Growth & Grace

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program. The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education even better than I was the last time. Baby

Leaha Crawford 0:35
we back and we back and we back and we back and we back. Do. Hey, hey, hey, hey. All right, hi, Julian. How you doing today? Doing pretty good, huh? See you like his play? No, because I'm still warning the Eagles playing. It's all right, though it was I, you know, I'm always gonna E, A, G, L, E, S, I am always gonna be an Eagles fan, good, bad and different. I'm gonna be there. It's okay. How was the Lakers? Well, they lost, so they're out of the tournament. I mean that, that phony little made up half conference tournament. So, I mean Conference Tournament that's coming here. No, yeah, when it's coming here, yeah. I think that's, I think that's, I think that's nice, though, to have something here in Vegas. The NBA star is coming here for the weekend so we can see some NBA. Well, today y'all, I got somebody special in the building with me, and I when I tell you, it's always good to have a good friend that you can call on, especially when you need something, somebody that's knowledgeable. Because somebody told me that a long time ago, the four closest people, close to you are, you know, just your circle, your inner circle. That's what you're going to be. You're, you're going to be the fifth person. And I am so glad that Marcus Allen and I are friends, our friends, because whenever I call on him, it's like, Marcus, I need, or Marcus, can I help? Or when he calls on me, saying, Leah, can you help me? I need, or just need somebody to talk to. Marcus is there. He is super duper busy, productive. I'm not even busy because he's not busy. He's productive. Amazing follow through, amazing follow up. And from what I see now, he is a 30 year overnight success. He does the work, and I'm just honored to have him here with us today. Good morning,

Marcus Allen 2:23
Marcus, good morning. Good afternoon. Glad. Thank you, actually, thank you for having me.

Leaha Crawford 2:27
You're so, so very welcome. So I always ask this question, and you always give me a different answer. Who was Marcus Allen?

Marcus Allen 2:33
Who was Marcus Allen? Marcus Allen, let me go back. Let me see what Marcus Allen was founded at Marcus

Leaha Crawford 2:40
Allen was found, yeah, where was Marcus Allen?

Marcus Allen 2:43
I grew up on the West Las Vegas. Was a historical West Las Vegas because that was the suburbs. We'll say those are suburbs. We call it the suburbs. Make something up. But instead, I grew up in the projects and things like that. So, you know, I had to live with the cars that my mom was dealt and growing up, I always wanted to be something different and make a difference in my community. But during the time that we was that we grew up, we ran and crossed some bad paths and bad habits and things like that that was going on in the neighborhood. And that was like that crack error, okay, it was 80s, yeah, yeah. That crack area, that was my growing up stage, you know. So we had a decision to make how we was gonna grow up, and then what you do is you become a part of your product, and you actually grew up into that bad area, being one of the bad persons of the people that was in there. And I always knew that I wasn't raised like that. Okay, so something different between me and everyone else that you know, I had to do something different than what they was doing, and had to create a different path. But I took that journey for a minute, but then I got on the right path, though, with especially with my father, you know, Pastor Sam Carroll, then my mother, the late Barbara cookie Allen. You know, it's like, stirred me the right way, and I made better choices, and then came back in the same bricks that I helped tell them tear down, into that community. I'm now building them one by one in the community, and not only just building the break, but building the community in each individual and they call the young fellows, the young guys. Okay, it's passing the knowledge, passing the baton, because we all know we're not gonna be here forever, right? You know, so it's not it. And I mentioned this a lot of times. The most good ideas and the most great inventions. Inventions is in the graveyard. People die with them. They never let it out. They kept some of the best recipes. Is in the in recipe is just not with just food, right? Everybody keeps, oh, that's recipe. You think of food, but no life come with recipes too, because you got to know how much to add and how much to subtract and not how much not to put too much more on this, on life. So it guides you through to get that so like I say, I use this anatomy all the time. If you want your cake to look like the cake on the cake box, you have to follow. Instructions and ingredients and the recipe, right? Because you want your cake to look like that picture that's on that cake box, right? Because if you skip steps, you skip steps, or add or subtract a little bit more or less, and they look like might not taste like that. And the same thing with life,

Leaha Crawford 5:18
all right. So again, I know you fast, and I know fasting has been a major part of your life. Talk to me about that. How did you start doing that? What made you start fasting?

Marcus Allen 5:29
Well, I hear my dad talk about, yeah, you know, I was invited over to eat and stuff like that. He like, no, no, I'm on my fast. I'm on my fast. I'm on fast. And I'm like, Man, I need to try that one day. Okay? And I was like, Dad, you know, next time you do your fast, I'm gonna do it too. I tried it one year. I said, Oh no, I'm gonna make it through this, right? My first time was like, Oh, Daddy, how you did this? So I got a lot of instructions through the first rip the first time that Daddy, what to eat, what not to eat, how do you do it? What do you drink? What do you do? And therefore, but then I went through there, and then I said, why? This wasn't so bad. And then I started incorporating other people. So I went on Facebook and created a Facebook group, which was the 21 day, Daniel fast. And each year we just changed the year and the date. And I look at it like we give the first 21 days back to God. So January 1 through the 21st you fast. And the reason why? Because, all year long we ask God, we pray to God, and it's like, how would you like about person? Just keep calling you all year long, asking you for stuff. How would you feel every time you pick up your phone?

Leaha Crawford 6:41
You like another call. You asking again,

Marcus Allen 6:45
and it's the same thing. And I say right here is when

Julian Rosado 6:48
or when you see their car. You know, you know, you know.

Marcus Allen 6:51
But let me, let me show you. Share this with you that you can't go to the bank and ask for a withdrawal. If you have not made a deposit, you're going to jail, yeah. So you have to make a deposit. Even with God, you have to make a deposit. You, you ask him about Lord, you go into the year and let's go to because we come coming to a new year. That's why we so therefore, we take these last week or so, we get ready for Christmas, and then we, oh, New Year's. We got a week after Christmas that we're going into New Year, and then we start planning and saying what we gonna do for the new year. We start adjusting our whole life for a whole year. And I say, how can we get our whole life together within a week for a whole year? Yeah, and I say this all time. It takes a year to plan for what a year, but we're gonna do it in the next couple days. Oh, I'm gonna make this New Year's revolution. And that's why they never last, because your New Year's revolution only was created within a day or two. Last a day or two. Wow, that's serious, though. So this new year coming in, we'll go back to the fast. And every time, it been a blessing to me. And I just came off a fast so I went and I incorporated it in two years. So I do the first through the 21st will be the first one, and then the second one I just came off one is November, the first to the 21st and that's right before Thanksgiving. So it's giving my body a reset. That's more so saying, hey God, thank you for letting me live and make it and succeed through this year that I asked for in the beginning of the year, you know. And it's like I'm making a deposit with God each and every time. It's like and suckling, every time I've done this, this fast and not asking for nothing. I think the first fast, I was asking for something. I was begging God. Well, begging God, and He blessed me with it. And I'll say, God, it was the biggest blessing you ever can bless me with. And it was a nice piece of property that I had really wanted, which was the barber school. I wanted to purchase the barber school and the property of the barber school. And he blessed me with the first fast. He said, Well, you did? You know he's my faithful servant? I bless you with this right here. I said, Okay, thank you. God. Appreciate it. I did the fast again. He best blessed me with another piece of property. And this is real, true story. It's mind blowing to me because it's like, because you're living it, I'm living in and it's like, it's almost seem like it's fake, like it's not real, like I'm making this story up. And then I do another fast. And then I was like, God, you don't owe me nothing. I'm good. I'm just giving back to you. I want nothing else. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. He blessed me with another one. I'm like, man, what is going on? And now this is real, true story, the one in November I just got off of God turned around, and I believe I was on the fast at the time, I was just coming out the fast, and I got a phone call, and a guy had called me, Hey, man, I'm getting ready to get rid of my property. You know, anybody want it? And I'm like, Ah, yeah, I got enough. I'm kind of cool. Is that? He said, Man, I just wasn't walking away. I said, Man, where you at? I said, where you at? So now off this November fast he didn't bless me with another piece of property, and I was like, I wasn't even asking for it. It's like, I'm not even asking for these things at all. And sometimes, when you do so well and you do it on your own, you don't have to ask God for nothing. You don't have to pray for nothing, because God look high and he looked low, and he see you. He know you. He knows better than anybody else. He know your heart, your mind. He know your thought before you even think you so it's already there for you. It say, Be faithful of a few things, I make you rule over many, but see how good you can be faithful through a fast. Now I can lie to you about a fast. I can lie to you about a fast. I said, Well, I eat this and I do this, but then again, God, know if I really did or did not

Leaha Crawford 10:40
do that. So let me ask you this. So when you're doing a fast, because you do the Daniel fast, so what are you not eating? Well, how do you are you praying more? Are you? I mean, talk to me about what?

Marcus Allen 10:51
Okay, good you said, because it's sacrifices. Go way back into the Bible, okay? And that was like an offering, that was a gift. So now we say, what we are? We gonna go get a lamb now today, and kill a lamb and sacrifice a lamb for for an offering? No, we're not doing that these days. So I say, what could you give up in your life that you know you love the best on a daily What's that? That food? You love that food? You gonna get some food. You gonna pick and chew what you want? Hey, can I get some cheese? Take the onions off of that, right, right? You gonna get it the way you want it. So God said, Can you give this up for a certain amount of days? It don't have to be 21 days. Just try. If you can try a day, I don't, I don't spare nobody out for a long time. You can try a day. You can do two days, you can do a week, you can do two weeks, or you can do the three weeks.

Leaha Crawford 11:40
Just try something. Well, let me ask you this, but are you praying more while you're on this fast?

Marcus Allen 11:44
You are praying you're not getting what you used to. You pray a whole lot, guys, please help me, Lord. And then you get invited to parties and events, and they got food. You can't eat the food and like. So let's go over that. So it's no meat. Okay, no meat. There's no animal. Pratt, no and anything that come from, anything to have eyes, okay? That's including honey. And I love honey. Honey is like natural, but it still came from bees, the butter, the milk, all came from somewhere. Egg, lemonade, all that, right there. So you

Leaha Crawford 12:18
basically, it's like a plant based, basically a plant based, yes, plant based diet. Now, have you sometimes extended it? Because now a lot of plant based food, so it's a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, then you have to watch the oil that you know the oil when

Julian Rosado 12:32
you can you eat like an Impossible Burger,

Marcus Allen 12:34
yeah, Impossible Burger. Well, you can't eat an Impossible Burger. But a lot of people say, ah, that's chemical based. And then they go, bet you can, because we just don't, we know we human at the end of the day, and that's 21 days, is a very long day of doing anything but one thing about the 21 day, it will break any habit that you have had. And you talk about extending it, extending it, you really don't have to extend it, because now you've been eating healthy for the 21 days, you're not gonna go into just rushing into eating bad habits that you normally would have exactly so it do change your life and your livelihood of eating so and it's like, okay if food is one thing, no alcohol, no smoking, of marijuana, cigarettes or vapes, none of that, even, even even that's a good part right here. A lot of people don't like this part right here. No sex for 21 days. Hold on. Wait a minute.

Leaha Crawford 13:28
I was gonna say that's that easy. Well,

Marcus Allen 13:32
not for everyone. No sex with you, purifying the mind and the body and the soul, you eliminate yourself from all the things that you enjoyed the most for 21 days, say, God, I'm giving this all up for you. Temptation, oh yes. All day long, someone will come out the woodwork. This steak or that lobster will come out the woodwork. This young lady, a male, a female, will come out the woodwork.

Julian Rosado 14:01
I know, probably get a call out of nowhere. Hey, hey, like work with you on Tuesday.

Marcus Allen 14:13
Say, Tuesday. So now that's when you start praying. You say, Do you pray? That's when you start praying. These things start popping up. You say, Lord Jesus, right now. Jesus, help me right now. Lord, I gotta get to this one and some things you just got to come back and revisit after the 21 days, like that stake of that last revisit that after 21 coming back on the 31st Okay, leave me alone.

Leaha Crawford 14:41
No questions. All right, Yo, you are listening to growth and grace. I hope you are enjoying the conversation. I am Leah Crawford, this is Julian Rosado, and I am we talking to Marcus Allen, just having a good conversation to help you. I mean, just a good way for you driving a car, just to laugh a little bit and to talk about things that you can do. To help you improve your life, having those hard conversations. So what's the self talk like, though, Marcus, when you're going through this because, I mean, because you got a lot of you got a lot of moving pieces going on,

Marcus Allen 15:10
yes, so what I do is like, I ride down, drive down the street with no music on, no radio. I do that too, no, no. And I'm just thinking about life, lifeing. I'm thinking about but you do that all the time, though? Yeah? I do it all the time. Yeah, I do it all the time. But really it's different when you, when you when you cleanse your your body and your soul, it opens up when you don't have, like, if you don't have no alcohol, no vapes, no secret, these things that can deter your thinking too, because it's offsetting your thoughts. But when you got all that cleared out, you clear that crowd out. You get a bigger vision of life, the bigger vision life. And then, and if we let's go into that. So when we talk about life and life, and it's so much of the vision I had just got, received a phone call yesterday on one of my one of the guys who used to work for me, he's like, Man, I really thank you for helping me out a lot. And you know, I learned a lot from you. I was like, Man, I learned a lot from you, but it goes back to iron, sharpen iron. But then you say, Man, that thing that you did, and this is one of the biggest topic, one of the biggest conversations I've been having lately is a headstone. So I already created my headstone. So when you say, what I'm doing, what I'm thinking of, things like that, because I know death is on the way, right? So we got to get up and go. We can't sit. The thing is our biggest problem. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it next week. I'll wait and do it. But I'm already planning into death, because everybody in this room gonna die, right this, this, this podcast, right here, everybody in this podcast, we're gonna one day not be here, but have we prepared for it? And if we more so prepared for it, it'd be more so in our face and reflect on us. Hey, you don't have tomorrow, the way to do it. You don't have next week, the way to do it. You don't have next year to where you even know if you're gonna be around next year. So you need to get up and go right now. And that's my MO That's my motivation, right there. Yeah, cuz you go, I'll go. You need to get some rest. I rest. I got plenty years of rest internally. That's I'm a rest. I gotta go. I gotta do I gotta make every day worth a day, because ain't nothing I can do. Let me help y'all over something. It's nothing you can do to get that second that just passed right now. It just became history. Right now. That second is gone. You never see that second again in your whole entire life. That last minute right before What time is it right now is whatever time it is, whatever time it is. We cannot get back to that last minute. It's gone. It's history just that quick. History been made just that quick. So you want to make the best of it. You want to make the best of it. You're never going to get this date and this time and that minute and that second would never revisit you back in your life again. So how do you make the best of it all the time, looking for the next minute. Do something with it before you lose it. Do something with

Leaha Crawford 17:59
it before you use it. Lose it. Use a really cool perspective. I like it. I like it. So 30 years ago, so 30 years ago would have been 1995 could you envision yourself here?

Marcus Allen 18:12
No, that's why, okay, my vision from the the from 1995

Leaha Crawford 18:20
from 1995 from that from 1995

Marcus Allen 18:22
my environment was either jail or prison, because I was gonna go by past

Leaha Crawford 18:29
jail, prison,

Marcus Allen 18:32
hospital or the morgue. That was it okay?

Julian Rosado 18:38
I was playing NBA Live 95 right?

Marcus Allen 18:41
And I had been playing for my death. Then, though, okay, I went and got some shots, and I was almost like, 22 years old. I wouldn't got me some life insurance. I left the mall. I said, You know what? I'm just gonna give me some life insurance. When I was 22 years old, I say, anything happened in these streets? I need to do something. I don't want my family doing a car wash or anything like that. I want to leave something back. Ain't having to leave them at the time, but problems, I say, least lead on something at the age of 22 at the age of 22 Yes, and I still got the same life insurance now, and it's universal. That's another thing. Make sure it's universal. Got it. We do terms, and if I did a term, then my term would be terming out right now, what's the difference? Oh, what's the difference? That's good. Let's talk about that. Universe is universal life to me, and I'm saying it my way is not the correct way, because I'm not an insurance agent, but universe, as long as you in the universe, oh, okay, you recover, you insured. So if I travel to the moon and down the moon, I'm just making this up, I'm covered. But terms is you, so you age 22 so you do a good deal, and they say, Oh, just $10 a month for 30 years, for 30 years. And here's at 22 and I'm at 54 I just be turned. Coming out, and then they say, Well, you can just get some more insurance after your term. Now you at the age 55 going on 60, and now you asking for some life insurance. Which life has been is what out to about 100 if you bless and that's where, when you really need it, yeah, when you really need it. So the insurance is doubled that much, and now you're not working as much. You don't have that much money. But they raise it up like That's enough. I say no, no, turns get something. I'm telling everybody get something terms what you can only do it. But I say more so universal.

Leaha Crawford 20:29
So what I love is people around him get whatever, not because he is a man with a wealth of information, because he pushed me to know what NRS my industry was under because we were in the barber school one day, and he was going at the students, and he was telling them, if you don't know the NRS that governs barbers. And he looked at me, do you know yours? And I had to go write it down. I was like, you want to know what? I'm gonna go research that, because you write. But what I love about him is, if you ask him a question, you gonna get a whole dissertation, and your life is gonna change. Excuse me, what is Nourse, Nevada revised statute. I'll go Dave and look, just told

Marcus Allen 21:13
you what he But hold on, he just, you just told him what it is. But what do it mean? What does it mean? Yeah, so just, he just heard the word, the verbiage in the code to it, but it's what lawmakers actually create laws and make laws or change laws or delete laws. So that'd be in our NRS. So the elected officials that you elect, they go up north every year, which every two years, every odd year, and they have session where they actually, what I said, Make break being not break someone break. He just told the truth. Yeah, politics, politics. But yes, you know, that's how it all comes from right there that they govern. They govern. That's where we are all governed under the laws that they actually, oh,

Leaha Crawford 22:04
that's why, when you look at it does say NRS everything you've like when you park in somewhere, it says NRS data, data that when you get that ticket, it says NRS when you have to do something, it says NRS, dot.dot.dot.it,

Marcus Allen 22:20
a whole section in this little town, run this whole state, this little town. Did you pay attention that when you go out there? I did. I did little town.

Leaha Crawford 22:27
That's not that but, but that's that's not active all the time. How about that? Because right now, I mean, it's a ghost town area.

Marcus Allen 22:36
You get kind of busy. We go visit,

Leaha Crawford 22:39
we and we go visit, and we go visit and we go visit. All right, so you're listening to growth and grace. I'm Leah Crawford. This is Julian Rosado, and we have Marcus Allen on here dropping nuggets for you. Some things to think about in the New Year. You know, new you, new you. What does that new you? And you probably, well, it's two weeks now, so you probably want to plan for 2027 take this year to plan for 2027, but the thing about it is, so when you're getting these properties, do some sometimes with is it, do you ever feel fear or intimidated? Or do you have those feelings

Marcus Allen 23:17
I have my first couple of properties is like, Yeah, I did, like, oh, man, what I just did? Did I get water up to my neck and my nose? But now it's like a common, normal thing, because there's that is the way of life, and I always have been because, okay, good, you said that. Because I understand property now. I understand cars and material things, and I understand property that's worth things. So we say, for long as you've been living, they have built another car. Every year of your birthday they came out with a new car. Now, one year they took off and say, Hey, we're not gonna build a new car this year. And every year they keep adding something to entice you to want that new one, huh? And you keep buying them, you'll never catch up with that, but not one year of them lives that you have. Them birthdays you have. They made land. They have not. But now you say, where the value? It ain't about them making the lands about the value. Let's understand this for your age. Who would say average? Say 40, right now we're 40 because we won't tell our true age. We're gonna go 40 for 40 years. Property Value did what? Go up. Go up. Now, let's go back to two years that it went down. Two years it went down. We had a balloon that bust. Remember, real estate went bad, the bubble that bust. It just bust everything for two years. Now, don't understand that. People say, Well, it's gonna be a bubble. It's gonna bust. How property probably gonna go down. They say this. But how could you speak on something like that for the majority of your years it went up, it only failed you two years out of the 38 years out of 40 years. And you want to hold on to that, but now let's discuss that. Because when it came down, when it lost or the bubble had bust, property value was. Hey, let's use some fake numbers real quick, some easy numbers. We're not gonna talk real deep. So let's say $100,000 the property was $100,000 at the time in the bubble bus, and it went down to 20 let's say 50% it went down to 50 50% was 50,000 now there's probably worth once worth was 100,000 Now it's worth 50,000 and then they say you was upside down because you owe 100,000 a lot of people started looking for parachutes. They jumped you bail out, yeah. And you heard bail out. That word bailout you heard bail out. See there, you know where it come from. Parachute was bail out. Yeah. So now, when the property value came down to 50% after them two years of struggling, it came back up to what, back to his

Leaha Crawford 25:47
100% Come on now, now went back to his 100%

Marcus Allen 25:52
but then at another 100% at another 100. So that same property that was worth 100 that once was worth 50,000 now worth 300,000 the average home sale, even on the west side, is 300,000

Leaha Crawford 26:03
and that's what I was thinking. Because, you know, I was on the west side, I was like, Yeah, because I mean, and we lived it, we watched it. But what I for you, though, who do you look up to? Who do you get your information from? That ain't hard. I know it ain't. Come on, God, all right,

Marcus Allen 26:21
there it is. I don't know nobody. Greater or better, I can say my father, I can say my mother. I can say my politician friend, my elected official. I can say my I don't have no partners in business. I announced it years ago. I had a partner in business, and everybody was wondering who it was gonna be. And I told him, it was God. It's the best partner ever can have. I don't go partnership with nobody. No, you don't. I don't. It's all about me. And God, that's my partner. He's the best partner, okay? And I'm not saying, and when I speak so much about God, don't think I'm just so sanctified or just so and then you guys see me, and I'm not. I'm not perfect, I'm still human, but I am a believer, a true believer. I just really believe. I really believe there is a God, there's a heaven. As a heaven, that's a herb. Well, just we believe it's Earth, right? So why we can't believe it's a heaven. So I do really, truly believe that, in that. And you know why I really, really know as a god, too? Because ain't no way in the world, I'll be where I'm at today. The cards I was dealt growing up, the poor education, the surroundings, and everything else I was going through and had to do it ain't like I went to college and took somebody's seminar. I barely finished high school. Yeah, we talked about that. Barely all four of them. I got kicked out every last high school I went to, every last one, they boom out of here. Let's see

Leaha Crawford 27:43
if they can handle you know, thank you for thank you to the CC, as the educators in the 80s, right?

Marcus Allen 27:50
I had special classes, special ed, adj, special ed, I had them classes that they say I wasn't smart. I had a learning disability. So how do I get to this point in life, I never took a real estate class and own multiple properties. I never took a business class and own multiple business you do? You do? I never even went to a seminar. I never been to nobody seminar to actually send a seminar to help me out and say, Okay, do this. That another. It was just blessed with the knowledge

Leaha Crawford 28:19
and you and you used it well, I want to tell you thank you. Thank you again for dropping all these nuggets on us. Just and just just know that I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you coming in, sharing your experience, being vulnerable, and letting our listeners know. I mean, it's not you know you walk in those steps, and you got to watch how you walk in those steps. And you got to believe in something.

Leaha Crawford 28:45
Got to believe in something, because you I mean, and it's not always what you can see, because I'm sure you didn't have a vision to see where you are today. And I can't wait to see where you gonna be 10 years from now. Oh, I'm looking forward to it. All right. You are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, this is Julian Rosado, and you wanna know I'm gonna do it again. E, A G L, E, S, and I know he a Raiders fan, E, A G L, E, S, E, goes all right out. We'll talk to y'all next week. Peace and blessings. Bye. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai