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Good morning, good evening, good night, good afternoon.
Don't give me copyright flag, though.
No, no, no, you can cut this out.
I sounded like a zombie.
Oh.
Just.
Yeah, in order to grow, you got to have like some kind of goals.
Good morning, good evening, good night, good afternoon.
Whatever time you're listening in, wherever you're listening from,
you could have been anywhere in the world, but you're here right now.
Let's take a moment to be present and recognize that it's now, right now.
Whether you're right now is working, running, driving, flying, recording a podcast.
Be thankful we're alive, baby.
Failure can be frightening.
However, as Winston Churchill reminds us, success is all about going from failure to
failure without losing enthusiasm.
This is I Will Not Lose podcast where we prove everything is learned from failure.
We must recognize it as one step closer to success.
I have a man who has gone through tons of trials and tribulations in his story of perseverance.
So I wanted to have him on and share his story as well as his creations that he's done.
We've got Mr. Ron Speakman, host of the FedUp podcast, almost 35,000 downloads, and he's
been doing it less than a year.
2,000 of those downloads came in the past week.
So this is the official announcement.
This was all organic growth.
This was all just creating it, hard work, and creating good content.
So we're going to get to know the man behind the mic.
Tune in.
hey it's good to be here tone thank you for having me yeah bro yes sir man i see you're
doing your thing too keep going man yeah yeah man perseverance no matter what you're doing it
whether your endeavors are uh podcasting or even just at your job you know so we'll get a little
bit into the fed up podcast but i wanted to go back and get the story of you fed up is built on
a lot of principles you know yes absolutely um main principles are structure discipline
and accountability you hear me talk a lot about those things uh but that's that's not just for
the podcast i think that's three important principles for us all as human beings to have
uh without structure discipline and accountability i don't think none of us can be shit within our
lives whether it be personal or professional that makes sense yeah so go on structure a little bit
what does that mean for you? Structure means for me is having a routine, but also having the
adaptability to improvise with that routine. Cause sometimes you have stuff that comes in
and you can't control. However, you can control what you can control and that's how you act,
how you react, whatever the case is. So, but have tried to have a routine business wise or
for your personal life. Yeah, no, I can relate with that a hundred percent. When I started
switching my routine up i make a personal routine for myself even being an entrepreneur you know
there's things i do every day at the same time and that helps a lot and that you you got to be
disciplined it's crazy because those tie right into each other you know if you're not disciplined
you can't have structure i mean i think mike tyson said it best discipline is doing something
that you hate to do but do it like you love it point blank and don't forget about consistency
too, right? Discipline and structure will kind of help give you that consistency. That's why I
talk about consistency because that'll play out on its own if you have discipline, structure,
and accountability. Makes sense. That accountability thing, that's a big one for
a lot of people. Everybody, I don't even want to say just claims to be the victim, but a lot of
people don't look at what their part was in a problem. Like even if you allow a problem to
happened to you is your fault for allowing it sometimes. Absolutely. 100%. And let's not forget
about the uncomfortable conversations that we all have to have. To first recognize there's a problem
going on, you have to have those uncomfortable conversations with others or even with yourself
for that matter, to recognize there's a problem before you can actually bring a solution to the
table. Oh yeah, man. Oh yeah. So these three principles, were you always that way? Was that
instilled in you early or where did that come from i think that was always with me i just didn't know
it at that time at that time as a kid growing up um you know when you go through things as a kid you
you just do things you don't take it you don't when we look back in hindsight we're like ah
that's why i did that that's why i acted the way i acted right but we don't we do when we do things
as kids i don't think we realize what we're doing positive or negative right and so we get older and
And then when we reflect on that, that's when we see the positive or negative that happened.
There you go, man.
Yeah.
That reflection is a huge part.
It's got to be a huge part.
Without it, we can't grow.
Yeah, man.
So take us back to the beginning.
You know, when did you really start on the path to instill this mentality?
I mean, you have somewhat of a structure that's given to you by school and things like that when you're a kid.
And then once you leave that, you know what I mean?
Like, where'd you go from there?
So for me, it was, I've been through stuff through the time I was born to seven years
of age that no child should have experienced.
And this is no way by any means a pity party, any kind of thing.
Listen, I don't have no regrets in my life whatsoever, but what happened to me is what
it is.
We talk about turning negatives into positives.
And again, I think I did that a lot growing up as some of us do without knowing it until
later on we get in life um like for instance i mean i grew up in the foster care system uh before
i even got to that point you know uh my real parents we we were poorest of the poor right uh
public housing i didn't we didn't even have that just times where i can look back and remember when
i was actually living under a tent uh for those of you familiar in allentown uh by parkettes right
there used to be that spot right there that they fenced off i remember being in that spot once in
a while as well um before well before obviously that was uh fenced off and stuff but just from
those hard times not knowing when your next meal is going to come from uh eating out garbage cans
um wearing the same clothes over and over obviously your hygiene takes a hit right um
so i i had to endure a lot even i mean physical abuse mental abuse um there's a lot of stuff that
played out that I overcame and endured, you know what I'm saying? So that made me who I was back
then without even knowing it because I had to do what I had to do. And then, you know, growing up,
obviously, you know, a lot of fights, a lot of, you know, I was pretty much the minority where
I grew up. So there was obviously a lot of fist fighting, had to become headstrong right away.
I think that's another key part. I think people are too sensitive today, you know,
people are too passive aggressive as well
we mentioned about talking about
problems and issues
that's what adults do we talk about problems
you know what I'm saying if you feel some type
of way because someone called you out on your shit
that seems like a self confidence issue
at that point maybe you need to do some
self reflecting and see where
you can grow where you can mature at
don't be mad because someone's trying to help you get to that point
and that was part
of my problem growing up as well I took
it the wrong way now I
i take it like a grain of salt but uh you gotta recognize there's a problem before you can fix it
man but um yeah well kudos to you man i'll just stop right there man i appreciate it well done
well done to be able to come out of that create a beautiful family beautiful legacy you know so
you were um you know as i was listening to we'll get into the work that i helped with uh with fed
up but so listening to the first episode you explained some things that you had to do with
the youth your um yes so i i helped run a boot camps for adjudicated youth uh from all over the
country and let me tell you one of the most humbling experiences i ever had um naturally
i've been through everything in the book i mean we didn't cover a lot here but i didn't if you
want to that's fine too i have no problem talking about it but uh i actually went to the police
Academy. I graduated the 83rd class in Allentown. I could never get on any police agency. I couldn't
get on any department. I was third or second place a couple of times. I could never crack
the top list. So I was like, you know what? I still want to do something. So I already had my
bachelor's. I'm sorry, my associate's degree. So I was going to get my bachelor's and I went into
criminal justice side of things on the the juvenile side um and when we had people from
like baltimore philly very few here in allentown um but i mean from all over the country virginia
so it was very it was rewarding but yet humbling for me man because i could relate to a lot of
their problems that's probably what made me great at doing what i did you know and i always joke
around when i see one one of them every now and then if i'm out in their city uh because it does
happen you will run into people eventually um and i i believe that listen you got to treat people
fairly man i don't hold grudges but at the same time someone may hold a grudge against you if you
don't have their best interests at heart you know and i don't for i don't know about you or anybody
else out there but for me i think it's important not to have to look over your shoulder constantly
yeah you know so that feels great it feels great um but i mean are you gonna make everybody happy
no you're not gonna it's just but again that comes down to the factor of control what you can not
what you can't someone doesn't like you that's not your problem control what you can which is
your actions your attitude right have an attitude of being you know have an attitude of gratitude
and help those around you um and i think they realize that i mean we always joked over there
where i'm going to ask you this question what's a greater motivator fear or respect
oh that's a tough one yeah that's a tough one i mean i go towards respect i go towards earning
respect so i guess i'd have to lean towards that one i don't know if i'm doing it wrong but there
is no right or wrong answers what you what you what you or the audience out there thinks so
i would choose respect too but and take it to just if you had a job working with adjudicated
of youth right i always ask some of the kids and they would say fear i would ask some of the
employees their fear of respect people will go respect so me i think fear and that aspect was
a greater motivator let me explain for them yeah that makes sense explain it's not in a negative
way right i don't want people to get the wrong impression um but you can have people respect you
yet there's a fear there that if i fuck up i'm going to be held accountable ron they call me s
s is gonna hold me accountable for if i mess up here right that's what i mean by fear is a greater
motivator in that aspect but fear and respect can also be one of the same right so it all depends
on what situation you're in what the circumstance is uh to lean towards either side of the fence
there with that but um it was both rewarding and humbling for me and so many stories man
so many stories um but yeah that's what structure discipline and accountability i tied that in with
that as well and we had the camp rules and then i would actually have three rules myself for
everybody because i would have the new kids come in the new clients come in i hate using that word
they're young men yeah yeah yeah right young men are coming in here who made a mistake
they're not bad people they made a mistake like we all make um so yeah we would come in and i
explain the rules to them and and uh but now here's my three rules and uh i being again being
through everything i kind of knew what kind of what they were dealing with because i get to read
the case files coming in i had the intake with them get to know them better they get to know me
better and um and listen i want to say this real quick kids ain't stupid young men these young men
are not stupid they know within the first 30 seconds of you being with you around you whether
you open your mouth or not if if you're a real one or not you understand if they're gonna get
over on you or gonna be like yo i gotta check myself i gotta watch myself with this guy you
know what i mean they're not dumb so let's give them all the credit in the world people think like
they have no you know they're dumb or whatever the case is they're not dumb they're they observe
their surroundings they're coming from a surrounding where they gotta watch regardless
these inner city youth are coming in here you know so give them the respect because if not
they're going to see right through you be who you are they're going to see right through you if
you're not but um i would have them come in and i would explain everything to them and uh it was
funny it got to the point where when they one would be discharged leaving they would be like
in philly for instance and they would be sitting there getting discharged another client would be
another young man would be coming in and he would cross paths and i would get brought up oh you're
going to this place oh hey oh my man s you lost my old head you know watching him you know this
and that. So they kind of knew about me to the point where when they got there, they already
knew who I was. So it was pretty cool to watch that grow and unfold, um, the impact that I've
made. Um, are there some out there who didn't like me? I'm sure there are, but for the most part,
um, it was nothing but love and respect, you know, cause I treated them like,
I treat them like young men. I didn't treat them like a client or a little kid. I, we addressed
everybody as sir you understand that's a respect issue right especially our youth today i feel like
there's no more respect today you know yeah and you can't i'm not going to sit there point the
finger at parenting we don't know the situations behind each of these young men's lives you know
but treating what respect and i mean the biggest thing is you you'll most likely get the same in
return you know but you also gotta remember they're young men they're not as mature they
didn't level up to where you're at so you also gotta keep that in mind so but one of my rules
was um because i understand we're gonna what if you have a bad phone call that day right we have
to keep that in mind as as adults so when i tell them one of my rules was because i would know all
the spots off camera on the facility so i said listen if there's an issue you call me okay i
don't care if you're in a different place on the facility you can tell whoever you're around that
you want to talk to us i would take them to one of these spots i call my office right off camera
right and instead of them hitting somebody else and causing them an extended sentence or going
off in the wrong person the wrong staff member i welcomed it and again it's not a negative thing
it's a positive thing because i understand that that bad phone call might have had an effect on
you right your your homie back home might have just got killed whatever the case is i understand
things that happen you can't process those feelings those emotions as a grown man can
sometimes right and listen some grown men out there some of y'all at worse than some of these
young men i'm just saying um but that's what that's one of my rules and that's why i did that
because i'm better equipped to deal with that stuff i understand it more but and i've had kids
young men swing on me and we got physical with it. But it gave them an opportunity to
get that frustration out. And that's what I wanted. And then after that, we processed,
we talked about what happened. Again, that reflection we talked about earlier.
I think that's a key component to, again, leveling up, maturing, understanding your
weaknesses or strengths. What can I do better in? If I'm in that same position, how can I
you know, react better the next time I'm in that position. That's why we, we, we call it
processing. Right. Um, but I feel that's important because that's, that's reflection, but that was
just an example of one of the rules. And, uh, it's, it's pretty amazing how you can overcome
so much in your own personal life. Um, like I did and, uh, turn that around and put that to good
use. Um, you have to, I mean, are you going to reach everybody? No, you're not. It's not your
job to reach everybody though like there's there's people this podcast reaches there's someone
listening in right now that's like man you know i can really relate with what he's saying then
there's somebody that might go in and be like ah you know why be like you said too sensitive
yeah there's two sensitive people that listen to the podcast there are you know but guess what
they're listening yeah no everybody takes something and then you get your one little
area you got to give back to what matters i had uh wesley morris i don't know if you got a chance
to check that episode out. I didn't check it out yet. I apologize. No, it's fine. He went back to,
I mean, long story short, he drove his bike 470 miles to South Carolina to speak to donors of
at-risk youth to a program. So to speak to the kids, to speak to the donors, and it's like-
I'm going to have to check that out now. Yeah. You have to give back in your way.
Let's just say, even if you had a million dollars, you can't donate to every single
charity and say, I want to fix everything. But if, you know, let's say cancer runs in your family
and that's something near and dear, you know, you lost someone, God forbid, it makes sense why you
would put your money, your efforts there, you know, so 100% super kudos. So now you took the
structure, discipline, accountability, and you moved towards a career in a federal career.
So I went from there. I went back to school. I had my daughter, she was born actually in 2012.
So I was working full-time, going to school full-time and then watching my daughter till
about 12, 1230.
And then I take her to daycare and then I would go to work.
So it was a lot on my plate.
But if you want to do something, if you want to be great, if you want to level up, if you
want a better life, it requires sacrifice.
I had to sacrifice going out.
I had to sacrifice time with my friends.
And I'm really, and looking back at it, I don't think I really sacrificed because my
friends knew what i was doing so we whenever time we had we kicked it you know i mean but they knew
i was grinding so but um yeah that structure discipline accountability man that comes from
a long line of obstacles i mean you know your podcast is called i will not lose and ironically
that was my attitude back then i ain't gonna lose you ain't gonna keep me down and you gotta have
that mentality whether you know it or not i promise you eventually if you keep going you're
gonna eventually realize that that is your attitude um case in point man when someone
told me i couldn't do something because i wasn't always the strongest or the biggest or the fastest
right but i had i'm all heart baby you know what i'm saying you ain't kicking me down uh yeah you
know um for those of you out there uh tony and i had a little uh uh exhibition if you will
and that was that was a good time man throwing around some jujitsu and wrestling moves with
some boxing yeah so it was it was kind of yeah that was a fun time we it was a walk walk through
guys okay i'm just gonna leave it at that for those of you who watch me trying to target me
it was a walk through um those of you watching it don't understand that more but uh no and for
for my old heads that still love to compete we were on the phone the next day like oh man my
back just yeah yeah well we walked it through and we still heard what's going on guys um that's good
them but uh it's it's you gotta have that mindset and be having all heart it's it's a it's a mindset
that's all it is you know i hate to use this because i think it's so corny but it's the rocky
thing you know i'm saying you know what what do they say uh it's not about how many times you get
knocked down it's about can you get back up right somewhere along those lines and there's no such
thing as an l for me i'm sorry there's not what i referred an l that everybody else would refer to
I refer to that as a teaching moment.
You can even say a mistake, but regardless, whatever way you call it, you learn from that
and you apply just kind of like how I was explaining how I process with these young
men when I work with them, I process with myself, you know, and I value my rude, my
upfront, my blunt friends, because they check me when I need to be checked.
And I need that.
We all need that.
so if you guys out there have a friend that is very outspoken cherish that man you hold on to
that friend male or female it don't matter if you're lucky you got both right because sometimes
you need a female point of view in certain things yeah yeah now i'm not talking about relationships
you know even though that may help but having that real person by your side is important man
and i and also i want to i want to say that if you're big on family like i am today if it wasn't
for my daughter i wouldn't be here today 100 she changed me i was i was a wild man back then crazy
but seeing her born um was the proudest moment in my life and when i cut that cord and she gave me
that smile right out the gate that was it for me like it it i don't want to say it softened me up
but it was reality check like it's not about me no more this is what it's about my daughter
this is my legacy um and i gotta give to her what i've everything i've gone through and learned
i gotta instill in her and i said i gotta be honest man 11 years she's a spinning image of
me but the best qualities of me when i was younger and even now yeah um and i gotta there's a saying
that um i am better i prepare today while others do nothing so i am better prepared when others
start preparing. If you ask her just the first two words, she will finish that term. She will
finish that sentence for you. So I'm glad that's instilled in her. And it's very important to me
that for her to realize that, because if you don't know, a lot of us, we don't, we don't know
our full potential. And sometimes you got to put yourself in uncomfortable positions to, to level
up, right. To be the best version of yourself. You got to challenge yourself. Otherwise, where
you going in life professionally or personally it doesn't matter um but yeah that ties back to
structure discipline and accountability as well right because being uncomfortable is a teaching
moment right for all for all of us no matter what you're in and i think i kind of got off track
there so i apologize tony but i think we're talking about structure discipline and accountability
there and uh having the heart right um to overcome any obstacle thrown like thrown that's thrown your
way and people out there you sell yourself short too many times when you give up there should be
no quit in you period uh keep pressing forward no matter how tough it gets um i can't tell you
how many times i've hit rock bottom in my lifetime numerous times whether i knew it or didn't know
it at that time um but you gotta be willing to keep going take the punches roll with the punches
right slip jab move dance right what muhammad ali say foot like a butterfly sting like a bee
that's it baby you gotta come back bring it back man don't let life smack the shit out of you like
get back up keep fighting enjoy the journey is what i'm saying right that's all i preach man
that's all i preach all the time i mean i don't like to i don't like to get to the end like the
i'm so like uh gary v talks about the clouds and the dirt and like there's the part that people
see that's the clouds that's the you flying on the plane to the convention and having fun and
doing stuff like that you know they see you fly to clearwater florida but then they don't see
in the basement cutting clips like yeah trying to make sure that this is going to hit by the
deadline and making sure you have a consistent schedule it's like uh that's the dirt that grind
yeah i get so addicted to the dirt this is why i know i'm going to be fine because i
will grind you know what i mean and just like what i appreciate it about you is fast forward
when we worked on the podcast and getting everything started you're like i gotta learn
this stuff yeah you know what i mean i can't have the first thing you said to me was i need a whole
team and i was like you know you're gonna get there yeah but it's hard you know it's hard
you gotta start and pave the way and you being a natural leader somebody's gonna come on to
it and help and want to take it right to the next level and you start filling in those pieces and go
from there but absolutely you know um it was uh it was really interesting that that heart and just
what what my point what i was getting at is my first impression of you like all right i'm gonna
go and learn now fast forward we've known each other for a few months now yeah maybe going on a
year but you figure um we've you've learned so much like you produce this podcast all on your
own all the growth is organic you manage a facebook community you're printing shirts you're
going out and flying and meeting with sponsors you know what i mean like you you do what a lot
of people want to check off a lot of people want to be podcasters they want to live that podcast
life you know and they want their voice to be heard you've been able to amass 30 40 i mean
you could fill an arena if you took everybody who's downloaded a podcast and not even the people
that's just downloads there's people that listen to it you could fill an arena right and have
everyone sitting in there listening to you speak man do you ever take a second to just reflect like
i know it's all about grinding and i don't but do you ever take a break and kind of like
reflect on it? I do once in a while. It's funny you said that. That's a good way of putting that.
And you're right. That's a lot of people that we could do something like that. And I was actually,
I have a five-year plan written down at home. So if everybody listened, I think it's important.
I know you do this. You have checkoffs. I have a five-year plan. And in that five-year plan,
I have short-term and long-term goals. And as I go along, because I'm sure you notice,
the most important factor if you're going to podcast is just take action you're not going
to have it perfect up front if you're trying to be perfect you're never going to launch
just just just fucking launch get it done and then learn as you go that's the most important thing
i'm still learning and and twisting and and and adapting to where this journey is taking me
um the people will speak the people will tell you what they like what they don't like
you're not going to please everybody and cater to every single one of your listeners out there
and that's okay just do it but yeah i do reflect and i part of my thing on my five-year plan
is i want to have a convention i want to have a fed up convention when we have guest speakers
right it's going to be great it's like our own quote-unquote ted talk but for yeah and for the
nation uh for my listeners out there i refer them to as fed up nation it just kind of grew into that
I didn't start with that in mind.
Before we get to the convention, go on that for a little bit.
Tell the listeners what FedUp is, how you came to put it together.
We didn't get to your career as a federal employee, but.
So when I left the running boot camps and stuff for adjudicated youth.
And listen, I don't know if you guys know, but shout out to Hassan Batts.
Promising neighborhoods.
him and i worked together for a little bit before he finishes uh his doctorate and everything and
started going with that project shout out to mr batsman i appreciate you much love and respect
out to you keep doing your thing and gun violence here now in town man um keep doing your thing
bass i love you man but uh yeah after i left there i applied with the united states postal
service out of shits and giggles i didn't think i'd get accepted i was like whatever
they they they hired me i got in the intake i take the score i got a call and yeah i started in
2015 so fast forward um i got injured on a job tore my rotator uh my short head bicep
and my uh my labrum so i tore those three didn't know it at the time worked through the holidays
that was in actually 2020, I got injured. So I believe it was July 2nd of 2020. If I got that
date wrong, I apologize, but it's definitely July, 2020 work through the holidays. And all this
ironically is what opened up my eyes and why I started fed up because when I got injured on a
job, that's when shit started changing for me. We talk about people being passive aggressive and
how we have canceled culture today, right? And how society has grown into what it is today.
I think we digressed. We didn't progress. I think we took a step backwards.
So when I got hurt and I got back into limited duty, I was being targeted, I was being retaliated
against. And this is where that wisdom and that maturity and that leveling up comes into play.
If I didn't go through everything I went through up to that point, I wouldn't have been as equipped
and ready to deal with what I was about ready to go through. And that was being targeted,
retaliated against, whether it be from coworkers, even management, the agency. It's a very toxic
and hostile workplace, even before you get injured. But when you get injured, it's twice as
bad. I think you and your audience knows I'm pretty much an outspoken person by now. I had
to check myself because I knew I had a federal disability put in. So I had to watch because
obviously if I get fired and now we're in a different territory here, right? So I had to
watch. So I felt like I was being censored in a way. And that was rough for me to handle because
that's not me. That's not in my nature. It's not my character. If I have a problem with you,
if you got a problem with me, let's handle it. And listen, I'm not saying let's go out on the
dock and have a fist fight. Now, if it gets to that and you cross that line, you better be
prepared because I'm not going to let you lay hands on me. But if you want to talk about something,
let's talk about it. You understand? And that was the biggest thing for me was to be censored like
that. But in going through everything that I did and shutting my mouth and just taking it,
I documented everything. Great report writing skills that came to me. I guess I kind of had
that. I was always a good writer. I spoke well for the most part, but I knew documenting everything
would have been important. And I had a two and a half year file of everything and it was going to
go somewhere then i got my acceptance for my disability so i had naturally i didn't follow
through in those two and a half years i let it be and i let it rock and i carried on my life i got
i removed myself from that toxic and hostile environment i won you know i yeah i will not
lose brother that's it you know but um it was it was and i'll do honesty and going through that
which was a tough time for me some people might have handled that better and that's fine but for
me it was tough because i don't it's hard for me to not stand up for myself not even that you can't
defend yourself i'm talking verbally obviously like attacks on your character absolutely you
had to shut up because you deal with a lot of passive aggressive people so when you're a type
a personality like we are right and you go and hey you must go out on a dog i want to talk to
you real quick meaning i'm trying to remove you from the audience the co-workers and the workroom
for. And I want to get to the bottom. What's your problem? You got a problem with me? Let's talk it
out. If you don't like me, listen, all good, brother. Keep it moving. But I'm not going to
let you sit here and bad mouth me like this. But even in doing something like that, they'll flip
it and, hey, you want to go outside? What's that translate to? You want to swing? You want to go
blows? You got to go fist a cup. So you got to watch yourself because these passive aggressive
of people treat you as an aggressor. So it was a double-edged sword for me. But it was humbling
because I needed that. I'm a true, firm believer. I know where everybody stands on their faith
and on their religion. I'm not going to make this about religion. Whatever or whomever you believe
in, that's great. But for me, it taught me that you don't always, number one, have to be right.
And you don't always, again, it comes down to control what you can and don't worry about what
you know, but you can't control. And I learned that going through those tough times. And I think
God put me through those tough times to, you know, to teach me that. But yeah, that's kind of led
into the podcast because I was going through, I went months without pay when you're injured on a
job. And you're going to remember the federal sector is a bit different from the state. So
OWCP, Department of Labor, it's a long process. And I think it's set up to make, it's for us to
fail and for us to quit and give up it's very tenacious and tedious stuff very tedious very
long and without without going too much off the cuff here but uh the toxic and hostile work
environments is one thing but now you have federal code of uh code of federal regulation cfrs right
it's federal law when management breaks this law and they're not held accountable but the minute
we step out of line we're retaliated against we're disciplined the chips are stacked against us
right people are scared to speak up they're scared to report an injury why because they're scared
being retaliated against or they're going to get fired fuck that you report that injury i mean
you're you're you're doing it for for those of you that don't know like a letter carrier which is
what i was a city letter carrier not a lot there's not a lot of professional athletes that would do
that job. Our job, and I'm not just saying this for, hey, be nice to your mailman, but just
to give the public a better understanding of what we do as letter carriers. Some of us walk 10 to
13 miles every single day, lifting, bending, stooping, simple grasping, fine manipulation,
climbing steps thousands of times a day, from casing our mail to delivering it, whatever the
cases you add that up over a couple years that's a lot that's a lot that's we put in work just as
much and if not more than some professional athletes and there's some professional athletes
who would tell you the same like they they wouldn't do our jobs for that reason and um that's
not to take away anything from them they're in great shape but so are mailman our hearts are
great you know i'm saying uh when i say hearts i mean medically health wise right yeah um because
Some of us can be assholes at times.
But in saying that, when you get injured on the job, it's just causes a headache.
There's a reason why I always say the most painful thing isn't an injury.
It's the process of going through that injury.
That's the most painful thing.
So I created FedUp, this platform, because the amount of shit that we got to deal with
and the people are scared to speak up.
I wanted to give the people a voice.
I wanted to give the people a platform.
When I say the people, I mean all federal employees.
I'm postal.
I'm retired from the Postal Service, but it comes down to we all deal with somewhat similar
issues when it comes to work injuries.
But I do believe the Postal Service is the worst federal agency out there.
So my platform, FedUp, it's a podcast that's for federal employees by federal employees
hosted by me, a retired federal employee.
You know, whether you're fed up with the mistreatment from your agency or management,
um the misrepresentation or lack thereof from your federal union and that can be at a national
or local level right um and basically the unjust and broken system whether it be the department
of labor or agency as a whole uh that we deal with on the constant regular i mentioned the
toxic and hostility of toxic and hostile work environments earlier that's a key component
but there's also what's happening out there is there's a lot of there's a lot of collusion
and corruption um being happening that's happening between these entities these organizations if you
will and agencies without saying too much because i don't want to get into some legal obligations
here so we'll call it alleged right um there's a lot of stuff out there that that's happens that
our own members don't know about federal employees are aware of for let alone the general public
right so that's why i do what i do to give the people a voice to help them get them options for
their particular situation i've been helping federal employees for about four years now give
or take so when i started the podcast last july it's like this is fun to me i enjoy doing this
so that's what led me to start the podcast and it's i would have never expected it to be where
were at today you talk about being humbled again once again i'm feeling humbled when when it's a
very thankless job to do what i do or for anybody out there that does what i do just maybe not on
the extent of what i'm doing or on my platform who still advocates for federal employees i applaud
you keep doing it we need more people like you we're too divided you know there's a reason why
i say united we stand but divided we fall you need to make something without getting political
here because i can't stand politics fuck politics man um it's it's it's political a lot of this
shit is political and the only way you're going to change anything whether it's that or something
else in your in your agency uh for yourself in your own office because of management you have
to be on the same page stop throwing each other on the bus if you see something write a fucking
witness statement for for an employee right you're not ratting on somebody you're not snitching what's
that got to do with anything? Because I guarantee you when that wrongful, unethical, or even
illegal, that's right, even illegal at times, when those wrongdoings happen to you as a person,
you're going to be sitting there in the dark looking for help as well. Or how come you saw
this? Can you write me a witness statement? Another person is going to say no. So witness
statements are huge for us. That's why I say that. So it's important that we all band together
and uh you know fight the toxic and hostile work environments that we do man but that's
that's why fed up is here man i believe that i'm the not me first of all when you say you'll never
hear me say i it's about we and it's pretty much me that does the editing the recording
uh mike mike fox shout out to mike fox he was my editing guy early on but it was too much for him
so i again i had to learn everything and do it myself so he can have the peace of mind because
he had his own podcast stuff going on so i didn't want him to be to feel that pressure that's why i
learned but it's just me doing everything you know how it is and it's very it's a thankless job
like i said but when i get the text messages the phone calls the emails the facebook messengers
from people all over this country thanking me for their particular situation hey i got this
approved thank you so much hey you helped me with this you know thank you so much that's fire it's
rewarding yeah man it motivates me more to keep doing what i do because i guarantee you you feel
like this sometimes you like you get it i don't want to say a funk but you're like ah i got so
much to do today bro damn you know every single day every single morning yeah i'm not gonna lie
yep but what keeps you going what keeps me going uh a couple of things i i list everything out
um i do i actually schedule breaks i'm so bad at taking breaks i schedule like okay on this
night i'm not going to do anything but decompress or whatever and then i usually end up using that
time to write lists for what i'm going to do but honestly i really believe that boredom is the
devil's playground or what do they say idle hands the devil work i don't answer the devil's workshop
that something like that it might as well be that's me to a t like okay anytime in my life
when i've been you know i've been unemployed there's been times when design work has been down
but I'm a mess for myself when I have structure when I have stuff to do when I lay my head down
on the pillow at the end of the night and think okay I didn't get everything done but the list
was insurmountable and I got through that and I'm gonna wake up the next morning I'll be up at
4 35 cutting clips for a few hours before I go to work like it's it's I don't know what it is
inside of me, but like shit just has to look good. It has to be right. And that's not even
being a perfectionist. You know what I mean? Like you could rush something and still have it look
good and you can take just as long and have something look just as good. But I care a lot
about integrity. I care a lot about reputation. You know, my wife, shout out to my wife, Nika,
she's a huge hard worker. She's a, she's a teacher in the Allentown school district, but
um shout out to all the teachers out there yes my sister included um there's a ton of work that goes
on with it so she'll be working late i'll be working late and i don't know you know then we
got driven kids so it's uh it's just the way we're wired like you said type a personality i'm just
not okay with mediocrity right i'm not okay with like now breaks are one thing when you have to
to take a break. But if you have stuff to do and you're wasting time or scrolling social or
something like that, you got to nip that in the bud. You got to be accountable, like you said,
and realize, okay, I'm not doing something. That's why the lists are so important.
Absolutely.
You can see what you got done. It's very easy to get a lot done and feel like you got nothing done.
But the little stuff, okay, pay this bill, make sure you do this, call this person, do that. You
You know what I mean?
Even sometimes in our own follow-ups, I haven't been the best with that.
So I make sure I write it down.
Like, okay, Thursday, I'm going to follow up with Ron, see if we're still good for Friday.
Like, you know, and then next thing you know, you're productive.
You don't even realize it.
I still feel like I'm putting as much effort as I did a year, year and a half ago when it was taking me three times as long to cut an episode.
I feel like I'm still putting the same amount of effort, but little pieces got easier, got cleaner and stuff like that.
new technologies come out and you just kind of stay up on it brother that's one that's one area
you you're ahead of me and you're excelling in i what's that you are you are the man when it comes
to all that stuff man let me just say that i'm still learning and for me this is foreign knowledge
so um thank you for all you're doing for all you help me with and yeah i appreciate you and all i'm
gonna help you with like exactly there's there's plenty of stuff going on we gotta we gotta talk
after the podcast there's things we could do for each show and stuff like that but
definitely check out fed up it's on all streaming platforms it's an audio only podcast so you're not
going to find it on youtube just yet but it's a whole movement shout out to the facebook community
uh fed up is it just fed up on facebook it's just fed up on facebook the podcast is fed up with ron
speakman got you yeah make sure they check that out is there any uh how else can people find you
you just wanted to check the podcast out do you have any social so i'm still learning that took
me a little bit to learn uh facebook on the professional side of things right yeah so i i'll
be on tiktok and instagram twitter well x now whatever the hell they call it um we're going
to be growing in that aspect i'm going to rely on you to help me with that as well yeah we'll do it
and and again for any any any podcast platform out there spotify um googlecast which ain't even
google no more it's something else now um apple podcast i'm on pod b that's my main main uh
platform but i'm on every platform out there pocket cast uh castro i mean these are players
is a player fm it might be a player or something like that just type in your favorite app and that
you listen podcast on and you should find it so i know i was getting hits off geo savan for a while
It's like an Indian podcast network.
So, yeah, no, you got to get yourself out there.
And that's what I think is so crazy.
A couple of things I want to say in closing.
I respect you so much for not just laying down when problems occur and not only overcoming
the problems, but then going back and saying, I'm going to help fix that problem.
Yeah.
That's insane.
That's crazy.
You not only did it with the youth, you're doing it now with the podcast.
Who knows where it comes from there?
so i really i really respect that i appreciate that man absolutely i and i the same amount of
love is for you as well because if it wasn't for you early on um i wouldn't have been so quick to
the launch you know i eventually would have launched but not as quick without you being
there by my side so i appreciate you and to anybody out there who's thinking about starting
a podcast just do it man you're gonna there's no such thing as a perfect plan let alone even if you
had a plan forget about being perfect your shit's gonna change so much just roll with it um that's
why i was laughing when you were like because i remember you had like 10 episodes before you
dropped i did i had them all recorded and ironically the first intro episode which is
about me a little bit about me i go a little bit more in depth than what i did here not too much
it's more generalized um but i also talk about why i created fed up and then i go into toxic
and hostile work environments that episode the intro episode wasn't recorded until after like
that 10th episode um because i knew it had to drop it had to be fire had to have a great
introduction yeah so i was like you know what i'm gonna talk about me because in doing so
if anybody out there is looking to do a podcast such as like i'm doing where you're i don't want
to say taking on the man but you get what i'm saying right yeah uh you're you're taking up a
fight any kind of fight power whatever if you're gonna have anybody come at you target you for
anything because it's standing up and fighting for the rights of others i highly recommend you
talk about yourself talk about yourself i did that intro episode the way i did because listen
we all have mistakes in our lives that we've made but no one's perfect right so i figured if i put
that out there it's kind of like the old m&m battle this is ironic you know you know i'm
caucasian i'm talking about a caucasian rapper here this is this has nothing to do with that but
um uh the movie um a mile yeah yeah tell them all about yourself exactly tell these people
something they don't know about me exactly so i thought i'd put that in there because i i am
being targeted against there's people out there who don't like me and who have a power in whatever
position they're in who can cause problems for me. And I'm not looking for any problems. Don't
start nothing. There won't be nothing. But I wanted to be proactive. So that's my whole point
of saying that was anybody out there, are you going to do a platform like I'm doing?
Think about that. Put yourself out there. Are you going to have people out there say this,
say that? Yeah, it comes with the territory, man. Don't respond. Again, control what you can,
not what you can't. Because guess what? They active. They watching you. I don't care if
you're not going to say something bad about me. I mean, obviously I want, I'm here for all love
and the right intentions. Uh, and for the most part, I'm getting that love back, but for all
the haters out there and the people who are literally targeting me, that's why I started
that episode. So, um, I just thought I'd share that with the people out there who might want
to start the same kind of platform that I'm doing. So think about it, take action, put yourself out
there and make it harder for them to say shit about you. People are going to follow in your
footsteps there's gonna be other there's gonna be other content off the same concept there's
gonna be seven fed up minis you know but you're always gonna be leading the way with that stuff
and yeah even if even if you don't say somebody comes with a bigger budget and they see money
in getting people to listen first off the people will read right through it yeah your show's
authentic has been from the start and will continue to be so even sponsorship's not going
change that that'll that'll be dope man i'm excited to see the influence you drop um this
is gonna drop hopefully before july 20th we got a few minutes left before time is up what do you
think about uh mike tyson jake paul uh i'll watch but i'm not listen i i'm with mike tyson all day
man i think jake paul's a fool man uh tyson can still cause damage yeah so you just going based
off that because it's iron mike no no he still has it he's still a killer 57 yeah yeah he's still
a killer and if you watch that i'm sure jones yeah listen he held back on a couple of those blows
and a couple times he didn't even throw the blow he he would man he would have hurt roy jones i
love roy jones those are my two favorite fighters right there roy and obviously mike tyson um
mike still has it now it's just about if if he can take it like he used to right i'm sure they'll
have something like you mentioned earlier like a uh uh headshots or something like that yeah like
a knockout clause or something like that where and i don't know man first off what i what i have
to say about it i think it's amazing that jake has brought so much attention and conversation
around the sport of boxing which let's be honest was dying it's classic yeah but how many fighters
are actually you know how many times does canelo fight how many times are you having these big
epic moments right but yet you have a ton of belts and this is no disrespect my family comes
from boxing but you have so many different belts and so anytime you turn on the tv on a saturday
there's a title fight going on it's insane but yet fighters aren't getting the purse that
you know mike's gonna get for this yeah he's gonna get the bag for this and so it's it's
interesting because of the fact that you don't know if they have these clauses or back ends or
what the paperwork looks like you know you just have to look at it as for what it is you know
it's entertainment like i said it's almost like wwf but it has me excited i mean it's better than
him fighting someone else like uh yeah i don't know about the greatest event in boxing history
but who knows man who knows it can't end bad because if jake it knocks out everybody's gonna
to go nuts if tyson gets knocked out everyone's going even if it just goes to this decision yeah
yeah i mean i don't think people want to see that but who knows man we'll see if it's scripted this
is i'm going to try to air this right before so we can do our predictions so we could be wrong all
the way either way um if i'm not a gambling man but if i were betting i'd probably put my money
on jake yeah and i'm gonna go mike you put money on mike but i want to be clear here the way boxing
has been going yeah i'm not a betting man no more let's just say that yeah i feel like the
scales are tilted they did the outcomes already isn't that the only sport you could bet on
yourself i mean there's other stuff you can bet on right i mean it's legal you could like bet on
i guess gambling i don't know like i'm totally not a gambler but yeah i mean i'm not either i
stay away from that stuff i like my money in my pocket where that's where it's at you know i might
make a bet with you or somebody you know a friend or something but no i've been to the casino and
i'll put like the the where you could spend five cents for a slot or whatever or something like
that and yeah and i've heard people that are like oh they play cards because there's more
like i i love probability i love the idea of probability but knowing what i know about
probability you ain't winning yeah exactly gambling but can i say one more thing about uh
the podcast yeah we can go over an hour we're at 55 55 ironically it feels like i was here 20
minutes bro i know um i just want to say to the public out there um that the fed up podcast is
i want to make the public aware of what's going on because i feel like it's important i always
ask three questions usually at the end of my interviews with certain guests from all over
um and that's to make anybody who has a position of power in society whatever position may be a
political news reporter, a politician, um, you know, wherever you're, you're, you're Congress
or Senate, um, governor, whatever you are, that type of position, and you can help us make the
change. And you're listening, actually listened to Tony's podcast, which is great, by the way.
Um, I want you to understand that my intentions, our intentions are to get the public support
for what's going on behind the scenes. We have carriers going months, sometimes even years
without pay. They're losing their homes. They're losing their jobs. They're going homeless,
right? And some even take their lives. Naturally, you can see why that's important to me just from
my upbringing and how I was raised and everything I've been through. So it's personal for me also
because I've been through it. If I didn't have that fighting spirit, I wouldn't have made it
through to be honest with you. But there's a lot of people who don't have that. And that's why I
do what I do for those who can't voice their opinions, who can't speak up, who are scared
to, but we need your help.
We need the public support and we also need those in power to help us.
We need, again, it comes down to recognize there's a problem you have to first talk about
and get uncomfortable talking about these things.
Do these things happen in other, like in state jobs and other private sector?
Sure.
But the totality of what's happening, it's at a larger scale when you're in a federal agency with a federal union as a federal employee.
Because at the end of the day, they're breaking federal law, management, your agency.
Eventually, I'm a big firm believer in karma.
And what you put out there will eventually come back to you.
But that's all I wanted to say was this is the purpose of FedUp going public.
Because right now, it's just on federal employees.
all over this country. And, you know, FBI, bank examiners, IRS, post office, TSA, we deal with
some of the same problems, some more than others, but the biggest similar problem is the on-the-job
work injuries. But postal service, something needs to be done, you know, and I talk a lot.
You'll hear me if you ever, if you listen to my episodes to FedUp, it's not just Department
Labor and OWCP. It's our agency. It's our own union. Without saying it too much, I'll let you
guys check it out yourselves, but we need your help. That's all I want to say. We need the public
support to help push and to lobby for this change, if you will, right? Again, I'm not a political
person. I'm sitting here saying lobby and lobbyists, and I can't believe I'm saying it,
but we need the help and we need the support. If you look back to the great postal strike in 1970,
that was huge. We're not allowed to strike. And I don't want to talk about striking and freak
anybody out. It's in article 18 of our contract. We can't strike. It's federal law. It's a felony.
Do you think that stopped the strikers of the great postal strike in 1970 who,
without that strike, we wouldn't have collective bargaining today the way it is in our unions?
That was big for us. But again, being that we're divided a lot, we need to solidify
our solidarity and and unionize but we need your help we need we need your help need your support
and that's why i want to go public with this um if you want to know more if you have questions
for me you can reach me at one dot fed up dot podcast at gmail.com reach out but we need your
support please like follow share the podcast join facebook page fed up we just need your support man
i know that's a mouthful i apologize man but i just wanted to be clear on why
we need your help because there's a lot to to make change on so well hopefully this falls on
the right ears man i hope so i hope so and real quick i just want to give a shout out to my
sponsors if i can uh dr robert custin from fed hurt um if you're a federal employee and you get
injured on a job he has multiple locations across this country including puerto rico
you can actually go to his website www.forfedhurt.com again that's www.forfedhurt.com
look up the location if he's around you and give him a call just check him out and also
uh out there my barber um five-star barbers they're on uh allentown they're in allentown
on Tillman Street, West Tillman Street out there by the Domino's out there by right before
P.J.
Willinghans.
But a shout out to them and Dr. Robert Custon from FedHurt.
So but yeah, just had to give them a shout out.
I appreciate y'all and stay tuned for more for more episodes coming soon.
So thank you for listening to another episode of I Will Not Lose Podcast.
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Thanks so much.