Q&A With Koloff- #186

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Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolov. Welcome to another episode, Q&A with Kolov, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back, another episode, Q&A with Kolov, Questions and Answers. And we're going all the way down to the Sunshine State today, and that is Florida, if you know your history there. Ilya Soroka, welcome to Q&A with Kolov.

Nikita, thanks so much for having me. Super excited to come at you from the Sunshine State. From the Sunshine State. Now you're down in, I'm trying to, Jacksonville, is that right?

Yep, that's it. Jacksonville. Right, almost Georgia.

Almost, right on the state, oh yeah, almost on the state line, right? So, you're down there I think, isn't that the home of the, home of the Jaguars, I think, right? It is the home of the Jaguars, yeah.

Florida's an interesting state because Jacksonville considered South Georgia and Miami's considered North Cuba, so that's how the geography works there. Ah, you know, I did not, you just educated me on something, I did not know that. That's amazing. Well, and, and, and you may or may not know this, you know, but it's really kind of the home of AEW Wrestling as well, did you know that? I did not know that actually. Yeah, so the same owners, the Khan family, who own the Jaguars, as well as I think the stadium and half of Jacksonville, also own AEW Wrestling. Oh, that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah. His son, the, the, the, the, the, Chad Khan's son. Yep.

Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. I've, I've seen him at a few events actually here in Jacksonville, that's interesting. Yep, yep, his son, his son, I guess, had really kind of had the vision for it and, and was basically the one who runs it. He was instrumental in, in, in making it happen along with Cody Rhodes and, and a handful of other guys and, and, and they, somebody might correct me, I may be wrong on this, but if I'm not mistaken, they own a professional soccer team in England and I think they own Wembley Stadium as well, the infamous Wembley Stadium. I mean, they're, they're not hurting for money, let's just say that.

They're not, they're not hurting for money, absolutely. No, that's, that's very interesting. I did, now that, that, that is bringing back bells, I read an article about that, so interesting. Yes, absolutely and so, so I appreciate you being on the show today and you, you got a fascinating story down there in Jacksonville for our listeners. Give a little, little back story on who Ilya Sirota is.

I mean, it's not, let's face it, it's not your Cajun, Louisiana name, so give us. Yeah, it is not, it is not and if, if any of your listeners know, I, you know, it's a very interesting name. Starbucks, you know, Starbucks doesn't get right all the time and, but there is a cohort of people that remember, there's a show, I think in the sixties called A Man for My Uncle with the spy, his name was Ilya Kuryakin. Yes, I do, I'm old enough to remember that you're aging me Ilya, but that's okay.

I am, I was going to, I was trying to, I was trying to ease it in there, but. I remember that show. Yeah, that, so that show, so people from that, you know, that know the show know my name so that it's a little easier, but I do, I do come from that part of the world. I was born in Ukraine with my, my brother David, older brother David and in 99 my father, mother brother, we came to the United States as refugees and that wave of refugees was primarily for persecution of being Christian in the Soviet Union and we came through our relatives who were persecuted and obviously my, my, my parents as well, but my father actually converted from kind of, I guess, uh, Soviet atheist, you know, agnostic worldview to Christianity. And um, he was a military officer. So, you know, that comes with its own story, I think. But we came here and, um, really, first of all, my dad is the most American American you can meet.

I think your listeners would appreciate that. I think everyone paroling from communist countries coming to America are some of the best Americans I've seen. You know, the, the Cubans, the Venezuelans, the Ukrainians, the Russians that come to America, knowing what they fled, um, become the most patriotic. Right. And just absolutely embrace freedom.

And, and, and cause yeah, cause once you've tasted it, yeah. So they're just like all in on, on patriotism. Yeah.

Oh yeah. They love America. They love the people, they love the, you know, the freedom, the country, the God, you know, God's plans for, um, the country. And so, uh, we, you know, one thing led to another and my family got involved in charter schools, um, in, in, uh, in 2000, very interesting story, but in California, opened a few there, they became very successful. And, uh, you know, back when charter schools and choice options didn't really exist and came to Florida in 2004 and left that a little bit, my dad got a conviction of Jonah and came back, um, into the charter school space. And, um, we've been doing that ever since 2009 as a family. Um, I left into some real estate development and then came back, but, um, super excited to just serve the, you know, serve God's vision in Jacksonville and, and, you know, you know, honestly be a blessing to this country as someone who, you know, was born in another country was given an opportunity and now, you know, returning it and blessing the communities in Jacksonville with our work.

That's amazing. So, so is it localized, like just to Jacksonville or like, like if somebody, you know, in another state listening or, you know, wow, how can I get more money about, or, I mean, uh, more, more information on charter schools and what you guys do and, or how do you guys exactly do it then? Yeah. So we, I mean, charter schools are, are the middle ground between a, um, a private school and a public school. We are publicly funded, um, but privately operated and basically all the charter means is contract. So charter means a contract, it's a contract school. Um, and what that means is if you don't perform based on certain standards, you will not exist. And so there's a, there's a definitely a stick there that exists in the charter school world that you have to perform on certain standards or state will come and take your contract and everything's gone.

Um, and you have to, you know, you have to perform. So that, you know, it's a little bit of a different twist on education, um, where it's, there's been a monopoly on education for the longest time. Um, and so charter schools create that choice and really they exist in more big cities.

It's not a lot of small cities have them just the density isn't there. We have four, um, active charter schools in Jacksonville, Florida, um, and one in South Carolina, Spartanburg, South Carolina that just opened last year, um, full with the wait list. And a lot of the schools in Jacksonville serve a majority Spanish immigrant cohort and the South Carolina school serves a majority, a Slavic cohort of kids. So we, you know, we kind of serve people who we know how to help and we've, I'm an immigrant, you know, I speak two languages, understand three.

Um, so I know how to work with that community and, and that's what we do. So in Jacksonville, we have about 20, 2,100 kids. Um, and in, uh, and it's going to be about 3,002 years. We've built out the facilities, but we're slowly ramping up. We don't want to grow too fast.

So we're slowly ramping up the classrooms, although the facilities are built out and in South Carolina, South Carolina is going to be 1200 kids, kindergarten through eighth. Wow. So, so, so if somebody wanted to did want to learn more or had an interest in starting a charter school, you know, for their community or what they they'd be able to reach out to at least get some information or, or some direction from you guys. Absolutely. Yeah. They, we, you know, I'll information's free. Just give us a, give me a call and, you know, um, I'll talk your ear off, um, if you're willing to listen about it. Cause I just believe in the opportunity for local communities to open schools and, and my perfect size of a school is 500 kids.

Okay. If I can run a model with 500 kids that I've, I've done schools, 1100 I've done schools 800 and I think that the smaller you get, the better results you get for parents and the community more focused and concentrated on, on, on the students. And it's very, yeah, it's very hard to run a good discipline. Really this discipline, character and expectations are very hard to manage when you go above 800 it becomes, you know, definitely a next caliber of, of, of, of work.

It's got, it's got its different levels of challenges I would have managed. Right. So, so, so, so two languages, you saw obviously English and your other languages. So I, I grew up, uh, learning, uh, speaking, writing Russian, um, and I understand Ukrainian, um, she's growing up, you know, hearing it around the house and, and, and, uh, in Ukraine. So, um, Russian and Ukrainian are my second and third languages. Okay.

And, um, just enough, just enough Spanish to get me some food and, uh, find the restroom and find the Banyo right there. Well, and so ironically, what's, what's funny is, you know, so, so you, you know, real Russian, I know, no Russian, I'm the Russian nightmare, but everyone expects me to know Russian and I'm like, ah, I don't know. I don't know anything. So anyway, no, that's amazing. And I tell you a quick little side story.

We're going to get to your questions here in a minute. Um, is, uh, did a missionary trip years ago to Moldova, Moldova, and I'll never forget. I met this little, little guy, Henry.

I just, I can still picture him little round wire rim glasses. He was 11 years old and, and, and, you know, he warmed up to me after a couple of days and I'm like, and I just, I don't know. I was just curious. I'm like, Henry, you speak pretty good English. Like how many languages do you speak? And he goes, five, sir. And I go, wow.

I go five. Like I was like, I expect you to say like two, right? Like, and he goes, I go like, what? Like obviously, okay. English. I know that he was, you know, and Russian, right.

You know, he's living in Moldova. So he spoke fluent Russian and, and, and, and then he said Spanish, you just said French, French and German. And I was like, I go, Henry, like, like fluently. Like if I ask you something, you can immediately answer. And he's like, yes, sir.

I'm going to test this kid. Right? So I'm like, all right, Henry, say this in German.

And man, he just, just fluid. Right. And say this in French. And I was Iliya. I was blown away. And it just, cause I'm like, man, kids back home, they have trouble speaking English, let alone five languages.

You know, it was crazy. So anyway, well, that's pretty amazing. Some kids are some, there are there's, I've met kids that are, and adults that are wired that pick up languages very quickly. It's actually a talent.

There, there, there is a word for it too, that, that is in psychology where person is just really good at picking up languages, but that's, that's fascinating. It is. And well, and you have a fascinating story. And, and let me ask you before we do segue to the questions. You know, we have some mutual friends, one by the name of Dimitri and another by the name of Vitaly. And of course, how I met you is, was V through Dimitri through Vitaly. And then I meet Iliya and of course, so you were introduced to, to man camp. But before we segue to questions, take a minute and just tell our listeners you know, what your, you know, if you could summarize your main camp experience, take a minute.

Yeah, I, um, I was introduced to man camp through a friend, uh, his name is Vitaly who also went through the program. And, uh, you know, one of the ways he described it to me, which was fascinating, um, was he, he never seen, he had never felt so much love, you know? Um, and, and we know when I got there, I was, you know, I think I can echo that. And it's, and I, I do want to preface it by saying, I think it was a little bit different than what we're used to in society when I say we feel love. I think there's a famous quote, um, that it said, there's nothing easier than flattery and nothing, you know, harder than truth or something like that. Um, where, where I think when we hear that I've never felt more love is you, you, you feel like, Oh, you know, everyone's just going to say nice things to you. And, and I felt that I felt an immense love, but a love that, you know, God loves you and you know that the people love you because they want you to succeed.

They don't just want to, you know, give you, um, a candy right now, which is what a flattery is. And I think I saw that, you know, firsthand where people loved on me, um, with the flattery, but also with the, with the, the genuine, um, love of, of, of sharing their testimony, you know, showing and, and the truth that comes with that, of who God is and what needs to happen. And I think men really need that.

I mean, I don't, I don't know about everyone, but I think I thrive when someone sits me down and says, Hey, you know, here's what, you know, tell me, tell me what you're, you're, you're, you're going through and I'll tell you the truth. What I think, you know, and I respect that. I think, I think men, me especially, I respect that and I love that the truth and I think, um, felt a lot of love, felt a lot of truth, really learn how to, um, learn how to stop talking and, and then listen, especially through one of the exercises we did just listen. Um, and yeah, that, that to me, I just felt a lot of fatherly love and that, you know, I have a father on earth and in heaven, but in that moment felt a lot of fatherly love from, um, from the men we were surrounded with, which was, was very, was very different than I think, uh, you were maybe anticipating expecting or, or, so, so it impacted you in that regard. It did impact me.

I did impact me. I think, um, the detachment is massive. I think if anyone's listening, considering going, you know, you, you not being next to your phone, I did the whole, you know, didn't look at my phone a single time, you know, it was in the car, the whole experience.

And um, you feel naked for the first day in a way, although you're not, and then you tend to just slow down and the world slows down in your mind. And I think you begin to hear your hearing becomes, um, more acute. 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. When your eyesight is at stake, it pays to travel to one of the world's leading eye surgeons. Dr. Johnny Gayton is an author, speaker, Christian leader, and a committed family man. He is also a pioneering cataract and glaucoma surgeon. That's why I chose him for my eye surgery.

Check out Dr. Johnny Gayton at eyesightassociates.com. 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. 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. Yeah, when you kind of put the distractions of life off to the side for just a moment, or a handful of days, right, and just be able to set your gaze, your focus on your relationship with the Lord, His voice can become more crystal clear, right? Absolutely. And that's one of the things for those listening out there that we hope as a staff at camp to model for these men of what you hear Ilya referring to is just we try our best to love on them with the love of Jesus and just how we feel Jesus would love on them and we want to be that flesh, Jesus with skin on, so to speak, for those few days while we're all together and hopefully, as you hear Ilya sharing, impacts their life to where they can go home and transfer that to their own homes and to their wives and children and community and stuff.

So I appreciate it, Ilya, and it was so great to be able to spend some time with you and get to know you and Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, and that experience. So hey, website for the, on another note, the website, do you have a website for the schools?

Yeah. Yeah, what's the website? So the school, yeah, so the school you can just find through Googling Global Leadership Academy, that's in Jacksonville, and then for South Carolina, Global Academy of South Carolina, and both schools really, you know, serve the community, local South Carolina has about 300 kids this year, 600 kids next year. Jacksonville, we're fully enrolled in all of our campuses, so Global Leadership Academy just creating, connecting character and curriculum, that's kind of our little motto, trying to make sure that kids know the knowledge but also know that, you know, you can Google everything in the world. The thing that matters next is character and strength, and so a lot of, we like to focus on that. I like that. Global Leadership Academy, check it out, connecting character with curriculum, I like that.

If you're looking for an alternative school, you know, outside of something in the public realm or the private realm, be sure to check out Global Leadership Academy and look that up, Ilya Sirotko, down in Jacksonville, Florida. All right, so let's segue here before I run out of time, I want to give you the opportunity. Your story's so fascinating, I just want to keep talking about it, so may have to have you back sometime, Ilya. And so, all right, so let's segue to you, what questions do you have for me?

Let's roll. So I have two, and maybe there's a third one that kind of comes out, a follow-up, but the first one is, you know, I am in the process, I am reading kind of your book, and I just wanted to ask, kind of, what was the hardest when you transitioned out of the wrestling world to your life with Jesus, and over the next years, you know, what was the hardest thing, maybe to leave behind or to change, or, you know, did you, you know, everyone's got their own stories, but was there anything that lingered in your mind that you had to purify and cleanse or leave behind? Gotcha.

Yeah, no, it's a great question, and of course, you know, the book I think you're referring to is Nikita, A Tale of the Ring of Redemption, right? The life story. So I'll answer the question this way, because several things come to mind as I have met other athletes, other pro athletes that did struggle leaving their profession behind. There's someone right now, immediately comes to mind, a business, a mutual friend of mine by the name of John Joyce, he's no longer with us, walking streets of gold and heaven, but he was working with a former Minnesota Viking, a very well-known Minnesota Viking, and they were driving to Duluth, Minnesota on a business trip, and he said, John, how do you do this? He goes, how do I do what? He goes, how do you, how are you so successful, and he goes, well, what do you mean? He goes, I'm struggling, I'm struggling, he goes, for 20, 30 years, I've had everything done for me. I've had clean uniforms hanging in my locker, and my cleats cleaned, and meals made for me, and all this stuff done for me, and I'm really, I don't know how to make this transition, and in fact, the rest of that story is, he wasn't able to. He wasn't able to transition into the business world.

He just didn't know how to embrace it, and he's one of several pro athletes that I personally know that have had that same struggle. All that to say, I feel pretty fortunate, Ilya, that I didn't struggle from, I guess what you might call living in the limelight, and then stepping down from the limelight, and transitioning into, let's just say, real life, you know, so to speak, and I guess part of the credit, if not really all the credit that I have to get, really is to the Lord. Now, when I first left wrestling, you know, I was not a Christ follower. It was 11 months later that I would give my life to Christ, and so since that decision, 17 October 1993, it has been a journey of learning to let things go.

In fact, I'll tell you this part of it real quick. There was a point in time there where the Lord asked me to grow my hair out and shave off all my facial hair, and, you know, people would ask me, what do you do, like some Nazarite Vow or something? I'm like, no, the Lord just said to grow my hair out, and I'm like, well, did he tell you why? I go, not yet, and so I literally, and he said this specifically, grow your hair, I'll tell you when you can cut it, okay?

So I did that, Ilya, 16 months. I grew my hair, no trim, no cut, right? And then I felt him release me, in fact, my younger girls, Kendra and Colby, got the joy of getting the clippers out and shaving it all off, right? They didn't like it, like they were used to bald dad, right?

The bald dad. So anyway, all that said, and then the Lord, you know what, the Lord did reveal why he asked me to do it, and it had to do with identity, Ilya, and what he wanted to know was, would I be comfortable without nobody or very few or very little people recognizing me as a Russian nightmare Nikita Kolov? Because believe me, I had a completely different look with the mullet and no facial hair, right?

Wow. And it was a test. The Lord was testing to see if I'd be okay without being recognized by the public and just comfortable in my identity in Christ. And so, and I like to say, I think I passed the test and I was, I was okay. I didn't have to have people patting me on the back and handing a piece of paper and a pen to me asking for my autograph.

I'm thankful that people still even want an autograph, honestly, but at the same time, I guess I distill all that down and summarize all that to say, I've got to give credit to the Lord in helping me transition from the limelight into what you might call a more normal life. So there you go. That's awesome. That's great.

That was just interesting for me, you know, cause I had thought about that it is, it's a monumental change of lifestyle. So yeah. Yeah. Paramount.

And, and, and I still have peers who struggle like wrestling peers who do struggle with not being called champ or not being, you know, you know, being in the limelight, you know, day in and day out or week after week, or they struggle with it and they, and they try to find ways to be out there in public, to get that pat on the back and, and so I just feel fortunate that, that I haven't struggled with that. So great question. I don't, I don't think I've ever been asked that before. So well, you got one more for, you said you had another one for me? Yeah.

Yeah. I had another one. I, I, um, I love, I have a big imagination and um, you know, I like to dream things and kind of shoot for goals and that's just how I am. So I figured I'd ask, you know, what, what's, what's your dream right now that you are, you know, dreaming about thinking about mulling over, you know, something, there's like a seed planted somewhere in some, you know, in some, in some brain and soul and some spirit. What's something that you're dreaming out there that, that you're thinking about?

Um, and uh, man, I don't know if you're willing to share, I think I'd love to hear, and I think maybe the listeners would too. Well, so, so I've, for years and years here, I've been a lot of people not, you know, I'm a, I'm a goal setter. You know, I believe you, you know, goals are, are like targets for, you know, you can't hit a target you can't see. And so not only do I dream and have goals, I write them down, I just believe you gotta be able to see it and envision it. I've had actually what I call a vision board in the past where different pictures and things up on that board where I can visibly see some of the things I'm aiming for, right? You can't hit a target you can't see. And for our listeners out there, I'll tell you this, I've probably hit or accomplished 90% of the things I've written down. Wow. 90%. And, and if I don't make, you know, hit the goal, you know, and it's important to me, I'll roll it over to the next year.

I'll roll it over. And right now, it's a great question. Right now I am in the process of, of establishing or kind of crystallizing a five-year plan, a five-year plan and, you know, what's it look like, what, what's, what's it gonna look like five years from now versus what it looks like today. In fact, I just finished a book, I interviewed him for, for the show, it's, it's called a Relationships Over Rules. And in part of that book towards the end, it challenges you now in the book, it challenges you to set out a three-year plan kind of year by year, but I'm extending that to five years. I want to know what it looks like five years. I have an expression earlier that says this, five years from now, you'll be the same person you are today with the exception of the books you read and the people that you know, right?

The books you read and the people that you know. And so without getting into specifics, this radio show, this podcast is a part of that vision and, and what I'm hoping to, I'm sitting here looking at my, across the desk here at my producer and him and I were kicking ideas back and forth for, for taking my YouTube channel, which has been pretty dormant for up till this time and turning that into a profit center, monetizing my YouTube channel. And so he and I are kicking back and forth different ideas of what that looks like and the hopes to be, for it to not just be a profit center, but it to be one of what I call MSIs. And for those who are not familiar with that terminology, that's multiple streams of income.

And so in addition to having goals and a vision for my life, that's a part of it, Ilia, is not just relying on one stream of income, but developing a number of things. I got more books I want to write. I got another book I want to put on my wrestling with success book.

I want to put on audio book. That's on my goal list. My very first book, Breaking the Chains, it's been out of print.

I want to bring that back into print. And so, yeah, there's a number of things that, that are, that are in the pipeline that I'm hoping to accomplish over the next five years. And then when I, when I hit that five-year mark that I can look back and go, wow, I accomplished most of what I hope to. So all that to say, all that to say, yeah, for anyone listening out there, have a vision for your life. If it helps to have a vision board, goals, write goals down, dream, and I'll conclude with this, Ilia. I say, dream big dreams because little dreams have no magic dreams. So I'm glad you're a big dreamer because little dreams have no magic, man. You got to dream big dreams. Got a big dream.

So dream big. Well, there you go. Well, man, listen, you've been amazing today. I appreciate you being, I appreciate you setting the time aside and being on, and I want you guys to go check out Global Leadership Academy, if you're looking for an education alternative for your children, go check that out, Connecting Character with Curriculum. That's got a good ring to it, Ilia. I know you guys are going to continue to do well and thanks for being a part of Man Camp as well.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me on, Nikita. I'm so excited. I'm, I'm, I love hearing what God's put on your heart and, and, and, and everything you're doing. I'm super, super thankful for Man Camp and I've been, um, I've been, I've been a supporter of, of, of advocating for everyone that talks to me about it and so, or asks about it. And if anyone's listening and considering, I think it's, I think it's, uh, you know, you are what, you know, you're, you only live once and experiencing love and, and, and putting some time aside of your life, even if it's for you, you just want to put a week aside and, and, and clear your mind if that's you, you know, I just felt that, that, that, that will not be something you regret.

Well, I appreciate it. And, and for those of you listening out there, if you want more information on that, just go to mancamp.info. That's M A N C A M P as in Paul, mancamp.info and, and, uh, as always, my challenge to you is to go out today and live a God filled, God blessed day. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Q and A with Koloff. 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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