From Abuse to Wealth: Shawn Meaike's Journey to Success | Digital Social Hour #28

when they asked me, like, is it loaded?

I was like, who the carries an unloaded gun?

Of course it's loaded.

I'm going to throw it at you.

Sean, the most expensive thing you'll ever have is your ego.

You f ⁇ ing suck.

I will hit both of you.

All right, I'm Sean Mike Kelly, along with Sean Mike and Charlie Cavalier on the digital social hour podcast.

How are we doing, guys?

Doing great, man.

This is meant to be.

This is totally meant to be.

Yeah, I got to ask about the shirt, man.

I mean, explain what's going on here.

So I

started doing some stuff on social media, and this guy I was talking to said, what are you going to like?

What's the whole concept, the whole brand deal?

And I started telling about my story and what I want.

And I said, well, I had these ideas, humble and hungry, and this other stuff.

And he looked at me and said, that's really fucking stupid.

Like, that makes no sense.

And I said, all right.

What would you call it?

He goes, if I had your story, I'd call it Punch Me in the Face.

He said, everything you you talk about is getting punched in the face, getting back up, living your life.

And the thing for me is, Sean, my entire life, and a lot of people, the funny thing about people is a lot of them will tell stories that aren't true.

I think that's weird.

Like, if I tell you something happened, it happened.

If it didn't happen to me, I'm going to tell you it didn't happen to me.

So a lot of these guys, they go like, well, this happened to me when I got 27 stitches on my face and I sold drugs.

No, you didn't.

You didn't sell drugs and you didn't get fucked up.

You're just lying.

So for me, that's kind of been the mantra, if you will.

Like, you know, I see a lot of folks that live their lives avoiding being knocked down, whatever it is, whether it's doing what you're doing, the things you decided to do, business, personal, parenting.

They just try to avoid it.

So for me, it's like, dude, it's going to happen anyway.

You know, so go ahead and run into it.

Do what you got to do.

I mean, they write all these books about it.

Like, I don't need to read a book to say, eat that frog or do this thing or do that thing.

I mean, find the things in life you're afraid of and deal with them.

So you go to the chocolate, head-on.

Hell yeah.

Every minute of every day.

Because I think people say everybody can't do that.

I think everybody has that capacity.

Because the first time you get hit, it sucks.

Like, if he punches me in the face,

I'm going to punch him back, but it's going to hurt.

Especially if he clocks me clear in the mouth.

My nose might bleed.

My eyes will probably tear up.

And you're like, I didn't die.

Like, so who cares?

So that was, that's been my concept.

So a lot of the stuff I've done business-wise has just been that and trying to empower other people to do the exact same thing.

I didn't have any kind of skill set.

And I didn't think I did.

I just wasn't afraid.

Whether it's a skill set or not, I'm not genuinely.

I'm afraid of God.

Okay.

You know, but that's it, man.

That's it.

That's it.

Not your wife?

I ain't married, dude.

So if I was married, I bet I'd be afraid of my wife.

So not afraid of my wife.

My daughter, when she's growing up, telling me stuff.

Girls, yeah, but no, I'm not afraid of anything, dude.

And

it's not about being the biggest and bad.

I mean, like, we were joking.

Like, this dude comes in and wants to fight.

He's a boxer.

Of course he's going to knock me out.

You know, I was like 16 years old.

Now I'm old compared to y'all.

So we had rotary phones.

It'll screw you up.

And they like pulled out of the wall.

And this dude called where I was at.

And he was like, if you don't do this, I'm going to come over and I'm going to fuck everybody up and I'm like bro you have no idea who you're talking to come on over my buddy's like do you know who that was and I was like no idea he goes he's legitimately a really good boxer he's gonna beat the shit out of you and I'm like dude no he's not well he came over and he proceeded to beat the living shit out of me hit me 27 times before I hit him like twice and we ended up becoming really good friends but it was funny because I said dude at the end of the day you have to go to sleep at night I was on this podcast the guy said to me you're in a bar and somebody walks by and slaps your girl in the ass what do you do I said I fuck him up he goes well there's consequences I said well wait a minute the gravest consequence I had had to put my head down on my pillow at night, look at her, and no, I wouldn't stand up for her.

Shit, I'd rather be dead.

Wow.

What's the worst thing that can happen?

I get arrested?

No, he's probably going to die.

I'm probably not going to go to jail.

And what if I harm the guy and he sues me?

Okay, but he slapped her ass.

He committed a crime.

So I guess for me, it's just, I want to be able to sleep at night, live with myself, and I want to know that I gave this life everything I had.

I feel that.

I'd love to dive into your story.

Where do you want to start with?

I mean, anywhere, dude.

I mean, I was,

you know, my parents split when I was young, and I was exposed to a lot of shit growing up, a lot of substance abuse, a lot of violence.

I've been sober myself 22 years.

Nice.

I loved to drink.

I loved to use Coke.

I loved to smoke crack.

Guys said me the other day.

He goes, is this like smoking crack?

I'm like, it's a honey bun, dude.

It's nothing like smoking crack.

Crack is like the best 15 minutes of your life followed by the worst 27 minutes of your life.

Then you repeat.

You just continue to do it.

So,

you know, I grew up just seeing a bunch of crap.

Man, my parents spoke when I was young.

My mom worked her ass off three jobs.

I got a little brother.

And I just watched her struggle our entire lives.

We moved place to place, apartment to apartment.

I couldn't believe that people had like houses and cars, like the craziest thing in the world.

And my mother, when I was probably 11, got a real estate license.

And it was like that, Sean, like she was excited.

I was excited for her.

If you're the oldest and you have a single parent, you're very parentified, right?

So I looked out for my mom.

And I remember all the people in the apartment complex, we had some really stupid neighbors that were like, Carrie, if it was that easy, everybody would do it.

You know, like just really dogged her.

Right.

And eventually, she gave up on it.

And then she went back to her three jobs.

She, you know, I played baseball, football, basketball growing up.

She never went to him.

She was working.

Like, she worked.

Like, I'm very proud of my mom, what she's done.

So, I, um, when I was 17, I graduated high school, and I wanted to go to the Marines.

So, I went out to my ASFAB test deal.

My mom's like, you're not going to the military, you're going to college.

And I said, I don't want to go to college.

And she's like, you have to.

And back then, we were afraid of our parents because they beat the living shit out of us.

You know, my mother would, oh, dude, my mom would go to kick me.

I'd move, she'd break, she'd break her toe.

She'd throw stuff at me accidentally, stick it in.

Like, it was just, it was a, she was just trying to survive with two kids.

She was an amazing mother, is an amazing mother.

She's still alive.

And she said, you're going to go to college.

So I was like, buddy, mine was going to college, play baseball.

He's like, hey, you should go too.

And I'm thinking, you only want me to go because if I go, they'll fucking recruit you, too, because you ain't that good.

So I went a couple of years, played some ball, then transferred to four-year school, was a business major for like six months, and then realized that people teaching me didn't know anything.

So I became a social work major.

Right.

Because they at least were in the business, like they were doing it.

And then I went to the police academy,

which I never wanted to do.

My buddy Mike was like, we should go.

And I'm like, I went, he went, he didn't get in.

I got in.

I'm like, I don't even want to go.

And after about three, four months, it was not a good fit for me, dude.

I would like go out on,

like, before you were actually out of the academy with your FTO, your field training officer.

And there was a guy.

We went to a domestic violence call.

And I was all excited because it was like, this is our first real thing.

And the dude that came running out of the door, I thought was the perpetrator.

So I like tackled him, but he he ended up being one of the victims.

He was the brother of the woman that was being beaten.

So the guy was like, eventually, this is probably not a good fit for you.

So I went and worked for 14 years working with abused, neglected children in the state of Connecticut.

So kids that were sexually assaulted, physically assaulted, homicides.

It was a very tough but rewarding job.

Most people in social work have their own shit and they want to fix it.

So they go into social work.

That wasn't unlike them.

So did that 14 years, dude.

And I just was having a hard time paying my own bills.

And I had two amazing kids.

I was like, dude, I can't really afford to support them and do the things I'm supposed to do.

So I got my real estate license and did that about seven years.

08, the market crashed.

Then I found life insurance.

And I started making money I never thought I could make.

And now my thing, Sean, honestly, is I want to, I want people to believe in themselves.

You know what I mean?

Like,

I'm crazy, legitimately humble.

Like, when you're like, hey, I'd like you to come on here.

I'm like, why is Dude wanting me to come on here?

Like, I'll do it, but like, he's pretty big and I'm not.

Why would he he want me to come on?

But I'm like, I'm definitely going to say yes and check it out.

Um, you know, so I've been now I have multiple businesses.

I do a ton of real estate, own tons of properties, um, a lot of commercial stuff, um,

you know,

socks, you know, you name it, we do it, but majority of what I've done is insurance.

And I built a pretty good-sized company, was able to sell it for quite a bit of money, which was mind-boggling to me as well.

And then I was able to get a bunch of people I work with to do the exact same thing.

Like, hey, build it up.

These guys will acquire it, and here's what you get paid.

So, that's probably the most exciting thing for me.

The money is just like, it's money, but watching other people change our lives.

So, that's, that's broad stroke is probably my story, but it's been one hell of a ride.

I've learned a lot along the way.

It's an incredible story.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

It's crazy.

And, you know,

why does a healthy 33-year-old such as myself need life insurance?

Because I feel like it's an afterthought until people feel their mortality, and then it's a scramble to find a policy to figure out what the situation is for them.

You know, the the thing I loved about life insurance when I got into it,

because

where I've always lived is middle American market for life insurance.

So when I got my license, guys were like, why don't you go work with these companies?

I'm like, because there's only so many really wealthy people, and then all the agents wanted to sell to them.

Why wouldn't I go to the middle American market where there were more clients and less agents?

Like if I get to make a layup, I'll make a layup.

Why shoot from half court?

So I started doing it.

I really fell in love with it.

And what I realized was, you know, my first death claim, okay, I've been doing this about three months, you know, going out there calling people up.

Hey, how you doing, Sean?

You feel this thing?

I come out of your house.

I go knock on this lady's door.

They never answer the phone.

I knock on her door.

Her name is Lisa.

I remember because it's my ex-wife's name.

It's very easy to remember.

So Lisa, right?

So I was like, hey, Lisa, you filled this form out.

She was 34 or 35.

She said, I did, but I'm dying of pancreatic cancer.

I have like three months to live.

Can you help me?

And I was like, no, I can't.

I mean, no, they don't sell life insurance where if you die in three months, they pay you.

I'm not going to lie to you.

I couldn't help you.

Her husband comes around the corner, big old boy with like a ponytail down the middle of his back.

He had like one of those motorcycle cuts.

He's a motorcycle guy, you know, and he starts screaming at me.

And he's like, get the fuck out of my house.

And I'm like, not even in your house.

And he's like, don't be a wise ass.

And I'm like, I'm going to have to kick this guy's ass.

I'm going to lose my insurance license.

So she's like, calm down.

He's a really good guy.

Tell about me.

And she goes, Come on in.

He's like, I'm waiting for work.

I don't have time for this.

And I said, listen, if you don't mind me asking, do you have life insurance?

And he starts yelling at me again.

He's 36.

Anyway, I get him a policy after we go back and forth.

Two days later, he's on the way to work.

And a deer runs out in front of his motorcycle.

Middle of the day, he dumps motorcycle, hits his head, he dies.

Boom.

Wow.

He dies, and I got him a $250,000 policy that he made one payment on.

Like 70 bucks came out of his account the day after I met with him, and his wife got a quarter million dollars.

She then died a few months later for cancer, and those two kids had only his $250,000.

Wow.

And that's when I was like, you know what, dude?

Nobody knows when they're going to die.

And life insurance is great to get when you're young and healthy because it's actuarial science.

So why would you want to wait until you get to a certain age?

But that's a struggle for a lot of people.

And you know, the problem is like wealthy wealthy people, dude, they get, they do this stuff like at birth.

Like they all understand how to do it.

And that was always my argument.

Why don't you deserve?

Like if I leave any community and drive five miles to the Gator community, why do they deserve more than your kids do?

Right.

Well, they can afford it.

No, you can afford it too.

It just means two less trips to Chili's, bro.

You know what I mean?

Like or a game that you can't afford to go to.

Right.

I mean, if you have to go to a professional sporting event, and it's like going to set you back six months, watch it on TV.

It won't even matter at the end of the day.

You say we, We, like, you're on the team, that's weird because it's not you on the team, it's they on the team.

And, like, just educating people on the sacrifice they have to make.

So, everybody has to have it.

It's just hard to get people to understand because they can't see mortality.

Now, COVID changed life insurance completely.

Life insurance industries, I mean, it exploded during COVID because you couldn't turn TV on without hearing about your own mortality and your death.

So, everybody was freaking out.

And actually, it was one of the things in this, I know people get weird about this, but one of the things that hit me about COVID was

for me, if it was so early on, I'm like, dude, if it's so bad, why are they still issuing the policies?

And like, why are they okay if you have had COVID or have COVID?

So I was like, wait a minute, like, I don't know a lot about it, you know, and then I, you know, for me, I'm, I'm a big believer in my immune system, always have been, so I'm like, I'm going out and do what I got to do.

But

everybody seemed to be calling that never, I had people that I met with that would never do it.

And they're like, hey, can I, can I get, I'm like, well, what happened?

COVID.

So everybody needs it, dude.

And we got to do a better job because you understand the majority of foreclosures, and when I was in real estate, this is always the number happened because of a death and disability of one of the mortgagers right and then you get leave that family in a terrible if my mom had died while me and my brother were younger what would we have done right if if i didn't have life insurance and god forbid i died yesterday what would happen right my for my you know my loved ones my beneficiary so it's a very emotional thing it was like social work but you got paid a lot more yeah so that's why for me when people are like are you uncomfortable going to people's house i'm dude i've been going to people's houses my whole life i got my i was in social work at 21.

my first appointment a a lady's like, she said, who the fuck are you?

I said, I'm your social worker.

She said, boy, I have underwear older than you.

And I said, I don't know how to respond to that.

They didn't teach me that in social work school.

And I don't want to see your 21-year-old underwear either.

So, but, but I just was like, hey, I don't know anything about raising kids.

I said, I don't know anything about being a parent, but I will be honest with you.

I'll be direct.

I won't BS you.

And if you're looking out for your kids, I'm on your side.

If you're doing anything to hurt your kids, I'll be opposing you.

And I'm a good friend and a terrible enemy.

And that's what I did with my clients.

Wow.

And if they were great, I was like, dude, I got your back.

I had clients that they would come back.

I had a kid one day.

Kid's face was swollen.

I was like, yeah, beaten.

And I knew the family really well.

And I was like, dude, they didn't do this to the kid.

And the doctor was like, yep, they 100% did.

I'm like, because they're poor, because you haven't even done anything yet.

Like, I know where they live, too.

You just think they did this.

They were poor.

When the swelling went down, it was a bite mark from a neighborhood kid.

Wow.

Little kid was hanging out with that kid and bit the kid and they had a reaction.

Wow.

Yeah.

Doctor would never apologize.

But like, it was stuff like, I'm on your side.

If I see you doing the right things, but again, you ain't doing the right things, dude.

I got no problem going like, your kids have to come with me.

They're going to be raised in foster care because you can't raise them.

Wow.

You know, and that's why I always like that whole bad kid thing.

Dude, there ain't no bad kids.

Just bad parents.

Right.

You know, adults are adults, but you're five and seven.

You off the wall because your parents suck.

You weren't born that way.

God didn't say bad kids.

He gave them bad parents.

So I loved what I did all those years and I took it into life insurance.

And I wish everybody had it because the hardest part for me is the people that call us when something's already happened or they're really sick.

And they, you know, once you get sick, actuarial science is very punitive.

It doesn't tend to want to give you an insurance policy.

So you've had massive success and you're super humble.

How do you fight your ego?

I mean, that's a problem I feel like a lot of guys struggle with.

Dude, I'm going to tell you, I mean, you know, I had a guy when I was probably 23 years old in real estate and he said to me, Sean, the most expensive thing you'll ever have is your ego.

And he said, and you have to make a decision.

I'll never forget this.

He said, and I'm big on being mentored.

So if you're good at something, I'm all yours.

Like you start talking about what you've done, build your brand, and what you're doing here on social media, I'm all yours.

Like, you talk about it for an hour, I'll listen.

You talk about it for 12 hours, I'm listening.

If you don't know what you're talking about, I'm not going to listen to anything you say.

And he said to me, You can't have a big ego in a big business.

He said, You can't.

And you're going to find yourself at times thinking you're better than you are.

You're never as good or as bad as you think you are.

And again, humility, man.

I mean, I played ball, and I was a really angry kid.

I was a terrible teammate.

I mean, I was good, but I was a terrible teammate because that was my time to shine and say, Look at me.

Like, I have no attention look how awesome I am and it's just I'm embarrassed by it you know so I think as a coach I've been a lot better as an adult and I see people every day Sean in business and you watch them you're like dude they're gonna lose this thing because it's all about them and would you want to be in business with somebody where it was all about you You know, like somebody asked me the other day, and again, I don't, like, I'm able to talk about everything.

Y'all don't care about anything.

And this guy's like, what do you think about Trump getting arrested?

I was like, dude, what do I care?

What's that shit got to do with me?

And he said, you think some of the Republicans are hoping that he gets arrested?

And I said, Dude, he got beat by Biden.

And I said, I'm not his campaign manager, but we is better than I.

And once you start going, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, people stop listening to you.

It's we, it's us.

You know, and as I think good leaders say when they fail, that when the company fails, it's my fault.

When we win, it's because y'all are great.

Right.

That's how good coaches are.

You know, I've coached a lot of teams, baseball, basketball, football, won a lot of games, but it's like because we had good players, you know, so I just, I, I don't have that.

I'll be honest with you, I think, and also I wasn't raised that way.

You know,

I never forget where I came from ever.

And I don't hide from it.

Like, it is what it is.

You know, people like, and I always like when people think they're so smart.

Like, it's like, you know, a guy the other day posted something about John Morant having a gun.

And the guy was like, well, didn't you get arrested going through the airport with a gun?

I'm like, yeah, dumbass.

Like, you can read like everybody else.

Of course I did.

I forgot I had a gun on me left in my bag, and they'll tend to arrest you for that.

It wasn't intentional.

I wasn't trying to sneak it through security.

I'm not stupid.

You know, when they asked me, like, is it loaded?

I was like, who the hell carries an unloaded gun?

Of course it's loaded.

I'm going to throw it at you.

But I think I'd rather just be who I am and live in it.

And I've met any time in my life I've deviated from that, and I have, it's been awful.

It's been awful.

And I don't want to live that way.

I just want to be who I am, free of judgment and humble as shit, man.

Yes, you had humble beginnings, but now your kids are going to grow into a life of wealth.

Yeah.

How do you plan on managing that?

Dude, that's a great, great question.

It's a struggle, to be honest with you, bro.

You know, I was doing this thing with Damon Johnson at an event we had, and then he did a podcast, and he was like, first generation makes it, the second enjoys it, the third destroys it.

And I was like, that's really deep.

I like that.

I've worked really, really hard to,

first of all, my kids don't have anything.

You know, that whole Shaquille O'Neal thing, dude, my kids ain't got nothing either.

You know, they're not rich.

They got $140 in their Venmo accounts.

Now, while they're in school, they get stuff paid for, but they're crazy, crazy cool cool doing their own thing.

And I like that about them.

You know, my son, like, he won't buy nothing.

He's like, dude, I make my own.

This is my life.

You have your life.

I have my life.

Like, I get it.

I'm going to make my way on my own.

And I believe them.

Like, I have no, and I like that a lot.

So it means I must have done something okay along the way.

And also, you never treat people differently regardless of who they are, where they're from.

And that was a big part for me.

Most of my friends and the people I was comfortable with hanging out with, they didn't live where I could afford to live.

And I also wanted my kids, when I was in real estate and my kids were eight and six, I wanted them to go with me.

I wanted them to see the way they're, I wanted to, I wanted them, I don't care if they were eight and six years old in their pajamas, nine o'clock at night, collecting around.

I'm like, let's go.

So they were in a lot of different places, met a lot of different people, saw me talk to people from all kinds of backgrounds.

Didn't matter what they said, what they looked like, where they lived.

And I really, that was important to me.

But it's definitely been a struggle when you know you're like, dude, you know you can say yes to these things.

And you don't ever want to, because I've never really thought about that growing up.

How would I ever have thought about it?

Because I mean, seven, eight years ago, when my son wanted to go to private school to play ball, you're good ball player.

I was like, dude, private school is dumb because I didn't have the money.

Right.

I was just, you know, so this is a newer thing for me.

And also, they were older in life.

You know, I mean, they're 21 and 19 now.

So it's, um,

but it's, it's been a struggle, dude.

I found a lot of people that I trusted, you know, mentorship.

I found some people and I was like, that guy's kids got their shit together and he's really wealthy.

So I'm like, hey, what did you do?

And that's the thing I found about mentors, dude, they actually kind of like being mentors.

So if you can ingratiate yourself to them and ask really good questions and shut your mouth and then bring something to the table, but know that they know more than you, I mean, who doesn't want to know that, feel like, hey, I know some stuff this guy wants to know as well.

So I found people that have been through it.

And I was like, hey, man, how'd you do that?

And I had a guy one day tell me, he said, Sean, they're eventually going to have to learn to live their lives without you.

And I was like, okay.

He's like, so not just, and forget about financially, even talking to them as much as we do sometimes.

And I was like, I never really thought about that.

He's like, dude, they're going to, so for parents to go, I talk to my kids every day, they're 21 and 23.

Well, dude, they're going to have to live without you one day.

And if every single day they're talking to you two, three times a day, doesn't that make it a lot harder for them to live their lives?

And eventually they get spouses.

And you like, so I found people I trusted that I thought would speak into my life and be honest with me.

And because Sean, you're right.

It's just, I never thought I'd be dealing with it.

And I watched people get really bad at it, you know,

and just be respectful.

and also their faith man I mean be respectful I mean if if you know and I use that a lot I mean I don't preach to anybody I love everybody for what they believe and don't believe I got no problem with any of that I just you know you know if if Jesus watched some feet man they can be humble and respectful to everybody and I think the last thing I'll say on that is dude we're all fine line you could have went out last night do you drink We actually quit drinking, but I cheated and had a beer last night.

Okay.

But when you were drinking.

Yeah.

Okay.

You could have been drinking after a couple drinks.

You're driving after a couple drinks.

Dude, the smallest thing could have happened.

You could hit a car and an eight-month-old kid could die.

You didn't mean it.

You had a drink or two or three or four.

Maybe you're legally drunk.

You looked at your phone.

Maybe they swerved.

And all of a sudden, your whole life changes.

Now, all of a sudden, you're a convicted felon.

And dude, it's that quick.

I could be out in a parking lot with your professional boxer.

Somebody could say something to him.

He could lose his mind.

He could drill them.

They could fall and and hit their head and die.

I mean, dude, stuff like this, it's not, it's a very slippery slope.

You can gamble too much and like it too much.

So I always try to explain to them that there's a very fine line between where you are today and where you could be.

And if you don't respect it, you'll end up on the wrong side of that.

And I think I'm always crazy.

We were in Dallas yesterday, and I saw this guy out sitting out front.

I can't say what his sign said because he was homeless and he was trying to get some money because it was really over the top, but it was kind of funny.

And I said, give me one thing you've learned living on the streets.

And he says, stay out of people's way.

And I was like, I wish I had more people I work with knew that.

You know what I mean?

Like, just stay out of the way sometimes.

So I think I always try to

show my kids and everybody else around me that, like, dude, don't get too full of yourself.

You will get knocked down in a minute.

And you see it happen to people all the time, dude.

All the time.

And it's something that isn't happening enough, right?

I feel like society as a whole has moved towards this era where you're not held accountable for the things you say.

It used to be, you know, I'm 33, even 15, 20 years ago, when you met another grown-ass man, there was a certain level of respect because if I pop off and say some stupid shit, you're going to punch me in the face.

100%.

And nowadays, right, that's completely taboo.

You're the devil.

You're horrible for doing that.

How did we as a society go from, you know,

really fascinating over movies like Red Dawn to now getting in this spot where you're going to become TikTok infamous for

keeping somebody accountable and punching them in the face when they deserve it?

Well,

and a lot of it for me, think about the culture in general, right?

Like, you do a lot of Jersey's athletes, right?

Think about, I had Zay Jones on a podcast recently.

Zay plays for the Jaguars.

He was with the Raiders.

And I was like, explain to me your time in Buffalo.

And he's a super nice young man, like crazy nice.

And he's like, well, he's going through it, and it was tough.

And he was very upfront about everything, which I love.

I was like, dude, whatever you want to share, share, don't.

He's like, I had a really tough time.

I was very depressed.

And I was like, why?

He's like, with the way people treated me.

And I was like, that's weird because Buffalo sucks.

They never win.

Like, who the fuck are they to say anything?

Like, they haven't won ever.

So they should shut up always.

And I'd be in the grocery store and people would get in my face.

Wow.

And I'm like, but as a society, and this is the thing that we have to understand, why are athletes, because they're held to a much higher moral ground.

Dana White can beat the shit out of his wife.

But if an athlete at the UFC did it, he or she would probably not be in that sport right now.

And again, if you go, well, Dana's white's wife hit him first and that's why, well, then you're a punk ass bitch because you don't hit women ever.

If they punch you, listen, they punch you in the face nine, 10, 12 times, you walk away, run away, put a helmet on, right?

Why are they treated differently?

Why is John Morant holding a pick?

I mean, dude, like, let's all slow down.

I mean, he had a gun in his hand, but all of a sudden, he's like the worst person that's ever walked to face the earth, right?

And is that, is it racial?

Because I don't know.

And I'm being serious.

Like, because all of a sudden, is it economic?

Like, why are they treated differently?

And why do you think that you can go to a game?

Because if I'm walking into my office and you both come up and go, you fucking suck.

I will hit both of you.

And if you hit me back, fine, but I will hit both of you.

But you're walking out of the arena at a sporting event.

You're able to come and get in the guy's face.

You can scream whatever you want.

And if he reacts, he's the worst person ever.

And I think as a society, we've adopted it.

Now,

me, honestly, I think it's as simple as this.

A lot of the people that make the rules, well, first of all, they've never been punched in the face.

They don't have to worry about punching the face.

And to your point, the generation, that ain't a lot of first-generation money.

It's second, third, fourth, fifth.

It's a lot of old, old ass, I've been in charge for a long time kind of deal.

And because in the end, why would it ever be okay for you to treat somebody that poorly?

And if there's no consequence for your action, why would people not do it?

Like, you know, they go like, what happened with the banking system?

Dude, they weren't being regulated.

This isn't complicated.

I mean, my guess is you're both pretty smart.

You appear to be pretty smart.

I've heard you, so I know you're smart as shit.

The banking rules are, dude, they're not written to fail.

They just have to be enforced.

But if you know they're not enforcing them, I was in the police academy and they said, you pull a car over, they have $100,000 in cash and a brick of cocaine.

2 o'clock in the morning.

What do you do?

I said, what do you mean, what do I do?

They said, well, what would you do with the money?

I said, well, what are my options?

I said, wait a minute, I make $31,000 a year as an officer.

$100,000 tax-free.

Nobody's going to tell on me.

I would think about stealing it.

And the guy that ran the choir said, I'm not saying I would, but please understand, we all make 30 grand a year.

That's like five times our salary because there's no money on it.

We would think about that.

And if there's no consequence, we would definitely think about it.

Like, nobody's looking.

Drug dealer's not going to tell on us.

Who cares?

So I think we've set this system up where there's literally zero consequence.

And the only consequence is for the person that acts up.

And somehow being, and somehow being direct, alpha is wrong.

And that ain't never wrong.

So I'm just never, that's never wrong to me.

You know what I mean?

I think you treat people right, you be respectful.

You don't ever bother anybody that's weaker than you in any capacity.

But you stand up for yourself and for other people.

And I think we've, and I don't know, I don't think most people, I think most people agree with us.

I do.

I just think a lot of the powers to be don't.

So that's the voice.

And for me, it's like, dude, I'm just going to have to live with my own decisions on a daily basis.

You know, I'm smart about what I do.

I'm not worried about a lot of stuff people are worried about because I don't, life's pretty simple to me.

We're all human beings.

I I don't care where you came from, what you look like.

It doesn't genuinely matter to me.

It never has.

Color of your skin, ethnicity, gender, none of that shit matters.

Are you a good person?

You treat people right.

If you are, great.

But it's kind of a scary place to be because talk about your kids.

How do you raise them?

Can they stand up for themselves?

Are they not supposed to?

What do you do?

I mean, I'll be straight up.

It's one of the reasons I moved to Florida.

Yeah, the weather's nice.

It's also a stand-up ground state.

Right.

I mean, I carry guns.

I don't have one here.

I'm in California, but I'm just saying, like, I do.

And,

you know, I just, I don't want to hurt anybody.

I have no intention to want to harm anybody, dude.

I want to live my life.

But I also don't want to allow anybody to hurt people that are important to me.

And I think part of that, when you look at certain states and their regulations and rules, you're like, why aren't those things happening?

If in Florida somebody laid down homeless at the door of my office,

they'd be gone.

Really?

100%.

There was a homeless guy out here.

I know.

I walked over him.

I didn't bump into him.

He's still there.

Oh, he's there, bro.

He's crashed out.

He's out cold.

He's just out.

But that doesn't happen where we live.

Like, and I don't pretend to know all the laws and all the things I do.

When they were having all these riots, there was a couple new laws that are like, hey, if you are breaking into a business and you're defending your business, you can use a certain level of force.

I was like, for the business?

Like, yeah, even if it's your property.

Or if somebody tries to block your way as you're coming down the road, you're able to continue to go.

Like, you have the right to do it.

They can't go around and sue you and go, I stood in the middle of the road and you bumped into me.

So there's, and guess what?

People just didn't do it.

So I think we have to, and I guess what bothers me is the folks that say they don't want there to be any accountability, their first ones to dial 9-1-1.

I mean, I was at California.

I was at a 49ers Rams game.

Fight breaks out.

Pretty good fight.

I mean, they're not really good at fighting, but they were having that.

I was impressed with them.

It was like four on four, and they were like wailing on each other.

And my buddy is like, what are we going to do?

I was like, dude, it's four guys and four guys.

We're going to do nothing unless like there's a kid or a woman gets involved.

Well, this nice woman comes over and she's like a teacher, tells us that's like, guys, break it up.

Yeah, and I'm like, oh, God.

So we get up, and I don't, like, I just, we we just break it up.

Like, I grab a couple guys, put my guy, my buddy's bigger than me.

He grabs a couple dudes.

Like, we don't, I'm not trying to buy no bunny.

No.

Cop comes up about an hour later.

And I said,

hey, man, you like an hour late?

He said, straight up, I ain't get involved in that stuff.

Cameras, I have nothing to gain.

Something happens, somebody gets hurt.

I like have no win in that situation.

None.

Like, no matter what, I'm vilified.

And I'm like, that's a dangerous place for us to live.

Wow.

The people that are are responding are like, wait a minute, I got to worry about me too.

You got to worry about you.

There's certain things you're not going to say.

You're like, dude, I like my podcast.

I do really well.

You're probably a really good dude anyway, but you're like, there's certain things I'm just not going to say.

The people that are enforcing the laws are scared about what's going to happen with everybody videoing and what they're going to say about it and what they did.

That's dangerous.

It is.

Because we need them.

Yeah, I remember when I lived in Cali, a state farm across the street got broken into.

He called the cops, took them hours to come, and then they wouldn't even arrest the guy.

It was like a homeless guy, and he said, just let him be.

We were in, it was California a couple weeks ago and a guy hit us, just

smoked us, kept going, hit another car, and his car is destroyed, pulled up the highway.

Finally, they come for takes forever.

And they're like, well, we probably won't find him.

I'm like, he's, he's the Volvo with the bumper hanging.

Like, it's all over.

And there's video cameras everywhere.

And I'm like, if that was your family, if we were your family, what would you have done?

But part of the thing, they're just exhausted.

Because you get to a point, if you're a parent, right?

Like when I was a social worker, I would tell my managers, you guys are telling these guys they can't parent.

At some point in time, they're just going to give up.

Like they would go, Sean, he assaulted his son.

I'm like, well, his son's eight.

He smacked him on the ass.

He's got a handprint.

He was disciplining him.

The kid did these three things wrong.

He explained it.

I don't know that he assaulted him.

But then they had a state law that said, if you leave a mark in any course of discipline in the state of Connecticut,

it's a crime.

Wow.

So now, like, I'm going there going, like, what do you want me to tell them to do?

Because I was physically disciplined and that shit worked.

Yeah.

I didn't do it again.

You learned your lesson.

I learned my lesson.

Yeah.

You know, my kids knew.

I want to ask you about that because my dad got the shit beat out of him.

I'm sure his dad did the same.

My dad never laid a hand on me.

That's pretty cool.

What are your thoughts on with your kids and moving forward?

You know, man, I'm not a fan of learned behavior.

Good for your dad.

Yeah.

I'm really respecting him.

Me too.

Because

I've seen a lot and been exposed a lot where they didn't stop.

You know what I mean?

And

I'm really impressed by that.

And I think, you know, that whole concept of learned behavior, you know, I don't, dude, I never had to beat on my kids, but I was always present.

I was always direct.

I was always firm.

And I didn't think I needed to, you know, if I said you can't do this, you couldn't do it.

If I said you couldn't use your phone, you couldn't use your phone.

I mean, I had to grab my kids a couple of times to get their attention.

My daughter, you kind of fake grab her because it's a girl.

And then my son's like, you didn't even grab her.

I'm like, yes, I did.

I'm picking him up, scooping him up, you know.

But I think that, dude, listen, it was a different time we were at.

My mom was frustrated.

She worked three jobs.

I mean, she had a lot going on.

I don't know that that's, and it's a dangerous place nowadays, too, with everything.

I think if your parent kid's right, you know, and you have to correct them a few different times, but your dad is one of the few because most people that go through that, what they do is they're almost given the right to, hey, I went through that.

It's like, why would you ever assault a woman if you watched your mom get assaulted?

Like, how would that ever make any sense?

Like, I couldn't fathom that.

Like, my mom got married again.

And again, she had all kinds of stuff going on in her life.

I'm like, everything I watched, all I regretted was being too little to do anything about it.

But no matter what in the world happened, that's actually ensured.

And probably your dad would probably articulate kind of the, I know what it felt like when I was a kid.

It didn't do anything for me other than hurt me, break me down, do all that kind of stuff.

So, but, you know, he broke the cycle.

Yeah.

That's the other thing, dude.

Breaking this, I talk to people a lot about that.

Who's breaking the cycle in your family?

Because somebody has to.

Like, I got it.

My old man and I weren't very close.

I hadn't seen him for a long time, kind of reconnected with him lately over the last couple years.

But I have to give him, he got sober.

Oh, nice.

He got sober.

And I kind of got sober.

I was like, if he, because he was so, I'm like, if he can get sober, why can't I get sober?

Not like he didn't sit me down and go, son, he never did.

He just went and got sober.

And that was it.

Don't even mean he was that involved with me.

Just one got sober.

Wow.

And I'm like,

he did it.

He's not a better man than me.

Shit, I'm going to do it because he did it.

You know, if that makes any sense.

I just kind of was, but somebody's got to break that cycle.

Somebody in my family had to go out and get to graduate college and make money and kind of try to give money back.

I do a lot of stuff here in California, East L.A., the Dream Center, it's my favorite places in the world.

Pastor Matthew is like one of the coolest people ever.

And that's the other stuff I do with my kids, stuff like that.

Bring them around, let them walk the floors, hear the stories.

Hey, I was raised by a good family.

And one day I started using heroin.

And here's where I ended up on the streets.

And this happened and that happened and that happened.

And it's like, damn, yes, that's life.

So getting real-life experiences, you know, but your old man should be applauded, man.

That's that's great.

Yeah, I really respect him for that.

He should, though.

Because he literally got knocked out.

Like,

bro, he grew up on a farm.

Yeah.

So did my dad.

They're a different, different breed out there, man.

Man, Sean, it's been a pleasure.

Any closing thoughts on where people can find you?

They find me on Instagram.

My last name is M-E-A-I-K-E, even though it's pronounced Mike.

It's all those vowels.

YouTube, same deal.

Punch me in the face is the podcast.

Wrote a little books, Punch Me in the Face.

Half the Money We Get goes right to the Dream Center.

I'm a big fan of that.

But, dude, I really appreciate you having me on.

I mean it.

Um, you know, I just started this to try to do the best I could to get some information out.

And I mean, you've done some amazing things, and you reaching out to me has been very humbling.

And I don't say that because I mean it.

That's a really cool thing for me.

And I appreciate letting me get on and have some time with you.

You share some powerful messages today.

I really think people will brother me.

So I appreciate it.

Appreciate you.

Absolutely.

Digital social hour.

I'll see you guys next week.