111: Breaking Your Bad Cycles to Create Success with Daniel Skelton
Daniel Skelton talks with Natalie Jill about surviving abuse and violence as a kid, turning to crime, and how he broke those patterns to build a successful business. He walks through the specific cycles that kept him trapped and what finally made him change.
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. Saying that Daniel had a rough childhood would be an understatement. You see, Daniel grew up in a very abusive and violent home. He never understood how to fix things, and he was constantly being beat up and verbally abused by his dad before Daniel was even 10 years old. Him and his brother watched as his dad stabbed his mother with a knife multiple times, leaving her for dead, and then took off. His mom, after she healed, entered one abusive relationship after the next. And at age 12, Daniel began dealing prescription drugs at school. At age 14, he was arrested and in a lot of legal trouble. He didn't care because he felt no one cared about him. He became great at making money, but not always legally. And after getting caught robbing a Walmart, he was thrown in jail. But this is exactly what changed his life. Today, Daniel is a man of extreme integrity and he's a man on a mission. He went from being a homeless criminal to being an entrepreneur owning several six figure businesses. His mission and vision now is to change the world with the force of good. He has fully turned his pain into passion and brought so many along with him. Join in today and learn exactly how Daniel Skelton leveled up and created everything from nothing. Today on leveling up, I've got a new friend of mine. I've got Daniel Skelton here who I just recently met when I was speaking and I was so intrigued and fascinated by his story. Like it was one of those I stopped in my tracks. I'm like, wait, what? What happened when you were a kid and you did what? I was trying to get to the bottom of it and dive in with him right there in front of a million people. We had about 10 minutes and I said, I to have you on my show, I've got to dive in more because what I told Daniel before we hit record is so many people that have been through just these crazy, traumatic childhoods. And when you hear a story, you'll see what I mean. They typically go one of two ways, like either they feel hopeless and turn to drugs and alcohol and coping and pretty much Give up. Or they make that pain their purpose, and it fuels them, and it brings them into a much greater life. And that's what he's done. And I'm just so intrigued on how he did that and what it took. So I'm so excited to dive in and interview him today, and I'm hearing a lot of this for the first time, as you will be. So thank you so much for being here today, Daniel.
Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to share my story. My perspective is always just to encourage people, build them up and pull them up. So. Yeah.
Yeah. And I think that's what you do. Okay, so take us back, Daniel. You had. Take us back. You were a kid, and you started out a happy kid. I'm imagining. Take us back. Like, who were you at that time and what happened?
Okay, so my. My mom married my dad, and my dad was, like, a decent guy at the time. They were, like, 18 and 19. And, you know, he was. He was a good guy, and she saw a lot of good in him. And she was, like, raised with pretty good morals and stuff from her mother and father. And she had about seven other siblings, so she had a big family. And they just kind of. My dad was like, this guy that didn't have a dad, had a really rough kind of upbringing and stuff. So she just kind of saw an attraction in them, and they got married. And then shortly after my brother and I were born. We're about 18 months apart. He started kind of getting into drinking, and his dad was an alcoholic. His whole family, I mean, they're just into a lot of really bad things. And so he just started getting into drinking, and so that kind of became, like, his identity and started to consume him in his life. So.
Yeah. So you were young and you saw this. Did you know it to be a bad thing when you saw drinking? I know, like, kids try to normalize things. So, like, did you just think that's normal for dads to drink? What was going on through your mind?
Well, I think that there was so much, like, his abuse started very early, not long into his drinking. So I was still a very small child. And I don't know if my memory just, like, erased a lot of it, but I don't remember a lot of things up until I was about five.
Okay.
I think, like. Because what I do know is that he was just. He became very abusive very quickly, had a really bad temper, and then, you know, someone. On alcohol. Yes.
To your mom and to you and your brother.
Yeah.
Okay. So when you were a Child and this was happening, did you think you were bad or you had done something wrong? What was the conversation that you do remember happening in your head?
For the most part, you know, my value and my worth and my identity was just really beat down. I had no positive, you know, anything encouraging or positive to think about myself. So my self esteem and insecurities really rose very early for a young child that five or six years old.
Now. Were you scared of your dad or did you, what, what was, or were you trying to make him like you or what would, what would you do as a child?
No, there, you know, there was times where he would come in drunk and like cuddle with me in the bed. And that was one thing that, you know, I really did like about our relationship. He never, he was real abusive. It wasn't sexually abusive, but you know, he, he had that good side in him. But when I was, you know, at a young child, I couldn't really identify. I just knew that when he came in late, there was fights, there was, you know, him trying to take me for some reason. I didn't know why. You know, I was definitely scared of him because he would punch things and I mean, I would just see like holes in the walls and stuff. So I was very scared of him and, you know, and then he got into beating us when I was probably, I don't know how young when it started, but when I started, remember, was about five or six Now.
What was your mom doing when all this was happening and what was the conversation she would have and did you talk to her about it?
I think over a period of time. And yes, we have, we have talked about it now and I've done a lot of research with the psychological, you know, things that happen behind abuse. But so over a period of time, I believe that her confidence, her identity, her worth was just getting beat down because he was always verbally abusive mentally, you know, where it was taking a toll on her that, you know, and eventually where abuse is, you can't have relationships. So people had to start separating. Any positive influence she had in her life was drove out. So she had nobody except for my dad to influence her.
So she wouldn't talk to you about it? She wouldn't say like dad's angry or she just kind of ignored it with you?
Yeah, she, she definitely would just try to keep a positive attitude with us. So she tried to stay away from having those conversations with us. Even though, you know, it's kind of a normal to us. We just thought it was kind of normal yeah, yeah.
Gosh, how scary, though, for two little kids now. Did you and your brother try to comfort each other? Was he younger or older than you?
He was older, so he's 18 months older. I think for the most part, he just became a really bad bully. He was kind of taking on what my dad was doing, and I was more of the personality of, like, I wanted to be by myself, just like under a table, you know, like. Right. And. But my brother, he. He was very, like. He picked on me and took out his frustrations on me. So that was pretty young. We started fist fighting pretty young. About seven years old, we were fist fighting.
So it must have felt very lonely. And I would imagine it was confusing because it's almost like. I think I talked to some kids that were physically abused, and they spent time trying to make their parent like them or trying to do what's right. But it sounds like you almost didn't know what would make your dad happy because he would cuddle one minute and then you up the next. Is that correct?
Right, Absolutely. I had no idea how I could fix things. All I knew is just like, you know, I would have this anger that started to happen inside of me towards my dad. Like, you know, I started just having these bad thoughts of just, like, how could I, you know, kill him? Or something like that. And it just became my anger towards them and, you know, wanting to protect my mom, but I physically couldn't, and so that.
You wanted to protect your mom, but your mom wasn't really talking to you about it. She wasn't saying, like, I'm scared of your dad, or she just kind of acting like it wasn't happening. Is that sort of.
She would say, you know, if he had let her, she'd take us out and we'd go for a drive and she'd put on music. She just always tried to create a different illusion for us.
Did your mom love you? Did she tell you that she loved you?
Yeah, she did. She. She would tell us that my. My dad wouldn't.
Okay, so you. That was your life. That's what you were coping with. And then something really tragic happened, Right? Tell us about that.
Yeah, so, you know, everything kind of happens at a slow pace. Sometimes you don't realize it, but there. The abuse just kind of got worse and worse. And his alcohol problems, you know, I believe he was cheating on her, stuff like that. And I don't know, he had this thing towards me being the youngest child, and he loved me, I guess, because I was just like, that different personality than my brother. My brother was that more like him, and I was more like my mom. That. That softer, gentle type, spirited person. So he would always try to take me for some reason. And one night he was just really drunk. And my brother and I were used to him being drunk. I mean, it's just normal. Us, we would, you know, we. We lived in this place called Tuscaloosa. It was all dirt road, so we would, you know, push the gas and the brake. My brother would do that, and I'd steer the truck. Whenever he gets so drunk, we would just swap seats and drive the cars. And so I was about 7 or 8 years old, and we were living in these apartments near a hospital. And I remember I was awakened, me and my brother sharing a room. We had beds pretty close to each other. And I remember our door being open. I'm pretty sure my dad came in from what my mom kind of remembers. He came in and tried to take me, and she was just like, no, you're not taking them. But this time he pulled out his knife. He always carried this, like, knife in a leather sheath or whatever on his side. He drove like 18 wheelers or. I mean, he'd lose jobs all the time. It literally sell everything for alcohol. And so we have any money. Very poverty driven, but. And so he ended up. Took out the knife. She took off running, and he was gonna stab her in the back. When they trip and fell, he hit her in her main artery in the back of her leg, kind of like to the side the inside there, and it hit her right on it. And so, you know, we were awake at this time because there you could hear all the bumping on the walls and stuff as they're. They're fighting. And he pull out his knife. And then when he stabbed her. I don't know. I don't. I mean, I was in school, I guess, like some kind of preschool or something. But I had this plate. It was like a. A paper plate that I did like a pumpkin face on with construction paper. And I remember picking that up and it was just like full of blood. And there's blood just everywhere because it hit her main artery. I mean, it was just. It was crazy bloody mess. And so she was bleeding out very quick. And my dad just takes off, run. And he flees. He leaves the house, the apartment. We're upstairs with your mom.
Was she screaming what she did?
She was starting to be very. Just slow in her speaking.
Okay.
You know, not responding very well. So we ended up, you know, we were. We were very Small at this time, so we couldn't like pick her up. We dragged her down the stairs and since we knew how to drive, she had a.
You and your nine year old brother at the time because you're seven. So you're in your nine year old brother drag your mom who's just been stabbed by your dad. And your dad takes off, you drag her down the stairs.
Yep. And I remember and sorry if I get emotional. Anything? No, it's out of like pain. These things like changed my life in a good way. But yeah, I just remember her still encouraging us, like, you know, still saying positive things with her, like bleeding out to death, you know. And so. So anyways, so we got her in the car and the hospital was like a mile away. So we got her, we got to the hospital, but no one took us serious. They thought it was like two kids playing a prank.
So you like ran in, your mom's in the car and you're saying my mom's been stabbed and they don't believe you?
Yeah, we pulled up to the front and, you know, we were covered in blood and they just thought it was like a prank because neither one of us were like crying and so it didn't seem very dramatic.
You were in shock.
Absolutely. And we were. And we were kind of. I didn't cry for a long time. Like my emotions and stuff were so blocked and shut down by this time. Like this just was over the iceberg for me. Like it was just the tipping point.
Oh, so that you get to the hospital, they don't believe you. I'm assuming they eventually come out to the car and what's happening is, is your mom still alive at this point point or.
No, no, she's not alive. And they, they rush her in. I remember the nurses just like, I remember hearing them talking. Like they didn't think we could hear them, I guess, or were too young, I don't know. But they were just like, I cannot believe these kids drove her here. And I remember sitting in the lap of one of the nurses. That was the first time I ever saw a computer. And it was like the green screen, you know, she showed me solitaire. And so we were just sitting there with them while they tried to revive my mom. And, you know, I can't remember how many pints of blood she had lost. But they. That was the biggest thing was the blood loss. So they. But they ended up reviving her and getting her back to life.
Wow. Daniel, were you telling them when this happened, my dad did this or what were You. You were doing that?
Absolutely. They asked who did it to her. And, you know, like, we were. We were very honest about it. We wasn't scared to tell on our dad or. And we. And honestly, I just didn't think about, like, what would happen to him. But all I knew is. Exactly. So it didn't matter to me what, you know, what happened to him. So we ended up. My mom, you know, gets out. She doesn't want to press charges against my dad. And. Which is just crazy because she.
Wait, your mom. Your mom gets. I'm sorry because you said your mom didn't make it. Did she make. She did make. Or she did.
She did make it. Yes, make it. Did.
Okay. Oh, got it. Okay, I misunderstood. I thought you said she didn't make it. So she got. No, she did make it. Okay, got it. Okay, just connect there. So she. Get. Your mom gets out. And so you're. You're seeing this and you're. She's going through this at the hospital, and she doesn't want to press charges on your dad now.
Okay, Right, right.
Okay.
And see, he already had some warrants on him. And so I still, to this day, I'm not sure what, really why he went to prison, but he goes to prison.
Okay.
And I'm not sure if it was for that.
So you're saying. So, you know, your mom didn't press charges, but the state could have pressed charges. Someone else could have pressed charges for this because you were saying. So you don't remember there being a trial or anything like that? Or do you.
I don't remember ever having to be a witness or anything like that.
Okay, so do you. Does your mom, after this happens, does she recover and does she take you back as a sole parent or what happens to you guys?
Yeah. So my mom. Something I really gotten from my mom is she instilled at us to be like, hard workers. Like, she was literally, to this day, is one of the hardest workers I know. So what she did was she. Her parents had separated themselves from her, and they were. They were great Christian people by this time. My mom was so hearted, like, hardened in her heart towards God and any positive influence she. Her worth seeing. Her worth was completely gone. She had no worth. Like, yeah, her to be with abusive men. And usually that's common in. With women in abusive relationships or men, you know, it's. It's usually seeing the worth. They don't. They think they should be punished for how they are, for some type of insecurity or, you know, so do you.
Think your mom didn't want to press charges because she was trying to make it go away, or was she trying to appease your dad? Like, does she want him back? What was. What would do you think was going on with her there?
You know, it's kind of hard to really know because she just wouldn't talk about that stuff. It's like she. Even to this day, she kind of has just erased a lot of that.
Like, he tried to kill her and she just.
Right.
Yeah.
And she. And the thing is, you know, we. We go ahead, we start to carry on with our life. My. My grandparents had a pest control business at the time that was doing really well. So my mom starts working for them, and we move into their offices. There was like, a back room in a place called Fort Payne, Alabama, and we. We lived there for a little while on these, like, cots. And my mom just worked every night, so we would go with. Go with her to spray these various stores like Pizza Hut and KFC and stuff. And that was kind of my first time to ever really be around business stuff. But I really liked it. I got to sit in the office and play, make rubber band balls. Like, it was just. Yeah, it was really cool. So my mom, like, would work all night take.
And you probably felt safe because your dad's not there. You're not scared. Nobody's beating you up at this point.
Right? And so, right when things seem like it's getting better now, again, my mom. And there's a point for me saying this, my mom was not. Was still not like a Christian. She was, like, atheist.
Okay.
So she didn't like God and everything. And her parents were very strong Christians. And, you know, but, you know, when you hear things like, like, God loves you and he's in control. You know, it's easy when you don't know anything else. You don't have a context for that. Like, everything else is going wrong, then it's his fault. He's in control. But really the. The Bible says he's in charge, not in control. And so that's a big difference. So anyways, but she just blamed God for everything. So again, she had no idea her worth. And that wasn't being built. So we start noticing she gets on her feet, gets, you know, her own house. We. She buys this house. Super. Just amazing how far she came in a short period of time. So I think around about nine or 10 years old, I was. She tells us that, hey, I've got a. I've got a new boyfriend. And so I won't go long in all this, but for the next several years, for about two years, she's just going in and out of relationships all of a sudden. And every guy we notice are abusive to you or.
Or just in general. Okay. Not to.
Just to her. Yeah. Because we. At this time, like, my mom, you know, I know she cared about us, but we just stayed out on the streets, like, all the time. That's all we ever did. Like, I was skipping school, starting to kind of smoke and mess around with marijuana, you know, just like, just doing bad kid stuff like that. We were in the projects a lot. Yeah. And so. But while we were doing that, she was just with these different men trying to date, and they were just all Would end up being kind of abusive. And then I remember this one guy, she said, I want y' all to look out for his truck. She told us what it looked like. And there was only one entrance into our neighborhood. So we saw him, and we're, like, all excited. Like, you know, mom's got a new boyfriend. For some reason, really excited about this guy. And I can't remember why, but she had said something about him, I guess. But we were really excited about it. So we go up to the house, and I think she was just saying, they've been talking for a while. Seemed like a really great guy. As soon as we come in, they have some kind of chili cheese, something with Fritos for dinner on the table. And I just remember him being like. We sit down at the table, and he just screams at us. First time I ever meet him. Go wash your effing hands. So I. Right off the bat, at this time, I'm getting in fights already, and me and my brother Ben fist fighting. At this time, I'm just like, you know, I'm not scared of much, and still not. And so, like, that really just made me mad. Like, okay, okay, guy. And he was a. He's a big guy and his Cajun from Baton Rouge, so.
Yeah. But he literally just needed you. And instead of, like, trying to get to know you or anything, he's just. That's. He just finds the critical thing to say.
Right. And so we realized right off the bat, like, here we go. This is going to be another bad relationship. Yeah. And so, well, ends up. Let's, you know, fast forward a little bit. So the. I remember all of a sudden, they announced they had been married and that she was pregnant. And this was, you know, we had no clue. They just went off and got married. Had been married for, like, Four or five months.
Okay.
And so I don't know if she's ashamed of that or what, but this guy was very. I mean, his. His mom would tie him up in the woods and leave him there when he was little. So this guy had major insecurities, majorly.
Abused and hurt people. Hurt people?
Yes. And so, like, if we called him dad, oh, my gosh, he would freak out. We only did it once. He made us write thousands of sentences every day. We stayed in our rooms all the time. He didn't want. He didn't like kids at all. He didn't want to. He was very grouchy. Just, you know, we couldn't touch the TV remote. We could come out of our rooms or nothing.
I hear there's a baby coming out. Another baby coming on the way, too. And he's already.
Exactly.
Gosh.
So. And we thought, like, this is gonna be bad. So I remember I was under the table folding my laundry. That's for some reason why I like to do. When I was little. I would do it now if I wasn't so big. I'm six' three. But anyways, I'm just kidding. But so I ended up. I was under the table folding my socks, and apparently he had told me something to do. And he's moved in with us at the time. He has a business. He bought a sheet metal company that does, like, roofing. They were going out of business, and he used my mom's credit and bought that. And so at this time, he's kind of starting to make us work a lot. I was about 12. I started working every weekend. Every summer. He would make us skip school and go work. And so I remember I was under that table folding my laundry, and he told me to do something. I didn't do it in order. So he came and he grabbed me by my neck and choked, Slammed me on my bed. And I remember we walked to the kitchen. My mom was like, don't you do that to him. His name's Randy. And he just started cussing her and yelling at her. And I just remember something snapped. I don't know.
Your mom was pregnant at the time, I'm assuming.
Mm. And was just, like. Something snapped in me that I did not know. Whatever. He walked out in the garage after he cussed my mom. And that was the point where I started getting very protective. I think that's when it all really started. Like, I always wanted to fend my mom. Right at this point, it was like, I'm gonna do it. And I shel. I hit him in the head with the shovel and knocked him out. And so that was my first like, violent thing that I had done towards like a man, a grown man.
Right. So you're 12 years old, your mom's pregnant. He's. She's trying to defend you. He starts cussing her out. You grab a shovel and you hit him and knock him out.
Mm.
So you hit him and knock him out. And what's going through your mind when this happens? And what's your mom doing when that happens?
She freaks out because she's in fear of what he's gonna do. She was mad at me because I'd done it. She was very protective of her relationships and, you know, she didn't want as bad as they were. For some reason, she felt like she deserved what she was getting.
Okay.
So that kind of ruled over us. And so she would let them, you know, he had the right of way to do however he wanted to in our household. And so she was just very like, let him just run over. So she, she was just scared of that, what would happen. But, you know, whenever he came to, I was grounded for a very long time. He beat, he beat me pretty bad. And I stayed. I think from then on he just had. That was the end of the straw for like him towards us. Like, I don't remember a single time. Like, I never saw affection from that man, like at all. So I started like, you know, we were in a room a lot and I didn't really know that can drive you crazy. Also, they prescribed me and my brother to like, Adderall. It was called Ritalin, I think at the time.
Why they thought you had ADD now?
Uh huh. So like I. I wasn't doing good in school. Like, I mean, mentally I had a lot, I mean a lot going on. I didn't.
Yeah, you were depressed and had anxiety and all the things. And they're giving you, they're telling you need speed.
Yeah.
Wow. Interesting.
When I was 12, I had a psychiatrist tell me that I'd either end up killing somebody or in prison by the time I was 19.
So they didn't work it. They didn't look at what was going on in your life instead. That's so interesting to me.
Yeah. The school we lived in this place called Fayetteville, and it literally was in the middle. We ended up moving to this area that my stepdad had lived in previously. And when I was about 11 and it was. We had moved around, you know, the whole time. My mom was like jumping around apartments, apartments with my dad. So we're always like the new kids in school getting in fights all the time. And I just hated school. Like from my grandparents, they had rental, rental property and they had that pest control company. I remember seeing all the guys come in and out of the offices and they're, they're, they had a very successful pest control company. And I just remember thinking like, I don't need school, like I'm going to do business. That was always just what I was, a focus of mine. I didn't know housing to do that or whatever. But knowing like they had rentals and stuff like that, I don't know, it just became like a, something that was just a reality.
The school system and shame on counselors and the psychologists like to not even look at what was going on. Like you had very real things going on in your life clearly. And of course you had depression, anxiety and all kinds of things. Certainly not add. Like yeah, they're gonna give you Ritalin, which is basically speed, which no judgment. There's kids that really have severe ADHD or ADD and need that. But that's not what you needed. You needed, you needed love, you needed a hug, you needed somebody to walk you through processing what you had been through. And you're given speed, which I'm assuming made you angrier and more hyper.
So at about 12, I was getting that riddling like crazy. I remember walking through my school and I remember the first time I had thoughts of like killing somebody.
Yeah, because you've raged now.
Yes. And so I wanted to pick up this tray and hit this guy so bad. And so I ended up just really starting to see that I was having some bad mental issues.
Yeah.
And so I ended up, I told my mom, I was like, mom, I'm like, I mean I would, I would load a gun and sit outside of my, my parents door just thinking at night, just thinking like just shooting my stepdad.
How did you have a gun?
I had like a hunting rifle, is a 22 and I can't remember, I don't know where I got it from. I guess my grandfather.
Interesting. But so that's, that's a good mix too. If you think about just now like you're gonna have a kid that's obviously distressed and now he has a gun which could have gone really bad.
Right. And that, that was, it was starting to really take a toll on me. So I kind of had to take my own thoughts and just say, look, this is like making things. I'm already struggling enough mentally. Like I was so Insecure. Oh, my God, of course.
Yeah.
And I was, like, kind of over. I was overweight, you know, behind, like, you know, not hit puberty yet. You had no. No, nobody Pouring anything, you know, positive.
Into no belief or love is what you write.
And then I'm doing bad in school, so, like, you know, you're being told you're not good in school and you're not smart. My stepdad would always tell us things like that we're not going to be anything in life. So I just stopped taking the medicine and I started selling it.
I found that people would be kind of smart. Nobody else believes in me. I might as well make money. Got it Right.
Well, that was one thing, that working for him, I think we made like $10 an hour, which back then. I'm 31, but back then, at that age, no bills. Yeah, yeah. So there was weeks. I'd sometimes make like 700, 800 bucks. We would work, like. Yeah, because we would fabricate the metal in a shop that we had at our house, and then we would go and install it and stuff like that. So.
So now you're a drug dealer of Ritalin. That's what starts happening. And, you know, this is such interesting, though, because I know there's parents listening or people listening, and I'm guilty of it, too. Like, we just judge things, you know, you see a kid, you're like, but look, listen to this story behind what brought him to this. Like, no love, nobody believing in him. Just a train of abuse and distrust and adults. I mean, from the nurses at the hospital that didn't believe things to, you know, the doctors not even looking at his past and prescribing Ritalin. Like, of course it leads to something like that.
Right?
Start dealing Ritalin, and then what happens?
So I'm putting it inside of pens. So the 10 milligrams, I think it was, would fit in these pens perfectly that we had that school gave us. And so I would sell them in pens. I'd take the ink cartridge out and fill them up with the Ritalin. And I was selling them for, I think, $5 a piece or so. So I was making pretty good money. Several hundred dollars a month.
Your mom's thinking you're taking the drug, right?
Oh, yeah. Well, she didn't keep up with it either. I had them. I had this ammo box just full of all this Rillin that I just put the, you know, the container in that. Full of the medicine.
Totally.
I mean, she didn't. She didn't keep up with it. I mean, she just stayed a distance from us because that's what we keep her relationship on.
The doctor. Yeah. This is where it can. So I can get another prescription so I can sell it.
Right. And so, you know, making money was just one thing I found that I was good at. I started chopping firewood and selling. That was making money with my stepdad and then selling. And so, you know, you're gonna find. If you can find something positive in the midst of darkness, what you know, you can be influenced by heavily. And so making money was something that I started feeling good about. Right. Like, I had money at that age. Like, kids would just be like, what? You have all that cash in your pocket? I remember, you know, I had this. This guy steal from me. See, he knew I had all that money on me. So then the school started, kind of was like, why did you have that much money on you? It was over a thousand dollars. You know, here I was, like, 13.
Yeah.
And so, you know, it started kind of going around that I was selling by this. So I started driving. I saved up. I bought my first dirt bike, and then I bought a truck at 14.
Okay.
My stepdad raced dirt bikes when I was little, and so he ended up letting us ride when we were even. We're grounded. He would go with us, and he would push us hard. I mean, he'd punch us in our helmet. I just remember the first couple of years was really rough. And we started riding dirt bikes when I was right. Whenever they first met.
Yeah. It's almost like it was his passion. He was okay with you. Like, dirt bikes are working to make him money. Or then he would, like. So I'm assuming you associated love with that. Like, even though he never said he loves you and let you go, like, that's. You're getting attention, so of course you're gonna crave that.
And I got sponsored by Kawasaki by the time I was, like, 13. So I was. I was really good at the dirt bike. So that was one thing. Like, I never was good enough. I never, you know, he. There was never. He never felt bad for, you know, at that young of age riding like that. I'd be so tired, like, wanting to take a nap, you know, and, you know, he'd be, like, screaming at us, cussing us, no, wash your dirt bites. Take care. You know, it was just always never good enough. So. But that's how I think that was mostly for me. My outlet to release, like, my anger and stuff.
Yeah.
And so. And then the money thing made me feel good. Yeah, Right. And so people in school and, man, the first time a girl kind of recognized me because of. Because of what I was doing, you know, the bad boy. Starting to be that bad boy image. I. I just became addicted to that. So I had a. I bought that truck. It was a $850 truck. I don't know. I know. And I was only 14.
Yeah.
My stepdad would make us go and get metal all the way in Atlanta, which was about three and a half hours.
Without a driver's license.
Without a driver's license. And I had a fender bender when I was 15.
Wow.
Go in and get the metal. But anyway, so, yeah, we started driving. And, you know, my brother. I remember our principal catching me. I mean, like, this is how country.
Yeah.
And in the middle of nowhere. This school is. It's K through 12, maybe like 200 people. Dirt roads everywhere. Not a single store for the next 30 miles out. Middle of nowhere. So we're able to. There's no. There's like, a sheriff, like, and he didn't care. He drank himself and drove so we could do whatever we want. And, you know, so I started driving to school. And then one. One day, I went with a buddy of mine named Marcus and me and my brother and went to Walmart. He was like, man, we ought to just steal some stuff. And this is the first time, like, I remember growing up thinking I'd never be a thief. You know, I had, like, some kind of reality of what I didn't want to be. But the world that you're aware of the most is what you'll become. So I didn't want to be like my dad, but I started becoming like my dad. So I started, you know, doing drugs. Had not got into cocaine yet, but I was. I was smoking a lot of weed.
Okay.
And starting to drink a little bit. I was sneaking out of our house and things like that. And at about 15, we were at our hunting club. My stepdad was in this hunting club. And I remember I built this room onto the side of the camper and put, like, insulation in it. So I was, like, covered in fiberglass. I want to go take a shower.
Okay.
It was like, one in the morning, and there was no shower there. I would have to go home, which is like 20 miles away. And he was just like, I was 15. He was like, no, you know, you're not going anywhere. My mom had told me I could. And I like, fiberglass is awful to have on me. So I was like, I'm going, and I don't care what you say. And because he raced dirt bikes and stuff, he had carpal tunnel problems. And so he took pain medication and he was abusing it. And he. And like, I'd only see him drink, like one or two beers. He was just a very. Mostly mentally abusive. He would tear you down very quickly with his words. And so I remember he swung at me because I told him, I'm going. And I'm pretty sure he was messed up on the pills. And he swung at me and I. I just instantly ducked and just hit him. And when I hit him, it knocked him down and on these stairs, back onto some stairs, and he was just like, you're. You're out. You're leaving now. Prior to this, again with Marcus, I forgot he also. So we stole some things from Walmart. Nothing big. Like some CD cases we had back then. The big Tommy Hilfiger jackets with a huge front pocket on them, which were popular. And like the Paco jeans. So it's. We could stuff all kinds of stuff in our pants. So we did that. And adrenaline rush of that was just amazing to me. And I was like, this is great. So we came up with this grand plan to rob Walmart. So we did that and thought we were being successful.
Like, stole money from them. Okay.
Yep. So we. Well, so we started out. We knew where all the blind spots were with the cameras were. And so me and my brother. Now, I was only 14 at this time, but this is when I started really going down a bad path. We started to, you know, we get in the blind spots and have a buggy load of stuff, and we put it all in our clothes in that blind spot, then go to the bathroom, take everything out of the packages, put them back in our clothes, stuff the packages behind the toilets that were like, in the stalls, and then go put them out in these crates out behind Walmart. And so we did like, several loads of that and had a whole bunch of stuff. And then I decided to steal a BB gun, handgun, and use that as a real gun, which, you know, they don't have an orange tip or anything. Yeah, or back then they did. I don't know if they do now, but back then they did. It looked very real. And so I just pulled it out on the lady in the garden center and told her to give me the money that was in the cash register. And I remember just cops came from everywhere because they were already honest. And I mean, we thought nobody was whatever. Um, and so I remember being tackled. It's all like, I was. Had no clue. Just all of a sudden tackled. And so, yeah, we got arrested and I'm 14. I was 14 at this time. Yep. And so I was getting into some stuff like that. We ended up. So that was my first time getting in legal trouble. Really Then, you know, just.
Who did you call when that happened? Was it your mom? Was your stepdad?
Like my mom? Because she actually dropped us off that morning at like 7 in the morning. She had no clue. She was. We just told her, hey, will you drop us off at Walmart? So she took us there.
So your mom comes and bails you out of jail? Basically.
Yep. And so they ended up threatening to take me to. What's it called? Not like juvenile, it's a school flight. Kids getting in trouble. Okay, but camera was called. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. So I ended up like, as I'm.
Listening to you, it's like, and I know listeners are picking up on this, like, it's like society tends to just throw these kids away, like put them in a box. Delinquent, add bad kid, learning disabled, whatever. But like there's some real shit that's been happening in your life. Like, and what you needed was love and some help. And it's like. And we still repeat this pattern. I mean, we look the other way at these kids that are considered delinquents.
Yep, absolutely. Like I never like having somebody tell me they love me. Like I didn't need it. I didn't think, you know, I had these false walls.
Well, yeah, you put up a wall that you didn't need it, everyone needs it. But of course you, you protected yourself by saying, I don't need it.
Right. And I mean I stayed in trouble all the time in school and I got expelled when I was.
You got attention from that. You see that?
Exactly. I was the bad kid. Right?
Yeah.
And so, so any. I got expelled when I was 15 and when I hit my stepdad, he just told me I couldn't come. I was out of the house. And so they were going to call the sheriff and you know, had that, you know, whatever was going to happen there. But I just told him that's fine. I had a different truck at this time I bought with some 20 inch rims on it. So back then was like you were doing big things. So I just tell them whatever. And so I ended up, I had a dirt bike and I trade it for this SUV expedition and I'm now living in this parking lot of this old grocery store. It was like a food land or something.
Okay.
But it Was part of a strip. You know, back, back a long time ago, all the young kids used to just cruise strips. And so we would, you know, you just ride on a certain pathway and you know, see people parked and go and talk to them stuff. So I was living in that parking lot where people would turn around. And I remember I didn't know what I was going to do. You know, I'm 15 years old, I'm not even going to make it to high school. But I didn't care. Like I sincerely was just like, I do not want school. Like, there's no reason for me to be there.
Yeah.
But I remember living in this in my car and I been living in that situation for several months. I not know, you know, what I was gonna do. I was just making a little bit of money still selling Adderall and stuff and met this other young guy that had like a bunch of money from his dad. He was only 16. And we started to kind of be friends a little bit. And I remember this, this gentleman came up and said, like, hey, are you. What are you doing with, you know, what's your situation? Because he had noticed that I was living in my car. It's a very small town we're in. And this is in Sylacauga, Alabama, okay. And so the population is like 10,000, 12,000, something like that. So very small. And I remember this guy offering me to trade a house for my car. And so it was a very old, small, two bedroom, one bath house, like 800 square feet in this old neighborhood called the Mill Village. And it was just like a rundown old neighborhood that was built back when this mill was doing very well, okay. And it had been shut down, everything. So these houses, very old. And I remember seeing like these guys, you know, again, I go back to my grandparents, had rental property. Now, I didn't know how that technically worked, but I knew like people didn't own it. They paid them money to stay there.
Okay.
And so I saw this investor guy, I didn't even know that term at the time, flipping houses. There were no TV shows, right? But. But I saw this guy, like he had these workers and he'd. I'd see him go. And he had like four or five houses that they were like painting and fixing up, okay? And then I'd see a for sale by owner sign out in the front and. And so that's what I did with that house. And I made like over $20,000 on it.
Wow, like, what a blessing. Like you didn't even know what A big. It's almost like that was your first, like opportunity gift, really, that this guy wanted to trade you that.
Right. And then I had, at the same time, my friend I met, he had like the coolest custom truck I'd ever. When I was living in my car, he goes, hey, you want to buy this rearview mirror? And it was like the first rear view mirrors that would go over for your. Like your car. Yeah. And it would have a camera. They like, they were huge. And they'd sit, they'd like fit over your rearview mirror.
Right.
And I was like, man, I'm living in my car. Like, I'm not buying that from you.
Yeah.
And he was talking about, hey, we're going down to Panama City and then going down the South Florida to party. Would you like to come with us? And so I was kind of getting tied in this. This kid was in a lot of bad stuff. Me as a school, like, had a ton of money from his dad and was in it. That's when I got first introduced to cocaine. And so I ended up going to hang out with him and at the same time kind of getting to this real estate thing. Not really. I didn't have a mentor or anything like that, so I was wasting all of my money. But I realized, like, his dad owned a pressure washing company and kind of started to mentor me. And his name's Tony, and he started kind of mentoring. He saw something in me and. And I would have people say that, like, man, you, you know, they just. I don't. Honestly, I'm not really sure because I was just in such a big mess back then. But anyways, so he kind of showed me like the business of what he was doing and he said, you could do this too. So he kind of started helping me with the pressure washing and carpet cleaning. So I started a business doing that as well. And I was still kind of doing real estate, but I didn't know what I was doing. So it wasn't like a full time thing. It just gave me a little taste of what I. What was possible. So I started getting into like cocaine. Just started getting into all kind of drugs.
And so you're making money, but you're still obviously wounded. So you're looking for ways to check out, I'm assuming.
Right, Right, absolutely. So like, and I mean, I would ponder, I would snort a whole bunch of cocaine. And me and Blake, this buddy of mine, Blake, which was Tony's son, the owner of that business, and a couple other buddies, we would just brainstorm honestly out of like an entrepreneurial. We didn't think of it that way. We'd be like, how can we traffic drugs? Like, how can we make more money? Like for. His dad would make like $300 a night and we would go clean all the, like all over the place. We traveled pressure washing and stuff like that. And so I started my own business doing it and I just got into partying. Like we had a white Hummer, white H2, a black H2 and a Calla Escalade. We ended up buying a new two story townhouse. Just all kind of, I mean, parties, like just crazy. We had cops that we would let like sleep with the girls at our parties just to keep us out of trouble.
Wow.
Stuff like that. And we were, we were becoming a pretty heavily influenced in that city. We literally just. I mean, I could go through roadblocks completely drunk. And they know my nickname was Drizzle. And so no one knew my real name hardly. Everybody called me. So they would like, you know, just about whatever, you know, go on Drizzle, go home. But we always had these crazy parties when we were in town. You know, we'd have signs that open sign or closed sign be lit up at our house. That's how much we had. People would just come by looking to see if we were home so they could smoke with us. We always sold cocaine and trafficked it. So we ended up. By the time I was 19, I became a millionaire and had grown that. That carpet cleaning business and pressure washing business to that point. I lied in all kind of ways to, to get this business up and going. But I had like 75 box trucks employed. All my friends just, we were just making so much money and having great parties all the time. And so another friend of mine, his name was also Blake, we, we go one night. I've been in some trouble, like in and out of jail, but not like long like 30 days. You know, get mostly forgetting in fights. And I would get in fights, like I would get, you know, I get in fights. Like if I saw a woman, like I remember this dude at a party at like a bonfire party, had this. His girlfriend pinned up against a vehicle. Now apparently she was abusive towards him, but I didn't care. And he was like some big scary dude. Everybody scared him because he could fight good. And I remember beating him to a point for grabbing her like that. And I just had this weird anger. Like I, like I wasn't like a prideful walk around, like I'm all bad and tough, but everyone knew that like not to Mess with me.
So you're getting into fights a lot. You're super successful and you're. But you're getting into these. These fights and you're obviously coping with drugs and alcohol and whatever else.
I remember I could not sleep. I had a bad problem with sleep. So I would drink like two bottles of NyQuil. You know, I was drinking every day, all day. Like, just. Yeah, the pain, like, I don't know. The pain was definitely something I. And really unforgiveness. Like just blaming my mom for a lot of stuff and my dad, like, man. But I had this weird Persona where I was just like, I was still encouraging people, but just in the bad stuff, you know?
Yeah. Yes. You know, it's so interesting because I've interviewed so many people that were. Not your exact story, obviously, but maybe criminal background or whatever it is. And it's interesting because the same skills that make someone a super successful entrepreneur also make them a successful criminal. So it's just. It's just like, where's that directed? You know? Where is that directed? I've interviewed people whose, you know, their parents are in jail for being a con artist and here they're this amazing entrepreneur. So it's like the same skill set, just used very different. And it sounds like you learned very early that to get respect is you gotta be a badass. Like, you have to not care, you have to be violent, you have to be tough. Like, that's the role models you had. So of course you learned that right?
And. And of course, like the money and just the power to, you know, I was getting girls just to do things. It's just. It was horrible. And everybody just knew that that's who I was. So my buddy and I, another Blake, we go and pick up this girl at this house and I don't know who she is. I'm just riding with him. I'm not driving. We pick her up and we go to this party. We have this huge party. There's over 200 people out in this field and I don't know, I didn't know what had happened because I was drunk and not paying attention to this girl. But apparently she had. Was leaving with these other guys that she knew at the party and they had pulled over right outside of the field on the main road and she had to pee and she was squatted down behind their. They had like a old 80 something model, like Bronco or Blazer. I think it was a Blazer and it had like huge mud grip tires on it. And she had. She Was squatted down, peeing behind their tire. And in those older, older models you don't have like power steering or power brakes or whatever. So he put it in neutral to just kind of roll back on her without it cranked and just kind of scare a little bit. Like hit her with the tire is a huge.
Like he thought he was funny.
Yeah, right. And it ends up running over her head and knocked her down and ran over her head. Now, as horrible as that sounds, everyone, she goes into a coma. I did not know. I mean, I just knew that that happened, you know, I didn't think anything from it. So I'm just like, dang, that sucks. Sucks for her. So I go on about my life and about a week later, now we have been raided a couple times. I'm trying not to go into too many details, but we've been raided a couple times. And the way that we usually. It was very easy to get out of being raided for us for some reason because like we would, we would file reports that our house is broken into frequently so that if we were ever rated, we could say that it was planted. Which I know it sounds crazy, but it ended up working and it was an accident.
The first time you learned how to manipulate and work the system.
Right. And so one evening, it was not super late, but like 10 o' clock at night, I noticed that our front door had been kicked in. And you know, that was kind of weird for someone to mess with us. We had, we had some guys, we had 26 inch rims one time stolen that were bar stools in our house. And we shot the guys's house up and stuff. So like they knew, people knew not to mess with us. Even in like the projects and stuff. We sold drugs to rich people. We didn't. We were not like the poverty type of drug dealers. We were. We were trying to scheme on how to find these guys that are CEOs and stuff and sell it to them like glued and.
Yeah, you're like the white. You're trying to be like a white glove drug dealer.
Yeah. And so anyway, so we ended up.
Which if you think about it was kind of smart because you're like thinking these are like the least risky people. They're gonna.
Yeah, right, right. We quickly saw like the whole. We didn't like being in the, you know, the projects or something. Like I got in jump at a.
Huge risk if they got caught.
Right.
They weren't gonna rat you out.
Yeah, right. And so anyway, so we ended up. We. I go inside the house And I, you know, call the police because our huge big screen TV's missing. And they searched the house, and there's a police. It was a police issue, some kind of gun. And it had been stolen from the police department, supposedly. And it was in our house. And so it didn't work on me this time for some reason. And I knew something was wrong because they had a tip that a gun was stolen and it might be at our house. And so. And then they said that they had evidence that my buddy Blake had stole that gun, which I knew he had not done. He just. We were stupid, but not that stupid. And so he ends up going to. To jail. And I knew that it was. See that girl that got ran over, her dad was a detective. Oh, so we did not. I did not know that. Apparently Blake did, but I did not know that. So now I know. This guy's coming after us now again. No, she's still in a coma. There's only like a week later, I think she's in a coma for like two weeks.
Okay.
So then he goes. They. He goes off to jail and all this stuff is happening with him. And I'm leaving, I'm going to. Out onto this interstate. And all of a sudden I see lights come up behind me. And I'm kind of like, why are they pulling me over at this time? I had big rims. My tag said drizzle. Everyone knew how you couldn't miss. You see me a mile away back then. Like, if you had anything, any big rims, like, people just ask you what you did for a living.
Yeah.
So. And so the cop pulls me over, and it's that detective. And so he comes up, he's like, I'm gonna search your vehicle. I said, why are you doing that? He said, don't worry about it. Get out. And I knew, like, something dirty is about to happen. And so. Because it was common around there, kind of. And so we had all this cops doing all kinds of stuff, so we knew, like, whatever. And so he. I see him reach under my seat and pull out this huge bag of weed that was not mine. And I didn't know.
So it was like, clearly planted. Like he just wanted to bust you.
And so I freak out. He had me in handcuffs, but I freak out, turn around, try to grab his gun from behind my back. I was gonna shoot him. I mean, like, I. I was trying to headbutt him. I salted him. I did get him a couple times. A he.
And you didn't know at the time that this Is this girl's dad, or did you know that?
Well, no, no, I knew by this time because I knew that Blake. I knew he was behind all that. With Blake, I had a buddy cop of mine that was really close that got me out of tickets and stuff.
Yeah.
And he let me know what was going on. He's actually the one that gets me out of trouble, and I'll get rid of that. So, like, so I ended up getting. I, I, you know, he throws me in his car. Now my buddy cop, Adam, pulls up behind him right as all this is happening then. And that's all I knew. So I'm just gonna leave that detail there. I get thrown in Mike's car, and I go straight to prison. And so, I mean, I straight into the. The suit. Didn't have a phone call, nothing. And so I get a fight my first night because they put me in this big area with a bunch of people. We all got these bunks. And this guy's nickname was Pookie. Just going around, like, picking on people. And I knew, like, I've got to gain my ground in here quickly. You know, you hear all this stuff about prison. And so I get in a fight with him our first night. So it gets me more trouble. I get put in a confined cell. And anyway, so that's all I really knew. And so I was in prison for about a year. And I remember. I remember seeing these two guys sitting at this table, and I became like. That made me even more mad being in prison because I lost everything. Like, I knew my business was just gone. You know, I had all the trucks, but it was gone, you know, everything. No one knew where I was. I couldn't tell. Hey, I need someone to step in and run my business or tell Tony, if he would.
You just knew you weren't going to show up, and now it's going to be gone.
Yes. And so I remember seeing these two guys sitting down at this table reading the Bible. Now, I'm not a pushy type Christian or anything. You have to believe what I believe.
But in prison, in prison, you see this.
Yep.
Okay.
Yep. And so these two guys are sitting there reading the Bible, and I was like, you know, whatever. Christianity, stupid. I had a really bad taste in my mouth towards it, Especially because of.
What your mom believed.
Yeah, right. Exactly. And then I would, like, see these people holding signs. Everyone. Like, I never really encountered much. And so at this time, everything was building up for this one moment I was about to have. Okay, so I still don't know what's gonna happen. How long I'm gonna be in here? I haven't heard anything about a trial. Nothing.
Certainly don't have attorney or someone you can call.
Yeah, no. And so I was looking out this window and I remember hearing like a voice.
Okay.
Audibly tell me, I'm gonna change you and take you to the nations. And I remember I just got chills. Yeah, I know. She got emotional. So I remember I only had two other instances where I felt the same feeling. And one night we're leaving this club, and I was probably 17. I had not talked to my grandparents since I got kicked out. I was totally disconnected from my family. Hadn't talked to my mom in years. And I remember we got shot at by these two guys leaving a club in downtown Birmingham, Alabama.
Okay.
And it was because of a girl said something to him she shouldn't have said. But they shoot, they come up beside my car going up this four lane road, up this mountain where the Vulcan is. And this guy reaches out of the passenger side over his roof and just fires an entire clip into my car. Our window, the windows were down. We're in the suv.
Yeah.
So like I could hear the bullets going in front of my face. My buddy, one of my buddies, Blake, the rich, the dad, son, he was. He was real crazy. We called him high speed. He would. He would just like, he was throwing beer bottles at the car as the guy was shooting the gun. I mean, just like. And I was high on ecstasy.
Yeah.
Kind of stuff. And I remember this weird thought on our way home. Like, you know, because after that we have about an hour drive back where we live. And I was drunk and everything. I remember just having this weird thoughts, like three in the morning, like I need to go see my grandmother right now. Which is weird. And so I drop everybody off at the house, all the girls and the guys. There's like nine of us in the car.
Okay.
And I go down to where my grandmother lives. It's like 45 minutes away. I get there, you know, sun's just coming up.
Yeah.
I don't even make it to her front door. And she opens up her door and says, I've been praying for you all night. Wow. She has a piece of cloth in her hand. And I didn't know what all that meant. I was just like, this is stupid.
Yeah, but you remember that happening.
Yeah. And. And then I had another moment where a girl that would strip at our party, she was like my best friend. We never did anything with each other, but she was just like that person. And I remember all of a sudden, it was weird. She was doing her thing, and all of a sudden she just takes. Grabs her stuff and takes out the door at our party. And I didn't hear from, like, two hours and text her, like, what's up with you? And she comes back about two hours later and asked me to come out to her car. She wouldn't come in.
Okay.
I did. And she said, I got convicted because I know this isn't who I'm called to be.
Wow.
She's like. But I wanted to come back and tell you by. And that, you know, God wants me to tell you, look at how much you're doing for darkness and what kind of leader you are in the darkness and what you could do if you're in light. And so.
Wow.
At the time, I cussed her out and told her, I don't care.
Like, you're, like, crazy at the time. Yeah, because you weren't there yet.
But all this hit me when I heard that in prison. Like, it all hit me that something was. Something was real and something. It was something that was. I knew that there had to be some other way of being good, you know, like what was good to me, what I was doing was good. But I. I could. I was starting to really start. My eyes were being open to, like, the bad fruit that it was producing in my life and hurting other people. And so I remember all of a sudden that my buddy cop, the. The buddy cop of mine, his camera picked up that mic. Detective putting that. Those drugs in my car. And he finds that. He goes back and looks at everything because he hears that I'm still in there, no trial. Like, he don't know how Mike's pulling strings. And so he goes back and he starts researching the case himself. And it wasn't. If it wasn't for him, you know, I probably. I don't. You know, I don't know. But he ends up finding the evidence, and I. You know, I have a felony against me, of course. And so I. MySpace was a big thing back then. So I. I got out. They. I get released, and it's on a Wednesday. And I remember having a message in there from a girl that told me she was a Christian at a party. I was trying to hook up with her, and I cussed her out, but because I was becoming abusive, too, in my own life, becoming just like my dad. And so I ended up going to church. She invited me to church. She said, I heard you're in prison and you're getting out today, there was a lot of people in the community that wanted to back me up on my friends. I had a lot of influence, so, like, a lot of people, you know, having the money, everything I had, and there's a lot of people that I thought, you know, were on my side, and everybody was just looking forward to that. Well, she was the only one that, you know, I'd never been invited to church, so that was. I was like, okay, I'll go. And so I get. I don't know how. I didn't know how you get saved or whatever. I didn't know anything about all that. So I just was just. I never read the Bible, so I think I got saved in prison, but I ended up just knowing that whatever this is, like, I want to see what it's about. And I know that if it says it's going to change me and help the world, like, that's what I want to do. And so I get. I get saved, like, go through all this stuff and I get saved that night, which had its good and bad things with my friends and my drug partners and stuff like that. Some of them thought I'd turn my loyalty because everything built off this false sense of loyalty I had. I just. Like, I just said, you know what? I've got to do something different now here, you know, with Christianity or whatever. I. Now my slate's clean, but, like, I don't know who I am. Like. Like I feel this sense of. Like, I have a new start, but I have no clue, like, why do I even dress the way I dress? You know, why do I have diamond earrings in my ears? Like, I wear flat bill.
And so now you're starting everything, like, what?
Yes.
What am I here for? What. Who am I? And so. So you're feeling forgiven and, like, this new sense of awareness, but you're trying to figure out who you are now.
Right? And I. That, like. Like, you know, just coming out of such a rough place. You're. I didn't know where to start reading the Bible. I think I watched, like, the Passion of Christ movie. It just came out. So I was like, that's all I knew, but I knew that something was different. And I didn't want to just sit in a church and, like, read a Bible or something. Yeah. So I heard they were going on a mission trip. I didn't know what that was, but I knew what I'd heard was going to the nations. And so I had all those box trucks left. So I sold all those and had the money to do something. So I ended up going there not knowing what I was gonna get into. Yeah, I quickly saw that that mission trip was like a vacation type thing. And I, I just was used to dramatic environments and just danger. And so I find this group north of Bella Horse Onch in this, they call them villas where all the poor people live in their shacks and stuff. And I end up finding this group of guys that look military, they're not. But what they're doing, we're finding out where these kids were being kidnapped and sold in under underground sex trafficking. I mean that happens in the US and stuff. Yeah, this was like straight up. I mean I ran into a seven year old girl that couldn't even talk because her dad was allowed to break her in. Like wow. That kind of stuff. And you can see how what I've been through, that sense of protection that I had of it was like a burden I had to protect people. Like I would give my life for that. Like, you know, I, my wife knows that about me now. Like I, I am somebody that I'll give my life for what I believe and tested in that. That's not something you just say but, but anyway, so I ended up going to Brazil and going, doing that and that was extremely dangerous. I got held at gunpoint twice, got stabbed in my shoulder. I got a scar still from that. We were going in at night where these little girls, mostly girls, but where they were and we would kick in the door and whatever we encountered we just wow. We would get the kid out. So I did that for about a year. But at this time like I still didn't know have an identity. I didn't know if you asked me anything about myself. Like I totally, I was blocking all that. I didn't have to think about any of that. Just doing this. And so I had this dream one night that believe was from God that I was supposed to move back to Alabama at this place called Florence. And I didn't know why, but I, I was cleaning my pressure washing business and carpet cleaning business. I cleaned all the car mite theaters across the United States. And so I knew that there was a theater here that I cleaned. And I ended up coming here and I found this really great church through some more dreams and all this other stuff. God was just, it was so strange because I didn't know the word very well, you know, but things were just happening. And so I ended up for three years, I didn't do anything with business. Actually kind of started to think business was bad because that's kind of a weird Christian thing that sometimes we do. And so I ended up sleeping on a blanket in our church on the floor for about three years. And going through this was a very radical church that took young people, all kind of drug addicts and stuff went there and just really, what's your identity? You know, pulling gold out of people. But first it's what you needed at the time, though.
That's what you were searching. So that's what you needed.
Exactly. And that's what they were good at. Like, I didn't have a job, and I mean, that was hard for me. You know, I've been on my own since I was like 15, making more money since I was like 12, you know, and here I am, no money, nothing to show in my life, and no one believing in me. Right. Like, that's really hard when you. You have nobody that believes in you.
Yeah.
And I thought it was extremely hard. Harder than most things I've been through. Like, it might even been the hardest because I didn't know anybody. I didn't know why I was here. It took a while for all that stuff to start to sink in. You know, who am I? And you know, for me, it was the Christianity part because, I mean, I know plenty of business people that are not Christians that read the Bible just for business stuff.
Yeah.
Ways to be nice, ways to be this and that. Like, it's it, you know, so. But for me, I was really taking that serious in my heart is this is something I can be whoever, and that should be good, you know, what is it. What is it going to take to produce good fruit in my life where it's helping people, Because I'm either. You're either building people up or tearing people down.
What a journey. I mean, it's just amazing that, like, everything you went through got you to that point and then you were open to receiving. And I'm assuming you feel very fortunate and lucky that this, that, that found you.
Yeah, for sure. After that three years, the Lord started putting back on my heart to get into real estate. So I ended up knew that I would do real estate to free up my time to help people. I wanted to feed the homeless. And all this stuff was happening with me that I started because I didn't feel bad for the homeless before this because I came from being homeless. I just thought it was a big excuse for most people and, you know, some truth to that. But anyways, I just didn't care for some things, and I just wanted to be free if there was an ounce of anything. Like, I didn't have to talk to my dad. I just needed to truly forgive. And that was honestly one of the biggest breakthroughs I had, was just realizing that if my dad knew who he was, his true identity, he'd have never done that. If people have hurt me in my life, if they knew who they really were and who they were created to be, that had never done that. And so that helped me see things. Like, I can't. I can't blame them for that.
You change your lens, and that's what people don't see, is that forgiveness is for you, not for them. And we're changing our lens of how you looked at everybody through that.
Right. And now the world I'm aware of is becoming this positive person, this positive influence. Somebody that can take all the bad things that happen to me and make it a positive and help people.
So you turned your life to purpose big time.
Right. So I ended up getting into real estate again. This time had a mentor and started becoming a big believer in that. And so I ended up started. I was doing more deals in this market, which I currently live. I was doing about 63 deals a year, which was more than any investor had ever done here. And just started doing that, buying rental property, just trying to create financial freedom. And then back then, Facebook had just started kind of turning into, like a, you know, targeting you. You could do targeting and boost post, and you could target people going through divorce. And so that's how I was finding a lot of my deals, because no other entrepreneurs were just thinking about that. They're older and. Yeah, and I was young, you know, I was 20. I don't know, 23, 24.
Okay.
So I started getting back into business, and now, you know, I'm president over some stuff with Salvation army. And that's incredible. Go travel. You know, I was in Guatemala recently, and I do a lot of stuff in the community. And, you know, my wife, I've got two kids now.
Yeah, and you broke the pattern. You broke.
Exactly. Yep. And my brother did, too. So the crazy thing is, when I got saved, a ton of people got saved. They thought that because I was a leader of so many people, like, if Drizzle changed that, that just, like, opened their eyes to something that could be real. So I ended up leading my brother to Christ, my mom to Christ, my stepdad. So when they have my sister that actually did something to him, like it was a girl. And for some reason, he just started. He was a little bit nicer. And I remember he Talked to my mom one more time. This is after everything, kind of everybody's coming. I was, I got saved. I was 19 when I was in prison. I got out, I was about 19. So there was a couple of months there where everything started coming together. And he cussed my mom and she called my brother crying. My brother drove there and told him to come outside. He was gonna beat him up. And I remember that being the last time. It was like my dad's eyes was open because he knew that we had all got saved. My mom started going to church. It was a little different. His eyes were open to how he was being. And that was the first time he came over me and my brothers at my grandmother's and he shook our hand and that was huge because he didn't show any kind of sign of that kind of stuff. And so he shook our hand and apologized for all that he had done to us. And you know, that was the first time we had ever had that happen. And that was just an amazing thing for us. Like look at what's happening in our lives. When you can be a positive influence, when you can show people you can conquer things because it's not about you. You need to take care of yourself. You need to be. That's why it's so important, take care of yourself so you can be better for other people. But the main purpose is to be a light to people and help influence culture and be cultural architect for the positive. And so it's going to help other people. It may not be for everybody, but it's going to plant seeds in people where they can overcome in their life as well and speak that to them as well. Because they see your life, it doesn't matter if you've been through something bad, it doesn't mean it all has to be bad. But when they see someone's drive and someone that is also encouraging, pulling other people up with them. Because I'm like that with everything. If, if, if I'm doing something, I'm always putting it in a context to help someone else. I'm not just trying to share whatever and how I'm successful in businesses and my Facebook ads, agency and all this stuff. Like, you know, at the end of the, at the end of your life, you know, you want to look at the legacy you're leaving and is it impacting generations to come, you know?
Totally, totally. Oh my God, it's just so incredible. So to now you're obviously being, you're a believer, it changed your life, you've changed others lives. Because of it, you spend a lot of time giving back and volunteering and helping. And when I asked you at the beginning of the show, like, what do you do when someone says, what do you do? Now obviously there's so many parts of your personality and what you do. Where is your main business? You said you're a serial entrepreneur, but what is your main business and what is your vision behind that now?
Yeah, so I have Biz marketing agency, I have eight people on our team and we do Facebook ads for businesses. So, you know, we're in different niches, but the our overall mission and our vision. Because you have to have a clear mission to reach your vision.
Yeah.
That's why you'll run or wander to and fro before you perish. So having a clear mission and clear vision is a big part of what we do to help other businesses, other people that are truly trying to grow as a business so that they can help influence in a positive way. We're not, we, I mean, we've literally turned clients away that are just like out to cutthroat people and run a shady business.
Yeah.
You know, so we were very careful with that. But we love to partner with businesses through, you know, Facebook ad results based ads. That helps increase the revenue because, you know, money is a huge factor in what we do. Right. You can't help. I've never seen not many broke people help people. So, you know, money is a tool and it just depends on how you look at it. And so people with the right money can be a great influence. So that's the type of thing that we, you know, we do for businesses is run these ads and, you know, just see them be successful. And so.
That'S incredible. It's incredible. I do have a question that I ask everybody that's on my show and I have a feeling I know your answer to this now, but now I'm curious. So if somebody's listening right now and they're in their own personal rock bottom, I mean, maybe they're in their abusive, bad, abusive relationship like your mom was. Maybe they are dealing with their own legal issues. Maybe they're interested in their own personal financial rock bottom or relationship or whatever that is to them. If they're feeling that and they're feeling like that hopeless that you've been many times and you were to give them some advice on what they can do to level up and create everything from nothing, what would you tell them?
Yeah. So people can be in all kind of different situations where it's so abusive they Just need legal help or something like that. But for those of you that might be struggling or just being in a relationship or whatever it may be that is beating you down. It's like I said earlier, the world that you're aware of is what you'll become the most. And so if you're not seeing your value and who you are, it's not a prideful thing. And I think a lot of times, a lot of us are taught at an early age to, like, you know, in sports it's okay, but in, if it's, if it's in life to say like, hey, I can do this and I can do whatever I put my mind to. A lot of times we have a false sense of humility. It's false humility.
Yeah.
Says that, well, you know, I can't be all whatever, because I'm telling you it's going to take you speaking things even though you don't feel like it. It's going to take believing things about yourself even though you don't feel like it. And until you declare those things and speak it over yourself to where your mindset starts to change and line up with that, you're. You're. You. Women, men, I mean, women have been suppressed for so long, so especially women. You are powerful. And what you say can influence cultures. And so you have to see that it starts with you to speak that over your life and not make your mole hills mountains. Because if you pay attention to that, that's what's going to. It's going to happen. It's going to turn your molehills into mountains, your small little issues into these huge mountains when you can be powerful and overcome them. But it's going to start by doing things that don't feel right. It might feel like you're lying. Like, I'm not a positive person, though I'll look at as bad things. If you speak it enough and believe it enough over yourself, everything else will start to line up. You just can't give up on that, you know, because then you're going to be like, well, if I'm. If I'm saying that I'm positive, then why am I watching this negative stuff? Why am I feeding myself being around this group of people? So I think it all starts with verbally speaking and declaring over your mindset and your heart. And when you get those two to line up with what you are truly meant to be and you may have to go on a journey, what does that. What does that look like? Who are you and what does that Find that positive thing that you can relate to that you say your. Your soul leaps at that when you hear it and identify yourself with it.
Gosh, that's so good. That's so good. Wow. Do you. I'm. And I am curious now. You said that you have sort of mended through religion and being saved. Your words, your relationships with your family. Is that including your dad, your biological dad that's in jail or is he still in jail?
No. So he got out. Wasn't part of our life for a long time and we ended up my brother. The night. I love my brother Christ. We also prayed that we'd find my. Our dad because he was getting married in a couple weeks to his girlfriend and he wanted our. For some reason he wanted our dad at his wedding. And so he was at a Walmart in a place he didn't even live and runs into our dad.
Wow.
He remembers because my dad has a mullet. So like it's not hard to identify people.
Okay.
And so he remembered from a picture we had. My dad still look the same. He's a small guy. I'm six three. My dad's small, still look the same. And so we ended up. He came to our wedding. He thought we were going to throw him in jail for some. I think he's there. Don't tell him what he's into because he lives on a mountain off the land. He has no power in a shed. We've seen him a couple times this past Thanksgiving. He had pancreatitis or has it from drinking. So he drinks from sun up to sundown. He rolls his own cigarettes, smokes real bad. He's bad health.
But have you ever cleared with him or has he ever acknowledged how he was to you as a father?
Yep. And so we. We've now as far as how he was, he knew that he wished he would have been there more.
Okay.
But as far as like his whole family are a little bit crazy. And I don't mean this in any kind of negative way or disrespect towards them. Like it's just. It's just kind of the reality. Like our relationship mended in a positive way. But it's. It's not. I don't think, you know, he. He's now got some mental issues he blames. He thought we tried to get him thrown in jail. He was in the hospital last night given just kind of a little bit their fam like his sisters tell them that my mom took. They're really a lot of mental issues.
Yeah.
So you know, we've had great, positive conversations, told each other we love each other. Right now he won't speak to us. But, you know, it doesn't. It doesn't hurt me more because you.
See these mentally ill. It's more that.
Right, right. Yeah. It's further than, like, you know, he has. He has. Doesn't have a lot of control right now with what's going on.
Well, this is a super powerful story. So many takeaways from it. And my biggest takeaway, and I'm sure listeners have different ones, but my biggest takeaway was really that you. How we. So much. We judge how much we judge people. Like, we judge. We would judge a kid. We would look at you like a delinquent. All those things that you walked through, but, like, look what that came from. And what I. What keeps coming up for me too, is that you never took on victim mentality. As rough as it was, you never took it on. You always stayed responsible in your own way, and that served you well. And then ultimately, which is my favorite word, which is literally tattooed on my arm, you surrendered. And people have a different definition for surrender. You know, mine might differ from yours, but ultimately you did surrender. You surrendered yourself to. To Christianity and to forgiveness and all types of things. And I think it's amazing. And that's where your freedom was. And I. And I think that word's powerful. I have a different meaning to it, but I think it's a. It's a. It's a very. It's a powerful world. And I think that word. And I think that's where the freedom was with you as well.
Yeah. Because you can't serve if you're not surrendered. Right?
Yeah.
So, I mean, it comes. There's a lot, like, if you're a business owner out there, and it's not about, like, I love your post about control in that same. When you're showing your tattoo, it's great, you know, but like all my employees, they're empowered. It's not about controlling them as a boss.
It's empowering, and that's a true leader. It empowers others.
Right. But you have to be surrendered so you can serve. And you can serve when you're empowering.
I love that.
Yeah.
So good. Where can people find you, Daniel? They want to learn more. They want to work with you. Where did they find you?
Yeah. So again, our business name is Biz Marketing Agency. We have a Facebook page and Instagram, and then, of course, my social profiles for me is Daniel Skelton. And you can find me on Instagram or Facebook.
Got it. I just followed you right now. Daniel Skelton on Instagram. Amazing. Thank you so much Daniel.
Yeah, no problem. Thank you for having me. I hope whoever listens to this, it just encourages them and gets them out of that place there. It will, you know.
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 in interact with me over on Instagram at Natalie Feel fit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.
