This is the Truth Network. How do you go from an illustrious career in Hollywood, yes you heard that right, Hollywood, and you are moved from west to east. Well today don't go anywhere because I want you to hear Rob Ekno's story of what he accomplished out in Hollywood and what he's doing now. This is the United States Champion.
He became my personal savior. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, The Russian Nightmare, Nikita Kolod.
Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Welcome back to another episode, The Man Up Show with your truly Nikita Kolod. Rob, welcome to The Man Up Show. Thank you for having me Nikita.
I love the name. When I got to meet you a couple weeks ago, I saw that. I was like, man up, because I got to tell you one of the things I always tell anybody, no matter where you are in your life, at some point in time, every man must look in the mirror, stare in his eyes, and take responsibility for his life, good or bad. That's the challenge, isn't it, Rob? You just said something.
We could do an entire show just on that, taking responsibility for the decisions we make, right? Good or bad. And before our listeners, so I just kind of threw a little teaser out there for our listeners, award-winning authors, screenwriter, broadcaster, speaker, and more recently, how many books, four books, five books, how many books have you written at this point, Rob? So at this book I have four, and I have a minimum of five more ready to go, two are half written, but sometimes it takes a while.
But four, and I'm very, very blessed, because they're all faith-based books, and they've been honored with some awards that have led me to other things that we'll talk about later. But just want to let you know for people that, when you talk about manning up, I got an F in English in high school. My teachers voted to give me a D, because they figured that me knowing Shakespeare probably wasn't going to affect the world too much if I stayed back a year. But then I became a homeless cocaine addict after all that as well, and an alcoholic living on the Greyhound bus station in Fort Lauderdale, so it's like, why did I get asked to do books? I mean, I still got to tell you, I still couldn't tell you the proper placement of commas and semicolons and all that.
That's why they have people that help you, like copyeditors and proofreaders and stuff. Well, I can actually, Rob, relate, because I've written three, I'm working on a fourth, maybe a fourth and fifth as well myself, and I got to tell you, English was not my strong suit in school. I joke and say, well, now that I think about it, neither was science, math, or history, but I accelerated at recess.
I got straight A's there at lunch and recess. So Rob, you just kind of hit on something there, and you've got quite a story. In fact, you just mentioned Fort Lauderdale, but you eventually made your way out to Hollywood and have had quite an astounding career out there before. More recently, God's led you over to Tennessee, right, where actually you and I met. Yeah, right in the heart of God's country, as they call it, right smack dab in the center in East Tennessee in Knoxville, so it was quite a transition, and you always wonder, you know, I'm out here in the beautiful sunshine and all the beaches of California, and all of a sudden you get this real strong urging from the Lord that says, man, you've got to pack up and go, and you're like, say, huh?
You know, where am I going? Now, let me ask you, as you mentioned, I know one of your books is Beyond Addicted, and was the inspiration for that book, you know, it's a faith-based screenplay in addition to being a book, right, but written by you. Was that what happened, or what you described in Fort Lauderdale, what somewhat inspired the book that became a screenplay? So, what happened was, several years ago, about 10 years ago, actually, a marriage ended out in Southern California, my ex-wife decided to go in a different direction, and I was standing there with 20 years of sobriety and God, and all my money had gone in that particular situation, and God, and I said, what do I do? I was standing there, Universal Studios Hollywood, and I said, Lord, I had 20 years of sobriety, I got you, and I got like 100 bucks left after this whole shabiel of raising a family for 10 years, and God said, well, then you're good, you got everything you need, you got me and 20 years of sobriety, and he actually, Nikita sent me to Alaska first.
There was an ad on one of the casting websites, because I got into acting out in Hollywood and stuff, and I've been a member of the Screen Actors Guild for 30 years, and there was a job opening. I had sold jewelry on national TV for 15 years, and there was a job opening for somebody to sell jewelry in Juneau, Alaska to the cruise ship customers, and it came with a round-trip ticket, and a place to live, and a car, and a salary, and I thought it was too good to be true, and I took it, and when I got up there, I realized it was, but I got blessed to get into the cruise business, the tour business up there, and hence the start of this wonderful series that you were just talking about, Cruising Toward Heaven, and the book you related to, Cruising Toward Heaven, Navigating from Rough Seas to Miraculous Adventures, that is actually the story of me losing a broadcasting career in New England, driving a car out to Hollywood with very little cash, and then being out there for almost 30 years, and my recovery, and going from homeless addict in Fort Lauderdale to recovered addict with many years of sobriety and lessons learned along the way, so the Beyond Addicted is the faith-based film script that tells the story of what's in that particular book right there. And I'm just going to set my notes here, Rob, so it won Best Screenplay at the 2024 Christian Film Festival in Northern Virginia, but I'm also, I mean, what a journey you've been on, because if I think about it, I'm looking at, so from Beyond Addicted, and you made a reference to Cruising Toward Heaven, Navigating from Rough Seas to Miraculous Adventure, that leading into your most recent book, Cruising Toward Heaven 2, a spiritual odyssey into life-saving rescues, which won a gold medal in the 2024 Christian Book Awards.
I mean, you've had a 2024 International Book Award, you've had a lot of accolades have come along with some of these works of art that you've done, whether it's been books or screenplays, what kind of feedback are you getting from others, how your books and your screenplays are affecting other people? So the Cruising Toward Heaven book, the first one, Navigating from Rough Seas, I started getting text messages and emails and phone calls, and someone who read that book sent me a text, it was somebody in South Carolina actually, sent me a text and said, Rob, just finished Cruising Toward Heaven, what a story, that book is going to save someone's life. And then I got a call from a gal in Alaska up in Juneau, said, hey, that book, I'm using it every day along with my 12-step recovery book, and it's really a strong part of my sobriety, and my stubborn 25-year-old son who won't read anything, I'm going to buy an extra copy for him because it doesn't say anything about sobriety on the cover, so he'll probably read it, and I think it'll help save his life. So those are just a couple of the things that I've had from that particular book of people making comments and texts and stuff like that.
Which is, in a sense, which is always the goal, right? I know when, so one of my wrestling buddies by the name of Lex Luger, right, was, well, I say inspired, he was approached about, you know, putting his life story in book form, and you know, at first he was like, ah, man, you know, who's going to want to read my story? I said, Lex, Lex, if one person, if one person reads it and it transforms their life or changes them in a positive way, is that not all worth it if only one? He's like, yeah, I guess you're right, and well, it turns out, Rob, as I'm hearing with your story, you know, that book, Wrestling with the Devil, has impacted more than one person and continues to impact other people's lives. And so, did you know, okay, so your English or your teachers all voted and didn't want to fail, you wanted to give you a passing grade, so at what point did you know you'd start writing books or writing screenplays or that sort of thing?
Well, let's put it this way, as a homeless addict who got an amp in English, obviously writing books was not a desire or dream of mine, but all of a sudden I got sober and I had about 10 years sober and I was out in Southern California and all of a sudden I start seeing all of these signs. And it was like, you know, write a book and this and that and everywhere, everywhere I went, I mean, I even went to church one day and I was outside on the patio having a snack afterwards and a little old lady came and sat next to me and she says, yeah, so how are you doing? I'm like, great.
I said, you look very happy. She goes, yeah, well, my publisher is going to publish my first book tomorrow. I mean, it was like I'd get all these things like right in my face and then the very next day I was in Studio City and I pulled into a convenience store and there was an SUV right next to me, Nikita, and the license plate said BST SLLR bestseller. And I was like, okay, I look up into the sky and I'm like, Lord, I get it. You want me to write a book?
Well, hey, so, so hold on. So, so that leaves me kind of, it really kind of, it could lead me into my next question, which because I'm looking at the title, one of your books, I think your second book, is it God or Coincidence? Coming to grips with the unexpected wonders in life. So it sounds like at least that book, if not some of the other projects was inspired by what you just said, God trying to get your attention, right?
Absolutely. And you know, that book that you just mentioned, my English teacher, one of them wrote the forward to that book. Oh, that's a turnaround, huh?
How about that? But they were surprised. They were surprised.
They were also in tears. He was just blown away by the fact, because I guess when you're a teacher, obviously you never know, you know, what impact you've had on your students and stuff, right? So for, for him to see, you know, here I am like 30 years, 40 years later, something like that calling and saying, Hey, by the way, would you mind writing the book? And it was, it was, it was an amazing moment.
And, but you bring up a really good point with, with Lex Luger. So you mentioned that I was an award-winning speaker and just last July, I did a three a month national competition in October. I won the award for most dedicated speaker and my, in this national competition. And the speech was called the book you're dying not to write. Come on. And so my book that I'm writing right now, I'm taking a break from the cruising toward heaven series.
There will be four, but the book I'm writing right now is called the book you're dying not to write approaching your unapproachable calling in life. And the thing is Nikita is like every, every, and it may be a book for, for like Lex, it was a book. Maybe it's a business or somebody else.
Maybe somebody wanted to climb the great smoky mountains and just never bought the hiking boots, whatever it might be. Right. But we have to remember that when we deny doing something that we get the urge to do, because we're probably getting the urge from somewhere up in the clouds. Right. And it's not about us.
We have to realize that that story that Lex didn't want to tell, because he does the same thing. We call it the imposter syndrome. Who's going to read my book.
Nobody knows me. I don't have a big publisher, blah, blah, blah. Well, all of my books, what I do is I type and I sit down to type, whether it's one time a day, 10 times a day, and I say, Lord, please give me the words and the stories you want me to share in this book to honor and glorify you.
I ask you this in Jesus name. And then I simply start typing. And so when I get these honors and stuff, they're actually honors going to the Lord because I say, Lord, you promote the books. You wanted me to write them.
I'll be your messenger. I'll type them, but you promote them. And so he obviously, you know, I haven't sold millions of books either like Lex, but the books that I've written have had wonderful, wonderful impacts on people. And they've led me to my next big thing. And it's weird, as you probably know, Nikita, doing your man up stuff is that we have to pay attention to the whispers that God sends us.
And when he asks us to do something, we just, you know, we we kind of supposed to move in that direction and not spend a whole lot of time correcting. I was watching. You might have seen it in some of the audience. I saw the last episode of American Idol a couple of weeks and the and the wonderful and beautiful Fantasia Barino, who was a winner years ago.
Right. She was the guest trainer on the on for the last three contestants. And Ryan Seacrest said to her that what would be your message to the three people in the finals today? And she said, when God gives you a message to do something, you just do it. Don't ask questions. Just do it. And so that's what I did about writing these books.
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You can give monthly, annually or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com That's pretty amazing. And of course, you know, some of them, as I've already mentioned, you know, turning into screenplays or, you know, developing documentaries and that sort of thing, because I know we hadn't really talked about or touched on it. But, you know, you've been a professional actor as well. You've had some TV work on crime shows and been involved in different film projects as well.
One in particular, Life of Purpose. Take a minute. I know you were involved with Dean Cain and Eddie McClintock in that particular project. Take a minute.
So we talked a lot about your books and we're going to make sure people know how to go find them. But take a minute and talk about that. Talk about your acting career, you know, film. You know, that's that part of your life as well. So I grew up in Rhode Island and that particular teacher I just shared about, he was in the service in the communications division. And when he got out, he became a teacher. And one day he came to a group of students that had what do you guys think about starting a high school radio station? And so we spent a year and a half raised eighteen thousand dollars, ended up putting a 40 foot tower on top of our station, on top of the school, rather. And then we ended up having this amazingly professional radio outlet. And many of us have gone on to have wonderful careers. Someone on to be an announcer for NASCAR.
One owns his own radio station. I mean, just miraculous things. And then when I had 11 months sober after my craziness, I ended up getting out to Hollywood and got into the Screen Actors Guild in 1995. And I've got to work with some wonderful, wonderful people.
We don't have time to tell all the stories on this particular episode here. But but it was wonderful. And it led me. So it was that book is it got a coincidence that led me to meet some producers of faith based films out in Vegas about two years ago.
Then from that, the people that are involved with that organization started to do a movie in San Diego called A Life of Purpose. And Dean Cain was starring in that. So I got to work with him in a few scenes.
Really, really gracious man. And then Eddie McClintock. I actually played I actually played a sadistic key, sadistic killer Nikita in that one. And my job was to beat the heck out of Eddie. And the makeup lady was wonderful.
But, you know, it it so that's what I just did. And just last week I was down in Marietta, Georgia, doing another film with Dean. And that one will be out in a few months. And A Life of Purpose hopefully will be out in the next few weeks. When I met you a couple of weeks ago at the at the Rise Up convention there, the director was there.
And she said they're still putting the music together, which makes a big difference in a movie. So I've had some really blessed times, but I can see now that as I look back and you can probably see on your life with your your man up and your man camp with you and Lex and stuff. That God had a plan when he took you through the wrestling and so on and so forth.
It all gave you the foundation to be in a position for people to say, OK, this guy knows what he's doing. He's you know, he's done this. He's done that.
He's a God. I mean, when I saw you, I think I came back the second day. Didn't I gave you a compliment? I said, you know, you are really shining the light of the Lord through, you know, you whatever work you're doing when you're not on these shows or wrestling or, you know, autograph sessions, whatever it might be, you're obviously doing something because, you know, that's how I connected with you.
It was like, you know, besides the fact we're both bald and, you know, but but the reality is you shine a light. So you're doing something. And obviously this podcast, it's the same thing.
We don't know who the heck's listening to it. But if we touch one soul that we don't even know is that is even more amazing. It's all worth it.
Yeah, absolutely. And and I appreciate that. And, you know, that's my hope every day, as it sounds like yours is as well, is that we can just go out and make in some way make a positive impact on somebody else's life, whether it's through the radio show, the podcast, you know, social media, autograph signings or any of the other opportunities that present themselves to you and I. And you've had quite a storied career, that's for sure, beyond the acting and writing.
And we didn't even really touch on it. But you spent a number of years up, you know, up in the Northeast and in the media world as well. And but I want to make sure people hear the part of your story, too.
Maybe I guess we'll have to maybe bring you back another time, Rob. We'll talk about even more of your story. But take a moment to talk about the transition. I talked about moving from Hollywood out to you're now headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. So before we run out of time, tell our listeners what you're doing in Knoxville, Tennessee.
So this is another incredible thing, and I'll do it as quickly because I'm watching the clock here. So I met at that place in Vegas on that movie. I met this fabulous woman named Miranda, who's an amazing actress, lives in Bristol, Virginia. And all of a sudden we start my wonderful fiance and I, we get this urge to move to Knoxville, Tennessee. And so we finally, after two years, get to find a place.
We're here now about five months or so. And it was amazing. And I get here and I'm like, OK, you know, I started acting in some crime shows and stuff. And I'm like, OK, Lord, you couldn't have asked me to come twenty three hundred miles to just, you know, do some detective shows and stuff.
I said, as nice as it is, there has to be a bigger purpose. So I call random and said, Miranda, why do you think the Lord brought me all this way? She said, I believe he's going to take you and elevate you to new heights that he's never brought you before as a man.
And I'm like, OK, another friend calls. I end up meeting this lady that you've been on her show, Dorothy Spalding, down in Augusta. And Dorothy invites me down to her show to speak about my cruising toward heaven books one day. And wouldn't you know it, there was a husband and wife team that had broken up. You know, I don't know if they totally separated the book, but Dorothy made a big point about saying I brought them together.
Well, wouldn't you know it, Nikita? They were there singing on the day that I was on the show and the name of their group was called New Purpose. And I was like, really? And so the next day I leave there and I drive up to Virginia, Newport News, never been there 10 hours. And I talked about the award for my cruising toward heaven to and one of my scripts.
So I went up there to walk the, you know, just the red carpet thing and pictures. And before I left, the director of that festival looked at me and he goes, listen, sir, you cannot leave here today before I talk to you. I have been told to give you a message and I need to deliver it before you leave. So you cannot leave once everybody else. Anyways, everybody leaves. He says, sir, you need to sit down and listen to me.
I have been giving you a message. And so I sit down. He goes, you know why you're here today?
So, of course, Nikita, when somebody says that you're clearly not there for the reason you think you are. And he said to me, you are to immediately drive home and start the Knoxville Christian Film Festival. He said, you are the guy. You're an award winning actor, your award winning speaker and author and screenwriter. You've been in the Screen Actors Guild 30 years. You used to do some other stuff on the side.
He said, I have been told you are the one that needs to start it and you need to start it immediately. And I am like, OK, that's quite elevating me to a new purpose. So I talked to Rand on the way home. She's an amazing graphic designer. She within a couple of days we had this amazing logo done. And so hopefully Nikita on July 1st will be able to begin accepting submissions for I added the word international because I wanted to make it a worldly event because it should be every one of our stories matters no matter where we are or where we've been. So we're going to I am now the founder of the Knoxville International Christian Film Festival.
Yeah, it's an amazing journey. And and where before we run out of time, where can people where can people find out more about Rob Ekno and even find out more about the film festival? So for myself, if you want to see my life history, it's simply Rob Ekno E K N o dot com.
You'll find everything there. And then right now the Facebook page is just starting to flourish for its Facebook dot com Knoxville Christian Films, Knoxville Christian Films on Facebook. And Rob, you got a fascinating story. I'm glad the the Lord crossed our paths together there at the the rise of cons. Kevin Sorbo was the host.
And of course, many other artists and screenwriters and authors and were there over the course of the weekend. And now I didn't ask you, at least I don't remember. I asked you, did you play golf while we were there or no?
I did not play golf. I was preparing something. I forgot that was the day before and I was preparing something, I think, to go down to Georgia or something along those lines. So I didn't get blessed to get out there in the in the sunshine with you guys. But it was it was a wonderful, a wonderful event. I met you. So how much better could it have been?
Well, you're very kind. And of course, you know, the golf tournament was was for some great causes there in East Tennessee. And and the rise of con itself was was of great success. One of a kind of had not been done before, but already already. And you probably heard our paths across again, Rob, because I've already heard that they've several other cities have already reached out to them to perhaps bring it to to another. Yeah. In the future down the road, including including the Bible Museum in Washington, D.C. So we'll have. Yeah, we'll have to see what happens with that. So go check out Rob Ekno's story and Rob, I'm guessing all of your books.
I mean, can they find them on Amazon? Absolutely. OK, so I want you to check those guys got got some great ones. You know, is it God or coincidence coming to grips with the unexpected wonders of life? That's certainly one to take into account and put on your bookshelf. Well, read it first, then put it on your bookshelf cruising towards heaven, navigating from rough seas to miraculous adventures, cruising towards heaven to a spiritual odyssey into life saving rescues.
Many award winning books and award winning actor Rob Ekno and check him out. Rob, thanks for being a part of the Man Up show today. Thanks for blessing me, Nikita. I thank you very much. I hope you have a very blessed night and everybody that's listening.
Thank you so much for your time. Well, I appreciate you and all of you each and every week. You're so faithful to just send in some positive comments and thoughts as you dial in and listen to into these life stories and how how others are impacted and how it is impacting you. And as usual, I want to end our show today by challenging you to go out today and just live a God filled and have a God blessed day. 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 Kolof.net and donate today. If you are enjoying the Man Up show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. Hi, Nikita Kolof. 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. Nikita Kolof here. If you're needing to buy a car and have marginal credit and considering using buy here, pay here.
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