From Compton To Clarity - Manhood And Purpose

He grew up in Los Angeles, lived through the riots in Nickerson Gardens, then landed in Compton and learned early that the “veneer” people see from the outside is rarely the whole story. That’s where our conversation with Maceo starts and it’s why his message on discipline, mentorship, and manhood hits different. 

We dig into the real gap between discipline and comfort, how easy it is to stay stuck on the sofa scrolling and calling it “research,” and why that comfort quietly trains us to quit if we start at all. Maceo shares practical ways to build consistency even in small moments, like pairing learning with movement so your body and mind grow together.

From there, we get personal about fatherhood, standards, and what the men before us got right. Presence becomes the theme: showing up, handling responsibilities, and being the example your children can actually see. We name what has to be unlearned too, especially the version of “being a man” that gets defined by image, conquest, and approval. The conversation closes on faith, purpose, and a challenge for any young man who feels behind: You were sent here to be successful at something, and the work is to wrestle with  what is your reason for being. (Iki Gai)

If this speaks to you, subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find Wise Black Pearl. What’s one comfort you’re ready to trade for discipline today?

See more, Be more, Do more, Have more!

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_04 0:18

Hey, everybody. How are you? Good morning, wherever you are, good night, good evening, wherever you are. I am Michael, and I am on an amazing podcast called Wise Black Pearl. Today we're gonna get to know who Macy's so you guys can get a different view into the life of DeSage Yoda, as I called him. Man, he is he is he is a mentor, he's a friend, he's a brother. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, Macyo.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Thank you very much, Michael. I appreciate you doing this for me today.

The Maintenance Diaries Podcast Mission

SPEAKER_01 1:01

It's important for people to get a sense of who I am and what makes me think that my message is relevant and significant. Um I was born in Los Angeles, California. I lived in the Nickerson Gardens housing projects during the riots, which is a story in and of itself. When we hit the big times, we moved to Compton. I went to Compton High School, straight out of Compton. Hey. Okay. And just for the record, that movie was soft as cotton balls compared to so don't be fooled by the veneer. Um it's taken me some time to get to a place where I'm comfortable with just something as simple as smiling. So it's a great day. It's a great day to be here, and I'm very, very uh grateful to have you. Before we get too far into it, though, um tell the people about your podcast.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

Thank you for that. My podcast is called the Maintenance Diaries Podcast, and is a podcast highlighting people in the apartment industry and different industries where maintenance is one of the main focus, and we're advocating for a better work-life balance for each and every employee and to build a better relationship between the employee and the employer. So check out the maintenance diaries podcasts on all platforms.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

All right. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Uh, I've enjoyed it myself, so I thought I'd throw a plug for you.

Choosing Discipline Over Comfort

SPEAKER_04 2:42

Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Yep. Great job. Yeah, man. It's getting to know you. From my perspective of knowing you, I know I've learned how to be disciplined. I've learned how to step outside of the box. And for you, when did you last choose discipline over comfort? And what did it cost you?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Well, first, Michael, thank you for the uh compliment. You know, when we met, we were both struggling.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

And I think the distinction between you and I at the time was time, tenure, experience, and age. The only advantage I had over you at the time was that I had already fought many battles. I had won a few, I had lost a few. And I think the critical idea of choosing discipline over comfort is that it's easy to stay on the sofa and scroll and watch TikTok or YouTube and dream about what you're going to do and not do it. Uh that's comfortable. It's it's it's a metaphor of the sofa, the sinking in and getting comfy. The discipline is getting up. And I work on that every day. Um recently I have started when I am watching YouTube videos, I've started to exercise a bit while watching them. Put myself in a in a squat or some sort of push-up position that allows me to train my body while I'm feeding my mind. And I think when we fail to make the extra effort that doesn't feel comfortable, that doesn't cause our muscles to grow, our emotional muscles, our spiritual muscles, and our intellectual muscle, then we are giving way to gravity. And gravity doesn't lift you up, gravity pulls you down.

Standards, Presence, And What To Unlearn

SPEAKER_04 5:01

Right. That is good. Yeah. And a lot of the time, gravity that pulls us down can be our own self-doubt, thinking less of ourselves. And for the person that you have become, it it tells that you've had um you've had a good support system that that kind of brings you to where you are right now. So what did the men before you get right and what must you unlearn?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

It's a very personal question, Michael. Yeah. Um, first, let me say that I come from a rigorously patriarchal family. The men in my family had standards, and I think that's one of the primary things that's missing today, a sense of a rites of passage. Um, what I learned from the men in my life, my father specifically, I knew him. I knew my grandfather, I knew of my great-grandfather, and my sons know me. So when we talk about what I got from the men in my life, it begins with presence. They were present. I was able to see how they moved. I was able to see their successes, I was able to see them scrapping, trying to make it. I saw them on their grind. And I came up in a family where the culture was entrepreneurial, the culture was to grind. Now, they were also interested in making certain that there was some grit. They showed me that if you don't know much, you can't do much. And you're going to sacrifice somewhere. It's going to happen sooner, or it's going to happen later. And I saw the sacrifices that they made. I saw the difficulty, but I also saw them come through it. And in every single instance, when I look back on what they did, what they actually came through, it codified some of the scriptures that says the race is not always to the swiftest or the strongest, but to those who endure it to the end.

SPEAKER_04 7:23

That's powerful.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

And I saw them endure. What did I have to unlearn? I came up in a time when your verbal rapability was uh very very important, highly lauded. You know, could you mack a chick down? Were you smooth, where you were you fly? And and uh, and that was uh that at the time was uh verification that you were all man. Yeah. You were defined by your conquests and and how many women you had or what have you. And um looking back on it, I understand it. Um I was brought into that culture in a way that I now understand, but had no way to understand early on. Right. And so I had to unlearn that aspect of what being a man appeared to me. I mean, it became blurred when I saw the cool guys on the street, yeah, you know, macking holes, if you will. And it looked completely different when I went home and I went to my family members' residences, and I saw men standing up uh doing the hard thing. You know, I mean, it I saw a real definition of hard. Hard is getting up when you don't feel like it and going to work. Hard is bringing your hard-earned cash home and spending on something outside of yourself that you valued. Yeah. Hard is living up to an example in your children's eyes, not because you have pockets full of money, but because I'm there. They see me every day and they see the work that I put in. And the work can be as simple as cutting the grass. I I saw men that didn't have a lot of money, but they kept their cars clean. Right. Which I'm not that good at, to be quite frankly. But but but but they they they took care of something other than themselves. And they don't care if it's a goldfish. Yeah. You know, I had to walk the dog, I had to water the lawn, I had chores. There were things that were expected of me from the time that I was a child that I did not understand that serve me today. And so um I learned grit, I had to unlearn folly.

Safe Versus Strong In Real Life

SPEAKER_04 10:20

That is good and that is needed, man. All right. And this is the reason why, this is the reason why I think, you know, your podcast, Wise Black Pearl, is so important in today's climate, you know, because a lot of our young men growing up don't have much to look up to, you know, and a lot of them need reassurance in who they are and be comfortable and confident in the person that God made them. And you make people feel comfortable. You can be at a grocery store and you can start a conversation with a random person, and before you know it, they're at your house having a glass of water or a glass of juice, right? So I think that is a gift. And the question I have for that is do people experience you as safe or as strong? Because you also give great advice, and how it is received by the recipient give you an idea of being strong or being safe. So do people experience you as safe or as strong?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Um, it's kind of difficult to speculate on what's in another person's mind. But I do present myself in a way that I think is accessible. I have a large uh series of experiences I've lived a good amount of time. I'm I'm 67. One of the things that's really important that I like to say when you talk about am I safe is in order to make friends, you first must show yourself friendly. Yeah. And so it's I'm quick to smile. I'm quick to uh show a pathway into a real experience. And I think the greatest need for today is connection and access.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

And the greatest uh addiction today uh is attention. And so instead of seeking attention myself in that way, I offer someone attention, which is attractive and compelling, and then I I deliver hopefully something of value. Strength manifests itself a couple different ways with me. And I think it can be summed up this way. Um my single greatest strength, I think the thing that's by far the most attractive about me is I am absolutely clear on who I am, where I come from, and how I want to show up.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

There's no wavering in that. I am going to be that person uh no matter who's watching or when nobody's watching. Right.

Manhood, Fatherhood, And Faith

SPEAKER_04 13:41

That's good. That is good. And and it's like it's like with um celebrities or or people that have that live their life in the public's eye, you know, they say the person who you are is the person that no one sees. That's the real you. You know? So and uh since this podcast is called Wise Black Pearl, it is planting a seed in in young men out there, how to be better men or entrepreneurs, whatever they, whatever they aspire to be, you know, this podcast is kind of giving them the blueprint of how to become the thing that they desire. So, what does being a man mean to you? And who give you that definition for you to be that confident in who you are?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

I have developed my own thoughts about around that. Uh-huh. As a child, I thought like a child, I behaved as a child, and I understood as a child. And so the first point is the direction of what a man is came from my my father. All of his actions and behaviors I mimicked, I patterned myself after. I thought they were absolute, final, and correct in all ways. And that's born out of a naivety and an exuberance to be what he was. And I have to say, uh, God rest his soul. It was from him that I got my greatest inheritance. It wasn't money, it wasn't stuff, it was his presence. I have six sisters, no brothers. My mother and father have passed on, but they gave me an inheritance that I carry with me every day. In fact, one of my greatest desires in life while they were living was to make them proud, and my greatest desire today is to continue to honor them after they have passed on. So that's where I started. That's where it initially was born. And as I grew up, I realized the the unthinkable, and that is dad wasn't perfect. Dad had flaws, he was a human.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

We're all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Yeah. And so one of the markers that I identify when I talk about manhood is first identifying and embracing a power that's stronger than yourself, a faith that you can codify into an experiential walk day by day. And that does not derive from my parent, my dad, per se, but it's something that's developed as I move forward day to day. So uh I think it's very important to realize that the definition of what being a man is is going to change over time. When I came up, my grandm used to say, Oh, oh, you a big boy now. Right. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Then she would say, You're becoming a young man now. Yeah. And then my dad used to say, Well, you're a man now. And then later, I came into the understanding of what it is to be a full grown man.

unknown 17:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

And now, something I never heard before, but I am moving towards to the best of my ability is what it is to be a man of God. And so these kinds of, I'll call them developments because evolution takes too long. Yeah. And we're only here for a little while. Right. You know, so uh as I move towards uh my the quickening of my spirit and my relationship with something greater than me that I have embraced for myself, yeah, within myself, I can then share that in a way that's you know altruistic, helpful, and beneficial to everybody that I touch.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

Man, that is so good, man. Man, this is this is a good form of giving back to those who are in need, you know. Um Denzel Washington always says, each one, teach one. When you get up to the mountain, reach your hands down and pull someone up. And I think that I think that you are doing that with this podcast. And I am I am elated that you decided to just start, just do it. And I know this conversation will definitely continue in future episodes, but is there anything that you would want to say to that young man who is aspiring to be whatever it is that he wants to be? Is there any advice you can give to that young person that's listening?

Advice For Young Men And Purpose

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Absolutely. Um, I actually made a call one day. I was 53 years old. 53. Okay, and I called both my sons, we had a conference call and uh Maceo III and Baron Tucson.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

And I I said, guys, I know something today that I want to share with you.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

I said if you have faith in something bigger than you, you can use that faith to bend the universe to your will. Cause the cosmos to conspire with you to give you all of the desires of your heart, but it begins with faith.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

And I told them that I knew it, I believed it, and nothing could change my mind about it. Now, regrettably, it took me six years to practice it in in the real world. But I knew that I knew that I knew, and I want to look at every young man who may feel like he didn't have his father present, or he didn't have everything that he thinks he should have had. That God just as the creator sent the rain out to the earth and the snow and forces bud to grow, you were sent here to be successful at something. The work is not about how much money you make, the work is about doing the work to find out why you're here, and no one can take that from you, no one can deny you that. Website, you can send in questions, uh, you can find it under under fans and ask a question, and I will personally answer them until it becomes far too busy for me to do so. But if I can just touch one, the objective, you talked about each one, teach one. The objective in my heart is to know that by my example, by my walk, by the way I hold my head, by the way my chest is open, and my voice is strong, and my grip is present and real, that some one man will be able to find his faith and thereby find his manhood.

Final Thanks And Subscribe

SPEAKER_04 22:52

Man. Wow. Man, thank you for that. Thank you for that. Well, wow. That um that definitely sums it up for the first part of this episode. Getting to know Macy or who he is and why he's doing what he's doing. And I know a lot of you guys just got, you guys just got um, as they say, a million dollars worth of game. You know, you guys got the blueprint on not only what to do to improve your lives, how to be respectful, how to have discipline, how to separate discipline and comfort, you know. And this is so, this is so amazing. And I am so elated to be the guest host on this podcast, Wise Black Pearl. Right on, right on. Man, my guy, once again, thank you so much for this, man. And to you guys, make sure to like, comment, share, subscribe, and we will catch you on the next one. Thank you very much, Michael. Peace. Peace out.