THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Left for Dead, Raised by Hustle: How to Win When Life Breaks You! Feat. Tiki Davis

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

From the Streets to the Boardroom: How Tiki Davis Turned Pain into Power Some people get knocked down and never recover. Others get knocked down, rise up, and change the game. My brother Tiki Davis i...s one of the rare ones who took every single setback—poverty, injustice, incarceration—and turned it into the fuel that built his empire. And in this conversation, we go deep into the truth about what it really takes to rise when the odds are stacked against you. Tiki’s story isn’t just about going from nothing to something—it’s about the man he had to become in the process. We talk about his early years in the roughest parts of West Texas, the moment he found himself behind bars, and the choice he made to rewrite his own future. He opens up about the mentors who poured into him, the faith that kept him moving, and the grit it took to rebuild a life from scratch when everyone counted him out. What hits you when you hear Tiki speak is that this isn’t theory—this is lived experience. We talk about what it’s like to carry the weight of your past into every room, and how to turn that weight into the thing that makes you unshakable. Tiki shares the mindset shifts that helped him transform his identity, build multiple businesses, and become a force for change in his community. If you’ve ever felt written off, if you’ve been told you’re too far gone, or if life has hit you harder than you think you can stand—this episode is proof that your story is not over. Tiki’s life is a reminder that pain is a classroom, faith is a compass, and resilience is a choice you get to make every single day. Key Takeaways: How to turn your past struggles into the foundation for future success The moment Tiki decided to rewrite his story and walk a new path The role of faith and mentorship in overcoming impossible odds How to use pain as fuel instead of letting it become your prison Why your identity—not your circumstances—defines your destiny The mindset shifts that can turn a setback into a setup for greatness Your circumstances don’t get the final say—you do. Listen now, and let this story light a fire in you. — Max Out.   👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈   → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ←  ➡️ INSTAGRAM   ➡️FACEBOOK   ➡️ LINKEDIN   ➡️ X   ➡️ WEBSITE      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:28 Oh, hungry, oh Henry. This is the admiral show. Welcome back to the show, everybody. So while back, maybe about a year ago, I heard a story from my friend John Gordon about a man's life. And I made a mental note at that time. I said, that story is going to be told on my show and millions of people are going to hear it
Starting point is 00:01:53 because millions of people need to hear this story. And it's going to grip you. It's going to bring you in right away in the beginning of this interview. And I don't think you're ever going to forget it. And I think the lessons you're going to learn from this man about that story are going to change your life. And so I actually asked him to come in person today because I wanted to feel the story, man to man, heart to heart, face to face. And so my guest today was stabbed in the neck when he was nine years old.
Starting point is 00:02:20 He was locked up in jail when he was 18, actually in jail, as I understand the same time as his mother. I'm going to let you tell the story. but my guest today is the very jacked up with a shmedium shirt on, just getting, XL shirt on. Tiki Davis, welcome to the show. Man, I'm glad to be here. Thank you, Ed. Yeah, it's so good to have you.
Starting point is 00:02:39 All right, let's go all the way back. You're here because of a story, well, multiple stories in your life, but take us back to your upbringing. Because I think a lot of people, why do I want you on? A lot of people going through something right now in their life or a hardship or a trauma that they think is pretty significant. significant. And they don't know the path out. You do because you made the path out. And yours is dramatic. Right. So should we start at nine? Is that about the right place to start? Yeah, we can
Starting point is 00:03:05 start it now. Let's start a little bit before that. Okay. Let's set it up the stage and see why I got stabbed in the neck. Okay. So 12 years old, this young girl was having sex. Her father found out she was having sex. So he said, if you're going to have sex, you might as well get paid for. So her father turned her into a prostitute. As she got older, she was 16, 17, working at the hospital in Amarillo, Texas, and she was having sex. Her main cousin was the head physician at the hospital. Then she was also having unprotected sex with her pimp named Ramsey. This young girl gets pregnant. She's hoping the baby's her pimp's because she's in love with this guy. He's a tall black guy with an afro. But she has the baby. The physician delivers the baby. The baby comes
Starting point is 00:03:51 out half black half white so now the request my mom has with this physician tie my tubes i don't want to have any more kids so this lady that you're describing is your mom and you are that half black half white baby no that's my brother okay all right but it is your mom it is my mom okay so but she doesn't want to have any more kids so the guy ties her tubes fires her from the hospital hope to never see her again Okay. So she goes straight back to work as a prostitute. Wow. The guy that's my father, he's in jail, in prison serving seven years.
Starting point is 00:04:26 So when my dad gets out of prison, he finds out that his girlfriend that he had has had a baby and not only had a baby, it's a white baby. Oh, my gosh. Now he's jealous and he's begging her to have a kid for him. And she says, Frank, I can't have any more kids. My tubes are tied. And so he begs him, begs her to untie her tubes. Whoa. And she says, I don't want any kids.
Starting point is 00:04:48 kids but she doesn't anyway has a baby two months after i'm delivered she calls my dad and says come get your son i didn't want no more kids you did oh my gosh see i didn't know this part of the story right so my dad wow 25 years old he comes to Andrew texas picks me up takes me to his mother because he doesn't know how to raise a kid and my grandmother haddy ward takes me in open arms not because she loved me so much. She had a debt to pay to her own son because she gave him away at birth. What did you just?
Starting point is 00:05:27 You talk about generational trauma and a family. Yes. Okay, just pieces together. Brothers born, half black, half white. Mom's a prostitute. It turns out it's not the pimp, it's the doctor. Yes. Then dad who's in prison, gets out of prison.
Starting point is 00:05:41 Yes. Says, I want a kid. She unties her tubes, doesn't want to. You're born. Right. She gives you away with a woman. Two months. I'm not laughing. I'm just blown away. Two months. And then your dad can't raise a kid. So you go to your grandmother. Your grandmother only does this because she gave your dad away. Right. Yeah. True story. I can't make this up. So now I live with my grandmother from two months old to three years old. And guess who comes looking for me at three years old? Mom or dad? Mom. So she comes to look for me because back in early 80s when you went to the welfare. office you got to have proof of your kids so mama needed proof of her two kids to get this check
Starting point is 00:06:25 and my brother was given to her mother so she ain't raised any of her kids they've been two different places so now it gets tricky so she comes to artesian new me metico where i was living with my grandmother to pick me up she's one of her dates she had married this guy named murphy young pulls up in this yellow lincoln cloth seats in the back right and she sits me and i knew she was my mom for some reason I knew that was my mom even though I never met her but I like that's my mama but check this how it gets weirder she gets me sits me in the back seat and she looks over and say there's your brother oh my god first time I seen a white person oh my god so your brother visually looks more white than black yes which makes sense that you're not the mixed baby because you
Starting point is 00:07:07 don't no right oh my let yeah yeah and so that's how I met my brother wow and then we go to odesta Texas and that's when my life starts spiraling out of control because now I'm living with mama and now grandma uh just curious those years when you were the grandma was she a loving grandmother yeah oh yeah oh she was a great man daddy like that's why i love breakfast you know that's my favorite meal of the day is breakfast because she used to make me oak meal quima weeds biscuits uh eggs and that good old grandma smell and you know and i loved her too she passed away about 10 years ago at 84 wow you have a you're a grown man but you almost have a uh anyone ever tell you this before you're strong man he's gigantic you guys but you almost
Starting point is 00:07:46 have the spirit in the face of a little boy still. You ever heard that before? I get that. I had to put these braces back on my teeth. One of my teeth was getting crooked. So I had it when I was 34. I'm 46 now. You look so young.
Starting point is 00:07:58 I wonder if there's some, like you didn't have a childhood. So God's going to make you look like a young person for the rest of your life. That's one of the blessings of this horror story so far. Okay. So now you now are with your brother and your mom. Right. And we're not even to the nine-year-old incident yet. No, no, no.
Starting point is 00:08:15 So we're growing up in the projects. And now once mom gets the benefits, she sends us back with grandma. Wow. And so now me and my brother always grew up thinking that my grandma loved him more and mom loved me more. Why? Because we were kids. We didn't understand really what was going on. So my brother had lived with my grandma his whole life.
Starting point is 00:08:34 So she had the means to take care of him. But when I came on, I was extra. I was another mouth to feed. So me and my brother would overhear conversations. My grandmother and my mom arguing about money. And my grandma would say to my mom, hey, I got enough for Kevin. I don't have enough for Tiki. And so my mom would always come and bring money for me and not my brother or
Starting point is 00:08:56 bling colds for me and not my brother because he was already taken care of. Oh, gosh, it's horrible. You see what I'm saying? So me and my brother was thinking, hey, my mom loves me. And my brother was thinking mom don't love him because I'm white or something. Wow. And by the way, I'm just piecing something together. So you were living with this brother, not knowing he was your brother until she tells you
Starting point is 00:09:13 in the back of the car. Is that right? No, I wasn't living with my brother because we were at two different homes. I was in New Mexico with my dad's mom. He was living in Odessa with my mom's mom. There's a different grandmother. Yeah, different grandmother. Oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 00:09:26 So when I meet my first white person is my brother in the back seat. Oh, my gosh. And that's the first time we met. He's five. I'm three. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so, okay. One of the crazier story.
Starting point is 00:09:37 And by the way, when I introduced you, I knew about 60% of this story. It was already one of the best stories that I've ever heard in my life. When I say best, it's best because of who's sitting in front of. me now. I certainly would never want someone to go through that. But you are proof that you can transcend your environment. You can overcome your circumstances. You are living proof of this. And we're going to talk about some of those keys and strategies. By the way, everybody should know this. Tiki is an inspirational motivational speaker as well. These stories on stage even come to a life in a different way than what we're doing right now. So I want to make sure that at the end when I send
Starting point is 00:10:07 you to find him that you guys know, but he does this as well. Because it is, it's going to be a movie. We're already talking about that. But I get that. the movie on my show first, which is really cool. So, okay, probably let's get to what happens at nine, because that's the beginning of the story. I knew. I didn't even know any of this. Okay.
Starting point is 00:10:24 Okay. And so my mom's a prostitute. That's her means, you know, to a job. And other than being a prostitute, the only job I knew my mom had, she'd ring the bell for the Salvation Army. I'd refer a Walmart, home goods, things like that. So mom got sloppy one night with this date. And we only have one kid.
Starting point is 00:10:45 to the house. So I went home that night. It was dark. My mom and aunt had robbed this guy, a Hispanic man. So I'm laying in bed, getting ready for bed. I hear footsteps coming down the hallway. I'm not afraid. But it's this Hispanic, the Spanish guy comes and asks, where's your mama? And I'm looking, I don't know where she's in the flats. And the flats was where all the black people hung out. And then before I know it, he says, she stole my money. And I'm thinking, okay. And then he wrapped the band down around my neck. Oh, my God. Strangling me. You know, left to right i'm this little you're a little boy yeah i'm nine years old he's strangling me and then he finally lets me go and then he stabs me in the neck with a screwdriver then he puts
Starting point is 00:11:26 a pillow over my face ed start beating me beating me beating me beating me and only reason i was able to survive is because i decided to fight for my life but the only reason i did is because my mom used to give me a whooping and i would run from her so that's the only way i was able to escape this guy so i slide down the wall roll up under the bed so he's moving the bed and he's moving the left the right flipping it over but I'm stuck up under the bed because my mom would give me weapons and that's where I would go so nobody could get me from up under that bed and so I'm fighting for my life I'm bleeding I don't even know my life's in danger really I just know this man's attacking me gosh and only thing that I remember because everybody said tiki do you remember what the
Starting point is 00:12:03 guy looked like yeah I do I remember the bottom of his blue jeans and his snake skin boots because you're looking at it from under the bed under the bed and then finally the guy panics and run away think I'm going to die or whatever and when I hear the back door slams I decide to get up I roll from up under the bed and my mom used to have this hatchet on the stairs and the projects and for a defense mechanism and it was right there and I'm thinking to myself I'm glad he didn't find that and I'm holding my neck I'm bleeding oh my gosh my brother's next door playing Atari video games I'll go over there and knock on the door the lady name was Linda Faye and she had an old drunk uncle named H.L. And my brother in him
Starting point is 00:12:42 answered the door and I walk in and I fall in my brother's arm bleeding the death everywhere and everybody in the hood is screaming, ah, you know, everybody's screaming and they think that my mom's ways caught up to her and I got murdered. Oh my gosh. Okay, I have to pause here for a second.
Starting point is 00:13:00 Maybe this is the most compelling story I've ever had said right here in front of me on the show. I don't want to say anything about other guests because we've got some great stories. But this is a this is a wow. Okay, so what happened? So you're bleeding? Are you bleeding to death?
Starting point is 00:13:13 Yeah, I'm bleeding to death. I'm bleeding to death. They called the ambulance and this old guy named H.L. He worked at Odessa America. He was a newspaper guy. And he says, put a Band-Aid on it. He was drunk. So anyway, they called the ambulance.
Starting point is 00:13:25 It's crazy, just like the movie. They got me on the stretcher. And this is the most realest thing that I ever really happened in my life that I'm true. I never snitched on my mom. So I'm on the stretcher. Police is there. My mom rose up on the scene because they told. told I got murdered, but she wanted to come see for herself.
Starting point is 00:13:43 I'm on the stretcher, getting in the ambulance. My mom runs up. She don't say, are you okay, baby, nothing? She said, don't tell them nothing. She says, don't tell them nothing. And so I kept that in my head. So now we go to the hospital. I don't know if I'm going to die or nothing, but whatever my mom said,
Starting point is 00:14:02 cold other streets, don't snitch, don't say nothing. It was in the back of my head. So it's the detective named Detective Price. after they bandaged me up a couple days later he comes and said boy what happened what happened i said man somebody tried to break in our house and rob us and he goes nobody robs the projects but i just said hey that's it and so for three or four days no one showed up but that detective fourth day mama shows up wait your mother didn't come visit you no because she thought i was going to break oh she's going to get arrested if she shows up because you've told the story right
Starting point is 00:14:33 so now i'm i'm there and then she shows up and she comes in and she comes in in and she sits on the edge of the bed and she's crying oh baby i'm so sorry and now me being a little boy started comforting the mom mama don't cry it's going to be okay and mama said i'm so sorry baby i'm so sorry and in my heart i forgave my mama in that moment i never held a grudge and so after that time i want to know why my mama was crying so i got up and she said I said, baby, look. And I looked in the mirror, and my head was about four or five times a normal head of a nine-year-old boy, knots and bruises my eyes, the pupils.
Starting point is 00:15:20 It was, you can see the black, where the white was, it was red. Like all blush, I completely know white. And I remember when I got out of the hospital, I couldn't go to school anymore. I was in the second grade. So all my second grade, I just barely found this out a few months ago. a girl her name is Keisha Robinson She was my neighbor in the project And she was also in my class
Starting point is 00:15:40 And she said that everybody in my class Second grade class thought I had died Because I didn't go to school for a few months Because I was so jacked up And I remember that that eye doctor When we went to that specialist The eye doctor told my mom She says I never seen an eye condition
Starting point is 00:15:56 This bad If the medication don't work Where his eyes clear up We're going to have to scrape his eyeballs Oh my gosh So I was a little boy thinking I don't want my eyeballs great. This may sound really weird, but like I'm sitting here with this grown jacked man.
Starting point is 00:16:09 I like want to just like hug this little boy. Like it's just, it's staggering what you're describing right now. The other thing that strikes me as I'm listening to you is like God made this articulate, brilliant, intellectually gifted, amazing storytelling young boy who's going through this trauma, like on the other side of pain. By the way, and the pain hasn't ended yet, guys. we're just getting started. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:35 The pain, there's this amazing human being. Right. And that anybody listening to this, like whatever you're going through, compared to what, by the way? And the other thing I think of is there's some other little boy right now, somewhere going through the same type scenario that how many people need our help. You know what I mean? I think about that.
Starting point is 00:16:56 All the people going through something like what you're describing, which the way that I was raised, this isn't even fathomable, right? And I thought I had it bad with a drug addict dad and an alcoholic dad in a safe home where we had food on the table. Right. My mother was not doing any of the things your mom was doing. And there was love. He had no love. It just, I just stepped back for a second ago.
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Starting point is 00:18:05 So make sure you check out, drinkag1.com slash Ed Milet to get this offer. That's drinkag1.com slash Ed Milet to start your new year on a healthier note. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. I got to tell you, I'm glad that they do because, you know, people ask me all the time. What are most of the guests on your show have in common? Because there's all these different industries and stories. I'd say the one thing, most of them have been to therapy.
Starting point is 00:18:32 and I've been to therapy. I think it's a great thing, whether you've had a lot of trauma in your life and it's extreme and needed to work through it. Or maybe it's not so severe, but you just need clarity. Somebody to talk to. Get a plan in place. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of five for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. It's convenient to. You can just join a session with the therapist with a click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life as the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash ed show. That's BetterH-E-L-P.com slash Ed Show. So these injuries are pretty significant. Right. You eventually heal and recover from this, but let's just be real. You've now growing up with programming and patterns and an environment that is not set up for a young man to make good decisions up until adulthood. To be honest with you, the reason I became the successful entrepreneur, that's all I know.
Starting point is 00:19:43 Millionaire, everybody. Oh, yeah. We did that 12 years ago. Yep. So the thing about me making money, like I tell everybody, it's not arrogant, it's not a cocky, it's just all I had was me. My life basically been locked out by all purposes. So at 12 years old, I think that's the last time I ever asked for money.
Starting point is 00:20:04 I was selling candy door to door at 12 years old because, and this is another thing, how I ended up in the boys' home, I'm selling candy door to door. And I used to save my money at home. I'm living with mom at this time. We're living in an apartment somewhere else. Is she still in the same occupation? Occupation, same thing. Robin's still and drugging.
Starting point is 00:20:23 She just says three years later. We get evicted from that first project because HUD says once you have. a police involved domestic violence you get kicked out of the program so we're living somewhere else so what i would do every day i would sell candy's door to door for this thing called west texas teens and for every box of candy i sell i get a dollar bill so i would sell 25 after football practice after school and i used to stash the money at home so one day i come home i think i had $380 saved up at 12 years old i come home i'm putting some more in my stash mama hit me she hit me for my whole 380 and I'm sick and because she was asking me for money that days early and I'm
Starting point is 00:21:04 like no I'm saving for my school club I wouldn't give her any and then I go around the corner her and her friends are drinking having a party with my money so I went around there and this the only time ever really kind of cussed at my mom said did you still my effing money and she goes no what are you talking about she denied it and I just hid around the corner and this lady that was drinking a beer party when she said did you take that boy's money she goes yeah I took it but he ain't going to talk to me like that. I'm his money. I got a hundred left. I was going to give it to him. Then I just went back around and I said, you know what, Mom? I said, Mama, man, go on and keep it. I'm going to go get some more. So from that day on, I would carry my money in my pocket, like to school. So now I would
Starting point is 00:21:43 go, I'm in the seventh grade at Crockett Junior High. I would take my money to school and I would flash it sometime or get something and they're like, dang, Tiki, what are you doing? And I said, I sell candy. Made it to the principal. I think it's a different candy. Right. You were 100% correct. So they called me to the principal's office. I'm already on juvenile probation. Okay. Understand I had my probation office.
Starting point is 00:22:05 His name is Gary Speed. So I go to the principal's office. They said, Tiki, what are you doing all this money? I said, I sell candy after school. They said, who's your pusher? I said, he's a guy named Eddie. That says, okay. So they call my probation officer.
Starting point is 00:22:16 They come in. We have this meeting. They said, Tiki, what are you doing all this money? And I said, Gary, he was my probation. I said, I don't know if you know it or not. I said, how many days in a week it is? He says, it's seven. I said, I haven't bought myself for five.
Starting point is 00:22:27 So I need this money to take care of myself And I got to bring it to school If I leave it at home, Mama's going to steal it They wait after school They say when your pusher pick you up I say he's picks us up after school In his little van So after school
Starting point is 00:22:42 They wait for the guy to pick us up And they ambush his van And they open up all the boxes And it was candy So Gary, my probation officer He says Tiki You can't live like this You can't sell candy
Starting point is 00:22:56 You can't do this he said what do you think about the boys home i said what boys home he said is buckner group home he says you don't have to sell candy you get an eight dollar allowance you get your own room with some other boys you can't live like this you want to go in and i said yeah let's go in and that's when my life started to change when i went into the boys home brother okay this is bananas i have by the way my first career out of college is i worked in a group home okay i worked at mckinley home for boys not changed my life being with those boys yes and And stories, yours is the most extreme.
Starting point is 00:23:30 Right. But stories like that having boys in my home whose own fathers had sexually assaulted them or father and uncle and, you know, seeing what these young boys had gone through in their life and just thinking the chances right from there. If they don't start learning new patterns, new decisions, new thoughts of their lives, not repeating. Because you know what I was thinking the whole time you're describing your mom? I don't know. I'm sure you've thought about it.
Starting point is 00:23:54 What happened to your mom when she was a little girl? do you know what I mean like what caused her to turn into what she ultimately turned into have you ever given any consideration of that here's the deal a lot of people when I shared a story I just really started sharing it like six seven years ago when I got into the speaking yeah I love my mom unconditionally like no other I never loved anybody like I love my mom but my daughter my granddaughter now like my mom she was my number one I loved her to the end and I'll get into that little later on in the story but she had a rough life yeah she had to have but check this out the grandmother i was telling you about
Starting point is 00:24:31 i didn't really want to confuse the story yeah but my mom had five siblings and her birth mother gave her and her five siblings and only kept the six kid because he was a boy and she was in love with the man so my mom birth mother gave five of my mom's siblings and herself away away so this sort of starts to kind of explain your mother's trauma right and in every family i always say there's the one where it stops and they become the one that changes everything clearly you're the one in your family i mean that obvious i just want to acknowledge you brother like everyone wait for the rest of this but like what you've turned into multi-millionaire speak around the world unbelievable book coming out called the tiki fact that you can pre-order by the way right now yes but just
Starting point is 00:25:13 it's just incredible and we're going to talk about some of the strategies in the minute everybody but the story actually isn't done what did you get i'm curious what did you get at the group home that so helped you, I guess, short term, compared to what you weren't getting in your own home. Well, Ed, at 12 years old, that was the first time that I knew when I went to school, all our belongings weren't going to be sitting on the side of the street. So what I got from the group home was stability. First time, I knew I was going to have three meals a day. I knew I was going to get $8 at the end of the week because I stayed out of trouble.
Starting point is 00:25:44 I knew I was going to be able to play video games. I knew I was going to get the hang with the other kids, and I didn't have the stress of a grown man. I was just going to have the ability to live normal. And so that's what I got from the group home was stability. Did anything in the group home? When I worked in the group home, everyone that's actually worked in a, it sounds like you were in one like what I was into,
Starting point is 00:26:04 like a pretty significant one. One of the things I used to worry about with my boys, this is nothing to do with your story. I'm just curious. Yeah, yeah. There was always a boy that was the alpha in the group home. And every once in a while, he was the one who kind of corrupted or messed up the other little boy.
Starting point is 00:26:21 So it wasn't their family anymore. It was this alpha who, like in our group home, frankly, some of these sexual assaults that would take place was from this, I know it was name, I won't say, but like one boy that was in there would almost hurt the other boys in there. Did you ever have to defend yourself against, was there like a dude in there?
Starting point is 00:26:39 Was it just a, you got blessed that this was a good group of dudes you ended up with? Yeah, it was a good group of guys. If anybody was the alpha, it was me. It was you. I was always the leader. And then it was always like a rivalry. You know, I was always bumping head with the other guy
Starting point is 00:26:52 They want to be aligned Like you're in the jungle I'm a line, you're along And let's see a mono-imano So it was a guy named Roderick Luke from Lubbock Your name recognition is incredible by the way Of your life Yeah
Starting point is 00:27:03 And so Roderick Me and him would go back at it Because I was eighth grade He was ninth grade And I was the new boy in So everybody kind of liked him But when I came in I had that thing When you walk in a room
Starting point is 00:27:12 It's called Command Presence That's right And what people say I don't know who that guy is But he's somebody And so I've always had that even as a young boy to a man to whatever. When he walks in the room or you walk on stage, oh, that's him.
Starting point is 00:27:24 You definitely have that, right? When I walked in the studio, he was here before me, guys, and right away. I mean, it's not your guns. It's not your physicality. It's a presence. Yeah, and that's what I've always had. And, you know, sometimes it helps me. And sometimes I put a target on my back.
Starting point is 00:27:38 Yep. Yeah, and sometimes it's intimidating and off-putting to certain people, too. Right. Okay, so things go good in the group home, but then you're locked up at 18. Yeah. So what turned? What happened? Because everyone, and then is it accurate that your mom?
Starting point is 00:27:49 was incarcerated at the same time. Not in the same place. Same place. Oh my God. Come on. You end up incarcerated in the same facility as your mother. Yes. So here it is.
Starting point is 00:28:01 At 17. This story is amazing. Yeah. So at 17, I'm finally trying to live this dream of being a football star at my local high school. And that was all over quick as it started because I was accused of a crime. Okay. And I go to jail. Okay.
Starting point is 00:28:16 But I'm at the county jail. Yeah. You're being held. Yeah. So when I go. in there everybody wants a visitor right yep but my visit was my mama and so the sheriff and the powers that be knew my mama and knew me and so instead of waiting on the visitor they took me right to her did okay yeah that's just bro i i don't even know how to explain this i i don't even know
Starting point is 00:28:38 can you as you tell it like is there a part of you that's like outside your body almost right now like i can't even believe this is my story no um now hindsight like i said like when people you're proof reading the book, you know, with the editor. And when I dive back into it, it's hard for me to read my own story again because now I don't live that life anymore. And I'm like, dang, how did I make it? Yes. Because when you look back and you see all the trauma and everything, because when you're
Starting point is 00:29:03 going through it, it's just normal. Right. Because you don't know nothing different. And so when I go in and visit my mom and I never shared them, I'm shared on your stage right now. Okay. When my mom, when I went in my, asked my mom, I like, mom, you know, I didn't do what they said I did she says boy do you got AIDS she asked me if I had AIDS really because she thought
Starting point is 00:29:24 being around white women or white people you can get AIDS oh my God and I was like no mom I don't have AIDS I didn't I didn't do nothing and she says well I love you son and she couldn't really help me because she was on her way to prison for murder but yeah so she went to prison for murder I was going in there for what I was charged for she went to prison for murder and so before she caught the chain to go to prison for murder we had that conversation and that's the last time I've ever seen her Tiki I've been doing this a long time I've been speeches like three times ever on the show yeah I didn't know that yeah oh it gets it gets worse okay so we had that conversation she hugs me I said I love you mom she said I love you
Starting point is 00:30:16 but she's 37 I'm 17 she can't really compassing to help me because she's dealing with her own life she goes to prison I get out of jail uh bond out my football careers wiped away because I have to start my senior year at the alternative school yeah so this whole dream I'm watching someone else score my touchdowns I'm waiting you know I see their name in the paper and I'm hurt by this then as soon as football season over I go back to my high school when basketball season I'm like an outcast I was this big star and everybody's looking at me like man what happened to you what happened and then I go to school for about a month then I go to court when I go to court my lawyer tell me Tiki they're offering you five years in prison five years
Starting point is 00:31:01 I'm 18 now five years in prison he says but I think we go to court and they see all the evidence and they see that young lady and see what she looks like ain't nobody going to send you to prison And so we go into the courtroom, court's supposed to start at 9 o'clock, 915, 930, 945, nobody shows up but the judge in us. 945, 955, the prosecutor and the alleged victim mom shows up, falls out in the courtroom drunk. Oh, my gosh. And so at that time, boop, mistrial. And then, but then that lady started screaming. the judge called us to the back and the lawyer that I had they says okay let's give them deferred adjudication
Starting point is 00:31:47 probation for 10 years and the judge said if you stay out of the trouble for 10 years this goes away like it never happened that's the best deal we can have and then the girls mom screamed i want him to go to prison and he goes all right i'll send him to prison for 120 days and then when you get out you do your probation then my lawyer said no we can't do that if he goes to prison he's an ex-con so that deferred probation don't work. Then he goes, you're right. So judge said, you go to jail for six months. So in the middle of my senior year, I went to jail for six months.
Starting point is 00:32:17 Jail, not prison. I never been to prison. I just went to jail. And so the people in the community kind of knew I got a raw deal. So this is why, like, God has always came in my life, like Earth Angels and help me. So with this particular time, I would have school every day at the jail. The teachers would come. They would bring them my work and I would do school.
Starting point is 00:32:38 And I did that for six months, and then I got out, and I would tell all those inmates and other people and the jailers, because I always had this confidence. I said, when I get out here, I'm going to college. When I get out here, I'm going to the NFL. And they would laugh. They said, Tiki, no one's getting out of here. I said, I'm different. But the reason I'm sitting on your show today, I just didn't say how it's different. I had to prove it.
Starting point is 00:32:59 So I receive a call. On the other end, it's my mom. And I haven't spoke to her for seven years since I was that young boy, and we had that conversation. and everybody knew I wasn't going to the NFL anymore except my mom because I wasn't playing football so I had to break the news to her and I said I got some good news and some bad news she said well give it to me I said well the bad news is I don't play football anymore I'm not going to the pros she says that's not so bad what's the good news I said well mom I'm going to be the first person to graduate college I graduate with my degree in May and she says I'm excited she says I also have some good
Starting point is 00:33:33 news I said what is it she says I just made parole and I'm going to be there And she, I said, when do you get out? She says, I get out January to 6th. I need you to pick me up in San Angelo, Texas with a wind suit. And she says, lastly, son, I need you to send me $40. She says, because I'm working in the kitchen and my feet has swell up so much. I can't bend over and tie my shoes. So I need the Velcro snap shoes. And I said, yes, ma'am. She says, the next thing, I need $40 for my medical report. When I get out, I need some help, I'm a little sick. I said, yes, ma'am. And she says, lastly, son, before I hang up, I need you to expect the call from the warden. She'll let me know where the property's delivered and stuff like that. And I said, yes, ma'am. And make sure everything's on schedule for me. And I said, yes, ma'am. And so just like clockwork, I'm in East 11th in Odessa and I get a call from the warden of the prison.
Starting point is 00:34:26 And it's a female warden. She says, it's Tiki Davis. I said, yes. She says, I just want to let you know that Karen has expired. I said, I know she said, you're going to be calling. I know her time's up. I know it expired. She says, son, you don't understand.
Starting point is 00:34:37 what do you want to do about barrier arrangements? So on January to 6th, instead of picking up my mom from a bus station, I was in Huntsville, Texas, having a funeral. At that time, I felt like I was invincible. My mom was an invincible person, but at that time I really felt like I could die for the first time because my mom passed away. And I didn't really understand.
Starting point is 00:35:03 I just didn't know how to process your mom dying. And I hadn't seen her in so long So I wasn't really missing her presence But I just knew I was never going to see her again So when she was in prison It was always a thought in my mind that I would see her again But when I seen her and I went down there And I identified the body
Starting point is 00:35:19 She was 280 pounds real black Real dark And I couldn't recognize her And when I finally knew it was her I looked at her hand where she used to shoot drugs She had this wept And I knew it was her And I fell out and I cried, man.
Starting point is 00:35:41 And it hurt me real bad because she had died. And I felt like I was going to die because she died. And that's the kind of last time I seen her. We had a funeral the next day. And the prisoners at Huntsville, they made a makeshift casket. And she's buried at the Huntsville graveyard. And that's pretty much it, man. And I remember we're doing the funeral, and some of the inmates was carrying her to her grave.
Starting point is 00:36:10 I remember taking out running, and I pushed one of the inmates out the way, and I carried my mom to her grave. Me and three other pallbearers, which were lifers at Huntsville. I hadn't graduated yet. I was in my senior year of college, and I wasn't going to graduate until May. She had passed away in January, December the 31st of 2001. When I graduated with my bachelor's degree, I stay in school because I couldn't find work. And so I end up working on my masses degree. So if you're running a business right now, you know it's hard.
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Starting point is 00:37:40 If you're on YouTube, you can see it. And if you're not on YouTube and you listen on audio, I got a great looking shirt on. And guess where I got it? I got it at Quince. That's where I get my stuff now. I'm going to tell you why. We're all dropping a fortune on clothes, which is really silly because you can get to good stuff, high quality fabrics, classic fits, all that kind of stuff.
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Starting point is 00:38:22 Go to quince.com slash ed for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com forward slash ed to get free shipping. shipping 365 day returns quince.com forward slash ed tell him what happened by the way i'm going give you guys the post now what his life's turned into and then he said earlier how did i become this but he actually has how he became it so then we're going to talk about some of the strategies and the patterns and tactics that you could be taking to change your life as well and this is an extreme story but just tell him give him that was all the before i guess we'll call it the before
Starting point is 00:38:59 What's happened over the next 20 years of your life, 20, 25 years like, just give them an idea of where you sit today. Okay, so where I sit today, I'm a two-time college graduate. I went to school, got my bachelor's, my master's in 03 and 05, started in the oil business. So where I'm from, oil is big. So my first job, I started as a field engineer in 2007, making $13 an hour with two degrees. So I worked for that company for about three years, and I learned everything. and I became the most requested engineer in the Permian Basin, whereas there's not a lot of black engineers.
Starting point is 00:39:34 And this independent, number one oil man in the world, Clayton Williams Jr. in Midland, Texas, he gave me an opportunity to consult on his wells. And within a five-year period, I took that $13 an hour to over a million dollars a year he was paying me. Wow. And not only was the best, I became the best engineer in the world.
Starting point is 00:39:55 So the consultants at that time when I first started, at it, they were making $400 a day. When I stopped, I was making $3,200 a day every single day. A day. Every single day for eight years. You see, that's how I made my money. Yep. And so now you're, by that time, you're now a millionaire.
Starting point is 00:40:14 Yes. Then you've invested and multiplied that money many many times. Yes. So the fast forward becomes this. You basically go from being in jail with your mom, who then goes away to prison for, you haven't seen her since. Right. Nope.
Starting point is 00:40:27 For murder. you end up turning that into a $13 an hour job into becoming a multi-millionaire. And by the way, I really sought after speaker, author and a movie coming out about his life. So if he can do all that, by the way,
Starting point is 00:40:39 how did he do it? So we're going to talk about that because we've got some time. I want to go through some of the stuff that you recommend in the book because you do know how you did it. Right. And there's things that you talk about in the book.
Starting point is 00:40:47 Let's get into these tiki factor principles because I think that's the bedrock of what's happened here in your life. Okay. So when I'm on stage, as you know I travel, I'm the tiki factor. And after I share that crazy story, did you overcome that adversity? How do we do it in our life? I'm glad you ask. So my name is spelled
Starting point is 00:41:04 T-I-K-I. The T stands for total commitment. I challenge that person to make a total commitment to your life, your hopes and your dreams. The next thing is the I, imagination, live from your imagination and not your history because none of us are our history. The next thing is K, kindred spirits. The people around us affect us depending on who they are and what they do is going to affect us in that type of way. And, alas, I, and invest in yourself. Those are the tiki factors, principles of life, and if you apply them to your life, you'll win,
Starting point is 00:41:35 and you can't win today's game. I totally agree with you. I have a whole chapter in my book on imagination versus history, and I say the people that are the most successful and the happiest operator of their imaginations. That is outstanding. And so those are my principles, and that's what I leave every talk with.
Starting point is 00:41:49 One of the things that happens when you grow up the way you did is you develop belief systems that don't serve you. belief systems about people, belief systems about how to get ahead, belief systems against what is stacked in your favor or against you. We form beliefs when we're young. You're in an environment that just fed you almost nothing that would be good about beliefs to have, about how to treat other people, about love, about all that stuff.
Starting point is 00:42:11 And in the book, there's a part of the book where you talk about developing a core belief. Right. And this is something most people, it's invisible to most people. Most people don't know you have a core belief. primary Tony Robbins in his events refers to it like as a primary question you ask yourself but you have a global belief about yourself or life that dictates most of the terms of your life and for many of you listening to it right now it's invisible and you're oblivious to it
Starting point is 00:42:36 just starting to ask yourself what your belief actually is is a really powerful question but what do you mean by that in the book when you say that developing a core belief well it's like for a guy like me my core belief was believing in myself like you have but why would you there was no evidence you should i mean your mom didn't want you your dad didn't want you your grandmas pretty much didn't want you right you like how do you do that it's like old baptist treat you i had to bring my own amen's so the core belief was i could sneak up on people because nobody was paying attention and i got into the rooms that i wasn't supposed to get in because no one was paying attention and I was developing myself I was studying the game just in the speaking
Starting point is 00:43:20 I studied everybody even before I jumped in and I knew I could do it I knew it was room for me I didn't hate on nobody all I said was me too me too you got a great story but me too and I knew it was room for me because I studied everybody so my core belief was basically believing in myself that's basically like that total commitment I make that total commitment to myself and I knew because a lot of times people always come up to me now once you're successful they they ask you how did you do it so i was always getting that i'm like man and i would just give it away for free yeah but i didn't know so you know when you were chosen everybody like man i see you doing good so right before my eyes i started maturing not just as a as a person but as a man just as an influencer when you didn't
Starting point is 00:44:07 even know you weren't even trying to be this you were just walking in your gift and it made room for you And so my core belief was just being myself, but doing the work. What would you say to somebody who doesn't? And like their parents didn't really, I always say this, you know, a great parent not only just loves their kids, because that's kind of like basically, you'd even have that. Right. But most kids get love from mom or dad or both. What most kids don't get from mom or dad because the parents aren't conscious of it is belief. Right.
Starting point is 00:44:34 I believe in you. I believe in you. I believe in you. That's a totally different level. So most people, that belief they have is the absence of belief in themselves. What would you say to somebody who's listening to this? They certainly, almost no one listening to this had it as hard as you did. They might have had it difficult in their version and in their world, that's trauma.
Starting point is 00:44:52 But the fact of the matter is, and by the way, I'm sure there's tons of micro stories that happen day to day. Yeah. That we'd be on a nine hour podcast. We're just given the highlights. But what would you, someone's listening to go, hey, that sounded good. I don't believe in myself. What would you say to that person to begin to build the first step. towards developing that belief.
Starting point is 00:45:10 My advice would be you've got to believe in yourself. Nobody else will. And success is measured in time. So you're not going to get to the pot of goal overnight. So it's going to take small steps, small step, small step to eventually get there. And focus on your dream, but the destination takes time. So what I would say is just look at what you want, try to win small battles day by day. That is the key.
Starting point is 00:45:34 Yeah, small wins to get there. And that's what I used to do, small wins. yeah small wins always say keep the promises you make to yourself right the first win is if you're going to get in the gym in the morning get in the gym you're going to drink a gallon of water drink the gallon of water you're going to make 10 phone calls a day make one i always say the power of one more as well but the fact of the matter is is like if to go from no belief to tons of belief is not a switch of the fingers right right now in my case i would also say that if you believe you have a loving god in heaven who made you in his image and likeness that's a huge advantage right out of the gate
Starting point is 00:46:02 because he didn't make you to be average or ordinary but you got to do the things every single day in the book he actually says i made my first million by betting on myself right somehow though you've taken and it's a topic i want to ask you about okay you've taken pain and truly made it like a purpose thing in your life right so because i think in life i say this often you're most qualified to help the people you used to be right boy if people are in pain they haven't had a level of pain like you've had right what does that mean turning your purpose into pain well you turn your purpose into pain by growing through it like the nine-year-old boy with a screwdriver neck that's not who I was that's who I was that's not who I am today so I didn't live there because if I would have
Starting point is 00:46:46 lived there and made excuses like it's something in my book when I says if you're looking for a story about a victim you come to the wrong place I never had a victim mentality I was like this is what happened to me let's keep on moving you know and a lot of times my life was so bad people would make excuses for me and my brother for us not to be successful I remember one time i got this award uh man of the year award and in the same city and i'm up there giving a talk or a speech or accepting it and i told him i said i never ever want to be the man of the year i just want to be a good man i just want to be a good man so if i if i came to a level for accolades or success or whatever that was never my goal i just wanted the opportunity to get in the game of life so my purpose was just
Starting point is 00:47:34 trying to be a good man and my whole life was trying to fight this frame or trying to prove that I wasn't this and I just kept on working and stacking one good day after the next. This show is sponsored by Greenlight. Do you know what surprised me when we do shows is how well the financial podcasts do? And I think one of the reasons is that we weren't taught this stuff when we were kids and we should have been. And that's why I love Greenlight. It's a money app for families and it's fun. It can teach your kids how to budget. It could teach them the value of hard work and they're going to understand how money works. And it's something I can't believe, can you, that we get all the way through high school,
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Starting point is 00:48:34 Start your risk-free greenlight trial today at greenlight.com slash ed. That's greenlight.com slash ed to get started. Greenlight.com slash ed. Is part of it also, you're just sort of a hustler. Oh, yeah, very much so. Yeah, yeah. Very much so. Like I think you just learn, I mean, when you're hustling to sell a box of candy bars,
Starting point is 00:48:57 so you got food, but you hope your mom doesn't steal. I think what happened is all through all of that trauma was like you learned to scrape and to hustle. I think grit like that thing, it's like one of the most under-talked about things. Like you can have all these mindset things in the world. Do you outwork everybody? Do you out-hustle everybody? Like are you always, you know, when I'm trained in my UFC fighters. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:21 First thing I always ask them about the other guy or the other woman. By the way, I work with some women as well on their mental games. I'll say let's just start out before. I want a one thing about the opponent. And they know what I mean. Is this one a dog or not? Right. Because if they're a dog, if they have some dog in them, you're in for a fight with a junkyard dog, that's different than fighting somebody who's just skilled.
Starting point is 00:49:40 Somebody's got that dog and I'm like, they're going to fight you through the pain. The great fighters don't just, you know, dole out punishment. They can absorb it and keep hitting you with false punishment. Yes. That's got to be an element of your stuff. Yeah, yeah. Like, I don't feel like, you know, a lot of times when I was getting into the speaking world, I felt like, man, I could be one of the best in the world. and people say, hey, can you be like such and such, such and such?
Starting point is 00:50:01 I said, they're the best telling their story. I'm the best telling mine. And you are, by the way. I'm the best telling mine. And so, like, you have the power of one, right? I have a quote that I use all the time. I'm not trying to be the best. I'm trying to be the only.
Starting point is 00:50:14 The reason the world stopped when Kobe Bryant died, not because he was the best. It's because he was the only. It's a different to the standard. What's your standard? So that's when I tell people I'm the best in the world. It's because I'm the best in the world doing Tiki Davis. My standard is different because I went through more than you. I said, man, tell me somebody else that did this, that came from where I came from, made a million in five different areas.
Starting point is 00:50:37 Yeah, that's bananas. And also, I want to talk about that victim thing, that where you came from thing. Here's what I think over time. Like, I have nowhere near, like, to compare our stories would be a truly gigantic disservice to your story. Right. But it wasn't an advantage to have an alcoholic dad or a drug addict dad. Right. That wasn't an advantage.
Starting point is 00:50:56 That was a disadvantage. or to if you're born in a marginalized area or socioeconomically or maybe you don't look like the right race in somebody else's mind whatever that thing is right not having a victim mentality isn't not acknowledging that the deck stacked against you it's acknowledging it the deck is stacked against me right but it's not using that as an excuse not to win I think some people think well wait a minute don't tell me I'm not a victim I am a victim well yeah you are you clearly were a victim of your upbringing like your mom victimize you your grandmother, your dad, like you, you certainly had these things happen.
Starting point is 00:51:32 The difference of not having a victim mentality is not carrying that through your life as an excuse. It's not a lack of acknowledgement of the setback or that you weren't born on first base. It's acknowledging it but not using it as a reason not to win, right? And a lot of people use that. Like my brother, the white kid, you know, he's been to prison five years, I mean five times. I was going to ask you about your brother. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:51:55 Yeah, so, man, we're like night and day. Really? Like night and day. He just got out of prison several months ago. He lives at one of my properties, and he's not really doing much with his life, and I try to encourage him, help him out, but he hasn't got it yet. I think the shift is exactly what we just talked about. You can have, like, an alcoholic family, for example.
Starting point is 00:52:16 You can have three or four kids grow up in the exact same house, exact same parents, exact same situation. One or two turn out and have a great life and are successful. One or two don't. It's how they process what's the same. happen to them. Do they use it as leverage? They use it as a chip on their shoulder. They use it as something to build strength or they use as an excuse to will. Because if you're looking for an excuse in life, almost everybody can find a valid one. Right. Now you really, you have like 60.
Starting point is 00:52:42 Right. But everybody's got one. Right. And so if you're looking for an excuse, like if you're looking for a door out of the room of success, right. You're looking for a window or a door out. You could probably find one. Right. There's probably a story you could tell that feels good. it seems reasonable, it's justified, but you're still going to be out of the room of success or happiness or faith or bliss. So you'd be really careful justifying your own story to fail. Right. I hate excuses.
Starting point is 00:53:09 I want to be around winners. I want to be around higher achievers, not because I became that, but that was my mentality way before I got it. Like when I was 18, my first job was washing cars making $250 a week for two and a half years until that guy sent me to college. You're a hustler. Yeah. What I just hear, it's like, like, I learned to scrape.
Starting point is 00:53:29 I've never, to eat and survive, you learned it. And you took that into something multimillionaire. There was a shift moment, though, right? You talk about that in the book. There's a shift moment. What was that for you? It was several. It was just like, like I can't live here in this moment.
Starting point is 00:53:46 Like, it was like times that I was going to do different things. Like, just imagine graduating college and no one would hire you. So it was a moment in my mind that. like my cousins all back home sold drugs and they were telling me to come so the guys that were in high school with me they're a cartel now they took over and they just always tell me like tiki we'll give you all the drugs you sell to the blacks and i was that close to doing it ed i'm in graduate school i'm out of money because i can't ask the guy that sent me to college for more money he paid my undergrad now i can't say i can't find work pay for grad school so i'm just going to screw
Starting point is 00:54:21 scraping by living off financial aid and so they're feminist movement in Odessa Friday night lights. And I'm getting a haircut at the local barbershop and they're looking for booby miles. And this guy from Houston Chronicle and I go into the barbershop, that presence, this Tiki. And I tell this guy, what are you looking for, booby miles for? I was better than him. And the guy bust the whole barbershop busted out laughing. And then the guy says, man, no one was better than booie miles.
Starting point is 00:54:45 I said, well, you're not from Odessa. There was a lot of guys better than him. And then he says, all right, if you're so good, whatever your name is, Tiki Davis, go out there to the stadium. they're looking for extras to play this role in this movie right so i said all right so i went out there i got hired as an extra that's awesome so after a few days i became derrick luke standing the character that was playing booby miles yep and so but i'm only making a hundred dollars a day ed and so i got tuesday thursday night school so i'm driving back and forth for three weeks to night school and the only money that i'm making off the movie is for gas so i'm praying to god i'm like
Starting point is 00:55:22 after my fourth week and it's the I think uh I'm praying to God I'm like man if I don't get something and I'm going to have to come back and get these drugs yeah so this is the turning point this is the shift moment you're asking about so I'm driving I got this 735 BMW that I bought myself but the guy to send me to college he owned a dealership so you know a luxury car is the maintenance yeah so I got free maintenance on that but I'm driving everybody think I got money but I'm broke yeah and I'm I'm thinking about selling this dope right And I'm praying to God in my car. It's a two and a half hour drive from college to Midland, Texas.
Starting point is 00:55:59 And then I go to the set that day and the director, Peter Berg, the guy that produces Baller and all this. So I go to Peter and I said, I'm mad at him because I've been doing all this extra with Permian. So this day he wants us to be Dallas Carter, all these black bodies. So I pulled Peter and I said, say, man, how are you going to have us put on this Dallas Carter? I've been doing all this extra work in Permian. He goes, well, he said, if you want a shot in this movie, just go put that stuff on. I'll get you something. So I'm one of those guys.
Starting point is 00:56:30 If you tell me something, you better do it. And he didn't really know me. I didn't know him. And I was like, hey, I'm TK. I want to be a movie star and you're like, oh, yeah, go get dressed, right? So I go in the locker room. I put on the clothes. I get dressed.
Starting point is 00:56:42 And we go in a room. You got all F Division I, Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, all these big guys. We're all in this room together. And so Peter Burke said, who's a lot. the craziest guy in here to get a football team hype so i said all right i ran to the front i said peter you told me outside that you're going to get me in the movie he said i didn't tell you shit he punked me out in front of everybody wow so now i'm i'm crying inside you know you've been embarrassed so i go to the back room it's all these guys egos testosterone everybody's brr so i go to the back
Starting point is 00:57:15 and another guy goes and he starts screaming ah peter bird punks him out he says that's 30% what i'm looking for another guy goes he cusses and then peter burke says i'm trying to make a pg 13 movie i can't have all that profanity in the back this tiki davis is back there crying inside so when he punks out the other guy i'm mad so i run back to the front i told you i can do it he said let me see what you got tiki i go let's go baby let's go don't be afraid to get your name in the paper and organically that energy transferred to the whole room everybody went crazy and then peterberg says cut you're signed to the movie come on so that's how I made it to Hollywood
Starting point is 00:57:55 come on you guys this is so I went from $1,000 mean not $1,000 a $100 a day to $7,000 a week and so that day on Friday they had to cut me a 7th day so that was the shift moment oh brother that was the shift moment and from that day on and check this out so I'm big in real estate just like you
Starting point is 00:58:13 yeah my office that the office out now yeah I was able to buy that first property at 25 with the Friday night I like's money. Oh, brother. This is the best. You're the best stories. The best stories and the best storyteller.
Starting point is 00:58:25 Yeah. And by the way, I'm hoping, I'm hoping that people listening to this, this is their shift moment, listening to you. Let me ask you one last question because you mentioned this about praying to God. Yes. So I'm just going, wow. Like, even my producer, Stephen is like so chill all the time. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:43 Like, we're not chill right now. I mean, Steve got same haircut. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you could be brothers, actually. Let me ask you this last. How important has been your. intuition or faith since you've referenced it a couple times like that intuition to run to the front right that intuition to you know oh to go to the group home right right so how much is
Starting point is 00:59:01 intuition and faith played a role in all of this i've always had a strong discernment yep i can read people and it's like a gut feeling either right or wrong always i always knew it so my faith is i'm going to make it regardless of because a lot of times it was a friend of mind she asked me one day she says tiki do you ever feel like god left you and i says never one time in my life so i've always felt okay whatever whatever the circumstances is i i just felt like whatever it's going to be i have to get through it so i ain't never been shaken or wavered i never pointed the finger even when i've been in the darkest place i never questioned god ever not one time because some reason or not even though i went through that but i i felt like every year
Starting point is 00:59:51 I was the best at my age level. So when I look back in my community, if I was 12, I was the best 12 year old. If I was 15, I was the best 15 year old. If I was 18, I was the best 18 year old. Now I'm 46. I'm the best 46 year old where I'm from. And so I kept on elevating my life.
Starting point is 01:00:12 Yeah. You know, and like another thing is like, like, like how do I get Martin Day? So last year at my college, I graduated Saul Ross. State University, right? I was the first African-American to go into the Hall of Fame as the Distinguished Alon in 103 years, and guys that's in the Hall of Fame that you know, what's the name, what's that, Bananzas, Dan Blocker. Oh, yeah, okay.
Starting point is 01:00:39 Big Blocker, he's in there as a distinguished, you know, some of those guys. And I was just looking back, because I didn't know when I went in, I would start looking the list, and I was like, man, I'm the first black. Wow. And that's history. It is. I'm just picturing this. It's weird. It's all coming together for me at the end. Yeah. But I'm like, I'm picturing this little boy, hey, I don't want you with your grandmother. Hey, that's your brother. Then I'm picturing that little boy peeking out and recognizing those jeans and those boots where he's been stabbed and he's bleeding out and he's under that bed hiding from the man trying to murder him because his mom ripped him off and he was a John and she was a prostitute.
Starting point is 01:01:14 Right. And then I'm picturing you in jail and seeing that last conversation with your mom till right now to, for, for you. African American into that Hall of Fame like multi multi millionaire published speaker it's just like it's one of the most remarkable stories of all time bro and by the way on top of it you're unbelievable at telling it right like when you speak I see visual pictures right which is what a great communicator does I just want to tell you something I'm honored and thrilled that you came here today man I'm honored to sit here well listen to me you have done something for millions of people today that nobody else could do because of what you've gone through who you've become what you're becoming the lessons the stories i could just promise you you're by the way your world's
Starting point is 01:01:57 about to change right now i tell you when this is out your world's even going to go to another whole level so tiki last thing is this where do they find you where should they go find you so they can stay in contact with you can go to my website tiki davis dot com you can find me on instagram tiki factor okay and facebook tiki davis okay and tiki is t i kai everybody just so you all know. Thank you for today. Man, thank you for having me. It was an honor. It was, it was, it was late, this flu, I feel like we've been here 15 minutes.
Starting point is 01:02:24 Yeah. All right, everybody, I don't know what to say. You know what I'm talking about. You're going to share this. If someone wants to hear a story and go on a journey for an hour that'll change their life, this has been the one. So God bless you all. Max out your life.
Starting point is 01:02:39 This is the Edmireland Shaw.

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