Isaac Keys is a dynamic force whose journey spans from cracking helmets in the NFL to lighting up TV screens as Diamond Sampson on “Power Book IV: Force.” A two-time All-American and Morehouse Hall of Famer, Isaac embodies relentless ambition and personal reinvention. Beyond his achievements as an athlete and actor, he now steps into the role of author with his new book, "The Grind Don’t Stop, It Just Changes," sharing powerful lessons in resilience, personal growth, and the importance of evolving your circle as your ambitions rise. A passionate advocate for mental health and men’s emotional vulnerability, Isaac’s story is as inspiring as it is relatable. Takeaways: Embrace Change and Growth: Isaac’s journey is all about pivoting with purpose, showing that real progress happens when you’re not afraid to completely change directions, not just adjust your route. The Power of Your Circle: As you evolve, so should your circle—the people around you can either lift you higher or hold you back, making it crucial to surround yourself with those who genuinely support your vision. Vulnerability is Strength: Both Isaac and Mick Hunt stress that celebrating wins and being open about struggles—especially as Black men—isn’t weakness but a vital part of well-being and success. Sound Bites: “The grind don’t stop—it just changes. You never truly stop working, you just shift what you’re hustling for.” — Isaac Keys “Sometimes adjusting isn’t enough. There are moments in life when you need to just change, because life is adjusting with you.” — Mick Hunt “When you try to let go of your past, some people want to hold on because your past benefits them—those are the people you can’t be around.” — Isaac Keys Connect & Discover Isaac: Instagram: @isaackeys LinkedIn: @isaac-keys X: @isaackeys Facebook: @isaackeys Website: IsaacKeys.com Book: The Grind Don't Stop 🔥 Ready to Unleash Your Inner Game-Changer? 🔥 Mick Hunt’s BEST SELLING book, How to Be a Good Leader When You’ve Never Had One: The Blueprint for Modern Leadership, is here to light a fire under your ambition and arm you with the real-talk strategies that only Mick delivers. 👉 Grab your copy now and level up your life → Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million FOLLOW MICK ON: Spotify: MickUnplugged Instagram: @mickunplugged Facebook: @mickunplugged YouTube: @MickUnpluggedPodcast LinkedIn: @mickhunt Website: MickHuntOfficial.com Apple: MickUnplugged Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the journey of Isaac Keyes from NFL to acting?
In this episode, I sit down with actor, former athlete, new author, Isaac Keyes. And you're going to get to know the real Isaac Keyes. Like, we talk about so much. We talk about his journey. We talk about his because. We talk about the depth of why he decided to write this book and to write it now.
And we're going to talk about if he could really understand Phoenix 10 or not the first time he met him. Ladies and gentlemen, I present my friend, Isaac Keyes.
You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged.
Isaac, how are you doing today, brother?
Oh, man, that is an excellent introduction. I appreciate that.
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Chapter 2: How does Isaac Keys define success and ambition?
Thank you very much. And yes, man, I'm doing well today. I'm happy to be here on the show, man. I'm glad we can connect.
I'm the honored one, man. Been a huge fan of you since your days at Morehouse when you were cracking heads and sacking quarterbacks, man, like two-time All-American inducted into the Morehouse Hall of Fame. So one, I just want to tell you congratulations, man. But two, just proud of the man that you are, bro. Proud of the man that you are.
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And, you know, to take it back, I think, you know, we got to see where you came from, you know, to see where you're going. You know what I mean?
I'd like to look back on things and give myself a pat on the back at times, just appreciation of what I have been able to accomplish and how I've been able to help anybody else, you know, accomplish any of their dreams.
And to me, that is so important, man, especially for men. And I'm going to be honest and go there for black men. A lot of times, We don't take the time to accept the flowers when they're given to us. I know you're a huge mental health advocate. So am I. Sometimes we just need that encouragement. We can't be tough all the time.
It was cool back in the day to be the tough kid to say you can handle it, man.
Right.
But that's a lot of pressure.
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Chapter 3: What does Isaac Keys say about the importance of changing your circle?
That's a lot of stress. And sometimes, man, we just don't take enough time to appreciate what we've accomplished.
So I'm telling you, I'm glad you appreciate it. I appreciate that. Thank you, man. I appreciate that. I think what you're saying is that we have to celebrate ourselves. You know, it's always the joke about what a father gets a Father's Day gift and what a mother gets for Mother's Day gift.
And, you know, it's always a running joke, but I mean, it's true in a sense because, you know, as men, we've been taught and groomed for the most part to be able to take on so much. And like, it's not about us, not about us. It's about providing and making sure we provide for the family, make sure everybody else is good. But I think there's room for balance. There's room for both.
Like, you need to be celebrated for everything that you do because if not, you start to develop this type of resentment for the things that you are doing and you're accomplishing when you don't feel like you're being seen and celebrated. And that starts as a kid. The best way to get to a kid is to be seen, celebrated, and appreciated and teaching that up. I think there's room for both.
It's just that we, you know, our older generation, we just weren't taught that because the men had to carry so much on their shoulders. They couldn't, you know, show their emotion, show their, you know, how they felt. And, you know, there was no time for that.
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Chapter 4: How does vulnerability play a role in personal growth?
You don't have no time with Petey Parker. I got to get him to go to work tomorrow. I ain't got time to be dealing with all of that. But I think there's now there's room for both. And I think that we have, it's up to us to be able to celebrate our friends, celebrate each other and support one another as much as we possibly can as men. And honestly, there's strength and vulnerability.
Amen to that. Amen to that. I'm going to come to your book in a second, Isaac, but I love asking all my guests this question. And that question is, what is your because, right? You know, Simon Sinek wrote the book, A Wild Back Call, Start With Why, and everybody was really trendy to know what your why is.
But I like to go deeper and ask what's your because, that thing that's deeper than your why, right? Your why is probably your family, your kids, your spouse, your commitment to your job. But when I say, but why? That sentence usually starts with, well, because, and that's what I care about. So if I said, Isaac Keyes, today, what's your because, brother?
I love that question. I love the deafness of it. I started off with having, you know, I just had this strong drive of just wanting more for myself. And as I started to kind of put the words together, I knew I was just, I was afraid not living up to my potential.
Chapter 5: What pivotal moments shaped Isaac Keyes' life and career?
My potential, not anybody else's, my potential. Like, I didn't want my life to be a waste. I saw so much coming up growing up of people who become a product of the environment or just made excuses for not accomplishing goals or becoming the best person to possibly be. And it, you know, I think it probably is still for my parents. They just had a higher standard for me and for my sister.
to be better be the best version of ourselves we possibly be and i always carry that with me and i was always attracted to people who had that same type of ambition the same type of goals that i didn't like to be around people who were lethargic or wanted to be a victim or you know decided to blame everything on someone else i also learned the phrase later on in life is that you know blame starts with you so once you take the blame on yourself then it makes look outlook on everything else
A lot easier. Well, what could I have done different in that situation that I probably could have learned from that? OK, it just helps you taking it on in that aspect. And I think it's just my why's just I've had it in my because because I just wanted to be I wanted more for myself.
And once I had one for myself, I mean, I could spread out to others, my loved ones and to other people around and they can see what I went through and what I accomplished and what I didn't accomplish and learn from it. And I think that was important to me. And even to this day, it's like, they're still driving fat.
You know, we get older a little bit now, you know, it'd be like, you know, I ain't in the gym as hard, you know, I don't have that same fire as I did when I played, but I'm still in the gym, you know? And it's like, so, you know, and I always, that's the other part. I just never wanted to just, just settle. I just couldn't take settle and mediocrity.
And I don't even like, you ask my friends, they get mad at me because I'm like, nah, that ain't it. You know, like, like you do more, let's do more. And that's also a mirror effect. It's me talking through the mirror, talking to myself too.
Man, I love that. And again, that that's why you are one of my not just favorite actors, not just favorite authors, not just favorite athletes. You're one of my favorite people, bro, in the world, because I know your story a little bit. Like I said, I've been a huge fan of yours. And then when I heard you were writing a book and the title grabbed me, right? The grind don't stop. It just changes.
And it parallels so much. of almost what you just hit on, looking at the mirror. Sometimes we got to look at the mirror and go back and say, oh, this is how this happened, or this is what shaped me, or this is the story that made me who I am, good, bad, or indifferent. And I now know how to adjust, right? Or how to hit that grind in a different genre or a different space because it just changes.
Right. I think it's so important to be able to share our stories because that's where we grow and that's what helps other people. Just by you saying that and the title, you know, grabbing, grabbing you and captivating you was what I wanted to do. This title has been floating around in my head for probably the last 16 years. You know, it derived from The Wire.
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Chapter 6: How does Isaac Keys embrace change in his life?
And that's because it's just different people. But the game is still the same. And I was like, well, man. Do I endeavor through life and everything? It's like, I could never just stop.
Like, you know, the grind of just like, okay, having to get up and work for this one thing here, whether it's football, get up to work and work a job that you don't necessarily want to go to, but okay, it don't stop there because what are you going to use that job for to help you in the next endeavor? What's that going to lead to?
And then when you sit back and look at the process, you're like, wow, I did this job over here I didn't really care for, but it taught me that I don't want to do that type of job anymore. And that it leads me to this other direction of something I feel more fulfilled in. Whether it's that, whether it's your career choice, whether it's school opportunities, whether it's sports.
And I chose to take my stories, all we started from adolescence, elementary school, all the way to present day, to use my stories in a relatable capacity that people can be like, oh, wow. I may not be in the NFL, but that was similar to the corporate job. I worked at AT&T and they had to switch over to Microsoft or whatever it may be.
And it's like, it's just been on my heart to share because when we do interviews like this, you may ask the question, how did you get to the NFL? And I got two minutes to tell you. Or how did you get elected? And I got to tell you, I'm like, no, it didn't happen that easy. I want to take you step by step. to understand that none of this was just easy.
And the process is what taught me to be able to keep on going. And the grinding just molded me to become the type of person to be able to deal with certain things or strengthen me to handle certain situations so when I see them again, OK, I know how to handle this. You know, it's the learning curve is one of the most important things you can have in life.
How quick are you able to adapt and change to the new situation or new agenda or the new activities in hand? And, you know, we're on our own way. We're hard headed. We're stubborn. We're on our own way and we don't see it. And we're like, OK, no, it's changed.
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Chapter 7: What inspired Isaac Keys to write his book, 'The Grind Don’t Stop'?
So let's change with it. And it's OK to do that.
And I think that is so important, man. You know, I do a lot on leadership with corporations and and we talking about being able to change. Some people say adjust, but there are times that you just literally have to change. Like like sometimes adjusting isn't enough. Right. When you're going up against that big. 320 pound left tackle, right?
You can't just adjust because he's adjusting too, right? And that's what I tell people. Life is adjusting with you. And so that success, whatever that level of success means to you, there are moments where you just got to change because adjusting isn't enough. Talk to us about that in your journey, man.
I think my journey was full of changes and I don't think it would ever stop. And I think if you're not changing, adapting, adjusting, then you're not growing. And if you're not going, then you're dying. And, you know, that's not what we look for. I look forward to the change. Some people are very scared of change. They're very, you know, timid of like, oh, I don't want to change.
Or then people say, well, they said I changed. Well, I mean, depending on your circumstance and your situation, you should change. Let's say evolve. You can still have your core of who you are, but as time goes on, your values change. Your morals and things like that sometimes may remain the same, but your values change because now you have a kid.
Now you live life a little different when you have children. Or you lost a loved one. You lost your parent or lost a significant other.
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Chapter 8: What future projects and aspirations does Isaac Keys have?
You're different now. And it's OK to be different. It's just as long as you start to have understanding of what your difference is now. And, you know, this is not I'm not an expert in any of this. This is my life experiences that make it unique to me. And it's like it works and it helps to be able to talk it out like we're talking right now.
So I welcome change because change brings more experiences. It brings moments and experiences and experiences create more life. So, you know, I just I look forward to it. You know, sometimes all changes aren't as good as others.
But when you change your mind, it's like, well, you know, OK, acceptance is probably one of my biggest things that helped me and hindered me in the time because you have to learn when to use it. Not accepting a lot of things push me to walk on in college. What I want to say football, not once but twice.
It pushed me to, you know, when they told me I had to sit out a year and I just didn't hear the crowd like I didn't hear them. I just kept going to practice, spring practice in Morehouse. NFL not being picked up in the draft like I thought I was going to be. I didn't get picked up until a month later, which I talk about all this in the book. I put it in layers. I could have stopped.
I could have accepted that, but I didn't accept it. And now when I look at acceptance, it's now in relationships because I was so much intact and so in those into what I was trying to accomplish as a person that I was emotionally unavailable for relationships outside of that. And I tap into how that affected relationships and how one of my dating scenes and all those types of things.
You know, I really tap into this book. Like, this book is a deep dive in the vulnerability of just my stories in life that I think that we all similarly go through. We just don't always talk about it.
I love it, dude. I want to go a couple of places. The first place I want to go is that story. Your freshman year, right? So you walk on, and I know this story a little bit, but I want you to elaborate for the audience, right? Sure. you were not supposed to actually stay for practice, right? Like you're supposed to come back in the summer.
It's like, hey, if you didn't play last year, spring practice ain't for you. We'll see you in the summertime. Isaac Hayes knucklehead or Isaac Keyes knucklehead was like, hey, you know what? If they don't say nothing, I ain't going to say nothing.
Right. And you know, the caveat to that is that that started before. Like I walked on to University of North Alabama as my official freshman year. And I walked on because in high school, I was played out of position my senior year. I played linebacker all the way up, and I had a passion and a drive to play linebacker. Waiting my turn, waiting for my time to start.
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