Cracking Helmets, Commanding Screens: Isaac Keys Unplugged

0:28We always recommend Shopify. In this episode, I sit down with actor, former athlete, new author, Isaac Keyes. And you're going to get to know the real Isaac Keyes. Like, we talk about so much. We talk about his journey. We talk about his because. We talk about the depth of why he decided to write this book and to write it now. And we're going to talk about if he can really understand Pete LeSin or not the first time he met him. Ladies and gentlemen, I present my friend, Isaac Keyes. You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation.

1:09Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged.

1:25Isaac, how you doing today, brother? Oh, man, that is an excellent introduction. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. And yes, man, I'm doing well today. I'm happy to be here on the show, man. I'm glad we can connect. I'm the honor, man. Been a huge fan of you since your days at Morehouse when you were cracking heads and sacking quarterbacks, man. Like two-time All-American inducted into the Morehouse Hall of Fame. So one, I just want to tell you congratulations, man. But two, just proud of the man that you are, bro. Proud of the man that you are. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And, you know, to take it back, I think, you know, we got to see where you came from, you know, to see where you're going.

2:01You know what I mean? I like to look back on things and give myself a pat on the back at times. It's just an appreciation of what I have been able to accomplish and how I've been able to help anybody else, you know, accomplish any of their dreams. And to me, that is so important, man, especially for men. And I'm going to be honest and go there for black men. A lot of times. We don't take the time to accept the flowers when they're given to us. I know you're a huge mental health advocate. So am I. Sometimes we just need that encouragement and like it, we can't be tough all the time. Like it was cool back in the day to be the tough kid to, to say you can handle it, man.

2:39But, but that's a lot of pressure. That's a lot of stress. And sometimes, man, we just don't take enough time to appreciate what we've accomplished. So I'm telling you, I'm glad you appreciate it. I appreciate that. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. I think what you're saying is that we have to celebrate ourselves. You know, it's always the joke about what a father gets for Father's Day gifts and what a mother gets for Mother's Day gifts. And, you know, it's always a running joke. But, I mean, it's true in a sense because, you know, as men, we've been taught and groomed for the most part to be able to take on so much.

3:09And like it's not about us, not about us. It's about who provided and making sure we provide for the family, make sure everybody else is good. But I think there's room for balance. There's room for both. Like you need to be celebrated for everything that you do, because if not, you start to develop a type of resentment for the things that you are doing and you're accomplishing. You don't feel like you're being seen and celebrated. And that starts as a kid. The best way to get to a kid is to be seen, celebrated and appreciated and teaching that. I think there's room for both. It's just that we, you know, our older generation, we just weren't taught that because the man had to carry so much on their shoulders.

3:39They couldn't show their emotion to show their, you know, how they felt. And, you know, there was no time for that. You know, no time for pretty part. I get up to go to work tomorrow. I ain't got time to be dealing with all of that. But I think there's now there's room for both. And I think that we have it's up to us to be able to celebrate our friends, celebrate each other and support one another as much as we possibly can as men. And honestly, there's strength and vulnerability. Amen to that. Amen to that. I'm going to come to your book in a second, Isaac, but I love asking all my guests this question.

4:07And that question is, what is your because? Right. Right. You know, Simon Sinek wrote the book a while back called Start With Why. And everybody was really trendy to know what your why is. But I like to go deeper and ask what's your because that thing that's deeper than your why. Right. Your why is probably your family, your kids, your spouse, your commitment to your job. But when I say but why, that sentence usually starts with, well, because. And that's what I care about. So if I said Isaac, he's today. What's your because, brother? I love that question. I love the deafness of it. I started off with having, you know, I just had this strong drive of just wanting more for myself.

4:49And as I started to kind of put the words together, I knew I was just I was afraid not living up to my potential. My potential, not anybody else's my potential. Like I didn't want my life to be a waste. I saw so much coming up growing up with people who become a product of the environment or just made excuses for not accomplishing goals or becoming the best person to possibly be. And I think it probably is still for my parents. They had a higher standard for me and for my sister to be better, to be the best version of ourselves that we possibly could be. And I always carried that with me. And I was always attracted to people who had that same type of ambition or same type of goals that I didn't like to be around people who were lethargic or wanted to be a victim or decided to blame everything on someone else.

5:34I also learned the phrase later on in life is that, that blame starts with you. So once you take the blame on yourself, then it makes outlook on everything else a lot easier. Well, what could I have done different in that situation that I probably could have learned from that? Okay, it just helps you taking it on in that aspect. And I think it's just my why is just, and my because is because I just wanted to be, I wanted more for myself. And once I had one for myself, I mean, I could spread it out to others, my loved ones and to other people around and they can see what I went through and what I accomplished or what I didn't accomplish and learned from it.

6:08And I think that was important to me. And even to this day, it's like they're still driving faster. You know, we get older a little bit now, you know, we'd be like, you know, I ain't hit in the gym as hard. You know, I don't have that same fire as I did when I played, but I'm still in the gym, you know. And it's like so, you know, and I always – that's the other part. I just never wanted to just settle. I just couldn't take settle and mediocrity. And I don't even like – you ask my friends. They get mad at me because I'm like, no, that ain't it. You know, like you can do more. Let's do more. And that's also a mirror effect.

6:35It's me talking through the mirror and talking to myself too. Man, I love that. And again, that, that's why you are one of my, not just favorite actors, not just favorite authors, not just favorite athletes. You are one of my favorite people in the world, because I know your story a little bit. Like I said, I've been a huge fan of yours. And then when I heard you were writing a book and the title grabbed me, right? The grind don't stop. It just changes. And it parallels so much of almost what you just hit on looking at the mirror. Sometimes we got to look at the mirror and go back and say, oh, this is how this happened or this is what shaped me or this is the story that made me who I am, good, bad or indifferent.

7:20And I now know how to adjust. Right. Or how to hit that grind in a different genre or a different space because it just changes. Right. I think it's so important to be able to share our stories, because that's what we grow and that's what helps other people. Just by you saying that and the title, you know, grabbing, grabbing you and captivating you was what I wanted to do. This title has been floating around in my head for probably the last 16 years. You know, it derived from The Wire. It was a phrase where the actor said, he said, the game don't stop, it just changes. And that's because it's just different people, but the game is still the same.

7:57And I was like, well, man. And the wide endeavor through life and everything is like I could never just stop. Like, you know, the grind of just like, OK, having to get up and work for this one thing here, whether it's football, get up to work and work a job that you don't necessarily want to go to. But, OK, it don't stop there because what are you going to use that job for to help you in the next end up? What's that going to lead to? And when you sit back and look at the process, you're like, wow. I did this job over here I didn't really care for, but it taught me that I don't want to do that type of job anymore.

8:25And that it leads me to this other direction of something I feel more fulfilled in, whether it's that, whether it's your career choice, whether it's school opportunities, whether it's sports. And it was I chose to take my stories. All we started from adolescence, elementary school, all the way to present day to use my stories in a relatable capacity that people can be like, oh, wow. I may not have been in the NFL, but that was similar to the corporate job. I worked at AT &T and they had to switch over to Microsoft or whatever it may be. And it's like it's just been on my heart to share it because when we do interviews like this, you may ask a question, how did you get to the NFL?

9:00And I got two minutes to tell you. Or how did you get to the acting? And I got to tell you, I'm like, no, it didn't happen that easy. I want to take you step by step to understand that none of this was just the easy. And the process is what taught me to be able to keep on going and the grinding. And the grinding just molded me to become the type of person to be able to deal with certain things or strengthen me to handle certain situations. So when I see them again, OK, I know how to handle this. You know, the learning curve is one of the most important things you can have in life. How quick are you able to adapt and change to the new situation or new agenda or the new activities in hand?

9:35And, you know, we're on our own way. We're hard headed. We're stubborn. We're on our own way and we don't see it. And we're like, OK, no, it's changed. So let's change with it. And it's OK to do. And I think that is so important, man. You know, I do a lot on leadership with corporations and and we talking about being able to change. Some people say adjust, but there are times that you just literally have to change. You're like, like sometimes adjusting isn't enough. Right. When you're going up against that big 320 pound left tackle. Right. You can't just adjust because he's adjusting to. Right.

10:09And that's what I tell people. Life is adjusting with you. And so that success, whatever that level of success means to you, there are moments where you just got to change because adjusting isn't enough. Talk to us about that in your journey, man. I think it was my journey was full of changes and I don't think we'd ever stop. And I think if you're not changing, adapting, adjusting, then you're not growing. And if you're not growing, then you're dying. And, you know, that's not what we look for. I look forward to the change. Some people are very scared of change. They're very, you know, timid of like, oh, I don't want to change.

10:43Or then people go, well, they said I changed. Well, I mean, depending on your circumstance and your situation, you should change. Well, let's say evolve. You can still have your core or who you are, but as time goes on, your values change, your morals and things like that. Some things may remain the same, but your values change because now you have a kid. Now you have to, you live life a little different when you have children or, you know, you lost a loved one, you lost your parent or lost some significant other. You're different now. And it's okay to be different. It's just as long as you're starting to have understanding of what your difference is now.

11:18And, you know, this is not, I'm not an expert in any of this. This is my life experiences that make it unique to me. And it's like, it works and it helps to be able to talk it out. Like we're talking right now. So I welcome change because change brings more experiences. It brings moments and experiences and then experiences create more life. So, you know, I just, I look forward to it. You know, sometimes all changes aren't as good as others, but when you change your mindset, it's like, well, you know, okay, acceptance is probably one of my biggest things that helped me and hindered me in the time because you have to learn when to use it.

11:51Not accepting a lot of things pushed me to walk on in college when I wanted to say football, not once but twice. It pushed me to, you know, when they told me I had to sit out a year, and I just didn't hear the call like I didn't hear them. I just kept going to practice, spring practice in Morehouse. NFL, not being picked up in the draft like I thought I was going to be. I didn't get picked up until a month later, which I talk about all this in the book, and I put it in layers. I could have stopped. I could have accepted that, but I didn't accept it. And now when I look at acceptance, it's now in relationships because I was so much intact and so indulged into what I was trying to accomplish as a person.

12:28that I was emotionally unavailable for relationships outside of that. And I tap into how that affected relationships and how one of my dating scenes and all those types of things. You know, I really tap into this book. Like this book is the deep dive and the vulnerability of just my stories in life that I think that we all similarly go through. We just don't always talk about it. I love it, dude. I want to go a couple of places. The first place I want to go is that story. Your freshman year, right? So you walk on, and I know this story a little bit, but I want you to elaborate for the audience.

13:01So you were not supposed to actually stay for practice. You're supposed to come back in the summer. It's like, hey, if you didn't play last year, spring practice ain't for you. We'll see you in the summertime. Isaac Hayes knucklehead or Isaac Keyes knucklehead was like, hey, you know what? If they don't say nothing, I ain't going to say nothing. Right. And you know, the caveat I've had is that that started before. Like I walked on to University of North Alabama as my official freshman year. and I walked on because in high school, I was playing out of position my senior year. I played linebacker all the way up, and I had a passion and a drive to play linebacker, waiting my turn, waiting for my time to start.

13:39Senior year, it comes along, the coaches say, you know what, we're going to move you off the line. I say, what, coach? Move me off the line. You told me if I did this, this, and this over the summer and came back with this type of physicality, speed, and everything, linebacker position is mine. I paid my dues. I earned my way up to this point. And now you're moving me to an offensive line. And I had a decision to make. I had a decision to make at that time to whether I'm going to continue playing football, be with my friends, the camaraderie, or I'm just going to say, no, I'm not getting my way.

14:10I'm just going to quit. Like you say, my daddy and my mom didn't raise no quitter. And my dad, I say this in the book, my dad said, if you're going to flip burgers, be the best burger flipper there is. You're going to do fries, whatever it may be, do the best you do. So I made a choice at that point. And I'll get to where we go in the Morehouse. and I just think it's important to build, and again, shared in the book, is that I made a choice, and I said I'd be the best center on offensive line, being undersized, you know, underweight, in a sense, be the best they're not possible to be, and I ended up making all conference that year as a center.

14:38And our team was successful. You know, we lost officially in the playoffs, but we were successful. And that led me to want to go to college. I still want to go to college. I want to play football in college. North Alabama came about because a best friend of mine was going there. I said, I want to walk on. What did they say they wanted to do? I said, I'm going to play a line, but they said, no, we're going to have you play tight end. Wow. I just don't have no say so in the matter, I guess. So, you know, and then again, I made a decision, and I was not a good tight end at first. But as the year progressed and I committed myself to it, I became a good tight end.

15:13And it raised me that year, but I was going to be in a competition for the next year of playing, you know, starting tight end. I just didn't like the school. It didn't feel like college. It was twofold for me. I feel like, you know, my college, I would say college would be the best time of your life. It should be. And I agree, you know. So I think when I was going to college, I didn't feel that way. Football was starting to come along, but I was still not playing the position I wanted to play. And it didn't feel like college to me. And that's how Morehouse started coming visually into the picture.

15:40And eventually I ended up going there. And to allude to your story, the part that you were talking about earlier is I had to sit out there first year. I came into Morehouse, I was transferring. They told me I had to sit out a year because I couldn't transfer laterally. Division II, Division II. even though they were a totally different conference. Later on in life, I find out that I could have played that year, but that's how God works. I didn't play that year, that season. Transferred into Morehouse, thought I was. So I was a Joe student. Whole chapter in the book about being a Joe student because that's a different type of life, especially if you've never been one.

16:08You play sports all your life, and now you just see the students different. So spring came. I went off to spring practice. Spring started weightlifting and the drills, and he said, coach came out, new coach. New coach came into the school, said, if you weren't here last year, than go ahead and go home and then come back when training camp starts. I saw guys starting to pack up their stuff, getting their shoes, having their head down, like, okay, we're here last year. I just looked. I just looked away, and I just – I don't know what came on me, where I had the fortitude, the gumption to be able to be like, he ain't talking to me.

16:42He ain't talking to me. And I just kept going to workouts. Nobody said anything. I don't know if the coaches pay attention and knew. Nobody said anything. And then I just kept putting the work in. It's like myself and one other guy who became successful in Morehouse, too. A safety, Sean Caldwell. Still one of my best friends to this day. But I bring it up because he had the same type of mindset. And that's why I think we became so close as well, too. Because, again, being around people that can sharpen the iron that you're around, that you have some of the same ambitions with. And so, yeah, I kept going.

17:12And that's how Morehouse's career started. I love that, man. I love that. And speaking of change, I want to I want to have this conversation with you because I feel like we have this in common, knowing your story the way I do. When we talk about change, the biggest lesson and change that I had to learn aside from myself was my circle. Yes. Right. When your standards change, which they should, as you grow and as you evolve, your standards change. And when your visions change and when your vision of success changes, a lot of times the people around you need to change, too, because the ones that are holding you back are usually ones that are applauding to your face.

17:55Right. But behind your back, they're trying to keep you where you are. Talk about, one, the importance of your circle changing and to how yours has changed as you have continued to evolve, you continue to do. So there's one thing about the change you're speaking of that gravitated me to the character of Diamond Samson on Parable 4. Was that when he came out, he wanted to be a changed person. He didn't want to do the same things he did before. But sometimes when you're trying to let go of your past, the other people want to hold on to it. Because your past benefits them. Who you were before benefits them.

18:30Because either, one, they're stuck and they want to have misery loves company. or two, they just know that, hey, they don't want to see you be better than them, in a sense. And those are the people that you can't be around. I remember being in high school. I would, you know, during football season, I was with my athletes. We had the same program. Well, come basketball season, I wasn't playing basketball. I was waiting for baseball season to start. So during basketball season was like my off season at the time. And next thing you know, the allure of street activities. I was hanging out with more friends who had more gang affiliation or more street allure, you know, and it was putting me into a whole other environment that I was attracted to, that I was all into as well.

19:13As time goes on, you realize, you know, at a young age, you're very immature in the fact of what your value of life is. And I remember a point my senior year when a friend of mine got murdered and it could have easily been me. but it set off something in my head that was like, you know, you talk about what pivotal moments that changed like that. It set off something in my head that was like okay, that could have been me so there's some changes that I need to make in my life about where I'm at, who I'm with, and how I go about it, especially if I want to have some future. Because this made me feel like I was like anybody else.

19:45I was no different. You know, I can have a great honor roll but still be out here doing some stuff on the streets I have no business doing. And, you know, I make sure I tell those stories because I think they're relatable to our young generation because I tell them all the time, if you have 10 friends, I mean, if you have 10 friends being bad, you'll be the ninth. Like nine friends being bad, you'll be the 10th. You know, it's like your environment, you'll become a product of your environment, even if just by an accessory, because you were just there, you may have not even done it. But we have a lot of people that's in the cemetery or in prison right now just because they were in the same place at the wrong time.

20:18And I think it's so important that it's about your support group, because we all need supported to talk about what we talked about earlier, giving each other flowers. You need to see people that value you. They want to see you do well. They say, hey, Ike, you know what, man? You might be a little drunk or something at this point. We're going to get to the career. You know what I'm saying? Like, take you home because they value who you are and how you look. Like, the simplest thing is that. But also celebrate you. Celebrate because I'm on this show because I'm also going to celebrate them. They got a promotion.

20:44You know? So, I think the change in, you know, the product of your environment is key. It's very key. I love that, man. I love that. So, now I want to I want to pivot to your acting career. When did you know that that was going to be your new space to evolve and be you? You know, I, that's a great question. Cause I think about it for so long. I didn't know. I just know something like people think that, Oh, you're doing football. You're going to act in like, no, I was trying to find, I didn't act. It wasn't even on the board. Like, I was literally just, okay, well, let me see if I do personal training.

21:28You know, I work out all the time. I could maybe do that. So I started doing personal training. So a friend over here was doing some marketing gigs in the city. I started doing that. And, you know, and I also was dealing with the mental part of it because football left me. I didn't leave football. I still wanted to play the game. And I was still willing to do everything that I possibly could to get back on the field to give somebody an opportunity. because I said I had so much left in the tank. They had so much reserved because they didn't allow me to play as much as I wanted to, which I wanted to, or sometimes they said that I should have.

22:03And it was frustrating. I was angry. I was like, I still want to prove myself in this sport. So acting came about by default because, again, being around some people in a good group, being around some other actors, which was like at a panel discussion in Essence Festival, I was around some actors and I just was watching. I saw how they move and I just saw them just seeing black men doing their thing on the TV screen and representing black men well. Yeah. I started to kind of have this fixation with, OK, well, let me do acting. People look at me like, oh, you're going to do acting. You got to take acting classes at first.

22:39OK, fine. You know, I have no problem because I understood that from the game, football and life. So it took a while because I'm telling you, I used to be in acting classes. Finally, we go to L.A. I would drive out there from Phoenix where my house was and overnight and try to either fit in and sleep on my friend's couches or cousin's couch and watch out and do audition or go to acting class. And I would be intimidating in class because there'd be people that were really good. They already almost had the lines memorized. We just got them. The way they knew so much more than I did, it was intimidating at first.