Johnny Collins II ’00 anchored the TCU men’s 4×400 relay team that won the 2000 NCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championship. On the track, he learned teamwork and leadership. As a student and psychology major, he also focused on community- and relationship-building.

Collins carries those lessons and experiences with him as co-owner and president of Community National Title and to his leadership role serving on the board of the Texas Land Title Association. The name of his business is apt — to Collins, community is everything.  

Homegrown Talent 

Collins grew up in Ryan Place, a historic neighborhood just a mile and a half east of TCU. He was born into a family of athletes: His father and mother were high school state champions in track and field.

As a child, Collins was not interested in organized sports, instead spending his time making a playground out of TCU — he and his friends rode bikes and skateboards through campus and sneaked into Amon G. Carter Stadium.

Collins realized that he had a gift for running when he participated in a regional track club. “One Saturday night in San Antonio, before my ninth grade year, I placed third in a 400-meter race,” Collins said. “That was the first time that I’d ever run that fast. Once I did that, I just knew that I could do it.”

Although he also played football in high school, Collins saw a clearer path to success through running and decided to pursue it at the college level. His mother encouraged him to remain close to home, so he made up his mind to continue his athletic career at TCU.

Johnny Collins set the program record in the 400 meters with a time of 46.26 seconds, won two Western Athletic Conference 400-meter titles and earned All-America honors each year he ran track. Photo by Vishal Malhotra

Collins recounted riding his bicycle to campus, walking to track and field coach Monte Stratton’s office and asking why he had not been offered an athletic scholarship when several other universities had seen enough potential in him to do so. His boldness paid off: Stratton offered him a scholarship that day, and Collins officially committed to TCU later that week.

An outstanding student-athlete, Collins set the program record in the 400 meters with a time of 46.26 seconds, won two Western Athletic Conference 400-meter titles and earned All-America honors each year.

He was the anchor leg in the 4×400 meter relay that brought TCU the 2000 NCAA championship; Collins said he and teammates Roy Williams ’04, Anthony Amantine and Kendrick Campbell ’02 pushed one another to perform their best and shared good rapport on and off the track. “We won a lot together,” he said. “I’m just grateful for them.”

More than 20 years later, Collins and Williams meet before sunrise most mornings for weight training and cardio. Collins describes Williams, who works as performance development adviser in athletics at Joshua High School, as a phenomenal trainer and big-hearted friend.

While Collins didn’t set out to major in psychology — an academic adviser placed him there while he was struggling — the lessons have helped him in the business world. “Managing personalities is what we do for a living,” he said. “We all manage personalities, whether our own or a collection of others.” 

Making It Work 

As an athlete, Collins said, he learned to never quit, to accept the losses and to celebrate the wins. He brings that wisdom to his current work at Community National Title, which has offices in Fort Worth and Dallas.

The title business facilitates the transfer of the title of a home or other property from one owner to the next. Collins enjoys helping people through such life-changing financial matters and making complicated transactions easier to understand.

Collins’ mother owned her own real estate company, and his close-knit family set the example of building strong relationships, both personal and professional. “Helping someone achieve the dream of home ownership, rooting every situation in positivity and being a part of that process is how we make sure to keep the best experience,” Collins said.

A degree in psychology helped Johnny Collins how to better understand clients at his title company. “Managing personalities is what we do for a living,” he said. “We all manage personalities, whether our own or a collection of others.” Courtesy of TCU Athletics

However, not everything Collins learned in track translated well to business life. Early on, the ever-competitive Collins realized that he had to soften his approach.

“I remember my first encounters in the title business — I got up after another title person had given their spiel and I said, ‘Yeah I’m going to do the opposite of everything they just said.’ … I’ve learned to manage that intensity and just make it work in the workplace.”

Winston Williams II, director of culture and success at Community National Title and Collins’ older cousin, describes him as a “tenacious businessman” and a “phenomenal husband and father.”

Collins shares a 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter with wife Toni Estes, a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter. The family enjoys playing games; Collins is partial to Monopoly, noting its parallels to title work and its role in helping his kids understand the business.

In late 2022, Collins was elected to the board of the Texas Land Title Association, a statewide trade association serving more than 16,000 title professionals. Collins is the first Black board member in the association’s 115-year history.

“Johnny is a forward-thinking and passionate title insurance executive, and we’re excited to have his perspectives help guide our association,” said Leslie Midgley, executive vice president and CEO of Texas Land Title Association, in a 2022 news release. “The son of a prominent real estate broker, Johnny literally grew up in the business and made the most of that experience to carve his own path in the title insurance industry. We are very fortunate to have him in our industry and on our leadership team.”

In 2011, Collins was inducted into the Block T Association’s Hall of Fame. He has made it his mission to lift unrecognized talent, successfully proposing the names of six runners, whom he deemed better performers than himself, for the Hall of Fame. 

Khadevis Robinson ’98, TCU’s director of track & field as well as Collins’ teammate and fellow hall of famer, described him as “another success story coming from Fort Worth.”

Collins said TCU has changed in significant ways since his undergraduate years, which he remembers as a time when not many Black students other than athletes were enrolled in the university. Being walking distance to the neighborhood he grew up in helped him stay grounded, as did seeking community among fellow athletes, professors and coaches.

Today, he said, he appreciates that there are people in positions of authority who care about how Black students experience TCU. Collins said that when he was a student, any support to be found was quieter, perhaps because of a fear of backlash. “TCU has done a great job at carving out resources and a safe space for minorities,” he said. 

He shared some of the lessons he has learned since graduation: 

To be successful, Johnny Collins says, “you have to be firm in your approach and go after it — don’t wait for it to come to you.” Photo by Vishal Malhotra

Focus on the future. Be in control of your success by creating habits that will allow you to be successful. Know what you want out of the experience and seek support.  

Be aware of how people experience you. When you’re starting off and trying to make a name for yourself, those people who are overachievers get asked to do the work; the folks that are status quo, unless there’s nepotism, they don’t. 

Kick butt and take names unapologetically. Whatever you want to accomplish, you have to be firm in your approach and go after it — don’t wait for it to come to you.

Focus on your mental state. Take care of your mindset. Make sure you nourish it, feed it, give it what it needs to be successful. 

Be efficient with your time. Spend all of your business time building your business by building predictable and recurring income. Get paid today and tomorrow for the work you did yesterday. 

Be aware of temporality. Do the most that you can do. Don’t worry about getting praise or being recognized. Do it for legacy. Which is to say, take advantage of time. My prayers are that I get to spend significant time with my grandkids.