# Don't quit! Comedian Kier "Junior" Spates is living his dream despite being told he would not live past 11 years.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 18 Jun 2024, 26 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/0386d4d6-2af0-4fe8-ad5e-b1110135622c/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies Startup funding opportunities Executive leadership training Financial literacy education Success mindset podcast Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald, interview Kier Spates. He is a Sickle Cell Warrior, and when he was diagnosed, he was told he would not live past 11 years. Today, he is a sickle cell survivor, Hollywood television writer, co-hosts the popular Steve Harvey Morning Show, hosts his radio show every Saturday in Atlanta, and is a touring stand-up comedian. He started his foundation called Kier's Hope for Sickle Cell survivors and hosts his motivational podcast, Living Your Life. Each week, join him and his board-certified medical co-host, Dr. Corey Hebert, as we meet incredible people who refuse to let a life-threatening illness hold them back from success. Plus, he talks with today's top medical, community, and entertainment influencers! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
[0:07] Speaker 1: is the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
[0:10] Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
[0:13] Speaker 1: advice on many occasions. And in case you didn't notice,
[0:15] Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
[0:19] Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers.
[0:21] Speaker 2: It's what he likes to do, it's what he likes
[0:23] Speaker 2: to share.
[0:24] Speaker 1: Now it's time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald
[0:27] Speaker 1: money Making Conversations.
[0:29] Speaker 3: Here we go.
[0:35] Speaker 4: Hello, I'm Rashan McDonald's hosts a weekly money making conversation
[0:39] Speaker 4: masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show provides
[0:43] Speaker 4: off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's
[0:45] Speaker 4: success stories and really started living your own. My next
[0:48] Speaker 4: guest is here Spate. He is a sickle cell warrior
[0:51] Speaker 4: and when he was diagnosed, he was told he would
[0:53] Speaker 4: not live past eleven years old. Today is a circle
[0:57] Speaker 4: sell survivor. Hollywood television writer co host popular Steve Harvey
[1:01] Speaker 4: Morning Show hosts his own show in Atlanta every Saturday,
[1:04] Speaker 4: and it's a.
[1:05] Speaker 3: Touring stand up comedian.
[1:06] Speaker 4: He started his foundation called Keere's Hope for Sickle Seales
[1:09] Speaker 4: survivors and hosts his motivational podcasts Living Your Life. Success
[1:14] Speaker 4: is part of his future. Please welcome the Money Making
[1:16] Speaker 4: Compensations masterclass here space.
[1:19] Speaker 3: How you doing care?
[1:20] Speaker 2: Hey, mag how you doing rather well?
[1:22] Speaker 3: Carry?
[1:22] Speaker 4: You know it's gonna be a journey, because I want
[1:24] Speaker 4: to make sure people who walk away with this interview
[1:26] Speaker 4: understand that people can tell you expectations, people can try
[1:30] Speaker 4: to predict your future, but it's really balls down to
[1:34] Speaker 4: the people around you and also what you want to
[1:37] Speaker 4: get out of life over the effort that you want
[1:39] Speaker 4: to put into your dreams. Start me off with being
[1:44] Speaker 4: told of being aware that you wouldn't live past eleven
[1:48] Speaker 4: years of age.
[1:50] Speaker 5: You know, when I go back to that part of
[1:51] Speaker 5: my life, MAC is always a difficult thing because my
[1:55] Speaker 5: parents are young. They were young parents. They're twenty years old,
[1:59] Speaker 5: and here they are at thirty one. And then a
[2:02] Speaker 5: doctor had the nerve to tell them that, hey, listen,
[2:05] Speaker 5: don't plan a future for them. I mean literally, don't
[2:08] Speaker 5: plan a future. He's not gonna make it past eleven.
[2:12] Speaker 5: Now I'm seven at this time, you know, I'm seven
[2:15] Speaker 5: years old, So he's thirty seven years old. So now
[2:18] Speaker 5: they think about the next four years, we're gonna start
[2:20] Speaker 5: planning the funeral.
[2:23] Speaker 2: And at that time, they didn't really know what civil
[2:25] Speaker 2: cell was.
[2:25] Speaker 5: They had no idea about what it is to be
[2:28] Speaker 5: a parent, having a child with six sel and for them,
[2:33] Speaker 5: it was devastating. For me as a child, not knowing
[2:36] Speaker 5: what death meant, it was just for me, it was
[2:39] Speaker 5: like another day. They told me, listen, we're gonna have
[2:43] Speaker 5: to make some changes according to your life.
[2:46] Speaker 2: And then when I.
[2:47] Speaker 5: Passed eleven and I made to fifteen, I'm scared at
[2:50] Speaker 5: this point because I'm supposed to be out of here,
[2:53] Speaker 5: and then now you look at me today, I'm still here.
[2:56] Speaker 5: So I never believed in the mantra of hey, this is.
[3:01] Speaker 2: It for you.
[3:01] Speaker 5: And I didn't know at eleven years old that was
[3:04] Speaker 5: going to be a definition for my life, like hey,
[3:06] Speaker 5: you'll never make it.
[3:08] Speaker 2: It really didn't have an effect. All I had is chance.
[3:10] Speaker 2: That's all everything I did was based upon chance.
[3:14] Speaker 5: I'm gonna take the chance because you already told me
[3:18] Speaker 5: that I wasn't gonna make it past eleven. Now here
[3:19] Speaker 5: I am at thirty nine. I have a career, I'm
[3:23] Speaker 5: doing this. But I also realized one thing, Mac, there's
[3:26] Speaker 5: somebody coming behind me.
[3:28] Speaker 2: They gonna tell the same thing too.
[3:31] Speaker 3: Talk to me about that.
[3:32] Speaker 4: Because you're sickle cell, you have sickle cell disease, a
[3:36] Speaker 4: lot of other people out there would come, people who
[3:39] Speaker 4: may see the disease, that might illnesses that might be terminal,
[3:43] Speaker 4: and they might go, hey, man, I'm looking for the
[3:46] Speaker 4: exit plan. I don't have a future.
[3:49] Speaker 3: Now.
[3:50] Speaker 4: They're different stuff. You went past elevel and you was fifteen.
[3:52] Speaker 4: Did you play sports in high school? Was you a
[3:55] Speaker 4: social high school? How was you and how truly?
[4:00] Speaker 2: I was playing sports and my dream was to play
[4:02] Speaker 2: in the NFL. That was my dream.
[4:04] Speaker 5: And I was a running back out of Texas. I
[4:06] Speaker 5: was ranked and I was this, it's really good at football.
[4:10] Speaker 2: I loved it. I love the strategy of football. Loved
[4:11] Speaker 2: the game of football. And when I was playing that
[4:16] Speaker 2: doctor told.
[4:17] Speaker 5: My mother when I was eleven, and my number in
[4:20] Speaker 5: high school was number eleven because I wore it with passion.
[4:22] Speaker 5: Everything I did was based upon the number eleven because
[4:25] Speaker 5: that's the number.
[4:26] Speaker 2: Y'all told me. So we needed eleven yards. I'm finna
[4:29] Speaker 2: get these eleven yards, right. Everything didn't matter.
[4:34] Speaker 5: But did I just say, Well, I got kicked off
[4:36] Speaker 5: the team in high school my senior year, the year
[4:39] Speaker 5: I had the scholarships that were up for me to
[4:43] Speaker 5: go play collegeball, and they took it from me. And
[4:47] Speaker 5: the thing about that was it hurt me so hard.
[4:51] Speaker 2: I cried.
[4:51] Speaker 5: I cussed the whole coaching staff off because I've been
[4:54] Speaker 5: in this one program. And then one player comes in
[4:56] Speaker 5: and tells the team doctor that I have six sell
[4:58] Speaker 5: and they snatched me off of it. So now they
[5:01] Speaker 5: didn't just take me off because I had sickle cell.
[5:03] Speaker 5: They took my future too. That's how I felt. They
[5:07] Speaker 5: took my future. And the thing about it was, I
[5:10] Speaker 5: made a decision at that moment in my own mind
[5:15] Speaker 5: that I would never let single cell take another thing
[5:17] Speaker 5: from me. Nothing will ever be taken from me based
[5:21] Speaker 5: upon my habit of having sickle sell.
[5:23] Speaker 2: The team doctor told my mother, he.
[5:24] Speaker 5: Said, well, we're only doing this out of side of cautions.
[5:28] Speaker 5: My mother stood in there and my father was sitting there,
[5:30] Speaker 5: and my mother said, why would you take something from somebody.
[5:32] Speaker 5: You wouldn't want to take it from your children. It's
[5:35] Speaker 5: my child. He said, well, he could possibly die. Mother
[5:38] Speaker 5: said this, and this is why I take the chances
[5:40] Speaker 5: that I take and the things that I do, and
[5:42] Speaker 5: how I respond. She said, if he does die, he
[5:45] Speaker 5: died doing something that he loved.
[5:48] Speaker 3: Right.
[5:49] Speaker 2: That was so important to.
[5:50] Speaker 5: Me, which propelled me to the next point of my
[5:54] Speaker 5: life because I started doing stand up at.
[5:56] Speaker 4: Nineteen, right, nineteen years old years old, nineteen ninety nine.
[6:01] Speaker 3: Who inspired you as a stand up? Who inspired you?
[6:04] Speaker 5: It was so many man at that time. Man, you
[6:06] Speaker 5: got to think about what was happening. Death, comedy, jam
[6:08] Speaker 5: was happening. See, my parents were the parents that let
[6:11] Speaker 5: me do what I wanted to do because I had
[6:14] Speaker 5: sils some time.
[6:15] Speaker 2: But I was watching death Jam, I was watching everything.
[6:18] Speaker 2: I was watching.
[6:18] Speaker 5: Marden, I was watching Eddie Murphy. I saw Richard Pryor
[6:22] Speaker 5: with my grandmother when I was ten.
[6:24] Speaker 2: So I knew it was always in my future, you know.
[6:28] Speaker 5: I saw Steve Harvey, I saw Bill Bellamy, I saw
[6:32] Speaker 5: Martin Lawrence, I saw a Lavelle Crawford, I saw Sheryl Underwood.
[6:39] Speaker 5: I was going back to high school doing their sets
[6:42] Speaker 5: in the comments before we had started class.
[6:45] Speaker 2: Did y'all see what this fool said?
[6:47] Speaker 5: And that was my thing, And so it was always
[6:50] Speaker 5: interwoven into my car. I pretty much knew about fourteen
[6:55] Speaker 5: this is what I was gonna be doing, right, because
[6:57] Speaker 5: it was in me too hard.
[7:00] Speaker 2: It was just in my character too hard. I was
[7:03] Speaker 2: always doing the church plays. I was not only doing
[7:06] Speaker 2: the church play. I was five.
[7:07] Speaker 5: Characters in the church play because there was nobody more
[7:10] Speaker 5: talented than me.
[7:11] Speaker 2: So I was Lazarus was I was. I was the
[7:15] Speaker 2: wise man. I was everybody. I was punch as Pilot.
[7:19] Speaker 5: I was everybody in the church play because I would
[7:23] Speaker 5: go back there change.
[7:24] Speaker 2: I was the only person in the church with a
[7:26] Speaker 2: quick change booth. I go change, come back out our
[7:30] Speaker 2: demonic man. I was everybody in the church play. It's
[7:33] Speaker 2: like what talented he could play all these characters at
[7:36] Speaker 2: one time.
[7:37] Speaker 4: Now in the past stand up comedy. That's an extreme
[7:40] Speaker 4: from your lifestyle. You know, as a person who has
[7:43] Speaker 4: sickle cell. You know sickle cell. If you watch the
[7:46] Speaker 4: commercials on TV, they always talk about the pain, They
[7:49] Speaker 4: always talk about the struggle. They always talk about the
[7:52] Speaker 4: time limit. You know, it's that old number one hundred
[7:54] Speaker 4: thousand people. It's been around for fifteen years. One hundred
[7:57] Speaker 4: thousand people out sickle cell. We all know that's not true,
[8:00] Speaker 4: and we want to make those changes. But as you
[8:03] Speaker 4: start going off that stand up comedy ladder start, people
[8:07] Speaker 4: start looking at you different, your parents start looking at
[8:09] Speaker 4: you different. How did you start to feel when you
[8:11] Speaker 4: start making people laugh and then it started inspiring you
[8:17] Speaker 4: to say I can.
[8:18] Speaker 2: Do this too.
[8:19] Speaker 3: Correct.
[8:20] Speaker 5: Yes it was, you know, going up to stand up
[8:26] Speaker 5: ladder was for me with nothing but another challenge is
[8:31] Speaker 5: what it was. But it was something that I knew
[8:34] Speaker 5: at the point I had the gift to do the
[8:39] Speaker 5: challenges that I was facing at that point in time
[8:42] Speaker 5: in nineteen wasn't good. At nineteen, I just had about
[8:46] Speaker 5: three or four jokes.
[8:47] Speaker 2: That's it. That's all I could do.
[8:49] Speaker 5: But I worked at it. The first time I got booed,
[8:52] Speaker 5: I knew then it didn't deter me. I just went
[8:55] Speaker 5: home and started trying to be better. I started watching
[8:59] Speaker 5: other professionals do it. I said, okay, cool. Then I
[9:03] Speaker 5: started getting to know these guys. I started to hang around,
[9:07] Speaker 5: and then I started learning, and then I was started
[9:09] Speaker 5: letting my pen write, and then I started learning how
[9:12] Speaker 5: the things that I need to talk about are not
[9:13] Speaker 5: the things that other people want to hear.
[9:16] Speaker 2: You just start telling your story, right, and so then you.
[9:20] Speaker 5: Started thinking about You know, Mac, when when when I
[9:23] Speaker 5: first met you and we were doing the auditions for
[9:27] Speaker 5: Comic View. Crazy situation in the world because you were
[9:32] Speaker 5: selecting talent back then, were talking about in two thousand
[9:36] Speaker 5: and one, right, yes.
[9:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm telling you.
[9:39] Speaker 5: I'm sitting there and then I'm sitting here and a
[9:42] Speaker 5: lady comes up to me and she started talking to me,
[9:45] Speaker 5: and you already told me just sit down, shut up,
[9:46] Speaker 5: cause I tried to introduce myself to you.
[9:48] Speaker 2: Sit right, hey, man, I know who you are. Sit
[9:50] Speaker 2: down right here.
[9:51] Speaker 5: You may be sitting next to you. Then ladies are
[9:53] Speaker 5: talking to me. I didn't say nothing. The lady starts talking.
[9:56] Speaker 5: I said, ma'am, you need to go away, and you
[9:58] Speaker 5: trust me out. Would you like somebody talking when you
[10:01] Speaker 5: all stayed and I didn't even do nothing because you
[10:05] Speaker 5: were specifically there to see talent, right, and then I
[10:10] Speaker 5: was going through this ladder. So then you gave me
[10:12] Speaker 5: the opportunity that was.
[10:14] Speaker 2: The year on Comic View.
[10:15] Speaker 5: I gotta stand in ovation on Comic View for the
[10:19] Speaker 5: jokes I was doing. And Mac, you didn't even stay around.
[10:23] Speaker 2: You had left. You was done.
[10:24] Speaker 5: You are knew what you had put together, and so
[10:27] Speaker 5: then I knew. Then I said, I can really do this.
[10:32] Speaker 5: Nobody had to applaud me. I was looking for the applause.
[10:34] Speaker 5: I looked for the pat on the back. No, you
[10:37] Speaker 5: really could do this.
[10:38] Speaker 2: Y'all left me in that moment. Let me have that
[10:41] Speaker 2: moment and said, no, what you have it? You can
[10:43] Speaker 2: really do this. And that's when I knew.
[10:45] Speaker 5: At that point in time, at twenty three years old,
[10:48] Speaker 5: so know what I was going to be faced with.
[10:51] Speaker 5: Just like everything else I was doing, there are challenges
[10:55] Speaker 5: you can always overcome with the right support of people.
[11:00] Speaker 3: Did you position yourself to be two thousand and two?
[11:03] Speaker 4: You know you met me? It was a comedy comic
[11:06] Speaker 4: view edition and then you're on tour. What just people
[11:10] Speaker 4: listening watching the show, listening to the show. What did
[11:13] Speaker 4: you put in place? What did you How did you?
[11:16] Speaker 4: How did you make that happen?
[11:18] Speaker 5: First of all, I was long enough to listen, m h.
[11:22] Speaker 5: First thing I had to do was listen understanding that
[11:25] Speaker 5: I didn't get in the way. I never I knew
[11:27] Speaker 5: I was talented. I never let it get in front
[11:30] Speaker 5: of what I was. My end goal was and I'm
[11:33] Speaker 5: still the same way today. I was able to listen
[11:36] Speaker 5: to the people who are already there. They're already in
[11:38] Speaker 5: the position that you're trying to get to. So I
[11:40] Speaker 5: remember when y'all had the UH, when y'all had the
[11:43] Speaker 5: New opp, y'all had New Opp, y'all had the.
[11:47] Speaker 2: Exhibition for all the networks, and.
[11:49] Speaker 5: Y'all brought us down there to do right right, I
[11:52] Speaker 5: wasn't even yeah, I wasn't even doing comedy.
[11:54] Speaker 2: I was just acting right now.
[11:56] Speaker 5: I remember mister Harvey sitting in there in audition one
[12:00] Speaker 5: day when we were rehearsing, and he said, hey man,
[12:03] Speaker 5: good job. He said, I don't know you, brother, he said,
[12:06] Speaker 5: but I'm gonna see you again. I'll never forget when
[12:10] Speaker 5: he said that. He said, it's not me to make
[12:12] Speaker 5: you nervous. It's that red light on that camera. It's
[12:14] Speaker 5: gonna make it nervous. If you can overcome that, you'll
[12:16] Speaker 5: be fine. Now ten years later, you hired me on
[12:22] Speaker 5: this show. See see, he said, I don't know. See
[12:27] Speaker 5: I went out before he hired me on the show.
[12:30] Speaker 5: I remember James Thomas called me and said, hey man.
[12:33] Speaker 3: Barber James Thomas, his barber.
[12:35] Speaker 5: Yeah, his barber, Jay Thomas said, hey, man, miss, I
[12:37] Speaker 5: want to know you want to come on the road
[12:38] Speaker 5: and open up for him. And I'm thinking at this time,
[12:41] Speaker 5: I'm nobody. Do you know how many people you got
[12:44] Speaker 5: to go through to get to me?
[12:46] Speaker 3: Right?
[12:46] Speaker 5: It's a list of people, mm that you got to
[12:50] Speaker 5: talk to before you even get to my name.
[12:52] Speaker 3: Right.
[12:53] Speaker 5: But the fact he saw something, I just remember two
[12:56] Speaker 5: thousand and two. Now we're in two thousand and nine now.
[13:00] Speaker 5: And then I go to Miami and I opened up
[13:02] Speaker 5: for him and mister Harvey came out and he said, brother,
[13:05] Speaker 5: great job.
[13:06] Speaker 2: That's what I'm looking for. I need that young energy.
[13:09] Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
[13:09] Speaker 5: I remember Mac, you called me and said, mister Harvey
[13:12] Speaker 5: want to hire you on this morning show?
[13:13] Speaker 3: Mm hm.
[13:14] Speaker 4: And I'm sitting there, Steve har Steve Harry Morning, National Platform,
[13:18] Speaker 4: National Prep Dog.
[13:20] Speaker 2: Is that Is that a big enough red light for you?
[13:22] Speaker 3: Okay, you talked about that a big enough red light
[13:24] Speaker 3: for you?
[13:25] Speaker 5: Hey, man, I just remember what I was doing, man,
[13:27] Speaker 5: I was watching college football, right, and you asked me, hey,
[13:31] Speaker 5: mister Harry Wondo, can you come meet him at his
[13:33] Speaker 5: ranch tomorrow? So I turned that TV off, started packing
[13:36] Speaker 5: bags I would get Saturday I just had directions to
[13:40] Speaker 5: the ranch, right and.
[13:42] Speaker 2: Then he told me what the mission was. And then
[13:44] Speaker 2: that's when the journey really started. See everything else was
[13:47] Speaker 2: just prep Right now.
[13:50] Speaker 5: I'm actually on the mission and the journey and my
[13:54] Speaker 5: career just catapulted.
[13:57] Speaker 6: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
[14:00] Speaker 6: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
[14:04] Speaker 6: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashan McDonald.
[14:08] Speaker 4: From that one that one moment, you know, when I
[14:12] Speaker 4: think about this and think about the journey of what
[14:14] Speaker 4: you're dealing with and overcoming the odds, you know people,
[14:18] Speaker 4: but then meeting people who can care less about sickle sale,
[14:24] Speaker 4: you know, that wouldn't that wasn't introduct you into the
[14:26] Speaker 4: conversation about are you sick?
[14:28] Speaker 3: Are you healthy? Do you you know?
[14:30] Speaker 4: It's like if you allow that to be your calling card,
[14:34] Speaker 4: if you allow that to be your opening statement, if
[14:37] Speaker 4: you said something.
[14:38] Speaker 3: Like, hey, I want you know, if you said I
[14:40] Speaker 3: want you to do I want you to do.
[14:41] Speaker 4: The comedy tool, you didn't say, hey, by the way,
[14:45] Speaker 4: I got sickle sale.
[14:46] Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying.
[14:47] Speaker 4: That was, you know, and that's what a lot of
[14:49] Speaker 4: people will tend to do. They want to put a
[14:51] Speaker 4: roadblock in front of their dreams. Unnecessarily. Some information should.
[14:56] Speaker 3: Not be shared.
[14:57] Speaker 5: Correct, correct, It does not even have to be shared,
[15:00] Speaker 5: because I made it a point, because I wanted to
[15:04] Speaker 5: leave with me right, not what I have. My introductory
[15:11] Speaker 5: will always be me. See, I don't need the pity party.
[15:16] Speaker 5: You give me a microphone, you put me on a
[15:17] Speaker 5: state with anybody. I go toe to toe with anybody.
[15:19] Speaker 5: I don't care who it.
[15:20] Speaker 3: Is, right right, right, right, right, dude.
[15:22] Speaker 5: I've never ever thought that I can never be the
[15:25] Speaker 5: funniest person in the room. I never thought that I
[15:28] Speaker 5: never operate like that. Now has that gotten me in trouble? Sometimes?
[15:34] Speaker 2: Yes, because people fear your talents. That's just what it is.
[15:39] Speaker 5: See, I never take a day off from my talents.
[15:42] Speaker 5: My goal is I don't care who the headline is.
[15:45] Speaker 2: Did you see me? I've never said did you see me?
[15:48] Speaker 2: Because I have civil sale.
[15:50] Speaker 4: As we go through the process of developing your career,
[15:56] Speaker 4: you came in as an actor where you're nineteen, you
[15:58] Speaker 4: want to be a stand up comedian, then acting to go, well, you,
[16:01] Speaker 4: I don't want to say what we're acting where you
[16:03] Speaker 4: know we're doing road plays or what were you doing
[16:07] Speaker 4: out there? Yeah, get to build your acting career.
[16:11] Speaker 2: Yeah, I did.
[16:12] Speaker 5: About about five years of my career was doing stage plays.
[16:16] Speaker 2: Uh huh and uh you know who Jack with the names?
[16:20] Speaker 5: We know, Gerald of Vert, I mean, I mean Essence Atkins,
[16:27] Speaker 5: Miguel Nunez, Carl Payne, Patrese Lovely. I mean, it's so
[16:33] Speaker 5: many of us, man, it was so many of them.
[16:36] Speaker 5: I met him, Robin Gibbings, there were will be on
[16:41] Speaker 5: the road for nine months, you know, right, and so
[16:44] Speaker 5: Essence like you see these people, man, and these are
[16:47] Speaker 5: people that you developed friendships with, right, you know?
[16:51] Speaker 2: And I mean.
[16:54] Speaker 5: It was it was a different life for me because
[16:57] Speaker 5: in the plays I got to do standing.
[17:00] Speaker 2: My character with a set in the place. Always was a.
[17:05] Speaker 5: Want to be I don't care you could tell me.
[17:07] Speaker 5: I was a ups driver, but his dream was to
[17:09] Speaker 5: be a stamp and and then man on the road.
[17:14] Speaker 5: When I was doing these plays, man, I had to
[17:16] Speaker 5: earn everything.
[17:17] Speaker 2: Man. I was not only just doing the plays.
[17:20] Speaker 5: I was driving the cast to the show, taking them
[17:23] Speaker 5: back to the hotel. I was selling the programs and intermission.
[17:27] Speaker 5: I was acting in the play. I was doing the introductory.
[17:30] Speaker 5: I was doing everything, man, and I wasn't making but
[17:33] Speaker 5: eight hundred dollars a week.
[17:34] Speaker 3: That's a nice amount of money. Now week what what?
[17:37] Speaker 2: Well?
[17:38] Speaker 4: You know, we we were putting you up right, they
[17:40] Speaker 4: were putting you in the hotel, right.
[17:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, we're in the hotel man.
[17:44] Speaker 4: No no, no, no, came.
[17:47] Speaker 2: Out to eight hundred. He we all, we all brought
[17:54] Speaker 2: a lot of buffets. These black people, don't I wasn't the.
[18:01] Speaker 3: Hall of Renaissance to know right right right right right
[18:05] Speaker 3: right right right?
[18:08] Speaker 2: How do what's see? At the same time, it came
[18:10] Speaker 2: to challenge because they said I couldn't.
[18:11] Speaker 4: Do Let me ask you that because now you're really
[18:14] Speaker 4: speaking a conversation that because we're about to go to
[18:18] Speaker 4: another conversation regards to you being the brand ambassador for
[18:22] Speaker 4: UH and Dory.
[18:24] Speaker 3: You know.
[18:24] Speaker 4: But before that, Junior, I did Steve Hardy Morning Show.
[18:29] Speaker 4: I was there on tour. I saw you, I saw
[18:33] Speaker 4: you do beat is coming for you?
[18:36] Speaker 3: Where was the circle sell disease? What was all these
[18:40] Speaker 3: these these these prices that pop up?
[18:42] Speaker 2: Max?
[18:43] Speaker 3: Why am I seeing this?
[18:45] Speaker 2: There was one time you saw you just didn't know it.
[18:47] Speaker 2: I didn't tell you.
[18:49] Speaker 5: Mm hm, Like I said, I always introduced myself first,
[18:51] Speaker 5: and didn't when we the next year when we did
[18:53] Speaker 5: come to view in l A. And they didn't air
[18:56] Speaker 5: that one, but I was on stage. I was in crisis.
[18:59] Speaker 2: D I came up after Mark Curry and I was
[19:05] Speaker 2: on that show.
[19:06] Speaker 5: I was in a full fledged sickle cell crisis, and
[19:08] Speaker 5: I still tried to go do it.
[19:11] Speaker 2: You walked by me, you said, you can't go out
[19:13] Speaker 2: there with that man. You can't do that. And at
[19:16] Speaker 2: this point in time, you got to stand now. I
[19:19] Speaker 2: have no insurance.
[19:22] Speaker 5: So I spent a majority of my twenties and early
[19:25] Speaker 5: thirties chasing my dream with no insurance, and that crisis
[19:32] Speaker 5: was happening. And yet I still told you in the beginning,
[19:37] Speaker 5: I would never let sickle cell take nothing from me.
[19:40] Speaker 5: Good dad is in different. I meant that it already
[19:45] Speaker 5: happened to me. I was not gonna let it happen
[19:47] Speaker 5: at a moment in my life. Well, this could change
[19:49] Speaker 5: my life. It didn't work out at that point in time,
[19:52] Speaker 5: but the crisis was happening. But I never showed anybody
[19:58] Speaker 5: when I was going through it. I was a shamed
[20:00] Speaker 5: to talk about it myself because I didn't think people
[20:03] Speaker 5: would understand.
[20:04] Speaker 2: Everybody would look at me like, oh, he just weak.
[20:07] Speaker 2: He's just weak man, don't look.
[20:09] Speaker 5: At That's why the challenges that I'm faced with, I
[20:13] Speaker 5: have to take them as they come because I'm not weak.
[20:18] Speaker 5: I'm not that I am talented. But society wants to
[20:21] Speaker 5: tell you, because you have sickle cell, we have to
[20:23] Speaker 5: keep we have. We have to treat you with kids, gloves,
[20:25] Speaker 5: we have, we got to you know, we have to
[20:27] Speaker 5: take care of you.
[20:28] Speaker 3: So now you're gaining popularity.
[20:30] Speaker 4: You know, I'm sure you can tour by yourself, filling
[20:34] Speaker 4: up comedy clubs and still become being a powerful ambacheldor
[20:42] Speaker 4: or advocate for people with sickle cell. Because you have
[20:44] Speaker 4: sickle cell? How did you become an ambassador for Indari?
[20:49] Speaker 4: And what is in Dorry? First of all?
[20:51] Speaker 2: And dirry is a medication.
[20:53] Speaker 5: It's a powder that I take every morning and it's like, uh,
[20:58] Speaker 5: giving you a boost of art to feeling normal. H
[21:03] Speaker 5: you know I have I have not had the issues
[21:07] Speaker 5: I have with my sickle cell because of in Dari.
[21:10] Speaker 5: I just lived my life. Now now I feel like
[21:12] Speaker 5: I really have a shot at just feeling normal, right,
[21:17] Speaker 5: you know, because I do have the chronic pains, the
[21:20] Speaker 5: chronic fatigue.
[21:21] Speaker 2: I do have that.
[21:22] Speaker 5: I struggle that and I keep a heavy schedule. But
[21:24] Speaker 5: in Dari will give you a boost to feeling like,
[21:27] Speaker 5: hey man, he's you feel normal.
[21:30] Speaker 2: You feel like this is.
[21:31] Speaker 5: This what normal people walk around feel like all the time,
[21:34] Speaker 5: Like you just got to the party.
[21:36] Speaker 2: That's when I darted.
[21:37] Speaker 5: So I had met doctor Abart. He came on the
[21:41] Speaker 5: morning show to promote in Dark and he said, hey man,
[21:44] Speaker 5: I want to get you on this drug, and I
[21:46] Speaker 5: did so. Then after that they saw the benefit for
[21:50] Speaker 5: me having sickle cell, being on the platform that I have,
[21:53] Speaker 5: and then they say, hey man, we want to get
[21:56] Speaker 5: this drug out here and we want to help other
[21:58] Speaker 5: people like you have the success that you're having on
[22:02] Speaker 5: the drug. I said, I would love to, and it
[22:07] Speaker 5: growing to a really great business deal for both sides
[22:11] Speaker 5: to actually change the world in what we're doing. And
[22:16] Speaker 5: I didn't want to take the deal because you're gonna
[22:20] Speaker 5: pay me some money to just say all taken Dark. No, No,
[22:24] Speaker 5: I didn't want that. What I wanted them to do
[22:27] Speaker 5: was if I do this, then you have to commit
[22:29] Speaker 5: to giving me this.
[22:30] Speaker 2: You have to give me y'all.
[22:33] Speaker 5: As a business to help me, help y'all get this
[22:36] Speaker 5: out here, because we have to go out here as
[22:38] Speaker 5: a unit. And they believed in it. They believe in
[22:42] Speaker 5: their drug. And doctor Nahara said, Yes. I love his passion,
[22:47] Speaker 5: I love his testimony. I love the way he talks
[22:51] Speaker 5: about it. I love the way he represents the success.
[22:54] Speaker 5: I love the way he talks about how he wants
[22:56] Speaker 5: to succeed and how he wanted to bring others along.
[22:59] Speaker 5: That's what made the deal good for us, right, and
[23:02] Speaker 5: then so we started living your life. So when I
[23:05] Speaker 5: started doing living your life, that became because they sickle
[23:10] Speaker 5: cell community didn't have that.
[23:12] Speaker 2: There's no way. See.
[23:14] Speaker 5: I started thinking about when I'm no longer here, can
[23:17] Speaker 5: a kid with sickle cell turn this own look at
[23:20] Speaker 5: it and they have a road map to success for
[23:23] Speaker 5: their own life. That's what I was thinking when I
[23:26] Speaker 5: started living your life.
[23:27] Speaker 4: Junior here, Junior space here, Space straight out of Houston, Texas,
[23:33] Speaker 4: Traveler of the World, based in Atlanta, Georgia, going on
[23:36] Speaker 4: one year married to.
[23:38] Speaker 3: Your beautiful wife, living the life, living your life. I've
[23:41] Speaker 3: lived my life living your life.
[23:44] Speaker 4: But more important, I just wanted to down man, and
[23:46] Speaker 4: I felt that your story is motivational, and I wanted
[23:48] Speaker 4: to share with my money making Conversations master Class audience
[23:52] Speaker 4: because a story has been told that when people tell.
[23:56] Speaker 3: You you're not supposed to do it, don't do it.
[23:58] Speaker 4: You've been told all of your life not supposed to
[24:00] Speaker 4: do that, and you've been doing it and you've been very.
[24:02] Speaker 3: Successful and you continue. So it's the future.
[24:05] Speaker 4: I got the Award Show, I got the Steve Hard
[24:07] Speaker 4: Morning Show, I got is it acting?
[24:10] Speaker 2: Yeah?
[24:11] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, man, you know, like you know, I'm in
[24:14] Speaker 5: the process beyond switch. I'm in the process of planning
[24:18] Speaker 5: my comedy special.
[24:19] Speaker 2: Uh same time.
[24:21] Speaker 5: Yes, I want my own sitcom because I want to.
[24:25] Speaker 5: I want to showcase that part.
[24:27] Speaker 3: You look like you're twenty two. I'm just telling you're
[24:29] Speaker 3: younger looking. Do you can throw out that for it
[24:30] Speaker 3: if you want to. But you're a young looking dude.
[24:33] Speaker 2: Man, I ain't be good to you.
[24:36] Speaker 4: Sickle Seal will be good to you, okay.
[24:39] Speaker 2: Man, God, I've been way better. Man. Yeah, man, I
[24:44] Speaker 2: want to. I want to do allose things, man, Like
[24:45] Speaker 2: you know, I'm in the process right the sitcom, man.
[24:49] Speaker 5: I have so many aspirations on that endeavor, you know,
[24:53] Speaker 5: And you know I really want to show people with
[24:57] Speaker 5: single cells say hey, man, you can be successful as
[25:00] Speaker 5: I am, not maybe in my field, but in whatever
[25:03] Speaker 5: fill you in and that's the goal.
[25:07] Speaker 2: That's what we're reaching for.
[25:08] Speaker 5: We'm driving for and ma'amo tells some man until there's
[25:11] Speaker 5: no more breadth than my bike, I have done everything
[25:14] Speaker 5: that I said I was going to do.
[25:16] Speaker 3: Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation Magical Class.
[25:18] Speaker 2: And man, thank you for having me. Matt, I appreciate
[25:19] Speaker 2: your brother.
[25:23] Speaker 6: Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
[25:26] Speaker 6: Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
[25:32] Speaker 6: McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More
[25:35] Speaker 6: information about thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. Is available at
[25:39] Speaker 6: thirty eight to fifteen media dot com. And always remember
[25:43] Speaker 6: to lead with your gifts.

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