Episode Transcript
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Chris (00:35):
Welcome to pulse check, Wisconsin.
(01:03):
Good morning, good evening, goodafternoon.
This is Dr.
Ford Post Check Wisconsin.
I wanna thank you for joining ushere again today.
Today we have another specialepisode for you.
We have with us OfficerCarmichael Lewis.
It's interesting how things workout.
Uh, Carmichael and I went tohigh school together and I
hadn't seen him in probablyabout maybe 10 years or so.
(01:25):
I, and I was recently back inChicago for a family event and
just happened to run into himrandomly at a coffee shop.
It is crazy because I had beenmeaning to get him on the show,
and I think we even spoke onceon Instagram about getting him
on and talking about some of hisprograms and there he was.
Carmichael has been a policeofficer for a number of years as
(01:48):
we get into in the interview.
But I thought it'd be good forhim to come on so we can talk
about some of the achievementsthat he's had with his programs
and, hopefully we can getsomething like that going here
in the city of Milwaukee.
So with that being said, let'sget it.
(02:17):
We got Carmichael Lewis here with us.
He's a public safetyprofessional author, an
entrepreneur, a youth mentor aswell.
And he is a founder of someprograms that we're gonna get
into here that help young menreshape their futures.
So with that being said,Carmichael man, thanks for being
with us.
Thank you for having me, Dr.
Ford.
yeah, man.
Can you take us back to your,you tell me like where you came
(02:38):
from, um, and, and, and we'llkind of parlay that into, you
know, how you changed yourtrajectory into where you're at
right now.
Sounds good.
Uh,
Carmichael (02:47):
raised on the south side of Chicago, Morgan Park
community, not too short thananybody else in the, in, in, in,
uh, in the Chicago Chicagolandarea growing up.
Faced a little bit of adversity,you know, um, but stayed
resilient.
You know, I'm, I'm here todayjust to, give back to, to young
people and give them the rightdirection to path
Speaker 6 (03:04):
So, we, we talked a little bit beforehand about, how
you realized that you were on acertain trajectory, like when we
were growing up, right?
So, carmic and I went to schooltogether.
We grew up together in highschool, and you realize, you
know, you needed to make achange.
You had to move yourself from,as you put it in, in your bio
from one of those kids withproblems to someone that's
determined to make a difference.
What was that catalyst for you?
That realization that you neededto change the direction you were
(03:25):
going?
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Really my.
The, the people I hung out with,you know, uh, I, I realized that
the people I was hanging outwith, um, didn't match my, my
future at the, my present didn'tmatch my future because of the
crowd I was hanging out with.
So I had to stop hanging aroundwith that crowd because it was
sending me in the wrongdirection.
Um, and that's why to me, Ibelieve that mentorship,
(03:47):
mentorship matters because Ididn't have that direction.
I didn't have that, that guidinglight.
I didn't have that person I cancall to.
So I kind of created thosedecisions.
Yeah, man.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
So, yeah, you know, like you said, you know, it
coming outta where we came from,bro.
Like a lot of people that wecame up with didn't make it or
they're in prison right now.
Right?
And so that is the hardcorereality I taught.
We was talking about it onanother episode that we had
where we're talking aboutteenagers, right?
So especially.
teenage boys growing up in rurallocations, they gonna do stupid
stuff like we did, right?
Like everybody does stupid stuffwhen you're a teenager'cause you
(04:18):
know just how you are.
But for us, those stakes arehigher.
You know, we ain't tipping overcows.
It's different high stakes, andyou end up in situations where,
you know, you may be 15, 16years old, but you doing stuff
that could put you, you know,behind bars for, federal time.
Right.
Or, you may be even be out herelosing your life, bro.
So, you know, we, we alwayswanna make sure we put programs
(04:40):
like yours out there.
We always wanna make sure thatwe gravitate towards these
programs that we'll get into aswell.
So, after that you went intopolicing, man.
What originally drew you topolicing after having, those
interactions in the past?
I realized that, uh, growing
Carmichael (04:54):
up in Morgan Park community, I never saw black and
brown police officers.
Mm-hmm.
And if you did see the police,it'd just be calls for service.
You know, they come on the call,they're riding by, and I'm like,
you know what?
If we had that officer, they'lljust come by and just check on
your wellbeing.
Just see how you doing, or giveyou direction or give you
(05:14):
resources.
I'm like, okay.
What if I become an officer Ineeded growing up, what, what if
I became an officer I, which Iwould've saw, and I just became
that.
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
Yeah.
And how long you been in the,how long you been in policing
now, man?
Speaker 5 (05:27):
17 years.
17 years.
I've been the police.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Wow.
Yeah.
Is there any moment in yourcareer, and of course we'll get
into, you know, youth and BlueUnited, but is there any moment
in your career during, you know,your police work that profoundly
impacted you, any of thosemoments that, put you in that
direction of, you know, changingyour view of the community, of,
of duty as well?
I, I think it, it goes back tothose run-ins
Speaker 5 (05:51):
I have with law enforcement.
It is like, I'm not trying togive, not trying to say law
enforcement should do more orneed to do more.
Sometimes the police is onlythat, that the only positive
figure they will ever see, somm-hmm.
What if we can leave that personbetter than way we found them?
For example, when, when myinteractions like.
I didn't have the resource.
I didn't know the resources.
(06:11):
I'm not telling them they shouldhave gave me the resources.
You know, that's for my parentsto do, right.
Or for me to look for it.
Right.
But if I didn't have thatdirection or that guidance or
that knowledge to know where togo, it could have just been
something like, Hey, you knowwhat, why don't you, um, stop
with the wrong crowd?
He put a mentorship program foryou.
Mm-hmm.
You know?
(06:31):
Mm-hmm.
Why?
Why don't you go, uh, I see youkeep hanging with this person
because every time I come here,I see you here.
Why don't you try to hang withsomeone else, someone different,
you know, you seem like a goodperson.
Why don't you, you know, justkind of give you direction.
So I believe that, um, that'swhat kind of made me, uh, uh,
think about policingdifferently.
I, I've called it policing witha passion.
(06:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Yeah.
You know, we had a, uh, aepisode, Mariah The Weather
Bookie came on and she talkedabout some of the programs that
she's doing here in Milwaukee.
We got a big problem with, uh,reckless driving, right?
And so she talked about, her ownpersonal experience, you know,
her brother ended up dying in areckless driving accident.
And how traditionally,especially in our communities
too, right?
(07:14):
Like a lot of it is don't talkto the police, right?
Like, don't, you can't trust'em.
You can't do X, Y, and Z, andso, how she really flipped that,
180 in her mind when she got toworking with police officers,
especially those that areinvested like you, Carmichael in
the community.
How those individuals arereaching out to the communities,
providing those resources,giving that alternative view of
(07:36):
the community as well to peoplewho are coming up saying like,
Hey man, like these are otherthings you can look into if
you're not getting that at homeor if you're not getting that,
you know, from your friendgroup, you're kicking it with,
so, you know, it, it is evenmore of a testimony to the work
that you're doing and the workthat people like you are doing
that are wearing the badgepeople that are in the community
as well.
It's funny that you said that
Speaker 5 (07:55):
because.
When I first got got on youthinking that the uniform put
you in a position to be incharge, right?
Or that you can get informationfrom people and, no, that's not
it.
So I came in with a, with adifferent mindset.
So I had to realize that, wait,hold on, I'm gonna have to deal
with trust, you know, and builda trust takes time.
(08:17):
You know, it could becommunication, it could be
asking the right questions, forexample.
Some people may show up onsinging and say, Hey, um, what
is it you need?
You know who called Right?
When I show up, I may ask, howcan I help?
Or I may just listen becausethey're gonna tell their story
or you gonna hear their needonce they start thinking.
(08:39):
So I believe just ask them, ask,ask them the right question.
And sometimes silent is, is.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, man.
That's one of the things that wetalk about too, right?
Like silent, like listening,right?
Even in any, any profession, anyfront facing profession, You
listening to the person in frontof you gets you a lot farther
than you know you running yourmouth, right?
Mm-hmm.
You know, I feel like,especially nowadays, man, like
this is, this is where we're at.
Especially, you know, if you gointo these communities, if you
(09:08):
talk to people who are tryingto, to turn it around, you talk
to people who are trying to havebetter outcomes.
They'll tell you what they need.
Right?
Like the, the solutions aregonna come from within the
communities, it's not gonna comefrom outside.
So there, there's definitely theright perspective.
So let's talk about one of theprograms, uh, that you built,
man, we're gonna get into a lot'cause you into a lot bro, and I
appreciate you.
But one of the programs that youtalk about was Youth in Blue
(09:30):
United.
What is that and how'd you getinto that?
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Youth and Blue United is a program I started to help
bridge the relationship gapbetween the youth and the
police.
Started a few years ago, andwhat made me get into it, I was
taking my position as a policeofficer.
I'm taking my platform because Ibelieve my platform as a police
officer is helping me to reachmore and teach more.
So that was huge to me.
But then I also thought aboutwhat I needed as a youth.
(09:57):
You know, as a youth.
Those was run as, so how can Iconnect both of them?
But in society nowadays, a lotof people saying it, you know,
us versus them as a, as far as.
Youth don't like the police.
Police.
I'm like the youth.
Like, no, I'm in the schoolswhere young people are begging
for youth in Blue United.
You know, where they want thatguidance, they want that
(10:17):
mentorship because they don'thave that at home, you know?
So sometime they come to schoollooking for that guidance and,
and that's what we're here for.
So that's what made me start.
And the program I love the mostthat's been most impactful is
Ignite Your Purpose, which,which, uh, helps young people
discover their.
Who they are, where they going,and uh, their, their vision.
(10:39):
So I think that's been most Iimpactful because I mm-hmm.
I had young people that told methey were failing in class.
They, they didn't wanna come toschool.
They wasn't as aspiring to cometo school until I ran my program
through that school.
And now, you know, they gettinggood grades, they.
I'm making the right decision.
Their, their parents are callingme or emailing or text me and,
and showing up differently.
(11:01):
And so that's the thing.
Mm-hmm.
I believe that if a person isrooting their purpose, they will
always walk with intention.
That's what we're trying to do.
That your purpose give y forattention.
Giving them that, that purposeso they can walk with intention.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
And, it sounds like, it started out, just you Right.
And, and the community reachingout to school.
And now you at a point now whereyou, you're recruiting other
officers to get into schools too'cause the program's building
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Other officers, firefighters
Speaker 5 (11:31):
have, uh, teachers, I have deans also.
So it's teaching.
People that we can't do thisalone.
It is just not police officer.
Mm-hmm.
We need other people in thatcommunity.
So if you are a good person, youa solid citizen, and you have a
story and you're passionateabout this work, you can boo
united and needs you on the teambecause your story need to be
(11:52):
told.
I always like to say, you're theaspirin of someone's headache.
I only we gonna let him suffer.
Mm-hmm.
So your story could be someoneelse's story right now and it
could, it could change thattrajectory.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
In your program now, now is this, you know, are these
just like meetings that you'rehaving with kids or are you
meeting'em outside?
Is there program like mentoringthat's going on?
Both.
So, uh,
Speaker 5 (12:13):
whether it's a church, school, youth based
organization where, where theyouth are needed, I'm, I'm
there, but mainly they're out ofCPS schools.
Peace circles.
I, we would sit our peacecircles and we'd just build, we
just talk.
It's an after workshop.
I give'em thought starters and,and we just talk.
I use this leadership modelcalled Inward.
(12:33):
I word Ford Inward is like weare looking within our, we're
we're connecting how weconnecting with others.
And forward is that intentionand purpose part.
You know, what our goals, ouraspiration, what do we want to
be, who we want to be, that whatthe play, who we should be
hanging out with.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Right, right, right, man.
And like you said, giving thesekids an alternative look.
Right.
Like it so often, especiallylike coming from communities
that we come from, right?
Like being in these situations,you can only see.
What, what you see, I know somany people that we came up with
that had never been outside ofthe city, right?
Had never been to, you know, Ihad know people that had never
(13:10):
been to the lakefront.
Right?
And like for so many kids, thatmay be the only thing that they
see is, you know, the four orfive blocks that they're always
running, man.
So having, having folks, likeyou said, that have walked that
walk, having folks that, youknow, have their best interest
in mind and showing them thesealternatives, teaching them, the
importance of, going to schooland, and, and getting those
grades so you have options,right?
Not to say that, you know,college and everything else
(13:32):
ain't for everybody, but I mean,it, it is one of those things
that you have options, right?
Like you can, you can get out ifyou want.
Carmichael (13:38):
Yep.
I believe exposure, uh, breedsexpansion.
Mm-hmm.
You know, you can only think ofwhat you see.
So if I'm only seeing the personacross the street and what
they're doing, guess what I'mgonna become?
And a little example of myselfis like, you know, my
interaction with police, guesswhat I became?
I became a police.
That's what I saw.
Mm-hmm.
(13:58):
Schools smaller, again, exposingour young people to more, yet
you exposed to the police, butyou're also exposed to teachers,
doctors, lawyers.
Them in front of people justdon't know what they can be.
Chris (14:11):
One of the things that you do outside of that work is
you're a writer too.
You're a author.
Tell us about, you know, thebooks, uh, that you're writing
right now, and what inspires youto start writing.
So, I just
Carmichael (14:22):
finished, I'm finishing up one book called The
Father Effect.
Uh, so I'm still creating thatright now.
It's called The Father Effect.
So it's talking about the, theeffect of fatherhood and how
just.
Father is, is, is, is important.
I just finished a book with my,my, my sons.
It's called What To Do With ADollar, and that's my 11th book.
(14:45):
So, wow.
The story behind that is I, Iadded a little, I had some cash
on me, so I gave my son somemoney and they said, dad, what
I'm gonna do with it, and that'sspark my intrest Like, wow, wow.
He don't know what to build Adollar.
Okay, how can I explain it tohim?
So I said, you know what, that'scoming up with a storyline.
You know, we only, we did aboutfour functions and four
functions are, you know, spendit, save it, invest it, or
(15:07):
donate it.
So all throughout their book,they, they spent, it didn't gain
money back from it.
They saved it, got a littlepenny from it, uh, and then they
invested it.
So once they invested, theyfound out like, wow, I got more
money on my return.
I was able to donate, save, andgust.
And still I'm able to buy somemore ice cream.
So just showing them somethingdifferent.
(15:29):
Every book is tied back to myfamily or it's tied to my
personal life.
My very first book was, that wasof the past.
Hmm.
To me, that helped me getthrough what I was going
through.
Uh, I was kind of going throughsomething, uh.
And my wife said, babe, you, youare, are carrying a lot of
weight from your childhood.
You should write it down.
And I'm like, nah, I'm about towrite it down.
I'm not about to do that.
(15:51):
Mm-hmm.
But then I had time, I said, youknow what?
I have time.
I said, you know what, let meget a journal.
And I started writing.
I started writing, cleared thatjournal, and I cleared that
journal.
I read it and I'm like, wow,I've been through a lot and I'm
here now to talk about it.
What if my story can help savesomeone else?
Mm-hmm.
And so
Speaker 5 (16:09):
I, I turned my, my storm.
Into a story to help others.
Mm-hmm.
And that's what shadows of thepast is from.
So I just love my, I loveputting my, my thoughts on paper
and helping others because I'mleaving that blueprint for not
just my family, for the world,for the, for the future that's
coming behind
Speaker 6 (16:29):
me.
And that's the thing about ittoo, right?
Like I feel like so much in whatwe do.
Right.
Especially when we were comingup.
Right.
You're told just to kind of pushall that down.
Right.
So we have mental healthawareness month coming up too.
And, and for, for a lot of that,especially for young African
American men, you push it alldown and you just keep going.
Right.
You tough it out.
Right.
(16:49):
But that moment that you sitback, right.
And like you said, you got ajournal, your own personal
experience, you were able toread through that story and say,
not only am I able to get the,get this out and reflect and
see.
In front of me all that I wentthrough but how can that story
help somebody else?
And you'd be surprised how manypeople you can help with that
who, even if you're, you'rehelping them realize, hey, you
can reflect on this too, right?
(17:10):
You can, you can do the sameprocess, right?
You can open up and not hold itall in.
Right?
So it's good not only for you,for your communities, but it's
good for mental health of, ofeveryone in our community to do
that.
Oh yeah.
Mental health is important
Speaker 5 (17:23):
to me.
I tell people all day long,respectfully, if you're not
seeing a therapist, man,something wrong with you.
Right.
You can't, you can't carry thisby yourself.
Mm-hmm.
You, you have to have somebodyto, to not say, dump it off on,
but you have to, you have togive this to somebody and you
can't give it to your wife.
You can't give it to your kids.
You, you quote unquote, supposedto be that rock.
(17:45):
You know what I mean?
So again, having my therapist,I've been sitting there for
about five years and she'samazing.
She helped me become the personI am today, and I thank her for
that, and I will never not seetherapy because it got me from a
moment.
It got me from a moment where Iwas like, wow.
Like man, just out of it to amoment where now I'm purposeful
(18:08):
now, now I'm walking withintention, you know?
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
I'm seeing things clear.
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:14):
Yeah, man.
Like I say, if you coming up in,we grew up in a communities like
it, you got trauma, just acceptit.
Yeah, yeah.
Like you said.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's the wrong thing to do.
Not to see somebody that could,to help you carry that and you
know, I, I love that.
Especially like, I feel like ourgeneration and going forward is
more accepting of that'causetrying to tell previous, I
couldn't even imagine tellingsome of our coaches in high
school that.
(18:35):
Right.
Like them having that samementality.
Right.
But I mean, like, that's wherewe gotta go, man.
That's how you, that's how youhave to deal with it.
You have to treat your mentalhealth like you do your physical
health, right?
Yes.
We put a lot of emphasis on youneed a primary doctor, you need
to take your medications, youneed to make sure that you know
where your vital signs are.
You know, it's that vital signof your mental health.
You gotta check in with thattoo, because all of that is
(18:55):
attached to it as well,
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And it's, and it's, it'simportant.
You can't just.
A lot of people use, um, therapyas smoking a cigar or smoking or
vaping.
Right.
Or, or cheating.
Mm-hmm.
Or, you know, you know, it's,it's, it's so many things they
try to put in place.
It's like, man, just get infront of somebody and talk to
somebody.
You'll be surprised.
Right.
You'll be surprised.
Uh, and again, and my therapistkind of help me come up with
(19:20):
something different where I wentback to go get certified to be a
life coach.
You know, so now I'm a certifiedlife coach where I'm able to, to
talk to people and handlesituations differently,
Speaker 6 (19:33):
In addition, you have programs in, entrepreneurship,
real estate too, right?
Which one of your programs isthe one that you feel like
you're most proud of right nowand the more one that's having
the most impact?
Yeah, I would say
Speaker 5 (19:45):
ignites your purpose.
Ignites your purpose, because Ibelieve the young people like
purchase.
That's why they're out heredoing what they're doing.
Again, if your purpose is to,I'm gonna say it'cause every
young person wanna gets to thatand that, and that be gonna be
a, you know, so if your purposeis to go there, what's your
crowd look like?
Who are am?
Mm-hmm.
(20:05):
What are you doing?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
How are you waking up?
What are you doing at now?
What are you eat?
What are you watching, what areyou listening to?
All those, all those are keyfacts, like how you showing up
in school.
Because how you do anything ishow you do everything.
Be mindful of what you're doing.
Like, are you stand up lateplaying video games while you
getting your rest?
(20:26):
You know, where's yourcommunity?
And I'm not talking aboutcommunity outside your own, I'm
talking about your, who's yourcommunity inside your, your
family, your parents, you know?
So it's just, again, askingthose right questions with them
to see, okay, show me that road.
Speaker 7 (20:42):
Show me those five steps to get there.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
And that's the thing, right?
A lot of the lot, lot of folksdon't, they don't go past that,
right?
The initial, I'm gonna go to theNBA, I'm gonna go to the NFL,
I'm gonna start a business, It'sthat path up to it, right?
That, that you have to do.
And, and it is not the kid'sfault.
They don't know, right?
You don't know these steps and,and, and as a child you're not
thinking about it.
And in the front of your mind,you just said, this is my goal.
I'm gonna get that by any meansnecessary.
(21:05):
A lot of times for a lot offolks, like those, those goals.
I mean, if you think about, youknow, we, we went to an abnormal
high school, we had abnormalamount of people that went to
the NFL.
Right?
So that is not normal.
Right.
But at the same time, it's thatthing of if you don't make it
right, right.
Like, do you take advantage ofthe opportunities in front of
you?
Do you put yourself in thesituation?
(21:25):
You know, alright.
I didn't make it to the NFL, butI made it to college and I'm
gonna do this with the degreethat I was able to get.
The majority of us who went tocollege and played in college,
that's what we did.
Right.
And so, you know, that's thething about it.
If you, if you're putting inthat work, if you're thinking
how you gonna get there, one ofthose steps involved is gonna
put you in a good position whereyou can.
Build relationships with peoplethat you can, you know, like
Carmichael that's gone, put youin a position that you can
(21:47):
achieve your goal or you can bein a situation where you know,
X, Y, and Z person that can getyou up there, you know, when
you, when you want to get there.
Right.
So it's so important to haveprograms like that.
So important to have investmentin community like you doing.
Yeah, I think it's important
Speaker 5 (22:00):
because the end goal right is, say in the NFL.
But imagine the character yougot to have behind it, the
resiliency.
Mm-hmm.
You know, the discipline behindit.
So at the end of the day, guesswhat?
You don't make it to the NFL.
Look who you become along theway.
Mm-hmm.
So to hit it on the head, whatyou just said, you're absolutely
right.
So it's like you look at the,the character you're building
(22:21):
along the way.
So if you do make it great, butif you don't guess what you
still, you still gonna take thatsame energy and that same focus
and put it somewhere else.
Mm-hmm.
So I call it having two plan A.
Speaker 6 (22:33):
Exactly.
Exactly.
And that's a, that's the thing,you know, a lot of our coaches,
especially in high school and incollege too, a lot of'em had the
mentality of you gonna beprofessional in something.
Right.
And so that mentality that yougotta have to get to the NFL,
like you said, that discipline.
Get to the, get to the NBA,right?
That, that, that resilience havethat good community around you,
that that friend group aroundyou, et cetera, all those things
(22:55):
are still gonna be important.
Like even if you don't make itto the NFL, right?
Even if you don't make it tothat, to that, to that level
that you want to be, and so,those structure that you're
putting in place are gonna makeyou successful and gonna keep
you in that position.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
A hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
What structural barriers.
Keep you up at night, in theemergency department.
I see people at the worst timein their lives as a police
officer.
You see people at the worst timeof their lives too sometimes.
But are there any structuralbarriers that you see as
barriers that keep you up atnight?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
The only barrier that comes to mind is yes, if I get
taken away too soon where my,my.
I didn't put the right peopleand the right system in place
for this to go on forgenerations because I believe
this business and, mentorshipprogram is important.
So me get taken away before ithad been birth, because I can
see this all across the world,you know, uh, officers, uh, and
(23:46):
officers are doing this already,right?
It's a different type of purposethat you need to have with this.
It's, it's a, it is a certaincurriculum that I have where it
teaches to be a little bit morepatient, a little bit more
positive, uh, passionate aboutwhat you do.
Yeah.
So that's, I I think that's whatkeeps me up at night.
(24:07):
The simple fact that, uh, if, ifI get taken away too soon and
the, the vision hasn't beenplanned or me putting systems in
place to keep this going.
Speaker 6 (24:16):
Yeah, man.
Yeah, absolutely.
And for someone, let's say, youknow, a kid is out here
listening.
We got a lot of listeners from,from all over the city of
Milwaukee, all, all around thecountry at this point.
But for somebody who's listeningthat feels like they're kinda
locked in, right, like they'relocked in, limited by their zip
code, limited by their history,limited by their situation, what
is some advice that you wouldgive them to push past that?
Speaker 5 (24:37):
A quote I live by is, and it's, I made this quote,
quote up, is, don't let whereyou from determine who you
become.
Because a lot of times we getstagnant and I'm just from here.
I'm just this, I'm just that.
Don't look at where you from.
Look at who you could become.
And I think that's way moreimportant where again.
(25:00):
Identifying a purpose,identifying a vision, and know
exactly who you need to hangwith, who you need to be
surrounded by.
You know, uh, identifyaccountability partner.
You know, if you do 1% each andevery day, that's 365% a year
that you, you are increasing onyourself.
So you must value yourselfdifferently.
Look at your, look at yourselfin the mirror.
(25:21):
Sometimes you have to giveyourself positive affirmations.
Mm-hmm.
Most of the time, we, we, welisten to ourself instead of
talking to ourself.
I think we need to do moretalking to ourself, you know,
saying I am.
Mm-hmm.
You know, so pouring thatpositive spirit in your life
will be very important and thenmake a difference when you start
talking to yourself and stoplistening to yourself.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Absolutely, man.
I was just recently on, um, uh,a guest on the podcast and, and
the way that we closed it outwas she asked me a question that
I'm gonna ask to you here, andone of the things is, you know,
what would you tell your16-year-old self, if you could
go back right now and you know,you, you had the DeLorean, what
would you say to yourself as a16-year-old because you'd be
(26:03):
surprised how effective and how.
Influential that can be onsomebody who is in that
situation that you may have beenin when you were 16.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
Hmm.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Man, that's a good one.
I'm gonna go back to the
Speaker 5 (26:13):
affirmation because I, I didn't start talking to
myself until I was an, an adultto sell, to sell, to tell.
My 16-year-old self
Speaker 7 (26:22):
tell you are amazing.
You can do anything.
You are kind, no matter whatyou've been through,
Speaker 5 (26:32):
you can be somebody.
So just pouring into that, thatthat young person to let'em know
what they can become.
So that's what I'll say to myyounger self.
Just, just pointing to'empositively.
Absolutely, man.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
Absolutely.
Well, for our listeners outthere, how could they get
involved?
I'm really looking forward to,to getting your program in front
of some people out here inMilwaukee to see if we can maybe
get you up here as well.
But how can people reach out?
How can they find moreinformation?
Just how can they get theirhands on one of your books too?
Speaker 5 (27:02):
So you go on, uh, www.youthandblueunited.org.
That's where my, my website isand my books are all on Amazon.
Like I said, I have about 11books.
You can put Carmichael Lewis onyour, in your Amazon account,
and all my books will pop up.
And especially for the onesthat's, that's the teenagers.
It's one called The UltimateTeenager Guy, which is what I
(27:23):
run my igniter purpose bookthrough.
I learned that certain amount ofyoung people.
I'm unable to read, so I had topull the knowledge out of the
book for my adults.
That's listening.
The Gold mine is a good one.
It teaches people how to staypositive in negative situations
you got the Mommy and me for thenewer moms.
You got the daddy in me for theno Dad.
(27:44):
So yeah, but
Speaker 7 (27:46):
just look on, uh, and
Speaker 6 (27:49):
name.
That's what's up, man.
That's what's up.
Well, brother Cargo, Iappreciate you, man.
It's been powerful.
I appreciate you sharing yourstory, especially growth, the
work with teenagers, lawenforcement, man, as you're
doing all our community.
Thank you for doing all that.
It definitely matters in what wedoing, man.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Hey, I appreciate you
Speaker 6 (28:07):
Time me, doctor.
Absolutely, brother.
A common thing that we see inmedicine as well as any other
professional endeavor is if youhave someone who is from the
communities that they aretreating, or from the
communities that they'reworking, how much of a
difference it makes to engagethat community, how much
(28:28):
difference representation makesin almost any field that you can
think of.
And so.
Well, that's one of the reasonswhy I wanted to bring Carmichael
on here, because again, youknow, we both came from these
communities that he has decidedto make his passion to make a
difference in by implementingsome of what he has learned,
some of what he has been throughin order to help the next
(28:52):
generation.
Policing is one of those fieldsthat we need more representation
in from our communities becausethere are things that are
unspoken in our communities.
There are cultural contexts thatwe need in order to foster that
relationship between thecommunities and the police in
order to help facilitatecommunity growth.
(29:13):
Right.
I know people who have had badrun-ins with police.
I've had bad run-ins with policeas well, but there's also been
some positive with police ingrowing up, a lot of my coaches
in high school were policeofficers and they were very
clear in telling us how to carryourselves when we go outside.
And so this is the context thatCarmichael is trying to.
(29:35):
Teach the next generation, andfrankly, this is something that
we need to continue to support,not only here in Milwaukee, but
all throughout the country, i'msure a lot of the communities
would, would be receptive of ittoo.
So.
Looking forward to helping tofoster any relationship that I
can with our, uh, common councilhere, with our state
(29:58):
legislature, any way that we canto help get a program like this
here in Wisconsin.
Looking forward to seeing youall on the next episode.
And with that being said.
Welcome to pulse check, Wisconsin.
(01:03):
Good morning, good evening, goodafternoon.
This is Dr.
Ford Post Check Wisconsin.
I wanna thank you for joining ushere again today.
Today we have another specialepisode for you.
We have with us OfficerCarmichael Lewis.
It's interesting how things workout.
Uh, Carmichael and I went tohigh school together and I
hadn't seen him in probablyabout maybe 10 years or so.
(01:25):
I, and I was recently back inChicago for a family event and
just happened to run into himrandomly at a coffee shop.
It is crazy because I had beenmeaning to get him on the show,
and I think we even spoke onceon Instagram about getting him
on and talking about some of hisprograms and there he was.
Carmichael has been a policeofficer for a number of years as
(01:48):
we get into in the interview.
But I thought it'd be good forhim to come on so we can talk
about some of the achievementsthat he's had with his programs
and, hopefully we can getsomething like that going here
in the city of Milwaukee.
So with that being said, let'sget it.
(02:17):
We got Carmichael Lewis here with us.
He's a public safetyprofessional author, an
entrepreneur, a youth mentor aswell.
And he is a founder of someprograms that we're gonna get
into here that help young menreshape their futures.
So with that being said,Carmichael man, thanks for being
with us.
Thank you for having me, Dr.
Ford.
yeah, man.
Can you take us back to your,you tell me like where you came
(02:38):
from, um, and, and, and we'llkind of parlay that into, you
know, how you changed yourtrajectory into where you're at
right now.
Sounds good.
Uh,
Carmichael (02:47):
raised on the south side of Chicago, Morgan Park
community, not too short thananybody else in the, in, in, in,
uh, in the Chicago Chicagolandarea growing up.
Faced a little bit of adversity,you know, um, but stayed
resilient.
You know, I'm, I'm here todayjust to, give back to, to young
people and give them the rightdirection to path
Speaker 6 (03:04):
So, we, we talked a little bit beforehand about, how
you realized that you were on acertain trajectory, like when we
were growing up, right?
So, carmic and I went to schooltogether.
We grew up together in highschool, and you realize, you
know, you needed to make achange.
You had to move yourself from,as you put it in, in your bio
from one of those kids withproblems to someone that's
determined to make a difference.
What was that catalyst for you?
That realization that you neededto change the direction you were
(03:25):
going?
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Really my.
The, the people I hung out with,you know, uh, I, I realized that
the people I was hanging outwith, um, didn't match my, my
future at the, my present didn'tmatch my future because of the
crowd I was hanging out with.
So I had to stop hanging aroundwith that crowd because it was
sending me in the wrongdirection.
Um, and that's why to me, Ibelieve that mentorship,
(03:47):
mentorship matters because Ididn't have that direction.
I didn't have that, that guidinglight.
I didn't have that person I cancall to.
So I kind of created thosedecisions.
Yeah, man.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
So, yeah, you know, like you said, you know, it
coming outta where we came from,bro.
Like a lot of people that wecame up with didn't make it or
they're in prison right now.
Right?
And so that is the hardcorereality I taught.
We was talking about it onanother episode that we had
where we're talking aboutteenagers, right?
So especially.
teenage boys growing up in rurallocations, they gonna do stupid
stuff like we did, right?
Like everybody does stupid stuffwhen you're a teenager'cause you
(04:18):
know just how you are.
But for us, those stakes arehigher.
You know, we ain't tipping overcows.
It's different high stakes, andyou end up in situations where,
you know, you may be 15, 16years old, but you doing stuff
that could put you, you know,behind bars for, federal time.
Right.
Or, you may be even be out herelosing your life, bro.
So, you know, we, we alwayswanna make sure we put programs
(04:40):
like yours out there.
We always wanna make sure thatwe gravitate towards these
programs that we'll get into aswell.
So, after that you went intopolicing, man.
What originally drew you topolicing after having, those
interactions in the past?
I realized that, uh, growing
Carmichael (04:54):
up in Morgan Park community, I never saw black and
brown police officers.
Mm-hmm.
And if you did see the police,it'd just be calls for service.
You know, they come on the call,they're riding by, and I'm like,
you know what?
If we had that officer, they'lljust come by and just check on
your wellbeing.
Just see how you doing, or giveyou direction or give you
(05:14):
resources.
I'm like, okay.
What if I become an officer Ineeded growing up, what, what if
I became an officer I, which Iwould've saw, and I just became
that.
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
Yeah.
And how long you been in the,how long you been in policing
now, man?
Speaker 5 (05:27):
17 years.
17 years.
I've been the police.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
Wow.
Yeah.
Is there any moment in yourcareer, and of course we'll get
into, you know, youth and BlueUnited, but is there any moment
in your career during, you know,your police work that profoundly
impacted you, any of thosemoments that, put you in that
direction of, you know, changingyour view of the community, of,
of duty as well?
I, I think it, it goes back tothose run-ins
Speaker 5 (05:51):
I have with law enforcement.
It is like, I'm not trying togive, not trying to say law
enforcement should do more orneed to do more.
Sometimes the police is onlythat, that the only positive
figure they will ever see, somm-hmm.
What if we can leave that personbetter than way we found them?
For example, when, when myinteractions like.
I didn't have the resource.
I didn't know the resources.
(06:11):
I'm not telling them they shouldhave gave me the resources.
You know, that's for my parentsto do, right.
Or for me to look for it.
Right.
But if I didn't have thatdirection or that guidance or
that knowledge to know where togo, it could have just been
something like, Hey, you knowwhat, why don't you, um, stop
with the wrong crowd?
He put a mentorship program foryou.
Mm-hmm.
You know?
(06:31):
Mm-hmm.
Why?
Why don't you go, uh, I see youkeep hanging with this person
because every time I come here,I see you here.
Why don't you try to hang withsomeone else, someone different,
you know, you seem like a goodperson.
Why don't you, you know, justkind of give you direction.
So I believe that, um, that'swhat kind of made me, uh, uh,
think about policingdifferently.
I, I've called it policing witha passion.
(06:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:54):
Yeah.
You know, we had a, uh, aepisode, Mariah The Weather
Bookie came on and she talkedabout some of the programs that
she's doing here in Milwaukee.
We got a big problem with, uh,reckless driving, right?
And so she talked about, her ownpersonal experience, you know,
her brother ended up dying in areckless driving accident.
And how traditionally,especially in our communities
too, right?
(07:14):
Like a lot of it is don't talkto the police, right?
Like, don't, you can't trust'em.
You can't do X, Y, and Z, andso, how she really flipped that,
180 in her mind when she got toworking with police officers,
especially those that areinvested like you, Carmichael in
the community.
How those individuals arereaching out to the communities,
providing those resources,giving that alternative view of
(07:36):
the community as well to peoplewho are coming up saying like,
Hey man, like these are otherthings you can look into if
you're not getting that at homeor if you're not getting that,
you know, from your friendgroup, you're kicking it with,
so, you know, it, it is evenmore of a testimony to the work
that you're doing and the workthat people like you are doing
that are wearing the badgepeople that are in the community
as well.
It's funny that you said that
Speaker 5 (07:55):
because.
When I first got got on youthinking that the uniform put
you in a position to be incharge, right?
Or that you can get informationfrom people and, no, that's not
it.
So I came in with a, with adifferent mindset.
So I had to realize that, wait,hold on, I'm gonna have to deal
with trust, you know, and builda trust takes time.
(08:17):
You know, it could becommunication, it could be
asking the right questions, forexample.
Some people may show up onsinging and say, Hey, um, what
is it you need?
You know who called Right?
When I show up, I may ask, howcan I help?
Or I may just listen becausethey're gonna tell their story
or you gonna hear their needonce they start thinking.
(08:39):
So I believe just ask them, ask,ask them the right question.
And sometimes silent is, is.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 6 (08:47):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, man.
That's one of the things that wetalk about too, right?
Like silent, like listening,right?
Even in any, any profession, anyfront facing profession, You
listening to the person in frontof you gets you a lot farther
than you know you running yourmouth, right?
Mm-hmm.
You know, I feel like,especially nowadays, man, like
this is, this is where we're at.
Especially, you know, if you gointo these communities, if you
(09:08):
talk to people who are tryingto, to turn it around, you talk
to people who are trying to havebetter outcomes.
They'll tell you what they need.
Right?
Like the, the solutions aregonna come from within the
communities, it's not gonna comefrom outside.
So there, there's definitely theright perspective.
So let's talk about one of theprograms, uh, that you built,
man, we're gonna get into a lot'cause you into a lot bro, and I
appreciate you.
But one of the programs that youtalk about was Youth in Blue
(09:30):
United.
What is that and how'd you getinto that?
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Youth and Blue United is a program I started to help
bridge the relationship gapbetween the youth and the
police.
Started a few years ago, andwhat made me get into it, I was
taking my position as a policeofficer.
I'm taking my platform because Ibelieve my platform as a police
officer is helping me to reachmore and teach more.
So that was huge to me.
But then I also thought aboutwhat I needed as a youth.
(09:57):
You know, as a youth.
Those was run as, so how can Iconnect both of them?
But in society nowadays, a lotof people saying it, you know,
us versus them as a, as far as.
Youth don't like the police.
Police.
I'm like the youth.
Like, no, I'm in the schoolswhere young people are begging
for youth in Blue United.
You know, where they want thatguidance, they want that
(10:17):
mentorship because they don'thave that at home, you know?
So sometime they come to schoollooking for that guidance and,
and that's what we're here for.
So that's what made me start.
And the program I love the mostthat's been most impactful is
Ignite Your Purpose, which,which, uh, helps young people
discover their.
Who they are, where they going,and uh, their, their vision.
(10:39):
So I think that's been most Iimpactful because I mm-hmm.
I had young people that told methey were failing in class.
They, they didn't wanna come toschool.
They wasn't as aspiring to cometo school until I ran my program
through that school.
And now, you know, they gettinggood grades, they.
I'm making the right decision.
Their, their parents are callingme or emailing or text me and,
and showing up differently.
(11:01):
And so that's the thing.
Mm-hmm.
I believe that if a person isrooting their purpose, they will
always walk with intention.
That's what we're trying to do.
That your purpose give y forattention.
Giving them that, that purposeso they can walk with intention.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
And, it sounds like, it started out, just you Right.
And, and the community reachingout to school.
And now you at a point now whereyou, you're recruiting other
officers to get into schools too'cause the program's building
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (11:28):
Other officers, firefighters
Speaker 5 (11:31):
have, uh, teachers, I have deans also.
So it's teaching.
People that we can't do thisalone.
It is just not police officer.
Mm-hmm.
We need other people in thatcommunity.
So if you are a good person, youa solid citizen, and you have a
story and you're passionateabout this work, you can boo
united and needs you on the teambecause your story need to be
(11:52):
told.
I always like to say, you're theaspirin of someone's headache.
I only we gonna let him suffer.
Mm-hmm.
So your story could be someoneelse's story right now and it
could, it could change thattrajectory.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
In your program now, now is this, you know, are these
just like meetings that you'rehaving with kids or are you
meeting'em outside?
Is there program like mentoringthat's going on?
Both.
So, uh,
Speaker 5 (12:13):
whether it's a church, school, youth based
organization where, where theyouth are needed, I'm, I'm
there, but mainly they're out ofCPS schools.
Peace circles.
I, we would sit our peacecircles and we'd just build, we
just talk.
It's an after workshop.
I give'em thought starters and,and we just talk.
I use this leadership modelcalled Inward.
(12:33):
I word Ford Inward is like weare looking within our, we're
we're connecting how weconnecting with others.
And forward is that intentionand purpose part.
You know, what our goals, ouraspiration, what do we want to
be, who we want to be, that whatthe play, who we should be
hanging out with.
Speaker 6 (12:50):
Right, right, right, man.
And like you said, giving thesekids an alternative look.
Right.
Like it so often, especiallylike coming from communities
that we come from, right?
Like being in these situations,you can only see.
What, what you see, I know somany people that we came up with
that had never been outside ofthe city, right?
Had never been to, you know, Ihad know people that had never
(13:10):
been to the lakefront.
Right?
And like for so many kids, thatmay be the only thing that they
see is, you know, the four orfive blocks that they're always
running, man.
So having, having folks, likeyou said, that have walked that
walk, having folks that, youknow, have their best interest
in mind and showing them thesealternatives, teaching them, the
importance of, going to schooland, and, and getting those
grades so you have options,right?
Not to say that, you know,college and everything else
(13:32):
ain't for everybody, but I mean,it, it is one of those things
that you have options, right?
Like you can, you can get out ifyou want.
Carmichael (13:38):
Yep.
I believe exposure, uh, breedsexpansion.
Mm-hmm.
You know, you can only think ofwhat you see.
So if I'm only seeing the personacross the street and what
they're doing, guess what I'mgonna become?
And a little example of myselfis like, you know, my
interaction with police, guesswhat I became?
I became a police.
That's what I saw.
Mm-hmm.
(13:58):
Schools smaller, again, exposingour young people to more, yet
you exposed to the police, butyou're also exposed to teachers,
doctors, lawyers.
Them in front of people justdon't know what they can be.
Chris (14:11):
One of the things that you do outside of that work is
you're a writer too.
You're a author.
Tell us about, you know, thebooks, uh, that you're writing
right now, and what inspires youto start writing.
So, I just
Carmichael (14:22):
finished, I'm finishing up one book called The
Father Effect.
Uh, so I'm still creating thatright now.
It's called The Father Effect.
So it's talking about the, theeffect of fatherhood and how
just.
Father is, is, is, is important.
I just finished a book with my,my, my sons.
It's called What To Do With ADollar, and that's my 11th book.
(14:45):
So, wow.
The story behind that is I, Iadded a little, I had some cash
on me, so I gave my son somemoney and they said, dad, what
I'm gonna do with it, and that'sspark my intrest Like, wow, wow.
He don't know what to build Adollar.
Okay, how can I explain it tohim?
So I said, you know what, that'scoming up with a storyline.
You know, we only, we did aboutfour functions and four
functions are, you know, spendit, save it, invest it, or
(15:07):
donate it.
So all throughout their book,they, they spent, it didn't gain
money back from it.
They saved it, got a littlepenny from it, uh, and then they
invested it.
So once they invested, theyfound out like, wow, I got more
money on my return.
I was able to donate, save, andgust.
And still I'm able to buy somemore ice cream.
So just showing them somethingdifferent.
(15:29):
Every book is tied back to myfamily or it's tied to my
personal life.
My very first book was, that wasof the past.
Hmm.
To me, that helped me getthrough what I was going
through.
Uh, I was kind of going throughsomething, uh.
And my wife said, babe, you, youare, are carrying a lot of
weight from your childhood.
You should write it down.
And I'm like, nah, I'm about towrite it down.
I'm not about to do that.
(15:51):
Mm-hmm.
But then I had time, I said, youknow what?
I have time.
I said, you know what, let meget a journal.
And I started writing.
I started writing, cleared thatjournal, and I cleared that
journal.
I read it and I'm like, wow,I've been through a lot and I'm
here now to talk about it.
What if my story can help savesomeone else?
Mm-hmm.
And so
Speaker 5 (16:09):
I, I turned my, my storm.
Into a story to help others.
Mm-hmm.
And that's what shadows of thepast is from.
So I just love my, I loveputting my, my thoughts on paper
and helping others because I'mleaving that blueprint for not
just my family, for the world,for the, for the future that's
coming behind
Speaker 6 (16:29):
me.
And that's the thing about ittoo, right?
Like I feel like so much in whatwe do.
Right.
Especially when we were comingup.
Right.
You're told just to kind of pushall that down.
Right.
So we have mental healthawareness month coming up too.
And, and for, for a lot of that,especially for young African
American men, you push it alldown and you just keep going.
Right.
You tough it out.
Right.
(16:49):
But that moment that you sitback, right.
And like you said, you got ajournal, your own personal
experience, you were able toread through that story and say,
not only am I able to get the,get this out and reflect and
see.
In front of me all that I wentthrough but how can that story
help somebody else?
And you'd be surprised how manypeople you can help with that
who, even if you're, you'rehelping them realize, hey, you
can reflect on this too, right?
(17:10):
You can, you can do the sameprocess, right?
You can open up and not hold itall in.
Right?
So it's good not only for you,for your communities, but it's
good for mental health of, ofeveryone in our community to do
that.
Oh yeah.
Mental health is important
Speaker 5 (17:23):
to me.
I tell people all day long,respectfully, if you're not
seeing a therapist, man,something wrong with you.
Right.
You can't, you can't carry thisby yourself.
Mm-hmm.
You, you have to have somebodyto, to not say, dump it off on,
but you have to, you have togive this to somebody and you
can't give it to your wife.
You can't give it to your kids.
You, you quote unquote, supposedto be that rock.
(17:45):
You know what I mean?
So again, having my therapist,I've been sitting there for
about five years and she'samazing.
She helped me become the personI am today, and I thank her for
that, and I will never not seetherapy because it got me from a
moment.
It got me from a moment where Iwas like, wow.
Like man, just out of it to amoment where now I'm purposeful
(18:08):
now, now I'm walking withintention, you know?
Speaker 6 (18:11):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
I'm seeing things clear.
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:14):
Yeah, man.
Like I say, if you coming up in,we grew up in a communities like
it, you got trauma, just acceptit.
Yeah, yeah.
Like you said.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's the wrong thing to do.
Not to see somebody that could,to help you carry that and you
know, I, I love that.
Especially like, I feel like ourgeneration and going forward is
more accepting of that'causetrying to tell previous, I
couldn't even imagine tellingsome of our coaches in high
school that.
(18:35):
Right.
Like them having that samementality.
Right.
But I mean, like, that's wherewe gotta go, man.
That's how you, that's how youhave to deal with it.
You have to treat your mentalhealth like you do your physical
health, right?
Yes.
We put a lot of emphasis on youneed a primary doctor, you need
to take your medications, youneed to make sure that you know
where your vital signs are.
You know, it's that vital signof your mental health.
You gotta check in with thattoo, because all of that is
(18:55):
attached to it as well,
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And it's, and it's, it'simportant.
You can't just.
A lot of people use, um, therapyas smoking a cigar or smoking or
vaping.
Right.
Or, or cheating.
Mm-hmm.
Or, you know, you know, it's,it's, it's so many things they
try to put in place.
It's like, man, just get infront of somebody and talk to
somebody.
You'll be surprised.
Right.
You'll be surprised.
Uh, and again, and my therapistkind of help me come up with
(19:20):
something different where I wentback to go get certified to be a
life coach.
You know, so now I'm a certifiedlife coach where I'm able to, to
talk to people and handlesituations differently,
Speaker 6 (19:33):
In addition, you have programs in, entrepreneurship,
real estate too, right?
Which one of your programs isthe one that you feel like
you're most proud of right nowand the more one that's having
the most impact?
Yeah, I would say
Speaker 5 (19:45):
ignites your purpose.
Ignites your purpose, because Ibelieve the young people like
purchase.
That's why they're out heredoing what they're doing.
Again, if your purpose is to,I'm gonna say it'cause every
young person wanna gets to thatand that, and that be gonna be
a, you know, so if your purposeis to go there, what's your
crowd look like?
Who are am?
Mm-hmm.
(20:05):
What are you doing?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
How are you waking up?
What are you doing at now?
What are you eat?
What are you watching, what areyou listening to?
All those, all those are keyfacts, like how you showing up
in school.
Because how you do anything ishow you do everything.
Be mindful of what you're doing.
Like, are you stand up lateplaying video games while you
getting your rest?
(20:26):
You know, where's yourcommunity?
And I'm not talking aboutcommunity outside your own, I'm
talking about your, who's yourcommunity inside your, your
family, your parents, you know?
So it's just, again, askingthose right questions with them
to see, okay, show me that road.
Speaker 7 (20:42):
Show me those five steps to get there.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
And that's the thing, right?
A lot of the lot, lot of folksdon't, they don't go past that,
right?
The initial, I'm gonna go to theNBA, I'm gonna go to the NFL,
I'm gonna start a business, It'sthat path up to it, right?
That, that you have to do.
And, and it is not the kid'sfault.
They don't know, right?
You don't know these steps and,and, and as a child you're not
thinking about it.
And in the front of your mind,you just said, this is my goal.
I'm gonna get that by any meansnecessary.
(21:05):
A lot of times for a lot offolks, like those, those goals.
I mean, if you think about, youknow, we, we went to an abnormal
high school, we had abnormalamount of people that went to
the NFL.
Right?
So that is not normal.
Right.
But at the same time, it's thatthing of if you don't make it
right, right.
Like, do you take advantage ofthe opportunities in front of
you?
Do you put yourself in thesituation?
(21:25):
You know, alright.
I didn't make it to the NFL, butI made it to college and I'm
gonna do this with the degreethat I was able to get.
The majority of us who went tocollege and played in college,
that's what we did.
Right.
And so, you know, that's thething about it.
If you, if you're putting inthat work, if you're thinking
how you gonna get there, one ofthose steps involved is gonna
put you in a good position whereyou can.
Build relationships with peoplethat you can, you know, like
Carmichael that's gone, put youin a position that you can
(21:47):
achieve your goal or you can bein a situation where you know,
X, Y, and Z person that can getyou up there, you know, when
you, when you want to get there.
Right.
So it's so important to haveprograms like that.
So important to have investmentin community like you doing.
Yeah, I think it's important
Speaker 5 (22:00):
because the end goal right is, say in the NFL.
But imagine the character yougot to have behind it, the
resiliency.
Mm-hmm.
You know, the discipline behindit.
So at the end of the day, guesswhat?
You don't make it to the NFL.
Look who you become along theway.
Mm-hmm.
So to hit it on the head, whatyou just said, you're absolutely
right.
So it's like you look at the,the character you're building
(22:21):
along the way.
So if you do make it great, butif you don't guess what you
still, you still gonna take thatsame energy and that same focus
and put it somewhere else.
Mm-hmm.
So I call it having two plan A.
Speaker 6 (22:33):
Exactly.
Exactly.
And that's a, that's the thing,you know, a lot of our coaches,
especially in high school and incollege too, a lot of'em had the
mentality of you gonna beprofessional in something.
Right.
And so that mentality that yougotta have to get to the NFL,
like you said, that discipline.
Get to the, get to the NBA,right?
That, that, that resilience havethat good community around you,
that that friend group aroundyou, et cetera, all those things
(22:55):
are still gonna be important.
Like even if you don't make itto the NFL, right?
Even if you don't make it tothat, to that, to that level
that you want to be, and so,those structure that you're
putting in place are gonna makeyou successful and gonna keep
you in that position.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
A hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
What structural barriers.
Keep you up at night, in theemergency department.
I see people at the worst timein their lives as a police
officer.
You see people at the worst timeof their lives too sometimes.
But are there any structuralbarriers that you see as
barriers that keep you up atnight?
Speaker 5 (23:22):
The only barrier that comes to mind is yes, if I get
taken away too soon where my,my.
I didn't put the right peopleand the right system in place
for this to go on forgenerations because I believe
this business and, mentorshipprogram is important.
So me get taken away before ithad been birth, because I can
see this all across the world,you know, uh, officers, uh, and
(23:46):
officers are doing this already,right?
It's a different type of purposethat you need to have with this.
It's, it's a, it is a certaincurriculum that I have where it
teaches to be a little bit morepatient, a little bit more
positive, uh, passionate aboutwhat you do.
Yeah.
So that's, I I think that's whatkeeps me up at night.
(24:07):
The simple fact that, uh, if, ifI get taken away too soon and
the, the vision hasn't beenplanned or me putting systems in
place to keep this going.
Speaker 6 (24:16):
Yeah, man.
Yeah, absolutely.
And for someone, let's say, youknow, a kid is out here
listening.
We got a lot of listeners from,from all over the city of
Milwaukee, all, all around thecountry at this point.
But for somebody who's listeningthat feels like they're kinda
locked in, right, like they'relocked in, limited by their zip
code, limited by their history,limited by their situation, what
is some advice that you wouldgive them to push past that?
Speaker 5 (24:37):
A quote I live by is, and it's, I made this quote,
quote up, is, don't let whereyou from determine who you
become.
Because a lot of times we getstagnant and I'm just from here.
I'm just this, I'm just that.
Don't look at where you from.
Look at who you could become.
And I think that's way moreimportant where again.
(25:00):
Identifying a purpose,identifying a vision, and know
exactly who you need to hangwith, who you need to be
surrounded by.
You know, uh, identifyaccountability partner.
You know, if you do 1% each andevery day, that's 365% a year
that you, you are increasing onyourself.
So you must value yourselfdifferently.
Look at your, look at yourselfin the mirror.
(25:21):
Sometimes you have to giveyourself positive affirmations.
Mm-hmm.
Most of the time, we, we, welisten to ourself instead of
talking to ourself.
I think we need to do moretalking to ourself, you know,
saying I am.
Mm-hmm.
You know, so pouring thatpositive spirit in your life
will be very important and thenmake a difference when you start
talking to yourself and stoplistening to yourself.
Speaker 6 (25:42):
Absolutely, man.
I was just recently on, um, uh,a guest on the podcast and, and
the way that we closed it outwas she asked me a question that
I'm gonna ask to you here, andone of the things is, you know,
what would you tell your16-year-old self, if you could
go back right now and you know,you, you had the DeLorean, what
would you say to yourself as a16-year-old because you'd be
(26:03):
surprised how effective and how.
Influential that can be onsomebody who is in that
situation that you may have beenin when you were 16.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
Hmm.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Man, that's a good one.
I'm gonna go back to the
Speaker 5 (26:13):
affirmation because I, I didn't start talking to
myself until I was an, an adultto sell, to sell, to tell.
My 16-year-old self
Speaker 7 (26:22):
tell you are amazing.
You can do anything.
You are kind, no matter whatyou've been through,
Speaker 5 (26:32):
you can be somebody.
So just pouring into that, thatthat young person to let'em know
what they can become.
So that's what I'll say to myyounger self.
Just, just pointing to'empositively.
Absolutely, man.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
Absolutely.
Well, for our listeners outthere, how could they get
involved?
I'm really looking forward to,to getting your program in front
of some people out here inMilwaukee to see if we can maybe
get you up here as well.
But how can people reach out?
How can they find moreinformation?
Just how can they get theirhands on one of your books too?
Speaker 5 (27:02):
So you go on, uh, www.youthandblueunited.org.
That's where my, my website isand my books are all on Amazon.
Like I said, I have about 11books.
You can put Carmichael Lewis onyour, in your Amazon account,
and all my books will pop up.
And especially for the onesthat's, that's the teenagers.
It's one called The UltimateTeenager Guy, which is what I
(27:23):
run my igniter purpose bookthrough.
I learned that certain amount ofyoung people.
I'm unable to read, so I had topull the knowledge out of the
book for my adults.
That's listening.
The Gold mine is a good one.
It teaches people how to staypositive in negative situations
you got the Mommy and me for thenewer moms.
You got the daddy in me for theno Dad.
(27:44):
So yeah, but
Speaker 7 (27:46):
just look on, uh, and
Speaker 6 (27:49):
name.
That's what's up, man.
That's what's up.
Well, brother Cargo, Iappreciate you, man.
It's been powerful.
I appreciate you sharing yourstory, especially growth, the
work with teenagers, lawenforcement, man, as you're
doing all our community.
Thank you for doing all that.
It definitely matters in what wedoing, man.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Hey, I appreciate you
Speaker 6 (28:07):
Time me, doctor.
Absolutely, brother.
A common thing that we see inmedicine as well as any other
professional endeavor is if youhave someone who is from the
communities that they aretreating, or from the
communities that they'reworking, how much of a
difference it makes to engagethat community, how much
(28:28):
difference representation makesin almost any field that you can
think of.
And so.
Well, that's one of the reasonswhy I wanted to bring Carmichael
on here, because again, youknow, we both came from these
communities that he has decidedto make his passion to make a
difference in by implementingsome of what he has learned,
some of what he has been throughin order to help the next
(28:52):
generation.
Policing is one of those fieldsthat we need more representation
in from our communities becausethere are things that are
unspoken in our communities.
There are cultural contexts thatwe need in order to foster that
relationship between thecommunities and the police in
order to help facilitatecommunity growth.
(29:13):
Right.
I know people who have had badrun-ins with police.
I've had bad run-ins with policeas well, but there's also been
some positive with police ingrowing up, a lot of my coaches
in high school were policeofficers and they were very
clear in telling us how to carryourselves when we go outside.
And so this is the context thatCarmichael is trying to.
(29:35):
Teach the next generation, andfrankly, this is something that
we need to continue to support,not only here in Milwaukee, but
all throughout the country, i'msure a lot of the communities
would, would be receptive of ittoo.
So.
Looking forward to helping tofoster any relationship that I
can with our, uh, common councilhere, with our state
(29:58):
legislature, any way that we canto help get a program like this
here in Wisconsin.
Looking forward to seeing youall on the next episode.
And with that being said.
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