The Power of Belief, Mentors & Faith | with David Williams

Michael: Hey, what's up Unbroken Nation? Hope that you're doing well wherever you are in the world today. Very excited to be back with you with another episode with my guest and friend, David Williams. David my man, what is going on today?

David: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me here. I'm super grateful for it. I guess I'm here to maybe share my story and I'm just privileged to be able to do that today.

Michael: Man, it's amazing. And what's great is you're coming into this conversation right now. It's a Saturday, you just got done with hanging out with Tim Storey out here, doing really big things with good people, and I have this thought in the back of my head often it's like the people who are really showing up for their lives are the same people who will show up on a Saturday. It's crazy to me how I'll talk to people like, I want to change the world, and they're like, but I don't work on Saturdays. I'm like, okay, look, and I get it. I'm not saying there's a right or wrong to it. I just think there's a level of intensity that's actually required to do the things you want to do.

David: Oh, no, a hundred percent. And I think, you know, to me it's like you know, I'm not big guy watching Netflix, going to sports games, nothing wrong with that, but it was like my hobby is doing what I'm doing. My hobby is building businesses. My hobby is making impact. I feel if I'm sitting watching a Netflix or do that once in a while to unplug or laying on a beach somewhere doing that too often, I'm just like going stir crazy 'cause I feel like I should be where my feet belong, like where my gift is and you know, trying to impact the lives of others and build.

Michael: Yeah, I'm the same way, I totally understand that. As we jump into today's conversation, what's something I need to know about you to understand how you got to where you are today?

David: I can take you all the way back. So, I grew up as a kid with labels kinda, I guess placed upon me, you could say, when I was real young, told I had a learning disability, tried to medicate me, told me I'll be low potential, wouldn't really amount to much in life unless I took up a trade and that's not knocking trades whatsoever. But I just didn't have a passion for it but I was being forced into this box by a lot of these other people around me. But luckily, I was blessed, I had some good parents that kind guided me through that. And as I grew up my journey through life, you know, I faced my fair share of adversity facing those learning challenges, some health challenges even, you know, severe bullying as a kid. And so to me, I didn't have a lot of friends growing up, they say you're the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most. Well, I barely had five friends when I was growing up, so I take I ended up taking a deep love for the game of baseball and the thing was when I was growing up, I just didn't have a lot of God-given talent when it came to the game of baseball. But I loved it deeply and I watched a lot of the kids around me that it seemed to come second nature to them. But what came second nature to them came incredibly difficult to me. And what that led to is again, I had great parents growing up that while we didn't have a lot, they made happen everything that we needed and more.

I had a brother that went down the wrong path to give you a little bit of context, and my parents took that super serious. So, my dad, my mom were probably the hardest working people I've ever seen in my life and they sacrificed everything so I could be in this seat today 'cause they didn't wanna see me and my sister got on the wrong path. So, my dad had two businesses, he worked around the clock seven days a week just to pay and be able to afford the things he couldn't afford to put me through private baseball lessons, baseball camps, my sister, through singing lessons. And throughout that process is and I'd say my parents were my very first mentors in life that guided me that led me to my next mentor that made an impact in my life coach Tilling has. So, he was more than a baseball coach and reinforced the work ethic instilled in me from my father, and, you know, taught me principles around things like hard work beats talent when talent doesn't wanna work hard. So here I am as a kid, trying to find my way in life, loved the game of baseball wasn't that good at it. But I started to be, connect the dots because of the people that were around me that the way I could bridge the gap between me and other kids is just outwork every single person in the room and that's exactly what I did and it didn't happen overnight. And I kept working and working and working and working, would go into the batting cages until my ha hands bled as a kid. And eventually that led me to finishing my senior year, I bat four 20 and while a lot of kids, you know, gave up the game of baseball, I ended up fulfilling my dream at the time because I always wanted to be a pro ball player and played my first year of college baseball, ended up facing, you know, that dream that came to fruition was, I'd say a byproduct of years of hard work, just putting in the work. And you know, unfortunately that dream came to an end early on when I had some injuries and I had to figure out where I was gonna go next in life. So, I guess you could call my very first setback and defining moment in my life where I had to, you know, figure things out and the way my parents told me, like, you could live under this roof if one of two things, you're in school or you go to work and I had just come outta school and I did, you know, based off the labels that were put on me as a kid you know, went down that path, took a lot of people's advice. I'm gonna do tool and die, and again, not knocking tool and die, it's a great trade, but I just didn't have that love and that passion and that fire in it that I found. And when I went out there, it just wasn't in alignment with me. So, I decided to go a different direction, reached out to a friend for help from what I thought was gonna be a temporary job, ended up being the beginning of my career when I got a job as just a lonely salesperson in the car stereo department at Circuit City found out that I was pretty darn good with people, and what I realized is my life wasn't starting over at the time, which I thought it was. Here I am coming outta college. This dream is ending, but I realized everything that built up to that moment, all the work ethic, the determination that led to be playing college baseball, built this foundation of grit around me that gave me the tools to go in other areas of life to go out and win. So, I immediately, it was just second nature instinctively to, you know, I used to outwork all the kids when it came to baseball and when I became at Circuit City while everybody relaxed and was hanging back, I just outworked everybody. And became one of the top salespersons in the company. One of the only ones they allowed to go full store, sell anything in the store, any product and did well doing that. And then, through that, found my next mentor in life, Ozang, it was my district manager just noticed me showing up different than everybody took me under his wings. And I became one of the youngest store managers in Circuit City history, I believe I was 21 years old and I was owning it, or I was running a $25 million superstore. So did the same thing, I went all in on that with the same formula grit, determination was working around the clock started to advance and as I started to do really well and hit my stride in my career, another setback happened but this time it was my health. So, I ended up woke up one day, I started having a lot of back pain. I started my ankle started swelling up outta nowhere I didn't know what was going on. And then before I knew it, a couple weeks went by, it got worse and worse and then I went to get out of bed and I couldn't walk, I couldn't stand. The inflammation was so bad, the pain was so bad. I was going into Circuit City with crutches, and then finally that mentor, you know, engaged me and he's like, listen, you gotta go get your health straight. And I went off of work on disability, which was very difficult to me. 'cause, you know, I think a lot of times we tie our identity to the things and here I was in the midst of this career, felt like I was doing really well in life. And then I had to take a step back, go off and work on disability that lasted for about six months. And then, after about six months, I still wasn't ready health-wise, I was trying to figure it out, they're testing out different medications. But then they told me, you know, we can't hold your job any longer than six months. Doctors were telling me at the time, Dave, you're gonna be on, you know, most people with your condition it's called ankylosing spondylitis, it's a severe debilitating autoimmune issue that comes with a lot of chronic pain, neuropathy inflammation. And they're like, the reality is you gotta explore long-term disability.

And I was at a crossroads there where I knew that wasn't I knew deep down that that just wasn't where I was destined to be. And looking at my lovely wife at the time, I knew that she deserved more and then going back to my parents, which my parents were my heroes by the way because get a little emotional talking about it, they sacrificed everything so I could be here today. He never bought new clothes for themselves, never took vacation, never saved for retirement, did everything to instill into me. Literally gave up their lives just to like, make me who I am today, same with my sister. And I always felt it was my duty, my obligation and responsibility to take care of them later in life when, you know, they didn't have the opportunity to take care of themselves or plan to take care of themselves later in life. So, I knew I was destined for more, I knew I had to do more, but I wasn't sure what that looked like. So here I was, I forced myself to get back to work before I was ready, dealing with health challenges. And about 90 days later, and here I'm also some tough financial restraints 'cause I didn't get paid for six months, ended up getting behind on my mortgage, medical bills, all of a sudden another blow came, it felt like literally I was in the back corner of a boxing ring and I was taking punch after punch after punch at this point because now my world came crumbling down. Not only was it I didn't have my health, I didn't have my wealth, but I learned from a customer that walked into the store and they're like, I'm so sorry, I'm like, well, what do you mean? Why are you sorry? Well, don't you know, it was just on the news. We actually found out by customers before they even told us that they were shutting down every service city store and laying out 25,000 people. So, there was, my world is completely rocked and ripped down, my career is gone, my health is just not where it should be and then I'm broke. And now the certainty of all those things are up in the air and I didn't know what I was gonna do and there it was, the labels were being reinforced again, doctors were saying, Hey, maybe it's a sign to go off of work and it's time; it's time to do that.

I came from a family of entrepreneurs and I just had that, you know, that desire deep down my mom had her own business, doing gift baskets to make ends meet. My dad had a gutter business and a snowplowing business, and I'll tell you, he was like the hardest working man that I've ever met to this day because he would literally go seven days a week, operate on three to four hours sleep just to take care of us. He would go out, do gutters and the man operated with the highest level of integrity, a perfectionist that his nature.

I remember being on a job working with him once, and he had something so minuscule off they wouldn't even notice, but he is like, I don't put my name on anything that isn't perfect. And he ripped that the gutters down at his expense and we redid the entire job, that's just the type of man that he was. And when he was done working, that he would start snowplowing, driveways and going around the clock just to afford the things again that they couldn't afford. And I always had that taste of it, and I always had a desire to do that one day as a matter of fact, as a kid, my very first business was a baseball card business and I loved it and had a deep passion.

So, I started to think, I'm like, you know what? Maybe it's time. I just gotta stop working for other people, it's not that I gotta follow my doctor's advice and do nothing 'cause that's just not in me, it's not in my DBA to be on disability. But what I wanted was something on my own terms that would be conducive to my health and I could build a life I wasn't sure what that looked like yet. So, what I did next is I actually got it here in my office in the cabinet still. I wrote out a check for a million bucks, and it might sound cliche, but it wasn't about the money, but it was what it symbolized that I needed something to look at every single day and chase, because I knew if I could cash that check, I could create a life of my own terms that supported my health, they supported my lovely wife, giving her a better life than, you know, in almost life but we wanted an utmost life. And then be able to give back to my heroes and maybe be my hero's hero one day. So, I wrote out this check and then had no idea so far away from cashing a million bucks. My bank account was very low at the time, and then had a friend of the family I encountered. Right. So, I think, you know, the theme here is it was always who, moments in my life that led to where I wanted to go, that I started to recognize that all the way from my parents being my first mentor, my baseball coach being a mentor to me, my district manager being a mentor, and started to find a theme of reaching out and asking for help. And I had a friend of the family that was in the insurance business seemed to be doing really good, it was my first experience and encounter with a little something called passive income. He built a book of business that, you know, everybody needed, everybody needs auto and home insurance. And oh, by the way, once you built it, you get paid in your sleep. So I'm like, that sounds good to me. Sign me up. So, I started talking to 'em, the only problem was, is I had medical debt and yet to have, you know, good credit standing to get approved with a lot of these carriers to start no experience in the industry. And then I was broke, so I didn't have the startup capital.

So here it was again, you know, encountering, I would say, I like to call it the force of mediocrity. People telling me, don't do that. You're sick, Dave. You're gonna fail. Most businesses fail. It's not the time. Go work for somebody else first, then. I just knew I was done with that chapter and I had to go all in for the sake of my family and the sake of my life, and decided I'm gonna figure it out. And just started getting my insurance license at night, working full-time, closing down the store, getting my insurance license at night, and I was gonna go that direction. And then, I prayed on it and I believe that God a lot of times that we think when we pray that he's gonna give us the answer and make it happen. But what I come to find out in my faith in life, in the theme of it, is more times than not God answers our prayers in the form of opportunities. And I firmly believe that this was the case because there were two things there and if it's not by God's design, I don't know what it was because right 20 feet away from the Circuit City that I worked at was an insurance agency that had just closed this door as an independent agency across from DMV right there. And it was like the perfect spot in the mall. And it was a good deal on rent that I could get, but again, didn't have the money, but I decided, I'm like, that's gonna be where I opened my office. I'm gonna grab people from the DMV, I'm gonna use that as my marketing 'cause I can't afford marketing right now and didn't know how to market yet. But it just made sense to me being across from DMV made sense. So now I had to figure out like, how am I gonna come up with this capital? Because at the time, it was 25,000 liquid capitals since they raised it. But even that, having that minimum capital would've been just a couple months, which it was a couple months operating expenses to survive. So, what happened next was the liquidators came in and they basically said, David, we need your help, we're liquidating all the inventory, all the open merchandise, all the customer returns, the display models. We just need to blow that out for pennies on the dollar, whatever we can get. And it was almost as if it wasn't even my words, it was an instant reflex that came out when I remember it vividly to this day. And I just immediately responded with, and it felt like it was like God bestowed the words upon me, they weren't even mine. What if I made it easy on you? And I just bought all the inventory. I took the last seven grand of my name out of my 401K that I had and took a risk. I bought up about $70,000 worth of electronics these used open electronics.

And all of a sudden came home and my wife came home and saw Circuit City in our living room. She's like, Dave, what's going on? She didn't have a living room anymore. She couldn't see her so well, and it's like stacked at a ceiling with every single thing, power adapters, cords I just took everything and then what I started to do was bought all that up in, arbitraged it on eBay, ended up over the next few months while they were wounding down, paid off my medical debt, fix my credit to where it needed to be to get approved for an agency. I was the first person that they told me ever presented them a business plan in a binder, fully laminated with a step-by-step walkthrough of what I was gonna do, how I was gonna leverage the DMV spot.

So, they're impressed with me and how I carried myself, you know, I was able to sell that merchandise and paid off my debt again and raised the minimum $25,000 capital to start my first agency. So, there I was, I got approved and then, I had to go down for training so I literally drove in my beat-up Impala, although down to New York City where my sister actually happened to live there. So to save on money, I slept on a mattress in the floor with no air  conditioning and her place, no air conditioning in my car. And just you know, toughed it out just to save money so I could have every dime for my startup because again, while I got the minimum capital, it was only enough capital that if I didn't hit the ground running when revenue very quickly my dream would've been over before it really began.

Michael: I wanna stop you there because you're gonna pivot into something, but before we do there, there's so much context here and you've shared so much about your story and your journey and so many things. And the reason I just wanted to give you the space to go through that is because dude, the so often in life, we have the odds stacked against us. From youth people are telling us who we can be, what we should be, why we should be, when we can, when we can't, and there's constantly these barriers in front of us. We get knocked down, we get knocked down, we get knocked down. You know, coming from my background being homeless at 12 years old, being a drug addict, making and losing a million dollars, being 350 pounds, the chaos of my life, I'm just like, dude, every single time it was like there was something that projected me forward into this moment where I'm connected with you. There were these massive pushbacks, man. There were times where I wanted to quit. I wanted to give up, I was like, I can't bear the idea of just trying to do this one more time. And as you were talking and you were like, I fixed my debt. I fixed my credit. It made me think when I was 26, I was $50,000 in debt, my car got repossessed, my friends wouldn't talk to me, my brother wouldn't talk to me. My credit score, I don't think I've ever said this on the show. My credit score was like 405 and I was like, dude, I was in dire straits even though I had found success.

David: Yeah. Along the way there's probably nobody that taught you anything different, nobody taught you how to manage credit, the value of managing credit. 'cause I know that was the story with me. Like, I didn't think anything of it. I'm, I gonna need this someday. Why I'm gonna need it someday.

Michael: That's exactly right. And so, I was just having a conversation with someone last night where I was like, I learned about money the hard way, but what I'm curious and where I'm going with this, I mean, from such young age, from bullying to getting sick, to losing everything, to now you're in the place where you're gonna take the risk. Here's where people do not progress for, I believe this is the number one area where people get stuck. They're terrified to take the chance and so they never do so, their circumstances never change. What part of you has that willingness to just go for it. Is that because of the belief your parents put in you? Is that because of having mentors, is that's your relationship with your faith? Is it because you have a supportive wife? Like how in the world can you be at like rock bottom, sick as a dog, crippling debt, no credit score, and you're like, I'm gonna start a business that needs at least $25,000 in startup capital.

David: Yeah. So, I think it was a combination of all those things with, you know, all those people in my life that built that foundation in me. But really what it came down to was there was a deep layer of fear involved, but I remember fear in two ways because of my circumstance, and there was the fear of obviously doing what I was about to do and the fact that I could fail, but I believe the fear and what created me really to do it, at the end of the day, the fear of not doing it was far greater because when I looked at the life, I looked into the face of the labels, I looked into the face and literally vividly saw myself living a life on a couch on disability and it was so far away from alignment with who I was and who I wanted to be, that that scared me so much more than anything else. So, I would've ran through a wall, I would've run through a burning building to do whatever it took, which is kind of almost like what I had to do because anybody that that's ever had a experience with ankylosing spondylitis, I don't wish it on my worst enemy. I mean, it's like your body is on fire and you have rocket fuel pouring through your veins that's on a slow burn and your body just feels like burning every day, getting on the bed, barely functioning and I just had to push through a lot of that, and I think it was just really the fear. I came to this pivotal moment and I think. Fear we can define one of two ways. We can forget everything and run, or we can face everything and rise. And I guess if I look back at it in that moment, I chose to rise and I looked at that check that I had written out, and I looked at my parents that, you know, were my heroes and I needed to be their hero and I looked at my wife and there was so many different people that were counting on me. And I had this love for impact too early on in life, and I knew if I made it big, I could help other people that were eventually in the shoes that I was in. But it started with me.

Michael: What's the conversation you're having in your head right now? Right. Because there's so many people, David, and you know this as well as I do, they're like, man, I wanna impact the world, I wanna have a different life, I want to have a fulfilled life. I wanna do better for my wife and my kids, and myself and my family, and my parents and maybe if they're like me, they're the first people in their family to ever make money to ever end the generational cycle, to ever have stuff that they actually want. And they're like, and they're stil stuck, right? How are you talking to yourself at that time? Because most people probably are like, you wrote a check for a million dollars to yourself. You're a crazy person. What are you talking about?

David: No, that was kind of crazy, right? Because in the reality of things, there was nobody in my family that ever did that. There was nobody in my family that ever reached that milestone. And you know, I think what I was really, you know, really thinking is I was doing a lot of visualization and I think a lot of the skill sets that I built going over, because I remembered back, it went all the way back to my childhood in the game of baseball. Here I was dealing with adversity, bullying, heavy anxiety from the kids bullying me to making my experience in baseball, even worse, where I performed even lower than my ability at the time. But I started to realize the way to close the gap in those things was to outwork everybody else. And then surely here I was as a young kid that just transformed myself and it wasn't overnight, it was a lot of literally, I would say, thousands of hours in the batting cages and hundreds and hundreds of blisters and my hands bleeding that other kids weren't doing, that led to me playing college baseball.

And I think I remember all of that and I remember the, the path to success and I remember going into the Circuit City, how the foundation I built there carried over and then to get into my career at Circuit City, that didn't happen overnight. So, I think the past experience there, because of the paths that I chose earlier on, you know, taught me a valuable license lesson, that nothing really good comes easy. And I think today we live in a world of instant gratification. Everybody can have everything that they want at a drop of a dime on their smartphone. And if it doesn't come overnight, we're onto the next, right? I give up, I quit. It's too hard. It's too difficult. We're in a society where I think now, everybody expects everything to come easy because we are in a place of easy times that I think have led us to the times that we're currently living in. Right? Because what do they say? The age old saying that tough men create easy times and then it's those easy times that then create weak men that create the hard times. And I think that's the pivotal moment that we're in now. But I learned those valuable life lessons that I knew that one thing I wasn't a stranger of and I was familiar with was putting in the work. I knew that if I came in and I outworked and I met some of the other people that were doing what I was going out to do. And I just knew from conversations I can outwork that guy, I can outwork that girl. And that's exactly what I did because people were telling me the same thing. Don't do this. Don't get into the business. Most people fail. Other insurance agents were telling me most people failed.

So, I remember opening up on day one and the trainer came in. I hired two people that lost their job with me at Circuit City. And the only thing that's going in the back of my mind is this hyper, I'm excited of this new chapter, but I'm fearful at the same time because the thing that's going in the back of my mind is like dollar signs. I've already spent some of the capital, I'm down to like literally a couple months working capital 'cause I got payroll, an expensive place to pay for in them all and I need to get revenue right away 'cause I didn't have a book of business. I was starting from scratch ground up and the trainer came in and said, hey, we're gonna train for two weeks and then we're gonna go ahead and start selling. And I'm like, well, no, that's gotta go a little bit in reverse because I don't have the luxury to just not sell and stay idle and not produce revenue about to pay my bills because I'm literally 60 days away from going outta business at this moment with the capital that I had.

So, I remember telling her, I'm like, we're gonna do things a little bit differently. I'm gonna sell and I need you to teach me what I'm doing as I'm going…

Michael: That's the best way to do it.

David: I started pulling people outta the line at the DMV and I remember the first customer to this day, Geraldo Hernandez. He stayed with me all the way to the point that I exited my business and I pulled him outta line and he had a motorcycle home, properties and all this stuff. And what should have took, you know, 20, 30 minutes to quote his insurance, took me three hours and he was incredibly patient. But through that, I learned and learned and figured it out and kept ripping people outta the line, ripping people outta the line and started to get good at it, started to figure it out, get my bearings, my two people next to me, they started to learn through osmosis, just me setting the tone, leading by example, and they started to mimic what I was doing. And before we knew it, those day after day of just putting it in, putting it in, showing up every single day, created momentum.

And I think that momentum then turned into revenue coming in. The bills were paying, there was, you know, alleviating some of it, not too much. So, I had to, you know, really keep staying hungry for a number of years. But we later built that to one of the top Allstate agencies in the country, $20 million in reoccurring revenue. Then, you know, at that point, another pivotal moment, things started to really shift. I felt it was becoming a little bit less entrepreneurial and there was a lot of changes happening where the writing was on the wall at this crossroads again, where it was maybe time to move on. And we had a team of 50 people.

I had a handful of people that were on development plans to own their own agency and help them do that. I was able to fulfill the dreams of countless other people that put in the work just like I did that worked underneath me during the nearly 10 years that I was owning and operating that agency. Sold off my business to them, got some capital. And then, again, I think took the compounded knowledge and all the hard work that I put in and learned over the years to start some other ventures, started learning the power of partnerships. Again, I'll go back to the theme of every time I felt like my life got better, it was always a who moment, it was a mentor, it was a partner, it was somebody in my life that led it there, it was never a what or a if it was always a who. And I met my business partner to this day and you know, we got back into the insurance business, we built it in a fraction of the time, bigger than I even did. Before his partners we ended up starting a staffing and recruiting company that became the number one staffing and recruiting company in the country for insurance agents. Launched a couple software companies with that just 'cause I got this love for creating, giving back and all of our companies, um, our four purpose companies. So we give a part of our proceeds or just like time and energy of our companies to go back and impact, like our recruiting company, will help veterans and at-risk youth help them show up differently in a job interview. And here I was doing more and we were integrating for purpose. I learned from a good mentor of mine, Cole Hatter makes money matter for a purpose. And when I saw what he was doing with his life, it was just so inspiring and how he was impacting others that I knew deep down like that was the next thing for me. Like I was reflecting back on my entire journey and oh, by the way, that check, I cashed it. My goal was to cash it by the age of 35. I did it at 34 and a half. And I say that not to brag or boast, but uh, I say that to say this. It was all this relentless pursuit day after day after day, looking at that every day, focusing my purpose and my passion that allowed that to happen. That I then was able to become my hero's hero.

Michael: One of the things David, that you talked about that I want to tie into with that and congratulations by the way, 'cause that's incredible. And I think, think people hear those kinds of stories and they're like, oh yeah, good for you, you made money. But it's never about the money, man. You know, if you really dive into that, and I look at like some of the success that I've had, it was never about the money. Well, let me rephrase that. When I learned that money doesn't actually make your life better, it just becomes an asset and a tool. I learned that money isn't the thing to drive towards, right?

And so now as I look at my goals and the things I want to do and build, I always think about the people. Right. And you've mentioned the who so many times, and I'm gonna ask you a very specific question 'cause I think that this is often the very thing that either drives people and propels 'em forward or it actually can really keep them stuck and that's their intimate partner and their significant other.What was your relationship like with your wife as you're going through real, I mean, like really, dude, you're kind of going through hell to find heaven, right? What is happening? How are you guys navigating that?

David: You know, I felt like I was just going through the journey. I mean, luckily, I was blessed with a great woman in my life that had my back no matter what. I think through my actions, I proved on very early on that she could trust in me that sometimes even when she didn't understand the vision, she knew that when I locked my sights on something that I would just not relent until it got there. And I think what that did is by me leading her in that way and demonstrating, carrying myself as a man in the household, that gave her the ability and the confidence to stand behind me rock solid. And she was my still is to this day, my line of defense that blocks and tackles for me. And she would just take care of everything else at home so I could just work, work, work, work, work. You know, we never had drama and none of that stuff and it was just always us, I guess call it the, my queen or king and queen dynamic, that she would just take care of everything else so I could go make things happen 'cause she knew it was for the right cause. So, she knew it was gonna lead to a better life for our family. She knew the purpose behind it. It wasn't chasing something that wasn't going to bear fruit one day. And then, you know, that kind of leads where to where I was going with it that goal, I was able to come to fruition, build that life for her, and she saw that. And then I was able to step in with my parents because they hit retirement and alls they had was Social Security, which was 1200 bucks for one of 'em a month and 800 for the other.

So I've been blessed to now pay for all their bills and have for a number of years, I've taken 'em on some of the most amazing trips in the world to make up for the vacations, they never went on. (Sorry I just get emotional when it comes to family.) I was able to buy my dad his first brand new car, brand new Cadillac and then not too long ago, that's when I really felt like I really nailed that being my hero's hero, that I wanted to do something big for them and I bought them their retirement home. And here in Sarasota, Florida, I moved them to and if it wasn't for me doing that and pushing through my challenges and being selfish that, hey, it is what it is, and being the victim mentality, none of that could have happened. And I knew all of those people were counting on me and I knew all those people that needed me, and I had to look myself to the side for the sake of others to get to where I am today, to make sure that everybody had the I guess the best life I knew, I guess in that moment I was the one that needed to change the trajectory of my family tree. I was the one that needed to be the first millionaire in my family. I was the one that had to create a legacy for the Williams name to carry on. And my one day when, when I had a kid, which I do now, I got a two-and-a-half-year-old boy, that's I could leave that legacy to him and I could leave the example to him that could carry on.

So when I eventually leave this earth that there'll be something that carries on above and beyond me. And that led me to, as I analyze my journey, you know, I looked at all the who moments and everything that was there, and I started to realize that, you know what, there's so many kids in American across the globe that don't have the who. If they don't have dads, they don't have the right teachers, they don't have the right mentors. And it feeds into the statistics that I think are horrific and we don't talk about enough in our society today, like I think it's about 1.3 million youth every year end up homeless. We got kids, over 30% of kids in school being medicated. And I know there's a time and a place for that, but those staggering numbers that just shows me, that's more than it's ever been in the history of our country, that our answer to everything is give a kid a pill. And I was that kid that they tried to give a pill that turned out to be gifted, but they didn't recognize my gif and instead they wanted to suppress it and medicate me. There's so many kids being given labels that told that you're not gonna be good enough, you're not gonna do this and we're doing that more in society right now. In the realm of trying to support other people I think we're placing labels on other people that actually do the exact opposite.

So, I'm analyzing all this. And then, later on in life, as I was learning about mentorship and I was learning about how all these people helped me to get to where I wanted to go, I started to actually seek out mentors. Even when I started my first business there, I started look at who are the ones that are doing the best in the insurance that I can model after them. And then I started to get a little bit of money and I hired a health mentor that did things differently. I was suffering for years, even building my businesses with my health. Found some holistic doctors, spent thousands of dollars, started doing, you know, blood tests, hormone tests, gut health tests, cleaned up my diet. I had the right person to come into my life and for the first time, I got off all the medication and I got to go into remission, got in the best shape of my life and learn the value of wellness by having that mentor. Then I started going into masterminds and conferences and surrounding myself with people that made me really, really uncomfortable that I found that caused me to grow. And that's where I met Tim Storey, I met him after I met Cole Hatter. He introduced me to Tim and I started doing life coaching with him for years. And then one day I was on a call with Tim, it was like a light bulb went off and I'm like, man, why don't they have a mastermind for kids? Imagine if I was a kid and I had access to that.

My brother had access to something like that, he'd probably still be here. I said that to Tim and he gave me some words of encouragement. He is like, you need to do it. And that's when the Fifth Degree Academy is born. It's one of my most passionate projects that I'm passionate about first of its kind ever Mastermind for kids, where we're teaching them the things that they don't teach enough in school. Faith, family, freedom, finances, fitness, and what turned out to be a small idea, I started chasing and chasing hard. We built a brand for it and we're just getting ready to launch and we're doing it by 'cause I didn't wanna just impact and it'd be worth it if we just saved one kid, but I wanted to do it at a big scale. So, we decided to do a free two-day live event that's coming up on August 18th and, and the 19th where we're going to make history. And I'll invite everybody listening to the show to come make history with us. 'cause that's really the whole thing. We don't want, we're gonna break the record regardless, but we don't wanna break it with just 500 kids. We wanna pour into the hearts and minds of thousands of kids and all the mentors that I had to spend multiple six figures hiring to get me to where I wanted to go, I've been blessed to build relationships with 'em that they're part of this program. So, we got one of the top motivational speakers in the world, Eric Thomas. We got celebrity Life Coach, Tim Storey, Cole Hatter, Danelle Delgado, Gloria Mayfield Banks, Jimmy Darts, Jim Quick, David Meltzer. We got some great people that are gonna be pouring in the hearts and minds of kids, and it's a free two-day event. And then on the 19th, Eric Thomas is kicking us off we'll have some surprise entertainment and every kid that shows up and goes into that, not only did I firmly believe is going to really get some in-depth knowledge that I could use when I was growing up that I think will change the trajectory of their thinking and their life. But it'll be pretty cool 'cause they'll get a certificate with their name on it, that they're a part of history. And I think that's what really led me to my ultimate purpose when I reflect back on that and again, I say all of that to say this I believe all along this was all God's design. This was how he answered my prayers. He didn't just say, snap my fingers. I'm gonna make, give you the life that you want, Dave. He answered my prayers by giving me opportunities, you know, opportunities from placing the mentor in my life to teach me work ethic opportunities by placing the liquidator in my path that gave me the opportunity to buy the inventory opportunities, to put the friend of the family that introduced me to the insurance business, the partnerships, the mentors, as I continued to pray throughout my life and embrace my faith. I started to really, really recognize that that was the formula that I think a lot of people that are devout Christians and really embracing their faith, they do a great job at it, but sometimes they don't see through the weeds because life can get busy. We're full of distractions. Social media, we have our blinders on where we go and we get caught up in our own life to the noise of that drowns out God's vision for us, God's purpose, God's speaking. And I started to get good at paying attention to when God was answering my prayers and because I had that awareness, I think that's what led me today. He meant me to pour into other kids that have gone down the path that I did that went down the path that my brother did that's no longer here. So, I can prevent the next Gary Williams from coming to fruition. And maybe instead, you know, 'cause you think about it, you look back in our history. History always repeats at health. Sometimes we don't think about it in life, but one person can change everything and change the world. Look at what Mother, mother Theresa did, and I can't help but think in my program, the more kids we touch, the higher the probability there is, there's gonna be the next Mother Theresa. And I know there's so many awesome parents that are out there and what I'll say to the amazing parents is there are kids out there that don't have the parents and the mentors that need this, but there's kids out there that have great parents that just need to hear the message again because I know growing up as a kid, I loved my parents, but we all know when our parents tell us one thing, sometimes it's in what one ear and out the other. But sometimes in Eric Thomas or a Tim Storey comes in, reinforces that same principle. It's like, Aha moment it comes in and it clicks. Mom and dad said it and they said it and that's what we want to try to do is not replace the parent but partner with parents. Not replace the school system, but partner with school systems to fill in the gaps and save lives, impact lives, and inspire kids of the future. And that's where I've been living these days.

Michael: I love that so much, David, because here's what I think about, and I use this word synergy very specifically here. My mission is to end generational trauma in my lifetime through education information. And I've had the fortune of speaking with Tim Storey and David Meltzer and Cole Hatter, and now you and, and you know, doing TikTok lives with Eric over the year and it's like, dude, we're supposed to be in this energy together right now, serving each other's purpose. Your mission actually is in complete alignment with my mission, that's why I wanted you to come on the show, because like truth be told, the better that you do, the more that I become obsolete and the better that I do, the more that you become obsolete. And eventually the thing that happens is we create that change in the world that we want to see. And I think people believe that you have to be like these super famous, super rich people and you have to be a Kardashian like, no dude, you just gotta start. Oh yeah, just freaking start. Just come out here and you did something that, I've done that is the reason why I'm here as well, is I always asked for help even though it was uncomfortable and it was weird, and I'm like, but I'm a guy and guys don't ask for help. I just force myself through it anyway which led down this path where now I get to help millions of people every year who listen to this podcast, right? You get to help hundreds of thousands of people and, and exponentially and reciprocally the impact that we're making on a long enough timeline. We're going to hit our goal. And I always think like, sure, maybe it's not in my lifetime. That's fine. But it's going to happen. And I think that there's something to that that people need to really leverage. This two day event is absolutely incredible. Guys, we're gonna put the links in the show notes at thinkunbrokenpodcast.com, but I believe it's elevate.kids, correct?

David: Yeah, it's super simple. It's www.elevate.kids, no strings attached. Completely free. You just basically fill out the registration on there for you parents and for your kids, so that way each of you are logged into the system and that'll get over to the Guinness World Record officiator. And then, I suggest everybody come the full two days because it's gonna be a lot of great information. We're gonna be giving away prizes, have an entertainment. We're gonna try to really do a good job engaging the kids that make 'em wanna stay five hours a day. And then that second day on Saturday the 19th, 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, Eric Thomas is gonna kick us off and then we're gonna have a Guinness Officiator read the rules and then we got a four-hour window. We just need to get as many people, it doesn't have to be simultaneous, but as many kids and their parents to log in individually on Zoom because every individual login counts as one for the record and then everybody that logs in with their information, that's how we'll document you to later on get you a certificate with your name that you were a part of us making, making history, and hear from some really, really cool speakers and help us spread the impact.

So, the only thing I'll ask of everybody that's listening to this is, you know, please just show up. Parents, bring your kids. You got a commitment for me that I will give it my all to make sure it's something that you have value in. And then the only other thing I could ask is bring your friends and have your kids bring their friends because again, we're gonna break this record, that's not optional, but I wanna break it so massively that the impact is far grander. You know, we have an opportunity here to get the attention of a lot of people, and I want to do that in a big way because the bigger we do it, the more impact. But the only thing is, you know, I've learned more and more to humble myself and ask for help, which at one point in my life, I struggled with doing in this project because it's so meaningful for me, has actually got me outta my comfort zone to ask for help more than I ever had. So, like, I guess I'll just look in the camera, I'll ask everybody. I need your help to get as many people here because I'm only one person and I need your help evangelizing this just so we can help. Create an educational movement together.

Michael: I love that man. And those five ss for those kids. Dude, if I would've had this, Dave, I'm telling you right now, if I would've had this, I probably wouldn't have gotten as much trouble. I probably would've graduated high school. I probably wouldn't have been friends with people who are in prison for life right now. I could've been a better brother, younger. I would've done well with my money instead of losing everything that I worked so hard for 'cause I was illiterate, you know, my health would've been better. I would've never been morbidly obese like literally, like the path that you're painting are all the things that I would've loved to avoid, right?

David: And I look at that is like the right path in life is what? It's like the yellow brick road. But what is everybody doing? We're seeing alarming rates; our kids are going off of that yellow brick road and we analyze it. Well, why is that happening? Well, I think there's so many of them that aren't getting the luxury to discover their path, their purpose, their why. And then if you think about it in school today, like what do we have? I had bullying when I was a kid and that was rough. Now your one social media clip away of having your life destroyed.

Michael: That's absolutely right.

David: What that does too is what does it do? You got the jocks, you got the people that are academically strong, you got people in the winning circle, but then all these other kids get alienated because they don't feel they fit in that circle. But where do they go? They look for something else and they look for someone else. And where is that more times than not. It's the wrong crowd. And then we're seeing people and our kids going and adopting this wrong ideology. In today's day and age, we're seeing our kids go down the path of gangs, go down the path of violence, go down the path of crime, epidemic rates and I believe it's that exact dichotomy in formula is they don't have anywhere else to go. And like that's another part of this program is we wanna give them a place to go. We wanna give them just the path to kind of discover that purpose and their why and when I was growing up, again, back to that cliche, you're the average of the five people you hang around with the most. I didn't have five people, my brother did, they're the wrong five people. And I believe the reason he is not here today, and our intention is to make sure we're bringing the right people in this community with the right intentions to give every kid that's a part of this program, at least the right five people they can do life with. People that wanna win that got the same mindset, parents that got the same mindset. And I truly believe even the greatest parents in the world, we can't do it alone, it takes a village.

Michael: Yep, that's right. And I love it and I support it, and that's why I'm here. And I know that I'll be there with you, my friend, it's amazing what you're doing. My last question for you, brother is what does it mean to you to be unbroken?

David: Say what it means to me to be unbroken is, I think it, that just sums up my journey, right? Because there was so many breaking points in my life. When I hear the word unbroken, there's so many points in my life that I felt like I was broken and I could have just given up. But somewhere along the line, it was the right person, the right place, it was God, it was faith that led me to keep moving forward. And I think that's the biggest thing I could tell everybody is life can be relentless. Life can hit you. It can hit you hard. Sometimes the get out of what I call that value of despair, it's not gonna happen overnight. Sometimes it's taking a right step forward, looking for the power of partnerships and people around you that can carry you when you're in need so you can keep taking those baby steps forward, but have faith that those steps turned into strides and they turn into stepping in feet in yards. And before you know it, you're in miles and then you're out of this place of brokenness. And where I feel like I've pivoted to today being now unbroken and my experience, my triumphs, my tribulations. I think, we're all by design. I was giving these when I was questioning at one point in life, God, why are you doing this to me? You know, I think challenges are what bring the right things into our life. And he was forging me in the fire to make me the human that I am today to make me capable of handling the mission that he had in store for me.

Michael: Beautifully said my friend. And obviously you've been surrounded by some amazing people to lead you down this path. Unbroken Nation, thank you so much for listening. David, thank you for being here.

Guys, please like, comment, share, and especially this episode, just share it with one person in your life, someone who has kids, someone who needs support, someone who in this journey, if they were just around the five people that they could potentially need to have a different life. Let's give them access 'cause I'm telling you guys right now as a child, if I would've had access to people like David Williams and Tim Storey and Eric Thomas and David Meltzer and Cole Hatter, my life would've been different. I probably wouldn't be with you right now. So, you know, let's not mess with the timeline too much. What I am saying is like, let's look at our future of our children. And give them the things that we didn't give, that is our moral obligation and our responsibility. Guys, go to thinkunbrokenpodcast.com to learn more. Of course, check out elevate.kids. And remember, every time you share this content, you're helping other people transform their trauma to triumph, their breakdowns to breakthroughs, and you're helping them become the hero of their own story.

And Until Next Time.

My Friends, Be Unbroken.

I'll See Yah.