Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is an incredible conversation with Kobe Williams, a man who has transformed his life in the most profound way. Growing up on the streets of Chicago, Coby faced adversity from a young age, violence, gang culture and incarceration. But through all of it, he's emerged as a true leader in his community.
Kobe now dedicates his life to interrupting cycles of violence, helping others transform their mindset, and proving that it's never too late for redemption. His work with cure violence Global has had a massive impact on creating safer communities, and his personal journey is nothing short of inspiring. We dive deep into how leadership can manifest in the most unexpected places and how real change happens when we listen and build relationships. Hey, Coby, thanks for coming on the cultural leadership podcast, mate. It's a pleasure to have you. Do you just want to start? Set a little bit of a scene for our audience. What was the, how did the old Kobe grow up? What was his lifestyle? Tell us a bit more about that.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Oh, man, it was kind of rough growing up with a community where I'm from, you know, born and raised on the south side of Chicago in a community called Inglewood and Auburn Gresham.
You know, in my community growing up, that's all I saw was a lot of violence. And my father went to prison when I was three years old, and he got out of prison when I was eleven years old and he got killed. So seeing, you know, going to see him in prison and different things like that, and he seeing them like that and he showing me, his friend, showing me how to throw up gang signs and different things like that, I'm seeing that at an early age. So when he came home, before he got killed, we spent a little time together and he used to just talk about me, talk to me and different things like that. And he used to share with me like it was okay to be in a street organization. He said, well, nothing wrong with it. He was telling me like, jesus was a disciple, so ain't nothing wrong with being that. So he is really my role model and that's what I looked up to.
And some of the biggest things that took place to me was, you know, learning a lot of things firsthand by being in the community and all that, you know, and my parents always taught me to, if you get into a fight, hit people back, don't let nobody hurt you, and different things like that. So my father wasn't really there because he was locked up, but my mother was there and she was doing the best she can for me, my brother and my sister. But at the time, she started using drugs. So that took a lot, you know, from the household. A lot of times when I say a lot, it's sometimes we had to do without. So we turn more to our grandparents and they did the best they can for us. But me and all my close friends who I was running around with, living the street life, gangbang and selling drugs with, we all had something in common. We ain't had no father in our life, so we grew up without a father in our life, me and my immediate people. So we turned to the streets more, and the streets was, like, more exciting to us because that's what we was learning our life lessons in the street.
So we thought it was okay to do what we was doing out there.
The decisions we're making in all that.
And I could say, really, I feel like we knew right for wrong, but we still just chose to do the wrong thing sometimes. Cuz it's like how you just want to fit in, you know? It's like this shit seem cool.
It's okay.
I got uncles, I got brothers, I got cousins doing this. So this is what I see every day.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: How important do you think that? I guess really challenging upbringing, tough upbringing was in where you're at today. Like, I'm a big believer in sort of the journey you're on now is the journey you're supposed to be on for something.
What do you say to that? How important do you think it is for what you're about now?
[00:03:58] Speaker B: I mean, the upbringing, but I look at it like this, and I'll be truthfully honest, I don't regret nothing I've been through, because it made me who the person I am today and what I'm doing today. So that upbringing, being a part of that upbringing like that, it taught me a lot, though.
I ain't saying it taught me so much where to live, right? But I learned a lot being in the streets. I learned a lot being around older cats, older people. I learned a lot just being around people who was doing everything under the sun. So it taught me, in a sense, how to navigate, right? It taught me, should I go this way or go that way? If I go this way, I might get in trouble. If I might go this way, I might get caught. So it taught me a lot of things that I probably wouldn't get told if I went in the mix of this.
So to see what I'm doing now, that past shaped me up for debt.
That's how it looked like it shaped me up for that. To be able to help people all over the world, to change people mindset, to change the people life, to help people make the right decisions, to provide people with new information, new skills, and different things like that. So that was then. This was nine. I always say this, and I live by this. It ain't how you start, it's how you finish.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely, mate. We're ultimately a leadership podcast. Can you give a bit of insight into what does leadership look like on the streets? Like, what you've explained, what is leadership in that sort of environment?
[00:05:46] Speaker B: So you say, what was leadership in the street?
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah, what does it. What does leadership look like in the streets? You know, in the gangs, in the violent environments you're in, leadership in the.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Street is really about control. Right? And when I say about control, leading your community, though, and guiding your community and the people in your community. So leadership, it wasn't so much a bad thing because you bring a lot of people together. And I say, and I always say, if you could start something, you could stop something. So leadership was all about people being leaders who could lead people. So I ain't saying, all right, we was making them choices in our life. We was doing everything under the sun. But a lot of times, we're keeping a lot of things down, though. We're keeping a lot of beef down. We are de escalating a lot of violent situations that started already. We're stopping the retaliation. We're able to change people mindset. We are able to let people know just because you have a disagreement, you ain't got to shoot and kill them. So it's a lot of different things like that. And you have to always remember, when you think about leadership, the leadership, you got to be a thinker, because it's we gang banging, it's we selling drugs, we can't make no money. The block is hot, the police is hot, people going to jail. You need bond money, you need comma saving money, money on people books. You need everything.
You need lawyer fees.
So people like keeping things down. But sometimes it depends how much damage have been done. In a lot of these situations, I ain't never gonna say it's okay to shoot and kill somebody or hurt somebody, but as kids, how we was told, like, if somebody hurts you or do something new, you have to do the same thing to them. So it's all about mindset and you. And another thing I want to add is we've been exposed to so much violence as kids.
So a lot of us, like, traumatized, a lot of us been through so much.
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Yeah, I can understand it. That's what was going through my head. Look, I've not been in war zones. I've had friends certainly that been to war and serve their countries as I'm sure you have. You must be living in your own version of a war zone. Your heightened alert, heightened state must be constant 24/7 that's got to have an impact on your mindset like you say, and on your body. Can you speak to that a little bit?
[00:09:17] Speaker B: I mean, yes, because it's like you, you definitely in this work we do. And when we are doing the street thing, you got to be thinking on your feet at all times, cause you'll never know what's gonna happen next.
So it is like in war zone, cause you got to always look over your shoulder.
You could be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Somebody could have hurt somebody close to you and you ain't thinking about harming nobody. But people pull you back in that mix in that element where you go back to the things you was told as a kid.
So a lot of times people think people just want to react in certain ways or just do this, man, a lot of these people brain ain't fully developed yet.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: It's very much learned behavior, isn't it?
[00:10:23] Speaker B: What you say, sir?
[00:10:25] Speaker A: It's very much learnt behavior.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. No, violence is a learned behavior. Yes. And that's how we look at it and that's how we see things and that's why we try to interrupt the chance mission. Change the community norms. It's definitely a learned behavior.
Once you learn it, you got to have some real people who are chain agents, right? When I say change agents, who made that change, who doing better for they self and all that to equip you with new information and new skills.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely mate. I'm going to. I'm going to move on from the streets very soon. But I do want to ask you a question because I did read somewhere where somebody had given a testimonial you've got loads of them. And they talked about you being the ultimate networker. How does this, how have the streets helped you become this ultimate networker?
[00:11:21] Speaker B: I mean, I'm gonna be honest with you.
Some people is just gifted and blessed with that skill. And sometimes we train people in that skill and all that. And sometimes people are quick learners.
But I always been a person who neither navigate in squash situations where individuals shouldn't be beefing with each other, you know, where come to a common understanding, a common ground and all that. So that's what happened a lot. When it comes to some of these situations, when it comes to some of these situations, like you got to know how to remain neutral.
You can't take sides.
You have to be diplomatic where you can listen and understand what two people, what the cause of the situation that's taking place. And you got to see what they looking for the outcome to be, what they want the outcome to be. So you got to do a lot of listening, not a lot of talking. So a connector and be a people person, you know, listen.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: It sounds like.
It sounds like that could have been. I mean, I'm sitting here and thinking, well, with the upbringing that you shared and what I've read about you, that you could have easily been dead. Why aren't you dead? Is it that this ultimate networker networking thing that comes to you maybe naturally is what saved you in many occasions?
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Yes, it's natural. It saved me a lot of times. I ain't gonna say that. Yeah, I'm a good network and a good people person. But what help also if you, your word is good where people respect you, they know you ain't got 1ft in, 1ft out, you know what I'm saying? They respect the process.
So all that play a part too.
All that play a part. So it's really just building relationship. This work we do every day, it's all about relationships.
It's all about relationships. And it's important to meet people where they are without judging them.
Cause guess what? We don't know what people going through and what they've been through.
We just don't.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Yeah, you spot on, mate.
It's interesting, isn't it, how there's so many leadership aspects, irrespective of the environment you're in. You know, whether it's that, you know, the environment you've been involved in previously to what you're doing now and that control side, but there's still relationships needed. There's still the people element that needed to build relationships and all that sort of stuff. But let's. Let's move on from that, because I know that there was one pivotal moment which moves you from, I guess, this street life and to start the journey where you're. What you're on today. Can you talk to that?
[00:14:23] Speaker B: What you talking about? It's a few things, but one of the main things was my son.
When my son, like, I was in custody, my son came to see me. His mama, my mother, and my sister came to court for me. And it's like, I didn't see my son. Like a year and a half, I'm coming out the back, shackled up, handcuffs on my son. See me. He, like, three years old, real young.
He looking at me, dad, that, and I'm looking at him, dad.
So the judge realized, he just saw it, that me and my son ain't see each other in a while. He could just feel it. He told the bailiff to take the handcuffs off me. So when the bailiff take. He said, man, take the handcuffs off and let me embrace my childhood. When I embraced my son, man, I was so happy. It got me so emotionally, like, daddy, I love you. So I'm hugging him, thinking about him, and I'm in this situation, and I've been thinking like that. I remember seeing my father in this situation when I was going to see him as a kid. So I know it's time for me to go to lockup, and I know my son got to leave.
I said, your mama called you? But I don't know if she was calling him or not, but I knew I got to go that way. He had to go. He broke down in front of the whole courtroom. So right then, I felt something, and I started crying, and tears started coming out, and I got so emotional.
I was like, I got to do better. I got to get it together. And I ain't going to sit up and tell you I got it together right then. But I started that journey right then.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: What is it about a child's love that can do that to a parent? You know, really start to change your trajectory? You know, I'm sure you've had. I know you've got other family members, and, okay, your father passed away, your mum turned to alcohol, but, you know, other family members that love you, that maybe that love wasn't strong enough for you. So what is it about a child's love that actually made that massive transition or started you on this transition, man.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: It'S just important, man. Cause I've been in situations where my parents couldn't do for me. I was left out, like, going to school, summer school. I had to go to other people's classroom, field trips and different things like that. So I understand, and I get that. So that child love is something special that you can't take away, man. But I know I didn't have my father, so I know the importance of that being in there because I knew how much I used to hurt inside. I was told him was broken up.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: You mentioned, mate, there was a few moments. So you talked about your child. How old is that little fella now?
[00:17:06] Speaker B: 28 years old.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Wow.
Time flies when you're having fun, mate.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: You mentioned a few things. Was there another key sort of thing that helped you move on this new trajectory that you're on?
[00:17:19] Speaker B: I mean, I already had positive people in my life, you know, telling me I should do the right thing. But the founder of the street organization I come from, he is 28 years old. I mean, he just did 28. He came home from a 28 year sentence, and he was like, man, Kobe, man need to get out here and stay out here. I got out before him and he introduced me to the time it was called ceasefire. Now it's called Cure violence Global. And I just started doing that and volunteered, man, and just continue doing that. I've been doing that over 20 years, so that was a good start because it's like this. If you could give brother sister opportunity, when they first get out in the first month, it could really change their life.
If after that month or two or three, guess what will end up happening is they get caught back up in the things they used to do.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Just out of interest, too, through some other activities I'm involved in, I had some developed relationship with a chapd who raised awareness for a certain cause I'm involved in. He's had 34 incarcerations. A lot to do with violence against males, females, all that sort of stuff. But what sort of support is provided to people leaving the justice system in your area, the US or state specific system? Is there much support to transition you back into the community?
[00:19:08] Speaker B: I mean, I haven't been in 20 years, but a lot of people say they got a lot of support, and that's critical. That's why.
That's why I focus on. I want to write this book because redemption is real. It's a one man journey to hear the streets and redeem himself. I want people to know, it ain't how you start, it's how you finish. And redemption is real. You can't redeem yourself.
You can't get it together. And it's important to get brothers and sisters like myself a second chance.
People need a second chance.
And sometimes, absolutely the justice system hold them from then into now.
You know, when I say hold them then and now, they don't let them change. They don't let people like us change.
So guess what?
I did. Twelve years of my life in prison. But the last 20 years, I've been out here making a big difference, changing mindsets, helping people get to the next level.
I've been empowered with other people, inspiring other people, motivating other people, and helping people change they thinking and they behavior.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Yeah, making a big difference. And you've showed the book for those on YouTube as well. So interrupting violence.
It's just risen to the bestsellers list, mate, in the first week. So well done. Why was it so important to write this book?
[00:20:37] Speaker B: It was so important to me because I wanted people to hear from Kobe, somebody who lived that life, somebody who made them choices, and somebody who changed, and somebody who gathered together, because there's a lot of brothers and sisters. Feel like everybody gave up on them. They can't do right, they can't do better, they won't change. They ain't gonna make it and all that. And I wanna say, don't listen to folks.
It's up to you. Really wanna make that change.
So I want to use this book to inspire other brothers and sisters. I want to use this book to motivate people to do better.
So that's critical.
I want people to understand, man, bro, a sister of my brother, man, this book, guess what? Kobe is locked up just like you, and look what he came home to do.
I ain't saying this gonna happen overnight, but I want people to know they ain't got to give up.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: What sort of challenges? Maybe there's top one or two challenges you faced in that transition from your old life to this new life you've been living for decades now. You know, speak to that just to give people hope that there will be challenges. And this is how you've got through them.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: You get challenged. You don't have challenges all the time. I mean, some of the challenges at the beginning is, you know, how you want to do, right, but you care about how your friends see you or your family might see you. So a lot of times you get challenged by that alone. Like, man, they ain't gonna see me as the same person and all that. Oh, he getting soft, you know? So that's a challenge. How others by proceed procedure, how you might other people might see you. You always worry about that, still worry about doing the right thing. You get challenged in this work, too. You get some of the challenge to be, too. Like, when something happens to somebody close to you or a loved one, you know, you get challenged with, damn, I did all this good stuff, and you be tested. That's what I'm saying. You get tested and challenged at the same time, the same thing, because you've been doing so great.
And sometimes people might try to push you to do so bad. You understand what I'm saying? Sometimes people might. People test you because they happy for you.
Or some people might feel like you change. You changed up on me. You ain't the same person. So it varies.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: How do you deal with the. Or how did you deal with the, I guess the Persona you had, you know, Kobe, this person and your friends? Yeah, I mean, did you need to break those friends or what happened?
[00:23:32] Speaker B: I mean, I just had to do what's right for me and my family, because I think about it, when I got in trouble, all these people say they my buddies, they homies. They want that for me. So, who's coming to visit? My family. Who'll sell my collect calls? My family. Who need me? My son, who I'm sending all these changes to, who I'm sending through changes like me, because this is what people understand. When you incarcerated, when you doing time in prison, your loved ones are in prison with you for real, because they suffering. Every day that you suffer that you ain't at home, then I see a lot of brothers and sisters. What happened is they lose people. They lose their mama, they daddy, they brother, their sister while they're in prison.
So, I mean, you got to wake up, man. You got to really wake up in what's most important to you.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Tell us about interrupting the violence.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: So, interrupting violence, man, is something I call my book. But I interrupt the violence day to day every day when I sat there being a violence interrupter and an outreach worker. So, as a violent interrupter, I was interrupting the violence by having people to stop shooting and killing each other, by building relationships with people I don't have relationship with deescalate situation. So interrupting violence is critical because that's what the mission is. We got to interrupt this. We got to make the community safe.
We got to educate our people. Just because you have a disagreement or misunderstanding, you ain't got to shoot and kill them. It's okay to have disagreements.
It's okay.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: I imagine you've been in some pretty high pressure situations, mate, as far as interrupting the violence. You got something you can share with us just to. To give a real life context to the work that you do?
[00:25:35] Speaker B: A lot of situations where somebody got killed or they friend got killed or somebody mistaken somebody for somebody else and shot their kid, it get heated all the time.
These situations get heated. So first of all, you got to make sure you have the relationship with the person who you trying to talk down. And while I'm talking this person down, my colleagues, my coworkers should be talking to other people down.
So you got to be working on both sides. So it's been situations, that's why I say it always go back to this. How much damage have been done?
How much damage has been done in all these situations, you know, so it get tense sometimes in these situations when nobody want to talk, they don't want to hear nothing, but you got to remember, they was like this as kids, they grew up like this, so just the way they know how to handle their problem, they situation.
So a lot of times when you've been exposed to so much of this, it's the only way, you know, that's why I say it's important to provide people with new information to let them know it's okay to walk off.
It's okay to leave that alone.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: What does success look like in, say, twelve months for interrupting the violence? What do you hope to achieve?
[00:27:10] Speaker B: So we have, like, violence interrupters who do mediation, but we have some outreach workers who work with people long term. So a caseload of 15 to 20 participants. So we do a risk assessment with the participants working with. So say I'm signing you up. You might be.
I look at you as a level ten. You meet four of the seven criteria. Weapon carrier, recently released for prison, recently evicted, shooting high, Bob and street, highly involved in street activity or whatever. So I want to work with a person like you that you, like, give up, nobody, feel like they can't reach you and all that. I want to work with a person like you. So working with you, you was on like a level ten. Now working with me, you might be on a level three or four, because I'm helping you change your mindset. You're thinking, I'm providing you new information, I'm taking you out the neighborhood. You always be on the block, you never been nowhere. I'm telling you, it's okay to be a better person and walk away. So a lot of times it depends on how much time you put in with people.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: And I mean, again, I haven't been to the states for many years, but I imagine the work is endless.
How do you start to, I guess, strategically break into those ranks, into those networks, so that potentially the one or two changes you might make in an area or in a community can have significant difference? Does that come into your thinking at all? Is this strategic relationships being built with people on the street? To start?
[00:28:50] Speaker B: We may have a lot of relationship, but you have to remember everything we do with participants or people we work with, we document that.
So we do a lot of mediations, we get people back in school, we get people jobs, we provide people with other skill sets by partnering with other organizations and different things like that. So when we know, we change a mindset. So guess what, I'm using an example. Usually every day you a weapon carrier. Now you only carrying three times a day, not seven times a day, seven times a week. Now you carry it three times a week. People understand like, he's still carrying a gun. But guess what? He was carrying every day. Now he carrying it three times a week.
That's a big difference.
Usually he be the one man, he so he gets so triggered up sometimes, he ready to fight a humbug or hurt somebody. He the one calming him down now. Like, man, leave that alone. That's how you know you making a change.
When we sit down bringing people to the tape and it's like, man, let's talk about this. He the one helping recruit people. Guess what? When we not around, he the one keeping the little homies cool. Like, man, leave that alone, bro.
That's changing mindsets.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's powerful stuff. So do you have many, I don't know if you call them clients or whatever, but people that you work with that actually come in to become a violence interrupter.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Yeah, we have a lot of people who was participants, not a vice and all that. We see that all the time that they switched over like that and they happy about what they doing now because they knew they just once liked them. So that's powerful when you have a participant and now he a violence interrupter.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: That's great, that's fantastic. So what's the size of the network of violence interrupters across the US now for you?
[00:30:57] Speaker B: I mean, it's like we work with programs all over the world and it's a lot of cv's sites, community violent intervention sites all over the world doing violence to rot the outreach workers and all that. I mean, it's a network strong everywhere, man. You know, it's something, this movement is built larger and we do a lot of work nationally and international.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: And tell us, can you share some specifics around the changes you've seen in the communities that you've worked with? You know, it's gone from this to this. A much safer community for everybody.
[00:31:38] Speaker B: I use an example. In a year it might be 500 students. I'm using an example. That's a lot. But last year it's 300. I mean 500. Last year now it's 300. It might have been 400 murders. Nice. 300 murders, 200 murder. I'm using example. It's different places. But you see in the change. So what I'm saying is if we weren't out there doing what we was doing, it probably be more.
It probably will be more. I know it will be more.
So I salute the frontline workers out there making these decisions, changing people mindset, stopping people from shooting and killing each other out there.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: Is this, do you see your program and what you put together and things like that as the future for safer communities?
[00:32:34] Speaker B: Yes, it is across the globe. Because we make communities safe all the time. What we do at cure violence global and a lot of these other violence provision organizations do. Yes, we, yes. Ain't no, ain't no question. We need more resources. We need more people to buy into what we're doing. But we definitely see a big difference in each community. Yes.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Is there anywhere where you failed? I don't like necessarily using that world but with that word. But let's just say it hasn't been as successful as what you would have liked.
[00:33:07] Speaker B: I mean we always want it to be no shooting zones. We don't want nothing to take place. But sometimes things happen. But one thing I could say, we ain't giving up on nobody. We out there.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Is there a country where you're not in where you'd like to be in that you really think that they need the sort of help that interrupting the violence and the violence interrupters can provide?
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Not right off. Not right off.
But I mean when people adopt the model, right with fidelity, we see shooting and killing go down.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: How do people support your organization?
[00:33:45] Speaker B: They could go to cvg.org and there's a list of things how they could support it and all that. Cbg.org comma cureviolenceglobal. I just say cbg.org dot. They can learn more about it and they can learn how to get involved.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: And how is the organization funded? State funding, how does that work?
[00:34:03] Speaker B: Private funding, you know, grants and different things like that.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: What's your greatest success story so far in this program?
[00:34:14] Speaker B: No, I mean I had a lot of great successes and all that. It's like, it ain't just one. It's just really, when I see people who are out there perpetrating the violence, they change they mindset. They thinking, now they doing what I used to, now they doing what I'm. What I'm about is making the community safe and making a better place. So that's always a great success when I know people who are out there and look what they doing now. That's why I say second chance and redemption is real.
[00:34:49] Speaker A: And, Kobe, from what I understand, you've got four children, is that.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I got four children and I got four grandkids.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So, Howard, what do they think about you and the work that you're doing?
[00:35:01] Speaker B: They love what I'm doing. They say I'm a hero and that made me feel good.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: You are a hero, mate. How are they developing their own hero status in the world?
[00:35:13] Speaker B: Some of them driving trucks, working and still trying to figure it out in school and different things like that.
[00:35:22] Speaker A: Always figuring out life, right?
[00:35:23] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: Looking back on your significant life journey, what sort of lessons have been the most valuable for you?
[00:35:37] Speaker B: I mean, really not to give up on nobody.
Not to give up on people because you don't know what they've been through or what they going through. Not to get off people and letting people know they not alone.
I'm here. Listen to people. Embrace people. Don't run away from them. Embrace them.
[00:35:56] Speaker A: Have you? I find the most difficult thing in life is to be more curious and less judgmental. I think that's something we all are challenged with. You don't have any gold nuggets there, mate, about how do we all be more curious than judgmental around people?
[00:36:11] Speaker B: Just really get to know people, build relationship with people and don't assume you know what they doing, going through and just listen more. Just meet people where they are without pointing the finger.
Without pointing the finger. Just really listen to them.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: Listening. Something so simple. But we don't do it so well, do we? We're not generally taught listening very well in school. Not in australian schools. I don't know about us schools.
[00:36:48] Speaker B: Yeah. But I think it's important to listen to people because you'll never know, like I said, what they're going through. And a lot of times when people think people are acting out, they really call them for help.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Mate, what sort of advice would you give to people, young people, potentially heading down the road that you're on and to try and make them think differently, change their mindset.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: My whole thing I just try to build a relationship with them and get to know them and just do a lot of listening with them and just spend the time bonding with them, just getting to know them, just listening more than anything because I don't want to come off in no type of way because that's the problem. They feel like nobody, don't listen to them.
So I really just try to show them something different. Take them off the block, take them around different environments and different things like that, mate.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: We'll start to wrap it up. But as far as your leadership of interrupting the violence, what do you think that is? The most important aspects that you show, you show within your organisations leadership is about actions and behaviors. What are those for you that's important, man?
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Be the message that you bring, man, you know, be that real message. What you stand for, you know, come off and let them know, man, I'm here for you. I really care about you.
Keep your word. When you say you don't do something, do it.
[00:38:17] Speaker A: Love it, mate. Just a quick editor cut.
Is there anything, anything you want me to unpack or any question you want me to ask before we start to wrap up?
[00:38:27] Speaker B: No, I'm fine. I'd like to thank you for having me and all that. And the biggest thing, like, man, what people are doing out there, what we're doing out there is very important to the country, man, you know. And we guess what, we ain't there yet. We got more work to do. So I just want people not to give up, continue to do what they can to give back and regardless of what they going through in life is, I feel it. But guess, remember, remember there's somebody going through some worse than you are, mate.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: That's a great way to finish up the episode. Absolutely. From my own sort of perspective, just trying to understand sort of the background of where you've come from, what you're doing now, how you've turned that around and making a real impact not only in your home country of the US but across various countries across the world and your interaction with governments and officials to make these things happen and to create a real impact. So well done on your work, mate. I know from mine and my wife. So we're involved in caring for young people and so every day we're trying to better understand where people have come from and not make judgment, to be curious and really understand and try and create that connection wherever possible so that we can move forward in a much more cohesive manner. And it makes life a lot more difficult, a lot better for everybody. Doesn't it?
[00:39:48] Speaker B: Definitely. It definitely does. And it just reminds we got more work to do.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: There's always more work to do. I think that's why they call it work, buddy. It just keeps coming, doesn't it?
[00:39:59] Speaker B: Yes. Yes.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: What is. If you were.
If you had this magic wand, like, what. What is it for you that. The magic wand, what's that one wish that you hope?
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Just invest more money and resources into what we're doing so we can hire more people on the ground to do this work and have more money to have wrap around services to provide the people who we working with. Give them an opportunity, help them what they won't help in not just saying, you should go back and do this, you should do that. That's why we don't do that. We meet them where they at and let them tell us how we can help them.
So just resources more than anything.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: Yeah. There's never enough resources is. There's always more that can be put into these things. So, Kobe, mate, thank you very much for coming onto our show. Well done on your work. Congratulations on the success of the book in its first week. Fantastic effort, mate. Keep up the great work, keep making an impact, and keep inspiring. Great to have you as a guest on cultural leadership.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Okay, thank you very much. And I was happy to be on pleasure. Okay, thanks.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: These are my three key takeaways from my conversation with Coby. My first key takeaway. Confident leaders transform adversity into opportunity.
True leaders rise above their circumstances and use challenges as fuel for growth. It's not our environment that defines us, but how we choose to respond to hardship.
Leaders turn personal struggles into opportunities to make a positive impact.
My second key takeaway. Confident leaders build relationships to create change.
Building trust and strong relationships is critical for leading others towards positive change.
By listening and connecting with people, leaders can deescalate conflicts and influence those around them to create a better environment.
My third key takeaway, confident leaders believe in redemption.
Leadership means embracing the idea that it's never too late for someone to change. By demonstrating belief in second chances, leaders inspire others to make better choices and lead by example.
So, in summary, my three key takeaways.
Confident leaders transform adversity into opportunity.
Confident leaders build relationships to create change.
And confident leaders believe in redemption.
Thanks for joining me. And remember, the best outcome is on the other side of a genuine conversation.
