S2 #38 - Otis D. Winston, Actor / Writer / Director

What is the roadmap to defeat self sabotage, negative thinking, and learned helplessness in these unprecedented times, you must get connected, get growing, get certain, and get Attitude. The Get Attitude podcast. Oh, yeah. Share that out, Otis. Share that out. All righty. What is up, gappers? This is Glenn Bill, the host of the Get Attitude podcast, international best selling author, keynote speaker and peddler of attitude amongst America. And today, ladies and gentlemen, we have a great, great guest. First of all, please remember to like this. Please remember to share this. Please get everybody you know listening to this, because if you need to get attitude, this is the place to be. Today we are with the former Buckeye Otis Winston, whose dreams are coming into fruition. You know, back in the 1990s, Otis was a house in Ohio State's athletic department. He was not only the captain of the basketball team for Ohio State, but he was also captain of the track team. But you know what? Winston's dream wasn't really about sports. His dream was to be an actor. Now, I know gappers, many of you are where you are. You're trying to find out how to bridge the gap from who you are to who you want to become, from where you are to where you want to go. And I saw this gentleman on a live, and I said, here's a guy that can help our listeners get from where they are to where they want to go. Because you know what? He went from one world to a totally different world. And he's here today to share and talk and teach and help us understand what it takes to get from where you are to where you want to go. And we're going to bring him up now, the wonderful Otis Winston. Otis, welcome to the Get Attitude podcast. Hey, thank you for having me, brother.

I'm glad to be here. Glad to be here.

It's all. It's all good. And I'm just so happy that you decided to share some time with us. Talk to us a little bit about, you know, what I said in the opening. What was the main number one thing when you said, I really want to be an actor? And everybody looked at you and said, what? Right. I'm guessing that's what they said. What was. Go ahead.

I was actually. They said, are you serious? Especially living in Columbus, Ohio, I'm one of those guys where I don't care what people have to say. If I believe something and if I put my mind to it, I believe I can accomplish anything, especially with God on my side. So it wasn't frustrating for me. It was actually inspiring because when you tell me I can't do something. My job is to show you what God can do through me. So it really, really just lit the fire now.

So when did it hit you over the head and you said, I want to be an actor? Like, were you watching a movie, watching tv? Has it always been deep inside your soul? What was it?

What's crazy is that I never knew this is what I wanted to be. You know, I remember Steven Spielberg said something in one of his talks. He said, a dream doesn't come from in front of you, it comes from behind you. It sneaks up on you. My dream snuck up on me because, you know, being the youngest of four boys, I had older brothers. So of course I followed their footsteps. They were athletes, so I wanted to be like my brothers. So I just kept following what I knew could get me out of the situation I was in. You know, my family didn't have a lot growing up. So for me, a young, black, black kid in Youngstown, Ohio, and the projects of Westlake Sports was my way out. And then when my parents, my mom, moved us from Youngstown to Toronto, I really dove into sports and it became my safe haven because so much else was going on around me. I couldn't talk until I was 11. People told me I would never be able to properly talk. And what saved me and kept me was tv. I would always just watch television. You know, I would give my little black and white tv, I would put it in the closet and I shut myself off from the world not knowing that one day I would be on the same type of television that I was watching.

Yes. Yeah, well, hardly the same type anymore now that we're all digitized and big screen. Hell, if you got a 12 inch TV, you're wearing it on your wrist. Most likely.

That's true. That's true. On my phone. I've got a bigger TV on my phone.

My kids don't even watch tv. They just watch their phone now. It's insane. Absolutely insane. So let's talk about growing up in the projects and what that was like. What was the at? What is the attitude in the projects? Who in the projects helped you with your attitude? If anyone, maybe nobody did. You know, I was the youngest of four boys too. Just so you know, we got that in common. Yes, we do.

The projects made me who I am.

Sure they did.

No, I didn't know we didn't have money. It was just home. I didn't know I was in a project. My mom never made us feel like we were in A project. So we were so rich with love.

Yeah.

She had so much love and she still has that. She gave us so much love. Yes. It was nights we went without. It was nights where we didn't have lights and things of that nature. But she always made it fun. She always made it fun. So that's why it didn't determine deter me. It actually inspired me, you know, because of what I saw her doing. I saw her working two jobs to get us out, and then when we got out, I saw her working two jobs to keep us from going back. That's the thing that I love the most, is that she was my biggest inspiration growing up. Because when she got us out, she never let us go back.

Yes.

People usually go backwards. She never let us go back and people usually stay there because the project's supposed to be. It's not supposed to be a permanent thing. It's supposed to be a passing through.

Yes.

And my mom made sure that's what it was for us. It was a passing through. And I learned so much about family and life and wanting and determination and hard work. I just learned so much from it.

That's cool. So you would consider her to probably be your number one attitude coach when you think about her attitude. I think he kind of summed it up, but I'll let you think about it. Like, what was her attitude? What did she teach you about attitude? And why did she end up going to Toronto?

My mom taught me that. I try not to. It's hard not to get emotional when I think about my mom.

I love it. That's okay.

Because the type of woman she was, I saw her go through so much. You know, my dad put my mom through a lot in our younger years and she didn't take any of that out on us.

Wow.

You know what I'm saying? She didn't take any of that out on us. No matter what he put her through, she always made us feel like we were the best things in the world. Man, that's awesome. So I'm the type of parent that I saw her be to me. You know, I don't take anything out on my kids.

Right.

I can have the worst day in the world and they give me the brightest smile. Because I learned from her that it's not about how you start, but it's how you finish. I learned from her that, and I said this in my interview with Ken, is that I'm not going to be a product of my environment. I'm going to make my environment a product of me. I can impact people's lives. I don't need money to impact people's lives. My attitude can impact people's lives. My work ethic, my hard work. I saw my mom working. I used to go help my mom clean houses, man, I would help her clean houses and then come home and help her clean ours and watch her make full course meals for us after she worked day and night at somebody else's house just to keep and put food on our table. So this woman, she's my queen, she is my hero, she is my inspiration. And everything that I did growing up, I did it because I saw her do it for us.

And how did she end up in Toronto? What was that all about?

Oh, man, she ended up in Toronto. My dad ended up getting arrested. And like, it was hard, you know, because my dad was. He was a pastor. He was a street man, you know, he did all the things of the streets. And I remember when he got arrested when we had just moved to Toronto and they surrounded the house and it was embarrassing because we just moved to this new city.

Oh, boy.

And the cops, the cops surrounded the house to try to catch my dad. And till this day, I still don't know how my dad got out of that house without getting caught.

They couldn't find him.

Couldn't have.

Good.

Not finding the embarrassment that they tried to bring towards us did not work. And my dad went to prison. And he spent most of my childhood and teenage years in prison. He didn't get out until I was 19 years old and my mom took the mantle. She took the mantle. My dad was gone after I moved to Toronto. He was gone for another 10 to 11 years. And during that time, I never, ever, ever saw my mom give up.

That's so cool.

So what? Go ahead.

What was the purpose you went to Tawana? Was it for his work or her work?

He had moved there to take over a church.

Right. I got you. He was arrested. Yes.

And someone else took over the church and then we just stayed there. Wow. Because she didn't want us back in Youngstown.

Right, right.

He wanted us in Toronto. I went from an all black town to all white town. And that's another story.

Well, we, as you, Marin, we tackle diversity and inclusion issues on the Get Attitude podcast. These trophies sitting right over here were because of what we did after the George Floyd murders. And so you should listen to those stories of black America. It's good. Talk to about your story. Going from an all black environment to an all white environment. Give me your thoughts on race Give me your thoughts on what white people can do to help lift up black people. Because this is the types of questions we were asking during these interviews. So I know I'm not afraid to talk about it. Because the whole thing I learned is that we need to hear more, we need to listen more. And I'd love to just get your opinion on the problem, the solution, and what can white America do to help heal us?

It was a movie I saw first when I moved to Toronto. It was difficult. 1. Like I said, I still had to stutter. So here I am, a kid who stuttered, who got made fun of a lot. And now I moved to an all new city. Now I'm the only black kid in my class and I'm seen as different. And I remember my first experience when it came to sports. I walked to a basketball tryout and it was all white kids. And I come in and the coach is like, okay, now we got a baller. And then by the end of the day, he realized that I sucked. I didn't know how to play basketball. I was awful. But he told me I sucked and that was what hurt. So I walked home and I was really upset and I was. And I remember crying walking home and I got in the house and I was crying. My mom said, what's wrong? I said, I went through this tryout and the coach told me I sucked. And she said some things to me. Words changed my life. She said, well, did you? Excuse me? She said, did you suck? I said, yeah, but he shouldn't have said that. He's a grown man. He shouldn't tell me I suck. And she said, baby, one or two things can happen. You either gonna listen to what he said or you're gonna prove him wrong, right? And for a year straight, every day, I had a basketball in my hand and I had a calendar, and I circled that day. And a year later, I walked in as a seventh grader and I walked in and the same coach. And a different coach was there, but the same coach was there watching. And I ended up being the best basketball player on the team. And I never relinquished that title until I graduated from that high school. I wanted them to remember my name because I wanted to show them that I don't care what you say about me, I'm gonna show you I can be what I put my mind to. Now, to answer the question about how I was affected by the black and white, I had to learn to adjust. You know, I always tell people I got the best of both worlds. I knew what it was like to grow up all. With an all black town. Then I knew what it was like to grow up in an all white town. So I had to learn how to adjust. I had to learn how to listen, and I had to learn to be heard.

Yes.

I had to learn to be heard. That was the biggest thing, me learning how to be heard. Because what happens is most times people know how to be heard, so they just yell and they yell and they yell and they yell. It's hard for someone to hear you when you're yelling.

Yes, yes.

When you learn how to communicate and you properly communicate to people, they learn how to listen. And so what I had to do is I had to learn how to speak my language so that they can understand.

I got you.

And I think what's going on in America is a lot of white people don't understand the language that we're speaking.

Yes.

You know, I remember I talked to a friend of mine and I said, have you ever been driving with your son and a cop get behind you and you start sweating? He said, no. I said, because you never drill. You've never drove as a black man.

Right, Right. The definition of white privilege.

Yes. Yes. And a lot of people don't. Don't even understand that it's real. People think it's not real. I remember just even recently, man, I got into it with my. I didn't get into it. My godmother, who's a white lady, who helped raise me, who I love dearly, who was one of the reasons that I turned out the way I turned out. She got mad at me during the presidential election.

Yes.

And she just stopped talking to me. Completely stopped talking to me. She was like, I don't want to talk to you. I can't believe. Whatever, whatever. And I called her. Was it three weeks ago? I called her. I said, hey, I'm just checking on you. And she says, my dear child. She said, I can't believe you called me. I said, why wouldn't I call you? She said, I was so mean towards you. I said, you wasn't me. I said, see, this is how I look at it. You love me. You probably don't understand what I go through as a black man, but you love me. And see, my love for you is far greater than any political thing you can think of, Because I know what you've done for me, and I love you beyond what you think you know. The Bible tells us, he talked about unconditional love. Unconditional love. And people right now are doing A lot of conditional love. I love you if you like this, and I love you if you like that. But even if I don't like this or don't like that, does that make me a bad person?

Well, yeah. Well, I love you as long as you agree with everything I say.

Yes, absolutely. And I'm a grown man now, so I have my own mind. So people that I'm trying to lead, I love it.

So one of the things I asked on these interviews was if you could become king of America and create an agenda without Congress, what would be the one thing we could do to heal the racial dividend in America? What do you think the one thing would be? That you could say, you know, what if we could do this, that might really set the course a different way. If you had the power to do it, what would you do?

First, they got to admit that there is a divide. A lot of people don't even want to admit that there's issues. They don't want to admit that the judicial system is broken. They don't want to admit that there's a far left and a far right. I mean, they don't want to admit it. They don't want to admit that we've had issues with black men being murdered and that it's not okay. It's not okay. You know, it's not okay. It's not okay for people to kill someone and then get off scot free because of a technicality or because the judicial system wasn't designed to protect us. They gotta admit first that there is an issue.

Yes.

They gotta admit first that even when this constitution was written, that it was written without black people in mind. They have to admit that. And until that happens, then we're gonna continue to have this divide. I'm watching a movie. I love it. It's called Yellowstone.

Oh, yeah.

I love that movie. And the reason I love that show is that it shows, it deals with a lot of lot from, you know, land being taken from the Native Americans and all kind of different stuff. And it's like, well, until we admit that black people, brown people, minorities were wronged and are not seen properly the way they should be seen, then we're gonna continue to have this issue. We're gonna continue to have this divide. And this divide is real. And it's sad because we're supposed to be the. The most powerful country in the world. This is supposed to be the land of opportunity, you know?

Well, and it's. And we're supposed to be the most enlightened country in the world. And so, you know, we. Will you check out my podcast, the 846 interview stories of Black America. Anybody that's listening, that hasn't listened to that, do that. And we actually did a 846 with Les Brown, too. And what he had to say about racism and the reckoning that is going on is fascinating. It's deep, and it will cause you to pause and think, so, I didn't mean to go down that rabbit hole with you, but I always think it's so important, and I think that God puts in our hearts what we should be talking about today. And maybe somebody just heard you speak and maybe some better things were going to happen.

I'm glad you did, because I remember a movie, a Time to kill, when Matthew McConaughey, at the end, gave his speech, and his very last thing was imagine she was white. And everybody eyes got big. I remember I did a short called Split Decision. I was in a store in Gahanna, and I was walking through the store, and while I was walking through the store, me and this guy kept passing each other, but we didn't know each other. We just kept passing. And finally we come down the aisle together. Now, look, he got this Nazi symbol tatted right on his neck, the symbol of hate. He got it showing. He's branding it like a badge of honor. And I'm just like, okay, this is different. So I look at him, he look at me, and we're just staring at each other. It's like, just stare off. Oh, my gosh. And I look at him and I'm like, yo, what's up? He said, look at me. He said, what's up? And we did a short on it. It's on my. It's on YouTube. It's called split Decision. Really? Yeah. And so much was going through me. I mean, Emmett Till and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and so much pain and the Holocaust. So much pain that that symbol represent. And he was just branding it like a badge of honor. And I look at him, I say, you know what today is, right? And he look at me, he ball his fist, I ball my fist, and I'm looking him dead in his eyes, and I say, it's free hug day. And before he can react, I go in and I hug him and I stop and I just walk off. Wow. And we did a short on it. And the reason I did that is because he's branding that. He was broadcasting that brand like a badge of honor. But. But I know he probably got so many he probably got in so many fights over it.

Yes.

So in my mind, I said, what can I do differently to impact this man? I can either give him the same reaction he's been given, or I can give him something different. And in that moment, I made a split decision to give him something different.

So you gave him a hug, and he had no idea what the hell hit him.

And I just walked away. He was just standing there like, what? What just happened? Did anybody see that?

Was there a video?

What just happened? Man, it blew my mind. And this happened years ago. That's why we did. We did the film. We did the short film. I put it on Facebook. As soon as it happened, I wrote it, I put it on Facebook. And my friend Mike called me. Yeah, they just pulled it up. That's it. My friend Mike called me and said, hey, we need to do this right? Do this. And I went back home to Toronto to film this.

Oh, my God. And so how long's the film is.

It's only like three minutes.

I'll be doggone. See, I might. My crack producer. Not my crackhead producer, but my crack producer Jason, he always knows how to dial stuff up, which is good. Let's talk about Ohio. Let's talk about Ohio State, if it's okay.

Of course.

And what was that like? You're in Toronto, you're a superstar, you get a full ride to Ohio State. Is that correct? Or were you a walk on? Or what happened there?

What happened is I was recruited at Ohio State for basketball and track, and I couldn't take a track scholarship because it's a minor sport. If I took track, I couldn't do basketball, but I can take basketball and still do track. And they had just brought in Derek Anderson on the last scholarship.

Oh, my gosh.

So he was pretty good. I remember till this day, even like I turned lemons into lemonade. Because I remember even when I got to Ohio State, my high school coach, he called me up to the high school and I go up there and the news camera was there, and he just say, hey, you're going to Ohio State. I'm like, wait, I ain't even. I haven't discussed this with anybody yet, you know, so. And now it's out there in the papers, so I'm like, okay, I gotta do it. So I ended up being a walk on. That wasn't a walk on, if that makes sense. Sure, I was on the team. They recruited me, but they didn't have no more scholarships available. And after the first year, then that's when I was able to do training table and all that stuff. So I get there, man, and it was really like some of the hardest years of my life, really, just because of what I was going through with basketball, what I was going through with basketball. Me and the coach, really. I mean, Coach Ayers, really, really. You know, I wanted to go to Ohio State because I've never been coached by a black coach, right? He was my first black coach, and he really, like, put me through the wringer, man.

He was in. He was into you.

He put me through the wringer. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Like, I couldn't figure it out. It's almost like I felt like he didn't like me at one point, you know? And I remember at one point I even thought about transfer. And this is when my dad had came home, and it was the freshman year, and I came home for. Came home for Christmas, and I told my mom, I'm not going back because it was just so hard. I'm not going back. And my dad was upstairs, and he told my mom that, I want Otis to come upstairs and talk to me. So I come upstairs to talk to my dad. And these were the best. The best advice my dad ever gave me. He was like, okay, son. He was like, so I heard that you're not trying to go back. I said, no, I'm still mad at my dad at this time. I don't. You can say to me, no, I'm not going back. He said, okay, I get it. He said, you angry, you, you. You mad, you, you this, you that. I was like, whatever, man. He's like, so why don't you want to go back? I was like, because you see what's going on. You see what's going on. I don't want to go back because you see what's going on. And long story short, he looked at me, he said, son, I'm going to tell you something. He said, if you quit now and run, you'll be running for the rest of your life. He says, never let anyone see you sweat or never allow anyone to make you quit. And I went back and I said, I don't care what this man said. I remember he didn't know I heard this, but I remember walking in and he said, otis Winston will never play at Ohio State. And I remember hearing him say that, the coach. And at my junior year, I started. In my senior year, I red shirted because I qualified for the olympic trials in 96 down to Atlanta. And when I qualified for the Olympic trials at red Shirt of basketball. I didn't get not one invite to a game. I wasn't even allowed to sit on the bench with the team.

Wow.

Only way I could get to the game is Coach Russ Rogers got me tickets.

Wow.

And I would sit in the stands to watch half the guys who I helped recruit play. And when I came back my senior year, I didn't even have a jersey.

Oh, my gosh. So were you elected captains by your teammates? Is that what happened? And Coach Ayers. So Coach Ayers was there the whole time?

The whole time.

And two things. Number one, when you think about your time at Ohio State, what player, what teammate possessed an attitude that inspired you, that maybe taught you something? And number two, who was the best player you ever saw play when you were playing?

Okay, I got both those answers. The one who inspired me the most was Ricky Dudley. Ricky Dudley was my big brother, man. Still my big brother. He was just slick, was just amazing. He was a two sport athlete as well. So he helped. He remember. He ended up going to football. I think after his sophomore year. He did football junior and senior year. And Slick Rick was the one who started saying, man, don't let nobody take your confidence.

Really.

And that's when my momentum and my attitude shifted because I always did great with track. I was an All American my freshman year in track. It was just basketball was my struggle because I knew how good I was and I just felt I wasn't given the opportunity. So Ricky Dudley, his mentorship helped me.

The most and his encouragement. And then. So, all right, you balled out your fifth year, senior year. Who are you? Like, damn, this guy is working me hard. Or like, I mean, do you remember?

I never. My senior. The best player I've saw. It wasn't even my senior year.

Okay, well, that's fine.

Lynn Robinson.

Oh, yeah, From Indiana. Right where I'm sitting, big dog.

Oh, my. When he. When I tell you he dropped. Dropped. He dropped like 41 on us, man. I'm like, oh, yeah.

Yeah. He. Yeah, he was so good, man.

Yeah, yeah. It was almost two of them. It was him and. And Calbert Cheney.

Oh, yeah.

Those two were just phenomenal to me.

Isn't that something? And. And did you ever get to know them or ever reach out to them or anything?

No. You want to know who I got to know better than anyone is Bobby Knight.

You did get to know Coach Knight.

Coach Knight was the only coach after I graduated that helped me continue to go on.

No kidding. Now how did that happen?

Well, he knew my high school Teacher Frank Wilson. And Coach Knight knew about me because he heard about me in high school. And I just ended up going to Ohio State. And then we talked a lot. And after I graduated, I reached out to him and he got right back to me and we just formed a friendship and he was. Coach Knight. I don't care what anybody say. He played. He does antics and people. He has a bad rap, but behind closed doors, he's the most solid person you will ever meet in your life.

Isn't that cool? So did you like playing at IU or was that tough?

I love playing at Assembly Hall. I loved it. You know, I love playing on a roll, period. You know, it was just. It was to me, you know, this is what you're built for. This is what you strive to do. And that's what I strove. That's what I worked for. Those, those moments and those times like that.

And so you were, were you an Olympian? Did you end up participating in the Atlanta Olympics?

I didn't make it to the Olympics. I made it to Olympic trials. It was. Man, it was so frustrating because we were supposed to jump at 7 o', clock, so you should have known. I was a rookie. It was my first time there. So by 6:50, we're ready. We're ready. Everyone's loose, we're ready to jump. And then we didn't even jump until 9 o'.

Clock.

So it was like we were all.

We went from here to. Yeah.

The only ones who were ready were the veterans because they knew were the one who were like, hey, let them young boys wear themselves out. We gonna sit back because we know this thing's gonna take another two to three hours. We didn't know about it, so it was a bad experience. But it was the first time I've ever jumped without playing basketball.

Wow.

And I shouldn't have done that, you know, because that was. That was my routine.

Right.

Successful people have routines.

Yes, sir.

Jeans. And I deviated from my routine because I listened to what everybody else told me I needed to do.

What. And were you a triple jumper? High jumper. What?

I was a high jumper. All American high jumper at Iowa State. 30 years later.

How much? How tall?

Four and a half, seven feet.

Four.

Seven feet four and a half inches. I went seven feet in height school.

Ooh, was that in the big tens or was that Big Ten?

I was the five time Big Ten champ.

Oh, my gosh. Well, that's kind of cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two time All American.

Tell me about the. Because you were around some elite Athletes, look at basketball players are awesome, but so are track. So, like, who in that arena of track had an attitude that influenced you? And who was the most outstanding track athlete? Got to see firsthand the most outstanding.

Track athlete I think, that I've ever saw, especially the best, I believe, best high school track athlete to ever come out of Ohio was Chris Nellums.

Really?

Oh, my gosh. Chris Nellums. He went. He went 45 in high school, man.

No kidding.

This dude was amazing. He was amazing. I remember when he got shot and came back after he got shot. He did what he needed to do, you know, Chris Nellums was amazing. He was phenomenal.

Did he go to Ohio State?

He went to Ohio State. We took, I think, seven. Seven athletes down to the NAACPS. I mean, NCAAs. We took seven athletes through the NCAAs and came in second. We lost first, I think, by two points.

So was Chris's gun incident, was it random? Was it wrong place, right time?

I have no idea. I never talked to him about it, really. I learned how to just, hey, none.

Of my business shot.

And he came back with a fury and still was able to run as fast as he was able to run. Oh, my God, I got to see him. But I also got to see Michael Johnson when I was down in Atlanta. And that was a sight to see as well. But the one who influenced me would be my entire track team, my boys, you know, the Chris Nellums, the Chris Sanders, the Butler Benottes, the Richard Jones, the Aaron Paynes, the Todd Trimbles, the Jordan, the Robert Gary's, you know, those were my boys. See, again, I got the best of both worlds because then when I went to basketball, I had the Lawrence Funderbergs, the Jamie Skelton's, the Ricky Dudleys, the Greg Simpsons, the Derrick Andersons, the Charles Macons, the Antonio Watsons, the Jimmy Ratliffs, the Tom Brandoise. It was so many people who impacted me.

Yeah. And so ultimately, Ohio State, even though it was maybe some of the most tormented times in your life, just like anything on the other side of adversity, is the biggest blessing you could ever imagine. Right.

It made me into the man I am. Like someone said, what would you say if you saw Coach Ayers today? I said I would say thank you. Yeah, thank you.

Did Bobby Knight like him?

I mean, you made me who I am today. You made me, like, know that one man's no doesn't stop you.

Yes.

That's just his no. And you can change. You can change a person's mind. You can change a person's mind because it's how you see yourself, not how they see you.

Yes.

At one time, I was how he saw me affected how I saw myself. And it wasn't until I looked in the mirror and said, well, I don't care how he see me, I'm gonna see myself differently.

Yes. And that's a message that every gapper needs to hear. So if you are sitting here listening to this interview, it's to stop letting other people define you and judge you. Time you look in the mirror, have a talk with yourself and say, it's time for me to see myself, which is great. Let's talk real quick. Thanks for indulging us in all the athletic stuff because I'm a former jock myself. But let's talk about your career as an actor now. So how did you break in? What was the story? What was the. What was your plan? What was your strategy to get to where you are now with acting?

At first, I didn't have a strategy. You know, I was. I remember and I tell this story because it's pivotal. I remember March 2, 2010, I just got laid off my job. I was a software computer engineer and I was working as a computer consultant. I was working at National City at the time before they became pnc. And I got laid off and I was making great money. And two days later, at the same job, my ex wife, now at the time, sent me divorce papers to my job. Oh, boy. I got served at my job. So I lost my job and I got served divorce papers all in the same week. And I remember I met a friend by the name of Robbie Reed. She's. She was a casting. She's still a casting director. She's just a director of casting at bet. I met her and she's like, why don't you come out to LA and just, you know, clear your head? And I went out to LA to visit, and she asked me to meet her at an event she was working at. And when I was walking into the place, the director of the show was walking out. And the director looked at me and said, are you the guest actor? I said, no, ma', am. I'm just here to see somebody. She said, are you sure? I said, yeah, I'm positive. I've never acted the day before in my life. She said, okay. Unbeknownst to me, the guest actor never showed up.

I'll be done.

So the director asked Robbie if she think I would, you know, do do it. And I was like, she's like, you Would need to just ad lib and stuff like that. I'm like, I don't know anything. She said, just go out there and just be. You just ad lib. And we went back and forth. She said, okay, just do it. So at the end of the day, I ended up doing it. And the scene that we ended up doing was from Jerry Maguire. No one knew Jerry Maguire was my favorite movie at the time. I knew that I knew that movie verbatim.

Wow.

Burned word to word. So here I am doing my favorite scene from my favorite movie in front of these directors and producers.

It's gotta be the show me the money scene.

Is that right? Yes. Yes, it was the show me the money. Exactly. Show me the money. And I ended up doing it. And at the end of the. When we got done, Robbie walked up to me, her and Tasha Smith, and they were like, I know you like writing, but I think you need to be in front of the camera first, and that will open up the doors for you behind the cameras. So I ended up coming home, and the day of my divorce, I was walking out the courtroom. I get a phone call from Robbie. I had just booked my first speaking role on a TV show called the Game. The day my divorce was final, I booked my first acting gig, and they flew me to Atlanta, and I did it. And then I ended up up doing an extra gig on a movie called Oz, the great and Powerful. And people were stunned. They were like, look, you just had a speaking role. Why you want to be an extra? I just wanted to be around it. I just wanted to be around it. And I would stay late, and I would help people learn how to march because I didn't know tall people didn't have rhythm. I'm six foot six. I have rhythm. I didn't know other tall people didn't have rhythm. So everybody was 65 and taller. And no one could march. So I would stay late, only making $100 a day as an extra. Help me helping the other tall guys learn how to march. And one day a guy was there watching, and I'm like, oh, am I in trouble? And the guy said, can you come here for a second? I said, yes, sir. I walked over. He said, what are you doing? I said, I'm teaching him how to march. He said, why? I said, because if we don't get it right, we're gonna spend a lot more time and waste money for this film. He looked at me and said, hmm. And he walked away. I come in to work the next day, the same guy Says otis, come in. I walk over. He says, my name is Casey Hardenfield. Casey was the first AD he ended up bumping me. And in the next two weeks, I made more in the next two weeks than I made the entire three months of the film. And at the end of the film, Casey was like, take my number down. He said, we never would have been able to do this movie without you. Keep in touch with me. And Casey. And I kept in touch. And here we are eight films later. I'm doing a movie with him right now down in Atlanta with Pierce Brosnan called the Outlaw. And I just got done doing Shazam 2 with him in Atlanta three months ago. And, of course, I did Venom and Venom 2 with him. And it all happened because I was helping others.

Yes. Do something well. And proximity doesn't hurt either. As another success tip. You put yourself right in the middle of it, and then look what happened. God's grace sometimes shows in funny ways. And on and on funny days. We are with Otis Winston. He is a Hollywood actor. He is a keynote speaker and entrepreneur, director and writer. He's been in Venom. Let, Let There Be carnage, Right? Games people play. Shazam. Shazam 2. Greenland. That was fun. Did you get to meet Shaq And Shazam?

Well, actually, Shazam is the one that DC film. Everyone think about Shaq, because I think it's Kazam.

Kazam. Right, right, right, right.

Shazam Is the dc.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Superhero.

Right? Oh, good for you. And so I. I know you probably just love doing that. I want to. I want to respect your time. I'm gonna wrap up our interview. Did you have fun with us today, man?

I had an amazing time. Thank you.

I appreciate it. What we're gonna do now is how I end all of our interviews. It's called Knowledge through the Decades. We're gon. And you're going to tell me the attitude lesson you learned throughout each decade in your life. And so we're going to start with childbirth. Right. What do you believe the lesson. The attitude lesson of childbirth is? Since you got so many kids and grandkids, you probably can come up with something.

Oh, well, actually, childbirth. What I learned is God is amazing. I learned how to be a man by watching my son be a young.

Yeah. Amen. Amen. That's so good. That's so good. We haven't gotten that answer before, Jason. That is right on time. Prime time. That's going to be in a square, I promise you. I want you to think back to being 10 years old now in the projects I want to know if you remember your third grade teacher and what her name was and what, what happened to you at 10 or 11 that gave you an attitude lesson. Do you remember what that might be? Be?

Yeah, it was when, you know, I got in trouble for sticking up for my cousin. And I got in trouble because I stuck. I stood up to a bully at the time. Bullying wasn't big and I looked like the bully because I beat up the bully. Right.

A boy.

But I got in trouble for doing the right thing.

Right.

And, and, and what I learned is that even sometimes doing the right thing can sometimes get you in trouble. Especially if people don't understand why you did the right thing.

Right? Yeah. Tough lesson. 10, 10 year old bowling lessons are not easy. Was that in school on a playground where was, was in?

It was in actually on the playground. And it was just crazy because I've always been one of those fight first, ask questions later type type kid. And my cousin just came up to me and he was like, yo, such and such is picking with me. And this person always picked with everybody. And I was just fed up. And my cousin was older than me, but I was the fighter. So I just walked up and so.

Do you remember that guy's name and have you ever talked to him in the past 20 years?

No, I haven't spoken to him. Unfortunately, half the people who I grew up with in Youngstown, it was probably 19 of us. Only three of us are still alive.

Yeah. Everybody else is dead.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I haven't had the chance to talk to him.

He's probably one of them then.

Yeah. His name is Clemel. Yeah, he was a good guy.

Damn, that's crazy. Okay, so now you're 20, you're at Ohio State in from Toronto. I can only imagine how fun you're having at 20 years old. What was the attitude lesson at 20?

The attitude lesson at 20 is never give anybody your confidence.

Right. Huh? There.

You never, never throw your confidence away. No matter how hard it is to get on the court or to get seen. Never, ever, ever give anybody your confidence. See, people can't take your confidence. You give it to them.

Yep. You give it to them.

They can't take it.

Right, right.

And I gave it to like my coach.

Sure, take it.

I gave it to him.

That's like something every college kid should know. I mean that's, this is, that's brilliant. That is really brilliant. Holly, make sure you mark that and put it on the square. All right, let's talk about age 30 you remember turning 30?

Yes, I do.

Did you have a party? And what was your attitude lesson at 30?

See, I didn't have a party. I didn't have my first party until I was 41. Okay, so my attitude lesson at 30 was, How am I going to show these kids, how am I going to show them that their dad is worth smiling about when they talk about me?

Ah. And so what do you believe are the one or two answers to that question?

By being the there.

Yeah. Presence being present.

Not presence, but present.

Right. Yes.

A lot of people want to shower their kids with presents and all the kid want them to do is be present.

Yeah.

And my children be my son. I remember he did a speech in fifth, sixth grade. I was his hero. And by the end of his speech, there was no dry eye in a place because I showed him that even if I have to go to Chicago and film, I would drive back the same day to catch his basketball games. And I have to be present. And I've been present in my children's life.

Oh, that's beautiful, man. Man, you're crushing this exercise, by the way. This is so good. All right, are you 50 yet?

No, 48. 48.

Close. Well, this is going to be our last one then. All right, so tell me about when you turn 40, what your attitude lesson was.

It's okay to start over.

Ah, okay. And so tell us a little bit.

About that because remember, I was here. I was in corporate America with a great job, making good money, had a nice house, and then everything went away.

Yeah.

I went from a 4, 4, 600 square foot home to a 700 square foot apartment.

Yeah.

I went from making $130,000 a year to making nothing.

Yeah.

And all I had was was was God, my children and my dream. That's all I his promise to me. And I stuck to his promise. No matter what anybody said, no matter how hard it got, I knew he promised. My children's name are Promise Star Winston and Rain Duan Winston. And if you put their names together, that's what God promised. You get promised reign. And that's why I named my children what I named him. If I suffer with him, I will one day reign with him. He promised reign. No matter how much I went through, no matter what I went through, I will reign on this earth as well as in heaven with him.

And so you really then started this acting thing at 41?

Yeah, I actually. I got my first gig at 37. Okay. And I went through a whole dry season and I got my first Prominent speaking role at 46.

Wow. And so now here we go.

Here we go. We're off to the races like Samuel.

Jackson, Baby, I ain't mad at you. So, yeah, we are with the future Oscar and Emmy award winning Otis Winston. And he is dropping bombs on the Get Attitude podcast. You've been so giving and so good and so inspirational and so hopeful and your real life account of what you were doing, I think is going to help those people that are sitting in their car listening now or walking on the beach or doing whatever. We always like to end our show, Otis, with you giving us a message of hope, giving our gappers something to think about, feeling like if you want to teach them what it takes to bridge the gap from who you are to who you want to become, what is it? But basically, it's just a message of hope. It's your time to talk to each person that listens to this individually to give them your pep talk. So ready? Go.

All right. So what I always tell people is the thing on my shirt, it says, folks, I remember when I first came up with this, it was a little F, a big O for Otis, little C U S E D. And one day I was in prayer and God said, are you bigger than your vision? I said, no. He says, make the O small because that's me, that's you. Make the O small. Make everything else around it bigger. Because your vision will always be bigger than you. And if you learn how to focus on me, I'll teach you how to focus on your vision and bring it to pass. And that's where focus came from. So every day I wake up and I'm focused on my vision. Every day you should wake up, be focused on what it is you want in life. Because people don't understand what you want in life you can accomplish and you can achieve. And this last thing that I would say is this. I always have this saying. It's on the back of all my shirts. It's, never allow your talent to take you where your character can't keep you. Never allow your talent to take you where your character can't keep you. Because, see, talent can get you in way. A different character keeps you in the door.

Yes, sir.

Character is what you have. At the end of the day, on my deathbed and when I die, when people come to my funeral, when they walk up to my children, I want them to be able to say, your dad was a good man. I want my kids to say, no, my dad wasn't a good man. He was a great man. And the only way they can say that is if I have great character.

I love that. Well, Otis, you have given us some character. You've built our character through this, through this, this podcast. We are so blessed and thankful for your words of wisdom. Please check out Otis Winston on all the social media sites, and we'll be fine to notice, I'm sure, collecting a trophy here very soon on national tv. God bless and namaste.

All right. Bless you, brother.

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