Shawn Ryan Show
#182 King Randall, I - Rescuing a Lost Generation from Gangs, Crime and Chaos
Wed, 12 Mar 2025
King Randall, I is the founder of The X for Boys, and a mentor to hundreds of young men in his community. Randall's organization is a charter school in Albany Georgia that aims to teach boys the true meaning of masculinity, manhood, and how to be protectors and providers in their communities through various programs including automotive repair workshops, construction training, and a book club. The school focuses on traditional academics, trade skills, firearms training, and the science of family and manhood. Randall's work has gained national attention, and he continues to advocate for male youth development through his organization and school. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://ShawnLikesGold.com | 855-936-GOLD #goldcopartner https://tryarmra.com/srs https://patriotmobile.com/srs | 972-PATRIOT Head to https://lumen.me/srs for 20% off your purchase. https://ziprecruiter.com/srs https://ROKA.com - USE CODE "SRS" https://babbel.com/srs Upgrade your wardrobe and save on trueclassic at trueclassic.com/srs #trueclassicpod https://betterhelp.com/srs https://drinkhoist.com - USE CODE "SRS" King Randall, I Links: The X for Boys - https://thexforboys.org LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/king-randall YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@NewEmergingKing Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/newemergingking Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is King Randall and what is The X for Boys?
King Randall, welcome to the show, man. Man, thanks for having me. Glad to be here. It's my honor. I love, love, love what you're doing down in Albany, and I've been really looking forward to this interview. Yes, sir. I appreciate it. You got a lot of fans in Albany, too.
I mentioned it to a couple of people, and they were like, you aren't aware. Really? Yeah.
Got fans down there. Yes, sir. Damn, that's cool to hear. That's cool to hear. Well, I'm going to start you off with an introduction here. King Randall, you graduated culinary school at age 17. You were a former United States Marine, a leader in your community, and a role model and mentor for many young men, and you're only 25 years old.
In 2019, you founded the X for Boys program to fight back against the high crime rate in your community by stepping up to mentor young men. This is the only rehabilitative program for juvenile offenders in South Georgia. That's surprising, man. In August 2022, you founded the Life Preparatory School for Boys, the first free all-boys boarding school in South Georgia.
The school's motto, Let's Make Men Reflect Your Vision. You earned the 2019 Larry Sanders Legacy Award, the 2021 B1 Education Award,
and the 2023 dreamstone award from dr martin luther king jr's family yep wednesday tomorrow you'll be going to the white house yep and most importantly probably out of every not probably out of everything you're a father to three boys yes yes so man and you're a christian yes absolutely
Born and raised Christian.
Really?
Grandmother was a preacher. Grandfather down in Florida, my dad's father preaching. I played the drums my whole life. My grandmother used to have church at home. So we used to have people come to the house, and my grandmother had me this little drum set, and I started playing the drums there. This was before my grandmother could afford to get us a church.
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Chapter 2: How did King Randall's upbringing influence his mission?
He's just like, oh, we got to go practice, you know, whatever like that. Now he wants to practice at six because he understands that he's good now. He likes being good. So now he likes to practice. But before, when he was like four and five, he like, I don't want to play baseball anymore. I want to play something else because he thought it was easier.
I let him try another little sport out, but we went and practiced a lot with that. And he like, dang, I thought this was going to be easy. Nah, ain't none of it easy. Even gymnastics. I got him doing pull-ups in the house, you know, like, cause he has to pull up on the bar and stuff. Like all of it is hard work.
I don't care what sport you choose, whether it's school, whether it's reading a book, et cetera, you have to put the work in to be the best. Because if you want people out here beating you because he hates to lose, I'm like, well, if you hate to lose, you got to be the best. You got to practice. And the only thing that's going to keep you winning is practicing.
And so now, you know, as he's coming of age, he's understanding the practice now. So he'll get in there like at 630 in the morning. We got a tee and a net in the gym. I made it for him. And while I'm in there lifting, he got the tee and he's hitting off before school every morning. And before he goes to school, he's in there hitting off the tee in the morning times. Yeah. Yeah, so I love it.
But he picked baseball, man. So I never played at all. So I just take him to the games, let him watch the other players. He loves Shoei. That's his favorite guy. He loves Shoei, but we go to the Braves games, et cetera. He loves it. So I just try to hone whatever he asks for. He asked to do that, so we're going to hone it. Wow.
That's fantastic. Well, we're going to get into your story, too. Sure. We've got a Patreon account. Patreon, it's a subscription account. They're our top supporters, and a lot of them have been with us since the beginning. And it's turned into quite the community over the years. One of the things I offer them is to ask each and every guest a question. So this is from Eric Alger.
How do you handle the unseen pressures that come with being a young leader in a world that often doubts people of your age and background?
For one, through God. And then for two, through the work. At first, when I first began, it was a lot of, oh, you're too young. How are you going to teach boys how to be men, et cetera, et cetera. I was 19. So people had stuff to say. But once I started doing the work, it's like, There's nothing you can say because I'm doing everything that I said I was going to do.
I said I was going to open the school. I said I was going to start an after-school program. I said it was going to all be free. I said I was never going to charge. I said it was going to take care of kids. We're going to make sure they got haircuts. We're going to make sure they got uniforms. We're going to make sure they got clothes, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, underwear, et cetera.
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Chapter 3: What are King Randall's views on fatherhood and discipline?
But I wanted to wear Beverly Hills Polo Club. So everybody picked on me for that for a long time. So then I had my mom buy me some of the merchandise that they were wearing. I get to school. Everybody's like, well, about time you finally buy some, you know, this stuff. They still talking about me. So I get to ninth grade. I'll never forget. There's one of the cheerleaders. I still remember her.
I'll never forget. I always thought I was maybe ugly or something like that because nobody ever wanted to talk to me. She was a senior cheerleader, and she told me I looked sexy one day. And I was like, you talking to me? And she was like, yeah, you look good. I was just like, thanks. From that day forward, I got all my confidence back. Never forget it.
She probably doesn't even remember that right now. But I'll never forget. They say many remember all their compliments because we don't get many. But I got all my confidence back. I started back wearing suits. I wore a suit to school every single day from 11th and 12th grade year. Every single day. Every single day.
Every single day? Every single day.
You wore a suit? A suit. And if I didn't have a suit on, I had on some type of nice sweater with a tie on, like if it was too cold or something. And I had a briefcase. I never had a binder. I had a briefcase. All my schoolwork was in my briefcase every single day. I cut my hair off. I had a box, but I cut my hair so I had a low haircut. And at that time, I was like the school mascot at the time.
My principal would allow me to go speak at different schools. They were so impressed just how I carried myself. My principal was like, hey, can you go speak at this elementary school on behalf of Westover and things like that? So he'd always announce me over the intercom like, hey, we're going to have King Round to go speak at the elementary school. Let's congratulate him for a job well done.
So I would do that, be going to do my college classes. It was great. So I found myself. So... I left high school. I graduated high school, and I got married to my son's mom. And we got married immediately out of high school. I went to the Marine Corps right after that. I originally wasn't going to do that, but I found myself not having anything to do. I just didn't feel accomplished in life.
And my best friends at the time— You didn't feel accomplished graduating college before you graduated high school? I didn't feel accomplished. I was working at Chick-fil-A. I was working on trying to find a good cooking job, but I just didn't— Nothing was hitting for me. It just wasn't what I wanted. So my best friends, all my best friends went to the Marines, every last one of them.
All of them went at the same time. And so they write me letters, I'm writing them letters, but I'm just like, let me go see what they're doing. So I'm on YouTube looking at boot camp. I'm just like...
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