Leadership Development in Transitional-Aged Youth

Transitional Adolescent Leadership developmnet (1)I look back to my childhood when I was subconsciously downloading a program of thought into my life’s operating system. My parents and relatives were shaping my future without doing so intentionally.

Think about all the kids across the globe that are downloading the programming from their immediate environments and ask yourself what these environments are giving to these young people…think about all the various types of environments that these kids are growing up in. A large majority of these them take this pattern of thinking throughout their entire lives and it follows them into early adulthood. Most of these kids will grow up attracting more people into their circles that are products of similar environments, therefore adding to the population of those being held captive by their past.

Related: It Doesn’t Matter Where You Start

Throughout these years there will be numerous things that happen in these young people’s lives that become internalized and viewed as a permanent piece of who they are. In other words, these kids come to where they perpetuate a thought process that they never double checked to be the truth of their individual potential. These kids grow up believing that they have no alternative path in life other than that which was laid by those in their immediate vicinity, and therefore they block out any potential success that is possible through properly aligning themselves with more successful and more prosperous individuals who actually care about their successful forward progress in life. I’m sick of our current systems of thought, and systems of community inactivity continuing to block the blessings of out youth.

I’m looking to develop a program* where the gap between high school and adulthood is bridged, but also where there’s a multi-systemic approach towards proper socio-educational development which will have our young people prepared to take on all the challenges of transitioning through adolescence and into early adulthood with a mission-focused level of clarity. I’ll be looking to connect with local (South Mississippi) community leaders, entrepreneurs and academics that have a deep passion to disrupt our current education system and give economically disadvantaged youth a better chance as a life of abundance.

*Only select partnerships will be accepted.

Complete the form below if you have a passion to impact this population as well!


Socio-political Movements…Like so much, it’s all perspective.

History is filled with the political turmoil created by groups engaging in collective actions in an attempt to bring about social change. In fact, the historical record is so teeming with such instances that it seems eminently reasonable to posit movements and conflict as rooted in the very nature of social order itself. To paraphrase Hobbes: “Society is the war of group against group.”

(Jenkins, 1981)

Socio-political movements have been sparking up for varying reasons over the recent decades, and as Thomas Hobbes alluded; “society is the war of group against group.” We in all of our unique differences, perspectives and experiences make up what we know to be our society.  We as a collective hold in our hands the keys to turn over the engine of our society to bring about understanding, unity and abundance for the many, but at the same time, we have the ability to bring about friction, animosity, misunderstanding, conflict. In almost any large scale group/society, we will find an abundance of ignorance. (and in using the word ignorance, I simply mean individuals that are lacking in a specified area of knowledge).  Wait, don’t be offended, because we all are ignorant to numerous issues under the sun and will forever remain ignorant of said issues. The thing is though, there are those who are intentionally ignorant to situations. They do not desire to truly gain an objective view of the situation and only desire to look at it from a singular, uneducated viewpoint. It is not smart of us to throw our perspective onto another group of ignorant individuals if we have not educated ourselves on the matter. We simply breed more ignorance.  Again, I use the word “ignorant” simply to define individuals that are lacking in a specified area of knowledge.

Credit: Dr. Jack – Willful Ignorance

Believe it or not, there are people in your network or at least in earshot of your voice and in sight of your writing who have a completely different perspective of life than you do. ‘Who woulda thunk?’ Their perspective of life has and will continue to mold their outlook on how the socio-political world is impacting their lives. They see the world, opportunities, potential, expectations and so much more, through a lense completely different than the lense that you see them through. There may be a large number of things that they agree with you on, but at the same time, there may be a few things that they see completely different than you. It doesn’t mean that they are against you. It simply means that they see life from a completely different perspective than you and some of them actually want to see something done to being about change. If we disagree with one’s viewpoint it can be easy to develop a desire to pushback on how they are expressing themselves through certain movements that they start in order to seek a better path forward in life.

I propose that we stop getting up in arms against these movements and first educate ourselves. We need to educate ourselves on the why and stop focusing so closely on the what. We need to first empathize, and seek clarity as to where and how the message began. Then we need to actually lead through actions and not just words. We need to go into the communities and have conversations with those taking part in the movement. We need to get them to articulate to us what their movement means to them, then we need to help them to start initiatives and we need to actually take part in those initiatives; initiatives to bring about change through action from ground zero and not simply through chants and marches. There are lots of movements created where the purpose becomes ambiguous and we never know what the initial meaning/hurt/trauma was behind the initiation of the movement.

Some people try to bring about action or change as an individual, yet as an individual their voice is silenced by the many that are benefiting from their hurt/trauma/etc in one fashion or another. So the movement starts after those with a louder voice have joined in on the message and sometimes those with the louder voice will distort the message due to alterior motives and in turn, completely change the initial purpose behind the message. We then identify all of those affiliated with this message that has sparked a movement as ignorant people because the loudest of them are ignorant and simply desire to being about conflict and mayhem. So, in effort to not be ignorant, the ones who started it with a good and honest purpose, have to separate themselves so they don’t look like the jerks that have distorted the message.

The thing is, we never will understand the true reason behind the beginning of any movement when we only view it through lenses with which we individually view the world ourselves.

So let’s start/continue to bring about collective action that is directed from educated sources and willing to put boots to the pavement and do the footwork instead of chanting and marching. For those criticizing the movements…seek the why before criticizing the what. It’s all perspective.


Jenkins J.C. (1981) Sociopolitical Movements. In: Long S.L. (eds) The Handbook of Political Behavior. Springer, Boston, MA

Disclaimer: Pardon all typos. This blog was thrown together based off of logical emotions and a desire to give a little perspective.

National Speaking, Coaching, and Training Tour

“Many will stand by and watched over the years, but few will come along on the journey of success.”

Brian A. Street


I quickly learned a few things in life when I first got a little taste of success. There will be people who stand on the sidelines saying that they want their chance to play, but they don’t lace up and take action when they are called to jump in on the action. Regardless of any of those individuals, I have been on a relentless mission to continuously position myself in front of the masses so that I can utilize my experience, education, and desire for change to positively impact the lives of those masses.

As of recently, in a strategic partnership of my educational social business, Your Legacy Begins Now, LLC and The RichWay Personal Enrichment Program, I am starting a national tour. This tour will include speaking engagements, coaching sessions, and training sessions that are designed to transform the lives of all in attendance.

I will be taking off starting May 10, 2018, where I will be traveling to Atlanta, GA to meet with a few entrepreneurs to discuss potential collaborations. From there I will be traveling to Norfolk, VA where I will be attending a leadership seminar, receiving some training and doing some coaching with local residents and program members.135b12fa-ea35-42db-a9ab-05e15505bd5e

May 31st I will be arriving in New York where I will be attending a financial breakthrough training, meeting with entrepreneurs all around the metropolitan area to discuss collaborations, deliver some training, and prepare to accelerate my reach and impact to the global market. The New York event will be followed by numerous local (Southern Mississippi) events, a trip to Miami, seminars in Baton Rouge, LA, Houston, TX, and another financial breakthrough training in Las Vegas, NV.

I would love to bring an event to your area, or even to drop in for a planning consultation when I am in your area.

Remember, don’t settle into the life of societal expectations, defy societal expectations, and start today to live a life of purpose, because Your Legacy Begins Now.

I Dare You To Invest Instead!

Many are quickly making a list of what they’re going to buying once their refund check hits, then bang their head against the wall when they can’t make ends meet through the rest of the year.

Related: Learn to be Compensated for your Passion

I’m proposing the #InvestInMyFutureChallenge to you this year to see how you feel mentally and look financially by year’s end.

Insanity defined: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Make a change, #invest, because Your Legacy Begins Now!


To get information on how to start your journey a towards living YOUR life of purpose complete the form below.

After-school Education and Extracurricular Funding

There are some people that I know who are financially able to pay for nannies and private after-school care for their kids while others don’t have that luxury. That first group of people aren’t directly affected by possible cuts or elimination of publicly funded after-school programs…….well, that’s until their home is broken into or vandalized by some of these kids, or until their daughter is sneaking one into her window after school.

God forbid this to happen to anyone, but the sad truth is, most of those not directly affected by an issue will not have much concern of seeing that said issue is properly resolved until it creeps into their life.

People only care when the issue hits home, they don’t care enough to help find or advocate for funding to support these programs, but they are quick to support those seeking to fund correctional facilities to thrown these kids into. All of us as adults have the possibility of our lives being directly and/or indirectly affected when there are hundreds of thousands of children not able to attend an after-school program. These programs can help these kids stay in school in route to graduating and moving on to a successful career or secondary education.

Related: Knowledge is NOT Power

So what type of parent are you? Will you advocate to keep after-school program funding, or will you wait until your son or daughter is sneaking one of these kids in their window while you are still at work before you act.

Let it be known, we cannot fault these kids for getting into mischief if we aren’t willing to invest in programs that can divert those mischievous ways. It starts with us!