He Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of the male perspective I am your host Lana Reed and today today on this day I have the pleasure of continuing my series on the phenomenal men of five Beta Sigma fraternity Incorporated today I have with me brother Eric King he’s a licensed
Professional clinical counselor and with his wife has founded this amazing mental and emotional Wellness facility in Ohio that we will get into shortly but first and foremost as I always do sir I take a quick moment to pause say thank you to you for making time for me today time is
A gift once we give it we can’t get it back so I truly appreciate you setting aside this time to talk to me and with that Mr K welcome to the show well thank you so much I really appreciate you reaching out and definitely you know uh
Reaching out to the sigas and the BR and you know I’m always open to talking about every pretty much everything but definitely that because it was such a it is such a big part of how I became and who I am right now yeah you know uh many
People don’t have um the experience of Brotherhood and it’s so amazing that we have things within our community to kind of surrogate that that experience so let me ask you how long have you been a sigma man and where did you pledge W so I pledged at Iota
Beta which is University of akan so I’ve been I crossed at 31298 so March 1298 at 3 3:33 in the morning and yes I do remember so that was what 25 years now and so I am I am a number five and I was the they used to
Call it the head knocker so I was the guy in the middle and we had nine others and so I was the president of the line as well as the stepmaster as well as everything else um plus I was a little older I was a little older when I went
To college so it was a good it was a good time it it was a good time it’s a good experience good experience was it uh was the rest of the uh frats on the yard at the time you pledge oh yeah the only frat that was not there I TR I
Believe it was the omegas I think every everyone else was there and I think at that time uh there were the chat the Omega chapter wasn’t there but they were in Kent and they were you know which was 30 minutes away 40 minutes away and so
They would drive up oh okay well explain a I mean we we hear the city but how where’s it proximity to Cleveland and so so the number one person that most people know from akan is obviously LeBron James right so akan is uh roughly about 30 to 45 minutes
South of Cleveland Ohio um and Kent which is Kent State University is a little bit more south uh I think East maybe than than that from um from akan so they were pretty close together okay and we would go back and forth and party all the time you know as
As we do good days good days as we did and do right all the fun part of the experience part of the experience yes let me let me get let me move on yeah okay okay it’s all good it’s all good we might get ourselves into trouble you know it’s all good hey
I’m there I’m there with you let’s let’s just roll with it well let me let me go into the professional work that you do you are in uh the mental health field and quite obvious you are a black man yes and Tra traditionally historically mental health
And black men have not really been too much of a yeah what we’ve seen as a good mix uh what was what was it that appealed to you about the career made you pursue this particular line so actually um I started off in the computer field so I used to program
Computers you know I did the all the languages and C++ and then it wasn’t until I went through about a depression after felling out of school um and at that time I didn’t know what was going on and so I knew I needed to make money because I
Also have a 25y old son you know after I crossed you know I got my free time then I you know we have a son um so I had a son and I didn’t know what I was going to do and at that time I was trying to
Figure out exactly what what profession so I knew I wanted to either be a teacher I wanted to be study Behavioral Health and so because I didn’t want to take the teachers test I picked Behavioral Health and what I found is I was I was the only one you know in many
Cases I was the only black um so I went and got a undergrad in Psychology and it was probably three you know black males uh probably out of the whole class um it was probably 10 you know black individuals period in the profession then I went to get my graduate degree
And it was only two black males and I think one black uh woman that was in the class right and then I went back and got a second graduate degree and by that time it it had become a little bit more prevalent okay but still I think I think
In my graduating class it was four black males out of probably 300 um 300 uh well maybe two that’s a little over maybe 200 students at that time wow akan oh I’m sorry I didn’t so I failed out of akan and then you know years later I went back to Cleveland State so
Cleveland State University um so I got my fun degree at akan and I got my my other degrees on the other three from uh Cleveland State University okay I guess the puzzlement is because my and I might just having a stere carrying a bias stereotype uh because you’re you’re
Mentioning that you were one of the few black men in the class but isn’t akan or Cleveland predominantly black oh definitely yes okay yes Cleveland Cleveland is a you know the city you know the city is predominantly black I mean the suburbs are also relatively
Black so yes we had a lot of us out there um but I mean let’s be perfectly candid the concept of mental health or the concept of emotional Wellness I mean you know the the idea of fostering male masculinity in a way that allows the individual to emote healthily to embrace
The concept of anger right because anger is simply an emotion it’s not anything that’s good or bad so yeah so you know just because we’re you know we’re you know we’re predominantly black City didn’t mean that they were studying mental health let’s be honest you know
Once again that up until recently U the monetary gains within mental health was very anal and so if I’m looking at heading up a family or heading up a household I’m not going to go somewhere or study a profession that may not provide me with the amount of you know
Um economic growth that I need and you know that is one of the things in my practice that I actually do is you know I help individuals create their own practice um and show them that you know you can you know make a living in mental
Health you don’t have to you know work in an agency you don’t have to work at a university you can literally own your own time okay okay sounds awesome now you mentioned something that um I kind of want you to kind of kind of expand on because yeah within the black community
We we’ve always struggle with mental health um and then when we do go seek it sometimes it’s not a good fit yeah why why is it that culturally we we struggle as a black community to find mental health services that that that suit us yeah in other words we don’t have time
You know we don’t have time to be stressed we don’t have time to be this and the luxury of relaxation is something that is relatively new I mean just think about it um I’m not sure how you grow up but if I was relaxing too much you know the elders would be like
You need to be finding something to do now what is that that is a generational concept or not to use the word curse but generational concept that you need to be doing something so that someone doesn’t bother you how did that start that started From Slavery how did that start
You know how did that get Pro you know progressed on it progressed on because we we have chosen not to actually embrace the concept of trauma or even the concept of slavery so yes so yes the idea of mental health you know comes directly from something is wrong with
You and in the black community because we are so religious spiritual and whatever have you you know we sought Comfort or mental Wellness in the church and so I’m still you know working with individuals on it’s prayer and works that helps it’s not just pray and the mental health aspect or the counseling
Aspect is the work I like that and you know I’m assuming that you have to uh combine with the churches and say with we can we teamwork we can tag team this yeah yeah yeah it’s it’s a little different now because more churches are embracing and
Um I you know I’m not a student of the Bible but I have you know I’ve grew up in a religious family just like most black you know black individuals and I can point out in the Old Testament and the New Testament where depression is where an anxiety is where the concept of
Generational curse is where the concept of hallucination delusions are you know are so I can point you know not you know I don’t know chapter and verse I’m not I’m going be real about that but I can point where David you know after he slept with basba and re recognized what
He did you know with his prophet and saying hey you need to fix this how he went through you know depression how Saul you know had the the darkness fall over him that’s depression and even you know times you know right before Jesus went up you know he was up on the
Mountain he was going through you know take this cup away from me right so it’s in the Bible it’s there through all all through all throughout the Bible well let me ask you this now in 2024 especially with the work that you’re doing um do you see that especially
Black men are becoming more and more open to it is okay yeah I mean we have allowed ourselves to be viewed a little bit more complex lately you know letting go of this concept that emotions are either good or bad or are are you know uh supposed to be like this or supposed
To be like that you know a lot of uh the large majority of my practice are black men or men period and a lot of times I start off my first like three to five sessions and literally just breaking you know breaking down this concept of good
And bad emotions men what we’re taught you know rethinking so it’s something within the last let’s see I’ve had you know I’ve been in mental health for over 20 years so definitely with within the last what 10 years definitely five that we’ve allowed ourselves to be a little
Bit more complex when it comes to be behavioral health or mental health uh as a whole awesome I love it I love it well let me get into the um Center that you and your wife yeah have found it mental and emotional Wellness Center of Ohio right correct yes you got it
Right now if I read correctly it’s one of the few blackowned in the in Ohio yeah so it’s one of the few black own in Ohio right it’s definitely in Northeast Ohio now that was when we started so the practice has been open since 2018 um but you know over the over the
Last you know 24 months to 30 36 months right we have seen an influx in private practice ownership which is the beauty part of it um because what it’s two parts one the more you know the more black and brown individuals we have in private practice sectors allows for
Easier access so before you went to Community Mental Health agencies or you went to to hospitals which had exorbitant amount of list and then the individuals that were practicing there had both professional burnout because they were seeing clients 40 hours a week you know 36 client you know 36 clients a
Week and then they had Financial burnout because they weren’t paying them you know because we don’t respect anything that’s not Tech or right we don’t respect anything like that we’re medical professionals but we don’t get medical pay at any case so when we’re so now I
Got I got off a little bit that’s my soap box that was my so boox but now we’re seeing a little bit more and so that was in 2008 and we’re seen we seen a lot more smaller practices you know headed up by black and brown people but at the
Time when we opened it up it was one of the few um and I’ve had the pleasure of working in at least one other you know you know 100% owned black practices you know during my educational track as well as you know before I opened up this organization we open up this
Organization um in 2018 now as I was roaming around the website I see it has quite a variety of components to it because you kind of run down everything that goes on over there over in this practice so first and foremost we’re here to support our
Clients um and so any anyone who wants to actually do the work of mental health they can come here and do it you know do it well um so that’s one secondly because you know I am a educator by trade you know educator by heart is not
Necessarily by trade anymore um I I’m always you know attempting to Mentor individuals and being entrepreneurs so I use a term around here called mental health entrepreneurs so we do that and so we have individuals here that if you go to our website um you’ll see we have
Men we have women we have you know uh it’s a blackowned organization and right now we have a you know white woman but we used to have more it was a great mix of seeing individuals as early as four and as old as what 75 and so we do em
EMDR which is I and I can’t I don’t do acronyms I can’t think of it right now but it’s called EMDR and we do a lot of different you know other disciplines within this practice um and each individual here has the opportunity to do the type of work that
They want to do okay okay um real quick you mentioned that there was a h white therapist there or a counselor there at your facility yeah it just made me think one question that I’ve always had yeah do people who are not familiar with our culture properly equipped to give us
Mental Health Services do you feel I do I feel that anyone has the ability to actually provide Mental Health Services to anyone with that said the individual that is treating that person that may not be of their demographic needs to be okay with learning needs to
Be okay with being ignorant and what I mean by ignorant is a lack of knowledge because to say that I am only equipped to see black individuals or men is absurd I I didn’t have a holistically you know black male class or a black class I had mental health classes with
That said I’ve had you know I’ve seen trans individuals I’m not trans I’ve seen individuals in you know uh uh thropple uh marriages so I’ve seen you know a wide variety you know white women I’ve seen a a wide variety of individuals the key part is I allow
Myself to learn and not to be an authority I’m not the most important person in the room they are I’m just a guy gotta gotcha okay good points good points now one of the components that I I see that uh you do over there is I was
Really excited about it because it kind of fits into what I do here okay is that you have a support network called stronger together yeah so couple years ago and it took off uh during the pandemic we had a uh support group for men called strongs together and we used
To get men virtually uh from all over the world actually um with that when I expanded this practice or grew it I had to Let It Go um but that is something that is coming back because we saw a large amount of love right a large amount of connectivity and
You know with the men that are here now the black men that that are here now we’re constantly talking about what else can we offer right what else can we do and so although that is not going specifically anymore I do have a a radio
Show um that I do every Wednesday and I don’t talk it’s not a mental health show it’s just me it’s actually my therapy to where I go and I just talk to whomever and everybody um and so this week uh or tomorrow what’s today today Tuesday right tomorrow uh Valentine’s Day I’ll
Have my brother’s keeper so I got three men um that are on the show and last year um I started therapy um last year and what came out was that you know I thought I had an ISS issue with my mom right so look at it from that standpoint
I actually had an issue with men because I you know I found myself becoming quite you know uneasy around him I never knew why growing up you know and it you know from a standpoint of a you know bigger picture there were more uh harm that
Came from men than it did from women and so once I found that out I last year I went out and I purposefully every Wednesday would meet with a different black male just to you know talk and you know Network and that turned into friends and so three of the individuals
That are on the show tomorrow are you know one of those individuals I met along this treack of growth and connectivity awesome just a suggestion maybe you can expand this out to the black community as whole just kind of intentionally interacting with to heal some of that uh but you know that’s
Another Sidetrack um issue there um I see that you recently or about to give a master class for mental health so my question is what do you know you’ve got your degree and you know I’m I’m gonna be rich and famous now but what what what what what areas are they struggling
With when it comes to yeah yeah so this master class so the beauty of it all is I I did the work right so I’ve been in mental health for 20 years I did the education side right I’ve taught I’ve worked in hospitals I’ve worked in Community Mental Health
Hospitals I’ve worked in other people’s private practices right so I I did the work and so in doing the work I have the beauty I have the luxury of doing pretty much anything in mental health that I choose to do and so whether I’m on the radio talking um and connecting with
Those that are my guests or you know uh doing this master class which is it’s really a five-step uh program that I created in order to create your own private practice so this master class that is actually Friday provides me the opportunity to pour into other Mental
Health Providers and who want to go create their own private practice and so it’s a master class with a five-step program that I created now the problem is we haven’t we we we didn’t have any type of of uh business classes and because we didn’t have business classes
A lot of people don’t know when you gradu uate with your and you obain your license you can go out and hang your own shingle and collect insurances so you know it’s sexy to go out and be a self-pay you know in all cash but not everybody can do that in all
Demographics and so accepting insurance is what we have to do so you so you need to acquire a different skill and that’s what this master class is so that’s that and then I get a chance to see any and every type of you know client at you
Know that enters my door um so I have the opportunity to pretty much do anything that I want thank goodness aome so yeah that that’s the master class on entrepr Mental Health entrepreneurship okay so once you got your paper how we gonna make some money with this piece of paper that I have
Exactly okay now you just mentioned insurance and yes without without dating myself um I remember decades and decades and decades ago when it came to health insurance providers uh Mental Health Services at best maybe you could get two sessions and then that was it or something like
That um so here in 2024 are health insurance providers more liberal with giving the financial resources so people can seek the the care that they need yeah so right now um so every insurance carrier has uh a a behavioral health component and you’re right uh when I was
Younger um this it’s not it wasn’t there all right so and it wasn’t even the the concept of pay pay it was the con it wasn’t the concept of payment it was the concept of usability so in other words people didn’t view mental health from
The level that they view it now and so because managed care you know insurance companies they about money they noticed right they noticed a lot of things and so they began to add Behavioral Health components now I me if I can stand on my soapbox we need more lobbyist to
Increase the amount of the amount of reimbursement right so you can so outside my window you know out that window is Cleveland Clinic Foundation I’m not sure if you heard of it one of the one of the leading uh one of the leading uh institutions in medicine in not only
Northeast Ohio but in the world you know they have they have uh hospitals in Dubai they had hospitals all over right this is Cleveland Clinic Foundation if I was to work for them my reimbursement would be higher but since I work for myself my reimbursement is stuck at the
Level that you know that they deem that the insurance company deems me as worthy so what’s the difference there is no difference it’s an Institutional difference that’s Cleveland Clinic this is mental and emotional wellness centers of Ohio over there I’m worth stack billing you know plus a couple hundred
Over here I’m worth you know in some cases less than a less than $75 so we need more individuals you know uh lobbying or advocating for reimbursement for those that are providing this life or death actually life or death service and so we’re not that’s my what you know I can do this
All day with so boox but yes um insurance companies have come around but we need more we need a higher reimbursement especially for those you know you know solo practitioners or those group practitioners that are not connected to hospitals on purpose oh so so is it the pay difference because
You’re considered more of a consultant versus like an actual sta I mean what I I’m just trying to understand why yeah different rules let’s be perfectly candid um the medical facility or medical industry has has more leeway has more you know eyeballs so if you sign up
For a Medical Mutual or Edna or Signa you sign that up with a hospital they want that money right they want those individuals so the reimbursement and the stack billing it’s not necessarily just simply the session but it’s the ability to stack bill right so in the private
Practice you there’s no stacking bill right over there you can charge the facility fee over here I can’t charge a facility fee gotcha okay okay all right makes sense makes sense all right um well we we didn’t went we didn’t went so many different ways we didn’t went to
Economics we didn’t went to radio we didn’t went to a lot of different places okay but you so let me stick with this for a minute so we need some lobbyist so yes what what has to happen to see this change because we need to get folks paid
Yeah wh which is interesting it starts with the government first so if the government raises their reimbursement which they did this year um they raised their reimbursement at one point governmental insurances was the lowest uh reimburses so now that the government has raised the reimbursement for mental health that that means private
Industries are going to have to do it as well which is a plus so you ask what can be done one what needs to be done is more people need to see mental health as a business not simply as a altruistic meaning if you go and you have a co-pay
Pay your co-pay you pay your hairdresser I don’t have any hair anymore you pay your nail tech right so we are a medical service a life and death medical service so from the client standpoint pay your from the from the um industry standpoint uh increase the rate of or the amount of
Reimbursement there are insurance companies that do an extraordinary job of flowing down the reimbursement process that hinders the amount of money that goes back to the pockets of the people that do the service yeah well well well I’ll be darn yes and it’s not it’s it’s it’s not about being
The Furious let let’s be real it’s about money right and we are I’ve PID I’ve paid like I said I have three degrees there has been a lot of money paid for me to be this individual sitting in this office doing this thing which means that
Yes I’m going to help you manage and understand the concept of why your life or your finances are tied to some type of trauma or depression or why spending is something that you do when you are upset I’m going to do that because that’s the passion that’s what I do but
Also pay the copay yeah bill I have a light bill too you know right pay you pay your bill and it’s and you know because we you know because we are such connected to our clients delve so deep in there’s a duality in there there are some clinicians that really feel bad about
Asking their clients for for you know reimbursement or for payment and I work with them on that but then it’s also is you know a level from the client side was this is what you’re supposed to do correct and I’m also supposed to live as well that’s right that’s right I have
Children I have to feed and I got all that I might have mortgage and all of that stuff this is not a hobby yeah well there’s a there’s a particular demographic population that um Across America we’re struggling with that needs Mental Health Services and we’re talking about insurance I’m trying to figure out
How do we pay for them to get uh the medical care that they mental health care that they need and that’s the homeless population yeah how do how does how does this work for them so there’s a fair amount of organizations that have um that that work directly with uh I’m
Thinking of the mission downtown you know so what so what is the issue first issue is pay the pay the person that is doing this work so that’s one because they are a nonprofit organization they got to jump through tons of Hoops just to keep the lights on right and so
Because they’re jumping through hoops keep the lights on to keep the beds open to feed the individuals then they got to jump through more Hoops to provide you know mental health care so the first thing is pay second thing is find a level of protection for those
Individuals if you pay an individual a livable wage that is doing this job right so and you that is connected to the amount of education so you’re doing that you’re going to have more individuals that are going to be a part of your organization once you get more individuals provide a
Safety mechanism based off of how to ensure that this person is you know able you know to actually see the people that they want to see and thirdly have a wellness right because this work the work that I do is heavy the work that
Many of us do is heavy and so a lot of times you know we in some organizations the concept of work life balance especially for mental health individuals or any any service individual that deals with weight whether we’re talking EMTs trauma people we’re not you know the organization does not provide them with
A work life balance you know understanding that this is heavy and we need to be transitional but that third piece starts off with the culture of the organization all of this is about culture but if the organization has a culture of you’re only these are your 10
People you’re not going to get any more and we’re going to ensure that we provide all of the services that is needed for you to be for you to service the homeless or whatever population we’re talking about that’s an organizational thing that’s a culture thing and so we have to be mindful of
The amount that we pay the safety of those individuals and the culture of those individuals because that’s that’s simply what it is you go from a nonprofit model that’s who handles this not a for-profit model but a nonprofit model and we have tons of money to give to places right billions of dollars
Overseas where’s the billions of dollars to help with the mental health of the individuals who are a high level of what veterans homeless veterans true so they protected the country and come back but they’re not they come back worse and so they don’t have a house so that’s you
Know that’s that’s what I would say okay you you’ve just kind of um given us a quick introduction to the mental and emotional Wellness uh feeli for the individual who might be looking at this and saying this is something I might want to do what would you what would you
Tell them to seriously think about before they pursue this line of work this is this is the thing um whether I’m talking about someone who has a license or whether I’m talking about a person that is in you know just looking and you know what is
Your end goal and not is it not what you want to do where do you want to end up and so the very first thing that I want that I tell someone is where you know how long do you want to do this for you want 20 years 30 years think about that
Have that ear Mark and then work your way backwards the next thing I I talk about is don’t attempt to counsel you in other words a lot of times people get into mental health because of in a struggle that they personally had and what happens is those individuals pour
Everything into a population pour everything into a niche and then what happens they they become burnt out right they become burnt out and then they no longer are able to do the thing so you know the second thing I would tell them is you know don’t attempt to
Counsel you you cannot counsel you and the last thing that I would tell them you know is have a plan have a structural plan uh what we’re talking about finances we’re talking about length of time we’re talking about you know when you want to see clients how
Often you want to see clients you know talk to somebody do all these things now oddly enough I talk about this in my master classes as well but you got to have a plan and so if somebody that you know really wants to do this work know you’re in don’t attempt to counsel
Yourself and have a plan great great and then I like that you put out there that you have your own um person that you talk to and a lot of people don’t they’ll say like well if you’re the you’re the person that we talk to why do
You have your person but you know hey a hairdresser has a hairdresser so you got that right a nail tech has a nail tech a massager have a massuse so hey I got have my own person I got all stuff I got to deal with I need to pter someplace
Else so got that right okay well I want to ask you one more question before I ask my random question go for it and um and it’s because I see that part of the work that you do is you offer premarital counseling to folks about to Embark in
Marriage yeah and and I’m asking this question because um black women and black men have always you know buted you know this is not new but in 2024 it seems like we are just ra ing at each other and I I just looked up one day and like whoa where what
Happened um so and you’re you’re married and been married for a while so my question is in combination of all of this what disillusions are couples walking into this whole concept of marriage about like why is it it just yeah so so let me first say this is you
Know the this what we’re seing is not new the only thing that’s different is everyone has a recorder to actually have a moment to talk about it or show it or whatever none of this is new um we’ve been having you know we the the actual divorce rate has been creeping up since
What their early 50s and 60s right so this is not new um so what so what is going on if we’re just talking about the black community what we’re seeing is this is some of the old demons coming back to Ruth right the concept of what
Did it look like to have a a healthy home and the and that concept of healthy is a bit interesting right so you don’t need to if you want to be married you don’t need to have grown up in a two two parent you know or two parent household
That’s not it but you have you know needed to have some type of respect for self and re and some type of respect for this concept of Union and so when I’m working with individuals in premarital um counseling I’m working with what is your definition of a union
And we start there right so we you know I asked them when name a healthy relationship that you saw and a healthy what is a healthy relationship well no argument no physical abuse no sexual abuse right these are healthy relationships and quite a few of us the
Only time that we saw that or seen that is on TV now in my history I grew up in a single parent household right um and I was the only child I saw a healthy relationship for my best friend nobody else right I saw right we had The Cosby
Show we had all that so I saw from there now when I got married I had gone through a a purposeful journey of self-awareness so that was something that I did on my own before I decided to get married so nothing that is going on is new it’s just that we we’re recording
It now um the only thing that has changed is this concept of respect respect for Union and even I’m not even sure where this came from this idea that being married is white when we were slaves we wanted to get married because it was a connectivity so how did it go
How did it go from people were getting killed and hung and shipped off right sold off for things that such as marriage and now those same people who are descend of those people are saying oh that’s that’s what white people do oh it’s a prison it’s not a prison there are three there
When you are in a marital relationship you have to have respect for yourself respect for the other person and respect for the concept of marriage and whatever religious discipline or spiritual discipline you have a respect for that too what we find is an individual lacks respect for
Themselves and or the concept of a union which is the very first start of the downhill Hill so that’s that’s usually what happened because when you lose respect for the union you pretty much have you going to do everything you going to have there’s always been you
Know families or side chicks across town that’s not anything new come on now was a rolling right so you know August I think August Wilson wrote fences right you know we got danzel Washington that was years ago come on so if you watch the movie or if you ever caught the play he
Had a whole he had a woman on the other side right he had his household so this concept of Rolling Stone right like you say right The Temptations this this it’s nothing new this isn’t new side chick isn’t new side dude isn’t new you know
Union all none of this is new it’s just being shown more and so in working with premarital counseling we want to make sure that we understand the definitions of unions or relationships or marriage or whatever they call it whatever they call it because I’ve I’ve I’ve worked
With uh uh you know uh throes as well right so we have three individuals that decide to be met I’ve worked with him too it’s all the same but it all boils down to still you have to have respect for the right right is for you but we have to have
Respect for you right right all right well sir let me ask you my random question and then I’m G ask you to tell us how we connect with you if we want to uh peek in on what you and the wife are doing in Ohio right right
Let’s let’s see what we got random question see what we got here well uh cuz you said you grew up in a single home so I’m G say mom what is the most useful thing your mom or dad has taught you so we’ll say Mom the most useful
Thing that my mom and dad taught me uh resiliency um you know growing up in a single family household you know we didn’t have single parent household we had roaches at one time we had lights off we we had you know we didn’t I didn’t have a Christmas some you know at
One point you know one time so resiliency and grit um is a thing that I really that I was really taught to where um you know when I felt out when I felt when I got asked to leave akan right so nicely put I got I got asked to leave
Akan I mean you know I didn’t fall apart although I went through depression and even when I was asked to leave I had to Fig you know had a the concept of all right so you got to do something what you gonna do together I had to make a plan and so
I think that once again came from my mom because you know I remember when I was in Middle School I believe she got she got laid off from her job and you know I saw her put together a business right so I got you know I got entrepreneur entrepreneurialship uh classes just
Watching right and so and I’m teaching teaching my kids I have three kids and teaching them what it means to own your own business or own whatever and it’s not just simply you know some it’s not about everybody needs to go you know own their own business if you work for
Someone as well you’re own you can own your own time and own your own Pro productivity right what you produce you know it’s not about solely you know I got to go be separate from somebody no you no this place where you work is also your business business as well you know
And so treat it in that in that such you know you never know what happens you amazing thing happens when you do when you look at life that way awesome awesome you know and I think that’s one of the things that especially with this culture today everybody wants to be an
Entrepreneur some of us are nineo fers but you can be the best nineo five there is you know amazingly I mean not everybody has to go to college not everybody has to I mean no and this is where it comes down to no thyself right
So that’s the that’s the old Art of War um type thing if you saw my office I got a bunch of books um so you know you got to know thyself and some people just don’t do well in college now I’m not sure if I would have went back to school
Uh if I hadn’t chose the profession but I knew I wanted to either be a teacher or a mental health provider I I wanted to do the thing I didn’t want to be a coach right I didn’t want to be a consultant right I didn’t want to do any
Of that I wanted to actually be a licensed professional so where it had the weight in the foundation under my name so I knew that I had to go to school and I was cool with that hence is the reason why I’m also cool with saying
You know you’re doing a great job and I I see that you’re progressing that’ll be $75 you want me to use the same credit card that’s that Mama entrepreneur thing right there we got them lessons young like and that it you know you just say it in one complete line that’s it
And when you say it in that one complete line hey it’s to understand that I’m not your friend I’m your support I’m providing a service you know right I’m your support I’m your guide you are the most important person but I’m not your friend I’m your support and when you say
It like that you know while giving you know good service let’s be perfectly honest you know long as you’re giving good service everything else is copesthetic as they used to say back in the day back in the day you you aging yourself too right right all righty de well tell us the website
And all that stuff how connect with you and um and the podcast because we you know I didn’t yeah yes so you can connect with me uh so our website is um Mento so mewc io.com you can find us there you can also find me on IG at talk to E King
Right so that’s talk the number two E King on IG and our phone number if you ever want to reach me is 216 282 3733 and then my email this is a lot Eric E r i c k i n g mwc io.com and that’s it and so the
Radio show is on Wednesdays and it’s uh you can find the radio show on Wednesdays at 12: from 12 to 1 Eastern Standard because I know you I know you you’re in California at uh W u.org and so you can see hit listen live I haven’t made it to I haven’t taken
Everything and moved over to YouTube yet but it’s coming you know it’s coming so I just give it a little time all right and you and the wife you guys are currently in Ohio but yes you and the wife will be expanding I don’t know what’s next my my geography is off now
So what what state is next to you so it’s not so was interesting it’s not necessarily solely about States because we have now What’s called the counseling compact where wherever the coun counseling compact goes once it becomes enacted we pretty much can do virtual counseling or I can go set up a
Organization in any state so pa uh Georgia Florida um I think California also maybe Texas I would have to look at it but the the key part is is is make ensuring that um individuals that want to do this business you know can open up
Just like you know when you go into a hospital there are times when a doctor comes out of town and they get privileges you know at that hospital I can’t do that right I can’t go to Texas and somebody is having a mental health crisis and have privilege at a hospital
And treat that individual I can’t do that but you might be the best maybe okay any we’ll talk for another 40 minutes right anyway sir I appreciate you and your time I appreciate the work that you doing the Insight you gave um thank you I’m just so phenomenal and I
Was I was kind of smiling at myself when you said back in your younger days uh you remember times when the power was off you know kids today they panic when the Wi-Fi goes down they would never understand the struggles that right right yeah yeah we had there were times
We had no heat had no power I mean it was serious you know Bon sandwich with the cut the cut the little things in baloney sandwich or sometimes a uh uh frosting sand I’ve had a sugar sandwich before I’ve had that bread and butter sandwich bread and butter so yeah so we
You know my wife and I um we laugh about some of the things that our kids will never will never experience and and it’s not just simply they’ll never experienc because their parents have you know you know taken you know the blessings that God provided and flourish but also kids
These days they don’t get that not at all they’re walking around with $1,200 phones they right right right right right so yes it’s wonderful well sir I truly appreciate you um I know I I don’t have to say this but just keep on doing what you’re doing with Kudos from little
Old me I appreciate that I I’m keep my eye on expecting big things coming more more and more big things coming I hope I pray so thank you so much that’s it that is all for this week’s episode of the male perspective I’m your host Lana re
And I will see everybody next time a
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