Meet Michael B. Allen

 

We recently connected with Michael B. Allen and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael B., thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic is an internal drive that came from and was fostered by my mother and the history of her dad, my grandfather. My grandfather was a shop owner, landowner and businessman. He had several children of which my mother was the youngest daughter. Pappa Red Rimes and her brothers and sisters instilled the value of hard, good and high-quality work into my mom, and she passed these traits onto me. I began working, as a little boy at 8 years old. I worked with my mom’s oldest brother, Vasco Rimes, who was an agricultural farmer (fruits and vegetables), an animal and livestock farmer, a landowner and salesman (Watermelon). Uncle Sugga’ or Big Vas, as he was often affectionately called, would pick me up in his big, beautiful Cadillac or his pickup truck on most Saturday mornings. I laid irrigation pipe, drove his tractors, drove his watermelon trucks in the fields and took his harvest to market on the streets of my hometown and many times to surrounding counties to sell watermelon. My mother, at one point had three jobs at the same time. She was a single mom with three children. We would tease her that she had a job for each of us! So, this strong sense of doing for yourself, by working hard and doing your best job was embedded in me from a young age and has persisted throughout my entire adult life. Working is a means to an end – the ends that include having your own home, land, car, other materials things and most importantly, delivering on your promise to take care of yourself and your family! I grew up in the Methodist Church and I remember reading a verse of scripture that basically said, if you don’t work you don’t eat! Since eating is a daily need, I learned early on that in order to eat daily, I had to have earned my food which came from having money to buy food – to eat daily. Since I enjoy a great meal and don’t expect others to buy it for me, I choose to work to take care of myself and my family. My basic needs drive my work ethic, and I pray that I’ve passed this quality of self-reliance onto my son! The short answer to the question of where I got my work ethic from can be answered by saying my momma and other adults in our family!

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am from a small town in Florida, called Leesburg. I was born in 1963 to a single mother, Hazel D. Rimes. My mom had two daughters, Deborah and Marveen. We grew up with immeasurable love and support from our mother. We attended church as a family when we were children. Our mother stressed the importance of loving God, loving each other, getting an education, working hard, giving to others and staying out of trouble. After finishing high school, I attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (better known as FAMU) in Tallahassee Florida. I am a journalism major in the sequence of public relations. I never officially worked in public relations, other than my college internship for the Gantt Report (Lucius Gantt, Owner), also in Tallahassee. I worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry for over 30 years for several companies as a salesperson, sales trainer, sales manager and director. I have owned two additional businesses, prior to starting Surrender Your Hate, LLC and Let Life Live, Inc. – a 501c3 organization. I had a boyhood dream of owning a men’s clothing store, which I named Zachary Christian’s Mens Clothing. I have also owned a home healthcare service, which I named Maximum Health Outcomes. Both of these businesses were located in the Atlanta Georgia metro area. Both are now defunct. As I ended my pharmaceutical career in November of 2021, I moved onto my fulltime passion, which officially began in May of 2020. I started Surrender Your Hate, LLC after the George Floyd murder by the Minneapolis Police. As a father, I could no longer do nothing – nothing to help stop the senseless killing of humans, via any form of violence; which includes gun violence. So, I’m on a gun violence prevention mission with Surrender Your Hate and my nonprofit, Let Life Live, Inc. I provide education and training to youth and their parents on conflict resolution, de-escalation strategies and relationship building skills. Most recently I became an Author, with the book I titled, “31 Days of Surrender: Respecting Life Every Day.”

I am now on a daily mission to reach children and their parents to help them learn to manage their anger. To learn how to respect themselves and the lives of others. I encourage people to look inside themselves to be more compassionate and empathetic and to value life for the gift it is! I have developed several workshops on conflict resolution and de-escalation strategies that I share with schools, parents, businesses, and community organizations that are interested in ending gun violence and developing strategies to help everyone return home safely – every day! I’m on a book tour promoting 31 different words of reflection that encourages people to develop their “family plan” that will help them manage their conflicts, anger and differences. Doing so, inside the home, will help them manage their interactions with people outside the home who may be potentially violent. De-escalation and managing conflict skills are essential building blocks for the development of a civilized society – free from gun violence. We must re-learn how to interact with one another, even before we can learn to love one another. My book speaks to both of these areas of human development and socialization. 31 Days of Surrender: Respecting Life Every Day is a tool that can be used to teach, reintroduce civility between human beings. This more humane approach toward the lives of others will have a positive effect in the fight against gun violence. Hopefully, each person will come to realize that their are better solutions to our problems than the use of gun – especially against our children. Children truly are the future of society. Ending gun violence helps sustain the continuation of civilized interactions between people!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I have had the honor and responsibility to hire salespeople or sales managers. In so doing, I developed three principles that have helped me find the right candidate and that has helped me manage my own performance and development to this point in my work career. Those three principles are Product Knowledge, Adult Responsibility and Work Ethic. While I used these concepts to assist me in my evaluation of others, they have also been applicable in my own endeavors, both professionally and personally. The main points of each of these concepts is that one must have a compass, an internal guide. Product Knowledge suggest having the education and understanding required to effectively execute the duties of the job. Adult Responsibility or Accountability suggest to me that I or you, must be honest and truthful with yourself and others. Work ethic has been my driver, my gas pedal and my steering wheel. One’s own ethic, own focus is the gas that is needed to fuel the positive action, whatever the action. I encourage the reader to develop their own principles that guide them toward their desires, their goals that leads them to their passion, their purpose!

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I want to expand my services to the entire country. I have partnered with a couple organizations with similar missions and have secured a few volunteers to assist my nonprofit. I have appeared on a Christian television station and am tentatively scheduled to have a radio interview to help support my book. I am in need of several resources, including funding for the nonprofit and paid speaking opportunities to offer free training workshops to children and their parents. I am working on a media kit to introduce my book and workshop services. I need assistance with my social media, websites and my nonprofit CRM system. I am also seeking additional partnerships with various groups, community outreach, sports teams and radio and television personalities.

If interested in assisting me in any of these areas, please contact me at 404-944-9951 or [email protected]. My websites are: www.surrenderyourhate.com and www.letlifeliveinc.org. They each have a contact form that will reach me.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Surrender Your Hate, LLC and Let Life Live, Inc.

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