Allen Williams | Allen Williams Journey: Financial Wisdom, Mentorship, Sports, and Military Insights

Alan is one of the most brilliant, intelligent people that you will ever meet in life.

You know, both of my parents, man, my dad, man, was a success in Orangeburg.

I gained all my accolades from him.

They had the Junior Olympic team.

They had a bunch of athletes, man, like such as the Terry Guess's, Henry Guess's, Willi Grahams.

What would you say are the top two things that you learned about yourself that helped you with your retirement from the Navy?

First of all, discipline, growing up early, taking responsibility early.

Second thing is adaptation because we learn to adapt to anything.

What's the two things you should be doing daily?

Learning something new every day and just investing in something.

In something.

Welcome to Mick Unplugged, where we ignite potential and fuel purpose.

Get ready for raw insights, bold moves, and game-changing conversations.

Buckle up, here's Mick.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged.

And today's guest is a highly distinguished individual who has achieved remarkable success both military and in the civilian sectors.

After serving more than two decades in the U.S.

Navy, His dedication and exemplary service and leadership earned him inclusion into the distinguishable Marquises Who's Who.

He is a man.

He is a friend.

He is a mentor.

And he is someone that we're about to have so much fun with.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to welcome my friend, the disciplined, the innovative, and the inspiring, Mr.

Alan Williams.

Alan, how are you doing today, brother?

Oh, man, with that intro, I am great.

Man, I love it, brother.

I love it.

Look, and that's the last scripted thing we're going to do today because what I want to tell the listeners and viewers is this right here.

Yeah, man.

All that intro was amazing yeah but alan is also a fool and if i could show you or record some of the late night conversations that we have i would probably get kicked off the airway so i'm not going to do that but we might get into some of it i decided to preface that because we don't know where this conversation is going but i will start with this and i mean this from my soul yes sir alan is one of the most brilliant intelligent people that you will ever meet in life.

So I do want to let the listeners and viewers know that.

And Alan, you know how much I respect and love you, brother.

So,

man, where do we even begin, dude?

Oh, man, South Carolina, I guess.

We are both South Carolinians.

South Carolinians.

I know you were easily, I'm from Orangeburg, so it's not too far.

But yeah, man, grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

You know, both of my parents, man, my dad, man, was a success in Orangeburg, you know, you know, with the police force, but also with the help in the community.

You know, i gained all my uh accolades from him as me being by him as he was doing the junior olympic team with uh the late great armsborough chef papa johnson they had the uh junior olympic team and they had a bunch of athletes man like such as like the terry guesses henry guesses uh will grams who else i know i'm missing a lot but just a few of the names man that ran on that track team went all over the united states competed broke records records so you know me seeing that and him coaching football uh for brookdale b team and seeing all the athletes that came from there him uh this helping in the community for example uh

shelton benjamin you know he helped him a lot you know in his accolades through his childhood and uh shelton has talked highly about you know my dad and stuff like that i think he did a documentary with uh wwe at one point and my dad was on it i didn't realize it yo young young guy, had hair seal.

But yeah, just following his steps, you know, him helping kids and stuff like that.

So, you know, did sports, played at Edisto High, played little league football in Orangeburg as well.

You know, all a bunch of little league teams there.

From there, you know, after football, you know, I decided I wanted to, you know, get out.

You know, I wanted to see something else.

So, you know, the Navy guys came to the high school and they were talking this good old deal like, yeah, we went here.

So I like, try this navy thing give it a shot so joined the navy in 2001 matter of fact it was a week after september 11th happened so it was crazy yeah so 2001 did my boot camp graduated went to uh a school in november in virginia beach graduated from there and i flew straight to deployment man i think i had like 10 days home to come home yeah 10 days and then i flew straight to deployment man so i flew into the action which was very interesting.

You know, landed in Bahrain, then took a card onto a carrier, which was first-time experience.

But yeah, man, after that, man, I traveled all over the world, lived in three different countries.

And then my last cent decided me that I could play pro football over there.

So I did that for three years while I was serving.

Met a lot of great people over there.

And then came here to Colorado, retired, and

had like a two-month hiatus, just a little break.

And then Lockheed Martin hired me on and as a CN test engineer and interrogator.

So I was blessed with that and

I'm continuing to do that.

But I also continue to like help around the community here in Denver, the Denver Broncos Boys and Girls Club, Global Children's Literacy Foundation, which

kind of ambassador on that.

One of my good friends, Prince Dice, and co-founder, Chad, Chadwick Davis, founded a nonprofit, which we give kids first-time shareholders of the S ⁇ P 500 Index Fund.

So he has four book series.

The kids have to read the books, do an essay, and he reads every essay.

And Courtney and I, you know, with the funds we have for donation, it could be one kid or two kids, maybe three kids.

So me being a part of that, I love it.

Giving back.

I love helping the kids.

I feel, you know, their model and what we need to do is kids need to have like something

in their accounts when they graduate high school but you know the hardest thing is is making the parents believe because you know a lot of parents don't understand you know investing and stuff like that so um they're looking for hey

520 something dollars or where's the cash but they don't know that hey we just gave your kid the top 500 companies in the united states so Yes, sir.

They can make money as they go in the years if you keep adding on, if you keep in, you know, stuff like that.

So that's the hard part.

But other than that, it's fun.

I'm having a good time doing it with my job currently with Lockheed, having a great time, great company, very diverse company.

Yeah, so that's a little bit about me.

I love it, man.

And there's so much I want to unplug and unpack right here.

So let's talk about.

the Navy and the decision to go into the Navy.

What was a couple of the deciding factors of one, the military, and then specifically the Navy itself?

The guys, the recruiters coming in, you know, they were honest.

I didn't have a recruiter that was, none of the recruiters was like telling me this, telling me that, it's trying to get me in, but they were just honest.

And I go to other recruiting offices, such as, you know, Army, Marines, and other, you know, I can tell like, okay, this is, this don't sound right.

But, you know, the Navy was like very honest, like, hey, man, you're going to have some hard days.

You're going to have some deployments.

You can work some hard hours.

But I guarantee you this, man, it'll get you out.

You can see the world.

You can have an education or you can get an education.

You're getting paid every two weeks.

The average kid don't get paid, especially in college, but you can still go to college and still get paid.

You know, we have TA assistants and all that stuff.

So they were like, just break it down into a gritty.

And he was like, hey, look, if I were you, pick a job.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, if you really don't know, then you want to go undesignated.

But I'm telling you like this here, like, you know, undesignated, you know, you're going to be in a deck, a deck department.

probably gonna be doing a little bit of everything

probably gonna be hard work but you don't wanna do that you so you want to come in here have a job so you want to do as good as on your ass valve as possible i know because you know back then we all sit in the auditorium you had to take an ass valve but i already took mine you know what i mean so he was like yo let's get the best score pick a job try to get a job with a clearance if you can and then when i told him what i want to do he was like hey well this this rate right here does a little bit of everything but but you know he's telling me what i don't qualify for and stuff like that so i was like cool so they were honest but you know looking inside like you know they do more traveling um it got me out you know of to see something different you know instead of just staying back at home but to see something different man so i'm you know I signed myself up, you know, because I turned 18 and, you know, my mom, she was like, I'm not going to do it.

So I was like, look, I'm signing myself up.

But now my mom today is like, man, it's the best decision you ever ever made, man.

She's like, So proud of you, best decision.

So, yeah,

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Yeah, well, number one, thank you for your service.

Appreciate it.

And then number two, so to my very close friends, my best buddies, Darren Vermost, Army, Daniel Song, Marines.

So I'm going to let both of them know, and I know they're listening to this podcast.

I'm going to let both of them know, hey, the Navy was authentic and transparent.

And that's why Alan went there.

Yeah.

Don't get me wrong.

I took the dinners from the other branches.

Don't get me wrong now.

I wasn't that naive.

So, you know, everybody made dinner.

I took it.

There you go.

There you go.

And so then you're in the Navy, right?

And you've had an amazing career in the Navy.

What would you say are the top two things that you learned about yourself that helped you with your retirement from the navy oh man uh first of all discipline because soon you go to you know boot camp in the navy so they're gonna break you down and stuff so all mental discipline so a lot of mental and um just knowing yourself growing up growing up early taking responsibility early you know when you get certain ranks and stuff like that you get to get your own apartment so you know own stuff own own you know whatever you're gonna do so it teaches you uh how to maintain and be by yourself hold your ground and just be a man or woman take on responsibilities important responsibilities on your job because uh a lot of those guys man we either monitor or we operate on million dollar equipment so you know it teaches you you know that aspect second thing is uh i want to say uh adaptation because we learn to adapt to anything that is put in front of us.

So we get put in the fire, but we just got to figure it out.

I know a lot of people, you know, it's a lot of bookworms that's in the military too.

Or they come in as bookworms.

But at the end of the day, you know, they got to learn how to think, think on the slow, think fast.

and execute.

So that's one thing, like this adapting, you know, change of transition, this change of scenery, change of learning a new thing, a new equipment.

So

that's the main thing, you know, that I'm grateful at.

And I'm going to add a third one, networking, because we travel around.

So we met a lot of people everywhere I go, every country or whatever, or state, you know,

networking.

Military is very tight-knit.

You know, it's a different community.

A lot of people don't realize that.

You know, you can tell, like, in the civilian sector, you know, but vice the military sector, like, we're just very close-knit.

You know, somebody back in your first duty station, they're here visiting, or they're just here on vacation.

You find out they're here, hey, you know, you just, hey, man, you know, and then it's like, like, back to Squirrel One again.

Hey, man, come over here, man.

Go, let's go get lunch.

Come to the house, you know, and it's very close-knit.

Yeah.

And I i will say this about you as my friend now i would say networking is the skill yeah that you have taken and have conquered and have mastered because

you know in in the entertainment world right you know there's that thing six degrees of kevin bacon right so everybody's like six people away from kevin bacon yeah i'm gonna say in the real world everybody's like three degrees from alan williams like If I'm in a room, I guarantee you, if I'm in a room of 10 people,

four people know Alan Williams or know somebody that knows him very well.

And there's always a story about Alan that's going on, right?

So I would totally say that.

And when I say it's something that you've mastered, and I really mean this, and I would say this for all the listeners and viewers as well, too, right?

Because

Alan is the person who he checks on his people.

He checks on his friends, right?

Like all the time.

Like, you know, I was just on my anniversary, right?

And you're messaging me, seeing how things are going and giving me some advice.

I'm going to use air quotes and and just leave it at that for right now.

Giving me some advice, right?

But that's what I love.

And that's what the world needs is like sometimes you just genuinely have to check on people.

And here's the other thing that I love about Alan when it comes to networking.

If I'm like, hey, Alan, I see that you're connected to this person.

Could you make an introduction?

Alan doesn't just send an email or a DM.

Like you're going to get a phone call from Alan and then he's going to say, hold on one second.

And then you click over and the person that you were just talking about is on the other line.

And Alan's done this amazing introduction.

Like, this literally happens two days a week with me and Alan, where it's like, Hey, do you know that person?

Or Alan will ask me, Do you know this person?

And the next thing I know, I've either got a phone call with the person or there's a meeting scheduled.

And when I get to that meeting, the person knows my whole life story.

And it's like, dude, like, how do you do that?

And then, number two, I'd love for you to tell the audience why that's important in today's society.

You know, so why?

The question, why did I do that?

Because, you know, everybody, you know, needs, you know, a helping hand.

So I've always been that person, like, if I don't withhold information, because, you know, information has been withhold for a long time, you know.

So if I, if I know it or if I can find out about it, I'm trying to make it happen.

If I can't make it happen, then I'll let you know, hey, look.

I tried this, I tried that, tried all my avenues, but it just couldn't happen, you know.

The reason why it's important is because

people just be selfish a lot, you know, in this society today.

So me and my good friend Prince, we always say this back when we was growing up, me and you, Mick, Prince, at that era, the world had less information, right?

So if you didn't go and find out, or if you didn't know about it, you just didn't know.

The world today

has too much information so it can smother the brain but you have to know which is what right so it's it's so much information thrown at people.

So if you got a person like myself or anybody else who's a networker that can guide you to say, hey, look, go this route or, hey, know this person or know that person because you got all the information just

fluttering in.

Now you don't know which way.

To gravitate.

You'd be like, okay, should I go here?

Should I go here?

Or should I go here?

But you have a person

knows

this

area or just know this person and knowing that, hey, look, what you're doing could help you.

Then, yeah, you got to have those people.

You get what I'm saying?

And a lot of these kids today, they got to have those people.

They got to find the right people to be in their circle, the right people.

that's growing with them or the right people that's guiding them in the right direction because so much information point in today right so you got to have that hey, go here, go here.

I guarantee you, go here.

Yeah, this guy's knocking at your door, but look, I know this guy, go here.

So that's like the main thing I see like in society today.

Too much information.

I don't know where to go, but you got certain people that either been there, done that, or know somebody who did this, done that, and they can guide you to say, hey, do this person.

And maybe that person knows this person, that person.

And that can connect all your blocks because now you're you're trying to get this person but you got a person that wear

i talk to him every day i talk to her every day totally one of the things i appreciate the most about you man is that and and so i again i wanted to tell you thank you to your face no problem for that piece for that piece no problem so now let's go into you know you're out of the navy you've got this position with lockheed martin where you know i'll i'll let you briefly explain to the people what you're doing there but but so much innovative things that you're doing, you know, a lot of things that you talk that you do that you probably can't talk about that's going on.

But just, dude, I love the fact that

you were not one of those people that retired from the military and was like, okay, I'm good, or you know, I can, I can take the benefits of retiring from the military because there are people that do that.

And not saying that there's anything wrong with that, right?

But you definitely took your skill and said, you know what?

Now that I'm here, I'm about to go 20 levels higher.

So I'd love for you to talk a little bit about what you are doing at Lockheed Martin and why you find fulfillment in what you're doing there.

First of all, you know, yeah, you know, I could have been one of those persons that come back to Florida and don't have to work.

But, you know, I kind of wanted to give back, especially the kids that's coming in the military or just anybody else that's in, because I know what type of company Lockheed is.

You know, our major customers are the military.

So me being from the customer and being

in those seats before I wanted to just pretty much give back and you know I was thankful for Lockheed for hiring me and put me in things that I can accomplish and give back to the military so things you know that I usually do is you know I was on was on a program.

I just recently got moved to a new program, but I was on a program and they needed me for a certain expertise.

So they hired hired me on and my job was to learn the program and then basically travel to different sites teach the operators the program and get them up to speed and make sure they're they're trained properly which you know that program was good but i moved to another program now and the thing about lockhead you know they don't care they're i like this company because They'll take a risk.

They don't care.

You got the experience and they know that you came from the customer.

They want your point of view because, you know, as I said, it's a lot of engineers.

And, you know, the language barrier is totally different.

And some stuff I'm still trying to learn.

But, you know, military, we simple.

Make it short, simple, and sweet.

Less PowerPoints, more hands-on.

Tell us what it is.

Tell us how to do it.

Give us the basics.

If you got like a thick PowerPoint or if you got like a document for the product, hey, make sure

we can access it and we'll go back and look at it if we have problems in certain cells, right?

So, you know,

a lot of the engineers that they're at Lockheed, you know,

their readers, they want to explain everything, but I told them, like, look, can't explain everything.

Explain the basics,

divide the positions.

Whatever this position do,

you explain this.

Whatever this position do, you explain that.

Eventually, they're going to have time to get together and learn each other else positions, right?

So that's the kind of like I kind of bring to the table too.

Just, hey, approach it like this.

Don't say it like that.

Like, learn that translation from engineering the human.

And I just, I like it.

You know, they took a chance on me and I'm grateful.

A lot of the guys there, you know, and you know, like the whole company, man, is very diverse.

You know,

top, one of the top leaders, Miss stephanie hill she

you know african-american woman there's a lot of diversity in the company but the way the company is going by

you know getting retired military i think you know you know they got a lot of people that was prior right but the time they got out man the military has changed so much so if you haven't been in you know in a minute you probably ain't gonna know like what's going on or what's these changes and stuff like that.

So, but you get somebody who kind of just got out and they did they did it 20 years or whatever or 20 plus or 30 plus you know i think that's the route to go to break the barrier of them and the customer understanding why when they interact everything is like now now now go go go and they went there's something to be done for the mission If it ain't everything, but something that can lead, that can work.

And then we give them that.

and then all of a sudden now we can work in the background okay we're gonna add this add that add that but give them something that's gonna make it work right then and there right and then as they're doing that we add on so you know a lot of people is picking that up now and realizing that and um yeah it's not just building just the build Because you got this cool product and it does this, it does that, but knowing your customers and knowing the mission and knowing what they need it for i have a machine to do everything but guess what if it don't fit the mission it ain't gonna work or make it fit the mission and then you go hand out these so yeah it was uh it's a good thing you know they're trying to go towards that direction um but it you know it's just gotta you know get that language barrier uh get that translation and that's you know where i come in and other folks that come in that you know has the same background as i am and to be called an engineer you know what i'm saying which is good yeah

absolutely i want to talk to the listeners and viewers that are leaders i want to talk to you specifically right now because alan just brought out something that i think is critically important and is usually the biggest miss in leadership and that is being short sweet and to the point with direction

right like so many times Leaders are out to prove how smart they are or how detailed they are in a process.

And I'm not saying the process shouldn't be detailed, it actually should be.

But how do you communicate that process, right?

Like,

give me the basics, give me the reason, give me what the output should be.

And then, to your point, if there's a manual,

great, give it to me.

Show me the manual, show me where it's at.

And when I need it, I'll go to the manual for certain things.

I feel like where leaders go wrong is they start the opposite way.

They start with the manual.

And then when you give me all these details, then you say, but if you just do A, B, and C, you'll be good.

And I'm like, well, damn it, why you team is

so for leaders out there, it's really important that you understand,

and this goes for coaches as well, too, right?

Leaders, coaches, and I don't care if it's sports coaches, if you're coaching business people, if you're coaching kids, whatever it is, short, sweet, to the point.

Give me what the reason of why we're doing this, what the end result should be, and what specifically is my role in this said project or this said position.

Exactly.

That's the most critical thing.

Everything else is learned because processes are always being improved.

Processes are always going to change.

If you get so granular in the process, all you're doing is showing people how to switch and do things over again.

Because I promise you, step one to step two is going to change at some point.

Tell me what the big picture is supposed to look like.

Exactly.

And that's the thing that it comes back to too much information.

You know, if you smother the brain with someone, you know, they're not going to retain it.

So like I told them, like, you know, a lot of the guys we're training and stuff like that, or a lot of guys who's going to touch these equipment is not going to be guys that's, you know, high end rank or whatever.

It's going to be guys that's coming probably straight out of high school, 18, 19, 20 years old.

And I said, you know, I said, a lot of people join the military because they don't want to go to school.

I'm just going to be real.

They don't want to go to school, right?

And then once they get in the military they develop a little discipline about themselves right their mindset a little change their child mentality is gone now they done got broken down in boot camp brung back up and now you know they realize like wow you know we got post 911 you know gi build oh i got ta i can use now so i can actually go to school i got these clip clep courses i can take like they fly instructors on deployment while we're here you know what i'm saying to to clip a course clip a math clip a science um so yeah

it's just now they find out these avenues and ways all these search you can get so they got all these avenues that they probably haven't even seen you get what i'm saying now they're exposed to it so now they'll take advantage you know while they're in go to school or they're you know they they offer sea duty or whatever deployment so they're on the shore duty now a little easy a little laid back so they can go to school and get their associates, or they have enough schools within the military, they got associates already.

So now they need a couple of credits for a bachelor.

So you get seen all this, these things now.

And

you're taking on responsibility, you're taking on challenges, you're getting put in unusual situations.

And then you got to adapt and you got to overcome.

So yeah, you know, I tell them all the time, like, look, keep it short, brief, brief, make the PowerPoints just basic, you know what I'm saying, information.

If you have a manual, if you have a big PowerPoint that describes the whole system, have it there where they can access it.

You know, they know we know table of contents.

We can look it up and say, okay, well, we don't know this.

Okay, we look up the table of contents.

Okay, here.

So it's got to be under here.

Look it up.

Oh, okay.

Because eventually they're going to train each other on each thing.

I'm telling you, because that's like, it's like the norm, norm, right?

You know, we're going to have to know a little bit about everybody else's position.

So it's going to happen.

But I always tell them it's not the us to try to give them everything.

Teach them to give them the raw, the basics.

Let's do this hands-on training.

Let's show them what it does.

And then after that, you know, hey, here's the book.

Here's the PowerPoint.

Goes by each thing.

And then that's it.

There it is.

There it is.

So let's go rapid fire with Alan Williams.

You ready?

Okay.

All right.

Favorite college football team?

Oh, Gangcox, baby.

No, I said your favorite college football team.

Yeah, South Carolina Gangcox.

Your favorite college football team.

My favorite college football team.

Yeah.

South Carolina Gangcox.

They don't play football there.

So who's your favorite?

Look, that other school up north, nah.

Okay.

No, I don't like them either.

Yeah.

Like, I'm a North Carolina guy.

I know you're.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

And don't even talk about them.

You know?

No, no, so let's go there.

Your favorite college basketball team, and why is it the University of North Carolina?

It's not North Carolina.

Don't even try that.

It's not North Carolina.

Hey, listen.

My college basketball team is the Gangcox, man.

The Gangcox.

The lady Gamecocks are awesome.

I will will give Dawn Staley and that crew.

I mean, I'm being very serious.

Yeah, I love the Gamecocks.

I was a huge Dawn Saley fan when she was at UVA.

Like Olympics.

Like, Dawn Saley is.

She's.

No gender.

Dawn Staley is one of my top five college basketball players ever.

Oh, yeah.

She was legit.

I remember seeing her.

We used to play for the Charlotte Stings, man.

I was right there sitting right behind her mom.

God bless her soul.

Yeah, go, go, baby.

and she just running and oh man she man

she was something else man but like her mentality like it's bar to none man she just

magic you get what i'm saying like she's a people's person first of all she's a player's coach you know what i mean like

she gonna coach you and she gonna guide you in the right direction and give you this and that but

you know player's coach you know if you got a coach that

they can approach you for anything and i believe them girls can approach her with anything i mean any problems like personal problems and dawn she'll just answer it or find the answer or you know and it's just a good culture there you know and we need that in south carolina we definitely needed that and i i hope i get i'm thinking it's gravitating towards the men's basketball team too because they had a pretty good season they're growing young coach too so they're growing and i didn't know the men's had a basketball program

right

i thought we had a women's basketball program and a men's tennis team and i didn't know there were any other sports listen you remember bj mackey don't let me trip you remember bj mackie

he he used to whip up on you know terrell mcintyre and all them so don't let me try or matter of fact i'm not a clemson guy oh yeah well matter of fact yeah with antoine jameson and all them boys is a whip up on y'all so let me try i forgot to let the listeners and viewers know allen does lie sometimes so don't don't believe anything about antoan jameson or vex carter or myself getting whooped up on that happen listen that didn't happen we used to whip up on them boys you know and you know what i'm gonna say that other teams out up north i remember a player with one of my good friends Harold Jameson,

they beat your Tar Heels.

I remember.

I got the clip.

I sure do.

I should play it.

I should play it on here.

I'm going to play everybody's championship game.

Everybody remembers the one time they beat North Carolina.

I should play it on the game.

Oh my God.

Ladies and gentlemen, I need you to forgive Alan because, again, everybody remembers the one time they beat North Carolina.

We beat people so many times, we just, yeah, we own them.

That's what we say.

You guys beat us once.

We own you all the other 900 times.

That's all I'm saying.

That's all I'm saying.

All right, so back to Rapid Fire.

What's two things that you want all listeners and viewers to incorporate in their daily lives today?

What are the two things that people should be doing?

And I don't care who you are.

What's the two things you should be doing daily?

So the two things you should be doing daily is learning something new every day

and

just investing in something.

In something.

I don't care if you don't know it.

Find somebody that knows it.

But investing in something because, you know, savings, great.

That could be an emergency fund, but you know the way the economy and stuff is right now you want to just invest in something that pay yourself how about that dude i i love that because my buddy herman dulce said literally the same thing yeah everybody shouldn't own a business but everybody should be an investor yeah right like everybody should be an investor and i i believe that that's true i mean i think financial literacy is something that we don't get enough of in the world today.

And again, I don't care who you are, where you come from, how much money you have, how much money you don't have.

If someone would have taught me financial literacy at an early age,

I would have been dangerous.

I feel like I'm dangerous now.

Good Lord, I would have been dangerous early.

Yes.

I would have understood financial literacy.

So one of the things that I want to tell the listeners and viewers is this.

is get a mentor because you should have multiple mentors by the way exactly but you should definitely have a mentor that is going to teach you and help you with understanding finances how money is made and created what's the good things to do with your money the bad things to do with your money how to get money if you if you feel like you can't like you should have a mentor that is going to teach you financial literacy

and again I don't care who you are because the more wealth you start to accumulate you need a mentor that has more than you.

So you always want to make sure that you're gaining mentors and gaining advice with the places that you're trying to go financially.

Most definitely.

You know, and shout out to Prince Dice, man.

When I got here to Colorado, you know, checked in and everything.

And everybody was like, yeah, man, it's just guy, man.

You know, he's like a little celebrity, man.

You know, he wrote children's books.

And he's a big financial advisor.

He has his own thing and his own firm.

I was like, okay.

I said, I wonder who this guy is.

So checking in and I'm coming in.

I was like, I saw a guy walk down here and say, hey, what's going on, man?

How you doing?

How are you doing?

And start asking people questions just randomly.

He's just come on and asked me this question.

So, what did Jerome Powell say today?

What do you think interest rates are?

What do you think this stop is going to do?

And I'm looking at, I said, he said, oh, yeah, man.

You new guy?

He said, yeah, man, I'm Prince.

I said, oh,

you the guy?

He's like, yeah, man.

I said, man.

I said, you like me?

He's like, yeah, he said, I said,

and you cut, I said, man, where you from?

I said, I'm from

Waynesboro, Georgia.

I said, what?

I said, well, I'm from South Carolina.

I said, oh, man, I said, I can relate to you.

And then ever since then, ever since then, mesh, you know, every time he'll come, hey,

you need to watch this.

And then you come back tomorrow, you tell me what you think.

You know, he just coming random with random questions.

He ain't had to do it.

You know, and, you know, some people, they look at him like he was like, huh, like, and laugh, like he didn't know nothing or whatever, but he was humble.

He acted like he knew it all.

He just asked questions.

And now, look at him.

You see what I'm saying?

That man is doing everything in the book.

Now, you talk about a networker.

Now, that's a networker.

And he always picked at me tonight.

He called me like out a promoter or out of networker.

But, you know, he has a lot of network.

You you know what I mean?

He'd be around a lot of great folks.

So, being in that circle now today, you know, I always tell her, hey, man, appreciate it.

You know, like, because you know, anything that I can bring to the table, I bring it.

And then he'll put me in this same circle: like, hey, look, you need to come on, come, come here.

You know what I'm saying?

Introduce yourself.

You know,

like, I think the first man, I did a podcast, man, I was so like nervous and so so this anxiety acting, you know, this

I wouldn't like in a picture, I wouldn't smile.

I always had to look like this tough, you know, I wouldn't even smile or anything.

I wouldn't, or brother, I wouldn't even talk to people like that, you know what I'm saying?

But being around him, and I always had these resources, but just being around him, man, you know, seeing him just talk, going into a crowd, speaking, or just networking, man.

Yeah, he taught me a lot of stuff, you know what I'm saying?

So big shout out to him you know he don't know that he kind of like gravitated me towards this but yeah he did because uh

you know i seen somebody that i could relate to that is learning the same thing learning learning investing and got his mba while was in the military got his you know all his accolades to to do these type of stuff so Yeah, shout out to him, man.

You know, he gave me the confidence of like, hey, networking, introducing, just doing this and doing that.

Always had it.

And I used it sometimes, but not as much as I'm doing it now.

So there you go.

Good stuff, man.

Well, Alan, brother, I appreciate you more than you know, man.

Like, this is dope.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We kept it PG.

We didn't talk about some of the advice you give me.

We did.

We did.

But

I want to ask you one question.

Let's go.

Because, you know, I always ask people this.

So how is your mental?

Great question.

I'm a huge mental health advocate, first and foremost but my mental is good man because i make sure that i take time to untap right not unplug but untap right like yeah and i say untap because when we talk about mental we put pressure on ourselves whether people want to admit it or not you know people are too tough we do we put pressure on ourselves and we have stress that sometimes we don't know is stress or whatever yeah i make sure that i get time to just untap and relieve the pressure a little bit and so my mental is good i i put it on my calendar to do those things.

And just like you, and this is one of the things that I got from you, I check in on other people because that also helps me.

Knowing that my circle is okay.

And I know that that's why you asked too.

Knowing that my circle is okay helps me be okay.

Exactly.

And that's why I like call people, check on people or just

out the blue.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, I know they're busy, but I just like call their phone.

If I see a message come back and say, hey, I'm in the meeting.

Okay, they're good.

Or I'm doing this.

Okay, they're fine.

You know just to make sure they're good you know because mental is very important especially in anything that you do you got to use the mental aspect to make rash decisions you know and to make important decisions so yeah man i just had to ask that because i always just ask that man i just want to make sure everything is great i know the podcast is doing great I love the content.

I love what you're doing.

And like I told you, man, anybody, I'm bringing them because you started from down.

Now you're on the rise you and you're right there so man commend you proud of you especially a fellow Saki alenian

showing showing kids and and residents in Sakai Lane that you know people can come from small towns or

you know situations and it's turning into magic so appreciate it That's right.

Just following the footstep and examples that you set, man.

And I appreciate you more than you know, too.

Really quick, where can people find and follow you?

What are your social handles and links?

If you want to find me on Instagram, I'm Alan, A-L-L-E-N underscore Williams, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-S 45.

I have my LinkedIn profile, Alan Williams.

Also, my Facebook, Alan Williams.

And also,

shout out to the Global Children Financial Literacy Foundation.

You can Google them.

Please donate if you can.

Those books,

those proceeds go to children.

We give them

first-time shareholders of the S ⁇ P 500 Index Fund.

Also, shout out to my boy Ricky Sapp, the Ricky Sapp Foundation.

You can go with that as well.

He's doing big things.

I know he's probably, I think he's trying to do

a trumpet treat coming up.

giving away turkeys.

He's doing it different this year.

I think he's going to give away turkeys that

families that are in need.

And then also that money goes towards you know his children's book.

Also, it goes towards you know his football camps and uh things that he does around the community.

He loves giving back, yeah.

So, those two foundations, man, uh, Global Children Financial Literacy Foundation and the Ricky Seth Foundation.

Uh, go ahead and uh,

you know, let's give a little something, donate.

Um, non-profits, both of them, and uh, doing things in the community.

And if you Google them, you can see what what they do you see what they achieve yeah

love it i'll make sure that we have links to all that in the show notes and description

alan i appreciate you brother appreciate it man

appreciate it brother all the listeners and viewers remember your because is your superpower go unleash it

Thank you for tuning in to Mick Unplugged.

Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose, and chasing greatness.

Until next time, stay unstoppable.