 ThinkTekAway, civil engagement lives here. Hi. Welcome to Seymour's World. I'm Seymour Kazimerski. I was going to greet you with Ni Hao, because I just got back from China last week. And I was in L.A. the week before that. And I'm finally back home, and it is such a pleasure. Thank you for all your emails and your texts, wondering where the hell have I been. But I have been working and having fun and doing what I always do with our Make Him Smile program and our foster kids, et cetera, et cetera. Today, we have a very, very special guest. His name is Randy Morris. And I met Randy through a mutual friend. His name is Sheldon Gross. And Randy trained Sheldon Gross. Who is Sheldon Gross? He's an 80-year-old guy who thinks he's about 50. And this Randy, who I think is probably one of the best guys when it comes to fitness and training. Wait till you meet him. He just makes the Sheldon do what I think Sheldon has never done in his life, which is walk, exercise, do push-ups, and all this kind of stuff. And now Sheldon actually looks like he's 50. So I'm going to introduce Randy. Thank you very much for coming on our show. Oh, no. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. You have done an amazing job with my friend Sheldon. Amazing. Well, thank you. Now, I have to tell you, ever since I met you, I felt we had a bond. Because we share something. We share youth together. And I don't mean our youth, because I'm much older than you are, but we share the need to help our youth become better citizens of the world. And the minute I heard you say that you're into that kind of stuff, I knew that we were going to become fast friends. Well, when you talk about Sheldon, one of the things that Sheldon told me, that there were three things in life that are really important. And one is that you get up every day with a purpose. And there are not many people who can get up in the morning and have a purpose and be able to fulfill that purpose. And I wake up every morning thinking about the kids that I feel have come into my life. And that gives me my purpose, my motivation, my inspiration. So one of the tenants that Sheldon taught me was that, and the other one was that you get validation somewhere during the day from someone other than yourself. And so the kids really bring that to me. And so I'm motivated, I'm validated. And the third thing he said, which only Sheldon would say, is that you've got to be happy when you go home. So all those things are true. And so that has kept me in Hawaii. You're also tremendously dedicated, tremendously dedicated. Now, you're a tall guy. How tall are you? I'm 6'8". 6'8". Let's show a picture of you and me together standing. We can't stand here. Oh, there we are. Oh, my God, I'm an inch taller than you. Oh, you must be 6'9". I must be 6'9". Well, because I'm a true 6'8". Oh, you are a true 6'8". Well, that is obviously not the true picture. Let's show the real picture of you and me together. Oh, that makes more sense. The chair is gone. Yes. That is you and me together. Now I am touching 6 feet on my tippy toes, and you are 6'8". And we can tell, looking at that picture, that it's definitely, definitely not the same. But I felt that I wanted you to come on my show because your devotion is amazing to you. The minute I told you that there's a possibility that we may do a basketball camp here in Hawaii, you said, I'm in, without even asking me why or how or what's going to happen. So I want to know a little bit about your history. You're from the Deep South, right? Yeah, I'm from South Carolina, and I can kind of tell you why I have such a drawn passion. It's a typical yet inspiring, paid forward story. When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I come from a farm environment, deep South country, and to play basketball and to play sports was what didn't keep us out of trouble, kept us occupied. And I was playing one day in this, and in those days, the two races, Caucasian and African-American, they didn't mix. They just didn't. I was born in 62, and so it didn't mix in this lady that was not of my persuasion. So it would watch us play, and one day she came over to me and she said to me, I'd like to talk to your parents. Of course, immediately as an African-American boy, at 10 years old, I thought I was in trouble. But what she really did was ask my dad, we could, my father worked three jobs. My mom worked every day. I have three siblings. We were responsible for taking care of everything while they work. So we never wanted for anything or needed anything because they worked so hard. And we really didn't know that we were at that poverty level because there was so much love. And I think that somehow through the discipline that my parents gave to me, she could see that. And she said to my father, look, look, there's something in this young man. And what I'd like to do is invest in his life. And if you would allow it, my son plays basketball at the YMCA. And back then, there were no blacks at the YMCA. You couldn't afford to $10 a month. It just didn't happen. She said, I'll pay for his membership, all of his travel, any tennis shoe, anything he needs athletically until he graduates college. Of course, her name was Mrs. Burris. And she did that. From the time I was 10 years old, I had the opportunity to be the first African-American boy who went to the YMCA and she set up a membership. And I played with her son until I graduated from high school. And Clemson University is really close to Amherst and South Carolina where I'm from. And even then, when I played at Furman University, it's where I played basketball, she came to every game. And she told me, what I've done for you, the only reason that I'm going to continue to do this, I was 14 years old and we were down in Miami, Florida, I would never forget it. She said, you've made such a difference in my life because I became like a son. I traveled with them and her son was a great friend of mine. And she said, but when you get older, you need to do the same thing for other people but in a greater way. And I made that promise not knowing that it would be 5,000 miles away on an island in the middle of the ocean. So that's sort of how this passion was birthed in me because I feel like had it not been for Mrs. Burris, not only would I not be in Hawaii, but I probably would not have the doors open for me that I did when I said yes to take this chance to be with this Caucasian lady and not get, seem like I was in trouble. That's sort of where the whole thing began. But you know, when you think about it and you think about the circumstances and everything you had to navigate through, all of the individual, I mean, people call them problems. I don't call them problems. I call them doors. You have to be willing to open those doors. You have to be willing to push through the doors sometimes. You have to be willing to fight to go through those doors because that's what life is all about. And people like you, Randy, people like you are what we need to make a better life for the kids today. And I titled this show, How Do We Help Our Kids? What do we do to make our kids give kids a better life? I can't do what you do. I can't teach them basketball and sports and all that stuff. I can mentor them. I can give them a vision. I can let them see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can give them a structure and discipline and help them understand their passion and how they need their support groups. But people like you are essential in helping our kids move forward. And that's why I'm so glad that you were able to join me today. Now, tell me what happened when you came to Hawaii. You're African-American. Here you are coming to a predominantly, quote, Hawaiian sports state. I know my son as a howly in sports. He was, you know, because he was a big kid like you. He was sometimes vilified and picked on and all this kind of stuff. What was it like for you in Hawaii? Well, when I came to Hawaii, the reason I ended up in Hawaii is I was recruited out of college to work for a bank. And they had a competition. And back then, each branch, and I was a branch manager, was where you were your own profit center. So if you produced at the highest level in the state, there was a trip to Hawaii. And I was like, I'm going to Hawaii. So we made this fake beach in the branch, and we had Luau's on Friday. And of course, you know, everybody loved coming in. And so I won, came to Hawaii. They had the same contest. And who is not the best salesman in the world? You. Not salesperson. It was, oh my god, I'm going to Hawaii. This is where Elvis was and blah, blah, blah, blah. So I came here and then I kept coming here. And after about seven times, I said, you know, there has to be life outside of South Carolina. So why don't I just go and I'm going to say I'm going to live for a couple of years. I was sitting on the beach one day. How old were you? I was 27 years old. Same age as when I came. Yeah, 27 years old. Sitting on the beach watching these people play volleyball. And I thought, ah, those guys, it's got to be so easy. Because I thought, ah, you know, because where I was from back then, you didn't see men playing volleyball. And they were playing two on two volleyball. And they were going at it and I was thinking, I can do that. And this guy came over to me. And he said, you want to join us? And I said, nah, I don't want to. He goes, oh, you sure you don't want to join us? And I said, sure. I look like a complete bumbling idiot. So that's how the story began. Then I decided nobody's going to ever make me look like that again. So I would go down to that same beach every Tuesday and Friday after work, and I would start mimicking and correcting the movements that they did. One day, a girl named Bert walked up to me and she said, what are you doing? I said, I'm training to try to figure out how to play volleyball. She said, can I join you? And I said, oh, of course you can. So she started the next day a boy named Kiyuki from Hawaii. He came over, same thing. The next thing you know, I've got 20 people with me every Tuesday and Friday doing these exercises. Now I'm the leader of the pack, but it was really supposed to be about me. Yeah, yep. OK. So throughout the time, I did that for 15 years. Wow. Every Tuesday and Friday, I taught fitness at Queens Beach in Waikiki. Yes, no dwellings. From 5 to 6 o'clock. And one day somebody said to me, I want you to train my son. And that was where Mrs. Burris came back to me. Now during the course of all those years, Punahou, Illani, McKinley would send all their teams down to this tall guy on the beach who's going to train you to run into water and run into sand. You didn't charge for this? This was all on you. Charge not one dime for 15. This was all on your heart. Because remember, she told me, make a difference in a bigger way. So that was my mantra. I'm just out here to make an MP. Sometimes it'd be 90 people in me. But we'd make it work. So it started to be more kids and more kids and more kids and then adults. And so that's kind of how I got into the fitness part of it. Yeah. Randy, I have to tell you, I get chicken skin listening to you. Because it's such a great story to see somebody who's willing to give so much of their time and effort to help others. And it's something that I aspire to. I wish I could do as much as you do. Because it's wonderful to know that you have such a great feeling in your heart to give to others. And I do what I can, obviously, in my way. And we're going to plan something together. After the break, we're going to talk about trying to get one of my clients to come to Hawaii, who is an NBA basketball player, and to do a clinic for kids here in Hawaii. So we're going to take a short break, and then we will be back. I'm Seymour Kazimurski with my guest, Randy Morris. We will be back on Seymour's World at Think Tech Hawaii. Hi, I'm Ethan Allen, host of a likable science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2 PM, I hope you'll join me for a likable science, where we'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science, and care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great. It's all entertaining. It's all educational. So I hope to join me for a likable science. Hi, I'm Pete McGinnis-Mark, and every Monday at 1 o'clock, I'm the host of Think Tech Hawaii's research in Monart. And at that program, we bring to you a whole range of new scientific results from the university, ranging from everything from exploring the solar system to looking at the Earth from space, going underwater, talking about earthquakes and volcanoes, and other things which have a direct relevance not only to Hawaii, but also to our economy. So please try and join me 1 o'clock on a Monday afternoon to Think Tech Hawaii's research in Monart. And see you then. Hi, welcome back to Seymour's World. I'm Seymour Kazimurski on Think Tech Hawaii with our guest, Randy Morris. I have to tell you, this guy, I thought I'd do as much as I can for the community and for young kids. But this guy puts me to shame. I feel like I'm an inch tall. Wait a second. Did I say an inch tall? Let's see that picture of me. Oh, there we are together. There we are. I knew I was as good as you or as tall as you. Okay, we don't need to see that picture again, but it is so good to have you back, Randy. And I have to say the first half of the show went like it was a split second because we were able to share so much of what we have. Before we talk about more stuff, I'd like to show some of the pictures of you and what has happened in your life. Let's see the first one. What is this? Okay, this is a six o'clock in the morning class that I have with some of my students. In the summertime, it's on Wednesdays and Saturdays from six to 7.30. Now, seven of those boys have been with me since they were nine years old. They are now in college. Oh my gosh. So they have been seeing me once a week for what, eight, nine years? And so now they're football, they're football, four football players, a basketball player. The other guy with the elite shirt on, he's a trainer who works under me. So yeah, that's right there, very heartwarming for me. Now, before... That's a bit monolony. Okay, before we go to the next shot, the guy, the third from the left, why does he have my stomach? I wanna know that. Because I told him your secret. Did you superimpose his head on my body, right? That is me, the third son of a... I told him your secret. Let's go to the next one. Oh, wow. That's Coco Head Trail, and what I had them do is take a medicine ball, which you see the guy with that ball in his hand. They had to start from the bottom, and you know, Coco Head is $5,000 steps, right? So they had to go from the top to the bottom and back in 30 minutes. And that was part of the training, and obviously they succeeded because they're still alive, and there they are. Yeah. And that is, that's tough. My son had to do that for football. That was amazing. Let's see the next one. Okay, these are two of my private students who I did, those boys came to me when they were six. They're now 15 years old. Wow. They're twin brothers. They were adopted by a really good friend of mine, and they are at Ilani School, and they are really like my kids. And I really like, when I leave to go on vacation, they go water my plants. That's how close we are. No kids. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Let's see. I recognize, who is he? This is Hunter Hasota. He's running back with Punahou, and that was doing their senior walk day. And that's a special kid to me because I saw him in a park and went up and asked his father, like Mrs. Burris came up to me, if I could help him become quicker because I thought he could do better. And guess what? He's gonna play football in college now. Isn't that wonderful? Now, you're wearing a shirt. What is the shirt? It says, active faith in Jesus' name we play. Go ahead. Okay, and that's active faith as a brand. And you know, I will just tell you that my faith is what motivates me because without it, I don't think I could stay here. I had open heart surgery, an emergency open heart surgery in 2006. I had an aortic dissection. People in sports will know exactly what that is because so many tall basketball players get it. And before about 10 or 15 years ago, if you get it, you die instantly because you're aortic dissect. Wow. I made it through it, so yeah. Oh my God, look at you today. Yes, yes. Wow, we have a couple more, don't we? Yeah. Oh, I see that's training with the bands. Yeah, this is my, I did an explosive beach training session at the beginning of this year and it was a 12 week session and these are some of my younger kids that they all play different sports and so this is just trying to work on their stability, balance, mobility. I use the exact same thing, Randy, after my knee replacement surgery. Oh, absolutely. No pain. It's easy. Oh yeah, pain, no pain, you know what? That's, especially with Reina, who was on the show, by the way. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, she owns East Oahu Physical Therapy and Reina made me go up and down the hallways. I'm sweating bullets doing this stuff and what does she do? Smiles, laughs. Could you? More, more. This is you, that's why. Yeah, I know, I know. I think the next one, this is our last one. Yeah. Same thing, right? Same thing, they're working on bands and yoga blocks. What are they standing on? Those are yoga blocks to extend their balance and that's just the warmup that they're doing and that's down at Kaimana Beach Park. Wow, wow, terrific. Now, Randy, let's talk about what you're doing today for kids. Okay. What's happening today? I believe that what I do is offer kids something they can't get on the internet because if not, I would be useless and what I mean by that is teaching them how to fail. I think that children succeed because they fail. Parents trust me with their kids because I will tell you that I came from a strict Bobby Knight sort of disciplinary background in coaching. I'm not like that but I do believe that that old school honor, integrity, keeping your word, commitment, perseverance is something that's often looked over in this environment because it sort of goes back to if you look at Siri. There's no process. If you look at the iPad, there's no process. Kids get answers quickly. So in my program, there is no Siri. There is no iPad and you have to work from A to B. So what I make sure of is yes, they succeed but I think that kids will become more successful if they learn how to fail. I think you're 100% right. In my programs, in my mentoring programs, I worked on what's called a ladder of success. And the first two rungs of the ladder are discipline, structure. And that's all part of learning. I've coached all sorts of sports in my career, in my life and the one thing I hated was when everybody got a trophy. If you don't deserve a trophy, you shouldn't get a trophy. And unfortunately, in a lot of the young sports divisions, they're thinking, well, the kid's not gonna feel good and all that stuff. But really, if they don't learn to do what they're supposed to do, then we are setting them up for failure. It's not the right way to coach. And so I think that the consequences of success scares not winning, sort of scares parents. So why is my kid not a winner? And so if we make them feel like winners, one of my clients is a doctor, a high level from Princeton. And we were talking about this and she said to me, she said, one of my biggest challenges is trying not to make my kids happy. I'm constantly trying to make my kids happy when I shouldn't be doing that. The real quotient behind what I do is if they can, I don't. Because the moment that I start doing what they can, not only am I enabling them, but I'm keeping them from failing because I'm protecting their feelings. And I think that kids are stronger than we were. I think they're smarter than we were. And but I think that we've sheltered them so that they think that it's quick and easy. When really in life, it's not quick and easy. You are 100% correct and I'm so much on board. I'm going to allow you to train me. You are gonna have to take this body and do something with it. Oh my God. Now, at my age, if you can make Sheldon Groves look like he's 50, I wanna look like I'm 40. I thought we were gonna be serious. No, no, no, we are, we are. But you know something, laughing, and you know my motto is make him smile. That's my program. I really believe that smiling and laughing is a much more important part of life than doubt and failure. It's so important to realize that life is wonderful. Unfortunately, the negativity we have in our life, everything we see, everything we read, everything, the internet, all this kind of stuff, it's really the wrong message that we need. We need to enjoy our lives more. Well, I think that that right there is also a definite quotient that I use in my training. It will be fun. We're gonna laugh, we're gonna have a good time, we're gonna sweat, you're gonna be sore, but we're gonna have fun because of the adrenaline and the joy and the excitement that comes into your body when you're happy. And if I'm not happy, my client's not happy, it's a horrible experience. So that laughing thing is probably what I'm known for as well as being a disciplinary, because I am, I'm not gonna say that. Well, I see you every Saturday morning. So you know. At seven o'clock. Yes, you do. This guy walks up to our tennis courts because I play every Saturday morning at seven. And here comes Randy with Sheldon. Now I have to tell you folks that Randy looks like he's been sweating. Sheldon, I don't know what, maybe Randy has to carry Sheldon's girl. I hope Sheldon's not watching. He is watching the show. But Sheldon is not sweating for one reason or another. But that makes him smile. And maybe that's just as important to somebody who's so happy and go lucky. Let's talk about what we wanna do together, Randy. We want to do a basketball camp this summer. Let me set it up, all right? Number one, I have a client who's an NBA basketball player. He is famous for giving all of his, the profits from his foundation for kids. He's doing a summer camp in LA where he's bringing in hundreds of kids, basically, to play basketball. We're going to China together where he's going to do another basketball camp. And I'm trying to bring him to Hawaii. Tell the audience why we should bring him to Hawaii. Well, because I think that that type of influence from a person who thinks like that fits into this culture. So because he's the type of individual, professional individual who runs camps and has a organization that gives back to the community, this is the perfect environment for that. How many kids could you bring in, you think? Two or 300, I think it would be easy to do that. We did it for, if we did it for a day or two, Steph Curry was here in 2016 and I think he spent three days here and his camp sold out in two hours. And there were more people from California, unfortunately, that came that Hawaiian kids would get in because they did it online through, I think it was through Under Armour. But yeah, because, and we don't, the kids here in Hawaii, because we're six hours from everything, right? From California. Yeah, but don't get that exposure. Right, and I was going to say, I really would like to benefit the kids here. We have enough basketball teams with all the high school teams, college teams, et cetera. I know we could get a lot of the college players to come and assist you. Yes, yes, easy. Sponsorship, will that be difficult to get sponsorship? I don't think so. I think that because we are looking at giving back that the people that are in the network that are connected to Extreme Fitness Club will be happy to help us make this happen. Wonderful, wonderful. Well, I just want to be sure that, you know who I'm talking to, I haven't gotten your permission to release this yet to the press and to the public, but I want you to know that we want you to come here in Hawaii. And if you come here to Hawaii, especially if you're coming back from China, I mean, what could be better? The sun versus the smog of China. The sand versus the traffic in China. And what else? You got me and you got Randy. What else could you ask for? We would love to have you come back. So Randy, let's make this happen. I think it'll be wonderful if this is something we both work on. And I think over the next couple of weeks maybe, you'll come back again maybe in a month when we'll have set this program up and we'll get the press on it. Obviously they would love to come and be part of it. And hopefully maybe a couple of other NBA players will join us as well, which would be terrific. That'd be great. So Randy, tell me a little bit more about the kids that you're working with now. I'm very interested in how you're helping them. Well, right now I have decided that the effectiveness of what I've done through all of these years, I like the one-on-one ability to speak into their lives one-on-one. So now I do more tandem and small group, meaning rather than rather than masses because there are a lot of people doing that. And so what happens is I have kids who meet with me once a week. I don't take them usually, they're about nine years old. Unfortunately, because of my personality, I end up with them until they graduate college. So they meet with me once a week. It's a very disciplined environment. Before they come, I send a plan to the parents. They know exactly what's gonna happen. They get homework every week. If they don't do their homework, there's a consequence for that. I think that's really important. Here's what I think, that there is a way to understand what we call fear, but let's use the word respect. If people don't respect the rules, if they don't respect honor, if they don't respect integrity, keeping their word, they're not gonna respect the law, they're not gonna respect the principle, and they're not gonna respect their teacher. So if we take away the consequence, we take away the you need to be respectful, then what's gonna happen is we are going to foster a community of people who feel like they don't need to follow the rules. So in my program, they have to follow the rules or there's a consequence for doing that. 100% agreement. Randy, thank you so much for joining us at Seymour's World. It has been more than a pleasure for me, and I'm just happy to say to all of you out there, you have listened to a man who is giving advice, not just for kids, but for all of us. Thank you very much for joining us on Seymour's World at Think Tech Hawaii. We'll see you next week. Aloha.