Tony Holland On Faith, Empowering Youth Through Mentorship, Leadership & Community Impact (Inspirational)

What if the only thing standing between your struggle and your success… is the discipline to keep going when everything in you wants to quit?

In this episode, Reginald D sits down with Tony Holland—CEO of Global Premier Benefits, managing partner at Integrity. leadership expert, entrepreneur, philanthropist, mentor, and minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles—to break down what it truly takes to rise from adversity and live a purpose-driven life. Tony Holland’s journey—from adversity, and even living out of his van to becoming a CEO and minority owner of an MLB team proves that your current situation does not define your future.

This inspirational conversation dives into Tony’s journey of overcoming abuse, identity struggles, and poverty—while holding onto faith, discipline, and a vision for something greater. Through real-life experiences and inspirational stories, Tony reveals how success is built through resilience, education, and unwavering belief in God’s plan.

Tony's commitment to mentoring and coaching youth goes far beyond business—it’s a calling rooted in purpose, service, and faith. He doesn’t just teach success; he pours into people, especially young leaders, helping them build discipline, character, and a winning mindset that carries into every area of life. Whether he’s coaching athletes, guiding entrepreneurs, or mentoring youth who lack structure and direction, Tony leads with a hands-on, no-excuses approach—holding people accountable while reminding them of their potential. 

This episode covers:

• The truth about discipline vs opportunity
• Leadership, mentorship, and building strong character
• Overcoming adversity and rewriting your story
• Faith, purpose, and trusting God through life’s struggles
• How to stay motivated and focused in a distracted world

Tony Holland's Contact Info:

Global Premier Benefits: https://globalpremierbenefits.com

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetonyholland

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/Globalpremierbenefits

Transcript

Reginald D: Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D.

I'm your host, Reginald D.

On today's episode, I have Tony Holland.

Today's episode is where anybody who's ever had to fight their way up, stay disciplined when life got hard, and still found a way to give back while climbing.

Today, I'm sitting down with a man who doesn't just talk about success,

he lives it with purpose. Tony is an entrepreneur,

CEO, a leadership expert, and a philanthropist who has built a national business empire as the founder and CEO of Global Premier Benefits and managing partner at Integrity.

Tony is also a former college athlete, a dedicated coach, a mentor to young people across the country.

And in 2025, he became a minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles,

expanding his impact even further.

Welcome to the show, Tony.

Tony Holland: Hey, Reginald. Glad to be here. Appreciate that introduction, man. I'm like, who is that guy he's talking about? So I appreciate that, man. That was awesome. What an introduction. Thank you so much.

Honored you're blessed to be here on your show.

Looking forward to an amazing, amazing podcast together, my friend.

Reginald D: Yes. Thank you so much for taking the time, Tony. So let's start out like this. This is what I like to start out with my guests. Can you tell me a little bit about your childhood and where you grew up?

Tony Holland: Yeah, I grew up in a small town in western Maryland, a town called Brunswick, Maryland. It was an old railroad town.

Not much came out of that town, but people that worked on the railroad worked either the farm or went off to be in the military. And grew up in the 70s.

Single parent household, dealt with a lot of adversities. Maybe some of your audience can relate. Didn't know my real father had a stepfather at a very, very young age. From the age of about 3 years old to 6.

Was very abusive, you know, alcohol and gambler just, you know, was very abusive to me and my mom and my little brother. And so my mom pretty much raised us by herself and dealt with those type of challenges.

And it was very difficult for me, Reginald, because I grew up in a time that, you know, someone that looked like me wasn't well received.

I come from a biracial background. My mom did the best she could with what she had,

but there was a lot of adversities, a lot of unfortunate challenges. And for me, it was just, where did I fit?

Didn't fit, really anywhere. I didn't fit in the black community, didn't fit in the white community. Just didn't know. So it was a very challenging time. So dealt with unbelievable, you know, social challenges, racism and Adversities.

And I knew deep inside I wanted to break out. So I thank the good Lord though, because God blessed me either way, Reginald. Even though those hardships, those challenges, and I can look back on it all and really honestly say, you know what, as challenging as it was, it was all by design.

And I thank my mom. Even though there were some things she did that was inappropriate, things that weren't right, I saw things before, you know, 8, 9 years old that most people should never see and experience.

But I look back on and say, you know what? My mom did the best she could. And God used all those challenges, that evil for greater good.

Reginald D: Yes, absolutely. And we definitely have something in common because I came from a single parent home too, just me and my little sister and raised by our mother. And tell you what, man, it's a different challenge, you know, that we go through that most people don't think about, but that's not a father in the house and things like that.

But at the end of the day, I think we are built different too.

Tony Holland: Amen.

Someone asked me one time when I was little, what was my goal.

I said I wanted to be the father I didn't have.

But Reginald, through the grace of God, I got to meet him finally When I was 46 years old, I did my DNA test through Ancestry. DNA. He did his test too.

I did my test on June 11, 2016. He did the test exact same day.

That's amazing.

And he sought me out. I didn't even know he was looking for me. Long story short, him and my mom got together back in the 19th, May of 1969 on her school trip.

She got pregnant. You know, blamed it on her boyfriend at the time. So I never knew him either. He was just a name on my birth certificate. He was in and out of prison, so I never got to know him.

But all along I had this man who was a good man, raised three amazing daughters, got married, was still with the same woman.

We got to meet three, four months later, he called me on the phone, met with me, only had a few months to live, was dying from all kinds of medical challenges.

So we got 14 months together. So I was able to know my history.

So my father, who was actually Sicilian American, my mom was African American.

So at least got the pieces together. So I think that was important for me, Reginald, to be able to know who I was. I thank God for that moment, to be able to at least know the answer.

I recommend anybody out there, including yourself, Reginald, if you haven't done it, do that test you'd be shocked what you find out.

I said that to one guy. He says, I'm afraid to do it. I'm like, why are you afraid to do it? I'm like,

tony, I did some crazy things in my teens and twenties. I don't want some young kid growing up on me saying, I'm your son.

Exactly. Come on, let's go. Who knows?

But that was a life changing moment for Edge, so I'm honored to be able to share that with your audience.

Reginald D: Okay, thank you. Thank you so much.

So, Tony, your journey is powerful, from working multiple jobs and even living out of your van to becoming a CEO and a minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

Can you take us back to that season of your life and what kept you going mentally and spiritually?

Tony Holland: Blessed enough. I knew at a young age, Reginald, I wanted something better. I didn't want to be the stereotype. So I worked very, very hard. I got into Johns Hopkins University on an academic scholarship, was recruited to be an engineer, and decided to go into medicine, pre med.

And I found out real quick, medicine just wasn't for me. I did get my degree. I played football there, too, and ran track and just realized it wasn't my thing and didn't like blood, didn't like hospitals,

wrong profession.

So I tried to stand on Wall Street. So I got recruited to work on a Wall street firm and found out real quick why they called stock brokers. I ended up broke, Reginald.

I ended up doing so badly, I didn't know what to do. I was lost. 23 years old. I failed again. Just. I didn't know where I was going. I was lost.

And that's who I can rel. Laid the young people out because I've been there. I was lost.

I had one of the top degrees, top seven school in the country.

I could have gone anywhere with it, but I was just lost. I didn't know where I wanted to go. And I ended up living out of my van. I had a painting business.

I was always entrepreneurial. You know, I was running a painting business, barking and waiting tables. I was gonna do whatever it took. I refused, Reginald, to be on the system.

My mom told us that we never took welfare. She never took a check. She never even took child support. You know, we least learned to survive on our own. We didn't want any government support because we knew that would be a rat race and a trap we didn't want to go into.

So I always had two, three jobs, work just like my mom did. And I lived out of my Van, briefly, I'mma tell you, Reginald was no regular old van. It did have **** carpet in it.

It had paneling in,

had eight track in it, and old black and white TV in it. Some of y' all don't know what that is. So I lived out of that briefly. And while I was waiting tables and bar pending at a Libertaries restaurant in Baltimore,

something I used to be embarrassed to say, but I actually ate off people's plates back then. So I wanted the reasons why I chose to work in the restaurant, because they had good food.

I knew when people took their food back, so they're throwing in the trash. I had a cooler in the back. I'd saved that food for the next day.

That was my breakfast and lunch the next day. So I wasn't like Dr. Eric Thomas. I'm sure you know, Dr. Eric Thomas. He was eating out of trash cans. And I said, listen, I had a little bit of pride.

I grabbed him before I hit the trash can.

So what got me through that was the grace of God, Reginald. I always had God first in my life. I knew that something was better. It was just that inner drive in me.

I just didn't know how to get out of it. But what kept me through that, Reginald? I'd stayed focused. I stayed true to who I was. I was raised as a Christian man.

I stayed true to that. I made sure I still went to church and read my Bible. And I just kept praying and leaning on the Lord, you know, Understand, I was going through some trials and tribulations, but I knew there was a destiny for me.

It's like the story of Joseph. If you know the story of Joseph, he's thrown in the pit by his own family, sold into slavery by his own brothers, you know, and end up being the prime minister of all of Egypt and saved his own people from starvation.

So God had a plan. And look at the end result. And I just tell your audience, no matter what you deal and what you're going through, you trust in God and keep God first.

There is a shining. A beautiful shining light at the end of that tunnel.

Reginald D: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. Because I'll tell you, man, if you don't get God first, man, it's going to be so hard.

Tony Holland: Amen. When you go and you're not going to be perfect, I tell people that, listen, I'm not perfect. I've made a lot of mistakes. I did things. I'm ashamed. I'm like, I shouldn't have said that, should have did that.

But see, that's One thing, you know, God doesn't expect us to be perfect. We should be striving for perfection.

But you know what? When we have him in our life, that sures up our shortcomings. You see what I mean?

Keep God first, no matter what. Trying to do what's right. God will bless you for it. I learned this many, many years ago. He'll give you double for your trouble.

One stroke of God's favor can make up for 20 years of mistakes. So if we got some older listeners, you can be the biggest screw up. One stroke of his favor can make everything right.

Reginald D: Absolutely. I witnessed that personally in my life.

Yes, sir. So, Tony, you talk a lot about purpose driven leadership.

When did you realize your life wasn't just about success,

but about impact?

Tony Holland: Yeah, I knew at one point in time it was time to transition over.

Not just to be about me, because in the beginning it was about me. I was making money and doing well. I remember I was the first person in my family in 1994 when I moved.

I moved out of that van in 30 days. By the way, do I get a hand for moving out of the van in 30 days? You know, I got into the insurance business and moved out.

I was so proud of myself and got a nice little condo in Baltimore. As I'm moving in the right direction, I tapped into a guy called Tony Robb.

He was one of my first mentors in the business world.

And I'm like, that guy was making a positive impact. And still today,

40 some years later, that man's still making it happen. I'm like, I want to make a positive impact as well. So when I started becoming successful, I was the first person in my family make over a hundred thousand.

Matter of fact, that first year in sales, got into insurance sales with a company called American Income. Wife made over $124,000 that first year. And I'm gonna tell you, I was selfish.

In the beginning, it was all about me.

And then I remember year two, Reginald, that I was in a client's home and I was helping them out with insurance and I was trying to add a child rider.

And they kept saying no.

And with my influence and my great sales ability that I learned, I convinced them to do it.

I was counting the money all the way to the office.

And then a few months later got a call from the union presence. I was doing union insurance back then that there was an accident on Lake Liganore,

that three kids died.

Happened to be one of the kids. I wrote that policy up on that child rider. One was one of those kids.

That moment right there, I realized what I was doing wasn't just about making money. It was about changing people's lives.

And then I'm like, you know what? I stopped selling insurance for the money. I started selling insurance to help change people's lives. I took it to the next level in terms of coaching and working with people and pouring into people.

I just did a coaching session this morning and I said, why I do what I do is like a tithe,

Reginald. You could tithe money, you could tithe prayer, you could tie coaching, you can tithe advice. I want to show other people that, hey, doesn't matter where you come from, it's where you're going.

And if you keep God first, he will bless you tenfold. And I just want to be a beacon of positivity, especially right now. I tell people all the time, Reginald, I want to be a shining light in the dark world.

There's a lot of distractions,

some of that by design.

But I want to keep people on that path and show them there is an opportunity, that God has destiny for them and all they have to do is fulfill that destiny.

So there was a point in time, like I said, I was selfish. But I realized, Reginald, I had to pay this forward and pouring to people just like I'm doing today.

Because that to me, gives me the greatest joy, the greatest impact. And that's how the good Lord is using me now in this very moment that we're doing today to pay it forward, to plant that seed in other people.

Because I noticed somebody listening.

I noticed somebody listening, Reginald, that this seed's being planted and about to germinate and it's going to create another explosion. Yes. I always say this. We're only one connection away from an explosion in somebody's life.

Why not us be the igniter of that explosion of people that were mishold today?

Reginald D: That's it, Tony. And the craziest part about it, people don't understand. That's why we were put here, man.

Tony Holland: Amen.

Reginald D: That's why we put here all the other stuff is just what it is, you know, it's just what it is.

So you poured so much into mentoring young people. What is the biggest thing you see with today's youth that struggling?

Tony Holland: Well, right now, there's a lot of distractions. As I was saying earlier, the biggest challenge I see is social media.

Big problem. We didn't have that back in our day in the 70s. There was things, but it wasn't like it is now.

And they're being pulled in so many directions and there's so much more. It's amazing how something was created for a greater good. The devil could find a way to use that greater good, try to use it for evil,

like television,

like the computer now smartphones, social media.

So, you know, that's the greatest challenge. Now they're being polluted by the wrong ideology,

the wrong thought process.

Because whatever we put in, Reginald, and it is, it's like a computer. It's a billion dollar computer.

Whatever we put in, there's the output that comes out. And right now you're seeing a lot of the challenge that are going on, especially in the black and brown communities, is because of defective programming.

And it's worse now than ever than when I grew up because I got it, I got it from my relatives because they got it from their relatives. They got it from their relatives, they got it from their community.

Same thing with me. We were programmed. Now that program is on a whole nother level. And it's sad to see what these kids have to deal with in terms of what's going on that's being planted, those wrong seeds being planted in their mind.

So that's, to me, the biggest challenge is going on right now in today's youth.

Reginald D: Yes, absolutely. You hit it right on the head. You hit it right on the head, Tony. So I want to talk about this because this is kind of showing me something, I think about Tony, the football coach,

right.

Showing me the leadership about you. This is what I'm getting out of. Because you are a youth and high school football coach, right. And have won 13 championships,

five state titles,

right.

Come on, man. What's one lesson from coaching athletes that translates directly into success in life and business?

Tony Holland: Great question, Reginald. I'm proud of those moments and those championships and accolades really is a testament to number one, those kids,

they're willing to pay the price.

Those coaches, those assistant coaches, the parents, the community.

It was a team effort. But when it caught me, Reginald,

about life, that anything's possible,

these kids, I remember one year I took over a team, Reginald.

We won all these awards and I got national coach of the year by winning youth football and what all these other awards and accommodate, you name it. And then someone said, tony, that's great.

Won't you take over a team? They ain't won nothing. So I took on a challenge. I took over a team in 2014.

I hadn't won a game in three years and won a game in three years. They scored seven touchdowns over those three years. From being demolished. They were everybody's homecoming.

You know, teams like that, just that bad. So I came in and took it over. I cleaned house,

got rid of the bad coaches. Some of the players I weren't, were and brought some new players and kept the core. And we went on and went 14 0.

We set the scoring record, over 700 points scored. Only gave up three touchdowns, 20 points and won the state championship. That same group of kids, for the most part, 80% of the same kids and won nothing when the state champ went undefeated.

Many of those kids are all playing in college now. Some of them have graduated and done incredible things in their life. And so what it taught me about life, that anything's possible if you keep God first.

And that's what we did. I put prayer into it. And some people didn't like them. Like then you got it wrong. I'm gonna be who I am as a man, as a coach.

And if that offends you, that's on you. I think that's what we need more of true leaders, especially Christian leaders coding this political correctness line. Be true to who you are because even accept that if you deny Christ in front of others, he gonna deny you in front of his father.

That's amazing. To me, I see so called Christian leaders not take the right route, which is to me the only route.

So it taught me a lot about teamwork, it taught me about dedication and what could be. I mean people like, there's no way you're gonna turn that team around. And we did,

we did. You know, some people say, what did you do? So I do a lot of coaching platforms. I go around the country and say, what did you do with that team?

I took,

I got rid of the bad apples, by the way. Because I'm going to tell you, can't grow the right product, the right harvest with weeds. With the wrong type of people,

you got to be in the right environment.

So I had to weed out the wrong type of parents, the wrong type of people. And I took them out of that environment and took them to someplace. I took them to another state and we trained for a whole week.

Reginald. I wanted to break that poverty, that broken mindset. Many kids didn't have fathers. Many of them, by the way, with me because their parents were a mess. I got to get them out of the environment.

So I got them out of the environment. I've actually trained them the way they're supposed to think and weed out the garbage that's been put into them by their society, by the community and by their own parents.

It's amazing how many people have cursed their own kids and their grandkids. I used to see that when I was in field. So insurance shocked. I see people. I'm in the hood, you know, back in the day, I started knocking on doors in the hood, and I see people saying stuff like,

he bad as the devil. He gonna grow up just like his father. He gonna be in prison. I mean, preaching curses over their own kids. And so I have to take these kids away and preach blessings into them.

You are going to be great. I made them say things about them, so I make them write things. I taught them affirmations. You will be state champions. You will go off to college.

You will get a full scholarship. You will. You will. You are. You're going to be these things. So I was preaching blessings over them versus countering the curses that have been preached over.

And we crushed it, Reginald. We crushed it. We had almost every school out there wanting to recruit these kids to be on their team. They were so good. It was amazing what those kids were doing.

It was incredible.

Reginald D: Yeah, man. And that's the thing about it, you know, you said something early about being who you are.

I think we were put on this earth to be who we are.

Tony Holland: Right.

Reginald D: You know, God put us here.

He gave us a special anointing,

you know,

special gifts, and he wants you to use it. But like you say, you're trying to be like everybody else. It doesn't work. And your mindset when you with the coach, that team that wasn't winning, it was like change,

you know, we gotta bring change. We can't keep doing the same thing. I gotta upset the apple cart and rebuild it. You know, sometimes you gotta tear it down and rebuild it.

Tony Holland: Yeah, that's the challenge we're having in all our communities. And we need strong male leadership. And I talk about that all the time.

And I know might say some things that might be offensive to some people, not offends you, so be it. But, you know, a woman can't run the show on her own.

We need men.

We need men in these lives. And it's unfortunate, Reginald, what's happened to certain communities back in the 60s when they were literally incentivizing men and not being home. And look at the devastation you never saw before the 60s.

You never saw men leaving the household. You never saw that. Especially in the black community. They were in the house, they were raising families, and they started incentivizing women, women in the 60s, to not have men in their lives.

Ain't that something.

Ain't that something? We got to counter that to men. So that's what. Another thing I did, Reginald, I had to be fathers to the fatherless. It teaches that in the Bible.

I had to be the fathers because of what our government has done to people. I'm not going into politics, but I'm just touching a little bit. This was done by design in the 60s, and it's messed up an entire community for generations now when they were incentivizing men not to be in the home and telling women,

you can raise these kids by yourself. Look at the end result. It's sad.

We need to take it back. That's something. I used to go on a coaching circuit is to coach coaches, how to coach high school and college and youth. You all have to be in these men's life more now than ever.

What's. What's going on?

I mean, stuff they're trying to teach these kids and trying to feminize these boys and try to do things. It's sad. We need to counter that. We need to come in these kids lives.

So part of my mission, Reginald, back then, I wanted to be the. The father to these five of us.

You know, I know my kids, you know, at the time, didn't understand it. My boys, because I was raising my boys with them, they may not understand. They understand it now because those kids needed me.

They needed our family. They needed us every week. And you wouldn't believe, Reginald, I used to do this at the end of each game, there was an incentive. You win this game,

y' all get to choose what you want to do.

In the beginning, we went to Dave and Buster's. We went to Chuck E. Cheese. We went to something fun for the kids. Let's go race car driving coach. Let's go bowling.

And then one person said, let's go to Coach Tony's house.

Go to Coach Tony's house. You ever seen his house? I lived in a palace. They're like, let's go to his house. Guess what? Every game there happened for the rest of that season.

Coach Tony's house.

They wanted to chill at Coach Tony's house. I welcomed them kids in. They slept at the house. You know, we had, you know, beds set up for them. And, you know, if the weather was nice, they would sleep outside in tents.

And, man, we were just having a good old time. Fireworks, cooking out.

Every game. Saturday night,

they were hanging out with Coach Tony.

Coach Tony's house. Coach Tony's house.

Because I wanted to put that what it means To a man, one night,

legend all this kid was up walking around 4 o' clock in the morning. He had the same complexion I did, didn't know his father, mixed heritage. And he pulled me aside, he said, coach Tony, I said, what you doing?

He's just walking around the house like this, like he was in a museum. Because I ain't never seen anything like. I never seen a man live like this,

let alone a black man live like this. I never seen this in my life.

Well, what did that see to them? That kid's all playing ball in college. You see what I mean? You never know the impact you're making these kids life. I walked on them, into my home and loved on them.

See, that's what we miss in this world. These young men, the right part of male love, you know, to show them discipline, show them work ethics, show them there's a better way to live, that you don't need to take that route.

There's a better route for you and there's a destiny for you that God has in store for you. And you're going to change the world yourself. That's what I was doing.

I was building future leaders in our society.

And we need more men doing that. We do.

Reginald D: And you play football yourself.

Tony Holland: Yeah.

Reginald D: So let me ask you this. Did you ever dream of becoming an NFL player?

Tony Holland: Yes, I did, man. Yeah. I actually got a chance to play pro, but it was Canadian ball and I turned the offer down.

It was for the Baltimore Stallions and Baltimore had a team there and they were doing an open tryout. It was a walk on tryout. I was already selling insurance.

You know, I was a pretty good football player. I went to Johns Hopkins. I did okay, but it was like an open tryout, so it wasn't nothing special. I got a phone call and I said, what's the pay?

They get 40 grand a year if you make the team. I'm like, nah, I'm already making 100 plus. Like, I'm good.

My knees need a break anyway. I definitely played football. All you got to do, Reginald, is look at my knees. You can tell what position I played to.

So yeah, I did have that opportunity. I had a dreams of doing it big, but I realized reality setting. God had a better, better destiny before. But I do a lot of work coaching with guys in the NFL, a lot of mentorship there as well, and helping them understand money,

entrepreneurship, how to be a man,

you know, different life decisions. So I do that on that level as well, Reginald.

Reginald D: So, Tony, what's the biggest lie Young people are believing right now that's holding them back from their potential.

Tony Holland: The biggest lie. That's a great question. Great question.

The biggest lie is what they can't do.

What they can't do.

I believe they can do anything they want to do.

Whatever is derived in their heart is born into their spirit. They can do the word desire.

Desire is Latin for of the Father.

If you desire it,

God wants you to have it.

The biggest lie at the young people are taught is they can't do this. You can't do this. You can't do that. You just this, you just that. You can be anything you want to be.

You can be the next Elon Musk if you want to be.

You can be anything you want on this world, in this planet, okay? As long as you keep God first and it's something you desire in your heart and you're doing it for the right reason, God will bless you.

And even though I didn't make it to the NFL and didn't play Canadian football,

God blessed me in a whole better way. Because sometimes your audience doesn't hear this race.

Sometimes that desire has a bigger desire that God has for you than the one that you have to make a bigger, better impact.

I had no idea I'd become an owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

I had no clue that was going to happen in my life. God opened that door for me.

I got a dream. I tell people about dream boards. We can do a whole other session on that, Reginald, on another podcast, but you got to have a dream board of things you want desire in life.

You know, my main ones, I wanted to be the father that I didn't have. So I had a picture of a man and a father when I was young and single.

I had a picture of that I learned about through Jack Canfield, the author Chicken Soup for the Soul,

about the power of dream boards and Tony Robbins. And I had a picture of the car I wanted, the house I wanted, the woman I wanted, the kids I want.

I had everything on my dream board, and the good Lord blessed me with that.

Every single one on a dream board. But I never had the Baltimore Orioles on my dream board. I had the Baltimore Ravens. I wanted an NFL team,

but I'll tell you, the Major League Baseball team. Maybe God is prepping me to get the NFL team, so maybe that's it.

So.

So I think that's important, Reginald, to make sure you understand that if it's in you, God wants you to have it. Keep him first.

Pursue that goal. Pursue that dream and you'd be surprised. He may surprise you with even a better dream or goal that he has in store for you.

Reginald D: Yes. Because his ways is not always his thoughts and not our thoughts.

Tony Holland: Amen.

Reginald D: All we have to do is just push towards what we desire and the goals we have set.

And then if he takes a left or takes it right or whatever he does with it, just got to trust him.

Tony Holland: Amen. And I'm going to tell you this too, is make sure people understand where they are and where they're coming from. Whether you're 12 years old, listen to me, or you're 52 years old,

you can be 80 years old,

God still has a plan for you.

No matter where you are on that spectrum, that age spectrum doesn't matter if you're, like I said, you're pre teen or you're a grown man or even retired. There's still greatness within you.

Les Brown used to say, there is greatness within you. You. But you got to be hungry.

You got to be hungry and you got to want it, but you got to do the things necessary to get it. It's like everybody sees me drive. I drop a beautiful Rolls Royce, brand new black badge, and people come up to me at the gas station, what did you do?

Everybody wants to see the glam.

No one wants to see the grind.

It's like Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players ever. I think he's probably in the least of the top five. There's nobody better than Jordan. I don't care what any of these youngins say about LeBron.

He ain't even in the top five to me. But Kobe used to talk about that. You see the glory and the accolades, but you're not seeing the hard work. And I'm in the gym at four in the morning while everybody else is sleep.

You got to be willing to pay the price. You got to be hungry. You got to be willing to grind.

So the glory and the end result is because of the grind. They see the cars, they see the jets, they see the homes on the beach. And I mean, I live an incredible lifestyle who do the grace of God.

God's given me this. He's just letting me use it. You understand that?

He's let me use it to help prepare his kingdom, to help sway people into the right direction versus going down the wrong direction, which is going on right now in our society.

A lot of these political leaders that are guiding these people in the wrong direction, you know, God using me for his greater good.

It's his stuff, not Mine.

I want to make sure your audience understands that.

Reginald D: Yes, exactly. Because some people will get it twisted, you know? But at the end of the day is God's. And he's given it to you, and he's blessed you with it, you know?

Tony Holland: Right. It doesn't happen by osmosis, Reginald. You can pray all day long.

I remember I tried this in college. I didn't study for an exam, so I just prayed over my books and slept on them and said, God, give me the wisdom of this book.

Guess what? I still didn't do well on that exam.

You gotta still study. You got to put it in the work. I'm like, that didn't work. I thought God answered my prayers. No,

you still got to put forth the word, okay? You hear me? One step word. God will come ten steps toward you. Faith without works is what?

Reginald D: Dead.

Tony Holland: Dead.

Okay? So I'm letting your audience know. Yes, you need to pray.

Yes, you need to have faith.

Yes, you need to follow the code and follow God's plan. But you got to put forth the daggone work, okay?

Those championships didn't come just for us praying.

Those championships and those scholarships for those kids did come for just praying. Yes, we pray before each game and after each game.

Yes, we did all the faith. We did, but we put in the work. Get this. Regular people used to come out, watch my team play, and they were blown away.

I mean, literally, from as far as California. They fly. I gotta come. I'm gonna be in D.C. drive up to Baltimore, watch y' all practice. They will watch my practices and know every one of them come out of it.

Some of the best coaches in the country goes, I see what you're doing. I said, what? You do more today than we do all week.

Those two hours of practice, them kids are humming, man. They like a machine.

And everybody said that. Yeah, we putting in the work. Everybody thought we had some, like, gifted. Yeah, our kids were gifted. Or I was recruiting kids illegally. So everybody. You know, losers do that.

They think you cheat. I'm like, check my kids. Check their age. Check their IDs. They real kids. Check where they live. We following the rules.

We are working, y'. All. You've got to put.

And the work.

Faith without works is death.

Reginald D: Yep, exactly. And when you're talking about that, and we was talking about football, and then you talked about the Baltimore Ravens, something clicked with me. What's that like?

And we talking about putting in the work to be successful. So what popped in my mind was somebody like Ray Lewis, one of the Greatest that ever did it.

Tony Holland: Yeah.

Reginald D: You know, he was a God fearing man. He believed in God, but he was the one, the best ever did it because he put in the work.

Tony Holland: Yeah.

Reginald D: You meet him on the field, you're gonna have a bad day.

Tony Holland: Oh, oh, yeah. You gonna feel it? Not just today, you're gonna feel it for about a week.

Reginald D: Right, right.

Tony Holland: I know where I've done some fundraisers for him. And you know, Ray's a great man, great man of faith. And he's made a lot of mistakes, you know, I mean, we all have.

We're imperfect, human through Christ, he's made us. Right. Okay. So I just want you to audience to know that doesn't matter where you come from or what you've done, the mistakes you've made, God can still bless you all in the same.

Reginald D: Exactly. So Tony, what's more dangerous for today's youth? Lack of opportunity or lack of discipline?

Tony Holland: Oh, that's an easy. That's too easy.

That's the easiest question you asked me, man.

Any opportunity.

Opportunity everywhere,

it's opportune. And sit on this little device, this iPad, this opportunist on this spring water,

there's opportunity selling this mug.

There's opportunity in medicine, there's opportunity going into law.

There's opportunity being an influencer. There's opportunity being a code. I'm paying coders, one of my companies a half billion dollars a year. Be a coder.

Plenty of opportunity.

Dude, I went to a conference. I was one of the VIP speakers at a conference of multi.

What's called,

of family offices. What a family offices. Because that's what I'm here now to coach on another level. The other game being played, Reginald, the billionaires game and helping people understand equity and acquisitions.

And how are people doing all these things and things I never knew about until the most recent past in my life.

I meet some of these people, man. I did a speech. I was one of the VIP speakers, Tom Usher, like we're doing today. And I did all these things. And this family Office Group, there's 400 and some people from all across the world.

From Dubai,

South Africa,

South America, Europe, you name the country, they were there.

Family offices. People wanted multiple billion dollar finances for the wealthiest people. I know the Vanderbilt family people were there and the Rockefeller, I mean, it was just incredible audience. I'm like, man, I was just like blown away even being their presence.

Hey, we're the people like us, they figured out the system.

That's what I'm here to teach this the system. There's a system,

they know the system. It's no different than the combination lock.

If you don't have a combination of formula, you ain't open that lock no matter how hard you try.

There's plenty of opportunity out there, Reginald.

There's plenty of opportunity out there. Just need to know the formula.

And it comes down to discipline.

So the answer question that's easy is discipline. There's all there. I'm sitting on it and everybody's pitching me because they want me to invest in their businesses and their startups because they were startup people there, wealthy people, billionaires there.

And I'm like, I couldn't believe some of the ideas I saw. There are people creating all kinds of amazing things. There's almost too much opportunity. What's wrong with you?

You could do anything or have anything and be anything you want. There's opportunities being created right now we never even thought of Reginald.

So the biggest problem, no doubt, 110%, a thousand percent, is discipline.

That's what we taught our kids on the football team. We're going to teach discipline.

And that's why we crushed those teams that didn't have the discipline. They had more talent. They had all these top ranked kids. They already had D1 offers who beat their tail.

I don't care how many T1 offers you got on your team. We're kicking your hell. And twice on Sunday we wanted to score up to 60 points. We gonna mercy rule y' all by halftime.

The referee is going to come over and have a call. Timeout, so you stop scoring, okay? We're not going to let you all take the ball back on offense no more.

We're going to beat you all so bad, okay? And we did that many times because we taught discipline,

discipline. We blocked and tackled better than everybody else. We weren't the fastest, we weren't the biggest, we weren't the strongest. Even though we competed well there. We were the best at blocking and we're the best at tackling.

You gotta be great at the fundamentals. No matter what you decide to do, whether you go into medicine or you go into Wall street or you go into real real estate or you go into insurance, you go into the ministry, you have to be disciplined, period.

Without discipline, doesn't matter what the opportunity is. You wouldn't believe how many people I've offered the opportunity and what I do.

And they fall through,

they fall right through, fall right through the cracks.

It's easy to show up. Day 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Maybe for the first month. Where are your month two? Where are you month three?

And that's my job as a leader, is try to keep people on the path. And that's what I did with that team.

You know, I made sure they came to practice or you didn't play. I made sure they were disciplined. I instilled discipline. And sometimes those kids hated it. Most of times, they hated it.

They hated them hills. I got people in my companies they hated. Sometimes I disappoint them and got on them, okay, I will chew on you. I tell them. I tell, I'll chew on you.

I'm gonna chew on you, Reginald. I chew on you, I' ma chew on you. I'm not gonna let you fail.

And that's, to me, is a sign of great leadership.

You don't want to see your people fail. I told people yesterday in my speech while I'm doing this, 70 entrepreneurs, I don't want to see y' all fail.

So I am going to chew on you. So if you call me, want coaching and mentorship, I'm going to chew on your tail. I'm gonna wear your tail out. I did a speech yesterday morning to my audience of women.

I do a women's group. I chewed on. And one girl even said this. Her name was Toisha out of Houston. I want to thank you for chewing on me.

I was so mad at you. I said, I'm glad you were mad at you. But look at you now. You killing it. You running it. You're making it happen. You making more money you've ever made in your life.

But you need to be chewed on. You need to be disciplined,

you know? And she in her late 40s, single mom, went through a divorce.

I said, you need to be more disciplined now than ever. You got plenty of opportunity. You want the smartest people in this industry?

You need to stop shucking and jiving.

I told the rest of the ladies on back ball. I got on all of them. I'm like, y' all gotta start playing ball.

Y' all playing tic tac toe when you need to be playing chess. Let's get out of the shucking and jiving game and get disciplined and get out because the opportunity is prevalent.

We got more opportunity I've ever seen. It's amazing, Reginald, the opportunity we have. It's amazing.

You got people on this smartphone right now making millions. Guy was talking to me the other day, making a million dollars a month on stuff he's doing on social media.

He does business and T shirt and a pair of shorts and Flip flops every day.

That's amazing.

He created a platform. It's a coaching platform. People buy into it every month. He's got this training platform he picked up. Everything's recorded, everything's automated, and boom, boom, boom. He making a million dollars a month, cash.

That's amazing.

So plenty of opportunity.

We need more discipline.

Reginald D: Well, but well put. So, Tony, how has your faith played a role in your journey from your lowest moments to your greatest success?

Tony Holland: Reginald I've been in the top of the mountain, and I've been the lowest low of the valley.

I've been in the pit more than once.

More than once.

There's times I brought the tears sitting in the church, just sitting there by myself for hours, praying, God, where are you?

I remember one time I was going through the hardest time of my Life back in 2015.

It was I was with my coaches. In fact, I used to take my coaches on a retreat to get ready for the season.

It was the middle of summer, before summer practice. I took them away for a week.

I was going for the toughest time of my life. I went out on the ocean.

I was screaming at God in the middle of the storm that people started looking for me. I was in the middle of the storm, screaming at God, yelling at him,

mad. I was hurting, man. Been hurt. I was hurting. I was crying like you wouldn't be like a baby on the inside. They didn't see it. I was hurting. I was going through something and through the grace of God, into that electrical storm.

And I was out there, probably could have died.

But I'm like, God, you gotta help me, you know? And God was always there. In my toughest times, God was always there. And I'm tell you something, Rachel, it's so true, man.

I'm telling at least a half dozen or so times I've reached that bottom, that pit from the van, that situation happened in 2015,

to some other issues and business that brought me to my knees every single time. Reginald.

God blessed me out of that.

If it wasn't for that situation in 2015, I wouldn't have done my DNA test and found my father. That prompted all that and many other great things that came out of it.

I had an issue with an insurance company that I helped found and start. They tried to steal my money,

got pretty much removed me, took all my people that I built. Cut me out. Here I'm making 3, 4, 5 million dollars a year.

I was pretty much without a position.

And they gave me my stocks back, but they wanted to hold my Future revenues, which was worth millions. I had to sue them for eight years for over a million dollars.

That one adversity,

that evil, that company those people tried to do to me,

God turned into one of the greatest bus of my life. I came a legend in another industry, in the Medicare industry.

Started a whole company that dwarfed that company that did me wrong. And then I ended up, after eight years, I won that case.

And it was in Macon, Georgia, actually, where it was held. I won the case after 4. 2. 2 times in the appellate court,

2 times in the circuit court.

Even went to the Georgia Supreme Court. I won and got all my money, plus interest. And the interest check. Reginald was pretty sweet. It was a nice interest check. It was beautiful.

So what I tell you this, Reginald. For all those adversities, the good Lord was there.

And you've ever seen that story, the poem about the footprints and the sands? You ever seen that?

That is so true.

Those moments when I thought I was alone. I only once saw one set of footprints. That's all I saw. Where you at, God? Like when I was out on the water, where you at?

God was carrying me those times.

And that's so true. God will be carrying you at those worst moments. And there's a greater good out of that.

He will bless you through that adversity. And part of that's in my book that's coming out. I got a book coming out. I talk about those adversities,

those stones to success.

God is using the adversities as stones to get you to that next level. I would have never got to where I was if it wasn't for those six crisis in my life.

Those six stones put me where I am today.

God promotes through adversity because you learn more through that.

Especially guys like us.

What Mama said back in the day, you know. You know, a hard head makes for a soft behind sometimes. We don't learn when things are good. We learn when things are tough.

Men learn from things are tough. When there's a crisis, when your back's against the wall and all you got left is to fight your way out, that's when your greatest blessings come.

So that to me, right there, perfectly answered the question in terms of what that meant to me.

Reginald D: Yes. And I want to go back to what you said about that company that did you wrong and then you ended up winning and then some.

Tony Holland: Yeah.

Reginald D: You know, God say what he'll do, what he'll make your enemies your footstool. Right.

Tony Holland: Yeah, exactly.

Reginald D: So he's true to his word.

Tony Holland: He did Man. And it's shocking me. They couldn't believe it. I had friends still at the company. Matter of fact, it was a Georgia company down in Thomasville, Georgia. And I was there 10 years, building a dynasty.

Made that company a lot money. And they used to talk about me.

And they go, we're gonna make Mr. Holland bleed. We're gonna make Tony Holland bleed. The president of the company,

who was the son of the CEO, would always tell people, we gonna make them bleed. Yeah, they made me bleed, all right.

They made me bleed. And look what it did. Look at that. Blood did for me, through the grace of God, what it did for me. So people couldn't believe it, he said.

They started to find out I was doing better than ever. They couldn't believe it. See, God will prop you up in front of your enemies.

Right?

Reginald D: Right.

Tony Holland: The Lord's Prayer talks about that, right? Psalms 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He make me lying in green pastures. He lead me side of still waters.

He restores my soul.

Right. We all know that prayer.

Yeah. Though I walk through the valley of shadows of death,

I shall fear no evil.

For thou art with me Thy ride. And I staff, they comfort me.

He prepares the table before me in the presence of whom my enemies that prepares for my head with all my cup runeth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

That's in that prayer, right?

Yes. Psalms 23.

So many times. God will prop you up in front of your enemies. When I was coaching, I was hated by everybody.

I had people all over the county coming at me, emails. I had people threaten me. At the end of the day, people wanted to fight me. They tried to ban me from a leg one year because we were so dominant over those years,

you know?

Guess what? God kept propping me up in front of my enemies.

I kept winning coach of the year.

Newspaper article about this. We just kept doing well. The more they tried to tear me down, God kept propping me up. Isn't that amazing? That's the glory of God. That's how great God is.

Even when you have people coming down on you, long as you stay focused, stay on his plan, keep him first. He'll prop you up in front of your enemies. Isn't that amazing?

Reginald D: Yeah, amazing. It's amazing. So, Tony, what would you say to a young person right now who feels like they don't have the resources, connections, or support to succeed?

Tony Holland: Well,

I was one of them.

So I understand that.

You know,

and sometimes all you got is. All you got is God. That's it. You and God.

I have a quote, me and God versus the world.

And there's many times it's been that way.

So long as you got God, that's your first resource. He'll provide everything else.

You understand that?

So if you want it more tangible,

get that right. God will open doors up for you. So right now, I remember when I was a kid going back a little bit, I had to go to the library to learn.

Now I can use a smartphone that we're talking on right now to learn.

I can get any education where I can learn how to code. I can know how to do M and A deals. I know I can learn how to do acquisitions.

I can learn how to do equity deals. I can learn how to do real estate deal. I can learn anything I want on a smartphone now. So the resources are there,

and then there's financial resources. I mean,

you know, in my business, you only need a few hundred dollars to start getting business. There's many companies out there. You don't need any money. Start where you are and go as hard as you can.

And if you're starting a business, you want to be an entrepreneur, they have grants, they have seed funding. There's plenty of resources financially, there's educational resources, okay? There's financial resources, there's spiritual resources at your local church.

There's plenty of resour out there, okay? You need to just sit down, tell people young, you need to set down and decide,

what do you want?

Get a pen and a paper and let God speak through you. I always told people, you got to learn how to pray, right?

And you got to learn how to meditate, right?

See, Kurt goes up in silence, meditation comes down.

And some people say, tony, what am I supposed to pray for?

See, I pray for other people to be blessed. I know God's going to bless me. They go, what do you pray for? In version I? Thank God I learned this from the great Zig Ziglar.

I never said, God, give me the home and God do the. And God said, God, if it's your will, let it be done.

I said, but I want to go ahead and thank you for this home. If it's meant to be,

it's up to you. I'm going to thank you for this car. I want to thank you for the. I think you know what I do. I learned this from Zigzag.

And it's true, Rachel. I thank God for all my blessings.

So even if you're in a tough situation like me in the van, thank him. At least got a van to be in. At least you're not on the street. At least you got something.

Thank God you ate a meal today. Maybe, you know, I had to eat off plate. There's someone that didn't like to steak. I ate off somebody's plate. That's okay.

But I'm thankful I had that plate to eat off of. I'm glad I had a job. Be thankful I learned this when you pray and you thank God for the blessings he's already given you, no matter you think they're small.

Your small blessings are big to somebody else,

especially living in this country.

Do you know how many people in Africa would love to have your blessing? Or in South America, there's a reason why they dig in tunnels to come to America, okay?

Because it's a mess everywhere else. Don't be brainwashed by all that nonsense that you see with these politicians. And as one political party has done more harm to the black community.

I'm gonna go there than any other entity. It's sad when people step out of it. And real. Cause I'm a registered independent. You step out of it and see what's really going on.

You see what's really going on. We need to be thankful to the good Lord, the blessings you do have, and quit. Listen to that nonsense. There is a God and he is real,

okay?

You are the apple of his eyes. He made you in his own image.

He has great things in store for you. Don't believe that **** that you're hearing on those politicians or in the media. Don't listen to that mess.

That's a fraud.

You understand that? That's deception by design. You keep certain people where they want to keep them. I'm trying to show people how to get out of that.

Hopefully that was helpful, Reginald, to you.

Reginald D: Yeah, definitely. So, Tony, if you could talk to your younger self living in that van today, what would you say?

Tony Holland: Wow.

Hey, that's ******** so bad.

You know, that paneling ain't so bad. You know that oil that's leaking from the front and the gas in the back, it ain't so bad. The smell can be okay, you know, you're not going to blow up.

I was worried about that. I used to have to jack it up and I said, at least enough gas in it that I didn't lose the gasoline in it. I would say, you know what?

It's going to be all right. God has a plan for you. Stay on Point, stay on point.

Keep setting your goals,

Keep learning from others.

That's one thing.

I leverage other people's knowledge, the right kind of people. Whether it was in the spiritual world,

you know, with great ministers that ministered me in my life, to great coaches,

to great business leaders,

it's going to be all right. One of the tips I'll give your audience. While I was in that van, one thing I did, I remember getting a converter for that, a track.

And I would get cassettes and I would learn everything I could, I memorized. I committed that whole year,

that year, that old self,

Reginald, that I don't know any millionaires or billionaires, but I can have them ride beside me while I'm living out of this van.

So I was always listening to people that were up here so I can get that knowledge. I had to brainwash myself.

So even though I didn't have the right guidance,

I sought the right guidance through God and through getting mentors and listening to those cassettes over and over again. So I would say that younger self, that 23 year old me,

that it's going to be okay.

You know, God has a plan, he has a destiny to stay the course,

you know,

get rid of the distractions.

We talked about that earlier. Too many distractions. And stay focused. It's just like a magnifying glass.

You remember, Reginald, when you were kids, you got your first magnifying glass. First thing we did is start burning up ants, the caterpillars. Right. And he has a firecrackers. Right.

If you did this with a magnifying glass, you kept moving that all over the place. Did you ever take fire? Nope.

Couldn't get anything to start. But you not only had to hold it still, you had to focus it where that point hit the spot. Right.

That's the same thing in life.

You gotta focus your energy focusing on light and harness.

As you harness the sun's energy through that magnifying glass, you harness God's energy through you and boom.

It ignites.

You create the life of your dreams.

So prayerfully, that was a message that falls on good ground with your listeners.

Reginald D: Yeah, that was great.

Tony Holland: You're welcome, brother. You like that analogy? A book. I'll come out with the magnifying glass. Right, right. Spiritual aspects of the magnifying glass.

Reginald D: So toe, let's go back real quick. So the band had a black and white TV in it, right?

Tony Holland: Yeah.

Reginald D: Did you have cable?

Tony Holland: No, no cable. Ain't no cable. No. We had rabbit ears. Remember the rabbit ears?

Reginald D: Yeah.

Tony Holland: And we Put aluminum foil on the edges so we get the reception better. And we used to change the channel with a little pair of pliers because the knob would always fall off.

Right? So you have that little needle nose pliers to change the channel.

That's what we had. Ain't no cable. Rich people had cable.

Reginald D: So, Tony, this is what I have. I have what I call quick fire questions.

Tony Holland: Go ahead, brother.

Reginald D: All right. Let's have a little fun on this.

Tony Holland: Let's do it.

Reginald D: What's one hard truth about success that people don't want to hear but need to hear?

Tony Holland: Watch the people that you welcome into your circle.

Reginald D: Got it.

Tony Holland: Not everybody is there for you and for the right reason. Watch who you are in your circle.

Reginald D: Got it. What's one word that defines a young leader who's built to win?

Tony Holland: One word. Built to win. Dominant.

Reginald D: What is the ripple effect?

Tony Holland: Oh, the ripple effect. That when you make an impact and you focus and harness that energy,

it's like dropping that rock into the pond. It creates a ripple effect.

Your energy, your synergy, you're like a catalyst that can transform not only your neighborhood, the community,

your state, but transform the world. That's the ripple effect.

That positive impact is the ripple effect.

Reginald D: Got it. Got it. So how does keeping God first influence your mindset of lifting others as you climb?

Tony Holland: Say that again. I got to get that question. Say it again.

Reginald D: How does keeping God first influence your mindset of lifting others up as you climb up?

Tony Holland: Well,

we're part of a community,

not just a physical but a spiritual community,

you know, and as I lift others up,

it actually does lift me up. Because,

you know, they have a saying, you know, rising tides lift all ships. In my main office in Dallas, we have a actual painting and artwork of that, of rising tides lift all ships.

See, there's two types of great leaders in the world.

There's those that tear people down to make them look bigger,

and there's others that raise people up so they get up together.

Rising tides lift all ships.

So by me pouring into others,

leading with God first,

we all can get there together as a community, as a team, as an organization.

Just like those state championships and those 13 straight championships, league championships,

we did it together as a team.

If you block and you tackle and you catch,

okay,

you do your part. Together, we win as a team. So rising tides will lift all ships.

So be keeping God first and leading with a God first mindset and having others do the same. We can lift each other up together. Pray that was the answer that you were hoping for.

My friend.

Reginald D: Yes. That's great.

So you are now part of the Baltimore Orioles.

If you were a player,

what would your walk up song be if you stepped into the bat,

Tony Holland: man? Well, that's a question, man. You got some really, really good question. My woke up song.

Well, when I was a little kid,

my mama would take me to football games and played for the little pee wee football game they called midget football.

And we played for the midget football Redskin team, Brunswick Redskins. And my song she played in the car was called a Ain't no stopping us now.

Ain't no stopping us now.

We on the move. That was my song. That be my walk on song. Ain't no stopping us now. Ain't no stopping us now.

We on the move.

Reginald D: That's it.

That's it. That's a good one, too.

So, Tony, lastly, let me ask you this.

If you had the pick or you stepped up to the plate against Cal Ripton Jr.

Or you trying to strike him out?

Tony Holland: Oh, I'll strike him out.

He ain't hitting on me.

I love Cal. I mean, I got to know him pretty well. One of the nicest, decent men I've ever met. I mean, that guy is awesome. I mean, I've met a lot of superstars.

I mean, he's, you know, he's the original iron man and wonderful man. But yeah, I want to strike him out,

you know?

Yeah. Especially at the bottom of the ninth,

World Series on the line,

you know, but he'd be on my team, though. That's the only thing I would have him on my team, though. He'd be on my. But if I was on the opposing team, I'd want to strike him out.

Reginald D: Got it.

Tony Holland: At the bottom of night, bases are loaded, you know, I'd have to strike him out.

Reginald D: Yeah.

Tony Holland: Yeah.

I'm gonna take down the iron man. When the game was on the line, World Series is on the line, bases unloaded, he's up. I'm gonna strike him out.

Reginald D: You know, spec about in the most dramatic moment, right?

Tony Holland: Exactly, exactly. Because as a crowd, he go head on. He just needs a hit. He needs a hit.

You know, they're. They're down by one. They gotta tie it up. You know, I'm like, no, striking them out.

I'm sorry. Yeah.

I'm sending the iron man back to the bench. Strike out. We're taking on the World Series, but that's it. He would be on my team because he's on my team.

He's one of the minority owners, as you know, with The Baltimore Orioles. And I'm honored and blessed for that. I'm very humble for that. I'm a minority owner and never thought that would have happened.

There's some great, great other minority owners. David Rubenstein, our controlling owner, has been amazing. And you know, I mean, Mayor Kurt Smoke. And, you know, there's other great Kyle Ripon, just some incredible, amazing Grant Hill, if you, you know, Grant Hill,

famous basketball players, also minority owner. So, yeah, I'm very honored to be part of it. An elite club of amazing individuals.

Reginald D: Yes, man, that's definitely a blessing.

So lastly, Tony,

there's someone out here right now that's feeling like they can't make it in life. They have the goals, they have the dreams. And it seems like they're getting set back every time,

right. Not to pursue their dreams and pursue what they desire for their life.

And on the verge of giving up.

What would you tell them?

Tony Holland: I was there.

I was there many, many times. Wanted to give up, wanted to quit. I used to have quit days.

I just didn't quit.

I just didn't quit. I said, one more day, one more time.

And I would teach my kids, you know, when they were going through those challenges, playing sports from school. Give it one more day.

One day at a time. Go as far as you can today.

There'll always be tomorrow.

You can't do nothing about yesterday, but you can do something about the day.

You could do something about the day. Give it your best today. One more day. One day at a time. One more day. Can't do anything about tomorrow, but we can do something about the day.

That's the only day that matters, is today.

Today. Today matters.

And that's what I told him, you know,

don't give up.

Some people say this. We only live once.

You only live once, Mr. Holland. You only live once. You're right. You only live once. I heard that saying, but no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You die once.

You live every day.

Live every day to his fullest. Reg and all your audience needs to understand that things are going to be okay. Do the best you can for the day and live every day.

Good Lord has you understand you're being molded.

You're in a potter's wheel, you know, TD Jake, one of the best pastors out there that I've ever seen. He's electrifying,

you know, amazing pastor. You're on the potter's. We'll just understand.

Even though it hurts,

even though it's painful, even though you wanted to quit. And I had those quit Days. Take one day at a time. You're gonna be all right.

God is molding you for something greater. And the deeper and harder and harder to fire,

the better the outcome.

One of the greatest analogies I've used in this little talk here we're having this question, Reginald, is how diamonds are made. Diamonds are actually pieces of coal,

but under a lot of pressure and a lot of heat,

a lot of stress becomes a diamond. But it starts out as black hole.

And the more intense the heat and fire and pressure, the more pure that diamond becomes.

We're all diamonds in the rough.

We all start out as coal,

have enough and own enough and be enough. And through pressure,

through adversities,

through those quit days for those challenges,

those enemies coming at you,

things that you didn't expect to happen.

Baby mama problems. This challenge, that challenge. God is molding you to be a diamond that purest of purest diamonds so you could ultimately empath the world. So don't quit. Don't give up.

Understand,

you're in the potter's hand. He's molding you. You. And it might not be in a direction you expect,

but it's the destiny you're expected to be.

You'll be right where you're supposed to be. But just hang in there and understand there's a process being made. You coming in as cold.

Understand you rough.

You're diamond in the rough.

Understand God's working his miracles in your life,

and usually, as I said before, it's going to come through adversely. Just hang in there. There's a destiny for you, and you're going to be a great impact, or you'll make the biggest positive impact and you'll look back on it and one day you'll be sitting in the chair like I am today,

living your dream and paying it forward to others like I am today. And also, Mr. Reginald, Dave is paying for today.

Reginald D: That's it, man. I'm going to leave that right there.

Tony Holland: There you go, brother man.

Reginald D: I'm telling you, it's a blessing. It's a blessing. You've been a blessing.

Tony Holland: You've been. I'm proud of you, Reginald, for putting this platform together. I never knew who you were until about a week ago. I'm like, man, this just. It's incredible what you're doing, man.

I mean, you're really making a positive impact, and that's what I want to be about and be a part of. So it was an honor to be here today with you, Reginald, and your audience.

It was an honor.

Reginald D: Yes, sir.

Tony Holland: I bless you and everybody that you affiliated with. And every single person has listened to us today speak. May the good Lord bless you and your family. And everything you poured forth comes out with that positive impact to change the world.

Reginald D: Absolutely. Same here. So lastly, how can people follow you? I know you got a new book coming out. What do you want to tell us?

Tony Holland: Well, listen. Yes, the book is coming out. They haven't come out with a name yet. The publishers are working on that. So I'll let your audience know. Maybe we can do a Episode two together.

Maybe we could do that, Reginald. But they can find me. They can go to my Instagram site and they can DM me there.

The Tony Holland H O L L A N D Like the country V T H E Tony T O N Y Holland H O L L A N D and I actually take personal phone calls.

People are shocked. I give out my cell phone number and people shocked. I even pick up Reginald and I will chew on you. If you want Coach Tony in action, I'll bring it.

You'll be shocked what I say to people and it could help that fun. I did one this morning because I can't believe you poured into me like that. I will pour into you if you want it.

I'll give you everything I got. If you need enlightenment, you encourage me, need prayer. I'm always there. I have no problem helping people that are in need of help. And we need more of that in this world.

And you can also find me on YouTube. I have a YouTube channel you can check out my company, Global Premier Benefits. It's there. I mean, all you got to do.

I feel like that. Kurt Signetti.

Google me.

Google me.

Reginald D: That's it.

Tony Holland: All right, brother.

Reginald D: All right, Tony, man. I appreciate you, brother.

Tony Holland: Appreciate you, sir.

Reginald D: God bless you too.

Tony Holland: Yes. Enjoy it.

Reginald D: Thanks for listening to Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoyed listening to Real Talk with Reginald D, please rate and review on Apple Podcast. See you next time.