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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, host Micah Johnson welcomes former Olympian and boxing champion Arthur Flash Johnson. Arthur shares his inspiring journey from a challenging upbringing in East St. Louis to becoming a successful athlete and now a community leader. He discusses the importance of giving back, emphasizing how his experiences in boxing have shaped his desire to help at-risk youth through the Arthur Johnson Foundation. The conversation highlights the significance of access to opportunities and mentorship in transforming lives, as well as Arthur’s current project focused on building a community center that will serve as a safe haven for kids, offering various programs beyond boxing.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Arthur Johnson (00:00)
the career was great. The career was ⁓ awesome.But what I do after the career is more important than what I did in it. So I think that’s what I want to be most remembered for. I have a friend that says his name is Mike and he goes, says, man, you you were a great athlete. He says, but, but the one thing that, that sticks with, with me most importantly is how you get back to the community
Micah Johnson (00:09)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Arthur Flash Johnson, who’s been making some serious moves in real estate now for quite some time. Arthur, welcome in, man, glad to have you.Arthur Johnson (02:15)
Thank you, thank you. I’m glad to be with you now. Glad to be with you as well.Micah Johnson (02:21)
I’m excited for you to be here today. Not often we get to talk to former Olympians and folks doing what you’re doing in the, just with your life, post-boxing and how you’re still involved, how you’re using it to make change. I think our listeners really gonna take some value away from how you’re approaching that and what you’ve continued to do. So let’s dive in. For those out there that may not know you yet, tell us a little bit about yourself and what your main focus is right now.Arthur Johnson (02:45)
Well, my name is Arthur Johnson. That’s the regular name, Arthur Johnson, but the boxing world knows me by flash. Everybody calls me Arthur Flash Johnson and a lot of people just call me flash. My background is basically athletics as a kid, you know, growing up. I watched guys like Muhammad Ali, who with if you if you followed my career, if you know anything about me that I’m from that staple, I’m from the staple of Muhammad Ali and. ⁓Uh, Angelo Dundee, who was Muhammad Ali’s manager. So those guys managed me, uh, the Angelo Dundee crew. And, um, so, uh, make a long story short. I’ve had to shorten it up. Uh, I started from, from an amateur, my amateur day, uh, here in city of East St. Louis. East St. Louis is a great city to be, be from. There’s a lot of champions from this.
from place called East St. Louis. You have your Jackie Jordan’s of the world, the Al Jordan’s, you just have, and the list goes on and on of champions that come out of that place called East St. Louis. Well, now I live a little bit away from East St. Louis these days. I live here in North Valley, but ⁓ again, I started off as a one in the box. And from there, ⁓ things ⁓ continued to prosper for me.
Micah Johnson (03:48)
future.Arthur Johnson (04:07)
Of course, there was some setbacks. Of there’s always setbacks when you’re when you’re going for things like that. but beyond the setbacks, the rough, the bump roads, the hills, the mountains, the valleys and all of that, we came through a great amateur career. We topped it off with being able to go to the Olympics and advancing to the round of 16. And then from the, before the Olympics, was a gold medalist in the Goodwill games. In fact, I was the only.gold medalists in the Goodwill games. the first year of the Goodwill games and, and I was chosen the outstanding boxer from there. had a professional career where I went on to win about three, world championships, ⁓ four, four world titles total. And so, ⁓ it’s, been a blessing to have seen the world. I think I’ve seen the world. ⁓ and I’m just really putting it lightly about two times for sure solidly.
Micah Johnson (05:03)
youArthur Johnson (05:52)
So, so now when I travel these days, it’s just basically to get a go and just kind of relax. Cause when I used to travel back in the day of competition, it was all business. was, was nothing fun about it. It was, it was, was business. And you, showed up and you didn’t want to, you didn’t want to go back home without capturing, you know, what you set out to capture, you know, the win, the victory, the title, ⁓ because,Let me say this, it’s a long trip back home where we don’t work out the way you planned, but that’s OK. It’s all it’s all a part of learning as well. It’s all a part of learning and so that’s what I do now with kids in my community. We have the Arthur Johnson Foundation. Again, I live here in North Valley, IL, but I drive down about 252530 minutes from here and with my foundation we give at this you.
an opportunity to be able do something different with their lives, rather than going out, getting in trouble, or sticking somebody up, or just doing things that they shouldn’t be doing. sometimes, I’ve run across all kinds of kids, all kinds of characters, all kinds of situations and home lives and things of that nature that affect these kids. And so,
We’ve been able to help a whole lot of kids and I think that’s the thing that makes me sleep very, very good at night. It’s cause you know I’m I’m tired.
Micah Johnson (07:28)
Ilove that, man. No, I love that. Because access is one of the most important things. When you have access to a different option that allows you to do what it takes to even box at a low level, right? To do just the mental toughness that it takes, the physical toughness. You start to discipline yourself in a certain way. You start to care yourself in a way which is really, it’s what all of us need to learn from somewhere.
Arthur Johnson (07:33)
Yeah.Yes, exactly.
Micah Johnson (07:54)
It’s whether that’s a healthy home life or from the gym in this way, having that access to something that just shows, Hey, this is just part of becoming a better human. This is how you do it. This is how you ultimately, this is what growing up is like. You’re learning early. It’s not always good, but there’s mountains and there’s valleys. The valleys make the mountains worth it. And that’s applying. And that’s why I even learned in my own life, applying those hard lessons through sports. They reverberate way out into your life, no matter what you’re doing, becauseArthur Johnson (08:07)
youMicah Johnson (08:24)
Like you were saying about traveling to box. Once you become a professional at something, it is business. It is not a hobby anymore. It’s do you have fun doing it? Probably you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t want to, but it doesn’t mean it does not take the mental edge, the understanding. We’re not here to play. This is a very serious thing. And the serious thing that you particularly do is, is box andLet me ask this, how did that transition for you into the foundation world? How was that helpful in building that understanding, you know, this is how I want to give back.
Arthur Johnson (08:55)
Well, you know, I always saw that, ⁓ you know,I always saw myself giving back. think we’re all born with some good in us. So for me, when I see ⁓ individuals struggling with certain things in the community, I always thought that my heart just kind of went out to the person who had a disadvantage.
Micah Johnson (09:08)
Right, I agree.Arthur Johnson (09:28)
I know that because I had a brother and I had a sister who were born with disadvantages. And so my heart has always been open to that sort of thing. so when I, know, the career took off, I always thought about giving back. I always thought about this is how I would like to make a difference. so that’s the…the sort of the thing that kind of resided in me. My mom was a great teacher of giving back. was a great teacher of, you know, showing love to our
And so you can’t go wrong with that sort of example that you have before you. And so that was the thing that ⁓ for me, I thought would make a ⁓ huge difference. I often think about this. I think about the phase of
the career was great. The career was ⁓ awesome.
But what I do after the career is more important than what I did in it. So I think that’s what I want to be most remembered for. I have a friend that says his name is Mike and he goes, says, man, you you were a great athlete. He says, but, but the one thing that, that sticks with, with me most importantly is how you get back to the
Micah Johnson (11:06)
Mm, what?Arthur Johnson (11:27)
And, and, you know,with, with, with compliments like that. ⁓ you know, I don’t do it for compliments. ⁓ but he’s just one of those guys that’s traveled with me around the, around the globe. And he is seeing how, ⁓ the difference, ⁓ that, that we make, you know, in, in, ⁓ in, in our youth and the community’s lives. And so, and the app, so that’s what I want to be known for at the end of the day. ⁓ someone that,
tried to help build up his community and gave back and who showed love that way. And it’s like night and day. It was like in the career I was mean, was rough on stuff. had to be. So the other thing.
Micah Johnson (12:14)
Right. Right.Business
Well, you nailed a few things. One thing I want to point out real quick in terms of that compliment that you got, one of my mentors I work with, he’s in his later 60s, he tells me,
You don’t get to say you’re a good husband. You don’t get to say you’re a good dad. You don’t get to say you’re a good friend. Your friends get to say that. Your kids get to say that. Your wife gets to say that. So when it’s, when you’re focused on, okay, doing and being the thing that allows someone to even say that back, once they say it, now it’s not so much, oh, look at me kind of thing versus a nice, I’m pulling this off. It’s actually working because you don’t trust everybody’s opinion.
Arthur Johnson (12:44)
Yeah.Micah Johnson (13:01)
And when somebodythat’s close to you that way, that’s been around you for a long time says, Hey man, I saw you in the day and I see you now and the person you are now is just an incredible thing. Like bingo. Cause one of the things I love about professional athletes, I did try to be one. was my dream to be one and play professional golf. And that was one of the things that drove me too was that foundation idea. And there’s so many good athletes out there that I love that heart about them. That it’s this
Arthur Johnson (13:09)
And I’m going take a few get backMicah Johnson (13:28)
Yes, you get to enjoy some personal pleasures and the titles and the things, all that’s great, but it’s all a means to an end for something else. creates the platformto do this mission that’s in your heart for, I mean, you’re a unique guy. You pulled off what you pulled off and you had those unique skills to do it and trained yourself and went through all the things. And now the payoff is even bigger than you could have imagined because of those things. And that’s where, man, it’s one thing I love about really good professional athletes with that heart.
You create such a platform to give back. Not many other things do that.
Arthur Johnson (14:04)
Yeah, I mean, you know, had a coach and just when you were talking, you brought something back to my memory and that was something that I spent a lot of hours with my trainer. he would say to me, would say, Arthur, this is the boxing world. It’s actually, it’s not the real world. It’s not the real world. And what he meant by that was thatThe real world is tough. The real world is troubled. The real world is, ⁓ you know, whatever ailment, sickness, know, disease, you might be dealing with that. That’s the real world. You get to live in this make-believe world, Arthur, that you’ve worked to be in. And so there’s a lot of people that doesn’t know what that’s like. And so whenever someone would, you know, would compliment me or whatever someone would…
you know, reach out to me in a way, ⁓ you know, he would say, you know, what you do is that you owe that person that nice respond.
You owe that person that kind, that gentleness. You owe that because you’ve been gifted with something. And so ⁓ looking at it from the perspective that he would, you know, he would often remind me, my trainer, I mean, I just kind of felt that
And that’s the way to go out. That’s the way to be. I could be called once, you know, fighting tough fights. had a kid one time waiting outside of my locker room and all he wanted was a signature. mean, and ⁓ what if I would have been a jerk and said, you know what, man, my hands hurt. I’m hurting my face is boost busted up and get them away from that. Those thoughts never even crossed my mind ⁓ because I know that my response was going to impact this kid for the rest of his life.
Micah Johnson (16:29)
Mm.Arthur Johnson (16:35)
And he would have that thought about Flash Johnson for the rest of his days. Some people don’t care about that, but I gotta tell you, I care about that deeply. ⁓Micah Johnson (16:36)
of his life.Yeah.
Yeah, because it’s a unique position you were able to be in. when you when you have that mentality to even in the hardest time, show that grace and show that love to people because you’re you every day. You got this. were the guy signing the autograph for everybody. But each of those were individual people. They only got one. Right. Like and it’s like you’re saying, you don’t know where they’re coming from. You don’t know what it took for them to get to that door to be able to even how much courage it took them
to ask just to do that by simply saying, yeah, man, here you go. It can unlock their life. A simple thing is just that as someone showing kindness from a position above them, someone they respect as an authority, it does that, man. It reverberates. It reminds me of, and I may butcher this story, but you said you were from the Muhammad Ali camp. And one thing, there was a story I loved about Muhammad Ali where he’s, I think it’s in a restaurant. We was talking about how people treated the servers.
And it stuck with me forever. Like if you treat them poorly, you treat everyone poorly. Like you’re going to treat me poorly if you do that. And it just was like, Whoa, how true is that? It’s, really revealing as to once how you start to look at people around you and the way you treat them, knowing if they’ll do that, they’ll do it to me. And do
Arthur Johnson (17:49)
Yeah. Yeah.Micah Johnson (18:05)
I want to be known as that? Right. Like, and it’s, I don’t.Arthur Johnson (18:05)
Right.Micah Johnson (18:09)
I don’t want to do that. And I’ve also learned that when you do the opposite way, more good stuff comes your way. When you build in that space and build in that, you know, environment that’s inviting to people, it doesn’t suck the life out of you at all. It helps you sleep at night. It makes you feel good about what you’re doing.Arthur Johnson (18:20)
Exactly. It does. does. does. does. You know, being from that stable, being around, ⁓ you know, guys like ⁓ Angelo andcourse, the sports world would know him and of course, cause he had all the champions George Foreman. Then this goes on and on, man. Just all these guys. And so, you know, we were all, you know, in a sense connected and, it was just kind of, it was a great something to have experienced. And so when I, when I think about my opportunity, the opportunity that I had now, it wasn’t that it was just something that was,
Micah Johnson (18:44)
Yeah. ⁓Arthur Johnson (19:04)
given to me as a kid, because I grew up in the rough part of town. I grew up in the projects. I grew up around gangs. I grew up around drugs. I grew up around all that stuff. I made the choice that I wasn’t going to be that way, that this was not going to be my story. so it’s a thing now as ⁓ I look back on it, and it helps me toreally kind of ⁓ be relatable. ⁓ That’s what makes me relatable to ⁓ a lot of the kids that we work with. And so we push them forward in the positive direction.
Micah Johnson (19:40)
Right?You decided to overcome and then you created a doorway for others to follow you. I think that’s the biggest legacy anybody can build is we all have the chance and opportunity, especially in America, to do something with our life. We can make that choice to do the hard things that create the life we want. And the ones that I hold in the highest regard are folks that when they do it, turn around and build that doorway. Okay, here’s how I did it. Here’s, I did all this hard stuff for you.
or for me, and then benefit of that, this all got done for you. Here’s an easier way to walk, a simpler way to do it, man. That’s the stuff that changes the world. Like that’s where the cliche truly comes true is when that access gets left behind. okay, shifting gears, we are a real estate podcast. So speaking of building, you now use real estate in a unique way for your foundation. So let’s dig in on your current project for that and what the future holds there.
Arthur Johnson (20:23)
you .my goodness. Man, this Cairn project that we’re building, it’s been a long time coming, of course, right? So we’ve done the buildup for it. So we’re here now. the ground has been broke. And anytime now, they’re going to start building. Now, my hope is that they won’t be building and then call me and say, hey, Arthur, everything’s going up. So no, I need to get over there and check that out. I want to go over there check that out before…
Micah Johnson (20:58)
Right.you
Arthur Johnson (21:20)
you know, before all that, you know, that all that stuff start going up. ⁓ But in any event, so basically the groundwork, you know, for, you know, for that was was raising the funds that we had to raise to first of all, get the property. And so the property is that we.It’s probably about my goodness, three, four blocks long, ⁓ property. and so, I’m not sure if that’s visible on the site, our foundation site. ⁓ but, ⁓ that’s that, that was just start. That’s the start of it, getting the property. And then from there, ⁓ having the, ⁓ the, ⁓ images created, images made what we wanted.
Micah Johnson (22:15)
Mm.Arthur Johnson (22:16)
it to look like what we wanted to look like. Because I’ve said this before to our wife and to many others, this foundation, this center is going to outlive us. This is what we’ll lead. This is what folks will remember ⁓ about us. So that’s the first part of it. So the first part of getting the real estate, getting the property.Micah Johnson (22:32)
Mm.Arthur Johnson (22:46)
And so we had a little challenge with trying to get that property because that property was ⁓ something that seemed like it was locked and closed. And so it took a lot of work to get that property. And I’m going to say this, it was probably about, my wife would probably say different, probably about a couple of years of trying to get that site that we wanted. And soMicah Johnson (22:52)
Yeah.Wow.
Arthur Johnson (23:15)
We finally got that site. And so that was the start of it, getting the site and then, you know, building it up to having those funds, ⁓ to be able to start this project in the right direction. This is what we want. We’re building that first phase and then that first, after that first phase, that second phase comes on. And, ⁓ so we’re looking very forward to, so any day now, any day, ⁓ things could be really, you know, ⁓ going.So yeah.
Micah Johnson (23:45)
And what’sthat vision for the project when it’s done, will you have built?
Arthur Johnson (23:51)
Oh, okay. So we would have built more like, I call it a safe haven for the kids in the community. There’s going to be not just boxing there. There’s going to be other things involved there. Maybe places where folks will maybe need to hold meetings for their own organizations. And maybe we can work hand in hand withMicah Johnson (23:59)
Okay.Arthur Johnson (24:18)
Other organizations and again, not just boxing, but whether it’s other things that they do ⁓ other other kid programs. Like, I know they have ⁓ a system of. I ⁓ want to call it like a court system where kids want to be involved with law or they want to be involved with being an attorney someday or maybe a judge someday.All those kinds, there’s a program out there for that. And so I’ve connected with, I’ve connected with who’s who. I’ve just been working to connect with who’s who and so that we could come together because I think we’re more powerful together than individually. So that’s what we’ve done. We build these rapport with these other organizations. so, and maybe when I think about
Micah Johnson (25:05)
I’mArthur Johnson (25:15)
you know, some of the other organizations there again, there’s different organizations where there’s ⁓ again, not just boxing, but you got basketball, you got, you’ve got, ⁓ you know, football, you’ve got, there’s a lot of things that can, can really kind of transpire from what we build or what we’re building. And, and the place is going to be, not enough commercial land that allows for other activities ⁓ to ⁓you know, to take place there. So, so we’re looking forward to working with those other organizations and, you know, kind of, bringing that, you know, bringing that, that vision, you know, in as what I’ve always envisioned and not just a boxing program, but something much bigger than that, much bigger.
Micah Johnson (26:07)
love that man. And I like how specific about the space you were when you’re willing to wait for something that long, like you’re building something good. You do have a vision in mind and just even creating more access. That’s what I hear you talking about. Not just what other interests are out there. How do we build a facility big enough where we can start to gather more people in, build that safe haven, bring those different programs, man. That’s powerful stuff. Arthur, I really appreciate your time and your story today. Thank you so much for joining me.For those out there listening and watching that’d be interested in learning more about you and the foundation possibly being involved. What’s the best way for them to find you and get a hold of you?
Arthur Johnson (26:44)
Well, they can go to the site. The site is thearthurjohnsonfoundation.org and make sure the name is spelled right. A-R-T-H-U-R because a lot of people say A-U-T-H-O-R. So it’s Arthur A-R-T-H-U-R, Johnson, Arthur Johnson Foundation.org. Or they can reach out to me through email. They can go Arthur Johnson Foundation 20012001 at gmail.com.Micah Johnson (26:56)
HahahaArthur Johnson (27:14)
⁓ we also have a Facebook page. we’re, visible. We’re, definitely visible. So you can also Google Arthur Johnson Foundation. You’ve also Google the flash boxing program because the flash boxing program is under the Arthur Johnson foundation. So there’s a number of ways they can get ahold of us. And, and, ⁓ we’re out there. We’re visible. We’ve been, we’ve been, ⁓ we’ve been, you know, out there making it happen. I want to, I want to choose, choose the right words to say. ⁓We’re going out there throwing blows. We’re going out there throwing punches, So, and we’re going to continue to throw punches for our community. We’re going to continue to, you know, march in that right direction that we need to go. And because at the end of the day, we want to leave that legacy that, you know, we’re here, we’re here for our community. And that’s, and I think that’s the love that we want to leave. That’s the imprint.
Micah Johnson (27:49)
That’s it.Arthur Johnson (28:14)
That’s the autograph that we want to leave.Micah Johnson (28:19)
And that 2001 in your email is not ironic or there by chance. Y’all are now 25 years with your foundation open. That’s when it started. So y’all been around there doing this a long time, man. I appreciate that on behalf of humanity. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. For listening out there.Arthur Johnson (28:35)
Thank you. Thank you for havingMicah Johnson (28:40)
Thank you again for joining in. If you got value out of today’s episode, first check the show notes. You’ll find all Arthur’s links there so you can reach out, find out more about what he’s got going on.And if you got value out of today, please like this episode, share it with someone else you think can get value out of it. And as always, don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast. We appreciate every single one of you out there that’s following along with us. We have more conversations coming up with operators just like Arthur who are out there doing something real in the space, changing lives for good. So thanks for joining us today. We’ll see you in the next episode.
