From NFL Star to Youth Savior: Marlin Jackson’s Mission to Heal Trauma

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Determined Society with Shawn French
Episode Title: From NFL Star to Youth Savior: Marlon Jackson’s Mission to Heal Trauma
Release Date: April 21, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of The Determined Society with Shawn French, host Shawn French welcomes Marlon Jackson, a Super Bowl champion and first-round NFL draft pick. Marlon shares his transformative journey from a tumultuous upbringing in Sharon, Pennsylvania, to the pinnacle of professional football, and ultimately, to his mission-driven role as an entrepreneur dedicated to healing trauma among youth.

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1. Marlon Jackson’s Early Life and Upbringing

Marlon opens up about his challenging childhood, marked by adversity and a lack of stable family support. Growing up in a single-parent household with three siblings, Marlon faced significant hardships due to his mother's struggles with addiction.

• Quote:
  "Growing up with a single mother battling addiction was extremely difficult. We lacked the basic needs and nurturing that every child deserves."
  (06:57)

Marlon explains how these early experiences instilled in him a deep sense of empathy and a desire to break the cycle of trauma that plagued his family.

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2. Football Career and Key Moments

Marlon's athletic prowess led him to the University of Michigan, where he honed his skills and developed a disciplined mindset. His NFL journey reached its zenith when he played for the Indianapolis Colts, contributing significantly to their Super Bowl victory by making a pivotal interception against Tom Brady.

• Quote:
  "That interception against Tom Brady is legendary. It wasn’t just about the play; it was about the preparation and the mindset we cultivated as a team."
  (38:15)

This moment not only solidified Marlon’s legacy in football but also became a turning point in his life, inspiring him to leverage his platform for greater societal impact.

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3. Transition to Entrepreneurship

After retiring from professional football, Marlon channeled his determination and leadership skills into entrepreneurship. He founded the Fight for Life Foundation, aiming to address the very issues that affected his own upbringing—trauma, poor decision-making, and lack of supportive relationships.

• Quote:
  "Fight for Life was created to empower youth with decision-making skills and to provide positive role models that they desperately need."
  (46:50)

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4. Fight for Life Foundation: Mission and Impact

The Fight for Life Foundation focuses on intervening in underserved communities by providing technological solutions and supportive relationships within schools. Marlon discusses the foundation’s innovative approach to addressing absenteeism and academic performance through a gamified software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

• Quote:
  "Our technology acts as a sensor to direct us to high-need areas, enabling educators to identify and support students effectively."
  (52:46)

The platform assesses students' emotional states, stress levels, and overall well-being, allowing real-time interventions and fostering a supportive educational environment.

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5. Overcoming Challenges and Building Resilience

Marlon candidly shares the obstacles he faced while establishing his foundation, including technological setbacks and the complexities of scaling operations. His unwavering determination and belief in his mission were crucial in overcoming these hurdles.

• Quote:
  "Success is not a straight line. There were plateaus and falls, but determination kept me pushing forward."
  (69:06)

This resilience echoes the core message of the podcast—perserverance through adversity leads to meaningful achievements.

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6. Future Plans and Expansion

Looking ahead, Marlon expresses his ambition to expand the Fight for Life Foundation nationwide, aiming to reach more schools and impact a larger number of students. He emphasizes the importance of integrating technology with human relationships to create lasting positive change.

• Quote:
  "We want to scale our technology to support more educators and students, ensuring that no child falls through the cracks."
  (58:06)

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7. Key Takeaways and Advice

Towards the end of the episode, Marlon offers invaluable advice based on his experiences. He underscores the importance of faith, a growth mindset, and relentless effort in overcoming life's challenges.

• Quote:
  "Have faith, maintain a growth mindset, and relentlessly pursue your vision. These are the pillars that will carry you through adversity."
  (75:00)

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Conclusion

Marlon Jackson's journey from an NFL star to a youth advocate exemplifies the essence of determination. His story serves as a beacon of hope and a blueprint for overcoming personal trauma to make a substantial societal impact. Listeners are left inspired by Marlon's commitment to empowering the next generation through education and technology.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

1. "Growing up with a single mother battling addiction was extremely difficult. We lacked the basic needs and nurturing that every child deserves."
   — Marlon Jackson (06:57)

2. "That interception against Tom Brady is legendary. It wasn’t just about the play; it was about the preparation and the mindset we cultivated as a team."
   — Marlon Jackson (38:15)

3. "Fight for Life was created to empower youth with decision-making skills and to provide positive role models that they desperately need."
   — Marlon Jackson (46:50)

4. "Our technology acts as a sensor to direct us to high-need areas, enabling educators to identify and support students effectively."
   — Marlon Jackson (52:46)

5. "Success is not a straight line. There were plateaus and falls, but determination kept me pushing forward."
   — Marlon Jackson (69:06)

6. "We want to scale our technology to support more educators and students, ensuring that no child falls through the cracks."
   — Marlon Jackson (58:06)

7. "Have faith, maintain a growth mindset, and relentlessly pursue your vision. These are the pillars that will carry you through adversity."
   — Marlon Jackson (75:00)

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Final Thoughts

This episode encapsulates the transformative power of determination and the profound impact one individual can have on society. Marlon Jackson's dedication to healing trauma and fostering resilience among youth underscores the vital role of personal development and community support in overcoming life's challenges.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

It's time to throw in the fricking towel. I can't do this on my own anymore. There was something in me that said, you know what, Sean? Blind faith. Just keep going. Release the next episode and now I have amazing partners, amazing production team. And it's because I pushed.

[B]

It is about the determination, having that frame of mind that I am exploring and accepting that I'm going to feel. But when I fail, there's going to be a lesson to learn. Having a vision and being anchored in that vision. So that when you have the adversity, you have the determination to push forward. The vision that's been given to me, what I, what I've seen, I'm going to chase it down.

[A]

Yeah, man.

[B]

It's okay that you don't get it, but you haven't had the experience to get it.

[A]

Mic drop.

[B]

Shot French, what up? This one luck. I let the pain inspire me. I put my all in everything I'm doing up until it's done, I mean for the entirety I put it in no b time I'll be working Just know I'mma go for mine cause I earned it. They watch and I know it's time I confirmed it the whole society determined.

[A]

Determine what's up everybody. Welcome back to another episode. I am your host, Sean French. Before I introduce today's amazing guest, please go to YouTube hit subscribe, Spotify the same and apple. Follow us on social media at thedetermined society and at theshawn. French. Today I have an amazing guest. He's a Super bowl champion. He's a first round draft pick, number 29 to be exact, 29th pick overall. The Indianapolis Colts pick Tom Brady off for interception in the championship game to take the Colts to the super bowl and ended up winning it. He is from Sharon, Pennsylvania. He's doing amazing things as an entrepreneur now for the community and the education system in America. Marlon Jackson, welcome to the show.

[B]

John, thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity, dude.

[A]

Likewise, man. It's great sitting here with you and we are having some amazing off the air conversations just about family, kids, school, just everything.

[B]

Life, life, life.

[A]

It's happening, huh?

[B]

And it doesn't, it doesn't stop. It just keeps on coming. We just have to choose how we respond, but make sure we keep moving.

[A]

See that there's a, there's a big difference between reaction and response. Right? And it is. And like when you said we have to choose how we respond now there's a lot of times where I react to things and like, then I go back, I'm like, oh my God, I completely screwed that one up. But you know, that's a big thing, right? It's like we're all going through stuff. We're all going through life. We're all struggling with kids doing their classwork, forgetting and yeah, you know, we're, you know, know, hoping it doesn't cause the next fight with.

[B]

Can make it difficult to stay in executive function, to stay at the top of your brain.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

It gets you in that middle of the brain, that amygdala and you get very emotional. But that's part of the work that I do on the entrepreneurial side is that decision making is that executive function. And really just trying to make sure I model it in my everyday life.

[A]

Dude, it's, that's tough, right? It's tough because. No, because things happen. Like you mentioned that happens.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

It's just core of your mind and you have to find that way to switch into that executive position to make those decisions, to get your business to run.

[B]

Exactly, exactly. And it, it, it is, it is challenging, but at the same time we have to realize that it is possible. But it starts with awareness. A lot of us aren't even aware because in our education system it's not a part of the teaching to teach you the power of decision making, of consequence of how your brain works. But the more that we start to introduce that concept earlier, the more we empower youth to be able to do so.

[A]

Oh, the ideas that we have to make the education much Stronger. They don't. We don't teach children how to think. We teach them how to take tests, you know, and to judge their worth based on what level they're at, how, how they scored on the state test, et cetera. So before we get into all that, though, why don't you give the audience a peek behind Marlon Jackson as a youth.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. A peek behind Marlon Jackson as a youth growing up in Sharon, Pennsylvania, born in Youngstown, Ohio. You know, a kid that never met his father, which was extremely difficult, growing up with a single mother with three other siblings, and mother having addiction issues with drugs and alcohol. And even when I say this now, I'm like, I've. I've developed more empathy, I would say, for, for my mother. So like, even saying that, the same time, say that she had her own trauma that she endured growing up, and it was unresolved, never healed, never given the attention that it needed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So when we talk about decision making, her decision making was not in the best place, and she turned to drugs to be able to cope and did not have the ability within to make better decisions. And that caused a lot of unfortunate circumstances for our family. You know, where you don't have food, your. Your lights are cut off, you lose power, you lose water. Basic, basic needs not being met. And even the, the most fundamental when you think about, you know, a parent and a child is the, the nurturing, the care, the loving. It was, it was missing in our household, and we didn't see positive relationships modeled. And it's difficult to grow up in a world where self identity is a big issue, but it's a lot easier to find your identity when you have people around you every day that model what a healthy identity is.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But then when you have it the other way, as I did, you. You're lost and you're easily led astray. And a lot of times I was easily led astray. Right. And, you know, my brother was, Was in the streets and, you know, he, he endured, I would say, more. More trauma in terms of some of the things that he. He witnessed and that he saw and what we all were individually experiencing caused us to be in that survival mode. And, and lots of times when you're in survival mode, you don't think about the, The. The. The younger sibling. Right. Like, you know, I, I gotta go out here. I gotta get it. I gotta make some money. I gotta, I gotta put. I gotta dress my dress myself. I got to make sure I'm. I'm fresh, I'm good. I got to make sure I'm taking care of myself. And it becomes kind of an individual mentality and not a family mentality. So just explaining just in terms of how the decisions of one person as the matriarch of our family really trickled down to the rest of us and impacted who we. Who we were.

[A]

See, that's. That's what's tough, right? Like, and I want the audience to really key in on this. If you're watching, watch this. If you're listening, listen. Every person has a certain amount of trauma that they deal with within their life. I don't care who you are, your life could look perfect on the outside, but there's some type of trauma. And if that trauma is not dealt with, it is passed along to other members of a family or maybe even a spouse. Right. The thing that I heard you say that resonated most. Right. Was, you know, my mom had some unresolved trauma, and. And it caused her decision making to be xyz. Thus my decision making, my brother's decision making. You know, it. It helps me find some empathy for my parents right now, in this moment, because I look at things for face value sometimes, right? Like, okay, this is what I'm getting from. Excuse me. This is what I've got from my mom and my dad, but this is what I want. But I never took it a step further. Be like, okay, but why is it not there? What did they go through? And I think that's important to understand.

[B]

Human beings because it's. It's root causes, Right. You know, which, like, so, so much in society, we want to look at the surface.

[A]

Right?

[B]

But it takes a little bit more sympathy, empathy, and then overall work to be able to pause and think there's a reason why they're behaving this way.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, under. Underneath every single behavior of every child, of every adult, of every human being, there is some experience that impacted psychologically and emotionally who they are that then turns into the behavior that you see.

[A]

See, I struggle with that, not believing it in the moment. Right. I mean, dude, we're married men, right?

[B]

Yeah, but that's the reality. You talk about reality.

[A]

Yeah, right, Exactly. No, no, totally. No. What I'm saying is, like, I'm with you. I'm tracking. But, you know, like, how do you. Right. And because this is something I'm asking you, right. Is how do you. In. In the moment. Right. Because we all have. Like you said, everybody has reasons why they're reacting a certain way. Right, Right. And how do we, as the person receiving that action kind of filter down and stay in a point where we can actually respond instead of react.

[B]

Sometimes it's like, I believe it says about pausing, like, and do I need to step away right now from this conversation? Do I need to go for a walk to be able to compose myself instead of being swept up in the emotion? Now I'm gonna. I'm gonna say, this is not. Things that I do all the time. Right. Like. Right. Sometimes I do that lion or that tiger. You know, they'll come out. You'll come out. Come out.

[A]

Yeah, we'll come out. Yeah.

[B]

You know, but even. Even in those times, like, I'm reflective, like, you know, and when I sit with the thoughts, I'm like, man, you could have did this better.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, and I may circle, circle back, but then is what tools do you have in your toolbox to be able to cope in the moment? Right. Yeah. And that is where, like, how are you preparing yourself? What type of habits do you have that allow you to have the automatic response in the moment?

[A]

Right.

[B]

You know, because that's what. As. As athletes, a lot of how we're conditioned is we're creatures of habit. Like, you know, you. Baseball, you know, with what position did you play in the catcher. Catcher. Oh, I mean. I mean, just get blocking pass balls, having the flex, having the flexibility to be nimble, making that throw down. Down the second base and being able to get it off, get it off quick. You had to rep that over and over and over and over again. So that when you get in that moment, you just automatically responded. So it's the same thing when it comes to our behavior as human beings. It's just, what are we doing to condition ourselves, to have the habits, to have the emotional response that we would like to.

[A]

Very good, man. And I appreciate that. When you. When you go back to, like, growing up, right, you're talking about certain decisions and kind of how you operated out in the world, in society, at school and. And everything. You were a football player. Right. But how did some of those things with your mom impact you and kind of the things that you did, you know, out there in the streets? Sharon, Pennsylvania.

[B]

I was a follower, okay. And the thing that I mentioned about our household is that I wasn't the only one. So my friends, they were. They were the. They were the same in the same boat. Like, their mom was maybe strung out, their. Their dad wasn't around. And then we all had another, you know, set of peers that we looked up to. And a lot of them, my brother they were, they were in gangs, they were in the streets. Right.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

You know, they, they were in altercations. They were, you know, in, in scuffles. So like, you, you see that and that becomes your model. Okay, right. Of when there's conflict. Right. How we handle conflict? Well, we, we hand it aggressively.

[A]

Yeah, sure.

[B]

Like, and we handle it directly, you know, and then just looking for guidance and not finding it, you. You turn to each other and none of us know which way to go. But we all had a desire to, you know, we didn't. I'm desire, I'm thinking about desire. We didn't know what to feel. So it led to some poor decision making in terms of, you know, altercations and things that I've. That I've been in on the streets and, you know, being extra.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Where, where there, there's a fight, but I, I take it to another level and I vandalize somebody's property. Okay, right. You know, vandalize the car, kick in the windshield. Like, not things that I'm. That I'm proud of or, you know, we. Brad knows Feral. Feral Pa is the town. Right. You know, next door to Sharon. And it's a rival. And it was a lot of our hood versus their. Versus their hood. And you know, there was one, one time I remember, you know, this was after I had moved out of the house and I was living with another family member, but. But I knew, I knew where my brother's gun was at in my mom's house. And, you know, everybody was getting together for this big altercation. You know, we're like 11, 12.

[A]

11 or 12.

[B]

Okay. And think about that. Your son right now, man. So when I think about my son, this is stuff I think about.

[A]

So that hit me hard right there.

[B]

Like, you know, and I'm. And my friends have guns. You know, I go to get my brother's gun and it wasn't in the place that I knew it to be, which was a, which was a great thing. But I say all this to fast forward to, you know, we're walking around looking for them. We think that they're looking for us. We don't find them, but we get stopped by the cops, right? And I had a book bag and, and you know, you know what I did? I took all the guns and I put them in my book bag.

[A]

Oh, shit.

[B]

So like the cops stop us and they're talking to us and I can hear the clanks in my book bag. Right. And he, he spoke to us, but then he kept it moving. It was on his way. That's something that I didn't even think about the consequence.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Like when I willingly say, like I'm putting, put them all in my bag, put them in my bag and I put it on my, on my back. I'm not thinking about, if he goes in this bag, what is he going to find? Right? What are they going to do? Right. You know, and even in the situation where I kicked in this, this windshield of this car, I didn't think anything about a consequence. Like, you know, I was in the moment reacting, right. And I was reacting in a way that I was conditioned very aggressively, like, overly aggressive, you know, doing the most. Because like so often, like, we want to please our peers.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

And, and I, you know, I, I had some timidness in me, but then in that I would go over the top to, to try to cover that up. Get it, Like I'm, I'm gonna just. So they don't even know. I don't have, no, I have no fear. I'm gonna be the loudest, I'm gonna be the one that's out there. I'm gonna do the most.

[A]

Yeah, right. Yeah.

[B]

You know, which can lead to a lot of negative things occurring. But this is when I, when I even said this, I always think about God and like the grace that he gave me because in either of these situations, I, I didn't get in trouble.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Like, you know, I don't know how in either situation. I know in one situation somebody didn't tell on me. Right. You know, and that person had the heat for that. His name was Bubba. Bubba.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Right. You know, but, you know, things like that and when I remember and I think back and I have a lot of things that I think back on of, like, woo, God. Like, thank you. And that's part of why I know my purpose, like, is, is like, you know, he gave me that grace for a reason to come out of that situation because I should have been in juvie, right. I, I should have been locked up for those, for those. Could have been a lot, could have.

[A]

Been a lot worse, bro. Like to your point, like, you don't think of those consequences, right? Like, I'm listening to the story, you're talking about getting in trouble and someone telling you, I'm thinking like, what if a gunfight broke out and you're dead.

[B]

Yeah. And that. So then that's, that's the thing. When you don't learn your lessons, sometimes they circle back around, right? So then that, that, that almost came back to get me in college. Okay. Okay. Right. And I know we'll get, we'll get into that, but I was in a situation, in an altercation. The person that I'm into it with pulls out the gun and starts firing. Oh, right. You know this.

[A]

When you were at Michigan.

[B]

This is, this is at. This is at Michigan. Two of my teammates were shot.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

One was shot in the back. We end up getting him into the vehicle to the hospital. I still remember the, the. The bubble on the, on his back. Where the, where the bullet was. Where the bullet was at.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Another teammate, Carl Diggs from Warren, Ohio, was shot. Was shot in the leg. But this was the person where, like, you know, I socked him. He's down the ground. I'm getting ready to go hit him again. And he turns and he starts firing. Right? And you're running.

[A]

All you hear is just the shots.

[B]

Going and you're flinching and flinching and.

[A]

Flinching, wondering, did I get hit? Cause I can't.

[B]

And then you see your teammate, your peer on the ground. It's like, you know, it's stuff like that, man, that, you know, having those experiences, I got getting goosebumps right now.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, it makes me really thankful for life. And it's a part of what, like, fuels me, you know, like on my mission, you know, for kids and communities. Because we just even. That this, this was like a 17 year old that this happened with. Right. That didn't, that didn't have guidance, that lacked decision making skills. And he was doing what he was taught to do. Confrontation. Right.

[A]

It's conditioning.

[B]

It's conditioning.

[A]

That's what it is.

[B]

From the environment.

[A]

Right?

[B]

From the environment.

[A]

But all you guys at that point in your life are looking for leadership, you know, so. Yes, it's, it's. Yeah, okay, I was a follower. Cool. But, like, everyone's a follower at some point, right? We all follow our parents, and if that's not available, you go try to find other inspiration to follow. Right? So it's just a classic example of, of, of wanting leadership. And I'm just like listening to this and I'm like, damn, like, how selfish can I be? And this is what I mean by that. When I'm 11, I'm not worried about things like that. I'm worried about my parents dropping me off at the little league field in time so I can play pickle with my teammates and eat Grand Slam burger with cheese and throw the pickles around.

[B]

And that's. That's my son. That's my Son today.

[A]

That's their life now. Right. That's her life now. Where there's somebody on the other side of the United States of America at 11 years old doing these things. And, and it's like, I just wonder, I'm like, man, like we need to be able to get outside of ourselves and understand there's a world, there's life going on around us and that people are in other positions and how can we help?

[B]

Cause it's perspective in reality. Right. You know, that's as we look out on someone else's world, it's our perspective. They're in it. It's their reality. And you know, you don't have all the details when you're on the outside looking in and it is, it's hard to be sympathetic, it's hard to be empathetic because you know what, you know.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

You know, your reality.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But that's where it's important that I share and others share because some, because a lot of times people look at me or sometimes they hear me speaking. I'm like, oh, you, you didn't. What adversity? Like troubles like you come from a broken household. You. Will you speak like you speak? Well, what does that, what does that happen? What does that happen exactly? Like, well, I have some knowledge.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, I've learned a lot how to, how to carry myself. But yes, that was my reality and that's a part of who I was and even a part of that person is still with me. I just have more self control. Sure, of course. Right. You know, than I had at that time. And I have a better understanding of my identity and who I am.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So I'm not gonna fly off the handle. Even though the reality is that that emotion may bubble up in me when confrontation arises. I just know how to tame them and calm them down a little bit now.

[A]

Right, right. How did your experience growing up as an 11 year old in that environment and in the streets and, you know, potential, you know, gang fights with a neighboring town. How has that helped you become the dad that you are now and the husband that you are now? Because I'd have to say that's deep, man. But that, that right there, like, think about that. Those three beautiful kids I just met.

[B]

Yeah, man, it's. I get to be everything that I never had. Come on like every single day. And it starts with my wife and I, you know, to be a kid that didn't have a loving, nurturing mother, where I don't remember, hugs, kisses. There was no story Times it wasn't warm and fuzzy. It was me after a night of drinking the throw up, getting the throw up bucket, cleaning her, cleaning her up. Like, sorry, man.

[A]

You're getting me, dude. That's. Sorry, keep going.

[B]

No, but, you know, it's the real reality of, like, and yearning for it and, like, when. And that's one in my. In my spouse. Like, I. I knew her background and where she came from, and I knew that she was what I needed. Right. The stability.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I heard Brad said it's the neck. Like, you know. Yeah. You know, she's been that for me. But then that trickles down to our. To our children and what they see modeled in. In love and sometimes what they see modeled in conflict, but in conflict resolution.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Right. You know?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then it's, you know, all the hugs and kisses that I didn't get, I give.

[A]

Oh, come on. Yeah.

[B]

Like, you know, how do they receive them? Oh, just loving.

[A]

Love it.

[B]

Okay. They. They are open. I haven't got to that point yet where, you know, they're. They're like, no, dad, you do yo. That you're doing too much.

[A]

But it's high school. Yeah.

[B]

Which I. I know. I know that time is coming.

[A]

I know.

[B]

Which is why I just cherish the. These moments now.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I keep it real with them.

[A]

Right. Right.

[B]

Like, they. They know. They. They hear the real.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Like, you know, and they. They know all of me. Okay. You know, I think it's important, right? It is.

[A]

It's important so that they really, truly understand where you came from and also to appreciate what they have in you and in their life now.

[B]

Exactly. Exactly. Because it can be hard for them because they. They're so well cared for.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

And they're cared for very, very well, which can. It could create some complacency in life. But, you know, I want them to be hungry and I want them to be appreciative, and I want them to have gratitude. And even. Even that. That's just, you know, mantras and things, like daily. So, like, as we. I take them to school, my two young. My two youngest, and get my other one off on the bus. But every morning before we get out the car, treat people the way you want to be treated. Efforts. How you learn. Take your time with your work. Care about your work. Right.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, you know, keep your hands to yourself. Pick up after yourself. Focus when it's time to focus. Learn when it's time to learn. Right. Don't just say these things. Do them.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And Then from. For my oldest one, be you. Because. Because middle school, that's Is when.

[A]

Yeah, that's when it gets real.

[B]

Everything is pulling, everything is new, and you're trying to figure out who you are. So that's when the trouble. That's when that trouble starts. Right. You know, but that's why we have the opportunity to pour into them.

[A]

Right?

[B]

And that's why I value, like, no, I'm gonna pour everything that I got into you. Like, this is my. This is my reason for being.

[A]

Do you. Do you ever. And because, you know, I kind of grew. I didn't grow up in the same type of environment. Right. But, you know, I have a mom. My mom and my biological father split when I was two. Right. So I grew up first nine years of my life without a father figure and then finally got one. Right. But I also, like, for me, if I. When I feel like I disappoint my children, that's the hardest part for me, like, in my day. So, like, I can. I can get dad guilt, man. Have you ever dealt with anything like that?

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, I think. I think that is the reality of being a human being, okay. Of being a parent, of being a dad. It's the things that we don't. We think they are unique to us, but everybody is going through the same things. And then when you talk about it, you find commonalities amongst yourselves, like experiencing like you. You did, you let them down, or sometimes how I. How I responded to this situation, I want to. I want to take it back and, you know, husband guilt as well, you know, but all those things are. That is us and the empathy within us knocking on, tapping on our shoulder, like, hey, you could have did. You did it better there. Like, are you thinking about how you communicated that, how you relayed that message? You know, the fact that we think about it, though, that is the. That is the positive part, because some people may not even stop and think about it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They just continue to go on and perpetuate that behavior.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

The fact that you could take a moment to pause and reflect on it, that means you care.

[A]

It's funny because, like, I've always been real on the show, right. I'm always authentic and talk about my life as much as I possibly can without exposing too much. Right?

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

That. That moment happened for me this morning. You know, you talk about husband guilt like, you know, I did my part in something, she did her part in something, but it was this complete, massive miscommunication. It's like, you Know, at the time, I'm like, I ain't coming off as I'm right. I'm righteous. Like, how dare you? But as I'm driving down here in the. In the. In the temper start to kind of come down a little bit. John, what could you have done better in that. What could you have done better in that situation? I think ultimately that is the important thing about life and relationships. And just as you know now, being an entrepreneur, as you know, is like, how can I get better in that moment? Like, how? You know, because we're never going to be 100 on. We're never going to be perfect. But. And. And I will take the Sean today over the Sean I was eight years ago. No problem. But I still feel it, man. It's like, man, like, I really could have done better.

[B]

And the root of it, you said was miscommunication, but then a part of the resolution was de escalation, your drive.

[A]

Yeah, right. Yeah.

[B]

You know, and. But it's identifying what are those points. Like, and this is across the board, like, we're talking about family, but this is in business.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like in the office with your. With your peers. Miscommunication leads to tension.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And underlying tension makes things fall apart.

[A]

I think also too, like, to that point is like, I was joking about something and it escalated, but I wasn't reading the room. Right. So I think that we have to all do a really good job of reading the room. Like, where's this person at? What are they going through right now? If I say this, no matter what my intentions are, how's it going to. How's it going to pop off?

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Right. And I just think that in that moment, I didn't do a good job of it.

[B]

And. And that's, you know, and hearing you, I'm like, I'm thinking about the work that we do. And, you know, that's self awareness. That's social awareness. Like, can you read. Can you read the room? Which is what we're talking about. Emotional intelligence. Like, how well can you read the room? The peers around for you pick up the data points and then proceed accordingly. Yeah, right. And then the self awareness to manage myself, to re. To reign myself in here in a situation. Because, okay, this is what I intended, but this is how it may come off so that we can pause and catch ourselves from.

[A]

You know, it's a great point, man. It's a great point because I. It's so funny because I can feel at it so many times, but I pride myself in the fact that my emotional intelligence level, my EQ so high and my intelligence level, I don't know where it's at. But I, I also feel in the world now, in the world we live in now, emotional intelligence far surpasses iq.

[B]

Yep. And it's needed more now than ever with social media. The divisiveness in. In the world. Right. Right now, you know, emotional intelligence is. Is. Is such a power. Right. To be able to have. And even, you know, in. In. In business and entrepreneurship, obviously you have to have intelligence. Got to find the right people. But when, like leading, emotional intelligence is a. Is a very strong indicator of success.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like in. And being able to lead and have people respond to you and to be able to follow you. No, you, You. You have to have those emotional intelligence traits.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

To be able to be able to.

[A]

Lead, well, you have to know how to communicate a thought. Right. You can feel a certain way and have a certain emotion is how we bring it across.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Whether it's to our family, to our employees, to the rest of our leadership team is like, hey, you know, this is where we're at. And how. How can you craft the conversation so that everybody feels open to be able to speak and not feel attacked?

[B]

Yeah, you're right. Right. And that's. That's, that's the hard part. Because people, you know, it can be difficult, you know, because we are. We are all a mixed bag of emotions and experiences. Sure. That are coming together as one to achieve a common goal, you know, and you have to value and recognize the whole person. Right. And their perspective, their background, their ideas, their thoughts, what they add to the pot. Because that, you know, feeling of value makes people want to give more.

[A]

Right, Right.

[B]

And it makes them feel the sense of belonging. And when people feel belonging, they show up in a very impactful way. Like, you don't. You don't have to try to pull it out of them. They'll just, they'll just give it.

[A]

Yeah, Yeah. I think it's too. It's like, it's the competitive spirit. Right. Everybody wants to win. Like, everybody wants to do a great job and, and communicating that and being on the same wavelength is super important. Right. And it's. It's important entrepreneurship. And then even as, you know, your career in the NFL, like you. I mean, you want to talk about a mixed bag.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

A team. Talk about that locker room, man. Like a lot of different individuals, you know, very decorated career, obviously went to the super bowl, won one. Talk about that a little bit.

[B]

Yeah. But that's the man I feel like it's one of the places where I learned the most in life was the Indianapolis Colts, University of Michigan High school on a. On a. On a certain level, but University of Michigan and then the Colts, where I was more mature, you know, from just life and growing. And the players that I had the opportunity to be around, so many hall of Famers, Peyton Manning. And when I think about Peyton, I think about his mentality as a leader, his work ethic. You know, he was obviously one of the most talented players, but he worked the hardest.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And the thing is, when your best players work the hardest, there's no excuse for anybody else.

[A]

Come on.

[B]

Like, raises the bar to another level. It raises the standard, and it's. And it's set there.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it's not about it coming down to where you are. You have to go up and meet it.

[A]

You better get up there.

[B]

And it's easy to do so because you see the results. Like, that's the part. You see the Pro Bowls, you see the touchdowns, you see the completion percentage, like, you see the wins. So that automatically. That's the data that you need to know. Like, this works.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely.

[B]

So as a young guy coming into that locker room, I immediately was like, I knew I'm going to win a Super bowl someday. And you did. And I did. And I did in year two. But it starts with. With leaders like. Like Peyton. And even with him, he was empowered by Tony Dungey, who had a totally different approach to, I would say, working with his staff and leading his players where it was. It was rooted in respect. Yes. Which. Which is kind of different, I'm sure. You know, I'm not sure how much. How much you've experienced respect from a coach and. And baseball. No, not. Not. Not degrading you to get the point through, but actually, you know, empowering you, like, you know, like a. Like a man. Young man. Right. Coming to you and having an open door, you know, being accountable, listening to your. To your thoughts and your ideas. Right.

[A]

That's wild.

[B]

You know. Yeah, it is. And it is. But you know what it did. You didn't want to let them down.

[A]

No.

[B]

So you know how important that is, like, being a leader, where your. Your players or your colleagues, they don't want to let you down.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So they give to you willingly. Which is. Which is that. That is a winning culture. And that's what I. That's one of the things I learned the most. Michigan and the Colts. How. What. What does a winning culture consist of? And. And and it's buy in from the leadership. It's great leadership. But it's as coaches. But it's all. It's the players. The players lead, the players embody the characteristics, the traits that we harp on every single day, the goals. It's all very obvious. You can see it and you see the results in it all.

[A]

Yeah, I think it's important to, like, for the audience to really dig into that, whether you're an entrepreneur, you know, a parent, or, or even if you're a coach in a. In a team. Like, I think it's so easy to lead with the heavy hand and, and to get after somebody. Right. And tell them the way it is. But when we really peel back the onion, right, People want respect and people want to be heard, and they want to. They want collaboration. And Tony. Tony Dungey was ahead of a time.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, because no, still no one's really doing it.

[B]

Not like him.

[A]

Not like him.

[B]

Not like him.

[A]

Didn't.

[B]

No.

[A]

Hell no.

[B]

Saban's own.

[A]

Hell no.

[B]

It's own other beast. But like, right there.

[A]

But you can honestly say, like college football. Wise goat. Like, Yep.

[B]

Yeah, go.

[A]

Different approaches. Right. Very systematic. One hair out of place. That janitor better care as much as a starting quarterback. Right. Everybody had to be on the same page, so he created systems and that's where they stayed. But, but like with Tony Dungy, like, that's a great point. Like, you know, that makes it, I feel easier to play for. Easier to work for. Because you're not on that, you know, year two, you're. You're going.

[B]

You're.

[A]

You're going into the, you know, the championship game that you end up winning and winning the Super Bowl. It's much more comfortable to do your job when, you know, the man is there, is. He's actually for you instead of. Yeah.

[B]

It empowers you. Because I remember being in a meeting and our defensive corner was Ron. Ron Meeks. And I made the play, but I didn't make it in the manner in which I was tied.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Like, I saw something else. I had. I had another key that allowed me to be able to process and make the play. So, like, he was kind of calling me out about it, but then Tony stood up for me, is like. Well, it looks like Marlon just saw something different than what. What was taught.

[A]

What was that? And he.

[B]

And he made. And he made the play. It was a. I think, I believe it was a read. When I was at. I was at the. I played nickel. Okay. Nickel is a interior corner that covers like the third, third receiver, almost like a hybrid between a safety, cornerback and a line and a linebacker, where you have to play the run sometimes. So just in terms of. It's hard to remember the exact. The exact breakdown of the play, but I'm sure I was reading something with the offensive line and I triggered really quickly, and I was able to go and make. Make the play. Okay. Where it may not been exactly how my coach taught me, but I saw something. Something different, which. That's the type of player that I was. I wasn't a robot.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I got to the point where I would pick up my own keys and my own cues that will allow me to make some plays quicker than others would be able to.

[A]

Instinctual, right?

[B]

Exactly. And it's trained instinct from watching. From watching tape and not just saying, you know, when it's this formation or when it's. Third down is going to be a screen, but I could tell how the running back stepped. Okay, this is how we step that it was a screen. And sometimes you. I would react faster than everybody. Everybody else would because I just looked a little bit more deeply and I saw another. Another indicator.

[A]

True, true student. Right. It's so funny because, like, I watch this and I know it's kind of a funny parallel, but did you ever watch All American on Netflix?

[B]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[A]

So Spencer James, when he. The very first episode. Talk about feet. He's looking at feet. Feet. I didn't know that was a thing. So if his foot was going to do a certain thing when he lined up, he knew where the play was going.

[B]

Yeah. As a w. As a wide receiver. And then even so, like, you know, and teaching. My. Teach. My youngest son plays football, just even people think you read the quarterback's eyes, like, more you read their shoulders. Okay. Like, the shoulders is going to be the true indicator of the direction of where the ball is going. Right. As a db, I'm not necessarily looking in his eyes because even with Tom Brady, in that moment, when I picked him off, his eyes were looking one way. But. But I trained myself to understand that when he looks one way, he automatically blindly turns and throws the other direction. He wants to try to move the defense. Right. You know, but all of that is just being a student.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And. And looking at the data. But in the data, finding that indicator that's going to allow you to be.

[A]

Able to make a play, it's amazing. So that specific play when you picked off Tom Brady to win that AFC championship, to go to the super bowl, given everything in Your childhood that you went through and your moments at Michigan, that moment right there explain what that meant.

[B]

Oh, man, it's, it's legendary, you know, And I, I, I don't brag, I don't, I don't boast. You know, I'm, I'm humble but confident. But that moment is legendary. And I only say that because of the response I continue to feel across the Colts nation and football fans in general, like, it only grow. I feel like it only continues to grow.

[A]

Marlon, I didn't know you then. I remember exactly where I was sitting when you picked that pass.

[B]

And that's where I hear a lot of that. And I hear there's a lot of people that tell me how they felt.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

In the moment, which is. That always tells me, like, that's the emotion of the moment, is what connects people and what makes them remember, and that's what makes it such a powerful moment that united people, is that everybody remembers where they were, how they felt, and we were all on one accord. Right? And, you know, that to me is just. Is awesome, you know, and it's something that I didn't have at Michigan, but I'm thankful I was able to have, like, a signature.

[A]

Think of that word, man.

[B]

A signature moment. Yeah.

[A]

That moment, man, is. I was sitting at my friend Joel Earhart's couch. I remember it. We wanted, we wanted the cold swing so badly. And then you pick that pass up. I'm like, it's over now. Yeah, they're gonna win it now.

[B]

And that's. And even, like, that's, even. I look at that play as a microcosm of, like, success when I, When I. There, there's. There's a story behind it in terms of, like, the preparation, like, of that season. I dropped a number of interceptions that season.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Similar to that, where it was, boom, right? Hit me and hit me and hit me in the hands. But when I had those other incidents, my coach had me get on the jugs machine every day.

[A]

Yep. Yeah.

[B]

After practice. Every day, after practice. Because I understood the route concepts. I saw that formation, and I had an idea of what was coming. That's wild because I, I watched Tom Brady over and over again, and I understood how he liked to attack cover two, looking one way to move the defense here and then blindly firing the other way. Soon as the ball was snapped, he looked opposite. I knew he was coming back to me, which, all of that, it prepares you for a moment with a split second decision. And then even when you see me slide, I knew I Remembered the previous week, the San Diego Chargers were playing the New England Patriots for opportunity to advance to the AFC championship. Marlon McCree picks off Tom McCray. Tom. Tom Brady. The final minutes of the game, same way that I did, but he kept running. He was stripped of the football by Troy Brown. They recover, they go down, they score. They're coming to Indianapolis.

[A]

Troy Brown. Wow.

[B]

So like just all of those things fee a split second decision.

[A]

I think it's important for, you know, athletes or parents of athletes or anybody listening, really, truly. It's not about the technical skills. I mean those are important. You have to be able to act. But, but the mind. Like, if you are not giving everything you have in the film room or whatever that proverbial film room is for you, then what are you even doing? That study?

[B]

Yes. And even like think about baseball. Like every play a baseball player in my. I didn't play on a high level like you, but just working with my kids. I see. What's your plan on this play? Here's the scenario. Here's where the runners are first and third. Where are you going to go if this ball comes to me? Where am I going with it? Dude, like, before the play starts, you have to, you have to have already thought about that so that you can react in the moment and make the right play.

[A]

It's so hard for me to coach little league and watch baseball because there could be two outs and we have a new batter up, bases are empty and the first two pitches to that, that, that hitter with two outs, our balls already know what's going to happen three plays from now. Like, it's hard because I know he's going to walk them. Then I know there's going to be a pass ball or stolen base and then I know there's going to be a base hit. And we just gave up a run with two outs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, so, like that part of it is because of studying over and over again the trends within baseball. You know, if there's a two out walk, you're screwed. Like it's just, just like they always say, every inning leading lady, every inning, get the first guy out. Get the, if you don't get that first guy out, then the percentages of you getting out of that inning without giving up a run are very slim. Right. And so to your point, like, guys, we, we got to be studying these things. We have to know. So, okay, so that happens and then you go to that big moment in the Super Bowl.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a dream come true to have the opportunity to go to Miami, Florida. The one thing I remember about that, I think about, like the preparation and getting ready to go down there. Peyton Manning, where we're having kind of our departure meeting, we're talking about the plans and they, Bill Poley and Tony Dungy, they say that family can be on the player's floor. You know, like, it's okay, you know, to have family on the floor. And Peyton stops and gets up and is like, nope, we're not going to do that. So this is. The GM spoke.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The head coach spoke. And then Peyton, Peyton says, no, we're not going to do that. There's not going to be any family on the players floor. So when you, you're taken aback when you hear that, but then when you get there and you get within the week and you see how big of a distraction that could have been, you get it. But it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way in the moment. And I only said that because it was like he was fearless in his conviction as a leader and he actually went against the grain and spoke out after the coaches had already said what it was going to be. But it ended up being the right thing. Right. It'll allow us to be able to focus on the preparation for the game and then ultimately to be able to go out there, you know, and win in the fashion that we did against the Chicago Bears. It was an awesome, awesome moment. Awesome moment for Indianapolis, for our team, for me individually.

[A]

Leaders have foresight to see things before it happens. Right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And again, what, what everybody needs to do in big moments is quiet the noise as much as they possibly can.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You know, as much as we love our families and everything like that, like, it can get noisy, especially in that moment. Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You need to be able to lock in.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Because that, that dog in you to win a Super bowl that you, you.

[B]

Need that there and you, and you can't get caught up in. There's a lot of hoopla at the Super Bowl. It's all the media, it's all the parties, like, it's all the hanging out, it's all the extra stuff around, around the game that you, you, you gotta, you gotta block it out. Maybe the first day, second day, maybe you enjoy a little bit of that. But then it's, it's back to our normal, regularly scheduled program.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's lock in and let's, let's prepare to be successful.

[A]

Yeah, man.

[B]

Right. Because that's, that's the thing is like preparation and Anything. Preparation is. Is key.

[A]

And you have to be on point. You have to be dialed in. It's that laser focus where you have to be unshakable.

[B]

That. That tunnel vision.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know that tunnel vision where the eye. They say the eye on the prize. Right. You know, and I believe in that. And sometimes I can have a little bit too much tunnel vision. But, dude, you're taught.

[A]

You're preaching the choir right now, man. You truly are. It's funny. Like you, you. I don't watch many horse races, but when you do, they have blinders on. Why do they have liners on? They can only see what's in front of them.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

And that's what we need to do in sports. So we need to do an entrepreneurship sometimes. But there is a disconnect. Like you need to be able to be open and kind of open up your peripherals for family and things of that nature.

[B]

Exactly, exactly.

[A]

So, okay, so you. I want to paint a picture here, the upbringing and sharing. All right. Everything you went through in your childhood. You know, carrying the firearms in your backpack, you're hearing the clank, you got the police there to Michigan in that. In that fight. Getting to play for an amazing program like the Wolverines and then going to the Colts and being able to be led by Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning picking Tom Brady off, and all of a sudden that blue and white confetti flies.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All these moments in your life were there for a purpose. It wasn't about winning a Super Bowl. It wasn't about any of that. Long term, God had a purpose for you to impact the world by way of education and giving back to the youth. Can you help me in telling the story of your foundation to the audience that the Marlon Jackson that was. That was formed and created throughout his whole life is now giving back and helping education.

[B]

So it's. It's been. It's 18 years since we started this. The same as the. The interception. So after that interception is when I started the Fight for Life foundation and starting the organization to help my younger self. Right. Understanding what it's like to grow up single parent household, lack of role models around poor decision making. Started Fight for Life to empower youth with their decision making, to develop healthy habits and then evolve to understand that it all starts for me in school, especially when it's underserved communities, because underserved communities, a lot of times there's dysfunction in the household. So if I want to have an opportunity to understand the power of decision making, to understand the power of positive supportive relationships. My school has to fill this gap because if my school doesn't fill this gap, I'm going to fall victim to my circumstance. Right. You know, which is the reality that so many face on a day to day basis. So Fight for Life was created to intervene. Right. And to intervene in a way that it's evolved to a digital space through software as a service, creating a space to pause and process the experiences and circumstances of our life and to be able to build awareness, but relay the needed information that needs support to educators in real time. And then through the engagement, being able to understand what may be stopping a student from showing up to school, what may be stopping a student from learning in the classroom, or what does a student do extremely, extremely well. And doing it in a manner that lines all the data up to drive decision making for educators within the school system. It's hard to teach consequences sometimes and to make it tangible. But through a gamified strategy is exactly what we do. Where students can earn points for making positive decisions, Educators can reinforce everything that they want to see in relation to academic performance, not just the letter grade, which is the outcome. But how do you apply yourself to your academics? Where are you falling short with how you apply yourself to your academics? Or how do you actually treat your peers? Right. Having metrics that help them understand. Here are the expectations on how we treat our peers, of how we treat our educators. And then when we're not meeting those standards, where we're being sacked, where we're losing points and they can see it in their, in their activity. Right? But then we can, through our research around absenteeism, we can clearly see that students that have relational issues when it comes to peer, peer relationships, they are more at risk for absenteeism or poor academic performance. And that's a part of the technology, where it's three domains of our technology. It's behavior supports, it's social, emotional, wellness, there's communications tools, and then there's high level data analytics. But all of those tools together are spread out across the day to be a part of the routines of students within the school. The opportunity for intentional breaks, the ability to be able to report safety or wellness needs. And then on the other end is for those educators or those parents to be informed of what is going on with my child. Having all the data to drive the decision making, but then having an algorithm that automatically sorts and categorizes students into categories of risk, which helps educators. When you think about data collection, from my observation to how I document to how I evaluate. We streamline that process to make it very easy, which can be very time consuming. Right. And then empowering educators when it comes to classroom management, you know, because the ratios between students and educators makes it difficult if it's one of me, 25 of them and even more so if I'm a school counselor or a school social worker, maybe one of me and maybe 600 of them.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

So if you don't have tools and you don't have resources, a lot of students fall through the cracks, you know. And we have embedded ourselves within the school structure. And it's not just a technology, it's a relationship. Sure. Where we've created our proven process. Right. A proven process from the point of discovery. Right. Lead generation, finding alignment to partnership. We're going to, we're going to come together and sign this contract. We're going to now we're going to onboard you with our implementation specialists. We're going to then begin the training process to help you understand. We're going to put together your implementation plan, then we're going to monitor your implementation plan and support you with your implementation plan. We're going to have these check in points, fidelity check ins, data dive sessions, at a glance reports ultimately to report impact or impact reporting. But it's through that how we are a part of the school culture and climate and the interactions that are occurring every day where a kid like myself, when I was in third grade, my mom came home, mom was missing, end up being locked up for boot from boosting, for stealing from the store, got to go and live with my grandma. Nobody at school knew. Right. So I had a lot of behavioral issues that school year but nobody actually had a conversation with me to say, hey, what's going on? Yeah.

[A]

See that. What I'm loving about this SAS program, right. Is the fact that it's not just support for the students, this is support for the teachers. It's support for administration and all the support within the school to where there's indicators and data to point to. This is where this child's struggling. This is where that child's struggling. So it's a collaboration effect of how do we get these kids through. Because one of the hardest things as a teacher that teachers deal with and I know so because I did used to teach, is not understanding what that child is going through and how can I craft this conversation of like I think this kid's high or, or this kid, this kid is falling asleep in my class.

[B]

That's a flag in our system. Right. So that's, that's a flag where a student can throw a flag if they overhear something or if they see something or the educator can throw a flag. And what that flag does is send a text message to that school counselor or. And it shows up in a concerning response queue. So when I can manage, I can see all of the concerning responses across a day and they're teared out here. One low risk, tier two, moderate, tier three, high. So then it directs me in terms of where do I need to give my attention immediately.

[A]

It's genius because that is the. I mean, just even at the time when I was a, a teacher and a coach, I, I tended to lead my classroom like the baseball coach. Right. Like, hey, wake up. Get out of my class. I don't know what's going on with that person. I don't know what's going on with her. Him. Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is great. So how many, how many school districts, how many schools are you guys in? What does that look like? Right.

[B]

So right now we have 11 school partners that, that is a mix of public schools and charter schools in Indianapolis area. And we have three summer learning partners as well.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

So a total of 14 and getting ready to increase and looking to go up here to 20 sites for the next school year. But what you were saying there, like as a coach and taking out the same approach. But so what we do is when students show up, they take our check in assessment. Right. It's the first thing is how students start their day.

[A]

So that's their bell work.

[B]

It's their bell work. It's going to assess my attitude, it's going to assess my plan for the day, it's going to assess my emotional state and it's going to assess my stress level. And then, then obviously this is setting the tone for me mentally, but then it's relaying anything that is concerning to my teacher in real time. So then, now you would have had that information to know that there was an altercation in the household last night. Right. Or I didn't have any breakfast this morning. So that, that just changes how you engage.

[A]

Right.

[B]

You, you meet them where they are because you're informed. And then what did that, what did that. What that does is it solidifies a relationship where they're meeting me, where I am, they see all of me. So now I feel value, which then leads to belonging.

[A]

But I think it's also super.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And, and it's so great because that could, like you said, build a relationship with the student, the teacher. Right now the teacher can see real time what's bothering this student, and they can handle it kind of one on one. It's not call out. It's not anything other than, hey, how can I help you with this? The one thing that, do schools ever push back on? Like, well, what if the child's not being honest?

[B]

Right.

[A]

What if? Yeah. So how do you guys work through that? Because let's say the prideful, like, I don't want to say that I didn't eat because they might want to protect the parents. Right. Or, you know, my mom's in jail or my dad got arrested last night. How do you guys work through those types of situations?

[B]

So even the false reports have impact because sometimes the I, I didn't, I didn't eat. It was, I didn't like what my parents made for dinner over the weekend. But you know what still occurs? A conversation. And then they sit there with the counselor and they just converse. So the student still feels seen and heard. But then it's the educator just informing them of like, hey, you know, when we make these reports, we gotta make sure that they're valid, that they're accurate. But sometimes the student just wants to talk.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, so that's. And what I hear from going to schools is that they just really wanted to talk. Like they needed somebody to talk to.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, the report wasn't accurate, but it still led to dialogue between them and I.

[A]

Do you guys ever come across like, if a student says, no, everything's fine, everything's great, but their actions are showing differently. Does that also flag in the system to like, maybe there needs to be a conversation between the student, the teacher, or potentially the counselor?

[B]

I mean, you'll see it in the, in the, in the data.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

In terms of if they're, they're reporting a zero to the three low stress, or if they're reporting excited, happy, I'm okay. Right. But they're showing up, they're having emotional outbursts. Right. It's all documented. When you pull their data summarization, you can see in the data which then leads to you actually it will bring you in. Right. To wanting to have more of a conversation because you realize that there's, there's a disconnect between the data set with the social, emotional and then the behavior data.

[A]

Very.

[B]

It's not, it's not lining up. But what it does is just, it gives you the information to see, to tangibly have it in front of you to actually point out the, the discrepancy that may exist.

[A]

I Love it man. I love it. It's important. Like I like. So you're in 11 schools and you're looking to go to 20, is that what you said?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

This, this school year 20, all in the Indianapolis area. Are you looking to expand nationwide?

[B]

We, we are looking, we are actively looking to expand nationwide. You know, but like with that is capacity.

[A]

Yeah, of course.

[B]

Right. Not, not wanting to do too much too fast and then mess with the quality smart of the service offering. But we at the same time we are trying to stretch it like we are still bumping up against those barriers. Right. To stress test what, what we do and then just understanding that as we grow we have to create, build more efficiency into the technology in terms of like this past year we, we put the entire onboarding workflow into the technology to make it. We're holding your hand, taking you step by step.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Going to do the same thing with our implementation as well. Because it's hard to, to have a technological product understand the features, but then put together the plan. How am I going to actually execute this across a school day?

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

You know, there needs to be guidance there as well. And we started to, to execute on that work as well.

[A]

I just think it's an interesting thing because again like I can't stress it enough. Excuse me, my wife teaches at a prep school. Right. And you would think that nothing's going on, right. Because it cost $30,000 a year to go to that school. Like dude, stuff happens man. And, and I'm, I'm like looking at, just even in Florida, in leak in, in Lee county, this, this, this software.

[B]

Would fix a lot of shit with anxiety. Doesn't belong to a zip code, it doesn't belong to a race, it doesn't belong to a gender.

[A]

Come on.

[B]

Anxiety, stress, pressure. It comes in different shapes, forms, sizes. Right? It looks different.

[A]

It sure does.

[B]

Somebody may be the test, the upcoming Satan. Somebody may be food out. It might be crime in my community. But the feeling that people feel is their reality. So how can you help people cope and manage their reality? Yeah, right. And how can we inform our educators and our counselors and drive their decision.

[A]

Making around who needs what different problems like anxiety.

[B]

Right?

[A]

It's the same stuff. Like so a lot of times you'll, you'll see kids at, you know, privileged schools like this, like, well, if I don't get. What if I don't get in Princeton. Oh my God.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

But, but, but the feeling still the.

[B]

Same is that, and it still can, it can lead to self harm.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

It can lead to a number of depression, drug use, all of the same indicators. Right. You know, it's just a different route.

[A]

Yeah, man.

[B]

And it's all. You have to get to the root of the problem to really address these issues. And all we're doing is saying let's catch these things upstream.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because as they flow downstream is more of a detriment to society in a number of, number of different ways. You know, and it's all about being pro. Is it proactive?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

And it's not being reactive, but it's being responsive to the needs of students and of educators because educators are over. You've been in a profession overlooked, overworked, underpaid. Yeah. Under undervalued, thankless job.

[A]

By the way, like in, in, in, in some communities and some, some societies, like teachers are, they're just bashed. Right. And some, and some are looked at like you listen to your teacher. It is a hard line for a teacher to walk. Right. I mean it, it's tough. Like you said, undervalued. It's a thankless job.

[B]

It is.

[A]

You know, and I, and I would also say being a student is a thankless job. Right. And a lot of times just being a kid in society is very, very difficult. Right.

[B]

It is. Because I mean, sometimes we've kids, kids have feelings, kids have opinions, kids have thoughts, but sometimes we kind of push those things to the side.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Where we, we have to empower youth to use their voice. We say advocating for quality in life, which may look different Right. Across the board for different, for different people in different communities. But you know, that's what we're doing and not stopping there. Where the technology is kind of like that step one or where step two is our be a blessing. Right. Where we have educator supports, we have student supports, we have family supports. So like through the software, we identify special sites where we do monthly field trips for the students, provide those enriching experiences and opportunities. We're looking at adding educator mental health supports. So being that go between a mental health provider and the educators that are in our schools to help them when they're feeling overwhelmed, to connect them seamlessly to those additional services. And if a family, they're experiencing some sort of loss, financial distress in their times of need, being able to provide some additional support. But the technology kind of acts as a sensor to direct us to what are the high need schools, where are the high need families, where are the high need educators?

[A]

So you know where to focus on.

[B]

So you know where to focus on. Them and then so for us, we, we want to scale our technology not to exit. Right. And to sell a company.

[A]

No.

[B]

But to fuel and feed more of that be a blessing work the social impact work, support students, support educators, support families through the scale of licensing technology.

[A]

The big underlying current here. Right to me. And I could be completely wrong. Right. But when I, when I listen to all this and when we talked about you mentioned society is divided right now. There's a massive division going on. This type of service and this type of collaboration can teach kids to see like in each other and understand that they can, they can work together. And, and, and if we can fix it at that root, then when they grow up, we're not as divided as society. To me, I see it as a yes, there's the overarching purpose of this, but then there's so much, there's so much more at stake.

[B]

There's so much more at stake and there's so much there even just when we're society when it comes to technology and AI and fear of AI taking over. And when you think systems, not thinking about the system on its own, but it's a system with people where the system creates efficiency for people. The system helps inform people, it helps collect the information, it helps line the information up. So like our goal is ultimately the same way as with our cell phones, right. Where all depending upon what your habits are on your phone dictates the type of ads that you, that you see all depended upon the data that's input and building dreams that dictates the type of supports you receive.

[A]

Right, right, right.

[B]

Where, where, where we can use AI, we can use technology in a way to support educators. Right. To stay in the profession and create efficiency with how they meet needs so they can get more out of the, the literacy and the mathematics and the science. Right.

[A]

The teachers don't have that. They can't truly impact the children. Right. So that, that AI, that algorithm helps them do their job more effectively. It's not replacing them, it's assisting.

[B]

It's assist.

[A]

It's an enhancement.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

And that's what it's, that's what's needed over the last 18 years. How have you seen this evolve, man? Like, oh, because I imagine it wasn't easy level of determination.

[B]

It's not easy now and it never, it never has been. But you know, this has grown. There's been so many people involved along, along the way. Sure. You know, I've been the constant. Right. The entirety of this. But this has grown from starting off With a football camp. Right. So what you. You kind of start close to home with what what you know.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

Started with the football camp. Started introducing field trips. I get hurt. In 2007 that was your Achilles, right? It was my first ACL. My right ACL. At that same time I finished my college education online while I'm training in Arizona and I do psychology and sociology classes. I really become intentional in and very aware of the impact of environment on psyche on mind. So it starts to make me go deeper and I start to put together curriculum. I find out from professors at IU Kelly School of Business what you created. This is called social emotional learning. So from there getting into after school programs getting into our first schools in 2013 after a couple of years of operating in schools doing a research study on the impact of our programming in the findings of that it was hard to have fidelity oversight of implementation because it was a consumable product. It was difficult for data collection and for data analysis because everything you had to take it from a sheet, put it in a spreadsheet. You had to do all of these steps. So decided to like I need to start to to convert this to technology. Started at Salesforce Coding for Kindness which is a one day hackathon. Started to work on ideation of converting from consumable TO Technology in 2018 partnered with a company called Fretless and this is ironic, it was called Fretless but they caused a lot of problems.

[A]

That's irony at its best right there.

[B]

They caused a lot of problems where we launched the 1.0 but it fell flat and we lost a couple of school clients come back I get with the right 2019 I get with the right tech developer and we build out 2.0 version of building Dreams. We regain those clients that we lost and then we are on the path that we're on now being in these 11 schools Summer learning sites and then a ton of leads to propel us forward into the future and grow and make an impact. And we've been DCS prevention provider of the year in Indiana. We've won international research awards and I think that was 2022, 2023 for our research papers on absenteeism to where we have international interest from folks and I want to say Denmark around implementing our our software as a service around absenteeism there as well.

[A]

So I love it man. And and for the audience paying attention to this, you you hear his journey with the company right. You you heard all the bumps and bruises. Success is not a straight line. Everybody likes to Think about, I gotta wait and start until I have everything. You started with what you had. And, and it wasn't a straight, you know, hockey stick up. It was success, then a plateau, then a fall. And then there was a lot of this, like, how important is determination and moving forward? And when you're going through something, like, because the audience needs to hear that.

[B]

It is, it is about the determination and determination as you explore, like, And I think it's like having that frame of mind that I am exploring and I am iterating and accepting that I'm going to fail. But when I fail, there's going to be a lesson to learn and having a vision and being anchored in that vision so that when you have the adversity, you have the determination to push forward and, you know, relentless effort. Relentless effort. And almost on the border of obsession.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

With like the vision that's been given to me, what I, what I've seen, like, I'm, I'm going to chase it down.

[A]

Yeah, man.

[B]

Like, you know, and then paying attention to the indicators that tell you to keep pushing forward. Right. Because you get, you discouraged. You. You do get discouraged. And a part, part of you knowing that it's only part of you, not all of you may feel like. It may be a feeling of wanting to throw in a towel, but understand that is just, it's just a feeling.

[A]

You're picking my every thought, dude. Like, like literally. And, And I think it's because we're a lot alike in this, right? It's like when we are building something and there's this level of determination, obsession to continue to go. How many times I sat to myself, like, it's time to throw on the freaking towel. Like, you know, I, I just, I. I can't do this on my own anymore. But, but there was something in me. There was something in me that said, you know what, Sean? Blind faith. Just keep going. Release the Next episode Next episode and now I have amazing partners, amazing production team, amazing photographer, amazing. Just support and guess and, and, and it's because I pushed.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

It's because that, that thing inside me says, like, nah, man, you ain't done. You may think you are, but, like, that's what you went through and that's.

[B]

What the, the difficulties in the moments. It's refining. It's like, it's, it's preparing because, like, where you were at that time, it wasn't where you needed to be to be able to sustain where you are.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Right. And it, it. The best refining is through the Experience. Because of the lessons, I feel like they stick with you so much more. Like, you know, it becomes embedded in your. In your spirit and your soul, you know? Um, and ultimately, I think that's what God. He. He knows what needs to be really, really sold into us.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, and he uses these experiences of life to be able to do his work of refining and embedding all of the tenacity, like, all of the grace and the grit that we're going to need to push through when everything around us. Around us tells us no. Even when the people in our life question, why are you doing that? You know that something's been spoken to you and you don't. You. You hear it and you feel it.

[A]

Yeah. That's a purpose, right?

[B]

It is a. It is a purpose that is. That is. Is rooted in all the experiences that they didn't have, which is why you got to be confident in that. Is, like, he gave me these experiences for a reason.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, and he continues to teach me for a reason and understanding that it's okay that you don't get it, but you haven't had the experience to get it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, and being okay with that.

[A]

It's crazy, man. There's times on the journey, and I don't know if you felt like this because, you know, I have a wife and I have a family, too, but. Yeah, but did you ever feel alone?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I. I mean, dude, like, and.

[B]

And ours and our spouses may not want to hear that. That may. That may have hurt a little bit for them to hear that, but that is just the reality of it. And it's not. And I just say, like, it's not their fault. It's just human nature. It's like, because you're not in it. Like, you're. You're a part of it. Sure, but you're not in it.

[A]

There's a massive difference.

[B]

It is a massive. So they don't, you know, when the. The new lead comes or, you know, the next opportunity, they weren't aware of that. So. So, you know, they're. They're more like, okay, what's. What. What's next? We've been doing this for a long time, but, you know, I've been doing this a long time, and I've been learning because it's like, so. So early on, it was so much about the product. Right. Whereas, like, okay, you get the product. The product is good. The product is important. But what about the actual business structure? Like, you got a product here, but do you have a Business, to grow the product, the reach of the product. Do you have a organizational culture to create? Belonging within your staff is, is what is the soul of the organization, is what our board director says that fight for life the soul of the organization. Our core values, how we do the work, the metrics in which we hold ourselves to a standard. Right. There is so much that we can learn along the way. And it's hard as an entrepreneur, you know, where it's you a lot of the time and you, and you have to wear so many hats and you're doing what you have to do. You know, it's not what you necessarily want to do, but you're doing what is needed for the time being until you find the right people. And through all of that, you gotta believe and you gotta push, you gotta push forward. You know why? And then as you find those right people, you free up more of your time. You get in the space where you're so where you're supposed to be and then, you know, you create the system, you create the processes.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

And the processes create efficiency.

[A]

So good, man. Like, there's so many lessons here for the audience to pick up and listen as we land the plane. If you could look into that camera and give the audience your best piece of advice through everything that they're going on right now, whether it's a sports journey, a marital journey, a parenthood, or even just entrepreneurship, like, what, what would, what's the best piece of advice you would give?

[B]

Oh, one, I would say that have, have faith. You know, there, there's a, whatever you believe in, there's a higher power, there's a God, there's a calling, there's a purpose for, for every painful moment that we encounter in life. And it's, and I believe it's about having a growth mindset, right? Not having that fixed mindset. That growth mindset sees opportunity in all experiences. The good, the and the bad and the indifferent. But that growth mindset is what pushes you through, what carries you through, is what allows you to be graceful with others. Understand that there is nothing perfect. We are all a work in progress. And you know, and if we're, if we're striving to reach anything, to strive for self actualization, like this vision of who I am and who I can be in life, and then to go after it relentlessly and to find the people that will help push you towards that self actualization that are meant to be a part of that vision.

[A]

Mic drop. Thank you, brother. Hey, thank you so much for coming here to Florida with your family, seeing us and sitting here for a good amount of time telling your story about your foundation, everything, man. It was truly impactful. I loved every minute of it. Thank you so much. Dude.

[B]

No, thank you for the opportunity. This is an opportunity and I appreciate it.

[A]

Absolutely, man. So you guys heard it best. There's so many amazing moments within this episode with Marlon Jackson that I need you to do me a favor. I need you to share this episode with someone that you know love and trust that we get the most out of the story. And maybe even a youth that. That that's going through some things that he went to, he went through as a child. Or maybe it's a parent that's going through some stuff or an entrepreneur or an athlete. Doesn't matter. Share this episode with someone you know love and trust. Until next time, stay determined.

[B]

Sharp. French. What up? This one luck I let the pain inspire me I put my all in Everything I'm doing up until it's done I'm me for the entirety I put it in no time I'll be working Just know I'mma go for mine cause I earned it they watch and I know it's time I confirmed it A whole society determined, determined.