Are you ready to hear an inspiring story of overcoming adversity and finding purpose in life? In this episode of Seek Go Create, we sit down with David Williams, a visionary entrepreneur who faced health challenges, financial struggles, and unexpected setbacks, only to emerge stronger and more determined than ever. Join us as David shares how he overcame hardship, built a successful insurance agency, and is now revolutionizing education through the 5th Degree Academy. Get ready to be inspired and discover the transformative power of resilience and faith.

"We need to reform the education system, teaching financial literacy, emotional intelligence, and life skills to prepare youth for success." - David Williams

Access all show and episode resources HERE

About Our Guest:

David Williams is a visionary entrepreneur, multiple business owner, and co-founder of 5th Degree Academy. Overcoming health challenges and financial hardships, David started an insurance agency with minimal capital, driving it to $22,000,000 in revenue by age 34. His commitment to positively impact lives has led to scholarships, mentorship, and purpose-driven businesses that give back to the community. With a passion for revolutionizing education, David is dedicated to teaching essential lifelong skills missing in traditional education through 5th Degree Academy.

Reasons to Listen:

1. Discover how David Williams overcame health, financial, and identity challenges to build a multimillion-dollar business from scratch.

2. Learn about the innovative 5th Degree Academy's mission to transform education and provide essential life skills for parents and children.

3. Gain valuable insights on faith, perseverance, and creating purpose-driven businesses in today's world from David Williams.

Episode Resources & Action Steps:

5th Degree Academy - A program focused on teaching essential lifelong skills missing in traditional education, including financial literacy, life skills, and mentorship for kids and families.

Action steps for listeners:

1. Connect with 5th Degree Academy: Visit their website and explore the resources and programs available for kids and families to improve financial literacy, life skills, and mentorship.

2. Reflect on defining moments: Take the time to identify moments of trials and setbacks as opportunities for growth and forward progress, rather than obstacles. Embrace a mindset of resilience and persistence.

3. Share the episode and resources: If you found the episode and resources valuable, share them with others in your community who could benefit from the insights and support provided by 5th Degree Academy.

Resources for Leaders from Tim Winders & SGC:

🔹 Unlock Your Potential Today!

• 🎙 Coaching with Tim: Elevate your leadership and align your work with your faith. Learn More
• 📚 "Coach: A Story of Success Redefined": A transformative read that will challenge your views on success. Grab Your Copy
• 📝 Faith Driven Leader Quiz: Discover how well you're aligning faith and work with our quick quiz. Take the Quiz

Key Lessons:

1. Embrace Adversity: David Williams emphasizes the importance of recognizing that setbacks and trials are not happening to us, but for us, and how these challenges open up new opportunities and shape our character.

2. Teach Life Skills: The 5th Degree Academy, founded by David Williams, focuses on teaching essential lifelong skills missing in traditional education, such as financial literacy, emotional intelligence, and holistic well-being.

3. Overcome Entitlement: David stresses the negative impact of entitlement on work ethic and opportunities, promoting a mindset of hard work and creating a positive impact in the world, thus addressing "entitling vs. empowering."

4. Purpose-Driven Business: David and his partners prioritize creating purpose-driven businesses that give back to the community, demonstrating the impact of aligning business ventures with a higher purpose.

5. Seeking Mentorship: David attributes his success to the guidance of mentors and stresses the importance of seeking mentorship to navigate challenges and achieve greatness in life.

Episode Highlights:

00:00 David Williams, 5th Degree Academy, practical education.

04:48 Found job, excelled, became youngest store manager.

08:15 Impactful family gap, challenges in education system.

12:46 Dedication paid off in earning a spot.

16:22 Responsibility to care for parents, financial struggle.

18:12 Overcame doubts, trusted faith, found business opportunity.

20:59 Pushing against limitations, realizing challenges happen for transformation.

25:46 Recognize defining moments, embrace challenges, and discipline.

29:38 Overcome fear, face challenges, create successful businesses.

31:20 Introduced to mentors, questioning school system impact.

36:03 Promote mastermind, redefine American dream with flexibility.

38:05 Free event launches financial literacy program for all.

42:52 Empower kids to find purpose in learning.

45:13 Involving idols to excite students about education.

47:38 Excited kids learn to create core values.

51:24 Woke culture provides acceptance, but has drawbacks.

55:04 Successfully broke world record by attracting speakers.

Thank you for listening to Seek Go Create!

Our podcast is dedicated to empowering Christian leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals looking to redefine success in their personal and professional lives. Through in-depth interviews, personal anecdotes, and expert advice, we offer valuable insights and actionable strategies for achieving your goals and living a life of purpose and fulfillment.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Achieve Your Vision with Tim Winders' Executive Coaching

Dreaming of a leadership role that not only achieves goals but also truly inspires? Join Tim Winders, your SeekGoCreate host, on a journey to make those dreams a tangible reality. As an expert executive coach, Tim is dedicated to transforming your aspirations into lasting legacies. With a unique blend of faith-driven guidance and real-world experience, he helps align your professional goals with your deepest values for a fulfilling and successful journey. Ready to shape a path that's truly your own? Schedule a free Discovery Coaching Call with Tim now. Dive into a conversation that could turn your vision into reality. Let's embark on this transformative journey together.

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david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: Nobody's showing up anymore.

So if you just come in and you just show up at a level that most people won't like,

you're already in the 1% of the 1%, and then people are gonna take note to that.

And it's such a rare thing in this day and age.

You can climb that ladder as fast as you want to, but nobody's being taught

and nobody's given that opportunity and nobody's getting that clarity.

Um,

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: In a world where the traditional education

system often falls short in preparing us for real world challenges, how can

we equip ourselves and our families with the skills truly necessary for success?

Welcome to Seat Go Create, where today we're joined by David Williams, the

visionary Co-founder of Fifth Degree Academy, a platform dedicated to

teaching the practical, lifelong skills often missed in conventional education.

David is not only a serial entrepreneur and investor, but also a passionate

public speaker who believes in empowering individuals through practical

knowledge and inspirational know-How With Fifth Degree Academy, he aims

to address the education crisis by providing on-demand classes that

cover the most vital areas of life.

For people of all ages.

David, welcome to Seek Go Create.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah.

No, thank you so much for having me.

I am excited to be here today.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: I am excited to be here too.

And, you and I have had a chit chat briefly, just got to know each other,

but let's pretend that we bump into each, each other somewhere, and I just ask

you what you do and people ask you that.

What do you tell 'em?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah, so what I do so I can, like

you said, a serial entrepreneur.

I own and operate multiple companies, and what I could do is, if you like,

give a little bit of my backstory, how I got started, and kinda where

I came from and, where I am today.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Yeah, we'll definitely do

that, but I do this for me.

This is just a little bit of a gee whizz type exercise icebreaker.

When someone asks you what you do, what do you tell 'em?

if you're just out and about and someone says, Hey David, what do you do?

What's, what do you typically lead with?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: I would say, I build businesses.

I create and try to impact as many lives as possible.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Very cool.

And I know we'll talk more about that impact with the fifth Degree

Academy, but, but let's do this.

Have you always been a business builder?

have you always been entrepreneur?

High energy guy?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: always up until, that started in, 2009.

So that was the beginning of my journey there.

And ever since then, that's been, that's been my mo.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So what'd you do before then, though?

'cause 2009 was an interesting time.

I was, I had three companies heading into oh eight that many would've looked at and

says, wow, this guy's got it going on.

And by oh nine, my, my guts were being ripped out, inside.

So what happened in oh nine that got you going?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah, I was a store manager at Circuit

City at the time, and, I'll give you a little bit even further back.

So I grew up as a kid and dealt with a lot.

Um, challenges, I guess you can say.

Not a lot of things came easy for me in life.

faced a lot of labels.

As a young kid, I was told that, I had a learning disability.

I wasn't gonna mount to much unless I did something with a trade

or did something with my hands.

Not knocking trades, but, that was just kind of the box that I was put in.

And I had a deep love for the game of baseball, but however,

I didn't have a lot of God-given talent, and I always felt like.

I loved it way more than any other kids, but I had to put in just so

much more effort to get a fraction of the result that other kids got.

And, going back, going back to that time, I'd say one of my first

mentors in life were my parents.

It was my dad.

And, we had a brother that went down the wrong path.

My dad really took that to heart he had two businesses himself and just started

working around the clock to afford the things that he couldn't afford.

To make sure me and my sister just were constantly busy.

I was in baseball lessons, she was in, music dance lessons.

So we didn't have time to get in the same kind of trouble that my brother did.

And, he taught me, I think, through osmosis, what hard work looked like.

And he taught me, lessons, like hard work beats talent when

talent doesn't wanna work hard.

So I started to realize early on, my early on superpower.

I could just outwork every other kid in the room.

And the God-given talent that I lacked and the God-given talent that they

possessed, I could close the gap by just running circles around everybody.

And it wouldn't happen overnight.

But if I did it day after day, the compounded effect of working hard,

could get me to where I wanted to go.

And, that's what led me to playing college baseball.

I had a dream to play, pro ball.

Ended up hurting my arm in college.

Got done with that and then kinda lived in one of the labels and went

and did, my tool and die certification that I got, wanted to take a job in

tool and die and just didn't have a lot of heart and passion into it.

So that's when I had to go out and find a job and I reached out and asked for help.

Asked one of my friends who was working at Circuit City at the time

and what I thought was gonna be a part-time gig, turned into a career.

So I ended up coming in and, working as a salesperson in a car stereo.

Circuit city, selling car stereos.

And I thought I was starting over at the time, but then, little did I know

that I was just building off of the foundation that I already had built.

'cause I just did what came natural to me.

I went into Circuit City and just started working hard and

outworking everybody in the store.

Before I knew it, I was number one salesperson in an entire store, became

number one salesperson in the company.

And I had another mentor at the time that took me under his wing 'cause he just

noticed that I was showing up differently.

Most people and I ended up getting promoted, one of the youngest

store managers at Circuit City.

at 21 years of age I got a $24 million superstore handed to me where

I had to all of a sudden learn how to lead people, train people, coach

people, and run all the day-to-Day operations of this big box store.

And I'd say that was early on.

That was a lot of my education, that I learned that had a really good program.

And I was on a fast track, I was, they eventually had me start going store

to store, and I was kinda like, Mr.

Fix it, I guess it was like a Navy Seal.

They would drop into a store and turn it around when it was underperforming.

And I later became on an innovation team with Circuit City, where

I was helping the company come up with new business concepts.

And my, my, my career is rolling around just like anybody in corporate America.

I had aspirations become a regional manager.

And, life happened, unexpectedly.

All of a sudden I started having pain all over my body.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: hold on a second.

I wanna pause you a second 'cause I, and 'cause I, I think we're about to come to

a Pivotal event, and I wanna pause before we get to that because I want to dig a

little bit on some of the things you just mentioned, David, because the, the, what

part of the world did you grow up in?

where were you at?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: grew up in Rochester, New

York, upstate New York.

Now I'm living in sunny Sarasota, Florida.

After I put in my time in that, cold white stuff.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Don't want to go.

Yeah, I'm recording this now.

We're in the dead of winter and I'm in Arizona 'cause I live in an RV and I could

go where the weather's nice and I get it.

I get that.

so if I understand, I wanna dig a little bit in there.

I wanna understand a little bit of the dynamics that led to someone.

One of the things we do here, we don't shy away from discussing

how we come to success.

And many times that's defined by what the world calls failures and things like that.

it sounds as if something that was fairly important in your family dynamic was your

brother and I get the pers perspective.

It was your older brother, is that right?

tell me the siblings there.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah, so I had a, an older brother, he

ended up passing away at the age of 49.

through drugs, drugs and addiction.

He went down.

At an early age, and, my parents spent their whole life battling and

battling through the legal system, the court system, doing everything

they could to try to save them.

And it, just wasn't enough.

It really got its grips on 'em.

And, I have a younger sister as well, and, yeah, so I'm one of three.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So I, I'm just curious,

what was the age difference?

Because you mentioned that your older brother was his name Gary.

Did I hear somewhere?

His name was Gary

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Gary Williams was his name, and,

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Uhhuh.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: it was, he would've been what,

probably 53 years old, this year is what he would've been.

And I'm, I'm 43, so it was about a 10 year gap.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Okay.

So that.

So there was a big gap there and and it seems like that had a big impact on the

family, and I think it actually plays in some, when we talk about the fifth degree

Academy later, because seems like maybe the education system was a bit challenged.

Maybe he fell through the cracks.

I don't know.

I'm not trying to, put words in your mouth or anything like that.

but, and it seems as if, now tell me if I'm wrong on this and then

I'll let you just talk about this.

It seems as if you had, I don't know if a slight chip on your should is the right

term, but you were going to succeed even when people were telling you couldn't.

Would that be accurate?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah, I would say so.

I'd say that was the case.

I just felt failure wasn't an option for me.

And, when I faced some of these challenges, I knew, God put me on

this planet for a bigger purpose.

I wasn't sure what that was yet.

And I know it wasn't just to have an almost life and.

I was in a place where I was, I guess finding myself in,

in this part of the journey.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Y Yeah.

and the reason that I think that's important is that what we find when

we have these discussions about redefining success and what it means

there is often something that's driving the people like you that

end up excelling it's interesting.

I bet if we really dissected it, there's not that much of a difference

between you and your brother.

There were just some circumstances, some issues and things like that.

have you put any thought into that?

I know he was 10 years ahead of you, but have you put any thought

into kind of how he ended up one path and you ended up another?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: I say, one of the things that I realized

later in my life is like all the different places that took me to where I want to

go, and probably all the different places that took him where he wanted to go.

we both had great parents, but sometimes that's just not enough.

And, sometimes it takes a village to, to raise a young man or, or, or young woman.

And, for me, every time I got to the next place in my life,

it was always, it wasn't a what?

It wasn't a win.

It was always a who moment.

It was always the right mentor that took me under their wings that led me

to where I was the right influence.

And I think in his circumstances it was just the wrong people.

He started hanging around with some of the wrong influences.

they say we're the average of the five people we surround ourself with the most.

he had the wrong five people when I was a kid.

I was a little bit different.

I was, challenged, learning wise, bullied a bit when I was a kid, so I

didn't even have five friends to hanging around with to really be influenced by.

And, but as I started to stumble along in life, I accidentally came across

some of the right mentors that I was blessed with that got me on the right

track when it came to my brother.

he didn't have those mentors outside of my parents.

And, when he went down that road and started the rebel, it was.

A slippery slope and just, one, that one we couldn't get him back from.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: It is interesting you mentioned baseball.

I think I've heard this time and time again.

Often sports.

Will be something that's very critical for people That could be, I don't, I think

all of us are at risk to some degree,

but, but obviously if you look at your brother then you maybe the thing that

distinguished, but how important was sports in keeping you along a path of,

achieving what you ended up achieving?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: I would say it was incredibly important

'cause I really loved the game.

And then, like I said, dad.

he worked around the clock seven days a week, operated on four hours sleep

to afford the things that he couldn't afford and keep me busy, so I didn't

have an opportunity to get in trouble.

So I had, private baseball lessons, baseball camps, leagues that I was in and

just really fell in love with the game.

And, that's what led me play into a year at, year at college at FLCC, at

one of our local community college.

I played college ball and it was just, something that I really,

fell in love with at a young age.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: I've also, and this is not taking

anything away from your drive and your discipline, but sometimes when people

are involved with sports, especially when they're looking to achieve the next

level, college and then pro, it's like you probably didn't have a ti have time

to get involved with a lot of other junk.

You, you were probably almost 24 7 on the ball field, correct.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: No, that was exactly it.

And then.

when it came to college too, like even when I was in college, I was

honestly not the most talented person that was out there.

what got me there was putting in the work.

And then when I was in tryouts there, there was a lot of other

people that had alternative focuses.

Like my whole mission, I was all in on the game of baseball.

I was up running every single morning at 4:35 AM even before practice.

I was practicing in the off season.

I was practicing, while they were going out and partying

and doing what college kids do.

I was just all in.

What that ended up resulted in.

There was a lot of people that had more talent than I was in the initial

tryouts, but they couldn't hack it.

They were out the night before.

So when we had to be in the gym at 4:30 AM or 5:00 AM and run, I was already

conditioned months ahead of time.

Prior to them, they were just starting to get conditioned.

And then in addition to that, they just weren't putting in the time,

weren't putting in the work, they're staying out partying all night.

So one by one they just started dropping like flies and.

I was one of the, I was, one of the ones left standard, ended up

making the cut based off of that kind of resiliency and, played out.

Played out a whole season.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Yeah.

One of the thing before we start jumping into some of the projects you're working

on now and what happened when you transitioned away from what you were doing

with Circuit City, what was, one of the things we don't shy away from here is we

talk about the faith component of success.

What was, describe what faith looked like when you were growing up, or, I don't

think church is always the answer, but what was that faith component and at

what point, 'cause I know faith is an important part of what you're doing now.

At what point did faith enter the equation for you?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_1_01-04-2024_131033: Yeah.

So for me, face always been a big part of my life.

My dad was always a very biblical man.

He is.

Read the Bible probably a dozen times, goes to church.

Same thing.

My mother and I was just brought up in that sort of household.

and I'd say for me, like that was a big pivotal moment.

Like even in the Circuit City days when, all of a sudden life happened to me.

And, what ended up happening to me when I was at Circuit City on

this fast track and I woke up one day and my body was just on fire.

I could barely move.

I was in so much pain, it just felt like I had kerosene running

through my veins and I was pushing through all this neck and back pain.

And then one day I woke up and I couldn't walk, lost my ability to walk.

My ankles were swelling so big, my feet were swollen so big.

There was this inflammation all throughout my body.

I came in to work on crutches and then my same district manager at the

time told me, they're like, Dave, you know you're gonna have to go out and

disability and take care of yourself.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: So I went out and started going doctor,

to doctor to figure out what was going on because, I couldn't walk and I

was just dealing with immense pain.

And it's so crippling.

I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

finally I found a doctor, a rheumatologist.

They figured out what was going on.

They're like, Dave, you have an autoimmune condition.

It's called, ankylosing spondylitis.

So it's basically your immune system.

It's overactive, it's attacking itself and that's what's causing

the inflammation in your body.

You're attacking your own joints and it can cause, spinal degeneration over time.

And the doctor looked at me in the eyes and said, Dave,

I'm gonna be frank with you.

most people with your condition and you have a very severe case of this.

So this is gonna be very highly probable the case for you.

End up on long-term disability.

That's what disability is there for.

Don't be afraid to use it, just gonna let you know you're gonna

be on long-term disability.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: how old were

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: a kid.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: How old were you, David?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: at the time this was, this

was back in what, 2006 I had.

I've had it for about 20, 23 years.

I was probably about 20, 21 when I first got diagnosed with it.

Then I had a second, um, you know, got back, got back on my feet after that.

And then I had a second wave where, it put me off of work again.

And that was right around 2008, right before, 2009 when I

exited, I exited Circuit City.

So here I was at the time, I had a doctor telling me that, Dave, you're

gonna be on long-term disability.

And I thought about that and it just wasn't congruent.

It didn't sit well with me that, and I knew God didn't put me on this

planet to be some guy that was gonna be on a couch on long-term disability.

I looked at my wife and I knew she deserved better than that.

And then, I looked at my parents and I knew I had a duty and obligation,

um, growing up to be the one to take care of them someday because,

I watched my dad again work around the clock, never save for retirement.

Never took care of himself.

we always, money was something that was always scarce in our household.

So I knew one day there was gonna be a time that he couldn't work, and

when it got to his retirement years, I had to be the guy that changed the

trajectory of my family tree when it came from a financial standpoint.

So here, this was weighing at me, it gets to the six month mark and

Circuit City, and I'm still not well.

Circuit City says, we can't hold your job any further unless you

come back to work in a couple weeks.

So what I did.

I was at this tipping point, and that was my tipping point between faith and fear.

And I'll tell you, I really leaned into my faith in that moment and step

out and went beyond the labels and pushed myself to get back to work.

And in that moment I wrote myself out a check for a million bucks.

And it wasn't about the money, whatsoever, but I knew if I could cash that check and

I could find a way, and I had no idea.

My bank account had just a couple zeros in it.

Because I got into a tough financial situation, being off

of work for six months as well.

But if I could figure out a way to cash that check, what I could do

is create a life on my own terms that's conducive for my health.

I could give my wife the life she deserves to have, and I could be my

hero's hero, which was my dad and my mom.

I could be able to give them the life that they deserve.

So I looked at that check every single day.

I had no idea.

I was so far away from how I was gonna cash it, but I prayed on it.

Then all of a sudden, one day I met a friend of the family that

was in the insurance business.

Young kid.

He was younger than I, and he was doing really well.

And that was my first encounter with a little something called passive income.

Reoccurring revenue.

And I was like, sign me up.

I can't work in retail anymore.

I know I can't be on my feet anymore with all the pain I'm dealing with, so

I gotta do something on my own terms.

I'm gonna start getting my insurance license and I'm broke at the time.

Everybody's telling me, Dave, if you're gonna do that, go work for somebody first.

Most businesses fail.

You're sick.

You are surely gonna fail.

I ignored all the naysayers.

I kept moving forward, getting my license, prayed on it some more,

stepped into my faith and then all of a sudden, if this wasn't by

God's design, I don't know what was.

And this caused me to lean in even further.

Uh, I walked in the Circuit City one day and there was a insurance brokerage in

that very same shopping mall across from A DMV, about a hundred feet away that

was taken down their shingle and going out of business at the very same time.

I knew it wasn't because they had a bad location, and I knew it

wasn't, was because people didn't need insurance and they were right

across from A DMV where people by law had to have automotive insurance.

So I was like, that's gonna be my location.

that's my sign from God.

Now I gotta figure out how I'm gonna get the money.

And so I prayed on it some more.

And then, I came into work one day and the liquidators come

up to me and they said, Dave.

All the open merchandise, all the loose merchandise, the customer

returns, the display models we gotta get rid of for pennies on the

dollar, whatever you can get for it.

It was almost in that moment, it wasn't even I

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: and it, yeah.

Hold on a second, because when you talk about Circuit City, I have these.

I don't wanna say nostalgia, but I think about the times

that I spent at Circuit City.

There's some people listening in that don't know what Circuit

City is they don't realize

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: like a Best Buy electronic store.

so that'd be

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: it was awesome.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: Oh

yeah,

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: was awesome.

And I, I do wanna pause though, one question though before we

jump into the insurance thing.

David, often someone who has the ability to just grind it out and throw their

energy and their physical all into it, like you had health, obviously

you are a, an athlete type person.

Often it really does.

Um, I don't, I don't even know how to describe, but it creates challenges when

all of a sudden that is hindered or taken away or whatever words we want to use.

Talk briefly before we go further about what it did for you.

When you, all of a sudden, again, athlete strong, you're able to,

you're able to grind it out.

You're able to throw yourself in and work 24 7, I'm guessing, and then

all of a sudden you couldn't do that.

What did it do for your identity and who you were at that time?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_2_01-04-2024_132646: No, I'd say, I definitely

question my identity 'cause that's what it was in baseball.

It was my superpower.

I would just be in the batting cages all day, every day to my

blood and the compound effect.

Becoming a better version of myself at the game that I was trying to play.

And now I'm in the game of life, right?

And I'm showing up that same way.

now I have these health challenges, so I'm still trying to show up

and I'm pushing through 'em.

But it was like, I'm coming in now with 150 pound vest on,

still trying to push through 'em.

And now I got this mental challenge because I got people telling me, they're

like, Hey, you're gonna be on disability.

And I'm pushing up against, these limitations that other

people are trying to push on me.

And I'm asking myself, is this gonna be, is this gonna be it?

Am I gonna be dealing with this for life?

Am I ever gonna get better?

I'm even questioning God, why is this happening to me?

I started to realize later it wasn't happening to me.

It was happening for me.

When we talk about the Challenges.

I believe those are the thing.

A lot of times our prayers are answered in the form of challenges.

'cause it's the very challenges that get us to where we wanna go, that

build us into the people that we, into the people that we need to be.

So going back to the Circuit City part where I was there and, leaning into my

faith, prayed on it some more, all of a sudden the liquidators, came up to

me and they had to get rid of all the open merchandise and I immediately said.

What if I just made it easy on you and I just bought up all the merchandise from

every Circuit City store, all that open merchandise within four hours a year.

they're like, how much do you got?

And I'm like, I don't have anything in my checking account.

But I got a 401k with a little bit of change in it.

I got my last $7,000 to my name.

They agreed.

And I bought up about 70 to $80,000 worth electronics.

I was so excited.

I didn't even tell my wife at the time, forgot to run it by her.

She was working in retail.

So I just started bringing truckloads.

A merchandise home, and then she gets home and then sees she

doesn't have a living room anymore.

It's like literally filled to the ceiling with bow system speakers, remotes, like

everything that I could get, I'm like, I'm gonna put a dollar on this and, sell it.

So I did that and luckily she gave me grace, like she normally does, and, ended

up buying fixtures from Circuit City at the time and building a little mini.

Electronic store in my basement where I cataloged it.

So now I'm getting my insurance license at night.

I'm pushing through these health challenges.

I'm dealing with financial challenges where I had to lend money from

people to just to pay my mortgage.

The shot clock is ticking when I'm about to go on, disability.

And then at night, in the after hours, selling things on eBay.

So I ended up paying off all my medical debt with the eBay, and

then I ended up raising the minimum capital that I needed to start.

I couldn't buy an insurance agency, so I had to do it the hard way, the gritty way.

I won on a shoestring budget or just start one on a shoestring budget from

complete scratch with no customer base.

So that's what I did.

I had the minimum capital was $25,000 at the time and which was

only really two months survival.

'cause we had to start with two employees.

I had all overhead and, I was going down to training while

other people were driving in nice cars and staying in hotels.

I was driving in a beater with no ac going down in the dead heat of summer.

Staying on the floor of my sister's place that, also didn't have any

ac so I'm like dripping sweat, sleeping on an air mattress every day

just to save every dollar I could.

I got through training and then, they get in and they're like, I open up

my doors and I got two employees, and they're like, all right, we're gonna

train you for two weeks, and then after those two weeks you can start to sell.

And I'm like, hold the fort.

I only got about six to eight weeks operating capital and I

can't eat into a quarter of that.

So we're gonna do things a little bit differently.

I'm gonna sell and then you're gonna teach me as I do it.

So I started pulling people outta line at the DMV, or even remember my first

customer this day, her Heraldo Hernandez.

It should have took me 30 minutes to write his policies.

It took me four and a half hours.

Luckily he gave me a lot of grace.

But I learned quick and I, I had to just start running circles and

acting like somebody was trying to take it away from me 24 7.

'cause the reality was if I didn't make things happen within that short 60 day

window, I was gonna be living into that label that my doctor said on a couch.

I'd been out of business before.

the opportunity even started 'cause I had the payroll, I had the mall location.

But little did I realize by showing up the way that I did with that level of urgency.

That was the best way that I could be a leader and the best way to train my people

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: have you ever put any thought into that,

circuit City didn't make it obviously, and you were working your way up the

Circuit City ladder, and I I don't think God brings stuff on us, like sickness

and stuff like that, but have you ever thought about, had you just continued

along that Circuit City path and then they folded what your life would've been like?

That's a

No, absolutely.

And I think that, that's why later when I reflected, I realized

God wasn't doing things to me.

He was doing things for me.

And I think a lot of times when, when we pray and we step into our

faith, we gotta pay attention.

Because, while God will answer our prayers in the form of miracles, poof sometimes,

but I think more times than not, the miracles that he puts in our path are

opportunities where he'll force a door shut to open up a door that we're meant

to walk through to, to live into the shoes that, he wants us to be the creators

that he wants us to be in this world.

And I think a lot of times when we're sitting in a setback and

we're in the midst of our setbacks.

It's important to have a clear mind, to pay attention to those moments.

And I think there's two different types of moments.

There's inconsequential moments and then there's the defining moments.

So sometimes the inconsequential moments that are this big, we blow up and we turn

into a mountain or a big landmine in our lives and they create so much noise that

sometimes we miss those defining moments.

And luckily for me, I was able to.

Recognize some of those defining moments that God was putting in my

path when the shingle was coming down on the insurance agency, when

the liquidators came in and do that.

and to me it was just perfectly aligning so well, I knew this was the path that

God intended me to be on, and he was putting these, he was putting me through

these trials because just like anything else, anything great in life doesn't come

without great challenge and adversity.

You go to the gym and you try to get a six pack, well guess what?

You gotta show up day after day, sometimes for years, putting in

the work, experiencing the pain, having the discipline in order to

yield that, it just doesn't happen.

and I think that's the same thing with anything great in life.

There's challenges along the way.

And most people reason I share this is because most people, they stop, they

allow fear to paralyze them or they stop when the challenge is there and they quit

and they think it just didn't work out.

Sometimes it's just going that extra inch, it's going that extra degree in order

to, in order to really get where we want to go and get what we want out of this.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Yeah.

And one, one of the things that I love about the story and how it's unfolding

is that, yeah, you were a hard worker.

your mindset, you were always, open and looking, but you were positioned because

of what many would look at as hardships.

You were positioned to do the thing that was that next step

along your way, that next journey.

And there's examples like that.

If we look back at successful people throughout time, we will often see that.

so you open up the agency, you got that going, and you're hustling to do that.

What was the timeframe then?

What year did you, get that started?

Yeah, so that was 2009, and then I'm hustling day after day, and

before I know it, like my people are starting to mimic me and they didn't

become at the exact level that I was 'cause I was just going like my

life was on the line, which it was.

But they started to become 60% of what we were.

What I was doing and we didn't really have a marketing budget, so I'm pulling people

outta the mall, peeling people outta the DMV and then I'm just doing old school,

picking up the white pages and smiling and dialing and figuring out talk paths.

And they start doing the same things.

And before we know it, our very first month, we ended

up one the top in the region.

Probably about three months in.

We ended up being number one of the top in the country where they started having

me go on speaking circuits, at Allstate.

How being a new agent, how I got the results that I was getting.

They started to allow me to open up multiple locations and then fast

forward, we ended up, scaling to about 50 team members and growing that to

$22 million in, reoccurring revenue.

And then that check, I set myself a goal.

I wanted to cash that check by 35.

Ended up cashing it by 34 and a half.

And was blessed to become my hero's hero.

I gave my wife the life she deserved.

I was able to create a life on my own terms, where now I'm a business owner, I

gotta work incredibly hard, but now I can do it on my own terms from my own health

while I'm continuously figuring that out.

And then for my parents, I take care of their bills.

To this day, I bought them their first brand new Cadillac and one of

the proudest moments of my life, just here a few years ago, I moved them

down to sunny Sarasota, Florida with me, and we bought them their dream.

Retirement home.

So we did that and I exited that first company.

ended up selling it off to my team members that we, developed.

And, they were ready to go off on their own.

So I'm like, things were becoming kinda less entrepreneurial in the world at

the time in Allstate specifically.

So I decided to sell to them, and that was another scary moment.

I felt like I was starting over.

Hey, I'm questioning myself.

Fear goes in right.

And, I think sometimes fear we can define one of two ways, is forget everything

and run or face everything and rise.

And I, and that voice kicked in of a mentor that told me that.

I was like, Dave, you can do it.

You're gonna face everything and rise and you're just gonna recreate it

and do what you did the first time.

And sure enough, found a business partner was getting outta his business.

We had like similar core values.

we ended up starting another insurance agency outside.

And, we grew that in a short few years, larger than the one that I did.

We started a recruiting company.

I built that into a multi seven figure, the number one recruiting company in the

insurance space, over 5,000, positive video testimonials and Google reviews.

We ended up, a couple software companies started to get into real

estate investing my money in the real estate and then all of our businesses.

'cause what a real heart and passion for me is impacting other people.

So we try to make all of our businesses for purpose businesses, and what

that means is we take part of our.

our time, our energy or profits, and then put it back into impacting community.

So in my brother's name, through our insurance agencies, we did a

thousand dollars scholarships where we probably gave away, I don't know,

$50,000 worth of scholarships to kids.

at risk served on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls

Club in our recruiting company.

We take resources and teach, inner city youth and veterans how to show up in

the interview process differently to help them gain meaningful employment.

And we give part of our profits back to, inner city kids give, the

homeless different things like that.

And then I started to realize, again, back to every time I went to the next place

in my life, it was a who moment, right?

So I started intentionally trying to create those who moments going

into masterminds, networking, and then hiring mentors.

I came across a mentor, a good friend of mine now, Cole Hatter.

He introduced me to another mentor that I hired and life coach

with now for about four years.

Tim Story and another mentor of mine's, Dave Meltzer.

But Tim, I was talking to him when we were riffing back and forth and

man, really missing the market.

We didn't learn any of the stuff that led to where we are today from school.

What is going on with our school system?

Imagine if the Masterminds where we're learning today, if we had that

when we were a kid, we'd be like on cloud nine right now, or on the moon.

We'd be doing some really huge things if we had that sort of head start

and then a light bulb was a God idea.

It's what if we had a mastermind for kids and their families so they could

get a head start and they could, because started to think about the statistics.

People like my brother.

Going down the wrong path.

How many other kids are going down the wrong path?

How many other David Williams that there were that maybe faced labels,

but they weren't able to find the right mentor to help them out and

they lived into their labels and they're still stuck into the setback.

you look at the statistics that are out there, 33% of kids,

they tried to medicate me.

Luckily my parents didn't allow it.

But 33% of our kids in our school system now are medicated in some

way, shape or form, whether it's Adderall or some antidepressant med.

What is a kid depressed about?

What are we doing to our kids?

And then you look at, in America, it's 78% of, kids that are 25 and

under have subprime credit scores, and they're living paycheck to paycheck.

90 some odd percent of kids are graduating school feeling they're ill prepared.

What does that leave them?

They don't wanna start life because it's fearful.

They should be excited to go out and create.

And excited to go out and start life in the world.

So what do they do?

They maybe go to college for the wrong thing, just so they can delay the

inevitable and then fall in the debt trap and ring up a hundred thousand

in debt, which is okay if maybe you're gonna be a doctor or a lawyer

or you have specific intention that you're gonna get a ROI on that degree.

But most kids don't know what an ROI in a return on investment,

and they just do it to delay life.

And now they start out in the hole and they think I'm gonna start

the American dream and get that new home, get that new Mercedes.

And I made it.

I got a home, I got a Mercedes, I got a hundred thousand college

debt, and I got the new iPhone.

But guess what?

I can barely even have any extra expendable income

and I can barely survive.

And I'm just like, I was maybe one health challenge away from losing it all.

And

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So David, David, one thing, one

thing, let me pause you a second.

let's again, let's have a little bit of back and forth dialogue here.

one of the things I'd love to talk about this current

state of the education system.

Both of my parents were educators and I do not disagree at all.

The education system has challenges, but this is something interesting.

I'm a product of that.

You're a product of that.

and I think some people might argue, but look, you, you know, you had your

back against the wall and y'all made it.

Okay.

So if someone were to say something to the effect of, yeah, but the education system

is just the base level, people are gonna figure it out like David did and Tim did.

How would you respond if someone brought that up?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: yeah, the statistics I would

say show otherwise, right?

you look at the statistics in America where everybody's

living paycheck to paycheck.

You look at financial literacy, it's non-existent in our school

system, and I think it goes way back to the Rockefeller days.

And if you pay attention to Rockefeller, he put millions of dollars in the

school system and he said, I don't want.

Critical thinkers.

I don't want entrepreneurs, I don't want creators.

I want workers and consumers.

And I believe that base foundation has been the foundation of our

education system ever since.

And I think it's by design that they want to, that they want to create it that way.

And there's a reason why, the very thing they in, instead of talking

about money, instead of teaching about money, we teach money myths.

Like money is the root of all evil, so nobody wants to chase it.

But if you read the Bible, that's not what it says.

The worship of money is the root of all evil and money.

I think just my take on money is it makes the world go round.

Everything that we do is tied around money, so not talking about money is

actually the impolite thing to do.

We need to be, we need to be teaching our kids to have a great relationship

with money, and that's what we should be doing in our school system.

Not teaching parallelograms rather than, how to show up in life, how

to win emotional intelligence.

When we have a mental, high health crisis going into our country and

we're not teaching kids how to handle their emotions, they have 12 years is

an incredibly long time to educate.

12 years is a long time to create, I would say, some supernatural kids.

But we do the opposite of that.

And we have so many people that are suffering in this country and that's what,

when I was talking to Tim about that, I was like, Ima imagine if we created our

own mastermind where we brought some of the best and the brightest and the most

brilliant people and really taught the things they should be teaching in school.

We put faith back in the school 'cause they took faith

and core values outta school.

We started telling, kids how they could live a life by design freedom,

and maybe flip the script on what the American dream really should look like.

It's not going out and getting into the debt trap and just having

that new home and having, keeping up with the Jones, with the car.

But maybe you could take advantage of a new home buying program and instead

of buying just a home for yourself, you buy a duplex and then you rent

out the other side of the duplex and you don't gotta be an entrepreneur.

But then all of a sudden the passive income from Airbnb, that

other half, or renting out that other half, is now paying for your.

Living situation, it's paying for your Mercedes and now everything you get

in your W2 is all icing on the cake.

And now, instead of just trying to survive like every other kid and every

other American is doing right now, 'cause that's the reality of America,

they can thrive and actually live and enjoy their life and embrace freedom.

That's the narrative that we want to teach.

And then we wanted to bring in, we're like, Hey, we'll bring in, some of

the best and brightest influencers and we're thinking, how do we kick this off?

So what we did a free two day event.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: David, let's go back to how

the problem was created.

I love, I actually was studying some things recently about

the issue with Rockefeller.

a lot of people would argue that our education system does

a good job of getting some basic information out to everybody.

I actually have this thought that what we're kind of doing is, I hate

to use the term dumbing down, but we're basically dumbing down almost

culture and society, that there does need to be some different paths.

That people go down and I don't know that everyone needs to sit in a public school.

We homeschool our children and, and all of that.

But, what I'm hearing you say is that you guys are working towards some other

alternatives, but I don't think you're gonna want to do this with the masses.

Is that correct?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: We wanna do it with anybody that wants

the opportunity and wants to learn.

So we actually, we decided, hey, we're gonna launch this.

And we ended up doing a free two day event.

We brought some of the biggest speakers in Eric Thomas, Jim Quick Tim Story.

And then we broke a Guinness World record for the most amount of parents and kids to

learn about financial literacy together.

That showed us that there's a thirst and there's an appetite out there.

So we said we're gonna make this program.

If somebody can't afford it, we're gonna bless 'em and give

'em a grant to give 'em minutes.

So anybody that has the will to learn and they wanna kinda learn

differently and they want the path to success that we're gonna leave.

No family, no kid left behind.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So are most of the people that

are coming to you, are they the kids or the parents or both?

What's the, what's the ratio there?

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: It's typically through the parents and

then the parents are bringing the kids in and we decide we wanna put a spin on it.

'cause it's tough to get kids excited about education.

We're like, how do we do that?

And we can influence through influencers.

What if we took some of their idols that are out there?

Like one of our next calls we have coming up, Carolina, she's a child influencer.

She's 12 years old.

She's a YouTube sensation.

With 9 million followers, violinists, and she's gonna be talking about

how she built a life at a young age and what the work looked like.

So now if we can bring in influencers like that, that kids already follow on

social media now that gets 'em excited about education, they get excited,

then they're maybe to see a Carolina, or maybe we get a Tim Tebow that

comes to talk on a call and they're like, wow, we're gonna see Tim Tebow.

But now they come on the call and then they learn some of the things that

are gonna get them to life by design.

So we're taking influencers to influence and excite kids around education and try

to do things differently, and our goal is to keep growing it and expanding it, so

we keep tracking bigger and bigger names.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Sure.

So one of the things I did, I went over to the site, yesterday when

I was kinda looking around and I do I guess one thing I want to

ask is the name, the fifth degree.

I noticed that you guys had, the method for success and, fate, finances,

fitness, family, and then Freedom.

I guess that's where that spins off from.

Say just a little bit about those find, foundational items.

We don't have, we don't have time to go into

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: Yeah,

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: at length, but, but just talk

a little bit about that because obviously y'all are building it on

those five items, which is cool.

I think.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: No, absolutely.

So you know, the fifth degree academy, it's the five degrees of learning that I

feel they don't teach enough in school.

Faith.

Family freedom, finances, and fitness.

Because without faith, I don't think you can go anywhere,

no matter what your faith is.

I think you gotta have faith as the foundation first and foremost.

understand with, it's not about keeping up with the Joneses, but

it's like creating a life by design.

Creating that freedom where you can enjoy life and not just be, a

prisoner chain to your nine to five or just, working your life away.

And then, so many Americans do and you never get to enjoy it, So we

want to teach them a different way.

And then, also, just like me, nobody taught me at a young

age to focus on my health.

And I truly believe one of the biggest things that triggered me,

I was a young buck starting a $24 million superstore Circuit City.

I was running and I was working 16 hour days.

I wasn't eating right.

I wasn't working out anymore After I got done with college.

And, I think stress triggered it and that's what triggered, I had a genetic

disposition for the disorder that I have.

But I do believe it was the lifestyle.

It was the stress.

It wasn't taking care of myself.

And there's so many people that don't learn that until it's too late.

And without your health is wealth.

And we want to teach that kids at a early age is to like, take care of

your body because you only get one.

And how to handle stress and how to process emotions and how to, maybe

Feed our body the right nutrients so we can go out there and, feel great when

we're, when we're, building our lives.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: So what's the funnel that brings people

into, obviously people listening in, if there's a parent or something.

We're gonna give 'em the information here in a little while.

But in general, are you bringing people in through online means?

Are you bringing people in through some kind of local structure?

what are some of the avenues that someone can discover or find what

you're doing with Fifth Degree Academy?

That might be a marketing question, but that's cool.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_4_01-04-2024_135104: Yeah, no, absolutely.

We're in the Apple store, the Android store, so we got an app you can

download for the community to go on our biweekly calls with our experts

and influencers we have coming in.

we're on social media.

we did that, two day world record event to kick it off, broke the Guinness

World Record, and now we're doing micro events like that, going out

and serving the community for free.

Like in March, we're actually going down to la.

We're bringing in some, big speakers there, bringing in all local families.

We're gonna be broadcasting that virtually and then bringing anybody in

local that wants to be a part of it.

Attending shows, anywhere we can where there's a, there's a hunger

and we're starting out with, some of those entrepreneur parents.

starting out with the homeschool parents.

'cause we know entrepreneur parents really get it.

We know the homeschool parents get it.

And when we build the foundation there, our goal is to take that

community and then bring the rest of the parents in and really show

them what learning can be all about.

And get their kids to think differently and show up.

'cause again, I go back to my brother, nobody ever really taught him.

He never discovered his why and his purpose and his passion in this world.

And I think there's so many kids when you look at 'em, go down the wrong path.

That they just don't have that why they don't have that purpose and the mission.

And we wanna help every kid that we can touch find that, that purpose-driven life.

Because when you have a purpose, you wake up with a different pep in your step.

You don't want to quit, you don't want to give up.

You're excited about life.

And that's what we want to help, families do.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Sure some people, I can almost hear

some people in a media setting and sometimes we have to turn this off,

but they would want to know what you're doing for like an at risk type group.

I was fortunate it sounds like you were too, that you showed up at school.

At least when you went and you had some food that, that you had eaten

that morning, your parents probably encouraged you to go to school.

And there's a lot of, that to me, the system that we've got, there's

so many, not even like your brother, but there're just so many that aren't

even, they're not even getting to the table or getting even to, to the

place to slip through the cracks.

I think you mentioned some scholarshipping and some things like that, but is there

something in place now or something down the road for what I think we

would term at risk type students?

And if there's not that's fine.

I'm just curious about that.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: Yeah, absolutely.

That's a great question.

So we actually have a buy one bless one component to our program.

For every paid membership.

We'll actually take at risk youth that maybe can't afford, their family, can't

afford it to come into the program.

Or if we ever have a family that says, Hey, I wanna come

in, but maybe I can't afford it.

We'll have a grant opportunity where they can come in at no cost 'cause we

don't wanna leave a family left behind.

And we actually partner with organizations like that.

So we're in talks with the Dream Center down in la, the Boys and Girls Club, and

we'll offer this up to free for some of those organizations that actually serve,

those very kids, those at-risk kids that might, that might need it the most.

But if you think about that too, those are the ones that are struggling

in the education system the most.

They're not excited about education.

it's not, the current system's not working out for them, and that's why

we want to take some of their idols.

Some of the people they look up to, some of the people they get excited

about when they hear their name start to bring them into the call, and then

that gets them excited to attend.

And then once they're there, the byproduct is that they're gonna learn a

thing or two about a thing or two from that, from somebody that's got weight.

Because a lot of times, even when I was growing up as a kid, my

parents would give me great advice, but sometimes we hear it from our

parents or we hear it from a teacher.

It's in one ear and out the other, but then all of a sudden, maybe a, an

influencer celebrity, somebody comes in that's knows a thing or two about a

thing or two that's had some real world success and they're already looking up to

that person and they're excited about it.

Now all of a sudden it reinforces the principal where we're not,

trying to replace the school system.

We're not trying to replace parenting.

We wanna partner with the school system, we wanna partner with

parents, reinforce the things they're already trying to teach.

And so it sticks and it cements, and then it makes kids wanna.

Have something to chase and take action on.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: You mentioned when you had conversations

with Tim that you thought this would be somewhat of a mastermind, but I think

there's a digital component to it and I think mastermind is a word that's used

in an odd way in our current culture.

David, I'm sure you're aware there's some people that, we go and there's

10 of us that sit around a table and we talk, which I love, by the way.

I love doing that.

but when you say mastermind, I think it sounds to me like what you're doing

is creating an avenue for people to get some things outside of the norm.

Tell me all the ways you mentioned events you mentioned, 'cause I don't know, is

there a mastermind per se, or is it just that they're stepping into this app and

it gives them access to a lot of things?

Tell me a little

bit more about the logistics of it.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: So basically the Mastermind is

we do two live calls a month.

so ev the second Tuesday, the last Tuesday of every month.

That will bring in an expert speaker, and then we'll typically try to do

every month an influencer where it's a big name individual and have an expert

on the other call, and then they're coming in and teaching on things.

And then we give some homework in between too.

So I'll give you an example.

One of the calls, Tim's story came in and talked about having the miracle mentality.

Tim Story's a bestselling author, life coach of the Stars,

works with Robert Downey, Jr.

P Diddy came in, kids were excited about meeting with him.

And then after that call.

We actually gave the parents and the kids an action guide and taught

them about how they can create core values in the household.

'cause every one of my businesses, we created core values and those

are the very things that cemented the foundation of our company.

It allowed us to grow.

We're like, a lot of times when you look at families, they don't have

a defined, it's maybe talked about here and there, but it's not clear.

There's not clarity when it comes to core values in the household.

So we'd give them a template and then mom, dad, and the kids, and it's gonna

be different family to family, can sit around and create those core values and

commit to hold each other accountable.

And it's not just the parents holding the kids accountable, but maybe mom and

dad come home one day and they're having an off day and they're not living into

that value system that they agreed upon.

And now the kids.

Can help hold mom and dad accountable to help strengthen

and cement the family unit.

So our core values, to give you an example, is, put God first in everything

that we do, live with integrity.

Everybody that we touch, leave them better off.

A Williams never quits.

A Williams always finds a way, a Williams always shows up in life.

A Williams is set out to change the world.

So we set out these core values in our own household.

So as my little guy grows older and older.

We can speak to those things and we can live into those things and he knows what

it means to be a Williams and we wanna teach whether you're a, whether you're a

Smith, you're a Johnson, whoever it might be, what it means to be in your family.

What are those values that are important that you can live by that,

that are gonna allow you to really, take that next level in life together.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: what are some of the challenges,

David, that you guys are identifying with this model?

We've already talked about, there's this baked in system of, I, I,

oh, I hate to say mediocrity.

It's even less than that at times, that we are, that we're fighting against

in our current society and culture.

But what are some things that as you look out over the next few years, you go, these

are some hurdles that we're gonna have to overcome with this model in this system.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: I think, one of the things is

entitlement, and I think that's what's being bred in our school system.

It's being bred by the media.

we're, instead of teaching our kids to be a victor, we're teaching them to be a.

You can't simultaneously be a victim and a victor at the same time.

It just doesn't work.

You gotta be, you gotta choose one or the other.

But when you look at it, there's this sense of entitlement.

It's all being from the top down in our education system that's

being, instilled into our kids.

And you're seeing that in today's culture in society where, if you

look back 10, 20, 30 years ago, it was a totally different dynamic.

It was a totally different culture.

But people don't want to, you know, we see it even in our recruiting company that

people just don't wanna work these days.

There's this sense of entitlement that I'm not gonna take a job

unless I do this, and this.

When you look at back in, in my era, when I was growing up, heck, if you

were the janitor, you showed up and just gave it everything that you got.

And I think, a lot of that's being lost.

And there's a sense of instead of working and earning.

What actually being taught, it's the war on entitlement.

So I'd say that's gonna be one of the, that's one of the core challenges there

is creating that mind shift in competing against culture, competing against

society that's actually teaching that and instilling that in this next generation.

mean, you look at that, you look at, in colleges, they have safe

spaces, um, for people to go.

you look at this woke culture that's taking over and you

know what I think that is, is.

You look at historically, why did kids always join gangs in the past?

kids join gangs.

They don't have a father figure.

They don't have a mentor in their life.

And so now they see somebody there.

I can maybe go into this gang and then that's gonna be my community

because I don't have anybody else.

And now, in this day and age, when I was a kid and I was

bullied, it was pretty isolated.

social media can take one post to destroy a kid Now.

If you are a kid that goes into school and goes into society and you're not

academically strong, you're not wealthy, or maybe not a jock, and you just don't

meet some of those stereotypical molds and you don't have a place, or you're maybe

being bullied, who's gonna take you in?

it's the new woke culture and the woke community will take me in, and now all

of a sudden, if I identify over here and I identify with these principles

that I may not agree with, At least I know that I can no longer be bullied

and now I'm a part of something.

I was a part of nothing.

And if anybody ever started to stand against me, I got

cancel culture on my side now.

And that's what we're sadly seeing in our society today, is if you look at

this kind of woke ism, so to speak, and you look at the percentage of people

that are falling down this path just over these past couple of years alone.

It's eight x of people identifying into this new kind

of, this new kind of movement.

And it's not resulting in anything good.

it's that entitlement mindset.

It's that, the rich just get richer.

I don't have the same opportunities because of X, Y, Z.

we live in the greatest country on earth and everybody has a

phenomenal opportunity to be here.

But if you have the right mindset, you have the right work ethic, and

you're taught to go out and show up, especially in this day and age.

I think everybody today versus back in my day, have more of an opportunity

than ever because you know what?

Nobody's showing up anymore.

So if you just come in and you just show up at a level that most people won't like,

you're already in the 1% of the 1%, and then people are gonna take note to that.

And it's such a rare thing in this day and age.

You can climb that ladder as fast as you want to, but nobody's being taught

and nobody's given that opportunity and nobody's getting that clarity.

That, they can get everything out that they want outta this life, but it

typically comes after hard work.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Yeah, it does definitely appear

as if we're kind of almost dividing up into two camps.

There's that group that you just mentioned, the Entitlement group, and

then there's a group . Unfortunately, from my view, it seems this group is

getting smaller and smaller that they still do want to either work or learn or

grow or whatever term you want to use.

but let's just say someone is in that group or they're a parent that's in

that group of that maybe even smaller group that they do want to grow.

They do wanna create some atmosphere environments for their children or

someone who's in that age group.

What do they need to do?

What is an action step that they need to do, David, to take the next step to maybe

step closer to what you guys are doing with fifth degree or anything like that.

You could give information on where they can go and stuff like that here

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_5_01-04-2024_140214: So they

can go to fifth degree.com.

It's five th degree.com they can subscribe on there.

They can reach out to this, at support@fifthdegree.com.

We're in the Apple store, we're in the Android store.

if somebody's out there and you go to the website and you're

like, Hey, I just can't afford it.

again, we have a grant process for that 'cause we don't wanna

leave any family left behind.

We're really not doing this for the money.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Definitely we'll include, that, those

links and all down in the notes.

Hey David, we are seek, go create those three words here.

I'm gonna let you choose one as my last question.

Choose one of those words over the other two, and why, which one do you choose?

Seek, go, or create.

david-williams---5th-degree-academy_6_01-04-2024_141345: I'm gonna choose, uh, create, and actually

you can't see on the other side of the wall, but I got the sign behind me.

It says, go to distance.

And on the other side of the wall it says if you build it, the

reason it says if you build it.

One of my favorite movies growing up as a kid was the Field of Dreams.

And I feel like throughout my life, leaning in my faith, God always

spoke to me through that movies.

'cause when it came to creating something, I would hear that voice.

If you build it, they will come.

And when it came to, the Fifth Degree Academy.

And we did this, event and we broke the Guinness World record.

I'm like, how am I gonna get all these big speakers to come in?

And, I feel like God spoke to me and I heard the words, if

you build it, they will come.

If I build the table, if I build the right program, if I build the

right image to it, the branding, they all these speakers are gonna come.

And that's exactly what happened.

God brought 'em our way.

We had over a million dollars with the speakers kind of pour into the program.

We still got people outreaching that's in there.

And, uh, I, I believe we're all put on this earth to be creators.

Um, you know, we weren't put on this earth like Rockefeller wants

us to be, consumers and, workers.

I believe God put us on this earth, uh, Rockefeller to be creators and, to

make, positive impact in this world.

So that's why I choose the world.

Create.

tim-winders---host_1_01-04-2024_111034: Very good.

Yes.

And great movie reference there.

Field of Dreams, I think one of the best sports movies ever.

Just, just

say that David, I appreciate it.

We are pulling for you in the Fifth Degree Academy.

definitely go down and check out the links.

If you've been listening in, share it.

You probably know someone that needs to connect with David and what his team are

doing over there at Fifth Degree Academy.

Make, make sure you go check it out yourself if you've got children or if

you are a child in that age bracket and, if not, share it with others.

We are seek go create here releasing new episodes every Monday.

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Until next time, continue being all that you were created to be.