February 1, 2022 • 44 mins
Cam F. Awesome (born August 6, 1988 in Uniondale, New York), formerly known as Lenroy Thompson, is an American amateur boxer best known for winning the US title in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014 and the Golden Gloves in 2009, 2011 and 2013 at super heavyweight.
He is featured in the 2017 Netflix boxing documentary, Counter Puncher.[1] He frequently fights in pink to show his commitment to and involvement with the Breast Cancer Awareness Program. Awesome is the U.S. National Team Captain and is also the Athlete Director on USA Boxing Board of Directors.[2] He is a vegan since 2012 and promotes the lifestyle.[3][4] He now tours the nation educating students on cultural awareness.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/champions-connect-podcast--4729641/support.
He is featured in the 2017 Netflix boxing documentary, Counter Puncher.[1] He frequently fights in pink to show his commitment to and involvement with the Breast Cancer Awareness Program. Awesome is the U.S. National Team Captain and is also the Athlete Director on USA Boxing Board of Directors.[2] He is a vegan since 2012 and promotes the lifestyle.[3][4] He now tours the nation educating students on cultural awareness.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/champions-connect-podcast--4729641/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
What's going on world? What's going on world?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome, Welcome to another Champions Connect podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I have a very special guest today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I have my brother Cam f Awesome coming on and
I'm definitely a great guy you want to follow.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
This guy's doing phenomenal things in the world.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
He's not only a box and he's a speaker, he's
a coach like. He does great things not only for
the adults but for the kids. And you know, I'm
big on children. I'm real big on children. So, guys,
without further ado, if you know who Cam is, I
have a short intro video I want to show you
who Cam is a great guy. So please guys be
in tuned with his video right here and we're gonna
(00:42):
get right to my brother.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
This is Cam Awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Guys, my name is Cam Awesome and I'm a multi
time USA National champion heavyweight boxer and former captain of
the USA National Boxing Team. As captain of the USA
National Boxing Team, I traveled around the world as an
ambassador for the US in over thirty countries. This is
(01:05):
where I learned to interact with people of different cultures
from all over the world. My experience throughout my travels
has taught me how much easier it is to communicate
once we truly understand one another. I've always heard America's
a melting pot, but now I believe that America is
more of a bento box, because even when we live
(01:28):
in the same city, we occupy different areas. You're the
pretzel people and you don't know anything about the chocolate people.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You're going to just keep your distance.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You're going to make your assumptions, and you're going to
stay to yourself. But the assumptions you're going to make
are probably going to be wrong because you don't.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Have their perspective. But to break the barrier.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
One day you may come home and realize that your
grandchild is now a chocolate covered pretzel, and now you
have to break down those barriers. The conversation around power
proved indifference is a crucial topic for businesses, schools, state agencies,
and civic organizations, whether it's a socially distanced in person
(02:09):
presentation or virtual presentation. From my home studio, I work
with businesses and organizations to address implicit unconscious bias and
its effect on those around us in order to break
down barriers and build a stronger, more inclusive workplace.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Let's say that I moved this neighborhood in.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
One of my nieces from Trinidad is now going to
your school, and every time she speaks to you, she's
just really loud. In the classroom, she's loud, she seems disruptive.
But if every time you try to connect with her
you feel like she's being rude, so you start to
become short with her, she's going to feel like every
time she asks you for a question, you have an
attitude with her, You're being upset with her. How do
(02:52):
you handle a student from a different culture Because she's
being normal, she's doing everything she's accustomed to.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
She's from a loud culture.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
How do you handle that in your classroom? Audiences will
leave with a better understanding of diversity and inclusion and equity,
a thorough awareness of biases and how to recognize them.
Tools to attract and hire a diverse workforce. Defining why
celebrating differences will empower employees to feel included, welcome, and
(03:21):
supporting tips to build a diverse culture to boost productivity.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Retain top talent, and increase innovation. This isn't a seminar,
It's a celebration. And I look forward to celebrating with.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Your team without further ado. Guys, I bring up my
brother Kim have awesome, man, let's bring them up.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Cam. What's going on? My brother? Shup? What's up? How
you doing? Man? Well? How was a video? Love and blessed?
Thank you for the introduction. Guys. You man, I know
who you are, may doing great things like here. Man. Well,
I'm definitely proud of you. Man, So thank you, thank you.
Oh no, thank you? Man? So you could man tell
us man, like, what drives you to be great? Man?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I really want to know that, man, because I've seen
your documentary on Netflix and like, man, you just you
just impacted so many lives, man, like just your quest
on the boxing quest?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Man? Like, So, like what drives you? Man? Like what's
your fuel? You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I not really sure. I have like a hard entwer
on that a lot of different things drive me. One
is if I just set myself, but I kind of
get obsessed with things.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And my goal was the Olympics, and.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Like I just sacrificed everything I possibly could because in
my mind, in my mind, like boxing wasn't that hard
because coaches, all coaches basically tell you the same thing.
And and what I heard every coach saying is like,
be in good shape and you'll win. So I understood
(05:07):
what the task was and I just made sure I
was always in top condition.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So yeah, So, like I was telling a friend of
mine because they ain't see the documentary, they'll go watch
it now, and they're like, so, how do you spell
his name?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I said, cam Awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It's like wow, really, I was like, yeah, so maybe
good man tell the world man, Like why that name? Man,
I mean to me is great? I love that man,
Like that's I'm just my name to a refresher.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I love it. I think everyone should.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
First of all, you know how people say life's not
don't take life so serious, no one makes it out
alive or whatever like, and then everyone still takes life
stuff seriously. So there's many different reasons why I changed
my name. One because in twenty twelve, after I got
suspended kicked off the Olympic team, I kind of symbolically
(06:00):
killed off the old me and my negative side, and
UH wanted to do like a rebirth, and I changed
my name.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And I think.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Like in different cultures, everyone like the kinsinetta. It symbolizes
when a girl becomes a woman. But like in American
culture market, we don't really have a culture. We have
a sweet sixty I guess.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
But I think.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I think it's pretty cool to change your name when
you because as we become adults, like when you leave
your teen years, you kind of find out who you
are and you realize that person that like you have
to be when you are growing up, maybe because of
your situations or your circumstances, you're not that person anymore,
and you want people to treat you differently and look
at you differently and have a different respect for you.
(06:50):
And when you have a different meaning for yourself, then
I believe you should change your name and that should
symbolize the new you. But I don't think you want
to do that too many times because that'll be annoying.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, man, that's why I think about doing man, Like
I said, I watched the story definitely inspire me.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Man.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I got my kid. My kid loves boxing. Now how
old he's nine, So like nine, he's where he comes
to my chest. I'm six six he comes to my chest,
you know. So he wanted to get into boxing and
I tell him, you know, he's just do anything you
put your mind to you know, boxing is it's easy,
but it's not easy.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
You gotta put your mind to it. It's like playing chess,
you know what I mean. You just can't walk in
there and think, oh, I'm a big dog, I'm gonna
knock care about it. You gotta go in there and
just know your craft and just be humble.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, it's weird to be humble though, because I if
there is a fighter for me to it's hard to
be humble and be a fighter because it's fighter. You
have to know that you're already the best.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Like, if I see a dude like you're heavyweighted, I
want you to think you can beat me. I'm if
you don't think you could beat me, then we should
never fight. So you want to be the best, you
have to assume that you can beat everyone, but also
remain humble enough to know that you're not capable of
doing it unless you.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Train your butt off exactly. And that's kind of the
hard balance. Just like you got to pretend you're great,
but you got to like keep it real.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I like that, man, I like that.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
So my channel is all about motivation. Man, if you're good,
tell us a motivation thing. You a keynote speaker. You're
going around speaking to kids. Man, So I want to
tell us to do you man, go ahead, Man, Johnson Jones.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Man, Nah, it's it's so yeah. I'm doing speaking.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I've been speaking for since like two thousand and nine,
twenty ten. My boxing coach he started coaching me, and
he said he would coach me for free. In exchange,
I would have to go to all the high schools
and middle schools, take over the gym class for the
entire day once a semester, and talk to the kids
(09:12):
about boxing and get them to join our free nonprofit gym.
You know, it's to keep kids off the street, one
of those youth prevention programs. And so I would go
to the schools and I would just I would speak
over the gym class. And then I realized, if I
can get everyone together to do an assembly, I can
(09:32):
do it a lot faster and reach a lot more students.
And also that way I wouldn't have to be in
school from like seven thirty in the morningti like three.
But I realized, students won't listen to you unless you're entertained.
Unless you're entertaining, and I realized adults we're the same way.
(09:54):
We don't want to watch anything or participate anything that's boring.
So I started doing stand up comedy, and I would
use the skills I learned from stand up comedy to
make my speeches a little more entertaining and add more
to it so students would appreciate it a little more.
And yeah, and I kind of it. Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Really love it. I enjoy it more than I enjoyed boxing.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, yeah, trust me. I've been speaking now for about
what a year now.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Man. I was homeless.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I got left in May, like seven years ago, and
we went back of clothes and a pair of shoes
on my feet. That's all I had. And it's just
a crazy story. Man, I can't really see what what happened.
But it wasn't over a woman, though, you know what
I mean. I just came up here and hung out.
So friends, we had a disagreement. I don't do drugs.
They did drugs and they left me up here, you
(10:50):
know what I mean. And you know, being homeless and
overcoming that, I tell you, man, it's a long of all.
You know, a lot of people don't know. But I
just never gave us definitely feel you on that, brother.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I would love to hear your story off fair sometimes
I got you, man, I got you.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I mean, it's it's about you today, man, if I want,
it's about you today, cam Man, my story is deep, man.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Like, but it's coming. You gonna hear about me soon.
I better but yeah, man, But yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Just want to bring you on, man, cause I got
a lot of a lot of younger brothers coming up,
and I'm trying to get every good example out there.
And we just joined forces, man, because it's time for
us to step up, be the example. Because the youth
needs it. They need us to step up, man, especially
in our communities. Man, they need us to step up
and show that we are positive. You don't need violence.
You don't got to sell drugs, you don't got to
(11:43):
rob or kill nobody. You can go out there and
be successful. You don't gotta be a boxer you want.
You can be a football player, whatever you want to do,
you know, but connect with us and we're here for you.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah. I love that. I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I even though my parents were divorced back together, I
had a weird situation, but I had both my parents
in my life. But my parents worked all the time,
and I would go to this This place is like
the after school center. It was an abasement of a
church and uh it was ucc Nail Community Council.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And there were the counselors there.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
You think they're like adults, they were just like four
years older than you were, but they were to me,
they were the coolest people in the world because they
got to like, you know, the older people are always
cooler when you're a kid. And I always looked up
to those people, all the counselors, and the counselors, they
always showed the best side of themselves around us.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Because they were working. And I realized all those.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Guys who were those counselors were all the young men
that I grew up like admiring and looking up to,
and those people shaped who I am. So like, that's
essentially what you're doing right now. And I love that
you're out here doing that.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Man, Thank you, man, thank you. Like I said, man
my story.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
When I was homeless, I could have gave up. Man,
I got I got a kid, my son's and I
and my daughter. You know, she she's fire, she's five.
You know, it's for me to be an example, And
I tell every parent this. You know, if you want
your kids to overcome tragedy in life, if you want
your kids to overcome adversity in life, and starts with
the parents. You know, overcome adversity. We can overcome tragedy
(13:31):
in life and get through the hard times. We can't
expect our kids to do that, you know what I mean.
So that's why I just, man, I love people like you, man,
because you're strong.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Man.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You be an example. You're stepping out and you show
these kids like yo, you can have a go. You
do have a dream, go out there and chase it.
Just never give up. You know it's not gonna be easy,
because if it was easy, everybody'll be successful.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
We just don't give up, you know what I mean. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Another thing that kind of like motivates me and drives
me is And I didn't realize this until I'm thirty three. Man,
I was just hitting me now. So my dad like
grew up in Trinidad and he stopped going to school
at the age of nine because he had to start working.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And then he worked on.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Like a construction site until he was old enough, and
he came to America and started working and he brought
like each.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Of his brothers and sisters over.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
America one by one, and all of them like own
houses and like they live middle class American lives.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
That is the American dream, right.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So I grew up seeing my dad hustle like nothing illegal,
just like always at work, always finding a way to
like do a side job. He drove a cement truck,
he did construction on the side. So all I ever
saw was hustle. So I just thought that was, like,
that's where the bar was set. So having that like,
(14:58):
for a lack of better term, that immigrant mentality and
that immigrant like.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Work ethic exactly, that's all I know.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
But that's what you need, though, cam Like I tell people,
as long as you have work and faith, that'll go together.
Like all you need to work in faith. Man, get
up and just take care of yourself. You take care
of your body. Your body gonna take care of you self.
Love is everything. And that's one thing I preached when
when I preach and I speak out here in May's
self love. You know, just love yourself, take care of yourself,
(15:29):
take care of your individually, take care of your soul. Okay,
if you don't, nobody want to take care of you.
You know you're a boxer, you know, you know why
they gotta take care of your body.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Actually, now that I even left boxing, I've been spending
more time like reflecting on my twenties and how I've
grown as a person and understanding what loving myself truly is.
And it took me stopping boxing to actually learn about
myself and learn how to love myself. And sometimes that
(15:59):
means stricting yourself of certain things and or not over indulging.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
So yeah, it goes deep.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, I mean, but you big on nutrition, man, Like
I said, you big on nutrition.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I need to get my nutrition right.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I mean, I need to work on that self disciplined
part about myself.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Man, eating a little bit more healthier.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But progress non perfection, maybe progress non perfection. You're right,
You're right right about that. That's what I'm working with you, man.
So that's I need to get my helth help man.
I mean, I'm trying to get back in the boxing myself,
but just having that self discipline of eating healthy, you know,
eating celery.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
And the thing is like, first of all, you just
have to commit to like picture this.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
People get arrested all the time, right for crimes they
haven't done. And let's say you did thirty days in jail,
it's not gonna change, like for the.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Whole scope of your life.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
If you lived till seven and you did thirty days
restricted from everything, you'd survive as a human being. If
you could survive as a human mean, you can eat
of like a clean diet for thirty days, even if
you're miserable, you can survive. It's not as bad as prison.
(17:23):
Okay to seize prison as a perspective. So if you
could just tolerate anything for thirty days, it becomes a habit.
So what you need to do is mentally wrap your
mind around and every time you think, you like, ah,
I'm a slip up. I want to have a snack,
or I want to eat some cheetos. No picture, you're
(17:45):
in jail and you don't have those options.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Once you make it a habit.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I did the vegan thing for it was a twenty
eight day. I lost a bet I had to do
for twenty eight days. After the twenty eight days, it
became a habit, and I didn't want to be vegan
by any means.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
I just felt so good. I felt so good.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Man for the first time I left, I felt I
felt like a car that got an oil change. I
was like, you know what, I'm not gonna be vegan.
I'm just gonna do this a little longer. And it's
spent ten years now. One of the best decisions I've
ever made.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Bazy man, I'm working and working on it right now.
I'm thirty two. I'll be thirty three in July.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So you're a young man. You're a young man. I
used to be thirty two. Wait were you born in
the nineties. Yeah, I was born in eighty nine. Okay,
you just barely made it.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Everybody says that, Hey, a lot happened eighty nine now, Like, man,
I'm in eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I still claim being an eighties baby. Hey, they claim
we're not eighties baby.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
They say, if you eighty eight, eighty nine not eighties babies,
they got the last two years of the eighties.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
But bab I'll take them both exactly, man, exactly. Man.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
So yeah, man, any questions for me, cam Man, I
know you want to know a little bit about myself?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Man? Yeah, So where are you are you stilling? Made? Now? Yeah?
I'm a Maine now man, I'm a man now. Kind
of grew presence.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I'm actually being broadcast on the news because of my story.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, it's gonna be pretty cool. Yeah. Uh so what's
uh so you say you're getting back into boxing. Yeah,
yeah I am. I'm trying to. I want to go.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I'm deciding whether or not to go pro man, because
my instructor is kind of crazy.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Man.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
He was trying to tease you and and train it
because yeah, if you put your hands and I'll tell
you put your hands up and put your hands down,
you're gonna get you like your hands up.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And guard the cage.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
So you said, right if he watched it right now,
I'm sorry, but yeah, he said, Hey, I with those
parts of that, man, Yeah, they ain't heavy o hearing man, Man, Itzy.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
You can dodge your traffic, you can dodge the ball, yeah,
dodge taser. Hey, Hey, how many fights you got right now?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I've only been in like four fights, man, having kids,
having a business, and then I just you know how
it is the adult life, man, But getting back into it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Man, I've been driving.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I just recently left FedEx. I was driving FedEx and
I just left left and doing my own clothing brand,
got my own clothing line nice.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
You know. I was like, yeah, I need to get
back into boxing.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I missed that because one thing about boxing for some
people like me, like it's a peace of mind man,
like you got a lot of your mind and you emotional,
you know what I mean, sort of like going to
hit somebody or somebody or.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Hitting the wall.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You just put your gloves on going to the gym.
You know, the feeling man just hit hit on the back.
Man is just let it go. Yeah, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
So it's hard to stay away from. Yeah, I see
why guys fight way too long in their careers. I
always I always knew, like going into boxing. I always
had this joke and I would me and my buddy,
I'd be like, hey, let me know.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
When it comes that time.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
And in my life movie when you have to pull
me aside and tell me, hey, you should give it up,
hang up the gloves. And I because I see fighters fight.
They don't need the money, they don't they just keep fighting.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
And and now I get it. It's so addicting.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I'm trying in my head. I'm telling people I retire
like I'm done, but it's hard to be done. Like
I just came to Austin, Texas, and I'm like, I
want to go find a boxing gym.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Trying to.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I brought my mouth piece with me just in case
I'm telling people I retire, But I got my mouth
piece with me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Man, it's a gry rush Man again. It's your temple.
We can go ahead and just release your mind and
all the frustration and just be around your family. Your
boxing club. You know, they're not gonna hurt you. They're
going to get you better and stronger.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
That's one thing I learned being in boxing, man, that
your boxing club is going to take care of you
and just love you and just you know what I mean,
it's just sort I love be humble, you know. So
nobody ain't nobody in the club, you know what I mean.
You're trying to each other better.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
I do miss that aspect, like being on the USA
team for pretty much throughout my twenties, Like even though
the teams change, except like just that camaraderie and that
like you know, well listen, because you'd be on the
team with just strangers and then you take one trip
(22:48):
to Italy for like a month and you can't like
you don't have Wi Fi, you have nothing to do
but talk to each other, and you start sharing about
your family.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And your background, your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And you become a family by the end of the
year exactly. So I missed that aspect. And everyone just
wants everyone so competitive and everyone wants to make everyone
wants to be the best, but everyone lifts everyone else up.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I love that energy.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, man, trust me, Man, I do it too. Man,
you got some feedback too. Somebody said, dope interview right there,
and the comments let's see here, somebody said this is good,
and then yeah, we're getting good feedback.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Man.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
People if people touches on souls right now, cam Man,
that's what it's all about. It And I tell people
all the time, Cam, were able to impact someone's life.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That's calling yourself an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Where you lay down at night and you check your email,
you check your inbox, or like you check your DM
and somebody said you much. Say hey, thank you for
just speaking at my school. You just really inspired me
to be better. Like that makes you feel good as
a speaker, I've been speaking. That makes me feel good
when I get those messages. Man, Like yo, you just
inspired me to do better, Like thank you, like you
(24:09):
ever get those and you can feel that way that.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Every I start my day, like the first thing I
always check in the morning. So first thing I do
in the morning, all right, my journal, your gratitude. But
when I check my phone, I checked the Instagram message
requests to see like any of those messages from students,
because I love starting my day because that's why I
(24:32):
do it. Like so yeah, I do get those messages
and it it always makes my day.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Definitely, Man makes my day all the time too.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
So yeah, to tell you a little bit about myself
real quick though, so you know who I am, man,
because it's the first time actually meeting man. Yeah, I
got sound thirty two. I'll be thirty three, I said.
I got left in originally from Florida. From Temple, Florida.
Oh okay, yeah, man, I just can't it made no
vacation literally, I had no attention to staying to main Man.
(25:05):
Came on vacation with one back clothes, pair of shoes
and had altercation with somebody who was doing drugs. Man,
and they told me to catch your bus back to Florida.
So I just packed my clothes and my shoes and
walked to the nearest park and just pray to God.
And that's somebody like, hey, your cute come over like
something like that. I was new to may I ain't
doing nothing, and I just stay here and made my way.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
So now I got a LLC business, h the shelters,
speaking at shelters. I got to be homeless, so I
love going back to shelters. Let them know that I
have to be here as well too. I was homeless,
so if I can get out and make a life
and do great, you guys can't too.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
No excuses.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And that's how I'm in homelessness, you know what I mean,
because I am.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I got a lot of.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
People who've been homeless, and there's no excuse why they
can't get out the homeless shelter.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
If we can do it, they can do it. You know.
You just gotta want it, believe it, and I give up.
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I tell people whatever the mind can't conceive and believe
the mind will achieve.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
And I always been with me.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
You know, you just mentioned about the shelters, and I'm like,
I've got I've got free time, and you just saying
that made me feel a way, like, oh why am I?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Why? Why are not I doing that, So I'm gonna
look into that.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, definitely, man, we can connect. Let me know, man,
I just that's why I tell people because people are like, oh,
I'm trying to end homelessness. Well, how you in homelessness
is because I used to be homeless. And one thing
about homeless people and no disrespect to them, but they
are disrespectful.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Like they'll come back to the shelter and say, oh, man,
this person.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Gave me food I can't bite and look at it
this like I've seen that firsthand, you know. And that's
why I go back and I tell them, I give
him a business card, and I encourage them, like, you
guys are great guys. Don't being homeless to find who
you are as a person. You know, that's great. So
what if you're good at I'm gonna give you the
initiative to call me is a business card. You know,
(26:55):
get a hold of me so I can help you
get your life straight. But if you don't get a
hold of me, I can't help you, you know what
I mean. So that's how I go back.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Man.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
It's just kids too, you know, kids too. You know.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
My cousin nineteen years old two times feeling my other
cousin doing a ten year bid at nineteen bro. So
I'm trying to get back to the community man best
way I can and let him know there's more to
life than that.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah, all right, all right, hundred percent agree with you man.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah so, but like I said, camp Man, but one question,
want to ask you, man, what what's one thing would
you tell a younger version of you and he's coming
up trying to figure his life out?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
What's one thing would you tell that younger person? Uh
m hmm. Then got nailed it.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
I wouldn't Yeah, yeah, I don't even know if I
would tell myself.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Okay, bitcoin, definitely.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Definitely tell twenty twelve Cam just put twenty dollars in
bitcoin exactly. Yeah, I would have been a billionaire right now.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Uh. You know what I would have done. I would
have I would have spoken to myself. I would have.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
I would have nudged myself into the direction to learn
about what anxiety is, because I didn't know what anxiety was.
But I know I would get very moody. That's what
I would consider. I would get very moody in certain situations,
and I wouldn't be myself and I wouldn't be the
best version of myself.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
And like.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
I couldn't box in the boxing gym with all the
kids around because my coach one of the things is
he wants he always wanted me to work out with
all the all the boxers in the gym because he
needs I should be around them. But when that many
people are around me, I start to freak out and
I'm not I wasn't the best version of myself.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
I was shorter, I was very short with people.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
And I didn't like making eye contact and I didn't
realize what that was. So I would have taught myself
that and given myself ways to.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Deal with it. And yeah, I would have let myself
know about anxiety. I like that.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Man. Hey, so I'm on Clubhouse, Man, I do mental
health rooms all the time. I actually did a room
today on Clubhouse before our podcast and meet up came
in and have feelings. And I would definitely love you
on Clubhouse with me man doing rooms like that because
a lot of brothers that he learned about that, man
so and that that room came out phenomenal. Man, Queens
(29:57):
and King was going back and forth, and that's definitely
a great conversation you know about man having feelings because
a lot of people ought of man, don't finish your
have feelings.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
And I understand my dad's from Trinidad. They don't have
feelings over there.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Yeah, yeah, that's not something we grew up with like
in America, Like well, like I love you.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Those aren't thrown around where I'm from. Oh man, you
get those at funerals.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
That's it. So like now being realizing, like you can
say that, you can show appreciation of people, you can
be grateful. I thought there were three emotions happy, sad,
and angry, like and now I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Learning there's a lot more. So.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Emotional intelligence is something that we need to learn about
because how can we express ourselves without the tools for communication.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Exactly exactly we should have been in this morning camp.
It's a dope, man, I told. I told man, it's
greatful a man to cry. Like I tell people all
the time, you take that pain and use for fuel.
You know, I tell people if you crying, tips doesn't
make you a point, just that puts you on a
whole different levels.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
So if you're hurting, find out what you're good at.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
And you're telling that, you just channel all that energy
to something that you're good at and you turn into success,
you know what I mean? And I tell people like,
don't sit there and cry and mope around the house.
I don't courage people do that. Don't sit here in
mope and not do anything. It's all life is over
with and just cry your life away. No, you get
up and you go out there again.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
You know, you can fail without being discouraged. Success becomes inevitable.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I like that, Like hope you guys like hope you
guys heard that. Write that quote down man, And that's
the gym right there.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Today we got another one.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
We got a queen in the butt. She said, yes,
that would have been so cool. She said killing it,
And yeah, we definitely kill in it. Man. Like I said,
I'm a motivational speaker myself camp and I just love
connecting other speakers.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Man.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I was fortunate to meet Les Brown and I spoke
with Les Brown on Clubhouse. He be on Clubhouse a lot,
got in one of his rooms, told my story and
he was like, I see you what stays with me
one day?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Man, yeah, so but I just want to connect with
other every everybody man, because we all great speakers, we
all got great stories, and all stories can really help
everybody because I'm not going to reach everybody. You know,
my story, I'll reach everybody you know, so your story
can reach people that I can't reach.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
But we can reach everybody together. You know.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
That's all about just collaborating, just moving up and just
helping others grow because we got people watching us.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
For it, for it man, so that I appreciate it. Man.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
So quick question for you the refresher. Yeah, what's the
background behind that?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
When I was homeless, man, I had a guy like really,
I gave my clothes off my back, I had no eye,
I have a pot to pissing or window throw out of,
and like, I ain't wear homeless clothes man, I wear
like Ralph flooring, I wear Nike and homeless other I
didn't have to find myself as an homeless person, and
I felt bad for those around me because it was like, oh, well,
(33:20):
I like, you know, I love like crap, this, that
and that. I can't afford that. So I took my
clothes off my back and gave it to him even
though I ain't have nothing, and I gave it dude
the same hat, actually, man, the same Jordan hat I
took my hat off and I gave it to him
and he looked at it.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
He was like, yo, this is nice hat, Like, thank you. You
used to refresh me.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
And it was like I lost my family, I lost
my kids, my job, and am homeless and he just
gave me this hat. He used to refresh me. Man,
he just stept us on in the right direction. I
just took the name.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Ran with that. I love that, man. So I love that.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, man, thank you man. So that's why I'm the
refreshing man. I like to just refresh everybody, man, because
we all go through it, but we all we triumph
through it.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
We don't go through it, we grow through it. You know,
show you'd be shown refreshing. Yeah, mister refresher.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, I'm changing it to Sean the Refresher Jackson because
you inspired me and changing.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
My name that's man.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
I love to hear that, because we don't need to
live the way everyone else used to live, Mike, exactly.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, tradition, stunt growth, you can do whatever you want.
Adulthood exactly. Man.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
That's why I tell people, man, But yeah, I'm changing
my name is Sean the Refresher Jackson.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Man.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
So like Cam fesome, Man, that's a that's a dope name. Bro.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
I seen seen the documentary when you was walking the streets,
I forgot what country is and and there's a Caucasian
couple that stopped you in the middle of the streets
because your name. I think that was like Canada, right,
what countries I wasn't I think.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
That was here in the States? That was I think
that was in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Ah yeah, yeah, okay, okay, yeah, I'm telling you that
that that help me right there. Man, you touched a
lot of people at the Souls man, so guarantee you.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Man.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I just want to thank you for taking time about
your busy life. Man, just coming on and I appreciate
you inviting me on the show.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I appreciate it. Man.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
So, like I said, I see here, I have any
questions yet, don't have any questions? Yeah, Man, have any
more questions for me, Cam, Like I said, it's a
blessing having on the show.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Brother. If you have any books that you wrote yet that.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
People, No, No, I haven't have any I haven't written
any books.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I'm figuring all.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
I didn't realize the position I was putting myself in
because I spoke at the schools about about boxing and
what just talking about what boxing did for me, Like,
I'm no expert in no means.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I don't do any branding. I don't do any marketing
or anything.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
I just I just shared my story with students and
because I used to get bullied and uh, and then
it turned into me being a role model, and then
I didn't I don't know how all of this works.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And then when I write a book, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I don't know what I would write a book on,
Like would I write a book on Like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
There's just so much, man.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I encourage you to write a book on your life, man,
like your whole experience, man, because your whole life is
the story man. You know, from your childhood to your
adulthood to the boxing life.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
You just never gave up.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
You're a true champion, you know, and you let nobody
tell you what you had in your mind that you
was going to do what you was gonna do. He's
gonna get it done, regardless of what any means necessary,
and you an't what nobody had to say.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
He was going to get it done.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
That's a lot of respect, right that to you, My
brother and that's what your book should be about. Man,
How you just overcome tragedy he turned into triumph.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Really, Man, I'm writing a book, and my book is
from my childhood. I'm only talk to three, but it's
from like my childhood up to like my adulthood, you know.
And it's like my mother passing away and my father
passing away. So I encourage you to write the book, man,
because your story is a book.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
You got a movie already. Can I need a book? Man? Yeah? Yeah,
maybe one day, maybe, maybe one day.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
I'll I used to write a lot, and I used
to write blogs for USA Boxing, so when we would
take these trips out of the country, I would update
like a newsletter. So I would write like a blog
every week to update like how the team's going, like
things that are going on or whatever, and it would
be funny.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
And then I.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Would write blogs on discipline and motivation and resilience and
time management. But I've never taken any time to write
about myself, So that's something I'll maybe give a try.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Got to man, because you're a great dude, bro. I
told you know, I told my excalated about you, and.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
I was like, yo, man. She even called me.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
She was like, so like, man, I can't wait, Man,
I see my brother on Netflix, Like she was gonna
have you for me and stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Man. So like, because you're choose, man, you're a true king. Man.
You know, thank you man, great, thank you King. I
appreciated brother, and you're doing great things. Man.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
So hell the world man, where they can follow you. Man,
they can get a hold of you man, like they like,
So what's next for cam f awesome?
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Uh So, actually, uh what's next to me is I.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I want to get back into comedy. So I was.
I enjoy doing it. It's fun and it's difficult. It's
difficult in a mental.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Way the way boxing was difficult physically, just the way
you have to figure things out. And it also deals
a lot with the confidence and stage presence and it's challenging.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
So I actually came down to Austin, Texas for a
month because I can work virtually and because there's a
big open mic scene down here. So every night I
go to two or three open mics and yeah, so
the goal for me is to pursue comedy again. Continue
with the keynote speaking, Continue as a diversity consultant, continue
speaking at the schools, and I want to actually want
(39:32):
to learn. I want to learn something new, whether it
be language, possibly Brazilian jiu jitsu, or to play an instrument.
I just want to continue to challenge myself and always
give myself something to strive better towards.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
I love that, and that's part of just bettering yourself
every single day. You know, that's that you should do.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Man.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
And what if I can do it, help you, my brother,
let me know, man, And again I appreciate that, Bro.
And if you're doing comedy, if you're doing I know
Dang if you know Dang Cook, you gotta say we
just say your Dang Cook.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Clubhouse a lot, a lot a lot, man.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So you want to get down with the comedian kind
of plugging at the comedian world. What I do is
when I go in clubhouse and he's on doing the room, like,
I'll see your lead. So you can come in chump
in with Dang Cook and possibly connect with Dang Cook.
And look, he probably seen he probably seen the documentary,
so he probably just connected. Probably a fan, man, because
(40:32):
like I said, you touch a lot of lives, man,
especially if you just dumping the ring and do the
little flip.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Yeah, your anterest man. I was like, okay, last things ended. Uh.
So I grew up watching professional wrestling.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Right, And when I grew up, it was the Rock
and it was mankind and it was stone cold, and
it was Triple H was X Pact, and everyone had
this pizazz and the splamboyance and this personality. And when
I got into boxing, I was like, well, if I'm
gonna do this, this is almost like wrestling. So I
want to have that same. I want it to be fun.
(41:09):
I want to like flip in the ring. I want
to wear a cape, I want to fly around.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Like, to me, that's fun. It's supposed to be entertaining.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Granted, boxing is brutal in its own way, but it's
supposed to be an entertaining sport, and I always try
to be entertaining.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I love it, man, I love it.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
Man.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
So guys, if you haven't seen its counter Punch yet,
go watch it on Netflix. Documentary definitely a dope documentary.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Watch. You're gonna learn a lot about my brother here.
And you know, if you.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Need any help about consulting anything like that, get hold
of him.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Man.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
He's a great consulting Make me help you out, get
you right, get you right? So Cam let him know, man,
if they need help with consulting.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Yeah, I'm here for what I speak on in ten
versus impact. I help people communicate through different cultures. Being
on being captaining or say national boxing team for about
ten years and traveling around, traveled over thirty countries and
this is where I learned to connect with people of
different backgrounds. So I help I help people communicate and
(42:11):
who needs help communicating? I need to work on a
better elevator pitch. I got you, Sean, Sean, you're helping
me grow as a person already.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I got you, brother, I got you Man, I got
you Man, I got you man. So we do man,
Iron shoppers, iron right, you're serious, sir. So all right,
Cam Man, it's been a blessing.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Man.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
I'm gonna get this on YouTube, Senior your link so
you can rewatch it. You know what I'm saying that
So some fans, Man, I let them know next what's
next for Cam?
Speaker 1 (42:40):
So go, thank you again, my man. It's a blessing.
Thank you King.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
All right, all right, King, have a good day too,
and we're not a love cool all right, guys, thank
you so much and that was my boy, Cam f Awesome.
I'm definitely a great dude. Again, guys, give him a
(43:07):
follow on social media on all major networks. And it's
only right that ended video with my boy Cam f
awesome video. So guys again, please go watch the movie
CounterPunch on Netflix as a documentary. Who I just watched
definitely a great guy and please guys being tuned. Man
(43:28):
the refreshers moving and moving fast and moving fast, guys.
So like I said, man, go watch the video. I mean,
go watch the movie. Definitely a dub movie.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Guys.
Speaker 3 (43:37):
All right, my name is Cam f Awesome and I'm
a multi time USA National champion heavyweight boxer and former
captain of the USA National Boxing team.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
As captain of the USA National Boxing Team, I traveled
around That's what we just had on guys.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
So again, comment likes, comment likes, subscribe watching on YouTube
and just to refresh your guys, you have a blessful day.
Thank you all for watching sewing love and support as
I journey on to podcasting. Guys, this is episode four
a Champions podcast and you know I'm dough, like twelve
(44:17):
episodes and season one is gonna be a book soon guys,
so thank you all for sewing.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Love much love,
What's going on world? What's going on world?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome, Welcome to another Champions Connect podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I have a very special guest today.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I have my brother Cam f Awesome coming on and
I'm definitely a great guy you want to follow.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
This guy's doing phenomenal things in the world.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
He's not only a box and he's a speaker, he's
a coach like. He does great things not only for
the adults but for the kids. And you know, I'm
big on children. I'm real big on children. So, guys,
without further ado, if you know who Cam is, I
have a short intro video I want to show you
who Cam is a great guy. So please guys be
in tuned with his video right here and we're gonna
(00:42):
get right to my brother.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
This is Cam Awesome.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Guys, my name is Cam Awesome and I'm a multi
time USA National champion heavyweight boxer and former captain of
the USA National Boxing Team. As captain of the USA
National Boxing Team, I traveled around the world as an
ambassador for the US in over thirty countries. This is
(01:05):
where I learned to interact with people of different cultures
from all over the world. My experience throughout my travels
has taught me how much easier it is to communicate
once we truly understand one another. I've always heard America's
a melting pot, but now I believe that America is
more of a bento box, because even when we live
(01:28):
in the same city, we occupy different areas. You're the
pretzel people and you don't know anything about the chocolate people.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
You're going to just keep your distance.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You're going to make your assumptions, and you're going to
stay to yourself. But the assumptions you're going to make
are probably going to be wrong because you don't.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Have their perspective. But to break the barrier.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
One day you may come home and realize that your
grandchild is now a chocolate covered pretzel, and now you
have to break down those barriers. The conversation around power
proved indifference is a crucial topic for businesses, schools, state agencies,
and civic organizations, whether it's a socially distanced in person
(02:09):
presentation or virtual presentation. From my home studio, I work
with businesses and organizations to address implicit unconscious bias and
its effect on those around us in order to break
down barriers and build a stronger, more inclusive workplace.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Let's say that I moved this neighborhood in.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
One of my nieces from Trinidad is now going to
your school, and every time she speaks to you, she's
just really loud. In the classroom, she's loud, she seems disruptive.
But if every time you try to connect with her
you feel like she's being rude, so you start to
become short with her, she's going to feel like every
time she asks you for a question, you have an
attitude with her, You're being upset with her. How do
(02:52):
you handle a student from a different culture Because she's
being normal, she's doing everything she's accustomed to.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
She's from a loud culture.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
How do you handle that in your classroom? Audiences will
leave with a better understanding of diversity and inclusion and equity,
a thorough awareness of biases and how to recognize them.
Tools to attract and hire a diverse workforce. Defining why
celebrating differences will empower employees to feel included, welcome, and
(03:21):
supporting tips to build a diverse culture to boost productivity.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Retain top talent, and increase innovation. This isn't a seminar,
It's a celebration. And I look forward to celebrating with.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Your team without further ado. Guys, I bring up my
brother Kim have awesome, man, let's bring them up.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Cam. What's going on? My brother? Shup? What's up? How
you doing? Man? Well? How was a video? Love and blessed?
Thank you for the introduction. Guys. You man, I know
who you are, may doing great things like here. Man. Well,
I'm definitely proud of you. Man, So thank you, thank you.
Oh no, thank you? Man? So you could man tell
us man, like, what drives you to be great? Man?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I really want to know that, man, because I've seen
your documentary on Netflix and like, man, you just you
just impacted so many lives, man, like just your quest
on the boxing quest?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Man? Like, So, like what drives you? Man? Like what's
your fuel? You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I not really sure. I have like a hard entwer
on that a lot of different things drive me. One
is if I just set myself, but I kind of
get obsessed with things.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And my goal was the Olympics, and.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Like I just sacrificed everything I possibly could because in
my mind, in my mind, like boxing wasn't that hard
because coaches, all coaches basically tell you the same thing.
And and what I heard every coach saying is like,
be in good shape and you'll win. So I understood
(05:07):
what the task was and I just made sure I
was always in top condition.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So yeah, So, like I was telling a friend of
mine because they ain't see the documentary, they'll go watch
it now, and they're like, so, how do you spell
his name?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
I said, cam Awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It's like wow, really, I was like, yeah, so maybe
good man tell the world man, Like why that name? Man,
I mean to me is great? I love that man,
Like that's I'm just my name to a refresher.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I love it. I think everyone should.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
First of all, you know how people say life's not
don't take life so serious, no one makes it out
alive or whatever like, and then everyone still takes life
stuff seriously. So there's many different reasons why I changed
my name. One because in twenty twelve, after I got
suspended kicked off the Olympic team, I kind of symbolically
(06:00):
killed off the old me and my negative side, and
UH wanted to do like a rebirth, and I changed
my name.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
And I think.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Like in different cultures, everyone like the kinsinetta. It symbolizes
when a girl becomes a woman. But like in American
culture market, we don't really have a culture. We have
a sweet sixty I guess.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
But I think.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I think it's pretty cool to change your name when
you because as we become adults, like when you leave
your teen years, you kind of find out who you
are and you realize that person that like you have
to be when you are growing up, maybe because of
your situations or your circumstances, you're not that person anymore,
and you want people to treat you differently and look
at you differently and have a different respect for you.
(06:50):
And when you have a different meaning for yourself, then
I believe you should change your name and that should
symbolize the new you. But I don't think you want
to do that too many times because that'll be annoying.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, man, that's why I think about doing man, Like
I said, I watched the story definitely inspire me.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Man.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I got my kid. My kid loves boxing. Now how
old he's nine, So like nine, he's where he comes
to my chest. I'm six six he comes to my chest,
you know. So he wanted to get into boxing and
I tell him, you know, he's just do anything you
put your mind to you know, boxing is it's easy,
but it's not easy.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
You gotta put your mind to it. It's like playing chess,
you know what I mean. You just can't walk in
there and think, oh, I'm a big dog, I'm gonna
knock care about it. You gotta go in there and
just know your craft and just be humble.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, it's weird to be humble though, because I if
there is a fighter for me to it's hard to
be humble and be a fighter because it's fighter. You
have to know that you're already the best.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Like, if I see a dude like you're heavyweighted, I
want you to think you can beat me. I'm if
you don't think you could beat me, then we should
never fight. So you want to be the best, you
have to assume that you can beat everyone, but also
remain humble enough to know that you're not capable of
doing it unless you.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Train your butt off exactly. And that's kind of the
hard balance. Just like you got to pretend you're great,
but you got to like keep it real.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I like that, man, I like that.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
So my channel is all about motivation. Man, if you're good,
tell us a motivation thing. You a keynote speaker. You're
going around speaking to kids. Man, So I want to
tell us to do you man, go ahead, Man, Johnson Jones.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Man, Nah, it's it's so yeah. I'm doing speaking.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I've been speaking for since like two thousand and nine,
twenty ten. My boxing coach he started coaching me, and
he said he would coach me for free. In exchange,
I would have to go to all the high schools
and middle schools, take over the gym class for the
entire day once a semester, and talk to the kids
(09:12):
about boxing and get them to join our free nonprofit gym.
You know, it's to keep kids off the street, one
of those youth prevention programs. And so I would go
to the schools and I would just I would speak
over the gym class. And then I realized, if I
can get everyone together to do an assembly, I can
(09:32):
do it a lot faster and reach a lot more students.
And also that way I wouldn't have to be in
school from like seven thirty in the morningti like three.
But I realized, students won't listen to you unless you're entertained.
Unless you're entertaining, and I realized adults we're the same way.
(09:54):
We don't want to watch anything or participate anything that's boring.
So I started doing stand up comedy, and I would
use the skills I learned from stand up comedy to
make my speeches a little more entertaining and add more
to it so students would appreciate it a little more.
And yeah, and I kind of it. Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Really love it. I enjoy it more than I enjoyed boxing.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, yeah, trust me. I've been speaking now for about
what a year now.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Man. I was homeless.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I got left in May, like seven years ago, and
we went back of clothes and a pair of shoes
on my feet. That's all I had. And it's just
a crazy story. Man, I can't really see what what happened.
But it wasn't over a woman, though, you know what
I mean. I just came up here and hung out.
So friends, we had a disagreement. I don't do drugs.
They did drugs and they left me up here, you
(10:50):
know what I mean. And you know, being homeless and
overcoming that, I tell you, man, it's a long of all.
You know, a lot of people don't know. But I
just never gave us definitely feel you on that, brother.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I would love to hear your story off fair sometimes
I got you, man, I got you.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
I mean, it's it's about you today, man, if I want,
it's about you today, cam Man, my story is deep, man.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Like, but it's coming. You gonna hear about me soon.
I better but yeah, man, But yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Just want to bring you on, man, cause I got
a lot of a lot of younger brothers coming up,
and I'm trying to get every good example out there.
And we just joined forces, man, because it's time for
us to step up, be the example. Because the youth
needs it. They need us to step up, man, especially
in our communities. Man, they need us to step up
and show that we are positive. You don't need violence.
You don't got to sell drugs, you don't got to
(11:43):
rob or kill nobody. You can go out there and
be successful. You don't gotta be a boxer you want.
You can be a football player, whatever you want to do,
you know, but connect with us and we're here for you.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah. I love that. I love that.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I even though my parents were divorced back together, I
had a weird situation, but I had both my parents
in my life. But my parents worked all the time,
and I would go to this This place is like
the after school center. It was an abasement of a
church and uh it was ucc Nail Community Council.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And there were the counselors there.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
You think they're like adults, they were just like four
years older than you were, but they were to me,
they were the coolest people in the world because they
got to like, you know, the older people are always
cooler when you're a kid. And I always looked up
to those people, all the counselors, and the counselors, they
always showed the best side of themselves around us.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Because they were working. And I realized all those.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Guys who were those counselors were all the young men
that I grew up like admiring and looking up to,
and those people shaped who I am. So like, that's
essentially what you're doing right now. And I love that
you're out here doing that.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Man, Thank you, man, thank you. Like I said, man
my story.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
When I was homeless, I could have gave up. Man,
I got I got a kid, my son's and I
and my daughter. You know, she she's fire, she's five.
You know, it's for me to be an example, And
I tell every parent this. You know, if you want
your kids to overcome tragedy in life, if you want
your kids to overcome adversity in life, and starts with
the parents. You know, overcome adversity. We can overcome tragedy
(13:31):
in life and get through the hard times. We can't
expect our kids to do that, you know what I mean.
So that's why I just, man, I love people like you, man,
because you're strong.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Man.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You be an example. You're stepping out and you show
these kids like yo, you can have a go. You
do have a dream, go out there and chase it.
Just never give up. You know it's not gonna be easy,
because if it was easy, everybody'll be successful.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
We just don't give up, you know what I mean. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Another thing that kind of like motivates me and drives
me is And I didn't realize this until I'm thirty three. Man,
I was just hitting me now. So my dad like
grew up in Trinidad and he stopped going to school
at the age of nine because he had to start working.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
And then he worked on.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Like a construction site until he was old enough, and
he came to America and started working and he brought
like each.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Of his brothers and sisters over.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
America one by one, and all of them like own
houses and like they live middle class American lives.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
That is the American dream, right.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
So I grew up seeing my dad hustle like nothing illegal,
just like always at work, always finding a way to
like do a side job. He drove a cement truck,
he did construction on the side. So all I ever
saw was hustle. So I just thought that was, like,
that's where the bar was set. So having that like,
(14:58):
for a lack of better term, that immigrant mentality and
that immigrant like.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Work ethic exactly, that's all I know.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
But that's what you need, though, cam Like I tell people,
as long as you have work and faith, that'll go together.
Like all you need to work in faith. Man, get
up and just take care of yourself. You take care
of your body. Your body gonna take care of you self.
Love is everything. And that's one thing I preached when
when I preach and I speak out here in May's
self love. You know, just love yourself, take care of yourself,
(15:29):
take care of your individually, take care of your soul. Okay,
if you don't, nobody want to take care of you.
You know you're a boxer, you know, you know why
they gotta take care of your body.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Actually, now that I even left boxing, I've been spending
more time like reflecting on my twenties and how I've
grown as a person and understanding what loving myself truly is.
And it took me stopping boxing to actually learn about
myself and learn how to love myself. And sometimes that
(15:59):
means stricting yourself of certain things and or not over indulging.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
So yeah, it goes deep.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Yeah, I mean, but you big on nutrition, man, Like
I said, you big on nutrition.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I need to get my nutrition right.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I mean, I need to work on that self disciplined
part about myself.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Man, eating a little bit more healthier.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But progress non perfection, maybe progress non perfection. You're right,
You're right right about that. That's what I'm working with you, man.
So that's I need to get my helth help man.
I mean, I'm trying to get back in the boxing myself,
but just having that self discipline of eating healthy, you know,
eating celery.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
And the thing is like, first of all, you just
have to commit to like picture this.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
People get arrested all the time, right for crimes they
haven't done. And let's say you did thirty days in jail,
it's not gonna change, like for the.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Whole scope of your life.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
If you lived till seven and you did thirty days
restricted from everything, you'd survive as a human being. If
you could survive as a human mean, you can eat
of like a clean diet for thirty days, even if
you're miserable, you can survive. It's not as bad as prison.
(17:23):
Okay to seize prison as a perspective. So if you
could just tolerate anything for thirty days, it becomes a habit.
So what you need to do is mentally wrap your
mind around and every time you think, you like, ah,
I'm a slip up. I want to have a snack,
or I want to eat some cheetos. No picture, you're
(17:45):
in jail and you don't have those options.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Once you make it a habit.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I did the vegan thing for it was a twenty
eight day. I lost a bet I had to do
for twenty eight days. After the twenty eight days, it
became a habit, and I didn't want to be vegan
by any means.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
I just felt so good. I felt so good.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Man for the first time I left, I felt I
felt like a car that got an oil change. I
was like, you know what, I'm not gonna be vegan.
I'm just gonna do this a little longer. And it's
spent ten years now. One of the best decisions I've
ever made.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Bazy man, I'm working and working on it right now.
I'm thirty two. I'll be thirty three in July.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So you're a young man. You're a young man. I
used to be thirty two. Wait were you born in
the nineties. Yeah, I was born in eighty nine. Okay,
you just barely made it.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Everybody says that, Hey, a lot happened eighty nine now, Like, man,
I'm in eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I still claim being an eighties baby. Hey, they claim
we're not eighties baby.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
They say, if you eighty eight, eighty nine not eighties babies,
they got the last two years of the eighties.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
But bab I'll take them both exactly, man, exactly. Man.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
So yeah, man, any questions for me, cam Man, I
know you want to know a little bit about myself?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Man? Yeah, So where are you are you stilling? Made? Now? Yeah?
I'm a Maine now man, I'm a man now. Kind
of grew presence.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I'm actually being broadcast on the news because of my story.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, it's gonna be pretty cool. Yeah. Uh so what's
uh so you say you're getting back into boxing. Yeah,
yeah I am. I'm trying to. I want to go.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I'm deciding whether or not to go pro man, because
my instructor is kind of crazy.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Man.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
He was trying to tease you and and train it
because yeah, if you put your hands and I'll tell
you put your hands up and put your hands down,
you're gonna get you like your hands up.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And guard the cage.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
So you said, right if he watched it right now,
I'm sorry, but yeah, he said, Hey, I with those
parts of that, man, Yeah, they ain't heavy o hearing man, Man, Itzy.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
You can dodge your traffic, you can dodge the ball, yeah,
dodge taser. Hey, Hey, how many fights you got right now?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I've only been in like four fights, man, having kids,
having a business, and then I just you know how
it is the adult life, man, But getting back into it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Man, I've been driving.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I just recently left FedEx. I was driving FedEx and
I just left left and doing my own clothing brand,
got my own clothing line nice.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
You know. I was like, yeah, I need to get
back into boxing.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I missed that because one thing about boxing for some
people like me, like it's a peace of mind man,
like you got a lot of your mind and you emotional,
you know what I mean, sort of like going to
hit somebody or somebody or.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Hitting the wall.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You just put your gloves on going to the gym.
You know, the feeling man just hit hit on the back.
Man is just let it go. Yeah, you know what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
So it's hard to stay away from. Yeah, I see
why guys fight way too long in their careers. I
always I always knew, like going into boxing. I always
had this joke and I would me and my buddy,
I'd be like, hey, let me know.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
When it comes that time.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
And in my life movie when you have to pull
me aside and tell me, hey, you should give it up,
hang up the gloves. And I because I see fighters fight.
They don't need the money, they don't they just keep fighting.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
And and now I get it. It's so addicting.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I'm trying in my head. I'm telling people I retire
like I'm done, but it's hard to be done. Like
I just came to Austin, Texas, and I'm like, I
want to go find a boxing gym.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Trying to.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
I brought my mouth piece with me just in case
I'm telling people I retire, But I got my mouth
piece with me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Man, it's a gry rush Man again. It's your temple.
We can go ahead and just release your mind and
all the frustration and just be around your family. Your
boxing club. You know, they're not gonna hurt you. They're
going to get you better and stronger.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
That's one thing I learned being in boxing, man, that
your boxing club is going to take care of you
and just love you and just you know what I mean,
it's just sort I love be humble, you know. So
nobody ain't nobody in the club, you know what I mean.
You're trying to each other better.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
I do miss that aspect, like being on the USA
team for pretty much throughout my twenties, Like even though
the teams change, except like just that camaraderie and that
like you know, well listen, because you'd be on the
team with just strangers and then you take one trip
(22:48):
to Italy for like a month and you can't like
you don't have Wi Fi, you have nothing to do
but talk to each other, and you start sharing about
your family.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
And your background, your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And you become a family by the end of the
year exactly. So I missed that aspect. And everyone just
wants everyone so competitive and everyone wants to make everyone
wants to be the best, but everyone lifts everyone else up.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I love that energy.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, man, trust me, Man, I do it too. Man,
you got some feedback too. Somebody said, dope interview right there,
and the comments let's see here, somebody said this is good,
and then yeah, we're getting good feedback.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Man.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
People if people touches on souls right now, cam Man,
that's what it's all about. It And I tell people
all the time, Cam, were able to impact someone's life.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
That's calling yourself an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Where you lay down at night and you check your email,
you check your inbox, or like you check your DM
and somebody said you much. Say hey, thank you for
just speaking at my school. You just really inspired me
to be better. Like that makes you feel good as
a speaker, I've been speaking. That makes me feel good
when I get those messages. Man, Like yo, you just
inspired me to do better, Like thank you, like you
(24:09):
ever get those and you can feel that way that.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Every I start my day, like the first thing I
always check in the morning. So first thing I do
in the morning, all right, my journal, your gratitude. But
when I check my phone, I checked the Instagram message
requests to see like any of those messages from students,
because I love starting my day because that's why I
(24:32):
do it. Like so yeah, I do get those messages
and it it always makes my day.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Definitely, Man makes my day all the time too.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
So yeah, to tell you a little bit about myself
real quick though, so you know who I am, man,
because it's the first time actually meeting man. Yeah, I
got sound thirty two. I'll be thirty three, I said.
I got left in originally from Florida. From Temple, Florida.
Oh okay, yeah, man, I just can't it made no
vacation literally, I had no attention to staying to main Man.
(25:05):
Came on vacation with one back clothes, pair of shoes
and had altercation with somebody who was doing drugs. Man,
and they told me to catch your bus back to Florida.
So I just packed my clothes and my shoes and
walked to the nearest park and just pray to God.
And that's somebody like, hey, your cute come over like
something like that. I was new to may I ain't
doing nothing, and I just stay here and made my way.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
So now I got a LLC business, h the shelters,
speaking at shelters. I got to be homeless, so I
love going back to shelters. Let them know that I
have to be here as well too. I was homeless,
so if I can get out and make a life
and do great, you guys can't too.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
No excuses.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
And that's how I'm in homelessness, you know what I mean,
because I am.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I got a lot of.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
People who've been homeless, and there's no excuse why they
can't get out the homeless shelter.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
If we can do it, they can do it. You know.
You just gotta want it, believe it, and I give up.
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I tell people whatever the mind can't conceive and believe
the mind will achieve.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
And I always been with me.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
You know, you just mentioned about the shelters, and I'm like,
I've got I've got free time, and you just saying
that made me feel a way, like, oh why am I?
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Why? Why are not I doing that, So I'm gonna
look into that.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, definitely, man, we can connect. Let me know, man,
I just that's why I tell people because people are like, oh,
I'm trying to end homelessness. Well, how you in homelessness
is because I used to be homeless. And one thing
about homeless people and no disrespect to them, but they
are disrespectful.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Like they'll come back to the shelter and say, oh, man,
this person.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Gave me food I can't bite and look at it
this like I've seen that firsthand, you know. And that's
why I go back and I tell them, I give
him a business card, and I encourage them, like, you
guys are great guys. Don't being homeless to find who
you are as a person. You know, that's great. So
what if you're good at I'm gonna give you the
initiative to call me is a business card. You know,
(26:55):
get a hold of me so I can help you
get your life straight. But if you don't get a
hold of me, I can't help you, you know what
I mean. So that's how I go back.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Man.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
It's just kids too, you know, kids too. You know.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
My cousin nineteen years old two times feeling my other
cousin doing a ten year bid at nineteen bro. So
I'm trying to get back to the community man best
way I can and let him know there's more to
life than that.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah, all right, all right, hundred percent agree with you man.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah so, but like I said, camp Man, but one question,
want to ask you, man, what what's one thing would
you tell a younger version of you and he's coming
up trying to figure his life out?
Speaker 1 (27:39):
What's one thing would you tell that younger person? Uh
m hmm. Then got nailed it.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
I wouldn't Yeah, yeah, I don't even know if I
would tell myself.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Okay, bitcoin, definitely.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Definitely tell twenty twelve Cam just put twenty dollars in
bitcoin exactly. Yeah, I would have been a billionaire right now.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Uh. You know what I would have done. I would
have I would have spoken to myself. I would have.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
I would have nudged myself into the direction to learn
about what anxiety is, because I didn't know what anxiety was.
But I know I would get very moody. That's what
I would consider. I would get very moody in certain situations,
and I wouldn't be myself and I wouldn't be the
best version of myself.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
And like.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
I couldn't box in the boxing gym with all the
kids around because my coach one of the things is
he wants he always wanted me to work out with
all the all the boxers in the gym because he
needs I should be around them. But when that many
people are around me, I start to freak out and
I'm not I wasn't the best version of myself.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
I was shorter, I was very short with people.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
And I didn't like making eye contact and I didn't
realize what that was. So I would have taught myself
that and given myself ways to.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Deal with it. And yeah, I would have let myself
know about anxiety. I like that.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Man. Hey, so I'm on Clubhouse, Man, I do mental
health rooms all the time. I actually did a room
today on Clubhouse before our podcast and meet up came
in and have feelings. And I would definitely love you
on Clubhouse with me man doing rooms like that because
a lot of brothers that he learned about that, man
so and that that room came out phenomenal. Man, Queens
(29:57):
and King was going back and forth, and that's definitely
a great conversation you know about man having feelings because
a lot of people ought of man, don't finish your
have feelings.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
And I understand my dad's from Trinidad. They don't have
feelings over there.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Yeah, yeah, that's not something we grew up with like
in America, Like well, like I love you.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Those aren't thrown around where I'm from. Oh man, you
get those at funerals.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
That's it. So like now being realizing, like you can
say that, you can show appreciation of people, you can
be grateful. I thought there were three emotions happy, sad,
and angry, like and now I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Learning there's a lot more. So.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Emotional intelligence is something that we need to learn about
because how can we express ourselves without the tools for communication.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Exactly exactly we should have been in this morning camp.
It's a dope, man, I told. I told man, it's
greatful a man to cry. Like I tell people all
the time, you take that pain and use for fuel.
You know, I tell people if you crying, tips doesn't
make you a point, just that puts you on a
whole different levels.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
So if you're hurting, find out what you're good at.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
And you're telling that, you just channel all that energy
to something that you're good at and you turn into success,
you know what I mean? And I tell people like,
don't sit there and cry and mope around the house.
I don't courage people do that. Don't sit here in
mope and not do anything. It's all life is over
with and just cry your life away. No, you get
up and you go out there again.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
You know, you can fail without being discouraged. Success becomes inevitable.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I like that, Like hope you guys like hope you
guys heard that. Write that quote down man, And that's
the gym right there.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Today we got another one.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
We got a queen in the butt. She said, yes,
that would have been so cool. She said killing it,
And yeah, we definitely kill in it. Man. Like I said,
I'm a motivational speaker myself camp and I just love
connecting other speakers.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Man.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I was fortunate to meet Les Brown and I spoke
with Les Brown on Clubhouse. He be on Clubhouse a lot,
got in one of his rooms, told my story and
he was like, I see you what stays with me
one day?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So uh yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Man, yeah, so but I just want to connect with
other every everybody man, because we all great speakers, we
all got great stories, and all stories can really help
everybody because I'm not going to reach everybody. You know,
my story, I'll reach everybody you know, so your story
can reach people that I can't reach.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
But we can reach everybody together. You know.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
That's all about just collaborating, just moving up and just
helping others grow because we got people watching us.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
For it, for it man, so that I appreciate it. Man.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
So quick question for you the refresher. Yeah, what's the
background behind that?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
When I was homeless, man, I had a guy like really,
I gave my clothes off my back, I had no eye,
I have a pot to pissing or window throw out of,
and like, I ain't wear homeless clothes man, I wear
like Ralph flooring, I wear Nike and homeless other I
didn't have to find myself as an homeless person, and
I felt bad for those around me because it was like, oh, well,
(33:20):
I like, you know, I love like crap, this, that
and that. I can't afford that. So I took my
clothes off my back and gave it to him even
though I ain't have nothing, and I gave it dude
the same hat, actually, man, the same Jordan hat I
took my hat off and I gave it to him
and he looked at it.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
He was like, yo, this is nice hat, Like, thank you. You
used to refresh me.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
And it was like I lost my family, I lost
my kids, my job, and am homeless and he just
gave me this hat. He used to refresh me. Man,
he just stept us on in the right direction. I
just took the name.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Ran with that. I love that, man. So I love that.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, man, thank you man. So that's why I'm the
refreshing man. I like to just refresh everybody, man, because
we all go through it, but we all we triumph
through it.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
We don't go through it, we grow through it. You know,
show you'd be shown refreshing. Yeah, mister refresher.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, I'm changing it to Sean the Refresher Jackson because
you inspired me and changing.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
My name that's man.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
I love to hear that, because we don't need to
live the way everyone else used to live, Mike, exactly.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, tradition, stunt growth, you can do whatever you want.
Adulthood exactly. Man.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
That's why I tell people, man, But yeah, I'm changing
my name is Sean the Refresher Jackson.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Man.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
So like Cam fesome, Man, that's a that's a dope name. Bro.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
I seen seen the documentary when you was walking the streets,
I forgot what country is and and there's a Caucasian
couple that stopped you in the middle of the streets
because your name. I think that was like Canada, right,
what countries I wasn't I think.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
That was here in the States? That was I think
that was in Vegas.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Ah yeah, yeah, okay, okay, yeah, I'm telling you that
that that help me right there. Man, you touched a
lot of people at the Souls man, so guarantee you.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Man.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I just want to thank you for taking time about
your busy life. Man, just coming on and I appreciate
you inviting me on the show.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I appreciate it. Man.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
So, like I said, I see here, I have any
questions yet, don't have any questions? Yeah, Man, have any
more questions for me, Cam, Like I said, it's a
blessing having on the show.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Brother. If you have any books that you wrote yet that.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
People, No, No, I haven't have any I haven't written
any books.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
I'm figuring all.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
I didn't realize the position I was putting myself in
because I spoke at the schools about about boxing and
what just talking about what boxing did for me, Like,
I'm no expert in no means.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I don't do any branding. I don't do any marketing
or anything.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
I just I just shared my story with students and
because I used to get bullied and uh, and then
it turned into me being a role model, and then
I didn't I don't know how all of this works.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And then when I write a book, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I don't know what I would write a book on,
Like would I write a book on Like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
There's just so much, man.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I encourage you to write a book on your life, man,
like your whole experience, man, because your whole life is
the story man. You know, from your childhood to your
adulthood to the boxing life.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
You just never gave up.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
You're a true champion, you know, and you let nobody
tell you what you had in your mind that you
was going to do what you was gonna do. He's
gonna get it done, regardless of what any means necessary,
and you an't what nobody had to say.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
He was going to get it done.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
That's a lot of respect, right that to you, My
brother and that's what your book should be about. Man,
How you just overcome tragedy he turned into triumph.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Really, Man, I'm writing a book, and my book is
from my childhood. I'm only talk to three, but it's
from like my childhood up to like my adulthood, you know.
And it's like my mother passing away and my father
passing away. So I encourage you to write the book, man,
because your story is a book.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
You got a movie already. Can I need a book? Man? Yeah? Yeah,
maybe one day, maybe, maybe one day.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
I'll I used to write a lot, and I used
to write blogs for USA Boxing, so when we would
take these trips out of the country, I would update
like a newsletter. So I would write like a blog
every week to update like how the team's going, like
things that are going on or whatever, and it would
be funny.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
And then I.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Would write blogs on discipline and motivation and resilience and
time management. But I've never taken any time to write
about myself, So that's something I'll maybe give a try.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Got to man, because you're a great dude, bro. I
told you know, I told my excalated about you, and.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
I was like, yo, man. She even called me.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
She was like, so like, man, I can't wait, Man,
I see my brother on Netflix, Like she was gonna
have you for me and stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Man. So like, because you're choose, man, you're a true king. Man.
You know, thank you man, great, thank you King. I
appreciated brother, and you're doing great things. Man.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
So hell the world man, where they can follow you. Man,
they can get a hold of you man, like they like,
So what's next for cam f awesome?
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Uh So, actually, uh what's next to me is I.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I want to get back into comedy. So I was.
I enjoy doing it. It's fun and it's difficult. It's
difficult in a mental.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Way the way boxing was difficult physically, just the way
you have to figure things out. And it also deals
a lot with the confidence and stage presence and it's challenging.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
So I actually came down to Austin, Texas for a
month because I can work virtually and because there's a
big open mic scene down here. So every night I
go to two or three open mics and yeah, so
the goal for me is to pursue comedy again. Continue
with the keynote speaking, Continue as a diversity consultant, continue
speaking at the schools, and I want to actually want
(39:32):
to learn. I want to learn something new, whether it
be language, possibly Brazilian jiu jitsu, or to play an instrument.
I just want to continue to challenge myself and always
give myself something to strive better towards.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
I love that, and that's part of just bettering yourself
every single day. You know, that's that you should do.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Man.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
And what if I can do it, help you, my brother,
let me know, man, And again I appreciate that, Bro.
And if you're doing comedy, if you're doing I know
Dang if you know Dang Cook, you gotta say we
just say your Dang Cook.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Clubhouse a lot, a lot a lot, man.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
So you want to get down with the comedian kind
of plugging at the comedian world. What I do is
when I go in clubhouse and he's on doing the room, like,
I'll see your lead. So you can come in chump
in with Dang Cook and possibly connect with Dang Cook.
And look, he probably seen he probably seen the documentary,
so he probably just connected. Probably a fan, man, because
(40:32):
like I said, you touch a lot of lives, man,
especially if you just dumping the ring and do the
little flip.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Yeah, your anterest man. I was like, okay, last things ended. Uh.
So I grew up watching professional wrestling.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Right, And when I grew up, it was the Rock
and it was mankind and it was stone cold, and
it was Triple H was X Pact, and everyone had
this pizazz and the splamboyance and this personality. And when
I got into boxing, I was like, well, if I'm
gonna do this, this is almost like wrestling. So I
want to have that same. I want it to be fun.
(41:09):
I want to like flip in the ring. I want
to wear a cape, I want to fly around.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Like, to me, that's fun. It's supposed to be entertaining.
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Granted, boxing is brutal in its own way, but it's
supposed to be an entertaining sport, and I always try
to be entertaining.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
I love it, man, I love it.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
Man.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
So guys, if you haven't seen its counter Punch yet,
go watch it on Netflix. Documentary definitely a dope documentary.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Watch. You're gonna learn a lot about my brother here.
And you know, if you.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Need any help about consulting anything like that, get hold
of him.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Man.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
He's a great consulting Make me help you out, get
you right, get you right? So Cam let him know, man,
if they need help with consulting.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Yeah, I'm here for what I speak on in ten
versus impact. I help people communicate through different cultures. Being
on being captaining or say national boxing team for about
ten years and traveling around, traveled over thirty countries and
this is where I learned to connect with people of
different backgrounds. So I help I help people communicate and
(42:11):
who needs help communicating? I need to work on a
better elevator pitch. I got you, Sean, Sean, you're helping
me grow as a person already.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
I got you, brother, I got you Man, I got
you Man, I got you man. So we do man,
Iron shoppers, iron right, you're serious, sir. So all right,
Cam Man, it's been a blessing.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Man.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
I'm gonna get this on YouTube, Senior your link so
you can rewatch it. You know what I'm saying that
So some fans, Man, I let them know next what's
next for Cam?
Speaker 1 (42:40):
So go, thank you again, my man. It's a blessing.
Thank you King.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
All right, all right, King, have a good day too,
and we're not a love cool all right, guys, thank
you so much and that was my boy, Cam f Awesome.
I'm definitely a great dude. Again, guys, give him a
(43:07):
follow on social media on all major networks. And it's
only right that ended video with my boy Cam f
awesome video. So guys again, please go watch the movie
CounterPunch on Netflix as a documentary. Who I just watched
definitely a great guy and please guys being tuned. Man
(43:28):
the refreshers moving and moving fast and moving fast, guys.
So like I said, man, go watch the video. I mean,
go watch the movie. Definitely a dub movie.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Guys.
Speaker 3 (43:37):
All right, my name is Cam f Awesome and I'm
a multi time USA National champion heavyweight boxer and former
captain of the USA National Boxing team.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
As captain of the USA National Boxing Team, I traveled
around That's what we just had on guys.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
So again, comment likes, comment likes, subscribe watching on YouTube
and just to refresh your guys, you have a blessful day.
Thank you all for watching sewing love and support as
I journey on to podcasting. Guys, this is episode four
a Champions podcast and you know I'm dough, like twelve
(44:17):
episodes and season one is gonna be a book soon guys,
so thank you all for sewing.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Love much love,
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