Bonus Episode 2 | Jameel McCline - A Fighter's Journey Beyond the Ring - Mick Unplugged

Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness?

Welcome to the epicenter of transformation.

This is Mick Unplugged.

We'll help you identify your because

so you can create a routine that's not just productive but powerful.

You'll embrace the art of evolution, adapt strategies to stay ahead of the game, and take a step toward the extraordinary.

So, let's unleash your potential.

Now, here's Mick.

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

And today,

we're going deep.

We're going deep into the realm and the story of transformation, resilience, and leadership.

From relentless discipline in the boxing ring to the strategic arenas of corporate success, Joining us is someone that I've looked up to for a very long time, not because of what he achieved in the boxing ring, but what he's achieved out of it and the man that he is and what he stands for.

It is my distinct honor and pleasure to welcome my man, Mr.

Jamil McCline.

Jamil, welcome to Mac.

Thank you so much for having me, brother.

I appreciate it.

I'm very excited to be here.

Thank you.

Man, I am excited as well.

And, you know, a huge boxing fan.

huge fan of yours.

And I always tell people this, man, like I heard this saying, you play tennis, right?

You play basketball.

You play football.

You don't play boxing.

Yeah.

You don't play boxing, right?

When you step into that ring, it's a different animal.

It's a different beast.

A lot of people aren't cut out for that.

So for you, and we're going to talk a lot about your story, man.

Like, what got you into boxing?

Like, what made you say, this is what I'm going to do?

I was 25 years old.

I just gotten out of prison.

I was in a gym in Staten Island, New York, working out.

It wasn't a boxing gym, which is a regular workout gym.

Some guy comes over to me, this German guy.

He's in his mid to late 40s, Ron Ruther, hardcore German, you know, and he came to me and he said, hey, man, you want to be a boxer?

It's a true story.

So I was like, I don't know.

I mean, who knows?

So he gives me his card and says to me, hey, give me a call and we'll talk about it over stakes at Peter Luger's.

So I go to the guy, I say, okay.

And I go to the guy who ran the gym and I said, hey, that guy wants to take me to Peter Lugas talk about being a boxer.

And all he said to me was, hey, man, Peter Lugas is one of the best steakhouses in the city.

So I thought to myself, I just got out like not a few months ago.

I couldn't afford a steak and I didn't have a steak those five years I was in.

So I literally only went for the steak dinner.

The man convinced me to move into his basement and live on a cot.

And that man made me everything I am today.

Wow.

That's amazing.

That's amazing.

The next day I was on his basement floor sleeping in some, hey, listen, you know, I was in solitary confinement for years.

So sleeping in the basement on the floor in a cot and it was all weights.

It was like a weight room.

And that's just where I lived.

I lived in the weight room for six months.

I love it.

You know, we talked offline about transitioning.

out of boxing and how some of your peers and some of the people you looked up to didn't handle the transition right.

And I know that there are a lot of, forget boxing, there are a lot of former athletes, right, that don't handle the transition.

Because when you retire from professional sport, you're still a very young person in society.

But a lot of times we don't look at it that way.

And these are my words and not the words of Jamil, right?

Some people hang on way too long and they try to live on that glory instead of saying, I've mastered this.

Let me go master something else.

Like, what was that like for you?

What was that spark for for you that said okay i need to go master and be the person i'm supposed to be not this athlete well i'll tell you now you know it's honestly speaking it is as frightening as starting a boxing career

any

transition

that you have no idea where you're going to end up is frightening but for me it always boils down to belief and these God-given attributes that made me who I am.

You know, I didn't become a fighter because of who I am.

I am a fighter because of what's inside of me, you know, like I just transitioned that into, don't get me wrong, I mean, just like boxing, you know, I lost my ass many, many times.

I've been beat by other people many, many times, used.

You know, you just learn and, you know, you learn how to bob and weave, you know, and skip the jab when you're supposed to.

So.

you know i just picked it up so what separates me i think is that uh you know just like boxing you know i started my career at the age of 25 and by the time i was 30 i was already in the top 10 in the world that's right and then for me back in those days in the top five was still mike tyson lennox lewis and the evanda holy field so for me to fight to claw my way in five years from the time i put on a pair of gloves i'm destined to do whatever i want to do that's right that's right Whatever that is, however I define success is how I believe that it will end up, whatever that definition is for me.

So the trick has become lately to not put limits on that.

At one time, it was X amount of, you know, dollars in the bank or X amount of, you know, assets.

You know, now it's like, no, there really is no limit.

You know, it's just a matter of time.

You know, I just need more time.

That's all.

You know, again, I've told you this before, and I opened the podcast by saying it.

You're one of the people that I looked up to and admired.

And here's why, man, because you have so many things that are not supposed to be going well for you.

I mean, you think about it.

Again, these are the words of Mick and Mick only.

Boxing today, getting in the top 10, probably isn't that hard.

But when you got there, bro, like getting in the top 10 was not, I mean, you had to go through beast in the heavyweight division.

And then you transition out of boxing and you go into the corporate America world, but your past is your past.

All of that is stacked up against you.

Like Jamil is not supposed to win, but you're a freaking winner.

And that's what I love, man.

And

that's what I think people need to understand is most of the time, you just got to keep going.

Like, you're going to have bad days.

You're going to have bad moments of days.

Like, every day is never going to be perfect.

You just got to keep going and you got to have purpose.

And again, that's what I admire about you is that.

Thank you so much.

You know, I'll tell you, it's,

you're right.

It is just a matter of keep going because what other choice do you have?

Like, I leave myself oftentimes, I'm thinking, okay, so what's next?

How do we do this?

Like, how am I going to figure out this?

And, and, and I remember when I was in the league, you know,

I call it the league, you know, it sounds cool.

I remember when I was in the league, you know, I would say, I got a big show on the table and I'd say, I have no idea how I'm going to do this, but I got the next 12 weeks to figure it out.

And that's when I would start training camp, 12 weeks out.

I was a 12-week guy.

I was one of those guys that needed to be in camp for 10 to 12 weeks.

So just like in my professional life, you you know, I really didn't know how we were going to get to the next level and into the next level, but I did know that if I stayed with it, it would just appear, you know, and just every day chopping wood, chopping wood.

So,

it's been a real experience because there is no doubt that it's frightening going into a new, no one knows you, no one cares, no one cares that you were once, you know, fighting at Madison Square Garden, Mandalay Bay, Caesar's Palace, HBO.

They could care less when you're in the boardroom.

Oftentimes, I wouldn't even talk about, if I'm doing a presentation, I wouldn't even talk about my past,

what I did.

I just felt that no one really cared.

Once in a while, somebody would recognize me and say something and I'd speak to it.

But if your deal wasn't a good deal, they pat you on the back.

maybe ask for a selfie and send you on your way.

I've seen it happen many times.

So when you decided to to transition and retire from boxing and then go into corporate America, like what was your thought process?

What were the things that you had to put in place?

Because there's a lot of people listening to this podcast right now that are at that stage.

Again, they may not be professional athletes, but they're at that defining moment where I need to change my career for the better.

What were those first steps like for Jamil?

So, it was really difficult because, first of all, you know, think about it.

I was

big time McCline.

I mean, Jesus, I had my own parking spot, you know, next to the garden.

You know, they made sure I had a parking.

Even when I wasn't fighting, they, oh, that's Jameel McCline's spot.

And then all of a sudden, you know, I'm thrust into this world where no one could care less.

For me, it was a traumatizing experience because I was no longer judged on my name and my skill set.

I was now judged on my performance in a new realm,

in a new arena with new players, new rules, new bars to hurdle.

So for me,

it was traumatizing.

I will admit that.

It was debilitating in terms of depression.

I fell into deep depression, fell into drug use again after being clean my entire fight career.

Picked up cocaine and and drinking and it was it was terrible for me but um

you know i just woke up one day and just realized that wow you know you're a champion Jamil and you were a champion for a reason so let's let's get it together let's step forward and see what we can make happen and here I am a decade after I retired and things are just absolutely phenomenal that's amazing and there's people listening that are right there there are people that are in depression that are in despair and and you know they think that or they feel that they can't get out of it what's some encouragement you would give people because Because again, I know that there are people that are battling this right now.

What's some encouragement you would give?

So it's really hard to give encouragement on depression because depression is absolutely debilitating.

I mean, you can go into a room and not leave that room for 48, 72 hours only to eat and to use the bathroom because of depression.

So as soon as I was able to find my way out, like as soon, like as soon as I saw like a bright day, you know, in my mind's eye you know i would seize on it i would just run i would get out of the house i would call you know and they call that the manic uh stage and i would just call people hey what's going on i got this i got this going on hey i'm looking for this i got this hey what you you know and just kept i just kept pressing forward so it giving someone advice on how to come out of depression is really hard.

You know,

I did a lot of mental,

I did a lot of yoga and a lot of psychotherapy with my therapist

to be completely honest.

That's awesome.

And again, I think those are things that people need to hear.

And I'm just going to say this, especially people that look like Jamil and I, right?

Like sometimes our egos get in the way and we don't want to seek help or we don't want to call our buddies and let them know we're going through dark moments or I just need someone to talk to.

So for people that are listening, I'm going to say this.

Number one, pick up the phone and check on your people.

They probably need you and then number two when you receive that call from a friend that maybe you haven't heard from in a while there's probably a reason they're calling pick up the dog on phone because you never know that moment when just a simple hello how are you doing i wish i had given that advice because that's so true because i tell you when you're in that depression sometimes picking up the phone is a huge step because people are trying to check on you they haven't heard from you in a while and they're wondering what's going on and you're sitting in your hole going woe is me me, woe is me, when you actually have people reaching out to you.

So to your point, I actually started, you know, that was the first thing like that.

As soon as I saw a slither of light and I got a phone call, okay, hey, how's it going?

Hey, Jamil, hey, I'm looking for this or I got this going on.

Sure, I'll show up.

That's the first step, just being brave.

You know, that's one of the things that set me apart in my career as well, was that I was absolutely courageous, you know, sometimes to the point of psychosis you know i was crazy i was so brave i was like i didn't care okay you you want me to put you want to put me in with lennox lewis i got 12 fights had no amateur career uh okay

you know and you know 100 rounds later i started winning a few you know a few i want to make that clear just you won more than a few brother you won more than i'm talking about sparring sessions with lennox lewis oh i got you

that's awesome man and you hit on a couple of of things that my mentor talks to me about.

So Les Brown is my personal mentor.

And in our podcast, he announced to the world this phrase called the MIC factor.

So M-I-C-K.

So mastery, imagination, courage, and keep going.

And you've actually hit on all of those because that's what you're talking about, right?

You had to master something in boxing.

You had to master something outside of the boxing world.

You just talked about the imagination to say, okay, I'm going to go spar with Lennox Lewis, right?

Like I'm going to, I have the imagination that I can be a top 10, top 10 fighter.

I can be a contender.

You've hit on courage so much.

And we opened the podcast talking about keep going.

It's just amazing how like your story transcends into me and what I do too.

And I'd love to hit on mastery because I think that's something that's really important for people.

You had to master a lot in the ring.

You have to master a skill.

You just don't get in and just box, right?

Like there's a lot of things that you need to master.

And then outside of the ring, you had to master something else.

So I'd love to do this twofold.

Like, how did you learn mastery from a boxing perspective?

And then how did that translate over into your corporate world?

Attrition.

That's how I learned mastery, attrition.

We just stayed with it day after day, year after year.

You know, we just

back in my career, I remember, you know,

the old German guy, Ron, was like, listen, you have to do something every single day.

And then when you get in shape, you have to do something twice every single day.

So I took that exact format into my professional career.

You have to do something significant every day.

And then when you get your feet under, you have to do something significant twice every single day.

And it's really hard to keep that momentum going.

Just like in life, you know, some days you have it, some days you don't, some days I got nothing done.

But my goal was to do something significant twice a day, every day, even if that significant was just as little as getting a commitment for a meeting, you know, getting two commitments for a meeting.

That would be my two.

And then what I had to master was in corporate America, I had to, I had a very, you know,

just a, you know, big, happy, strong, outgoing guy.

You know, I'm, you know, I have zero to prove and that comes through in my, in my personality and my energy.

And people are just drawn to me.

I was very fortunate to be around some of the, some of the smartest people here in South Florida.

And I was able to connect them through my network nationwide and worldwide as well.

But I had to learn how to do that.

I had to learn how to up manage, down manage, and cross manage.

You know, I really had to learn how to manage egos, you know.

You know, I had this one guy, he's a billionaire, you know, and I, and I was talking to him, and he says to me, you know, Jamil, you got this thing about you.

You see how you speak low and you make me pay attention to you?

I'm like, I wasn't trying to speak low.

I wasn't trying to get you to, I was just talking to you, but thanks for telling me that.

You know, like the guy was basically what he was saying was that, you know, you have command.

So when he said that to me, things kind of clicked in my mind's mind's eye.

I was like, wow, I have the ability to hold someone's attention.

Even this guy who, you know, he wasn't listening to me because I was Jamil McClan.

He was listening to me because he thought I had something really important to say, you know, you know, and I did, and I, and I did, and I got him interested, and I got him happy, and I got him excited, and he understood what I was, where I was going with the, with the idea.

And, you know, when we got together and we made some really great things happen.

That's awesome.

Again, one of the things that I also love about you, and I could talk to Jamil McCline, big time McCline all day, right?

Like we could have a 20-hour episode, but I won't do that to the people.

In boxing, bouncing back is as important as the actual fight itself, right?

Because there are moments in the fight where you've got to make quick decisions or this combo that you thought you're going to be able to get off because you practice it forever, you can't.

How did that translate into your corporate world too?

Because again, bouncing back, having strategy and being able to adapt quickly, I think are big facets.

If I look at every power leader, that's what they do.

Adaptability, you know, we talk about that often, my partner and I, and adapt or die.

You know, I am in artificial intelligence now.

And, you know, just yesterday,

Nvidia came out with some, you know, and also Elon Musk just past weekend was saying that, you know, jobs are going to be gone by the wayside,

you know, because of AI.

It's going to take so many jobs.

And my partner and I were on the phone talking about it.

And we were like, well, what's going to happen next?

He's like, we already figured it out.

We've already adapted.

You just showed us how to adapt because we're in a different, you know, we made some incredible things happen.

I'll talk about that in a little while here.

It's all about adaptability, just like in the ring, you know, just like you said, you're getting ready to make a move.

He counters with something.

You got to have the ability to adapt.

And we've been able to adapt.

When I say we, I mean me, you know, my family, my loved ones, my partners, we've just been able to adapt like on the fly and make sure that we're bringing value to whatever service that we're trying to provide to our client base, especially in the ever-changing world of technology.

You know, Moore's Law says that technology changes every 18 months.

Well, that's gone.

You know, now it's every six months technology is changing.

Correct.

You know, know you really have to be on the cutting edge of whatever it is you're thinking of doing or whatever it is you are doing you have to be on the cutting edge because ai automation iteration is is it's here and i i just feel that all enterprise level organizations that are not prepared will be swallowed up by organizations that are prepared and the smaller ones that are prepared will become the bigger ones.

All day.

And you hit on a phrase that I just wrote down and I'm going to give you a lot of props, adapt or die.

You hit on it.

This world is ever changing at a much faster pace than we've ever seen in the history of life.

And if you're a business leader and you're not adapting, like I can't tell you how many folks I talk to that have a three-year plan or a one-year plan, and it's a piece of paper that they review once a year.

I'm like, if you review your strategic plan once a year, you're set up for failure and you're probably not going to be in business in the next three to five because the world is evolving that much.

Technology, AI, they're coming for us.

Right.

And for those that don't want to embrace or that don't adapt, you're going to not be here from a business standpoint.

So I love that thing.

Correct.

You know, I oftentimes have, you know, powwows with my partners and I.

And if we just feel that to be a true leader in any vertical, it doesn't matter, to be a true leader, adaptability of the technology now and learning what that technology is.

Like, again, you know, I'm really fortunate because I have God-given attributes that allow me to transition and adapt.

And I've had that since I was a kid when I went into an orphanage at seven years old.

You know, I adapted very quickly to being alone.

I was able to tolerate it.

I remember it was very stressful at the beginning, you know,

nightmares as a young kid, but then I just adapted and I'm just a happy kid all the time.

And even though I was separated from the family, it's just who I am.

And yeah, adaptability.

All right, I'm going to rapid fire a couple of questions for you before we find what Jamil's doing now.

So toughest fight.

The toughest fight I had.

I won.

It was a 12-round fight against Shannon Briggs.

Every time the man hit me, he hurt me.

When I say hurt, I mean I was concussed.

Every time he hit me, I was concussed.

I got concussed maybe 12 times in that fight.

Big time McCline's favorite punch or combination to throw.

So

the right upper cut to the body, the left hook to the head, the straight right to the head.

I had to sit back in my chair for a moment just in case you were about to throw

it.

That's the right upper cut, the left hook, and the straight right down the fight.

It was just my fastest, most effective punch, and it got me out of a lot of trouble in my career.

Because I always put guys on my shoulder when I would throw, They would be right on my shoulder and I just hit their belly, hit their chin and

hit the chin again.

Good night.

That's deadly right there.

That's deadly right there.

All right.

So we talked about your toughest fight, easiest opponent that you ever faced.

Michael Grant.

All right.

I stopped him in 43 seconds.

Good.

What was the knockout?

What was the move?

Okay, so it was actually, it was a very, very, very first punch of the fight.

I came out.

We're in the the middle of the ring.

We're going back to the ring.

My trainer said, everything we worked on, forget about it.

Go out, hit him with a left hook.

I looked at him.

I was like, what?

He goes, go hit him with a left hook.

I walk out, hit him with a left hook.

He goes down.

Later, we talk about it.

I say, why?

He goes, he goes, I said, Jimmy, why'd you do that?

You changed it.

Right at the end there later.

And he goes, son, it was old Jimmy Glenn.

He goes, he always called me son.

He goes, son, I saw his legs shaking and

I didn't want him to get any courage.

so i wanted you to hit him with the left hook and it worked

let it be known early

all right and then last rapid fire any camp superstitions i've heard some stories of boxers and their superstitions and camp so when i went to camp i went i was celibate

once once i went to camp that's it i'm celibate to the fight and that's it so a lot of guys say it's a superstition you know

you know i i i experimented a couple times and I didn't believe it was a superstition because I didn't have the same legs the next day.

So celebrate through the fight, but after the fight, it was on.

It was on.

Always right there ready for me.

Oh, I'm getting in trouble.

I'm getting in trouble.

All right.

So what is Jamil McCline?

What is big time McCline doing now?

Like, where can people find you?

Like, what are your passions?

What are you doing with work?

So really, you can always find me on LinkedIn, Jamil McCline on LinkedIn.

So I kind of stay away from the other social media currently, but because you know, when I ran for United States Congress, I had tens of thousands of followers, but it just got overwhelming.

So I got away from it.

Too many opinions, too many people yelling at me for no reason.

So I got away from it.

Now I'm going to stay.

Peace in my life, right?

But yeah, so now I'm in artificial intelligence.

We developed a product.

The first, we're first to market with an amazing product.

We're able to hyper-personalize video from data.

So in other words, if you give me a data set I can turn that data into video at scale by the millions on demand immediately so I can put out maybe a million I can put out a million videos for a company

and and I can do that just using data in less than an hour any type of data set so you're talking PDF so any type of data set like uh like name number address uh the car they're driving the car they like or the car they have, or the trade-in.

So, we're specifically in the automotive industry now.

We have, in the last three months, we've had an incredible run.

We've been able to bring on about 70 million in new business in just three months with the product.

The product, no one else has it in the world.

We're the only ones in the world that can render 1080p video at scale on demand immediately using only data.

So, if you go to my website, our website, Tech Pedal, T-E-C-H-Pedal, like technology pedal, P-E-D-A-L dot I-O, it'll give you some because it moves so fast.

Like I said,

the industry was like I was saying earlier about adaptability and changing.

The industry was moving so fast, we had to come up with a product.

We were doing well.

We had about 400 different rooftops, automotive rooftops that we were servicing with some technology or another coming into

September of last year.

We sat down, had a post-mortem after a meeting, didn't like how it went, really understood the position that we were in, came up with a product that no one else in the world can, that no one else in the world has.

And yes, we started in the automotive industry, but we're moving very quickly into the healthcare, dental, any other industry.

It's really a tool for marketing agents and ad agencies.

Wow.

I mean, I've been, obviously, my ears perked up the entire call, but 70 million in three months?

So we put on new business.

Yeah, we've been able to sign some of the largest automotive ad agencies in the country from Affinitive to Solara to Vista.

Vista, you know, that's the $96 billion fund.

We've already been offered a buyout.

Of course, we're not going to take it.

Yeah, we've been able to get a iHeartRadio is one of our new clients.

I mean, I can just go on and on in just three months because the technology is so timely.

No one else has it.

so if you're an ad agency think about it you're sending out all these videos and all these emails and no one's clicking the emails or no one's watching your videos so we we just have the ability to take your entire data set let's say you're home depot you have a special on wood this week or barbecue grills we can hit your entire database nationwide hyper personalized hey mick thank you for uh checking out this uh video we got a great offer come on down to Home Depot, show them this QR code and get 30% off the next grill you buy or whatever.

And that's where the world is.

Personalization.

That's what people want.

Like I tell people all the time, I just taught a class on selling to the modern buyer.

The modern buyer, like the generation younger than you and I, they want quick and they want it personalized.

Quick, they want it personalized.

And 70% of all content on the internet now is video base, right?

So everyone is watching videos.

Facebook came out with reels to compete with TikTok and Instagram even though they're on Instagram but it it just it's all videos so we've just seen a you know sometimes a 14 to 30% increase in engagement and really that's in marketing and advertising it's really about engagement right getting your client base to just pay attention brand loyalty and i'd like to say we finally got we got a great company that um louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, L-V-M-H.

That's, I mean, that brand, I mean, I'm not a Louis Vuitton, I'm not a brand guy, but because that brand is so that Louis Vuitton, the Hennessy, the Moet brand, we got that brand.

We're doing marketing for that company as well now.

And actually, we don't do the marketing.

They're using our tools in their platform.

Wow.

So, you know, we had a meeting recently with some guys and they were like, so you guys are, and I was telling them, listen, we're the best in the world at what we do and he was like and he didn't know i was a fighter he didn't know i was amongst the best in the world and i was like listen this is just what we do this is how we are this is what we believe in our souls we believe that we are the best even when we weren't we believed it right

now we came out with this product four months later we're 70 million in new business and he was like wow you guys really are the best in the world and i was like well what made you see that now He goes, I see that you guys believe it.

Yep.

That's where it starts.

Amen to that, brother.

Amen to that.

Ladies and gentlemen, Jamil, big time McLean.

My dude, my dude, my dude.

I appreciate you more.

Techpedal.io.

I know that there are a lot of business leaders listening.

Go have a conversation.

Go research them.

They have a solution to the problem that you have.

I promise you, you have this problem.

I don't care the industry.

They solve the problem.

Video and distribution, you can't beat it.

Video distribution at scale on demand.

There we go.

Everybody, remember, your because is your superpower.

Unleash it.

Jamil, I love you, brother.

Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged.

We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a revolution in your life.

Don't forget to rate and review the podcast and be sure to check us out on YouTube at Mick Unplugged.

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