The Road That Made Frank Ski

Hey crew, it's your guy Frank Ski and I'd like to welcome you to my official YouTube channel where you'll be able to see all of my Frankly Speaking podcast and my inspirational vitamin podcast. You know, everywhere I go, people always ask me the very same question. Frank Ski, when are you going to do a podcast? Well, that answer is right now. And we begin right now with my very first podcast. And I'm going to tell you about me. There's a lot that people think they know about Frank Ski. And what makes Frank Ski who he is? And and why is Frank Ski the way he is? Well, let me take you back. First of all, um I was born in Harlem Hospital in New York City, the original Harlem Hospital. There's an old hospital and a new hospital. I was born in the original old Harlem Hospital on Lennox Avenue. From a young kid, I was in New York and from a young age, I actually went to live with my father down in South Florida. So, I spent my grade school years down in South Florida all the way through high school. Coming up as a kid, I was that outdoors kid. Um, I loved being in the woods. I always loved being on the water. I was passionate about fishing and passionate about animals and I got into model rocketry and as any kid back then I was into slot cars and skateboards and that was me growing up. One thing about me that people don't know, when I was younger in junior high school, I started long distance running. And as a matter of fact, in junior high school, I completed my very first marathon, which is running 26 miles. That's a little fact that most people don't know about me. As a matter of fact, I had run so many marathons that by the time I got to high school, my first nickname was Marathon Man. [laughter] So, I carried that name marathon man with me for a while in high school and through high school I I ran track and cross country and I considered myself pretty good. Um, the other thing I I I did when I was younger is I used to race uh 10 speeds, race bikes, and one day I was uh training, riding on the side of the road, got hit by a car, and that subsequently uh ended my career as a road racer, both on a bike and uh in road racing um doing marathons. I left high school at 18. A week after I graduated high school, I left and I went from Miami to Washington DC. And I really thought that um when I went to Washington DC, it was going to be an upgrade. And it turned out to be a very uh troubling time initially in my life. I wind up um almost being homeless for a while, eating off of the free food trucks uh where the unhoused would stand in line to get meals. And um I was standing in that line as well. Uh one interesting thing about me that that I want to tell you that I don't think I've ever told this story. When I graduated high school, I had never seen a school counselor through my whole high school career. I never went to a counselor, seen a counselor. Matter of fact, nobody ever asked me. Nobody. Including my father that I lived with at the time. Nobody asked me, "What are you going to do when you graduate high school?" So when I graduated, I had a lot of my guy friends from Miami Killian um that went to play football at the University of Miami. And I said, I'm going to go to the University of Miami and I'm going to go to college. So I rode my bike to the University of Miami. When I got there, the lady asked me, "Had I applied for college yet?" And I said, "No, that's why I'm here." She said, "Well, you were supposed to apply at least last year, so you won't be able to get in now." And she asked me if I had taken the SAT. And the answer I gave her was no. Matter of fact, I didn't even know what the SAT was. I hadn't taken it. I didn't know what it was. Um, I didn't know anything about applying for college. My father had never gone to college. My mother didn't go to college. Nobody in my lineage had gone to college. So I had no clue. Uh that's when my mother sent me some money and she said, "You're going to go to college. I'm going to send you to Washington DC." And for a minute I was going to go to uh Prince George's community college. Uh but that never metriculated either. So, I'm in Washington DC um working at the US Attorney's Office and I fell in love with law. My aunt worked at the US attorney's office, my aunt Naen, and she got me a student job. The only problem is student job was only part-time and they really didn't pay any money. So, subsequently, Frank Ski was getting ready to be, you know, homeless because I couldn't afford to to live where I was living. I did know the uh clerk of the court, the guy who was the clerk of the court, the head of the DC Superior Court, cuz I would get there early every morning and have coffee with him cuz we were the first two people in the courthouse. And one day I asked him, I said, "I need a job." And he put me in the clerk's office uh where I was a file runner. And from being a file runner, um, I got my first job offer outside of the courthouse from a law firm that needed somebody to be able to file their pleadings and cases. And working in the clerk's office, I knew how to do that. And that's how I got out of the uh, clerk's office into actually working at a law firm. From working at the law firm, um, I met my life mentor. His name was Mike Luben. And Mike Luben taught me everything. He taught me the stuff that my father didn't really teach me at the time cuz I had left so early. Mike Luben was the one that taught me um about the stock market. He made me buy the Wall Street Guide to Investing. He uh made me buy my first computer from Dell uh even though I didn't need a computer. He made me buy my first tuxedo even though I thought I didn't need a tuxedo. He taught me so much about life. Uh he became my life manager. And when the time came for me to leave the law firm um to go into radio and to do this DJing thing for real, he was the one that encouraged me to do that. And he became my first manager. So I became his first entertainment client and he became my first manager. So much happened in that short period of time in Washington DC that it will blow your mind. So many experiences happened. I I remember I went to Mike um after we had done a big case in Washington DC and I was going to take a vacation and ride from DC down to Atlanta uh and then continue down to Miami in the Key West and go fishing with my best friend Bubby. And at the time I had worked at a radio station and I was working part-time at a radio station. And I'll tell you my radio story one day. And I'm working at V103 in Baltimore at the time. Part-time. And I called Mike and Mike said, "You don't work part-time anymore. You now work full-time." And I said, "Well, what happened? They already had somebody full-time." And Mike's answer to me was, "But they're not you, and that's not your problem." And I was like, "Wow, okay." So, I wind up taking over the nighttime slot and I was making considerably more than I was making at the law firm. So, I had to make that choice. Do I want to stay working at the law firm and eventually be a lawyer or do I want to work entertainment? And one of the things Mike told me was very interesting. He said, "If you want to make money as a lawyer, you're going to come into this law firm. You're going to be an entry-level um lawyer." and it's going to take you a very long time and you maybe one day will make partner if not you'll leave start your own law firm and then you'll be a partner there and then you'll start getting a percentage of what the law firm brings in he said or you can go into radio and entertainment and the sky's is the limit and I remember that's when I picked going into radio and he was a thousand% right it was the right decision to make for me at the time but as you know You probably know my radio story. I've met a lot of interesting people throughout my life. I've interviewed a lot of interesting people. And a lot of those interviews that I've done from very important people that um will change your life when you listen to them, I'm going to start posting them right here on this YouTube page. But going forward, we're actually going to be sitting down with some of the most interesting people that you've ever heard that I have privy to be able to interview. So, we're going to talk to people from the world of entertainment. We're going to talk to people from the world of business, uh the world of philanthropy, um social media influencers, you name it. Just people who are really doing it out here that have a story to tell. Nobody can get them to tell a story like I can get them to tell a story. And I'm encouraging you to make sure that you uh subscribe to my YouTube channel. I want to make sure that you become part of my Franks family both for the Frankly Speaking and the inspirational vitamin. And um I'm going to bring you some of the best content you've ever seen and heard. But you got to subscribe. So, do me a favor and please tell a friend, tell everybody in your family. Frank Ski finally has his YouTube channel up and finally has his podcast going. And I would like to welcome you into my Frank Ski family. Thank you.