Trading Secrets - 29: “Dead or in Jail by 16”: WWE Superstar Titus O'Neil's Inspirational Story

Episode Date: November 29, 2021

WWE Superstar Titus O’Neil has a story unlike any other. He talks to Jason about it from the very beginning. From being a product of a rape victim to being told he’d end up in jail by 16 or wouldn’t survive, to being bullied, to turning it ALL around, Titus truly defied the odds. He shares his unmatched perspective on hardships and life, and it’s another episode of 'Trading Secrets' you can’t afford to miss. For All Access Content - join our networking group for less than 30 cents a day! manscaped.com code SECRETS for 20% off + free shipping Hellofresh.com/secrets14 for 14 free meals and 3 free gifts! Host: Jason Tartick Voice of Viewer: David Arduin Executive Producer: Evan Sahr Produced by Dear Media.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets, where today we talk career and life navigation, both theory and impact with none other than the WWE superstar Hall of Famer and recipient of the Warrior Award, Titus O'Neill. I'm sitting across from Titus right now. He's about four times my size and I'm a little hungover because there were rain delays at WrestleMania last night. So this is awesome. Titus, I know it's a busy weekend for you. So thank you for being here. No, thank you for having me on.

Yeah, I mean, so last time I saw you, actually, I don't know if you remember this. We were playing the Celebrity Sweat game. We had the lead. We were up like 40 points against T-Mack, Doug Flutie, everything was good. And then the 24-7 belt, if you remember that, he won it. Then he dropped it, ended up with a bloody nose, and everything went to shit. Yeah, yeah, it was a tale of two halves, for sure. And I think it was partly on, I'll take part of blame because I didn't have anybody blitzing, Tracy.

This is the whole, you know, the second half, and that's how they ended up coming back. It was under no pressure at all. You know what? You're right about that? I'm born and raised in Buffalo. Of course, we got Doug Fluties from Buffalo. Andre reads from Buffalo.

It is the most standard Buffalo thing ever to be up by 40 points and like that out. Oh, yeah, that is. That's about right. I love it. Well, let's get into kind of the weeds of trading secrets. We're so excited to have you on your perspective. Everything you've done, I think your story's amazing, right? One of the companies that I own is called a restart.

It's about navigating. your life given the challenges that happen. And, you know, when I say the name Titus O'Neill, to me, words like strong, successful, impactful. I even heard some of the people backstage say mayor, obviously now champ and Hall of Famer. But those are probably, and tell me if I'm wrong, but from research I've done, those are describing words that as a child, if people were to say those about you now, you'd be like, that would be a dream to live up to that. So I'm curious, given your childhood, what do you think was the catalyst for change for you that put you in the position you are now, having people say things like that about not only your professional

life, but your personal life? Yeah, so I tell people all the time, you know, and I'm not going to take for granted that your audience knows anything about me. So with that, I'll just, a snippet of my backstory. I'm the product of a sexual assault. My mother was raped at 11 years old. and had me at a very young age, obviously, against the wishes of many. And, you know, we grew up in poverty, kind of bouncing from place to place. And I was labeled a kid that would be deader in jail by the time I was 16. I was headed that direction. I got into fights a lot, got bullied a lot because I used to wear thick glasses.

And, you know, get into a fight and to break them. Because we didn't have much money, my mom would tell me to tape them up. Then I get picked on even more because I had to take the glasses. because hot water pants, you know, flappy shoes, the list went on and on. I got a chance to go to a place called the Florida Shares Boys Ranch up in Live Oak, Florida. And it was there that I almost got kicked off again. Actually, the decision was made that I was going to get kicked off because I signed a contract that I wouldn't get into a fight.

And 30 minutes later, I got into another fight. And so they had a meeting and a meeting convened, and the decision was made that I would be sent home. And Mr. Patrick Minogue, who was the regional director, called me in the office. office. And he said, you know, why do you think you get into trouble all the time? Sure. And I said, you know, I don't know, man, I'm just a bad kid. And he said, there's no such thing as a bad kid. And I said, how can you say that? You know, I'm getting ready to get kicked off the boy's ranch. You know, I've been told I'd be dead in jail by the time I was

16. Me and my mom didn't have a good relationship at all, so I didn't know what I was going back home to anyway. And he said, well, I'm not going to give you an answer to that because I truly believe that you're going to turn things around and you're going to come up with an answer for yourself. So in the meantime, I'm going to tell you something that I want you to believe it. I love you and I believe in you. And a lot of people had told me that they love me, but then turn around and abuse me, beat me, curse me, et cetera.

But nobody had ever told me that they believed that I can do anything. It was a complete opposite. I'll be dead or in jail by the time I was 16. I'll never graduate from high school, never go to college, too dumb, too stupid, too uncoordinated, to play sports, the list went on and on. And I had to take that moment to realize that here's a guy that's willing to piss everybody off that works for him to make a decision to keep me there because he believes that I'm going to turn it around.

And fortunately, it worked out. You know, I went from being an underperforming student to be an honor roll student, went from being a kid that was too, quote-unquote, uncoordinated to play sports, to being that I'm one recruiting the country and an all-American football player. I'm the first person of my family to graduate from high school. I'm the first person of my family to graduate from college at the University of Florida, the greatest university in the world. You know, I have numerous academic and athletic honors,

but the greatest thing for me has not been, you know, necessarily the success in all of it, but the significance that I've made along those ways. And that's what turned my life around was that I realized at that moment that I need to start, believing in myself but not just try to strive to be you know successful you know anybody can be successful in anything if they really put their mind to it but I wanted to live a life of excellence and that life of excellence would give me the opportunity to live a life of significant so now when you're hearing people say things like you know that guy's awesome he's he's strong he's a great community leader he's the mayor he's this that

blah blah it's because I've been significant yeah not because I've been successful. We got tons of successful people that live here. Yeah, wow, that's a fascinating story. Thank you for sharing that with us. And I think the thing that my takeaway is how quickly you turn the corner, right? So you go from saying you're gonna end up

dead and broker in jail to an All-American. I mean, 1985, All-American. That's a huge change at a young age. And so was it that conversation from him when someone just said they believed in you? Or like, and then the thought process for you obviously had to take a huge turn. How do you, people out there right now are lost professionally, personally, and they all

have their own customized stories. What was like the process of actually executing everything? Like probably your workout routine, your nutrition, everything to become, you know, the All-American and move your life in that direction. Such a short, young period of time. Well, I always, I can't say that I did it by myself, you know. What I did do by myself was be more over. to the people that were around me that were saying they were trying to help me

and I actually believed that they were trying to help me. Because I've been told one thing by one person and then there was so much inconsistency as a kid. You know, you got one minute, you got a teacher saying, oh, I care so much about you. And then that teacher is no longer at the school. And then you've got another one coming in telling the same thing. And they're not at the school because it's an underserved school and a lot of issues, a lot of trauma. And they want to go somewhere else. and I think that all of us in life we no matter if you come from an affluent background or you come from a background of stricken with poverty yeah I think that all of us have some this innate ability and within us to overcome 100% and it always is about who or what is placed around you yeah as specific

times. Because I've met people that have come from affluent backgrounds, very wealthy, and they struggle with, you know, so mom was a doctor, dad was a doctor, everybody's kind of pushing them to go be a doctor, and that's not really what they want to do. They actually want to teach school. And then they say that to their family, and they're like, well, how dare you think you're going to teach school? You're not going to make any money doing that and this and that. So now they're trying to deal with that pressure of that. and not follow the passion that they really have to impact lives and impact this world the way that they want to. And for me, I got to the point at 12 years old that, like, I've always been a rebellious person in spirit.

Okay. I just learned how to do it in a way in which it was positive, it would get a positive outcome for me. So when I speak out about things, it was because it was the right. thing to do and not because I was angry. Yeah. And I think for like what's so important these days is peeling the onion back a little bit. People see things and they instantly make an assumption without knowing anything, right? Like the background of it or the story of Titus O'Neill. We know Titus O'Neill is a superstar. We don't know all those challenges that you overcame. And how many people didn't have the like maybe the strength or the surrounding people to get out of those challenges

and where are they? And most of the times too, a lot of people, people will ask the question, what you know, what's wrong with you? Sure. Hey, what's wrong with you? You're okay? Yeah. Hey, what's wrong with you? You're okay?

But nobody, very few times people ask, what happened to you? Interesting. Because what happened to you is really the focal point of what's wrong with you. Right. And if you don't know what happened, you don't know how to deal with what's wrong. Yeah. That's fat. Those are questions that can change the whole direction of a conversation.

Another one I learned from this FBI negotiator is people always will ask why. Like, why are you doing that? Why? But as kids, we're always taught or we're always like people of hierarchy are asking us why. So when you say the words why, it's instant defense, right? So you're not going to actually get a thoughtful, constructive response when you say why or what's wrong with you. One thing I want your take on is I know you have helped about 400 kids. Maybe it's even over 400 now.

So, okay. So that was the last article. So that is way outdated. So how many kids have you helped get to? Oh, I'm sorry, from a college perspective. Oh, they go to college. Yeah, just college. So how many people have helped to get to college? I've seen over $30 million in scholarship money raised. I'm curious, you went to University of Florida. I actually saw the clip of you sacking Peyton Manning, which is pretty badass. But what's your overall take on just college? And then from a financial perspective, we see there's $1.7 trillion of student debt right now. And obviously you're doing acting. things to help people get to school and get out of school without that debt. What's just your overall take on going to school, the process and things you've done around that? Yeah, so it's not just the kids that I've sent to college, because I've sent tons more to trade schools. Okay. You know, I would, you know, I will say loudly and proudly, college is not for everybody, you know, and especially now trades are actually paying much more than a college graduate, in most cases. In most cases anyway, especially when it comes to tech and even construction. You can come out making

$75,000, $80,000. Yeah, electricians too. Yeah, the electricians, plumbers. You can make great money, you know, and be in school for what, six months, eight months. And you have zero debt when you get done. I've had students that went to school with me at the University of Florida that some of them were pretty much lifetime students, you know, because they couldn't figure out what they wanted to do. Sure, sure. They don't have some that were, they came from affluent backgrounds, they went to school, they were on-in-roll students, you know,

they got a PhD, and they still can't get a job because they're horrible people. Yeah, you know, they can't work in a group with others. It's always somebody else's fault. You know, it's got to be their way or the highway, and, you know, they're unemployed because of that, with a PhD. Crazy. So education to me is not just about going to college. Like you say, some people don't have the means to go to college. The kids that I've helped to go to college, they definitely would not have been able to afford to go had it not been for our efforts, but also for their

athletic efforts. Yeah. That's amazing that you guys are doing that and you're exactly right. Like it's not a cookie cutter. I think that's one of the biggest problems in like this system is we think there's this blueprint like this cookie cutter model. Yeah, go to school, get good. grades, go to college, get a good job, live in a nice fancy house. It's not the case. It's not the case. And I think those people that break it like yourself are the people that actually find ultimate success and then can make the impact. But let's talk about you because you talked about people kind of getting paralyzed in their process, right? PhD, where do you go? What's next? For you, when you graduated, right? So you go to a great school.

You've made huge changes to be where you are. What was your, you go to play arena football and obviously inevitably end up where you are now. But what was your vision like when you left school and how did you approach that vision? Because most people leaving school right now, especially given the pandemic and where people are at, they don't know what the hell to do. So what did it look like for you?

Yeah, so I actually went to Jacksonville for a brief stint. I tore my ACL there. I was going to leave football all together and was going to go into coaching. Okay. And then chance meeting with a guy on a plane that own an arena football team and asked me

would I be interested in making good money and working six months of the year and this and that and I say yeah I'll give it a shot and so I ended up playing arena football for six, six and a half years

and I was getting ready going to coaching again at Florida I was getting ready to head up there to coach as an assistant coach and I was driving one day in South Tampa and Dave Batista is one of my best

friends for years and he had always he's a former WWE superstar and now movie star and he would always you know say hey man I think you'd be good at doing this and I said yeah I'm not doing that shit and I was driving one day in South Tampa to pick up a pair of dress shoes and he had told me where they they train and rehab at this place called FCW for the championship wrestling which is now our development system of NX T. Okay. And so I'm driving. I went to go pick up my shoes. I wanted to go and get some jerk chicken from a place called the Jerk Hut, which was literally around the corner. Okay.

I had never really paid attention to the black building that he said to go to on Del Mabry. So I saw it as I was driving down. And I said, hey, man, is this a building that you were trying to get me to come to? And he said, yeah. And I said, I think I'm going to poke my head in the back door and see what it's about. And he said, yeah, I just ask for Steve Kern. Dusty Roads. So I went in, and two weeks later, after I walked in that back door, I was signed and learning how to become a WWE superstar. It's a wild, wild transition. Yeah, it has zero, zero plans. But the transition part of it, the mindset behind that, I mean, I have young kids. Oh, at that time, they were young, two and four, they're 14 to 16 now.

You know, you're thinking about, all right, what's going to be best for me? If I go to Florida, I know I'm going to make great money. but do I want to take my kids out there and I just got divorced so it was like how is that going to work and for me fatherhood was always going to be at the number one

thing for me because I never grew up with a father and so that was probably the hardest you know thought process with the coaching because I really did want to coach but then when this opportunity came up I can stay in Tampa

I can be I can raise my kids and give it a shot I'm 32 years old at that time, about to be 33, right before my 33 birthday, which coincidentally is the same age that Dave Batista started his wrestling career. Wow. So, you know, it's been a great journey. This is the hardest thing that I've ever had to do in my life.

Wrestling. Wrestling. Really? Yes, because there is no off-season. Okay. We work 52 weeks a year, and, you know, on football, you have an off-season, you have a home schedule and away schedule. Yeah.

You know, I can be in Green Bay, Wisconsin one night, Madison, Wisconsin the next night, and then San Juan, Puerto Rico the next night, and then have to get back to Denver, Colorado for a live event, live TV. That's physically and mentally exhaust. Would you say that, so it sounds like you made that decision, not only for career opportunities, but also personal opportunity. So do you think those things, those three factors in everyone's decision

making should take precedence personal reasons career reasons and then financial reasons like looking at the full scope i definitely think uh no decision should be led with financial yeah because you could get a very good financial opportunity that has very good financially and then you get there and you're miserable yep exactly you know you definitely need to follow something that you feel wholeheartedly that you can sink your teeth into and be passionate about and help and help grow like i'm i've always been a part of winning teams yeah so i always want to want to be a good teammate and I want to be around things that are like like I like the underdogs or I like being able to know that I help build something. That's pretty cool. And so from 2009 to

2021 you build this incredible career with WWE, you know, but hundreds, maybe thousands of people have tried to do the same thing. What do you think in your preparation, your process, your mindset really set you apart from all these others that are trying? And you fell into it. You're just like, I'll give this a shot. Some of these people, like their whole life's dream of this, like, what separates you that you're now the Hall of Fame or you're, you know, you're winning the recipient of the Warrior Award and you're doing all this stuff you're doing? What do you think it is? I just feel like, you know, it's just part of God's plan on my story, you know, and I know, some people may not believe in God, you know, some of you might not be Christian or, like, they can be Christian

Catholic, whatever God you believe in, you know, to me, Muslim, whatever God you serve, like, your faith should help you understand why you're where you're at and why you're not where you want to be. And for me, I always knew that I always knew that I was supposed to be somebody just because of my story. Yeah. Like, I wasn't even supposed to be here. You know, I was supposed to, you know, my mom was, I'm conceived from a rape. Yeah. So God had a plan on my life from the beginning. And then I have small inklings of revelations from other people along the way, you know, Mr. Minogue at the boys ranch, a homeless guy who told me that God's going to use me a mighty way.

So I was like, yeah, man, he told me right after football practice in high school one day, I was like, man, yeah, man, I want to make it to the NFL, make a lot of money, and be able to help a lot of people. And he said, no, this has nothing to do with the NFL or any other sport. God's going to use you. Wow. And so just small, you know, instances where I've seen God use me. And then it's like for a minute I kind of ran from it.

It's like, you know, I know I'm not a preacher. I know I'm not a pastor. Yeah. But I know that God is using me. And he's using me because, like, I don't care what your sexual orientation is. I don't care what your political affiliation is. I don't care, you know, what, if you're a Christian or Muslim, you don't celebrate anything at all. Yeah.

I care about people being good human beings, and I care about having the opportunity to help good human beings, be better human beings. Yeah. And that's only, and I can do that because so many people from all walks of life poured into the Boys and Girls Club that I was a member of and the Boys Ranch that I attended. Some of them I'll never meet. some of them I will never be able to some of them I don't even I don't even know who they are yeah but they all at some point had a heart of dignity and they wanted to do something to help change the path of somebody yeah and so my way of repaying those people is to have that same mindset I don't care what color somebody is or what what background they come from I'm here to bless

the world because I'm blessed because of it right I think I think there's so much to take away from that because I think we live in this world where we feel like we need to hear from those that have all the credentials or that have achieved all the success but to your point it's not about what it looks like on paper it's like really what's within and one of the things that resonated with me that you just said is it was a homeless guy that gave you something that still to this day resonates and is like in your brain and I did some research and saw that that's one thing you would regularly do. You would take homeless people out to nice restaurants or take them to give them an opportunity. I'm sure their story, while

different than yours, probably resonates with challenges and they didn't overcome them, from those dinners that you had with those individuals, from people listening right now that are like, you know, they pass a homeless person, they're probably looking down on it and walking right past them and going past their life, what was like your biggest takeaway from the stories they have to where they are now and like potential solutions? because there's over a half million homeless people in America. So one of the main reasons why that gentleman in itself, you know, always will be at the top of my list is because, you know, weeks after he told me that,

you know, I'm 13 years old at the time. I'm like, hey, man, you mind if I ask you a question, you know? And he's like, yeah, and I was like, how did you end up in the situation? And he said, well, if I told you that I used to run a Fortune 5, 500 company and had a beautiful house and beautiful kids and a beautiful wife and I could drive places. We took trips and everything. Would you believe it? And I said, well, I mean, if that's what you tell me, you know, that's what I got to believe. He said, that's exactly what my life used to be. He said, drugs, alcoholic, gambling took me away from my family. And so, you know,

I say all the time, we're all one situation away from being in a worst situation. And it is not always the doing of ourselves is sometimes the undoing of others that causes a separation between your passion and purpose and where you, you know, end up residing at the moment, you know. And so most homeless people that I've sat down with and talked to, like I've, you know, the couple that I helped in San Diego, they've been married now for like 15 years. Okay. They've been homeless for 14 of them. Wow. So it's like, you know, you see homeless, they really are community, you know.

They take care of each other. There are definitely a lot of mental health issues that reside in the community, but there are a lot of mental health issues that reside in the community of the military too. Sure. You know, people suffering from PTSD, you know. And there's this thing called compassion fatigue

that a lot of people that are in business or education suffer from and they don't really run. realize they're suffering from it because you're especially those that are teachers because they're dealing with trauma after trauma after trauma yeah and that gets wearing and then especially if you have a family of your own you got to take that baggage home every single day even when you don't want to yeah and so we all have to understand that like for us to get where we need to get as individuals we need to look around our surroundings sometimes or look with outside of our own situation and realize how blessed we are yeah you know because even if a homeless person can stay

married that's incredible you know for for 15 years and have a dog and I see a flame I mean I mean I look back on it like I'm a divorce sure sure you know and I'm like but to me the divorce was the best thing that could ever happen to me because I don't think I would have been where I'm at today, if I would, sometimes you can be very unequally yoked with a partner. Right, right. And, you know, as much as I'm an advocate for marriage, I'm not an advocate for being married just for the sake of saying you're married, you know what I'm saying? Of course, yeah, of course.

Especially when you know. But there are some people out there that, like you say, with education, you know, I got to go to college. I got to do this. There's some women that think, you know, I got to have a baby before I'm 35. Sure. I got to have, you know, I got to get married and I got to be a staff. You don't. You don't. You really don't. You need to do and be whatever God has in your path, a purpose to be. And if you do, if I always say obedience is greater than sacrifice. That's good. So if you're obedient to whatever God is telling you to do and you're obedient to what your heart's telling you to move and be a part of and this and that. Yeah, you're going to sacrifice some stuff. You know, it's going to be some nights. You can't hang out with your friends.

sure it's going to be some nights that you you wish you can go out to dinner but you're trying to save that money out because you want to buy a house or you want to own a home or you want to need to buy a car those sacrifices are are minimal when you realize the rewards of obedience right I mean that's a powerful line and I think a lot to what you're saying is this system that kind of puts us these societal pressures create this expectation that we should be living up to but then if you look at every indicator, like from a number perspective that drive success, it's a, you look at like, you talked about divorce, but like the divorce rate is as high as it's ever been consumer debts is as high as it's ever been unhappiness rates or mental health

issues. So if there's this like mantra that we should be living by because others are instilling that that's the way to do it, even though it goes against some of the things that we want to do are obedience and sacrifice, why do we continue to do it? Does that lead into the like the thought process i've seen you say that what i do for a living is not what i am for a living is that some of the meaning behind that quote yeah yeah because sometimes you know you even though you can enjoy whatever you're doing we all gonna get fired at some point yeah we're all free agents right yeah yeah yeah and either we're firing ourselves because we decide to move on to something else or somebody comes in and says hey you know your services no longer need it sure if you have engulfed

yourself in every aspect of who you are as an individual in your job, you will completely lose who you are for a living. And sometimes people go and they get these titles, their CEO or CFO, and they get consumed with that power and being able to call shots and this and that and this and that. And then completely lose who they really are at the core. Yep. And I will never be, like, I never have really considered myself as a celebrity. Yeah.

Just because I always remember practice in my autograph in school, hoping to be famous one day, you know. And now that I finally am, it's a little aggravating sometimes, you know what I mean? Hey, can we take a picture? Yeah, sure, it's only 3.30 in the morning, but I'll do it. I can't see sure. Yeah, yeah, I just got off a plane, you know, it's cool. Yeah, it's a lot. Hey, can we take a picture?

Oh, yeah, I'm just sitting here trying to have family. dinner with my sons, but yeah, I'll be more than happy to let you interrupt me and this little bit of time I have with them to do that. Yeah, I mean, I think that perspective is just so refreshing and when people just need to hear more of. One thing I got to ask you, go like from your background in college and then being in the WWE, one of the biggest issues, a lot of people at all ages, all demographics struggle with is the idea of like negotiation, right? Just like, How do I negotiate for my best interest, whether it's work, it's just what's next in life? From your standpoint, what have you done behind the scenes to leverage your mindset, your

philosophy, and your skill set to be able to negotiate for yourself to get where you are today? Personally, this is the honest to God truth. I've been the same to the entire time. Yeah. It's just different years have exposed different. aspects of me you know some people they get it to a job and they feel like they got to you know talk trash about this person to make sure that they look better than this person that's like all you know it's a saying that says cream always rises to the top uh-huh yeah you know i i have

zero enemies in the locker room i have zero enemies within this company because i've always been the same dude and there've been some people that have literally pissed me off And I'll let them know. You know, I let them know. And we talk like men or women. And I explain, you know, my side. I listen to their side. And then we come to an understanding and we move on.

And people can respect you when you stand up for yourself and this and that. Because I'm alone as a nice guy and this and that. Yeah. But I'm very, very strong in my convictions. Nothing I've ever done in life has ever made me who I am. Yeah. It's only celebrated who I am. I like that.

So we just have about 10 minutes left here. with Titus O'Neill, but yesterday I'm preparing for the interview. I was asking some people backstage of your colleagues, like how would they describe you? And the one thing that I heard more than often is the mayor. He's just, he's literally the mayor of the backstage. Do you think part of that is attributed to the way you communicate? Like you just said, like you're old, because it's not easy for a masculine, how six foot six, 300, however tall, I'm sure those stats are wrong, but this massive guy to just like talk about your feelings. Do you think that's what like people attribute you to being like the mayor the backstage for yeah i think that and i mean

i legitimately know just i know a lot of people yeah like just not just in the city of tampa but literally worldwide a lot of people and you know it's it's it's it's just we go to different places and i'm like introducing talent uh hey this is such and such from the from the rams or from or we go to Australia, and I'm sending up a visit with, you know, Terry Erwin and Bindi Irwin so that we can have a private tour to go to the Australia Zoo because I'm friends with Terry and Bendy and the family. And they're like, how the hell you know people in Australia? We go to South Africa and I'm my fraternity brother that lives over there. You know, it's just like, and I feel like it's the relationships have always been important

to me, and I've always cherished every single relationship. And I think a lot of times people take that for granted. You know, even when you don't work with somebody anymore, it doesn't mean that they're no longer of a value, their friendship is no longer of a value to you. Yeah. Even though you don't go to school with somebody anymore, it doesn't mean that, you know,

that you guys still can't be friends far beyond that. Life does change for everybody. Some people have kids, they get families, they have less time to do X, Y, Z. The careers take them different places. Sure. But at the end of the day, relationships should always matter. You know, because to me, love seeks to give the advantage, not take the advantage.

And so when you have that mindset, it's like, I'm going to give this person the advantage, then it becomes a competition of, oh, well, you know, that person did this for me, but I'm going to do one better. I'm going to, you know, they surprise me on my birthday with this, but I'm going to do one better, you know. And it's like if you have a genuine real friendship, it's easy. for somebody pick up the phone and say, hey, man, I know we haven't spoken a long time, but I was wondering if I can run something by you, as opposed to the guy that you don't really have a relationship with, and then all of a sudden,

WrestleMania comes, just like, hey, man, I know we ain't talking in a while. Congrats on all your success. You know, I was wondering if you can, you know, get me and my son two tickets. Yeah, that's just so empty. Yeah. And I'm like, that's not part of your ecosystem. Like, you think about, like, what's in your ecosystem, you've done it well and you've done a right because two things that are sticking with me and your whole story are one even though

you're not an arena football player anymore the guy that you literally just met on a plane obviously gave some type of energy to him that he wanted you to get going who knows if that sparked the catalyst to you being here today and then also your buddies who were like hey just go give that a shot like relationships or something i think no matter where you come from whether it's it's the as you're in a poverty driven community or you're in an affluent area it's one thing that you don't have to be through textbooks and there's so much to that. And this has been absolutely incredible Titus. The way we're going to wrap up, if it's all right with you, is we do a segment where we crack open the vault. So I have a couple rapid fire questions. So that'll just take a minute or

two. And then we get a trading secret from you because that's the name of the podcast. So one trading secret from either WWE, your career or something that you could give to someone that they couldn't get anywhere else. But before we do that, we give one fan of the podcast an opportunity to ask a question. So I'm going to see if Pat O'Cuto is here and we can get a question. Pat, how are you? We are live on Trading Secrets with Titus O'Neill. This is the part of the segment where we give a fan of the show an opportunity to ask a question. Do you have a minute to ask a quick question to Titus? All right. Come on in. You are now on the mic. All right. Thanks. Hey, Titus. This is Patrick. I'm a huge WWE fan and a huge fan of everything you

do inside and especially outside of the ring. I wanted to ask about one of the hottest new trends right now in finance and collectibles are NFTs. I saw over the weekend that WW launched a one-of-the-kind undertaker themed NFT to coincide with WrestleMania this weekend. What I wanted to ask is if WWE releases a Titus O'Neill themed NFT in the future, how does all that work from like a licensing and royalties perspective? because, you know, it's you, but it's WWE releasing the content

and, you know, you're an independent contractor and all that. So just kind of curious how all that works. And follow-up question, would an NFT of Titus O'Neill tripping at the greatest Royal Rumble be the highest selling NFT of all time? It could, so to answer your first question, it is WWE's intellectual property and every WVWUPS Superstar that signs, you know, on, understands that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they, that they do get paid royalties, uh, off of everything that we do, uh, merchandise. I'm sure NFTs will be no different. And I do. If, uh, if, uh, if they did do a, a greatest roll rumble, uh, slide, it would definitely be up there with the highest, uh, highest grossing

NFTs and WWE history. I love that. Pat, really appreciate the question. The funny thing, too, is I saw Mandy Rose took a fall yesterday. You gave her some words of encouragement. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did a little video last thing. That's on.

Maybe you put those two together. Packaged deal. Yeah. I love it. Mandy sliding backwards and me sliding forward. I love it. Well, Pat, thanks for your question. All the best one.

Tune in because when we release this, I'll let you know. All right. All right. Thanks. Awesome. appreciate that. Good stuff. Good thoughtful on the business side. That's good stuff. All right. So we got just a few minutes here. Let's crack open the vault with Titus O'Neill. Titus. These are rapid fire questions that will ask you and answer them any which way you'd like.

We'll start with number one if you're ready. So how far in advanced are you practicing for like any time that you have to be on TV for like a script to memorize the actual things you have to say? it varies sometimes it's five hours and sometimes it's five minutes okay i like it so it just depends how quickly it clicks all right how many calories do you consume in a day uh it that varies it's usually anywhere from 1800 to 3100 calories a day okay gotcha all right so i was expecting more but um we see that your suits are just unbelievable you got this huge freaking build how much money do you think you spend a year on tailoring this this bill the years i would say close to maybe maybe like 50 000 wow that's awesome but it's my it's my business too so you know you send a return on yeah i mean you you think

if somebody's paying you to come to speak for a major corporation they're paying you great money so spending you know 3500 or so on a suit is an investment in that that opportunity you know Yep, that makes perfect sense. What is the most painful wrestling move to perform? The most painful wrestling move to perform would probably be, I don't know, probably getting hit with a chair. I saw the people getting hit yesterday. I'm like, why is this chair not bent at all?

All right, here's the last one we'll wrap up with it. We actually ask every guess this. And it's just to get perspective from an investment standpoint, you know, where you see things moving and what you're interested. but if someone gave you a million bucks right here right now in cash what would you do with it from an investment standpoint well i would continue to uh do what i've been doing which is right now i'm i'm highly involved in tech oh amazing and uh just actually built a an LED volume here in tampa it's the same uh technology that they use from mandolian and star wars but my screen is actually

twice the size of there and uh so we're building out that studio there And it's part of a big push to put urban innovation in an area that's been downtrodden. And I love investing in real estate. So we just close out on a 112 unit affordable housing complex. And so out of those 112 units, the 70 of those families are coming out of homelessness or we're facing homelessness at some point. The rent is fixed. and they're beautiful homes. It's a place called Sable Place.

And so continuing to do wherever they can in the technology space and the real estate space, especially right now when obviously everything is down in certain areas and everything is going up. Like Tampa's a very, very hot market. But you can get stuff up in New Jersey and New York right now for a lot cheaper than you used to be able to. Because people are just flocking out of there and these folks are just trying to unload stuff. so that's awesome i love the forward thinking i think the future's here and one thing everything you're doing is just making an impact even with those business decisions right their business decisions are good for you but also making an impact set an example to be a great human being

was part of your warrior recipient speech it's clearly who you are in the recap we're going to go over all the detail from a non-for-profit charity impact you've made i wanted to hear more from you because those are statistics i will find and we'll recap and share them with everyone but before we let you go, one trading secret you can give someone that they can't find or Google anywhere that'll help anybody listening be maybe a better consumer, investor, employee, or just a person. Anything you just, you can't find it on Google and it's got to come from someone with a story like Titus O'Neal. What would your trading secret be today? Don't look just to be successful, look for significance. If you're looking for it to be significant, you'll be successful

to 10 times over. If you're looking just to be successful, you might be on one hit one. love that wow i'll tell you what with all these theories and ideas on life titus if you haven't written a book you need to write a book i actually have wrote a book okay this is the perfect time tell every person listening right now they're like holy shit the philosophy and the thought i need more titus where can they find your book where can they find everything find my book on amazon it is uh called there's no such thing as a bad kid okay and uh you can buy to purchase that on amazon and then if you want to learn more about my foundation. It's Bullard FamilyFoundation.org,

B-U-L-L-A-R-D, Family Foundation.org, and it will be there that you can kind of keep up with some of the stuff that we have going on. Amazing. And then on Instagram and social media, all Titus O'Neal.

At Titus O-N-E-I-L-W-E-E. Good stuff. All right, well, we're going to buy 10 of those books. And if you guys can give us a review on this podcast or any feedback you have, put your Instagram handle, and we will give 10 of Titus's books out there. Titus, thank you so much for being with us.

Your perspective on life is one weekend, always have come across of, and we just really appreciate you open it up and instilling all this good energy on us. Thank you. Appreciate you having me on. Awesome. Thank you so much.

Ding, ding, ding. We are ringing in the closing bell on the Titus O'Neill episode. What an absolute legend. And I think with Thanksgiving Day last week, and just, you know, really putting things in perspective, being with family and friends, I feel as though this was the perfect episode.

Now, did we get into business stuff? Of course we did. But was there more life lessons here than business lessons? I think so. And I think about a guy like Titus, who is so thankful for every day. I mean, the guy thought he would be in jail or dead by 16. And for me, one of my biggest takeaways from this episode was perspective.

Like, it gave me a whole different perspective on the way we live and what we live for and what we're doing and how we're doing it. So Titus, thank you for opening up. But as per usual, what do we got? We got the one and only. The curious Canadian, open, honest, isn't afraid

to ask that dumb question and it's here to also give us his insight. David Ardwin, welcome to the house, baby. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Before I give my insight, I got to give my reaction. You gave a nice little intro, teed him up there, and then he started talking.

the guy has the deepest voice I've ever heard and I know that he's like a 6-5-6-4 monster I was like oh he's gonna eat Jason like he's just gonna consume him and then by the and then by the end of the episode I'm like this guy's Barry White this guy could sit there and he could sing a lullaby to me and I would just be like the happiest most comforted person ever so don't judge a book by its cover

because I was like terrified of him and then I was like crying two minutes in the episode I think he needs to be like a hard o when he needs to be a hardo right like he was WWE champion, it'll take down anybody. But like, at the core of who he is as a person, is I wouldn't say like even light, I would just say like sensitive. Like he's in touch. He's in touch

with everything. He's emotions. Very what? He's Barry White. Oh, Barry White. I thought you said he's light. Like he's like not hard. He's like light. Oh, no. I was said by the end of it. I like that. Yeah, I mean, dude, I'll tell you this. We sat, we were kind of like a small hotel room. We sat right across from one another.

and it was amazing to me when I would just look at the mic in his hand versus the mic in my hand like it looked like literally I had like a mic and to him it looked like it was like a little toothpick and I'm like two years like four X me

but yeah I mean just an incredible episode I found it wild that I was texting David as he was listening to this I'm like I think it's perfect time for Thanksgiving how do you think of the episode and he said two minutes in it I'm crying yeah no legit like I had no idea of the backstory and I know that you've wanted to kind of put this story out there for people

and like like you said absolutely perfect timing so um that's my reaction uh that's my overview on it so now it's it's question time for you uh fire away relatable to um this interview and he had a book titled there's no such thing as a bad kid and i actually wrote that down on my notes right when he said it because as a coach in hockey i have that theory too and i want to kind of turn the tables to kind of what you do for a profession in terms of finance and restart and ask you the question if there's no such thing as a bad kid

in the finance world, is there such thing as a bad investor? And I know that you can lose money on a trade or an investment, but is that better than not doing it all if you see what I'm saying? So answer that. Is there such thing as being a bad investor

or at some point do we just not know better? Okay. First, when you asked me, so I just started laughing because I'm like, Yeah, there are some fucking awful investors. But I want to say this. I think that if you're in the game and still not managing things correctly,

maybe you're acting impulsively, you're not putting rationale to the decisions you made, you aren't going through the analytics to really understand a company, you're not reading about them, right? You're not doing the things you should be doing as an investor. If you're not using proper bankroll management, understanding your risk, all the things you've got to do, I think you're still, I don't know, I honestly want to say you're still better off than someone

who just won't step into it. Someone that won't learn, won't do anything, is sitting on cash, maybe not spending well, because at the end of the day, that is really how you will find success in almost anything you do is just completely fucking up. Fucking up, fucking up, failing, falling on your head, not being the best. Well, hopefully, if you know, you're smart and can adjust, will get you to the point where you need to be. The biggest issue to day is spending and then people just not having any desire or interest or doing anything for themselves to learn how to invest. But, you know, I do think it's a good question, especially when he said there's no such thing as a bad kid. As a coach, though, David, I'm going to go back

to life because that was a little bit of a business question. You really, like, you're dealing with shitheads all day, 16 to 15, 18. You have good ones. You have bad ones. You really don't think there's such thing as a bad kid. No. So, before I, I did the coaching job in Rochester, as you know, I used to live with 12 kids every year in a house and a big house and we had a private training facility for hockey and I used to live with and coach and mentor these kids. And every year I used to have 12 new kids and it would take about six to eight weeks to really just figure out each kid, okay, who reacts to discipline, who reacts to criticism, who needs to be, you know, built up all the time, who needs to be,

you know, broken down sometimes to get the most out of them. And all I realize is there's no bad kids, there's just bad parents, right? There's just bad. parenting and I have to figure out just like everyone else in the world is dealing with it like you have to figure out what makes these people who they are right so you know shitheads definitely there's some of them but it's a product of a shithead environment and that has always been the biggest like thing for me is that job taught me that the most important job in the world is parenting and you are taking someone that knows nothing and teaching them everything this also kind I mean, we talked about true crime last week with Payne Lindsay, and obviously the Kyle

Rittenhouse case is still very real. I guess, so I agree with you. I mean, parenting is everything. You are a product of your surroundings, and anyone could be taught, I think, and guided with the right people around them and the right discipline and accountability. But, like, at what point are you a kid and what point are you an adult, right? We just saw this written house, 17 years old. And that was one of the big topics of discussion.

What point are you a kid? I mean, your takeaway, like, what age is that? I don't think it's age at all. I mean, Titus O'Neill is more an adult at age eight facing all the adversity and criticism and bullying and life experiences than someone, a Fortune 500 CEO's kid is at 35 who hasn't had to work an honest day of their life. So it's not an age. It's just a, I think it's a perspective to,

reality like what reality is in our society like perspective to that and i don't i'm sorry but unless you've struggled it's really hard to have a sense of reality totally i agree with that and i think while obviously our system legally defines an adult at a certain age based on certain states uh to your point like the maturity and the wherewithal and everything just the mental makeup and the experiences it can't be defined in years lived here's a question for you experience has had Yeah, let's hear it. If society wasn't built a way that we know it. Yeah.

So you didn't go to school from grade kindergarten to grade 12, and then you didn't go to college from 18 to 21, and the drinking age wasn't 21, and the voting age wasn't 18. If none of that existed, then what would you call an adult? Because everything that we're calling an adult is based off a system that's already been put in place from us, that a number defies us the opportunity to, A, move out from your parents' house,

B, vote so you have a say in the world, you live in. But if none of those existed, how would we be really saying who's an adult? I mean, Titus is a product of a rape that happened with someone who was 11 years old, who in our society is not an adult, but that person was still able to have a child, which means they're not an adult, but they can have a child. You know what I mean? So number of perspective is a product of our environment and to our society that we, again, no bad kids, like no bad human, no bad adult, but we're all put in the situation based off their rules. Yeah.

I mean, it's a different, definitely a different perspective in looking at just the whole structure in general, right? The whole, there's more, not even the structure, the system, right? The system. Like, I know this is definitely moving off topic a little bit, but the whole idea is, as you're telling me this, I'm thinking through my head of ages and stuff, the idea that in my head, that you can go serve at 18, and you can. go die for your country, but you can't crack open a beer. It's just fucking insane to me.

And I know that's like a total deep tour from like the core of the conversation, but you wonder where some of these limitations within our system came to be about, how they came about. And you could clearly rewire to see how they did become where they did and when they became what they did. But today is that still relevant? Yeah, 100%. And I'm going to transition. this into every podcast guest that we've had that successful, every single one of them had a very, very, like I said, struggle. And I don't think that you can be an adult or successful at the level that they are without facing the reality of our societal systems as a struggle. So he said,

Titus said, and I want your take on this, he said, look to be significant instead of successful. And I know that when you were Jason Tardock in your banking days, you had one goal in mind, be successful. And now that you got the platform, the opportunity to do, you start a resource, restart, sorry, to help to be a resource to others, which is now being significant. I'm just curious to hear your holistic feelings on the differences and now how you measure success through now a more significant than purely successful version of. Yeah, I think the issue is, David, like to that point, the significant versus successful, I think anyone out there that is chasing strictly success, you have to say what is that. success and why are you chasing it? I think the problem for me, David, is like, I was chasing it for many reasons, but I think the biggest reason was because of the image that went with success, right? Respect of it. People looking up to, I guess, like some power with it. So the problem

is I was chasing success for the complete wrong reasons and therefore it was a disaster. So I think you have to define yourself like what is successful. I'll give you a great example of one I just heard about this weekend. So there's a company called FTX and they do crypto trading and they actually just took over the naming rights of Miami Heat. The owner is worth over $20 billion. Over $20 billion. So I was asking more about the owner and how he founded it and where he has money is extremely brilliant mathematician. He's just, he's like a genius, but he knows he's a genius. And so his goal in life is to be successful. But to your question, David, why? He wants to make, if you ask him, Apparently what he says is I want to make as much fucking money as I can in this world.

He's already worth $22 billion. I want to make as much money as I humanly, humanly can. However, when you look at him, when he's walking around, he wears his new balances, wears a average t-shirt, doesn't really own any assets, like doesn't own like a yacht or a car or things like that. In fact, I believe they said in Japan, like he has three roommates. And his whole mission behind continuing to make as much fucking money as he can, so that in his lifetime, while he's on this planet,

once he continues to make the money he is, is he wants to give every dollar back. Wow. So he wants to make all these billions and then give it back. So when his time expires, he has systems in place that his wealth will live on forever and the impact that he can have

will, like, change the way the world operates. So he's now chasing success because of the attempt to be as possibly significant that that human could be. And so, and they also, dude, man, think about the people chasing success. Like, I see it in our world. I see it in every world. Like, no one lasts a lifetime.

Like, so if you're like the most relevant person or like the most successful or like the CEO or something, your time will end. You won't always be the CEO. You won't always be the chairman. You won't always be the host. You won't always be the familiar face. You won't always be the most liked. Like, that stuff cycles, but significance doesn't. Impactful is the word.

You said impact. And that's why he wants to raise all the money or make all the money to impact. like for me that's in my own story impactfulness living with kids and be able to change a bad quote unquote like a bad kid into a good kid and reroute the path of his life like

where's Titus at if that guy didn't give him a chance of the ranch with those kids that's that's impacting someone's life that's impactful and the best thing is you impact that one person like you impact Titus and every single day Titus is waking up and impacting tens and hundreds

and thousands of kids with the work he's doing. Exactly. And what is more important than that? Nothing. Like, literally, like we have on average, I talk about this in my book coming out, we have on average, like 79 years to live in the United States. So you got 79 years.

I know that's a fucking hard thing to swallow. Okay, if I'm at 33 and on average or 79, right, quick math tells me I got 46 years on average to live, 46 and I'm gone. On average, if I'm lucky enough. Like, what are you doing in this 46 years? And that's something I think you think about more. I don't know if you think about. I think about this more as I age. Like the older I get and the older I see my parents get and the older I see, I'm fortunate to still have two

grandparents, grandparents here. You start to realize like, you start to really think about life a little bit more. And as you think about business and the grind and every day, I'm trying to work to keep these businesses going and moving faster and making more money. But like then for what? Like what, you know, it's just like. That's why I mean you got to pop out kids because you just talked about how many people Titus gets the impact. Like you raised, you raise a good kid and a good human and a good adult, like that person has the ability to impact so many more, which is at the end of the day, the goal of what we're talking about, being significant, impacting the world in the greater way.

So if ever, I mean, imagine if the, if our whole world was every single person, our society approached life the way Titus does, how much better would be a society? Okay. I have a homework assignment for us. Okay. And we're going to do this. Yeah, we always do. Before I get to this homework assignment, you're 20 Ethereum?

Where the fuck are there? You got them or no? That's all I want to know. do you have your 20 Ethereum yes or no no it's Thanksgiving week I told you to get we're recording this the beginning of this my first week off and forever is I'm getting so we had till Thanksgiving this is technically being recorded after Thanksgiving

but it's airing after Thanksgiving yes you have till next week I want to know where your Ethereum is the other thing I want you to do is I want you to define what success is to you and what happiness is to you love I want David's definition of success I want David's definition of happiness I am going to do the same and I want a true number that you would associate your life

1 through 10 of we've done this before I want to check in on it your 1 through 10 happiness scale okay I love this we're gonna get in that then another thing we're gonna do too is we're gonna do a year-in recap David where you're gonna I'm gonna do another

Jason tells all and we're gonna go through anything and everything you want to know business and finance related for the year 2021 and goals for 2022 and you better you better come with the heat we're bringing the quick books open and we'll open up that book All right, David, anything else before we wrap up here?

No, I think we're good. Good stuff. Guys, thank you for tuning in another episode, Traying Secrets. Please, five stars. Give us comments in those when you give us five stars. Give us any feedback. Guests you want, topics you want. I did see a bunch in there wanting real estate.

So we are working very hard to get someone in the real estate world. Residential real estate will be our next play. And we'll be talking all about the ins and outs of residential real estate, when to buy, how to buy, mortgages, home equities, et cetera. So that's coming soon. But thank you guys for listening. You're listening. Give us five stars. If you ever listen to these and you wish you were on live or you want some insight from a day trader or an HR executive or anybody in the business space, we have a networking group. It's literally nine bucks a month. Nine bucks. That's as much as your damn cup of coffee. Right now you could buy a one year membership for 75 bucks. Email us. Restart at Jason Tartick if you're interested and we will get that over to you. And thank you for tuning into another episode of Trading Secrets. One, you can't afford to miss. Making that money, money, playing on me.

Making that money and money living that dream. Making that money, money, money, pay on me. Making that money, living that dream.