Hometown Hustle Episode 2 Taylor Place

Well, good morning, Taylor, and welcome

to our podcast, Hometown Hustle. We are

so excited to have you here today and

you to be our official first hustler.

>> I'm very, very honored to be here. Thank

you all for having me. Excited about

this.

>> Yes, sir. You know, this is a

conversation that uh I've looked forward

to quite some time. When Mackenzie came

to me with this idea, um you know, a few

people ran my mind of uh you know, who

could really embody uh you know, what we

want to bring to the community, which is

just a real raw uh you know, perspective

of you know, how to grow and how to

change. Uh and you know, in the past

year, uh me and you have just spoken so

much and you know, you told me about you

know, your rebranding and how you've

pivoted in life uh and just grown and

you know, doing the things that you are

doing now today. But, uh, you know, we

got to figure out, we got to know like

who was Taylor before that? Uh, who was

Taylor that, uh, led you to being who

you are today?

>> Yeah. Well, you know, I grew up here.

Grew up on Hilton Head Bluffton. My dad

was one of probably the legendary

developers on Hilton Head in the 70s.

Um, we moved back here in the mid 90s

and, uh, you know, life was good when I

was younger. um mom, dad, happy family,

older brother, and then life kind of hit

us hard when I was about 10. My dad was

diagnosed with lung cancer.

>> He um died shortly after that. And

>> sorry,

>> you know, most people look back at that

and think that was like the big turning

point in my life where things started to

change and it was. But what came after

that, a few months later, my mom got

very sick. She was in a coma for months

and I didn't respond well. So, from ages

11 to 17, I was I played sports, right?

And that kept me out of some trouble,

but I was running the streets. I was

selling drugs. I was getting into

fights. I was failing my classes. I was

just not doing anything I was supposed

to do. Um, and that is kind of the first

part of my life that I learned from. Um,

but failed so much. Failed so much. And

uh fortunately I had some people in my

life that believed in me and had my back

in some tough times, but that was kind

of the the Taylor that

>> people

that don't know me the last 10 or 15

years, they think of that Taylor, right?

And

>> I've definitely I'm not ashamed of it

because that is the person I am. But I

do I do want people to know that's not

me at the same time anymore, you Well,

you've learned and you've evolved and

you've grown and you've had to get

>> go through and sit in that pain that has

probably forced you to learn and

reconcile with a lot of that past

version of who you were.

>> Absolutely. And you know, well, I'm I'm

sure we'll talk about more in the show.

You know, at the time I didn't at that

age, you don't you don't know who you

are, right? You don't have an identity.

And you know, so I went to people that

were similar to me in a tough financial

situation or fathers that are

incarcerated or dead and things like

that. And those are the type of people I

would hang out with. And we all kind of

went through that struggle together. So

I loved them like brothers, but we made

a lot of bad decisions together, too.

And it led me to 16th, heck, 13 years

old, I was on the middle school baseball

team, arrested for breaking into cars,

kicked off the team. 16 years old,

arrested for strong armed robbery, and

they finally had enough with me around

here and charged me as adult, and I uh

was sentenced to only 90 days, and I get

incarcerated and get in fights and end

up serving 13 months. Um,

>> but that was a pivotal time in my life

because I was away from some people and

I was like, you know what? I I want to

play college baseball. That's my goal,

right? Sports. I always love sports,

basketball, baseball, football, but

baseball was always my passion. And so,

I was back there. everyone else was

either getting their GED or doing things

they shouldn't. I decided to take high

school courses. So once I got out as a

junior/ senior in high school,

>> I was able to graduate high school and

was able to have an offer fortunately

and um be able to go play college

baseball. Um

>> but much more happened after that.

So,

>> so did you find it hard to kind of

coming back out your senior year, your

junior senior year to then even go back

into a routine where now you're trying

to become a good student again, but

you're still battling that everybody

knew that past version of you. And high

school and middle school, it's rough

because everybody

clings to what they know

>> and sometimes it's easy to fall back in.

It's all of the societal norms and you

had those friends and so you get out and

you're like, "Oh, I'm going to go hang

out with Joe Schmo again."

>> Exactly.

>> Did that re like reel you back in?

>> Yeah, that was, you know, at that age I

wasn't mature enough, right? I

>> I There's a saying, right? If you leave

a door open, it'll eventually even if

it's just slightly cracked, it'll it'll

open, right? So, I left a lot of doors

open and didn't close them. So when I

came home, I was it was almost like a

badge of honor that I went and served

prison time and things like that. So I

didn't view it as a bad thing, right? I

wasn't mature enough to realize, you

know, this will be my life if I don't

change. I hadn't appreciated life yet,

right? You you we take so much of this

for granted. Um and I didn't do that

yet. I was still so young.

>> My fault, right? I should have learned.

So when I came home and got a college

offer, I was I was really done. like I

wasn't in my head I was like, "Oh, I'll

sell a little weed here and there to

help my mom, you know, and little things

like that cuz my mom didn't really have

money and needed bills paid."

>> Um, then I went and played college

baseball and the only time in my life

was my freshman year. I was in New

Jersey.

>> I was away from everybody. I focused

solely on sports and college and I was

all region, all conference and played

well and I was away from that. And then

the next year when I came to USC

Sumpter, I was close to home, back

hanging out with with my boys and I

started to get back into that lifestyle

of, oh, my mom needs help, so I'm gonna

and she did, but I almost used as excuse

to, you know, I'm going to sell drugs.

I'm going to still participate in these

things even though I knew I shouldn't.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah, man. One of the main things, you

know, a lot of people um struggle with

is, you know, identifying with past

versions of themselves and seeing where

they do want to go and where they could

be at. Uh it sounds like you were

dealing with that and um you know

completely leaving you know the past in

the past and then stepping over and

turning that new leaf you know uh after

that uh first stint and then you know

you went to college and playing

baseball. You could say that you were

doing relatively well and then you know

that segueed into an even more serious

situation you know that led to a 7 and

1/2 year sentence. Um you know one thing

that I I really admire about you is your

mindset. you know how impenetrable uh it

seems to the outside whether that may be

what it is to you or not you know that's

the vibe that you give off and

>> you know in a serious situation like

that you know seven and a half years to

think about you know what you've done uh