← Mick Unplugged
Mick Unplugged
Allen Williams | Allen Williams Journey: Financial Wisdom, Mentorship, Sports, and Military Insights
00:42:16
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- [00:00]
A
Allen is one of the most brilliant, intelligent people that you will ever meet in life.
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B
You know, both of my parents, man, my dad, man, was a success in Orangeburg. I gained all my accolades from him. They had the Junior Olympic team, they had a bunch of athletes, man, like, such as, like the Terry Guesses, Henry Guesses, William Grahams.
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A
What would you say are the top two things that you learned about yourself that helped you with your retirement from the Navy?
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B
First of all, discipline, Growing up early, taking responsibility early. Second thing is adaptation, because we learn to adapt to anything.
- [00:43]
A
What's the two things you should be doing daily?
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B
Learning something new every day and is investing in something in something. Welcome to MC Unplugged where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insight, bold moves and game changing conversations. Buckle up. Here's Mick.
- [01:07]
A
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today's guest is a highly distinguished individual who has achieved remarkable success both military and in the civilian sectors. After serving more than two decades in the US Navy. His dedication and exemplary service and leadership earned him inclusion into the distinguishable Marquis who's who. He is a man, he is a friend, he is a mentor, and he is someone that we're about to have so much fun with. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to welcome my friend, the disciplined, the innovative and the inspiring, Mr. Allen Williams. Allen, how you doing today, brother?
- [01:48]
B
Oh, man. With that intro, I am great, man. I love it, brother. I love it.
- [01:52]
A
Look, and that's the last scripted thing we're going to do today because what I want to tell the listeners and viewers is this right here. Yeah, man, all that intro was amazing.
- [02:01]
B
Yeah.
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A
But Alan is also a fool. And if I could show you or record some of the late night conversations that we have, I would probably get kicked off the airwaves. So I'm not gonna do that. But we might get into some of it. I just had to preface that because we don't know where this conversation is going. But I will start with this, and I mean this from my soul.
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B
Yes, sir.
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A
Alan is one of the most brilliant, intelligent people that you will ever meet in life. So I do want to let the listeners and viewers know that. And Alan, you know how much I respect and love you brothers. So man, where do we even begin, dude?
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B
Oh, man. South Carolina.
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A
I guess we are both South Carolinians.
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B
South Carolinians. I know you were easily. I'm from Orangeburg, so it's not too far, but yeah, man. Grew up in Orangeburg. South Carolina, you know, both of my parents, man, my dad, man, was a success in Orangeburg, you know, with the police force, but also with the help in the community. You know, I gained all my accolades from him as me being by him as he was doing the Junior Olympic team with the late, great Orangeburg chef, Papa Johnson. They had the Junior Olympic team. They had a bunch of athletes, man, like, such as, like the Terry Guesses, Henry Guesses, William Grahams, who else? I know I'm missing a lot, but just a few of the names, man, that ran on that track team, went all over the United States, competed, broke records. So you know, me seeing that and him coaching football for Brookdale B team and seeing all the athletes that came from there. Him just helping in the community. For example, Shelton Benjamin, you know, he helped him a lot, you know, in his accolades through his childhood. And Sheldon has taught highly about, you know, my dad and stuff like that. I think he did a documentary with WWE at one point and my dad was on there. I didn't realize young, young guy, had hairstyle, but yeah, just following his steps, you know, him helping kids and stuff like that. So, you know, disc sports, played at Edisto High, played little league football in Orangeburg as well. You know, all a bunch of little league teams there. From there, you know, after football, you know, I decided I wanted to, you know, get out, you know, I wanted to see something else. So, you know, the Navy guys came to the high school and they were talking to this good old deer like, yeah, we went here. So I like try this Navy thing, give it a shot. So joined the Navy in 2001. Matter of fact, it was the week after September 11th happened, so it was crazy. Yeah, so 2001, did my boot camp, graduated, went to a school in November in Virginia beach, graduated from there and I flew straight to deployment, man, I think I had like 10 days home to come home. Yeah, 10 days and then flew straight to deploy, man. So I flew into the action, which was very interesting, you know, landed in Bahrain, then took a card onto a carrier which was first time experience. But yeah, man, after that, man, I traveled all over the world, lived in three different countries and then my last set decided me that I could play pro football over there. So I did that for three years while I was serving, met a, a lot of great people over there and then came here to Colorado, retired and had like a two month hiatus, just a little break. And then Lockheed Martin hired me on and as a CN test engineer and interrogator. So I was Blessed with that and I continue to do that. But I also continue to like help around the community here in Denver. The Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club Global Children Literacy foundation, which kind of ambassador on that. One of my good friends, Prince Dykes and co founder Chad Chadwick Davis, founded a nonprofit which we give kids first time shareholders of the S&P 500 index fund. So he has four book series. The kids has to read the books, do an essay and he reads every essay and coordinate, you know, the funds we have for donation. It could be one kid or two kids, maybe three kids. So me being a part of that, I love it, giving back. I love helping the kids. I feel, you know, their model and what we need to do is kids need to have like something in their accounts when they graduate high school. But you know, the hardest thing is making the parents believe because, you know, a lot of parents don't understand, you know, investing and stuff like that. So they're looking for, hey, $520 something dollars or where's the cash? But they don't know that, hey, we just gave your Kid the top 500 companies in the United States. So yes sir, they can make money as they go in the years if you keep adding on, if you keep putting in, you know, stuff like that. So that's the hard part. But other than that, it's fun. I having a good time doing it with my job currently with Lockheed, having a great time, great company, very diverse company. Yeah. So that's a little bit about me.
- [07:14]
A
I love it, man. And there's so much I want to unplug and unpack right here. So let's talk about the Navy and the decision to go into the Navy. What was a couple of the deciding factors of one, the military and then specifically the Navy itself.
- [07:30]
B
The guys, the recruiters coming in, you know, they were honest. I didn't have a recruiter that was. None of the recruiters was like telling me this, telling me that, just trying to get me in. But they were just honest. And I go to other recruiting offices such as, you know, Army, Marines and other, you know, I can tell like, okay, this is, this don't sound right. But you know, the Navy was like very honest. Like, hey man, you gonna have some hard days, you're gonna have some deployments, you can work some hard hours. But I guarantee you this man get you out, you can see the world. You can have an education or you can get an education. You're getting paid every two weeks. The average kid don't get paid, especially in College, but you can still go to college and still get paid. You know, we have TA assistants and all that stuff. So they were like, just break it down in nitty gritty. He was like, hey, look, if I were you, pick a job. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you really don't know, then you want to go undesignated. But I'm telling you, like this here, like, you know, undesignated. You know, you'll be in a deck, A deck department. You're probably going to be doing a little bit of everything, probably going to be hard work, but you don't want to do that. So you want to come in here, have a job. So you want to do as good as on your as valve as possible. I know, because, you know, back then we all sit in the auditorium, you had to take an as valve, but I retook mine, you know what I mean? So he was like, yo, just get the best score. Pick a job. Try to get a job with a clearance if you can. And then when I told him what I want to do, he was like, hey, well, this, this rate right here does a little bit of everything. But, you know, he telling me, well, I don't qualify for and stuff like that. So I was like, cool. So they were honest, but, you know, looking inside like, you know, they do more traveling. They got me out, you know, of to see something different, you know, instead of just staying back at home, but to see something different, man. So I'm, you know, I signed myself up, you know, cause turn 18 and you know, my mom, she was like, I'm not gonna do it. So I'm like, look, I'm signing myself up now. My mom, today's like, man, best decision you ever made, man. She's like, so proud of you. Best decision, too. Yeah.
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A
Yeah. Well, number one, thank you for your service.
- [09:36]
B
Appreciate it.
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A
And then number two, so to my very close friends, my best buddies, Darren Vermost, army danielsong Marine. So I'm gonna let both of them know. And I know they're listening to this podcast. I'm gonna let both of them know. Hey. The Navy was authentic and transparent, Jerry. And that's why Allen went there.
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B
Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I took the dinners from the other branches. Don't get me wrong now, I wasn't that naive. So, you know, everybody made dinner. I took it. There you go.
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A
There you go. And so then you're in the Navy, right? And you've had an amazing career in the Navy. What would you say Are the top two things that you learned about yourself that helped you with your retirement from the Navy?
- [10:18]
B
Oh, man. First of all, discipline. Because as soon as you go to, you know, boot camp in the Navy and stuff, they gonna break you down and stuff. So all mental discipline. So a lot of mental. And just knowing yourself, growing up, growing up early, taking responsibility early, you know, when you get certain ranks and stuff like that, you get to get your own apartment. So, you know, own stuff, own, you know, whatever you're going to do. So it teaches you how to maintain and be by yourself, hold your ground and just be a man or woman, Take on responsibilities, important responsibilities on your job. Because a lot of those guys, man, we either monitor or we operate on million dollar equipment. So, you know, it teaches you, you know, that aspect. Second thing is, I want to say adaptation, because we learn to adapt to anything that is put in front of us. So we get put in the fire, but we just got to figure it out. I know a lot of people, you know, it's a lot of bookworms that's in the military too, or they come in as bookworms. But at the end of the day, you know, they got to learn how to think. Think on the swivel, think fast and execute. So that's one thing like this adapting, you know, change of transition, this change of scenery, change of learning a new thing, a new equipment. So that's, that's the main thing, you know, that I'm grateful at. And I'm going to add a third one, networking. Because we travel around, so we met a lot of people everywhere I go, every country or whatever or state, you know, networking and military is very tight knit. You know, it's a different community. A lot of people don't realize that. You know, you can tell like in the civilian sector, you know, but vice, the military sector, like we just very close knit, you know, somebody back in your first duty station, they're here visiting or they're just here on vacation. You find out they're here. Hey, you know, you just, hey, man. You know, and then. So like Back to Squirrel 1 again. Hey, man, come over here, man. Go, let's go get lunch. Come to the house, you know, and. Very close knit.
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A
Yeah, yeah. And I will say this about you as my friend now, I would say networking is the skill that you have taken and have conquered and have mastered. Because, you know, in the entertainment world, right, you know, there's that thing six degrees of Kevin Bacon, right? So everybody's like six people away from Kevin Bacon. I'm going to say in the real world, everybody's like, three degrees from Alan Williams. Like, if I'm in a room, I guarantee you, if I'm in a room of 10 people, four people know Allen Williams or know somebody that knows him very well. And there's always a story about Allen that's going on, right? So I would totally say that. And when I say it's something that you've mastered, and I really mean this. And I would say this for all the listeners and viewers as well, too, right? Because Alan is the person who. He checks on his people, he checks on his friends, right? Like, all the time. Like, you know, I was just on my anniversary, right? And you're messaging me, seeing how things are going and giving me some advice. I'm gonna use air quotes and just leave it at that for right now. Giving me some advice, right? But that's what I love, and that's what the world needs, is, like, sometimes you just genuinely have to check on people. And here's the other thing that I love about Alan when it comes to networking. If I'm like, hey, Alan, I see that you're connected to this person. Could you make an introduction? Allen doesn't just send an email or a dm. Like, you're gonna get a phone call from Alan, and then he's gonna say, hold on one second. And then you click over, and the person that you were just talking about is on the other line. And Alan's done this amazing introduction. Like, this literally happens two days a week with me and Alan, where it's like, hey, do you know that person? Or Alan will ask me, do you know this person? And the next thing I know, I've either got a phone call with the person or there's a meeting scheduled. And when I get to that meeting, the person knows my whole life story. And it's like, dude, like, how do you do that? And then number two, I'd love for you to tell the audience why that's important in today's society, you know, so why the question?
- [14:42]
B
Why did I do that? Because, you know, everybody, you know, needs, you know, a helping hand. So I always been that person. Like, if I don't withhold information because, you know, information has been withhold for a long time, you know, so if I know it or if I could find out about it, I'm trying to make it happen. If I can't make it happen, then I'll let you know, hey, look, I tried this, I tried that, tried all my avenues, but it Just couldn't happen, you know, the reason why it's important is because people just be selfish a lot, you know, in this society today. So me and my good friend Prince, we always say this. Back when we was growing up, me and you, Mick Prince. At that era, the world had less information, right? So if you didn't go and find out, or if you didn't know about it, you just didn't know. The world today has too much information. So it can smother the brain, but you have to know, which is what, Right? So there's so much information thrown at people. So if you got a person like myself or anybody else who's a networker that can guide you to say, hey, look, go this route, or, hey, know this person or know that person, because you got all the information just fluttering in now. You don't know which way to gravitate. You'd be like, okay, should I go here, should I go here, or should I go here? But you have a person that knows this area or just know this person, and knowing that, hey, look, what you're doing could help you then. Yeah, you gotta have those people. You get what I'm saying? And a lot of these kids today, they gotta have those people. They gotta find the right people to be in their circle. The right people that's growing with them, or the right people that's guiding them in the right direction. Because so much information pouring in today, right? So you gotta have that, hey, go here, go here. I guarantee you go here. Yeah, this guy's knocking at your door. But look, I know this guy. Go here.
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A
Yep.
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B
So that's like the main thing I see, like, in society today. Too much information. I don't know where to go. But you got certain people that either been there, done that, or know somebody who did this, done that, and they can guide you to say, hey, do this person, and maybe that person knows this person, that person. And that can connect all your blocks. Because now you trying to get this person, but you got a person that. Where I talk to him every day. I talk to her every day.
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A
Totally. One of the things I appreciate the most about you, man, is that. And so again, I wanted to tell you thank you to your face.
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B
No problem for that piece. No problem.
- [17:27]
A
So now let's go into, you know, you're out of the Navy, you've got this position with Lockheed Martin where, you know, I'll. I'll let you briefly explain to the people what you're doing there. But. But so much innovative things that you're doing, you know, a lot of things that you talk, that you do that you probably can't talk about what's going on, but just do. I love the fact that you were not one of those people that retired from the military and was like, okay, I'm good. Or, you know, I can, I can take the benefits of retiring from the military because there are people that do that and not saying that there's anything wrong with that.
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B
Yeah, right.
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A
But you definitely took your skill and said, you know what? Now that I'm here, I'm about to go 20 levels higher. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit about what you are doing at Lockheed Martin and why you find fulfillment in what you're doing there.
- [18:19]
B
First of all, you know, yeah, you know, I could have been one of those persons that come back to Florida and don't have to work, but, you know, I kind of wanted to give back. Especially the kids that's coming in the military or just anybody else that's in because I know what type of company Locky is. Our major customers are the military. So me being from the customer and being in those seats before, I wanted to just pretty much give back. And I was thankful for Lockheed for hiring me and put me in things that I can accomplish and give back to the military. So things, you know, that I usually do is, you know, I was on, was on a program. I just recently got moved to a new program, but I was on a program and they needed me for a certain expertise. So they hired me on and my job was to learn the program and then basically travel to different sites, teach the operators the program and get them up to speed and make sure they're trained properly. Which, you know, that program was good, but I moved to another program now. And the thing about Lockheed, you know, they don't care. They're. I like this company because they take a risk. They don't care. You got the experience and they know that you came from the customer. They want your point of view because, you know, I say it's a lot of engineers and you know, the language barrier is totally different. And some stuff I'm still trying to learn. But you know, military we simple, make it short. Simple and sweet. Less PowerPoints, more hands on this. Tell her what it is, tell us how to do it, give us the basics and if you got like a fake PowerPoint or if you got like a document for the product, hey, make sure we can access it and we'll go back and look at it. If we have Problems at certain sales, right? So you know, a lot of the engineers, they're lucky, you know, they, they're readers, they want to explain everything, but I told them I look, can't explain everything. Explain the basics, design, divide the positions, whatever this position, do you explain this, whatever this position, do you explain that eventually they're going to have time to get together and learn each other else positions, right? So that's the kind of like I kind of bring to the table too. Just, hey, approach it like this, don't say it like that, like learn that translation from engineering to human. And I just, I like it. You know, they, they took a chance on me and I'm, I'm grateful. A lot of the guys there, you know, and you know, like the whole company, man, is very diverse. You know, top, one of the top leaders, Ms. Stephanie Hill, she, you know, African American woman. There's a lot of diversity in the company, but the way the company is going by, you know, getting retired military, I think, you know, you know, they got a lot of people that was prior, right? But the time they got out, man, the military has changed so much. So if you haven't been in, you know, in a minute, you probably ain't gonna know like what's going on or what's these changes and stuff like that.
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A
So.
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B
But you get somebody who kind of just got out and they did, they did it 20 years or whatever or 20 plus or 30 plus. You know, I think that's the route to go to break the barrier of them and the customer understanding why when they interact, everything is like now, now, now, go, go, go. And they want there's something to be done for the mission. If it ain't everything, but something that can lead, that can work. And then we give them that and then all of a sudden now we can work in the background, okay, we gonna add this, add that, add that. But give them something that's gonna make it work right then and there, right? And then as they're doing that, we add on. So, you know, a lot of people is picking that up now and realizing that. And yeah, it's not just building just to build because you got this cool product and it does this, it does that, but knowing your customers and knowing the mission and knowing what they need it for, I have a machine to do everything. But guess what, if it don't fit the mission, it ain't gonna work. Or make it fit the mission and then you go hand out ease. So yeah, it was a good thing. You know, they trying to go towards that direction. But, you know, it's just gotta, you know, get that language barrier, get that translation. And that's where I come in. And other folks that come in that has the same background as I am and to be called an engineer, you know, saying. Which is good.
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A
Yeah, absolutely. I want to talk to the listeners and viewers that are leaders. I want to talk to you specifically right now, because Alan just brought out something that I think is critically important and is usually the biggest miss in leadership, and that is being short, sweet, and to the point with direction. Right. Like so many times, leaders are out to prove how smart they are or how detailed they are in a process. And I'm not saying the process shouldn't be detailed. It actually should be.
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B
Yeah.
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A
But how you communicate that process. Right, like, exactly. Give me the basics, give me the reason, give me what the output should be. And then to your point, if there's a manual, great, give it to me. Show me the manual. Show me where it's at and when I need it, I'll go to the manual for certain things. I feel like where leaders go wrong is they start the opposite way. They start with the manual, and then when you give me all these details, then you say, but if you just do A, B and C, you'll be good. And I'm like, well, damn it, why don't you team in the start? So for leaders out there, it's really important that you understand. And this goes for coaches as well, too, right? Leaders, coaches. And I don't care if it's sports coaches, if you're coaching business people, if you're coaching kids, whatever it is short, sweet, to the point, give me what the reason of why we're doing this.
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B
Yes.
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A
What the end result should be, and what specifically is my role in this said project or this said position.
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B
Exactly.
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A
That's the most critical thing. Everything else is learned because processes are always being improved. Processes are always gonna change. If you get so granular in the process, all you're doing is showing people how to switch and do things over again. Because I promise you, step one to step two was going to change at some point. Tell me what the big picture is supposed to look like.
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B
Exactly. And that's the thing, that it comes back to too much information. You know, if you smother the brain with someone, you know, they're not going to retain it. So like I told them, like, you know, a lot of the guys we're training and stuff like that, or a lot of guys who's going to test these Equipment is not going to be guys that's, you know, high in rank or whatever. It's gonna be guys that's coming probably straight out of High School, 18, 19, 20 years old. And I said, you know, as I said, a lot of people join the military because they don't want to go to school. I'm just gonna be real, they don't want to go to school, right? And then once they get in the military, they develop a little discipline about themselves, right? Their mindset, little change, their child mentality is gone now. Then I got broken down in boot camp, brung back up and now, you know, they realize like, wow, you know, we got post 9 11, you know, GI Bill. Oh, I got ta, I can use now so I can actually go to school. I got these clep clep courses I can take. Like they fly instructors on deployment while we here, you know what I'm saying? To clep a course, clep a math clep of science. So yeah, it's just now they found out these avenues and ways, all these certs you can get. So they got all these avenues that they probably haven't even seen. You get what I'm saying? Now they're exposed to it. So now they take advantage, you know, while they're in go to school or they, you know, they, they offer sea duty or whatever deployment. So they on the shore duty now a little easy, a little laid back so they can go to school and get their associates or they have enough schools within the military, they got an associates already. So now they need a couple of credits for a bachelor. So you get seen all this, these things now and you taking over responsibility, you're taking on challenges, you getting put in unusual situations and then you gotta adapt and you gotta overcome. So yeah, you know, I tell them all the time, like look, keep it short, brief, make the PowerPoints just basic, you know what I'm saying? Information. If you have a manual, if you have a big PowerPoint that describes the whole system, have it there where they can access it. You know, they know we know table of contents. We can look it up and say okay, well we don't know this. Okay, we look at the table of contents, okay Here. So it's got to be under here. Look it up. Oh, okay. Because eventually they're going to train each other on each thing. I'm telling you because it's like, it's like the norm, right? You know, we're gonna have to know a little bit about everybody else position. So it's going to happen. But I always tell them it's not the us like to try to give them everything. Teach them to give them the raw, the basics. Let's do this hands on training. Let's show them what it. What it does. And then after that, you know, hey, here's a book. Here's the PowerPoint. Goes by each thing, and then that's it.
- [28:03]
A
There it is. There it is. So let's go rapid fire with Allen Williams.
- [28:08]
B
You ready? Okay.
- [28:10]
A
All right. Favorite college football team?
- [28:12]
B
Oh, game cops, baby.
- [28:13]
A
No, I said your favorite college football team.
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B
Yeah, South Carolina. Game cops.
- [28:17]
A
Your favorite college football team.
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B
My favorite college football team.
- [28:26]
A
Yeah.
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B
South Carolina Gamecocks.
- [28:29]
A
They don't play football there. So who's your favorite guy?
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B
Look, that other school up north. Nah. Okay.
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A
No, I don't like them either. You know, like, I'm a North Carolina guy, so I know you're.
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B
Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. And don't even talk about them, you know?
- [28:49]
A
No, no. So let's go there. Your favorite college basketball team, and why is it the University of North Carolina?
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B
It's not North Carolina. Toby.
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A
Try that.
- [29:01]
B
It's not North Carolina. Oh, hey, listen. My college basketball team is the Gamecocks, man. The Gamecocks.
- [29:09]
A
The Lady Gamecocks are awesome. I will give Dawn Staley and that crew. And I'm being very serious.
- [29:15]
B
Like, yeah, I love the game.
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A
I was a huge Dawn Staley fan when she was at uva.
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B
Yeah. Olympics.
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A
Like Dawn Staley is. She's no gender. Dawn Staley is one of my top five college basketball players ever.
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B
Oh, yeah, she was legit. I remember seeing her when she used to play for the Charlotte Stings, man. I was right there sitting right behind her mom, God bless her soul. Yeah. Go, go, baby. And she just running and. Oh, man, she was something else, man. But her mentality is barred to none, man. She just magic. You get what I'm saying? Like, she's a people's person, first of all. She's a player's coach. You know what I mean? Like, yep, she. She gonna coach you, and she gonna guide you in the right direction and give you this and that. But, you know, players coach. You know, if you got a coach that they can approach you for anything, and I believe them girls can approach her with anything. I mean, any problems, like personal problems. And dawn, she'll just answer it or find the answer or, you know, and it's just a good culture there, you know, and we need that in South Carolina. We definitely needed that. And I hope I get. I'm Thinking it's gravitating towards the men's basketball team, too, because they had a pretty good season. They're growing young, Coach, too, so they're growing.
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A
And I didn't know the men's had a basketball program. I thought we had a women's basketball program and a men's tennis team. And I didn't know there were any other sports.
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B
Listen, you remember BJ Mackie, the only trip. Do you remember BJ Mackie? He used to whip up on, you know, Terrell McIntyre and all them. So let me try or.
- [31:03]
A
Matter of fact, I'm not a Clemson guy.
- [31:05]
B
Oh, yeah. Well, matter of fact, yeah. Where Antwan Jameson and all them boys whip up on y'all. Son of a. True.
- [31:12]
A
I forgot to let the listeners and viewers know Allen does lie sometimes. So don't believe anything about Antwan Jamison or Vince Carter or myself getting whooped.
- [31:21]
B
Up on making it happen. Listen, listen, that ain't happen. We used to whip up on them boys, you know, and you know what I'm gonna say. That other team up north, I remember a player with one of my good friends, Harold James.
- [31:34]
A
They beat.
- [31:34]
B
They beat. They beat your Tar Heels. I remember. I got the clip. I sure do. I should play it. I should play it over here.
- [31:43]
A
Championship game. Everybody remembers the one time they beat North Carolina.
- [31:48]
B
I should play it over here.
- [31:49]
A
Oh, my God. I need you to forgive Alan because again, everybody remembers the one time they beat North Carolina. We beat people so many times, we just. Yeah, yeah, we own them. That's what we say. You guys beat us once, we own you all the other 900 times. That's all I'm saying. That's all I say.
- [32:07]
B
All right, so back to rapid fire.
- [32:09]
A
What's two things that you want all listeners and viewers to incorporate in their daily lives today? What are two things that people should be doing? And I don't care who you are, what's the two things you should be doing daily?
- [32:20]
B
So the two things you should be doing daily is learning something new every day and is investing in something. In something. I don't care if you don't know it, Find somebody that knows it. But investing in something because, you know, savings, great, that could be emergency fund, but you know, the way the economy and stuff is right now, you want to just invest in something that pay yourself. How about that?
- [32:49]
A
Dude, I. I love that because my buddy Herman Dulce said literally the same thing. Yeah, everybody shouldn't own a business, but everybody should be an investor. Yeah, right. Like, everybody should be an Investor. And I believe that that's true. I mean, I think financial literacy is something that we don't get enough of in the world today. And again, I don't care who you are, where you come from, how much money you have, how much money you don't have. If someone would have taught me financial literacy at an early age, yes, sir, I would have been dangerous. I feel like I'm dangerous now.
- [33:25]
B
Good Lord.
- [33:26]
A
I would have been dangerous early. Yes. Financial literacy. So one of the things that I want to tell the listeners and viewers is this is get a mentor. Because you should have multiple mentors, by the way.
- [33:38]
B
Exactly.
- [33:38]
A
But you should definitely have a mentor that is going to teach you and help you with understanding finances, how money is made and created, what's the good things to do with your money, the bad things to do with your money, how to get money if you feel like you can't. Like, you should have a mentor that is going to teach you financial literacy.
- [33:59]
B
Yes, sir.
- [34:00]
A
Again, I don't care who you are, because the more wealth you start to accumulate, you need a mentor that has more than you. So you always want to make sure that you're gaining mentors and gaining advice with the places that you're trying to go financially.
- [34:14]
B
Most definitely, you know. And shout out to Prince Dykes, man, When I got here to Colorado, you know, checked in and everything, and everybody was like, yeah, man, it's this guy, man. You know, he's like a little celebrity, man. You know, he wrote children's books, and he's a big financial advisor. He has his own thing and his own firm. I was like, okay. I said, I wonder who this guy is.
- [34:40]
A
Yeah.
- [34:40]
B
So checking in, and I'm coming in. I was like, I saw a guy walk down here and say, hey, what's going on, man? How you doing? How you doing? And start asking people questions just randomly. He's just. Come on and ask me this question. So what did Jerome Powell say today? What do you think? Interest rates or what do you think this stock gonna do? And I'm looking. I said, he's, oh, yeah, man. You new guys? Yeah, man, I'm Prince. I said, oh, you got. He's like, yeah, man. I said, man. I said, you like me? He's like, yeah. He said. I said, and you cut. I said, man, where you from? So I'm from Waynesboro Joe. I said, what? I said, well, I'm from South Carolina. I said, oh, man. I said, I can relate to you. And then ever since then, ever since then, Mesh, you know, Every time he'll come, hey, you need to watch this. And then you come back tomorrow, you tell me what you think. You know, he just come in random with random questions. He had to do it, you know? And, you know, some people, they look at him like he was like, huh? Like. And laugh like he didn't know nothing or whatever. But he was humble. He had like. He knew it all. He just asked questions. And now look at him. You see what I'm saying? That man is doing everything in the book. Now, you talk about a networker. That's a networker. And he always pick at me, too. He called me like, al the promoter or add, a networker. But, you know, he has a lot of network. You know what I mean? He be around a lot of great folks. So being in that circle now today, you know, I always tell her, hey, man, appreciate it, you know, like, because, you know, anything that I can bring to the table, I bring it. And then he'll put me in this, the same circle. Like, hey, look, you need to come on. Come. Come here. You know what I'm saying? Introduce yourself. You know, like, I think the first man, I did a podcast, man, I was so, like, nervous and so this anxiety acting, you know, this I wouldn't like in a picture. I wouldn't smile. I always had to look like, this tough, you know, I wouldn't even smile or anything. I wouldn't, brother, I wouldn't even talk to people like that. You know what I'm saying? But being around him, and I always had these resources, but just being around him, man, you know, seeing him, this talk, going into a crowd, speaking or just networking, man. Yeah, he taught me a lot of stuff, you know what I'm saying? So big shout out to him. You know, he don't know that. He kind of, like gravitated me towards this, but, yeah, he did, because, you know, I seen somebody that I could relate to that is learning the same thing. Learning, learning, investing. I mean, got his NBA. Why was in the military, Got his, you know, all his accolades to do these type of stuff. So, yeah, shout out to him, man. You know, he gave me the confidence of like, hey, networking, introducing, just doing this and doing that. Always had it, and I used it sometimes, but not as much as I'm doing it now.
- [37:43]
A
So there you go. Good stuff, man. Well, Alan, brother, I appreciate you more than, you know, man. Like, this was dope. Yeah, we kept it pg. We didn't talk about some of the advice you give.
- [37:58]
B
We did, we did. But I want to Ask you one question.
- [38:01]
A
Let's go.
- [38:03]
B
Because, you know, I always ask people this. So how is your mental?
- [38:08]
A
Great question. I'm a huge mental health advocate, first and foremost. But my mental is good, man, because I make sure that I take time to untap.
- [38:18]
B
Right?
- [38:18]
A
Not unplug, but untap. Right? Like, and I say untap because when we talk about mental, we put pressure on ourselves, whether people want to admit it or not. You know, people are too tough. We do. We put pressure on ourselves and we have stress that sometimes we don't know is stress or whatever. Yeah, I make sure that I get time to just untap and relieve the pressure a little bit. And so my mental is good. I put it on my calendar to do those things. And just like you, and this is one of the things that I got from you, I check in on other people because that also helps me knowing that my circle is okay. And I know that that's why you asked too. Knowing that my circle is okay helps me be okay.
- [38:56]
B
Exactly. And that's why they call people check on people or just out the blue, you know what I'm saying? Like, I know they busy, but I just, like, call their phone. If I see a message come back, say, hey, I'm in a meeting. Okay, they good or I'm doing this. Okay, they're fine, you know, just to make sure they're good, you know, because mental is very important, especially in anything that you do. You gotta use the mental aspect to make rash decisions, you know, and to make important decisions. So, yeah, man, I just had to ask that because I always just ask that, man. I just want to make sure everything is great. I know the podcast is doing great. I love the content, I love what you're doing. And like I told you, man, anybody, I'm bringing them because you started from down, now you're on the rise, you and you're right there. So, man, commend you. Proud of you, especially a fellow sociolinian showing kids and residents in South Carolina that, you know, people can come from small towns or, you know, situations and is turning into magic. So appreciate it.
- [40:05]
A
That's right. Just following the footstep and examples that you set, man. And I appreciate you more than you know too. Really quick, where can people find and follow you? What are your social handles and links?
- [40:15]
B
If you want to find me on Instagram, I'm Allen A L l e n underscore Williams w I l l I a m s 45 I have my LinkedIn profile. Allen Williams also My Facebook, Allen Williams. And also shout out to the Global Children Financial Literacy Foundation. You can google them. Please donate if you can, those books. Those, those proceeds go to children. We give them. You know, first time shareholders of the S P500 index fund also shout out to my boy Ricky Sapp, the Ricky South Foundation. You can grew that as well. He's doing big things. I know he's probably think he's trying to do a. A trunk or treat coming up and then giving away turkeys. He's doing it different this year. I think he's gonna like give away turkeys that families that are in need. And then also that money goes towards, you know, his children's book also it goes towards, you know, his football camps and things that he do is around the community. He loves giving back. Yeah. So those two foundations, man, Global Children Financial Literacy foundation, the Ricky South Foundation. Go ahead and you know, give a little something. Donate nonprofits, both of them and doing things in the community. And if you google them, you can see what they do, you can see what they achieve.
- [41:44]
A
Yeah, Love it. I'll make sure that we have links to all that in the show notes and description. Alan, I appreciate you, brother.
- [41:53]
B
Appreciate it, man. Appreciate it, bro.
- [41:55]
A
All the listeners and viewers, remember you'll be caught. Is your superpower. Go unleash it.
- [42:05]
B
Thank you for tuning in to Mick Unplugged. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose and chasing greatness. Until next time, stay unstoppable.