What Nobody Tells You About Building What God Has Called You To... | Ft. CJ Luckey

We think just because I get older that I develop wisdom. Mm, no, it don't work that way. Wisdom is a choice and growth doesn't happen by accident. It happens by intentionality.

If you take that day of rest, within that day of rest, you'll feel rejuvenated because your soul is finally catching up to your body and you're not just continuing to leave it behind. And so that has been a complete game changer for me.

In any type of growth in any area, especially regarding communication, you want to be intentional. Reading books help. Listening to other communicators helped, but also practicing, bro. Like when I preach or when I do motivational speaking, I'm not saying it for the first time on that particular stage or platform. You know, to have a wife who is not selfish and allows me to pursue the call of God on my life and to be able to walk in my purpose fully is a blessing in itself. And so the one that I would share, since I'm still learning this, And it's simple.

Uh, is that Brand Builders Podcast? CJ Lucky, everybody. Um, San Angelo, you got a few different titles.

Yeah, I do, bro. I do, I do. I thank God for his grace.

So before we get there, I gotta ask, because you said you're a reader, favorite, favorite books, man?

I love, uh, Chase the Lion by Mark Batterson. Um, I love it. It is the, uh, sequel to, uh, In the Pit with a Snowy— uh, In a Snowy Pit with the Lion. Um, all right, With the Lion in the Snowy Pit. I can't remember the name, but, uh, Chase the Lion is my favorite book, man. It's such an incredible book and encouraged me, challenged me, and definitely, uh, was that propelled forward to chase my dream.

So that's like a spiritual book, right? It is more like—

it's both.

Okay.

Yeah, it is. Mark Batterson is a great author. He's a pastor, so he does a great job of pointing things toward Jesus, but a non-believer can read that and be encouraged.

Heck yeah. Do you read more— like, do you read many, like, personal growth books, or what do you gravitate towards normally?

Um, so business books, the, the, the pastor answer the Bible, which I love reading the Bible. But man, to, you know, to answer your question, I love reading different kinds of books. For me, I want to challenge myself, challenge my perspective. Of course, you know, being a communicator, I want my vocabulary to be extensive. And so business books are great. I want to— it's two things I try to say when it comes to myself, Darren, and that's one, CJ, you don't know it all. And two, there's still much to learn. Uh, so I love reading books, man. Biographies, um, those are great. Like I said, business books. Um, but yeah, man, anything I can get my hands on that'd be conducive to me, uh, as a man, or anything that I have my hands on, bro, I'm all for it.

Do you read much poetry?

Yes, and I love listening to poetry too. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I love it.

I was just throwing it out there because A lot of the rappers that I like, they're into poetry. Yeah, yeah, I think it's the coolest thing ever.

Yeah.

And so like songwriting, we write songs for the church, and that's one of the things. If it's not like a poetic book of the Bible, then I'm reading other people's poems. Yeah, just to see how they structure the wording. And it's a whole art, like and I'm sure you know that more than anybody. And so I don't know, how has that played? How? Okay. So rapping, let's, let's, we'll start there.

Yeah.

How did that come about? How did you find that love and thing that you like to do?

Yeah. It's, it's man, Darren, it's funny you mentioned poetry because for me, that's how I started. Poetry is the grandfather of hip-hop and it started as poetry at the age of 11. Started writing poems. It overflowed into hip-hop. Now, let me say this, just, you know, I have such a great amount of admiration and respect for poets and poetry, the art itself. But just because you can do poetry don't mean that you can do hip-hop, you know, being able to stay within a pocket of a beat. And so, but it overflowed into being a hip-hop artist. And I love, man, hip-hop. I'm a huge fan of the culture of hip-hop, the pioneers of hip-hop. And just making sure that my art displays excellence when it comes to hip-hop. Of course, pointing to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But, you know, in addition to that, just making sure I put my best foot forward. So yeah, man, it started as poetry for me and it's grown into what it is today.

Heck yeah, dude. So you started with poetry and then you just like, oh man, a sick beat would freaking slap on this thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, bro. Yeah.

And when did you start exploring that?

So as far as like rapping on beats?

Yeah, like what age?

Not too long after that, you know, probably about 12, maybe 13. Man, I was still in middle school. I remember clear as day, Darren, like watching these two guys that I knew in middle school have a rap battle in the middle of the gymnasium. I remember everybody going crazy and I was like, man, that is dope. You know, I would one day like to do that. Now, I wasn't a battle rapper. I've done some rap battles, but I wouldn't consider myself a battle rapper. And man, it ignited the fire. And so, but as far as rapping on beats, man, I remember just, you know, now back in this day, Dan, we would illegally download beats. And I remember just rapping on the top of them. The beats, bro, would still have like the tags in them, the producer tags. So like every 30 seconds it would say, DJ, so-and-so, you know. And, uh, but yeah, man, it's kind of, you know, how it started and it just continued to grow.

Heck yeah. And then how far away from that did you start the nonprofit, man?

So the nonprofit came later down the road. Um, started CAPS in, uh, 2017, October, and it's a whole testimony in itself, man. Um, but it started later down the road.

Okay, so for the people listening, kind of what is CAPS? And because that's your full-time thing.

Yes.

And so go into that a little bit and what that's about.

Yeah. Now, Darren, we just talked about all the hours of editing, and I don't think you guys got 3 weeks' time for me to talk about CAPS. But no, it's, it's, um, man, CAPS is very near and dear to my heart. So, uh, CAPS started, uh, with a dream. And, uh, but let me go back just a little bit. In the year of 2014, I wrote a song called "The 8 Mathematical Practices." Now, Darren, I don't know about you, bro. When I was in school, math wasn't my favorite subject. And when I did math, all I cared about was the what, not the how. Just give me the answer, man. You know what I mean? Just give me the answer. And so I wrote this song called "The 8 Mathematical Practices," teaching students how to solve a math problem 8 different ways, whether it's cubes or linking chains, or maybe it's debating the problem respectfully with a friend. And so when I wrote this song, bro, I remember recording it and releasing it and the song blew up. And I remember doing a concert on Valentine's Day, 2014 with a little small school in Inman, Kansas, bro. And I remember being on stage and at that time I had never performed for elementary school. And by the end of it, man, students were standing up, they knew the song, they were singing, they were dancing, they were rocking. And I was like, "Man, that's pretty cool." So that was 2014. Even that song, when I look back on it, the mix was terrible. It was terrible, man. We just wanted to get the song out into the world and we were excited about it at the time, especially since the concept was so inspirational and motivational to students. So fast forward, bro, 3 years later, 2017, this is the spring of 2017, right around the month of April.

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My wife has the flu and I'm being Dr. Husband, tending to my wife, making sure she's okay, taking care of her. And I go to our guest bedroom and I fall asleep and I have a dream, bro. And in this dream, it's a mute dream, so I can't hear anything. And so it's a mute dream. And so I am sitting behind myself, I'm standing on the stage and my arm is cuffed. And my arm is cuffed. I'm like, okay, I got a microphone. And so my arm is cuffed. And I'm standing on the stage, bro. And I'm doing this. Now I'm sitting behind myself, I can see myself doing this. And in front of me, Darren, is thousands and thousands of students, of kids. And these kids, different ethnicities, different socioeconomic statuses, backgrounds, cultures, they're wearing different clothes and they're mimicking my movement, bro. Mind you, I can't hear anything. It's a mute dream. And they're going just like this, bro. And I'm doing the same thing. They're just mimicking my movements. And the scene would change. I would go from a cafeteria to a gymnasium, a gymnasium to an auditorium, an auditorium to an arena. And the students would change, their clothes would change, but I remained the same. And I kept doing this and they were mimicking my movements. And so I remember waking up from that dream 2017, April. And I was like, that was a dope dream. You know, I'm like, okay, Lord, maybe I'll do something again for the kids. I didn't really think too much of it, bro. So that was April 2017. Fast forward a couple months, right around the month of June, my wife and one of our dear friends, one of my wife's teaching mentors, her name is Heidi Harris out of Kansas. And Heidi and my wife had encouraged me to read the research of Dr. Carol Dweck, which is The Growth Mindset. And so I'm a big reader, bro. We just talked about that, but I didn't really want to read that at the time. I kind of, you know, I had my set of books and I was like, I'm good reading these. And I don't really want to tap into that. But my wife and Heidi were very adamant about me reading this particular book. And so I was like, oh, I kind of shrugged it off. Like, no, no. You know, a few weeks went by, you know, they stayed at it. They were consistent. And my wife was like, hey babe, like you have a gift in hip-hop and songwriting. Teachers are always looking for creative and innovative ways to teach these concepts. You know, maybe you'll be inspired to, you know, write some songs or a body of work from reading the book. And I was like, okay, I'll read it. So, you know, the month of July, you know, comes by and I read the book, bro, and I'm inspired. Like, I'm inspired by this book. I'm like, man, this is, this is dope. And so I began to you know, write some songs. And one of the concepts that I read about was the power of yet. Now, Darren, you and I, we've lived enough life to where we've used negative statements like these: I can't do this. This doesn't make sense. I don't get it. I don't understand this. We've heard, you know, kids that we know, parents, adults that we know use negative statements like this. Now, the power of yet, this concept teaches that we use negative statements like those, but we put one simple 3-letter word at the end of those negative statements and it changes everything and it removes our doubt. So those negative statements change into this, bro. It goes, I can't do this yet. This doesn't make sense yet. I don't understand it yet. And so I was like, I like that. So I remember writing this song, but before I wrote the song, you know, if you have an iPhone and you take a note, I'm big on note-taking, bro, huge note-taker. If you take a note and you write a note and you don't touch it, it will give you the day and the time that you took said note, you know, as a place of reference. And so once I take a note on a particular day and a time, I don't go back and touch it. Try not to update, 'cause if you touch it, it updates to the current date. And so I remember writing in my notes, Darren, CAPS, bro. I love acronyms, man. And so CAPS, Celebrating All Persevering Students. And I was like, okay, here is CAPS. Now Darren, when we think about caps, we think about what you and I are wearing, caps, something that goes on our head. But also we think about caps, if I were to start a group text with you, we could say KG and Naomi are in it. And then, I start the group text and I text you guys something in all caps, y'all would be like, "Dang, CJ excited about something," you know, depending on the context, or he's angry about something, he's excited. So we think about energy, excitement, enthusiasm, those 3 E's. And so what we talk about within C.A.P.S., I talk about the growth mindset. The growth mindset is the belief that you can develop your talent, your ability, your moral character, your intelligence. And the opposite of a growth mindset is a fixed mindset. Like if you you know, were born not knowing how to dance, your fixed mindset would be, well, I'll never learn. I can't dance. I'll never learn how to dance. And so that's the opposite of a growth mindset. But the entire underlying theme— and we don't call them presentations, bro, we call them celebrations— the entire underlying theme of our celebrations at CAPS is perseverance. We want to change the way that our students look at struggle, the way that they look at failure, that they can overcome obstacles and challenges that are in their way. All right, and they can achieve the success that they were looking for. So going back to The Power of Yet, so, um, The Power of Yet, I talked about that concept. That was the first song, the trailblazing song. And there, like, as a songwriter, hip-hop artist, we want to always put our best foot forward, bro. So I remember writing this song. I wrote the song. I love the verses. I love the hook. And I sung the hook, but I sent it to one of my best friends. His name is Zach Gaddis. I call him ZG. I sent it to him. I was like, hey, bro, I Here's the hook. I wrote it. I sung the hook as a reference for him to sing because I wanted him to take my vocals off as far as the chorus, and him, he will put his vocals on the track. So he receives the song, he does his thing to the song, but he keeps my chorus on there. He just kind of does some BGBs and sings under it. And I'm like, bro, you did nothing of what I told you to do. You know, I'm like, ZG, bro, like, I want you to take my vocals off on the chorus. I love my verses. My verses were great. And I want you by yourself to sing the hook. He was like, no, bro. Like, we went back and forth, bro. He was like, no, bro, CJ, like, keep it, keep the hook, bro. It's dope, it's catchy, kids are going to love it. And I was like, okay, I'll keep it. And so, man, I remember we released— now, this, about this time, this is, um, August of 2017, same, around the same time. We released the song, uh, in September of 2017, which is the next month. and it blew up, Darren. I mean, blew completely up. It went viral, um, seeing students in Lebanon and students in Argentina and Colombia and Australia and Canada, of course, here in the United States, of course, sing this song that I wrote in my living room, bro. Um, you know, singing the lyrics, they're encouraged, having teachers, you know, hit us up. So I remember, now this is September 2017, I remember my wife was cooking and we were in the kitchen. And as I'm making my way to October when we started casting, we were in the kitchen and my wife was cooking and I was kind of like leaning up against the counter. Now, now I'm very spontaneous. My wife knows this, but she knows if I repeat something, then I'm very serious about it. You know, she may hear an idea like, hmm, I hear you, babe. But, you know, like, I don't know if you're serious about it, but Then she'd be like, okay, he's repeated himself. CJ must be serious about it. Okay. So man, my, I was talking to my wife and I was like, babe, I think I'm going to do a tour because I want schools to see that we will be willing to bring, you know, this music, this content to their schools and basically put on what would be many of these kiddos' first concert. Experience in their life. I think I'm gonna do a tour and we'll call it the CAPS tour, the Celebrating All Perseverance Students tour. And I think I'm gonna start in Kansas. My wife and I, we met in Kansas, went to college in Kansas. And so Kansas is a big part of our lives.

Is that where y'all were when you started CAPS?

No, we were, we were in Texas, but we lived in Kansas when I wrote the 8th Mathematical Practice song. And so, so Kansas plays a big role, you know, in CAPS and in our lives as well. So I scheduled 6 schools in Kansas, and it started with Bueller, Kansas. And so we start on this tour. Now, let me pause. You know, being a man of God and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Darren, many times God will drop something in our lap, and we just have to be obedient and run with it. A lot of times we won't start something until we wait, and we'll wait until we get the full understanding and revelation of what it is. And we have to be obedient first. Obedient first. Obedience always makes sense to God, even when it looks like nonsense to the world, bro. You know, you can look at the life of Noah building the ark. Noah, it ain't rained in years, bro. Yeah, why are you building the ark? You can look at Daniel not eating of the king's food, man. Hey, bro, just give me some vegetables and some Fiji water. I'm good. I'm just playing, but You know, we want to make sure that we're obedient first. Even the Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice. So again, obedience always makes sense to God, even when it looks like nonsense to the world. So I was just obedient, bro. And the Bible says that the steps of a righteous man are ordered by God. God orders our steps, bro, but he don't take them for us. I have to take these steps in faith. And that's exactly what I was doing. So then going into this tour in Bueller, Kansas, we had it at the Bueller High School in the auditorium. Bro, going into it, I had absolutely no idea, bro, of what this presentation— we call them celebrations— would look like. I knew my songs, I wrote them. You know, at this time there's more additional songs, you know, included alongside The Power of Yet. The Power of Mistakes, Grit and Resilience, Good Morning, songs like that. And so October comes around. This is when CAPS started, bro. And October 23rd was the first show. And it's in Buehler High School. And I gotta, I gotta share this story with you, man. So Buehler High School has the capacity, I believe it's like 835. And it was 1,000 students at this first show, Darren. Like we packed in there like sardines, bro. And if you watch the "Power Yet" music video, you will see, you know, Buehler High School auditorium. Now it was multiple schools in that auditorium. And so I remember standing on stage and I had one of my best friends, one of my brothers, man, his name is Kevin Malone. We grew up since elementary school, since third grade on up. And he was with me. I was like, bro, if I call you on stage, just come to the stage. We're going to wing it. These students have no idea what the celebration looked like, but we'll wing it and get it down to a science. We'll continue to refine it. And so I just remember that, you know, thousand those 1,000 students being in that room, bro. And I remember them having fun. I remember them waving their hands, jumping up and down, again, moving in faith. And I remember being inspired by what I seen and by what God had done. And of course, you know, CAPS continued to grow and expand beyond that. But even talking about the genesis of CAPS, bro, it's been a blessing to see it expand, grow. But more importantly, seeing the impact, not just on students here in the United States of America, but around the world, bro. It's changing cultures, it's changing atmospheres, it's changing verbiage of students and educators. And, and it's encouraging, it's empowering, it's inspiring students to be, you know, great, to persevere, that they can overcome their struggles and they can achieve the success they're looking for.

That is awesome. And so I love how you said whenever the Lord gives you an idea or something, you still have to take the steps. Yeah. And that's really one reason that I wanted to even start this podcast in the first place, because that's how it was for me. And like, the Lord was like, hey, you need to use this tool and this skill that I've given you of creating videos to help people with it.

Yeah.

And so I didn't know what that looked like. Like nobody around me did the same thing. So I was like, okay, let's try this. Let's try this. And so during the beginning times, at least for me, there was a lot of obstacles and stumbling blocks.

Yeah.

What did that look like at the very beginning? Like what kind of roadblocks did you run into? Because I think it's important for people to hear. Yeah. Who are also building brands and building things. That it's not— just because the Lord gave it to you doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

Yeah.

So kind of talk through some of those things, man.

Bro, uh, roadblocks, barriers, obstacles, you know. And when I think about obstacles, Darren, obstacles come my way not to stop us but to strengthen us. Um, you know, and along the way I did have my barriers and obstacles. One was, you know, doubting myself that I could do it by the grace of God. Like, God, did you really call me to this? You know, and we hear, you know, God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the call. And it is his grace alone that sustains us in whatever journey that we're on that he's called us to. And so remembering that, and also, bro, when it comes to faith, and I'm gonna get into the obstacles here shortly, but when it comes to faith, you know, Faith is an action, but so is fear. And we can't allow both to lead us. We have to pick one. Are you going to allow your faith to lead you or your fear to lead you? And I'm not gonna front, bro. I keep it 100 with you, man. Fear set in, bro. Like, what does this look like? I don't know logistically. Like, there's— bro, we were literally rapping on whatever the school had. And you know, school sound systems can be whack. You know what I mean?

On no sound system.

You know, my bro was holding chords together. We were playing through an aux cord plugged into a CD player. You know, now we have our own sound equipment now, but you know, just overcoming those obstacles but still moving forward in faith, moving forward in confidence, moving forward in boldness that God called us to this and to create something that's going to outlive us. But anyway, man, so some of the barriers and obstacles I faced was, you know, um, the money side, the, the finances. We have to remember, bro, like, we serve a God of provision. He's Jehovah Jireh, our provider. You know, and he meets every need according to his purposes, bro. He meets every single need. And the Bible also says the righteous won't be forsaken, nor their seed begging for bread. And so I'm like, man, I'm out here, bro, you know, doing this tour, going to all these schools, like, you know, what kind of money are we going to make from it? But it was more about the impact. Now, God provided. We did make money from it. I mean, $200 here, $300 there. One time We had absolutely no money. We had to wait until we got to the next school to get the check from that school to cash it so we could have money to continue the tour when we started on the East Coast. But looking back on it, man, so many barriers. I'll give you one more barrier, not just only money. Don't let money stop you. Don't let money stop you. Yes, we need it, but God will provide. He will touch the heart of people. He will, you know, make a way out of no way. But if he's called you to it, he's going to bring you through it. Now, I'm not saying don't be a good steward of what you have. You don't want to be foolish and negligent of the steward of the finances that you do have. You know, when we think about stewardship, that's a biblical principle. Stewardship is not ownership. Ownership says I can do with this whatever I want to do. But stewardship says, you know what, I'm going to cherish this. I'm going to treasure this. I'm going to protect this. And when I pass it on to the next person, it's going to be better than when I have it. That makes sense.

Yeah.

And so that's stewardship. So don't let finances stop you. Another thing, man, there is going to be naysayers along the way. People won't understand, and it's okay if they don't understand. God has given you the vision for whatever it is. If you're branding your organization, your business, the culture you're trying to foster, He's given you the vision for it. And the thing with the vision is you have to see the vision. Here's number 2, you have to pursue the vision. Here's number 3, you have to help other people see it too, you know. And so don't let the naysayers and the haters and people who are going to try to throw all type of shade on your shine stop you from doing whatever God called you to do, man. And so for me, man, that's, you know, a couple of barriers that I had to you know, overcome. And I was able to overcome that by the grace of God, because I try to remember this scripture that we're more than conquerors through Christ who loves us, man. And so it's been a blessing. It hadn't been easy, but this journey has been beautiful, and I'm thankful to be on it, bro.

Yeah, man. Where there's no vision, yep, shall perish.

Yep.

I think that's what makes a— that's the difference to me between a bad leader and a good leader. And obviously Like both, both you and I have experienced that and realized that that is everything.

Yeah, man.

Like it don't matter how hard the finances get. Like you could be in the negatives. If the vision's there, your people will stay with you.

Man, I'm telling you, bro.

Naomi has stayed here through the roughest of times. I'm like, Naomi, I don't know if you're getting paid Friday. Like I can't promise you that. And like she stuck around.

She a real one, bro. Naomi is a— shout out to Naomi. She is a real one.

But these things are real. Like, those are real things that happen. And just because you have a business, just because you have an organization, doesn't mean it's always going to be the easiest. But if you persevere, yeah, and push through the things, the Lord will make a way. I think that's huge. So how has the ministry side of things played a role within this nonprofit? And were you a pastor whenever you started doing all this? If you're watching this episode right now, it's more than likely because you are somebody who is building a brand or a business. And if you want a chance to go all in on content, because listen, 2026 is the year to do it. I've actually put together a free 5-day challenge. It's called 5-Day Build with Video Challenge, teaching you how to create content that turns into clients and leads. If you're somebody who is looking for some help in this area and wants to grow your personal brand online using video, check out the link in the description below. There is very, very limited spots, so make sure to claim yours today and apply for the challenge. Let's get back to the episode.

I was, I was a pastor. I was serving in student ministry when CAP started, and I'm very thankful for my church at the time. Shout out to Freedom Fellowship. Shout out to Pastor Harold Watkins, the leadership staff there. They were very kind and gracious to allow me to not only pastor and steward the student ministry while building CAPS at the same time. And I know, you know, when God calls you to something, he's going to provide and make a way. And so I'm thankful for the favor that God provided for me to be able to start CAPS while, you know, still having a full-time job. And so, you know, and while I shout out Freedom Fellowship Church, I want to shout out my church, Paul Land Church, as well. Pastor Curt Dolphin and the leadership staff there. But so yes, I was doing student ministry, bro, while doing CAPS, uh, the ministry side of it. So CAPS is a secular, uh, celebration, secular presentation. Um, it is secular, but it does have some spiritual, uh, attachments to it. And, um, you know, standing— I am a man of God. I love Jesus Christ with my heart, my soul, my mind, with all of my strength. He is my Lord and Savior, and I am unashamed of my faith in Christ Jesus. But, you know, CAPS being on the secular side, it's allowed me to be able to use the schools as a mission field. Yes, I don't say my Lord and Savior Jesus on any stage that I stand on when it comes to the CAPS celebrations, but I still get to be a beacon of light. You know, I still get to spread that light, you know, in middle schools, high schools, elementary schools, or, you know, community celebrations. And so The ministry side is still happening. I don't know why, Darren, we have this mindset that just because we can't say our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ's name, that ministry is not taking place. You know, man, when I stand on these stages and I do these celebrations and it's motivational and it's inspirational and it's changing lives, what do people do? They go in, man, who is this dude? You know, what is this movement? And they look it up and I'm again, I'm unashamed. I preach, I have sermons, I have my Christian hip-hop side. And, you know, that stuff is going on. If you Google my name, you're going to see all that stuff, man. And so again, you know, CAPS has grown and expanded to where I had to separate it. It is secular because the goal is still to get inside of public school doors, charter school doors, and I respect that boundary. Yeah. But at the same time, I still look at it as ministry and an opportunity for me to advance God's kingdom, bro.

Yeah, I mean, and there's not a lot because I went through the public school and there's not hardly anything like that. Yeah, um, they, they try to keep it very secular, and which, like, obviously that's the law right now. Um, hopefully one day we can go back to not having that in place, but I think it's awesome to see y'all going into where nobody is going.

Yeah.

And spreading the light, even if it's not saying the words Jesus Christ. Um, I think that's awesome.

It's a blessing.

And so you incorporate the rap, you incorporate the ministry, you incorporate everything into Caps.

Yeah.

And I think that's such a cool testimony. Um, I want to talk about your family for a second. I know how important a good spouse is.

Yeah.

And so, and I know you've talked about every, like, every time we're in a conversation, you're like, oh my gosh, my wife, my amazing life, my wife, I love her so much. I couldn't do anything without her. And this is just casual conversation. And so how important has that relationship been with your spouse while building something like this? Because there's hard times, there's good times, like How has she played a role, man?

Bro, thank you. Now I can talk for like 3 years about my wife. I know we don't have that kind of time, man, but to honor her is an honor for me. And my wife knows I honor her on every stage and platform that I get an opportunity to honor her. And so she is a blessing, bro. And my wife is one of the most selfless people that I've ever met. You know, to have a wife who is not selfish and allows me to pursue the call of God on my life and to be able to walk in my purpose fully is a blessing in itself. My wife holds down the fort. Now let me say this, as I honor my wife, my wife and my daughters are my first ministry. God created the family before he created the church, and I will never ever, bro, sacrificing my wife and my daughters on the altar of ministry. And so, but I'm thankful for my wife because she chooses, she chooses intentionally to share me with the world. She could be like, no, I want you home, I'd rather have you here. And I'm not saying she don't, you know, she enjoys having me home, you know, uh, you know, whether it's picking up my daughters, going on field trips with them, been at home for dinner. And man, I'm so thankful to be at home and I enjoy my time at home, trust me. But my wife allows me to go and to be able to encourage and reach thousands of students, thousands of educators, you know, thousands of people inside and outside of the school building, bro, because she is not selfish. And I'm very thankful for our marriage. I'm very thankful for who she is and who God created her to be. And any opportunity, man, I get to honor her, I take advantage of it. And I love that woman. Proverbs 18:22, he that finds a good thing, he obtains favor from the Lord. Bro, I found my good thing and she is my good thing. So shout out to my diamond girl, Samantha Lucky. I love you, baby. And I am so thankful for who you are, who you are to me and the diamond girl that you are, baby. You are a blessing and I love you.

That's awesome.

I had to, bro. Thank you, bro.

Thank you.

Now you threw the alley-oop.

I got you, I got you, I got you.

I appreciate it.

I know that's important. Like, yeah, Katie has been the biggest cheerleader, and really without her support, yeah, like, this wouldn't be happening.

Oh yeah, shout out to KG.

Shout out KG.

Hey, Jizzle.

She's usually one of the co-hosts on the show. She couldn't come today, but yeah, um, that's awesome. And, and so how did you and your wife meet? Okay, and I also think it's important because I don't know y'all's story, but being equally yoked whenever you decide to go into a marriage— what, what is y'all's story? Like, were y'all in the same similar place? Did y'all meet before y'all were believers? Were y'all believers already?

Yeah, so both of us, uh, had relationships with Christ, you know, when we met. So, uh, she was saved. I was saved. Um, of course, it was in two different seasons of life. I met my wife in college, but my first time meeting her, she was a senior in high school and I was a sophomore in college, and she was there on her preview day. And I remember even talking to who are now my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, or mother-in-love, father-in-love. I love them both, man. They're just like my parents. And, um, I remember talking to them while they were on their preview day, but we met in college when she actually, you know, got to campus. She was a freshman, I was a junior. We met in Kansas, and we're very— that's why I say we're very thankful for the state of Kansas and the relationships and connections, the ties we have there. You know, people who are like family still live up there, and that's why we love going up there. And so shout out to Central Christian College, the college that we met at, that we both graduated from. Graduated from, and we both played college basketball, bro. And so we met, man. And you know, my wife had a relationship with the Lord. I did too, man. Darren, when we met though, bro, I was not the man I am today though, man. I was out there thuggin' it, man. You know, baggy pants, bro. I had slashes in my eyebrows, man. I was not the CJ you see today. Nah, I was not the CJ you see today, man. But thank God that he gave my wife eyes to see pass who I was. Yeah, I was saved, but at the time I was living a double life. I wasn't doing the hip-hop that I do now. Of course, with the educational side of CAPS and the Christian hip-hop side of CJ Lucky Ministries, I was doing, you know, my music was more secular at the time, performing in clubs and different things like that, man. And but of course, in everything we grow, we mature, and age doesn't come with maturity. You know, that's a decision. You know, we think just because I get older that I develop wisdom. Mm, nah, it don't work that way. You know, wisdom is a choice and growth doesn't happen by accident. It happens by intentionality. And so we met in college, man, and that was the genesis of our relationship. We got married after she graduated. I'm 2 years older than she is. And so we got married after she graduated and the rest is history, bro. Wow.

And now y'all have 2 kids?

We have 2 kids, 2 little girls, big personalities.

Daron, girl dad gang.

Girl dad, girl dad. You know, God was like, CJ, you got too much pride, so I'mma crush it double time, you know, by giving me 2 beautiful little girls. Olivia Joy, she is my oldest, and I have Harper Love. She was born on Christmas. Olivia Joy, Daron, is 5'3". She's 9 years old. 5'3", bro. Her pediatrician says she's going to be 6'4". She wears a 10.5 shoe. Pray for your boy, man, and my pocketbook. Because, bro, I mean, growing out of clothes, growing out of shoes, and, uh, people think she's like a 6th grader, bro, because she's so tall. And, uh, my baby girl Harper Love, uh, she was born on Christmas, Christmas baby, and she's 7. And Harper Love looks small compared to Joy, but she's the tallest in her class. And so I have—

so you got 2 of them, man?

2 of them, bro. 2 tall little girls, man. And so, uh, those are my babies, man. I love them. It's an honor to be a girl dad. And I have joy and love, two fruit of the spirit. Neither one of them are patient, you know. So, and so, uh, I'm thankful for them both, man. And what an honor and privilege it is to be a girl dad. That's awesome.

Heck yeah. Okay, so you talked about communication earlier. Yeah, being a pastor, getting on stages, speaking to crowds. Yeah, one thing about communication, it has fascinated me over the last two years, especially when creating videos? Because I create videos every single day, like for us and for our clients. And I have to coach people on how to communicate because it's weird. Talking to a camera is not like talking to a person.

Yeah.

Talking to people is not like talking to a camera. And so what are some of the tips and advice you would have for somebody trying to grow in communication?

Yeah. Bro, you have some great questions, man. You're a great interviewer. Um, first of all, let me say this: it's an honor and privilege to communicate. Um, God created us with— for communication. You know, we even think about universe— one spoke, uni, one verse, spoke, you know. And God is the ultimate creator and the ultimate communicator. And let me say this before I share with you, you know, the wisdom that I have regarding the question that you just asked. I'm not the best communicator. I'm not the most perfect communicator. It's only by God's grace, bro, that I even do what I do, especially growing up, you know, and coming from where I come from, you know, I mispronounce stuff, bro. You know, I still talk with a little slur. You know, I say her, where, there, fur, cur, you know, but And answering your question, I have to be intentional about that growth, you know, pronouncing there and where and here. And sometimes when I'm flowing, you can hear it kind of just ooze out. But in any type of growth in any area, especially regarding communication, you want to be intentional. Reading books help, listening to other communicators help, but also practicing, bro. Like when I preach or when I do motivational speaking, I'm not saying it for the first time on that particular stage or platform, bro, I would line my— this may sound crazy— I would line my daughter's teddy bears and dolls up and preach and speak to them in my living room. Yeah, like, that's my audience, you know. I obviously run things by my wife and kind of filter some things through her depending on what audience I'm speaking, uh, to. But, uh, in communication, for any communicators that want to grow in that area, man, continue to be intentional about your growth. Again, going back to the two things that I said earlier when we started the podcast, I try to remind myself of things. One, CJ, you don't know it all. Two, there is still much to learn. So I'll continue speaking any opportunity you have to step outside your comfort zone, do it. You know, work on speaking in your time by yourself, you know, conversations on the phone. Use— I try to add new words to my vocabulary every day. You know, the word plethora, you know, there's a plethora of things. I don't even have to use that word in a particular sentence, but I'll throw it in there because I want to add it to my vocabulary. And it's not to sound like I'm the most intelligent man in the room, but it's just because I'm working on having my vocabulary being more extensive, you know. And so, yeah, man, any opportunity you can to grow in communication, man, step into it. Don't, don't shy or shrink back, but lean into it and make it a habit. Because if we're not careful, the person that we once was can overtake the person that we're trying to become and that God is molding and shaping us to be. So step into it, lean into any opportunity to learn, any opportunity to communicate, whether it's small, medium, or big, uh, step into it and do it, uh, to the best of your ability and bring God the glory through it.

So I think that's awesome, the reps. I want to kind of narrow in on, on the repetition and practice side of things because what people see on stages and what people see in videos, majority of the time that person has taken, taken hours of practice and studying and crafting this thing that they're delivering. Sermons, like, you sit down, or at least I hope you do, and, and study a little bit. Yeah, you focus on what you're going to say, how you're going to deliver it. Yeah, take some time. And so for people who just try to get up there one day and deliver something like off the cuff. Yeah, it's not near as easy as people who do it all the time make it look. Yeah, Steph Curry. I heard this example the other day and it stuck with me. So he shot 500 three-pointers every single day, and we'll take before his NBA career. Yeah, through junior high, high school, college. He shot 500 shots a day, every single day, 7 days a week, never missed a day. And so he did this all the way going through up until the NBA. I think it was like something crazy. He took like 2 million, 2.5 million shots by the— before he got to the NBA.

That's dope.

He holds the highest 3-point record of like 3,300 3-pointers in game, 3-pointers in NBA history. So he shot 2 million something times just to make 3,000.

Yeah, and going, and yeah, going, and still going.

So like the ratio of practice versus like performance or delivering, it's very, very important. Very. And so same thing with videos. I have to remind people all the time, if this is their first time filming a video, it's not going to be good. Yeah, and that's okay.

That's okay. You got to be okay with that.

You have to put in the reps. And whenever it comes to online stuff, you have to put in the reps at the beginning.

Yeah.

And preferably do the reps, the bad things, whenever nobody is watching. That way when people start watching and noticing you, yeah, you'll, you'll be better.

Absolutely, bro. Uh, repetition is the father of learning. It is, man. It's necessary. So I love what you shared, and you're absolutely right.

And I don't know if those stats are I bet they're just estimate.

Yeah, no, man, but it's pretty close.

It's pretty close.

Yeah, he's a beast, bro. Best shooter ever.

So what has been— and I like to ask every single person who comes on the podcast this question— what has been the best piece of advice you have ever received that you can share with our viewers today?

Man, bro, that's a good question. The best, man, I've— over my years, especially being an adult, because I like sitting under wisdom. Um, you know, the Bible says, without wise counsel, plans fail.

Everybody should.

Yeah, I love sitting under wisdom. I love people who are older than me, know more than me, done more than me, been there, done that, and that are willing to share their wisdom. So to answer your question, man, it's a lot that I have heard, but one of the best that I can share Man, would be— whoo, that's a good one. There's so many, man. My wheels are turning, bro.

Take, take your time.

So many that I could share, bro, man, you know, about, you know, being productive or being focused. I can go so many different ways, but, but I'll share this because this is something that I'm still learning, Darren. And, you know, we're all a work in progress, bro. You know, we— you, myself, Naomi— and even though we're sitting in the same room, we still all sit in the same room. And it's not just the studio at Howdy Media, but we sit in a room for improvement. And so the one that I will share, since I'm still learning this and it's simple, is that rest is productive. Rest is productive. One of my mentors, man, told me, CJ, rest is productive, man. Darren, you and I, bro, we movers and shakers. You know, we are, man. And you know, we have families to provide for. We're girl dads, we're husbands, and we're movers and shakers, bro. So we want to make sure that, you know, we're doing what we need to do. But at the same time, the world is going to keep spinning when we're resting, you know. And I'm learning that rest is holy, rest is productive. And that in order for CJ to continue to be effective with all the people that I serve, with the family that I lead and that I love, with the many hats that I wear, where I have to rest. I have to rest and be okay with resting because as I rest, there is growth. And so I remember my mentor just saying, "Hey CJ, rest is productive, bro. And it's okay to put your phone on do not disturb. It's okay to log out and deactivate social media. It's okay to not have to write a song or record a song or, you know, be outside. That's okay. That's okay." and to recharge, to reset, to refresh, to rejuvenate, all the rewords, you know. And so that rest is productive, man. I would say that's the best advice that I have received from one of my mentors. It's something that I'm still grasping myself, still learning, but I think that I'm starting to get better at it. It's something I don't think I will ever master, but I do think I have improved and grown in that area. Because it's something I think John Mark Comer— we talked about this the other day at coffee, uh, he wrote— I think this is him who wrote this, but he said we don't want to keep going, going, going if we're not growing, growing, growing, you know.

Yeah.

And, you know, and talking about rest or ruthless elimination of hurry, I really believe that's him. I can't remember, but, um, rest, bro, rest is productive.

To answer your question, I love that you said that. I've been been diving deep into that.

Yeah, yeah.

Aspect of things. Yeah. In the last— well, really since Olivia was born, my daughter Olivia. We both have, yeah, daughters, Olivia's.

Yeah, we got Libbys.

Um, but also in that book, and if you haven't read it, highly recommend go check out that book, Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Fantastic. Um, in, in that book, he also talks about we're in a hustle culture. Oh bro, like Without a doubt. Capitalism, America, it is a hustle culture. And so they tell you, society tells you, hey, you got to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if you want to get anything done. And so God took a rest day.

He did.

Are we better than God? Like, I don't think so.

Nope.

I know we're not. So I think it's important, and one of the ways that he uh, talks about a visual is we're going, going, going so much that by the time you get to that seventh day, if it's not rest, your soul never has time to catch up to your body.

That's right.

And so if you take that day of rest, within that day of rest, you'll feel rejuvenated because your soul is finally catching up.

Yeah.

To your body, and you're not just continuing to leave it behind. And so that has been a complete game changer for me. As well.

That's dope, bro.

Great, great advice there.

That's dope.

Um, yesterday we met and kind of talked over some strategy and content stuff. What were some of the takeaways that you took away from yesterday? Yeah, um, after taking a night of sleep. Yeah, just curious, like, yeah, what are some of the things you took away?

Man, Darren, you, uh, you shared a plethora. Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, here we go. A plethora of wisdom, bro. Um, Man, I learned a lot from you. One, I'm thankful for, you know, knowing how to monetize YouTube. To think that I've had a YouTube channel after all this time and it, you know, I haven't been taking advantage of being able to monetize. And, and it goes to show, you know, as we go, we're not going to know everything right up front. You know, we kind of learn as we go. And to think I'm this far down the road. And I love what you said in addition to that. It's better you learn it now than, you know, 10 years from now. And so I'm thankful that you taught me about the monetization, uh, of YouTube, being able to monetize.

Um, and, and for those of you who don't know, real quick, on YouTube, once you hit a certain number of subscribers and watch hours, you can apply to become a monetized channel. So YouTube will pay you to put videos on their platform. And so I think you had almost 10,000 subscribers, CJ, and, um, a lot of views. Yeah, that you could have been doing. So go check that out, that could save somebody a lot of headache.

Headache.

Um, sorry, continue.

Yeah, no, it's good, bro. Yeah, save the headache, the heartache, um, and make your money, you know.

Yeah, get paid.

Might as well get paid, you know. Um, get some, some profit from the things that you do and post. Um, that was one, Darren. Uh, I'm the, uh, the website. And forgive me if I butcher it— Opus Clips, man, bro. I went home and— I mean, excuse me, went to the Airbnb, bro, and was like, this website is so dope. Just kind of, you know, you start, you know, open up my laptop and just kind of navigating through the website and, you know, trying to learn the ins and outs and kind of teach myself from the tutorial that you gave me. And that was one, man. And So I'm thank— thank you for, for sharing that. It's so much that I learned yesterday that I could share, but I'll, I'll share those two.

Perfect.

Um, you know, from our meeting, bro. But thank you, man. I appreciate you, bro, for being willing to share, you know, your wisdom.

Absolutely, absolutely. For sure. That's what I love to do. If you have any questions about that stuff, let me know. You can take the 5-day challenge or send me a DM, um, on Instagram. So we'll wrap this up. Thanks for coming on today. And I hope if you're listening to this, you have found some sort of value out of today's conversation. And so to wrap things up, where is, what does the next 5 years look like? Like, where is Caps going? Where is CJ Lucky going? What's like your vision for the next 5 years?

Yeah. So I love that. Because it's a question where I have to think past where I am now. I am a very in-the-moment type dude. But to think long term, looking back at the life of Jesus, who is my model, my example, not only my Lord and Savior, but the example that I want to follow, you know, Jesus, of course, gave us the Great Commission, and if we want to be great at anything, it should be the Great Commission. But knowing the intentional investment he made in the disciples in his earthly ministry, yet he didn't send them out to go until they had the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. They had on-the-job training with Jesus himself, yet he didn't send them out until they had the power of the Holy Spirit. And if they couldn't do what God called them to do in establishing the early church and taking the gospel to different places and spaces, they couldn't do it without the Holy Spirit. What makes us think we can do it without the Holy Spirit? So moving forward, to answer your question, in 5 years, I see CAPS— the, the vision, the dream is to have regional reps, um, East Coast, West Coast, um, you know, up north, obviously, you know, down south. Caps has always been tied and attached to my name, but to bring on other musical talent— not that we are a record label, but that we can invest into artists and musicians who want to use their gifts to be able to encourage, empower, and inspire kids and, and educators and teenagers, uh, middle school, high school, elementary. Uh, we want to bring on some other artists also, uh, that we would branch in expand in our staff, uh, you know, have our CAPS curriculum coordinator because we want to do more than just be a musical presence within the classroom, but we provide resources and content that teachers can use, um, to teach and accompany the music. You know, maybe it's 10-15 minutes. We're already working on that, um, you know, a little sneak inside scoop on some curriculum, bro, coming soon. I'm excited, man. We cooking up. And so something that teachers can use and they will have the time to be able to use, and it will be conducive to their students inside and outside of the classroom. Uh, so, uh, within 5 years, uh, I want to of course still be a part of CAPS. I'm not, you know, doing so much jumping and running on stages, uh, more motivational speaking then. Thank God he's given me the strength and energy to still do that now. More motivational speaking then, but also to have CAPS in a place to where it's, it's already global now. But we not only have CAPS here in the States, but we got CAPS overseas, you know, and, and we are able to still continue our mission in crossing the boundary of education, but to encourage, empower, and inspire students and educators, man. And, you know, changing the way that they look at struggle and failure. So that's a little bit without, you know, going too deep into detail, man. But great question.

No, I love it. So where can people find you if they want to connect with you, book a CAPS tour program, or connect with you online? How does that happen?

Yeah, man. So if you guys want to find us, you can check out our website at thecapstour.com, T-H-E-C-A-P-S-T-O-U-R dot com. You can find us on Instagram at the CAPS tour. You can find us on Twitter or at rather, at the Caps Tour. And we are on Facebook as well, celebrating all persevering students. We would love for you guys to keep up with us. We're creating new content, writing new music right now. Caps Volume 3, super excited about that, man. And we're very thankful to, you know, have you guys be a part of the journey. And bro, thank you. From me to you, bro to bro, thank you. It was an honor and privilege to be a part of this podcast. Thank you for what you do and how you come alongside of small business owners and people who are trying to branch and expand their business or their organization. So thank you, bro. I appreciate you.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Hope you found some value out of today's conversation. Go give CJ a follow on the social media platforms and websites, and we'll catch you in the next one. Yes, sir.

Peace.

If you've made it to the end of this episode, and I hope you enjoyed it, I wanted to encourage you to check check out the rest of our videos, the rest of our podcast. There's tons of educational stuff talking about building a brand. We bring in a lot of brands that are faith-based to dive deep into what it is exactly that is working for them, what is not working for them, just to encourage other people like you who are building brands. And so if this interests you, take a look at the rest of the channel. You'll also see I'm sitting right here in our content studio. We're located in the middle of Texas and we film tons of content for businesses, entrepreneurs, content creators all around the state. So if you're interested in looking at more of our services, our website howdymedia.com is available in the link down below. Check out the rest of our stuff. Send me the word loyal on Instagram in my DMs if you made it to the end of the episode so I know and I can personally thank you for watching. So hope you guys enjoyed today's episode and we'll see you in the next one. Peace.