Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - Become The BEST Version Of Yourself With Zion Clark, All American Wrestler & Motivational Speaker Episode 173

Episode Date: December 14, 2021

In This Episode You Will Learn About:  Embracing your TRUE self   How to persevere and achieve greatness    Believing in YOU and stepping into your confidence  Resources: Website: zionclark.com   Read Unmatched LinkedIn & Facebook: @Zion Clark Instagram: @big_z_2020 Twitter: @Zz_tops330 Snapchat @big_x97 Youtube @Zion Clark Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Show Notes: Our guest, Zion Clark, a well known wrestler and motivational speaker explains how we must take the chance to embrace who we are and get outside our comfort zone. When you set yourself apart from everyone else and allow yourself to be your own person, you will achieve more than you ever dreamed! It’s not about doing what everybody else has already done. Find what you can do that’s unique to you!  About The Guest: I am so excited to introduce today’s guest, Zion Clark, an elite athlete, author, motivational speaker, and a Guinness world record holder as the fastest man on two hands! Zion is passionate about reforming the foster care system, as he spent seventeen years of his life there. His well known Netflix documentary, Zion, won two sports Emmys and is one of the longest running documentaries on the platform, for more than three years! He is here to share his story and inspire us to be the best version of ourselves today.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Explore all of the delicious flavors at snapple.com. I took that chance to just set outside that line, set outside to comfort John, even if it's just for a second, you need to get that taste of what it's like to really set yourself apart from everybody else. Not in a battle, but like be your own person, achieve your own great feats. You know, it's not about achieving what someone so did or doing what he did over there. You know, it's more about what can you do? What's something that you can achieve?

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Hi, and welcome back. I'm so excited for you to meet our guest today. Zion Clark is an elite athlete, author, motivational speaker, Guinness World Record Holder as the fastest man on two hands, and also passionate about reforming the foster care system as he spent 17 years of his life there, known for his Netflix documentary, Zion won two sport Emmys and is one of the longest running documentaries on there for more than three years. If you haven't seen this documentary yet, check it out. He's 24 years old and is coming from Ohio, but today I'm meeting up with him in

San Diego. Zion, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. Every chance I get to share my story, every chance I get to just inspire more people I always jump on it, you know me personally makes me feel good And on top of that I'm doing something positive. You are doing more than something positive I'll tell you I research all of my guests ahead of time and Zion I have to admit I mean I was crying reading your story, which I'm sure happens very often with a lot of people. It's such a heart warming, yet really hard story. Your life has not been easy, and it's just such a beautiful trajectory of your life. And I'm just so proud of you.

Like as a mother, I'm watching everything research, everything, and I just want to hug you. I'm so proud of you. So, is that happened to you all the time? People come running up just wanting to hug you? Yeah, more often, I guess now that I've really been able to establish myself and I really showed, like just not, so people have shown myself that I can do something good on a whole different level,

you know, on top of supporting my family and holding our family name, you know, because everyone's that really developed me into who I am in the very end. Well, let's start out just so people understand because I think people who see how high profile you are now, how successful you are now, it's hard for them to understand that first of all, you were born without legs, which is, I know that you don't see it as a disability. Many people do see that as a disability. If nothing else, it definitely differentiates you right from everybody else.

But not only did you have that one challenge to deal with immediately in life, but your mother also had to give you up when you were born and you went right into the foster care system, which as we know is not a good experience. You know, people don't understand, I think, unless they really dig into your life,

how hard things have been for you and how hard that window of time was when you had to move around from home to home, just trying to get by. What got you through those days? I think that really got me through times like that. You know, I had my friends at school, I had wrestling, which was really like an outlet for me.

Ever since I was a kid, you know, it was the one place I could go to during all those times with wrestling. It just, it gave me just that peace of mind, you know, I was cheated as an equal. I didn't have to wear my prosthetic legs. I didn't have to be forced to be like everybody else. If anything, they encouraged me to be more different

and try to see what I could do. That's one of the things I love to develop the documentary was seeing that you didn't really want to wear the prosthetic legs. In fact, you preferred not having them on and you and your coach preferred coming up with solutions and wrestling that embraced your body. Exactly, and I love that because you really took

the time to understand what crazy part about this is, they're not working with me for most of the time I was a wrestler up to that point. You know, ever since I was about seven or eight years old, his identical twin brothers, one that got me into the sport of wrestler. So I was connected really closely with their family for years at that point. And they always, every time I came across every time I was at a practice, they would stay after trying to help me figure things out. And sometimes something will work, but then it wouldn't be perfect. So yeah, I keep going back to the drawing board and it just, they spent time, like years, really helped helping me.

It finally paid off. And I'm glad I could really do right by them too, you know, make them proud because every time I wrestle, everything I learned are from those two, those two guys. Oh my gosh, your coach is so proud of you. It's so obvious in the documentary and so touching. But so everyone that doesn't know your entire story up until that time, you were not a champion wrestler out of the gates. This did not come easy to you. Oh, absolutely not.

Wrestling ever since I was young was extremely difficult for me actually. And it really forced me to work harder, I guess, all the time. And I got used to, you know, getting beat up year after year. For one, it kind of gave me a toughness to, I just really loved the sport so much. I didn't care how many times I lost, and care how many times I got beat up, I would just keep going back.

Because it wasn't just about the actual sport. And, you know, ever since second grade, all the way up to my junior year of high school, maybe you like with a year in middle school that actually didn't do too bad, but that's middle school. So just that whole journey up until I was like 17, I was just like, okay, I lost everything.

And I friends though, and that was my last school thinking back then. Well, before my last year, my coach was talking all the, like, juniors about, like, next year, and how it'll be good to get, like, all his offers and how, like, if you work hard enough, you'll get it. And I'm just thinking, like, I haven't done anything,

like, freshman year, zero win, sophomore year, zero, junior year, one win. I was, like, 35. Everything just was not looking up. And when I left that summer between my junior and senior year, I haven't read talks to my mom because she was, she wanted me to get a job or something if I wasn't going to be doing too much.

And I was like, mom, can I just train every day? Like I promise, I'll do it all day every day. And she was like, I got a proof of it. Next thing you know, for three months straight, I trained almost Monday through Sunday, two, three times a day What's going to different tournaments still losing over the summer? And then I finally stepped out see my senior year first match and just killed it and then after that I won like there's like 16 17 more in a row before I lost my first one of that year and by then I was beaten like Some of the best guys in the state and And it was just, it was a weird feeling for me and telling you like, because I was just doing everything

I've worked on just, I probably did over a thousand shots, a thousand takedowns over a thousand takedown defense is just training something so many times that I didn't practically second nature. And yeah, I took off next year now in that match to go to the state, which sadly I lost, but it opened up a whole bunch of doors, because it's a match before you know, I knocked off one of the top-rank guys, the state, which sadly I lost, but it opened up a whole bunch of doors, because it's a match before I knocked off

when the top ring guys in the state. This guy was battling against me, he won to zero and chugled over time, starting debt. And he was predicted to win the whole tournament that year. And I think he did. Yeah, it just opened a whole bunch of doors. I just so happened to play on some of my best performances at the time that I needed to do him,

like doing the most honestly. Well, Zaya, let's talk about where did that confidence come from because I know that there was this couple year window, some big changes happened. Your mother came into your life, some really significant changes happened. What was that transition like to stepping into confidence for you? It was rough at first, you know. My mom, she didn't know what to expect. I didn't know to expect, you know, I was kind of tired

of everything at this point. I was at the point where like, you know, I was either going to get sent to her or I was going to get sent to a group of, and after that, you know, just kind of out in your own. And you're 16 years old at that time. So at that point, I was really just kind of over it. Like I said, you know, I was just so drained, so tired of everything. I was getting in trouble constantly. I was getting kicked out of school. I was getting all sorts of things

I shouldn't be getting into. I just had this thing about me where I just didn't care. I just had my friends or whatever, but at that point, like the home life, I got so insane. To me, I was just like, you know what? Because matter if I go to school or not, they're gonna show up in the school they're going to show up at the home

or whatever happens. And that has happened so many different times. I was just like, okay, whatever. And then my mom stepped in and she just completely changed everything up. At first, I had no idea what she was doing and why she was acting, what she was acting, you know, like I would get in trouble and she wouldn't yell at me. She would just talk to, like it'd be a serious talk. I'd still get in trouble, but like she was acting, you know, like I would get in trouble and she wouldn't yell at me. She would just talk to me. Like it'd be serious to talk. I'd still get in trouble, but like, there was this calmness about her.

Is that really resonated with it? Because I was so used to just forever, just like screaming and yelling every time I did something bad from the get off. And she just completely had patience and told me nothing about love and opened up her home and my sister's and my sisters and my uncles, my grandparents, my family, like my family,

I have a huge family, like we're spreading like all over the country, and they completely all welcomed me in. And next thing you know, school started to get a little better, it's not get kicked out, grades started to go up, wrestling started to go up. I watched my sister her name is Indonesia, I call her Indy, I want to share up, wrestling started to go up. I watched my sister, her name is Indonesia, I call her Indy. I want to share when the long jump state title

with the torn MCL at the, like that year. And then I joined track and I was like, okay, is she gonna be a state champion and I wanna be a state champ? So next thing you know, I trained for a couple of months in track and field, I was not one, two state titles and got a four top place.

And he's out since just because they really motivated me, and they were like, what I wanted to be like. I wanted to be a good athlete. I wanted to be a good student. I wanted to just be happy honestly. Next thing you know, I'm just completely resonating with that man. I got adopted.

Funny thing, the day I got adopted, my mom and I were so accustomed to living together that we forgot. It was just a normal day. Like I was at school, I was in class, she got to work. I was like one of those days where I wanted to just like kick in a little bit, be comfortable somewhere in like a torn wrestling shirt. It was one of my favorite shirts. Wearing some ripped sweatshirts. And,, next to you know, my case worker shows up. And I was, she was like, you ready to go. And I was just like, completely shut.

I didn't know what to do. I was just like, for what? I was like, I asked her, what did I do? I was like, I was like, what did I do? And she, she's like, you getting adopted, you forget? And I was just like, yeah. But that's such a testament to how comfortable and at peace you were in your life. Wow.

It was so crazy. Next thing you know, like my mom, like her work gave her off like the rest of the day. She spent over to the courthouse and met me there right when I got to the school we walked in. She was in a work clothes. I was in some school clothes and got adopted on the spot, went back to school. She went home and tried, went back to school, she went, she went, oh, I had to go back to class.

That was what you felt was really the turning point for you in your life. Was that what you felt? It wasn't even like a big, it was big and official, but it wasn't like a ton of people. It was always like how it was all the other times where I was adopted. But this time felt, I didn't feel nervous,

I didn't feel like it was the wrong thing, you know, it felt completely right. The way that you just described that sounds like how people when someone's going to get married and they'll say, if it doesn't feel right, you're going to know. And if it is right, you're going to know when it really is right. And that's just, I felt like exactly what you're explaining right now, that there'll always be a reason something didn't feel right or you're questioning something. But this time, it just felt something didn't feel right or you're questioning something. But this time it just felt like it was the right place to be. Yeah, and like I said, when we're back to school

and I see my last names Clark, I'm winning titles, I'm kicking people's, but on the mat I got good grades, getting college offers, just everything ever since then it blew, everything just blew up since I've been 18. And it's really quite a journey. And I'm still seeing what's what I can do honestly.

You're 24 years old. You are at the beginning of your journey, my friend. How did the Netflix opportunity come into your life? This random guy actually just messaged me a Facebook. I remember I was in my room. And I was like, Mom, who is this? Because I've never had anybody like that reach out to me or anything.

The biggest thing I had done at that point was I got followed around by ESPN for like a second half of my rest in my school, my second half of my senior year in high school. And I was just like, Matt, who is this dude? You talk to pretty much. So I was like, I don't, because at that time, I wasn't a very social person, even through all the wrestling in high school, especially when I started to get more attention

and more TV stuff where they were pop up, I would not talk to them. I just didn't like that part of being successful, I guess. And I was just like, no, I need to focus. And that's exactly what I did. Like I might say something for 30 seconds or less and I would sit with my team, have a good time with my team. And I told my coach, I was like, Coach, do you talk?

I don't know what to say. I got the other thing, I'm 18. I've never spoken to really anybody. You know, I have my few friends. I'm really just chill and try to just survive. I feel much better. So how did it go from you being so focused and not speaking to these people

to you actually launching a documentary on Netflix? We did a phone call, me and my mom in this dude's name was Floyd. We were like, it sounds like a good idea. He was able to sell it to us. I guess, and next thing you know, they flew out from New York, we reported for a week and a half. I went to college and Like a year and a half later. I get an email with the finished product and they submitted it to Sundance and Next thing you know, we're in the Sundance film festival and we get the best short film at the Sundance film festival

And I felt like city Utah. Including yeah, I was in the middle of my resting season at Ken State, and my coach was mad. But I was like, I missed a match, and I was a stutter. But this is, that was like a big opportunity. He even understood he was just mad. Because he really needed me to be there. But it was also a big thing. National security experts are warning.

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netsuite.com slash monahan. NetSuite.com slash monahan to get the visibility and control you need to weather any storm. NetSuite.com slash monahan. Yeah, being the Sundance film festival's kind of a big thing. Yeah. So I went out there and it won that short film. It did a really cool interview. We met a whole bunch of like top like top tier top level people. And at that time, I think I'm only like 20. It was like 20, 21.

And went back to school, made up a test. And went back to the college I you know because I was in school. I was studying my business major So that next year I get a call and I'm like hey Netflix is gonna Netflix wants to pick this up And I was just like yeah, there's like what do you want to do? I was like do it and Leading up to them even behind it, you know, it hit almost every big film festival around the world, like all across the United States, all across Europe, all across Canada, like everywhere. And it got number one in almost every single one of them. And then Netflix picks it up. And then overnight just everything was different.

I forgot, then you forgot about the day it was dropping. You know, I was in school. I was, I was like spring, like spring time. I was getting ready for finals. I was completely not in tune with what was about to happen. And it blew up overnight, just spread like wildfire. And then like, you know, people coming up and all this stuff. But again, I still wasn't ready to really talk to people just yet. So I just have everybody like keep their distance and focus on all my stuff. You know, I was at the regional finals and this news team, it came up like right before I'm getting ready to get on the mat. And I gave them the craziest look. I did not look at my coach, like I didn't even say anywhere. That was just like you just this has to get shut down right now.

And he made him back up because I gave the chair. I gave the camera man this crazy look because like I was ready to like when you didn't rate it for a match, especially a college match, you're getting ready for a fight essentially. I don't want to talk to anybody. And you should have got me like two hours before that. I'm not on the side of the mat with my headguro. But yeah, it was just like crazy. That tournament ended up getting second place at the regional championships and making it to the national championship.

It was just a crazy moment. I had beat this dude in the semifinals and just I beat him back to, it was a match. Like he was like, we were going at it. I'll just catch those takedowns and then it'll fold off on defense. So like as the match went on the store just kept going up. And then I need to let the tech right at the very end. So tech and wrestling, and you swim by 15 points. If you have 15 more points, the other person no matter what the store is, you are like, we want to sign it. I got in the get one of those. And then I lost in the finals for

first place. very close match. And what point did you decide to start going for the Olympics or writing the book or launching the speaking career? How did those things take place next? So the speaking career happened pretty naturally, kind of by itself. I remember I was again, back in Kent State.

I was in class, the athletic director comes in, it's like, I need to talk to Zion. So I was like, okay, what did I do? Because, you know, I used to, like, I would do a typical college life if I'm, if I'm going to be honest, you know, but, you know, I was like, what did I do? And like, I was thinking like, I should have been out, I shouldn't have been in trouble for anything. And he brings me to his office and sets down these big stack of papers. And I was just like, oh, what did I do? Like, oh man, what did I do?

Camping goes through. Yeah. Yeah. And he opens it. And it's just all these letters and these hand drawn pictures from this school in Akron, Ohio, which was like a refugee school. So at the time, you know, all that, the world, I was going on in Syria, they were sending families were sending their kids over to all different parts of the country just so they could escape and

you know, survive. At these kids, they seemed my documentary. So they wrote me letters. It's only about like 80 kids in the school. And I looked at the athletic, I looked at every single one of them, looked at all the pictures. And I looked at them, I was like, hey, can I do something for these kids? I was like, I gotta do something. And I didn't know what I was saying, didn't know what I was doing, but they felt like the right thing to do.

And he was like, we can, we can show up in school. I was like, I'd love to talk to these kids. I just wanted to say like, thank you. I'm like, shake their hand, give them high five or something. You know, I just wanted to go like meet them. And they had set it up so where it was a surprise and I came into this gym and all their faces lit up. And this one little girl,

a drawn up really nice detail. Takes her to set B.A. Zion with like the Kent State logo on it. So I was able to get Kent State and BS and sports in Ohio to help me make these shirts that said BS on and the whole school of the staff, everybody got them. And I got to speak to these kids and it was the coolest thing ever. Honestly, they were just so intently listening. I went down to every single one of them. And I asked every single one of them in the middle of me talking. It was like, what do you want to be when you grow? What do you want to be when you grow? What do you want to be when you grow? What do you like, every single one?

And after that, I was just like, then I started talking about it. Like if you wanted to be this, this, this, this. I wasn't paying attention, but somebody told the Fox News in Cleveland that I was doing that. And next thing you know, there's like a whole news crew caption my very first speech I ever get I never get Oh my gosh, that happens to be a committee

Yeah I didn't know it so it was too late that's so I just went and talked to these kids I like there's nobody there You know how was like Rilland on like talking to these kids and saying thank you, you know It's the best like at the time was the best I could do for them, you know I was in college I felt like the only thing I could do is just show my face and Say hi. Hopefully I can make it like open. I can make their day or something and it was the feedback You got from that speech or the feeling that you had when you left these that I It wasn't even that you know at the time. I still wasn't I was still in school

So I went back to school next thing, you know, everyone's going to want to get opportunity here, opportunity there. And I just kind of started speaking. Like even now, like I used to just, I would just go up there and speak what's on my mind. And even now I need the same thing. I can't, I am physically unable to write down a speech. Like I can't do it. My brain doesn't work that way. It's it's all about if I do it that way. My thing is I have my set points. I'll go in and I'll speak off those points. That's smart. That's very smart by the way. So many people try to script everything out and that is not a winning combination. So it's so good that you do it the way you do. Yeah, I feel like it more natural is better. And ever since then, speaking's been getting crazy. You know, right before COVID hit, I was starting to hit big locations

like different colleges, different schools. Always be with kids. Like it was, I was just having so much fun. And next thing you know, I'm speaking in Vegas at the F-45 World Conference. That's huge. Yeah, I know. And it was crazy. It was in Vegas.

And it was just the coolest time I've ever been in Vegas. I've really been to that side of the country at that point. I was with my squad, my friends, my manager, just my whole support system. And I went out there, it was nervous. You know, there's over a thousand people in this crowd, super nervous, and I go out there. And it was like, just like, I was the only one up there. And I just spoke with on my mind, just walked around, had one of those mics on so I could move freely on my hands, just walked around and spoke my piece. And since I was done, it just the whole,

like, the whole venue just like erupted. That's when you know you found your modeling, like that's it. Yeah, it was crazy. The first thing I did when I went backstage I was like, hold on my mom and tell her exactly what just happened. I was like a big thing I did.

And the only person I could think of at the time was like, I wish my mom, and in my personal I could think of it at the time, I was like, I wish my mom could be here, you know? So I just kinda did that in Ohio pretty much, and just hop on the road, kinda set myself up in California a bit. And in the way, the Olympic wrestling came around, that was at the end of my college career.

I decided to actually leave college early because I saw a better opportunity, and the window opportunity was closing and closing pretty fast. And I was just sitting there at school studying these books and I was like, I could do a lot more, I could be a lot more, be a lot better at wrestling, be a lot better at speaking, be a lot better at everything I do. If I went out, out west and not that there's nothing wrong, not that there's nothing wrong with getting a degree or anything, but some people it doesn't work out with. And I think I'm one of those people. Next thing you know, I'm in California, and I just crashed out my buddy's name is Joey Davis.

He's a bellotor fighter that we met actually when we were both in college, so. So this guy, he's known, he's like a four-time national champ. He went 133 wins, zero losses. He's one of my closest friends. I went to his house, crashed out there, and just got some of the best training I'd ever had over the next, like, seven, eight months, just every single day, like in their training with some of the best wrestlers, some of the best best fighters in the world. Yes, I went from just, you know,

college, you can call it something wrong. There's good guys in Yes, I went from just, you know, college in college on the wrong. There's good guys in college. A lot of guys, but some guys turned into Olympians and stuff out of college too. But I felt like my route might have been better that way. And next to you know, I'm sharing with this guy's name, his name is Antonio McKee. He coaches up in Long Beach. And this guy is absolutely incredible. His son A.J. is actually currently the Bell Tower World Champion. I just want it about a month and a half, two months ago. Shout out to my boy, the mercenary, A.J., Yard and I love you, Doc. But these guys, they just opened it up to me. Actually, not really even opening it up. But first

day I met them, coach told me he was like, you can either work hard. I will personally kick you out of my gym. And he said, I don't care, you got enough with Doc and he said, I don't care. If you big, he said, if you want to come in here and work hard, I can make you into the champion you want to be in. You want to be in. And I'm sorry, I'm with that. And so I started coming in every day and I'm, I got beat up pretty bad for like three

months before I really started to catch the hang of it. So say you're right here in your level and this is where college is at, these guys are up here. So Diane's showing us right now if you're listening to audio of this, that if you're like in the middle part like on a scale of one to 10, if you're around five, that you, you were at a five and these guys were running at a 10. At a 10 or higher. Honestly, you got guys during that gym, Tyrone Woodley, Ram Page, Jackson, Tuckled Out, some of the most decorated UFC champions that are stuffed in the cage. How do you know what a car against them?

You're not going to be in a arena like that. What do you say to yourself when you're walking in there? I'm going to take down the biggest dude here. I want to take down the most average dude here. I got to work my way up. Here's the thing, everybody in there is good. Everybody is good. Everybody is a professional. Everybody has professional fights, professional title fights under their belt.

And then there's me. And, you know, yeah, I'm an all-American. Yeah, I did some big stuff in college, but those guys are all Americans too. They're guys are national champions too. They don't care. They've been there, done that, they're under the next thing. And so I walked in there and just started working my heart

as, you know, we have my boy, Slice, he's actually a Kimbo Slice junior. We call him baby Slice. So like, you know, like, you know, Kimbo Slice is right. Yeah. Yeah, and so I'm Kevin. And he's a savage. Dude has bricks for hands. I remember one day, I just decided like, I think I'm going to put the gloves on. I think I'm comfortable and then he punches me in the mouth. I just get my brain rattled a little bit.

And then I came back for more. You know, you got to have that mentality. The sport of fighting, even wrestling, once it gets to a certain level, it's not for everybody and it can't get dangerous. That's why you have to, like, have some training. That's why you have to have some sort of skill. I didn't know if I had that type of skill, and I didn't at first, but Coach was, like, like, when my last coach, he was very patient with me and very instructive and savage all at the same time. And now I feel like I'm a very round fighter. I'm actually working on a possible contract with the organization where I'm not saying yet

that you definitely have heard of. But- We can imagine what it might be. Yeah. Zion, what you've done is amazing. And I've gotta tell you just from my personal experience, I want to talk a little bit about unmatched, your new book, which is incredible, by the way, you did such an amazing job.

I have a 14 year old son, and we were reading it together, and my son was in, he first looked at me and said, Mommy, he doesn't have legs. And I said, I know sweetheart, but let's see how the story unfolds. And we keep watching. And he says, Mom, he's way more jack than me. And it was so cute to hear the way he saw your story. Right? And how do we get so strong without like, he was really trying

to understand to apply it back to his life, right? And it was such a, and with your tattoo, no excuses. And I want to hear about that, you know, my son with this book, look to me, he said, I don't think I can make excuses anymore. Can I? And I said, no, my friend either can I? And that was just like the, for any parent listening right now, this book unmatched, go right now to Amazon. It's an editor's pick, by the way. I don't know if you saw that which is unbelievable. That's amazing. Like 0,000. 1% of books get Amazon editors pick, but there's a reason why this book is so inspiring. It's so motivating. It's so beautifully done. And I'm just blown away by it. So thank you for writing it.

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Crunch. I feel really appreciate it. Thank you. This book you know when I was writing it the whole time I was writing it. I wasn't thinking about myself honestly. When I first got approached by a candle wig and we talked about this, you know, I'm writing two more books and these, those books are going to be nothing like this because this book I wanted to be very special to something that was important to me.

And I told them not that the other books aren't, but like the other books are going to tell my full story, the ins and outs, but this book, I wanted a younger audience to really understand, and I want to be able to inspire a younger audience, and I want to be able to show them that like anything is possible, anything can be achieved, you know, and I felt that just with my daily interactions with kids when it comes to speaking or just out in public, I love children, like honestly, and I just felt that if I could transfer that energy that I have when I'm with them into this book, the gap of misunderstanding would be completely close. Oh, it's so true.

And so well done, I want to read two quick things from the book that I think are important for people to understand a little bit. This is not a heavy read. Okay. So here's one page that I just I love. Technically, I'm disabled, but I refuse to see my body as less than whole. There is a difference between not having legs and believing you are missing something.

And I can't miss what I've never had. That is so incredibly powerful, Zion. Thank you. It's how I feel though. It's really how I choose to live. People in this life, they don't see that bigger picture. They don't see what's so near their side. For a while, I felt like I didn't see what was on the other side either, but at the same time,, achieve your own great feats. You know, it's not about achieving what so-and-so did or doing what he did over there. You know, it's more about

what can you do? What's something that you can achieve? That's, that's you need to use. Oh, that's, that just hit me right between the eyes. I'll tell you that's because so often we just set a target of this is I want to be like that person and she that goal And it has to unravel that way, but that really thank you for sharing that because I realize it doesn't have to be that way And in fact the way that you've created all your success is going a completely new path that nobody ever thought of Yeah, you know like I said before it was it was a gamble You know, I went out to California with $150 in my pocket.

And it was very challenging for the last couple of years. I was back and forth between Ohio. I was trying to set myself up. So I got constant opportunities out in California, which was crazy because after the Ellen DeGeneres show, I was down there with my mom, a whole bunch of doors open, and I had a really serious talk on my mom before we were supposed to fly back to Ohio. And I was like, I don't think I'm gonna come back.

Like, that was the first one of the first times in my life where I really believed, I was saying, like, I really believed what I was saying. And like, on a level to that extent, you know, I'm on the other side of the country, far, extremely far from home. And my mom was like, if you need anything, just let me know. I was like, I think I got fast forward to now. I have my own place. I'm out. I have my own crib in San Diego, California, which I'm so happy about. Never have to see snow again if I don't want to. That's always going to be like up there for me. But like seriously, it's just the opportunity that opened for me and the doors that opened.

It was a journey as a process. You know, I failed a lot. I messed a lot of things up. I, it is a learning process. I practically went into these different types of industries when it comes to acting, being an author, being a motivational speaker, just being an entrepreneur in general, it's a tricky world. That's for sure. And I felt like after a while, I felt like one, I felt like I'm

matured over the last couple of years, just navigating and experiencing these things and figuring things out, figuring life out for the most part. And now I feel really confident what's about to happen this next year. Some of the things I couldn't even talk about because they're like huge, but some very special things are happening with my team and I were all excited. It's so exciting to see and thank you for sharing

that you've had the past few years working on this, and that's all coming off of the success that you built and the tenacity that you build and the motivation and discipline that you built in your earlier years, everything is building up the success that you've created for yourself from nothing. And with adversity, every day coming at you in so many different directions, you just allow for no excuses. And that is the most powerful message that I think anyone can hear. Thank you. You know, when it comes to no excuses, especially with the Taddle, my back. The way that came around, there's like two different stories behind it.

The first half of the story was, I really wanted to talk to, my mom was like, you know, I get to talk to until you're 18. And so, when I finally learned that I made it to the state front, like the state championship, I was like, my, I mean, I could do. I was like, if I win a title for every title, I win only two titles, but you only have to. And it was funny. And I didn't think she would go through it. You know, I was 18 talking about my rear end on that one, but she was like, do you? I was like, oh, okay, you know, that that else is the sense of my really wanted to be a stage head just for my sister

wanted to, but you know, my family always like that have our fun and stuff like that, but I ended up waiting two titles some of my I was like, all right, I'll buy you two tattoos. So the first one I got was her name with a crown and next one I got was no excuses. Well, it makes for unbelievable images in your book. So I will say you got an amazing mother that made him excellent decision. Oh, yeah. Hey, my mom, she is simply amazing. Another part of why I chose no excuses

is our sister coach. And it was coach Percy. Percy, me, he actually. And this man was such a kind man, but at the same time, he was like our conditioning coach too. And he would make me do extra stuff just because he wanted to see how far I would go. Like he would honestly like see what my limits were. I remember I was in this match.

It was a big tournament senior year and I was like going up against this dude. I was one of the top five guys in the state. Like this isn't even at like any qualifiers, it's just regular match. And we go into overtime and I had torn my shoulder a little bit, like a big bruise on my shoulder. And it just, I was really starting to kind of give it up a little bit and he literally like grabbed me by my shirt, like by my singlet and like picked me up

and told me like, he's like, you better not told me like he's like you better not you better not quit. He's like this guy you can be you've been hanging with him this whole time he's like why can't you be like you should be able to go over there and take him down and he sits me on the ground snacks me on my back super hard and it's like no excuses you let's go. And what happened in that match? Do try to jump over me and I caught his legs mid-air and won the match? Was it a huge upsell this time? No excuses for the win! That was it right there, defying the moment. Yeah, and it just, that moment stuck with me forever.

Because like that was also the match. As soon as I won a match like that, three different colleges that were at that tournament, like three percent different representatives came out to me. Three different college offers, just like that. Well, this is a defining moment for me, Zion. It's been such a pleasure having you on the show. I'm so grateful for you creating Unmatched, for the books that you haven't written yet,

for the Netflix Plushal, and for what you're gonna do next that I can't wait to see how does everyone find you and how does everyone find Unmatched. You can find Unmatched, you can actually go into Target if you wanna go into a Target and buy it. You can order on Amazon, you can get it off in the girl, you can get it into Target. If you want to go into a Target and buy it, you can order on Amazon, you can get it off Indigo, you can get it from bonds and nobles off. And then to find me, my handles are,

my Instagram handle is big, underscore Z, underscore 2020, my Facebook, Zion Clark, Snapchat, big underscore Z97. Definitely subscribe to that. I've been doing a whole bunch of different adventures on there. A lot of funny content. YouTube, sign on Clark. All right, well, we're going to be adding you on Snapchat. I did not know about that yet. My son is going to be extra happy. We will be cheering you

on on the sidelines. Can't wait to see what you do next. I keep going with notes. You said. Thank you. All right. Until next week, we'll be creating our confidence. I hope you will be too. I'm on this journey with me. At a time when change is constant and we are pulled in far too many directions, we need a way to stay present to life and to increase our ability to remain calm, think clearly, and maintain our well-being. Many studies indicate mindfulness improves our mental, emotional, and physical health. On a mindful moment with Teresa McKee,

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