Zion Clark - Track / Wrestling / Author

This is episode 150 of the Empowered Team Podcast. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life.

And now your host, vitality and peak.

Performance coach, Kari Schneider.

Hello, Zion. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast. It's so great to have you with us. Everyone, this is Zion Clark and you have an incredible story. You have this background in wrestling, you have narrowly, narrowly missed qualifying for the Paralympic Games, and you have an amazing story that you're putting out to the world with your three book deal. So welcome, Zion Clark. Can you tell us a little bit more about you? Is there anything I missed in the introduction? I think there's so much more about you. I'm sure I missed a fair bit. Bit.

You hit it pretty much. You hit the head of the nail on the hammer. So I am Zion Clark. I'm from Aslan, Ohio. I am a two time state champion, four time state placer. At one point, I was the American record holder in the 100 meter for the U.S. you know, I am really good at what I do. I'm also a professional speaker. I own a business out here in San Diego called Real Deal with my two partners, Mata and Craig, with Jason Momoa overseeing some of it. You know, Aquaman, trying to think, what else.

You got a lot going on.

Yeah, like you said, I'm a wrestler, I'm a track athlete, I'm a professional in both sports. You know, it's a passion of mine and I want to be known as the greatest. I want to be known as the goat. People say I'm the goat now, but I'm not even the goat yet to myself because, you know, I got some things I got to do. I got some people I got to make proud. You know, I want to be able to be me known as a successful entrepreneur, successful husband, father. I want to be known as just the most badass athlete on the planet, you know, because like coming up the way that I came up, I had to fight a lot. Whether it was like literally fighting for my life or if it was just fighting to survive in a cruel world under cruel homes and cruel families.

So let's, let's, let's dive in there because for our listeners, I want to have them really understand because it's amazing to hear the accolades from high school almost qualifying for the Olympics, holding a world record for a period of time. And you want to be the greatest. But what people may not know if they're just being introduced to you for the first time is that you came up the system and what I mean is the foster system in a way that really. And you have certain physical limitations. So between those two things, it is remarkable that there are so many things that are remarkable around this. So can you back us up and tell us where, you know, how did this all start? You were given up as a baby by your mother, is that correct? And that right as a baby, right from birth you went into the foster system really early. That was the first, the first memories you have is already being in the system. Can you back us up and tell us about that a little bit and your situation that way?

Yeah, let's do it. So I was born, you know, back in 1997 in Columbus, Ohio, the capital of Ohio. And my birth mother, I'm one of about four, between four and six kids that she had that she could never take care of. And you know, she never really took care of herself. Being a diabetic and also being addicted to pre, practically every party drug you could think of. In my case, I shouldn't even be here today. If you want to be real about it, I should be dead, I should be in a baby sized coffin. But I'm not, I'm here. And like in the most literal sense, for nine months I, I just marinated in drugs in the womb and that's what caused me to have caudal regression syndrome. That's what caused me to have a messed up spine, caused me to have multiple different surgeries as a kid just so I could live and stay alive in general. Like that's how it all, that's where it all started. That's what that was. My very first hardship was just trying to stay alive as a infant. And you know, I was talking, I have a little brother, a biological little brother. And I was talking to his mother the other day, his foster mom, and she said when she spoke to the doctor, the doctor said that with my little brother and in my case most kids that are marinated in drugs like that don't make it out about 90% of the time. And to me that really spoke volume because from the get go me just surviving and staying alive as a tiny little child showed the strength that I had in myself before I even knew I had it. And now fast forward, you know, I'm jumping around homes, I'm starting to get abused, I'm starting to get walked all over. And when I say abuse, I mean everything from physical to mental to emotional, psychological abuse. Anything that you can think of, it was happening to me and with, with that, you know, being a troubled kid with all the abuse and neglect, it's usually a recipe for disaster. And most people don't understand that just because you're not out. Just because you're out gang banging or something and you think you're hard running around in the streets doesn't mean that somebody like me ain't going through the same thing on a whole different level. And that's why I feel like I've earned the respect of people from all walks of life because they can relate to my pain. Because I was in the street at one point, I was in foster care. I was all I was. I had a mixture like a concoction of absolutely everything. And, you know, I shouldn't. I shouldn't have had a family, given the path that I was on. I shouldn't have been a successful wrestler. I shouldn't have been a champion track athlete. But I am right now. And for that sole reason is my mother who adopted me. You know, after. After the seventh, eighth home that I was in the foster care system, they were. They labeled me as a problem child, believe it or not. And I was never a problem child. Just people didn't know how to understand the way I thought. They didn't understand how I think they didn't understand how I process things. They understand that it took me a little bit longer to learn things and you have to show me, like, face to face what I had to do. Excuse me. And it was just never. It was just I never got shown the right thing. And when my mom came along, you know, they. They called her. They said, hi, Ms. Kim. My mom's name is Kimberly, by the way. They said, hi, Ms. Kim. We have a kid that we've exhausted all our options and we're gonna send them to a group home three and a half hours south of anything that I knew. And, you know, I had made friends. Funny thing, I had made friends with my sister before she was even my sister at school. And it just seemed to. Everything seemed to fall into place. My mom came to my band concert when I was a senior, and, you know, I was playing the trumpet. I was sitting in first chair. I was really good. I was always. I've always been a musician. And, you know, I didn't even know she was there. And she just. This is what she told me. But she was like, that's my son right there. That's. That's my kid. As she knew it before I knew it. And after that, you know, she brought me into the home and, you know, after 17 years of struggle and 17 years of just neglect and abuse can turn a person. Source, to say the least. And I was sour. I was. I was. I was more sour than the moreheads people be. You know, those, like, little candies.

Yeah.

But no, but seriously, though, like, I was a troubled kid, and I just needed guidance. So, you know, whatever.

You were 17 by the time you found the woman who was going to adopt you, and it had been that long. And so what. What was the thing about her, or what was the thing about that situation that allowed you to believe that you could give family love a chance? What was it that had you go from being sour to. To being a part of a family?

This is. I think this might be one of the first times I've ever spoken about this, but it's a very big defining moment when it. That. And by defining moment, like, the moment that I realized that I belong in this family. And the way it happened was, you know, I was getting into it with my mom, you know, because, like, we didn't see eye to eye at first. You know, like, we didn't know each other very well. Didn't see eye to eye. I had an attitude. I was disrespectful just because I had no trust in anybody around me. And, you know, the one night I went awol, you know, I ran away from home. She called the cops, they arrested me and brought me back to the house in handcuffs. And, you know, instead of, like, calling my caseworker, she told the cops to let me go. And, you know, I got grounded or whatever, you know, I was still in high school, but, you know, she sat me down and talked to me and spoke life and wisdom instead of hate and pure anger. You know, showing kids are very impressionable. I was a very impressionable kid. So when she would speak life and wisdom into me, I would actually learn from her instead of just. Only instead of just knowing, like, in other families, like, okay, I did something bad. I'm in trouble. I'm a bad kid, so I'm gonna be in trouble. It wasn't like that with her. My mom, she really. She really made, like. Made effort to show that she loved me and that she wanted me to be part of this family and that she wanted to. She wanted what was best for me. And I never had that before, you know, 17 years, not a I love you nothing. And she completely changed the whole game for me because when she said it this time, I could tell that she really meant it. And even to this day, I don't know Every time.

Is that what opened your heart? Is that what opened up your ability to find love for yourself and others more?

Yeah, I. I got a lot nicer. I was able to be more respectful. You know, I was able to get a girlfriend. I was able to just do a lot of things that never happened in my life before, just because I was able to look at the brighter side, look at the greener side of the grass, and, you know, plant my own beginnings and start my own future.

Incredible. Okay, I'm going to ask a completely ignorant question, so you can. You can take this ignorance here. So I've worked with Paralympic athletes. I've been a strength and conditioning coach for a number of Paralympians. But you talked about running away from home and getting arrested and being in handcuffs. Now, for our listeners, you don't have any legs. So when you run away from home, were you. And did you have prosthetics? Were you in a wheelchair? Is that how she got the cops to find you?

You know, like, oh, no, I strictly just ran away on my hands. Like, I'm really fast, and I booked it. The cops pull it up, told me to get in the car. I gave them the big fu and tried to keep running, and they caught up and put me in the car and took me back.

Yeah.

And that. That was probably one of the biggest lessons I learned. It's crazy, because that was a big lesson in love for me rather than just, like, discipline, if that makes sense.

Because somebody's gonna bring you back because they want you. Not bringing you back to make you feel like you're that big or punish you. Yeah. That's incredible. Okay, so there's something here that is really curious to me around. You had a lot of success up until that point. You were wrestling. You're a musician. You're doing all these things throughout high school. Were you fueled by anger or trying to prove to other people, or were you fueled by those things because you didn't have a support system, you didn't have a family that was really there for you? So throughout those years in high school and wrestling, were you. Or did you find wrestling more after high school? Like, what was your drive during high school?

So my drive to be good at all those things in high school was more so the fact that I just love to do it. Wrestling. I'm in my 16th year wrestling now. Been doing it over half of my life. And to this day, yeah, I'm at a high level. I'm competing against some of the best guys in the country. And the world, but it's still just as fun. You still going to see the same smile on my face, the same smile that I had on my face when I was getting my butt kicked, you know, because I really enjoy what I do. Music. I can't live without it. Especially in those darkest moments that I had hopping on the piano, making some music, hopping on the guitar or the drum set or the trumpet or anything. Like I'm multi talented with those things, but for the sole fact that it was pure enjoyment. And like wrestling and music, those two things solely were very therapeutic for me. And so when home life was going bad, I could look to my teammates and the wrestling team and I could just blow off all that energy, all that anger I had. And then when it came to music, I could express myself and tell you how I really feel through the Sound of Music. And that's how I was able.

Yeah, I was just gonna say, I think you're gonna finish that with they were that. You said they were that form of therapy for you. Without wrestling, without that opportunity, without music, what do you think would have happened to you?

Oh, I have a good idea. But what I would think would have probably would have happened to me, I'd probably be in jail right now, honestly, because I was hanging around the wrong crowd, hanging around the wrong type of people. Instead of going out and doing bad things with my friends, I would stay at home and work on music. Or I would go over to my neighbor's house because he was my friend and we wrestle on his wrestling mats in his basement. Just something beside the usual norm or the usual stigmatism they have that young black men are automatically bad once they hit the street. That wasn't me. You know, I used to run around, I used to do those things. I used to, you know, get into fights, get just get into as much trouble that I could tolerate myself and I would be okay with it. Now it's like completely flipped around. I try to stay out as much trouble as I can. I'm really trying to set an example for my little cousins, my family, my niece, like everybody. I'm trying to set an example because now I know I got people looking up to me. I didn't have nobody to look up to, but once I saw that I was like really affecting somebody else's life. That was a good feeling, like a really good knowing that you made someone's life better. Even if it's just from the utterance of a sentence. It doesn't matter if you can affect someone positively. That's a Win and, you know, there's no money that could ever give me the gratification of, you know, changing somebody's life.

So you've. You've had. You're inspired by making this difference for other people. You're inspired by being an example. Before that ever happened, what did someone. Was there someone who introduced you to wrestling? Because ultimately, ultimately, most people are going to look at you and judge you based on not having any legs. They're not necessarily going to think that you're going to be able to wrestle somebody who's got two legs and that you're going to be able to compete with them. So who believed in you before you knew that was possible? You know, who said, hey, like, give this a try. You might like it. But then you turn into a super competitor. So what? Like, because most people are going to look at that and go, okay, he's not going to have a chance. Why would I put him in that situation? You know, and you must. I mean, from my end, I look at things from exercise physiology, biomechanics, how the mind works, all of those things. I look at you and I think you must have. Not only can we see and feel the heart you have and the drive and motivation that you have, but you've also got this physicality that is really impressive when it comes to your strength, your ability, your agility, your versatility. Like, there's. There's so much going on there. So I know there's a lot that I just said, but, you know, if you go back to. You go back to the. The. How. How on earth did wrestling get introduced to you or you get introduced to wrestling?

So you're gonna like this story. So I was in second grade, I was seven years old, and my art teacher was the head wrestling coach for that school district. And, you know, he came up to me, I was working on a little cat drawing. You know, I was trying to. I don't know how I remember this, but, like, that is. That day has just burned into my head. But I'm working on my little cat drawing, and he gives me a wrestling flyer. He's like, hey, Zan, you should try this. And I was like, what? Like, what? Like, I was like, what's wrestling? And he told me, and I was like, that sounds fun. He said, take this home to your parents. And I took it home to my foster mom at the time. And, you know, this lady was very cruel to me. And it completely surprised me when I asked her if she could take me to wrestling practice, that she said, yes. And, you know, I get there, I had a blast. Didn't know what I was doing, but just the sole fact that I walked into a room and nobody stared at me, people actually came up to me, shook my hand, said they're happy that I was there. And. And then we got right to work and it was fun. And then I transfer schools, and then when I transfer schools and I go meet the head coach of the new school district, it's the identical twin brother, the dude that got me wrestling. I know, right? Isn't that crazy? So their names are Gil and Greg Donahue. And those two men, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't. I wouldn't be the type of wrestler I am today. All the moves you see me hit, the strength that I produce comes from them because they did it first. Literally. They passed down all their knowledge to me, and I'm just using it to.

My advantage, soaking it up, absorbing it all. And it sounds like you had these, these undercover mentors at times when other people were. Were not showing up for you. They were either abusive or they just weren't there for you. And you've got these other people who are showing up as examples to kind of in the back of your mind, remind you of maybe who you could be or an example of what was possible for you.

Yeah. Honestly with. I never really knew who was on my side and who wasn't because early on as a kid, I learned not to trust people. As most children, they'll usually trust almost anybody up until their reason not to. From the get go, I didn't trust anybody because I still remember being ripped from that first home. Like it just happened yesterday. Like, it's that. Like it feels like it could be that fresh even though it was like 20 years ago.

Yeah. How old were you?

I was 2 or 3. So like roughly 20 years ago.

And they took you. Why. Why were you taken from that home?

And I was taken from that first home because this will be in my next book. But I was sexually abused by one of the older men in the house. And the lady that was there, and I called her granny, her actual name, Sarah Singleton. But she's such a lovely, God fearing woman. And she was devastated that that man did that to me. And then on top of that, she legally wasn't allowed to have me in the home because he was there. And, you know, I remember that day when the caseworker came in and just picked me up and took me out the house. No fair warning, just, all right, we're leaving. Had no idea where I was going. I was terrified. I just didn't know what was going on. And it's crazy to think back to then, not having any mentors, just being moved around, just jumping from place to place, not knowing where you fit in, if you even do fit in, or if you belong to where I'm at now, where I'm making, trying to make it so that kids like me that are struggling will have a place to fit in. And that's part of the reason why I'm releasing this book. Because there are a lot of people that have a story just as tough as mine or tougher. And I want those type of people to understand that there are people like you out there that are going through the same thing, including myself. And we should all be stuck together. We should all band together to make it so the next, the next generation of kids and the next generation of kids after that and after that, if they so happen to be put into the foster care system that they will get that support they need, families will be background checked if they don't get adopted, they have a place to go once they age out the system. Like, I want to be able to make it so that everybody has a chance. Everybody deserves a chance.

Like for people, I had a aboriginal foster brother when I was really little. And for people who aren't familiar with a foster system. I'm in Canada, so things are different in various places in Europe, Canada, different places in the world. But some of the things, if someone's unfamiliar with a foster system and they look from the outside, it seems like an automatic that a family would have a background check. It seems like an automatic that when somebody ages out of the system that, yeah, there's going to be some sort of way to either integrate or maybe some check in person or a check in point when you're aging out of a system that you might have bounced around in, those things seem so automatic. But when you see them, it's clear that this is still, after years and years and years of a foster system is still a major problem. Is there anything else that you see as a major attention point or change that needs to happen in the system?

I think I hit everything that I'm very passionate about just for the fact that where I'm from, once you turn 18 and if you're still a foster child, you literally get thrown out on the street. And then they're pretty much just like, here, all your clothes, here's anything that you own, have good luck. Pretty much that's pretty much how it goes like, I had a friend I went to high school with. He aged out of the system and he ended up being homeless. Like the second. Like the day he turned 18, just because the foster family never treated him well in the first place. And the second, he's 18, since he's a legal adult, he got thrown out.

It's a recipe for disaster or crime or homelessness or whatever someone is trying to do to survive. So on that note, what were some of the. Or maybe one of the darkest moments for you? And I asked this not to take you to a dark place right now, but to have the listeners understand how phenomenal it is, what you've done and who you are now and the example that you're setting, because you're truly setting an example of what is possible. So what if you think of one of the darkest moments for you? What were the circumstances around that?

So one of my darkest moments, I was in third grade with this foster lady. I'm not going to say any names, but she. One morning, I took a little longer than I usually did to put on my. Take off my pajamas, put on my school clothes. And she must have just woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something because that whole entire day, from start to finish, started with her screaming at me. In the morning, she threw a wooden chair at me and split my nose open. And reminder, I'm only like 9 years old and this is a grown woman, like, launching a heavy wooden chair splits me open. She puts me on the bus like that and tells them that I just fell and if they can patch me up. And then they asked me what happened. So I told the school what happened. And, you know, she. They call her. And then I get home that night, and then she just beats the living crap out of me, just for about an hour, just punishing me, saying that I shouldn't be speaking to anybody. I need to learn how to keep my mouth shut. I'm an idiot. Just completely. Just abusing me. And then she made me eat a food that I didn't like that actually made me physically gag. At the time, it was broccoli and cheese. Not that, like, I'm an adult now. I like that type of stuff. But at the time, she made me sit at a table for eight hours straight because I didn't want to eat this. And then I threw it away and she forced me to eat it out of the garbage. And that was just over a span of about 24 hours. That's just one day. Now, think of going through crap like that for 17 years. It's not fun, and it's not for the weary.

That's the kind of thing that breaks a child's spirit and self worth. You know, you come across as being confident. You come across as being self aware and motivated. How for someone who has been in that situation or is currently feeling like nothing and worthless, how did you come out of that to find the motivation or the heart and drive that you have now?

In the most literal sense, I started to fight back. You know, I was tired of getting punched in the face. I was tired of being kicked. I was tired of having my hands stomped on. I was tired of just getting beat up by grown men, who I would call grown men and women, who I would call my parents. It just wasn't for me. And, you know, I was a scrawny little kid. Believe it or not, like a tiny.

Little thing, you're jacked. Now for the people who can't see you, I know you're jacked. And once they see your Instagram, they'll see your battling ropes and your lifts and your. You got some solid muscle mass going on.

Yeah, thank you. But, you know, I used to be like that small guy, so I could be pushed around a lot. And then by the time I was like, 13, I started to have these growth spurts. And then I was just like, you know what? You can get out of my face with that. Like, I'm sick of your shit. Excuse my language. Like, I was like, I'm sick of your shit. I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I've had enough to last me three, four lifetimes over. Even to this day, I would never go through what I went through again. I had enough to last me the rest of my life. But it's just the fact that I didn't want to be weak anymore. I was tired of being pushed over. I was tired of getting punched in the face. I was tired of getting beat up. Now, I couldn't stop the mental, emotional, and psychological abuse, but I sure as I sure as hell could stop the physical abuse. And I made that a point, that you're not gonna bully me. And I made that a point. Anybody that tried to step up to me after that point, like, in a matter of just like, just something. Something turned on in my head that just was like, z, stop getting beat up. Like, this is your body talking to you. This. This shit hurts. And I just. I was at the same time, like, it wasn't me going around telling people like, yeah, bro, I'll fight you. Or anything like that? No, it was more like if you, if you stepped up to me, I'm going to step back and I'm silly. I'm going to try to defuse the situation, but if it's not diffused and then that's your problem. And that's, honestly, that's how I am today. I try to stay away from the fight unless I have to. And you know, I ended up earning a lot of respect for doing that, for just bucking up. Just like I earned respect in the streets, I earned respect at school, I earned respect on the mat, I respect on the track, I earned respect everywhere. Just because I was able to show a show, put on a show of strength and tell like show everybody that I'm not weak anymore. Even though I still, still going through a lot of things, I was still like, I'm not that I'm not, I'm. I'm the wrong dude. You know, like I could be your best friend or I could be your worst nightmare. It's your choice. And that's how it's, that's. Ever since that one, ever since that little flip, I've always been like that, so nice to everybody.

Well, now you know, you can, you can tell how, you can tell that you've got a lot of heart, you can tell that you're, you're looking to approach life through a different lens than you did before. What does your day to day life look like now? So you narrowly missed qualifying for Paralympic Games on the track. What are you doing right now? You've got a book coming out, but a second book coming out because you got a three book deal. But what is. If you look at your day to day life, are you training for anything specific right now or are you just training overall? What's the purpose? You're an entrepreneur. You've got your Real Deal company as well. And that's T shirts. What else, what else do you have there?

It's pre workout greens, immunity support, sleep aid shirts, bands, hats, everything.

Hoodies, all the training stuff, all the gear, everything, all the gear. Okay, so Real Deal is your company.

The best thing about Real Deal though is everything is 100% natural.

Oh, I love it. And then you and how, what's the, how are you creating a give back for foster home situations? What's the, what's the, is it the advocacy? Is it the. What's happening on that end?

I am starting. It's going to be called the Zion Clark foundation brought to you by bza, which is the big Z associate which is the big Z Association. It's just everybody that works under me. So with that I'm going to start up like a fund every year. I want to, it's going to be small as a start, but I plan to blow it up so it hits every state in the US And I want to try to get, the end goal is try to get thousands of foster kids from each state each year into suitable jobs. Try to help them get into college whether it's they need money or classes or whatever. They need this scholarship fund. It's a scholarship fund and just sometimes I have these crazy, just blanks in my head. But I'm doing a scholarship fund and just, I'm also just raising money to give back to those kids just to make sure that they are set if they age out and if they don't age out while they're in the system, I will make sure they get all the help they need with schooling and extra, extra help, extra tutors like I will out of, I will raise money or pay out of pocket just to help these kids. And right now my main goal for this coming year when I. Foundation. Sorry, I got a call. When I release this foundation, I'm going to target roughly about 1,000 kids in Ohio. And then after that I'm going to start expanding my horizons.

That's what I was going to ask. Are you going to. I was going to ask if you were starting in Ohio in order to start from your home base and then expand from there. Incredible.

That's the whole plan.

And just on a, you know, we have a lot of listeners who they are either athletes or former athletes or, or they like to train or they're really into health and growth. What, what's your training regime like? Are you training every day? Are you, do you have a favorite type of workout? Like what's your, what's your jam?

So training it differs every day but it's practically every day except for Sunday. So Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays are usually more mat work based type workouts. So like your submissions, your takedowns, your escape, everything that has to do with being on the ground in a fight. Then Tuesdays and Thursdays I mainly work strength so I try to balance it out. So I get a full week's worth of workout and I get all the training I need. And depending on what the season is, will be depending on what I'm doing. But in this case starting August 1st, I'm working with the head coach of Team USA track and field personally and he's told me starting August 1st, all the way up until the next track season, you're going to be doing my workouts. And I don't think I really had a choice, but I'm okay with that.

That's going to be amazing. That's a great. That's an incredible opportunity. Incredible opportunity. And on a personal note, what about. What are some of the things that just light your heart up? Do you have favorite foods, favorite music, a favorite person? Like, what are some of your favorites.

Favorite food? Almost all of it. I am a guy that will taste almost anything. Like, seriously, I can just eat absolutely anything. Except for cinnamon. I'm allergic to cinnamon. But what else? I already told you, I make music. I'm a very simple guy. I like the rock climb a lot, actually. I went rock climbing a couple weeks ago and then I just went hiking in Kauai on Hawaii, like last week. You know, it's stuff like that is fun. Jumping off bridges in the water. I like surfing. I like fishing. I like making fish. I like to cook. I'm a really good cook, by the way. Like, really good.

Awesome.

Then what else.

Have you.

That's about it. Everything else pretty much takes up life all the time.

Have you had any injuries that have been setbacks? Because I can imagine for you, if there's an injury that it can be even more significant than for someone else who isn't as reliant as you are on your upper body. Have you had any injuries that have.

Been kind of like, oh, yeah, so check this. So a couple of years ago, I got to compete in calisthenics at the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio. Have you heard of the Arnold, like the Arnold Schwarzenegger class bodybuilding? Yeah. So, you know, I got second place in calisthenics, and to propel me from fourth place to second place, I did a backflip on my hands and I landed it, but I landed on my hand wrong and broke my hand on. On the landing and played it off, like, walked off stage like nothing was wrong. And I sit down and I'm just like, what is wrong with my body? And that was the first time I broke a bone, actually in my entire life, which is only like two years ago.

And that's huge because when you say you're walking off stage, you're walking off on your hands and you're walking on a broken bone.

Yeah. And the funny thing was I have such a high pain tolerance. I didn't really understand that it was broken for about seven days. I just kept using it, kept wrestling at Practice just kept. Kept doing everything.

Yeah, yeah.

But I'm just not. Like, I pulled a muscle in, like, the bottom of my hand or something. Nope. Go to the hospital. He's like, oh, your hand's broken. You broke your thumb and your wrist in three different places. Like, oh, oops. Wow.

And that's, you know, just knowing the kind of bone density that you would have from the kind of work that you've done, that would be a massive impact to break it that way.

Yeah, that's what I'm.

Would be really solid.

Yeah. Because, like, I have done some crazy things, like jumping, like, dropping from, like, 15ft up in the air on the. Like, just straight onto my hands. Like, what else? I. I've been hit by, like, men three times my size, and not. Then I have taken a lot of damage, but one simple backflip does me in. You know what I mean? Yeah.

And yet you say it like, oh, one simple backflip. Meanwhile, people are going, who does that? Who does that?

So I know, right?

On that note, that's amazing. So we're to wrap things up here. What is one message that you'd really want to get out there to anyone listening? And maybe it's a message that you would have told your younger self. What do you think people need to hear? What's the message that you want to get out there?

The only limit that you bring yourself up to is the limit that you set for yourself. If you don't set a limit for yourself, the sky is endless and full of possibilities. Especially if I would have talked to my own self, I would have been like, yo, bro. I would have been, bro, sorry, my phone just started talking. But I would have been like, yo, bro, life's about to get a lot harder than it is right now. Because at my darkest moment, whenever it's not, every time I thought that anything couldn't get worse, it got worse. So, like, I would have told myself, like, buckle up. Be prepared. But get the thing is, you're strong. You can get through this. You can pick yourself up. No matter how many times you got knocked down, I mean, how many times you get punched in the face, you still gonna get back up. And you're not gonna frown, you're not gonna look angry, you're gonna smile. You're gonna be happy that you have the strength to get back up. And that's all you should be happy about and should give it your all every single time. And you can transpose that into sports, work, religion, anything, just for the fact that our lives are what we make of it. And our futures aren't set in stone by anybody, no matter what circumstance you're given at birth.

Those are such incredible words of wisdom. I. I am absolutely honored to have spent this time with you and I really appreciate you sharing some of your story with us. I think that people need to get your book. It's Zion Unmatched. And then you've got another two books coming after that one. As far as I know, you've got BigZ2020 is your insta. Is that right?

Yeah. Or you can just type in Zion Clark.

There you go. You don't have to remember that. And is there anywhere else that people can look for you? You've got the Insta. Your book is coming out or your book is out. You got two more coming out. Anywhere else that you hang?

My TikTok. I have about 300,000 followers on TikTok. Same thing as my Instagram handle. Then my Facebook. I just got verified yesterday on Facebook. If you guys want to follow my Facebook. It's just Zion Clark and then Snapchat and Twitter. I keep that to myself.

Nice. Nice. Beautiful. Okay, Any last words before we. Before we depart?

Get my book, please. It's gonna be instant stores. It's going to be an on Amazon, it's going to be on Barnes and Noble, is going to be on Indigo, it's going to. You can buy it in stores. Target, you can buy in stores all of those. Obviously not Amazon, but it'll be in stores on the shelf where you can pre order it now or you can wait till it comes out soon. I am trying. I'm working on getting an audiobook made. So I'm going to be reading my book to all of you, all the viewers. Just be on the lookout. But like I said, August 3rd. Big three. Let's do it.

Amazing. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being with us. I love your story and thank you for sharing and being so open and authentic about it. It's been just an incredible pleasure.

Oh, no problem. You take it easy.

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