Remembering Where Your POWER Belongs | Garrain Jones | The Expert Series

In losing my freedom, I discovered my freedom. So maybe the universe needed to remove all of the things I gave power to so that I can remember where the power belong inside of myself.

Welcome, everybody, to the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am excited to bring you my guest today who I'm super interested about, which is crazy, because we've been friends for a little while now. I've never researched you, and. And I was like, I got to research him because I'm going to be interviewing him this week. And we were just talking about before the cameras went on. We're like, this guy has literally been in every single industry. You've done everything in your life, and the fact that you're 41. 42.

I'll be 42 in July.

42 in July. And you have. The story that you have is pretty remarkable. So, Garon Jones, everybody. I'm excited to bring you Garon Jones, and I want to dive in, and I want to talk about your childhood. First. You've told me some crazy stories when I've been hanging out at your house, and you've got. I mean, you could write a. There should be a movie on you for all of the different crazy stories you've had as a kid. Like, there's gonna be a Garrin Jones movie one day. Yeah. And so tell us a little bit about yourself so people who don't know who you are so we can get a little bit of an idea of who you are.

So. I was born and raised in Missouri City, Texas. Family didn't come from money. Parents split up when I was four years old. My father was murdered when I was 12. That's when I just decided I don't care about anything. And that's when I got into breaking. Breaking into cars, breaking into houses, and just doing whatever with no regard to responsibility. Because after my dad died, it was like a part of me died, and I just didn't care. And that just carried on into high school. But somehow I had a knack to run track and be really fast. And that was the. That was the silver lining that just kept me going. I probably wouldn't have made it out of high school school if it hadn't been for track and field. And then, you know, I. I always had dreams to be a model. And people. People called me crazy when I was a little kid, but I was like, man, one day I'm gonna be a model. I'm gonna do Tommy Hilfiger, and one day I'm gonna be on TV one day. I just always saw that but coming from Missouri City, that's not normal. Like, people. There's a lot of really talented people from where I'm from, they're getting the shine now because of, like, entertainment, like rap and things like that. But anything outside of that really didn't make it outside of that city. And so I was looked at as the crazy kid who. Man, you're like an alien, bro. You just talk about stuff that makes sense to nobody. But. But I always knew that I was supposed to do the things that I'm now doing. And I was in and out of juvenile several times. One time I had a stint, six and a half months. And after I got out of juvenile, I was supposed to go to tyc, which is a prison for teenagers. And then after I got out of tyc, I was also being tried as an adult at the age of 15 because I got busted for 62 felonies. Breaking felonies, yeah. But here's what I want people to see. On the surface, right, was 62 felonies. But below was a little kid who was driven to succeed at something. And energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only be transferred. I just wasn't aware of where to put this energy. So I put it into chasing women. I put it into cheating on tests. I put it into track and field, which I succeeded at all of them. And, you know, it's. It's. It's like learning a language. You don't just stop learning English once. You've already been domesticated with it. So my upbringing was that of just trying to thief, trying to get around without working hard and just. Just having no regard for those who came before me. Disresp cheating on women. You know, as I started getting older, that never stopped. So a big part of my childhood was a directionless little kid who was driven and didn't know where to point the energy.

It's interesting because I've heard you talk about. And you just started saying it's. It's like a language. Like poverty is kind of like a language. You were. You were raised in a situation you just. And I've always thought about it. I've always thought to myself, I was lucky. Where I was able to see we didn't have any money. You know, my mom applied for food stamps, but you can't get food stamps when you got a car for some reason. So we never were able to get it. And one thing that I did have, though, and it was being able to see my uncle who was very successful.

Yeah, right.

And I was Able to see it. I was able to see my father and him passing away at 15, when I was 15, from him being an alcoholic and all of the stuff that he went through because he didn't overcome his traumas of his father killing himself when he was 12 and walking in the room and seeing it. But then on the other side, I saw my Uncle Dan and he was a successful guy, had 200 employees, all of this stuff. And I saw that there were other options. And what you're kind of saying is where you were growing up, there was no other options. It was like, this is if you were to grow up in Spain, you'd speak Spanish.

But if you were to grow up.

Where you grew up.

Yeah.

That poverty and what you saw was basically a language that you just spoke and that went through your head at all points in time.

Yeah. And that also speaks to the power of community too. But the things that I did have access to is I saw. And even though I felt like my brother never liked me because he pretty much disowned me when I was a kid, I saw him fall in love with skateboarding and he studied film and he practiced and I didn't know what that. And you can't change what you're not aware of, but if it's ingrained in there, it's somewhere in your subconscious mind. So I saw that I have a. My uncle, he was gay, but I didn't know what that was when I was 4 and 5 years old. So he used to wear bright colors and he was very expressive and he would just dance all the time. If anybody knows anything about me, I am loud, I wear bright colors and very unashamed, like unapologetically. You know who that came from? Your Uncle Dwayne. Yeah, but I had. I had no idea. I was just exposed to the people that I was exposed around. And so I'm forever grateful for my Uncle Dwayne, because what he taught me is what people struggle with today is being open minded. And my best friend was Muslim. My other best friend was Jewish. My mom went to a Methodist church and the people in my school went to a Baptist church. And I fell in love with. With a non denominational. So I was so exposed to my favorite uncle who was gay, and then my best friend who was Muslim. So from a little kid, I always had an open mind to just be able to receive people for who they are and be authentically me.

For sure.

I didn't know that I'd get paid for that down the line because a lot of people are stuck in that domestication of this is how it is. And my dad was like this. Well, my dad wasn't around, my mom was always at work, and my brother pretty much disowned me. So I pretty much raised myself along with the streets. But I. I definitely wanted to speak into that language. You think about how it's ingrained you. You go gaga, goo, goo. Then you learn the ABCs, then you keep on harping on the basics. Then that turns into words, sentences, paragraphs, essays, books, libraries. So imagine a household of insecurity, lack of worthiness, authenticity, and all these different things. This is what little kids, without even knowing, this is how their domestication shapes their future. And I say all the time, adults are deteriorated children, until you see that you can create a different outcome for your life.

So where does that take you? So, you know, you're in juvenile. What happens after juvenile? Because you. You talk about modeling, you talk about. Yeah, but there's a whole lot of stuff that's happening between there. So. So, so you. You went from there. You lived in a car for two years. Yeah. You've been. You've been in prison, A French prison.

Yep.

So what, what are the stories behind all these? Because you've done everything that you could possibly do, it seems.

So I kept on with the language of looking for cheap ways to get around things and never, you know, just. But more than anything, I always was seeking a place of belonging. I always. I never felt like I belonged anywhere. So I tend to hang out with the people that were showing me. When I was a little kid, the people that would show me love were the people that got in trouble all the time. Well, you fast forward five, 10 years, and that's still the same characterization of my life by nature. When I'm around that environment, it's like a safe environment for me. So when I was in juvenile, and I remember because I didn't start puberty Till I was 18 years old, so I was a little kid for a long time. When I was in juvenile, everybody said to me, I was like, what are you doing in here? You look too nice. But I was so fearless. Like, I would do the stuff that no one would do without hesitation for the sake of, somebody's gonna recognize me and say, oh, great job, Because I never heard you matter. You're special, you're important. When I was a little kid, so I'm in juvenile, and I remember my probation office officer said to me, he said, he goes, you know, Garen, there comes a time in your life where you hit a fork in the road and you can either turn left or you can turn right. And he looked me in the eye and he said, or you can hit the brick wall. He said, garen, you've hit the brick wall. He said, I'll see you in prison. And I never forgot that. And I still kept up with the crime and stuff like that, but I never forgot what he said.

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Fast forward some years. I'm still trying to figure out my life. And I knew that I wasn't supposed to be in Missouri City. I knew I was meant to go somewhere else. I knew that since I was a little kid. So I left. I was in Los Angeles trying to figure life out. Ended up signing a record deal with a guy in Ohio that I met in Los Angeles, which it made no sense to leave that music capital and then go to Ohio. At that time, nothing was popping out of there. And I go there and he promises, promises us this big contract and you can stay on the other side of my house. And I'm like, oh my God, we get to go to is a group. And the name of our singing group was called Soulja. And he was like, we get to go on the other side of the house, man. We get to the house and it was like hell's day. Everything that he said was a lie. His father was a, he was Like a pastor, but he's like funneling this criminal type stuff. And I'm just like, what is happening? You know how I signed the contract? There was a plastic machine gun on the table. And he literally said, you know why it's plastic? And I said, why? Because if I use it, I can melt it. No one will ever find out. So I ended up signing my life away, legit signing my life away. And in this moment I was like, what's happening? I'm 18 years old, what is this? And I still wasn't aware, so I still kept chasing women, still kept doing like little petty things because I just didn't know I had, I lacked major direction and even how I got out of that situation. We were in Miami for this event called the Impact. He wanted us to take his gun home because he couldn't take it on the, on the plane flight. So he took, we were, we had the briefcase and the gun and we're driving. And I said, stop the car. I'm not going back to Ohio. They're like, he's going to kill us. I was like, how? We got his gun. I'm not going back to Ohio. Now, I didn't know at the time, but I was leading, I was influencing people in a certain way. I said, I'm not going back to Ohio. Let me out of the car. No phone, no money, no car. What do I do? I start walking with determination to God knows where. They stop the car, come back, and then we start to go back to la. So I think my confidence and where I was going was much stronger than their lack of confidence in going back to an area where they were fearing for their life. We open up the, the, the briefcase and all of our contracts were in there. I was like that, like, so we, we burn up the contracts, throw away the gun, come back to la. That's when my LA starts. I was like, I gotta figure something out. And so I enrolled in the Santa Monica Community College, met two roommates there, and I was like, yo, I need a place to stay. Because I was staying with my cousin Marcus at the time. And I was like. But it was just, he was, he was way too strict. I need a place to stay. Stay with these two, like Japanese girls from Okinawa. They could barely speak English and we were all sleeping in the same bed. Nothing sexual, but it was just like, yo, this is like wild. Like, how am I in this situation? Someone said I should model. Get it? I'm six one now. But at the time I was five foot nine and they Were joking around. Don't joke around with me because I'm going to actually prove you wrong. So I, I literally went to every single agency there was in Los Angeles, starting with the easiest ones first, Ford and Wilhelmina. The hardest ones last. I got rejected every single day for four days. And on the last day I was like, you know what? It's not worth it. And a little voice came up inside of me and says, you come this far, keep going. So I go in that room and I'm watching at least 75 guys who I feel look way better than me. I'm like, they already got two black guys on the wall. And at that time, they only took two or three black people on any fashion wall. Dark skinned guy, light skinned guy. The one light skinned guy with the, the bright eyes and the big hair. On every single high fashion model wall, they already had that. So my insecurity, I have no abs, I have no book, I have no car. I don't look like a model. I don't look like anybody in here. So that's what had me walk away. So I walk up and it was my turn. After Everybody got maybe 10 seconds of looking time with the agent, everybody got rejected. I'm like, you know what? Fuck it. Imma just be me inside of that breath. And I go in there and they're looking at me and it's longer than 10 seconds. I'm like, they're like, huh? And he goes away, takes my Polaroid and my little bird chest, comes back with two other agents and I'm like. And he goes, we'd love to represent you. You don't look like anybody. So my insecurity was the uniqueness, not my actual insecurity, but what I felt was my insecurity because I don't look like anybody was the thing that they were looking for. They sent me on a Destiny's Child jumping, jumping video audition to be the lead role, Beyonce's boyfriend. They sent me on a buckle campaign and Skechers campaign. I didn't have a car. I could only make two of them. I made the buckle and Skechers and I didn't want to tell them. I'm like, damn, I finally got a shot. I don't want to tell them. I didn't even go to the audition. First thing in the morning, David calls me and says, congratulations, you book all three jobs and you even go to the third one. I didn't go to throw. I was like, wait a second. I was like, even the Destiny's Child video, I'M like, damn. He's like, yeah. Because I didn't know Beyonce was with the agency. She's with Wilhelmina. Beyonce just happened to walk into the agency yesterday, and she hand picked your card as her love interest. And the Destiny's Child jump and jumping video, you can check it out.

You feel good about yourself. I bet you felt good about yourself after that.

And I was 77, 500 richer from having no money. Plus I booked the Skechers campaign, $5,000. Plus I booked the Skechers and the Buckle campaign, $4,500. So instantly, in one day, $13,000, my mind was blown and I just kept booking jobs. What I realized it wasn't about how I looked, but how people felt around me, how I was laughing and making people feel seen and heard. And it was easy to work with me. And everybody else was like, snobby behind, like behind the camera or when the camera was off. Word was is, man. Garen is so easy to work with. You def. And the world is so big, but it's so small in the industry and every. And in this industry, you book a lot of jobs two way, three ways. Three ways. You sleeping with somebody or you're like the next God's gift to you. You're like the most unique person on the planet. Like the albino kid, like, completely different than anyone is like, you're gonna book every job or you have the best personality. I wasn't the best looking guy, wasn't sleeping with anybody. And. But you could not out out person or personality. We were just having fun. It was like a party every. Every time we did a photo shoot. So that's how modeling came about. And I just. The lesson that I learned in modeling was I went through probably about 14 or 15 rejections, but I was growing through those rejections. So I learned how to grow through my nose to earn my powerful. Yes.

Right. I always tell people that. And that's. It's. It's funny because one thing we used to always do when I would run sales offices is we would have these things called two week pushes, where like, we put everything in. We eat, sleep, and breathe 14 days in a row, just go at it. And I'm like, the universe is going to test you. At some point in time, you're actually going for is something that you're really passionate about. And for you, that's a perfect example. I just shouldn't even do it. And then the universe spoke inside of you, and you're like, all right, let me go in. And you Went in and you booked it, but it happened to be the last one. It's the universe testing you at all points in time. And it's crazy, that story. So is that before the whole thing happening in France, then? The French prison?

Yeah.

So how do you go from. You know. Because everyone's gonna be like, well, dude, this guy's making so much money. How does he go and. And get into a French prison years down the road?

So here's here. Here's the deal. And it was during the process.

So this was during the modeling?

This was during the model.

Okay.

Yeah. It's wild, bro. So here I am making all this money, but just as fast as it's.

Coming in, it's going out.

I don't have a financial advisor. I don't come from money. So you end up attracting as far as income goes, the level of personal development and how you see yourself. I didn't feel worthy of the money I was getting. So as fast as, man, I was buying. I had a little bitty apartment, sleeping on a box spring with a bunch of blankets, buying a $5,000 pair of Dolce. Dolce and Gabbana spiky shoes.

Right.

I had no understanding of how money breathes and how money is energy and how you can attract it according to the value in which you first see yourself. No idea. And you can't change what you're not aware of. So. While being the. In the picture frame of my life, because you can't. It's like you can't see what's inside the frame while you're in the picture. And so here I am doing all this modeling stuff. And, I mean, you could open up magazines. You'll see me in Wilson's Leather. You can see me in Expressman. You can see me in a Nietzsche. But in the same magazine, it was like, man, this dude is everywhere. You can walk in the mall at one time, and I had seven different campaigns going. Gap, Old Navy, Tommy Hilfiger, Wilson's Leather. But it was all Macy's. It was all in the malls at the same time.

So you're in every single store that you walk by.

Damn near every single one. Plus, I had the Destiny's Child video out. Plus I had the Old Navy commercial out. Plus I had l' Oreal hair commercial out. They dyed my hair like burgundy. So it was like I was everywhere. Here's the deal. But the money, the way in which checks were coming in, they weren't coming in every single day. They were coming in, like, six months later. And I didn't, I never knew what it was like to make instant money. So here I am at the height of my career. You could go and you, you could go to Times Square and there was a massive, there's whole, the movie Hulk, I mean Incredible Hulk and then there's my billboard that's bigger than the Incredible Hulk billboard. And I'm just like on top of the world. Also, I had a huge ego at that time. I wasn't doing any self development. I did not know how to approach life with grace and ease and build people up. I would gossip and all these different things, but I didn't know because see, before I did all this, I was reading a book called the Power of positive thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. But I read that book over 300 something times between the paperback and audiobook because good, great things kept happening. I didn't know you're supposed to keep reading. And once you stop reading, your mind is like a garden. So once you stop learning, the weeds of your past start creeping over. So once I'm like, oh yeah, I'm the man, oh yeah, I'm good, I'm the shit, you can't tell me nothing. Ego starts creeping in and the reflection of when you start seeing yourself that way, when you start looking down on people, your life is a reflection according to how you see yourself. And I saw myself above everybody, so I got massively humbled.

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But I had a girlfriend and she was Miss France 2001, 2002 or something like that. I'm living the high life, bro. I'm like, I gotta miss. It's like Miss America. So I got a Miss France ex girlfriend.

You're all over billboards, bro.

I'm all over billboards. I'm like, I got celebrity friends living in LA at the hottest parties. And I'm in New York because I have a place in LA and New York. I'm in New York and then I meet the. I see these guys and one of them introduced me to Miss France. At the time, I didn't know she was. But like, we hit it off quickly. She became my girlfriend. Then I was just like, ran around, chased that girl to France. I went to France, she went out of town and I saw some guys at a club that I knew back in la, but I knew they were up to no good. However, they lived the kind of life. I'm making all this money, but I'm not. I don't know how to. I don't know anything about investment or anything like that. So I'm making all this money, but I'm making it look good. However, I don't have no money in my account because I keep spending it on bullshit. See these guys, they got the Benzes, the Bentleys, the Rolls Royces, they got the bottles, though. I've never had a sip of a sip of alcohol in my life. I always wanted to like pop, even if it was cranberry juice or pineapple juice or water bottles at the club and have the best table. Being surrounded by all the girls. I always wanted that kind of lifestyle, that big quality of lifestyle. So I seen a guy and I'm like, how can I get your life? He offered me an opportunity. He's like, he. There's only so much I could say. Yeah, you know. But he offered me an opportunity to meet him somewhere and we talked some stuff and he sent me on a mission. I picked up a car, I drove a car over the ferry. I was in the UK over a ferry to Amsterdam. Don't ask, don't tell. I didn't know what I was carrying. I didn't ask. But my cover up was, I'm on the COVID of this magazine. So every time I get to the border, I'd show them the COVID of this magazine and then I would just go through. Well, I would make £4,000 every time I drove the car. And all I had to do was drive the car to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and leave it and then pick it up the next day and. And that was it. That was it. £4,000 at that time is 2.3 US dollars to one. I mean to one pound.

Yeah.

So £4,000, ten grand. Yeah. But instantly in cash, tax free. So imagine I'm doing all this stuff, but I have a dark side. See, I never learned. My mom always taught me. She was like, when, whenever, because she never bought me anything. Whenever you can make your own money, you can buy whatever you want. So I just did whatever I could to make my own money. Whether it was mowing lawns, cutting grass. When I was a little kid selling lemonade stands. I didn't know that that was like a little entrepreneur. I always, that's where my hustle and drive came from. Well, while I was making all this money, I still wanted to make more money. Greed, hunger and all. I put money over people. So I took that job and then I took another one. And over two, two month span of time, I did it seven times. So I'm sitting there waiting on my checks to come in for modeling on billboards. But I'm doing all this not thinking about the responsibility. I mean, what would happen, the ramifications of what would happen. So here I am. 4000-4000-4000-4004. All cash. Now times it times two. And I'm 23 years old. Yo, I was rolling. I'm like, yo, this is easy. Yeah, now I don't have to wait about, wait with money. 8th time, something don't feel right. I got caught.

Did it not feel right even before you got caught?

Oh, it didn't feel right because before, before they sent me, because the last time they sent me to France, but before they sent me there, they wanted me to go to Africa. And I'm like, I'm not going to Africa. Well, guess what? The dude who took my place. This was back in 2002, the dude who took my place and taking these drugs, which I later found out was drugs still in prison right now. I was supposed to go and then I stopped. And then the next time I was like, man, something about this don't feel right. They're like, we want you to go into France. I go into France, every sign in the world, stop, stop. And usually when you don't listen to those signs, they get louder and louder and louder. Stop, stop. And get to the border. And I try to use my cover of a modeling again. Next time they say, we need to check your vehicle. I'm like, this is new. They've never asked to check my vehicle. Open up the back. There's Congo drums, bro. I don't know what's in the Congo drums. But I feel like I'm. Yeah, they X ray the Congo drums. And you can see these little bricks inside. They open up the Congo drums and it's hollow. So they had to cut open the inside and they pull out these little yellow bricks one by one. I said, my life is over. I'm booking stuff with VH1. I've got acting gigs going. I got modeling gigs going. Everything is happening. And in the end, I have a one and a half year old daughter. At that time, in that moment, that's when it all caught up to me. What the did I just do? My life is over. Because in my head, prison is like prison that you see on Rikers Island. I'm like, yo, I'm gonna go to prison for a long time. So they put me in a holding cell for five days. And all they kept, they barely even fed me. So I'm sleeping on this hard concrete floor. It's freezing cold in there. They're giving me this little square of food, and I couldn't brush my teeth. And they just kept saying, who? Who is it? Who are you working for? Who? And the type of people I was working for. If I ever was a snitch, I wouldn't live right. And I have a daughter. So I took everything I said and I just. But I literally say, I don't know. So they showed me on surveillance cameras because they had been monitoring these people for years. They showed me a video of me on camera. They showed me a video of me on camera. And the guy, they said, that's you right there. I said, no, it's not. And I denied it. That's not me. And I don't know who that is. So you're going to go to prison for a long time. I was in that prison for a whole year before I got my first phone call. In America, you get your first phone call right away. So imagine one year. Most people thought I died.

They didn't know where you were at all?

No.

Wow.

But here's the deal. Because it's overseas, you write a letter, they got to decode everything in your writing. So it took two, two months for a letter to get to my mom. So I was working through the consulate, but was so wild. So I'm in there and I'm like, what did I do? And my life, like that movie Sixth Sense, when he didn't know he was dead the whole time, and then his whole life just flashed before his eyes. Every single crime I ever committed, every shady thing, every time I cheated On a test hit me when I went to prison. I'm like, my life is over. Everything. Everything is over. I'll never see my daughter again. So after a year, I was just kind of. Just kind of coasting, coasting, coasting, coasting, coasting. Finally started picking up books and everything. After a year, they sentenced me. This was in 2003, where they sentenced me to 2014. And in Europe, if you appeal, they see it as a sign of disrespect, and they'll give you more time.

They give you more time for appeals if you appeal.

Well, oh, yeah, they got a weird judicial judicial system out there. So I'm out there, and I'm just like, yo, my. I. I don't know what the I'm gonna do. Like, my life is over. So here I am. Then they played something on tv. They played Shawshank Redemption. We're allowed to watch it one once a month, watch a movie once.

So in prison, they're showing a movie of people breaking out of prison? Yeah, all the movies they give you. People breaking out of prison.

So we're watching Shawshank Redemption, and at this time, my life is over. And Tim Robbins says one phrase changed the game for me. He says, they can take anything they want away from me, but they can't take away my mind. Boom. Instantly, I was hit. I'm like, wait, I know exactly why I'm in prison. Because when I was out of prison free, I used to say, every day, I feel like I'm so far away from where I'm supposed to be. I feel like I'm in jail inside of my own body. I feel like I'm in a prison far away from where I'm supposed to be. And guess what I manifested.

You're in a prison far away from.

Where you're supposed to be in prison in Europe.

Yeah.

So I said, if I can put myself in prison.

Yep.

Well, then in this moment, I'm a free man. So when I said, I am a free man, I then started to think, what would I do in here that I wouldn't normally do out there? I stopped using my dominant hand. I start using my non dominant hand, which I didn't even realize was operating a different part of my brain. I started creating. I mean, I was reading book after book after book. I learned to speak fluent French. I joined an art class. I just started doing all these things and. And. And every time I was doing the stuff that I used to love when I was a little kid, it brought me so much joy and the, and the inmates were like, man, every time you sing, it makes me feel free. So I just kept singing. But it, it was like what brought me joy was getting out on other people. And I would paint and draw portraits of other people's families. They were crying and they're, they're like, man, thank you so much. Can I give you anything? I'm like, nah, man, I just want you to be happy. And so I became the kind of person which I now know was adding so much value. Then I started running. Nobody was running. All they were doing was like lifting weights and fighting, doing drug deals, stabbing and like that. Like, I really saw what happens when humans are suppressed. And then I just started running. A little voice says, start running. You love to run. Running used to make you feel free when you were a kid. 30 days, half the inmates running with me. Less fights, less drug deals, less stabbings. The warden brought me inside, man, ever since you've been running, this place has been peaceful. Keep doing great work. Remember what I told you, what I didn't get when I was a little kid, somebody acknowledging me for doing so I just kept going. And I became this person that people came to for advice. I'm like, yo, this is wild. Here's the deal. When I felt free, felt. It's a difference between, oh, I think I'm free, but when I embody the characteristics of freedom, which is ultimately doing everything that your heart wants you to express. Especially when it's been something I've. That made me happy when I was a kid, when I felt free. Out of nowhere, mind you, I'm serving a 12 year sentence. Out of nowhere, when I felt free. They just called me in the office and they said, today's your lucky day. We retested the drugs, which they had no reason to because they already tested them three times. It was 6.2 kilos of heroin. They had no reason to retest the drugs. Two and a half years later, retested the drugs. 90% was fake. For the amount that was real, you've already done the time. You're free to go home.

Shut up. So what you're telling me is when you were out of prison, before you went into prison, you were in a prison of your own mind when you were in. And that created you being in a prison. Eventually you've. Because I've been around you and you can tell, like your energy, your. You manifest stuff like if there's even people out there, just like, oh, yeah, I don't understand the word manifestation. Stuff like you're constantly manifesting stuff. You manifest yourself in a prison far away from where you should be. Then when you're in there, you start saying, I am a free man. I am a free man. And we can dive into, and I've talked about many times, the power of just the phrase I am. You said, I'm a free man. I'm a free man. And you started doing things. You said, okay, this got me into prison. Let me do the exact opposite of everything that I've ever done. And you started doing all of these things. You've lit up the little child that's inside of you. And because of that, it created the freedom. There was no reason why somebody should ever retest drugs two and a half years down the road and find out that it was 90% fake. And then you automatically just get out. Like, you were literally able to create yourself into prison. Then you're literally able to create yourself out of prison.

In losing my freedom, I discovered my freedom. So maybe the universe needed to remove all of the things I gave power to so that I can remember where the power belong inside of myself. But I was still unaware of all this stuff.

Yeah.

So you can still get results being unaware, but if you're unaware, you cannot articulate what's actually happening.

Yeah. Or use it, because you don't even know it's just happening.

So I'm doing stuff. I'm reading books, I'm being really kind. I'm motivating people, I'm drawing art and doing all this stuff. But while I'm in there, I wrote all these. Because when the mind is quiet, who you really are shows up. Your higher self literally starts speaking. Well, when you're in a prison, there's no women, distraction or traffic or anything like job or anything. And you just got a lot of time to yourself, man. I started, I. I read the Bible cover to cover three times. I read the Quran cover to cover three times. I'm like, oh, they're saying the same thing underneath. I'm like, but who really, from this word reads this and reads this. It was wild, bro. I was just feeding myself with information when I got out everything because it was like an overflow. If you, if I pour so much water inside of this and it reaches its tipping point, it's eventually going to spill over into the next container. Yeah, but if you pour so much inside of yourself, which is a container, it's eventually going to spill over into the next container. Called the physical equivalent of your life.

Yeah.

I unconsciously did that. So if you look at prison as if it were a woman's womb. My wife is 26 weeks. We're 26 weeks pregnant right now. So if you look at that prison as if it was a womb. I first added value to myself by doing everything that I love, not what everybody else wanted me to do, giving everybody else power over my life. I did everything that I loved. It was too big for the eye container, and it spilled over into the y' all container and spilled over into the people, and then they started doing stuff that they love, which was too big for the container. So that level of value and the overflow and overflow flow was too big for the womb of prison. So just like a baby, what once grew on the inside gets too big for the womb contractions, and then it's produced into the next realm called birth. I feel that my spirit body called the value and what I was adding was too big for that space. So what once grew on the inside was produced on the outside.

Yeah.

Called the birth of freedom. So I can articulate because I apply it now. I couldn't apply it back then. I'm just like, oh, man. I was praying and I was lucky and this thing happened. It's crazy, but I also wrote a bunch of songs while I was in there. I get out, go to Los Angeles. My brother, you know, he's. He's not blood brother, but that's my brother. His name is D. Ray Davis. Comedian, actor. He gave me a place to stay and he goes, so what are you gonna do while you're here? I was like, I'm be a singer. He's like, you'll be a singer. He's like, yeah. He was like, I give you rides anywhere you go. I buy you clothes, you get a free place to stay. The only thing is, don't come home unless you have a song. I'm like, well, I don't know any producers. He was like, you'll be a singer, right? Like, yeah. Don't come home unless you have a song. That started my introduction to MySpace. I knew nothing about MySpace. And I'm like, talking to people on the Internet. Weird. So I put on my half naked body and I was like, a singer with no music. I'm, like, looking to record songs. I messaged a thousand. Because this was before Spain. I message a thousand people looking for recording. And I'm just going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. Because all I'm trying to do is sleep.

Yeah.

30 days. I had 28 songs because I met one guy who got me in the studio. I recorded one song, I put that one song on there. And then I just kept going. And I was just like, look, I got this song, I got this song I'm trying to record. 30 days I had 28 songs. Two days I didn't have a place to sleep. 30 days, I had 28 songs. He was the host of the Improv inside of la. Typically he. He puts comedians on stage. This time he's like, oh, my little brother, he's a singer. I'm like, ludacris was there. Like mad people was like there. Yeah, mad celebrities. They come every Monday. Put me on stage, I sang. Ludacris walks on me, walks over to me. And he was like, you got a demo? 28 songs I got.

Yeah.

Two months later, I had a $500,000 record deal by DTP Def Jam. See how that works? The songs that I wrote while I was in prison were the songs that were on the demo, songs I got signed with. So here I am, I'm like, yo, this is crazy. I got me a little sign. I didn't get all the money because I had to release the album. But I never released the album. But I released songs. I was in studio writing with two chains and Chingy and, and. And Luda and all them. I'm like, yo, this is wild. So I'm in the studio experiencing all this stuff. We put out a song called Celebrity Chick where I wasn't originally supposed to. I was just writing the song for somebody else to sing. It wasn't even my style of music, but got us on TRL and MTV and BET and things like that. So we're performing this song and it just wasn't my style. And then I felt myself doing a bunch of music that wasn't my style. And I gave my power away to everyone else who wanted me to show up how they thought I should show up. Yeah, no amount of money could keep me in any environment if I can't be authentically myself. So I ended up leaving the label and people called me. They're like, yo, what? People go crazy for an opportunity like this? I said, but at the expense of me not being myself. I'm not putting out this image. I'm not. I don't want to be on. You know, Yes, I do have a past where I rolled around with gang bangers and where I rolled around with hardcore people, but I'm. That's not. That's not me. Like, I love people. I wear fun colors. I'M very expressive person and things like that. Like, my style of music doesn't have no business being on stage with, you know, the. The style of music that I was on stage. This makes no sense. It's not even my core audience. So I was losing myself. So I left, got called crazy. And when I left, I also left $400,000 on the table because I never put out the album. Well, I spent all the money that I had bought me a Jeep Wrangler, cash. Spent, spent, spent. Because I still didn't know anything about money. I'm like, man, this seems familiar. I was like, well, at least I got myself. And then the hype died down. The underground buzz died down. And at that time, I was going by my middle name, Steph Jones. Stefan is my middle name, but that was my stage name. And I was like, man, I gotta do something different. And I was like, but all I have is my car. So I stayed in my car. No money was coming in. Even the songs that I wrote for other people, sometimes they don't get placed four or five years later, right? I'm getting checks right now. Last year, I got like $23,000 out of nowhere for a song that I wrote 12 years ago. I'm like, God damn, I could have used this back then.

Yeah.

But when the no money was coming in, my girlfriend had broken up with me because I couldn't get my life together. The hype died down. Daughter pretty much disowned me because I couldn't get my life together. Mom was dying in the hospital, family was overweight. I started going in debt. I didn't pay taxes for 10 years, but they can't get you past seven. So I owed $250,000 to the government. Super negative. Try to kill myself twice. And it just kept going. So just as fast. The velocity, that level of energy that went that I had when I was a little kid, just as fast as it went up was just as fast as it went down with, like three elephants chained to my soul. Eight tons. I mean, rocket ship fast. So the weight. I started putting on this weight, started getting depressed, didn't have a place to stay. Too shameful to even go back home. Because I told people if I ever come back home, that means I quit at life. So I was too shameful to go back home. But my mom, without money, was still giving me money. And I'm 30 something years old, can't take care of my daughter, take. Can't take care of myself. I'm like, what's the point? In living. And I'm extremely talented. Trying to figure out why all of these people that are less talented are achieving this big quality of life that I know I'm supposed to have. And so I keep trying, keep trying. And. And I don't have a place to stay. So I go from my car to sleep in different girls houses. But at the. Eventually, I mean, sex is good, but like, golly, man, there's a point where I'm like, I don't even want to have sex no more because I don't love myself. I hate myself. I want to die. It makes no sense to be alive to have all of this talent and to have no life. And then my friend put a bullet into his head. Who had all the cars, all the models, all the money. He had everything. So I thought, but himself. Now I'm like, so maybe my take on success. Should be reframed. Because what I thought was success in the pinnacle. My friend just put a bullet into his head. And I've been surrounded by success since, like massively successful people since 1999. So I've seen it. I've seen it in many different industries. What it's like when you get a lot of money. What it's like when you lose a lot of money. What it's like when you get a lot of money and you grow it. What it's like when you get a lot of money and sustain it. And I had all these different characters in my past and I'm like, man, I got to do something different. So going into this, living in my car, still going down. I don't know how to come back. I don't know. Just like right now, I don't know how to go down. Yeah, because we. It's. It's wide open, up and out and bigger and better. I didn't know how to come back. It was too. The world was too heavy. So I'm living in my car. One, one day, turn into a week, turn into three weeks, turn into a month, turn it to two and a half years. Close to two and a half years. Living in my car. 200,000, $250,000 in debt. Girlfriend broke up with me. This is while I'm in my car. Final straw. I'm in the studio with an A list artist writing for his album. Won't name his name. I'm like, this is my big break. Because I know this song is gonna go. I come up with the melody, I come up with lyrics, and I'm calling the their publisher. It's like, how Many points do I get? They're like, oh, they changed the song. The song comes out and it's the exact same song. It didn't change nothing about the song. And that song went number one and it got a Grammy. While I'm living in my car and.

This person is still an A list celebrity because I know who it is. And so it's not like someone that's small, but you're looking at every once again everybody else with less talent succeeding and you're not.

Yeah, that was the final straw. And I say, you know what? Music, the industry, all those people, myself, that's when it was. I went dark because I was still living in my car. Nobody knew it because I could fake it. I could fake it easy. I could put on any face you want me to put on. Come from acting and modeling industry in la. So it came point where I couldn't fake it no more. And then that's what turned into the weight. That's what turned into the stress and depression and, and no relationships. My mom's still sending me money through Western Union and I know she don't have no money. I'm like, man. And I'm 32 years old, a man who can't take care of himself. 14 traffic tickets, they. I'm going to the courthouse to pay them off because somehow, like, God, send me a sign. Somebody sent me a. What do you call it? A anonymous paypal for like 1500 bucks. I believe in you. Keep going.

You still have no idea who that is to this day.

I mean, the way my spirit works, I know where it came from.

Yeah.

However I believe in you. Keep going. Fifteen hundred dollars PayPal. I took this money and I was going to the courthouse to pay off all these tickets. One block away from the courthouse, a cop stops me. I got my bags because I'm living out of my car. I got my bags, all these white trash bags in the back of my car. Cop stops me. I already know because I, I didn't have any money for child support. So I had, they, they suspended my license. The, my registration was past due. So there was all kind of stuff just. But I was going to go pay it all off at the courthouse and I was like, please don't take my car. I live out of my car. I got this money right now. I'm one block away from the courthouse, like, please don't take my car. He wrote me a ticket. They took my car and the cop just. And I was in a Denny's parking lot. I can't do this no more. I can't do it no more. So my mom once again sent me a Western Union. And I said, one day I'm gonna pay her back one day. I said, promise, Mom. I said, mom, I promise I'm gonna pay you back. And I know she don't have it. That night I got my car back out of the impound. It was 3:43 in the morning the night before, I mean the before that night. So I got my car out of the impound, I got it back, I went to LA Fitness because I always had my member membership at LA Fitness that, because that's where I would like shower and stuff like that. Parked it right at the front, came out, somebody broke into my car. The day I got my car at the impound, somebody broke into my car, stole my computer. And I was like, man, I cannot win for anything. And I just remember saying, can it get any worse? And in that moment I was like, maybe I should stop saying can it get any worse? So that night I put the scotch tape and a T shirt on the right side of my car. And I used to sleep in my car in on the corner of La Brea and Hollywood at the male and more in the male and more Parking. Parking lot. And I would face. Because it was like a. I felt more safe in that place. 3:43 in the morning, August 2011, that's when I had. That was the moment. That's what set up all of this. 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. And 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. Show me a sign. One week later, I'm at a gas station and a homeless guy comes up to me asking me for money. And I say, you have more money than me. And the homeless guy said, change your mindset, change your life. And in that moment right there, that six sense moments where your whole life flashed before your eyes, I had a conscious interruption and I thought about everything. The prison, the modeling, the acting, the life, growing up. Change your mind. So if my mind is set on something, then that's why the result is what it is. So if I do different with the same circumstance, my life will change. Change your mindset, change your life. And I just kept on, you know, if you play a song Long enough, you'll be singing the song. Your subconscious mind will have you singing that song for the whole month. My new song was Change your mindset, change your life. Change your mindset. Change your life. Change your mindset. I will walk up to some a set of escalators. Change your mindset, change your life. So I take the stairs. I normally use gel soap. Change your mindset, change your life. I use bar soap. Normally I wake up late. Change your mindset, change your life. I would practice waking up early. I would come from a family that doesn't know anything about healthy, active lifestyle or eating nutritious. Change of mindset, change your life. Let me go find some people who are doing it. Let me surround myself around healthy, active lifestyle, community. Let me go stop chasing women at a club. Let me go chase a better version of myself. Everything was on the other side of something I would never do in areas of my life where I wasn't happy. And I just kept going and I kept going. Well, at one of these leadership seminars, a guy on stage said, when you find a good book, keep reading it, because when you stop reading it, things from your past start creep. I'm like, that's what happened. The rise and fall from the acting, the highest, the modeling, the music. And I'm like, the ego. The ego creeped in. I allowed the ego to creep in. Because I didn't choose to keep learning, choose to keep growing. I didn't choose to surround myself around positive people who are up to something. And it's. I made it all about me. And in that moment, I became less me, more we. But in order to get to we, you gotta. You gotta be a we kind of person. So I picked up the book power of positive thinking again. And I kept reading, kept reading, kept reading. And then I was around a healthy, active lifestyle community. Well, they were talking about goals and dreams and retiring their parents and. And all these different things. And I was. But by nature, I just started doing everything that they were doing. I dropped 35 pounds, put on 19 pounds of muscle, took my body fat from 16.4% down to 6%. I. But at age 32, I didn't even think that you could do that then. So just because my energy, I thought it was gone, but I was around an incredible community of people.

You speak in a new language. What you were doing.

I was learning a new language.

Learning a new language. You went from Spain and you decided to go to Germany and now you're learning German just by being around the state.

I learned French to Speak fluently. Not Rosetta Stone at Starbucks once a week, one hour a week. I was actually in France amongst the French, the only American there was. I'm a little rusty now because I don't speak it every day, but I can, I can, I understand everything. So by be, by, by way of proximity, being around the people, being around the fire, I got warm and I still have that same energy. I finally knew where to put it. I said before, energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only be transferred. So I transferred into reading books, I transferred into leadership, I transferred into building people up. I transferred into learning and understanding about money. I'm like, oh, that's why I kept losing it. Same reason why 99 of the people who win the lottery lose it, because they're not operating on the same frequency as the level of money that they got. So the money is coming back to meet them at their level of self development and the value in which, which they see themselves. So once I was aware of all these things, I then went back to all these benchmarks in my life and started connecting the dots and seeing what were the commonalities and seeing why this happened. And that's what I decided to even put into my book, which was the journey, the lessons, what I extracted, how you can place it in your life. What I didn't know was that by posting this online, my very first message was going to come from somebody who says, by you sharing your real, your authentic testimony. I put the gun down five messages later, after you. Because I shared my testimony about me living in my car. And I just completely opened it up by you sharing your testimony. I didn't drive my car off a bridge. I knew what my mission was and I knew what my purpose was. It was to be an example of what true freedom looks like. Thank you, Uncle Dwayne, for expressing what free looks like. This is for my uncle Dwayne. He taught me. I just didn't know that that expression was going to be something that could be an example for the voiceless, because I was the voiceless until I spoke, until I shared my vulnerability to shared my story. And then people started, man, I want to pay you to come to this school. You want to come to this prison, you want to come to this jail, you want to come speak to these teens? You want to come like, you want to be on this panel? You want to go and do this? I'm like, yo. And I'm like, yo, I'm. I don't have no manager, I don't have no pr. But I'm able to pay this rent and I'm making these thousands of dollars, and I'm not even looking for the money. Like, if money is great. However, it seems that the more people that I am impacting, the dollar amount is matching. It's like the bigger the message, the bigger the platform, bigger the outcome. So I start paying attention to patterns. Because I have these significant things that occurred in my life, I can always pull them to the forefront. When I start noticing certain things happen in my life, I'm like. And I can easily go like that. Because the thing about it is weeds don't need anything to grow but time. So no matter how well you keep up your garden, you leave it for there long enough, you know it'll be time. You can brush your teeth for 60 years every day. Stop brushing your teeth for 5 days, the infections will grow. Take a shower every day. 60 years, don't take a shower. So you don't can keep renewing your mind. Stop for five days. Stinky mind, stinky life, stinky outcome. So then I started learning about business because it's transferring the energy, but still the same power, same velocity. Whenever I get into something, I don't know how to kind of do it. I didn't know how to be a kind of criminal. I didn't know how to kind of break into those cards when I was a little kid. When I go into something, I go hard. I go all the way in. I went all the way in with my relationship with my wife like that some. I'm an all the way in kind of guy. Do y' all get anything from this? All the way in will always produce vastness of results, regardless if it's negative or positive. And it just keeps growing. Then I moved to Austin. Being surrounded by guys like you and other businessmen that are doing things that I'm not, but I'm also doing things that they're not. And we're all iron sharpens, iron, building people up. And this is the next cut. This is the next cut in investments and in business and everything. However, my sweet spot is sharing my story, being vulnerable and telling everybody that you can create a different outcome for your life. And depending on how many people you impact, there will always be a blessing on the other side, for sure.

Yeah, you're the. You're the. The perfect example of your message. Your message. Yeah, right. You just share your. And people go, oh, me too. And that's what you were put here to do.

Yes.

And you've. In so many people, it's like the phrase, you know, Jim Carrey says your need to fit in in this world and make you invisible. You know, so many people just want to fit in and just want to fit in. Kind of like you were saying when you went to the modeling, you wanted to fit in, but they weren't looking for somebody fit in because they already had that role played. And you got the modeling. The one thing that I, that I we. And it's. There's two things actually. Number one, you're the perfect example of. I mean, Tony Robbins says you underestimate what you can do in a year, but people underestimate, overestimate what they could do in a year, but underestimate what they can do in a decade. If you think about about a decade ago, you were sleeping inside of a Jeep Wrangler, getting it taken away, and now you have a multi million dollar house that you live in. It's a decade. And so people don't, don't think about just putting in the time and putting in the time just knowing that if it's in the right direction, eventually going to get to wherever they want to go. It's just a direction. All you do is course correct. That's all you did. Right. That's the first thing. The second thing is being around you. And the thing that I found that's the most obvious is more than most people that I've ever been around. You're so good at bringing out your inner child in no sort of way being ashamed of it. Right. Like people are ashamed of like the things that we love about being a kid. And you talk about even being in prison, you, you discovered the things that you used to love when you were a kid and that got you out of prison. It also is still continuing to get you paychecks from the songs that you wrote when you were in prison. Right. So it's like you discover this little inner kid. Talk to me about like how that was for you, that discovery and then also to just step into it and not be afraid of other people's judgment and just go, this is me, this is my soul, this is who I truly am. And I'm just gonna put it out there for everybody to see. So because you are a 41, about to be 42 year old little kid. Yeah. You are.

Yeah, 100%. People see all this stuff that I've been able to create and they're just like, man, how do you just like do it? And you always have endless amount of energy. I was like, well, what you see is this 41 year old. But what's happening? When I was a little kid, I said I wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to have abs like an action figure. I'll be stronger than the average man. I want to save people's lives. I'm doing what I wanted to do when I was five. The modality doesn't matter. Give me any platform if it has to do with what I always wanted to do. You ever notice a kid, they don't run out of energy. So when you're operating from the essence of your heart, there's like secret jewels there. So how I discovered this, it's very interesting, actually. I'm gonna just take everybody through this. Like, I'm gonna get you to answer your own question. Imagine a little kid, your parent, a little kid is coming up to you going, mom, mom, mom, dad, dad, dad, mom, dad, dad, dad. And you ignore that kid for 20 years. What do you think the relationship is gonna be? Be like? It can be good because there's no emotional closure. If the water, if the flower doesn't get proper water and sunlight, that's the nutrients it needs for growth. So when the child is not acknowledged, it starts to. It starts to. It turns to quiet, then mean, then anger, then rage. Then there is. It's like invisible, if you understand that. Now imagine anytime you get a hint for an idea, somebody should create that. Or, man, I. I wanted to do this thing right here and. Or something that used to bring you so much joy when you were a little kid. Like, playing in the rain, swimming, drumming, dancing. Don't think about business in this sense right here, but something that you just absolutely loved. Okay, when was the last time you did it? Now, someone, a lady that I spoke to, she was like, oh, I haven't danced. And I just feel like something is missing. I have the job, I have the money, but something is missing. I was like, what did you love when you were like, around five or six years old and her whole body, she was like, I used to love to dance, and I don't know. And it just brought me so much joy. And I was like, when was the last time you danced? She was like, about 20 years ago. I said, so imagine dance was a spiritual child. Like, it was. It's an expression of you that is connected to your inner child. And every day that goes by is going, mom, mom, mom, mom, dad, dad, dad. Imagine if you ignored that child for 20 years. What do you think the relationship would be like? I feel like something is missing. And she goes, I said, ding, ding, Ding, ding, ding. You just found yourself. Because we're not just this physical body in this meat suit skin. There's actually a spirit. I feel there's a soul inside of here. There's got to be some reason why I'm going like this. And we can conjure up our stories and things that's coming from somewhere. Well, when it feels dead, when it feels lost, and I've been there before, so I can speak on my personal experience, it feels dead, it's lost. What's missing is the connection to your spirit. So when you actually honor those things, the little kid is like, ah, let me show you more. You tell little Johnny, Johnny, you're so fast. Then he starts running faster. So if I can get people to understand that what they're looking for, they already have the ideas. The creativity comes from the kids. That's why they're so creative from ages 1 through 7, then gets diminished as they get older. But if you tap into it, I feel like it's connected to your spiritual umbilical cord that's a straight route from heaven. So that in itself right there, if people got that right there, they would experience a drastic shift in any relationship, in relationship to money, in relationship to creativity, their job and anything. And you know, you got a lot of people that are successful, but there are a lot of people who are successful and not happy that over compensate for sure to distract from an area that they've ignored since they were a little kid. So what did I do when I was in prison? I started running. My mom says I started walking when I was 11 and a half months. And it takes. It takes almost seven and a half months and it takes babies like 11 something to. To do something. She was like you. She was like, you're a full blown running before. Most babies are walking. So running's always been inside of me. Always. So when I started running in prison, I was increasing my joy. So funny. Joy to the world. The Lord had come. So it's like I bring the joy to the world. And it seems like my world is an expression of the joy. So teaching people how to honor their inner child only gets them to remember themselves. And when you remember yourself to the core, you don't have to try to be happy. You have to look for happiness. You don't have to look for love because it's. It's an expression of who you are. And then you'll attract people to the way that you see yourself. Mm.

So what you're saying is what everyone's searching for the Money, the cars, the happiness, the acceptance is what they think they want. What they truly want is just to.

Find themselves a sense of fulfillment, which they are the captain of. Stuff on the top.

Look.

Look at me. Look underneath, bro. It's all the same. It's all the same. I just really need a man to make me happy. I really need this job to make me happy. I really need this money to make me happy. Then you get the. You realize that's not what you wanted. Happens over and over and over and over and over. So that's why I had to redefine what I felt like wealth and success was. My version of wealth and success is to live a life of grace, joy, and ease. And when I go to sleep at night, no voices. It's peaceful and it's calm. And when I look in the mirror and the truth shows up and nobody else is around, I love what I see. That my version of success, sticking to that one. But that one won't put a bullet into his brain.

I don't know if there's a better way to end the episode than that. So, everybody, just so you know, Gary, we were talking about this beautiful book that he has. It's called Change youe Mindset, Change youe Life, and also has a new podcast.

Yeah, so tell us about that. You helped me with it. Rob helped me. Is to live a life of grace, joy, and ease. And when I go to sleep at night, no voices. It's peaceful and it's calm. And when I look in the mirror and the truth shows up and nobody else is around, I love what I see. That my version of success, sticking to that one, because that one won't put a bullet into his brain.

I don't know if there's a better way to end an episode than that. So everybody, just so you know, Gary, and we were talking about this beautiful book that he has. It's called Change youe Mindset, Change youe Life, and also has a new podcast.

Yeah. So tell us. You helped me with it, Rob. He helped me with it. So my podcast is called welcome Home with Garon Jones, and it's everywhere where podcasts are, and we have a few episodes up right now. By the time y' all hear this, there's gonna be a lot more. But I'm basically just talking about insights and awarenesses that I've either learned applied experience just for people to have, you know, things that are real from real people. And, you know, I call it welcome Home because, like, when you really find yourself, you realize that Home is not the home until you find home in yourself. So reminding people of who they are by giving them tools and ways to have these insights, to discover their own version of freedom and love inside of themselves. These are things that I talk about. And my book is in English and Spanish and paperback. And we're currently working on the audiobook now on Amazon. And, you know, I didn't write this huge esoteric book. This is my personal experience. Talk about God, talk about spirit, talk about, you know, I got in trouble for. There's, you know, I extract a lot of lessons and I didn't write it to the level of my knowledge. I wrote it for people who typically don't read books at all. So it's a very simple read. Very simple. You can finish it in a day. Very simple. There's some pictures in there, big words, and I made the chapter short. However, the spirit at which it was written was designed specifically for you to remember yourself.

Love it.

Yeah.

Got one more question for you that I ask. So I don't know if you've ever heard the phrase, they say you die twice. The first one is the first time. The first time is when you stop breathing. The second time is the last time someone says your name.

Yeah.

In between those two deaths, what do you hope people say about you after you're gone before the last time they speak about you again?

Say that one more time. Can you say that one more time in a different way?

So they say you die twice.

Okay.

First time is when you stop breathing. Second time is the last time someone says your name. What do you hope people say about you in between that last time they speak your name and the time that you died?

The thing about it is people aren't going. I live my life in such a way that people will never stop saying my name. People still talk about Benjamin Franklin. He been gone. My dad died when I was 12, but he's still alive because I carry on his message of being able to love no matter what. And that's something he gave to me when I was five. So my dad's still alive because soul, a soul lives inside of messages. Like our ancestors are still alive. Just like those trees. If one of those trees fall the roots and somehow there'll be an integration. Somehow. So I. There is like the physical death, but I don't believe in the kind of death where they're gonna say, that would be the last time they say my name. So I'm living my life and making and working towards making the kind of impact. Well, they'll mention my name with the greats because of the impact that I chose to leave while I was physically on this earth, but my soul will forever live.

Darren Jones, appreciate you, man.

Yes, sir.

Good stuff. Thank you for being here. For everyone who's listening to the podcast has no clue what the is going on right now.

Yeah. So basically he has these microphones that stretch out. They look like alien arms. One of them's in my face. One of them in his face. We're sitting three feet apart and I reached over with my right hand. He's reached over with his right hand and we're stretching like this. So if you're visual learners, you're just going to have to miss it.

You're going to have to go to YouTube and look it up.

Yeah.

You have to do. Gary, appreciate you, man.

Appreciate you, too. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing in the world and giving stories and stories like mine. Wings to fly.

Yeah. Appreciate you.

Yes, sir.

Hey, thanks so much for watching this video. If you want to learn even more about mastering your mind, thanks. Click right here and watch this video as well. That was the experience that changed the trajectory of my life forever. I stayed up all night writing and just kind of re evaluating everything that I thought about the world. Yeah.