Let's Think About It Podcast

Be It Forward: The Power of Resilient Leadership

• Morice Mabry

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Episode Summary 

From the backwoods of Mississippi to the halls of UC Davis, Algie Mosley’s journey is a masterclass in resilience, vision, and faith. In this powerful episode of the Let’s Think About It Podcast, Coach Mo and Algie—longtime friends and now collaborators—dive deep into what it takes to rise above doubt, reprogram limiting beliefs, and build a life rooted in purpose. Algie shares his story of transformation sparked by The Power of the Subconscious Mind, the pivotal moments that reshaped his character, and his mission to inspire others through his Be It Forward framework. Together, they explore how vision fuels resilience, why believing in yourself is non-negotiable, and how small decisions create lasting impact. Whether you’re leading, rebuilding, or just trying to get out of your own way, this conversation will challenge and energize you.

Key Takeaways

  • The Book That Changed Everything: How The Power of the Subconscious Mind shifted Algie’s self-image and set him on a new path.
  • Resilience as Vision: Why faith and the ability to “see the unseen” are the foundation for bouncing back.
  • Be It Forward Framework: Algie’s powerful blueprint for believing, empowering, aspiring, and transforming.
  • From Seed to Tree: A vivid metaphor for leadership, growth, and giving back.
  • The Laws of Attraction in Action: How Algie and Coach Mo reconnected after decades, proving the energy you put out always comes back.
Speaker 1:

Welcome to the let's Think About it podcast, where we embark on a journey of thoughtfulness and personal growth. I'm your host, Coach Mo, and I'm here to guide you through thought-provoking discussions that will inspire you to unlock your full potential. In each episode, we'll explore a wide range of topics, from self-discovery and mindfulness to goal-setting and achieving success. Together, we'll challenge conventional thinking and dive deep into the realms of possibility. Whether you're looking to find clarity in your personal or professional life, or seeking strategies to overcome obstacles, this podcast is your go-to source for insightful conversations and practical advice. So find a comfortable spot, chill and let's embark on this journey of self-improvement together. Remember, the power of transformation lies within you, and together we'll uncover the tools and insights you need to make it happen. So let's dive in. Welcome to another episode of the let's Think About it podcast. I'm your host, Coach Mo, and I'm here with another guest, soon to be co-host, my man, Algie Mosley. What's up, bro?

Speaker 2:

What's up, mo, and thank you for this reunion, as I would say. 30 years and still going strong. So yeah, uc Davis. We call them the Aggies, but somewhere along that I think I added a little L in there to that Aggies and I think they're algae. But that's just my little side.

Speaker 1:

I like that. I like that. Yeah, bro, it's been a long time coming, man Great, to cross paths again, reconnect. And here we are, man, here we are. Where are you checking in from?

Speaker 2:

first of all, I'm right here in Elk Grove, California, in my house, talking to you via Zoom.

Speaker 1:

Tell my audience who you are, what you do and the type of value you bring.

Speaker 2:

Okay, hey, audience, my name's Algie Mosley. I'm just this little kid born in the backwoods of Mississippi. We didn't have no running water or electricity. My mother was a single parent seven kids. Throughout this process, god has been good, right. I remember walking into the church in the backwoods of Mississippi and as we walked into this church and these old blue-crusted Black women would walk in with that pain and they would just come by me and go oh Lord, have mercy. Pretty big. Well, that's how I got my character is those moments where they just put that love inside of me and that came from the backwoods of Mississippi and that has been something that has been with me all of my life. Is the love for myself and the love for humanity, right.

Speaker 2:

So I came through the backwoods of Mississippi, but we ended up in a scenario right, get out of town before the sun go down, right. So we ended up moving to this place called Iowa and most folks say are there any black folks that live in Iowa? Exactly, and I'm here to tell you there's lots of Black folks in Iowa. This is one of the quietly kept secrets, but we had a really tight community and I got an opportunity to work for this organization called Iowa Methodist Medical Center, where I worked there nine years before working in the parking lot one day and there was this brother that walked by and I was just sitting there watching the parking lot, right. He was a hoodlum, right, he had been in and out of all this gang stuff and he came up to me and he said hey, brother, hey, what you doing? I said I'm watching the parking lot, right. And he just looked at me and he laughed and he gave me a book. He said, brother, hey, read this book For me. I don't read books, right. And I looked at the book and moaned, like most of us. I said, whoa, ain't no pictures in it, right? So I took the book and I threw it back off in the cubbyhole and just left it there.

Speaker 2:

And about a week later the brother came back and he said Brian, how'd that book come in? I said what do you mean? That book? It ain't got no pictures in it. And we both buzzed out laughing and then he really put a stain on my brain that I'll never forget. He looked at me and he stopped laughing and he says a man who don't read is no better than a man who don't know how to read. I picked up that book and, even though it didn't have pictures for the first time, I read it from cover to back. I'll get you that in a minute. The name of the book was called the Power of the Subconscious Mind by Dr Joseph Murphy.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Taught me how to reprogram my thinking. I always thought I was less than instead of greater than in the environments around me. It said I was the dumb guy in class, so I didn't really study too much, I was just concerned about food, water and shelter. Self-advocation was not something for me until I read that book. I went into my boss's office after nine years and I said hey, I'm moving, here's my two week notice. And he said to me where are you going? And I said I think I'm going to go to California. And he said what are you going to do in California? And I said I think I'm going to go to college. And he said college, college isn't for you. Maybe your brother, but not you.

Speaker 2:

And that hit me hard to think that this man that I had given nine years of my life to thought less than, not greater than. But I thought and I had a different vision. So I packed up Mo and got a little U-Haul and I drove all the way here to California. And guess, when I came here on May the 15th in 1989, just in time for UC Davis Black Family Day and when I got here I was in awe. This is incredible, this whoa. Look at all these Black folks doing all these positive things and having such a good time. It was mesmerizing for me.

Speaker 1:

Why UC Davis? At that moment you read the book, why UC Davis out of all the colleges in California? What made Davis stick out?

Speaker 2:

Didn't resonate to me at first because, remember, my mindset was not ready to think that I could graduate from a college. But when I got here, I became UC Davis. It was just part of that environment and I really at that time didn't even think about attending this college. I chose Davis because when I had got my AA degree and my professor brought me over to UC Davis and to see this lady that I had no idea about but later to find out, her name was Maya Angelou, and when she spoke, my spirit it just illuminated. It was like for the first time in my life, I was actually alive.

Speaker 2:

When I walked out on that campus, the stars were just glaring and the energy that I felt coming at me. At that time I looked up in the sky and I said, God, is this the college you want me to go to? How am I going to compete with these young college students? Right? Do I have the fortitude? Do I have the makeup, the character in which to overcome the obstacles I'm going to face for this college? But I knew I could do it and that was when I made that decision at that time and later on I was accepted to UC Davis.

Speaker 1:

What do you do right now and what type of value do you bring?

Speaker 2:

do right now and what type of value do you bring? I work with Sacramento Housing, but I'm also moving into a whole different platform, and that is to inspire others to go beyond where they are. So I am stepping out currently to be a life coach, something I've been doing all my life a business coach, learning all the things that I've learned in years of navigating the plains of corporate America and helping kids learn how to be it forward. That's my cliche using my life experiences and what I have learned along the way to yeah.

Speaker 1:

So give me a little bit more understanding of why life coaching was making you go that route.

Speaker 2:

I'm at a stage in my life where I've been gifted and I've been blessed in so many ways, right. But I'm like that fruit tree right now in my stage of my life, where I've been deeply rooted and now the fragrance of the flowers are starting to bloom right. And then now the flowers have turned to fruit and now, being that plum tree, I realized that the fruit is not for me to enjoy. The reality of my life is that the fruit I produce is for others to enjoy, and that's where I'm at. I'm at that stage of being that plum tree sitting up on the hill, just blossoming and creating fruit for others to enjoy.

Speaker 1:

That's great to hear. One of the things that I get into on this show is helping people get out of their own damn way, and part of that is resilience. Right, You've had an interesting journey from Mississippi to Iowa to here now in California a duration span of probably 40, 50 years. Talk to us about resilience and how that come up for you. How do you demonstrate it and teach others?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question, bob. Resilience, to me, is the substance of character. It's who you are as a person, that, no matter what comes your way, you're going to always shine. And so, for me, my resilience come from having a vision lifting your wings and flying right. So here it goes, in a short way of expressing my resilience, and I call it vision. And it goes like this it's time to make a decision.

Speaker 2:

Yet the future I have no vision. It's just like what I've been told, this confusion called the crossroads, door number one or door number two. Bewildered, I just don't know what to do. I need some help. I need someone to say the footsteps I take will be okay. Yes, it's time to make a decision. Yet the future I have no vision. Troubling times, I must confess, for I feel like I'm stumbling through the valley of death. Now I know what I must do. I'll get on my knees and call on you like an eagle flying high in the sky, for it really doesn't matter door number one or door number two, as long as my travels are not without you. Yes, it's time to make a decision. Faith is my resilience. All things are possible.

Speaker 1:

Love that. What resonates for me listening to that poem is what we're talking about. Right, without the vision being able to see the unseen, which you described as faith, it makes it impossible in my eyes to have that resilience. You got to know where you're going. You got to know what your purpose is. You got to see, be able to see that visual picture of whatever it is you're going after. That's vision. Without that, it becomes so easy to quit on yourself all day, every day every day.

Speaker 2:

You're like the ship out in the middle of the ocean, without a rudder. You're going a lot of ways in many different directions, but getting nowhere because you have no purpose.

Speaker 1:

Yes, as you made your journey to where you are today, teach us how do you create that vision for yourself. What are some simple things that you do to keep that image in your mind so that you stay resilient?

Speaker 2:

First of all. No, it's first an understanding, the foundation right. So I give all praise to God because those are the wings in which I fly. However, it's very simple for me. It's about 10 different concepts that I've learned along the way, and one of them is that during this economic call, this Marxism, we've been led astray, right To think that we're chasing this dollar bill right, or, as you can see in the cliche, the goose, the golden egg right, and that a lot of people find value in that egg and forgot who created that egg. And the value is really in the goose. And so my whole concept of keeping it there is to help people understand how to be it forward.

Speaker 2:

And be it forward is a different concept than pay it forward. Part of being it forward, the acronym called be it forward B. Believe in yourself. E. Empower your mind. A person who doesn't read is no better than a person who doesn't know how to read. I inspire others. Don't just set yourself on fire. Set others on fire so that't just set yourself on fire. Set others on fire so that the whole world is on fire. T. Transform your future. F. Focus on purpose. O. Overcome obstacles. R. Respect your journey. W. Walk in your truth A aspire for greatness. R reach back to uplift and D drive the change forward. And that's what I'm here for, mo is to drive this change forward, because I believe we lost the concept of where the true value lies, and that's not in the golden egg but in the goose lives and that's not in the golden egg, but in the goose.

Speaker 1:

I love that it's. Be it forward and how it breaks down. Do you teach that?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I teach it in about 10 different chapters each session. Believe in yourself that's the first and the foundational aspect of this whole program is that you learn to believe in who you are. Each and every one of us that come to this planet, as we look at our fingerprint, it is totally different from anybody else, but once you discover who you are and you can believe in who you are, then at that point in time, I believe you can go out and create what I call impact, and impact is imagine many people actually caring together Make that collective impact, and that's what I'm looking to inspire others to do the same, and when we do so, one teaches the other and the others teaches and it just become a great big explosion.

Speaker 1:

That's powerful brother. How do we get our hands on that information that you just shared?

Speaker 2:

Well, it's very simple. Stay tuned. We're going to do these podcasts also, creating variations of sessions. I'm going out to the youth and putting this program together so that each one can teach one. And that's what we learned at Davis in reference to getting our college was not just getting our education, but how do we get an education that's going to help society as a whole.

Speaker 1:

That's great man. Talk to us about what's next for Algae.

Speaker 2:

Well, what's next for me, Mo, is very simple. I've rested a point in time, like I said, I've had the opportunity to hang out with greatness, and so now I have eyes to see greatness as a seed right. And sometimes, when you see things as a seed, it's very difficult for that seed to see itself. But that seed someday will be a apple and that seed someday will be a apple and that seed someday will be a tree. So my job at this stage of the game is to create belief so that seed might see itself in the early stages and can empower itself and be on purpose on achieving what it has been set to do. I tell people, mo, very simple, because you met me, you should be a better you.

Speaker 1:

That's what I'm talking about. That's why this is here, because I'm trying to be a better me. You know what I mean, and if I'm around you, and that's going to make me a better me, man, this is going to be a regular episode conversations that you and I are going to have because I am trying to make a better me.

Speaker 2:

And in making you a better you, it just starts to grow and when it really starts to flow, mo and the world starts gravitating along this way to understand that we were created to empower each other, and it has a selfish endeavor and me, myself and I in the selfie world right, because when I grew up we used to do what we called the bump right, and we would bump and we would laugh and we would yeah, and all that. And the older I get, the older I get, the more I realize this stuff you can't purchase on Amazon. And when we focus on the real creation of essence in life, then people will grow beyond their wildest dream. Can you imagine if you're smiling on a daily basis, purposefully? What does that do to your body? What does that do for your health.

Speaker 1:

Oh man, it keeps me young, it gives me energy, it keeps me vibrant, it keeps me happy, it keeps me optimistic, it brings in so much positivity. It's intentional, it's always intentional, right, and that's what we have control over is our attitudes and our intentions. And so if I wake up in the morning every single day saying to myself it's a wonderful day, it's a prosperous day, I'm going to create amazing things today, I feel good about myself. And then I start my day with exercise, walks, prayer, meditation. Man, that just carries my energy for the whole day, and that's what I do every single day.

Speaker 2:

And what happens when you are magnified like that? And you're walking around right. What happens to the people you engage with?

Speaker 1:

I attract people like you Because that's exactly what happened Real talk.

Speaker 2:

That is so true, mo. I was sailing, I was telling myself, as I was driving downtown one day, about this podcasting, when it kept coming to me podcasting but I don't do podcasts, that's the young generation. And then, all of a sudden it was like I've seen this shadow. I'm looking at this shadow and I'm like this man walking down the street. I was like, wait a minute, I'm looking at this shadow and I'm like this man walking down the street. I was like, wait a minute, I've seen this walk before. I've seen that walk. And then I looked and I seen these hairs, but they were a little gray. Right, they were gray, and so I and they had a hat on, so I couldn't really see, but it was like the energy that this person was walking in caught my attention. That can't be. There's no way that I'm having a thought process about you and you right before me, brother.

Speaker 1:

And it had probably been about 10 years yes, eight, 10 years since we had spoken, talked to each other, because we had tried to connect years ago and we had some mishaps and that just didn't come through. And then all of a sudden, eight, 10 years later, boom, here we are. And then, almost immediately after that conversation on the street, we immediately connected. We've been meeting on a weekly basis for lunch whether it's conversation or actually having lunch one time a week because there's a synergy that we have here and this is so real and about the laws of attraction and the energy that you put out and the thought vibrations that you put out, because you were saying you want to get into this podcast thing. Who knew that your boy is actually doing podcasting? And I was like, man, I can use a co-host, I can use somebody that just have, just shoot the gift with each week. And magic has happened since that day. And that was about a month and a half ago, two months ago.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, and it goes right along with it. Right, like you say, let's think about it. Right, I thought about it, I didn't know. Well, I did in a sense, I'm aware of as a man thinking so is he right? But to see all of it magnify and present itself the way it is, even on this podcast, as you're interviewing me today, it's just a huge blessing as I look in your background and let's think about it. And as I told you about vision and that open window, I wish everybody can discover that freedom.

Speaker 1:

We're going to continue the journey to help people to think about it and put that awareness in their soul and in their spirit so that they can move forward and get out of their own way. I just want to say I appreciate you, brother, I really do. We go way back as youngsters on the basketball court playing all these recreation sports at UC Davis, more importantly, succeeding in getting our degrees and persevering through the various hardships that we had to experience going through college and trying to navigate that on our own as young Black men. We survived, we became successful and here we are now trying to give back. We are giving back and doing it the right way, and we have a platform here where we can continue to share our wisdom and help people think about it. Any final thoughts that you would like to share before we sign off today?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my final thoughts are very simple. When you're talking about, let's think about it right. When you think about and move yourself beyond your thoughts, right, let's be about it, right. When you think about and move yourself beyond your thoughts, right, let's be about it, not just think. Let's not just pontificate. Change happens when we're able to, but a lot of what we're talking about is your ability to make those changes within self, right, but being able to try to format for others, to see what that impact actually does for changing yourself, in order to not just think about it, but to be about it. To be about it.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. I love that. I love that. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. It's great to know you and I look forward to having more of these conversations. Be about it. Thank you for joining me in this episode of let's Think About it. Your time and attention are greatly appreciated. If you found value in today's discussion, I encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Remember, the journey of self-improvement is ongoing and I'm here to support you every step of the way. Connect with me on social media for updates and insights. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at Coach Mo Coaching, or LinkedIn at Maurice Mabry, at Coach Mo Coaching, or LinkedIn at Maurice Mabry, or visit my website at mauricemabrycom for exclusive content. Until next time, keep reflecting, keep growing and, most importantly, keep believing in yourself. Remember, the most effective way to do it is to do it Together. We're making incredible strides toward a better and more empowered you. So thank you, and I'll see you in our next episode.