Stuttering As An Entrepreneur: Maintaining Faith And Purpose

Transcript

Maya Chupkov:

Welcome back, everyone to Proud Stutter. Today, I am joined by Roy Dockery from the Sabbath Truth podcast. And our guest today is Calvin Williams Junior founder and CEO of Freeman Capital and of course, a person who stutters welcome both of you to Proud Stutter.

Calvin Williams:

Thanks so much.

Roy Dockery:

Thank you. Glad to be here.

Maya:

I'd love to to hear from both of you about how you two are connected. And Roy, why don't we start with you?

Roy:

Yeah. So it goes back to our freshman year of college, I think. Calvin and I both came to North Carolina from a different area, but we just met. We lived in the same dormitory freshman year, and when it was time for student elections right.

We had kind of like a residential hall president, and then there were organizational campaigns running on campus. I really don't even know why. I can't even remember.

Calvin may know better why, but for some reason, I was, like, really persistent in getting Calvin to run. I have no idea that's the guy he should definitely he was shy. He didn't actually speak out much.

Right. He was, you know, this is a computer science major kind of doing his thing. But for whatever reason, I was rather persistent and kind of pushed him and got him into that role as kind of Mr. Scott B or residence hall. And I think from there, right. Like, the relationship just kind of grew over time. And then Calvin did a lot of other amazing things with student body and student government and entrepreneurship and things from that point. But, yeah, it was just kind of pushing him out of his comfort zone. And to be honest, I have no idea why, but it started a relationship, and we're 21 years later and still in contact, and I just have to share this from my perspective.

Calvin:

So prior to freshman year at my high school in Maryland, I was the commencement speaker introducer. So I introduced our clinch speaker for our graduation, and I think they asked me to do it because I was like, I played basketball and I was the captain or whatever. I don't know why they asked me to do that, because I stuttered then too.

And it was a two paragraph introduction. And the first paragraph, I went really well. The second paragraph was only four sentences.

I remember it so well. And I began to stutter and stammer, and then I heard the crowd be like, there he goes again, and my heart dropped. When I came to college at An, I was definitely shy because that's a dramatic thing.

But, Roy, I thank you, and I've never said this, but I thank you for pushing me to break out of that, because it definitely laid the foundation for FJ president and everything else that I have done. So I want to give you some roads here. I thank you for seeing things in me that I was probably hiding or scared and went out.

So I appreciate that, brother.

Maya:

So Calvin, as Roy was alluding to, you have quite a resume. You were recruited at age 17 by the Department of Defense to work on top secret projects. You were a student body of president at your college, and now you are CEO of Freeman Capital, which you founded a successful fintech company. So what is underneath all of that success? Who is Calvin Williams Jr?

Calvin:

That's a powerful question.

And I think that at its core, there are a couple of core themes. One is that I view my life as an act of service to others. I think that we don't choose who our parents are, but I'm grateful that God put me with my parents and the opportunities that I had, which is no benefit to me or anything like that.

And that enabled me to live a certain life. And I'm just trying to help as many people as possible live the best life that they can. Second, I am especially motivated for freedom.

That can be freedom of time, freedom of location, freedom of choice. And that underlying motivation drives me to do all of these things. And then probably the third theme is that I am really enjoying just operating in love of love of myself and those that I'm close to and having great relationships and sharing that love with other people.

So really it's those three themes that kind of motivate me service, my own personal just desire to be free and then to just enjoy life through love.

Roy:

And Calvin, what is one of the things that kind of drove you? Right? Like as founders, as entrepreneurs, there's kind of specific things that normally an entrepreneur drives too, right? So I know you're a computer science major, right. So what made you take that brain power around programming and computers and start to focus on finances and investment and kind of fintech versus other ventures that you could have went into? From a technology perspective?

Calvin:

I think that it really all stems back from my upbringing.

I was a huge fan and student of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and seeing the impact that they made in the world. But when I looked in the present day and time that we live in, it was my viewpoint that the biggest way to impact the world is through people's finances. That's the currency of our world.

When people's finances are better, their quality of life, their health, their education, their wealth and how they feel is better. And so for me, it is my goal to help as many people as we can be free from the financial burden that stops them from living their God given purpose. And so to do that, we have to make financial empowerment and financial advice accessible and available to everyone.

And the only way to do that is through technology. And so it really kind of stemmed from the point about how can we help as many people as we can, live the best life that they can before the wealth gap and our societal problems become too wide for a person to cross within one lifespan. And starting from that viewpoint, then it was like, okay, then how do we do this? Leveraging technology.

Roy:

And so that's what brought us to where we are now. That's awesome. That's great to hear. Especially that evolution and the fact that it's still based off of that desire to serve people and love. And as you keep saying, like that whole desire to see people live out their full potential with regards to especially financial freedom or upward mobility, especially within generations. Have you found what has been some of, I guess I would say, your most inspiring things that you've seen? There's a lot of stresses, right, for founders, right? People know most founders struggle with depression. I mean, there's higher suicide rates and things of that nature. But what's been something that's been inspiring, that's kind of been able to keep you going through these last three to four years?

Calvin:

So for me, it comes down to my faith. There's various levels of faith, folks that do faith their own ways.

But for me, personally, being a founder is probably the hardest profession because there's so much that's not in your control and you can't influence. And so that's why starting from a place of purpose is so important. And they often talk about that part.

But if you're only starting with a place of purpose, then you won't have the faith to overcome the hard times. Because starting, especially a business like mine, that is venture back, which means that I have to go out and raise money from professional investors. And statistically, they don't invest in people of color very often, like less than 1% or 2% per year.

So the only thing that would drive me to continue to do that is the faith of knowing that at the end of the day, my needs are going to be met, I am doing a good work, and that by doing that work, more people are going to be impacted. And so when times when I had to cry because we couldn't make payroll or all of these things have happened, or funding fell through and just feels like the world is crashing down on you. The thing that has kept me inspired is my faith.

Because without it, I would have just given up. When a business fails, it really means that a founder stopped because the founder is what is keeping a business going. And they could pivot, they could reinvent.

But you come to a point to where you're just exhausted and you're scraping the bottom. That's when depression can set in. That's when things like that can set in. But for me, having the core of my faith and then pouring in myself daily with habits and rituals that feed my body, feed my soul, are what let me keep going in the face of insurmountable and truly major challenges.

Roy:

That's awesome. That's something that for those that would know from Savage true podcast, right, that faith is something substantial. And even if we were on video, everybody would see I have on a shirt that says Impact, Impress and Imprint, right? Because it's the impact. And I agree with you completely, especially being someone who's currently working at a startup in my profession as a technology and service executive. But it's true, right? And I love what you said, startups fail because the founders give up, right? They either give up on the idea, they give up on the company, they give up on their co founders, which are often, sometimes their friends.

But it's that being persistent and being engaged and committed to something that you're passionate about that I think keeps people going and that's also what people invest in. So I'm guessing you're still around as well because VC firms and investors see that passion and know that you wouldn't just give up and walk away with the money that you're going to try to bring to fruition the plan and the vision that you have for your company and how it's supposed to impact our society and community. So I think that's awesome.

Maya:

Yeah. And you mentioned you had some rituals that kind of helps you and your well being and just keeping the energy up. Can you expand on that a little bit for us? Yeah.

And this has taken me 20 years to figure out because as Roy knows, I have been on time management since college. I won't go through that whole story, but time management isn't enough to fill up or wasn't enough to keep me going. And what I have broken through in this last year and year and a half is for me, it means that I'm doing daily journaling where I have prompts that make me affirm myself daily.

I am journaling around my gratitude about these things that are going in my life that I'm grateful for. Like, let's say it has to be on this podcast with a friend of 20 plus years who I look up to, who inspires me and who motivates me to be a better man across so many levels. This is an honor for me.

Like he is interviewing me, but I feel like it should be flipped. And so having these rituals of journaling, of being gratitude minded and physical care, which for me means working out, trying to eat better and then a big thing is probably the thing that has helped me out the most is being kind to myself, like very transparently. I like to play Xbox.

Last night I hopped on the game, played until 03:00 A.m. In the morning. In years past, I would have beat myself up for that because I slept in and then I wasn't on my schedule.

But now I'm like, hey, I needed to do something that made me feel good, and that's okay. And I am loved and I am a good person. And so being kind to you yourself and having these rituals are part of what has helped me to keep going and to keep pressing forward as I have.

Maya:

That journaling is definitely something that I feel like I keep wanting to do, but I just haven't made the time to do it. Do you have any tips on how to follow through on those things? Yeah, because I struggle with that a lot for me and Roy, if you have a comment too, because yes, me. But Roy is highly successful.

Let's not downplay him at all. But for me, everything that I want to do, I have to build a system. And the system needs to be automatic and I need to be a cog in that system, not the initiator of the system.

So the way that manifested my life, because I'm in so much technology focus is that I have an app for each part of my life that I'm trying to work on. And then I have an overall app, which is for tracking goals and progress. So this is podcast on stuttering, so I'm just going to be transparent there.

I downloaded an app called Essa or ESL. ESLA. The purpose of the app is to help you pronounce words better because when I'm in speech therapy, I talk better, but it's hard to get on the calendar.

So this is an app that I use ten minutes per day. It reminds me to get on the app for ten minutes, work on my speech, and then that is the system. So it prompts me and then I do it.

And then I have my goal tracking app where I check a box whenever I have used the app. So I feel like I get that little dopamine hit of I did it, I feel good, the boxes are checked. So for me, whenever I want to complete a goal, I first design a system and support of that system.

Sometimes it's paid with or sometimes it's unpaid. But me by myself, you lead me to my own devices. I'm going to play Xbox, watch a TV and eat cylinder sticks every single day I build in these systems to insulate me to move toward my goals even when I don't feel like it.

Maya:

Wow, that's amazing that you've found a system that really works for you. I feel like there is a system out there for me. I just have to find it.

And what you just laid out has really made me think that there is a system for me to just put my energy around finding that right one.

Roy:

Yeah, I think it's funny, right? You and people can accomplish things in different means, but for me, the main thing for me is that I'm a task completer. So I get that dopamine or that kind of fix from completing things.

And what I learned just over time, even studying technology that multitasking is a human myth. Like people can't multitask. We just poorly shift between tasks.

So we can switch, but we can't do multiple things at once. We just do several things poorly, right? So even computers need multiple CPUs to actually process different pieces of information at the same time. They just built computers to be more efficient at switching.

People are not that efficient. So for me, I just try to be task oriented and I try to complete one thing at a time, right? So I had a reference letter to write from my niece right before this call. That was the one thing I gave myself to do before prepping for this call.

There's like 20 other things I could have been working on, but it's being intentional about that time. And even a lot of the people that I mentor, I kind of try to encourage them in the same way because most people feel overwhelmed because there is this list of things to do and we never really get to it. So even though we're accomplishing things during the day, the things that we've identified for ourselves that we need to complete, we don't complete.

So even if we're finding success during the day, the fact that we're not knocking things off our task list, we start building up that anxiety and frustration that we're not getting done. So I normally have a task list of things that I need to do. They're normally in order based on how long it's going to take me to complete them.

So if I have 15 minutes, I know there's things that I can do with 15 minutes of available time. And just over time, I've gotten to the point to where I very rarely have tasks to complete because they're already done, right? So as soon as they pop up, they get done. And then I get to be in a space where I can be a little bit more passive and I can be available versus working under the demands of an accumulating mountain of requirements and outstanding obligations.

That's what I try to be more in a place of peace and to get to a space of availability so I can do things like this and be available for phone calls when my mentees need me or if my employees need me, or if my parishioners need me, right? I'm a pastor as well as a local church, so availability to me is a sign of my success. So I actually can't utilize a lot of systems because my time needs to be available for a myriad of people who are going to have demands on me. But for that to be capable, I have to be able to line up tasks and knock them out.

So that's the one thing I commit people to do as well. It's almost like the snowball effect that they talk about in debt elimination. Just have your list of things to do and just make sure you're knocking them out because it'll get to the point to where something will pop in your head and you'll get it done so quickly that you don't even have a time to write it down because you're just learning how to be completion oriented versus accumulating tasks and things to do.

And then I also have systems, right, like meditation and prayer and exercise that I do. I don't have a stutter, but I do suffer from several chronic illnesses, so I have to be mindful of my energy and fatigue. I had an appointment this morning. I've got to go get biopsies, so I've got to balance that as well. So I also have to be very particular with how I utilize my energy and a lot of that spends in rest and kind of that recovery that Calvin was talking about, right? I'll binge watch Netflix shows. I'll watch ten episodes of Seinfeld because sometimes I just need to let my body rest and allow my mind to be free to enjoy something fun, playing switch or video games with my son and things of that nature as well.

So I think it's all about a good balance. I would just recommend to everybody, like, don't let your task list build up. Like start checking them off one at a time.

And that helps alleviate a lot of the anxiety that we deal with. So there's still things to do, but if you're not accumulating list, you'll feel a lot more peace and be able to kind of tackle things with more focus.

Maya:

Wow, that's super helpful. And I'm definitely going to take away a lot of that because right now, just balancing a full time job and this podcast, which is now a nonprofit, it's just all very overwhelming. So this is super helpful for me. And one of the things that I do to rest and to just kind of get out of my head is reality TV. I love that stuff of so that's what I do when I need to just turn my brain off.

Calvin:

And just as a quick side note, because I know some folks feel like, oh, reality TV, whatever, I think that we need to be or we need to allow ourselves to like what we like to feel better. And in the pendant of Judgment and that goes right along with stuttering, like you have to love yourself so much so that even though this thing that may or may not be culturally normal or accepted or loved by all, as long as it's not hurting someone else, be you and be great.

Maya:

And that's it for this episode of Proud Stutter. This episode of Proud Stutter was produced and edited by me, Maya Chupkoc. Our music was composed by Augusto Deni and our artwork by Mara Ezekiel and Noa Chupkov. If you have an idea or want to be part of a future episode, visit us at w w w dot proud stutter dot com and if you like the show, you can leave us a review wherever you are listening to this podcast. Want to leave us a voicemail, check out our show notes for the, the number to call in. More importantly, tell your friends to listen to until we meet again. Thanks for listening. Be proud and be you.