True Transformation. From Prison to Motivational Speaker with Damon West

Welcome to True Grit and Grace, a podcast designed to empower you to claim your resilience and thrive through life's challenges. I am Amberly Lago, a mindset coach, fitness expert and bestselling author. Each week, I'll dive deep with the world's brightest thought leaders and elite performers to share tangible tools and practical advice to inspire you to keep your eyes on the prize and forge ahead. So get ready to conquer your fears, heal any trauma, lead with your heart, and elevate your life with grit and grace.

Hey, and welcome to True Grit and Grace. Today on the show, I have Damon West with us today, and I'm so excited to share his story because he's turned tragedy into a triumph, and he empowers others to do the same. From being sentenced to life in Texas prison to being a college professor, his story is just— he's featured nationally, globally. He's a sought-after motivational speaker, and he has got a book. I've got the book right here.

Yeah.

He's the author of several books, but I have enjoyed The Coffee Bean for Kids. I wanted to get this for me and my daughter. And so you are passionate about sharing your coffee bean lesson, and I'm so excited to have you here and share that with us. So Damon, thank you so much for being here with us.

Amberly, thanks a lot for having me today. I mean, thank you for your time. It's the most precious thing you have, and you're sharing it with me today. So I truly appreciate that. And I'll be honest with you, I couldn't wait to do this show because the one time you and I got to talk, we got together because Catherine Gordon was like our— the bridge between us here. But you and I hit it off immediately, start talking about recovery.

I mean, well, we got a lot in common, man. We—

hey, we do have a lot in common. And I mean, thankfully we got that recovery stuff in common. Sounds like we got the addiction stuff in common too, but it's good that we have the recovery because, I mean, not everybody makes it into recovery. And it's something that— and I know with you it's the same with me— is that it's the, the most important thing in my life is my program recovery. So getting a chance to talk about it, uh, it keeps me sober. So thanks a lot for the opportunity to stay sober today.

Oh, thank you. I was really looking forward to connecting with you, and thank you for saying that. It does, you know, you never know when you share your experience how it can impact someone else's life. They might hear it and go, oh, Well, if they overcame addiction, maybe I can too. I had so much shame around my addiction and so much shame also that my brother is in prison because of his addiction and what his addiction led him to. And I always thought, I will never tell anybody. We're only as sick as our secrets, right?

Right.

Like, we— if the truth will set us free. And so I think it's important to share that. And so when we connected, through our good friend Catherine and John. She reached out and she told me, you have got to meet Damon. You would love him. You've got to meet him. So we got to talking and I was like, oh my goodness, I have to have you on the show to share your experience, strength, and hope. Because I think right now so many people are struggling with what's going on and addiction and alcoholism has just blown up because people don't have A lot of tools to handle the stress, anxiety, sadness, or shame. And so they, like you and I both, did turn to addiction. I started drinking for my pain because I couldn't— no treatment was helping me for CRPS. And I thought, well, this is working. And it worked until it didn't. But I would love for you to share your story. It really touched me, especially since my brother is in prison. They don't mess around in Texas, man. They're like, You gonna do the time. So I was like, yeah, wow, you're a blessed man. You are a miracle that I'm even getting to sit here and talk with you like this.

And I'm truly grateful. And I think that that's the thing. I mean, it comes back to that program recovery, waking up in a spirit of gratitude. Uh, yeah, you're right. I mean, Texas isn't messing around. I mean, Texas, uh, it's a lock 'em up state. They got 104 prisons here in Texas. There's 150,000 inmates locked up right now in Texas. So it's a very big criminal justice system in Texas. And I feel lucky to be one of the ones that got out and got to pivot in life. But again, it goes back to putting things in the right perspective. And that program recovery, you hit it on the head a while ago. You talked about tools. You have tools with which to live your life by. And so many people right now, Amberly, especially with what's going on with the pandemic, you're right. I mean, they're coming in need. And America's really got to change its attitude towards 2 different things, I think. And then we'll get into the story, but you kind of struck a chord there. Mental health and substance abuse are 2 things that we have failed within American society. And so one of that is with the prison system. And we've locked up generations of sick people because, you know, we don't really know what to do with people that are suffering from the disease of substance abuse. abuse. I mean, the disease of addiction. We currently incarcerate a lot of people that are sick, and not just sick from substance abuse, but sick from mental health. So we've really got to work on those 2 things in America. But anyway, I'll tell you all about inside the prison system when we get into the story.

I think I was listening to one of your interviews, and I just wanted to hug your mom for the advice that she gave you when you were getting Sentenced after the court date. Oh my goodness. But please take us back to the time because you were, uh, you were an athlete, you had everything going for you, and what happened?

My book, The Change Agent, starts off with the prologue is May 18th, 2009. So on May 18th, 2009, Amberly, I'm standing in front of a jury in Dallas County, and this jury has just listened to 6 days of overwhelming evidence of my guilt. of the crime of engaging in organized criminal activity. I was a meth addict and a criminal mastermind of a burglary crew that had been burglarizing homes in Dallas. They called them the Uptown Burglaries. It's one of those crimes that I identify with the name.

Yeah. Was that like in Highland Park area or something like that?

Definitely Highland Park, Uptown, uh, nicest parts of Dallas, University Park. I mean, we were, uh, the burglary crew was breaking into people's houses all over that area. And, you know, I lived In uptown before, whenever I was a stockbroker. When I was a broker, I got hooked on meth. 2004, one of the other brokers introduced me to meth for the first time. I lost everything.

So when they introduced you to meth, what did they say? Hey, this is going to make you do more and feel better? Or how did you get hooked on that?

So I was passed out asleep at work one day. I worked for UBS, United Bank of Switzerland, right there in the University Park in the Park Cities area of Dallas. Pass out asleep. This other broker comes up, sees me sleeping. I'd been up for a couple days partying. I was big into cocaine back in '04.

Oh.

So I've been up for a couple days partying. This other broker comes up, sees me sleeping. He freaks out. He wakes me up. He's like, man, Daymond, he said, he said, you can't sleep on this job. He said, they'll fire you for that. The markets are open. You're messing with people's money. He said, come on down to the parking garage. I got someone's gonna pick you up.

Oh.

And so I went down to the parking garage with him. I thought we were gonna do some blow. Man, we got down there, Amberly, and he gives me a glass pipe with these crystal rocks in it. I've never seen a glass pipe before. And I kind of freak out on him. I'm like, man, what is this? He said, Damon, just relax. He said, it's crystal meth. He said, you'll love this stuff. Oh my gosh. I mean, truer words never been spoken, right? Because I fell in love with that drug, and I gave everything away for that drug. And that's what I tell people all the time, because in addiction, no one takes anything from an addict. We give it away. My job, my home, my car, you can take it. You can have all that stuff. And that's what we do when we're in our disease. But this is before I knew anything about addiction and program recovery.

And so And I've heard that meth is— I mean, I've watched documentaries on it, and I've heard that it's addictive like the first time you use it.

Oh yeah. I mean, I could not get that drug in my system fast enough after that. And like I said, I gave everything away for that drug. And I went from working on Wall Street to living on the streets of Dallas, homeless, living in abandoned buildings, sleeping in people's cars, living in dope houses with other dope fiends. And I started committing simple property crimes, and then it was more breaking into people's homes. Amberly, there's really no way to go around this. When I broke into people's homes. I didn't just steal their property, man. I stole their sense of security. I don't even know if they ever get that back, you know?

Mm.

But after 3 years committing property crimes against the people of Dallas, the Dallas SWAT team on July 30th, 2008 put an end to the Uptown Brokeries in this dramatic takedown they did in this apartment where I was staying. So 10 months after that dramatic raid, I'm standing in front of a jury, and that jury has listened to the entire story. I mean, about this guy that had it all growing up. I grew up in a town called Port Arthur. I had a great family. My dad was a sportswriter. My mom was a nurse. I had an older brother, younger brother, great athlete. I mean, star quarterback.

Yeah.

College football scholarship. I mean, everything. I mean, and after college, I went to work in Congress. I worked for a guy running for president. I worked on Wall Street. I mean, the jury had heard so much, and it made them so angry with me because, I mean, they're looking at a guy that had everything. And they went to—

addiction does not discriminate. Like, everything that you're saying, it doesn't matter who you are, what the kind of family you come from, what you've done. Addiction doesn't discriminate. It's that powerful.

I tell people that all the time. It doesn't matter who you are, your, your race, your gender, your class, your socioeconomic status. It doesn't matter. I mean, when it's got you, it's got you. But You know, it was hard to get that through to the jury too because the prosecution put on a really hardcore case to make— they made the case that basically I was like, uh, I mean, they would compare me to Al Capone or Tony Soprano running an organized crime ring. They always try to leave the substance abuse part out of it just to make it— I would— I mean, they made it look like I was some kind of sociopath just broke into people's houses. But I'm like, I kept wanting to jump up and scream, man, I'm an addict, you know, I'm breaking into people's houses to pay for drugs. I got nothing to my name, you know, it's like I live in filth. But I couldn't take the stand unless I wanted to basically put more harm to myself in my judicial case, which looking back on it now, I mean, look, I was a terrible defendant. I was a bad person, a bad guy, and the jury had every reason to hate my guts. But when I say they hate my guts, they went to deliberate for my sentence for 10 minutes. 10— after 6 days of trial, 10 minutes to come up with a punishment. I don't know how much Law and Order you watch, Amberly, but if a jury's gone for 10 minutes, they smoked you.

Mm-hmm.

And when I came back in that courtroom, That judge who hadn't smiled the entire trial, he's grinning from ear to ear, and he said, Damon Joseph West, you are hereby sentenced to 65 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. 65 years. So that prison system you were talking about, I got a chance to see prison from the worst possible side, the life sentence building, because the jury sentenced me to life that day. So really, my story kind of starts on May 18th, 2009, when that jury sentenced me to life in prison. And right after the trial was over, my mom and my dad, they're going to give them one last visit with me. You know, they've got me in this little side room with bulletproof glass right there. And my mom really lays down an ultimatum that day. She, you know, she says, look, you know, debts in life demand to be paid. And she said, you just got hit with one hell of a bill from the state of Texas. She said, but you owe your father and I a debt too, because we gave you all the opportunity, love, and support to be anything you wanted to be in life. She said, so here's the debt you're going to pay to your dad and I. When you go to prison, you will not get in one of these white hate groups, one of these Aryan Brotherhood type gangs, because you're scared, because you're the minority in there. She just said, it's not gonna work. You were never raised to see race and you're not gonna start now. And so she said, you will— she— you will not get any tattoos while you're inside that prison. So, and I show people my sleeves all the time. I mean, I was in prison for almost 10 years. You know, those guys want to tattoo every inch of your body in the joint.

And you know what, like seeing my baby brother When, and it's heartbreaking, by the way, to see my brother through the glass with shackles on. And he's like a different person. I mean, going in, he was doing meth. And so he was a rail. I'd never seen him so skinny and sickly. And now all he does is work out. So he looks healthy, but he's tattooed.

Yeah.

Like completely tattooed. And I'm like, I asked him, I was like, how do you get tattoos in prison? He does his own. He does art. He's got pen pals. He does their face on him. I don't know what all tattoos he has now, but the last time I saw him, it was a lot.

Anybody tell you how they make tattoo ink? Okay, so yeah, here we go. Here's something for your listeners they probably never hear on your show. So these guys in prison are very resourceful. I've never seen—

I can't believe the stories that I hear, how resourceful.

They're like MacGyvers in there. So I had a buddy that was, uh, he was a tattoo artist in there. And so what you would do is they take these little rubber shoes that you come in, they call them Jackie Chan shoes, these little, little rubber shoes that you slip on. And inside your cell you have this, you have a bunk bed made out of metal, you have a desk that's made out of metal, and then you have a toilet. It's basically an aluminum toilet sink contraption all in one. 10 by 12, real small space. So what they would do is they would take those little shoes and they would set them on fire. And it's a rubber shoe that's set on fire. First of all, they start the fires out of the light sockets, because if you have 2 pencil leads and, you know, a piece of metal, you can start a fire out of your light socket. So that's what they do to get their little, little flame going. Then they set the shoe on fire. And the shoe will just billow up a bunch of smoke, a bunch of toxic dark smoke. This is Burning rubber, by the way.

Yeah.

And that smoke collects underneath the table. It has that soot that comes up, you know, when it collects like that. And then they put the shoe out there, throw the shoe in the toilet, they scrape the soot off from underneath that table into this big bowl, and they mix it up with dangerous shampoo and I think water, and that makes the Indian ink. That's how they make ink for their tattoos. I mean, literally, it's burnt rubber.

Toxic.

Like toxic. Yeah, like really toxic. That, or you can also make a candle out of like hair grease and put a wick in the middle of the hair grease, make a candle out of it, wrap up newspaper around it, and the heat will melt the ink off the newspaper and the ink will fall into like a heap down there at the bottom. So you just got like a newspaper left with no ink on it. It just drops the ink.

Wow. Yeah. So everybody listening, I suggest you try the newspaper trick and let me know how it goes. No.

I'm kidding.

Yeah.

But it's, um—

I'm kidding. I mean it's good that we can like laugh about these things because for a long time, I just cried. I just cried. And I can't imagine your poor mom. I know my mom went through hell and still does that my brother's still locked up. But I mean the fact that your mom knew to tell you, you are not going to get tattooed. You're not going to join gangs in there. You are going to be a good person. And that was like, wow, that she knew to say that.

Yeah. And I mean, that was her deal. She said, you know, she told me, she said, Damon, you come back as the man we raised or just don't come back at all. You know, so it's really tough love coming from my mom. And, um, you know, that's what she's like, hey, do you understand, Damon? I mean, don't just shake your head yes. Do you understand this debt you're gonna pay? And I was like, yeah, Mom, I got it. But I mean, Amberly, what do I know? I'm a white middle-class guy in America. What do I know about the penitentiary, right? I've never been to prison. I don't know anybody that's ever been to prison before. So I go back to my pod in Dallas County Jail, and I'm asking all these guys that had been to prison before, you know, how am I going to survive? What am I going to do? And every guy I talked to— Black, white, Asian, Hispanic— they're telling me the same thing. You got to get into a gang, Wes. You can't survive without a gang. They tell you that live. They tell everybody the gang is your family. The gang will protect you. The gang will love you. All lies. What wasn't a lie is the fact they said you're going to the worst part of the Texas prison system where everybody in the building you live on has life. They call it the life sentence building, and they were right about it.

And which— what was that called? What building was that?

Uh, every— well, every— there's only like 15 units in Texas that can handle the life sentence people.

Like, because you knew the, the unit my brother was in, I think, when we talked.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, I mean, there's, there's— I mean, there's 104 prisons. There's only like 15 of them that can handle new life sentences. like that. Um, and they have a building, everybody's got their own building. They send the life sentence building. Most of the time you'll see it's a building called 7 Building or 8 Building. And it's on the other side of the unit. It's like separated from the rest of the prison. It's like Alcatraz. You just go into this one building and you don't get to leave the building. You don't even come off the building for 5 years.

Wow.

And so, uh, and you're, you're with the worst of the worst. I mean, everybody, you know, the building has almost 500 people on it. Mostly everybody in that building has a life sentence.

So talk about people being freaking out because we're in a pandemic, and here in California we've been pretty locked down. I actually thought about the perspective of, you know, like my brother who is in a tiny jail cell and he'll be there forever, versus me, at least I can go walk outside.

Oh yeah, no, it's— but look, here's the deal that I've learned too, and we're going to get into this, is that Prison. So you talked about it earlier. You said that I'm a professor now, and I am. I got out of prison November 16th, 2015. I got out on parole for the rest of my life, and then I'm on parole till 2073. So, but one of the things I've done since I got out 5 years ago is I went back to school and got my master's, and I became a professor at the University of Houston Downtown. I teach a class called—

It's amazing. That is amazing, by the way. And what is the class called that you teach?

Prisons in America.

I'm so blown away.

Yeah, it's like, what world is it happening? I mean, like, I was in a prison in America 5 years ago serving life, and now I teach the next generation of criminal justice practitioners about prison in America. But I can tell you with authority, Amberly, is that the hardest place to do time in America, the toughest prison in this country, is the prison in your mind. I mean, I meet more people out here in the free world that are locked up than I ever did when I was in prison because more people are imprisoned by their thoughts and by their things than by steel bars and barbed wire and concrete. And so when you were talking about that a while ago, and that's something we're dealing with with the pandemic, is a lot of people have become prisoners in their mind. And that's a dangerous place to be because once you become a prisoner in your mind, um, it's a hard place to walk out of, the prison.

Mm-hmm.

It's a very hard place to walk out of. Um, I think physical prison is probably a little bit easier to get out of than it is For a mental prison. And you're seeing— I read an article in USA Today today about the mental toll it's taken on people with the pandemic right now. And I mean, that's something that's a real thing. It's like whenever all these lockdowns started happening, you know, I was telling my wife, you know, there's a lot of ways to suffer in this country and a lot of ways to die. And coronavirus is definitely one, but so is hunger, starvation. There's poverty, mental health. I mean, there's a lot of different ways. In California, you're seeing it's been A lot tougher in California than most places. So don't, don't think that thought is just a fleeting thought. That's a real thing. People are going through that big time.

Oh yeah. I mean, it's unbelievable. Well, I think it really hit my husband when things were shutting down, but then we got the call that the gym was closed and the gym is like our outlet. He was like, oh my God, we got it. We got to get some weights. We got it. You know? And we were here, I was lifting detergent bottles. We were going to the barn here and I was squatting, holding goats. I was doing whatever I could to lift. And it took us, a few months to order the weights. And the weights came. And last night, we have these Bowflex weights and one of them broke. And so I was like, he goes, oh my gosh, we lost one of our weights. And I had like this like panic moment in my mind of, what are we going to do? Oh my gosh, I can't lift weights because that's one of my tools is being able to work out.

Yeah.

And I feel fortunate that I know that moving my body Moves my mood. It releases endorphins that make you feel good. It combats pain. It just, it moves your mindset. And I think what you're saying of just being a prisoner in your own mind, um, it is true. Like we really have to be able to shift our perspective and shift it often in challenging times. What is one way that you do that?

You hit it. You almost answered it yourself there too. It's the keeping that perspective. Look, whenever I have a bad day, look, I know what a bad day looks like, Amberly. And anytime I wake up and my feet don't hit the cold concrete floor of the prison cell, I'm having a pretty good day. I'm winning. You know? Because I equate, you know, I ask myself, hey, look, you know, is this a bad day or are you just having a tough moment? Because I also know this, that I can start my day over anytime I want. And that's one of the things, the powers that we have inside of us, that no matter what time of day, 9 o'clock in the morning, 9 o'clock at night, it doesn't matter. You can start your day over. And have a good day. I mean, having a bad day really is a choice. But I think we get so locked into seeing the negative. I mean, the day in, day out, you know, look, and I get it, man, being locked in your house. But I have to always look for opportunities in this adversity. And even during the pandemic was no different. I had to find new ways of doing things and new ways of looking at things. So I'm always searching for the opportunity in adversity. And it came to me. Literally, this whole opportunity and adversity concept was by a couple conversations I had in county jail and in prison. When I was in Dallas County Jail and I was waiting for the prison bus to come get me, there was an older Black guy in Dallas County Jail named Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson, he's what you call a career criminal, been in and out of prison all his life. Real positive guy though. I mean, always had a smile on his face. So one morning he comes up to me and he's like, hey, look, you know, he said, you know, let me, let me tell you what prison's going to be like. And So he's telling me, you know, it's all about race and race runs the whole institution. He said, you're gonna have to fight all the white gangs and you're gonna have to fight all the black gangs. But he told me, he said, you don't have to win all your fights, but you do have to fight all your fights. That's a huge lesson in life. I mean, it tells you you're going to lose some battles, but you just got to get up and keep fighting anyway. And that's really the kind of mindset I carry through life. You know what I mean? You know, I'm not going to win every day, but I'm going to get— I'm going to get up, keep— get back going and Go again the next day. And he told me, he said, let me break it down for you another way. He said, I want you to imagine prison as a pot of boiling water. And he said, anything we put in this pot of boiling water is going to be changed by the heat and the pressure inside that pot. He said, I'm going to put 3 things in that pot of boiling water and watch what happens. He said, I'm going to put a carrot, an egg, and a coffee bean in that pot of boiling water we call prison. So he said, first things first, you know, he said, if I put a carrot in that pot of boiling water we call prison, he said, what happens to the carrot, Wes? And I said, well, a carrot turns soft, Mr. Jackson. He said, that's right. He said, the carrot goes into the water hard, but the water, the prison, changes that hard carrot, turns it soft and mushy and weak. He said, the carrot gets beat, gets robbed, he gets raped, he may get, he may get killed. He said, you don't want to be the carrot. He said, what about the egg? And I said, well, the egg turns hard, Mr. Jackson, like a hard-boiled egg. And he said, that's right. He said, the egg is a shell that protects it physically, but inside that shell, that soft liquid core His heart becomes hardened. And he said, if your heart becomes hardened, you're incapable of giving or receiving love. And he said, if you're incapable of giving or receiving love in prison, you've become institutionalized. And you will not come back as someone your parents recognize because your eggshell will have swastikas tattooed all over it.

Hmm.

And that's when he asked me, he said, what about the coffee bean? And Amberly, I had no idea. I didn't know what happened to a coffee bean in boiling water. And that's what Mr. Jackson shared with me, one of the most important lessons I've ever learned. He said, if I put a coffee bean into that same pot of boiling water we call prison, he said, now, now you got to change the name of the water to coffee. Because he said the coffee bean, the smallest of these 3 things, he said small like you, had the power to change the entire atmosphere inside that pot.

Wow.

Because the power was inside the coffee bean, just like the power's inside you. And he said everybody in life puts energy, negative or positive. He said whatever kind of energy we put out, we attract back. It's called the law of attraction. And it works. He said, so if you want to walk around prison all the time with a frown on your face, you want to try to look hard, he said, you're going to attract the hardest inmates into your life. He said, but if you walk around that prison with a smile on your face and you let those guys know they're not getting to you, no matter what they do, they can't get to you, he said, you'll change the prison from the inside out. And he said, the best part about it is the other coffee beans in prison, the other positive inmates, they'll find you because of your energy. And the last thing Mr. Jackson told me Before I was getting on that prison bus in August of 2009 to be shipped off to serve my life sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the last thing Mr. Jackson said to me was, West, go out there and go be a coffee bean.

Wow.

Be a coffee bean. 4 words. But I mean, it's like, hey, these 4 words, if this man's shooting me straight, this old guy's shooting me straight, that means the power's inside me. And if the power's inside me, then it can't be in the hands of the criminal justice system or the other inmates or the guards. Not unless I give it to them. But if the power's truly inside me, Amberly, that means no matter what environment I'm in, no matter what adversity I face, I won't just survive, I'll thrive. And I got my chance to find out. Prison's the hardest, most dangerous, scariest thing I've ever been through in my life. Your brother will know exactly what I'm talking about. It's a, it's a machine with teeth that devours people. It devours your soul. It became a battle for my soul in there. Good versus evil, that kind of thing. I mean, it was a— It's real deal, rubber meets the road kind of crisis in my life. But there was another conversation I had with this other guy, my cellmate, this guy named Carlos. And Carlos was a little bitty bank robber from San Antonio, about 5'4, a little bitty dude. But we were in our cell one night. I was telling him about the coffee bean. And he said, look, man, he said, if you want to become that coffee bean, you have to change the way you see prison. He said, you have to quit looking at prison as a punishment. and start looking at prison as an opportunity. And Amberly, when he's telling me this, I mean, you got to think about the kind of adversity I'm sitting in. I'm sitting in a maximum security prison in Texas. I just started serving a life sentence. And this guy is telling me, hey, this isn't a punishment. This is an opportunity. And I couldn't even register it. I'm like, Carlos, what do you mean an opportunity? He said, you have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to work on yourself and become the best version of yourself possible, the best possible coffee bean that you could be. What are you prepared to do with this opportunity? So Amberly, I got up the next morning, my feet hit the cold concrete floor of the prison cell, and I said it out loud, hey God, thanks for this opportunity. And I didn't believe it at first, Amberly, but I mean, I got up and I worked on myself that day. The next day I did the same thing. Days became weeks, weeks became months, and months become years. But, and that's when I finally transformed myself into being that coffee bean. in that pot of boiling water called prison. And it was such a dramatic change that November 16th, 2015, when the parole board came to visit me, they were like, look— the lady from parole came to see me and she had my file in front of her and she closed it up. She pushes the file away. 30 seconds into it, she said, look, I'm going to shoot you straight, Mr. West. We don't see a lot of people come through state prison like you. She said, you had everything going for you in life, every advantage, every opportunity, every privilege. And you burned through all of that. You became a meth addict, you became a criminal, a thief. You made a lot of victims. A jury sentenced you to life in prison. She said, but instead of coming to this prison and letting that life sentence define you, she said, you changed yourself inside this prison. She says, matter of fact, you changed the entire prison around you.

Wow.

She said, so I've got one— yeah, she said, I got one question for you today, Mr. West. So here it is, Amberly. One question decides whether or not I go home or stay in prison. And she said, if you could be remembered for being anything in this life, anything at all, she said, I want you to give it to me in just one word: go. And man, you talk about an easy question for a coffee bean to answer. I thought it was gonna be a tough question. And so I fired her answer back at her. I said, ma'am, I just want to be useful. And I can be useful in prison, or I can be useful out in the world finding those coffee beans. And they let me go. They let me go.

Wow.

Yeah, with one shot to be useful again. And so I found this tremendous opportunity. You know what's interesting, since we're talking about recovery stuff too, is one of the things she talked to me about before she got into—

I keep on— I keep having to hold back the tears, by the way, because your story is just so beautiful. I'm just like, Amberly, just don't get all crying and you won't be able to stop. So I'm like, I keep holding back the tears. It's just so— such a beautiful story. I mean, that transformation is possible. You heard, like, went from Hanging out with, you know, the meth dealers to being a hope dealer.

Yeah, no, it's— and I tell people all the time that people want to smuggle things into prisons all the time. They want to smuggle drugs, they want to smuggle cell phones, but I try to smuggle hope into those prisons. You know, I'm a smuggler of hope. And that's the thing, because I understand being in that environment. Hope, you know, I think it was Shawshank that said hope is a dangerous thing, and it can be. I mean, because if you put your hope in the wrong thing and you get let down, because it was the wrong thing, then you're almost further back than where you started. But I found inside that prison the program of recovery that has guided me through for the rest of my life. You know, whenever I was probably, it was probably 2011, I got arrested in '08, it was 2011 before I went to my first AA meeting inside the prison. And we would meet every Wednesday morning in the Chapel of Hope and they would bring a meeting in We would start our meetings off with the Serenity Prayer. You know the Serenity Prayer, real beautiful prayer.

That's my favorite prayer. I have it written on a board, a placard, right over here in my office.

Well, and that, that prayer has been— I never knew how much was in that prayer till one of these meetings that I went to. And this guy that brings the meeting into the free world, he said, today we're going to diagram the Serenity Prayer. We're in the chapel, they have a chalkboard behind him, draws a line from one side of chalkboard to the other. And he said, that line represents God's line. And he said, the first part of the prayer, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. He said, the things you cannot change, Damon, are on God's line. And God's line, he said, is— it's bigger than the chalkboard. It's infinitely long, one horizon universe to the next. And he said, every time you try to touch something on God's line, you've hurt yourself and you hurt other people because you're not God and God doesn't need you to play. His rule, you know, stay off of God's line. He went and erased a little inch out of that line, and he held his fingers up an inch apart. And he said, the second part of the prayer, the courage to change the things I can. He said, if God's line is infinitely long, your line is just— is to scale, 1 inch of that infinitely long line. He said that little 1-inch line, he said, was humility, because humility, he said, was being right-sized. And when we're right-sized, then we can be useful to other people again. He said, on your little 1-inch line are the things you can change. The courage to change the things I can. He said, there's 4 things that you can change, 4 things that God gives you to work on every day. They're the 4 things you control in this life. And he said, they are exactly what you think, what you say, what you feel. And he said, most importantly, everybody's going to see what you do, your actions. What you think, what you say, what you feel, and what you do. He said, if it's not one of those 4 things, then God controls it. But he said the last part of the prayer was the most important for us addicts, is the wisdom to know the difference between that big line and that little bitty line. And so there's so many times a day that I have to remind myself, Damon, that's not on your line. That's not on your line.

That's powerful. Yeah.

And just, yeah, just learning what was on my line was so important. And that helped me navigate prison. It helped me navigate— it helps me navigate life to this day because I mean, if I can stay on my line, then I can be useful. If I can stay on my line, then I'm of value to other people and, and I can stay sober. But it's when I get off of my line, you know, you're asking me a while ago about how do you do it every day. And that's, that's one of the big things is knowing what's on my line and what's not on my line. And because you'll go insane, you'll go mad if you try to control things that you don't control. You have absolutely zero control. During the pandemic, Amberly, I mean, The World Health Organization, the White House, the CDC— none of these people called Damon West to say, hey, how do we fix the pandemic? And I had all the answers. No one called me though, right? But so it's like I, I couldn't focus on, on the decisions that were being made that I didn't agree with. I just had to say, okay, well, how do I respond to this? Because we control our responses and we control our emotions, but it's when we let go of those things that we become those prisoners. And so, you know, this Serenity Prayer that Program of Recovery The lady from parole even asked me, she's, you know, she, she was quizzing me on the different steps in AA because she saw all my stuff in my file that I go to AA. She's like, I think she's like, well, what's the 8th step? You know, yeah, you become willing to make amends to all the people that you've harmed. But yeah, that program recovery is such a valuable thing because it gives me those tools to live a normal life with Amberly. I can't, I can't talk about it enough.

Yeah, and I wondered how you felt about You know, they're not supposed to share AA on radio or TV or any media. How do you feel about that?

I step in that pile every time. I mean, I do it. Um, but I do, I do want to give the disclaimer. I don't, I don't speak for AA. I don't represent AA. I'm not— I think anonymity is, is a choice. And I think that there's two schools of thought.

I think more people are starting to speak out about it. There's a lot of people— because it was like, you know, it's anonymous. Nobody needs to know. Nobody want— I don't want to tell anybody. about my recovery. But then there's a lot of people, I think, because of social media especially, are really wanting to like scream it off the rooftops, you know, because it has saved their life.

Yeah. And so, I mean, here's the deal. I mean, there's 2 schools of thought on it. And I run it— I run afoul, obviously, of the hardcore AA groups that say, hey, look, you know what, now you, you know, you shouldn't use our name, should be anonymous. And And their logic is that, well, if you're so public and then you go and you relapse, then other people are like, well, that stuff doesn't work.

Yeah.

And you just tamed the whole thing. I get what you're saying. But also, what if you're in a position where you're so public you can actually show someone that recovery works? And even if you say you did go out and screw up, you still show them that recovery works and that They would never have that example in front of them otherwise. You give people hope that a program recovery is possible, but if they don't know anything about a program recovery, how are they gonna get into it? So I make the personal choice to not have any anonymity. I don't, I don't really care about that. Um, I do have respect for, you know, the people that would like me to not be as public about it. But again, I mean, I don't represent AA, I represent Damon West. Uh, I'm in a 12-step program recovery that happens to be AA. That's— and that's where I am in life, and I'll do that for the rest of my life. I mean, I've got a sponsor, I work the steps. I was on the phone with my sponsor this afternoon because we can't have a meeting tonight because the ice and snow.

So are y'all having in-person meetings?

In Texas, yeah.

Oh, see, we are so locked down here in California. We don't even have— we do all our meetings through Zoom still. It's been— it's been— well, it'll be a year next month. It was actually— I celebrated my 4th year of recovery in the pandemic, so it's the first time I didn't like get a cake or, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

So I know it'll be exactly a year. I will have celebrated my sobriety date is March 13th. March 13th, I'll have 5 years, but it'll be my second time on Zoom. So I'm just grateful we still have meetings on Zoom and amazed that some people have gotten sober through the pandemic on Zoom because there's, it's just powerful when you get to be in a room. full of people that have been through something like you and they understand it, and you get to see how they've recovered and you see that light go on in them. Now, when you first were in prison and that you had the opportunity to go to a meeting, how did you feel that first meeting you went to? Were you like— did you get filled with hope? Were you— because when I first went to my first meeting, I was like, oh, it gave me hope. I felt safe. I felt like there's a solution. But I was—

I'm going to tell you. So I— it was August 2000— July of 2011, July, August, that time of 2011. It was the summer of 2011. I had a cellmate at the time that's a big cocaine dealer, and, uh, he would— he'd get wired up on coke every night. I mean, and just— it would leave a little 10 by 12, Amberly. I mean, this is like the worst place to do coke in, you know, a little 10 by 12, and you can't go anywhere. I mean, but this guy would get jacked up, get high every night. He'd be bouncing off the walls, cleaning the floor with the toothbrush.

We had a clean cell, but I mean, um, yeah, but the cell was clean.

Oh my God, it's like, dude. So I'm laying there one night and, and I'm sober still at this point. Now look, I got taken into sobriety at gunpoint on July 30th, 2008. A SWAT team takes me in, and that was the last time I've ever drank or done drugs. And, um, and I've sworn off doing anything. But I mean, I don't really have a program of recovery. But I mean, I'm one of those guys that picked up the Bible. I could quote chapter and verse. And I'm watching my cellmate bouncing around this coke, and I thought to myself, you know, Damon, you used to love cocaine. And I looked over at the little tray of cocaine he had in the cell. I'm like, I bet you could do some of his cocaine and everything, you know, you, you'd enjoy it some more. And then I stopped and really, I'm like, what the hell, Damon? I mean, you're serving life in a Texas prison. Because of substance abuse, because of drugs, and you're sitting here thinking about doing a drug now. So I wrote to the chapel. It's a request called an I-60 form. I filled out an I-60 and asked to get into AA, and they brought me back my slip, and it's called a lay-in. A lay-in is like a hall pass, and it tells you where to be. So it said, be at the chapel at 7:30 AM Wednesday for AA and NA. So I got my little And this is the mind of an addict. We're crazy people, right? We have all these crazy thoughts in our heads. And so when I'm looking at this pass, Amberly, it says, be at the chapel at 7:30 AM for AA and NA. And I'm thinking to myself, there's no way they're gonna have a meeting at the chapel because I know that about 80% of the people locked up have substance abuse issues. There's 3,000 people in my unit. 80% of that's 2,400. So there could possibly be 2,400 people in the chapel. 2,400 people at this meeting, right? So they're gonna have to have it on the rec yard. They're gonna bring in— they're gonna have to bring officers from another unit. It's like a Rolling Stones concert. This is gonna be the biggest meeting ever, right? Wrong. When I got to the chapel the next morning, I walk in with my hall pass and I look for the guys that have the same kind of lane pass as me. And we go to this one room where they have the AA/NA meetings, and there's 50 men in this meeting.

There's 50?

50 out of 2,400 that need to be there. Only 50 men are in this room. And Amberly, that's when I knew that I found the right room. You know, when you find a room that's got people that got up at 7:30 in the morning and said, hey, look, I want to change my life, I want to have this program recovery, that's when I knew I was in the right room with the right people. And, and I got my, my first Big Book, and, you know, it was, it was no pressure. in there. And I got to take the big book home and read it. And I started reading about how it works and we agnostics. And I mean, because I've got a lot of, um, you know, there's a lot of like growing that I'm doing inside of prison between religion and spirituality. Because I mean, I would say in the whole process I became less religious and more spiritual.

Mm-hmm.

Because I think that religion's more of a manmade concept while spirituality is your conscious contact with God. And so I became very spiritual. inside that prison and inside that program of recovery. But it was, yeah, I got that big book in my hands and it's just like, oh my God, well, here it is. Here's the answer. And then I go into the meetings. And the cool thing about the meetings was that I still find to this day is that no matter when I'm in a meeting, I hear something that can help me.

I bet.

You know, somebody's gonna share a story with something happened in their life. And my meeting is a very blue-collar group. I mean, these are people, a lot of them are ex-cons just like me and they're in there And we've got this same shared experience and this same shared misery. But we all got to the same place because of the same shared program of recovery. I mean, the Big Book was written in 1938. And so it's such a powerful testament to what we're capable of doing when we put God or our higher power first. And that was some—

And that God can lift the obsession.

Absolutely.

Of the mind, because it's not just a physical allergy, it's really the obsession of the mind that really takes over. And if we go into meetings with an open mind and look for the similarities other than the differences— and I think that really in everything in life, if we could do that, if we could look for the similarities, if we could search for the good, and it would change our life. I, I would love if everybody knew the 12 steps, I think it would just make people better people because it's such, it's such great advice. In fact, um, I just did an interview last week and the guy I was interviewing, he didn't even know, he didn't know I was sober or anything. And he said, started saying, well, what you just reminded me of, he said, it really reminds me of Alcoholics Anonymous 12 steps of recovery. And he went on and on. And I was like, oh, how does he know so much? So when we finished the interview, I said, oh, are you a friend of Bill's? And he goes— I'm like, are you in the program? He goes, oh no, no. I've just done a lot of studying about different practices and spirituality.

Wow.

And I said, oh, well, if somebody asks you if you're a friend of Bill's, that usually means from the program. They're in the program. It's the undercover way of saying, you in the program, you know. And so, but, um, he went on a spiritual quest and he really viewed, out of all the different things that he's learned, as the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous being one of the most, um, powerful, um, ways to live by, spiritual principles to live by. Uh, that was episode with Mo Rocca. That was just released last week. So February. Yeah. So now to this day, you've still stayed in the program. You go out and do a lot of speaking. Then you meet somebody named John Gordon.

Oh man, that, that was— it's so wild, Amberly. I mean, just the way that God has worked in my life like that. And but that's the thing about Real quick, what you said is important. I think everybody should have to work a program recovery, the 12-step program recovery. Everybody should work the 12 steps by the time they're in the first or second grade, because what it does is it teaches you about things about like being accountable and working through, you know, whatever your shortcomings are, working through those, those that hold you back. And if you owe an apology, you make it. You know, these are things that we've gotten so far away from.

Mm-hmm.

But there— it's like we say in recovery, I've got to keep my side of the street clean. That's all I've got to do. I've got to keep my side of the street clean. As long as my side of the street clean is clean, then I'm going to stay sober. I, I can't worry about what other people do with their side of the street. But that's what we got to do every day. And that's— my day starts off— I learned a prayer when I was— when I first got into AA, and I've been saying it every day since 2011. I get up on my knee— I get on my knees every morning Amberly, and I ask God for 2 things. That's it. The only 2 things I ask God for are in the mornings. And I say, hey God, put in front of me what you need me to do today for you, and let me recognize it when I see it. And that's it. That's the only thing I ask for. And I don't want to miss those things because that's going to be the way that I stay sober. When I'm out looking for ways to serve, because I, in my faith, I believe that if I take care of what God needs me to do for him, then he will take care of my needs too. Not my wants, but my needs. My needs will always be met. Needs and wants are 2 different things. So much.

And that's so true. Your, your needs and wants, there's a big difference. And your needs will always— your needs will always be met. I, I believe that too. Um, and then there, there was a quote I was trying to find that I love because Russell Brand who talks a lot about recovery said, coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. That's from Albert Einstein. But I like to follow a lot of what Russell Brand shares because he just, he says it like it is, you know? But yeah, I would love, I think it would be incredible if people, all people could know the 12 steps and really take some accountability and make amends and keep their side of the street clean. And because I know if I work, I have to work my program and connect with God first thing in the morning because my disease of alcoholism is doing pushups right here in the background, just waiting for me.

Absolutely.

And I never know when, you know, I— and if I tell myself I got this, I never know when I might be walking down the aisle at the grocery store and see a nice cold bottle of Chardonnay that calls my name. I want to be grounded enough and connected enough that I don't have to, I can keep on walking. You know?

Yeah.

And I think that because my sponsor shares with me how she had 10 years of sobriety And she stopped working the program. She got kind of like not in the middle of the group. You know, I got in and I got in the middle. I was like, I don't want to be taken out. I don't want to be lingering back here and be taken out somehow or left behind. I want to be in the middle and be strong. And I think that because she shares with me that she went out after 10 years and it was just so easy because she kind of stopped going to meetings. She stopped sharing. She stopped doing and sharing in meetings.

Yeah, yeah.

It was easier to go out. And so I don't want that. That put a healthy fear in me. Like, I don't want that to happen. But it was, I'm not going to lie, it was really hard for me because, you know, my husband is, well, he's retired now, but a Lieutenant Commander with the Highway Patrol. And so his idea of an alcoholic or a drunk would be somebody that he arrested on the street, not his wife.

Yeah.

And I was doing it to cope with pain, to, to try to numb out the, the physical and numb out the emotional pain that went along with everything. Um, and so I hid a lot of it from him, and there was a lot of shame there. There was a lot of shame. I remember telling him that I was going to go to a meeting And he was like, well, what if somebody sees you? What if somebody from the gym sees you there? Because he knew, you know, I was a fitness trainer. And so I was like, how could I be a fitness trainer and drink, you know? And I said, well, honey, if somebody sees me there, they'll be there for the same reason.

That's, uh, easy as that. Yeah, it's, it's, it's kind of like, you know, people seeing each other in the liquor store. They're there for the same— they're there for the same reason. Um, yeah, I know. And that's, that's, um, that's interesting you said that. Yeah, there is a lot of shame that I think people associate with it. But once you understand that, I mean, everybody's suffering through something, Amberly. The ones that, that are really lucky are the ones that have gotten into a program recovery somehow. I mean, you made it there.

It's a miracle. It's really miraculous because not many people do. And there's a lot of people that are suffering. So anybody who's listening today, I think the hardest thing for me to do was to reach out and admit that I had a problem. But when I did, oh my gosh, it was like just a load off my back.

Right.

Like I didn't have to hold everything up and try to pretend like everything was okay. And so if anybody's listening and they're like, oh, I'm struggling with this, Reach out. Reach out.

Yeah.

I Googled. I ended up Googling a 12-step program just to find a meeting. I tried to get somebody to, you know, I called somebody who I knew was in the program and I didn't hear from them again. So I ended up Googling it and found a meeting that I could sneak to. Because here I was sneaking my drink in. Now I'm going to sneak to get recovered. And I wanted to get a few under my belt before I told anybody that I was doing that. And I think deep down, I didn't know if I could do it. I really was worried that I wouldn't be able to stop drinking because I couldn't do it on my own. I tried and it just didn't work.

Right. And it's, it's the thing that, that, I mean, you know, drinking and drugs are not the problem. It's never been the addict's problem. That's a symptom of the problem. That's, you know, we're doing that to cope with something else that's going on in our lives. And, and one of the things I heard, it was, uh, my sponsor He said it in a meeting one time. Uh, this guy in the meeting was saying how he just— man, he's like, man, I just don't know if I can commit to never drinking. It was just some guy stumbled into the meeting. He wasn't in program recovery. He wanted it. He wanted what we had, but he just wasn't sure that he'd commit to it. And he said, I just don't know that I can commit to never drinking again. He said, well, just, just don't drink today, you know.

Mm-hmm.

Just say— just tell yourself that you're gonna— you'll drink tomorrow. But you won't drink today. And he said, it was funny, he said there's a sign in front of Joe's Crab Shack in Houston. And Joe, they have these Joe's Crab Shack restaurants. You have those?

No, they, they don't really have them here, but I've been— I've seen them in Texas.

Of course they have. Yeah, in Texas they have Joe's Crab Shack and they have a sign out front and it says free crabs tomorrow. And he said, every time I've gone to Joe's Crab Shack, it says free crabs tomorrow, and I can never get the free crabs because they're always tomorrow. He said, so just tell yourself that you're going to drink tomorrow and don't drink today. He said, so every day wake up and see your sign out in front of, in front of your life that says, I'm going to drink tomorrow, and you'll never have to drink today. So anyway, it was just all these different little important things.

Yeah, all these little things though that work. And some of the, some of the things that are known in recovery, like Like one day at a time, keep it simple, let go, let God. All those things, they carry through in your life. And it doesn't just apply for me for staying sober. I apply those things in everything I do. You know, sometimes my husband will say, oh, well, did you get to this? And it's something that's a month away. And I'm like, honey, I got to focus on today, right now and And really do one day at a time. I will get to that. But, you know, and I think that for me at first, it did work to think of one day at a time.

Yeah.

Because with anything, I mean, gosh, when I've had clients that are like, oh God, I don't know if I can commit to never eating sugar again. Or I don't know if I can commit to, you know, if you think of the big picture, of the rest of your life. Or like, if somebody's wanting to lose 100 pounds and you're like, 100 pounds? And you're just like, no, think of 1 pound at a time. So it really helps to put it— to keep it in that perspective like that. Well, so do you have a morning ritual that you do every morning that, um, gets you grounded and helps with your sobriety?

Then I'll get to John Gordon, I swear.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to hear about Mr. John Gordon.

Well, the recovery stuff is so— is so— I mean, because I know that people listen to this podcast and somebody's gonna get something out of that. So that's why I always try to share that message whenever I'm in the right kind of audience for that. Yeah, my morning ritual, look, I mean, I say my prayer and get my day started like that every single day. Usually a cup of coffee after that. I mean, that whole coffee bean thing, that's not just a philosophy. That's— man, I love coffee. So I mean, and I'm I'm a pretty high-strung guy. I make a cup of coffee nervous. But, um, so yeah, I start my day off like that. But then I'm, you know what, I've got to actively go look for ways to serve after that. I mean, I'm really trying to find, find ways to be useful in society. Um, and during the pandemic, you know, that meant that, you know, I had to do it from afar. But one of the things I tell people all the time is that you have to work out on yourself every day in 3 areas. Spiritually, mentally, and physically. And so these are the 3 areas. It's just not negotiable. That's— I'm gonna have to work out in those 3 areas every day. My spiritual workout is, you know, getting in touch with God, waiting for my instructions from God, you know, put in front of me what you need me to do for you. My mental workout, that's all the books I read, the videos I watch, the websites I go to, the social media I consume. What am I posting? What am I reading? Or what you eat. Not just about food, but everything you put this big brain of yours up here. And then physical is, you know, you know, take care, taking care of yourself, eating the right foods, getting enough rest, getting exercise every single day, because you've only got one body in this life. So spiritually, mentally, and physically, I'm working on myself every day, and that usually happens early in the day. Yeah.

And, you know, as you're saying that, this, this season 2 of the podcast is all about mind, body, and spirit. transformation and what you can do. And, you know, I have to say, I have been sucking at the, the physical part of it. And I mean, that's what I did for a living for years was do a lot of physical stuff. And, you know, I eat pretty healthy, but lately, and this is my fault, I've been making my plate way too full. And so I have been crazy. I've been— my phone tells me how much screen time I've been doing, and I've been doing like 10 hours of screen time, which is crazy. It's good if it's the mental part and you're learning or you're reading or whatever, or if I get to spend time with you and I'm learning. And I even took notes as we were talking. Um, but it's like that physical part. We have to move our bodies. Everything is connected.

Yeah.

You move our bodies, it moves our mind. And I love that you wake up and pray. I do the same thing. And then, um, I'm dying to know about the story about John Gordon.

So I met Dabo Swinney at an award show. Dabo was the head coach at Clemson. At an award show in Houston in January of 2017, there were 8 coaches in the room that night. I meet every single coach. They all turn me down, tell me no. I'm about to walk out the door and quit because of you know all the other coaches have told me no. But I'm like, you know what? No, that last coach just stick around. He's going to tell you no to your face. Then you can go home. So I met Dabo Swinney and made the pitch to go talk to his team. He said, "Hey, we'll be in touch," but it felt more like a no. But it ended up being the biggest yes in the world because Dabo's you know Dabo calls me up a few months later, brings me out to speak to Clemson. After that, after I speak to Clemson in 2017, Dabo. Gets on the phone with Nick Saban and all these other coaches around America. And all these other coaches are calling saying, hey, Dabo said I got to bring you in. So Dabo totally transformed my life. He put me in a position to go out and share my message with the world. And a year after that, it was 2018, I got a phone call out of the blue from Jon Gordon. And I know who Jon Gordon is. I mean, he's the Energy Bus guy. I follow him on social media. I listen to all his videos.

Yeah.

Anybody who is in the The, you know, thought leadership, self-development, motivational speaking, leadership, they know who John Gordon is.

Yeah.

You know who John— yeah.

But my question was, how does John Gordon know who I am? So I asked him, I'm like, John, how do you know who I am? How'd you get my number? And he said, Dabo Swinney. He said, I was just in Dabo's office, just got done talking to the Clemson football team, and all Dabo could do was talk about you.

Wow.

He said, they got shirts at Clemson, Damon, says, be a coffee bean. He said, the motto for Clemson's football team is be a coffee bean. He said, Damon, and this is in 2018, Amberly, he said, the world needs the coffee bean message, Damon. He said, let's write a book and we'll call it The Coffee Bean. And, you know, it was very personal.

And, you know, I heard the coffee bean story a while ago and I never knew where that came Yeah.

I mean, it's— and look, I got it from a guy in Dallas County Jail. Who knows where he got it from? And on and on and on. But, you know, John is a— John knows what he's— he knows how to work his craft, which is that positive development in people. And he told me, he said, look, I looked it up. There's nobody that's ever written a book about this. There's nobody that's ever used this message at this level. And I even told John, Amberly, when he called me that day, he said he wanted to write a book together called The Coffee Bean. I was like, John, you're John Gordon, man. Go write the book yourself. You don't need me, man. Have a nice life. He's like, no, Damon. He said, no. He said, write the book with me. He said, God told me to do it this way.

Wow.

He said, the only way it works if we do this together. And so we did. And I mean, Amberly, it's crazy. I mean, that book has sold— that book has sold almost 200,000 copies.

Wow.

The book is in every— I mean, it's in China. It's the public. There's a publisher in China that has it. There's— it's in Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, German. It's in Vietnamese. It's in all these different languages around the world. It's in French. It's in— it's in every major language in the world. And it's because of Dabo Sweeney connecting John Gordon and John Gordon calling me out of the blue.

Well, you know what, though? When And you're good to people, people are good to you. And you are good people and your hard work puts you where your blessings can find you. And so that is, that's you. That is because I think that when you do, you know, you always wake up and pray and ask God to put you in positions where you can be useful. And I feel like when you are in alignment and you're good, it's like those opportunities kind of come your way. And, uh, John Gordon is just a good guy. So is Catherine. I love Catherine, and we've become good friends over this past year. And, um, I, I love that he, he could see the good in you, and he was like, no, we're gonna do this together. So I'm so happy for you. Like I said, I've got the Coffee Bean for Kids right here.

We love it. I love it. That's awesome. Love it. They came out this year during the pandemic as a way to, to bring the Coffee Bean message to kids too.

Oh yeah, yeah. Well, I love your book and, um, I really love your beautiful heart. And you know, you— I get— you can just see how you're just such an incredible person. What are you working on right now? How can people work with you or coach with you or hire you to come speak to their company, how would people do that?

Yeah, if anybody wanted to get in touch with me, they would find me, my website, damonwest.org, and email me, damon@damonwest.org. Right now, my wife and I are putting together, I started a foundation called the Be a Coffee Bean Foundation, and it's got a, it's got a, a second chance kind of deal to it, to criminal justice reform. One of the initiatives that we're doing with the Coffee Bean Foundation is these quality of life scholarships for kids. When I was locked up in prison, Amberly, they had all these men in there that have kids on the outside. They can do nothing for their kids and women. There's females that are incarcerated as well. So one of the things the Coffee Bean Foundation is doing is starting a scholarship program but for like extracurricular activities. So if you're a man or woman in prison somewhere in America and you've got a kid that wants to— say your daughter wants to take dance or equestrian or something like that that's normally not, um, not something you could afford or do, and especially because you have one parent that's incarcerated, we want to try to help that kid find what it is that, that, you know, that excites them in life. You know, if it's a kid that wants to play soccer, or baseball or football or band lessons or wants to become a computer programmer, we want to help out with any of that stuff. So that's one of the things the foundation is doing is to, you know, put together these scholarships. But the Be a Coffee Bean Foundation is really what's, um, what a focus is in my life right now. My wife is, uh, she is actually, she's a nurse practitioner, and so she's gonna be leaving her job as a nurse practitioner.

Wow.

To, yeah, to voluntarily run this, this family foundation for us.

So, wow, that's amazing. And you know, these kids need that outlet. Now, I, I really feel like, you know, one of the things that— the reason I didn't do drugs or alcohol growing up is because I had dance as an outlet. I got into trouble when I didn't have any outlet at all, when I was kind of, you know, confined to a hospital bed. And so it led me down a dark path. So I think it's beautiful that you are giving these kids an opportunity to have a positive outlet. So wow. I'll make sure to put the link in the show notes. So if you're listening, the link for his book, The Coffee Bean, and the new book that just got released, The Coffee Bean for Kids, will be in the show notes.

Yeah.

And your website website and email and the foundation, because I want people to be able to find you.

Yeah. And, uh, the links— you can buy the books anywhere books are sold. Amazon, Barnes Noble, anywhere books are sold. The Coffee Bean, The Change Agent, The Coffee Bean for Kids.

Yeah, I got mine on Amazon. I feel— I know some people don't like to go to Amazon, but it got to me like the next day. So yeah, I mean, all the bookstores— well, the bookstore that was around here went out of business. Because everything was locked down. So it's crazy. If hopefully you can find a bookstore to buy it, and hopefully we'll be shopping in bookstores and back to normal here pretty soon. But I just want to thank you for your time, your words of wisdom, and just everything you shared from your heart. I'm so grateful we connected. And who knows, maybe we'll be moving to Texas pretty soon. I don't know. We're thinking about it. It's between Miami or Texas. I don't, I don't know. So I'll let you know.

If you make it to Texas, look me up.

Okay. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna thank Catherine and John right now for introducing me to you. So, Damon, thank you. You are a gift in this world and, and you have us all believing in miracles and transformation for sure. So thank you.

You are too, Amberly. Thanks for what you're doing. Keep doing what you're doing too, girl.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for joining us this week on True Grit and Grace Podcast. If you like it, please rate it or share it with your friends.

That would help too.

If you're not yet on the newsletter list, come over to amberlylago.com and jump on it. While you're there, you can grab a free downloadable gratitude journal, and you might just want to check out my book, or even check out my monthly motivational membership. Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next week.