Khadevis Robinson one of the top track athletes on the planet. Now, one of the top coaches and an author of a novel called "The Reading and Running Initiative" 

His journey inspires everyone to continue to have hope to move forward despite the challenges. To not stop and just keep doing what you do until you make it through.

Learn from the expert through Khadevis Robinson.

Episode Highlights

Khadevis [00:01:43] Yeah. Just essentially from from from Texas, played football, ran track cross-country, the whole nine, you know, and end up going to CCU and getting track there and did some things that that somewhat proud of, I guess you would say, and ended up winning an NCAA championship. And what's blessed to be able to run professionally and move out to California, guess what? So you're not mad at it. And now to California. When I was living in Santa Monica, you know, ran for a good spell, probably lower than I anticipated. It went well. And no end up retiring in 2012 Rapide Olympic Games and started coaching. Coached originally at UNLV and did some high school coach, some open coach and prep professionals started on the collegiate coaching at UNLV then I would say Ohio State one year left and went to LSU for four and now back at Ohio State. This is going on my fourth year and it's been going it's been a good journey. May have been been writing, got a book out.., a non from another nonprofit, a nonprofit in Santa Monica. You track and run a club. And now I just write a novel called The Reading and Running Initiative, speaking and training and the whole night and just trying to use the tools and the gifts that got. God bless me. 

Ari [00:07:35] So you can either take the environment and the situations and the things that would otherwise cause you to paralyze yourself or and you can do something with it or you can stop it. So you know what to you, because, you know, I'd like to talk to you about both athletes and business and life in general. Right. So what about you? What you're saying can be translated from the track over to the office, over to the person in their home who's trying to live their life. Right. 

Ari [00:08:12] What can what can be translated from athlete's mindset to a life mindset? 

Khadevis [00:08:20] All of it. I'll let you know if you really got to study success, I guess you would call it right. And if you notice some, you start to notice that there's a huge amount of individuals from New York City that have been pretty successful. You still I mean, people that don't ask every walk of life. They're from New York City and they in a they always make it a point to break it up. I love New York City, man. And I'm talking about white, black, Jewish, Asian. It don't matter the race, no matter religion, Christian, Muslim, you know, modern USA. I'm from New York and they're saying something. And what they're saying when they say they're from New York, they're saying, I'm from a certain environment. I'm from an environment that if you don't if you're not tough and you don't find ways and you're not resourceful and you don't develop a skill set, you develop a tough skin, you don't develop different with the you're not gonna make it. And they're saying, because I came from that environment, once I've gone, I said it and finally it was easy, you know, and that's what it is. What happens there? I think some of us that come from. I come from. I come from. 

Khadevis [00:12:32] So think about this. I want people to get this this concept. So a lot of individuals, a lot of us, we don't want the world to be we don't want our world to be what it really is. In other words, when you're going through trauma, when you're going to hurt, when you're going through pain, your first reaction is to avoid that pain of what that hurt you avoid that trauma. Right. And it's like you don't want to face it and you want to. You want to daydream. You want to sit back. You want to wish you was different. And one of the things we have to do in life is resist the temptation of always wishing it was different. You know, that don't make you. You like it a lot. But that means instead of wasting time sitting there just hoping and wishing and looking at somebody else's life and saying, this is your life. This is what it is. Right. This is what it is. So we have to learn to use that. To move forward, so I gave an example. You say the environment. I use it to harden myself. Well, here's the reality. And I'm an amateur on the Bible. But in the Bible, Moses was talking to God and he was asking God about given that the chosen people out of Egypt and the pharaoh wouldn't let him go. And so Moses thought the God God said, tell them go. Most would go there and ask Pharaoh. Pharaoh, say no, Moses, come back. And guys, they tried this and most would go and try to loot, tricked Pharaoh and do the same thing. He was saying, thank God they did it back and forth. 

Khadevis [00:18:03] Right. So you didn't care about whatever happened in the race. So pick him up. And then I go back to my wife. My my my wife's distraught, crying. My coaches like Kate believe it. And I told Sports Illustrated. I told the reporter that interviewed me that if this was the worst thing to happen to me that year, that I'm a blessed man. So I went back to Santa Monica and I had to do that before. And two thousand. Two thousand I got four didn't make it. And I was in total shambles so that before I made so 2008, it wasn't my first rodeo. I'm not making it. So I live in Santa Monica, go down to Venice Beach, which is from where I live, was not far at all. And you hardly ever go there. I went down and I'm walking on Venice Beach is packed as the summer is packed. I haven't really close. I don't have on Miss USA, you know, Olympic stuff. I have. Oh, now I have regular clothes is packed. I'm walking an African guy who I know now is a close friend of mine. 

Ari [00:20:33] So what are the biggest obstacles that you've had to face that you see, you know, as an industry the athletes have to face? 

Khadevis [00:20:44] But for one, I know it's amazing. I tell athletes a time. I don't know if they just don't believe me. When you're a professional track and field athlete, you are professional for one, and you're a business. Two things really identify with being a professional professional. That doesn't mean you're professors because you're better than the majority of the world and you get paid for. That's that's that's part of it. What I mean is you're a professional. You know, there's not be expectation is the way you speak, the way you dress, the way you interact with individuals and ready to interact with people, the way you hold your you know, you have a contract doing your part in the contract. All of those things as a professional, you know, showing up on time. If you want to race, as you said, you want to run a race, run that race, signing autographs before after you've been a professional. So to me, it's a challenge because a lot of a lot of us just want to run. You know, we want to just do what we're good at and what we like doing. We don't want to, you know, necessarily have to do the other stuff before the race, you know, go and do these interviews or whatever. Some of us like it. Some don't. But that's the first day. So, you know you know, you have business and you your brain, you are a brand of yourself. Which means a lot of times you hear people getting frustrated and upset about saying what they feel like the sponsors didn't do for them. Listen, I'm pro athlete, meaning I'm always for the athletes rights and needs. Always. I was an athlete. 

Resources and Links

• https://CreateANewTomorrow.com
• https://www.facebook.com/arigronich
• https://khadevis.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/Khadevisr

Full Transcription

Ari&Khadevis1.mp3

Ari [00:00:06] Has it occurred to you that the systems we live by are not designed to get results? We pay for procedures instead of outcomes, focusing on emergencies rather than preventing disease and living a healthy lifestyle. For over 25 years, I've taken care of Olympians, Paralympians, A-list actors and Fortune 1000 companies. If I'd not get results, they did not get results. I realized that while powerful people who controlled the system want to keep the status quo. If I were to educate the masses, you would demand change. So I'm taking the gloves off and going after the systems as they are. Join me on my mission to create a new tomorrow as a chat with industry experts. Elite athletes thought leaders and government officials about how we activate our vision for a better world. We may agree and we may disagree, but I'm not backing down. I'm Ari Gronich and this is. Create a new tomorrow podcast. 

Ari [00:01:06] This is our Ari Gronich, and we are back again with Create a new Tomorrow podcast. In here we have with us as a guest today is Khadevis Robinson, one of the top track athletes on the planet ever. Now, one of the top coaches and Khadevis. You know, you and I have known each other quite a long time. I think 2007 ish. Two dozen eights. Somewhere around there. When we met. Tell me. Tell us a little bit about yourself. And how come we get along so good, you know. But tell us a little bit about your history. 

Khadevis [00:01:43] Yeah. Just essentially from from from Texas, played football, ran track cross-country, the whole nine, you know, and end up going to CCU and getting track there and did some things that that somewhat proud of, I guess you would say, and ended up winning an NCAA championship. And what's blessed to be able to run professionally and move out to California, guess what? So you're not mad at it. And now to California. When I was living in Santa Monica, you know, ran for a good spell, probably lower than I anticipated. It went well. And no end up retiring in 2012 Rapide Olympic Games and started coaching. Coached originally at UNLV and did some high school coach, some open coach and prep professionals started on the collegiate coaching at UNLV then I would say Ohio State one year left and went to LSU for four and now back at Ohio State. This is going on my fourth year and it's been going it's been a good journey. May have been been writing, got a book out.., a non from another nonprofit, a nonprofit in Santa Monica. You track and run a club. And now I just write a novel called The Reading and Running Initiative, speaking and training and the whole night and just trying to use the tools and the gifts that got. God bless me. 

Ari [00:02:55] Absolutely. So let's see. You know, when you and I met, you had been to one Olympics and but you were the top ten for over a decade. Tell us a little bit about your mindset and what made that possible for somebody like you. Like, you know, I ask this of all elite people in general, like, how dare you? How how do you become you? Why is it that you were able to create yourself into this elite form of a human being? 

Khadevis [00:03:27] I think every individual have to have a skill set and a talent. So the first thing is recognizing you have the skill set and talent no matter what is seen to be saying. And that could be education. It could be sports. It can be whatever. So recognizing what that is. And secondly, once you recognize what it is. Make a decision, a choice, make a decision to say, OK, I'm going to use my talent and my gift. Right. And develop it, multiply and and share it. So I think what makes certain individuals what I would call massively successful core success is relative, right? I mean, we can look at someone that's making one hundred thousand dollars that is pretty successful. But what they could be making a hundred million. Right. You're still successful. What is like is relative. So when I say I'll say I'm massively successful, I mean, someone that is really doing tapping out what their skill set is. They know what their levels at so what makes them that is there is their mindset. I have a speaking series in which I go to certain organizations and groups and it's called Developing the Champions Mindset of Developing the Winners Mindset. And what that means is, you know, we all have a skill set. We all have what I call an inner Olympian in us in different fields. What makes the divide between the ones who are able to chase that and accomplish those and wants or not is the mind set? They haven't. They have one person. I look at a certain situation and come up with something negative. Was another person come up with some positive? Now, again, those are relative. So what I mean by that is right now doing this pandemic. There might be people saying, man, you know, I can't. You know, I can't run because, you know, he can't be in groups. You can't train. There's no races going on in. My season was cut short. They don't know me. I got you a break. War records. Now, why last night's two extremes? You got one person that's cut the season short. Not racing, not run. 

Khadevis [00:05:17] You had not person is breaking the world record because of the mindset. One person saw it as something that affected film, and the other person said, you know what? I'm a keep doing what I do. You know, God or the universe or whatever. Put me here to do certain things in a certain way. And I would just keep pushing forward. So to me, I think that's what is set. That's what sets certain individuals apart. 

Ari [00:05:38] It sounds like what you're saying to me and I'm just going to translate it into my language is one sees an obstacle as a complete and total barrier. 

Ari [00:05:49] And the other sees the obstacle, the same challenge, the same obstacle as something to hurdle over. 

Khadevis [00:05:55] Yeah. And that's it. As simple as it can guess. Yeah, that's it. Maybe the other person maybe the person sees it as a dare. Right. You know, like movies case am I say how dare you. I double dare you. Let me show you, you know, and most of us had that we was kids, you know, we did it with our friends. We did it our brothers and sisters. You know, I beat you here or I could do bednarz I can make better. Great. Whatever it may be. Somewhere along the line, a lot of us stop having that sport, you know, maybe because, we, we have some resistance and we fail, maybe lost confidence in ourselves. But the point I'm trying to make. Yes. Yeah. Other some people see that hurdle and they go man. That's pretty how I know if I can jump that. Well, the one that goes for he, he or she may still have that same doubt, a fear, but they don't let it paralyze them. Right. It's like the deer that sees the headlights and is one. I'm like, OK, we'll get it here. Right. And there's nothing I can do about this. So in a free and as a no. Selma, you here? I'm trying to get away. Right. You know, it's like they both seeing the same headlines. They both have the same fear. But one takes action. The other one don't. So, yeah, I think that's what it comes down to. And this is what Avery's paying in life. And it is such a cliche because people hear the same thing over and over again. Are you able to go through this? Yeah. You go through that. But I'm telling you is the truth. 

Ari [00:07:13] Yeah. So, you know, based on that, you know, I was talking to Dominic earlier and we were talking about some of his challenges. 

Ari [00:07:21] You know you know, Dominic, he he and you competed in the same track Olympics, I believe, around the same environment. But, you know, the environment can either make you or it can break you. Right. 

Ari [00:07:35] So you can either take the environment and the situations and the things that would otherwise cause you to paralyze yourself or and you can do something with it or you can stop it. So you know what to you, because, you know, I'd like to talk to you about both athletes and business and life in general. Right. So what about you? What you're saying can be translated from the track over to the office, over to the person in their home who's trying to live their life. Right. 

Ari [00:08:12] What can what can be translated from athlete's mindset to a life mindset? 

Khadevis [00:08:20] All of it. I'll let you know if you really got to study success, I guess you would call it right. And if you notice some, you start to notice that there's a huge amount of individuals from New York City that have been pretty successful. You still I mean, people that don't ask every walk of life. They're from New York City and they in a they always make it a point to break it up. I love New York City, man. And I'm talking about white, black, Jewish, Asian. It don't matter the race, no matter religion, Christian, Muslim, you know, modern USA. I'm from New York and they're saying something. And what they're saying when they say they're from New York, they're saying, I'm from a certain environment. I'm from an environment that if you don't if you're not tough and you don't find ways and you're not resourceful and you don't develop a skill set, you develop a tough skin, you don't develop different with the you're not gonna make it. And they're saying, because I came from that environment, once I've gone, I said it and finally it was easy, you know, and that's what it is. What happens there? I think some of us that come from. I come from. I come from. 

Khadevis [00:09:22] As long as I come from a hood slum ghetto by no stretch of the imagination. I'm, like, bragging about it now. I am not initially, proud of it. What is the reality? And just to be able to graduate from high school, just to be able to be living right now. You know, I had to develop certain skill sets and be, you know, persevere different things and face different challenges. And those things help you further along in life, you know. And there are some individuals that didn't have that didn't come from that environment. You know, it's like, you know, I have a friend named Holloran Merill. He's a he's a Navy SEAL. I was in it for 20 some years. Great guy. San Diego, and he talks about how his environment when he was a kid, helped him a little bit when he was a Navy SEAL becoming the kid, he was always in the water and swimming in outlet. So what he was trying to do at birth become a Navy SEAL that free of the water wasn't already there because he was in an environment that somewhat prepared him a little bit for what was going to come next. The same thing with us in life. Some people avoid those horrid situations in life as some people get in a mess and they don't get the message from the mess they don't get. They don't get their test the money from the test. And I think what happens is they want to think, OK, I'm just good in academics, I'm just good at sports, I'm just a good dad or whatever it is, not knowing that some of those skill sets, some of those obstacles are transferable. 

Ari [00:10:46] That's that's awesome. You know, I grew up in a way that was I considered to be. I had I had a dual world, right. I had the world of trauma and drugs and fights and all that kind of stuff. And then I had the world that I had very loving parents, but my parents didn't really understand what was going on. 

Ari [00:11:11] They worked really hard to create and do what they wanted to create. And do you know, they were working so hard and didn't really necessarily get to see all of the world that I grew up in. And it was Santa Clarita Valley. So you could kind of understand, as if by Magic Mountain, supposed to be, I guess, small town, you know, easy life. Right. But I wouldn't wish my life, so to speak, on anybody else. 

Ari [00:11:41] And yet I sometimes feel like. That hardness. Translated into some of my softness, you know, because I was able to take and transmute what was happening to me and say I want something better for other people. And so I'm going to be that something better for other people. 

Ari [00:12:07] And it sounds like you took a lot of the traumas of life and used it to harden yourself a little bit more so that you can could could compete with yourself to get better and better. So tell me about that process in your mind of how you did that, because that's something I think that the listeners would really get benefit from. 

Khadevis [00:12:32] So think about this. I want people to get this this concept. So a lot of individuals, a lot of us, we don't want the world to be we don't want our world to be what it really is. In other words, when you're going through trauma, when you're going to hurt, when you're going through pain, your first reaction is to avoid that pain of what that hurt you avoid that trauma. Right. And it's like you don't want to face it and you want to. You want to daydream. You want to sit back. You want to wish you was different. And one of the things we have to do in life is resist the temptation of always wishing it was different. You know, that don't make you. You like it a lot. But that means instead of wasting time sitting there just hoping and wishing and looking at somebody else's life and saying, this is your life. This is what it is. Right. This is what it is. So we have to learn to use that. To move forward, so I gave an example. You say the environment. I use it to harden myself. Well, here's the reality. And I'm an amateur on the Bible. But in the Bible, Moses was talking to God and he was asking God about given that the chosen people out of Egypt and the pharaoh wouldn't let him go. And so Moses thought the God God said, tell them go. Most would go there and ask Pharaoh. Pharaoh, say no, Moses, come back. And guys, they tried this and most would go and try to loot, tricked Pharaoh and do the same thing. He was saying, thank God they did it back and forth. 

Khadevis [00:13:54] So finally, mostly, OK, what am I need to do to tell his pharaoh? You know, he needed to let us go. Is that true? And isn't that Gaza? OK. Just try to do this. They said, listen, he's not going to last. Was important is hard. Right. But he at least tried to do it. So Moses goes and tries to put out a story. But here's what happens. People say, well, hold on, this doesn't make sense. Why would God tell Moses to go try it had a favorite let go and harden his heart. No. One, he's not going to agree to it. That's not fair. Why would he say he's hardened his heart, buddy? No, he's not. Well, here's what happens whenever we're in an environment and then whenever we make the decision to do good or bad. Once we do it, once it becomes easier to do it again. Once you give a homeless person five dollars once, it's easy to keep giving them five. But once you punch somebody once, it's easier to punch him twice a third time. Right. So from our environment, we can nationally become hardy or we can become soffit. Now the weight and direction goes is determined by if we're willing to face reality, if we become hardened and we face reality and understand we can use it for good. Then, yeah, we are hardened, but we don't go out and push nobody else to be haunted. And we understand that we are Horten. For our sales to shelter away from pain, but not to cause pain, and if we're suffering from some, we have to be swept up how to give that back and not to bring it in. So what I'm saying is best what happens is like we all get influenced by an environment, but it's up to us to recognize how we was influenced and recognize how we're going to share that with the rest of the world. 

Ari [00:15:29] That's awesome. So share with me your favorite memory of athlete. 

Khadevis [00:15:37] You mean high school? Middle school. College. Pro what? 

Ari [00:15:40] Yeah. You know, whatever. Whichever you'd like. Whatever your your most promising favorite memory is. 

Ari [00:15:49] You told me about what you told me about it last time we talked. So. 

Khadevis [00:15:53] I have I have three I don't know if I told you one about when I was in Falen ah my college, when I when I was a senior. 

Khadevis [00:16:00] Ah, you mean once when I told. 

Ari [00:16:02] You you told me both the Finland story and the one where you came in fourth. 

Khadevis [00:16:09] Oh yeah. That's not yet. You know it's ironic though. This is the story I tell people when I give speeches because it's the one that. Brought everything together. What I mean by that is, you know, I had been running and I had won a couple of national championships, made some Olympics and all this type of stuff. But when 2008 came about, I was in the best shape of my life, born. I was in. I was. Everything was click. And I had just had a son. And so to see them was going. Things were going well. The Prefontaine Classic. And I was in great shape. And I really, really, really felt that I was going to run fast. And when I got just I knew it and I was ready. And I got in a race and I ran well, I ran on top five times in the world. That guy came from second or third place, whatever it was or whatever it was I wasn't pleased with. I was. Best to say the least. So I went back home to Santa Monica and I trained the next day. I think about this is just round one, 40 for low travel. Random race. I work that after the race. It'll work out right after the race. And I went back to Santa Monica and I train the next day. Long story short, messed myself up. Go to the Olympic trials, essentially ranked pretty high in the USA. And right then once when the U.S. ranked top whatever in the world end up not making the team again. Fought with a die in Eugene, Oregon, you know. So just everything that could go wrong went wrong, you know. But what happened was I remember my son was there. My wife was there. I remember coming up, a track in total shock. Let's feel like I'm in some type of dream nightmare. Not able to even. Don't you have no time to absorb stuff, having to do interviews? And I remember my son Justin. I like their dad here. I knew, as you know, I was when I was good with daddy and, you know, signed. I left for a little while. He heard a lot of noise and I came back out. He's like, pick me up, dude. Is that what you do? 

Khadevis [00:18:03] Right. So you didn't care about whatever happened in the race. So pick him up. And then I go back to my wife. My my my wife's distraught, crying. My coaches like Kate believe it. And I told Sports Illustrated. I told the reporter that interviewed me that if this was the worst thing to happen to me that year, that I'm a blessed man. So I went back to Santa Monica and I had to do that before. And two thousand. Two thousand I got four didn't make it. And I was in total shambles so that before I made so 2008, it wasn't my first rodeo. I'm not making it. So I live in Santa Monica, go down to Venice Beach, which is from where I live, was not far at all. And you hardly ever go there. I went down and I'm walking on Venice Beach is packed as the summer