Episode 48
Follow The Host
Rewind: East Africa Lifestyle and Inspiring Youth
Get ready to step into the inspiring world of Sean SF Banks, a trailblazer in youth development and a beacon for global change. Sean's life took an unexpected turn when he stumbled upon a youth development path that led him to create his motivational magazine, You Can Have It All, and Camp Warrior King, a summer camp that offers kids unique experiences. This conversation will be a journey from the printing process of a magazine that inspires young people to dream big, to an extraordinary summer camp in Georgia, and further to an orphanage in East Africa.
Our conversation with Sean takes a heart-warming turn as we discuss his efforts in supporting an orphanage in Uganda. We delve into his challenges crossing the Nile River, his unexpected encounter with a foreign military base, and how his relentless efforts have improved the lives of many children. His experiences have ignited a fire to create a better understanding of those less fortunate, and he highlights how the underprivileged could benefit from more empathy and access to quality education.
Lastly, we'll get a glimpse into Sean's multi-faceted roles in inspiring youth and empowering entrepreneurs. We discuss the entrepreneurial opportunities provided by Torque United and Citizen Remote, organizations that aim to build a borderless world. Join us on this enriching journey as we learn about Sean's endeavors to improve orphanages, inspire youth, and empower entrepreneurs. This conversation is sure to inspire, educate, and ignite a passion for making a difference in the world.
Topics of Discussion
Saun’s Resources
Instagram
About The Show
Thoughts of a Random (Citizen Remote Podcast) is a podcast oriented around open ideas, entrepreneurship, travel, investing, politics, philosophy, and an odd take on history. Together with Toarc United & Citizen Remote we talk with thought leaders from all around the world to stir the innovative mind. This podcast specifically talks about the importance of having an international perspective, the ins and outs of the business world, the entrepreneurial life, the digital nomad life, investing and ways to enjoy life in the new age.
Businesses worldwide have very quickly oriented themselves around freelancing, digital nomads, remote workers, and diluting borders. If you'd like to find out how you can benefit on an individual or entrepreneurial level from that change, this podcast is for you & Citizen Remote can help.
If you’re a startup, needing to find useful tools, wanting to build custom software or generally struggling with the next steps you should be taking to optimize your companies bottom line Toarc United can help.
Like the show?? Please leave a Review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Apple Reviews
Spotif
Episode 48
Follow The Host
Rewind: East Africa Lifestyle and Inspiring Youth
Get ready to step into the inspiring world of Sean SF Banks, a trailblazer in youth development and a beacon for global change. Sean's life took an unexpected turn when he stumbled upon a youth development path that led him to create his motivational magazine, You Can Have It All, and Camp Warrior King, a summer camp that offers kids unique experiences. This conversation will be a journey from the printing process of a magazine that inspires young people to dream big, to an extraordinary summer camp in Georgia, and further to an orphanage in East Africa.
Our conversation with Sean takes a heart-warming turn as we discuss his efforts in supporting an orphanage in Uganda. We delve into his challenges crossing the Nile River, his unexpected encounter with a foreign military base, and how his relentless efforts have improved the lives of many children. His experiences have ignited a fire to create a better understanding of those less fortunate, and he highlights how the underprivileged could benefit from more empathy and access to quality education.
Lastly, we'll get a glimpse into Sean's multi-faceted roles in inspiring youth and empowering entrepreneurs. We discuss the entrepreneurial opportunities provided by Torque United and Citizen Remote, organizations that aim to build a borderless world. Join us on this enriching journey as we learn about Sean's endeavors to improve orphanages, inspire youth, and empower entrepreneurs. This conversation is sure to inspire, educate, and ignite a passion for making a difference in the world.
Topics of Discussion
Saun’s Resources
Instagram
About The Show
Thoughts of a Random (Citizen Remote Podcast) is a podcast oriented around open ideas, entrepreneurship, travel, investing, politics, philosophy, and an odd take on history. Together with Toarc United & Citizen Remote we talk with thought leaders from all around the world to stir the innovative mind. This podcast specifically talks about the importance of having an international perspective, the ins and outs of the business world, the entrepreneurial life, the digital nomad life, investing and ways to enjoy life in the new age.
Businesses worldwide have very quickly oriented themselves around freelancing, digital nomads, remote workers, and diluting borders. If you'd like to find out how you can benefit on an individual or entrepreneurial level from that change, this podcast is for you & Citizen Remote can help.
If you’re a startup, needing to find useful tools, wanting to build custom software or generally struggling with the next steps you should be taking to optimize your companies bottom line Toarc United can help.
Like the show?? Please leave a Review! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Apple Reviews
Spotif
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Thoughts of a Random Citizen. This is actually an episode that you might have already heard before if you've been a listener from the start. This is because we are currently in the process of repurposing all of our old podcast episodes and cleaning up the entire feed. These changes will allow listeners to enjoy the best episodes and highlight the most insightful content. Now, if you're newer to this podcast and wondering where to find, or why you can't find, season 1 and 2, don't worry. They'll eventually be available on our website, torquianadacom. We do some fun, tear-i-say, innovative things with them, but stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1:In the meantime, we plan to release rewines every other week to repurpose older podcast episodes. This will simply just allow listeners to revisit classic content from insightful and featured guests and enjoy it in a new light at a different time in their life, to hopefully provide a new perspective. But at the end of the day, it's our intention to bring the best possible content to you. So enjoy this repurposed rewind, but at the end of the day, sticks and stones people break your bones. The word shouldn't really hurt you. I'm the kind of person who really likes to get to the bottom of things, and I don't let my own belief system get in the way of fact.
Speaker 2:It's one of the most important financial centers in the world by the terms of freedom of speech, expression and civil liberties, and 30th membership.
Speaker 1:Hey everybody, thanks for tuning into another episode of Thoughts of a Random Citizen. Today I have an interview with Sean SF Banks, a very entertaining guest, so I appreciate his energy. On this podcast we talk about a heap of things that he is involved in right now a youth magazine that is operating around the world, a youth camp that he runs down there in Georgia, in addition to an orphanage that he runs over in East Africa, which is, hands down, my favorite part of this conversation. We dive into really just the perspective in eye-opening stories that he experienced over there and I think it shines light on to some of the luxuries that certain people have in parts of the world as opposed to what others don't have in other parts of the world. So a fantastic conversation and I really hope you guys enjoy. So we're just jumping in, man, I'm excited, right on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so tell me about this magazine, because I had no idea you had a magazine. I was pretty sick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I have a, so it's called you Can have it All and it's a motivational magazine and it is pretty much the only motivational magazine well youth motivational magazine of its kind in the world, and it's all about motivating kids to go after their dreams and be inspired by other kids that have dreams. So, for example, in the issue we have up now, we have kids that are doing dirt biking. They're doing like all kinds of martial art stuff. I have a kid that's running track, one of the fastest kids in the US. So in there's puzzles, there's games, you know, there's fashion, there's all kinds of stuff for kids from to be inspired. Right, like a kid, you don't know what you want to do. Until you see it, it's like, oh, that might look cool, I want to try that, and so we put it in a magazine so that they could be able to do it.
Speaker 1:Okay, nice With the magazine. How does that print work? Do you guys print that? Is it all through you? Do you have somebody else kind of work with you? Can you walk me through that?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, so we have third-party printing, right, so we don't print anything here, we send it all out and it gets printed, and then you know it gets distributed. Well, we'll distribute it from our office, but we have someone else that prints it. And then we also have a digital copy, just because you know digital is a lot easier if we want to get it. You know other parts of the country, other parts of the world, because some people just want to be on their phone looking at stuff. But then also, you know the cost of ship is expensive and so we don't want people to have to pay extra money. They'll pay twice for a magazine just to get it shipped to their house.
Speaker 1:Man, that's sweet. So I kind of just wanted to jump into the episode, because we already started talking about that and it was interesting for me.
Speaker 2:I'm going to ask you about your background.
Speaker 1:But one more thing on that magazine I know you said it's international Do you feature kids from all across the country, all across the world, or how does that work out?
Speaker 2:All across the country, all around the world. So the magazine is relatively new. You know, so far we've been able to have someone contributing from somewhere in the world like this, this issue. We have writers from Australia, we have some kids that submitted artwork from Trinidad and Tobago. We have let's see we have next month we have someone writing from Malaysia, you know. So it's just it's growing and as it grows and they know youth in their areas who want to be in the magazine and do things, and so that's how it's growing. But yeah, initially, yeah, a lot of the kids were out of Atlanta, because that's where I'm from, and then we started getting other kids from the States and, yeah, it's growing.
Speaker 1:Sweet man, that's really cool, yeah, man. Well, so can you kind of walk us through for all the listeners who are like what the hell? Like this just started Can you walk us through your background, kind of what you did. I know you're in real estate for a bit. If you want to highlight that, I'm going to ask you questions on it. But who is Sean Banks? Sf Banks? Who kind of are you?
Speaker 2:Man well, originally from Seattle, washington and got into youth development almost on accident. I didn't want to work with kids at all, couldn't stand kids, man. I didn't want anything to do with kids at all. I was in the finance industry, on the finance side of real estate, and back in 2008, when the market changed, it was hard to get deals closed and a buddy of mine working out at a martial arts school said man, maybe we should start teaching kids martial arts. And I said, well, all right, that's the way to make money. I mean, it's like I got to figure out something, because it was just you know, the bills are piling up and the deals aren't closing. So I mean, you know, one plus one equals two. You got to figure out how to make some money. So that's what I started doing against my interest and it started growing from there.
Speaker 2:When I was about 17, my aunt and cousin were murdered in a domestic violence situation and I'd always said that I wanted to do something in their honor, to be able to help other people if I could.
Speaker 2:And I never thought that it would come out this way and when I started the martial arts program, I was able to do something in their honor to be able to teach women how to defend themselves, to be able to teach kids martial arts, and what I found with doing that was that there are a lot of kids that needed personal development. They needed to learn, you know, confident skills, how to improve their focus, their discipline, you know how to make a friend, how to have better work ethic. And I looked around and those skills weren't being taught anywhere else, and so I said, okay, well, maybe this is a need we can start filling. So that's where Camp Warrior King came from. And then we, camp Warrior King, said, okay, there's you start. I just kept seeing other needs, and so that's where all this stuff started coming from was just trying to fill all the needs that I saw that need to be met.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. So what kind of led you from that transition to I don't want to work with kids, because I get that, especially, you know, when you're younger and you know, but how did what was that transition? That, when there's no way I want to mess with that to now what you do, and all of that you do with the youth.
Speaker 2:I started seeing the need and I started seeing the results of when they would get personal development you know, workshops or lessons and when they start to apply them to their lives, that it actually worked. And when I started seeing that it worked, it's like, oh okay, man, we can really start helping people. And so the desire started growing out of my heart. You know, you started seeing kids who walk around and didn't have any self-esteem. They, you know they couldn't make a friend. They didn't have.
Speaker 2:You know, they wouldn't play sports or they, or they wouldn't have interest, right, because you know you don't always have to have an interest in sports, so they wouldn't have an interest. And then you know they would come to our programs or come to our camps and then they would come out with, you know, an interest. They would come out with a friend, they would hold their head up high, they would walk differently, they would be able to deal with somebody bullying them or how to deal with it, or or a bully would come through and the bully would be changed. And we started seeing a lot of transformation. And that's where my heart that really got into it. And you know, there's nothing I'd rather be doing now than what I'm doing, which is crazy Because I never I mean I didn't wear it for kids at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no joke. Again. I'm kind of trying to focus on this transition a bit to what specifically the startup looked like, because obviously you were teaching, helping teach, mma. So what kind of went from that, you know? Did you form classes? How did you outreach to the youth? Was it all through that MMA? Was it your MMA? I guess kind of, if you can walk, us through that.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure. So the way it started is we started going to schools because that's where the kids were. They were just said, you know we? So we would go to like an elementary school or middle school, say, hey, look, there are martial arts program here, you know, and if not, we want to teach one here. And you know, this would be a good way for the kids to get disciplined in school and focus and improve their grades. And it started like that.
Speaker 2:And so I started with three or four kids in the first school and then those kids would tell other kids, you know, then they would see the kids with the uniforms on walking around and stuff like that, and more kids would want to be involved. Yeah and yeah, yeah. And so then, and then we'll start growing from there. And then I was a Taekwondo or Hop Keto instructor by trade, so I'll teach them traditional Taekwondo, and the parents would come and watch the classes. And when the parents watch the classes then the moms will say, well, hey, listen, you know I work late at night, or you know I'm a single mom at home or I've been through some kind of situation. I want to be able to protect myself. Do you have anything for us and it's like well, I can create something to give me a second.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me put some together.
Speaker 2:So he put together a curriculum and then, you know, then we start teaching the moms. And then what happened is, during the summertime, school is out, right, and the US, there's no school during the summer. So then it's okay, what are you going to do during the summertime? Well, it's, like you know, three months worth of time. So then the need was, kids didn't have anything to do, and then we also need to continue to generate revenue. So you open up a camp, because that's what's going on.
Speaker 2:I looked around, I thought there were camps everywhere in the Atlanta area, you know, and there are, there are camps, but there was nothing like Camp Warrior King, which is what we do and which is all about exposure to activity. So then we started doing, you know, fishing and hunting and hiking and spelunking and taking them out to. You know, we did an oceanographers trip this past summer where they got to see, you know, they drug the bottom of the ocean and pulled up all this stuff for the kids to be able to see squid and all kind of fish and crap. And we just started doing all that. We started exposing the different things that kids can find, different interests Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 1:So can you kind of walk us through what that camp atmosphere is like? How long is it? Because, man this for me, being a kid, I would have absolutely loved something like this. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So Camp Warrior King is a youth development camp that exposes kids to activities that normally wouldn't experience during the school year, and so it's like a camp on steroids man. We are. There's assemblies in the morning, we go on field trips three or four times a week, I mean. So, like I said, I mean we're going hiking, fishing oh my gosh. Roller skating, boxing, karate, fashion classes, lego, robotics. We do haircut classes, we do cosmetology classes.
Speaker 2:So there's girls that learn how to do hair right. They could do their little sister's hair or their friend's hair at camp Right. At camp, right, we have art. We have art classes. We had a bike loop at camp this past year where kids were able to ride their bikes around campus. Bring their bikes from home, leave them in our gym and ride them around during their free time, because during you know if their parents are working, the kids only get to ride the bikes on the weekends or when they're at home, right, but now they can ride their bikes at camp we did. We had a car and bike show at camp this year where these different guys came with all these like clown cars and souped up hot rock cars for the kids, and I mean the lunch is good. We had a celebrity basketball game this past summer.
Speaker 1:I mean it's anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it's anything the kids want to do. We go to museums, we go to. We went to Chattanooga, did an adventure up there. We've been down to Florida to the Space Museum, the Kennedy Space Center. I mean we just whatever the kids want to do, man, we try to keep them engaged. We have music classes. So we've done violin lessons, we've done cello, we've done piano, we've done guitar, we've done saxophone lessons at camp during the summertime and it's about 10 weeks, and it's 10 weeks full of just crazy fun. And it's a day camp. So the kids come, you know we open at seven in the morning. They come all day long and their parents pick them up in the afternoon and take them home.
Speaker 1:Wow, I bet they love that because they have a tired kid at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:They have a tired kid man. The kids are tired and dirty at the end of the day. Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:So is it. Do you find it easy to find? Because I'm assuming you don't teach all those things specifically that help us to work with that. Is it pretty easy? Is it on a volunteer basis?
Speaker 2:Well, we pay the people to come in and work, and so you know, paying them makes it easier to get people that are interested.
Speaker 1:Consistent, yeah right.
Speaker 2:But finding good people is always a challenge, especially with everything that happened with COVID and this past season was really hard to find people that wanted to work because people were able to make money staying at home. But we were fortunate to find a good amount of people that wanted to work and work with the kids. And I'm always looking for people that have a passion to work with kids because that makes a difference, because if somebody's doing it just for the money and they don't like kids, then they don't really stick around. Right, because you know working with kids sometimes the money's not worth it. You know it's like man. You got to deal with this. You know this seven-year-old that wants to tell you their mind. You know sometimes it's not worth getting the check, so you got to really. Yeah, you know it's like it's not like you take off a belt and whoop them. You know they're not your kid, you know.
Speaker 2:So, it's like you got to find people that care about the kids. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I did something like that Well, not specifically that, but I was a lifeguard way back when I was younger and there was this thing in the mornings and we had a nickname for it that I won't repeat but, it was pretty much so.
Speaker 1:Before the water park opened, there was like a youth camp essentially next door to the water park and it was an hour, an hour and a half, I can't remember and man, it was like absolute chaos, you know, and they're all young, so you have to be careful and really focus. And you know, you get the ones that just come up and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and you're like, oh, yeah, you got to go away now, but no, it was good.
Speaker 1:Like you know, you have the good ones, you have the bad ones, but it is what it is. So do you have any plans? I know and we're going to dive into what you do in Uganda and I'm very excited to ask questions about that but do you have any plans to expand elsewhere in the US or internationally For the camp? Me yeah, for the youth camp and what you do For the youth?
Speaker 2:camp. Okay, so for the youth camp, as far as expanding the camp, I don't plan to expand the camp. I like it being a boutique kind of camp where it's a single location and people come to it. There is such a great liability when it comes to working with children that the you know, keeping it small kind of kind of works, you know, so it's. I'll look more into consulting other people on how to run a great camp right, how to do. What we're doing is more of what we'll do in the future, as opposed to opening up camps all over. I don't, I mean, it's just yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a headache, right, oh my goodness, yeah, I mean, I think about just how it is. It's just this one camp. I couldn't imagine doing 30 of them. Yeah, yeah especially now.
Speaker 1:That just doesn't sound fun.
Speaker 2:No, not at all.
Speaker 1:So kind of talking about what you do in Bombo, uganda. I think I'm pronouncing that right. I know it is an orphanage man. What made you want to go to Africa? How easy has it been? How did you figure out how to do it? Have you been like so many questions?
Speaker 2:Can you kind of?
Speaker 1:just walk us through that.
Speaker 2:Sure sure, no problem. So the our originally went back in 2019, right?
Speaker 1:Oh, so you had been to Africa before.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, when I went, this time was when everything started. No, oh wow.
Speaker 2:So the first time I went yeah, the first time I went is where everything started. So I went to do a conference. We were invited to do a you Can have it All conference in Uganda and you know I agreed to do it. It took us about a year to get everything situated in the planet and everybody on my team was supposed to go. People I worked with through camp and different people I knew that were interested in going to Africa and being able to help out with the conference, and at the end of the day everybody had quit. That was supposed to go. I was the only one left that was still going to go and I said you know what?
Speaker 1:Because of COVID.
Speaker 2:No, this is before COVID. This is before COVID. This is way before COVID. Why did everyone quit? Well, I don't know. That's the question. That's the question.
Speaker 2:That's the question I mean they didn't get their shots on time, they didn't get their passport, they just didn't do the things they were supposed to do. And it's kind of like with anything when you start, you know, a lot of people say, hey, yeah, I'll do it with you, man, let's go. It sounds good. And then when it's time to actually do it, then they fall off, and that's what happened to me. But I said I'm going to go anyway and I went by myself. And so what you people say, you know you're crazy, Go by yourself, you never been over there. It's East Africa. When you started to get your passport, what are you doing? And uh, but I said I'll go. So I went there. There were four gentlemen that met me there and uh, Matthew, Shadrach, Enoch and Joel were the four men that met me there and, man, they took care of me the whole time I was there for the conference. The, everything that we did was able to go, you know, without a hitch. Well, I'll take that back. There was a lot of hitches.
Speaker 2:There were a lot of challenges a lot of challenges, but you know, obviously I made it, made it through. What happened is Matthew had an orphanage that was struggling and he said you know, I don't know if we're going to be able to keep the doors open because we don't have the finances to keep it open. You know, they had about 30 or 40 kids there. Joel and Enoch two of the guys that were helping were from the orphanage and had grown out of it. So you know, you're able to see that they, you know, were able to come out and be productive citizens. Joel is in the computers, you know, enoch is in the photography. So they were able to come out.
Speaker 2:It was doing some good and I said, okay, well, how about we take over the orphanage and support these kids that are here so that they could be able to go to school? You know they could get food and clothing and all that stuff, because you know, the building itself was just a shell, like if you look at an abandoned building and you just see just the brick walls. There's nothing in between. It's just literally brick walls, dirt floors with trash on them and no doors, no windows, nothing, no kitchen, no bathrooms, nothing. That's what the kids were living in right and like a tin top. That was what they had. And when I saw it, I was just like man. When I saw the level of poverty and the child homelessness problem they have there, I said, man, you know, there's something that we can do about it. You know we can do something. You know, man, we can connect with people in the US, we can do something about it. And that's where it started, like it was.
Speaker 2:It was just, you know, I'm helping kids in the US and all I could think was, man, these kids in the US are so spoiled, you know they have shoes you know, they have shoes and they have lots of shoes, and they have cars and they have parents at home and they have, you know, all this food and all this stuff, and these seven year old kids are eating out of trash cans. You know what I mean? We went to give the kids food and we had to make sure we had enough food for every single child, because if not, the children would fight over bread. And we're just giving them bread and soda, man, you know so. But that's that's, that's where it started, that's where it came from, and so I came back and I just was committed, and then COVID hit, and then so how long?
Speaker 1:well, first off, I'd like to say not only do kids in the US have shoes, but they have, like Nike shoes and Jordan shoes.
Speaker 2:It's quality.
Speaker 1:Like it's a different ball game. No that's well, I would say. I was going to say that's funny, but not really. So how long before COVID. Like how long was that experience before COVID?
Speaker 2:That experience was about a year before COVID. Okay.
Speaker 1:Has there been much difficulty Cause I'm that's something you still do now. Has what's the difficulty been after COVID with the orphanage?
Speaker 2:Well, the thing is we've been able to do more than the last several months I would say the last 90 days really. We've been able to get more done in that time than any other time. So we've been able to get windows on the orphanage, doors on the orphanage. We got the all the just the brick wall we got like spackles. Now it looks like a regular, like a normal wall in the house. We got the floor. We got the floors done so that the kids aren't sleeping on you know, just rocky dirt floor. We're getting beds put in. So we've been able to do a lot in the last couple months.
Speaker 2:During COVID, it was all about just keeping them fed because the country was on lockdown and so you could only go to the store to get food and then come back home. But in Uganda, especially in certain, certain cities, they're day workers, right. So you go out during the day and you make money for the day. So if you can't leave your house, you can't make money, which means that you don't have money to buy food for the day, because a lot of them don't have refrigerators and they don't have all the luxuries, right. So it's like okay, we got to eat today, I'm going to go out and sell something or you know, provide, you know a taxi service or a Bota Bota, which is like a little motorcycle that people ride on, which I swear I would never do and then end up having to do it.
Speaker 2:That added some gray hair, but you know. So that made it really difficult. So the thing over COVID was let's just keep them fed, because the schools were shut down. Let's keep them fed, let's keep the kids fed, and so that was the biggest mission. So once we were able to get through that, then it was okay. Now let's start adding on to the orphanage, let's start building, let's start getting some things done so that the kids have some comfort. So that's what we're working on now. Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I haven't actually been to Africa yet. I will and I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not sure. Is Uganda, you said East Africa, is that a dangerous area?
Speaker 2:It depends. I mean, it wasn't dangerous. When I was there, there wasn't any fighting going on. Kampala is a major city and that's the capital and that's where I stayed in between there and going out when I did a conference in, ginger is where I was, and when I was in Ginger, the hotel I stayed in was nice as well. As long as there's not any conflict going on, it's fine. I mean, I didn't have any issues at all. Matter of fact, the issue I had was with the government because I was taking pictures. So we were getting over the Nile River and they had pictures of my conference all on the bridge, and so I got excited, pulled out my phone and started video recording, like yo that's me, I'm the pictures for the thing.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I'm like super excited, right. Yeah. And man, they radioed to the other side of the bridge and when we got over there, man, they pulled us up, yeah. And they say, you know, I had to go, I had to get out of the van. That's when I had to get on a boat a boat, but when I swear I never get on and I had to get on the back of a motorcycle with one of the soldiers and go back over the bridge and go and speak to the captain of their unit and he, where have you been? You know what are you doing here? Who are you?
Speaker 2:That's me and that's exactly what I did. I said he said why are you here? I said, sir, listen, I'm like okay, I'm not, I'm not going to go sit in jail, I'm not going to be gone, I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1:I'd be freaking out.
Speaker 2:Well, I was trying not to. On the inside it was like a whole freak out party going on on the outside. I was trying to be cool because I said, okay, well, I'm never having a call like the US embassy, I do something to get out of this situation. But I didn't want to go there yet. So I said, hey, listen. I said if you just go down to the bottom of this hill, I said all of us doing was recording the pictures that are down there. I said I'm getting ready to speak at a conference that I put together. I put this whole conference together. Those are my pictures and I was recording them and I were unaware to go speak right now.
Speaker 2:He looked at me very in the straight face, didn't smile at all. He said something to one of the guys. They went away and we're just sitting there. They went down to the hill, came back and he said man, please forgive me, I'm so sorry. He said I did not realize that was you. He said me and my soldiers are planning to come in here. You speak tonight. We pray for us, man, please are so, so sorry. And I was like I will absolutely pray for you, right?
Speaker 2:now, whatever you need, whatever you need, and it was cool. They gave me back my information, they let me go. They said man, man, if you need anything, please let us know while you're here. And I left and I got to the church location just in enough time to get on stage. I walked in, went upstairs, had to get right on stage to start speaking, so that was the only challenge I had. But the mistake I made was that it was a military installation and right across the other side of the river was their water treatment facility and they had recently been in conflict with, I wanna say, rwanda, and so you know, people come and spy and take pictures all the time, and so they were making sure that I wasn't doing the same thing, and so I was wrong. I just didn't realize it and I was excited, and so once they got it cleared out, we were good yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was about to say why would they care if you're taking photos, but it's because it was a military base. That totally makes sense.
Speaker 2:It was a military base.
Speaker 1:Do they speak English there? Well, I mean, like was it easy, everyone, or Some of them do.
Speaker 2:Most of them, like in the city, like around the hotel and stuff like that, they speak pretty good English. A lot of people speak pretty good English. I'm not broken English, you know the guys I was with it was pretty good. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of off and on.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, that's incredible. So how did they find you? What was the conference about, I guess? What was all that about?
Speaker 2:So the conference was about developing youth. So we went. It was all about motivating youth to go out through their dreams. That's what the you Can have it All conference is about. And a gentleman found me online that's how they found me and said hey look, we would love to have you come out one day and do a conference here for the kids. We think it would really help them. And I was just ambitious, like yeah, let's do it. And I think they thought I was joking until they started realizing I was for real, about like all right, cool, like let's go. You know what I mean. Let's do the conference, but it's all about that. So we did a field day for the kids. They played soccer, we did different soccer games, we did different activities with them, we gave prizes, we did a talent show. Yeah, man, we gave out like goats to people that won. Like it was super cool.
Speaker 1:Goats like an actual goat, like nah, yeah, like a goat.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's what I thought, yeah like a whole live animal, which I mean because, I asked. I said, well, should we just give them money, or like what should we do? And they said no, no, no. They said, you know, let's give them something we really would appreciate. We can get a goat. And I was like, all right, cool, let's do it. So we got videos and pictures of like them getting a goat. Yeah man, they're excited about it.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's incredible. Do you find that that kind of orphanage helps you educate youth back home a bit, or do you use that a lot? Do you have any plans to connect that someday somehow?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. The orphanage I definitely use it to teach with kids all the time, especially kids in the US, because for them, they need to understand how fortunate they are, right, even though, I mean, there's kids in the US that deal with a lot of challenges right at home. You know, of course there's a child homelessness issue here, which I'm sure there is in other parts of the world, but even still, there's a lot more opportunities available, and so I talked to them about that, especially the kids at our camp. You know, hey, look, you guys have video games and all this stuff. There's kids that don't have lights at all. Right, let's have a little bit more empathy, right, let's not waste the food that you're eating. You know, if you don't want it, don't put it on your plate, don't just throw it in the trash, because there are kids that have to eat out of a trash can, and so I use it to talk to them about it all the time. And the kids at our camp, like we've sent shoes over, they've sent clothes over. So I try to get the kids involved with the orphanage so that they have a sense of appreciation and also a sense of wanting to help other people.
Speaker 2:But the other thing that's really interesting to you, that I talked to the kids about, is the difference in the level of happiness, right? So the kids in Uganda, they're smiling all the time, right, they may not have a lot of physical things, right, material things, but, man, they're happy kids. Whereas we have a lot of kids that we service, that have their parents, have fancy cars, they have these beautiful homes, they have all this stuff, but yet the kids can't. You know, they're suffering from depression or dealing with all these other issues in their life that they can't handle. And there's something to be said there, right, that all these things don't necessarily make a difference. The kids that don't know they're poor, I mean they'll. What's happiness to a lot of those kids sometimes in Uganda is they'll make a ball out of trash and string and play soccer and they're happy, they're having a ball, whereas the kids over here, some of them, have 10 balls at home and they'll say they're bored you know, yeah, literally Wow, yeah, man, do you find that?
Speaker 1:because obviously you're probably not having to do a whole lot of mental health issues over there like you would back home. So what are kind of the educational resources that are given to those in Uganda?
Speaker 2:Primarily paying for them to go to school, because you have to pay for school there, so it's just making sure they can go to school, which is a big deal. So school is not free, so you have to pay to actually go to school. And then you know pencils, paper, basic supplies that they need to be able to go. And that's what we do, because if you can't pay for school, then you can't go. So then it's definitely a class situation. If you can't afford the education, then you don't get it. And the way that they are able to get jobs is they have to have an education, they have to have gone to school. So that's what we want to help fund is make sure they're able to get that education.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Is there much opportunity for jobs over there, Like if they obtain the education? Is the infrastructure growing like?
Speaker 2:So Kampala is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Actually, what, yeah? Yeah, kampala is, I know right, and I didn't either, but it's a fast growing city and so the opportunities are growing right For factories and things like that. And, believe it or not, china is one of the bigger players in it, because, when you think about it from an international business standpoint, you have labor in China. But then for China it's like, ok, where ready we go to get the labor even cheaper than what we're paying our people, because now they have a thriving middle class. So now they're going to where people are even less fortunate. So they're going to places like Eastern Africa and places like that, buying up the real estate, buying up and create, open up factories. So, yes, it is creating jobs and opportunities, but you have to have a certain level of education to be able to get there. But yeah, so the opportunities are opening up, not as fast as they would like, but a lot faster than what's been in the past.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you find that relationship is beneficial in like a healthy relationship, the Chinese coming in and helping build infrastructure and, I guess, get that cheaper labor, is that? Are people liking that, jen? Is that a positive development?
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure it's like you probably find some that are really excited about it and some that probably aren't, just because the anytime an outside government comes into a place and starts creating jobs and they bring in their own policies, and then it's a money thing, right. So then it's a relationship between governments, and so I'm pretty sure there are people who are really really, really excited about it to be able to get a job and be able to take care of their families. At the same time, there has to be some sort of displacement going on with the people who are like, nah, we don't want them here for whatever reason, right. So I'm pretty sure on both sides there's an issue. But what I've seen is when I was there, I saw a lot of plants and I saw people working, so I know that that's a good thing.
Speaker 1:OK, so you have the orphanage, you have the youth camp. Is there anything else that you're involved in? And then, on top of that, how do you kind of manage all this on your end like just day to day?
Speaker 2:Because obviously this is a podcast to help entrepreneurs innovate ideas, can you?
Speaker 1:walk us through your day to day.
Speaker 2:Well, for me it's all about time management is extremely important and learning to delegate. Learning to delegate is a big deal, and now I'm going to talk about the. Technology has made it available for business owners to especially aspiring business owners to be competitive and make things happen. So there's all these different apps and things. Now you can hire somebody to do a job anywhere in the world and as long as they're good at doing it, then you benefit from that job being done and you also get it at a better price. So here in the US, to get someone to do, let's just say, create a flyer. Right might cost, let's say, 40 bucks, but I can go on an app and get somebody that'll do that same flyer for like $10.
Speaker 2:So you can create your whole business structure, or the majority of your business structure, with people that are willing to work all around the globe.
Speaker 2:You no longer have to have a brick and mortar business where you have to house all these people and deal with all the issues of having employees. You can pretty much take advantage of freelance workers or freelance work from people around the world and be able to make it happen. So that's how I've been able to get so much done because it's hard to find people that want to work right here. And then, when they want to, then it's like they want to charge you these crazy prices and it's like, man, I'm not paying that for a job that I know I can get done easier somewhere else. So my day-to-day has become finding people around the world that want to do the jobs I need to have done and then letting them do those jobs and that, and it is a lot, and then they're working, you know. So sometimes when I'm sleep, they're working because it's, you know, day time over there and it's night time here, and so now the work is getting done, you know, all the time.
Speaker 1:Is there any opportunity for that, to connect and give opportunities to the orphanage, for example? Like, is there a much technology learning? I know you said that one there's a photographer guy and a computer guy, so I just didn't know.
Speaker 2:I think in time we'll be able to do it. I think in time we'll be able to do it. Right now, we got to get lights in the building.
Speaker 2:You know, right now we got we got to get lights in there for some of them. I mean, there's such a huge disparity between wealth and poverty there. It's like either you have it or you don't. Right. There's really no middle class, and so it would be great to be able to have kids at the orphanage be able to do some things we need to have done. It's just getting them in a position where they have the skills to do it and then they have the resources. You know I eat the computers or whatever they need to be able to get the jobs done. But that would be great, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's difficult to teach technology when they don't have energy.
Speaker 2:They don't have energy, yeah yeah, they would love to learn it and they would love to have it.
Speaker 2:At the same time, you know it's they don't have energy, they don't have beds, right. So it's kind of like, okay, let's get them in some beds that are not sleeping on the dirt floor, right, and then maybe let's get them a kitchen so somebody could cook them some hot food that they don't have to create a fire for it and you know, open fire cook, right. Okay, let's get them some. You know, can we get them some bathroom with some running water and some, right? So we have all these other steps we have to get to before we can get them to start being productive, right, as well as get them educated so they know how to read and how to write right while they're young, as opposed, you know you don't want to teach a 17 year old how to read and write, so a lot harder than oh, yeah, yeah, man, how much, how much of a perspective did that just change for you when you went up just because cooking on an open fire but not only like it's not just you know you turn on a gas oven.
Speaker 1:It's literally. You have to create a. How much of a perspective. Shock, I guess, was it to you?
Speaker 2:Major shock. It was a major shock for me. I mean, that was part of the part of what made me want to step in and to do something about it. You know where I could, because you know it's like wait a minute, like where's the kitchen? Right, I'm like walking around like well, where, where do they eat? Where's the kitchen? And it point over, you know, to the dirt and it's a dirt mound that's burned and you see firewood, you know charred fire wood on the ground and I'm like no, but where's the kitchen? Where do they? And they're like right there, like that's where we cook our food, that's where we cook for you know the 30, 40 kids we cook right here outside, and it was just like wow, you know, like wow, you know you, you know, in culture, like the thing is is that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with it, right, like it's totally cool we're cooking outside, this, how we eat.
Speaker 2:But when you know that there are other people that can sit down at a table and cook on a stove, and when you know the difference, it's like man, okay, what could these children do if they had some of the same kind of opportunities to just be able to get a hot plate or to be able to sleep in a bed so that their mind isn't thinking about you know how am I gonna make it? Or is this orphanage gonna get closed down? But more so, what can I become to be able to be a contributor to my country? You know well, you know I can I be. So some of them want to be doctors, they want to be nurses, they want to be engineers, they want to be all these things. It's just getting them there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hard to think about anything else when you know you're struggling for the next meal. Like your brain's not focused on anything else, it's not focused on anything else, man, so are you having any success, or are you attempting to try to get individuals back home obviously the US is quite a wealthy nation who are interested in donating or investing or doing any of this to aid what you're doing over there yeah, so we're working on it now.
Speaker 2:That's one of the things that we're doing and we're starting to see traction with that people that want to be able to contribute. We want to be able to help. That's one of the things over the last several months that's allowed us to do. What we're doing is that people have been hearing about it saying, hey, look, we want to be able to help. That's one of the reason why the podcast have been have been a great help is that, you know, because there's a lot of people that have a big heart and want to help this.
Speaker 2:I'm aware you know, okay, well, okay, yeah, sure, I don't mind, I would love to help an organization, but where's where do I do it? Where do I go? And then to making sure that there's a there's a sense of transparency, right, that people can see. One of things about with our orphanages really good is that when people contribute, they're able to see where the contribution went right. They can see the videos of hey, this is how it looked before and this is how it looks now because of your contribution, and it makes a big difference.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, man, we want to get as many people as we can to be able to help, because it'll help these kids and then it creates a model for how we can help other youth around the world, in different countries, have an opportunity to make their country better, make the world a better place. Right, just, man, we need some, we need, we need the innovative minds, and we don't know where the innovative mind is going to come from. Like we don't care who cures cancer, we just need the cure we don't care who does it just get it to us?
Speaker 2:you know what I mean? Yeah easy.
Speaker 1:It's easier said, I guess, than done in most cases. Absolutely well, man, that's kind of a perfect opportunity. Where can people find you? Where can, if they're interested, and they hear it on this podcast where? Where do they reach out to you?
Speaker 2:so to find us. It's the website is the best way to to learn more about what we're doing, to learn more about the orphanage, to even be able to contribute. The website is YCHIAMAGcom. That stands for you can have it all magazine, so they can either type in you can have it all magazine and a Google search where they can go directly to YCHIAMAGcom to contact with me directly. I'm on Instagram a lot. My Instagram handle is SF dreams big and that's the best way to contact me there. You can DM me there and, of course, people can call us directly and you know, if they want, you know, to be able to get in contact or have any questions or want to be able to help with anything amazing man yeah, so before we kind of wrap things up here, is there anything else that you kind of want to address before I ask the last question?
Speaker 2:well, no, man, the biggest thing is the. The youth magazine is something that is is a big thing right now and we want people to get on board with the youth magazine that you can have it all because it's designed to inspire kids all over the world. It's digital and you can get physical copies, but it's all about motivation. So I would definitely say anybody that's interested in motivating youth to check or they have you, check out the magazine and purchase a copy and then maybe even get your kid in there, right?
Speaker 2:or maybe even get your kid in there. That's right. There's lots of opportunities, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:John, thank you so much. I always ask this to every guess I have on at the end. You've lived a crazy life. To this point crazy is one way to put it but you've lived a good life to this point? What is the best advice that you've learned through the entirety of your life? If you had to narrow it down to one thing, what would it be?
Speaker 2:as a believer, I would say trust God. That would be the thing, and I'll explain it. We don't have the answers to everything, right, we don't have the answers to everything going on in our lives. Sometimes we don't know what's going on, why we're doing things, why our life makes these crazy turns, why are we in this business? How did I get into this business? What is going? Why am I here?
Speaker 2:And it's just having some trust and some faith in your path in life, where you are, you are where you're supposed to be for a reason, and to enjoy that journey of where you are and to soak it all in, because life is not. Life is fine, right, we don't know when we're gonna be out of here, but we can enjoy every day that we're here. And so when I talk about, like, just trusting God or somebody who doesn't believe in God, trusting whatever it is, whatever you believe in, trusting in that higher power, because you're where you're supposed to be for a reason, you're doing what you're supposed to be doing for a reason and what you want to do in life is possible.
Speaker 1:It's just enjoying that journey while you're on it yeah, man, I could not agree more with that. We had a. The last interview that's actually just released before this episode is huge, so I absolutely love that answer man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:Well, excellent. So thank you so much, sean. For anybody who wants to get in contact with them, everything in all the places you can reach him will be in the show notes. So excellent stuff, man, thank you.
Speaker 2:Man. Thank you, I really appreciate it, bro. I do Halfway around the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, buddy. And that wraps up another episode of thoughts of a random citizen. If you guys have a question for the podcast, head over to torqueunitedcom. It's in the show notes and you can record a question. Feel free to email us if you don't want to record a question On there. You'll also find information about financial advice, travel tips and destinations, broad market analysis and there's a whole heap of stuff on there for you guys. If you like the show, please review, like, subscribe, share with a friend. It goes a long way and, as always, these are thoughts of a random citizen or citizens. There are experts that do come on the show and I always do my best to research before each show. However, do your own research. This is an advice. This is generalizations, so there is your free disclaimer. Enjoy your week and I'll talk to you next week on thoughts of a random citizen. Cheers, and that wraps up another episode of thoughts of a random citizen. Thank you everyone so much for tuning back in. For those who are new listeners, welcome and I appreciate you joining. I hope you enjoyed the podcast and our guests today.
Speaker 1:If you are new and you're doing anything remote, be sure to check out Citizen Remote. It is fantastic. If you're already traveling the world. It's a great app to join A very quickly growing community. It's a great tool for those who are just about to begin traveling and figuring out how to navigate that, especially if you work remotely. It's a fantastic platform and we continue to build more and more tools for you guys, weekend and week out. Otherwise, if you're an entrepreneur and you're looking for tools or assistance with the next steps of what you need to do with your startup, or if you're looking for software development network connections, reach out to us at Torque United.
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