Cam F Awesome Resilience: Lessons from 12-Time National Boxing Champion

In this inspiring episode of Overcome: A Mental Health Podcast, host Travis White sits down with 12-time national boxing champion, 3-time Olympic trials champion, and former USA Boxing team captain Cam F Awesome to talk about resilience, reinvention, and the power of mindset.

From being a bullied and anxious kid to becoming one of the most decorated amateur boxers in the country, Cam F Awesome resilience shines through every chapter of his story. He opens up about how positive self-talk transformed his life, why he legally changed his name to reflect his belief in himself, and how he rebuilt after career setbacks.

You’ll hear:

• How Cam F Awesome resilience helped him reframe negative self-beliefs and rewrite his life story
• Why losses can be more valuable than wins in building success
• His take on “humility” versus self-confidence and why embracing your worth matters
• How filtering what you consume—both mentally and physically—can drastically improve mental health
• Life after boxing: public speaking, van life, and inspiring others across the country

This conversation is raw, honest, and packed with actionable lessons on mental strength, self-belief, and perseverance. Whether you’re facing personal battles or chasing big dreams, Cam F Awesome resilience will inspire you to keep going and believe in your ability to overcome.

Discover more about Cam F Awesome resilience, his journey from bullied kid to 12-time national boxing champion, and his mission to inspire others through public speaking.

Website: camfawesome.com 

Instagram: @camfawesome

Facebook: Cam F Awesome 

X (Twitter): @camfawesome

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Transcript

Travis White (00:00)
Hello and welcome to overcome a mental health podcast a place for you to share your mental health stories I'm your host Travis white and I'm so happy for today's guest. I am speaking with cam F awesome cam. Welcome to the show

Cam F Awesome (00:17)
Hey, thanks for having me, man.

Travis White (00:19)
Cam is a 12-time national boxing champion, three-time Olympic trials champion, and former captain of the USA national boxing team. But beyond the medals and accolades, Cam's journey is one of resilience, grit, and the power of positive internal dialogue. And I am just gonna hand the time right over to Cam and let him share his journey.

Cam F Awesome (00:43)
Hey everybody, I'm Cam F. Awesome. I was born and raised in Long Island, New York, and I share stories because we all have stories and I share my story of stories. So in elementary school, I was dealing with bullying and my bully had slammed my head into a brick wall and I was sent to the hospital with a concussion.

It was basically on site anytime you saw me. So my school solution was to release me 10 minutes early so I could get home before my bully got to me. And the walk home was, it was awkward and it was embarrassing because I knew why I was walking home. Like, and I told myself the story that I was like, I was a coward. I was afraid. I couldn't defend myself. I was weak.

And that was a story I would tell myself every day after school. And I would thank everyone who looked at me. So I was a kid who had to leave home early. And I told myself this story and I became very good at avoiding confrontation.

And in middle school, I would volunteer in the nurse's office during my lunch hour because I was afraid to be around all of those people. Now, I didn't even know there was a word for anxiety until I was in my 20s. I just thought I was, I thought I was prepared. That's the way I look at it. I like, I'm preparing, I'm ready. Cause something's going to happen. I don't know when it's going to happen. I don't know what it is. I don't know why it's going to happen, but when it does happen, I might be ready for it. And that's exhausting. And

I volunteered in the nurse office because I was afraid to be around those people. And then I was afraid this fight would happen. then it never did happen until my first week of high school. Got into an altercation with a girl. And what echoed in the hallways was Cam got beat up by a girl. Now, a girl hit me a couple of times. I'm not going to hit a girl back. But that's what echoes in the hallways. And

I felt like I was writing this story that I didn't like where it was going and I kind of felt trapped. And I thought if I joined the boxing gym and looked like a big scary boxer, people would leave me alone. Like I didn't want to actually fight anyone. I'm very non confrontational. I am not an angry person, but I thought if I change my character, it would change my character's role in the story that I'm playing. And

I thought the harder I worked out, the faster I would be safe. Because again, I didn't know what anxiety was and I didn't even know this was something to explain to someone else and I wouldn't even know who to explain this to, especially back then. But I ended up working out really hard at the gym and outworking all the talented boxers. that was 11th grade, I started boxing.

My senior year of high school, my parents moved from New York to Florida and I had like a revelation. So when I went to the boxing gym in New York, I was Cam. At school I was Cameron, but I made up this person Cam, because Cam was confident and he was cool and...

I was nervous about going to the boxing gym at 16 because if there were bullies at school, there could only be professional bullies at the boxing gym. So I made up this character, Cam, and Cam joined the boxing gym in New York and in the boxing gym. After I worked out really hard and everyone knew me as this hard worker, I was cool and confident at the boxing gym. But when I would go to school, I was Cameron. And then when I got to move to Florida, my senior year, I was like, cool, I could just be camped to everyone. I can reinvent myself.

and I got to choose who I wanted to be. a developer Jamaican accent and no one will know the difference. Now I didn't develop a Jamaican accent but my whole idea was like I wanted to... Travis if you could snap your fingers and get all the attributes or characteristics you want what would they be?

Travis White (04:27)
⁓ that's a good question. Cause there's, there's so many of attributes that like I'd want. And I think one of the characteristics, and I'm not saying like, I'm not an honest person. don't already have some of this, but like, I think honesty is always one of the top ones to like attributes to be up there. show integrity always through anything that you do.

and just be kind to others. I think those are probably some of my top three. And I'm not, yeah.

Cam F Awesome (05:01)
I love those.

And what happens is if you, let's say you're not that person, you decide to start being more of that person. Even though Travis took one action of kindness, you're still not looked at as a martyr. It's like you're still going against who Travis is. But if you moved altogether and you just identified as yourself, as this like person of integrity, every action you make reinforces who you are.

not who you're not anymore. So I had the ability to move to Florida and choose all of these characteristics. And granted, you could choose all the characteristics you want and decide to be who you want at any point in your life. You're just going to disappoint the expectations of the people around you. And a lot of us don't like to do that because we're naturally tribal people. But alas, I moved to Florida and I pretended to be the super outgoing, charming, funny, athletic, cool guy.

Travis White (05:41)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (05:59)
and everyone believed it, Trav. I didn't believe it, but everyone else believed it. I got to walk, well, I didn't get to, I had to walk six miles from high school to the boxing gym every day, five days a week. It was a three hour walk, I didn't have music. And for some reason, because I was listening to lot of rap music at the time, I think that's why. Rap music, all rappers do is talk about how amazing they are. Like.

Travis White (06:17)
Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (06:24)
I got this, I got that. I deserve this, I'm the best. So I didn't have music back then, because this was before iPods. So I would just make up stories in my head, and I was basically a rapper. I was just the best in all of my stories. I was winning all my fights. I had all the belts, all the money, all the cars. None of it was true. But for three hours a day, I just pat myself on the back about how amazing I was. And the more highly I spoke about myself, the better I did at the gym that evening.

And the better I did at the gym that evening, the more excited I was for the walk, which created this feedback loop of confidence. And this is where I learned the power of a positive internal dialogue. You usually do what you tell yourself you're capable of doing.

Travis White (07:08)
Yeah, that's really cool. You've like built this resilience as you were walking to the gym. That's awesome.

Cam F Awesome (07:17)
Yeah, someone asked me a question because that walk, that three hour walk, 15 hours a week changed my life. Someone recently asked me about a week ago and this is first time anyone has ever asked me this, if I would have had a ride, do I think I would have became who I am today?

don't think, of course I would want to think so, but I don't, I'm so grateful for that walk, that three hour walk.

Travis White (07:47)
Yeah, yeah, that's that's because yeah, if you think about it, like it's just one of those things in life that could have just changed everything.

Cam F Awesome (07:57)
Yeah, yeah, I could have just not gone to the gym too. I could have just taken the bus home.

Travis White (08:00)
Yeah.

So I do have a question though about like when you were being bullied was it like a group of kids or was it usually just like one kid that would point you out and go after you?

Cam F Awesome (08:13)
So in elementary school, it was just one kid. And now that I look back at it, I always felt, I never felt safe. So I was always felt like I was under attack. So even if it wasn't harsh bullying, even if it's just like guys just mess around with each other, I am super sensitive or I was super sensitive.

And if anyone would even joke around or say something about me, I would look into it and read into it and it would just crumble my entire day. And. I. And that was that was a that was a lot of middle school.

I was so anxious at school and even the concept of school that it was hard for me to focus on class and I was just, and then the school was every five weeks you got a report card that you were dumb. That's basically what school was to me. It's like, Hey, guess what? Here's your progress report. You're dumb. And they would celebrate the smart kids.

Travis White (09:01)
Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (09:10)
and they got more tassels or whatever at graduation. It's like, ⁓ these are gonna be the successful kids. And they don't say the not good grade kids are gonna be unsuccessful, but it's kind of alluded to. And I've always had a resentment of that. Yeah.

Travis White (09:27)
I can see that resentment, but I did read an interesting, I wish I could remember the statistic or exactly what it said, but it was something I was reading probably about a month ago, and it said that people with average C grades actually do better in the workforce. But I honestly cannot remember exactly why, it was something along the lines of like, it's because they,

I think they dig in deeper when they're working. Like I don't know the exact thing, but it was just interesting.

Cam F Awesome (09:59)
I've heard that before.

Yeah, I've heard that before. But it was that walk to the gym changed the way I talk to myself. And I would play this game myself. How good can I talk about myself? It's like someone would mention something. I'm like, ⁓ I'd probably be good at that.

And I just would speak like that and I would just make it seem like I'm naturally good at everything. And I started winning and I've never, couldn't make a team in high school, Travis. And within two years of boxing, I'm captain of the national boxing team at heavyweight. And yeah, it was pretty cool.

Travis White (10:39)
Yeah, and you just reaffirmed something that was said a couple times on this show is self-talk. How important self-talk is. And like, basically what you just said, like building yourself up and talking really good things about yourself.

Cam F Awesome (10:58)
Yeah, and so I doubled it. I realized that's the secret. just, so Cameron was gone and this was just Cam now. And legally I was still Lenroy Cameron Thompson, but everyone knew me as Cam. And I was, I had moved to Kansas City for boxing. was traveling all around the world, representing Team USA in different countries.

and I won nationals in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011. I was on top of the world, everything was great. And then I won the Olympic trials in 2012 and got kicked off the Olympic team for not sending in my drug testing paperwork.

Travis White (11:38)
That's, yeah, so it wasn't for, it wasn't for not winning. You were winning, you just, that paperwork, that's crazy.

Cam F Awesome (11:44)
forgot to send an email.

Yeah, I left the country. I didn't tell the drug testing agency and they showed up to give me a random drug test in Kansas City. And even though I tested negative that same week to even compete in the tournament in Azerbaijan, where I went to to fight, I was still suspended and

It was like everything I had worked for was gone. I started boxing to be accepted, to have friends, and it worked. I didn't even like boxing, I just liked what it gave me. before I would tell you my name, I would tell you that I was a boxer. Like I identified with it so much, and when that was taken from me, I didn't know who I was anymore.

Travis White (12:04)
Mm-hmm.

It gave you that form of acceptance that you longed for.

Cam F Awesome (12:27)
Yeah. So I decided I I decided I, well, I guess rock bottom would be appropriate. I started drinking a lot. I was embarrassed to leave my house. It sucked. I went from being this super confident person to just being this drunk in my apartment.

And I gained a lot of weight because I was eating like an athlete and drinking like an athlete, but I was not working out at all. And I realized I had to get back to boxing. I had no other discernible skills, no college degrees, no certification, no work, I think. And I was not going to go to community college. So I was like, OK, I've got to go back to boxing.

and I had to lose the weight to get back in shape. And I would work out for a little bit and I would fall off. And I'd work out for a little bit and I would fall off. And then one day, I was just looking at myself and I was angry and I was like, you fat idiot, you loser, you POS. And like, it was shocking in the moment, because it was like, I don't let anyone talk to me like that. Not even me.

And I realized there was a difference between me walking to the gym in high school and me in 2012. One of us liked me. One of us spoke highly of me and the other one not so much. Yeah. And it made me kind of look at the way I look at myself.

Travis White (13:56)
Yeah. So like during those tough moments in your life, what kept you going? Were there like specific habits that you developed or like how did you reframe your kind of your failure at that point?

Cam F Awesome (14:10)
I had to accept that getting kicked off the Olympic team, there's nothing I could do to undo it. It is a chapter in my book. 2012 was a chapter. If we called it chapter 12 for 2012, I understood that there would be a chapter 16. Regardless of what that chapter is, there will be a chapter 16. Am I willing to do the work to have the ending I want in 2016? And that

be returned to boxing, dominate every year and win the 2016 Olympic trials. But first I needed to get myself to lose that weight and I just couldn't do it. And Travis, for your listeners, I don't want anyone to agree with me. I simply want to challenge the way we think.

Travis White (15:03)
That's perfect.

Cam F Awesome (15:06)
When I was walking to the gym and speaking highly of myself, the pendulum had swung, I had become confident. I knew I was gonna win before I got in the ring. I would wear capes, I would flip in the ring, I would do dances, and then I would win. And it rubbed some people the wrong way. When I got suspended, one of the number one comments were, I bet he's humble now.

It didn't sit right with me. And I'm big on words and the power of words, so I looked up the definition of humility. And it wasn't a positive definition in my eyes. The definition, the website definition is having or showing a low or modest estimate of one's own importance to lower someone in dignity or respect or of low political administrative rank. And the Latin root word is humilis, which is lowly.

and I thought about it. Here's challenging normal thinking. So Travis, you're killing it in the podcast world, right? You run into someone who's not. What do you usually do? You humble yourself, not to where they are, a little bit lower so they can feel good about themselves. So my question is, in this hypothetical situation, who does being humble serve?

Travis White (16:05)
Trying to.

⁓ you humble myself

Yeah, I can see that.

That situation it served the other person for sure Yeah, yeah

Cam F Awesome (16:30)
They now have a distorted view of success. I don't

even think it serves them. Now, if what would be beneficial, Travis, is if you were killing it and they weren't, and you were to lift them up to where you are.

Travis White (16:41)
You

are

Cam F Awesome (16:45)
So when I looked at the definition of humility of how we use it in our everyday language, I realized I became successful not when I was humble, but when I spoke excellence into my life.

And it has nothing to with being arrogant or and it's not a zero sum game. I can think very highly of me and think even higher of you, Travis. So this is not a personal thing. There are people who have insecurities. And when you mention how highly you think of yourself, they see it as a reflection of them. But you can't let others dim your light. That was my thought process. I realized being humble didn't serve me and my purpose.

to be a mode, because you can't walk into the ring as a boxer and say, hey, you know, I tried kind of hard. I think I might win. if boxing is the greatest metaphor for life because we're all dealing with our own personal battles.

we should be entering these battles with confidence that we know we can win. And that's, believe, faith. So for me, I decided to throw away the idea of humility and legally change my last name to Awesome to double down on the idea that I should believe in myself, that I'm worthy, that I'm worth it, that I'm capable of getting the things I want in life.

I wanted to change the way I talk to me. Travis, no one thinks about you more than you think about yourself.

Travis White (18:08)
That's very true.

Cam F Awesome (18:11)
And so when you think about yourself, what do you think about yourself?

Travis White (18:16)
Well, now, like, this answer would have been totally different if you would have asked me this year ago. Because I've learned to talk better about myself. But now I would say I'm hardworking, I'm a good dad, music lover, you know, I am, what's the word, passionate about mental health. I mean, those are some of top things that come to mind right away.

Cam F Awesome (18:42)
I believe you because you believe you.

I mean, any characteristics we choose, we adopt and we follow what we believe. So those are the things that you say you like and those you do. And it's basically speaking what you want into existence. But we're never taught to celebrate our wins or to celebrate ourselves. Even you saying it's difficult for you to speak highly of yourself. From the time we're little.

Travis White (19:05)
Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (19:08)
I mean, you wouldn't wish that definition of humility on your children, but the concept of humility is so ingrained in us that we were told as children, don't celebrate, don't make anyone feel bad, don't talk about how good you are. And if you put this metaphorical or invisible ceiling on your greatness and how good you will even allow yourself to think you are, how much is that gonna limit your goals you set for yourself in life?

Travis White (19:38)
Yeah that's good. I've never heard it put this way so like I'm trying to like put it all like take it all in because you're giving me a completely different perspective which is cool.

Cam F Awesome (19:46)
Yeah.

Yeah, that was kind of the revelation I had in 2012. And I wasn't sure, but I was also, I was struggling and I didn't actually think I was awesome in 2012. But I thought if I spoke to myself like I was awesome, my life will become awesome. And obviously no one who's doing that great goes out to City Hall and legally changes their last name to Awesome. But I did that with hopes and I threw what I called an afterbirth day party.

and I threw it my half birthday and we celebrated the death of Cameron and the birth of Cam F. Awesome. And I decided to have a new outlook on life. I created characteristics about myself, about Cam. I was very specific. Cam is resilient. Cam is the type of guy to get suspended from the Olympic team, bounce back, and win nationals the next year and reclaim his spot as captain of the USA national boxing team.

That's who I introduce myself as and I carrot myself as that.

Travis White (20:47)
And I, sorry,

go ahead, what's your thought?

Cam F Awesome (20:51)
Cam as well wanted to be a performer. So Cam also started to do Open Mic Comedy Nights and perform comedy around the country and MC events. And Cameron would never do something like that. But there's nothing Cam can't do because I get to program what Cam is capable of.

Travis White (21:10)
I just think it's really cool that you're pretty much able to reinvent yourself and you just push yourself to a different degree. Pretty much awesomeness and I think it's awesome that you've done it all through positive internal dialogue.

Cam F Awesome (21:29)
And it's pro it's free. It's the crazy thing is like, okay, so your reticular activating system. Have you ever heard of it?

Travis White (21:32)
Yeah.

I've heard of it, I don't know much about it, but I have heard of it.

Cam F Awesome (21:41)
Okay, so it's

a filter in your brain. So your brain takes in billions of bits of information. So your eyes sees billions of bits of information. Your conscious mind can't process it all. your eyes take it in, and filters it, your billions of bits of information through your reticular activating system, billions go in, but only about 35 come out.

So it sorts through billions of bits of information and only shows you 35 bits. Have you ever random thing looked at like a piece of paper with all these words and your eye just spotted the curse word?

Travis White (22:16)
Yes I have.

Cam F Awesome (22:17)
That's how fast your brain processes. That's your unconscious mind processing and showing it to your conscious mind because out of everything there, that's what your brain's interested in. Yeah, what you seek is what you find. So let's say you go shopping for a yellow car, right? All weekend, you and your wife, you don't buy a yellow car, but after that, you start seeing yellow cars everywhere.

Travis White (22:24)
That's what sticks out.

Cam F Awesome (22:41)
Has something like that ever happened to you?

Travis White (22:41)
Yeah,

it's, yeah, I mean, it was, we bought a white car and all of a sudden we're seeing the exact same white car all over the place. And it's like, I never saw it before. Like, how come everybody else went and got one?

Cam F Awesome (22:52)
Yeah.

And the thing is, your brain can see all of the cars. Yellow, striped, but it only shows you the cars that it believes is relevant to you. It's why whichever car you happen to be driving seems to be one of the most popular cars on the road. It's not, it's just what your brain is looking for. Your brain tells you a story. And what you seek is what you find. What are you seeking?

Travis White (23:00)
Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (23:22)
This was my big mental health epiphany.

If you're looking for yellow cars, you will find yellow cars. That's how it works.

I have a friend who works from home. She loves true crime. She listens to true crime documentaries all day. She gets off work, she watches murder mysteries. To sum up her day, she listens to people get murdered all day. She watches people get murdered in the evening. She likely dreams of people being murdered at night. Travis, you'll never guess this about my friend. She has anxiety.

We often create the hell we exist within.

If I know, because a lot of us, we do is we, so rap music, I mentioned how much I love rap music. Now, a lot of rap music is about death and murder and drugs and violence. And I had to catch myself. I was like, why am I listening to death, murder, drugs and violence? That's not what I want to see in my life. And if that's what I listen to, and I, what do you think I'm going to start to see every day in my life?

Travis White (24:36)
That type of stuff for sure. ⁓

Cam F Awesome (24:38)
But Travis, what if I'm

addicted to rap music though? What if I really want to listen to it? And what if I think it makes a difference in my life?

Travis White (24:47)
That's a good question, because...

Cam F Awesome (24:50)
And then I tell you that it's not rap music, it's the news.

Travis White (24:56)
Good question, because it's like...

For me, it's like you overcome that addiction sometimes like to almost start a new one. It's like you're replacing it with something else that becomes the new addiction in your life.

Cam F Awesome (25:07)
You

Well, I mean, you might as well choose an addiction, but

the rap music example is just another example like the news. I often tell because I don't watch news. I don't know what's going on in the world. Also, I'm a big proponent of vote and shut up. You don't got to tell anybody about it. Get a personality like talk about something else. Okay, like here's my thought process. If you haven't taken any direct action based off of what you've watched on the news in the last seven days,

Travis White (25:30)
Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (25:44)
It's not information, it's entertainment. And what I had to realize is I want to help the world, I want to change a lot of things, but I realized I can't do that until I fill my cup. I used to be on Twitter and social media and watching the news and realized I can't handle that much. And once I started to shut off,

Travis White (25:47)
Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (26:08)
shut social media off my phone, not check all that, not watch the news and fill my life with things that actually bring me joy. That's when I was allowed, I was able to become less anxious. It's like, of course I'm anxious. I'm drinking Red Bull. I'm drinking coffee. I'm on Adderall. I'm like, I'm overstimulated with what I'm watching on television and on social media.

Yeah, of course I'm gonna be anxious.

Travis White (26:39)
I honestly think that in a way we're almost programmed to feel anxious. Just like with everything that we have available to us. And because I did the same thing, I was on Facebook for years and I always found myself like comparing myself to people. So I got rid of Facebook. Haven't really touched it since. And guess what? It's like you, I feel less anxious.

Cam F Awesome (27:03)
Yeah, my friends make fun of me for it because I'm the guy I don't know anything. I'll watch Saturday Night Live with my girlfriend and they'll be like. Someone said attack a group text that was supposed to be private to everyone like OK, ⁓ something like that must have happened in the news and that's pretty much how I get my news and you know what? I'm OK. Nothing's going on.

Travis White (27:29)
Sometimes I think I don't watch much news either. I try to keep myself informed to a point, but in some cases I feel like you're better not knowing.

Cam F Awesome (27:38)
Yeah, what has knowing ever changed? Like even

Travis White (27:41)
Nothing because you can't can't change

it. You can't do anything about it

Cam F Awesome (27:44)
Yeah, even the people who like are very, who've made their whole personality politics and they chose on the side. There's no information they can get to change their mind. Why even consume anything? Instead, why don't you just consume happy stuff?

Travis White (28:00)
Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (28:02)
That's my model. I'm very conscious of the things I consume. Not just the food. I don't watch the news. I limit social media. I still check social media from my laptop. So I still check it daily, but it's just not on my phone. My phone's on Do Not Disturb most of the time.

Travis White (28:15)
Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (28:22)
And I realized the less I'm connected to the world, the better my life seems.

Travis White (28:30)
Yeah, and I could totally see that. And I do have a quick question for you though for listeners, like for people that may be listening that may feel stuck or defeated, what do you say to that person?

Cam F Awesome (28:45)
Well, if someone's feeling stuck or defeated...

Changes have to happen in your life. And people will always tell you what you could start doing. But try stop doing some things. Like consider removing some things from your life. Whether that be substances, information, people, your job. Like...

make some changes in your life. If you don't like the way life is dealing cards, shuffle the deck. But as it says, it sounds very easy. I'm like, yeah, just shuffle the deck. But that means a significant change in your life, whether that's a partner, a job, locations, a friend group. I mean, even changing gyms.

You can make major changes in your life or you could just not. I see some people who live the same way for like the last 10 years. They're not happy, but they know what to expect.

Travis White (29:57)
And that's kind of where I found myself at the end of 2024. I was having health problems and I was to the point where I was unable to, getting to the point where I was unable to provide for my family. I was in bed for a few weeks. I had to take some time off work and I was like, something needs to change. At that point I was willing to do whatever, so.

I ended up changing my diet in the way I ate. And it was a big, huge change for me, but in the end, it took care of the majority of my problems. But it's not without effort. You have to put in effort, whatever that change may be.

Cam F Awesome (30:41)
Convenience costs, effort's hard, but it's worth it. And I'm no doctor and don't ever take medical advice from me. But I do see people are willing to sell you things instead of you to, being sold something could be easier than taking the difficult solution of changing the habits in your everyday life. And if the shortcut isn't working,

Travis White (30:42)
Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (31:04)
And by no means am I saying the shortcut is easy. Both paths are difficult, but I found changing my habits, the things I consume and the way I live, my diet, and putting more discipline in my life. It's like, here's the thing Travis.

I am a, I'm a grown man. No one's going to tell me not to eat cereal at two o'clock in the morning. No one's going to tell me to go to bed. No one's going to tell me to stop scrolling. Tick tock. Like at some point you have to parent yourself and I love that you took that leap and you're starting to value your health and you're making these changes and, and you can probably attest to this Travis, the first two or three months you make these changes, you don't see the results right away.

Travis White (31:29)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ No, you don't. I think I saw it maybe quicker than others though because my body was such a bad shape. But for some of stuff I was doing, no I didn't. I just barely started to see six, seven months in and I'm just barely starting to see and feel the results.

Cam F Awesome (32:10)
but it didn't happen overnight and what I want for people to know is stick with it. It sucks, but you didn't get there overnight. You're not gonna leave overnight. So like whatever that thing is, whether it's a class, whether it's sticking with a diet, whether it's...

Travis White (32:11)
No.

Okay.

Cam F Awesome (32:26)
trying an instrument, whatever that thing is that you're going after, you're not going to see results right away and you're going to suck. Get over it. It's going to suck. There's going to be times where you're going to want to quit, disassociate from your body and get it done anyway.

Travis White (32:41)
Yeah, exactly. And keep pushing through it.

Cam F Awesome (32:44)
Yeah, because it's worth it. sucks right now. like if you could have just gotten it easily with the snap of your finger, you wouldn't even want it because there's a lot of things you can get very easily and you don't want. But it's usually the things that are difficult that's that makes it worth getting.

Travis White (33:02)
So you've pretty much done this pivot from boxing into public speaking. I'm curious to know how that transition happened.

Cam F Awesome (33:11)
Yeah, so after I became the number one boxer in the country, I would go back to schools and high schools and middle schools and talk about bullying and confidence because I wish someone would have spoken to me about that. So let's say I was fighting in Salt Lake City. I would reach out to schools in Salt Lake City and speak at a few schools before I fight and I would do that in different cities when I would travel the country and in after I got kicked off the Olympic team in 2012, I returned to boxing.

Reclaimed my spot as captain of the national team won nationals in 13, 14, 15, 2016 won the Olympic trials. There's a documentary on Netflix called counterpunch that covers all of that. But I lost an international competition and didn't get a spot in Rio. So I did all of that to rewrite chapter to write chapter 16 and it wasn't the ending that I wanted. But it was of my accord. It wasn't because I didn't get kicked off a team. I lost a fight.

I did my best. I decided, I was like, that was July 4th, 2016, I lost that fight. I'm like, okay, I did this whole boxing thing. What do I do now? And I was like, I wanna be a speaker. And yeah, I came back home. I joined the National Speakers Association and I...

decided to do a speaking tour at high schools and middle schools around the country. And I would sleep in my Prius for 51 days. I would get hotels sometimes in Chiara, but I would be in my Prius a lot. April 1st, I took off, in total of my car, three hours into the trip. Yeah, but here's the thing, what I learned is like, there's nothing bad that can happen to me anymore.

Travis White (34:56)
Ugh.

Cam F Awesome (35:04)
Because I'm a speaker things that can happen to me The worst that happens is like I just have a new story So like I told I totaled my car and I get out of my car I have a video and I use it in my speeches now and I say the best things that's ever happened to me has been after terrible things I totaled my car and I pan over to my car and I'm like, see what this turns out to be and I use that in my speeches now

Travis White (35:10)
Yeah.

Isn't it crazy though that like some of our most like challenging and trying moments in life are the ones that we've learned the most from?

Cam F Awesome (35:36)
yeah, that's some, that statement sums up my career. Like I retired with more wins than anybody else in US history. I ended up fighting in the 2020 Olympics. So I would go to these schools. So I ended up living in my van for three years and speaking at high schools, someone made the joke down by the river and.

Travis White (35:36)
you

Cam F Awesome (35:56)
I decided I was like, OK, let me ⁓ let me live. Let me live out of my van. So like I lived in my van and spoken about 200 schools a year. And. One of the biggest questions I would get from students is are you going to try out for the 2020 games? So I've. I try to sign up for Team USA, but they wouldn't let me fight. And live in my van, I would have to live in the live at the Olympic Training Center.

So my dad's from Trinidad and Tobago. I flew to my dad's home country, fought in his, fought in Trinidad and Tobago. I learned about his country, learned about his culture, filed for citizenship, became a dual citizen, won the Olympic trials, and was representing Trinidad in the 2020 Olympics. But then the pandemic happened and they didn't send a team. So never got to go to the Olympics.

Travis White (36:35)
you

it's just, yeah, the only thing I'll say about it is the pandemic just ruined tons of opportunities and stuff for everybody.

Cam F Awesome (36:56)
Yeah, it was a rough one for me. Yeah.

Travis White (36:58)
I'm sure you

were like right there on the cusp and it just kills it.

Cam F Awesome (37:05)
Yeah, but you said we learn the most from hard lessons. I've got like I've got close to 400 wins in boxing. And the reason why I got that many wins is I have 39 losses. That's like more losses than any boxer that you can name. But my logic in boxing was like if boxer A has 100 boxing matches and boxer B has three boxing matches and they were to fight. Which one would you bet on?

Travis White (37:35)
I would always, me personally, I just bet on the winner. Like, while I'm doing boxing matches,

Cam F Awesome (37:39)
The one with the 100 boxing matches, right?

Because that's how important experience is. I didn't even need to tell you his record. He could be five wins and 95 losses, but you'd still probably been him.

Travis White (37:46)
Yeah, but my head just, yeah,

yeah, my head just goes there automatically.

Cam F Awesome (37:52)
That's the power of experience. So my thought process in boxing was, okay, I don't care how many losses I have. I have the knowledge from the loss in my next fight. So if I were to quit boxing after 10 losses, because boxers don't have 10 losses, like good ones, then I would never become who I am. It's my 39 losses that got me to 400 wins.

Travis White (38:19)
Yeah, that's... It just made you want to keep going.

Cam F Awesome (38:22)
Yeah, but I do want to acknowledge losing sucks like

Travis White (38:25)
⁓ and in that aspect,

I can only imagine like.

Cam F Awesome (38:30)
Yeah, falling short sucks. mean, that's the idea is like, you get so much knowledge out of losing, but it's terrible. And you have to, like when I lose, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. What could I have done differently? What should I have done? Could I have trained better? Could I have prepared better? Could I have learned something? And I spin out about it, and then I go to the gym and I work out even harder.

And that's how I handle my losses. I was in the airport and a dude recognized me. He's like, Hey Cam, here's the thing, Travis. I'm bad with names, places, dates and faces, but if you recognize me, I'm going to pretend I remember you. It's just how I work. So he was like, Cam, I was like, you, my guy, we're chatting it up. And he's like, you don't remember me, do you?

Travis White (39:20)
Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (39:31)
I'm sorry, because you remind me. He's like, Cam, we fought twice. And to me means I won. That's how little we think about our wins. go win is just a reason for me to celebrate. But my losses, my losses are why I became so good. It's every loss I get, I can tell you who I lost to what city I lost in, why I lost and what I could do next time to make sure I don't lose again.

but without those losses. If I were to allow those losses to allow me to quit or stop my pursuit, then I lost in vain.

Travis White (40:10)
Yeah, it's so cool. I love like hearing just the that resilience that you were able to build up and just keep pushing through that hard and those losses.

Cam F Awesome (40:23)
Yeah, but I do want to acknowledge it sucks. It's hard. And there's quiet times in those failures. And what sucks about failing is not just how, just failing, it's how long it takes to prove yourself again. And for the Olympics, that's four years. Some situations it's different, but it's those moments of silence and doubt where things suck.

My thought process is like when life sucks or like when I was suspended and depressed, I was like, okay, life sucks. It is going to suck for a little bit longer because that's just how life is. I get it. But because things suck now, I might as well force myself to do the things I don't feel like doing, like working out and eating right because it already sucks. Now, if things were going great and I had to do all of these things that sucked, that would suck. But if things already suck and my life's not that great,

Travis White (41:00)
Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (41:21)
I might as well double down in my misery. So when I come out of this, things are so much better. But in those moments, and you asked what fueled me earlier, and I didn't want to give the energy, the answer, but it's basically F you energy. You told me I wasn't going to do something. You said I wasn't able to do it. I'm going to prove everyone wrong. And when I prove everyone wrong, Travis, ooh, they're going to hear me. Ooh, they're going to hear me. And that's.

Travis White (41:44)
and it's the end.

Cam F Awesome (41:48)
I know he didn't age well, but the thing that would go in my head was la la la la, wait till I get my money right. Kanye West, he didn't age well, but that song would play in my head because during the times that sucked, I'm like, it sucks now, but when I'm up, ooh, it's gonna feel so good. And what I do is I put so much stock into how good it's gonna feel when I finally accomplish whatever it is I'm gonna accomplish.

Travis White (41:58)
Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (42:15)
That just helps give me fuel so I don't quit. That's all everything is. All you have to do is find whatever it is, whether it's God, whether it's whatever it is, find whatever it is that gives you hope so you don't quit. Because if you can fail without being discouraged, success becomes inevitable. Just don't quit.

Travis White (42:28)
Yeah.

So, well, we're on the topic of success right now. What does that look like to you now compared to when you were competing?

Cam F Awesome (42:44)
success looked like domination. I didn't wanna just be better than you. I needed you to know I was better than you and then I wanted to prove it in front of everyone. Like to me, a good time is beating you up in front of your wife and kids. That to me, ooh, that's the greatest feeling in the world.

Travis White (43:02)
And now that you've shifted to public speaking, what does success look to you now? Like to you now.

Cam F Awesome (43:07)
It's less dominating, which I miss being objectively better than someone at something. Because I have that competitive spirit in me. Because even when I'm speaking, if there's other speakers on the lineup, like I'm a part of the event, I want the event to do good. I want everyone to do amazing. So it's like there's no, I'm lacking that competitive, oh, crushing someone. I miss that. But what success looks like for me now,

Travis White (43:22)
Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (43:35)
is being authentically myself and not doing math when I pump gas.

Travis White (43:41)
Yeah, I like that. And I think there's nothing better than being able to be your authentic self. And plus on the Brides, like you're helping people, you're giving speeches to help people. So I'd imagine that feels good.

Cam F Awesome (43:42)
I'm a simple man.

Yeah, it feels good. if I'm being completely honest about like being my authentic self, because I my name is Cam F. Awesome, I legally changed my middle name to just the letter F. As a speaker, I know I would get a lot more opportunities if that F wasn't in my name. But 12 year old me would have wanted the F there. And I feel like that's me being authentically myself. Now.

Could I be on more stages? Could I find more success if I were just to conform? Probably. Also, here's some things I didn't consider when I was building Cam. When I was building Cam out, was 23. I don't remember how, if you remember how smart you were at 23, Travis, you didn't have the greatest foresight that you have today. But I'm very proud of myself that I came up with this whole concept of Cam, but I didn't add in characteristics of Cam of what he would do after.

his boxing career.

I, does Cam wear a suit to a speaking engagement?

I don't, because I didn't think of that. I'm like, if I wore a suit now, is that disingenuous? Is that inauthentic? And I'm still trying to figure that out right now because it could be partly me being trying to be authentic or self-sabotage, which I've been accused of in the past.

Travis White (45:07)
Yeah.

Let's see, my thought just went away. So I'd like to, you kind of touch base on this and I'm kind of going back a little bit here just because my mind's kind of bouncing around. But, and you may have answered this to a piece, but I'd like to go to a little bit more.

Let no, actually, I think you actually answered the full thing. Let me find the text that I had written down here.

What would you say, what would Cam say to his 10 year old self knowing what you know now?

Cam F Awesome (46:08)
Ooh, what would Cam say to his 10 year old self? Bitcoin.

Bitcoin, would definitely tell 10 year old Cam, Bitcoin. Yeah, I would also tell him, you're right about all the things you think.

Travis White (46:18)
Bitcoin, yeah.

Cam F Awesome (46:30)
Yeah, I, you know, as a kid you, you wanna, you, you, you wanna be successful and you, there's certain things you want in life, but then your parents want safety for you. And sometimes they will, they will restrict you from doing things, not because they don't think that you're capable of it, but they wanna keep you safe. And I would say, I would tell myself,

Have no dependents, don't have kids yet, and live as risk heavy as possible. Swing for the fences every single time and walk to the dugout with your head held high if you strike out. Because you just gotta connect once, baby.

Travis White (47:06)
Love that.

I love that. I've never been the person like by nature. I'm not like real competitive and I don't take a lot of risks. Like me even starting this podcast was like a huge, there's a weird glare on here. Yeah. It's th there's a window right behind me. So it's, but to me, it's huge for me because it's like the biggest risk that I've ever taken.

Cam F Awesome (47:24)
It's a halo,

Yeah. Well, I'm proud of you for joining the first for starting the podcast. It's a big deal, man.

Travis White (47:38)
you know, to do something that I wanted to do because there's so many times where I'm just like the kind of person like, no, I'll just, you know, work corporate. I'll do what I should do, you know, be the family man. But now I'm like, no, like there's so much more to me than working corporate. there's, there's now I'm actually making goals because of the podcast. Like I want to do this, this, and this, this.

Cam F Awesome (48:05)
Yeah, and you can. what strikes me is crazy is like some people think like, I want to play basketball, but if I'm not going to be in the NBA, I'm not even going to shoot a basket. That's kind of the approach a lot of people take with things where they're like, I want to start a day out. Like there's some people who they want to dance and I'm like, well, just sign up for a dance class. They think they need to dance at like a

famous ballet school or at Madison Square Garden. You could just do whatever version of it that you want to do because your ideas you love basketball, not the NBA. So all those goals that you set for yourself, you can do them even if you don't have a million views. Who cares? Like you're expressing yourself and you're doing the thing. So I'm proud of you for in that podcast, man.

Travis White (48:54)
Thank you. Thank you. And with your busy schedule though, I guess a question too that comes to mind is how do you avoid burnout? What things do you do to avoid burnout?

Cam F Awesome (49:07)
⁓ I don't do anything I don't feel like doing. That's, I built my, the reason why I did the boxing thing is not because I like boxing. After a certain point, I understood the idea of athlete privilege. Back in high school, the star athlete got in trouble, but he didn't get suspended because they have a game that day.

Travis White (49:19)
Mm-hmm.

I've seen that before. Saw that.

Cam F Awesome (49:29)
that happens

in adult life too. Athletes, we get treated special. So if I have a national championship and you have an associate's degree and we apply for the same marketing job, who do you think is gonna get it?

Travis White (49:44)
I'd probably say the athlete.

Cam F Awesome (49:47)
I have four national championships and you have a bachelor's degree and we go over the same marketing job. Who do you think is gonna get it?

Travis White (49:58)
I would still probably save the athlete because you have the name to you.

Cam F Awesome (50:02)
Yeah, so after I've won my eighth national championship and I ended up with 12, but after in my head I was like, there's anything I want to do now in life. I can leverage what I've done in sports.

to build a future for myself. The Netflix documentary I did, I did it for free. Like no one wanted to do it, but in my head I said, if as long as it's gonna always be on Netflix, to me that's instant credibility. I have a documentary on Netflix and I leverage that for speaking engagements and opportunities. So everything I now do in life, it's because I genuinely want to do it. This podcast, I want to talk to you bro. Like.

Travis White (50:24)
Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (50:39)
To me, this is the coolest thing I could do. I go to the gym, I talk to people in parks, I drive slow sometimes. I do, there's no burnout. There's nothing, everything I do that I don't wanna do leads to something I do wanna do.

Travis White (50:50)
You

That makes sense. You basically live with a purpose of mind. You're living how you want to live. Basically pushing those things aside that you don't want to do. Yeah, I get it.

Cam F Awesome (51:06)
But and I would say some of those things are difficult because living the life I want to live, especially when I was boxing, I was poor the entire time. And I'm traveling 300 days a year with boxing. There's no job I can get that's going to give me six weeks off to train in Colorado and another three weeks off to fight in Russia.

So to be able to live the lifestyle, to be able to box and travel the world, I just had to be poor. I got to see my friends take vacations and people start family. And I couldn't go on dates. I couldn't feed myself a lot of times. But that's what I had to sacrifice to get to where I am now. So when I say I don't do anything I don't want to do, it's because I did all of that already. I front loaded that on my life.

Travis White (51:55)
And that completely makes sense.

Looking back, moment are you most proud of? necessarily as a boxer, but just as yourself, just as a human being.

Cam F Awesome (52:13)
great question. I would say the thing that I'm most proud of is that I remained independent. I value independence very highly. And I think when we think about success, we should also take into account what our values are. For me,

If I made $10,000 independently on my own, that's worth more than me working for someone else and making a million dollars. It's just how I'm wired. And for me, the fact that I have always worked for myself, I left Waffle House at 18, and my goal was I will work with people, but I won't work for anyone.

and I wanna be a partner in everything I do. I wanna be independently run and owned and operated. And I left sports, became an entrepreneur, and I mess up so much, Travis. And I've made some costly mistakes. Like in boxing, you get punched in the face, like business, there's taxes. Both are equally scary. So...

I'm proud of myself for navigating independently.

Travis White (53:25)
Yeah, that's cool. And it's, I feel like you have to have a certain mindset to step into the entrepreneurship. Like, yeah.

Cam F Awesome (53:33)
You have to be crazy, bro.

Most businesses fail within the first three years. And then you can dedicate all your time to it. And then like a pandemic happens or just tariffs or whatever, then your business goes under. I would say entrepreneurial life is amazing. I love it. It is great. But your paycheck isn't always promised.

Travis White (53:38)
Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (53:56)
and there's a value that comes with a consistent paycheck. This life ain't for everybody. Some months, some months be wild. And to me, it's a game. I never know, if you don't hunt, you don't eat. And I'm vegan, so it's weird.

Travis White (54:11)
Yeah.

You mentioned your, I was going to ask, like you mentioned your kind of diet and that's so you're vegan. This.

How does like, I'm trying to think of how to phrase it. It came to my mind and like.

How did the like, were you always vegan or how did that lifestyle change come about?

Cam F Awesome (54:38)
Oh, I lost a bet in 2012 when I got suspended. I was doing a lot of drinking and I lost a bet and I had to be vegan for 28 days. And the diet also entails sobriety, which was mind blowing for me because during that time I was drinking a lot. And the sobriety allowed me the ability to have clarity on my situation.

that I wasn't able to have in the cloud of alcohol fog. If that makes any sense.

Travis White (55:12)
No, it

totally makes sense.

Cam F Awesome (55:15)
I became vegan because I lost the bet. It wasn't for the animals. It wasn't for health reasons. It was because I started to see abs. And I was like, ⁓ I like that.

And then there were opportunities to MC vegan festivals. And I would introduce these doctors on stage and they would talk about health and they would talk about the FDA and I would learn a lot about food and what goes in it. And that my job was just to sit on stage, listen to doctors and introduce them. And I did that for like three day weekends at festivals. And I learned a lot about health and science was like, okay, those are some reasons for me to still be vegan. And I just said, I'll just be

until I found a reason not to be. Like it's not like my whole identity or anything like that. It just, it works for me and it may not be for everyone. I think it's for me. But yeah, I don't have a healthy relationship with food. So for me, having any type of restrictions is usually a good thing.

Travis White (56:15)
Yeah, I'm that same way. I've always been an anxious eater. This past year I mentioned that... Let me rephrase that. I mentioned that during this past year I went on like kind of a...

I wouldn't say a diet, diet is the wrong term, I just change the way I eat. it's yeah, so it's basically, I wouldn't say it's a diet, it's more of lifestyle change. And so it's basically no sugar. It's more, I still eat sugar, I shouldn't say I don't, because like if I go out to eat, like I'm still gonna grab a donut sometimes. But in our house, it's like we have a sugar substitute. We eat.

Cam F Awesome (56:38)
Lifestyle change, baby.

Travis White (57:01)
pretty much gluten free and i don't drink soda anymore and man i i ended up losing 35 pounds in the matter of like two months because i i

Cam F Awesome (57:14)
Really?

Travis White (57:17)
I was having all these seizures and my body was so inflamed and I think it was telling me, know what dude, you gotta stop doing this. And I stopped and I saw a huge change. I think it goes back what you said, it's what works for you.

Cam F Awesome (57:29)
Love that.

Yeah, and find that thing that I'm glad that you found this thing that's working for you and leave notes for yourself, leave videos, take a video, put it in your calendar so you can find it in three months and tell yourself how proud of you you are. And then don't disappoint that video in three months.

Travis White (58:00)
yeah, it's, I was using, like I said, I was an anxious eater. I'd get up at two in the morning and I just, whatever leftovers we had, I'd make a hamburger, I'd eat ice cream. So like, I can't do this. Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (58:12)
garbage plates my favorite.

That's where you just get everything mixed in and just, yeah, you microwave it all together. The air fryer. it is.

Travis White (58:20)
Yeah, mine was always like, I called it, I was a junk food junkie. It was like ice cream, big huge bags of chips with dip, like.

Cam F Awesome (58:30)
What's your pleasure? What's the dirty pleasure?

Travis White (58:36)
The Dirty Pleasure was, you know, going through like a, to me, like, it was going through like a 12 pack of Coke in like a matter of a day. I just downed them. Like, I didn't know then, but I know now. I like, was just using drinking soda as a vice because it was that hit of dopamine. So it would just make me happy in that moment.

Like even looking at a can, was like, yeah, this is awesome.

Cam F Awesome (59:08)
And

we have so many of those things that like, it's the Coke, it's the social media. Have you ever closed out of social media, put your phone down and somehow you looked and it's back in your hand and social media is back on? like, how? I just closed out. I was like, let's get done with this. Let's close out. And then before we know it's right there, it's that compulsion. And it's how do we fight? The greatest currency is your attention.

Travis White (59:19)
Yep, I do it all the time.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Cam F Awesome (59:33)
and

companies are fighting for it. They're building apps with with doctors and psychologists to figure out what's the most addictive thing. And I mean, there's it's it's hard to fight.

I mean, I still have to do social media because you know my job, I'm a speaker. So I post a lot of podcast clips because bro, I get sad very easily. If I see too much sad stuff, I get sad and I don't want to slip down a sad hole. So I try to surround myself with happy things. I try to consume things that are good for me. I try to eat healthy. I try to walk an hour a day. It's only 30 minutes a day, but if I can get an hour and I get an hour.

Travis White (59:50)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Cam F Awesome (1:00:16)
but my minimum is 30 minutes. And it's just those small things that I do to try to live a more sane life. If you don't cut yourself off from things, then...

then that's just gluttony and you can't live a joyful life.

Travis White (1:00:36)
I totally agree with you. And I can't say enough, like, changes I've made throughout this last year, like, how much better, like, overall I'm feeling. And, like, I was just so excited because it's like, you know, I've gone through 15, 16 years of seizures, never having an answer. Sometimes they disappear for a while. I'd get migraines. And then they came back in this cluster and I was like, okay, I've had enough. But it's...

kind of really shaped why I wanted to do this podcast because I finally got in the mindset where I'm like, you know what? I can tell my story now. I have the ability to do so.

Cam F Awesome (1:01:16)
You do when people need to hear it. if anything, the lifestyle changes you're making is for your three beautiful children and your wife. You live a better quality life.

Travis White (1:01:23)
Mm-hmm. That played a huge

role. A huge role.

So just have a few kind of like, well one main question and just two like kind of follow up questions left. So I asked this question is fairly generic, but I like to hear the responses that I get. So what would you say is the biggest stigma in regards to mental health?

Cam F Awesome (1:01:50)
⁓

I say this is not a doctor, but I think there's a big stigma in justifying.

substance abuse, which even social media as I see as a substance abuse. If you don't make these changes in your life to instill discipline to go to bed at a normal time so you can get your full eight hours of sleep. If you can't regulate your substance use, your social media use,

exercise and do the things that's expected of you. And actually, it is very difficult for lot of people with work and kids and lifestyle. I have a very relaxed lifestyle, so it's easy for me. I think we have to hold ourselves accountable to parent ourselves in a way to live our best mental health lives. Sometimes we have to tell ourselves no. And it doesn't mean we don't love us. It just means it's the best for us.

Travis White (1:02:54)
Yeah, very well said. I love hearing those different answers because there's honestly very rarely do I hear the same thing. Yeah, it's like it's just everybody's different perception. I mean, there's some that are pretty similar, but everybody has a different perspective on mental health and like different things. So it's really cool. So thank you. And where can people find you?

Cam F Awesome (1:03:03)
Really?

Craigslist Miss Connections. No, ⁓ I weird story has nothing to do with anything. I would check Craigslist Miss Connections in Kansas City. I did it every day for about six years. Even when I didn't live there, I was just it was like my cause I wasn't doing social media at the time and it was just I never posted but I always just see who were posting. Well anyway, you can find me at camfawesome or camfawesome.com.

Travis White (1:03:21)
Hehehehehe

He.

Cam F Awesome (1:03:46)
because I'm not famous enough for anyone to steal my name yet.

Travis White (1:03:51)
I do appreciate the humor. ⁓ Last thing, is there anything that you'd like to bring up that we did not discuss?

Cam F Awesome (1:03:54)
Thanks.

Ooh,

Well, I would, guess, just share that. I told myself a story walking to school in elementary school, walking home that I was a loser, I was scared, I couldn't defend myself. Then I told myself a different story walking to the gym in high school. And then I changed my character. You can just become whoever you want as long as you believe it. Anything you believe exists.

whether it be religion, whether it be Pokemon, believe in something. And if you can believe in anything, believe in yourself.

That's what I'll leave him with.

Travis White (1:04:53)
very well said. Well, Cam, I appreciate your time and I love your story and how you were able to build resilience and you got this, you got this moment for like a basically a second chance and to reinvent yourself and give a better definition of who you are. And I think that's fantastic. And you're out there helping people by sharing your story and making people want to share those. So I

Cam F Awesome (1:05:18)
Yeah, don't, but don't

ever, I hope no one looks up, don't look up to me, don't look up to anybody. I'm not special. There's nothing that I did that was miraculous. I just walked and I dealt with things that sucked. You can do it too, you can be as special as I am, because I'm not special. It's like, I'm just a dude who did some stuff. And if you did the things that you need to do to get where you are,

Travis White (1:05:22)
Go ahead.

Yeah.

No.

Cam F Awesome (1:05:45)
You can do it too if you take those steps and believe in yourself. Ain't nobody special.

Travis White (1:05:50)
I just value your story, man. Like I think it's important that we share our stories and open up about, I guess another better word is be, be vulnerable because I think stories are important. And, so thank you so much for coming on. It's been a pleasure speaking with you.

And thank you to all the listeners. Thanks for giving me the time of day and listening to the podcast. The best thing you can do right now is to follow us, share our stuff, and just pass it on. Thanks again. Until next time.