Keith Ivey with Journey Inward Journey Outward, Ron Green with The Video Plug and Ben Hanks with Mortgage Right

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by B’s Charitable Pursuits and Resources. We put the fun in fund raising. For more information, go to B’s Charitable Pursuits. Dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruitt.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:45] Good, fabulous Friday morning. It’s another fabulous Friday and it’s also a good Friday. Lots of things, good things happening this weekend. It’s Easter. It’s the Masters and Stone’s leaving for vacation.

Stone Payton: [00:00:55] Yes, I am.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:57] So if you haven’t heard Charitable Georgia before, this is all about positive things happening in the community. So we welcome you listening in. I’ve got three more fabulous guests today that are all doing something positive in the community and they’re all doing something different within the community. So we’re going to talk, first of all, with Mister Ben Hanks, Hometown Hanks for Mortgage. Right. Welcome in.

Ben Hanks: [00:01:18] Hey, thanks, Brian. Glad to be here.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:19] So Ben and I have known each other for years. We’ve been networking for years, and we’ve started some networking groups together. And Ben’s passion is networking and helping business owners with their business and connecting others with others. So which today society I think, is incredible because just, you know, there’s a lot of people out there who are still just about me, me, me, me and you care about everybody in their business. And so, first of all, I’d like for you to share a little bit about your background and then we’ll talk a little bit about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

Ben Hanks: [00:01:50] Sure. Well, I am from all over. I grew up in Seattle, but lived all over the place out West. A couple of places overseas ended up in Georgia, I guess, about 18 years ago. And I actually came here to do mortgages. And then, of course, everything went crazy in 2008. So I got out, got back in about four years ago and been over in Cartersville over there in Bartow County ever since. And yeah, so I generally run my business through relationship development, community and networking. And that’s kind of how you and I met. Brian Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:02:22] So share a little bit about mortgage, right?

Ben Hanks: [00:02:25] So mortgage, right. We are all over the country based in Alabama. The office I work out of is here in Woodstock, Georgia, right there on Main Street. And yeah, I’ve been there for I guess it’ll be four years coming up here on April 15th. It’s a great company, a great group of loan officers and processors. And we we just we try to do mortgages, right, as we say.

Brian Pruett: [00:02:49] So you said when we started this, you have a passion for certain. Well, not everybody you try to help, but you also have a passion for helping veterans with this. Talk about.

Ben Hanks: [00:02:59] That. Yeah. So one of the things we focus on at mortgage, right, is doing VA loans, helping veterans to to get into homes. It’s just kind of a passion, one of our specialties. And yeah, it’s just it’s very rewarding, too, especially for first time homebuyers, first time veterans who are buying a home to kind of help walk them through that process and achieve that dream of home ownership and see the benefits that their family accrues by being a homeowner. It’s just pretty amazing.

Brian Pruett: [00:03:27] So before we get into the other thing, I just have to ask you about your time overseas because you’ve shared a story with me a little bit, and I think it’s pretty cool of what you did. Can you mind sharing that story?

Ben Hanks: [00:03:36] Sure. So I spent almost two years over in Philippines. So there’s a there’s two islands, Leyte and Samar, just south of where the Manila, the capital is there. And anyways, I lived over there for almost two years, had to speak a couple of foreign languages, a couple of dialects, Waray-waray and Cebuano. So yeah, that’s where I spent most of my time. But I’ve also studied abroad over in Cairo, Egypt and enjoyed that as well.

Brian Pruett: [00:04:03] But you worked with with the diamonds, wasn’t it?

Ben Hanks: [00:04:06] No, no, no. That was when I was in the Caribbean. So I have a thing for islands, apparently. So, yeah. I worked down in on the island of Saint John in the Caribbean in the luxury jewelry business down there for a company called Little Switzerland. And so, yeah, Saint John is the Beverly Hills of the Caribbean. It’s two thirds of the Islands National Park. It was an amazing experience.

Brian Pruett: [00:04:26] So Ben is also one that likes to be educated and keep educating. And he reads a lot. He knows a lot of history about different things. And as a matter of fact, before we got on the air, he was sharing with Keith and I about something we didn’t know about Spain. So that was pretty cool. But you we talked earlier about your passion for networking, and you and I have started a couple of groups over in the Cartersville area. We did the North Georgia Power Connector, several years ago. You and I, with some other folks started the Cartersville Business Club, share y networking. And why you’re passionate about helping with people with their businesses is so important to you.

Ben Hanks: [00:04:57] So, you know, when I got into sales years ago, I. I hated it. I mean, it was just absolutely just the worst thing. I just hated this feeling of manipulating people. And so I was exposed to some materials that talked about relationship development, building communities and focusing on that. In other words, learning how to help other people first. The idea of helping without hustling and sort of that just kind of kept growing. And then you and I met and we’ve been just trying to create communities of people that really want to help each other be successful. And what’s bizarre when you put the needs of other people first, somehow that comes back to you. It doesn’t always come back to you sort of in like a quid pro quo direct way. But, you know, when your other focused and you’re helping other people grow and develop and be successful. Whatever that is, that that does come back and your your business will thrive as a result. So that’s that’s kind of my focus.

Brian Pruett: [00:05:49] So some people think Ben and I are maybe I was stalking Ben at first, but I met him when I was working for a digital marketing agency. He was working for Owen Security. We started networking together at the chamber and the bar in Bartow County, and I became known as leader of the Network Posse, and it was me and Ben and Alex Lampi that we even drove over to Alabama for a networking group one night. But then Ben left on security and I took his spot. So and then I’ve just been following him ever since. Although I don’t do mortgages, I’m not good with numbers that way, but stuff like that. But I just think it’s great that, you know, you take the time to sit down and you, like. Our friend Bob Brooks, preaches the collaboration over competition. And I think it’s it’s important because in our group there in Cartersville, there’s at least 4 or 5 other mortgage people in that room. And it’s it’s pretty cool to see the interaction because, I mean, you could have easily, you know, hey, I don’t want these other folks here and stuff like that, but I just think it’s great. So talk why that’s important the collaboration over competition.

Ben Hanks: [00:06:50] So I don’t really think there’s there’s a lot of competition out there when it comes to kind of what we do. So very few people really believe and truly want to put others first. And so, you know, I think we’re most all of us are familiar with the Pareto principle, right? That 20% of what you do, that 80% of what you do comes from 20%. Right? So I want to get in that room that that top 20%. And so knowing that, knowing that, you know, if you get the best people in that room that you’re you’re going to be different, you’re going to stand out. And so I don’t really see them as competition. We work really well together. We’ve done business together. And yeah, it’s I don’t know, it all works out.

Brian Pruett: [00:07:37] So like I said, Ben reads a lot. He does a lot of quotes, he watches a lot of stuff on YouTube, on leadership and and things of that nature. Share a little bit about the Castle Business Club, if you don’t mind when we meet and the purpose and all that.

Ben Hanks: [00:07:49] Sure. So we meet every Wednesday morning. Open networking starts at 8:00. The actual meeting starts at 830 and goes to 930. We meet at Unity Grounds, which is a coffee shop. It’s a unity worship, a church there in Cartersville, and it’s an hour long meeting. People get a chance to stand up, you know, tell the group about their business, a little bit about them and what an ideal referral is. We usually give the members on a rotating basis a chance to stand up and talk for ten minutes about their business. And then we also make space for people to report back and say, Hey, I sent a referral to this person. I’ve got closed business here. And, you know, just we really, really actively work to once we hear that someone’s looking for this person or that person or needs a referral here, we try and help them to that week to to get that referral, get that introduction, make that connection. So that’s that’s what we do weekly. But we also have a monthly lunch, a networking lunch that’s focused. And of course you, Brian, run that that lunch and you’ve got a great lineup of speakers this year. So there’s people who can’t make it in the morning, but they can make a once a month networking lunch and and we also have a social that happens once a month as well and just a chance for the members to connect and get to know their get to know each other in a casual environment.

Brian Pruett: [00:09:07] You talk about membership. What does it take to be a member?

Ben Hanks: [00:09:09] So anybody can always come to the group, but if you want to actually officially join, get your your business, your contact information on the directory. We do have a website called Cartersville Business Club. Dot com or W-w-w dot Cartersville Business club.com. And that’s where you can go to to find the current members of the club.

Brian Pruett: [00:09:29] So I’ve been networking in metro Atlanta for about 29 years and Stone, I’ve been sharing all along this process of the power of networking and and learning. Like I said, everybody that I’ve had on the show so far, in one way or another, I’ve learned their stories and that’s how they’ve been on here. But you and Keith were talking before we got on the air about building a community. It’s not just a networking group. It’s a community. And I’ve been a part of a lot of networking groups, like I said, and this one by far is so different than any others that I’ve really been a part of. There’s no cliques, there’s no I’m better than you type of thing. And I just think it’s an awesome that not just you, but the leadership team of the Cartersville Business Club has been able to get that established. But. You your vision and you know, us together talking about this and getting it back out in there. Once COVID was kind of, you know, getting out or whatever you want to say, getting people back out and doing this. So I commend you for that because I think it’s awesome that that people can come and be a part of that. And a lot of the people that come to that aren’t from the Cartersville area, which I think is cool as well. Yeah, that’s true. So all right. So if people want to get a hold of you for a couple of things, either about talking about mortgages or the Castle Business Club, how can they do that?

Ben Hanks: [00:10:38] Well, my direct number is (404) 955-1253. And my email is banks like Tom Hanks. B Hanks at mortgage RIGHT.COM. That’s right. R-i-g-h-t dot com.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:52] Are you related to Tom?

Ben Hanks: [00:10:55] Distantly. He’s related to Abraham Lincoln’s mother. And so I think our line split before that.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:00] But yeah, there you go. Just learn something new every day. Stone All right, Ben, thanks for for sharing a little bit of your story. We got two other guests here. That’s from great, great story. Do you mind sticking around and listening to these to these guests?

Ben Hanks: [00:11:12] Love to. Yeah. Thanks for having me on.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:14] Awesome. So we’re now we’re moving over to Mr. Keith Ivey from Journey Inward Outward. Keith, thanks for being here this morning.

Keith Ivey: [00:11:19] I don’t know if I can follow a guy who has traced his lineage back to Tom Hanks. I don’t.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:26] Know. You’ve got a pretty incredible cool deal. Well, you got a pretty cool background. I mean, learning things that you’ve done, you’re no stranger to networking either, but you’ve done everything from being in the ministry to being on the radio to being on cruise ships production in LA. I mean, you name it, you’ve probably done it.

Keith Ivey: [00:11:44] My son says that I’ve obviously I have a very, very short attention span.

Brian Pruett: [00:11:50] Yeah. Well, you can also hear he’s also got a radio voice. He was also in radio. So I have a face for radio. You do? Yes. All of us in here are dressed for radio today. That’s great. You’re probably the most dressed up, but thanks for doing that. Now, Keith, if you don’t mind, we’ll get into what you do and why you’re passionate about it. But share. I shared a little bit, but share a little bit about your background, if you don’t mind.

Keith Ivey: [00:12:12] Well, I was born up in North Carolina, but I moved here when I was in the sixth grade to be near my parents and grew up here, went to elementary school, went to high school, went to University of Georgia. After graduation, I went up to Louisville, Kentucky, to go to seminary at Southern Baptist Seminary and came back to Atlanta, went to work at Georgia Tech, stayed there for like 12 years, and then escaped from Georgia, went out to California to work in a production company, a theatrical production company out there, and ended up buying that company and running that company and watching that company go bankrupt after COVID or after 911. And then I ran away and joined cruise ships. I went, I wanted to be in the circus and I couldn’t do anything like trapeze work. So I joined the cruise ship industry, which is as close to a circus as you will ever find other than Ringling Brothers and spent two years on cruise ships out in the Caribbean and and Alaska, two of the hardest, most interesting, pleasurable years of my life. It was the a very odd combination of experiences, came off ships came back to Atlanta. I seem to always gravitate to, you know, when when there’s going to be a major change, You come back to Atlanta to make the change and got into a number of businesses looking for things to do to generate income. And one day, all of a sudden hypnosis found me and I was not out looking for a career in clinical hypnosis. But evidently clinical hypnosis was looking for me and it found me.

Brian Pruett: [00:14:01] So yeah, share a little bit about Journey in that word. What do you do with that?

Keith Ivey: [00:14:05] Well, clinical hypnosis is and we talk about clinical hypnosis as opposed to entertainment hypnosis. I’m not the guy who stands on a stage and invites 20 people to come on stage and I hypnotize 20 people and then get them to do silly things for the benefit of the audience. And for me, I focus on working with people who come to me and they say, you know, I’m a very successful person. I’ve got a lot going on that’s really good. But there’s this one little area of life that I just can’t seem to get control of, and I need help getting control of this one area. For some people, they’ve tried to stop smoking and they can’t. They’ve they’ve done it over and over. They’ve stopped 100 times, but they can’t sustain. So they come to me for help. Some people come to me because, you know, not long ago I had a guy come to me who was an executive at a corporation. He owns the business and he speaks to large numbers of people all over the world. But when he stands up to speak to his board of directors. He gets sick in his stomach, he has to go to the bathroom and throw up before he speaks to his board. He came to me to help him get over that issue because he didn’t he was embarrassed personally that he did not have the control over that experience. So basically, I guess when you get right down to it, I’m in the business of helping people get control of the parts of their lives that, for some reason seems out of control to them.

Brian Pruett: [00:15:36] Can you I mean, you just shared that and what the difference is. But there’s still a lot of stigmatism, I think, or a lot of people who, like you just talked about knowing about the hipness. They don’t think about the clinical aspect of it. What does it take, first of all, to be a clinical hypnotist? And then are you just for companies or do you do individuals as well?

Keith Ivey: [00:15:58] I work with individuals and companies. I have some clients who are business owners and I work with them, but I also work with they refer me to their or they refer their employees to me. When the employees are dealing with things that are getting in the way of productivity, for instance, smoking, anxiety, stress, depression, these are all things that can cause a person to be less than their best personally and professionally. So I’m helpful to the business owner in that area. What does it take to become a clinical hypnotist? First of all. You decide that this is something that wants you? I don’t. I did not want to be a clinical hypnotist. That was not I didn’t get up in the morning and say, you know, being a hypnotist would be a lot of fun. I think I’ll go do that. In fact, a million years ago when I was at Georgia Tech, I was director of orientation for new students. I had one of the world’s best hypnotists come to Georgia Tech every year for 12 years and entertain the students. And the last thing he would do before he finished his act was to say to all of these freshmen, I want you to know something beginning today and from this day forward, you are going to thoroughly enjoy your experience at Georgia Tech. You are going to enjoy studying. You’re going to find that studying, even the most difficult classes is much more easy than you ever thought it was going to be. He basically gave to these freshmen a post-hypnotic suggestion that would enhance their lives and he would come off stage and we would go to dinner.

Keith Ivey: [00:17:39] And he said to me, Keith, do you want me to help monetize you? And I said, No, no, no, no. I never got hypnotized by him. In fact, I was never hypnotized. I was in fact, I did not want to be hypnotized because I perceived that in hypnosis. I give up control to this person. And I didn’t want to do that. I did not want to expose the deep, dark secrets of mine to this person. And so I never did it. And. You probably know the story of how how a hypnotist came up to me at the Atlanta Aquarium. We were at a networking event. And I was at the point personally where my personal life was falling apart. But I was so well known in Atlanta networking that I could not afford to tell anybody that nobody knew. What was going on with me. Except this one woman who was incredibly intuitive. And she walks up to me at the Atlantic Aquarium. She put her arms around me and she whispered in my ear, You need to come see me. Now that’s totally out of character for a hypnotist. We don’t approach people. But she did. And I said to her, Sure, I’ll go do that. And had no intentions of seeing her. A couple of weeks later, we were at another event and she came up to me again and she put her arms around me and squeezed me really tight and said, Make the damn appointment.

Keith Ivey: [00:19:12] So I knew that I was never going to get rid of her unless I saw it. I made the appointment. I went to see her, thinking I would spend an hour with her and I’d be done. And that one hour changed my life. And I saw her every week. For two months. And at some point I said to her, Do you think that I could learn to do for other people what you do for me? She said, I think you can. She told me how to to go to school and to get trained and to set up a practice. And that was the beginning. I quit my job selling health insurance and went back to school and and studied. And one of the things you talk about, what do you have to do to become a clinical hypnosis? You’ve got to go to school. You’ve got to get certified by a training agency. But what what you’ve really done is you’ve opened the door to education. There’s not a week that goes by that I am not studying something related to clinical hypnotism because you’re always getting better. You’re learning something new. How can I be more helpful to more people in a quicker way and more effective way? And so you in hypnotism and probably true with every profession, you spend a lot of time studying because it captures your imagination, it captures your heart and your mind, and you want to learn something more than what you knew yesterday.

Brian Pruett: [00:20:35] So can you talk about I mean, you just shared you plans because you did want to give up control. Can you share what hypnotism is?

Keith Ivey: [00:20:43] Hypnotism is probably one of the most normal experiences that we all have every day. You have probably experienced getting in your car and you’re driving someplace for a meeting and you arrive at your location, but you do not really remember the details of the trip. You are on autopilot. If something had happened, you would snap out of autopilot and respond appropriately. That’s auto hypnosis. You are focused on one thing, which probably is the meeting you’re going to not driving because driving is easy for us to do unless something weird happens, it’s automatic for us all. Hypnotism is is the radical focus of a person on one thing, and that one thing is the thing that they want their subconscious mind to understand. For instance, if someone comes to me and says, I need to stop smoking, we talk about, Well, why do you need to stop smoking? Why do you want to do that? Why is it important to you? And what you hear this person saying is that I want my subconscious mind to buy into the idea. That stopping smoking is a really good thing for me and that I can do that. And so I use hypnosis to communicate with the subconscious mind to deliver that message, which is the message the client asks me to deliver. I have no agenda with a client When I when they walk in to me, I’m going to adopt their agenda for their subconscious mind so that all hypnosis is is radical focus. You go to a movie, you sit down, you get your popcorn, you coke, you sit down, the lights go down and you’re watching the movie. And it’s not long before you’re unaware of the room you’re in. That’s the beauty of going to a theater as opposed to sitting in your living room watching the same movie. You’re in a theater and you’re surrounded by people, but you’re not. Now you are in that moment with that experience called the movie. That’s hypnosis. It’s just radical focus.

Brian Pruett: [00:22:50] Do you find yourself collaborating a lot with people like counselors and other coach business coaches and things of that nature?

Keith Ivey: [00:22:55] I get a large number of referrals from business coaches. I’ve gotten a couple of referrals from psychologists, cognitive therapists who maybe they’ve got a client who is dealing with radical anxiety. And they’ve done everything they can do in terms of behavior, and now they want to deal with the emotional component. So these two, you know, we work together with that client to get them where the client would like to be.

Brian Pruett: [00:23:26] I’m sure it’s different for everybody, but there’s a typical time frame for a session or is it multiple weeks or is it different for everybody?

Keith Ivey: [00:23:33] You know, one of the things I always say to people is that very, very few challenges that any of us have happened in an hour. You know, they happened over time. And so the the working on that issue will happen over time as well. So I always say to clients plan on three sessions. It’s going to take us three sessions to get from here to there. At the end of the third session, you can decide if you want to go further. Do you are you complete? Do you feel good about where you’re at or do you want to go another step or 2 or 3? And so then it becomes up to the client about what they’d like to do.

Brian Pruett: [00:24:08] So we talked earlier about the networking piece of it. And when I met you, you were you were Mr. Networking. You were the one you actually offered clinics, however you want to call it, on networking itself. So why this kind of ties in with your hypnotist? You’re very passionate about helping others. Why is that?

Keith Ivey: [00:24:27] Well, I’m passionate about helping others because I’m here today. I’m alive today because somebody helped me. Somebody reached out to me and did not have to do that. There was no requirement that she do that, but she did. I have an obligation. To do that, I have no choice but to do that with other people. And frankly, the greatest fun that I have. It’s when I’m in front of a client. To me, that’s pleasure. That’s joy. That’s. That’s everything in the world is wrapped up in that one hour with that person.

Brian Pruett: [00:25:09] Well, you can just see when you talk about it what the joy it does bring you. You also have another passion. You love dogs.

Keith Ivey: [00:25:15] I love dogs.

Brian Pruett: [00:25:16] Yes. You do a lot of dog sitting as well.

Keith Ivey: [00:25:18] You know, one of the great things about being a hypnotist and and doing dog sitting is that I can do because all of my hypnosis is done on Zoom. I haven’t seen a client in my chair for three and a half years. You see, I haven’t seen a live client in three. Well, no, they were all live. They were just on Zoom. But that means that I can go pet, sit and house, sit with people and do hypnosis from their homes as well. So. So, yeah, I’m about three, three weeks a month. I’m in somebody else’s house usually at their invitation.

Brian Pruett: [00:25:48] Have you tried to hypnotize a dog?

Keith Ivey: [00:25:50] You know, I have often thought that if I could learn to do that, I would have people lined up outside my door with their dog in hand. So, no, I have not learned how to do that. But that’s probably an area I need to do a little research on. You can make.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:06] A lot more money doing that, so you should try that.

Keith Ivey: [00:26:08] And they don’t talk, you know, they don’t talk back to you and they never write a bad review.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:13] Right. Right. You always got a five star. That’s right. Just give him a milk-bone and you’re good. Good. Yep. Keith, thanks for sharing your story. I’m going to come back around a couple of you for a couple of questions. Others. But I appreciate you sharing your story. We’re going to now move over to Mr. Ron Green with the video plug. Ron, thanks for being here this morning.

Ron Green: [00:26:29] Appreciate it, man. Glad to be here.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:30] So you and I met at the Woodstock Business Club. You shared a little bit of your story and you were passionate about youth in particular. I do have one question for you, though. I’ve never seen you wear the same baseball team baseball hat, ever. So are you a fan of just baseball or just all the teams, or do you have a fan, a team you like?

Ron Green: [00:26:46] So it’s all about color coordination with me. It has nothing to do with the team. All right. So as you see, the green kind of hits my green pants here. So. So it’s nothing about the team, all right? It’s just all about color coordination.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:57] Just wear a little more red and white than the reds would be. Good. That’s my team. So. So share a little bit about the video plug. I know you’re passionate about helping business owners with videos and then we’ll talk about the youth in a second.

Ron Green: [00:27:07] All right. Let me let me first start by saying, you know, Keith Ivey’s segment here on business Radio X is was absolutely hypnotizing. Let me say that. There you go. So the video plug. Yeah. So I own the video plug, a video production company in Woodstock, Georgia. And we’re all about just helping small businesses grow and look fabulous in the digital world, man. And, you know, videos are real hot right now. And if you’re not in that space or you’re not really have effective, effective footprint in the space of videos right now, it’s extremely difficult, especially for small businesses. So we like to to help businesses grow through video. Man, is it all.

Brian Pruett: [00:27:48] Commercials, all kinds of just what kind of videos?

Ron Green: [00:27:51] So mostly we we focus on promo videos, brand message videos, recruiting training videos. Yeah. So mostly commercials and things like that. So for social media and websites. So that’s, that’s our bread and butter.

Brian Pruett: [00:28:07] All right. So I didn’t ask you this to start off with, but it’s going to lead into what you’re doing because you’re very passionate about youth. Share a little bit about your background and then we’ll talk about the non profit.

Ron Green: [00:28:17] Okay. So my background, it was pretty mangled, man. I grew up right outside of Chicago, about 90 miles outside of Chicago, and I grew up a single parent mom, grew up in the projects, the ghetto, whatever you want to call it. And my mom worked extremely hard. She was uneducated. She cleans, she cleaned people’s houses for a living. She she did the best she could with where she had what she had. You know, she was a rock, but she she was gone all day. So we had six kids, just pretty much kind of raising ourselves. And when I walked outside my door, things I saw was gangs, drugs, violence, criminal activity, things of that nature. So it wasn’t long before I started making some bad decisions, started selling drugs at age 16, age 17 became hooked on those same drugs. I sold crack cocaine era of the 80s. So at 17 I was a full blown crack cocaine addict. At 17in. The next 27 years would be 27 years of darkness. I’ve been arrested over 30 times, been sent to the penitentiary on drug charges, became a liar, thief, cheater, manipulator, con man because I was held captive by this addiction and this bad decision I made when I was a kid, man. So my introductory to prison, first couple of weeks I was there. I had my jaw broken in half and a fight. My mouth stayed wired shut for six weeks and I lost 20 pounds. And they was like, Welcome to prison. So I knew I didn’t want to be there anymore, but I had to serve out a sentence. Right? So long story short, I got out, finally got myself together, man. Took some time to do that. And now, you know, I’m married with I’ve been married for about four years now. I live in Woodstock. I run a nonprofit, and I run a successful for profit business. Man. I’m all about people, man.

Brian Pruett: [00:29:55] Yeah. So, you know, again. And this show is about positive. You’ve heard two other stories about things they do. And Ron is just an incredible story. I mean, he’s overcoming, you know, and getting back in the community and the fact that the community accepts we need more people like this, you know, and the community accepting, you know, for that as well. So I commend you for what you’re doing. I appreciate it. Can you share about its Four Corners group? Right. Four Corners group. Can you share what that is?

Ron Green: [00:30:21] So Four Corners Group is a youth development organization that targets at risk marginalized and underserved youth. We in a nutshell, we build leaders out of that population of people, right? Our age range is usually around 12 to 18. So middle school and high school. So so we run several programs throughout the year. Our bread and butter program is called the Pathways to Success Program. It’s an eight week program which we run twice a year at the top of the year and towards the towards the back end of the year. So the Pathway to Success Program is really a life skills and leadership program. These kids come in for eight weeks and they learn character development, image building. We have a Toastmasters coach which coaches them on Toastmasters, so they they learn to become better communicators and how to command the room through words. We do a workforce development piece where Chick fil A leadership team comes in and really schools them on how to really do well and master an interview process, how to win people over and just how to secure employment. Man And when we graduate them, Chick fil A actually hires some of our cream of the crop young people, man. So we’re all about life skills and making sure that that population of young people aren’t left, you know, just left for themselves because and the reason I’m so passionate because I was one of them kids that had little to no direction, was dealt a bad hand, but made some bad decisions, which I own everything. But programs like this could really help young people to really find themselves and identify the gifts, talents and abilities buried deep inside of them. So. So, yeah, I’m very passionate about that.

Brian Pruett: [00:32:01] Well, is there an what age?

Ron Green: [00:32:02] Groups 12 to 18. Middle school. High school.

Brian Pruett: [00:32:06] Okay. Is it in any part of Atlanta or is there a certain part?

Ron Green: [00:32:09] So we got two campuses right now. We got a campus in Marietta and the campus in Austell. So those are both in Cobb County headquarters. But, you know, we’re looking to go next year. We’re looking to expand to Atlanta. And then, you know, the vision is, you know, to get nationwide and then international, so global. So we got a global vision for this because young people hurt everywhere.

Brian Pruett: [00:32:30] Are there ways that people in the community can get involved and help Four Corners? Absolutely.

Ron Green: [00:32:35] We just graduated our Pathway to Success program. Now we’re doing what we call our bridge program through the spring and summer. That’s going to lead up to our next Pathways to Success program. But yeah, they can, you know, if they’re interested. We’ve always need help. People maybe come in and teach a class, maybe people, mentors. We always need mentors. We also also need what we call success coaches, which is a little different success Coaches is actually coming in to help young people carve out their career path because we’re dealing with middle school, high school. So just in 2 or 3 years they’re going to be graduating. And then, you know, some of them don’t have any direction to The job of the career coach is to help them to carve out that next thing after high school. Right. Whether it be college, whether it be military, whether it be entrepreneurship, whatever it looks like, to help carve that out. So so we need help with all that. And it’s on our website. They can just go to Four Corners group.net to look at all the the needs. And of course, you know, any nonprofit needs a needs money. So so that too so but not just that so yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:33:41] So I can see something you guys doing I mean he was part of Toastmasters for years and I see the hypnotist, you know, maybe could do something and your passion with the business is could possibly go in and do some stuff with the youth I saw interesting in a video, right? Video plug doing a video on Facebook a few months ago. And you were driving and you were about ready to go to one of the high schools and doing something with the with the young man. And you could just see in the video the passion for that. So share what you do when you are you able to go to the schools and do stuff.

Ron Green: [00:34:10] Yeah. So I failed to mention that. And thank you for being for being so thorough there, Brian. I appreciate that. Shame on me. But yeah, we’re in Cobb County school system, so we run programing for South Cobb High School throughout the year as well. A lot of the programs that we run in there, we run two programs. One is just another form of our Pathways to Success program. So a lot of life skills stuff, but also we do a big thing on what we call toxic masculinity, you know, just the falsehoods or myths of being a man, you know, like men should never cry. We got to be tough. And all this, it’s a landing. A lot of young men and adult men in the prison system or in the morgue, because we learn to stuff our emotions. We can’t show compassion. You know, the world says we got to do this, this and this. So we unpack that. And really share what true manhood is all about. Just being loving, compassionate, firm, understanding, showing empathy, things of that. So we unpack what a true man is all about. But yeah, we got a big footprint in the South Cobb High School, and we run those programs during school hours, which is very hard to to get the school degree to do because they all want to stay on curriculum, you know what I mean? Right. So yeah, yeah, yeah. We love our kids, man.

Brian Pruett: [00:35:25] So do you guys do I mean, you mentioned some of the things you do with and how the business can do you guys do any fundraising events or anything coming up that you can share or what people get involved in?

Ron Green: [00:35:36] Yes. So our biggest fundraiser of the year I’m going to share this one is in October. We did our first one last year. It’s a masquerade ball. We did very well. It was held at the Buckhead Club of Atlanta. We’re going to be there this again in October of this year, 2023. I do not know the correct date right now, but again, the website will will lead you to that. But yeah, October just remember October masquerade ball Four Corners group, that’s a great way to come out and support us and our biggest fundraiser of the year.

Brian Pruett: [00:36:10] Awesome. So as I mentioned earlier, you and I met at the Woodstock Business Club. I know you do a lot of networking as well. I think you’re part of a BNI group. You do all that. Why is networking so important for you and can you do you have a success story for networking?

Ron Green: [00:36:21] Yeah. So I’m going to go I’m going to refer back to being really the philosophy of just really giving back. I’m a part of B’nai, which their core value really is givers gain you give first. So for me, networking is important because number one, we grow through other people, right? If we’re building businesses and looking to grow, I promise you you can’t do it by yourself. You need people. But in the same token, you need to be able to add value, right? It should be reciprocated, right? It should be even even weight on the scale right? But if we always walk into a networking group instead of saying, How can I sell if we walk in to say and saying, how can I help, then the doors open and opportunities open right up for you. I think for me, my philosophy of life is just helping other people’s first, first number one, it’s the right thing to do, and I think it’s why we’re all here, number one. But number two is the formula for success. It’s helping other people, like Ben said, by default, Man, I’ve gotten so much stuff just fall on my lap just because I’m helping other people, man, You know? So, yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:37:32] That’s awesome. So if people want to get a hold of you for video plug or even for corners, how can they do that?

Ron Green: [00:37:38] Yeah, they can just go to my website for video plug. That’s video-plug.com. And then for Four Corners group just hit the website at Four Corners group.net. That’s four spelled out F-o-u-r, Four Corners group.net.

Brian Pruett: [00:37:54] And Keith, I forgot to ask you if people want to get hold of you for your hypnotist hypnotism clinical hypnotism.

Keith Ivey: [00:37:59] The best way to catch me is going to the website Journey Inward, outward.com. All right.

Brian Pruett: [00:38:05] I’m going to I’ve got a couple other questions for for each of you and we’ll we’ll we’ll talk about each one of them. So you guys have shared why you’re passionate and why you’re doing the things that you do but share something different, why it’s important for each of you to be involved in the community. And I’ll start with you, Ben Sure.

Ben Hanks: [00:38:23] So my probably one of my biggest passions is creating community. And the reason why is I’ve been reading through some different materials recently. One of them is the great Good Place, talking about how since World War Two, we’ve really seen a massive breakdown in community in America. It used to be that the average person had 4 or 5 people they could go and talk to in a crisis, and now you’re lucky if you have one. Most people that’s zero. And so for me, I see my involvement in the community. What I can use my gifts to do is to create real community where people can go and not just to be successful in business, but to be successful in life, to develop the kind of relationships that like, like you were saying, we absolutely have to have to be able to to be happy and to make it. And so just the creation of True Community, I guess, is my biggest thing.

Keith Ivey: [00:39:19] Keith To me, it’s important to to know and to be known to know somebody and to know people intimately. I’ve often said that everybody I know, other than my two ex wives I have met at networking events, everybody else, two ex wives and family. Every relationship I have has come from networking. So knowing them and being known by them, there is comfort in that, knowing that somebody knows you’re alive and that somebody cares that you’re alive. And that somebody knows that, you know they’re alive. That, to me, is what community is. And networking. Going to networking events is the first step in making that happen for me.

Brian Pruett: [00:40:11] So Keith comes he’s been regularly the last two months now, I think in my monthly trivia that I do for rotating charities over in Bartow County. And let’s put it this way you like food and beers. That’s a big reason you come. But you also are very supportive of of the community.

Keith Ivey: [00:40:25] So very supportive and horrible at at what it is we’re doing other than beer and food.

Brian Pruett: [00:40:32] You’re just there for the for the people. So it’s awesome.

Keith Ivey: [00:40:34] Yeah. And I get to sit with interesting people and have great conversations about very bizarre things. So it’s. It’s just a great evening. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:40:43] So thank you. So my next one is April 19th for the Annual Scholarship Foundation. So if you guys want to come out and enjoy a great buffet stone, you’ve taken part of it. You like those wings, right?

Stone Payton: [00:40:52] Oh, those wings are fabulous. They have ruined me on wings. I can’t eat them anywhere else now.

Ron Green: [00:40:58] But he likes the beer, too, though, you know.

Brian Pruett: [00:40:59] He does. Yeah. I’ll have a beer. Wings and beer, too. That’s right. All right. So, Ron, other than why you shared, why is it important to be part of the community?

Ron Green: [00:41:07] So today we live in a world where you can move into a place in your community, say a cul de sac. Right? And not for years, stated for years and not even know your neighbors. That’s the kind of world we live in right now. So I think that’s in direct contrast of how it should be. Communities should be a machine that just works extremely well and for the benefit of everybody, right? But in order to do that, we have to know our neighbors know people. Right. So, you know, we just have to to know people. We have to know who we are, what our struggles are, what we’re going through. That’s community, man. And we can’t if we’re if we don’t know people and we stay to ourselves and we stay shut off like that, then I think we two things we don’t grow. And another thing, though, is we deny other people the ability to access us, which could be beneficial to them. So yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:42:06] So I forgot to mention this earlier too, because Ron was very supportive of me. I was I had another business before I started B’s Charitable Pursuits And, and when Ron found out that I had to close that business, he actually called me on the phone. So I appreciate you doing that. And it just goes to show you that he does care about about others. So, um, can you guys actually wind up having a two more questions before we wrap this up? And we talked all about networking. Again, I talk all the time of the power of networking. And again, every story you’ve heard on Charitable Georgia has come from networking. So it is the community about that. But I would like for each of you to share one positive success story, if you can, from from any of the networking that you’ve done over the for the last several years. So so Ben, again, you start.

Ben Hanks: [00:42:53] Sure. Um, so you know, when we do these networking things, it’s it tends to be for most people very business forward. And so we tend to measure success by how well people are growing their business and closing those deals and making money. But what’s surprised me over the last year and a half or so, the feedback we’ve gotten from our group out in Bartow County is the number of people that have come up to me and said, you know, I came here for business, but my entire life has changed because of the connections that I’ve made, the real relationships. And so I’m not sure if that answers your question, Brian, but it’s just seeing people’s lives change because of things like what Ron was saying, that we need that community, we need those relationships, and just seeing that happen is like my my biggest reward. I mean, I just can’t. Well, yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:43:46] And that’s perfectly answered this question because I got to say, you know, Wednesdays Hump Day is usually one of those days that people I think, dread because you’re either at the top of the the week getting ready to go down to the week or you’re at the middle of the week and wondering what the heck is going to happen the rest of the week. And now for a lot of people, Hump Day is the favorite day of the week because of the Castle Business Club. So I know Ben is always when we first got started, everybody’s like, Well, it’s Ben’s group. And Ben was always saying, No, it’s not my group, it’s your group. So that just goes to show you again what kind of person he is. So, Keith, what kind of story can you share from your networking?

Keith Ivey: [00:44:19] Well, a million years ago, I coordinated a networking group that met twice a month for lunch, good for day. And, you know, 50 people would show up, pay $15 for for this luncheon And. Yesterday I had a beer with a friend who I haven’t seen for a while and he was telling me how significant that event was for him. In fact, he and I met at that event and he and he shared with me how significant that was for him and that he knew it was significant for other people. And it just reminded me of how valuable things like that are, because when I was doing it, I did not sense the value of it. I knew I enjoyed it. I knew they enjoyed it because they’re showing up and they’re paying. But I didn’t grasp the significance of what was happening deeper than just that event. And so to me, that and it sounded good to hear that I needed to hear that yesterday.

Brian Pruett: [00:45:22] Awesome. Ron, how about you?

Ron Green: [00:45:23] So, so many. Let me say this. I’d like to see people win. Right. And I think when I walk into a networking event, and especially if I’m a part of a networking group on a continuous basis, going back and meeting people, connecting with them and adding value anywhere that I can. But over time, seeing those people grow and win and expand their business, expand their personal lives, expand their finances, expand their spirituality, just grow as a whole. That’s that’s that’s the thing that makes my my hair stand up on the back of my neck. It gives me the fuel to keep doing that.

Brian Pruett: [00:46:11] Awesome. All right. Last question before we wrap this up for each of you, I’d like for you guys to share at least a word, a quote, some positive nugget for somebody to live today in the rest of 20, 23 and beyond with. So, Ben, what you got? Sure.

Ben Hanks: [00:46:22] So one of my new heroes is a guy named Jim Wilder. He’s what’s called a neuro theologian. He’s a psychologist, but he’s, you know, he’s faith based. And I’ve been studying about leadership. And in one of his books on leadership, he he says that when you’re trying to be that person, that leader, that you should always make sure that the relationship stays bigger than the problem. The problem should never be bigger than the relationship. And I ran across this two months ago and I think about it every single day. Just how powerful that is, is that we tend to not focus on the people. We focus on what the problem is. And that’s just not the wrong, wrong approach. That’s a direct quote from Jim Wilder.

Brian Pruett: [00:47:06] Awesome, Keith.

Keith Ivey: [00:47:09] I get what I get. Because I do what I do. I do what I do. Because I believe what I believe. And I believe what I believe because I think what I think. The results of my life are a direct result of my thinking, and the thoughts I have are vital.

Brian Pruett: [00:47:37] Wow. Wow. That’s deep. Makes you think. Which still early for me on a Friday. Thank you. Thank you.

Ben Hanks: [00:47:44] Yeah. My head’s blown right here. Right.

Ron Green: [00:47:46] I know. I need a beer, man.

Brian Pruett: [00:47:49] All right, Ron, what you got?

Ron Green: [00:47:50] So Gerda, famous poet, says, and this. This is in relation to when you see people at their lowest point. And I remember my lowest point. I was holding a cardboard sign at the intersection, one of my lowest points. So it’s related to that. It says, if you look at a man the way that he is, then he only gets worse. But if you look at a man as if he were what he could be, then he becomes what he should be, right? So I remember the most important thing somebody did for me. They call me Mr. Green at my lowest point, right? Because most people call me junkie or crackhead or, you know, but they call me Mr. Green. And that did something inside of me, right?

Brian Pruett: [00:48:33] Yeah. Awesome. I’m going to share what I start off with your sound checks every day because some of these quotes that kind of fits in with and then we’ll see what minds blown with this. So from your moviegoers, I always find this great. It’s easy to grin when your ship comes in and you got the stock market beat. But a man worthwhile is a man who can smile when his pants are too tight in the seat. Words of Wisdom from Caddyshack. So there you go. There you go. Classic. Yes. So, Ben, Keith, Ron, I appreciate you guys coming this morning and sharing your stories and everybody out there. Let’s remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.