Writer, Agent, Advocate, & Documentarian ...

Raised on Chicago’s south side Craig McKenzie is the Chairman and Director of Higher Vision Sports Artist Marketing Group a boutique agency that advises aspiring Christian athletes, international players, and artists. McKenzie’s firm currently represents the former longtime New York Knick point guard and multi-sport athlete Hall of Fame Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward, several international star athletes; and over recent years McKenzie has assisted in the philanthropy, marketing and the developmental brand efforts of the Chicago actor and artist known as Common.

McKenzie splits his free time between his hometown Chicago, Milwaukee Lakeshore, and Miami Beach. He attends regularly an Assemblies of God and Church of Christ in those respective areas and volunteers regularly in children's and adult Hospital cancer ward.

With all that, Craig still finds time to encourage and uplift even more individuals. When I published the every first issue of Brotha, Craig was one of the first persons to reach out and lend his support, encouragement, and critique. It helped me immensely to make the next issues of the magazine even better and I will always be grateful.

CC: Who is Craig McKenzie?

CM: Well, I was a kid that grew up on the south side of Chicago. I wasn't a bad kid and I believe most kids aren't but I had my challenges. I was actually raised in Inglewood with my grandmother and my aunts all of us pretty much from a fatherless background. I had a stepfather later on in my life. Most kids born in Chicago are born into bad situations. The moment of wisdom hitting me was realizing my grandmother was the matriarch of the family, and where as other kids ran from that, I ran to it; and though she passed away from breast cancer while I was young, she basically saved my life. That's the basis of how I grew up and how I began my endeavor trying to do things for the Lord.

CC: Does your grandmother having breast cancer put you on the path to becoming an advocate?

CM: Well it certainly did but not until later on in life. Once you have your grandmother, your auntie, your best friend, one of your best clients that have cancer, it becomes a lot of things. It becomes a great source of pain to be honest with you. But through that pain is where God shows His purpose. And after going through it so many different times it dawned on me that God wanted me to do something in this area. So I took a hold of it and that's what I'm doing.

CC: What exactly is the task that God has given you and what was the journey like that drove you to the point of choosing His Will over yours?

CM: Initially, I did run from it. I was involved in the sports and entertainment field at a young age. Actually my brother was Michael Jordan's commercial double for some time in Chicago. I was in law school at Valparaiso University and my brother called me and told me to come down because he had all these attorneys, agents, and executives he wanted to introduce me to. But I would deny all his requests because I wanted to become a civil rights attorney do well and save the world. Still there was the battle over this cancer element in my life but I still wasn't exactly there yet. Finally I responded to my brother and went to get involved in this arena and I became quite successful. In my early twenties, I was co-representing Deion Sanders. I was doing marketing deals with Nike and Pepsi and many Fortune 500 sports marketing companies and doing well financially. But yet there was still something that was missing in my life and what I've come to learn is that it takes a very special person of God to live completely in two worlds. The sports and entertainment world is a very tough world to shine God’s light especially for someone that wants to live for the things of God. I think for some people they may have that gift to do so but for me I found it was very tough to let my light shine without there being a shadow of darkness. I didn't want to be separated from what God wanted me to be so I decided to change the entire direction of my life from becoming this highly successful sports agent to doing the things I believe God wanted me to do. So I quit my job, moved, and decided to start my own entity which is Higher Visions Ministries Sports of which I wanted to use to help others. And with that I had to study and learn how to serve. All great leaders must be great servants. So I started donating my time not worrying about the money coming in or any financial gain. I began helping troubled youths and helping homeless organizations or children that needed clothing or cancer organizations, etc. Then I simply got on my knees and prayed to God that He would just give me the sustenance to live and I learned that man does not live on bread alone but by every Word of God, and God has brought me through to this point. There was a struggle in the beginning of course, as with anyone when God has something purposeful for.

CC: How would you describe the very point where you made the decision that this career path was not for you and that you were going to do what God said? I speak with many young people today and not many say I'm going to stop and do what God wants from me.

CM: Well coming from having so much success through NBA Drafts and lotteries, pouring out my passion and drive into what we were doing at the time as I do with anything I am involved in, I still had to sit in a corner of the Green Room and cry because with all the success I knew this was not it. It didn't fulfill me. That's the thing about fame, fortune and what we seek; our dreams and our aspirations have to line up with what God's aspirations are for our lives because it won't fulfill you; all it will do is leave you empty and unfulfilled wanting more and more of the same. So that was the moment man I said, "Man, this is just not working.” Of course there were so many other things that were happening as well but making that decision shocked a lot of people especially my family who really relied on me, as I was one of the few members who had become upwardly mobile, having a law degree, and was able to do a lot of significant things for our family. When they heard the news that I was going to do something different, there was a lot of fear. So it was one of those trying times in my life that I'll never forget.

CC: What is the goal now for Craig McKenzie?

CM: My main goal is to continue to serve and find any way that I can to serve others. To be honest with you, if I had to pick one word to define that goal it would be to help others find the ENCOUNTER. I love that word: encounter. If I can develop, film, documentaries, or this new multimedia work we're doing now to lead them to that encounter, then that's what I want to do with my life. What I've come to love are things that are different than what the world loves like money, beautiful cars, houses, etc. So I've come to love those things that are alone, left behind, and need to be taken care of. And for me to try to reach those things are what I'm trying to do now in this second half of my life. So it's a transition moving from sports corporate executive to a volunteer, a philanthropist. And it's challenging, but the challenge has never set a better peace in my mind.

CC: On your website you have a very powerful statement where it states: "If we are not careful, we will idolize the oppressor and become your own worst enemy."

CM: I wrote that because we were growing up as children on the south side of Chicago and as kids we would always want to idolize the Italian gangsters. We would watch the movies and the TV show the Gangster Chronicles; we would dress like them and carry play guns like them. I think what happens with youth in particular even today is that we begin to idolize things that actually oppress us and keep us down. They give us something that satisfies our ego and what we think we aspire to be, and if we're not careful, we'll idolize that and become our own worst enemy and that same kind of person. If we didn't have the parenthoods, the grandmothers and the people we were on us as children when we were growing up, we would have become exactly what we were emulating; the gangsters. And many of them had a terrible demise so that's where that came from; it's a novel based on a true story we are re-creating currently.

CC: Do you think the current idolization of young people is just a cycle that hasn't changed, just the characters from gangsters to now hip-hop artists or basketball players?

CM: Exactly, and it's tough to say that because there is some good in hip-hop or sports athletes. But there is an element that is pure evil that we have to get away from. And it's tough for black men to come out and say that because if we do, people claim that we're selling out. The truth is that there is a part of the sports and entertainment world that's destroying our community and we got to sit down and deal with it or else we're going to see this consistent destruction of our youth. I go to high school and grammar schools, and the very first thing kids raise their hands and claim they want to be are a basketball players or a hip-hop producer/artist. Not to say that can't be good because there has been success in those endeavors. We've helped a friend of mines right around the corner named Common. I think Common is one of those guys that has transcended by doing things a different way and really has made a brand for himself that causes him to stand alone in that realm.

CC: How did that relationship start with Common that led to your current affiliation with the Common Ground Foundation?

CM: We grew up in the same neighborhood and we had the same friends. We've always known about each other and the introduction was made through his mother who is a wonderful woman of God who I have always looked up to and we had that connection. As I started the Higher Vision, it just made perfect sense to try and help him with his philanthropic efforts. He has a lot of different people that help him in many different areas, and that was one area that made sense to me. The things he was trying to do were just wonderful and definitely fit with the aspirations of what we were trying to do as far as reaching out to help others.

CC: Not too many agencies focus on Christian athletes. How did Higher Vision begin?

CM: It all began when I decided to use this "world" that I was in to accomplish the things of God. It truly began with my clients. When I was with my other firm, I had clients that were coming to God. Deion Sanders was coming to God; and in all the five years I was representing him in many different facets of his life, I was seeing a change. I was representing Charlie Ward who already was walking with the Lord, walking strong. A player who was drafted in the NBA first round, who played 14 years; was a baseball player and Heisman Trophy winner and he has a great testimony. So to be honest with you, it was my clients who started to rub off on me! And as I saw the change, I was like; "Man, it's time!" And when you've been in the belly of the beast long enough, you know that it's hot; so at some point you're going to want to get out and ask yourself "In which direction am I truly going?" I do think that was the impetus and in particular Charlie (Ward); we accomplished some great things. And with his career and now being a high school coach, he's trying to reach out and change the minds of our youth. So that's how it started and I want to continue on by working with other companies to do marketing deals with Christian companies and find other Christian athletes who people never realized played in the NBA or high-level sports here and even in Europe. I decided to reach out to those types of underrated athletes and artist first to see what they believe. Do they have faith and what kind of things was instilled in them? Their success is based mainly on their belief in that God can do far above what they might think or the world might stipulate and with God all things are possible.

CC: On your website there is a picture of you holding one of your children.

CM: Yes that was a photographer caught that moment; probably my favorite picture of all. That was Charlize-Trinity my daughter when she was first born. I was working on a project with this particular photographer; and during our shooting my wife went into the hospital in labor. We all went and this shot was taken of me holding her for the very first time after she was cleaned up and all. It was like one of the most amazing moments; I have it framed about three or four times around the house.

CC: How has children changed the way you think about yourself and ministry itself?

CM: I read a quote by Dwight Moody and it summed up how your steps are ordered by God and how much God is a magician; how everything happens for a reason. There is a reason for you and I talking right now or a reason behind me walking outside and meeting a lady that needs help and she tells me her life story. So in reading about Moody of how he started his church and his huge ministry with a background of having a drunkard father and very tough beginnings being raised by his mom, the question was asked him; "With all of the great accomplishments you have achieved, what would you do all over again?" He replied; "If I could do it all over again, I would devote my entire ministry to children." When I read that I was thinking to myself after all he had done, he basically was almost saying he made a mistake! So having children makes you realize there is nothing more important than our children. I'm involved right now with a prison ministry that allows children to see their parents that are incarcerated. It was alarming to note how many mothers are in jail right now and the difficult transitions for children who have not seen their parents. I feel those are the ones that are at risk of repeating the same mistakes the parents have committed. Those are the things that we want to be involved in. For me, children are really what I'm gearing my whole entire ministry towards. Even though adults are the ones that grasp the concepts of what we're trying to do. For the child that's just sitting there not knowing where to go or had grown up in a challenging situation like myself, I hope that they can see another way and I'm a total believer in the phrase that the children are our future.

CC: How do you think we as media can better serve our children?

CM: I think we need to have a "De-Mediazation" for children. I think media is the problem. We need to use media to get them away from the media. From what I've seen, that is the thing that's taking children away from what God has for them and their best life now. The things they see on TV--the things they here on the radio, and the things they read. I believe it's Jeremiah that states that our hearts can be terribly wicked. We might think we're doing a great thing with some of the music and films that are out there now, but we're really doing a disservice to our children and there has to be another way. Right now I think our children are facing a crisis unlike any crisis ever in the history of growing up as a child. And since it's a drastic situation, drastic measures need to be taken, and we drastically need to change the way we are serving the media to our children.

CC: What do you want your legacy to be?

CM: I want my legacy to be a giver. I want to be that guy that doesn't give what is expected when it is expected; I want to be that individual that gives more than is expected when it's not expected. I want to be that guy that comes out of the blue and people say I not only just came and did this or that, but mostly changed their lives. I want to help those people that need to have an encounter; and in so helping them to obtain that, I become blessed. I want my daughters and my family to see that I really just gave of myself, and that in me showing them how I gave of me, they become givers themselves as well. That's what I want my life to reflect and it's an on-going process. My purpose is to give to an extent where people have an encounter, whether it be of creativity, of time, or finance, that is what I'm packaging and building the rest of my life on. Sounds a little crazy because it's not about me making money or about me because trust I lose a lot of money with all that I do. It's really all about me creating something that's going to have a lasting impression and lead those individuals to the encounter that God has for them.

CC: What is the one lesson you want them to remember that you taught them?

CM: Just this morning my daughter was in the room and she cried for me to come in. And as she pointed to the television, she yelled that the person on it looked like her. She was pointing at Alicia Keys. And as you know my daughter is mixed Irish and African American. So I sat my daughter down to talk to her about what real beauty is, because beauty is not only on the outside, but the light that shines from within you when God has changed everything about you to do His work. It's ironic because my wife was taking her to music class. So again our steps are ordered and seeing how this all connects, I began to talk to her about the class and how she needs to concentrate and practice. So I was teaching her that beauty is not only the outside, but it's what you do and what you practice every day, and you have to practice being beautiful. It comes from your actions, it comes from your deeds, and it comes from what you have in your heart to give. I believe what's in a person's heart and what they spend their time on tells you if there is a right to himself or herself a man or a woman; and there comes a time in every person life when they have to determine the state of their own heart. And that's where you find the beauty, the state of your own heart when you do what God has put in your heart to do. And the only thing that God is going to put in there is not for you, but it's for somebody else. And that's what I want to leave for my children.

CC: What in return have your children taught you?

CM: All fathers say their children are amazing; but I truly believe my daughters are! My three year old says things that are incredible. One of the things that my daughter has taught me is a level of compassion and wisdom that is amazing. She sees what I do; she knows the days that are good and the days that are bad. Every time she prays, she prays for the child that I might mention; or she might see the child I post on the refrigerator and ask the name or questions why they don't have any hair, and before I can even finish telling her the details, she immediately reaches out her hands to pray for the child. Those are the type of things that really get to me as a father. But even more than that, I have come to learn that God gives children a certain type of wisdom. What happens is from their circumstances you can learn from them, but in some cases it's not that a child doesn't know wisdom, some children don't want wisdom to know them. Children are engrained with a sense of wisdom but we as parents or the circumstances of life can take that away from them to a certain extent. But again it's not that they don't have wisdom, it's that they run, and they don't want wisdom to know them. And that's where we come in; we must be the adhesive for God's wisdom to be attached to that child. And that's what I'm learning every day from my little ones.

CC: In the next five years, where do you see yourself?

CM: I see myself giving 100% of my time to volunteerism ad missionary work; to writing and speaking; teaching basically giving of myself. I think this current project, in Jesus' name, is going to be the greatest story about cancer and redemption ever told. And I think this project is going to be the nexus so to great things and I'm looking forward to giving the rest of my life.

CC: Sir, I appreciate you taking out the time for this conversation.

CM: Thank you.