Empowering the Next Generation with Kurt Ogbewele

The belief that young people have the potential to achieve great things is the foundation of empowering youth. By providing access to inspiring experiences and resources, as well as building their self-assurance, young people can accomplish anything they set their minds to. In this episode, MBSB Coaching CEO Kurt Ogbewele joins us to share his journey of empowering and inspiring young people to reach their full potential. As someone who has dedicated his career to providing guidance, mentorship, and skill-building opportunities to youth, Kurt has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share on how we can all support the next generation. Through all of his experience, Kurt created Mind, Body, Spirit is your Business (MBSB) to give youth resources that create opportunities. MBSB offers a wide range of services, including training in basketball, music, acting, teaching, and coaching, as well as access to professional speakers and basketball players who can inspire and mentor youth as they work to become experts in their chosen fields. Tune in to hear Kurt's inspiring story and learn practical strategies for how you can help young people and youth in your community. --- Listen to the podcast here: Empowering the Next Generation with Kurt Ogbewele Welcome to Actions Antidotes, your antidote to the mindset that keeps you settling for less. Today’s youth really need some encouragement. I was actually at a church a couple hours away in a small town community church this past Sunday and I heard the story a woman told me about how her teenage son had already lost seven of his friends to suicide, which is a really, really disturbing thing to hear and something that is even more disturbing when I think about this kind of desperation happening in many different places all across the country and all across the world. My guest today, Kurt Ogbewele, is a coach that is actually helping bring a lot of hope to our youth today with his business, MBSB Coaching. --- Kurt, welcome to the program. Steven, thank you so much, man, I appreciate you for having me. Thank you. Well, thank you because this is something that I obviously care about quite a bit, hoping that my upcoming screen time reduction initiative helps relieve some of the pressure and some of the forces that is driving some of our youth to some of these bad places in life away and I know you’re helping the youth get some kind of encouragement for the things that they’re interested in, the things that they want to pursue. And I know that starts from your own story. You have your own story where you needed some encouragement in your youth. Let’s begin with that. You had a pretty sizable family and some turmoil, from what I’ve read, but I’ll let you tell it yourself. Steven, thank you again for having me. Yeah, guys, my name is Kurt Ogbewele, from Brooklyn, New York. Huge family. Dad’s from Nigeria, my mother’s from Trinidad and Tobago. At a young age, we did experience the system. We’re broken up in foster homes and also group homes and reform schools and the whole nine yards and, from that standpoint on, I was able to live with my dad and my older brother. So that right there was a struggle for itself just because I didn’t have a relationship with my dad and living under his system of the household was a challenge because that was something I was not used to. And, for me, I picked up a passion for playing basketball probably around 9 and 10 years old. So my dad, being from his native country, which is Nigeria, basketball, any sports was not a priority, education was, and me being a generation growing up in America, sports can be a number one priority because it can allow you to be able to pay for college and so forth. So, moving forward, I was able to make it to graduation and, from that standpoint on, I knew that I wanted to continue to play basketball so I decided to move back home in Brooklyn, New York, and just follow my desire of trying to go to a high level college in just the neighborhood recreational center, I went down there every day and played ball and got connected with the coordinator and, from that standpoint on, he trained me and then he allowed me to play in something called AAU which allows just the youth to be able to travel to different states to compete against different competition and also get seen by colleges. So I did that. I was in that little season that was towards the end of the summer, me and a great young man who connected me to a local promoter and trainer in our neighborhood who trained inner city kids to be able to do well in tournaments and be able to get seen by colleges and also I was one of those guys that just stuck by that, worked hard, played in games, and I was able to meet my mentor and also he was a father figure to me that I needed at that time, I was 18 years old, just dealing with my own little baggage and he was able to psychologically and spiritually and physically help me to overcome that and that allowed me to play better, allowed me to have more confidence, and allowed me to do better as a as a man of faith, to be honest with you guys. From there, I was able to get a full ride scholarship to Arizona Western Community College, a Division One school, went on to play over there and then continued to get my degree and then I met my best friend and then, from that standpoint on, I decided to put the ball down and pick up the mic and I did Christian rap music. Oh wow. Yeah, man. Did Christian rap music, was in a group called Dream Team Soldiers, guys from all over the country and I decided some to move to Denver so I continued my relationship with my best friend within the faith, continued to do music, and also get out of New York City and develop my character so came to Denver back in at the end of 2006 and pursued music. I was able to perform all over Denver and Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs had a big faith-based arena and, from that standpoint on, we made it to the last chapter at that time period to be able to perform in front of major record labels and we did well but the higher ups did not have their stuff together so I decided from that standpoint on, I wanted to go back to college, I had three more years to finish up to get my degree and see if I could be able to play basketball at the next level past college and I did that. I went to Colorado Christian University, met up with a great coach who was faith based and also just a great man and had high level success in basketball for himself and played three years there, had some challenges, and graduated. I graduated in 2011 of May in organization management and Christian leadership. So, from that standpoint on, I got connected with a teammate, whose brother was currently an MBA and they had an organization that allowed current college players to put on faith-based camps in different countries as far as from France all the way to Germany, play against their professional teams and earn a contract. So, I did that tour for about a month. I was able to earn me a contract to play in France and also, while I got that contract, I was able to get hired on to work at a big time nonprofit at that time period called Colorado UpLift to be a teacher slash mentor. Oh, wow. Yeah. So work with the inner city kids over there for a year and decided to move on to work as a case manager for the youth who were locked up for misdemeanors and did that for a year and decided to move on to work for another nonprofit called Archway Housing, that’s operating Archway Community Services and I was a family service coordinator, just worked with the adults who were from Africa and also worked with the present members, man, and put together some funny events and teach some life skills, some domestic skills to the youth, and, honestly, some just simple stuff as far as like teaching the parents how to be able to fill out a resume. Yeah. That’s something they don’t really teach you in school, right? Yes. Yes, man, and just money management type of thing so, yeah, man, moved on from that and decided to go back into education and worked at DPS K-12 as a program leader, and then got the great opportunity from one of my friends who I played pro basketball with to work as a teacher, as a physical educational teacher, at a middle school for DSST and worked there as a PE teacher and a boy’s coach for four years. And it was a blessing for me because I was able to really jump into the young men, young ladies’ lives and really get deeper with them and try to be a positive influence and — For sure. — at basketball. So did that for four years then moved on to public charter schools in Colorado and worked there as athletic director and as a PE teacher for the middle school kids and did that and as a support, and just, again, man, I worked there during COVID time so I’m going to say that I didn’t really get the real rounds as far as the athletic director but I was able to help manage two sports, volleyball and soccer, build some relationships, and then decide to move on to be a support. I wanted to get some more training in that aspect. And then, from there, moved on so now, currently, I’m at Robert F. Smith Steam Academy at a black school, as a high school physical educational teacher. It’s a school that’s fresh, it’s 9th and 10th graders — Yep. — a lot of hormones, a lot of energy, and a lot of opportunities to really become a better teacher and to become a better man. I also have my own business, MBSB, and we’re at the school right now. Last trimester, we had an enrichment program, that’s a program that allows the youth to be able to experience different programs outside of what they usually learn from school so what I provide to the youth over there, man, is pros, pros within the profession of basketball, music, teaching, coaching, acting,...