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The Hangout
#83 Armand King, Mentor and Entrepreneur
Armand King, a TEDx speaker and founder of Lawrich Consulting LLC, is living proof that resilience and mentorship can turn one's life around. In this episode, we share Armand's raw and gripping journey from facing gang violence in Spring Valley, CA to becoming a powerful advocate for at-risk youth. Listen as we trace the shift in urban youth culture from the late '80s to today, considering how social media and changing societal values have shaped the realities of young people. Armand brings a wealth of insight, reflecting on his personal experiences. His narrative isn't just about survival; it's about transformation.
Welcome to the Superintendent's Hangout, where we discuss topics in education, charter schools, life in general, and not necessarily in that order. I'm your host, dr Sharetta. Come on in and hang out. In this episode, I was privileged to sit down with Armand King. Mr King is a TEDx speaker and an author, a staff and youth development expert for at-risk individuals and re-entry populations. He's a program design specialist, a community outreach specialist, a federal and state court expert, the founder of Law Rich Consulting LLC, located in San Diego, california, and much, much more. When I asked Mr King how he answers the inevitable question on an airplane of so what do you do? He paused and smiled and laughed and said I have no idea what to answer. That's not because he's not focused on his work, but because his work is so broad and deep and important. I hope that you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Welcome, armand. Thank you so much for coming and hanging out for a little bit this afternoon.
Speaker 2:Dave, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:I was wondering if you could start out with your origin story where you come from, who you are, what brings you to the present moment?
Speaker 2:Well, that's an origin story, when I came from. I came from my mom and, yeah, I think, like most of us, came through that channel of a mother. So, yeah, first years of my life, born in Linda Vista, born there and immediately first home of residence, was in Rancho Penasquitas, you know, lived there until about eight years old. Eight years old then moved to Spring Valley, big culture shock, went from birds, bees and trees and grass and great elementary school to concrete and get your bread from the liquor store. It happened real fast, the shift. Looking back, it definitely was a reason. I see that God had me see the difference and feel the difference, because it wasn't a difference that I just let go of. I see the difference on how kids raised in different parts of more supported communities are you know.
Speaker 2:So yeah, about beginning years, there was a regular kid. You know I had entrepreneur tendencies real early. I used to draw pictures, really artistic drawing pictures of little animal characters that were like Ninja, turtle type stuff, and selling them to my aunties and uncles, putting price tags on and making money. That way Grew up with an entrepreneurial mom and my biological father Household.
Speaker 2:Early on I was forced to be an adult really early, like I don't know why. You know this chaotic household with my parents, nothing really happening to me and my sister who's two years older than me, disabled, my sister's um, slightly handicapped, um. So you know we just I got forced to be older than I had to be and for them, just certain things resonated with me waking up in the middle of the night hearing my mom and dad argue about stuff that I should never have heard, but I'll get up at key points and he's just stuck with me, carried on till when I made that move to Spring Valley and finally, like when I said too older than I should have been, I remember going to my mom and dad at one point and asking them to get a divorce. You know, you see that on TV and the kids don't want to.
Speaker 1:I went to them like hey sit down, y'all Do us a favor. Hey, do us.
Speaker 2:Can y'all just get a divorce please? And yeah, so by the shoot I think they finally got the hint for each other and they made their split. And yeah, I don't know how far you want me to go. As far as you want to go. Oh shoot, don't say that. Okay, so you know, we around 12 years old. I was going to Bell Middle School in Southeast San.
Speaker 1:Diego.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in the Skyline area and me and my cousin. My mom was taking care of my cousin we were about the same age and her baby sister their mom was out in the streets at the time, heavily involved in the crack era, and we came home from school one day At that point in time real rocky household to become a wannabe. I call myself a wannabe gang member because I never was like full fledged this is, I'm just a gang member. But I was damn sure flirting with the idea of hanging out with the gang members and dressing the part and representing the set. And one day I walked home and me and my cousin walked home and there was a padlock on the door. Usually my mom would pick us up. Like you know, when we start to walk home, my mom would be right there to meet us. But this day she wasn't there for some reason and we ended up getting all the way home and it was a big lock on the door, lock box. And I didn't know what it meant at the time. But I found out really fast. You're not welcome here anymore. And from the rest of my 12 year old age until 15, we were now homeless, bounced house to house. Friend of the family, friend of the family, stayed along until they got tired of us and then we had to go.
Speaker 2:And then that's when my behavior really took a turn for the worse. Didn't realize it then, but really was just being reacting to my environment and what was going on with me. And so then I was really want to be gang member, fighting every day. And at that time Bell Middle School was like a prison yard. I do work there now in my older age in mentorship. Actually, you see, kids, when I was there it was like a prison yard. When I say it was segregated, the races over here, the gang membership, it was so in a war zone, like we had adults coming up to the middle school every day to fight with the kids. There was not a day that went by where it wasn't several fights, gang fights, you know, people getting hit with weapons, and I got in several fights myself until that final day. I got in the last fight and just remember the security guard picking up and I could never come back to that school again.
Speaker 2:Even at the school, never attended class. It was almost, you know, looking back, like I don't know if the staff was scared, but they didn't. I don't remember any of the staff. They didn't care about us, in my opinion enough. I didn't go to any classes. I had straight F's and D's my entire middle school experience. Yet I passed every year. Every semester Was no, summer school was no, tutoring was no. Let's help you get up to speed. It was almost like you're going to prison One day. Let's get you the hell out of this campus one day. Let's get you the hell out of this campus. And so I remember a couple periods. I just had a chair in the office and sat next to the counselor's office until they weren't paying attention, and I'll just walk around campus.
Speaker 2:I was an example of hundreds of other kids that were there going through similar stuff and we bonded together because during this time 93, 92, 93, 94, it was heavily gang influence. A lot of our parents were either still knee deep in the crack era or coming out of it Latchkey kids. A lot of us had the same situation. So we bonded and gang violence was at its height at that point. Gangster rap was at its height at that point and we were examples of that.
Speaker 2:That middle school year was very crucial and middle school is one of the most crucial sets of years still to this day for kids. It's where I call it the wannabe stage. You're not yet middle school, you just you're merging out of being a young, young kid, still a kid elementary school age on your way into high school. And by high school, if you don't catch them in that middle school age, high school, you get your feet are planted and you're either on a decent course or you're on a trajectory towards being that gang member officially, that drug dealer, that pimp, prostitute, drug. You know it's a crucial catching point.
Speaker 2:That middle section right there and I say going into high school started off at Helix High School in La Mesa High School. My mom got back on her feet, got us an apartment in Lemon Grove and went into Helix ninth grade where I met some of my best friends during that period of time and I went to that school full fledged. I was Mr Gang Member 3000 at that point. I was Mr Gang Member 3000 at that point and it was a shift happening in San Diego culture and urban culture at that time where being a gang member wasn't really cool anymore. We had the pretty boy stage and these cliques and looking back, I really studied this. Adults didn't realize what was happening, but there was probably 200 cliques that.
Speaker 2:I've. When I say cliques, I mean smaller groups. They weren't so. San diego is not la la has a thousand gangs right san diego has for, for it'd be more specific black gangs there's like eight in san diego.
Speaker 2:In san diego there's like eight main gangs. They're still to this day and during the 95, 96, 97 there was a breaking up of the gangs and the youth my age weren't going into those gangs or becoming gang members. They started making their own units, their own cliques and crews with different initials, and a lot of it had to do with partying and being pretty. When I say pretty, I mean well-dressed. We're not wearing Dickies and Ben Davids anymore. We're wearing Docker suits and Nautica and Polo and caring about how your attire and partying.
Speaker 2:It was a great shift and I cannot wait to make the documentary about this or some kind of series, because this happened across San Diego specifically, but this was going across even in LA and across the nation.
Speaker 1:What do you think was behind that?
Speaker 2:I don't know, but what I do know is, if it was recognized, let me rewind it was recognized, let me rewind. Part of that was we were the kids that were under the older kids that were killing each other. Death, let me say, if I was 15, we're talking about the 19, 20, 21-year-olds, my older cousins that were full-fledged gang members, and it was death upon death, because we were smart enough to say to each other that, gangs, you're gonna die or go to jail.
Speaker 2:The the laws were cracking down, the three strikes wrong we saw, because we're not dumb and so that wasn't the route to go. So many, even amongst the gangs, subsets from the gang, would break off into these pretty boy cliques, even though they were from those neighborhoods. Gang members were getting mad at them, mad at us, like what is this? You're going to be from the gang or not? And people would still break away with still connections, family ties, but 200 of these at least across San Diego. And we would have rivalry still. That's still that rivalry, especially with the males. It was still existing. But we would fight. We had numerous fist fights Shut down Del Mar Fair one day, whole Fair Prime Time. Shut down Mission Valley Mall of just big rumbles, no shooting. And we'd meet up again trolley station and fight. And this happened across the board and you knew who your friends and your enemies were. And then gangs were still there, prevalent, and some of these cliques had colors still. Like my particular clique, each one of us individually had a different color to show that we weren't gangs. That's how much anti-gang we were.
Speaker 2:And I during this time, had the adults, or even, let's say, community activists, recognized. But they didn't, and no fault to them, they were just for adults, my parents' age. They didn't see it, they were just coming out of. We've never in urban culture had the epidemic of gangs that we had from the 80s to the early 90s. People didn't know how to react to that. It was literally murder upon murder, the crack. They didn't have enough vision to be able to see what their kids were doing and the activists that were out there. But this would have been prime time we could have ended gang violence at this time had the community wrapped around us. But it wasn't able to happen. San Diego culture from like the end of the 90s. Then there was another major shift in San Diego urban culture that went from the pretty boy dancing playboy era to pimping and prostitution and then that hit our community hard. Gangs were cool, then pretty boys was cool and then it went to you weren't cool unless you were involved in pimping and prostitution. Not that the mentality was that you were pressured into it. It wasn't cool to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. It wasn't cool not to have get money In junior year, senior year.
Speaker 2:We had merged into this full on pimping and prostitution, and not just San Diego, across the nation. This happened and it was helped and pushed on us by media. You know. You had HBO with the documentary Pimps Up, hoes Down still to this day the number one documentary ever produced by them. You had the Hughes Brothers who made Menace to Society come with American Pimp, and we watched and we worshiped these them. You had the Hughes Brothers who made Menace to Society come with American Pimp, and we watched and we worshiped these videos.
Speaker 2:You had rap music change from gangster rap to I call it pimp rap, a whole new genre. People like even Jay-Z, who never pimped a day in his life, making pimp songs. Nelly pimp juice, snoop Dogg, who was a gangster rapper, now he has long hair and fingernails pressed out and coming on stage with girl. It was an air switch and we're at the end of that now. So what's next? What's next? Entrepreneurship, people over it, gangs, unifying the violence isn't what it was at all, right at all. Beautiful times are here now and we're looking at people, are looking at what happened before them. So I'm a part of that wave of change I had uh tony hicks on on the podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you remember.
Speaker 2:I know Tony Hicks. Yeah, he was from the rival Click.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, just such a thoughtful, kind guy. But yeah, 14 years old, yeah, got caught up in what you're describing. Right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:North Park, north Park, the old North. North Park now is not what North Park was, no, not the hill caught up in what you're describing. Right, absolutely, north park, north park, um the old north north park.
Speaker 1:Now is not what north was. No, not the hipster week no, not hipster north park.
Speaker 2:The nutties is what we called it back in the day and you know the folks from the nutties that are my friends and brothers now. They were my rivals back when we were teenagers, like literally. But the pimping actually brought us all together Because when you entered into that pimp world, fighting, shooting was out. You couldn't do that. Unfortunately, with the negative, that positive promotion of peace happened. You couldn't make money if you were worried about a rival. And we were traveling this country and you run into these same people, you get money together and yeah.
Speaker 1:So, do you think? Very interesting. So how has social media impacted all this? Do you think? I know that, for example, with our students. Every year it seems like an increasing percentage of the conflicts that physical conflict, fights and things that kids get into started on social media Outside of school, before and after school, whatever it is, on weekends and even, unfortunately, fights they're planned and everybody's whipping out their phones to film it. Unfortunately, fights they're planned and everybody's whipping out their phones to film it. Do you think?
Speaker 2:that's had some impact too on these shifting kind of thoughts and ideas about so? I don't think so. Social media did not create these things. It overly exposed them.
Speaker 2:So I'm from the pre-social media era, right, and before that we had a thing called Party Line and it'd be people calling in from all over the place and it'd be beefs. That started on Party Line and you'd meet up to fight. Social media is an extension of that. Like you know, we write, even writing letters and passing the wrong letter, and you would know. You knew where the fight was going to be. You knew to go to San Diego High at this time. You knew to go to Kearney High. You knew it got put out there. We were writing codes in pagers, you know, like pre-social media.
Speaker 2:So, yes, social media has blown it up. There's more access and you have a lot of keyboard warriors that feel comfortable hiding behind a keyboard that aren't really and we had to go meet up and be in the streets and stuff had to happen. Now you have people starting wars from just keyboards and they, because they don't have a fear of being outside and getting caught up until you are, um or someone finding you. Now it's, it's added to. It didn't create.
Speaker 2:If that makes, if that makes sense, and now that a different teaching needs to happen to these kids, because people are losing their lives with just having your location open. You're on Snapchat, tiktok, and your location is there Snapchat. If your location's open, I can see where you're at, or this person. You might be worried about me, but not this next person. This next person is showing me where you're at and you're going live at locations and people are coming to you and literally taking your life. So, yeah, it didn't create it, it added to it. There was fake people in the 80s. There's fake people in the 2020s. There was people that were real good, solid people and they're real good, solid people on social media. So it didn't add these things. It exposed.
Speaker 1:So what happened to you after middle school? You went to Bell. Terrible experience Sounds like you never went to class High school Helix.
Speaker 2:I went to Helix, malmiguel, kearney and morris. Oh wow, I graduated from morris after helix. So me and my crew, the pretty boy crew who we were we had the idea that every year we wanted to change schools to um meet as many girls as possible so you, you missed reggie bush years, right?
Speaker 1:oh yeah, I'm before. I'm here before pre-regie I graduated in 2000.
Speaker 2:I was a helix in 96, 97.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, you're pre-reggie, I'm pre-reggie, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we moved high school to high school and at that time school was still not a priority. They weren't teaching us, there was no education happening. I say I graduated high school on time. I stopped learning in the sixth grade. I can't look back and tell you a teacher taught me this. Now I hear it's sad because I have people that I know that that had these great teachers Miss Oyushika, miss Green, mr Love, like they had these people. They existed but they weren't the norm. I didn't have any of those people and many others didn't have these great staff that cared. I can't tell you one. I cannot tell you one thing a teacher has ever taught me ever Sixth grade, probably the last that, the last time I can and I've studied myself and looked back enough to say that after basic math, english writing, which a lot of that my mom taught me, right school system taught me nothing. Um, and once I learned to master the school system and all I needed to do was show up, maybe turn in work, it was over with.
Speaker 2:I'm graduating, I'm out of here. By the time I got to Morris I was already so super popular. I went to Morris junior year and senior year. I went to. I said Helix went to Kearney but Kearney was a war zone at that time and I had to get out of there because that was the meeting spot for every area and we would fight so much daily. Yeah, I, I wasn't. It wasn't feasible. So I went back to mount miguel, my neighborhood, and then more. By the time I got to morrison junior year, there was lines of girls when I was getting registered because I was popular. They knew who you were, they knew I was there and you know. But, um, my morris man, I had two art classes. I had two cooking classes, hungry tiger. I had an art class and I had a science science class with a perverted science teacher. That was cool and fun, but he just wanted us to leave so he could talk to the girls and uh, yeah a, A, A, A.
Speaker 2:I even got to the African-American honor roll at a point in my time because I had A's. But it wasn't A's because I was earning A's in these academic classes I was doing well in. No, it's because my classes were easy-ish and my math class was a teacher, great spirited person. But I took so much advantage of her because she barely spoke English and I would just take you had to turn in your packets of work. I would just erase somebody's name and turn it in with my name on it. I was out of there. School done.
Speaker 1:Did you realize that it was all a farce?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they weren't teaching us. Us. There was no creativity in the teaching, there was nothing that was reaching myself, reaching the youth there, like get me out of here, but I wanted my diploma, I knew enough to do that and I did it, and school was fun. That's where everybody was. So, you know, and even now when I talk to kids, because the teaching methods haven't changed, it's, it's sad and like I was at a school yesterday meeting with them, I'm about to host a mentoring group there and they have a high rate of absence, extremely high rate, and I'm like nobody wants to be here and the kids are just even more in tune. I don't want to be here. I can learn everything you're teaching me in 20 minutes on YouTube right now. You're not. There's nothing that's making the spirit of the kid awoken, you know yet, but and the knowledge needs to happen, though but teaching me that prehistoric math is not. Can you teach me with entrepreneurship? Can we talk money? Can we talk something I'm interested in? Give me the skills, but how's the delivery? You know? So it's still, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:I see changes happening here and there, and schools are starting to realize that, even with the community school model, and like realizing, oh, maybe we need to work on their life too, because if we don't work on their life issues, they're never gonna study George Washington's bullshit. Can we work on this? Yeah, maybe. Duh, I mean, it's 2024, but I see it's slowly and it's not even necessarily. There's some great staff, great teachers out there, but the system has been implemented that they have to follow. This is the textbook you have to use. Here's version two, which is the same thing from version one with a different cover. It's sad. We are not preparing our youth for life and a lot of kids are currently in your school dealing with life issues to where what you're telling me doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:I need to eat tonight and this class isn't helping that. I'm in this class because I'm selling weed in the bathroom right now. Right now I'm selling oh, excuse me, let me modernize. I'm selling vape pens right in the bathroom, right man? And I'm not matter of fact, I'm not even doing it.
Speaker 2:My girlfriend got him. She's selling for me like okay, entrepreneurship, maybe we should teach you about sales and marketing. Maybe we can help you with that. And in the meanwhile, you're sneaking in mathematics, uh, uh, life skills, job skills, workforce development. A lot of these kids are in school. I speak for myself. I had all of these amazing skills that, thankfully, I'm able to harness now, but had somebody tapped into them then I may have avoided many of the pitfalls. Maybe most of my friends would be alive still. They're dead now. They were amazing and smart and we can't put the pressure all on the school either. Right, and it shouldn't be, but most schools and staff are in the kids' lives more than their own parents, and it's unfortunate, but that role of parenting has been put on the school staff.
Speaker 1:So so you were an interesting research case prior to the podcast, because for most people they have a fairly linear journey and I can kind of look them up and like it's like they did this and they did this. They have a fairly linear journey and I can kind of look them up and it's like they did this and they did this, they did this. But yours is your profile on LinkedIn, for example, and your profile in the community is so varied and has kind of so many different avenues to it, but all around common themes. So let me see if I can pick up some of these themes and you tell us a little bit more about that. So one of the themes that keeps recurring in your profile is mentorship. Another theme is that you have lived experience of over 20 years working with domestic gangs and human sex trafficking.
Speaker 1:You I have a number of nonprofits, if I understand correctly, or maybe they're all part of one but Paving Great Futures. You have a consulting firm, law Rich Consulting. I'm sure I'm missing some. So if you could, I'm always curious. So you get on an airplane and there's someone sitting next to you and you know you take off and it's that awkward moment and they go hey, so are you traveling for business or pleasure? And you're like, you just tell them and then they're like so what do you do? So I'm that annoying guy next to you and I go so what do you do?
Speaker 2:Hardest thing in the world to answer Hard for me.
Speaker 2:So what do you do Hard for me? So I started a non-profit, paving great futures in 2010 okay, um, no longer running the non-profit or part of the non-profit and that birthed out of paving great futures, the initials pgf. That was my click name was pgf and when I it came to my attention as an older man that the youth, the youth that were there was youth following in my footsteps from the click playgirls, fantasy, pgf. And when it came to my attention and I've just always been creative, always God's blessed me with this mind and creativity and a passion for helping people has always been there, and creativity and a passion for helping people has always been there. And I said, if I could start a clique at 15 years old which I did that lasted almost at this point, 15 years and has new members and younger members, I can change that towards something positive. At that time, many of my friends had already lost their life, which I'm deeply connected to. So I said, how do I help these youngsters not to go down those paths? And I didn't know what a nonprofit was. I didn't know what a community activist or youth advocate was. I just wanted to help and I did that for many years learned a whole lot. I'm glad I went down that journey In recent years.
Speaker 2:I just started. It's not a nonprofit, it's a for-profit called Walk With Me Impact, and Walk With Me Impact is based on the 14 years of work I did through the nonprofit creating programs, curriculum and now Walk With Me Impact. I try to run away from the work. So much pain, so much. Just just I'm over it and nonprofit is what it is. It's nonprofit but I literally built the organization from a zero dollar budget to a multimillion dollar budget on paper, with grant funding from all over and just wherever the paths lead me to.
Speaker 2:I went down those paths and that you know once you get out there. So Walk With Me Impact I took that, all of the knowledge that I gained of stuff I know works, and I started with a curriculum that now is being administered in four schools in San Diego, five about to start in La Mesa, spring Valley, two provinces in Canada, in Michigan and in Riverside County right now, and it's pretty much compiled of the stuff I know worked from all of these programs to help youth. So I'm going to train the trainer thing with that. Law Ridge Consulting is my consultant firm where I do consulting for a lot, lot of community related issues and a strong component of that human sex trafficking programming helping folks with that public speaker all throughout the world right now, and I do federal and state court expert. So I'm an expert witness.
Speaker 2:I help attorneys, um, I help them. I help them more than they could possibly do themselves without the law degree. I'm in the courtroom. They're mad at me in the courtroom. The opposition gets mad because I actually I know my stuff, because I'm used to being the guy in the courtroom like why didn't the lawyer say this because their their law degree say this, because their their law degree isn't lived experience.
Speaker 1:So when you meet yale and armand, yeah, yale, yale wasn't in the click.
Speaker 2:Well, yale was in a different kind of click, different kind of click, but when they're defending these cases of people that come from my background and they're not clicking right with what they should be asking, I help. So yeah, and just recently got a contract with another. Canada loves me, so all these different areas of Canada, so Thunder Bay just recently got a contract with them To help create a gang prevention curriculum Specifically for Thunder Bay. I have another arm of me that my creative side, which is going to have a comic book company, have put out in the past two years 60,000 comics are in the streets. That of a concept I created when I was in prison. You know I did three years in federal prison for a cannabis charge and one day I was in a in United States Penitentiary, atlanta, in a two man cell with four dudes in it. When I got there they said they said you come in. They said we're over 200 and some percent occupancy. I didn't think there was a number of what's over 100%. There's a number over 100?. I soon found out when I was in the two-man cell with four dudes and me and the tallest dude you could imagine are sleeping on the floor with no blanket pillow, nothing. You're like oh shoot, this is America, it's not a third world country but anyway, most creative I've ever been in my life and I created this concept over 20 years ago that I brought to life recently, in 2022. And, yeah, comic book company. I've done this throughout my life with this concept, consulting that. I think I'm pretty much there. I have a planner coming out this year the end of this year for creatives, because I have cracked the code on publishing books and so many people out there they hear I want to write a book and they really do, but never get to it and there's these other projects. You can do it so easily. So I have systems for people that want to create and get these ideas out of them, and so I'm helping them with this plan of what I've been doing for myself over the years. I've put out, counting the comics, 12 books since 2019. I got three books on hold right now that I'm just not releasing yet.
Speaker 2:Scripts wrote like and I had to dissect myself like, why do I keep putting this? Most of my friends are dead. There's not an idea that they've had that will ever come to life from them. I'm afraid of death, but not afraid of death. I have too many ideas. I want to squeeze this lemon dry. So, regardless if it made a dollar or not, did I do everything, every idea, every creativity that God put in me? I want it out. So I've developed a system. I know how to build teams around it, so it doesn't have to be me just me doing it. It's not just me. You got to have a team with you. Nothing epic is done by oneself. Jesus had the disciples. Everyone has a team. Henry Ford couldn't build a car, for if he's to save his life.
Speaker 2:So the other talent is finding talent in other people. They might not be the creative, but they want to do such and such. I have a comic book. I created the concept. I don't draw a picture, but there's artists, one that's right around the corner from where we're sitting right now, my main artist, and he's not the business person, he just wants to draw Right. So finding those talents in people and being able to harness them, support them and build them up, so that's another skill.
Speaker 1:Your TEDx talk, which is very inspirational we'll link to that in the show notes, is on the topic of mentoring mentorship Can you talk about the role of mentorship in your life or the lack thereof? I know as a young man you talk about the role of mentorship in your life, or the lack thereof I know as a young man you talk about. In that talk you reference that you, from one day to the next, almost, it seemed like, became the father figure in the family. But how does someone get from middle school that you described as kind of a prison environment to four high schools in four years and a lot of fun but very little formal learning, to writing a dozen books or whatever the number is, and being this creative source like and how do you get through prison as well? So mentorship guides along the way. Talk to us about that.
Speaker 2:Zero mentorship guides that present Zero. Growing up most of my life Not there. Me and my friends raised each other, but in hindsight now I feel like my path was laid for me. In so many ways I've been protected. I'm not the big bully fighter dude, but yet I made it through nine different institutions without a scuffle. You know the one altercation I did get in, I caused it, controlled it and then got. I've been protected, spiritual shield around me through every adversity. That kept me okay and that I believe and I don't know if others may be like this too. But I'm able to look at every experience and see how I was guided and to the point when I finally came home from prison and my first person I could claim as a mentor was there my dude Baz, and at that point I didn't even realize he was mentoring me.
Speaker 2:It was later on, but when I started my mentorship journey, realizing the importance of mentorship and actually listening to people like Jim Rohn, les Brown and really who really latched on to me, eric Thomas, motivational speakers Baz introduced me to motivational speakers and these people and really accepting them and, in hearing their talking, learning the importance of having those mentors. So I started seeking them out and, naturally, the ones that were around me. I started holding on to them around me. I started holding on to them. So now, like my mentorship circle that I have that I lean on from spiritual mentorship, business mentorship, education. They're there and I'm smart enough to know I need their knowledge and their help and their support and respect the information they give me. So in my later years, now I have that I have a powerful I don't and you know you got to be also cautious on who you let in to direct your brain and your movements. So but I've been blessed to have great mentors and I don't let them go. I have regular check-ins, you know. If I feel time has gone too long, you know I got two that I didn't meet. It might be a couple months, might be three months, it might be four months, but it's not going to be too long where I don't check in just to, even if it's just to tell them what I'm doing, because I know they're going to give me some good information. But mentorship is extremely important and part of my journey that I didn't choose and, honestly, if I had it my way, like I feel like my path, I'm on this, I'm a willing tool for the good of others.
Speaker 2:Because if Armand just followed what Armand wanted to do, I'd love creating. I would just be drawing. If I was just paid and I could do anything I wanted to right now, would I be mentoring and going in schools? No, I would be drawing comic books, drawing characters, and I didn't have to worry about bills. I'd be on a beach somewhere, probably in Puerto Rico, and I'd just be drawing.
Speaker 2:Not that I don't love mentoring and the work it is. It's extremely stressful and the world I'm in is extremely stressful. Last two weeks ago I lost three friends. In the same day. Three weeks ago or, excuse me, I lost two and one is fighting for his life, jumped out of seven-story building, right. Um, it's stressful man in the connection, so I would separate myself. But this mentorship piece is something that's chosen for me and I'm a willing participant and I'm going to give it my all because I know it's something that's directing me that we're in these. We're in four schools in San Diego Unified right now and I'm training other people outside of here, but I'm building other mentors. I don't want to be that dude holding the torch. When I came into this game, there was some elders who had burnt out torches. There was no flame, but they still wouldn't let you hold it, because I'm'm gonna die with this. I'm that.
Speaker 2:I don't feel like that yeah if it's like the army man, the, the um, the, the soldier doesn't stay the soldier. They rank up, they become a general and they retire. But meanwhile the army, the navy, the air force is constantly recruiting and building up others. Because the wars continue, the need for the army continues and you're not going to be an 80-year-old soldier. That's ridiculous. You just physically can't do it. So if you're not actively, you know our mind's not going to end the troubles that are happening right now. If I'm not actively recruiting, training and building up others to take my place, I want to pass out, pass a well-lit torch to the next person. So what I'm doing, even in the schools right now, yes, we're helping lives. Biggest focus are the mentors that I'm bringing up underneath me with me to train for them to not only be able to do the mentorship, but the goal is now they can get sent to I'm in Michigan right now juvenile detention facility. I'm not there, but my work is, and so to be able to send them. So the work continues.
Speaker 1:Do you find that the issues that you and your mentors are dealing with with young people are similar to the issues that you dealt with at Bell Middle, whatever 30 years, long time ago, 30 years ago or something 30 years ago or something similar? Similar themes, right, like lack of attachment to, to a clear, like vision for, for you know, opportunity in life. I mean you. You referenced super intelligent, smart kids, yourself being one of them, self-taught or taught by family members, or taught by the streets, whatever that means, right, right, like just out of necessity, and creative that way, but like not really seeing a relevance in the society that they were kind of stuck in. Do you see the same kind of issues, or is it even more complicated for young people today? Do you think?
Speaker 2:Same issues, same systemic issues, same school issues, a lot of the same family issues, different nuances here and there, but the core problems are there, not resolved. And but one thing, that major thing that I see is different, is the amount of opportunities that youth have now Way more youth and adults, just people in general Right, because the amount of opportunities you have are regardless of your social, economic status and your race and gender, way more than ever before in the history of man. You know the power of your smartphone. Ronald Reagan had less technology running the free world. A six-year-old has it in their hand right now. Are you utilizing it? Are you taught to utilize it Now? Are you utilizing it? Are you taught to utilize it? You know you can. You can have a multimillion dollar business and never leave your bed. Right now there's, the opportunities are tremendous, regardless of who and the situation you're in. So that's a big game changer. You know, chat GPT, I call that the great equalizer. You know, chat GPT, I call that the great equalizer. If you, on every level of your life, have not infused AI, right now, you're tripping you.
Speaker 2:I made, with the help of my brain and a book I created. I just sold 3000 copies of a book that chat GPT helped me write in two days. What? From my bathroom on my toilet, not using it, but I was on my toilet. I have a baby. She sleeps in the room next to me, so I got to go in there late night. So stuff like that.
Speaker 2:What you need a marketing plan? Oh, you got this business idea. You could ask chat, tell it what you want to do, and in two minutes the free version, you have it. Oh, you need a logo. Mid-journey AI logo look better than any graphic designer ever could have created for you. Original artwork. Oh, you need a video made Canva. Oh, you need to express yourself and you need a podcast that's going to be on Apple and Spotify and all this stuff. What Done? I know Spotify just bought Anchor, but my podcast I have 200 plus episodes, 50,000 listeners. I did it on my phone and interviewed people and it instantly went to all these platforms for free. So the alleviation of excuses is there. Go get it. So, yes, these imaginativeative, creative kids should be taught these things. The times are different than they were.
Speaker 1:10 years ago. Who should teach them that? Do you think everybody?
Speaker 2:who should teach them that? Whose responsibility? Is that their parents. But if the parents don't know, they don't know. But we have these academic institutions and they're, so I don't. There's no, the kids not supposed to just know this stuff themselves, right? So there's no responsibility on a seven-year-old like you're supposed to know this?
Speaker 2:no, so parents. But if they're not taught and they don't know, ah yeah. So if I had to judge, it has to be on the academic institutions, because they're in place to teach, that's their job. What else is an academic institution for but to train and teach the public, the people? So never asked that, never thought that. But if I have to dissect that right now, that's the school's job to teach.
Speaker 1:I have to dissect that right now. That's the school's job to teach. As you were mentioning your upbringing and your middle school and high school years, I just kept flashing back to this like where was the school? Where was the school Terrorized? Where was the school and I'm not going to say the name of the school because that's not important, but when I was a young teacher, I'm going to say in my first two or three years I remember I taught summer school at a school that was not my regular school I've just gotten married and did extra money and I remember and I was teaching math and I remember I made the mistake of having the class up in different groups and this group got the red markers, and this group got the blue markers and this group got the green markers, okay.
Speaker 1:And I remember I was like okay, everybody start writing. And they all threw their markers down and they were like because of gang affiliation. And I was like nobody told me that at this school. So I remember going to the principal at the first break and I'm like, hey, you know, I need some like guidance, like this isn't my community, and they were like, ah, just just use black, forget about it Like right, just whatever, just try. And it was so dismissive, you know, and I'm thinking that was just a little.
Speaker 1:Those were the kids who were kind of forced to go to summer school to pick their skills up and in the end we actually ended up doing some teaching and learning. But that was after I kind of made some personal connections with the kids but it was clear to me that most of them had never had that and when we go out on recess it was segregated by race. So the kids were like, hey, you know, you were over in that group, now you're over in this group. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to go to every like I'm supposed to supervise at recess, I'm just going to chat with you guys. But it was very.
Speaker 1:It had that feeling of the prison. I've never been in prison, but that's kind of the first thing that flashed in my mind and it's just the sadness of thinking that a school would let a kid just keep going, going, getting Ds and Fs for multiple years. And I've interviewed other people on this podcast who are similar age and had similar experiences in schools in San Diego, where they would tell you I was drunk or high every single day for three years in middle school, what From the morning to the I would. First period I'd go in the bathroom, get high. Second period I kind of liked it because it was the cooking class and I could eat something. Then I'd cut for the rest of the day and hang out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mad Dog 2020,. I'd buy one from another student every day. I had no business drinking that yeah Toxic shit.
Speaker 2:So I want to not all the way down back standing on everything I said um, society, wise, looking bigger picture, the, the importance of where we put our dollars shows how we, what we care about, right. And we'll pay an athlete millions of dollars and give a teacher crumbs on that. In comparison, sure, and they're responsible for the future, the next generation, not that, yeah, okay, athlete can get paid whatever, but millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars at times, and the people that are responsible for our lives, that education, and so you get, you become in the situations where even some people who would be amazing for our youth Now I'm going to go work over here at Apple. I'm going to work over here. I'm going to apply my, but my passion is helping kids, but that's not going to get me in pay, especially San Diego. That's not going to pay for the house I want for my family, right, you know, and then and then and then I look even so, one school I'm working with right now and in recent years have really just come to this understanding throughout the years Some of the best mentors on school campuses are the security guards and the janitors, amen.
Speaker 2:And they have more interaction, and this has been throughout time right, but I didn't really identify it. But I look back at my years and who did I like? Who did I go to? It was the security guards and I was like what's the commonality why I wish my brain? I'm glad my brain works this way, but I'm like what is?
Speaker 2:it? Who's the security guards now? Those were the guys and girls that grew up in the neighborhood. They weren't on the track to become teachers and get the teacher credentials, but they needed a job. They have a love and passion for the kids in that particular neighborhood oftentimes and I said the teach that, excuse me, and I messed one one group, the coaches, the athletic coaches, and they have so much influence and mentorship over the youth. I as friends. You know a controlled experiment without controlling it is like, okay, I've had 20 years since the time I was in school and I've heard throughout time my friends talk about coach blah, blah, blah. Coach this said this. My coach did this for me. That's called impact. Those people aren't paid either, probably less than the teachers.
Speaker 2:And overlook the security guard who is involved, engaged, and you know the security guard from when I was a kid. Not that there's a rapper, big June from San Diego, but there was another Big June, samoan Big June that was on my campus at Morris. We loved him. We would go see him after school. He had influence on us. Had he been prepared and given the tools and uplifted to go? What? So there's, yeah, pay the people who are raising our kids.
Speaker 1:How important do you think it is? I think I wrestle with this idea all the time. Right that you know we, you have a school and you, or schools and you hire people from all over and they may or may not understand the neighborhood or the neighborhoods that the kids come from. Understand the neighborhood or the neighborhoods that the kids come from. They may or may not understand what it means to have a household where no one's graduated from college, for example.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of kind of like these areas where competencies either exist or don't exist. How important do you think it is for our kids to look at the teachers in the classroom and the administrators on the campus and see themselves reflected in them, whether it's racially, ethnically, linguistically, uh, street cred wise, all of those? None of those extremely.
Speaker 2:It is so there. So because I I train this, I train school staff with cultural competency and understanding the communities, especially here in San Diego, where I understand the different neighborhoods. There might be slight nuances. So saving the lives, that's our ultimate goal. Now I don't want a teacher.
Speaker 2:Let's say this good hearted person that loves you, wants to help, please, we need as many of you as possible, and whether you come from an affluent neighborhood and now you're coming to an impoverished neighborhood and helping with the youth, but your passion, your heart is pure, we need you. But I also need you trained to understand the kids for that better. Because if you're not connected, how are you really going to be able to teach them? You know and you need to understand and even understand yourself. What is your? Why, like these?
Speaker 2:Understanding is key for the best results. Definitely someone identifiable that the kid can relate to. Definitely someone identifiable that the kid can relate to. The best results is having someone who's from that particular neighborhood that they're going to run into at Vons, the ARCO, someone that may know, let's say, a gang-affiliated youth, someone who grew up with and knows their big homie that's also going to wrap around them. So there's levels of the most effective. All are needed. But I mean, let's say ideally, if a school could have all of their staff from that same neighborhood that the kids came from, that are qualified, great staff, that would be amazing. That's the ideal. Do I see that happening ever? Maybe if the pay rate was there it could and recruitment happened there.
Speaker 1:But yeah, to answer your question, Well, I think, ironically, it happens in the areas where oh, it does. It happens in the areas where the kids have the most out-of-school support. So, rancho Bernardo, because you brought that up before, yes.
Speaker 1:So I would theorize that there are probably schools there, pretty homogeneous schools, where the teachers are from that neighborhood. You're right. And they look like the kids. The kids look like them and they got their from that neighborhood. You're right, and they look like the kids. The kids look like them and they got their thing going on. You're right.
Speaker 2:And they get better results.
Speaker 1:And so you might have a school and I'm not going to mention any names, but I think we all could pick a few out of the hat that are close by to where we're sitting today and teachers actually post and bid often to leave there 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Similar to the yes 100% similar to the police force. But the police force is you have to go work in some of these neighborhoods to move up. But the school, yes, you are 100% correct. There are schools in affluent neighborhoods where the staff and if they didn't come from that immediate neighborhood, they came from a similar neighborhood and they are a replication of the kids and they connect. So, yeah, that does happen. Unfortunately, and in San Diego, we'll say, south of the 8 Freeway, where a lot of the minority schools with a large minority population, the teachers don't come from those neighborhoods, don't understand the youth there are amongst that staff. There are some great faculty and there are some faculty that's there just because it's a job and wish like hell they weren't there. And if you don't think that kid is feeling, that understands that and you as a human being because you're human too.
Speaker 2:Okay, respect to all, and I would hope that that person who did not want to be there would get another job. You can work somewhere else. You can go do something else. Do not put yourself in a position when you don't like where you're at In any job For your own life and not, as in schools, not just your own life. You're now potentially damaging this kid With your messed up attitude, your messed up feeling towards life. So if you, I would hope you bow out, go get another. It's not like you're messed up feeling towards life. So if you, uh, I would hope you bow out, go get another. It's not like you're getting the highest pick. Go work, go work somewhere else, you know, and then I. It's like it's a double-edged sword, because you also don't want to miss a stat, but, but you, it's more worth it because you're doing damage now to these young lives.
Speaker 1:I know there's some transformative examples in San Diego. I think Gompers is one of them, you know turned into a charter school and really you know the director there, vince Riverall, and his team. They at least you know anecdotally the way Gompers was when they, when it turned into a charter, was what you described the people coming up to the school, adults coming to fight the kids, kind of thing. I was one of them, you were one of them, and now, if you go today, Different, the kids are wearing the boys are wearing suits and ties.
Speaker 2:Have you ever been to?
Speaker 1:KIP, kip Adelaide. I have been to KIPP, kipp. Out of life I have been to KIPP, so KIPP may or may not have been part of a previous story that I told you.
Speaker 2:Okay, so KIPP now. Yes, I don't know KIPP before, but KIPP here is one of the most amazing campuses I have ever seen in San Diego.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And little things like the rooms are named after universities. The principal cares. My team has been up there the past year and a half with mentorship classes for their youth that are probably the hardest to reach, or the shot callers of the little campus, and we run mentorship groups there with them, but they also have us on call. We're like an emergency EMS. Oh, these kids were about to fight or going to fight and my mentors, who love helping them so much, they'll stop what they're doing and run up there Like I see the care, the level of care they have for the kids like no other. So, yeah, that is where Kip is right now.
Speaker 2:It's possible, we just had a hip hop summit up there June 1st.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:What we did, because a lot of people don't know Kip is in that corner in Southeast and what we did. We had a youth hip hop summit and we San Diego zoo. We brought them up there. They had a reptile exhibit, we had all the local rappers, a large amount of them, and we had a hip-hop contest where the kids I've been doing this type of thing for eight years, usually at San Diego State, and the kids would formulate a rap song within an hour, same instrumental and then have to perform it Panel of judges, free food games slide like jumpers for the young kids workshops and we just did that on June 1st. Super amazing.
Speaker 2:We're in the process of recording those kids now the song, the kids that won the contest. We're just finalizing the song now Probably going to shoot a music video up there just having them part of that. Probably I'm going to shoot a music video up there just having them part of that. But yeah, they are a good model of how to do it at this point. I don't know any previous, but since I've been a part of there, I've been doing a good job.
Speaker 1:What would your current self? I think you're late 30s. I'm trying to do the math 30, 40 something 30, 40 something. There we go. What would your current self tell your 16-year-old self that you?
Speaker 2:wish you'd known back then that you know now. I was smart, 16. I would have guided me on how to make money. I'd be a multimillionaire right now with the thoughts I had at 16, with the right guidance, with the right mentorship. And I would have told myself don't follow those trends. I always was smart, didn't want to. I would go against. I would tell myself to follow your inner thoughts. Get involved in any negative activity, the fighting. I didn't want to. But my friends, my surroundings, I would go along with it and keep my mouth shut. And no one gave me an out.
Speaker 2:If I was there as this person now, I would have related. I would have recognized hey, do this my art. I've been drawing since a kid. My parents and people would compliment me, but I was never let into. I loved art. I love cartoons. To this day I'm 43. I love cartoons, love it. It never left me. But it was also never fostered. It was never. If I was put in the animation class at seven, right, my path would have changed. Some product, that productive activity. I had my first job at eight years old. I was peeling potatoes in a restaurant on 32nd and Market. I've always been able to get jobs, I love restaurants. Jobs, I love restaurants. If someone wrapped around me and guided me and said hey, hey, pointed out those skills and put me in a position to empower, empowered me to bring those skills to life, man, who knows where I would be right now?
Speaker 2:art wise, you know, but instead of oh, that's cool, that's nice I love, even I love that.
Speaker 2:But that was the end of it. Me and my best, one of my best friends now who? He's done two of my book covers. He's a beautiful artist painter Lost his dad in front of him when he was a kid. Mom died with substance abuse. He's been an amazing artist and just now in his 40s, he's painting beautiful murals. But there was this gap of time where it's the same thing If someone took him. He's a genius, I'm telling you. He's painting the cover of my youth coloring book coming out called Planting Seeds. He's in the process of painting that cover right now, Like those things. So there's kids out here that have these talents and loves for passions for things, but they're not harnessed. You know, maybe a different type of school I should have been put into.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or in addition to yeah, the basics, but our class. I would have liked you know, I excelled in my art class. The one time in my whole life of school I had an art class, probably for a semester.
Speaker 1:I loved it that was like your only legitimate a, that you got was my only legitimate a with projects then from high school.
Speaker 2:I still have now because I loved it so much, you know, yeah, and so that paired with business knowledge. Like I am now in my 40s just launching my comic book company Now like I can't wait to see this animated and these ideas brought to life. But I would have missed a lot of the BS had that been harnessed as a kid.
Speaker 1:Armand, you've been very generous with your time. I have one last question for you, but before I get there, is there anything that we have not touched on today that's been kind of kicking around in your head that you were hoping I was going to ask about?
Speaker 2:No, but as you're formulating the question, this fentanyl just popped in my head.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'm going to go with that Talking this, fentanyl just popped in my head. Okay, so I'm going to go with that Talking about fentanyl.
Speaker 2:My spirit went there. I've lost to this day 33 people close to me off fentanyl. I started my work at KIPP because a 13-year-old kid had died of a vape incident with fentanyl-laced fake vapes that the kids are getting. They're not real, most kids aren't getting getting, don't have access to real vape pens. But people are manufacturing them. They look real but people are making these with vegetable glistening order fake order cartridges off amazon making these in their garage. Kids sell them, kids have them.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, the fentanyl crisis that we've been in, I it's. It's just when it seemed like it was slowing down. I just lost somebody else, um, and I would say everybody I know that died of fentanyl wasn't even purposely using fentanyl, but it was laced in their pills and their coke and something that they were using for recreation and substance addiction. You know, post-covid people develop these addictions. I feel it.
Speaker 2:I know it's been a period of my life where I was leaning on substance abuse to escape I. So I know that feeling and but right, like man. So there's deeper issues that lead somebody into that, that need to be addressed. I've never been a fan of dare or just say no, but at this point, just say no because you can die from. I have 60 year old friends that have died. I have 13 year old, 14. I have a tattoo on my arm right here of a young man I I spoke on him on my TEDx, changed his name there 14, substance, you know, yeah. So that if anything, I can't, that's what hit me, but just say no.
Speaker 1:There's a. You may be familiar with his work, but Rocky Heron oh yeah, I know Rocky. I had Rocky on here and he's done some work with our with our students and he has a similar message. He he he also, I think originally determined that the just say no, the old nancy reagan version just wasn't working. But what he did is because he's a retired dea agent, he was like this is the deal and he talks openly about his own kids journeys with substances. And the last time he did an assembly with our middle school kids he did three different sections and after each one there was a line of 20 or 30 kids all waiting to go up and talk to him and they I was just watching they went up, talked to him for a minute or two, hugged him and they all left crying because they were recounting the same thing that you just said my dad's in jail for this Lost my friend Brother, everybody.
Speaker 2:It's funny, not funny, excuse me. Every time after we do, like my team, we do these fentanyl presentations. The kids got this experiment. We do with them Middle school, high school. They'll come up to you after it's over and then they ask questions like how do you deal with the schizophrenic drug abuser? And I'm like it's my dad.
Speaker 2:Or you hear these stories, man, I just lost my sister. You hear these stories and they're heartbreaking, but it's also a reminder of why we need to get to these youth and as many of us that are spreading the message right now. You know anti the just say no. But like right now, like I need you to just say no, it's never been safe, it's less safe than ever. Right now, I need you to just say no, it's never been safe, it's less safe than ever. Right now, you don't know what you're picking up.
Speaker 1:Because it could be the first time. It's not like, oh, you're going to get addicted and then, in a year from now, you lost 100 pounds and you die.
Speaker 2:I don't use drugs. Back in the day, I mean, there's people that I know that were on crack for 1,000 years and they're still jumping and shooting basketballs. That's not today. That's not today. You could be that one peer pressured instant. You walk into the party and someone says, here, try this, and talks you into it and you don't live anymore. That's where we're at right now. Just say no, and so that message needs to be brought to them in multiple ways, multiple directions, so that the kids feel it multiple ways, multiple directions, so that the kids feel it.
Speaker 1:So my last question it's a hypothetical one. You have the opportunity to put up a billboard on the side of the freeway. Let's do the eight freeway, because we talked about how the eight was kind of this intentional or unintentional dividing line in San Diego. We can debate whether it was intentional or not, but you have the chance to put up your own billboard on the side of the freeway and that billboard can have any message that you would like to have conveyed to the world about what you believe in, about what you hold dear, about what you hold sacred. And they're driving by at 70 miles an hour or sometimes at seven miles an hour, but what does your billboard say?
Speaker 2:First of all, billboards are useless. Everyone's looking at their phone, including the driver. Useless Waste of space. I love billboards because I love marketing, but it's a waste. Okay, but on your question, yes, each one. Teach one, each one reach one.
Speaker 1:Each one teach one. Each one reach one. And for folks who have not yet checked out your Ted talk, it's you return to that theme several times in there, and so I think that's an appropriate place to to end our conversation for today. I know you have a commitment after this, and as do I, but I really wanted to thank you for your time, your generosity of sharing your life, your stories. Your heart is very evident in your work and in this conversation, so thank you so much for joining us this afternoon.
Speaker 2:Man, thank you for having me and actually caring about what I had to say. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Superintendent's Hangout. You can follow me on Twitter at DVS1970. Please be sure to share this show with friends and family on social media and in the real world. Thank you to Brad Backeal for editing and production assistance and to Tina Royster for scheduling and logistics. Thanks for hanging out and have a great day.