086: How to Overcome Abuse and Shift Your Perspective with Jason Sisneros

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst, learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. As a child, Jason Cisneros was abused terribly by his adoptive dad. He lived in constant fear of his dad's abuse to him and his mom. He learned early not to trust others, that he was not safe, and that only he himself would look out for his life. Years later, Jason has healed through changing his perspective on what happened to him and looks at it now as incidents that happen for him today. Jason, AKA the Bald Avenger, is a public speaker, comedian, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. His life has taken him around the world, speaking on over 3,000 stages, consulting with hundreds of business owners, and supporting charities across the globe. He is passionate about feeding the hungry, helping survivors of domestic violence and recovering girls from sex trafficking. Join in today and learn exactly how Jason Cisneros levels up and created everything from nothing. Today I'm leveling up. I've got Jason Cisneros, and I'm so excited to talk with him today because not only is he a comedian for cause, he's a successful entrepreneur, a very successful entrepreneur, but he has a passion for helping sex trafficking, feeding people, and domestic violence. So I am dying to talk with you today because so many things behind your name, you're known as the Bald Avenger everywhere. And I want to know about that. I want to know how you became who you were today, because I'm assuming this is not always who you were, Jason. So thanks for being here.

Absolutely.

It's my pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me on.

So, my gosh, where do we even start? So many questions for you. I mean, let's first take us back. Like, who were you years ago if I had met you years ago?

Well, you know, the short version. And I, you know, thanks for having me on your show because really, a lot of the work that I'm doing is about getting a message out so that people can improve their lives. And your show is all about that.

Okay.

And so I talk about my story, but it's always for people to see themselves in it.

Right.

One of the things that I've learned along the way is that everybody's got challenges Right. And I think that the education of your show, what it is, is to say, how do. Great, that's your story. But how does it apply or impact me? And so mine started out kind of in a weird way. I was adopted when I was really young. My mom married a guy who was a bad guy and he was very abusive. I started stepping in front of him between him and my mom when I was about six years old.

Wow.

He broke my nose from then until I was 17 probably, you know, 12, 14 times. And. And then he went to prison when I was 17 for attempted murder of me and my mom. Whoa. And by that, by that time, you.

Were, you were pretty much growing up scared from six to seven.

Yeah, it was constantly, it was constantly in a state of fear. You know, I was talking to a friend of mine just the other day, we were talking through some stuff that he was going through and I, and I remembered back that I would always, I would always could tell because my ears were always open. I'm a very light sleeper.

Okay.

Because he would come in and I could tell by the gate right when he was walking down a hallway or, or whatever, if he was walking quickly, I knew he was pissed off he was going to come in my room. I knew if he was stumbling that he was going to be coming in my room because he was drunk or on drugs. And so I've learned to listen to people and you know, their approach almost to know almost what the situation is going to be ahead of time. So yeah, it was a lot of fear because I would be, you know, I would wake up and I'd be laying in bed. Imagine that as a 7, 8, 9 year old kid.

I can't even lay in there and.

You just, you know, full on grown man blasting you in the face with a fist. It's. Yeah, some fear.

Where was your mom through all this? Was she, does she know what was going on? Did she ignore it? Was she helping you? What was happening?

Yeah, she, she not only knew it was going on, I mean, she, she tried several things. This is why I'm so passionate about domestic violence and the idea that everybody's like, well, if somebody's beating you, you just leave, you know, and, and it's not that simple.

Totally.

You're, you're almost. Not even almost. You're legitimately a prisoner in your own home. And there's psychological damage that's done by, by men that they separate you from everything. You know, everyone, you know, you're pretty soon your friends aren't good enough to hang out with anymore. You can't. You move you. They move you away from your family.

Yeah.

And so you're. You're stuck. And now she's got kids. And that was our situation. My mom tried to leave several times. He would hold our, you know, other members of our family at gunpoint until we would come back, you know, there. And if she. She would kid, like, she tried to get away one time, he ended up kidnapping me and leaving and threatening to kill me. So. So, yeah, she knew. And we kind of all suffered through it silently for a long time.

Wow. What did you make up about your family, your mom, your. You. You yourself living that way as a kid?

Well, I think that back then, you know, I'm 47 years old now, and one of the things that was. It was way more common and way more accepted.

Right.

I remember one time we were. My mom was running. We had this little red Volkswagen Bug, and my adopted father, who I thought was my dad this whole time, by the way. And So I was 17, let me know I thought he was my real dad.

Wow.

I did. And so we were running to the police station, and we got just about there. I remember seeing it. And then he came up in the truck on the side of us and rammed us. And we flipped over three or four times. Whoa. And we landed, literally came to rest on the police station grass. And I remember the police all coming rushing out. And the first question that was asked when my mom got out, bleeding out of her nose, it was one of the first times my nose got broken. And so I'm stumbling out. And the first thing I remember, it's burned into my memory, was the police officer asking, what did you do to piss him off?

Whoa.

Right.

And so that's why I'm such a huge advocate these days of women, is that, you know, obviously, you know, there's. There's kind of tipping points, right, with the Me Too movement and all this other stuff, which is, I think, is wonderful. I think in some areas, it's gone too far. But ultimately that when you're in that position, right. The three things that you mentioned, undercover rescues and feeding people and then domestic violence. I operate in an area of charity where it's not the person's choice. Right. That's. That's where a lot of times, like when you get into drugs and alcohol and that kind of stuff, whether it's a choice or it's not, I don't want to get into that debate, but I feel like it's more of a choice, right. When You're a prisoner in your own home, in domestic violence, when you're a boy or a little girl that's been kidnapped and you're being held against your will, when you're starving, when you're an underage kid in Africa or here in America or in India, it's not a choice. And so I fight really hard for those people that don't have choice to give them better choices, better options.

It's so, it's so sad to me that, you know, here we talk about a lot about not having victim mentality and being responsible, but then there's such a disconnect because, like, for that to have happened to you in that accident and then the cops to say, what did you do to piss them off? Like that just keeps reinforcing that it does.

And you know, and luckily, I mean, again, I'm so glad for all the women's advocates and all the stuff that's happened out there, because it had. It's a much better environment today. It's not perfect, but it's way better than it used to be. And you know, back in those days it was different. And, you know, and so we got out of that scenario and I just never trusted the police after that. And my mom, very seldom did she run because where are you going to go if there's no authority? What are you going to do?

You just kind of feel, I say, so what did your. Did you leave this man at this point?

So when he. So what happened was we got. We ran into some amazing police officers. We ran into a great judge. And you know, because at this point when he was attempted murder, he tried to blow up the house that we were in, that we were, that we lived in. And it was big news in the, in that area for a little bit. But what happened was after that, all of that stuff in the past kind of caught up and the police and the prosecutor and the judge all cooperated to say, this guy's a menace to society. Not just with my family, but the things that he did in the other world. In the other world.

Did you say he tried to blow up the house?

Yeah, he. So he nailed shut all of the windows and, and, and then he cut the pipes, the gas pipes, and then he set any entry into the home he set with a flint so that if we walk through any of those doors and just by the grace of God, there was there. I went on a couple of week drunk at the time. I was not, you know, back then, I was, I was doing what I knew right which was. I was dealing drugs. I was. I was collecting money. Sure.

You want. You, like, escape how you're feeling?

Yeah. And my mom just happened to not come home for a couple of weeks, and the neighbors reported the smell of gas. And so what they did was they broke open some of the windows, they let it air out, and then they went in and they saw this whole contraption, how it had been set up, and.

Oh, my gosh.

So, yeah, if I would have walked in the house, my mom would have walked in the house, we would. We would be dead.

Okay. So. So a couple. A couple of things coming up for me. So if he was your biological father, which you believed he was there. There's a theme with children wanting to please their dad, no matter how bad they are. Did you struggle with that? Like, where were you looking for his love? Was he ever. Was there ever that good sides of him that you gave you that hope to. That was that. Tell me about a little bit about that.

Well, in my 30s. It's an interesting question. Into my 30s, I struggled with it and how it. How it showed up in my life was. Again, I thought he was my real dad. My mom went. The night that he got sentenced, she and I went out to dinner, and she said, oh, by the way, he's not your real dad. And I was like, man, that, like, it freaked me out. I was like, well, why didn't you tell me?

Yeah.

She said, jason, I know you. You would have killed him. And I. He'd be dead and you'd be in jail. And I thought, that's, like. That's true. Yeah. Because what. Because I thought he was my biological father.

Yeah.

I. Then I never raised my hands to him. I just got in front of him and my mom.

Was he ever a true father figure to you?

You know, again, he was my dad. Like that as far as you don't know any different. So, yes, he was. But what. But what I did do, and that stuck with me for a very, very long time, was part of the pleasing.

Right.

Was I knew the things to say to keep me or my mom or from angering him or to keep me from getting beat. I would. I would tell lies all the time, you know, and they were stupid. Like, I learned how to lie about stupid things because I didn't want to anger anybody into my 30s.

You want to keep the peace?

I want to get the peace. My. My ex wife would ask me, hey, you know, she called me at work, and I'd be like, I'm on my way. When I'm not on my way, like stupid things, right. And I had to deal with that later on in life because, you know, I want to. One of the great things about having him as a father was that I grew when I was a kid and I would be locked in my room. I had a Bible that I would read and stuff like that because my face would need to heal and all that good stuff. But I learned very early that I didn't want to be like him.

Right.

So had the opposite effect. And then I ran into a fourth grade teacher who taught me. She knew what I was going through and she said, jason, learn to use words and write stories that transport you.

Right.

If you could develop the perfect world for yourself, if you could imagine a better world, if you could, you know, if you could write stories that would, that would inspire people and that kind of stuff. So I became a writer in fourth grade and words became my escape. I was able to draw, you know, draw stories in my brain and be able to come up with different worlds. And so language has been such a powerful tool for me as I've had to deal with the ramifications of growing up like that.

Yeah. Now, did you as a kid? Because I know a lot of kids when they're abused, they. They think that they've done something wrong. Did you feel that or did you always know it was him?

That's, you know, it's constantly, you're wondering. I remember, I remember writing him a letter one day. And I've never told the story before, but I remember writing a letter and just saying, you know, I know that I'm disappointing as a son. I know I'm like all this kind of stuff and, you know, I just want you to know that I love you and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And that was when I was really young, when I, you know, fifth, sixth grade, maybe.

Yeah.

And. And so it builds up in you this idea that if your own dad doesn't love you, then who will?

Right.

And did he acknowledge that letter or was it just never.

It never was. It was never addressed. And, you know, and part of the thing that people struggle with is that we're running around with a primary question. They teach this in psychology, right? We're running around with a primary question in our head most of the time. It was embedded in us at a time of high levels of intensity, both emotion wise and physiologically. And I remember the day, you know, I was, I was getting in. I was. I'm white skinned, right? But I'm Hispanic. I found out later that I'm Spanish.

Okay.

And. And so my. This is my real last name, Cisneros. My real last name. And. And I found my real father. And that's a whole other story.

But.

But the. The idea was, is that back then we moved into this town, it was highly Hispanic, and I would get beat up by this. This Mexican gang quite consistently. And I asked my dad one day, I said, can you just come pick me up after school so that I can walk straight to the truck and not get.

Yeah.

And so all day, I was so happy that he was going to be there. And then I come out of the school and I see, you know, you've got the bus lane. And then across the street, I saw my. My adopted father. And I saw him, and I was, like, so happy. So I started walking. And then across, you know, they crossed off my path. The little gang that would jump me crossed off my path and beat the crap out of me worse that day. And he didn't get out and help me.

Wow.

I get in the truck and I'm, you know, and we're driving out to the house, and we get to this stoplight, and I remember it like it was just stop sign, and on the other side of it was a T in the road, and on the other side of it was an abandoned house. You go left to go to our house, right to go back into town. So we were sitting there, he had the blinker on, and I looked over at him and I said, why didn't you help me? And no sooner had the words fallen off my lips than his fist hit me in the side of the face. My head hit the window and blew the window out the side. And it was in that moment that I started. That started the primary question of my life, which is, how do I protect myself? This guy is never going to do it.

You can't trust your.

You nailed it. How do you roll that forward into a life of somebody that's that young and doesn't know that that's their primary question? I had no idea until later on when I was doing the work, trying to figure out, you know, how I wanted to live my life, that that primary question then caused me not to trust the women in my life, trust not to trust the business people in my life. It built a whole life of distrust.

A whole lot. I would imagine that because you have this pattern of, no, no. How could even your mom, even though you knew she couldn't defend herself, like, she's your mom, so you're thinking like, no one's protecting me.

Exactly. And I knew she, she was, you know, basically powerless against him. And, and so the powerful part of that was what I learned later on in life, that our habits are a series of physiology focused language and emotion.

Right.

Okay.

And they build these things in our brain. I have had on my show and a couple of really good friends that are neuroscientists that talk about the fact that those become neural net pathways in our brain. In other words, the information goes in, it goes down a pattern, it tells us how to react to it. And that's habits. It's like brushing your teeth.

Yeah.

And so my automatic response to anybody new in my life was to distrust them. And so what I did was when I learned that I came up with a formula of my own that said I want to change that primary question consciously.

Right.

And so I picked, I said, I want to be a powerful world changer that enjoys every breath.

Right.

That was what I did. And I would run and I would scream it at the top of my lungs because I wanted to anchor it in. A lot of people tell you that you can break a habit in 21 days or whatever the hell it is. That's all bullshit. What really happens is that you have to starve the old belief so that you stop firing those neurons and you build a new highway.

Right.

So it's like the first time you have the thought. A lot of people, this is why people don't stick with stuff.

Yeah.

They have the thought, they don't attach any emotion to it. They don't get their body or their physiology into it. So it doesn't really link those neuronet pathways.

So you're saying. So they basically have this old thought, like you have like 60,000 thoughts a day. So if I'm hearing you correctly, they still have emotion and everything behind that. And so they're thinking I got to have these new thoughts. But they're not getting rid of, they're not ignoring the old ones.

Well, you're not. It's, it's really not even ignoring. It's really obsessing about that new primary question that you want and repeating it over and over and over again till it, till it builds up to a five lane highway and. And this other one is, is correspondingly shrinking.

So give me an example of like something like that that you did to start healing.

Yeah. So. So again I would go on runs and at the time I was on the road with, with Tony Robbins and I was in a different city every three months as one of his Top speakers. And so I would get up in the morning and I would start running and I would run and I would yell at the top of my lungs. I remember waking up homeless people and freaking people out. And when I was in my car, which is probably the safest place for you, and you just. I was just screaming at the top of my lungs and like pounding my chest. And I am a powerful world changer. I enjoy every breath over and over and over and over again. And you know, fast forward 12 years.

Tony Robbins does, right? He's still to this day, doesn't he?

To a degree. Yeah, to a degree. And what I did was by my research, I found out, you know, ways to accelerate that. And the actual, like there's. He teaches physiology. Focused language, emotion, it creates the result.

Right.

What I figured out was you add intensity and repetition to that, and now what you're doing is the physiological portion of it, which is. Which is expanding those connections in your brain.

So good. So like the physical, so you're running, it's intense and you're loud versus just.

Like I'm pounding myself on the chest. I'm like, you can't see me right now, but she's watching me do it, right? Yeah. It's like bam. And it instantly, even when I do that, like, even to this moment, my energy goes.

I can tell. I love it. You're right, though. It's a missing link. Because I think people, most people just write it like on a sticky note or they say it in their head. But you're right. Unless you associate all those things, how do you get it to stick and outweigh those other things?

You gotta overcome the way that you got thinking, the way that you think now, which is physiology. Focused language, emotion, motion, multiplied times, intensity and repetition. And so fast forward 12 years to where I am right now when I'm. I'm a powerful world changer. I work in the charities, I do that stuff and I enjoy every breath. I'm literally a comedian. And I could. There's no way in the world that I could have predicted that. Back when I changed my primary question. What it did was it led to a different series of beliefs. It led to it, which leads to a different series of actions, which then ultimately leads to a different set of results. And that's where people miss it. You know, they get involved in different things and I'm going to change my life. And they're doing it passively. And it just doesn't get you to that place where you're just like this is non negotiable. I refuse, refuse to live that life that I used to live. And here's how I'm going to rewire the hardware in my brain to be able to accomplish those things. Everybody's looking at the results, going, oh, man, I don't have enough money. Well, it's because of the actions that you took in the last six weeks, last six months, last six years of your life. I'm not in a good relationship. It's because of the actions. It's, you know, all of this stuff, it's personal responsibility. And we live in a day and age where it's always somebody else's fault, which makes you weak as hell.

Yeah. And you can't change it if it's always somebody else's fault.

Yeah. How.

What do you do? If, if my life and my happiness.

Is up to Trump or Obama, then we're in trouble. Yep.

We're in big trouble. You know, if it's anybody, you know, those are good examples, but it could be anybody. If I'm, if it was, if my life was up to my adopted father, right. Then, then, now, now I'm giving all of my power away by the momentary relief of saying it's not my fault.

Right.

And I lose the long term strength of taking, claiming 100% responsibility for all of the mistakes that I make and all of the joy and happiness that I experience.

I love this. So when you tell your story, your past, like when you were just talking to me about your past, do you have any charge from it anymore?

I do, and it's a massive charge of gratitude because the other, the other master step of people's realities is to look at the situation. Because when I was in and out of jail, I was drinking all the time, all that stuff, I was blaming my adoptive father, of course. And when I figured out that the power of meaning, and a huge indicator or tool for me was the book called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Yep. I've read it.

And.

Yep.

And it was about a gentleman, for those of you don't know by the book, but those of you, for this, the purposes of the conversation, he was a gentleman that got put into a concentration camp.

Right.

And so, and what he did was he figured out the reason why people died and the reason why people survived, aside from people, you know, killing them on site, but we're able to survive the starvation and all the horrible things he said at the end of that, towards the end of that book, he said one sentence. It still gives me Chills. To this day, he said I was more free than my captors. In other words, the inside game, the mindset of having something to live for, something to grasp out. And that meant to me when I read that, Jason, your experience is your decision.

Right.

And Tony Robbins says all the time, you know, the power of decision that leads to the destiny of your life.

Right.

It's in your moments of decision where your destiny is shaped, is how he says it. Exactly. And I figured out, okay, I'm going to go back through every facet of my life, and I'm going to look at it from a different perspective. How can I be grateful that that man was my dad?

Right?

And then. And it immediately came to me, it was like, jason, you're tough as hell. Like, things, people that make other people crumble, makes you stronger. Like, you have never raised your hand to a woman in anger. You're a great father. You love your children. Like, there was all of this stuff that started to well up in me so that I could be grateful for the fact that that man was my father and it changed my entire life. And I could go through instance by instance, but we control the meaning that we give stuff. So, you know, I've dealt. I've dealt with, you know, you know, the sexual abuse, the emotional abuse, the physical abuse, all that kind of stuff. We can go back to the person who perpetrated those transgressions upon us and be grateful for them. And you just won the battle.

Do you. With the gratefulness, do you forgive as well?

It's a part of it. Like, you can't. It's not. I can't be grateful and hold contempt in the same moment. I can't do it. It's impossible.

Right.

So to be grateful, automatically I forgive him.

Right?

Automatically. It's built into the word gratitude.

Yes.

You're forgiving anything that you had held on to, because ultimately it was. It was affecting and impacting my life, not his. No matter about how bad I hated him, no matter how much I wanted bad things to happen to him, no matter. All of that was hurting me and disempowering me and crippling me mentally, physically, spiritually. And all of those components because of the power that I was allowing that attacker, that perpetrator to continue to hold in my life, and they didn't even know it, and it didn't do them any good. It was just not. It wasn't.

Yeah.

There was no power for myself.

Yes. So it's like the attacker would still be hurting your life had you not taken this on and rewrote. That happens all the time.

Yeah, happens all the time. I mean, you hear, you know, you deal. Like I said, I deal in the domestic violence. I deal in the rape of these. You know, we're rescuing these little girls and boys that have been locked up and used for sex. One girl that we had at this last show 4,000 times in two years, she was sold, Right? So. So you tell me that like that now, and now she is this beautiful light out in the world because she said, you know what? I survived that. I must be a beast. You know what I mean? I survived all that. She became grateful about the experience to say, you know, if I hadn't gone through that, I might have been, you know, I might have been somebody that was weak enough to give all my power away to who was president at the time, or, you know, the. All of the crap that people are whining and complaining about these days that they have no control over. And if all they did was look in the mirror and say, hey, I'm going to become grateful and I'm going to become of service. That's the shift, right?

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I have so many questions right now, but my first question that's coming up for me, do you have a relationship.

With your father now he's dead. My adopted father, Yes, I do have a relationship with my real dad.

So you found.

We met. We met. I liked him. It was, you know, he's just another man. I mean, he happened to be a sperm donor.

Right.

But. Yeah, but. But I did get to meet him. And. And. But my other. My adopted father is. Is dead now.

Okay, I see. Okay. Do you have somebody listening right now? I'm sure there's people listening, going, but how. How do you even get to that place? Like, they're so hurt. They're so stuck in it. What advice would you give them? Like, how do you even begin to. Because obviously this was a process for you. This wasn't an overnight light switch.

No, no, not at all.

How. How do you even begin to have somebody take those steps forward?

The first step is. Is the hardest one, and it's taking personal responsibility for everything. And that's happened in your life. It's not saying, well, it's my fault that I got raped.

It's.

It's not my fault that I got beat up. It's not my. Like, it's not. It's not saying, taking responsibility for the act. It's taking responsibility for who you are now, because that's no longer happening to you.

Okay, that's a really important clarification because I think people here, they have to think that they brought it on. But what you're saying is, no, that's not the case. But like, who have you become because of it?

Yeah. And what, how much are you letting that moment that happened all those years ago or yesterday or whatever it is, the shorter the amount of time? My grandfather used to say that, Jason, if you can't be offended, then you won't be. Which was. I didn't understand it at the time. I've just come to understand that he passed away around 10 years ago. I've just come to understand it at a high level in the last five years that it's my choice if somebody, you know, and I'm giving that person power that I'm. That I'm letting, that I'm allowing to offend me. So it's understanding that whatever it was that happened to you, my heart goes out to you. I'm sorry, I love you. But you're not fucking broken.

Right?

And that's the message. We are not broken. The broken people in this world that realize they're not broken and that they're stronger in those old broken places, that makes you a superhero. That makes you somebody that has superhuman powers. Even if it's just emotionally the power of empathy, caring about what people went through. I can't imagine if who like this self absorbed society that we live in. I care about me all the time. I am so grateful for the fact that I learned along the way the art of empathy and caring about people that are in situations that they can't control. Now if you're in one of those situations and you're listening to that, reach out to me yesterday because we have resources for slave, the human trafficking, we have resources for domestic violence, we have resources for food. Reach out.

Right?

That's the whole point of why I started my show and started doing the comedy.

I think so many people are scared and I don't know because I wasn't there, but I'm just my guy. My guess of this, and you can correct me if I'm not correct, but I would imagine that people are scared in that situation to reach out. Like they're. They almost feel like they have to hide it or somehow they've brought this on or it could get worse. Like I think about your mom in that situation. She probably was scared. Like, what do I do? Like if it would. Like thinking it would make it worse. So what would you tell Those people.

I would tell, I would tell those people because for my mom at the time that she lived, it would have made things worse. And it did. Every time she tried to get away, every time it did. Today is a different day, right? And there's two sides of that. The side that would tell my mom in the back of her head because of the psychological abuse from her captor, and then the other side that was evidence that was out in the real world every time she tried to reach out that there was no help. There is help, there is interactions, there is interventions. There are things you do not have to believe your captor or the person who's, who is abusing you anymore because there's real world help out here.

But if someone had told you that as a kid, you know, you're, you're, or the young teenager, when you're, when you were beat up by the gang and your dad watched it and then punched you, like when were your, your adoptive dad, when. If someone had said to you there's help outside, would you have believed it? Would you have taken that risk to find it? Or would you have been scared as that boy?

I think that for the most part of my childhood I wouldn't have reached out. I was so afraid.

And that's, I guess that's why I'm ask because I feel like there's, there's a little bit of a disconnect with that. And I want, that's why I want to ask this question for people, because I know someone listening. This is going to really change their life. If they're feeling that way, if they're feeling like really scared, what do you want them to know? Because I know you're saying just do it anyway, but what, what do you know now that you wish you knew that?

Well, again, I'm speaking directly to the point, which is back when I was a kid, there were not these resources, okay? I mean, they just didn't exist.

So.

And whatever happened at home back then, stayed at home. People are a lot nosier now and, and there's infrastructure to be able to help. There's infrastructure. So what I believed as a child was true. There wasn't. There wasn't anybody that would reach in and help. It was true. Nowadays there's lots of organizations. A New dawn for domestic violence. Just look them up. A new dawnfoundation.com.

Right.

For if you need food, it's feedabillion.org you know, if we are looking for somebody to help with the rescue of a been abducted, it's CERT Ministries. SCRT Ministries on Facebook.

Right.

So these are the resources, and they're used to people reaching out, knowing that their captor or the people that are abusing them, they're scared.

They're. They.

They're trained in how the methodology to be able to extract people from these situations.

I love that. And I. And I hope that also what people hear is that the alternative is worse. You know, so, like, the risk of being scared and reaching out when you. Especially with what you're saying, Jason, there's so much help now that trying to keep the peace, that doesn't work long term.

It never works. I mean, especially with an abuser, because ultimately they're never going to change their ways until there's some sort of an intervention. And sometimes that intervention has to come at the end of a police officer's baton and some prison time.

Right?

Yeah, But. But there's never going to be an intervention, and it has to start at home. And I know that's where the bravery is. That's where. Where you must take action. And I know. But ultimately the human. Human spirit is so strong and so unbelievably resilient to watch people come back from the things that they've come back from. Forget my story. The people that have lost their children and are fighting the fight and all. And women that we see come out and they've got their teeth all knocked out and they get new teeth, and it's just. There's a better way than being a victim, a genuine victim. I'm not talking about. It's like, I'm saying if you feel like you have no choice, do whatever. You can reach out to one of those three organizations in this particular area. There's lots of other ones. Yeah, but these are the ones that I know. When that call comes in, it gets.

Addressed, Okay, I love your message and what you stand for and that you care. And I can hear it. And it's incredible. And I. And I'm also hearing you say that it's not that he doesn't. That there's no compassion for people in those situations. There's a lot of compassion. But what you're saying, if I'm understanding correctly, is that staying a victim to it is not going to serve you. It will never heal.

No. Eventually it's going to lead to death. I mean, you know, it's what. It's. It's a natural progression that unless you escape it.

Right.

Think of it this way. You know, we tell people all the time, nobody's coming to rescue you.

Right.

Nobody's coming to save you. And I mean this, you know, because, you know, work I do in businesses and all that kind of stuff, we have to start out with that premise, which means I have to be my own hero.

Yeah.

And that. And that's speaking directly to those people that are out there. We have. I'm just saying here's. Here's some superhero power. You have it inside of you, whether you remember that or not. And just take the first step, and then there's lots of resources out here to help you take the second and the third.

That's incredible. I love this, and I love that you turned your pain into purpose. I think it's incredible. Tell me about the comedian side of things, because that's a big part of your life. And how. Where did that tie in? How has that helped with healing? Talk to us about that.

So my intent was in my life because, again, I came into the business world having really drug dealing and gang banging, you know, sort of. Sort of skill sets.

You clearly learned negotiating survival.

Yeah, the metric system. I know the metric system better than most people, but you know, all of those scenarios. And so I got into business, but I didn't have the wherewithal. I just. I worked really hard, and I was smart, right. And. And so I worked really hard, and my first business failed miserably. My second business failed miserably. My third one failed miserably. Bankruptcy. Bankruptcy, bankruptcy. And that's where I sort of got driven into. Psychologically into this hole, going, I don't know what to do anymore. And then as I decided not to commit suicide, I decided, I'm going to get back and I'm going to play this game. And I got to learn from people that have achieved what I want to achieve.

Okay.

I've set about obsessing over that. And I went into business. You know, I went. I traveled with Tony Robbins. I interviewed every business owner I possibly could. I had two sets of notebooks. One from my failures. Okay, that I outlined all my failures in business. And then the other set of notebooks was the interviews that I did with these business owners. And I was annoying. I'm like, I'll come cook your dinner. Like, I'll take your trash out. Like I want to know. And then I combined those into an operating system, and I got into the turnaround business. I started to help companies that were almost out of business recover and thrive. Then I took that money and I started buying companies again. And then I built up a private equity business that we Were talking earlier about the numbers that that's producing. And then that turned into a consulting business so I could help other businesses. And then that turned into the fact that now that my companies are all running well, I've done well for myself. I want to throw myself into philanthropy.

Right.

Okay.

And that's where I've spent most of my time and where I do spend most of my time. But through the consulting company, I teach all of those lessons that I learned. And our motto is help good people make more money so that they can help good people make more money and get more time so they can do more good. Because if this world's gonna change, it's gonna be from resourced business owners. That's my gamble. Because they're so heart centered. You know, business owners will go months at a time without paying themselves to make sure that their employees. You know, business owners are the most sacrificial group of human beings that I've ever met in my life and also the most under educated. And so when we talk about what we do on the consulting side, we educate really good people to kick ass.

Okay.

I love that.

Then.

Then we built out a 12 week program, a digital program that you'll love the name of this. It's Anton J global.com sorry.com growth and it's growth Mastering your business. G spot. That's the name of the hood. And it's 12 weeks of my best content. There's no. I don't get into this. You know, you buy this program and then, you know, I'm going to have a bigger one. The real secrets. The next one. The real secrets, the next one. I gave everything I could in that 12 weeks. And the next way is for people to hire my consulting company, put their hands on their business. Now, to answer your earlier question, I had to build that platform or that Runway for you to understand why I'm a comedian. So in the last five or six years, what we realized was bringing in Ashton Kutcher like we did brings millions of eyeballs to whatever philanthropic, charitable thing you happen to be working on.

Right.

And I would go through the list of the names, but there's a lot of them that are. They're just opportunists.

Yeah.

And they show up for five minutes, you have to pay them a bunch of money. They don't care about what you're doing. Really. And they take their pictures and they take a big check and they leave. Yeah. So we were sitting around last year and we said, what have we learned? Well, that was one of the things, you know, charity, you know, that brings a lot of eyeballs, and, you know, a lot of them are douchebags. And so we kind of combined that. And I was sitting there at the table with my board, and I said, why don't I just become a celebrity? You know? And like you, everybody laughed around the table, except for the two guys that have been with me.

But I get the reasoning behind it. Like, totally get it.

And we started looking at it, and once they understood that I was serious, we started looking at it, and I was like, okay, what do we do? I can afford to go live in Hollywood and put myself in every da, da, da. And I said, I'm only missing two. Two things to become, you know, that Ashton Kutcher has good looks and talent. So let's take that off of the. Let's take that off of the table. So I like to have fun.

I'm.

You know, I've got a message in my comedy. I'm funny like that, you know? So I decided, let's build out a comedic brand. Yeah. And that's where the Bald Avenger came from. Because it's ridiculous, but relevant.

Right?

Because what people. My daughter, when we were three. When she was three years old, we went to the zoo, and we went by the silverback gorilla thing and deal. And she goes, daddy, it's you. She thinks I look like. And that's kind of where I go when I'm protecting the vulnerable. I go into this beast mode where I'm like, I don't. You know, whatever it is, we're gonna save them. And so that built out. You know, if you look at the Bald Avenger anywhere, you'll see the logo is a red ape, and it's holding the scales of justice. And I've got 25 different logos for 25 different companies, and I have cared less about any of them. This logo I care about. And there's. So there's two things. It's the ape, the silverback gorilla holding the scales of justice. And then in front of it is a shield. And the women from A New dawn gave me the nickname Shield because they think that I'm. You know, they feel like I'm their shield. And so we started to build that out, and my comedy is center right. You know, it's not like if you. If you ask who's a center right comedian or a conservative comedian out there, can't really name anybody. Yeah, there's a couple, but on the. And then you go, who's on the left side? They're everybody. Every nighttime TV show, all of them. And I do comedy from a place of practicality. I'm fiscally conservative, but I'm socially progressive. But so ultimately my comedy comes out sort of right leaning. And so we do that so that we can raise awareness. And awareness is the least. That's the most passive way to go about fixing, easing suffering in the world. But it then brings people crowds and it brings attention. And that ultimately brings money because money is a resource that these charities need. And we also do research about, you know, charities. I've gotten suckered in. Everybody that's hearing this has got suckered in or heard a story about a charity that takes money and they use it for themselves and they use their. The charity that they're working for to build their brand. And it's all of this disingenuous stuff. So the charities that I work with Feed a billion. None of the executives take a paycheck. They're all donating their time.

Okay.

A New Dawn foundation operates on 3% for overhead and whatnot. 97% goes back to the women Cert Ministries. They live on. Literally this entire organization puts 100% of their donations back in. And they do work outside so that they. And they live on 10% of their income. So not only are they not taking any money out of it, they're putting 90% of their own personal job money into the organization. I've done a lot of research. I've been suckered by ones that were fake. And these three, these three are some of the greatest. Pastor Rudy for Cert Ministries. Kat dawn for a New Dawn. For a New dawn. And AJ Ambooz. Jane, who started Feed a Billion. Three of the most genuine, heart centered people.

I love it.

Integrity based human beings you'll ever meet.

I love this. Wow. I want to be involved in like everything you do. I love your story, your energy. I'm sure everybody listening is feeling the same. I'm like, I need to know more about all of this.

Good.

Well, you know, the best place to go is to start following us on, on the Bald Avenger on Facebook. That's the. That's the place that I operate out of.

That's how you spell it.

The Bald Avenger. Yep.

Instagram as well.

I am.

Yep.

Yeah.

Non Twitter. I think on Twitter it's Avenger Bald because somebody else, some other figure got it. But by the way, it's trademarked. You know, I have one of the greatest. One of my clients and one of my best friends is one of the greatest IP and trademark attorneys in Chicago. And he got me in the middle of when the Avengers are the most famous thing on the planet. He got my. The Bald Avenger trademark. Yeah.

So when you say like Feed a billion and New dawn and certain ministries and then I know what you're involved in. Are you involved in those three organizations or do you have something else that you help with?

So I help with. There's a stupid page on Facebook that we started. It was in self defense for me and I called it. It's a stupid name. It's called the Jason Cisneros Charity Resources page.

Okay.

Because I get calls three and four times a day from people that are like, hey, Jason, can you help our charity? And you know, I like to help people know how to run their charitable organization. That's the best resource that I can give them, aside from cash, if they really need it.

Right, because you're giving them the time, like you said, to get to the other things.

Okay, well, I'm giving them the tools to be able to be self sustainable.

Right.

If a business, if a business owner fails, 90% of business owners fail in the first five years of their organization. Charities fail faster because they have even less business sense and they're not profit driven.

Right.

So we started a page and we went in there and we taught how to set it up, how to function. There's a connection that happens between all of the charities in there. So in that realm, I support about 150 other charities.

Okay.

But I'm directly involved in those three that I mentioned. I'm on the board. I'm on the board of New Dawn. I'm the CEO of Feed a Billion. And with certain ministries, I am just putting all of my rescue chops behind them because they're the best at what they do.

I love this. And then where do people find your program that you mentioned? You said that you already put all your best content.

Oh, got it. Oh, that was. That's a 12 week program. Anton. J a n t o n j a e dot com growth. And if they put, if they, if they're listening to it here, what we'll do is it's, you know, it's like 39.97, 3997 for the program. If they put in a code for you listening to your show, tell them to put in JSVIP and they'll get a $500 discount for listening JSVIP.

Awesome. Okay. We're all gonna be checking that out. Okay. There's a question I ask Everybody on the show. And I want to know your take. I know we got somewhat into this, but I want to get real specific here. If somebody is in their own personal rock bottom hardship, so I know there's people listening right now that either it's financial or maybe it's a domestic violence place. They're scared. They're really feeling stuck. And you were going to give them like three pieces of advice right now on how they can start changing things around so they can start shifting and leveling up and creating everything from nothing. What would those three things be that you would tell them?

Listen to my voice and hear these words. You are not broken. Step number one.

Okay?

Everything that you've gone through has made you stronger than the people that you can ever understand.

Okay?

The second thing is going to be peer group. You must, must, must get into a peer group. Now, my followers call themselves misfits, right? And so if you go online, Facebook especially, and you just put in the hashtag Misfit Nation, you will run into some of my people. And these people are all the most, all of them have screwed up. We have people that have been in prison for murder. We have all kinds of screw ups. People that have been in abusive relationships, that have been raped, that have been, that have had cancer and come back there. It's just full of the most amazing human beings that had to start from where you're at right now. They're 1000% committed to helping you. No money's involved. It's just we all banded together around, you know, the Bald Avenger and the Misfit Nation to just support and lift people up. And so peer group find out that peer group Misfit Nation will gladly accept you.

Right.

And then thirdly, really envision the life that you saw for yourself before all of the trauma and spend more and more and more time in that place, even if it is in your head, because it affects and impacts at a cellular level every, every tool and opportunity that you have.

So good. This has been very eye opening and I love everything about this conversation. I love how you totally turned your pain into purpose. I love that you give back and you focus out. And I believe that one of the reasons you are so successful is because you do spend so much time caring and focusing out. And I think that stuff comes back to us big time. Just like you said, you get tired of the people being all in their heads about just themselves. And no coincidence that that usually is who suffers with their business or whatever else. I think the focusing out is what brings Abundance and everything.

I can tell. I could tell you something just to anchor your point just a little bit, if any. I'm a big numbers guy because I'm a business guy.

Right.

I'm not a big. I feel this way or feel that way because it has no attachment to reality. And one of the studies that blew my mind was the study that was done. There's actually something out there mathematically called a misery index.

Okay.

In other words, you know, how miserable are you and what are the factors? Well, they tied on the misery index, they tied together socioeconomic conditions, in other words, how much money you make.

Okay.

And they said that in life you are maxed out. There's also a happiness quotient that says that your happiness peaks out when your fundamentals are taken care of.

Right.

And then when you hear people all the time, you're like, oh, if I make more money, they think in their brain, if I make more money, I'm going to be happier. Well, there's a two part answer to that. The more money you make, if it's unattached to purpose, service outcome makes you miserable. It makes you less happy right now if you make more money and it's tied to easing suffering in the world or it has a purpose to it. Your happiness quotient, that's the next biggest accelerator of anything that you can possibly do.

And I love that you just brought up that if your fundamentals are met, because that's the disconnect. People say money doesn't make you happier. But yeah, got it. But yes, you need shelter, you need food, you need safety. There's those things that need to be met first. So assuming those things are met, you.

Don'T have a home or food in your belly. You're miserable.

Like you're miserable and there's no way you have it.

You're happier.

Yeah.

Amen. Amen.

Jason, this is awesome. Thank you so much for taking the time and talking with me today.

Been my pleasure. Can't wait to have you on my show.

Thank you. Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review, I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejill fit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.