amazing.
I'm amazing. Good to be with you, Mike. You as well, Uncle Dave.
This is a great opportunity.
And as you stated, Mike, I'm really excited meeting you in Monterey.
Seeing the hats, I had already been a fan of the hats. And then seeing you that
(09:34):
day, and to your point, we had great conversation.
And things just continue to build from there. So I'm excited to be here with you all.
Yeah, yeah. You know, we get asked often to do custom hats and collaborations.
And so, you know, we kind of have to pick and choose what we're going to give
our time and resources to.
And obviously, this is something that, like Uncle Dad was saying in the beginning,
(09:57):
I feel is very important, especially in California.
It's so easy to go either way when you're a young person here.
There's so much opportunity and advantage
to living here but there's also so much other stuff to get
into that's not so productive i should say it
you know and so having someone around to
(10:19):
kind of show those those boundaries and paths is
really important so anyways yes just very happy to work with you here and so
so mentor california so just please tell us uh tell us uh a little bit How long
has it been around and how you became where you are at with them?
(10:40):
Please. Absolutely. Absolutely.
So Mentor California, first and foremost, I'll say we are the affiliate of the
National Partnership out of Boston, Massachusetts.
So there are 23 affiliates across the country. Not only is there Mentor California,
there's Mentor Washington, Mentor Maryland, D.C., Mentor Greater Milwaukee,
(11:01):
and so on and so forth, Mentor Georgia.
So we have a phenomenal group, family,
as we like to say, of folks who are really trying to, in our words,
our mission, increase the quality and quantity of mentoring across the country,
but of course, for our affiliates like us, Mentor California here across the state.
So we started, I started Mentor California four years ago. We are four years
(11:25):
old, about to be into our fifth year.
We're pretty excited about that. July 1, we'll make five years.
And before doing that, I started with a little bit of history.
So I spent 22 years in public education.
I was a high school teacher for eight years, English teacher for eight years,
was a high school administrator for nine years, and then went on to be a district
director for five years. So 22 years in that space.
(11:50):
In that time, my wife and I were consistently running our mentoring programs.
We had one called Brother to Brother, which was specifically for young men.
We had another one called Sister Circle for, of course, young women.
And then we started a leadership initiative, Leaders Empowered to Achieve Anything
Possible, where we really just brought all youth together and really tried to
(12:12):
give them what was needed to be great leaders, to get mentors,
and really understand how the global affects the local.
So some of that work would take us to the Dominican Republic,
where we've been a part of building three schools.
We recently went to Peru and started a medical clinic there.
And every time we go, we brought over 100 young people with us to those spaces
(12:32):
to be able to do that work.
And we're hoping to get into Belize very soon to continue doing that.
So mentoring has been a huge part of what we do.
My wife is a high school wellness counselor, so she is in the education space as well.
And as I was getting into my 22nd year,
maybe a little bit before that, Mike and Uncle Dad, I started thinking about
(12:53):
how can I step away from public education and come back and still do good work,
but not necessarily have the tying of my hands,
should I say, by the public school system. them.
So that is where Mentor California came into play. The national office wanted
to start an affiliate here.
I had done some work with the national office. So conversations began in terms
(13:15):
of what this could look like and how we can make it make sense.
On 2019, we did a feasibility study across the state to see,
does it make sense for us to be here?
Because what we are is really a TA provider.
It is our biggest body of work in terms of making sure we give professional
development element to mentoring organizations, whether they are faith-based,
(13:36):
community-based, school-based.
We want to make sure people understand that mentoring is not something you just
show up and do. It is a skill.
We want to be able to teach folks how to build relationships with young people.
We want to be able to teach folks what does it mean to actually put together
a group mentoring program or a one-to-one mentoring program.
So we do that, and it allows us to be able to to really connect with a number of programs.
(14:00):
So we support currently right now, 307 mentoring programs across the state of California.
And it just is an absolutely amazing body of work for us. I have an amazing staff.
And outside of our training, we do mentor recruitment.
We also do great partnerships. So we can talk a little bit about some of the things that we've done.
(14:20):
Mike already mentioned the Sacramento Kings, and we are partnered with the NBA in its entirety.
So So we get to work with multiple teams, but it has been absolutely phenomenal.
So I'll stop there because I've said a lot and I'm sure there's other questions.
Yeah. I mean, that's, that's, that's quite the, the, the explanation.
And, um, what, so, so you, you pretty much in 22 years is a lot,
(14:44):
a lot, you know, a lot of time of your life.
I'm sure there was less gray in that beard when you first started.
So, so what, what caused you to dedicate, you know, your life to public service
and community, you know, and helping the community any like that.
Like where along the line did you find that as that was your path?
(15:05):
Yeah. My eighth grade English teacher, Mr. James Hudson, phenomenal gentleman
who really became probably the person I would say was my first mentor before
I even really knew kind of the uncle dad's point earlier.
Like I didn't know that he was my mentor. I didn't see him in that way.
I kind of just seen him as my eighth grade teacher, but he continued to pour
(15:27):
into my life into my life in different ways.
So he followed us to our ninth grade year. So we got the blessing of having him twice.
And then even as a senior in high school, music is a big passion of mine.
I have my degree in music and theater education.
And really, he was the one who introduced me to my HBCU, University of Arkansas at Ive Love.
(15:49):
He brought me to a show where the choir there was singing and performing in
Illinois, where I'm originally from.
And he introduced me to the choir director and the choir director said,
you know, sing something.
And from there, you know, I got a scholarship to go to UAPB.
And then coming back home and just continuing because I knew from meeting Mr.
(16:10):
Hudson that if music didn't end up panning out the way that I wanted it to be,
you know, I was in a singing group.
We thought we would be the next Boyz II Men, didn't happen for us.
But I always knew that education was the way that I wanted to go go outside
of that. And that was all because of Mr. Hudson.
He really showed me because he not only was our eighth grade English teacher,
he led the Black History Program in our town.
(16:32):
He was very well respected. And I really just, I wanted to be that person.
I wanted to be someone who was making our community better and really giving back.
So, you know, shout out to Kankakee, Illinois, where I'm originally from, just south of Chicago.
I love my hometown. Just a kid from Kankakee is something that many of us will say.
(16:53):
Alright, okay. So that's... I want to know, let me ask you this,
is there anywhere that we could hear recordings of this early, of this group? route?
That usually is the question. If I sent it to you, you would find it. There's no YouTube.
You could find stuff. So I did do music with many other artists that I could
(17:14):
send you that is on YouTube.
Really great folks from Randy Malone and Howie T and some really great artists
who have done really three feasts out of Chicago.
So there's some things I could send you in terms of my writing skills.
But me, vocally, we'd have to go do karaoke or something. Let's do it.
I also had a period in my life where when I was younger, I thought I was going to be the next Eminem.
(17:41):
And so there are recordings that you can hear of me that are out there.
I'll share them with you and we can compare our potential.
You know, one of the things you mentioned, it was an eighth grade teacher that kind of got me.
It was your first mentor type. and one of the things I saw on the vision for
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Mentor California is that you're looking,
you're doing things to help grow and develop these young people into productive
and engaged adults which which I think is a lot different for most teachers
in school that they're they're just looking to get the the youth to or the kids
to pass class because you know like that's how schools make money is by you know,
(18:30):
getting kids to graduate and move on.
So, you know, obviously we all get certain teachers that care a little more.
It sounds like you had one.
I had one in 11th grade.
I had a teacher that kind of stepped up in that way.
But that is, I think, overall, in general, it's a missing piece in the education system is that part.
(18:51):
It's not just, hey, we got to get these kids to pass.
Let's do whatever it takes to get them to pass. Like, how do we prepare them
to be successful successful adults, you know?
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why we have one of our initiatives is called
Relationship-Centered Schools.
And that is our way to pour into schools because that is where we have everyday mentors, right?
(19:13):
Like those teachers and even outside of teachers, right?
Counselors and administrators and cafeteria staff.
All of these folks are there pointing to young people on an everyday basis.
But what we need folks to understand in the education space is that young people,
if you see them as just someone who can perform for you, right?
Like, can you pass this test? Can you pass this exam?
(19:35):
Can you walk on the right side of the hallway? Can you be quiet in certain areas?
If you look at them as just someone who can perform, you're going to miss out
on all the beauty that is them as a whole person.
So we try to get people to understand that love is the way that we can really
move this in the direction that we need it to go.
And, you know, I heard something yesterday and I can't remember actually who
(19:55):
said it, but it was a gentleman on ESPN and he said, you know,
there are folks, actually, I think it might have been Good Morning America,
but anyway, he said there are folks who care and then there are folks who care less.
You know, we're really trying to get people who actually want to care about
young people and lead with love first.
So we lift up Life Data Matters. We lift up love.
(20:15):
We just released a state of mentoring report, which is entitled California Love,
right? Now, some of that is old to Tupac and Dre, of course.
All of the little chapters in the book have actual California songs that are the titles for it.
But we really want people to understand, you know, based on what Bell Hooks
talked about in many of either her talks or books or articles,
(20:38):
was really how do we think about love when we're working with young people and
recognizing that they are human beings first?
First and if we can get them to be great human beings they'll
understand why they need to pass or why they need to do
well in school or why they may need to go into a career or college or whatever
happens for them past k-12 so i think that's the way we're trying to move mike
(21:01):
uh so when you talk about the the mentor uh program is that something that anybody
can be involved in or is that just something i select for you like you have
to prove your worth to become a mentor.
No, that's a great question. So it really is something that we want to push
people to be a part of if it's something that you really feel like touches your life, right?
(21:24):
Like we don't want you to step into this space of working with young people isn't your thing.
Don't step into the space like it's okay. I go do the other stuff that you do
and be great at that. But it is a way, we do have a way for folks,
should I say, to get involved. We have what's called our mentoring connector.
They can go to our website and they can just click to become a mentor.
And when they click that, they're going to get a drop down menu that is going
(21:45):
to share tons of different opportunities and ways that they can find different
programs within 25 miles where they live.
So they can reach out to whether it's a Big Brothers, Big Sisters,
all the way down to some very small programs like Aging Up here in Sacramento,
who works specifically with foster youth.
So there are many different ways, but we love and really want to push people
(22:08):
to want to be in the mentoring space.
But only if that is what touches you. There's six million babies in the state
of California. We got a lot of recruitment that we're trying to do to try to
make sure that at least one caring adult is reaching out and making sure our
babies have what they need.
But, yeah, you know, there's there's no real requirement other than loving young
people and wanting to see them be great.
(22:30):
That's really beautiful. You know, one of the things you said earlier,
Marcus, was was something along the lines of being able to to know how to relate
or connect, you know, reach, you know.
And so I feel, for me,
I find it hard sometimes to really know how to talk to the youth just because
it feels like it's such a different space than when I was a teenager and throughout the 90s.
(22:56):
And yeah, how do you figure out how to connect to the youth these days?
Yeah, that's a great question. So you listen to young people,
right? Right. Like you get them in space.
We lift up youth voice all the time, but sometimes it's not really centered
in a way that means that we really are going to give credence and give weight
(23:19):
to what it is that they say.
So it's about finding space for young people to tell you, you know,
I say this to adults all the time. I say, I'll push it out this way.
Can we be humble enough to get out of the way and allow young people to tell us what we need to do?
Right. So if we can do that, if we can listen to young people,
we have what's called our youth design labs.
Well, we'll just bring young people into spaces and let them talk to us and
(23:40):
tell us what they need, you know, and then try to figure out what are the resources
that we have to be able to find those things and get them excited about those things.
You know, the young people seen, they seen the hat that you designed for us,
Mike, when we were working with the Golden State Warriors and working with McClinus
High School, they seen the hat and they were like.
Strother, how do we get one of those hats? And right away, I said,
(24:02):
ah, let's figure that out. Went to the Warriors and said, hey, young people want a hat.
What do we need to do? They're like, we got it. We'll take care of making sure
all young people in the program that we're working with have a hat.
So it's then showing up, right? That was a small thing. That's not going to
necessarily change the trajectory of their life, but it is an adult hearing
them and saying, all right, you want a hat? Let's figure out how to get you a hat.
(24:26):
So it's how do you sit down with young people allow them to
tell you what it is that they need and then actually moving forward
with it you know and trying to be culturally relevant and
listening you know to the things that are happening in
the streets the things that are happening around the country and what's really
affecting how to move so again it's young people will tell us what they'll tell
you what they need and they'll tell you how to move and and how you can show
(24:49):
up for them in the best way someone who's new to this world uh you use the term
young people a lot rather than children or you know,
whatever you would use. Is that intentional?
And what is the intention behind it? Yeah, no, it's great. It is very intentional
because sometimes those words can make...
Our young people feel a little bit maybe not respected in different ways.
(25:11):
When you call them kids or you call them children, that comes with a different type of weight, right?
My wife and I say all the time that we've never been married.
We've really just been great partners because marriage comes with a certain weight.
As the husband, you're supposed to do X, Y, and Z.
As the wife, you're supposed to do X, Y, and Z. And that's not the case for
us. Like my wife will change the toilet.
(25:33):
I'll write somebody a song. Right. Like totally different things.
Like I'll write curriculum while she's fixing something outside.
So we try to live in a space where we give young people respect in many different
ways. Now, you may also hear me refer to them as babies sometimes.
And when we speak to that, that often in many ways, when Trayvon Martin was
(25:56):
killed, one of the things that people from God was that at the end of the day,
that was somebody's baby.
Right. Right. I was just walking down the street, minding their own business
and murdered because the person we all know, I don't want to give weight to
their name, but decided that they were a threat, that he was a threat. Right.
And we also want people to recognize, though, that at the end of the day,
(26:19):
you know, really until 25 years old, their brain is still developing and they're
still trying to figure out, you know, who they are and what it is that they can be.
So we in many ways and i say we because
there's a number of us that it really took this song was
we wanted people to also recognize though don't forget that these these are
somebody's babies these are this is somebody's child uh this is someone's son
(26:39):
daughter this is this is someone's young person and what that means to them
so we try to be intentional with the conversation and just make your words matter
right like words matter in many different ways and we just want.
Yeah, like, we just want to be really intentional with that.
You know, I tell people when they say, like, hey, man, I'm trying to kill two
birds with one stone. I'm like, why are we killing animals?
(27:01):
Like, the birds didn't do nothing to you. Like, there's got to be a better way to say it.
Yeah, I think that, I mean, that's something we're starting to figure out more
and more, right, is where a lot of these weird sayings that we just nonchalantly
throw out there, actually like where the roots of those come from.
And yes, words do, they hold a lot of weight in hell and not just in what you
say, but how you say it, right?
(27:22):
That's right. I don't know. I know, excuse me, I know if I was talked to by,
you know, say I'm looking for my way and I'm talked to by an older gentleman
who calls me, hey kid, look, this is how you do it.
As opposed to, hey, young man, this is how you do it.
I'm going to hear it way differently if I hear that I'm a young man. So that's right.
(27:45):
You know, one of the an interesting stat I saw on the website is that one in
three young people in the U.S.
Reaches the age of 19 without having a mentor.
And I was fortunate. You know, I just give a little story here.
I was fortunate when I was about 14.
My dad was checked out doing whatever he was
(28:06):
doing which wasn't really taking care of much of me and I
mean my mom was was working so she wasn't really around
much and I was starting to get into
some trouble just running around out in the streets and
walking to a comic book store and there
was a guy I mentioned his name earlier in the show on
our intro his name Steve Wyatt who just said hey the
(28:27):
door's open come on in and you know
I think he could see and he had a son of his zone a couple years younger than
me but he could see that I needed some
help I needed some some guidance and he just kind of took me
in and I started working for comics which eventually led me
to drawing comics which eventually led me to you
know doing design and artwork and now you know that's how
(28:48):
you have the hat that we collaborated on but it
just it meant so much you know and I've and I've
you know now he's still like he's like family to me and
you know he's not the only person that stepped up you know uh
you know my mom remarried that man helped
me a lot and other you know other artists and stuff but
that one person changed my life you know and and he saw something and and stepped
(29:13):
up on his own and didn't have to and it's just so i just want to iterate with
you or reiterate with you how important it is for for men to step up when they
when they have have the ability to, right?
Because not everyone has the ability to, but if you do, how important it is.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, just to hear you say that,
(29:35):
that one person, right, it was just one person who stepped in and there were others.
Right. But it was that one, you know, that really said, hey, I see this in you.
Let's do something with it. Let's manifest it in whatever it is that you want
it to be. You know, and it's amazing to think about, you know,
what's the meant to all of the things that you have done. Right.
(29:57):
But but in connection to how I know you and thinking about Barbridge,
you know, my one of the most beautiful things that happens is I wear that hat
on a daily basis. If not the beanie, I'm wearing the Men for California hat.
And I have been, I was most recently down in San Diego and with the Aspen Institute.
And I can't tell you how many people walked up and seen me and was like,
(30:20):
is that one of those hats?
The patch hat? You know, like just watching them make the connection.
And it's just beautiful, right? Right. It just speaks to, you know,
what Steve had done for you to get you to a place to not only,
like I said, what it has, but many other things around your artwork.
And people don't recognize how important it is to try to just find one.
(30:42):
Right. And if we can expand it into more, of course, that's great.
But just that one person that says, man, I got you. Come on,
let's figure it out. I wish I could say the same about my mentor, Mike.
But let me tell you how Mike introduced himself into my life.
Okay i was 16 years old i
was at a comic book convention hanging out just walking around
(31:02):
and i'm looking through i guess at this point we determined it
was steve wyatt's comics right and i'm looking through steve wyatt's comics
and i hear this guy and he goes hey hey
kid hey kid hey kid do you
like superheroes and i go sure yeah
i do like superheroes and so he brings me over and
he introduced me to his character now mike i'll let you explain the character real
(31:23):
fast well well to be fair i didn't marcus i don't remember me saying hey kid
but that's what this guy swears up and down i said where is i swear to you i'm
gonna forget that that's not even stuff i would say but uh okay so let's just
say i said hey kid do you like superheroes,
if steve would sell he would go to conventions and set
(31:46):
up a huge booth selling golden and silver age comic
books you know the boxes and boxes of comics and
he would give sometimes give me like two feet of space on the
table to sell my self-published comics which at
the time was called i'll just say the the paraphrase named captain a and he
was like a character kind of based on myself with a guy with a paper bag on
(32:10):
his head who was also a rapper but he would say say the things that you kind
of wanted to say to people,
but you couldn't say because then you'd be in a hole.
So that's how I lured him in.
And somehow he thought that was worth following me around to the next thing. I don't know. It worked.
(32:32):
Right. Let me explain. I don't know if I've actually have explained this before
on the show, but what I think happened was this, was that kind of when you were
saying, that's why I asked you about when you brought up the conversation,
the intention behind using the word youth or young people.
And when I, even though I was a 16 year old, I might've actually been 17, but whatever.
Ever mike always spoke to me and looked
(32:53):
at me as somebody who was a peer maybe he didn't do that intentionally and to
me it felt like as if somebody who digs the things that i dig you know because
at that time comics they were popular but they weren't as what they were now
right and having somebody,
who a little bit older kind of cool edgy you know look at me and talk to me
(33:16):
like that i think it meant more to me than I realized, and then every time I
saw him at every show, because I would go to these conventions,
all of them, and every time I would go, he would still treat me as if
I was just as important the first time as I was the second time.
I don't know if I ever showed the chair that story. But yeah.
That's beautiful flowers. One of the things that we always say is give folks
(33:38):
flowers while they can enjoy them and receive them.
And this is the first time Mike's hearing that. It's beautiful.
I appreciate you letting me be at Art of that experience of sharing that story,
because that's just absolutely phenomenal.
And I think, you know, that every time, right, like that's part of the training
with my training is like helping folks recognize that every time should be the
(34:00):
first time, like every time should feel like I'm here, I'm important.
I remember a young person saying, like, if you got to put me in your calendar,
then I'm probably not really that important.
Like, if you got to schedule me in, right, because if I'm somebody that you're
trying to help, like, move in the right direction and guide me in the right
way, I might need you at nine o'clock at night.
(34:22):
That doesn't mean that I'm going to always call you at nine o'clock at night,
but I might need you at nine o'clock at night.
And if I if I can't depend on you in that way, maybe you shouldn't be my mentor.
So I love, you know, what you're saying just in terms of like you felt like
every time, you know, you were important, you mattered.
And one of my mentees, who now is a mentor to me in many ways,
(34:46):
because he's a phenomenal writer and has done really, really great work.
So anytime I write an article or anything, I have him look it over.
But, you know, he said to me a long time ago, he said, if you're not mentoring
someone with the idea that maybe eventually they could become a friend later
in life or even closer, maybe you should rethink what it is that you're doing.
Now, that doesn't mean that it will always end that way, but I do have young
(35:09):
folks who, you know, now him being one of them, you know, he's a bonus son for
us, but he is, we get to hang out, we get to talk, we get to share whiskey ideas.
Like, he came to me when he was 13, 14 years old.
Now we're saying, you know, man, did you try this new whiskey?
Right? Like, it's huge and just special to be able to see that.
(35:29):
So, Mike, you got some good flowers today. That was awesome.
I did, yes. Yes, and Uncle Dad and I have also shared whiskey a time or two. Maybe too much at times.
What's your favorite whiskey? What's your favorite whiskey? Off topic real quick,
just curious. Mike, you go first.
(35:52):
I don't, you know what? Any kind that doesn't make me gag right away. Okay.
I wish I had a name to give you, but I, you know, I don't know.
Jameson? I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding,
I will actually tell you this and Mike, you were actually there funny enough,
(36:12):
you were there when we first tried it recently, I went to go visit Mike and
we did a whole thing on Asheville North Carolina and we went to this distillery,
and you know what, it's going to kill me now Mike, do you remember the name of the distillery?
You know I don't.
How dare you do that to me on this show in front of Marcus?
(36:35):
It's like, Ash, I can't remember what it's called. It sucks that I can't because
that was probably the best whiskey I've ever had. It was really smooth.
It was made in a small batch. And this is my second favorite whiskey, I'll tell you this, man.
If you ever get the opportunity and you're in Joshua Tree because it's in California,
go to Joshua's Distillery.
Go check them out. It's a family-owned operation. they make like some of the
(36:57):
best whiskeys I've ever had in my life definitely done so that's what I would,
those are my two I would say love that.
Uncle Nearest right now is what I'm enjoying that's a good one,
I would love to get to their space in Tennessee it's supposed to be their distillery
(37:17):
it's supposed to be I think it broke the record for like the world's longest bar,
if i'm if i'm correct don't quote me on that the
chain whistley do not work for uncle nearest so i don't i don't
know for sure but i think so but i
but i do enjoy uncle nearest absolutely and i would say my number two is whistle
pig oh yeah oh yeah well yeah speaking of whiskey like let's just say hypothetically
(37:45):
you're out drinking whiskey one night and then tomorrow you have a big mentor,
I'm sure you wouldn't go excessively drinking whiskey the night before you have
a leadership summit or anything because who would do that?
But, you know, let's just say like, what if there are days where you've got
to perform at this high level, you know, and you're not feeling in the best shape?
(38:08):
Like, how do you, what do you do to power through and like find a silver lining
in your cloud to perform? Yeah.
Yeah, no, that's a great question. You know, we talk about self-care a lot and
really, you know, what does that mean and how do we get ourselves right?
And there are days where I have to go and speak and it may just not feel in the best space.
(38:31):
And immediately, one, I'll find some place to go and sit and meditate,
you know, where I can feel like I can put on Calm or I can put on Jay Shetty,
something and listen and meditate and try to get into a better space.
I may take a cold shower to help wake me up in a different way and just get
my body a little bit more re-energized.
And if I'm not in a place, you know, where I can find a way to go to a float,
(38:54):
I don't know if you all are float fans, but I love to find a float spot somewhere.
And if I can get in before I have to go and speak and be in space, I will do that.
But typically I try to, you know, make sure the night before I'm good and in
a great space and I can soak. That doesn't happen.
(39:15):
I was seeing you wondering what
a float spa is. Yeah, yeah. Like a deprivation float or whatever it is?
Deprivation tanks. Yep, yep, yep. Exactly.
Yeah, yeah. I've always been curious about those. That's the,
you know, you don't feel any sensation, right? You're in the salt water.
Yeah. Correct. So, yeah, tell me, can you just, what's that like for you? Yeah.
(39:36):
Oh, man, it's the best nap you'll ever take. Right.
In that 60 minutes, you feel like you slept for eight hours once you wake up.
Some people don't always fall asleep.
Let me say that. But for me, once I lay back and begin to float, I fall asleep.
I'm out. I'm out until the music times and the light comes on.
(39:57):
And it is it is the best nap you will ever take.
First of all. oh yeah well i should start doing those before the show maybe what do you think.
There you go yeah i saw yeah i
saw on the mentor california website that self-care is
mentioned a few times and you know self-care
(40:17):
it doesn't always just mean like eating and sleeping
the right amount right like there's other things you do
that's right meditating i think is a huge huge way to
help kind of reset your brain and you know
and then just notice the things that come up especially when you're in
those float tanks right like when you're not
stimulated by something and you just sit there to be with your thoughts like
(40:39):
what comes up and do you work through that or do you find that you avoid that
and and so i think you know psycho psychologically there's the self care part
of everything too and like what are you doing to take care of your mental space Absolutely.
Absolutely. You know, taking a walk. I mean, if I could be done with the walk
(41:00):
today, I'm going to get my beard cleaned up.
For me, I love those homelands.
It gives me an opportunity just to chill and lay back and be a little pampered.
There's multiple different ways, as you said, Mike, to get a little self-care in there.
Yeah, yeah. So you were originally from Illinois. What was the town?
(41:20):
Kankakee. Kankakee. I need to make a Kinkakee hat for you,
man I'd love it that would be amazing how did you find your way you're in Sacramento
how did you find your way out here yeah great question so have you ever seen
the movie Freedom Riders.
I don't think so. Maybe, maybe not. That's your homework assignment.
(41:42):
You got to watch the movie Freedom Riders. So Freedom Riders is about a teacher,
Aaron Ruel, in Long Beach, California, who was working at a high school there.
She's an English teacher and just had, you know, some of those young people
that many teachers throw away and say, hey, they're not going to amount to anything.
We'll put them here and hopefully we can get them through and call it a day.
(42:03):
Well, Aaron seen and wanted more for them and really created an opportunity
for those young people to thrive and become amazing adults who are doing amazing work in the house.
Her story, actually, she was played by Hilary Swank in the movie,
and her curriculum and methodology is something that folks can go and learn.
So I went and actually learned from her. She's a mentor of mine,
(42:26):
the Freedom Rider methodology, and have been training teachers now for 20 plus
years. years, but I had been coming to California for years,
training teachers in her methodology.
While coming out here, some of the folks that are Freedom Riders teachers,
especially here in Sacramento, there were some openings at a couple of different high schools.
And they were like, Marcus, you should come to California and be a principal.
(42:49):
My wife would come with me every now and again when we were doing trainings.
And every time we got back on a plane to go back to Chicago,
we were like, why? Why are we?
It's freezing. What are we doing? We should just stay out here and Cali.
And, you know, to make a long story
a little bit shorter, all high schools recruited me within the district.
In Sacramento, Sac City Unified School District, they had a job opening that I applied for.
(43:12):
And thanks to an amazing person, her name is Dr. Stacey O.
She found me to be someone that she wanted to hire to be on her team.
And here we are. And my wife and I moved Moved out here, sight unseen.
Other than me coming from my interview, we had a great now brother,
Ken McPeters, who went and FaceTimed some homes for us to help us find a place to rent.
(43:38):
And we did that first and came out here. And we have no intentions of ever leaving California.
We love it. Or Sacramento. We love it here. This is home.
And our three kids, we have three fantastic kids.
Babies as we would say they'll always be my babies but our daughter is 23 and our boys are 19,
(43:58):
and they're doing fantastic our daughter just graduated from
arizona state our other son is in arizona state right now and our other one
mike mike he was an artist and he wants to get into tattooing he's done a bunch
of artwork for some tattoos i used to design shoes was doing when Gene Jack
hits, and he's a fantastic artist.
(44:21):
He's like, I'm not going to college. I'm trying to get this art thing in,
this tattooing. I'm going to figure it out. And we was like, ooh, go make it happen.
What can we do to help you? We love it.
That's a great story, and congratulations on the recent graduate there.
That must make you proud. Thank you.
So let me ask you, are you a Chicago Bulls fan, or are you now an adopted Sacramento Kings fan?
(44:47):
Listen, so we will forever be a Chicago Bulls, Bears, and Cubs fan.
Forever. But if we, you know, the best way for me to say it,
I say it all the time, is we have a 1A and a 1B.
And that 1B would definitely be Sacramento Kings.
They are not only a fantastic partner for Metro California, but,
(45:08):
you know, they do amazing work here in community.
Even when I was with the school district, district they did a lot of stuff to
have support the work and trying to get young
people involved and one of the things that we've been doing with them
is really trying to teach young people how to be in the nba and never play on
the court because we want them to know that there are so many different jobs
and opportunities in the nba you don't have to be a basketball player to be
(45:30):
in the nba so yeah love it love the sacramento kings uh they pulled out a win
last night it shouldn't to go into overtime,
but they pulled it out. They lit the beam.
They lit the beam. Absolutely. I was there to watch it live.
It was quite the thrilling... Yes.
Do you live in Sacramento, Mike? I know you come here often, though.
(45:53):
I don't know if you live here or you just come here often. I used to live here.
I went to high school here and spent all of my 20s here.
My folks still live out here. I have a bunch of friends that are still here.
But I was here during the C-Web, Mike Bibby, Bobby Jackson days when they were
really good and then had to sit through all of the horrible years after that.
(46:19):
But I think it's so fun that you collaborate with them. Obviously, I'm a fan.
And one of the guys that I saw you that you had worked with was Bobby Jackson, right?
And he was one of my favorite six men of the year.
So what's it like? How does that work? do you approach a player or do you just
approach the organization and they offer you someone?
(46:42):
How does the relationship happen? Yeah, the latter. So the Sacramento Canadiens, along with,
All of the NBA teams, for the most part, have their community outreach team.
And that's who we work with. So Marita Davis and Veron Clark and Justin Williams,
they're all a part of that community resource team.
And then we just collaborate and figure out, like, what are the things we're
(47:05):
going to do? I want to lift up National Mentoring Month during January,
but what can we do throughout the year?
And they approach different coaches and players, which is how we got Bobby to
get involved. I ended up doing a video for us to really, you know,
help promote and push out not only the idea of who Mentor California is,
but to really help recruit mentors.
So the organization does a great job in terms of getting players involved,
(47:28):
getting some higher execs involved and really helping us.
You know, we even got an opportunity to do some work with 50 Cent because of
the partnership they have with 50.
So it's been really, really great. When you work with those different partnerships,
is there ever like, does it ever feel like intimidating to you?
Because like, you know, you're the mentor, but that's like, and many people,
those are like the big time mentors, right?
(47:48):
Like those are people who claim to be, you know, want to be so bad.
Is that ever a challenge for you? Or do you feel like you're facilitating a
bigger need? I always, a couple of different things.
I always get nervous going into spaces, even if it's just young people.
But there are folks that, to your point, Uncle Dad, that bring a different kind
of weight and different kind of feel.
So, you know, you always want to be, I guess the best way I would say it is
(48:12):
you always want to be top notch when you step into those rooms and making sure
that you're bringing your best self, because it can be intimidating, right? Right.
You don't want I know the bigger picture to your point. Like,
I want to make sure we're getting young people what they need.
And before I can get them what they need, I have to be great at delivering the
idea of what it is we're trying to do and why the second little kings,
(48:34):
warriors, clippers, why they should be involved.
So, yeah, I mean, you definitely walk into those spaces, always kind of getting
that imposter syndrome.
Do I belong here? You know, does this make sense? You know people will see it
and Like oh Marcus you're working with X, Y, and Z And I'm like yeah but Trust
me It still feels unreal sometimes,
(48:55):
And you know it Definitely can you know when we met 50 You know and then you
meet 50 and It's like cool regular Cat was down sharing All the information he could,
Good dude so then you kind of Get a little bit of an ease About yourself for sure,
Yeah. Well, also, let me ask you, how many signed jerseys do you have in your collection?
(49:20):
Four or five. Four or five. Yeah. Yeah. I have one that my son has them all.
I shouldn't even say me. I have one that's hanging up here in my office.
But my son, he's been doing pretty well with getting this one jersey signed by multiple people.
So he has De'Aaron on there. He has 50 50 signed the jersey for Keegan Murray.
(49:43):
One other. So he's got a few folks on there. And then I have the pleasure,
like I said, working with multiple people around the NBA.
So he now has a couple of different jerseys from a couple. And I say he because
he takes all the signed jerseys from me.
He let me hang up the one in my office, but he takes everything else.
But I will say I do have a signed Sacramento Kings basketball.
(50:05):
Basketball, and the Warriors made me an honorary member of the 2022 championship
team, and they gave me a ring.
So I have a championship ring from 2022 as well.
You are an NBA champion. We should
have added that to the accolades at the beginning of the show. I know.
Listen, listen, we did. I had a group. I was at an event, and they did like a human bingo.
(50:29):
And on one of the things, they had, who in this space is an NBA champion?
In it and poor but listen like all the day i'm looking around like who could
they be and the person you know that was running the event of course knew it
was me but i wasn't even thinking in it you like marcus you're an nba champion
like you gotta own that yeah you're right i gotta own but yeah what what's your
(50:51):
free throw percentage marcus.
It definitely is an nba championship worthy i'll say that Yeah.
Well, yeah, I saw you did something earlier. I think it was on Instagram.
You did something at one of the games. Do you have any events with any of the NBA teams?
(51:11):
I know we're reaching the end of the NBA season, but is there anything coming
up with any of the teams that you work with?
Yeah, so we are still finishing up our mentoring program with the Golden State Warriors.
So we are supporting them at McClindon's High School. That's one Wednesday a month.
So we still have three or four sessions left with them. It'll end in June.
So we're pretty excited about that with the Warriors.
(51:32):
The Clippers are sponsoring a huge event that we have May 4th.
May 4th, down in the Inland Empire, we are hosting a Mentoring Girls of Color Restoration Retreat.
So when we talk about that, thinking about how we can really give people in
the self-care, we're inviting 30 women of color and 60 young women of color to be in space.
(51:53):
I mean, we're going to have a napping center and we have hammock row and we're
going to do meditation and dancing.
So it's going to be a real great place for them. So the Clippers,
Starbucks and Marshalls are all sponsoring that.
And we just finished literally two weeks ago with the Sacramento Kings in partnership with UC Davis.
Davis, where the business management team department, should I say,
(52:16):
at UC Davis had their students mentoring Improve Your Tomorrow,
which is an amazing organization here in Sacramento doing mentoring work with young men of color.
So that is phenomenal. And that's all in partnership with Sacramento Kings,
who hosted five different events.
And actually, two of those events
were actual games that the young people and the mentors got to go to.
(52:38):
So we got phenomenal stuff. We're excited to keep it on.
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun, fun and also like very like these are things
that young people want to do, right?
Like you want to go to the game, you know, and so I think it's so great that
all the organizations step up, you know, and absolutely make a difference. Yeah.
(53:01):
So, okay. So you named off some things. I know there's also a,
there's a lot, you know, there's the mentor month back in January.
I know there was a summit that you were part of and there's all kinds of stuff that's going on.
Where can, how and where do people find out and how to get involved?
Yeah, I'll say three different places. One is, of course, our website,
MentorCaliforniaYouth.org.
(53:23):
You can find all of our information there. You can find a state of mentoring
report to download, different ways to find or become a mentor and really just
keep up with the work that we're doing.
We're getting ready to launch a new part of the website with our Mentoring Girls
of Color work, which is going to be phenomenal. And then, of course, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Just look at Mentor California and you'll find us there.
(53:45):
Or you can find me, Marcus L. Struller, on any of those platforms as well.
All of our information will be there. Consistent.
Consistently. And if you're interested, they can, yeah, and they can also go
on the website and find out how they can get one of the official Bar Bridge Mentor California ads.
Oh yes that's right yes they do
(54:08):
exist if they're out there well marcus man
thanks so much for coming on and taking some time this morning
and telling us about this you know it
i think i hope for our listeners out there that it you know it shows that there's
you know there's ways that you know we can all step up and and maybe make the
uh the next podcaster or the next next president and CEO of an organization
(54:33):
just by stepping up and being a mentor to someone,
you know, like absolutely just need more of that. Yeah.
And also, you know,
there's still time, Marcus, for you to become the next Boyz II Men band. You know.
I don't know about me. All three of us, we'll just make our own band together.
(54:55):
We got Trapper, Uncle Dad could be our dancer, our background dancer,
and then I would say, yeah, we'll make it happen that way.
He might be the engineer. I don't know about dancer.
Okay. All right. That works. Thank you all for having me on. I appreciate it.
Yeah, Marcus, and we will be in touch. And everybody, please go check out Mentor California.
(55:18):
Uncle Dad, do you have any last words? Oh, wow.
You know, I just, I'm going to throw this out there. We'll end it like this.
What is your favorite 50 Cent song?
Oh, yes. 21 Questions. 21 Questions. Easy.
21 Questions. No question. I like that. That's one of my favorites,
too. Mike, do you have a favorite 50 Cent song?
(55:38):
I'm going to go deep in the crate. my favorite one was the first time i ever
heard him which was rob the industry with the mad rapper,
do you guys do you guys remember that one i i've
only heard of it maybe once maybe i mean yeah this was when he was all east
coast still and hadn't met dre and him yet and basically he's just he names
(56:01):
almost every single rapper in the industry and talks about how he's gonna rob
and clown them. And he's hilarious.
So that was my... Now I got to go find that. I got to go find that.
It's fun. Yeah. You're like, wow, this is the same guy that hangs upside down with his shirt off.
That's right. Right. Thank you, everybody. We really appreciate it.
(56:25):
Thank you, Marcus. Thank you, Jess Mike. And of course, thank you to the audience.
And as always, we're not uncles. We're not dads. We're just someone you can
talk to. And we'll see you all next week.
Bye.
Music.
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