So if you don't feel like you're up to that place right now, to run a marathon, how do

you start training for a marathon?

By running.

By running more, and running more.

Baby steps.

Take it as you can take it to grow, and to work those muscles, develop those muscles.

And if you're willing to go through the pains and the ebbs and the flows, and the new shoes

and the blisters and the whatever you've got to go through to get to that goal, you will

run that marathon.

Tom: Hey, [00:00:30] everybody.

Welcome to Impact Theory.

You are here, my friends, because you believe that human potential is nearly limitless,

but you know that having potential is not the same as actually doing something with

it, so our goal with this show and company is to introduce you to the people and ideas

that will help you actually execute on your dreams.

Today's guest is an award-winning rapper, actor, author, entrepreneur, and political

figure who's made a career out of not letting people put him in a box.

When everyone told him that his dream of becoming [00:01:00] the first ever Native American

rapper was ridiculous, instead of bowing his head and slinking away, he founded his own

record label and signed himself.

This is pre-internet, boys and girls.

He did not complain about not having money or connections.

He just got to work.

Over his career, he's recorded 11 albums, toured around the world, performed hundreds

and hundreds and hundreds of concerts, and launched a thriving clothing line along the

way.

He's also starred in feature films such as The Indian in the Cupboard, Mortal Kombat,

Kull the Conqueror, as well [00:01:30] as monster TV shows like House of Cards and CSI:

Miami.

An enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and a vocal proponent and lobbyist for Native

American issues, he has leveraged his celebrity and talents to draw attention to the issues

faced by indigenous people.

He's testified before Congress multiple times on Native issues and proven that he's just

as comfortable lobbying on Capitol Hill in a business suit as he is rocking at a rap

video in a fitted cap and baggy pants.

His diverse and seemingly endless stream of accomplishments [00:02:00] is due to a relentless

mind set that refuses to back down from any challenge, and a deep drive to give back.

Those aren't just words for him, and his evidence of that; in a single year, he clocked 54,000

miles.

That's the equivalent of driving around the earth twice, criss-crossing North America,

to inspire people living on reservations and show them it does not matter where you start.

It only matters where you're willing to go.

So please, help me in welcoming the CEO [00:02:30] of Davis Strategy Group and the host of the

Litefoot show, the executive director of the Native American Financial Services Association,

Gary Litefoot Davis.

Gary: Wow.

Tom: How you doing?

Gary: Very good.

Good to be here.

Tom: It's a pleasure.

Gary: Awesome.

Tom: Thanks for coming on.

Gary: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Glad to be here.

Tom: Dude, it's awesome to have you.

Hearing your story, obviously it's a very unconventional tale of success.

Gary: Right.

Tom: And it started from something pretty powerful.

Walk me through what happened [00:03:00] with the financial collapse for your family, what

that led to, and what your parents taught you through that hard times is pretty amazing.

Gary: Yeah, I had grown up with a father that had shown me, a grandfather that had also

shown me hard work; and that through hard work, we can accomplish providing for our

family, if nothing else.

That we can show them that maybe we didn't have these things when we grew up, but we

[00:03:30] can give back if we just get a very clear-cut idea of what we can do, however

small that it might be to make an impact.

For my grandfather, it was way tougher.

He had a way tougher start in school, had run away from a very well-known Indian boarding

school in Oklahoma and hitchhiked back all the way with his little brother to Claremore,

Oklahoma.

Right outside of Claremore, Oklahoma.

[00:04:00] He, his whole life, taught himself resiliency and showed us resiliency; that

you can do things that will help motivate other people, and my father was the beneficiary

of that.

He saw that it was possible to be an entrepreneur, and then myself, I would see both of these

guys.

My grandfather at that point, very well along in his years, getting up every morning and

going to work at 4:00 in the morning- Tom: Wow.

Gary: ... in very hot Oklahoma weather in the summer, then coming home and working [00:04:30]

all evening in the garden, and I couldn't get enough of that.

I wanted to be around him as much as I possibly could.

Then my father, seeing him do everything that he needed to do, even if it meant taking it

into his own hands to get it done, and just me through osmosis absorbing all of this and

seeing these two men do very, very great things for our family.

And then in a turn of events, we lost everything.

It [00:05:00] was pretty devastating.

We went from having a decent sort of middle-class life to really having to lose our home and

end up living with my grandparents, and the burden that that put on them, and then I had

to sort of forgo school for a year to get out of that and go work.

Not that they forced me to do that; I just feel like, look, these guys have a load on

them, and what can I do to help?

So I went and got a job, and tried [00:05:30] to contribute the best that I could with my

paycheck to provide groceries and food.

I just probably didn't realize it then, but I was building this feeling that I need to

do as much as I possibly can so that we never have to go through this situation again, so

that as an adult, things will be different for me.

I was fighting, and I was fighting to try to make sure that I kept moving forward.

And I realized that if it was going to happen for me, [00:06:00] I probably was going to

have to make it happen.

That there was going to be no way that somebody's going to swoop in and just put it in my lap,

and that it was just all going to be there for me.

Tom: When did you start thinking that?

'Cause that's a pretty incredible moment of awakening that shuts most people down.

Gary: Right.

Tom: But it definitely didn't shut you down, so at what age do you start actually thinking

in that way?

Gary: Around that time that things started to fall apart with my parents' marriage.

Even in high school, there was this sort of guy [00:06:30] that was the it guy on the

team, and one other guy that his father had built the stadium, so he was going to play,

regardless of what happened and regardless of how good he was, so I started to learn

these lessons; that it's not always about how good you are or how talented you are.

You have to work 10 times as hard to cut through some of this.

And as I was going through this, I lost my grandparents.

Both of them, within a very short period of time.

So here I am, I think sort of being forged in the flames [00:07:00] to realize that you

really can depend on yourself.

You of course have to have many great people around you, but I knew that if it was going

to happen for me, I had to keep moving forward.

And maybe that was a stumble.

Maybe it was a crawl.

Maybe it was just barely trying to put one thing in front of the other during that time,

but I kept pushing forward.

I kept moving forward, and I think that's one of the lessons I still carry forward with

me to this day.

When I see things getting tough, or when I see things that seem insurmountable to other

people, [00:07:30] I know we just have to stay the course.

We have to stay focused, and we keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The key is to keep moving.

That's something that I think really was that turning point for me.

Tom: But there were people that had that same belief, but they didn't make it.

So what is it that people can cultivate, like right now, the kid that's listening to you

that for whatever reason, whether he's Native American or not, he's being told the same

thing.

Whatever you want to do, it's ridiculous.

What can they do to make sure they've got the fortitude to last through the whole [00:08:00]

Rez tour ... How do you build that in yourself?

Gary: Every experience that comes your way is a tool.

When we lost our home, and we had to go live with my grandparents, I understand that these

are just material things.

That that doesn't define you.

It doesn't make you.

So when you get these challenges, when you have these things that come up in your life,

continue to move forward.

Now, how do you get to that place where you come back and move forward, and that you [00:08:30]

become very intentional about it?

I just did one of our footnotes that's sort of a daily motivational inspirational thing

about baby steps.

Baby steps.

Become intentional about what it is that you're going to do.

Nobody in your family may have done that.

Nobody in your community, your city, your country may have done that.

But if that's what's been put here for you, take it in baby steps.

Begin to see how that you're going to move forward.

It's exactly what I did once I came and understood my purpose, and I understood what it is that

I was supposed to be doing.

I sat down and created [00:09:00] a plan as to how I was going to go about deploying that.

And I think that's what you really have to do, and take it in baby steps.

Don't try to do the whole thing at once.

Sit it down, look at it, break it down, rebuild it, put it back together, and then assign

timeframes to everything that you want to accomplish, and break it down in phases.

And then focus everything you have on that phase.

Tom: How do you do that, by the way?

I heard you say this in probably the footnote you're talking about, where you said, "Okay,

I start with where I'm trying to get.

This is my goal.

And then I work backwards to where I am today."

Gary: Right.

Tom: "And [00:09:30] I identify each of those baby steps that I have to take."

How do you do that process?

This is a question I get asked a lot, because I'm totally with you; that's exactly what

I do.

But I'm not sure how to explain that in between.

How do you get good at identifying the real, tangible steps?

Gary: We only know what we know right now about what we want to do, right?

There could be things out there that will be so much more awesome, but we just don't

know what we don't know.

Tom: Right.

Gary: And to the best of our ability, what we can say is, [00:10:00] here's where I am

right now.

I can put a weight point right there.

I can mark that.

And I know that I want to do X.

And this is that thing.

So if I'm going to step back, now what I've got to do is go to work.

I've got to study every single bit of that, and understand every iteration.

If it's to make an album, what are all the steps in making an album?

From content creation to music production to mastering to editing to recording the record,

what are all the [00:10:30] business aspects of things that go into that?

Who do I need to sing on all these 10 songs?

How many are going to have a chorus that somebody sings?

How many ... So I start to understand what I have to do, and what I'm going to need other

people to do.

And then I start to think, okay, well, what's the money going to be?

How much do I have to put from a money point of view into each phase?

Each phase has a capital raise that I have to ascertain all of these other things, but

what am I going to do to have to put into this to make it become a reality?

And so that's where I'm focused on.

Once I hone in on all of these things, yes, it's to [00:11:00] be on tour with somebody,

right?

But first, I have to have a record.

I have to have an album.

Tom: And do you model after somebody?

If you're trying to do an album, do you find somebody that you can feta lot of information

from and then copy that as a starting point, or how do you do that process?

Gary: I think every successful person always looks at other successful people, especially