We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jerone Penrose a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jerone thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I walked away from my government job in November of 2018. My life’s work, a program called Buying Back Our Communities or B.B.O.C. began to gain traction and I had to choose between working my purpose fulltime or continuing to work a job fulltime. I reason with myself that I had spent 20 years working for companies, and it was time to put all my efforts into my purpose. I had just been chosen to take over Santiago’s Boxing Club earlier the same year, but it wasn’t an income-generating business. A good friend at the time was doing very well selling insurance and he convinced me to do the same. I felt like it was a way for me to work my purpose fulltime at least 9 months out of the year, if I did well during insurance’s peak season. Unfortunately, I was never a good salesman, so that plan didn’t work too well. Needless to say, 2019 was a hard year.
Before I left my full-time job, I started a consulting firm, where I was able to utilize my skills in logistics and proposals. I didn’t realize that going into 2020 this business would help lift my household. When the COVID-19 crisis caused many businesses to close, I was able to use the consulting firm to help businesses and people get grants and loans. It was not just the saving grace for my household, but for the gym as well. This lasted for almost 2 years before I had to make another move to keep the gym afloat along with my household. Although I didn’t want to, I took a logistics job that required me to travel. The original plan was to work it for a year to get back on track, yet again, things changed. The income that was promised changed the moment that I started working. It wasn’t worth the time away from my family, if it couldn’t provide what was needed at the time. This was a blessing in disguise.
While I was away, I continued to work on B.B.O.C. During this time, I realized that one of major ways BBOC would fail is the failure of the family structure. Then I realized that the failure of the family structure could only happen with the failure of the relationship between men and women. I was able to come to this conclusion based on my own relationship with my wife. This is when the “Can I Be The Man” Series began. It started out as letters to my wife and turned into the first book of the series, “Can I Be The MAN? A letter from US to YOU.” I made the decision to focus solely on my purpose and the path became easy. I walked away from the logistics job and put my heart and soul into finishing the book. The first book of the series was released in March of 2022.
A few months later, I filled in for a radio interview with The Frequency on the Woman’s Wednesday show. I had an interview with the same host a year prior, so we were already familiar with each other. The two other guests that were scheduled to be on cancelled, but I told them I could do the entire 45 minutes myself. This interview allowed me to talk about the book series. The hosts were elated about the book, and the owner of the station, Justina Ramirez, offered me a podcast, which went on to be named “The King’s Court.” The podcast was an instant hit, and it lifted my book sales. Riding the wave of success, we decided to have a book release party that was recorded live. The success of the station and book release party got the attention of the owner of Sparkx Media Network. Sparkx Media Network was an up-and-coming television network, and it provided the station with its own channel on the network.
Although the station, fell on hard times, “The King’s Court” as a TV show continued to thrive. In 2022, I was offered my own channel, “King Naib Presents,” on Sparkx Media Network, just before the release of the second book of the “Can I Be the MAN” Series, “Our Need of YOU.” Later that same year, I was able to record the first full production of “The King’s Court” for season 3. Since then, “King Naib Presents” has become not just a television channel, but a media company within itself, providing the same opportunities that I was given. My children have been given their own reality kids show, “King’s Kids” on the network will start airing in October of 2025 and we have several other shows in the works that will start airing in the spring of 2026. The final book of the series is scheduled to be released in the spring of 2026.
Jerone, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Born as Jerone Columbus Penrose Jr., the love of pen and pencil has been a part of King Naib’s life since the elementary days. It started in the form of drawings, then the struggles of life evolved it into words. King went on to have poems published with organizations such as the American Poets Society and was awarded the Editor’s Choice award by The International Library of Poetry before publishing his own works. He is the Author of “He will SPEAK” and the “Can I Be the MAN” series. King turned his poetry into spoken word which evolved into hosting 2 television shows: “The King’s Court” and “Late Night with the King,” and is the producer of the kid’s reality television show, “King’s Kids.” King Naib is the creator of the program Buying Back Our Communities (BBOC) where he fights for the basic human rights for all. He is the owner of the media company, King Naib Presents and Santiago’s Boxing Club, where he works with kids, youth, young adults, and adults, teaching life coping skills through the art of boxing.
Buying Back Our Communities (B.B.O.C.)
Buying Back Our Communities, better known as B.B.O.C., is my life’s work and purpose. It is the answer for tomorrow and the solution for today. B.B.O.C. is a humanitarian program designed to provide new autonomous communities that will provide free housing, food, healthcare, childcare and the basic necessities (except clothing) for all African Americans and Latinos in America. These communities are designed to provide the conditions needed to heal from the injustices we have faced as a nation of people in America and to be a safe haven from future injustices. B.B.O.C. will utilize its functions to help establish an economic system that will teach all nations what nature has been teaching us since the beginning of time, basic human rights and how to apply them.
Santiago’s Boxing Club (SBC719)
SBC719 is a 501 (c)(3) Non-Profit organization dedicated to the community. We provide a supportive environment for male and female athletes of all ages who are interested in pursuing competitive or non-competitive boxing training. The club’s friendly atmosphere allows our members to foster discipline, increase athleticism, encourage healthy living and eating, and a sense of family. We believe that any goal can be achieved through perseverance, determination, and hard work. Through programs such as the Box It Out™ Initiative and “She Got Hands” SBC systematically provides individuals with the physical and mental tools needed to be able to successfully manage any battles they may encounter in life. With several focuses, such as Mental Health, Women’s Empowerment, Anti-bullying, Mentorship, Reform and Prevention, and much more, the club goal is to have the individuals utilize boxing as a tool to a better life.
King Naib Presents
King Naib Presents is a Roku-based tv and radio (KNAB Presents) media networking company operating through Sparkx Media Network. King Naib Presents is a family network with the mission to restore the duality of the relationship between men and women, so that the family structure may be strengthen. “When the King presents, the people take notice,” is the motto of the company. It provides family shows and a platform for individuals, small businesses, and Fortune 500 Companies to advertise their companies.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Buying Back Our Communities is my brainchild and life purpose. Everything that I do in business and within my personal life is connected to its success. Understanding how difficult it will be to implement into our current society, I had to make significant adjustments when I first started presenting it in 2017. It started out as making simple adjustments to the presentation to make it more user friendly. Changing words that were challenging to some more accepting or shorting the presentation from three hours to an hour and a half. Yet, there was something much more important that would be detrimental to the implementation and success of the program, family structure.
I looked at the family structure within our culture and understood that I would not be able to implement BBOC in its current state. I never intended on writing books on relationships and family. You couldn’t have told me that I’d be on television giving instructions and advice on family life. Nonetheless, this is the route the journey has taken. The understanding I had was to fix the nation, you have to fix the communities. To fix the communities, you have to fix the families. So how do you fix the families? The core of family is the relationship between men and women, so in order to fix the family, we must repair the most basic relationship in the world, men and women. The only problem is, they are at war with each other, especially within my culture. So I have spent the last 5 years working on repairing this relationship and leading them to the importance of BBOC within our culture.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One of the biggest lessons that I had to unlearn on my journey is the concept of expectations. There is only one me and nobody else will respond or do things the way that I do them. The only expectation that I can expect is for a person to be who they are. If you deal with a snake, understand its true nature and expect nothing less than. When you do this, you’ll already have the antidote for the snake bite if or when it comes. I learned this by observing the support of others. I found myself supporting other business owners in hopes that they would return the same support to me. After a few years of support not being evenly matched, I started pulling my support back. The straw that broke the camel back broke my heart. I have always been very leery about allowing organizations to assist in raising funds for the boxing gym. After a year of being pushed about it, I finally gave it a try, and it was a disaster. We were raising money for Santiago’s Boxing Club’s top boxer to go to the Olympic Trials, and we were scammed out of a lot of money. We still made it to the Olympic trials, but it cost me my Mercedes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sparkxtv.com/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/king.naib and www.instagram.com/sbc719
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/KINGNAIB/ and www.facebook.com/sbc719
- Other: Tiktok: @kingnaib @sbc719
Donate to Santiago’s Boxing Club: https://square.link/u/Jg0xPJPS
