In this special episode, we look back at Garrain Jones' life, a man who overcame huge challenges to change his life and help others do the same. Garrain lived in his car, was deep in debt, and even spent two years in prison for smuggling heroin. But these tough times helped him find his true purpose. He became a coach, speaker, entrepreneur, and wrote the bestselling book, "Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life."
Garrain shares his story with us, including the lessons he learned about love, leadership, and making big changes in life. You'll hear how aiming for happiness, understanding why he turned to crime, and a simple yet powerful message from a homeless person – change your mindset, change your life – all played a part in turning his life around.
This episode also covers how Garrain's views on God, himself, and relationships with other men have evolved and how he discovered his real passion in life is to motivate and inspire others.
Tune in to this replay to learn how Garrain Jones found light at the end of his dark tunnel and how his journey can inspire you to move from everyday routine to greatness.
In this special episode, we look back at Garrain Jones' life, a man who overcame huge challenges to change his life and help others do the same. Garrain lived in his car, was deep in debt, and even spent two years in prison for smuggling heroin. But these tough times helped him find his true purpose. He became a coach, speaker, entrepreneur, and wrote the bestselling book, "Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life."
Garrain shares his story with us, including the lessons he learned about love, leadership, and making big changes in life. You'll hear how aiming for happiness, understanding why he turned to crime, and a simple yet powerful message from a homeless person – change your mindset, change your life – all played a part in turning his life around.
This episode also covers how Garrain's views on God, himself, and relationships with other men have evolved and how he discovered his real passion in life is to motivate and inspire others.
Tune in to this replay to learn how Garrain Jones found light at the end of his dark tunnel and how his journey can inspire you to move from everyday routine to greatness.
I remember it was August 2011, 3.43 in the morning, and I was like, well, maybe it's not everybody else's fault, maybe it's my fault, because I never, ever, took responsibility. I can't change anyone else, but maybe I can change something about me. What can I change about myself? And then, finally, the tears welled up inside of me and I just said, okay, I'm tired of fighting, I don't want to fight anymore. I want to be healthy, I want to be happy, I want to be surrounded by nothing but positive people. I just want to inspire people. I want to make a bunch of money, but I want the money to represent something that I passionately believe in, that I would do for free. Just show me a sign, Just show me a sign, just show me a sign. And I just kept saying it over and over and over and over and over.
Speaker 2:And the goal is to expose you to as many people as possible who have found their path and life and to humanize them. And after hearing story after story, you eventually give yourself permission to move further in the direction of whatever feels like your path and your purpose, because what you'll see is that anyone who does this has had to overcome many of the same obstacles that you might be dealing with right now and this week. I am re-airing one of the most inspiring episodes that I have had to date with a luminary named Garen Jones. So Garen grew up in Houston. His dad was an abusive alcoholic drug dealer who was murdered when Garen was just 12 years old and as a teenager Garen started breaking into cars and houses and that landed him in juvenile detention. But two years later Garen starts modeling and writing music, but during that time he was busted in France for smuggling heroin. And the story just gets crazier and crazier. Anyway, garen does time in France for the heroin charge and then, years later, he makes a ton of money in the music business and then he loses all of it and he's living out of his car and he's hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with no connection to his family, to his work associates, to his friends or to his daughter, and, according to Garen, he hit rock bottom more times than he could count, but then, miraculously, he was able to turn it all around, and it started with this random encounter with a homeless man that Garen had at a gas station, who told him that if he were to change his mindset, he could change his life. And so, over those next handful of years, that's exactly what Garen did. He changed his mindset, he began doing essentially the opposite of what he was doing before, and he ended up becoming a millionaire many times over. He's now a motivational speaker, he's an author, he's a coach, he speaks to and inspires people all over the world, and his bestselling book is called Change your Mindset, change your Life, which is the advice that the homeless man gave him at the gas station. The story is so incredible that I cannot wait for you to hear him tell it in his own words. So let's get to it. I'm honored to reintroduce you to my friend and one of my own personal inspirations, mr Garen Jones.
Speaker 3:First of all, your name, garen. Where is that from?
Speaker 1:Well, my mom's name is Sherian. She wanted something close to that and her friend said, how about the name Garen? And she really liked it. But that's not the story I grew up with. I actually heard another story and I think my brother lied to me. So I'm just finding this out as of like a year ago. Like my brother when I grew up man, he used to sabotage me. I think he was just so jealous of the attention I got. But he told me that my name was originally supposed to be Garian this name after my mom, sherian and Garian. But the doctor misspelled my name and so we didn't have the money to actually correct it, so it was just Garian. So I went my whole life thinking that I was a mistake. So I found out that some of the greatest inventions in the world came from mistakes. So I kind of rewrote that. But then I just found out when, I think my wife asked my mom, she had a completely different story. But my mother never told me that story. I just went off my brother's story.
Speaker 3:You and your brother and your mom and your dad as a young child, you all were all in Houston, right? Yes, in the Third Ward. What are the traits of the Third Ward for those people who aren't familiar with that area of Houston?
Speaker 1:No, it's like gentrified so it's like way different. But Third Ward was the hootest of the hood, where killings happen all the time and no one ever found out. I was only born there but I don't remember there. The only part I remember is when my dad moved back there after my mom separated and I would go and visit him but I never played outside. So my brother remembers more than I do that it was a very, very, very one of the roughest neighborhoods in Houston. Could drugs killings, people arrested all the time, but that was the norm. And my dad was murdered in that same neighborhood and nothing ever happened, so that was normal.
Speaker 3:When you were four years old, some guy put you in a dryer or something like this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were in Sharpstown, so we were in Bel Air. It's a neighborhood in Houston, so it was in Houston and I remember I went downstairs and there's the community washer and dryer and I remember I used to love Disneyland so much and so I just like, wow, disneyland, you know what you see on TV?
Speaker 3:Oh my God, it's Disneyland.
Speaker 1:And I felt like a full grown man asked me if I wanted to go to Disneyland. And I remember just saying, yeah, I want to go to Disneyland. He said, well, if you get in that dryer, you'll go to Disneyland. And I remember saying to myself that doesn't make sense to me. But we're taught to listen to our elders and you know what I'm saying and like, this is what we're taught. And so I just remember saying this doesn't make sense, but I really want to go to Disneyland, really bad. So a grown man lifts up a child, a four-year-old, puts him in the dryer, closes the dryer, turns it on, and I remember when that door closed, I instantly, as soon as it turned on, I can instantly feel the heat and I'm just tumbling around and tumbling around and tumbling around and screaming and crying. And a lady ran out of her apartment building and opened up the dryer because she saw the whole thing happen. She had no clothes on and she's the one that saved my life. But in that moment I lost trust of people that were holding me. I didn't care about Disneyland when all these other kids were talking about Disneyland, but I didn't realize this was the reason why I didn't like I never got excited about Disneyland until like six years ago, like no Disneyland for me. Didn't care for Mickey Mouse, donald Duck didn't trust people who were holding me, didn't trust Period and didn't trust myself because I took a risk and that risk almost killed me. So in my mind, taking a risk is associated with I'm about to die.
Speaker 3:I have a lot of questions about that, but there's so many moments like this. I don't go too deep into any one of those. But did you get seriously hurt from that, or you just kind of?
Speaker 1:Oh, I had burns and boils literally all over my body. Well, these big old, you know like you get a burn or something, or if you've ever been cooking with hot skillet grease and that grease pops out the bacon or the fried baloney sandwich and then pops out. I had bubbles.
Speaker 3:I think only black people would get that reference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just about to say, for those of you who understand, a fried baloney sandwich.
Speaker 3:A lot of the grease on your skin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know some people, so some of your listeners are like I don't think I can relate Right what?
Speaker 3:is baloney. So that must have been one of your earliest memories, because your four Did your mom get upset with you because of that?
Speaker 1:experience. The only thing I remember around that is my brother, who was eight. But my brother was really big. My brother started puberty in the fifth grade, so, yeah, really big and really tall and he could fight. He went to go find the dude I think the dude was like 18 years old, yeah and my brother beat him up. No way I remember I look, I remember it so clearly and my brother did something to him. He hit him with a stick and he did some things. Maybe the guy didn't fight back. I just remember the dude getting beat up by my brother, because that's the only thing.
Speaker 3:So you pointed the guy out because he was like chilling out in the playground.
Speaker 1:The lady who saw, the lady who saw me Got it, told my family.
Speaker 3:And you know what? I bet you that guy had mental problems. I mean, he obviously had mental problems, but I bet you probably, if this was like the hood, he probably had some undiagnosed autism. You know something, Something that caused him to do that.
Speaker 1:Well, that Sharps Town wasn't so much the hood I was born in the hood this one was more of. There was more white people, you know there was Hispanics. It was more a variety of people and you know we moved away from what people would call the ghetto.
Speaker 3:So parents separated. You and your brother go to the same parent or you get to choose.
Speaker 1:So this was even wild. There's so much stuff to unda. So for four this is the same age, four years old, and I remember my mom and I used to fight all the time and my mom told me at four pick which parent you want to go with Me or your dad, because they're separating. And I remember saying I don't want to choose. Now I'm going to turn this into a whole lesson, but I remember saying I don't want to choose and I remember there as being like should we have 30 minutes left to get your stuff together and everything? And I'm a little kid and I just meant I don't. There was the feeling of dread I don't want to choose, I don't want to go, I don't want to go. At the last minute, finally, I was like I want to go with dad. I finally chose. And so I remember getting into the car driving away. My brother chose my mom and I'm watching when you drive away and the people get small because you're getting further and further. Something just impacted my spirit. What I now know is my intuition. I didn't know back then, but it said go with your mom, go with your mom. And I said stop the car, I want to go with mom. I want to go with mom, I want to go with mom. So my dad drove back and I remember running up to my brother and my mom and hugging them, and then my dad drives off. I never would have known that, eight years later than my father would have been murdered in the same neighborhood that I was supposed to live in. However, here's what happened. Every argument after that, my parents. They were separated, but anytime they were in a room they were arguing. I kept saying it's my fault and I thought it was my fault because I chose my mom instead of my dad. So I blamed myself for every argument and when my father was murdered, guess who I blamed for it?
Speaker 3:You, because you weren't there.
Speaker 1:Because I wasn't there. And I've been living my whole life. It was like why do I procrastinate? Why am I often late? Why do I feel like I can get anywhere, anywhere in the city, in 30 minutes, even if it's two hours away? Why do I always wait till the last minute? I don't know. Finally, I discovered, oh my God, that little boy has been playing the same sequence. I don't want to go. I don't want to go, stall, stall, stall the feeling of dread and make decisions at the last minute. I've been, that's been the story of my life, my whole life, until I realized where it started.
Speaker 3:So all this drama is happening in the background. What was your favorite toy or activity back in those years, those early years? You were eight, nine, 10 years old.
Speaker 1:My favorite activity is running. I always loved running. There was sets of freedom. I would always have like really happy thoughts. It's like flying to Peter Pan. But I loved running. And my mom said I always knew you were gonna be a runner, because it normally takes babies 11 and a half months to start walking. She said you were full blown running at six and a half, almost seven months, like full blown. She said it was so odd because she was so tiny and you had these little bowlegged but you would just run everywhere.
Speaker 3:When you say running as a 10 year old, what are we talking about? Because people aren't actually running like they run. These days, there's not a lot of jogging happening, especially in, you know, urban areas.
Speaker 1:I was on a summer league AAU trek team when I was seven, eight, nine, 10. I ran with some of the fastest kids in the world. A lot of them went on to win Olympics, gold medal, olympics, and when I was nine I set a record for the mile in my elementary for a six minute mile and the record's still there. So when I say I was an avid runner, competition, running against people all over the country and making it to nationals, winning gold medals and everything, so so talk about your near death experience at 10 years old.
Speaker 3:Which one? The one where you almost drowned?
Speaker 1:Which one I'm telling you. There's just so many that when I go back, so 10. Actually, I believe I was in the seventh grade. I was either seven years old or I was in the seventh grade. It's one of those. But me and Derek Duncan in a couple of other neighborhood boys were playing baseball in a cul-de-sac. I had been hearing about kids in the neighborhood being killed by these people that were drowning them in the bio. When you hear these things of like folklore things, you don't think that they'll ever happen to you. No, so I was playing baseball and I saw these kids that I knew because they were my older cousin's friends. I knew of them because I've seen them with my older cousin and they were like oh, there's a big trout in the bayou. And in my head I was just like all right, I just I wanna go fishing. Derek Duncan says don't go. Like everybody was like why are you leaving? Don't go. And I was like I wanna go catch these fish. So I go and follow these three grown men and then there's these little tunnels. So you have this dark bio water in these three tunnels that are sucking the current in and then they suck it all the way to the street. So anything that goes inside of there doesn't last because it's going underwater in current until it gets sucked out on the other side of the street. So I don't think anything of it. I'm looking for trout and I was like I don't see any trout. He's like you gotta look closer. And I'm looking closer and I don't even see it. He's like you gotta look closer. And his voice changed and you're seeing that thing on YouTube. It was like it was at this moment. He knew who F'd up In that moment when he said look closer, something told me these are the guys that's been drowning those kids. But by that time I was already in the water Current sucked me in and by that time I couldn't swim at all. So I'm sitting there, oh my God, oh my God, and I'm getting flipped because of the current in the whirlpools and I'm literally getting sucked into this tunnel. And I just said it was done Like I gave up. I legit dropped my hand. You can't see in the water, drop my hand. Here's the okay. Here's the tunnel. Right here I'm coming this way and my hand's outside the tunnel, going like this. I dropped my hand and I'm underwater, being sucked into the tunnel. Out of nowhere, a hand goes, boom, grabs this, pulls me up just enough so that I can grab the side. And then I grabbed the side of the tunnel and I pulled myself up. When I looked up, I saw nobody. That was one of the scariest times in my life.
Speaker 3:And still no explanation. Your homies didn't come and try to like find you.
Speaker 1:Still no explanation. I called out the people who it was. There was no proof. It was all these different things and nothing ever happened. And I'm sure in retrospect something really did happen to those guys. Nothing ever happened to my knowledge. Being a little kid, I just knew that I'm not gonna trust when somebody says hey, come do this, hey, come do that. So another lack of trust when it comes to older people.
Speaker 3:So father is murdered at 12, couple of years later, a few years later, what is the conversation like in your household with your mom, with your brother? Was she giving you guys any sort of life philosophy? Was she repeating anything over and over? You gotta work hard, or?
Speaker 1:My mom was the number one supporter. She'd supported every sport that I did, but there wasn't any philosophy talk around the house. If anybody ever gave me philosophy, it was actually my dad, and it was when I was five years old. He would always tell me don't ever let anybody tell you you can't do something. If you love it, then you do it. If it makes you happy, then you do it, and I just always remember that I'm like this doesn't make me happy, why am I doing this? So that was the one thing that I just kind of just swirled around in my mind to always use because it works. Something makes me happy when I love it, and then I just do what makes me happy, that I love, that brings joy to me. It always, always works.
Speaker 3:What led you to start breaking into houses and cars? This is a whole other thing.
Speaker 1:Again, I had to take it back into time. Okay, Because I've always been a hustler and I remember I was five and I asked my mom for a pair of Jordans, to buy me a pair of Jordans. She was like, as expensive as those shoes are. She was like when you can make your own money, you can buy whatever you want. She didn't say how. There was no discipline in that way that how to make the money. When you can make your own money, you can buy whatever you want. So I did things that was with an integrity, Like I'd wash cars, I would mow lawns, I would do all these things, but I would also break into cars, steal things and whatever I would do. Whatever I had to do to make money. I just, whenever I make my own money, do what you want. So take that time stamp for somebody who's been hustling since he was five. My mother was a hustler. She never had the money. She always found a way to make money. So it was like I'd literally been hustling to get what I wanted since I was five. However, I needed to do it. Fast forward me 22 years old and somebody give me the opportunity to make some money driving a car from one border, over a ferry, to the next border, from the UK to Rotterdam. Don't ask no questions. You drive this car. You make 4,000 pounds and one pound at that time, in 2001, was worth $2.3. That's $8,000 cash every time I drove. I did that route seven to eight times over a two, three month period. I've never seen fast cash like that and I'd always been fearless, always. So, driving a car, yeah, okay, Boom, 8,000, 8,000, 8,000. So imagine three month period 8,000, 8,000, 8,000, 8,000, 8,000,. But on the seventh time they had me fly into France and everything about it felt wrong. And when I got to the border, you know I used to use my modeling magazines. I was on the cover of a magazine. People were like why were you doing all of this? We were modeling. I was like models don't make that much money like the super models do, and once you book a job you gotta wait three, four months to get a check. So I didn't have a lot of money coming in. But this fast cash, if I can do this this easy, that I can have this is my cover up. So I ended up getting caught and they sentenced me to 12 years in the prison and I got out in two and a half.
Speaker 3:But you also got arrested at 14, right? Oh, is that the one you're talking about? I said yeah, yeah, yeah, jubed out for breaking in the cars and houses and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah so it's so funny. I've always been a leader or someone who can influence people. Somebody had introduced me to opening up car doors and I never really had to break the window because what we'd call it we'd go to the white neighborhood, which is my mind, that was the neighborhood where all the rich white people live. They would never lock their car doors, so we would go there, just open it up and take whatever was valuable and then sell it. So I did that with a guy one night and I fell in love with it. I have a very addicted personality and I just kept going in. I was like, hey, you wanna do cars, wanna come do cars? And then it was me and 12 other dudes that were doing these cars and taking whatever was valuable, splitting it up sometimes, and I just did that for years. But whenever I got caught and never lied, I would always admit yes, I did do it. Yes, I broke in the 62 cars in one night. Yes, it was me, but I never told on anyone else. So that happened to be the time when I got caught. I was on probation, but even while I was on probation I still kept doing it. So because I got caught breaking into cars while I was on probation. That's when I went to juvenile.
Speaker 3:Were you a sociopath or what was your relationship with? Like, you didn't think I didn't know that what that was when I was a boy, right, but I'm just saying like, looking back now, did you just have you had? No, you made no connection between this is someone's stuff and or you just thought this is all mine, this is all my stuff. I just haven't gotten it yet.
Speaker 1:I didn't think about any of that. What I actually craved, and still do, was recognition. There was a lot of significance in that, because when I do something fearless, they're like oh man, you're like fearless and you would do this and great job and stuff like. If you look at any any of my successes or anything anywhere where there's the most recognition, you will see me excel. I feel like that since I was a kid. I just didn't know where to point that energy until I got older. So, running around well, I wasn't with the gang but I ran around with gang members and did a lot of stuff that they did and there was lots of recognition in there breaking cars, it was lots of recognition when I was sleeping with a lot of women, they're like oh man, you get all the girls. There was lots of recognition. So it was never the stuff or the repercussions of it, it was the fact that somebody saw me, because I didn't feel like I was seeing at home when I connected dots. Looking backwards.
Speaker 3:Right, and when you were in juvie, one of the I guess correction officers handed you something. You asked them how you could get out of that situation.
Speaker 1:I was in there and I remember everybody saying, because I was, I didn't start puberty until I graduated high school. So I was little for a very long time. So at that age, when I was 15, I've only had a six size, six shoe. I was about five foot one. I was very tiny and so when I was in juvenile everybody was like, why are you here? You're too good to be. Like what are you doing here? Nobody could believe why I was so small and in juvenile. And I remember I was supposed to go to TYC, which is a prison for teenagers, and that was about six hours away from my mom. Mind you, I had never been away from my mom, so this me being in juvenile was the longest I'd ever been away. But she could visit. And I was supposed to go to juvenile because I had 62 counts. Anytime you break into a car it's considered a felony. I admitted to all 62. So it was considered having 62 felonies and so they were trying me as an adult at 15. And I was five foot one and a little kid. So here's what was supposed to happen I go to juvenile, then I go to prison for teenagers. Then they tried me as an adult at 16. I remember dreading going to TYC. I was in line and we weren't supposed to get out of line. But I remember seeing this man. He had gold trim glasses, khakis on, he had a little bit darker skin to me, it was bald and in a white button down shirt. Something told me to go ask him how can I get out? And I wasn't supposed to get out of line. I was like, excuse me, how can I get out of here? First thing he said is do you know the Lord's prayer? I was like no, what is that? He pulls out this little orange Bible and he said when you learn the Lord's prayer, that's when you'll get out. And I remember saying that was the stupidest thing ever. And I took a little orange Bible and it was literally in my cell for the longest time, a week before I was in there for six and a half months, a week before I was supposed to get out. And I was like man, let me see what's in there, let me learn this stupid Lord's prayer. And I just started out Father, lord in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. I did that over and over and over and over and over. Sometimes people quote things from memory, but it was almost as if just seeing those words was doing something internally inside of me and having me walk into mastery, but I was unaware of what was happening. One day I remember not having to remember it and it just felt like it was a part of me and I stood up and I would just say it every single day. And then I just said it and I was just like that felt different. As soon as I finished, I felt that there was a knock on the door. Mind you, it's a week before I leave off for prison for teenagers, tyc. As soon as I finished the Lord's prayer, when I felt it in my body knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. Jones, today's your lucky day, you're getting out. I remember looking at the orange Bible and I'm like wow, and ever since then that was the defining thing that supported me in my relationship with you know I'm a follower of Christ. My relationship with God and you know I wavered so much but every single time I go back to the Lord's prayer and it just, I become, it, I become. I read the book until the book starts reading me. The most magical miracle things happen with grace and ease. And it started when I was that little kid and I've seen so many instances of me being connected to the spiritual aspect and abundance follows or miracles that don't make sense according to how human brains think.
Speaker 3:What was the legal loophole that the universe used to get you out of that place?
Speaker 1:You know, it was just like a Jones. You're getting out Today's, your lucky day.
Speaker 3:You go back to school. Now you're becoming more focused, but you're still, I guess, breaking into stuff and stripping and this kind of thing a little bit.
Speaker 1:I didn't start that until I got to an 11th grade, so that one was more freshman, 14, 15. Because, see, I didn't know that what I was feeding my mind was causing me to be a different person. I just thought I was lucky. I was like whoa. I was like, wow, I'm so lucky. I didn't know your thoughts create things and you can create your reality, whatever, because I didn't really have mentors like that. So I was just so clueless and you can't change what you're not aware of. So after a while I just gave up, I stopped doing things and I remember my probation officer. His name is something Darnell, bobby Darnell or Bobby something. He looked at me. He's like you know, it comes a time where you hit a fork in the road. You can either stop, do nothing, you can make a left, or you can make a right. When you make a left, you change your life. You make a right, you go further in and you'll end up dead or imprisoned for life. And he said you're heading down the path on the right and you've already passed the point where you can do anything about it. He told me this. I remember him saying I wish I could meet him and say, bro, I took a left. I took a left. It's ultimately what took place. And then high school happened and I went to another school and I just got born. I got really born, and every time when I get bored started thinking of different things that I can do for me not to be born.
Speaker 3:It's interesting you and I actually ended up in New York around the same time. We were both modeling. I was with DNA, I was with boss for a little period of time, I was with Ford for a period of time. You were with Willamina and Ford. Talk about how you ended up in New York. What was the circumstance that brought you?
Speaker 1:So I started modeling in LA. I was with Ford for Runway and Willamina for Print, because Ford had the best runway in America. It was booking all kinds of stuff all kinds of music videos, l'oreal hair commercial, gap, old Navy doing Tommy Hilfiger stuff. I was booking a lot of stuff and then first time I went to New York they turned me down. Next time I went to New York I had a catalog full of all of the campaigns that nobody on their walls had, so I had more work than a lot of their mod. Then I went there. They were like we'd love to represent you and everything. So that's why I was in New York, because I really wanted the bigger, bigger jobs and I wanted to hit that New York market. So that's why I originally went to New York and how I got to New York, because I was first. I was with Major in New York. Me and Channing Tatum started together and we were super connected boys. Me, channing and this boy named Lucas were all top models that were on the come up. Me and Channing did Sean John fashion show together fat arm and stuff like that. That's how I hit the New York market. But then again there was not a lot of money coming in when you're trying to really work that market. They just try to get the casting directors to see your face and you're going out in a specific season Me being in New York. I was just like man I want that big life, I want to drive nice cars and that's something I always wanted. And so when the opportunity presented it's so wild how it presented I was at a fashion party in New York, johnny something. Whoever the photographer is. I forgot Johnny Hernandez, big time celebrity photographer. He was like I want to get you a picture with Miss France. Her name was Sonia Rowland. I took pictures with her and we just hit it off. She ended up being my girlfriend and I went out to France to go visit her and she was at a town a lot because she was like Miss France 2001 or 2002 or 2001 of those, but she was always shooting movies, everything. She went out of town. I went to a party, went into a party. I saw somebody from LA that I knew. They knew they weren't good people. They were out to good. However, it was a familiar face and an unfamiliar place and when you just see that, your senses just raise up and so we're speaking the same language. And then that's when the opportunity to, I'd say, drive luxury vehicles from one country to another for a large sum of money or at least that's what I thought presented itself. I took it.
Speaker 3:Was it a random stop or were they stopping everybody, you just, you just the wrong place, wrong time, type of thing? When they stopped you?
Speaker 1:I think I was set up, but I later learned this was later on, like two years in is that whenever somebody gets busted with drugs, they all come over from all of the posts to back that person up. So if they all come over, it leaves the other portals open for cars to just drive through. And since you know the reason why it got out because after they tested the drugs, they retested them. It was an extensive search. 85% of those drugs were fake.
Speaker 3:So it wasn't 6.2 kilos of heroin, it was like one kilo of heroin in a bunch of.
Speaker 1:They tested the drugs three times, but after two and a half years it's so interesting I felt more free in prison than I did when I was not in prison, because I was doing everything that I'd forgotten that I loved drawing, running, motivating people, just visual hearts and things like that and I started doing all that and I just felt free. I was like man, I stopped doing all of this. These are things that made me happy when I was a little kid running, motivating people, all the stuff that we talked about when I was a little kid Well, when I felt the most free. It's very interesting how they called me in the office and they said Jones and I was like. This reminds me of what I was a little kid and, by the way, I was reading the Bible heavily.
Speaker 3:You read it like eight times, right, yeah, and it was.
Speaker 1:I just kept over and over and over and it just was a. It felt like it was a part of me. It is so funny because they called me into the office and they said we retested the drugs and it didn't make sense. I thought I was getting in trouble, didn't make sense why they retested drugs and they said 85% of it was fake. It was either 85 or 90. It was a high number. So I might be paraphrasing and for the amount that was real, you've already done the time You're free to go home.
Speaker 2:He must have been thinking holy shit this Bible stuff really really works.
Speaker 3:I didn't.
Speaker 1:I wasn't aware. I wasn't aware you can't see the picture while you're in the frame. It wasn't until later, until I connected the dots. Looking backwards, I'm like, oh, there's a formula here. When I have a great relationship with God, when I'm doing the stuff that I love and I'm in my word, something magical happens every single time, and I have so many examples of it, and it even happened way away in Europe. I wasn't supposed to get out to 2012. I went in 2002, I mean 2001. So I felt free, george, you're free to go. No-transcript.
Speaker 3:Did you start reading the power of positive thinking in prison, or was that later?
Speaker 1:I read it when I was 18. A lady of fashion show coordinator named Shannon Davidson. She had gave me that book for my 18th birthday and I thought it was the stupidest thing. One I used to have a speaking impediment and though I never read books, I never read books I was also in special education classes in high school. So thinking I'm stupid talking like this, I had an issue with people who spoke eloquently, with big words, and spoke with passion, kind of like I'm doing right now. Only I don't use really big, eloquent words, I just talk out of top. But when people would talk like that I would clam up in a shell because it was such a deep insecurity for me. So I originally used the power of positive thinking that book when I was 18 to over enunciate every word that was in the book. But I didn't read the book for the message that was in the book. So I was like the other day I was forgiving my family, so I just started reading it out loud and over enunciating. By the time I was done reading that book, I was talking like this. I was like, oh my God. So I trained myself how to speak by actually reading a book, because I never ran a book during really high school because I cheated my way through high school, and so that was the first complete book I ever read in my entire life. Fortunately for me, it was a book called the Power of Positive Thinking, so just by reading the words, and uttering the words. All of these really cool things was happening in my life, like the modeling stuff, like the acting stuff, like the attracting certain women into my life. I was like, oh my God, this is an A-list singer, this is an A-list rapper, why does she like me? And all these things were happening while I was reading this stuff.
Speaker 3:Speaking of which, you attracted a music deal, some kind of like half-million dollar deal with Ludacris.
Speaker 1:That was when I got out of prison.
Speaker 3:How did that happen? How'd you meet Ludacris?
Speaker 1:I call him my brother, but he's a really good friend of mine. His name is D-Ray Davis. He's a comedian.
Speaker 3:Yeah, comedian yeah.
Speaker 1:He hosts the improv every Monday night for like the last 14 years. Any celebrity that comes, any black celebrity that comes in town, any rapper, any sports star that is in town, they always come to his Monday improv. Well, d-ray gave me an ultimatum when I got out of prison and I had wrote all these songs while I was in prison and I said I was going to get a record deal and I'm going to record some songs and I'm going to make music for the first time in my life. So when I got out, he said I'll give you a free place to stay, I'll buy you clothes and I'll drive you wherever you want to go. And he goes. You want to be a singer? Right? And I said yeah. He said don't come home unless you have a song. I didn't know a producer, I had no money. I said don't come home unless you have a song. I was like damn, that's why I got introduced to Myspace. So I got on Myspace and then I just started messaging people. I'm a singer. All I had was shirtless pictures. I had no demo. And then somebody named John Henry, let me go to the studio. I recorded a song called Breathe it In and then I took that one song, put it on Myspace and I reapproached every single person. I hit up oh I have a song. Well, because I had a song, then they saw what I was capable of. Now I was just in the studio 30 days I had 28 songs and when I was done with that, it's just so happened that Ludacris happened to be in town, came to the improv. Now D-Ray was the host, so he can put anybody on stage that he wants. Instead of him putting himself on stage, he gave me his time and put me on stage and I rocked the house and then Ludacris looked over at D-Ray. He was like this is his music. He was like yeah. He was like does he have more? 28 songs that I recorded in the last 30 days gave to him. Next thing, you know, I'm having a meeting up at Def Jam with Luda and the CEOs of President at Def.
Speaker 3:Jam have Kevin Lyle and those guys.
Speaker 1:No, I was before they were president. Anyways, he was a big player at Def Jam. They loved my music and we went off on the runnings.
Speaker 3:That's how it happened With song that I wrote while I was in prison, was it half a million dollars. Is that the deal?
Speaker 1:$500,000. I did not get $500,000. I got a signing bonus, for I think it was $100,000, and then I would get the rest when my album came out. My album never came out, so I just had the $100,000 signing bonus and that's what I bought my car cash with.
Speaker 3:Cut to 2009,. You're living in your car.
Speaker 1:That same car. What the freak happened. So I ended up leaving the record label. So there was a showcase and I never prepared. I didn't understand, I didn't have the right guidance. I knew how to sound good on tape, but I didn't know how to sound good live, because I didn't understand preparation like I do now. And there was a showcase that had like there was Jill Scott, there was all these big names showcasing and I went out on stage and it wasn't that good. Crisant Michelle she had told me that I did really well and she loved my music, but it just didn't. It didn't translate. The very next day, def Jam dropped me from the label, but I was still on DTP and I was like this doesn't feel right to me. I shouldn't be on the stage rapping with I mean singing with gangster rappers. I should never have put out the song celebrity chick. I wrote it but I didn't want to put it out because it was not my sound and I felt like I and I allowed this to happen to go further and further and further away from who I really am. So I left and I went to go do it independent, so that I can make my own music the way that I wanted to make it, but I never made any money. No money ever really came in, and so it was one thing after the next, after the next. It's like man, how long can I keep this image up? Well, I had a daughter, my mom was struggling, I wasn't making any money. That weighs hard on a man and it's like you can't take care of your kid. You can't do this, and like you're putting on weight. Your girlfriend breaks up with you because you can't take care of your life, your mom is dying in the hospital. So all of that was happening at the same time. And the camel that broke the straws back, I was in the studio and I won't name his name with a major recording, platinum Artists writing songs. I came up with a melody and I contributed to almost half of the song, and there were people that were not in the studio that night. I know exactly who was in the studio. When I called their business manager to talk about splits, they said she decided to change the song, so it's not going to be on the album. That song came out, it went number one and it was the exact same song. It won a Grammy. But that whole time I was living in my car and I had to watch him give credit to somebody that wasn't even in the room, wasn't even there that night, while I got nothing and I said, f you, f, music, f, this whole industry, I'll go find something else to do. And then I left the industry. When I left the industry, I went dark, I was depressed, I was stressed out and I was like, man, they can take everything they wanted me away from me. They can't take away my car. Car was the only thing I had. So I started living in my car and had anywhere else to go and it was just like the pressure of trying to maintain an image. Being seen on MTV, being seen in these other things, was so difficult to maintain the image and I was too prideful to get a nine to five job, too prideful to go back home, because I told everybody at home if I come back home, you know I fell.
Speaker 3:What is that like living in your car, Because I've also seen you post a photo of a storage room that you were also kind of. I guess that was around the same time, right? What was that like? Where were you going to the bathroom? Where were you parking at night?
Speaker 1:So I had a membership and had a hookup membership you know how those are, you don't pay any more and a hookup membership over at 24 hour fitness, the one in Hollywood yeah, on La Brea. And no, it wasn't 24 hour fitness, it was LA Fitness, the one on La Brea in Hollywood. So I had a hookup there. That's where I would shower, that's where you know, if I didn't have a girl's house to sleep at which I was always going to a club, so I can find a different girl whose house I got, it was so much that I got tired of sleeping with him. I was like yo, I just want to sleep, I just want to sleep. So I would just find a way. But when it gets to a point where you're numb with emotions, you stop thinking about the monotony of everything that's going around, going, you know, just going around. I'm just going down, down, down down. I'm like how did I get myself here? Like I don't understand, like I'm actually talented. There's some untalented people that are doing well. Why am I in the same spot? Why am I getting worse? Why am I hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from having not paid taxes for the last 10 years? But they can't get you past seven. And all that was my modeling money stuff, cause you had to pay your own taxes and never paid. And it's getting worse. My girlfriend breaks up with me. It's getting worse. Mom's dying in the hospital. It's getting worse. It's like I you know I use the excuse cause I'm black. It's getting worse. It's cause of the president. I'm getting worse. Now, you know, they just want to. You know, want to give a brother a chance. It's getting worse and worse, and worse and worse. And I try to take my life twice and I didn't. Even I failed at that. Maybe I should stop saying can it get any worse? And I started asking myself different questions and I remember it was August 2011, at 3.43 in the morning, and I was like, well, maybe it's not everybody else's fault, maybe it's my fault, cause I never, ever, took responsibility and I can't change anyone else, but maybe I can change something about me. What can I change about myself? And then, finally, the tears welled up inside of me and I just said, okay, I'm tired of fighting, I don't want to fight anymore. I want to be healthy, I want to be happy, I want to be surrounded by nothing but positive people. I just want to inspire people and I want to make a bunch of money, but I want the money to represent something that I passionately believe in, that I would do for free. Just show me a sign. Just show me a sign, just show me a sign. And I just kept saying it over and over and over and over and over. A week later, I'm at a gas station we live in LA. It's $0.49 for one gallon. I have $2 to my name. I can't even get a gallon. But I'm on E and I'm in Inglewood and I'm shooting an independent film. I'm in Inglewood and I go and some homeless person asked me for money. I said you have more money than me. And they said change your mindset, change your life. I don't know what it was about those words, but it like it had resonance to it. It was energy behind it. It was something that was like it made me think you ever seen him over in six cents, when he didn't even know he was dead, and that he saw all these things play out. Same thing happened with me, and so all these things played out. I was like maybe my life was alive because of how I've been thinking. So what if I do different with the same circumstance. Change your mindset, change your life. Change your mindset, change your life. So that became the new broken record, the new song in my head Change your mindset, change your life. All of a sudden I just started doing the opposite of everything I wouldn't normally do in areas of my life where I wasn't happy. I wasn't happy with my health. So I started practicing looking at healthy people and getting around a healthy, active community. I used to go to clubs every night trying to chase a different woman. So I started practicing reading books. I placed clubs, nightclubs, with books and audio books and I started practicing and doing this opposite. Normally I'll take the escalators. Change your mindset, change your life. So I'll take the stairs. So an object in the motion stays in motion unless a stronger something, an outside force, stops it. So my motion before was the way that I was living, but by training the opposite inside of me of just doing the opposite, I staged myself outside of the way I had been living since I was a little kid. So every day, since it's all it's been 10 years, every single day when I find myself not wanting to do something, I say change your mindset, change your life, get up and do it, but then once you do it for long enough, it doesn't become a struggle, it actually becomes part of you, it becomes second nature. I didn't realize that health what I thought was a new thing was actually part of my nature. Having good health, being kind to people, reading books, not filling my mind with knowledge, my heart with knowledge, my soul with knowledge, just like forgiving people, letting go of resentment, that is all to bring me back into who I really am, deep down on the inside. So this was a forever evolving thing that I pivoted because of that one homeless person People say I wouldn't listen to anybody low and changed lives with. Well, I think you might be missing a lot of messages. I feel like good God will put messages inside of the least likely places that you would look, otherwise everybody would be rich and wealthy. You got to learn somehow. So that is how I got on the path of enlightenment, transformation, understanding. I learned the hard way and the hard way to the hard way, and I never went to the schools and got all the terminologies and got the doctrines and got the certificates. But let me tell you something my life certificate. I always said I'll never go to school for 15 years so I can get the big money. I paid the price for 15 years and that's when the big money came. It's so crazy I still had to go to school.
Speaker 3:So you had your own place. A year later you were a millionaire.
Speaker 1:But four years later two and a half years later. Yeah, two, and a half years later, I was earning $115,000 a month range on average.
Speaker 3:So, when that all was happening, what were you feeling inside that you were not feeling inside before? That homeless person said change your mind, change your life.
Speaker 1:Joy, peace of mind, like I actually matter in the world, A sense of purpose, a sense of recognition. Because when I shared my story of me living in my car and doing all of this and people were like, oh my God, you had 125 videos out when you were living in your storage. I never knew that. Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:And you had a YouTube channel with like inspirational content, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I got my reps in. I didn't know that I was training myself to be excellent at speaking and at panels. You put me on a panel, you put me on a stage where I don't care who the big name is, They'll be like yo who's that guy? Because I'm fairly new to the public. I only left the bubble of the company that I was in, because I was in this part of this health and wellness company for eight years and I didn't do anything else. It was only two years ago that I said you know what I feel like. This message needs to go public and needs to go out and share it. That's when I started doing podcasts two and a half years ago, and I was just like podcasts and very, very first podcast I ever did was impact theory. That was my first. A week after I said I'm going to go public.
Speaker 3:How did Tom find you?
Speaker 1:They said that his show producer, some black dude, saw me on another on a some little interview I did for my friend Kevin that I've known from the fashion industry and said we need a story like that on this platform. So the black guy had found me, showed Tom and Tom was like yes, but I say all of that to say I didn't know that until I shared my truth truth, everything that really I mean like naked here is who I really am, and here's what I'm really going through. First message I got from somebody was when you shared your story. I put the gun down and I was like, boom, I have a new recognition. So I poured all of that same unit because they gave me feedback of you changed my life and I was like, oh, this feels good, but this feels different than the other forms of recognition of being seen than I've ever had. So the more and more people like, oh, my God, you inspire me so much. I love when you shared that, I love when you did this talking, but when the greeting is came out when you were speaking, I felt like this whole darkness just left the room. When you had a standing ovation with 6,000 people and all of that is the same little boy where somebody's man. Yo, you are so fearless when you break into those cars it's like man, you motivate me so much. And that was the moment I was like I have a mission, I have a purpose I understand and I'm so worthy of it. And now I understand why I had to go through what it seems like 20 men go through, but in one body, so that I can relate to many different kind of people. I can relate to so many the spiritual aspect, the freaking gangbanger aspect, the drug dealer aspect, the stripper aspect, the special needs aspect, the sexual trauma aspect, the sexual speech impediments. And so those are the people who follow me and they don't even share those stories. Until I say some of our speech impediments, I was like damn, I never really shared that with anybody. But I also had a speech impediment because I become the permission slip for other people to realize, oh, it's okay to be all the way me and to share all the way me.
Speaker 3:What was the motivation behind going up to those 2000 strangers and asking those three questions how do I love myself, how to find happiness and how to change my life? When did you do that and why did you do that?
Speaker 1:So I remember I was just praying, I was like God, send me a sign, what do you want me to do? What do you use me? Give me, what do you need me for? I'll do it. And people just kept saying you should write it, you should write a book, you should write a book, you should write a book. And usually when things come in in multitudes like that and it keeps coming, it's because I probably ignored the signs early on. But when they keep coming like that, it's because something's trying to get my attention. So finally, I decided to write a book called Change your Mindset, change your Life. I didn't know how, I didn't know a publisher, I didn't know anything. And while I was in the process and it was a five-year process to write my book but it didn't take me five years to write it it was five years because I was just like I'm trying to write the perfect book. I'm a follower of Christ, with my best friends, jewish, and I have Muslim friends and I have gay friends and I have all these and how do I write a book that fits everybody? That was where the difficulty was, instead of just writing my book for my own story, instead of trying to please people. So I went through that whole process, but in that process I just decided to ask. So if you can ask the universe three questions regarding change and you could get the answer, what would it be? So at every event I ever went to, I would just hand out cards. I still have them right now. I have them, like with this funny, I just found this box and all my index cards and it has all these questions. So the questions that got asked the most. I felt like I could answer or support the statistic of the world's questions. So whichever question was asked the most, what's my purpose? How do I find love? You know what I'm saying? That's a question that millions of other more people are asking, if that's the commonality of a question. So when it came to that, that became the questions that I answered inside of my book because the people asked it. So that was an everyday people's guide to understanding the questions that you typically ask every day.
Speaker 3:And what is the Youth Foundation?
Speaker 1:I'll tell you. So I have the Change your Mindset Youth Foundation and when I created it, it's because someone else suggested it. So it's something that went on the back burner, because it's not something that I resonated with right then in the moment, but it's. Somebody said oh, you should do, it's time to do a foundation now. So I went to the foundation now, but it just didn't resonate with me. Now it's kind of like when somebody was like, okay, hey, let's go to church. I don't want to go to church right now, but I did it because I was like I don't want to be mad at me, so I'm going to go. So it's on the back burner for right now because there's some things that I am taking care of regarding men, regarding my own life, my family, my new daughter. My daughter that's almost 20 years old. But Change your Mindset Youth Foundation is a foundation that will support underprivileged youth that came from similar environments that I had. There'll be books and apps and opportunities to connect, almost like a big brother type program, with the youth who need a certain level of education because they don't get access to it.
Speaker 3:I've been following you since you and I met in Benestat one night and, man, you lived in LA. You had this really beautiful house. You had a mural of the guy pulling you out of the water when you were a kid black Jesus and you would oftentimes post stories at your track practice and you would say things like if you're waking up watching this, that means God is still working on you, and just really inspirational stuff. You have affirmations at your house before you walk in, and now I've seen that you and Preston and Stefan you guys started working out together in Austin because you all live in Austin. So just talk about the genesis of this men's initiative that you all are starting to create, Because what's interesting about it is it's not something that I don't think you started with this intent in mind, it's just about working out and it turned into this thing.
Speaker 1:Well, one I've never had men relationships just because of the unhealthy, like my dad and my brother me and my brother are really good now but things that I saw them do to women and things in the ways that they were, I was just like I hate men and I didn't realize when I said I hate men I was also saying I hate myself. So I took more of the feminine qualities, like I was raised by all women and I was still rough around the edges because I was always in the streets but I still understood. I loved flowing, spontaneity, the arts, dancing and singing and that's what. But I was still like a little pit bull, but I was more in the feminine aspect and I never had men relationships, real true men brotherhood relationships. Then I moved to Austin and all of a sudden these men were like inviting me to things. And I remember telling my wife I don't know, it's weird, it's like all different kinds of men. They're just like inviting me to things, inviting me to lunch, inviting me, and I was like and I wasn't used to that because I'd never had that before. And you know, I've known Preston for 20 years but we were never really close, I just known him. He's a fashion guy. He was doing a bunch of stuff that I wanted to do and I didn't know how to get into the industry, so I like hated on him for a while. I've also known his wife separately, alexi, for 20 years as well. She's one of the people who used to write me while I was in prison, and so I've known both of them separately for a very long time. And one day he invited me to a garage work out with Stephanos, who I did not know, and we just kept working out and I was like this is like really cool, this is like right. When we moved here, we kept working out, we were inviting more men and I was like man, it's like I feel like when I was like a little kid I used to ride bikes with my little homies in the neighborhood and everything, and we used to like wrestle and talk, trash and everything, and then we just kept doing it. And then we outgrew Stephanos's garage and then we went over to my boy Cal's house Cal Calhans, big time investor and he had just like CrossFit set up called the bunker in the back, and then we just kept working out and we were meeting all kinds of people. Well, I happened to love motivating people. So instead of just the workout at the end, I would close it with like the who ride, motivating people. And then one guy walked up to me. He's like man, you have no idea how much you changed my life. Notice the trend. He's like man. My relationship with my wife is better ever since I've been in prison, since I've been coming, and largely because of the stuff that you say after the workout. So I just kept doing it and I kept doing it and more guys were coming, more people were coming and from that aspect of people coming, we outgrew that Cal's house yeah, cal's house. He went out of town for three months so he didn't have a place to go. So then we went to On it Primal Gym and then we outgrew that place. So we're going to go to a park. And then Preston called me. He was like hey, I got this idea. He's like I tried to do this before, but I tried to do it by myself and I want to start a brotherhood, something that's like scalable, starting with the workouts, and then have membership and have retreats and have trauma work, shadow work and everything. But I know I can't do it alone and I love the way you show up in the world. And the first meeting I went to I said why me? You say you love the way you show up in the world. I was like all of these people, there's so many bad people. Why me? He said because I watched you in your last company. I watched you take a group from zero to 475 people on a beach working out playing dodgeball and I saw you create a movement that turned into thousands of people. There's not many people like you and I'm really good at what I do, but I don't do that in that way. And so he said that's why you? Because no one he said so like cat in the hat quote. He was like no one can be more you or than you. I was like, oh you, I'm in, bro. I used to say you're quoting cat in the hat and it was saying with with Stephanos, he's like really big in the men's work. I never did men's work, but I did transformation work, so I just understand people, period. But same with Stephanos, and we all just form together. We just kept meeting and kept meeting and kept meeting. And then we formed a leadership group of like 16 other guys that were the most passionate at the workouts and they have to happen to be gifted in so many different things. But they're so gifted that if none of us were a part of it, they could run a coalition by themselves. So it's not only us, it's 16 other people that are so gifted and we happen to work together because we love the mission. So it just kept turning into things over and over and over and all we're doing is providing the space for the spillover that authentically keeps happening. So every man is who we are and we're me and Stephanos and Preston. We're the co-founders of M-Powered Brotherhood. That's capital M-PoweredBrotherhoodcom. You go on there. We have a retreat coming up in January called the 48 hour retreat. There'll be ice baths, sound healing, shadow work, but you've got top level coaches. Typically it's like one and all the helpers you don't have grade A master class teachers all working together in one space. So the elements and the elevation of what these men are getting, creating a new identity of how man sees himself and how the world sees man, is our mission to truly help men. So that's what it's about. Men's hide came about, wasn't seeking it, but it sought us and I answered it and we answered to the calling.
Speaker 3:Oh, beautiful, and I think that's just a good, it's a testament, because when I see you specifically in that space, it's so clear that that is a part of your purpose, right, but it's not something you went to Austin to seek out. You may not have even put on a list of things you ever wanted to aspire to achieve in your life, but you just kept taking steps and we could argue, obviously, that everything in your life has been leading you to this moment, and I think you just getting started, man. I think we're just seeing the beginning of what's to come.
Speaker 1:We are. We see it all the time. I feel like God puts the greatest blessings in the areas where we're least likely to look. I have never ventured into men's work.
Speaker 3:You just like working out, you like pushing yourself in a workout.
Speaker 1:I love pushing myself in all of a sudden. Here I am, as like the leader of this. I was like whoa and it is. People are moving from different countries to be in that energy. They were like this there's nothing, cause lots of people have got men's work. They don't have that workout piece, that primal piece, that they don't have the whole spectrum. And so people are like I left this to come here cause I need this. And now I realize in my own marriage I didn't know how much I needed it until I'm in it Because I'm trying to make my wife all of the things that the brothers they meet those needs. She can't be all. She can't be all the things. This is how everything happened.
Speaker 3:You guys got me damn near one of the most awesome.
Speaker 1:Bro, I would not, I wouldn't where are you?
Speaker 3:I'm in Mexico city, but I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine yesterday about if I had to go back to the States, where would I go. I was like, probably Austin, probably go to Austin. And I can't lie, it's because of all this, it's all the stuff I'm seeing online, man, with you guys doing such great work, and I've never been a part of a men's initiative as big as the one as you guys have created out there. So it's exciting to watch. Come to Austin lie, I know I'm gonna come. I'm gonna come in the least visit and just try to drop in on some of those sessions. That looks amazing.
Speaker 1:Every single person that has come to visit stays. Was like it makes no sense for me to go back to where I was.
Speaker 3:Wow, I love that. Yeah, cool man. Well, look, I wanna wrap this up, and the way I typically do that is I loop back around to your childhood favorite activity, which for you, obviously was running, and you mentioned freedom. You got a lot of, you felt a lot of freedom in running, yeah, and I've also heard you and other interviews talk about the things that you were closest to as a child usually are what you are aligned with as your purpose and your path, and obviously you help people find freedom, and I think the mistake that we sometimes make is we think about oh, as soon as I become financially free, all my problems will be resolved and your whole thing is no, become free within, find that freedom within yourself, and then all the resources you need for whatever you're doing in life you'll attract to yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because when you free up that space, the resources fill in those gaps.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:When you take the old beat up car out of the garage, you can actually put another car in. They create the space to make room for your blessings.
Speaker 3:So I just wanna acknowledge you for not killing yourself those two times those are the only times I'm happy you failed, yeah and for continuing to show up and for continuing to share the more embarrassing, darker parts of your story with the world in an effort to help those of us because we all have them, to help those of us feel like we can relate to your story and that there is hope. There's hope, and we can't let anybody take that away from us, as Andy Dufresne says in that Shawshank Redemption movie that you saw in prison that time. Yeah, bro, you're so funny. So thank you very much, man, for coming on here and sharing your story, and, of course, we'll put all of the links to everywhere we can find you in the show notes. And definitely check out the book. Change your mindset, change your life. I'm sure you're probably working on the next.
Speaker 1:Well, we're actually about to put out the audio book.
Speaker 3:Okay, You're gonna read it obviously.
Speaker 1:I would not have anybody else. You're gonna have to get my voice. So the frequencies that's coming through, I like hearing the actual author.
Speaker 3:In the meantime, brothers, thank you so much. We'll hopefully cross paths soon.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning into my interview with Garen Jones. To get more information about Garen, I suggest following him on the socials at garenjohn, so Garen is spelled G-A-R-R-A-I-Njohns and his book, again, is called Change your Mindset, change your Life, and it's available everywhere books or soul and of course, I'll put links to everything that Garen and I discussed in the show notes, which you can find at lightwotkinscom slash podcast. And if you enjoyed our conversation and you found it inspiring and you're thinking of a million people that you would like to hear me interview, just shoot me an email with all of your guest suggestions. My email address is light at lightwotkinscom and that is my personal email address. If you have anyone that you think I should talk to, and especially if you have a personal connection with them, feel free to make a warm introduction. And in addition to that, one really simple and easy way that you can directly help me to get that person on my show is to leave a review if you haven't done so already, because when you leave a review, it shows potential guests that I have an engaged audience and that's one of the ways that their gatekeepers will oftentimes decide whether or not a podcast would be worth their time is if they check the reviews and they see that, oh, this show has hundreds, if not thousands, of reviews. You should definitely do this show. They'll tell their client. That's why you always hear podcast hosts like me asking listeners like you to rate and review the show. It only takes 10 seconds, doesn't cost you anything. All you do is you look at your device that you're playing the show on and you click on the name of the show and you scroll down past the first five or six episodes. You'll see a space with five blank stars. Just click the star all the way on the right and that's how quick and how easy it is to leave a five star rating. And if you wanna go the extra mile while you're there, there's a blank space there where you can write something. Go ahead and leave a review. Just write one little sentence saying what you enjoy about the podcast and I appreciate you very much for doing that. And then, if you wanna watch these interviews, you can always do that on my YouTube channel. If you go to YouTube and just type in Light Watkins Podcast, you'll see the whole playlist and that way you can put a face to a story and make sure you subscribe there as well, and, if you didn't already know, I put the raw, unedited version of my podcasts inside of my online community, which is called the Happiness Insiders, and if you're the type that likes hearing all the mistakes in the fall starts and the chit chat in the beginning of the episode, then you can listen to that by joining my online community at TheHappinessInsiderscom, and you'll also get access to many master classes and challenges that I have created to help you become the best version of you. All. Right, thank you very much, and I look forward to hopefully seeing you back here next week with another story about someone just like me, just like you, who hit a rock bottom moment and then they took a leap of faith in the direction of their purpose. And until then, keep trusting your intuition, keep following your heart, keep taking those leaps of faith in your life, and if no one's told you recently that they believe in you, I believe in you. Thank you again and have a great day.