INBOUND Bold Talks: Catherine Hoke "Transforming Hustle"

Hey. Welcome to Defy Ventures, where we use entrepreneurship to transform the hustle of America's biggest underdogs and most overlooked talent pool. Men, women and youth with criminal histories, in prison and out. Why are you here today? Why are you at this conference? And more than that, why are you in this specific session? Are you hoping that I will inspire you and entertain you? I hate to disappoint right off the jump, but I'm not here to do that. I'm here to create change. And by the end of my short talk, my goal is to enlist you in making a difference in a sector that has been neglected for so long. When I was seven years old, my Hungarian Yugoslav inventor father announced to our family that we were moving to America because America is a land of liberty and justice for all. So I moved here and I grew up super pro America until the age of 26, when I realized for the first time that our criminal justice system may not in fact be all that it's touted to be. If you are black and if you are poor, you are far less likely to encounter justice than if you are white and if you are rich. And so Defy Ventures is my best effort to level the playing field. What would it be like if you were only known for the worst thing that you've ever done for the rest of your life? Think about that and what that would look like for you. Because that's what my guys deal with forever. We are touted as a land of second chances. But if you pay your price and you pay your debt to society, then you get out of prison and for the rest of your life, you live with invisible handcuffs. Are we the nation that we want to be? Some statistics that make me really sad about this very expensive societal problem. 30% of 23 year olds already have a criminal history. Don't you think that's a little bit young to be writing people off for the rest of their lives? Of those who go behind bars, 76.6% of them are rearrested within five years. And the stat that makes me the saddest is that 70% of children with incarcerated parents end up following in their parents footsteps behind bars. It's quite a legacy to inherit. Imagine if this was your legacy that you inherited. The day you were born, there was a pine box and a prison cell built with your name on it. What legacy did you inherit and what are you doing with it? So I'm here to challenge you to do more with yours. When I was 25 years old, I started asking myself the Question. If I died today, why would my life even matter? So I'll tell you my story of how I got into this unlikely work for me with the hopes that it will lead to action for you. When I was 26 years old, I started off in venture capital and private equity. And I was invited on a prison visit, to which I said, no, thanks. It's not really my cup of tea. I don't know anybody in prison. I ended up going anyway. And when I went to prison, I realized for the first time in my white life that many incarcerated former drug dealers and gang leaders are actually accomplished business people. They have been running these businesses. Some of them are run by boards of directors and they have bylaws, and they have accountants and bookkeepers, and they're totally for profit organizations. The one thing that they kind of sucked at was their risk management strategies because they all got busted and ended up going behind bars. But I asked myself the question, what would happen if these guys were actually equipped to go legit with their skills? I jumped ship from my fancy New York job in private equity, moved to Texas, and founded what is still known today as Prison Entrepreneurship Program in Texas. And over five years under my leadership, we graduated 600 men. And when they got out of prison, after teaching them about entrepreneurship and holistic life transformation, we had a 98% employment rate, helped them to start 60 businesses, and the recidivism rate was less than 5%, which is remarkably low. I've always been a metrics driven person, but I lived my life for the moment that you're seeing in this photo. Every six months, we'd have a graduation cap and gown, their first time in a cap and gown for half of these guys. And we had a family reunification program. And we would recruit their families to come back to believe in dad or to see him at his best in a long time. And we would get the dads in their caps and gowns on the stage and arm them with a teddy bear that they had decorated the little T shirt for it. And I would say, my daddy loves me. And then I'd say to the kids in the audience, run up to the stage and jump into your dad's arms, because he has a good gift to give you. And I don't know if you can relate to this at all because you probably haven't done time, but when you do time, a lot of times you're separated by glass from your loved ones. You can't even touch them. And you certainly don't get to give good gifts to your Kids. And a lot of what drives me to do this work is that I have a passion for good fatherhood. And I think it's what's so needed to restore many of our communities. So I did this work for five years. And now with PEP in Texas, I'm at Defy Ventures. And I'd like to tell you that I'm at Defy because I've always been an ambitious social entrepreneur who wanted to develop a nationally scalable model. And that is true. But that question that I asked you earlier, what would it be like if you were only known for the worst thing you've done? Became my story as I became known for the worst thing I'd done. I was married at 22. I was divorced at 31. My divorce came unexpectedly for me. I handled myself poorly in the wake of my divorce. I ended up having some relationships with people who had gotten out of the prison system, my own graduates. It wasn't illegal, but I knew better. I was really honest about my mistakes. And then the Texas prison system forced my resignation. And I watched as my news and my shame went out nationally and then globally, and I became known for a sex scandal. I was so depressed and ashamed that I tried to take my own life. I'm a very vision driven person, and I couldn't imagine that there would be a next for me in life at all. And it was a group of people who loved me back to life when I was at my bottom, who gave me a second chance, who said, what are you doing next? You've always preached grace. We believe in you. What do you want to do next? And I didn't have an answer for them. I went through a year of really intense therapy. I moved back to New York City, my favorite place in the world, and I got an offer to go back into venture capital. The minute that I got that offer in hand, I felt like a sell out because I know why God has put me on earth. I have a very clear sense of calling and purpose. And although I royally screwed up, I know why I live my life to fight against the injustice that I see every single day. So in 2010, with the lowest self esteem of my life and feeling so cautious and nervous, I announced, here we go, Defy ventures. It's my 2.0. It's my second chance to give second chances to other people. And one of my mentors said to me, go big or go home. And so I've built Defy now in the last six years to be a nationally scalable solution. And in the Past six years now, we have served men, women and youth across 22 states. Small numbers. So far, we've served 1700 EITs. That's what I call the People we serve. That stands for Entrepreneurs in Training. I hate the word ex con. I say we're all x somethings. So 1700 of them and growing rapidly. Our program starts inside prison. It's called CEO of youf New Life, where we help them to make great decisions for rebuilding a new future. And it entails entrepreneurship, employment readiness, character development, and significant reentry preparation. And they compete in these Shark Tank competitions where you're invited to come and judge them as well inside and outside of prison. And the program is rigorous and comprehensive and hard. And at the end of the six months, Baylor University's MBA program has vetted our curriculum and found it to be so awesome that they earn a Baylor University MBA program certificate, which is a big whoop for our guys because we average in 8th grade education with the people that we serve. And then after they get out, we help them to keep their freedom. And I'm proud to say that 96.8% of our released graduates have maintained their freedom. And that's on 525 released people. Another way to say that is we have a 3.2% recidivism rate, which I believe is the lowest in the country. And the reason that we're able to achieve that is because we have a 95% employment rate. When they get out of prison, jobs first, and then if they want to, they can start their small business on nights or weekends until it's viable enough that they can jump ship and do that full time. I am proud to report that through our incubator, after they get out, in our continued training and mentoring, we've incubated and financed 150 companies which have been so successful that these companies have created 350 new employment opportunities through really simple legal, positive cash flow businesses. Two quick examples. CAS Marte, the guy in the middle of the first picture there, he lost 70 pounds in prison, taught other incarcerated men how to lose weight. He gets out of prison, and with Defy's help, He now has 7,000 customers for his prison style fitness boot camp. We've helped him to raise more than $200,000. And he's hired 12 people, nearly all of them with criminal histories. Or the other guy, Seth Sundberg, he did five years in prison. And in prison he came up with his recipe for what he calls criminally delicious granola bars. So his company's name is prison bars. All types of innovative concepts. The vision that I have for DEFY is highly scalable and I fully intend, with your help, to get this in every prison in America and every major urban center for post release services as well. But that's not enough. My real vision and goal for DEFY is to put us out of business. And that will happen when we solve mass incarceration and the problem of recidivism that plagues our country. We like this wild disease, but it can be done. I fully believe that it can be done. Sometimes when people learn about defy, they say, I'm so inspired. I'm so inspired. And I say, cool. Inspired to what? A hot dose of inspiration in one ear, out the other. Doesn't do anything for this country. So if you're pissed off and mad about our country, so am I talking about it or moving to Canada doesn't do a damn thing. So I'm going to give you a choice today. I'm going to ask you, if I offer you a way to make a tangible difference and the people that have been voiceless and overlooked but are so high potential for our country, will you do it? If I give you a choice of something that you can actually do to make a difference, you have an option. So get it in your head right now because I'm going to ask you, you can choose to do absolutely nothing or you can say, yeah, I guess if it's within my means, yeah, I'll do it. How many of you, after hearing this, are going to choose to do absolutely nothing? Raise your hands. All right, so then how many of you, if I give you an option to do something that you're actually capable of doing, will actually do it? Look around. There can be power in this room right here, okay? We can actually make a difference. So thank you for that. So now I'm going to see if you're all men and women of your word. Here's what you can do. I hope you like my clip art. Come to prison. Organize a company field trip. We have 3500 CEOs, VCs, entrepreneurs, business professionals who have come with us. We have 30 companies that are coming with us. Google has already brought three prison field trip buses with us. Invite me to speak at another organization or provide a scholarship. $500 transforms one life that leads to a 3.2% recidivism rate. The those are things that most of you in this room can do. And if you choose to join our ranks in making a difference with our guys Hear it from Timothy Johnson. The impact that you will have to see and feel the love from strangers changed my whole life. I haven't shed a tear in 35 years. I'm 47 now, and I cried like a baby at Defy's Shark Tank competition. In that moment, I knew I belonged to the human family. Entrepreneurship and Shark Tanks comes down to that. People who have felt so dehumanized for so long now finally are reminded that they're human and that they are worthy of love and of a second chance, of a real second chance. So I'm pushy. I would like you to whip out your cell phone right now. If you raise your hand and say you're gonna do something, whip it out because you need my contact information so you can make this happen. Let's go. We don't have all day. So, cell phone. There's my email address right there. Katdefyventures.org not.com or a 501C3. Type it in. No long emails, please. Just say I'm in and then tell me what you're going to do. A scholarship? 500 bucks. Come to prison with me. Tell me where you live, what coast, because we're nationally operating in prisons now, or how you want to make your difference. And if you email me within the next 10 minutes, look at your clock right now. Next 10 minutes. I will also, as your early bird bonus, I will send you a course called develop your dream that I talk about the steps that I took to jump from finance into what I definitely know is my calling today. So. Catdefy ventures.org in closing, I want to say thank you for having me here. I feel like, especially with the results of the election, that our work, sadly, is going to be more needed than ever in this country. I've had so many second chances and opportunities in my life. I'm remarried now. I have my second chance as a wife. I have my second chance as. As a leader. I have my second chance to give second chances. So on behalf of our entrepreneurs in training and their families that normally do not get a voice and do not get a vote, thank you for considering making a difference with us as we restore broken communities. I really appreciate getting to be here. Thank you.