ep. 205 Making Your Next Move Your Best Move with Orrin Hudson
Update: 2025-08-05
Description
Orrin “Checkmate” Hudson is a nationally recognized youth mentor, author, and founder of Be Someone, Inc., a nonprofit organization that uses chess to teach at-risk youth critical thinking, leadership, and life skills. A former Alabama state trooper and Air Force veteran, Orrin turned his life around after a teacher taught him chess — showing him how to think ahead, avoid negative influences, and make better moves in life.
Since founding Be Someone in 2000 in response to a deadly robbery, Orrin has trained over 100,000 students in all 50 states, using a giant life-sized chessboard to capture attention and deliver transformational lessons. His motto, “Brains Before Bullets — Think it out, don’t shoot it out,” has become a rallying cry in his mission to end violence and empower the next generation.
Orrin has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, CBS National, FOX & Friends, USA Today, and People magazine, and was awarded the FBI's Distinguished Community Leader Award, the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award, and the TBS Education Award.
With his signature energy and passion, Orrin delivers high-impact messages on discipline, strategy, and servant leadership — teaching young people and adults alike how to make their next move their best move.
Since founding Be Someone in 2000 in response to a deadly robbery, Orrin has trained over 100,000 students in all 50 states, using a giant life-sized chessboard to capture attention and deliver transformational lessons. His motto, “Brains Before Bullets — Think it out, don’t shoot it out,” has become a rallying cry in his mission to end violence and empower the next generation.
Orrin has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, CBS National, FOX & Friends, USA Today, and People magazine, and was awarded the FBI's Distinguished Community Leader Award, the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Award, and the TBS Education Award.
With his signature energy and passion, Orrin delivers high-impact messages on discipline, strategy, and servant leadership — teaching young people and adults alike how to make their next move their best move.
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