Q&A With Koloff- #165

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When only the best is needed, see Dr. Johnny Gayton at eyesightassociates.com. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolov, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of Q&A with Kolov, Questions and Answers. And, you know, I say week in and week out, if you ever want to be on Q&A with Kolov, go to kolov.net and message me and you'll get a personal phone call from The Russian Nightmare. Or maybe if you're local to the Winston-Salem, North Carolina area, we'll have you in studio even better than you get to meet The Russian Nightmare. But today we got in studio David Graham III with me. David, welcome to Q&A with Kolov.

Hey, what's going on, Nikita? Well, it's great to have you here. And, of course, we have some long history with each other. Now, you're a, let me just say a 20-year-old successful entrepreneur, which is amazing. That's going to inspire somebody out there right away.

Right? So, but we go back, back, back. I first met your parents, David Jr. and Wendy, I guess maybe 15 or so years ago. We were introduced through a nutrition company that is still to this day drink the product, actually, grateful to have been introduced to that company. To date, Lex Luger and I say it's still the best product on the planet. We still, we keep looking for other things.

We still haven't found anything better for the money, for, you know, biggest bang for your buck. But all that to say, so you are just, I'll say a little tyke back then, like maybe four or five years old when we first met. Yeah. And here we are all these years later. Of course, your parents are staunch supporters of KOLA for Christ ministry. I've ministered and spoke at your church there many times. In fact, just recently did a man up conference that you and your dad came to, which wasn't even your first. You had been to some of the other man up conferences. What was that? Let me just ask you, what was that experience like for you to sit in on the latest man up conference?

It was really good. Yeah. Just being in a room full of guys with the same mindset seems like the only people in the whole world right now with that kind of man up thing you're talking about. Kind of the man up focus or, you know, for men to be real man, right? And godly man, of course, godly man, because it centers around, you know, the whole conference is around being healthy mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, which I know you enjoy the physical aspect is four or five, six years ago, you embraced weightlifting, exercising, getting healthy, right?

That's right. And your motivation for that was what? At first, just not wanting to be skinny anymore. Okay.

Just wanting to put on some size. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. Fell in love with it pretty fast. Yeah, I believe I've heard the word addicted. You've become addicted to exercise, working out and exercising.

Yeah. And I get that too, you know, it started about the age of 12. You know, there's just a certain sense of, to me, correct me, you tell me if this resonates with you, a certain sense of accomplishment. When you can go into the gym, of course, it doesn't happen overnight, takes time, but over time that, you know, you can build your, it's pretty amazing the way God made our bodies that we can go in and lift weights or exercise and work out, build our biceps or our chest muscles or whatever, through resistance training and all of that, right? Just to, there's a sense of accomplishment there, would you say? Yeah, and that's what makes it so fun. If it happened overnight, it really would take the fun out of it. Yeah.

You know, if everybody was in great shape in two months, then it wouldn't be as cool as it is. So it's a, it's a lifetime journey. So I'm still learning. So I've been doing it every day for like five years.

Okay. And I'm still learning stuff every day, trying new stuff, which you probably are too after 50 years. Yeah. Well, I, and I tell people it's, it's been a 52 year experiment for me because there's no cookie cutter approach, right? In other words, it's not like I can write up the same workout for every single person and they're going to get the exact same results, right? Whether it's a workout or an eating plan or any of that, it's, it's all kind of experimental, right? Yeah. Everybody's completely different. Yeah.

Metabolisms and everything else. And so let me go back to the, to the man up for a moment because you said something to me, I want to see if you remember. I'm trying to jog my brain right now, but there's something I said at that conference that, that's, that stuck with you.

Do you remember what it was by chance? Um, probably the, um, what, what, something that's really important to me and you, you covered it for a while that day is just being a man of your word. So, uh, I just feel like that's so rare now in any age guy. Yeah. And whether you're 20, 40, 60, 80, right? Yeah. To be, yeah, to, to, and I like to say, you know, let, you know, my, my word is my bond. In other words, my yes is yes. And my no is no. But if I tell you yes, then I'm going to actually follow through with that, right? Yeah, absolutely. Well, and for you to embrace that at age 20 and, and, and you've not only did that impact you and, and check, you know, go to coloft.net as well. And just, or, or follow me on social media on Instagram, uh, on, on, on Twitter, on, on Facebook, because I will post usually like where I'm going to be doing these conferences, what towns, what cities, uh, what states I'm traveling into. I'll end up doing, I don't know, 15 or 20 of those this year alone.

And on average, that's what I do. But, and it's just the opportunity to, to, to empower and equip men to, to be, as I said, godly men, godly husbands, godly fathers. Um, and so certainly, uh, glad that it impacted you. Any other thoughts on, on what would you say to a man out there or even a woman listening to this show, if a conference came to, to their area, would you recommend that would it be worth their time to go?

Yeah, definitely go spend the day learning from Nikita. And, uh, it puts in, if you look at the whole Bible, it's not just the reading and praying for us is just mentally, you know, or spiritually. It's the Bible also taught us about your physical being, you know, just, it's not just the going to church and you got to take care of yourself mentally, spiritually, and physically to be the whole, the whole, the whole package, the whole, the total package.

No, wait, that's Lex Luger. Okay. Yeah.

And if you're lacking on one, it's going to drag you down on another. Yeah. Good point. Yeah.

You can't be, yeah, you can't, one area, you can't be lacking in one area and it not affect the other areas. Right. Yeah. And also each one helps the other one.

They all benefit from each other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So no, that's, that's, that's good. That's a good observation.

Whether you come to a conference or not, just take, take his word, take his advice there. And I'd mentioned, you know, you'd been to others prior to that. I like to say this, a repetition is the first law of learning. Right. So, you know, you might think, oh, I went to that conference once before. Oh, I, I read, I read the Bible before.

Was that mean, was, I mean, you shouldn't read it again. I mean, you know, could you learn something else or come to the conference and pick up something new like you did? Right. Yeah.

It's like you ate breakfast last week. You're going to probably do it again today and tomorrow. That's a good, that's a good point, man.

I love that. So let me touch on this too. You're an entrepreneur and I learned from you. I did not realize that you became an entrepreneur about, about the, and about the second grade. Yeah. Yeah. But, but you got in trouble for being an entrepreneur. That's right.

Yeah. What, tell us, give us the short story on what happened. Yeah, well I mean, since I was really young, I was just buying and selling anything I could just to make a couple bucks. And at the time I was making the paracord bracelets was big at the time and I was selling them to my friends at school and I got in trouble for it. I had, I had to give them their money back.

I think we might've exchanged back after school. There you go. The school shut you down from being an entrepreneur. Yeah. And that's, that's kind of what's rubbed me wrong about the school system. Okay. They want to make everybody the exact same. Conform everybody. Yeah.

They want to just push the same thing on everybody and they don't realize everybody's different. Yeah. You got to have business owners, you got to have.

Employees. That's right. Yeah. I mean the, if everybody did the same thing and everybody wanted the same thing, the world would, would not line up right.

It wouldn't run smoothly. So, so yeah, it's, it reminds me of the Bible said many, many parts, one body, right? I mean, you know, we think of our own physical body. I mean, the eyes function differently from the ears, right?

The ears function, the hands function differently from the feet. Right. And so in, in the same sense, no, that's a good, good word of advice as well. And, and in that it doesn't necessarily emphasize the individual, right? And I use the word conform, try to conform everybody into one mindset. Whereas the way God created us, he created us with imaginations.

He created us to, to have a vision, to be able to dream and, and aspire to do whatever you want, right? Yeah. And if anybody, any young guys or girls are listening and really at any age, you know, just think for yourself. Don't just listen to everything that your teacher or your professor is telling you, because if you only listen to the mainstream nowadays, you're going to go down a bad path. Right. So, so be, be mindful enough or willing enough to, to research things for yourself and find out, you know, don't just take it at face value that what this person's saying is true.

Maybe I should do my own homework or my own research, right? And we're not just picking on the school system that can just be in a, in a conversation with an individual, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even your friends, your family, I mean, you got, you can't just take everything and go to the bank with it.

I mean, you got to think for yourself a little bit because they could be wrong and not even know it. Speaking of going to the bank, you're 20 years old, you in second grade, you're, you're making bracelets, you're selling them. Even though they, they tried to shut you down that, that didn't discourage you because I know you went on even to the seventh, eighth, ninth grade to sell candy and soft drinks.

And what'd you tell me? Make it like a hundred, couple hundred bucks a week. Yeah. Yeah. I was spending more time, uh, selling candy and drinks and going to class.

You're definitely an entrepreneur and then bought your first card about the ninth grade and sold it like $300, sold it and then turn around, bought a couple other cars. And then that just snowballed, right? Yeah.

Just kept rolling over to more and more. Do you think your parents, cause I, you know, your parents are very entrepreneurial, they got their own car business in Kannapolis there, grand four by four. They got their own self storage business, uh, now as well. And, and of course I mentioned when I met them, you know, it was through a nutritional company that we had gotten involved in and became best friends, um, have been an inspiration in, in you watching them and, and their success. Yeah, absolutely.

You know, I'm real grateful for the parents that I have and they, um, showed me there's, you know, you can work for yourself and, you know, and that's what they taught me and that's what I've always wanted to do. So I'm kind of just taking a different path than most people. Or most people your age, let's just say. Well, most people in general. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, so yeah, they, they've had a huge impact. Yeah. I mean, I've learned some stuff from other people, you know, you people online that I've watched things I've read. But yeah, I mean, 90% my parents, I mean, your parents has got a lot to do with how you think how they program. Yeah.

How they influence you and what they model. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Nikita Koloff here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff fans and like it and follow today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Would your company, business or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Koloff for Christ Ministries?

The Man Up Show and Man Up Minutes. Go to koloff.net and click the donate button. You can give monthly, annually or one time.

God bless you for making a difference around the world. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ Ministries for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. And for a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

Go to www.koloff.net and donate today. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. And I know not just in business, I mean, both your mom and dad love the Lord and certainly have modeled that for you as well, which has led to your own foundation and relationship with the Lord as well, right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And so it's not just any one aspect, it's every aspect. Well, and so we're going to get to your questions here in a moment. It's Q&A with Koloff and I want to give you the opportunity to ask me some questions.

But I do want to make a point for our listeners to hear this as well. You're 20 years old. Of course, you've gone on from not just selling cars, you're in the process of launching a brand new business.

I know you've gone into business with your parents as well. And you have a goal of vision by age 25 of being a seven figure, at least if not a seven figure income earner reaching the pinnacle of seven figures. Is that accurate? Yeah, that's what I'm shooting for. Okay.

25 or as fast as I can. Or even sooner. Yeah. Well, and that's an incredible vision at your age. And again, for a four year age group and regardless of what your age is out there. Can I just emphasize again, you're listening to David Graham, the third, some of his story here today. Be inspired. No matter what your age, it's never too late to start, right, David? That's right. You can start at any age.

And Colonel Sanders was 65 when he launched Kentucky Fried Chicken. And so it's never too late to start. So, all right, well, let's let's well, we'll just have to have you back at another time and find out how that new business that you guys are launching is going. So fair enough. Yeah, that'll be good. All right.

So Q&A with Koloff. Go ahead. Why don't you go ahead and fire away your first question for me? Okay, we'll start off with I was thinking about this one on the way up here.

Okay. And so, you know, you had a pretty amazing wrestling career a long time ago, and that has gave you the platform to do what you're doing now on such a big scale. But if you could, if it wouldn't devalue the platform you have now, would you change anything about the past? Would you still go through the wrestling career? Would you still probably made a lot of mistakes through that career and being young? Would you change anything or would you do it just the same?

That's a great question. Certainly if I let me just kind of process how I want to answer that question. Certainly, you know, wrestling wasn't something as many know the story, some of many have bought the book, you know, of course, newly updated wrestling or Nikita, A Tale of the Ring of Redemption, where I really chronicle with the help of William Murdock, chronicle my whole life story and thinking back on how wrestling played a role in, as you said, in what I'm doing now. He's essentially full time ministry, although I'm still involved and engaged in the wrestling world, just in a different format, not in the squared circle, actively, you know, trying to pin my opponent per se. So I go out and do autograph signings, legend signings, comic cons, those sorts of things and come to realize that even though I wasn't looking for a professional wrestling career, that that door of opportunity opened up. So again, going back to business for a moment, you know, you may be out there and something, an opportunity may pop up on the radar that wasn't on the radar. You weren't expecting that to happen. You know, you got to keep your eyes open, your, you know, your ear to the ground, so to speak, and your eyes open. I think a lot of people miss opportunities because they're just not looking for them. Opportunity comes knocking sometimes at the door, but then you have to answer the door. Right.

Yeah. And so when wrestling, when that opportunity came, I did take advantage of it and fortunately had a meteoric career, albeit shorter than many of my peers in the wrestling world. But by choice, not realizing that 11 months later, I'd find myself at an altar surrendering my life to Christ and then looking back and how the wrestling in a sense for me was a training ground for the ultimate call of my life, which is what I'm doing now. And, and so I don't know that I would have changed anything looking back. People challenged me or not challenged me, but asked me, do I regret leaving when I left? You know, I left wrestling at the age of 33. You know, my own buddy, my own buddy, Lex Luger says, I don't know if I called you a moron or an idiot or both. I'm not sure when I heard you left wrestling because it was right before the explosion of pay-per-view and, and you guys went from making thousands of dollars to making multiple millions of dollars.

In fact, at one point he and I talked and discussed at what I potentially walked away from and on a very conservative basis, probably 30 to $50 million that I walked away from. And sometimes the enemy, David, will beat me up with that. And what I mean by that is the enemy, because there is a real enemy to our soul.

Just as there is a God of the universe, there is, there is a devil, Satan, who opposes him and comes to steal, kill and destroy. Sometimes he'll whisper in my ear, think about all that money you walked away from. Oh, you could be so much better off financially.

Oh, you wouldn't have to work another day in your life. Right. And so I have to always keep the enemy in check, not to let him try to put me in some depressed mood because I walked away from multiple millions of dollars. But when I think about the conferences, the man up conferences, the certainly the man camp that Lex Luger and I facilitate now and the ministry and this radio show and everything else I'm doing. There's no price tag that I can put on the impact that I've been fortunate to see or have on other people, whether it's given an invitation or some, some might say an altar call in a church service or at a youth event. Sting, Ted DiBiase and I did a big youth event back in 2002 in Indianapolis, Indiana. There were over 43,000 teenagers there. Wow.

We saw over 10,000 respond to the altar to give their life to Jesus or make a decision for Christ. How do you put a price tag on that? Right. You can't.

You can't. And so no, no regrets on the decisions I've made in the past. And I'll summarize by saying this, everything I've experienced in the past, good, bad, or ugly has made me into who I am today. It's helped mold me and shape me into who I am today. And so made a lot of mistakes.

But I'd like to think I've learned from a good many of those mistakes. So it's a long answer, but I hope that makes sense. Yeah. Good answer.

Okay. And if you would have stayed five more years, you might not be here today. If, well, and there's, there's certain variables. I call them defining moments in life. And I think any one of us, you, you know, even though you're only 20, you can look back and see certain mistakes you've made. Or again, that's helped define who you are at this point. And going forward, I assure you that you're probably going to make a few more mistakes. David, going forward in life. But the key is to learn from those mistakes. That's the key. So you don't have to repeat it and make the same mistake over and over and over again. OK. And so, you know, when I, when I, when I consider, even for myself, moving forward and, and what I'm going to do. Anything and everything.

I want everyone out there to listen to finding more. They're called defining moments. It's at least what I call them. OK. I mean, if I had stayed. Yeah, there's a possibility.

The man up show the Q&A with coal off coal off for Christ ministries might not even exist. Had I made. Had I landed the Rocky for character. Right. I've been Drago. There's a pretty good chance. You and I would have never met or we wouldn't even be having this conversation. And so there's a lot of I can look back on a lot of points in my life journey that man had I made a different, different decision or life had taken me a different way that that much of what I all of what I'm doing now.

I've never happened. So that's a great point. Yeah. Yeah. So another question. Yeah. I got one more question and I'm going to make sure Lex is going to listen to this podcast. OK. But so go back 40 years or whatever was the prom in yours and Lex's career. OK. And I'm just using him because I know him.

Yes. And I know y'all wrestle together and we're friends. So so take all the rules out of the sport. OK. Just put you and him in the ring. Oh. Who's who's going to walk out of the ring?

Who's going to be the last man standing? Yeah. Man, you are putting the pressure on me, David. Oh, my goodness. Well, let's see.

Does it have to be a wrestler? It could have been a football field, a gridiron because, you know, both him and I both played played football. Now, he reached the professional pinnacle. You know, I I took a different path.

Right. I was on that path of of pursuing a professional football career. He ended up stepping into that world prior to his professional wrestling career. All rules aside, who would be the last man standing? So so are we talking about like kind of like an MMA kind of thing or a dream?

Anything goes. There's no rules. OK. Because because, you know, wrestling now nowadays is known as as sports entertainment. So so we can't predetermine the outcome. Is that what you're saying? There's there's no there's no crowd.

There's there's no crowd. Oh, even better. Even better.

That way I can come up with my own ending and there's no witnesses to prove that it actually happened. Man, you know what? So I'm in my prime.

He's in his prime. Yeah. OK. Because I'm like two eighty five, eight percent body fat, 34 inch waist. He's like two sixty five, seventy, probably 32 inch waist, four percent body fat. So it is mono, mono, right? Man against man.

Two animals. I know. I know. Gosh.

I mean, I could I could take the humble path and say, yeah, he would probably. Does he have to pin me? Let me ask you that.

Does he have to pay or is it just the last. It's it's it's an I quit match. Is that what it is? Yeah. It's not it's not a pan. It is an I quit man. Might as well call it UFC MMA. I mean, somebody don't want to tap out.

Yeah. You can't take no more. Who's going to tap out? OK, because because, you know, Magnum, Tia and Tully Blanchard were in an I quit match. And before the term tap out came, Tully had to tap out to Magnum.

I would probably tap out to Lux. I think he'd have a little more leverage than me. He you know, he had six four. I was six two in my prime, even though I had a few pounds on him. I would I would only because only because there's I think he's been more schooled on on other aspects of of the physical, physical side of things that he might put me in a hold or be able to be able to put a move on me. That would or finishing hold, let's say, that would cause me to tap.

I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to take that path, although although Lex Davis said he's going to make you listen to this interview. Because let me just say he's quick to point out that he held the U.S. title much longer than I or longer than I did. Right. One of the longest reigning U.S. champions. So he's quick to point that out. And he did with the help of Yokozuna body slam 600 and whatever pound Yokozuna. So Lex was a pretty, pretty staunch athlete all the way around and was good at whatever he did.

And so where I was more focused on certain things. So I would I would give him a run for his money, though, David. I'm going to say that. OK, good answer. So I might I might tap out, but he's going to know he was in the cage with me. I'll say that the last case we were in, he cheated. You know, he had to use a chair to beat me. But I'm just saying.

So throw that out there. Anyway, well, David Graham, the third man, it's been great to have you on on Q&A with Koloff and you'll come back again and do some other shows. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'll be back.

Awesome. I'll definitely be back. Well, great to have you. And thank you for tuning in to another episode. I hope you're well, I know you're enjoying these shows because you're giving me feedback.

I get emails or I see you out at signings or different places and churches. And you tell me how much you're enjoying both the man up show and Q&A with Koloff. Tune in again for another great conversation and more great questions and go out and just live a God filled, God blessed life today. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to Koloff.net and donate today. Nikita Koloff here.

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Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the man up show now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningstarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. This is the Truth Network.