Today we’d like to introduce you to King Tron.
Thanks for sharing your story with us King. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m currently the Sales & Marketing Director for Wingate Atlanta Galleria Hotel. Born and raised in Tennille, GA in a two parent household. I have two brothers and one sister. My dad worked at a chalk plant and he did real estate on the side where he basically did his own construction work as well. He also grew crops. His hustle and drive was embedded in us at an early age. I didn’t have the typical summer as most kids. My dad use to wake us up at 6 am so we could beat the summer heat to pick peas and corn. OMG I hated it but I didn’t realize he was teaching us about time management, having a work ethic and discipline. My mother raised us in the church. I ended up being the drummer and singing in the choir. As a youth you don’t really pay attention to the Word that’s being preached but certain things the preacher would preach stuck with me. That’s where my spiritual foundation was built. I played sports in school and I was fortunate to earn multiple football scholarship offers. Middle Tennessee State, Troy State, East Carolina, Georgia Southern, to name a few. I decided I wanted to move far away from home to experience something different for a change. Up until I was 18, I left the state of Georgia maybe 3x… and was to Florida for a family vacation.
So I decided to take the offered scholarship to attend Central Michigan University. It was much different that what I used to… culturally and weather-wise. Being from the south I was use to “southern hospitality” were people spoke to each other in passing and don’t even know each other. It’s way different up north. People wouldn’t even look your way. The winters were brutal! It was snow from late November until early April it seemed. My freshman year, I was merited a “Red Shirt” meaning they gave me an extra year to develop as a football player because they changed my position from Outside Linebacker to Defensive End. They wanted me to put on some more weight. When I got there, I was 205lbs. They wanted me at around 225lbs-230lbs. By the end of my freshman year, I weighed 227lbs and was ready to start my college football career. Little did I know my life would be changed FOREVER! Right before summer classes started they allowed us to go home for a couple of weeks. I went home and got sick. I thought it was a common cold at 1st but it got worse. I was having flu-like symptoms… fever, cold sweats, couldn’t keep food down, head congestion, etc.
Now typically, I’m a pretty high energy person even when I’m not feeling well but this time was different. My father noticed the difference in my behavior and knew something was wrong. I remember him calling my mom on the phone and telling her “something ain’t right… he needs to go to the hospital”. So they ended up taking me to a hospital in Augusta and it was there where I looked death in the eyes. I was 18 at the time. Well come to find out I had fluid on my lungs and the fluid on my lungs surrounded my heart and slowed down my heart rhythm. From there, I went into Cardiac Arrest. I remember my mother sitting by my bed and my body would start shaking. I felt this cold sensation go through my veins. It felt like cold water. I remember looking at my mother saying “I can’t stop shaking”. Next thing I knew the nurses were running into my room. That’s the last thing I remember. I opened my eyes and I remember gagging because they were pulling a feeding tube out of me. I was dumbfounded and didn’t know where I was. I look around and I had family on my mom and dad side surrounding me. I was hooked up to a bunch of wires. I asked the doctor “what happened… what’s going on”.
The doctor look at my parents and asked: “should I tell him”? They nodded their heads “yes”. They doctor proceeded and said, “son you’re lucky to be alive”. I’m looking like “huh”. I was confused. He said “you had Congestive Heart Failure. Your heart stopped… TWICE! You were in Augusta and we transported you here to Atlanta by ambulance. You’re in ICU. You was on a ventilator for six days”. All I could do was cry. I cried so hard because I was in disbelief that something like this could happen to me! As my family began to comfort me I asked the doctor “what about football”. He chuckled and said, “the last thing you should be worried about is football. Just be happy to be alive right now. You can forget about playing football again”. I cried my eyes out because football was my way “out”. I wanted to use football as a meal ticket to put my family in a better position financially by going to the NFL but that dream was stripped from me and I was lost. I didn’t realize that I allowed football to be my identity. So I knew I had to change my whole perspective on how I saw myself.
I graduated college with a bachelors degree in December 2008 and moved to Cincinnati, OH in 2009. I was working in Sales as an Account Executive for a now large 3rd party logistics company. I got married in July 2009. My son was born in June 2010. From that time till 2020, I’ve been in Sales, I became a life coach college athletes. I also became a personal trainer. I’ve been in a couple of plays and been an extra in a couple of TV shows. My marriage didn’t work out as I wanted it to but we have two beautiful children whom I adore and love!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My father passed away in 2006. When he died, he took a part of me with him I feel. As a child, I saw my dad as Superman. He never got sick, he can do anything, fix anything. To me he was invincible. So when he died I was like “how is this even possible?” He’s not supposed to die… especially not at that time where I felt I needed him most. I was 19 when he passed. Almost entering into adulthood. Mind you… the year before this happened is when I had my near-death experience so I was already traumatized from that.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I work for Wingate Atlanta Galleria Hotel… owned by HBK Hotel Group. I’m the Sales & Marketing Director. My job is to drive revenue into the business… especially in the off-seasons. Our hotel is located right across from the new Atlanta Braves stadium. Baseball season is pretty busy for us but when the season is over is when I really get to shine. I help secure contracts with companies and groups to stay at our hotel. I’m to build relationships and rapport with businesses in hopes on earning their trust and business.
I’m also a Radio Personality. I’m on a new show called the “Christeria Lynn Show with King Tron” exclusively on Anchor radio. I host an event in Atlanta once a month called “She Rocks & Kings of Atlanta”. The purpose is to honor/highlight women and men in the Atlanta area who are entrepreneurs and go-getters that may get overlooked in a city filled with entertainers, actors, professional athletes, etc. We want people to know their work in our community is not going unnoticed.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My cousins from Columbus use to come stay with us for a few days in the summer. We’d be outside playing all day, stay up all night playing video games, wrestling, and laughing at stories we’d share. My dad uses to have them pick peas and corn with us too lol. Good times.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @kingtron1111
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