Nicholas Killian Talks with Ex - NFL star Ivery Lewis about his journey to starting a podcast about the word of God and how it has help him and everyone around him.

This is Film Center.

Your number one show for real entertainment industry news.

No fluff, all facts.

Now, here are your anchors, Derek Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.

Hello, welcome to Film Center, my name is Nicholas Killian.

DJ is not with us today.

Derek Johnson, he's a bit sick today.

So it's going to be just me today.

Today.

I want to welcome a very special guest.

Would you like to introduce yourself?

Absolutely.

My name is Ivory L.

Lewis, and I am a guy that just likes to work with people.

I'm a Potential pastor by trade.

And I'm in a position where I get to help out not only individuals, but

couples get into a place where they can actually save their marriages.

And that when you're talking about marriages, some people shunned.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Also guys, if you guys didn't know, we're in the same office building,

we're in the same, we have where our production office is in Westlake.

Cause we do take it all around Los Angeles, me and ivory,

we've been in the same office.

And I've seen it a couple of times.

I was like, Oh man, I don't want to bother him.

He got something going on.

But with it being Memorial day today, I was like, you know what, man,

let me see what this guy's doing.

Yeah.

So you are also a podcaster yourself.

I am.

I am.

I have a podcast called university of man.

And I also help out with the.

company called Rosterbound where we help children get to different

schools, different universities, and also get onto rosters for the

NFL and all major league sports.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Awesome.

And then, so how did you come into podcasting?

I just fell into it.

I'll be honest with you.

One of my best friends, he has been with me ever since college and we've always

had this we should do something where people listen to what we talk about

because he's that guy and I'm that guy that we've grown up in the church and

sometimes you hear people like Stephen A.

Smith and everybody else talking a little bit about sports, but what if you

put a little faith based conversation?

Put a little God in there.

Yeah, put some God in there.

Yeah, that's what we've done.

And then, so where are you from, though?

I'm from Illinois.

I'm from Illinois.

OK.

Yeah, I came out here for football, got cut by this small school.

Hold on.

Let's, you, we glossing over a whole bunch.

OK.

OK, so you're from Illinois.

Yes.

Yeah.

What was the catalyst that got you into, that had you interested in entertainment?

Interested in, because this Okay, I was I'm an ex NFL player.

I got cut by the Chargers.

So I saw a lot and I thought that I wanted to be the next Walter Payton or I wanted

to be the next running back of all things.

But there was this guy by the name of LaDainian Tomlinson that came from TCU

and I went to University of Illinois and I thought that I was better than him

until I saw that he's a Hall of Famer.

When I got cut, he went on to have a great career.

So with that being said, I always knew something was inside of me.

And well, hold on, let's not gloss over the fact that you just

said you was an ex NFL player.

Okay.

I saw the grass.

Let's keep it real.

Yeah.

You an ex NFL player.

Okay.

All right.

Now journey to become from NFL player to podcaster.

Sure.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

What was that?

What was that transition like?

There's a lot to be How can I put it?

The transition was tough Because you go from all of your adult life and your

childhood hitting people and or things and getting that out as far as emotional

release to Sitting behind a desk and doing a podcast, talking into a microphone.

I've always been a people person, but I had to make sure that kept that release.

So working out has been something that's been really good for me.

And if I don't work out, something's wrong.

I'm always off.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So one of the things that's, it's really nice is so you're a bit.

Later in the game when it comes to entertainment, cause you was, like we

said before, you were an NFL player.

Yeah.

So now, how has that been for you?

You said, like you said, you went from hitting people to now you

hitting people with questions.

Yeah it's different.

I'm just happy I had a good upraising.

My mother always put me into a position where I had to be a student athlete before

I was ever trying to be an NFL athlete.

And I was a guy that was a football player that would actually go ahead

and take all the seniors when I was a freshman and talk to him about math.

So I was in calculus my first year in college.

So with that being said, I never really had to worry about the intelligence

of it, but I always had to worry about just making sure that I was on my A

game because there's times where, you're like, man, why am I feeling like this?

Because you have to get something out.

You have to hit something.

You have to go lift something.

Yeah, that's awesome.

And then, so one of the things that I would ask you is,

so you get, how do you go?

You're in NFL.

You get cut.

Now.

What do you tell your family and what do you tell your mom about,

Okay, I'm going to switch to now I'm going to be a podcaster.

I'm going to be in entertainment now.

It's still entertainment, just a different form.

It wasn't hard because most people know when it's time for you to quit.

I think the person that's the last person to know is you.

And I think they were just waiting on me to do make that decision.

And I went to Cal State Northridge as a grad assistant football coach

and they cut the football team.

So I'm like, God, what are you trying to tell me?

No more football.

And I tried it for a couple other teams.

But when I talked to my family, when I talked to my friends, they can

understand that this is one of my gifts.

And let me make sure that I know and everybody else knows a gift is not

something that is something that's me.

It's given to me and that's God given.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And then can you talk a little bit about the podcast that you have?

Sure.

University of man.

So I was a young boy that was raised without his father.

Never got a chance to meet him.

My partner, his name is Fred Abernathy.

He was raised with a father that wasn't always there.

He was there from moment to moment.

He's now got a great relationship with him.

And when we.

put it together.

We said we want to give all the nuggets that we found out

to actually be a good father.

So University of Man came into existence and we put that all together.

It's a lot of spice.

It's a lot of stuff about sports and also tells you cues of what to do

when you're a man because we don't want you to have to be the Google dad.

Where you're looking up stuff on Google and trying to figure it out, or else

you try to talk to the guy that has been the influence in your life and

he doesn't always have the answers.

We wanna make sure that you have at least a good cue that's biblically

backed that can help you out to get you where you need to be.

I think there's a YouTube channel where there's a guy that he

teaches you like how to tie a tie and like how to tie your shoes.

How to do all the things that a dad is supposed to do.

And I think it's like wildly popular.

Yeah.

But like I was, let's go back to what I was saying about, so you not only do,

most of the people that come on the show.

Yeah.

What They've been in entertainment, whether they're a writer, director,

actor, or whatever, and usually we ask them about what was their catalyst

event into entertainment, which is basically you got cut by Cal State,

you said cut the football team.

Yeah, got cut off of their administrative team.

That was two cuts in a year.

Basically the Chargers, then them.

And getting into if you want to call it the entertainment industry,

I would say that it's a calling.

I don't think that anybody in the entertainment industry don't

work, they have to work for this.

But it's also a calling because you're pushed to do something that's

different from everybody else.

You're pushed to be somebody that's outside of the norm and I just, I

believe I've been called to do it.

And what was the initial conversation like with your business partner?

How did it start?

You were just like, Hey man, let's start a podcast or what?

No, we actually were doing the Bible in a year and we would put it on.

video and we would actually literally have synopsis is every week we talk about it.

We're like, you know what?

This would be great to actually put on the podcast.

Three years later, we finally started and that was this January.

So pretty excited about it.

How did it take three years to start the podcast pandemic?

Other things and my partner actually just recently received a kidney.

So he had some health issues and some other things and his story is tremendous.

Yeah, he motivates me every time I talk to him.

And sometimes we haven't filmed because he was going through getting

that kidney for the last three weeks.

And it's just been a great story to follow.

Awesome.

And so it's, I think a great way to spread the message of the Bible is

you've heard of the action Bible, right?

Yeah.

If we gave that to kids instead of no offense, instead of the regular Bible.

And if we just gave them the action Bible, it's the 20 bucks and give it to kids.

It's like a comic book.

I'll even say this.

If we wrapped it into something that wasn't necessarily what you would

call the Bible, but tell the stories with certain people, like I have this

vision and it's always been crazy, but I want Snoop Dogg to play Jesus.

You want Snoop Dogg to play Jesus?

I really do, why?

Because that story can touch other people.

It can touch the people it needs to be touched.

It doesn't matter who's doing it, it just matters that it's being done.

I think there was a show on Adult Swim, it was called Black Jesus.

Black Jesus, now that was a bit much.

I think it would be more to the vest, I think he was doing a bit much.

Corey Holcomb is a good guy, but come on now.

He took it to the extreme and yeah, we'll leave that alone.

You sit there and you're like, okay, my partner's going

through the kidney transplant.

We want to start this podcast.

Yeah.

What is the conversation like with your wife saying, Hey, I'm

pivoting from being an NFL star, from being a coach at a university

to now I'm going to be a podcaster.

Tell me what that conversation looks like.

There's kind of another career that's already still being done, but it was an

easy pivot because she knows my partner.

And I think she knows our heart and that was tough.

It was tough to actually have the conversation.

And she listened to the first podcast.

She was like, Ooh, it needs some work.

Hey, at least she was honest.

She was real with it, man.

She was like, Oh, and, but I think.

The growth is going to come.

It's just about making sure we have content and the message that's out there.

Like I was saying, off, off air was the fact that your greatest

superpower is the fact that it's just starting and nobody's listening.

So you can go through all the growing pains.

By yourself.

And then by the time people, by the time people start listening to it,

they're going to be like, Oh, wow.

And then also people really like to grow with something.

So you have people who are already going to like it as a polished podcast,

but you're also going to have your friends that have liked it because

they see the evolution of the podcast.

Agreed.

Agreed.

He actually had, he got his hair cut in Chicago and they, they Said that he has

a podcast so they put it on while he was getting his hair cut and everybody in

the whole barbershop listened So that was pretty dope and then so you guys

have been going since January Yep, ever since you guys just started and then

how long have you been how long have you been in the office here since January?

No, we've been in the office for almost two years Oh, you've been here

in this office for almost two years.

What else do you do besides the podcast?

I help people with their finances.

Yeah, we were, so you're a financial analyst?

You could say that.

I just, for the sake of my licenses, I'll just leave that out.

Sure.

You have to get all these different things, but yeah, I just, I really have

a huge passion with within my church.

That's why the goal is to actually be in the pastoral role and

help out where possible to make sure that people come to Christ.

So that's my real passion.

Of course.

And then, so would you ever start like a financial podcast?

Biblically based, I think so.

Yeah, biblically based financial podcast.

Yep, I think so.

That's been in the hopper for a while.

That's been in the hopper for a little while?

Yep.

How did you guys come to start this podcast and not your financial podcast?

I wanted to write a book about six years ago on how to take a

child from child to a millionaire.

And how to actually have, if you have a baby, you can actually

make this child a millionaire or multimillionaire in their thirties or

forties if you start saving correctly.

And I got a lot of pushback.

What was the pushback for?

There's just red tape.

There's a lot of things in the industry that you can and can't say.

Like what?

That's why I'm being vague because you can be in a position where you're what's

happening in 2020 could be completely different as far as a concept in 2024.

So what you put in a book has to make sure it's very vague or vague

enough to be able to cover all the things that are happening.

Somebody knew we were going to have a pandemic.

If you go back to 1989 and you talk about Google, they

look at you like you're crazy.

But now you're in 2024.

Google is like one of the biggest conglomerates out there.

But it wasn't even on the Fortune 500.

It wasn't there.

I would think that the core principles of making a kid who into

a millionaire doesn't really matter if it's the 80s or if it's the 2024.

I'll go back to what you just said.

I got reprimanded by God and I'm like, why are you putting up all this red tape?

I just want to put it out.

He was like, you're going to write a book and it's not going to be about me.

And I was like, ah, so it changed everything that I was thinking about.

And it's man and money and power and all these different things are great,

but why not make sure that you're talking about what the truth is,

which is biblically based and putting those things into a place to be.

Did you ever start to write out the book?

Oh yeah.

Is it done?

Or do you have just the outline done?

The outline and most of it.

It's not complete.

I wouldn't put it out.

You wouldn't oh, so but you have written most of the book.

Yes.

Have you like gone to like publishers?

No, it's not ready.

But have you showed it to people?

I've showed it to two people and they liked it so far one being my wife

and The other one is now deceased.

But yeah, your wife is very honest As we've said.

She's a CPA.

She's a CPA.

Oh my gosh.

What did she say about your finance book whenever she saw it?

So being that she's in this same realm of the industry.

Being the wife that I have, she is, I'm the head of the household,

but she's the neck and the body.

It shows me everywhere I need to be.

And the more that I talked to her, the more that I knew I needed to work on it.

I'll put it to you like that because I was super excited and I'm a go action type

person and I'm big picture and she's in the trenches, everything, all the nuances.

So it was good to be able to have her say that.

So you would say that you're the spearhead and she's the stick.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

She gets the job done.

And she likes to take that stick and beat you with it.

I don't think she beats me with it, but we've learned our

strengths and our weaknesses.

I'll make her do things that are out of her comfort zone.

She makes me reevaluate things that would be a bit much.

And then where do you want to take this podcast?

Honestly, I want to take it to the masses, and like I said, I think

it's going to have different layers.

Where it's going to be for children, it's going to be also for adults.

It's going to be specifically for marriages.

I think that's one of the callings, because I've been with my wife for

a significant amount of time, and we've had a great, that's my love,

that's my passion, that's my baby.

And if I can show people that marriage is dope.

Then other people would actually do more versus just trying to

figure out how can I get a prenup?

What you can do is you can try out a bunch of thing different things on your podcast

Sure, see what sticks and then do that because that's what we did That's what we

did with Film Center because originally what we were doing was we were doing

facts and statistics And why did this?

Do this.

And why did this do that and why, what were the moves that were made and made

this successful and not, and then what we started doing was we started doing

interviews and the fans really liked interviews a lot more than the data.

Analytical statistics of why, what made what if you, if the fans are listening

right now, if you go back, sure.

We talk about Harry Potter, we talk about Sonic vs.

Mario, we talk about That's why the intro is the way it is.

Because that's originally what it was.

And then we found out It's not that people didn't like it.

Sure.

But once we started interviewing people, the numbers went way up.

And we were like, oh, okay, we can just make this an interview show.

I love it.

We can just make this a And that was one of the, that was one of the perks.

You've watched ESPN, obviously.

I think that the commentators on ESPN would probably be my

I could really get into that.

I love sports.

I also love Obviously you love sports.

You were ex NFL star.

It's hard to get me away from that.

That's why it's another part of the story, what we talk about on University of Man.

Because Let's face it, I would say 60, 70 percent of adults, especially

men, women, it doesn't matter.

They've gotten something from a sport, whether it's good, bad or indifferent.

And I'd like to embellish on some of the good things that come out of sports.

So what you could do, oh, you are big pro NFL superstar, man.

Maybe not superstar.

I told you, I saw the grass, very well manicured.

You know the statistic, less than 1 percent of college players go pro.

You were that less than 1%.

What you could do is you could bring the, you could bring your friends

from the NFL, have interviews.

I'd listen to that.

I'd listen to some NFL players talking about, hey man, this is

what was going on in the NFL.

And this is how God humbled me and grounded me.

And just play with that formula.

I like that a lot because I recently just had a conversation

with the, I call him doctors, Mr.

Jackson.

He played university football.

Oh, he played at the university of Illinois football and he was

a couple of years older than me.

He was a running back and he actually brought out and I don't want to butcher

his stuff, but CTE is a big deal, right?

And a lot of people are talking about that right now, but he had a cooling hat.

And he would actually go around and really talk to all the individuals.

And I think his message is getting across to the big 10 specifically.

I think Penn state took it over, but his message was, you can really save

people's lives and their quality of life.

If you actually have something that cools down in your head and your

brain can't do two things at once, it can't be cognitive and also overheat.

So it's going to go ahead and make sure that you're not overheating.

But if you take that function away.

Now it can heal itself.

So if you actually do that within six hours or eight hours of having some

type of traumatic brain injury, then your brain has a whole lot better

chance of being healthy and successful.

And even if you need to go on some type of therapy where you do it

like twice a week, twice a day, sometimes It's encouraged to do.

Yeah.

No, that's to bring him on.

Yeah.

Got me thinking now.

Exactly.

You could have, NFL and God, man.

And because I'm sure NFL and God, and then go ahead and interview all

of your ex friends and NFL players.

I'd listen to that kind of ton of them.

Yeah, you got me thinking about business plans over here, my guy.

And then so with you In your podcast, University of Man.

Yes.

Going forward.

Sure.

What would you say is the plan for the next six months for you?

Ironically, we just talked about doing interviews for the summer and bring on

different individuals from pastors to obviously now maybe football players

and some other things, but just really ramping up and doing things,

I would say more of the right way on the backend and making sure we have a

good product to get out and something I think everybody will be proud of.

And then also going where we would have not just the podcast, but

have it where you can see us live.

You have the, like a video show.

Yep.

So you would want to do it on YouTube?

Yes.

Like a video YouTube show?

Yep.

And then, yeah, that would, that'd be incredible.

Yeah.

And then you could have all your NFL star players.

Sure.

Who doesn't want to watch an NFL player talk about, both of them talk

about their days and then put God in top of on top of that and then

put a mix a little finance in there.

I was in grad school, man.

You'd be surprised.

My cohorts did not necessarily think that football players need to

have conversations, but I get it.

The thing is, especially with football and entertainment,

they're intertwined so much.

It's true.

Sports in general, but also the thing is, that's a whole world

that none of us are privy to.

True.

for good reason.

I'm sure there's some crazy things that happened behind

that happens behind the scenes.

It's the same thing in entertainment.

People who listen to this show, they want to know because a lot of this

is entertainment is smoking mirrors.

True.

I would imagine that the NFL is a bit of smoking mirrors as well.

No comment.

I'll leave that as it is.

No offense or anything.

There's probably some crazy stuff that go on behind the scenes.

for what it's worth.

The young men that get 2030 50 million put in their pockets at 18 19 2022.

They're doing their best the best they can.

And I just I look back and I say, wow, how many potholes did you miss?

And I just I don't see how I look at somebody like LeBron James and

not saying that he's spotless, but he doesn't have a ticket.

And to be able to be the man from 14 all the way to now 39, it's

just, it's a great feat to see.

And he's brought all his friends with him and he didn't forget about them.

He said, I want you to come, but you also have to go back to

school and do something with me.

Or else you can't be with me.

You got to provide value to me.

You've got to bring value to the crew.

I think Ludacris was talking about one time.

He said, yeah, my best friend from the, I sent him to chef school.

And now he makes my meals.

He's from Champaign, Illinois, man.

And he went to Atlanta.

So I think, isn't it true?

He had it was on an interview that he was like, yeah, man, I sent my friend

to like the best chef school I can find.

And now he's a chef for me.

There's nothing that can replace loyalty.

And when you have loyal, good friends that have been around you through the

thick and the thin, another person would be Kevin Hart, like you can

see in the entertainment, I'm just speaking on entertainment, but you have

people that are around the plastic cup boys or whatever they're called, they

will tell him that you're messing up.

Cause it's for the betterment of everyone because they all have something

that little red wagons to pull.

Do you have any degrees of separation from Kevin Hart,

friends of his or stuff like that?

Or are you signed like NDAs and stuff like that?

I'll leave it at that, but let's just say that I know somebody that's

helped him out with some stuff.

Yeah.

Hey man, if the podcast gets big enough, you can have Kevin

Hart on the podcast, man.

I'll say this.

My second podcast is roster bound.

And we're right now in the, we say from the cradle to the grave where

we're looking for kids all the way through that get to the NFL, that get

to play major league soccer and they get to do all those different things.

That's probably my second, like we just talked about with sports.

That gives me the itch to be able to talk about that.

I spoke with a guy that's going to basically Ivy league school, Harvey

mud, and it's a D three school, but he's he looks like the rock.

And he's a big kid and he wants to be an engineer and just listening to

like where people are and where they want to be, that gets me excited.

That gets, that gives me the itch.

And then what was this podcast named?

Rosterbound?

Yeah, you can go and check it out.

It's a great website.

And so this is an empowerment talking to kids, you said?

Talking to kids that want to either go to certain schools or want to go to colleges

or actually we follow them through.

So we follow them through say junior high school, all the way through

their final destination, which could be office job, or it could be a

university or it could be the pros.

Nice.

And then so the.

How long have you been doing that podcast?

That actually started this year also.

In January as well?

No, that started probably two months ago.

Two months ago.

And what was the conversation like to start that podcast?

That's been two years in the process with one of my good friends, Christopher Davis.

And we just put some hard deadlines on some stuff.

And we got it off the ground.

So I'm excited about that too.

And then how do you choose The people that you're going to have on the podcast.

Great question.

What we do is we find people that are phenomenal.

Like we find, we found a sock a woman that plays soccer.

She's going to college or she actually, this is our first year in college.

Finishing.

She's a roster bound athlete.

We found another football player from Sierra Canyon.

He was going to Harvey mud and we're just trying to give those you don't have to

be the guy that's going to Michigan or to USC, I want to hear the other stuff too.

I want to hear why you're doing this because you want to be an engineer.

I want to hear this because you want to be a lawyer.

And to be able to have your friends and family see that, then

it's, I'm following my nephew.

I'm following my cousin.

I'm following my brother.

That's my football brother.

Look at him see.

And what's the, how are you, , how do these people come on your radar?

We are doing a nationwide search.

First, it was just something that happened in Los Angeles area.

We're doing nationwide searches and we have a website where if you know

somebody that's a star go ahead and put them on, or you put their information

in, and then we actually give them opportunity to get interviewed.

And what's the website?

Roster bound.com.

Roster bound do bound.com?

Yep.

Awesome.

And so you have a God, Godly podcast and then you have a roster bound podcast

and then together you just the man.

I feel good.

Yes.

You're just the man.

Listen, thank you so much for coming on the show.

I do.

And you're putting a little God in our life, man.

It's our, it's always appreciated, especially on Memorial Day.

But is there any way people can follow you?

You have Instagram, you have websites, whatever you want to plug.

My name is Ivory, I V E R Y.

And you can follow me on Ivory40.

com, Bible Bootcamp, you can check that out, obviously Rosterbound, and my last

thing is University of Band, you can find us currently on Spotify, but we'll

be on YouTube and a couple other places.

Those are the main mediums that you can find me, but I'll end with

this, I think I listened to Terrence Howard, and he said something that

I've lived my life by, and he said that in everybody, find a little God.

They have a little guy to them and you talk to that person and he tweaked

it and said that make sure that they see the God in you first while

you're talking to the God in them.

Let's just find a way to do something great and it's a great day to be amazing.

Happy Memorial Day.

Amen.

Amen, man.

Thank you so much.

All right.

This has been Film Center News.

I'm Nicholas Killian.

We'll see y'all later.

This has been Film Center on Comic-Con Radio.

Check out our previous episodes at Comic-Con radio.com.

You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major social media platforms.

Tune in next Wednesday for a fresh update.

Until next time, this has been film Center.